Our Bible study group is listening for the voice of God. Sounds intriguing and a little out there, doesn’t it? It’s funny that we don’t hesitate to use the words “supernatural” and “mystical” to describe the dark arts. But growing up in a 1950’s Southern Baptist church, I was not encouraged in any way to step outside our flannel-board Sunday School box.
But God Almighty is most certainly supernatural, powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent – in short, awesome. To think that He might be interested in whispering to my heart thrills me no end. We are studying “Discerning the Voice of God” by Priscilla Shirer. And we are learning that God does speak but that we must prepare ourselves to hear Him.
Today we talked about seeking His will in our lives. And a very wise young woman said, “It seems to me that He just wants us to love him. And that if we seek a relationship with Him and love Him, the rest will come. We will be in His will and He will guide and use our decisions to His glory.” (Even though I’ve used quotes, I’m sure those weren’t the exact words, but close.)
So here I sit on my back porch, talking to Him and most certainly loving Him. And it seems too simple and way too easy. Because He is easy to love, isn’t He? And I think, this can’t be it. What about Bible study, and works, and memorizing Scripture, and loving others better than myself, and all that instruction I receive and notes I take and reading I do? Can it be that easy?
And I rebel against that...
Outside the corner of my porch stands a very large holly tree, tall as our house. It used to literally hug the screened porch. I love the tree but I hated the fact that it seemed to be depositing creepy crawlies onto my porch.
So when we had the porch glassed in and the construction guys told me a little nervously that they had to cut it way back, I was all for it. They assured me it would remain healthy and it has. They also assured me that it would grow back and it has not. But that’s okay!
Have you ever seen a kid’s ant farm? That kind of cross section of dirt where you can watch them work? That’s what my holly looks like. If you stand in my back yard and look toward the porch, you see a nice round holly. If you sit where I’m sitting, you see half a tree, almost as if it’s been cut top to bottom right down the middle.
As a result, I can watch a multitude of little birds of all kinds who live in its branches. And that’s exactly what made me understand why this “love” situation with God is hard for me to accept. It's too much! I sit here and I enjoy the peace, the wind chimes, the quiet and the birds and I talk to God. And I am amazed and grateful that He has provided this for me. And all He asks in return is that I love Him.
So I will continue to pursue this precious time with Him and wonder that He could love me so much. He really is all I need.
Matthew 22:36-38
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Showing posts with label Love of Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love of Jesus. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
I Know You Do
Nature’s playing her little joke on me. Only hope of the possibility of snow gets me through the long months of February and March. And yet, it’s clear skies that result in colder temps. Low pressure systems bring in clouds, but warmer temperatures. So here I sit shivering in my little reading corner, squinting at sun and wishing for gray.
February prompts us to think of cruises, small tender plants squatting under the cold ground, and Valentine’s Day, the day dedicated to love. Growing into a loving relationship with someone, we wait nervously until one or the other of us says the words that promise commitment, a future together. “I love you.” We yearn to hear and to repeat them.
As the relationship grows, it often becomes more about proving that love. When we had been married for several years, on that special day my poor husband might as well have worn a battle helmet to work. He would need it walking in the door Valentine’s night. I was all but waiting at the door like the woman in the comic strip who would wait with arms crossed, rolling pin in one hand, for her husband to come in late.
My husband is a sweetheart. He didn’t come home late and certainly not on Valentine’s Day. And he never failed to bring me a card and flowers or candy. But for some sad reason, I felt he needed to prove his love to me by bringing me a wildly extravagant gift.
As we got older, we realized that there’s nothing as important as the love itself. We say “I love you” often and we mean it each time. It doesn’t just hold the promise of a committed future now. It also holds the hope, the memories of years together, and the peace of a firm foundation.
And we’ve learned something even more amazing. A greater gift than the response of “I love you, too” is the reply, “I know you do”. That one phrase says you respect me, you are good to me, and your eyes tell me how you feel.
