Say it to His face.

Words spoken by Moses to the Israelites as they started their journey for the Promised Land:  “…He (God) has heard your complaints, which are against the Lord and not against us…Yes, your complaints are against the Lord, not against us (Moses and Aaron).”   Exodus 16:7-8

Our Senior Pastor, Dr. Terry Moore, based his sermon today on the grumbling and complaining of the Israelites and God’s provisions in response to their cries.  The scriptures were taken from Chapter 16 of Exodus. 

Dr. Moore gave many notable lessons, but the verses that jumped out at me were Exodus 16:7 and 16:8, where Moses responds to the peoples’ complaints and tells them that they’re not really complaining to Moses and Aaron.  They’re complaining to God!  

I’d already highlighted these verses from previous studies, but evidently I’d forgotten what I’d learned because I complain a lot – not to GOD, of course! – but to my husband, my children, friends, acquaintances, and sometimes even strangers I meet in public.  Then there are the unspoken complaints that I think I’m keeping to myself, but the truth is that God knows our thoughts, so He knows my silent complaints, too.  OMGosh!  He’s been hearing a lot of complaints from me!

Please don’t get me wrong…I’m not a chronic complainer!  For the most part I’m a postive and cheerful person.  Yet, I still have negative thoughts and say negative things about others, situations, current events, and whatever seems wrong to me. 

When I complain about others, do I complain to them?  Usually not.  Usually I complain about them, but not to them. 

If I wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, I shouldn’t say it at all.  The same goes for complaints to God… and thanks to the noted verses in Exodus, I realize that’s just what I’ve been doing!  I’ve been saying things to others that I wouldn’t say to Him. Why wouldn’t I say them directly to God?  Probably because they’re too petty, or complaining to God would expose traits about me that I wouldn’t want Him to see.  You know, traits like self-centeredness, selfishness, childishness, being a martyr, and worst of all unChristian-like thoughts and behaviors. 

Now I realize all those things HAVE been exposed about me because when I’ve complained to others, I’ve actually been complaining to God!

So what do I do?  STOP COMPLAINING!  And here are three things I’ll do to help myself stop: 

1) Start living by this rule:  If I can’t say it to His face, don’t say it at all.

2) Turn my ungodly thoughts around with a Christian approach.  Instead of whining and complaining, I need to pose my thoughts as concerns for God and seek His help, guidance and wisdom regarding my concerns. 

3) Apply the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer by changing the things I can (instead of just complaining about them), and seeking the grace from God to accept the things I cannot change and trusting Him with these matters, instead. 

Dear God, I am SO sorry for the years of complaining I’ve done!  Much of it has been unnecessary, petty, childish, and has surely been tiresome and frustrating for you to hear!  Please help me to handle negative thoughts and situations in better ways - ways that display better faith and Christain living, and in ways that will be pleasing and glorifying to You.  Amen.

Is there racial discrimination in the Bible?

Is there racial discrimination in the Bible?  To the best of my Biblical knowledge, the answer is ‘no’.  

In the ancient days of the Israelites, when God was trying to ‘raise’ the Israelites as his Holy people, there were numerous times when He instructed them to completely stay away from other tribes of people.  He forbid inter-marriage with people from other tribes and religions.  HOWEVER, He didn’t make these commands because of racial differences.  God commanded the Israelites to avoid those who were evil in their ways and/or who participated in pagan worship.  He was trying to keep His chosen people pure and not allow them to be influenced by those who worshiped idols or took part in evil and sinful behaviors. 

God’s protectiveness of the Israelites continued until they returned to Jerusalem after their time in exile.  While in exile, foreigners lived in their land.  When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, God instructed them to live amongh the other peoples to be a light among them.  No longer were they being asked separate themselves from people of other tribes, countries, or religions.  Now they were to live among people of differences and share their Holy faith with them. 

This took place in the Old Testament before Jesus existed on earth.  I view God’s command for the Israelites to live among others so that they could be a light unto them as being the Old Testament version of the Great Commission. 

