Author: admin

So we all come from a long line of complainers. Sorry, but we do. All of us. That’s just what humans do, we act like humans – imagine that! I’ve been grumbling a lot lately – Too hot. Too cold. Stinkbugs! Too busy. Too much. Too little. Too late. Too early. Too tired. Too hyper. Too much fighting. Not enough fighting. Too much politics. I think I’m getting a cold! Too much work. Not enough work. Winters’s a comin. Summer’s a comin. Fruit flies! Those people from the east. Those people from the west. It’s raining. It’s snowing. That driver on the highway. That driver on the backroad. I don’t like… I wanna… They shoulda… I’m gonna…

Those are just a few things I’ve said in the past week. When I put it on paper, it makes me wonder – who would even want to be around me? I don’t even want to be around me! Who wants to be around someone who grumbles and complains all the time? For me, grumbling is a huge sin. Oh sure, I can couch it – make a complaint, followed by a but and a smile…I’m really only fooling myself, not even. We grumblers and complainers are good justifiers – we’re not complaining, just making a statement or an observation, not even. We grumblers and complainers are also looking for allies, aren’t we? It’s really deflating to grumble and complain to someone and be met with joy, isn’t it?

Do all things without grumbling or complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent…
Philippians 2:14

Why is it important? Why does it matter? Because we are to live Christ. Christ never grumbled or complained. In fact “He never said a mumbling word.” Christ spoke life to all. What do we speak? What we speak directly impacts His reputation, you know that, right? How are we doing? Ouch! Sorry!

The thing we have to remember is that God is in control. He is sovereign over all things. Not just some, but all. Every complaint we make calls into question God’s sovereignty. How’d that turn out for Job?

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Colossians 1:15-17

The workload is the workload, because God allowed it. The season’s are the season’s, because God allowed them. It snowed, because God allowed it. The traffic is heavy, because God allowed it. The President’s the President, because God allowed it. The sun shines because God allowed it. There are fruit flies and stinkbugs, because God allowed. Illness… Death… Absolutely nothing happens without God’s permission. Nothing.

So, if God is Sovereign over all, what does it say when I grumble or complain? What does it say to God? What does it say about God? What does it say about me? What does it say about my faith in God?

Some are saying that those little comments about weather, about busyness, about the line at the store, about the clerk who was having a bad day, about customer service, and so on and so on are just comments made, we don’t mean anything by them. Then why would we say something we don’t mean? What comes out of our lips is straight from our hearts. Our words reflect our heart condition. Ouch! Sorry!

But the words that come out of your mouth come from your heart. And they are what make you unfit to worship God.
Matthew 15:18

Life is hard, no doubt about it. Here’s the thing. We are not living our lives for us, we are living our lives for Christ. If we look at it with that lens, we may be better able to keep our attitudes in check. The message isn’t come to Jesus and we won’t have anything to complain about. That’s not reality. The message is that when we come to Jesus He equips us to handle all those things we so easily grumble and complain about. So, what are we reflecting to the world? Life’s hard and complaining about it means I’m ill equipped to handle it? Or, life’s hard but because Christ lives in me, I chose not to complain about it because I know where my help comes from?

Because of a sweet, sweet heart, our daddy had a dream come true. Now anybody that knows our daddy knows he’s a nut when it comes to baseball. Don’t get me wrong, he can commentate with the best on any sport, but baseball is his thing. He played baseball, coached baseball, and our mom would say ate, drank and slept baseball.

So, daddy got to go see his favorite team (when they’re winning), the Washington Nationals play in Game 4 of the World Series. Absolutely thrilling! The World Series! Oh sure, you may not be a baseball fan, but everyone’s heard of the World Series. You know, the best in the American League and the National League (aren’t all U.S. teams in both? curious) playing for the title of World Champions. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and… It went to the wire, seven games. A week of angst for baseball fans.

