When I was pregnant with my youngest, I began to like dill pickles. As a young child, I wouldn't eat them at all. As I got a bit older, I'd tolerate them on a burger. But about halfway through my pregnancy, I walked past a pickle jar in a buffet and did a double take. My nose said that that dill pickle aroma was WONDERFUL and I MUST have some! Now I regularly enjoy dill pickles. This matters because, for me, a turkey sandwich is leftover roast white
meat, a generous topping of dill pickles, and a couple pieces of wheat
bread slathered with mayo. (Are you drooling yet? I am.) Last week I had leftover turkey in the fridge, and I started thinking about a turkey sandwich. I anticipated that sandwich for a good twelve hours. It. Was. DELICIOUS. I savored every bite!
Yesterday our church had breakfast during the Sunday school hour to celebrate Christmas. Shorty and the kids went to the church early to cook, and I had an hour of quiet. Normally I turn on some kind of noise almost immediately, but I just pondered and puttered in silence. It was glorious. I so rarely get moments of quiet, and I savored every one.
Then I began to ponder how the anticipation of a thing tends to heighten your enjoyment when you do receive it. And I began to question if I was savoring my time of personal Bible reading. That pulled me up short because for the past several months I've been so rushed and harried that I've skipped my devotions as often as I've had them. In my head I know that skipping has disastrous results for my heart and relationships, but I allow the pressing to push out the priorities. So I was challenged to look toward the Savior and savor those moments I have with Him. And I encourage you, Christian, to do the same.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalms 34:8
Monday, December 22, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
In Him
I'm still working, off and on, at memorizing Psalm 37. I've not been able to focus my attention on it as much as I'd like (partly due to the demands of educating my Crew, and partly due to my own laziness). As I practiced my most recent verses, I was amazed anew at the price Christ paid on my account. Here are the verses.
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.
Psalms 37:29-34
I would love to be the "righteous" described throughout this Psalm, but I'm not. Jesus told the rich young ruler that no one is good but God. No one is truly righteous except Christ. So verse 33 really stood out to me. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. But when Jesus stood before Pilate, He WAS condemned, and sentenced to death. And when He hung on the cross, He cried out to His Father, "why have you forsaken me?" What is that, if not being abandoned? The Righteous One was abandoned and condemned in the place of the wicked. In MY place. In YOUR place, if you believe.
And now we have peace with God in Christ. We are children of God in Christ. Paul tells the Corinthians:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
2 Corinthians 1:19-20
As I read through Ephesians this week, I counted over twenty times that Paul talks about us being in Christ, and the blessings we receive because of it. And because of this identity in Christ, he urges them to act in a manner consistent with that identity. Dear Christian, remember who you are. You are a beloved child of God IN CHRIST!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-10
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.
Psalms 37:29-34
I would love to be the "righteous" described throughout this Psalm, but I'm not. Jesus told the rich young ruler that no one is good but God. No one is truly righteous except Christ. So verse 33 really stood out to me. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. But when Jesus stood before Pilate, He WAS condemned, and sentenced to death. And when He hung on the cross, He cried out to His Father, "why have you forsaken me?" What is that, if not being abandoned? The Righteous One was abandoned and condemned in the place of the wicked. In MY place. In YOUR place, if you believe.
And now we have peace with God in Christ. We are children of God in Christ. Paul tells the Corinthians:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
2 Corinthians 1:19-20
As I read through Ephesians this week, I counted over twenty times that Paul talks about us being in Christ, and the blessings we receive because of it. And because of this identity in Christ, he urges them to act in a manner consistent with that identity. Dear Christian, remember who you are. You are a beloved child of God IN CHRIST!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-10
Friday, December 12, 2014
Drink More Water
If you have an ailment in our home, the first response you're likely to get is, "Drink more water." I've found that one of the best things the Crew can do, from tummy aches to headaches and everything in between... is to drink water. The kids even joke that if the house is on fire, you should drink more water!
Dear Christian, you need the same spiritual remedy. No matter your symptoms, what you need desperately is a drink of the Living Water. Jesus calls us from death to life at our conversion, then He continues to sustain us as we spend time knowing Him through reading the Bible and prayer.
Do you worry? Drink more Living Water.
Are you struggling with a tenacious sin? Drink more Living Water.
Do you struggle to find motivation to love those around you? Drink more Living Water.
Dear Christian, drink deeply from the Living Water-- and live!
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 4:10-14
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:38-42
Dear Christian, you need the same spiritual remedy. No matter your symptoms, what you need desperately is a drink of the Living Water. Jesus calls us from death to life at our conversion, then He continues to sustain us as we spend time knowing Him through reading the Bible and prayer.
Do you worry? Drink more Living Water.
Are you struggling with a tenacious sin? Drink more Living Water.
Do you struggle to find motivation to love those around you? Drink more Living Water.
Dear Christian, drink deeply from the Living Water-- and live!
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 4:10-14
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:38-42
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Irreplaceable
I have the most awesome Christmas tree on the planet! (At least that's my opinion.) We started a tradition ten years ago that each Christmas, each member of our family chooses a new ornament for the tree. This makes for a unique, and somewhat eclectic, set of decorations. It also makes for one fun trip to the overcrowded department store during December. The downside to this awesomeness is that our ornaments are irreplaceable. While most of them came from a store, on a shelf of identical dozens, it's not so common to see those same identical dozens next year... So if an ornament breaks, I have to try (amidst the tears) to repair it.
I was thinking about the irreplaceable nature of our ornaments when I we put up the tree last weekend, and I was reminded that, for the Christian, there is a much more important irreplaceable aspect of life. Reading the Bible. There are many MANY things that vie for our time and attention. Work is good. But work is not our ultimate purpose. There are myriad things that supply pleasure. And while pleasure is also a good gift, it is also not our ultimate purpose. If we move into the realm of the more "spiritual", there are shelves FULL of great books about faith and pursuing our God. And they are good. But we must never let the good crowd out the best. Dear Christian, please do not let busyness crowd out the time in the Word that is necessary to your growth in faith.
But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Matthew 4:4
But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:41-42
I was thinking about the irreplaceable nature of our ornaments when I we put up the tree last weekend, and I was reminded that, for the Christian, there is a much more important irreplaceable aspect of life. Reading the Bible. There are many MANY things that vie for our time and attention. Work is good. But work is not our ultimate purpose. There are myriad things that supply pleasure. And while pleasure is also a good gift, it is also not our ultimate purpose. If we move into the realm of the more "spiritual", there are shelves FULL of great books about faith and pursuing our God. And they are good. But we must never let the good crowd out the best. Dear Christian, please do not let busyness crowd out the time in the Word that is necessary to your growth in faith.
But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Matthew 4:4
But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:41-42
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