Monthly Archives: July 2014

Day Eight: The Necessity of Sacrifice

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This devotional takes us back to the basics of the Gospel but we begin by reading back in Leviticus.

 

READ:  Leviticus 4:32-35.  This passage covers the rules for bringing a sacrifice to the altar for an Absolution-Offering.  Absolution for sin. 

 

THINK:  “Each (sacrifice) served a specific purpose for interaction with God.  For example, a sin offering was given for confession, forgiveness, and cleansing.  Why does God take sin so seriously?  When we sin, what sort of sacrifices are we required to bring to God?”

 

PRAY:  Ask God to help you understand the severity of your own sin.  Thank God that he sent Jesus, the Lamb of God, to come and be the sacrifice for your sins.

 

LIVE:  Knowing that God has provided the ultimate sacrifice through his Son, Jesus, consider sharing this great truth with someone today.  As you drive, walk, work, and relax, whisper under your breath, “Thank you, Jesus,” each time you remember the sacrifice he made for your sins.

 

I wish there was something I could add to this.  Honestly, I’m coming down off of a really good message at church that was the capstone for my entire last two weeks.  It was breakfast Sunday, so I got there early and ate with a man that I’ve not had a chance to really talk to yet.  We swapped an abridged version of our life stories and talked at length about suffering and what it has looked like in our lives.  The man (I will call him “Joe”) told me about where he was in his life at the moment, and how he thanked God every day that he got a second chance at life, and did not intend to do anything to mess it up.  As for me, I shared with Joe, just how I had spent my last couple of weeks and the necessity for it.  Joe proceeded to tell me just to stay strong.  It was a really good chance to be able to extend my two weeks of devotional time. 

 

After that, we went into the service.  Worship was phenomenal.  Honestly, I cannot recall the last time I actually worshipped.  And I know that, within the last year, I haven’t truly worshipped at all.  I haven’t even been able to sing at the top of my voice this past year, and probably not for the past 3 years.  Before that, the memory gets fuzzy.  I’ve been so consumed by the drama that was our lives at the time, that I simply can’t remember what my worship life was like.  However, I believe I was too concerned with how I looked in worship to actually do it.  NOT TODAY!! 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I have participated in worship every Sunday I’ve been there.  However, most of the time, I was standing there saying, “I am singing to you because you deserve this.  You are God and I am not.”  But today was different.  I was feeling worshipful.  Now, I realize that worship is not about the feeling.  But today, I didn’t have to try to force something that felt like a lie.  I was worshiping.  Praising God because He deserves to be praised and singing the words, and meaning it, and basking in it.  I can’t describe it, but if you’ve felt it, I don’t have to.

 

Then, the preaching started.  We started a new series this week on the book of James.  We started at the beginning and we are going to work our way through.  So, today, we read Chapter 1, verses 1-4, concentrating primarily on 2-4.  Let me share:

 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance (or steadfastness).  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

 

I wish I could share with you everything that our preacher said because it was JUST THAT GOOD.  But, what was so amazing was that it was almost like he had been eavesdropping on my past two weeks and my conversation with Joe.  Over the past year, he has shared many services that have hit my right where I was living, but most of the time, I’ve been sitting there, crying, trying not to keep sniffing through his entire sermon.  This time, I was rejoicing.  It was like God was continuing to smile down on me after having been there for me all week. 

 

So…how do I bring this back around and tie it into today’s devotional? 

 

I guess it all comes down to grace.  God’s grace is why we are on the Earth, and God’s grace provided the first sacrifice that covered Adam and Eve’s sin.  That sacrifice and every other atoning sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus Christ, the last sacrifice that would ever need to be made for the whole of mankind’s sins.  And that sacrifice made it possible for me to have the devotional time I had the last two weeks.  God has always actively sought out His creation in hopes of redeeming them and bringing us back to Himself.  Most of the time, we spend our lives running the other way.  But when, like the prodigal son, we make our way home, even just part of the way, Our Father comes running out to us, and orders the fatted calf slain in order that He might throw us a party, in celebration that we have returned to the fold!  For me, that was what worship was like today! 

 

How could I not go out into the world and share that with people.  That freedom.  That relief.  That grace that taught my heart to fear.  The grace my fears relieved.  The grace that has brought me safe thus far.  And the grace that leads me home.  

Day Seven: God Encounters

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Good morning everyone.  Technically, this would be Day Eight, but I spent the bulk of yesterday driving and, when I arrived home, the people I live with were hosting a small get-together.  Needless to say, by the end of the day, and after the last couple of weeks, I was pretty much wiped out.  But, I am back home from Liberty (Lynchburg, VA) now.

 

Day Seven of the SOLO devotional is different than the preceding six days. On the seventh day, we are asked to review and reflect on all we read during the week and to revel in the ways we’ve encountered God in the past six days.

 

REVIEW:  This week, we have read about reconciliation in Genesis 3 and about wrestling with God until we get a blessing in Genesis 32.  Genesis 50 (verses 15-21) gave us a picture of forgiveness by looking at the story of Joseph and his brothers.  Day Four asked us to read Exodus 3 and the story about Moses and the burning bush and the holy ground.  We were challenged to pay attention to our lives in a way that might help us to notice God and His Holiness.  On Day Five, we read about the Israelites begging for meat; so, God gave them quail and manna.  This was in Exodus 16 (9-16).  Then, on Day Six, we read about God shielding Moses from the full effects of His Glory, but that God did allow Moses to see His Back, while they were on Mount Sinai (right before God wrote the Ten Commandments).  This message was from Exodus 33 and 34.