NOTE:  In the New Testament, Christians are commanded to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to all people, reaching out to the far corners of the world.  This command is called the Great Commission.  (Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus sent His apostles to lead the way in the Great Commission.  I’m not aware of any situation where either Jesus or His apostles discriminated against who could/should receive the Good News. 

 Jesus, himself, walked among people of various nationalities and backgrounds. 

The Holy Spirit sent Philip to travel along a desert road where he met a man (a eunuch) from Ethiopia who was the Treasurer to the Queen of Ethiopia.  As the Ethiopian rode in his carriage, he was trying to read from the Book of Isaiah.  The Holy Spirit instructed Philip to walk alongside the carriage.  When he did so, Philip noticed the man reading scriptures.  Philip was able to help the man understand the verses he was reading and also shared the Good News about Jesus! The man was so inspired that he asked to be baptised along the side of the road where water was found.  (Acts 8:28-40)

Do you see what happened?  The Holy Spirit of God Almighty sent one of His believers to share the Good News with an influential man from Ethiopia.  Why?  1) Because the Good News is for EVERYONE (no racial discrimination), and 2) so that the Good News could be spread to the Ethiopian people (again, no racial discrimination).

I’m not a Bible expert.  I’m a Bible expert wanna-be, so PLEASE correct me if I’m mistaken in anything I’ve written here.

The Blessings in a Bummer

And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes for them.     – Romans 8:28

In my previous post I wrote about a big disappointment I experienced.  An untimely infection kept me from taking our sons back to Indiana to visit  grandparents and my husband’s sister and her family.  We were packed and excited about going, then had to cancel at the last minute.  I tried postponing our departure, but still couldn’t go. 

I trust there’s a reason why it was best that we didn’t go.  So far I don’t know what exactly that reason was, maybe I never will, but we made the best of our situation and I found unexpected blessings by the end  of the week.   Here are a few of those blessings:

1)  We had an unexpected stay-cation at home!  Since we’d planned to be out of town, we had 5 days at home with no appointments or commitments!  It was great to sleep as late as we wanted, have relaxed mornings, and spend each day as we pleased!

2) Since I’d done all the laundry getting ready for the trip, I had two days off from laundry when we stayed home!  Nice!

3) We got excellent rest and relaxation – more so than if we’d been busy visiting family.

4) We didn’t have to be away from my husband. He wasn’t going to be able to join us on the trip because of his work, and I was wishing he couldn’t travel with us.  Since we stayed home, we didn’t have to be apart after all!  (We might have affected his plans of staying home and getting caught up on work, though!  Oh, well!)

5) I cleaned out some drawers, spent time programming my new cell phone  (Btw…the Palm Pre is an awesome phone!), and taking care of other things that I’m usually too busy to do. 

6) I had long phone calls with some loved ones I hadn’t talked with for a while- something else I don’t usually have time to do. 

7) We saved lots of travel money!! 

8 ) Because I was trying to get well, I had to take it easy and give myself a much-appreciated break from busyness and physical exertion – no vacumming!   

9) My Dad said he and Carolyn would come see us since we couldn’t go see them!  That’s a HUGE blessing because he doesn’t want to travel anymore.  He hasn’t been here for over 5 years.  It will be WONDERFUL having them here.  We’d have only been able to see them for 1 day in Indiana, but they’ll have several days here.  They can visit the boys’ schools and go to their ball games.  I can cook for them and we can visit area restaurants, too.  This will be so much better.  Now I just have to keep praying that Dad will be able to travel.    SPECIAL FYI:  This is especially appreciated because I haven’t seen my Dad since Feb of 08.  It crushed me to know that I’d have to wait indefinitely to see him.  I wanted him to see the boys, too.  They’ve grown up so much since my Dad and his wife saw them.

10) I got to express to my Dad just how much I love him and miss him when I tearfully called to say we wouldn’t be coming.  I always tell him I love him when we talk, but this time the emotions were overflowing and he realized just how much he means to me. 

There were blessings in the bummer, indeed.  Probably most bummers have blessings, we just have to be aware of them.

Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite verses.  God played it out for me this past week.  And something tells me there were other blessings that weren’t apparent to me.  God is good!  That’s for sure!

