Can we Pick and Choose?

I have been reading in Leviticus this week.  It is so fun when you read a book that you know you have read before but it seems as if you have never read it.  I love that scripture is alive and it is fresh and new every time you read it.

Basically Leviticus is a book of laws.  It is funny that while reading it I say, "that's right, uh huh, no kidding, well is that really true now?"  I am questioning one law that is in the midst of others that I agree with.  I am a person like the apostle Thomas.  I like to know the reason.  I like to see the proof. (I can't wait to meet Thomas.  I think he has gotten a bad rap.  Today, we would call him practical.)

For example, in Leviticus 18:  You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, do not have sex with your mother or your sister or your granddaughter, do not have sex with your stepsister or your father's sister, do not have sex with your daughter-in-law or your brother's wife, do not have sex with both a woman and her daughter, do not have sex with a woman during her period.  I see a long list of things I agree with and one I wonder about the why not.  For the others I understand the reason, but for this one I don't understand the reason why?

Another example, in Leviticus 19:  Honor your father and mother, do not steal, observe my sabbath days of rest, do not spread slanderous gossip, do not practice witchcraft, do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards, do not cut your bodies, do not mark your bodies with tattoos.  In my head I am saying, "of course, yes, okay I will go to church but I still need to do some laundry, this is hurtful, never, why can't a person shave, I would never cut my body--okay once I became blood brothers with my neighbor, I would never get a tattoo. 

You see, I am picking and choosing the ones to follow, just as all of us do.  We somehow think that we are better than God.  That we can interpret the good from the bad, the evil from the holy.  The problem is that we can't.  We start by justifying one of the laws written and soon we are compromising far more that we ever thought possible.

Let's consider the command to do no work on the Sabbath. (I know that Jesus said that we could do good on the Sabbath--Luke 14:5  Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath?  If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don't you rush to get him out?)  It starts out that we do some laundry,  then we let our son go to his soccer game, and then our daughter has a ballet recital, soon we don't have time to go to church today because it is Grandma's birthday party, or we don't have time to go during football season, next we are only going to church on Easter and Christmas, and since we no longer pray at home we think that it is okay for us not to have prayer in school, and finally we take God out of our government and out of our lives. 

God knows people.  He knows that once we slide down the slippery slope that we will never be able to climb out of the pit we are in.

Lord, help me not to compromise.  Help me to obey all your commands.  Jesus said in John 14:21, "Those who accept My commandments and obey them are the ones who love Me."  Lord Jesus, I love you!  I will obey you.  Help me in my obedience.

Thankfulness

What is thankfulness? Can a person be thankful in their own heart without out showing an outward manifestation?  Is it possible to be thankful without expressing who you are thankful to?

A person gives you a gift and you accept it.  The gift was thoughtful; encouraging; or generous; and you really like the gift.  But you never tell the person. What is the benefit to you?

Thankfulness lets the person know.  It blesses them that they have blessed you.  Why would you want to take away the blessing from them by never telling them how much their gift meant to you?  By telling them you are not only blessing them, but blessing yourself.  You are giving the gift of blessing back. 

God wants us to be thankful to him.  We can be thankful in our hearts, but we not only bless God but we bless ourselves when we express our thankfulness to Him.  Expressing our thankfulness to God gives us great joy.

How can we express our thankfulness to God?  Start the simplest way...just tell Him.  A quiet conversation, a letter, a song, a dance, a shout.  There are so many things in life that we should be thankful for, but do we ever tell God?

I am thankful for... the wonderful, God-fearing man that I married; my two fabulous kids who make my life complete; our pets, who give us great joy and laughter; my extended family, our parents--who taught us to be good people and to love God, our brothers--who are always there for us, their wives--who have made our brothers better, and my nieces and nephews--who were my first babies and my children's friends; my church family and the relationships that we have with them; for great friendships, especially the ones that I can talk to about my walk with God; my job, which I acknowledge is a place where I love to spend my time; my coworkers, who teach me how to be a better stylist and how to be a family; my clients, who I love and who get to share life stories with; my country, which is founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ; my life, which was given back to me after birth through the prayers of my parents; my home, which is beautiful and full of love; my car that lets me take passengers to church, to parks, and to friends; and much, much more that I will continue to share.

