Nip it....

Nip it… Barney Fife’s advice to Andy was always to “Nip it in the bud. Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!!!”

There is much wisdom in that, though Barney was always a bit excitable and had a tendency to over react….

I thought about Barney as I read Song of Songs this morning. (You may know the book as Song of Solomon…and I know, that’s hard to imagine Barney and that book of the Bible in the same thought!)

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (Song of Songs 2:15)

Little foxes were a problem for vine keepers. They nipped at the tender vines bearing new fruit. Not only did they eat the fruit, they could destroy the vine in the process. They would also dig holes, damaging the roots….just a major menace.

So….the vine keepers wanted to ‘nip it in the bud’. They purposed to catch the foxes, even the babies, and do away with them before the problem was even birthed. (…I can just hear the mournful ‘awwww….’ of all the animal lovers reading this….)

There is much wisdom in this teaching. There is much to be gained from catching the foxes before they dig the holes and tear up the vines….before they strip away the new fruit being grown on the vine.

Whether it is in our churches, in our businesses, or in our personal relationships, we are wise to do away with little foxes. Little foxes are a problem for all of us.

We are wise to agree with Barney Fife and ‘Nip it in the bud. Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!!’

Commitment....

Commitment…. It is not warm and fuzzy.

Feelings are often warm and fuzzy. At least to begin with…..

But commitment is a far cry from feelings.. The Bible teaches that love and commitment should develop together.

“Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” “Don't stir up love. Don't wake it up until it's ready.” (Song of Songs 3:5 NIV and The Message)

We should not just act out of ‘feelings’. What we feel is not always true.

“A human heart is more dishonest than anything else. It can't be healed. Who can understand it? The LORD says, ‘I look deep down inside human hearts. I see what is in people's minds….” (Jer 17:9-10)


So often we discover that truth painfully. Having learned the hard way, we have picked forbidden fruit from our own ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’. We chow down on it and have our eyes opened to the reality of evil. We look back on our mistakes and see that God’s way was right, and we were dreadfully wrong. Even though we ‘felt’ so sure.

And we bear the consequences….



God is Creator. He is The Designer. He is The Engineer. He drew up the plans and laid out the boundaries. Why is it we challenge His design?

Why are we so set against listening to Him? He wants so desperately to guide us. We are wise to follow His council.

Commitment and love must develop together. We should not arouse intimate relationships before there is a strong enough commitment to sustain the relationship.

Warm and fuzzy (....or hot and sweaty) won’t do it.

Legacy...

Legacy… Webster says ‘something left’.

The term came to mind as I stood at my grandmother’s grave. She lived a few days over 98 years. We were not close, and sadly, I know very little about her life, but she had to have seen a LOT of change in her lifetime. She outlived three children, one died as an infant, one as young adult, one in her 80s.

Only my father is left.

It makes me wonder just what kind of legacy I will leave. What footprint will I make? Who will wonder about the details of my life? Who will know them?

We all have our own story, our own issues, our own baggage….secrets, regrets, mistakes..

None of us live perfect lives. No one gets thru life without all that ‘ick’. “….we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us…” (Romans 3:23 The Message)

My grandmother made mistakes. Some of them I witnessed as a child and misunderstood…even judged her harshly for.

“You will be judged in the same way you judge others. You will be measured in the same way you measure others.” (Matthew 7:2) Those words are written in red. Words of my Lord Jesus.

I hear him whisper to me to be careful how I judge harshly the mistakes of others, for I too have a mountain of my own mistakes.

I want mercy. I want understanding and forgiveness.

I must extend the same to others who are no more deserving of those graces than I am.

Perhaps the things that I am so critical of are the very things that He needs to address in me.

Mentor...

Mentor… Ever have one? Ever BE one?

I was recently asked to share how God has worked in my business life through mentoring. My mind has been flooded with the mentors I have had in my own life. Some very good ones. Some however, taught me a lot from negative examples.

I must turn the focus inward. In mentoring others, have I shared and encouraged thru Godly examples fleshed out in my own life, or have others learned from me thru negative examples?

The negatives in my own past experience have made me very adament about some things. There are memories of how I was made to feel, and I want never to make someone else feel anything similar. So, I am not prone to making those mistakes. (I just make other ones. )

Mentoring is making disciples.