John 3:16 at 3:16 a.m.!

I woke up at 2:30 a.m. in great discomfort.  The antibiotics I’d started yesterday weren’t helping.  I was much worse.  I began to cry as I realized I would be unable to travel to Indiana today as planned.  The boys and I only had a few days, so it was going to be a quick trip to visit family – my Dad and his wife on Friday, then my husband’s sister and her family on Saturday when we’d have fun with my 3-year old nephew, then drive home on Sunday.  We didn’t get to make this trip last summer, so I’ve been especially anxious and excited to get there.  It’s been way too long since I’ve seen my Dad and he’s seen his grandsons; and my boys were looking forward to having playing with their little cousin on Saturday.  We were even going to surprise him by taking the little motorized John Deere truck my boys have outgrown.  The thought of missing out on all that added to the sickness I already felt. 

I was up for an hour before my physical discomfort subsided enough that I could try to go back to sleep.  As I crawled into bed, my tears started up again.  This time they were ‘pity party’ tears.  Why is there always something wrong with me?  Why do I have to miss so many things because of health issues?  Why did I have to miss another trip back to Indiana?  Why….?    I looked at the clock.  It was 3:16.  The numbers jumped out at me…3:16…John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”  Yes, that’s an amazing statement of God’s love, but what did that have to do with me at that moment?  Then I recalled the other half of that verse. “…so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”   Ok.  That’s an amazing promise of salvation, but again what does that have to do with me right now?  Why is that verse  jumping out at me?  My mind zoomed in on the words ”…will not perish but have eternal life.”   God was breaking up my ‘pity party to say, “Renee, this is not something serious.  Yes, you have frequent ailments and problems, but they won’t cause you’re not about to perish!  And in the end, you have eternal life with Me to look forward to!”  Yep, He was right.  As disappointed as I was about not going to Indiana, there was nothing seriously wrong with me.  Praise for that!  As frustrating as frequent ailments and minor health problems are…they’re just that – minor!  The best part of all?  I might not get to see my earthly Dad tomorrow, but there’s a heavenly Dad whose visit is guaranteed!  God willing we’ll all unite there one day and no will have ailments or health problems of any kind! 

My pity party was over.  Thank You, God!  My thoughts turned to giving Him thanks for caring enough to comfort me at 3:16 in the morning. 

God often speaks to me in the 3:00 a.m. hour, usually around 3:30 a.m.   Maybe it’s because the world around me is completely quiet and peaceful at that time.  Usually aroused from sleep, my mind is clear and open, not cluttered and busy like it usually is during the course of my days.  

It’s now 11:35 a.m.  I’m still disappointed we can’t go to Indiana as planned, but for some reason, that’s the way it is.  No pity parties for me, though.  I’d rather use my time and thoughts in more purposeful ways, like remembering how awesome my Heavenly Father is and how thankful I am for the things that really matter.

“Be Big!” for God

Do you ever wonder if you’re capable of doing the tasks before you?  Or question whether or not you’re worthy to do God’s work?  Do you compare yourself to others and think that surely you’re ‘not good enough’ if you’re not like them? 

 If you relate to these questions, then maybe you’ll find encouragement in my devotion “ Be Big!”, published today by Proverbs 31 Ministries.  You can find it at www.Proverbs31.org .    While you’re at the site, you might want to sign up for a FREE online subscription to receive their “Encouragement for Today” devotions every day!   I look forward to receiving mine every morning! 

God bless you as you find ways to “Be Big!” for God!

God Heard and Answered My Prayers

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.    – 1 Peter 5:7

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.  Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live…Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.      – Psalm 116:1-2, 5

Some people wonder how Christians can be believers.  If asked why or how I believe, my response is that I know how I’ve been blessed- how my life is blessed – since I started living in faith.  Nothing else I’ve ever done or believed has had the impact on my life that God has.  He is there.  He does things!  Today was one of those amazing times when He proved His presence in my life.

