MERCIFUL FOREKNOWLEDGE

Deuteronomy 5:29 -
God says, "Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!"

Here is the desire of God for their genuine obedience and devotion to Him so that it might go well with them. God hears their words of commitment but knows the deceitfulness of their hearts. And even though He knows the end (just as Christ knew He would raise Lazarus and yet wept anyway) this does not leave God cold and academic. He has feelings! He does! There is a passion in this verse. A passion for His people to have the best - which is to obey Him and know Him and be satisfied forever with Him. God knows their hearts and yet prepares the best for them. The land of Canaan will be prepared for them before they enter in. Chapter 6 says they will enter a land that already has houses, cities, vineyards, and olive trees. It reminds me of John 14 where Jesus tells His disciples that He goes to prepare a place for them in heaven.

What mercy and grace. He knows their stubborn natures the past 40 years in the wilderness and He knows their future disobedience and idolatry, and yet...He pours out blessing.

IT'S ALL CHRIST

"We can never obligate God by our obedience or sacrificial service." Jerry Bridges

As if those things weren't due Him already. For, "To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it." Deuteronomy 10:14

So, because of Christ, why get hung up on what our sins or service might earn us? Our sins have been washed away and God's wrath has been satisfied. We are His workmanship united to Him and called to bear fruit. It's all Christ.

FOR MY MOM

My mom sent me an email the other day about how I haven't been posting on my blog. Yes, it's been pretty bleak here because I've spent most of my online time on Facebook. It's been neat to see how many other blogging friends of mine are on Facebook and it's been a neat way to keep in touch. But since my mother is not on Facebook (yet!) I decided to give her a post here on my blog. Let me update any of you who still read my blog on what I've been doing lately and what I've been thinking about.

My husband and I took on the ING Georgia Half Marathon on March 29th. We weren't originally going to do a half-marathon until this coming October but a friend convinced us to do this one. We were both very pleased with our experiences and our times. My husband blew his projected time out of the water by running a 2:01. That's more than 10 minutes faster than what he thought he could do. I ran a 2:23 which is great for me considering I thought I could do a 2:30. I didn't have any of the typical problems runners often have when running a long distance (i.e. bathroom issues, throwing up) so I was very pleased. It was funny to see how many people were lined up at the porta potty early into the race. We're set to run the Peachtree on July 4th and my husband's qualified for one of the groups in the front. That's good considering there are over 50,000 runners doing the race. Hopefully I'll be in the front half of the group as well even though I didn't run nearly as fast in our qualifying race.

I came across a wonderful musician several months ago while I was listening to NPR. Her name is Simone Dinnerstein and she was being interviewed about her new recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations. I was interested enough to purchase the whole album on iTunes and I've been listening to her playing almost every time I turn on my iPod. If you want to watch an interview with her, you can go to this link. Bach's music is so ordered and clean. Whenever I get overwhelmed with whatever is going on in my life, I put on this recording and it suddenly brings peace and serenity to my mind.

I've been reading through Leviticus and Numbers lately and having a hard time understanding everything written there. Gee, that's a surprise. Who else has ever started reading through the Bible and gotten stuck in Leviticus? I was thinking and meditating on those books this morning while I was ironing. It's amazing how clearly I can think while ironing. While I didn't receive any grand revelations about the meaning of these books and all the laws and sacrifices, I was able to step back and think about the overall issues God addresses in the books. God says in Leviticus, "Be holy for I am holy." He had chosen Israel for Himself and His desire was for them to be separate and distinct. All of the laws and sacrifices are an illustration of how holy God really is. He can not allow any sin in His presence. Those same laws and sacrifices are also an illustration of how sinful we are compared to God's holiness. God's desire for His creation in the beginning was for them to stay pure and set apart. Because of Adam's sin we have been polluted along with the creation around us (see Romans 5 and 8). Starting with Israel being set apart and going through Christ's sacrifice on the cross for sin, we can see God's desire to ultimately destroy sin and do away with it. I was encouraged by thinking about this and reflecting on passages in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, where we see the ultimate end of sin, death and Satan - they are all thrown into the lake of fire in the final judgment. (Revelation 21) I know these are intense subjects to think about, but having this broader perspective while reading Leviticus and Numbers will be helpful to me I think. Plus, the most amazing thing is this - "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:4 And, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4

I hope you all are well. If you're on Facebook and you haven't already friended me, I'd love to connect! Blessings!

DON'T WASTE YOUR FACEBOOK...

If you're familiar with John Piper's ministry, Desiring God, you may have heard about a "sister" ministry of theirs called Don't Waste Your Life. Ever since I started on Facebook, I've been concerned about just wasting time on it. It's too easy to just surf around or play games. Just waste time. So I just wrote a note and posted it to my profile. If anyone comes to visit they will see an explanation of my testimony and how I came to know Jesus Christ. A lot of people on Facebook have hundreds of friends. I don't have a lot but of the over 100 friends I do have, I know some of them don't know Christ. I don't want to waste an opportunity to tell them about the most important thing in my life. It's too easy to talk about trivial things. Maybe someone else has an idea for not wasting their Facebook space. Please share. And "friend" me if you haven't already done so.

Blessings.

BOTHERED BY GENESIS

I've been reading through Genesis since the beginning of the year. I'm sure it's been a popular thing to do lately. Every time I get to the beginning of the story of Abraham I start feeling a certain rankling in my soul. I cringe at his lies about Sarah being his sister. Then Isaac and Rebekah with Jacob and Esau. The scheming and favoritism. Jacob runs away and marries Rachel and Leah. The favoritism and competition continues between the wives. "Why are you blessing this Lord?" I ask. "They are totally messing up here!" After thinking on this for a while, my perspective has shifted. It's not about what they did or did not do. God is the one who chose them. God is the one who called them. He is the faithful one. My focus has always been on the people God chose who continue to mess things up. Nothing is different when I look at my own life. I mess up. I have done nothing to deserve the blessings I have received. I need to shift the perspective I have on my own life too. Charles Spurgeon said this on June 28 in his devotional, Morning and Evening --

"We will never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our deeds, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul."

