God is a Time-In not a Time-Out Kind of Father to Me

Isaiah 43:1-2 has been one of my special verses for many years.

But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

I know God spoke it to the nation of Israel through the prophet Isaiah - not to me, but I feel a special connection to it. In these two verses I hear God reassuring me that no matter how difficult my circumstances are, I'm not alone. He is with me. AND No matter my circumstances, He will strengthen me to endure and persevere through them.

In my quiet time, I recently read through the book of Numbers. This book wrestles with the question of how a Holy God can dwell amid an imperfect people group. The question resonates with me because I'm not perfect and I still want my beautiful, holy God to dwell in the center of my life. Numbers 31:22-23 describes how some items that the Israelites plundered from the Midianites should be cleansed or purified for use in this holy community where God dwells among His people. It talks about passing metal objects through fire and water. This gave me new insight into Isaiah 43:1-2, Proverbs 3:11-12, and Hebrews 12:5-7.

Sometimes difficult circumstances come into my life to cleanse and transform me. They are not to punish me. They produce more Christ-like characteristics in my life. (Is all heartship for this reason? No! Look at Christ on the cross. He suffered heartship and it wasn't to grow His character.) God's intent behind them is to bless me. I'm still His chosen and beloved daughter. And He is with me in this heartship. He doesn't send me to my room or give me the quiet treatment. He's with me in the middle of the difficulty, reassuring me, guiding me, counseling me, and growing me. It's a time-in and not a time-out style of parenting.

Plus, I'm a science teacher, so I like fire!

Judas at the Last Supper

I am always struck by the presence of Judas.  It's not his betrayal that gets me, someone had to do that.  What catches my attention is how Jesus interacts with Judas.  I'm not sure of how early in His ministry Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him.  I do know that by the Last Supper, Jesus indeed knew what Judas intended to do: "But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me." Luke 22:21 NLT.  Similar verses are recorded in Matthew 26:21, Mark 14:18, and John 13:21.  At the last supper, Jesus doesn't treat Judas with contempt.  He doesn't yell at Judas and chase him away.  Instead, Jesus washed his feet along with the rest of the disciples (John 13:1-17).  He included Jesus in his last few precious moments with his closest companions before He suffers.  Jesus warns Judas of the woe Judas will experience because of his betrayal (Luke 22:22).  Judas is treated as a loved and respected friend.  This is astonishing to me!  I'm not sure I would do the same.  My sorrow may cloud my love, but this is not how Jesus acted.  In fact, if Jesus treated Judas poorly, then we could somehow justify Judas' betrayal.  Knowing Judas would betray Him, Jesus washes his feet and eats Passover with him. The account of Judas, and how Jesus relates to him, gives depth and color to my understanding of God's love.

Ephesians 3:17b-17 NIV

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Manure is a Rich Growing Medium

Our garden isn't very big, but people comment about how much produce comes out of its small square footage.  Would you like to know one of my secrets?  A friend advised us to work a bag of manure into the soil every spring.  By now, most of the soil in the garden is decomposing manure.  Manure is a rich growing medium.

Let's take this one step further.  Do you have any areas of your life that are kind of poopy?  You're not super happy about how things are going?  Do you sometimes do things that make you feel like a sack of manure?  Well, I've got good news for you!  Manure is a rich growing medium.  But it works best for growing after it has decomposed a little.  Then it doesn't stink so much.

Late in April we did a little decomposing.  There had been a lot of bickering and back-talk and very little parental patience for that behavior.  Prayerfully our family took some time to identify the things we really value in life.  What makes us feel alive?  What do we love doing?  If you try this, I recommend you do this prayerfully because God knows us better than we know ourselves (Psalm 139:1-4).  Each person listed 10 things that were very important to them.  Then we compared our lists.  We identified five common values on everyone's list.  

How did this help the bickering and impatience?  It gave us a conversation starter.  Since each individual identified what THEY VALUE, it wasn't was just the parents rules or values.  So when someone criticizes his/her sibling, we can say "You value family.  Is what you just said in line with your value system?"  Or we can have conversations like this, "You value knowing God, but you consistently bring a novel and toy to church instead of your Bible.  Tell me about that."  Our children need to decide what they value and learn to live by their own moral code.  They are growing up and must learn to listen to their consciences and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  I won't always be there to create or enforce the rules.  

This exercise has also helped me.  The past few years have been very busy for me.  My husband just finished his masters degree.  While he was working on it, I worked full time and did the bulk of the parenting and housekeeping.  During the school year, I rarely had any free time.  Towards the end of his master's program, I found myself bored.  The list of what I valued helped me to find things that I enjoy doing.  I had forgotten some of my interests.  

So if you're feeling kind of crappy, have hope.  Manure is a rich growing medium.  You're just ready for some personal growth!  

Pot Head!

Oh Amazon, you have so many thing to inspire me!  I've been admiring trendy plant pots with a face on them; the plant sticking out the top of the pot is the hair.  The terra cotta pot holding my aloe vera has split, so I need to repot it.  Unfortunately, it's a big pot, 8 inches in diameter!  I haven't found a pot head on Amazon that is so large.  So, I thought I'd try my hand at painting my own.  Here's what I did.

