Incorruptable Beauty #1

A few years back, I was invited to speak at our church's "Mom's Group."  The theme for that year was about lasting beauty.  One morning, while getting ready for work, putting my make-up on and fixing my hair, the topic of my talk became clear.  I'll speak on Incorruptable Beauty, from 1 Peter 3.  On that morning, God spoke to me about a prayer, using the metaphor of putting on make-up and fixing my hair.  It is a way for me to consciously place my mind on the truth, and not believe the lie.  Each morning as I get ready for the day, I can take these steps, I can pray these prayers to God, so that I am a woman of Incorruptable Beauty, from the INSIDE out!!
As I have written in previous posts, I am getting older......yes, the wrinkles have come, and my hair is turning gray, and my body is certainly not like it used to be.  Recently, during my quiet time one morning, I was complaining to God about it all.....He reminded of the talk that I gave on Incorruptable Beauty.  God was telling me once again, that what was important to Him was a woman who feared Him, and who loved Him with her whole heart. The Bible holds many verses on the passing "glory" of man......woman.  We are here today, and gone tomorrow......our lives are likened to a flower, a blade of grass, that withers away.......smoke that dissipates into the air.
Maybe some of you are in the same place as I am, struggling to understand all of the physical and emotional changes that come in our 50s.  Maybe some of you are in the "prime" of your life, enjoying a strong and beautiful body.  Or maybe you have a physical ailment, that keeps you from realizing your body's full potential.......a disfigurement of your face, that makes you feel not so pretty.  Whatever the case, I hope that what follows will help, and bring comfort, and a renewed sense of your worth, in the eyes of our Lord.
I hope that you will be patient with me, for I will not be able to complete this in one post. So, please keep checking back for more.
As women we are taught from our youth that physical beauty is something of great value, far greater than even our intelligence or personality, even our society places great emphasis on the human body.  But God, does not.
In 1 Samuel 16:7, when the Lord gave instruction to the prophet Samuel in regards to anointing of the next King of Israel, the Lord spoke very clearly on this subject. "But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him (speaking of David's older brother, Eliab).  For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Therefore, I must choose to think purely and in a godly fashion, about my appearance, and about my physical body.  I choose to not believe the lie, the lie that tells me that my face and form must be beautiful to be of any worth, of any value.
The Incorruptable Beauty Prayer.
The first thing that I do, before I put on any make-up, is to cleanse my face.  As a woman we know that dirty skin, full of bacteria and dead skin cells, causes clogged pores and then pimples.
As I begin my day, I must ask the Lord to clean my heart, and to clean my mind of sinful thoughts and actions, and of dead works. For if my heart is clogged with sin, dead works, and self, God can not use me.  The Bible teaches us that we can do nothing without Jesus, and Jesus also taught us that every issue of life comes from the heart.

Luke 6:43–45 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

 It is the work of the Holy Spirit in my day to day life, that brings about any lasting work or victory over sin, self, and dead works.
But, if my heart has become clogged, and full of sin and self, then my day will be full of sinful actions and thoughts, not full of the beautiful work of God.  Therefore, a clean and pure heart makes for a day that is joy-filled (not perfect), because we are in pure fellowship with Jesus.  It makes for a day that brings about actions that are pleasing to God, actions that will be blessings for me and for others. 

"And the Bride says, 'Come.'"

