Ramblings

(I started writing this update yesterday, while waiting for the Adam to get ready for church.  Then at church I got sick again and had to come home and go back to bed.  But it does let you know that I’m somewhat still alive!)

I went to my google reader and found over 200 posts that had been written that I had not read from the blogs that I follow.  I came here and realized it’s been over a week since I’ve written anything.  I’m doing the Breaking Free Bible study and I’m still on week one.

Did I mention that I got sick?

It hit hard on the 12th and knocked me out for about 5 days.  It hit Sally at the same time and we were in our beds texting Adam to take care of us.

Just when I thought I was over it, it hit again this week, not as hard, but I’ve been doctoring myself more quickly this time hoping it will go away.  It was probably the flu, with fever, body aches and now a persistant cough.  Last night my throat started to hurt.

I had lost my voice with the first bout of this sickness, actually just lost my breathe so that I didn’t have enough to talk.  I found that when I lost my voice….I really didn’t have anything to say anyway and didn’t want to do anything.

I had gotten several new books to read, but never opened a single page.  Finally this week, I started putting into action some of the thoughts I had while laid up in bed….Christmas gifts.

It’s another slim year at our home and the recent doctor visits have put a drain on the finances  that I had not expected.  I went to the craft room and started pulling out things.  I’m thinking this year, every one is getting pillow cases.  I’ve added pieced strips to the bottom of some pretty material and appliqued some southern bells on others.  I found frogs that my grandmother had cut out but never finished….those have been finished now.

I say this every year….and never do it….but truly…I’ve got to start planning for handmade Christmas gifts in January instead of late November!

Breaking Free – A Defining Moment

Have you ever noticed how people are known for who they are or what they do?  Usually it is either a physical characteristic or a situation that they have gone through.  You know….like the large lady at church with gray hair or the guy who got caught cheating…that sort of thing.  When people are talking about them, to clarify who they mean, they use that type of detail.  For me., I’ve noticed that I’m no longer called by my name by the younger crowd.  Now a days I’m Sally’s mom or Adam’s mom.  I really don’t mind those titles…proud to wear them.

But what if, when people talked about me, they only used situations in my life that God never meant to be a “defining moment”?  What if  my name became attached to my sin….Deborah the slut, Deborah the liar, Deborah the unwise, Deborah the (insert sin title here)…and when people looked at me…that’s all they ever saw.

The Bible seems to label people like that and I wonder why.  Why does God want us to remember forever  that Rehab was a harlot?  She was also one of Jesus great..great-mothers.  Is it because God wanted to show that He can use anyone…from any circumstance to do His will?

But don’t you think Rehab got tired of that label?  At some point, don’t you think she said…hey, that’s who I was in the past, stuff I did to take care of my family because I had no other chose…that’s not who I am today, those aren’t my actions today….I’m the mother of Boaz…you know…the redeemer of Ruth…remember me for that!

There are some that wear a title they earned…John the Baptist…some by birth….John the son of Thunder…some by deed…Judas the traitor.  I ran across a new one in my studies this week…Uzziah, the leper.

2 Chronicles 26 starts with the tale of a city that killed their king and took his 16-year-old son and placed him on the throne…Uzziah.  His reign sounds pretty impressive through the first part of the chapter.  It talks about his spiritual life…

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.  He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Wouldn’t this be a testimony anyone would be proud to live?  The next few verses talk about his military success, how he rebuilt what his father had allowed to be torn down, he built his army up and invented weapons of war and supplied his soldiers with all that they would need…and God made him powerful.

But…don’t you hate those “but’s” in the Bible?

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God

Uzziah allowed his mind to think that he was powerful and stong because of something that he did, instead of something God did and that led to sin which lead to punishment…which lead to his title.

He decided that, since he was king, he could do the duties of the priest and God struck him with leprosy.  He was removed from the house of the Lord and his throne and forced to live away from everyone else.  When he died, he wasn’t even buried with the rest of the kings, but by himself, with a warning not to open his grave because he was a leper.

That moment…that “but”…was Uzziah’s “defining moment”.  No matter what he had done in his past, for God..with God…he was forever defined by what he did without God.

Did his heart go back to his God in those days that he was in isolation?  Did he remember the God of his youth again?

I like to think so.  I like to think that when we are at our lowest, our hearts turn back to the Greatest. 

But we’re not told this, we are left to remember Uzziah because of his sin.

I wonder….do we label people because of their “defining moments” and then never allow the label to be removed no matter how far they’ve come from that moment (good or bad)?  Do we continue to remind people that they are sinners and that God may forgive them…but we never will?

I wonder….who is ready for me to look at them as a child of God, a redeemed sinner, a brother or sister in Christ, someone that Jesus died for?