 

REFLECT:  As I reflect on all that’s been covered this week, it’s amazing to me that what I wrote and shared with you all, does not sound like it would’ve had anything to do with what we were asked to read.  But, then, is that not the grace and glory of God to take us places we don’t realize we need to go using means that would baffle other people?

 

Let me share about where God led me this week.

 

Every prayer is an act of faith.  If you don’t believe that the entity you are praying to will answer your prayers, would you pray?  I began my period of the last 2 weeks just begging God to reveal Himself to me.  I didn’t know what I needed, but I knew I needed something, and I knew that only God could provide it.  I didn’t know how He would show up (or if, for that matter) but I took a leap of faith based on what I’d read in Scripture.  I figured, “if the Bible is true, He surely has to honor this request.”  But to make doubly sure, I didn’t miss anything He might try to say to me, I made sure that I had as quiet an atmosphere as possible for Him to work in, or speak to me.

 

So, without further ado, here are some of the things God showed me this past week.

 

1. The hardest fought battles bring the sweetest victories.

 

2. I CAN live a victorious life in the midst of horrific circumstances.

 

3. I truly must work out my salvation with fear and trembling.

 

4. I hear best from God when I’m writing (this is a personal revelation, not a global one.) 🙂

 

5. Nothing I put inside my body will fill a deep ache in my soul.

 

6. The strength God gave me is a gift  I CAN use it to overcome.  I WILL use it to overcome.  And I WILL do what He has called me to do.  Regardless of how much it hurts.

 

7.  There is a reason God made me strong.  There is a reason my husband keeps saying I “just keep coming.”  I will never be able to move into God’s perfect will for my life if I am too afraid to deal with my baggage from the past.

 

All this, and it’s just the first week.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year reveals.

 

If you worked through the devotional this week, or followed along with the passages I posted and what I was doing, and felt God was speaking to you, and would like to share, I would love to hear from you.

DAY SIX: GOD REVEALS HIMSELF

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The title I used this time is actually the title of today’s devotional as it appears in the book.  Hmm…I wonder…Coincidence?  I think not.

 

READ:  Today’s passage is Exodus 33:21-34:7.  This is the story of God shielding Moses from His Glory while they were on the mountain, and includes Moses cutting the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments would be inscribed.

 

What struck me today?  Verses 21-23.  Here are those verses:

 

     God said, “Look, here is a place right beside me.  Put yourself on this rock.  When my Glory

     passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. 

     Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back.  But you won’t see my face.”

 

THINK:  This part of the devotional encourages us to listen for a word or phrase that especially impresses us and let it interact with our thoughts, feelings and desires.  And this is where I find myself parking today.

 

I think about my own situation, what my family is going through, and I have often wondered where God is.  This passage makes me think about it a little differently.  What if God has not abandoned us?  What if His Glory is passing by us and He has hidden us in the cleft of the rock and placed His Hand over the opening so we cannot see what’s going on outside?  Or…what if, He has passed by, but has turned His back so we cannot look full upon His face and I am merely mistaking that for Him turning His back on us?  I realize that last bit might sound a bit like mincing words, but I’m hoping you hear the spirit of the words.

 

PRAY:  “Deeply ponder the quality of God that the word or phrase portrays.  Share with Him what’s striking to you about this aspect of his character.  Explore what makes you desirous of someone with this trait.”

 

Reading this passage, I envision a God who cares so deeply about His people that He desires to shield them from anything that might overpower them.  And the Glory of God would certainly overpower me.  These verses make me want to try to look at my current situation in a different light.  Maybe I can’t see what He’s doing because it is too powerful to fathom.  Maybe He’s shielding me from being able to see or understand because I wouldn’t comprehend anyway.  Maybe I would just get in the way.  But, maybe, and possibly, most likely, He just wants to develop my faith a little more, asking me to trust that while He has me hidden, or while His back is to me, I can believe that what is on the other side of Him is going to be something that is indeed good for me.

 

LIVE:  Here we are asked to envision the ways God is present to us right now, the posture He has and what expression is on His face.  We are also asked to listen to His tone of voice, if He is speaking to us.  And we are challenged to ask Him to enhance, or correct, this picture of Him, through the passages we read and through our experiences.

 

To say that I have been seeing God through the glass darkly (not dimly, but darkly) would be an understatement.  I’ve not been trying to see much of Him at all.  I think that’s what made these last two weeks so powerful.  Not only has He revealed Himself to me, but He has done so in such a way that He has also unveiled much of my own character for me to see myself more clearly, as well.  I’ve discovered that I cannot have an accurate picture of myself without an accurate picture of my sin.  And I cannot have an accurate picture of God without spending time in His Word.  And when I spend time in God’s Word and get a more accurate picture of Him, my sins come into full, crystal-clear resolution, and I am left seeing that the idea that I could make it in this world on my own steam is foolishness.

 

So, for now, I am going to keep plugging away, spending time in the Word by reading this devotional, and sharing it with you, trusting that God will continue to meet me here.  My prayer is that He will continue to crystalize my image of Him so that I can relate to Him from my proper place:  worthy of dying for and unable to make it through this life without His help and provision and protection. 

 

Abba Father,

Thank you for answering my prayer and for meeting me right where I was, and how I was, these past two weeks.  And thank You for revealing Yourself to me.  Please help me not to forget about this time and how sweet it was when I return home, and give me the courage to tell others about it IN PERSON so that they, too, can see that You dearly long to show Yourself to them as well.

 

In Jesus’ Holy Name, I pray, Amen.

