Perfect Timing

I have been checking my Facebook almost every hour since yesterday at about 3:30.  No, I am not an addict or have some big contest I am hoping to win, I jumped into something I am pretty nervous about and I am waiting for the response.  It is something I feel totally led by God to do and has come about due to a number of factors.

Factor 1. (In no particular order) We have a fabulous church we attend with some great women's Bible studies led by awesome and wise women.  However, one of those studies didn't come back this year so everyone swarmed to another, leaving it quite large.  Long story short, some people were uncomfortable with the size and didn't feel like they enjoyed the study as much as they could have.

Factor 2. I read an awesome book (that I have mentioned a few times during my studies) a year ago that revolutionized the way I do my quiet times and study the Bible and have always wanted to share it with others.

Factor 3.  People kept telling me how they missed having another study and how they wished the current study could be a smaller size.

Factor 4.  God kept shoving the book in my face and the idea in my head.

Factor 5.  A good friend finally give me the encouragement I needed to quit ignoring God and follow what I think He has been trying to tell me.

Outcome:  I have started a new women's Bible study at my church.  Ahh!  I am a little frightened and overwhelmed and feel totally unqualified.  I don't plan on doing much "leading" for the study.  Just trying to get a bunch of women together to read and discuss the book and what we are learning.  I just set up the room at the church, let people know about it and will be ordering the books.  I consider myself the facilitator, not leader.  I am totally scared that I have gotten all excited about this, spread the word and will have no one show up, thus leaving me feel a bit worthless.  I pray that since God seems to be leading me in this venture He will provide the women for me to study with.

God's perfect timing:  Check out my reading for the day and see why God had me smiling from ear to ear.  1 Corinthians 2:1-5:  "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

All I have to say to that is "Thank You!"  it is exactly what I needed to hear.  God. Is. Good.

Filling in the Holes

And He did it again.  So, last post, I had a really hard time gleaning something out of my selected passage for the day.  I read over and over and in many different versions and didn't come away with anything awe-inspiring, but a good reminder nonetheless.

I read on today and think, "Why didn't I just keep reading last time?  This makes it make a bit more sense."  But, had I just read on, I would have just skipped over the passage before and focused on the one that made sense to me.  Now, this next passage helps clarify the passage before, but then I wouldn't have thought and searched so hard, either, which is always a good lesson in itself.

Anyway, on to today's meaningful and much easier section of scripture.  1 Corinthians 1:26 asks what we were before God called us to be Christians.  Nothing, really.  We weren't wise, influential or of noble birth.  God chooses the weak to shame the strong, the things that are not to nullify the things that are. 

We are all full of holes.  As a popular Christian song says, "There's a God-shaped hole in all of us, and its a void only He can fill."  (I won't mention that the first few times I heard this song, I thought she was singing something about a bicycle....how Bi-Cyc-Le and God-Shaped-Hole sound alike I will never know.)  Back to the point.  If we had all of our 'poop in a group' so to say before we had God in our lives, it would have been way too easy to take all of the credit for ourselves.

Heaven knows I am far from having all my ducks in the same pond, let alone in a nice little row, so all the credit for anything I do worthwhile is always due to God.  Verse 30 says "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God- that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption."  The thing I need to remember is to do a better job of voicing that credit to Him more than just inside my head. 

Sure, I offer up a "Thank you, Lord, for pulling that off" to Him after something goes right.  But if I am offered a compliment on it, how often do I just say, "Thank you." and forget to add in the, "It was totally a God thing." part of it?  Guess I'll add another thing to my, "Need to work on that" list.


Father, I am so glad that you can use me, even though I am full of flaws and holes and total imperfections.  Thank you for accepting me the way that I am and filling in the gaps that only you can completely fill.  Help me do a better job of thanking you for how you work through me and passing that thanks on to others, rather than just taking all the credit myself.  Keep using me however you can, Lord, and help me look for ways to serve you.

Foolishness and Wisdom

After today's passage I am sitting here scratching my head.  Thank the Lord for whoever translated the Bible into The Message version on days like these.

