His Love Endures Forever.......

Sam and I have a little game we play which is geared to help him pay attention to Grandma when I want him to focus and do what I ask. He does not realize it is a game, but he grins, and gets it, eventually, and we both laugh when the objective has been reached.

When that moment in our day arrives for him to get his shoes and coat on, grab his backpack and head for the car. I find myself repeating what I want him to do over and over and over again.

Can I get a witness?

It goes something like this:

“Sam get your shoes on….Get your shoes on….get your shoes on…get your shoes on…...” In a little sing song voice, that he eventually recognizes, grins, and realizes that Grandma wants those shoes on, and nothing else is going to happen or be said UNTIL those shoes are on. By the time he is ready to walk out the door we are usually grinning and singing one of our little ditties.

In my devotions yesterday, I read Psalm 136. I have read this PS many, many times in my life. I have prayed it, I have recited it in church as a responsive reading. Let’s just say I’m familiar with it. But yesterday when I read it again, I saw something in it I had not seen before. 

 Psalm 136

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.

⁴ to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
⁵ who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
⁶ who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
⁷ who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
⁸ the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
⁹ the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.

¹⁰ to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
¹¹ and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
¹² with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.

¹³ to him who divided the Red Sea^[a] asunder
His love endures forever.
¹⁴ and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
¹⁵ but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.

¹⁶ to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.

¹⁷ to him who struck down great kings,
His love endures forever.
¹⁸ and killed mighty kings—
His love endures forever.
¹⁹ Sihon king of the Amorites
His love endures forever.
²⁰ and Og king of Bashan—
His love endures forever.
²¹ and gave their land as an inheritance,
His love endures forever.
²² an inheritance to his servant Israel.
His love endures forever.

²³ He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
²⁴ and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
²⁵ He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.

²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.

You see it too? Don’t you?

“His Love Endures Forever”

I smiled as I heard the repetition in my voice as I read it.  And the little sing song that came. And I realized that God wants me to know something.

His Love Endures Forever! His Love Endures Forever! His Love Endures Forever! His Love Endures for Ever!

Of all the attributes of God listed, of all the things He has done for His people, and all the things He plans to do for His people,  I get the picture that God wants me to remember that His Love endures forever.  

These days there does not seem to be a lot of love in the world. So the reminder that God’s love endures forever is a comforting thought.

The Forgetfulness of God

A great many of us start out each year with the plan to read through the entire Bible. I have been reading my Prayer Devotional Bible again this year. It is not exactly set up with a “read the Bible in a year” reading plan, but I have done it as such several times. There is a devotion for every day of the week, with a general historically based one for the weekends. Obviously, all the devotions are geared toward inspiring your prayer life.

This is a Bible that does not have a mark in it, which is unusual for me, I mark up my Bibles, with notes, and references, etc., but not this one. Perhaps that is why when I read it, because there is nothing to distract me on any page, certain words and passages just pop off the page at me. I keep my notes and thoughts written in a little notebook on the side.

Every day has brought a revelation above and beyond the days devotions. For example: when I was reading in the book of 1^st Samuel, I did not get past the first chapter when I came across the phrase in 1^st Samuel 1:19  “and the Lord remembered her”, in reference to Hannah’s deep desire to have a child.

My quirky brain immediately thought, “What? Did He forget her?” 

Now I have to admit, that when I thought that I chuckled to myself, because I know from reading the rest of the book that God doesn't forget anyone, He may forget our sins, but not us.

Don’t you feel sometimes that God has forgotten you though? I have been in Hannah’s position, wanting a child, and not being able to conceive, and I remember those years when it seemed that every other couple we knew were having children……and we were not. Yes, in all honestly, I felt forgotten. The ceiling had become lead and I felt my prayers were not getting through, and I knew that somehow I had been misplaced and possibly forgotten in God’s grand design. So when I read this I did chuckle, because like Hannah, God remembered me too.

He has remembered me so many times since then, I am certain I can’t remember all of them, and the list of the times He has would be endless.

