Mar 26, 2010 | Baby Photos, Stories, The Good Word
I mentioned the other day that we were at an end-of-the-fiscal-month-so-nobody-move-till-we-get-paid kind of moment for the past few days. (We get paid on the 25th.) I was also talking about “coincidences” a couple weeks ago and how things come together way too often in my life for me to chalk things up to Mr. Chance any longer. And this Monday I had another one of those experiences that, here it is Friday, I’m finally getting a chance to write down and tell you about. First let me share a Scripture to explain why I want to re-tell this:
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
That was Psalm 37:3-4. So. It was an end-of-the-fiscal-month-so-nobody-move-till-we-get-paid kind of day Monday. The Bear had decided he was too cool for Sunday school the day before — meaning he wasn’t cool with getting left with the other kids in the babysitting area. Hero Hubs decided to walk him around outside for a while during church, and he spent pretty much the whole service doing just that. By the time we got home, he had little blisters on his pwecious little toes, and it was obvious it was time for new shoes. He had worn out the ones he got for Christmas with all the car-riding! But like I said, it was an end-of-the-fiscal-month-so-nobody-move-till-we-get-paid kind of week. And we wouldn’t get paid till Thursday.
The issue was, if we didn’t buy the Bear a new pair of shoes, he couldn’t go outside and ride his car, because he drags his toes to brake, and he’ll come home with bloody feet. But if he can’t ride his car, he is as bummed as the day is long. And that thought made me really sad. Going outside and riding his car is like his moment of freedom — and the boy’s a little Scottish, you know, he needs his F-RRR-EEEDOM!
So we were in a bit of a dilemma. But not for long. As we were discussing what to do about the shoe issue, I just happened to look at this card a friend had sent us a few days before that I had on display on our counter. And I just happened to notice something I didn’t see before. She’d put a sheet of stickers inside the card for the Bear, and I suddenly just happened to see some writing behind the sticker sheet, even though I’d read the card at least a couple times already. I picked the card up, looked behind the sticker sheet, and there she’d written us another wee note, and included $50. (THANK YOU, MY FRIEND!!!)
$50 will buy plenty of shoes for Bear Bear in South Africa — his next ten+ pairs!
It gets even better. On our way to buy the shoes, we prayed that the Lord would help us find them at a good price. Our finances are tight, so we were planning to be careful and make good purchases and make that $50 go a long way! So we shopped around the mall for ages and ages to try to find shoes that were the right size (challenge #1) and that weren’t a ridiculous price (challenge #2). Finally, we arrived at a store called Ackermans which has really cute baby stuff. They had a ton of shoes on their “Giveaways” (meaning decent sales) rack and I started hunting. Eventually, I found these adorable sandals (pictured below!) marked R19.00. Yes, that is 19 South African Rand. And in case you don’t happen to know the current exchange rate, ZAR19 is like $2.56!! Or £1.73!!! Or €1.93!!!!
There were several other pairs of the exact same sandals on the rack. I looked through them, and they were all marked R79.00. It was obvious we just happened to find a mis-pricing, but we asked the guy who was labeling and putting things on the racks, and he checked and said, “19 Rand.” So we were able to buy the Bear a pair of sandals, and a pair of trainers, on sale for R59.00, with a ton of cash to spare!!!
The thing about feeding on the faithfulness of God is that He works in different ways at different times. Sometimes it’s a check in the mail. Sometimes it’s a shoe on sale. Sometimes your brother reads your blog post and deposits money in your bank account!! But the faithfulness I want to feed on — the thing I want to chew on and remember over and over again, is that God is good and that He has come through for us — in different ways at different moments — but every time. That means I can trust Him. That means I can be at peace about tomorrow. Because the God who comes through for me is already there.
So I just happened to take a moment to share this with you this morning. I hope you just happen to be encouraged by it, and perhaps to believe that more often than we think, things don’t just happen. 🙂 Has anything special just happened for you this week?
Without further ado… BearBear’s new shoes!!
Here’s The (Practical Application) Sermon in a Nutshell: We’ve been recording testimonies of God’s goodness and provision in a special little journal for a while. Although we haven’t been writing them down nearly as often as we should, it is really, really encouraging to open that journal up and feed on God’s faithfulness in moments where we need encouragement. Perhaps you can start writing down things you want to remember, so you can feed on that faithfulness, too!
Mar 15, 2010 | The Good Word
Mother Teresa once said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” This morning someone asked me what I wanted my impact in this life to be, and this is what came out of my fingertips:
Honestly, I am not sure what my impact is going to look like. From what I’ve seen of my walk with God so far, it has been the small things done with great kindness that has had the greatest impact. The people I have seen come to know the Lord have been individuals who I have personally “walked the road” with for a long time. I want to write and speak and touch thousands of lives, but I am starting to think the best way for that to happen is by just touching one. And it seems to me that if Jesus spent 3 years mainly teaching and working with 12 guys, He was setting an example for us to see. When we’re faithful with a little, God can give us more to be faithful with.
