95.3%

If you follow my blog, you know that over the last months, I have been embarking on a journey that I have never been able to complete successfully in the past. I am reading through the bible in a year. Well, with about a week left in the year - I am happy to report that I am 95.3% complete (right on track according to my reading plan in YouVersion.) 

I can tell you that the ONLY reason I have bee able to complete this task (which at times was daunting) was that I had a accountability partner. Someone who was not only on this journey with me, but got an email once a week telling her how I did. Together we are finishing this race and together we will do it again next year. So, here is my challenge - if any of you want to get in on it with us, make a comment of send me a message via Facebook or email and I will put you on a list and send out instructions. It's gonna be great!

Today, my reading took me to 2 Timothy. A letter from Paul to Timothy that was written while Paul was in prison in Asia for preaching the gospel. Timothy was a young man and Paul continually encouraged and taught him in the faith of Jesus Christ. A true "mentor-mentee" relationship. In many ways that mentor legacy still lives on, many centuries after his death, as I learn and grow from reading his words in the bible. Here is what I learned from Paul today.

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21

When I read these verses I thought I knew what they meant, but just to make sure - I looked them up in some commentaries.  Here is the gist of them: In the church there are some people who are set apart to so special things, have special impact and special purposes (gold & silver). They are set apart from the crowd of people who call themselves Christians but have little to no impact for Christ in the world around them (wood & clay.) In my mind, I picture all those who look one way at church and totally different at work or at a restaurant or at home or where ever, the rest of the week. This passage says they are common.

I guess I always knew this principle, but it is the last past that really stuck out to me - "Those who cleanse themselves from the latter (being common, being like everyone else in their day to day lives) will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master (Christ) and prepared to do any good work."

I am not sure why this struck me so powerfully today. I think maybe it is because I am becoming more aware of the people around me that are quite possibly in the wood & clay category. It makes me so sad to see and yet it makes me examine myself all the more to make sure there are no places in my life that would put me into that category. I want to totally cleanse myself of those things so that when I am looked at by God, he sees me as gold & silver, set apart for a special purpose, made holy and useful to Him.

I hope that you too want to be gold & silver in the house of the Lord. I know that each and everyone of us has things in our lives that are wood & clay. Things that hold us back from being useful for Him.

My prayer is that as we close out 2010, enter 2011 and take that backward look at our lives, as we so often do this time of year - that God would show us all those things we need to "cleanse ourselves" of to be wholly useful to Him as we go forward in our faith. I pray that He would reveal to us the special purposes He has set us apart to do and that we would jump in with both feet, no matter how daunting the challenge. 

Refuse to be normal and common in 2011. If we are joining the likes of Paul and Timothy, being different is not all that bad!

Heaven Can Not Contain Him

It never fails to amaze me what new things I see when I read scripture and what God puts in my heart when I spend time in His word. This year, along with a good friend for accountability, I am endeavoring to read through the Bible chronologically. As of today, I am officially 44.1% done. Yea! 

The point of that paragraph was not to brag, but to let you know how many years in the past my resolutions to read through the Bible have failed and I truly believe that the accountability has been the key to staying on track this time. I am just to weak and lazy to do it on my own. So, get an accountability partner and get after it. You don't have to wait til January 1. Pick a partner, pick a plan and get after it. Here is the link! And if you don't have a partner, put me down - I would be honored to monitor your progress for you! (and leave me a comment if you decide to take on this challenge.)

Now - on to what God is doing in my heart today. 

The current subject of reading is Solomon building the temple of the Lord. Man! What and undertaking that was. It took him 7 years to complete. Specially cut wood (sorry H - it was cedar), carvings on all the walls and doors of flowers, palm trees and Cherubim, and then all of that overlaid with pure gold. I struggle in my mind to even imagine such a magnificent place. Here is an artist's rendering but I imagine that this does not come close to doing it justice. You can read about the description in 2 Chronicles 2.

The verse that stuck out to me was when Solomon, in all his wisdom, spoke this in 2 Chron. 2:6 -

"But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him?"

