What you need to calculate today

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The grocery list grows long and the pantry gets scant and Jackson and I sit down to crunch numbers.

“We’re going to be okay,” he tells me with a smile. “Just don’t go to the grocery. And don’t get gas. Oh, and don’t pay any bills either.”

I laugh.

Some days you need to borrow the faith of another and today I lean heavy on Jackson’s.

But I still don’t know how creative I can get with canned beets and tuna.

Crunched numbers tell a grim story. It tells us where we stand and how we fare and somehow the story always comes up short.

And who doesn’t do it… Crunch numbers?

We crunch to get information, to clarify purpose, to gain wisdom.

We input the numbers and run the calculations and out comes the result.

But numbers aren’t the only thing you can crunch. You can crunch circumstances, too.

We can calculate trials and hardships and bare pantries and lost relationships and bad doctor’s reports.

Crunching circumstances is part of life.

he Joy calculator; How to really crunch numbers and circumstances!

It’s okay to crunch circumstances. In fact, Scripture commands us to crunch circumstances, just like we crunch numbers…we just have to crunch correctly. When we crunch God’s way, the result is always the same:

J    O    Y

 

Who would have thought God’s gift to us is a calculator that takes all of life’s ups and downs, all the testings and the trials and the difficulties and crunches them to produce a single, shining outcome: Joy?

Who would have thought?

But this is indeed the gift we have, this JOY calculator, if we will but sit down and do the crunching:

 

“ Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” James 1:2

Pastor says “consider” means to count, to calculate, to press your mind down upon. It’s an accounting term.

“You can’t come to a joyful conclusion about a trial without calculating it,” he says.

Yes.

This is why we worry about the math calculations and the check book balance and the doctor’s report and the phone call we never received and the break we never got…we’ve forgotten to run things through the Joy Calculator.

It’s time to sit down and crunch.

The Joy Calculator, it tells the truth. We can always use it and say, “I’ve crunched the circumstances and things look good, real good!”

 

“And we boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

You have need of perseverance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” Romans 5:3, Hebrews 10:36

 

Pastor explains that perseverance is “hoopomone” in Greek and it means “to bear up under.”  Trials give us the ability to bear up under pressure.

And this single characteristic of “hoopomone” is the means to all other virtues and characteristics.

Hoopomone is the “funnel” through which we receive everything!

 

“And let hoopomone have its perfect work, so that the man of God may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  James 1:4

 

So the calculating goes something like this:

Trial (fill in blank) + faith = Hoopomone (perseverance) 

Hoopomone = mature, complete, perfect!

 

This…this is why we can calculate everything as joy. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (II Cor 4:17)

So I sit down with the Joy Calculator and I do some crunching. I plug in the circumstances and I apply faith and I see what God is doing and sure enough, out comes the expected result.

Joy.

I keep plugging things in, hard things. Sad things. The worst things I’ve ever experienced.

It is quite unbelievable. No matter what I plug in, the result keeps coming out the same.

I think I’m addicted.

I’ve done some calculating and things look good. In fact, they are glorious and I can’t help but share the wonderful news.

{Want to borrow my calculator this weekend?}

 

Are you encouraged here? I invite you to subscribe to Arabah here for updates.

*Repost from archives. I’m doing more calculating this week~ smile!
 

May 9, 2013

Filed Under: Faith, Strength in Weakness

To live Fearless

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In a world that says, “Have it your way, serve yourself, look out for your own best interests, spend your life…your resources…your talents…on yourself…,” there are the rare voices that say something different: live counter-culturally. Give your life away.

It’s true. We can live for something greater than ourselves.

The question is,   Will we?

 

Here’s the storyof one man who did.

 

 

 

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April 18, 2012

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Filed Under: Faith, Fear, Honoring God, Purpose, Sacrifice

The Joy Calculator

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The grocery list grows long and the pantry gets scant and Jackson and I sit down to crunch numbers.

“We’re going to be okay,” he tells me with a smile. “Just don’t go to the grocery. And don’t get gas. Oh, and don’t pay any bills either.”

I laugh.

Sometimes you need to borrow the faith of another. I lean heavy on Jackson’s.

But I still don’t know how creative I can get with canned beets and tuna.

Crunched numbers tell a grim story. It tells us where we stand and how we fare.

