Prayer and Purpose

Today's passage:  II Samuel 21:1-14
    In college I worked at a highly popular fast food restaurant. Because of my school schedule, I worked many different shifts.  One year I worked early mornings from open until mid-afternoon.  The next year, I worked mostly evenings from late-afternoon until closing.  Since I was one of the few workers that had actually worked both shifts, I was privy to hearing the blame game.  When I worked mornings and something was undone, it was a tendency of my co-workers to say, "Oh, that didn't get done because of the closing crew."  When something was left unfinished in the evenings, those on that shift would often say,  "The morning crew never completes that."  Sure, there was the occasional time when you would see somebody doing nothing, but since we were the only golden arches that served many of the small towns in the area, and we were a lunch stop on the way to Branson, Missouri we kept pretty busy.  I was always the type of person that thought, instead of complaining about the undone job, just do it.  I know its more work, but so what?  Work is never evenly divided.
      I don't see David complaining a lot. Unlike the king before him, he takes responsibility for the way he has failed God.   After all he has been through so far, now God sends a famine in the land.  After three years, David decides to ask God about it.  Perhaps, in the beginning, David just attributed the famine to lack of rain or a weather cycle that would pass.  Some summers are particularly dry, some years a lot less precipitation.  Another year goes by and David is probably figuring out that this much time without rain is a little unusual.  By the third year, David recognizes something supernatural is going on here.  When David asks God why He is sending this famine, God tells him it is because of a sin Saul committed against the Gibeonites.  David could have told God this was not fair.  After all, he was not the one to break the treaty (one Joshua had established) with the Gibeonites, that was the last king.  Why should he be held responsible for the failures of his predecessor?  It's called leadership.  And guess what?  Every leader has to deal with the failings of the last presidency, er, leader.  David could have whined and complained about this for another couple years while his people continued to starve and while the rain still did not come.  Instead, he decides to solve the problem.  He offers a solution to the Gibeonites (an unfortunate one I am afraid) to appease their wrath, and guess what?  God sends rain.  Leaders find solutions.  Incompetent leaders complain about the problems handed to them.  It irks me when presidents or prime ministers complain about past problems mostly because they chose to run for that office knowing full well the problems facing them.  David had not asked to be king.  David did not campaign his way onto the throne.  God selected him which means he would have even more reason to murmur about this new situation.  But he doesn't.  He leads.  And that is something I've not seen a lot lately in our own country.
     I know this is a little more political than my usual post, but David's leadership style challenges me to think more positively when God allows difficulties in my life, especially ones not of my own making.  How does God want me to handle it?  Moan and groan like Saul, or pray and purpose like David?  Looking throughout history, I would say that most leaders fall into one of these two categories, and judging from the past, I think we can deduce which style has been most productive.  Complaining about things does not solve anything.  Blaming others does not resolve issues.  David witnessed that in the man who came before him, and he determined to be different.  He accepted the challenges put in his path and forged new ones.  With all his failings, David led his people, right or wrong.  With all his faults, David accepted the problems given to him and found solutions.  He didn't always do it the right way, but at least he did something, and he didn't place the blame on anyone else. I think we all could stand a little help in that department.

A Mary Heart

Today's passage:  Luke 2:16-17
     We were given an advent calendar a couple of years ago.  In years past, I have filled it with sweets and treats.  This year I decided to do something a little different.  Behind each door I put in a slip of paper that  I've typed up a verse of the Christmas story.  And then I have included a task or a treat that would connect to that part of the story.  For example, for the verses about Mary and Joseph having to go to Bethlehem to be taxed, I gave them each a dollar explaining that whatever they bought with it, they would need to consider the tax that would be included. If they chose to use it on a vending machine, they would have to pay Mommy and Daddy the tax amount on the item.  When I typed up the verse about the shepherds telling everyone they knew, I put a gospel tract inside the doors and asked them to hand it to somebody that needed to hear about Jesus this week.  Of course there has been a little bit of grumbling that there has not been a treat behind each door, but I have explained to them that Christmas is about Christ.  All this other stuff is fun and exciting, but Christ's birth is the reason for the celebration.

