The LORD's (Sometimes Hysterical) Providence

I've been trying to lose a few pounds lately. Not because I think I am fat or anything like that. My clothes have just gotten a wee bit snug (OK, a lot bit snug) and it makes me want to pass out when I think about how much money it will cost to buy all new clothes. So, I find myself in the unhappy position of being on a diet. And by the way, I have figured out what the problem with diets is. You have to be on one for more than a few hours for it to work. Hmph.

So this morning, as I put on a pair of jeans that I bought two years ago, I was pleased to find that they fit beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that I made a mental note to check the tag for the name brand and size so I could go find a second pair to purchase.

I'm almost always in a rush to get out the door, and this morning was no different. It was also abnormally cold outside for this time of year, and I knew that I needed to put a coat on. As it happened, I spotted a wool blazer in the very back of my closet. Picture one of those long wool blazers that your stereotypical horsewoman would wear along with riding britches, tall leather boots and a crop in some kind of Calvin Klein Americana ad, and you've got this blazer down pat. It is not currently in fashion by any stretch of the imagination, but it was such a good deal when I bought it that I couldn't resist. And every once in a while, I get a kick out of wearing off-beat clothes. So this morning, I put in on, topped it off with a Burberry plaid scarf and rushed out the door.

As I was plopping down in the driver's seat of my car, it happened. My jeans split. I mean, they tore open with an audible "zzzziiiiippp" sound and everything. I was stunned. These were the same jeans that I had just congratulated myself on fitting into. AND I had been sitting down in them all morning, this was not my first sit since putting them on.

Horrified, I considered my options. I was going to the drop off line at school, and I didn't need to get out of my car for that. And I was running late. So I made a snap decision to swing back by the house and change pants AFTER dropping off at school. Nobody would know the difference, would they?

So I'm driving toward the school, with my chilly bottom pressed straight against the leather seat of my car, when I noticed a distinct whooshing sound. The kind of sound that you hear when the windows are cracked. But the windows weren't cracked. Confused, I asked if the doors were shut in the back of the car. "No," one of the kids happily informed me. "I opened it."

Great. I'm going to have to pull over, get out, show all of the passing traffic my fanny in ripped jeans and re-shut the car door. Fabulous. What a great way to start the day. So I stopped, jumped out, re-shut the car door and jumped back in the driver's seat as fast as is humanly possible. Whew. What were the chances of that happening?

Then it got even better. Just as I pulled into the drop-off line, my cell phone rang. It was the alarm company. My house alarm was going off and I needed to return home to meet the police. I am not making this up.

"Please, please, cancel the alarm to the police!" I said to the woman from the alarm company. "I am on my way home right now, and I'm sure the alarm was accidentally set off!"

As you can imagine, scenes of meeting the police officer with my bottom exposed were flashing through my head. The woman said she would cancel the call to the police, and I headed back toward my house. The whole time I am driving, all I can think is how horrible and random and embarrassing it would have been to get out of my car and meet a police officer in my driveway with my pants flapping open in the back.

Oh, you guessed it. There happened to be a very nice and considerate police officer right around the corner from my house when the alarm was called in. And even though the alarm company cancelled the call, this particular police officer was so courteous, and so diligent, that HE CAME ANYWAY!!!!

I had no choice. I parked my car behind the police cruiser and got out, complete with a blast of chilly morning air hitting my rather bare bottom. We exchanged a few words. He had already checked the back of the house, everything looked fine. A neighbor had even called in to make sure the police knew my house alarm had been tripped. I was oh-so-careful not to turn around the least little bit while I conversed with the officer. But at the same time, I was horribly aware of every single car that drove past the front of my house. I could only hope that they weren't enjoying the neighborhood scenery and had their eyes glued to the road. But, how many times have you driven past a police car in someones driveway and failed to rubberneck? I assume that all the passers-by this morning did the same.

