Living life with steps of faith

"There are 361 references* to the wording, 'If…' in the Bible. The Bible is not only a way of life and the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ, but the Bible is a book of decisions.   ' I will do this… if you do this…'   ' I will bless you if you….' Even Jesus did not do well in certain places and he moved on and did well in other places. If you follow the decisions God has made for you, then you are going to come out right. But if you don’t follow the decisions God has made for you, then you will encounter turmoil.   It is important for us to find ways to turn around and say, 'oops, I went left, but I should have gone right.'" - Daniel Reed, Hope Builders *The exact number of references has not been verified.

Modesty.  This morning as I was getting dressed I was reminded of how contentious the idea of modesty could be at the conservative Christian school I attended as an undergraduate.  It was the young women's responsibility to dress in a way that wouldn't "tease" the young men.  The women were held responsible for protecting the men's morality.  I remember reflecting on this as a student and wondering if the same rules would apply if the school were located in a southern state instead of the cold, wintry north.  I also thought it might be better for us women to desensitize the men from skin so they weren't turned on so easily! Recently, I've encountered two other reactions to modesty that were different from my college experience. In one, a group of immigrants from a very warm climate of the world were complaining that the public school's dress code regarding modesty was too strict.  One father explained that the clothing his daughter wore was perfectl...

Why is there suffering in the world? A.       God created a beautiful world and gave humans volition (the power of using one’s own will). ( Genesis 1 & 2 ) B.       God gave us instructions on how to live well.  We can choose to follow God’s advice or choose to go our own way. (The book: The Bible .) C.        Problem is that when we choose to go our own way we create brokenness.  That brokenness impacts everything and everyone! ( Genesis 3 & 4 ) D.       There is suffering in the world because people choose to disobey God’s wise advice and the earth, our bodies, and our relationships have suffered as a result. ( Romans 8:18-22 ) So how do we find Joy in the midst of the suffering? A.       Recognize that Joy flows from God & we become conduits of this Joy when we worship God. ( Psalm ) B.    ...

A young man is put to death for blaspheming God's name during a fight.  It wasn't the fight that killed him, but his misuse of God's name.  We read about this incident in Leviticus 24 and it serves as the antidote for the famous, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" legislation. I read the story and I am humbled by the fullness of God's holiness.  I live by grace and sometimes I allow that grace to interfere with my checking myself for sin. How many times have I injured another person and felt justified and even proud?  Have I ever been disrespectful with God's name? Would I have survived during the time period in which the Law was being discovered? I am a good girl, but not that good. None of us really are. Yesterday I had to have a disciplinary conversation with a young girl on my soccer team about something she did that unintentionally caused harm.  She didn't mean it for evil, she just really didn't know any better.  She could have felt justi...

When I was in middle school I created a list of 100 lifetime goals.  Using colorful markers and white pieces of computer paper I recorded these dreams of mine for the life that I wanted. In high school I recreated the list, crossing off the few items I had completed. In college, in writing pen, I added several more and removed new achievements. Yesterday, I went to find the list and was unable to locate it. So, I sat down to write a new list and realized how much my adult perspective had shifted things. A hundred goals at an idealistic age of thirteen was no problem.  But now that I have seen the work, patience, and obstacles that must be overcome to accomplish each goal, even creating a list of eight was difficult.  My new list, I suspect contains some of the items on my old list.  "Travel to Italy," "Be in a movie or television series," and "Learn another language."  It also contains some new ones, with lengthy clauses, "Have the entire house c...

As God completed his act of creating, he ceased and rested.  Completion of a task should find its fulfillment in "an end." As a woman going through infertility, I wonder when my work will be done and when it can come to an end.  Some say infertility is a continuous battle, and is a grief that never completely resolves.  Yet, through Resolve, the National Infertility Association, I have heard various stories of how different women and men found their struggle resolved.  Whether it be through adoption, birth, or advocacy, there is hope of a time in which the struggle will cease and we'll be able to once again rest. I wonder about that day and whether or not it will feel like a holy or sacred moment. Now, I know that this passage isn't speaking to infertility, but rather fertility.  "On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing, and He ceased/rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done." In a like manner t...

