Quail and Manna

Back to School Bible

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 19:46:00 +0000

With our three children in school, the start of each schoolyear is the same for our family as it is for most everyone else with children living beneath their roof--between the new backpacks, uniforms, school supplies, and the every-increasing generic "fees," our bank account takes a major hit.

Still, each August, our family makes a conscious effort to not just begin a new year of public-school education. We also start new levels of their spiritual education, complete with new workbooks, new mission action projects, new badges to earn, and new Scriptures to learn. Instead of seeing these spiritual supplies as extras, we view them as essentials as much as we do their school uniforms and notebooks.

In this way, my husband and I strive for balance when training our children up in the Lord, acknowledging the need to prioritize their spiritual education on a daily basis as much as we automatically prioritize their public-school daily education.

This year, we were thrilled to give our children the new NIV Kids' Visual Study Bible.

Retailing at $22.86 on Amazon, the Bible offers 700 photographs, illustrations, infographics, and maps in color. That is the "cool" part according to my children. I've found them flipping from page to page, just looking at the images and reading the text.
For example, in the book of Philippians, the book begins with a photograph of the ruins at Philippi as they are today. Then, the book gives an illustration of Philippi in the time of Paul. Further in the book, there is an infographic called "Big Ideas in Philippians" that summarizes main themes in the text.

Each book of the Bible starts with a single page giving a summary of the book. Some of the summative questions (they vary per book):

Who wrote this book,
Why was this book written,
What happens in this book,
What do we learn about God in this book,
Who is important in this book,
For whom was this book written,
Where did this happen, and
What are some of the stories/important teachings in this book?

Another cool feature of the Bible is that it has a 2" creamy egg-yellow column on the side of each page, leaving room for editorial commentary and for the children to take notes during private study or at church. As an adult, I hate the commentary being on the side vs. at the bottom in a footnote format and find it distracting. However, I understand that's the whole point. The editors' logic in putting the commentary here in a kids' Bible is because it is large and in their face, something they won't ignore, which will get children used to the idea of looking for commentary in an adult Bible where it's inconspicuously footnoted with tiny 1's and 2's.

I've read through a good bit of the commentary and don't find it incredibly amazing, but then again, I don't find it controversial either, which was a concern. And again--it's a kids' Bible, so the "little extra" that the sidenotes give is a teaching moment. Small steps.

I do want to add that there are some cross-referenced Scriptures in tiny footnotes at the bottom, but they are minimal.

If I have one complaint about the Bible, it's that the primary text is way too small, and yes, that is a BIG complaint. I'm only 40 and don't wear glasses yet, but still, I find myself squinting at what appears to be 9 point font (!!). I wish the editors would have shrunk the notetaking space to 1.5" (vs. 2") so the font could have been a bit larger. Our children already have to squint at everything from their tablets to our smart phones. Their Bible shouldn't require squinting, too.

Overall, my three children (ages 9 and 10 1/2) and I have really enjoyed using this Bible thus far. The chapter "Highlights" or "Big Ideas" infographics are a favorite since they give book overviews at a glance. And despite the small print, it's a good transitional Bible from the typical children's Bible to an adult Bible, giving the kids a chance to (1) learn how to read / seek out commentary about Scriptures they don't understand and (2) giving them space in the margins to take notes like mom and dad.

Both are of key importance to us, as parents, since our children are well on the path to becoming tweens.

** I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, good or bad.

Discovering What's Next

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 18:56:00 +0000

There were three days left in my Bible study, and I had no idea what my 22-year-old daughter in Christ and I would study now. I had scrolled down a screen full of possibilities but hadn't really settled on anything. Frustrated, I simply clicked the X and wandered down our gravel drive to pick up the evening mail.

I don't know about you, but I'm the type of woman who needs accountability when it comes to studying God's Word. Plop 66 books in my lap, and I can read them, but those randomly-read words rarely lead me to life-altering action on my knees before the Lord. And honestly? I'm more apt to read less than more...or some days, not at all. Give me, instead, a book designed to guide my study of those same words along with a good Bible Dictionary and commentary or two, and my spirit consistently grows like a well-watered sunflower in a hot Louisiana summer.

I find I can commit more easily to devoutly studying part of God's Word for six, eight, ten weeks at a time. Then, after that period of time, I recommit to doing the same thing over again with another study of another part of Scripture. Breaking up my study into pockets of time like this keeps me in the Word year-round because I'm constantly having to recommit myself to starting anew when the assigned "weeks" of my present study are up.

At the end of June, though, I had no idea what to study next. Imagine my jaw-dropping surprise when I slit open a padded envelope and an entire Bible study complete with book, workbook and DVDs dropped on my kitchen's gathering table.

More importantly? The study was about Lazarus, the Bible character I had been compelled to study on my own just the week before as I pondered how Jesus' love doesn't always look like love in my own life. I've never had a Bible study thrown at me in such a literal way or at such a needed juncture, but by God's divine providence, I began a 10-week study of Joanna Weaver's newest book Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God.

Weaver is best known to me for her book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. Here, though, she looks at the story of Lazarus' death and resurrection as recorded in John 11 & 12. While the first two chapters were difficult for me to sink my teeth into, by Chapter 3, the study came alive for me, and the accompanying DVD showed me a woman who was not a ravishing beauty with great speaking ability, but a woman who is ordinary--like me--and whose love for Jesus radiates off her face as she speaks.

In the study, Weaver shows how like Lazarus, we are all sick with the deadly illness of sin and in need of a resurrection, but to achieve that, God desires a relationship with us. To accomplish that relationship, often, God will withdraw everything from our lives that detracts from Him so that we will pursue the one best thing--Him--versus the many good things.

Weaver continues with this theme by discussing how humanity perceives love as the quick meeting of our needs, but trouble can be a blessing. She uses one of my new-favorite quotes from Charles Haddon Spurgeon to illustrate the point:

If you want to ruin your son, never let him know hardship. When he is a child carry him in your arms, when he becomes a youth still dandle him, and when he becomes a man still dry-nurse him, and you will succeed in producing an arrant fool. If you want to prevent his being made useful in the world, guard him from every kind of toil. Do not suffer him to struggle...supply all his wishes, avert all disappointments, prevent all troubles, and you will surely tutor him to be a reprobate and to break your heart. But put him where he must work, expose him to difficulties, purposely throw him into peril, and in this way you shall make him a man, and when he comes to do a man's work and to bear man's trial, he shall be fit for either. My Master does not daintily cradle His children when they ought to run alone;...but He lets them tumble down to the cutting of their knees, because then they will walk more carefully by-and-by, and learn to stand upright by the strength which faith confers upon them. (p. 58-59).

God restrains Himself from meeting all our wants in order to produce what Weaver refers to as "enduring love" for the Lord in our hearts. And yet, to grow in our love and relationship with God, we must stop dwelling in our own tombs, caught between the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit.

The best chapters in Weaver's study delve into "tomb living" or how once Jesus resurrects us to new live and the stone is rolled away, we still choose to live in defeat, fear, and wrapped in our graveclothes that trip us up and drag down our ministry and the ministry of others.

In one passage, Weaver calls us well-seasoned Christians to help set free those around us by helping them on their road of sanctification, of becoming like Christ. She argues we Christians often keep new Christians firmly bound in their grave clothes by how we treat them: "We bind people through our attitudes toward them. We bind them when we hold onto their faults instead of lifting up and encouraging their attempts to change. We bind people when we don't forgive them. We bind them when we gossip to others about their faults. Whenever we treat people out of our smallness instead of the Lord's abundance; we keep them bound" (p. 126).

Ouch.

Maybe it's time for some of us to lay down our expectations of where someone should be on his journey as a Christian and should, instead, walk alongside them, helping them become all they can be in Christ.

Whether you are a new Christian or a more well-seasoned one, Lazarus Awakening will speak hope and wisdom into your heart. It's not often a book receives my wholehearted recommendation, but this is a "keeper" on my bookshelf, one that has both convicted me and comforted me through a rough season of change in my household and difficulty in my church life.

Reclaiming the Dinner Table

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 05:00:00 +0000

The typical lazy feel of Saturday mornings was shattered as I rushed to prepare everything for the weekly international meal we would be eating that evening. The food processor quickly shredded eight cups of sweet potatoes that joined a fluffy mound of brown sugar and toasted pecans in one crock pot while the pound of black eyed peas I had been soaking overnight combined with bacon and onions to fill a second crock pot.

Meanwhile, the rice cooker counted down to its distinctive ding as the chicken marinated in freshly squeezed lime juice. Around me, the air filled with competing sweet and savory aromas of the Bahamas until the scent of a golden brown pineapple pie overpowered them all as it emerged from the oven.

An hour later, I escaped the kitchen to spend the afternoon off the farm with my children while adopted daughter went to a wedding shower and husband set off to mow the lawn.

At day's end, however, all six of us came back together as we do most every evening--gathered round the table to share a meal with each other. It's a time for catching up with one another, sharing the highs (or lows) of our days, a time to breathe out the frustrations of the day and simply give thanks for the togetherness.

Several times in Scripture, God emphasizes the shared meal as a time of togetherness intended to foster relationship not simply with each other but with Him.

When speaking of the Promised Land, Moses tells the Israelites, "But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. There also you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you" (Deut. 12:5-7).

There, in the midst of rules about worship, sacrifices and burnt offerings, Moses emphasizes that "you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God." Notice this eating is done in community, not alone. It is also done in conjunction with rejoicing--giving thanks!

This "eat before the Lord" is a concept repeated multiple times in Scripture. It's not, however, about the meal, itself, or the need to replenish our bodies with food. Instead, coming to a communal table to share in the meal is about relationship--about needing each other--as much as it is about thanksgiving, being mindfully thankful for what God has given us.

Earlier at Mt. Sinai, Scripture demonstrates the meal as relationship. In Exodus 24 after the people of Israel entered into a covenant with God, the entire congregation agreeing to obey the Law of the Lord, Scripture says "Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank" (Ex. 24:9-11).

This eating was done, quite literally, before the Lord. Obviously, it had nothing to do with consuming calories for one's health. Instead, the meal was a way to commemorate the sealed covenant relationship between God and Israel. And though Scripture doesn't record it, I imagine there was a good bit of rejoicing over the blessings of God.

The New Testament as well speaks of the shared meal in terms of relationship. While the Lord's Supper is probably the meal that springs most easily to mind, there are numerous other instances of the communal table as a symbol for relationship.

In John's inaugural vision, Jesus calls the Church at Laodicea to the table of fellowship, saying, "'Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends'"(Rev. 3:20).

