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Called Through God’s Grace.

18 Feb 2010 by sypace

Recently Barry and I joined the Newly Married Bible Fellowship class at our church on Sunday mornings.  We aren’t exactly newly married, but because we had been through so much in our own marriage and come so far we hoped that we might be of some service to some of these newly married couples and we have also learned that there is much to be learned from them as well!  We are so blessed to have our pastor teaching the class.  It is so wonderful to see all these godly couples that God has brought together!  Right now we are studying Living by the Book by Howard Hendricks.  It is an in depth look at how to study the Bible for yourself.    In last weeks lesson, Hendricks suggested sticking with an entire book of the Bible for one month and studying it thoroughly.  He also suggests that you read out of different translations of the Bible because often when the same thing is presented differently we see something new.  Studying one book per month in different translations would, in one year give you an intimate knowledge of twelve books of the Bible and after4 – 5 years of study you would have an astonishing level of understanding of God’s word.  So, Barry and I have decided to do just that.  We decided that the book we would study is Galatians.  Why Galatians?  I have a complete outline for writing a book on Galatians Five, but to do so, we felt called to research and know intimately all of Galatians.  This will hopefully allow me to use Chapter Five, not out of context and to honor God with truthful writing.   But I am afraid.  I’m afraid to commit to something I don’t feel equipped to write.  I am afraid that others won’t like it.  I am afraid that I am biting off more than I can chew.  I am afraid .  But I feel called.  The words I read this morning have made a huge impact on my decision to get started in earnest.

As I began to read in The Book this morning I asked God to show me something new and with fresh eyes that I could see Him more clearly; that I could grow closer to Him.  I am so thankful that I prayed that prayer this morning.  He so graciously answered my prayer.  Let me share the scripture first and then share what is on my heart.

Galatians 1: 15 – 17  ” 15But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased  16to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,  17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

Three things stand out to me in this sections.  First Paul notes that God set Paul apart even from his mother’s womb.  What does that say to me?  That he has a plan for each and every one of us; that we are known from the time we are conceived.  We each are ordained for the ministry where God places us and in whatever form He wants it to take.  It doesn’t matter if that ministry is to preach God’s word, like Paul or teach our children to love the Lord.  It doesn’t matter if He calls us to be missionaries in Africa or coach a football team in Nebraska.  Wherever we are, whatever we do, God cares and He has a path for us.  Second, Paul was called by grace.  So are we.  We can’t earn our salvation.  We don’t deserve our salvation and yet God is “pleased” to give direction to our lives through his grace.  I am a sinner.  I fall short daily.  But I am loved and I am His child.  My direction in life comes as a direct result of accepting His undeserved grace.  Third Paul says that when God gave him[Paul], his [God's]direction Paul did not stop to “consult with flesh and blood nor . . . go up to Jerusalem. . . but . . . went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.” Yikes.  How often do I immediately pursue the things that God has laid on my heart?  Often I will turn to a friend or family and say, “what do you think about…?”  Or “Do you think I could/should. . .?”  Ouch.  I see so clearly this morning that when I turn to others for ideas and their perspective instead of listening to His Spirit inside of me, I am walking away from Him.  I am taking a journey down a path that is not of His choosing.  That is painful.  I am a people pleaser.  I don’t want to disappoint anyone.  And when I do, I am miserable.  And yet, why am I not as concerned with pleasing Him  as pleasing others.  How much pain do I cause the One who has so freely given me such grace?

Father, please allow me to hear your voice, take comfort in your grace and accept the plans that you have for me.  Help me be content in those things.  Lead my steps, guide my words and forgive my failures.  I desire to know you more fully and to be ever faithful to your teachings.  Strengthen me to do so when I am weak.  Draw me close to you.  I love you Lord.  Amen.

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What’s in a Name?

22 Apr 2009 by sypace

So, I’m standing in the kitchen this morning listening to Matt and Carol in the morning, and Carol was talking about baby names on there.  She asked for people to call in with unique and unusual names.  Of course, as a mom, it made me think of the names of my own children.  Now, as is the case with most moms, I thought I was picking wonderfully unique and beautiful names for our girls.  But more importantly to me, I wanted strong names that gave credit to our God.  I would like to tell you a little about our girls names, how they got them and why they point to a Great Big Wonderful Daddy!!

Before I got pregnant with our oldest daughter, I was pregnant with another baby.  At first things seemed to be fine.  About Eight weeks into the pregnancy, I got violently ill and as many of you know me, you know this is the hallmark of my pregnancies.  I was put into the hospital over Valentine’s weekend for dehydration and to get the nausea under control.  Then miraculously around the fourteenth and fifteenth weeks my nausea started to subside and we began to rejoice.  Then we went for a checkup and the nurse was unable to find a heartbeat.  At first no one was worried.  They thought we might how miscalculated the dates, so we were taken back to a room to have an ultrasound.  At that point, we discovered that my precious baby hadn’t developed properly and there would be no rejoicing at the end of the pregnancy with a bundle of joy.  Anyone who has been througa miscarriage knows how devastating that is.  I can still remember and feel that pain.  But God is so good and so wise.  And we are so pitifully week and lacking in wisdom.  Our doctor informed us that after a D & C we could wait a few weeks and try again.  

