A Marriage Partner

Making marriage work is like running a farm. You have to start all over again each morning.  Author Unknown

I was thinking this morning about marriage.  Choosing a person to spend your life with is a huge responsibility.  One of the reasons this is true is because we have so many opportunities to choose the wrong one.  The thing is God allows us to make the choice.  

When I look back on the people I dated I was not thinking about what they believed or even if they believed in God.  It was all about attraction.  It took me many years to find the right person and I thank God every day for Jerry.  I was doing a poor job of finding Mr. Right and I went through a whole lot of Mr. Wrongs. 

Marriage is an interesting thing.  God’s intention was for us to become one, but too many times we try to keep the two separate. We want the companionship of marriage but not the oneness.  Society teaches us that we need to be independent and able to make it on our own, yet God created in us a need for companionship.  Being independent and wanting companionship are kind of counterproductive. 

If we look at marriage from a farming perspective, you don’t walk out the back door throw the seeds in the air and hope the seed will fall on fertile soil and grow. It takes preparation.  God gives us guidance on how we should go about selecting a life partner.  He wants us to have the best opportunity to succeed because this is one of the most critical choices we will make in our lifetime.  If marriage weren’t so important God would not have used marriage to describe Christ and the Church.

One of the most important things God teaches is that if we are a Christian we should not marry an unbeliever.  Why?  Because how can two opposing forces become one.  It is twice as difficult to become one if you are constantly in a battle with someone who doesn’t believe in God.  When trials come in your life it is much easier to stand united as one than it is to face it alone and the person you choose can make the difference between success and failure.  Choose wisely. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I was guilty of making dating choices based on attraction instead of making a conscious choice to build a relationship based on spiritual beliefs and values.  You blessed me with Jerry when many times in my life I came close to making the biggest mistake of my life.  Thank you for having mercy on me and bringing me someone who believes in You as I do.      

Scripture: Marriage—Christ and the Church

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,  that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.  For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.  Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.  Ephesians 5:22-33

Mountain Men

Thank God for the battle verses in the Bible. We go into the unknown every day of our lives, and especially every Monday morning, for the week is sure to be a battlefield, outwardly and inwardly in the unseen life of the spirit, which is often by far the sternest battlefield for souls. Either way, the Lord your God goes before you, He shall fight for you!  Amy Carmichael

My husband and I were watching TV yesterday and there was a show on the History channel called Mountain Men.  We love the outdoors and my husband used to hike in the mountains so we decided to watch a few episodes.  The show follows the lives of various men who have moved into the wilderness to live.  We’re not talking about living a few miles from town.  These guys live in the coldest and most remote places.

I am the first to admit that I don’t know much about living in the wilderness.  The closest we ever got to wilderness was camping in state parks. I am also not a fan of the cold.  Freezers are for meat and frozen TV dinners, not people. 

Anyway, one of these guys lives in Alaska where the temperature can drop to 30 below.  This guy would trap animals for a living. Every day he would get out his snowmobile and drive it 8 to 10 miles down a frozen river to set traps.  You would think this guy would have quite a bit of experience with cold weather.  He drives about 10 miles away from home and stops to check a trap and when he returns his snowmobile won’t start.  So the commentator starts telling about the mistakes this guy made on this hunting trip. 

First, he didn’t bring a spare set of spark plugs. Second, he forgot to bring a compass and third, he forgot to wear his extra thermal gear.  So he is alone in the wilderness with no transportation, no warm outerwear, no compass, with a 6 hour hike back home in deep snow and it is dark.

I know the producers of this show were trying to make it exciting but this guy just looked inept.  I don’t know, call me silly but the three things he forgot to bring would have been the first things I packed if I was living in Alaska.  I am no mountain man but even I can figure out that part.   

As I watched I started thinking about how amazing our God is to have created such beauty in the wilderness but it also holds great danger for the person who isn’t prepared.  The same thing happens to each of us if we live in the city.  There are dangers around every corner and we have to be prepared.  Satan isn’t standing back watching us.  He is in full battle mode.  If we are not prepared for the fight of our life, we are in no better position than the mountain man.  Be prepared because Satan will come as a thief in the night. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am often guilty of not being prepared.  You give me the best tool, the Bible, to help me in the preparation for the biggest battle of my life.  Help me to use it to overcome Satan when he attacks.  I am fighting for eternity and I want to win.   

