I am set on a rock!

I am set on a Rock

Psalms 40:2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. he put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Amen

I have visited several beaches along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Each one is unique and beautiful in its own way.

Most recently we visited the Gulf Coast in Florida. There the sand is powdery white, very fine in texture. The water is the most amazing shade of teal I have ever seen. The gentle waves lapped the shoreline and we were able to wade out several yards before it became too deep.

On the Atlantic coast of Florida, the sand is coarse, made up of the pulverized shells of long forgotten mollusks.. It certainly made a great abrasive for smoothing the skin of my ankles as I waded in the surf.

As a child, my family went to Wildwood New Jersey every year until I was ten. There the sand was a light eggshell color and fine in texture, similar to the Gulf Coast sand. The long, flat beach stretched for miles in either direction, but the water had more of a dirty green hue and was rarely above 60 degrees in June when we swam there. Occasionally a low, flat rock protruded from the surface of the sand, worn smooth by the pounding surf.

During my Bible College days, I visited the beaches in Rhode Island and Maine. What a sharp contrast to the beaches of Florida, stretching for miles, level with the water's edge. Here the surf smashes against cliffs, wearing the edges smooth. In some places the rock formations are riddled with holes from the tidal barrage. There is a lot less sand along the northern beaches - and the sand that is there is pebbly, bits of crushed rock worn smooth from eons of tumbling waves.

I think of this New England beach picture when I read Psalm 40:2 - walking out on an outcropping of rock and watching the surf smash at its base . Even though the water has smoothed the rocks below with its incessant pounding, it is still strong, secure, a sure foothold.

The Lord has given me a firm place to stand while watching the waves of life roar around me. He will endure over time, in spite of the barrage of sin, of sorrow and death. He is the only sure thing in my life and I can feel His resolute strength under my feet. Above the crashing of the waves, I can hear and sing a new song of trust. I don't have to worry or fear anymore because my God is strong - a rock, a firm foundation!

Praise Him!

I am the head, not the tail!

Deuteronomy 28:13-14 "The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them."

There's an old Pennsylvania Dutch saying: "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."

Some days I realize just how true that old adage is. I have so many things to do, I just never seem to get caught up. I feel like I'm at the tail end of the line all day long. And when I look back over my life at the end of the day, I wonder just what I accomplished?

Those are the days I need to look at my priorities. Am I a head - really putting God first in all my "busyness" or am I a tail - engaging in things that are unnecessary in God's grand scheme of things?

According to today's verse - there are conditions to becoming the "head and not the tail." Moses instructed Israel to pay attention to God's commands and carefully follow them.

So what are these commands of God that we are to pay attention to and follow? Moses reminded the Israelites of God's commands in chapters 12 through 26 - covering everything from their worship to daily food preparation, to how to treat others. These instructions were an expansion of the basic ten commandments God originally gave him on Mt. Sinai.

In the New Testament, Jesus boiled down those 10 commandments to two - You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

The common thread through all these references to God's commands is that of relationships. How we treat God, others and ourselves is the most important thing to Him.

If I measure my daily activity against Jesus' yardstick, I begin to see that the things I do are only important if they nurture relationships between myself and God or myself and others. Also, they must nurture my own spiritual growth.

Ok - I'm not advocating that we women go on strike and refuse to clean house! But perhaps we need to consider our motives for all the mundane tasks we do. As Christian women, if our motive cleaning furiously is so we can become puffed up by our spotless house, we run the risk of being the "tail."

Consider the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus chided Martha because she was so worried about propriety and duty that she missed a deeper relationship with Him.

Mary on the other hand loved Him so much she was willing to risk her sister's ire to sit at His feet and bask in His presence. Mary definitely got the "head" position.

But I wonder - if Martha's attitude had leaned more toward offering the best food and a restful environment for Jesus because she knew that His teaching, healing and ministry activities tired Him out -would His response have been different? Perhaps He would have had a word of praise for her because of her loving service to Him?

When I feel overwhelmed by my busyness, I wonder how much of my activity is motivated by a need to control, to feel needed or to avoid something else?

If these attitudes drive me, I lose my joy in serving. It becomes a burden rather than a joy to do my tasks. Things take longer to accomplish and I feel disgruntled in the process, often missing opportunities that would bring me even greater joy - just because I'm using up my emotional energy on bitterness and self pity. I will always be "behinder" when my attitudes are off kilter.

Father, examine my heart today. Give me eyes to see my activities as You see them. Teach me to make changes in my attitudes and motives so I do them because of love for You, for others and for myself. Help me come out on top at the end of my day, both spiritually and in all other areas! Amen!
Bonnie

I am empowered with inner strength!

Ephesians 3:16-18 (New Living Translation)
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.


Which chicken wing is healthier for you?