Finally, the officer was satisfied that all was well, and I carefully walked away from him, BACKWARDS, to the safety and modesty of my car. All the while hoping that he didn't think I was a weirdo who walked backwards for no apparent reason.

When I got into my house, I immediately rushed back into my bedroom and turned around to see how bad the damage was in my full-length mirror. I couldn't believe my eyes.

That random wool blazer, the one that I just happened to spot in the closet this morning, reached down to exactly the spot where the pant rip stopped. I was covered the whole time, and I didn't even realize it.

And that, my friends, I can only chalk up to the LORD's sometimes hysterical and unexpected providence. Because I have worn that blazer exactly one other time in the whole year that I have owned it. But something made me notice it and take the time to put it on today, just before I walked out the door. I don't know how else to explain it, but I think there are a few verses in the Bible somewhere about modesty...

Submission of the Gut Wrenching Variety

And just so you know, I'm not talking about husbands and wives in this post. Although I could, cause, boy, is that fertile ground for the topic of submission. But, nope, I'm going to be talking about Jesus.

There are times when we read Scripture and it is just kind of, well...a thing to get through. I have those mornings just like the rest of you.

And then, there are those days when you see something in the text that makes the hair on your arms stand up and your gut suck in a deep breath. I had one of those moments a few days ago.

Most of you are probably familiar with the story of Jesus being arrested by the mob of thugs in the Garden of Gethsemane. It's a Bible story that we church-grown folks grew up hearing. Maybe we even heard it so often that we got kind of casual and flippant about it. Sometimes reading it afresh divulges a gem that is so astounding we can't believe we've MISSED IT all these years!

Let me set the stage a little bit for you and then see if I can wrangle the same WOW out of you that I experienced.


Jesus was a perfect man. He was also fully a man. However, unlike any of us, He was also fully God. The theological term for this seeming contradiction is hypostatic union. And as God in the flesh, Jesus had at His disposal all of the power of God. As a man, who walked around on the earth and felt human needs like hunger and fatigue, He was also the same God who created the heavens and the earth by speaking words. Now, I should be able to stop typing at this point and just leave you with that thought. Because, honestly, if that doesn't make you go, "Whoa," then you haven't thought about it long enough, or deep enough.

But there is more. Jesus, as God, also had at His disposal command and control of the angels. Far from the chubby babies with feathery wings of our popular culture, angels are actually pretty fearsome things. Think of the angel that swept through Egypt and killed all of those first born sons before Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. And that was just the work of one lonely angel. Imagine the power that Jesus had at His command as a man who could call down the power of all the angels in heaven at his whim.

NOW, imagine Jesus as He is praying in the Garden, just hours and moments before He knows He will die a humiliating, painful and horrible death on the cross.

He doesn't really want to go through with it. Now, bear with me here. Jesus is always in perfect, sinless submission to God the Father. But as a human being living in flesh, Jesus the Son had some real anxiety about what was going to happen to Him.

Matthew 26:39

"He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will."

Jesus says, I will do your will. But, Father, if it is possible, let there be another way. But there isn't. Jesus must die. There must be atonement for the sins of His children. It has to happen this way.

And so, despite the natural resistance of His human nature, Christ willingly submits to the will of the Father. I say willingly, because nobody ever forced Jesus to do it. He willingly submitted to all of the horrors of the cross and all of the horrors of broken fellowship with the Father as He endured the holy wrath of a holy God in order to redeem OUR lives from the pit of destruction.

As the multitude carrying swords and clubs laid hands on Jesus and arrested Him, Peter couldn't contain himself. You can imagine that they were roughing Jesus up in the process of arresting him. And in reaction, Peter drew his sword and struck off the ear of the servant of the high preist.

It is what Jesus said next that is so astounding.

Matthew 26:52-54

"But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then can the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus." (emphasis mine)

Did you catch that? The Father will provide angels. Not He might, or He may, or its possible that He will take that into consideration. He will do it. If I ask, He will. If I ask, this whole plan will not be fulfilled, it will not happen.

