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May Blessings Last Longer Than The Leftover Turkey

Thanksgiving Day is over.  A day when many of us took time to give thanks.  To share blessings among our family and friends.  To speak in loving words.  Today is Black Friday.  Many of us have moved from giving blessings and thanks to pushing and shoving in long lines or fighting to get the last open parking spot.  How long do we stay in thankful mode?  The verbal blessings and thanks that we shower everyone with on Thanksgiving — do they continue past the leftover turkey?

This morning the Bible opened to James:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also.  If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies.  It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes.  In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions.

Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze.  The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna.  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers.  Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water?  Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.

James 3: 1-12

Our tongue, our words, are so powerful.

Consider this.  Is Thanksgiving a wonderful holiday because of the Macy’s parade, the football games, the turkey and pumpkin pie?  Or is it wonderful because of the kind words that we share?  The blessings that we give? The grateful heart that we share?  The prayers that we offer up for each other?

So why do we save it for one day a year?  Our words can set the world afire.  Let’s extend Thanksgiving words all year long.  Let’s make this a Thanksgiving year.

Lord,

Forgive me for the times when I fall short, when my words fall short, when my words show evil instead of the love and mercy that you show to me.  Help me to use my words for good.  Help me to be kind, grateful and offer words of prayer and blessing all year long instead of just on Thanksgiving day.

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Fruit of the Vine

Today I did not need to open up the bible to find the verse.  Instead, while I was driving to work this morning, out of nowhere these words came to me: “I am the vine, you are my branches.”  And the words took hold.  So tonight, I opened the Bible to John:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.  He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.  You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.  Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.   Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.  By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.  As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

John 15:1-10

I have heard this verse it seems a million times, but today as I was driving to work it started to make more sense.  God has connected us to Him.  We are connected just like a branch is to a vine.  A branch by itself is meaningless.  It is dead with out its source of life (as are we without God).   But when we stay connected, we can grow.  Sometimes we may try to grow too far away from the vine, but as long as we keep our connection to God, he won’t let us go.  If we remain connected, we will bear fruit.  God’s love flows to us, just as the water and nutrients necessary for a branch to bear fruit flows to it.  And just as a gardener sometimes has to prune or cut back a branch in order to allow it to bear better fruit, so too, God sometimes needs to prune us — to cut us back.  He does that with His word, and we can help others by sharing that word — by bearing God’s fruit.  And sometimes, maybe, God has to prune us back a little more sharply.  And sometimes it feels like it cuts deep.  But out of those dark times, if we stay connected, we bloom forward even more beautiful than before and we strengthen our connection to God.

Dear God,

I want my connection to you to grow stronger.  I don’t want to be connected by just a little twig.  I want a wide base — fill me with your love and your word so that I can bear fruit pleasing to you.  I want to remain in you forever.

 

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When In Doubt… LOVE

What are my gifts?  What does God call me to do?  Do you ever ask those questions?  It feels like I do more and more.  The Bible tells us that we all have gifts.  God has given us the tools that we need.  We just need to use them.  I think I have been spending too much time trying to figure out what I should be doing instead of just doing what I know I need to do.  Today I was directed by a study group to read Peter:

The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers.  Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.  Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.  Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:7-11

As  I read this, my eyes fall on this line: “Above all let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sin.”  I may not know exactly what specific thing God is calling me to do — but maybe I am letting myself get lost in the weeds.  Love more.  Isn’t that what He is calling us to do?  And won’t everything else flow from that?  Love more.  Isn’t that the answer?

Love more.  Let your love be intense — for everyone — not just the easy ones, your spouse and kids, mom and dad  — but for everyone.  Love more.  Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  (Not always that easy.)  Love more.  Use your gifts to serve one another.  I may not know what gifts I have.  I may not know the exact plan for these gifts, but I know that God calls us to love.  He calls us to serve one another.   I could go crazy trying to figure out the plan for my life, or I could just love.  And serve.  Love covers a multitude of sins.

Lord,

You have blessed me with so many gifts.  Help me to use them in the way you intended.  Help me to use them to love and serve others.