To love God enough to want to please Him is a wonderful way to live. But even more rewarding is the deep and secure knowledge of how very much He loves us. When He says, “I love you”, we can say, “I know you do.”
I John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
February prompts us to think of cruises, small tender plants squatting under the cold ground, and Valentine’s Day, the day dedicated to love. Growing into a loving relationship with someone, we wait nervously until one or the other of us says the words that promise commitment, a future together. “I love you.” We yearn to hear and to repeat them.
As the relationship grows, it often becomes more about proving that love. When we had been married for several years, on that special day my poor husband might as well have worn a battle helmet to work. He would need it walking in the door Valentine’s night. I was all but waiting at the door like the woman in the comic strip who would wait with arms crossed, rolling pin in one hand, for her husband to come in late.
My husband is a sweetheart. He didn’t come home late and certainly not on Valentine’s Day. And he never failed to bring me a card and flowers or candy. But for some sad reason, I felt he needed to prove his love to me by bringing me a wildly extravagant gift.
As we got older, we realized that there’s nothing as important as the love itself. We say “I love you” often and we mean it each time. It doesn’t just hold the promise of a committed future now. It also holds the hope, the memories of years together, and the peace of a firm foundation.
And we’ve learned something even more amazing. A greater gift than the response of “I love you, too” is the reply, “I know you do”. That one phrase says you respect me, you are good to me, and your eyes tell me how you feel.
To love God enough to want to please Him is a wonderful way to live. But even more rewarding is the deep and secure knowledge of how very much He loves us. When He says, “I love you”, we can say, “I know you do.”
I John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Hot and Sour Soup
Once again, not what it’s about. But the analogy stormed in. When we order Chinese, Steve always gets some. And the name of it always intrigued me. Because how can it be both? And yet, he assures me that it is.
And Christmas hits us in much the same way – exciting yet painful, sweet yet mournful, peaceful but stressful. Every year I live in anticipation of the season. Labor Day promises fall, which delivers the holidays. Then I get into it and I begin to remember the painful parts. And sometimes I’m even ready for it to be finished before it can get rolling.
I remember being twelve or thirteen and a powerful sadness settling over my Christmas. No, it had nothing to do with Santa – that was much earlier. It had to do with a realization that there were no real surprises left. Oh I could, and would, receive many wonderful gifts. But I think I had come to the understanding that stuff didn’t cut it, that there was really nothing I could receive that would bring lasting happiness.
I was a believer then, had been since I was a little girl and my faith was important to me. So I knew that I had the one thing in my life, Jesus, that would get me though anything. Perhaps it was that I now knew that Christmas was indeed meant to be lived thoughout the entire year and I also knew that it could not and would not be.
The irony for any woman who buys gifts, decorates, and bakes is that there will never be enough time to do it all and still sit for hours with friends and loved ones watching the Hallmark channel and munching home-baked cookies and candy. (Probably just as well.) Childhood tricks us. As children, we yearn for the day. And beginning two or three weeks in advance of the 25th, time slows to molasses. We believe it will never come.
Then we grow up and remember that feeling. And we want it back so we can fill it with made-for-tv Christmas movies and Kodak moments with family. I used to talk to my mom about my frustration and she would say, “Christmas is just a day.” And I would mentally call her Scrooge. Yet I have never known a less Scrooge-like person. She truly comes to mind when I read about the widow’s gift (Mark 12:42-44). She had so little; yet everything she received passed through her hands to someone else.
As I get older, I realize what she meant. Certainly, she intended the obvious that we need to practice our faith daily, year-round. But more than that, there is only so much cooking and celebrating we can do, can even tolerate, before it’s time to celebrate the day. And usually that season before comes with a mixture of nostalgia, excitement, pain of loss, loneliness, and joy. And once again, my Father understands exactly how I feel.
On that night so long ago, heaven must have surely been a place of mixed emotions. The angels must have experienced sadness as they bid farewell to their precious Jesus. Our Father probably felt great pride and joy as His Son left the glory of a throne, prepared to step into the skin of a tiny, defenseless baby. Yet He must also have grieved as the plan was set in motion to save us all by His ultimate death on a cross.
