Living in a Know God World

Claiming the Mark of Cain

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Claiming the Mark of Cain

by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times. Genesis 4:24

We left Cain having grandsons for 5 generations in 2 verses and the fifth generation was Lamech. Now there was a whole lot of other begetting going on through those years because all 5 generations had wives and quite likely many other sons and daughters than just the five mentioned, enough so that Lamech had two wives and three sons and one daughter. He probably had more but these were mentioned.

Lamech’s son Jabal was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.
Lamech’s son Jubal was the father of all who play the harp and flute.
Lamech’s son Tubal-Cain forged tools out of bronze and iron.
Lamech’s daughter Naamah sister of Tubal-Cain

I’m thinking that Jabal and Jubal were fathers in the same sense that Hippocrates was the father of medicine. They may have had children but they were also fathers by teaching their crafts to others not necessarily their own children.

Lamech missed the point
Lamech killed a man. He killed a man in vengeance. He did not accidentally kill a man in a fight. He killed a man because that man wounded him. That was vengeance, which God had already claimed for himself with the mark of Cain. Lamech believed that the mark of Cain was in itself the right to avenge, and he claimed it for himself.

Vengeance is Destructive

The Mark of Cain was a clear warning that the right of vengeance belongs to God alone. But we have claimed that mark for ourselves down through the ages. I think of Belfast. One side bombs the other killing, not combatants, but innocent women and children. So the other side claims the mark of Cain and bombs the first side killing, not combatants, but innocent women and children. And the terror raged across Ireland for generations. It always seemed to be the innocent who paid the price for all of these blood thirsty revenge strategies.

Wars always produce collateral damage. God never does.

Seventy-Seven Times

“If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Genesis 4:24 Lamech claimed the right of vengeance for himself and his sons. This is one of those things that echo through the ages from to Old Testament to the New Testament.

Peter asked Jesus how many times should I forgive my brothers when he sins against me? And he offered a number, seven, like the seven times carried in the Mark of Cain.

But Jesus answered Seventy-seven, clearly reclaiming the Mark of Cain for God alone. (Matthew 18:21-22)

Delusions of Grandeur
With Adam the righteous desire to be like God was twisted and within seven short generations became the desire to BE godlike, choosing who lives, and who dies, exacting vengeance where we will.

With Jesus the righteous desire to be like God has a clear and straight path – forgiveness.

I want to grow up and be just like my Father. But I will never BE my Father, I will only ever have the authority that He gives me. I will never have the authority that He reserves for Himself. That's okay, I'm not as smart as my Father and trying to exercise His full authority would only get me into a whole world of hurt.

In fact that is where this world of hurt comes from.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
It is a choice: like God or godlike
and I prefer God with the big G

Wendy

The Mark of Cain

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:30:00 +0000

The Mark of Cain

by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” Genesis 4:9

The Bible isn’t laid out on a neat little calendar. It doesn’t even mention the years between stories. Genesis 4:1 covers the conception and birth of Cain. And in verse 2 we learn that ‘later’ Eve gave birth to Abel. How much later? The Bible doesn’t say. Were there other children in between Cain and Abel? It’s possible. Later could mean two years or ten. I mean Abel goes from birth to keeping flocks in the same verse. That had to be years. And those years were jumped in a single verse.

The whole story isn't there - just the important bits.

Curses and Consequences
Cain murdered his brother. Because he did not confess when asked by an all knowing God where his brother was he was cursed. There are always consequences for sin. It causes problems and heartache and death. And those problems and heartaches and death are not only what we suffer but what others suffer because of us. Yet we are always given the opportunity to confess. Adam and Eve were given the opportunity, so was Cain.

Where is your brother Abel?
Adam and Eve, when given the opportunity to confess, played the blame game.
Cain tried straight up denial, “I don’t know”

Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden.

Cain was driven from the ground.

Scratching a living from the soil became laborious for Adam and Eve.

It became impossible for Cain.

How would our lives be different is Adam and Eve had confessed?

How would Cain’s life have been different if he had confessed?
How are our lives different when we confess?

The Mark of Cain
Cain’s punishment was spiritual death. He was driven from the presence of the Lord. Separated from God. Up to this point he has talked with God which means that God was close enough to talk to.

When he talked to God his thoughts were still all about himself - Not Abel and certainly not God.

"My punishment is more than I can bear." Genesis 4:16

God not only gives us the opportunity to confess, He is also gracious to help us bear the consequences.

God doesn’t want anyone to die. So he gave Cain a special mark, a mark which clearly settled vengeance on the shoulders of God. It wasn’t anyone’s place to exact vengeance back then and it isn’t anyone’s place to exact vengeance now.

Where Did Cain’s Wife come from?

“…whoever finds me will kill me.” Genesis 4:14. Who is this ‘whoever’ that Cain speaks of? So far the only people that the Bible has mentioned are Adam, Eve, Cain himself and Abel, who is dead.

So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Genesis 4:16 And in verse 17 he’s got a wife. Where did she come from? Was she banished with him? Did she follow him? The Bible does not say, she is just suddenly there and giving birth.

Verses 17-19 skip along a good few years without a whole lot of detail. Cain had a son who had a son. Five generations are mentioned in two verses, father to son, but where did the mothers come from? They are not mentioned at all but the had to be there.

Cain and his sons were possibly all living in the town of Enoch that Cain built, but not necessarily. Cain's sons may have moved back to Adam’s place or maybe they started their own settlements.

Focus on the importance of Being
The Bible leaves out a whopping lot, because it focuses on the important bits of being: Creation, Temptation, Confession, Repentance, Curses, and Consequences.

We need to catch those important bits because we are going to need them later on in the story. And more important we are going to need them to properly navigate the life we live today.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19), and he said it right there in the beginning and he hasn’t changed his mind.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
You have to pay attention to catch it all
Wendy

The Crouching Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Picture courtesy of

Sweet Publishing / FreeBibleimages.org

The Crouching Tiger
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. Genesis 4:7

The first few chapters of Genesis are packed with meaning for anyone wanting to know God.

In the story of creation God makes His great love for and care of His creation abundantly clear.

In the story of the fall of man we can see a clear description of how temptation operates and a clear description of our own natural inclinations when we give in to sin.
Which brings us to The Story of Cain and Abel another clear description of how we are naturally inclined to react this time when we are confronted with our own indifference.

What was wrong with Cain’s gift?

Cain was a farmer. Abel was a herdsman. They each brought gifts from what they grew. Cain brought fruit and Abel brought meat. Cain’s gift was rejected and Abel’s was accepted. Why? It wasn’t because of the kind of offering that each brought. God wasn’t looking for meat over vegetables. It was because of the heart of the giver that God accepted and rejected.

Some fruit
Cain brought something to the meeting. He didn’t want to come, he didn’t want to bring anything but he choose something from the crop, keeping the choicest parts for himself.

Abel came to the meeting because he wanted to honor God. He wanted to come, he wanted to thank God for the blessings he had enjoyed so he choose the choicest meats from his provisions.

Meeting God
This was not a mandatory meeting. God had not decreed the sacrificial offerings. God hadn’t even demanded a thank you for his provision. But Abel was grateful and wanted to clearly acknowledge the one from whom all blessings flow. Cain could barely be bothered.

They brought these offerings to the Lord and the Lord’s reaction to each was immediately known. God spoke to Cain and Cain knew the sound of His voice. God was not in some far off distant place, He was close enough to reach – and talk to.

Cain KNEW who he was bring his fruits to, he knew God, but he wasn’t particularly grateful.

The Bible doesn’t say why
The Bible doesn’t give us a psychological background for Cain or Abel. We don’t know why one was grateful and one was not. But I can imagine the scene.

I can just imagine Cain sweating in the hot sun, digging trenches, planting seeds, lugging water, weeding, and weeding and weeding. Finally a crop! Of course now he has to pick it.

Meanwhile there was Abel, sitting in the shade of the trees, playing his flute while his flock grazed on the grass around him.

Cain never saw the blessing in his crop and he never saw the effort in Abel’s flock.

Cain never saw the wolf attacks or the searching for the lost lamb. He never saw the back breaking shearing sessions or the bloody slaughter and butcher of the meat.

Cain was jealous of Abel’s ‘easy’ life. He was not grateful.

Cain’s reasons do not matter.
It sounds harsh but if Cain’s reasons mattered they would be in the story. What matters to the story is Cain’s actions and reactions. We are living under the curse of Adam. Life is hard. Life is also a gift that comes with a multitude of blessings. We can bemoan the curse or we can be grateful for the blessings. We are going to live this life either way.

Why are you angry?
And God is gracious. When we start moaning about the life we live He will ask us why? He gives us every opportunity to stand up and look around, and be grateful.

And God is loving. When we start moaning about the life we live He will warn us of the danger waiting to consume us. Sin is crouching.

Cain was given this opportunity and this warning. He chose to ignore both. But we can learn from his mistake. We can recognize our own angry reaction to getting caught, and hear the voice of God: “Why are you angry?” Even if we have chosen poorly, we can hear the voice of God: “If you do what is right will you not be accepted?” And we can choose again.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Sometimes it requires a U-turn
Wendy

The Devil Made Me Do It! And It's All Your Fault!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 01:30:00 +0000

The Devil Made Me Do It! And it’s all Your fault!
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Genesis 3:12

My last post dealt with the temptation and fall of man. Now let's look at what happened next.

The Devil is sneaky

I have been sorely tempted even as I was writing this blog. My computer caught a cold, a nasty virus that delayed my posting Monday’s blog and this one. It is all better now but for four days I was in the land of frustration.

I was frustrated by the necessity of hurriedly backing up files, and relearning the roads through an old operating system on an old computer. And the whole way through I kept hearing that verse that I mentioned in a recent blog: “Fear not, I’m right here with you.”

And miraculously my anxiety level was minimal, the whole way though the process. I got Monday’s blog uploaded! Yeah! I got my computer to the computer doctor and got it back not only healed but all shiny clean. Double Yeah!

I even congratulated myself on trusting God through out the whole process. And then…

I played one of my games, and lost, and slammed my pretty and healthy computer shut.

