Freedom… It cost…… Somebody.
Today is what is called ‘Memorial Day’ in America. A day to remember the sacrifices that made possible the freedoms we enjoy. Freedom is costly.
I haven’t paid any of that price. But many did, and do at this very moment.
I am so grateful.
I do not minimize these blessings. Yet there is another freedom I cherish even more.
“…if the Son sets you free…you will be free indeed.” (Jesus, speaking in John 8:36)
I am proud and thankful to be an American, I cherish the freedoms I have enjoyed my entire life, and want them guarded. Yet they can’t compare with the freedom given me by my Lord Jesus the Christ.
I wonder that we can’t really appreciate the freedom of America, we’ve never known anything else.
But I have known the bondage of sin and law-keeping. I know the difference of being set free.
How I pray that I never experience a difference in my freedom as an American.
God help us as ‘ your people, called by Your Name, to humble ourselves and pray and seek Your face and turn from our wicked ways….then You will hear from heaven and will forgive our sin and will heal our land.’ ( 2 Ch. 7:14 personalized by me)
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Memorial...
Memorial… a reminder. To exercise memory, recollect, be mindful of.... remember
This is a holiday week-end we call ‘Memorial Day’. I wonder what will be remembered?
Last year’s bar-b-que?
The rain that spoiled the plans one year?
The beautiful weather for the big party at the lake?
The family reunion?
Or what it cost to have those opportunities....??
Let us not fail to remember those who paid that price. And when you remember….jog somebody else’s memory so they won’t forget either.
I can’t fathom having lost a child to war. Many a mother will spend the next 3 days remembering, God help them all……
This is a holiday week-end we call ‘Memorial Day’. I wonder what will be remembered?
Last year’s bar-b-que?
The rain that spoiled the plans one year?
The beautiful weather for the big party at the lake?
The family reunion?
Or what it cost to have those opportunities....??
Let us not fail to remember those who paid that price. And when you remember….jog somebody else’s memory so they won’t forget either.
I can’t fathom having lost a child to war. Many a mother will spend the next 3 days remembering, God help them all……
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Delivery
Delivery.. Hospitals have rooms that are specified for deliveries. Stores have big doorways for theirs. Kevin the UPS guy and Jerry the Fed-Ex guy do a lot of our deliveries…
I’m expecting some deliveries today at the salon. In years past, I was delivered of two healthy baby boys. Big ones, I might add…9 pounders. I was quite ready to be delivered of them too !
Webster defines ‘deliver’ .. to free, to release, rescue, save…to give or to transfer, put into another’s hand or power, pass from one to another.
It can also mean to utter or pronounce, to send forth in words. ( I guess I’m making a delivery as I type this :) … )
Jesus has ‘rescued me from the coming wrath.’ (1Th. 1:10)
“Giving thanks to the Father…for He has rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom I have redemption..’ (Col. 1:12-14 personalized by me)
He has delivered me in many difficult seasons of life. “..I was under great pressure, far beyond my ability to endure, so that I despaired even of life….He has delivered me from such deadly peril….on Him I have set my hope that He will continue to deliver me’ (2 Cor. 1:9,10 personalized by me)
Why? Simply because He is God, He created me, and He loves me. And He loves you too.
He wants to restore us to what we were meant to be before we chose differently…choosing to know evil. ( that tree of the knowledge of good and evil…remember? Be careful, they‘re growing everywhere !! We are wise to stay away from choosing the knowledge of evil…)
That evil is defined for us. It is summarized in Ten Commandments. They were delivered to God’s people thru Moses.
Now, God’s people are delivered from the impossibility of keeping them…. and delivered from the penalty of not doing so. That delivery is called ‘grace’.
‘Set free from sin…and become slaves to God.’ (Rom. 6:22) ‘slaves to righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18) ‘ ..not free from God’s law, but am under Christ’s law’ (1Cor. 9:21)
‘ I am no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, I am free to live a new life in the freedom of God.’ (Romans 7:6 The Message, personalized by me)
I am delivered. Are you?
I’m expecting some deliveries today at the salon. In years past, I was delivered of two healthy baby boys. Big ones, I might add…9 pounders. I was quite ready to be delivered of them too !
