The Sabbath

Over the past few days I have been reading Exodus.  I am now on Chapter 37, and I have to say that the one thing that has really stood out for me while reading this book is the 4th commandment.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” ~ Exodus 20:8 – 10

This commandment is mentioned quite a few times within the book of Exodus (see Exodus 43:21 and Exodus 35:2 for another 2 places it is mentioned).  It keeps coming up throughout the book of Exodus, therefore it keeps getting brought to my attention.

It is so important for us to take a break from work.  I know that if I am overworked a number of things happen to me.

Week 1: I feel my energy levels drop and I have difficulty concentrating on the task at hand.

Week 2-3: I become discouraged.  I no longer see the point in what I am doing and begin to wonder if it is all worthwhile, whether or not God really wants me in the place I am, or if there is something better out there.

Week 4: I have a full emotional breakdown and weep before God, begging him to let the rapture happen so I can be with him in heaven and get away from the seemingly pointless world I am living in.

At that time, God usually gives me rest.  He does something to allow me to rest and rejuvenate my spirit.  Most of the time that comes in a day where I am not expected to do anything except sit, relax and evaluate my life and plan for the future.

This weekend was different from the previous occasions.  I set aside time to rest and rejuvenate my spirit without waiting for my regular break-down.  From 12pm on Saturday until 12pm on Sunday I didn’t do anything work related.  I didn’t do laundry, wash dishes, clean the house, or anything.  I gave myself time to motivate myself.  By 12pm Sunday I was so relaxed and so motivated, that I actually HAD to do something with my hands, so I cleaned the kitchen.

How does this all relate to the Sabbath?  Well Jesus said:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” ~ Mark 2:27

Our wonderful Lord knew, when he made us, that we couldn’t work continuously without rest, so he made it a commandment for us to take a break.

So for this part I want to encourage all my readers to take a break once a week and do whatever you find rejuvenates your spirit, and what better way to rejuvenate your spirit than by spending part of that time by building your relationship with God.

Home Church and Growth

A quick praise report, the host of the former home church I went to has moved back to town and he has started up the home church group again.  It was such a blessing being with all my old friends. 

 

I missed the first two meetings because I only found out about it last week.  When the host saw me he apologized and told me that he was telling people as he saw them and hadn’t seen any of the [insert name of bar here] crowd yet since he had not gone there in a long time.  I replied that he should worry because I hadn’t been to [insert name of bar here] in almost 2 years either.  He was rather surprised and asked what happened.  I told him that I outgrew it – which wasn’t the complete truth…

 

The complete truth is that since I started studying God’s word for myself, almost everyday, I didn’t feel right going to [insert name of bar here] anymore.  It started off that I would rather stay at home and have a beer or glass of wine while watching a movie.  Then I stopped drinking beer and it became a glass of wine with dinner.  Then it became a glass of port or sherry when I had guests over.  Now I only have half a glass of port or sherry occasionally when I have guests – and only if they are drinking already.  I few times I haven’t felt like any type of alcohol and have stuck to tea or soda.  Perhaps in a few more months I’ll be off completely.

 

Recently I committed to reading the Bible and/or praying for 1 hour a day, everyday.  I am amazed at how I have grown in only a month of this.

 

Even though I tend to talk big, I have always had difficulty keeping my focus on God throughout my daily life.  I so easily find myself getting carried away.  Just last week I noticed that I think of God much more often during the day.  In everything I do I have found myself asking if God would approve of it.

 

The other area where I noticed a change in the past month is during conversation and also in what I watch.  I had friends over the other night and the conversation moved towards age-restriction 16 topics.  It got to the point where I excused myself and went to wash the coffee mugs.  I was not enjoying it at all – 6 months ago it wouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did that night.  The same goes for movies and TV shows.  In fact, the closer I am getting to God, the less I have in common with my friends – even the Christian ones!

 

And this is why I was so thrilled to find out the home church group was starting again.  It brings me to a place where once a week I’ll be able to talk about God, and also all these experiences I am having during my growth.  It brings me to a place where I can watch the growth in others too.

 

God is definitely blessing my socks off!

