THAT'S NOT IN MY BIBLE!

(It's funny, but no matter how much time I have in the morning before work, I always seem to be pressing against my 'getting ready time.' I think it's because I like to sit and read my Bible and pray in the quiet of the early morning which is a good thing. But, I lose track of time, which is a bad thing. So I said all that to let you know my post will short today but hopefully still lift you up on this bright and sunny Monday morning.)

My grandaughter, Mikayla (the one in the red shirt) is 7 years old and has quite a strong-willed personality. She challenges her mother often, and even her dad occasionally which is no small thing since her dad is a former marine and a real tough cookie.

Her defiance can be over the smallest of things: where she sits in the car, who puts the straw in her juice pouch,or whether she should put on her socks first or comb her hair. And when she's mad it's at the whole world, not just the one who is standing the way of her wishes. It's quite comical really. Her face turns red and puffs up like some cartoon character and she puts her hands on her hips as if to increase the size of her small stature.

Mikayla's mother (my daughter, Stephanie) for the most part has let Mikayla work through her anger  ignore the red puffy face thing. But now, Mikayla is starting to get mouthy and disrespectful. And of course this must be addressed. So after many attempts at disciplining Mikayla, reasoning with her, spanking her, making her sit in the quiet chair with no improvement, Stephanie decided to employ the help of her former Sunday School teacher, Sister Debbie.

Stephanie's old teacher and her have remained friends all these years, and as a matter of fact 'Sister Debbie' was very good friends with Stephanie's real mom, Michelle. Well anyway, Stephanie and Mikayla were visiting Sister Debbie and Mikayla popped off at her mom. So Sister Debbie, did what all good Sunday School teachers would do and pulled out her Bible to show Mikayla that Jesus says we must respect our parents.

Well, true to form, Mikayla turned red faced, puffed out her cheeks, put her hands on her hips and arrogantly declared "THAT'S NOT IN MY BIBLE!"
Evidently, Stephanie and Sister Debbie tried to explain to Mikayla that these truths were in all Bibles, but Mikayla wouldn't concede. As far as I know, she is still convinced that her Bible has a different set of admonitions.

Funny? Yes. But I wonder how many times as adults we act just like Mikayla? When there is a Biblical truth that makes us uncomfortable, do we internally scream... That's not in my Bible?

When we are reminded to "love our enemies, do good to those who despitefully use us" do we intellectually dismiss it as not applying to our unique situation? If so, that is the same as saying... That's not in my Bible...
And of course the list goes on.

So my challenge to you today is to pay attention to the times when God's instructions grate against your will or desires, and honestly ask yourself if you are unknowingly trying to have your own version of the Holy Writ. Because obeying ALL of scripture is also a very real way of living every day with Jesus and it is the only way to the true hope that Jesus offers.

AN ASIDE: If you have any "that's not in my Bible experiences" I'd really like to hear about them! Won't you post for others to read? Or at least email me? Living every day with Jesus affords us the wonderful joy of gaining strength from the body of believers and this is one way we do this!!

God bless you my friend. Thanks for being part of my day!

Doing The Hard Things

"See that you do not use the trick of prayer to cover up what you know you ought to do." -Oswald Chambers

Oh, how well Mr. Chambers understood how we can sometimes use prayer to ease our conscious, when really we need to just get over the grudge we are holding, or get up off the couch and serve our neighbor in love.

I struggle with this myself sometimes.

 It seems it's easier to boo-hoo to God about feeling overwhelmed because the house needs cleaning and the grocery shopping hasn't been attended to yet, than it is to just press on and do what needs to be done.

My prayer today is:

Compassionate and understanding Lord Jesus, make me willing to do the hard things that arise in my life. And empower me to them with joy and thankfulness. In Your holy and powerful name. Amen

Who's Side Are You On?

"And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must of necessity suffer many things and be tested and disapproved and rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days rise again [[a]from death]...

And He said this freely (frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable). And Peter took Him [b]by the hand and led Him aside and then [facing Him] began to rebuke Him...

But turning around [His back to Peter] and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have a mind [c]intent on promoting what God wills, but what pleases men [you are not on God's side, but that of men]...

And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and [d]lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and [[e]joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow [f]with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me]...

