Do Not Give Up

About a week ago I read about King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16.  His Great-Grandfather was Wise Solomon, who along with King David, governed over Israel during its Golden Age.  Between Solomon and Asa, the nation had split.  When Asa came to power, the gold had been stripped from Israel by the hands of neighboring kings.  Asa enjoyed a long season of peace early in his reign and used the time well.  He repaired the fortress cities built by Rehoboam and called his people to return to their God.  He called upon the Lord when Judah is threatened by Cushite invaders and God comes to their aid.  You should read all about it for yourself, don't take my word for it.  

In 1 Chronicles 15 a man named Azariah came to speak with King Asa.  I've been meditating on his message for about a week and it feels so timely.  You can read it in 1 Chronicles 15:1-7.  Arariah's message has 3 points that I think are very applicable for today.  

1) God wants us to seek Him and promises to reveal Himself to us when we do.  "The Lord is with you when you are with him.  If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you."

2) God uses troubling times to try to draw us back to Himself when we do forsake Him.  In times of unrest, He wants us to seek Him for solutions, resolution, and peace.  His goal isn't to crush us or punish us, His goal is repentance and reconciliation (See verses 3-6).

3) "But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." (verse 7).  This was spoken to King Asa in response to his spiritual reform both personally and nationally, but it seems so timely to all of us.  Don't give up.  I know it's difficult to balance your own work responsibilities while supporting your child while they do school at home.  (See that pile of backpacks in my living room!  This isn't how life normally is.)  I know it's tough to practice Covid precautions when you have to give up some freedoms.  I know it's difficult to miss your loved ones at a holiday because you are taking quarantine precautions.  I know it's hard to be unable to work due to the slow economy and illness.  But . . 

Do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.

My Shepherd is Johovah-Shalom, the God of Peace

I use 30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God from the Navigators to frame my morning prayers.  Do you know what yesterday's name of God was?  Jehovah-shalom, the God of Peace!  How perfect is that?  We are in the wake of election results exposing a divided nation.  The Covid-19 wave two is cresting.  My school started a new schedule today.  Now that's a lot to worry about!  I love meditating on my shepard being Jehovah-shalom, the God of Peace. 

Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Psalm 100:3

Know that God is still on the throne in the midst of these troubled times.  We are His; we belong to Him.  He is our gentle shepherd.  We are His sheep.  It is not a promise to be free of trial and trouble.  The wolf and lion still crave mutton, but the Shepherd's rod and staff protect us.  The fly still bites, but He applies healing oil to our heads.  Remember who your Shepherd is!

Appreciating Winter

Winter is not my favorite season.  I love it through Christmas and the New Year, but then winter becomes tedious.  It's cold and bleak.  I don't want to go outside.  The blue sunny skies often turn grey.  The grass turns a dirty tan.  The grey sky and tan grass blend into a dreary landscape.  Genesis 8:22 tells me that "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."  1 Thessalonians 5:18 says "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."  So I tend to think that I need to find a way to be thankful for winter.  

I also believe that people go through spiritual seasons, seasons of the soul.  They don't necessarily line up with the timing of the physical seasons outside, but similarities exist between what happens to the natural word and what happens in the world inside our hearts.  You might have an internal spring while the world is in winter.  Spring bubbles with joyful new life.  Summer is full of hard work while your character grows but you know in the end it will produce a harvest.  Fall is where all your effort to grow plays off and you see the fruit of your labors.  Then winter hits.  What is good about the winter of the soul?

The dreary skies can really dampen my soul.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that the sun will shine again.  But it does.  It always returns to cause the plants to spring to life.  No matter how long winter may seem, it doesn't last forever.  The cloudy skies may hid the sun for a while, but eventually its light and warmth fall on the grown again.  I experience this spiritually too.  Sometimes God's love and favor seems far from me, like they are hiding behind a cloud.  Sometimes I've caused this by walking away from Him, but not always.  It's good for me to remember that His love and favor are still shining even though a cloud might be blocking my view of it.  So winter causes my faith to grow - and that's a good thing. Hebrews 11:1 tells us "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  God's love and favor is there for me, even if He feels a million miles away and I can't see it right now.  

Winter is a time when the plants rest.  Growth slows or even stops.  Rest is a good thing.  When things slow down, I have time to reflect.  Winter's reduction in growth and activity allows me to ponder all the new things I tried in those seasons of growth and life.  Which new things help me to become more Christ-like?  Which new things need to become a habit?  Which habits need to become a thing of the past? Psalm 139:23-24 remind me that reflection is a good spiritual habit.  Soul winter gives me a chance to allow the Holy Spirit to make me aware of what needs to change.

