Merry Christmas

Sorry this post is getting up so late. I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas. I have been very busy going to parties, school programs, family gatherings and the like for the past few weeks, so my posts have been kinda sparse. That probably won't change until the new year.

But I want all of you faithful readers to know that I have had a wonderful Christmas. It's been a low-key, fun kind of year. I didn't expect any great presents, and I didn't get anything that was amazing, but it didn't even matter. I just enjoyed the holiday, because I kept thinking about that tiny baby born in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago. And that, dear reader is the most amazing present I could ever comprehend.

Good tidings of great joy. Indeed. Indeed.

My Precious

All of you Lord of the Ring fans out there will appreciate this. The trilogy of movies was on television over the weekend here. Against my better judgment, I stayed up late three nights in a row to watch them, even though I own the DVDs of all three and could have watched them without all of the annoying commercial breaks. And gotten to bed at a decent hour.

At the end of The Return of the King, we see Frodo standing above the molten lava flowing in Mount Doom, poised to accomplish the destruction of the ring he has borne through great trial and sacrifice. But as you know, when the moment comes to separate himself from the thing that has brought him so much misery, he cannot bear to let it go. He loves and desires it more than he hates it or wishes it to be destroyed.

How like our sin. We love our sins so much more than we care to admit. We feel justified in committing them. We tell ourselves that they are harmless. We pet and feed and nourish them. Sometimes, even when the moment comes to cast them away and be forgiven of them, we cling to them, cradling them to our breast, refusing to be parted from them.

This would result in great tragedy for us if we were left to our own devices to deal with sin. Fortunately, we are not. For those who belong to Him, God provides sanctification.

Allow me to stretch the illustration of Frodo and the ring a bit more. When it becomes clear that Frodo does not have the will to part himself from the ring, a "terrible" thing happens to him. He is viciously attacked by Gollum, who was once the ring bearer himself. A mighty struggle ensues. In the end, Gollum seems to prevail, by literally biting the finger off of Frodo's hand, and with it, the ring. Gollum's victory is short lived, as he tumbles to his destruction, down into the lake of fire, all the while clutching the ring to himself in ecstasy.

Frodo is left with a permanently maimed hand. But, despite his resistance to the point of violent struggle, he has been freed from the terrible power the ring held over him.

I see a great parallel to sanctification in that struggle. Sometimes God uses "terrible" things to free us and give us life. Surely you know of someone this has happened to? To a small degree, that has been my own experience with sanctification. I resisted it. It hurt and was unpleasant to go through. But in the end, I found myself free. Usually I wasn't even aware of the destruction I was binding myself to until I was free of it. And then, oh, I could fall on my face in thankfulness for the mercy of sanctification.

It would have been so much easier to be obedient to God from the start. To look at my sin and cast it into the fire and be free of it. But I just couldn't. Not in my own power. Mercy was required. Mercy that certainly didn't feel anything like mercy when it happened.

1 Thess 5:23

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

One more thing here. In my own life, the mercy of sanctification has accomplished something I never imagined I would have. A real hunger and thirst for righteousness. I can honestly say that I have it for the first time in my life. I can also say that I have no doubt that I did nothing to get myself to this point. It was all God. It was all mercy.

Boy, Have I Been There!

Deuteronomy 29:19

"and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart"--as though the drunkard could be included with the sober."

The last part of that verse is translated several different ways, depending on which translation you have, but it is the first part of that verse that strikes home with me.

This verses catches perfectly the way I lived most of my youth and young adult life. Hiding inside the community of God's covenant people, but saying in my heart, I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart.

How arrogant and foolish!

Don't miss that this foolish person blesses himself. I can relate! I blessed myself every day of my life, with every thought, every action, every motivation, and every outward obedience. It was all about me blessing myself in my own heart. I think that is a great description of a Pharisee. A person who blesses himself in his heart, all the while following the dictates of his own heart, not the commands of the LORD.

And lest we forget, Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us of what we need to know about our own hearts, apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

If you go and read the Deuteronomy verse in it's context, it becomes even more powerful. Moses has just finished recounting to the Israelites the blessings of obedience, and the curses of disobedience. The section that covers the curses of disobedience is not for the fainthearted. It's pretty hard core stuff. (Maybe if you have never read if for yourself, this will sufficiently peak your curiosity enough to send you to your Bible! I highly recommend it!)

