Author: tracy

Today’s reading is 2 Cor 8

Today we get to look at a pretty straight forward but very rich text. I am a person who loves to give gifts. I find so much joy in seeing someone light up with excitement when I have found the perfect trinket for that person. I love purchasing gifts that make people laugh because of a mutual experience we have shared and the gift is a reminder of that event. I even enjoy gifting people with help (mostly food, flowers or some manual labor) or a gift of time listening to their worries, sadnesses or problems. Even as a natural born gifter, I am challenged by Paul’s words in this chapter of Corinthians to evaluate my willingness and generosity around giving.

I want to look at a list of the directions Paul gives us in this chapter.

1-vs 3, Give not only what you can afford, but far more.

2-vs 3, Give of your own free will.

3-vs 4, Ask over and over for the privilege of sharing with others.

4-vs 5, Do more than others hope for.

5-vs 7, Excel in the gracious act of giving.

6-vs 8,Our genuine love for others is shown by our level of generosity.

7-vs 9, Jesus is the ultimate example of generosity because He left the riches of heaven, but for our sakes became poor, so that His poverty could make us rich.

8-vs 10-11, Finish the gift that you start giving. Complete your commitments.

9-vs 11, Give in proportion to what you have.

10-vs 12, Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly.

11-vs 13, Our giving shouldn’t make life easy for others and hard for ourselves.

12-vs 16-24, If you are in the position of handling or managing other people’s gifts, make sure that you bring at least one other person along to be sure there is no chance for mismanagement. Make sure that the people whose gifts you manage have complete faith in your system of checks and balances, so the gifters have assurance that their full gift is ending up where they expect it to be.

I love this list! It challenges me to think differently when I am giving of myself. Read through the list again and see which ones affect your heart. Take a few seconds to sit with each one and check yourself for compliance. Today, the one that hit me is, “Do more than others hope for”. I like it because it is simple and with a little thought or a small gesture it would be easy for me to accomplish this one. How much sweeter would my life be if every day I looked for a way to do more for one person than they hope for? (If I choose someone who expects nothing of me, this gets really simple!) It can be as small as a smile or a greeting to anyone you come into contact with. If I choose someone in my home, how much more appreciated or loved will my family feel if they get some help they were not expecting? If I can add number 10 to number 4 and do whatever I am doing for others eagerly, what kind of an impact can it make in others lives? My ultimate goal is to be like Christ. Willing to leave the riches of heaven to come to earth so our lives could be purchased and then we get to experience the riches of heaven. If this is my standard, my goal…doesn’t giving a little more of my time, energy, and resources seem almost trivial?

I’ll end with one quick last thought. As I read a commentary on this passage in preparation for writing today one sentence kind of stabbed me in the heart. It said,” Best wishes, good intentions, desire and eager willingness are no substitute for good deeds”. So often I hear of a situation or know about a need or struggle of a friend, and can’t find time in my “busy” schedule to do the thing that God is asking me to do for that person. My desire to help someone does NOTHING for their need. I actually have to DO something!

Today’s reading is 1 Cor 11

At first glance our chapter today seems to be dealing with some rather strange topics. Does God really care if I cover my head, wear my hair long or short, or have a meal with friends? If we read this chapter literally and don’t look a bit deeper into it’s meaning and purpose, we might walk away thinking we need to make some changes in our appearance. I’m pretty sure that God is way more interested in my heart and my motives than how I wear my hair. So what is the point? What is God getting at in this passage?

In the first 16 verses of this chapter, Paul is using some pretty persuasive writing to the Corinthians to help them understand what was expected of them during worship. Looking at vs 16, it is pretty clear that Paul is dealing with an issue that is a cultural custom in this passage. It seems that the Corinthian women were in the process of working out their freedom in Christ and ended up making some choices that missed the mark of God’s intentions. The cultural custom around head coverings and hair length were in place to help everyone remember that God was the Head of the church and that men were heads of the family unit. When the Corinthian women threw off their head coverings, they were going beyond their freedom in Christ. In essence they were saying by this action that there is no authority, which is a self-serving attitude. Because the Corinthians were pursuing self-interests, they were unwilling to subordinate themselves to the needs of others, and worse, they were placing themselves above God. Now we are getting into some territory that speaks to me and continues to be prevalent in our culture today. This principle behind the head covering issue is something that all people throughout time have struggled with and faced no matter what the cultural norm has looked like.