Webster defines ‘deliver’ .. to free, to release, rescue, save…to give or to transfer, put into another’s hand or power, pass from one to another.
It can also mean to utter or pronounce, to send forth in words. ( I guess I’m making a delivery as I type this :) … )
Jesus has ‘rescued me from the coming wrath.’ (1Th. 1:10)
“Giving thanks to the Father…for He has rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom I have redemption..’ (Col. 1:12-14 personalized by me)
He has delivered me in many difficult seasons of life. “..I was under great pressure, far beyond my ability to endure, so that I despaired even of life….He has delivered me from such deadly peril….on Him I have set my hope that He will continue to deliver me’ (2 Cor. 1:9,10 personalized by me)
Why? Simply because He is God, He created me, and He loves me. And He loves you too.
He wants to restore us to what we were meant to be before we chose differently…choosing to know evil. ( that tree of the knowledge of good and evil…remember? Be careful, they‘re growing everywhere !! We are wise to stay away from choosing the knowledge of evil…)
That evil is defined for us. It is summarized in Ten Commandments. They were delivered to God’s people thru Moses.
Now, God’s people are delivered from the impossibility of keeping them…. and delivered from the penalty of not doing so. That delivery is called ‘grace’.
‘Set free from sin…and become slaves to God.’ (Rom. 6:22) ‘slaves to righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18) ‘ ..not free from God’s law, but am under Christ’s law’ (1Cor. 9:21)
‘ I am no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, I am free to live a new life in the freedom of God.’ (Romans 7:6 The Message, personalized by me)
I am delivered. Are you?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Defining...
Defining… Webster says it is determining the limits, describing the properties… to define is to determine or decide…
What is it that defines you? What determines the way you live your life, the way you spend your time? What factors determine the significance of your very existence? Or who/Who…..?
Can you give a definite answer to that ? It gets complicated to think about for me…and has changed somewhat over the years. My desire is that Jesus Christ is the Who that defines my choices. I don’t always get it right, but I keep trying, and He keeps helping and forgiving.
When I was a child, my parents were the defining element. There were boundaries, very tight ones. I somewhat resented them at the time, but realize as an adult that there was much security in them. Most of my limits were plainly set and decided for me.
As a teenager and young adult, I struggled with defining who I was…it began to be up to me to determine, and it was hard…
I am a wife. When I was a young married woman in a new community, my home-town husband defined me. I got a little frustrated sometimes at being ‘Pinkham’s wife’….the badge he wore defined him, and rightly so…but it sure didn’t define me ! I loved being ‘Kerry’s wife’….but seemed to seldom hear myself to be defined that way.
I am defined by my work. I am a hairdresser. When I meet someone in the grocery store, excuses are offered for the bad hair day. (I promise ….I’m really not inspecting every head of hair I see… :) ….I am NOT the hair police either!!! …)
When we had children, I became largely defined by them. I am a mother. Their mother. My life was lived out meeting their needs and participating in their activities…making choices for them and trying to help them learn to make good decisions.
Now they are grown, one has children of his own. My definition changed… I’m being re-defined… I am MiMi…. (it’s great, by the way… )
It is a process that will be ever-changing as long as I exist. The roles change, the circumstances of life change, and we grow and change with life as it passes.
Moses asked for a definition…he wanted a name....
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”(Ex. 3:13-14)
God says ‘I AM’…. and He IS… Eternal and unchanging in power and character. Stable and secure. He has His very Being of Himself…only Himself. Hard to comprehend….
He says “I AM”…..and I say ‘Yes….You ARE !!’
But I am ever changing, '...being transformed into His likeness..' (2 Cor. 3:18 NIV)'..our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.' (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message)
Hallelujah.
What is it that defines you? What determines the way you live your life, the way you spend your time? What factors determine the significance of your very existence? Or who/Who…..?
Can you give a definite answer to that ? It gets complicated to think about for me…and has changed somewhat over the years. My desire is that Jesus Christ is the Who that defines my choices. I don’t always get it right, but I keep trying, and He keeps helping and forgiving.
