Lexical Light

40

I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me and  heard my cry. 

He brought me up out of the  pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 
   
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40: 1-3, NIV

I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay.

I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song.
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song?

You set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm.
Many will see, many will see and hear.

I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song? .

"40" by U2

Different Books - One Message

Household chores, postmodern culture and a PBS show for preschoolers. Different topics, one underlying theme - follow, imitate, cling to and know Jesus. How does that happen? It starts with reading His Word and praying. Three of the books I've been reading lately are all pointing me in that direction, though I didn't read them for that purpose. I hear you, Daddy.

Gotta Have Faith, part III

When does a rabbit trail become a series? When Roman numerals appear.

I didn't set out to write this "series" of posts, it just happened. Here are the blog stops on the trail: from Lexical Light to Mommy Life to Especially Heather.

I saw a connection between a simple entry about what I learned at church and the question of a teenager. Then came the connection between her mom's response and another mom's response to the possibility of death.

Those who love best are loved best. How do I know God loves me? Faith. How do we really know heaven's real? We see a life transformed by God. Then, we can only imagine what heaven will be like. What if we were faced with being there sooner than we expected? It goes back to a life touched by God and faith.

As you pray for Heather, here's her prayer for those who read her story:

"My prayer for every single person reading this is that you find the peace that floods over me. That you realize that there is a God who loves you so very much, and wants so badly to have a personal relationship with you. I pray that my story touches you and draws you closer to him in ways that you never thought possible. I pray that you hold your children a little tighter, and love your husband a little deeper. I pray that you hold your parents closer and realize that in the end- everything else is meaningless. Christs love for you is so immense and so encompassing."

Gotta Have Faith, part II

"The power of a transformed life is just undeniable evidence that Jesus is real, not just a story." - Barbara Curtis

That's an excerpt from Barbara's post about a conversation with her daughter, who was asking how we can really know heaven is real. It seemed like a perfect compliment to my post about how we know God loves us. People can argue theology, history, etc. all day long, but you can't dispute a changed life. Thank you, Jesus.

Gotta Have Faith

How do I know God loves me? As mentioned in yesterday's post, if I'm going to love well, I need to receive love well.

So, how do I receive God's love? First, I have to believe God loves me. Why would I believe that? Jesus love me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. The Bible says God loves me.  I John 4:9 says Jesus was a manifestation of God's love so we could live through Him.

I have to believe the Bible. I have to believe Jesus. Then, I need to remind myself, Psalm 48:9 , God loves me. All those things take faith.

Those are ways I know God loves. There are also ways I feel God's love for me. Some may contend the feelings are from other sources or whatever, but I choose to attribute them to God's presence. During praise and worship at church is one way. Often times I feel His love when I see the beauty in nature. Through the kindness of friends and family is another. My 10 year old said he knows God loves him because He gave him awesome parents. (Score one for the boy. Of course, that doesn't mean kids w/out awesome parents aren't loved by God.)

The cool thing is that God's love is available to whoever will receive it. 1 John  4:7-19

I pray you will know the vastness of His love for you per Eph. 3:16-19.

Uncomfortable

Pastor Earl McClellan taught Part 2 of his series, The 7 Last Sayings of Christ. (You can hear it online here.)

In a fitting follow up to Easter weekend, he highlighted what Jesus said on the cross, as He was being crucified:

"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Luke 23:24

As Pastor Earl pointed out, it's one thing to read it in a book, but it's another thing to do it. Think of something horrible happening to someone you love and then think about forgiving the person who hurt them. That's uncomfortable. Hopefully, we won't have to endure that kind of pain. It does put in perspective the minor offenses we get riled up about.

Another quick thing that spoke to me - I walked in during P. Rob talking before the offering. He was talking about being able to receive from Jesus, using the Mary and Martha story. (Luke 10:38-42) There's no way anyone would confuse me with Martha, but that doesn't mean I'm always sitting at the Lord's feet and listening to Him. That will be on my heart during my closet time - being able to sit at the Lord's feet and listen to Him.