So the last 17 verses of this passage deal with the Lord’s Supper. It seems that back during early church time, the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal. When the people gathered to worship, part of that worship time was sharing a meal together. It looks like this was getting twisted enough in the Corinthian church that it was actually producing the exact opposite results than it was intended to produce. It appears that just as we sometimes struggle today, the Corinthians were separating by friend groups, forming cliques and eating fancy meals together with their friends, while other people were hurt because they were left out, maybe because they couldn’t afford such an elaborate version of the meal. The Lord’s Supper represents the most selfless and giving act ever known. The Corinthians were, and we are called to partake in this meal to remember the selfless gift of Christ taking our place, paying the price for our sin. Instead of a unifying remembrance of a selfless act, they turned it into a selfish time of fun with friends to the exclusion of others. They were actually doing more harm than good.

As I read this passage and think on the ways that these Christians got off track, I sometimes wish that I had Paul as a personal friend and that he would send me letters pointing out the places I have twisted God’s truth, and missed the mark trying to live by God’s principles. I tell myself that it would be so much easier to know where I am messing up if I got direct instructions in a letter like so many of the people in the new testament did. (The truth is that I would probably melt into a puddle of shame if that actually happened!) The good news is that we have a loving God who knows our hearts and minds. He knows us perfectly and knows how we learn best and at what pace we are able to make changes. He has also gifted us the Holy Spirit who is willing to point out our messes if we are brave enough to ask for help. Let’s choose today to take the time to ask God to show us where we are missing the mark. Let’s ask Him to show us the places in our lives where we are putting ourselves and our desires ahead of others needs, or worse Him.

Todays reading is Rom 14

This chapter in scripture is dealing with the freedom we have in making choices about how we live since we are no longer held to the specifications of the Jewish law for our salvation. Since Jesus gave His life to pay the price for our sin, we no longer have to follow the rules about making sacrifices to atone our sin. Just as our culture today is full of opinions and disagreements about what is sin and what is not sin, the people of the church in Rome were struggling with working out their new freedom (from the law) in Christ’s salvation since all the “rules” had just changed. I think it is important to note here that while the “system” of how we get to have relationship with God, changed drastically because of Christ, God didn’t change at all before, during or after the “system” change. He has loved us and longed for relationship with us since the beginning of time, and that will NEVER change!

So what does Paul have to say about these disagreements, or the deeper issue at hand, people judging and criticizing each other? First Paul says, “Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants?” God has accepted both groups of people and He will judge whether they stand or fall. (vs 4) It’s not up to us. He goes on to say in vs7 that, “We don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord.” Paul continues in vs 12 telling us that each of us will give a personal account to God, so let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. God wants us to look at our own hearts and check our motivations for why we are making the choices we are making, not be concerned with other people’s decisions. Furthermore, if we know that a freedom we are taking is causing another person to question their motives or decision then we should be willing to choose differently to help the other person along in their faith.

It seems to me that the crux of what Paul is trying to convey here is in vs 17-19. “ The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. “

Disagreements will arise. God didn’t lay out every possible sin in every possible situation so we would have a catalogue to refer to. He has shown us His character, written His principles in His word, and given us countless guidelines to test our situations and attitudes against. Our job is to search the scriptures for answers to questions on our own sin, while seeking God’s heart through relationship with Him. It’s not our job to judge, criticize, or shame others for their decisions. If we try to build each other up and aim to live in harmony, the relationships that are created through genuine love and care for others, just might foster relationships where the other person respects your opinion enough to ask you what lead you to the decision you made on an issue.

