The Dentist

My son, Elijah, broke his only two adult teeth yesterday. As we came home that afternoon, the kids went up on the deck and asked for the keys to get in the house. Since I had my hands full with groceries and other stuff that accumulates in your vehicle, I threw the keys up on the deck for them to catch. They raced to see who could catch them first and, well... Elijah's teeth won. One is just chipped along the top, but the other has a wedge missing right down to the gum in the back. At least he suffers well.

After giving him a little while to calm down, he tried eating some Jello to see if it would hurt. Since that was fine, I gave him something warm to drink to see if temperature would bother the tooth. Luckily, no pain there either. I began hoping we had dodged the bullet and could wait a little while till his dentist got back from vacation. About an hour later I made them a sandwich to eat on the way to church. That did it. He yelled and smacked his hand over his mouth in surprise. I know that feeling- a nerve had been touched.

So, guess who's at the dentist this morning with his dad? Praise God for brothers in Christ who go to the same church and just happen to be dentists... I won't worry about Elijah at all.

I know what you are thinking: So what does this have to do with living a Christ centered life? What lesson could I possibly learn from a broken tooth? Well, I'm glad you asked...

It started me thinking about how random an act his teeth breaking with a set of keys was. Seriously, those teeth had been hit many times before by brothers, walls, and balls. Another thing is we even tested to see if a nerve had been hit - Not throughly, but cautiously - and just as we started to feel free and clear, Ouch!

This is what it reminded me of:

There are times in our walk on this earth where Christians, who are clearly un-perfected as of yet, will be hit out of the blue with a sin that we thought we, or those around us, had resisted with no problem over and over with before. That's just Satan's way. He will chip and chip away will he gets a break. I'm not talking about a little slip up either. Other times it involves a huge "crazy, random happenstance" that may not even be the result of sin, but produces in us a doubt of God's sovereignty or love for us.
Any way it comes, we are left broken with nerves exposed.

Often we test the waters of our new pain with the little hurdles of life. We may even pass them with flying colors, but when life's big sandwich comes along...  The sin temptation, the unexpected happenstance #2, the inability to ignore the pain any longer... we need to go to The Dentist.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: When you break your "teeth" in life, don't try to fix it on your own or say it's not really that bad. Just go to The Dentist immediately. He's the one who made them anyway.

For You

I read over a Scripture the other day that spoke to me enough so that I wrote the reference down on my, "I need to research this more" list. And as I sat here today asking to Lord what I should write about He kept bringing it to mind. The funny thing is that as I read over it again, I can't seem to remember what was so clear and profound to me then. I have no idea. It's a great passage and I see a lot of truth and possibilities here to talk about, yet the particular one He brought to me before remains elusive.

Why? I asked. That's when a sweet whisper came to me. "Because it is meant for someone else this time."

So, here you are. This Scripture is for you.


Romans 6:12-14
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for  unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Are You An Unseen Threat?

I found a quote today that I love.

"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground each morning the devil says, 'OH CRAP, SHE'S UP'!"

Are you certain, however, that you are a threat in the right area? I honestly believe we are all a threat on one side of the gate or the other. Make sure you are aware of your choice.

I choose to be like Christ Jesus:

Be a lamb to people.

Be a lion to the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Happy Is The Man

What makes you happy?

Perhaps a day away with friends, a fine meal, a good book, a new tune, or lying by the pool. There are many things in this life that we would say make us happy. My personal favorite is to have the house all to myself on a cold, rainy day with nothing to do but drink a pot of tea and read a good book.
Just the thought makes me happy...

As Christians there is something else that should make us happy- God says so in His Word! This one, however, we tend to use our selective forgetfulness on. It's His discipline of, and instruction to, us.

Lord, happy is the man You discipline 
   and teach from Your law
to give him relief from his troubles
   until a pit is dug for the wicked.
Psalm 94:12-13


If you notice, happiness comes as two-parter. The first is His discipline. Remember, He disciplines those He loves as a father does for a child He dearly loves (Proverbs 3:12). That is His part.

Second though is dependent on some action from us; To be taught from His law. His Word. In order for this to happen, you have to be in the Word, reading and meditating upon it. Then will He teach you from it. There is even a way for us to learn quickly in these situations. When we read the Bible on a daily basis we are hiding/treasuring His Word in out hearts so that we won't sin against Him (Psalm 119:11)- but if we do sin, the Spirit can bring it to mind more quickly.