"Nothing is intolerable that is necessary.  Now God has bound thy trouble upon thee, with a design to try thee, and with purposes to reward and crown thee.  These cords thou canst break; and therefore lie thou down gently and suffer the hand of God to do what He pleases."  Jeremy Taylor
My grandson, Adam, had a routine appendectomy a few weeks back.  The surgery went well, he was released from the hospital that same evening.  The surgeon sent the appendix to the lab for pathology, which is protocol when a organ is removed from a person's body.  The lab discovered a pea-size tumor in the appendix, and with further testing found it to be cancerous.  The doctors are confident that the cancer is out of his body, but my daughter and her husband are having more tests done......blood and urine tests, and a PET scan.....just to be sure. 
Cancer, I hate that word!  I hate the waiting to hear if all will be ok with Adam.  I hate the thought that it might not be ok.  I hate the thought that my sweet baby girl and her man, may have to go thru the most horrible thing any parent could imagine, the sickness, or the death of their first born son. I hate the thought that my grandson may need to go thru chemo or worse. And yet, in the midst of all this HATE, I have been reminded that there is LOVE.......the love of a Father in heaven Who sees all and is intimately involved in all of this.  A God, Who promises to bring good through ALL things.  A God, Who will never, ever leave or forsake us.  God's love for us is so great that He sent His first born, His only Son to make a way for us to remain ALIVE forever.  Yes, we are not getting out of this world, "alive."  We will all either die, or we will be taken-up in the rapture.  Either way, we will go to be with our loving Father; and all of this world's sickness and sin will be done away with.  There will be no such word as "cancer" in heaven.  There will be no such word as "hate" in heaven.  Love will reign there, and great will be our peace and joy.
"Come quickly, Lord Jesus."

Something To Say

Recently, I was finishing up a study in the book of Esther.  I had just finished reading the last chapter, and my attention was captured by these verses:
King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores.  And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia?  Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.

In the OT, there are many references to the "Books of the Kings."  Yet I had not up to this point found written, a reference to a "commoner" being written about in these books.  So, I did a bit of research...

There are many "books" mentioned in the Bible.  The book of Moses, the book of Life, the book of the prophets, as well as the books of the kings.  Before the times of the printing presses, scribes were used to write history, they were used to record what went on in courts of law, and in the courts of kings and kingdoms. And all that was written, and not lost, has now become history.
As I was doing my little bit of research on the subject, I came across this verse:

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  2 Corinthians 3:3

People write down what they want to remember, they write down what they think is important, and just as it was in the past, records are kept of what goes on in a court of law, and in a government.  People write letters to one another, sharing their everyday lives and concerns with those that they know and love. People write books to tell a story, or to share information, or to record history.  We write because.....we have something to say!

As I read the verse in 2 Corinthians, I was convicted of how I was not living a life that reflected what has been written on my heart!

You see, God has used my heart as a piece of paper (a tablet), and He has written a letter, (a book if you will) for the world to see.  Why?  Because God has something to say!! He wants my life to be a reflection of His life, of His love, and of His grace for people.  God wants to tell the world about Himself through me!

So often though, this book, this letter of my heart looses a person's interest, because they can't get past the cover!  They can't get past me! I know, we are not to judge a book by it's cover, but we all do it.......I know I do.  Also, we have it heard it said that when we meet a person for the first time we make judgements about who they are, or what they are like, in the first 30 seconds!  We know that we should give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but so often it is hard to get past that initial reaction to them. 

What has been written on the "tablet" of my heart, needs to be read. I asked the Lord right there and then, to make my "cover" be something that doesn't push people away.  I asked that my "cover" be something that draws others in and doesn't push them away.  I want them to want to know about my Savior.

