Tag Archives: love

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.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Love Speaks . . . Through You

29 Jun

Oh Sisters in Christ, how I love you.  Ones I know and ones I don’t.  I love you because you are fighting the good fight in your homes, in your communities, and in your churches.  I love you because you aren’t perfect but you keep plugging away, confident that God will see to completion the good work He has begun in you.  I love you because no matter how hard-pressed on every side you may be, you cling to the knowledge that you are not crushed and your God has not abandoned you.  I love you because you aren’t afraid to be honest with your God about how hard it can be on this planet while simultaneously thanking Him for the very messy life you lead.  You carry so many loads.  You are responsible for so much.  Your to-do-list never becomes an I’m-done-list.  But you still press on.

So in case no one has told you lately, you are admired.  I’m in awe of all you do, amazed at the love you share, and I know it makes a difference in the lives of others.   I know it seems sometimes as if no one sees you.  No one recognizes all the love you pour into life.  So may I just assure you that not only does the One who has declared you to be the apple of His eye see you, those around you see you too.  Please forgive us for the times we fail to tell you how amazing we find you to be.  Please forgive us for not taking the time to give voice to love.

I know there will be those who read this and want to remind me that if we are doing things for the glory of God it really won’t matter who sees, who mentions, who takes the time to notice.  And I wholeheartedly agree that God sees and is enthralled when we live life for Him; when we love wherever we are in His Name. But, I also wonder if one of the ways God chooses to spur us forward might be through the encouragement, confirmation, and kindness of those around us.  I might even ask you to entertain the idea that there is Biblical exhortation to do exactly that.

  • After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” Acts 13:15
  • And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. Acts 15:32
  • Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:18
  •  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.  1 Thessalonians  5:9-11
  • And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 1 Thessalonians 5:14

Every one of those verses, and there are many more on both sides of the Covenant Line, exhort us to tangibly love.  Even the word admonish, which might sound harsh if not investigated a bit, is an exhortation to love through instruction.  It means to appeal to the mind with spiritual substance, to exert positive pressure on someone’s logic, and to urge them to choose God’s best.

It seems to me based on the Truth of Scripture that I need to be looking for opportunities to notice and affirm those around me.  False flattery?  No, not ever, no.  That’s the enemy’s deceitful twist on building one another up—ingratiating for gain—Satan’s counterfeit.  But honest encouragement, honest appreciation, honest strengthening. . . done for no other reason than to say to your Sister, “I see you and I esteem you so.”  Girlfriend, this is more than just a good idea.  It’s essential to our doing life together as believers.  It’s what distinguishes us from the dog-eat-dog emotional environment so many women we know are devoured by.

See, here’s what I think.  If you and I were to begin to make a concerted effort to give voice to all the wonderful things we see the Sisters in our lives being and accomplishing, it would draw attention.  If you and I were to make an effort to express appreciation every time we see a fellow Sojourner going the extra mile, others would sit up and take notice.  If we were to come along side one another and celebrate the choices we see our sweet Friends making to serve others instead of being served, heads would turn. Why?  Because only a woman who has been changed by the Unchangeable One lives like that—no one does those things, no one gives voice to genuine love— UNLESS THE VERY PRESENCE OF LOVE IS LIVING IN THEM.

Do you get it Girlfriend?  The love you pour out on others spreads His fame and strengthens His Kingdom. It says to the world that He will not be contained and His LOVE will always change things, even the deep self-serving things that keep us from building up those around us.  Yes, only He can revive hearts and encourage souls, but what if you were the way He chose to do it?  What if Love chose to speak through you?  Doesn’t the idea of it make you almost giddy?  Oh, how I pray you walk away today being encouraged to give voice to love and your path crosses a heart that needs to hear it.

But I’m not stopping there.  I’m also going before the Throne with one more request. I’m asking Him to send you someone to speak the voice of love straight to your heart. To encourage you. To strengthen you. To  esteem you.  And may I just exhort you Sweet Friend to receive His message with full assurance of His Love and His desire to revive your heart because while I may not know you, I do know Him and I have no doubt, Daughter of the King, that you possess the affection of your Father’s heart and He finds you to be worth every word.

Tags: , , ,

Girlfriend, You ARE the Miracle!

15 Jun

LAZARUS HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD!

LAZARUS HAS COME TO LIFE!

JESUS HAS PERFORMED A MIRACLE!

Imagine the resurrection of Lazarus occurring in our no-holds barred tell everything social media society.  Oh, how the twitter birdie would be singing and the hashtags flying. . . . .

  • Martha warns of stench.  Jesus is not deterred! Lazarus lives!#stenchovercome #Christunafraid
  • Jesus frees Lazarus from the tomb!  Death clothes peeled! #rollingstones #outfitchanged

Not to mention the status updates that would be popping up on facebook pages all over Bethany . . . .