And who doesn’t do it… Crunch numbers?

We crunch to get information, to clarify purpose, to gain wisdom.

We input the numbers and run the calculations and out comes the result.

But numbers aren’t the only thing you can crunch. You can crunch circumstances, too.

We can calculate trials and hardships and bare pantries and lost relationships and bad doctor’s reports.

And who doesn’t do that as well? Crunching circumstances is part of life.

It’s okay to crunch circumstances. Scripture commands us to crunch circumstances, just like we crunch numbers…we just have to crunch correctly. When we crunch God’s way, the result is always the same:

J    O    Y

Who would have thought that God’s gift to us is a calculator that takes all of life’s ups and downs, all the testings and the trials and the difficulties and crunches them to produce a single, shining outcome: Joy?

Who would have thought?

But this is indeed the gift we have, this JOY calculator, if we will but sit down and do the crunching:

“ Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” James 1:2

Pastor says “consider” means to count, to calculate, to press your mind down upon. It’s an accounting term.

“You can’t come to a joyful conclusion about a trial without calculating it,” he says.

Yes.

This is why we worry about the math calculations and the check book balance and the doctor’s report and the phone call we never received and the break we never got…we’ve forgotten to run things through the Joy Calculator.

We are using the wrong cruncher.

The Joy Calculator, it tells the truth. We can always use it and say, “I’ve crunched the circumstances and things look good, real good!”

“And we boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. You have need of perseverance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” Romans 5:3, Hebrews 10:36

Pastor explains that perseverance is “hoopomone” in Greek and it means “to bear up under.” Trials give us the ability to bear up under pressure.

And this single characteristic of “hoopomone” is the means to all other virtues and characteristics.

Hoopomone is the “funnel” through which we receive everything!

“And let hoopomone have its perfect work, so that the man of God may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4

So the calculating goes something like this:

Trial (fill in blank) + faith = Hoopomone (perseverance)  and Hoopomone = mature, complete, perfect!

This…this is why we can calculate everything as joy. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (II Cor 4:17)

So I sit down with the Joy Calculator and I do some crunching. I plug in the circumstances and I apply faith and I see what God is doing and sure enough, out comes the expected result.

Joy.

I keep plugging things in, hard things. Sad things. The worst things I’ve ever experienced.

It is quite unbelievable. No matter what I plug in, the result keeps coming out the same.

I think I’m addicted.

I’ve done some calculating and things look good. In fact, they are glorious and I can’t help but share the wonderful news.

{Want to borrow my calculator this weekend?}

 

Are you encouraged here? I invite you to subscribe to Arabah here for updates.

*Thanks to Beth for sharing the link to Pastor’s message. What a game changer! Press on, sister!

 

March 16, 2012

2 Comments

Filed Under: Faith, Spiritual Disciplines

When You’re On Your Belly in Enemy Territory

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It’s true that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

It’s one reason why I blog…tapping out the struggles and victories, the testimony…it solidifies the gains. It firms the footing.

But it also invites opposition. The public declaration is a smoke signal. It invites war and I’ve learned to think twice before hitting the “publish” button. I know I’ll be tested.

“You sure you want this ground?” the filthy snake mocks. “I’m going to make you fight for it.”

And Sunshine girl, she reminds me how to fight. She lays in bed at night when she’s scared and she says out loud, “It is written…It is written…it is written.” And she decides she isn’t going to run to mom and dad, she’s going to use Words instead, the Words Jesus used to defeat the darkness… and she does.

She does.

It is true that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the words of our testimony.

It is also wise to understand that it isn’t without a fight.

So it is with a bit of trepidation that I scratch this out, this declaration of war from a battle worn soldier deep in the brush and inching forward not on feet or even knees, but slithering through enemy ground on the belly.

I’m tapping out my intent: I’m here to take back my ground.

I’m here to take back my children.

I’m here to reclaim the inheritance.

I’m here to renounce the sins of the fathers that we as God’s people have persisted in.

I’m here to lay down my life if need be. I’m here to win…if not for myself, than for the girls and boys I tuck in at night.

And the message spoken is heard and the skies break open and fury is unleashed and darkness creeps in and I shiver in this downpour and I think of my Sunshine girl.

