Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

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Easy like Sunday Morning

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

You children of the 70s will recognize the title of this blog referencing the song, “Easy” by the Commodores.  Frankly, church girl that I was, I couldn’t relate to the metaphor of Sunday being easy back then because Sundays were the hardest day of the week (Sunday morning church, people for Sunday dinner, choir practice at 4, Sunday night church, etc), but it was intriguing.

Sometimes I still cannot grasp the truth of what Jesus said about life following Him – that to follow Him would be to find rest for our souls (our minds, our wills, our emotions – our very personalities!)  He even said that His yoke (which was a wooden beam used to tie two oxen together as they trudged forward in their very hard labor) would be easy.  Easy.  Seriously?  When?  Where?

What is the essence of what Jesus really said?  Well, here it is 3 ways (Mt. 11.28-30):

“Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  NIV

“Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to Me.  Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” THE MESSAGE

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-ladened and are overburdened, and I will cause you to rest [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls].  Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.  For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.  THE AMPLIFIED

Following Jesus is following REST!

Following Jesus and His plan for my days is NOT: ill-fitting (having a job to do but being stripped of the resources or authority to do it), heavy, harsh, hard, sharp (pain-causing), or pressing (can’t seem to stay ahead – losing your breath, feeling pushed), wearisome, burdensome, hard work (work is good, a blessing, but there is a work that is just nothing but hard and life-sapping), loud and abrasive.

Following Jesus and His plan for my days IS:  go to Him, run, maybe.  Because He is gentle and I will find rest for my whole being because He is going to give me rest!  In Him?  Real rest, recovery, living the abundant life freely, lightly.  Ease.  Relief.  Refreshment.  He’ll re-create me.  And blessed quiet for my mind, my will, my emotions.  Quiet for my emotions!  I am sensing/feeling freer and lighter already!

And His call on my life?  The work (good works) He prepared for me before time began (Eph. 2.10)?  Easy.  Light.  Comfortable, gracious, and pleasant.  Not to mention wholesome (whole, not fragmented, and holy).

I’ll trade this for all the churchy titles and religious service I have done all my life any day.  Where do I sign up?…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  I am going to Him.  I am going to follow Him and watch how He does this thing.  I want to do life the way Jesus did…this is vital to life…”Why in the world would anybody put chains on me…”

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Posted in God's Word, Health, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think | 4 Comments »

Casting Wreaths

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Christmas is everywhere!

Even this morning as I was reading about how Solomon was building the Temple for the reknown and glory of the Name of the Lord and to establish his own house, I read this, surely a precursor to our Christmas ornamentation:

“He made wreaths of [gold] chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of chainwork.”  2 Chronicles 3.16

I sigh wearily of hearing Christians who attribute all the symbols of Christmas to ancient pagan traditions.  The tree, my brothers and sisters (created in the Garden where God walked first), the lights (Jesus IS the Light of the World, after all), the gift-giving (must I mention John 3.16 and the inspiration to all-gift-giving ever for all times based on this, THE most amazing gift ever?), and all the rest seem to be up for scrutiny every year.  If I act a wee bit too joyous they remind me, like the father-in-law at Clark Griswold’s Christmas Vacation, “The little lights aren’t twinkling.”  The bah-humbuggers want to drop-kick the joy and the meaning we have tried with our little human efforts to capture right out the door.

I don’t think the Advent wreath on which I light a candle is some all-holy-get-me-into-heaven thing.  Nor do I believe God is displeased that I annually string lights and drag out the Nativity set and wrap gifts for the people I love.

What is a wreath after all?  It is something woven into a circular shape and hung purely for its beauty.  Or placed on the head of some one royal.  It is part of my Christmas, my Christ Mass, my worship of the Christ (Christmas=Christ worship).  While I am living to proclaim the reknown of the Name of the Lord on the earth, I am also establishing and decorating my home at Christmas.  Solomon did it for the love of God. And so do I.  His were real gold, heavy in richness.  Mine are simple branches woven and beribboned.

