That chokes me up just writing that title. There was a point in time where Jody and I were not sure that would even be possible. Family. We knew that it would be us and that was enough. After a very bad car accident, doctors told him that he would never be able to. Now of course we have 2 beautiful kids that remind us that God FULLY HEALS and FULLY ANSWERS. He does the impossible. Reece and Cale are the light of our lives. Sunshine and joy in the morning. Family is a precious word that I am so thankful for. Family means I don't have to go through this life alone and I get to past fun traditions and stories on to my kids. I also get to teach them about Jesus.....the most important part of my life. A relationship so special that it is unmatched by any other. During my "isolation" time, God showed me how important it is to pass things on to them. To plan for them. Provide for them with His provision. To love and care for them. To detail "the little things" that make life sweeter and make them feel like no one is more important than them. It is a special gift to love your family and your kids with God's love. Unconditional. To teach them that life is beautiful and wonderful. But even more than you can imagine when HE is in your life and HE is your everything.
Beth Moore James study had a great tidbit this week. It talked about how life can sometimes get bitter because of people, situations, circumstances, or you fill in the blank. Jesus makes life sweeter. Exodus 15: 22-26, especially verse 25 says that the Lord showed Moses a piece of wood and he threw it in the water and made it sweet. Of course she draws you through the awesome parallel that the piece of wood that sweetened our life was the cross and what Christ has done for us. Truly awesome! I have chewed on that all day. What a great truth! I want to make their life sweeter because that what He has done for me and for them. I prayed that over my labs this morning that pure sweetness would take anything crazy out that my last set of test showed. Makes me sad that just when I thought I was done, another set commences. His blood can makes anything sweet and that is exactly what I am asking for.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
James
The Beth Moore study of James...Mercy Triumphs is great! I must say that tonight kicked my tail. A very good kick I might add. Not one that I have not read several times because this is one of my favorite books. She just explained this verse in such a great way that made it hit the head and the heart at the same time. Yes I know the verse and thought I understood the meaning. But thinking about it, being taught more about it and having someone shed this kind of light is what I needed for it to really transfer. I love grasping a concept deeply. Really basking in the real meaning and not missing important words and messages.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
This verse has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The words that helped me tonight were ACCEPTS and POLLUTED. Religion that God accepts. That is interesting. This may be what we have always known, grown up with, or been taught. We have lots of ideas about religion and what it looks like, how it should be practiced, what worship is and so on. Reading the above verse again, I have to say that I have been wrong. It is nothing about the things that we make it to be. It is simple so long as we don't let others opinions or the demands of our own lives dictate us actually following through with those things. She takes you through other verses that address: poor, oppressed, fatherless, widows again. It is not our idea of what God will accept but what HE accepts as pure and faultless.
For me the next word was the most powerful. POLLUTED. Setting the lesson down I picture oil spills, litter in parks, dirty streets, filthy environments from old buildings to smog like Beth would ask you to picture. Yuck! My lungs and eyes are burning just at the thought. I cringe and pull back knowing that if I could pick a different street to walk down I would. I picture the dirty, stinky streets in New York that could use a good washing. Pollution is disgusting but our lives are just as messy and hard to clean. In a book I am reading now called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses how we are in a world of Information Overload. That could also be considered a pollution. Everything grabs for our attention, fighting to hold it. Issues that really aren't worth our time grab it and fog our thinking and distract us from accomplishing things that might actually have an impact. Pollution keeps us from doing what God called us to do.
Her punch line sentences are always so convicting:
"How do we serve in it without smelling like it? With serious discipline, determination, courage, and deep conviction. You live His religion on purpose. Religion pure and undefiled is GRIT WITHOUT THE GRIME."
I love it! The last sentence was what my heart often feels but I feel like I walk away from circumstances completely covered in grime. She ends the lesson with the best!! "When we sniff ourselves and smell the world, we run to the One who can wash us." How true! I am nothing without Him. It is a relationship that makes religion like that real. What a great translation to a verse that I needed some help with.
Now as James would say....go DO IT! (Lord I pray that I can and that you'll help me!)
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
This verse has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The words that helped me tonight were ACCEPTS and POLLUTED. Religion that God accepts. That is interesting. This may be what we have always known, grown up with, or been taught. We have lots of ideas about religion and what it looks like, how it should be practiced, what worship is and so on. Reading the above verse again, I have to say that I have been wrong. It is nothing about the things that we make it to be. It is simple so long as we don't let others opinions or the demands of our own lives dictate us actually following through with those things. She takes you through other verses that address: poor, oppressed, fatherless, widows again. It is not our idea of what God will accept but what HE accepts as pure and faultless.
For me the next word was the most powerful. POLLUTED. Setting the lesson down I picture oil spills, litter in parks, dirty streets, filthy environments from old buildings to smog like Beth would ask you to picture. Yuck! My lungs and eyes are burning just at the thought. I cringe and pull back knowing that if I could pick a different street to walk down I would. I picture the dirty, stinky streets in New York that could use a good washing. Pollution is disgusting but our lives are just as messy and hard to clean. In a book I am reading now called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses how we are in a world of Information Overload. That could also be considered a pollution. Everything grabs for our attention, fighting to hold it. Issues that really aren't worth our time grab it and fog our thinking and distract us from accomplishing things that might actually have an impact. Pollution keeps us from doing what God called us to do.
Her punch line sentences are always so convicting:
"How do we serve in it without smelling like it? With serious discipline, determination, courage, and deep conviction. You live His religion on purpose. Religion pure and undefiled is GRIT WITHOUT THE GRIME."
