At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses is finishing his farewell speech. He has led the Israelites for forty years, as they wandered in the desert as a result of their disobedience. Moses will not be joining them in the Promised Land because he, too, has sinned and God will not allow him to enter the Land, though God will take him to the mountain top so he can see it.
After Moses "re-gives" the Law, he lists the blessings and curses that God promises. Last night as I read through them, I was surprised by the length of the curses list. Not that it was as long as it is, but that it is so much longer than the blessings. God lists every possible calamity you can think of -- indeed, He promises that it will be so if (when) the Israelites are disobedient. I was overwhelmed by the utter devastation.
Ah, but when you are in a tough spot of Scripture, keep reading! There is always hope!
Deuteronomy 30: 1-3
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lordyour God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
*
*
*
Yesterday my students were continuing to read through Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Billie Jo's Ma has been badly burned and has pushed the hardship of the drought (the Dust Bowl) from their minds, at least for awhile. Billie Jo went out to get water from the pump.
And the locusts came.
Ate everything, even the apples on Ma's apple trees. Billie Jo says,
I couldn't tell her,
couldn't bring myself to say
her apples were gone.
I never got the chance.
Ma died that day
giving birth to my brother.
Oh, the heartache! The devastation! The utter loss!
But then I had my students look up some Bible verses:
Psalm 42:5 (and 11)
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
I love the way God repeats things that He really wants us to remember, such as vs. 5 and vs. 11. But the idea of hope is also repeated throughout Scripture:
Genesis 3 : the fall of Man -- God promises a Savior
Jesus dying on the Cross -- on the third day He rose again!
And the end of it all: Revelation 19-21 -- after Armeggedon comes the New Jerusalem!
There is always HOPE!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Malachi
I heard a blurb on the radio this past week about the way Malachi can be summed up in one fell swoop. The speaker read chapter 3 verse 6:
"I the LORD do not change. So you, descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."
That is a comforting thought. No matter what I do, God doesn't change. No matter what nightmares occur in the world around me, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
*
*
*
What also strikes me is the placement of this truth. It is not the only time in Scripture God tells us He is unchanging. Immutable, as the theologians would have it.
But He tells us again in Malachi. The last book of the Old Testament. The last bit before the age of Grace begins with Jesus's death and resurrection. The last words before God stops speaking for 400 years.
"OK, people, you won't hear from me for awhile. Here it is, nice and clear and concise so you don't forget: I, the LORD, don't change. And that is so you won't be destroyed."
If you knew you would not see this or that person ever again, what would you say? We use that concept at graduations and saying good-bye to loved ones. What are the last things we want them to know? I love you...I'm proud of you...be good...
God wants us to know: I never change.
You can count on that!
"I the LORD do not change. So you, descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."
That is a comforting thought. No matter what I do, God doesn't change. No matter what nightmares occur in the world around me, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
*
*
*
What also strikes me is the placement of this truth. It is not the only time in Scripture God tells us He is unchanging. Immutable, as the theologians would have it.
But He tells us again in Malachi. The last book of the Old Testament. The last bit before the age of Grace begins with Jesus's death and resurrection. The last words before God stops speaking for 400 years.
"OK, people, you won't hear from me for awhile. Here it is, nice and clear and concise so you don't forget: I, the LORD, don't change. And that is so you won't be destroyed."
If you knew you would not see this or that person ever again, what would you say? We use that concept at graduations and saying good-bye to loved ones. What are the last things we want them to know? I love you...I'm proud of you...be good...
God wants us to know: I never change.
You can count on that!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
orphan souls
Once upon a time, I was lost. Lost like Hansel and Gretyl. Lost like the TV show. Lost like a valuable jewel under the seat cushions.
Psalm 119 says, "I have strayed like a lost sheep." God promises in Ezekiel 34 that he will "search for the lost and bring back the strays." I believe that one of the ways he does that is to use believers to reach out to others who are lost.
