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What’s So Good About It?

Apr6

Today is called Good Friday. When you think that it’s in commemoration of the day Someone died a violent, torturous death, you might wonder what’s so good about it. Here’s what I think:

The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom giving us free access, through Jesus, to God the Father. No more priests, no more animal sacrifices. When we want to talk to Him, we simply say the words.

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free. My God, My Savior has ransomed me. Amazing. (1 Thess. 1:10 “rescued us from wrath”)

I am no longer a slave to sin and death. Romans 8:1-4: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I am so, so, so loved “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

‘Nuff said.

Hallelujah.

Thankful today for:

169. what will be a great gathering of friends at our house on Easter

170. freedom

171. new growth on rose bushes

Be a Blessing

Apr4

Yesterday, in what to me was a very simple gesture, I had the opportunity to be a blessing to two friends by 20120404-112624.jpg providing them with dinner at their office before they came to lead a Marriage Oneness group David and I attended. They’ve been working extremely hard on a huge event coming up next week, and they weren’t going to be able to go home before coming to lead us. I had a big container of leftover soup; they had a need for a meal. It was a simple blessing, but an encouragement to them.

Galatians 6:10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (NIV).
Going out for a meal? Be a blessing to your server by leaving a generous tip and a kind “thank you.”
At the grocery store? Speak kindly to the cashier. Engage them in conversation.
Know of a widow or single mom who needs work done around their house? Offer to help.
Being a blessing doesn’t need to be something huge; sometimes just a kind word is a blessing to someone who doesn’t hear such things very often.
Who can you bless today?
Thankful today for:
166. Jesus’ death on the cross for my sins
167. The encouragement of my students’ moms
168. My husband’s love for our kids

Settling for Second Best

Apr3

When David and I had lived in Orlando for a year, we began planning to purchase a house. We had gotten a feel for the area and knew approximately what area of town we wanted to be in, so we began the hunt.

We found a house that we liked pretty well. We put in an offer which was countered. We accepted the counter, if I remember correctly, and then began to figure out financing.

Well, long story short, what we thought was going to be a monetary gift from someone turned out to be the offer of a loan, and we knew we couldn’t swing it financially with the priorities we had. Our realtor tried to talk us into it, giving us all kinds of reasons why it would be good to make the sacrifices we would need to in order to make it work.

Thing is, we had been praying the whole time that if this wasn’t what God wanted for us, that He would make that clear. This seemed pretty clear. We could have pushed it and made it work–kind of like forcing a square peg into a round hole–but it never would have felt right.

Instead, we put the house hunt on hold and waited to see what God would do.

A couple of months later we were driving down the road we always traveled to get to work when we saw a construction trailer with a sign about new houses going into a brand new subdivision. The price range listed was within reason for us. We’d be able to build brand new and be in a new neighborhood with people all moving in at the same time as us. Boy, did this ever seem like an answer to prayer.

Preconstruction prices, close enough to the office that David could ride his bike, brand new house, large corner lot, something in common with all our neighbors, and a price we could afford.

All because we waited on God instead of pushing our own ignorant desires. We learned a big lesson in that season: Don’t settle for second best; wait for God’s clear provision.

Thankful today for:
163. Carrot juice
164. Rain
165. The smell of new construction

I Second That Emoticon

Mar31

I have a friend who has three boys. They’re grown now, but when they were younger, she described a time when she was trying to get all of her men to be able to share their feelings. After a few minutes, one of her boys piped up: “Well, I feel hungry.”

Don’t you wish there was an emoticon for everything we feel, even if we can’t describe it ourselves? I’ve been having fun with the new emoji keyboard I added to my iPhone, adding fun symbols to my texts and emails. This is what I think God’s emoticon would look like when He thinks of us:

😍

Thankful today for:

151. my brothers- and sisters-in-law

152. my nieces and nephews

153. new babies

154. upcoming weddings

155. the really, truly official start of baseball season

156. improvement in my injured elbow (don’t ask)

Of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games

Mar25

What do Harry Potter and The Hunger Games have in common? This is what I notice:

–they both started out as books

–they were both written by women

–the central characters in both series are young

–they are both phenomenally successful

–they both have been denounced by members of the Christian community.

Let me say right now that I would not be one of those members.

On the website http://www.credenda.org, the writer, Douglas Wilson, in a review of “The Hunger Games,” states:

“In short, when you have the privilege of setting up all the circumstances artificially, in order to give your protagonist no real choice about whether to sin or not, it is a pretty safe bet that a whole lot of people in a relativistic country, including the Christians in it unfortunately, won’t notice.”

The gist of the article was that we shouldn’t let our kids watch this movie, or read the book. Wilson says, “But in terms of helping Christian young people set their minds and hearts on that which is noble and right, we can’t even give it one star.”

As a writer, and a follower of Jesus, I can see that I have an obligation to help my readers become better people. But if you are coming from a worldview that does not acknowledge God (and I’m not saying either Suzanne Collins or J.K. Rowling fall into that camp), then you can’t be held to that standard. What these stories do is give parents a chance to actually have meaningful conversations with their kids about what they’re reading.

I have read the Harry Potter series and loved it. I thought the character development was wonderful, the plot amazingly complex and the pace fast and exciting.

I have not yet read The Hunger Games, but I’m fixin’ to, as soon as Justin puts it down.

I talk to my kids about what they read and the worldview adhered to therein. We give them a solid foundation at home and make sure we keep our lines of communication open. I know what they’re reading, I know who their friends are, I have a relationship with my children. I filter the things they can read and watch, but I don’t prohibit all that does not follow the worldview we espouse. Our school calls this living in a wildlife refuge versus a hothouse. They’re exposed to some of the things out there in the world, but protected while they’re at it.

There’s a scene in the second Harry Potter book, The Chamber of Secrets, that holds a great truth. Harry is talking to Professor Dumbledore and is quite concerned about some things that Tom Riddle said to him. He’s afraid he might be like Tom, who is the epitome of evil. In the course of the conversation, the professor helps Harry think through the process that the Sorting Hat went through to put him into the house of Gryffindor. This is what the author said that I thought was so profound:

“‘It only put me in Gryffindor,’ said Harry in a defeated voice, ‘because I asked not to go in Slytherin. . . .’

“‘Exactly,’ said Dumbledore, beaming once more. ‘Which make you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'”

Romans 7: 15-25 talks about this dilemma: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Harry Potter and his friends do not acknowledge God. The powers they have simply come from within themselves. What a great opportunity to talk to our kids about sin and righteousness and God’s grace.

The Hunger Games  puts young people in an ethical dilemma: kill or be killed. What a great chance to talk to our kids about moral absolutes and where that comes from and how God is not just the giver of life, but Life Himself.

And then pray that those who write things our kids love would begin to see things from God’s perspective.

Thankful today for:

138. Homemade pizza

139. The end of a good book

140. A new book to read at the ready