Category: Biblical Wisdom

Today is the first day of the first entire week of the New Year. 2015 is off and running. People make dozens of resolutions and break them just as quickly. We humans love the idea of changing certain aspects about ourselves or our situations, but the wanting and doing often don’t connect.

God knew this about us, so He sent us help. He became one of us. The Book of John tells us that, “the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:1 It goes onto say, “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” John 1:14

Through Jesus, God became one of us. That act changed everything. God always knew the human heart and our tendencies, but with Jesus, He became like us. There’s a huge difference between understanding how someone feels and knowing how someone feels, because we have been there. Jesus bridged the gap.

In Jesus’ time of deep agony, before he was arrested, when he was struggling with his will versus his Father’s, he told his disciples, “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Matthew 26:41

Don’t miss this because these are some seriously wise words concerning the nature of humanity. We are often willing to do things to change ourselves, our circumstance or our world. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. How many times have we promised ourselves we will start exercising or eating better? How many times have we promised ourselves that this will be the year we will read our Bible? How many times have we said that this will be our year? How often do we fail?

Perhaps we fail because we depend on ourselves, our own flesh, to succeed in our quests. Perhaps, if we take Jesus’ advice and, “keep watch and pray,” we will succeed in our endeavors. Maybe we should be praying about everything we try to begin, instead of just some things that we deem important.

And as far as keeping watch, it’s awfully easy to tune out these days. We have a dozen forms of entertainment at our fingertips and tuning out is the norm. Even when we exercise, we blare music to distract ourselves, but what if we were to keep watch as we pray and as we exercise or drive our cars? Would our results be different?

On New Year’s Eve, I took a walk. I had been downright lazy over my kids’ break from school and I felt like a slug. The day was crisp and gorgeous. As I walked, I thanked God for the day. I thanked Him for a good year and I asked for guidance going into the next. I prayed that He would show me His will and help me to follow it. As I turned around to head back up the street, I saw the most gorgeous rainbow right above my head. It was very unexpected because of the position and because the sky was so clear.

I was so stunned that I pointed it out to a neighbor pulling out of her driveway. She had to stick her head our of her car to see it, but she thought it was beautiful and kind of odd as well. We talked a few minutes and it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

I marveled as I walked, but I knew in my heart, where it had come from. Let’s make some changes that matter this year. Let’s begin by covering them in prayer and keeping watch for God. I have a feeling we will have fabulous results. Who’s with me?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Yesterday, my pastor preached a sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. It was about Judgement Day. Most of us don’t like to think about that day too much. It makes us nervous like a visit to the principal’s office, whether we did anything wrong or not. It’s kind of like when I’m driving down the road and I see a police car in my rear view mirror. I know I’m not speeding or doing anything against the law, yet still I panic a little.

Just the term, Judgement Day, makes us squirm a bit, or at least it does for me. This particular parable is the one where the King separates the sheep and the goats. The sheep are the righteous ones and he tells them, “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” Matthew 25: 35-36 The goats don’t fare so well.

I’ve read this parable many times before. But, what the pastor said next, really caught my attention. He said that the key word here comes in the next verses, and that word is, “when.” The righteous ones don’t even remember doing all of these things and why not? Are they suddenly struck with some type of dementia? Nope. Doing these things has become part of their character, part of who they are.

When we do good things for others as part of a check list, it doesn’t count. You know like, there’s a yearly can drive, I’ll give cans, check. It’s Christmas time and I really should contribute a toy to some needy child, check. Doing those things are good, of course. But, why do we do them? Do we do them because it’s a particular time of the year? Do we do them because we are supposed to?

The pastor went on to say that as we walk with Jesus, we become more like him. When we become more like him we just naturally do things like he would. We help others in need, whatever the need, physical or spiritual, just because that’s who we are, who we have become. Helping and loving others, becomes second nature to us, so much so, that if we were to be asked when we did things like feeding the hungry and tending the sick, we would ask when, because we do it all of the time.

What a concept. The whole point of accepting Jesus, is to become more like him. If we strive, daily to be more like him, then we will have nothing to fear. We are the righteous in the parable. But, I believe the key here is the heart. If we have a pure heart in our quest to serve others, a heart that has Jesus in it, then we will always be on the righteous side and I find that very comforting. How about you?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

On Sunday, our pastor told the parable of the talents as found in Matthew 25:14-30. I’ve heard the story before and you probably have too. It’s about a master who gave one guy five talents, one guy two talents and one guy one. He then left on a long journey. I always got a little lost in the parable. I don’t even know what a talent is. I have heard it explained as we are supposed to use our “God-given” talents to serve Him, but our pastor explained it in a different way.

