Category: Biblical Wisdom

One of my dear friends came to church yesterday with just one of her two girls with her. She was late and I could tell from across the parking lot, not happy. I said a little prayer for her sense of peace. I know she has close to never-ending battles with her middle child and if that “said child” wasn’t in church with her mom, then this morning’s battle must have been epic. To top it off, my friend is in charge of the children’s Sunday school program so it wasn’t like she could just go sit somewhere and zone out for an hour.

It seems like in many if not most families, this Sunday morning scenario is familiar. We try to get up on Sunday mornings, get or children and ourselves dressed and fed and get to church on time. But inevitably, there is chaos. From shoes that fit last week that for some unknown reason won’t fit this week, to lost socks, to the inevitable whining about being too tired to go; the assault on our ability to get to a worship service on time and in peace is an ongoing struggle from the baby years to the teen years. The reasons for all of the morning rushing, fighting and chaos may change, but the chaos itself never seems to end. I had the same conversation with another friend of mine when we were raising two and four-year olds as I had today with my friend who has pre-teens. Children who can get to school five days a week with no problem at all, can’t get out the door on Sunday morning without causing mommy to have a migraine.

I have to ask myself, why it is always this way? I remember Sunday mornings being the same way at my house when I was growing up. If we are trying to raise our children to know and love God and trying to get to a weekly worship service, why does it have to be so difficult? The answer is of course, that we are fighting a battle against evil and evil doesn’t like to lose.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10-12, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you may be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

What is he talking about? He’s telling us that as Christians, we are in an ongoing war with Satan. When you are in a war, you have to fight and you have to expect to be attacked. Satan may know that he can’t have our souls, but if he can get us as rattled and angry as possible before we get to church, maybe he can keep us from opening our hearts up to what God is trying to tell us or keep us closed off to the Holy Spirit’s nudging. You can’t really hear the message when you’re seething about something  that happened thirty minutes before you arrived. Of course his true goal would be for us to give up altogether and just stop taking our children to church period. Who wins then?

I think it’s really important for us to be aware that we are under assault. I don’t think we need to dwell on it, but if we can keep it in mind on Sunday mornings, maybe we can take some deep breaths, and refuse to give into the anger that the chaos causes. In the end, as I am standing before my heavenly father will it matter that my daughter didn’t have her hair washed or that my son wore flip-flops in December or will it matter that I took them to church, (in peace)? I need to spend some time pondering and praying about this. How about you?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Fall is bulb planting season. It’s the time to plant bulbs and the time to divide them. I love planting bulbs. When I look at them, they are just formless blobs. There’s nothing pretty or promising about them. They are really downright ugly, but then the miraculous happens. Ugly little blobs planted in the fall turn into gorgeous spring flowers. I would have a hard time believing it, if I hadn’t seen it before.

I think Jesus sees us that way. He doesn’t see the bulb; he sees the flower. He’s not concerned with what our faith walk  looks like right now. He knows the potential even if we don’t. He can see the blooms that come from the bulb and he knows that bulbs bloom over and over again, season after season.

One of my favorite examples of this is Peter. I love Peter. He was a hot head and he was always running his mouth, but Jesus knew what he would become. When Jesus met Peter, his name was Simon. He was the first disciple to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. Right after this, Jesus renamed him Petra which means the rock. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says that “upon this rock I will build my church.”  Now Jesus loved nicknames and liked to kid around with the disciples. He called James and John the sons of thunder. Did Peter think he was kidding around? Did the other disciples think he was kidding around? Were they scratching their heads thinking that Jesus had to be joking? This guy was a rock?

We really don’t get anymore insight from the text about what everyone was thinking. Peter goes on to fall asleep at Gethsemane when Jesus asked him, John and James to keep watch with him. Then of course there’s the famous denial. Jesus tells Peter he will deny him three times before the cock crows. Peter assures Jesus that he would never deny him. But he does.  At this point, it looks like Jesus may have been wrong about Peter, but thankfully Jesus is never wrong.

