Uncategorized – Page 4 – Live the Crazy Life

Hesed – Steadfast Love

December 31, 2018 1 Comment

At the beginning of this year, God gave me the word steadfast love. It was a word that I felt would shape my year. It would be a defining word, one I would study throughout the year in the Bible on my own and write posts with monthly memory verses about steadfast love. While I studied the meaning of Hesed, the Hebrew version of steadfast love, I learned a lot of the character and nature of God wrapped up in this word. But it wasn’t until this morning that I had true understanding of the word.

What started out as a year I thought would be bathed in steadfast love, it quickly turned to heartache and struggle. Early in 2019 I lost a dear friend to a 3 year plus battle with cancer. I had prayed for her and with her, sent her texts often full of words of love and encouragement, only to find myself a few weeks into the year sitting at her funeral. It was rough. I wanted God to heal her, I didn’t want to see her husband and kids go through heartache – all of whom are friends of mine, too. I didn’t want to lose a mentor or a friend. After all this was the year of steadfast love. However, as the year progressed, I was beginning to see less and less love and more confusion, pain, and loss.

The year continued, and it continued to spiral downward. Friends moved away, re-arranging on the staff I work on, more sickness, a dear friend’s mom was diagnosed with cancer of the brain, divorce and addiction also made appearances this year. Not only was there confusion and hurt, but stress and business were added. With the new workings inside our church I had taken on new roles. I found myself at points working 40 hours a week. Something most people do all the time, but for me I hadn’t done that in 19 years. While I was trying to find balance in my life, I was hit with the hardest part of this year. My dad, who has horrible health, fell and broke his hip leading to another surgery. I think this surgery was his 24th or something like that. The surgery itself wasn’t new territory for me, but the outcome was. Three weeks after that surgery my dad passed away. While this was something, given his health, I had been preparing for since I was 8, it hit me a little harder than I thought it would. This year which in January was marked with the steadfast love of God felt like a nightmare that wouldn’t end.

I have so many books I have to read. Some for work, some for study, some personally. I am trying to read a chapter a day to keep up. I sat down this morning with my coffee and opened my book to a chapter I was excited to read. “The power of Hesed.” The book is called the Gospel of Ruth, by Carolyn Custis James. It’s a great book. In fact, it is going to be one of our Bible studies offered this spring. It was in this chapter that God opened my eyes to a part of steadfast love I had failed to see the whole year.

I am not naive. I understand fully that life can be hard for many reasons – sin, a fallen world, the enemy, other people’s sin spilling over on to us, the list goes on. I haven’t ever believed that the hard parts of life are God’s fault, though I do question why He allows things, but I have never blamed Him. I have wondered why steadfast love was the word He gave me to define this year, one that in the physical was marked by loss, pain, hurt, stress, and frustrations.

As I read this chapter I begin to see and understand what God had meant when He told me this year would be marked with steadfast love. The author, Carolyn Custis James explains that Hesed is a word that doesn’t fully translate to english. The best words we have would be steadfast love, loyal love, mercy, kindness, deeds of devotion. She says it is like trying to explain to someone who has seen a llama but never seen a lamb, that they are similar animals. The two have some similarities for sure – the wool-ish fur, both animals graze on grass and live in pastures, but llama’s can tend to be mean, they spit and bite, but a lamb is passive and shows no aggression. Lamb’s don’t fight, they are really helpless animals who depend almost completely on the shepherd. So while in some areas they are the same, their nature isn’t. And while Hesed and steadfast love have some similarities they are not the same. “Hesed is driven, not by duty or legal obligations, but by a bone-deep commitment — a loyal, selfless love that motivates a person to do voluntarily what no one has the right to expect or ask of them. They have the freedom to act or to walk away without the slightest injury to their reputation. Yet they willingly pour themselves out for the good of someone else. It’s actually the kind of the love we find most fully expressed in Jesus. In a nutshell, hesed is the gospel lived out.” (The Gospel of Ruth; page 115)

