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He Never Leaves Us Empty

11 Jan

Day 11 of the New Year.

Most have probably stopped reflecting on 2013 by now and begun carving out life in 2014.  Me, I don’t even have our Christmas decorations down yet.  Truth is, I like our home with the glow of it all and, more truth, I haven’t stopped reflecting yet either. I’m basking in the glow of 2013 every bit as certainly as I am our still-lit Christmas tree.

Christmas on the Boulevard

Christmas on the Boulevard

It wasn’t an easy year.  In, fact it was a hard one.  And I’m not just talking about the things that occurred on the outside of my skin.  I’m talking about all the things He brought me face-to-face with on the inside of my skin. . . haughtiness, jealousy, pharasitical thinking.  But Oh, the refining work that God has begun in this Girl!

He confirmed for me again that I am of such importance to Him that He will not allow me to be stagnant in my faith or to settle for less-than.  He made it possible for me to glimpse His Glory and go places in my Promised Land that I never would have gone without the trials that left their footprints all over Biddinger Boulevard in 2013. Part of who I am has started to look a little bit more like Who He is because of the challenges my soul has faced and, Sister, that quiet joy . . . the peace of knowing that He is involved in it all, that He desires more for me. . . well, that’s worth everything.  I think it’s part of what God was saying through the Apostle Peter in His opening chapter.

 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while

you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 

These have come so that your faith—

of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–

may be proved genuine

and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love him;

and even though you do not see him now, you believe in

him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…

1 Peter 1:7-8 (NIV, 1984)

Isn’t it beautiful?  I’m coming out on the other side of 2013 with a knowledge of what I believe to the marrow of my bones and what I still want to fully believe with every part of my heart but might be just lingering in my head.  Do you see that?  God already knows, nothing needs to be proven to the Omniscient One. The trials don’t reveal a thing to Him.  He already knows it all.  It’s me who walks away with more than I walked in with. 1pet172

You see, there’s a concept that God has rolled through my mind over and over the last couple of years and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the next piece of understanding it.  The concept is plunder. Not a common word and not a common notion in our dispensation of time but I think I was blessed to live it this past year.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance links the verb plunder with to “strip away” and the noun counterpart connects to the word “booty.” And it seems to me, no matter what the form –verb or noun—it’s always connected to a battle or to captivity. The Israelites had been enslaved and oppressed by the Egyptians for 400 years when God appointed Moses to lead them out.  They had been subjected to harsh conditions and brutal treatment but God had not forgotten them nor did He plan to set them free from their captivity empty handed.  No.  God decimated the Egyptians and sent His children toward the Promised Land weighed down with plunder–silver, gold, clothing.

Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.  Exodus 12:35-36

As the Israelites walked the dry ground, a wall of water to the left and wall of water to the right, their hands were full of what God had provided.  Every foot that touched down on the other side of the Red Sea emerged not only free from their oppressors but possessing their wealth as well. That’s so God.  He wasn’t content to simply free His people, He blessed them with abundance as well.

But all too quickly the Israelites looked back toward Egypt, the place of their oppression and began to romanticize their enslavement.  They grumbled about their freedom, complained about their blessings, and longed to return to the land of their captivity.

The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat FREE in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.” Numbers 11:4-6

Wow Sister!  Talk about rose colored glasses and distorted vision.  How could they remember anything in the land of their slavery having been FREE?  Did they not recall the miraculous ways God intervened to deliver them?  Had they forgotten the plunder God had sent them out with?  Were they really so unwilling to remember the pain of their captivity that they would risk returning by choosing to believe the comfort of the lies?

They hadn’t even faced an enemy from without yet and they were already considering surrendering to the enemy within.

Galatians 5:1

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep

standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

Beloved, is this beginning to touch a heart string  with you?  Is it possible that in 2013 you emerged from a land of captivity?  That you walked between the wall of water on the left and the wall of water on the right and set your feet on the other side declaring freedom in His Holy Name?  Did you hold in your hands, maybe for the first time ever . . . peace, trust, assurance, confidence?  Was your heart full of the God of More but now you find yourself looking backward and wondering?

Girlfriend, see it for what it was.  Don’t let the unknown of freedom pull you back to the misery of captivity.  Fix your eyes on the One leading the way and trust the God who set you free.

He did not bring you out empty handed.  He loaded you down with one blessing after another.

fruitofspiritBut the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;

against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

But we cannot be afraid to remember the truth of where we have been and what He has delivered us from.  I have to remember the sting of realizing the haughtiness that lived in my heart.  I must be willing to recall the pain of the jealousy that was devouring me from the inside out.  I have to look at the ugliness of my pharasitical thinking.  And you can fill in whatever has held you captive . . .we must remember. 

Not in a put-ourselves-above-Jesus-can’t-forgive-myself kind of way, but in a way that puts the spotlight on our Redeemer and keeps us from believing that apart from Him there is any good thing living in any one of us. I heard a Bible teacher once warn against developing spiritual amnesia, I think she was spot on.  If we don’t remember the captivity we may fail to remember the rescue.   And the plunder that once thrilled our souls, the freedom to hold our heads high, well. . . it might begin to seem ordinary or worse, we might begin to believe we deserve it.

So you might not and I might not have the whole concept of plunder, spiritual plunder, figured out.  But Girlfriend, if we shrink back from staring our struggles, our challenges and our battles straight in the face . . . we’re in danger of returning to our captivity and that Sweet One is not what your God intended when He planted your beautiful feet on this planet. 

You were set free to live life to the Full . . . (John 10:10)

Your Soul Full of Freedom . . . . (2 Corinthians 3:17)

Your Hands Full of Plunder and . . . (Deuteronomy 28:8)

Your Heart Full of Him.

eph319

. . . to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:19

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Let’s Resolve to Love Like That

30 Dec

What would the coming year bring if we looked more deeply at His resolve?  What might unfold before us if we determined to place our faith in the Who rather than the what?  What might we see if we were to truly fix our eyes on the Author and the Perfecter of our faith?

These are the same types of questions I was asking myself and sharing with you all when Glimpsed Glory posted for the very first time in 2013.  Seeking hard after Him and letting Him determine the what of my life is still my greatest desire.

