Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.
My sister-in-law, Robin has made the Advent season a fun {not to mention super educational} adventure, great learning for the whole family that brings meaning to the Christmas story with symbols and stories from the whole Bible.
First things, first, though: I am totally ripping off all the images from THIS BLOG: http://alicia-lafamille.blogspot.com/2011/11/our-christmas-tradition-jesse-tree.html which you will want to go read because this is a mommy with young children who has actually been using the Jesse Tree for a few years and making it a family tradition for Christmas.
Tradition + eternal meaning = important! And fun!!
Robin has put together a whole box of goodies for Advent. There is a book called The Jesse Tree. It has scripture readings each day through Advent and a couple of devotionals to choose from , depending on the age of your children. But let me just say – every adult who participates will learn. too. The really fun part is that there is a corresponding ornament for each day’s devotional and you get to see the story of Jesus through God’s dealings with His people all the way from Genesis to the birth of our Savior!
Alicia (who has very groovy taste in music, I might mention) posted these great examples on her blog (along with bite-mark and “kid-scribble” explanations. You, of course will have to provide those yourself. They are not included in the set!
You learn. You hang the ornament on the tree. And everyday after that, when you see that ornament, you recall the plan of God to share His love with us down through the ages. Perfect!
I wholly encourage you to get your family one of these keepsake, limited edition sets. Contact Robin moslander123@gmail.com. Each set is $85 plus s & h. Good investment.
THIS YEAR, I am thinking of displaying the whole set for the whole season.
The blogger of My Sweet Savannah (www.mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com) offered this idea last year (a foam-board covered in fabric and framed, I think…it was a screen save…need to find). I may put a portion of scripture on each card so I may meditate on them all season long.
www.biblegateway.com You can listen to several translations, including Spanish if you want. You can think of a scripture and see it in 5 different translations all at once. There are reading plans, cross-references and commentaries included in the resources. It is the Word of God made abundantly available on your PC, Mac, iPad, smart phone or whatever you’re hooked up to. I am not sure if Martha Stewart is aware or not, but I can tell you : IT’S A GOOD THING!!
A screen-save from a quick look-up this morning. The above are my fav translations to check out, btw.
Time with Stephanie Morgan brought health to my very bones today (bone health at my age is way important!). She is a good news bringer. :> PLUS? 63-breezy degrees and a wedding 2 weeks from today.
They just have trouble hearing it and distinguishing it due to all the other voices screaming to be heard.
The new fall TV line-up* *reruns *DVRed shows *on-demand *email *Facebook *Twitter *Pinterest *blogs *websites *the world-wide-web *talk radio *music radio *iPod *iPhone *telephone *text messages *toolbars *websearches *Yahoo! news *talking heads *the guy in the next cubicle *YouTube *GoogleChrome *Google search *GoogleDocs *GoogleVoice *GoogleTalk *Netflix *Qwickster (Qwikster?) *technology *the hottest emerging technology trends *The Cloud *mobility *mobile applications *IT *adware *autoresponder *bookmark *banner ad *emoticon *firewall *navigation bar *Ping *spam *Wikipedia *QR codes *GPS and those annoying, bossy voices *4-G *video-conferencing * *friends *relations *neighbors *co-workers *bosses *store clerks *salesmen *telemarketers *help desk *help desk and no one speaks English *commercial *catalogs *magazines *Christmas lists *contests *couponing *extreme couponing *newspapers *volunteers needed *ministry to be done *projects to complete *problems to solve *weight to lose *food to cook *laundry to wash *toilets to scrub *gardens to tend *children to raise *merchandise to buy *creativity to develop *the latest things to not only discover, but be the first to do so on our blocks *work to get to *work to stay late *mail to go through – but that may end soon with the PO in the shape its’ in… & etc…
Not to mention the voices in your head, people you think are talking about you and people who really are. Shall get get together for coffee – just to talk? Let’s schedule that now, shall we?
Disconnect (from Thesaurus.com)
break it off, break it up, cut off, detach, disassociate, disengage, disjoin, dissever, dissociate, disunite, divide, drop it, part, separate, sever, sideline, uncouple, unfix
Breaking up is {too-too-too} Hard to Do.
I found Twitter in the Bible. I am not saying it means anything. I just found it. That’s all.