Later, John tells us that history is moving towards one great table of fellowship, thanksgiving, and rejoicing: "'Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.' It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.Then he *said to me, 'Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb''" (Rev. 19:7-9).

The focus of the meal is on rejoicing in the Lord our God. It is on being thankful for His many blessings. It is on our relationship with Him.

Though our culture seems to have less and less time for such a luxury as a shared meal round a table (except for on holidays), Christians should strive to reclaim the family dinner table as much as is possible. No matter whether it's frozen fish sticks and fries or a four-course meal--it is in this seated position around the table where we can teach our children about the Lord, can strengthen our relationships with each other, and can strengthen our relationship with God as we seek to make the meal a time to mindfully rejoice in unity and give communal thanks for His blessings.

Even if Creation is Uncreated

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 06:45:00 +0000

With three children somersaulting through my every second this summer, it has been difficult to get anything done, including my Bible study. I almost always manage to get the "reading" part complete. It's the "studying" part, the "basking in the silence" part that's jarringly interrupted by mommy's name being taken in vain for the thousandth time.

When my household is an off-key symphony of constant noise, that's when I crave the silence necessary to hear His still, small voice...when I understand best the words of Psalm 46 that command me to "Be still, and know that I am God" (v. 11).

In truth, I have needed to be still. This space has sat untouched for the past two weeks with me unsure of what to say in a world both completely changed by a Supreme Court ruling yet not changed either. For the past year, the news media and the entertainment industry have continued to loudly promote the extreme as the new normal while Christians around me have spoken more softly in tones of increasing hopelessness and fear.

On our weekly prayer walks the past two weeks, I've felt a country's anger pointed to me as a Christian. Overnight, it seems, I have become the enemy of too many because of my faith. When I feel the anger in their words, see the fire of disgust light their eyes, it would be so easy to give in to the fear, to let hopelessness wash over me.

Only in His Word do I find a message of hope and security. Psalm 46 speaks of God's creation in destructive turmoil against the backdrop of the unchanging, protective nature of God:

"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts." (v. 1-6)

At the sound of God's voice, "the earth melts." Think of the power in that statement.

The God who spoke in Genesis 1 and the earth was created. The God who spoke in a burning bush to Moses, yet it was not consumed. That same God speaks here--and the earth melts. I looked it up, and the word means just what it sounds like--"to dissolve, to melt away."*

One commentary described it this way: "the creation itself may seem to be uncreated."

Creation's destruction is already underway. The Center for Biological Diversity states, "Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals...We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural 'background' rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate, with literally dozens going extinct every day." At this rate, the Center predicts "as many as 30 to 50 percent of all species possibly heading toward extinction by mid-century."

The scholarly journal Nature published a recent report that confirms this data while saying if we simply assume the future's "rate of extinction will be constant; it is currently estimated to range from 0.01% to 0.7% of all existing species a year."

Look around you; read the news and weather reports--do you sometimes feel as I do, that God is "un-creating" his very creation? Does your mind ever spin out of control in wonder and concern?

There. Is. Hope.

Verses 7 and 11 repeat the same words (and repetition is what this woman needed to finally hear it): "The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

Though the world around us tumbles, though it looks like creation is unraveling at the seams, though it looks like wars and turmoil will overtake the world....

Through it all, God wants to be our "fortress." God wants to be our "stronghold." God wants to be our "ever-present help."

But God isn't going to force Himself on anyone. We must choose to rest in Him if we want to experience that protection. And to do that, we first must stop living like we've lost the war. We must stop living each moment in a state of "what if" fear about what is to come.

Instead, we must prayerfully cast all our cares upon Him, knowing that He is not surprised in the least by what is happening around us and believing that He holds us--His children--in the loving, well-guarded palm of His hand.

* Baker and Carpenter. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament. p. 579.

When Love Doesn't Look Like Love

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 16:05:00 +0000

Near my bed sits a yellow legal-sized piece of paper, crudely-formed ABC's strung together to read, "I Love Mommy Because." Numbers fall down the page's left margin beside a list of whatever my youngest son could dream up that fit the bill.

I've held onto this love letter for almost two years now. On those days when my children just don't get how everything I do is an act of love for them, I pick up this page and remember back to my oldest son sobbing on my sofa while younger siblings peeked around corners or stood on the steps below to hear his complaints about how this mommy didn't love him as much as she loved the twins.

Even the walls listened that day as I snuggled him close and began to list everything I had done that week because I loved him--I washed his clothes so he wouldn't go naked, I forced him to drink his milk so he would have strong bones, I allowed him to go to Oma's house so he could have be loved by his other family, I drove to the library and checked out more books so he could open up entire worlds through reading...

When the tears stopped, he went merrily along his way as if nothing had happened, and I wondered if he had internalized anything I'd said. But a few days later, the yellow love list appeared, a testament that the son who had been listening in the wings had understood.

Much like my children know I love them, I know God loves me. Sometimes, though, if I'm really honest with myself, God's love doesn't look like love to me. In fact? It looks and feels a lot like pain and maybe even a little like punishment, even when it's nothing of the sort.

While my Bible study had nothing to do with the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus this past week, that's where I found myself stuck....on the tiny, insignificant word So:

"Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent a message to Him: “Lord, the one You love is sick” (Jn. 11:1-3).

It's the word "so" that demonstrates Mary and Martha's faith in Jesus and in His ability to heal. "So" can be translated "therefore" or even "consequently." According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon, it's a word "indicating that something follows from another necessarily."

In other words, Because of X.....then Y. Because Lazarus was sick (X).....the sisters sent for Jesus (Y).

That use of "So" makes perfect sense, demonstrating the sisters' faith in Jesus' power over illness. Please come...

But Jesus didn't.

In fact, after Jesus heard the message, Scripture includes a really odd phrase "Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus" followed immediately by the words "So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was" (Jn. 11:5-6).

In the Greek, it's the same word found in verse 3. "So"--consequently.

Because Jesus loved Mary and Martha (and maybe even Lazarus?) (X)....he didn't go heal Lazarus (Y).

Imagine Mary and Martha waiting...expectantly waiting, turning with eager anticipation each time they heard footsteps in the dust outside the house. Or perhaps their faith was even greater and they waited expectantly for Jesus to simply heal from afar as He had done earlier with the nobleman's son (Jn. 4:46-54). Either way--the waiting for a miracle that just never happened must have been heartbreaking....Lazarus' death seeming to be such an unnecessary disappointment.

Honestly, someone having the power to help but choosing not come to my aid when I call to them for help--that just doesn't look like love to me.

But that's what Scripture says: He loved; consequently, he waited.

Jesus explains His actions to the disciples by saying, "I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe" (Jn. 11:15). In essence, Jesus was telling them that He loved them enough to allow pain and heartache in their lives, all so that their faith would be strengthened.

When Jesus finally made it to the three-day-dead corpse of Lazarus, Mary and Martha both seemed to question His love, each woman repeating the same phrase, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died" (v. 21, 32).

Even in their grief, though, they spoke faith in Jesus' ability. That had not changed. But Jesus loved them enough to desire to show them even more of Himself in order to increase that faith.

When Martha is disturbed at Jesus' request to open the tomb, Jesus says just this: "Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" (v. 40).

This act of love in showing His power over death did more than a simple act of healing could ever do. What's more, it not only increased Mary and Martha's faith but increased others' faith as well.

Understanding God's love versus man's love requires us to stop and view things from God's point of view.

As painful as our sufferings may seem in our humanity, in God's economy, NOT healing a person can be an act of love.
In God's economy, the sufferings of this life that seem to last an eternity are actually less than the blink of an eye in comparison to the true eternity.
In God's economy, it's not just about me and my faith being increased. It's also about those around me and their faith being increased as well.

No matter what our emotions tell us, let us constantly look at our circumstances as proof of God's love for us, saying as Paul did, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

Viewing the Law through a Child's Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 04:45:00 +0000

Ask my children the rules of the house, and they're likely to give you a list of negative "No's." No running inside. No slamming doors. No drinks outside the kitchen. No shoes left outside the cubby. No standing or jumping on the furniture. No dirty clothes outside the hamper. No wet towels left to mildew on the floor.

I've read the parenting books about not phrasing every request as a "no" to your children, and so I say "Use your walking feet!" instead of "No running!" But honestly? No matter how positively I spin the request, my children still just hear one word: "NO!"

And no matter how many times I try to explain how the house rules are for their good, all my trio sees are restrictions that limit their freedom and fun.

As a result, I'm often labelled the bad guy, the enforcer, the law-giver (insert little girl eye-roll). But when I think of how I, too, have spent much of my life viewing God's laws as "negative," I realize my children and I aren't that different.

Listen to anyone say "the law" in reference to the Old Covenant, and it's usually in a tone that makes it sound more like a curse word than a blessing. Too often, Christians categorize the Old Covenant of "the law" as bad and the New Covenant of "grace" as good.

Law--bad. Grace--good. Old Covenant--bad. New Covenant--good.

But it's not that simple. While the Old Covenant founded on obedience to the Law of Moses could not save mankind from his sin, still, it wasn't intended to be a curse. The law of the Old Covenant was given as a blessing.

What's more, our 21st century view is definitely not how those men and women under the Old Covenant viewed the law.

Before his death, Moses told the Israelites, "And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day" (Deut. 6:24).

The law is shown here as "for our good always."

Even David said, "The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes" (Ps. 19:7-8).

Does this sound like a man who considered the law to be a curse? Absolutely not! The Law of Moses was liberating, not enslaving! No, it did not give man the capability to obey the law, as would the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant, and it did not lead to salvation but unto death. But the law was a demonstration of God's grace and it did give man freedom by guiding him in knowing how to please God.

In John Walton and Andrew Hill's A Survey of the Old Testament, they write,

"We are used to drawing a sharp contrast between law and grace. This would have puzzled the ancient Israelite for whom there was hardly any greater display of God's grace than that demonstrated in his giving of the law. In the ancient Near East, gods were not known for their consistency. Worshipers were left to guess what might please their god or displease him, and this could change from day to day. That doubt and uncertainty led to constant confusion...The law changed all that for the Israelites. Their God had chosen to reveal himself and to tell them plainly what he expected of them...in the Old Testament the Israelites are not heard complaining about the burdensomeness of the law. It was a great example of God's love for them that he would communicate to them in this way. They considered themselves fortunate to be able to know what God required of them. The law was viewed as a delight rather than drudgery, as freedom of revelation rather than fetters of restriction" (p. 175)**

Imagine serving a god whose likes and dislikes changed like the seasons. You would never know from one day to the next what would please him or call down his wrath upon you. Instead of requiring His people to wonder, our God had mercy on His children and gave them the law to guide their steps--for their good always!