Blessed Assurance

God keeps His promises.
He is not a man that He should lie or the son of man that He should repent.  Has He said and will He not do?  Or has He spoken, and He will not make good?  (Numbers 23:19)
This passage of scripture is written on the inside cover of my Bible.  I put it there.  It is a reminder to me that my God will always keep His promises to me.
I was reminded of this earlier this month, as I was driving home from my eldest daughter's home.  She has been ill with mono, and was needing my help to move into her new home.  Her children, my grand children, were a huge help to her during this time, but I needed to be there.  Momma to the rescue. What came to mind that day, as I drove the three hour drive home, was a portion of scripture that God had spoken to my heart many years before.  While my man and I lived in Colorado, and my two beautiful daughters lived in Washington state, there was a period of time that my eldest was ill from a food intolerance.  She struggled with this for many years. I can remember many a phone conversation with her, and of how I would hang up and cry......and pray.  I so wanted to be able to help her, but I was twenty one hours away.  I knew that God was there with her......but I am her momma.
My youngest went through a difficult time during this time frame too.  She wanted a baby, but that didn't happen for her and her man for eight years. I know, neither one of these issues were life threatening, but hard for them none the less.  I just hated that I wasn't there to help them. I hated that I couldn't wrap my arms around them, cry with them, and kiss their "boo-boos" away.  It was after one of these phone conversations that God led me to a portion of  Isaiah 60.....your daughters shall be nursed at your side....I can remember reading this verse, wondering if it truly would happen, would we ever be able to live closer to each other again? I missed my girls so much. 
This is what the Lord reminded me of.....Because here I am, living three hours from my girls, able to make the drive to help out if needed.
But this is not the only promise that God has kept.  He has kept His promise of help, and guidance, and grace.  The promise of the Holy Spirit's help and teaching each and every day of my life, the promise of His mercies that are new each morning.  The promise of protection, and of my daily needs being met.
I will end this with one of my all time favorite passages of scripture, and yes, it too is a promise to me.
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

"I Will Live!"

I was reading in the book of Numbers the other day, the account of the children of Israel and of the plague of fiery serpents that the Lord sent into their midst.  If you are familiar with the story, you will remember that God sent fiery serpents as a discipline for their faithlessness.  Numbers records that the children of Israel were placed in a position (AGAIN) to trust God, in regards to Him being the One who would take care of them.  Moses asked the king of Edom if he, and the children of Israel, could go through his land.  Moses told the king that he and the people would not be taking anything from him or the land; they were just going to walk through it.  The king said, no, and so Moses and the people had to go back into the wilderness and walk a long distance around the land of Edom.  The Bible records that they had to go by way of the Red Sea.....again!  The place of their past failure.....their sin of faithlessness.  When the people found this out, they began to murmur and complain about God and His care for them. Once again, God was orchestrating the lives of the people, and they became afraid; and therefore, they turned again to unbelief and distrust of God and His ways.  And so, because God loved them, He sent a discipline into their lives, one that actually killed some of them. 
The fiery serpents were sent to bite the people, and yes, I believe that they were real snakes!  When the children of Israel felt the bite of the snakes, they then perished. I am sure that as they lay writhing in pain, and breathing their last, that they truly regretted their distrust of God, but it was too late.  And please note that they didn't only distrust God, they also attributed something to Him that was so untrue; and that is, that He had brought them into the wilderness to destroy them.  They believed the lie, instead of the truth, which was that God was setting them free from the slavery of Egypt.  In essence they attributed to God what Satan wants to do in our lives.......destroy us!!  Therefore I see the loving hand of God in His discipline, for I know the sting of the bite of my disobedience and faithlessness!! Just like the children of Israel, I too, so often, go astray.  I too, attribute to God what the devil is.....a liar and a murderer, and I am ashamed to admit how often I do this!!  Let me just say that I am so thankful for God's grace and mercy!!
What we read next, is that the people of Israel went to Moses to appeal to him too talk to God on their behalf.  They admitted their sin, and asked Moses to ask the Lord to take away the serpents.  What occurs next has always been a puzzle to me, still not sure of all that it means.  God tells Moses to make a replica of the serpent out of bronze, and then he was to place it on a pole.  God then told Moses to tell the people that when they were bitten by the real serpents, if they looked toward the replica, they would be healed. Isn't that such a strange thing to do?  And yet, Moses obeyed and made the bronze serpent, and put it on a pole.  Moses obeyed God and told the people of God to do a very strange thing.....look to the bronze serpent if they were bit, and they would live.
As I was reading this, God spoke to my heart that I too, like Israel, am so quick to distrust Him and His motives.  I so often am tempted to want my own way, and when God doesn't agree with me, I feel that He has abandoned me.  Have you ever felt like God was putting you back into the same places that you thought that you had been brought from?  I do not think that the mention of the Red Sea in this account was just by chance.  I saw that God was giving the children of Israel another opportunity to respond in trust and obedience to Him!  In His grace and mercy He was taking them to the place where they had mistrusted Him in the past, and giving them a chance to do it right this time!   I also saw that the children of Israel had to look on their judgement (the bronze serpent) to be set free, to be healed!  Isn't that the same for us?  We need to recognize, to look on, our waywardness and lack of faith and see it for what it truly is.....sin.  I, we need to really see that our disobedience will destroy us, and then in trust, turn to the Lord in obedience and do what He has asked; even if it seems strange or frightening.  As the children of Israel looked to the replica of the judgement of God, we too look to the cross of Jesus that has set us free.  For isn't the cross just that?  A symbol of God's righteous judgement on mankind?  Jesus paid the cost of my waywardness and sin, He took on His body the justice of God.....for me!  Because of His great love for His people, God provided a way for them to be saved from the death of the serpent's bite.  Because of His great love for me, God provided a way for me to be saved from the sting of death; for Jesus saved me from my sin, and of living a worthless life.  And so, as I live my life, I am to turn and look to the symbol of judgement....the cross, when I sin and fall and repent.....and in doing so......I will live!

