Doom and gloom; doom and gloom! I don’t know about you but that’s how I look at the writings of the minor prophets, in the main. We study the likes of Micah who spat out the truth of God in no uncertain terms, and so he should. The people needed to understand they couldn’t continue to disobey the Law as God set it out in the Mosaic covenant. There were consequences. Hear says Micah in classical Hebrew poetry style (1:2); Listen (3:1, 6:1): the LORD does not like your sin.
He insisted on creating a garden beside his new country home, but the iron ore boulders stood in the way! Daddy persevered. He’d already sold off the largest ones for the iron, but he had to heave the mid-sized ones over the fence one-by-one. Even though only smaller ones eventually remained, they continued to ‘show up!’ Seems novice gardeners soon discover that stones continue to work their way to the surface of the soil! Clearing the land would never totally end on that rocky hilltop. That’s how it is with our own maturing in Christ, our sanctification. It’s never finished, a principle believers learn just like my gardener daddy learned about rock clearing. We’ll continue to grow up in Christ until the time we actually see Him face-to-face.
Have you ever been wronged or betrayed? Of course you have. It’s a devastating part of being human. One particular betrayal comes to my mind from the workplace, and I remember wondering if I would ever get beyond the hurt. When the betrayal comes from someone you loved and trusted, the wound seems beyond healing. With God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit, believers can begin the journey of forgiveness. The memory might fade with time, but it never truly disappears. Not so with God! When Christ died in payment for our sins, an amazing thing happened—something our human mind can’t fully understand.
We collapsed, sweaty and aching. We’d just relocated the entire office and classrooms of a non-profit organization to its new location—a vacant building on the campus of a downtown church. The organization loved their new space but not all the details of the move. Seems the six foot round glass table wouldn’t fit in the new setting. We’d offered it to the church but hadn’t heard back. After a cool lemonade, four of us rolled it across the street and donated it to a non-profit resale store. They immediately displayed it in the front window with a conservative price of $75.00. We smiled at the thought of a long day’s work well done.
I love a good love story. Most women do! I do not, though, like to work-things-out when there’s been a conflict. That’s a relationship skill I’ve continue to work on. Years have passed, but I’ll never forget the six weeks of long silence from my fiancé. I wondered if I had made a mistake saying ‘yes’ to the proposal in the mountain chapel only two months earlier. Why hadn’t I heard from him? He traveled with a Christian band and consistently called and wrote—the days before cell phones, face-time and texting! As the days mounted, my angst and anger also grew. If we were to have a future marriage, reconciliation would definitely need to take place.
Broken relationships rank close to the top of painful life experiences. Friendships, marriages and the workplace offer opportunities for relationships to rip apart. I even watch with a sensitive heart as my granddaughter’s first friend/boy, as she calls him, begins to develop and remember the angst of my own teenage relationships. Broken adolescent friendships fade in comparison to the pain of loss God felt when Adam and Eve introduced sin into Paradise. The morning walks with God in the cool of the day morphed into hiding and shame. Mankind’s broken connection with our Creator set in motion what would eventually fracture the entire Universe.
Disappointment—that which we experience when expectations or wishes are not met. All of us face numerous disappointments throughout life—someone says something that hurts, a project fails, an illness interrupts plans… The list could go on and on. How do you handle disappointment?
In the first phrase of this verse David prays about his prayers. His desire is that his prayers would be like incense to God. In other words, David asks that his prayers would be pleasing to God. As I think about this verse, several questions come to mind: Do I desire that my prayers to be pleasing to God? Does God consider my prayers incense? Am I focused only upon what I desire or upon God’s glory and His will?
Open your Bible to the middle and there you find the hymnbook of God—those inspired songs full of praises and prayers. God inspired the psalms for many reasons, but one important reason is to enhance the worship of His people. A whole book of the Bible was given by God to teach us to praise Him!
A friend and her four-year-old daughter passed by a cemetery where a grave had been freshly dug with a mound of dirt to the side. The daughter said, “Oh look, Mom, someone got out!” At first I laughed, but later I realized the spiritual truth of this story. The obedience of Jesus Christ “got us out.”
I have friends who like to scuba dive. They put on their equipment and plunge into a different world under the sea. The sea isn’t an environment suited to man naturally. However, with the right equipment, it is possible to breathe and explore fascinating things God has created. As these friends scuba dive, they are “in” the sea, but they are certainly not “of” the sea.
We have all been there – had a spiritual high and an outstanding experience with the Lord. Then what happened? We took our eyes off the prize of God’s best for us and find ourselves in a mess.
Do you find as women we take on the sins of the world? We tend to play the game of “What Ifs?” What if I had done this differently? What if I had said that correctly? What if I had been a better person, would someone still have rejected or abused me?
Deborah, labeled as a judge in Old Testament times, helped solve problems. The Bible says people brought their disputes to her and she gave them the answers they needed. She did not do it on her own, she consulted her God in whom she had great faith.
Deborah, servant of God, prophet, judge, wife, sat under a tree to settle disputes for the Israelites. The Bible mentions she “led” Israel.
Hebrews 11, often referred to as the “Faith Chapter,” mentions by name people who chose to display strong faith in God. Interestingly enough the stories of some of the faithful mentioned there came from the book of Judges found in the Old Testament. These people lived years and years before the writing of the book of Hebrews, but God had the writer include their names. God commended them for their faith.
The family is the foundational unit of society. That was God’s plan from the beginning. It was into the family that babies were born, children were instructed in the right and two people, working together, created a place of security and stability.
Authority. The Greek word translated here refers to “power as entrusted, i.e. commission, authority, right, full power.” And, as we know, power is heady stuff. For every good boss, there is one who uses that authority to gain personal advantage. And we deal with “bosses” of all varieties from the person who signs our paycheck to the individual who heads up the committee we have volunteered for. Even anarchists have to have someone in charge.
Two years ago we moved into a nice little house on a nice little street surrounded by empty lots. Today there are nine houses with two more underway. Since we are on a cul-de-sac, the construction of each of these homes has been up close and personal, but also fascinating as we watch the homes take shape. Now, as each neighbor family moves in and gets settled, our little street is coming to life with a great variety or people: tele-commuters, retired folks, parents with babies and young children, natives from the area, people who moved here from another part of the country.
