Dread...

Dread…. Apprehension of evil or danger. Uneasiness or alarm excited because of expected pain, loss, or other evil…

I dread today. I am overbooked. There will be no time for fun conversation, no time for breaks. Maybe no lunch or even potty breaks. Yep…I dread it. But I’m sure thankful for my job and for my clientele. Very thankful.

‘What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting Arm’

It took me several minutes to recall that line, it is a very old hymn. I am reminded that on difficult days, it is most important to be leaning on that Arm and not leaning on myself. Today will be full, but ‘If the Lord delights in my way, He makes my steps firm’
(Ps. 37:23 personalized by me)

There are lots of things on my mind that I dread with all the changes looming in our lives. I am not afraid. I do trust Him. Dread is different from fear, it is not sudden but it is more continued. So this morning, I am admonished to put that dread also into His Arms and trust.

And I am told that if I’m not careful with this matter, I may become ‘a dread to my friends- those who see me on the streets may flee from me.’ (Ps. 31:11 personalized by me) Even the best of friends can become tired of the voicing of my dread!!

Boxes...

Boxes… They come in many varieties. I have some plain cardboard. I have others of plastic. I have some pretty wooden ones, others that have pictures on them…

They’re all boxes though. The purpose it to be a container.

I have one in my vehicle that I bought just because it was so pretty. Haven’t decided what to do with it yet…so it’s still in the backseat. It came in very handy yesterday….

I took our oldest grand-daughter to purchase a Bible to commemorate her baptism a couple weeks ago. She’s distraught about the upcoming move and was asking a lot of questions. The questions took a turn in the direction of God, heaven, and life after death…you know, all those questions you can’t really find a pat answer for…

Where is heaven? I’d rather live here…
Will we be able to walk around and talk? I want to be with you…
Will we know each other? I don‘t want to be by myself…
Is God nice? He sounds mean on that video at your house…

The questions kept coming and got even harder. I was forced to say that I just didn’t know, but I knew that it would be perfect. Then I remembered that pretty box in the backseat…

Think of it like this…every single thing that is a reality to me, or even to the most brilliant and knowledgeable person to ever live…all that is reality, is in that box. Every person. Every thing. Every star in the universe. Everything that exists that we can possibly have knowledge about now or in the future, is in that box.

In that box is all we can know….and we are confined to it.

God is not confined to that box. He MADE the box and everything in it. Unlike us, He can be in the box WITH us, and also be outside the box. He is omnipresent. We are not. We are finite. He is infinite.

The only things we can understand have to be the things inside the box. To help us understand any concept that is NOT in the box, God uses something IN the box to help us….word pictures. “Streets of gold” “Whiter than snow” “The Lord roars”

How can He communicate to us any other way than thru what we ‘know’…thru what is in fact a reality to us? And when He is telling us something that is absolutely NOT yet reality to us, we must choose to believe and trust Him. Faith.

It is a hard concept…the box containing every thing that is real to us.

Then she asked me if the devil was real.

sigh......... :)

Withdrawal...

Withdrawal… the act of taking something away, taking away something which a person is addicted to thereby causing discomfort or pain…

My friend Kathy said she missed me and was having withdrawals….I haven’t written in several days. Certainly she gave me some very exaggerated flattery, but it was nice to hear. It is good to be missed.

Missed… the word can mean fail to be present for something, omit or leave out.

Looks like we will soon miss my oldest son and his family. We will certainly have withdrawals, as they live just next door.

My son has a career move that calls them to New Jersey. We are very proud of his accomplishments, and excited about this opportunity. Yet we will all suffer withdrawals as we adjust.

I’ve never been to New Jersey, but I’m sure it exists. I’m even more sure that God is sovereign in New Jersey just as He is sovereign in Texas. He is big enough and powerful enough to care for my family even there.

I wonder if Abraham’s mother was alive when God instructed him to leave his homeland and go to a far away place? Wonder how his family reacted when he said he was moving?

