6-11-15 I Asked for a Fish...Did He Give me a Snake?

I'm typing kind of late tonight as we are leaving on a vacation to Estes Park with our WHOLE family!! I'm so excited, but there are a million things to be done before we go. 

Tonight we walked about the "A" in the acrostic PRAISE (praise, repentance, acknowledgement, intercession, supplication, and equipping.) "A" for acknowledgement. Acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord, King, Authority, Boss, Large and In Charge.

Lord=power-authority-influence, master, ruler.

Of whom?? 

(Or should it be "of who?" I don't think so...) 

Everyone. It's not a matter of making Him the Lord. He is the Lord of ALL. Whether they believe in Him or not, He is still Lord. It's just a matter of whether we fight Him for control or if we are willing to let Him be the King. Verses we felt backed this up: Isaiah 55:8-12; Revelation 1; Psalm 139; Romans 14:11; and Philippians 2:9-11, which we felt kind of said it all:

Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor

and gave Him the name above all other names,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Why don't we let God be the King/Boss?

• We are Flesh People. (Doesn't that sound like a Creature Feature movie??)

• We sin. 

• We want the control. ( For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.--Jeremiah 29:11)

• We think we know best and can advise and counsel God. (Job 38 and 39)

• We think God will do something we don't like--like send us to Africa or make us sell everything and live in a hovel or make us marry someone who is below our standard. (“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. --Matthew 7:9-12

• We are not able to plan our own course.--Jeremiah 10:23)
• I think all these boil down to the fact that we don't trust God. But, how can you trust someone you don't know??? You have to know Him to trust Him. And just going to a Bible study is not enough. Here's my story:

My father was Roy Rogers. Really. My dad was not THE Roy Rogers, but that was his name. He eloped with my mom, Eileen, when they were young, had two boys in 5 years, then had 13 years with no new babies. Then I came along and, four years later, my sister.

So I was the doted-on little girl that they’d waited for and I was pampered and loved by all my family. Even though we were just an average middle class family, my parents loved to give gifts, so I don’t remember too may things that I wanted but didn’t get. My mother was an excellent sale shopper extraordinaire, so I was, truthfully, the best-dressed kid in my elementary school. Christmas found many, many presents under the tree.  I also got the best grades in my class. If there was an honor to be had, I usually got it.

We went to church, and my parents were believers, but somehow I didn’t ever get the message that being good was not good enough to get to heaven.

I remember thinking about death, even in elementary school. And I remember thinking, “Oh, I’ll get to heaven. Good things always happen to me.”

Every summer I would go visit one of my brothers and his family for three weeks or so. The summer when I was 14 I came to Lincoln to visit them as usual. I remember watching “Marcus Welby” and there was a patient who found out she had a disease and she was going to die. That got me thinking.

“Hmmm. What would it be like for that woman to know she was going to die?” And I kept watching the show.

“Hmmm. My grandma knew she was going to die. I wonder what she thought.” And I kept watching the show.

“Hmmm. What would it be like if I knew I was going to die?

And, suddenly, it was like a ton of bricks fell on my shoulders. I DID know I was going to die!!! I was terrified.

I figured that I was the only person on earth who had ever had this revelation. And I figured that God had shown me this because it was going to happen THAT NIGHT. I was doubly terrified! I went to bed and prayed and bargained with God all night long. I made myself physically sick the next day worrying about it.

So, obviously, I didn’t die that night. So I must’ve mis-read the signs. It was going to be that week. Then that month. Then that year. Every cold I got was going to turn to pneumonia and I’d die. Every thunderstorm was going to turn into a tornado that would target my house. Every trip we took was going to end with a bloody car accident. And, somehow, I did not tell anyone how scared I was. For four or five months I kept it all hidden.

That fall I went to a Christian concert (very rare in those days). The group sang some “rock” songs about the Lord and then one of the guys spoke. I don’t remember much of what he said, but I remember him saying that if he died he did not want a sad funeral—he wanted a party because he KNEW he’d be celebrating in heaven. I wanted that so badly.

So at the end he asked anyone who wanted this sort of a relationship to come forward. I wanted to go. We sang “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” I really wanted to go. I saw it so clearly that night. I was at a fork in the road. I could either decide to follow Jesus or to NOT follow Jesus. There was no turning back for me. We sang about the 112^th verse of that song and I finally got up my nerve to go forward.