The Devil is sneaky. If he can’t get you in the big things then he starts poking at you with the little stuff. I got mad over a completely meaningless happenstance. Which brings us to the subject of this blog.

Calling poison control
How should we react when we give in to temptation and eat the poison fruit? We should call poison control immediately. The minute that lid slammed shut I knew what I had done. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive me for undoing all the work that He had done over the last few days.

That kind of reaction takes time to develop. It isn’t natural it is practiced. I’m not saying this to brag, in fact it was God through the whole thing that illustrates the point of Genesis 3:8-13

Our natural inclination
The first thing that Adam and Eve did when they heard God coming was to hide. God is all knowing and all-seeing; there is no hiding from God. So why did God call to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) Because from the very beginning God wanted to redeem His creation. I firmly believe that if Adam had confessed right then and there God would have forgiven him. There would still be consequences, he was already suffering from shame, but they may not have been nearly so severe.

Blame the victim much?
Adam was right there the whole time. He could have corrected the serpent with the very words of God, and didn’t.

He could have stopped Eve from eating the fruit, and didn’t.

He could have stopped himself from eating the fruit, and didn’t.

Adam wasn’t tempted by Eve. He was tempted by the lies of the serpent. He justified himself in the very act of disobedience by not picking the fruit himself, he let Eve do it, he watched Eve do it, he knew exactly what Eve was doing, he knew where the fruit came from and he ate it anyway.

The Blame Game
But Adam’s confession was an afterthought tacked on the end of a statement of blame and Adam was not on that list.

“The woman YOU put here with me…” Genesis 3:12. Adam not only blamed Eve he blamed God for ‘putting’ her there to tempt him. Eve was not a temptress; she was a help-meet and a blessing. She did not shove that fruit down Adam’s throat. And far from protecting Eve, he threw her under the bus when God arrived.

Eve, for her part, blamed the devil. God gave Eve the same chance He had given Adam. “What have you done?” Genesis 3:13 But she tacked her confession onto a statement of blame as well. “The serpent deceived me…”

So you see the Devil made them do it and it’s all God’s fault.

In the aftermathWhat we do after the fall is just as important as what we do when faced with temptation. We can fight temptation and we will fail. For all have sinned and fall short…(Romans 3:23) It is our natural inclination to sin. (Romans 7:18) It is our natural inclination to hide and to blame and this inclination must be fought with as much vigor as that with which we fight temptation itself.

God will always ask us “What have you done?” Not because He doesn’t know, but because He is offering the opportunity to confess and have our sins wiped away. Our sins, not their consequences, eat the poison and the poison will cause harm, pain, suffering, or death.

But there are at least three kinds of death.
1) Death of the body, which we will all suffer.
2) Death of the spirit, which we will all suffer, but from which we may be redeemed by the grace of God.
3) Death Eternal, which only those unredeemed will suffer after judgement.

Adam brought all three forms of death into the world and Jesus broke the power of all three on the cross. (Romans 5:19)

So do not hide, it doesn’t help and isn’t possible.

Do not blame others, they may have introduced you to the temptation but YOU gave in to it.

And do not blame God, He warned you, you are the one who didn’t listen.

And blaming the Devil for temptation is like blaming the fire for being hot. You know the fire is hot, it may be pretty but you know better than to stick you hand into it. The fire did not reach out and burn you. YOU stuck your hand in the fire and got burned.

When God offers you the opportunity to confess – CONFESS. Honesty is scary until it happens, and then we realize that what we imagined is not reality. We imagine being blamed by God for our failure. Reality is that God is gracious to forgive, He wants to forgive, He is willing to forgive, He has already forgiven if we would only accept it.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But confession is good for the soul
Wendy

Temptation in a Nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Temptation in a Nutshell
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good from evil." Genesis 3:5

Have you ever ordered something that looked really great in the catalog but when it arrives it is a lot smaller than the catalog made it look, it is cheaply made and it breaks the first time you try it out?

That is what the promises of the devil are like. Man ate the forbidden fruit, his eyes were opened, like God he now knew good from evil, BUT he was not like God. And now he was less than the man he was before.

In the Garden of Eden there were two trees, one was the tree of life and one was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9) But only one was forbidden. (Genesis 2:17) God put Adam in the garden and warned him not to eat from that one tree then He made Eve. (Genesis 2:22)

Now skip ahead, and I mean skip because we go from Genesis 2:25 with the man and his wife and go straight into the account of the fall of man. Not one word about how they got along in the garden, when they slept, where they lived, what their meals were like, what they talked about. We just learn that they were naked and unashamed. And then the serpent shows up Chapter 3 verse 1.

Second-hand Knowledge

The first thing that occurred to me is that God never told the woman not to eat the apple, she knew but her knowledge was imperfect. (Genesis 3:3) I can just imagine that conversation. There they are walking through the garden picking berries and eating. Then Eve reaches out to pluck an apple and Adam snatches her hand back. “Don’t,” he says, “God has forbidden us to eat of the fruit of that tree. Don’t even touch it!”

That was the cue for the crafty devil. He didn’t go to the man who got his information straight from God. He went to the woman who knew God and knew the law but her knowledge was imperfect. That is why it is important to read the word of God and talk to God rather than assuming what someone tells you about the will of God is completely accurate.

Life and Death

The second thing that occurred to me was the fact that Satan tempted them with death rather than life. The fruit of the Tree of Life was not forbidden. Only the Tree of Death was forbidden. There follows a description of temptation in a nutshell.

Temptation in a Nutshell

1) Doubt: Did God really say? Followed by an outrageous and untrue statement: ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden.’ (Genesis 3:1)

2) Distortion: Using imperfect knowledge to counter the outrageous lie. Eve didn’t ask God to clarify, she didn’t even ask Adam and he was standing right there. It is only the word of God that effectively counters temptation. Which left Eve open to Satan’s second move. (Genesis 3:2)

3) Rejection: “You will not surely die,” Absolute rejection of God’s word followed by a suggestion that God lied. (Genesis 3:4)

4) The promise of a good outcome: “you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5)

5) The consequence: The consequence of eating poison is never good. (Genesis 3:7) God knows that which is why He forbids us to ingest poison.
He does not lie and His laws are not designed to wreck our fun, they are designed to keep us healthy.

Satan is a tempter not a temptress

And the last thing I noticed was that Eve did not tempt Adam. He was there during the entire conversation. He knew the law, he got it straight from God and yet he stood passive while the serpent talked. Eve handed him the apple, but he ate it.

What excuse can we offer?

Which begs the question, if we know the law, and we do, and if we got it straight from God, and we did, then what excuse can we offer when we stand passively by while Satan talks?

And if we know the law, and we do, and if we got it straight from God, and we did, then what excuse can we possibly offer when we start munching on apples?

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But we better pay attention
Wendy

In the Beginning God!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:00:00 +0000

In the Beginning – GOD!
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

In the Beginning God... Genesis 1:1

My Memory Verse Book begins with this beginning of the first verse of the first book of the Bible. I love these four words. They are the reason for all that follows. Before the beginning of anything THERE was God.

I began my new Bible reading schedule with the idea that the Bible was written for me personally and that I would concentrate on this personal message. I took the books of the Bible in Biblical order and assigned a chapter of Isaiah and one or more Psalms to each book.

I began with the Gospel of Mark, which is a good overview of the Gospel.

Mark – 16 chapters
Isaiah chapter 41
Psalms chapters 96-99

Now I am moving on to Genesis – a good overview of where everything started.

Genesis – 50 chapters
Isaiah chapter 1
Psalms chapters 1-3

In the Beginning God
Everything starts with God. Now I am a Trekie and I cannot read the first verse of the Bible without hearing Carol Marcus saying “Can I cook or can I cook.” She was talking about the creation of a planet full of life from a lifeless chunk of rock. It only took her science hours to do this, which makes me laugh at the science that scoffs at the 6 days of creation.

Turns out that her world is unstable and unsustainable, but you don’t find that out until the next movie.

So, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Now I ask you, can God cook or can God cook? In just 6 days God created a stable, sustainable universe and the good old planet earth.

He doesn’t say a thing about His means but His methods are clear: First He considered and decided, then He announced His intention, then He made it happen.

Phase One: The decision
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2 This ain’t no spook hovering in the darkness. This is the Spirit of God. No one knows what He looks like. When Abraham talked to Him He looked like a man, but wasn’t. (Genesis 18:2) When Moses talked to Him He looked like a burning bush, but wasn’t (Exodus 3:2) The Spirit of God is that part of the Trinity that we have no picture for.

Do you have a picture of God in your head, something like a giant sitting on a giant throne?

You most likely have a picture of Jesus in your head, either smiling with a lap full of children, or surrounded by a flock of sheep, or in agony hanging on the cross.

You may think of the Spirit as a dove or a tongue of fire but unlike the giant on the throne or Jesus on the cross there is no human form of the Spirit of God.

Think of it this way:

God the Father decides.

God the Son announces the decision.

God the Spirit does all that was decided.

The Spirit of God came like a dove and rested on Jesus when He was baptized (Matthew 3:16) and like tongues of fire which rested on the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:3). And here He is hovering, in a holding pattern. He was thinking creation all the way through to the end. And then he began.

Phase Two: The announcement
And God said, “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3. Now the heavens and the earth were already there, and He doesn’t make the sun, the moon, and the stars until the fourth day, so what is this light?

I imagine that the formless and empty earth was the raw materials with which He formed to universe.

The whole Bible is nothing more or less than the revelation of God, by God to the people of earth. It begins with the relationship of Creator to creation. There was light before there was life. He clearly stated His intended relationship with creation before He ever formed a thing. He is the light and then He is the life.

The Bible was the written revelation of God, by God and to the people of earth. But God doesn't tell us everything, in fact there is a lot that God doesn't explain. God is infinite and I don’t like trying to stuff Him into a box. Just because He doesn’t tell us about the life He created on other planets doesn’t mean He didn’t create life on other planets. And if He did create life on other planets it is completely irrelevant to the revelation of God, by God to the people of earth.

We know He created angels but they are not mentioned anywhere in the creation story. If there is life out there then their relationship with God is between them and God. Our relationship with God is informed by what He told us about Him here on earth and that is what the Bible contains.