I recently witnessed a situation that wasn’t right.  It troubled me.  At 3:44 a.m. I woke up thinking about it.  I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t.  My mind was stuck on this situation.  It needed to be addressed.  I started making a mental check-list of the issues that bothered me; then I started considering what I could say or do regarding these things.  With thoughts finally in place I tried and tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t.  I’d been awake an hour!  It was almost 5:00 a.m.!  Desperate to have a little more sleep I silently cried out to God, “Lord, what else do I need to do about this?  Why can’t I go to sleep?”  Then I realized my mistake.  I’d spent an hour of precious sleep time wrestling with my thoughts as a lone wrangler.  Instead of turning things over in my mind, I needed to turn them over to God. 

I prayed out the situation to God, and instead of coming up with everything I needed to say and do, I left it up to God to determine those things.  Even though I’d developed strong feelings about how I needed to take care of things, as I prayed I realized God was waiting for me to trust HIM to take care of things.  What peace this brought!  Why hadn’t I realized this sooner? 

Having given it all up to God and trusting Him to handle the situation as He saw fit, I fell right to sleep!   But that’s not the happy ending.  It gets better.

Later in the day God showed me how He’d rectified the situation – beautifully, I might add – and without any involvement from me. 

Do you see how He blessed me in this situation?  Knowing I was troubled He stayed with me until I gave it all up to Him.  He didn’t let me take matters into my own hands.  If I had, I’d have surely messed things up and maybe even made things worse!  AND…not only did He take care of the situation, He also allowed me to be blessed by the outcome.  What a sweet Lord we have!

The most awesome part about all of this is that I never uttered a word of what I was thinking and feeling.  God knew what was in my heart.  He heard and answered my silent prayers.  NO ONE knew the concerns I had.  Only Him.  And He acted on them.  Praise be to God! 

Dear Lord, Thank You for always being there, for tending to the matters of my heart, and for the peace You give when I’m in step with You.  Thank You for not letting me rest (literally!) until I’d responded in faith and put my trust in You.  Thanks also for the added blessings of knowing how well You took care of things.  You truly are an awesome God!   As long as I have breath, I will praise Your holy name!  Amen. 

You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds.  – Psalm 65:5

What is Grace?

“Then I will pour out a spirit of grace…”  – Zechariah 12:10

A friend once asked me, “What is grace?”  At the time I couldn’t think of a definition, only examples.  I later heard our former Pastor define grace as: unmerited favor.   In other words, grace is showing undeserved  kindness.   My Bible defines grace as being God’s unmerited favor toward sinful humanity.

I’m blessed, but ashamed, to say that I was a recipient of grace today. 

A friend… sister-friend… someone I admire and respect …someone’s whose friendship I treasure…recently asked me to do an important favor for her.  I immediately responded that I would, but then failed to do so.   Unexpected plans distracted me from my commitment and I forgot.  Two days ago I realized what I’d done (or hadn’t done, in this case).  I felt terrible and ashamed.  I knew I needed to apologize and admit my failure to help her, but I procrastinated.  While praying this morning, God let me know that I needed to stop procrastinating and contact her today. 

As soon as my morning tasks were done I sat down to send my friend an email of apology.  No, I wasn’t copping out by sending her an email instead of speaking to her in person.  Email is how we communicate.  However, as I started my message to her, I received an email from her!  I  expected it to be a message calling me out on how I’d let her down (and that would have been deserved), but instead it was an all-out gift of grace.  She didn’t even mention the previous favor she’d asked me to do.  Instead, she was giving me another chance to do a favor for her. I thought surely she’d label me as unreliable and remove me from her ”go to” list.  In addition, she also informed me of a surprise favor she was going to do for me!  Now if that’s not all-out grace, I don’t know what is!  All that grace and she hadn’t even gotten an apology from me yet! 