Right now, and for the next few days, KLOVE is having its spring pledge drive. I am always blessed and encouraged by the stories that are shared about how God is working through this radio station to reach people. Last year, from January to December 2012, more than 10,000 people got saved! They were lost and now they are found!
This year during pledge drive, KLOVE is working with Shoes for Orphan Souls, an organization that brings new shoes and socks to orphans around the world (including the US) who are without shoes. There are over 143 MILLION children without shoes.
But it isn't simply a lack of shoes. That lack means no access to education; no education leads to a cycle of poverty. So, providing these children with shoes can dramatically change their lives!
Not only that, but as the workers from Shoes for Orphan Souls wash their tender little feet and gently put on fuzzy socks and new shoes, they also share the Gospel with the children. Orphans who own nothing and are alone are told the wonderful promises of God:
Psalm 27:10 -- Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Galatians 4:4-7 -- But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
And if I have been blessed with shoes and sonship, how can I not also give to encourage orphans?
James 1:27 -- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Psalm 119 says, "I have strayed like a lost sheep." God promises in Ezekiel 34 that he will "search for the lost and bring back the strays." I believe that one of the ways he does that is to use believers to reach out to others who are lost.
Right now, and for the next few days, KLOVE is having its spring pledge drive. I am always blessed and encouraged by the stories that are shared about how God is working through this radio station to reach people. Last year, from January to December 2012, more than 10,000 people got saved! They were lost and now they are found!
This year during pledge drive, KLOVE is working with Shoes for Orphan Souls, an organization that brings new shoes and socks to orphans around the world (including the US) who are without shoes. There are over 143 MILLION children without shoes.
But it isn't simply a lack of shoes. That lack means no access to education; no education leads to a cycle of poverty. So, providing these children with shoes can dramatically change their lives!
Not only that, but as the workers from Shoes for Orphan Souls wash their tender little feet and gently put on fuzzy socks and new shoes, they also share the Gospel with the children. Orphans who own nothing and are alone are told the wonderful promises of God:
Psalm 27:10 -- Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Galatians 4:4-7 -- But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
And if I have been blessed with shoes and sonship, how can I not also give to encourage orphans?
James 1:27 -- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
I Own This
Ownership. I own a car. I own my clothes. I own lots of books!
Do I own my faith? Have I taken possession of it? Do I say, as I do of my books, "Those are mine"?
Colossians 2: 6-10:
Do I own my faith? Have I taken possession of it? Do I say, as I do of my books, "Those are mine"?
Colossians 2: 6-10:
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
Make your choices so that your life reflects what you know is True. Do not listen to the world.
One version of the Bible uses the phrase "walk with Christ." What does that mean, exactly? It implies consistency. Day after day, year after year. A rooted tree doesn't go anywhere. It stands where it is planted. Mixing my Bible verses, here: a tree planted by streams of living water will be fruitful, and that stream is the Word.
I want to possess my faith and let everyone know they cannot take it from me! The choice is mine, and I have made it.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
It is Finished
"I'm finished!" The little boy who is trying to hide his peas under his napkin. He's not really finished; he's just hoping Mom will overlook it this time. And it doesn't matter that this tactic hasn't worked in the past. He'll try it every time!
*
*
*
"Finished!" The relieved college student after the last final exam. Finished the task, but the results are still up in the air...
*
*
*
"Finished!" The weary mom who has put the kids to bed and done the dishes and swept the floor and picked up the toys and put away the laundry...just in time to fall into bed and get up tomorrow and do it all over, because a mother's work is never done!
*
*
*
"It is finished," Jesus said as He breathed His last breath, hanging on a blood-soaked cross between two thieves, the final stage in a horrific and humiliating process. Unlike the boy and his peas, Jesus isn't trying to hide anything; it is what it is -- these sinful people made in God's image are unable to save themselves, so someone has to do it for them. And unlike the college student, the results are a foregone conclusion -- God promised a Savior. Jesus is it, so when the sacrifice is made, that is the end of it. And unlike the weary mom, it is finished. It doesn't need to be done again tomorrow.