This year was a year marked by loss and pain for sure, but as I looked back, this year was marked by hesed in action. It has been expressed in praying with my brokenhearted friend, in saying goodbye to a mentor, and in telling my dad it was all going to be ok and he could rest and stop fighting. It was in friends texting me, sharing bible verses, telling me they were praying for me. But most of all it was marked by a trip to Israel. The Bible says in Isaiah 55 8-9 that “His ways are Higher than ours.” And that is so true. In December of 2017 my husband and I were presented with the opportunity to buy a condo to flip and sell for a profit. We took the chance and closed on the condo on January 12th, 2018. We worked on weekends and our days off, and we did indeed sell that condo for a profit. It paid for my family of 5 to travel to Israel with our church. It incidentally also covered an unexpected sewer pipe at our home that needed to be replaced sooner than later. It was just enough for both. While the pipe was annoying, because of the condo sell we avoided having to take on the near $9,000 dollars of debt. And in a year that was the weirdest one I have had, one of the hardest, and most saddening, Israel was a flowing of the Hesed love of God. It was enough love needed to cover over the first half of the year, and though I didn’t know it at the time is was more than enough love to propel me through the 2nd half which was harder than the first. Israel gave me a tangible memory of God’s Hesed for mankind – you and me. While in Israel we visited the garden where Jesus prayed hours before his trial, judgment, and crucifixion. In that same garden where the decisions to love those who will never deserve it were made, I was given the privilege to pray over my three children with my husband.

As I sat in my chair reading this chapter this morning, God whispered, “Your year was book ended with Hesed. It was full of it all the way through.” And it was expressed in a way that I can’t explain in a garden half way around the world.

Though this year was hard, I will choose to remember it as the year that God poured out his steadfast (hesed) love over and over. While it was sad, I was sustained by the love of God.

Bible, Christmas, family activities, family fun, Holiday, Uncategorized

Advent-Make room for Jesus

November 26, 2018 No Comments

A week ago I taught at our church’s Women’s Event on Advent. I shared where and how Advent originated and how it changed over the years. I am not sure what the word Advent means to you. But to me it means making room for Jesus. We have been doing Advent “calendars” in my home for years. Well actually we have never done a traditional Advent calendar. I’ve always made my own. I guess it is more appropriate to say we have done Advent Christmas readings for years.

I have done them with my kids at Christmas for at least 8 years but I think probably longer. We started with the general Advent reading from the Book of Luke in the Bible and a few verses from Matthew. As my children grew we adapted our Advent readings to include the names of Jesus, the wonder of Jesus, and this year we will look into the gifts God gives us. I have included the scriptures we used in our boxes at the bottom of this post.

I figure since we give gifts to one another we should be familiar with the gifts that God gives us. So I began to compile a list of the gifts from God mentioned in the scriptures. And keeping with the gift theme I found little boxes on Amazon

and then embellished them with ribbons so we can hang one each night on our Advent Tree.

Our Advent Tree is just a little 3 foot tall tree I keep near our kitchen table where we usually do our Advent readings.

You could use any Advent calendar that you add your own verse to like the ones we made at our church this year!

Or you can do ornaments or whatever you like.

My kids have grown quite a bit over the years, but I still try to slow life down, sit together as a family at some point in the day, and reflect on the goodness of God. I cherish taking a small breather in a day that is filled with so much busyness; to reflect that God is the best gift giver and that God cherishes these moments of reflection and togetherness more than I do.

I want with all my heart for my kids to have a thriving, vibrant relationship with Jesus. And I want to honor Jesus in Christmas above all else. It’s funny how the time of year that is supposed to be about the birth of our Savior gets swallowed up in gifts, parties, trees, lights, cookies, and all the other Christmas festivities. But as I read in the Bible it wasn’t all that different when Jesus was born. I mean they weren’t decorating trees, and making cookies to share with the neighbors, but it was a busy time. The entire world at that time was being registered for the census ordered by Case Augustus. In those days when a Census was ordered you had to travel back to the town you were born in to be counted.