After I thought about it, I realised how incredibly true it is, that the Lord has shown me this principle in my walk with Him. The places where I felt closest to the heart of God were the places when I left behind the 99 to go after the one. When I stopped and sat down with a guy on a cold street in Edinburgh, bought him a hot chocolate and eventually a Bible. When I stopped an international student on my university campus to ask if she needed any help, and how she was settling in a new country. (Seven years later, she is still walking with Jesus.) When I sat with a man in a town square in Mexico, though he spoke Mayan and not much Spanish and we bumbled along with little conversation. When I held on to hope for another international student for two and a half years, and wept with tears of joy the day she was baptized. It is often in taking note of the one, doing the small things with great love, that we are taking note of the heart of God.
Jesus stopped for the one:
- the one Samaritan woman with a poor reputation at the well
- the one woman with the flow of blood who would’ve been considered ‘untouchable’ in His day
- the one over-tax-collecting “piece of work” Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to see Him
- the one Blind Bartimaeus at the roadside
- children, children and more children, one at a time
- the one little boy with epilepsy who was constantly falling into the fire
- the one gentile woman who asked for healing for her daughter
This list could go on and on. And on. But the point is, Jesus showed us that no matter where He was headed, what mission He was on His way to accomplish, He always had time for the one.
Do you have dreams of greatness? Do you have dreams of speaking to millions? Touching millions? Reaching millions? The best way to start is by touching one. And there is one in your life every day. Ask God to renew your mind to see the one, and to see what you can do. If together, as believers, we are all doing small things with great love, we will be doing a very big thing, indeed, and the world will know that our love is the love of God.
Mar 6, 2010 | Baby Photos, Stories
As promised…I have a great story to share! Part of the reason it’s great is because of readers like you! Shall we get started?
So. My Mom sent a gift, a Happy 18 Months, Bear! slash we didn’t get to see each other at Christmas slash Happy Valentine’s sort of gift. She is great like that. And as I shared with you previously, there was drama surrounding the receiving of said gift, involving a very high customs and duties fee being demanded by South African Revenue Service (SARS). We were at the end of a tight month, really working to stay inside our budget, and five days away from payday, the thought of the gift being held ransom was rather discouraging. And I shared all that with you.
What I hadn’t shared yet was that over the course of those few days when we were discouraged and trying to figure out what to do, I was spending time reading the Bible (I like to do that, ya know) and I found myself in I Peter 2, which has a discussion of the importance of submitting to government. For a few days we’d been speaking with FedEx and their South African partners Supaswift, we’d been on the phone to SARS, and we’d been on the internet trying to discern whether we were actually being correctly charged for my Mom’s gift, since they were asking close to 70% of the gift’s declared value. At one point, FedEx made the suggestion that we could change the customs form to read ZAR 200.00 (meaning 200 South African Rand) instead of $200. And then no customs would be due. To say the least, this felt dodgy. Â We also considered sending the package back to the US and having friends who are coming next month bring it over. But that didn’t seem much different.
So back to 1 Peter 2. This passage says, Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. It goes on to say Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King. I flipped over to Romans 13 after reading this, to be reminded again that the Lord does indeed instruct us to submit to government. And then I remembered when Jesus and Peter were visiting the temple and they were asked to pay the temple tax. Even though Jesus was greater than the temple, being the Son of God and all, still he sent Peter to the lake to catch a fish, and the fish had a coin in its mouth which would pay the tax.
All of that combined to indicate to me that we should pay the fines, even though they seemed exorbitant and ridiculous. The prayer that followed this was: Lord, You provided the coin in the mouth of the fish for Peter to pay taxes, even though it didn’t seem right. Will you please provide for us to pay the taxes due for the gift from my mother? Help us to submit and properly obey the government here.
And so He did. Without seeing it in any way connected, I shared with you my discouragement about what was going on. Five minutes after this blog post hit the web, I received a Facebook message from a friend who said “Do you have a PayPal account? I’d like to send you some spendable encouragement.” Within twenty minutes we’d been blessed with a financial gift which was just $40 shy of what we needed for the taxes. ENCOURAGEMENT, HELLO OLD FRIEND! But the story doesn’t end there!