I’ve tried to remember just what was in my mind when I walked down that aisle. Did I realize that I was a sinner and that only God could save me through Jesus? I honestly don’t remember. I DO know that man had something and I wanted it. Badly.

That night I was not afraid of dying anymore. It was such a relief!!!

Have I ever been scared of dying again? Sure. But I read where Corrie Ten Boom’s father told her that a father wouldn’t give a child his train ticket before they need it, and God won’t give you the strength and courage to face something until you need it, until the right time. So I just trust that God will give me the courage to die well when my time comes. I’m not supposed to be able to handle that yet.

Also, I like to tell this story to emphasize that my parents knew nothing about what I was struggling through. So, if I feel like my kids are not being spoken to by God, or I feel like they’re not looking for His answers, I try to remember that it’s not always something I can see. God will work in them like He worked in me. He’ll know where they are and what they need and when they need it.

So, what does it look like to submit to the authority of God? We let Him control our lives. We acknowledge that, since He made us, He has the right to be our King. We realize that NOTHING we can do will get us to heaven. We take our decisions to God and try to do what Jesus would want us to do (Remember WWJD?) We submit, physically and mentally. 

We read our Bible and then meditate (think about, ponder, reflect upon). We can read various ways, character studies, book by book, Bible reading plan.
We pray and LISTEN.
We spend time with other believers. And not just to go bowling, but to sharpen each other--accountability. 
We REMEMBER things God has done in the past. 

Do you know that you know that you know that you KNOW Jesus??

6-6-15 The Devil's Advocate

Hello Again!

I just can't seem to move on to next week's lesson until I put the final recap on this week's Bible study!!! I think this borders on the fanatical and obsessive!!

At the beginning of the week, each of us took four M & M's and did not eat them (at least not right then.) The first three M & M's determined what the ice breaker question was.

Yellow - Tell about a summer childhood memory.
Green - What is one life hack you have learned? (FYI: life hack means little tricky to make things easier.)
Blue - What is one thing that really, really annoys you?
Orange - Any vacation plans this summer?
Red - What is your favorite form of exercise? Do you do it?
Brown - Tell about a time you got in BIG trouble as a kid.

Interesting answers...I wish I could hear all the tables' answers!

So...last week we talked about Praising God. (Remember, our prayer acrostic is PRAISE.) This week we talked about Repentance.

Why is it important for us to repent? 

1. Because we are sinners. All of us. Romans 3:23
2. Because God told us to repent. All of us. 1 John 1:8-9; Matthew 3:2; Mark 6:12
3. Because sin separates us from God. If you want to have your prayers heard, repent. Isaiah 59:2;Psalm 66:18

Why is this a big deal to God? 

BECAUSE HE IS HOLY!!!  1 Peter 1:16; Revelation 4:8; Isaiah 6:3; Isaiah 59:1-14

What is "Holy" anyway?  

According to Strong's Greek Concordance: 40 hágios – properly, different (unlike), other ("otherness"), holy; for the believer, 40 (hágios) means "likeness of nature with the Lord" because "different from the world."

The fundamental (core) meaning of 40 (hágios) is "different" – thus a temple in the 1st century was hagios ("holy") because different from other buildings (Wm. Barclay). In the NT, 40 /hágios ("holy") has the "technical" meaning "different from the world" because "like the Lord." 

[40 (hágios) implies something "set apart" and therefore "different(distinguished/distinct)" – i.e. "other," because special to the Lord.] 

It's so hard for us to comprehend "holy." Pure, set apart, bright white don't quite seem to cover it. We may not understand it, we may not always like it, but it is still the truth.

I was struck by the difference between 1) admitting; 2) confessing; and 3) repenting.

Admitting - "Yes, I did it. I murdered that guy."

Confessing - "Yes, I did it. I murdered that guy. And I'm sorry I got caught. But it might happen again."

Repenting - "Yes, I did it. I murdered that guy. And I'm so sorry for my actions and I am going to take steps to make sure it never happens again."  

In a perfect world, confession would always lead to repentance, but it doesn't always work that way. 

I did try to make a modern day example: Since my chemotherapy, I fall off my heels due to numb feet. 

I showed my high heel (which, by the way, is no where NEAR as high as Rebecca Essink's cute heels!) I will admit I fall off my heels. But, I keep trying to wear them. Then I showed my little 3/4" wedge I bought to sort of flirt with heels--and I still fell off. And I was sorry that I bought them. But, I still tried to wear them occasionally. Then I showed my totally flat shoe. That was when I repented of wearing heels and put all the heels in a bag. (In a perfect illustration I would have burned (or at least given away) all the heels. I didn't. I just put them in the guest closet. Maybe in a few months... but this isn't a perfect illustration.)