We read in Luke 2:4-6 the story of Joseph and his betrothed wife Mary traveling from Galilee to the town of Bethlehem. They traveled somewhere between 80-90 miles. For most of us traveling that far is nothing. It’s less then 2 hours in a car, no big deal. But to travel in those days was a challenge. You were on a donkey or maybe a camel or even a horse. You didn’t have room to take much with you. The road wasn’t a paved highway, but rather a dirt path to follow. After traveling for somewhere between 4-7 days, Mary goes into labor. The King Jesus is about to be born. But the world around them was buzzing with the people going to be counted. The world around Mary and Joseph hardly took notice that a king was coming to this world to redeem His people. Luke 2:7 says “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in the swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Because there was no place for them……

I wonder how many times Jesus is pushed to the side in our lives because there was no place for Him.

While we certainly should have daily time with Jesus, Christmas seems to be the time that is hardest to accomplish. There is so much to do. And Advent has become my way of daily making space for Jesus in my life and the lives of my family. My Advent tree is a visual, daily reminder to make room for the King. It reminds me that all of the fun and festivities are second to Jesus.

God wants us to have fun, celebrate ones we love, enjoy life, but never at the expense of time with Him. I encourage you to find a way that works for you; but make space, make room in your life for Him this Christmas. Take time and experience God’s greatest gift to us – the gift of knowing and having a relationship with Jesus!

Gifts of God

family activities, family fun, Parenting, Raising Teens, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

Creating an Atmosphere of Thankfulness

October 21, 2018 No Comments

I used to think my love language was not words of affirmation. But when I think of things I have done with my kids to let them know they are special, loved, and valued it seems to always come back to giving them words of affirmation. Maybe I am more of a words of affirmation person more than I thought.

One of my biggest goals in raising my 3 kids is that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are loved, valued, special and have great purpose in this world. I want them to know that is what God thinks of them, but I also want them to know that is what their father and I think of them. I look for ways to tell them this outside of just my words.

Since it is almost the end of October, I am beginning to think of the Holiday Season (who am I kidding? I’ve been thinking about this since Hobby Lobby put up their Christmas decorations in August.) Anyway, I never am really sure how to approach the holiday season. On one hand it has all the family time and heartfelt meaning to it, and on the other it has all the craziness of making it perfect, special and memorable. I want my kids to look back on the holidays and think of the love and the joy that came from those times – not the stress.

So this year I have decided to express to them why I am thankful for them as three unique individuals. I have done things like this in the past by writing on hearts why I love them and hanging them around their rooms. One time I wrote on hearts why God loves them. We have done thankful leaves, too – writing down things we are thankful for. We have even done the 1000 gifts lists – writing down as many as we can think of that we are thankful for. And all of those are great and fun family activities to do. In fact, if you haven’t done things like that, I encourage you to try it this year.

For me I wanted to personalize the gratitude this fall. I wanted them to know specific reasons why I am thankful and grateful for them. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got fake fall colored leaves. Then everyday leading up to Thanksgiving I wrote down one thing I was thankful for about them on a leaf and taped that leaf to their doors. I did this for all 3 of them being specific to them. I have one child who makes me laugh all the time. So I told him I was thankful for the times he brings me great joy. I have one who has a servants heart so I told him I was thankful for the times he served me. I have one who likes to spend time with me, so I told her that I was thankful that she wanted to spend time with me. The list went on. Each day they would wake up and find a new leaf, and some days they would find it when they came home from school. The point wasn’t when it was place on their door; it was that for a few weeks they were reminded of why they were special and that someone was thankful for them.

It is one thing to be thankful for objects like houses, weather, food; but it is another to remind someone of the attributes in them that benefit others. It’s a wonderful feeling to know someone is thankful for you as a person.

So as the season of being grateful, thankful and blessed is almost upon us, I challenge you to not just look at the things around you but the people. Tell those you love why your are grateful for them. Tell them what character traits they posses that you are thankful for. And tell them why they are a blessing to you.

Letting others know they have qualities in them that are a blessing to others, and that others are thankful for those qualities, will go farther than you can imagine in creating an atmosphere of thankfulness.

