Come As You Are

 There are no kids left at home to eat the ugly cupcakes or the broken cookies, so here I sit with a dozen chocolate cupcakes that got stuck to the pan. There's a meal at church tomorrow, and presentation matters, so I frosted and sprinkled the nice ones and packaged them up for the table. Then, I started contemplating the crooked and mangled leftovers. What have I taught my kids by leaving the "less than desirable" behind all of these years? What am I saying to my neighbors? Nothing good.

We like to put on our Sunday faces. We wear clean clothes, and make our best recipes, and nod and smile and paint rosy pictures of our lives for everyone to see. That's not what the world needs, they need us to be real. Church is meant for the crooked and mangled, the less desirable and the ugly.

In light of that, I have used extra buttercream to paste these cakes back together, and I squashed them together on a plate to keep them from falling apart. They will be right up front on the dessert table with everything else. When you see them, let them be a reminder that Jesus wants you to come to church in pieces. The church is the place where all of us can squash close enough together in the pan that we don't fall down.

This deep lesson is brought to you by Buttercream & Sprinkles Ministries (I made that up, don't try to Google the address lol)

"There's hope for the hopeless

And all those who've strayed

Come sit at the table

Come taste the grace

There's rest for the weary

Rest that endures

Earth has no sorrow

That heaven can't cure

So lay down your burdens

Lay down your shame

All who are broken

Lift up your face

Oh wanderer come home

You're not too far

Lay down your hurt lay down your heart

Come as you are

Come as you are"--Come As You Are (Crowder): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjgioXrnEME

Isaiah 53

 It's amazing what comes to mind years after the fact. 11th grade, I puked all over my desk and then sat there like "now what do I do?". You know, 11th grade, like "I can never come back to school ever again". Across the room was the kid with the reputation. Earrings, ripped t-shirt, chains hanging from his belt loops, labeled a "troublemaker". Anyway, didn't he get up and walk to the sink and bring a pile of paper towels right in the middle of the teacher's lecture. I will never forget him. In days when I struggle to find little bits of kindness in the world I remember that the person who was despised and rejected gave me the greatest gift that day.

What an amazing reminder of what Jesus does for all of us. We are covered in filth and stench and the people around us have turned the other way. But, Jesus.

Isaiah 53:2 "He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no stately form or majesty to attract us,

no beauty that we should desire Him.

3He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Like one from whom men hide their faces,

He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

4Surely He took on our infirmities

and carried our sorrows;.

5But He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,

and by His stripes we are healed."

Stand Fast

 Exodus 13:17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.

When I think of the Israelites who fled Egypt I envision them as children. They were the complaining-est (yes, I know that's not a word) bunch ever. They were the kids in the back seat. "ARE WE THERE YET? I'M BORED. THERE'S NOTHING TO DRINK HERE. I'M HUNGRY." Personally, I would have found a babysitter and left the whole lot of them behind and spent a week at the Red Sea with my beach chair. But that's not God. He took the whiners and turned the car away from a shorter path in favor of the longer desert road. Why? He could see ahead. It wasn't safe physically and it was unsafe spiritually. "They might change their minds" and go back. They might lose the ground they'd gained with Him. He knew how fast they would forget. How fast we forget. Yesterday a miracle, today we're feeling unsure of God's presence and it's probably safer back there in the rear view mirror.

There are so many desert roads in this lifetime. SO. MANY. Hot barren days. Sand and dry wind in our eyes, we can barely see a way forward. This is not how we envisioned it, Lord, this is not what we thought following God's path would look like. Maybe it's not worth following you at all if it's going to end up like this.

We have the advantage of reading the rest of the Exodus story. We can see all the ways God took situations that looked absolutely impossible and made a way. We don't have that hindsight for our own lives, but I guarantee you if someone in the future reads your story that they, too, will marvel at the ways God brought you through.

Stand fast.

Galatians 5:1 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Beauty For Ashes

 People are running around the world in tshirts that say "Life is Good". They've got cute decorations in the house that say "Live. Laugh. Love". Liars. I want a tshirt that says "Life Is Hard", and my fridge magnets should say "Spit In The Face of Adversity" or some such nonsense.

Life is hard. We all make plans that involve waking up in the morning and hoping to have a good day. We don't expect the check engine light to come on (literally OR figuratively). We don't crave the things that come our way in the form of grief, loss, illness, unmet expectations, heartache...

Proverbs 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver,

And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

What is dross? The dictionary tells me it's scum. It's the stuff that floats on the top of molten metal when it's being refined. It's the result of intense heat.

Sometimes the things in life that break us the most drive us closest to the foot of the Cross. Do you feel the heat? You opened a door and there were flames behind it and now you're feeling the blisters form on your hand. It hurts. It's hard. It's not what you ever expected to encounter. But, God is there in the midst of it all waiting for you to turn to him and that turning brings the scum to the surface. He skims it off. He refines you as precious metal and then he pours you into the mold and creates something beautiful. Stunning. Shining. Useful. A vessel fit for a King.

By Our LOVE

 I usually avoid going into the supermarket in my scrubs because inevitably some stranger will ask me to look at their rash. How do they know I'm a nurse? It's the uniform. Navy blue scrubs anywhere near our hospital flags you as an RN or LPN, right? What would happen if we put people from 100 different careers into a room, asked them to put on what they wear to work everyday, and then tried to guess their occupation? I think you'd identify quite a few.

Now, let's put a bunch of random people in a room and ask you to find the followers of Christ. No Bibles in hand, no bumper stickers or lapel pins allowed. Hmmmm. Take a minute to look around the room. It's much harder, isn't it? Ouch.

