Distractions....

“Roll out those lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer!”

I’m not sure what it was about this year, but the six weeks or so between Spring Break and Summer Break seemed to take FOREVER!  And, I’m not really sure why I was anticipating this summer so much, but FINALLY....summer break has arrived!  Let the late nights and lazy mornings begin!  Only as my kids get older, summer seems less lazy and more crazy.

It’s so hard to believe that my oldest is officially a high schooler.  Reality is beginning to set in that we may only have four more summers with him.  Four.More.Summers.  Four more summer family vacations.  Four more summers of wakeboarding and waterskiing.  Four more summers by the pool.  When I think about it that way, it seems it’ll be gone in a blink and I have to blink back tears.

My oldest...one of our favorite summer activities

With that realization (and the realization that my baby is about to start Pre-K), I’m determined to really make this summer count.  And, now that my two oldest are involved in school sports, it’s going to take a little more creativity, a little more intention, and a lot less distraction.   So, I’ve decided to rid my life of unnecessary distractions for the summer, aka Facebook.

There are so many fabulous things about social media.  I love being able to connect with an old friend with just a click, keeping up with those I rarely see.  I love sharing the crazy things my kids do, the proud moments and the moments I feel as though I’m losing my mind.  It makes me feel as though I’m not the only insane mom on the planet.  At the same time, I can be completely distracted, filling my time with seemingly good things like posted articles and funny videos when I could be doing better things like playing badminton with my kids or reading a great book….or blogging.

Four of my loves!

I’ll admit, as a person who likes to be “in the know”, deactivating my account will not be easy.  But, I know in my heart that it’s the right thing to do and I’m excited to see what this summer holds.  And, who knows?  Maybe I’ll be back or maybe I’ll just see that I can live without it.

Just keep working....

 

"...For the people had a mind to work." - Nehemiah 4:6

 

Nehemiah was on a roll.  Not only had he worked up the courage to ask for leave from King Artaxerxes and made the long trip to Jerusalem, he had assembled a team of people to begin building the wall. 

And they were cooking with gas.  Walls were going up.  Jerusalem was being restored!
Enter Nehemiah’s archenemies – Sanballat and Tobiah. 

Their goal?  To stop the rebuilding of the wall. 

Their tactic?  Plant seeds of doubt and discouragement in the minds of the people and maybe they’ll just give up.

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious. He mocked the Jews before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria, and said, "What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore [it] by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?" Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, "Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!"

Isn’t that the way the enemy works with us?  He doesn’t work from the outside in.  He works from the inside out.  Mess with our heads and we’re rendered useless in building the Kingdom.

“You can’t do that!  You don’t have what it takes!”

“Maybe if you were more like her, you could do it.”

“You’re failing as a parent.”

“You can’t even manage your household.  What makes you think you can be effective for God?”

“You want to lead a small group?  You don’t know enough Scripture.”

“Remember you’re past?  God could never use someone like you!”

“That job’s too big.  You’ll never succeed in that!”

“You want to do WHAT?!?!   Haha!  Good luck with that.”

And, just like that, we give up.  The enemy doesn’t even have to lift a sword, a spear or even a finger.  Only a whisper….and we’re done!

But, not Nehemiah!

Nehemiah cried out to God, and then….they just kept working.  Another version states, “the people had the will to keep working”.

No response.  No rebuttal.  No recognition of the enemy.

Just nose to the grindstone work.  And guess what?

"So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half it's height."

One thing Nehemiah knew was that GOD told him to rebuild the wall and NOTHING was going to stop him.

 

What has God told YOU to do that has the enemy diligently trying to discourage you?

Do you have the will to just keep working?

 

It's My Right!

There's a lot of talk about "rights" these days.  Human rights.  Equal rights.  The right to choose.  The right to bear arms.  And, while I could right an entire blog post for each of these issues, today's blog is not intended to be political in nature.  (In fact, any comments as such will be deleted.)

As I've been pondering MY rights, it occured to me that I really and truly only have one "right".

Yep!  You read that right - only one!  But the thing is, it is THE MOST important right.  Without this right, all other rights and privileges don't matter.  And, when I stand before God, it's going to be the only right He cares about.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12, 13 NKJV)

The most important right I have is the right to be a child of God.  A right that is not for everyone, but IS for anyone - anyone who believes and receives.