So as I continued on in the story of Hannah, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness, of His incredible memory, and the blessed fact that He is also able to forget the very worst of us and our lives. I am thankful for a Savior who stood in the gap for me so that when God sees me, He has forgotten my sins and sees only Jesus.

“For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”  Hebrews 8:12 

Catching the curveball

Proverbs 16:9

⁹ The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

When you envision your future, you don't envision yourself, or someone you love battling cancer. You don't imagine burying a child lost too early in a car accident. Your plans don't include bankruptcy and the loss of your job, or home. These are not the things that we see when we look forward into our days. We picture our families intact, prospering, and growing, healthy and happy. We see the future as a breeze and imagine the best for our children and ourselves. Oh yes, we tell ourselves that we are aware these things can happen, but inside we doubt they will ever happen to us.

Our Sunday School lesson this morning was taken from a scripture in Ezekiel. Now, I have to admit that I haven't read a lot in Ezekiel. The visions he shared were always so strange and hard to understand that I had a hard time comprehending it, and the book starts right out with those, so yes, my study of it hasn't been as in depth as other books. But when I read the lesson, and the scripture I was intrigued, and dug a little further on my own.

As a young man, Ezekiel was raised and trained to become a priest in God's temple in Jerusalem. He was just about to begin that when Jerusalem was taken in a siege, and he along with others of Israel's best and brightest were carried off into captivity to Babylon. He was given relative freedom in Babylon, but was a captive none the less, and his life was turned upside down and inside out from what he had been raised and trained to do. All his plans for his future were completely annihilated.

The Bible doesn't tell us what Ezekiel's response to this was. It doesn't tell us if he suffered from severe depression and sorrow, or went into a slump where he couldn't get out of bed, and it doesn't tell us, how long all that lasted, if it happened at all. It does tell us that he saw visions of heaven. That God spoke to him, and basically said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Look at this, read it, eat it, make it a part of you, and get up and go tell everyone what you have seen, heard and read!" and he did!

After reading what I did, I realized that when life has thrown me curve balls, and completely upended my "plans", my initial reaction and response wasn't immediate obedience to God, and a willingness to do what He wanted me to do in that particular circumstance, but usually one of mourning and great sorrow, and self-pity, and even a little wallowing, there, I admitted it. AND I have to admit, that after I finally began to get sick of all that, and looked around, God was patiently waiting for me, and took my hand and we moved on. The point is, that THAT behavior and the circumstances that I chose to dwell on, if Ezekiel experienced them, apparently weren't noteworthy enough to even get a mention in scripture.

The commentary said Ezekiel was open and listening to God, and when he was told what to do, he immediately went and did it. Now this was a guy, that had been schooled in the scriptures, and knew them backward and forward (to say it was required reading is an understatement). His knowledge of God was extensive from years of preparation to prepare him to serve in the temple. And even though he didn't get to serve God in the temple in Jerusalem, and make the sacrifices, and enter the Holy of Holies, God still appeared to him, in a foreign place and spoke to him, and used his life in the lives of others.

As I read, I made some notes. There is a lot there I need to chew on, and remember.

1. Know God's word, and what it says. Ezekiel framed everything that he saw and that was happening to him in the framework of what he knew through the scriptures.
2. Be obedient. Ezekiel was already in the habit of regular worship, and sacrifice, and being obedient to doing what God wanted and even though he didn't completely understand, he followed God's instructions.
3. God isn't confined by MY circumstances and location. He saw firsthand that God wasn't confined to a temple in Jerusalem, God was with him, no matter where he was.
4. Share it! Through obedience, he could be a voice to exhort and encourage this brothers in captivity of God's faithfulness to them and love for them if they turned from sin, and followed Him.

I'm going to read more of and about Ezekiel, I know God called him as a prophet to the people of Israel while they were living in a foreign land. But I am more intrigued by Ezekiel's response to God and how he listened, and obeyed because of his faith and belief in the God he knew so well. I want to study that and learn from it, and hopefully the next time I experience something in my life that is not what I planned, I will remember Ezekiel and the lessons he taught by being obedient and following God.

