Category: Personal Opinion

Tried, Tested…and True?

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Just thinking this afternoon about how as humans we are always looking to the next thing. Babies learn progressively from the first smile, turning over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up and finally taking steps. We adults do the same with the exception of we often do not take the time just to enjoy where we are at the moment. A few examples: when we are young we can not wait to be grown up; can’t wait to finish school, move out; get married; then, we tend to covet the freedom our single friends enjoy when we are married or the companionship our married friend enjoy when we are single. Many desire children and when they are here, we long for them to sleep through the night, out grow teething, be able to talk so they can tell us what is wrong when they feel bad, walk, start school…

Our techie world continues to teach us to not be satisfied with our phone, computer, tablet, car, TV:  the minute we purchase one it is on it’s way to being obsolete. Chances are that within 2 days to 6 months there will be a faster, better, fancier or sleeker one and many of us will be dreaming of the new best thing!  The world around us makes it hard to be content and just enjoy the moment in which we are living. This becomes even more apparent when we are in a time of trial or difficulty. Many times I find myself looking everywhere for an escape hatch when one of those times come around. Why? because I don’t like conflict, discomfort. I like choices to be easy, people to be loving and kind. The truth is life is not always easy, comfortable and neat and if it were, we would never grow or mature. Take the teething baby for example, in order for the baby to grow teeth, there is pain as the teeth push forward and break the skin. Without that pain the little baby would continue to grow but be relegated to a life of soft mushy food. Many also have used the example of a child. Children are wondrous and a blessing from God, however as they develop there is often morning sickness, stretching and discomfort at times for the mother and they are birthed through travail and pain.

Full Circle= (Remember. Reflect, Recuperate,Rededicate, Redirect)

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This morning after my S.O.A.P. reading, I found myself looking ahead to tomorrows passage just to see what was coming up and to ask the Lord to prepare my heart for what He would have me learn from it. I skimmed over the chapter and not once but twice a word jumped out at me. That word was Gilgal.  I began to think back to a time in my life when this word or maybe I should say the significance of this word became very real in my life and quite significant as well.

Gilgal is first mentioned in the Bible in Deuteronomy 11 where God is describing the Promised land that He will be giving His people. Interestingly enough, it is contains the declaration of God to the Israelites, 26 Today I’m giving you the choice of a blessing or a curse. 27 You’ll be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I’m giving you today. 28 You’ll be cursed if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God, if you turn from the way I’m commanding you to live today, and if you worship other gods you never knew. 29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you’re about to enter, recite the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal. 

I find that very interesting, considering the topic of my last entry was about choosing blessing or cursing, life or death, so this is the result of something I believe the Lord is trying to say to me or teach me. If it is helpful to someone else that is great, but most of the things I write about are things that I am learning or that I feel the Holy Spirit is teaching me.  This is my outlet and if you will since we are talking about Gilgal…my memorial stone to help me remember.

Back to Gilgal.  One of the most known and important times in Gilgal is found in Joshua when the Israelites have been instructed to cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land. Here the Lord parts the waters of the river for all the people following cross the river on dry ground while the priests stand in the middle with the ark of the covenant . God instructed Joshua that one man from each tribe be assigned to select one stone from the middle of the river where the priests had stood and take it to the place the Israelites would camp that night. As they did what God asked, Joshua explained, “4:21 He said to the people of Israel, “In the future when children ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 the children should be told that Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground.23 The Lord your God dried up the Jordan ahead of you until you had crossed, as he did to the Red Sea until we had crossed. 24 The Lord did this so that everyone in the world would know his mighty power and that you would fear the Lord your God every day of your life.”  

