The Answer

I search for  the answer to the blank pages before me.  Fingers long to move. Words fail.  I hear others tell me writers face resistance. Advice in abundance. Words fail still. Until today.

It’s the same problem I have when I criticize others for things I think they should know, or do, or be.  I have this problem when I get frustrated that things aren’t going my way.  I have this problem when I think I have all the answers.  It rears its ugly head.

The fear, the frustration, the resistance, it all comes down to pride. My voice drowns out His.

My voice must be silenced to find His.

31 Day Challenge-Reflections on Yom Kippurim

The Day of Atonements is set apart from any other Biblical Holiday.  It is the one day each year that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies.  There he offered sacrifices first for himself and then for the people.  Without sacrifice there is no blood.  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Today is The Day of Atonements on the Hebrew calendar.   I am guilty and in need of forgiveness. In Hebrew, the word for sacrifice is “karav”, meaning draw near.  He desires relationship and in love He made a way. Without God’s forgiveness I am unable to draw near to Him.  He desires to dwell with His people.  He is dangerous.  If  I come before Him without a sacrifice, I die.

“For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”  (Psalm 84:10)

The people loved drawing near to God.  It had to be done on the basis of His word, His way which He gave out of love for His people and a desire for relationship.

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered throughthe greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;  and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,  how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”  (Hebrews 9:11-14)

The Book of Hebrews discusses the temporal and the eternal.  Two spheres which overlap and work together.  The blood brought atonement, forgiveness.  But, it had to be continually done.  The Blood of the New Covenant, wrought through pain, torture, and humiliation cleanses even the conscience.  God chooses to remember my sin no more. (Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 8:12, 10:17)

What did the people have to do? Nothing.  The work was done by the high priest.  All that was required of them was to “afflict their souls”, to deny themselves.  This is the very thing the Messiah asks me to do in order to follow Him.  Paul even says that he dies daily.   Jesus emptied Himself, made Himself nothing.  I am to have the same attitude. (Phil. 2:5-8)

For there to be a sacrifice there is loss of life.  The sins of the assembly were laid upon the head of the scapegoat; my sin was laid on the Messiah.  He calls in, in turn, to loose my life in order to find it.

“and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”  (2 Corinthians 5:15)

In a world obsessed with self, I choose instead to show the world that I  live, not by my own wants and desires, but by the Word and Life of the Messiah.  Self rears its ugly head.  I must continually place it on the execution stake.  Only then will I find life.

(To read more about the Day of Atonements see Leviticus 23:23-31; Leviticus 16; and Hebrews 9.)

31 Day Challenge-What day am I on?

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there has been nothing posted here for two days.  Two days of migraines.  Two days of staring at a blank screen.  Again.  Two days of reading what others have written.  Waving as they pass me by.  Not knowing how to proceed.  Trying desperately today to move forward.  Seeing the holes I leave behind.  Growth in the process. This is precisely what is holding my writing up, so many things I want to say, seeing the holes I leave behind.  Holes like the space left after the house was torn down just down the street.  A cavern, really.  And it flashes in my head like a neon sign.

Wanting to do it well.  Seeing my imperfection.

“And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9)

31 Day Challenge-Day 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Let’s start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start” Are you singing the rest of the song?  Before we can look into the Biblical Holidays we have to put them in context.  A good place to get context is to go back and look at the big picture up to the point of our story.  What is the context of God giving the Torah¹ or Law for it is within the Torah that we find the Biblical holidays.

The story begins in Genesis.  The story begins with God speaking.  God created the garden and placed Adam and Eve and gave them instructions as to how to live. Had Adam and Eve chosen obedience they would have been allowed to live in the relationship they had with God forever.  They chose self over God.  They chose to live independently of God and suffered the consequences.  But, God in His Grace made provision for them in the form of animal skins.  He also made a promise.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15

Adam and Eve were losers that day. Their sin ushered in chaos in their relationship with each other and with God.   God promised a way of redemption.  From that point on mankind was on the watch for who would be the fulfillment of that Promise.  God set out to work His plan.