I know what I’m doing.  I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you,

not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding me

and want it more than anything else,

I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (The Message)

I believe Him when He tells me that He will make Himself known to me.  I have no doubt that when I come to Him, looking for Him with eyes willing to see, that my heart will be filled with the Who of Him.  It may not look exactly the way I picture it or transpire the way I imagine it, but God will be true to His promise and I will not be disappointed.  How can it leave us feeling short changed when we come out of our circumstance with More of Him than we walked in with?

Yes Sweet One, the promise is for you.  Take it personally.  Your God has determined that you will find Him when you look.  He is unwavering in His commitment to show His children lavish love, immeasurable grace, and endless mercies when they seek His Face.  This is the God revealed in the Old Testament and the Messiah who walked in the New.

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.  Deuteronomy 4:29

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

Both sides of the Covenant line reveal a God who desires to be seen and to be known by His children . . .

Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand). Jeremiah 33:3

The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]  John 14:21

From the opening verse in Genesis to the announcement that will close out our chronos time in Revelation, God is revealing Himself – showing us the Who of Him– so that we will seek Him, perhaps feel our way toward Him and find Him.

actsduncanThe What of God flows from the Who of God.

God does not merely act faithfully – He is Faithful.

God does not simply love you – He is Love.

And the list could go on.  This is the declaration of the Word of God to you Beloved.  And the beauty of the Who of Him is that He will not change.  He was, is, and will be Who He declares Himself to be.

Our God has gone to great lengths to draw us near– can your prayer, can my prayer,  be anything less than to humbly ask Him to stir our souls with the enduring tenacity to seek hard after Him and bless us with an unsatisfied, discontented spirit when we do not?

Sister, this is the only hope for the transformation this time of year causes us to consider.  newcoffeeDo we really believe that the desire for the “new thing”, for the more, for the unimaginable originates with us?  Have we really convinced ourselves that the longing to change and be more than who we are today started with our own hearts?  Have we forgotten that it is God who lifts the veil and it is He who is about the business of transforming us from one degree of glory to another?

Be holy because I am holy.

Be transformed, renewed, and revived daily.

We may have usurped it, twisted it, and distorted it to serve our own purposes but being all about the “more” and the “new thing”, those are God’s specialties.  He declares that those who believe in His Son and proclaim Him to be their Savior are a new creation.  The old has gone and the new has come.  The old woman is put to death and the daughter of the King lives –that ought to change us.  We’ve been adopted by the King.  We are not who we were and the who of us must begin to flow from the Who of Him.

“Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and

— live in love,”(NET)

— “walk in the way of love,”(NIV)

–“walk in love.” (YLT)

just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us,

a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Ephesians 5:1-2

No matter how you word it, it comes out the same – seek the Who and the what will follow.  Look on Love and step where He steps. Watch the Who and do what He does. Eugene Peterson translates Ephesians 5:1-2 like this in the Message:

Watch what God does, and then you do it,

like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.

Mostly what God does is love you.

Keep company with him and learn a life of love.

Observe how Christ loved us.

His love was not cautious but extravagant.

He didn’t love in order to get something from us

but to give everything of himself to us.

Love like that.

Girlfriend, there’s the key.  Keep company with God.  Learn.  Observe. Love.  It’s the only way to be transformed and to have the change your heart is truly yearning for.  Meet with the Messiah daily just as certainly as the disciples who walked beside Him did.  Gaze upon the face of your Father so often that you begin to walk and talk just like your Dad.

Living it out, real time, real life won’t just happen.   Purpose in your heart to make meeting with Him your priority.

I plan to “run into Him” throughout the day by setting my homepage to Bible Gateway so that every time I visit the internet the verse of the day is looking back at me. Keep company with Him Sweet One.  Seek Him– He will not disappoint you.

Be intentional.

Be purposeful.

Be resolute.

Let’s immerse ourselves in the Who of Him so that the what of us may be changed.  And perhaps, at the close of 2014, we will find that we have leaned in, learned from the Father, observed the Son, and begun to LOVE LIKE THAT.

wordcups

Happy New Year Sisters – around the world!

May God bless you as you seek His Face.

The Message:
The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. This is not a study Bible, but rather “”a reading Bible.”” The verse numbers, which are not in the original documents, have been left out of the print version to facilitate easy and enjoyable reading. The original books of the Bible were not written in formal language. The Message tries to recapture the Word in the words we use today.

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Remember the Miracles

25 Oct

There have been points in time since August 2012 that Brett has been confined to bed rest 24/7.  During one of those times, I read the book One Thousand Gifts aloud to him. It chronicles the life changing journey of the author as she takes the time to write down the gifts that surround her.  She carefully notes each one and numbers it on the paper.  But in between the numbers, real life happens.  Hard life.  Challenging life.  Still her focus on thankfulness remains.

The book was one of the ways God helped us keep our attitude right and focus on a thankful lifestyle at a time when that might not have been our initial response.  So over this last bit as we’ve been walking through some new challenges –doing life between the numbers–one of the key concepts from the book keeps making its way to the forefront of my heart . . . God’s good gifts are in plain sight.  His miracles do not hide. The question is, will we see them?

God has really seemed to bless me with the ability to see everyday miracles.  To notice and have a sense of awe at all the things that needed to occur just so I could be blessed on that particular day, in that particular moment with that specific glimpse of Him.  It’s mind boggling when you think about it.  The events that occur at just the right time.  The things that simply “fall into place” right when you need them to.  When you consider how long in the making that specific action/thing/gift was and how many things had to happen preceding it for it to take place at that very moment in time–Wow!  Amazing.  I’m going to be so bold as to say . . . miraculous. They are evidence that the Extraordinary is active in every single ordinary day.

But as wonderful as those things are, they really don’t begin to even scratch the surface of the real miracles, the unhidden gifts, He has blessed us with.  The true miracles in our lives give meaning to our special places, fill our calendars with significant dates, and are a part of all of life’s important events.  They wear smiles, laugh loudly, express all manner of messy emotion and speak joy to our hearts. Our miracles live in plain sight.

This is my Man.

brettcoffee Ever at my side. grad

Fighting at my wall.

Fiercely loving me at every turn.

Despite physical limitations.brettoutside

He is the Face of the Miraculous.

His testimony.  His life.  His endurance.

Lord, Your wonders do not cease.

♥  ♥  ♥

birthday

This is our Sweet Girl.