When trials or discipline come, do your part. Get in the Word and humble yourself before God. Then - and I truly believe only then - will you experience happiness. He promised...relief from all his(our) troubles, until He settles the account with them on His own.

He promised. And you can take Him at His Word.

Days Set Apart

I read a very interesting statement from Oswald Chambers in his daily devotional My Utmost For His Highest. In the January 6th devotion entitled Worship,  he wrote, "Days set apart for quiet (time with God) can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. "  There is nothing wrong with setting aside a day to worship the Lord and listen to what He has to say to you, but if that is, in essence, the entirety of your time with Him, it will never satisfy you or glorify Him the way it should.

We should never easy our "conscience" - the prompting of the Spirit - in calling for daily time with Him by promising to spend one whole day with Him later. First we will miss what He is calling for us to day today. It will do us no good to find out in two weeks that a fellow brother or sister needed encouragement or a helping hand now.

Another problem is that we can not truly fill ourselves up this way either. It's like starving yourself for a month and then trying to feast: Your stomach has shrunk and there is simply no way to get it all in. Why do we expect the bread of life to work any different?

There is nothing wrong with dedicating a whole day to the Lord. In fact we all should! Just never let that be a substitute for our daily relationship with Him. Coming to God once a month or so doesn't allow us to get our fill of the Spirit, just as going to a church to worship God only on Sundays doesn't make a slave to Christ.

Mysterious Ways

"The Lord works in mysterious ways."

I've always loved this quote. Though it doesn't come directly from the Bible, it is a pretty good summation.  What's even better is when you experience it.

Last night I was... well, let's just say, "out of sorts". Not only was I hurting physically, but crankiness and a general sense of gloom and doom had settled in. Trying to get over the funk, I read a few chapters of a Christian fictional book I love and have recently started again. It didn't work.

My next thought was to watch a little T.V., so I started streaming a series I'm slowly going through. But just as I got to the title, I knew it wouldn't work. So God and I had a little chat...

The Spirit brought His Word to mind. "Read some." I felt Him say.

Ever the arguer, I replied, "But I've already read two days worth today and I want to be able to meditate on what I've read. Not just fly through it."

Silence.

"Fine," I thought. "Once telling me should be enough. It's not like You don't know how flustered and frustrated I am."

The Scripture was good, but the prayer at the end of the devotional floored me:

"My Father and my God, forgive me if in times of trial and distress I look for comfort in the wrong places. You and You alone are able to meet my soul's deepest needs. Help me to see this not merely as on option but as a conviction. In Jesus' name. Amen"

AMEN.

Satisfy Us

   Lord -- how long?

   Turn and have compassion on Your servants.

   Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad for days.

   Make us rejoice for as many days as You have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity.

   Let Your work be seen by Your servants, and Your splendor by their children. 

   Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands -- establish the works of our hands!

Psalm 90:13-17

Yesterday I talked about how to know if we were serving the Lord or someone else. No matter what path we were on, when humbling ourselves before the Lord in a difficult circumstance, we start out on a level playing field, crying to Him from there. Let's be honest, many times when we cry to God for help it's because we long to be satisfied in some way, and verse 14 gives us a road map in order to reach that destination. "Satisfy us in the morning..."

OK, servant, God just told you that in order to be satisfied with His faithful love we need to allow Him to do... "it in the morning...so that we may shout for joy and be glad for days." I've come to believe that is very true. God loves us enough and lets us exercise our free will in that He never demands a specific time for us to come to Him for fellowship, but He's given us plenty of hints. Come to Him in the morning. There is plenty of reference to mornings throughout the Bible. (Psalm 30:5; 143:8; Lamentations 3:22-23; Zephaniah 3:5; Mark 1:35) 

So test it. Go to God and His Word in the morning. As His children, I believe with all my heart, that we can not help but to have a gladness and joy even in the midst of trials. 

IF we read His Word and listen to Him every morning. 

Lord-- How Long?

This morning the Spirit spoke to me through Psalm 90:13-17.

   Lord -- how long?
   Turn and have compassion on Your servants.
   Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad for days.
   Make us rejoice for as many days as You have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity.
   Let Your work be seen by Your servants, and Your splendor by their children. 
   Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands -- establish the works of our hands!

How many times have we cried out, "How long, Lord?" I don't know about you, but there have been many times in my life. We should cry out to Him, but it is the next line that made me pause and ponder- "Turn and have compassion on Your servants." When we cry out to God for help, one of the first questions we need to ask ourself is, "Have I truly been His servant recently? Or, have I been serving myself and/or others?"

