The Flip Side of Sadness

Last night I had some company. First to show up in my dream was my cousin John with the crazy staccato laugh, huge heart and endless pranks. He and his brother George were always up to something. When they were little, they asked my Aunt Esther if they could decorate their rooms for Christmas. After she told them they could they scooped up buckets and bagfuls of brown pine needles and covered the floor and everything else in their room.....Join me here at Bibledude for the rest of the story.....

Fighting the Change

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30: 19,20

I awoke this morning with a familiar feeling, one I didn't like. I was flat. Not happy, not depressed......just flat. I am in the beginning stages of that place in life known as, dare I say it? "the change." Sshhhh, I won't say it out loud. I didn't use bold face type or big letters. It is not a real uplifting topic for women, (or the men who live with them.) But it is a reality.

I had a choice in that moment. To settle for how I felt, or to fight for something better. That is what it really comes down to each and every day. A choice for life or death. Victory or defeat. So I got up, grabbed some coffee and sought life in the pages of the book that was lying on the floor by the bed. The one that gives life.......I flipped open to Corinthians and there I found this verse:

"For thanks be to God, who always leads us to triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place, for we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:14,15

God has taught me that I don't have to settle. I don't have to slog through the day feeling like this.

I can have victory in Christ.

As I rustled through those pages, I started to feel more like life and less like death. And I realized something else. If I had settled for that feeling?  I would have missed the beautiful fragrance that the people in my life are giving off,  because they are making the choice to get up and give life to me. And I don't want to miss it.

I don't want to have to apologize because I have been so focused on myself that I don't see the hurt in your eyes for being ignored, not appreciated, not valued.  

We all have heard about muscle memory. Trained athletes know it. The muscle remembers. But so does the mind.  

That is what I remembered with tears this morning on the way to work. I remembered how I had to fight for life after my healing from anorexia. The healing of my mind had to come first, but then I had to begin the long battle of healing my body. You don't starve your monthly cycle away without having to work hard to get it back.    

I remembered getting up in the dark before anyone else was awake, and running....just running. In the cold and in the dark all I heard was my feet slapping on pavement and my heart pounding, my breath coming out in puffs. I didn't want anyone to see me because I felt I was repulsive. I had ballooned to 125 pounds from 80, largely from fluid buildup that came from wreaking havoc with my hormones.

But morning after morning, I got up, I went out, I fought back.

And today, I can smile on that victory. Because God heard the prayers of hurting parents, and He heard me too, down there hitting the pavement. He was with me.

Later, after I felt a bit more confident my Dad went with me. It was good, just he and I running together. And someone else I didn't even know was watching too. I later learned that my future husband watched us run from the window of Flame liquors where he worked for years. After we met he told me this. Life is amazing isn't it?

I can rejoice now in the suffering, because of the victory at the end. Because much of life is getting back up over and over again, no matter how you feel and fighting back, because you know life is always worth it.

Restoration and light and life waits at the end of the road. And once we've come through? We can help each other find the way out.

When you have had part of your life ripped away is when you begin to know the true value of it.  

All over the world today, people making the choice. Some even when it would be much easier to choose death.

Choose life with me today?

Two Cups with God

 

In the midst of the mess and the beauty of life, He listens,

 He enters into my world and I enter His.

 Two cups with my Father,

two cups with Jesus,

two cups along with the Spirit......

He sups with me and I with Him,

a window of Heaven cracked......

 

Prayer Journal

 

 

The devotional reading I picked for myself today was 1 Corinthians Chapters 1-3. It reads much like a letter from a grieving parent. Paul has spent his own time, money, and resources for 18 months in Corinth. He knew that there was a lot at stake. If the church could take root in Corinth, it could take root anywhere. A city of around 700,000, it was full of every kind of philosophy, thought, religion, as well as every kind of sexual morality you could think of.

 

Certain things were happening in the Church that deeply troubled Paul. They need to be reminded of who they were. It seems they had a case of "spiritual amnesia." Certain people were queuing up to follow the church leaders instead of Christ. Some followed Peter, some followed Paul, some followed the dynamic new person on the scene, Apollos. Still others followed Jesus.