Scripture: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “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 by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.  Matthew 4:1-11

The Catalog

You will not stroll into Christlikeness with your hands in your pockets, shoving the door open with a careless shoulder. This is no hobby for one's leisure moments, taken up at intervals when we have nothing much to do, and put down and forgotten when our life grows full and interesting... It takes all one's strength, and all one's heart, and all one's mind, and all one's soul, given freely and recklessly and without restraint. A.J. Gossip

Do you remember years ago, before internet, when the only way you could shop was through a store catalog? Sears was one of the stores that had a huge catalog that also doubled as a booster seat when your kids were small.  You would sit them on the catalog so they could reach the dinner table.  Parents were geniuses back then. 

You would open this catalog and they carried everything.  You couldn’t go online and order what you wanted, you would browse the catalog and find what you wanted and then you would drive to the nearest store to order what you wanted and then wait for it to come in. 

Our brains are very much like a large catalog.  There are various departments where you can quickly sort through the folders to find what you need at any given moment.  If you think about it in terms of a computer’s size your brain is not limited to 16MB.  Your brain has unlimited capacity to hold stuff.  The stuff you put in your filing cabinet is critical.  If you put junk in there, what comes out will be junk.  It is not all of a sudden going to turn into quality merchandise.

Many years ago I took a continuing education class that was supposed to teach you how to keep your desk clean.  They recommended that you only touch any piece of paper on your desk once before doing something with it.  You had various options to use each time you picked up a piece of paper on your desk.  You had to do something with the paper.  It went into a read folder, an action folder or a trash folder. 

This same thing applies with how we fill our mental filing cabinet or catalog.  If we want to retrieve the best from our mental catalog, we have to first put in good information.  There are also going to be things that we need to take action on and there is a whole boatload of stuff that we need to put in the trash folder.  Our trash folder is where we are to put hatred, anger, profanity and jealousy to name a few.  These need to be replaced by love, compassion, long suffering, forgiveness etc… 

Fill your mental catalog with the good stuff and good stuff will come out.  Fill it with the wrong stuff and your trash will be overflowing.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I have often filled my catalog with the wrong or harmful information.  What I put in it can make the difference in showing other’s You, or leading them further from You.  Help me to put the good stuff in so that what comes out is worthy of You.

Scripture: The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion—A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  Proverbs 1:1-7

Fulfilling Your Purpose

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.  Corrie Ten Boom

What does fulfillment mean?  According to the dictionary fulfillment means “to develop the full potential of something or to carry out an obligation.”

Do you fulfill the purpose of why God placed you on earth?  This is one of the hardest things for us to learn because our very nature and the world around us teach us to be self-serving instead of what I call “other-serving.”

If we are ever to reach our full potential on earth it is necessary to let go.  I would compare this to driving while blindfolded.  That is exactly what it feels like when we release our need to control every situation and allow God to work.  It means we have to follow God’s lead even when we don’t know where we are going.  In a devotional by Rick Warren he says it involves “Waiting, Trusting, Following and Expecting.” 

This is extremely difficult in a world that teaches us to be self-reliant.  In other words if I don’t look out for myself, no one else will.  The opposite is true if we rely on God instead of ourselves. 

I have a tendency to think that I am in control.  When I start thinking this way I push God aside and step out, not in faith, but in thinking that I can do it on my own. 

If I am not able to wait on God and his timing then I am probably going to miss out on a lot of blessings.  If I don’t trust that He knows what is best for me, then I will miss the opportunity to learn wisdom even during trials.  The majority of the time we don’t want to be followers.  Why should we follow God without knowing where we will end up?  It is like jumping off a cliff with no parachute. If I am not willing to trust that God has my best interest in mind even when it doesn’t make sense, then I have missed the point entirely. This one is really important. Too many times we don’t expect God to work in our lives.  We halfheartedly ask for God’s guidance or blessing, fully expecting that He will not come through for us.     