It is finished.
*
*
*
"Finished!" The relieved college student after the last final exam. Finished the task, but the results are still up in the air...
*
*
*
"Finished!" The weary mom who has put the kids to bed and done the dishes and swept the floor and picked up the toys and put away the laundry...just in time to fall into bed and get up tomorrow and do it all over, because a mother's work is never done!
*
*
*
"It is finished," Jesus said as He breathed His last breath, hanging on a blood-soaked cross between two thieves, the final stage in a horrific and humiliating process. Unlike the boy and his peas, Jesus isn't trying to hide anything; it is what it is -- these sinful people made in God's image are unable to save themselves, so someone has to do it for them. And unlike the college student, the results are a foregone conclusion -- God promised a Savior. Jesus is it, so when the sacrifice is made, that is the end of it. And unlike the weary mom, it is finished. It doesn't need to be done again tomorrow.
It is finished.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The Wedge
A grizzled old man in a red plaid flannel shirt and work-stained trousers is at the chopping block. The tree is long since gone; only a two-foot wide stump remains, cut so as to be the perfect height to chop wood. He selects a piece of log and places it flat on the stump. He uses a wedge-shaped tool, an ax, to break through the log. The ax goes up. The ax comes down.
The log is split in two.
It is exactly what the old man wants: a log that will easily fit in his fireplace to bring warmth through the winter.
But the results of a spiritual wedge are less comforting than a fireplace full of logs, even though the concept is the same.
A wedge is a simple machine, a tool that is wider at one end. It can be made of wood or metal, although an ax is always metal, of course. The purpose: to incrementally increase the space between two things. The old man's wedge increases the space between the left side of the log and the right side.
My spiritual wedge increases the space between me and God.
What is my wedge? For me, it is entertainment. I love to read, and while I try to avoid smut, even reading innocuous drivel will separate me from God if I read too much of it. Too much TV. Reaching for comfort food instead of for God's comfort. Even relationships that are based on complaining or defeatism instead of encouragement and mutual growth can be a wedge.
Romans 12:2 talks about separation, separation from the things of the world. I must separate myself from the Wedges. But separation from the Wedge is not enough.
I must also change my thinking. "Renewing your mind" means that it gets old and needs to be made new again. Reading the Word, meditating and memorizing and studying it, will renew my mind.
Again.
And again.
So that God and I are not split in two.
The log is split in two.
It is exactly what the old man wants: a log that will easily fit in his fireplace to bring warmth through the winter.
But the results of a spiritual wedge are less comforting than a fireplace full of logs, even though the concept is the same.
A wedge is a simple machine, a tool that is wider at one end. It can be made of wood or metal, although an ax is always metal, of course. The purpose: to incrementally increase the space between two things. The old man's wedge increases the space between the left side of the log and the right side.
My spiritual wedge increases the space between me and God.
What is my wedge? For me, it is entertainment. I love to read, and while I try to avoid smut, even reading innocuous drivel will separate me from God if I read too much of it. Too much TV. Reaching for comfort food instead of for God's comfort. Even relationships that are based on complaining or defeatism instead of encouragement and mutual growth can be a wedge.
Romans 12:2 talks about separation, separation from the things of the world. I must separate myself from the Wedges. But separation from the Wedge is not enough.
I must also change my thinking. "Renewing your mind" means that it gets old and needs to be made new again. Reading the Word, meditating and memorizing and studying it, will renew my mind.
Again.
And again.
So that God and I are not split in two.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
belonging
I have writtn several times about knowing, being known. Belonging is on the same wavelength and no less common to all mankind, no less a desire of every heart. We want to belong to someone, something.
I see this daily with my middle school students. Clothes and music and activities and even the words they speak are shouting out, "Where do I fit? Where do I belong?" As 12 and 13 year olds, they are beginning to see and understand that they belong to a world bigger than themselves. Younger children know they are part of a family, but in the middle years these young people are seeking friendship and acceptance outside of family.