"Brothers and sisters, we don't want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia.  We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive.  It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves. God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again since you are helping with your prayers for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people." - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Last year it was unlit lights on my Christmas tree. This year it is a stack of unopened Christmas cards sitting on our stairwell.  Didn't quite realize why I wasn't opening them until I came across an infertility blog that mentioned how difficult it is to open Christmas cards.  Each one holds a picture of a happy family or tells the story of kids or grandkids. Some act as a birth announcement. I am fighting the Christmas blues and have been doing fairly well until this last week.  But my husband and I have admitted to each other that we just can't wait for Christmas to be over. And yet, the Scripture that keeps coming to my mind is Nehemiah 8:10: 10  Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing  prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy  of the  Lord  is your strength.”  So we will go and enjoy choice food and drinks and try to stay focused on the fact th...

There are different stages I've been through on this infertility struggle.  The first was to not accept the diagnosis.  That whole pentecostal charismatic Christian idea that if you don't claim the disease it isn't really yours.  It will somehow go away.  But, then I did some research and the more I read the more I identified with the traits of someone with PCOS.  A few weeks ago I went through that denial stage again.  "Perhaps the doctor made a mistake and misdiagnosed me."  "Didn't the second ultra-sound technician say... wouldn't that mean that nothing was wrong."  etc. I kind of feel like I'm back in this stage again.  "Perhaps my medication is contributing to the fact that we are not having children." (Even though this medicine was introduced after diagnosis and I immediately experienced benefits to it.) Then I went through the "I don't know" stage. "I don't know what to think."  "I don'...

A passage that addresses all my questions and fears that I now claim as my own: Exodus 23:25-26, "Worship the LORD your God,  and his blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you,  and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.  I will give you a full life span." Amen!

Augustine: "Evil people make evil use of all the good creations of God. Good people, on the other hand, make good use of the evil actions of the wicked. And who is as good as the one and only God?" he later writes... "For as the wicked turn the good works of God to an evil use, so inversely God turns the evil works of human beings to good.  What can be worse than what Judas did? He was chosen as the treasurer among the Twelve who would dispense gifts to the poor. But instead of being thankful for so great an honor and favor, he took the money and lost righteousness.  Being dead, he betrayed life.  The one he followed as a disciple he betrayed as an enemy.  Yet our Lord made a good use of his wickedness, allowing himself to be betrayed so that he might redeem us... If God employs the evil works of the devil himself for good, whatever the evil person does my making bad use of God's good gifts only hurts himself. It in no way contradicts the goodness ...

Recently I've come to a place of peace related to my diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.  For so long I've not known what to pray.  As a person of faith that has probably been the most difficult aspect - what should I say to God in regard to this diagnosis.  About a week ago, I found the answer.  I let go and released my desire to be a mother to God, recognizing that He may or may not fulfill that desire.  And now I have peace, whether I became a mother or not. I love how Paul and Timothy write in Philippians 4:11-13: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Before I was praying, "Lord, I trust your perfect timing in making m...

--> Sermon: Love - Romance/Eros                                                           Scripture:  Song of Songs 1:1-4a, 4:9-10, 6:3a, 8:4                                     "A man was reading his paper early one morning at the breakfast table. His wife came over to him and patted him on the shoulder. She looked at him, smiled, and said, “I bet you don’t know what today is, do you?” He looked at her and said, “Of course I know what day it is!” and went back to reading his paper. He didn’t have a CLUE what day ...

I was just reading the "Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human" chapter of C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves" and was struck by his definition of what patriotism is and is not.  Lewis explains patriotism as caring for your home country despite of its weaknesses.  He warns that when patriotism becomes based upon the value or worth of your home in comparison to that of others it becomes diseased. It isn't because your home is "good" that you are patriotic, but it is because it is your home. This was really insightful for me, as I've struggled with the whole concept of patriotism since 9/11.  In fact I think many have struggled with this idea, because it has become so closely linked with "righteousness."  But what is righteous about the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq? And this is where Lewis' words really spoke to me and have made me reconsider my own generations' response to war.  He writes: Where the sentiment of patrioti...