 

 

DAY FIVE: ENOUGH IS AS GOOD AS A FEAST

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READ:  In SOLO, today, the message comes from Exodus 16 (verses 9-16).  This is the story of Moses addressing the Israelites complaints about not having any meat in the wilderness.  God told Moses to tell the Israelites:  “I’ve listened to the complaints of the Israelites.  Now tell them: ‘At dusk, you will eat meat and at dawn you’ll eat your fill of bread, and you’ll realize that I am God, your God.'”  That evening the quail flew in and they had meat.  Then, the next morning the manna fell from Heaven but, of course, the Israelites had no idea what it was.  Then, Moses informed them that it was the bread God had given them to eat and that they were gather just enough for each person for the day (except for on the Sabbath).

 

THINK:  This section challenges the reader to reread the passage, stopping to really ponder the emotions the Israelites might have been experiencing at the time:  the neediness of complaining; the excitement of seeing the glory of God visible in the Cloud; the perplexity of seeing this strange bread from Heaven; and the satisfaction of having enough.

 

This part is intriguing.  What does the neediness of complaining look like?  Ha, well…this one I can answer.  It looks like a gaping hole that will never be filled.  But…what it feels like is another story.  I’ve done my fair share of complaining.  Sometimes, I felt mad;  sometimes, lonely.  But every time, I felt doubtful and distrustful.  Every time, I either felt unloved or unlovable.  But, what I never felt, any time I complained, was satisfied or satisfy-able.

 

The THINK passage goes on to encourage the us to contemplate what we would complain to God about right now (and then instructs us to do so).  But then, it asks:  “In what ways, if any, have you been perplexed by God’s response to your complaining?  How might God have truly provided enough but you didn’t recognize it as God’s bread from heaven–exactly what you needed?”

 

Well…isn’t that hitting a bit below the belt?  Over the past 3 years, I’ve had plenty to complain about.  Some of it justified (in my mind) because the situation was unjust.  But, most of what I’ve complained about stemmed from the fact that God did not meet my needs the way I wanted them met.  Sure, God has provided for me.  Sure, I’ve had plenty to be thankful for.  But, why couldn’t it look the way I wanted it too?  It seems that all my years of going to church had served to give me a good dose of “holier than thou” but not so healthy a dose of “true holiness” and even less gratitude.  Naturally, I was thankful when things went my way.  But…why wouldn’t they go my way, when I was being a “good girl”?  After all, that is the way the world is supposed to work.  Right?  Right???

 

It seems I had forgotten the verses in the Bible that declare that, in this world, we will have suffering; and that if they hated/rejected Me (Jesus), they will hate/reject you.  No…I was so busy focusing on the “all things work together for good for those that love the Lord” verses that I had neglected to remember all those pesky verses about suffering.  And, I’m not even going to touch the passage about Jesus praying that “this cup” would pass from Him, nevertheless, Lord, Your Will be done.  Those did not quite fit in with the doctrine I had developed for myself.  As it turned out, I had been most of my reading out of the “Gospel according to Patty.”  And now, my faulty thinking and false doctrine have come crashing down around my ears, and I have been left feeling like, God is surely not enough.  Or, maybe I am just not worth what the Bible says I am.  Either way, the end result has been the same.  COMPLAINING.  And a general state of DISSATISFACTION. 

 

PRAY:  With the above statement in mind, I move on to the PRAY section.  In this passage, we are encouraged to formally complain to God about everything we want to complain about.  (Fantastic, I say.)  But, then, we are encouraged to ask God to show us precisely how He has provided for us, even though we might still wonder?! 

 

Wonder about what?  The passage doesn’t address that, but I have filled in some blanks for myself.  If God is enough?  If He has provided me with enough?  If He actually loves me the way He says He does and will do for me what the Bible says He will do? 

 

If I am honest, I have to admit that God has provided more-than-graciously over the course of our lives.  And over the past 3 years, though it hasn’t looked the way I wanted it to, He has taken ample care of us.  I have nothing to complain about.  But, there’s still that nagging feeling like something might be missing, or like I might do something to make Him finally decide to throw in the towel.  That’s where the “gaping hole that can never be filled” part comes in, and I am forced to deal with it. 

 

If God has proven Himself, over and over and over again, why do I still have doubts?  Why must I still be so much like Eve when that “Unfortunate Incident in the Garden” was so very many years ago? 

 

LIVE:  I will share this passage verbatim.

     “Sit in the quiet and feel God’s “enoughness” in your body.  Where do you feel it?  In arms that are full?  In a quiet mind?  In a stomach that feels full?  In muscles that work well?  If you can really mean it, try delighting in this enoughness.

 

I think that part of my issue with asking for God to reveal Himself to me over these past 3 years has been that it felt so much like asking for yet another sign or wonder.  Somewhere I got it in my head that praying that God would comfort me or show me how he had provided for me was surely a lack of faith.  And after praying for a miracle intervention into our situation and being denied, I was having a hard time asking for anything at all.  The one thing I was not having a hard time doing was complaining.  Much like the Israelites, wandering in the wilderness, grumbling and complaining, I have been wandering through my own wilderness of self-pity and doubt, grumbling and complaining that God had abandoned me. 

