Wow! Must Have Surely Been From God!

This link shows how 'time appropriate' God is!  It seems our President has now instructed the Attorney General no longer to use the resources of the Justice Dept. to defend the Marriage Defense Act.  God help us.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gay_marriage_analysis

Context

I have been thinking a lot lately about how society seems to have seized upon the idea that whatever we decide is 'normal' is indeed normal and a suitable and acceptable lifestyle.  Biblical marriage is, and has been for many years, under constant attack from the Deceiver and his minions. 

The decade of the sixties introduced 'free love' to our vocabulary, as though love had been bought with a price prior to that.  Suddenly, it was free and there for the taking.  Just where do you suppose that idea originated?

As a matter of fact, the idea that our bodies are purchased with a price is Scriptural in origin.  The last nine verses of the sixth chapter of  1 Corinthians deals with this very subject. 

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

How about that?  It turns out that we are indeed purchased with a price.  The Amplified Bible expresses verses 19 and 20 thusly: 

19 Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
20 You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.

I like this translation because it makes it so crystal clear that not even the most educated liberal can misunderstand the meaning!  Paul clearly states to the Corinthian church in verse 19 that the body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who lives within.  The Mirriam-Webster online dictionary defines a sanctuary as a consecrated place, a place of refuge or protection.  So, when we become a Christian, our physical body becomes the consecrated residence of the Holy Spirit and is to be His refuge and protected place of abode here on earth.

Verse 20 continues to say that same body was "bought with a price" or purchased with a preciousness and paid for.  Wow!  Purchased with a preciousness and paid for.  The transaction was completed.  A precious price was paid for the Christian body, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit of God. 

St. John 19: 30 says

 ³⁰ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

The transaction was completed and Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, gave up His spirit; that same Spirit He had told the Disciples about that would become our Comforter in St. John 16: 7. 

Those who would have us believe we can pervert the God-ordained use of our body and do as we please without repercussions is lying and too many are buying into the lie and paying a heafty price for their deception.  We have been told marriage is outdated, we can just co-habitate and enjoy the benefits without the commitment.  We're so shallow and eager to satisfy our flesh that we swallow any lie the Deceiver feeds us.

The pretty girl in the office or the nice looking man who works in the corner office are fair game if they show interest.  And, if they don't show interest, well then perhaps we should just encourage them a bit.  We pay no heed to the fact that he's married and has children or that she is single and completely unavailable outside the boundaries of marriage.  We have become so perverted in our desires to satisfy our flesh that we have even decided individuals of the same sex are appropriate partners for our 'enjoyment'.

That, however, is not what God has to say about this subject.  Romans 1: 18-32 expresses it thusly in the New American Standard translation:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Do not these verses describe society today?  God revealed to Paul, and to other Biblical writers, exactly what would happen when man willfully walked away from His ways and perverted His ordained purpose for His creation.  Yet, in the midst of so much perversion and sinfulness, there remains a remedy.  In Isiah 1:17-19, God reaches out to sinful man and offers that remedy.

17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
18 "Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD,
"Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
19 "If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;

Jesus Christ completed the transaction on the Cross of Calvary.  Nothing more needs to be done other than for the individual to accept the sacrifice, ask for forgiveness and turn from his sin to the sinless Saviour.  Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.  However, note the qualifying closing verse....IF you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land.  IF.....perhaps the biggest little word ever written, spoken or translated.  Man must meet God's requirements in order to experience His peace and presence.

We often ask "What in the world is happening to our world today" or "What in the world is going on".  The answer is simple, man has forsaken the God of the universe to go whoring after fleshly pleasures.  We have perverted the use of the body and have defiled the God-designed sanctuary of His Holy Spirit.  Things will not get better until we confess our sin and turn back to His way.

I John 1: 8-10 gives us instruction:

8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

May God help us to turn from our wickedness and return to our Creator.

I Digress..........



"The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts."

