Distant Haze and a fog horn sounding

The hazy fog of the future

Oh wow, has it really been 3 ½ years since I posted?   Life gets busy, let  me just admit that.   I guess you don’t have much to say in a heartfelt way when you are incredibly stressed out or busy running from one thing to the next.   And I was.   But all that has changed now.

Retirement has slowed the pace of life down for me quite a bit and I am working on many projects that I had to discontinue during my working years.   But I think I might like to restart a few of them and maybe this is one that I will get going again.

Foggy Fear of the Future

One of the disadvantages of retirement is that you have more time to pay attention to the world around you and we are living in times that can definitely be called “scary”.   I don’t want to dwell on the negative but if I let myself, I could melt into a fearful puddle just watching the news.   If you have a tendency towards fear the way that I do, then the things going on in our society can keep your alarm bells ringing all the time.   But you know what?  I have a relationship with a God who thinks of these things.  

A Fog Horn sounds 

Some years ago, a specific bible verse began popping up everywhere in my life.   I’d pick up a book and there it would be.   Someone would send me a note or a card and there it would be.   Every study that I did referenced it, every speaker mentioned it.    It even popped up on billboards and calendars.   Wall hangings.   Notecards.   I mean EVERYWHERE.  It seemed like I just couldn’t get away from it.     It got so comical that my friends picked up on it and would laugh and tease me about it.   It was impossible to think of it as a coincidence.   Coincidence or not, I knew at the time that this verse was popping up everywhere because God was trying to get my attention.   He wanted me to really know this verse.      

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV - 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

That was at least 5 years ago.   Back then, I never figured out why God wanted me to memorize this verse, to know it so well.   But I knew it was important because he really pounded it into my head and I have often puzzled over it.

The Son breaks through the fog at last

Up until that point, I had been studying God’s Word pretty consistently and pretty frequently.     I am especially interested in eschatology and the “end times” which can be a fascinating topic.   I started looking into such things about 20 years ago and it always seemed like it was something I knew would happen soon but sometime “in the future”.   That made it fascinating and exciting.  Then about 5 years ago I started to realize that “in the future” might actually mean more “now” than I had previously grasped.   In other words, I began to see prophecy that I thought was off in the distance being fulfilled RIGHT NOW.   It scared me and I stopped wanting to know.    That seems a bit silly now considering that prophecy will continue to come to pass whether I “know about it” or not, lol.     What I didn’t realize when I became interested in bible study is that while I would find it interesting and exciting, I would also have to deal with fear related to it.

I know that God has not given us a spirit of fear and he has told us not to worry.   Knowing those things haven’t really helped me.   But then I had an epiphany!!      I just need to apply God’s personal message to me to any fear that comes up.   Jeremiah 29:11 !    God has plans for me and they are good plans.  His plans are not going to harm me and knowing that can give me hope about the future.   And it does!   Because my God is a God that can be trusted.

Yoke

Ice melts in the Sonshine

The quickest way I know to create icicles in your heart is to stop regularly reading God's Word and talking to him frequently.    Ah, and you probably thought rain on a cold night produced them, didn't you ?

If prayer is the primary way that we talk to God then His Word is the primary way he talks to us.    If you are not praying and reading the Word then you are letting your relationship with him grow cold.  
If you think about it, you will realize that your closest friends stay close because you are in constant contact with them.   When you don't keep up the conversation with God then you are letting your relationship with him go.    Why on earth would you want to do that ?  

Well, frankly ... I didn't.    And I don't.   But I allowed things to slide for a little while through one thing and another and the result was a feeling of ice cubes encasing my soul.    I was really feeling kind of cold there for a little while.   I couldn't get interested.   But the cure was quick and easy - get that conversation going again pronto and the warmth comes right back.   No icicles !    They melt in the Sonshine.

I don't know why I did that because I don't like that icy feeling at all.   I really want to know God and be where he is at all times.   It's so much better here in the sunshine !

So why'd you let that happen ?    That's what I'm asking myself now.