 

Desperate, I called out to God to reveal Himself to me.  Not to do a miracle for me.  But just to show me how He had been trying to reveal Himself to me, or take care of me, and how I had missed it.  Then, I waited; sitting in the quiet, I just started listening.  One day, during my devotional, I might read something that touched me.  “Nice,” I would think.  But then, just a few hours later, in class, somebody would say exactly that same thing, or expound on the thought that occurred to me after what I read.  Then, another thought would occur to me, and somebody else would confirm that.  By the end of the day, when I would sit down to type out my reflections for the day, everything that I had read or heard or thought would come spilling out onto the screen.  All the dots would connect and I would be left sitting in my seat, stunned, by what God had done that day.  My situation still hadn’t changed.  But, God had answered my prayers, and that was fine.  That was enough.  And finally, I felt like I was being heard again.  Like  He cared enough to listen and answer my prayers again. 

 

Until my situation does change, my prayer will remain:  “Lord, move,” but so long as He continues to “move me,” I will keep plugging away.  I will continue telling myself the truth about all the ways the Lord has provided for me.  I will keep reminding myself that whether or not I feel like I am “enough” (good enough, pretty enough, lovely enough) has nothing to do with the fact that my God is enough and that He will do what He says He will do, and that it will, eventually, work out for my good.  And I will keep reminding myself that “Enough truly is as good as a feast.”

 

 

Day Four – Learning to Pay Attention

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READ:  Today’s passage in the SOLO Devotional is Exodus 3:1-6.  This is the story about Moses and the burning bush.

 

THINK:  This particular section focuses in on Moses’ encounter with the burning bush and asks if you have ever experienced a unique encounter with the living God and what it was like.  Then it adds:  “God is holy.  What difference does that make in your life?”

 

PRAY:  “Ask God to reveal himself to you in a fresh way, a way that he has never revealed himself before.”

 

LIVE:  “Find a quiet place and spend a few moments in utter silence, paying attention to those aspects of your life that you often neglect:  people, situations, quiet moments, creation, and so on.  As you do this, look for God waiting there to interact with you.

 

For the most part, the last 3 days, I have shared what I’ve gotten out the passage immediately, letting that lead to the next part, trusting that God will take me where He needs me to go.  Truth be told, I arrived in Lynchburg on Sunday, July 6th, for classes that began on the 7th.  I will be leaving on the 19th.  I decided that I would leave the television off, when I wasn’t in class, and work on whatever God brought to mind.  Initially, I figured that I would just work on getting back into the habit of having a daily quiet time or devotional.  But, I didn’t know where to start.  Then, sitting in my Basic Counseling Skills class, last week, God opened up some pretty deep emotional wounds that I hadn’t really ever dealt with, so I started working on those.  That’s what precipitated me buying this book and why I’ve decided to start making this my daily blog post.

 

As I read the passage from today and was pondering what each section said, I couldn’t think of where I wanted to start, and I didn’t really want to just sit down and type out the book word-for-word.  But as I started typing, I realized that God had been showing all day, and for the past several, what He wanted me to share today.  And it really does have to do with paying attention.

 

My family has been going through some pretty heavy stuff over the past 3 years and mostly I have been left feeling like God just dropped my heart and broke it.  The last thing I have wanted to do, most of the time, is get with Him and discuss this.  If you’ve ever been burnt in a relationship, you know the meaning of the saying:  “Once bitten, twice shy.”  The only problem is:  I consider myself to be a Christian.  How can I have that kind of attitude about, or toward, a God that I had always believed had my best interest at heart and that everything He did was supposed to be for my good.  To say I was conflicted would be an understatement.  Nevertheless, I came to Lynchburg with one prayer:

 

“God, I am going to dedicate my free time to you.  Please show up.  I’ve been floundering and I am tired of feeling hopeless and helpless and of feeling like it is pointless to talk to you about it because I was talking before and you let this happen.  So, I don’t know what You’re going to have to do and I don’t care, but please, let me see You.”

 

I have sat in a lot of silence since the 6th of July and have been ministered to in ways that I haven’t in a long time.  As I mentioned earlier, the class I had last week opened up some wounds that I didn’t know were still festering.  It also shed some light on some things that I had needed to work on that I had been choosing not to deal with.  But, He did so in such a way that I have been able to see my own brokenness.

 

Things have been brought into the light that had been buried.  Rotten things that needed to be excised from my life, but that I had gotten so used to that they had just become a part of who I was.  One day, one of my instructors said something that I thought was strange at first:  Your clients need their pain.  They need their hurt.  You cannot just waltz into their lives and demand they give it up or tell them they are wrong for holding onto it until you know where it comes from and what it does for them.  When he said it, it sounded like one of the most dysfunctional things I had ever heard.  I couldn’t believe it was coming out of a counselor’s mouth.  But then, I started looking at my own life and my own baggage and seeing how I had my own issues I had been clinging to, that I had allowed to define me, or dictate my own actions.  And when I started exposing those to the light and trying to get rid of them, it almost felt like a piece of my soul was being yanked out of me.  And I found myself clamoring desperately to hang on to them with one hand while I was trying to push them away with the other.  How could I possibly want to hold on to something that was causing so much pain or keeping me from having the relationship with God that He wants me to have?  Why would I allow something so vile to have such control over my life when I know that God commands that we have no other gods before Him?

 

I will not share with you just what it is God has revealed that I have been neglecting in my own life.  But I will tell you that what God has revealed to me over the course of my time here in Lynchburg is just how serious He is that nothing have power over us besides Him.  He has shown me the lengths to which He will go to bring to the light those areas of my life that need to be exposed.  And He has shown that, though it will hurt, He is not doing it to hurt me, but to restore me.

 

So, if Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy but God came that we might have life and that more abundantly, then why I am I fighting so hard to hold onto something that is choking the life out of me?  And why am I not turning to The Way, The Truth, and The Life for my deliverance from those things?

