Random Lessons

This is a random blog post, but it is just some things God has been showing me. And honestly, I need to do something to occupy my time because as I write, it is another Monday under Tornado watch here in Smith County! These are definitely my least favorite days of Spring, but they make you appreciate so much more the days that come after. I am learning that for me, this is one of those times where God tests me. Do I truly believe that He holds everything in His hands? Because if I truly believe that, then why do I worry so much about storms that I cannot control when I know the one who holds not only the storm, but the world in His hands! Too many times I find myself forgetting that He is the only one deserving of my fear. I fear too many things that have absolutely no power over me, & too often find myself completely ignoring the fact that He is all-powerful, almighty, and absolutely the only one I should fear!

This weekend, our church family participated in a prayer walk throughout our community. Zeke and I chose to select our neighborhood and the areas immediately surrounding us. The first thing that hit is was how many people live in this area that I honestly considered to be one of the less populated areas of our town. We counted around 80 homes that are in this area! A reminder to us that there are so many people who still need to hear the gospel of Christ!

As we were walking, it became a little more intense of a walk than we originally expected. (I later found out that there was a special weather statement saying that it was a record heat day!) So as we were walking I looked down in the grass and saw something moving. It looked kind of like a worm, but then when I looked a little closer I saw that it was an ant carrying a piece of bark. And it reminded me of the Proverbs 6:6 where is says:

"Go to the ant, O sluggard;consider her ways, and be wise."

I thought about that as I was watching this ant. All the random facts that you learn about ants in school came to my mind and I realized how amazing a thing it was for this tiny ant to be carrying this piece of bark. I also thought about how in doing this, the ant was bringing praise to God. The ant was doing exactly what God had created it to do, and because of that God gets the praise. The same is true for us. When we do what God has created and called us to do, He gets the praise for it, not us!

As I think about these things I am overwhelmed by a God who holds everything in His hands and love us with a love that is so undeserved and absolutely unconditional. The only response to this amazing, mighty God is to fear Him and serve Him with all that I have.

Pictures of the Son

This is my first blog of the new year. I intended to post sooner than this but everytime I sat down to start, it just wasn't right. But today it the day!

This year, I am reading through the entire Bible. Many of you have probably done this before, this is the first time for me, and I am excited! There is a reason that God's Word is put together the way it is and I think there is great benefit in starting from the beginning and working our way through. If it is something you have never done, I encourage you to go for it! God has used it in my life already in awesome ways.

One of those ways is through opening my heart to realize that God uses His word to point to Jesus. From beginning to end it all points to Him. So, to help myself keep a record of it more than anything else, I am going to focus this blog on that for the next year. As I read through His Word, and God reveals these pictures of His precious Son I am going to post and share on here.

Right now, I am finishing the book of Genesis and there is picture after picture of Christ and His sacrifice for us on the pages of this book. I am going to share all that I can remember, but for today I am going to focus on Adam and Eve.

We have all heard this story at least once, if not many more times than that! God created man and saw that it wasn't good for man to be alone and created woman to be a helpmate for him. God placed them in the garden that he had made and gave them "the rules" so to speak. He told the man and the woman that they could eat of any tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and EVIL. (I meant to put that in all caps, I will come back to it in a minute.)

God walked with them daily. They could literally hear Him! How many times we would love to have that now! What a blessing to not walk with God figuratively, but literally! (Now some of you may say "We do literally walk with God as believers today." But I am talking about walking with God like you walk with your family or friends, it is an event in your day, just like this was part of what they did each day!) Such an awesome picture!

But one day, the serpent tempted Eve to eat of the tree. He used half truths and manipulation, and planted seeds of doubt ultimately making it look as though God was withholding something good from Adam and Eve. And ultimately, they believed the lie and disobeyed God. (So much I could add in right here about our obedience to God, but I fear I am drifting from the point.)

Because of their disobedience, their eyes were opened to the fact that they were naked, and they made a covering for themselves of leaves. (This is the counterfeit folks! Today we call it Religion. We are sinful, and think somehow that we can do something to remove the sin from our lives. We try to get to God, a right relationship with Him - on our own terms instead of coming to Him on His terms and finding true forgiveness.) But when God came, they realized how inadequate their covering truly was. There efforts did nothing but cover sin, in their strength it couldn't be taken away. But God (don't you LOVE hearing those words in the Bible? things look hopeless But God steps in!) made a covering for them and a sacrifice for their sin. Genesis 3:21 shows us a picture of the precious lamb that would come and live a holy and blameless life and then be offered on the cross as a sacrifice to cover our sin! Praise God!

Of course there were still consequences of their sin, just like we have to face the consequences of sin today, even after coming to Christ. (Here is where I am coming back to the "EVIL" in all caps.) Before their disobedience, Adam and Eve had only known Good. Now, unfortunately, their eyes were open to see and know evil. Physical death, hard work, pain in having children all became part of their life as a result of their disobedience, and ultimately are part of our lives today as a direct result of this event.

But God (Awesome right??) made a way! Through His precious Son. Although practically we still live life in this place and deal with death and disaster, we live as those who have HOPE! We have great HOPE in Him!