Jesus said, “Go…..make disciples….” (Matt. 28:19)

I have a charge to keep. “…teach them to obey…” (vs. 20)

I can do that in the ordinary moments of my day. If no other way than by my own actions.

Ouch. I don’t always.

Priest...

Priest… I am a priest. Seems strange to even type those words. Stranger to think of myself that way. But….

“…. God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are a people who belong to God. All of this is so that you can sing his praises. He brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light. “(1 Peter 2:9)

In ages past, before Christ, there were rigid requirements about who was permitted to carry out the office of priest. The priest was the intermediary between sinful man and a holy God. Priests were Jews but only Jews from the family line of Levi, with other requirements to be met as well. Much ceremony and ritual was to be done before the intercession could occur.

The rituals of that time were teaching tools that reveal to us exactly what it meant for Jesus to bleed, suffer, and die. Payment is made. The wages of sin being death, His death… is MY substitute. I am permitted to live.

Now I can enter the holy of holies. Now I can enter the Throne Room of The Creator of the universe. With confidence. Boldly ! (So let us boldly approach the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16)



The Body of Christ has a charge to keep. “…. he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ.” (2Cor.5:18)

“God has trusted us with the message, that people may be brought back to Him.
So we are Christ's official messengers. It is as if God were making His appeal through us.”(2Cor. 5:19-20)

I come before Him reverently because He is God and He is King. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

I come boldly because Jesus is my Friend, and through His Holy Spirit, I have access to The Father. (John 15:15, Eph. 2:14-19)

I come believing because Jesus said “..you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt. 21:22).

Not a blank check for my every whim, but submitting my will to an all-knowing and Almighty God, just as Jesus did when He prayed “…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10)

And it is not just about me. “He wants everyone to be saved. He wants them to come to know the truth.”(1Tim.2:4)

Who will I meet on my path today that Jesus misses? Who will I see that may need Him so badly?

Lord, open my eyes and ears to be sensitive to others and to You as I carry out the business of my day.

Gettin' Ready....

Gettin' ready... I spend much less time gettin' ready these days. Once, it took hours. Now, I don't fret over it so much.

We get ready for lots of things. Some of it is exciting. Some, we dread. Sometimes we are equipped, sometimes we have to scour around to find the right stuff.

Getting ready for a trip.
Getting ready for the day.
Getting ready for an event.
Getting ready for something fun....or something not so much.

Children need help getting ready. At least if they are indeed really ready!

I helped a bride get ready today. She will wake up a wife for the first time in the morning. She has been getting ready for months.

I am being readied to be a bride myself. I'm gettin' ready. I have quit scouring around to find the right stuff to fix myself up. He has taken care of all that. He even sent me a Helper. (...this Helper doesn't do hair, but His help is way better!)

Jesus is coming soon. Better be gettin' ready folks!

Holy....

Holy…. X 3 = YAHWEH. An incredible equation.

“Holy, holy, holy….is The Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 8:3)

The Self-Existant, Eternal One.
Jehovah, The Lord Almighty.
The Holy One of Israel.

This morning finished the study of Isaiah for the Bible Study Fellowship year.

It has been a year !

I’ve been stretched. Challenged. Disciplined. Reprimanded. And I’ve been loved and ministered to by the Holy One of heaven, thru the recorded oracle of the prophet Isaiah.

Ole’ Isaiah was a regular guy. Human to the core, just like me…. and you.

He could not know, as he wrote the words that are now divided into 66 chapters, that this blonde hairdresser would be reading them thousands of years later. He could not know how God’s call on his life, and his obedience to that call, would impact me…and so many others.

How thankful I am for servants like Isaiah.

I purpose to listen for God’s call on my life. I purpose to hear and answer.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

…..and I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and tell this people…….” (Isaiah 6:8-9a)

What might He do with my meager life? What might He want to do thru yours?

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. “(Isaiah 1:18)

He invites. Even though He is holy and I am NOT…He invites…

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. “(Isaiah 1:19-20)

He invites, and He offers the best to His willing and obedient ones. We won’t be giving ANYthing up that will matter !!

Not short-changed, or missing out.

But….it’s our choice.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:15)

Turning back to Him…completely, without reserve, is where the sweet spot is.

But will you have none of it? It’s your choice…

“…..as for me ……I will serve the LORD." (Joshua 20:14 personalized by me)