When I was a child, my parents were the defining element. There were boundaries, very tight ones. I somewhat resented them at the time, but realize as an adult that there was much security in them. Most of my limits were plainly set and decided for me.
As a teenager and young adult, I struggled with defining who I was…it began to be up to me to determine, and it was hard…
I am a wife. When I was a young married woman in a new community, my home-town husband defined me. I got a little frustrated sometimes at being ‘Pinkham’s wife’….the badge he wore defined him, and rightly so…but it sure didn’t define me ! I loved being ‘Kerry’s wife’….but seemed to seldom hear myself to be defined that way.
I am defined by my work. I am a hairdresser. When I meet someone in the grocery store, excuses are offered for the bad hair day. (I promise ….I’m really not inspecting every head of hair I see… :) ….I am NOT the hair police either!!! …)
When we had children, I became largely defined by them. I am a mother. Their mother. My life was lived out meeting their needs and participating in their activities…making choices for them and trying to help them learn to make good decisions.
Now they are grown, one has children of his own. My definition changed… I’m being re-defined… I am MiMi…. (it’s great, by the way… )
It is a process that will be ever-changing as long as I exist. The roles change, the circumstances of life change, and we grow and change with life as it passes.
Moses asked for a definition…he wanted a name....
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”(Ex. 3:13-14)
God says ‘I AM’…. and He IS… Eternal and unchanging in power and character. Stable and secure. He has His very Being of Himself…only Himself. Hard to comprehend….
He says “I AM”…..and I say ‘Yes….You ARE !!’
But I am ever changing, '...being transformed into His likeness..' (2 Cor. 3:18 NIV)'..our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.' (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message)
Hallelujah.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Adventure
Adventure… to risk, dare, chance…. a bold undertaking, staked upon unforeseen events, of which one has no direction…
When our boys were small and we loaded up in the car to go on a trip, they began asking questions. You know the kind… ‘ where are we going?’… ‘why?’… ‘where are we now?’… ‘when are we going to be there?’ My reply became ‘think of it as an adventure.’
Those who know me best know how ridiculous that really is. I am not very adventurous. I like ordinary. Familiar.
But God is adventurous. And He has said ‘Follow Me.’ (some twenty times in the New Testament)
Following Jesus is simple. Yet very demanding. Certainly adventurous. Never was there a more bold undertaking than stepping out of the glory of heaven into the flesh of humanity, knowing the death that loomed there. He has walked this road, lived this life, and ‘has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.’ (Heb. 4:15)
And He says ‘Follow Me.’
And I ask ‘where are we going’…. and ‘why?’….
‘Come, follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’ (Mat. 8:22) He asks me to follow Him above family approval, financial security, or any other condition I might set. He demands complete loyalty. He is first. Period. Nothing is to be placed over a total commitment to Him.
That is tough.
But experience has taught me that when He calls me, He equips me. He secures me. He provides for my needs.
Come on the adventure…. Follow Him !!
When our boys were small and we loaded up in the car to go on a trip, they began asking questions. You know the kind… ‘ where are we going?’… ‘why?’… ‘where are we now?’… ‘when are we going to be there?’ My reply became ‘think of it as an adventure.’
Those who know me best know how ridiculous that really is. I am not very adventurous. I like ordinary. Familiar.
But God is adventurous. And He has said ‘Follow Me.’ (some twenty times in the New Testament)
Following Jesus is simple. Yet very demanding. Certainly adventurous. Never was there a more bold undertaking than stepping out of the glory of heaven into the flesh of humanity, knowing the death that loomed there. He has walked this road, lived this life, and ‘has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.’ (Heb. 4:15)
And He says ‘Follow Me.’
And I ask ‘where are we going’…. and ‘why?’….
‘Come, follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’ (Mat. 8:22) He asks me to follow Him above family approval, financial security, or any other condition I might set. He demands complete loyalty. He is first. Period. Nothing is to be placed over a total commitment to Him.
That is tough.
But experience has taught me that when He calls me, He equips me. He secures me. He provides for my needs.
Come on the adventure…. Follow Him !!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Warnings....
Warnings… Fever, swelling, headache…. Flashing red lights, sirens…..