The next morning I received an email from other friends who said they wanted to pay for us to be able to receive the gift, and they asked how much we needed. I wrote them back and sad “We’ve already been blessed with this much, and we only need this much more, but really we can cover it ourselves. If you really want to give you can, but you don’t have to worry about it.” There was of course other dialogue and thank you’s but I don’t need to tell you that since you know how long winded I am. I had been encouraged by the gift the night before, and all your emails and comments and messages, and I was full of trust that it was going to come together fine.
AND THEN! The next day I had a voicemail from my Mom saying “Your big brother read your blog and heard about what happened with your gift and he was upset that you were discouraged! He is going to put thus and such in your bank account so don’t you worry! You’re going to get your present!” As you can imagine, this brought me to tears. I didn’t even know my brother read my blog! haha Seriously, I was just really, deeply blessed by this. It has been lonely at times being in a new country, far away from family, friends and familiarity, and this moment just made me feel so surrounded and in community, even if a lot of it is virtual community right now.
Hear me out on this: You might like to chalk this up to coincidence or serendipity, but I have experienced too much coincidence in my life to call it that any more. We told God we would trust Him and walk in His ways, and we asked for His help so that we could do so. And with exceeding abundance, He provided more than enough…in more ways than one!
On Tuesday, my Mom’s gift finally arrived…along with two others! My friend Amiee also sent us a gift, maybe two or three weeks before my Mom sent hers, and Samaritan’s Feet sent us some documents and copies of our founder’s new book…and all of it coincidentally arrived on Tuesday. We opened our gifts and were just so blessed by so much generosity at a time when things have been tight…it was like a second Christmas!
To me, all this is a demonstration of God’s blessing and provision for us when we choose to walk in His ways. Although submitting to the government and paying those fees seemed like a rubbish idea at first, yet the Lord did provide for us to do so, and allowed us to walk with Him through the process. And that, my friends, is the Sermon in a Nutshell.
Since this post has gotten a little long (no surprise there) I’m going to “to be continued” to fill another post with good cheer, happy photos and general prezzie merriment! To arrive in your browser or inbox or google reader very soon! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Again and again, thanks.
xCC
P.S. If you’re wondering why the Bear’s outfit changed from picture 1 to picture 2, it’s because we had a little accident that necessitated a gear change and we decided he should sport his new gear for the next set of photos! 🙂
Mar 5, 2010 | The Good Word
If you are a regular reader of the Word of God, or even an occasional listener or peruser, you have probably had the opportunity to think about the ways of the children of Israel, and think that they were ninnymugginses. Seriously. God delivers them from slavery in Egypt and they complain and want to go back. He parts the Red Sea to deliver them from the Egyptians who are pursuing them, and demonstrates His care for them by providing food for them to eat every day, but they question Him and question Moses and complain and complain and complain and complain. And complain.
It’s easy to read their stories and think “I never would’ve been such a cotton-headed ninnymuggins. If God had delivered me from slavery like that — I would’ve been totally obedient and surrendered to Him.†I was reading another ninnymuggins story this morning. It seems to be shortly after the other ninnymuggins incident where the people are afraid and don’t want to enter the Promised Land and then they are remorseful when God tells them they’re going to wander in the desert 40 years. (And then they try to go into the land anyway, when it’s too late. Cotton-headed!)
Two chapters later we find the Sons of Kohath, some of Eliab’s sons, and a few other cats have gotten together to complain — this time about Moses and Aaron. The background you need to know on these guys is that God set them apart for a special work in the tabernacle — Numbers 4 will give you more details about their duties, but they basically had work to do related to the most holy things. They were supposed to pack up and transport the most holy articles of the tabernacle when it was time for Israel to journey. This was a pretty big deal — taking care of the stuff that represented the sacrifices and offerings to God for the sins of the people.
As I read it last time I thought … hmm, I wonder if that gets kind of monotonous. Apparently, it did. When they began questioning Moses and Aaron’s work and authority in the tabernacle, it was clear that the heart of the matter was that they weren’t happy with the duties they’d been assigned and they would prefer more ‘glorious’ work. It gets downright frustrating reading this kind of thing because we have a different perspective — God gave them work that actually kept them close to Him and His presence. They were set apart and chosen ministers of God! Why did they have to get so high on the horse??
I then realised that, rather than this being a ninnymuggins characteristic of the Israelites, it is more rightly recognised as a ninnymuggins characteristic of all of us. How many churches have we heard of where the congregation began questioning the pastor and eventually ousted him? How many junior ministers have downright led a rebellion against senior ministers in the church which has divided a congregation — literally split a church in two? And how many times in our own hearts do we question the decisions and actions of our pastors and stand in judgement over them?
Here’s where I want to make an important point of division: It is healthy, and good for you to not take every sermon your pastor preaches, every sentence he says as full gospel truth. He is human and falliable. Your decisions and your walk with God need to be based on the will of God, and the Word of God, as Paul commended one of the churches for searching the Scriptures to make sure what he was preaching was true. That being said, there is a difference between giving deep thought to the truth of a sermon, and questioning the placement and authority of a man God has placed over you. Do you see the difference?