“It is written,” I whisper fiercely against the howl. “It is written…”

“Though my life I lose, it is written!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Solomon, begotten of God, broke God’s heart. He turned to other gods and the Almighty tore the kingdom away from Solomon because of idolatry. In I Kings 11 He gave ten tribes to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, with a promise…

“About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country,  and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.  Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.”

 

But Jeroboam, when he was up to bat with bases loaded and a no-fail plan in his favor, well Jeroboam failed to believe the promise! He had been given everything by the Only One who matters, yet he failed to believe it.

Instead, he caved to fear.

“Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

Jeroboam built shrines on high places…”

 

“What if I lose control?”  Jeroboam thought. And in his fear, he devised a plan: He introduced a false god.

Jeroboam decided to maintain control through idolatry.

It worked.

For generations the kings followed in the ways of Jeroboam. Even after 200 years, God was saying: “Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. And to this day, their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.” (II Kings 17:40-41)

Some sins are generational in nature.

They are so woven into our culture and background that we can scarcely recognize them, much less call them what they are: idolatry.

Quite simply, idol worship is a way of life.

Somewhere along the way, fathers cave to fear and try control instead of trust.

With bases loaded and a no-fail promise spoken over their lives, mothers and fathers still cave to fear. We take matters into our own hands.

Some control through legalism.

Some control through hard work and making money and buying security.

Some control through networking and gaining friends.

Some control through self reliance and others through self righteousness and others through self preservation.

And it becomes a way of life, the American way.

It becomes OUR way of life.

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me,    the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns,    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jer 2:13

And when I dare put names to the idols, the broken cisterns in my life, when I renounce them and take a stand against them, the filthy dark creeps up with a low blow and says, “Are you sure you want to go there? You know I’m going to make you fight.”

He looms large and dark overhead and I wonder how a simple, weak woman dares defy his greatness.

Is this how he intimidated Jeroboam?

But Jeroboam died in his sin and now I’m the one up to bat. With bases loaded and a promise over my scrawny little neck.

Perhaps I’m the least likely to succeed, but it’s not about me.

It’s about the Word spoken over me.

So I speak Words out loud: “I renounce secret and shameful ways. I renounce the sins of the fathers…” II Cor 4:2

“I will not cave to fear, I will cling to promises.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know what it’s like to be battle worn. I know what it’s like for those promises to get buried under the mundane of life, under the urgent, under the weight of responsibility and the defeats of life.

And unfortunately, I know what compromise looks like.

If he can’t get us to surrender, the snake talks us into compromise.

But every now and then, when it grows almost too hard, I see the gleam underneath the grime, that buckle of nobility strapped to my waist and I remember the promise and the oath and the calling…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hezekiah spoke to the Levites, the priests of God. “Consecrate yourselves! Remove all defilement! My sons, be not negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before Him and serve Him, to minister before Him and to burn incense.”

And I imagine the noble throne, the royal Name, the Awesome God I’m chosen to stand before. We are chosen of God! We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people so that we will proclaim His praise.

And so that we will stand.

When you are in the brush on your belly, remember you were chosen to stand.

Don’t be intimidated! Rub the grime off and sweep the mundane back and see the significance. The nobility. Remember the promise!

We are set apart to serve Him and minister before Him and burn incense to Him, the fragrant offering of our lives.

We and our children fulfill a noble calling. We serve our God. 

Today we are up to bat, you and I. It is our turn and bases are loaded and the enemy, he taunts and he mocks and he reminds us of the odds.

But we have a Promise and we have a Purpose and we have a Presence.

May we stand on our promises and say, “Here am I and the children the Lord has given me! We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 8:18)

From every bush and brush scattered around enemy territory, may we say, “We will not retreat and we will not fear. For “it is written…”

 

Now let’s hit the ball out of the park.

 

 

Heather from Raising Mighty Arrows  is another mom standing on her promises and going to bat for her kids.  She is hosting a giveaway today with two winners~ a great chance to snag a copy of Energy Explosion~ smile! I hope you are making plans to join us for the Group Challenge coming up March 26. For details, click here.

 

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March 9, 2012

4 Comments

Filed Under: Control, Faith, Fear, Shepherding, Strength in Weakness

How Not to be a Negative Person

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I’m driving down the road when it comes on the radio.