Someday, the wreath of my life, the things I have feebly woven together in honor to God will be the crown on my head.  But like the twenty-four Elders in Revelation

“[they] fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives until the Ages of the Ages and they cast their wreaths down in front of the throne…” Rev. 4.10 wey

The traditions we keep aren’t sacred.  They are just our ways of celebrating and enjoying the story of our redemption, God’s plan, a Savior!  They just mark our deliverance from darkness into His marvelous light.  They are only the symbols we use to try to depict a God so great that even our words fail us.

Let me have my wreath and worship with it, too…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Weave golden moments and bejeweled treasures together into love-wreaths for people all around-even and especially the bah-humbuggers.

pictured: the front door one night last year…

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Posted in God's Word, Home, Keep Christmas, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 2 Comments »

Surrender

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

In WWM staff prayer yesterday, s-i-l, Dave, prayed a prayer of yieldedness.  We pondered for a few moments on what it means to yield our hearts, our lives, our thoughts, opinions and desires to God.  “Here I am, “ many people in the Bible responded to God.

As Dave restated that phrase: Here I am, I suddenly saw it and heard it differently.

Here, I Am.

I caught a fleeting glimpse of the meaning of yieldedness.  To say Here I am is to say You be here, Great I Am.

Here, God (I AM) be in this circumstance.  Here in our home, I Am, reign.  Be here, I AM, in this hour of indecision, these times of heartbreak, this uncertain future.  Here, I Am.  I surrender to You.  Be here.  Be here…

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Posted in God's Word, Worship | 3 Comments »

Healing Rain is Falling Down

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Times are hard right now for a lot of people.  A newer friend of mine just lost her job and is now homeless, living in her car.  Another friend’s brother-in-law is having to work across the state, away from his wife and young children to keep food in their mouths.  An amazing pastor’s wife has breast cancer and is facing major surgery in a few days.  One beautiful family struggles through prolonged accusation and custody hearings, sapping life-strength one agonizing day at a time.  A brother is fighting his way back to his family from addictions that have ripped his soul, and crushed his family’s hearts.  Everywhere I look, the result of the fall is wreaking havoc.

Yet, in these same circumstances and many more I am watching, grace is flowing like water.  The faithful are rejecting the fear and looking to Jesus, and oh, what a beautiful sight as their faces reflect the glory of the One who is holding them steady - walking right beside them through these things.

Think about this, my friends, and don’t lose heart.  This is what Jesus did so He could complete HIS work in YOU:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  Hebrews 12.2-3

He is your Author, your story-writer and He endured it all so He could make sure it ends with a glorious flourish.  He is in all the way to the finish with you!

Dave and Tara blew me away singing the last part of a Michael W. Smith song at church on Sunday.  I did a quick search for it this morning and the video actually captures, right toward the end, what I have been “seeing” in the Spirit in the lives of the people I mentioned here – a looking to Jesus, a receiving of His healing and blessing.  Check out the video and stay with it, and then sing it, declare it:

Healing rain, I’m not afraid to be washed in heaven’s rain. 

Healing rain is falling down.  I’m not afraid!  I’m not afraid!

Healing rain is falling down. 

I’m not afraid!  I’m not afraid!

Don’t lose heart.  Don’t be afraid.  He is not finished yet…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  He. Is. My. Author.  My story is His.

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Posted in God's Word, Prayers for a God-full life, Sacred Romance, Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 6 Comments »

Prayer for the Nation

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

It’s November 4.  It’s election day.  Before we go to bed tonight, we will most likely know who our next president will be and we’ll spend the next several days sorting out who all got elected and where and the talking heads will tell us what they think the next 4 years will look like.  It would be easy to fall in to fear on a day like this.  We become so impassioned about our candidate, so certain he or she is the only way and must certainly be God’s way.  I wrote about it before.

Now don’t kill me for saying this, but: the collective vote of the people is NOT always the right one, the best choice for the nation.  But it is the choice we have made, collectively.  And since we want our democratic society, we have to roll with happens – that is part of getting to participate in the process.  This makes Christians who rip leadership apart instead of praying for them humbly, just as guilty and stupid as the celebrities who claim they’ll leave the country if their candidate doesn’t win the election.