I keep trying to do a quick reading of the Old Testament, because I have never read through the whole thing before. My problem is that I keep finding things that are so interesting, I have to stop and think and look up all the cross references. At this rate it is going to take me years to get through the Bible cover to cover! Oh well, at least it will be time and effort well spent. I can't begin to tell you all of the amazing things I have discovered for myself. Only a fraction of it ends up on this blog. I'm only sorry that I didn't start this process sooner!

Another Divine Appointment

I had a strange morning today. I gave a stranger a ride home. I don't usually pick up people walking on the side of the road. In fact, I am probably more paranoid about picking up strangers than your average person, because my husband and I wasted a lot of time and money trying to help someone that we picked up on the side of the road several years ago. But that is another story.

I had been at a friends house and was leaving her neighborhood. As I pulled up to a Stop sign, waiting to pull onto a busy road, an older-middle-aged woman walked up to my window. She was well dressed, in slacks and a stylish sweater. She had on lipstick and jewelry, I could even smell the perfume she was wearing. She asked if I was heading toward a certain neighborhood. I could see that she had been crying. In fact, she was wiping tears off of her cheeks the whole time I talked to her.

I was not heading in the direction she asked about, in fact I needed to be somewhere in the opposite direction in 25 minutes. Plus, I am not the kind of person who gives rides to strangers.

Here is where the story gets interesting. All of this was happening, literally, right across the street from my church. I could see that there were several cars in the church parking lot, and I knew that our church secretary was there as well. I tried to talk the distressed woman into walking across the street and getting help from someone inside. She didn't want to do that. I asked her if I could call someone, and she only cried more and said "no." I tried to ask her if she was in trouble, or if she needed some help, but she just kept saying that she wanted to go home.

At that point she left the side of my car and started walking back down the road. It was 77 degrees and sunny, and based on the place she had asked me to take her, I knew she had a long way to go in the heat. I thought for a moment, but decided that she was probably a woman who was stranded and in real need of help, and not some scam artist or dangerous person. I mean, she was very well dressed, she was even carrying a nice black leather purse. I think it was the lipstick and nice perfume that made up my mind. It would be like my mother or my mother-in-law being stranded and needing help from a stranger.

I pulled into the parking lot of my church, and walked inside. One of the secretaries was standing right there. I asked her if she could ride with me, and I briefly explained what was going on. She grabbed her purse, hopped in my car, and we drove down the road and picked up the distressed woman.

She was very glad to have a ride. As soon as she got in my car, Debbie, the secretary from church, asked if she could pray for her. So as I started driving, she and Debbie held hands and prayed. Then she told us a little bit about why she was stranded and needed a ride.

She told us that she was married to a very mean and controlling man, who treated her very badly. They had been going to marriage counseling, and she said he just lied about everything. She said she just couldn't take it anymore, and walked out. I assume that meant she had just left the marriage counseling and was trying to walk home when I picked her up.

We let her talk for a while, she was still crying, and giving us some more of the story. I'm not going to give you all the details, that is not what is really important. Debbie asked if she had a church home, and she said no. Then she started crying some more and saying she wouldn't go to church with her husband. Debbie wrote down our pastors name and phone number. We gave it to her and told her that she certainly did not have to come to church, but that she could always call if she needed help, or just a person to talk to.

When we got to her house, I asked her if I could pray with her again, and she let me. I don't really even know what I prayed about. I just wanted her to know that I cared, and more importantly, that God cared. I helped her out of the back seat of my car. She cried some more, thanked me and gave me a hug. I can still smell her perfume on my shirt.

I have no idea if she will ever call our pastor, or go to any church. But I have been praying for her all day. I sincerely believe that I was supposed to give her that ride today. I mean, what are the chances that all of that happened randomly? Right across the street from my church? That Debbie would be standing right there when I walked in, and would be able to ride with me so I wouldn't be nervous about giving a stranger a ride?

I wonder if I am supposed to be learning something from this. This is the second older woman in distress that I have encountered recently. Maybe God just wants me to remember that underneath the nice, socially acceptable facade that people present, there are real hurts and needs. Believe me, I spend a lot of time around people who seem perfect. People who seem to have it all. Women with nice black leather purses, stylish sweaters and lipstick perfectly applied. But every once in a while, people will let you see behind it all. Maybe I'm just supposed to remember to keep looking.

Again and Again

I felt it again this morning in church. That indescribable awareness of God's holiness versus my innate sinfulness. It's such a paradox. You would think that this awareness would be a terrible thing, but unfailingly, it is the purest joy I have ever known.