Phase Three: He made it happen
And there was light. Genesis 1:3 Not to belabor the point but the sun and the moon and the stars aren’t there yet, so this light was not them. This light was the relationship between God, the Creator, and man, His creation. Not a relationship between God in the far off somewhere, but with God in the here and now. He created the relationship first, foremost and always. And that relationship is what the Bible is all about.

That’s what I gleaned from the first three verses of the Bible. What have you found in Genesis? Or whatever book you are currently reading?

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is fascinating
Wendy

This is Not Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 06:30:00 +0000

This is Not Justice

by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

Let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the people with equity. Psalm 97:9

Following my reading plan I read Psalm 97 on May 27th.

Justice
How many of us found ourselves condemning the looters when we should have been condemning murder? This is not Justice.

How many of us would have joined a peaceful protest but were, instead, forced to seek shelter from rioters? This is not Justice.

Equality
How many of us realize that the words that we have said and the actions that we have taken will be judged? This is Equality.

How many of us realize that we will stand before God in equity, not black or white, but human? This is Equality.

Mercy
How many of us will be forgiven for what we have thought and said and done over the last few days? This is Mercy.

How many of us can see beyond the actions of a few to the heartfelt misery of the many? This is Mercy.

Misery Loves Company
When we hurt we want others to hurt. – This is natural.

But the laws of Moses were meant to limit the blood lust of the People of God. NO MORE THAN an Eye for an Eye. – This is justice.

Spreading the misery only increases the pain. – This is truth.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:43-44 – This is healing.

I do not know what it is like to be a black man in America today.

I do know that if we cannot stand together nothing will change.

I do know that fear enrages and transforms anger into vengeance.

And I know that prayer enables and transforms righteous anger into justice.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But when all is said and done
It’s worth it
Wendy

When Fear Sounds Like Anger

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:30:00 +0000

When Fear Sounds Like Anger

by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

So do not fear, for I am with you: do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Following my new Bible Reading Schedule I read Isaiah 41 on May 25th The day George Floyd was murdered. It reminded me that fear sounds like anger.

What does fear have to do with anger?
What does fear have to do with anger? I asked God that very same question. In my early 20s I had a serious anger issue. The stupidest things would set me off and my blood would boil, I would scream myself hoarse and nearly broke my hands beating the floor. I was always alone when this happened because no one deserved to be the brunt of this rage. I nearly broke my hands beating the floor because I didn’t want to break anything that would have to be replaced just because I was having a tantrum.

I cried out to God “Help me with this anger!” and God whispered, “Fear Not”

Wasn’t God Listening?
At first I thought that God wasn’t listening to me. I needed help with anger not fear. But repeatedly God told me to “Fear not.” He never shouted. It was always a calm whisper in the midst of my rage. Finally I got out my concordance and looked up “Fear not” it is in the KJV of Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you…” I don’t particularly remember reading this verse before. I know that I must have but it wasn’t circled or highlighted. It is now.

Obedience calms the storm
Over the next two years I used that verse as a prayer whenever rage reared its ugly head. At first I would pray at the end of the tantrum, then in the middle it would calm me and finally I could pray it when I felt the beginning of the storm and calm the waters before they erupted into so much as a drizzle of rain. God never addressed my fears specifically, He simply gave me the command, and once I learned to follow His lead then the fears became apparent. But by then I wasn’t afraid anymore.

Nit Nit Nit Pick Pick Pick
When we are afraid our bodies are flooded with adrenaline which prepares us to run fast or fight hard. When we are faced with a threat that response is appropriate. But when the threat isn’t so much in our face as in our heads then the response has no where to go, really. It just builds until it explodes one way or another. Little things add up to one tremendous irrational explosion all out of proportion to the trigger. Worse than the irrational explosion is the fact that they drain our energy and distract us from real and present dangers.

Righteous Anger
There is such a thing as Righteous Anger. There are times when we must and should fight hard. Anger at injustice must call us to action, but action, not violence. God is not a God of Chaos but of Peace. And Vengeance belongs to him – period.

So what should we do with our righteous anger? I suggest that we take a lesson from one of the greatest activists of all time, Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished more with non-violence than any riot ever could

I was only 5 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech the year that I was born and I watched the student protests over the Vietnam War as I grew up. It always seemed to me that that one man accomplished more with non-violence than the largest student body on record managed for all their shouting and noise.

It takes more courage to stand before your enemy and allow contempt for him grow in the silence, than it takes to toss a brick or bitter words. When faced with injustice and murder then running and fighting are natural adrenaline fueled reactions. Neither is particularly courageous and neither alters the battle lines. It takes more courage to stand your ground, to hold the peace and demand justice without resorting to vengeance.

A line in the sand
I imagine a human line in the sand. A silent line before police stations. I imagine black and white, standing together to make a statement loud and clear. No threats, just silence, and righteous indignation. A united silence that would shout more clearly than the loudest threat: “We stand together. We’re watching. This will not be tolerated. Never again.”

Instead looters took advantage of a man’s death to steal. And the righteous indignation is divided. How much less powerful is the statement being made than the statement that should have been sounded.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
It takes courage in the face of violence
Wendy

Mark Part Four: The Point of the Fig Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 29 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Mark Part Four: The Point of the Fig Tree
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

“Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22

There are two parts to the story of the Fig Tree and they sandwich the cleansing of the temple in between them.

In the morning Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree full of leaves but no fruit. It looked healthy and plentiful from a distance, but it was empty when closely examined. It wasn’t the season for figs so its leaves were doubly deceptive, not only did it look full but it wasn’t ready to be full.

Jesus cursed the fig tree and went on to the temple.

In the temple Jesus drove out the merchants who were using the house of God as a marketplace rather than a house of prayer.

The next morning as they passed the fig tree the disciples noticed that it was withered and pointed out to Jesus that this was the fig tree he had cursed.

You might think that the point of the fig tree was judgement, but Jesus spoke of prayer. The fig tree produced no fruit for its time wasn’t ripe, but the time was soon approaching when the full mystery of God’s love for His creation would be revealed in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The point of the fig tree? “Have Faith In God.”

Simple - Ain't - Easy

Wendy

If you have recently read the Gospel of Mark what lessons did God point out to you?

And in case you’re just joining us here are the links to:

Mark: An Overview of the Gospel

Mark Part One: One Good Hour With God

Mark Part Two: What Jesus Said to Me

Mark Part Three: Who Then Can Be Saved?

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 27 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Mark Part Three: Who Then Can Be Saved?
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Mark 10:26

Who Then Can Be Saved?

I found several answers in my reading of the Gospel of Mark. The distressed (5:30); the unworthy (7:28) the ‘not us’ among us (9:41); the burdened (10:21) the spiritually immature (10:24); and the spiritually blind (10:47) and it all boils down to this: “all things are possible with God.” Man can’t. God can!

“Who touched Me?”
First there was a woman in distress. She had a bleeding disorder which means that she was unclean. People avoided her, if they did not out right shun her. She had spent all her money on treatments that had only increased her misery and had not solved the problem.

She sneaked up behind Jesus, unwilling to face him in her shame. She reached out to touch, not to gain his attention or garner his favor, but to contact the source of healing, contact but not connect.

She only touched the hem of his cloak. The crowd was pressing in around Him, he was being touched by many but He knew the instant faith reached out to Him. (5:30)

And He did not allow that faith to remain anonymous. He kept looking for the faithful touch until the woman stood before him and confessed. Then he took the woman’s fear and suffering and turned it into peace and freedom.

One trembling touch of faith and Jesus responded immediately.

The crumbs of God’s forgiveness
Then there was a woman from Syrian Phoenicia who had faith that even the crumbs of God’s forgiveness held the power to save. She called Him “Lord” She was the only one in all the gospels who called Him “Lord” For such a faith her request was granted. (7:28)

This woman was humble before Christ. She recognized her unworthiness, she was a Gentile after all and the Jews were known for their self-satisfaction as the chosen people of God. She also recognized the authority of Jesus; she called him “Lord” she was, in fact, the only one in the entire Gospel to address him as Lord.

When Jesus told her that she was asking for the bread that belonged to the children she acknowledged that this was so – but – even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs, and with the crumbs she would be satisfied.

In heaven there are many mansions prepared for us, but personally I wouldn’t mind if I had to live in a broom closet, just so long as that broom closet was in the Kingdom of God.

The crumbs of God’s forgiveness are more powerful than the poisoned feast of Satan’s table. And we receive more than crumbs; we are invited to Christ’s banquet in heaven, when we call Him “Lord”

He isn’t one of us
And the man who wasn’t “one of us” as far as the disciples were concerned was “one of mine” as far as Christ was concerned.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” (9:41)

The church is not an exclusive country club. There is only one path to heaven, and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ, but there are many paths to Christ. Peter was not a seminary graduate and this man was not one of the disciples, but Peter was a rock solid preacher and this man was a believer in the power of Jesus' name.

God wants all of us to be one of us. We cannot limit the scope of the works of Christ to the confines of our group.

The Burden of Outrageous Fortune

And that rich young man who wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life. He already knew the answer before he asked the question. He knew the commandments and had followed them since he was a boy. He knew the laws of God and obeyed them and yet he felt that there must be something more that he could do.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. (10:21) He did not shame him for his lack of spiritual maturity. He recognized the young man’s earnest desire and loved him for it, but Jesus then went straight to the heart of the matter, the young man was wealthy and that wealth hindered him. So Jesus told him to get rid of it.

The young man went away sad because he had great wealth. He chose his wealth over Christ. That young man was earnest in his desire, despite his spiritual immaturity. Jesus looked at him and saw a child of God. Jesus loved him and I have personal experience with the love Christ has for the spiritually immature. Once you approach Christ, once He looks at you and loves you, it is not so very easy to just walk away.

In verse 24 Jesus doesn’t single out the rich but says “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God.” For there are many burdens which hinder us. Not just wealth, but anything that we hold onto like grudges and envy and power or position. There are many burdens that Jesus would have us get rid of and follow him.

Who then can be saved?
The disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” and Jesus answered, “With man this is impossible.” Man cannot save himself.

But

“With God all things are possible.”