Sickness and burnout, I think.  It made me less vigilant.  I ended last year with a 3 week flu and 2014 proved to be a very busy, stressful year after several other stressful years and I just got tired.  I decided to rest.  And I forgot to stop.   Plus, I often think that giving me too much to do is a one of the Devil's most useful weapons and one that gets a lot of use because it gets to me.   I forget to use the tools that God has given me for overcoming.  

A fresh wind blowing

So this week I'm starting fresh.   And I'm going back to what I know works.   Focusing on God, his Word and His purposes.  I'm taking more time for that and less time for distracting things.  It's been good so far - I have remembered again how to enjoy God's Word and God's presence.    The ice cube around the soul feeling is gone.   And I am wondering how on earth I could have forgotten ?    It's what gives me joy !


So, once again into the fray.   I'm doing two studies at once right now:   a little guided study on Proverbs 31 and another, deeper guided study on freedom and liberty and breaking down strongholds that draws a lot from Isaiah.  But ... well, you know I just can't help it,  I'm always following rabbit trails and I wound up in Matthew 13, looking at the parable of the sower with fresh eyes.

I've often puzzled about this parable because it ends with a peculiar phrase in Matthew 13:9, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."    I've heard various explanations for why Jesus ended with that comment but they didn't satisfy.   So whenever I pause in the parables and read that phrase which he uses in many places, it usually makes me wonder about it all over again.

Prepared Ground for Planting

So this parable of the sower is about four different types of soil into which the Word of God can be sown.  Each represents a different type of "listener".    The first is the path where soil is packed and the sown seed never even makes it into the ground because the Devil takes it away immediately.   The second is seed sown among rocks where a plant can hardly find enough soil to take root.  This person makes a start but doesn't get far.  The third concerns seed that is cast in the briars.  It can begin to grow but will eventually die off because of all the competition.  Stress and wealth provides a lot of competition.   But finally there is seed that is sown on soil that has been harrowed and made ready for planting.   I've always looked at these four types of soil as four discrete things.   But this time it dawned on me.   There are really only two types of soil here:  prepared soil and unprepared soil.

The reason that Christ ends with the admonition "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."  is because he is warning us to decide what kind of listener we're going to be.    Is our soil prepared soil or unprepared soil ?   What we understand of God's Word (whether from scripture or through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in our heart) depends in large part on our willingness to receive right understanding of it from God.    That means the attitude of your heart and the way that you've prepared it effects how it grows in you and affects the fruit that can be produced.  What I am understanding Christ to say is this ... whoever has a heart that is prepared to hear and receive the Word I am sowing, let him understand.

When the seed, which is the Word of God, falls on good, prepared soil then it is capable of producing much fruit - as much as 30, 60 or 100 times as much as was planted.   And the best part is, that when you begin to understand a little, you go on to understand more and more and more.   But if you are not willing to receive what you hear then even the little bit of wisdom you've gained will disappear.   It all depends on how you prepare the soil of your heart. 

That speaks to me of attitude.  The more you want to understand, the more understanding you'll get.   The more you apply it in your life, the more fruitful you will become.   The more priority that you give it, the more blessed you are.   The more willing you are to see what God is trying to say, exactly as he means it ... well, the more he's going to talk to you.

My prayer for 2015 is that God and I keep my little plot prepared so that whatever seed God chooses to sow this year falls on good ground and produces much fruit.

Clear and very Sunny in the Desert

I cannot believe another year has passed with so little blogging done.   Apparently I have been bitten by the non-writing bug !   Truth to tell, I have thought about posting a lot more than I've actually done it.   But frankly I have been engrossed in personal study and I guess I talk out my thoughts a lot more these days with like-minded people so the urge to write is not so "urgent".   Imagine that - me talking.

So what's this about the Desert?

This year opened for me with several studies focusing on the first few chapters of Luke and the coming of John the Baptist.    After the third unrelated study took me to the same story about Zechariah conversing with the angel about the birth of his son in the temple I started to wonder if God wasn't trying to get my attention for some reason.  What is he trying to tell me?  I am not sure yet but that got me to thinking about the desert because that's where John spent most of his life.  So, of course, I wondered ... why? 