Even highest heaven cannot contain Him! And with one small phrase, I am once again put in my place. Small and not able to bow low enough to worship my God. 

Why is it that it is so very easy for us (me) to let my mind wander away from the reality of who I worship, who I give my life to?

I find myself taking the reading of His word casually, as something to check off my To-Do list and move on. I find myself forgetting that when I am putting together a church service, I am not just creating a list of songs and a flow for the morning, but I am needing to search the heart of the Almighty God for His plans to commune with His people. As my son would say, FAIL!

Oh God! Forgive me for letting this world get in the way of seeing You for who You are. For forgetting the awe and reverence I should live in every moment of every day. For thinking in any way I can on my own bring people to have a revelation of You. 

Not even heaven can contain you!

Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for "right sizing" me yet again. My life, my all is Yours! Use me to point people to you, the omnipotent, awesome, one and only God!!

Holy Discontent wk. 1

It seems that people, other than me, are eager to hear the heart of God for their lives. Go figure! He has brought together what I think will prove to be a great mix of women for the study of Bill Hybel's book Holy Discontent. For the next 7 weeks, we will pour over it, underline, highlight and discuss. I would like to bring some of that here to those who can't be in the group physically. Feel free to buy the book and get in on the discussion via comments or just read what is written here. Either way - I hope that God reveals something to you about your Holy Discontent. Let's get started...

To start, Bill asks this question, "Why do people do what they do?" For most people when you speak of their job, the answer is to get a paycheck. However, there are some who are passionate about what they do, so much so that they do it for very little money - teachers, social workers, pastors, the list could go on. Not that only people who don't make much money can be passionate about their jobs. But people do other things besides working with their time. They volunteer, they give money to causes. One woman in our group, "V",  supports 2 women in countries where women have little to no human rights. She stated (paraphrasing) that she does this because it tugs at her heart and is wrong, so she does what she can to help.

So, why do you do what you do? To go one step further - what are you passionate about? What get the "firestorm of frustration" (as Bill calls it) going in your gut? What is your underlying motivation?

In the opening chapter of the book we look at Moses. A Hebrew man raised by the Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter, He did not taste of the slavery his people did. But one day he was taking a walk and came across an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He grew so angry that he killed the Egyptian. The next day he was out walking and came across 2 Hebrews fighting with each other. His eyes were opened to the plight of his people and the firestorm was ignited. The story is much longer than I will go into here, you can read it in Genesis. but he basically was so heart broken to see his people self destructing that he couldn't stand it any more and decided he had to do something about it. After a life changing discussion with a burning bush (GOD), he found that he would not be on his own in his fight for the Hebrew people, God's heart was breaking for them as well and they would fight together. This was Moses' holy discontent. 

Hybel's goes on to say that "still today, what wrecks the heart of someone who loves God is often the very thing that God wants to use to fire them up to do something that, under normal circumstances, they would never attempt to do." So it begins with you determining what it is that you just can't stand. Hybel's also pointed out the very important fact that God is in the business of restoration. If we only look at the world through the lens of what is broken and forget that God desires to restore it, it will only result in anger and frustration.

When we realize that the anger and frustration we feel for the things that break our hearts in this world also break the heart of God, we have usually identified our holy discontent. 

One of my favorite lines says this, "The most inspired, motivated, and driven people I know are the ones who live their lives from the energy of their holy discontent. Most important, they suit up and jump in to the game when God says, "If you'll hook up with me, I'll involve you in effecting some much needed change around here!""

Oh, that I would live my life from that place. Actually taking action instead of just complaining. The bible is filled with stories of common, ordinary men and women who have partnered with God to do things they could never do on their own. I want to be one of those!

So take stock. What fuels your firestorm of frustration? What breaks you heart and makes you want to help change the world? If you can't answer that quite yet, stick with us on our journey. I pray that our faithful God will speak clearly to each of us and that we will be courageous enough to jump in the deep end with both feet!

Chapter 2 next Wednesday, May 26. 7-8:30 pm in High Connections at the church. Join us there or online.