  • He seems better than before and I sure didn’t notice any smell! 🙂 –feeling happy
  • Saw Lazarus and Jesus today.  Both seemed in good Spirit. –with Mary and Martha

Funny thing is that even though the internet was still far off, news of the miracle spread!  It must’ve been all the buzz at the market place, at the synagogue, and around every Jewish supper table.  We get our information from the Apostle John and it’s guaranteed to be truth so we don’t even have to visit snopes.com to see if it’s myth or urban legend.  In fact, the passage in John 11 and 12 is so chocked full of truth that there is absolutely no way to look at it all in this small little blog entry.  So as always I’m encouraging you to go and read the whole thing and count on God to show your heart more and more.

When I’m leading a Bible study and I have a lot of stuff I want to share, I quite often tell the sweet Sisters who are with me what “I won’t be talking about” that night.  So if we were actually sitting face-to-face with the Bible in our hands, I might say something like “I was really torn tonight.  I thought about pointing out the way the Scripture specifically tells us how much Jesus loves Mary, Martha, and Lazarus before it notes “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” At a cursory read we might think the two verses don’t fit too well together. But might it be that His love for them was the very thing that prompted Him to give these three dear friends, the ones He held in loving esteem, the opportunity to believe Him more and take part in glorifying the Father?  Could the same be true of us?  Might it be that the purpose in the wait from time to time is so that we might have a part in pointing the eyes of those around us toward heaven?”

Or I might have chosen “not to talk about ” Christ, who was about to raise a man from the dead, having those around Him roll away the stone and remove the death clothes binding Lazarus.  He could’ve just pointed at the stone and told it to move.  He could have disintegrated those linen strips with a Word.  Instead, He chose to let others be involved in shining the light into that very dark tomb and give them a role in setting the dead man free.  Sister, what kind of a privilege would it be to be known as a “stone roller” in the lives of those around us?  And how honored would we feel if we were given the assignment of peeling away the death linens so our friends, family, and neighbors could walk freely in the Truth?

And, of course the last thing that wouldn’t be discussed is Jesus calling Lazarus to life by NAME.  Oh, don’t you love to entertain the idea of what it must be like to hear LOVE say your name.  Maybe we’ll hear that very thing when we finally look Grace in the face.  And maybe it will sound something like this

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name;

and you are mine.”

Isaiah 43:1 NIV, 1984

Dear One, I so pray you take Him at His Word.  This is personal to Him and it’s meant for you.  Hear His heart . . . “Don’t be afraid Bunny.  I have rescued you and called you out of your sin.  You belong to me.  I won’t let you go.”  Now, you do it:

“Don’t be afraid _________.

I have rescued you

and called you out of your sin.

You belong to me.

I won’t let you go.”

Doesn’t that give you glory bumps?  Hear Him speaking right to you?

So if these are all the things we wouldn’t be chatting about, what in the world would we be considering?  Well, it would be those tweets and those status updates that would have our attention.  It would be the news spreading from ear-to-ear that would be at the center of our discussion.  Why?  Because people of all kinds are going to hear about the miracle Jesus performed in your life.  They will be absolutely a twitter about the new life that they see in you.  You will be modern day evidence of the miracle.  Living proof that Christ still raises people from the dead.   Indisputable confirmation that the Author of Life still revives hearts today.

The change in you, the transformation from walking dead to abundant life, will be beautiful.  Your entire life will be a testimony to His power, just like the life of Lazarus.  So, what of Lazarus the man brought to life in full view of those who believed and those who did not?

When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there,

they came, not only on account of him

but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,

 because on account of him many of the Jews

were going away and believing in Jesus.

John 12:9-10 (ESV)

That’s right.  The last mention we have of Lazarus in the Bible is under the heading “The Plot to Kill Lazarus” and the truth is, the headline over your life, if you are a believer, is similar.  Beloved, don’t you dare think for one moment that your enemy does not notice the difference you are making in the world around you.  Don’t you let yourself believe for an iota that living out the miracle every day is of no significance.  You may not be under the threat of flogging or crucifixion but the battle that rages is real.  The arrows slung in your direction may take the form of isolation, cruel words, and intimidation, but believe me when I tell you based on God’s exhortations to be aware, to be suited for battle, to be alert that they are part and parcel of “The Plot to Kill the Miracle.”  There is no doubt that your enemy, the devil prowls like a lion looking for someone to devour.  That’s truth, flat out.

But Girlfriend, here’s the bigger truth– the One who redeemed you, the One who called you by name, is not about to let you go.  FEAR NOT, the will of the Lion of Judah will prevail.  The Miracle will live!  And live to the full. He has summoned you by name, and YOU ARE HIS!