Bible, family activities, Holiday, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

A moment to reflect and pause

October 2, 2018 No Comments

I am not Jewish, but I do believe that the Jewish festivals and activities can teach us a lot about our own relationship with God. Now that that is out of the way, I want to share with you a Jewish celebration or maybe tradition that I started doing this year. It is called Tashlikh. Tashlikh means to cast away. The celebration of Tashlikh is done during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Which I realize as you read this is already past; however, I am wanting to get at the heart of this celebration not focus on its actual time frame

Since I am not Jewish I am not going to attempt to tell you how they celebrated this, but I will share how I choose to celebrate Tashlikh. I asked the ladies from my Bible study to meet me at a pond near our church. A few weeks before we met at the pond, my co-leader and I gathered some rocks for this day. We left some blank and painted on a few of them. We painted words like “faith”, “worthy”, and “loved”.

The day we met at the park I explained to them that Tashlikh is a time when we reflect on what sin or habit or item in our lives the Lord would have us give up or, to use the Tashlikh wording, cast away. I read to the ladies Micah 7:19 which says “You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.” I told the ladies to grab a blank rock and a marker, go find a place near the pond and ask God what they needed to cast off in their lives. After they were done discussing that with the Lord, I instructed them to write it on the rock and then throw the rock into the pond. So we all took our rocks, found our place to be quiet and pray, and then write on and release our rocks.

While I was sitting talking to God about the word on my rock, He said once we release the rock into the pond we can’t get it back. It would be next to impossible to find it in the pond. And even if we could find it by the time we did the words would be faded if not completely wiped away by the water and other items in the pond like sand and dirt and other rocks. Then God said, “This is how I forgive. I get rid of it – never to be able to get it back or find it again. So why can’t you let things go?” I sat there thinking about that. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we hold onto things we should just let go of? And once they are gone, why do we live as though we are still holding on to them?

One of the points of Tashlikh is using your body to represent what is happening in the spiritual realm. On my rock, I wrote self-doubt and pride. I struggle with believing I am good enough – that I have something valuable to give to those around me. Or I think I am so great everyone should align their thinking with mine all the time. I never seem to find that balance of humility and obedience. I have spent hours in prayer on this. And then it became clear. It isn’t pride to share what God tells me, and it isn’t up to me to make people accept it. That part is on God. I am called to love others and point them to Jesus with my life. The end result is up to God. Whether I am accepted or not is not the issue. It becomes an issue of obedience to Christ and trusting Him with the outcome. When we write our issue or sin or word on the rock, we are acknowledging our wrong thinking or wrong actions. When we release them, we are giving them to God and asking him to wash over them. We are living out Micah 7:19 and Psalm 103:12. God really does remove our sins, and He says He will remember them no more according to Isaiah 43:25. It’s amazing how a physical action can help us understand something we know to be true but had a hard time fully understanding.

When the ladies were done with their rocks and had thrown them into the pond we all came back together. There is a second part to Tashlikh that is just as important as the first. Once we gave God our struggle we turn and look for the positive. I told the ladies to think of something God has done for them this year. Or think of something God has helped you to overcome. Basically, now that we got rid of one word, let’s focus on a new word. For me it was “worthy”. I have worth and value because God created me and gave His son to take my place so I can have a thriving eternal relationship with Him. That screams of value and worth. I also have worth because God has created me with a purpose according to Jeremiah 29:11.

Our words were not all the same and they were not supposed to be. We are all vastly different with different struggles and different strengths. We got rid of something that was bad, but we are to keep doing something that was good. We are not supposed to live focused on our sin, but rather live giving glory to God for the good.

So I challenge you to think of something you have been holding onto or a sin you have struggled with for too long. Write it on a rock then throw it into water (somewhere) and let it go. Give to God 100%. Then think of something good you are doing or an area of weakness you are overcoming – something amazing God has done in you or through you. Write that on a rock and put it somewhere you will see it often. Remind yourself, God is faithful. He will forgive our mistakes, and He is using us to make a difference for His glory. Go and celebrate Tashlikh.

