I’d like to introduce you to two people.  One is a man named Jeremy Taylor, the other is a woman named Celeste Bennett.  Jeremy was a renowned world photographer from New York City who, with the help and guidance of his family and the Good Book, left that life behind to work for a small photography studio in the Finger Lakes region in New York State.  He followed God’s call and gave up what was basically a life of fame, at least in the art world.  Celeste was an assistant at a well respected art gallery in New York City’s upper west side.  She hailed from, what she considers, a tiny speck of a town in the Finger Lakes, but she left that all behind for her dream of one day owning her own art gallery and making a name for herself.
The story of these two individuals came together when they both ended up in the same tiny town Celeste was from; Jeremy by accident, and Celeste for a quick stop to help her grandmother in her final days.

This is a story.  That’s it.  A story that I’m desperately trying to write, and have been working on (on and off) for years.  It’s a story about pathways.  Of choosing whose path you are going to follow: yours, or God’s.

I’m intrigued by the use of the path in Christian life.  I love that God’s Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.  In Jeremiah, God tells us to stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16).  David prays to God in Psalm 25 saying, Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths… (v. 4a).  Even Proverbs jumps in by advising, In your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:6).

I followed a path, one that was led by God.  The thing is, I didn’t really notice it until I looked back at where I had been.  God directed my steps.  I was always a believer, always loved the Lord, but I realized one day that I hadn’t completely accepted Him.  Everything that led up to that day was directed by God.  Unbeknownst to me I was following His path (with a few detours on the way), and I’m still on it, only with more awareness and intention.  Even after I accepted Him I can look back and see how He continued to lead me to this day, and I’m looking forward to where He will be leading me until I’m with Him in heaven.

I call my journey the “Case of the I’ll Nevers.”  It’s very interesting what God will do with your “I’ll nevers.”  At least it was interesting what He did with mine.

For starters, let’s go back to 8th grade.  I knew I was going to college.  I was going to be a defense attorney.  My local mall was having a College Night, and I made sure to be there.  I picked up information from colleges close by (or close enough) that had a pre-law program.  From that time on I started receiving information in the mail about different colleges.  Some were interesting, some not so much.  For some odd reason I had just shoved some of this information under my bed.  Well, to be more specific, between my mattress and the wood that kept it in its place above my sister’s bed (as I was on the top of a bunk bed). 

I remember saying, “I will never go to a Christian college.”  Not because I didn’t like Christian things, but because my sister, who is nine years older than me, went to a local Christian college for a year and I didn’t want to do what she did (I won’t go into the reasoning for this…it’s complicated…ish).  Well, my senior year came, and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do (you would have thought I would since I was planning since 8th grade!).  My major changed (I now wanted to be a high school English teacher), and I didn’t really look into schools.  Because of this, when I graduated, I became a full time employee of the daycare I had worked at since my junior year of high school, and after a year of that I quit and spent another year at a local sub shop.  While I was cashiering at the sub shop the thought, “I’m going to college” popped into my mind.  That was it.  I was going to do something with my life.  During that time I had seen a news piece on a college that was a little over an hour away from my home.  It piqued my interest, and I checked it out.  Long story short, I moved in to my dorm room to start my first year at, well, a Christian college.

So it was Christian.  Okay.  Remember those papers hiding beneath my mattress?  Well, I finally looked at them and found that this particular college was among the papers.  I didn’t even remember seeing it before.  Interesting.

Here’s the next thing.  I was a Catholic heading to a Weslyan college.  The majority of the students were Protestant, so I made it a point in my mind that I would never date anyone at college because I didn’t want to marry a Protestant.  I also said I was going to graduate with a 4.0 GPA, but that’s another story.  4 years later I married my college sweetheart.  And, yes, he’s Protestant.  (Side note: I’m not going into the whole Catholic v. Protestant debate here.  I’m just going to talk about my personal walk).

Growing up I had attended the same church since I was three, the year my family moved to a new city.  During our first years of marriage, my husband and I attended this church, but not all the time.  These years were a time of struggle for me in my faith.  I never stopped believing, but the walk was difficult.  My husband knew that I was never going to leave the Catholic church, and that our kids were going to be raised Catholic.  I didn’t want to leave him out, however, so we searched out churches for him.  We attended one once or twice, but it wasn’t really for us.  When we moved into our first house, which happened to be in a town I would never move to, we attended the Catholic church just down the road from us.  We looked into churches close by for my husband and decided to try one just in the next town, a non-denominational church, about ten minutes away.  The problem I had with that church was that I liked it.  Strange problem to have, I’m aware, but it was a problem to me.  It didn’t help the game of Tug-of-War that was going on inside of me.  We attended (on and off) for a few months, but then just stopped going to church altogether.

That was 2008.  In 2009 I lost my dad, lost my grandfather, and my 5 year old son was diagnosed with cancer (other things happened that year as well which I won’t mention here).  That was even harder on me, but in February 2010, the week after my son returned to Kindergarten cancer free, we went back to church.  We decided to go back to the church that we had chosen for my husband (going to two on the same day was difficult), and though we still weren’t very consistent, we were getting better.  I reminded my husband that I liked the church, but I would never become a member.

In 2011 I met with the pastor to talk about something that had bothered me, and that talk was when I had realized I hadn’t fully accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.  Shortly thereafter I made that courageous step forward and then enrolled in a class offered by my church on Sunday mornings.  We talked about being baptized in the Holy Spirit.  In my church we show this by standing in front of the congregation giving a testimony about this commitment, and then heading to the back of the stage/altar and getting dunked in a large tub for all to see.  I was never going to do that.

After my baptism I continued to experience more and more of Him, and I grew stronger in my faith.  My husband and I are now members, he’s in charge of the video ministry, and I started and co-lead a group for girls in grades 6-12.  I laugh now about my “I’ll nevers.”  God really does take those and shows us what He has chosen regardless. 

I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps (Jer. 10:23).

In Jeremiah 29 God says, For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future (v.11).  God’s path is always right.  We may not always see it, at least not until we look back, but it’s there.  If we allow Him to guide us, our reward will be great.  He has a path for each and every one of us.  He knows each one of us as he tells Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart (Chapter 1, v. 5a).  He will guide you on your own individual path if you let Him, even giving Him just a little control over your life.  In time you will see how great His way is.  He will never lead you astray.

Want to know my recent “I’ll nevers” that He has laughed at me about?

“I’ll never let people find out at church that I can sing” – I’ve been found out and have had a couple of solos already (I couldn’t help but join the Christmas choir…I love to sing!)

“I’ll never join a worship team” – I’m on the newest worship team.  I start this month

“I’ll never give a Thanksgiving Testimony”  -- Did that right along with my first solo away without the choir

What will Jeremy and Celeste choose?  Perhaps one day God will lead me to the end of my book and allow me to have it published.  Then maybe you’ll be able to find out.  That’s my dream!