I read 1 Corinthians 1:20-25 today and was totally lost in all the 'foolishness and wisdom' everywhere.  It left me feeling like the fool.  I read it three times in NIV, once in NASB and NLT and finally gave in and went to Biblegateway.com to check out the Message since I don't own that version.  Heck I should have it memorized by now.  NLT put it fairly simple and it became a bit more clear, but the Message actually made me laugh out loud.  It actually used the word 'crackpot'!  Ha!  I think that is hilarious!

Anyway, beyond my density for the reading today I gain the fact that God's wisdom is the best and we really don't have to be all that smart .  Yep, deep.   All that reading and that is what I come away with.  Sorry for the disappointment if you were looking for something impressive. 

I love how the Message puts this, "Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation."

It closes up with this, "But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness."

Love it.  Simple.  True.  Can't add much to that.

God, thank you for your wisdom and strength of which I cannot comprehend.  Help me to remember where to go when I start to think worldly and try to follow the 'wisdom' that is around me.  Thank you for many versions of your Word to help me understand a bit more clearly, but help me remember it is time with you that benefits me the most.  Help me spread your wisdom to those around me, not by trying to be wise, but by sharing your Truth and love with them.

Division

Disclaimer: The following post is very opinionated, but this is my blog so I can do that. :) Just thought you might want to be warned before you read on.

I always liked math in school.  I was fairly decent at it.  Division included.  But division in the church is not something that is necessary, helpful or positive at all.  (Hows that for a quirky intro!?!?  :)


Here in 1 Corinthians, Paul is appealing to his brothers about being united.  I must admit I scoffed a bit (in my head anyway) when I read he wants them to always agree with one another and that they be perfectly united in mind and thought.  Seriously?  Is that possible?

Well, if it is in the Bible it has to be true.  However, I do believe that Paul is talking here on being united perfectly in their belief of Christ and not every action in their entire lives.  So, yes, it should be possible. 

We see this too often in our churches today, and I think I have touched on the topic before.  So many different churches exist today within the Christian faith.  So much importance is put on whether you are a Catholic or Lutheran or Baptist or Methodist.  I attend a non-denominational church so it is easy for me just to say that I am a Christian.  Plain and simple.  That is all there is to it.  Just like Paul is saying here, too many people are saying "I follow Martin Luther", or "I follow John Wesley."  This divides the house of God.  I am not implying that if you are a Lutheran or Methodist that you are not a Christian, but we need to be careful in what the key part is of our faith.  Our church or our Lord?

I don't quite get why we have to add in all the rigmarole that exists within many churches today.  The Bible.   That is it.  It is the ONE tool God provided us.  No catechism, no extra gospels, no specific written prayers outside of it, no other materials that were God-breathed.  I fully believe that the Bible is the only needed tool for following Christ.  Read it.  Know it. Believe it.  Live it. 

I am not saying other resources aren't useful in helping us grow, giving us inspiration or helping us understand something a little more clearly, but it all comes back to the Bible.  It needs to be the one thing we all agree on. 

And the central message of this, our Bible, cannot be divided, multiplied, added to or subtracted from.  No math going on here.  Christ was born the Son of God, lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay the blood sacrifice for our sins, and rose on the 3rd day to live forever with His Father in Heaven. 

I follow Christ.  How about you?

Lord, you are all I need.  I thank you so much for the useful tool you gave us in your Word.  I am so glad I can sit with you whenever I want to hear your voice and glean your wisdom.  Help me keep that my main focus. Help me to not get caught up in other antics and fanfare.  I follow you.

Inspiration

This is one of my favorite quotes that isn't out of the Bible.

It says a lot about how we should live for God and like Him.  This wasn't my quiet time today, but something I wanted to share just the same.

Blameless

I looked up blameless in the dictionary.  Dictionary.com that is anyway.  It said "free from or not deserving blame; guiltless" and it said blame meant "to hold responsible; find fault with".

1 Corinthians (my book of choice for my quiet times) 1:8 says, "He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Doesn't blameless sound nice?  It would be so fantastic to go throughout your day completely blameless for everything that occurs.  Dropped and broke a dish?  Don't worry. You are free from responsibility for that.  Didn't get the dishes done because you were busy doing your nails?  No problem, guiltless.  Ahh, sweet freedom from any responsibility for anything at all.  Wouldn't it be lovely?

It would also be disastrous.  If no one was held accountable for what was going on with anything, life would be horrendous.  But the sweet thought of getting away with a few mindless actions or some days of laziness without any guilt does sound a bit nice.