“Leave your country, your people…and go…I will bless you…So Abraham left..” (Genesis 12: 1,2,4)

I’ve prayed often for my children. This was not what I had in mind.

But God has proven Himself faithful to me. As doors swing wide open in New Jersey, and doors here remain closed, I trust my God.

“God’s love is ever and always eternally present to all who fear Him, making everything right for them and their children as they follow His covenant ways and remember to do whatever He said.” (Ps. 103:17,18 The Message)

Now I continue to pray…that God is now preparing the way before them, preparing the Body of Christ to enfold them as they find the church that will meet their spiritual needs, that He will guide them to the home He has for them there, bless them with friendships, and that this job will indeed be a blessing in every way. I ask that He is so close they will feel His Breath, every step, every moment….and give us all His peace.

School...

School… Almost time to start….then again, is it ever really over?

We have building especially built for schooling. We have a calendar where the first and last official day are set, with special days in between set aside.

But schooling should never really end. We should always be in the process of learning…especially from our mistakes. God will never waste the tiniest bit of pain, IF we go to Him with it honestly, admit our failures and mistakes, and allow Him to use it. He can and WILL bring blessing out of every difficulty, if we only allow and accept.

“Show me how you work, God. School me in Your ways. Take me by the hand, lead me down the path of truth…” (Ps. 25:4,5a The Message)

The lesson to learn though, is that there is indeed truth…A path of truth….NOT an eight-lane highway with a mixmaster going in all directions. No…it’s a single path. And guess what? God marked the path.

“We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school. We learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we are passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.” (1 Cor. 2:13 The Message)

Those are the words of the apostle Paul. If he didn’t rely on guesses and opinions, how can I ? No…the Truth came in the Person of Jesus Christ, and it will never change. No matter what they teach in any school. He “didn’t receive it through the traditions, and he wasn’t taught it in some school…He got it straight from God…” (Gal. 1:12 The Message)

So can I. Simply by opening scripture, and relying on the promises and power of the Holy Spirit “Whom the Father will send in Jesus Name” (John 14:26)… He will open them up to me. Don’t know how? “ God..delights in genuine prayers.” (Pro. 15:8) Ask HIM!!

Sunday school won’t automatically do it. Neither will ‘church services’. Both will be empty and lifeless without the Spirit breathing His Life into us.

“It’s a school of hard knocks for those who leave God’s path, a dead-end street for those who hate God’s rules.” (Pro. 15:10 The Message)

If you don’t like the rules, you just don’t understand the ‘why’ behind the rule. I promise, even when we don’t understand, there is always a reason behind what God says, and it’s always to our advantage. He is ALWAYS right. And He ALWAYS wants the best for us.

So…is school out? Think you’re smart enough? Have you decided to stop learning? Have you refused to learn from where you have been and what you have experienced?

Or have you decided you’re just not smart enough to learn anything else? Is it too hard or too much trouble? (…maybe a bit lazy?)

Please get this….really, really get this….

“Listen to good advice if you want to live well….An undisciplined, self-willed life is puny; an obedient, God-willed life is spacious. Fear of God is a school in skilled living…first you learn humility, then you experience glory.” (Pro. 15:31-33 The Message)

It may seem like an awful choice, the enemy will do his best to make you believe that….but following God is the only way to truly live. If you haven’t experienced it, you have no idea what you are missing.

Changes...

Changes… Looks like some big ones are headed our way. We thought it was a great name for a hair salon. I have said dozens of times, ‘Change is good !’.

Now, changes in my life….that’s another matter! We tend to cling to the familiar around here, do the same things over and over, go to the same places, eat the same thing… There is security in the familiar.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..”(Ecc.3:1)

Perhaps it’s the birthday coming up, “There is a time to be born, and a time to die.” (v.2a) I’m counting them off pretty fast these days.