Even Paul said, "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (Rom. 7:12). Again, to Timothy, Paul said, "the Law is good" because it directs a sinner's path away from sin and illuminates one's need for a Savior when one realizes obedience is impossible without the Holy Spirit's guidance. (1 Tim. 1:8).

God's lists of "do's and don't's" in Scripture aren't meant to rain on our parade. Politically correct or not, His law is an act of grace, making it clear to us what pleases Him.

Let us stop rolling our eyes and spitting out the term "law" like little children. Instead, let us see the law with fresh eyes as a demonstration of God's divine love for us.

**Walton and Hill. A Survey of the Old Testament, 3rd Ed. as qtd. in Moore. The Law of Love: Lessons from the Pages of Deuteronomy. Living Proof Ministries, 2012: 27-28.

Spiritual Amnesia: A Silent Killer

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 04:55:00 +0000

I would probably be hiding flame-colored cheeks could I remember how many things I have actually forgotten over the past 24-hours, much less over the course of my entire life. There has never been a time that I was good at remembering numbers or (since I teach so many students) people's names. But almost seven years ago when squawling babes #2 and #3 took up residence down the hall, my ability to remember even the largest of things became next to impossible.

Ever since then, the art of forgetting is something I have worked hard to master, as is evidenced by the dozens of lists that litter my desk, walls, fridge, doors, and most every other horizontal surface in the house.

To not forget, I must actively choose to remember.

Before Moses' death, he examined this problem of forgetting; yet, whereas we may think of forgetting as typically being a mere nuisance, Moses warned Israel that forgetting was deadly.

As Israel listened to Moses' final words, the nation was placed at a major turning point between its past and its future. Literally, only a few steps and a stream of water lay between "what was" and "what would be."

Behind their backs was the sandy boneyard of the Wilderness where their forefathers had lived and died in their unbelief. In front of them lay the Jordan River, just waiting for thousands of sandalled feet to cross and claim life in the Promised Land.

Before they could move into this land of promise, however, Moses reminded Israel "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers" (Deut. 8:1).

Israel's success or failure in this land depended wholly on whether or not they obeyed God's commandments. It was all about loving the Lord with their entire heart, soul, and mind.

Yet, Moses knew God's people well enough to understand how fickle they were, how fast friends became enemies, how quickly joy became grumbling . And so, he warned them: "And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him" (Deut. 8:2-6).

Remember.

Remember how God showed you the hard times to teach you that He alone provides all your needs. Remember that He, alone, feeds, clothes, and sustains your very days. Remember that apart from Him, you are nothing. Because God...is...all, you must follow His commands.

A few verses later, Moses reminds the Israelites again, "Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (v. 11-14).

Twice....don't forget.

Moses warns in the verses above that the forgetting will be caused by one simple thing--pride in their self sufficiency. With full bellies, comfortable houses, and wealth untold, Moses knew the Israelites would begin to rely on themselves...would begin to believe that they, not God, had provided this wealth by the hard work of their hands.

In their proud minds, they tended the flocks. They tended the soil. They built the houses. They multiplied their silver and gold by the sweat of their brow....all the while forgetting Who provided the increase.

Moses sums this knowledge up with another request to remember: "Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day" (v. 17-18).

You shall remember....forget....remember...forget--Moses foresaw this cycle of Israel forgetting to love the Lord thy God in their prideful self-sufficiency. Then, when God would judge them by withdrawing His hand of protection and productivity from the land of promise, Israel would once again remember...only to forget again once they grew comfortable in their success.

Sadly, the end of the passage concludes not with a joyous remembering and unity, but with a forgetting unto separation and death. Moses warns, "And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God" (v. 19-20).

For Israel, the end game of forgetting to obey the first commandment of God was certain, eternal death. There was no middle ground where Israel could remember and forget at the same time. It was either one or the other.

This side of the cross, there is still no middle ground. We either remember to love the Lord with our everything or we forget to obey the first and greatest commandment.

This side of the cross, the consequence for spiritual amnesia is still death. While it may not be physical death that results from not obeying the commands of Scripture, there are equally damaging ways forgetting can kill.

Forgetting the commandments to not commit adultery, to not lie, to not steal, to not murder (even if only in anger) can kill marriages, friendships, families, churches, teaching opportunities with our children, and one's witness. Even something that may seem more innocent like forgetting the commandment to not covet can kill a person's joy, peace, and, ultimately, entire relationships when one is not content with what he has.

To be an effective light for Jesus in this world, we simply cannot afford to forget His commands, and yes, the forgetting and the remembering are something we especially must struggle with in our American (and, increasingly, world-wide) culture of self-sufficiency! But, in the end, we can't blame our forgetting on our wealth, comfort, and prosperity.

Remembering to obey God's Word as He spoke ever so clearly through The Holy Bible is a choice.

Remembering is a choice.

One Really Bad Attitude

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 25 May 2015 04:19:00 +0000

It was one of my favorite songs as a child, probably because of the upbeat tempo and choreography--little feet marching in place or trotting like a horse. Arms soaring up and down. All while my brother and I belted out the words: "I may never march in the infantry, ride in the Calvary, shoot the artillery. I may never fly o'er the enemy. But I'm in the Lord's army."

While many of my family members have served and are presently serving in our country's military, I have never been able to put that on my resume. American military service is a level of sacrifice I've never felt a calling or compulsion to give. Yet, when it comes to my service in Christ's army? Well, that's a different story.

Serving under a general, a king, or a God--they all require sacrifice. And yet, while the sacrifice may be compulsory rather than voluntary, one's attitude while fulfilling his duty is always of his choosing.

Consider the prophet Jonah. I've always found him interesting because for a prophet of the Lord, this sure seemed like a guy with so huge an attitude problem that God couldn't use him.

But use him God did. One day, He gave Jonah his commission: "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me" (Jon. 1:1).

Jonah received his orders. And he refused. What did he care about the souls of pagans who didn't bear the heritage of being known as God's chosen people?

A ship, a storm, a crew throwing him overboard into the depths of the sea, a few days in the belly of a great fish, and according to some scholars, perhaps even death--finally Jonah submitted to God's command: "But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD" (2:9)

When his orders came--unaltered--a second time, Jonah obeyed: "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (3:3-4).

Commentator Matthew Henry says, "By this it appears that God was perfectly reconciled to Jonah." He argues, "he did not retire into an inn, to refresh himself after his journey, but opened his commission immediately, according to his instructions."* But I don't buy it.

If he had a bad attitude concerning his service, Jonah wouldn't have stopped to rest or eat because he wanted to complete his commission as quickly as possible so he could get away from these non-Jewish people whose salvation he really didn't care about in the first place.

A piece of evidence to support this view may be found in verses three and four above. One interpretation of them is that in a city so large, it would take three days to walk around it and reach all the people with news of God's pending judgment. Instead, the prophet seems to make a beeline "one day's walk" through the center of the city. This way, he fulfills the letter of his commission, but not the spirit of it.

Another piece of evidence to support this view is Jonah's response when the people repent and God relents his judgment. Jonah's reaction speaks of a continued attitude problem: "But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.He prayed to the LORD and said, 'Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life'"(4:1-3).

The book of Jonah ends with the prophet's last words speaking of his being "angry, even to death" (4:9). Instead of rejoicing that all the people in this vast city had another attempt to seek God for their salvation, Jonah is angry, so angry that he asks God to kill him.

This attitude doesn't sound like someone who is "perfectly reconciled" with God. Instead, it sounds like someone who completed his commission because he was compelled to do so, not because his heart was in it...and now he's angry about the outcome.

The sad thing? Jonah missed the blessing. He missed the joy of being part of something God was doing. He missed the joy of being a part of God's mercy. All because of his attitude.

As Christians, God may give us many commissions, some of which we won't really want to do but will feel compelled to do anyway. It's at those times that we have a choice. We can run from God. We can obey but with a wrong attitude. Or we can obey with our actions and heart.

Only with the last option can we truly receive all the blessings given us for being a part of God's work.

*Matthew Henry Commentary Online. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc4.Jonah.iv.html

Archives: 05.30.2010

So, Your Promised Land Isn't What You Expected It To Be...?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 18 May 2015 18:13:00 +0000

"I want to be a grown up now," exclaims my eight-year-old son.

My knife doesn't even pause at this statement as I serve up three slabs of strawberry cake, drop clinking forks on the table, count cups a second time to make sure I didn't forget a child, and glance at the clock that warns of bedtime's rapid approach.

"No you don't....by the time you realize being an adult isn't all you thought it'd be, it's too late. You're already there with all the responsibilities adults have."

Desiring adulthood is the curse of being young. How many times did I think the same thing growing up?

No matter how good I had it, I was always looking forward to when I would be an adult...to when I could make my own choices, all the while never realizing what that freedom would cost.

Even now as an adult, I find myself focusing in on the promises of God, and when He grants me blessings innumerable or when He fulfills the desires of my heart--still, I'm looking for the next great thing. And still, what I thought I wanted is not what I ever expected it to be.

In all honesty, even when I am plopped down in the dead center of God's will, that place is not at all what I imagined in my own mind. What's more...it's a whole lot more work than I expected.

My spiritual "Promised Land"--the place where God has placed me to "bear much fruit" is the exact opposite of my fleshly vision of ease, comfort, and pleasure (Jn. 15:8).

In the Old Testament, I imagine the Israelites felt much the same way about their physical Promised Land.

In his final words, Moses tells the children of Israel what they can expect once they pass the Jordan and take up residence in the land promised Abraham and their forefathers:

"Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today" (Deut. 8:6-11).

It is of utmost importance that Moses begins and ends this description of their Promised Land with a reference to obeying God. In other words, if we desire our Promised Land to be everything it is supposed to be, our lives, our days, our minutes must start and end with "keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes" (v. 11).

For argument's sake, let's say we are achieving that requirement and are walking daily with a heart devoted to keeping God's commands as Jesus summarized them in the New Testament--loving the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, and mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Lk. 10:27).

Walking in that obedience, then, what does our Promised Land look like?

Moses describes the physical land of promise as a land of complete and total fruitfulness, "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey" and all of these in such abundance that we will "not lack anything" (v. 7,8).

As one author says, the use of seven different types of produce in this verse serves to symbolize the land's perfection--it is completely productive, completely fruitful.*

And yet, the next verses don't speak of a laid-back life among this glorious abundance. Instead, it speaks of "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper" (v. 9).

The second image is clear--some of that "produce" is not on the surface ready for consumption but must be mined out of the ground.