“Experts say that you can change from being a pessimist to being an optimist.”

Really, I wonder? I thought it had to do with personality, the way someone is made. I’ve always been a glass half empty kind of person. Not proud of it, but it’s true.

The radio announcer continued: “Yes, studies have been done and it is possible for you to become an optimist. It is simply a matter of perspective. You can train yourself to see life differently.”

And I would have laughed out loud and talked back to that little chipper-of- a- girl announcer and told her that she obviously wasn’t a pessimist or else she would have given a little more instruction than that…But I didn’t laugh and I didn’t talk back because I know it’s true.

You see, I’m a recovering pessimist. And that, I am proud of. Very, very proud.

And while the optimistic radio announcer moves on to other things, my Savior, the Light of the World, the One who leads us in the way we should go, He speaks to me. He’s telling me how a person becomes negative.

He tells me the eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye is dark, the whole body is filled with darkness. Even “their minds were filled with darkness.” Romans 1:21

But if the eye is good, the whole body is filled with light.

Whether a person is a pessimist or an optimist depends on how they see. It depends on what they look at.

And with the history I’ve had, I’ve seen dark. How else could I interpret life than through the dark lens I was given? How can any of us expect to see differently than the lens, the lamp, the perspective we’ve been handed? Our fallen, dark, distorted lens tells us how to see life. Ourselves. Others. God.

But we can change our perspective. We can trade in our lens.

For Light has shone in the darkness and the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

Praise His Name!

Experts are just now saying something God has said in His word for thousands of years: Our lamp stays bright when we look to the Light.

 

Being a positive person isn’t just a matter of thinking positively. It is a matter of thinkly positively of God.

 

 ”Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.”  Romans 1:21

Our lamp becomes dark when we doubt our God. Our vision is distorted when we distrust our Creator.

Our perspective is skewed when we prioritize what our circumstances tell us instead of who God says He is.

The word for “worship” in Romans 1:21 is “doxazo” and means “to exalt, to magnify.”

The eye is our lens, our glass, our magnifier. And whatever we magnify is what we worship.

We can either magnify our circumstances….or we can magnify our God.

I return home a hungry soul, hungry to know my God, hungry to worship, hungry to practice being an optimist. Like a moth to a light, I’m drawn to His brightness.

I know how He’s spoken to me, with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. “Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.”

Isn’t this the way to keep your lamp bright?  Stop looking at things the way everyone else does!  Stop interpretting life according to the ways and rules of this world!

“The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy. He is the One you are to fear, He is the One you are to dread, And He will be a sancturary.” Isaiah 8:11-14a

When I give regard to my circumstances, I give them honor. I esteem them as more powerful than my Almighty God!

He only is worthy of regard!!

My circumstances tell me all sorts of lies.

But my God, He tells me He’s in control. He tells me He is good. He tells me He is Adonai. Bread of Life. Conquering King. Defender of the defenseless.

And for every letter of our alphabet, He is.

He tells me He will never leave me or forsake me and He will carry me even to my dying day. He tells me His plans for me are good, to give me a future and a hope. He tells me all His deeds are done in faithfulness and that it is impossible for Him to lie.

And I know the secret of Romans 1:21: A pessimist listens to circumstances and the opinions of people.

But an optimist? Well she looks to her God.

Look to Him with me? Click to watch the video~

http://youtu.be/9zl6Sf3Rt0s?t=2m59s

 

And one more bit of positive? One of the most joyful, full-of-Jesus persons I know is hosting a giveaway today. Go visit her~ I promise you will be glad you did.

 

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March 6, 2012

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Filed Under: Faith, God Provides, Seeing God

What it means to live by faith

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I get the text around 9:30 am. “Mr. Jay’s gone to glory. 7:15 this morn.”

I’m standing in the kitchen and I look up at the scroll hanging on the corner wall, the scroll with the pink flower and the scripture. “The Lord preserves the faithful.” Psalm 25:10

Ms. Reva gave that scroll to me a few months back. Ms. Reva is grieving the loss of her mate this March morning.

While others go to work and buy their coffee and live like everything is normal. For some, nothing is normal.

It’s easy to believe God when He moves in big ways…when the cancer is healed and the cupboards are full and the gas tank is too. It’s easy to praise when prayers are answered with a “yes” and mountains move and relationships are oiled and everything goes according to plan.