6 Steps and a Sacrifice

What is your morning prep like to get to church on a Sunday? If it is anything like my house was when my kids were small there is one word - chaotic! Even now that my kids are older there is some element of that to get everyone to church on time. Because I work at church, I have to get up way before the sun (which should be breaking some sort of commandment, but according to Proverbs 31 - apparently is not! ) Usually one or more of my children either choose to or have to come with me because of their volunteer schedule. Anyway - you get the idea.... In my house, unless I am very intentional, we usually arrive to worship the God of the universe pretty much in the same manner we would make a trip to Target or get out the door to school/work.

In my Bible reading I have come to the story of King David returning the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem after being captured by the Philistines and being away from the Israelites for some time. He decided it was time to bring it back to where it belonged and so he made a plan to go get it. Enter problem #1 - David didn't follow the rules. The ark was supposed to be carried by certain people in a certain way any time it was transported. Instead, he had prepared what was, I am sure, a very nice cart pulled by oxen. Of course! Why not? It was probably very heavy and this would make the 6 or so mile trip much easier and quicker.  

So they story goes that they are moving along, the ox trips, one well meaning guy (Uzzah) reaches up to steady the ark so it doesn't fall to the ground and BAM! He's dead. Why, you might be asking? Well, no one was supposed to touch the ark but the priests appointed to care for it.  Not fair, you might be saying. What was he supposed to do, let it fall? Well, that is exactly what King David said. He was not very happy with God. 

2 Samuel 6:8-11 And David was angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

So, here is where I have to laugh! David sees the Obed's house is prospering because of the presence of the Lord, so he decided to try to move it again - but this time doe it the right way. He uses the priests to follow all the proper directions for moving it - including carrying it on poles the whole 6 miles. But take a look at the highlighted verse above. David was afraid of the Lord that day... There was now a holy fear going on that should have been there from the beginning. David remembered who he was dealing with. So here is what he did:

2 Samuel 6:12-14 So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might.

Did you catch that? Every 6 STEPS David sacrificed not 1 but 2, what I would imagine were,  large animals. Every 6 steps for 6 miles they stopped and made an offering to the Lord. This was one long and bloody trip, full of work, but also filled with joy and worship before the Lord.

Truthfully, I probably need to paste this passage of scripture on the dash of my car, or on the bathroom mirror so I can see it when I get up (REALLY EARLY) to worship on Sundays. I have to remember who I am worshiping. I can not and should never treat coming in to the presence of God like it is something nonchalant. 

Through the blood sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, I no longer have to sacrifice animals every 6 steps to come before the Lord in worship, but I am called every minute of every day to sacrifice my life to Him. I love that Jesus made a way for me to boldly approach the throne of GRACE. Thank God for grace! I am grateful to be able to call the one who made me - my father and my friend. But I have to hold Him in the proper place, high and lifted up above all things here on this earth - full of awe, reverence and a holy fear. 

So this Sunday as you wrestle with the kids to get ready and into the car, as you wake up exhausted from the weekend which was once again "to full" and think twice about even going to church - consider all those obstacles you face and all the work it takes to get there as a joyful sacrifice to the King of Kings. Put on some worship music and dance before Him as an individual and a family as you prepare to join others to do more of the same. 

Son of...

Being adopted, genealogy has always been important to me. I have 2 - the adopted side and the biological side. Someday I will post that whole story here for you to read, but today I have other things on my mind. In my chronological Bible reading I am in 1 Chronicles at the moment and most of what I have been reading for the last week or so are lists of people. So and so the son of so and so then son of so and so, on and on it goes. You get it. One of the most interesting things about "the lists" is when it breaks off from the normal pattern and tells what this particular family of people were given to do. A lot of them were warriors, it tells whether some were archers or swordsmen. THEN you come to the Levites. They were in charge of the temple (or at that time - the tent of meeting) where the ark of the Lord was kept. In my simple mind - they were put in charge of the church building. Their sole job was to keep things functioning properly, provide assistance to the millions of Israelites who needed to come and give their various offerings and to minister to the Lord. No small task for sure!