Passionate for her Savior.

brittlibrarianSteadily pursuing Him in an unsteady world.

Finding her standing stones and making camp at her Gilgal.

dosrbrittvbs

She is tangible proof that God desires the best for me.  She is His whisper of sweetness.  She is the work of His hands.

He is greatly to be praised.

♥ ♥ ♥

mdandmeThese are my Parents.

mdatbarb

Doing life differently than what they imagined.

1339015377515Persevering.

Serving.

Loving.

Conquering  the challenges of life.

                                       They possess treasures untold.  A new Faith Heritage.

The Intervention of Grace.

His love endures through all generations.

♥ ♥ ♥

rikwed

These are my heart children.  Some my spiritual off spring and some I pray will be.  All of whom I love.mikeandbill

sisandjutwedchip and the kids

derricklanden

For some the faith journey is yet to begin.

Others fight the good fight with tenacity.

And for one, the battle has been won.

Faith has become sight.575108_10151283288115091_1371622684_n

They are precious–every one.  Straight from His Hand.  A gift to my heart.

Blessed am I among women O Lord.

♥ ♥ ♥

And these beauties are my Sisters.1339013780358ladies

mygirlsbaptismkim

006Aren’t they breathtaking?karendebme

Is there anything more stunning, more fearsome, more miraculous than a chick with a Sword?

ladieswithpoohEvery single one of them has looked devastation straight in the eyes.

But they stand firm.

Dressed for combat.

Arms linked in faith.

Hearts filled with love.

 His love for me shines through these Warriors at my side!

And Oh, how I wish I had pictures of every single woman I am privileged to do life with.  You all wear the miraculous so well and I am in awe of you.

Father, may I never look this kind of beauty in the face and fail to praise you.

♥ ♥ ♥

The sight of my miracle crew is overwhelming to me and as I proofread this I feel my love for them slide down my cheeks. Sweet One, it is no different for you.  Your miracles do not hide.  Your gifts are in plain sight.

Look through the photo album in your own heart.  Study the faces.  Hear the sounds of joy.  Remember the tears of separation.  Take them in.  Family, friends, memories . . . .MIRACLES.

All walks of life, all circumstances, all manner of trials and through it all the Giver of good gifts is shouting love to you. Intervening in every one of your days with their smiles, their struggles, their presence.  Through them He Interrupts the mundane with the miraculous.  Beloved, these are the good gifts – the hearts – He has entrusted to you.  The miracles He has chosen to fill your days with.

How can we call a single moment ordinary when we are surrounded by the works of the Extraordinary?  Each one of them is a “stop and smell the roses” moment wearing skin.  They are revelation of God Himself.  His most prized creation.  His unhidden gifts. Blessings that live in plain sight.

And yet, I find that sometimes my life between the numbers obscures my vision. I begin to see the faces of my miracles as ordinary.  I forget by failing to remember.  Failing to remember that they are the works of His Hands.  They are the faces of His wonder.  My gifts do not go into hiding.  My miracles are all still there.  I just fail to see.  I forget to remember.  Oh Sister, do not let your life between the numbers steal your vision.  Let it be changed by what you see!  Open your eyes.  See your Miracles.  Remember your Gifts.

PSALM 77:11-14

I recall all you have done, O LORD;

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.

 O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as You?

You are the God of miracles and wonders!

brettandbritt

I WILL REMEMBER!

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Life on the Open Road Requires Some Time in the Garage!

28 Aug

“Sitting in the garage won’t make you a car,

and going to church won’t make you a Christian.”

car3

This is a popular quote I’ve seen posted all over facebook and used in different devotionals lately.  I tried to track down who originally said it, but it was attributed to so many people I wasn’t comfortable assigning an author.  So give credit to whomever it was you heard it from first and know that it did not originate in the mind of Marilyn Biddinger.  I’m not that clever.

As clever as it is, there’s something about those words that have made my heart a little uncomfortable each time I have read it.  I think I get the point —simply parking in a pew will not transform you into something you are not. But I sometimes wonder if as the Body, in a very sincere and good-hearted effort to distance ourselves from empty religion, we’ve gone too far and cast the meeting together of the Body of Christ as an unnecessary part of Kingdom life. An optional part of our relationship with Jesus.   If we have, we’ve unintentionally done ourselves and a watching world a huge disservice.

Please don’t hear me promoting empty church attendance as a way of doing life with our Savior.  But . . . the person sitting in that pew is much more likely to hear the Truth preached there than sitting on their couch every Sunday.  And since it is the Word of God that comes with the promise (Isaiah 55:11) it seems to me that we should encourage them to come park in that pew and find a little shelter from the elements outside any day of the week.  And, at what other time will a person who just wants to be good for goodness sake or do the right thing because it’s just the right thing to do, have a chance to be loved on by so many who have LOVE living inside them.

Doing life with the family of God, even though it can be a messy business, is absolutely essential to having a full and complete relationship with Jesus.  It’s where we have the opportunity to live life the most excellent way and where the world sees believers do life differently.  If it wasn’t essential why would the Apostle Paul tell us not to give up meeting with one another as some have done and why would the New Testament spend so much time telling us how to relate to one another.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,

but encouraging one another,

and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24-25

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34

 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Romans 12:10

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to [people, things] and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits. Romans 12:16  (Sometimes I just have to go with the Amplified because it drives it home and leaves me no wiggle room.)

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Ephesians 4:2

These are just a few of the one anothers.  And guess what?  To do the “one anothers” there has to be others.  It’s the others that God often uses to change and refine us.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

It’s true that sitting in the garage won’t make you a car.  It won’t make you a car because that wasn’t what you were created to be.  I don’t think even a car would be content with just sitting in the garage all the time if it could choose.  And if it could talk, I think it might say something like “Hey, put some fuel in my tank, put the top down,  let’s go for a drive.”  That car would be itching to fulfill its purpose. Never leaving the garage wouldn’t even be an option.  It would ache to get out on the open road and do what it was made to do.  So while the purpose of that car is life on the open road, running 24/7 without coming back to the garage for a little rest and respite just isn’t going to cut it.  The road grime would build-up, the windshield would be smeared, and the fuel gauge would soon hit empty.  Balance is required for that car to do its job.  Even though it rightfully calls that garage home, it simply can’t do what it was it was created to do if it spends all its time just sitting there.  But . . . it can’t fulfill its purpose if it spends all its time on the road either.

