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.
Feb 19, 2010 | The Good Word
I was recently reading in Numbers 11, where the children of Israel have begun their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. God had provided manna for them to eat, and was leading them with His presence day and night. They began to complain because they only had manna to eat, and they looked back at their time in Egypt with sorrow — they missed being in Egypt, in slavery.
“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!â€
It is easy to read their comments and cast judgement: those ninnymuggins Israelites. Hello? What about the fact that you were slaves in Egypt, and now you have freedom? You have food to eat every day and all you have to do is gather it. You are free! You’re not slaves anymore doing ridiculously intense labour! And you have a promise from a God who has already caused you to walk through the Red Sea on dry land! He is surely able to make good on His promises.
But I wonder if we perhaps do the same thing in our lives sometimes? Do we see the provision of God in our daily lives as boring old manna? I think I do sometimes. The problem is that it’s in our nature to focus on what we don’t have. We look at what other people have, we see advertising all around us all day, every day. (Why do half the people who watch the Super Bowl watch it? Advertising!) We’re encouraged to be dissatisfied with what we have, and to spend money to get what we don’t have. And it’s a never-enough kind of cycle.
My encouragement in response? Two things. First, think on the things that will make you thankful. Put reminders on your walls, on your mirrors, all around you, that will encourage you to count your blessings and remember how good you really have it. Do you have food to eat every day? You have cause to be thankful. Do you have clothes to wear every day? You have cause to be thankful.
Second, consider spending less time watching TV and reading magazines which are specifically intended to cause you to be discontent with what you have. Spend more time thanking God for His great provision, and reading His Word, which will remind you of all the stupendously mind-boggling gifts you have in Jesus — for now, and all of eternity. You might have a little more joy every day, because you will find contentment with your life as it is now.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: Your heart will follow your head. What you believe about your circumstances will determine your perspective, your attitude and your response. So where’s your head these days?
Feb 8, 2010 | Stories, The Good Word
I’m sorry all has been quiet on the blogging front for a few days! Sometimes the food you’re cooking needs to stew in the pot for a little while longer before it’s ready to eat. And sometimes I think it’s better to let my thoughts stew a little longer before they come to the table! Things are well and I have lots of good stuff to share with you, including pictures of the new photos nicely hung in our flat, and some other craftyness we got up to on Saturday! YAY!
Anywho, I was reading in Numbers 7 the other morning, and let’s be honest, it’s one of those repetitive chapters that you might be tempted to skip over because you’re just reading the same thing over and over again. The people of God are still in the wilderness, and Moses has just finished setting up the tabernacle. It’s anointed and consecrated, including all its furnishings, and it’s time for the leaders of each of the tribes of Israel to make an offering.
Each day for twelve days, one of the leaders brings an offering to the Lord: a silver platter and a silver bowl with fine flour and oil, a gold pan full of incense, a young bull, a ram, and male lamb in its first year, a kid of the goats, and then two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay so that last part was a joke. The next day, the next leader in line brings his offering. And guess what? It’s exactly the same. And so on and so on for twelve days.
The part that might lose you is the fact that even though each leader, each day brought the exact same offering, each leader’s offering is still listed out. Including how much the silver platters and bowls and gold pans weighed, the age of the animals being offered, and the type of offering each thing represented. It’s written Exactly the same. Exactly the same. Exactly the same. Times twelve.
Sometimes I like to think about why something would be listed like that, twelve times in a row, instead of just writing “and everybody gave the same thing and that was good, and at the end of it, the Lord was pleased and so He talked to Moses.†You know, this system of offerings was a type and shadow of Jesus — it was basically foreshadowing the perfect sacrifice that was ultimately going to be made which would cleanse us of our sins once and for all.
If you think about it, each of the tribes of Israel was different. Some were considered more honourable because they descended from Jacob’s wives instead of his concubines. The firstborn and the biggest were usually honoured. The people of Israel remembered the personalities of each of the sons of Jacob who became those twelve tribes. I think they perhaps developed reputations as a result.
Based on this, it might be expected that the big tribes, because they were big tribes, would like to bring greater offerings. Or perhaps the smaller ones who gave later in the sequence during those twelve days would like to try to out-give the bigger tribes, to demonstrate more devotion to the Lord. But it seems like no one was really playing around — the same sacrifice was made for everyone. Tough or timid, great or small…the list was listed again, exactly the same. Exactly the same. Times twelve.
What can we glean from this tidbit of interest? Among the many lessons, I think there is the simple fact that Jesus is our perfect offering. Once and for all. We don’t need to try to bring anything before God besides Jesus. We don’t need to try to point to our good works as a demonstration of our worthiness for salvation (although I think it’s important to do the will of God, and the works He has planned for us to walk in.) When we come before God, we don’t need to drag ourselves through the mud on our knees to get there, and we don’t need to feel like we should be working our way into His presence. We have boldness and confident access because we all have exactly the same sacrifice to bring to God: we are coming through the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
And this the Good News. Even if you feel like you’ve done too many wrong things to be accepted by God, you still only need the exact same sacrifice as everyone else — Jesus. And if you feel like you’ve done quite well with your life and you’ve pleased God and probably deserve salvation a little more than everybody else, this is a good reminder that you also need Jesus, just like everybody else. And I suppose that’s a lesson worth talking about, over and over again. And I suppose that’s a lesson worth talking about, over and over again.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: All of us…all of us always need Jesus. He is the complete, whole and perfect sacrifice for you, for me, and for everyone.
Feb 3, 2010 | South Africa, Stories, The Good Word
We’re in a season of being very careful with our finances at the moment. I hope even when we are in seasons in the future where things aren’t so tight that we continue to put into practice the things we’re learning now. We’re thinking about the way we spend God’s money (since it’s all His) in light of eternity, and living in a more and more disciplined way, so that we can give more away. We hope to keep living like this for the rest of our lives.
