When God permits bad things to happen.
We use much of King David’s life as an example of good coming out of bad. Least in his family and promoted to King and all of that. But we don’t usually look at the Times when we saw bad things happen to David and didn’t really see something good come out of it. We don’t often mention the times when he was not redeemed by God involving something that God let happen to him. David was a warrior. As a warrior he fought countless battles, obviously. We like to talk about the battles that David won, but what about the battles David lost? Many people who wanted dispose of the Bible like to come up with ridiculous reasons for doing so. One such reason was that it was said to be Historically incorrect and used people that didn’t exist. I won’t spend the hours going through each group and person that has been proved just as real as God said in His word, but David (yes, David and Goliath, David) was one of them. Then, as so many times before, an artifact surfaced. It was a record account written by a prominent King at that time. It recorded a battle the King won against the king of Israel who was named David. In the moment when David was defeated by this King we have the record from, it was probably a crushing blow to him, something that felt horrible. David didn’t see God’s plan and goodness in his defeat during this battle. But like so many other times, God had a will that was beyond our understanding. God used David’s defeat to prove his existence and the truth of the Bible thousands of years later. Sometimes when we are defeated, many times when we are defeated, we don’t see God’s purpose or plan we just see the defeat. And sometimes we will never ever see what God was doing in that moment of pain, but like David losing this battle God will work it out for good sometime in the future. It might not even be something he’s going to work out for our good. But it will work out for the good of the Kingdom. Next time you are defeated and crushed, remember that God has a plan and a purpose whether you understand it or see it, or even if you never understand or see it, God is working and he has a plan.
Category: encouragement
The joy of seals
Seals
During holiday I have made some new friends. A group of harbour seals. I love seals! They play like no one else. Everything is a game. Growing up I lived for the days my little white poodle and I would go to the dock with my parents and see the seals.
This last time I had a thought as I looked at the seals. God put all his pleasure into them. Hang in there. I mean, they are playful and happy and goofy and I feel like God put His fun side into them. I know God is all powerful, but He clearly enjoys a smile and a good laugh too, or else He wouldn’t have created seals. So next time you laugh at something good, take a moment to thank God for it.
Good good Father
Fathers
Recently I was reminded of the times when my dad really stepped up for me. Times when I just couldn’t do it on my own. Today my dad, with an injured foot, carried my Kayak down to the water for me, walked my dog and loaded and unloaded our truck twice. And it’s Father’s Day. It should have been about him, but instead he took care of me. Why? Because that’s what dads do. Not all, but the good ones do. He’s always putting me first becuse he’s my daddy and he loves me. A good father reflects our Heavenly Father. God is always putting us first. He takes care of us. He forgives our sins and fixes our screw ups. We hurt Him and then run back to Him and He pulls us into His arms and tells us that we are His. He punishes us so we will do better and won’t end up in hell. He helps us because He wants us and loves us. He even sacrificed His only true son so that we, unworthy kids he took in out of love, would be able to see Him some day. God, who is the best Father, gives everything for us. Just like a great dad always does. A true Father mimics God in how He cares for His kids. Just as my dad cares for me.
Happy Father’s Day!
Are you as alone as you think? No. Never. Jesus is right there feeling your pain and holding onto you through it.
Up till now he had been looking at the lion’s great front feet and the huge claws on them. Now in despair, he looked up at his face. What he saw surprised him as much as anytjing in hiw whole life, for the great tawny face was bent near his own, and wonder of wonders, there were great tears shining in the lion’s eyes. They were such big bright tears compared with Digorie’s own that for a moment he felt as if the lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.
How like Digory are we? We have brokenness and heart ache and worries that we think God doesn’t see or understand. Then in a moment of wonder and fear we look up and see God looking back, smiling, big tears in His eyes. There’s an old Petra song that says, “you care so much more than I do.” We forget that. God cares more about our broken hearts, our loved ones who are slipping away, our forgotten dreams, our lost jobs, then we ever could. We feel we are the ones suffering, yet everytime we break, so does He. Jesus took all our pain on Him, past- present- future. He feels it too, and like the ragman, He comes to us saying, “let me take your old rags and I’ll give you my new. Let me take your pain and loss and I will give you my healing.” He loves us and feels what we feel. We must stop forgetting that. We are never alone in our grief, we have Him and He loves us.
Mother, you are important just the way you are!
Mother, you are important just the way you are.
I had the misfortune of seeing a movie the other day that delt with a mom who suddenly decided to go after a career instead of raising her child. There’s nothing wrong with a mom going after a career, that part wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she chose to do this because her sister told her that a woman who was satisfied with being nothing more than a mother was underachieving. In that moment my mind went, ‘I see now. That’s where it began.’ The falling apart of the country’s fabric I mean. Women are now told that it’s no longer okay to be happy just being a mommy, if that’s your dream as a little girl you’ll get shot down as not stretching yourself enough. This is false. We need our moms in this and every country. We need them as moms. Having a job too is fine, but if all you’ve ever been and all you’ve ever wanted to be was a mom there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, you’ve chosen one of the hardest, most underappreciated, and totally unpaid positions out there. But you chose it because you are special. You didn’t just want a baby to play with and then you’re done and want your own life, you wanted to be someone’s mentor, caretaker, teacher, and friend. You chose a job where someone else’s life is always put before yours. A job where you are solely responsible for guiding and maintaining another human being. You have chosen to be more than just another money seeking career woman. You have chosen to be someone who gains nothing but the love of a child and never gets payment nor awards. Except perhaps a paper cut out of a ribbon with a misspelled ‘#1 mom’ written on it, and if you are like my mom then that paper cut out ribbon is more precious to you than any golden trophy could be. You are amazing mothers, just the way you are! Don’t feel like you are less because you chose a job that leaves you without a pension. Don’t feel small because you wear old holy soles instead of seven inch high heels. Don’t forget that God designed women to be mothers. Not all choose that path and some God plans to be His workers in a different direction then motherhood and that’s fine. But we must never look down on those who have been chosen to fulfill the role of mommy. Being a mother to your child makes God smile, because you are following His plan. The world needs strong, praying mothers. Don’t doubt the importance of your role! We need you.
