Cody and Rebekah’s Wedding Day 9/10/11

What an amazing day we had on Wedding Day! Everything was so beautiful and things went so smoothly.   That morning I had prayed for God’s grace to make it through and to enjoy every second of the day.  I know that others were praying for me, too, and I am so thankful.  He answered our prayers so amazingly…I never cried, not even once!

In keeping with tradition, the bride and groom did not see each other all day on Saturday.   As the wedding party stood waiting to go down the aisle, Rebekah appeared behind us and we told Cody “don’t look, she is behind you!” 
 

 After all of the attendants had made it to the front, we all stood as the wedding march began.  As soon as Cody spotted his beautiful bride coming down the aisle, he could not hold back the tears.  His lip started quivering and he was wiping his eyes.  I was watching him watch her and it was so precious.    

Rebekah, my new daughter, had requested that I write them a song for their special day.  The Lord helped me to do that and gave me the voice to sing it to them during the Unity Candle lighting.  It was such a precious moment.  Rebekah was looking at me trying to listen to the words (they had not heard the song until that day) but Cody couldn’t take his eyes off of his bride.  She was breathtaking, that is for sure.    

At the reception, as we all watched them dance their first dance, everyone could see that they only had eyes for each other.  It was so sweet and heart warming to see the incredible love in their eyes.  You just cannot describe the you that is felt knowing that your child is so very happy and so very loved.  

I’m so thankful for God’s grace, His wonderful unmerited favor shown to us every day.  I know that we have not done anything special for God to have blessed us with our two gorgeous, amazing children, but now to show favor on us by adding Rebekah to our family is just beyond words.  Sometimes I forget how truly blessed we are. 

This World is NOT My Home!

Read Luke 12:16-32  

“This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” Don’t you just love that song?  Those words are so profound, especially now, in this world, where things are so shaky and uncertain.  People are worried about the government, Social Security, jobs, crops, the drought, fires, the prices of everything…I could keep going.  But Jesus said in Luke 12:24 “Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds!”  God loves us and He takes care of His children.

The key to being content among the uncertainty of this life is to “seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.” (Verse 31)  I encourage you to draw near to God and stand firm on His word now and always. 

This world is NOT all there is.  We really aren’t supposed to feel at home here, anyway!  I think when we start getting too comfortable in our “guest houses” here, God heats things up a bit (literally and figuratively) to remind us to seek His face and look toward going home where we belong…with Him- in Paradise…where it is beautiful and the weather is PERFECT!      

“The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” 

The Heart of a Servant

Mark 9:35 NIV Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

In our society, it’s all about being first. It’s all about who makes the most money, who wins the most trophies/medals, who has the “title”…but our society doesn’t understand our Jesus. As Christians or “little Christs” we are supposed to be striving to be more like Him each and every day…and He had the heart of a servant.

When Jesus came to this earth to live as a man, He never wanted to be first. Even though the disciples tried to shield Him and place Him on a pedestal, He still broke away and was drawn to those that no one else wanted to be around. He touched the unclean, He talked to an adulteress, He let the little children crawl into His lap…and even though He was the SON OF GOD…all powerful and perfect in every way…He did manual labor as a carpenter until he was 30 years old.

In an extreme act of servant hood Jesus even washed His disciples’ feet. He really wanted to get the point across to them- and to us- that we should serve one another. We should never think of ourselves as “too good” to help another person. We should consider it a great honor to help someone less fortunate than we are…because that is exactly what Jesus would have done.

Do you have the heart of a servant, or do you sit back and wait to be served? If you are looking to be more like Jesus, you must become a servant.

Thinkin' Problem

Do you have a “thinkin’ problem”?  Isn’t that a depressing country song??     I saw a quote from a Facebook friend one morning that said “misery is almost always the result of thinking.”   And on another friend’s page I saw them refer to “thinking too much”, then sounding really depressed after that! 

It is so easy to get caught up in our own thoughts and start dwelling on negative things.  I’m really bad about doing that when I can’t sleep at night.  One little thought can just grow and expand until you have worried yourself into a tizzy over something that you can’t even control.  It's like one of those little toy animals that is really tiny when you put it in water and then it swells up to like 50 times it's original size!

So what is the cure to our “thinkin’ problems”??  The bible tells us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.” Phil 4:4-8

Just try it!  Focus on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy!!   If your life doesn’t seem to have any of those things, read your bible!!  Psalm 91 is a great place to start.  I guarantee that you can chase those negative thoughts away with positive ones, the bible tells us so!! 