A strange Christmas greeting to you, I know. But I guess the message is, whatever you are going through as you read this, know that your Lord has felt it, understands it and feels it with you. Have a peaceful, joy-filled Merry Christmas!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
And Christmas hits us in much the same way – exciting yet painful, sweet yet mournful, peaceful but stressful. Every year I live in anticipation of the season. Labor Day promises fall, which delivers the holidays. Then I get into it and I begin to remember the painful parts. And sometimes I’m even ready for it to be finished before it can get rolling.
I remember being twelve or thirteen and a powerful sadness settling over my Christmas. No, it had nothing to do with Santa – that was much earlier. It had to do with a realization that there were no real surprises left. Oh I could, and would, receive many wonderful gifts. But I think I had come to the understanding that stuff didn’t cut it, that there was really nothing I could receive that would bring lasting happiness.
I was a believer then, had been since I was a little girl and my faith was important to me. So I knew that I had the one thing in my life, Jesus, that would get me though anything. Perhaps it was that I now knew that Christmas was indeed meant to be lived thoughout the entire year and I also knew that it could not and would not be.
The irony for any woman who buys gifts, decorates, and bakes is that there will never be enough time to do it all and still sit for hours with friends and loved ones watching the Hallmark channel and munching home-baked cookies and candy. (Probably just as well.) Childhood tricks us. As children, we yearn for the day. And beginning two or three weeks in advance of the 25th, time slows to molasses. We believe it will never come.
Then we grow up and remember that feeling. And we want it back so we can fill it with made-for-tv Christmas movies and Kodak moments with family. I used to talk to my mom about my frustration and she would say, “Christmas is just a day.” And I would mentally call her Scrooge. Yet I have never known a less Scrooge-like person. She truly comes to mind when I read about the widow’s gift (Mark 12:42-44). She had so little; yet everything she received passed through her hands to someone else.
As I get older, I realize what she meant. Certainly, she intended the obvious that we need to practice our faith daily, year-round. But more than that, there is only so much cooking and celebrating we can do, can even tolerate, before it’s time to celebrate the day. And usually that season before comes with a mixture of nostalgia, excitement, pain of loss, loneliness, and joy. And once again, my Father understands exactly how I feel.
On that night so long ago, heaven must have surely been a place of mixed emotions. The angels must have experienced sadness as they bid farewell to their precious Jesus. Our Father probably felt great pride and joy as His Son left the glory of a throne, prepared to step into the skin of a tiny, defenseless baby. Yet He must also have grieved as the plan was set in motion to save us all by His ultimate death on a cross.
A strange Christmas greeting to you, I know. But I guess the message is, whatever you are going through as you read this, know that your Lord has felt it, understands it and feels it with you. Have a peaceful, joy-filled Merry Christmas!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Looking Out for Number 6,856,559,598
I wonder when it starts to flipflop. When we were children in Sunday school, we learned the lessons – Jesus loves me, do unto others as you would like for them to do to you, share, be kind, and don’t talk back. (I’m not sure that the last one is word for word Biblical except for honor your parents and respect those in authority, but we really heard it a lot.) And we got it! If you treated other people with kindness, they would do the same for you. And the world seemed right-side-up.
Then we went out to play and got chosen last in dodge ball. And we started to look at how our brothers and sisters and the neighborhood kids were faring. And we began to wonder if we had it as good as they did. Were we getting everything we needed? We entered school and our horizons broadened and we began to wonder “am I getting mine?” And slowly it began to tip.
Because this upside-down living that Jesus asks from us is often more about us than it is about Him. Let me explain.
I’ve mentioned John 3:30 before: “He must become greater; I must become less.” Jesus’ first and greatest commandment in Matthew, Mark and Luke is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) This one we know and we don’t argue with it! We struggle and forget and ask forgiveness, but it is there in our minds as something important and we completely agree with it.