Memory Verse – Freedom

I’ve started a new Bible study – Breaking Free, by Beth Moore, this is the first verse we are asked to memorize for the study.  I was searching for a picture to go with the verse and I Googled “freedom images” and found this picture of Freedom being launched in 2006.  I had never seen how they had launched a ship before and I wondered if maybe this ship was going to topple into the water.  Check out some other images here.

But, from the photos, the ship was launched, righted itself and started its career as a Navy ship.  I thought of the impact this ship must have made as it was being freed and then its battle to “stand firm”.

There are times that we feel we might be sinking, the storm or release into a situation may be sudden, but we are reminded that Christ set us free and we can stand firm and no longer be under a yoke.

Challenge for today…..make an impact where you are launched for Christ!

Dirty Hands

I think the great thing about getting old is losing your memory.

I know, I’ll have some that disagree with me on that.  But I’ve forgotten some of the really bad stuff that happened to me when I was a child.  I’ve forgotten some of the times my kids claim that I freaked out over some of their actions. I’ve forgotten some of my mistakes.

I’ve forgotten many of the sermons and insights that I’ve received over the years from Bible study.  Again…don’t hate me yet.

Since I’ve forgotten those insightful sermons or lessons….when I hear something now (that was probably repeated) or read a Scripture (that I know I’ve read a few hundred times)….it’s all new!

Take for instance…Genesis 1 & 2…the Creation story.  As a woman that was in church while still safely tucked away inside her mother, I’ve heard the Creation story…I don’t know…a few hundred times.  I’ve read it myself a few hundred times.  Everytime I decided I was going to read through the Bible in a year…I read it.  (I might not have gotten to Deuteronomy….but I did get through Genesis every time…at least the first 2 chapters!).

So this past week when I was preparing for the Saturday event, Seeing God’s Creation with New Eyes, I read those chapters again…..and I saw something I had never noticed before (well, if I did…you know…I’d forgotten!).

When God created everything…the heavens & the earth, the sun & moon & stars, the plants & water, the animals…He spoke everything into existence.  Now I don’t know if the trees just appeared, full grown bearing fruit, or if they developed over time.  I have no idea if God created all this in 6 literal days or 6000 years or more…honestly….I don’t care.  The fact is…He created…that I believe.

I believe that God’s spoken word was enough to make things happen.  How it actually happened is of little concern to me.  He said it…it happened.  And He doesn’t go into detail either, so I’m thinking maybe the how really isn’t that big of an issue.

Except for one creation….only for one did He tell us how He did it.  So maybe that is important.

Man…man & woman….mankind.  They were not spoken into existence.  Only this particular creation….God got His hands dirty.  He touched earth.

Genesis 1:26-30 tells about God saying “let’s make them in our image” and all that…”male and female”…and what their role would be…to have dominion over the rest of creation and to be fruitful and fill the place up.  But Genesis 2:7 says that God “formed the man of the dust of the ground”.

In my simple mind, I see the Father putting everything in place…orchestrating so to speak…but on Man, He wanted to be more involved than just speaking…He wanted to get His hands on this one.  He came down, knelt in the dirt and began to form something.

Can you see the angels looking over his shoulder wondering what in the world He was doing now?  I can.  I can also see Satan watching…wanting…trying to figure out how he was going to get what God had created.

When He was done, God brought mankind up to His face….and breathed.

Put your hand in front of your face.  How close do you have to get it before you feel your breath?  That’s how close God brought mankind.

Face to face…nose to nose.  Mankind bares the fingerprint of God like no other part of creation…because God touched us while He was forming us.

That was new to me this week and it makes me think differently about myself.  I belong to Him…He made me.  I forget that a lot.  I act like I am my own and I can do whatever I want.

But I’m His…His creation.  He took the time to form me uniquely, He breathed His breath into me…and into you.  He can do what He likes with me.

But basically, He says to just love….love Him, love others, love myself.

If I do that…all the other stuff…well, it will come.

So what have you seen new in God’s Word today?

Seeing with New Eyes

Tomorrow morning I am meeting with a group of women to observe the Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer.  I will be leading the Bible Study, Seeing Scripture with New Eyes.

I have 15 minutes.

It’s not enough time.

How do you encourage, inspire, teach someone to see Scripture and God with new vision in 15 minutes?  It will probably take me a little longer.  Hope they are not set on that time frame!

This song will be my closing thoughts and have been in my thoughts all week.  Enjoy and I hope to posts some thoughts from the study later this weekend.

(I had some trouble finding a video of the actual song, but here’s the words and some songs that have ministered to me this week and a link to the CD that has the song on it where you can listen to the different tracks on the CD.

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.

Refrain

Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.

Refrain

Open my mouth, and let me bear,
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with Thy children thus to share.

Refrain

Winning on the Web

I’m beginning to think there is something about signing up for all those give-a-ways you see on blogs.  I was notified last night that I won a fall giveway that I signed up for on Christian Fiction Online Magazine from Shar MacLaren!  3 books plus a hint to something else.