And just as certainly as the news of new life could not be contained in Bethany, news of your transformation will spread like wildfire.  I find that to be worth a status update.  Maybe even a change in my relationship status ♥– feeling loved.

Tags: , , , ,

The Most Excellent Way

25 May

If you’ve had prior occasion to visit the blog, you know that God seems to be driving home the need for me to love people exactly where they are at in life.  Despite the circumstances they place themselves in.  Despite the poor decisions they may make.  And perhaps most importantly, despite my desire to just give up on them.  I think there is somewhat of this current to love others running through the Church right now.  I fully concede that I might have “pregnant woman” syndrome –when you’re pregnant you see other pregnant women everywhere—but it seems that many of the things I read or hear of late center around reaching out in love.  I think it’s great.  I think the world needs to be loved with an unchanging, unconditional, secure, steady love.  What a contrast to the fleeting, up-and-down love roller coaster so many who live apart from Christ are trapped on.  I so support every believer who is following Christ to live out loud in love …first in their Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and then unto the ends of the earth.

 But you will receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you,

and you will be my witnesses in

Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

I pray God’s blessing all over those Christ followers who, filled with the Spirit, display the love of the Savior in their communities, their state governments, their country and the nations around the world.  Indeed, wherever God has placed us as stewards of the Firstborn’s inheritance, let us be faithful.   Let us walk boldly in His Name and love beyond ourselves. We want those who are wandering lost, feeling isolated, and even the ones who don’t know they need His grace, to see a difference and feel welcomed by His love. But I have to wonder how that happens if we are engaged in subtly tearing one another apart.  How can we reach out to love those who have chosen another path if we can’t even love those who are walking the trail with us?  And, I fully confess, that I have kicked dust in the faces of the saints traveling by my side on far too many occasions.

I read a blog this morning encouraging believers to consider practicing the spiritual disciplines.  The author didn’t profess to be an expert on the subject.  He just presented some things worth challenging our minds and hearts with.  I scrolled down to the comments fully expecting to see believers encouraging one another to examine their hearts on the subject.  What I found instead was sniping at the author over ONE quote that had been included in the piece.  Further down in the comments, the author explained that since posting he had removed the quote because of the uproar.  He was defensive about the thing and I probably would’ve reacted the same way.  I might’ve thought to myself “Really, all of that and this is what you’re choosing to focus on? ”  I wonder if the pastors and teachers in our midst often feel that way—“Really?”.  And I wonder more, how often that kind of critical spirit has flowed from MY heart and straight out of MY mouth.

At the beginning of every Bible study, I encourage the ladies who are participating to be Bereans and search the Scriptures for themselves to be certain the teaching is sound.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character

than those in Thessalonica,

for they received the message with great eagerness

and examined the Scriptures every day

to see if what Paul said was true.

Acts 17:11 (NIV)

But might it be that a worthwhile commitment to confirm the unifying Truth of Christ Jesus can become distorted and slide too quickly into divisive, self-exalting legalism?  Don’t misunderstand, we must be on guard against false teaching.  The Bible couldn’t be more clear about that subject.  We must be alert and we must man the watchtower.  However, from my perspective there is a huge difference between willful deception and a poor choice of words.  So might it be that as the Church is experiencing a renewed desire to reach out and love on God’s most prized creation, that we are forgetting to show gentleness and love to one another?  A house divided against itself simply will not stand and oh, don’t you know that it must make the enemies of the Cross absolutely giddy to watch the Bride devour herself.

We often hear 1 Corinthians 13 read at wedding ceremonies. Truth is, it wasn’t written in the context of temporal marriage, but it was written so the Bride, the Body of Christ, would know what love looked like to the Bridegroom. Under Divine inspiration, Paul calls it “the most excellent way” and goes on to provide the ultimate description of the love the Body is called to lavish on one another.

If I can speak in the tongues of men and even of angels but have not love, that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion—the kind that is inspired by God’s love for and in me—then I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose, and I understand all the secret truths and mysteries, and possess all knowledge and if I have sufficient faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, God’s love in me, I am nothing, a useless nobody.

Even if I dole out all that I have to the poor in providing food and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory but have not love, God’s love in me, I gain nothing.

Love endures long, is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; it is not boastful or vainglorious and it does not display itself haughtily.

It is not conceited, arrogant, or inflated with pride; it is not rude, unmannerly, nor does it act unbecomingly.  Love, God’s love in me, does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking, it is not touchy, or fretful or resentful.  It takes no account of the evil done to it nor does it pay attention to a suffered wrong.