 

Bringing it back to Paying Attention.  We were encouraged to look for God waiting to interact with us.  To pay attention to where He might have been trying to get our attention but we were too busy or too loud to hear it or notice.  Let me just comment on how effective the silence I have imposed upon myself has been.  I have been very actively NOT DEALING WITH God for almost a year.  I have been staying up too late, until I’m just exhausted, using my Netflix account and OnDemand for all they are worth, driving myself to distraction, just so I didn’t have to sit in the silence and hear anything from God.  As a friend of mine put it once, God was there and He knew it and I wasn’t going to run away, but I wasn’t going to talk to Him and I certainly wasn’t going to be obedient.  I was going to actively rebel and make Him watch, but I would be back.

 

Please, don’t judge.  Save whatever harsh commentary may be rattling around inside your head.  I’m just sharing the words from someone I know who was expressing how she felt during a particularly rough time she had and how she dealt with it.  They just happened to resonate with me when she related her story.  I merely added them to say that I was actively avoiding putting myself in a position where I might hear something else disappointing from God.  I didn’t want to hear that I might be screwing up again.  I didn’t want to hear that I wasn’t going to get my way again.  I didn’t want to hear that He still wanted me right where He had me.  Those things I was capable of figuring out on my own since my situation wasn’t changing.  So…I just didn’t go to Him.

 

And, as a counseling student I can tell you, most people’s greatest motivator is: AVOIDANCE OF PAIN.  I’ve been having a lot of avoidance issues this past year.  But, I was finally tired of feeling that way, and it’s hard for me to justify running away from a problem for too long, because I know that I can’t run forever and the problem with be with me the whole time.  So…I decided to start paying attention.  It was time.  And I am convinced that everyone that God has put in my path since I’ve been here at Liberty had been a divine appointment designed to show me that He was listening when I asked Him to reveal Himself to me.  But, if I hadn’t come here expecting to see God, and if I hadn’t been paying attention, I’d have missed it completely!

Day Three: What Satan Intended for Evil

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READ:  Today’s passage took me to Genesis 50:15-21.  For expanded reading, the suggested texts are Genesis 37, 42, 45, 50.  This is the story of Joseph.  You know, the one with the coat of many colors.  The one who was a little haughty when he would tell his brothers his dreams.  The one whom his brothers knew was most loved because he was the first born of Jacob’s love with Rachel, whom he served 14 years to gain after being denied by Laban, who pulled a bait-and-switch on Jacob at the altar on what should have been the best night of Jacob’s and Rachel’s lives.  Yeah…that Joseph.

 

Well, his brothers got mad and conspired to get rid of him.  They couldn’t kill him outright and live with looking at their father, so they threw him down into a pit, sold him to some passersby on their way to Egypt.  Then, they killed an animal and smeared the blood on his precious coat, which they had stripped from him.  They went home and told Jacob that Joseph had been attacked and killed in the wilderness.

 

Fast forward several years, Joseph is serving in the house of the Potiphar.  The guy’s wife lusts after Joseph and propositions him.  Joseph, having Potiphar’s utmost respect and high position in the household, runs from her presence, naked, because Potiphar’s wife grabs after him, ripping his tunic from his body.  Then, she says that he had his way with her and that is the end of Joseph’s stay in Potiphar’s house.  He is told, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  Proceed directly to jail.”  (They surely had a version of Monopoly in Egypt.  Right?)

 

So, even though he had been sold into slavery, he managed to work his way out.  And, now, he’s sitting in jail.  By rights, Potiphar should’ve (or could’ve) had him killed.  (I believe he knew there was something fishy in the state of Denmark.  Wait!  That’s Hamlet.  Sorry!)  But, he spared Joseph and just threw him into prison.

 

So…there he sat.  I know if I were Joseph, I would be wondering, as I sat in jail, what in the world happened.  God, you gave me all these dreams when I was growing up.  I thought I knew what they meant and where my life was going to go as a result.  But…here I sit.  In jail.  God, what in the world!!!!

 

Funny, isn’t it, how God’s plan for our lives never looks the way think it ought to.  But, Joseph’s current circumstances (sitting in jail) did not negate the truth of God’s plan for his life.  Joseph just didn’t realize it.  I also suspect that, maybe, Joseph needed to be humbled.  Somewhat.  So that nobody BUT GOD could get the glory for what had happened in his life.  And let’s face it!  I’m pretty sure that if God had let Joseph’s life go the way Joseph thought it might, Joseph – most likely – would’ve taken the credit for it.  Granted, Scripture doesn’t say that, outright.  But, he was pretty full of himself in his younger days.  And his way was paved pretty smoothly until he was sold into slavery.  Then, afterwards, HE worked his way up into Potiphar’s house.  I imagine he had started to feel like he was bouncing back after than hand that had been dealt him.  I know I would’ve.  I would’ve felt like this was some sort of vindication, even if it didn’t look like I wanted it to.  But, notice, Joseph hadn’t been face-to-face with the people who had “caused” his life to go so sideways.  There were still some forgiveness issues that would need to be worked through before God’s work would actually be complete.

 

THINK:  This part of today’s reading challenges us to listen specifically for the word or phrase that touches our heart.  Throughout the last three years, I have been holding tightly to Genesis 50:19:  “…you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now–life for many people.” 

 

PRAY:  Here, we are challenged to think about forgiveness – what it’s like to be the forgiver and to be the forgiven.  We are asked how this expression of love is meaningful to us.  We are also called to listen for what God is inviting us to do or become this week.  “Perhaps his invitation will have to do with a new perspective on who you are in his eyes, or maybe you sense an action he is calling you to take.”

