Honoring Afghanistan

 My heart weeps tonight as so many people have been treated with so much disregard.  There is no one who is expendable.  How are we not willing to pay a price to offer rescue?  I don't want to get into the politics of a 20 year war.  I don't disagree with ending it.  But I believe with all my heart that everyone who had skin in this war needs to feel our earnest gratitude for the price they have paid.  We need to honor the gift of aid from the Afghan people with aid in return.  We need to let our Christian brethren in Afghanistan know that we hear their plight and we are earnestly lifting them up in our prayers!  The wolves have come and we have left many to them.  Oh God defend those that we have not defended.  How can we now ask for Your mercy when we have not offered any?

God have mercy on all who are suffering tonight.  Honor those who have served selflessly.  Please help us not turn our faces away from the pain but to stand up for the vulnerable.  That is who we are, that is what we do... what marine can live with himself if he were to leave even one man behind?  God comfort the comfortless tonight and bring rescue!

Is America Babylon?

I recently was watching a random video on YouTube when it was interrupted by a commercial.  I was a little bit stunned by a YouTube commercial with a religious theme so I took a minute to hear what the man had to say.  

I have reservations when listening to a modern day "prophet".  There are some who are truly speaking God's message but my bar is high.  I do expect a 100 percent accuracy rate 100 ;recent of the time.  Else, what of his words are we to listen to?.  So I listened to this man with reservation.

He talked of America being the Babylon that is mentioned in the book of Revelation.  He gave many compelling arguments and I have been set to pondering.  I had been taught that the United States is not mentioned anywhere in scripture and it didn't seem to be, when I formed my opinion.  But times have changed and I was taken aback when he mentioned how we, in America have become the instigators of so much  evil.  That is true!  God forgive us!

It's not just our policies... it's our money.  Our money, is the money that drives the human trafficking trade, the illegal weapons trade, the drug trafficking trade.  We... our money drives the use of children in factories in other parts of the world and the crushing of the sprits of many more.  We have become global consumers without taking note of the effect we are ultimately having.

"And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon[a] is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”" Revelation 14:8  

What do you think? 

Peace... be still...

Have you ever had a day like that day on the lake?   

"On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”  Mark:35-41

It was one of those days when everything was going wrong, but the guy you really wanted sympathy from, didn't even notice there was a problem!  Fear is a great and terrible force.  It motivates us to make all kinds of decisions.  Decisions we will most likely regret when we come back to our senses.

Our one weapon against fear is the knowledge of who Jesus really is, who we are in relation to him... and the power he possesses.  Can you imagine?  One minute your are in a panic!  The next... you find out who Jesus really is and all you can do is worship.

Love is patient... and kind

John 13:25 "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  We used to sing a song, the chorus is simply, "they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  

There was a day when I could no longer in good conscience sing that song.  Will they know we are Christians by our love?  What does that look like?  How do we love one another?  I mean in a way that would be noticed as different and noteworthy?

I know for me, I have been most touched when I have experienced kindness.  I remember a day when a woman sat down with me and asked, I mean really asked me to tell my story.  I started at the top, describing all the mistakes and mishaps that had brought me to a more real and vibrant relationship with my God.  I noticed, as I was describing a particularly painful part of my story a small tear making it's way down her cheek.  It touched me... deeply.  At that point in my life, I don't remember anyone ever having compassion for my pain.  I felt cared for, maybe mothered.  

That one moment of kindness and compassion still effects me today.  Even now I marvel that she took the time.  That she listened with her heart engaged and wept with me.  It takes patience... the ability to give up your time to actively listen.  It takes time.  But more than anything it is a choice to be kind

Oswald Chambers- My Utmost for His Highest June 25

I have a friend who has lost herself in the sorrow of losing a child.  It is hard to watch.  I know what it is like to lose your moorings.  It is tough to breathe much less move forward.  But what Oswald Chambers has written is so true!  Sorrow has the potential to tenderize our hearts or harden them.  It is our choice.   I am thinking of Psalms 22:24 "For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
    Neither has he hidden his face from him;  but when he cried to him, he heard."  That doesn't mean God will stop the pain.  Pain has purpose, like a mother who allows a doctor to stitch up her child's wound... God hears and understand our cries... and cares

Receiving Yourself in the Fires of Sorrow

…what shall I say? “Father, save Me from this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” —John 12:27-28

As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me. You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you lose your head over pride. And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining. The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience. You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

Racoon 1- Chickens 1 taking stalk of your surroundings

 I have recently acquired a "chicken door".  Our delivery man was very curious when my box arrived.  The label said, "Ladies first chicken door."  He couldn't imagine what that could mean.  I assured him it was what it said... a door for chickens.  He had never heard of such a thing.