But what about when God pushes you into shallow water where you break your neck, as Joni Tada has described it? And what about when God allows, perhaps even sends, a drunk driver to hit you head on, causing your life to never be the same? What about when God lets your cupboards be empty and your gas tank too and your relationships to sour and your soul to cry out?

What then?

The Lord preserves the faithful.

The faith-FULL.

I look at the scroll hanging in my kitchen and I say it out loud:

The Bible says the just shall live by faith. Isn’t this what a true believer is? A faith-FULL person?

Full with the faith of Abraham, who went out, not knowing where he was going.

The trust Gideon had, who faced the enemy not knowing how victory could ever happen.

The trust Sarah had that said a baby at her age was, in fact, possible.

The trust Stephen had even while being stoned to death.

The kind of trust that even dies believing.

“For these all died in faith, never having received the promises.”

 And I wonder why we put so much emphasis on so many other things when we should be living out what’s really important: faith.

Right there in the kitchen, I look my giant in the eye. “I know whom I have believed,” I say it straight out.

“And He will never leave me or forsake me. He will help me and uphold me with His righteous right hand. I will not be afraid, tho the mountains crumble and the earth shakes. For His steadfast love will never be removed from me. His covenant of peace with me will stand.”

The Lord preserves the faith FULL.

And I am FULL.

March 3, 2012

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Filed Under: Faith, Fear, Trust

There’s Grace For That

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The sky spits snow as I leave the house.

Five minutes later, I’m filling out new patient paperwork and then waiting for the doctor. When she comes in, I explain that I’ve had this cough and sinus stuff for 4 weeks. “It’s just not getting any better,” I tell her.

“Well you sure gave it a good college try,” she says and smiles.

Yes, I tell her, I did. “More than you know” is what I want to say but don’t.

I’m good at trying. For ever so long, that is what I did. I thought my efforts would somehow bridge the gap. Maybe I believed the American ideology that you can do whatever you want to…as long as you believe and try hard enough.

I approached God that way. Knowing there was a gap between me and Him, I determined to just “do better.” To try harder. To give it all I had and in the end, it was going to be enough. I could do this thang!

So I reared back and took a running start and dove headlong towards making myself good and right with God. I fell short. Time after time, same thing.

More and more bible reading and praying and spiritual disciplines and service and being moral, well it always fell short.

It took awhile before it finally sunk in: Your college try isn’t good enough. You need some help.

Just like my body needed some help in getting over the sinus infection, so my sin-sick soul needs help in being made right with God.

People cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in Him, who makes even evil people right in His sight. Then God accepts their faith, and that makes them right with Him. ~Romans 4:5

But God has a way to make people right with Him without the law, and He has now shown us that way which the law and the prophets told us about. God makes people right with Himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift.

So A person is made right with God through faith, not through obeying the law. Romans 3:21f

Friend, I’m not sure what you are struggling with today, but there is grace for that. There is grace for even the most evil of persons who will trust in His goodness. God has made a way…for however you are falling short. It is not through trying harder and giving it all you’ve got.

It is through believing that HE WILL DO IT.

There’s grace for that. Only believe!

January 14, 2012

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Filed Under: Faith, Trust

Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? Hope for a New Year

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The flyer comes in the mail right before the new year.

“A New Year: A New You” it says and features glossy photos of sale items for changing one’s life: New salt and pepper shakers that remind one to pray, journals and bible studies and inspirational DVDs.

I can’t help but feel somewhat disillusioned. Can these things really help us have a new start? If a leopard really could change her spots, would it come through new salt and pepper shakers? Does a Bible study really hold the power to transform?

And how exactly does a leopard change her spots? The dawn of a new year brings the same old question.

Don’t think the old serpent isn’t there with answers. He’ll even provide the plan.

“But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
~ II Corinthians 11:3 (World English Bible)

The serpent says “Take matters into your own hands. Try harder. Do anything, even bible studies and prayer and Christian activity. Just don’t trust God.”

That old serpent, he knows simple trust is deadly.

It is a new year and there is fresh hope but only because of an old Name: Jesus.

But how does that really change a person? How does one take the name of Jesus and turn over a new leaf?