What?  No democracy?!?  Saul and David are good indicators of this.  When God alone wanted to rule His people, they wanted a king (to be like other nations).  So, God let them have the one they wanted.  He was tall and good looking and popular and a warrior.  He was the obvious choice.  And God used Saul, in spite of himself.  But he was never God’s choice (because God knows the heart) and Saul’s actions exposed the deep lack of character inside.  Whereas, David wasn’t the obvious choice, but God knew he had the right heart to lead the people.

But in the end?  Still – God’s people!  His. 

I voted.  And tomorrow, come what may, the Word still calls me to pray:

“I urge then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we made lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godiness and holiness.”  1 Tim. 2.1-2

So, I pray for all of our leaders, both freshly elected and remaining:

  • I pray for the leaders of my nation to come to the light. Isaiah 60.3
  • God, let our leaders be just and let them rule in the fear of the Lord.  2 Samuel 23.3
  • May we, as a nation, praise You, Lord, for Your merciful kindness and truth.  Psalm 117
  • Turn our leader’s hearts to fear You, Lord.  Proverbs 21.1
  • God, I pray that we, as a nation, will make a joyful noise to You and serve You with great gladness!  Psalm 110.1-2
  • Uproot the wicked from our land, Lord.  Proverbs 2.22
  • We pray that our nation will submit to the reign and rule of Christ.  Daniel 7.14
  • May Your governement and peace continually increase in my nation.  Isaiah 9.7
  • I make supplication, petition, prayer, intercession and give thanks for ALL the people of my nation and especially today for all the leaders of this nation.  1 Timothy 2.1-2
  • Hear us from heaven, we ask, as we humbly pray and call out to You.  We repent of our wickedness, God. Forgive our sins.  Heal our land.
  • Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

God bless America!…Jeanie

NOTE TO COUSIN DIANA:  Happy Birthday!

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Posted in God's Word, Prayers for a God-full life, Stuff I actually think | 3 Comments »

Falling Back and the Delicious “Extra Hour”

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Daylight Savings Time and the practice of setting clocks back one hour in the fall and forward one hour in the spring (fall back, spring forward!) does not bug me nearly as much as it did at one time.

Soon after we were married we lived in Kokomo, IN where they did not observe Daylight Savings Time, so when the rest of the world changed, we just defiantly stayed put.  And primetime programming for us was 8-11 pm, and the ten o’clock news came on at 11.  We were out of sync with the rest of the nation for 6 months out of the year, as if we were defending some right to religious freedom?  THAT was weird!  AND you could always count on your lowest church year attendance with that “lost hour” each spring when we pastored.  Very troubling.  This is why, you’ll notice, churches are the greatest trumpeters bar none, of the whole clock-setting, time-changing ordeal! 

But no, I am not troubled by it now like in the old days.  Now I am only aggravated by every single time-related conversation for at least a week after the time change being some thing like:

Me: What time is it?

Other person: It is ____ o’clock…but REALLY it is ____ o’clock!

Yes, people want to tell me what time it would have been if Daylight Savings Time had not just upset our entire universes by one hour.  I’m pretty sure I could calculate that on my own, if I ever needed to.  But it did change, people, it did!  Roll with it.

Now, in the fall, I relish in the wondrous thought of an extra hour.  This morning I am up pondering how to be a worshiper who can bring God joy by my praises, my song, my love.  I have just been sitting here lazily in the dark loving Him and bouncing ideas off of Him for some upcoming things while drinking my Rocky Mountain Thunder (dark roast by Boyer’s). 

We never have enough time, yet – today, we get an extra hour.  This is wonderful.  This is a miracle.  This is a gift: An hour of time to spend any way we want. 

Enjoy yours…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: The question is not “what time is it?” but “what is it time for?”

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3.1 NIV

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Top Ten Election Predictions

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

I ripped this off from a currently-circulating e-mail forward (20%) and added my own (80%).  I am grateful to have my legal citizenship in this great country.  I thank God that I live in a place where I enjoy the right and the privilege of voting, but this world is not my home.  I am part of the Kingdom of God and am really just an alien passing through.  :)   Each presidential election seems to increase fear in our hearts, on both sides of the political fence, but I am hanging on for that “peace that passes understanding.”