A talent was worth a ton of money. The guy who got five would have been a multimillionaire today. So the guy who got only one would have been given a large sum of money too. The master is gone a long time and he comes back to see what the servants have done with his money. The first two put their money to work, meaning they took risks with it. The third man buried his just to keep it safe. The master is thrilled with the first two servants. They weren’t afraid to takes risks with what they had been given in order to make more. The third guy, who lived in fear of risk, didn’t fare so well. The master took his one talent and threw him out into the darkness.

This was always the point where I was kind of scratching my head. I mean, he didn’t lose what he was given . Wasn’t that enough? The answer is no. Here’s why; we are all given resources from God. How we use them matters. Playing it safe and avoiding any hard work, or risk, or ridicule, when it comes to sharing the Kingdom of God with others, is not acceptable.

He put it this way. After our lives are over and we stand before God, it isn’t acceptable to say, “I left the world just the way I found it. It’s no worse and it’s no better.” In other words, if we just choose safety by taking our kids to church on Sundays, sitting in the pew an hour, giving our tithe to the offering plate and return next week to do the same, what kind of difference have we made for the Kingdom of God?

I never thought about it that way, but the three teenagers with me were stunned by the message and totally got it. Sharing our faith can be risky. People may ridicule us for it, but as Christians, we are expected to share our faith with others. How do people see Jesus in us? Do we act any differently than the atheist down the street? Are we sharing our resources? Do we invite others to church? Is there anything about us that sets us apart from the crowd?

And there’s the rub. We like to blend. Being set apart from the crowd isn’t always easy. It’s risky, but still, that’s what we are called to do. In the end, if we are doing God’s work, it doesn’t matter what any single member of the human race thinks about us. What matters is what God thinks. If we want Him to say, “Well done, faithful servant!” then we have to be willing to take risks.

How do you do with taking risks? How are you leaving the world around you better than you found it? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

As I was dusting my house yesterday, I had to carefully turn all my plants because they all grow to one side, leaning towards the sun. In a couple of weeks, I will have to turn them again because they will have grown back towards the other side. Both of my dogs kept fighting over the big bed in the sunny window, so I finally moved the little dog’s bed too. Now they are both happy.

That particular window gets the most sun in the house, so I had to put the aloe plant there as well. It just so happens that’s also where my laptop is set up. I find that I like to write by the window that gets the most light.

All living things, including people, seem to naturally seek light. Have you ever noticed that real estate ads usually describe a house as light and airy? I rarely see, really dark with little light, in a description. We like lots of windows and lots of light.

Many people struggle in the winter months with short days and not much sunshine. I know a family who was stationed in Alaska and they had special lighting stations that people were encouraged to visit to help battle depression during the long, dark winter.

Think about how many people flock to the ocean to lie in the sun even though we know too much is not good for us.

Our souls are constantly seeking light too. Sometimes we truly believe that we have found it through our own accomplishments. Good jobs and good salaries can allow us to bask for a while. Winning races that we train for over a long period of time can allow us to bask for a while. New relationships, new houses, frankly just about anything new, can allow us to bask for a while.

The problem is the newness of anything new always wears off eventually and the light dims. We go searching for the ever elusive light somewhere else and each time we can truly believe that we have found it. And, sometimes we lose that job that provided so much self-worth or a relationship fails. Sometimes we get injured and can no longer run. When life throws us curve balls and it always does, eventually, if we have let the light in our lives be our own accomplishments, we can suddenly find ourselves in the dark, with no windows around. What will we do then?

There is another way to feed our light seeking souls. John 8:12, says, “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” That sounds promising.

1 John 5-6, says, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.”

Turns out we are wired to seek light because we are wired to seek God. God is a gentleman. He will not force us to seek Him. He will not force us to seek Jesus. He will stand back and allow us to fumble around in the darkness of our own ambitions, but why would we want to? Why not follow Jesus and never walk in darkness?

Bad things will continue to happen from time to time, but when they do, we’re not in the dark. Our light shines on. Just like the sun, that draws my pups to the window, Jesus is a constant. I think that’s light worth seeking.

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

If I were to say the names, “Adam and Eve,” to you, what comes to mind? Is it Eden? Is it the first humans ever created? Was it their sin that had them banned from Eden? Those are all facts that go along with them. They are all true. What if I were to ask you about their children? What names come to mind?

Was your answer Cain and Abel? We all know what happened to those two brothers. Cain killed Abel and was banished by God. The “bad” son killed the “good” son. But, that’s not the end of the story for Adam and Eve. They had other children. One of them is named in Genesis. His name was Seth.