Before going to the game and despite the loss of Game 4, daddy called it the chance of a lifetime. And it was. This chance of a lifetime has had me thinking about the chances of our lifetimes. Now surely we wouldn’t pass up the gift to attend the World Series, or some other cool event. Would we? A vacation? A fishing excursion? A bowl game? A new car? It may not be the World Series, or any sporting event, but we all have what we’d call chances of a lifetime. But there’s another kind of chance of a lifetime that truly is the chance of a lifetime. How about the chance to reach out to those who need Jesus? Those who need salvation? Isn’t that a gift? Do we have that chance? Is there an opportunity for us to give a gift and an opportunity for someone else to receive a gift – a chance of a lifetime? Don’t we have the chance of a lifetime to offer an eternal lifetime to others?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
1 Peter 3:15

We all know the outcome of the World Series, the National’s won! But, we don’t know the outcome of life, unless we know the Savior. We have the chance of a lifetime to reach out to others. Life is short, no matter how long we live. What are we doing with our lifetime of chances? Are we talking about the Gift? Are we giving others the chance of a lifetime?

Can you see that? There are seven stars, dim, I know, but if you look very closely you might be able to see what I see in the mornings. A question mark! It is the strangest thing. Do you remember as a kid laying in the grass and watching the clouds, seeing the shapes they’d make? A funny face, an animal, you know. Well I do that with the stars. I don’t lay in the grass at 5:00 a.m. in the morning, but, as I’ve said in the past, I do take note of the stars.

For the past couple of months, those seven stars (I’m sure there are more I just can’t see), have lined up into a question mark. I first saw them lined up over top of the barn. Hmmm? As Shenandoah and I continue to walk west on the road, those stars are now a question mark over the front field. Stars are funny like that. I’m a person who thinks everything means something, and so I started thinking about that question mark, and how it seems to be everywhere. What does that mean?

Life is all about questions, isn’t it? Asking questions is how we gather information. How we get the full story. How we learn. How we know. Asking questions is the only class I’m way above average in. The first six words journalism majors are taught are Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Let’s check this out for a minute:

Who? It’s so odd. This morning while looking at the question mark, I heard a barred owl calling in the woods. Their call sounds like “who calls for you” to the rhythm of “coo coo ca-choo.” But, I usually only hear the “who” part. Who? Who? I’m looking at that question mark and I hear Who? Who? Hmmm. Jesus has asked us the same question, you know:

Then he asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you.” Matthew 16:15-16

How do we answer the who? Who do we say He is? Do we say Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God?

What? What was Jesus’ mission? What was Jesus’ purpose?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently. Then he said, “This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!” Luke 4:18-21

Have we answered the what? Have we heard the Good News? We are the poor, you know. The poor in spirit. We are the captives, the downtrodden and the oppressed, you know. Captivated, downtrodden and oppressed to and by our sin. But wait! The Good News in the synagogue is the same Good news we’ve heard today — the time of the Lord’s favor has come!

Where? Where is God? Where does He live? Where do I find Him? Is He really there?

I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. Ephesians 3:17

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. 2 Corinthians 13:5

Do you know the answer to the where? Is God living in you? Do you see how easy He makes it for us? He will live in us, if we only ask. Experiencing the life of the His Spirit within us as a guide, teacher, intervenor, will change our life. If our lives aren’t changed, Paul says we have failed the test.

When? When did God come? When does God appear?

And that’s the way it was before Christ came. We were salves to the spiritual powers of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us, who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. Galatians 4:3-7

Do you see the when? In the fullness of time. In the nick of time. In His time. We forget that God has a plan and His timing is always perfect. In our impatience, fear, anxiety, we want God at our beck and call. We demand. God always answers. God shows up. His plan has no many moving parts, that sometimes something must happen before something else happens. Trust His timing. After all, He is God.

Why? Why did Jesus come? Why does He pursue me? Why me, Lord? Why trust Jesus?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. John 3:16-17

So many why’s. The answer to all of them is Love. He has loved us with an everlasting love. A love with such outrageous dimension. A love we can’t fathom, can’t comprehend. No greater love exists beyond Him.

How? How did God show His love for us? How did God redeem us? How were we saved?

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. Romans 5:8

How…death on a cross….love, written in red.

So, now that you have the whole story, the full story. Now that it has been fully investigated and all the questions have answers, you have decisions to make. How will you answer the questions?

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead! Philippians 3:8-11

This scripture was referenced in a book I was reading recently. Seen it a million times. Today it stopped me in my tracks. You know me. I have this running dialogue in my head. Some of you do too. Maybe one of the reasons it stopped me in my tracks is because the author asked if this passage described me (you) and if that’s how other folks would describe me. Wham! Right upside the head. I fall to my knees.

