I think most of us are creatures of comfort and I know I am to a fault so when I am in an uncomfortable situation- like being sick- I can't do anything I normally do, make good decisions, and exercise common sense.
I am very grateful, though, for the way my illness worked out.
I got sick on a Tuesday and I couldn't move- I had all sorts of aches, pains, irritations, and nonsense going on in me and I had to sleep it off. Only my husband was working and I had to watch our son.
I blocked the stairs off and the dear child just played by himself for the better part of the day- not getting into any trouble and letting me sleep in peace. He took a nap with me in the late afternoon.
He got sick the next day and since I had been through the worst of it I was able to meet his needs and nurse him better.
I haven't been sick like that since before I was married and I am so grateful God took care of us like He did.
That was almost three weeks ago now and I'm *just* beginning to feel like myself again. It took two weeks for me to be back to normal energy and my appetite has finally revived. Now that I'm more comfortable I'm in a better mood and able to write.
Easter is this weekend and whatever you may think of this holiday that originated as a pagan holiday, you must admit it is the one time of the year we really emphasize the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
Christ's sacrifice is something we should emphasize all the time.
For instance, my pastor once said, 'is what they did to you worse than what Christ suffered on the cross? No? Then forgive them'. Bitterness, emnity, and wrath come all too easily out of those little, pointed comments people make to us but we have to remember what Christ forgave and move on.
Because of the nature of this weekend, my bible reading, and my pastor's teaching this past Wednesday, I've been thinking a lot about Jesus.
Obviously, I love Jesus and I can't wait to see His face. I'll admit, I'm most excited to see Him in all His glory with the most violent God haters who ever lived bowing before Him in absolute submission. One of my favourite verses of all time- definitely in my top three is this one:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a
white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Revelation 19:11
Well, I'm excited about that- it's going to be awesome.
Anyways, I thought I'd share some of the things the Lord has put on my heart about Jesus recently and over the years.
This verse has convicted me for a long long time:
Behold my servant, whom I have chosen;
my beloved, in whom my soul is well
pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he
shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall
any man hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and
smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send
forth judgment unto victory.
And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Matthew 12:18-21
I am not a gentle person. I can be but I have to think about it and put effort into it. If I want something done I jerk everything (and everyone) around until it's done. Sometimes I'm trying to wipe my son's nose and he's struggling and I'm finding myself with a strong hand holding his head straight while the other hand is aggressively wiping his face.
Then I remember this verse- a bruised reed shall he not break. Our Saviour is a gentle Saviour. He won't even break something that's a rough wind away from falling over. It's such a small, little thing, but the Lord brings it to my heart on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.
Here's a great one in Psalms:
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy
salvation: and thy right hand hath holden
me up, and thy gentleness hath made me
great.
Psalm 18:35
I'm not a great person, by any means, but I will tell you that the Lord's gentleness has made great differences in my life. Where other's have failed me there, God's gentleness has brought me around and kept me by His side.
My worst Christmas in recent memory was during my pregnancy with my son. I was having the worst time at work, an important authority in my life had wounded me deeply, I fell and was limping around on a swollen ankle, and I was massive- not a bad thing but it was uncomfortable.
In all that I listened to a sermon series by Dilbert Terry called 'God's Lost and Found Department' based in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (aka the prodigal)- find the series here close to the bottom of the page.
What man of you, having an hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave
the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go
after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on
his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:5
In the sermon about the lost sheep he said this, 'isn't it a comfort that Jesus carries you all the way home'.
Think about it- you're a lost sinner, hopeless, headed to hell and Jesus, searching and searching finds you, you accept His sacrifice for your sins, He lifts you up, puts you on His shoulders, and carries you all your life long until you're home with Him.
I can't even describe how much strength that one thought gave me at the time. It makes me all the more thankful remembering that Jesus carries us, He doesn't just lead us.
One of the things I love reading about Jesus is how He came and threw a giant wrench at the religious leaders of that day.
The Pharisees were very protective of the Sabbath and I'm thinking, 'well that guy got stoned in Moses' day for picking up sticks on the Sabbath so I sort of see their point...'