Proverbs 17:3 (NASB)

I am supposed to be writing about the characteristics of God right now.  However, it's just not what is in my heart this morning and if I have learned anything over these years of walking with Jesus, it is that I must follow what the Lord places on my heart.  There is always a reason he put it there and always a reason for me to share it.  Therefore, I digress.........

I took a drive into the local small town late yesterday afternoon.  The weather here has been so nice of late.  It has folks out into their yards and preparing for spring.  Many were raking leaves and/or burning leaves.  I have always hated this time of year.  I don't like fire, haven't since I was a young person and arrived at my Maw McDonald's house on the school bus to find the rear of her house on fire.  It was a tramatic event as those left on the bus piled off to try to fight the fire.

We lived in a very rural area and there was no fire department for many miles.  Her only hope was that the kids on the bus could fight the fire and get it out.  She didn't have an outdoor hydrant so the only way to get water to the fire was to hold a garden hose up to the kitchen sink faucet and run it out and around the house to the fire.  The smoke was thick in the kitchen, but someone had to stay there to hold the hose.  I was the someone appointed to do that job.

As others grabbed furniture and began emptying the house of Maw's possesions or helped fight the fire, I stood there holding the hose, coughing and becoming more and more light headed as the smoke thickened and breathing became more and more difficult.  Finally, the fire was extinguished and the smoke began to clear.  I was hot and soaked with my own sweat and the spewing water from the faucet.  I was short of breath and black with the smoke residue.

Since that day, I have hated fire.  Terry always wanted to rake and burn the leaves and burn off other areas around the yard every year about this time.  I simply would not participate and wouldn't even be home when he did it.  He finally gave up the practice completely because it caused me such angst.

As I drove yesterday, I remembered how I felt while standing in Maw's kitchen holding that hose and breathing all that smoke and feeling the heat of the flames only several feet from me.  I was so uncomfortable, afraid and frantic.  That's how I often feel when God is applying the refining fires of trials and testing to my life.  How many times have I walked on through the flames of the refining fire with those emotions running wild within me?  Too many to remember at one sitting.

Frantic for the trial to pass, afraid of what the outcome will be, feeling pressed to get on with it, as though the heat of some spiritual flame is licking at my mind.  At times, almost in a panic with fear for how I should proceed or simply paralyzed by that same fear into just standing still and refusing to make a decision to move in any direction.  Hearing the din of noise around me as people go on with the activities of their own lives while I feel as though my life is in limbo.  Wondering when, or if, I will ever feel safe again.

Yes, those feelings are all too familiar to me.  I'll bet you've experienced them as well, huh?  Isn't it strange how we can profess such love and devotion for God while our little life is running so smoothly, yet at the first sign of a bump in our road, we panic and start to think of desertion?  That's what I was thinking back in my Maw's kitchen.  I was there and standing my ground, but every thought in my mind was directed at how I could escape my perdicament.  My body was present, but my heart and mind surely were not.

Too many times in my walk with Jesus I have been in the same place spiritually.  My body was there, but my heart and my mind surely were not.  With every breath, I was contemplating how I might escape my perdicament.  The harder I struggled against my confinement, the longer the struggle continued. 

I argue with God....but God, this is NOT how it's supposed to be!  I bargain with God....but God, I'll do this, this and this if you'll just do this!  I beg God...but God, please; I've done my best to live right, to do right, to think right; please, please, please can't you just do this one thing for me?!  When all else fails, I give God orders....ok God, I've just had enough of this now; I KNOW your word, you say this, this and this and I've done that, that, and that and NOW you're going to do this for me!

How arrogant can one become?!  To think I have the right to pass out orders to the God of the Universe; to tell the God who created me what I am going to have and what He is going to do for me!  My goodness, I'm surprised sometimes that God hasn't just struck me with a lightning bolt and ended my little tantrums!  What a disrespectful and assuming child I am!