We never talk about Seth. His older brothers are part of a story that’s worthy of the tabloids, but not Seth. There’s no drama in his story, but it’s very important. Here’s why; Seth grew up and had a son of his own. His name was Enosh.

After Enosh was born, the Bible says. “At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name.” Genesis 4:26

This is the Bible’s first recorded prayer. They worshiped the Lord by name. Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. Seth was 105 years old when Enosh was born. It took a couple of hundred years before they worshiped the Lord by name, but when they did, beautiful things came out of it.

Out of Seth’s lineage came Enoch. He was seven generations from Adam. “Enoch walked with God for 300 years…. Altogether , Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Genesis 5:22-24

The seventh generation from Adam through Cain, produced pure evil. The children from Cain’s lineage professed no need for God. They were completely independent and bent on destruction.

What an interesting contrast. One brother became a worshiper of God. In fact, one of his descendants became so close to God, that he didn’t even die. God just took him to heaven. The only other time we see that is with Elijah.

Cain’s descendants on the other hand, saw no need for God and reaped the benefits with a chaotic and violent existence.

So what does all this story mean for us? For one thing, God gives second chances. He gave Adam and Eve more children after they lost their first two. He also gave Cain a second chance. He didn’t kill him for what he did to his brother Abel. But, God also gives us free will. We are  not forced to love Him, worship Him, or obey Him. The choice is ours, just as it was Cain’s and Seth’s. Cain continued on a road of disastrous choices which lead to generations who came after him who did the same.

But, Seth’s son, Enosh, made good choices, such good choices, he didn’t even die, God just took him home. As parents and grandparents, we too, have the opportunity to make a huge contribution to the future of our descendants and that’s by teaching our children and grandchildren to love God. The stories of Seth and Cain illustrate what a ripple effect that sharing our faith can have for hundreds of years into the future.

Because, guess who else came from the line of Seth? Noah. Yes, the Noah who was the one man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, so much so that He used him to spare some of humanity from the flood.

What we teach our kids today about God, matters. Let’s be shining examples of the love of God for the kids in our lives whether they are related to us or not. According to Genesis, it can make all of the difference.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Back in the late eighties and early nineties, MTV used to do a weekly segment called “Unplugged.” They would take some of the most popular artists and have them do their music in an acoustic version. There were no synthesizers or electric guitars or anything electronic. It was just the artist and a microphone and a guitar or two. It sounded vastly different that the radio version of the songs, but it was fabulous, more honest somehow.

We don’t hear many artists doing unplugged versions anymore. I suspect quite frankly, that many of the current singers wouldn’t dare sing without all of the electronic assistance. The right software and accompaniment can make anyone sound great.

This unplugged concept has really been swirling around my head in regards to church. There are a lot of churches out there that are something like a Bon Jovi concert. Then there are churches that would never dream of having a service without forty robed choir members belting out angelic tunes accompanied by a piano and an organ.

Don’t get me wrong. I love music and I especially love good worship music. But, what would happen if we unplugged all of that? What if we removed all of the instruments and robes and had one lone piano and hymnals? What if we sang just a couple of songs of preparation for the message like, “Amazing Grace” or “I’ll Fly Away?” What if we were at church simply for a Biblical message from God?

If church were unplugged, would we sit on the edge of our seats, riveted by the Word of God? It seems to me that if the Bible is taught correctly, it’s riveting. It’s a love story. There are angels and demons. There are good guys and bad guys. There are battles that put, “Lord of the Rings,” to shame. People fall from grace. God gives them redemption. There’s the supernatural. There are earthquakes and floods. There’s beauty. There’s grace. There’s healing and family for all who seek it.

The stories in the Bible are so good that Hollywood merely dreams of coming up with stuff that good. But, it can’t. The Bible is truth and truth is usually way more exciting than fiction.

So, maybe we should ask ourselves why we attend church. Is it awe-inspiring? Do we want to worship God because the message is so life changing? Are we part of a loving and active faith community? Do we leave service with the desire to share the light of Jesus with the world? Are we becoming disciples? Does our church make us want to be more like Jesus?

The original church in the Book of Acts could answer yes to all of those questions. They wanted to learn about Jesus, be more like Jesus and invite others to do the same. They were unplugged, so to speak, and on fire.

Music can add so much to a church service and I’m glad we have it. But, if we were to unplug and had only the message to listen to, would it be awesome on its own? Maybe it should be. In its fight to stay relevant, the church has to stay true to the message. Maybe we should think about it.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

PS Those of you taking the gratitude challenge, you should have three things your thankful for by today. It’s not too late to start your list!