Now that I have gone around in a circle and probably left you thoroughly confused, I get to my point.

Sure, we have to take responsibility for the things we do.  We have to pick up our mess, fix it or get it done the right way and say, "I'm sorry."  But that is where it ends.  Isn't that great?  No "take backs", no rubbing it in your face at a later date, no "I owe yous".  Done.  Finished.  Forgotten.

We will be found blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If we have faith and stay strong through Him, all is well.  We will approach Him on the day of Glory completely guilt free.  No reason for worry or fear, just anxiousness to "look full in His wonderful face".  Oh, the day.  Won't it be magnificent!

Father, I thank you that I can be made clean through you.  You know all my flaws.  You know all the stupid things I screw up, fix and don't tell anyone else ever even happened, yet you find me blameless.  You are the definition of grace and my thoughts, words and deeds could never express the amount of love and thanks you are deserved for this.  My heart overflows.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

I can't really remember a time I sat down and wrote down a list of 'resolutions' for the upcoming year.

I am pretty goal oriented, but I am far from organized and sometimes take quite a while to fully finish a project.  I am the type of person that starts a fun project, gets bored half way through and eventually puts it in the trash, deals with it partially done or finishes it quickly and half-hearted.

I wish I was more organized and determined, but I am not.  I am a fly-by-the-seat-for-your-pants type of gal, a free spirit.  Making lists ties me down and typically sets me up for failure as I never complete everything on the list.

But, I have realized something recently.  When I don't have a list, I don't have anything to check off the things I have accomplished and done well.  I don't have any record of the fact that I did set out to do something and actually finished it. 

So, here is to 2012.  I am going to do what organized people do at the beginning of every year and make a list.  I am going to make it with 2 things in mind:  1) I am going to try my darnedest to accomplish every single item I write on my list by the end of 2012 and 2) I will not get discouraged if it doesn't happen, but be pleased with being able to finish at least some of them.

With that in mind, here is what I hope to accomplish and ways I hope to grow in 2012:

1.  Spend more time in prayer.  I am a 'hail mary' type of prayer most of the time.  I get in a sticky situation and send up a "Please help me, Lord" prayer, or have something great happen and shout out a quick, "Thanks, God, you're awesome."  I start each of my quiet times with prayer, but I want more purposeful prayer time in my day.  I want to spend time praying for specific people, things and guidance from the Lord.  My goal is to have 3 good prayer times per day.  One in the morning, one at my quiet time and one at night.  (Not setting specific times, as you can see, because this would be too binding for me :)

2. Have at least 4 quiet times per week.  Yes, I know this goal should really be 7, but I have young children, run a part-time, in-home daycare and sometimes it just doesn't happen.  I don't want to set myself up for failure here, people.  Four significant, sit-down, have-time-with-just-me-and-God times per week is what I know I can purpose to accomplish.

3.  Do at least 5 devotions with my kids per week.  We pray with them every night, we talk about God and Jesus every day in our house, but we haven't done too much to further their relationships and learning other than talking about what they learned in Sunday School and doing their AWANAs lessons.  This isn't enough in my mind, so I have ordered a book I hope will help us spur more conversations with them about loving Jesus.

4.  Memorize one Scripture passage per month.  Yes, again a small goal, but doable and if I manage to do more than this I will just be more pleased with myself!

5.  Purpose to ask my husband what I can do for him that day at least twice a week.  His two main love languages are physical touch and acts of service.  Just a way I can make sure I am keeping him feeling loved and honored.

6.  Keep my closets organized.  I have spent some time organizing my main closets the last few weeks and I want to make sure they stay that way.

7.  Spend less time on the computer.  I use it as my connection to the outside world and a source of communication with grown-ups when I am alone in a house with toddlers and preschoolers all day, but I have taken this too far and spend more time on it than with those toddlers some days and I really need to fix that. 

8.  Run the Lincoln Half Marathon in less time than I did last year.  My ultimate goal would be 2 hours, but that is setting the bar pretty high.  I am hoping for 2:05.

9.  Read this list at least once a month to remind myself of what I need to be doing to stay on track to accomplish my goals.  Also, post a blog update on how I am doing.  Accountability helps!

And with that, I sign off - I have kids to go color with!