And, it's not for those who merely believe.  A vast majority of people believe.

We can't just KNOW that God exists.  We can't just believe that Jesus died and rose again.

We must become aware of our sin.

  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

We must believe that Jesus lived a sinless life, yet died with the sin of the world on His shoulders.  He died so that we might have life.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8 HCSB)

(A line from one of my favorite songs is "That in my sin, yes, even then, He shed His blood for me."  Amazing, isn't it?  That when we were at our worst, Christ gave His best.  He gave it all!)

Finally, we must repent of our sins, accepting Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  (Romans 10:8-10 NKJV)

Or, as The Message puts it....

The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"

It's so simple, even a child can be given that right.  This weekend, we will not only celebrate the Resurrection, but we will celebrate our baby girl's public profession of her "right" to be called a child of God through her baptism.  A right she obtained last month when she became aware of her sin, recognized what Jesus did for her and repented of her sin.

What about you?  Have you been given the right to be called a child of God?  Oh, how I pray that you have!  How wonderful to be able to say....

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us!  Just look at it - we're called children of God!  That's who we really are. (1 John 3:1, The Message)

And THAT is a right that no one can take away!

Remember when....

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all You have done; I reflect on the work of Your hands. – Psalm 143:5

My memory…well, it just ain’t what it used to be.  Not that I don’t remember things, I just can’t remember some things without a reminder.  Maybe it’s because of a lack of order.  Maybe it’s age – NAH!  Maybe it’s the four kids I’ve birthed and they’ve sucked away all my brain cells. (I’m going with that one!)  Regardless, I just need reminders here and there.

Reminders that the kids need to wear certain colors on a certain day.  

Reminders when picture day comes around.  

Orthodontist appointment reminders.  

Get a calendar, you say?  Yeah, well, I forget to check it.

No matter what I do, I just tend to forget. 

One of my favorite passages from the Bible is found in Joshua 4.  It seems that the Israelites had a hard time remembering all that God had done for them in the past – delivering them from slavery, parting the Red Sea, manna from Heaven.  So, when they crossed the Jordan (on dry land), headed for the Promised Land, God wanted to ensure that they had a reminder.

So Joshua summoned the twelve men selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, and said to them, "Go across to the ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean to you?' you should tell them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the Lord's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan's waters were cut off.' Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites." 

- Joshua 4:5-7

The twelve stones were to serve as a reminder to the children of Israel of just one of the mighty acts which God performed.  In the future, when things looked bleak, they could go back to the stones and remember the omnipotence of their God.  They could remember that God is FOR them.

This morning, as I was finishing up my quiet time, I was led to my prayer journal that I started over a year ago.  For six months, I journaled.  I kept up with all my prayer needs, my praises and the prayers I was offering for others.  I’m not sure why, but my last entry was in September.  I didn’t stop praying, I just stopped writing my prayers down.

As I flipped through the pages, I saw where God had inexplicably answered so many of those prayers.  The friends who, after months of court appearances, finally found favor with the judge in their custody battle.  The friend who, unemployed since July, recently started a full-time job.  The friends who, after years of trying, are now expecting their second child.  My precious baby girl who finally said “yes” to Jesus.  And, SO.MANY.MORE!

I wept as I saw the goodness and faithfulness of God.  And then hope welled up inside of me as I read those requests that still have yet to be answered.  Hope that, because God has answered prayer many times before, He WILL do it again! 

So, this morning, I picked up my pen and began journaling again.  And, I have no doubt that when I look back on it six months from now, I will have an even longer list of prayers that God has answered.   And, I will be reminded of the mighty acts of God. 

What’s your reminder?

The Israelites had the stones. 

I have my journal.

For us or against us?

My quiet time this morning led me to the book of Jeremiah.  After reading a few key passages, I find myself....quiet still.  Reflective.  Sad.

Judah had it good!  God’s favor.  His chosen people.  Yet, somehow that wasn’t good enough.  They began looking to other things for their fulfillment.  The earth.  Other people.  Even making their own gods.