1) I ordered a plain terra cotta pot, 8 inches in diameter from Wal-Mart.  It cost about $3.50.  Then I wiped off any dust, inside and out, with a damp paper towel and removed the bar code. 

2) After the pot dried, I used some masonry sealer on the pot, inside and out.  I believe the brand I used is Drylok.  We had it left over from a repair job at out old house.  I needed 2-3 layers to get it sealed and I had to wait at least 3 hours between each coat.  This was a pretty time consuming step.

3) The sealer has some grit in it.  I thought about sanding the grit off, but it gave the pot a nice texture.  Just make sure you are not using a foam brush because the grit pulls pieces of the brush off.  You could sand it at this point if you don't like the grit.

4) Next I applied 1-2 coats of white, acrylic, craft paint.  The pots in my window are white, so I wanted this one to match.  Of course, you have to wait an hour between each coat.

5) I'm not the most confident painter, so I pencil sketched the features of my pot head's face.  Then I used acrylic craft paint to paint her features.  I recommend thicker paint.  The paint for the red lips was really liquidy and ran when I set the pot down.  It took a few coats of white to cover up the error.  Most of the features took two coats to get the color intensity I desired.  I used a cotton ball to get the blush for her cheeks and a q-tip to get the black pupil in her eye.

6) I did not attempt to paint the outlines of the facial features.  I used a black paint marker instead.  

7) Once the paint was all dry, I covered the entire pot with clear polyurethane.  

8) After the polyurethane cured for a day or two, I planted my aloe vera inside the pot.  

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!  If you make one, post a picture of it.

Garden of Weeding

School's out for summer!  That means I have more time to read books and play around in the yard.  I'm reading God the Father Revealed by Lewis Erickson.  I started this book earlier, but I didn't have time to finish it.  I re-read chapter 1 and I came across this idea that when Adam and Eve sinned, that did not end their relationship with God.  Sin did not sever their relation with God; they felt exposed and fled from Him.  He provided them with a covering so they would not flee from Him.  The covering was made of animal skin because sin when it is full grown produces death (James 1:15).  God went with them when He banished them from the garden.  

Now this reminds me of something I read in another book, You're Going to Be Okay by Holley Gerth.  I don't have the book to look back at and re-read.  I loaned it to someone else and it never came back.  Guess they needed it more than I did.  So we will have to rely on my memory.  Holley talks about weeding in her garden.  She says the weeds are like sinful patterns and habits in her life.  She talks about the seeds of those weeds have been in the soil of our souls for a long time: doubt, covetousness, selfishness, and the like.  God allows the right conditions to come along to cause those weeds to spring to life.  When we see them growing in our lives, we are made aware of the seeds' presence.  God has known it all along, but we have not.  When they grow, we can now partner with The Farmer to remove them.  His desire is to heal us of the damage of those seeds, to stop the spread before death has fully grown into our relationships with others.  His goal is not to expose us or embarrass us but to heal us.  

There's one more section of another book that I've been thinking about.  This one is Daddy Loves His Girls by T.D. Jakes.  He talks about when we are born, our parents are adults.  They know we will mess up and hurt them.  That is a normal part of the human condition.  It didn't change their love for us.  They knew the day would come.  He compares this to our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  God knew all the days of our lives before we were born (Psalm 139:16).  When we sin, it's not a surprise to Him.  

I love these passages because I've written about how occasionally the enemy likes to torment me by reminding me of past (or current) mistakes.  I like to use this to God's glory by thanking Him for saving me when these thoughts come up.  Sometimes I think I should have things figured out by now.  I'm 42 and I've been walking with the Lord from childhood.  But every once and awhile (probably more often that I'd want to admit), a weed springs up in the garden of my soul.  It's freeing to remember that God knew I would make this choice before I was ever born.  It doesn't change His love for me.  He wants to be a part of fixing the mess, instead of me trying to deal with it on my own.  This is all a part of cultivating the beauty and fruitfulness of Christ-like character in my life.  

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."  Galatians 5:22-23

Book Review: Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

This past week marked 35 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  It was one of the first big news stories that I remember.  I've always found it intriguing and continued to learn about it.  If you find it intriguing, I'd recommend Midnight in Chernobyl.  I picked this up at my brother's house and then checked it out from the Valley Center Public Library to finish reading it.  It took me a while, but I'm glad I did.  I've even referenced it in some of my lessons on atomic structure and engineering.  

On a Donkey?!?

"Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Zechariah 9:9 NIV

I've been told that a king riding on a donkey was symbolic of times of peace.  Contrast it to a king riding on a horse, that meant the king was leading troops into battle.  I've heard this before, but it never really clicked.  I've always thought Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfilled prophecy.  I also find this parallel interesting:  Mary rode into Bethlehem on a donkey and Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Today I was struck by the symbolic meaning of peace.  Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey!  People were expecting Him to lead a political revolution, liberating Israel from Roman rule.  Instead Jesus spoke about a heavenly or spiritual kingdom, but the crowd just don't get it.  Jesus used not only His words to convey this message, but also cultural traditions of the day.  He came in peace, on a donkey, not on a war horse.

This is my 43rd Palm Sunday, although I don't know if you want to count the first 10 or so.  I know this story.  I've heard it many times.  I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit quickened my mind to a new aspect of Mark 11 today. My Rabi still has things to teach me. 

What part of Palm Sunday did you see in a new light today?