Grace:  unmerited favor, undeserved kindness

By definition, Jesus showed the greatest act of grace when he allowed all of our sins to be upon Him as He died on the cross.  It’s easy to wonder why He would do that because even though He had many followers and people who loved Him, many others hated Him.  Before being crucified He was beaten, mocked, disgraced, and despised.  Yet He took the sins of those people, too.  Yes.  Jesus was a true man of grace.  He was a man who paid the ultimate sacrifice for sins with His own life so that forever more, all who would claim Him as their Lord and Savior could be forgiven of their sins and offered eternal life with Him in heaven.  In fact, just as my friend ended her message by showing an extra act of grace, Jesus offered one more act of grace while hanging on the cross by promising salvation to the criminal hanging next to him who acknowledged Jesus as LORD and asked to be saved.   

GRACE:  God’s free and unmerited favor toward sinful humanity.

God probably won’t ask for such an extreme act of grace from us, but there are many ways we can show grace to others.  Here are a few suggestions:

Don’t say, “I told you so.”  * Avoid taking part in gossip.  Say something positive to end the gossip, instead! * Don’t rub it in when someone else messes up.  Be compassionate to them.  * Turn the other cheek when someone wrongs you.  * Allow the other person to ‘have the last word’ in an argument.  * Avoid an argument altogether by only speaking words of love and grace.  * Let it go when someone cuts you off in traffic. *  Forgive others…even without being asked!  * Don’t repay evil with evil.  *  Trust God to bring justice to others.  * Pray for those who wrong you, hurt you, cheat you, lie to you,…   * Be the first to extend kindness after a bad experience with someone else.  * Let bygones be bygones.   * Love everyone just has God has loved you. 

As stated above, I was ashamed to be in a position where my friend needed to show me grace.  However, I felt extremely blessed when she did.  A little grace goes a long way!   Now I’ll have to remember her loving act of grace and pass it on to others, too! 

How about you?  What acts of grace can you offer today? 

God bless you.  May grace and peace be with you.  Amen.

The Broken Shells

A broken shell sits atop my roll-top desk among other sentimental treasures.   Two other broken shells sit on my bathroom counter among a few seemingly ‘perfect’ shells.  The shell on my desk is from our recent Spring Break trip.  The two on the bathroom counter are wonderful reminders of our women’s retreat, held at the beach last fall.  It was there that I learned to treasure the special beauty of broken shells.

I’ve always collected shells.  At age 47 I STILL can’t resist picking up shells as I walk along the beach, and I LOVE to walk along the beach!   I used to only search for unbroken, whole shells. However, now I see special beauty in the broken shells, too.  I learned to appreciate the beauty in broken shells after hearing one of my friends excitedly share the story of how God had spoken to her during her early morning walk on the beach at our women’s retreat.  I don’t recall exactly what she said, but the lesson God wanted to teach her was something like this:  

We, like shells, get tumbled around on our journey.  Sometimes we take hard knocks and get battered around by life, and these rough times can cause wear and tear, cracks, and even break us in places.   Other times we allow ourselves to remain dormant in troubling situations and ‘barnacles’ of anger, resentment, jealousy, pride, doubt and other negative influences begin to attach themselves to us.  Eventually we’re like the broken shells that wash up upon the beach, but that’s ok!  As the friend who shared her story says, it makes us ”beautifully broken”.   God sees beauty and opportunity in our brokeness.  It’s in those times and places within us that He can do His best work! 

We are ALL broken shells!  None of us have arrived where we are today completely unscathed or untouched by life situations.  Each of us has experienced pain, fear, disappointment, loss, illness, injury, and the list goes on.  It’s been through those times that we’ve had the opportunities to grow, mature, and become even more beautiful!  Since becoming a woman of faith, it’s been in those times that God has shown Himself most beautifully to me.  In fact, if you look closely at what appear to be perfect shells, you’ll see many scratches, marks, and imperfections.  Pssst…people are like that, too!  They might look all perfect and whole at a quick glance, but if you look closely you’ll see signs of imperfections – in EVERYONE!   

Many people pass by the broken shells on the beach or even toss them back into the ocean.  They might do the same with us,  but not God.  He sees the beauty in us no matter what!  It’s when we wash up on the shores of life looking broken, damaged, and having signs of wear and tear that He most wants to be with us!  He wants to be the first to pick us up so He can add us to His collection of the “beautifully broken”, for it’s in those times that He truly can create beauty from the broken times of our lives. 

