Where is everybody?

No one showed up for the feast…………

In the news this weekend, I read about a grandfather who invited his six grandchildren to dinner. He made enough hamburgers for each of them to have two. He made plenty for everyone. Only one of the grandchildren showed up. Grandpa did say it could have been a miscommunication and they would try again. He missed his grandchildren. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to see them, spend time with them, share a meal together, reach out to them and ease his own loneliness. He was grateful for the one, but the empty seats at the table was more painful than the joy brought by the one.

I needed that story. You see, I had a party too, and very few showed up. Last weekend, my family threw our big annual birthday bash. We have 3 birthdays in a row in our family so we combine them for one big celebration. We just moved last year closer to all of our friends and church family, so we were really excited about everyone who said they were coming to the party. We bought a feast! We prepared all the food in advance that could be prepared and stocked the cooler full of drinks. We cleaned the garage for the first time in a year and cleaned the house for the first time in what seemed like a year. We cleaned till we could clean no more, mopped the floors, washed the windows, vacuumed carpets, and finished the construction project on a new bedroom. The table was prepared even for folks who have been our enemies at times.

The night before the party, the phone calls started trickling in. One person said her children were sick with the flu. Another person said she overbooked herself and couldn’t make it. And the calls continued to pour in the next day. Some were sick. Some changed their plans and broke commitments. And others just plain didn’t call or message and got the wrong date. One right after another, our feast fell apart. Only those who always showed up when we lived at the old house were the ones to show up this year as well even though we are 30 minutes farther away from those particular people. They were still loyal, still there for us.

Jesus said in Luke 14:16-18a, 21-24, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.

                “Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Master, what you command has been done, and still there is room.’
                “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

I get it! I’ve been bitter towards this world. The news is full of every reason to cross my arms and turn my back. Because people are so thickly calloused (even Christians), I feel my own heart growing cold. The grandpa in the first story chose to consider possible reasons why his beloved grandchildren didn’t show up for the feast and he will try again. The master in Luke kept trying as well. Most days, I can hardly stand my own children’s bad attitudes toward each other. I don’t have reserves for witnessing to the lost who have every lame excuse in the book and under the sun about why they hate Jesus and Jesus lovers.

God has prepared a feast, folks!!!! He has spared no expenses! He has thought of every lavish thing beyond our comprehension to bestow his love upon us! He pulled out all the stops. He owns E-V-E-R-Y-C-R-E-A-T-E-D-T-H-I-N-G. He’s richer than Donald Trump or than Steve Jobs ever was. He MADE the soil upon which mansions are built. He has prepared a table before you in the presence of your enemies to lavish you there and show them the better choice you have made by choosing HIM. You have absolutely everything when you choose Him. Your rags here may not show it, but your time here is short. God makes longer term investments in us than we do in ourselves. You are not God. You’re not even A god. God so wants to be with you, to love on you, to reveal his glory and majesty to you, to celebrate life and friendship and companionship with you. He’s not going to bring the party to your throne on your terms. He has invited you to HIS HOUSE, to HIS feast! I know how he feels. Only a few are faithful. Only a few will come. His riches won’t run out or wear out. There is plenty for everyone.

But everyone has an excuse.

Good Friday Refuted

I want to talk about something that has misguided many believers in Christ and is only gaining momentum. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it limited to ONE of the many things that fit this description. It’s this thing called Good Friday. I will no longer remain silent as I have up to now for the sake of keeping the peace with the brethren. It can be easily refuted as it is based on a simple misunderstanding and poor computation.

I’ve very patiently listened to my brothers and sisters in Christ, so please afford me the great patience I have shown you. You see, in the Bible, John 19 emphasizes the fact that Jesus was slain on “the Jewish day of preparation.” Without a right understanding of the biblical holy days, one only has a basic understanding of the weekly Sabbath at best. However, embedded in the holy days are annual Sabbaths as well. Any time there is a Sabbath day, be it annual or weekly, the day leading up to it is a “day of preparation.” In the case of Passover, John 19 is describing the day leading up to Passover because Passover is an ANNUAL Sabbath.

Unfortunately, more and more believers are taking misguided teachers at their word, and coming to believe it for themselves, and thus perpetuate the notion that John 19 is referring to the WEEKLY day of preparation, which would be a Friday (Thursday sundown to Friday sundown). This is how Christians have come to believe Jesus was crucified on Friday.

But these very intelligent Christians also know how to do math. I implore you to use that intelligence right now, since you are one of those intelligent people.

As you may recall, Genesis Chapter 1 describes the very first day of creation being the first NIGHT and the first DAY, that is, from the time the sun sets one evening to the setting of the sun the following evening. One night, one day = the first day of time.

Jesus was confronted by a crowd of Sadducees and Pharisees in Matthew 12:39-42 who were demanding that he show them a sign to prove he truly was who he said he was. Jesus replied, “I already gave you a sign. No other sign shall be given to you except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights, so the son of man will be in the belly of the earth.” Have you ever argued that Jonah was only actually in the belly of the whale for a day and a half and somehow that actually equaled 3 days and 3 nights? I sure hope not!  Then why would anyone argue that Jesus said 3 days and 3 nights, but really only meant 1 night (Friday night), 1 day (Saturday day) to sometime on Saturday night?

Here’s the math. Granted, I’m not too great at Algebra, but I taught my preschool class today how to count 3 days and 3 nights, so I am confident I’m not going to be over your head with this. Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty before sunrise on the FIRST day of the week, Sunday, implying that it became empty at some point during the night. Since he obviously arose at some point after the sun set the previous day, he could not be in the grave to the completion of that particular night.

So we back up further and do not count, what we would call, Saturday night. We know that Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in the night when he was betrayed. We know he died at about 3:00 the following afternoon. We know that the Jewish people were in a hurry to find a tomb so his body would not be on the cross on the high day Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea opened up a tomb he happened to own and placed Jesus’ body in it just before the sun set for the evening that would start the next day, an annual Sabbath. I can almost hear the closing of the day with the closing of the tomb. Thus began night #1 of the 3 days and 3 nights in likeness of Jonah in the belly of the fish. The vault is sealed: night #1. The sun comes up after that night and proceeds to execute the cycle of day #1. At this point I’ll give you a hint. If Jesus didn’t lie, which he didn’t, then he was crucified on what we would call Wednesday, and spent his first night in the tomb on what we would call Wednesday night. Count them in Western terms:

Wednesday night = night #1

Thursday day = day #1

Thursday night = night #2

Friday day = day #2

Friday night = night #3

Saturday day = day #3

Keeping with Christ’s teachings about the Sabbath and in fulfillment of the sign of Jonah, I believe Jesus arose from the grave just after sundown that Saturday night. The ladies only discovered the empty tomb Sunday morning before the roosters crowed; doesn’t mean that is when he came out.

Ok, so was that simple enough? THREE days and THREE nights. Enough with the “Good Friday” business!

It's here! KIRKUS-INDIE REVIEW of The Heavens of Idolatry

BOOK REVIEW

A jeremiad against the evils of perfectionism.

