Wide and Deep
Father, tonight I just need to fall back into your embrace. Hold me close. Nothing is wrong. I am just weary and need to feel your heartbeat in my ear as I am held against Your chest. I am weak…You are strong. May my strength be renewed in my time with You. Amen.
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A few years back, over a five-year period, I purposed to immerse myself in Scripture. I read through the Old Testament one full time through and then about halfway through again. I was able to read through the New Testament three times in the same time period.
This was in the middle of my time at Kohl’s, so I had about a forty-minute drive each way. I purchased the Bible on CD and faithfully listened in my truck. So as not to be fiddling with changing a CD while driving. I strove to listen to each disc two times through. All together I listened to the Old Testament ten times and the New Testament eleven times in that same five-year period.
I want to stress that this is not a “look at what I did” moment. I felt it was important, as one who placed great importance on the Word of God, to know the Word of God. This approach benefited me greatly in that it gave me a wonderful big-picture perspective. There are so many Old Testament references in the New Testament and going through it all the way I did enable me to see a lot of that. Also, I was amazed at how many hymns were brought to mind going through Scripture, as well. Much of hymnody is great theology, too!
As I said, that approach benefited me greatly but it had more of a wide impact if you will. I’ve changed how I do things now and honestly, I have not read or listened through very much in the last six years. But where before I focused on the wide, now I am concentrating on the deep.
I really feel like my wide method lead me to my heart’s desire to draw closer to Christ and to really buckle down in my commitment to Him. I stopped keeping records of what I read and listened to at the end of 2013. By December of 2014, I had begun to journal. I wrote an opening prayer to my Father and then after reading a short passage of Scripture, I would write what I felt He was saying to me through that passage. I usually then tried to have an extended time of prayer.
I picked up where I had been reading my Bible – at the beginning of 2nd Corinthians – and…just wrote. I poured out my heart to the One who knew me best. It was a wonderful time of getting to know my Father and I have not turned back!
The blog you are reading? It is what it is because of that period in my life. (I began posting my journaling in June of 2015.) Not much has changed. I am still growing. I am still learning. And I am still amazed at the wonderful Father that I serve and love.
All that I have just written really wasn’t where I had planned on going when I sat down this evening but the Lord has answered my prayer and renewed my strength. I have written what I feel brings glory to Him. May you be inspired to do the same. Amen.
Dec 5th, 2019, Thurs, 6:51 pm
Slip Sliding Away!
Father, sometimes I struggle with what to say to You. I know you don’t mind me repeating myself but I want it to be meaningful and fresh. As I pondered tonight this old children’s hymn came to mind. It is simple but expresses how I feel. (Click here if you’d like to hear the tune.)
Praise him, praise him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love;
Praise him, praise him, all ye little children.
God is love, God is love.
Luke 4:1-13 (<<click to read the passage)
This morning was a bit eventful for me on my elementary route. I was probably only about 15 minutes from its end when I came up to a four-way stop where two county roads converge. We had enough snow last night after dark that you could hear the state snowplows out clearing the highway in front of our home but county roads usually don’t get treated in any way. A lot of places get packed down and become a layer of ice. So, when I came to that stop – and I was driving slowly anyway due to road conditions – I could feel the back of my bus start to slide to the right, as the front began sliding to the left. It was very much a slow-motion event in that it felt like it was sliding but I took a quick glance in the mirrors on the right side of my bus to verify what I felt. Fortunately, there were no vehicles coming towards me and the pickup truck behind me kept his distance.
Tapping my brake, I was able to stop before entering the intersection but I was most definitely not in my lane!
Temptation. That’s what Jesus finds himself in the middle of in this passage of Scripture. I’ll address the “whys” of that later but for now, I want to look at temptation and us.
There are certainly times where we blatantly seek to yield to temptation. We look for things that will lure us down temptation’s slippery slope but there are other times when we are just going our merry way and there it is! We are taking all the normal precautions. We are not trying to get ourselves into trouble but quickly find ourselves in the middle of it!
I truly consider God to be my co-pilot. Especially when I started driving school bus, I prayed regularly that He would guide my thoughts and actions. I prayed that what I felt was beyond me would be taken up by Him…and He answered those prayers in a marvelous way and continues to do so!
Though I may not have consciously asked for His help in my sliding this morning, He was most assuredly by my side all along the way. And He does the same for us when, by no fault of our own, we find ourselves in the middle of temptation. God will help us come to a stop before we slide into the intersection of disaster.
Lord Jesus, I am so grateful that You watch out for me, that regardless of the circumstances You are with me and are always ready to step in and steer me in the right direction. I pray that I will always be sensitive to Your leading and Your sensitivity to what may be detrimental to my spiritual walk. Amen.
Dec 4th, 2019, Wed, 6:15 pm
The Ulitmate Guide
Father, You are most definitely all-powerful, infinitely more than my finite mind can even begin to comprehend, but with all that might, You still chose me to be in a relationship with You. And it is not just an acquaintance type of relationship but it is a close, personal, intimate relationship. You know all my darkest secrets, my greatest weaknesses and in spite of my frailty and feebleness, You still love me and encourage me to draw close to Your side…to learn and grow to become more like You with every interaction. All praise to You!
Luke 4:1 (<<click to read the passage)
One of my favorite memories from my youth was when, on occasion, we would go to a national park and be led on a nature hike by a park ranger. They were such a wealth of information! They seemed to know the answer to every question.
One memory that I have retained was about what I learned to call a Touch-Me-Not flower. It is more commonly known as the Jewelweed. Wikipedia states that it’s “seed pods have five valves which coil back rapidly to eject the seeds in a process called explosive dehiscence. This reaction is where the name ‘touch-me-not’ comes from; in mature seed pods, dehiscence can easily be triggered with a light touch.”