It does not rejoice in injustice and unrighteousness but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, it is ever ready to believe the best of every person; its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything without weakening.

Love never fails, never fades out, becomes obsolete or comes to an end.  As for prophecy, it will be fulfilled and pass away.  As for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease and as for knowledge, it will pass away, it will lose its value and be superseded by truth.

For our knowledge is fragmentary, incomplete and imperfect and our prophecy, our teaching, is incomplete and imperfect.

But when the complete and perfect total comes the incomplete and the imperfect will vanish away, become antiquated, void and superseded.

When I was a child I talked like a child, I thought like a child and I reasoned like a child; now that I have grown I am done with childish ways and have set them aside.

For now, I am looking into a mirror that gives but a dimmed, blurred reflection of reality, as in a riddle or an enigma, but then  . . . . . . .  1 Corinthians 13 (AMP)

You are going to have to go to your Bible to read the rest because this is as far as I have memorized –for now.  See, if this thick headed woman has learned nothing else in her pursuit of Life outside the Tomb, she has learned that without a doubt, left to her own devices she is a critical, sharp-tongued woman with a desire to puff herself up by making others feel less than.  The only hope I have of living the lovelife, of imitating God, is to have a total heart transformation.  Only His truth will change me.  I must treasure what He treasures and see His children from His perspective.  I have to be filled heart, soul and mind with Him so that what flows from my mouth is love.  It cannot be simply what I know, it has to become who I am. . . LOVE . . . because it is who He Is.  And it must flow first to the warriors who fight the good fight and run the race beside me –those whose faces I know and cherish and those I will not meet this side of Glory.

The world doesn’t need to see another fractured family living out a dysfunctional existence.  They need to see a family acting like their Dad and following His example. They need to see us doing life together, honoring our commitment to one another, and loving each other despite our glaring imperfections.  I have to believe that when we love each other the way He loves us, when we live and love the “most excellent way,” it’s going to draw some attention.  Attention that will give us the opportunity to explain why we love the way we do.

Sisters, let’s be gracious today to the family we share eternal blood with.  Let’s be committed to believing the best of them.  Let’s give the same grace and understanding to the Body as we do to those who have not yet answered the call of Grace.  Let’s live the “most excellent way” so the world can see the most Excellent One.

Tags: , ,

The Engraving of God (Part Two)

28 Apr

As you come to him, the living Stone

—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—

you also, like living stones,

are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,

offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5

Baby Dog

Baby Dog

Well, we have taken some time to consider our God being God in both the Old and the New Testaments.  We have seen Him reveal Himself to be the Holy Engraver of the stone tablets as well as the Living Stone so that His children on both sides of the Covenant line could see His perfect holiness, perfect freedom, and perfect love.  Isn’t it funny how we always return to the fact that our God does not change?  Are you beginning to appreciate the security in His unflappable Godness?  That’s one of my prayers for you all.  I want you to know that to your bones because grabbing a hold of that particular truth changed my faith dramatically.

I have to wonder what you have been thinking in the time that has passed between this posting and the Engraving of God (Part 1).  Might it be that in this time of consideration you have thought to yourself, “Kinda cool, Bunny, but how does that apply to me? And . . . what in the world does your dog have to do with anything?”  I find both of these to be good questions.  I hope to give you answers, based on the authority of God’s Word, which will show you that for believers in Christ this particular Old Testament/New Testament parallel could not be more significant.  Having God be true to His promise to show those who seek Him great and hidden things has convinced me that part of my destiny, and may I suggest part of yours as well, is to be a chip off the Almighty Rock.

It’s not hard for us to wrap our minds around God carving each character into the stone tablets until His perfect message was completed and presented to His children.  It’s tangible and concrete.  But grasping the carving Christ underwent might be more difficult for us because of the abstract nature of it.  It’s my feeling though that the etching Christ endured was every bit as real.

Consider our Jesus, hungry and thirsty after fasting 40 days, doing battle in the desert with Satan.  How deeply do you think coming face-to-face with evil, especially in such a vulnerable state, would have cut?  Imagine the heart of perfect compassionate being confronted with a sea of sickness and need, knowing that this was not the time for physical restoration to come to all.  How might that have etched His heart of Love?  And what of the engraving He experienced as all the disciples deserted Him and He heard Peter say, “I do not know the man.”  Perhaps we could picture the very real marks He bore across His back and the blood that ran from His head as the thorns carved their way into His temples.  And the ultimate etching of the nails in His hands as He willingly surrendered to the Cross.  Yes, our perfect Savior, fully human underwent the pain of being engraved for our benefit.  Remember, Jesus was perfect.  His character was flawless and He knew that He needed no refinement, no engraving.  His Father knew it.  And yet, Father and Son joined together to complete the carving.  Why?  For whom did the Father allow His Son to go through such agony?  Who did Christ find worth the suffering?  Who needed to see Him triumph over every obstacle and endure every etching?  WE DID.