Like Smoke

I have been reading Exodus druing my quiet times with Jesus; and once again I was convicted, as I read about how the children of Israel were so apt to not trust God!  It seems to me that if God would have done some of those kinds of miracles in my life, I would not have turned to distrust as easily as they did.  But of course, God reminded me that I too, am like the saints of old.....a human being with a sin nature.
As I was pondering about the time that God's people worshiped the golden calf and partied like there was no tomorrow, it seems to me that after what they had been through, they would have seen how silly that was, and yet I believe that they truly thought that the golden calf was going to be their god, and that their tomorrows may never come.
If you remember, Moses was up on the mountain top, communing with God and  receiving the 10 Commandments, when God told him to go down to the people, because they were corrupting themselves.  I was struck with the fact that the Bible tells us that the people went to Aaron, the priest, and told them that they wanted him to lead them, since Moses was delaying his coming.  Maybe they thought that God had killed Moses, or maybe they thought that Moses had forsaken them.  Maybe they thought that God had forsaken them.  I don't know, and the Bible doesn't tell us why, we just know what they did.  It is written that the children of Israel were told, by Aaron, to remove their earrings, and the earrings of  their wives, and of their sons and daughters.......the earrings that were a symbol of their slavery (I am not totally sure if the Egyptians used earrings as a symbol of slavery at this time, but I do know that this is the case later on in Israel's history).  Then Aaron took the people's earrings and melted them down into a gold calf.
The Lord showed me that the people took the symbol of their slavery and made it into something they thought would help them in that moment of time, something that they hoped would lead them, and save them.
Isn't this so true of you and me?  When we became believers we were set free from being a slave to our sin, and yet we still have the tendency to take the things of our slavery, and try to make them into something that will help us today.  I so often use my own wisdom, and my feelings to lead me.  And weren't they the things that caused me to stumble and fall so many times in the past?  I try to make people be what helps me today, turning to them to take away my pain, turning to them to make my day, my life easier.  Now, I am not saying that we can't seek godly counsel or encouragement, but what if these don't help us?  What if the trial and the pain is still there? Will we attribute this to God?  Will we distrust Him and His word?  Will we then try to fix ourselves or our situation, telling ourselves that God's way didn't work?  This is basically what the children of Israel did.  They were so willing to trust God when they had the signs of the plagues on Egypt, and the sign of the Red Sea parting, and of the Egyptians perishing right before their eyes in that same Red Sea as the waters came crashing down.  And yet, when ever they were put in a position to trust without seeing, they failed miserably.  What would have been the outcome if they had instead choose to trust God, and thrown their earrings into the fire as an act of surrender and obedience, burning them up as a sign that they no longer considered themselves to be Egypt's (Remember that Egypt is a type of the world, and of the world's system) slaves?
You see I so often in the past (and if I am honest, I do this even today) put my faith in myself, in others, and even in a worldly way of thinking or acting.  But God came into my heart and changed all of that!!  He came to show me that He, and His ways, and His words are what I should be heeding and following.  God is trustworthy.  I know this in my head, and yet so often in the midst of a trying time I forget that He is there, watching over me.  The trial of faith is not so that God can see how I will respond, He already knows that!  It is so that I can see how I will respond, for this builds and strengthens my faith and trust in God.  Faith is like a muscle, it must be stretched and used in order for it to become stronger.  We all have been given a measure of faith, so what will we do with it?  Will we turn in trust to Jesus, or will we try and use the things from our slavery, to help us?  The choice is ours to make, but God will be faithful despite what that choice may be. 
So, for today I choose to take the symbols of my slavery and throw them instead into the cleansing fire of God's perfect love for me......may they burn and vanish into the air like smoke.

