Category: Biblical Wisdom

I often have people tell me that they don’t like to read the Old Testament. They get bogged down in all of the names and places. “What’s the point?” they argue. “It’s all before Jesus, anyway.” People seem to prefer to focus on grace and that’s understandable. As Christians, Jesus is the center of our faith, but we still need to know where we come from.

There have been times when my children have questioned the point of learning history. It’s all just the past after all. Of course the answer to that argument is that if we don’t learn about the past, how can we learn from it? For example, the importance of learning about the horrors of the Holocaust and what lead to it, is so that humanity never allows it to happen again. We learn from our mistakes.

The Old Testament is full of God’s history with humanity and with His chosen people in particular. I just finished reading the little Book of Nehemiah. In thirteen short chapters, a man answers God’s calling to rebuild a wall. With deep faith, he boldly asks the king who he is in service of, for permission to go, as well as for assistance, in his journey.

Upon arrival in Jerusalem, he meets all kinds of threats and opposition. He soldiers on, knowing that this is God’s plan, not his own. God is with him and he organizes the people and the wall is built in a relatively short amount of time. God’s protection is on him. He talks to the people about repenting and returning to following God and they do. They are sad about their disobedience and they turn their lives around.

This is a success story and Nehemiah returns to the king. After some time, he returns to Jerusalem. What does he find? They are breaking many of the laws once again. They are not keeping the Sabbath. They are intermarrying with foreigners. He is furious. He calls them out and attempts to set them straight.

The book ends with Nehemiah asking God to please remember him with favor. It doesn’t end with a happy ending all nicely tied up with a bow.

What’s the point? Well, let’s see, people turn away from God and their world crumbles and they find themselves in a mess. God sends them a messenger or a leader of some type, to help them get back on the right path. They return to God for awhile. The worship wholeheartedly, for awhile. Everything is going well, for awhile. The messenger leaves or they leave. They stop worshiping and listening to God. They turn away. Their society crumbles.

Does any of this sound at all familiar? The Old Testament is full of these stories. If we focus on God, follow God, worship God as individuals, as a community, as a society, as a nation, God’s hand will remain on us. If we don’t, it doesn’t turn out very well.

The good news is, that it’s never too late. We do have the gift of grace and God always welcomes us back, but we have to take the steps to turn toward Him and not away. The Old Testament reminds us of this and I think it’s probably worth being reminded.

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

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I just had a conversation with my daughter about an AP class she will be taking next year. As she was lamenting about how difficult it will be, she commented that the teacher will lecture and she will actually have to take notes. Imagine that! There’s no Power Point presentation or videos. They will have to actually pay attention, listen carefully and take notes on the points that are important.

I mean clearly, this teacher has lost his mind. Right? That’s a crazy way to teach history. Never mind, that’s how it was taught when I was in school. I suspect some of the greatest minds around, like Bill Gates, for example, learned that way as well.

Our society has a true addiction to being entertained and our children are some of the biggest junkies. From the crib forward, they have come to expect to be entertained every waking moment of the day. And before we go casting judgement on them for expecting it, we better look in the mirror at ourselves. We have given them Leap Pads, ipads, computer games, Wii systems and limitless television channels since birth. Then we are shocked when they can’t sit still for ten minutes and draw a picture or read a book.

I’ve seen seven-year-olds with smart phones.Why does a seven-year old possibly need a smart phone? Our schools try hard to teach in an entertaining method too. They have to compete, right?

Churches have entered the fray as well. Parents will tell Sunday school leaders or youth ministers that their child doesn’t enjoy coming to church. It’s not fun for them, so they don’t attend.

Enter the mega church. It’s high energy. It’s fun. There are a ton of kids. It’s like Vacation Bible School every Sunday. Don’t get me wrong here. I love Vacation Bible School. It’s probably my favorite ministry. But, and it’s a big but; it’s an introduction to Jesus. It’s meant to plant seeds. It’s doesn’t go very deep. If you lived on vacation, it wouldn’t be vacation.

But they love it, the parents say. Kids love ice cream too, but we don’t let them eat it everyday.

I’m not saying all mega churches are superficial. I have no way of knowing that. I can say that it’s difficult to build community among thousands. I can say when there’s a paid staff to do everything, members can become complacent when it comes to service. I didn’t say they always do, just that it’s much easier to not be involved when you don’t have to. That’s simply our nature.

My mom never asked me if I wanted to go to school or church. Attendance was required at both. Whether or not I found them fun wasn’t up for discussion. Parents didn’t used to be in the business of providing fun. They were in the business of growing decent educated human beings and Christian education was considered every bit as important as school. It was an unspoken requirement.

The Bible says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6  I wasn’t constantly entertained as a child and church certainly wasn’t always fun, yet I’m still attending. Hmmmm, maybe King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was onto something when he wrote that.