I love it! The last sentence was what my heart often feels but I feel like I walk away from circumstances completely covered in grime. She ends the lesson with the best!! "When we sniff ourselves and smell the world, we run to the One who can wash us." How true! I am nothing without Him. It is a relationship that makes religion like that real. What a great translation to a verse that I needed some help with.
Now as James would say....go DO IT! (Lord I pray that I can and that you'll help me!)
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Living in Righteousness
These post are getting harder to write. Or perhaps this is the hardest. For obvious reasons. RIGHTEOUSNESS. Well I definitely am not on my own or by my own will or effort. Righteousness is unobtainable without Christ. Righteousness is the very qualities and being of Jesus. So if we are trying to "just try harder" or "commit more time to commit better effort" good luck. This is appropriately timed since so far I have procrastinated on the list I promised to post......but I have to say that even in my poor effort I think God will be glorified in this timing. Last night and today as so many, including myself, set NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS I think the best is this. Strive to hand your efforts, commitments, goals, and life over to Christ. Only He holds the future. Your goal should be Him.
James 4: 13-14 tells us that:
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
I set goals every year. Looking back over this last year I can say that I am truly blessed beyond words. I sit too humbled as I make my list of thankfulness: 1. blessed by 2 sweet health kids 2. even more blessed by a sweet, Godly husband who also demonstrates his understanding and helps me around the house even when he is tired and busy 3. blessed by a sweet friend and study partner with CFMT (Kaysi) 4. Passed CFMT 5. Applied for fellowship (don't care the results but GOD got me to the point where I could) 6. Found the small amount of cancer, successfully removed it, and is helping me find my new balance 7. blessed me with people that I've known forever that I am still blessed to have strong friendships or contact with. 8. Continue to be blessed by a 4 day week and a wonderful day to spend with my children. 9. Time to spend in the Word
These are just a few. I could go on and on but God knows them so well. I've already begun to make my list for this year. That's how I operate. I love the thrill of setting goals and meeting them. Not just for the sake of setting goals to say I did. Or to check them off when I meet them. It is the thrill of knowing that when I set a goal it is useless if I do not ask what the Lord would have first. James 4: 15 says: Instead, you ought to say, " If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." I know that I can set goals but it is truly up to Him and what He wants. What is truly amazing is that often He wants us to simply consult Him first. Before we set out and make decisions. Simply ASK. The results are unbelievable when He blesses us to see the results and brings them about. I'm thankful that He knows our greatest desires and grants those. I have also been equally grateful when I have wanted something so bad that it hurts and He doesn't give it to me. I love when He reminds me what I asked for and shows me how He answered that request to give me something greater than I thought to ask for. He's a gracious and giving God.
So how does that tie back to living in righteousness. Well, truthfully at this point God has taught me that if it is not from Him and if it is not what He wants for me, it is not worth having. I pray over my goals again that they may be avenues that bless others, bless my family, and glorify Him FULLY. I pray that these goals will be beyond myself so that His presence may be obvious to others. I pray that self, selfishness, pride, jealousy, hardness of heart, bitterness, or ambition do not enter into these goals today or throughout the year. I pray for His righteousness in my life and in my family. Thank God I know Him and am saved by Him and He covers my imperfections. He is my ultimate goal! He's the reason for setting them. I want them to be His fruit. I pray He teaches me what living in righteousness means & looks like and that I never look to the world to define that for me.
James 4: 13-14 tells us that:
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
I set goals every year. Looking back over this last year I can say that I am truly blessed beyond words. I sit too humbled as I make my list of thankfulness: 1. blessed by 2 sweet health kids 2. even more blessed by a sweet, Godly husband who also demonstrates his understanding and helps me around the house even when he is tired and busy 3. blessed by a sweet friend and study partner with CFMT (Kaysi) 4. Passed CFMT 5. Applied for fellowship (don't care the results but GOD got me to the point where I could) 6. Found the small amount of cancer, successfully removed it, and is helping me find my new balance 7. blessed me with people that I've known forever that I am still blessed to have strong friendships or contact with. 8. Continue to be blessed by a 4 day week and a wonderful day to spend with my children. 9. Time to spend in the Word
These are just a few. I could go on and on but God knows them so well. I've already begun to make my list for this year. That's how I operate. I love the thrill of setting goals and meeting them. Not just for the sake of setting goals to say I did. Or to check them off when I meet them. It is the thrill of knowing that when I set a goal it is useless if I do not ask what the Lord would have first. James 4: 15 says: Instead, you ought to say, " If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." I know that I can set goals but it is truly up to Him and what He wants. What is truly amazing is that often He wants us to simply consult Him first. Before we set out and make decisions. Simply ASK. The results are unbelievable when He blesses us to see the results and brings them about. I'm thankful that He knows our greatest desires and grants those. I have also been equally grateful when I have wanted something so bad that it hurts and He doesn't give it to me. I love when He reminds me what I asked for and shows me how He answered that request to give me something greater than I thought to ask for. He's a gracious and giving God.
So how does that tie back to living in righteousness. Well, truthfully at this point God has taught me that if it is not from Him and if it is not what He wants for me, it is not worth having. I pray over my goals again that they may be avenues that bless others, bless my family, and glorify Him FULLY. I pray that these goals will be beyond myself so that His presence may be obvious to others. I pray that self, selfishness, pride, jealousy, hardness of heart, bitterness, or ambition do not enter into these goals today or throughout the year. I pray for His righteousness in my life and in my family. Thank God I know Him and am saved by Him and He covers my imperfections. He is my ultimate goal! He's the reason for setting them. I want them to be His fruit. I pray He teaches me what living in righteousness means & looks like and that I never look to the world to define that for me.
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