God can save man; in fact God can make the eye of the needle so large that even a camel can walk through it. What we have all that we have, is on loan from God. Once we realize that the bounty of life is not ours to possess, giving it away becomes easier. Not easy – Simple ain’t easy – But easier.

What the blind man saw
Which brings us to Bartimaeus the blind man. When he heard that Jesus was passing by he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And when the world tried to silence him he shouted louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:47)

Jesus sent his disciples to call the blind man who was searching in the darkness. When they brought him to Jesus he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus replied, “Rabbi (teacher) I want to see (understand).

And Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” And where did he go? He followed Jesus because what the blind man saw was the road home.

Simple - Ain't - Easy
But it does get easier
Wendy

And in case you’re just joining us here are the links to:
Mark: An Overview of the Gospel
Mark Part One: One Good Hour With God
Mark Part Two: What Jesus Said to Me

Is anyone out there currently reading the Gospel of Mark? I would be interested in what God is saying to you.

Mark Part Two: What Jesus Said to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 25 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Mark Part Two: What Jesus Said to Me
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing,” he said, “Be clean!” Mark 1:41-42

The Bible was written for all men but it is also an intimate message for you personally. When I read the Bible I am always looking for that intimate message.

Throughout the entire Bible God tells us what He is going to do and then He does what He says. God said “Let there be light” – and then there was light. God told Noah that there would be a flood and then there was a flood. God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and then God made him the father of many nations.God means what He says and He says what He means and as I was looking over my notes from Mark, I was struck by what Jesus said to the people who came to him.

The Messiah was announced throughout the Old Testament:

“Let the be light” (Genesis 1:3) “and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4)

“God remembered Noah” (Genesis 8:1) and promised never again to destroy life on earth with a flood. This was the saving grace which came to us through Jesus so that “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel” (Jeremiah 31:31) “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

“all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) and “The gospel foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. (Galatians 3:8)

The Messiah, Jesus, also means what He says.

“I am willing”
First came the leper who was hoping that Jesus was willing to help him. Jesus responded with compassion. The leper came to Jesus for help and Jesus reached out and touched him. Leper’s in Jesus’ day was like C-19 today. Keep your distance – Do not touch – and yet Jesus reached out and touched the leper. If you think of sin as a disease, more visible in its effects than in its microscopic appearance, and if you understand that we are all lepers then this becomes an intimate message. When we come to Jesus for help we don’t have to ask if He is willing to help, He has already told us, “Yes! I am willing” (1:41)

Then with the touch of Jesus we are clean.

“Your sins are forgiven”
The man physically paralyzed could not make it in to see Jesus all on his own, fortunately he had friends willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get him there. They tore apart the roof of a house! And lowered their friend through the opening they had made. When Jesus saw their faith He addressed the deepest need first. “Son your sins are forgiven.” (2:5)

How many of us are paralyzed by fear or anxiety or by pain, indecision or guilt? Sometimes it takes a lot of digging through the roof and the walls that we hide ourselves within, in order to get us down on our knees before Jesus.

We don’t always know the extraordinary measures that are taken on our behalf. A stranger introduced my grandmother to Jesus, she taught my mother and my mother taught me. Would I have met Jesus without the love of this stranger? And not just the stranger, but my grandmother and my mother, all worked together to bring me to Jesus.

And when we get there Jesus addresses our deepest need first. “Your sins are forgiven”

“Go and tell.”
A demon possessed man came to Jesus and when He had cleared out the demons the man would have followed him but Jesus sent him home. He didn’t just send the man away He sent him on a mission.

“Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. (5:19)

There are three parts to this mission: 1) Go! Jesus isn’t on the earth to follow anymore. If we want to follow Him today we must Go! and 2) Tell how much the Lord has done for you. Don’t just count your blessings and keep them to yourself, tell people where they came from so that they will know where the treasure lies. And finally: 3) Tell people how God has had mercy on you so they will recognize the treasure when they see it for themselves.

“Go and Tell” but also “Show and Tell” live a life that reflects the mercy you’ve been given and points toward the treasure. Never forget whose name you bare, whose life you represent.

“Don’t be afraid; just believe”
To the man whose daughter was dying as the world told him to give up Jesus said “Don’t be afraid; just believe. (5:36)

The world doesn’t want us anywhere near Jesus. It will do everything in its power to stop us from reaching Him. The world says: “Don’t bother” “It’s too late” “It won’t help”

But Jesus has already told us that He is willing, He is able and He will address the heart of our issues: We are forgiven! All we have to do is to keep heading towards Jesus until we stand before him and confess, then peace and freedom will be ours.

Don’t listen to the world. Listen to Jesus “Don’t be afraid, just believe”

“Only through prayer”
To the man whose son was plagued by evil spirits Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.” And the man replied, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” (9:23-24)

There are many times when we desperately want to believe, but can’t quite. Jesus is willing to help us even in this well of despair when we can’t quite believe that anything can help. Just believe, in spite of everything – just believe.

The disciples could not drive out this spirit, though they had driven out demons before. They asked Jesus why they had trouble with this one and He answered, “Only through prayer.” In other words only when we are connected to the power source are we empowered, if this was true for the disciples it is certainly true for me.

Believe that you will be heard and then connect to the power source: Pray! Ask Jesus to overcome your unbelief and He will.

This is what Jesus said to me. He says what He means and He means what He says.

He is willing and able. He cuts right to the heart of the issue and forgives. His forgiveness inspires a response – Go and Tell. Don’t listen to the world – listen to Jesus “Just believe” and plug into the power source - Pray

Simple –Ain’t – Easy
It’s a Personal Choice
Wendy

And in case you’re just joining us here are the links to:

Mark: An Overview of the Gospel
Mark Part One: One Good Hour With God

Mark Part One: One Good Hour With God

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 22 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Mark Part One: One Good Hour With God
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

“I tell you the truth…” Mark 3:28 and “Listen!…” Mark 4:3

How I Study

I make my reading plan, so I don’t miss a thing, and then I read one book at a time and take notes. I take notes in long hand and on notebook paper. When I finish the book I'm reading I read over my notes. Sometimes I reread passages or travel through the rest of the Bible, searching for passages that may shed light on any questions I may have about what I read.

I try to make sure God is finished talking to me before I move on from one book of the Bible to the next.

One Good Hour With God

I spend a good hour with God every morning. I am not a morning person. I get up and make my coffee and spend a good 30 minutes prying my eyes open in the morning. I eat breakfast, check my e-mail and shuffle through my stack of stuff to do today, writing down the first few things to DO NOW on a list that I leave on top of my stack of stuff to do. Then I close the computer, set aside my stack of stuff and open the Bible and spend one good hour with God.

I am a speed reader, but I do not rush through the Word of God. Sometimes I spend more than a day on particularly meaty chapters. Sometimes I get really into the story and don’t stop reading for chapters on end. The Word of God is like that sometimes, just too good to put down.

I take notes, lots of notes. This is not my first stop at the well but the view is different every day. I understand things now that I didn’t get before and I am always surprised to read something that seems entirely new because my perspective is entirely new.

Before Moving On
At the end of each book I go back over my notes for a few days before I rush off to the next book. This isn’t a race to the finish line, it is a slow walk, a walk with God and I don’t want to get so busy that I leave Him behind. I don't want to get so wrapped up with the words of it that I miss the meaning of it. I don't want to keep reading without stopping to listen.

Listen Means Obey
At the beginning of each passage I ask Him, “What are you saying to me?” It’s personal. Not what is your wisdom for the world, but what are you saying to ME. And He tells me things, “This is important, listen to this.”

When a child listens to his parents he obeys them, he may hear them but if he doesn’t obey them then he isn’t listening. When God says “Listen” I make a note and do my best to listen. Which is why I go over my notes before moving on to the next book. I want to do more than hear the word of God – I want to listen.
My reading plan started in MarkI began my new read through the Bible with Mark. It took me 12 days to read the 16 chapters of Mark. For the last 2 days I have been reading through my notes.

Join me for Mark: Part Two and I'll tell you what I found.

Simple - Ain't - Easy
But it is always interesting
Wendy

Mark - An Overview of the Gospel

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 20 May 2020 21:00:00 +0000

Mark - An Overview of the Gospel
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark 1:1

I usually start my Reading Plan with Mark. He is the lickedy-split Gospel. Things happen ‘immediately’ in Mark. He moves quickly form one episode to the next and covers the life of Jesus from the beginning of his ministry to his death and resurrection in 16 short chapters. He hits all the high points: miracles, parables, teaching, the humanity of Jesus and the divinity of Jesus.

The early church unanimously credited John Mark with writing the Gospel of Mark and generally agree that he was an associate of the apostle Peter. Peter preached, Mark wrote it down.
Mark serves as a good overview of the Gospel

If you have never met Jesus this is probably the best place to do it. John Mark’s mother opened her home as a meeting place for believers. When believers got together the stories of Jesus flowed forth, and John Mark was there, listening.

John Mark may have been the young man who ran naked from Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52), which means he was a follower of Jesus even before the crucifixion.

John Mark knew Peter, who started preaching on the day of Pentecost and didn't stop until the day he died. John Mark knew Paul and Barnabus, who took him with them on their missionary journeys.

So, although John Mark was not one of the 12 disciples, he very likely met Jesus, and he certainly knew Peter, Paul and Barnabas.

From humiliation to humbleness
I always wonder about that naked young man. When the gospels mention the disciples I always picture the 12, but there were more than just the 12 who regularly followed Jesus. Mark mentions the women who had followed Jesus and cared for his needs (Mark 15:41). And in Acts there were 120 people gathered with the disciples and likely with them on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit filled the whole house where they were sitting.

We know that the young man was there at Gethsemane and if he was John Mark and John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark then was he speaking of himself when he spoke of the disciples found sleeping? I can almost hear his remorse as he says, “They did not know what to say to him” Mark 14:40.

Was he looking back on the young man that he had been? Did he regret sleeping through some of his last moments with Jesus? Did he mention running naked from Jesus’ side because he still felt the sting of humiliation?

And yet he wrote the first Gospel. Both Matthew and Luke seem to draw from Mark’s gospel which indicates that it was in circulation when they sat down to write their gospels. John Mark may have viewed himself as a foolish young man. He abandoned Jesus. He abandoned Paul on his first missionary journey.

