Exfoliating My Soul

May22

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Every morning when I shower, I take this rough material and rub away the old, dead skin cells that would stay on my body and make my skin dull and unhealthy. It improves my skin’s appearance and helps it stay moisturized. Apparently, every 28 days or so, we all have completely new skin. And did you know that your skin is actually an organ? That’s not part of my point, I just think it’s interesting.

Here’s my point: I spend those several minutes every day making sure I’m sloughing off the old skin so that the new can shine through. How much more should I be doing this with my soul?

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24.)

Thankful today for:
303. Dreams
304. The growth of my students this year
305. A successful molt for our little hermit crabs
306. Breakfast
307. God’s sovereignty
308. Cleansing tears

10 Random Nuggets (not the chicken kind)

May20

* If you teach, people will learn; but who you are is what they’ll become. (Pastor Van Fielden)

* The desert is a transition. For the Israelites, it was a really long transition, but it was a transition nonetheless. They weren’t going to stay there. We often resent the desert, but it is the place where God does His deepest work. (Pastor Van.)

* I used to think the the American Sign Language sign for “reign,” as in “Our God reigns” was inappropriate, until I watched Morgan taking riding lessons and listened to what her instructor was saying. If you don’t let the horse know you’re the one in charge, it’ll do whatever it wants. Kind of like us if we don’t heed the directions of the reins that God is holding. So He reigns in our lives when we let Him hold the reins in our life, thus the sign–two hands acting like they’re holding reins and moving back and forth as if directing a team of horses.

* “When I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine.” (Samuel Rutherford)

* “If You took Your eyes off of us, we would be undone.” (Pastor Greg Riggs) Colossians 1:17 “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

* “Truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace.” (R.C. Sproul)

* “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” (C.S. Lewis)

* God feeds the birds, but He don’t throw the worms in their nests.” (Andy Andrews)

* “When you demand your rights, your joy decreases. When you give up your rights, your joy increases.” (John MacArthur)

* “Oh no, You never let go, through the calm and through the storm. Oh no, You never let go, in every high and every low. Oh no, You never let go. Lord, You never let go of me.” (Matt Redman)

Thankful today for:

297. salad

298. fro yo

299. communion

300. iced tea

301. staples

302. cacophony

Not Where I Belong

May18

Yesterday, as I was watching my Oakland A’s play the Texas Rangers on the MLB app on my Blu Ray player (I love technology), I randomly heard a snippet from the Building 429 song “Not Where I Belong.” The lyrics of the chorus go like this: “All I know is I’m not home yet. This is not where I belong. Take this world and give me Jesus. This is not where I belong.” After getting over the shock of hearing such a blatantly Christian song at a baseball game, I thought about the words.

Why do we sometimes feel like such aliens here on earth? Well, it’s because we are. This world is not our home. 1 Peter 4:11 says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Our citizenship is in heaven.

I have a dear friend who has lived in Australia for the past nearly five years. She and her family are coming back this summer. While she has come to love the land down under, she is still a citizen of the United States. She has made many friends that she will be leaving behind, but she is coming back to many friends here who still love her. Will the re-entry be easy? I’m guessing not, because she was all there and is returning before she really wanted to. But her parents’ declining health has made it necessary. Will her heart be torn? Yes. She gave a big part of it to Australia, even though she was only a temporary resident. Was that a bad thing? No. She needed to be all in while God had her there. But we as believers are warned not to become so enamored of this world that we have a hard time thinking about going home.

The Bible speaks to this issue: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

We are on a mission here., and we are to represent Jesus as ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Our greatest desire should be to return home where we belong, and to bring as many people with us as we can. But I remember when I was younger, I didn’t want to die before I was able to experience certain things here on earth: getting my driver’s license, getting married, having children. But how those pale in comparison to being home with Jesus. While there is much beauty on earth, the beauty of heaven cannot be compared.

All I know is I’m not home yet. This is not where I belong.

Thankful today for:

285. cookie crunch frappiccinos from Starbucks. Yum

286. three more days of teaching this year

287. my little sister and nephew being able to join us in Seattle

288. the smell of bacon

289. insightful articles

290. being republished

291. an anticipated party

292. coupons

293. gift cards

294. a lessening pain

295. kitty breath

296. appreciation

Tough Lovin’

May16

“In the end, love must be a kind of discipline. If we love only with our feelings, we’re sunk–we may feel love one day and something quite other the next. Soon  after he came to live with me–he was eleven years old at the time–I realized I must learn to love with my will, not my feelings. I had to love him when he threw his shoe at the wall and cussed my dog, love him when he called me names I won’t repeat, love him when he refused to eat what I’d cooked after celebrating and preaching at three Sunday services . . . you get the idea.

“And so I enjoyed the warm feelings, the stuff of the heart, when it was present between us, as it sometimes was, even in the beginning. And when it wasn’t, there was the will to love him something like . . . a generator kicking in, a back up.

“I learned over a long period of trial and error to see in him what God made him to be. Wounded people use a lot of smoke and mirrors, they thrust the bitterness and rage out there like a shield. Then it becomes their banner, and finally, their weapon. But I stopped falling for the bitterness and rage. I didn’t stop knowing it was there–and there for a very good reason–but I stopped taking the bullet for it. With God’s help, I was able to start seeing through the smoke. I saw how bright he was, . . . how talented, and how possible it was for him to triumph over so much that hounded him.

“I stopped praying for God to change Dooley; I asked God to change me–to give me His eyes to see into the spirit of this exceptional broken boy.”

Father Tim Cavanagh, on how he loved his adopted son through the hard early years. (In the Company of Others by Jan Karon)

Down in the Dungeon

May14

There’s a comic strip in the newspaper called “Rose is Rose.” It features a stay-at-home mom, Rose, who has a tattooed, leather-clad biker-babe alter ego. She has a hard-working, love-note writing husband, Jimbo, and a sweet, school-loving boy named Pasquale.

They are a typical family in many ways, but the illustrator of the strip brings out a very important spiritual truth: Every once in awhile, the strip will feature Rose at the bottom of a deep pit, a shackle around her ankle and a deep, disturbing frown upon her face. It’s usually not clear what has happened to plunge her into that dungeon of her own making, but her family is usually waiting at the top, trying to coax her out. But Rose alone holds the key.

Our dungeons, like Rose’s, are of our own making. Whether we’re simply offended by something unintentional, or truly sinned against, forgiveness is ours to give. It’s always our choice. So is being a blessing to those who have offended us.

“When you forgive,” says Joyce Meyer, “it opens a door for God to heal you, but honestly, it doesn’t do much for the person who offended you. But when you bless them, you ask God to bring truth to them so they can repent and experience the real freedom He provides. Forgiveness” she says “sets you free…blessing your enemies sets them free.”

Romans 12:14 says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

Likewise, when we repent of something we have done to offend someone else, when they extend forgiveness to us, and bless us by word or deed, then we are set free from the guilt that might plague us, if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Granted, some people offend us and have no idea they’ve done it, but our forgiveness and, as stated before, our blessing, can serve as a way to clue them in to something that may need to change in their heart. But their repentance is not our job; our extending forgiveness and blessing is.

That self-made dungeon is cold and damp. The air is so much nicer on the outside.

Thankful today for:

279. clouds

280. flowering bushes

281. remote controls

282. tough love

283. community

284. movies