Advent: Hope

I think it is so appropriate that the first candle we light for advent celebrates Hope. I was listening to a song yesterday, and I was reminded that from Malachi to Matthew, God is silent. Not just the people aren't listening close to what God is saying to them, but rather He is absolutely SILENT.

Think about that for a second, have you ever set in absolute silence? Is it just me, or can absolute silence be deafening at times? It is almost overwhelming for us. Maybe because we live in a society where it is so rare, or maybe that is just the way God created it. Think about times when something has happened and left you speechless, or left someone with you speechless. You are just hoping that they will say something, anything, but instead they sit in silence and the whole mood of the conversation is altered.

Now put that into perspective of what is happening in scripture from Malachi to Matthew. 400 years make up this space between these to books. 400 years of absolute SILENCE. 400 years! A few minutes of silence is enough to make me uncomfortable, but 400 years! Think about that. Entire generations lived and died not hearing God speak.

Finally after all those years, God speaks to His people again, but this time, through angels and the cry of an infant. And in that cry as that precious baby was born, the sound of hope was heard once again.

As we look forward to the Christmas season, I pray that we take the time to truly look at all this season means. I pray that we look beyond the gifts, and traditions. I pray that we see that HOPE entered the world at Christmas through the person of Jesus Christ.

Lessons from Tangled

Last night, Zeke and I went to the movies with some friends. We saw the movie Tangled (in 3D, cause you really wanted to know that). I was really excited because I was wanting to go see this movie, but knew it was one I would probably just have to wait for on DVD. So, we got invited to go with some friends and really enjoyed it! It was such a cute movie, but beyond being a cute movie, I saw an amazing Biblical illustration in part of this movie.

So here is the spoiler alert because to tell you about this illustration, I am going to have to tell you some info about the movie and give some things away! Sorry!

For those that don't know, the movie is about the story of Rapunzel. As the story goes when Rapunzel was a baby she was kidnapped from the castle because of the power her hair had to heal. She was raised by an evil lady who kept her trapped in a tower her whole life. However, every year on her birthday, Rapunzel would look out the window of the tower and see these beautiful lights in the sky. This was done as a memorial to the princess that was kidnapped. So one scene in the movie shows them on this day letting these lanterns go and they float up into the sky and off into the distance.

What was amazing to me about this scene was that it starts out with the one lantern the king and queen light, the rest of the kingdom is dark. But slowly, the people in the kingdom begin to light their lanterns and let them go, and suddenly the kingdom is glowing with light. The thought hit me as I was watching this..."This is how it is supposed to be with us!" As believers, we light our lantern and let it shine so that those around us can see Christ in us. As others come to know Christ, they light their lanterns, and so on. Then all of the sudden, this kingdom that was once dark, is now glowing with the light of Christ! And that glowing light from the lanterns intrigued and attracted those outside the kingdom, just like the love of Christ in us intrigues and attracts those who don't know Him.

So, as we go throughout our lives meeting people who are searching for something more, may we remember that we need to live in a way that reveals to them the light of Christ in our lives.

Thankful Post #8

Ok, so I have not been very good at all about keeping up with these "Thankful Posts." Sorry about that. But I have been thinking each day about something to post! So many days I would find myself with multiple things to post that I am thankful for...so much so that I could not have shared them all.

I was reminded this week that thankfulness is a characteristic of a true follower of Christ. Believers know that they have been given so much, and the result of that is an overflowing thankfulness. i love the wording of that...overflowing. the thought behind overflowing is that an object is filled to the point that it can no longer contain what it is being filled with. For example, if I poured myself a glass of tea, but even when the tea reached the top of the glass, I still kept pouring. the tea is going to start spilling over the sides of the glass.

As believers, all that God gave us in salvation is enough for this to be true of our lives. We should be overflowing with thankfulness, not just one day a year, but everyday!

So I know that tomorrow we will all be focused on thankfulness, but I hope that it continues in our hearts throughout the year as we think back on all that God has done for us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful Post #7

Today, I am thankful for believers who have gone before me and left a legacy worthy of following. I was writing a not to one of the senior adult ladies in our church today, and as I thought through all that Zeke and I have learned from her and her husband in the short time we have been here, thankfulness for this family filled my heart.

It makes me think of something I read or heard a while ago. The thought is that as we walk through life, following after Christ, we make our steps deep enough that those who come behind us are able to walk in them. As I set that goal for my own life, I am thankful for those who have done that before me. Through their actions, they show me that following after Jesus is worth whatever the cost.

Thank you Lord for those who are wiser in the faith and leave a legacy obedience as an example to those of us who come behind them. help this to be true of my life for those who come behind me!

Thankful Post #6

Today, I am thankful for home. God has absolutely blessed Zeke and I with being able to have the home that we have. He opened the doors and has provided for us every step of the way with this home. There are definitely days that it can be overwhelming to have a house and not an apartment, like the days I am behind on cleaning and people are coming over, but the other day the thought hit me that I should be thankful that I have a home to clean because some people don't have that. So I guess the whole goal for doing this 24 Days of thankfulness is starting to pay off. :) So on those days that I get frustrated with all that it takes to keep our home functioning, I hope that I will remember this. That I will start to think through the fact that God has blessed me when he gave me this house, that ultimately it is His house anyway, and He has entrusted it to me to use for His glory!