Stough (Healing Letters, 2010) takes a stern but compassionate look at modern society’s drive toward perfectionism, which she views as a kind of impiety. She initially surveys some of the fears of modern life—a backpack may now be a bomb, or a broody schoolboy might be contemplating a massacre. It’s “culturally numbing,” she writes, “and leaves parents scrambling for alternative educational choices.” The resulting pressures, she says, prompt many in secular societies to strive to work harder than ever and attempt to fix everything themselves. Perfectionism, she writes, is secular becoming “anxiety’s new drug or spirituality,” but “it doesn’t fix anything.” In fact, she observes, it’s counterproductive, as it makes people think they’re taking care of problems “when really they’re adding to it with its slew of negative side effects.” At heart, she views this reaction as one of pride, and it brings out some of the text’s most strident preaching: “Like Lucifer,” she warns, “your pursuit of greater perfection will lead to the fall of your kingdom.” This well-meaning   book aims not only to be an antidote to such perfectionism, but also a workbook to help readers find their way to a loving, accepting friendship with God. As such, she urges readers to take their insecurities and imperfections before the Lord, looking to Proverbs: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Each chapter includes excerpts from her journal, effectively personalizing her own struggle to overcome self-indulgent perfectionism: “There are only two choices,” she writes, “pleasing God or pleasing self.” Christian readers feeling overwhelmed by the demands of modern society will find Stough’s book to be a clear call for them to take a moment to stop and remember the the basics.

An earnest, step-by-step guide for helping overstressed Christians back into a relationship with God.

Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78744

The Intolerance of Tolerance

I’m posting something that is highly controversial, but I’m not sure why that is. I mean, most people the world over would agree that this is happening today, yet it was written 2000 years ago. These same people think the guy who revealed it back then is irrelevant to today’s world. It was said that when these things happen, you’ll know you’re living in the end times. It’s no wonder the folks living 2000 years ago thought the Messiah would return shortly after His ascent. So why do the words on the pages of a book no one believes in anymore tick people off so bad? If it’s irrelevant and falsified information, then why do people fly into a fit of rage when they read the words I have posted here? What is it about this passage that cuts to the core of a person’s hurts? Does the Creator of the Universe who, by the way, could cut off your oxygen supply in the blink of an eye, not have the right to pass moral judgment on behavior that repeatedly spits in his face? Do you ascribe authority to yourself such that you can disallow him to simply say, “Here’s why this is happening.” At least he didn’t write you off as too stupid to understand the reason. Do you think “it foolish to acknowledge God?” Do you “know God, but refuse to worship him as God or even give him thanks?”

Why are you mad at me for posting this? It’s not the Koran or other doctrine telling people to massacre stadiums full of innocent people or rape their women and call it marriage. In fact, I didn’t even say these words in the photograph. And the guy who revealed these words is the same one who said you have free will to despise Him if you want, because He doesn’t want to be loved by anyone who is forced. He only said these things are the consequences of your choices to handle your hurts in a destructive way without Him. Just like cold is the absence of heat, and dark is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of God.

You know, if my kid was running out in front of a car, I would do everything I could to stop him. And if that didn’t work, I’d lay down my life in the path of that car if it meant my child would be spared. Think about it……………..

Rise Up and Face the Real Enemy!

Ever have one of those years when everything is a struggle and you fear every corner because all the ones behind you have lurked with demonic attack? That’s where my family has been this year, in the throes of a year like that. God loves to redeem times like these. He does not take it lightly when the enemy attacks His kids!

There are many scenarios we could all throw into a bucket, take a pick, and they’d all be great tales of deep impact and great victory. One of my contributions to the bucket would be this one that begs for retelling for it tells of something I most desperately needed to learn, which means someone else needs it too.

We put our house on the market in August last year. That’s only after the stress of all the circumstances that led us to that decision and then all the preparation to get the house market-ready. It’s been a waiting game ever since. In the meantime, we bought a house, moved, and have been paying the second mortgage and all the debt that comes with the old life.

We were coming to the very end of our savings with one more month of payments in our account. With many decisions hanging in the balance, we felt we had no choice but to quit homeschooling and put the kids in public school so I could get a job and help with the bills. We told God that if we sold the house the day school started, we’d still keep them in it because apparently it was His will for it to work out this way. Until He moved us back to homeschooling, we’d stay put, but just PLEASE, Lord, sell the house by the time school starts!

 

Well, the first day of school came and my husband was home sick with strep throat and pneumonia. But since he was home, he wasn’t going to miss riding with me to drop all three children off at their respective schools and picking them up. That day, while the kids were at school, I signed the final papers to release my book to press. A lot was happening this very emotional day. Letting go of ten years of homeschooling wasn’t coming easy for this Mother Hen. Our prayers were answered, we thought, when we were sitting in the pick-up line to get the children after school. Our agent called to say we got an offer on our house and by day’s end, we had a contract with the buyer. It appeared God had answered our very specific prayers to sell the house the day school started.

The buyer turned out to be dishonest and gave false testimonies against us and our property in order to get out of his contract. It was total deceit. I made a huge mistake at this point, however. I blamed God! I really struggled with why God would do such a thing and trick us like this, by answering our prayers and giving us false joy, false hope, and make it look so good only to rip it out from under us. I’ve been down enough roads and learned enough in the past several years that I knew I couldn’t stay here in this awful place of abandonment and betrayal. I didn’t want to go to church that weekend. I was hurt and angry, but I also know enough by now to know the best thing I can do in times like these is to not cut myself off from God, even if it means staying mad; I can still stay open to listening.

At church, I opened my Bible and began reading in Isaiah 59:15-18 (NASB) where God looked around and could find no justice and no righteousness so He had to do it Himself, make a way to Himself since no one else was putting forth any effort.

“Yes, truth is lacking; and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.  And He saw that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay, wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the coastlands He will make recompense.”

When I read that, my coldness melted. God spoke to my heart at that moment and said, “Lisa, that’s how I feel about what happened to you this week.” Long before Jesus came to earth as a living sacrifice for us, He was fighting for us, not against us. Furthermore, God took up these weapons of warfare, these garments of vengeance and told us in Ephesians 6 that these same tools are intended for US. He gave us garments of vengeance, too, and specifically identified the enemy so we would know who to fight.

The next day, I took care of business. I fell to my knees with the weight of what I’d done by accusing God of lying to us and setting us up for disappointment, when really, it is His arch enemy that had come as the deceiver, an angel of light to steal (hope), kill (joy), and destroy (reputations). Kneeling, facing Him in the posture of my spirit, with my arms raised up and my heart crying out in repentance, God boldly responded, “Woman, rise up and face your REAL enemy!” From there, I got another sermon.

I rose to my feet and turned around. If I was going to face my enemy, I would need spiritual armor. I wrote in my first book Healing Letters that our spiritual armor doesn’t cover the backside because we must resist the devil and he will flee from us. There’s no mention of us tucking tail and running away. But this day, I learned another part of the lesson. When I was at the King’s feet and stood up in place and turned around right where I was at, I realized who had my back!