It's about grace. The real cost of it. Grace is cheap and worthless if we think we deserve it somehow. But when we understand the real cost of it, the fact that we could never do anything to even begin to earn it, then, and only then, do we have any understanding of how amazing grace is.

I'm not kidding when I say that I am sitting here and I can't even think of words to describe the infinite, incomprehensible, magnitude of grace.

But God gives it to us. And He doesn't just give us enough to get by, He lavishes it on us. He slathers thick, dense layers of grace all over our wounds and scars. He picks us up from our heap and sends us soaring into the stars. He gives us a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

And to add to what is already almost more than we can understand, He declares that He loves us. He calls us treasure and jewel, pearl and joy. Consider the unlikeliness of it. The mystery, the paradox... Oh, but relish it, delight in it, sing for joy and celebrate it.

Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
Oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the king of angels
Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord.

May we all adore him.

Romans 11:33

"O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"

I'm Chillin'

Yes, that is a corny title. Forgive me, I couldn't resist. I just want all of you to know that my refrigerator has been repaired.

I had a really interesting conversation with the repair man. I feel pretty sure that he is not a Christian, because I talked about God and the Bible several times and he never responded like you would think a fellow believer would. But he seemed interested in what we talked about. You just never know what a little seed might turn into.

Hills and Valleys

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

"but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drink water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year."

These verses struck me this morning. They are so beautiful. I stopped reading and spent some time just thinking about them, and how they can apply to my own walk with God.

Life in general, but especially the Christian life, can easily be characterized by hills and valleys. Some times we are sitting on top of the world, sailing smoothly through life. Things are happening nicely, and easily. And then suddenly, we may find ourselves in a valley.

But the rain of heaven falls in both the hills and the valleys. Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us. His "rain" will water us in the highs and the lows. If you think about it, the valley is where you will find pools of water, not up in the hilltops. Have you had an experience like that? You found yourself going through something really difficult, but God provided pools of water for you in the midst of your valley? I have. But, I'll be honest, and admit that I often didn't see the pools of water until I had passed all the way through the valley, climbed up onto the hilltop again, and then turned to gaze back down. And then, I was amazed at all the "water" down there!

Even more wonderful is the idea that our land (our walk with God), is a land for which the LORD our God cares, that His eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. Personally, I love the idea that God's eyes are always on me. As a very immature Christian, this idea was pretty scary. I viewed it as, "God is watching all the really bad things I am doing, and He is going to condemn me for it."

I have done some pretty bad things. But I know that I have been washed as white as snow by the redeeming blood of Christ (Isaiah 1:18.) Now, the idea of God always watching me makes me feel really safe, and taken care of. I know that no matter what happens to me, God is watching, He knows, He gets it, He cares.

Don't miss that God's eyes are watching from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. I looked up the Hebrew for "year." It does mean, quite literally, year. But it also means a year as a revolution of time. I take that to mean, from the beginning of the event to the end of the event. That event can be lots of different things. As in, from the beginning of my loss, until I recovered from that loss. Or, from the beginning of my struggle with that sin, until I was able to repent and accept forgiveness for that sin. And even, from the beginning of that ministry to the time I saw the first fruit from that ministry.

Another thing that the original Hebrew uncovers is that the word "end," as in "from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year" has as one of its alternate translations the word reward. Read it this way: from the beginning of the year to the very reward of the year. I can think of a few examples of this from my own life. Sometimes I struggle with unbelief. But every single time, when I have wrestled through the issue with God, I am rewarded with increased faith. That increased faith would be the reward (end) of that struggle (year.)

Whew, I hope you got all that! It makes perfect sense to me, but I'm not completely sure that any of the rest of you are going to get it. If you don't, that is OK, because I think I took enough out of those two little verses for the both of us. (And then some!)

A little sin...

Job 37:10

"By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast."

About four days ago, as I was sitting in my kitchen, quietly reading my Bible, before the whole house was awake, I noticed that my refrigerator was making a strange, tinny sounding noise. "Strange noise," I thought. Then I ignored it. This went on for about 3 days.

Then Friday, I took what should have been a frozen waffle out of the freezer. Problem was, the waffle was not frozen. It was kind of soft. "Hmm, maybe this is related to that strange noise I have been hearing." I decided to call in an appliance repairman immediately. He showed up at about 4:15 p.m. This is on Friday, remember.