We become self-defeating when we learn to depend only on ourselves to get us out of the jams of life.  One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 3:4-6.  It says trust the Lord, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths.   Notice it doesn’t say, only trust Him when you can’t handle the circumstance, or lean on Him only when you’ve already resolved it, or acknowledge Him when you feel like it and finally let Him direct your path when all else fails.  If we are to ever feel the peace that surpasses all understanding, we should focus our thoughts on God and wait, follow, trust and expect Him to work for our good.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of lacking patience when it comes to waiting for You to work in my life.  I take “You” out of the equation and replace it with “me” and that is when I become like a train wreck waiting to happen.  If I follow You, trust and expect that You will respond, that is when I can be a total peace in my life because then I am not depending on my feeble attempts to run my life.   

Scripture:  And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:4-6

The Gorilla

Many do not recognize the fact as they ought, that Satan has got men fast asleep in sin and that it is his great device to keep them so. But if we awake the sleeping sinner he will gnash on us with his teeth.  Catherine Booth

To pray is to let God into our lives. He knocks and seeks admittance, not only in the solemn hours of secret prayer. He knocks in the midst of your daily work, your daily struggles, your daily grind. That is when you need Him most.  Ole Hallesby

I was eating dinner with my parents last night.  Sometimes my Dad and Mom will tell stories from their childhood that I know they have never told us before.  My parents have history and I love when they tell stories of their youth.

My Dad told us that when he and his oldest brother were kids my grandfather took them to a parade to see a gorilla.  I started laughing because I don’t ever remember a parade that had a gorilla in it.  He went on to explain that the parade was part of a circus that had come into town so they had a gorilla, lions and various other animals.  The funny thing was when they finally got to the parade and the gorilla went by my grandfather  looked over at my dad and his brother and they were both fast asleep missing the gorilla they had come to see. 

This reminded me of the times in my life when God was knocking at my door and I was fast asleep, or maybe not so much fast asleep as not paying attention, and it was a lost opportunity to save a soul or to hear God speak.   

It reminded me of the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane.  He took Peter and Zebedee’s sons with him.  He asked them to wait and watch with Him.  When Jesus returned from praying they were fast asleep.  On the most sorrowful and critical day of Jesus’ life on earth, his closest friends were sleeping and not just sleeping once but after Jesus went away three times and came back they were still sleeping.  Can you imagine how Jesus must have felt knowing that he would soon die a horrible death and his friends couldn’t stay awake with Him in his greatest time of need? 

The same can happen to us if we are not careful.  Will we be caught sleeping when the Savior returns? 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of being asleep when you are in my presence.  The Bible tells us that we must be vigilant because the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  It also tells us that the heavens will pass away and the elements will melt and be burned up.  Father I want to be prepared for your return and I will not be if I am caught sleeping.

Scripture: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.  So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.  Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” Matthew 26:36-46

Losing Your Marbles & Stuff

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.  G.K. Chesterton

Laughter is the most beautiful and beneficial therapy God ever granted humanity. Chuck Swindoll

I think I am easily amused or maybe I am just not awake yet.  Otherwise, why would I find this so funny?    

We have a break room in our office and there is a bulletin board on the wall where you can post discount passes to events, menus and things you are selling.  There is a sheet posted on the bulletin board that has been there for months.  It is a blank sheet of paper with two push pins on it that are holding missing items that someone in the office found.  One is an earring and the other is a piece of a bracelet.  I went into the kitchen this morning and I noticed there was something written on the piece of paper and what looked like a drawing of some sort.  I decided to check it out.  Someone had drawn five round circles with an arrow pointing to it and next to it they wrote “Marbles, Yes these are mine!” I laughed out loud.  Some days I feel just like that. 

Here is another totally unrelated story.  Last night my husband and I were watching one of those shows about “Unusual Homes”.  There is a guy in California who purchased an Airstream motorhome and converted it into his home.  The Airstream is 30 feet long and has high-end fixtures and even a claw-foot tub and full size bathroom.  It even has a skylight.  The thing that struck me was the comment he made about his home.  He said, “I no longer ask myself can I afford it, but can I store it?” 