In chapter 5, at this same time, all the men who were born in the wilderness were circumcised at Gilgal. Circumcision was a sign to them that they were set apart unto the Lord.  Here they remained in this new land until they were healed.  Also, at Gilgal, the Lord declared in Joshua 5:

9 The Lord then said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, that place is called Gilgal to this day.

What does all this mean?  For me, I am sensing that Gilgal is the place where Israel has come full circle, it is a reminder of God’s salvation of Israel from Egyptian slavery, from the wrath of the Egyptians who were chasing them and were swallowed by the Red Sea; a reminder of His protection and provision for their 40 years of wandering in the desert, where they always had food and water and their clothes and shoes never wore out; it was a place of laying aside the flesh and consecrating themselves to God; laying down false beliefs and false gods that they were exposed to during slavery and being rededicated to the one True God. I believe Gilgal was a fresh start, a clean slate. It was also a great monument and reminder because of the twelve memorial stones. Human beings tend to over time forget or allow all that our God has done for us become a distant memory. These stones stood and still stand as a reminder of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites, we would do well to note and remember all God has done for us! What a stabalizing factor and comforting peace we could enjoy when the storms of life come blowing us over, if we take time to set up remembrances of the times He has seen us through hardships and difficulties or rescued us from them. When we regularly celebrate His presence and provision in our lives we are much calmer and peaceful when the storms of life blow over us, sometimes blowing us over.  I want to come full circle, celebrating fresh starts, rededicating myself to Him, remembering His presence and provision in my life, letting go of the difficulties and pain of the past but remembering His faithfulness and love as a reminder not to return there; choosing life and blessing over death and the curse!

Which Mountain Will You Choose?

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Have you ever experienced a period of time where it seems everywhere you turn the same word or phrase keeps turning up?  Lately the words life, blessing, focus and the phrase “choose life”  seem to keep turning up and sometimes in the most unexpected places and at most unusual times. This has been going on for some time now and it is beginning to come together with some understanding.

Last night at Bible Study our topic was John 10:10, one that has been key in my life for the last several years. Before talking about it, we went back chapter 8 and began reading to get the full context of what was going on around this time.  In chapter 8 we see the story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus telling her accusers, “whoever is without sin, cast the first stone.” One by one they all walked away because Jesus was the only on qualified as without sin. Jesus did just what His Father would have Him do. He said to her, ” I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on, don’t sin.” Next Jesus speaks to the Pharisees about His Father. There is a good bit of contrast between the religious practices of the Pharisees and those things that are truly important to God and that are modeled by Jesus.  He points out the differences in what the Pharisees practice and the true desires of His Father for those who want to be His disciples. This debate or exchange of ideas which are opposed to each other leads to anger and the threat by some to stone Jesus but He slips away safely. As chapter nine unfolds Jesus heals a man born blind and an inquisition ensues. First Jesus is questioned, then the blind man, both tell the truth and their stories are the same. That is not good enough to satisfy the curious minds so the parents of the blind man are brought in. Fearing the repercussions of their words, they would only reveal: yes this is our son, and yes he was born blind. Then they told the people that he was an adult and could answer for himself. They inquire of the previously blind man again and when he answers him the same, he is thrown out of the synagogue. In His compassion of this man, Jesus reveals Himself to him and explains that:

39 Then Jesus said, “I have come into this world to judge: Blind people will be given sight, and those who can see will become blind.”GWT

The Pharasiees responded:

40 Some Pharisees who were with Jesus heard this. So they asked him, “Do you think we’re blind?”GWT

Jesus went on to explain:

41 Jesus told them, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be sinners. But now you say, ‘We see,’ so you continue to be sinners.GWT

Next we see the story where Jesus explains His role as Shepperd and how to tell the true Shepperd from an impostor. This is were John 10:10 comes into play; “10 A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came so that my sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need.’ GWT

Now the Bible makes it clear that Satan is our enemy and that he is the father of lies. Here we see his purpose is always to steal, kill and destroy. Whether it is our joy and peace or our very life, he is out to wreak havoc and destroy (bring about destruction and death) but Jesus came to bring life and every thing that we need for life! What a great assurance! Now as I am pondering the wonder of this once again the phrase “Choose life” returns to me and my thoughts go to the Old Testament and the discussions of the blessings and cursings discussed with the Israelites in the later chapters of Deuteronomy and God’s declaration:

Deuteronomy 30:15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live[ and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.(HCSB)