As we finished the book of Acts yesterday and reflect back over the book, I trust that you found the formation of the new church as exciting, refreshing and motivating as I did. I loved seeing lives change so quickly and dramatically as we witness Acts. I personally chose to follow God as a young child, and was raised in a home where Gods principles were the standard. Since I grew up in a relationship with Jesus (which I am so grateful for), sometimes I feel like I missed out on that radical adult life change that happens in some peoples lives when they meet Jesus mid life. I just love the example shown to us of the early church learning to function as one body instead of a bunch of individuals. Their willingness to sell what they owned, to have cash to meet others needs and care for those unable to care for themselves is so beautiful. Reading through their choices inspires, encourages and challenges me to be willing to live the same way.

So today I am given the opportunity to introduce our next book, Romans to you. The truth is that I am ill equipped for this project. Cosmetology school didn’t cover Romans, the Bible or even history for that mater so you are going to get to look at what I am able to root out of my commentaries about Romans. Hopefully I am able to find some little nugget that you didn’t already know. If not, then please get a head start on the book itself…God won’t let you down!!

It seems that it is widely accepted that Paul is the author of Romans. The two main purposes for writing this letter to the Roman church were to announce his upcoming visit and to present a detailed and complete statement of the gospel message. The believers in Rome had been on Paul’s heart and prayer list for a long time so he had a strong desire to visit with this group of believers. He was excited to share with them that he was finally getting to come. He also wanted to write to these people about the salvation that they all shared, to give a full and logical presentation of God’s plan for humans to be saved. He starts at the beginning with man’s sin and condemnation to the very end of God’s story where we are able to spend eternity in God’s presents, conformed to the image of Christ.

I’m going to copy a sentence from my commentary ( The Bible Knowledge Commentary by John F Walvoord and Roy B Zuck) as it is encouraging and brings hope for our next few weeks in the book of Romans.

“God’s program of salvation for people will not fail because it is His work, and “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” Phil 1:6”

No matter what I face today, I can rest in the fact that God’s plan of salvation will NOT fail! This beautiful promise is more than enough.

Today’s Reading is Acts 15

One of the hardest issues in my life right now is, how do I deal in a Godly way with people I disagree with? I know from our trip through the Gospels that God tells us to love everyone. But what does it actually look like to love someone you disagree with? I am wading through this with several people in my life, in relationships that are very dear to me. It seems wrong to disagree so strongly on issues with people I love who I know have a relationship with God and also love Him. We have relationship with the same God who has given all of us His Word, so shouldn’t we be able to figure out how to move forward when we disagree?

Today in Acts 15, we see two separate arguments or disagreements between four different parties, all who have deep relationship with God. All parties were serving God by leaving their lives behind and traveling to spread the Gospel to people who hadn’t yet heard it. These people are not just dabblers in their faith, not Sunday morning Christians, they have made a life out of sharing Gods story! These people are invested in God’s plan and are sacrificing themselves for His ministry. So how can this happen, how do they disagree on God’s plan?

The first argument is between some believers from Judea and Paul and Barnabas. The men from Judea believe that “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you can not be saved.” Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. So what are they to do? How do they solve this situation? In verses 2-7 we learn that some representatives from both sides of the argument travel to meet with more apostles and elders of the church to figure it out. In verse 7 it says, “ after a long discussion”. They did not find an easy answer, it was a long process and discussed from every angle, but eventually Peter stood and spoke the decision for the group. (Lets look at the solution to this particular problem first and then we can look at what we can learn from watching them work through their argument.) Peter said,” God knows peoples hearts, and He confirmed that He accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus”. First of all praise God that we who are not Jews are not held to their law for our salvation! Thank you Jesus that we are all saved by Your undeserved grace! Now back to our question at hand, how do these two parties deal with the argument? In this case, they got help. They went to a group of people who knew Jesus personally and got to the truth of God’s plan. The part that I wish we could see better is how the men from Judea reacted to this decision. Basically they lost this argument. The only clue that I can find is in verse 22. “The apostles, and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates to go out and report on this decision.” Obviously the Gentiles were encouraged and full of joy to hear this message, but we never really hear what happened to the men from Judea. Were they a part of “the church in Jerusalem” in spirit or were they frustrated and angry with the decision? I don’t know the answer.

