Deuteronomy 10: 20-21
20 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. 21 He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. (KJV)
20 Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. (NIV)
20 You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and by His name and presence you shall swear. 21 He is your praise; He is your God, Who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen. (Amplified)
You find this scripture after Moses was in Mount Horeb with God receiving the Ten Commandments the second time. Something about these verses caught my attention. I love in verse twenty where it says "to him shalt thou cleave", or as it says in the Amplified, "cling to Him".
I have a picture of me holding on for dear life. I've had those moments in my life. Sometimes that's all we can do is just hold on for dear life. I think I shared once before a quote I read in someone's blog that said "If I didn't need Him so much I would be tempted to turn away." I need Him. I can't make it without Him. Sometimes though, all I can do is just hold on.
The Lord has shown me recently that that's exactly what He wants from me. He doesn't need us trying to fix things. In fact, I have found that is when God has been able to do the most in my life. During those times that I am completely clueless and all I can do is hold on to Him. When we get out of the way and lose ourselves in Him, it is then He is able to perform the greatest things in our lives.
Recently I have had on my heart more than ever the picture of what our relationship with Christ is supposed to be. The word "cleave" in this scripture just reminds me more and more of it. We (the church – Christians) are the bride of Christ. When you think of a marriage you can see such a perfect picture of our relationship with the Lord. When you are first married (or first come to know Christ as your Savior) you are just giddy. Almost annoying to other people. Over time, that excitement and fire begins to die down. You also know that within that marriage there will be good times and bad times. In fact, it's in the vows. It's the same with our relationship with Christ. There will be hard times. There will also be times of overwhelming joy.
Sometimes I find myself so skeptical of marriage because it seems like overwhelmingly most people are not happy in their marriage. That scares the life out of me. I wouldn't want to live that way. Then I see a couple who is happily married. My mother's pastor and his wife have been married over 60 years.
Y'all. That's a long time.
They are amazing because they still genuinely care for each other and still love being with each other. The point is that it wasn't always easy. It takes work. It doesn't just happen.
I think it's probably harder to have a marriage like that than to just give up. I think the reward is worth the extra effort.
Isn't it the same with Christians? I meet Christians all the time that are just tired. They're in that rut. They've lost that fire. They have forgotten that first love.
It bothers me that I'm in that same category so many times. The thing is, though, we don't have to be like that. Our relationship with Christ does not have to be something of misery. It can be great joy every day….even in the hard times.
How we live and approach our relationship with Him does truly matter. I was talking with someone yesterday who put it so well. Jesus is somebody. He has real feelings. He is heartbroken by our unfaithfulness and disobedience. He hurts when we hurt and rejoices when we rejoice.
I always go to great lengths to make sure no one is disappointed in me and that no one is upset with me. There's nothing wrong with making sure you are a liked person, but if you're like me it can create a great deal of unnecessary stress in your life. I have started approaching this subject very similarly to the way I approach dating. If He loves the Lord the way I desire for my future husband to, he will be all the other things that are important in a relationship. (i.e. trustworthy, loving, respectful, etc) In my life, my first priority is to please God. I want my life to be favorable to Him. If I'm living according to His will, everyone around me will still like me and not be disappointed in me, possibly more than before. If they don't like it, they probably aren't someone I want as an influence on me in my close circle of friends.
I will admit though, that I fail Him miserably so many times. My mind is a constant struggle since by nature I am a negative person. I constantly lean on the side of negativity.
Verse twenty-one gives us a little bit of hope and insight on how to fight those negative thoughts off.
I don't know one single person that God hasn't performed a mighty work in their life….even if they don't admit it.
I've seen God do so many wonderful things in my life that I don't even know where to start with the list. The KJV and Amplified uses the word "terrible" but the NIV translates it into awesome. That's a word I only use when something truly just knocks me off my feet.