Throughout scripture, God shows Himself as light, sometimes a light so blinding that He cannot be looked upon at all. In Heaven, there is no need for any light source besides Jesus who lights up the entire place. So stand with me if you will in this place where God has had me ever since. I’m standing right in front of Him with my back to Him. I am wearing His garments of vengeance against the real enemy dressed in the helmet of His salvation, the breastplate of His righteousness, holding the sword of His Spirit and His word, with the belt of His truth, and marching straight forward toward the enemy in shoes bearing His Gospel message. With God all over me and towering high and wide behind me, how in the world can the enemy even possibly see me with all that blinding light shining at him?!?! It doesn’t matter what a spiritual giant I am or am not, it matters how bright Jesus is the closer I am to Him.

It also strikes me that, because the shining armor is on the front, when in fear I turn back around to burrow into my Father’s proverbial chest, the enemy can see my dark side. No longer is my armor reflecting the light outwardly, but my darkness becomes obvious in the black silhouette it creates. Sometimes, it really is ok to turn you back on God when you know He has your back and it’s a team effort. You stand, face your enemy, and know Jesus is that giant light surrounding you. God will do the rest. He’ll do your fighting for you. He’ll defend you because you’re His child, not because you’re always right. He is the power and strength to defeat the enemy. He is the light that blinds the enemy to make you invisible. Just face the real enemy, then be quiet and wait for your next command.

Are you mad at God? Does it truly feel like He has abandoned and forsaken you against all His promises not to do that? These very real feelings are part of the deception. So how can they be so real if they’re a lie? Well, the feelings are real, but they are based on a lie. Don’t cut yourself off from God because things don’t seem fair or right. You can be mad at Him, but also remain open to the idea of learning something in the process. When we’re angry, we put up walls built with bricks of doubts and accusations. Be careful. It’s not the outcome the situation that matters, rather it’s how we handle ourselves in getting there. I’m one stubborn chick! I’ve sat in God’s throne room with my arms and legs crossed, refusing to speak or listen. But I also refused to leave so that when I calmed down enough, I’d be right where I needed to be to get things turned around and in proper perspective.

 

“Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, I will repay!” These garments of vengeance are His which He has put on us so that we may “stand.” Yes, Ephesians tells us we are to STAND and wield the weapons of our warfare. These weapons are God’s, therefore the vengeance is His. God doesn’t like how we are treated a lot of times, and He rises to the occasion. We should too!

 

PS – We got a new contract on our house TODAY. It is an honest and fair contract and all parties are excited to see it through. Very different than the last time. We are praying it all goes smoothly.

 

A BOOK IS BORN!!!

It's here! My newest book The Heavens of Idolatry: Shedding the gods of Perfectionism is now for sale at Amazon.com. It is available in e-book for $3.99, as well as hardback for $30.95 and paperback for $13.95.

To kick off this new release, I am giving away a hardback copy when my order arrives. Please stay tuned for an exact date of that drawing. You are welcome to email me your name, address, and email address at any time from now until the cut-off date, TBA. I'll have one of my children pull a name from a bag to determine the winner.

If you would like me to facilitate a book discussion group at your church or group, please contact me to make arrangements.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do with this book! He never ceases to amaze me with the story He is unfolding.

Blessings,
Lisa

Coming Out

I have two very brief things to say.

1.      Regarding the Supreme Court decision handed over Friday, I pray every Christian, everyone who confesses Jesus Christ, Yeshua, as their Savior will rise up even in the most heated discussions among unsaved people and boldly say with me, “I CANNOT CONDONE WHAT GOD CONDEMNS.”

If we can redefine the U.S. Constitution, then we can now change it to say anything we want it to say. Essentially, the Constitution is now VOID. It is no longer the law of the land it was written to be. The foundational TRUTH as we’ve known and understood it to be is no longer upheld and supported by the supreme justices with the only power to uphold it. It is now up to the citizens to stand by their convictions alone.

 

2.     This year you will have my new book in hand if you purchase it upon its release! I’m learning new rules in the publishing business and it’s all so interesting. Presently, I am awaiting one notarized permission form, and then it will move on to the design department.  Again, it is entitled The Heavens of Idolatry: Shedding the gods of Perfectionism. I will continue to use this blog for announcements pertaining to this new book.

 

Thanks for following!

Coming Soon!!

Finally! The Heavens of Idolatry is finally going to happen! You may recall that I ran into some difficulties when my book was supposed to have been published last year. It is back in progress, and I expect that it will be published sometime this summer, Fall at the latest. Shouldn't take too long now though.

I am super excited about this book. It's a much different work than Healing Letters. The Heavens of Idolatry is endorsed by Chez Barbosa, a Christian Counselor; Dr. Richard Winter, a Christian Counselor, author, and head of the counseling department at Covenant Theological Seminary; and Amanda Jenkins, author and public speaker. It is already in high demand by those who have read excerpts.

I look forward to announcing the release date. Stay tuned!

Why, Lord?

I have a friend who lives in South Africa. I've only met her by email through a mutual friend of ours. I use the term "lives" loosely. You see, she suffers from a very rare illness that attacks the mast cells and tricks her body to think its under attack by everyday, normal things such as food, fragrances, medication, etc. It has literally made her allergic to life itself.

How do you explain the silence of God that leads to Life to someone who cannot figure out why she wakes up in the morning? I cannot attempt to give my friend anything that wouldn't sound as trite as anything else she's heard since the onset of this illness.

Joni Erickson Tada wrote in her book When God Weeps about her wrestling with the big Why, Lord? every morning when she woke up and every night when she closed her eyes (she is quadriplegic). She has learned over time how God has used other people to serve her, and how other people have had their lives changed in big and small ways just by the capacity in which God has called them to serve her. She IS ministering to others in her most helpless capacity. She, too, has been changed dramatically by the helping hands and hearts that have surrounded her. But those hands and hearts did not come to her right away. It took a long time for them to show up in her narrow field of vision. She has learned that sometimes we are called to do nothing and that IS something. We want to DO something for God and that typically does not include removing our "useful self" from the equation.

Sometimes the searing pain of God's silence is even worse than the bitter pain in the body. But, God help me if this sounds trite or cold, sometimes He is silent because we refuse to hear how He really IS speaking. We refuse because it is not how we so painfully, desperately want Him and need Him to speak. So many Jews rejected Jesus, the Word of God, because He wasn't the king they thought He would be or because He was a rebel, or........... The Word of God wasn't what they thought it would be so they rejected it altogether.

This disease has stripped my friend of the beautiful young life she had as a wife and new mother. If anyone wants to visit her, they have to strictly adhere to a checklist of do's and don'ts for her safety. She suffers with PTSD because ordinary things have been so traumatic on her. But what if just maybe my friend's life is the forerunner for Jesus in someone else's life? What if my friend's suffering is the call on someone else to do something they thought was too difficult or time consuming only to find out when they actually answer the call, it births a highly effectual, faith-filled walk with God they never knew was possible? What if God has storehouses of rewards for her if she can somehow make it to the end without determining that end for herself? What if she suffers for Christ, not knowing any better reason except that she was called to do it? Would YOU do it? I mean, would you suffer solely so God could get the glory and richly bless you even if there seemed to be no earthly reason to even wake up in the morning (or afternoon)?