Isn’t it the same for we who are called to be members of the Body of Christ?  You were created to complete the Body, to edify the Body, to encourage the Body and they were created to do the same for you.

 For as in one body we have many members,

and the members do not all have the same function,

so we, though many, are one body in Christ,

and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:4-5

We need one another to wipe away the road grime, help clean the windshield, and fill our tanks.  It’s what we were created to do – love one another. Sometimes it’s good to be on the road alone and just let the Spirit blow your hair back.  Other times, you need to look over and see another driver headed the same direction.  It encourages the heart and spurs the soul to know we aren’t alone.  God gives us other road warriors to strengthen us and help us navigate all the twists and turns life throws at us.  We can’t dismiss the benefits of fellowship and meeting with the body of Christ.  The Truth won’t allows us to. Sisters, if we do we will miss out on the fullness of the abundant life God has planned for us. And so will those who long to see us.  I’m speaking from experience on this one.  Brett and I haven’t had the opportunity to physically enter our Church and worship with our Body in over a year.  As much as we enjoy having Believers here in our home, there’s just nothing like joining together with hands raised high and coming before the Throne with one voice.

And as for the one who pulls into their appointed parking space each Sunday . . . Well, do you remember the last time you met a whole slew of cars on their way to a classic car show?  The smile just creeps across your face as you meet car after car.   Shined and polished.  Buffed and beautiful.  You get all anxious waiting to see what the next one might look like and you start chatting with everyone else in the car about how awesome all those cars are as they keep rolling past you. Even if you aren’t a car enthusiast, there’s just something about seeing those cars, one right after another, that grabs your attention.   And when they arrive at their destination and they’re all lined up for the world to see, it is simply spectacular.

Spend a few minutes wandering among those beauties and you’ll soon be hearing story after story from their owners.  “Yeah, she was a wreck when I got her, but look at her now!”  “You wouldn’t have believed the shape she was in!”  Pretty soon your attention isn’t on the car anymore.  Nope.  Pretty soon, your focus is on the owner.  The one who poured all those blood, sweat, and tears into making that car what is today.  Same for us.

When Love congregates all in one place, it grabs people’s attention.  When we share the truth of the wrecks we were and let the Glory of the One who poured His Blood, Sweat, and Tears into us do the talking – well, Girlfriend, we are beautiful.  So you pull out onto that highway with the top down and the engine roaring the Good News, but don’t you forget that time in the garage is necessary.  And Sister, when we all line up, shined and polished, doing what we were created to do – we are absolutely spectacular.

car1

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We are Wrapped in His “Thereness”

24 Aug

What if we believed, to our core, that God is always with us?  Not in some abstract way, but in the reach out and touch Him kind of way.  What if His “Thereness” was our reality and we, the ordinary, understood the very real, very tangible Presence of the Extraordinary?   Imagine truly grasping the ever-Presence that is the I AM.

His Word is clear.  He is with us – ALWAYS.  He will not leave us or forsake us.  Just as surely as every person we cross paths with today, God is there.  So what if, rather than having that be a concept we know, it was a reality we lived?  What if?

Part of “what if” for me would probably include keeping a much closer watch over the words that fall out of my mouth.  I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t allow them to just “fall out” but would take great care to fill them with grace so the King at my side would be proud to call me friend.

  • He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.  Proverbs 22:11

And I probably would use my time more wisely than I normally do.  I can’t imagine frittering away the hours watching HGTV, rooting for the House Hunters to pick the home that stayed in their budget, if I really grabbed a hold of the truth that God is sitting with me on the couch.  I have to wonder if He might be thinking that I was squandering the day He had entrusted to me very foolishly.  Given all He has accomplished, it’s hard for me to picture Him as content just idling away the hours with no purpose.  Yes, part of my “what if” would definitely include a wiser use of my time so His Majesty might delight in me.

  • A king delights in a wise servant, but a shameful servant arouses his fury.  Proverbs 14:35

Those are just a couple of the observable “what if” changes. The real “what ifs” would take place on the inside because I cannot fathom subjecting my HOLY God to some of the thoughts that fly through my mind.  Would I really feel jealous of anyone else in the world and stomp my foot about what they have that I don’t, if I realized the WHO that I am blessed with? What in the world could be of greater value than Him?  Would I honestly usurp His right to judge by silently evaluating the actions of others if I actually believed that the One and Only Lawgiver was there?  I could go on listing the things I struggle with and posing the questions about how they might change, but for me, and maybe for you too, all the questions boil down to just one:

Would we change if we believed in His absolute “Thereness”?

I am convinced that for all of us the answer is absolutely YES!  I have moments when I am acutely aware of His Presence and I’m certain you do too.  Times when the facts and the feelings of our faith converge and our souls fall into a holy hush that whispers, “He is here.”  We don’t try to negotiate the agenda of the day; we follow the still, small, Voice wherever and to whomever He leads.  We stride with confidence knowing that every step is falling inside the well-worn footprints of our Holy Trailblazer.  And we are unafraid because we are certain of His all-encompassing Love surrounding us on every side.  That’s the Truth of Him you know?  The I AM is present.

He leads the way knocking down the obstacles and challenges that rise up before you.

  • I will go before you and will level the mountains – Isaiah 45:2

He stands firmly on your right and on your left setting your feet on solid ground and lifting your eyes toward Him.

  • But you, God, shield me on all sides; You ground my feet, you lift my head high. – Psalm 3:3

And the Lord Himself has promised you Sweet One, that He has your back.

  • Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. – Isaiah 58:8

That is the real-time, real-world truth of it. He goes before us. He is on every side. And His glory is our rear guard.  We are, without a doubt, wrapped in His “Thereness.”  No part of our faith journey escapes His attention or His affection.  And while we may be limited to simply glimpsing glory for now, His vision toward us is totally unobstructed.  His love for us is unconstrained.  And His “Thereness” is unchanging.  Sisters, we may long for the day when see the truth of our circumstances clearly, but in the meantime, I pray we will embrace the reality of our here and now because He is Here and He is Good.

We don’t yet see things clearly.

We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.

But it won’t be long before the weather clears

and the sun shines bright!