Perhaps it’s that life hasn’t unfolded as I expected. My children have full successful lives…just not what I expected. “There is a time to plant, and a time to uproot…there is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain…”(v. 2b, 5b)

Whatever it is, the changes that may come are challenging. But “I know that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it..”(v. 14)

I have influenced decisions in the past, and regretted it. (…..there’s that time of refraining I was not obedient in.….) My only influence should be before the throne of God in prayer for His perfect will to be done.

My roles have changed several times…and will change again. Who will I be next? Where will this path wind up? What lies in my future, and the future of my family? I do not know. I ‘ cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end…’ (v.11b)

But I know The One Who does know. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”(v.11a) And ‘ I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Rom. 8:38,39)

That includes all the way between Texas and New Jersey….

Pits...

Pits..... Sometimes I just slide off into one….

Sometimes I fall into a pit by accident…trip or stumble over something and find myself at the bottom of the pit….often it is ignorant blindness… “If a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit.” (Luke 6:39 my interpretation)

Sometimes I get shoved in….somebody wants me there. “…without cause they dug a pit for me..” (Psa. 35:7)

I guess sometimes I jump in. Sometimes, like all of us humans, I just make the wrong choice and dive right in. “She who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit she has made.” (Psa. 7:15 personalized by me)

I’ve dug lots of pits out of fear…thinking I was digging a place that would hide me, save me somehow. Digging with a shovel named fear. Big lie… No pit is a safe place.

The pits I dig are dug by different shovels…often shovels of exhaustion. When I get overtired, seems I look up and find I’ve slid off into that pit again….shovel in hand, digging furiously as if there is relief down deeper. Another big lie…

Exhaustion for me is usually mental rather than strictly physical. Why does it take so much energy to think, feel, and listen? (….watch out with those blonde jokes.. :) ..)

Some of the pits I’ve been in are other people’s diggings, and I’ve mistakenly thought I could get them out of their pit, so I climbed down there with them, only to find myself stranded in THEIR pit. And pits are pits….whether I dig them or you do…not a good place to be, and nobody’s company adds much to the atmosphere.

Nobody can rescue us from the pits…not really. Somebody else may pull you up a little, you may see a little light, you may be relieved of that slime at the bottom…but there’s really no way out of a pit except from the Divine Rescuer. He may call us to encourage and help, but nobody stays out of pits unless He delivers.

“I will free……from the waterless pit…”(Zec. 9:11)

“I called on Your Name….. from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea….You came near when I called You, and You said, “Do not fear.” (Lam. 3:55,56)

“To the roots of the mountains I sank down….but You brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.” (Jonah 2:6)

Life itself is the pits…it simply ends in death unless He breaths His Spirit into us, and with It, eternal Life with Him. There’ll be no shovels in heaven…

Live..

Live… We want to live…not the alternative. We have expectations about it’s duration….We have a place to live….

What is it to really ‘live’? Is it to just exist?…breathe and have a heart beat?

Is it to push the limits, be adventurous, even rebelling against what is expected or right? Have a ‘good time’?

I’m reminded of that thing about what’s between the dash. You remember…that dash that connects your date of birth and date of death on your tombstone….

I need to think about that dash today, because I’m in it.

But the question is, what am I living for? Am I living simply because I haven’t died yet?

Am I living to work and spend? Or living to work so I can save and count it? Am I living for the next thrill? The next fix of my own brand of addiction?

Sigh…

Thank You Lord that I have died already.

“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

And thank You even more that I live. Jesus died so ‘that I might die to sins….and LIVE for righteousness…’ (same passage, personalized by me)

I have ceased to exist as far as sin is concerned. My existence is for the righteousness. “Since Jesus went through everything I’m going through and more, I must learn to think like Him. Think of my sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get my own way. Then I’ll be able to live out my days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what I want.” (1 Peter 4:1,2 The Message, personalized by me)

Thank You Jesus !!