 

Right now we are in the midst of an election year. We listen to the speeches, we hear who speaks the best, who looks the best, who is the most eloquent, who says what best matches our philosophies and beliefs. But no politician has the power to save us, and neither did any of the church leaders of Paul's day.

 

But Jesus does. He is our hope, no matter what happens in our economy, our country, our world.

 

Sometimes, like the Corinthian church, I need to be reminded of who I am and who I believe. I take comfort in Paul's words today.  It is so easy to get swept up in the worries of the world and all the different voices clamoring for our attention.

 

I need to be reminded that what I do matters and that wherever I go, I am taking God with me in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

I love how, even though Paul is brimming over with frustration, he is also brimming over with love and thanksgiving.

 

"To the church of God in Corinth (or America), to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ--Their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul

 

 



Big Red

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

I hold it to my chest, knowing what it contains……..all the mystery and words of life. I felt the power it held as I pressed it close. I would open it, but not yet.


Content in the weight of memory within, I hold it close and feel all the years behind it. It was my first real study Bible, one I bought during a Walk through the Prophets study at my church. It was the most beautiful book I had ever seen. The day I carried it home was April 19,1980.


When I first got it, I devoured it. I read it for hours. I loved the delicate rattle of the pages and the gilded edges when they caught the light of the lamp.

All these years, it has been by my side, though there were years when I left it untouched on the shelf. Even so, I knew the words of life that it contained. I had felt that lifeblood of its pulse flowing through my life. I could never deny it.

For these words are alive with the very breath and Spirit of God.

I have other versions now, but when I need to feel the hope of all that God has brought me through, the Red Bible, “Big Red” I call it, comes out. It is the best prescription I can think of for a heavy heart. It's amazing really, how I can feel better just by holding it. The words within hold the healing, the hope. I know that without cracking the cover.

It holds memory, it holds life, it holds me.

The verses highlighted in yellow, the ones I clung to when I did my first solo in church, the personal notes I scrawled in the back on special days, things I never want to forget are there.

This old friend is in me and I am in it, I feel it as I hold it close. Tears have spilled on its pages and they do now too, as I remember the times it brought me back from darkness, death. Notes of mine are co-mingled with my Mom’s from when she borrowed it. That makes it even more precious.

I think of all the promises held in the Bible, and how each and every one is true. It is the one thing we can always count on. What in the world gives us that kind of hope? In the beginning was the word……and the word was God……and even beyond eternity it will still be there.

Last year it came unglued from the spine and I had to glue it back on…….and the leather cover is more pliable with every passing year. But its still the most beautiful book on my shelf.

I am celebrating His promises today, won't you join me?

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Matthew 24:35

So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:18

Looking back to what's ahead.....

"Keep your face to the sunshine
and you cannot see the shadow.
It's what sunflowers do."
by Helen Keller

Been thinking about.........Soft answers. And how the Bible says they turn away wrath. All this time I was thinking it was to turn away the hearer's wrath, but maybe the whole point is to turn away the wrath of the deliverer as well.

There is always more behind what Jesus says. The Bible is filled with layers. The more I read it the more layers and meanings God reveals.

Life sometimes feels like it's going frightfully fast. I find myself wanting to stop the stream of it, plug the hole with my finger to keep it from flowing, rushing past......stop it in midstream. And yet I want to move fast forward to retirement. Maybe, I think, life will move more slowly after that. If I can only just get there.

Meanwhile, during the night our minds manufacture dreams through our fears, joys and sorrows. I dreamed one night that I had pulled up to a campsite bulletin board. You know the kind where people put their paperplate message on the board so you will know where to find them? Except I awoke, heart pounding, because I realized they were gone and I could not go where they were.

They went to the place of too much time gone by......Aren't we all drifting there, even now?

I wonder? Is that part of what drives us to write? To stop time, freeze the moment. Never forget?

These days I find getting older brings a certain comfort. Comfort in knowing the truths I have believed for so long have been verified, proven true. Only years and experience teaches that. Not any school that I know of, except the school that God puts us through.