That verse says He is your praise, He is your God. He is my praise. He's the very reason I have something to be thankful for. He's the only thing in my life that is praiseworthy. Anything else that is great is just a result of His unfailing mercy and grace.
Lord, help me to keep my eyes on you. Help me to remain faithful in my relationship with you. Help me to not be seduced by unfaithful thoughts. Help me to remember that first love. Help me to recall all the joy in my life by thinking only on the good things just as your Word instructs me to do. Help me, Lord, to dwell on the fact that You are always faithful. Thank You for Your sacrifices, Your love, mercy and grace. Thank You. Thank You for understanding that in my weakness all I can do is hold on sometimes. Thank you for reminding me that that's enough…it's what you want me to do. I completely surrender my will and will follow You and Your desires for my life.
Friday, September 19, 2008
A merry heart does good like medicine.
Tuesday was a much needed day of laughter for me. It seemed like all day long there was something to make me laugh. God always knows when you need those days.
The news of Ray Boltz has spread pretty quickly and I won't really get into those details but I had lunch with T and K on Tuesday and one of them said the funniest thing I have heard in a long time.
T: "Did you hear about Ray Boltz?"
Me: "Yes. I can't believe that."
K: "Ray Boltz? Is he the one that sang the song about the squirrel?"
Me: "No. That would be Ray Stevens."
Y'all. I laughed at that for the rest of the day. She will probably kill me for posting this, but I couldn't stand it any longer. It was definitely one of those moments worth sharing.
Poor K. The sad thing is that she was the Valedictorian of her class.
What was funny the rest of the day?
Well, I don't know that anyone else would find it humorous, but I thought it was funny.
A door was opened for me to have a spiritual conversation with someone in my office that is currently not in church and that is doing some searching in her life. We were talking about heaven and hell and the realities of them both, which she is very aware of. Somehow, we began discussing how a church here in town does Judgment House and I told her it would be a neat thing to take her 12 year old son to and she would probably enjoy it too.
Someone who is involved with that works in my office and in the process of this whole thing, I have been recruited to be in it this year, which is pretty cool. I asked her if they were using the guy that played Jesus the first year I went. I don't know what Jesus looks like, but this guy looked like him. He was just awesome! He truly gave me a very small taste of what it would be like the first time we see Jesus face to face. I left there bawling. It's still something that is forever etched in my heart.
Since there have been 3 men playing the part since I've been attending we were just confusing each other. As it would turn out though, one of them is single and she offered to fix me up with him.
I respectfully declined.
Y'all.
Can you imagine dating Jesus? Or even more, marrying Jesus? How do you argue with Jesus? You couldn't even use the line "What would Jesus do?" (Well, honey, I'll tell you what I would do.)
In no time half the office was in this with one-liners that were so funny my stomach was hurting by the time my break ended.
The newest joke around my office now is that if they can't even get me to date Jesus, they're never going to find anyone good enough.
The news of Ray Boltz has spread pretty quickly and I won't really get into those details but I had lunch with T and K on Tuesday and one of them said the funniest thing I have heard in a long time.
T: "Did you hear about Ray Boltz?"
Me: "Yes. I can't believe that."
K: "Ray Boltz? Is he the one that sang the song about the squirrel?"
Me: "No. That would be Ray Stevens."
Y'all. I laughed at that for the rest of the day. She will probably kill me for posting this, but I couldn't stand it any longer. It was definitely one of those moments worth sharing.
Poor K. The sad thing is that she was the Valedictorian of her class.
What was funny the rest of the day?
Well, I don't know that anyone else would find it humorous, but I thought it was funny.
A door was opened for me to have a spiritual conversation with someone in my office that is currently not in church and that is doing some searching in her life. We were talking about heaven and hell and the realities of them both, which she is very aware of. Somehow, we began discussing how a church here in town does Judgment House and I told her it would be a neat thing to take her 12 year old son to and she would probably enjoy it too.