The first image, though, may not immediately make sense to a non-farmer. With my dad's family coming from Michigan, I know how detrimental stones are for farmers plowing the fields--hit a stone large enough, and you'll be buying a new plow tomorrow. What's more, no matter how many times you remove those stones from your field, the earth's constant movement shoves more to the surface. To work the land, the farmer must continuously clean his field of these stones, stacking huge piles of boulders at the edge of his field.

Both images above depict hard, dirty work to constantly prepare the land to reach its fruitful potential and to mine out that potential.

Consider how this may speak to us today concerning our spiritual Promised Land in Jesus. Abundant life in Him is our Promised Land where we are commanded to bear much fruit.

With the Holy Spirit residing within, we are capable of being completely productive....completely fruitful. But, just because we have the capacity for fruitfulness doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

We must work diligently with the Spirit's guidance wherever the Lord has placed us. We must constantly mine the fruits of God's Word with much time and dedication. Yes, we must roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty as we labor for the kingdom.

The good news is that through His Word and the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need to accomplish His will wherever He has placed us. It's just up to us to do the work necessary so we can bear the fruit He intended when He first saved us.

*The Law of Love: Lessons from the Pages of Deuteronomy. p. 21

What is a Single Rain Drop's Worth?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 11 May 2015 04:54:00 +0000

Perhaps the most difficult part of life is the waiting. Into our periods of living inevitably come those spaces between when we see not even a hint of progress, either in our own lives or in the lives of those around us.

Whatever the situation, it seems as barren as the winter, where we plant seed after seed, eternally watching and waiting for the first sprout. Each day finds us swinging wide like a pendulum between greatest joy when we think we see signs of new life and deepest despair when those hopes are dashed in the light of the next dawn.

We want to rush every process, to do whatever it takes to ram our future into our yesterday. But that's not how it works.

The past two weeks, we have looked into the Shema of Deuteronomy 6, first focusing on how we must love what we teach about the Lord in order for it to be effectively communicated to those around us and then focusing on how we must rest in the comfort that our teaching moments are empowered by the Holy Spirit instead of by our own feeble abilities.

This week fast forwards us to the last day of Moses' life when Scripture says he "spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel" (Deut. 31:30).

After Moses had written down the entire law of the Lord, all Israel gathered 'round to hear his parting words. Not surprisingly, they began with a message about faith, patience, and love.

Moses sang, "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!" (Deut. 32:1-3).

In two short verses, Moses gives four different similes concerning rain to symbolize what the teaching of God's Word should look like. The choice of water is intentional, since for the Israelites, water from heaven was the difference between life and death in the desert. Without rain, even the deepest of wells and cisterns would run dry, and all would perish.

The message here is quite simple--the Word of the Lord is life giving for all whom it falls upon.

The way that life-giving water falls on individuals, however, is not always the same.

In the first instance--"drop as the rain"--the Hebrew word translated here as "drop" means "to drop, drip...trickle."* The image here is of what my children call "a sprinkle," not even enough water falling from the skies to call it a "shower."

In the second example, Moses compares his teaching to the "dew," the gentle mist that falls silently at night to coat everything like a damp quilt.

The third example is of "gentle rain." The Hebrew word here meaning "raindrops, rain showers"* implies the drops are large enough and consistent enough to take notice so that we could actually call it a "shower"; yet, it is by no means a storm that will result in a great rain. In fact, the KJV refers to it as "small rain."

The fourth example--"like showers"--in Hebrew is defined as "copious showers, heavy showers"* The Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says this word indicates "showers, from the multitude of drops....plenty of water"** This is a heavy rain.

The last example of a heavy rain is what we like to hear when we speak of sharing God's Word--we want His Word to be a flood, making such a big impression on those we're sharing with that their lives are instantly transformed in a huge way. And, as Moses shows, that kind of eternal-life-giving transformation is possible.

But also notice that Moses only symbolizes teaching as a heavy rain after giving three examples of light showers and watery mist. Somehow, I don't think that is a coincidence. Instead, it seems he is communicating what we should anticipate in our routine sharing and teaching of God's Word....and how we should alter our expectations about "results" in light of this.

In three of the four above Hebrew words for "rain," the amount of water that falls is so insignificant that often, our listener may not even know he got wet! And yet, that gentle rain or morning dew is so very important, as ever so slowly, it gives life. Given time, it can accumulate drop by drop until our cup literally runneth over.

This should be an encouragement to those of us who may not get the chance to have a whole conversation with someone concerning the gospel. Perhaps we only have the opportunity to share a sentence at a time. Or perhaps, it's not even that much. Maybe it's just an act of loving kindness done in Jesus' name for another.

Mother. Father. Sister. Friend. Neighbor. Co-worker. Whoever it is that you're trying to teach about Jesus--don't give up. Keep planting those seeds of the gospel with your very life. Keep offering His life-giving water found in the Word, even if all you do today is coat them in the gentle morning dew of God's love shining through you.

We must be faithful to share His Word in sprinkles, dew, and light showers, trusting in God's perfect timing that one day, He will give someone--maybe even us!--the opportunity to speak the heavy rains upon their hearts and see them born into the kingdom.

Now that would be a flood worth celebrating.

* Strong's Concordance--Blue Letter Bible.org

**Hebrew Word "rabiyb" http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7241&t=KJV

jessica.pfaff@pearson.com“Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
²“Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As the droplets on the fresh grass
And as the showers on the herb.
³“For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
Ascribe greatness to our God!

jessica.pfaff@pearson.com

jessica.pfaff@pearson.com"

Empowering Our Teaching Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 04 May 2015 05:04:00 +0000

By the time my children bounce down the hall and into their beds each night, I am in desperate need of a little down time--just husband, me, a sofa footrub, and maybe a burst of caffeine to get me through the next four hours until my own bedtime. Sometimes, though, just as I turn to go down the stairs, my little ones will ask the question sure to tug at my heartstrings:

"Mommy....will you snuggle me?"

When my daughter uses those words, she truly wants to snuggle, to nestle into my arms and brush her face against mine. Sometimes, we speak. Sometimes, there is only silence apart from the sounds of our breathing.

The boys? They just want to talk.

This night, I lie next to my oldest son, both of us high off the ground in the top bunk as he reads aloud the funniest pages of his most recent book. The night before, I lay in the the cozy cavern of youngest son's bottom bunk while he regaled me with tales of his day.

Every once in awhile, these snuggle sessions will turn into relaxed theology seminars, weighty questions about God all held in the non-threatening, soft glow of two AA batteries and an LED bulb. Questions about God are easier to ask in the dark.

Last week in this space, we looked at the Shema in Deuteronomy 6 and how we must love what we teach our children. Otherwise, our words will be wasted air if our daily actions don't demonstrate a deep and abiding love of the Lord.

This week, I'm still stuck in the Shema, feeling the weight, the burden of this burning command to teach the words of God every second of my entire life:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise" (Deut. 6:4-6).

What overwhelms me so much is the "where" and "how often" I must be teaching: when I (1) sit, (2) walk, (3) lie down, (4) rise. Basically, that's my entire day in an action verb nutshell--sit, stand, walk, lie down, sleep.

Yet, there have been plenty of times within the past 24 hours when my love of God hasn't been easily evident or when I have simply wasted moments. In all honesty, some days I wake to first remember how I blew it the day before.

With this kind of command and its sense of all-consuming urgency, it is easy to feel defeated before I have a single interaction with my children. And that's where God draws everything back into focus by inserting Himself into my sitting, my lying down, and my rising up.

The Psalmist writes:

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether" (Ps. 139:1-4).

God divinely chose the same action verbs used in Deuteronomy to show how much He knows about us. Every time we think of speaking about the Lord to our children, every time we think of demonstrating our love for God--whether we are sitting, rising, or lying down, He is already thinking of us.

Even better, the apostle Paul reminds us that the Lord, Himself, is praying for us: "Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Rom. 8:34).

This command for us to teach our children to love the Lord is only possible if we love Him with our whole hearts, souls, and minds. But it is also only possible because He intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. Yes, you and I are constantly on Jesus' mind as He prays for us.

How comforting and empowering would it be if we remembered this truth and allowed it to changed our thinking?

How much could it change our thinking if we remembered that every teaching opportunity we are given to share with or demonstrate the Word and love of God to our children, we are going forth under the power of our Lord who not only knows what we're doing/thinking before we do but who has also already prayed for us to have victory in that specific instance?

Such knowledge that we have been prayed for, are being prayed for, and will be prayed for as we move throughout our daily tasks should empower our obedience and compel our hearts all the more to diligently teach our children about the Lord God.

You Can't Teach What You Don't Love

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 05:10:00 +0000

Living with an eight-year-old and twin six-year olds, rarely a day goes by that I'm not caught saying, "Did you hear me!? What did I just say?"

Sometimes, the children honestly didn't hear me over the noise of a very alive household. Other times, they can't hear because that would require their mouths to close. And then there are those times when I'm convinced they have simply tuned me out completely.

In this information overload culture of ours, I know the feeling. I needn't leave my bed to be hit with a barrage of content that I must choose whether to sift through or simply ignore. Often, good messages get lost in the steady stream of data bombarding me because it's easier to scan the long page or, more often, flick my index finger to delete them.

How, then, are we as parents to communicate the gospel effectively to our children? With my children, I've already learned that even the medium-length lesson isn't worth the effort. When their eyes glaze over, Twitter's 140 characters don't look so bad--maybe soundbites would reach their small, overloaded minds. But while lengthy lessons don't work well for imparting a love of God and Scripture to our children, mere soundbites seem insufficient as well.

Still, the Shema communicates the importance of teaching our children to follow God's commands. It reads,

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deut. 6:4-9).

As a parent, I am to "teach...diligently" the words of God to my children. In the context of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was basically telling the people to explain the law to their children just as he was explaining it to them before his death.

In this passage, parents are commanded to make every moment a "teaching" moment. Whether we are sitting (ha!), walking, lying down, or rising, we are to be teaching about God's law.

There are easy ways to intentionally fulfill the literalness of this command. Scriptures we have hidden in our hearts should readily flow from our lips. We must stop being bashful about speaking the name of God to our children. Instead, His name should be as common in our conversations as any other named member in our household.

I understand this type of teaching and have worked diligently over the past few years to put it into practice, learning to routinely speak aloud my praises/requests/thoughts about God and the Bible rather than merely to keep private my relationship with Him. As a result, conversations about God have become as common as conversations about what's wrong with mom's choice of dinner fare.

But frankly, I sometimes wonder if I'm saying enough....if my words are getting through to my children, or if it's just more information overload that won't penetrate their hearts.