Look at your life.  Look where you’ve come thus far.  Do you see God’s hand in your walk?  Do you see the path that you’re heading down?  Is it God’s path?  Or is it your own?  Are you giving Him control, allowing Him to lead you, or are you fighting Him?  God draws us to Him, we just need to walk.  I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jer. 31:3b).  He has placed the path at our feet.  We need to use His words as our lamp (Ps. 25:4a).

Heavenly Father, we thank you for knowing each of us individually and placing a path at our feet.  Your ways, Oh Lord, are straight, and all we need to do is trust in You.  Thank you for drawing us to You.  In Your heavenly name, Amen.

I was reading a Bible study book this morning, and when I came to one part I had to stop, pray and write in my journal.  I couldn’t move any farther until it was done, and I have not picked up my book yet.  The author used the example of Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den but being saved by God because of his faith.  Before that she had shown the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were saved by God when thrown into the fiery furnace. 

But it wasn’t that that stopped me in my tracks.  It was what happened after Daniel was pulled out of the den of lions.  At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children.  And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones (Daniel 6:24).

I have a very hard time reading about children being killed in the Bible.  I don’t like to see it anywhere, mind you, but in the Bible it’s for a purpose.  It’s found throughout the Old Testament.  I’ve had conversations with my husband about this many times before, how children are innocent, and why should they be killed?  What did they do?  To which he always replies that they would grow up and become like their parents, and possibly even worse.  When they become a certain age they may set out to basically seek revenge.

Fine, whatever, I get it.  I still hate it.  I have a huge heart for children, and I don’t like to see any of them hurt, regardless of what stage they’re at in life.

As I said before, I opened up my journal and started writing.  Scribbling may be the correct term for it as I was writing furiously.  What came out of my pen was that children can be harmed by our choices.  Here’s a quick look into my journal (a small portion of what I wrote):

      Your choices affect your children.  They can harm them.  Be aware of
       your words and your actions.  Little ones are watching.  Make the right
       choices.  For their sake shed pride and look for the Truth.

It doesn’t matter what side of an issue you are on.  What you say and do will affect your children.  My two oldest are in middle school, and they would come home complaining about how there was another huge debate between students in their classroom about our newest president.  As 7th and 8th graders, how much do they truly understand?  They know what they’ve been told by the adults in their lives, and how they go about this debate is based upon how they were taught at home.  Social media is a filled with attacks against the opposite side.  “If you’re not with me, you’re against me.”  That seems to be the mentality that people take.  “You are wrong, I’m right.”  And yet, there are so many bumper stickers out there that say:  TOLERANCE.

Here’s what “tolerance” means: Recognition of and respect for the opinions, practices, or behavior of others (Webster’s II New College Dictionary…yes, I still have one of those).  It does not end with, “as long as they are the same as yours.”

Now, since I had my dictionary open, I looked at all the words for tolerate and came across “toleration.”  I didn’t even know that was a word.  The first definition, number 1, was Tolerance.  Of course I read all the definitions, so number 2 caught my attention.  It says, “Official recognition of the rights of persons and groups to hold dissenting views, esp. with regard to religion.”  Being an English major, I grabbed my lesson from my Literary Criticism class and looked up Dissension.  The definition says, “A difference in opinion, esp. one that leads to argument or strife.”  Check and check.  Looking one more word down to Dissent (where dissenting is mentioned), “To differ in opinion or feeling: DISAGREE.”

So tolerance shows that we are able to disagree, but that we should still respect those who do disagree with us.  Interesting.  That reminds me of a verse from the Bible.  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.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-39).  So as Christians, we need to first and foremost love God with all our being.  This includes doing all He has instructed in His Book, and all that He has told us through prayer and through other Christians.  With that in mind, we need to then make sure to treat others the way that we want to be treated.  I’m sure those hurling insults at other people because of their beliefs would hate it if they were mocked for theirs.

Is every belief right?  No.  Basically, if it goes against the Word of God, then how can it be right?  But as Christians we are taught to “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”  That means that we don’t have to “tolerate” what the person does and believes, but we need to love them because they are a creation of God, and God has called us to do just that.  This passage was spoken by Jesus Christ Himself.  How, then, can we not get it?  It comes straight from the source, and therefore there should be no need to question it.  Is it easy?  Nope.  But then, as I’ve written in my journal recently, “God’s way is not easy.”  And I know I’m not the first (nor the last) to say this.  It may not be easy, but it’s right.

So what does this mean, and what does this have to do with children?
Regardless of whether you have your own children or not, those younger than you are looking to you as an example.  What are you going to teach them?  What are you going to show them by your words and actions, even if it’s not directed toward them?

Those in the Bible, who lost their lives right along with their entire family, were not good examples of how to be.  They did not please God.  They sought to please only themselves.

When I see on the news that a person has been arrested for a terrible crime (any crime really, but especially those that are pure evil), all I can think about (after the “shock, horror”) is that that person was once someone’s baby.  They were born into the world the same way everyone else was.  A helpless baby who had to be fed and changed; they had to learn how to walk and talk.  Maybe I’m just strange, but that’s what I do.  I think about what happened.  Where did it go wrong?  They may have been raised by a loving family and then somewhere just lost their way.  It’s possible, but I would say that the majority of people who do these crimes did not have the “happy-go-lucky life.”  Or, the people who raised them taught them to hate instead of to love. 

They may have been loved by their families, but how an adult responds to a situation can have an effect on them.  If we approach a situation with true tolerance for another, using respect as we try to figure out what is really going on, then our children will learn to have that same patience and respect.  However, if we don’t stop and think, get the facts, and definitely don’t care about respecting the other person, then that’s what our children will learn, and we’ll always have problems.

So before you say anything, before you do anything, before you make a post on social media, stop and think.  Who are you affecting by this?  Who is watching?  What harm will you be doing if you lash out in pride?  Shed your pride.  Stop and think.  Pray.  Read your Bible.  And remember, you have the power to affect a child’s life; is it going to be for good, or for evil?

I admit that I’m not perfect in this, and no one will be.  We will slip up.  But we can always go back to Him who made us and repent.  We should also go back to those little ears and eyes, apologize to them, and teach them the right way to be.  Remember: God’s way is not easy, but it’s right.

Lord, for all the times I have jumped the gun, using my mouth and my actions before seeking You, I am sorry.  You have put Your little children in my care, and it is my responsibility to raise them up for You.  My own pettiness, my own pride, needs to get out of the way.  Lord, I can only do this with You.  Help me to be the example you want me to be for Your precious ones.  Help me to treat others with respect whether I agree with them or not.  Help me to treat them as I would like to be treated.  Heavenly Father, thank You.  You alone are good and worthy to be praised.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

*While getting ready to start a new post, I realized that I still had a blog entry that was never posted.  It was written in April 2016, so the events are a little old, but the message is still there.  I'm also in a different place today than I was then.  However, I thought I would still share it.