Now, to demonstrate the icky power of sin, we played a game I invented: The Devil's Advocate. In this game I, unfortunately, play the Devil. Everyone had to look at their last M & M. This determined how bad a sinner you are. 

Yellow - You speed. You maybe ate too many cookies once. Your number is 2.

Green - You lie sometimes. You don't tell the cashier if she undercharges you. Your number is 4.

Blue - You lie quite a bit more. You cheat on your income taxes. Your number is 6.

Orange - You are a thief, robber. Your number is 8.

Red - You are a murderer or kidnapper. Your number is 10

Brown - You are a terrorist or child molester. Your number is 12. 

Now we went in to see my big Bucket o' Sin Fun. This bucket was filled with the gooey-est mud I could make myself. And, hidden in the mud was treasure!! Now, I have to add a caveat: if I was being totally truthful to the illustration, this bucket would be filled with gross manure and slime and maggots and centipedes and every other icky thing I could think of. But I took pity on you and bought potting soil. Hope you still got the idea!! 

Each of you sinners had to stick your hand in my bucket for however many seconds your number said and pick out any prize you wanted. Each woman came up and stuck their hand in the mud to find their prize. 

Here's what they brought out:

Broken flashlight - You can lead someone in the dark--oops. Guess you don't know where you're going either.

Broken glasses - You can see things clearly and know right from wrong. Oh, one lens is missing. Guess you're vision isn't totally accurate.

Lipgloss - You can say whatever you want--after all you're just being honest.

Condom - You can have sex with whomever you want.

Sponges - You can clean up the messed up lives of others. With a sponge soaked in mud. 

Altoids - You're words will always be sweet - with mud-covered Altoids.

Handerkerchief - You're good at wiping the tears of others. With a muddy handkerchief.

Bugs - These were the little annoyances that just nag and nag at you. 

Feather Duster - You can tell others to get those little dusty sins out of the way, while your feather duster is coated in mud. (This picture is after we tried to clean it up ourselves.)

(These next ones were the things still in there you guys never picked!)

Band Aid - You can help people heal. Never mind that your band aid is filled with germs.

Broken watch -You can tell others what time it is for them...time to straighten up, time to give up, time to think of yourself. After all, your watch is right twice a day.

Rock - Not worth anything.

Candy - You can eat whatever you want. 

Flosser - You can pick out the faults in others.

Single earring - It's all about how you look. 

After we were done, I MEANT to ask you all to clean up your arm on your own. No water, just use your other hand. Could you clean it up on your own? No, it just would have made your other hand dirty, or the floor dirty, or your clothes dirty. The sin would have spread.

Look at the arms. It didn't matter if you were in the mud for 2 seconds or 12...you were still dirty. We are the ones who give different levels to different sins.

Then, you all were sent into the bathroom to wash up with some yummy smelling vanilla soap and a nail brush (the nail brush was supposed to represent the Holy Spirit). And, when you came out, you got a dollop of creamy vanilla lotion to symbolize the restored fellowship with God.

We ended the evening with a couple songs and then prayed silently through Psalm 51, which I will post below.

Have mercy on me, O God,

    because of your unfailing love.

Because of your great compassion,

    blot out the stain of my sins.

2 

Wash me clean from my guilt.

    Purify me from my sin.

3 

For I recognize my rebellion;

    it haunts me day and night.

4 

Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;

    I have done what is evil in your sight.

You will be proved right in what you say,

    and your judgment against me is just.

5 

For I was born a sinner—

    yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

6 

But you desire honesty from the womb,

    teaching me wisdom even there.

7 

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 

Oh, give me back my joy again;

    you have broken me—

    now let me rejoice.

9 

Don’t keep looking at my sins.

    Remove the stain of my guilt.

10 

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

    Renew a loyal spirit within me.

11 

Do not banish me from your presence,

    and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

    and make me willing to obey you.

13 

Then I will teach your ways to rebels,

    and they will return to you.

14 

Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;

    then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.

15 

Unseal my lips, O Lord,

    that my mouth may praise you.

16 

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.

    You do not want a burnt offering.

17 

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.

    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

18 

Look with favor on Zion and help her;

    rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

19 

Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered 

in the right spirit—

    with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.

    Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.