SURRENDERING MY REWARD

"each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward." 1 Corinthians 3:13-14

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13

I am a competitive person. Unfortunately, this character trait has left its mark on my walk with the Lord. I know I have been saved by grace alone through faith alone. But what about in the meantime? What about the passages in Scripture describing our eternal reward? I have always been bothered by the parable of the talents. The implications of that parable have me sliding into a performance-minded Christianity. Recently I've been studying the book of James and this issue of works and eternal rewards has come up again. This lie has been whispered into my soul, "You're not doing enough. What kind of reward will you receive?"

Last year, God taught me a lot about myself. I've been wanting to write about it and perhaps I will soon. I thought I'd learned the lessons but I'm experiencing the truth of continuous consecration. I am just as forgetful as the ancient Israelites. I need to go back to the same classes I thought I had passed. And perhaps the way I've looked at the Christian life needs some new word pictures. It's not a class where I receive a grade.

This morning, as we took the Lord's Supper, I knew what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to further surrender my rights to determine my own eternal reward. It's not a contest to see who gets the most crowns. I am acting like those foolish disciples when they were arguing over who's the greatest in the kingdom. And just before taking the bread God spoke to me about what I had really been doing. Striving after eternal rewards in the kingdom shows how insecure I still am about God's unconditional love and acceptance of me. And ultimately, it profanes Christ's sacrifice on my behalf as insufficient. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" 1 Corinthians 1:30-31

This morning I read this verse - "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." 1 Corinthians 12:18 God has created me for a purpose and my purpose cannot encompass every need that exists. That is why He has designed the body of Christ the way it is. Each one has a specific purpose. The hand cannot do the job of the eye. And that's OK. It doesn't diminish the value of either one. God has called and justified me. He is sovereign in this process of sanctification that goes on until I die and He will glorify me in that day I see Jesus. I am just a sheep, a lump of clay. He is the Shepherd, the Potter. My job is to listen to His voice, surrender my will and allow Him to lead, guide and mold me into what He wants. I am not my own. I have been bought with a price.

RUNNING...ONE YEAR LATER

Last year at this time I asked myself a question - "I wonder what it would be like if I decided to get really fit?" A simple question doesn't seem like it would hold a lot of motivational power, but for me it did. I looked at it as kind of an experiment. I started out hating to run, especially on a treadmill. But I stuck with it and actually started to like it. I entered some races never thinking I'd do anything longer than a 5K(3.1 miles). Then my competitive nature kicked in and I wanted to get better. So I found a running partner. We've been running together 2 days a week about 4 miles each time. About six months ago my husband finally succumbed and started running again. Tim used to be a serious runner. He ran cross country in college. Now, I have another running partner and a fellow running nerd who likes to talk mile splits and how fast Kara Goucher ran the recent New York Marathon.

One year later I find myself loving to run and signed up to do the 2010 Disney Half-Marathon. My husband and I love doing this together. Last weekend we did our church's annual Polar Bear Run. That was the first race I did in 2008 a couple weeks after starting to run. While I didn't make my time goal, I did set a new personal record and when I look back on last year's time it's cool to see that I ran this year's race 10 minutes faster than last year's.

I highly recommend running. It's hard to start and even now I don't like it until a couple miles in. But the long term results are great. And...you get to eat more!

THANK YOU PETER REINHART!

I've been making my own bread for almost five years I think. I started with Breadbecker's and I learned from watching my neighbor do it. Over the years I think I've had maybe 1 in 10 loaves come out the way I wanted them to. The dough was too sticky to knead and then they'd always fall after I put them in the often. I went to online forums and tried to fix my problems, but it never worked. A couple months ago I went to the library and a certain book caught my eye. It was a thick book on whole grain breads by Peter Reinhart. I was intrigued. Maybe this guy could help me. Well, it stayed in the library cart for several weeks until I got a chance to really look at it. It's a little intimidating at the beginning and there's a whole lot of information in there about the science of bread making that I didn't really want to know. I just wanted a good loaf of bread! I decided to slog through it though. This guy really knows bread and has gone through a lot of research and trial and error to perfect his recipe. So, after reading through the recipe and letting the book go overdue I finally decided to try it. I copied the recipe and returned the book. Then I got a chance to make it. It's so different from a Breadbecker recipe. He uses yogurt, doesn't add lecithin or gluten and lets it bake for 45 minutes! I was careful to make it to the letter of the recipe and slid it into the oven very carefully. After 20 minutes I peeked into the oven to check on it and saw that it had not fallen! Thank you God! After it was done I couldn't wait to slice into it. It was the best bread I had ever made! Yeah!!!

ANATOMY OF THE FIRST DAY BACK

You would think it wouldn't have taken me years to figure this out. Every Monday and any day back to school after a break will always be rough. I tried to fight it and be strict but I've realized that I just need to accept it and roll with it. It is what it is and it's not a reflection on me. I think that's really what it's been about. However my day went, I saw it as a grade on my performance, and ultimately a judgment on who I was. I've spent the last year working through that and weeding out the lies and meditating on the truth.

That doesn't mean that I'm not tempted to that line of thinking anymore. So today I reminded myself that the day would definitely not be perfect and at least one of my children would have some sort of meltdown. I was right. The youngest had a sour face this morning and the middle one cried during math for some unrelated reason. But I just kept praying for wisdom and rolled with whatever came at me and by lunchtime everyone was back in the swing of things.

Homeschooling is hard but you do learn a lot of lessons.