Who Do YOU Say That I Am?

“He (Jesus) said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’" (Matthew 16:13)

I am a mother who loves to hug my children, but hates to discipline them.

I am a woman who enjoys wearing cute shoes, but hates shopping for them.

I am a wife who enjoys dates with my husband, but hates paying for them.

I am a dental professional who loves keeping teeth healthy, but hates it when my patient loses one.

I am a writer who loves creating a story, but hates to edit it.

I am a friend who loves laughing together, but hates crying together.

I am a neighbor who loves to lend, but hates to borrow.

I am a puppy momma who loves taking Winston on walks, but hates taking him to the vet.

I am a daughter who loves her parents, but hates that they live out of town.

I am a Christian who loves pleasing the Lord and hates failing Him.

One day when Jesus and his disciples were walking, He asked them, "Who do men say that I am?"

Their responses were varied, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

Then He asked them another, more important question, "But who do you say that I am?" 

Peter, known for speaking first and thinking later, got it right the first time.  "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Jesus commended Peter for his answer. "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."

Jesus asked and Peter answered the most important question that each of us will ever answer.  Not "Who does your mother, father, sister, brother, neighbor, pastor, grandmother, Sunday School teacher, lady-next-door think that I am?" 


But

"Who do you say that I am?"

If you cannot claim with Peter, that He is the Christ (YOUR Savior) then please visit the page to the right that asks "Do You Know God?"  and settle it today.  It will be the best decision you've ever made.  

 

 If you do have a relationship with God, take to heart what Peter admonished the believers in 1Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;"  Be part of sharing the message of Christ to a lost world that desperately needs to know Him!

 "Blessed are you, ____________! (your name here),"

Are You Ready to Go?

If you knew your life would end tomorrow,  would you be ready?

Several weeks ago a radio preacher made headlines by proclaiming that the end of the world was coming on May 21.  I took special note of this prediction because my youngest daughter was graduating from  high school that day.  Thankfully we had our bases covered, since commencement was to be at 2 pm, and the end of the world was scheduled for six.

 Many biblical scholars countered this man's prediction with Mark 13:32 that says of Christ's coming, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

We know that May 21 came and went without the rapture of the church or the end of the world, and skeptics scoffed at the whole concept of  divine judgement.

Not so quick, I say, Harold Camping made a major mistake, and it cost him his credibility, but he got at least one thing right.  There will be a time when Christ comes back to judge the world and the people in it.  Just because Camping overstepped biblical boundaries and set a date for Christ's return doesn't mean we have the right to throw his whole theology out the window.  Whether you believe the teaching of the Rapture of the church or not, the Bible clearly teaches that one day our life on this earth will end, and we will have to answer for how we have lived our lives.

God always keeps His promises, and His calendar is never off.

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham that his descendents would live in Egypt for over 400 years before God would deliver them from slavery and bring them back to the land of Israel.

Exodus 12:41 tells the fulfillment of the promise.  "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years -- on that very same day -- it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

As the Israelites prepared for the exodus, God told them what to do.  First, prepare the passover lamb, and eat it.  God knew they couldn't embark on a journey without food to sustain them.  How he told them to eat it, though, is most interesting.  "And thus you shall eat it:  with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.  So you shall eat it in haste."

 In other words, God was telling them to do what they needed to do, but be sitting on GO.  "Be ready," he told them.

 His message is the same for us today.  "Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming--in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning-- lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."   (Mark 12:35-40)

This doesn't mean we sell all our possessions and quit our jobs to climb the rooftop and scan the sky.  Christ warned the early church about that.  What it does mean is that we should live our lives, as much as we can, with no spiritual regrets.

 My sister-in-law Kay lived her life like that.   She served God faithfully and taught generations of kindergarteners how to know her Savior.  She shared her faith boldly.  She served those around her unselfishly.  She laughed often.  She gave to the church.  She forgave quickly and asked forgiveness even quicker.    She lived her life with her shoes on her feet and her staff in her hand.  She was sitting on GO.

On August 1, 2010, she went to bed with a headache and woke up in the presence of her Savior.


If you knew your life would end today, would you be ready?

"No! It's MINE!" Thoughts on My Own Selfishness

It was a brilliant idea, really, taking the huge Rubbermaid treasure chest of Barbie dolls and accessories down from the attic so the visiting children could play.  For over an hour, the girls sorted through the 10-year collection of clothes and accessories in order to outfit a dozen naked beauties.  Some they dressed as princesses, others queens and other royal personages.  Ken became a handsome prince, well-dressed businessman, or sports hero, depending on the whim and imagination of the girls.

And then I heard it, shrill and stark in contrast to the previously quiet murmurs of camaraderie.

"NO!  It's MINE!"

Whether it was a pair of shoes the size of a pinkie nail or a miniature royal robe, it didn't matter.  What mattered was that one girl had it and the other girl wanted it.

No matter that the glorious wealth of ten years of Barbie collecting lay scattered all around them.

No matter that the wealth had been freely shared.

No matter that there were other similar items that would serve equally well.