Something all of this has been teaching me is patience. It seems like before I left the States, when I was working a 9 to 5, if I wanted something, I went out and bought it. I didn’t think much about it, unless it was really expensive. I hadn’t really submitted my finances to God’s leading. Now that we’re here, and in such a different situation, I’m careful about my spending. We are living on a budget to cover the bare necessities, and we trust God for what we need beyond that.
One thing I’ve committed to the Lord is the desire to make our flat feel more like home, and to decorate, despite the fact that it’s not really in the budget for me to do so. I just trusted the Lord to provide as He saw fit. I wanted to print out some pictures to help spruce things up a few weeks ago, so I picked some that I thought would be great and went to the Kodak picture maker at the grocery store. I was eager to get way more pictures than I needed, and fell back into the old mindset of spending without really thinking. The machine printed out a receipt, which I handed to Mark. He was going to wait with the Bear for the photos to print while I finished the shopping. A few minutes later Mark came over, because the machine wasn’t working. We began to discuss the photos being printed.  I realised I had just attempted to print out way more pictures than I needed, and we would’ve had to pay more money than we really had for this non-essential. Fortunately, the machine was broken and wasn’t going to print the pictures anyway! I got a second chance, and just chose two or three favourites, and went through the cropping and printing process again. The second time around, the machine was still broken and wouldn’t print. I was really discouraged and kind of wanted to give up.
There are new photos in these frames now!
We decided to go the pharmacy across the parking lot that also had a picture printer, and I printed out the two photos I really wanted, and that was it. I planned on just finding old photos to fill the other frames, and I used creative means to fill in the gaps for one photo that was too small for the frame. Â I felt good about ‘making due’ and not going overboard, but part of me still would’ve liked some good pictures of the Bear (instead of the old ones of Hero Hubby and me) to go in the frames.
I promise I’m getting somewhere! So, yesterday the Bear and I went across the street to the grocery store to get a few essentials. I ran back to switch one item for another while we were at the checkout, and some of the ladies who bag the groceries were smiling and playing with the Bear. After I finished paying and got things packed into the pram (stroller) to head back home, one of the ‘bag ladies’ came up to me and started saying something in Afrikaans. I apologised that I couldn’t speak Afrikaans, and she repeated herself in English: There are photos of the baby over there.
I went to the cigarette/lottery ticket/customer service counter, and another lady produced these absolutely beautiful photos of the Bear. (The photos I wanted had printed out when they fixed the machine.) They showed me each of them and another lady literally grinned as she held each one up that she liked! I think they’d looked through them a few times. 🙂 Â My heart was sore because I knew I didn’t need to spend money to buy them all. We don’t really have it to spend. I asked if they were going to throw them away if I couldn’t buy them, and explained that I had already printed out two of them at another store and I didn’t really have the money to buy them all. The lady behind the register said I would have to buy them or they’d throw them away, but the other two ladies also looking at the pictures said they couldn’t throw them away because they were just too beautiful. They started speaking to the lady behind the till in Afrikaans, and then one of them said:
“Do you have 15 Rand?”
15 Rand is less than $2 or about £1.20, and is less than a third of the original price. I definitely could spare that much for those gorgeous photos!! I was overjoyed when they rang me up and almost in tears on the way home.
Just a few days ago, I was thinking about a story a friend of mine shared at a Bible study I attended years ago. She was talking about how her family’s finances were very tight and she couldn’t really afford to buy makeup. She’d given this concern to the Lord, because she always wore makeup and it was really difficult for her. Shortly afterwards, someone showed up on her doorstep with makeup. We all rejoiced at God’s goodness.
When I remembered that story, I asked the Lord, “Lord do you really care about that kind of stuff? I know you do. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I guess.” And yesterday, He showed up with my “makeup” and it blessed my socks off. We serve such an amazing God. And He does sweat the small stuff — He is intimately acquainted with our ways. In His timing (this is where the patience comes in) He supplies in His exceeding abundance.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: Bring your cares to the Lord, the big ones and the small ones, and trust that with patience, in His perfect timing, He will supply your every need, with exceeding abundance!
Jan 27, 2010 | Stories, The Good Word
This morning as I was preparing to spend time with the Lord, I’d already written down a few things and looked at a few Scriptures that were on my mind. Very appropriately, one of them was James 1: 22, But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. As I prepared to read the chapters in the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan I’ve mentioned to you before, I just took a moment to ask the Lord if there was anything in the way, inhibiting my ability to connect with Him and hear from Him.
I think our sins separate us from the Lord and cloud our ability to hear clearly. It’s as if we’re one of those boxy old boomboxes and sin causes us to push down and close up our antennas. Since I was about to dive into another chapter in Leviticus I felt it especially important to make sure all lines of communication were open! Anyway, the next thought in my mind was the poor attitude I’d had in the kitchen in an interaction with my Hero Hubby just a few moments earlier. I asked the Lord for forgiveness and promptly got up, went to the living room where HH was and asked for his forgiveness, too. He forgave me, and asked for forgiveness as well.
Friends, all I can say is that there is just such a beautiful joy in obeying the Word of God, and asking for forgiveness, from Him and from others for the big and the small. Even though I have to do it on a regular basis, and it takes humility and effort, it brings such joy. I was a bit teary-eyed as I gave my Hero Hubby a kiss and headed back to the bedroom to continue getting into the Word. What joy there is when we are at peace with one another!
The Sermon in a Nutshell: Ask for forgiveness, and genuinely seek it. Forgive others, as you would want to be forgiven. This may be a lesson we learned in our childhood, but still it’s one of the most relevant rules for us to live by day in and day out.
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