We, who are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, needed to see the Living Stone emerge in victory from the sadness, pain, and difficulty of life.  It was essential for those who are destined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son to witness the purposefulness of the carving as well as His triumph.   We needed to see Him come through as the Conqueror displaying the message and glory of the Father because as those who are “like living stones” I fully believe we can expect to go through the engraving process too.   There is a purpose to the hurt and loss of this world just as there was a purpose to the suffering of Christ. For me, this truth began to wear my name at the passing of our sweet little cocker spaniel.

Britt and Baby

A Special Gift

Baby Dog had been a part of life on Biddinger Boulevard for a long time.  Britt got her for a birthday present when she was just a little girl but truth be known, Baby , without a doubt, placed herself above Britt in the family hierarchy.  And our Puppy Girl was definitely absent the day the memo announcing that she was a dog circulated.  She ran the house and had her little black nose poked into everybody’s business.  There wasn’t one thing in life that she didn’t leave her paw print on.  So after she was gone, there was just this immense hole in everything.

Baby died in September of 2012 and her death was kind of like the exclamation point to a lot of other loss that had taken place for me.  It started with Britt leaving for college the previous year, and though I don’t want to dramatize what is a very natural part of life, I honestly felt physical pain in my heart when I watched her pull out of the garage and leave for Florida.  Like a chunk of me was cut away.  Several other things took place and then, a sweet Sister and warrior Friend completed her race and went home to be with Jesus.  It was painful to say goodbye even though you knew her faith had become sight.  In August of 2012, Brett began battling these new health issues and it took so much of his independence.  It was like watching the accident steal his freedom all over again. … and … and…and it all hurt.  And when I looked around at the people I have the honor of doing life with, so many of them were walking through absolutely agonizing situations.  The hurt of a sick child.  The pain of lost health.  The grief of a lost home.  The uncertainty of aging parents.

So when Baby Dog passed away, the floodgates opened and I began to cry.  I swept up dog hair and I cried.  I got Brett’s breakfast but not her Beggin’ Strips and I cried.  I pulled out of the garage and saw the freshly mounded dirt in the yard and I cried.  I am still crying, even in the card aisles at Walmart.

And the loss didn’t stop with Baby.  It continued to roll through the Thanksgiving Season when a sweet friend was taken from us far too soon.  I can’t describe the pain I saw on his Momma’s face and his sister’s face.  It was anguish I haven’t seen up close and personal before.  And I hurt for them and I grieve the loss myself.  And it feels like another trench has been etched into my heart.

I would look around and think to myself as I watched people hurt and grapple with pain, “How are they getting out of bed in the morning? I didn’t even want to face losing the dog.”  Everything I saw people go though would come back to the pain of doing life without Baby Dog and I would think,  “What in the world is that in comparison to . . . losing your home? . . . losing your Mom? . . .losing your son?”  And  the things people were enduring and walking through was almost unbearable to me and that is when I really began to weep.  To weep for their hearts and their hurts and their loss.  God used that little dog, who brought me such joy, to carve out my heart so that I could begin to love other people.  To understand in a small way the loss in their lives, the need in their lives, and the hurt in their lives.  I have experienced loss and hurt before but never have I seen it produce fruit in my life.  This time was different.

The death of the Dog brought every cut, every mark, every engraving to the surface.  It brought me closer to reflecting His character and made me want to look more like Jesus–no matter the cost, no matter the carving.  I care more now.  I try to listen better.  I hope I comfort more and that I do so abundantly.  I pray I LOVE like I never have before in my life and I absolutely ache to be filled with the LOVE of Christ so I can love those around me like they don’t deserve to be.  That wasn’t a mistake.  I meant to say that.  I want to love others like they DON”T DESERVE TO BE because that’s the way HE LOVES ME!

I want my love for them  to depend on my love for Him, not their personality, not their status, not their faith profession.  I want love to be all that is left because everything else has been stripped away.  I want to transformed to the image of the Son.  I want to be an imitator of God.  I want Life Outside the Tomb to be marked, engraved, and shaped by Love.

Don’t you want that?  Don’t you ache to bear the marks of Christ so vividly that the unmistakable message of God will be clearly seen and understood by others?   We, who are like living stones,  cannot be afraid of the hurt – it’s the very thing that will enable us to do what we say we want to do.  Sister, embrace the engraving.  Cooperate with the transformation.  Fulfill your destiny.

You, Baby Dog, continue to be a good gift to me!