The problem with this vein of thinking stems from me missing part of Moses' lesson. I somehow skipped over a verse, separating this command to teach from the other command that precedes it.

After proclaiming God's one-ness, Moses starts the passage with, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (v. 5).

Before we can properly teach our children, we must properly love the Lord with our everything.

It doesn't matter what we say about God to our children. It matters how we love Him! Even Moses knew the old adage, "Actions speak louder than words."

If God's Word doesn't impact our hearts, how can we expect it to impact theirs? The answer is that it won't. Our teaching will necessarily fail if we do not love God with every atom of our beings because we will be guilty of saying one thing and doing another.

Yet, for those who do love the Lord and who seek to love Him all the more, this should be a comfort--even though we may not feel that our intentional teaching moments are reaching our children, we can rest a little easier knowing that our words aren't the only ways we're teaching them about following Jesus.

Every moment we breathe is a teaching moment because our very attitude teaches our children about the Lord.

When we are excited about a passage of Scripture and share what we learned, we have just taught our children that the Bible can be exciting.
When they see us intently studying Scripture on the sofa or see our Bible Study classes penciled in on the wall calendar, we have just taught them that making time for God is important.
When we give money to the poor or take a meal to a sick friend, we have taught them to love their neighbor as themselves.
When we choose to play praise music in our cars and enthusiastically sing aloud, we have just taught them the importance of singing praises to God in our routine, daily life outside the church walls.

The list of our daily actions could go on and on. We are teaching our children to love God with the very lives we live, both before Him and before them.

This week, we must continually ask ourselves if we are loving Jesus with all we've got.

We will teach best what we love most.

Don't Make Your Wilderness Into Your Grave

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 04:50:00 +0000

We've all experienced a season in the wilderness. Maybe we've even experienced more than one.

In our memories, it is a dark place of uncertainty, struggle, difficulty, and often pain. It is not a desert we ever would have chosen to walk through, even if what it led to was worth the trip in retrospect.

There we stood in the wilderness--day after day, month after month, maybe even year after year....struggling to lift one foot in front of the other as we slogged up sandy dunes taller than we had ever climbed before. Each dune was so tall that when we slid down to the valley between them, we could see neither where we were headed nor where we had been. Some days, in the deepest core of our wilderness, even when we mastered another summit, all we beheld from that height were equally-high mountains of sand as far as the eye could see.

We lived in the wilderness, a barren desert with no entrance to retreat back through and no visible exit.

Why am I here?

The Israelites surely must have asked this very question as they camped in the wilderness with Moses after leaving behind the slavery of Egypt and aiming towards their Promised Land.

We all know the story, how an eleven day journey transformed into a 38+ year wandering in the desert after the people lacked sufficient faith to possess the Promised Land. Thirty-eight years of pointless wandering in circles, all the while transforming their wilderness into a graveyard as tens of thousands of people died to fulfill God's judgment.

God said to that unfaithful group: "your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness" (Num. 14:29-33).

God's desire was not for the Israelites to wander aimlessly in their wilderness for 40 years. He longed for them to have faith in Him. He longed for them to obey Him. Instead of grumbling and disobeying God in their lack of faith, God wanted them to understand that yes, they were meant to go through this difficult time in the wilderness, but to also understand that He. Was. There. What's more, He. Was. Enough.

God was with them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. God was with them in the daily manna. God was even with them in the evening quail after they grumbled about the monotony of manna.

All the while, He was striving to prepare their hearts in that wilderness. He was working to bring them to a Promised Land of plenty that He had prepared for them.

As Moses told the Israelites, "And he [the Lord] brought us out from there [Egypt], that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers" (Deut. 6:23).

The Lord brought them out of Egypt so he could bring them in to the Promised Land.

He didn't merely bring them "out" in order for them to remain in the wilderness. He desired to bring them "in" to a land where they could be fruitful. And yet, instead of believing God....instead of obeying God, their disobedience kept God from bringing them "in" to the land of promise.

What cuts me to the quick is that last verse in the Numbers 14 passage above: "And your children....shall suffer for your faithlessness" (v. 33).

The children suffered for the faithless disobedience of their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers. Innocent children.....suffering needlessly for their elders' sin.

This is not a mere history story. It is not a "let's point our fingers at those stupid Israelites" story either. No. This lesson applies even to those of us this side of the cross--to those of us adopted into Moses and Abraham's spiritual family.

Jesus told His disciples to expect difficulty in their lives if they chose to obey and follow Him: "A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also" (Jn. 15:20). He promised them trials to test them, to sanctify their souls. In short, He promised the child of God seasons in the wilderness.

God will send you and me through the wilderness. If for no other reason, He will be saving us from ourselves by working to sanctify our souls. It's just a matter of when.

When those seasons come, though, we can rest in peace knowing that as we struggle through the difficult days, God does not intend for us to remain there in our wilderness until all that's left are our sun-bleached bones. The wilderness need not be our grave.

God only leads us "out" into the wilderness to "bring us in" to something far greater, to somewhere that we can bear fruit! It's simply up to us to seek Him in our difficulty so that our hearts do not turn bitter and defiant.

Otherwise, in our disobedience, we not only doom ourselves to pointless wandering in our wilderness, but we doom our children to all too many years of that fate as well.

Image: Stone marked grave in Libya

Accepting The Best and the Worst in People

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 18:52:00 +0000

Even as an adult, I find children's books are so comforting to read. The bad guys are always bad. The good guys are always good. By the end of the book, evil is soundly defeated, and nobody is sorry when he (or she) is dead and out of the picture.

There is rarely this fuzzy grey area where the good guys do something so off the charts wrong that you recoil from the pages to say, "Woah. I'm not sure you really are the good guy if you could do something like that"

Reality, though, isn't quite like that. Humanity isn't at all like that. People sold out to the cause of Christ and to doing a lifetime of good are still going to shock and disappoint us with actions that are the complete opposite of mercy, grace, and righteousness.

In Scripture, God tries to show us this truth through stories of amazingly righteous individuals who fall flat on their face into the tar pits of adultery, legalism, cowardice, lying, murder, and everything in between.

Even those listed in the spiritual hero hall of fame of Hebrews 11 are far from completely righteous. These individuals sprinkled throughout the pages believed God, demonstrated their faith time and again in the fruit of their actions....and then they would do something so obviously immoral that we must pause, maybe even question their commitment to God.

We easily remember David who murdered one of his subjects after having an adulterous relationship with the man's wife. We remember Abraham who lied twice, telling both a neighboring king and a pharaoh that his wife was his sister.

Somehow, though, in reading the story of Queen Esther, I have always thought of her as some devout little Jewish girl, one bubble of light growing up in the dark paganism of Susa in Babylon.

Anyone who would say "And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish" and then act on those words to potentially sacrifice her life in order to save all Jews had it all together, surely (Esther 4:16). And so, I mentally put her in the "righteous" column while firmly placing Hamaan, King Xerxes, and the rest of the pagan citizens of Babylon into the "unrighteous" column.

Never did I once consider that no matter how hard Esther's adoptive parents tried to instill in her heart the Jewish ways of faith in Yahweh alone, perhaps Esther wasn't so lily white. Perhaps she had materialistic longings like other young girls in Babylon--to be rich, to be loved by the king...maybe to even be queen.

In Angela Hunt's newest book Esther: Royal Beauty, she begins with this assumption that young Esther heard the siren's song of Babylon with all its worldly beauty, color, an pageantry. Calling her by her Jewish name--Hadassah--she fictionalizes the Bible story through first person narrative, presenting parallel, intertwining stories told through the lips of both Esther and the King's head eunuch, Harbonah.

Hunt's book begins, "You may think you know me, but how could you? Others have related my story, and most of them paint a pretty picture. But unless a woman is allowed to speak for herself, no one will ever fully understand the events of a lifetime..and the secret recesses of a woman's heart" (p. 7).

From page one, she challenges the vision of Esther presented in the popular movie One Night with the King, instead, presenting a more complex girl who struggles to come to terms with the Jewish faith of her childhood and the strong lure of the world of Babylon.

Unlike the Esther held up on a pedestal in my mind, Hunt's Esther is more real. She is one I can relate to. She is a girl who wants to be true to God and the tenets of her faith but who, likewise, wants to be a part of Babylon, too.

In a way, Esther must confront the choice presented in Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.."

Esther must choose the world of the flesh or the world of the Spirit.

As Paul says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please" (Gal. 5:16-17).

Paul's words seem so easy--Just. Choose.......only it's not as simple. The fight against the flesh is a life-long endeavor called sanctification. We will not be free from sin, from this battle against unrighteousness, until we leave behind this life and enter the next realm.

These Bible-time heroes of the faith are as equally human as our modern day heroes of the faith. When they sin and become mired in their unrighteousness......and when we sin and become mired in our unrighteousness--may we come alongside them in love, extending mercy and grace as we would have them do to us.

Not even the Godliest man or woman has arrived at perfection yet.

Is God Holding Out on You?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:07:00 +0000

"Really? " asks my youngest son. "Really.....REALLY?" he repeats several more times.

Over the past week, he has used this phrase with ever increasing frequency, each time his tone communicating how incredulous he is.

It doesn't matter that I have never lied to my children, nor that I don't weekly remind them that mommy will never lie to them even if the truth hurts. There's just something in my children that doesn't want to believe what someone else tells them, even if that someone else is a loving parent with their best interests at heart.

The problem doesn't just lie with my children, though. Grown men and women are equally doubtful of others, believing that everyone is forever holding out on them.

In fact, Satan, himself, planted the thought in Eve's mind as early as the dawn of man in the Garden of Eden.

The book of Genesis says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (3:1).

There it is, a mere three chapters into recorded history--the implication that God, Himself, is secretly lying, is holding out on them....is keeping the best, the naked truth for Himself.

Eve responded, The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’” (v. 2-3).

But even in her response, that tiny mustard seed of doubt must have already been growing in her mind, for she didn't walk away, didn't leave the conversation. Instead, she waited there while Satan spun his warped version of the truth: "You will not certainly die!...For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (v. 4-5).

God is holding out on you. That blind obedience bit is just a ruse...don't you want to know what He's really hiding behind that threat of death?

Really!?

And Eve took the bait. She chose to disobey the one rule God had put before her because she doubted His truth; she doubted that He had her best interests at heart....she believed the lie that there was something more, that there was something better than what God had given her.

Scripture says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" (v. 6-7).

As much as we want to look back at this story of original sin and click our tongues in disapproval, I would argue that this scene plays out each day, only now the setting has changed from the pure innocence of the Garden of Eden to this fallen speck of earth in a vastly expanding universe.

