5 things i am thinking about on good friday

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i am trying to take time to read through the passion of Christ in the four gospel accounts on an important day for our faith - good friday.  the time of easter, the resurrection, the week of passover, this important time to everything we believe and base our lives on... how anchored are we in what it is really all about?

5 things i am thinking about on good friday

1.  Lord i do believe, help my unbelief (mark 9:24).  simply reading the story doesn't do much for my heart.  i have to make a choice to believe it is real at the deepest level, and then ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen my faith.  i don't want to read just another good story. 

2. He really did die, and it was completely His choice.  He turned the other cheek.  God laid down His life for me.  He didn't have to do it.  He doesn't owe me anything.

3. the resurrection is everything.  it wasn't just an arbitrary sign to help us believe that we are forgiven of sin.  He rose from the dead and defeated death that we may be convinced that we too will rise in resurrected bodies... not as ghosts or spirits, but real living people who can eat and drink and live!

and He said to them, "why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? see My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." and when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. while they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "have you anything here to eat?" they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.                                                     luke 24:38-43

why does this matter?  because He will restore what He has originally created the life of man to be like in the garden - eternal communion with God in real life.  

4. although it is a free gift, it takes repentance and faith on our part to receive what Jesus paid for (acts 3:18-21 among other places).  this is something that i have been taught since a child - God gave us free wills to either receive what He paid for or to refuse it.  with all the buzz lately, even making the cover of time magazine, about whether hell is eternal, if everyone will eventually be saved, and what it really means to be saved i feel the weight of once again knowing what is truth.  these ideas are nothing new.  men has always wanted to do things our way, not God's way - it was the original sin.  over and over again the Word says we must repent and we must believe - even confess Jesus as Messiah when it is going to cost us our lives (romans 10:9).  there are not many ways and there are not many chances - we have this opportunity in this present time to receive what He has paid for.

Jesus said to make sure that no man deceives us - that many would come in His name saying that He is the Lord, but preach another gospel than He preached (matt 24).  in the times we are living in, and i do believe this is a crucial hour, i do not want to entertain any vain ideas that would cause my heart to not run hard after knowing Him.  Jesus, the One who loved us more than any man could or has ever loved, did not seem concerned with the message seeming too harsh but instead with the temptation we would have to become lawless and for our love to grow cold.   it was Jesus Himself who spoke of the eternity of the lake of fire as clearly as He spoke of the eternity of life in resurrected bodies (matt 25:46 is just one reference among many).  He said if we deny Him before man, He will deny us before the Father (matt 10:33).  this sounds so harsh (i know, i feel the sting myself!), but if there comes a day when i am faced with death, with very martyrdom for worshiping Jesus, it will keep my life safe forever to remember these harsh words.  there will be many more opportunities as life goes on to cheapen the price He paid, but i will not cheapen it.  i will not get distracted in my pursuit of knowing Jesus nor in my prayer for people to repent and come to Him so they may know His forgiveness and life forever.  He died because i need to be saved from eternal destruction.  there is no other way than the way He plainly said.  it is a narrow gate (matt 7:13-14).  i will not deny Jesus and His sacrifice,  even if it costs me favor with man.

5. He loves us more than we can imagine.  one of the first scriptures that we usually memorize as children raised in the church is john 3:16.  i would encourage you to read the entire 3rd chapter of john.  God loves us.  He really does love us.  if there is one thing that i want to know in my heart of hearts today of all days, the day that He gave His life on a cross for me, it is to know how much He loves me.  so like paul prayed for the church of ephesians, i pray for all of us today:

for this reason i bow my knees before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. amen.
                                                                  ephesians 3:14-20

what are you thinking about in light of today and this resurrection weekend?

charis

simple woman's daybook 2.7.11

 

 

for today:

outside my window... is a ridiculously beautiful day!  hello??!!  it is the start of february.  it is winter.  it has been in the seventies for the past couple weeks.  i am not complaining, but it is rather strange even for california.

i am thinking...about how to be a better blogger.  my sister just gave me tons of advice on how to improve... why didn't i ask her like two years ago??!!  these ideas are rocking my world!

i am thankful for... peace in knowing what this season of my life is supposed to be about.  do you ever feel uneasy when you are unsure of what you are supposed to be focusing on in the current season?  i sure do.  just the fact that i know my focus right now is supposed to be on primarily being a mom.  knowing that everything else, even our ministry, is supposed to come second right now brings me so much freedom and so much peace!


remembering... how much i love to sing and worship God.  