When our bodies have something amiss, they are designed by The Creator to message us that something is wrong. We ache, run a fever, etc.
When we see red lights flashing on the highway, we know there is something to pay attention to in order to avoid danger for ourselves.
We hear the sound of a smoke alarm in our home and we get to our children and crawl out, having been warned that we could die if we stood up. Warnings…
Our oldest son has always had a morbid curiosity about snakes. It’s a love/hate relationship. We warned of the danger. He liked to stomp them with the heel of his boot. We warned again. Firmer. He stomped them still. Until the day the fangs stuck in the leather of his boot. I don’t think he’s stomped another one.
He told us yesterday, (with the hair on his arms standing up), about seeing a cottonmouth water moccasin on the road. Of course he had to stop and look. The snake had been killed, it’s head was missing. Blood was pooled around the headless snake, drying on the hot pavement. Then…the body of the snake moved, slithering itself into an s-shape, writhing.. ( he shuttered as he told it..)
I’ve not been able to shake it from my mind, this headless, therefore venom-less snake of snakes. ‘Cottonmouth’ is a name everyone around here knows and fears. They are deadly, and they are aggressive. Most snakes will run from people. Cottonmouths will come for you.
It dawned on me almost as I woke this morning, the parallel of this snake story and the sin in a believer’s life.
I am saved. I don’t deserve it. I can not be holy and perfect, therefore I could not stand in the Presence of a holy God. I fall short…it’s called ‘sin’. The death that I DO deserve, the eternal and spiritual death that separates from God,…it is paid….FOR me…BY Jesus Christ. It is finished, settled.
“I will put hatred between you and the women. Your children and her children will be enemies. Her Son will crush your head. And you will crush his heel.” (Gen. 3:15 NIrV)
The venom is gone. It can’t take my life. But there is still danger of sin. It still writhes and can curl itself around in my life. It can ruin my credibility as a witness.
Our enemy strikes over and over. His venom is deadly to those who are not saved from it. His fangs can sink in deep, do tremendous damage, and bring on an eternal death.
Don’t mess with the snake…don’t try to stomp its head…let Jesus do that for you.
And then stay away from the writhing body, “…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”(Heb. 12:1)
When our bodies have something amiss, they are designed by The Creator to message us that something is wrong. We ache, run a fever, etc.
When we see red lights flashing on the highway, we know there is something to pay attention to in order to avoid danger for ourselves.
We hear the sound of a smoke alarm in our home and we get to our children and crawl out, having been warned that we could die if we stood up. Warnings…
Our oldest son has always had a morbid curiosity about snakes. It’s a love/hate relationship. We warned of the danger. He liked to stomp them with the heel of his boot. We warned again. Firmer. He stomped them still. Until the day the fangs stuck in the leather of his boot. I don’t think he’s stomped another one.
He told us yesterday, (with the hair on his arms standing up), about seeing a cottonmouth water moccasin on the road. Of course he had to stop and look. The snake had been killed, it’s head was missing. Blood was pooled around the headless snake, drying on the hot pavement. Then…the body of the snake moved, slithering itself into an s-shape, writhing.. ( he shuttered as he told it..)
I’ve not been able to shake it from my mind, this headless, therefore venom-less snake of snakes. ‘Cottonmouth’ is a name everyone around here knows and fears. They are deadly, and they are aggressive. Most snakes will run from people. Cottonmouths will come for you.
It dawned on me almost as I woke this morning, the parallel of this snake story and the sin in a believer’s life.
I am saved. I don’t deserve it. I can not be holy and perfect, therefore I could not stand in the Presence of a holy God. I fall short…it’s called ‘sin’. The death that I DO deserve, the eternal and spiritual death that separates from God,…it is paid….FOR me…BY Jesus Christ. It is finished, settled.
“I will put hatred between you and the women. Your children and her children will be enemies. Her Son will crush your head. And you will crush his heel.” (Gen. 3:15 NIrV)
The venom is gone. It can’t take my life. But there is still danger of sin. It still writhes and can curl itself around in my life. It can ruin my credibility as a witness.