His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity?  Curse God and die!”  ~Job 2:9

Okay, so this is not the “happy go lucky,” “God is amazing” Scripture verse that typically gets focused on.  Curse God and die.  Wow.  No, I’m not telling you to do this.  I promise.

Let me explain what is going on here.  Job; we’ve all heard of him, right?  He’s the guy in the Bible who had a great life.  He was rich.  He had a large family and great friends.  He loved and feared God so much that nothing Satan did to him swayed his opinion.  Sure, he cried out in anguish – he’s human after all – but he continued to praise God.  He lost his livestock, he lost his children, he lost his servants.  His response to this was, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21).  In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (Job 1:22)

I’m going to come right out and say that it’s not easy to continue praising God in these times.  Times of trial, times of loss.  But it did not stop Job from praising him.  He saw his situation in a light most of us probably wouldn’t think of.  He came with nothing, so of course he should leave with nothing.
In chapter two, where we find the above verse, he was afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head (Job 2:7).  Satan was trying hard to get Job to curse God.  So taking away everything from him didn’t work.  Okay, let’s try physical pain and suffering.  Job, however, refused to rise to the challenge.  Verse 8 simply says, Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.  If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I am very visual.  I picture Job, everything around him destroyed, just sitting there, nonchalantly picking up a piece of pottery that had been broken in the previous destruction, scratching at his sores.  He’s not getting angry, he’s not yelling out.  He’s just sitting there, looking around, scratching.

Now, I’m sure that’s not exactly how it went down.  I’m sure he was upset, distraught, confused, but in my eyes he acted like one of those people who isn’t fazed by anything, and you just want to shake them.

And that’s where the devil was at work again.  The Bible doesn’t say, “Satan went to Job’s wife and told her to say this,” but we know her words were from him nonetheless.  Another test.  A stumbling block.  Job’s wife was placed there to aid Satan’s cause.  But it failed yet again.  In verse 10 Job says, “You are talking like a foolish woman.  Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In my Bible the footnote for that verse states that the word foolish means “moral deficiency.”  I’m going to guess that his wife did not have the strongest faith in God.  Therefore, she was easily swayed.  The first part of 1 Peter 2:8 quotes Isaiah stating, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”  This was directed to those who did not believe.  Peter continues by saying, They stumble because they disobey the message.  This was Job’s wife.  She allowed herself to be used to try to sway her husband to disobey God.  She did this by her lack of faith in Him.
You might be looking at her and saying to yourself, “That’s awful.  Why would she do that?  She must have been a terrible person to do such a thing.”  Was she?  We don’t know the exact details of Job’s wife, but it really doesn’t matter.  We know the details of ourselves.  How many times have we become a stumbling block for someone else?  Do we do it to be malicious, or do we do it out of love?  Do we even realize we’re doing it?

I have a bad habit of doing this to my husband.  It’s not the same situation as Job, my husband isn’t being harmed, but it is a situation where if I’m not careful I can hurt him.

It seems to happen every time he learns something new about how to work with our children.  Here I am, trying to get him to treat them better, to try something different, to have more patience.  He’s a great dad, don’t get me wrong.  He loves his kids and he’s a great teacher to them.  He just doesn’t always get it.   Then he comes home and has this great new thing he wants to try, something he learned at church or in something he read.  I start to get upset because it feels like he’s judging me and telling me what I should do, even though I’ve been the one this entire time trying to get him to act better.  I’m with the kids longer than he is, and I know what works and what doesn’t.  I don’t have all the answers, but I know what has worked and do that.  So I get defensive causing him to stop his excitement in what he learned, and then he ultimately gives up.

This weekend the same thing happened.  My husband was at a conference at church that had to deal with working with difficult children.  The principles he learned could be applied to any child, and he was thrilled to start using them on our children and on our niece and nephew who are living with us at the moment.  Knowing how I’ve been in the past I added into my prayer time that God not allow me to be a stumbling block for my husband.  I know he doesn’t do any of this to put me down or boost himself up.  He really is one of those people who gets excited about something and can’t help but share it.  I tend to have some of that myself, so of course I should understand.  But since I still felt as though I was on trial, I needed God’s help to keep me from getting in his way.

I didn’t want to share any of this with my husband, because I felt that if I did that confession in and of itself would cause him to stumble.  I was doing okay with this, though I was very uncomfortable.
Monday morning my husband called me.  He was on his way to work and received a word from God.  He was told that he was to be a “father to the fatherless.”  For some reason that ended up rubbing me the wrong way.  I wasn’t mad, just unsure of where that left me.  Selfish, I know, but that’s how I felt.  I prayed while still on the phone with him, and God told me that I was to be my husband’s helpmate and support.  I wasn’t being “left out,” I just wasn’t supposed to be a big part of this plan.  It was for my husband, after all, and I was okay with that.

Well, Monday night came and life wasn’t going as joyously as I would have liked it to.  I became upset with him, feeling as though he was telling me what to do with our baby when I’m with him day in and day out and know what I’m doing.  I couldn’t hold myself back, and he could tell that I was unhappy.  Long story short, we ended up talking that night about my feelings, and he told me that he knew how I get and that he didn’t even want to share the latest development with me because of it.  Yeah, that hurt, but he explained that he didn’t want to hurt me which is why he struggled against telling me.  However, he lost the fight against God, knowing that I was supposed to be informed of all that was going on.  Through this I was able to share my feelings, and the idea that I could make him stumble was taken away.  It’s a great feeling.  It feels as though I was freed.
1 Corinthians 10:32 says, Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God.  That’s what I wanted to fight in myself, and I was able to with the help of the one I wanted to hide it from.

Psalm 119:165 says, Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.  God was there with us in all of this, and through faith in Him we were able to work this issue out without any harm done.
I like what Psalm 37:24 says: Though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.  There will be times when we slip up.  We will cause someone to stumble, or we will stumble ourselves.  But through our faith in God we will not fall.  He will pick us right back up and set our feet back on the path that He has laid out for us.

In your life, is there a situation where you have made yourself a stumbling block?  Are you keeping someone from moving forward?  It may not be the same situation I have.  Sometimes we listen to the ones we love and get upset for them.  If they have been wronged we are right there to defend them and let them know how awful that person is who wronged them.  By doing this we are placing a stone onto their path, causing them to stumble.  Instead, we need to be supportive of them, not perpetuate the situation, the feelings.  We could ask them how we could help them move on from this, or we could just be good listeners.

We tend to do harm out of love.  It’s because we love the person that we get in their way.  I’m sure Job’s wife loved him.  She didn’t want to see him hurt like he was.  Of course she was affected by all of this.  She just chose to deal with it in a different way.  Job continued to praise God in all things.  She did not.

These blocks, or stones, come in all different shapes, colors and sizes.  Our job is to recognize them in ourselves and not allow them to fall onto the path of anyone we may come into contact with.  As Christians, as God-fearing people, we need to help build people up, not help them to slip.  Seek God in this.  It is by your faith in Him that you will succeed.