Finally, some seeds require a cold snap to stimulate them to germinate.  This happens in my spiritual life too.  Sometimes I read my Bible but I don't really get anything out of it at the time.  Sometimes I pray, but my prayers are not answered.  I follow God's leading, but nothing changes.  I'm sowing spiritual seed, but I'm not seeing any fruit from my labors.  The seed's need for cold to begin to grow reminds me that sometimes I need to patiently persevere in doing good.  Galatians 6:9 reads "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  Winter reminds me to preserver.  

There you have it: three good things about winter to encourage your soul.  Faith grows when I have to live on God's promises instead of what I see and experience.  Rest gives me the time to reflect on the direction I'm going.  Perseverance keeps me going until I see the fruit of spiritual labors.

How Embarrassing!

We visited the church I grew up in at the end of June.  Pastor Scott began his sermon by talking about sometimes we need to be reminded that we are sinners.  That struck a chord with me.  If you have been walking with God for a while and allowing His word to transform your life, you might start to forget who you used to be.  We would not want to forget how much we have been forgiven, because those who have been forgiven much love much, right?  Every once and a while an old memory pops into my head of foolish things I've done in the past.  Yikes!  How could I be so foolish!  Now, if God is bringing those things to my mind, He's probably doing it to heal me of some hurt or remind me of something I need reconcile with Him and/or others.  Sometimes I know that all business has been taken care of with a memory, but it still pops up.  Then I feel embarrassed and self-conscious.  I might not feel as free to take a risk or a leap of faith.  And if that happens, it's probably not from God, it's probably from the enemy, the accuser of the brethren.  So, what should I do when those memories spring into my conscious?  Well, as Kevin on our worship team reminded us at church on Sunday, we want to give glory to God; to use all things in our lives to magnify Him.  2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to 'take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.'  When those embarrassing memories come to mind, I've been taking them captive to Christ by silently thanking Him for saving me, forgiving me, throwing my sins into the sea of forgetfulness, loving me while I was still His enemy.  And it's helped me to move on instead of feeling self-conscious.  What do you do when those silly old memories enter your head?

How much does my voice count, really?

Over 7 years ago, Toby and I tried something new.  It was a new church plant, or perhaps a church transplant.  We found ourselves as members of a smaller, new body of believers.  Now, when you are involved in a larger organization, your voice is just one in a hundred or more.  But when you are in a small organization, your voice can have more impact.  This is both exciting and terrifying to me!  Exciting because I have the opportunity to help build the faith traditions of a new church.  Terrifying because of the greater responsibility.  There was no denominational 'Statement of Faith' to guide us.  God was with us every step, but we had to learn to rely on Him more.  I needed to really figure out what I believe about Christian doctrine and why I believe it.  When I was in high school, my history teacher allowed me to explore the topic of world religions for a project.  I wrote a 35 page paper on it.  Can you imagine reading 35 pages of a 15 year old's ramblings on religion?!  What a good teacher.  This allowed me pick Christianity and know why I picked it.  It allowed me to pursue God in a Christian church for reasons beyond 'that's how I was raised.'  When I went to college and continued to pursue Him, God honored my desire and I began to experience Him in more real and exciting ways.  But finding myself with a teaching gift in a new church forced me to really dig into scripture.  And not just read it but think about how I interpreted the words I read and how sometimes other people interpret it differently.

This stack of books really helped me.  The Systematic Theology books by Wayne Grudem discuss a lot of topics.  Grudem is a true educator; he presents several sides to a discussion instead of only presenting one opinion.  It allowed me to read the passages and pray about which issues I felt were really vital to being a believer and which were small differences.  Spoiler alert: I concluded that many things I have felt strongly about in the past are still valuable to me but I don't think they define a true believer.  There's a lot of minor doctrinal differences out there.

A friend recommended Hanegraaff's The Complete Bible Answer Book to me and I have really enjoyed it.  I don't always find myself agreeing with Hanegraaff's application of scripture, but I love seeing how he applies Biblical principles to modern questions.  His understanding of scripture and literary elements is amazing.  The way he connects common themes from different books of the Bible; wow!  What an inspiration to understand my Bible better. 

The book on top is my most recent book finished.  The Allure of Gentleness encourages believes to prayerfully explore their doubt and allow others to do so.  Dallas Willard handles many topics with logical arguments.  He also drives home to importance of living out a Christ-like life and responding to doubts and questions with gentleness and respect (isn't that what Jesus did?).  Willard's discussion of hell was unlike anything I've ever read or heard.  I'm still rolling it around in my brain. 

Anyway!  If you would like to explore your faith more, I recommend any of these books.  As Willard says, leaps of faith are almost always based on knowledge of God.  No one can know Him fully but we are divinely invited to know Him more.  Ponder and pray and know Him more!