     From the both the old covenant and the new covenant expressed by Jesus Christ, we can see that God has given us a choice. In every wonderful event and in every tragedy, even in the most mundane things in our life we have a choice to make. We can choose life or we can choose death, we can choose blessing or we can choose cursing. We can not necessarily choose our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to them. When we choose life and blessing we always win in the long run!  My friend Katie Brown put it this way earlier today, “There are two mountains, only two, and we get to choose which one we will spend our time on. We want to choose life. If we find ourself on the wrong mountain, it is time to move!”  So the question I am pondering now is how will life be different if I make a decision to weigh every situation or circumstance on this scale before responding or reacting to it? Is it an accurate statement to say that when I respond, I am choosing life and when I react I am choosing death?
    I will bring these thoughts to a close by sharing my S.O.A.P. verse for today:
Mark 4;24 He went on to say, “Pay attention to what you’re listening to! Knowledge will be measured out to you by the measure of attention you give. This is the way knowledge increases. 25 Those who understand these mysteries will be given more knowledge. However, some people don’t understand these mysteries. Even what they understand will be taken away from them.”

As I thought about this scripture, I realized the more I pay attention to the Word without allowing other thoughts, worries, concerns or any other intruder to interrupt or distract me, the more God will speak to me through it and the better I will be equipped  with what I need to manage well and thrive in life. It will enable me to choose life. Wisdom and knowledge are in the Word and the Holy Spirit brings the understanding, but if I am burdened down by distractions, questions, concerns, etc.; I will miss out on part or all of what He is trying to teach me. Therefore, I must learn to set aside all the cares of this world when spending time with Jesus  and in the Word; hand them over to Him! Then I can focus on the whole of what He has for me each day! The choice between life and death is a gift from Him. We get to choose! Distractions are from the enemy and diminish our peace, our joy, our contentment, and our fruit! May the Lord teach us to choose life, laying down all those things that lead to death and destruction and allowing the mind of Christ to dwell richly in each of our lives!

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ImageNovember 16, 2012

Shalom,

It is with many emotions today that I leave Israel.  I am  flooded with gratitude to God  for this incredible opportunity! I have  missed our family very much and I  am grateful to be very close to seeing them again but also I am  overwhelmed with the desire to extend my stay in this land. I never imagined I would feel so at home here, be hit with such a depth of desire to stay here, nor did I realize the tears that I would shed because it was time to go!  What an exceptional group of people we have been blessed to travel with! Not only those from our Lifegate family, but also those who traveled from around the states to be with us and those who planned and executed our trip, especially our excellent driver. No one can maneuver a bus like Ami does.  It has been amazing to experience the Holy Land with such knowledgable and passionate guides. Huge gratitude to both Marc and Ilan!! The insight and understanding you brought to us was priceless. It is as Moshe  said when he spoke with us in his shop, ” None come to Israel unless it is by God’s hand.”  I am sure now more than ever, the longing to come here that I have carried for all these years was God given. I also believe the it was His perfect plan that this was the proper time for us to go. I don’t know that I will ever be able to fully express my gratitude for the ability to take this trip nor my perceptions in the land, but I will surely attempt to give it my best effort over time and it will forever change my understanding when I read God’s Word.  I can not wait to return.  Not only  have I left a large portion of my heart in Israel, I will forever carry a love for  Israel and it’s people in my heart!! As my wonderful friend Don says, ” This will change your life forever!”

November 20, 2012

The above was written at the airport last Friday. By the time we landed stateside, the attacks on Israel had escalated and continue to increase. This is a country surrounded but those who want to see it destroyed! Despite constant attacks, they use restraint in their defenses and as a rule only strike back when there are Israelis injured or killed.  This is a beautiful land with beautiful and diverse citizens who dwell together in peace. The attacks are coming at the hands of terrorist groups that want to see Israel and the Jewish people destroyed, please join me in praying for the peace of Jerusalem, Israel, and it’s people!

Psalm 122:5-7. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  “May those who love you prosper; 7 may there be peace within your walls, prosperity within your fortresses.”

     Beauty for Ashes

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I am very blessed to be a part of a wonderful, life-giving church fellowship. Tonight was an unexpected reminder of so many blessings and of God”s great faithfulness. Today began with standing beside some very dear people in our life who were being challenged with a  difficult circumstance. It was what my husband would call a hard day, not necessarily a bad day, just a hard day for our friends. It was a day of struggles and victories, questions of which some went unanswered. At least for now, they are unanswered. We parted company for a short time and came together again to worship, pray and hear God”s Word.