Satan's message is the same today as it was all those many millennia ago. And can you blame him? Why change a sales tactic that continues to work?

"God is holding out on you," Satan continues to say to every man, woman, and child. "There is more to be had in this world than what God offers you. There is more freedom and pleasure that God is denying you by binding you to the limitations He's set forth in Scripture and The Ten Commandments. You can become your own god...you can know all things, be all things...just reach out and take what you want."

But every word Satan whispers or yells--it's all a lie. Jesus even said that Satan "was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (Jn. 8:44).

God is NOT holding out on you or me. He isn't trying to take away all our fun, all our freedom by asking us to obey His Word as found in the Old and New Testaments. Instead, His Word is sent to protect us from ourselves, from the ravaging damage that sin can wreak in our lives.

As James said, "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights" (Jas. 1:16-17). Even Paul says we should "put [our] hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Tim. 6:17). Our enjoyment!!!

If we had any questions about whether God was holding back His best gifts or knowledge from us, those questions should have been laid to rest at the foot of the cross where God demonstrated His boundless love for mankind by sending His one and only son to die for every sinful, defiant, doubtful soul.

Yes, even as man continued to believe Satan's lie, God sent the fullness of all grace and truth to us in the God-made-flesh body of Jesus Christ. And through Jesus' death on the cross, God made a new covenant promise with mankind wherein He reconciled us to Himself so that He could give us an eternal inheritance: "Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15a).

Satan's sales pitch is persuasive because we can't imagine a God who holds nothing back, who never lies, who wants only the best for us. But, it's the truth.

The only more to be had in this life is found through salvation in Jesus.

Realizing There is No Choice "C"

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 19:48:00 +0000

"Well, when I grow up and have my own house..." or "Well, when I have my own kids..."

These are phrases I hear quite often from my three little ones. In their innocence, they believe the lie of childhood which views the world of adults as a veritable theme park wonderland of freedom and fun.

Being an adult means having to answer to no one but themselves. It means making their own rules versus following the ones mommy and daddy set forth. In short, being an adult is ultimate power and control over their lives.

I just smile, sometimes explaining the impossibility of such dreams and other times just playing along, all the while knowing when they cross the great chasm into adulthood, they will be smacked in the face by a much less brilliant reality.

Most adults know something these children can't possibly understand--everyone is always serving someone, always following someone else's set of rules.

And yet, despite the seeming obviousness of this fact, it seems more and more that I see a nation of adults reverting to this dream of ultimate freedom once again. The concept of being one's own boss is ever appealing--no time clock to punch, no boss to report to, no rules to constrain. In America alone, 10 million workers reported self employment to the Census.

The problem with this philosophy is that it is as much a lie as it was when we were children. Even if we work for ourselves, we still aren't free. We become slaves to ourselves...and much worse.

Scripture reminds us of this very fact that we will always be slaves, that we will never be our own boss. There are merely two choices as to who we will serve under.

For those who refuse the headship of Jesus Christ, who have chosen to not make Him the Lord of their lives because they find God's commandments to be too oppressive, there is still no freedom to do as they wish. Instead, these persons are enslaved by their fleshly desires, which control them.

Paul says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts" (Eph. 2:1-3).

The image here is of someone incapable of true freedom because those desires, cravings, and disobedient thoughts are so magnetically powerful that the person has no choice but to follow them, no matter how hard s/he fights against them.

The lost person is not a leader of his own life, not his own boss. That is an illusion. Instead, the above verses show that he is a follower of the world and Satan, "the ruler of the kingdom of the air." In essence, even though the lost person insists on his own freedom to act as he chooses versus submitting to God as a hard taskmaster, this person is actually under the control of Satan whose spirit is "now at work" in those who disobey God. Modern vernacular would say that Satan is that person's boss.

Choice B requires a person to follow the commandments of God as set forth in the Bible. As Jesus says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him" (Jn. 14:21).

For this person who lovingly submits to the Lordship of Jesus, who gives up his will and rights to himself, who makes Jesus his master--this is the person who finds the true irony of life is that the most freedom is found in the greatest submission to authority.

No longer will the person be tossed to and fro by the desires of his flesh. Instead, the person submits to God in order to be freed from the flesh for his ultimate benefit: "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life" (Rom. 6: 22).

Paul summarizes this choice a person must make in regards to his freedom: "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Rom. 6:16-18).

A man can be a slave to sin and his flesh or a slave to righteousness and God. With our every action that we convince ourselves we have "freely" chosen, we serve Satan or we serve God.   There is no "Choice C" in this life. There is no choice of "Self" as our own boss, our own master.

It is the ultimate irony--only by submitting ourselves completely to God will we achieve the freedom we desire.

The Lie of a Simple Benefit Program

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:46:00 +0000

I close my eyes to sleep and still see the faces of those 21 men on their knees, all with black-clad captors standing erect at their backs. The orange of their prison jumpsuits is just so jarring in the monochrome beach setting with its calming ebb and flow of the white foamed surf.

The tide keeps coming in, going out. The sun continues to rise and set as the news story sinks further down the page in Google, as if the world is just business as usual, as if nothing had changed. And yet, for these Egyptian Christians, time has stopped and eternity begun.

When I tell my Wednesday night class the story of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, I pause at the thought of the first Passover when all across the land of Egypt, mothers and fathers lost their firstborn sons to the angel of death passing over their houses. The circumstances today are entirely different, but I can't help but think the land of Egypt is mourning once again, all the same.

I can't. Won't. Watch the video. It is heart crushing enough just to know without sight. Twenty one more martyrs in a civilized world. Civilized.....

The Western world rocks itself to sleep at night in the comforting belief that this is over there, not here. A wall of endless water separates ISIS from America. And yet, in our hearts, we know that is a lie. The falling Twin Towers on 9/11 should have shattered that bedtime story, but still it remains to wrap round us in intentional, sanity-saving ignorance.

In those countries like mine not yet truly touched by life-threatening persecution such as this, we aren't counting the cost of Christianity. Instead, we spend our days selling a Salvation Benefit Program where if you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, all will be right in your life--no money worries, health problems, marriage woes...

It's as if we fear that telling people the truth of the gospel will send them running. And so, we sell salvation as a benefits package, much like fire insurance. The result is a sea of people who claim Christianity because they "signed up" for the program, mentally confessed Jesus as Lord and acknowledged themselves sinners, but never demonstrated a true, saving faith in their lives because their hearts remained unchanged by this false gospel.

Jesus' own disciples feared the gospel He preached was too difficult. They, too, wanted him to dumb it down so more people would become His disciples, not understanding Jesus' message that if a person's life didn't radically change by doing a complete 180, it wasn't possible to be His disciple.

In Luke, Jesus spoke difficult messages, saying, "If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:26-27).

Salvation through Jesus meant giving up everything to follow Him, and so He warned people to "calculate the cost" before choosing to follow Him (v. 28). That cost, for Jesus, was a road of suffering that led to the cross; that cost for each man and woman who chose to follow Him would also be suffering and a daily taking up of his cross.

Jesus continued to teach how much a person must be willing to suffer for His sake: "Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me" (Jn. 6:53-57).

Though strange, Jesus' words emphasized the seriousness of salvation. He was inviting them into a covenant with Him, an eternally binding covenant where the person would pass through Jesus' body, itself, as the sacrifice, would eat the shared meal, and would lay down his individual desires in commitment to his covenant partner. This was no program to sign up for and then discard. This was a life altering commitment.

Jesus' disciples replied, "“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”" (v. 60). In reply, Scripture says, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him" (v. 66).

When told the truth about what it meant to follow Jesus, many did choose to say "no" to His plan of salvation. But those who chose to stay did so having been made aware of the cost, the truth of what it meant to follow Jesus and enter into His salvation.

The days of an easy salvation benefit program where all it takes is a prayer must end. If we wish to truly lead a person to Christ, we cannot do so under the pretense that all will be well on this earthly plane, that it is a simple decision.

As hard as it is to speak or write the words, we must communicate a true gospel of sacrifice where we may likewise be called upon to kneel in the sand and spill our life's blood in devotion to Jesus Christ.

The Dangers of Not Wearing Your Belt

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:10:00 +0000

I move behind the gathering table and wrap my arms around husband's shoulders for a quick evening hug. As I pull away, my fingers catch on his red t-shirt to find a new hole in the sleeve.

"How'd you get that?" I frown. "This is a new shirt."

He shrugs and twists his head downwards to survey the damage, as surprised and clueless as I am.

Long rips, torn holes, and jagged tears in both t-shirts and roomy carpenter jeans are all common occurrences here on the farm. Any piece of clothing that billows even the slightest bit away from the smooth contours of the body is a magnet for every tree limb, briary thorn, or sharp-edged metal farm equipment to catch on, leaving its mark for me to roughly repair with needle and thread.

It's not that husband tries to ruin his shirts. It's just inevitable. And if he's not careful, loose clothing can be deadly on a hay farm with lots of heavy moving equipment and mechanical moving parts, where the few seconds required to disentangle yourself can mean the difference between life and severe injury or even death.

The dangers of loose clothing are what come to my mind when reading through Ephesians 6:10-17 where Paul speaks to Christians about putting on the full armor of God.

Last week, we talked about standing firm in our convictions and not losing ground in the slippery moral slope of our world. One way this passage tells us we can stand firm is by putting on our armor--the ever familiar belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peaceful assurance/confidence, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the Spirit.

The passage I have been settling on reads, "Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth" (v. 14). The NIV states it in more modern language as "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist."

In all honesty, the breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword have always seemed more important parts of the battle uniform than the belt. But, that's because I wasn't considering the original audience and how it would have understood the imagery.

In Paul's day, the majority of people--even men--would have worn long, flowing robes, which would catch on everything they passed, especially on the battlefield. The belt, then, was an extremely important part of the soldier's armor since it cinched in those flowing robes, drawing the fabric in close to the body so the soldier could move more easily in the hurried chaos of the moment. In this scenario, if a loose robe caught on the edge of a chariot, a splintery wooden cart, the corner of another soldier's armor, or even his own horse's gear, those few seconds of distraction could be all the enemy needed to plunge a sword in his side.

With this image in mind, I can more easily understand how vitally important it is to be girded with a belt of truth. If I do not know with certainty the truth of who God is according to what He has taught in Scripture....if I don't know who I am as a child of God saved by grace in Christ--if I am not surrounded by those truths and others found in His Word, then my doctrine and precepts are like loose clothing, which will "catch" on every false whim or doctrine that comes my way.

