Which do we choose?

God has been stressing about choosing him over the past little while. It's the, "well, I know I didn't finish my Bible time yet, but I'll just look at my library books for just a minute first..." kinda stuff.

Today I read about Jesus being handed over to Pilate (that time when Judas chose money over his master). Pilate didn't want to kill Jesus, because he hadn't done anything wrong. So he went to the crowd and asked them who he should release - Jesus, or some dangerous murderer guy named Barabbas. They shouted "Barabbas!!!!!!!"

"Wha...?" said Pilate. He was shocked! The murderer? These people CHOSE the bad guy who had, and would probably hurt them again instead of Jesus, the one who'd been healing their sick and feeding them all out of a lunchbox.

We look at that in the Bible and roll our eyes. "How ridiculous!" But we do that every single day!!!!!!! It needs to stop.

That's what I'm going to be working on. Care to join me anyone?

Uh... DUH!!!!

A few weeks ago I was doing something in the kitchen and the little light on the stove indicated that the burner I needed to use was hot. Now sometimes this thing lies just a bit, and that's what I was expecting that time, as I saw nobody using it before. So I put my hand over it just a weensey too close. And the light wasn't lying. Yow. Since then, whenever I see the "hot surface" light, I all but run to the other end of the room.

All that to say, after I did something stupid I learned from it (yes, yes, thank you, thank you, no autographs please:P). But I read in Exodus today... Pharaoh is finally letting Israel go!

They happily trudged along, little dreaming the Egyptians were NOT GETTING their carefully brewed 5 o'clock tea. They squealed and said, "Hey! We just let them go! Now we've got nobody to slave making bricks - and no one to make our tea!!!!" I imagine that if Pharaoh had a phone, it would have been ringing quite a bit. Now they should have not thought this way at all, since they just had to go through all those plagues on account of the Israelites, and now they want them back (did something stupid and DIDN'T learn from it). But, Pharaoh took his army and chased Israel. The chased one screeched! OH NO!!!! THE SEA IS IN THE WAY OF THE ESCAPE ROUTE!!!!!! They wailed that Moses had brought them out there to die - AFTER God had caused zillions of plagues on the bad guys to get them out of there! But we all know this part - God parted the water (yes, the WHOLE SEA) and the Israelites got across, while the Egyptians couldn't get out fast enough. Huzzah!!! After I got over the initial shock and awe, I would have figured that my God was the most powerful in the world and could give me anything I needed. But guess what? A few days later, the Israelites ran across a spring of bitter water. THEN they grumbled that God had brought them out here to die. Gee whiz! Is this the same lot that walked across the ocean floor? Why didn't they think God could give them water? It's just... DUH!!!!

But in my initial heat over these boneheads, I thought, "do I sometimes do the same thing?" Do I worry about things after God has given me everything I need? Most certainly! I was reminded to trust God in everything reading about the boneheads, and to - well, count my blessings! Happy Thanksgiving!:D

Even when the future seems hopeless...

"I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him...

For men are not cast off

by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,

so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction

or grief to the children of men."

God does not willingly bring trouble on us - he is good to those whose hope is in him. He hasn't left us out to dry... even now.

Psalm 33

I woke up this morning thinking about this list of things I had to do today that I didn't want to do. I was also a little dehydrated and woozy - didn't drink my usual water quota yesterday:) I was kinda feeling mopey, then this chapter in Psalms that was quite chipper!

Psalm 33

Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous;

it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Praise the LORD with the harp;

make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new song; (Don't just do the same thing all the time... be different and excited! Like you are when you hear or buy a new song!)

play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the LORD is right and true;

he is faithful in all he does.
The LORD loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of his unfailing love.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (Watch the BETHLEHEM STAR documentary - this becomes even more amazing!)
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;

he puts the deep into storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;

let all the people of the world revere him. (ALL of them.)
For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.
The LORD foils the plans of the nations;

he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,

the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Wouldn't it be nice if our plans stuck forever? If they're the same as God's plans - they should!)
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people he chose for his inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down

and sees all mankind;
from his dwelling place he watches

all who live on earth-
he who forms the hearts of all,

who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength. (God is looking upon every battle - every one goes according to his plan!!! Every bomb that explodes in Iraq, every little brother that's pitching a fit, and every Superbowl!)
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save. (Maybe to our battles, not a horse, but something else we look to. Like food, or drugs, or people. They cannot save.)
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

This Psalm just reminded me that whatever we think is annoying and unbeatable - it's not, because everything that happens is God's plan!!!