 

This part speaks to me today in that, I have no question that, had I not been knocked down a peg or two – had “my plans” not been made to go awry or take this unsuspected detour – I would’ve been living my life saying what I’ve been saying since I left my home for Navy boot camp.  I left my house believing that my life would be the way I wanted it to be because of the choices I made.  For the most part, I like to think I made fairly responsible choices.  And, I was choosing to be happy.  I had orchestrated my life in such a way that everything made sense, and basically turned out the way I wanted it to, especially when I was obedient to what God was asking me. 

 

Then April 2011 happened.  We here T-boned by an accusation so heinous that I couldn’t believe God had been caught off guard.  (Yeah, I said it.  And, yes, I know the absurdity of that statement.  It doesn’t change the fact that I felt that way.) 

 

Then, March 2013 happened.  The results of the accusation were that God allowed my husband to go to jail. 

 

“UM…EXCUSE ME!  Don’t you know that when I do what I’m told, and I make my requests known believing you will grant them, you are supposed to respond by giving me the desires of my heart??  And, by the way, we had plans!  And what about our kids?  And…and…and……….

 

Now, here I sit, reading the story of Joseph.  Thinking, “Man, that boy was arrogant!  I’m not even his brother and I wanna throw him in a pit, just to shut him up!” 

 

Man….it’s a good thing I’m not like Joseph.  I never walked around talking about how perfect my life was and how it was turning out just like I had planned.  Why wouldn’t God bless me?  Look at how good I am. 

 

I don’t know if you could detect the sarcasm there.  If not, trust me, it’s dripping with it.  While I was not walking around actually saying those things, I was living them.  And God looks at a man’s heart!  So…He knew!  He knew what I was saying even when there were no words coming out of my mouth.  And He also knew that what those words scream is:  I WILL BE MY OWN GOD! 

 

I don’t think that this little side trip has derailed God’s plan for our lives.  I also don’t think that I have to abandon all my deepest dreams and desires because He has allowed this to happen in our lives.  What I do believe, FINALLY, is that the only way God was ever going to get the glory for the things in my life He has done, or permitted, is if I got knocked down off the pedestal I had built for myself so that He could take His Rightful Place in the life of one who calls herself a child of God.

 

LIVE:  “Take time to meditate on the following quite from the Book of Common Prayer (1979), and let it become your own:  ‘Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; nor the hope of the poor be taken away.'”

 

As I come closer to the end of my education as a counselor, that prayer resonates with me.  That is precisely what I hope to do as a counselor:  to not forget the needy and to help restore hope to the poor.  The only way that I can do that effectively, though, is by directing them to the Comforter.  The Healer.  To the only one who can actually transform a life.  And I cannot do it if I think that I can be the God of my own life.  That attitude will spill over into my counseling sessions and I will sound “holier than thou” and, thus, I will fail in our Number One law:  First, do no harm.”  Harm is all I will be doing!  Then, I will be like Paul, not doing the things that I want, but unable to stop doing what I do not want to do.

 

As I head out to class today, I challenge you to look at those areas of your life where you feel like God has let your life go sideways.  Then, TRUST HIM!  But then, ask Him to show you if there might be an area in your life where He has been trying desperately to get your attention, but you have been ignoring Him, or missing His point.  Then, pray for the courage to face it, HEAD ON, FACE TURNED UP TO HIM.  Then, deal with it.

 

 

Day Two: Dear God, I’m Hanging on ’til You Bless Me

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READ:  The devotional for today comes from Genesis 32.  Here you will find the story of Jacob wrestling with “a man” on the brook and him refusing to let go until God blesses him.

 

THINK:  In this section, the reader is challenged to picture the scene.  Specifically, the book says:

(1) Picture yourself in this passage.  Are you Jacob?  Are you an invisible bystander watching it all? 

 

(2) What moment in this passage resonates with you most?

  *wanting desperately to be blessed

  *wanting desperately to know more of God

  *other

 

I don’t know about you, but every time I read this, I am Jacob.  I feel like I have been begging God my entire life to bless me.  But also, I want to see the face of God, Peniel.  Or, as it is in Hebrew, P’nay-El, which is literally, the face of God.  “P’nay” means face today, still.  And “El” is still short for Elohim, or God.

 

PRAY:  Without even realizing it, what I have been doing, in my spare time, while I’ve been here at class, is searching desperately for God to bless me and to show me His Face.  Perhaps, more than either of those things though, I want to believe that I can be seen by God and not have to worry if I’m good enough, to not have to worry about whether or not He will actually see Christ when He looks at me, even though I have taken all the necessary precautions to make it so.  I want to be able to read the passages in the Bible that tell me He rejoices over me with singing and actually believe them for myself, and not just for everyone else.

 

LIVE:  I will share this part with you verbatim:

  “Sit quietly before God, imagining the night sounds and the smell of running water.  Try to be comfortable with God in this wild atmosphere.  What does it feel like to trust and to reveal the desires of your heart?  Be honest if you feel uncomfortable.  What would you like it to feel like?  Rest in that.”

 

What does it feel like?  Unsteady.  Uneasy.  Like maybe it doesn’t matter what the deepest desires of my heart are if He’s going to do what He wants to anyway.  But, what I would like it to feel like is that He was listening.  One song from my grandfather’s church hymnal sums up what I would like it to feel like.  It is called “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”  If you’ve never heard it, here are the lyrics:

 

      1. What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms;
        What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms.
      • Refrain:
        Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
        Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
      1. Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms;
        Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms.
      2. What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms?
        I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
        Leaning on the everlasting arms.

