Bible Texts

Sifting & Drifting

Posted by Caroline on Apr 18, 2012 in Amazing Grace, Bible Texts | 0 comments

Last week in class we talked about how sometimes the toughest times in life aren’t always the worst circumstances. When something tragic happens people gather around us with support, we throw up our hands in a public surrender that invites sympathy, and we run to the Lord for strength because He’s all we have.

But, sometimes hard times can be when there is one small disruption after another.  We brush off pain and annoyances with “it’s not a big deal” or “they don’t get to me” or “I can fit this in my schedule.”

We don’t realize the building wariness at first.

We keep our heads down and plow through setback after setback.  Before we know it, a red light or a long line can send us into a frenzy.

In my case today, a cracked computer screen brought me to tears that lasted longer than I want to admit.  I crumbled, and I thought of this:

In Luke, Jesus says…

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

When I’ve read this verse in the past, I’ve always thought of sifting being like Job’s loss– a hero who lost everything and still chose God.  I envisioned sifting as tragedy, death, and sickness.  After talking about what sifting can look like in class, I realized sifting doesn’t always look like visible tragedy.

Perhaps, sifting also takes place in the daily situations that perpetually don’t go our way.

Normally, a cracked computer screen wouldn’t bother me because my computer guru fiance can fix it.  But, it was the car going into the shop, the headache, running late, feeling unnoticed,  & **wedding plans** that all built up to the “final little thing.”

I know I need God when I get in a bind.
I also need God before I get in a bind.

It’s these frustrations that purify us and show us our character– whether we want to see it or not.  It’s the small things– the ordinary disturbances– that can sift us to the core.

This kind of sifting is like a slow and steady undercurrent to life.  If we’re not careful, we won’t realize we’re being carried downstream until we are far, far from home.

If we are wise, we will jump up on the bank and dig our roots deep, deep into the steadiness of our Lord.

I don’t want sifting to send me drifting. 

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Self-Made Measuring Stick

Posted by Caroline on Dec 27, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Bible Texts | 4 comments

It shook my heart when I read this verse:

The Lord is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion. Isaiah 30:18

Sometimes at the end of the day I find myself downright tired of trying, and the last thing I think is that God is awaiting the chance to say, “Stop trying.”

Do you have those days?  We sell ourselves to trying to be the perfect wife or girlfriend, daughter, sister or the most zealous employee, creative decorator, best party planner, and thoughtful friend.  We dedicate ourselves to accomplish the impossible.  Yet in the end, our 24 hours in the day didn’t stretch across the 185021 hours we tried to make them. We didn’t measure up.

The first time I read this verse I felt like the Lord was saying,

“Caroline, stop trying so hard.  I’m ready and waiting to pour out mercy!! I’m waiting for you to see that you need it!”

God doesn’t ask us to try harder; He’s asks us first to accept His grace.  Perpetual trying (and inevitably failing) is a burden that we place on ourselves that stems from the lie—“We must try to measure up.”

The problem is: measure up to what??  The measuring stick of our performance is self-made, and it certainly doesn’t come from God!

When I try so hard in my own strength, it’s because I’m trying to meet my own standards in my own strength, instead of accepting God’s mercy and compassion that says there is no other standard but grace.

Here’s the back story to this gem of a verse,

The Israelites saw themselves as weak, and by all worldy standards… they were!  Despite God’s anthem of promises to deliver from the Assyrians, the Israelites’ fear led them to make a backup plan in case God didn’t deliver.  They wedded themselves to their former oppressors—the Egyptians— in order to build a wall of protection from the Assyrians.   Yet as God always does, He was sure to remind them that any wall apart from Him will crumble.  And that’s exactly what happened.

Despite God’s promises, the Israelites were determined to fight their own battle—and God let them.  The Israelites prided themselves in their weapons and in particular–their strong horses.

Wordly strength seems so promising until the battle—the Israelites fled as soon as one enemy soldier showed up!  They were left alone in defeat.

God told told the Israelites—and He tells us— that victory is found by “returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence.”

Worldly wisdom says to trust in the strong horses, become strong enough to face grief or rejection, become perfect enough to “measure up.”
True Victory realizes we’re fighting a different enemy with the Victor on our side.