God’s Will vs. Relentless Prayer

One of the things which has been happening in my life is that I have found myself in a situation where I need/want direct guidance from God.  The people who know me best (family) advise me to pray and wait for God’s guidance.  The absolutely wonderful Christian people I have met and I have told about my situation in private have either pointed to Bible passages to advise me, or have encouraged me to continue praying and waiting for guidance, and have agreed to pray with/for me too.  Personally, I tend to follow the advice of the people who know me and my situation the best (my mother for example).  However, I also know that God’s timing is perfect and if I were to make a move now then it would be a disaster. 

 

But this got me thinking there is more to prayer than we want to believe, especially prayer requests.

 

I know from past experience that persistent prayer results in God giving me direct guidance (or moving the figurative chess piece for me) at exactly the right moment and in exactly the right way, and it isn’t just my life experiences that say that persistent prayer results in God’s answer to that prayer, it is also written in the Bible in Luke 11:5-9, Luke 18:1-8, John 16:23-24, Philippians 4:6 and Matthew 15:21-28. 

 

I have been reading a book written by Leslie Ludy.  It is called “Set-Apart Feminity”.  I could never put it as eloquently as she does, so I am going to present you with a short excerpt from the book:

When I spent time in Christ’s presence, I had learned how to worship Him, study His Word, let Him speak to me through stories of great Christians, and journal my thoughts, fears, and praises as prayers to Him.  But the idea of wrestling, importunate, persistent prayer was completely foreign to me.  Whenever I had a specific request, concern, or need, I brought it to Christ – once or twice.  Instead of praying with confidence and boldness, I prayed, “Lord, if it is your will, then please do this or that.”  And if no answer came after one or two times of praying, usually I assumed that it wasn’t “His will” to answer, and I let it go.  It even seemed unspiritual to keep pressing the issue with God.  I felt that it was better to just cheerfully accept the lack of response from heaven, rather than act like a pesky child and go back to Him again and again.

But then I started studying what Scripture says about prayer.  And what I found was somewhat shocking…….

…….Instead of assuming that Christ doesn’t desire to answer our prayers when we don’t receive an immediate response, we are to press in with even more persistence, not letting go until our request is granted.

~ Set-Apart Feminity, by Leslie Ludy (excerpt from pages 152, 153 and 155).

I could never have said it any better than this.  It was also mentioned in the book (and this part I am paraphrasing) that if a prayer is not coming from a Christ-centred heart then eventually the person will give up on the prayer request -  that person is not praying according to God’s will.  However, if the prayer is coming from a Christ-centred heart then the person will never give up praying until their request is granted – that person is praying according to God’s will.

 

As Leslie mentioned, many times we give up and assume it wasn’t God’s will.  Or as I have experienced, start looking for the answers ourselves instead of watching, waiting and listening.  It is important to read your Bible to know God’s character, but a person can also read their Bible in such a way that they see the answers they want to see.  We need to rely on God to show us what he wants us to see, and when he wants us to see it.

 

I don’t know about everyone else, but I have decided that I am going to be bold in prayer and silent while listening for God’s response because I know he will show me where he wants me to go as long as I stay focused on him first.

Bible Monday’s: Galatians 5:16-26

The other day I was sitting in my bed having some me-time with God.  I was just flipping through the index of my New Testament NLT Bible.  For some unknown reason I just felt like using that version on that specific night, normally I read an NIV Bible, but I have various versions in my home since some translations explain certain passages better than others, so if I get stuck on the meaning of a passage I try a different version.

 

So anyway, I was flipping through the index of my New Testament NLT Bible and stopped on the entry for “Alcohol”.  I read down the list. I’m not 100% sure why I read that list but it might have something to do with the bar fight over the previous weekend that I wasn’t present to see but heard all about the next day and had flashes of previous sins in my life which resulted in me making the decision to never touch alcohol again unless it is in medicine or is a glass of champagne/wine at a wedding/other celebration.

 

I read down the list:

Romans 13:13-14.  Becoming drunk is sinful. – yip, I know that already.

Galatians 5:19-21.  God hates drunkenness. – huh? it really says that? *page to Galatians 5:19-21*, and end up reading the whole section from Galatians 5:16-26.