from the learning rooms... i have to little goal... okay, little is majorly an understatement.  every since someone gave us homemade knit baby socks when simeon was born, i have been obsessed with the idea of knitting baby socks.  the problem is i am a self-taught, extremely novice knitter.  so... i am working on specific knitting skills i will need to conquer the goal of making socks.  the current skill i am learning is how to do ribbing.  my picture for the day is my current progress on this knitting skill.  the next skill i need is how to fix a knitting mistake without having to completely start over!  at this point whenever i make a mistake i have to take it all out and begin again!  my patience is majorly being refined. 

from the kitchen... i am back to meal planning - saves money and gives us some planned variety in what we are eating.  has anyone else tried stretching taco meat by adding lentils to the ground beef?  genius idea i tell you!  (not my own.)  my kids didn't even notice because it blended so well.

i am wearing... jammies.  it is monday morning.  i promise i will get dressed as soon as i am done blogging.

i am creating... a new song.  have i ever told you that a dream of mine is to record a cd with all original songs?  if i haven't, i am telling you now.  someday i would love to have a link to download my music here so you all can hear what i love to do.  until then... you will have to come to somewhere i am leading worship to get a taste of what i write. 

i am going... to grocery shop today.  i don't have time for all the stops i would like to make, so i am trying to decide: tackle costco or do the normal grocery store stuff first? 

i am reading... psalms in my Bible reading challenge!  i am so excited to be in my favorite book!  fact:  i spent two years only reading the book of psalms over and over again.  the love of the book of psalms goes hand in hand with my love to worship God with singing.  the psalms are so easy to sing to God!  sometimes when i am leading a devotional set in the house of prayer i will just open my Bible to a psalm and start to sing.  it always brings so much life to my soul.  i just love it.

i am hoping...to finish the last part of my new song this week.  sometimes as a song writer i will have an amazing verse and chorus and then get stuck on that finishing element of a bridge or a tag.  i guess this is why people co-write. 

i am hearing... the musical presents my mom got the kids for their birthdays.  in this house of musicians, there is always music. 

around the house... i am into the organizing thing.  it isn't as much a new year's resolution thing as it is the early spring weather thing.  i feel the spring cleaning bug big time.  since i have been pregnant and/or nursing for the past almost 8 years, i am way behind in a lot of the normal organizing and need to majorly play catch up. 

  
one of my favorite things... is hearing my kids sing.  hearing little voices worshiping God is just the best thing to bring a smile to my face. 


pondering... what to do about the kids' education next year.  i love the school they are in right now, but we try to take one year at a time and make a decision just for that year, and not have the pressure of deciding the education for the rest of their lives.  so... what does this next year entail?

a few plans for the rest of the week: we have one more birthday this week, so i will be making another amazing fudge brownie cake.  i will also be working on:  finishing my song, knitting the ribbed scarf to prepare for socks, organizing a hall closet that became our catch all for things that had no place, working on my isaiah Bible study, laundry, grocery shopping, leading worship at an amazing mom's group i go to called raising tomorrow's leaders, hopefully going to a prayer set for the watch of the Lord, and spending some time enjoying my kids.  did i forget anything??? 

picture for the day:

more of the simple woman's daybook.

please feel free to add a link in the comments below to your own simple woman's (or man's) daybook as well as link up at the link above.  i would love to read yours as well!

charis

the master gardener

to hear the whispers of God in the meanderings of life.

we have a little lemon tree that i planted outside our bedroom window a couple years ago because of my intense obsession with lemons and the delight of the smell of citrus leaves. i also planted at the same time english lavendar with the soothing woodsy smell and dainty purple blossoms. unfortunately, i have neglected my plants over the past year or more, other than to blow the sea of fall leaves, and i mean sea of leaves, from drowning them and all the rest of the landscaping that we worked so hard on creating ourselves.

two very different problems face my two favorite plants.

my little lemon tree for some reason didn't produce fruit last year. i decided that this year we must have fruit, so i have taken it on as a project. as i looked at the tree trying to decide how best to help it thrive, i noticed two problems. for one, there were yellow, sparse, dull looking leaves. yes, it has survived two winters and beat the odds that were told to me by my neighbors who said how hard it was for a young citrus tree to not freeze, but it was needing some help. second, a nasty vine type of weed with the burrs that get stuck socks and shoes was overtaking the ground all around it and threatened to choke my tree with its long tendrils.

neither problem with my tree were untreatable, but quite the opposite. with some dedication and hard work over the past couple days, it is looking much better. i tilled the soil around the root ball and mixed in some citrus fertilizer to get the soil back to the ph balance that a lemon tree needs for those glossy green leaves. i have pulled, dug out, and cut back the nasty viney weeds that threatened to choke my dear tree and keep me from the juicy fruit i desire.