He walked straight into my kitchen, pulled my fridge away from the wall, tinkered around for a pair of minutes (as Beth Moore would say), and pronounced that my compressor was broken and my refrigerator and freezer were worthless, and in fact had not been working properly since the first time I heard that strange noise. This was not a good moment for me.

There was, however, some good news. My fridge was still under warranty (being only 3 years old). The parts and labor would be completely covered under the standard warranty. Bad news? Oh yes. The broken part would need to be ordered, and would take 3-4 days to arrive, and they couldn't order it until Monday. It took me a while to realize what that would mean.

"Oh, that means I have no refrigerator or freezer all weekend? And probably until Thursday of next week? Umm, what am I supposed to do?"

This was apparently not the problem of the appliance guy. He was ready to go and enjoy the weekend.

At first, I thought things would be relatively fine. We have a mini-fridge in our wet bar. I emptied all of the bottles (I'll let you guess what those contained!) out of the mini-fridge and managed to salvage the milk, eggs, butter, lunch meat, cheese, juice, mayo, and cream (gotta have that for coffee). That was all that would fit. My husband brought home some bags of ice, and we stuffed them in the fridge and freezer and hoped that would keep things cool enough. I did do one smart thing, and took all of my chicken and put it in my deep freezer outside.


This morning I realized that the ice-stuffing had been pointless. There was a puddle of water in front of the fridge and condensation all over all of the things left in the fridge. So, facing reality, I got out the garbage bags, and to make a story that is already too long just a little bit shorter, I cleaned that baby out. Four trash bags worth.

Then, I took a good look at what the inside of my refrigerator and freezer looked like when emptied. It was horrible. I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I spent a majority of what was a beautiful day, up to my elbows in a sink full of bleach. I never realized how many parts could be taken out of a fridge to be cleaned. All of you women who do this on a regular basis, well, good for you. I don't.

As I was scrubbing mystery goo off the bottom of the freezer, I started thinking that I was going to find a way to turn this into a good spiritual illustration. I may have to stretch to make it work, but I was going to turn this into a good blog post. So, here is my best attempt....

Galatians 5:9

"A little leaven leavens the whole lump."

You know, if I had paid attention to that first tinny sound the fridge was making, I could have spared myself a whole heap of trouble. Chances are, the part would have arrived on Friday, and I would now be enjoying properly cooled food items. Sin is like that, too. We always get a warning sign when there is a problem. Even if it is just a little prick of the conscience. Sometimes it is much more than a little prick, it is more like alarm bells and red flags competing for attention.

At the point of first being aware of the sin, the smart thing to do is take care of the problem immediately. Before it "leavens the lump" and starts causing all kinds of scary things. Just take your pick of sins: romantic thoughts about that guy you dated before you got married, hateful feelings towards that neighbor who lets her dog bark at all hours, gossiping about that woman in church whose children are always out of control, not paying for your Bible Study book because it's done on an honor system, I could go on, but I hope you get the idea. They all start small, but left unchecked and unresolved, could lead you straight into disaster. And you should have at least a prick of conscience if you are doing any them.

But, say you see the problem and choose to ignore it. This is a bad idea. That strange noise my fridge was making should have been enough to make me call the appliance guy. But I chose to ignore it. Really, I did. It was a conscious choice. And by choosing to look the other way and let the noise go on, I ended up with stinky shrimp and slimy goo. The same thing can happen to our hearts and minds. Even our actions. And instead of handling a relatively small sin, with few, if any, consequences, we could be left having to break out the bleach bucket and do some serious work. I would rather deal with small problems, wouldn't you?

1 John 1:9

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Acts 3:19-20

"Repent, therefore, and turn again,that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,"


(Now, go back and read the verse at the top of this post. And smile with me!)

One of my friends who read this post told me that she was a little unclear as to why I had to bleach my entire refrigerator. So, in case any of the rest of you have the same question, I thought I would elaborate. There are two reasons I had to bleach everything. First, my refrigerator had not been cooling, AT ALL, for the entire three days that it was making the noise. I guess there was enough cool air, and ambient chill to keep things from being obviously not refrigerated, but by the time I noticed the problem, defrosting, dripping and oozing had already been happening. Second, and probably more importantly, I had not given my fridge a thorough scrubbing in the entire three years I owned it. Now, you know all my dirty little secrets. I don't clean my fridge on a regular basis!