Lord, thank You for taking away the burden I had, the fear that I would become a stumbling block for the man I love, the man who You chose for me.  Help me to see the times where I would be more of a harm, a hindrance, to anyone I talk to.  Help me not to let them stumble through my own anger or selfishness, and help me to remember that even through love, if I’m not careful, I may make them slip.  Help me to always build up, Lord.  In Your name, Amen.

Authority.  Not a word anyone really likes to hear, especially when we’re told we need to submit to it.  What if we don’t approve of the authority that is over us?  What if we don’t like what they tell us?  What if we think we should be equals?

Who are these authority figures anyway?  Well, government officials, for one, would be over us, and probably one of the hardest to submit to if you don’t agree with what they do.  How about police officers, teachers, pastors, parents?  All of those are people in authority, and they all need to be listened to and obeyed.  Wives, what about your husband?  Yup, he’s an authority figure, too, and demands respect.

So, where did this post come from?  Well, it was while I was reading the first chapter of Esther.  That first chapter is all about how King Xerxes told the eunuchs to bring his wife to him so that he could show off her beauty to the rest of the people in his company.  She refused.  By refusing she was disobeying him, her husband and ruler of their nation.  What was his response?  Did he brush it off and think, “Well, fine.  I’m disappointed that she didn’t do what I asked, but what can I do?  It’s her life, and I don’t want her mad at me?”  I’m going to go with a “No” on that one.  In fact, the Bible says that he became furious and burned with anger (v.12b).  But he didn’t just stomp off and shut himself in his room to wallow in his anger; he spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king (v.13b-14a).

These wise men advised King Xerxes to “issue a royal decree…that Queen Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes.”  They went a step further and said, “Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she (v.19).  Therefore, not only was she no longer allowed in the king’s presence, but she was stripped of her title and replaced (obviously by Esther, but that’s the next chapter).  This was done so that “all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest” (v.20).

I don’t know how you feel about all of this, but I know there are women out there who would be furious.  As I read this chapter I wasn’t sure what to take from it.  Yes, I got the idea, but I wanted something more.  I moved on to my next reading in Acts, but something (someone) kept bringing me back to Esther.

How I see this is two-fold.  1. This is for those in authority.  2. This is for those under authority.  And guess what?  Most of us fall in both categories.

Those in Authority Positions
Those who are in authority, whether it is through appointment (government), employment (law enforcement, teacher, boss, etc), or in your own home (husband, parent, guardian), have the responsibility to maintain order, and to demand respect.  To do this you don’t have to rule with an “iron fist,” but you do have to assert yourself as the head.  The problem we have in today’s society is that too many people (parents especially) are afraid to put their foot down.  Because of this there are far too many kids, employees, citizens, who do what they want regardless of what the consequences could/should be.  People in authority are afraid to “rock the boat,” and therefore disorder comes. 

How many times have you seen kids on the street wrecking havoc?  How about that Kindergartner who rides the bus speaking like an entitled adult?  What about the rioters that flood cities and nothing is done?  What about laws that are made to appease and not protect?

The path that our society is walking on is a dangerous one, but there is something we can do about it.  What can we do?  Exactly what I said above: assert your authority.  You’re not going to make everyone happy.  It’s impossible.  But you need to do what it right.  It doesn’t mean that you put unrealistic expectations upon those who you lead, but those expectations you do have in place should be enforced without fail.
Be a leader who leads.

Wait a minute!  Some of those people have, or have had, a hard life.  Their family situations are not ideal.  Their lifestyle isn’t like ours, and they’re constantly ridiculed for it.  They weren’t raised to “know better.”  I hear excuses like this all too often, and it bothers me.  All these excuses do is harm those people.  By “going easy” on them, or giving them a separate set of rules, you’re isolating them from everyone else.  You’re teaching them that they don’t have to follow the rules that you had originally set, rules that you deemed important.  Don’t make separate rules for others.  Titus 3:1 says, Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good.  It does not say to remind the people who have perfect lives, or the majority, etc.  There is no distinction.  Everyone has the same rules to follow, and every rule should be followed the same way.

This does not, however, relieve those under authority from any responsibility.

Those Under Authority
I said this was two-fold, and that’s exactly what it is.  As those under authority it is our responsibility to obey those who are over us.  As much as we may want to, we cannot say that we won’t obey because we don’t like what they want us to do.  This does not mean, however, that we go against what the Bible tells us.  God is the ultimate authority, and therefore we need to find a way to obey without going against Him.

Did you know that all authority is God given?  Romans 13:1 says, Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God. And since authority is God given, verse 2 continues with, Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against  what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. I don’t know about you, but I really try hard not to rebel against God.  This does not mean that I’m perfect.  Far from it.  I admit there are authority figures that infuriate me.  There are others I want to just roll my eyes at and walk away from.  But we’re not supposed to do that, and we need to strive to be the followers we are told to be by God.

Hebrews 13:17 says, Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.  They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.  Obey them so their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hm...let's put that another way.  Let’s look at it through the eyes of one who is in charge.  Parents, let’s focus on you for a moment.  You love your children.  You want what’s best for them, and you want them to grow into God fearing, responsible adults.  Unfortunately, kids are…kids.  They don’t always listen, they don’t always want to hear what you have to say, and sometimes they outright say, “No.”  I’m very used to this as I have 4 children.  Thankfully, the youngest one can’t talk back or disobey (he’s only 7 months old).  However…I have three who are old enough to listen and do exactly what I tell them, but it seems that at times their ears stop working.  Too many times I have to tell them to do the same thing over and over again, and many times they’re getting in trouble for something.  As a mom I wish that were not the case. 

My dream is to have a perfectly clean home (because, well, they wouldn’t mess it up or fight me about cleaning); all of my children would get along without fighting or frustrating each other.  If they all just did what is expected of them all the time, then life would be easy, and doing my job as their mom would always be wonderful.

People who refuse to listen to authority, to obey them and give them the respect they deserve, are like children who are disobedient to their parents.  No one who has this authority wants their job to be difficult.  They have a job to do, and they want it to go well.  We should not make it difficult for them.  We do not have that right.  Not only that, but when they can’t do their jobs easily because you are there making it difficult, you ultimately lose out.  Let’s go back to the kids.  If they just did what they should they wouldn’t have missed opportunities.  My kids have missed out on outings, chill time in front of a computer screen, play time at a friend’s house.  I would say that’s missing out.  What about employees?  They could have had a better raise or even a promotion if they did what was expected of them.

I like what Romans 13:5 says: Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.  “If you don’t start cleaning your room right now….”  How great would it be if our children, our employees, anyone under us, would just do what they should because to do otherwise would go against their conscience?  We wouldn’t have to punish them for disobedience.  No one would be sent to their room or lose electronics, no one would be fired or arrested.  It sounds good, doesn’t it?  Then maybe we should start obeying because we know it’s right, not because we could ultimately be punished for it.