Piece-by-piece. Bit-by-bit.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him.

Wow, complete surrender. Surrender of thoughts. Surrender of lifestyle. Surrender of things, even good, but ungodly. Is that true for me? In the verses before, Paul laid out his life, a mini-autobiography. You see, Paul was quite the man before he met Jesus on that road. He was living the good life. He was the ultimate Jew – from the tribe of Benjamin. His tribe, along with the tribe of Judah (who came from there?) were the only tribes that returned to Israel following the exile. One of the “it” tribes. Paul was a Pharisee, a learned man, highly esteemed, highly revered. He knew the law inside and out, moreover, he lived the law – to the strictest letter – to a T. Paul was the real deal. So, when Paul’s life did an about face, complete surrender, and he made the claims that “everything else is worthless,” he’s saying that his knowledge, his power, his position, his life, were nothing compared to knowing Christ – priceless. Remember that commercial? What’s in your heart?

What does complete surrender look like to me, to you? Am I willing to chuck everything I have so that “I may have Christ and become one with him.”? That’s a toughy isn’t it? Let’s go around back – what am I willing to chuck? Am I willing to toss out anything that keeps me from becoming “one with him.”? You see, we do get to pick and choose what we will and will not take to the dump. He gives us free will. Here’s the thing though, until we lay it all down, not just the things we’d like to get rid of, we will not be “one with him.” Some things in our lives and our hearts are easy to toss on the heap, some things not so easy. What’s in your heart? What do we need to take to the curb?

I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

Paul’s transformation revealed to him that he simply couldn’t be good enough. He couldn’t count on himself, by following all the rules, towing the line, doing the right things at the right time. No matter what Paul did, or what we do, we simply cannot be good enough to inherit the kingdom. There is not one thing we can do – Christ has already done it. God used His only Son to make us right with Him. Believing on the Son, faith in the Son, is the only way. Even rule followers cannot enter the kingdom without faith, not even Paul, not even us.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

Paul trusted Christ, he had faith in Christ, and as a result he was reborn. Paul experienced the resurrection power of knowing Christ and his life was transformed. The things Paul previously thought were important were no longer important. I feel certain that before his transformation, Paul used the same absolutes we use. I will forever be a Pharisee. I will always follow the law. I will never follow this Jesus. But, Paul surrendered and look what happened – just as Christ was raised form the dead by the glorious power of God the Father, he was living a new life, a life that will be resurrected from the dead to live for all eternity.

Remember, Paul thought he had it all before. After meeting Jesus, he knew he had it all. So, what are we hanging on to that is worthless compared to Christ? What do we need to discard, take to the dump, get rid of, throw out?

On some evenings, the moon is particularly radiant in our neck of the woods. Last night the sky was completely clear, not a cloud. The moon was spectacular. While looking at the moon, I couldn’t help but be in complete awe and wonder. Trying to wrap my brain around God’s outrageous creation held me in awe. I wondered that a God that created such a spectacular creation created and loves me. Even me.

Walking this morning in the dark I again was struck in awe and wonder. There’s this mud puddle in the field across from ours. In that mud puddle I saw the reflection of the moon. Gorgeous. It was crazy, I could see two moons. One bright and brilliant in the sky and one bright and brilliant in the puddle, but wait – the one in the puddle is out of focus – in focus – out of focus – in focus, you get it. What’s going on? While watching the puddle I noticed the ever so gentle breeze, almost imperceptible, moving the water causing the moon to lose its sharpness. The moon in the puddle was crispless.

This reminded me of my relationship with God. When things are going well, He is perfectly clear. Peace? When I study His Word, He is perfectly clear. When I snuggle up to Him and cleave to Him, He is perfectly clear. But you know, like the wind, it only takes the very slightest movement to knock Him out of focus for me. The gentle breeze of an argument with a loved one, an overdue bill, car issues, kid issues, animal issues, health issues, job issues, sin issues, etc. issues, all cause ripples in the puddle and distort our vision.

Like the moon in the sky, God is always perfectly clear. Like the moon in the puddle, life encourages us to lose our focus. But we have great hope! Jesus came to bring our lives into focus. The prophesy of Isaiah in Chapter 42 tells us of that promise. It tells us of that Jesus.