Mary Kept These Things in Her Heart--Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book One
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O. A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
The Standard Publishing Company, 1925

     As I have been reading and typing up the passage in Luke 2, something occurred to me.  After the shepherds went and told everyone they could find about the Christ child, it stands to reason that at least a few of those people might want to check out their story.  Either they didn't believe when they were told this news and continued on with their business, or they said, "I've got to go see what these guys are talking about."  This could mean only one thing.  Mary and Joseph would not have gotten any sleep that night.  They had journeyed all that day, Mary had just given birth, and from that moment on they had visitors all the night.  They didn't need a room in the inn, because they weren't going to enjoy a cozy bed anyhow.  Now, if I were Mary I would have grumbled and complained about this.  At some point in the night I would have pleaded with Joseph to turn any other visitors away because I was exhausted.  If I had been Mary, I would have been thinking, if we hadn't been stuck in this barn, I could be sleeping right now.  Instead, I have to make small talk with strangers when all I really want to do is sleep.  Maybe Mary had those thoughts, but was too gracious to utter them.  Maybe every visitor that came by, she secretly wished was the last so she could get some rest.  Somehow, I don't think so because she "pondered them in her heart".  Mary understood what it was really all about.  This was not any ordinary baby.  This was not any ordinary birth.  This was the arrival of God Himself. If Mary had any of those selfish thoughts, she was able to fling them aside because it was far more important to allow the world to see who had just made His debut on this earth.
     Physically, she would have been completely depleted.  Of course, it was God coming into the world, maybe she had the easiest labor on record.  If it was, she would be in for a real surprise when she gave birth to her future children.  Just another way for those brothers and sisters to be compared to their perfect big brother.  God knew Mary's heart.  He knew how she would handle the pressure of being ridiculed through the whole pregnancy.  He knew that she would not be thinking about herself when the time came for the baby to be born.  He knew that she had a servant's heart, that she was willing to do what was necessary to see God's plan carried out.  Many faiths give too much credence to Mary.  Some faiths don't give her enough.  This was a remarkable woman.  She really exemplifies selflessness.  The trials of scorn and scoffing when people first learned she was pregnant.  The fear of losing the man she loved, because how was he supposed to understand this?  Traveling on a donkey while probably having contractions, but being willing to finish the journey because God had a particular place in mind when His Son would be born.  She had no idea that particular place would be in a stable.  And now a sleepless night, smiling and chatting with countless people.  Maybe she yawned here and there, it could hardly be helped, but sharing her Child with the world, remembering that this was the One so many had been waiting for their entire lives.  Mary's story started long before an angel's visit.  God was working in this young lady for years before that, and she must have displayed a surrendered heart time and time again for God to select her for this special privilege.  She had no idea the full extent of what she was surrendering to, when she agreed to God's plan.  But she bore it all with such grace and example.  If we could have a smidgen of the fortitude and willingness that was in that young lady's heart, we would get so much more accomplished for the Kingdom.
     It's hard to give ourselves to everything God wants us to do.  It is emotionally and physically exhausting sometimes.  Just yesterday, our pastor reiterated that the ministry is not about us.  Mary really got that.  Was it inconvenient to give birth in a stable?  Absolutely.  Was it a nuisance to have people coming by throughout the night?  I think it must have been.  But the whole reason she said yes to God was for this moment.  And maybe this moment wasn't exactly what she had envisioned, but she knew it was not about her.  It was about this new life she had just brought into the world.  Could God have selected me if I were living during that time?  Highly unlikely.  Mary did not have any supernatural powers that allowed her to have a more willing heart than mine.  She just understood that some of the most important things in life, are the hardest.  And she was willing to put up with some inconvenience to see God's plan through.  If I gripe about not getting a good night's rest, I obviously still don't get it.  And when I see Mary's attitude, I see I still have a lot of work to do on my own.

Heads or Tails

Today's passage:  I Samuel 12
    Heads, you win.  Tails, you lose.  I think some people think this is how God handles our lives.  That somehow God is up in Heaven flipping a coin, and depending on which side faces up is how He will deal with us.  I'm thankful that my God is so much more complex than that.
     Reading this passage about David's brokenness over the consequences for his sin, reminds me a bit of "Heads or Tails", not because that is how God deals with Him, but because we are apt to think that if David says some kind of magic prayer, he will end up with the heads side of the coin and everything will be hunky-dory.  God does not work that way.  If our lives were just a coin to God, why is it so many people have more Tails than Heads?  If our lives were just a flip in the air, leaving things to chance, then we would have no reason to live in a way that was pleasing to God, because the outcome would never have any connection to how we lived.