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Heal thyself

This morning I was told the common advice given to women — take care of yourself or you won’t be able to take care of others.  It is easy to get caught up in caring for others.  It is easy to put ourselves last.  Tonight, the Bible told me the same thing:

 Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those under the law I became like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win over those under the law.  To those outside the law I became like one outside the law—though I am not outside God’s law but within the law of Christ—to win over those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.  All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.

Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win.  Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.  Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.  No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:19-27

Run so as to win.  As a former athlete, this last paragraph hits home.  We all want to win.  In life, we strive to win all sorts of prizes, awards, human praise.  We fight for little league trophies, scholarships, promotions, accolades.  Our kids spend hours at practices for sports or dance or gymnastics.  We spend hours at work for the end of year bonus or the promotion that seems out of reach.  We practice or work day and night for that human achievement.  We run faster to beat the person beside us.

Run so as to win.  But what about the ultimate prize — the imperishable one.  Are we running for it?  Are we striving for it?  Are we fighting for it?  Are we training for it?  Do we spend as much time as we do searching for human crowns?  Do we spend even half as much time?

Run so as to win.  And if we do spend the time focusing on the imperishable crown — do we remember to take care of ourselves?  Do we remember to heal ourselves?  To run our own race too?  To make sure that we are not disqualified at the end?

Lord,

Help me to train for the ultimate race.  The race that more than one can win.  Help me to use the discipline of an athlete training for the Olympics.  Help me to not run aimlessly.  Help me to help others, but not forget about myself.

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Pure Love Through Any Storm

What a beautiful  morning!  Storms are expected to be moving in, but…

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.  In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed is God!  He is preserving our inheritance in heaven  — our salvation.  It is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.  Bring on the storm — because what is waiting for us will not fade.  It will not fail.  We may suffer through various trials and be tested by fire, but we will rejoice!  Our faith allows us to rejoice.  All that we experience, all that we endure allows us to give all praise, all glory and all honor to Jesus Christ.  He suffered and died for us so that we would know.  So that we would believe.  So that we would have faith.  So that we would know God.  So that our faith — the genuineness  of our faith — would lead us back to God.

Peter goes on to say:

Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.  He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:17-21

Jesus, through his precious blood, ransomed us from our futile conduct — from our sin.  He suffered and died, just so we would know.  Just so we would have faith and hope in Him.  God’s love is so immense, so pure — it is greater than any love we can experience.  I want to love like Him.

Peter instructs us:

Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a [pure] heart.  You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for:

“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

1 Peter 1:22-25

Father,

Although I have not seen you, I believe.  I rejoice in you.  I have joy because of you.  I love you.   Help me to love like you.

 

 

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Pray, Praise, Confess, Save

Pray, Praise, Confess, Save.  This is what the Bible tells me tonight.

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise.  Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.   Elijah was a human being like us; yet he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain upon the land.  Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.

 My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone bring him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:13-20

When we are suffering, we need to pray.  When others are suffering, we need to pray with and for them.  (Someone is always suffering — so we should always be praying.)  When things are good, we should praise.  There is so much to be thankful for (even during our suffering).  When we sin (which is daily) we need to confess — to each other and to God.  Confess to each other, so we can pray for each other.  And when someone strays, we need to help bring them back.  We can help save.

Pray, Praise, Confess, Save: four things we can do every day.

Lord,

You are truly almighty and know all things.  You know what we need and what our hearts truly desire.  You continue to amaze me.  Thank you for another beautiful day.  Thank you for my family and friends.  I am truly blessed.  Please take care of all those who are suffering tonight.  Bless them with the knowledge of your love.  Forgive me for my sins.  Forgive me for not being patient and kind.  Forgive me for not always following the straight path to you.  Help me to help others who stray from your path.  Help me to model your love.  Help me to share my faith with others.

 

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Sisters in Christ

Tonight I took a well-needed break with some good friends — my sisters in Christ.  A little rejuvenation from an otherwise stressful week.  And when I got home, the Bible opened here:

I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now.   I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.  It is right that I should think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, you who are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.   For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:3-11

Paul took the words right out of my mouth.