 

Now I strongly recommend going to this website and comparing the NLT version to the NIV version.  I’ll even include links here to make it easy for you:

 

NLT version:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:16-26&version=NLT

 

NIV version:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:16-26&version=NIV

 

In essence they are the same, but the NLT version is written in a way that a teenager (or young Christian) can understand it.  The NIV version is (in my opinion) a little more advanced… I don’t know if I want to even try and look at the KJV, but for the sake of completeness here it is with a link:

 

KJV version:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:16-26&version=KJV

 

Now remember at this stage I had only read the NLT version, and it took my breath away.  Who would have thought the words “wild parties” would be in the Bible?

 

I compared the list of the desires of sinful nature to myself – I can count 2 things that I have recently been able to overcome with God’s help.  One or two others are going to be ongoing battles for a while (remember, I am not perfect).

 

I am proud to say that the night before reading this passage God had confronted me (well I think it was confronted because I was in prayer and I just got an unmistakable urge to do this) about the alcoholic drinks that had been sitting on the shelf untouched for over a year.  I hadn’t thrown them away because I don’t like to waste.

 

Something in my brain clicked that I was never going to drink it, and I was never going to offer it to guests so I might as well throw it down the kitchen sink, and that is what I did.

 

I think that Galatians 5:16-26 (in the NLT) gives a nice well-rounded list of “Do’s and Don’ts” for new and old Christians.  So often I have just asked God “Why couldn’t you have given us a list of basic everyday life things that you like and don’t like us doing, in black and white?”  Well, guess what, he did give it to us, just some of us haven’t found it yet.

 

Then we go onto the next part, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  I think that overall, a lot of us can say “Yes, 60% of the time I am those things, some of them I am 80-90% of the time.” But there is always room for improvement. 

 

For example, I am extremely patience while waiting in lines, but I am impatient while waiting for God to answer prayer – I need practice in that one.

 

There was a saying: “Never pray for patience because God will make you practice it!”, but I say we have to look at our weaknesses and pray that God will give us opportunities to practice our weaknesses.  I know that my weakness is self-control and I have a friend whose weakness is peace.  He is so eager for arguments, he’ll take the opposing view just to have a good argument with someone (whether he believes the opposing view or not)!

 

Then the next question is what is your biggest strength?  Mine is peace, I try to maintain the peace in all situation, I strongly dislike arguing and would rather say “Well, we can agree that we disagree” and end the discussion there.  My not-so-little-anymore cousin’s biggest strength (in my opinion) is self-control, but with him it is difficult to pinpoint his strength because he just seems to be overflowing with love, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  I don’t know if he is patient, but I’ve never seen him impatient.

 

The point is to cultivate your strengths and improve your weaknesses.  Think of the school situation.  If you discover in Grade 4 that you are above average in Maths, but below average in reading, the teachers recommend extra lessons to improve your reading skill.  And a good teacher will acknowledge your strength in Maths and recommend you enter mathematics tournaments to encourage you to build on your skill.  In the same way we need to focus on both our strengths and our weaknesses.  Pray for opportunities to practice our weaknesses and pray for situations to use our strengths.  I’m going to.

 

This has turned out rather long, so I would like to congratulate you if you read the whole thing.  I intended just to write a few paragraphs and it just flowed into an essay.  Each time I finished off one section, it flowed into a new one – but that is how my train of thought works.

 

May God Bless each of you!

Bible Monday's: Psalm 48:14

"God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end." ~ Psalm 48:14

This afternoon, while thinking about what to write in this blog post, I opened a little box called "101 favourite Bible verses for women." I drew out a card and read the verse on it.  It was Psalm 48:14.  I still had no idea what to write about in this post.  So I started reading the Bible.  I decided I was going to read today's Bible reading and just continue with tomorrow's and the next day's and so on until God made something stand out to me.

I read 2 Samuel 3-4.  Then I went onto the next day's reading (which is actually Wednesday's reading because I am a bit ahead of schedule), it is Psalms 48-50.  After reading Psalm 48 it occurred to me how strange it was that I not only drew the above verse out of my little box, but it was also the next Psalm I was to read in the Bible.  This may be a coincidence, but it allowed me to really think about Psalm 48:14 again, especially the part "He will be our guide even to the end."