Look at my servant, whom, I strengthen. He is my chosen one, and I am pleased with him. I have put my Spirit upon him…To open blind eyes. To bring out prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

He came to open our blind eyes and show us how to see clearly. He can do for us what he did for the Disciples on their way to Emmaus. Suddenly, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Suddenly, everything came into focus. Suddenly, the Disciples could see Jesus for what He was. Suddenly, the ripples stopped. Suddenly, everything came back into focus. Suddenly.

Suddenly can happen to me too. I can regain focus by feeding on His Word, eating the bread of life, and drinking the cup. By taking Him in. By refocusing. By persisting in His presence. By talking to the man in the moon.

Look at that big momma! Ain’t she a beauty? That’s my pumpkin plant. Yep, right in my front yard. I love pumpkins. I don’t know what it is about them. Maybe it’s the reminder of fall. Maybe because their color is so rich. Maybe because they’re just kind of goofy looking – bumpy, lumpy, misshapen. I don’t know why – I just love them.

This pumpkin plant is special to me. I’ve always wanted to grow pumpkins, but have had very little, actually, no success. I’ve planted pumpkins three different times, using three different techniques, in three different places on our property. The first time, I dug up the soil, carefully placed the pumpkin seeds in holes two feet apart, and mounded the soil on top of them – that’s what the package said. They never came up. The second time, I tried the “container method.” Starting from seeds, I dug a hole, placed the seeds in the hole in a container. After the plant became strong and mature, I was going to remove it from the container and place it in the ground. It never came up.

My third attempt was successful, as you can see. I got a pumpkin last year at Orr’s Farm Market. It sat on my porch through fall and when it started to cave in a little I thought I’d try to harvest my own seeds. Maybe that was the problem with my other two attempts. You know, GMO. So, I harvested my own pumpkin seeds. It was a painstaking task, ahem. I picked this caving pumpkin up – if you’ve ever waited too long to remove your pumpkin you know what happened. It turned to mush in my hands and I dropped it beside my front porch. I had every intention of going out and cleaning it up. You know what they say about good intentions…As the story goes – fall became winter, winter became spring, spring became summer, and summer became pumpkin! A pumpkin plant right in my front yard! My very own victory garden!

I am so excited about this pumpkin plant. It really is huge, probably about 8×10 and it continues to grow. As you can see, it overtook my rooster, it has overtaken my sidewalk, and I have no doubt it will continue through the front yard to the road in front of our house. The leaves are so big you could use them as umbrellas. The blooms are gorgeous, brilliant orange. It looks so healthy. There’s hope!

There’s only one small problem – it has no pumpkins. Not a one. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nadda. Oh, it started out on the right path. We had one pumpkin about four weeks ago. It got to be about six inches in diameter well on its way to Great Pumpkin fame! One day I walked outside and my Great Pumpkin had started to rot. Aaahhh!!! My neighbors heard that. Anyway, I have this massive, beautiful pumpkin plant and no pumpkins. Folks, I got no fruit. We’ve theorized about the lack of fruit. Too wet? Definitely not too dry! Bad seeds? They came from last year’s perfect pumpkin. Not the right soil? Look at those healthy leaves and the size of that thing and tell me the soil’s not right. Lack of pollination? Haven’t seen bee one. There’s only one explanation – it’s not getting something it needs to produce fruit. Duh, you say. Now I’m no horticulturalist so I don’t really know what the problem is, I just know there’s a problem. To be honest, I don’t care what the problem is, I just want pumpkins! A colorful, beautiful, lush, fruit bearing plant is no good without fruit! A pumpkin plant has one job in life — to produce pumpkins.

Paul tells us, just like the pumpkin plant purpose, our lives too are to be all about the fruit:

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Galatians 5:22-25

Do we have fruit? What’s our fruit look like? Ouch – get off my toes!

You see, there are two forces at work in our world. Sin (evil) and God (good). Our sinful nature, which leads to death (destruction) and our Spirit nature, which leads to life (eternal fruit producing life). When we follow the desires of our sinful nature (our old life) we cannot follow the desires of the Spirit (our new life). If we do, we are not changed.