And yet…
And yet he could not keep silent. He was forgiven! He was forgiven by Paul, eventually, but more importantly he was forgiven by Jesus, immediately!

The Gospel of Mark never mentions the author. There is no “I” or “we” There is only Jesus, what Jesus did, what Jesus said, why Jesus came. As a young man Mark may have felt the sting of failure but as a follower of Jesus Mark knew the power of forgiveness and he just had to pass it on.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is worth it
Wendy

Bible Reading Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 18 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Bible Reading Plans

by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

I don't want to miss a thing

I use Bible Reading Plans because I don't want to miss a thing.I just worked out my Bible Reading Plan for the next while. I don’t put a time limit on my Bible reading, I especially do not try to cram the whole Bible into a single year. That means reading 3 or 4 chapters a day and some of those chapters have really meaty chunks to digest. I am a voracious reader, but the Bible I ponder, I savor, I think about and talk things over with my father. I don’t want to miss a thing so I don’t try to hurry through the chapters. I don’t want to.

So what I do is I list the books of the Bible and how many chapters each book has and I mark them off as I read them.

Biblical Order: Genesis through Revelation
The books of the Bible are put together in groups:

The books Moses wrote
Old Testament History
Wisdom
Major Prophets
Minor Prophets
The Gospels
New Testament History
The letters written by Paul
The letters not written by Paul
Revelation

The Psalms are special
The very first time I set out to read the whole Bible I noticed that Psalms has 150 chapters, which was a little daunting, even for me so I divided Psalms into 65 chunks and stuffed the chunks in between the other books of the Bible. I’ve never read Psalms as a book from beginning to end. I’ve read every Psalm, but I read them in chunks – small chunks.

That was my first reading plan, Genesis through Revelation with the Psalms stuffed in between each book, and it took me nearly 3 years to finish it.

Chronological Order
Now Genesis speaks of the beginning of things and Revelation speaks of the end of all things but the books in between overlap all over themselves. So my second reading plan was chronological. I read the books in the order in which the events of the books occurred.

This is a great link that talks about the how and the why of reading the Bible in chronological order.

This one took me a little over three years to get through because I kept flipping back and forth between the pieces.

Comparative Versions of the Bible
I have never read two versions side by side but I have looked through several versions while chewing over a particularly difficult passage. And I have read through several versions of the Bible. Three, actually: The King James Version, The Living Bible and The New International Version. There are others and each has its own merits. But once I begin a new reading plan I choose which version to read and stick with it through the entire list.

Study Bibles
My New International Version Study Bible has notes on nearly every verse. If you read all the notes then you are doubling your reading. This is exactly what I did through my last reading plan. I read a chapter and then read the chapter notes. This was well worth the effort but it was time consuming, by that I mean it took me nearly 4 years to work my way through the reading list.

A plan of my own design
Now I’m starting a new reading plan. Same books, different order. But I have a list. It took me a whole day to decide what order I was going to use and then write the whole order out. This time I not only sandwiched the Psalms in between books, but Isaiah as well.

Isaiah has 66 chapters so I will read one chapter of Isaiah and 2 or 3 chapters of Psalms in between every other book. I’m starting with the book of Mark so my list looks like this

Mark – 16 chapters
Isaiah chapter 41 (because Mark is the 41st book in biblical order)
Psalms 96-99 (because I divided the Psalms between the books before I shuffled the books)

It will take me roughly 21 days to read these 21 chapters then I will move on to the next set.

Genesis – 50 chapters
Isaiah chapter 1
Psalms 1-3

I shuffled the books around and shuffled Isaiah and Psalms into the mix. The point is that even though I am traveling though the Bible in a round about way I do not intend to miss any stop along the way. That is why I have a list that covers every book. If I intend to read partial books, like Isaiah and Psalms then the chapters are listed individually, otherwise I just list the total number of chapters per book.

I have a trail map. I may not follow it exactly but as long as I have it I can always adjust my route and wind my way back to any destinations I may have missed.

Like I said – I don’t want to miss a thing.

What does your trail may look like? Do you have a reading plan? What will you say when you get to heaven and Habakkuk asks you if you read his book?

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is interesting
Wendy

God's Psychiatry

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 15 May 2020 19:34:00 +0000

Recommended Reading – God’s Psychiatry
God’s Psychiatry by Charles L. Allen

I love this book. It is the application of scripture to the healing of the mind and the soul. It does what I love to do – it ponders each verse in a passage, specifically Psalm 23, The Ten Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer and The Beattitudes.

I like his subject titles as well.
How to Think of God – Psalm 23
God’s Rules for Living – The Ten Commandments
How to Talk to God – The Lord’s Prayer
The Keys to the Kingdom – The Beattitudes

In How to Think of God he prescribes the 23rd Psalm 5 times a day for 7 days. Its power is not in memorizing the words, but rather in thinking the thoughts.

I love his descriptions of the sheep and the shepherd throughout Psalm 23. The idea of Christ as The Good Shepherd is much more powerful if you fully understand the intimate relationship between a shepherd and his sheep.

In God’s Rules for Living you come to understand that when you break the law the law stands. What lies in broken pieces is the man.

In How to Talk to God the words become more than something to say they become something to pray.

In The Keys of the Kingdom you find that unless the keys are used they are useless.

How you think matters.
What you store in your heart matters.

“If we really desire God we will do those things which will cause us to experience God.”
Charles L. Allen

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Reading Helps
Wendy

Who Controls What You Think?

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 13 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Who Controls What You Think?
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

Who Controls What You Think?

If you think the obvious answer is YOU then think again. Superstition, tradition, what you learned at home, what you leaned in school, what you learned in Sunday school, and what you learned in at the office gossip party 20 minutes ago all play a part in what you think.

Garbage In – Garbage Out
There is an old computer saying, “Garbage In – Garbage Out.” It means that if the code you write is garbage then the computer program will spit out garbage. It works for the mind as well. Your mind is a huge and complex computer that accepts every piece of data from every source that you encounter.

Garbage In
Every sight, every sound, every taste, touch and smell is rambling around in your mind somewhere and unless you analyzed it and attached it to something else in your head then it is bumping into other things and making its own connections.

If you accept the latest gossip, without considering the source, then you may wind up not liking someone who could have become your best friend. The source, the gossiping person, may have good reason to not like the gossiped about. But that is rarely the case with gossip. That is why gossip is also called ‘bad mouthing’ Gossip is rarely spreading good news, even when the news is good. Someone got a promotion, which is a good thing, but gossip shades it with envy. “Did you hear what she did to get the promotion?”

Is it true? Maybe, but how would the gossiping person know? Gossip breaks two of the Ten Commandments. False witnessing; because the gossip didn’t witness she just ‘heard’ and envy because the false witness wants it to be true. Or more to the point the gossip wants you to not like the person they don’t like.

Tradition
Traditions are wonderful things. Setting out the festive Christmas lights, eating pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, wearing roses on Mother’s Day in honor or in memory, are wonderful ways to celebrate special event. My personal favorite tradition is using the Vulcan salute while intoning “May the 4th Be With You” just to watch the Trekies and the Star Wars fans trip over themselves correcting me.

For the record I am a Trekie, I have my own uniform even, and I watched Star Wars (called A New Hope now) 79 times when it first came out.

Tradition, at its best, reminds us of the important times of life, at its worse it is a rut we desperately want to get out of. One of my favorite quotes is credited to Albert Einstein “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different outcome.”

If you always do what you’ve always done then you will always get what you’ve always got.

When you dread going to work every morning and you are too tired at the end of the work day to think, much less think about looking for another job then will always get what you've always got. A dead end is only a dead end if you don’t turn around.

Knock on WoodDo you knock on wood for good luck or to ward off bad luck? Do you cross your fingers for good luck? Or do you cross your fingers behind your back when you fib? Superstitions are tricksy things. We don’t know where most of them come from but we use them because we sort of feel that we need that little something extra to bend the universe in our direction.

Garbage Out
It isn’t real, it doesn’t help and we know it doesn’t help but we do it anyway. It somehow got into our heads and it comes out when we need a bit of luck. Our minds are filled with random bits of information loosely stitched together in piecemeal fashion. It is not possible to monitor every piece of data that we are exposed to, however we can monitor the sources of information that we are exposed to.

We can train ourselves to recognize red flags such as the gossip’s “Did you hear?” and walk away. You don’t have to be rude about it, just say “Sorry, I don’t have time to chat right now.” And walk away. When you recognize a dead end, turn around. Store up good things. Store, gather, sort, sift, grab a garbage bag and toss the trash.

Consider the source. Decide what you need. Consider your options. Evaluate your choices. Compare everything to the word of God.

Put Treasure in – so that Treasure comes out

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Think about it
Wendy

Whatever is Lovely

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 11 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Whatever is Lovely
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Philippians 4:8

I’ve been reading about Mindful Meditation lately. I can’t get the image of a crossed-legged person with their eyes closed attempting to empty their minds and let their minds float. Actually they are supposed to be concentrating on a single thing, like breathing, and bring their minds back to that single thing when the mind wanders away.

Mindful or Mind Full

My mind is full and it races at about a million miles a minute, yet I have used mindfulness at certain points in my life without even realizing it. I was born allergic to the sun and dust. If I didn’t practice mind over matter then I would have never left my room. But the world was waiting so I went exploring, stuffy head and all. But sometimes the pain got intense and when that happened, I groaned. Deep resonating moans that filled my head with sound, and I concentrated on the sound, blocking out the pain.

The only time that it didn’t work was at an amusement park. I had an inner ear infection, I was ignoring the symptoms and getting along just fine until I got on a ride that spun me in a circle very fast. I couldn’t walk after that and had to go home.

I have also used deep breathing exercises to help regulate my heart rate and blood pressure. For example, when my computer acts up and refuses to cooperate with what I want it to do and I cannot figure out why, I will slam it shut and walk away. I usually wind up on the back porch hanging onto the porch rail with an angry iron grip. Then I close my eyes and breathe. Deep breath. Iiiinnnnn and ooouuuttt. It usually only takes two or three breaths and I can shake off the anger then open my computer and think the problem through.