The more I read the Bible, the more it becomes alive. The more try to live it, the more I know it's true. And when I clutch it to my chest I can actually feel it saving me. It is a book like no other, it is pulsating with life.....

Redemptive power of both the redeemed and the Redeemer.

And this is one song that has no end.

The song of the redeemed. Let Heaven and nature sing.

Wishing you a bit of grace

Not much going on around here.....just hanging out waiting to see if there is anything good coming out of the fridge!

Actually, I am at work. Briggs is the one just hanging out. More than likely right now he is dreaming of chasing mice or catnip.....

Until I can get a bit of time to post, I am at my desk.

Hope your Saturday is going wonderfully......

To all in Rome (and the rest of the world) who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7

The other morning before I left for work I grabbed a Bible CD from my bookshelf. I saw that it was Romans so I put it back, (I thought) since I had just read that. When I got in the car, I heard "Romans Chapter 1"

And I was glad, because you can never read the book of Romans too often.

Happy Saturday fellow bloggers and readers!

Wisdom from Ecclesiastes

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--Ecclesiastes 3:1

Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
 
It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.
 
Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.
 
I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!  I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
 
I guess they felt the same way about their system of justice back then too!


After reading Ecclesiastes, it would be easy to imagine that this writer, "the teacher" as he is called, suffered from severe depression.....and yet, if you can get through the weariness in its pages, there is much wisdom here. Though at first glance it seems to be filled with the ultimate futility of life, behind the words there is shining evidence of hope. Hope in God that is.

And there is even some very sound financial advice.....what investor would disagree with this?

Send your grain across the seas,and in time, profits will flow back to you. But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.

And this is some really good advice for people who tend to be worriers, like me.

When clouds are heavy, the rains come down. Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

The man who had everything was indeed very wise, he realized that when all was said and done, even with all his wealth, all his stuff, all his palaces, and women, and vacations, that without God, it was pretty much worthless. And that even enjoyable stuff is much more enjoyable when you acknowledge your gratefulness to the God who gave it all to you.

all verses from the New Living Translation of the Bible

Life is Good Because He is.......

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves......

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory....

 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1: 3-14

There is nothing I can add to this!

Eight Words

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because........  
      All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the LORD endures forever.”
1 Peter 1:

I have felt out of words lately.....and that's okay because sometimes you just like drinking things in.

There is a time for contemplating....watching......listening......absorbing.

There is a season for that as well as writing. After all, before the writing comes the feeling. So, this morning I thought since I had none of my own words, I would go to God's word.

And somehow, that seemed to set things in motion.

The Word brings the life, and the life gives birth to words.

God stirred my heart up and I saw people around me differently. Sometimes I need my eyes opened. Well, most of the time I do.

I went to get gas and drive my car through the wash. For some reason when I got gas it didn't give me the option of getting a wash so I went inside. The nice gal I see in there all the time was busily working away. I always notice how helpful she is. I explained the situation......and as usual she was very accommodating. We talked and joked, and I went to get my wash.

While the soap suds were flowing down my window........God kept bringing her to my mind.

The Spirit said, you should let her know that you appreciate her....that she is doing a good job. I said, I will tell her next time.

He said, maybe she needs it today.

I went back in. I let her know that what she does is noticed......appreciated.

As I was drying my car I saw a man coming out of the store. He smiled sheepishly, as if he wanted to be friendly......once on the way in the store and once on the way out....I think he wanted to say something nice. But I got the feeling that maybe he didn't know if it would be appropriate. Men have to worry about that now. About how we might take it, I guess. I gave a smile back.

He was driving a cement truck. Just a hard working guy on his way to a job. Not an easy job either. He touched me. It touches me how he is part of me, part of our country. How we are all part of each other when it comes right down to it.

Maybe I am feeling a bit protective of our country lately. It seems almost popular to beat up on America....at least it seems that way to me. We are all just doing the best we can here. Dealing with prices going up on just about everything we buy.