After the resurrection, Jesus forgives Peter and after the ascension, Peter becomes a force for  Christ to be reckoned with. Peter is there praying with the other believers at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrives on the scene and then he is close to unstoppable. He comes out of the room where all of the believers were hiding in fear and preaches to the crowd about repentance and forgiveness and adds 3,000 new believers to the church that day. (I guess it was the first mega church.) He goes on to heal people in the name of Christ. He boldly testifies at the council about Jesus. Peter becomes fearless in the spread of Christianity and an important leader in the new church. Peter is the one who takes the message to the people who weren’t Jewish, the Gentiles.  He is imprisoned at one point and an angel comes and breaks him out of prison. He becomes the rock, just like Jesus predicted.

Peter’s story gives me reassurance. It lets me know that Jesus doesn’t really care where I have been and isn’t too concerned with what I look like right now. What he does care about is where I’m going and what I can be and he’s willing to take my hand and lead the way. I may be a bulb now, but I’m on my way to becoming a blooming flower. Care to join me?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I recently re-read the creation story. The thing that’s so cool about the Bible is that it speaks to you wherever you are in your faith walk, wherever you are in your life. When I read one of the books or stories  of the Bible and then wait a few years and read it again, it speaks to me in an entirely different way. It meets me where I am. How awesome is that? It’s like a Mona Lisa with words.

What jumped out at me this time I read it was God’s very first command. He had created the heavens and the earth and it was covered in darkness and God said, “Let there be light.” We all remember this story, but do you remember what scripture says next? He saw that the light was good. What does this tell us about the nature of God? God creates good things. He loves light; it made it to the top of the list and what He creates is inherently good.

If we skip forward to the New Testament, Paul tells us that “You are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. 1 Thessalonians 5:4 NLT  Jesus, himself 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. ” John 8:12 NLT

When I Googled the word light and the Bible, my search turned up 102 verses. God seems very concerned with light verses darkness. Guess what? Light wins every time. This notion gives me great hope. Life can be pretty dark at times. Sometimes it can be pitch black, but our faith can help us overcome the darkness. Have you ever been in a completely windowless room with no light at all coming in? If you haven’t I have an experiment for you. Step in a closet or somewhere totally dark. Stay there a couple of minutes and then turn on a tiny amount of light, like a small flashlight or a led candle. It’s amazing how that little amount of light can cut through the darkness.

So as children of light, how can we combat the darkness of our world? I think we begin by lighting our own way with prayer and worship and then we share our light with others. This is the really cool part where we get to use our individual gifts that God has given each of us. Yours may be a kind word or a smile. You may be able to invite someone to dinner at your house or to church or to a Bible study. You may be called to take someone a meal. You may be called to share light through your art or on Facebook. I feel like so many of us freeze when we are asked to share the love of Christ. We cringe when we think of those folks who run around quoting scripture and  we don’t want t be labeled “one of those people.” But, we need to remember that those people are following their calling which may be entirely different than yours and that’s okay. There are so many different ways to share light; the list is possibly endless. I think God designed it that way.

You are the only one who can share light in your own wonderful, unique way. How will you share it today? Ready, set, go!

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My family has always had dogs. We love them and just can’t live without them. They make us happy. Because we have dogs, we have always had  a fence around the yard. Not only does the fence keep them in and safe from being run over by a car, it also keeps predators like coyotes out. Our fence also keeps deer from eating my hydrangeas and hostas. When you put work and money into growing something, you don’t want just anything coming along and destroying it, right?

Our current fence is a simple field fence. When we put it in, it was really plain and ugly, but over time, parts of it have been covered with honeysuckle vine that smells wonderful in the spring. Other parts have been covered with wild muscadine vine that produces very sweet, edible grapes in the fall. We didn’t plant these vines; they just grew. We can hardly see the fence itself anymore.

As I was checking out the fence the other day, it reminded me of the Bible in our lives. When we first start reading it, it can seem confining like a fence to keep us in. There are rules and things we as Christians, are not supposed to do. But if we keep reading it, we find that the rules are meant to keep us safe inside God’s plan and will for our lives and just as importantly, it keeps predators out, not just the really scary kind like coyotes, but the kind that seem gentle like deer, but still want to harm or destroy the good things we have planted. When we read the Bible regularly, the fence starts to fade and we no longer see it because it’s covered with the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Those are found in Galatians 5:22 if you want to look them up. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What would the world look like if we all produced that kind of fruit? I think it has to start with reading the Bible. If we want to be at peace, live in joy, have patience with our kids, spouse, co-workers, neighbors, if we want to learn to be faithful in all that we do, if we want to learn self-control (this includes no extra piece of cake after 9:00, otherwise known as will power!), if we want to learn to be a gentler person or a kinder person or even a better person, the Bible is a great place to start.