Usually I get a thought or two as to what the solution might be while I am still breathing.

Still I think I prefer Mind Full Meditation to Mindful Meditation.

When the Mind is Full

There is an old computer saying “Garbage in – Garbage out” which means if the code you put in the computer is garbage then the computer will spit out garbage. The brain works pretty much the same way, what you put in is what comes out. Dwell on the negative and you will live in a fearful world. Dwell on the positive and you will thrive in a fearful world.

If your mind is full of worry "Garbage in" then your life and health will suffer "Garbage Out"

True, noble, right and pure describes any verse in the Bible. I just opened my Bible to Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in you heart, for they will prolong you life many years and bring you prosperity. This is wisdom talking, and the wisest being I know is God. As I meditate on his words, my pulse slows, my breathing grows steady and even, my heart begins to sing a quiet song.

When you meditate on the words of God "Useful in" then your life and health will heal "Useful out".

One of the lessons I remember from Psych 101 was how to not think of pink elephants. Try it: for the next 60 seconds do not think of pink elephants. Do not envision them on parade; do not see them rearing up in the circus ring, do not watch them march across the room. Set your timer for 60 seconds, I’ll wait.

How’d you do? Did you manage to not think of pink elephants for 60 seconds? Or did you think of pink elephants for 60 seconds? Not thinking about something is difficult, especially if that something is planted right there, front and center of your mind. Not worrying about something is difficult, especially if your worries are planted right there in the center of your mind. They have to be uprooted but they are like weeds, they grow back relentlessly.

There is a trick to it. Instead of just trying to endlessly uproot them try planting something else. Give yourself something else to think about. If you don’t want to think about pink elephants for 60 seconds then think about blue rhinoceros for 60 seconds. Picture them on parade; see them in the circus ring, watch them march across the room. Reset your timer and try again. This time instead of not thinking about pink elephants do think about blue rhinoceros. Go ahead – I don’t mind waiting.

Well? Was there a pink elephant at the end of the parade of blue rhinoceros? Did one sneak into the circus or did one join you in the room?

The trick to leaving your worries behind is to put something else in their place. Have a list of blue rhinoceros handy and when worry creeps in pull one out and substitute the lovely, and noble, and for the worry.

Cronovirus – scary awful – Isaiah 40:10 Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God…

Money troubles – Luke 12:24 Consider the raven: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

These are not empty words. These are promises direct from God Almighty. Think about these promises. Think about how much God loves you, so much that He gave His one and only son that you shall not perish. (John 3:16)

Look at the roses covered in dew and think how wonderful is the God who made them. Take a deep breath and substitute the majesty of eternal God for the weakness of this temporary woe.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is by far more peaceful
Wendy

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance - Recommended Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 08 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Recommended Reading – Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

Do you know how many times the word ‘fear’ appears in the King James Version of the Bible? I do, because Dr. James Strong spent 35 years counting them. He had help, more than 100 colleagues, but no computer. These men had the Bible and they made a list of every word in every verse. Then they listed the words in alphabetical order and then they listed every verse where each word appears.

Their work was first published in 1890: Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

I recommend it even if you are not using the King James Version of the Bible. It is great for looking up a verse that you can only half remember or even passages that you can’t quite place, like where are the disciples listed, or where is the armor of God, or the definition of Love is…

Many Bible’s have a simple concordance in the back. Take a look. If yours is like mine there are 3 columns of verses per page. In mine under the heading Remembers are three entries:

He remembers that we are dust – Psalms 103:14
He remembers His covenant forever Psalms 111:5
and He remembers your sins no more. Isaiah 43:25

I marked the last two in my Bible because it sounded like such a wonderful promise: He remembers His covenant forever and He remembers your sins no more.

Strong’s Concordance is exhaustive – not exhausting – exhaustive. That means that they searched every verse and listed where every word could be found. They did the exhausting bit, all you have to do is know what keyword to look up and viola there it is.

There are 114 lines per column and 38-1/2 columns listed under ‘God’. That’s over 4332 times that the word ‘God’ appears in the King James Version. I once went through them all looking for the keywords “God is…” The results were interesting.

God is not a man Numbers 12:19
God is greater than man Job 33:12
God is wiser than man’s wisdom 1 Corinthians 1:25
God is Love 1 John 4:8

That is the short list. There were others.

Which brings me back to ‘fear’. Because Dr. Strong did all the work all I have to do is count the columns under the heading fear. The word fear appears 397 times in the King James Version. And again the results were interesting. There is an abiding theme in these verses: Fear the Lord your God and Fear not… Many of the verses which the King James Version translates as ‘fear’ is translated as ‘respect’ in the New International Version.

Which is also interesting to my wondering mind. So as I go down the list my mind translates:

Fear not… Genesis 15:1
Fear not for God hath heard... Genesis 21:17
Fear not for I am with thee... Genesis 26:24
For I fear (Respect) God… Genesis 42:18
Fear not… Genesis 43:23
Fear not… Genesis 46:3
Fear not… Genesis 50:19

To find out what not to fear and why not to fear you have to look the whole verse up in the Bible.

Fear not... Genesis 50:19 - Why not?

Because even though - you intended to harm me, God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)

Therefore fear not… Genesis 50:21

Concordances are study aids and few people read them like I do. Still, if you are intent on studying the word of God, to search the word as if searching for treasure and using the Bible as a measure of every new idea out there in the wide world of religion then I recommend Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But a good Concordance helps
Wendy

Why Believe in God?

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 06 May 2020 19:47:00 +0000

Why Believe in God?
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. 1 Corinthians 14:33

I have been researching the history of isms. Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Baptism… Actually I started by looking up the Puritans and why they came to America. Religious Freedom led me through the different isms and why they became chasms. Which led me to start thinking about why I believe what I believe.

My mother introduced me to the Bible and the Bible introduced me to God. But I don’t believe in God just because my mother told me that I should. I was raised in the Baptist church and it has always bothered me that I don’t have a ‘come to the pulpit’ testimony of sudden conviction. Honestly I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t rock solid sure that God was in the room with me, even when I was doing something that I would rather He not notice. I was also raised in an ‘evolution proves that God didn’t create the world’ school. And again, honestly, I cannot remember a time when I didn’t question the ‘facts’ of evolution.

The question is why?

Right Brain: God makes sense and men make mistakes

The answer is that God has always made sense to me even when, or especially when, the world does not. I find pre-knowledge in the Bible concerning things that the world has only recently figured out. Pig meat is the big example. Pigs and humans share diseases. Their bodies react to things in much the same way that ours do. The prohibition against pig meat came long before the knowledge of germs and viral transmissions, not to mention cholesterol. Pre-knowledge argues for a something knowledgeable.

Men make mistakes. All through school the earth kept getting older. The textbooks were filled with ‘possibly’ ‘probably’ and ‘the experts agree’ but the experts in one textbook did not agree with the experts in the next. I learned early to take human ‘facts’ with a grain of salt.

Then I learned about Galileo and the Inquisition. Galileo was persecuted for proving, mathematically that the Earth revolved around the Sun. I don’t remember the textbook but I do remember the sentence: “The church is wrong,” because at the time I thought “no, the church was wrong, in that instance but ‘is wrong’ implies that it is still wrong, or is always wrong.”

That’s when I learned about the fallibility of interpretation. The men who interpreted the Bible were wrong and the author of the textbook was wrong in his interpretation of the meaning of the facts. Or to give the author the benefit of the doubt perhaps he just miswrote.

Around the same time as I had this epiphany I learned about the subconscious, which records everything and accepts it as true, and the conscious which filters, analyzes and makes connections with the raw data that the subconscious has recorded. Problems arise when things dumped into the subconscious are never evaluated by the conscious, they are simply rolling around in the mind, accepted as true, and sometimes they bubble up to the surface in thoughtless ways.

That is why a victim of abuse becomes an abuser. For this person abuse is normal. That is also why not every victim of abuse becomes an abuser. For this person abuse is evaluated and condemned.

I began to evaluate everything I read, everything that I was told, everything that I believe to be true. I read the textbooks. I read the Bible. The Bible makes more consistent sense to me than the textbooks, especially when I compare one book of the Bible to another, and compare one textbook to another.

Now, having deliberately accepted the Bible as true, I evaluate everything else in the light of that truth.

That is my right brain, logical reason.

The Left Brain: Connect and disconnect

But the more compelling reason is left brained, the intuitive side of me, the part of me that sees connections between a butterfly in Africa and a hurricane in the Atlantic (Chaos Theory). Or the disconnect between the biggest single population segment (the Baby Boomers) deciding that if they collectively sneezed they could move the world – and failing to move the world with a sneeze.

I was born at the end of the Baby Boomer age. I spent my childhood watching an entire generation drop acid, drop out, and work hard to tear down every institution they could get their hands on without any clear notion of what to do once the institution was gone. It seemed to me that they were forever replacing something with – nothing.

The Founding Fathers tore down the institutions under which they lived, but they also had a clear idea of what they wanted instead. The Baby Boomers never did. Their ideas were nebulous “Peace, man” which is great as long as ‘the man’ isn’t a tyrant who has no interest in peace.

Flowers have no Power

I watched a wide-eyed teen place a flower in a loaded gun. Three days later a gun just like it fired into the crowd at Kent State and five students died. That flower had no power to stop that gun.

Thousands of college students protested the war with sit-ins around the White House. They risked nothing by doing this; they changed nothing by doing this. Civil rights protesters staged sit-ins in ‘White Only’ establishments. They risked being beaten or hanged. Martin Luther King advocated peaceful demonstrations and died for his beliefs. They changed the law of this land.

Connect and disconnect. It is the difference between standing for something and falling for anything.

So what, in all of this, made me so certain of God?

I grew up angry in an angry world. The generation that fought World War II, a generation that went to war to fight for freedom, raised a generation that waged a war against – war. They went to war and seemed to be fighting for – nothing.

Literally, it seemed to me that they wanted to sit around wasted and do nothing! Build nothing! Stand for nothing! It isn’t as simple as that but then I was only seven years old when the Kent State Massacre took place. This is the world I saw then, it is the world I see now.