So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law. Galatians 5:16-18

Our sinful nature is in direct contradiction to our Spirit life. Our sinful nature is what the law speaks against. The law that’s designed to protect us. The law has never been able to change our sinful hearts. Only Christ’s sacrifice on that cross could offer freedom from the law. The law where people thought they could gain acceptance by God by being obedient to the commandments, by following the rules. Impossible! You see it’s about the heart – it’s about the Spirit. Our sinful nature cannot produce fruits of the Spirit. Only changed hearts and the indwelling of the Spirit can produce good fruit – the Great Pumpkin! If we are being ruled by our sinful nature (it’s all about me) and not by our Spirit nature (it’s all about God) we will not produce the fruits of the Spirit.

If our hearts are changed, we will want to keep his law, not to gain His acceptance, but out of our great love for Him. In Psalm 40:8, David wrote “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” If our hearts are changed, our lives are changed. If our hearts are changed, the Holy Spirit is in control. If the Holy Spirit is in control, we produce good fruit, Holy Spirit controlled fruit!

In Romans, Paul quotes King David from the Psalms when he says there is no one perfect, “not even one!” But that does not give us an out. Matthew 5:48 says: “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” We cannot be flawless, completely without fault, but we are to make it our goal to be as much like Christ as possible. When we do, the fruit appears.

So, I ask again: Do we have fruit? Have we turned from our sinful nature to the Spirit nature? What’s our fruit look like? Have we nailed our passions and the desires of this world to His Holy Cross? The ways of the world are very wily. The world will tell us it’s enough to have beautiful, healthy looking leaves – to be big and powerful — and to have beautiful blooms. That’s a lie. The world doesn’t care about our fruit. The forces of the world don’t want us to have fruit. Have we given the Spirit full reign to produce good fruit within us or do products of the sinful nature still appear in our lives?

Did you know there’s folks out there that are Biblical Numerologists? What’s that you say? Me too. I found that it’s the study of numbers and their relationship to events in the Bible. Those folks are able to relate specific Biblical events with specific numbers. For instance, Jesus’s transfiguration on the Mount was witnessed by three people, John, Peter and James. Jesus prayed three times in the garden before he was arrested. There were fourteen generations from Abraham to King David, fourteen generations from King David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian exile to the birth of the Messiah. You get what I’m talking about. Numbers are significant in the Bible or they wouldn’t be there. Remember, God breathed.

I’m into numerology too. I study numbers and their impact on my life. Sounds a bit like the dark side, doesn’t it? Palm reading, tarot cards, and lucky lottery numbers, right? Wrong. I’m not into that kind of numerology.

I’m into egg numerology. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Haven’t you counted your chickens before they hatched? I count the number of eggs I get each day and make a mental note. Simple as that. She’s lost her mind, you say and quite right you are, just not about egg numerology. You know we have these seven chickens. Each evening when I go to the barn, with great anticipation I count the number of eggs I gather. Egg numerology. What else would you call it? The number of eggs my girls lay has a direct impact on the number of egg sandwiches we will eat at our house.

It would stand to reason that with seven chickens I would get seven eggs. That’s just not how it works though. Some days I get six eggs. Some days I get four eggs. Yesterday I got three eggs. Three eggs from seven chickens. I have a few slackers. So daily, I count.

When I think of numbers in the Bible, my mind quickly goes to the verse:

And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flocks of sparrows. Luke 12:7

He knows the very number of hairs on my head. Think about that. Did you know the average human head loses 50-100 hairs a day. That’s just gross, I know. Here’s the point. The hairs on my head change daily, hourly, minutely – by the numbers. Do you know what that means? It means that the God of the Universe, the Creator of All finds me so valuable that He knows when I lose a hair on my head, or when one grows in. It means that every time my hair count changes, He knows about it! But, it’s not my hair that’s significant. If he cares about the insignificant things about me enough to take note of them, how much more does He care about the significant things that have to do with me. Me, Beth, and you too. Because He cares that much for me, I need have no fear. He cares so much that:

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.
Psalm 103:3-4

Do you know what ransom means? Ransom is the price paid. It means a rescue from punishment. It means deliverance. It means redemption. Ransom, the price paid to release a slave from bondage. I’m the slave and sin is my bondage. Without Him, there is no deliverance from my sins which are too numerous to count.