I will become entangled in lies, half truths, which will hinder my ability to be successful in the battles against Satan in this world. Not being certain of truth is not only dangerous to my witness on this earth and my eternal soul but is also dangerous to the eternal souls of everyone I come in contact with.

Christ, Himself, warned His followers of this same concept, saying, "'See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many...Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many'" (Matt. 24:4-5,11).

This is why it is so very important to pick up our Bibles daily, to commit ourselves to studying and memorizing Scripture. This is why it is necessary to question and examine everything against the plumb line of God's Word, even if it's something said by a Christian we deeply respect as an extremely knowledgeable man/woman of God.

As Paul said, "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good" (1 Thes. 5:21).

Recommit yourself to faithfully study the truths of Scripture this week. Put on that belt with me so we can stand firm together.

How to Stop Losing Ground

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 05:11:00 +0000

"You can be so right, you're wrong." That is the saying my mother passed along to me from her mother, right alongside her other favorite aphorism, "There's a wrong way to do the right thing."

I can't remember a time before I knew that the ends didn't justify the means. Perhaps that's why I find it so difficult to watch the pro-life advocates angrily protesting in the parking lot of the downtown abortion clinic or why I've always ducked my blazing cheeks in shame to avoid the man yelling hell and damnation on the street corner.

In those moments when I've seen other Christians using the moral truth as a weapon, I have almost been ashamed to call myself Christian, knowing that once I slap on that label, the image that will immediately spring to a person's mind won't necessarily be a loving, devoted follower of Jesus Christ but, rather, a divisive person bent on judging those around her.

And yet, I still wear my scarlet "C," knowing within my soul that Scripture gives a clear sense of moral right and wrong, first presented in The Ten Commandments and then later clarified by Jesus, Himself, in Matthew 5-7, "The Sermon on the Mount." What's more, the Old and New Testaments both provide list after list of what actions our God considers "righteous" and "unrighteous."

Because of my study of the Word, much of what the world wishes to paint fifty shades of grey is imprinted on my mind in clear black and white. The truth is God's Word is there for any who will read and study it.

And yet, what am I to do with this truth?

Do I lead an attack on my fellow man, my two-edged Biblical sword waving in front of me? Do I use the truth to keep pushing until those around me bend or break, acknowledging their error?

With my three children watching my every move, this is the struggle I face. How am I to be a Christian in this world? in my family? How am I to be a witness for the truth without alienating those I wish to reach? without destroying my opportunity for a witness?

In the book of Ephesians, Paul speaks to Christians, telling them the "how" of Spiritual warfare. He explains, in particular, how Christians can win the war by wearing the "full armor of God":

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:10-17).

A few years ago on this blog, we examined this armor of God and learned "how" to use both our numerous defensive weapons and single offensive weapon in the battle with the enemy. And yet, as I read the passage again this week, I couldn't help but notice the emphasis on the "what" we should be doing, too.....standing. Four times in this passage, Paul tells Christians just to stand.

We Christians are called to put on the armor of truth, righteousness, confidence in our stand, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. But then, we're not told to advance courageously into battle. We're not told to start charging at our enemy.

Instead, we're simply told to hold the line, to stand and not lose ground.

This is where I believe we, as Christians, have been slowly going wrong for several generations. Instead of standing and letting our God fight the battle, we have, instead, chosen to advance forward and attack various sins in this world...and in that advance, we have ultimately lost ground, the one thing we were told not to do.

More and more, I am convinced the secret of fighting the battle for moral uprightness in our world is as simple as standing firm. It is as simple as the Shema, often the first verse of Scripture a young Jewish child would learn:

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deut. 6:4-9).

How do Christians stand firm? How do we not lose ground? How do we fight against sin?

It starts in our home. It starts with our own lives. It starts with our children.

Instead of advancing on the world with our words of truth, we must demonstrate that truth in our own lives. We must live morally upright lives, ourselves, ones singularly devoted to God, and ones where we pass our morals and love of God along to our children.

When we wake up and when we go to sleep...when we enter into our house...when we sit around the table...when we're driving down the highway---the Word of the Lord must be on our lips, in our actions, and in our hearts. No matter how morally depraved the world is at this moment, our focus must be to live out the moral truth in our actions and to communicate the moral truth to our children by word and deed.

If we live in righteousness and communicate that righteousness effectively to our children, then they will do the same with their children and their children's children. And yet, this is where Christians have failed. Slowly, more and more Christians in each generation have not demonstrated righteousness in their own lives, have not made it a priority to communicate those moral standards to their children...and so, those children did not make it a priority to both follow or communicate those standards to their children, and so on down through the ages.

When we Christians grow lax in our living according to the truth of God's Word....when we Christians become lazy in teaching that truth to our children--that's when the morality of the world around us crumbles.

As Scripture says, "You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you....It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us" (Deut. 6:17, 25).

May it be righteousness for us...and for our children.

Clinging to Our Circumstances

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 05:14:00 +0000

Some days, it seems like I'm trapped in an inescapable cycle that will only end when this life passes away. For a time, things seem better. Then, there is a settling of accounts, and I find myself walking in the same fossilized footprints from twelve months ago. Nothing had really changed.

"I just don't know what to do," I say, head lowered in defeat.

"There is nothing to do," my husband responds. "God has taken care of us so far. There's nothing to 'do' but trust He will continue this next year."

These are the times when I must choose to not let my emotions overrule what I know. I can choose to feel trapped by my circumstances. They can enslave me to living in fear or in defeat if I allow them to. Or I can choose a different path.

When I look back into Scripture, I see the children of Israel trapped as slaves in Egypt. Literally. There was no way out, or at least there seemed to be no escape from their oppression. Ultimately, they did the only thing they could do: cry out to God:

"Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them" (Ex. 2:23-25).

This passage records two simple steps: (1) They cried out. (2) God heard them. The second step did not come about without the Israelites reaching the end of their own striving. Only when they came to the end of themselves did they cry out to God, asking Him to provide a way out.

And God did hear and answer, sending Moses who spoke a message of deliverance to the Israelites: "I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments...I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession" (Ex. 6:6,8).

God would answer the Israelites' cries for help by redeeming them from their circumstances, but He wanted them to know He would do so because of the covenant He had established with their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God was communicating to this broken people that their redemption was sure because He had made a promise, which He would now fulfill because He is a covenant-keeping God.

The sad thing is the children of Israel did not believe the words. Their bondage was so all-consuming that they were enslaved to it even once God had offered them a way out. Even with the promise of God's help--which they had asked for and were receiving--the children of Israel still clung to their bondage, to their circumstances, instead of to the covenant and God's promise.

Scripture says, "So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage" (Ex. 6:9).

This begs the question of us--if we have called out to God in the midst of our circumstances, what are we clinging to? God has promised He will never leave nor forsake us. He has promised all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. He has promised eternal life for those who live by faith in Him. Yet, are we continuing to cling to our circumstances? To our bondage? Or are we clinging to God's promises of redemption?

It's all too easy to cling to what we feel, to cling to what our circumstances are even if those are the very things we are begging God to help us escape from. We cling with clenched hands because it's often hard to see beyond the here and now and simply let. go.

Still, like Moses, God has spoken words of victory over us. He has called us to walk by faith in that victory, believing the promises He has given us in His Word and believing in Him as a God who never breaks His covenant promises. Those are our two choices.

Image: Roots clinging to life in Nova Scotia.

How Short Is Long Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:23:00 +0000

I grew up as a child of the 80s watching gymnast Mary Lou Retton in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. With her short-cropped brown hair and winning smile, she was a whirlwind of positive energy. We watched on the edge of our seats as she flipped on the rings, gripped the bar with white chalked hands, and vaulted across the floor mat. For many of my generation, Mary Lou became a symbol of power and purpose combined into one small, all-American girl.

Unlike many modern-day sports stars, hers was short-lived. She was in the limelight one moment and then virtually gone the next when she retired from competitive gymnastics just a short two years later.

Back then, I knew her gold-medal performance was the result of hard work and a life of dedication, but I couldn't grasp just how dedicated she was to her craft until I grew into adult with my own pursuits that required such diligence and persistence for success.

When looking at the life of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, it seems that his entire life was also spent year after year in preparation for his ministry.

Scripture tells us that John the Baptist was at least six months older than Jesus. As the angel told Mary, "your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month" (Lk. 1:36).

Great things were expected of John. The angel told his father, Zechariah, that his son would "'be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'" (Lk. 1:15-18).

It wasn't just his family, though, who had high expectations for John. After Zechariah prophesied after his son's naming, "All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, 'What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him'" (Lk. 1:66).

As the son of a priest, as a child identified by God as the forerunner of Messiah, as a babe indwelt with the Holy Spirit from the womb--John's life would have been focused from birth to fulfill this calling. Everyone would have been expecting great things. Talk about pressure...

Some scholars believe the verse that reads "And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel" (Lk. 1:80) implies that John would have even left home as a young child to become part of the Nazarite community in the desert, training daily for priesthood and devoting himself completely to the task at hand.

This was discipline beyond what we can even imagine with the strictest boarding school. It was all consuming. Then, in Luke 3, John's ministry finally begins. Luke pinpoints its start in the midst of much darkness: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene" (v. 1).

His entire life had been preparing for this moment, and when it finally came, he made the most of it. As we discussed here earlier this month, people of all social classes flocked to him in the desert.

But then the Messiah came. John baptized Jesus. And just as quickly as his ministry began, it was over. John's own disciples even began to understand this and followed Jesus, instead: "Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus" (Jn. 1:35-37).

At the next mention of John, Jesus hears "that John had been taken into custody" (Matt. 4:12). Then, just as quickly, John's head is served up on a platter for Herodias in such a silly, meaningless end to such a well-devoted, serious live.

Like old kindling that ignites the hearth into bright flame long enough to light the logs around it before burning quickly to ash--this was John. A lifetime of preparation for 1-3 years of service in which he lit the hearts of those around him into flame for serving Jesus.

I don't know about you, but sometimes, I wonder why I'm here. What is my purpose. What ministry am I supposed to do. Is there, like John, a single mission I'm working towards?

I can't answer that question--not for myself and certainly not for you. But what I can learn from John is that (1) dedication to the task God gives me and (2) submission to Jesus' agenda over my own must be the game plan.

Maybe God will show us our mission early in life as He did with John. Or maybe we won't know our mission until it is upon us. Either way, I believe God expects us to prepare, prepare, prepare.

Let us seek to discipline ourselves in the spiritual disciplines with the fervor we would exhibit if we knew that tomorrow were the day we've been waiting upon...for who is to say it is not and we simply haven't been given that insight yet from on high.