It's sort of like a doggy door only it opens by itself at dawn and closes at dusk which eliminates your need to be out there to tuck your birds in at night. and keeps them safe from predators that stalk the coop at night.    Well, mostly.  I had one bird who was a bit of a night owl.  She would not go in before the door closed and if we didn't find her, scoop hr up and slip her in, then she was out all night fending for herself.  The thing is.  She was not a very bright bird and would just sit by the coop on the ground all night with no attempt to protect herself.  It was on one of those nights when we lost our bird to a visiting raccoon.  It wasn't much of a trick for him to catch her,  she was literally a sitting duck! (well, chicken)

Today we finally caught the raccoon that has been terrorizing my chicken coop.   He was the biggest raccoon I have ever seen!  He probably got that big by eating so many of our chicken eggs...  and our crazy chicken.  

There are many things that catch me off guard.  I am beginning to wonder if I, like that chicken have forgotten that there are dangers lurking.  That I have a God in heaven whom I serve and an enemy that wants to find opportunity to catch me unaware.  Hmmm

I'm thinking  of Luke 12:35 - 40

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

The Chosen

 I have been watching the tv series called, "The Chosen".   When I watch, I am amazed at all the things I have never thought about.  It's clear from the scriptures that Jesus traveled about from place to place.  But, where did he sleep?  Where did the disciples sleep?  Did they get along?  Did they know each other before?  What was Jesus able to just say, "follow me!" and the disciples do it?  What was happening in their lives before they left everything.  The tv series called, "The Chosen" can't really answer those questions but it does offer suggestions as to how things might have been.  The thing that stand out to me is how much Jesus was different from His peers, how much ths life stuck out like a sore thumb.  We get a bit of a clue that he was radical in his beliefs and the ractice of His faith. 

There is a line in the show,  Jesus is asking Matthew to follow Him and Simon Petter steps in and tries to explain that Matthew was a tax collector.  He was different, because he betrayed his own people.  Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Get used to different"  I wonder, if Jesus came today, would we choke on His teachings?  Or, would we be so attracted to the truth He was giving that we could not make any other choice but to follow Him.

Peter and the Waves... and fear

I grew up around boats.  In my teenage years, I helped crew a boat through the Queen Anne straight and up through the San Juan Islands along the western coast of Canada.  Through the islands, the water was calm but there were a few crossings where we met with the open sea where waves were more than thirty feet high.  That meant that we road a wave way up to the peak, and then we were swallowed up, completely surrounded by water on all sides as we sank into the valley between waves.  As a child, I was fascinated but as an experienced seaman, my grandfather was in earnest of crossing the straight safely.  

Because of my experience, I have a different picture of Jesus and Peter out on the Sea of Galilee.  I can see Peter losing sight of Jesus and only being able to see walls of water all around him.  We sometimes fault Peter for having so little faith. But if you were in his shoes, a well seasoned fisherman who knows the dangers well, perhaps his fear would make more sense.  

Fear... isn't that what separates us from everything good?  I don't mean the kind of fear that teaches you not to get too close to a snake or a cliff.  That is respect... not fear.  Fear is irrational... and unreasonable.   Paul calls it "the spirit of fear" (2 Timothy 1:7).  He describes us as being in bondage to it (Romans 8:15).  Fear is the enemy.  If you want to know Satan's agenda for you... consider your deepest fears.  He is driving you by them... driving you away from God's call in your life.  Driving you from the good and towards what is evil.  Fear is like a cattle prod, it's very effective and evil at it's core.  