We must also be careful not to answer this question too quickly. Just because we have been "good" and are doing servant-like things does not mean we are serving Him. Sometimes we are only serving our desire to feel worthy, or are not able to say NO to other's requests for their own good paths. Always make sure you take the time to listen to the Spirit in oder to discern is the good we are doing is the good He created for us to do and not someone else. He may have chosen a different path for us that we are resisting.

Tomorrow I'd like to continue on with this portion of Psalm 90, but for now I'm going to meditate on just how obedient a servant I have been. If there are any "Why?", or "How long?" questions in your life, I as you to join me in this. If not... save it for when there are. We are, after all, not perfected yet.

Take A Vacation

Any of you who have known me for very long know that I love many Bill Murray movies. It's not that I like him in particular as an actor, he just picks some really great roles. One of my favorites is in the movie, What About Bob.

Bob, played by Murray, is "...an almost-paralyzed, multi-phobic personality who is in a constant state of panic". He follows his new psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin, on the Dr.'s month long vacation to New Hampshire from New York City. After multiple attempts to get Bob - who is desperately clinging to him for support and advise - to leave, Dr. Marvin writes Bob a new prescription. All it says is, "Take a vacation....from your problems!"

Bob is freed.

Now, you may think I'm going to tell you to take a vacation from your problems, and just trust in the Lord. He knows we all have them. And while that's good advise, that's not what came to mind.  Many of us do take multiple vacations a year: To relax, get away, have fun, be with family, or just have an adventure and see/do something new. But, I don't think we, as Americans, need to be told to do that. We seem to have no problem in taking care of ourself in this way. We love vacations. I think the problem may be that we take too many. Let me explain...

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against vacations. In fact, I wish I had more of them! I just believe we have the vacation mentality too often, and the problem with that is the first thing we usually take a break from is God.

Be honest. When you need to read your Bible but are tired or busy, isn't that the first thing you cut out? After a long week of work and/or school which is the first to be cut on the weekend: Sports, or church? When it comes to your quiet time and your brain is fried, how often do we take a break and watch a movie or T.V. show that doesn't exactly help our minds dwell on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, or commendable. (Philippians 4:8)

I say these because I have been guilty of all, and I don't want to be.

So, since we seem to be wired to take these vacations, I'm going to do just that:
I'm going to take a vacation.... from my excuses.


Would you join me on my vacation?

Here I Am To Worship

God gave me the gift of worship today. 

He blessed me with the desire to seek Him diligently over the last few days, to realize my desperate need for Him, to greatly anticipate gathering together with my local family of believers, for it to be my turn to participate on the praise team, and to sing some of my favorite worship songs. 

Then after all of those, He had Pastor Mike speak on a subject that is a passion of mine.

I am beyond blessed today, for He's allowing and enabling me to worship Him with all I have.

Anger and God

Every time you have a great "Ah-ha!" God-moment, Satan attacks with a great "Why?" moment.

There was a point earlier today where I learned an amazing lesson from God on answered prayer. And tonight? I'm sitting here in tears because I can't even make my kids the soup they want. They've been asking for minestrone with Italian sausage for several days and I'm more than willing in an attempt to get more vegetables down Elijah. I got as far as the sausage cooking and my lungs are closing in and burning something horrible. (It's like a couple of big brothers sitting on your chest.) Next we are suppose to boil carrots, onions, pepper and pasta among other ingredients. The vapor from the carrots alone has almost had me in the hospital before.

So right now, I'm trusting God to handle my hurt. He made me this way and allowed my body to react in this manner. I don't have to like it, but at least I'm comforted knowing I can go to Him with my frustrations, anger, and pain. What a blessing to know He can handle all things when I can not.

Forced Down Time

I'm looking forward to today! I have an appointment with Dr. Tamara at Internal Balance  - a true blessing from God - for a detox. I have no idea how long I'll be there, but it will be at least an hour and a half. Not only will I feel much better, but I get all that forced still-time to read my Bible.

What are some forced down times you look forward to, and for what reason?

See You Later!

You know one of the most comforting things about being a Christian here on earth is?

Knowing that we, as brothers and sisters, never truly say goodbye. It's just, "See you later!"