We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us,

knowing him directly just as he knows us!

1 Corinthians 13:12, The MSG

The Message:  The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. This is not a study Bible, but rather “”a reading Bible.”” The verse numbers, which are not in the original documents, have been left out of the print version to facilitate easy and enjoyable reading. The original books of the Bible were not written in formal language. The Message tries to recapture the Word in the words we use today.

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Unchallenged = Unchanged

25 Jul

Rather you are personally acquainted with the residents of Biddinger Boulevard or you have only peeked in through the window of this blog, you have to agree that they have faced some things on this planet.  Some challenges have come about of their own making and others, well, not so much.  But this is what I know as I prepare to write this post today:  Faith unchallenged is faith unchanged.

If I’m consistently praying for growth and asking God to increase my faith, and on my good days I am, then I have to expect opportunities to stretch my new faith muscles.  Times when I get to see if it’s just talk or if I’m willing to lace up my walking shoes and really step the thing out.  Today is just such a day.

Over the last few weeks I have been inundated with the truth of who God is and so desiring to have faith that can move mountains.  I’ve shaken off some chains that have shackled my feet forever and began believing Him in an area I was totally holding back.  I don’t want to overstate because I’m having to claim Scripture over it daily, but the point is, that I am believing Him for the victory.  I’m desiring to be obedient right now not when it is more comfortable for me or better timing.  I read somewhere recently that to truly experience the Comforter we have to be willing to leave our comfort zones.  There’s some truth to that for me because I have a tendency to become complacent after a while.

You’d think that with all we have gone through, just in the last year let alone the last 20 years,  that I would have been challenged enough for a lifetime.  How in the world could I have an unchallenged, complacent bone left in my body?  I’ve seen Him be BIG, HUGE, and FAITHFUL so often.  And yet, there are still places in the back of my brain that wonder, “But will You be faithful to me in this?  Will You be my refuge if I go there?  Will You protect me from that?”  I don’t want those back-of-the-brain places directing the feet of my faith.  But, unless I hit a challenge that makes me act, I will never know if I am truly living, moving, and finding my being in Him.  See what I mean?

I have to be grateful for the chances He gives me to know where my faith is at and to see the fruit of the growth He has prompted in me.  Did you catch that – “the chances He gives me to know . . . and to see”–?  Let it sink in a minute.  He already knows the depth and the breadth of my faith.  He knows what I will trust Him for and what I will believe of Him.  So who needs to be strengthened by it?  Who needs to see progress and have tangible proof that my faith walk is moving forward?  Oh my goodness Girlfriend – I do!  And so do you!

I need to know that there is fruit in my life of His Presence.  You need to look at me and see Him making a difference in my life.  It’s the same for you and the people who peek into your life.  You are the way that God has chosen to make Himself known in this generation among these people.  Every faith challenge you come up against is a new opportunity to shine like a star in the universe.  And don’t you know that Glory always shines brightest against a stormy background?

God does NOT need my growth or yours.  Does He desire it? You know He does. God does NOT need my faith to increase. He does NOT need your faith to increase.  But does He long for it?  Beloved, you can be certain He does.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  Acts 17:24-25

He doesn’t NEED a thing from us.  But oh, how He longs to see us consumed by our NEED FOR HIM. He knows that only when we are consumed with Him will we be complete. Now, we’ll not get there this side of glory, but we can continue, by His grace, moving closer.  And so He lets us see the tangible proof we need to keep fighting the good fight.  He spurs us toward more.  That’s who He is.  That’s His goodness.  That’s His compassion.  That’s His LOVE on display to you and through you.

See, your God is ALL about you.  And that means you don’t need to be.  You don’t have to worry about what’s coming down the pipe because He’s got it. So, if something comes into your life that challenges you, and I don’t mean to sound trite, but Sister, rejoice in it.  I’m not minimizing whatever you’re going through at this time, LIFE ON PLANET EARTH IS HARD!  But our God has set His Face like flint and He will not withdraw from the challenge or let His children settle for a less-than, untested, unchallenged faith.  Oh Praise His Name, He loves us enough to call us to more.  To cause us to draw nearer.  To lean in closer.  To listen harder and to look more intently.

So Sister you let your talk become your walk and you move ahead with confidence.  Whatever obstacle, whatever dark cloud, whatever difficulty you have staring at you, look right back at it with eyes of belief, and know, to the bottom of your soul, that your God is about to break out of that storm and shine like the noonday sun.  And then Girlfriend, you better grab your sunglasses cause life is bright that close to Glory!

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Younger Me, You Were Loved . . .

22 Jun

September 10, 1988 –

  • Brett and Bunny were married in a church but certainly did not exchange their vows before God nor consider Him as even a small part, let alone the center, of their marriage.

April 20, 1993 –

  • Brett and Bunny had their first child.  A beautiful little 7 lb. 6 oz. baby girl was born at 5:21 p.m. in Alma, Michigan.  No praise was given to God for her healthy little body or sweet little face.

May 24, 1993 –

  • Brett finished the electrical work and the three Biddingers moved into their first family home.  No prayer of thanks was offered.  No blessing was prayed over the home.

June 24, 1993 –

  • Brett was in a near-fatal car accident and flown to Grand Rapids.  If someone cried out to God and asked for His intercession, His preservation of life, it was not me.

Brett was in the hospital for 31 days.  Most of it was spent in ICU.   The crash team was called to his room more than once and it was two full weeks before we knew for certain that he would he live.  I can’t really say he slept, more so he floated in and out of consciousness in a room with glass walls for constant observation.  The tubes in his chest and down his throat forced air into the collapsed lung and the halo screwed to his skull aligned what was left of his crushed spine.  The traction apparatus above his bed held his broken femur in the air until he could survive the surgery necessary to fix it.  Still I did not pray.

I slept on couches in the family waiting room for many of the 31 nights. I listened to the doctors explain his paralysis — nipple line down, no use of hands, will not walk. I watched the nurses dump medicine down his feeding tube.  I saw the fear on his face each time he regained consciousness.  I guarded him fiercely and sat for hours in the hard, orange, plastic chair beside his bed listening to the hum of his respirator. I sat. I guarded. I watched. But I did not utter a single prayer.