Follow the Voice

Christian is in captivity. His tormentors - evil nasty creatures by the names of Doubt, Disappointment, Fear, Despair, Unforgiveness, and Hurt guard him at all times. They beat him, scar him, bring him down, never give him a chance to escape their clutches. He is in a cold, dark, iron prison cell. And he is blind - he cannot see his captors or his cell, but he can feel them. The cold stone engulfs him and the forbidding iron bars drive all hope from his heart. Day and night he sits in his distress, not knowing a way out. When things are at it's darkest, he hears a still small voice. He strains his ears - who was that? It is familiar: a voice he used to know very well, back before the hard times that drove him here, back when he could see. It calls him by name. Christian rises. He can see a Light! The voice calls, "I am your God. Follow me". He uncertainly takes a step forward. He puts a hand toward the Light, but touches the bars of the locked door. Despair and Fear jump in front of him and shove him back away from the door. Christian turns away from the Light and says, "see? The doors are shut, I can't get out."

The voice is persistent, "I have unlocked the door. You've only to throw it aside and follow me" Christian raises his brows. He puts a tentative hand on the bars. Doubt growls a warning and Christian flinches. He pushes on the door just a little, and Doubt charges him and throws him back again. Disappointment nods and pokes his memory with little reminders of past times when he escaped, only to be let down by the Light and captured again. The Father is still speaking. "Come! Walk with me!" This time Christian runs to the doors. Before he can even get to them, Unforgiveness and Hurt catch him. Fear tackles him. Disappointment pricks him. Doubt gnaws at him and Despair laughs at him. Christian calls to the Light, "I cannot get past these tormentors! Help me defeat them!" The Light shines brighter and the scourgers shriek and fall back. Christian leaps up and throws the door open, running to the Father.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. ~ Psalm 107:13-16

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." ~ Matthew 7:7

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners ~ Isaiah 61:1

Jesus Suffered - so WHAT?

Queer title? We know that God sent his only son Jesus to earth; He suffered and died for our sin, and rose again. Christians know that God made this sacrifice because He loved us and wanted us to be with Him.

But some may look at that sacrifice and think, “how is that any worse than the things we go through today?”

You may know someone who has died of cancer in horrible pain and their family is devastated. There is a place I go to check up on kids with cancer in Arkansas Children's Hospital on the internet. There is a list of children on the page that have died of the monster. Many of the kids I had come to virtually know passed unexpectedly, and whenever I see that list of familiar names all I can think is, "WHY?"

Your own brother may have taken his life for reasons you don't understand, and you know that you will never see him again in this life on earth.

I know you've walked through Wal-Mart and seen those "Have you seen me?" charts of an abducted child who has been stolen away and ten years later, nobody knows what happened.

So with all this pain and suffering in the world, for God to send His only Son to die... only to be raised again just three days later... does not seem to measure up to all the hurt we endure today. It may just not seem like enough to you.

What do we know of Jesus? "Well, let’s see... He healed people, He taught people, He worked miracles, He had twelve disciples, He was God's Son... what else?" The most important thing about him is that He was without sin. He had never ever sinned in His whole life. Let's talk about inner pain. The kind that sin causes. The kind that happens when you know you've done something wrong and it preys on your mind all the time. Put yourself in Cain's shoes for a minute. When he killed his brother, it was probably the first time he'd ever seen a dead person, and knowing he had done that awful thing probably gave him nightmares for the rest of his life. Would you want to live with that? Maybe you've stolen something of little consequence and then you realized the guilty conscience you got wasn't worth the four dollars you still have in your pocket. Do you like living with that? It's hard to admit what you did and apologize for something like that, and knowing that you should do it and can't bear to only makes the guilty feeling worse. Imagine how you'd feel if you robbed a jewelry store! Some people have. Imagine if, in spite of your guilt, you kept on stealing and lying and getting away with it, feeling worse and worse and not knowing what to do about it. Not a good feeling. What do you do? We've all done something that's preyed on our conscience and it feels terrible. Where am I going with this?

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21 Christ had no sin. We talked about that. No guilty feelings, no pain that sin caused.

In those days people would sacrifice these perfect little lambs who hadn't done anything wrong every day in order for God to forgive them of their sin. Innocent blood is the only way to get God's forgiveness. But it wasn't enough. Too much sin, too little lamb. Every time you sinned, God's judgment was upon you. God didn’t want things to be this way. He knew there was a way - a greater sacrifice that could be sacrificed – that would enable Him to forgive us our sin. So He sent His own perfect Lamb, and instead of just sacrificing Him for our sin, the sacrifice became sin. Jesus didn't just "wear" the sins that had already been committed - He became sin. He was sin. All the sin that had been and EVER will be committed! Something disgusting for God to look at. Can you imagine having every sin there will ever be on this earth on your shoulders? Can you imagine everything being all your fault? You know the bad feeling of "a little" sin - can you imagine all the sin ever? Jesus had never even had the sin of putting gum in a classmate's hair, so this was all horrifically new. THAT was the sacrifice. The ultimate perfect lamb has enabled God to forgive all the sins you will ever commit. It wasn't how He suffered, necessarily, though the cross makes it more special. The cross is not the cup He prayed to be taken away in the garden. It was becoming sin. It was having God too repulsed to look at His own son.