The Death of David and Bathsheba's Son--Taken from Treasures of the Bible (The United Kingdom)
By Henry Davenport Northrop, D.D.
The International Publishing Company, 1894

     In this passage, God could have spared David's unborn child.  He could have considered David's heartfelt pleas and stayed His Hand.  But He doesn't.  It is not because David got the Tails side of the coin.  It is because God knows how best to handle David's heart.  He knows how best to handle mine.  When I was a teen, there was a song by a pop music parody master that said, "I'd rather rip my heart right out of my rib cage with my bare hands and then throw it on the floor and stomp on it til I die..."  Humorous, but haven't we all had those moments?  Those times in our life when it felt like God was ripping our heart out of our chest and holding it in His bare but capable Hands?  Or worse, throwing it to the floor and stomping on it?  David's face to the ground, his eyes overflowing with tears, his heart too full for food or company is pleading for God's mercy.  Doesn't God hear him?  Shouldn't God spare him?  I can't answer that.  I can't understand God's ways.  I know that David is not the only one who had sinned.  Who knows that God's decision to bring this judgement might not have been for Bathsheba?  He was holding her heart too.  God was not up in Heaven, laughing deviously, flipping a coin, saying, "Well, let's see how this all comes out.  I'll let this nickel decide."  God is purposeful.  God is just.  God wants my worship.  God wants my best.  He knows best how to achieve those things in my life, and in the lives of others.  And since I am not a navigator of hearts, I am not a spelunker of those inner caverns, I cannot pretend to know what God already does.  He holds that pulsating center of thoughts and emotions in His hands, and He knows how tightly to squeeze to get it pumping again.  He knows just how much pressure to apply to make it pulse for Him.
     Poor David.  I can say that, and my emotions be little affected because I didn't know him.  I can objectively read this passage and not be touched by his pain.  But there are people who have impacted my life, who may be in a similar situation as David was.  No, they may not be about to lose a child (or they may be), they may not have sinned as egregiously as David did, yet their sin is costing them.  God may have their heart that is in no way connected to mistakes or unholiness.  Those Davids may be beseeching God for mercy in their lives.  And God will give it.  But not necessarily in the situation they are in.  After God took David's child, despite the broken heart, the earnest prayers, God was merciful.  How?  God gave David another son, Solomon.  And He allowed him to win another battle against the Ammonites, the battle they should have won when Uriah was killed.  God created us.  He knows how best to keep us alive and afresh for Him.  Just because I say it doesn't make us automaton's devoid of emotion and reason, yahooing every difficult circumstance in our lives.  But it makes me feel a whole lot better knowing that the One who created my heart, knows exactly what to do with it.  And that gives me much more peace than a coin flip.

Hamstrung

Today's passage:II Samuel 8
     "And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen:  and David houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for an hundred chariots."
      I had no idea what it meant to hough a horse.  Fortunately, my study Bible provided a definition, and then using the handy-dandy internet, I was able to look up some more information.  Houghing meant to cut the hamstrings.  In a horse, this would hamper its ability to run at full speed. Most articles I read claimed that houghing would cripple the horse, but obviously that wasn't so since David used them to drive chariots.  I also read that you never want to approach a horse from behind.  Instinctually, a horse will kick anyone who comes at him from behind.  This is because animals who would prey on a horse will get him by the neck and by the hamstring to disable him.