The Prosperity Pentateuch

Hearing R.C. Sproul Jr. speak on the "The Three G's" (Who God is, what God has done and what God requires) at the CHEACT Homeshool Conference this weekend made me want to read Deuterononmy. Sproul noted that Deuteronomy is basically Moses' last will & testament, what he wants to tell the children of Israel before they go into the promised land. In addition to the child training implications pointed out by Sproul, I was interested in this because I had been wondering about God's instructions to the Israelites in the promised land.

On Sunday when I started reading Deuteronomy, there were several things that jumped out at me, but I'll stick with this one: if we obey God, we get blessed. Because I've been a member of non-denominational churches since high school, that's not earth shattering news to me. What caught my attention was that Moses said one reason he taught God's decrees was so the Israelites may enjoy a long life. Based on the other verses on the chapter, it would be a long, good life.

Moses said the reason he was teaching them God's decrees and commands was:

• so they would fear God and so they may enjoy a long life. (Deut. 6:2)

If they did what God said, this would happen:

• it would go well with them  (Deut. 6:18)
• they would prosper & be kept alive (Deut. 6:24) (No time for a word study on prosper, but it probably means more than simply survive.)

Those are just the examples from Deuteronomy 6. There's more in later chapters, telling of God's blessings if we keep His commands, yet somehow we never hear Moses being accused of  preaching the Prosperity Pentateuch. Must be all the laws.

(Something got lost in the translation - from my head to the screen, that is. Perhaps I'm just sleepy, but this a feeble attempt to recount the revelation that kept me in the closet for over an hour on Sunday. Oh, well.)

God on Laundry

I've been working for the past few hours on a post about Moses and Easter. (Hint: It has nothing to do with Charlton Heston in a bunny suit.) I had to stop because I need to go to bed. Before I hit the sack, I wanted to read a little of the hard copy Bible text I've been reading, instead of the on line one.

Expecting to continue my heavy lifting and learning about God, I grab the Living Bible from the kitchen table and start reading in Exodus.  After a few minutes of reading, I stumble on something that makes me chuckle.  In Exodus 19 God tells Moses to tell the Israelites to wash their clothes. I vaguely remember reading this a while back, but it makes a bigger impression today in light of it being Easter, a traditional "dress up" occasion, in light of things I'm learning about appearance, and yes, in light of lessons I'm learning about household mgmt., including laundry.

Take away value:

1) Doing my laundry is an act of submission, a means of presenting my body as a living sacrifice. God could have miraculously cleaned the Israelites clothes.  He could have given us fur! He didn't. He told the Israelites to do wash their clothes and He is indirectly telling me to wash my clothes. Now, I don't know what the laundry situation would have been without original sin, but that doesn't matter.  I have to wash clothes. (BTW, I'm absolutely thankful for the means by which I can do laundry.)

2) Why do we dress up on certain occasions if the inside is more important than the outside?  In Exodus 19:10 (NIV) God told Moses to get the people ready for His visit by sanctifying them and having them wash their clothes. Could it be that clean clothes showed respect, like my dh said this a.m. when I asked him why he thought we dressed up on certain occasions? On some level, clothes matter.  They aren't the most important thing, and we aren't to dismiss people due to their appearance, but if we have the means to spruce up, we should. There's that submission thing again.

Now, both of those things don't really relate to the topic of the post I've been laboring over, yet they are blog fodder worthy of separate posts on their own.  My cup overfloweth....as does my brain. I must go rest the latter.

Mr. Ron's Round up

Mr. Ron has been dilligently bringing the Word to the blogsphere.  Here's one of my recent favorites:

Committed to Inspire

People who have passion

For what they do

Will always show up

Committed through and through.

But people not captured

By a hunger in their heart

Will soon grow weary

And finally depart.

So you be the leader

Committed to inspire

And soon others will follow

To the church on fire!

How to Fight

Mr. Ron did it again.

Spiritual Warfare

You can be cut, chiseled and buff, six-pack city and doo-wah-dity; but without the Sword of the Spirit, the devil's gonna whip you like a kitty!

Ephesians 6:17 - And take the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  KJV