A. Don Pablo's Buffalo Chicken Wings
- or -
B. KFC's Boneless Fiery Buffalo Wings?

Hmmmm. Ok - I'll bite! Which one?

According to the nutrition experts at Spark People in their daily Food Showdown e-mails, an order of KFC Boneless Fiery Buffalo Wings is the healthier choice. One little wing has 87 calories and 4 grams of fat so the whole order of 6 pieces would have 520 calories and 25 grams of fat.

Don Pablo's wings on the other hand have 129 calories and over 8 grams of fat EACH! That's 1036 calories for an 8 piece order and 78 grams of fat. Wow! That's over half of my daily allotment of calories if I want to continue losing weight!

I've been counting calories and measuring portions for over a year now and have learned how to make healthier choices both at home and in the restaurant. So far it has paid off with a weight loss of over 57 pounds! I'm learning which foods are full of empty calories and which ones contain nutrients that will strengthen my body from the inside out.

Coupled with making healthier food choices, I'm exercising more which helps to tone muscles and improve strength. But the increased activity and healthier eating habits have also paid off in other ways - I am feeling more content - I feel less depressed and anxious than I felt a year ago. Plus I'm enjoying life more.

Just like these healthy lifestyle changes have strengthened me physically, mentally and emotionally, there are changes I must make in my spiritual life to become strong and healthy.

1. I must choose to put my relationship with Jesus first on my list of spiritual priorities.

As a child I learned the way to happiness was to follow the anagram J-O-Y (Jesus-Others-You). But as an adult, I am realizing there are times that doesn't work.

As a Super-mom, I used to think I had to do things for everyone else first and if there was any energy left, I could look to my own needs. You know - "Never say no." My needs weren't important. Consequently, there was rarely time for my own spiritual nourishment. I grew weaker and weaker spiritually until I burned out.

God finally got through to me. I need to keep my relationship with Him open and functional at all times. When I keep that vertical channel open and clear, I am happier, easier to get along with and more productive for Him. Rather than putting my spiritual needs last as I had been doing, I must put them as top priority so all other areas of my spiritual life are healthy and strong. Then I can and want to do more for others.

2. I must eat a healthy "meal" from His Word daily.

I'm active in children's ministry so I'm not in adult church on a Sunday morning. It strikes me as funny when people say, "I can't teach Sunday School or Children's Church because I need to be fed."

Those poor souls! My best meal of the week is seeing the hearts of children open up to Jesus and blossom under His care! As an adult, I am perfectly capable of opening God's Word and reading His truths for myself. I know how to pray and listen for His voice. When I do those things daily, I am strong and ready to minister to others whenever the opportunity arises. I am healthy, not so weak and sickly that I need to be spoon fed each Sunday!

True, there are times when I need the spiritual strength and support of others. We all go through trials which weaken us for a time. That's when I need to call on those around me who are spiritually strong. I can lean into their strength until my own strength is restored.

3. I must exercise my spiritual muscles daily.

Without exercise, the physical body grows weak and flabby. The same with our spirits. If we are not running with endurance the race He sets before us; if we're not putting on our spiritual armor daily to meet the challenges of the day; we will ultimately lose our ability to make it as Christians in this world.

Things are changing - getting more difficult as the days pass. Will we be strong and healthy spiritually, ready for the battles that lay ahead? The answer is "Yes!" - When we learn to make healthy spiritual choices and become empowered by His strength from the inside out.

I Am Still

I am still

Psalms 46:10-11" Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (NIV)

"No more laughing, no more fun; Quaker meeting has begun!"

With those words, my young cousins and I pasted deadpan expressions on our faces. Lips clamped tightly shut as we silently vowed not to utter a word or crack a smile. The object of the game was to see who could keep still the longest.

I'm not sure where the game originated. We played it often as we sat on the back porch of my Mennonite Grandmother's home on a Sunday afternoon while our parents visited in the parlor. Because Sunday was a day of rest, we weren't permitted to play active outdoor games like tag or hide and seek. Instead, we contented ourselves with board games like Chinese Checkers and quiet indoor contests.

Inevitably, our Quaker meeting game only lasted a moment or two as the giggles attacked. We usually ended up laughing so hard, one of the adults would cast a frown in our direction to remind us to be quiet on the Lord's Day.

Being still was difficult for me as a child and that never changed as I grew into an adult. Each time God spoke the words to my heart, "Be still and know I am God," I would paste a reverent expression on my face and quiet my heart.

But just like our childhood game, the stillness didn't last as my mind began to whirl with worries. "Will God really do what I've asked Him?" "What should I do about this situation?" I conjured up a thousand reasons why I ought to step in and try to solve the problem myself because I lacked trust in the sovereignty of my heavenly Father.

It was easier to do things myself rather than to sit idly by and wait on Him. This attitude of controlling busyness originated from my inner fear that somehow I wasn't good enough for God to guide, protect or provide for me.