What mattered was that one had it and another wanted it.

As I listened to the battle escalate, glad that my babysitter daughter was in charge and not myself, I was surprised to hear my own voice coming out of the children's mouths.

"NO, Lord!" (How can those two words sit presumptuously on the the same line?  How can they emerge from the same mouth?)

"It's MINE!"

In the twins, I saw myself.

Oh, my treasure was not a tub full of Barbies.  My treasure was a day stretching fully before me, replete with my to-do-list and items I had selected as worthy of my time and effort. I was bustling along, happily checking off the next thing when the phone call came, or the knock on the door, or the email, or the request.  Somebody wanted part of my day, and they were not on the schedule.

 "NO, Lord, you cannot have my day, It's MINE!"

No matter that the glorious wealth of this day and 17,108 others before it lay scattered around me.

No matter that the day had been freely shared.

No matter that there was the promise of other similar days that would serve equally well.


What mattered was that I had the day, and God wanted it.

A wise man once said that "people aren't an interruption to my ministry, they are my ministry."

"Lord, help me to hold each day up to you as a fragrant offering, and say, "Not my will, but thine."  Help me to hold it loosely. Help me to say at its beginning, its middle, and its end, "This is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it."  Help me to trust that everything that comes into my day is filtered through the screen of your love and purpose for me, and that purpose is to conform me to your image."

God didn't come to make us happy.  He came to make us holy.

Will you join me in offering up our day today as a fragrant offering to the Lord?

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  (Psalm 139:16)

Reflections from the ER -- Mother's Day Thoughts on God's Mercy

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."  (Lamentations 3:22-23)

It was the phone call that begins every parent's nightmare. 

"There's been an accident."

My daughter and her friends had left the house on a simple errand.  It was Mother's Day weekend.  A short time later the call came. 

As my husband and I rushed to the accident scene, all I could think was, I want to hold my daughter.  I want to see that she is all right.  I want to look into her eyes and the eyes of her friends and know that they are alive.

It was only God's mercy and biblical parenting that spared my daughter and her friends from serious injury.  What could have been a nightmare of magnitude proportions ended with a concussion, minor injuries and two smashed cars.

I had to pause and pray before I included the words "biblical parenting" in the same sentence with "God's mercy" in the paragraph above.  I feared that it might be sacreligious to include human effort in the same sentence with divine grace.  In the end, I left it there because biblical parenting and God's mercy truly are one and the same.  I know that it is only through God's mercy that we are able to parent biblically. Let me explain.

When I was a toddler, back in the days when car seats didn't exist and seatbelt use was optional, my parents and I were involved in an accident.  Sitting in the back seat unrestrained, I tumbled to the floorboard when the collision occurred.  Other than a few minor bruises and a terrible scare, I was fine. 

My father, however, was not.  He carried the horror of what could have happened to me with him for a long time.  The result was that he began enforcing seatbelt use for our family.  Typically a pushover, Dad's commitment to seatbelt use was ironclad.  The car did not move from the driveway until everyone was secured.  As children, we hated the new rule.  We whined.  We cried.  We cajoled.  We negotiated.  Sometimes we threw tantrums, but Dad was steadfast. 

Fast forward 18 years.  It was the night of the military ball, and I was a senior in high school.  As my escort and I prepared to leave, I did what I had been trained to do -- fasten my seatbelt.  I didn't think about the fact that it might wrinkle my gown, I just fastened by seatbelt.  Eighteen years of Dad's consistent parenting kicked in, and I did what he had trained me to do -- buckle my seatbelt.

That night could have ended in disaster too.  On the way to the ball, the young man with whom I was riding made an error in judgement, and we crashed into the back of a stopped car going 50 miles an hour.  Other than bruises from our seatbelts, he and I were fine.

Twenty-eight years later, my daughter and her friends were saved from serious injury because of my father's training.  The seatbelt lesson he had ingrained in me became one my husband and I passed on to our children.  This lesson had governed what happened in that car that night.  That and God's mercy.

Our family's seatbelt legacy is a small example of what consistent biblical parenting looks like. For most parents, setting the standards is not as difficult as enforcing them day in and day out. Taking the high road often makes us unpopular with our children, their friends, and even our friends. We get weary and sometimes wonder if it is really worth it. Sometimes our children seem determined to go their own way, totally disregarding and dismissing all that we try to teach them.

Faithful parent, I want to encourage you on this Mother's Day to press on.  Do not grow weary in doing good, for God's word promises that we will reap a harvest if we do not faint. Recognize that you cannot do it alone, and ask God to fill you with His strength. Your children's only hope is consistent biblical parenting.  And God's mercy.


 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Pr 22:6

This post was shared on Bible Love Notes' Bless a Blogger Friday at  http://biblelovenotes.blogspot.com/p/friday-blog-hop.html

Like a Weaned Child

When my daughter was a baby, she was not the most patient infant.  She would go from sleeping to screaming in less than a minute.  What began as a whimper would soon become a cry, which would escalate into a full-blown wail, complete with red face, kicking feet, and thrashing arms.  The whole neighborhood knew when she was hungry.