The angel Gabriel told Zechariah very clearly that his son would be special.  He was to be set apart to God from birth and he was not to be a drinker of wine or fermented beverages.    In other words, he would not be a drunkard and so that his mind would not be clouded by drink.  No need for that anyway because he would be filled with the Holy Spirit.  This young man had an important job to do - he was going to bring many people back to the Lord their God.  And he would soften them up and make them ready for the coming appearance of the Savior.

Again, so why the Desert?

The desert, apparently, is a great training ground.  Think about it.  God took the whole nation of Israel to the desert after they left Egypt because they had a lot of learning to do.  I haven't experienced a real desert land in my physical life but I'm inclined to think from what I've seen in pictures that he wanted them out there where there were fewer distractions.   I imagine that you can really hear God in the desert.  It's quiet there.   There's not much to look at - not so much going on.   It would be easier to focus.   There would not be so much there to influence and corrupt you so God could get you into a state of holiness and have a chance of keeping you there.   So if God wanted your undivided attention,wouldn't he be more likely to get it with you in the desert?

And then there is this:  nothing much grows in the desert.  Water is scarce.   Shade is scarce.   There is nourishment there but you have to have the skill to find it.  It would be easy to die there unless ... you had a supernatural God to depend on.  So the desert would teach you first to hear God but also to depend on him.    He's famous for sending his people all the quail and manna  they can eat :-)   And sometimes there is apparently wild locust and honey - a varied diet. Definitely an acquired taste.

Life would be much simpler there.  Certainly there would be fewer gadgets and technology to complicate things. You would have to learn to live simply and to need less. 

Another thing about the desert is that you can see for miles.   There is nothing to block your vision.   No trees, no houses, no tall buildings.    Nothing but rocks and sand and low plants, if any.    Some deserts have mountainous formations, of course.    But there are no man-made obstacles.    In the desert you would probably have a clearer field of vision.   And I think your eye would become more accustomed to seeing what's there to see.

I also have to think that living in the desert would teach you to be on your guard.  It may look like an empty place but there are hazards there.  And some of them like to hide in unexpected places.  Rattlesnakes, scorpions, sharp spiny cactus, sand storms, the occasional mirage ... contaminated water (lots of borax, salt, alkali and lime), sunburn, eye irritation, rapid temperature changes, intense heat causing heat cramps, heat stroke, heat exhaustion.  And there are bugs ... spiders, centipedes, lice, mites, flies and wasps.   They see you as a food and water source.  You'd have to watch carefully where you put your hands, your feet, where you walk, sit or lie down. 

And when it does rain, it tends to come in brief torrents that can sweep you away if you aren't prepared.  It doesn't even have to rain where you are - water generated by storms that are miles away can rush down gullies in a flash.   So I think the desert would teach you to be prepared and expect the unexpected.    And it would teach you to pick the right ground to stand on.   Those sandy bottoms are not as good as solid rock a little higher up.

I think you'd also learn the value of rest in the desert.    When the sun rises high and the heat ramps up, you realize the need to seek shade.    Isn't it fortunate that God is a source of both rest and shade.

Knowledge is the key to survival in the desert.   You have to know the relationship with temperature, activity level and water levels.   And you learn to drink more water than you are thirsty for because we don't start to feel the effects of dehydration until it is already far along.   To survive in the desert you conserve your activity, you don't ration water.   You can do without food for awhile but never water.   Through a little research I learned that it is better to have the water in the body than in the bottle. That's what maintains your life. Isn't that truth for us spiritually too? You know he's the source of Living Water. And he makes water flow from the rocks when he wants to. But it does you no good if you don't internalize it.   And it's important to make sure that your water source is pure.   Water contaminated with parasites, salt or body wastes can bring disease and death.

So now, what was that about the Desert?

There is more than one kind of desert.  I've been talking about the physical desert here but it is the spiritual desert that really concerns me.   Those are the deserts that I am most likely to find myself in.   If you think about it, the same lessons apply.  

Why did God take John the Baptist to the desert?    To train him for the job he was meant to do, obviously.   Perhaps God has been drawing my attention to John's story so that I would understand the need for my own desert experiences. 