But Jesus didn't ask. He died on the cross.

And that, girls, is submission of the gut wrenching variety. Wow. Is there anything else to say?

Hebrews 12:2

"looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Lying Hearts

You have all heard the stories. Or maybe you know some people that it has happened to personally. Dedicated Christians, servants of the LORD, caught in horrible, shocking and devastating sin. I got one of those phone calls this week. I sat down and cried, and tried my best to encourage my sister in Christ on the other end of the line. But what can you say in such situations except, "I am so sorry. I love you and will pray for you?"

You don't need to know the details. I'm guessing that most of you have heard a similar tale and can fill in the details of your choice. We all know that Christians are still sinners, but for some reason it is harder to process when a fellow believer falls into blatant, public sin. It just hurts in a different way.

And in this particular situation, there was some serious self-deception happening. When the Bible gives a clear command, and a person chooses to believe that something contrary must be what God would want them to do, you can bet there is a whole lot of self deceiving going on.

The scary thing is that we are ALL capable of self-deception. Even those of us that know the truth and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Our hearts really are that wicked, and our natural desires really are that corrupt. That is why, again and again, we MUST study God's Word. We must constantly go back to the living and active Word of God and drown our sinful man in its purifying waters. There is no substitute for constant exposure to God's Holy, revealed Scripture.

If we wander around, oblivious to what the Bible actually says, relying on our inner sense of right and wrong to guide us, we will get it wrong almost every time. Consider Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Or better yet, Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

How about this:

"She said WHAT about me??? Well, let me tell you something about her..."

Matthew 5:44

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."

Or this:

"Well, I know I shouldn't tell you this, but you won't repeat it, right?"

Proverbs 16:28

"A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer seperates the best of friends."

Or even this:

"I'm not going to let myself get taken advantage of like that!"

Matthew 5:39

"But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."

You get the idea. Our natural inclinations are often at odds with the commands of God.

I just needed to get this one out of my system. Read your Bibles, girls. Otherwise you may find yourself subject to the deceitful whims of a lying heart. And that much I do understand.

Ruth Session Two

Hello friends! Just wanted to let you know that Ruth Session Two is up and available for downloading. Like last time, it is posted to another blog, so if you need the link, just email me from my contact page.

On Bows and Rainbows

I don't have time for a "real" post right now. I've been out of town all weekend and I'm trying to play catch-up before the start of what I expect to be a super busy week. (I'm teaching Ruth Session Two on Wednesday, so please pray for me if you think of it. And I'll try to post the audio by the end of the week.)

But I wanted to share something really interesting that I heard twice this weekend, that I think you will enjoy as well.

Several weeks ago I happened to be riding through town after a wet and rainy afternoon. It was about an hour before dusk and the sky was still filled with gray, misty clouds. Suddenly, my husband pointed out an amazing sight: two full arcs of a double rainbow brilliantly displayed in the sky. I had never seen a double rainbow before, and it was breathtaking. Not only were there two visible arcs, but you could see the full arch from one end of the horizon to the other for each individual rainbow. We pulled the car over and unloaded our family in the middle of an empty parking lot just to stare at this wonder in the sky.

If you remember your Sunday School lessons, you will remember that the rainbow is endowed with special meaning by God. In Genesis 9:13-16, we read the following:

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind of the earth."

To understand the significance of this particular covenant agreement that God made between Himself and all life on earth, you need to remember what God just finished doing. We love to tell the story of Noah and his ark to our children. But how often do we point out to them that the real point of Noah and the ark was to save them from the massive wiping out of life that God purposed and performed? God literally destroyed every person and creature on earth, expect for the inhabitants of that relatively little floating capsule we call the ark.

