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The Marriage Mystery

Feb6

In 25 days, David and I will celebrate 21 years of marriage. I can honestly say that, while not easy in the sense that we don’t have to work at it, it’s always been good.

Neither of us had great examples. My dad found it hard to give a compliment, though I think he would have done anything for my mom. And though they were both dedicated church goers, my siblings and I were not brought up to honor the Word of God. But they stayed married, for better or for worse.

David’s parents separated after 48 years of marriage,.

So, David and I are pretty determined to doing everything we can to make our marriage great. We’ve read multitudes of books. We’ve been to marriage conferences and, though I selfishly fought it for years, we saw a marriage counselor about 5 years ago. 

Best move we ever made. It wasn’t that we were in really bad shape, but there were some attitudes and barriers that we just couldn’t overcome without some professional advice. Reading today in Ephesians 5:33, I am reminded that I need to do whatever I can to make my marriage great not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because David and I are a reflection of Christ and the Church. How we live our married lives is a picture to the world of the mystery that is Christ and the Church. I want to be a master painter of that work of art.

If You Can

Feb5

Jesus said, “‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'” (Mark 9:23, 24 NIV84).

I’ve heard it said that having faith is like sitting in a chair: you believe it can hold you, but you can’t really know until you give it a try. After that first time of trying and seeing, the sitting becomes a lot easier.

We read in the Bible time after time after time about God doing amazing and miraculous things, but we still don’t completely trust Him with everything today. We get stumped by the verse that says if we pray in God’s will. What, we wonder, is His will? How do I know if He wants to heal that person, or for me to have that job, or that car, or that child? All things are possible, but not all things are profitable.

It’s one of those mysteries. So still we trust and we ask. God will do the best thing.

Today is Superbowl Sunday. I’ll be praying, like thousands of others, that God would deliver those who are caught up in the horrible atrocity of sex trafficking. Both the victims and the victimizers. God can do it.

The Word

Feb4
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double‑edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV84).”

In the past, I’ve always struggled to have consistent times in God’s Word. I’m not a morning person, and my days always got away from me. Then along came this little thing called an iPhone, and an app called the YouVersion Bible.

The YouVersion app has many different devotionals and Bible reading plans to choose from. Two years ago, I read through the whole Bible in a year. Last year, I read through the whole Bible chronologically. This year, I chose a devotional reading plan instead.

I have a clock dock by my bed where I keep my iPhone charging over night. In the mornings it wakes me up with a random song from my “God Songs” playlist. I set that alarm to go off a half hour earlier than I need to get up and get the kids going. After one song plays, I grab my phone, open the YouVersion app and read the devotional for the day.

After two years, this is now an ingrained habit. I love using my iPhone because I don’t have to turn on the light. The praise song focuses my heart and the devotional is short and sweet and gets me thinking about living right. And it has me writing on a regular basis: I chronicle my thoughts from the devotional and then post them here.

After two years of reading through the Bible in two different ways, I feel I have a clearer understanding of this rich, vibrant Book that shows me God’s heart. After this year, I might do that again with some other plan just to get another perspective.

If you’ve never read through the Bible completely, I highly recommend it. You might be surprised what you’ll find.

The Mystery that is Prayer

Feb2

I don’t fully understand how prayer works. We’ve been praying fervently for the daughter of a friend for more than a month now. She suffered severe consequences after the birth of her 7th child and was near death. Now, 34 days later, she is home and recovering.

But 9 years ago, we prayed fervently for the young teenaged son of another friend who had suffered a severe brain injury after being closed up in a sofa bed while playing around with his sister, and he didn’t make it.

Both had large groups of people praying fervently. What was the difference? Did God love one family more than another? Not at all! Was He on vacation 9 years ago? Ridiculous! But I asked some serious “why” questions after Mark died.

We are commanded to pray, and James says that the “fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much” (James 5:16). Just throwing out the fact that God is sovereign doesn’t bring much comfort to that family that lost a child.

When I miscarried our first child after years of trying to get pregnant, I questioned God. But I never doubted His love. I just didn’t understand His plan.

Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20).

Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego acknowledged that their God was able to save them from the fiery furnace, but even if He didn’t, they would still not worship the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

When Jesus said some things that were hard for some to hear, they turned away and stopped following Jesus, When that happened, He said to His disciples, “you don’t want to go away, too, do you?” Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (Matt. 6:66-69).

He is the Holy One of God. He loves us more than we can ever imagine. The Bible promises us that He works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

We don’t doubt this, but, as C.S. Lewis wrote, sometimes we just wonder how painful that “good” is going to be. But through the hard times, painful though they be, we don’t leave, because He does, indeed, have words of eternal life. And He weeps along with us.

Dirty Dishes

Jan30

Does life sometimes get overwhelming? Is it because God has given us more than we can handle? I’d like to think it was His fault rather than mine, but since I believe the Bible is true, that can’t be the case because the Bible says He won’t give us more than we can handle.

So when, on top of everything else, I’m commanded to be holy as God is holy, and purify my mind and be worthy of my calling, I can feel overwhelmed. I just want to get the kitchen cleaned, for crying out loud, how am I then also supposed to cleanse my heart?

Just do the next thing. Spend time in His Word. Take time to worship. Stay in fellowship with other believers. Confess my sins not only to God, but to a close friend who can help build me up in my faith.  

Letting the dishes pile up in the sink doesn’t move me toward my goal of a clean kitchen. I have to take one plate at a time and deal with it. Letting the spiritual dishes pile up in my soul doesn’t move me toward godliness either. Get moving. One dish at a time.