Reference:  http://crisistimes.com

Pitter Patter

Can I just say that it's been a very busy year ? Apparently too busy for blog posting :-)

I just came back from a Living Proof Live Conference where I feel like God talked to me pret-ty directly and pret-ty continuously the whole time. Normally I like it when he does that but right now he's telling me to do some hard things. There is no question of whether or not I will do it but it's not going to be easy or comfortable and I am not really sure how. HOW is important as it would be pret-ty easy to make a mess - and I'm rather good at messes.

On the study front, I feel like I have come full circle. I am back to working through that Beth Moore study called Believing God. It was the study that first introduced me to this speaker and I had to hit the pause button on it before I was done. Four years and a lifetime later, I feel the need to finish it. I have had some experiences in the intervening time that have made it more real to me and I think it will re-focus my efforts to get to know, to follow and to obey my God. And that's what I need and want just now. I think it's rather fitting to be doing both a study called Experiencing God and a study called Believing God at the same time. Freaky Deaky, even.

Yoke

Steam Rising - Abraham's Journey

Just before Christmas I was thinking about Abraham. I was talking about how we tend to see him as perfect yet the bible is full of little imperfections attributed to him. I was doing another study this week called Covenant and I was back in Abraham's part of the bible again studying and this thought came to me. Abraham is not on a journey for nothing. He is a metaphor of the Christian life in part. God called him to leave his familiar life to go on a journey to a promised land, a land he'd never seen, on faith and by trust. He calls each of us on a journey too ... and until we reach that promised land and our ownership of it we're aliens in a strange land just like Abraham was.

It made me realize ... we got to see Abraham's walk of faith from beginning to end. OF COURSE he was not perfect in the beginning ... we SHOULD have seen him mature over the journey, he didn't start out fully mature. Maybe you didn't think that but I guess I did. But even the father of nations started with a little trust and built it into a mature faith.

I think I shall see him differently after this.

Hard Freeze - Rejecting The Word of the Lord

You know how you can read something over and over and never see the way it fits together and then one day you look at it in just the right way and the next thing you know, you're having an extraordinary moment of discovery as a truth you've never noticed before shines out at you like a beacon ? That's the natural result of bible study.

I realized something incredibly interesting (to me, at least) while studying with friends last night. People always say (usually without knowing why) that one sin is not greater or lesser than another sin. They're all equally sin, equally bad. Well, we all had an ahah! moment last night and realized why. We were comparing and contrasting the leadership styles and qualities of Saul and David in the books of Samuel and we saw that no matter what their sin was, the prophets (Samuel and Nathan) always told them that they were despising or rejecting the Word of the Lord.

It occurred to us that the real sin is always rejecting the Word of the Lord ... whatever action (sin) that you took is really of no consequence - it doesn't really matter because all sin equals rejecting God's Word (commands). Therefore they are all equal - equally bad. If you follow that logic back to the Garden of Eden ... that's exactly what Adam and Eve did, too. The act of sin that they commited was kind of irrelevant - it still equated to rejecting the Word of the Lord. You can see it even in Satan's words to Eve. "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden ?'" To eat from the tree was to reject God's Words on the subject - his command was "Don't." They did anyway. They rejected (or despised) His Words (commands) on the subject. THAT was the REAL sin.

That also explains why rebellion can be as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness like iniquity and idolatry in 1st Samuel 15:23. They are all equivalent to rejecting the Word of the Lord.

So whenever we're sinning (no matter what it is) that's what we're doing ... rejecting or despising the Word of the Lord.

Dancing Sunbeams

Oh the joy of discovery ... I think that's what keeps me doing bible studies. There is just nothing better than having a concept click into place like the perfect puzzle piece. To think that we get to learn all these neat things about God and about our relationship with Him and His relationship with us and all it takes is a little effort on our part. Who could contain it ? How could you not share it ? It just spills out everywhere.

I think I have rediscovered my purpose in life ... to kindle a fire in other people, the fire and passion and joy of discovering God's Word. And by just a little treasure hunting in His Word, to discover Him.

How blessed I am to have friends not just that I can see and touch ... but friends who have caught the fire, too ... the joy of discovery in God's Word and the building of a real relationship with the Lord.