 

 

If you’d like to listen to it, you can click on the link below to get to a YouTube video of Alan Jackson singing it. 

 

 

I will leave you with that for now, and with this final thought. 

 

I am trying to make Proverbs 3:5-6 my prayer on days when I feel like I can’t see the path God has laid out for me, or when I find that I have been struggling to make sense of this world.  I hope it will give you some comfort too.

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

     ~Proverbs 3:5-6 (New King James Version)

Day One: NAKED AND AFRAID

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READ:  Day One of the SOLO Devotional takes us to Genesis 3:1-10.  This is the story of the serpent tempting Eve, her giving in, Adam giving in, and them hiding from God because they ate of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and were afraid because they knew they were naked.

 

THINK:  I think that is probably the perfect way to describe how this past week of counseling left me feeling:  naked and afraid.  As I typed that last part, thinking about where I was going to go from there, the realization occurred to me that I have been naked and afraid my whole life.  The only thing last week did was expose that to me.  For my whole life, I have been desperately trying to sew leaves together to hide my nakedness from God.  Sometimes, I was unhappy with the way they looked and tried something new.  Most recently, however, I had finally found something that was working, because I had not been feeling exposed, or naked, or afraid.  Either that, or I had just stopped trying because I wasn’t really thinking about God’s approval.   (I’m not sure which, but I am confident God will reveal it to me as I make this journey.  Probably when I least expect it, or when I want it the least, but certainly His Timing will be perfect.)

 

PRAY:  This section says: “There is no better way to begin to understand God’s Message than to grasp our separation from him because of sin and our desperate need for him to reconcile our  relationship.  Take some time to confess those areas where you have deliberately rebelled against God.” 

 

I will spare you all this part of me, as this is supposed to be between me and God, but I know the list is going to be much longer than I am comfortable with.  In just the little bit of time that I’ve been thinking about what I would need to confess, I can tell that there are things that are going to arise that I am going to have to take some time to deal with.  This just makes me feel more naked and afraid.  But, there is hope in the that first sentence.  Only God can reconcile us to Himself.  He has already paved the way.  It intrigues me that the very thing that makes me feel so far away from God is what He chooses to use to make me to see my deep, deep need for Him and to draw people closer to Him. 

 

The first blood ever spilled on the Earth was a life taken to provide clothing for Adam and Eve, so they could cover their shame.  The last blood ever spilled that could do that, and has done it for the rest of time, was that of Jesus.  (I’ll just leave you to ponder that one for a moment.)

 

LIVE:  This section asks how it makes me feel knowing that everyone on earth has rebelled against God.  And to be honest, there have been many times over the course of the past 3 years, that I have railed against Eve.  What in the world could she have been thinking?  She had it good!  Why’d she have to go and screw it up for the rest of us?   One day, someone offered up a response to that question that stuck with me:  “If it hadn’t been her, it would’ve been someone else?” 

 

That begs the question:  then, why did God give us the ability to choose?  Or, as my 10-year-old asked:  “If God doesn’t want us to sin, then why doesn’t he just get rid of Satan?  Then, He wouldn’t have to worry about our sinning because there’d be nobody around to make us sin.”  I got the chance to explain it to him, but he didn’t care for my answer.  He genuinely seemed conflicted about it.  He’s not the first person, nor will he be the last to wonder why God made it so darn easy for us to sin if He doesn’t want us to.

 

The answer is:  if He hadn’t given us the ability to choose, we wouldn’t have had a relationship.  What God wants from/for us, more than anything, is a relationship.  That is why we have to have the ability to choose.  We have to be able to choose Him back!

I HATE INTRODUCTIONS!

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Okay, maybe “hate” is a strong word, but I never read the introductions to books.  Usually I find them tedious and dedicated to people I will never meet.  Yesterday (July 12, 2014), I found this book at the Barnes & Noble in Lynchburg.  I’ve been here (at Liberty University) a week already for one intensive and starting another week tomorrow.  I decided to use what spare time I had here to work on my relationship with God and delve into some of the areas that I felt like He had shown me needed some work.  As I was walking through the Christianity section of the bookstore with that in mind, I passed by several books, most of them decent, but, sadly, missing the mark of what I felt like I needed deep in my soul.  Then, I saw this one. 

 

THE MESSAGE:  SOLO 

AN UNCOMMON DEVOTIONAL

 

The cover is minimalist: white with grey letters.  All CAPS. 

 

I was intrigued.  So, I picked it up and glanced through a couple of pages. 

 

It is not like any other Bible study book or devotional I’ve ever seen.  This one is actually more like what I’ve been thinking I needed, just the thing to jump start my exploration into who God really is and what He wants to be to me.  The initial passage is relatively short but, above, it shows the expanded passage, so you can get the context.  (Kay Arthur says, “Context is key.”)  Then, the next page invites you to READ, THINK, PRAY, and LIVE what that passage could mean to you and your life. 

 

READ, THINK, PRAY and LIVE takes me back to the Introduction.  When I sat down to read today, I started at the Introduction.  While I was skimming over it, I came across the term “lectio divina”.  Read, Think, Pray and Live are the four basic principles.  The reader is encouraged to “Remember as you dive into this devotional that lectio divina is about wholeness: whole practice, whole Bible, whole God.”

 

Jump down a couple of paragraphs and this is what I read:

 

“Eugen Peterson called the Bible ‘a book that reads us even as we read it.’  That’s an uncommon sort of book, and it requires an uncommon sort of read.  Knowing facts about God doesn’t change your relationship with him, so take the time to splash around in the Word, to absorb it, to discover what God as to say to you each day.”