 

 

The Tablecloth--a tribute*

Her things are always in my house; her coffee table and end table, dishes, pots, kitchen utensils. There is even a fleece jacket of hers that I wear almost every day during the winter, but I guess I’ve grown accustomed to having those things.

These are new. Tablecloths. I have a whole pile of them. Anita brought them up. Lace, linen, some Mother made, and many we bought her; one in particular stands out to me. She never used it much, said it did not fit the table for large groups, but I always loved it; the smoothness of the linen, the formality of it with just enough whimsy of fun in that trial of pale green shamrocks.

The things I was taught in the use of table clothes. Use the formal ones with the china, the bright printed ones with the Fiesta ware, for family dinners. There were others for Sunday after church dinners, parties with friends.

Much discussion always went into which one to use on which occasion. Did it hang right, was it the right color, and was it to short, too long? Dressing a table took forethought and preparation. It was a statement to your guests as they walked in your door.

“I’m ready for you!”
“I’m so glad you’re here!”
“I have planned something special just because you are coming.”

With the advent of Formica top tables, and polyurethane finishes, tables don’t need the protection of a table cloth or covering so much anymore. Place mats have also taken the place of table cloths. Shoot, people seldom drag out the china, and candle sticks anymore, if they entertain at all.

I did not realize that there was anything to doing it properly until I had Roger help me one time and he did not have a clue….he did not know the crease needs to run straight down the center of the table, the ends need to be even, to really do it correctly, you need a partner on the other end to get it centered just so. You don’t just “slap” a tablecloth on the table; you put something under it to protect the table. She went so far as taking old mattress pads and making table pads for her tables. She made special hangers to hang the cloths on in the closet after she had washed and ironed them so they would stay wrinkle free and ready to dress out the table at a moment’s notice.

As I went through the stack and looked at each one, I remembered them, and I remembered the times we used them, and I remembered her. I remember being taught to be particular about how you do things, pay attention to details--they matter, somethings go together, and somethings just don't. Protect and take care of your things, they are worth it, be prepared for company, make people feel special, sometime it takes more than two hands to do something right, and "Yes, the crease being straight matters". As I look at that stack I miss my mother. I’m thankful for my Mother and all the simple life lessons that she taught me by simply teaching me the how’s and whys of using a table cloth.
* from the archives....

“Son your sins are forgiven”

Mark 2:1-12 When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. ² And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.³ And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. ⁴ Being unable to ^[a]get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof ^[b]above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵ And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, "^[c]Son, your sins are forgiven." ⁶ But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins ^[d]but God alone?" ⁸ Immediately Jesus, aware ^[e]in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—He *said to the paralytic, ¹¹ "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home." ¹² And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

I have read this passage of scripture many times in my life……..many times. I've even read the commentary that goes along with it, but for some reason I saw something that I had not seen before.

The commentary puts it this way:
"Jesus asked the "which is easier" question to demonstrate the truth of His claim to forgive the man's sins—something only God can accomplish. Anyone could assert the ability to forgive sins, since there was no earthly way of confirming the statement. But to say "arise, take up your bed and walk" to the paralytic could be tested immediately by whether he walked or not. By healing the paralytic, Jesus made His pronouncement of forgiveness far more credible."

As I sat and pondered this I was immediately reminded of early days in my walk with the Lord. I was in High School, and I remember when I went back to school the Monday following the weekend of the Lay Witness Mission, people could tell by just looking at me that something had changed within me, and they commented on it. However, as the days and weeks went on, they watched me to see if the changes that they observed and I testified to, would really last; was I really a different person? Had God really done a work in my heart or was this a flash in the pan sort of thing that would fade in time.

What does the power of God's forgiveness do in your heart and life?

After being told his sins were forgiven, the man got up and walked. That is quite a change. Life altering. Physical healing is something that we equate with miracles. But isn't a healing of a heart through the very forgiveness of our sins supposed to be just as life altering as a physical healing which brings about the ability to do things we have never been able to do before? It should change us, and alter us to the degree that our lives are completely changed. We should never be the same.

As the Easter season is still upon us, and we are entering the season of Pentecost where the church was altered forever, ask yourself, "How have I changed since my sins have been forgiven?"