This is why we are called to take courage.  Like in 1 Chronicles 22:13 "Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed."  Because fear will drive you away from God.

When evil reigns

I was reading in Psalms 110 and wondered.  It feels like a promise of death and destruction and I wondered, "How is this about a loving God full of mercies?  I wonder if many of the psalms of David are a yearning for justice.  I remember a time when I longed for justice.  My life was in the crosshairs of a man who needed to be more powerful than hmmm... me maybe?... or God?.  I pleaded to God for justice... but in this life, justice will not come.  

 Proverbs 28:5  says, "Evil men do not understand justice" Has there ever been a time when that was more true than now?  Actually, as I think about it, yes, there has been.  Many times oppressors have come and invaded land and crushed people.  People groan under the power of evil.  

I wonder, what is the goal of evil?  Is it only about bringing chaos or is there a deeper agenda?  I wonder if the end goal is to cause us all to lose our courage?  I find it interesting that in Revelations 21:8 ("But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”) cowardice is mentioned in the same list with the murderers and sexually immoral.  That can certainly put me in my place.

Satan is subtle if nothing else isn't he?  We can look so "good" on the outside but if fear is ruling our decisions... we are in deeper trouble than we think!  

So where do we turn?  And what do we do?  Listening... I am reminded of Peter in Matthew 14:22-33  when Peter climbed out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus.  At first he leaped out of the boat and walked with Jesus on the water,  But then, for a moment, fear took over, as he realized he was doing the impossible.  His only hope then was to cry out to Jesus for rescue.  

Is it time for us to do the same? 

What is out of reach?

Last year, 2020, the year when time stood still and we all stayed at home... alone. It was not our best year financially.  We recently filed our income taxes.  Last year our income fell well below poverty level.  I know that we are not alone.  We as a country, and others all over the world suffered.  It was a year we all will remember.  History will be marked by it.  There will be things before covid, and things after covid.  Hmmm will there be an "after covid?"  

I want to be one who leans into Jesus when times are tough.  I want to trust Him for the things we need and rest in Him for the things we want.  But in reality, I have to work at that.  It's not always easy to choose to trust rather than worry.  I'm not concerned for my next meal.  It is already in the fridge.  So what frightens me?  Why do I need to know how my Abba Father will choose to bless me.  Isn't it enough to know that He will?  I do know that I am blessed.  But I also know that suffering can be God's best for me sometimes.  It is our training ground.

I do believe that there are harder times ahead.  Lord help me practice now.  Help me to know that you are in control, that you love your children and that you will not leave them starving.  Help us always to accept your gift with joy... even if it is not what we had in mind.

Lord, I find myself chasing rainbows, things that always seem just beyond my finger tips.  But if I deeply look at what I am grasping for... they are exactly that... rainbows, a trick of the light, mists and reflections, nothing of substance..  Psalms 63:1 says this, "O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water."

Covid is a wake up call.  Wake up O my soul... seek after the only thing that will satisfy.  

Rain in it's season,

 Deuteronomy 11:13-17 says,  "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,  then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you." 

Here in the North, we have had many strange weather patterns.  It was warm way too early, then cold way too late.  It rained during harvest and this spring we have seen little to none.  I have been noticing that our springs thaws and much later and our winter onset is too.  People blame climate change but I have to wonder.  Is God trying to get our attention?  Do we in some indirect ways have some control over climate change?  Not so much by preventing emissions as making admissions.  We have not taken in to account the effect holiness has on the weather.  Perhaps we should?

Obedience and a hunger for Grace

 God must have a sense of humor.  writing right now is an act of obedience... one that took me far to long to move in today.  I distract myself with so many things then late at night I ask... well, what do you want me to write about?... obedience... ouch!!!

In these times, when life is so confusing maybe?  It's hard for me to move through the molasses of my day and function.  After taking a covid break from people, it's hard to figure out how to reengage.  I'm not sure I want to!    People have become so rage full and unforgiving.  I find myself hungering for grace.  Grace... yes from God but perhaps more so from the people around me.  I remember, a long time ago now, when I was pregnant with my first born.  I often took the bus downtown to shop or get some fresh air.  When I got on the bus people fell all over themselves to offer me, an obviously pregnant woman, a seat.  