Psalm 102:3a The Message
I’m wasting away to nothing, I’m burning up with fever. I’m a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness. My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I’m nothing but skin and bones. I’m like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble. Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” -Jesus, in Matthew 11
*to set free *to release *to save from *to emancipate *to loose *to redeem-release-save *unshackle *unimprison *acquit *liberate *to cry out h e l p….and be rescued
One scripture translation says, “Deliver me from temptation to do evil.”
“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (James 1:13-14).
So when I get to the part, Deliver us from evil, I am praying ::
O God, deliver me, help me. Rescue me from my own evil desires – the passions and opinions and entitlements that make me strive for self, that feed my flesh. Deliver me from offensiveness, from causing injury (both when I know I am and when I don’t even foresee what my words or actions might do to another heart). Set me free from malicious thoughts and injurious stances; release me from hatefulness and viciousness in the name of “my rights ” or my {superior religious} upbringing or any part of the shifting sand I too often build things on. Unshackle me from my own self-imposed darkness, from fear and baseless insecurities, from placing burdensome expectations on others for my own gain. Save me from me, from my endless pride, and the deep rooted bitterness; from covetousness and jealousy and fear of loss and from being so blessed I cannot empathize with others. And for being ungrateful when You have blessed me beyond what I deserve. Loosen me from my dependence on my gifts or talents that make me go halfway around the world before I ever realize I am absolutely lost without You. Help me, save me. Save me from my own evil desires, from being dragged away by them. Interrupt sin in my life. Towards me, or by me. Save me. Deliver me from evil…
So, my crazy friend Bryan gave me perspective. Purely by accident on his part, right, Bry?
His family, always into baseball as the family sport, has slide reels of him hitting the baseball as young as four-years-old. I read on his post-birthday-blog (http://bryanyounger.wordpress.com/) that in his first official game he hit the ball and ran with all his might, but was put out at first. He cried and the coach comforted him. The next time he went to bat, the same thing happened. He cried and got more comfort.
What he didn’t realize was that he had driven in 4 runs on his two at-bats. Still, when he “got out,” he cried. Bryan could hit, he could catch, he could throw. And he could drive in runs, advancing his team, helping bring victory. But all he could see was his failure to be safe at first.
Stuck in the middle.
I am pretty sure the “enemy assignment” against my life, being a performance-oriented-slave-to-the-need-to-achieve type I seem to be, has just been to make sure I can never quite check all the things I want to off my list, nor see the end for the middle (the forest for the trees), nor feel like I completely did what I set out to do. I constantly judge my efforts to have missed the mark. In almost everything I do or am. In spite of so much goodness and favor, I have lists filling volumes of all the ways I did it wrong, missed the mark, disappointed, failed, folded and fizzled. I have a detailed record of my own wrongs and letters of apology to my most treasured ones of my carelessness, my meanness, my complete ineptitude at love and life and following Jesus in a way that at all reflects Him. I always say anyone but God would have thrown me on the scrap pile by now, but surprisingly, I am still surrounded my loving, forgiving people. Meanwhile, I remain certain I will botch it fully and finally.
But is it really over before the fat lady sings? Has it really been “a fail,” the current “in” phrase – any of it or all of it? Have I been the worst at everything, the person whose life has the least purpose, the person who never lived up to her God-given potential, am I the only non-home-run hitter?
I liked the phrase I heard a few years ago, “It is never too late to become the person you might have been.” And I have often encouraged young mommies and my friends with, “It is never too late to be the family you were meant to be,” and while I wholly believe it, I somehow tend towards seeing myself getting tagged out at first base and I am immediately overwhelmed, overcome, really, with a deep sense of being the world’s all-time most substantial disappointment. I guess if you are going to be awful, you may as well do it really well…
Wait for it. WAIT FOR IT.
But deep down, I know I am just somewhere in the middle – like everyone reading this. Proverbs 24 tells us that even when the righteous falls seven times (or gets thrown out at first base repeatedly), they get back up and keep going – you can’t keep them down. I love the Word of the LORD to Habakkuk, which I would like to re-phrase here, from 2.2-3. God is like,
Write this. Write it down and make it plain {the vision – the point, THE thing that it is all about at the end}.
Write it in a way that when you read it, it will energize you and feed your soul for the journey; so well put that it will give you the life and vitality and gusto to get all the way {running like a banshee} to the desired end (starting line to finish line, point A to point B, from once upon a time to forevermore). So you won’t just fizzle out along the way (in the middle somewhere). Know the vision inside and out, for crying out loud.