Even when King Saul was hunting David down and trying to kill him, David refused to hurt Saul, to lay a hand on him, because he recognised God’s authority — God is the one who places people in authority. Even if you don’t think he’s the best orator, the most friendly guy, the most personable character, or whatever else, you would do well to trust that God has sovereignly placed your pastor as the leader of your church, and to respect him because of it.
It is easy to justify rebellion. We can easily find fault with anyone. And we will quickly find people to come to our side and join us in the rebellion, because we all have a sinful nature. But if you’re in a situation where you question the leadership that has been placed over your head — at church, at work, at home — don’t lead a rebellion. Bring this before God and allow Him to remind you of His sovereign authority — that He places kings on their thrones. That He could take President Robert Mugabe out at any moment if He so chooses.
We are called to fight the good fight of faith in the face of injustice in this world. There is a time to fight real injustice. I definitely believe there’s a time for revolution and reformation. But I believe it starts with prayer, with bringing every injustice, every concern to the throne of the God Who is, and Who is all-powerful and able to change every circumstance in a single moment. Your respect for the people around you, and especially for the people over you, is a demonstration of your respect and fear for the All – Mighty God. Like David said, “I will not touch the Lord’s anointed…†may we have the same attitude to the glory of God.
Let it be especially in the house of God as the writer of Hebrews instructed us: Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. (They are going to have to give an account for their conduct before the Lord!)Â He goes on to say Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. (Heb 13:17)
The Sermon in a Nutshell: Don’t be a cotton-headed ninnymuggins! Respect those placed in authority for you. Pray for them and thank them for their efforts. In doing so, you demonstrate respect and fear for the Lord.
Feb 22, 2010 | The Good Word
Did I catch your attention? Ever feel that way? I was reading Psalm 55 the other day and realised that David was praying his heart out and literally saying he wanted his enemies to go straight to hell — like, to fall into the pit of hell, still breathing. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
When I read things like that, I get uncomfortable. I feel like saying Shh…David, don’t say that! That’s not nice! But David was known as “a man after God’s own heart.†Why? I think part of it was his honesty with God. He genuinely poured out hurt, anger, disappointments, a sense of betrayal by close friends, and even the desire that nothing good ever happen to them again. Ever. He prayed, “Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.â€
But are we supposed to pray like that?
Well yes and no.
It’s right for us to pray that wickedness will come to an end. That’s God’s will. We should pray that those who are practicing injustice, for example kidnapping young girls and enslaving them in the sex industry, will meet their Maker. That their arms would be broken (perhaps not in the literal sense) — that their ways would come to a swift end. We bring the injustice to God, and pray that His will will be done. I don’t think this includes making our own plans to assassinate dictators or blow up abortion clinics, by the way. We bring it to God, as David did, and say “See this wickedness on the earth, Lord! We know You don’t like it! Please change things, and let the work of those perpetrating such evils be brought to nothing!â€
As Matthew Henry points out, we can stand in awe of and comfort ourselves in David’s prayers, as prophecies. The things he prayed actually happened. Not because David prayed them, per se, but more because they were in agreement with the will of God. God’s will was done, and the wicked people who betrayed David did indeed come to an untimely end. The comfort? God is just, and He’ll see justice prevail in the end.
We should pray our hearts out like David. We should be honest with God about how we feel about the situations we’re encountering. We should tell Him when things have hurt us or discouraged us. You can’t really hide anything from Him anyway … so why not just talk about those big stinky “elephants in the room” of your heart?
But are we to curse those who’ve hurt us, the way David did? No. Jesus has shown us a better way. He basically said Love people that treat you really bad. And pray for people that purposefully hurt you. (Mt. 5:44, my paraphrase) And He’s given us a Spirit that can enable us to do so — a spirit that completely changes our nature. The natural man wishes terrible things on those who hurt him or betray him. Or jump in front of him in line at the grocery store with a huge cartload. Or cut him off in traffic. But the man who has been made new in Christ has a new Spirit, and by that Spirit is able to bless those who curse him.
In our prayer life, we should bring it all to God, (the good, the bad, the ugly) and trust Him to give us a new heart and a right spirit in response to whatever we’re facing.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: While David’s I Wish They’d All Just Go to Hell prayers were a demonstration of his honest emotions before God, Jesus has shown us a different way to live today. Bring it all to God. Pray that injustice and wickedness will not prevail, and pray that God will have mercy on people who mistreat you. If you can show love and forgiveness to people who hurt you, you are walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
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