For a long time I have been convinced that if you traced back my genealogy you would find that I am a Levite, though I am not completely sure which of my 2 lines you would find it in. 1 Chronicles seems to say quite a bit about the Levites and their duties compared to other people. I guess that is particularly interesting to me given my job at the church. Today in my reading I noted that it listed singers, priests and gatekeepers. If you want to see what their duties entailed you can read it in 1 Chron. 9. I find a lot of similarities between what they were called to do and our modern day worship, hospitality and facilities teams. Sufficed to say - they had a lot on their plates! Just like we do today. The running joke is that Sunday happens every 7 days, so when one is done - you move on to the next one.

Of course, to me (because I am one), the stand out was the singers. It says in verse 33 : Now these, the singers, the heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, were in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night. Contrary to what you may be thinking right now, I am NOT trying to use this as an excuse for all the singers reading this to get out of serving in other areas of ministry. LOL I just find it interesting that it says they were on duty 24/7. The music never stopped. They were constantly singing before the Lord (which is funny to me considering so many do not put that level of importance on music in the church today.) In my mind - that just put a whole different level of importance on what I have been called to do as a modern day Levite. Do I really consider myself "on duty" 24/7? Do I keep in the fore front of my mind the thing God created me for? I am giving Him all that He deserves when I come before Him? Am I doing it with the right heart motivation?

Lots of questions to be pondered as I prepare to lead others into His presence on a weekly basis (whether on the stage or off it!)

Everything thing the Lord has given someone to do is of importance. We all play a part. So, today, what ever YOU have been called to do to serve the Lord, and rest assured He has called you to something - think about how you are going about doing that and see if it might deserve to go to another level. He deserves nothing less than your very best. It is all for His glory!!

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

Controversy on Easter Sunday

As most of you know, I am the Programming Director for my church - McKinney Fellowship. I love my job! I am tasked with designing services where people can commune with the living God. One of the best parts about working for my church is that we are a church who is not afraid to take risks to reach others for Christ. Having said that, with this job comes great joy but also great responsibility. What if I am not hearing from the Lord enough when I am designing the services week after week? What if I "miss it" or get "it" wrong when I think I am following promptings from Him? It is a bit challenging to say the least, but a challenge I gladly except.

This Easter was no exception. Easter has it's own special challenges every year and the extra pressure of knowing that we will have people come in the door who would never come to church on a "normal" Sunday. It is those people my heart is burdened most for. So, as many churches were already toiling away on their Easter plans many weeks out, I was still struggling with what God would have us do. Long story short, what came out of that toil and struggle was something that no one expected. A drama/music/video combination that left many speechless after it ended but wound up the topic of conversation for many hours after the service ended. If you would like to watch it you can find it here.

As expected, we got some less than stellar comments on the heavy nature with which we tackled these issues on Easter Sunday - which I will admit caused me to second guess if I heard the Lord correctly on this one. After all, Easter is supposed to be a celebration of the risen Savior. Had we possibly gone to far? But I am reminded that it is only a celebration for the ones who know Him, and as the stories of life change slowly begin to emerge, my spirit soars! Like the man does not know Christ and yet was so moved that we would "do that in church" that he not only was talking about it days after, but called his sister who lives some distance away to tell her about it so they can watch it again. The son who rarely attends church and is far from the Lord but came with a friend and talked about it all day with his precious mother. (He will surely never listen to Evanescence again and not remember this day!) And the stories of many who have issues that mirror those in the drama (including cutting and suicidal thoughts) who came forward to get help for their lives they feared were long dead and unsalvageable. I am certain there are many more that I may never have the privilege of hearing.

So today, as I think back on the weekend's events, I no longer fear the ones who would question if we (I) made the right call to do this controversial piece. I rest in the fact that Jesus was not afraid to offend and be radical to save the lost ones no one else could reach. It is His footsteps I choose to follow in and will continue to push the limits to reach the unreachable whose lives are broken and desperate for a touch from the Healer who makes dead things come alive again!

All glory to the Risen One!