I thought that statement was priceless. Raise your hand if you have so much stuff that you don’t have a place to put it.  Both of my hands went up.  We have so much stuff that we have to rent space to store it.  God never intended for us to accumulate so much stuff that we don’t have a place to put it.  I think we would probably laugh more and be more joyful if we got rid of the stuff that crowds our thoughts and takes up space. 

The moral of this story.  If you feel like you are losing your marbles, you are not alone.  Lighten your load of stuff and you just may find you have more time to spend with God and less time trying to remember where you put it.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I think You gave us laughter to lift our hearts.  I was driving this morning and I was tired and discouraged.  When I walked into the kitchen and saw that silly note I laughed out loud.  It was such a silly thing but it brought me joy.  Thank you for giving me the gift of laughter and help me to get rid of my excess stuff to make more room for time with You.

Scripture:   Parable of the Rich Fool

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”  And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’  So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’  “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Gifts of Love

The purpose of Jesus' death was to glorify the Father. To be willing as the Son of God to suffer the loss of so much glory Himself in order to repair the injury done to God's glory by our sin showed how infinitely valuable the glory of God is. To be sure, the death of Christ also shows God's love for us. But we are not at the center.  John Piper

When I was little we would make gifts to give our parents for various occasions including Mother’s and Father’s Day and birthdays.  I get some of my creativity from my Mom although my Dad did teach me the creativity that can happen when you don’t have the right tool so he taught me how to improvise.  Remember my devotional about rotating my tires and my cheater.  Creativity comes in all forms.

When you are little you don’t have any money so you make things by hand to give as gifts.  Let me give you a few examples.  When we were building our house in the country there was always wood pieces left over from building the house.  Some of the pieces came from leftover crown molding so these pieces already had a nice edge on them.  I decided to make my Mom a plaque.  I painted the board bright yellow and I drew a picture on the wood in pencil of a little girl kneeling on the ground picking a flower.  I am not a good artist by any means so you can imagine what she looked like.  I took leftover scraps of fabric and made her a little flowered dress and a hat that I glued in place.  I took tiny beads and decorated the flowers on her dress.  It was a real cheesy piece.

Another lovely piece was a plaque out of chicken feathers.  What can I say, we had wood and chickens.  You use what’s available.  Another lovely gift was a pine cone that I glued red berries onto the branches and glittered.   

When I presented that first plaque to my Mom, you would have thought it was a Picasso from the look on her face and the praise I received over that hunk of decorated wood.  My mom actually hung it on the wall in our house.  Have you noticed how parents don’t have worldly taste when it comes to their kid’s artistic endeavors?  It doesn’t matter how lopsided, uneven or ugly it is, they cherish whatever you do. 

An example of a gift that I received from my nephew when he was four is one of my most cherished items.  It hangs on my refrigerator to this day.  He drew a picture of something.  I can’t remember what it was a picture of, although it was colorful.  He had written in Crayola “To Aunt Brane”.  I was really Aunt Bren but that picture always brings back sweet memories of me babysitting him.  He never wanted to go to sleep so I would sit by his bed and rub his head until he drifted off.  His little hand would pat my arm over and over again because he was trying so hard to stay awake.  When I think of that little hand patting my arm it brings tears to my eyes.  He is now a senior in high school. 

When I started thinking about the gifts, if brought to mind God and Jesus.  Can you imagine the agony Jesus felt when he asked God to take away the suffering he was about to endure, even knowing at that moment that to save us he would have to go through death on the cross because it was God’s will. 

Then I thought about God and His only Son.  How must God have felt to watch His only Son suffer?  A Son without sin who would die a terribly painful death. If you are a parent and you put yourself in God’s place, could you do it?  It was the ultimate gift to our Heavenly Father and to us.      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I don’t deserve the gift of salvation but I praise you for giving us the opportunity to be saved in spite of our sin.  Thank You for the gift of your Son on a cross so that I could be set free.  What an extraordinary gift!   

Scripture:  Prayer in the Garden

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”  

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” Matthew 26:36-46