This week we watched Newsies, a live-action Disney musical from the early nineties. I love this movie! I was explaining to my students how Jack is learning that he is part of a family that is broader than family; his mother is dead and his father is in jail, but these newsies are his family: the older ones protect and fight for the younger ones, and they all back each other up. At one point Jack says, "I'm not used to having it matter to anyone whether I stay or I go, and I'm not saying it should matter to you...but does it? Matter?" He is speaking to The Girl at that point, but it is my belief that when he decides, in the end, to stay, it is as much for the other boys as for her.
I explained to my students that modern gangs are much the same as that pack of newsies. In cities where poverty runs rampant and drugs or work -- or any number of things -- keep parents from being engaged in the lives of their children, those young people seek belonging wherever they can find it. Gangs provide that: you belong with us, and no one will mess with you as long as we're around, and you always have a place here. And just like my students will wear and listen to and watch what helps them fit in with the group, members of gangs do whatever it takes to keep that belonging. But with so little to hope for, their stakes are much higher.
God wants Christians to provide that hope, that belonging.
Galatians 3:26 - 29:
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
For several years now I have been battling a disease that causes chronic pain, fatigue, and despair. And yet I can rejoice in it because God has shown His love to me through His people. I know I belong to something bigger and greater than myself because these Christians, these friends, this family of God, bring me meals, help me get to the doctor, clean my house, and generally make me feel loved.
Like I belong.
And I am grateful.
*
*
*
Detroit is a city with little hope and much darkness. It is a despair that I, in my sheltered, albeit pained, existence find hard to comprehend. But it is no less dark because I can't understand it.
KLOVE and World Hope are working to turn that around. Please read about and pray for the upcoming Hope Center in Detroit! http://www.klove.com/ministry/featured.aspx
I see this daily with my middle school students. Clothes and music and activities and even the words they speak are shouting out, "Where do I fit? Where do I belong?" As 12 and 13 year olds, they are beginning to see and understand that they belong to a world bigger than themselves. Younger children know they are part of a family, but in the middle years these young people are seeking friendship and acceptance outside of family.
This week we watched Newsies, a live-action Disney musical from the early nineties. I love this movie! I was explaining to my students how Jack is learning that he is part of a family that is broader than family; his mother is dead and his father is in jail, but these newsies are his family: the older ones protect and fight for the younger ones, and they all back each other up. At one point Jack says, "I'm not used to having it matter to anyone whether I stay or I go, and I'm not saying it should matter to you...but does it? Matter?" He is speaking to The Girl at that point, but it is my belief that when he decides, in the end, to stay, it is as much for the other boys as for her.
I explained to my students that modern gangs are much the same as that pack of newsies. In cities where poverty runs rampant and drugs or work -- or any number of things -- keep parents from being engaged in the lives of their children, those young people seek belonging wherever they can find it. Gangs provide that: you belong with us, and no one will mess with you as long as we're around, and you always have a place here. And just like my students will wear and listen to and watch what helps them fit in with the group, members of gangs do whatever it takes to keep that belonging. But with so little to hope for, their stakes are much higher.
God wants Christians to provide that hope, that belonging.
Galatians 3:26 - 29:
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
For several years now I have been battling a disease that causes chronic pain, fatigue, and despair. And yet I can rejoice in it because God has shown His love to me through His people. I know I belong to something bigger and greater than myself because these Christians, these friends, this family of God, bring me meals, help me get to the doctor, clean my house, and generally make me feel loved.
Like I belong.
And I am grateful.
*
*
*
Detroit is a city with little hope and much darkness. It is a despair that I, in my sheltered, albeit pained, existence find hard to comprehend. But it is no less dark because I can't understand it.
KLOVE and World Hope are working to turn that around. Please read about and pray for the upcoming Hope Center in Detroit! http://www.klove.com/ministry/featured.aspx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)