Because those deep desires in your heart? That thing planted deep {a covenant marriage that sizzles hot to the end, children who live to praise Jesus and serve Him wholeheartedly, grandchildren who rise up as men and women of God as the world continues its meaningless descent into godless madness; the rich opportunity to, as a friend of the Bridegroom, help get the Bride ready, the chance to feed the hungry and clothe the poor, be a blessing and live in the favor of God – bringing Him joy, ETC}, these things long to come to pass, they want to come to fruition with a deep ache (the whole creation is groaning for the completion of our adoption to sonship, so says Romans 8).
Watch and wait. Watch for it and don’t give up. The vision, the deep thing, speaks of the end. It is the whole goal, the final glory of it all. It is the fulfillment of the goodness of the LORD in our lives. It is what will stand when the dust has settled.
If it seems like it is slow in coming, wait for it. Wait :: lean forward in hopeful expectation, watching and anticipating. Instead of Are we there yet? ~ What’s next, Father?
It may seem late. It may seem long. But the end will be good and just as God has planned!
….and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore o u r suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for {our} transgressions,
he was crushed for {our} iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds w e a r e h e a l e d .
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an { O F F E R I N G } for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors
{aka the wrongdoer, the miscreant, the guilty party, the villain, the sinner, the evildoer}.
Jesus, the great Intercessor. He was familiar with pain. So He knew how to take ours – both what we’ve been hit with and what we have dished out.
My sweet mama called today and we talked about love, the real stand-in-the-gap, intercessory-like-Jesus kind of love. It is the love that says :: even if your sin/rejection/disdain kills not only my heart but also my mortal body, I will still love you ’til the day I die. I’ll love you while you pound the nails into my hands, I will love you when you spit in my face. I will love you while the blood runs from my body and my life-flow hits the ground. I will love you until the day I die.
Wow.
It is a wonder, Jesus being who He was was, I can even lay claim at all to being a “Christian.”
Instead of steering clear of these people, we are making them famous and rich. Geesh.
Honestly – there are some amazingly inappropriate shows out there. I mindlessly get sucked in sometimes and then I think: I would be mortified if my grandbebes saw these and aspired to act like these people. Mortified. I have much-much higher-hopes for my family…
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Scripture references: 2 Timothy 3 and Galatians 5, The Message
We really do have far more interesting things to do with our lives.
If God spoke contemporaneously during “Bible times,”
Will He not speak contemporaneously to us now?
I have mentioned my interest in slam poetry before. I am not the demographic for it, an unusual fan, certainly. Yet I am impressed, moved, by the talent in the thought-provoking stringing-together-of-words by these young artist/performers. There is a bold-word Paul-like quality, just speaking straight from and to the guts.
Recently Tredessa and I have been talking about art and literature and music and how we find glimpses of the one true God popping up even where people would be shocked to find Him. Like He did that day at the well.
This particular YouTube example is pretty straightforward-from-the-Christian-biblical viewpoint.
And here is Levi-he-Poet at Heaven Fest.
But I have found Him in songs, in movies, in books that aren’t Christian bookstore fare. I have heard Him in stories and wordless music, too.
Interpret.
God is still writing on the walls of this wicked and secular generation. I believe it. And we are the Daniels interpreting the signs and symbols that point the way out of darkness and into light. When we see Jesus in a movie, find Him in a deep spiritual meaning in some story or His grace depicted by fictional characters, maybe even when we hear a song by a known “sinner” that touches something deep inside – are we too closed off to believe that God is able and IS speaking to the world today through every available means? Do we think the only chance people have to hear from the God of the Universe is in our church building-boxes on Sunday morning or via Christian TV?
Hey, God spoke through an ass (Numbers 22). I think He can use the arts. Maybe even you and me.
C.S. Lewis says so much in so few words.
If only I could learn to do the same…
“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
He speaks.
He speaks to everyone, to every human being on the face of the earth, by both general and specific revelation.
Creation testifies about the Creator. The heavens declare His glory. And whether we choose to igore them or not, our very consciences are God speaking into our awarenesses, His voice direct to something deep inside. He speaks in the church and to the church. He speaks through His Word. He speaks through the Holy Spirit and through Godly people who bear His image. By their example and words and prayer, we hear Him and are marked for life. And sometimes, He speaks to me in a still, small voice, so direct the wind is nearly knocked from my lungs. It even happened at a movie once.