The Rod and the Staff

Most of us have memorized Psalm 23 or at least have read it numerous times.  Sometimes I just like to recite it to myself when I need comfort.   This morning, as I was praying it over myself, something really stood out to me that never had before. (thank you Holy Spirit!)  I imagine that I have read/recited that scripture at least 100 times in my life…and have never thought about this statement…“Thy rod and thy staff, they COMFORT me.” (verse 4)
  
It really raised some questions for me, so I read some commentaries about the purpose of a rod and a staff to a shepherd.  This was taken from William Barclay in Jesus As They Saw Him:  “He [the shepherd] had his rod and his staff. The staff was a long crooked stick. Always the shepherd walked with it in his hand, and, when a sheep showed signs of straying, he would stretch out and pull it back with the crook. He carried the rod at his belt. It was a stout piece of wood, perhaps three feet long, with a lump of wood the size of an orange at one end of it. With this the shepherd fought the battles of the flock, using it to drive off wild beasts and to defend the flock against the robbers who would steal the sheep.”

Now it is so clear to me!  Jesus protects us with His ROD.  He fights off our enemies and the “robber” that tries to steal us away…satan.  He fights our battles for us.  Can’t you just picture Him with that heavy, wooden rod beating back our enemies for us, His helpless sheep?

With the STAFF He pulls us back in when we attempt to go astray.  Think of all the times in your life when you wanted to stray and something would happen to “pull” you back…closer to Him.  He watches over each of His flock and sometimes has to put that crook around our neck to get us back in line. (I'm thinking mothers should carry one of these!) 

I don’t know about you, but this brings me so much comfort.  I am His cherished sheep and He will do anything to protect me and keep me close to HIM!  Thank you Lord for fighting my battles and "crooking" my neck when I need it!!

The Meditation of my Heart

What do you meditate on in YOUR heart?   To meditate means: to contemplate things, to think them over, or to reflect.  When you are alone with your thoughts, what is running through your mind?  Are you dwelling on things from the past that you cannot change?  Are you worrying about money, your job, school, your health or your children?  Do you think about unholy and impure things?  Do you have lustful thoughts?  Where does your heart and mind go when you slow down and think? 

In David’s down time we know where his mind went.  He lusted, contemplated murder, worried…you name it, he did it.   (read about David in 1 & 2 Samuel)  But the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to convict David of his wrongdoing…and David was known as “man after God’s own heart”.  In  Psalm 19:14 David wrote “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

This should be our prayer…that every word and every thought be pleasing to God.  Where is your mind taking you…down the path to destruction or down the path to God’s heart.

You are Married to it!!!

Have you ever thought of your church membership as a covenant relationship?  When I looked up the definition of “covenant” in the dictionary, this is one of the definitions:  “a solemn agreement between the members of a church to act together in harmony with the precepts of the gospel.” Covenant as defined by the Scriptures is “a solemn and binding relationship which is meant to last a life time.”

Marriage is also considered a covenant.  It is a holy covenant between a man and a woman and their God for a lifetime.  Even though marriage has become disposable in our society, we can look at God’s perfect plan for a marriage to see what he expects of us in our church membership.

The Baptist Faith and Message describes the church in this way “the New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel.”  “In ancient times, covenant was the most solemn and binding agreement into which two parties could enter. It is tragic that this vital truth seems to have been lost in much of our modern culture, including even in the church, with devastating consequences to American families.” (taken from http://preceptaustin.org/the_covenant_of_marriage.htm)

I would hope that if your marriage was in trouble, you would do everything you could to save it.  I would think that you would fall on your face before God and pray that He would intervene and save your marriage.  I would certainly not expect you to just walk away and say, “I just don’t want to be married to him/her anymore.  I’m going to go find someone else.”

But, this is exactly what we are doing with our “marriage” that we have with our churches today.  If things don’t go our way, if someone hurts our feelings or if we don’t like certain things that are happening, we just stop going or find another church.  It is not that simple.  When you become a member of a church, you are making a covenant with God and the entire body of Christ that is there with you.  In sickness or in health, for richer or for poorer, in happy times or sad times…whether you like the preacher or not…you entered into a covenant relationship with that church and you should give it all that you have and pray for it daily.      

There are reasons that you would leave a church: if your beliefs do not line up with what that particular church is teaching or if God is leading you to minister somewhere else.  After much prayer and soul searching you could move on to another church.  But if you do move, you should enter into covenant with that body of Christ and give to it everything you would in your marriage relationship.  Loyalty, honor, respect, love, patience, kindness…everything the bible instructs us to do. 

In my lifetime, I have certainly took my church membership lightly.   I have left one church thinking the “grass was greener” at another, just like some people do in a marriage.  And I have been led by God to a church to help with the ministry there.  But guess what, just like EVERY marriage, EVERY church has it’s own set of problems.  When we make a covenant, we should be in for the long haul, unless God himself moves us into ministry somewhere else. 

I believe that if God places so much importance on the marriage covenant, how much more importance does He place on our covenant with Him and His church??  I believe that if we take either covenant lightly, we will be punished.   We must grow where we are planted and stay committed to the covenants that God has brought us into. What therefore God has joined together…let NO man separate!!!!  (Matthew 19:6)