But mostly, I am thankful to God.  He is the source of my everything.  He is my love, my savior, my father, my friend, my companion, my champion, my hero, my encourager, my deliverer, my refuge, and my hope.  I commit all I am to You, Lord, because I cannot live this life without you.  Thank you for making me your child.

Thanks Be to God: It is not up to me

What This World Needs by Casting Crowns
Songwriters: Cervantes, Hector; Hall, Mark;

 People aren't confused by the gospel
They're confused by us
Jesus is the only way to God
But we are not the only way to Jesus

But we can't strap ourselves to the gospel
'Cause we're slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way

I invited guests to church.  I know where they normally attend.  I make assumptions about their walk with Christ.  I think I know who they are; after all, they are my guests. The service proceeds and I find myself talking to God, or anyone else who is listening:  No, don't say that.  My guests are not going to understand that.  Please, don't go there.  And then I catch myself and I realize what I am doing.  I am trying to manipulate God and control how he ministers to my guests.  I immediately repent.  I am ashamed.

God, I am so sorry. 
I am sorry for thinking that I know these guests more than you.  You, Lord, know everything about them. Ps 119:168 "For all my ways are known to you." 
I am sorry for thinking that I love these guests more than you.  You, Lord, love them enough that you would send your perfect son to die for them. 1 Jn 4:9 "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."
I am sorry for thinking that I can lead them to salvation.  You, Lord, you draw them to yourself.  Jn 6:44 "No one can come to me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent me draws him." Lord, you don't need me.  I am a vessel.  You, Lord, give me the privilege of praying and witnessing to my guests; to God be the Glory.

I have to remind myself that even though I love people, and even though I strongly want them to except the truth of the Gospel of Christ, that my love for others comes from God. 1Jn 4:7 "Let us love one another, for love is of God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."  God loves us more than we can possibly imagine.  We cannot comprehend the greatness of his love.  Paul prayed,  in Eph 3:17-19, that "we would know in our hearts through faith, being rooted and grounded in love, that we would be able to comprehend how wide, and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And more than that: that we would be filled with the fullness of God."

I am so grateful to God for giving me this love for other people.  I am grateful to God for giving me a burden for souls.  I am so grateful to God that I am not doing this on my own.  It is God in me who gives me this love, this burden, and above all this hope for what is to come.

David's Dance

 In 2 Sam 6:21-22 David says, " I was dancing before the Lord...I celebrate before the Lord.  Yes I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!"

His dance before the Lord was so bold, daring even, that his wife called him disgusting, shameless, and vulgar.

I wonder what this dance looked like.  But even more I wonder what I would look like, feel like, to express my love to God in worship uninhibited.   Sometimes in church I am compelled to kneel down, to jump up, to raise my hands, to shout, to hug others.  Yet, I don't.  I am always aware of who is around me.  I don't want to draw attention to myself.  I don't want people to judge me, either positive or negative.  But, mostly I don't want my worship of God to be misinterpreted by those around me.  I don't want people to think that I think I am somehow better or more holy. 

At home I put on praise music, and pray, and try to put myself in that same place I feel when I am at church.  But, there is something different in the feeling I get when I am with other believers.  I feel more aware of God and the desire is stronger at church to let myself worship how I see fit.  At home, where I have the freedom to be myself, with no one around to judge, it is not the same.  There is a reason that God wants us to gather together in corporate prayer and worship each week.  We are better when we are together. 

I envy David.  He may have been humiliated in his own eyes, but he danced anyway.  He could not contain the love, thankfulness, and joy he was experiencing.  I am thankful that God knows my heart.  I pray that God would make me a Bold, Courageous, and Obedient Servant of His Word.