Click Here for October’s memory verse

Bible, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

A heart that dreams

August 4, 2018 No Comments

Summer is nearly over. And for anyone tracking, I am late in posting the August memory verse. But that is how this month is going to go for me. School starts, bible study starts, sprinkle in some family bonding, and a missions opportunity, add some changes with our church, and you have the recipe for CRAZY!! Although, I could say almost every month for me is crazy. Hence live the crazy life. I am just a magnet for crazy! Take on new tasks and add more to the old – sure why not — CRAZY!. But it is fun. I laugh more than anyone, which is due in large part to my husband and kids. They just make life fun. The other thing that makes this chaos keep spinning is the fact that I am chasing after my dream. Since I was a kid I can remember asking God to make me different. I got a little more than I thought I would with that prayer, but I wouldn’t give it back now even if I could.

I wanted to bring peace to everyone everywhere. I wanted everyone I knew to feel loved and valued. I still do. I just go about it differently now than at age 5. Ok, all that long-windedness (is that a word?) to bring me to the main point of this month’s blog. Finding your purpose and living it.

Some call it their dream, their calling, their purpose. All of which means the same thing. God has us each here for a reason, and life is best when we know that reason and strive to fulfill it. But just how to find it and accomplish it seems elusive at best, and sometimes impossible.

Then I read these verses from Psalm 16. Verse 7 reads ” I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart instructs me.” When I first read it all I could think of were the verses that talk about the heart being full of evil like Jer. 17:9. But this verse seemed to be saying my heart instructs me at night. Why at night I wondered? I am not a fan of the night. Sleepless, bad dreams, loneliness all seem to thrive in the night. Anyway, I did a little research and the word heart there is actually kidney. Odd – my kidney instructs me at night… all mine instructs me to do is use the bathroom at 2:00AM. That isn’t what it means. It does mean kidney, but there is more to it than that. It also means the seat of emotions or your innermost heartfelt desires. The secret things you long for that you don’t tell just anyone. An amazing woman of God and friend of mine told me that the kidney is one of our innermost organs, and damage to a kidney can be life threating. It all began to connect and lead me to this amazing conclusion. God gives us counsel or direction but allows our dreams or our God-given purpose to instruct us. Why do I say dreams, because at night you dream, and if we pay attention to those weird dreams they might just be clues to our purpose. You see God gives us certain desires, or likes if you will, to specific things. For me, I love the word of God, art, and talking. Mix it all together and you have Bible study leader who makes art to decorate the table for the study. Or a leader who is always making stuff for the women in the study that have Bible verses on them so they can take them with them or hang them up at work or home to remind them what God says. I even put Bible verses on the little tags that connect to a bag of tea. Make something portable, pretty and full of the word of God and I am in every time!

But that’s me. So what is you? Do you like to write? Start a blog or write a Bible study, or even just write a friend a note to encourage them. Do you sing? Join the worship team, make a youtube channel of your songs, or sing to random people to cheer them up. I would so do that if I could sing well. Do you cook? Join the ministry at church that makes meals for people who are going through a crisis or hard time. Do you like one on one conversation? Have people over for coffee or meet at your local Starbucks and just listen. God can use anything we offer. And it works best when we allow Him to use what fuels us.

It’s simple to figure out. Daydream for a minute what you would do if you had time on your hands. Write down what that is. Now pray over that paper and ask God to show how He wants to use that to bless you and influence those around you. Then, here is the part that trips us up every time, do what God shows/tells you to do with what is written on that paper. Then keep doing it. And bam you are living out your dream or your purpose. God has counselled you, and your heart has instructed you. And if you are really brave, tell us all about it in the comment section of this blog.

Click here for the August memory verse

love, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

Weighed Down in Love

July 5, 2018 1 Comment

I have been wrestling with what to write for this month. I felt like I should be patriotic and write about praying for your nation. Then I had a different issue on my heart but finally felt the Lord lead to this while I was reading my devotional book this morning. The devotion is by Beni Johnson from Spiritual Java. The title was “Calling Forth His Desires”. In it, she writes, “Often people ask me to pray for them, they come with an agenda or an idea of what they want to ask God to do.” She goes on to say, “We need to learn to listen to the heartbeat of God and not always present our ideas to Him as if they are demands. It’s not about whether agendas are right or wrong, but it’s about spending time with God and resting in His presence. The amazing thing to me is that God is waiting for us to enter into Him.”