I read these words and think of my friends.  I give thanks to God for them.  I need to do this more often.  I am blessed with wonderful sisters and wonderful friends.  I know that God works through them and I am confident that He has good plans in store for them.  I hold them in my heart and pray that they will continue to grow in God’s love because when they grow, so do I.  God knows that we need community.  We need people.  God reveals Himself and His love through others.  I see God in my sisters.  I feel God’s love through them.  Together our faith is stronger.  Together I feel closer to God.

Thank you God for the wonderful people you have placed in my life.  Lord, bless them as you have blessed me with them.  Help them to grow in your love.  Help them to grow in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value.  Help them follow the path to You.

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It’s Never Too Late

Today the Bible opened to a good reminder.   It is never too late to turn back to God.  God is always willing to take us back.

But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die!  None of the crimes he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the justice he has shown.   Do I find pleasure in the death of the wicked—oracle of the Lord GOD? Do I not rejoice when they turn from their evil way and live?

Ezekial 18:21-23

We all sin.  Sometimes worse than others.  No matter how wicked we may have been,  God wants us to return to Him.  He rejoices when we return to Him.  I love the last line: “Do I not rejoice when they turn from their evil way and live?”  God wants us to live!  He rejoices, not because He wants to control us  — but He wants us to be happy.  He wants us to live! It is for our good, not His.

Lord,

Your love amazes me.  How awesome is your justice.  Thank you for loving us!  Thank you for wanting good for us.  Help us to want good for ourselves.  Help us to choose good over evil.  Help us to turn to you and know, no matter what we may have done, we can make amends by returning to you.

 

 

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Pumpkins and Paramedics

Every day brings a new challenge, a new struggle. Some days the challenges are easy.  Today’s challenge was to carve a pumpkin and not embarrass my 16 year old son too much when he brought a new girl to the house.  I can manage that (for the most part).  But just a few days ago, the challenge involved the same son being strapped to a backboard after a high school soccer game, with his neck immobilized, and loaded into the back of a life squad.  Not as easy of a challenge to manage.

Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.   Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.  For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.  Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.  So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:10-17

The life squad excursion ended up being precautionary and other than a sore neck and headache, my son is fine.  A temporary challenge.  As I read this passage, I thought of my son laying on the ground with the trainer holding his neck still until the life squad arrived.  His body was exhausted from a game that had gone into double over time.  He had done everything he could but his body wouldn’t let him do any more.  The paramedics slid a back board under his body, and began strapping the gold straps across his chest.  They crossed around the center of his body.  Then they crossed his arms across his chest and wrapped a blanket around him.  With the gold straps crossed around him — he looked protected.  An armor of sorts.

Our strength comes from God.    Like my son, there will be days when we are exhausted, when we have done everything we can.  But we do not have the strength or ability to do it alone.  We need the armor of God strapped around us, crossing our chest, our heart.  The strength we need comes from God’s truth, His righteousness and our readiness for the gospel.  Our faith is our shield and God’s word is our sword, it clears our path to victory.

I watched the paramedics slide a neck brace around my son’s neck without moving his head or neck even an inch.  Just as effortlessly we can take on the helmet of salvation.  God offers it to us, and like my son, sometimes we just need to lay still, and not turn our heads away.

God,

Help me to stand fast, with my feet deeply planted in your gospel.  Fill my hidden most parts with your truth.  Allow me to show your righteousness to the world, engraving it across my chest.  Make my faith strong so that its shield can protect me from all evil that may come my way.  Lead me with your word and your sword.  I draw my strength from you.

Thank you for taking care of my son.

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The Book of Judith

Today the Bible opened to the book of Judith.  My first thought was “Oh no — Old Testament” — and, at first glance, it looked like a lot of historical genealogy about the,  son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Oziel and son of Elkiah  — the sort of stuff that normally quickly puts me to sleep.  I was pleasantly surprised when I quickly landed on this passage:

All the men of Israel cried to God with great fervor and humbled themselves. They, along with their wives, and children, and domestic animals, every resident alien, hired worker, and purchased slave, girded themselves with sackcloth.  And all the Israelite men, women, and children who lived in Jerusalem fell prostrate in front of the temple and sprinkled ashes on their heads, spreading out their sackcloth before the Lord.  The altar, too, they draped in sackcloth; and with one accord they cried out fervently to the God of Israel not to allow their children to be seized, their wives to be taken captive, the cities of their inheritance to be ruined, or the sanctuary to be profaned and mocked for the nations to gloat over.  The Lord heard their cry and saw their distress.