      David used some of these horses for battle.  Some of them he used for his own personal pleasure.  I'm not sure how he determined which horse would do what, but I know that it was necessary to "hamstring" them (as we call it today) to be certain they could properly perform their duties.  How does that apply in my life?  Lately, I've felt a little hamstrung.  This is because God has been teaching me a new way to think.  I've already written about how God has been dealing with me on family issues.  I had been putting everyone else first, thinking I was serving God, and putting my family and particularly my husband last.  My housework was never getting done, my husband (who never complains or gripes at me) was silently bearing my gripes and complaints because of my frustrations at never getting everything done. My children were used to walking on crummy floors, waiting for wet underwear to finish in the dryer because Mommy was behind on laundry, searching for any school supplies buried under bills and papers.  This has been my life.  And I've hated it.  It is not that I'm not organized.  It is just that I had neglected my duties at home for so long that everything kept piling up.  I wasn't trying to neglect them, I just was running around doing everything else that I left little time to do things here.  I just kept thinking, well, the housework will always be there.  And will always be there.  And will always be there.  And it still is here.  But the problem is now I am playing catch up.  Now I'm having to train my children to do better.  Now they are bewildered by my orders to put the shoes away or hang up their coats or clear the table.  They just left all that before and Mommy didn't seem to mind.  Actually, Mommy always minded but when there was so much to be done, it didn't seem like those little things would make much difference.  I'm making new habits.  But it has meant not running around doing everything for everyone else.  It doesn't mean that I will not help out with other things.  But it means that I must make time to keep my family in order.  It has been difficult for me.  Whenever I see a need, I want to fill it.  But my family needs me too.
     This is why I say I have felt that God has cut my hamstrings.  But this isn't a bad thing.  I mean, He really could have slowed me down in a physical way if He had wanted to.  He has shown me the error of my ways, and I am learning to slow down myself instead of God putting some kind of physical impairment in my path to force me.  He could hamstring me, or He could let an enemy do that.  Since an enemy would only do this to harm or destroy me, I think I would prefer to let God do it.  Also, David used some of those houghed horses to drive his own chariots.  If they were still running wild, hamstrings intact, it would have been difficult for them to serve him.  This is how I have to view my limited mobility in serving others.  It is not that I can't still do that, but I need to stop being the wild stallion who gallops off in every direction, unwilling to be tamed.  I have had to be domesticated.  It is the tamed horses that David chose to drive his chariot.  Instead of bemoaning this process, I am trying to embrace it, realizing that God is still working with and in me.  He may have me going at a slower pace, but I am still moving in the right direction.  Some of those hamstrung horses were warriors.  Some of them were David's escorts.  Right now, I feel like the escort horse instead of the warrior horse.  But when I'm ready, when my family is ready, I can go out onto the battlefield again.  For now, I'm content to stay bridled to God's chariot and let Him take the reins.

Just Around the Corner

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 15:51-58
     My son's favorite game on the Wii is Mario Karts.  I have to admit, I really enjoy it too.  The first couple times I played, I was a very bad driver.  The graphics of the game are so incredible, but because the game is only 2D, it was sometimes hard for my undiscerning eyes to separate the background from the actual course.  I drove off every bridge, crashed into every wall, fell into every body of water.  And then there are those blind curves.  You know, those curves that you can't see what is around the corner and smack into whatever ends up being around the bend.  Yeah, did that numerous times.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up on the game.  Fortunately, I do have a bit of a competitive side, and it rises up and won't allow me to do that.  So although, I rarely ever finish in first place in these races, I don't always finish in last either.
    "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."  We often quote this verse to emphasize the importance of being faithful to a task.  But it is really important to read the verses beforehand.  There is a reason we can be steadfast, unmoving, and abounding.  It is because Christ will return.  Christ may come within the next few seconds, as I'm typing these words, and I want Him to find me hard at work, going about the Father's business.  He's coming very soon.  That is why every Bible verse I review with my kids, every prayer I offer for a loved one's salvation, every tract I give to the grocery store cashier, is urgent.  It is not in vain.  It may be the last time I get to do those things.  Christ's coming is like the blind curves.  I can't see around the corner, so I don't know when it will be, but everyday is a little closer to the time Jesus will come back for us.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up.  I mean, really, there is a lot in the Christian life that is discouraging.  There are days, when I wonder, what's the point?  This morning I was feeling a bit like this.  I have felt like giving up this blog, on more than one occasion.  But I am not a quitter.  I'm amazed sometimes to see that someone in a different country has read something here.  I mean, that is astounding.  Now how much was read, I don't know.  How often they read I don't know.  For me, I have always benefitted from reading the Bible and then writing about what I've read.  I just get more from my devotions that way.  In the past, I have written them in a notebook, now in the electronic age, when I learned about blogging, I decided this might be the outlet for me.  I could give it up.  I could go back to spiral-bound pages.  But Christ's coming is just around the corner, and who knows if someone might happen upon these pages and find the Lord?  I'm not saying that has or ever will happen, but shouldn't we use every avenue possible to see people saved?  I think so.  It may be that someone puts a word in a search engine, and somehow this blog shows up.  So maybe someone just takes a peek.  Maybe they will peek at a page explaining how they can know Christ.  Isn't that why God leaves us here?  To be that witness?  I need to stay faithful to the things Christ has given me. Like a Mario Kart driver, I need to follow the course to the best of my capabilities, even though I may drive into a wall, fall off a bridge, submerge my vehicle in the CG lake.  Satan will put many pitfalls in our path.  We must do our best to avoid them, because Christ's coming may be just over the hill, and if I stop my work a little early, I may neglect to point someone to Him.  If today is my last day on this earth, this minute, this hour, what words can I leave behind to direct others to Him?  That is my whole life's purpose, and I want to be faithful to it until the trumpet sounds.