It’s quite appropriate that God shared this lesson with my friend because she calls herself “beautifully broken” in the title of her blog site, Beautifully Broken Amanda.  How about you?  Are you ready to call yourself Beautifully Broken?  If not, please let God turn your brokeness into beauty as only He can.   

And, you know what?  It’s because of the broken places on the outside of the shells that I can see the special hidden beauty on the inside of the shells.  Haven’t we always been told it’s what’s on the inside that counts?  God bless you and your brokeness, too!

Dear God, Thank You for making beauty out of the broken places of my heart and the broken times of my life.  Help me to always see the beauty in the brokeness of others, too.  And Lord, please help others in their brokeness, too.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen. 

A Lesson about Love

The following was shared with me via email from my friend, Charissa.  It’s a wonderful lesson about love that touched her heart.   With her permission, I’m sharing it with you, too.   Charissa writes: While browsing through the Christian books in the church library, I ran across a book called “Learning to Live with People You Love”.  I thought this would be a good one for Dave and I.  I was shocked when I started reading the misconceptions of love that most of us have.  D. James Kennedy. Ph.D. writes that “This feeling that people call love is not what the bible means by love at all.  According to Scripture, love is not a feeling; love is a way of acting.  True love, God’s Word tells us, is a way of treating other people.  Notice in the following Scripture passage that there is not one tingle of emotion-not even a palpitation!              Love is patient. love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV     Love, according to the Bible’s definition. involves two aspects: doing and enduring.  We can understand this better by looking at Jesus Christ.  The life of Christ is divided by theologians into two parts: His active obedience and His passive obedience.   The active obedience of Jesus was everything He did: Jesus went about doing good.  He healed the sick; He fed the hungry; He forgave the sinner; He comforted the mourner.  Christ’s passive obedience (from which we get the word passion) involves the things He endured: mockery, insults, betrayal, injustice, emotional turmoil, sorrow, physical pain, separation from His heavenly Father.  Jesus Christ was the perfect embodiment of love as it is defined in 1 Corinthians thirteen.  Doing good and enduring evil-that is what love is all about. I hope this was as eye opening for you as it was for me.   Love, Charissa

Thank You, Great Physician! Claiming the Truth of Psalm 103:3

Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

Let all that I am praise the LORD: may I never forget the good things he does for me.

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases…      ~ Psalm 103:1-3 (NLT)

My 14-year old son has been sick all week with fevers, fatigue, body aches and night sweats.  We saw a pediatrician on Monday (6 days ago) who said his illness was viral, so all we could do was treat symptoms and wait it out.  By Friday pm I was concerned he had mono.  As he continued to have nightsweats throug the night it became apparent that he wouldn’t be able to go with his youth group on their mission trip since departure was little more than 24 hours away.  Even if his symptoms miraculously went away, he wouldn’t have time to recover after being so sick for so long.  Going on the trip could set him back and make him even worse.  I sent a prayer request to a few of my prayer partners asking them to pray for my son and his wellness.  A few responded that they’d pray for him to get well so that he could go on the mission trip.

Boy, were those prayers good, because all the sudden the next day my son was feeling well! 

With less than 24 hours from the trip’s departure, I took my son to Urgent Care.  He’d had night sweats through the night and continued to be fatigued.  Blood tests ruled out mono (praise!) but comfirmed his blood was high with viral ‘bugs’.  The doctor agreed that my son was too sick to go on the trip, which led to disappointment for both of us.  On the way home we stopped at the grocery and I noticeed my son seemed to be doing better.  Then he said he was feeling better and asked if he could pack when we got home just in case we decided to let him go on the trip.  From that moment on he’s been well! 

Throughout the day I was in skeptical amazement.  Just hours earlier my eyes were looking at results from a blood test that confirmed my son had high counts of viral cells.  Now my eyes were looking at the same son and seeing a boy who was suddenly well and back to his usual self! 

The doctor proved he was sick.  The Great Physician made him well! 

As I write, my son is on his way to inner city D.C. with his youth group and leaders for their mission trip!  Praise be to God! 

Thank You, Great Physician!