I felt the need to draw attention to my friend's suffering in order to apply the three part article I just wrote about the silence of God. It's one thing to give it superficial application or even let it jolt you a little. But the call to strengthen your commitment comes when you find yourself face-to-face with your mortality and you're not sure you can even trust God with that! How far will your faith really go? Will you reject His Word and starve to death because they're not the words you want to hear?

Oh, my heart aches for my friend and the countless others in her shoes. No one ever asks for that when they ask God to use them or seek God to know their calling. But it's not a mean trick played by a manipulative God. You can't possibly know the outcome from this spinning orb in time and space. The answers aren't here to be found. Just ask Job. He never knew the answer to "Why, Lord?" until after he persevered to the end. Don't quit! You can't quit. There are consequences for quitting altogether. Hearing God will be your reward here on earth if you allow yourself to truly hear the Word. Let His love speak through the bitterness. I pray God will give you soundness of mind and heart to redirect your attention to the sound of God speaking through the actions and words of others, to hear Him in the arrival of someone new in your life, to hear Him through His written words or streaming sermons, to hear Him speaking through you out to others who seem to only cause you heartache, to find His love in the pictures of a magazine or uplifting music, to recall His embrace around your heart. God hasn't stopped speaking since He poured His Spirit into you, but in this life, His Word does get drowned out and even tossed to the curb, mistaken for something worthless.

The Silence of God -- Part 3

The Silence of God – Part 3

Words are so very important to God. In my book, Healing Letters, I have a section about how writing a healing letter will help you find words and thereby find meaning and meaningful connections towards forgiveness. Without The Word, God would not have been able to make meaningful connections towards forgiveness either.

Jesus was the Word of God made flesh to dwell among us. I think I distinctly heard someone just mumble, “Big whoop! That’s the earth shattering news you had to share with us?” If it wasn’t enough that God had just been silent for 400 years and didn’t just finally speak, but put flesh around His Word, how about The Word’s response to Satan to make God’s Word even more significant than previously thought.

Jesus’s time of temptation from Satan in the wilderness immediately following His baptism tells us again how important God’s words are. Talk about a famine for the words of God, Jesus had just been wandering in the blazing desert for 40 days and nights. The Israelites wandered to and fro for 400 years not just looking, but starving for a word, and Jesus illustrates that famine as he is starving for bread in his hour of temptation. “The tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”’” (Matthew 4:3-4). Here, Jesus quotes the ancient writings from Deuteronomy 8:3 to connect the dots for us. (Now would be a good time to recall that empty feeling and whirlwind of emotions in your gut when you have heard and felt the silence of God.) The 400 year famine for a word from the Lord was no secret to Jesus. He knew very well the mindset of God's people when He was born. He knew John before the two of them were born (John leaped in the womb!) Jesus was not oblivious to the starvation of the people to hear from God and He was well aware of His purpose to satisfy.

 

I never felt the gravity of Jesus’s response during this temptation until I understood the significance of the prophecy of Malachi in correlation to the Silence of God followed by His Word coming to tabernacle among us. Jesus didn’t have to turn the stones into bread, He WAS the bread, the Bread of Life, the Manna in the wilderness, (John 6:35). And for the first time, because He was fully human, he felt the literal, physical need for food, the hunger pain of the body He’d never felt before just as the body of people starved for Him. Up to then, Jesus, being the Word Himself, could not experience the spiritual starvation for a word from the Lord, so he reversed the starvation for himself to know our pain. I believe Jesus finally experienced spiritual starvation when He cried out in His dying moments, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The soldiers then offered him an anesthetic drink to quench the agonizing thirst. His heart was not craving or starving for a drink though. It was starving for God to make things right.

How ironic that millions of overweight people have tried to feed their spiritual hunger with physical food, and underweight people have tried to starve their physical needs the way their soul starves spiritually. I will end this three part article with the words of Christ from these verses in John 6:32-35; 41; 45-51…

Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.

I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

I am the bread that came down out of heaven.

It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

The Silence of God -- Part 2

The Silence of God – Part 2

In Luke Chapter 1, we find the first prophet in all the land since Malachi, over 400 years prior. A prophet brought words from the Lord since the Holy Spirit had not come to indwell all believers, and no one heard from the Lord for those 400 years despite searching high and low for anyone who had heard a Word. They clung to God’s previous teachings and versed themselves in what words and guidelines they already had that came from Moses. Some had stepped in and put themselves in charge as Pharisees, teachers of the Law, and added with some supposed divine authority many other laws.

What Luke has to say about this prophet that would come in the spirit of Elijah is the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy. He begins with Zacharias – the Levite and husband of Elizabeth who was cousin to Mary, fiancé of Joseph – who was serving his turn tending the altar of incense in the temple this particular year. It is no coincidence that the altar of incense was the representation of the prayers of the people, a place of conversing with God. During this precise duty, the angel Gabriel visited Zacharias with a word from the Lord. That alone would make a man speechless, but the fact that Zacharias laughed in true disbelief at the message is what made him literally speechless for the next 9 ½ months during his wife’s pregnancy.  There’s that theme of silence again.

Jesus confirmed that John was the Elijah the people were waiting for but he was not the Messiah they were waiting for as they thought Elijah would be (Matthew 11:14; 17:11-13).

Now, what’s really exciting is that Malachi’s very last words, and thereby God’s last words were, “Watch for the forerunner to prepare people’s hearts for the Messiah, the sonship of God the Father.” Then the forerunner shows up. We see in Matthew that many people missed their Elijah, the forerunner. But notice how God shows up.

John 1:1, 14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. …And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

FINALLY!!! God speaks!!! John was the first prophet since Malachi but he was born only 6 months before Jesus was so he wasn’t talking when Jesus was born. No, Jesus was God in the flesh, the living Word from the living God. The silence was broken by the birth, even conception of Christ!

God even provided every opportunity for people to hear Him. If you do the gestational math of Luke 1, you’ll find that, because the Jews watched for Elijah to return at Passover (they even set an empty seat at the Seder table for him and left the door open for his return), then it’s most likely that John was born around Passover. If this is true, then that places Jesus’s birth very near the Feast of Tabernacles. That would fit Herod’s wicked tactics to tell the Jews they could not come to Jerusalem for the last of their three pilgrimage feasts, but instead had to return to their town of origin, which led to Jesus being born in a manger. The point is, the Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Booths. Jesus’s blood ran rich with the Tabernacling metaphor. Any attentive student of the Word should have been able to see Christ for who He was. He was the Word made flesh to tabernacle among us. He was the manna in the wilderness when the Israelites tabernacled on their way to the Promised Land.

 

Part 3 of this article will follow soon. Stay tuned……………

 

 

The Silence of God -- Part 1

I learned something over the past week that feels like it could corrupt the power-hungry soul with the thrust of its Truth if kept contained!  It MUST be shared!

Here’s a rhetorical question for any seasoned Christian. Have you ever felt the silence of God? Have you ever heard that deafening silence that pierced your soul and drove you to cry out day after day, night after night, begging through bitter-clinched teeth for God to say something… ANYTHING?