Fast forward a few years and I was on a Southwest flight and the stewardess asked if someone would give up their seat because there was a family with two small children who needed to be seated together.  Though I was traveling alone, so I was of no help.  But there were many who had the ability though not the willingness to offer their seat.  Why is it that we see ourselves as more advanced, a better society now?  I miss kindness!

How are grace and obedience connected?  I think grace is often not our knee jerk reaction.  perhaps it isn't intentional, but how often to we think of another's circumstance as more important than our own?  Offering grace requires that you are a mind awake.  I believe that obedience is the caffeine that does just that.  It draws our eyes out of the looking glass and focuses them on service.

Hebrews 5:8 says, "though He (Jesus) was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." Obedience is hard earned.  It costs a lot.  It takes practice.  It must be learned, learned and relearned.  I need to start again... today

The Chosen

There is a video series out called "The Chosen".  It is based on the Biblical account of Jesus Christ.  I have found it very interesting!  Yes, they do fill in many of the blanks which may or may not have anything to do with truth.  But I haven't found anything to be twisty or contrary to truth.  It's more of a "Wow, I never thought of that before" kind of thing.  It fills your head with thoughts and questions related to Jesus and the disciples.  Like what did the disciples do when while at the wedding in Cana?  What was life like for them before they said yes to Jesus?  What was it like to be the mother of Jesus?  

I highly recommend this show.  Hopefully, it will feed your soul and call you into a deeper look at what it says in His book.

Let me know what you think!

Listening

Romans 10:17 says,  "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  I've been told that God gave us a formula for listening by giving us two ears and only one mouth.  Thus we are meant to listen twice as much as we talk.  

That's hard in any conversation... at least for me.  I have a lot of thoughts that I like to share.  But when praying, well, it's harder isn't it?  Why is that?  Is it harder to listen because His voice is like a whisper on the wind.  It's easily missed when you are intent on being heard.  But like with anyone, we will still ache to know Him, if we never hear what He has to say.  

Scripture is the first place to hear Him.  In our times where everyone stands as judge of pretty much everyone else, it's hard not to stand as judge of what we read.  But if you are in conversation with someone and if you stand as judge... you are NOT hearing anything.  Listen, ask, clarify... wait, wait, wait for an answer that satisfies.  Faith truly comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  

Funny, think of that verse again, "Faith come from hearing, but hearing" (I'm thinking of the many times in my life time I have said, "You aren't hearing me!")  That miraculous gift of hearing comes by the very word of God himself.  The Gospel of John starts out by saying, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God.  Jesus Himself must somehow be a part of the message going from being listened to... to being heard.

God's art, building trust, late season frosts

I was out in God's art today (outside).  Spring is just starting to bring a little green to the drab winter landscape.  It has been brutally cold here.  it's not that unusual to be in the low 20's in late April here but after a long warm spell, it was a shock to my plants as well as my own system.  It's COLD out there!  My plum and peach tree blossoms will not recover.  There will be no fruit on them this year.  Even my tulips were bowed low to the ground this morning only to pop back up when the sun grew warm.

It's interesting to see.  I have learned that though the blossoms may still be pretty, if you look deep into the flowers, you can tell that they have been made impotent by the frost.  I wish I could see people in the same way.  Are they still fragrant and ready to bear sweet, juicy fruit, or is something in the depths of them frozen beyond redemption (at least by natural means).  

The truth is, it's not my job to know.  It's my job to scatter the seed, to love with abandon, and offer redemption to any who will hear.  But the world is so frightening now.  If I was afraid to speak of heavenly things years ago, what help is there now for me?  (Listening)  The picture I have is of Steven in Acts 7.  I used to think of myself as a failure because I couldn't imagine myself having the Steven's boldness to continue telling the truth in spite of the threat of stoning.  Steven was already caught up and moving closer and closer to heaven.  He didn't even noticed the stones.  He was too excited by his visions of where he was going.  He was trying so hard to share his vision with those who stoned him to death.  But they could not hear him.  I realized that Steven was given the power in that moment to stand and to speak boldly.  All he needed to be was willing.  