About eight weeks after the miscarriage we were going on vacation with our extended family.  We always stayed at our Aunt’s house as a half-way point to the beach.  The morning that we woke up at her house I turned over in the bed and she has one of those devotional flip books on the night stand.  The verse that morning read, “I asked the Lord to give me this child, and He has given me my request.” 1 Samuel 1:27.  I KNEW I was pregnant again.  I had no doubts that God had answered my prayers and was giving me proof.  So, when we chose her name we knew that we wanted a variation of Mary, because there is a “Mary” in every generation of our family that goes back a long time.  We also knew that FAITH must be her middle name.  Therefore when our little girl came into the world on March 7, exactly 2 days shy of the one year anniversary of the loss of our first baby, we knew her name had to be Mia Faith, because God had been faithful in answering our prayers and we also had faith that He would do so.

Our second child came almost five years after Mia.  I could not face another pregnancy until Mia was older and could do more for herself.  Prior to this pregnancy Barry and I had been through some rough times in our marriage and a few times we weren’t sure we were going to make it.  But with the help of some wonderful counseling and a lot of support from our Lord we worked though the problems and decided we were ready to add another member to our family.  This pregancy was difficult from the start.  I had to be hospitalized for dehydration.  They implanted a port-a-cath to deliver fluids and anti-nausea medications with home health care.  I had blood clots and had to be hospitalized for a week with them around the sixth or seventh month and then our little girl was born almost seven weeks early.  As we discussed her name, early on, we knew that we wanted something special.  The word Selah’s definition is debated and no one really knows what it means but most theologians say that it is either to indicate a pause in worship to focus or it is used as an amen.  We also knew that our lives had been marked repeatedly by God’s grace.  So we wanted her name to mean “To pause and reflect on God’s grace, ” thus Selah Grace’s name was chosen.

Not long after we had Selah, our pastor, Jerry preached a sermon and a verse in that sermon really struck me and I know that God gives us what we need as we need it and this was the verse: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” Ephesians 2:8.  This verse sort of sums up what I want the lives of our family to be about.  God’s grace is such a gift.  There is nothing that we can do to deserve it.  We don’t deserve His grace, but through our faith, he readily gives it.  Why does he give it?  He loves us.  We are His chosen children.  He has named us and called us His.  And I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful for His grace and His name.

 

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Trust God and Hand Over the Spoon.

01 Apr 2009 by sypace

Recently, my eldest daughter, Mia was helping me cook dinner.  It is something that she loves to do and so do I . . . occasionally.  I’d be lying if I said that I love to cook with her all the time.  I am too much of a control freak for that to be true.  But God has been on me for a while now about my issues with attempting to control my life and not trusting Him to take care of me.  A counselor once told me that I couldn’t be the CEO of the universe because that job was already taken.  That is so true!  So why can’t I just let go and let Him be in control? Why don’t I trust Him to take care of all the details?  God used Mia the other night to once again drive home the fact that He is the CEO of the universe.

We decided to cook chicken pot pie for dinner.  Now I love to cook it for my family for a variety of reasons.  Not all of which are good.  The first reason is because it is healthy.  The second reason is because my family loves it!  The third reason is because it is really good and I get rave reviews from anyone who eats it, and thus I cook it because I am proud that I can!  (I see a whole new issue here. LOL!) So, when Mia started helping cook THE dish that is MY dish you can imagine how that went.

Mia – “Mama may I cut the chicken up?”
Me – “No, sweetie it has to be carefully shredded and it’s really hard to do. Can you put this bowl of frozen veggies in the microwave for exactly 15 seconds?”
Mia – “Sure, Mama.”
Mia – “Can I pop open the can of Cream of Chicken soup?”
Me – “No, let me do it.  You might break the tab off the top like you did last time and then it’s really hard to open.”
Mia – “Oh, ok Mama.  But I really think I can do it…”
So of course I opened the can.
Me – “You want to put the soup in the pot with the chicken broth?”
Mia – “YES!!”
Me – “Ok, but be very careful, the broth is hot and if you don’t do it just right you will splash the hot broth on you… OH, be careful… here let me help you do that.”
Mia – “MAMA, I CAN DO IT.”
Me – “Ok, you finish scraping out the can and stir it really easy…”

I finished shredding the chicken, layered the veggies on, poured the sauce over the chicken and veggies; all with Mia watching by my side offering to help.  Then we came to the part that I know is the most important part of the pie, the crust.  I let Mia help me measure the flour and milk. I let her stir the butter and other ingredients until the batter began to form.  But I noticed that there was a lot of flour in the center of the whisk and so, of course I had to take over and Mia of course informed me that if I had just told her she would have taken care of the flour.