But we won't give up. We will keep going, keep trying. We will do the best we can........Because it's the right thing to do. Because giving up is not what America has ever been about.  

So tomorrow I may get impatient and suck in my breath at how others drive on the freeway, but right now I love everyone. And I think it all started when His word sparked a fire that leapt to life with these eight words:

Love one another fervently with a pure heart.

God keeps a journal

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:1-5
I thought of this verse this morning as I rushed over to the golf course to get this shot minus the power lines that continuously block my view. Because I love the written word and everything about it, this verse holds special meaning to me.

The written word has power, tremendous power. It has power to start revolutions and wars, forge relationships, mend hearts and lives, and with the right person behind them, words can become laws.

Words can open up a whole new universe of ideas to someone who never knew such a universe existed. Philip Yancey, in his book "Finding God in Unexpected Places, tells of reading "To Kill a Mockingbird," among other books, and discovering a whole different world and thought......ideas that were previously foreign to him, being raised in a very racist church. His world was changed.

There is one word though, that set this whole thing in motion.............God's Word. It started it all, and it will continue throughout eternity. God's Word is the final word. What is more, the Word is living breathing flesh. The living Word is Jesus.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

The more you read this verse, the more there is to wrap your mind around.

Before God even uttered one word, the Word was already there.........

When we write, we take part in the creative process of capturing thought and bringing it to life on a page.......we have the privilege of joining together with God and doing something really good.

Words can bring life or death. They can be life affirming or spirit killing.......and the words you believe will make a difference in where you spend eternity.

"Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name." Malachi 3:16

Who'd have thought that God kept a journal?

What Lasts Forever

"For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;

their beauty is like a flower in the field.

The grass withers and the flower fades.

But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

There are so many warnings in the Bible about staying focused. God knows the world can knock us off-kilter. It has the capacity to swallow us up and spit us out whole if we are not careful. This morning I read, rather, listened to, the book of Jude. It was very sobering, and all the more when you realize it is written to and about those inside the church, not outside it!

I know the capacity of my mind to wander, leave the trail, go off in a different direction. I go after grass that seems greener, not seeing the steep drop off on the other side until it is much too late. 

Something can seem righter than rain to my own heart, my own intellect.....until I see it the way God sees it, and I can only see it the way He sees it when I am immersed in His word. It is my magnifying glass that allows me to see myself and the world more clearly. It settles me, sets me right again.

Since I started commuting, I have started listening to it on CD. I can't express what that has done for me. As much as I love to read, usually 2-3 books at a time, I am extremely lazy when it comes to reading Scripture. But I can listen to it for over an hour a day and cover a lot of ground. I figure, this is one thing that is making a change in me for all eternity. It is the mysterious process known as the grafting in of the Word of Life.

This is a change that is not temporary, this is a change that will last forever.

The only single drawback to listening to Scripture instead of reading it is that I sometimes get sidetracked by how the voices sound. I loved the way the reader of the book of Jude sounded this morning. He had a good "Jude" voice.....thunderous and emphatic without being too dramatic. On the other hand, I find the woman's voice who reads 1st, 2nd and 3rd John very annoying. I actually have to read those books because I find her voice so distracting.

The woman who reads 1st and 2nd Corinthians has a British accent and she is great. I tend to want to hear her again and again. She sounds like a combination of Maggie Smith and Cate Blanchett. Imagine Lady Galadriel reading Scripture!

See how easy it is for my mind to wander? I think I need to read more.....Hmmm.

"Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault." Jude 1:24

Have a peaceful day everyone!

Set your mind......

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3

A pilot friend of mine once said that there was nothing in the world more relaxing than flying. Something about being above it all makes your problems seem smaller. Every now and then I have flying dreams, and it's wonderful. I soar around skyscrapers and sometimes I just hover and float. Don't you wish we could just order up our dreams?

There is a way however, that we can lift ourselves above it all, where Christ is. That is by setting our minds on things above. Scripture is the best and most immediate way to do this. Since the Bible is a living book, it has the power to transform our very thought process! This is not Harry Potter magic, where you wave a wand and presto, all your problems go away (darn) This is actually way better, because though circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, God never does!