A Lesson in Friendship

I am reading 1 Sam 18 where the relationship between Jonathan, the King's son, and David, God's anointed King, is first described. Verse 1 says there was an immediate bond between them, and that Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.

Thinking ahead to the next chapters I know that Jonathan is a good man.  He knows the Lord and his power to do mighty things through the people who serve Him (1 Sam 14).  Jonathan protects David from his father's anger and jealousy many times.

I wonder why the Lord chose David to be King over the heir apparent--Jonathan.  It seems to me that Jonathan also is a man after God's own heart.  Oh how grateful I am that I am not God.  What my mind and my heart see in other people is not what God sees.   I am grateful that God can look at each of us and know who we are; what we long to be; and who we serve.

I too have had a few friends in my life with whom I have had an instant bond.  I am most grateful to God for the gift he has given me, their friendship, and I look forward with joy to all the time we will spend together in eternity.


In thinking back to days gone by, I am reminded of the many times in my life when sin was rampant: high school, and my early marriage.  I am looking at the friendships that I had at the time.  In high school, I had lost my best friend and was desperately trying to fit in.  I hung out with my brother and his friends, or studied.  Youth group was a thing of the past, and I had lost all contact with most of my youth group due to class choice differences.  I was a friend to no one in particular. In my early marriage I was also alone. My best friend did not want to be married to me anymore and I had yet to find a church to my liking. I had moved away from the city I was raised in and although I made friends quickly they seldom lasted more than 6 months.

Likewise, I think back on my life to times where I was strongly committed to God: catechism and youth group, and the past five years.  In catechism and youth group we had a core group of 6-10 kids that met every week at least 2 times a week in fellowship and studying the word of God. These were friends that were committed to God and to each other.  When the group ended, so did most of the friendships, however these are special people that I want to know about their lives via Facebook and reunions. Again, in the last five years, I am dedicated to God and all that He has for me.  My deep and abiding friendships are with people that share my same faith and encourage me to grow in Christ. I know that I can count on them for support and they will always tell me the truth.  They love me, despite my sins, or my flaws, and I love them.

2 Minutes Left

You know that your dream is more than a dream when you can't stop thinking about it. I have had a few prophetic dreams but this one is a whopper. 

My dream starts out and the world is compartmentalized.  Like one giant row of adjoining rooms.  There are people in every room just talking to each other or working in each of the rooms.

I am drawn to a room where a few people are looking at a map, or some kind of canvas that they have unrolled like a map, and the people are trying to decipher some kind of code that is written onto it. Finally, they decipher the code and tell me that it is imperative that I hurry and tell the others in the other compartments that we only have two minutes left until the end, and then it will be too late.

So, I rush out and I am trying to get peoples attention to tell them that they must accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior; they only have two minutes to accept the truth that Jesus died for their sins.  I am yelling at the top of my voice begging people to listen to me, but they won't listen.  They keep on working and talking and barely give me a glance.

The other people from the decoding room have gone to other rooms to tell people as well, but they too are getting little response from the people. 

Gladly, a few people hear the message we are giving and they too, frantically, try to tell others in additional rooms.

I feel despair and hopelessness, because no one will listen to my warning.

God must be so crushed that we won't listen to his voice when he is calling us, drawing us to himself. 

The Minor Prophets

I just read the minor prophets again for the third time this year.  I am struck by how many times that God says he is going to correct/punish various nations because they will not obey his commands and refuse to repent and turn back to God. 

I have heard that God no longer punishes the nations; that the punishment was only in the old testament.  But I keep reading the minor prophets and I see devestating natural disasters that have come upon contries in this last year and I have to question what I have been taught.  It seems that God is still punishing nations in order to make them respond to him by repenting and turning back and putting their hope in Him again.  My question is, is it working?  Are their hearts too hard to listen and hear the cry of God to return to Him?

I pray for the people in the United States and all over the world.  Please repent...head the discipline of God and obey His commands.  Do not conform to this world but obey the commands of God.