We are often told that we see God with relation to how we see our earthly father.  Well, I can tell you one thing for sure, if I had acted with my earthly father the way I sometimes act with God, as Momma used to say, my pants wouldn't hold corn shucks!  Daddy would have worn both me and my britches out!  Yet, here is my Heavenly Father who looks down on me and knows me for who I am becoming, not who I am.  He loves me for my childish efforts to love him and honors my effort.

So, he allows me my tantrums, lets me 'get it off my chest'; then, he fills my unthankful, unholy heart with so much love and forgiveness that I am consumed with sorrow for the way I have reacted.  I am remorseful for my response to his effort to reach out to me with an opportunity to grow in his love and practice grace.  Then, I understand that his refining fire is not a source of something to be feared, but the source of his outstretched arms of love to grow to be more like my Father.  To slough off the debris of legalism, judgemental attitudes, envy, jealousy, anger, disdain, haughtiness, unfaithfulness...all the things which I allow to seep into my heart and become an obstruction to the flow of his love through me to those around me. 

                  

Then, he allows me to repent.  What a love my Father has for me!  No recriminations, no shaking his finger in my face, no yelling or accusing, just open arms that reach out to me with love and forgiveness.  Arms eager to enfold me and draw me to himself, to encourage me and remind to walk away from myself and further into him. 

There, in the safety of his arms, I know I have grown and he is pleased with me.  He whispers his love to my heart, his spirit gently carresses my spirit and I know the next test will come.  I also know I will struggle.  But more than anything else, I know he will love through it and, at the end, he will once again wrap his arms around me and I will have grown more into him.

"Therefore my beloved brethren....be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; .....but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...."

2 Peter 3: 14, 15, 18 (NASB)

A Trinity of One

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Psalm 84:11

In my previous post, I invited you to come along with me as I introduce you to Jesus Christ, the sinless Savior.  In order to properly understand who Jesus is, you must understand who God is.  You may have heard God referred to as "the triune God" or "the God-head".  You may have also heard the term 'trinity' in reference to God.  Although the term trinity is not found in the Bible, the concept is clear in Scripture.  There are three separate and distinct persons of God.  They operate individually and each has an individual purpose in eternity.  However, each is uniquely and divinely God.

In Genesis 1:26 we find the following: "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." So, humans were created by God as a triune individual...mind, body and spirit. We are one person with three parts; each part is necessary in order for us to function in the capacity for which we were created.  The Gospel of Matthew names the persons of the triune Godhead: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” (Matthew 28:19). In these Scripture references, we see God the Father (the mind of God), Jesus Christ as God the Son (the embodiment of God) and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost as God the Holy Spirit (the spirit of God), to whom Jesus referred as the Comforter.

So, just who is God the Father?  Genesis 1:1 introduces us to Elohim, a reference to God's power and might.  He was there before creation and will remain after all things temporal are past, from everlasting to everlasting.  (Psalms 90:2)  In Revelation 1:8, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the One who was, who is and and who is to come, or the Almighty (Gen. 17:1). 

Other names of God include eternal God and dwelling place (Deut. 33:27); a God who sees (Gen. 16:13); our guide (Ps. 48:14); the Redeemer of Israel or the Holy One of Israel (Is. 49:7), I AM (Ex. 3:14); a jealous God (Ex. 34:14); our judge, lawgiver, king and savior (Is. 33:22).  For a more indepth look at the many names of God, please visit this link:  http://www.smilegodlovesyou.org/names.html .

If we accept God the Father as the God head and we understand his numerous names, then we are compelled to learn more about his character if we are to trust him. I will go into the characteristics of God in my next post.  I urge you to take your own Bible and run the Scripture references. 

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the "Comments" section.  If you feel you can and want to add anything to what I am saying, please leave those comments as well.  Should I choose to use your suggestions, you will be given credit in the post for which they are used.  I look forward to our next 'meeting' and sharing and learning more about our awesome God!