Ah, there's the rub.  Am I willing?  What is it to trust God anyway?  What am I trusting Him for?  What does He promise?  Well, He didn't promise that I would avoid pain or suffering.  That's hard for my "civilized' heart to understand but Hebrew 5:8 says, "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered"  Jesus said, "Follow me" I'm pretty sure He knew that suffering was involved.  So is suffering to help us learn obedience?  And if so, ultimately is suffering a trust building exercise?  Do we too learn obedience by the things that we suffer?  And do we learn to lean into Him in the process?

What are your thoughts?

LORD in every and all circumstance

I believe that trusting God is the foundation of everything.  It was very difficult for me to actually trust Him.  I had, had my trust deeply broken and it was more than frightening to invest in anything again.  But trust is the one thing God requires.  Yes, we are called to obey, yes, belief is paramount, but the foundation to it all is trust.  

Do you trust Him?  Know this, if there is anything between you and Him... He will require it of you.  Think of the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-23) What holds you back, your dreams?  your job?... your money?  Your children?  If you lost them all, would you still trust Him?  Or will you put Him on trial asking, "If You really are a "good" God, how could you let this happen?"  At the end of the day, who really has the reigns in your life?  God, when He is behaving and you when He is not?  Or God... in every and all circumstance?

You can know when your trust is in Him. When you trust God, your knee jerk reaction will be similar Job's, "The Lord gave and The Lord has taken away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord." Job 1:21b  That's tough to say when you just lost your leg in a freak accident or when your child is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  or... is it?  Aren't those the very best times to cling to Him and know that He is your one constant.  The one you know you can trust during the terrible storms.  If we have truly surrendered our lives to Him... can He not then do with our lives whatever He pleases?  If He does what in our mind is the unthinkable, do we immediately question His goodness or perhaps the goodness of our faith?  Is that trust?  

If we trust Him, we trust Him.  He is good though there are things we can not understand.  Is He capable of intervening and stopping that accident from taking our leg or healing our child.  He is... no doubt capable.  Sometimes,  though He can, He doesn't and somehow that doesn't change His goodness or the value He sees in you.  

If Jesus is truly LORD in our lives, then isn't everything we have His?  When we take Him on as LORD... in the very beginning of our walk with Him, we give up control and entrust Jesus with our lives.  I'm thinking of an old hymn we used to sing.  The chorus says this, "I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all.  Can we sing that today? Is all that we have, all that we are and all we can become in His hands?  I wonder if we are giving this as our gospel message.  Lay your life down, with no reserve.  Give up your "right" to the throne upon which you sit.  Step down, die to all the power the throne gave you and let a new King reign in your stead.  One who is worthy of all praise, honor, and trust.  

Finding Hope in Revelations

Have you ever had a really bad day, drug yourself home and then purposely opened the book of Revelations for comfort?  Are there days when you start hoping that "something" might happen, something that will stop tomorrow from simply following today?  

As the world becomes more hmmm angry, or lost maybe?  I find myself turning more often to Revelations hoping to find today in it's pages... somewhere close to the end.  It's not that I have a death wish, it's more that I feel like an outcast in our crazy world.  I feel like the one bright orange  car in a sea of grey ones.  And, I do find comfort in the pages of Revelations.  I believe that Jesus is "The same yesterday, today and forever." Hebrews 13:8  If that is true, then there must be something redemptive about Revelations.  There must be hope written in within it.  

I think we are all drawn to that hope when we drag ourselves back to the book.  Like today, it hit me how significant it is that our prayers are present with God even to the end of this age.  Isn't it amazing that somewhere in the throne room of God there are 24 golden bowls filled to the brim with our prayers. (Revelation 5:8)  My prayers... Your prayers...  Have you ever felt like your prayers bounced off the ceiling and never got any higher?  That couldn't be farther from the truth!  The truth is they have all been collected in golden bowls and are ever present with God.  He breaths them in and is surrounded by them.  Our prayers are His constant companions.  They matter and are important to Him.  Wow!  That's hope! 