About halfway through the Book of Genesis God calls Abraham to leave his people and go to a land that he knew nothing about. God’s covenant with Abraham is seen in Genesis 15.  There God promises a son, a land, and a people. The text says, “[Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (15:6)

God chose Abraham for something, “For I have [known] him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep (to do) the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” (Genesis 18:19)  Abraham trusted the words that God spoke.  He had to act on his belief.  He was chosen to train his children to keep the way of the LORD.  Abraham was to do righteousness and justice.

The way of the LORD is righteousness and justice.  He wants us to do it!

 

¹Torah is the Hebrew word translated Law in most English Bibles.  Torah means instruction or teaching.  The people of the Bible had a very different view of the Torah than what we do.  “Oh, how I love your [Torah}! It is my meditation all of the day.” (Psalm 119:97)  The Torah consists of the first five books of the Bible.

 

31 Day Challenge-Day 2

“We make God schizophrenic.  The God of the Old Testament is seen as a wrathful God, but Jesus changes everything.”  This was just one of the things she said.  My thinking was being challenged, my paradigm confronted.

That summer we were studying the Book of Deuteronomy in her home.  She had attended a study I led in our church, now she invited me to one she was leading. We talked about the historical and cultural context of Scripture.  I learned about a Western mindset vs. an Eastern.  We have to understand what the Bible meant to the people at the time it was written before we can understand what the meaning is.

I realized this was true when I thought back to a trip I took to Taiwan.  The mission was to do a weeklong series of classes with the nationals teaching English as a second language.  Among the things covered in preparing us to go were idioms.  Imagine trying to explain, “kicking the bucket” to someone in another culture who speaks a different language.  We have the same situation in the Scripture.  We need to study the history, as well as, culture and language.

As we studied the Book of Deuteronomy that summer I became aware of how my thinking was flawed.   I found truth like I had never known before.  Things I didn’t understand in the Word were now open before me in living color.

Our mindset tends to be with Jesus.  It includes grace, salvation, heaven, hell, and church.  The mindset of the Biblical writers started with Creation, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the Exodus, Torah, land, King David, covenant, The Temple, the exile (and return), Messiah, vindication/judgment.  When we grasp these concepts, which is very difficult to do when you have been taught differently, we see Scripture in a whole new light.  Instead of seeing Jesus as having changed everything, I began to see how Jesus.  We tend to pit law against grace.  I have seen how grace has been there all along.

31 Day Challenge

It began with a Bible study. I had only known her for a short time, yet she invited me to a study to be held in her home. That summer we dug into the Book of Deuteronomy. My life was forever changed.

I have decided to take up this challenge of blogging on one topic for 31 days.  I need to write. The desire to communicate what I see in the Scripture is riddled with holes in the midst of conversation. It’s time to write it down.

In the next 31 days I’m going to walk through the Biblical Holidays.  I will tell the story my coming to this walk of faith.  Then I’ll walk through the Biblical holidays found in Lev. 23. It’s a big undertaking.  Perhaps this is just a beginning….

(All of the participants in the 31 Day Challenge, over 500, can be found here)

Dear Benjamin,
There are so many things that I want to tell you that I hardly know where to begin.  But, as I was reading my Bible today I think the Lord gave me direction.

“I will cause Your name to be remembered in all generations…” Psalm 45:17

Last week in our time of worship we were talking about Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”

It seems as the world is going crazy right now, Ben.  There are earthquakes, tsunamis, wars and more wars,  poverty and suffering, people are being deceived.  To be honest, it can be unnerving.  But, when we remember the name of the LORD we find rest.

Names, in the Bible, are associated with a person’s character.  God has many, many names because He is so big and there are so many aspects to His character.  There are times when God reveals Himself in the Bible in different ways.  To Hagar, He was the God Who Sees.  To Abraham, God Almighty.  King David called God many different names including, My Glory and the One Who Lifts My Head.