We used to sing a song years ago "...they'll know we are Christians by our love". I have talked to several people lately who won't walk in a church door because they feel judged, condemned, or rejected when they do. Wake up, Church. Wake. Up. "They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love." (Song by Fr. Peter Scholtes, 1966)

1 Corinthians 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugQwh-phnZY

Dem Bones

 The Lord keeps bringing the valley of dry bones to mind. I'm no Old Testament scholar so I can't say Ezekiel is at the top of my list of things to think about in a day but it keeps coming back around. I do admit to finding myself encamped in a place called Weary these last months. I'm not sure how I got here but I have lots of friends in tents around me. Flags in patterns of grief, loss, disappointment, entrenched sin, fatigue, and more flutter in the wind around me. It's a quiet place, no one feels like talking. You could say it was a valley of dry bones.

In Ezekiel 37:11 God speaks to a similar camp. "11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone;" OUR BONES ARE DRIED UP AND OUR HOPE IS GONE. Mine feel that way and I think that's how God and I ended up in this conversation.

All would seem lost, right? Well, it isn't. Ezekiel 37:3 "He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life."..."7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”

"Breathe into these slain that they may live"...God raised up a bunch of dead men. What did you die from? What has sucked the very flesh from your bones and the breath from your lungs? The Lord set Ezekiel in the middle of a valley full of dry bones. That's where you are, right? Here's what God says: "Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life" Ezekiel 4 YOU WILL COME TO LIFE. "My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them." Ezekiel 10

A word of encouragement from the Word. All is not lost. God is going to pull you out of the grave and not only restore you, He's going to raise you (and I) up as an army for Him. How? I think the key is this: "‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!" We have to be listening. We have to be reading His Word. Take your Bible into your tent today. It's really quiet here at camp. Once in a while my flag snaps in the wind, but I'm listening for the sound of His voice on the breeze. Want to join me?

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An Elijah Moment

 We all have a social media wall. You know that screen we put up so nobody else can see what our lives truly look like? We post clean smiley kids, perfectly posed family photos, successes and shout outs. I'm here to challenge you to share the REAL today because we're not doing ourselves or anybody else any good by pretending.

The last year (plus) has been rough. I won't tell you terrible stories because everyone's is different and this isn't a contest. Six weeks ago I reached the point where I had to let go of something in life before I self-destructed (I think I would have blown up like a potato in the microwave). I said good-bye to my job of twelve years and literally spent the first week off sleeping. I wouldn't say it was a leap of faith because honestly it was more of a "Lord, I am so tired, this is what I'm doing." It was an Elijah moment. If you want to know more about what that looks like you'll find him in 1 Kings. "1 Kings 19:4 Then Elijah walked for a whole day into the desert. He sat down under a bush and asked to die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he prayed. “Let me die. I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and slept."

Since then, I can't tell you how many times I have seen God provide. I'm doing something I enjoy and sleeping at the end of the day. The bills are getting paid. There's food on the table. It's truly been a manna in the wilderness experience because that's the only way I can describe it.

I am putting this out there today because I know there are more people than I can count who are at the end of their rope. Elijah was done. He sat down under a bush and literally asked to die. He had no strength of his own left. Then something happened he wasn't expecting, God sent him what he needed to physically get going again. Food, water, and a long nap. "Suddenly an angel came to him and touched him. “Get up and eat,” the angel said. 6 Elijah saw near his head a loaf baked over coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he went back to sleep." After Elijah had regained some physical strength, God did one more thing, He showed him again who He was and He gave him a helper (Elisha) 1 Kings 19:21 "Elisha left and followed Elijah and became his helper."

God's not dead. You might not see Him right now because a snack, a nap, and a friend don't look the same as mountains moving but He's right there. You are not alone under that bush and He is going to send you exactly what you need today. I am confident in that.

There you go.

102Todd Delp, William W. Stewart and 100 others

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I Will Meet Them In The Wilderness

 I like to pray while I'm walking the dog. Nobody interrupts me except an occasional squirrel or two. I was enjoying the blue sky and praying for the kids and the Lord spoke this to my heart: "I will meet them in the wilderness". Then I talked to the dog. "Hey, Hammie, what does that mean?" Dogs are not real great for interpretation, but his ears went up.

When searching "wilderness" in the online Bible lots and lots of references came up for the time when Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert. There was so much complaining going on and it sounded a lot like long trips with the family. ARE WE THERE YET? I'M HUNGRY. WHO DIED AND MADE YOU QUEEN? Yet God continued to provide for them. Light, fire, food, water, clothes that didn't wear out. Really. Read the whole thing, I can't type it all here. You know what happened next? They all rejoiced and thanked God, right? Nope. They spit in God's face.

We have all had our personal trips through the desert this past year, and we are still standing in the hot sun waiting for the promised land. We're tired, and complaining, and we want what we had before. TAKE US BACK TO EGYPT. ENOUGH, WE'D RATHER BE SLAVES. WHAT THE HECK ARE WE HERE FOR?

"I will meet them in the wilderness", He said. I believe it was a reminder to me that God is here. He is here with me on days when I want to shake the sand from my toes and crawl into my tent and not come out. He is there with my children as they navigate this broken world. He is with you in whatever place you are currently wandering. Stop being so noisy for a minute and look around. God continues to provide for his people. Grieving? God is here. Sick? God is here. Unemployed? GOD IS HERE. Not a single one of us is abandoned. God stands before us as a pillar of fire in the darkness. Quit trying to put out the flames.

Go read Isaiah 35. Right now. Go read it.

35:3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,...

35:7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

35:10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.