And now we have a call to attend to.  We need to step up and humble ourselves to our place under the authority that has been established by God Himself.  We need to be obedient and respectful.  Titus 3:2 continues from above with, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.  In Romans 13:7 we are told to give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.  This is what we need to strive to be.  As people in authority we need to remember that we are the leaders, the head, and whatever authoritative position you are in, you need to be the one in charge.  Don’t let others under you get away with disobedience, for it will bring disorder to that which you have set.  This will not only benefit you, but it will benefit them as well.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for being the ultimate authority, and for the knowledge that all authority has been established by you.  Help me, oh Lord, to accept those whom you have chosen to be in positions above my own, and to give them the respect that they deserve as your servant.  Help me also, as an authority figure, to lead as you would have me lead.  Help me not to back down where I should stand firm.  In all I do, let it be pleasing to you.  In Your holy name, amen.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Again I say rejoice.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Again I say rejoice. 1

This song, based on Philippians 4:4, is a one that I grew up singing.  It’s also the song that popped into my head today after reading Nehemiah 12.  The 12th chapter of Nehemiah recounts the event of the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, rebuilt after it had been destroyed.  What struck me when I was reading it was the singing.  If you know me, you know I love anything having to do with music, so of course this would be a great chapter for me to read.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Verse 43 pretty much sums up what the people were feeling: And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy.  The women and children also rejoiced.  The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

They rejoiced.  And why not?  They were thrilled to have their wall built again, a wall protecting their beloved city, a city given to them by God.

I’ll admit it; this is not an easy thing for me to write.  I don’t feel like I have much to rejoice about at the moment.  This morning my childhood home, the one I moved into two weeks before my third birthday, the home in which I prepared for my wedding 21 years later, the first home my daughter lived in, the first home my little sister and my oldest niece lived in, the one where we mourned the death of my father, the home that had many memories good and bad, the place we called home for 34 years, was sold.  It was a sad night last night taking the rest of the stuff out of the house, saying goodbye one last time to the walls, the rooms, the yard we knew so well.  I seriously felt like it was the series finale of a beloved sitcom (Family Ties, Growing Pains, Full House…).  Yes, I’m strange and proud of it.

The time leading up to today was also hard.  A lot of packing had to be done.  Though most of us had moved out, we all had items hanging out around the house, mostly in the attic, and it all had to be out.  Completely.  Not to mention that one of my sisters was still living there with her two children.  They had to be packed up and out.  They have no real place to go to, unable at the moment to afford a place of their own.  Therefore, it’s off to my house they’ll go tomorrow for who knows how long.  Well, God does, and though we see a chance for it to be a short time, He may have other plans.  We don’t know right now. 

Anyway, to make this happen we have to make room in our home for them.  We live in a small 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home.  One bedroom is taken up by my husband and me, another is taken up by my daughter (the smallest room in the house), and the third is taken up by my three sons.  The solution?  My niece will be sleeping in my daughter’s room.  Thankfully my daughter has a loft bed, and it’s designed to have a second bed attached underneath.  We’ve never had it up before, but the option is there as well as the bed frame, box spring and mattress.  My nephew will be sharing my son’s bed, and though this isn’t an ideal situation – the bed is a twin – it should work out okay since my son takes up only a little bit of his bed.  My sister?  Well…eventually she’ll be in our family/play room.  On a futon or sleeper sofa.  That we still need to buy….  She’ll have little-to-no privacy (you can see the entire room the moment you walk inside my house), but at least she’ll have a place to sleep.

And that’s it.  That’s where the rejoicing can come.  If you look back at Nehemiah 12:43 it says, God had given them great joy.  God had given them great joy.  And God will give me great joy in all of this.  He will give me something to rejoice.  He already has.  For one thing, we have a place for each of them to sleep.  It may not be an ideal situation, but we are able to provide that for them.  Rejoice.  I received an email from a friend this morning telling me that her mom was getting rid of an ottoman that turns into a twin bed.  She asked if I wanted it knowing my situation, and of course I said yes, thank you.  It will fit perfectly in my family room.  Rejoice.  Did I mention that it’s free?  Rejoice. 

Because we live in a different town from where my sister was living, the kids will be going to a new school.  Changing schools can be sad, but the kids are excited to start at their new schools.  My sister has wanted to move out this way for a while now, and she wanted to put her kids into the same schools my kids attend.  Rejoice.  At the moment they’ll be able to ride the bus with my 8 year-old son, and my niece will attend the same school as him.  He will be able to walk her from the bus to her classroom.  Not only is it on his way to his own classroom, her teacher is one of the teachers he had last year for math and reading.  This will make it easy for him to know exactly where she is supposed to go.  Rejoice.

There is a lot happening here, a lot of good things coming from the sad.  If I take a step back, taking a break from all the work I have to do to get the house ready for three new people, forgetting for a moment the difficulties and added stress that may come from this,  I can see all the good that is there.  I can see what God is doing, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else He has prepared for us.  I am willing to rejoice in the little things every step of the way.  When I rejoice in what He has given me I am a much happier person.  I can’t dwell on the things I’ve been dwelling on, for I know He provides and will continue to.  I will rejoice, for He has given me great joy.

What about you?  What is going on in your life right now that has you down?  Can you step back for a moment and see all that is good in it?  Can you see what God is doing with and in your situation?  Focus on those things which God has given to you.  We are to rejoice in Him always, and in everything He provides.  He will give you great joy.  Accept it.  Hold on to it.  Let your rejoicing be heard far away.
 
Lord Jesus, I thank you for showing me the joy in the situations I see as hopeless, stressful, even burdensome.  Lord, you give me this joy, you fill my life with it.  You, oh Lord, want me to focus on the good.  Help me to see that good, that joy, in all things. Give me peace in the storms. Help me to rejoice in You always.  In Your Heavenly Name, Amen.
 
1. Wee Sing Bible Songs:  http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-Bible-Songs

As I go about my days, driving to my kids’ schools to volunteer, heading to the grocery store, cleaning, relaxing, going about my day-to-day life, I can see the face of God smiling at me, patiently waiting for me to remember Him.  He’s not angry.  He knows me, and He knows I’ll return to Him.  The problem is, because I know this, I can keep Him pushed away for a while longer.  Because I know He’s there, patiently waiting for me to return, to fall to my knees and pray, to pray like I’ve never prayed before, to sing songs to Him, to talk to Him, to read His Word, to read what others write about Him, I know that I’m okay and will eventually get it without inciting His wrath and fury.