There is one place in the Bible where God names Himself.  Exodus chapter 3 tells the story of God appearing to Moses in the burning bush.  Moses turns aside to see what it is that is going on.  God tells Moses that he is chosen to go and free the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt.  Moses questions God’s plan several times and each time God gives Moses the assurance that God will be with Him and has everything under control.

Now Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household.  He knows the obstacles he will encounter.  In verse 13 he raises this question, ” ‘Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?’”

“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you ‘ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.” (Exodus 3:14-15)

“I Am WHO I AM”,  in the Hebrew is YHVH, the unutterable name of God.  Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, “I will be known by what I do.”  Moses and the Israelites had to keep their eyes open and see what God would do.  He was faithful to rescue them.

The events of Egypt had been spoken of hundreds of years before.  The things we see happening today were also spoken of thousands of years ago by Jesus who was given a Name above every name.  He calmed the storm and said, “Peace.  Be Still.”  He can calm the storm that rages in our hearts as well.   All He is He is to me.  I pray that one day He will be the same to you, Ben.

For His Name’s Sake,

Grandma

Dear Benjamin,
Just three short months ago I became a grandmother for the first time.  Wasn’t it just yesterday I was bringing my firstborn, your mother home from the hospital?  I have so many things I want you to know. I want to tell you of my memories of your mother growing up.  I want to tell you how the world has changed.  Through the good times and the hard times God has been faithful.

Know, Ben, that you are loved.  God has given us a gift, your mom and dad, Grandpa and me.  I can’t wait to see the smile on Grandpa’s face when he meets you in person for the first time.  It brings him such joy to see each new picture of you.  Just a couple more weeks.  I’m already imagining what he will do.  When your mom was a baby, PaPa White used to carry her around his house and farm showing her whatever there was to look at.  I just know that is what your Grandpa will do.  PaPa always liked to have us around.  Grandpa is like that, too.

PaPa and Grandpa are like God in that respect.  God likes to have His people around, too.  God’s desire has always been to dwell with His people.  It still is.   God wants us to know Him, Ben, and knowing Him is the most incredible gift in the world.

Love,
Grandma

Where I have learned the Most about Love

Welcome to my kitchen.   Things have changed a bit since this picture was taken in 2006. But, there has been one steady constant in my life.  On this Valentine’s Day I want to bless the LORD for the gift of the man you see sitting at the head of my kitchen table.  My Mr. Steady Man.

This is the man who has taught me most about Biblical love.   My husband is a man of hospitality and giving, welcoming others into our home, many times more than I would like to.  Even when he has to work long hours, he will forgo his own need for sleep if someone else has a need.

A lover of God and the Word, Buck loves to hear what other’s have been learning in Scripture and will often ask what the person he meets has been reading in the Word.  He enjoys spurring others on to feast at the table of the LORD and not to settle for the crumbs of this world.  He challenges the teens that he coaches in Bible quizzing to be known as young people who spend time in the study of Scripture and not as those who know the latest movie stars or rock stars.

A man of humility, my beloved recently shared his heart as he led at our homechurch.  We were discussing how the Israelites were sidetracked from following after God in the Book of Judges.  Buck gave an example from his own life of a temptation he faced at work.  There had been a mistake made on his paycheck in that he was overpaid a substantial amount of money.  Only he and God would have known had he kept it secret.  But, this sin would have had ramifications on his son and his grandson.  He did the right thing and reported the error.  I am grateful to be married to a man of integrity.

Over and over again my husband demonstrates Biblical love to me in covenant faithfulness.  He shields himself from the temptations of the world so that he is only for me.  He is committed to me and has stated many, many times that he will never leave me nor forsake me.  He follows this up with his actions.  He faithfully lays down his life to provide for, protect, and preserve our relationship, our home and the generations yet to come.

My husband is patient with me, knowing that God will work His purpose in me.  Buck and I both desire God’s best, not necessarily our own way.  We have grown in this together.  God has worked.

Today as I continue my list of gifts, my personal example of the heart of God is there.

“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is Mine.” Song of Solomon 6:3

Heart heavy.  Words cannot go public, but prayer can.

“I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand,I will not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8

For His name’s Sake.