Star Light, Star Bright

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 15:30-50
     Red giants.  Blue dwarfs.  Black holes.  Supernovas.  I learned about these in my ninth grade earth science class.  With the naked eye, they would be hard to detect, but with a telescope, I might be able to make out the different types of stars.  When I was younger, summers at my grandparents meant my uncle and I using a star guidebook to identify the constellations in the sky.  I can still pick out the dippers, Orion and the summer triangle. 

See How Lofty the Stars
Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book One
By Lillie A. Faris
Illustrated by O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
The Standard Publishing Company, 1925

     "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars:  for one star differeth from another star in glory."  It amazes me how God placed each star in the sky.  He arranged them.  How many millions of them are there in the universe?  Scientists would try to tell us, but I know only God knows that answer.  If He took such care to order these celestial bodies, how much more thought did He put into mine?  How much more did He decide to whom I would be born and how my life's path would go?  Has anything in my life been a mistake?  Some of my own making, but none of God's.  Just as God uniquely designed and arranged each star, He has done the same with me.

 I've done art projects taking black paper and either a hole punch or a sewing needle to repeat holes in the paper to replicate the night sky.  The only problem with that is that a hole punch or needle will achieve a uniform look to the stars, and God designed each of them differently.  God gave me a story He has given to nobody else.  He has given me a way to use my talents for Him, in a way nobody else can.  Not that nobody else has my gifts, but He has put me in a situation that make them unique to me, and a viewpoint that is my own.  We can all say this.  When we view our lives as a series of "happy accidents", we neglect to see the special value we have to our Creator.  Maybe I wasn't the first person to be born, and maybe I wasn't the seven billionth (a milestone birth approaching our earth sometime soon) but being the four billionth six hundredth forty third person (like I really know) was just as important to Him.  And He made me to glorify Him.  I pray I can do that.  I pray that my star, whether shooting, sparking or fading will point light towards Him.  I pray that my glory will be His glory.  I pray that even though I can't see when a star has become a black hole, because there are millions of stars up there, and I can't keep track, God knows when I have done something for Him.  To others I may blend in with the crowd, my place unnoticeable, but He put me exactly where I need to be, and He would notice if I am missing. 
     Thank you, Lord, for loving me in a special way.  You love all of us uniquely as only You can, because You created us uniquely.  Thank you for reminding me today, how special I am to You.  I can never understand that, but I know how special my children are to me, and You love me as Your child.  Help me to shine my light for You.

The Domino Effect

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 12
     "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him."
     Have you ever set up dominoes in a long line, gauging how best to space them so that when the first one is tipped, the rest tip over too?  When I think about God setting the members of the body (not just our physical ones, but the church as a spiritual body), I think about how God puts us all where He desires, so that we can work together to accomplish His purpose.  Everybody probably would want to be that first domino.  After all, it has the closest contact with the tipper, it is the most noticeable.  Everybody would probably want to be the last domino, because it is the indicator of success or failure.  Few want to be the dominoes in between.  But if it weren't for the dominoes in between, the first domino and the last domino would have no significance.
     It is kind of like that in our churches.  God gives some people talents, abilities, spiritual gifts that naturally lend to that person being noticed.  People with creative talents are especially prone to this, and if they are anything like me, constantly wrestle with making sure God gets the glory.  But not everyone can have those creative gifts.  If they did, also like me, they would be scatterbrained, messy, critical, sometimes arrogant.  With all the positive, there is plenty of negative.  And although some people might think gifts of singing and teaching are "it", I can tell you, the pats on the back create a prideful being with which God is displeased.  I would never call them a curse, but the more I'm noticed, the less God is, and that troubles me.  I am forever battling whether to use certain gifts because I want to use what God has given me, but I also want Him to be glorified, not me.  I am not trying to theorize that I am the lead domino, I just want people to understand that the gifts I have, although maybe sometimes more noticeable, aren't always the most glorifying to God.  Instead, I believe the people with the least noticeable gifts, those middle dominoes, are the ones God has the most pleasure in.  Think about the person with the spiritual gift of helps.  This is the man in the church who will fix anything for anybody.  She is the woman who brings meals to the elderly widows or visits with the church member residing in the nursing home.  We don't see their actions, but sometimes have benefitted from them.  How about the person with the gift of administration?  How I wish I had that gift!  I wish I could plan an event and every time it would go smoothly.  What usually happens, is as much as I have thought through something, trying to account for every detail, I miss something.  Every time I miss something, and I am not quick enough on my feet to change plans.  The person with the gift for administration knows how to recover from these snafus and is able to keep the event going without a hitch.  Sometimes we know the names of these people, but often we do not.  And the person in charge will tell you, that they can not have been successful without delegating to many others.
     What if some people do not use their gifts?  It is kind of like when the line of dominoes are falling nicely but suddenly stop because the one domino is sitting just a bit out of reach.  For some reason, it wasn't spaced properly causing the previous domino to miss hitting it, and therefore, the rest of the line of dominoes continues to stand.  God sets us where He wants us.  But if we move, if we shift forward, backward, left or right, even a tiny bit, it can throw off the whole operation.  This does not frazzle God.  He doesn't wring His hands wondering what is going to happen if we don't each play our part.  Sometimes God shifts the line, sometimes he removes a domino completely.  How sad would that be if I were the domino stubbornly refusing to fall down because I wasn't content with where God had placed me in the line.  He puts us where He will get the most glory.  Even though I wish I had certain gifts, I'm not going to withhold the ones I have been given because they aren't necessarily the ones I wanted.  I can't speak for the weaknesses of other people's gifts, because I don't have those, but the person with the gift of helps or administration could tell you what they are.  Usually you will not find those two gifts in the same person because the helps person is very person oriented, and the administrator is very task oriented.  And we need them both!  God knows how best to get a job done, and has given us the gifts that will accomplish that.  If we recognize the spiritual gifts God has put in us, and accept the position we have been placed, when that domino line falls, nobody will look at the lead, and nobody will look at the end, they will look at the One who set up the line.  That is what God has intended all along.