In my family of origin, silence was deadly. It was punishment when no words could express the seething anger one felt towards another. When our hearts burned with bitterness towards one another so much so that there was positively nothing nice to say, we’d say nothing at all. Not speaking was the only so-called restrained thing we could find to do with our hurts that ran far deeper than any situation at hand.

When I became a believer in Christ, within the first year, I discovered this Silence of God. It was the ultimate torture. I only had an earthly frame of reference for this silence, so to me, it could only mean one thing. I will be 22 years in my walk with God this week. Just this week, I learned another key lesson about the silence of God. I wish I could sit in a big round booth at a cozy café with some sisters in Christ and just discuss this till the management locked the doors and swept under our feet.

The Bible was not written in two testaments. Originally, there were no divisions, no chapters or verses or breaks of any kind except that each book was written on a separate scroll(s). When we got our bound format, the executive decision was made by scholars to put the books in a certain order and divided up a specific way for ease of reading.

Imagine this. Imagine that you read the book of Malachi and flowed straight into reading John Chapter 1. Pause here and go try it.

Welcome back. Now try this. Read Amos 8:11-12, then Malachi 4, and flow straight into the introduction of Luke Chapter 1 as though it was the first book of the New Testament before the division of the testaments.

Now let me put the key segments together and see if you can hear some of what I’ve heard this week.

Amos 8:11-12 reads:

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. “People will stagger from sea to sea and from north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

Amos prophesied this great and terrible silence of God, but knowing when the prophesy was fulfilled and what Jesus said about it teaches us a new and deeper aspect about God’s desire and love for us. You see, this long, dark silence and famine for His words is the silence between the testaments! FOUR HUNDRED YEARS!!!

Recall your personal experience with the silence of God. It hurt in your bones, at your core. You became delusional, believing lies about God you never thought you could conceive, and perhaps trashing your faith altogether or coming close to it. Some may say it felt like wandering through a desert for 40 days and nights. Dry like you’ve never felt dry before or since. Empty. Deafening like the sands of a hundred miles. Dry like the stones that you dreamed into bread. Grit. Wishing you could sleep off the heat of it. But mostly the emptiest solitary confinement of the soul. A longing for words that was beyond words.

I read Amos and naturally asked, “Ok, so when was this prophecy fulfilled?” to which I just explained became the natural break for the testaments (old and new covenant). The questions on the heels of the first was this, “Then what were God’s final words just before the silence?”

Turn to Malachi 3:1. “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

Now see 3:6. “For I, the Lord do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

And the last Malachi dot we’ll connect is 4:4-6. “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.  Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.  He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

And those are the words of comfort before the silence. There are two main points in these verses. (There are other points in the verses other than the ones I’ve mentioned.) First, God reminds the people (my paraphrase), “Look [Behold], I’m about to deal with some sin that needs to be cleansed. I’m about to prepare the way for something unlike any cleansing you’ve ever known. I will send a herald to announce My coming so be watching and listening. Don’t grow numb. Remember these two things: 1) When circumstances change, when lies move in, when everything falls apart, I, the Lord, do not change. I am for you, not against you and you can’t change that about me. 2) If you cling to the stories, teachings, rules, and guidelines to live by, which I gave you through Moses, you’ll do just fine. You’ll make it through this preparation and receive the gift of Myself.”

Here’s a game changer for me. It’s been several years since I thought of God’s silence as punishment, but that old lie likes to test the boundaries. But if you are where I was, it seems rather foreign that God would preface His silence with the love and tenderness of a Father. What an extreme contrast to what I grew up with! Silence never meant anything good was coming. My 22 years of walking with God have been peppered with this struggle to believe that, when God didn’t publish my book when I thought it was supposed to publish, or when the house I thought He led me to receive from His storehouse of blessings wasn’t “The One” afterall this year, His intentions are really so much better than what I give Him credit for. His silence, His withholding for a time is only preparation for the blessing I didn’t fully understand or else something altogether better than I’ve imagined. The pangs of silence give birth to blessings bigger than me!

Part 2 of this article will follow soon. Stay tuned……………

I thank God and the Little Duck

       Today I asked Ryan, “If you could go for a walk anywhere you wanted to right now, where would you go?”  He mentioned an obscure, distant part of the Katy Trail, so I clarified if he were a woman who had to be home in time to make dinner.  He said either the Riverfront Trail or Washington Park. I contemplated the Riverfront and decided to go to Washington Park and then Riverfront to maybe get a soda before heading home.
            I got to Washington Park at the lake and watched the ducks and geese, some I even had to shoo away as they were persistent beggars. I walked around the new Fair building and tried out the bathroom before getting back on the track around the lake. Halfway around, a man walking the other direction towards me said, as he was approaching, “Do you know what temperature it is?” to which I replied, “It’s not too terrible.”  He said it was 93 when he got out of his car and after one lap it was already 97. We chit chatted a bit more and went on our way. But he stopped and turned around after a few strides and said, “There’s a white duck over there. I feel real bad for her. She’s got something wrong with her leg and I keep meaning to bring some food back for her. I’ll come back later and do that. Those males won’t leave her alone. I feel sorry for her. I want to see if I can help. I’ve done that for other ducks here in the past.”
            And I walked on. A short way later, there was an elderly lady in a blouse and white pants trying to maneuver a massive fishing net out of her van. I said, “Going fishing, huh?” She smiled, not saying anything, and I went on. As I came to the wounded duck, I approached her to see her injuries closer. That elderly lady with the fishing net rushed old-lady style over to me saying in a distressed tone, “Oh, please don’t scare her! She’s injured. Don’t touch her!” I held up my hands and explained I was only looking and shooing the male away.
            Well, this lady explained that she was deaf but asked me to shout to her, and she could hear most of what I said then. She had bought the net to capture the duck to take it to a vet to help it. She called everywhere and found a vet at PetsMart in St. Charles who would help save the duck. I helped her capture the duck (easily) and saw that the duck’s leg was swollen huge and her back had been ripped open by all the males digging into her. The lady said that earlier in the morning (she checked on the bird frequently), the duck’s neck was bleeding. It was plucked raw. They were killing her one male at a time as nature tends to take care of itself in some pretty cruel ways like that. The poor, sweet lady was almost in tears. She was so upset, “They’ve just been raping her and the people have been scaring her for days.” She’d been feeding her some corn every day, but today the duck wouldn’t eat so the lady bought a net. She just couldn’t watch the suffering and “raping” anymore.
            I suggested that she could save her money and a trip to St. Charles and take the duck to Dr. Brinker down the road to have the duck euthanized. I called Dr. Brinker (because the lady was deaf) to see if it was possible, and after clarifying the details, she agreed.  Had it not been a white duck (domestic), she could not do it.
    After the phone call, I turned around and there was another lady talking to the elderly woman about the duck. She, too, had come to check on the duck. It was such a disturbing sight and everyone who’d seen it felt so helpless. This sweet old lady was a lonely widow and couldn’t sit back and feel helpless like this duck. She could relate to it in so many ways that I’d venture to guess she’d also been raped at some point in her life.
            Now the man was back, the one who mentioned the duck to me in the first place. I explained that we had the duck and were going to take her to Dr. Brinker to be euthanized; she was too far gone. The man said he was determined to help in any way he could so if we met him back at his Corvette, he’d give us $60 to put it down. (I’d told him that’s what I paid Dr. B for my cats.)  So we went back since he was parked by my car, and he gave us some cash and said he was just really glad someone was going to help this little girl find rest from her suffering.
            I told the elderly lady, Shirley, that I’d lead her to Dr. Brinker’s and she could take it from there. Shirley said, “You MUST be a Christian!” And she poured her heart out about how there’s so much evil in this world and it’s only getting worse. She was starting to wonder if anyone in the world still cared like she did and now she knows some do. She was shocked that this man handed us $60 in cash, and that I was there at that very moment to help her to know what to do to help the duck and make a phone call for her since she’s deaf. She said she didn’t know if she should euthanize or what to do but she was so glad God sent someone (me) who knew what to do. She was very happy to euthanize if it meant it was the RIGHT thing to do. I assured her it was because even if she’d had all the money in the world to help the duck recover, it could never go back and would have to stay in captivity because it couldn’t heal right.
            Well, Shirley was blessed in her soul today. The other lady was relieved. The man was able to contribute to the effort. Dr. Brinker got an adventure. And I just went where I was carried. I didn’t know what to do after all that so I just went back home. Funny, I drove all the way out to Washington just to walk less than one lap around the lake. I just went there to relax. Hmm. My life seems like it’s ALWAYS like that. I just want to do the simple things and God always has exciting things in store. Dare I even put the house up for sale?? Or try to BUILD a house?
            I told Ryan a few weeks ago, “Our new home won’t come to us by looking on the internet. It’s going to come to us in a conversation.”
            He added, “Relationship. Yeah!” because we’ve both learned that the things in this life are just the means by which God builds relationships between us and with us. This duck brought 5 people together today and tugged the tender heartstrings of human beings to keep compassion alive, to remind us of God’s order and design, and to get us all involved in ways we never would have come together otherwise. This little duck kept this widow’s hope alive in God’s goodness here on earth. When evil seemed to prevail, GOOD WON! Shirley needed it most, but we all needed it just the same.