Top Ten Truths No Matter WHO Wins this Election:

10.  God is FOR us.  (If God is for me, who can be against me?)

9.  Jesus LOVES me, this I know. (This may be the simplest and most amazing truth ever)

8.  The Holy Spirit will continue to LEAD, GUIDE, and DIRECT our lives.

7.  God is thinking about us and has good plans for our lives (Jer. 29.11).

6.  When I call on the Lord, He will hear me and answer me – telling me the things I need to know (Jer. 33.3).

5.  The heart of the king (and the president) is in God’s hands and God can turn it whichever way He desires  (Prov. 21.1).

4.  This generation will declare the mighty works of the Lord to the next and there will be no end to the increase of HIS Kingdom and HIS government (Psalm 71.18, Isaiah 9.7)!

3.  I will praise Him.   The reason I live is to worship Him. (These are words from my two “life songs.”  This is my commitment, my declaration – He IS the theme of my song, wherever I may lodge, whoever is president.  Psalm 119)

2.  The Word of God will STILL be true.

And the #1 thing that will still be true regardless of how this election turns out?

God will remain faithful.  Because He is.

Stay in peace, my friends, for He is with us always…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Pray for the nation.

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Posted in God's Word, Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 3 Comments »

Wind

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Threatened by a forecast of freezing rain turning to snow, we are actually hosting a magnificent and sunny day fully lighting the multi-faceted palette and texture of fall.  Fluttering madly in the autumn breeze and dancing to the tune of the wind chime, the once-emerald leaves of the Aspen clump are becoming more golden by the hour.  The burning bushes are flaming as scarlet as they can be and potted flower heads are bowing in reverance to the power of the season as it blows by, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes as a roar.

Psalm 65.9  The Message
O, visit the earth – ask her to join the dance!
…fill the God-river with living water.  Paint the wheatfields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods with rainfall…
Set the hills to dancing! dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys!
Let them shout and shout and shout!  Oh, let them sing and sing!

 

 I am singing my head off to You, O Lord, and trying to sing as loud as the trees which are clapping their hands and the bushes which are dancing (the twist) for your pleasure.  You have made all of creation so holy, so set apart for Your glory.  Can I live my life as free, as abandoned? 

God and all He has created are glorious!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  See His glory.

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Posted in Garden/Food/Seasons, God's Word, Home, Prayers for a God-full life, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 2 Comments »

David – a Word Mosaic

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Shepherd boy, anointed and chosen, leader, giant-slayer, fugitive, covenant friend, musician-Psalmist, worshipper, lust-driven, adulterer, murderer, father, lover, warrior, king.  A man after God’s own heart.

So good.  So terrible.  So high, so low.  So called, so errant.  And yet, God didn’t leave him.  God doesn’t leave us.

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Footloose

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

“Oh, how sweet the light of day

And how wonderful to live in the sunshine!

Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted.

Take delight in each light-filled hour,

Remembering that there will also be many dark days

And that most of what comes your way is smoke.

Live footloose and fancy free-

You won’t be young forever…”

Ecclesiastes 11.7-8, 10 The Message

Some days you open your Bible and just realize how much better it is than a thousand fortune cookies!  Truth!  Life!  My delight!  Sweeter than honey to my lips.  His words are like bread – and I eat them! They cause me to break into a prayer of love to the Letter Writer~

Oh, how I love Your law, O Lord.  Your promise preserves my life.  Your words are the lyrics and melody of my song wherever I live – wherever I find myself.  I think about Your Word day and night.  Your decrees light the path I am on and help me find my way back when I am lost.  I have spent my life testing Your promises and I have found them to be true.  I love Your Word, O Lord.  (shamelessly ripping off David in Psalm 119)

I love how the scriptures set us free from self-imposed religious activity and living!  Footloose and fancy free…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  This must truly be a mandate for the coming year.

pictured: a “sample picture” that came with the computer – in case I didn’t know what a picture was

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