Holy Places

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 6:9-20
     Solomon built the first Temple for Jehovah God.  All the other nations had erected temples in the names of their gods.  Baal had a temple.   Ashtaroth had a temple.   Dagon had a temple.  Jehovah did not have a temple.  When David was burdened about this, God allowed him to prepare the way for another king to build, but he would not allow David himself to carry out his vision.  Why?  Because his hands were unclean.  He had spent his reign fighting Israel's enemies.  How could he start a building project when much of his kingship was spent away from the throne either fighting his enemies, or fleeing those who wanted to usurp his power?  God let David fight the battles, so his son, Solomon, could reign in peace.  The peace and prosperity during Solomon's reign would allow him to focus on constructing something magnificent and deserving to the God of gods.  David provided the materials, but was never able to see his Temple dream fulfilled.  He died before this glorious vision was realized. 
     Solomon spent seven years on the Temple construction task.  He spent money on the finest materials.  He hired the most skilled laborers.  Every detail was carefully planned.  The finished product put the temples in the surrounding nations to shame.  What was also a shame was when it was burned to the ground by the Chaldeans.  This structure that meant so much to the Jewish people was destroyed, and though rebuilt numerous times, never matched that first showing.
     "What?  know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price:  therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
     God provided us with the most costly material in order to make us His temple.  He sacrificed the Lord Jesus Christ.  Such care went into that provision.  Such planning went into building me.  God has not spent only seven years, He has spent a lifetime.  To be compared to His temple is not a light thing.  It was a place of reverence and worship.  It was a place of confession and praise.  It was a place of thanksgiving and awe.  Regrettably, it also at times became a place of corruption and deceit.  The original Temple did not see such activity, but subsequent temples did.  There have been times in my life when I have needed rebuilding.  There have been occasions when the breaches have needed repaired and the walls patched.  Through all these times, my purpose has remained the same.  My temple was designed to bring glory to God.  Just as Solomon's Temple was a gathering place for worship, so am I.  Paul says to flee fornication for this very reason.  So I can represent the Lord.  The wear and tear of regular activity is damaging enough, I do not need to participate in activities and recreation that would further erode my capabilities to bring honor to the Lord.  God bought this temple with His Son's blood.  He has spent years on the blueprints, and though He is still perfecting me,  I can show my gratitude by taking as good care of this body as possible.  My body is a vessel that He wants to use to bring worship to Himself.  How careful am I to treat it that way?