Lately I have had a lot on my mind and a heavy weight on my heart concerning a private matter, something which should only be discussed with close family and friends, so please forgive me for not disclosing it here.  What you need to know is that I have prayed for a certain miracle to happen in 2011, and when God grants my request, I'll definitely post disclosing all.

On Saturday, God guided me (very obviously) on the matter mentioned in the previous paragraph.  The matter is far from resolved, but I now know what I need to do during this upcoming year.

I want to encourage everyone reading this to share your troubles with God.  He will give you guidance.  Just like it is written:

"If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking." ~ James 1:5

Just remember, once God gives you the wisdom you need to follow through on it.

Bible Mondays: What any fool can do

While looking through my dad’s Bible a few weeks ago I came across a tract with the title “What Any Fool Can Do”.  I wish I had a scanner so I could put it up here on my blog, but there was only 1 picture, and it was of a stick man with a triangle hat (like the “Dunce” hat in cartoons).  The rest of the tract had the following words that I thought I would share:

 

What Any Fool Can Do

1. Any fool can take a drink of liquor.
2. Any fool can smoke a cigarette.
3. Any fool can take drugs that are harmful.
4. Any fool can indulge in improper conduct

It doesn’t require any brains to do these things, and it isn’t very smart to copy what any fool can do.  But it does require moral courage to resist temptation, to flee from evil, to say “NO” and then to stand your ground in spite of ridicule.

 

Years ago, as he neared the end of his days, King Saul said, “I have played the fool”. He had failed in the high purpose to which God had called him.

 

As you grow older will you, too, someday say with sad regret, “I have played the fool”?

 

Bible Mondays: Head Covering

Even though I have not said anything about this to any of my friends or family.  This topic was brought to my attention around this time last year.  After reading other blogs and forum posts on it, I decided that I would deal with 1 Corinthians 11 when I got there.

For those who do not know, I have been attempting to read the entire bible in 52 weeks… following the reading plan I found here: http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html

Yesterday I started week 14. I saw the week ahead’s reading plan and thought “Oh my, 1 Corinthians 11 already? Well, I knew I had to deal with it sometime, here goes…”

First I read the chapter, actually the first section of the chapter (verses 2-16), then I reread it looking for a way to play the words so that “head” didn’t mean a person’s literal head, or that covering didn’t mean literally covering ones head.  Nothing I could come up with would hold in a court of law, it was written in black and white.

Next I went and looked up the Greek meanings of certain key words, trying to find a way to prove that the translation could be off.  That didn’t work out either.

Finally, I resorted to searching online for commentaries.  All the commentaries I found told me what I already knew at this point.  Here is the one that made me give up and accept what is written…

http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/4611.htm

So that’s it.  God has revealed the truth to me about head coverings.  It took some time, and a lot of head-butting, but He has made it blatantly clear, and I am going to do as He asks, in obedience to Him.  At this stage I will only be covering during my prayer time and for church, I’m testing the waters on this, one little baby step at a time.

One more thing:
I'm adding this in after the post, about a day after all my research.  It was mentioned to me (I am assuming the person would like to stay anonymous) that a woman's hair is meant to be her covering... 1 Corinthians 11:15.  That verse was the only one I had to back up that we no longer needed to cover.  Personally, I would rather be safe than sorry on this matter.  It was only around the time that feminism took it's grip on the world that women stopped wearing hats to church. Therefore I remaining with my original decision for the time being - I will cover during my prayer time, and for church at the moment.  The other thing is that I decided that I won't be covering with a cloth for church, but rather just wearing a hat, like was done in my great grandparents time.  If God speaks to me and tells me differently then so be it.

I strongly believe that each person should listen to their own heart on this matter.  Whichever way God convicts you, that is the way you should go.  I'm not saying I am right, in actual fact, I think that whether we cover our heads or not is a rather petty matter, and it should not be something that divides the church.  You, as an individual, need to decide this for yourself.