Victory is not becoming perfect, but realizing perfection isn’t the goal.
Victory is realizing that we need mercy and compassion because our horses will never be strong enough.
Victory is accepting grace and full communion with the One who awaits to change the rules of our skewed game.

He longs to tell us to stop trying and see HIM.

My prayer for us:
That we might see that we need mercy and compassion and then… accept mercy and compassion.
He awaits.  you.

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A Popsicle Noah

Posted by Caroline on Dec 4, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Bible Texts | 1 comment

This morning in children’s Sunday school we talked about Noah and the flood.  You know, the classic Bible story.

It was pouring rain and dark outside in a “going-back-to-sleep-is-tempting” sort of way.  However, the weather set the stage.

I’ve heard the story countless times, but the children at my church haven’t.  God’s Word is new to them, and in some ways, I think they are betters readers of it than I am.

The first part of the lesson the kids built a boat out of Popsicle sticks.  They didn’t know what the boat was for, and I don’t think Noah really grasped the magnitude of what his boat was for either.

the devastation. the rescue. the grace.

As I read out of Genesis, the kids acted out the story– Noah the Popsicle Man marched onto the boat and brought with him his family, the giraffes, snakes, and cats (still not sure why they chose to make those animals…).  Then, when the rains started the kids sprinkled cut up sheets of blue paper (our rain) over the boat.

When I read about waters surging about the earth and covering the mountains, one of the boys immediately stopped and gasped.  He turned to me in panic.

He got it.

He got what I’m oftentimes numb toward.  He got what was happening– the whole earth was being destroyed, that God was serious, that this was no simple feel-good story with pretty clouds.  He got that we needed a miracle– not a happy ending to a fairytale.  He got that God needed to do something– that we need him. desperately.  I hurried on…

“God remembered Noah.”  He heard the good news, the panic left, and he sighed in relief.

He got it.

the others in the room didn’t get it.  They kept fixing the boat that was falling apart, but I can’t blame them.  They are 6 years old, and honestly, that’s how I normally am– caught up in a minor detail and miss the simplicity of the miraculous story.

For too long, I have read the words but I miss the miracles– especially miracles within my heart.  like today. I haven’t sat on the edge of my chair to hear what God does, because I know the ending.

Yet, the ending is only glorious, miraculous, and life-changing because of the middle.  the rescue is unbelievable because of the floods.

redemption is glorious because of downright fallen I am.

Let’s read with new eyes.  Childlike eyes.

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Dagon put to Shame: YHWH won’t share the temple

Posted by Caroline on Oct 22, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Bible Texts | 0 comments

I’m intimidated of the Old Testament.  It seems like there’s a high learning curve—as if I need to fully understand the tribes, culture, and geography before I can dive into God’s Word.  I’m slowly making my way through the text in one of my classes, and my love for this downright confusing section of Scripture has grown.  We need to wrestle more, yes, but I’m confident that the treasures in these books are waiting to be found.  I’d like to share with you some gems I’ve found in the neglected books, and I’d LOVE if you’d share with me what you’ve been given insight into.  That’s community.  Come along.

____

This morning I’ve been stuck in 1 Samuel 5.

Here’s a little background:  The Philistines have stolen the Sacred Chest.  God’s spirit dwells within the Sacred Chest, and so without it, the Israelites lose all hope because they no longer have their strength or guidance.  In fact, when the priest Eli hears that it is missing, he dies!  The worst part is that the Sacred Chest is stolen by the Philistines—an army that far outnumbers the Israelites and whose strength is insurmountable.  The Philistines have a monopoly on weaponry, and now that the Sacred Chest was in their hands, it is a lost cause of the Israelites.

Just because the Israelites could not act doesn’t mean YHWH will not act on his own.

The Bible says that the Philistines took the Sacred Chest and set it up in the cultic temple next to their patron god Dagon.  Can you imagine the Spirit of YHWH patiently waiting in temple dedicated to another god?  He didn’t stay long! The next morning, the Philistines found Dagon lying face down in front of the chest.  I envision the statue—which the entire community looks to for answers—having no other option but to worship YHWH.  The Philistines stand Dagon back up, but the next morning the people come back and find Dagon prostrate before the Chest again—only this time with his head and hands broken off lying in the doorway.