Glimpses of a Different Jesus

Today's passage:  Isaiah 63
     Remember that episode of "I Love Lucy" when Lucy is traveling abroad and helps stomp the grapes?  She makes it look so fun, that I just want to hop in and join her.  It seems like fun work.  Yet, it is work all the same.   If I am not mistaken, many vineyards still stomp their grapes.  Is this the best way?  Is it passed down tradition?  I don't know, I've never been to a winery.  From movies I've seen, it makes for a time of celebration.  Plucking the grapes, placing them in the winevat, and harvesting the juice.  It is a time to reflect on the care given to the vines while the grapes grew.  They sing, they laugh, they work.
     In this passage, the mood does not seem to be the same.  Christ is the one who has been stomping the grapes, and it is not comical as it was in the "I Love Lucy" episode.  It is not a great party of people that has gathered to watch Him.  He says He has trodden them down alone.  His garments are drenched in the juice from the grapes.  There was no singing, there was no laughter.  This is a picture of an angry Christ.  It is righteous anger.  It is anger towards those who rejected Him, not only as individuals, but as nations.  It is the picture of a Father protecting his children, a big brother battling the bullies who tormented His younger brother.  This is not the Christ I usually picture.  He is stomping the grapes with fury. 

Grapes--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 2)
By Adelaide Bee Evans
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1911, 1928

     Thinking about my Savior, I usually picture the gentle Christ.  The Jesus who invited the children into His lap.  The Jesus who accepted the ointment poured out from an alabaster box.  The Jesus who wept at Lazarus' tomb.  I avoid thinking about the Christ who overturned the money changers in the Temple, who called the Pharisees vipers and whited sepulchers, who told Peter to "Get thee hence, Satan".  That was not a gentle Jesus.  That was a Christ of judgement.
     This image of a Christ covered in the juice from the grapes is a bit disconcerting for me, I'll admit.  I don't like to change the peaceful picture of Jesus I have in my mind.  I know that people will deserve the judgement to come.  Does it need to be so harsh?  That is what my heart says.  Then I think about someone who might harm my children.  I would show no mercy.  I would struggle to be forgiving. I would wish for the cruelest punishment to befall those people and would gladly take it upon myself to carry it out.  When I think of it this way, the picture is not as disturbing.  Jesus will tread on all those who persecuted His children, on all those who blatantly rejected the cross.  He made the greatest sacrifice, and people, nations even,  threw it back at Him and said, "I don't want that."  Wow!  What gall!  What utter ingratitude! Is it so hard to see why Jesus comes in judgement? If they were my children, just like in the Lucy episode, I would want to join right in.

Smooth Stones

Today's passage:  Isaiah 57
      Israel had reached a particularly low point.  She barely recognized the God who had made her a nation.  If anyone still worshipped Jehovah God, he was ridiculed.  If a righteous person died, she was not noticed. Israel was now no different from the surrounding nations because of her idolatry.  She went to great effort to worship these idols too.  God says in verse 6:  "Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot:  even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering, thou hast offered a meat-offering, Should I receive comfort in these?"  Stream stones become smooth after they have been there a while.  A rock might start out ragged and dirty but after time at the bottom of a body of water, it will emerge without edges and clean.  God was telling Israel, they were in for a long haul of judgement because of their sin.  They would be spending a lot of time at the bottom of the stream.
     Smooth stones are great skipping rocks, but after they have finished skipping, they sink again to the bottom. Most people will not wade through the water to retrieve them. A smooth stone makes a great paperweight.  It can be painted with messages or vivid colors, but then its job is to sit around.  Sometimes they look pretty in the garden.  But they dull in comparison to the flowers blooming around them.  It seems that there is no use for a smooth stone.  It has no impact.  Israel had no impact on the nations around her.  She had not been that light.  So it seems that her punishment at the bottom of the stream would render her useless in the future.  Was that God's plan?  To toss her into the stream never to be heard from again?  No.  God had made a promise to Israel. At this point the Messiah had not come to earth yet, so this cannot be the end.

As Abram Journeyed He Built Altars to God--Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Four
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
Standard Publishing Company, 1927

     Smooth stones can be useful.  Several times in the Old Testament, stone altars were built for the Lord.  I'm only guessing now, but wouldn't smooth stones make for better building?  David collected five smooth stones and used one to topple Goliath.  The stone that kept Jesus in the tomb must have been smooth for it had been rolled away.  Jagged stones do not roll very easily.  Smooth stones can serve a very great purpose if God is using them.  God wanted to put Israel in a place where she could be used.  He was not done with her yet.  He still had a great purpose for her.  He needed to smooth away the edges and wash away the grit.  I don't want to allow myself to ever get as far gone as Israel.  She had to go very far from God to have this judgement pronounced on her.  I don't know how much time she had to spend in the bottom of the stream to become useful for God again.  Smooth stones have their purpose, but I'd just as soon stay out of the water.