Twice in a Lifetime

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 05:05:00 +0000

God speaks. Through his Word, prayer, visions, dreams, or the divine arranging of life’s circumstances—Christians believe God speaks to them as part of their personal relationship with the Father and Son.

And were you to ask any of us, even when we have the Word of God before us in our hands...deep down, we still have difficulty with those dry spells when God is silent. The publishing world is filled with billions of words exploring those deserts.

As God’s children, we’re taught to live out Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And so we bring everything before the Father’s throne—every petition, every request, every decision we need to make.

Then, we’re many times disappointed because the kind of God we want is one who readily responds with “yes,” or “no” answers, one who gives 24-hour call-backs, one who speaks in clear 20th-century-ese instead of cryptic ancient Hebrew or Greek. In essence, we want a man-made God who thinks like us, not an Alpha and Omega God who strives to transform us to think like Him.

The interesting thing is that in my own life and in the lives of others, I’ve seen that even when God does reveal Himself to us on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis, it’s not enough. We want the communication to be easier, faster, more plentiful. So, we read books and attend seminars to learn how to hear God speak. We look at others who are receiving fresh revelations from God and wonder what they have that we don’t.

And yet, I think we’re getting it all wrong.

The more I look at individuals throughout Scripture, I see stories of men and women who had a healthy relationship with God—but I don’t see where God spoke to them every single day in a “Here’s your simple answer” kind of way.

Yes, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2). God speaks as God each day. But, the intimate speech of relationship isn’t nearly as prolific.

Those times when God doesn’t speak, those “dry spells.” Isn’t that the foundation of faith? Believing in something I cannot hear, see, or feel? I believe so.

Consider one verse, one of those I normally gloss over, even if I’m familiar with the names: “The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel” (Hos. 1:1).

I know historians argue over exact dates, but approximates are good enough for me. One chart gives these dates for the four kings listed above:

Uzziah, King of Judah 790-739 BC
(Jeroboam II, King of Israel) (793-753 BC)
Jotham, King of Judah 750-731 BC
Ahaz, King of Judah 735-715 BC

The Lord’s first words to Hosea were “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife,” implying that he was of marrying age. Add that number to possibly 75 years living in the midst of the four named kings, and you have a lifetime.

Do you see what that means?

God spoke to Hosea all his life, making his entire life an allegory, a message to Israel.

But even though God spoke to Hosea for that many years, His words seem to have been few. Hosea wasn’t a prolific writer. His God-given Word to the people only covers nine pages in my Bible. And critics disagree as to whether those nine pages are composed of two or four messages from God.

Think of it: a prophet of God, one holy enough to make the pages of Scripture--he may have only received two messages from God over the course of an entire lifetime.

God will continue to speak to His children throughout their lives if they will stay devoted and listening. That is comforting. But, God may not speak a novel to each person.

Some of us will simply be required to live by faith for much longer stretches between messages.

Pub. 08.01.10

Tripping Over Ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 05:51:00 +0000

With my children off from school for another week of holidays, my home has turned into an obstacle course of toys, board games, crayons, and books taken out and just as quickly forgotten in favor of the next "fun" thing my trio has dreamed of doing. Added to this chaos is my own packing away of all things Christmas while simultaneously replacing the tinsel and lights with Valentine hearts to hearken in the next season.

I stumble through this labyrinth with as much patience as a mother can muster, knowing that the only other option is beyond the front door where over seven sopping inches of rain has made the outdoors too swampy for much playtime.

My job is simple--to move aside the stumbling blocks, to make the path sufficiently clear so that no one (like me or their daddy) falls and breaks his neck.

As we start a new year, this concept is ever before me as I examine my own life, seek to minister to others, and work to disciple my own children.

What can I do for myself, my family, my friends, and even total strangers to make the path clear for Jesus in each individual life?

John the Baptist had this same task. Matthew tells how John was "the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!''"( Matt. 3:3).

His job was simple--to clear the stumbling blocks out of people's lives so their hearts were tender and ready for the message of salvation as only found through Jesus, the Messiah. And yet, despite its simplicity, the message hit home with others in such a way that John didn't need to seek an audience with which to share the gospel. Instead, the audience came to him in droves: "Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins" (Matt. 3:5-6, italics).

Though his was a simple gospel of repentance, John's approach was unique for each person, the Holy Spirit that resided within giving him the words to reach each heart with an individual message, not some prepackaged witnessing plan.

As John the Baptist preached his message of repentance, Scripture records "the crowds asked him, 'What then shall we do?' And he answered them, 'Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.' Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, 'Teacher, what shall we do?' And he said to them, 'Collect no more than you are authorized to do.' Soldiers also asked him, 'And we, what shall we do?' And he said to them, 'Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.'" (Luke 3:10-14).

The crowds, the tax collectors, the soldiers--they all needed to remove the stumbling block of sin from their lives, but John was sensitive to each heart, understanding that while the message of repentance was a one-size-fits-all message, the words to communicate that message were different.

One good example of this using differing approaches came when John saw the religious leaders coming out to meet him. He pulled no punches, calling them a "brood of vipers" and warning of the hell fires to come if they ignored his message, a tactic that was apparently appropriate for this situation but would have been too over the top for other witnessing opportunities:

^"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3:7-10).

John tailored his gospel message of repentance in a way best suited to help remove the particular stumbling block from that person's life, all while never changing or compromising the message, itself.

Such an example should teach us that no matter how we want an easy plan, there is no cookie cutter way to share the same gospel with each person we come in contact with. Sometimes it will take an in-your-face approach to bring about saving repentance. And other times, the message of salvation may be communicated by the simple sharing of a meal with another.

Each sharing will require us to rely on the Holy Spirit for the right words to say, equipping us for the task just as was John. In 2015, let us take courage in that fact and seek to clear the way for Jesus, working to remove the stumbling blocks of unrepentance so He can come into the hearts of those we around us.

What Carries You Away?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 05:29:00 +0000

Last Christmas week was marked by faded skies and torrential rains, all culminating in a good amount of flooding throughout the state. Our farm’s fishing hole has swelled well beyond its banks to birth an endless river racing across the asphalt where a parish road should otherwise be.

As you might imagine, it wasn’t long before that young stream began to carry away the blanket of autumn that had covered our lawn and the edges of our hay fields for the past few months. Fossilized leaves, small branches, and even plastic toys moved in unison towards the lowest point. No matter that they would eventually bottom out in an enormous pile elsewhere, the current was too strong to remain still.

As 2014 ends, I can’t help but think of how short the year has seemed, how carried away I have been through the days and months on the calendar.

We would all do well to realize this life is about being carried away. If we are not carried away by one thing, we will be carried away by another.

The prophet Isaiah gives opposing images of being taken away by one of two things.

To begin with, he describes the person who is carried away by sin, saying:

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities” (Is. 64: 6-7).

Our sins “take us away” like the leaf in the wind, our divinely-granted “free will” actually leaving us at the mercy of our sinful act in that freedom. With each sin, we become imprisoned to the path our lives take, no matter what we would have otherwise chosen for ourselves.

That’s the thing about sin—we attempt to categorize them, to rationalize them, to minimize them when justifying our choices. But no sin is pure. No sin will leave us firmly planted where we want to be. Instead, before we even realize it, that sin will wither our tender hearts until we are but a husk of one who was once sensitive to the voice of God and farther downstream than we ever thought possible.

There is another choice, though.

Isaiah speaks of one who, instead, chooses to love obedience to the Lord, who chooses to love the people of Israel and her God, Yahweh:

“Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may such and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.’ For thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream’” (Is. 66:10-12).

Just as surely as our sin will carry us away, so, too, will our obedience to the Lord, only this time, the result is positive, although just as equally out of our control.

When we choose obedience to the Word of God over sin, we are taken away by the Lord’s peace. We don’t wake up and choose a path of peace. It chooses us when we choose to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.

In this life, we will be carried away by something. Free will is not free. And what happens next is beyond our control but is also dependent upon what we do now.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the withered leaf of Isaiah 64. I want to be the well-nursed child of Isaiah 66. What I become, though, depends of what I allow myself to be carried away by—my sin…or my love and obedience of the Lord.

Remember the Lamb

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:22:00 +0000

I pass our family nativity, each time pausing just a moment to glance at the herd of sheep. One, two, three, four, five...plus the two held by the shepherds. Seven sheep.

Each year, our family adds one piece to the nativity. This year's addition was the woman at the well. Today, she pours water for Mary's donkey. This coming spring, she will stand by a well, waiting for Christ to change her life by offering her a living water so she will never thirst again.

A few years ago, though, was the year for adding sheep. Five of them came in one box, so they technically counted as "one" piece. At that time, the lambs outnumbered the few shepherds circled around Mary and Joseph.

Each year I set them out, I have thought, "that's quite a lot of lambs," but five days ago, I realized how wrong I was.

It's not too many lambs....it's not enough.

This week, I've been dwelling on the babe in the manger, on His role as the Lamb of God.

In preparation for Passover, Old Testament tradition required that on the tenth day of the Hebrew month Nisan, the people were to choose a sheep or goat "year-old mal[e] without defect" for sacrifice so that God would literally "pass over" their sin (Ex. 12:5). Then, each family was to take that sheep in the house and care for it "until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight" (Ex. 12:6).

One lamb for the sin of each family. MacArthur says this would have meant the sacrifice of at least a hundred thousand Passover Lambs*

A hundred thousand lambs. But not just once. A hundred thousand lambs each and every Passover year.

Yet still, it wasn't enough to save the world from sin, to reconcile mankind with God the Father.

But then came one in a lowly manger, a perfect, spotless lamb.

And one Passover, He hung in agony on the cross, until 3 p.m. when the shofar blew, announcing the time when a lamb would be sacrificed for the whole nation of Israel.**

At that exact moment, He intentionally gave up His life as a sacrifice, saying, "'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last" (Lk. 23:46).

Five lambs. A hundred thousand lambs. A million lambs.

Ironically, they weren't enough. But one was and is enough.

As Peter reminds us, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

When you see that babe in a manger, picture in its place a spotless lamb being born for the sole purpose of dying as a sacrifice. Look at his chubby baby hands, and imagine them pierced and hanging on an old rugged cross. Look at his feet that both fit into one of your hands, and see them walking willingly to his slaughter. Hear the tiny cry of a helpless infant and remember his words, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk. 23:34).

In the hustle and bustle of Christmas, take time to remember the Lamb.

* MacArthur. The Murder of Jesus: A Study of How Jesus Died, p. 47.
**Ray Vander Laan. The True Easter Story: The Promise Kept (video, 2000).

Pub. 12.19.10