They don't have a point, though, because Jesus was intolerant of them. Jesus doesn't mess around with them- their problem is their hearts. They were utterly dedicated to being clean on the outside while they left their inside to rot away and stink. (See these passages: Matthew 15, Matthew 23)
Christ did miracles in front of people but still the pharisees were not satisfied:
The Pharisees also with the Sadducees
came, and tempting desired him that he
would shew them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 16:1
In the previous chapter he had healed a Gentile woman's daughter and fed over 4000 people. Um, I think those are signs, guys.
The Pharisees and the Jews did not accept Christ because He didn't do things their way. They wanted a conquering King. Notice how the wisemen said
Saying, where is he that is BORN king of the Jews?
Matthew 2:2a (emphasis is mine)
Herod was king of Judea but he had got that position from Rome and he himself wasn't even a Jew. He was an Edomite.
So the Jews were expecting a King (Matthew 2:2, John 1:45, John 1:49) but the one who was performing miracles was born in a barn and laid in a manger (Luke 1:7). He had no where to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) and He came into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey (Matthew 21:1-7). None of the religious leaders of His day approved of the company he kept (Mark 2:15-20). He was subject to Rome and instructed the people to do likewise (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 20, Romans 13:1-7).
All those things are wrenches Christ threw at the people He came to save and they did not accept Him (Matthew 11:20)
God never does things the way we think He should. He always fixes things in, what we think is, the strangest way. The Jew's rejection of Christ is great for us Gentiles- we're in! We get free salvation!
Sometimes, though, we really want something to go a certain way, someone to do a certain thing, or God to intervene in a certain way, and He just does something different that you wouldn't expect to teach you something you would have never learned otherwise.
Sometimes, though, we really want something to go a certain way, someone to do a certain thing, or God to intervene in a certain way, and He just does something different that you wouldn't expect to teach you something you would have never learned otherwise.
The biggest wrench in my life is my husband. I call him a wrench in a loving way- he teaches me so much. See, I have all my beliefs down pat and M comes along, questions this, throws out that, makes me seriously consider this that and the other thing, and I'm always left with a new conviction that I would never have arrived at on my own.
Here's an easy example: what to wear to church. My honest conviction about dressing for church is that I should look better than I do all week. I should take care to wear clothes specially set apart for worship and the best way to honour and respect God is to make sure they are modest, neat, and ironed. ****Please understand that this is MY conviction for what ME, MYSELF, AND I wear to church. You don't have to look at my conviction and be convicted. God dealt with ME about how I should dress. He will deal with YOU about how YOU should dress. I am not saying any of this to try to tell YOU what YOU should do. GOD DEALS WITH US ALL INDIVIDUALLY.****
To be more clear I'll let you in on how God dealt with me and my clothes:
I used to dress like a slob (still do most of the time), I wouldn't put any effort into ironing, wiping dirt off my leather boots, and so on. God came down pretty hard on me about it at the place I was working. Sure the people around me at work put a lot of stock into what is worn and how you are presented, but God showed me through them that it does not glorify Him to look like a slob. I actually began to be really convicted about it when a preacher was talking about this verse:
And David behaved himself wisely in all
his ways; and the LORD was with him.
1 Samuel 18:14
The preacher (Dilbert Terry) I have never found to tell people how to dress, but here he mentioned that when David behaved wisely in all his ways it also means he dressed properly, looked neat, and kept himself tidy.
When he said that I realized that I don't do that. I did not take care of my appearance. It began to bother me and eventually embarrass me that I didn't take care to glorify God by being tidily dressed.
Now, when I choose my clothes I choose them out of respect for the Lord. Comfort is a close second (I'm really not myself when I'm uncomfortable), modesty is third, and pleasing to my husband is fourth.
Back to my example- My husband wears jeans to church. He wears dress shirts on top and nice shoes but he's still in jeans- he always wears jeans.
It bothered me for a while and when I finally asked him about it he told me this:
When he was young and living in one of the maritime provinces his dad was the pastor of a big church that had a Christian school. There were well respected men who held high positions at the church and the school who wore three piece suits every Sunday. These were assistant pastors, deacons, principals, teachers, and so on. It came out, little by little, as these things do, that quite a few of these men were sexually harassing their own children.
Yeah. Horrific. Most of those children ended up committing suicide.
It didn't matter that those people dressed impressively. Their fancy clothes were just hiding-briefly- what was inside.
My husband told me that people try to use clothes to one up each other- especially women. He said its no longer about glorifying God but looking better than everyone else.