Our enemy strikes over and over. His venom is deadly to those who are not saved from it. His fangs can sink in deep, do tremendous damage, and bring on an eternal death.
Don’t mess with the snake…don’t try to stomp its head…let Jesus do that for you.
And then stay away from the writhing body, “…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”(Heb. 12:1)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Changes
Changes… I remember choosing that name for the salon. Now, I often think about the impact of a name, and marvel at how many changes have come to pass…
Oh, we’ve changed a lot of hair styles and hair colors. We joke that we all need to change up our hair every now and again. But the changes in the lives of those of us who spend our days there…and the changes that happen in the clients we become so close to…those are the changes that matter.
I am so far from perfect. So very far. But I testify that I am changed. I still struggle against my flesh and against the lies and traps of our enemy. I still make wrong choices, behave in wrong ways. But when I do, I want to feel the prick of The Holy Spirit and hear His reprimand…and I want to respond in obedience. He is always right. Always.
Everything changes. A look in the mirror will confirm that fact. Things droop and slide, grow in strange formations, bulging here and there…hair thins and looses it’s color. (that is job security for me..) All of the physical changes. Often not for the better.
But what about the other part of us? As the wrinkles form on our faces, do we have corresponding wrinkles of soul? Or do we find that spiritual place within us becoming smoother, more at peace, and wiser? God forbid that our spirits should wither like our bodies do !
I sell services that fight against the signs of our aging. My trade involves hiding and camouflaging the evidence of age. But my mission and ministry is to make people aware of the cure for our disease, the remedy for the slow death that we are all experiencing. (..for the moment life was conceived, the process of death is inevitable…)
I want to look as good as I can look, and I want that for you too. But far beyond that, I want you to know the assurance that I know… ‘Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…’ (1 Cor. 15:51)
You can be the cutest, most beautiful or most handsome person around. But ‘ I declare to you, brothers, (and sisters), that flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.’ (1 Cor. 15:50)
Changing your hair won’t fix what is wrong with all of us. Changing the natural is just a temporary fix. But God can make changes that are permanent. Permanently permanent. And He wants to. But you get to choose. He give you that right and will not take it from you.
“In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your Hands. They will perish, but You remain…Your years will never end. The children of Your servants will live in Your Presence…”(Ps. 102:25-28)
He is the only thing that does not change.
Oh, we’ve changed a lot of hair styles and hair colors. We joke that we all need to change up our hair every now and again. But the changes in the lives of those of us who spend our days there…and the changes that happen in the clients we become so close to…those are the changes that matter.
I am so far from perfect. So very far. But I testify that I am changed. I still struggle against my flesh and against the lies and traps of our enemy. I still make wrong choices, behave in wrong ways. But when I do, I want to feel the prick of The Holy Spirit and hear His reprimand…and I want to respond in obedience. He is always right. Always.
Everything changes. A look in the mirror will confirm that fact. Things droop and slide, grow in strange formations, bulging here and there…hair thins and looses it’s color. (that is job security for me..) All of the physical changes. Often not for the better.
But what about the other part of us? As the wrinkles form on our faces, do we have corresponding wrinkles of soul? Or do we find that spiritual place within us becoming smoother, more at peace, and wiser? God forbid that our spirits should wither like our bodies do !
I sell services that fight against the signs of our aging. My trade involves hiding and camouflaging the evidence of age. But my mission and ministry is to make people aware of the cure for our disease, the remedy for the slow death that we are all experiencing. (..for the moment life was conceived, the process of death is inevitable…)
I want to look as good as I can look, and I want that for you too. But far beyond that, I want you to know the assurance that I know… ‘Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…’ (1 Cor. 15:51)
You can be the cutest, most beautiful or most handsome person around. But ‘ I declare to you, brothers, (and sisters), that flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.’ (1 Cor. 15:50)
Changing your hair won’t fix what is wrong with all of us. Changing the natural is just a temporary fix. But God can make changes that are permanent. Permanently permanent. And He wants to. But you get to choose. He give you that right and will not take it from you.
“In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your Hands. They will perish, but You remain…Your years will never end. The children of Your servants will live in Your Presence…”(Ps. 102:25-28)
He is the only thing that does not change.
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