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?

Like

Comment

Share

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

32 Comments

3 Shares

Like

Comment

Share

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.

This End Up

Mom went home to Jesus months ago and I stand here jealously staring at a cardboard box. THIS END UP. Even the box knows how to orient itself in life. It fits neatly on a shelf next to all the other boxes that are snuggled up with no gaps. I long for that feeling. 

I wonder some days where I fit now? I feel my sides bowing out and my tape coming loose and the label printed with my name seems to have rubbed off.  

I don't dare send this post out into my little world for fear of all of the kind backlash. "She went home to Jesus, she's free from all of her pain." Like somehow I have forgotten that Heaven is a beautiful place and I deserve a good dressing down for grieving.  

I understand sackcloth and ashes now. If the temperature were conducive to burlap you would find me settled in the raised bed next to the cabbages. A rabbit might come by and nibble on my toes. Does it have a mother? Perhaps it would like to join me for a while here in the cool soil and we will stare at the trees gently moving in the wind. I'm listening for her voice. I'm looking for those signs people told me she would leave now and then but I can't find them. 

Do I lack faith? No. Have I forgotten her peace and joy at being present with Jesus and reunited with her family? No. I am only sad and lonely, wishing for her companionship both physically and in prayer and incredibly jealous of this stupid box. I think I will burn it. 

. 

No gone is too far gone

 "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

God and I have long discussions while I'm walking the dog. Mostly I rant about life and He listens, and I imagine He nods His head because He's heard this from me the last 365 days. So, in my musings and rantings and questions this past week God reminded me of the above verse (Romans 5:8).

Did you ever really think about what that says? WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US. I mean, who does that?! Who looks at the lowest of the low and says "I would die for you"? Mostly, we look at someone like that and say "you don't deserve to live". Miserable, sinful, wretched human beings that we are.

Think about it. During every humiliation, every pain inflicted upon Jesus on His way to the cross, He KNEW who He was dying for and every blasted ugly thing they'd ever done or would do. If that doesn't make you throw yourself on the ground and plead for forgiveness, I don't know what will.

Maybe you are stuck in a sin pattern and you are convinced you will never be free, you're too far gone for God to redeem. I want to remind you that you are NEVER too far gone for God. He knew you were this far gone when He died for you.

#repent

He Never Stops Watching The Road

 You know, they don't tell you in childbirth class that when your baby is born, a piece of your heart goes with him and forever walks in a place where you have very little control. Will it keep beating? Is it happy? Does it feel pain? When it strays, will it come back home?

Such was the life of the father in the "parable of the lost son", a.k.a "the Prodigal Son". I never thought much about him until I became a parent. We mostly focus on the son, and the fact that he went out and squandered daddy's money, got himself into a real mess, then managed to turn it around in the end. Happily ever after, right?

What about the father? He's been dealing with this child for a while. You know how I can tell? Because he gave him what he wanted, and let him go. What parent hasn't reached the point where they have tried everything they know to bandage their broken offspring back together only to reach the point where there is nothing else to do but let them fall?

Off goes junior with dad's money and a backpack full of bad ideas, and then the story focuses on him for a few verses. What about the father? We don't get much of a glimpse into his life until later. I'll tell you what I see him doing in my mind's eye. He watched the back of that kid go down the road until he could no longer see him from his highest perch, and then he sobbed. Long, grief-filled, agonizing cries for that boy. Maybe it lasted for days before he could pull himself together enough to eat, or work. How much time went by? Who knows? But that dad never stops watching for his child. Never. Luke 15:12 says “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son..." He was looking for him every moment, every breath. Feed the cattle, check the road. Tally up the week's earnings, check the road.

Are you there? Are you spending sleepless nights on worn out knees pleading for your child's soul?

I want you to know you are not alone. God has never stopped watching the road.

Luke 15:11-32

The Prodigal Son Suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3TYkAWRdU4