Tip’eret

Scripture can be very rich in imagery and replete with meaning, but we have two things working against our understanding of this: We aren't reading it in it's original language with the cultural understanding of the time, and we, as modern Christian's, tend to read through the Bible fast, often not bothering to find the connections and beauty. 

I'm very guilty of both. Not only am I clueless when it comes to Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but too often also read through my Bible in record speed with a "checklist marked" mentality. The latter is more easily fixed, yet I want to do what I can about both.

A few years ago I was blessed to be able to purchase The Complete Word Study Dictionary OT/NT. I can now look up in-depth descriptions of Greek and Hebrew words and am even given derivations and etymologies of each word along with other linguistic goodies for geeks such as I. I have my moments. 

All this to say, I really took a piece of Scripture apart the other day. Now, I admit that I didn't go so far as to dissect each word and phrase. I did, however, read into the richer meanings of particular words in order to try and understand the beauty of this passage. I will let you read it first as translated in the HCSB - a version I have found to be surprisingly accurate. Then I will re-write it adding some of the imagery and nuance I discovered. I'm also going to try and steer away from "church-y" words since they have almost lost their meaning in the fact that we often can only define them with themselves. (Example: Praise and glory) I pray you enjoy this and are encouraged to start diving into Scripture a little more on your own.  Digest slowly- there are a lot of words!

(Click here to discover the meaning of today's title as well as a site to use on your own.)

For God is my witness, how I deeply miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:8-11

For the one, true God is my witness and record, how I intensely crave and greatly long after all of you with the essence of inward affection and tender mercies of Christ Jesus. 

And I ask God specifically for this: that your affection - your love feast of charity - will continue, in greater degree, to grow in excess with more than enough to spare, of a powerful and influential understanding which you strive for and for an ability to build upon the experiences and knowledge you acquired to figure out their complete sum.

This is so you can distinguish and prove whether all things are worthy or not, and also so you can be free from spot or blemish to such a degree as to be able to bear examination in the full splendor of the sun - not taking or giving offense and not stumbling or falling, figuratively speaking, in the day of Messiah.

And may you be crammed full with the end product of an ability conform to the state of all God commands or appoints when standing the test of His just judgement: This is only able to come to you by means of Jesus Christ, in order that the honor due to God's perfect opinion will be applauded.

Philippians 1:8-11

Here Goes Nothing

How did your nothing go? Mine was quite eventful. Three things came about from just trying to listen to God and not do all the talking.

The first thing was that I felt drawn to get back into His Word on a deeper level. Reading my Bible everyday has become a good routine, but it had replaced much of my digging deeper. I love to find a few verses, go back to the original Hebrew or Greek and pull each word apart to find the nuisance and beauty of each sentence. You'll see the results of that tomorrow...

Secondly, God proved Himself to me once again. There hadn't been any activity on our mission front for two months. The trip was certainly right and still going to happen, but nothing had come in to help fund it. I had begun planing how we could try to start saving up a little here and there, but was honestly struggling with it a bit. We've had several expenses pop up and were starting to get a bit strained. Praise God for Kevin's overtime right now even though it is very hard on him. He knows God has provided the extra work because we need it, but it's still hard to deal with.

Although I decided to start saving up, I felt led to spend some extra this week on someone else. It was a challenge for me to let go and expect God to just hand the money over. I never want to be considered a poor steward, lazy, or wasteful in His kingdom. Yet I came to the point where I laid it out and told Him I totally trusted Him to eventually bring it in.

This Sunday two people handed me envelopes with some cash for the trip. I'm so glad I listened. If not, I wouldn't have been able to bless the other person earlier. I truly believe, "I blessed, so He blessed".

The last thing the happened while practicing nothing threw me for a loop. I've been blessed to help lead a women's Wednesday morning Bible study at my church for the last three years, but there is one thing I've always wanted to do: Have the same study offered one evening during the week for those who work during the day. Because of Kevin's schedule I have the children alone in the evening and living a half hour away from church has made the opportunity almost impossible. They need to get in bed at a decent time and we've never been a family to plan a ton of activities for the kids. They like to just be home with free time.

However, before I knew it while listening to Him one day, I sent off the email I always wanted- "How many of you ladies would be interested?" What a response! God is certainly working in this area so what excuse do I have not to join Him? The one prayer request I have for you is in what to do with my kids. I know God will work it out - and there are a few options already - I just need to have the faith and trust that it will be for the best.

It amazes me how much God is trying to say to us, if only we take the time to really listen.
What is He saying to you?