Tags: , , ,

The Engraving of God (Part One)

15 Apr

This blog post is going to have to be broken down into two parts.  It’s got some depth to it and we really need some time in between to chew on the first bit before we try to consider the Dog (yes, the Dog).  The connections that God revealed, and I’m certain there are so many more He is yet to unfold, are just too much to take in while at the same time trying to explain how it hooks to “Life Outside the Tomb” and “The Love Life.”  So, I’m asking for a little stick-to-it-tiveness for these next couple posts.  I think if you will snug up your hiking boots and keep moving up the mountain, you’ll find it to be worth the work.

Eventually, I’m hoping to share with you the way God used our family pet to perform open heart surgery on me.  You know, the kind that separates joints from marrow and divides spirit and soul. Like all my stories do, this one begins quite a while ago, back in May of 2011.  This was the beginning of what I have come to affectionately call my “season of loss.”  It began a period of heart reconstruction that as necessary as it was, has been the most painful of all my life – including the accident in 1993.  I’ve recognized God beckoning me, disciplining me, challenging me, and even sitting me in the corner but this is the first time I have recognized being carved out by His hand.  Engraved by His Holy touch.

That is what I intended to write about today; the lessons of love that God has taught and continues to teach me through losing our beautiful, bossy cocker spaniel–Baby.  That was MY plan.  His is ALWAYS BETTER!

Imagine yourself settled into your favorite reading chair consumed with the material in your hand and suddenly, Someone (capital “S” intended) comes in and hands you a new book.  Same subject but a deeper exploration than you might have anticipated.  That is exactly what happened to me as I began preparing this post.   I sat down with my laptop along with a vague notion of the verses I might reference and God unfolded beauty that I simply wasn’t prepared for.  It’s taken me well over a week to just begin—and I cannot stress “just begin” enough—grabbing hold of it and I’m so praying that I can articulate it with some clarity because it’s just so . . .well, it’s just so Him.

I don’t know if you write in your Bible or not, but I do.  I put question marks beside things that pull at my heart but I don’t understand.  I draw arrows to verse references I feel like connect to one another and in many margins you will find definitions of words my soul has gravitated toward.  After I make these marks and notations, I pray off and on over the verses for God to give me clarity and explain it in terms that even the heart of this very thickheaded woman can understand.  I’m convinced that in His timing, He’ll address each one and if not on this side of Glory, on the other.

Hebrews 1:3 is just such a verse for me and when I originally typed “recognized being carved out by His hand ” it popped into my brain because I remembered the definition I had scrawled in the margin of my Bible beside it years ago. (I wish I would remember to date entries in my Bible so that I would have a tangible reminder of how patiently He works with me when I’m tempted to lose my patience with others!)  I have revisited that definition many times but never really felt I got the significance of it.  Sister, I could not have been more correct!

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory

and the exact representation of his being,

sustaining all things by his powerful word.

After he had provided purification for sins,

he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 1:3 NIV 1984

So I had all these thoughts rolling through my brain about Baby Dog and being carved out and I was trying to come up with a cohesive way to put them on paper.  I jotted Hebrews 1:3 down with the intention of drawing your attention, as He had drawn mine, to “exact representation”  in order to give you the definition of the Greek word before I moved into the bulk of the post.  See, this particular Greek word is only used once in the entire New Testament and since it isn’t a definition I have worked with a lot, I thought I should flip to it in my Bible just to be certain I had the right meaning in my mind.

exact representation

Bunny’s Wonderings

You can see the Bunny paraphrase in the margin:  “to carve; something engraved, cut-in or stamped; refers to Jesus Christ as the perfect expression of the Divine essence.”  I thought, yep, that is exactly what I remembered, but I couldn’t shake the nudge to confirm it further.  So I got out my Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible just to make certain I hadn’t written something down wrong and turned to the Lexical Aids in the back where I located the Greek word and definition:

Charakter:  to carve.  The –er suffix signifies agency, hence the word originally denoted an engraver or engraving tool.  Later it meant the impression itself, usually something engraved, cut in or stamped, a character, letter, mark, sign.  This impression with its particular features was considered as the exact representation of the object whose image it bore.  In the NT, representation, expresses image. Occurs only in Hebrews 1:3, where it is translated “exact representation,” referring to Jesus Christ, who is the perfect expression of the divine essence. (#5917, Pg. 1686, HGKWSB)

I was happy with the accuracy I had noted it with in my Bible, but the thing that caught my attention was the appearance of the Greek word:  Charakter.  Doesn’t that bring a very familiar English word to your mind?  It sure looks like “Character” to me.  And I started to roll over in my mind all the verses that talked about looking like Jesus, living like Jesus, showing Jesus to a watching world, and Him being made perfect in suffering.  I thought about God being much more concerned with developing my character as a Kingdom citizen than the Kingdom work I might do and I decided to look up the origin for the English word.