But how does that help me?  It doesn’t.  What am I doing?  I’m pushing away the One who gave me life, who created me in His image, who sent His Son to die for me.  The One who loves me and will never stop loving me.  Why am I doing this?  Selfishness.  I have other things to do.  I’m busy.  I’m too tried.  I want to do something else right now.  Fear.  I don’t want to hear what He has to tell me.  What will He make me do?  What will He make me give up this time?  Will He make me leave my comfort zone again?  I really hate that.  Doubt.  Am I really hearing from Him?  IS this Him, or is it just me?  Am I making this whole thing up?  Is this really what God wants me to do?  Am I really hearing from Him, or am I just so impatient that I come up with my own answers?

So why bother?  But yet He’s there for me.  I still see His face, kind, loving, smiling. Looking at me; waiting for me to return.  God is a God of action, yet while He’s making blind men see and lame men walk, He’s sitting back, patiently waiting for me.

It’s my time to return.  Again.  And again. And again.  A constant cycle, one that tends to repeat in my life.  Yet, I know he’s not angry.  He’s not mad.  He’s just smiling at me, waiting for me to return again.

Dear Lord Jesus, I’m sorry for making you wait for me.  Again.  I’m sorry for continuing this cycle.  I know that you love me, and that you will never leave me, and I am so very thankful for that.  Your patience is unending, you love never fails. Grant me the mercy that you so graciously bestow, and allow me to walk by your side again.  I love you.

Amen.

In elementary school each year (3rd – 5th grade) we had a Cultural Arts Day.  We chose, ahead of time, activities we wanted to do from a list given us, and then on the day we followed a schedule leading us to each one.  One year, I think it was fifth grade, I chose mime.  I don’t know why, I guess it just sounded good at the time.  I remember sitting at a table in the library, listening to the presenter tell us to start with a wall.  We had to envision a wall that we would soon “press our hands against.”  This would help us with the mime.

I chose a brick wall.  I still remember how it looked, its’ color, its’ size.  It sticks with me to this day.

A brick wall.  Walls can be good things, surrounding us, keeping us sheltered from the elements.  They give us our privacy.  But at times walls can be bad.  They’re used as barriers that we form to keep us from getting hurt, from showing who we really are, from having to put ourselves out there and getting embarrassed.

Walls, though, are not that difficult to break down.  All we need are the right tools.  But a brick wall?  I think those are harder than any wall that’s formed with 2x4s and drywall.  They’re solid.  They’re thick.  They’re strong.  They’re sturdy.

To me, a brick wall resembles a barrier that has been up for a long time, becoming stronger as time goes on.  For me, my wall comes up when my heart doesn’t want to get too close to a situation.  In the books I’ve been reading I’ve come across the word, “victim.”  That’s what I don’t want to be.  That’s the reason my wall pops up.  I have dealt with “victims” my whole life; people who play the victim whether they really are one or not.  People who wallow in it and want people to feel bad for them whether they realize they are doing this or not.  I don’t want to be like that.  I don’t want people to feel bad for me.  I don’t want people to think that I’m reaching out because I want to be a victim.  That’s what I’ve been fighting all this time.

I read in Lysa Terkeurst’s book, Made to Crave, a quote she borrowed from Ruth Graham: “Either we can be victimized and become victims, or we can be victimized and rise above it.”  To rise above is what I always strive for.  I don’t want to wallow in my victimizations, and therefore I don’t.  But do I go too far?  When questions are asked in Bible studies there are some I don’t respond to.  I think, “If I answer this I’ll look like a victim.  I don’t want to come across that way, so I’ll just keep quiet.”  It’s at those times when I see my brick wall pop up in front of me.  And it doesn’t just pop up.  It grows.  It moves from side to side as I try to see around it.  My wall is strong.  It keeps me on my side.

I even have a hard time writing this type of post because I feel that I shouldn’t be writing so many “weakness” posts.  That thought keeps me from typing, even though it’s what God has put on my heart.  I fight it.  I don’t want to be seen as a victim.

I’m also reading Renee Swope’s “A Confident Heart,” and taking the online Bible study that goes along with it.  That’s really where this post stemmed from.  It didn’t mention being a victim, but as I read the chapter that’s what kept coming to my mind.  What Renee talked about was how we tend to hide behind the “I’m fine” quote when someone asks us how we’re doing.  Our response, whether it’s true or not, is, “I’m fine.”  It’s our barrier.  A barrier that keeps us from telling someone how we really are doing; it keeps us from letting someone in.

In this chapter Renee writes, “It can be hard to let people know how we’re really doing.  We don’t want to be high maintenance, right?”  She then goes on to say, “It’s embarrassing for people to see our flaws and failures, so we work hard to look like we’re doing fine from a distance.”

But, wait a minute!  To me, if I tell people how I’m really doing, I’m just acting like another victim, one who isn’t “rising above it.”  I’m not embarrassed, I just don’t want people to roll their eyes and think, “Oh, she’s like that.”

Oh, but Renee doesn’t stop there.  She goes on to say, “Pretending [that we’re fine] leads to hiding and isolation.  What we need is someone who will pursue us and accept us even though we’re flawed.”  And do you think she stops there?  Of course not.  She starts her next paragraph with, “Eventually, though, we find ourselves in the shadows of doubt, convinced that we aren’t worth knowing or pursuing.”

Wow.  Those last little “tidbits” sound  more like wallowing in victimization than just talking it out with someone else, letting someone else in on how you’re really doing.  Victimization of my own making.  Is that what I’m doing?  By putting up my brick wall, the wall I created for myself in a twenty minute activity in fifth grade, I’m becoming a victim, the one thing I keep fighting against.

So now what do I do?  Well, now I need to reevaluate what I read in these two books.  I have victimized my own self, and therefore to rise above it I need to let someone else in.  I need to focus first of all on God.  He is the one who will accept me, flaw and all, without question.  Then, with His help, I can begin to let someone else in.  This will be a long, hard process for me, but I know it’s possible with His help.

Have you found yourself in a similar place?  Putting up barriers because you don’t want someone to find out how you’re really doing, thinking that they will just roll their eyes at you because you’re too needy?  Too weak?  Find your own answers in your walk.  Seek out Christian books that can guide you along the way, and be sure to always seek Him.  He’ll guide you.

Lord God, I just thank You for leading me to a truth I was missing all this time.  I know I won’t change overnight, and that this will be a long process for me.  Give me strength to put into action what You have taught me, and guide me along the way.  Lord God, I love You, and without You I am nothing.

Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?  Who would have thought God’s saving powers would look like this?

The servant grew up before God – a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.  There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain first hand.  One look at him and people turned away.  We looked down on him, thought he was scum.  But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins.  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed.  We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.  We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.  And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.  Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.  Justice miscarried, and he was led off – and did anyone really know what was happening?  He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.  They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man.  Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true (Isaiah 53:1-9 The Message)

I like the way this passage from Isaiah is paraphrased in the Message Bible.  It lays it all out on the table, nothing held back.  For one thing, the “servant” here is described basically as ugly.  He would never make it on the cover of GQ if he were around today.  If he wasn’t being passed over or ignored, he was looked down on.  He was mocked, he was tortured – whether physically or mentally – he was the “nobody.”