Perhaps one of the most famous speeches ever written was John F. Kennedy’s speech that contained the mantra, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” It was his inaugural speech and it was written in 1961. He asked all Americans to ask themselves that question.

I think it’s still a good question. We have drifted far away from public service. We have become a society that wants and expects to be served. We have become entitled and we often ask what the government can do for us rather than the other way around.

I think this new ideal has trickled into our churches as well. When we visit a church, our initial question is often, “What can this church offer me?” ” Are there strong youth and children’s programs?” ” Are there Sunday school classes in place?” ” Are there ongoing Bible studies?” ” What can I get out of it?”

But, perhaps the better questions are, “How could I serve in this church?” “Is there any place here where I can use my gifts and talents?” “Can I help make a difference here?” “Is this a place where I can really serve Christ?” “Can I learn more and become more like Jesus here?”

We really don’t even have to leave the church where we are to ask these questions, but they are questions that need to be asked. The heart of Christianity is love and service grows out of love. No, service doesn’t get us into heaven. But, once we know Jesus, we are supposed to want to grow to be more like him.

That requires more work and commitment  than sitting on a pew on Sunday. Jesus was a man who washed his followers’ feet. He wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty to show his love for humanity. He fed the hungry and healed the sick and touched countless lives in his short three years of ministry here on earth. In the end, he willingly paid the ultimate sacrifice with his own life. Then after the resurrection, forgave his followers who doubted him. He even cooked them a meal. Love, forgiveness and service were huge in his ministry.

So perhaps if we truly want to know Jesus better, we should try to act more like him. Maybe our first question should be, “What can I do to serve God?” If that becomes our mantra, then it spills over into church life. When we have a church full of people who are willing to serve, that spills over into our communities. It just grows bigger and bigger, until perhaps once again, we become a country full of citizens who ask themselves how they can serve their country and not the other way around. We can become a country who makes God proud.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong of the family of believers.” Galatians 6:9

What can you do to serve?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I used to believe that there are no dumb questions. I want people around me to feel free to ask anything that is on their mind. Now that I have been a substitute teacher for eight years, I have changed my mind. There are some questions that are dumb, mainly because the person asking them is intentionally trying to be a smarty pants and get a laugh from their peers.

I recently heard a pastor preach about the Sadducees trying to catch Jesus, by asking him a dumb question. What if a woman marries a man and he dies and then she marries his brother and he dies? This scenario goes on through seven brothers. They wanted to know whose wife she would be at the resurrection. It was a ridiculous question, and was intended as a trap, but Jesus answered. He told them there was no marriage at the resurrection. We all just belong to God.

The pastor went on to talk about other ridiculous questions like, was the creature who swallowed Jonah, a fish or a whale? The answer was, “What difference does it make? God got Jonah where He wanted him.” That’s a perfect answer to that question, as far as I’m concerned.

There are people who ask questions simply to hear themselves talk. They are not seekers of truth, but are more interested in causing doubt or division. That got me to thinking about prayer.

Are there dumb prayers? Maybe.

When we pray, if we act like God is a genie or a Magic 8 Ball, that might be a waste of everyone’s time. If we spend our time praying to win the Lotto; that may not be considered wise prayer.

I often hear the teenagers that I have worked with complain that God doesn’t answer their prayers. My answer has always been that He does answer prayers, but the answer is sometimes, “no.” But, the next question is, “What are you praying for?” If you are praying for another person to like you or for it to snow in August so school will be cancelled, you are not praying for the right things. This usually makes them think.

Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done. That means we should be asking for guidance, not begging for favors. We are supposed to ask for our daily bread, not for riches, which means we are supposed to ask for enough, not abundance.We are supposed to ask for forgiveness as we seek assistance in forgiving others. We are supposed to ask for strength when dealing with temptation and deliverance from evil. We are supposed to end our prayers by glorifying God.

I admit that my prayers don’t  always look like that, but I suspect we get answers to prayers following that template more than others. I think the key is God’s will, not ours. It’s about God focus not self-focus, a tricky concept in today’s society. When we pray for answers concerning His will, we will get them eventually. We sometimes have to be patient and watchful, but we will get them.

Now, I totally believe in conversational prayer and I believe that we are supposed to pray about all things that concern us. But, if we believe that God consistently denies our prayers, then maybe we need to take a good hard look at what we are praying for. Sometimes the answer is, “no,” but sometimes it’s clearly not in God’s will. If we seek His will in our lives, we may find that our prayers start looking a lot different than when we were seeking our own will. We also may find that the answers come much faster.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