Long Time, No See

Moving. So many people do it. At one point, I lived 17 different places in 5 years, including in my car and on the streets. The best move I ever made was to move from Michigan to Missouri to marry the love of my life. My husband has basically move one time in his life, from California to Franklin County, Missouri. I've met many people (too many) in my lifetime who believe that God doesn't care about the little things, such as moving, only the big, life or death things. How foolish! How immature! How misunderstanding of God's design of the universe and the species and salvation! How shallow!

Here in the Midwest of America, we had an unusually harsh winter. It takes a lot to diminish the flea population, but this winter really put a dent in it. We also had a surge of international criminal activity in our neighborhood when cabin fever set in, so we decided that it's time to move. Actually, we prayed about what to do and God informed us that it's time to move on. This beautiful place where we live is no longer the place for us. It will be good for someone else. We've had temporary relief as the "bad guys" have changed up their activities so they no longer do it in our own back yard. Nevertheless, we need to obey God and go.

So it's been a journey for us. A very long, challenging, and at times exciting, and at times exhausting journey for us these past six months. At one point, I had a meltdown and realized I was doing God's will MY way. This realization changed everything! We all stopped, re-evaluated our methods and made the necessary changes to keep going. During this pause, I asked God if moving was even His will. When I looked to the Bible for my answers, knowing that it really does have ALL the answers if we look hard enough.

I read the story of Abraham and Sarah, Naomi and Ruth, Jacob and Esau, David and Saul, Mary and Joseph, Jesus and the disciples, the apostles, and on through the ages of history. Nearly everyone with a story worth mentioning MOVED! Their story wouldn't have happened if they hadn't MOVED. God's bigger plan would not have been accomplished and great nations of people would not have been established if no one MOVED. We didn't want to move, but we have to, and honestly, now we are very excited to see what great things the Lord has in store for us who obey and do things His way.

The story of Abram and Sarai convicted me. You see, God told Abram to leave his family and go to a land the Lord would show him. So Abram took his cousin Lot and his family. Eh hem. Did God not just tell him to leave his family? No, the reader did not misunderstand this directive. Abram really did disobey, and there were natural consequences attached to this choice.

Then there was the time when Abram, still doing God's will Abram's way, came upon a city and lied to the king saying his wife Sarai was really his sister. Well, that didn't turn out so swell either. The king nearly married Sarai before God had to send an angelic rescue.

And don't forget the time when God told Abram He would make a great nation from Abram's seed and his infertile geriatric wife.  Again, Abram did God's will his own way. Abram sent for his servant Hagar and conceived a male child with her instead. Boy, did that not go over well!

Abram, Abram, Abram... how often he tried to do God's will Abram's way! In every one of Abram's situations, God proved that He really does care about the details. He really does care about the journey to the destination and not just the destination itself. It's not just the life and death matters that He cares about, it's the details that build relationship with HIM. All the living between the beginning and the end is the stuff that makes the person, the story, the history, the relationship between God and man. By changing our location, God can build new relationships between me and the people He wants to reach. He can add another chapter to my story, increase my faith, change history, and do the same in the lives of my children and grandchildren just by moving us out of this neighborhood and on to a new place to call home.