Have you even been in that situation?  I have.  All my life I’ve been made fun of for one thing or another.  I’ve never really fit in.  Most often it was for my physical aspects.  I wasn’t the prettiest thing you would see walking down the street, especially in junior high.  I was overweight, wore glasses, had a large gap between my two front teeth, and my hair needed some major work.  Thanks to people I thought were my friends I became the laughing stock of the eighth grade.  I felt like I had no one.  People I had considered my friends turned their backs on me.  I was no longer able to sit with my usual group at lunch because they were the ones who started it all.  Others I thought were my friends refused to let me sit at their table.  I was an eighth grader who found herself ostracized, forced to sit with the sixth graders at the other end of the lunch room.  I know, woah, but that was a big thing at that age, and I found myself mocked even more for it.  I had no place to go, no place to hide.  Everywhere I went I could hear them talking about me.  Not talking to me, but talking about me. This didn’t stop with the end of the school day.  It was waiting for me on the bus on the way home as well.  I was a big joke wherever I went.

I had no idea what I had done to deserve this.  Why all of a sudden was I the target?  What had I done?  It didn’t make any sense, and I was so hurt.

There have been other times in my life where I have been made fun of for my clothing choices, my physical appearance, etc, but nothing as harsh as that one year.  I’ve been scarred.  I don’t take compliments easily.  I always wonder what’s really behind them, when the one complimenting me is going to strike.  This is something I’m working on.

Though I’m way past eighth grade now - with high school, college, marriage and motherhood following behind, changing perspectives – my mind still goes back to those days.  Not often, but it does tend to take its journey to the past.

And then I read this passage.  It’s a prophecy about Jesus.  Despite what we all see in drawings of Him, Jesus was not the best looking man.  On top of that He was hated and rejected, even by His own hometown.  He walked around teaching about God, and about love.  He never hurt a soul.  But they chose to hate Him.  They chose to spit on Him, and they decided that He had to die.  For doing what?  He was innocent.  He was blameless.  And yet, still they came after Him.

Why do people do that?

I guess I shouldn’t talk too much.  I haven’t been the perfect example in this either.  I’ve done my share of mocking, of gossiping behind other people’s backs.  I’m not proud of it, and I don’t do it anymore.  But when I did?  I was no better than anyone else.  I was no better than those who were there hurling insult upon insult at Jesus, looking for an excuse to kill Him.  I was no better than them.

Isaiah doesn’t stop there though.  He finishes the chapter with the “why”:

Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it – life, life, and more life.  And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.  Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burdens of their sins.  Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly – the best of everything, the highest honors – because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest.  He took on his shoulders the sin of many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep (Isaiah 53:10-12 The Message).

Jesus had to go through all that suffering because of us.  Because God loved us so much He wanted to make a way for us to be with Him, and Jesus became the Way.  He had to endure so much just to save us.  There was a purpose to His life even if He didn’t deserve all the physical and emotional pain he received.

Maybe there’s a reason behind what I’ve had to endure, though it pales in comparison with Christ’s struggles.  Or, maybe God is using those experiences for the good.  After all, He makes all things work together for good.  Though I’m scarred, I’m stronger.  And I know what to watch for with my own children.  I can be there for them if and when they have to endure tough times like that.

I can look back now and see how much has changed since then.  By my senior year in high school I was back to being friends with some of my “so-called” friends from eighth grade - we had all changed by then, grown up as best as grade school kids could do – and I still talk to them at times to this day.

Everyone is precious to God.  Remember that today whether you are the one on the receiving end of a lot of hurt, or the one who is handing out the hurt.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that I always remember that each and every one of us on this earth was created by You, and that we are all loved by You with depth unimaginable to us.  Help me not to create hurt for others, and help me to forgive those who have hurt me.  You sent your Son to save us, and though we beat Him down, He continued His task for us.  Thank You, Lord God, for never giving up on us.

Ever since Sunday morning I have had a song in my head almost non-stop.  It’s a kids’ song that we sang in the K-5 class at church.  It starts off and ends with “I just wanna be a sheep,” and in between it talks about what we don’t want to be - a hypocrite, a Pharisee, a Sadducee and a goat – with the reason behind it.  It even comes with its own hand motions which I must admit I love doing with my kids.

But a sheep.  I never thought I’d hear myself singing about wanting to be one.  The word sheep tends to have a negative connotation when talking about a person or a group of people.  The common consensus is that sheep are dumb animals that follow where they’re led absentmindedly.  Because of this people who tend to let others do their thinking for them and “follow the crowd” are called sheep.  Not something I want to be called.  But when you open your Bible there’s that word filling the pages.  In John 21 Jesus talks with Peter and asks him three times if he loves Him:

    When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
    “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
    Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
    Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”
    He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
    Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
    The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
    Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”  He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I Love you.”
    Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-18)

Jesus called His people His sheep, His lambs, but it didn’t have a negative meaning.  Jesus wasn’t looking down on them, He was looking at them with affection, and He was asking Peter to take care of them, of us.  Matthew 9:36 says, “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  In Matthew 10:16a Jesus says, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.”  We even see this metaphor in the Old Testament.  Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  In the Bible being a sheep is a good thing.  They are shown as gentle, humble creatures.  Even Jesus was called the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29).

Jesus was also called the Good Shepherd.  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:14-16).  The truth about sheep?  They’re not the stupid animals they are thought to be.  They’re actually pretty smart.  Being considered a sheep in Christian worldview is an honor.  Sheep in this case are people who follow the Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  We follow where He leads, the examples He sets, the rules He gives us to live as we should.  We continue to follow as long as He continues to lead, and He will always lead.

And as sheep we need to work together.  I love what the description I found on a website says about sheep and their “strong flocking instinct.”  It says, “Their only protection from predators is to band together and follow the sheep in front of them.  If a predator is threatening the flock, this is not the time to act independently.”* How true of us!  As human beings we have a natural predator: Satan.  We can’t fight him alone!  When he attacks we need help from the group, those who walk with us in faith, those fighting the same spiritual battle we fight.

So being a sheep is a good thing, not a bad thing.  We’re not stupid creatures mindlessly following a crowd.  We may not know where we’re walking, but we know whose leading, and we know our final destination.  And the reward is more than we could ever imagine.

I just wanna be a sheep.  Don’t you?

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Good Shepherd, for leading me wherever I need to go, and for giving me a flock that lives for You.  I also thank You for being the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.  I pray that I am able to follow your example as a gentle lamb.

* http://www.sheep101.info/stupidsheep.html

Matthew 22:1-14: The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet tell them to come, but they refused to come.
    “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready.  Come to the wedding banquet.’
    “But they paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.  The king was enraged.  He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
    “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’  So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
   “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’  The man was speechless.
    “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
    “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This parable is not new to me, but I must admit it took me a while to really understand it. I had a hard time getting past the literal and delving into the allegorical.  But one Sunday morning this was being preached at church, and I had my own, “Aha!” moment.  I got it.  I could see how it all fit together, and how it emulated God’s Kingdom.  All good.