I know, it’s easy to get bogged down and can be difficult to read, but try an updated version like the NLT or The Message. Try for just one chapter a day. Get a buddy to commit to read it with you. That’s what I do. Keep at it and watch the fruit grow!

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My hubby and I teach a middle school Sunday school class. Yikes! Right? Our son is in the class, so it’s not quite as scary as it sounds. We were recently talking about Joseph. You remember him; the coat of many colors guy. As we were preparing the lesson, it struck me that this kid went through some really tough times. Yes, he was a bit of a brat in the beginning, but at 17 he was sold by his brothers and sent to a foreign land where he didn’t speak the language or know the customs. Then he was put in charge of a high official’s house. Things were looking up. He was comfortable and cared for, then the man’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. He did the “right thing” and turned her down. She falsely accused him of attacking her and he got thrown into prison. This guy couldn’t catch a break.

As I re-read the Joseph story, I thought of how often bad things seem to happen for no good reason. I thought about how sometimes when life is dark, we pray and pray for deliverance, but God doesn’t appear to be listening. He doesn’t get us a better job, or change our spouse, or change our financial situation; I’m sure you have your own blank to fill in here. The point is sometimes, when we are in a valley and we find ourselves praying diligently for a way out, God leaves us where we are, just like Joseph, but it turns out that he is listening. He throws us a lifeline.

In Genesis 39:2 NIV, it says, “The Lord was with Joseph so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.” Then when he was in prison, “But the Lord was with Joseph in prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.” Genesis 40:21 NIV God didn’t rescue Joseph because he needed him to be right where he was. He didn’t remove him from the situation, but he helped him. He intervened.

Joseph was a piece in a huge puzzle of God’s making. He went on to save what was to become the entire nation of Israel from starving to death. He didn’t know it at the time and it couldn’t have been easy for him. Joseph’s story makes me re-evaluate my valley times. How do I do during these times? Do I pray and keep the faith? Do I get angry and give up? Do I feel sorry for myself? Do I feel that God has abandoned me?

In hindsight, I can see that I have never walked alone, even though it may have felt that way at the time. In the future, I pray that I can remember Joseph’s story and that the Lord is always with me, no matter where I am or what I am going through. How do you do in your valley times?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

We live in a world that is pretty bleak at the moment. Just turn on the news and in the first five minutes, there will be reports on school shootings, a bad economy, random acts of violence, corrupt leaders and the Middle East is in turmoil, again. With the situation looking so dark, we may sometimes wonder if anything good that we may do is even worth it. Is it possible for one person to make a difference in this crazy mixed up world? What’s the point? Let’s take a look at Noah. Genesis 6 tells us that the world was filled with corruption and violence. Hmmm, does this sound familiar? God was done with mankind and was sorry He even created us. He was prepared to wipe us off of the face of the earth, but… But is such a tiny word with huge meaning. Verse 8 says, “But Noah found favor with the Lord.” Way to go Noah! It goes onto say that he was a righteous man and the only blameless person living on earth at the time and he walked in close fellowship with God. So even in His anger, God was looking for one good man (or woman). God wanted to find good in humankind and He did. That one good man, just one, gave God hope for the rest of us. Noah gives me a tremendous amount of hope. Noah tells me that God looks for the good in everyone and if we walk in close fellowship with him, we are pleasing Him. How can we do that? I think prayer is a good start. If we are praying regularly, then we can hear Him. Then we should follow His example and search for the good in everyone. As I write this, I know I have a lot of work to do, but I can make a difference and so can you.  Seeing good in everyone is a tall order. Thanks to grace, I can fail. All I have to do is try my best and let God do the rest. How can you make a difference to someone today? Have an awesome day! Wendy 🙂