Heroes and Superheroes

There were no heroes in my young world. Superman, Batman, Captain America, Sergeant York, Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur, these grew out of the Great Depression and World War II. They fought the Nazis and carried America through a World at War. They stood for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Sergeant York, Winston Churchill, and Douglas MacArthur were real men. Do you know why they were heroes then? Do you know who they were? Real heroes are forgotten and the superheroes Superman, Batman, and Captain America are all tortured souls now, dark and brooding.

Our heroes have become American Idols; they walk down runways and pose for photo ops. Where is the hero who saves the day? The hero used to do the right thing and get rewarded for it. Now the superhero still does the right thing but it seems that he is always losing something of himself, something precious.

Jesus has always been my hero. He is the man I look up to. He is the man I want to be like. He chose to die a horrible death so that I wouldn’t have to. AND HE LIVES to raise my life form the angry muck of existence to the hights of heaven.

The world wants to take something and turn it into nothing. God took nothing and built the world. It is the difference between Chaos and Order. I choose Order. Right brain – Left brain, both agree order is better.

Why do I believe? Because God makes sense to me. Because without Him I would still be in an angry brooding place of despair. The world hasn’t changed. But I have. What I learned growing up was that I cannot change the world by yelling at it, but one person can make a world of difference, not with anger but with peace. Jesus showed me that. Martin Luther King lived it out in my lifetime.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Sometimes the cost is everything
Wendy

Awestruck

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 04 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Awestruck
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Hebrews 11:3

I am a Wikipediate! I admit that I can spend days happily tracing all of the connections between articles on the Internet. Anyone can use Wiki but to be a true Wikipediate one must be an avid reader and I started early, way back before the Internet. Way back then I was an Encyclopediate. You know - the book form of Wiki. Encyclopedias come in sets, one book for nearly every letter in the alphabet. My mom got us a set when I was in grade school and I devoured them. It was in the Encyclopedia that i first met the duck billed, web footed, beaver tailed platypus.

His picture looks like a lot of left over parts joined together, but look him up, he is no mash up of spare parts. He is in fact, a really cool individual.

At the end of many of the articles in our encyclopedias was a list of ‘Related Articles’ that could be found elsewhere in the set. Once I found that tidbit of information I was off and running. Animals led to Aardvarks and Platypuses. King Arthur led to Knights, which led to Knights Templar, which led to Friday the 13th. and i studied every connection, no matter how far or how wide.

I would start with the list of related articles and mark them off, one by one, as I traced the subject through the entire set of books. I finally got to the point of reading the set from A to Z because I didn’t want to miss any information and not every article had a cross connection.

I am a big picture kind of thinker. I see connections and understand broad subjects better than the details on any single subject. I understand the implications of Quantum Mechanics much better than the mathematics that prove the implications.

I never learned to specialize, because I haven’t met an –ology that I didn’t like. The more I learn the more in awe of the creator I become and the more I want to learn. I adore platypuses and particles that act like waves and infrasounds that jangle the human nervous system. I love any fascinating tidbit of information really.

It is a wide, vast, sparkling, wonderful world that we live in. God used just a few building blocks and combined them in vastly different ways. Trees and humans have the same basic building blocks, but just look at the vastly different outcomes.

Philology is the love of words and as an –ology it is one of my many interests. How the language we use developed is just as fascinating as the words that we use. Take the word awestruck for example. it is an adjective or descriptive word which is made up of two other words, one a noun: Awe (fear and reverence) and the other a verb: Struck (a sharp or sudden effect.)

Fear traces back through ‘danger’, ‘danger’, ‘danger’ to the Proto-Indo-European per which means to attempt, to try, to research, or to risk. I much prefer the original connotation of the word 'fear' for the fear of God. The attempt to understand, the research into how He did all that He did, that is the beginning of knowledge. Understanding that He did all that He did is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10)

I am awestruck - I am constantly struck by awe and reverence as I attempt to understand the world around me. Nothing that I have read or seen or researched has persuaded me that there is no God. On the contrary, the more I read, see, research and understand the more I am persuaded that there is a creator, an inventor, a designer and maker of all that I see. And the more struck by awe I become.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is interesting
Wendy

Z is for Zeal

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 01 May 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Z is for Zeal
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! Luke 12:49

What does it mean to be 'on fire' for the Lord?

We had to cut a tree down two years ago. The trunk was cut up and hauled away for firewood. The limbs were piled in the back of the yard. This year we began burning up the limbs. Pile after pile of twigs and small limbs. Seasoned wood, two years dead and dried out, and it burns pretty well. At the end of the day we hose the pile down, rake through the coals and hose it down again.

Getting the embers in the center of the pile exposed and hosed is a bigger chore than hauling the limbs down to be burned. Ashes cover embers and keep them warm. If we don’t get the whole thing hosed down it could blaze up again in the night.
That got me to thinking about our ancestors, not so long ago there was no electricity, all heating and cooking took place in wood burning stoves and fireplaces. At night the ashes were carefully piled over the embers so they would stay hot all night. The next morning they would be uncovered and first kindling and then a pile of new wood would be laid on top of the embers and the fire would blaze without having to ‘start’ a new fire. The fire, in essence, never went out.

This is what it is like to be ‘on fire’ for the Lord.

On Fire
Remember the moment when you first believed. You asked Jesus into your heart and it was energizing! The whole world opened up before you and you couldn’t wait to tell somebody how wonderful you felt. A passion for Jesus blazed up within you and you were eager to know more, feel more, have that feeling never end.

But the fire banked and the blaze subsided. This is where many new believers falter. They let the fire go out. They do not carefully cover it with ashes to keep it warm, they do not add kindling or new wood.

The Bible is a huge and daunting book, reading it becomes a chore. Studying it is becomes confusing and frustrating. They attempt to pile green wood on the glowing embers and the fire goes out. Green wood is full of sap. That is why we waited two years to burn the tree limbs. We waited for the wood to dry out, to season, until it was ready to be burned.

Trying to read the Bible in one sitting is not possible. It is not only a big book but nearly every sentence is packed with meaning. Trying to understand it without talking it over with God is impossible.

Banking the fire
When the first blaze dies down it is necessary to bank the fire. Pull away the ashes of the first blaze, expose the hot embers, and then add kindling, kindling, and not logs. Kindling is small pieces of wood, twigs and leaves. If reading the Bible is giving you a headache – STOP – go back to where you started and read it again – SLOWLY – one little piece at a time. Add kindling to your fire.

Underline the verses that jump out at you – this is your kindling. You may have to cover your fire with ashes to keep it warm while you build your stack of kindling. You may have to season your wood for a year or two before it is ready to blaze up again. That’s Okay, so long as you keep the embers glowing and keep adding kindling to keep the embers fresh.

Keep reading the Bible. Pick out the kindling and set it aside, let it season. Talk to God and ask Him for understanding. Seek out a body of believers to help you gather the wood.

Building the fire
Once you have a good pile of kindling set aside start gathering wood. You don’t throw a tree on the fire and expect it to burn. You have to cut the tree into pieces. Fire logs, especially need to be seasoned. It takes time for a log to dry out enough to burn properly. Read the stories in the Bible, one at a time. Don’t pile them up willy-nilly either. Lay them out, side by side, so that every log dries out. Every log needs to be seasoned not just the ones on top of the pile. Pile them up and the light of the sun cannot penetrate the ones in the middle. They stay damp and won’t burn.

The stories in the Bible need Son-shine in order to season. Lay them out, one by one, and turn them over every once in a while so that all sides of the story are exposed to the light.

The wood pile
The woodpile isn’t really a pile, it is carefully stacked, layer upon layer. Now that you have your Bible stories carefully laid out and seasoned begin stacking them together.

Genesis is the beginning, Revelation is the end, but everything in the middle is kind of a jumble. Many of the middle books talk about things that happened at the same time, but from different perspectives.

Kings and Chronicles both (all four really because there are two Kings and two Chronicles) talk about the time of the Kings of Israel but Kings and Chronicles approach the same time frame from different perspectives.

All four Gospels talk about the life of Jesus, from four different perspectives. So it’s a good thing that you have set your stories side by side, rather than trying to read the whole Bible as if it were a straight beginning to end book.

Now you need to start stacking your stories so that they are ready to throw on the fire when the fire gets low. Your fire needs to be carefully fed. If you throw all the wood on the fire all at once, no matter how seasoned the wood is, you will choke the fire and the fire goes out. That is why you should spend the whole summer, chopping wood, seasoning it, and carefully stacking it. With a wood stack stored close by it is easier to slowly feed the fire through the winter, keeping it lit and the whole house warm while storms rage outside.

Chopping the wood
As you begin to stack your stories on the woodpile you may notice that some of them are too big for the fireplace. You cut the tree down and some of the stories are smaller limbs, but the trunk of the tree is huge. Even though you have cut the tree into pieces the pieces are still too big so now you have to chop the trunk size pieces into smaller fireplace size pieces.

You need a wedge. You drive the wedge into the center of a big piece of wood and break it apart into smaller pieces. You can only split one log at a time and it takes muscles to swing the sledgehammer and drive the wedge into the wood.

Luckily you’ve built up your faith muscles while chopping down the tree and sorting and hauling the wood. You’ve been talking over the whole process with God and He has shown you the different uses for each piece of wood. The Holy Spirit is the wedge. He begins to break down each story into its many layers of meaning.

As you break up the logs and stack them you begin to see the need for each piece, twigs for kindling, logs for a roaring fire, ashes to keep the embers glowing, embers to keep the fire lit.

Your fire is a necessity, you need it to stay warm in the winter and cook food in the summer. You must tend the fire every day, if you neglect it, it will go out and you don’t have a match. If the fire goes out your faith is dead.

The spark
Jesus is the spark of life. He kindled the fire when He moved into your heart. God grew the tree and taught you how to break it down into useable pieces. The Holy Spirit taught you how to shape those pieces into an everlasting source of fuel for your fire.

If you don’t have a fire run to Jesus, beg him for forgiveness and ask Him into your heart to warm your soul.

If your fire has gone out run to Jesus, beg him for forgiveness and ask Him to rekindle your heart to warm you soul.