Judith 4: 9-13

It is always good to be reminded that in times of distress we need to call out to God.  In Judith, the Israelites were being threatened with war by the Assyrians. I thought I would just write about this, but then I read further (an advisor to the Assyrians told the leader):

“As long as the Israelites did not sin in the sight of their God, they prospered, for their God, who hates wickedness, was with them.   But when they abandoned the way he had prescribed for them, they were utterly destroyed by frequent wars, and finally taken as captives into foreign lands. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were occupied by their enemies.  But now they have returned to their God, and they have come back from the Diaspora where they were scattered. They have reclaimed Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled again in the hill country, because it was unoccupied.  “So now, my master and lord, if these people are inadvertently at fault, or if they are sinning against their God, and if we verify this offense of theirs, then we will be able to go up and conquer them. But if they are not a guilty nation, then let my lord keep his distance; otherwise their Lord and God will shield them, and we will be mocked in the eyes of all the earth.”

Judith 5: 17-21

What a prescription for life!  We make ourselves weak when we sin.   When we abandon the way God prescribes for us, we are utterly destroyed.  Hmmm.  Could our country learn something from this?

We make ourselves strong when we stand with God.

I thought this would be all I wrote, but then I read further — surprisingly it was actually quite riveting (the Israelites were about to give up until Judith stepped in and said):

Who are you to put God to the test today, setting yourselves in the place of God in human affairs?  And now it is the Lord Almighty you are putting to the test, but you will never understand anything!  You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart or grasp the workings of the human mind; how then can you fathom God, who has made all these things, or discern his mind, or understand his plan?  “No, my brothers, do not anger the Lord our God.   For if he does not plan to come to our aid within the five days, he has it equally within his power to protect us at such time as he pleases, or to destroy us in the sight of our enemies.  Do not impose conditions on the plans of the Lord our God. God is not like a human being to be moved by threats, nor like a mortal to be cajoled.

“So while we wait for the salvation that comes from him, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our cry if it pleases him.

Judith 8:12-17

How many times do I try to bargain with God or cajole him.  Judith’s words from thousands of years ago, strike pure today.   We cannot plumb the depths of the human heart or grasp the workings of the human mind; how then can we fathom God, who has made all these things, or discern his mind, or understand his plan?  Who are we to think we can even try.  We just need to accept God’s plan.  And know that it is for our good.  He knows.  And no matter how we try, it is not humanly possible for us to fully grasp the reasons why.  Judith went on to say:

“Therefore, my brothers, let us set an example for our kindred. Their lives depend on us, and the defense of the sanctuary, the temple, and the altar rests with us.  Besides all this, let us give thanks to the Lord our God for putting us to the test as he did our ancestors.  Recall how he dealt with Abraham, and how he tested Isaac, and all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he was tending the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother.  He has not tested us with fire, as he did them, to try their hearts, nor is he taking vengeance on us. But the Lord chastises those who are close to him in order to admonish them.”

Judith 8:24-27

Read this passage again.  I find it amazingly uplifting.  First, our kindred’s lives depend on us.  Now that could seem burdensome, but I find it to be great guidance on how to live life when troubles seem to abound.  What better way to forget your own troubles than to focus on those around you?  Our kindred, our faith, our church depend on us, each of us.  What would happen if we all gave up?

And more importantly thank God for putting us to the test — thank God for the struggles — why — because He chastises those who are close to Him in order to admonish or warn them — in order to help guide us!  God loves us.  The tests, the struggles, the burdens are not to harm us — but to strengthen us and make straight our path to Him.  All of those close to Him have suffered in some fashion — indeed, we all suffer, we all go through dark times.  But God has given us kindred to help and like a good parent gentle reminders of the path we need to be on when we stray.  Sometimes the reminders may not be as gentle as we would like — but they are what we need to bring us back to the path to God.

Lord,

Thank you for all of the gentle reminders you throw my way, and even for the not so gentle reminders.  Strengthen me so that I may help others.  Guide me in the path to you.  Help me to be patient when I do not understand your ways or the path that I am on.  Help me to trust and let go in you.