For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many. Matthew 21:28

So, here’s a little of Beth’s Biblical Numerology for you…there’s a direct connect between my sin, my bondage, and Christ. My sins and the sins for all were paid for by a Thirty-Three year old, the One and only child of God, on One Cross and Three Days.

I’ve been thinking about friendships a lot lately. We all got ‘em. There are so many different types of friendships, levels of friendships.

There’s the fast friend — the person you meet once and there’s an instant connection. There’s the Facebook friend – someone who tells you all their business, but you don’t really know them. The frequent friend – the one you see every day that knows most about your life. The favorite friend – your go-to friend. The forever friend – the one you’ve known forever and no matter the miles you know that person is a friend. The flighty friend – the one who only calls when there’s a problem? The finkish friend – the one who texts you and when you respond they never text back. The fun friend – the one you laugh with. The fanatic friend – the one you hide from sometimes because of their stalking tendencies. The forgiving friend – the one that forgives you more than you deserve. The faithful friend – the one who sticks by you, no matter what. The fan friend – the one who cheers loudest for you. The fellowship friend – just being together, no words necessary. The finder friend – the one who tracks you down after years. The family friend – the sister who shares your heart. There are so many more kinds of friends, but you get the picture. Take a minute to think of your friends.

There’s my basement skating friend. Yep. We roller skated as kids in my parents’ basement. Neither of us was very good, but it didn’t matter. We were together.

There’s my always an adventure friend. The one who ran for a broom (not to ride) when the mouse jumped out of the tack box right at my face!

There’s the national tragedy friend. The one who is the answer to the “where were you when” question, with an inexplicable bond that can never be erased.

There’s my for keeps, no matter what, complete your sentences friend.
There’s the sister friend. The one who shares my parents, my life. Boundless love.

The daughter friend. The holder of my heart.
As I thought about my friends, I also thought of the kind of friend I am. Honestly, I’m all the above, and more. I have been a fast friend, a frequent friend, a favorite friend, a forever friend, a flightly friend, a finkish friend, a fanatic friend, a faithful friend, a fan friend and a finder friend. I’ve been a good friend and a really bad friend. I tell folks I’m not a very good friend, and it’s true. I don’t know about you all, but I struggle sometimes stepping out of my own world – I’ve been told it’s not all about me (tsk! tsk!) – and stepping into someone else’s world. That’s what friends do.

Friendships are hard because we(me) are…well, complicated. I don’t know that God made us complicated, maybe complex, but I think sin makes us complicated. Here’s what I mean. The reason I’m sometimes not a good friend isn’t because of my friend, it’s because of me. See it is all about me! I’m selfish. Ugh! You too? I think most (all?) of our problems in life (don’t throw stuff at me) arrive when we only think of ourselves. What we want. What we say. What we want to do. Friends are an assault on ourselves. Good friends, not Facebook friends (again, don’t throw stuff at me) make us get beyond ourselves. They require something of us.

There is another kind of friend that can heal and encourage all our friendships, who can help us get beyond ourselves to eternity – the Father Friend.

For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God. Romans 5:10-11

Christ’ death on the cross has made us friends of God. Blood brothers. Soul mates. It is only by His special favor that we have been saved.

…A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
2 Corinthians 5:18

As followers of Christ, our task is to tell our friends of Him. Who do we need to talk to?

Are you a distracted pray-er? I am. I marvel and envy all at once those who can spend uninterrupted, completely focused time in prayer. Should I be able to? Maybe. Can/Do I? No. I’m not sure if it’s a can’t or I plain ole don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty good at the desperation prayers, the dagger prayers. You too?

So I’m sitting at my desk the other morning doing what I do. I pull out my prayer list, it’s pretty substantial, there’s a lot to pray about. I also have these prayer pages that help guide me with specific prayers – salvation, Church prayers, school prayers. Then I have this little book Jesus Calling, that I use the prayers in each day. Sometimes I want to skip right past the prayer to the study – wrong! Anyway, I’m sitting at my desk with my mind a whirl about the day. I can’t concentrate. I feel bad. As a child of God, shouldn’t I easily be able to lift up prayers to my Jesus?