For whoever wants to save his [[g]higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the [h]lower, natural, temporal life [i]which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his [j]higher, spiritual life [k]in the eternal kingdom of God]. (Mark 8:30-35 in the Amplified Bible)

This passage of scripture hit me hard this morning as I read it. Especially the part about not having a mind to promote God's will, but mans.
 
Can you imagine how Peter must have felt that day being called 'Satan' by Jesus? This is the man who later would recieve the keys to the kingdom and who would be the first one to bring the message of salvation after the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Acts chapter 2. Yet, at that particular moment, Peter did not have his mind completely sold out to the kingdom.
 
He thought he did, as no doubt many of us think we do. But when the unthinkable happens, or the cross we've been asked to bear gets heavy, or when there seems to be outright injustice occuring in our lives, do we, like Peter try to thwart the very thing that will bring about God's purpose?
 
I've done it. Have you?
 
Time doesn't permit me to share examples of how I have, in the name of God stopped the speeding train so to speak, but if you will share with me your experiences, I promise to do the same in another post.
 
This too, is part of living every day with Jesus.

Sleepless in Chicago

I can't sleep. It's like 11:30pm and I'm wide awake. This may not be late to some of you, but for me it's painfully late. My normal bedtime is 9pm because my alarm starts making noise at 4:30am. Granted, I had the day off today so I slept until 7:30am this morning which is probably why I'm not tired.

But believe it or not, the point of this post isn't to  ramble about my nocturnal habits. Although a measure of self-pity sounds awfully inviting at the moment. And the point of this post is not to discuss various ways to induce oneself to sleep - although that too entices me. And the point of this post isn't even to just keep writing until I get tired.

So what IS the point you may  not so patiently be asking?

The point is to reflect on what we do when we desperately want something (in my case sleep) and no amount of self-effort can bring it about.

How do we react? How do we cope? What is our first reaction? What is our last ditch attempt?  How long does it take us to come to terms with the fact that we have absolutely no control over certain things? And what does our coping techniques, or lack thereof, really say about us? About our relationship with Christ? With ourselves?

I believe we discover the strength of our faith and trust and in God only when we are in a situation in which we have no control whatsoever of the outcome.

Granted, not being able to sleep is a harmless inconvenience. But what if it was losing a job, or my health, or a loved one? It's how I respond to those type of hurricane-like-events that let me know whether I will recieve a medal of honor on judgement day or not.

And how does one prepare for such calamaties? Scripture provides the answer:

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you...Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:...Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."  (I Peter 5:7-9)

Obedient Faith

I took a couple of days off of work this week because initially I was going to attend a writer's conference. But, as the time for the conference grew closer, my spirit was unsettled. I felt no direction or confirmation from God. Now normally, I feel a deep peace or a clear impression of how to prepare for such an event.  But I felt nothing. No peace. No inkling of what editors to seek out, what classes to take, or which articles I've written to bring with me.

The silence was deafening. And frustrating.

My first inclination was to talk to all my friends about it, ie, 'what do you think I should do?' But, I've learned from past experience that the more opinions I seek, the more confused I   get. So instead, I discussed it with my husband, and we ultimately decided that I'd attend one day of the four day conference.

We made this decision in part because money is a little tight, but also because neither one of us had a sense that this was something God had for me at this time.

But even after we agreed I'd attend the one day I still felt uneasy, unsure, and not excited at all. This type of response was  so out of character for me. Normally the idea of attending such a conference would have had me pinging off the walls with anticpation.

But I wasn't. Instead, I felt anxious and frustrated.

Anxious because I wasn't sensing God's blessing in my decision . And frustrated because God wasn't telling me how to prepare for the one day I planned to attend.

So in the end I chose not to go. Why? For three reasons:

• Because I've learned from past experience that when I push my way for something it never turns out the way I expected it to.

• Because I don't want to attempt anything without feeling God's pleasure, anointing, and favor.

• Because my grandfather always said "If there's a reason to doubt it, there's a reason not to do it."

Pretty good guidelines for making alot of decisions I think. Don't you?

Now, I'm sure when I meet with my writer's critique group this month, and they all tell me about the great things that happened for them at the writer's conference I might feel a twinge of jealousy. But ultimately, I'll be able to rejoice with them for God's goodness to them. And I'll smile to myself knowing that :

"What He does now, I don't know, but someday I will!" (John 13:37)