We wander here on earth. We long for a place to call home. We search for a place and try with all our might. Some people spend more than they have and sacrifice everything they own just to put down roots. Our roots are searching. Sprawling out in search of soil. We have a void to fill. You can fill it with just about anything, but only Heaven will satisfy. Everything else is temporary. Are you trying to do God's will YOUR way? It won't work. He wants you to move. Maybe not from your physical house, but maybe He's asking you to move from your stuck spot. Or maybe He's asking you to do something and you've confused your way with His. You think it should happen one way, but if you abandon your own way, it might surprise you how differently things will work out. Get in tune by tuning out all the other "noise" in your life. You'll be amazed at what you can hear when you get quiet and stop to listen.

~~~~~~

I'd like to let my readers know that I had a delay in publishing my next book. It is in editing now and can take several weeks or a few months before we go to the next phase.  I assure you, it's well worth the wait!

Thanks for your patience!

~Lisa

Are You Misinterpreting Life?

Just wanted to share a thought with you all since it’s just one of those kinds of days (blustery, blizzard, sub-zero) and that’s what writers do on these kinds of days.

I get a daily email from Ransomed Heart Ministries (John and Stasi Eldredge) where they provide a reading excerpt from one of their books. Today’s excerpt says it perfectly! (See below.) It describes the change God made in me. My surrogate grandpa once asked me, not wanting an answer, “What makes you so different from the rest of the family?” It baffled him and he couldn’t imagine there being an answer he could grasp.  I wish I’d had this excerpt at the time, it would have been my reply. “The only thing more tragic than the tragedy that happens to us is the way we handle it.” THIS is one of the foremost important lessons I’ve learned in my entire life. It has made all the difference.  I put off the old set of questions that got me nowhere and put on the new kind of questions that came when I let my heart be humbled. THAT is the true fear of God. It’s more of a bizarre mix of a fear of who I am in light of who HE is, and resting peacefully in the thought that He can and will change me for the better rather than necessarily changing those around me. 

 

Please read the excerpt below from John Eldredge's Wild at Heart.

 

Most of Us Have Been Misinterpreting Life
Most of us have been misinterpreting life and what God is doing for a long time. "I think I'm just trying to get God to make my life work easier," a client of mine confessed, but he could have been speaking for most of us. We're asking the wrong questions. Most of us are asking, "God, why did you let this happen to me?" Or, "God, why won't you just ________" (fill in the blank—help me succeed, get my kids to straighten out, fix my marriage—you know what you've been whining about). But to enter into a journey of initiation with God requires a new set of questions: What are you trying to teach me here? What issues in my heart are you trying to raise through this? What is it you want me to see? What are you asking me to let go of? In truth, God has been trying to initiate you for a long time. What is in the way is how you've mishandled your wound and the life you've constructed as a result.   "Men are taught over and over when they are boys that a wound that hurts is shameful," notes Robert Bly in Iron John. Like a man who's broken his leg in a marathon, he finishes the race even if he has to crawl and he doesn't say a word about it. A man's not supposed to get hurt; he's certainly not supposed to let it really matter. We've seen too many movies where the good guy takes an arrow, just breaks it off, and keeps on fighting; or maybe he gets shot but is still able to leap across a canyon and get the bad guys. And so most men minimize their wound. King David (a guy who's hardly a pushover) didn't act like that at all. "I am poor and needy," he confessed openly, "and my heart is wounded within me" (Ps. 109:22).   Or perhaps they'll admit it happened, but deny it was a wound because they deserved it. Suck it up, as the saying goes. The only thing more tragic than the tragedy that happens to us is the way we handle it. (Wild at Heart , 104-6) Want more?
Get your copy of Wild at Heart today

 

The Heavens of Idolatry: Shedding the gods of Perfectionism

It’s coming! My next book is at the publisher being prepared for publication. I’m anticipating it to be out around April, but with publishing there’s really no telling how long it will take. It really is a fun and interesting process. My publisher this time is WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson, one of the most respected names in Christian publishing.

Let me give you a tiny glimpse.  The title of this post is the title of the book. Here is the write up for the back cover.

So you say you’re not a perfectionist. Your idea of a perfectionist is someone who is well on their way to being perfect, and that does NOT describe you. Maybe you’re “just” a fixer, an overachiever, organizer, a people pleaser, or control freak. Perhaps you find yourself submerged in depression, workaholism, addiction, or failed relationships and career pursuits. Believe it or not, every one of these labels can describe a perfectionist. Perfectionism is so cleverly disguised by its symptoms and ripple effects, but the problem is the same at the heart – idolatry.

The Heavens of Idolatry challenges Christ followers to consider the possibility that other gods may have set up a throne in their heart. As believers we may find ourselves living to please these gods with our identity and worth hanging in the balance of acceptance. Or, being the diligent Christians that we are, we may have elevated ourselves by setting impossible standards for someone else. It is the striving and confusion which ensues that causes big problems in a person’s life.

Lisa Stough writes to fellow perfectionists as well as all Christians who are tired of hiding inside their Sunday clothes, who have given up on God all together, or who might be wondering what the big deal is about perfectionism. She brings Scripture, insight and personal experience together into a journey you can call your own.

 

Please stay tuned for new release specials!

The Hardest Thing Jesus Ever Did

I teach children of divorce about forgiveness. To demonstrate the burden and weight of unforgiveness, we put a sack of gravel in backpacks and have the children consider a time when they found it difficult to forgive someone or something in their life. When the children have something in mind, they are given a backpack of gravel and they have to carry it on their backs the rest of the session (about 1 ½ hours) and are not allowed to take it off. Throughout the session they consider various aspects about the load they bear. Sometimes it feels lighter.  Sometimes they find rest but the burden is still there. Some loads are heavier than others. And doing regular things is more difficult with this burden on their back; everything seems more labored than without it. They definitely feel weighed down by this baggage of unforgiveness.

Last night, we were teaching the kids this lesson when something very profound stood out to me. I recalled the tremendous offenses I have forgiven in my life and considered all that Christ forgave of me. I couldn’t think of a way to emphasize to the kids just how difficult forgiveness is and what all it involves. These kids won’t even fully realize the depth of injury some people have caused until they are adults and see the unforgiveness they still harbor handicapping their everyday lives. I wanted to assure the kids that Jesus knows it may be the hardest thing they’ll ever do. That’s when the Spirit shed a new light on the Truth.

Of all the persecution, heartache, fatigue, humanness, compassion, and teaching Jesus did, the very hardest, most grueling and excruciating experience He ever went through was FORGIVENESS. The forgiveness process required Him to accept the sins of every man and pay the price for each and every one, to bear the burden sinners should have carried. Forgiving others was by far the hardest thing Jesus ever did. The sins of others changed His life forever and the lives of everyone around Him. Every sin you can think of and then some impacted Jesus. He absorbed the impact of everyone else’s sins.  Then He made the incomprehensible decision to forgive!

Have you been impacted by someone else’s sins?  Have you bore the burden of unforgiveness when the offender was long gone and clueless of their impact in your life?  Is the weight of stones that have been hurled at you weighing you down and keeping you from living the life you’ve longed for?  We are not God. We can’t take on someone else’s sins in an attempt to save that person. We mustn’t try to hang onto offenses in hopes to somehow control the other person. What we can do however, is realize what the children of divorce are learning, that Jesus completely understands that forgiving is likely the hardest thing they’ll ever have to do, but it MUST be done if we are to experience the true freedom found in Christ alone.

The kids made a list last night of all the reasons why they need to forgive others. When they took off their backpacks, they placed them on the floor under the name “Jesus” written on the chalkboard. They were told to think about who or what they needed to forgive and some of the kids chose to say it aloud. Most of the kids who did said, “My dad,” and off came the baggage of unforgiveness at the feet of Jesus. How about you? Why do you need to forgive? Who do you need to forgive? It’s a process that begins with a decision. What will your forgiveness look like? Begin to catch the vision for it today!

A Closer Look at Cain and Abel