From Sixteen to Eternity

Earlier on Saturday evening I made a short trip into Middleton to pick up sandwiches for our dinner.  I'd had a bad day with my tummy and just could not face cooking.  I grabbed a couple of sandwiches and headed home.  As I drove, I listened to the "Oldies but Goodies" station on the radio.  I am myself now an "oldie but goodie" you know! (It's ok, you can laugh now, got a good smile out of that one myself!)

Me and Terry in my 16th summer!

I was driving along humming and singing when an old favorite came on...Ringo Starr...You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful and You're Mine.  Oh my, in my mind's eye I was back in my parent's back yard.  It was a warm summer's day, Terry's car was parked near the hydrant, the 8-track player was blaring, we were running circles around the car and I was squealing as we 'washed his car'!  I could hear his voice so clearly as he chased me with the water hose and our laughter as he 'caught' me.  It was my 16th summer and I was most certainly HIS!

As I drove, I thought about that summer and the awe of being 16 and in love.  It was 1974 and it was the summer he asked me to marry him.  Everything in my life was so good, pain and heartache seemed like emotions that belonged in some other world.  I had had them in my life, but he had helped to wipe them all away.  He sheltered me and protected me from them now.  How could they ever touch my life again?  I was blissful just to be in his presence and had no doubt he would always be there for me.

We had a wonderful life together, but it ended much too soon.  As much as he loved me and wanted to be there for me, his body simply could not keep the promise his heart made.  God had other plans.  So, two years ago he went home to be with Jesus and I was left here to try to make sense of it all.  The only problem with all that is that it made no sense whatsoever.  And, as long as I looked at it from a human prespective, it never would.  When I began to try to see it as God sees it, it began to make better sense.  It still hurt, still does.  I still miss him every single day of my life and wish he was back here with me.

However, I do now understand more about how God uses pain in our lives to grow us in His love and a better understanding of what His plans are for us.  You see, I had become a Christian when I was 11 years old.  When I met Terry and fell in love with him at such a young age, I stopped trusting God for my strength and purpose in life and started looking to Terry for that.  Even with that misunderstanding of what God wanted from our relationship, He still allowed us to be together for over 35 years.  What an amazing God we serve!

Over our years together, we faced a lot of pain and heartache.  Sometimes I dealth well with it and at others, I failed miserably.  I learned more about God and who He really is and what He really wants from me.  Yet, when it came time to let Terry go with Jesus, I had such a difficult time understanding and accepting God's will.  At first, I thought it was a flaw in me or a lack of faith.  Then, I realized that it was completely human for me to be feeling the emotions I was feeling and to be experiencing the questions that filled my mind.

Thankfully, the God I serve is not the God I grew up thinking He was.  He was not sitting in heaven waiting to rap my hands when I messed up or pronounce harsh judgments on me when I failed.  Quite to the contrary, He was, indeed, in heaven loving me and forgiveing me and holding me tenderly through my pain.  He wasn't angry with me when I questioned him.  He was patiently waiting for me to reach the place when I could ask of Him what I needed in order to walk forward through this valley I was facing.  What an amazing and awesome God we serve!

So, ask I did!  Every single day, many times on most days, I asked.  Sometimes I asked the same questions over and over again.  He never got impatient with me, He never chided me, He never punished me.  Instead, He loved me....He just loved me more and more and held me closer and closer!  Isn't that the picture you would want to have of your God?  Don't you want to serve a God who understands you, who holds you even more closely when you're hurting, who is waiting for you to figure out the questions so He can give you the answers?

If your answer is 'yes', then I would like the opportunity to introduce you to Jehovah God through His Son, Jesus Christ, who lived, bled, died and rose again on the third day in order to bring you into right relationship with your Creator God.  Please join me over the next few posts as I introduce you to Jesus Christ, the sinless Savior and only begotten Son of the Living God. 

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,

but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. "

                                                                                  Matthew 1: 18-25 (NASB)