I’m so excited!!!

Hop over the the magazine now and you can enter a couple of giveaways.  I’ve already entered!

Then there is a  chance to win some jewelry at Exemplify Online Magazine, page 5 of the magazine…but read the whole thing, it’s great!  You’ll be able to find me there next month with my first book review.

I know, sometimes I see where hunderds of people have left a comment to win something, and I think why even try.  Well, I’ve won about 5 books and some CDs from simply leaving a post or a tweet.

I really hope I win the earrings, they are so beautiful.

Grace & Thankfulness

I’m reading through the November edition of Exemplify Online Magazine and you know it’s good when you can’t get past the editor’s page without picking up your Bible and doing some Scripture searching.

Kristen references Hebrews 12:28-29, in the NIV it states:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

The phrase I highlighted is “let us be thankful” and that one got me searching the Scriptures.  I mean, it is that time of the year to be focusing on thanksgiving and in today’s world (when the car is making really weird sounds, there are too many days between paychecks, people in the doctor’s offices know you by name, wars, natural disasters…) it’s hard to find something to be thankful about.  Our associate pastor likes to start the Sunday morning service with people giving a praise for something God did during the week….and the church goes quiet.

I read this verse out of some different translations…the HCSB, KJV, and the NKJV and they all used

…let us hold on to grace….or…let us have grace…

…instead of “thankful”.  And I wondered why.  The NASB said “let us show gratitude” and the ESV didn’t have anything at all about grace or thankfulness, it didn’t reference that part of the translation at all.

I’d always associated “grace” with Jesus and how He loved…you know, Amazing Grace and laying down His life for me, a sinner.  So I couldn’t figure out how the translators got “thankful” out of “grace”.  That’s when I went to the Strong’s Concordance. (On these links to the LifeWay on-line Bibles, you’ll have to put in the reference and then you can click back and forth between the different translations.)

Strong’s defines grace as a verb from a root word meaning “joy, gladly, rejoice”, also the translation is “charis”…”accepted, favor, thankfulness, thanksgiving”.  I’d to so far as to guess it is the root word for “cherish”.

So my question was answered about “grace” & “thankful”, and my eyes were opened to what Jesus really did.  He “joyfully”, “gladly” gave His life for me, because I am “accepted” by Him, I have found “favor” with Him.  I am cherished by Him.

Because of that, I can easily go on with the rest of the verse in Hebrews 12:28…

…so worship God with reverence and with awe..

I like how The Message puts it:

Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

“God is not an indifferent bystander.”  He is a “consuming fire“…”actively cleaning house“….He’s working in my life.  It may not be pretty at all times…but He is there…and for that…for His unshakeable kingdom in the midst of a shaky world…

…I can be Thankful!

In fact…”it’s my joy to honor you.”

What Faith Can Do

Being Active

Being active in my spiritual life and my physical life has become my new themes…because I need to improve both of those.  Here’e a fun way to improve the physical life.  I wonder if I can convince LifeWay to do this to all the staircases:)

Pickle Juice

I came home yesterday to pickle juice standing about an inch deep on the top tray of my refrigerator.

It smelled terrible…unless you like the smell of pickles!

I moved some clutter around and found the cause…an overturned jar of pickles in the back, top shelf.

I had been seeing evidence of the spill for a day or so, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, because I was finding the evidence in the bottom of the fridge and just figured something  there had caused it.  So I cleaned that shelf, threw away some things that I blamed on the leak and shut the door.

But the liquid continued to puddle at the bottom.  I cleaned some more and was confused until yesterday.  Fixing supper I saw that jar and thought unpleasant thoughts about my husband since he is known for not always securing jar lids.  I moved everything off that top shelf and laid down paper towels and shut the door.

Yes….I walked away from it!

I did eventually go back and clean the mess up, which in turn meant that I had to clean the entire fridge because it leaked all over everything down the back of the fridge.  And there is still an odor of pickles.

I tried to think if there was a lesson to the pickle juice and I think there is.

Sin!

When it is in your life, it sometimes starts to make itself known in other areas of your life first.  You keep cleaning and cleaning one thing up, never realizing that the problem is hidden, behind all the junk.  Hidden and continuing to grow until the “smell” of sin penetrates throughout your entire life.

You try to shut it out and forget that it is there, but it won’t go away and no one else can clean it up…you have to face it yourself.  You have to admit that it is there and confess…to God.  Just you and Him.  You may try to blame it on other people…but it’s all you.  Then He shows you how to clean everything up that’s been affected by that sin.

Some of it has to be thrown away completely….left…no longer having a place in your life.  Some just needs a good washing, maybe a new covering.  But you feel so much better afterward, cleaner, more useful.

So, if you come home and there’s pickle juice spilled in your fridge….start at the top and clean there first…before it has a chance to ruin everything.