The second commandment of Jesus is where we begin to war with the world. “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Mark 12:31) As myself? Are you kidding? I mean, I do love my family that much and I have friends, good friends, and well, most of the people I know from church. I love all of them and, most of the time, I am good to them and sometimes I think I love them as myself.
But really, that lady at the store that looks at me funny? Love her as much as myself? And the guy who cut me off in traffic and then lowered his window to scream at me? And the neighbor who keeps asking me to come over and help her decide where to move her shrubs?
And this thing is two-pronged! Not only am I supposed to love those people as much as I do myself (and they’re not that loveable), I'm also not supposed to care about what the world tells me is so important.
But the Home and Garden network is telling me that I’m supposed to care more about how my house is decorated! And Bravo is telling me that I am going to have to have a heap more money if I plan to be one of the Housewives of Clarendon County. Don’t you sometimes want to just scream at the world “am I invisible here?” All I have to do is turn on any tv channel and watch for fifteen minutes and it’s obvious I’m not measuring up.
The saying goes, “Jesus first, everybody else second (just so you know, that’s where the huge number came from), me third.” As I said, most of us don’t have a problem with the Jesus first concept. We get it and we try to do it. It’s the “everybody else second" piece of it that challenges us. Because the world says that if we aren’t looking out for ourselves, if we aren’t obsessed with how we look and what we have, we don’t belong.
If we follow Jesus in His commandment, we honestly are not of this world and we will never be completely comfortable here. But that has nothing to do with feeling at peace here. When I am wrapped up in “am I getting everything that is due me,” I am headed down a road that will leave me unsatisfied. But when I am concerned more with how to love someone else, I have the mind of Jesus and He is the Prince of Peace.
John 14:27
Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Then we went out to play and got chosen last in dodge ball. And we started to look at how our brothers and sisters and the neighborhood kids were faring. And we began to wonder if we had it as good as they did. Were we getting everything we needed? We entered school and our horizons broadened and we began to wonder “am I getting mine?” And slowly it began to tip.
Because this upside-down living that Jesus asks from us is often more about us than it is about Him. Let me explain.
I’ve mentioned John 3:30 before: “He must become greater; I must become less.” Jesus’ first and greatest commandment in Matthew, Mark and Luke is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) This one we know and we don’t argue with it! We struggle and forget and ask forgiveness, but it is there in our minds as something important and we completely agree with it.
The second commandment of Jesus is where we begin to war with the world. “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Mark 12:31) As myself? Are you kidding? I mean, I do love my family that much and I have friends, good friends, and well, most of the people I know from church. I love all of them and, most of the time, I am good to them and sometimes I think I love them as myself.
But really, that lady at the store that looks at me funny? Love her as much as myself? And the guy who cut me off in traffic and then lowered his window to scream at me? And the neighbor who keeps asking me to come over and help her decide where to move her shrubs?
And this thing is two-pronged! Not only am I supposed to love those people as much as I do myself (and they’re not that loveable), I'm also not supposed to care about what the world tells me is so important.
But the Home and Garden network is telling me that I’m supposed to care more about how my house is decorated! And Bravo is telling me that I am going to have to have a heap more money if I plan to be one of the Housewives of Clarendon County. Don’t you sometimes want to just scream at the world “am I invisible here?” All I have to do is turn on any tv channel and watch for fifteen minutes and it’s obvious I’m not measuring up.
The saying goes, “Jesus first, everybody else second (just so you know, that’s where the huge number came from), me third.” As I said, most of us don’t have a problem with the Jesus first concept. We get it and we try to do it. It’s the “everybody else second" piece of it that challenges us. Because the world says that if we aren’t looking out for ourselves, if we aren’t obsessed with how we look and what we have, we don’t belong.
If we follow Jesus in His commandment, we honestly are not of this world and we will never be completely comfortable here. But that has nothing to do with feeling at peace here. When I am wrapped up in “am I getting everything that is due me,” I am headed down a road that will leave me unsatisfied. But when I am concerned more with how to love someone else, I have the mind of Jesus and He is the Prince of Peace.
John 14:27
Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
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