I wish I could point to a specific instance where God finally broke through and taught me to be still, but the truth is, I'm still working on the issue of being still before Him and trusting Him fully.

Whenever I feel the old controlling mechanisms kick in, I have to consciously stop what I'm doing and manually work at changing the way I react. I try to lay the situation out before God and ask for His help so I can wait patiently before Him for the answer.

Sometimes I have to do it several times a day because my heart wants to revert right back to worry mode. During those times, I do what I know to do - I place scriptures in plain sight and stop to focus on Him and His words frequently. I pray a lot - exposing my willful desire to solve the problem in my own feeble strength. Then I make a conscious effort to still my mind and focus on Him so I can hear what He is saying with His still small voice.

My cousins and I couldn't "be still" for very long as we played our childhood Quaker Meeting game. But with His help, today I am learning to quiet the anxieties of my heart and to be still in His presence.

Father God, I know I'm not alone in this. So many around me are suffering from anxieties and worry born of the inability to trust You fully. Help us to work each day to focus our eyes and hearts on You - to relinquish our need to control our lives. Help us to learn to be still and KNOW You are God, our strength and fortress. Amen.

I am a treasure!

Today: I am a treasure

Deuteronomy 26:16-18 "The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is you God and that you will walk in His ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands, and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possessions as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure." ~ author unknown

My daughter, sister-in-law and I spent Memorial Day cleaning my mother-in-law's front porch. Ugh - what a dusty job as we sneezed our way through piles of old cardboard boxes containing fabric, craft supplies and yarn.

My first inclination was to cart the filthy cardboard boxes and their contents to my house where I could toss them in the dumpster without offending Mom. But as we began pawing through them, I discovered many real treasures! One box contained pre-cut quilt squares, just waiting to be stitched together. We also found a few already stitched into pretty pillow tops that just needed stuffing. Of course, they needed to be washed to get rid of the slight musty smell, but someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cut and sew them all. I can always use new throw pillows - or perhaps sell the squares at a yard sale.

Another box held pre-printed fabric panels with designs perfect for making baby quilts for gifts. Again, they had a slight musty smell from being packed away for so long, but the box had protected them from dust and unwanted critters. As I examined them, I refolded the panels and laid them aside, trying to figure out where I could store them. As a pastor's wife, there are always new babies being born to church members and I like to give them gifts.

On and on the afternoon went as we found boxes of stuff - from whole skeins of yarn to small balled up remnants, rolls of quilt batting and even several unfinished quilt tops that were pinned together with batting, ready to be stitched. Cammie found one she loved and asked me to please finish and launder it for her bed.

We never did get to the cupboard that held lengths of quilt fabric and the boxes under the game shelf. That's a job for July 4th when we gather there again! But the point is that the boxes we did manage to sort through held things that were treasures to Mom. As her arthritis became worse, more items were moved to the enclosed porch because she needed the room for her motorized wheelchair, hospital bed and clothes downstairs. She asked us to sort through them hoping her treasures would be passed down to people who would also value them.

While we can't and won't keep everything for lack of storage space, many of her treasures will be valued and used up eventually - not just thrown in the dumpster.
God created man in His image, originally intending him to maintain the earth; to please and enjoy His presence as well as the world He created forever. Sin separated man from God. Much like Mom's treasures which were boxed up and moved to the front porch, sin caused man's heart to become dirty and unusable.

But God isn't content to let His treasures disintegrate with age or disuse. He constantly goes through the dirty, dusty, musty piles of refuse, looking for His treasures so He can wash them and restore them to places of use and honor in His kingdom. He turns the musty, cut up fabric of our lives into beautiful quilts and then uses them to wrap others in His warmth.

How often Satan's trash becomes God's treasure! Consider a person, like the woman taken in the act of adultery. Those around her wanted to trash her life - to stone her because of her sin. But Jesus forgave her and restored her sense of value and worth.

Without His restorative power in our lives, where would we have ended up eternally? Because we have been redeemed, we are privileged to share that trash to treasure story with others. The challenge is before us. Let's get to work!

I am valuable!

TODAY: I am Valuable

Matthew 6:25-26 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?"

"Oh look! There's a yard sale sign. Pull over quick!"

My husband tells me the car won't stop at yard sales, but when I'm driving - it does. LOL!

I'm not sure why I enjoy pawing through other people's cast offs, except that maybe I'm hoping to find just the right "treasure" - that one thing I really need and can't live without at a real bargain price.

Over the years I have found some neat treasures too - all kinds of bargain children's clothes to help clothe my 7 grand kids; toys to keep at my house for when they come to visit; furniture to overhaul so I can change my home decor, kitchen gadgets and so on. These things were useless items to their owners, but now occupy places of honor in my home.