God did not put the rainbow in the sky as a warm fuzzy feel good to make us smile and reflect kindly on Him when we happen to see one. No, He wanted to assure mankind and all of creation that He was never going to bring such a war upon them again. At least, not in the form of a flood.

While I was at a conference this weekend, the speaker made an offhand point about the shape of the rainbow. It is very similar to the spape of a bow, as in a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow are mostly employed as a sport by archers today, with perhaps some hard-core bow hunters thrown in the mix. But in the days of ancient warfare, the bow and arrow were deadly and effective weapons.

And some have speculated that when God put that bow shaped arch in the sky, He was signifying that He had hung up His weapon of war, never to use that particular one against His creation ever again. I've also heard it speculated that not only was the weapon hung upon the wall, but its curve was pointed up, toward heaven itself, instead of down to the face of the earth.

Because, you see, God did still need to declare war. A war against sin. And we all know who ended up taking the brunt of that war upon Himself. It was God, in the human flesh of Jesus Christ. God put all of His holy wrath upon Himself in order to redeem His fallen children. And that is why the "bow" of the rainbow pointed up to the sky. It was a reminder, a promise and a foreshadowing all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

Judge Not Part Two

(For first part of Judge Not, see the post below)

For all of the things that Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that you be not judged," doesn't mean, there are surely some things that it does mean.

And the context in which it should be understood is stated in the verses immediately following.

Matthew 7:2-3

"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?"

So what does that mean anyway? Well, I touched on the meaning of the plank/speck comparison in my last post. And basically, it means that you should only approach others about their sin with a great awareness of, and conviction over, your OWN sin. In other words, there is no room for self-righteous condemnation. We all have sin. We all fall short. And only when you take on the mindset of a "fellow-sinner" do you have the right framework for humbly and gently correcting your brother.

Not only is this likely to be a more effective approach anyway, but there is a strong caution given to us against approaching our brother and his speck in any other manner. Jesus says that we will be judged using the same criteria we use to judge others. In one sense, we are condemning ourselves if we don't use mercy and humility in our dealings with others.

This concept is stated again in Romans 2:1

"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."

In other words, use caution when you gear up to judge someone. You are probably guilty of the same thing. And by standing in judgment of another, you are condemning yourself. Because in order to declare him guilty, you have to first knowingly consent to the fact that his actions are a violation of some kind. And like I just said, chances are you have that same sin, in one form or another, lurking about in your own closet. Kind of like, "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." You incriminate yourself when you apply the law to others. Because you've just proved that you are aware of the law. And you are therefore without excuse when it comes to your own defense.

But, if you want mercy and compassion applied to you, apply them to those you judge. If you use mercy, you will be given mercy. If you harshly condemn, you will be harshly condemned.

As a side note here, let me add that these cautions are given to each of us as individual brothers and sisters. The church is given very specific instructions for dealing with its members who are in sin. I'm not talking about those things here. I'm only talking about our dealings, as individuals, with individuals.

And lest you think that somehow I am giving the green light to blatant sinners, and a yellow light to righteous standards, think again. Just because we are cautioned about the way we apply judgment does not mean that we are to relax our standards as Christians. Part of the reason that we don't have to judge our neighbor is because God has already done it. God has given us His law. And God's law has already explicitly condemned sin in all of its shapes, forms and fashions. It is not up to us to decide what is a sin and what isn't. The law of God has taken plenty of care of that, thank you very much. You either accept it or you reject it.

Just because some people want to make the law do handstands and backflips in order to justify their fleshly desires, doesn't change the fact that they will stand condemned before the law. Their tricksy reasoning and human wisdom will be meaningless before the Judge of all the universe. He has access to the thoughts of their hearts and minds. We don't. And that is why ultimate judgment can only be left up to Him.

In the meantime, practice mercy and compassion. And mourn over your sin alongside the sins of others. In doing so, you will be equipped to help your brother out when a speck appears in his eye. Otherwise, beware of your measuring stick being turned around and held up against you.