The second argument in this chapter is between Paul and Barnabas. A team of preachers that God put together to spread His story, butts heads over whether they take John Mark on their next mission trip with them or not. Paul says no, he’s not trustworthy and Barnabas wants to take him. In verse 38 it says, “Paul disagreed strongly” and in 39 it says, “Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated”. Wow…who is right? Like in the conclusion of the last argument, I don’t know the answer. The only good I can see from this disagreement is that God ended up with two teams of preachers because Barnabas ended up taking John Mark and going one way, and Paul picked up Silas and went another direction. From God’s eyes, this argument is a win for His truth being spread. From Paul and Barnabas’ eyes, I see hurt and frustration with each other, enough at this point to cause them to separate.

So back to my original questions. What do we learn from this chapter to help us deal in love with those we disagree with? I think we learn from the first argument that getting to a solution is not easy. It takes long discussions. Sometimes if both parties are willing, a third party with wisdom and maybe more knowledge can be brought in to help facilitate discussion, and truth can be found. (Whether the injured party decides to accept the truth or not is another entire post.) From the second argument, I think I can learn that just because two people serve God and love Him doesn’t mean they wont ever argue. It happens, and in this case we don’t really get to the bottom of who was right or wrong about John Mark. After checking in my commentary from Dallas Seminary I learned that Paul and Barnabas remained friends despite their contention over John Mark. They didn’t have to agree on everything to remain in relationship with each other.

I wish we could finish this with a nice step–by-step approach of what works to settle arguments. The truth is that we get some help for some hard and sometimes unexpected situations from this chapter but its not as neat and tidy as I would like. I think for today I have to sit with the fact that it happens. People who love God and are trying to follow Him disagree. Maybe for me today the lesson is to not be surprised or ashamed of these struggling relationships I am wading through. Maybe God wants to use other people to change the way I understand His principles in a certain situation. Maybe I stand on solid ground and He wants me to help bring truth to light in someone’s life. I know I will not be able to change another person’s point of view. God is the only one who can. The thing I am sure of is that I have to stay in close relationship and communication with God for any of this to be able to take place, and it will only happen when it is His plan.

 

Todays reading is Acts 1

After spending 3 months in the gospels, I feel like we have had a pretty close look at Jesus’ disciples lives. Twelve ordinary men, working each day to make a living, maintaining family relationships and obligations and being engaged in their communities. Sounds pretty much like us, right? Regular people doing regular things each day to make a living and keeping relationships with our families. Then Jesus meets each of them and their lives change completely. Jesus says leave your jobs and your families and follow me. There is something about Him that makes each of those men agree to literally drop their lives and go with Him. So they have left everything that they know and every security of their lives to be with Jesus. Along the way, Jesus is honest with them and tells them what they will suffer and encounter being associated with Him. They are hated, persecuted and beaten because of their relationship with Him. Then they have to watch and live through their friend and leader being accused falsely, convicted of things He didn’t do and then die in a manor that is a far greater consequence than the death He should have been given if He was actually guilty of what they had accused. Through all of this, they don’t completely understand what is happening and why it is happening.

So we start Acts during the forty days after Jesus death. I’m trying to put myself in minds of those disciples. At what point do they realize that all is not lost? When do they start to turn from grieving their loss to realizing that Jesus’ ministry is now squarely on their shoulders and they have huge responsibility to share the story? I wish that Acts 1:3 was an entire book. It says, “ During the forty days after He suffered and died, He appeared to them from time to time, and He proved to them in many ways that He was actually alive. And He talked to them about the Kingdom of God.” There is SO much missing here! I want so badly to know what this time looked like, I want to hear the conversations that gave these men the understanding and insight they needed to be all in and ready to take Jesus story to the ends of the earth even after all they have lived through in the last 3+ years. Because of the rest of the chapter, we can only assume that Jesus ministered, explained, encouraged, reassured and bolstered this group of men to prepare them for the rest of their lives.