Someone who is involved with that works in my office and in the process of this whole thing, I have been recruited to be in it this year, which is pretty cool. I asked her if they were using the guy that played Jesus the first year I went. I don't know what Jesus looks like, but this guy looked like him. He was just awesome! He truly gave me a very small taste of what it would be like the first time we see Jesus face to face. I left there bawling. It's still something that is forever etched in my heart.
Since there have been 3 men playing the part since I've been attending we were just confusing each other. As it would turn out though, one of them is single and she offered to fix me up with him.
I respectfully declined.
Y'all.
Can you imagine dating Jesus? Or even more, marrying Jesus? How do you argue with Jesus? You couldn't even use the line "What would Jesus do?" (Well, honey, I'll tell you what I would do.)
In no time half the office was in this with one-liners that were so funny my stomach was hurting by the time my break ended.
The newest joke around my office now is that if they can't even get me to date Jesus, they're never going to find anyone good enough.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Don't Mess With Me
It's been a while since I've written something funny or personal. I have to share a funny story from the weekend.
To give you a little background, last week my cousin Tabitha sent me a message telling me that things were great in her life and she had a new boyfriend. Being the older cousin, I replied back and asked who gave her permission to have a boyfriend. Being younger and quicker on her feet than I, she replied "Who told you that you couldn't have one?"
I may have had some diet coke exit the mouth when I read it. Oh yes, it was funny. Especially when you know how much my family talks about my being single. If I ever get married, they'll have nothing to talk about. See, I'm keeping the conversations going.
Anyway, I saw the sweet little cousin on Sunday and I told her I'd get her back. She and her brother, along with a couple other friends went four wheeler riding and I told the guy she rode with to feel free to rough her up a little.
Y'all.
I am not telling anything that she hasn't given me permission to tell, but y'all.
I couldn't believe it.
So, the story goes that she needed to use the bathroom. Obviously there aren't any Texaco stations at the creek or in the middle of the woods and so she didn't something I would never dream of doing.
Oh yes ma'am. She did.
Right there in the open, she assumed the position. While in this compromising position, she must have lost her balance and decided the best thing to grab was the muffler. Again....oh yes ma'am. She did.
She came home with a burnt hand and probably some sand in some unpleasant areas.
So the moral of the story is, don't mess with me.
And the other moral is, don't squat outside behind a four wheeler, lose your balance and grab a muffler.
And the third moral is it's tough being a woman. This kind of thing never happens to men.
Thanks for the laugh Tab!
To give you a little background, last week my cousin Tabitha sent me a message telling me that things were great in her life and she had a new boyfriend. Being the older cousin, I replied back and asked who gave her permission to have a boyfriend. Being younger and quicker on her feet than I, she replied "Who told you that you couldn't have one?"
I may have had some diet coke exit the mouth when I read it. Oh yes, it was funny. Especially when you know how much my family talks about my being single. If I ever get married, they'll have nothing to talk about. See, I'm keeping the conversations going.
Anyway, I saw the sweet little cousin on Sunday and I told her I'd get her back. She and her brother, along with a couple other friends went four wheeler riding and I told the guy she rode with to feel free to rough her up a little.
Y'all.
I am not telling anything that she hasn't given me permission to tell, but y'all.
I couldn't believe it.
So, the story goes that she needed to use the bathroom. Obviously there aren't any Texaco stations at the creek or in the middle of the woods and so she didn't something I would never dream of doing.
Oh yes ma'am. She did.
Right there in the open, she assumed the position. While in this compromising position, she must have lost her balance and decided the best thing to grab was the muffler. Again....oh yes ma'am. She did.
She came home with a burnt hand and probably some sand in some unpleasant areas.
So the moral of the story is, don't mess with me.
And the other moral is, don't squat outside behind a four wheeler, lose your balance and grab a muffler.
And the third moral is it's tough being a woman. This kind of thing never happens to men.
Thanks for the laugh Tab!
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