When we read the Bible with an open heart, we are tapping into the very source of Life itself.

The Word was there from the very beginning........."In the beginning was the Word......." Not only that, the Bible says the Word and God are one and the same! It is timeless, ageless, and all sufficient. It is wisdom, it is power, it is the bread of life, it is the manna that came down from Heaven! It is the best way I know to keep my thoughts going in the right direction.

If you are living with someone who constantly sees the negative in every situation, it is hard not to find yourself going right down that road with them. To stop being who you are, and become them. But you don't have to. You can be determined to set your mind above, where God is.

Find some life.....

Go outside, take a walk.

Go to the Mall and watch people.

Get around someone who can show you yourself again.

Do like my best friend who has been known to break into song and dance everytime Beyonce's "Single Ladies" comes on. And if she can still sing and dance after everything she has been through this year, anyone can....like she is fond of saying:

Sometimes you just gotta give it a little dance.

Happy Birthday Elaine, best of friends.......you continually inspire me to see the good in everything.......

No One Knows

"However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows." Mark 13:32

In case you have been in a coconut or under a shrub in the desert, (I have seen these people) you have heard that this is the day. The end of the world as we know it will happen just about the time I get off work today....6PM. That is just not right. To think I have to put in a whole twelve hour shift! All kidding aside, I think this has turning into one great big circus. There are billboards all over town sponsored by a radio station called Family Radio, which has nothing to do with the Family Life Radio I listen to every day. They are very distressed about it, even tried to buy all the billboards but they were blocked. Who are these people???

Amidst all the speculation and untruth floating around out there, the Word stands firm on this subject. That is where we need to go, and that is where we need to remain. The end will come someday, but we don't know exactly when. Jesus said He will come back when we least expect it, but he also gave us some clues and signs we should look for. I don't know about you, but I think we need to start looking up. It could be today, or it could be in 50 years, but I know one thing, we need to be ready. End of story.

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonions 4:14-18
 
That's God's story and I'm stickin to it!

Jesus didn't preach grey sermons

I believe that every absolute truth Jesus spoke, was spoken in absolute love..........

and sometimes with tears streaming down His face.

Our culture is becoming increasingly more uncomfortable with absolute truth. We get nervous when bold statements are made. In mixed crowds we feel the need to be careful, to make people feel at ease, comfortable. But much of Jesus time on earth was spent making people feel very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that He was almost stoned (John 10:32) and pushed off a cliff (Luke 4:29).

I found a post yesterday on Matt's blog, click here that I just have to share. I think it is the best post I have read in a while because I have been increasingly uncomfortable about what I have been hearing from some popular Christian pastors and leaders today. I hope it speaks to you as it spoke to me, it was really like a breath of fresh air blown into my soul.

Things Jesus didn't say:

I am one of the ways the truth and the life

You don't have to come through me to get to the Father

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:9,10

Couldn't resist, I love those pesky seagulls......all pics from public domain pictures

Information Overload

"This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life." Psalm 119:50

I think it's good to have information, but sometimes you can just reach the point where you say, enough! You can read so many opinions and so many commentaries, and so many people expounding on other people expounding, that you can get literally worn out. That how I was last week after about 2 hours of surfing Christian websites. After awhile, all the words started to swirl around in my head. It was like they were all fighting for places to attach themselves. I like what my Pastor used to say, "Don't believe me, go and read the Bible for yourself!"

I really respected that. This was a very educated man, but he knew that the real teacher of the Word is the Holy Spirit. When you open the Bible and your heart at the same time, amazing things can happen. That evening last week I got in the car for the commute home, with my mind still swirling, and put in my Bible on CD. Driving in my car, listening to the rhythm of the road, and the rhythm of the Word, I felt the familiar warmth still the fluttering in my mind.

What I needed was the healing balm of the Word, and nothing else. It filled the cracks, made my desert soul an oasis once again.

Information and opinion are good, but nothing beats the truth of the Word. I don't want to be like these guys......