Is it all just theory? Or can 2012 really dawn a new grace?

I turn on the computer and there’s an email from a friend. “What does God want of me?” she asks. She is trying to be good and please Him and find her way. She feels she’s beating her head against a brick wall. Always beating and never going anywhere.

What is the will of God? How is one to walk a new road, a new year, a new day?

God has answered the question for my friend. For myself.

“Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29 NLT

And at the beginning of new things, we are called on to make one simple assumption:  Jesus is enough. Period.

“Lord,” I pray the prayer I’ve prayed before. “Either Your word is all the way true and You alone are all the way sufficient, for anything and everything, no matter what it is…or the Bible is all a big fat lie. As for me, I’m choosing to believe You are enough.”

I feel the release, the freedom. I feel the cessation of “do.”

To do the works of God, one is simply to believe. (John 6:29)

So in all our plans and preparations for the new year, don’t forget the most important one, the one that should spur all our actions: faith. Belief. Trust.

This trust creates deep surrender and that surrender will make one a living sacrifice and that sacrifice will be ignited by the presence of God and we become burning flames of worship.

A holy life… a transformed being. (Romans 12:1-2)

 

Looking to Build Trust? 5 Reasons why the one habit of 2012 should be the Word:

His word is the means to trust.

His word is a sword, dividing the intentions of the heart.

His word is a hammer, breaking up your hard soil.

His word is a fire, consuming the dross and purifying your purpose and motives, moment by moment.

His word reveals the Person of Christ, in whom all the treasures of riches are found.

 

I am reading through the The One Year Chronological Bible this year. I have read through this many times and I highly recommend it. If reading large chunks of scripture seems overwhelming, try Daily Light on the Daily Path. We use this at the family breakfast and dinner table. It is small compilations of scripture. Also highly recommended.

If you only have time for listening while you dress, check out the Daily Audio Bible and listen online every morning…

And for children? My nine year old is reading through Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions For Kids this year and so far we’ve had some great discussions together. My younger children love this interactive Bible and this one.

We can spend all our time investing in the lives of our children. We can work ourselves to the bone every day. But if what we are investing is stones, marbles, and pretty nothings, we can’t expect a harvest! A harvest only comes from sowing seed, the word of God. {There’s your sermon for the day~ smile~}

Much love, friends. You bless me immensely!
AJ

January 4, 2012

2 Comments

Filed Under: Faith

What to do when the storm won’t pass

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THE CAULDRON OF HOME LIFE BOILED OVER and I spilled too, making a mess and scalding little hearts and I wondered when I will ever get it right.

Evening came and so did the storms again, one right after another. We huddled together on the couch, listening to the sirens screech their warning and sang “Your Name is a strong and mighty tower….”

When the kids could stay up no longer, we put them to bed and risked turning on the computer to check the news.

“There’s been nothing like this,” they said, “one system after the other, with no breaks, no rest, no relief.”

From Mississippi to Ohio, the question’s on everyone’s mind:  “Will the levee’s hold?”

We can sandbag and pitch water with a pail, but we need those levees. We can minimize the loss, we can replace broken windows and clean up debris, but we need those levees to hold.

I finally fall into bed, storm tossed from the inside out, teary eyed and worn. I wonder how much more I can take of these storms that have been stretching one after another. These storms our family has been weathering going on four years now.

“Can You hear me, God?” I ask, and laugh at the absurdity of it. “Really hear me? Because I don’t know up from down anymore. I don’t know right from wrong, I have no idea what to do.”

Lightning flashes bright through the wood blinds and thunder shakes the light bulbs in the vanity. I beg a few hours sleep before my shift starts again.

In the morning I drive oldest to school. He is strangely quiet, except to ask, “Why is it so dark, Mom?”

“The storm clouds are so thick son, it blocks the sun. The beams can hardly get through.”

We pass by ponds swollen to overflowing, trees knocked down, see broken car windows.

Storms do their damage. Boiling cauldrons burn straight over.

We drive by the lake with the overflow tanks, the tanks that have been pumping water under the road to the back up pond for weeks. Even the overflow is backed up, unable to handle anymore. The water laps the edge of the road, hungry to devour pavement.