Happy Mother’s day! 😊
Jeremiah
Jeremiah
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Jeremiah 1:5-8 NLT
Jeremiah is such a perfect example of someone threshing weat in the wine press, except he was in the wine press emotionally. He wasn’t depressed or anything, but he looked around and saw all these great men of God who happened to be older, probably much older, than himself and he did what we all do when we look around instead of looking up- he saw his inadequate state. God says to do something and we look at the other people doing the same thing or similar things, and we realize that compared to them we don’t have the same level of: schooling, training, strength, courage, popularity, Talent, and so on. But then God reminds us: ” you must go where I send you and do as I tell you, and do not be afraid of them for I will protect you.”
It isn’t about what we think we can do or what we feel we are qualified for. It’s about what God knows we can do and what He qualifies us for through His power. No matter our schooling or our skill we are all inadequate for the task before us unless we have God helping us. Oh sure we might succeed on our own, but it will always be more difficult or lead to less of a great conclusion then it would have been if we had just let God use us the way that He planned to. We may all be in the wine press emotionally on some level for something, but God has a plan for all of us, one that is unique and individual to each person. When God calls you out of the wine press follow His voice. And don’t be afraid of them, for God will protect you.
Reflection
The moon has a dark side that is void of rhe sun’s light. But the sun has no dark side because it is the light. We have darkness in us because we have places that we don’t let Jesus into. These sides rise up and make the world doubt the goodness of Christ because His Christians aren’t perfect. But Jesus is the light and the good inside of us, He has no darkness or badness. We will always mess up no matter how hard we try to be like our Savior because we are flawed humans. But we are only a reflection of Jesus, not Jesus Himself and He does not possess our inclination toward sin. You can’t judge the sun’s warmth by standing in the dark, you have to feel it for yourself. You can’t judge Christ by Christians, we’re only a reflection and mess up, you have to experience Jesus for yourself to see how wonderful He truly is.
Saul
Saul
Saul had his own moment of leaving the wine press ( figuratively). When the Isrealites fussed to have a king like everyone else had, God chose Saul. Where was Saul when Samuel informed him he was to be king? Looking for donkeys. He didn’t want the job at first. Now I know that Saul is a contrary figure. But he was chosen by God, even if he turned from God in the end, God gave him a position of authority. But he had been found for his time, in a place of lowlyness. Not believing that God had a great time for him.
Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” 1 Samuel 9:21 NIV
But God was able to change him. To make a great king out of the least likely person.
As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. 1 Samuel 10:9 NIV
It doesn’t depend on us. If we are well educated or are wealthy or have a great family background, none of that matters for God’s big plan for us. All that matters is that we are willing to say ‘yes God, let’s do this!’
Saul was planned for a time and purpose. He is also a great example of what happens when we turn from God even in the midst of following His plan for our lives. We must remain true to Him and serve Him or else He may use someone else to fulfill His plan. Saul had the chance to be great in God’s power. But He chose to try and be great in his own strength and was cast down.
God can use you no matter how unlikely you seem to yourself. But if you don’t honor Him He will find someone else.
Leaving the wine press
God sees you when you are threshing wheat in the wine press.
Sometimes the enemy feels too strong, so we find ourselves serving God privately and quietly and not standing up and showing people that we love him. Sometimes we’re even too afraid to tell people that we are Christians. That makes God very sad, but just because He’s sad doesn’t mean that He’s not taking care of us in the wine press. When I think of Gideon I think of someone I understand. He had been attacked, he had seen his friends slaughtered, and he was afraid. So he started doing his work away from watching eyes. I don’t blame him. Yet despite his fear and hiding God planned to use him for a great victory. It wasn’t easy either. There were times I bet he thought he had imagined the angel who had come to him. But in the end he gave his body and will over to God and God used him as He said He would.
Don’t feel like God is overlooking you because you are in the wine press, He still sees you and He still plans to use you. Even if you are failing now, even if you failed Him this very second, it doesn’t change what He can and will do through you. It may be hard, but don’t fight Him. If God has you by the waist and is pulling you out of the wine press, the only one you’ll hurt by clinging to the walls is yourself. That’s easy to say, but I know I’ve wrapped my arms around the mill stone a few times recently, the same as everyone else. But God will give you another chance. He knows what greatness you can achieve when you surrender to Him.
Judges Chpt 6-8 tells Gideon’s story for those who want to read it.
I am a sinner, but I leave that all behind me and choose to follow the third man on the hill, the one the people call Jesus.
We are all the two thieves. We’ve either asked Jesus to remember us or we have mocked Him by not believing Him. The two thieves were a physical example of the two paths to take. A sinner set free by the blood of the Lamb – or a sinner still attached to his/her cross. You can choose to follow Jesus to Paradise or you can choose to stay the way you are. He leaves the decission up to you. But only one road leads to Heaven. Only one way takes you away from death eternal. Jesus is the only way- the choice is up to you.
Carried in the cross 