I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! Luke 12:49. “How I wish…” Jesus is eager to start your fire, all you have to do is let Him in.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Keeping the fire lit is a daily effort
But the warmth is worth it.
Wendy

Y is for Yield

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Y is for Yield
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:29-30

If what you want to do is different from what God wants you to do, YIELD to God, He has the right of way. This is one of the hardest lessons of Christianity. It is one of the hardest parts of being a Christian.

A lot of what God asks of us doesn’t make sense to the world, and often doesn’t make sense to us because we only have a limited vision of everything going on around us.

A lot of what God asks of us isn't at all what we want to do because we are only flesh and blood.

Love your enemies? Bin Laden? ISIS? Murderers? These are my enemies. They do wicked things on this earth and to the people of this earth. Yet I am commanded to love them? HOW!

First of all acknowledge that God is God. Nothing catches Him by surprise, and nothing goes unnoticed.

God is an avenging God. He will not allow evil to go on forever. Wicked men die and if they die in their wickedness then they are cast out of the presence of God, and therefore out of the presence of those who are in the presence of God. They are gone - forever.

And that is great! That is exactly what I want. I want my enemies to in the lake of fire, in hell! But that is not where God wants them to be. If a wicked man turns from his wicked ways then God accepts him with open arms and rejoicing in heaven.

If a murderer asks God to forgive him then he is forgiven indeed. Must I forgive him? Must I forget what he has done?

Here is the simple truth: My sins murdered Christ. My sins put Him on the cross. Christ has forgiven me for murder. That is the will of God.

So should we forgive all sins and empty our jails? God does not forgive sins without repentance and our jails are filled with unrepentant men. God can see the soul of a man. God knows who has repented and who has not. That is why He gets to judge. We cannot see into the soul of a man and accurately judge his repentance and we live in a world of sinful men. Justice requires that honest men be protected from dishonest men. As long as we live in a fallen world we will need jails and our jails will be full.

So where does that leave us in the forgiveness department? With the firm assurance that God loves our enemies every bit as much as He loves us and because He loves them we must love them as well. This is not the warm fuzzy kind of love. We have a firm definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. This is the love of God. This is the love that we must show to everyone, friend and foe alike. And this love doesn’t excuse bad behavior but it does relieve us of the toxic effects of hatred through forgiveness.

We must forgive our enemies not only for their sake but for our own.

Do we want to? Hardly ever but the new command Jesus gave says we must. (John 13:34)

Yielding isn't easy. Giving God the right of way is hard when everything in our flesh tells us not to, but we must! No matter what our limited line of sight sees, God sees more. He is never wrong. We can trust that He is never wrong and we must trust that He knows what He is doing, all the time, every time.

We must also yield when God says don’t go there. We must follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We must jump when he says jump and stop when he says stop.

Just as we must forgive our fellow men and want them in heaven just as badly as God does, we must also recognize God’s timing. An addict will not benefit from AA until he is ready to admit his addiction. A sinner will not benefit from godly instruction until he is ready to admit his sin. God’s timing is perfect. If we do not adhere to his pauses as well as his prompting then we will be beating our heads against a brick wall for no reason.

Submission, yielding to the will of God is a prerequisite of obedience. Unless we are willing to accept God’s sovereignty, if we insist on picking and choosing which commandments we will obey then we are not obedient at all.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But we are always better off doing things God’s way
Wendy

X is for e(X)ample

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 06:30:00 +0000

X is for (e)Xample
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

John 13:15

Jesus lived...Jesus was...Jesus did...Jesus never...Jesus offered...

Jesus is a living example of how we should live. Jesus is God, who walked away from the glory of heaven to live in the dirt with us so that we may live in heaven with Him.

Here is a short list of the qualities that Jesus set for us to follow.

Jesus lived…

A Life of Obedience – Philippians 2:8
A Life of Service – Philippians 2:7
A Life of Prayer – Matthew 14:23
Jesus was…

A Teacher – Luke 11:1
A Preacher – Matthew 4:17
A Spellbinding Storyteller – Matthew chapter 5

Jesus did…

He Healed – Matthew 14:14
He Helped – Mark 9:24
He Offered Hope – Romans 8:24

Jesus never…

He never lied – 1 Peter 2:22
He didn’t flinch – 1 Peter 2:23
He didn’t run – Matthew 26:53-55

Jesus offered…

Forgiveness – Matthew 26:28
Love – John 13:1
Life – John 3:16

You will have to read the entire Bible to fully explore all of the examples that Jesus set before us. This is the example we are asked to live up to. It is daunting. We will fail. Nevertheless we must be Holy, as he is Holy (1 Peter 15-16). We must love as He loves. (John 13:34) We must forgive as He forgives. (Matthew 6:12) We must serve as He serves. (Philippians 2:5-8)

A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Luke 6:40

We must imitate his means, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and his methods, doing all in love. We must practice until we prefect the love that God has shown us. Although we will never be perfect we must practice what He taught us to the very end of our lives and then claim the crown of life everlasting.

Now start your own list and keep it in your prayer journal. The Holy Spirit is right here, ready to help and offer support and encouragement. Talk over the steps that you should take to incorporate these qualities in your own life. Talk to God and He will teach you in the way you should go.(Micah 4:2)

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is worth the effort
Wendy

W is for Witness

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 06:30:00 +0000

W is for Witness
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1 John 5:11

Witness for the defense
There are four gospels. Each has expert testimony concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Matthew and John were with Jesus throughout his ministry. Matthew was a tax collector, an analytical man. He testified to the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. John was more empathic, he wrote concerning the great love of God fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah.

Mark and Luke weren’t with Jesus throughout his ministry. Mark was an associate of Peter’s. Peter testified and Mark wroth it down. Luke was an associate of Paul’s He was a physician, a learned man. Luke gathered eyewitness testimony and wrote detailed instructions on the way of salvation.

All four gospels agree on one thing: Jesus is Emanuel – God with us.
Witness to His authority
Matthew speaks of Jesus’ life and ministry fulfilled the Old Testament predictions concerning the Messiah.

The Messiah was promised:

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

The Messiah came:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

I am with you always. Not I maybe, but I AM. Not sometimes, but always.

Witness to His ministry
Mark speaks of why Jesus came

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45

A ministry of service, to which we are called, and not just one or two of us are called, but many, as many as believe.

Witness to His mission
Luke speaks of why Jesus had to come

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. Luke 19:10

He came to find us and bring us home to be with him. He shines a light in the darkness, a beacon of hope; He reached into the muck and the mire and gathered us to him. He came to us, who had no hope and gave us hope eternal.

Witness to His sufficiency
John speaks of the sufficiency of God’s Grace. Jesus did the work of salvation. All that is left is for us to believe.

These were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31

The testimony of the Holy Spirit
When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. John 15:26

Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. He is our constant companion, our helper, our comforter and our encourager. It is the very power of God that gives us the strength to accomplish the purpose of God in and through our lives.

When the devil says, “You can’t” the Spirit says, “I can.” When the devil says, “You aren’t good enough.” The Spirit reminds us that, “I came to earth to get find you. I died to save you. I choose to live with you. You are that precious to me!”

The testimony of the apostles
He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him after he rose form the dead.

Acts 10:41

Not everyone has seen Jesus face to face, but those who did see him after he rose from the dead ate and drank with him. Ghosts do not eat, only the living eat. They knew him before he died; there was no mistaking who was with them after the resurrection.

The testimony of the believers
And we cannot be silent. We are so filled with the joy of His presence that we cannot keep still. The Gospel is the most exciting news we have ever heard. Meeting Jesus, spirit to Spirit, is the best thing that has ever happened to us and we can’t wait to pass it on.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1 John 5:11

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But the rewards are great
Wendy

U is for Understanding

noreply@blogger.com (Wendy E Middleton) — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:30:00 +0000

U is for Understanding
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

Proverbs Chapter 2

Proverbs chapter 2 isn’t very long but it develops the ideas of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. All three parts of active thought must be applied to life. The Bible uses physical descriptions to explain spiritual truths. Developing a spiritual understanding requires the application of the physical to the spiritual.

Should we fear God?Should we fear God?

He wiped out every living creation from the face of the earth – except for Noah, his family and the animals on the ark.

He rained fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah killing every man, woman and child – except for Lot and his family.

He sent ten plagues across Egypt killing the first born of every family – except for the Israelites with blood on their doors.

The soul who sins will die Ezekiel 18:20. The body of the righteous will die, but only the soul of the wicked will perish.

If we are wicked then YES we should fear the Lord for worldly sorrow brings death (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Should we fear the Lord?
Should we fear the Lord?

Noah feared the Lord. He was warned and he obeyed and his reverence and fear saved him.

Abraham feared the Lord. He was warned and he petitioned and his reverence and fear of the Lord saved his nephew Lot.

Moses feared the Lord. He was warned and he passed that warning on to Israel and his reverence and fear of the Lord saved a nation.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret

2 Corinthians 7:10

Proverbs chapter 2
Proverbs chapter 2 is a physical description of a spiritual truth. It speaks directly to the application of knowledge.

If…we accept
If…we turn
If…we apply
If…we call for
If…we cry aloud
If…we look for
If…we search for

Wisdom is a foundation that is deliberately built in the life of the believer. Knowledge accepts, turns and applies. Understanding is first called for then passionately cried out for. Wisdom is first looked for and then consciously, deliberately searched for.

Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:5

God gives wisdom
He holds victory
He is a shield
He guards
He protects

These are not external protections from a wicked world. They do no alter the wickedness of the world. These are internal protections against a wicked world. They alter our perceptions of and our actions and reactions within a wicked world.

For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Proverbs 2:10

Wisdom will not save your from the actions of wicked men. Your body will die. But wisdom will save you from being wicked. It will save you from following wicked men toward destruction, and your soul will live.

Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. Proverbs 2: 20

For the upright will live and the wicked will be cut off. This is the soul of the upright and the soul of the wicked.

The Way The Truth The Life
The law cannot save you. It is nothing more than a warning against danger.
You must heed the warning.

You must follow The Way, The Truth, and The Life. “No one comes to the father except through me.” John 14:6 Jesus is the way of life. He is the pattern for the way that we live this life in the body and He is the only path for the soul to reach life everlasting.

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is worth it in the long run.
Wendy