Character (noun):  the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.  early 14c., from O.Fr. caractere, from L. character, from Gk. kharakter “engraved mark,” from kharassein “to engrave,” from kharax “pointed stake.” Meaning extended by metaphor to “a defining quality.”

I didn’t want to rest on just one source for the origin so I went to one more sight and read down through it.  It gave much the same information but I hadn’t realized that I had stumbled onto a Bible based dictionary and right at the bottom there was an additional note:  Strong’s 2801 with the reference Exodus 32:16.  Now if you’re not familiar with the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, it’s a wonderful, enormous reference book that lists every occurrence of every word in the King James Bible according to a numerical system that is linked to the definition of the root word.  You can find it online but I prefer my big, old, clunky hard copy.  Not just because I love the feel of the pages but more so because of the hearts that blessed me with it. So I got out my KJV and looked up the verse:

And the tables were the work of God,

and the writing was the writing of God,

graven upon the tables.

Exodus 32:16

Now, certainly the word “graven” is used in other verses, but this verse, according to Strong’s, stands alone.  This particular Hebrew word, harut, is only used one time in the whole Old Testament (sound similar to exact representation?) to describe what appears to be the first recorded account of the writing of God.   The short definition is to engrave.  There are about five other words that mean simply engrave.  So why might God, the Creator of language, have chosen that particular word, to use this single time in the Bible? Might I suggest to you that it is the relationship that it shares with the Hebrew word “herut’ which means liberty and freedom.  My Jewish Study Bible beautifully described it as “there was freedom upon the tablets.”(Pg. 185, JSB-JPS)

So, it seems accurate to me to say that what we have upon the stone tablet, engraved by the Divine Hand, is the perfect expression of His love and His will for His chosen people.   Are you tracking with that?  Little “s” stone is displaying the message of God.  He has carved His Holy character into the stone, by His own Hand, to plainly show Himself and speak freedom to His people.

I know I’m getting long but oh, if we can keep plodding forward, I think He will show us new ground outside the tomb that we want to claim as our own. Read over the following verses and see where your heart lands. (I’m going to add some bold-type and capital letters.)

Exodus 24:12 KJV

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

Exodus 32:16 KJV

And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

Psalm 118:22 NIV 1984

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Acts 4:11 NIV 1984

This JESUS IS THE STONE that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

Hebrews 1:3 NIV 1984

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

  • The stone ( Exodus 24:12) engraved, carved out by God, His Word given to His children to display His character (Exodus 32:16).
  • The Stone (Acts 4:11) engraved, carved out by God, the WORD given to His children to display His character (Hebrews 1:3).
  • The stone and The Stone bore the writing, the carving, spoke the Word of the Holy Engraver and expressed His Divine essence:

Perfect Holiness

Perfect Freedom

 Perfect Love

On display for all in Heaven and Earth to see!  The Holy Engraver was shouting love from the MOUNTAIN TOP to the hearts of His children and, Girlfriend, He still is today.  Oh my goodness Beloved, that we could grasp how high, how deep and how long is His love for us.

Engraved by God (Part Two)–Lessons from Baby Dog on the way.  In the meantime, chew on this (no Dog reference intended but it did make me smirk), leave me a comment and let me know if you’re tracking with me.  And I’ve had some questions about following the blog.  On the sidebar, you’ll see “Follow” underneath the calendar.  Just click it and follow the instructions.  Happy to have you along for the ride!!!

Tags: , , ,

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

Tags: , ,

God is Resolved to Speak My Language . . .and Yours

4 Feb

I have made much of God’s faithfulness to Himself in these first few posts because God has made much of His faithfulness to Himself to me over the last year and a half.  Really, God has been preparing my heart to begin grabbing hold of that foundational truth forever.  That’s one of the wonderful things about Him.  He doesn’t care how thick-headed or dull you are, He’ll just keep repeating Himself until He sees the flame of comprehension begin to flicker.

I have to tell you that as I wrote that last sentence I felt a smile spread across my face because I had never realized before that “thick-headed” is my love language.  Let me explain.  The thing that God uses, more than anything else, to romance my soul and woo my heart is the revelation of the connections that flow between the Old and the New Testament.  I love it when He says the same thing on both sides of the Covenant line — when He repeats Himself.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, thrills my heart more than having His Word come to life that way. Nothing makes my heart, my mind, and my soul stand up and praise in such complete adoration. In that moment, my spirit knows what God meant when He told us that His words are life.