It was during worship, I began to prayerfully go back over the day and consider the ways we had seen God’s fingerprints on this day. As I continued to reflect, a still small voice (not audible, no I’m not hearing voices) began to remind me of many instances of God’s faithfulness in our life over the past months. In just under 3 weeks, it will be the anniversary of our son- in- love’s accident which followed right on the edge of two of our grandchildren having a battle with ear infections for many months and culminating with each one having surgery for tubes. Both suffered some complications from long-term antibiotic use before surgery.

To fully understand what happened next would take much time to explain. Our daughter’s husband had an accident at work, falling 30 feet in a lift when the whole lift fell.  He suffered many broken ribs, a broken arm, sternum, pelvis, a back injury just to name part of the injuries. This required surgeries, a long hospital stay, in-patient and out-patient therapies both physical and occupational, frequent visits with a host of doctors and ministering to 3 children who missed their dad terribly. Did I mention our daughter was expecting their 4th child? You can imagine the worries and fears. Meanwhile, other immediate family member were struggling with health issues and dealing with an emergency surgery and a planned one.  I share all of this, not for sympathy or empathy but as I worshipped tonight, memories of these events and others flooded into my mind and I was overwhelmed with the goodness of God and how faithful He has been to our family!! It wasn’t easy, just like it was not easy for my friends today. But as I look back, I can see God’s hand all over these eighteen months. Could we have become overwhelmed, angry, given into the fears, been overtaken by what seemed for  to be insurmountable fears and worries? Oh, yes that would have been easy. Were we tempted? Honestly, yes at times. Did we? No. Just when one of us began down that road, the rest would come along and remind them of God’s love, mercy and grace.  We would recall past times of  His faithfulness and lift those struggling in prayer.

Deuteronomy 30: 14-16 says, ‘ But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it. See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

I have watched this year as many of our family and spiritual family have struggled with great adversity. We have cried together, laughed together, struggled together and rejoiced together. The greatest blessing has been watching people choose life, choose faith, choose to believe the best and rally around each other. It has been watching them overcome fear and doubt and walking in faith, grace, determination, strength that they never imagined they had. It has been such a blessing to watch as both our children’s families and a number of great friends have overcome huge hurdles and have walked away more than conquers because they trusted in a merciful, loving God who has been so faithful.  How appropriate to end the time of worship with the beautiful chorus, “There is none like you. No one else can touch my heart like you do. I could search for all eternity long and find there is none like You!” There is still healing to be had and things left as yet unsettled,questions to be answered, but this I know: He who has proved Himself faithful time after time will once again “make all things work together for our good.” All things are not good, but God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above and beyond anything we can think or imagine, and in the process grow us in strength, character, faith and love! The choice is ours, Choose Life!

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord  is on Me( speaking prophetically of Jesus), because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair.  And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.

Cry of a Recovering People Pleaser

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As a former and recovering people pleaser, I have spent many years walking on egg shells and being very careful when sharing my thoughts or opinions with others often out of fear of offending or being met with anger. My Dad always would tell me in my growing up years, “you can’t please everyone, and there are those who can’t be pleased.”   Dad, I am still not there but I am learning. He also would say that you could please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time and that if I did not stand up for myself no one else would. Dad, I am learning. Some lessons are just learned by time and by experience and some take a life time to iron themselves out it seems.

My most recent encounter with the power of words is that no matter what words you use, how gentle or loving you attempt to use them, there is always the chance that someone will take offense or that they will be used against you. My most recent encounter was a stance for free speech, but because it was on such a hot topic, it came back to burn me deeply. My full intent was to stand up for Chick-fil-a’s right under our Constitution to express their belief both under freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The moment we take those rights away from any group, we are all subject to loosing those rights. No matter what group we are affiliated with, there will be others that don’t like our stance and want to take freedoms away from us. There are many that would like to discredit and shut down the voices of their opponents in this world despite the laws in our land. What I found was when someone doesn’t like what you have to say or doesn’t agree, even when you have gone to great lengths to be understood and are not trying to change their mind but just expressing your thoughts, sometimes it just isn’t enough. Sometimes people read between the lines and see things in your words that you did not say or imply and that have nothing to do with where your heart really is. This can happen for many reasons. Sometimes it is hard to have the right words to express our true hearts, other times feelings on the topic just run very deeply and our words cannot be heard or received the way they are intended no matter how well intended or loving they are meant to be. There are even rare times when you will just not be accepted for the basic fact that your beliefs are different from another’s.