Our baby girl took up residence 90 miles away from us with my parents.  My Mom bundled her from head-to-toe in the dead of summer because the hospital was so cold and they shuttled her back and forth, with the help of friends, almost daily.  My Dad’s right arm has to be two inches longer from all the miles he carried her crossing that parking ramp and skywalk in her baby seat.  Her visits were the only time Brett showed real interest in being awake.  The change in him was so marked when she was there that the nurses noted it all throughout their charting.  And yet, no thanks was given to the One who had given her to us.

Oh, others were praying and praying hard.  But I was not.  And still He did not leave me.  His thoughts concerning me never wavered from the unfailing love He professes in His Word.  I have no recollection of cognizantly crying out to God during that time.  But He must have been whispering straight to my heart because I found myself standing in line at the hospital gift shop with a Bible study on the Book of Isaiah in my hand.  I wish I could tell you that it was the beginning of a passionate, consistent walk with God but it was not.   I did do the Bible study though and this morning, with the anniversary date of the accident approaching, I felt oddly drawn to dig it out and read through the questions and answers on its pages.

It is so strange to look at my responses.  I know it was me but the young woman who wrote those words is such a dim memory.  I think I’ve worked so hard to leave her behind that I’ve almost forgotten that God loved her too.  Does that make sense to you?  He loved that girl who gave Him no consideration as deeply as He loves the one typing these words.

His affection was as firmly fixed on the woman who wrote “He is powerful and He protects even the weakest follower” 20 years ago in that Bible study book, as it is on the one who desires to write for His glory today.

His heart was just as consumed with the girl who read Isaiah 5:1-6 and scrawled, “God has planted many seeds in my life, from the time I was a small child.  He sent people into my life to tend them, but they were ignored.  Finally, He has let the cows trample me.  Too much sin has left me a wasteland.” as it is with the woman who clings to the truth of Isaiah 61:4 and knows that the ancient ruins and places long devastated in her were destined to be restored.

Oh, how He loved the one who wrote “God has guided me through many troubles only to receive nothing from me.  For a long time I have used the excuse that you can’t pray when you’re in trouble if you don’t pray when you aren’t” and then finished the thought by wondering, “But what if these things were brought to my life for precisely that reason. Is the Lord trying to get my attention?”  And oh, how He loves the one who now confidently answers, “He will always bring beauty from the ashes– if not on this side of Glory, then on the other. My God is good. My God is faithful.”

I guess the point of all this reminiscing is to say that you, Sweet One, are always and have always been on His mind.  There is no point on the timeline of your life that He has not loved you. No matter where we are on the spectrum of faith, He’s always about the business of loving us.  Rather we acknowledge or even notice Him is an entirely different matter but I assure you based on the authority of His Word that the One who was, the One who is, and the One who will be has always been with you.

And somewhere, in the back of her mind, that younger version of me knew that truth too.  She knew He was there and when she finally began to speak, she knew His heart was listening.  This is the final entry from that Bible study so many years ago:

“My understanding of this changed.  My heart believes that the Lord is listening.  God hears all my prayers and He answers them.  At times not the way I want but all my prayers are answered.  His thoughts are higher than mine . He sees the whole picture.  I don’t.  I can trust Him for the outcome.”

Well said younger me.  Well said.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

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Are You Brave Enough?

4 Jun

signsI stand at the crossroads and look . . . and I try to imagine what life might be like if I do things in a way I’ve never done them before.  I try to conjure up the best and worst case scenarios that might be catapulted into existence if I step out into unfamiliar territory.  What will I find if rather than pursuing the path of “what I know” and “where I’m comfortable” I take God at His Word, believing that He will always lead me in the good way, and I step out in HIS NAME?  What if instead of being limited by what my finite mind can see, I trust the Infinite and allow Him to unfold a God-sized vision concerning me?

Honest answer is, “I don’t know.”  Full confession is, “I might not be brave enough to find out.”  I often pray for a spirit of contentment to settle over me.  To be certain that my days, no matter how secluded or contained within the four walls of Biddinger Boulevard they might be, are spent pursuing His agenda and not mine.  There are days when other than one another, we don’t come into contact with anyone.  So at times, it’s hard to imagine that there is a vision that includes us, let alone to conceive that a God-sized vision might be in the works.  But I firmly believe that this time of “quarantine” has come straight from the hand of God and it has come for a holy purpose.  I don’t want to miss it.  I don’t want Brett to miss it.  I want us to heed the words of the Lord to be “strong and courageous” and to take every opportunity to seize the cities He sets before us–even if it appears that we are the only ones occupying those city streets.

Not everyone is given a time in life when they are required to limit their activities and I so pray that we are faithful with the gift we have been given.  I think the worst thing that could happen is that Brett would finally be healed and we would look back to find that physical restoration was all that had occurred.   To whom much is entrusted, more will be asked.  Perhaps the God-sized vision requires the more.  Maybe it’s in the unfamiliar territory that we will truly begin to see.

I recently shared with a friend that God has turned me upside down by diligently shining His light on all the places I would rather just keep hidden.  It hasn’t been exactly unpleasant (it’s actually been exciting) but it has had a feeling of “are you kidding me?  There’s more?”  I’ve said aloud on more than one occasion, “Marilyn, will you ever get to the bottom of yourself?”  (I grew up with Marilyn being my trouble name and I’ve carried the tradition forward 🙂 )   Just when I think all the self-serving goop has been dug out, I start to smell a not so pleasant aroma emanating from my heart and I realize . . . more goop has bubbled to the surface.  Another bastion of judgementalism is uncovered.  Another stronghold of haughtiness brought to light.  Another fortress of jealousy is revealed.  While somewhere in my mind I understand that all that goop dredging is a required part of the process, it doesn’t always make cooperating in the whole thing come any more naturally. I tell myself that that’s probably true for almost everyone.  It makes me feel better to think that feeling exposed and vulnerable with all your goop laid out on the Throne Room floor would be a little difficult no matter who you are.  Exposure.  Vulnerability.  Sounds risky to me.  Are you ready for that?  Are you that brave?

What if only a handful of us were to answer that question with a resounding “YES”?   We would, undoubtedly, turn the world upside down.  If only a few were committed to truly make Jesus the Lord of their lives, life as we know it would cease and life, true living, would really begin.  Henry Blackaby writes that you can’t say “No, Lord” because it presents an oxymoron.  If you say “No”, He’s not your Lord.  Plain, simple, true.