Bam, it hit me. I have been meditating on a verse that I would like to make this month’s memory verse. Isaiah 30:18. “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is the God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.”

This verse speaks of an intimate encounter with Jesus. It portrays God standing, waiting with open arms to pour out His love and mercy. It’s as if He is standing there with so much love, mercy, and compassion that He is bending under the weight of it and simply cannot wait to lavish it upon us. He only needs us to turn our attention towards Him and ask, “What do you have for me in this situation?”

I’m not sure about you, but that isn’t the picture I have in my mind when I pray. I often feel like I have to say the right thing, ask in the right way, and then wait for what seems like forever before I get an answer. And I know God has timing, and it often involves us waiting, but I never think of God waiting on me. Waiting to pour out His love on me. Waiting to show His justice in my situation.

That is an amazing thought to me; that God is waiting to pour out mercy and love, compassion and justice. What an amazing God. So the next time you pray, before you say a word, close your eyes and see if you can picture God standing there waiting with His arms so full of love that it literally is weighing him down. He is there waiting to pour that love over you, to send justice in your situations, to hold you in compassion when you are hurting. He is waiting for you.

Click Here for July’s Memory Verse

Memorizing scripture, patience, Steadfast love, Uncategorized

The Necessary Unnecessary path

June 4, 2018 No Comments

God never ceases to amaze me. This month’s memory verse is one of those that you have to ponder on. If you allow the depth of truth hidden in this verse to be revealed, it will surely amaze you! Do you ever feel like sometimes God is saying two opposing things at the same time? This is one of those. Are you ready to be amazed?

2 Thessalonians 3:5 reads, “May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” A heart-warming good-to-pray verse. Who doesn’t want their heart directed to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ? This is one of those verses you could write in a birthday or graduation card. One that makes everyone feel good. And this is indeed a good thing to pray for yourself and others. But there is a great understanding that might change how you pray this verse.

To start, the words “direct your heart”. That “direct” word is kateuthunó, and it means “go straight down by the most direct, efficient route; to go in a direct course – avoiding all unnecessary delays, without any undue loss of time or achievement”. Ok, that makes perfect sense. I have to point out that I just love the “avoiding all unnecessary delays” part. But here comes the weird part of this verse. The word steadfastness isn’t the steadfast love concept I have been writing about this year. It has a different meaning. The word steadfastness is hupomoné and it means “remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to “remain (endure) under” the challenges He allots in life”. And there you have it. This verse is asking for our hearts to be directed to God’s love in the straightest path possible without unnecessary delays, and then ends the verse that on our way to God’s love we would go through the endurance to remain in hard places that God allows through Christ’s steadfastness. Those seem like opposites to me. A direct path with no delays to a place of remaining under trials? What?

I am reading this devotional book called Amazed and Confused by Heather Zempel. She does a great job explaining this concept. “Sometimes the best thing to propel us towards Jesus is the desperate determination: that potent combination of certain dispairs in your circumstances and humble confidence in Christ that draws His heart to you.” (page 41) Or I would say draws your heart towards His.

Think about it. God wants every man, woman, and child’s heart to turn toward Him – to seek Him, to want Him and Him only. Sometimes the only way to do that is to allow “trials” in our lives that bring us to a place where the only way to get through them is with the steadfastness of Christ. Maybe just maybe those hard, sometimes impossible to overcome on our own bumps in the road, are the straightest path for us to find Christ to help leads to the father’s heart.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? That God loves us so much that He would direct our hearts to places that are necessary to find Jesus even if we think they were completely unnecessary. It’s a love that leads only to what we need and stirs us – if we let it – away from things that are unnecessary in the process. The key is an open heart and a willing obedience to go where He leads and trust Him to give us the endurance to make it through the rough places to find Him.

The next time you are going through one of those hard places, ask God to open your eyes to the steadfastness of Jesus so you can know His love deeper in the end. Ask Him to lead you, and pray He will show you what you once saw as completely unnecessary you would see as necessary to know His love.

Click Here for June’s Memory Verse.