My husband honestly is not convicted about wearing jeans to church. That throws a wrench at me very often because my honest conviction is that I should wear clothes that are set aside for special times.
I say all that to say this: my husband keeps me humble when it comes to what I wear to church. If he was all stuffy and had a similar conviction as me we might lose focus and think we're better just because of what we wear. Instead, my husband's jeans constantly remind me that what I wear doesn't matter if I don't have the right heart.
That's just one wrench in hundreds of other ones. My husband keeps me honest about myself. It's frustrating sometimes but it's what God wants for me.
Jesus shook them up really good and few came out of it better (the apostles were among the few that did). Now I look at people who have different convictions in a different light. If what they do bothers me I have to ask myself 'why? Is it pride?'.
I was having a conversation with some people the other day and we were talking about children's movies. I mentioned that I really look at the message behind the movie. I gave the example of The Little Mermaid and how Ariel disobeyed her father. Even though it turned out alright in the end, it was still rebellion and it could've turned out horribly if it wasn't a disney movie. I don't want my son getting the subliminal message that disobedience turns out alright in the end. It occasionally does but it often doesn't. A person in the conversation- who I consider very wise- said that they weren't as concerned with that as much as the attitudes of the main characters.
Now that was a wrench because I'm thinking the message of any movie/TV show makes or breaks it. To hear someone I respect say that the attitude is what they look at threw me for a loop. I hadn't considered it but now that I do, my son is a lot happier after he watches more positive characters than surly ones. It makes a lot of sense and along with the overall message of a movie/TV show I'll definitely pay closer attention to the attitudes of the main characters.
I could've left that conversation thinking that person is an idiot and that I know better, instead I'll use their conviction to learn from and gain a perspective I wouldn't be able to otherwise because I've had different experiences in life.
On Wednesday evening my pastor spoke about making Jesus the centre of everything we do.
That really convicted me and it has almost been all I've thought about since Wednesday. I've mostly thought about it concerning my ministries- this blog, my class, and outreach.
Out of those three, my class has been most heavily on my mind. I know God was telling me that a lot of the things I plan and do in class are with the children in mind.
I think it has a lot to do with the type of children they are. They are all very confident and interactive and I find myself thinking up interesting ways to teach them 'for them'.
God has been showing me that when I ask the children questions in our review games I need to focus more on what we can learn from the lesson and put more emphasis on learning from the bible characters rather than learning about them.
This week God showed me that I need to emphasize personal relationships with Christ. I need to teach the children how to be close to their Saviour.
Looking at my class in this light I can see that a lot of the things spoken about are 'I, me, us' and whatnot. What I need to do is take the focus off the children and toward Christ.
My church did an Easter event for our community this past week. I took some invitations and got out a few. On Friday I was struggling because I started to question why I was going door to door to leave the invitations. I honestly felt I should not go if I was doing them for myself. I decided I needed to go but before I went I prayed to God that I would have the right heart about doing them, and do them for the right reason.
I don't know if I bore any fruit or will bear any fruit. I do know that it is my sincere endeavor, though, to make Jesus the centre of everything I do.
My husband's great grandmother was saved and then cast out of her home by her family. She read this verse:
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy
house.
Acts 16:31
My father-in-law told me this, "she said, 'God, I'm claiming that verse'" and, sure enough, her whole family eventually got saved.
She married and had lots of children- 12 I think. She prayed every night with each one of them and all of them except one (who became a farmer and was saved) was called to the ministry.
I think about that a lot when it comes to my son. I don't know how she prayed or what she prayed or how she taught them but she instilled a love for the Lord in her children.
Whatever she did, I know that Christ was the centre of it because the boat won't sink if Christ is on board.
Whatever she did, I know that Christ was the centre of it because the boat won't sink if Christ is on board.
Well, there you have it, some of the things I love about Jesus.
If you don't know Jesus as your Saviour, you have no idea what peace is.
Accepting Christ as your Saviour is absolute liberty. You don't have to worry about 'being good' or 'doing good'. All the wrong you've ever done will be washed away by His blood and you don't have to feel guilty any more.
It's the easiest thing and it is the difference between eternity in heaven and eternity in hell:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:9
I also have a post that breaks it down a little more: Salvation
I hope this was a blessing and a help to you!
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