The basic fact in all of this is we live in a diverse world full of individuals with different ideals, different beliefs, different agendas, and different personalities.  America is founded upon freedom and we should celebrate the right of others to think differently than ourselves without trying to shut them up or force them to change. Having said that, when we share our opinions we are due the same courtesy in return and that is to be heard and accepted for what we say without any reading between the lines, or attacks on our character. Sadly, civil discourse often gets lost in controversial conversations and it degrades to insults and attacks.

Where have manners, civility, respect and tact gone in our world? Every human being should be respected on the most basic level because they are a creation of God. Respect is something we give, trust is something we earn and if we disagree we can disagree agreeably or in a way that is respectful rather than tearing down those who think differently.  Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

Pushing Pause

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As  I sat at my kitchen table gazing out at the beauty of sunset through the trees last night, I was amazed again at the beauty that God places all around us each day.  So many times we get busy and running full speed on the fast track putting out a fire here a fire there and dealing with the tyranny of the urgent that we don’t have time for much else. It is no wonder that more and more people struggle with burn out and depression each year. The pressures of life can press in so hard at times that we are at a loss for what to do.  We live in a culture that is often over-stressed, burdened and hanging on for dear life, yet that was never the life we were meant to have. It is so easy to buy into the culture that surrounds us and to get lost in the madness!  

How did we get to this place? Have we forgotten what the important things in our life are? I have noticed that  I am most overwhelmed when I have gotten lost in the mad dash around me and have forgotten what truly matters in my life.  I guess the first thing we need to do when we feel the walls closing in on our lives is to take an inventory of what truly is most important to us.  Are we focused on the important things, or are the important things getting shoved aside as we rush to take care of the urgent?  Are we so busy doing that we never get around to being?  When our children get cranky, over-tired or out of control, we know what to do! Usually, it can be resolved by some rest or a time-out.  

I am realizing more and more in my life that I need occasional time-outs as well. God never created us to be creatures that never stop, always pushing harder, working harder.  He set aside one day out of every seven because He knew we needed to take time to rest, spend time with Him, to have a time of refreshing.

A few years ago, I was in Germany for a couple of weeks. It is very quiet and peaceful there on Sundays, so much so that you could hear the church bells for miles. Not many places were open on Sunday. It made me think of my childhood. Guess I am giving away my age, but when I was small, the only places open on Sunday were hospitals, fire stations, police stations and a rare gas station or convenience store.  Sunday was a day for family, faith and for rest.  During the other times of the week most stores closed up shop by eight p.m. at the latest. There was one twenty-four hour pharmacy but you had to drive almost an hour if you needed their service.  Today, there is not much that you can’t do anytime day or night. 

It is so easy to get caught up in the slogans that we can have it all, we can do anything we want in life, and we can be it all. To some degree, I will agree with this.  There is a catch, and there is a high price to pay when we live life this way. There is much truth in what “old timers” said. They say “you can’t burn the candle at both ends”. While it is quite possible to do this, there is one hard truth. If you burn that candle on both ends, eventually you will get burned. We have to learn to pick out the priorities in life and keep first things first.  God initiated a day of rest because we needed it. He commanded that even the land take a year off every seven years to allow the soil to rest. Burning that candle at both ends will prove to be painful in the long run, we may not see the effects today or tomorrow but eventually it will catch up with us. Maybe it is time, or possible past time, to slow down a little taking time to “stop and smell the roses”, enjoying watching the sunset, basking in just sitting around the table with family and/or friends enjoying each others company and finding more quiet moments to talk to the One who Created us and wait quietly to hear back from Him.