So, knowing that God is hearing my prayers... all I can think to say is,  "Please Jesus, come for us! "

A Question of Value

Why are you here?  Are you important?  What is the point of existence?  All these questions have sad answers unless there is a God worth believing in.  What is existence for  without God who gives us the one thing we need most.  Purpose!

I believe you were created unique and vital to the time and place you were brought into.  You have inherent value based on who created you.  You have a point and purpose for being here.  Our job is to live that out.

Think it through.  God created you.  He created you to be uniquely you.  If He had wanted someone else He would have created someone else.  By the very fact that you were created, you have been deemed important.  In Luke 12:7 Jesus says,  "But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows" 

What does it mean, "the very heirs of your head are all counted?  I picture a mother suckling her baby, have you seen it?  Have you seen how she toys with her baby's tiny fingers and toes, she notices every wrinkle their pudgy little nose.  Nothing escapes her notice or delight.  Does God look upon us with the same delight?  I believe so!  He created you, when He created you He said it was very good! (Genesis 1:21)

The next question is... how are we to live out our purpose in these times? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Holiness

 Romans 12:1 says, "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service."  What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?  I have always heard this passage used to encourage me to do acts of service for others or for the Church.  There are other passages that fit that idea but I am getting a different impression here.  

Let's start with the "Therefore" this passage is summing up something from before.  The end of Romans 11 talks of how God gave grace and made room for the Gentiles to be brought into His covenant.  It is all about grace.  So, Since God has shown such mercy... to welcome you into His family... Sacrifice it all to be holy.

I'm not sure I understand what the word holiness means.  I've been told it means being "set apart"  Perhaps like not picking a few of the best beans because they are set apart to become seed?  I think the word has a sense of purpose.  I'm set apart for something.  So if our bodies are set apart for something, what is that something?

I'm not sure that I can know that question for you.  I think I can only know the answer for me.  And then only as I learn to hear God's leading and purpose for me.  I wonder though, if we understood that we have great purpose, that we need to sacrifice ourselves to live out that purpose,  and stand ready to be all God intends for us to be, what would happen next?

Locust plagues, God's art and chickens

I am starting to hear the word plague in connection to the locust swarms in various parts of the world right now.  Many are fighting for their lives and livelihoods as we speak.  I wonder, are locusts a part of God's art too?  Is it that they are tiny little demons that must be wiped out?  Is this God's wrath poured out?  Or is it a normal consequence of?

Locusts are an interesting, hit you when your down, sort of insect.  We don't have locust swarms here in the North but we do have grasshoppers.  A few years back, we had a severe seven year drought.  It wiped out the wheat crops and livestock were sold to avoid them all starving to death.  Ranchers wept openly in the Church we attended.  They were being crushed by their staggering losses.  Many talked of the grasshoppers which seemed to relish the conditions.  Mostly the bugs added to the overall feeling of hopelessness. 

It was a rough time.  Who could afford the to be spaying and what would be the point?  But the grasshopper comments got me thinking.  If we were agile enough, couldn't we take advantage of the bugs instead of fighting those as well?

My efforts in gardening have been to avoid any kind of chemical intervention.  I have an autoimmune disease called MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities).  That basically means my body attacks itself when it encounters synthetics.  Paint, carpet, garden chemicals... you name it, if God didn't make it, I react to it.  That gives me extra incentive to learn alternatives to chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  So is there are non chemical solution to a locusts and grasshoppers?

YES!! Chickens!! I use chickens all the time to wipe out the latest bug bloom in my garden.  Did you know that one chicken can eat 600 locusts a day?  When you are facing billions that might not seem like a lot, but if in mass, locusts don't stand a chance.  What if instead of raising crops when locusts storms are looming, we raised birds?  far fetched?  China is finding great success using chickens to control their own locust infestations.  

But back again to God's art.  I believe in the world that God created, it is all about balance.  In gardening holistically, balance is everything.  It's really about bringing your land back to God's original intent.  If we move in harmony with His art, we are blessed with wonderful bounty.  When we move against it, eventually our house of cards will fall.  When we tip the scales and bring the world out of balance, the ripples spread far and wide.  Hmmm balance, what does it take to find it?