“Much more rain and this road is going to flood. They’re gonna have to close the road down.” I mutter it to myself. I feel my own backup tanks overflowing. I feel the flood waters lapping at the edges, the panic rising of being swept completely away.

I feel the maxed overflows and the stressed levees and the storms that won’t stop coming and the sirens that won’t stop screeching.

I wonder how much more I can take. I wonder if the levees will hold.

I drive home, back over the road that gets closed an hour later. I think of the white picket fence Christianity I had for so long. Oh, it looked good, girl. It looked good.

Then the storms started and pushed that thing clean over. There is nothing cute about me anymore, and maybe I’d mourn the loss except losing that version of Christianity wasn’t a bad thing…just shocking for others who looked at me and expected to see the white picket fence, perhaps.

As I ponder these things, open and bare before God, hidden no longer behind cute facades, I hear His voice, a rumble deep within, quite unexpectedly.

“Your levee’s gonna hold, my girl. Your levee’s gonna hold.”

And He opens my eyes and I see so clearly the storms of testing, the tearing away of all worthless, the strengthening of the Foundation.

The Levee’s gonna hold.

The storm may leave some tossed trees. The overflow may max out, the boiling cauldron may spill over every now and then. The living room may flood and the roof get torn sheer off.

But the Levee’s gonna hold.

They call at 10am, saying roads are impassable and schools are closing. It was inevitable.

But the Levee’s gonna hold.

Right there in the middle of the storm, mingled with torrent of rain on a few inches of soaked soil on a planet spinning in perfect orbit, a few salty, grateful tears.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the Rock.” Matthew 7:24-25

 

It’s raining today and I’m thinking about the Levee that holds. Repost from April of this year.

November 16, 2011

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Filed Under: Faith, God Provides

When you wonder what exactly God wants from you

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4:54am and His voice comes softly, awakening me. “Understand what the will of the Lord is.”

I lay under warm mountain for awhile, pondering these words, especially in light of yesterday’s word, “Keep yourself in the love of God.”

I think of how my traditional upbringing taught me to understand the will of God in terms of “Glorifying God” and “Obeying His commandments.”

Surely these are a part of His will.

But His words invite me to find articulation for what He has been revealing to me over a period of time. His will is not primarily the things I do.

For the next 3 days I pour over scriptures, getting Husband’s help using the Logos Bible study software pastors and missionaries use. Slowly, articulation comes.

“Will” is “thelema” in the Greek. It means desire, pleasure, intent. It is what One wishes or has determined shall be done. It is Christ slain before the foundation of the world. In short, it is the purpose of God to bless mankind through Christ.

How skewed we are when we think of God’s will simply in terms of what He desires from us! I must discipline self to think first in terms of His intent towards me.

Ephesians 1 is a gold mine for discovering God’s desire, pleasure, and intentions towards me. His will is “kind intentions” and “lavish grace.”

It is His will to bless me with every spiritual blessing,

to choose me,

to consider me holy and blameless,

to adopt me,

to redeem me,

to forgive me all my transgressions,

to make me the recipient of His lavish grace,

to give me all wisdom and insight into His heart for me,

to give me an inheritance,

to grant me the fullness of His Spririt,

to rescue me from the domain of darkness and transfer me to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1),

to reconcile me to Himself,

to make me at peace with Him,

These things I “know,” but thinking of them in terms of His will for me adds dimension to the knowledge and empowers me in new ways.

After three days of searching, pondering, asking, it comes down to this phrase from Colossians 4:12, “Stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”

This can be breath, blood, and life. As kids wake up and need me and Husband does too and I feel too broken and weak to give them what they deserve, I stand perfect on these words, “Fully assured in all the will of God. ” HE IS FOR ME.

As I dress tired, whiny child, I can do this. I can love and bless and give and pour out, because I am fully assured in all the will of God for me.

As older child grumbles about changing shirt, I can do this. I can take aside and breathe life words into him, exhort him to live up to his identity in Christ as beloved child.

As time presses and stress rises and lunches need packing and dress pants need ironing and children scatter toys, I can do this. I can focus on what really matters and stand perfect, fully assured in all the will of God for me.

Today is going to be a great day.

Repost from last November Can’t believe I missed Arabah’s one year mark~ smile~

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November 8, 2011

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Filed Under: Faith, Grace, In Christ I am...

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