Since “thick-headed” might not be your love language, let me give you an example of what I mean. I won’t be able to describe the whole process to you or explain exactly the way God leads me from thing to thing, but I think I can give you enough so you understand just how sweet He is when He peels back the temporal and gives me these small glimpses—which are enormous for this everyday woman– of His glory.

So this is how it often unfolds for me, just change the place in the Bible I am reading and the thing that catches my eye.  I open my Bible and read Genesis 3.  My eye catches on the fact that part of the curse/consequence of sin is the land producing thorns.  The Holy Spirit nudges me to wonder, “Do you think it’s possible thorns are linked to or symbolic of sin throughout the Scripture?”  I haul out my Strong’s concordance or go to Biblegateway and search for the different Scriptures that have the word “thorn” in them. God has used that process to start my train of thought chugging down tracks, with the destination unknown, time and time again.  That particular time, it played out like this:

 Genesis 3:18

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

The Problem: Thorns symbolize the curse

    • Thorns were birthed by sin.
    • They are the consequence/by product of sin and man will toil to be free of them
    • The land has no choice but to produce them.

Isaiah 10:17

The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.

The Promise:  The curse will be consumed.

    • A Savior — the Light of Israel — will come
    • Sin will be consumed by the Savior 

Matthew 27:27-31 (Mark 15:16-20; John 19:2-5)

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Person:  Christ wore the thorns/curse.

Choo!  Choo!  We have arrived and the view is beautiful.   The thorns birthed by the curse in the opening chapters of Genesis have been overcome by the birth of redemption when our Jesus became the curse for us.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness and by his wounds we have been set free.  No longer are we held captive and forced to produce “thorns and thistles” we may now produce a crop that is fruitful and receive the blessing of God.   See the wonder of it.  Feel the overwhelming sense of Him.  God, who does not change (Malachi 3:6), leaves nothing unfinished.  Everything comes to fruition in the Son, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  Choo!  Choo!

Now, you might be sitting there beside the tracks thinking, Bunny that does not trip my trigger at all.  I heard the whistle sound in the distance and it isn’t that I don’t find it nice, but to say it thrills me might be a little strong.  Well, take heart Sister, because while I might be dumbfounded that it doesn’t take you straight to the Holy of Holies, the One who matters is not!  He knows what you need to hear and He planned before time began to speak straight to your heart.  Do you really think He wouldn’t shout the “All Aboard” in your direction?

I have a beautiful Sister in Christ who indulges me all the time as I ramble on about the things God is showing me.  And she is sooo thrilled . . . for me.   Because at the end of the day, God says it, she reads it, it’s true.  End of story.  She doesn’t have the compulsion to know every detail.  That is not the language of her soul.  She loves to hear me talk about it.  She loves His truth.  But what stirs her heart is when you put that truth to music.  Music is the thing that leads her to that place of complete immersion and adoration.  And isn’t it just like God that He gifted her with song so they speak the same language fluently.

Not so long ago this sweet friend was struggling with some serious health issues.  The symptoms she had been experiencing could’ve pointed toward some very dire neurological diagnosis. A series of tests were ordered and as the day for their completion drew near we earnestly prayed that God would bless her with peace and a calm heart.  She arrived for her tests and entered the unfamiliar building with a heart full of confidence that God would be with her every step of the way.  And that same heart thought of her two kids and her husband and what God might call them all to walk through.  But true to His Word, her God did not leave her for a moment.  No, her God was right there preparing to sing a love song just for her.  After signing in, an older gentleman approached her in his volunteer vest and explained that he would be escorting her to the testing location.  She gathered her things and began to walk at his side.  As they journeyed down that corridor, with her heart full of her family, the old gentleman began to sing, “I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul . . . “  And she did.  Because the God of the Universe, the Lover of her soul, bent down low and whispered in her ear.  She had heard, in the voice of that old gentleman, the truth of God.

“The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Dear One, never doubt for a moment that the Creator of communication is fluent in the language of your unique soul.  To her who has an ear, let her hear.

thSide Note 1: My sweet Sister has recovered in full and continues to sing in worship and praise to the One who has saved her.

Side Note 2:  (Read this part in a whisper so no one knows that I couldn’t end without telling you just a thing or two more) –I have the paper in front of me that has all the verses I looked up that particular day and it’s long.  It wasn’t what we needed for this example but I have to tell you I am totally agonizing about not painting the whole picture so please, when you have the time go to Numbers 33:55 because you’ll find out there that sin hurts if you hang out with it.  If you go to Judges 9 you’ll see what you give up if you not only allow it but actually ask it to rule over you.  And Ezekiel 2:6  is where we discover that even though sin and rebellion surround us we need not fear. And then in the New Testament read the Parable of the Sower in  Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8 because we need to know that sin can choke us to death.  All aboard!!

Tags: , ,

Newer Entries →