Anyway again, I turn off my desk light, maybe that will help, it’s dark outside. I can see the faded barn light and the moon. It’s really beautiful today, a sliver on the bottom and a shadow on the top. So I start praying. I remember something about work and want to shoot an email real quick so I can really focus on my prayers… Squirrel. Thirty seconds later, I close my phone, and get back to my prayers. I know what you’re thinking…what’s wrong with her? Back at it. When I look up the moon is gone. Just gone. Now, there’s not a cloud in the sky that I can see, it has just disappeared. Where’d it go? For just a second I’m thinking what in the world, did it fall from the sky? One moment of distracted praying (probably 30 seconds), I take my eyes off the moon for one moment, and it’s gone.

I take a breath and it reappears. Back at it again. As I was thinking about my complete lack of discipline – I hope I’m not alone – I wondered what God thought about my complete lack of discipline. Does He get the way my mind works? Does He want more from me? Is he disappointed in my lack of discipline? Does He want me to put aside the world and spend some focused time with Him? Does He understand? Does He want me to spend time with Him even though I don’t quite seem to get it right? It’s a resounding, YES!!! But, that doesn’t give me a get out of prayer free card. Look.

…and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven…
2 Chronicles 7:14

He wants us to pray. It clearly says if we pray, He will hear. He wants to spend time with us. He knows the world’s pull on us. He knows we will be distracted. He knows it all. But, what he asks is that we humble ourselves. That we discipline ourselves to speak with Him. We don’t need prayer rules, or get hung up on prayer lists. If we listed all the prayer concerns we have, we would never get through them. And what happens when we don’t get through the list? We feel guilty. We feel less. Do you think Moses kept a tablet of prayer concerns? Do you think Paul went through and listed every single need he knew and ticked it off the papyus? What God really wants from us is constant communion. Constant dialog. The practice of speaking with Him about everything, all the time. No special list, no special words, just a humble and willing heart. He knows us so well. He doesn’t leave us alone in our prayers though. Look.

In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.
Romans 8:26-27

Isn’t that a great comfort? Here’s the interesting thing about these verses. For years I think I got them all wrong. I used them as an out. That I was too weary, too stressed, too broken to pray and that the Holy Spirit would pray in my stead. When I’m too weary, too stressed, too broken, isn’t that the time I must pray? It’s hard though, isn’t it? Sometimes we can only offer up His name – Jesus! That’s prayer. Sometimes we can only offer up – Help! That’s prayer. Where does my help come from? Sometimes we can’t even form the words in our hearts – Groans! That’s prayer. Sometimes we can only raise our face to the sky and look up. That’s prayer.

In all these prayers, we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is not standing in for me, when I pray, He is stepping out with me. As I pray, the Holy Spirit knows the perfect will of God and He speaks to the Father on my behalf. Isn’t that a beautiful picture? We offer our prayers. They don’t have to be perfect prayers. The Holy Spirit is intervening on our behalf. Not praying in our place, but praying with us. Not doing it for us, but doing it with us. We pray to the Father, the Holy Spirit petitions the Father. How amazing is that?

Weak as we are. Distracted as we are. Unfocused as we are. We are to offer our hearts unto God. He sent the Holy Spirit to groan on our behalf, not in our stead, but to help make those distracted, sometimes wordless, sometimes mechanical, dutiful prayers perfectly acceptable to God. Holy Spirit you are welcome here…

Today I write with sad news. My Poor Ethel passed away yesterday. Completely unexpected. When I went to the coop yesterday morning, the first to run out was laying down. She didn’t feel good. Now I’m not quite sure how you tell if a chicken doesn’t feel good but she was laying down and later in the day died so I think that’s a fair assumption. Unfortunately, chickens just die and unless an autopsy is done (they really do that) most times the cause is unknown. We’re just going to have to satisfied with the unknown. I always called her my Poor Ethel because of the flock treatment. She was a loner, remember, we got two of each breed. She was part of the Ethel and Esther. Her counter-part turned out to be an Edward and he had to go back to the breeder, no boys allowed! I don’t know if it was her personality or her breed, but she was sweet. She never pecked back or chased for no reason.