Bible, Easter, family activities, family fun, Holiday, Uncategorized

Gearing up for Easter

February 26, 2018 1 Comment

Is there more to Easter than a church service, a bunny, egg hunts, and a family dinner? I know that theologically speaking, of course, there is. But when it came right down to it our celebration of Easter was not much more than that. A one-day celebration, if you could call it that, with a bunch of mixed traditions. As my kids grew older I wanted more from the Easter season. I wanted a rich understanding and deep connection with what Easter really means to us as Christ followers. I wanted it to be fun for my kids but not void of the gratitude and grace that Easter has.

As Pastors, church services are a given. I don’t think there was ever an Easter that my children were not in multiple church services, but something still was lacking. We read the Easter story. Watched cute movies about Easter. I even made a cake for the Easter dinner in the shape of a cross. Yet still, there was something in me that felt like we were missing the mark; maybe not all together, but we were not as close to the target as I hoped.

Then last year in a bible study I was involved in, the topic of prophecy came up – specifically the prophecies of Jesus. As I studied and read them, I began to realize I was not as familiar with them as I thought I would be. Sure I know the basics, but there were so many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His life, many I didn’t remember. And then it hit me. What if we took the month leading up to Easter (it helped that that year Easter was at the end of a month rather than the beginning or the middle) to read the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus? I knew my kids knew the story of Easter, but I bet they didn’t know how many prophecies that Easter alone fulfilled – not to mention Jesus’ life.

I decided that each day for the 30 days prior to Easter we would read an Old Testament prophecy about the life of Jesus. I bought foam shaped crosses and wrote the scriptures on them with a marker.

I had my husband, who is great at building just about anything I ask, to build me a cross with a stand. I then hammered 30 nails all around to hang the crosses on after we read the verses. Lastly, I looked up the New Testament fulfilment of the prophecies and wrote those scripture references on more crosses. I put the 30 New Testament Bible verse in plastic eggs.

On Easter Sunday we read the last Old Testament scriptures and hung up the last little foam cross on the big wooden cross.

My husband and I hid all the stuffed plastic eggs outside. We told the kids to go find them. They were expecting them to be filled with candy like they have been in the past, but as they opened them they were shocked to find more crosses with Bible verses on them. We told them if they could match each Old Testament prophecy to the New Testament fulfilment they would each get 30 pieces of candy.

They pulled out their Bibles and worked together to match each one. We talked about how Jesus fulfilling those prophies brings validity to Jesus being who He said He was. We talked as a family about the importance of His death on the cross, and how He was raised from death to life.

I know there is still more that God wants from me as I head into Easter season this year! And I am working to accomplish those things. But I know that helping my kids understand the connection of the whole Bible to Jesus is a huge part of that. And helping them realize that Easter is more than a holiday with candy, church, and family dinner is a starting point. I want my kids to grasp that Easter is what our faith is about – a Savior who paid the highest price imaginable to be able to spend eternity with us in Heaven. As I keep praying for them and me to understand this revelation deeper, we will continue to have family fun with our cross matching game.

Click here for Scriptures references I used.

Bible, Friendship, Uncategorized, Valentine's Day

All kinds of Love

February 6, 2018 1 Comment

Ah, February, the month of love. And since my word for the year is Steadfast love this is shaping up to be a great month! Of course, we tend to focus February’s love on those we love, but what if we included those we simply like in our focus this month? What if we shifted our focus to those God loves this month?

I woke up in the middle of the night with two thoughts on love running through my mind. The first stemmed from John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I called you friend for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus, the one we are supposed to serve, changes that game and says while you are serving me I will call you friend. The word friend there has lots of meanings ranging from an acquaintance to a trusted confidant, held dear in a close bond of personal affection. This is where my thoughts began to run wild. Jesus – the one who loved me before I knew Him – that Jesus calls me a friend. I began to think of my friends. How do I treat them? Am I only friendly with them when it serves me? Do I seek out time with them when I am lonely and have nothing better to do? Do I love and honor them the way a true friend deserves to be loved?

As I lay there in the middle of the night with all these thoughts of friends – questioning if I am even a good one – my mind circled back to February, the month of love. What if I not only focused my love toward my friends? What if I told them how important they are to me? To God? What if I looked for small ways to tell my friends they are loved and valued this month? Some of my friends are going through some really hard stuff. I bet yours are too. What if God used me to show them his love? I began thinking of ways to do just that, expanding this month of love to include my circle of friends.