Chaos broke out.  If the Chest can destroy the people’s embodiment of power, how much more could he destroy them!  Immediately the Philistines want to send the Chest away from them.  They pass it from city to city, and wherever the chest is the people break out in sores and an epidemic breaks out.  In a move of desperation, the Philistines gather all of their priests and fortune tellers and decide they must send the Chest back to the Israelites.

As I read this story there’s a sense of pride that wells up within me as I see my YHWH put the god Dagon in his place.  How humiliating!  It makes me to flaunt that I have sided with YHWH all along.

However, I also see myself in the Philistines.  I think we’ve all been there when we’re honest.  The Philistines knew YHWH held power—that’s why they stole the chest.  They even knew he was divine, and that’s why they set the chest right next to their god Dagon.  Think about how smart they must have felt—“we have our god Dagon, but now we also have the power of YHWH!” However, as the broken statue displays, YHWH will have nothing to do with other idols.  He alone is God.  He alone will be worshipped.

Panic broke out throughout the Israelite community when the chest was gone and they had nothing to worship.  Panic broke out in the Philistine community when they had 2 gods to worship.

Here in the United States we are not tempted to worship the god Dagon, but we are tempted to worship so many other things—image, money, success, beauty, love—even idealism and perfection.  In the same way we’d panic if God went missing from our lives just as the Chest was stolen from the Israelites, we should FEAR setting up YHWH in our own temples next to our other gods.  YHWH won’t stay there for long.

My prayer for me is that I would see my unwise ambitions fall prostrate before YHWH, even if it humiliates me.  For that is far better than what often happens—our gods become so prevalent and important to us that YHWH is pushed aside and eventually we are left worshipping in our own  manmade temple… without YHWH.

This story makes me want to seriously look introspectively in to my life; I pray it does for you too.  But also, this story declares YHWH’s strength and reminds me I want to be with him, for him, and all about him.

Now that Christ has come and the Holy Spirit is with us always, how much POWER we hold.  The Sacred Chest has been opened within us.  It is guidance, strength, and HOPE for today.  May it be the only sense of guidance, strength, and Hope.  It is enough.

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Before the Shepherds Show Up

Posted by Caroline on Jun 9, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Bible Texts | 1 comment

Debrief #1

I usually scan the beginning of Luke like I do the genealogies in Genesis & Matthew and the laws in Leviticus.  After all the entrance of John the Baptist is nothing compared that grand entrance of Jesus into Luke’s story of shepherds, angels, and universal hope for all.

When reading a bit more slowly though, I find myself responding to the Lord just like Zechariah– John the Baptist’s father.

We know that Zechariah was a good good man.  He and his wife Elizabeth were both righteous before God and walked blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.  [If those characteristics were said of me I'd die happy].

Zechariah was a priest, well versed in the Torah, and Elizabeth was barren and the two prayed for a child.  It’s the picture of Abraham and Sarah.  Zechariah knew the story about the birth of Isaac, but he doesn’t seem to believe that God can do it again.

The time came for Zechariah to enter the temple of the Lord on behalf of the people.   He purified himself both physically and spiritually to enter into the presence of the LORD; surely this was no occasion to take lightly.

Zechariah is prepared to meet God, and yet when an angel of the LORD appears to him Zechariah is struck with fear.

The angel says, “Do not be afraid Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call him John.  And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.”

Zechariah’s prayers were heard!
The Lord showed favor to his barren wife!
Zechariah’s prayers were answered!

Yet Zechariah doesn’t believe when he sees the answer to his prayer and even when an angel appears to him telling him.

I’m quick to get frustrated with Zechariah.  He’s a leader of the people, meeting with God for their sake, yet he doesn’t see one of the most blatant answers to prayer possible.  Not everyday does an angel appear granting you your prayer, yet it is everyday that God answers prayers and his people don’t believe.

There have been far too many prayers that I’ve prayed and not seen the answers until months or even years later.  Sometimes I even question or not God hears the requests I’m told to humbly but confidently put before Him.  Just like Zechariah, I’m often surprised when God does respond like he promises He will.

Zechariah leaves the temple mute.  I know in those days of silence and signing Zechariah must have dwelled over and over about what the Lord just did.  Though we can still speak and an angel didn’t appear to us, may we dwell on what the Lord has done today.

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