I’m praying to be one of the handful.  I’m asking God to make me one of the people you’d be pleased to join with in taking the world by storm.  I’m petitioning Him to make me into a warrior who does not flinch in her belief that the victory is already won.  Girlfriend, the battle that rages over you in the heavenlies is huge.  I want to be the one you want at your back.  And I want that life of tenacious commitment for you too.  When people meet us, they ought to see something different.  Something more.  Something Divine.  They ought to see Christ in the unique way that He displays Himself through each one of us.  I might even be so bold as to say, they ought to glimpse glory.

So what do you say if for the next week we live as if we are unafraid? We obey the small nudges from God rather than talk ourselves out of acting because we aren’t absolutely, 110% sure, convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was God’s voice.  We look undeterred at the dark places He reveals, repent, and take the path He leads us down.  If it doesn’t contradict Scripture and it’s consistent with God’s character, what say we throw caution to the wind and err on the side boldness?  Err on the side of obedience?  Why not do the good thing?  Corny as it may sound, we’ll never pass this way again.  So, let’s just see where the God-vision goes.  Even when it’s unfamiliar.  Even when it’s uncomfortable.  And especially when it doesn’t fit within the confines of our finite imaginations.  I have to believe that the Divine of God, the All of Elohim, who has entrusted us with much will never ask for more than He has given. Sister, the way of the Ancient One is good — let’s be brave enough to walk in it.

“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.”

Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV, 1984)

(Here’s a secret wish:  I wish I could be peek in at the lives of the Sisters who choose to take this challenge.  What a thing of beauty I would behold!  — You go Girl!)

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THE LOVE LIFE!!!

22 Mar

I am so excited to be posting today! I have been waiting for the green light from God to chat about this since the first blog entry—in fact, it is what prompted me to start glimpsedglory—so believe me when I tell you that my entire body is smiling this morning.  I am absolutely giddy at the prospect of writing it down, imagining your faces as you read it, then grabbing hands and dancing down the streets of Jerusalem with you!

I sometimes get frustrated when I am plinking away on this keyboard trying to convey a sense of urgency about the subject at hand.  If you’ve chatted with me face-to-face when I have one of these lightning bolt moments hit my brain, you are very aware that I cannot get the words out of my mouth fast enough. And you’re also aware, maybe painfully so, that God has given me the supernatural ability to get a whole lot of talking done in only one breath. Now in my mind two things are accomplished with this rapid fire chatter:

  1. I’m able to get it all out before my train of thought pulls out of the station without me
  2. You’re kind of trapped until I’m finished.  (If blogs had emoticons, I would’ve put a smiley face at the end of #2.)

But no matter how fast I type I can’t dictate the speed with which you read nor does the blogosphere allow me to keep you hemmed in until my breath is gone.  So I’m just going to tell myself that since you came of your own volition, you’re in it for the long haul and you’ll read to the end.

God confirmed this message in the most beautiful and unmistakable way on January 20, 2013 at 3:45 p.m.  I know the exact date.  I even know the time of day.  It was that powerful and it was that life-changing.  I’m praying that it will be for you as well.  I have shared it with a few Sisters but I haven’t really felt Him give me permission to put it out there for you all to chew on until now.  But even as I sense His blessing and my spirit shakes with anticipation of who He will touch with this, I am asking Him to move me out of the way so it’s just you and Him meeting over this page today.

What I want to chat about in the next few paragraphs is dying to self.  If you don’t travel in evangelical Christian circles that phrase might not even be familiar to you.  To be honest, it has always felt like allusive Christianese to me as well.  I knew it was connected to crucifying my sinful nature and to choosing God’s will above myself but it was just kind of a concept that hung out there without a clear definition.  I knew it was something I was supposed to want to do but since I only had a vague comprehension of it, I certainly had no idea how to do it.  I had no problem understanding that I have behaviors and thoughts that are not Christ-like and they need to go.  So maybe “dying to self” meant to work toward eradicating those things that kept me from looking like my Savior.  Believe me, I could come up with an endless list of things I needed to change about myself, but was that really what it meant? Like a self-help or self-improvement kind of a thing?  Was that what the whole thing was about?  Me making changes in me to show that I loved Jesus?

Even though I operated that way for a quite a while, that definitely was not it. All that lead to was years of defeat believing that I had to pull myself up by the bootstraps and change.  I convinced myself that if I really appreciated what Christ had done for me I would grit my teeth and get rid of all the offensive ways in me.  I would live a holy life. But God just wouldn’t let my spirit settle there.  My mind kept returning to the day I confessed my need for Christ.  I had fully realized that I could do absolutely nothing without Him and yet, here I was, depending on myself to change myself.  It sounds confusing but that was the exact place I lived for many years.  Now don’t misunderstand.  God has poured His grace out on me and grown my faith by leaps and bounds.  He has lavished me with love beyond what I can describe to you but I have always had a kind of off feeling concerning this.  That’s one of the things I love about Him.  He knew I was thick-headed before time began and He chose to love me anyway.

Those are the days, months, and years leading to January 20, 2013. On that winter day, I was reading my Bible and had read about the sinfulness of jealousy, fits of rage, creating discord, gossip, slander, and arrogance.  And as I often do when I’m reading, I said aloud to God, “How am I ever going to get these things rooted out of me? How do I die to this stuff?” and I turned ahead in my Bible from 2 Corinthians to Ephesians.  I didn’t go there with purpose.  I just flipped the pages.  My eyes fell on verses I have read more times than I can count.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children

and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself

up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV, 1984)

Read it again, considering the topic at hand.  Do you see the answer that He gave me?  Oh how He takes my breath away!  After years of wondering and asking the question, “Lord, what does it mean to die to self?,” that day –January 20, 2013—He made it clear.  I practically heard His voice, “My dear child, you do not die, you choose to live like me. You choose to love.”  And in that one instance, years of fog began to roll away and it all started to come together.  Being crucified with Christ is being brought to life in love.  GOD IS LOVE.  If I live in LOVE, if I surrender every decision to LOVE, if I give over all I am to LOVE everything else falls into place.  It’s not about what I don’t do, it’s about what I do, do.