These ordinary men, people like us with regular jobs and families who love them, have just spent about 3 years with Jesus and had their lives, their hearts and their minds turned upside down, are encouraged and ready to spread the gospel without their leader physically at their side. The last half of the chapter tells us how they went about the business of replacing Judas so they could carry out their calling in full force. They are so encouraged, fueled and full of passion for their work that they almost seem unfazed by Jesus ascension. Luke provides us no other comment on their reaction except that they watched and strained to see Jesus rising into heaven. Once more Jesus reassures them by sending two angels to tell them that Jesus has been taken to heaven but that someday He will return from heaven in the same way He went.

This chapter shows me that Jesus is with me in whatever I am dealing with. He knows what is going on in my life, He is walking through it with me, and is willing to prepare and ready me for what lies ahead if I am willing to follow Him.

 

 

Todays reading is John 9

So we all read John 9 today and got the chance first hand to see Jesus working in our world. A man born blind gets his eyes covered with a mixture of Jesus’ spit and dirt and then is told to go wash in the pool of Siloam. After following Jesus instructions he can see. For the first time in his life, he is not in total darkness. He is not forced to feel his way around the world or be lead by another person. His life is changed drastically by the opportunity to earn a living instead of sit at the city gate and beg for coins or food to keep himself alive each day. This turn of events moves him in society from an outcast to a functioning part of a community. It is also possible that he could now be found worthy by some family, worthy enough for them to consider giving their daughter to him in marriage. Everything has changed.

As people around him realize what has happened to him, they start questioning him to find out how this has happened. People do not lose their blindness. Everyone knows that being born blind is a lifelong ailment. So what happened? He tells his story. It doesn’t really add up to people so they take him to their leaders. Surely the people’s leaders are smart enough to be able to make sense of this craziness. When the leaders hear the story they start to argue amongst themselves because they can’t really make heads or tails of what has happened either. As they are trying to come up with a feasible answer, they ask the man to tell his story to them again and then ask him, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?” He answers that Jesus must be a prophet.” This doesn’t clear up any of the question that the leaders have so they bring in the blind man’s parents for questioning and go through the entire story again with them. A person born blind, being wiped with spit and mud, and washed in a pool of water does not equal a seeing person. What are they missing here?

The leaders decide to question the man himself a bit more thoroughly. By now, the man is fed up with the questions. Why do you want to hear the story AGAIN? Are you guys wanting to become his disciples, too? This question honked the leaders off royally! They cursed the formerly blind man and basically made fun of him for placing his trust in Jesus. The man replies, “Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.” Simple, pure faith! He didn’t require logic or explanation. (There isn’t any to be had here.) He was changed, healed and he knew that Jesus was responsible for his miracle. He didn’t have to understand how or why, it was enough for him to know that it was from God or it wouldn’t have happened.

In vs 35-39 Jesus meets back up with the man and asks him a few questions to see where the mans heart is after all he has experienced. The man simply and purely professes his belief in Jesus and worships Him.(I can’t stop wondering what that looked like.) So Jesus continues to visit with him and tells him. “I entered this world to render judgment-to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind”. The leaders are standing close enough to hear Jesus comments and are offended…Are you saying we are blind? Jesus responds, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty. But you remain guilty because you claim you can see”.

I want Jesus to see simple, pure belief in my heart. I don’t want to be lying to myself about the things in my life I am trying to cover and hide from God. I don’t want my motives to be elevating me and my agenda. I want to worship and honor the One who deserves the credit. I want my first thought to be, it was from God or it wouldn’t have happened. Can we be brave enough today to simply believe that faith in our “making the blind see”-God is exactly what we need to meet what we will face today?