 

“KNOWING FACTS ABOUT GOD DOESN’T CHANGE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM”

 

NO, IT DOES NOT!!!

 

More than anything, THAT has been the truth that I have discovered about myself, not just over the course of this last week, but over the course of this whole ordeal my husband and I have been walking through.  I know a lot of stuff about God.  I know a lot of Scriptures.  I know all the right things to say.  How to speak it.  How to act it.  How to fake it.  But, I don’t think I can say that any of the stuff I know has really made that huge an impact on my life. 

 

Don’t get me wrong.  Over the course of my life, I can see where God has worked and has delivered me from many things.  I am grateful for all of that.  But, to be quite honest, I’m starting to think that I’ve been spared too much pain.  I’ve been rescued from so many things that my walk with God has been, for the most part, superficial.  Even if “superficial” is too harsh a word, it would not be a stretch to say that I have been in it mostly for my own comfort. 

 

The problem with that kind of thinking is:  when things are not comfortable for me, I doubt my faith.  I doubt God’s love for me.  I doubt His Goodness and His Provision. 

 

What I’ve come to realize is that I have been behaving much like a child who first learns how to use the word “please.”  We teach our children to use the word “please” when they ask for something because:  (1) it sounds nice and (2) it tends to make a request out of a demand.  However, we also have to teach our children that there is no guarantee that they will get what they want just because they say please.  There are many reasons for this, but most of them boil down to the fact that getting what they want all the time is not realistic and it is not good for them.

 

Having that kind of pseudo-faith (I call it that because it resembles faith but doesn’t really work like faith should) has left me feeling like I’ve been wandering around out in the desert without a canteen or a map.  Like God has left me.  I’ve even said to people, “At least the Israelites had the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, and the Ark of the Covenant.  They had physical representations of God.  I’ve just been left out here to die in the wilderness.  And, as such, I’ve been begging to go back to Egypt.  However, unlike their Egypt – full of slavery – my Egypt was pretty sweet.  My husband was there, our family was intact, and we were basically untouched by the horrible injustices of the world. 

 

But, then, if I’m to be honest, there was bondage there too.  In fact, it took being led out of

“the Egypt of my own making” to even be made aware of my bondage.  I have found that I have multiple gods in my life.  The biggest one:  ME.  I’ve been just like Frank Sinatra, doing it my way.  But, see, my way was not so bad.  I wasn’t hurting anyone.  We were going to church, being obedient, and trying our best not to screw our kids up too badly.  I had several causes I was passionate about and wanted to help out, and was working toward that.  I was even submitting to my husband.  And, to top it all off, I was begging for a life that was lived sold out to Christ because I wanted my walk with God to really mean something.  I did not want to just spend my time here on Earth, going to church the rest of my life, calling myself a Christian, and leaving nothing behind to show for having worn that title.

 

Well, I was saying it, anyway. 

 

My god was my comfort, my safety, my security, my plan. 

 

And now, I have been led out into the desert, away from my plan, and have seen that, I am just like the Israelites, cursing God for having brought me out into the desert to leave me to die, when things were good in Egypt, because I had fish to eat.  Sure, I was a slave.  But at least I was eating well. 

 

I never could understand how they could do that.  How could they possibly talk to God that way after all He’d done for them?  After all they had just seen, how could they think that God would leave them to die in the wilderness?  But, alas, as Ecclesiastes says, there truly is nothing new under the sun, and I have done exactly what I have found so remarkably unbelievable.

 

So now, here I sit, with this devotional in front of me.  Ready to start checking off the boxes of getting together with God, every day, but not just for the sake of checking off the box.  If something doesn’t change – if I don’t do something to take steps toward God and letting Him show me His plan for my life – I know that I am going to continue to be just like the Israelites.  And what I fear is that when God calls me to enter into the Promised Land of His Calling for me, I am going to look and see what is there and say that I cannot go in and take the land because there are giants, and I will miss the riches He has for me.

 

So, here I go.  Solo.  One on one.  Just me and God.  “God, let it be with me just as you say.”

I’m Starting A Blog Series

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I have been away from my blog for long enough.  

 

In part this is because I have been searching for the angle I want to take and coming back frustrated.  Also, it kinda takes a back seat when I’m in classes.

 

No more excuses.

 

While in Lynchburg for some classes, I found a devotional that I have started working through.  I have mentioned Jesus Calling in an earlier post and I like it.  But this one is meeting me right where I am right at this moment, and I have decided that I want to share it with you.  

 

If you are familiar with the film and book called Julie & Julia, think along those lines.  If you haven’t, here’s some quick background.  Julie Powell decides that she is going to take a year to work through her Julia Child cookbook:  Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  While I would love to work through one of my cookbooks or my Pinterest boards, that can sometimes be easier said that done on a limited budget.  

 

But, this devotional (yes, I know, I still haven’t name it yet) “came to me” at a time when I was really searching for God’s face and asking Him to reveal Himself to me.  I feel like this book was an answer to that prayer.  With your indulgence (or even without it), I am going to take the next year to blog my way through this book, offering up my insights and what I feel God has shown me through it.  

 

 

So, this is the book.  It’s not much to look at.  Unassuming little thing that it is.  But what is inside it is pretty thought-provoking stuff.  If you want to get a copy and work through it with me, I would love to hear from you how God reveals Himself to you.  Otherwise, you are going to get to spend the year with me telling you how awesome God is being for me.  

 

I have already completed the first 4 days, so you will have plenty to chew on, here in just a few minutes.  I hope you enjoy the journey!