Except, unfortunately, for one thing.  If you’ve read my previous posts, then you know that I am a very visual person.  Everything comes to me in pictures, and I relate what I learn to those pictures.  So here I am, sitting in church, “watching” the scene play out.  My mind is going back and forth from the king’s banquet hall to our King’s pearly gates, lining everything up and how they fit together.  Everything. 

But I can’t help getting stuck with the one vision I have at the king’s banquet.  There is a very long table, many people sitting, eating, enjoying themselves at this celebration.  At the very end of the table, in a chair on the right side looking up toward the king (I’m not kidding about how visual I am!), sits a man.  He looks to be in his late thirties to early forties, he has a short, respectable hair cut, a little scruff on his chin, and his clothes, though not dressy, are nicely put together (modern times).  To me he looks like a nice guy who just got carried along with the crowd of people, none of his peers close by.  I don’t know his background, but I can tell he’s done the right thing his entire life.  He’s good.

Then the king notices him and approaches him.  “’Friend,’ he asks, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’” (v.12)  I watch as the man looks up at the king, embarrassed.  All he was doing was sitting there, quietly eating his meal.  He hadn’t expected to attend a banquet that night, but he was pulled in.  An awkward silence passes between the man and the king, as the story tells us, “The man was speechless.” (v.12)

And then the king gives the orders to have him thrown out.  He doesn’t quietly and politely ask him to leave, he doesn’t offer him a set of wedding clothes from his abundant closets.  He tells his attendants, “’Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (v.13)

My heart goes out to that man.  He was quiet, he wasn’t causing a ruckus.  He didn’t sit in a place of honor; in fact, he sat at the lowest place possible.  And yet, because of his clothes, he was singled out and thrown out of the house like a dog who had just ruined Christmas dinner.  I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.

And to top it all off?  Jesus ends his parable with, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”  Well, what the heck?  What’s the point of inviting him only to embarrass him by having him kicked out in such a harsh manner?  What’s the point of it all?  I don’t understand!  And, really?  He was a good guy!  Jesus said earlier that anyone on the street was to be invited, both good and bad.  This guy didn’t fall into the “bad” category, so why was he singled out?  It’s not right.  It’s not fair.

I got the message, but that part still baffled me.  A couple of nights ago I was reading my Bible, and, of course, one of my readings happened to be Matthew 22.  Back to the parable of the wedding banquet.  Okay.  I was bound and determined to figure it out once and for all (no, I didn’t look deeper into this at that time) what the end of this parable meant.  So I read, finished up verse fourteen which ends the parable, and still didn’t get it.  Great.  The same exact scene played out in my mind with the same outcome, the same, “Huh?”

Finally I decided I had to figure this out, so when my husband walked into the bedroom where I had been reading I talked to him about it - I typically am able to figure things out when I talk to him, whether he leads me to the answer or I figure it out just by talking it out.  I explained my dilemma to him – and of course he laughed at just how visual I was about it – and then he explained to me that he just never accepted Christ.  Plain and simple.  Oops.  Am I the only one who missed that?  Probably.  But there it was.  He never, in all his life, accepted Christ.  The wedding clothes come when you put on Christ, when you are covered with His blood.  I started singing a line from a song we would sing at my old church when adults were being baptized, “You have put on Christ.  In Him you have been baptized.  Alleluia, Alleluia.”

So I finally got it.  Maybe this came up the Sunday it was being preached, but I had missed it.  But I told my husband - since I was still trying to fight for this guy – that maybe no one actually talked to him about it.  Maybe he never knew Christ because no one took the time to tell him.  And there was “Aha!” moment number two.  Or was it three?  Anyway, writing all this out in my notebook I realized that there are going to be many people waiting their turn to get into heaven, but many of them will be turned away because they missed one step.  They never accepted Jesus.  In John 14:6-7a, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”

“No one comes to the Father except through me.”  That’s it in a nutshell.  We must accept Christ in order to be accepted into the Kingdom of heaven.  But what if that person didn’t know?  That’s when it came to me.  It’s our job to tell them.  Yes, this is something that Christians are told time and time again, and new Christians are one of the first to want to rush out and save the world, but do we really understand the call?  Some, yes.  Others, maybe not.  Why was my heart hurting so much for that one man who was thrown out of the banquet?  Because I personally need to take that step.  I admit I like to hide behind my writing, and my words do come out much easier when I put them down on paper (or type them on a computer).  The written word is a gift that God has given to me, and I can use it to share His Gospel.  BUT…that doesn’t excuse me from sharing it by word of mouth when I’m out and about.  I can’t use the “I’m shy” excuse.  It may be true (more than I’d care to admit), but it’s not an excuse.  It’s actually selfish.  I can’t say, “They would never listen to me,” “They’ll just roll their eyes and walk away,” or even, “So-and-so would be able to do this much easier.   I’ll just let them save the world.”  Yeah, that’s not what we’re called to do.  We’re not called to shirk our duties as Christians.  We need to immerse ourselves into God’s work.  Regardless of where we’re called.  We are all called to different avenues; we just need to find out where those are, what those are.  We can all make a difference when the day of judgment comes if we all do our part now.

And it doesn’t matter if the person is “good” or “bad.”  A bad person can accept Christ and turn his or her life completely around.  A good person can do so much good, but if they don’t except Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they don’t have a chance.  Being good (like the man in my visualization) doesn’t give you a free ticket into heaven.  Isaiah tells us that “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6a)  So then how are we to become clean?  By accepting Christ and being “washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

“And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.  Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.  The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” (Revelation 7:14-17, emphasis mine)  Doesn’t that sound amazing?  Some of us are already guaranteed this.  Now we need to help others take the step that will also give them this gift of eternal life.

Last night in my small group a question in the book we’re reading asked, “Why does your tomorrow depend on today?”  Well, what would happen if we left everything for another day?  What if we knew where we were supposed to be, and by being there we could bring more people to Him, but instead we find something “more important” to do, or we’re too tired, or we just don’t feel like it.  How are we ever going to win a war just sitting back doing nothing?  We can read the Bible ‘til we’re blue in the face (and we should always be in His word), but we have to put it all into action somehow.

So, how are you going to make a difference?  Will you be able to stand before God and know that you helped even just one person pass through His gates into His Kingdom?  Will God look at you and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”  I know I want that.  I want to stand there and watch people entering, not being kicked out.

Lord Jesus, I understand now that it is my responsibility, my duty, as a Christian to help grow your Kingdom.  When I sit idly by I’m doing nothing.  Please help me to remember that I am saved through the blood of the Lamb, and I need to share that gift with others.  Lord Jesus, thank You.