By this point in Jesus ministry the Jewish leaders feel so threatened and afraid of Him that they seem to be spending all their time watching Him, waiting for Him to slip up, and seeking out ways to entrap Him. They want Him out of their hair and seem to be willing to try just about anything they think they can get away with, without getting found out by the people.

In the first 8 verses of this chapter, the leaders go to Jesus and try to trap Him by asking where He gets His power. So Jesus responds with a question about John the Baptist’s power. They have to pull over to the side to confer. As they talk they realize that they are stuck so they go back to Him and say, we don’t know. I laughed out loud when I read Jesus response to their lame answer. “Okay, then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”

In verses 9-19 Jesus tells the people (along with the Jewish leaders) about a farmer who plants a vineyard and leases it to some farmers to manage while He is out of the country. Turns out that this story is calling out the Jewish leaders for rejecting God’s gift of Jesus, which made way for Gentiles and outcasts to be accepted into God’s Kingdom while Jews who refused Jesus would not be added.

The rest of the chapter is filled with discussions about paying taxes, Jewish law around marriage and who will be married to whom in heaven, and questions about how the Messiah can be David’s son. So much trickery, scheming, planning and trapping…why? The Jewish leaders were powerful. Their power and celebrity caused them to become filled with greed and pride. They craved attention, prominence, and more money. Jesus threatened the good things they had going in life and they weren’t about to lose their benefits by being replaced by Him.

Before I am tempted to rant about their stupidity and the lies they told themselves and each other to continue pursuing the end of Jesus, lets back up and look at that list again. They craved power, attention, prominence and more money. I’m trying to let those words soak into my mind. I’m trying to be honest with myself about how motivated I am by the prospect of more power, attention, prominence and money. Stings a little this time around, right? I think we have to be honest and realize that this list is our human nature. On some level every one of us, at one time or another (or every day) is tempted to wish and strive for at least one of these. So how do we rearrange our minds and fill our hearts with the desire to be different than our human nature? We have to look at what motivates Jesus. The answer is simple but more powerful and meaningful than I can express. It’s His love for us. He loves us so deeply that He desires relationship with each one of us. Since we are unable to be good enough to be in His perfect presents, He gave His life to pay the price for us missing the mark. By the gift of His life, we are washed clean and able to have relationship with God. This is a different kind of nature than I have. While I cannot fully understand this kind of love and I certainly am not capable of replicating it, He offers to change me. He is willing to help me be motivated by His love for me instead of my old desires.

Luke 6

Today I’d like us to focus our time on one of Jesus’ instructions from this passage. Just two verses, a few sentences, but wow are they worth looking into for a few extra minutes today.

36-‘Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to get paid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for He is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your father is compassionate.”

Love your enemies, exclamation point? Love? Lets start with the definition. Lets look at 1 Cor 13 for God’s definition of love.

4-7 “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand it’s own way, it is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Now it is starting to come into focus a bit better for me. If I think about what love looks like from the world’s standpoint, I am talking about feelings of affection, brotherhood and goodwill toward another person. I can’t muster up those feelings for an enemy. But as I think about my enemy and interact with him or her, through the lens of 1Cor 13, “loving” begins to look different. It is by no means easy! Any form of “love your enemy” goes against our human nature. We aren’t capable of sustaining love toward someone who intends to harm us. We must remember Who’s we are. We must remember that the Most High resides in us and has begun the work of making us new creations. He is able to help us choose the action of love (1Cor 13) instead of us hoping that a loving feeling pops into our heart at the right time.