Now that she’s gone I obviously think about her in the past tense. She was sweet. She was kind. She was gentle. She wasn’t bossy. She laid pretty blue eggs. You know what I mean, it’s my memories, my recollections of her that I now have. Those are precious memories. I know, I know, she was just a chicken. Anyway, I started wondering, what will folks’ recollection of me be. Will they be chickenesque? Beth was sweet. Beth was kind. Beth was gentle. Beth wasn’t bossy. Beth sure could lay a pretty egg? As we all pass on (don’t freak out, it happens to all of us), we will all be someone’s memories. What will those memories be? It’s important to think about. Makes me want to do better with life.

So I’m republishing a story from July 2018, as a tribute to Ethel. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you really can learn valuable life lessons from a chicken.

IT’S NOT OKAY

You might have heard about my girls – my chicks – there are seven of them. I love those stinkin things. We do a lot of chicken watching at our house. During the day they run a muck – they cover every inch of our 12, every day, and where they go, they go all together. They’re flockers. They stick together unless someone’s sitting anest.

During the day they wander and at night they’re cooped up – it’s one of those two story jobs. Settling in for the night is a process, which doesn’t voluntarily begin before darkish. When dusk hits they instinctively head for their coop. Settling in for the night is a process for them. They take turns going in and out before the doors close. They run in and think about roosting then they run out for one last bite. In. Out. Bite to eat. Drink. Hop up. Hop down. Jostling. They chase each other and squeeze each other out, jockeying for the best roost position. If one tries to go up the ladder before another thinks they should, they get a peck or two on the head. Maybe even a pluck. Ouch Georgie Girl! Poor Ethel is always the last to ascend she’s most often pushed, pecked and bullied. It’s a tough crowd.

After finally ascending to the coop, the jockeying for position is not yet over. They move, they ruffle, they peck, they squawk. It’s constant. I try to intervene, to restore calm, but I’m reminded that it’s what chickens do. They’re animals – fowl, technically. They have a pecking order.

One thing I’ve noticed is that we, me, I, have chicken-tendencies. We, me, are not so different from them, really. We do the same sometimes. I know I do.

After watching the news the other day, I started thinking how very similar we are to my girls. We treat each other the same way my girls treat each other, and it’s permissible and acceptable. I wondered to myself – when did it get okay? When did it get okay to be mean? Push. When did it get okay to call people names? Squawk. When did it get okay to degrade other people? Bump. When did it get okay to mistreat others? Peck. When did it get okay to speak our minds without care for others’ tender hearts? Pluck. When did it get okay to say what we want, regardless of the cost to someone else? Scar. When did it get okay to bully? Jostle. When did it get okay?

Clearly, my chickens have not heard about the Greatest Commandment. Sometimes I act like I’ve not heard it either.

The most important commandment is this: Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
All your mind, and all your strength.
and your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 12:29-31

According to Jesus, this is the most important commandment. Notice He gives us a few directions before we are to love each other. His directions are just that – listed in order of importance. First, he gets our attention. Then He identifies Himself. Next, He tells us exactly what we must do. He says:

Listen up folks!
I am the only God!
You must love Me with absolutely everything you have – heart, soul, mind, strength,
Only when you do that can you love your neighbor as you should.

Only by putting God first in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds, with all the strength that we have, can we love others as we should. He knew we would struggle with love because we are human, that’s why he gave us the directions – He’s shown us how to work this love thing.

God did not tell us to love our neighbors if we want to, if they love us first, if they’re loveable. He said love your neighbor as yourself. Do we do that? Do we love each other as we love ourselves – maybe. Maybe that’s our problem.

Paul tells us living in the Spirit – heart, soul, mind, strength – produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We can pretty much tell if we’re living in the Spirit or living in the world by the fruits we produce. Will they know I’m a Christian by my love? By my words? By my deeds? By my eyes? By my life? The fruits are not to be practiced occasionally, they are to be how we live our life. They are to be practiced consistently. What a wonderful world it would be if we all immersed ourselves in the fruits.

We peck. We bump. We shove. We squawk. We pluck. We scar. We jostle. We act like animals. We act fowl. That’s the truth. Ugh! We need a Cross check. We are sinners living in a fallen world but that doesn’t excuse our actions. Because we are His we are to be of the world and not in the world.

When did it get okay to peck, bump, shove, squawk, pluck, scar, or jostle each other? It didn’t. It never did. It’s just not okay.