At least they do until I need to clean house or pack up the moving van! Then they go out the door into my own yard sale and bring in a few extra, much-needed dollars to purchase something else.

The point is, the things others think of as expendable trash have become useful and enjoyable to me. Sometimes they need a little TLC, but they are treasures nevertheless.

Think for a moment of where you were before Christ found you. What kind of crisis were you going through at the time? What hardships or trials drew you to Him? Did you feel like a heap of trash - with no value to anyone?

According to one Christian psychologist, 99% of people who seek Christ are in a crisis situation at the time they call out to Him. Many feel worthless and hopeless. Only 1 % of Christians can actually say they "grew" into the family of God. That's a staggering statistic!

God saw us among the enemy's trash and bought us back, took us home, and put us to use in His Kingdom. Yay! He fixes us up, repairs the broken parts of our lives and loves us because He sees value in us - He sees what we CAN be.

True, even after He works on us we may bear scars of sin or of our poor choices down here on this earth, but He finds ways to bring beauty and wonderful things from those scars. They become our personal experience evidence of Christ's love and care in our lives. As we share those experiences with the hurting around us, they too allow Him to rescue them from the "trash." What a beautiful trash to treasure story!

As one Christian bumper sticker put it:

"I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk!"
Our value isn't determined by our perfection, but rather by His grace.

Thank You Lord!

Don't be afraid to share your story just because of your scars or imperfections. The hurting around us need to see those things to know He can minister to them too, right now, right where they're at. Just as He still bears the scars from the cross, He values the scars that remain from our hurts and mistakes. He redeems them by using them to touch the lives of others. We are VALUABLE to Him.

I am Heard!

Today: I am heard

Psalm 69:33 (Amplified Bible)

For the Lord Jehovah Shama (Shaw-Mah') hears the poor and needy and despises not His prisoners (His miserable and wounded ones).

Have you ever been talking to someone and realized they weren't listening to you? Maybe their eyes darted back and forth watching everything else going on in the room. Maybe they were zoning out, planning what they could say next. Whatever they were doing, you knew they hadn't really heard a word you were saying.

Moms tend to do this too with their kids. Johnny will come home from school and be so excited he will burst if he can't chatter a hundred miles per minute about his day. Meanwhile Mom stands at the stove trying to concentrate so she doesn't burn dinner.

Or have you ever noticed how the kids seem to need your undivided attention when you're on the phone? All day long they played just fine in the other room out of your sight, but when the phone rings, they're right there needing your listening ears?

We all need to know that the people we talk to are listening to us. Being heard helps us feel validated, like we are important, not merely afterthoughts or nuisances.

With people, we can tell they are really hearing us by their nonverbal cues like how they stand before us with an open, accepting posture. They will not cross their arms or legs and will lean slightly forward toward us or lean their head toward us. Making direct eye contact is another way to let us know they hear us.

A good listener gives verbal clues too - like repeating back what they heard us say. They will nod and say "yes," "That's right," or "Uh-huh." They will also respond appropriately when we pose a question or pause for a response.

So if we rely so heavily on verbal and visual clues to know we've been heard by a person a we talk to them, how do we know an unseen, formless God hears us?

In Psalm 69:33, the Hebrew name for God - Jehovah Shama - is used. The name means "I Am the One who hears you (listens to you). By His very nature God is a Listener. Knowing He cannot lie, especially when speaking of Himself, we know He listens when we call.

We know He listens because of the scriptural examples He gives us. I'm thinking of the story of Hagar. Twice she encountered the God who sees and hears. She named her son Ishmael which means "God has heard" based on her experience with Him in Genesis 16.

We also know we are heard by our own past experiences with God. At times He answered our prayers instantaneously. Other times, He gave us assurances that the answer was on the way - like a "hug" through a scripture, a friend who knew exactly what we needed or maybe even a physical sensation of being held and comforted in response to a prayer we prayed or a need we expressed.

Still, during my 34 years in ministry, I've heard so many people say, "I feel like my prayers aren't going any higher than the ceiling. God's not listening to me." The problem isn't that God has failed to listen to us. It's that they don't FEEL heard or validated. And because they don't feel Him, He must not be listening. So they pull back from Him and begin to wallow in their feelings of low self worth.

In other words, they begin to listen to the lies that they have believed most of their life. "I must not be good enough for God to answer me." "What have I done wrong to make God hate me?" They begin to turn their eyes inward, rather than upward and miss the little hugs and reassurances God sends along the way.

In counseling with these women, I usually try to encourage them to work at drawing closer to the Lord, rather than worrying about the answers to prayer. As they begin to focus on Him, they can see the little signs all around them that encourage and fortify their hearts.
"God really does listen to me," they say with an incredulous smile as they relate the littlest details where they see His hand at work.

We know we are heard when we turn our eyes on Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. The things of this earth really do grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!