When I was a senior in High School there was a party one weekend. There was alcohol there and many of my classmates drank. I did not attend or even know about the party. (That’s how popular I was!) One of the partygoers went to my church and her parents were friends of my parents. Unbeknownst to me, her parents reached out to my parents for advice on how to deal with their child being at this party, after they found out about it from a source that to this day I am unaware of. Because my classmate knew that her parents had talked with my parents, and then she got in trouble, she assumed that I told my parents about the party, (probably out of spite because I hadn’t been invited…makes sense) and that my parents went to her parents to inform them about their daughter’s choices the night of the party. Clearly she and the rest of the popular kids were furious that they had been ratted out and punished. (I think there was a lot of grounding going on which ruined everyone’s fun for the next however many weeks or months…I can’t remember.) What I do remember is that for the rest of my senior year, I was everyone’s enemy! (…and I would like to point out that I did NOTHING!) I was devastated! I had to walk back into that school on Mon with everyone (it wasn’t really everyone, but it sure felt like it) wishing me harm, and somehow deal with all of them. I was NOT equipped to handle this! So I did what every high school girl would do and ran to tell a friend, (not my parents) how wrongly I had been treated. Because my friend was older, wiser and my youth pastor, he spent hours over the next few weeks praying with me and for me to walk into that school every day and not keep a record of wrongs. He prayed with me to ask God to help me daily have the courage to keep my big mouth shut and love those kids by being kind, patient and not demanding my own way. God helped me in one of the biggest messes of my life (to that point in my life) to never give up, never lose faith, be hopeful and endure through every circumstance.

Can we today, look with God’s lens at the people in our lives that are wishing us harm? Can we love our enemies by being patient and kind? Can we ask God to help us have the courage to keep from retaliating, to keep from being rude and to always have hope for those people?

 

Please note that my classmates got the last laugh by choosing me as “Most likely to become a minister” on the page of the year book where everyone else gets noted for having the best smile, best hair or being the class clown.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark 9

I am finding as I read through the New Testament this time, that the gospel chapters are jammed with so many stories and accounts of events, it is tough to choose one topic to focus on out of these chock full readings. So I read through Mark 9 again this morning and waited for God to draw me into one of the stories. I am a mom to three kids and as I read the story of the demon-possessed child my heart went out to the boy’s dad. As a parent I feel deeply the pain, fear, and frustration of this poor man. The Bible says that “since the boy was little” he has suffered with this possession so I think it’s fair to say that the dad has been watching his son fight for his life for years. Can you imagine living every day with your child not talking, being thrown violently to the ground, foaming at the mouth, grinding his teeth, and becoming rigid? This dad says that the “spirit often throws the boy into the fire or into water, trying to kill him”. This dad’s heart must be broken knowing he is missing years of knowing his son’s personality, missing out on teaching his son a trade, and watching his son grow up probably without meaningful relationships outside his immediate family. How many years has the dad been hurting and dealing with this situation and completely without hope? As a dad, he is helpless to change the boy’s situation. To me this is the worst. The child you love, born full of promise and potential, and now all of that has changed. You can’t do anything to help him except to watch him like a hawk so you can retrieve him from the fire and the water when he goes in. This is desperation.

At some point this dad hears of Jesus and the miracles he is doing. Is it possible that these stories are true? Do I dare believe that Jesus can make things different for my child? Could this end if we can get to Jesus? So he seeks out Jesus and decides to see what He can do. After the dad answers Jesus’ questions, he says to Jesus, ” Have mercy on us and help us if you can”. (This is where I sense the dad’s desperation most.) “Jesus replies, “What do you mean, if I can?” Anything is possible if a person believes. The father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help my unbelief!”

Anything is possible if we believe. Such a powerful promise! The question is, do I have enough faith to believe that anything is possible? When I am honest, I realize more often than I want to, that I am in the exact same boat as the dad in this story. I do believe, I believe that God can do anything, but sometimes when I am in the mire of an overwhelming mess in my life, I have to cry out to God asking Him to help my unbelief because I can’t see how it is possible for Him to make a good outcome in the mess I am experiencing. I am human and so limited in my mind by humanness. Praise God that He is not human! He is not limited to our realm of thought. He is bigger, more powerful and all knowing. He can come up with, and accomplish plans that I can’t even recognize are His until after the fact. Thank you Lord for loving me so much that you are willing to help me believe and trust that there are no limits on your power!