For the Birds

I love birds.....any bird really, but I especially like swallows and mourning doves. Our home in Colorado had a large picture window that faced our front yard, where two very large blue spruces were the home of two mourning doves.  Did you know that doves mate for life? And did you further know (that is a line from, Its A Wonderful Life. I have always wanted to be able to "say" it!) that doves will come back each year to the same nesting spot?  I so enjoyed watching the doves build their nest in the spring, and then I would notice that the two became three or four! Each year of the eight that we lived there, I would see the doves come back in the spring, and roost in our tree.  As we prepared to move to Washington state, I was bummed that I had to say "good-bye" to my feathered friends. 
Now we live in a newer housing area, and so there are not any mature trees yet.  We do have a maple tree in our front yard, and over the past four years, it has grown quite tall.  Last winter, I decided that it was time to "bring on the birds," and so I bought a feeder.  Since that day, I have been faithful to fill the feeder with a yummy mix of seeds and nuts, and the birds have been faithful to come and eat of the bounty. 
Up till this winter, I hadn't seen any mourning doves yet, and then one particularly cold day in December, there they were.  And it was not one pair of doves, but four!!  The doves have made our front porch their home......and I have discovered something that I had not known before.......mourning doves are MESSY!  They grab a seed or a nut from the feeder and then take it back to the porch to dine on it......then they leave the empty shells, and the other things that come from the back side of their feathered little bodies!  Needless to say, the porch is in constant need of a good sweep and clean.  But, I don't mind the work because.....I love birds.
The other day as I was sweeping up the mess, I was reminded of how Jesus told us to not worry about our lives, to not worry about what we are to eat, or what we are to wear on our bodies.  I am sure that you are familiar with the passage in Luke, where the Lord uses birds and flowers as an example to us about His care of us.  Jesus said that the birds of the air don't have to toil for their food, it is provided for them from His hand.  He also said that the flowers of the field don't need to worry about their pretty petals, that they are clothed with finer garments than a king is!!  All of this to say that we don't need to worry about our lives.  If God takes care of the birds and of nature, then He most certainly will take care of us......His most precious creation!
As I finished cleaning the front porch and refilling the bird feeder, here the birds came.....they landed in our maple tree and began to sing their songs.....the doves cooed at me, and waited until I went into the house before they moved to the porch.  I came away with the realization that I too am to "sing" at what is provided.  I am to "sing" for there is no cause to worry, God has never let me down, and I know He never will.  I am to "sing" because of His love for me, and I am to "sing" of how He so often has to clean up my messes.......He doesn't mind the "work" involved in having me around. And just as I love to hear the birds sing and the doves coo, I know that Jesus loves to hear me sing too.