“May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Acts 17:19-21

Wading through Job......

“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: Job 4:12-16

I wonder, what would the ancient trees of Gethsemane tell us if they could talk.........there are whisperings there I believe even now, sometimes I imagine how it would be there in the twilight of evening. There where Jesus prayed, disciples dreamed in slumber, Angels comforted, and Satan hovered over it all.
And when it was all over.....Jesus rose again, spirit, body, soul.....death was swallowed up in victory

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54

I am wading through Job now. I am going slow so that I don't miss anything. I have read it and listened to it many times, but I somehow missed this verse. It reminded me of something out of Charles Dickens and the Ghost of Christmas past. Sometimes the Bible surprises me.....

God loves the unloved........

"Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance." Genesis 29:16,17

Some translations say that Leah had "weak eyes." Maybe she was nearsighted or farsighted, maybe she just had small eyes. We don't know for sure. I can relate to this right now. About 3 weeks ago I got new progressive lenses. I noticed about a year ago that I was having a hard time reading. For a book addict like me, this was a problem. So I went to Big Lots and got a three pack of readers for five bucks. They work great, but I still needed my others for distance. I was tired of constantly taking glasses on and off. I was constantly misplacing them.

About $500.00 later, I walked out the door with two shiny new pair. The first thing I noticed that the ground rose up to meet me. For three weeks I felt like I was walking on a slanting sidewalk. I didn't know where to put my eyeballs. I am used to just looking through glasses in one place. Now I had to put them one place to see, and one place to read. After battling with taking them back, I was on the way to the Mall to turn them in and I suddenly felt like they were do-able.

I identify with Leah. I think we all do. She was overshadowed by Rachel the beautiful. She probably felt very average and unremarkable standing next to her sister, the one everyone wanted to be around, the one everyone complimented. Furthermore, she knew that Jacob loved her sister, not her. But God took notice of her. I love that: "When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “The LORD has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”

I have to admit, when I read that passage I want to pump my fist in the air and say, "Yeah, Leah!" "Yeah, God!" I say it for every girl that has stood in the background at the dance, for every girl picked last in the Sports lineup. For every girl who has felt unremarkable and unloved.
While Rachel still could not conceive, Leah had four sons. What is more, the lineage of Jesus Christ our savior comes through Judah, Leah's fourth son. "And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah.Then she stopped bearing. Genesis 29:35

I like what this all says about God. He notices the one everyone else doesn't. That is the small part of what I noticed when I read these passages, and that is the part I rested on in my meditation. Who wins in the end? It is hard to say. Jacob probably loved Rachel the most, and also did favor his two sons by her.
In the end, we all win, we all got a Savior!

Its all about Grace......

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

What I keep noticing as I read through the Bible is that thread of grace that runs like a river all the way through it. I have only done this once before, read it all the way through. I am reading slowly, wading through the current carefully, taking my time. I stalled out trying to pick one of the sophisticated plans online. There are so many to choose from.......You Version, Logos, Daily Bible.....God knows me so well, that my indecision renders me useless at times. The Spirit breathed into my heart......"Just pick it up and read from cover to cover." So that is what I'm doing.

I have reached the story of Jacob and Esau, where Jacob cheated Esau out of his rightful birthright. I think in my own mind, I am wondering why God would continue to bless Jacob and choose him as the heir, especially after what he did to Esau. But when I study further, I find that Esau had many character flaws as well. And Jacob did not get off scot-free. Here is what it says in the notes to my study Bible:

Jacob the trickster gets his due. After pulling off the ruse, he has to run for his life and spends 20 years in exile with his Uncle. Uncle Laban then gives Jacob a dose of his own medicine by planting an unwanted sister in his wedding bed and by repeatedly changing his wages as head shepherd......This reads a bit like a TV reality show.

When I read all these stories, I am deeply affected by how God uses us despite our many failures, flaws and imperfections. It's all about Grace.....unmerited favor. None of us deserves what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, but He did it anyway. That's how much He wants to have a relationship with us......