Bruised

Today's passage:  Isaiah 53
     I don't enjoy correcting my children.  It is probably the least favorite thing I like to do in life.  If I had my way, my children would never fight, they would always respond with the right attitude, they would always obey immediately.  That is not usually what happens, without a little persuasion.
     Speaking of Christ's suffering, verse 10 says, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him..."  It pleased God that His Son was suffering?  That seems contrary to God's nature.  Why would He be pleased with the torment of His Child?  Perhaps, when the bruising brings about a result.  When I have disciplined my children, I find no pleasure in it, but when their fighting has ceased, when their attitude has sweetened, when they do what they are told, I am pleased.  Unfortunately, sometimes it takes unpleasantness to accomplish the goal.  When Jesus Christ's body was badly beaten, when it was nailed to the cross, when it had no life left in it, it accomplished it's purpose.  It redeemed me.  The result of the bruising was pleasing to the Lord.  In verse 11 it says, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..."  God knew what the end result would be, and that was to purchase the salvation of all the people He loved.

The Suffering Savior--Taken from The Bible in Pictures:The New Bible Symbols
By M. Bihn and J. Bealings
The John A. Hertel Company, 1922

     It doesn't please God to bruise me.  Sometimes it is necessary to achieve what is necessary in my life.  He doesn't enjoy the process, but He likes the product He gets. If I try to live a life where I don't fight, I keep the right attitude, I obey God immediately, He will have fewer reasons to give me bruises.  If He can get the result without the persuasion, wouldn't that makes things pleasant for both of us?  For Christ, there was no choice but to offer His body.  There was no other way.  He satisfied and pleased the Lord with His sacrifice.  He took my lumps so that I can live without bruises.

This piece created by: God

Isaiah 45:1-25
     I have been to the Art Institute of Chicago only once.  There are some beautiful pieces of art there.  Beside each painting or sculpture is the artist's name, the one who created that work of art.  If the artist is unknown, then "Artist Unknown" would be on the plaque.  The piece was created by someone, we are just not sure who created it.  Not one of those pieces could have formed itself.  It took a creator.  This makes perfect sense to us.  We do not question it.  We do not argue with it.  Then how can we argue that we have a Creator when we are a work of art so much more intricate and well-designed?  In this passage, God gives us the same illustration.  How can the clay pot being formed argue with it's master about it's design?  It has no say because it is only the creation.  The potter forms it the way he feels best.  The pot can not then say it created itself.  Well, I guess it could, but it would be a ridiculous statement.

The Holy Family by Titian
Courtesy of <a href="http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images" title="Public Domain Images">Public Domain Images</a> 

    "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited:  I am the LORD; and there is none else."
Verse 18 shows us that God had a very particular plan when He created this universe.  He wasn't bored one day and thought, "Hmmm, you know what might be fun?  Creating a world.  Just because I can."  He had a definite purpose.  He knew that he would put people in the earth.  Most artists (I know there are some) do not create their works randomly.  Many of them have planned out the design to the last detail.  God did that with me.  It wasn't by accident that I have brown eyes and brown hair.  He planned me exactly as he wanted me.  I find it a dangerous thing when we start interfering in God's process.  We are getting closer to being able to create the perfect baby.  Science has done some marvelous things, allowing us to find cures to many diseases, helping us to use medicine for our benefit, inventing procedures and instruments to keep our bodies going.  But scientists are starting to tiptoe into God's territory when they allow people to pick out the gender, hair, and eye color of their children.  God designed us.  We shouldn't be trying to design ourselves.  I think we are going to find heart-breaking mutations and distortions happening when we start meddling in God's work.
       Every work of art is a tribute to the artist.  The brush strokes, the light, the colors, garner praise for the artist's knowledge. Walking through the Art Institute, I have to say, there were some pieces of art that I was not impressed by.  Checking the name on the plaque, I might not be interested in viewing any more pieces made by that person.  Other artists captured their pieces in a way that I would like to see more of what they have done.  Human art is subjective.  God's art is perfect.  He has not made anyone by accident.  If I were on display in any art museum, I wonder, would I leave the viewer wanting to see more from my Creator, or would I cause him to want to go in search of works by different artists?   Because when I am on display, people will inevitably look at the plaque beside me.  What will it say?  Artist:  God