as i worked this afternoon i felt the Lord speak to me so strongly. i felt very much like the lemon tree. i need so badly to be fed richly to have the new growth and to produce fruit in my own life. "for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." i need that regular diet of the Word of God to not get dry and yellow and sparse. yes, i may make it through the winters of life, but i will not produce the new leaves and buds and blossoms in the spring season that are needed in order to have the fruit if i don't tend to the feedings. and so, i am committed to open the Word, call out for wisdom and revelation, seek the face of the only One who can give me life, and commit to see growth in the areas i struggle in and am tempted to blame on personality, preference, or my culture and surroundings. Jesus said, "if you love me, you will obey my commandments." it seems pretty straightforward. however, sometimes it takes me so long to get it through my head to just do the things He laid out in scripture to know Him and love Him, just like it took me so long looking at my poor little lemon tree to actually take the time to find the simple solution to the yellowing dry leaves.

also, i feel my life is majorly in a time of weeding. Jesus compared the weeds in one of His parables to the worries and cares of this life. oh wow. did this ever come to mind today as i worked. it was interesting to me how some of the weeds came up easily and others were so deep that i couldn't even pull with decent strength, but had to dig down below the root of the weed to pry it out. i know that for me there are some cares of life that are more easily uprooted from my heart than others. right now i am in a season of the roots of certain worries that i have struggled with on and off for years, which i would work really hard to get rid of but would come back again after a season of good rain and watering, being dug up so that even the deeper root system can be rid of and not just return. i can say that it is not any easier in my opinion to be the soil from which the weed is taken out of right now that it was to dig and pull and tug today at those stubborn weeds.

i also was reminded today that the seed He plants is always good seed. the thing that can vary is the ground in which the seed is planted, and it isn't until the rain comes and waters the ground that the soil shows what it lacks, what was hidden, or what just needs a bit of tilling. it is painful to have Him dig deep in the tender regions of my heart, but it will be so worth it to allow His work instead of resisting. i am personally hoping that i passed the test this time and that those things that have felt like they have choked me at times when life gets tough will really be gone for good and that i will have victory in those areas in my life because the root system has been taken out.

the other plant that i felt the Lord speaking to me through was my lavendar. you see, i have done special nothing for my lavendar but it has thrived! good seed and good soil. little to no weeds. fruitful in all seasons. the fragrance of the blossoms brings me the joy and calm that i had hoped for. yet, because it has been so thriving, i was suddenly faced with the realization that something needed to been done about this plant. my uncle said about a month ago a little phrase in a sermon on sunday morning that i have thought of several times since and thought of this afternoon while pondering how best to care for my fruitful lavendar. he said, "the reward for fruitfulness is pruning."

pruning. i resist it as a novice gardener as much as i wince at the word when thinking of the Lord applying it to my own life. so many times i have equated pruning with punishment. somehow, i thought, i must have done something wrong for a door to close, or an opportunity to end, or my desires to seem to get further out of reach rather than closer. seeing what i had believed to be of value in me and my life taken away confused me and is still very painful even when i know fully that God is involved in the closing of doors or ending of seasons. and yet, when i looked at my wildly growing full of blossoms lavendar today i felt the whisper of the Lord to my heart, "I am not punishing you. I am rewarding your faithfulness. pruning is my reward for fruitfulness."

you see, for my lavendar to retain its beauty as a plant and to not grow woody and stubby in the center, i must cut it back. i have read that i need to cut it back as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of its branches, careful to leave some green, but as close to the wood as possible. that seems like so much cutting to me! i hesitate to cut my beloved plants, yet know that it will be the best things i can do for them in the long run.

i feel so pruned right now. i am so raw even writing right now because my perspective right now is still so small on the grand picture of what God is wanting for my life to look like. areas of fruitfulness, faithfulness, and what i felt were the blessings from the hand of God are being cut back right now, and oh how they are being cut back! but, oh, the comfort in knowing that it isn't because i haven't had good soil in my heart in these areas, nor have i done something wrong, but this is the reward i have for being faithful in what was given to me. as tears flow for saying goodbye to that which the Lord has cut away, i am at a strange peace that something very beautiful will come of this pruning. how good He is, and how rich are His rewards for those who seek Him.

charis

silver and gold i have none

at the gate which is called beautiful.

acts 3 - now peter and john were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer... silver and gold i have none, but what i have i give to you...

here i am attempting something i have had in my heart to do and which many have encouraged me to do - i am writing. for now it will be a blog. maybe at some point it will be a book. whatever it ends up looking like, however these jumbled thoughts and reflections of my heart spill out onto the page is not for me to decide. i am just the clay who is willing to be soft and meld into a vessel of beauty in the hands of the Potter. i am on a journey towards encounter with the One who alone can give me something of worth. i hope that in the midst of my spilling and melding and journeying, you can take read my simple writings and take with you something that will lead you too towards that encounter with Him that leaves you never the same.

silver and gold i have none; but what i have i give to you...

join me on the journey.

charis