The Jahi McMath case has troubled me over the last few weeks.   How can I pray and ask God to heal this little girl when so many other families have made the heartwrenching choice to let go and remove life support.   If she were to be healed, wouldn’t this be harmful to those families who accepted the doctors’ prognosis and let go?   Wouldn’t it be cruel of God to heal her when others weren’t “given that opportunity” to be healed? Today, as I sat down to read my daily devotional, I reflected upon the story of the deceased child found in chapter five of Mark.   The community declared and mourned the death of twelve-year-old Tabitha.   Yet Jesus said, “This child is not dead but asleep.”     This statement of Jesus makes me wonder two things.   Was there something Jesus knew about death that the culture of the time didn’t know?   Was she really, truly still alive, yet only asleep?   Or, was this Jesus speaking a...

I went to the doctor today and he said, "Worse case scenario, it is _____."  I started thinking about that statement, "Worse case scenario" and began to fill the blank in with all of the possibilities my mind could come up with. After each I asked myself if that really would be the worse case scenario and with each I could see an opening for the grace of God.  What might be defined as a worse case scenario from a doctor's perspective, from a Christian's perspective might not be all that bad.  Actually, a doctor's worse case scenario might be a Christian's best case scenario.  And what I realized is that with Christ there is no worse case scenario because in every scenario God wins!

This Sunday I fell off a member of my church's pedestal.  And it hurt some when I fell.  From this person's perspective, I had done wrong; from my perspective, I acted with grace in alignment with the church's teaching.  I have to admit that I don't like having people not pleased with me.  I want to correct or fix the situation.  But what I realized today as I sat before God, contemplating the wise words of a woman of prayer in our church and the words just read of Jean-Pierre de Caussade, I should celebrate and be glad that I fell, because I never should have been on the pedestal in the first place. I can come up with very human reasons as to why God is blessing us as a gathered community of faith right now.  I can also come up with very spiritualized reasons.  But I know that according to God's word and my life experience that it rains on both the righteous and the unrighteous.  We may be in a season of blessing right now, but I am sure we wil...

This morning during my devotions I read a quote that really struck my attention.  I would use the quote here, but if I did I would be taking it out of context as I don't believe I interpreted it as the writer intended. But, how I interpreted it was meaningful to me.  The idea I heard was that sin is something we discover that becomes deeply ingrained within ourselves.  I like this idea, because as I have discerned sin in my life, I have often found that it is something I've been doing for a while and never considered to be sin.  I often find my recognition of something in my life as sin to be quite surprising and then I feel sorrowful because I hadn't realized how what I had been doing had been so hurtful to myself and others.  I like this concept because it speaks to those areas that seem so right at the time and can be justifiable until we are enlightened to view it differently.  And I like this perspective because it shows how sin can go unrecognized, an...

This morning I read the story of Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dream with the result being those living in Egypt were saved from a famine.    In this story, Joseph's response to Pharaoh's request to interpret the dream stood out to me, "I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." (Gen. 41:16)  Then I opened up my Bible and read from the 11th chapter of Hebrews and listened to the stories of people who took "risky" steps of faith, some resulting in their own torturous death.  This chapter concludes with these words, "the world was not worthy of them" (Heb. 11:38) and "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us that only together with us would they be made perfect." (Heb. 11:39-40) I know a handful of people who have the faith of Joseph and could say "God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires" without ad...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what it means to be set apart for God and how all of us Christians are set apart for God.  I've thought about how I started the race well as a child, having been confident of my faith and committed to living differently as described in the Bible.  Then considered how my teenage years I gave into pressures to "conform to the world."  It was in little ways that I gave in - telling a dirty joke, laughing when I shouldn't, and wearing "attractive" clothes.  I remember hearing my grandmother say on multiple occasions, "what is so bad about being a nerd?"  Then in college, I chose to be set apart by joining other Christians at a Christian college. I had hoped to be humbled by having others around me of deep faith.  Instead what I discovered were things that I didn't like about Christians.  Yes, I was blessed my first couple of years in a cocoon of growth, but in the later years I began to questio...