I’m all for church being relevant and entertaining for kids. But in the end, as Christians, it’s about teaching the truth and sometimes that’s just not fun, neither are immunizations, but we get them because they keep us safe. Our souls need that kind of care as well.

I never met anyone who said, “I really wish I didn’t take my kids to church when they were growing up.” That’s all I’m sayin’. What are your thoughts on our entertainment addiction? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My son presented me with this drawing on Mother’s Day, right before we arrived at my parents’ house. He’s twelve years old and has never had an art lesson. We don’t have a dog like this one. He just created it. His daddy draws and paints and his sister can draw too. My sister can draw and paint. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. Seriously, their talent amazes me.

My son can also sit at the piano and bang out a tune he has heard in band. He plays the drums and has never had a piano lesson. At Christmas, I heard him tapping out “Joy to the World.” I have an uncle on my daddy’s side, who plays guitar and harmonica by ear. I have a great-aunt on my mama’s side who recently told my mom that her daddy could play piano by ear.

My son has a similar gift to his great-granddaddy. Isn’t that amazing? There are some things that seem to be genetically wired into our DNA. They are sometimes really cool things like artistic talent that we can nurture. They are sometimes bad things like cancer and alcoholism that we have to really watch out for.

Everyone’s DNA is unique to them. So everyone’s talents and weaknesses are unique to them as well. God made us that way.

We are all wired for worship. The desire to worship is in the DNA of every single human on the planet. How we worship may look very different from our friends or neighbors which makes sense. Some people would definitely prefer quiet and meditative worship over energetic praise worship. By the same token, some people are completely at home worshiping with a thousand other people, while others would be too overwhelmed for words in a huge crowd like that.

Although our worship naturally varies from person to person, our desire to worship is innate. Our children will worship everything from their friends, to their sport of choice, to their GPA if we aren’t very careful to guide them down the right path. Self-worship is another huge issue these days with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the ever-present, “selfie shot.”

As adults, we sometimes need to take a selfie of our own from time to time, a self- inventory. We know who we are supposed to worship, but who are we worshiping? Can our children tell, by the example we are setting? If they were to be quizzed about it, what would they say?  Keep in mind, kids are usually brutally honest.

The first two commandments of the ten are: 1)You must not have any other God but me. and 2)You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. I’m guessing since those two made the top of the top ten, they are important to God, and therefore should be important to us.

God knows our nature. He knows we are wired to worship because He wired us. It’s in our DNA. I think the first two commandments are there to remind us to take notice and watch ourselves and our choices. We have been given free will. The commandments remind us to choose wisely.

It’s always good to take a moment to reflect on where we are and where we are going,  just to be sure we are on the path we want to be on. If we’re not, maybe it’s time to change course. God will be happy to meet us along the way.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

It’s that time of year again, graduation. I live in a college town, so I’m really immersed. All of the stores have graduation cards and gift ideas. The invitations start arriving in the mail and it makes me remember my own high school graduation. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-six years, when in so many ways, it seems like yesterday.

High school graduation is one of those surreal life moments that’s hard to explain. They walk onto the stage as high schoolers and walk off the stage as graduates. As each student receives their diploma and steps off of the stage, a door silently closes behind them and everything is somehow different.

There’s a wide world out there and even if they want to go back, that particular door is closed forever.

We walk through many doors in our lives, high school, college, first job, marriage, parenthood and sometimes divorce. We have dreams that we sometimes realize and sometimes we leave them firmly locked behind a door.

There are times when we have closed certain doors and should leave them closed, but we are tempted to take a peek at what lies behind them. Think of things like unhealthy relationships or addiction.

Sometimes we leave doors cracked a little, so we can check out what’s on the other side at a later date. These can be things like dreams and aspirations that we haven’t realized yet, but don’t want to give up on. It may be something like going back to school or starting a new career or learning to paint. Everyone’s doors are different.

There are times when God closes a door. In the Bible, when Noah and his family boarded the ark, the scripture says, “A male and female of each kind entered, just as God commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.”

Why did God close the door? Was He trying to deprive them of something? Nope, He closed the door to keep them safe. They had no way of knowing how bad the flood would be. God told Noah that He would flood the earth and that it would rain for forty days and forty nights, but do you really think Noah and his family could truly conceptualize this? God closed the door to keep them safe.

So what can we learn from this story? When we pass through doors like high school graduation, we know they can’t be re-opened. But, when we are faced with doors that we are uncertain about, we really need to take the time to pray about going forward.

Is this particular door one that God would want closed or is this something I should pursue? Anything that’s harmful or doesn’t line up with scripture, is a pretty safe bet that we should leave shut tight. But, what about old dreams or plans? Well, sometimes God may have said, “Not now” instead of “Not ever.” Sometimes we are supposed to pursue those things.

God has plans to prosper you and not harm you. The Bible says so. So as you are walking along life’s road and encounter a door, ask God whether you should go through it or turn around and head up another path. If you are patient, He will tell you. That’s a promise.

What do you think about life’s doors. I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