We all know the classic rendition from children’s literature.  Two brothers get in a fight and one kills the other and is punished by God, right?  Well, I’d like to protest that if this is the story you believe, then it’s not the same story that’s in the Bible.  The story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 lays the outline of our two heart attitude choices and merely uses the first two human births of all time to illustrate this.  Let me explain.

First Cain was born.  The first person ever to be born of a woman.  Adam and Eve had no nursery rhymes or legends to tell their sweet bundle of joy.  While I’m sure they sang to Cain and the animals offered plenty of entertainment, the stories they knew to be true all came from Eden.  We know Cain was well acquainted with The Garden (Genesis 4:16).  It was in plain view at the time, they just couldn’t go in it.  Imagine telling your toddler, “There’s the closest thing to heaven we’ll ever know and you can’t have it.”  Imagine the questions about God’s goodness Cain must have had swimming around in his formative mind! And the blame!  (E.g. “Why would You withhold something You know is good for me, Lord?  Haven’t we paid our penalty?  Can’t we come back now?  You’re just mean, God!  You just wanted to get rid of us not redeem us.  If You loved us, You would let us come back home.”) 

From the start Cain lived in God’s presence (again, see Gen. 4:16).  God was not a well-disguised secret.  We know Cain harbored bitterness and strife in his heart.  We don’t know what it was or why.  How much of that came from his parents, we’ll never know.  However, he had a choice of what he could do with those ideas and misconceptions and experiences.  We know it was a choice because of what we see in Able and what transpired between them.  Abel had the same parents and heard the same stories and he too saw Eden only from the outside with the fiery angels forbidding them to enter.  I don’t know about you, but my four year old boy is really into superheroes right now.  He flies around the house and off the couch in his undies and cape and swoops in to rescue his beloved big sister from his evil big brother.  He loves being the hero!  What must childhood have been like for Cain and Abel?  Do you suppose maybe they felt a little defeated knowing there were certain things no rescuer could accomplish?  Considering their options will help us all when considering our own.  All of our choices in life come down to the two choices Cain and Abel made. 

“So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground” Gen. 4:3.  “In the course of time” could mean that eventually Cain got around to it, or it could mean that they didn’t make offerings at first but at some point they got the idea to do so. I will adhere to the former since God was sure to mention that Abel’s offering was from “the firstlings of his flock” but not Cain’s.  Cain probably waited until there was a surplus of vegetation in his garden and then gave God a portion. 

“Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.  And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard” vs. 4-5a.  Why?  For many years, I asked myself this question.  My husband and I observe the biblical feast days, one of which is the Feast of Firstfruits, which occurs on the Sunday during the Days of Unleavened Bread.  Firstfruits is when the Jews offer up the very first of their harvest.  No other harvest can be made until the first in the land has been offered up.  In the timeline of history, Firstfruits later became the day when God’s first and only Son was raised as our perfect atonement and only acceptable sacrifice thereafter.  Mainstream Christianity calls it Easter or Resurrection Sunday, losing the emphasis on the FIRST fruits.  God is all about taking FIRST place in our lives.  He doesn’t give us His leftovers and He doesn’t want ours! 

There is a chapter in my new book, which is still in the making, about faith in Hebrews 11:6, which says without faith it is impossible to please God.  In the same chapter, verse one, God says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Offering the FIRST of the fruits of our lives – money (i.e. tithe), time, labor, possessions, etc. – is an act of faith based on what we have yet to see.  Abraham offered Isaac by faith alone, faith in God, not in what he saw (his only son) but what he didn’t see (the promise of many nations).  Abraham didn’t wait for many children to come from his elderly wife before he made an offering.  Faith, anything done in faith, is what pleases God.  Without it, nothing else will please Him.

God was not pleased with Cain’s offering.  Cain’s offering “came about in the course of time.”  It wasn’t from the first of his harvest.  It was from the surplus.  Some have theorized that the problem God had with Cain’s offering was that it was produce and not livestock, not requiring blood.  In Mosaic Law, grain offerings and blood offerings served different purposes, but never was a grain (produce) offering used for atonement.  Not that the Law was instituted yet, but before Adam and Eve left Eden, a distinction was made (Genesis 3:7,21).  Part of the problem with how Cain brought his offering however, is that it’s ok to thank God by giving above and beyond according to our surplus, but it is not an act of faith at that point, merely a generous deed to show praise and gratitude.  It was as if Cain thought any old offering would do, as if he could just bring a hostess gift as he approached the Throne of the Creator of the Universe.  Proud, irreverent, ungrateful, distrusting, careless.  Maybe those adjectives fit Cain.  God knew Cain’s heart attitude was not right and that it needed to be dealt with.  He brought Cain face to face with his own heart and gave him another chance to deal with it.  God didn’t create a situation.  He knew in time Cain would make the mess for himself.  We know that, for whatever reason, Cain brought an offering.

The second part of verse 5 is where the heart problems become relational problems and get things rolling.  “So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.  Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?”  It’s not like God didn’t know the answer, but being the good counselor that He is, He wanted Cain to think about the answer to the question and sit with it in his own heart.  It wouldn’t have lost any meaning to say, “Why are you really angry?  What is the real reason for your anger?  It’s not really about your brother, is it?”  There are two separate questions posed, “Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?”  A fallen countenance makes me think of feelings of shame, hanging one’s head, tucking tail for something more than disappointment or feeling unable to look your victim or accuser in the eye.  I think the two questions God asked were to say 1) you’re not really mad at Abel, and 2) you’re ashamed of your heart attitude towards me; you’re embarrassed that I pointed it out by not accepting your offering (public humiliation).

Then God goes on to say, “Do well and your countenance will be lifted.  Don’t do well and sin will consume you.”  God didn’t say “Satan will consume you.”  Satan is an outside force.  Sin is an inside choice.  Also, God used the word “well” as in wellness as in things that make people well or a state of good health.  He didn’t say “do good” because again, that’s a superficial response, doing good things.  But “do well” implies making right choices out of a healthy, well place inside. 

You can walk around being angry at everyone around you who triggers your hurtful place with God so that you feel better for a moment, or you can choose to make healthy choices that will lift the burden of shame and regret from sin and offer an acceptable sacrifice to God.  God didn’t ridicule Cain’s offering so much as He shot straight to the heart of the problem.  Cain didn’t have faith.  He thought God was a harsh task master unworthy of his very best.  Abel believed in God’s deep down goodness, that God had a bigger plan than what they could see, that God was worthy of the first and quite trustworthy for the rest.  Cain harbored bitterness towards God and all these other things followed.  “Cain told Abel his brother.  And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”  It never was about Abel but Cain couldn’t kill God so he killed the trigger instead.** 

We all have a choice.  Will we make an acceptable offering of faith believing that God is good even when things around us don’t particularly look that way?  Or will we give to Him only when we see evidence that He has given to us?  The elders had to step into the floodwaters of the Jordan before the waters would dry up and they could cross.  The Israelites had to put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts before their deliverance.  Job was given an ultimatum to “curse God and die” or “hold fast your integrity.” How will you live?  Cain was given the choice, “Do well and your countenance will be lifted up.  Do not do well and sin is crouching at the door.”  What choice have you made?  Will you master sin or has sin become your master?

Adam and Eve lost their first two children to sin.  Cain went on to build a city because he was cursed at farming.  Sin did prevail in the land until Adam and Eve’s son Seth had Enosh.  “Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord” (v. 26, emphasis mine). It took 235 years before people turned back to God.  Even then, society still went astray over the next several hundred years and God wished He’d never made humans.  One man’s choice.  One man’s bitterness.  It wasn’t just Eve to blame for sin in the world.  Cain proved it was every person’s choices after her even to this day.

 

 

 

** Notice, Abel was in right standing with God.  Do you wonder why the good people die and the bad people live?  Consider this: God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  The unrepentant can’t repent if they’re dead.  The repentant are saved, but the unrepentant are not.  They need to live so they CAN repent.  For the saved, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  For the unsaved, to die is to die eternally and God doesn’t wish that for anyone.