I wrote down a few things thinking that would help me 1) remember them in the morning, and 2) give my mind the peace it needed to fall back to sleep. It didn’t work. My mind transitioned from God loving me as a friend and me living that out this month to God loving those I don’t. God loves the unlovely. That is a heavy thought at 3:00 am. John 13:35 came to mind. “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”

My restless mind, now almost fully awake, began to wonder, “Do I show the world around me the love of Christ? Would a stranger in the store know I was a Christ follower because of the way I chose to interact with them? Does giving the homeless man on the side of the road a granola bar as I drive by count as love? Could I do more? Is God wanting me to do more?”

I wrote down a few more thoughts on my paper by my bed hoping once more that by writing it down and planning to dedicate more attention to this in the morning that I would be able to fall asleep. It did sort of help this time. The final thought/prayer was what if I challenge myself and others through this blog to live these two verses out this month?

So here it is – February the month of love. I challenge you this month to look beyond those you “love” to those you like. Find a way to make them feel important, valued, and cared for. It could as simple as taking a friend for coffee or sending a quick text to let them know you are thinking of them. Then don’t stop there. Take that spirit of love to those who truly need to know someone cares about them. Do something for someone you find unlovable this month. Become someone who is known for the love they give to others. Share the love of God by loving on those around you, those you really do love with your whole heart. Then share the love of Jesus with those you like: friends, co-workers and neighbours. And then take a giant leap and share the love of the one who calls you friend with those who have no one to love them.

I have decided to make these two verses the memory verse for this month. You can pick one or the other.

Click here for John 13:35

Click here for John 15:15

Leave me a comment to let me know how your month of love is going.

Bible, End times, Uncategorized

Look to walk for the days are evil

November 15, 2017 No Comments

I was doing my devotions and I read the strangest verse. Ephesians 5:12 says “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.” What the heck does that mean, I thought. So I went to my trusty Biblehub.com and looked it up. What I found was very interesting. The word “look” means “to see something physical with spiritual results.” It carries what is seen into the unseen realm so a person can take the needed action. And the “walk” in the verse is “how one conducts life, literally walk around or complete a circuit.” If you add the following few verses, you have a very powerful instruction/warning from God on how to live in these evil days.

In fact, if you look at verses 15 & 16 there is a comma connecting the two into one full sentence. Verse 16 says “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

Making the best use means “to ransom, to buy up for oneself.” In this verse, it seems to have a slightly different meaning than that. It connects the idea of ransom and buying for yourself from the store. It means to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good so that zeal and well-doing is the purchase – money by which we make the time our own.

We are to live buying time with zeal and well-doing. Wow, that changes how I spend my day!

If we put together both of these thoughts, it is a powerful catalyst to change how we do our day to day life. We are to be watching; seeing things in the physical but applying the spiritual to them; being led by the spirit in how we act and react in all situations we encounter through the day. We are to literally buy back time by living with such a zeal for the Lord that we are consumed with His well-doing. And we are to do this because the days are evil.

I have no idea when Jesus is coming back. And I have no desire to debate those prophecies. But I do have a rising desire to live more alert to the fact that the days are evil and the time is getting shorter to tell others of the love of Jesus.

I find myself with a stirring I can’t explain and one I never thought I would be excited to have. End times stuff scares me if I’m being honest. But suddenly fear is overcome with love for those who are hurting and lost.

Every day we hear of some tragic event on the news – people being killed in senseless acts of evil here in our own towns and all over the world. But there is good news that is never told. Yes! Indeed, the days are evil. But God promises to pour out His spirit in these times like never before. That zeal that we are supposed to have that comes from looking as we walk through this life is real. It is possible to hear bad, scary news, and then make the most of the time we have living full of zeal for God and His well-doing. It is an amazing thing when you surrender your life to God and live the way He says to in scripture.

Life is amazing when you look not before you walk but as you walk. God will open your eyes to see people to pray for, love on, and tell them the good news.

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