My Father, how thankful I am that you are always active in "good works" towards me. I can never repay your goodness to me. And all that you ask is that I not tire of doing what's right, no matter how unresponsive the heart of some whom you've called me to serve. Only You can give me strength and courage today, because You know where the way is rugged. Fix my sights on the coming harvest of joy! David Hazard......."Early Will I Seek You"......40 days in the company of Augustine.

Weighing in on the side of Love

"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:23,24

When Paul was speaking to the Corinthian believers, he was trying to get them to understand that although they had liberty to do certain things, it wasn't necessarily in their best interests or the interests of others to do them. They had issues that were dividing the church and they were squabbling amongst themselves about what was right and what was wrong. Basically they wanted to know what they could "get away with" and "what they couldn't." Paul said that wasn't the issue, love was. Placing stumbling blocks in front of others was the issue.

Anytime we in the church do something, we need to remember it affects the church as a whole. The eyes of the world are watching what we do. Does that Pastor have the right to burn the Koran? Yes, because this is a free country. Should he? Absolutely not. People have been burning Bibles for centuries. What should our response be? I don't care if every Bible on earth is burned, the Word of God will still stand forever, and it will still be in our hearts. No one and nothing will ever change that. There are times to stand up and there are times to "stand down."

Paul said, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Here is the difference. If someone told me I could no longer worship publicly in my church and that if I did so, I would be incurring someone's wrath, that now becomes an issue between me and God, because the Bible says not to forsake the "assembling of ourselves together" in worship. So I would have to choose obeying God rather than man.  I think we can agree that burning the Koran will do nothing but harm everyone involved. That is my take on the situation.....Hop on over here to Cliff's to see a view I agree with!

Final thought.....what if Christ had exercised His liberty when the decision was made whether to go to the cross? He had every right to stay in Heaven and write us off. But thankfully that is not how God works....His motive is always and forever, LOVE.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.


Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8

My favorite Bible

I have several Bibles, but there is one that is my favorite. I call it "Big Red." I purchased it as a special edition they had available at church after I attended a "Walk thru the Prophets" seminar back in 1980. When I first got it, I had just re-committed my life to Christ and so I clung to it as a life preserver, devouring its pages. I thought it was the most beautiful Bible I had ever seen. The gilding on the side had a magical sheen to it and I loved the way it looked as the lamplight hit it. I drank it in like the bread of life that it is.

It has many pages of notes taken from many different sermons, Bible studies, and thoughts of my own thrown in. I can page through them and see a bit of my personal history, and it warms me to see all that God has done through the years. I see the year our choir performed Handel's Messiah and my brother gave his life to the Lord, gallantly striding up the aisle in his white shirt, a grown man looking purposeful and humble all at the same time.  Thoughts I wrote that same morning sitting out in my parent's yard on Easter, just before the sun came up. I can still feel the peaceful beauty of that morning like a cloak wrapped around me.  

I see a bit of my church history also, which is rather colorful. There are notes from churches I attended in my hometown of Lodi California, Sacramento, Woodbridge, and Chandler and Mesa, Arizona.

It started out Burgundy red leather, and rather stiff, but now it is faded and supple. I had to glue the spine back together  awhile back, and time has dulled the luster of gold from the edges. The words within, however, burn brighter than ever. They have not faded, but only become more brilliant with time. 

There were also seasons in my life when it collected dust, I thought my own wisdom was better.  

There are yellow highlights all the way through it, although much more in some places than others, and there are places where tears of both sorrow and joy have spilled onto the pages. Everyone who touches it touches a part of me. The words in it have comforted me more times than I can count and it comes along to my "closet" when I pray. It is my faithful companion.

Bibles have always played a special part in many family histories. My Mom has my Grandfather's German Bible, and I have my Mom's special one, which used to be mine. Remember "The Way" version that came out in the seventies? My best friend has her Grandmother's and Grandfather's and I also have my late husband's Bible that he got from an old girlfriend!

My Grandmother thought that all Bibles had to be black (or white for Baptism) and she only recognized the King James version.

How about you? Do you have a favorite? What has it meant to you? I would love to hear about it!

"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105