Time and time again, God mercifully asked that the people of Judah return to Him.  Time and again, Judah refused.

Then, God issued a warning....

You have forsaken Me," says the Lord, "You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting! - Jeremiah 15:6

God was warning them that captivity was imminent!

Yes, God is a God of second chances, and third, fourth, fifth, and so on.  But, at some point, enough is enough!  At some point, you run out of chances.

A few chapters later we see that King Zedekiah runs back to the Lord.  Why?  Because he’s caught wind that King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon is on the prowl and he has his eyes on Judah.  Zedekiah was not returning to the Lord “with {his} whole heart, only in pretense.” (Jer. 3:10)  His goal was only to save his throne.

God had given ample time, ample warnings.  He had had enough!  He issues one last promise to the people of Judah.

I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. - Jeremiah 21:5

Just reading that sends chills up my spine.  To hear the Almighty vow to fight against me!  I much prefer reading, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

I can’t help but wonder how many of us (myself included) are living like the people of Judah.  How many “gods” have replaced the One True God?  How many times has He quietly nudged us asking us to return to Him?  And, how many times have we returned only in pretense?

How many more chances do we have before He is no longer FOR us, but fighting against us, allowing us to be taken captive? 

It seems every time life spins out of control, we question God.  In fact, many times we blame Him.  I wonder, if at times, He's just tired of relenting.

Father God, forgive me for not returning to You with my whole heart.  Forgive me for only pretending.  When I wander, may I quickly and whole-heartedly return to You.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! 

Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee 

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love 

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above 

                                                          - song, "Come Thou Fount"

A Light, A Savior, An Answer

“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:18 NKJV)

I caught a glimpse of the news as I left the waiting room of the hospital after visiting with a friend on Friday.  "As many as 27 dead", the caption read.

As soon as I got in my car, I turned on the news.  A gunman had opened fire on an elementary school.  "Oh, Dear God!"  I prayed as tears filled my eyes.  Who would target an elementary school?

I could only think of my own children in school at that very moment.  Later, when I learned the ages of the children massacred, a picture of my own Kindergarten daughter and her classmates consumed my thoughts.  My parent heart ached and still aches for those parents whose children went to school, only to later be picked up in a body bag.

I can barely stand to turn on the television. The events of this past Friday have left our entire country heartbroken, reeling in the wake of a senseless, brutal attack on the most innocent and defenseless of people - children.

We seek answers to questions regarding this attack. Many answers will never come. We look to find a reason, to place blame somewhere.  We pray.

We've heard it all this weekend. Maybe if we had stricter gun laws. Maybe he was mentally disturbed.  How could we have prevented this tragedy?

The sad truth is that, as much as we try to rationalize, as much as we try to prevent, evil will still exist.

Evil targets the innocent. Attacks on the innocent, even children are nothing new. We've seen it all throughout history.

Four thousand years ago, Pharoah decreed that all male babies should be killed upon delivery.
  

Two thousand years ago, Herod sent his soldiers to kill all male children two years old and younger in the small town of Bethlehem.
 

During the Holocaust, as many as 1.5 million children were murdered. 

The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 killed 19 children.
 

The assault on Columbine High School resulted in 12 deaths, many of those because of their professed belief in God.
 

The attacks of 9/11 took the lives of 8 precious children.

Different methods, different tools (swords, incinerators, bombs, airplanes), same results. Innocent lives taken far too soon. Parents left mourning, lamenting. Bystanders trying to offer comfort. A nation looking for answers.

We mistakenly look to the government for a solution.  We won't find the answer in stricter laws. Evil is a strong, determined force that doesn't give up because it's weapon of choice is illegal. Evil doesn't abide by laws. There is no such thing as a "law-abiding criminal".

No, the only answer for darkness is light. The only answer for evil is a sinless, righteous Savior.

That Light, that Savior, that Answer is Jesus.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4, 5 NKJV) 

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. (I John 4:14 NKJV)

This dark, evil world; God's love for humanity; it's the whole point of Christmas. Through a baby, God sent hope. Through His Son's cruel, senseless death, He sent life. 

A Light to penetrate the darkness.  

A Savior to redeem the world from evil.

The Answer in a world full of questions.

Jesus!