If I had not been led out into the woods, I would never have had that fun experience. But someone with a much more broad exposure to knowledge than I, knew what to look for and where to find them.
There are many times in life where this interaction takes place, from childhood and even into senior adulthood, as well. Admittedly, not all of our journeys lead us to the joy of Touch-Me-Not beds. Many times, we can find ourselves in very difficult – sometimes insurmountable – circumstances. Wouldn’t it be great if we had someone with a much more broad exposure to knowledge than you or I?
Well, God has definitely taken care of that! Today’s passage speaks of Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. One awesome thing about the Holy Spirit is that He is not just a fair-weather guide. He is with us through each and every situation that life can throw at us.
And He is not just a companion! He is lightyears ahead of park rangers in that He knows everything there is to know about everything! He is the ultimate life guide. And we can trust Him to never lead us astray. We may be tempted to veer from the path which He sets us upon but, as my opening prayer reflects, if we draw close to His side, we will learn and grow and become more like Him with every interaction.
Lord Jesus, may it be so! Amen!
Dec 3rd, 2019, Tues, 6:57 pm
His Family Tree Is Love
Father, our day did not encompass everything we thought it might but we did enjoy our day together! As You and I come together this evening, may our time be blessed. May my heart and mind be attentive to You. Amen
Luke 3:23-38 (<<click to read the passage)
As my eyes beheld the content of these verses, my mind went back to the King James Version…or so I thought. As I looked further into it I realized that it was Matthew’s Gospel not Luke’s that used the terminology that I recalled.
Both authors gave a genealogy of Jesus. They vary some in that Matthew’s only goes back to Abraham and Luke’s goes back to Adam. Regardless, in Matthew’s Gospel, the King James renders the phrase “was the father of” as “begat”. It means the same thing it is just older language that our modern ears are not attuned to.
So thinking along those lines we see that it is written, “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob…” and so on and so on. Then my mind jumped to an old Latin hymn that was written in the 5th century but was then translated into English by John M. Neale in 1854, and Henry W. Baker in 1859. The first line of the hymn is its title and here are the first few lines of the first verse,
Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Matthew and Luke both communicate that Jesus’ human lineage could literally be traced back to the very beginning. But that was flesh giving birth to (begetting?) flesh. While Jesus is fully human and has that lineage He is also fully God and is therefore begotten (birthed), also, of the Father’s love. In John’s (i.e. John the Apostle’s) first epistle (letter), he tells us that “…God is love.” 1 John 4:8 NLT (emphasis mine)
This can be a bit confusing, so I will close with Hebrews 2:14-18 (AMP), it explains it much better than I ever could. Read through it slowly, there is a lot to take in. (Lord Jesus, bless the reading of Your word for it shall not return to us void! Isaiah 55:11)
14 Therefore, since [these His] children share in flesh and blood [the physical nature of mankind], He Himself in a similar manner also shared in the same [physical nature, but without sin], so that through [experiencing] death He might make powerless (ineffective, impotent) him who had the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and [that He] might free all those who through [the haunting] fear of death were held in slavery throughout their lives. 16 For, as we all know, He (Christ) does…take hold of [the fallen] descendants of Abraham [extending to them His hand of deliverance]. 17 Therefore, it was essential that He had to be made like His brothers (mankind) in every respect, so that He might [by experience] become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things related to God, to make atonement (propitiation) for the people’s sins [thereby wiping away the sin, satisfying divine justice, and providing a way of reconciliation between God and mankind]. 18 Because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted, He is able to help and provide immediate assistance to those who are being tempted and exposed to suffering.
Dec 2nd, 2019, Mon, 8:11 pm
Trust His Timing
As I sat to write this evening this hymn, by John Greenleaf Whittier, came to mind – this my prayer,
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise.
Luke 3:23 (<<click to read the passage)
Do we rush things too much? Are we putting excessive pressure on kids and young adults? We take great pride in our children being ahead in their age bracket. They walked at this age, talked at that age, could count and read, excelled at athletics or academics and on and on. But is it too much?
I’m not pointing fingers because we felt that way about Massey – my son. I’m not sure we pushed him but we sure encouraged! In fact, as time passed, we really didn’t need to push him – he pushed himself! He is an academic and we are praying this his pursuit of a doctorate in aerospace engineering will soon come to fruition. That is a lot to accomplish in 27 years! We are so proud of him! But did we “encourage” him too much?
We as parents and educators and coaches put so much pressure on our youth to excel. We want them to be the best they can be but let me just lay this right here…
When did the Jesus – Son God – begin His public ministry? Luke tells us that he “was about thirty years old…” Up until that point, to our knowledge, He – the Savior of the world – the Messiah – worked in a family-owned carpenter shop in the small town of Nazareth [“Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46 (NLT)]
We have kids in their early 20’s teaching in schools! Managing large groups of quite often older associates in corporate settings! Laying their lives on the line as they serve in the military and law enforcement!
Is it too much?
God himself did not set out to accomplish the very reason He was born on this old world until He was “about thirty years old…”!
Now maybe it is too much…and maybe it is not.
My Life Application Study Bible puts it this way, “…we need to resist the temptation to jump ahead before receiving the Spirit’s direction. Are you waiting and wondering what your next step should be? Don’t jump ahead – trust God’s timing.”
Jesus could have been chomping at the bit but “he patiently trusted his Father’s timing for his life and ministry.”
In reality, this applies to all of us…not just our youth. Quite often we get so antsy about where we are and fret over where we think we should be – ever hear of a mid-life crisis?
Our challenge for today is to patiently trust your Father’s timing. He sees the big picture. He knows where you are and He knows where He wants you to be. Trust. Him.
Dec 1st, 2019, Sun, 7:52 pm