Mia – “Can I finish stirring it now?”
Me – “Well, I changed some of the portions of the ingredients and I need to feel the batter to see if the consistency is exactly right.”
Mia – “Oh.  But I’m a really good stirrer Mom.”
Me – “Yes you are, but I really need to do this part.”
Mia – “Well, can I put the batter on top?”
Me – “No, honey, that is the most important part.  I have to make sure it is done just right.  If I don’t the juice will seep out and come up over the batter and the batter will have a hard time rising and then it might get soggy.  So I better just do it.  Here, finish stirring it and then I’ll put the batter on.”
Mia – “Mama you just gotta trust God and hand over the spoon!”

Dead silence.  In that moment my God reached deep into my heart and showed me how wrong my attitude was.  I was letting my pride in “my dish” and my need to always be in control take over a precious moment with my child; a moment that had the potential to be a moment filled sharing God’s grace and love with my own daughter as she realized perfection is not necessary to be loved.  I was denying God his rightful place in our home and lives.   How self-centered?  How sinful?  So what did I do?

Me – “You are absolutely right. Here’s the spoon.  You can do it.”
Mia – *Eyes sparkling* “ALLRIGHT!!”

I turned away, got a baking sheet to put the dish on in the oven, wiped the tears from my eyes, washed a few dishes at the sink and didn’t turn around again until she said, “I’m finished Mom.  Look how good I did.  It wasn’t so hard.  I told you, you just had to trust God.”  And there sat that pie with holes in the batter, juice on the top and my precious baby girl grinning from ear to ear.  I grabbed that pie up, plopped it on the baking sheet, tossed it in the oven, grabbed my girl up and told her she was fabulous and had done a remarkable job on that batter.  We ate that pie, soggy crust and all 30 minutes later and it was the best one ever!

“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. . . “ Psalm 40:4(NIV)

So who’s holding your spoon today?

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Hope for Things to Come.

09 Nov 2008 by sypace

This past weekend was a wake-up call for me.  I have not been where I should be in my walk with God.  It is a sad, but true fact that a situation in my life has become, as Beth Moore says, “a stronghold” for me.  There is a situation in my life that has consumed many hours of my thoughts, baffled my heart, hurt my feelings and often crushed my spirit.  I have let that situation cause me to be more focused on earthly problems and my own desire to “fix it,” that my focus on my Lord has fallen to the side.  Carol spoke on Saturday and she focused on a passage from Titus.  She chose to present Titus 3: 3 – 7 “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

These verses hit me right to the core.  The pull to sin and keep sinning is extremely powerful and strong for peopld.  Satan has so many tools at his disposal to tempt us with and we so easily become enslaved to those things.  We let that ache for a relationship with God be filled with earthly things rather that God.

Then last night as I came home and was smacked in the face (and heart) with this situation I did the only thing I knew how to do.  I talked to my God.  I told Him I couldn’t handle this alone, it just hurt too much.  I didn’t want to talk to anyone else about it, I just needed my Daddy.  I felt so much better just knowing that God was present with me and felt my pain too.  I got up and reached for my Bible, needing the comfort of His word.  Everywhere I turned last night what I read was the command to love and to endure.  God, in his infinite wisdom, showed me that right now all I can do is to love and to just keep on loving and not quit the race.

This morning as I got up, I decided it was time to do what I blogged about yesterday and start the transformation (again today).  The place I needed to go was back to the Word.  I took my Bible and went downstairs and asked God where should I read today?  I heard Philemon.  In Philemon, Paul is writing a letter to Philemon concerning Onesimus.  Onesimus was Philemon’s slave who had run away, but had become a Christian under Paul’s teachings.  Paul is asking Philemon to accept Onesimus back as a brother in Christ.  The verses that hit me the hardest were 1:15 – 16 “Perhaps you could think of it this way:  Onesimus ran away for a little while so you could have him back forever.  His is no longer just a slave:  he is a beloved brother, especially to me.  Now he will mean much more to you, both as a slave and as a brother in the Lord.”  Now as strange as this may sound, these verses gave me so much joy this morning.  I thought about the situation I am dealing with and about my own life choices in the past and then I thought about how these verses are so true for all of us.  Don’t you think our Lord feels the pain of our lose when we walk away?  How often do we walk away (or run) from Him and His commands for our lives.  How often do we hurt His heart with our disobedience.  How often do we cause Him to shake His head with disappointment.  I know I do on a daily basis.  It is the nature of humankind to sin and it is so damaging.  What then must the joy be like for God, when we turn from our sin and say “You are worth it.  You are the love of my life and only you can fulfill my hearts desires.”  What must the rejoicing in Heaven be like when one of us turns from our sins and chooses to follow Him.  I got to the end of Philemon and the last verse states: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”  and my heart felt such peace.  God is in control.  He is an all-powerful God.  Only He can give us the grace that we so need as we continually turn from Him and then must re-turn to Him.

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