Stick with me on this.  It isn’t about not being jealous of another.  It’s about loving someone so much that you only want them to receive good things.  It’s not about refraining from gossip; it’s about loving others too much to hurt them that way. It’s not about abstaining from arrogance; it’s about so loving another’s heart that you can’t be anything less than humble toward them. Oh, do you see it?

The focus is not on the death.

The focus is on the life!

The LOVE LIFE.

So to me, it doesn’t get any plainer or any better than that and I must share the good news with someone.  I began to tell Brett about it as fast as I could – because he can’t get away from me (another place I would insert a smiley emoticon if I could) repeating the phrase LOVE LIFE to him over and over again.  I cried when I was telling him because I knew that even though I didn’t have my mind fully wrapped around it, God was going to show me!  And then, as so often happens, doubt began to appear at the corners of my mind. I started thinking, “Maybe I am making too much of this.  What if I am misreading this?” And at 3:30 p.m., partly to take my mind off the questions my brain was formulating and partly because I hoped she would call and chat it all out with me, I sent my daughter a text:

“I can’t wait until I talk to you next because I think God showed me the secret of the universe and I am trying to take in what my mind can get.”

Her reply at 3:38 p.m.

“I can’t wait to hear it! I love you Momma!”

There was not going to be a discussion right now.  So, I sat there holding my phone and wondering:

“Lord, does “dying to self” mean living to walk and to talk the Love Life?  Is living in the Spirit living in Love?  To be filled with the Spirit, is to be filled with you.  You are LOVE.  To walk in the Spirit, is to walk with you.  You are LOVE.  This is it!  Not death, but the LOVE LIFE.  Lord, am I making too much of this?”

Please remember, I had not shared a single syllable of this with my girl.  She was 1200 miles away from me and I thought we had finished texting. But at 3:45 p.m. my daughter sent one more text and she attached a picture.  Both are below:

“Momma, I just finished painting this and thought you’d like to see it.”

"LOVE SPEAKS"

“LOVE SPEAKS”

Oh Dear Ones, how the Creator of the Universe longs for us to get the message!  He does not call us to death – HE CALLS US TO LIFE.  Specifically, He calls us to live the LOVE LIFE.  When we LOVE, we imitate our GOD and we walk as JESUS did!  Living the LOVE LIFE is the essence of being holy because He is holy (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter 1:16). He has not given us the death sentence of never ending self-improvement.  He has called us to live like we have never lived before—unashamedly in the embrace of LOVE.  Oh Sister, will you live for that today?  Will you surrender to that today?  Will you give up your “pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps” living and fully embrace LOVE today?  I pray it is so. I pray it for you and I pray it for me. Oh Girlfriend, let’s glimpse Glory!

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The Warrior on My Wall

8 Mar

I arrived at the hospital thmeandmylovefortyeightis morning a little after 8 a.m. and was greeted with, “Good morning Gorgeous” before my man had even seen my face.  It was the same voice I heard say to me yesterday when I entered his room, “I love that I recognize that purposeful stride coming down the hall.”  Isn’t he amazing?  With all that he is going through (I typed “walking through” first but then thought better of it–LOL) he still notices me.

If anyone were to have a justification for being self-absorbed it might be Brett.  He has been through much since his accident in 1993 but few things have been as trying as the last few months.  In late August he developed a large growth under his skin and it has spiraled downward from that point.  It moved from a hard mass to a large open surface wound and steadily worked its way further into his skin.  It has required periods of 24/7 bed confinement and stolen much of his very active life.  On Monday, he will have extensive surgery to remove the dead tissue and hopefully, clear the path for his physical healing to begin.

Sisters, I so wish you could have watched this process unfold with me.  He did not shrink back from the challenge but became all the more determined to be a great warrior, a true Nehemiah man, in the heavenlies.

Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall

at the exposed places, posting them by families,

with their swords, spears and bows.

After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles,

the officials and the rest of the people,

“Don’t be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome,

and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters,

your wives and your homes.” 

When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot

and that God had frustrated it,

we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.

Nehemiah 4:13-15

See, while I may speak “thick-headed” my man speaks the language of the WARRIOR.  Case in point:  I was studying Revelation and gushing all over him about being the Bride of Christ dressed in fine white linen and he listened politely.  Then, I got to the next description of those dressed in fine white linen and the polite listening stopped.  He sat taller in his chair and listened intently as I read aloud about the armies of the Lord following the rider who is “Faithful and True” into battle.  It was total participation. You could see the light in his eyes and the engagement of his heart.  He was absolutely thrilled at the prospect.

That’s who my man is.  Behind the spine that won’t cooperate with his brain anymore, past the legs that will not listen to the signal to move, beyond the hands that refuse to obey his command . . HE IS A WARRIOR.  He is a protector.  He is about the business of listening to the Commander and standing guard at the wall so that his family and friends can safely go to their own work.  Every day, as surely as you rise from your bed and check off the tasks on your to-do-list, my man arises, grabs his sword and takes up his station. Oh how I praise God for the commitment He has given Brett to fight.

And this morning my heart was filled afresh with love for him as I realized that this hospitalization is not a change in mission for Brett or even a delay in his Kingdom work, it is a promotion.  He has been so faithful with his section of the wall that God is entrusting him with a new and larger assignment.  He is sending him deeper into enemy territory to stand beside nobles, officials, and people he does not know. But God knows them and He is sending Brett to fight for them.

And what has so totally convinced me that this is the case, that God has expanded his territory?  It was his first request of me this morning. He wanted to know if I would help him with the computer.  He was loving the verse of the day on biblegateway.com and wanted to post it as his facebook status.  Consider the battle fatigue this warrior should be experiencing as he has been literally wounded in the fight, and yet, his focus is on reaching those suffering on the battlefield or trapped behind enemy lines “in any trouble.”

[Praise to the God of All Comfort ]

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles,

so that we can comfort those in any trouble

with the comfort we ourselves receive from God

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

So, I tell my Warrior all that God has chatted with me about as he was sleeping and as I watch the smile spread across his face two things come to my mind.  First, I think, “Lord, give me that kind of humble tenacity. Let me be so consumed with you that I am willing to combat crawl with my legs dragging behind me to any place you call me on the battlefield.”  And second, I give Him praise with all that I am that He has stationed this mighty Warrior on my wall.meandmylovefortyeight1

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