As time passed, she learned that she didn't have to scream and thrash to let us know she had a need.  She didn't panic when the first whimper went unattended.  Best of all, she learned that we loved her and delighted in caring for her.  She learned to trust us.

Sometimes I act like my daughter did.  When life throws me a curve ball, I can often go from a whimper to an all out cry in less than a minute.  Fear and panic rise up in me, and I am overwhelmed.  I feel abandoned and all alone.  I begin to doubt that God will hear and answer my cry.  As fear escalates, my imagination goes crazy, my heart races, and I become more and more distraught.  Before long I can become hopeless -- an emotional and spiritual wreck.

Psalm 131:2-3 is God's word to me in times of fear and need.  "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever."

Psalm 46:10 echoes the sentiment:  "Be still and know that I am God."

In times of trouble, I must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, make my need known to the Father, and be still.  I must rest in the fact that He loves me, He cares about my needs, and He is trustworthy.  I must choose not to listen to the voice of the enemy who causes my heart to fear.  I must choose instead to trust in the God who cared enough to die for me.
 "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"  (Romans 8:32) 

Sneezes, Snakes, and Life’s Big Questions

 

On Friday, I did something I haven’t done in a very long time. I went to the zoo with my daughter and the twin four-year olds she was babysitting. Our primary mission was to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive baby koala, Owen. The process was not an easy one. I had forgotten how complicated a simple outing could be with small children. Car seat (x2). Lunch (x2). Raincoats, band aides (just in case), and dollars for the carousel. When did the price change from quarters to dollars? Obviously sometime in the last fourteen years or so. 

I had also forgotten how much fun it was to interact with four year olds who tell you everything. “My daddy works out, that’s why he has 100 muscles,” and “My hair is short because my sister was playing with the scissors, and I got in the way.”

I had forgotten, too, that little legs tire easily, and piggyback rides are the easiest way to transport small children who ask, “Let me hold you!” I had forgotten how sweet it felt to hold a little hand in mine, and how wide a smile could get when riding a “flying tiger” on the carousel.

Hundreds of questions kept me thinking. “Why is that snake sticking his tongue out at me?” “Can fish hold their breath?” “Do alligators get tired of eating fish all the time?” I felt like a Jeopardy contestant working her way to the jackpot after I fielded category after category of potential brain stumpers.

I had forgotten how good it felt to answer black and white questions that have only one answer. The questions are harder now that I have young adults. I can’t fake any of the answers, because the stakes are higher than any Jeopardy game.

Christian parent, if you have young children, savor every moment. Even when they sneeze on you. Hug them before they get too cool for such nonsense. And encourage them to ask questions. Someday those simple questions will pave the way for harder ones.

If you are the parent of older children or young adults, savor every moment. Even if they bring you to your knees in prayer. Especially if they bring you to your feet in praise. And don’t fear the questions. Claim the promise of James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

God bless you as you parent your children in faith!



This post was submitted to the Proverbs 31 scholarship contest to the She Speaks Conference.  The She Speaks Conference is about women connecting the hearts of women to the heart of our Father God, and my heart is to serve Him and His daughters, as He leads.  For more information about the She Speaks Conference or this scholarship opportunity, be sure to check out the links below:

http://shespeaksconference.com/

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/03/how-christians-create-art-she-speaks-scholarship/

“Don’t Make Me Tell You Twice!”

 

“Don’t make me tell you twice!” my grandmother would say, frowning and shaking her finger for emphasis. We knew when Granny said those words, she meant them. They were her “no-nonsense” words, and we children knew we’d better listen up and follow with the appropriate action if we knew what was good for us.

I am glad that God never says “Don’t make me tell you twice.” He often repeats Himself in scripture, and He doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, unlike my grandmother, I think He actually LIKES to repeat Himself. Eleven times in the Bible He tells us to “Fear not.” Four times in the gospels Jesus encourages us to “Have faith.” Over thirty times in the psalms, God instructs us to “Praise the Lord.”

While I am not a fan of repetition, I LOVE the promise God repeats to His people Israel in Hosea 2:19-20. “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” Betroth is not a word that we hear too often anymore. It has connections to a bygone era. To most it is an outdated concept. Its synonyms are “To engage, to promise, to pledge.”

I love how God repeats his promises to betroth Himself to Israel, and ultimately, to us. As He makes His pledge of commitment to us, the church, His bride, He never once mentions what we must bring to the bargaining table. God makes all the promises and provides the dowry. “I will betroth you to me forever.” His love will never wane, and His commitment will never end. “I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy.” God’s qualities are those of a perfect husband: above reproach, fair, loving, kind, gentle, and forgiving. Best of all, “I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” He pledges to love us no matter what and is committed to bring us into relationship with Him.

The next time you are tempted to doubt God’s love for you, I hope you will hear both the words of the Lord, “I will betroth you to Me forever,” and my grandmother’s words, “Don’t make me tell you twice!”