We have a baby bunny that can fit in the palm of my hand. She’s a great pet. She costs nothing, requires little care, and gives us joy every day – she lives in our back yard!

The other day Kristi put out a peach from our tree for the bunny. The bunny was munching away on our green grass, as usual, until she caught a whiff of the fresh peach! She made her way over to the peach, which was just in front of our sliding glass door where we were watching. She put her nose on the peach and smiled. She looked all around her to make sure there were no crows or cats. And then she took a bite!

Oh! How tasty! Much better than grass! With obvious delight, the bunny ate up the peach until all that was left was the pit. And she licked her hands to get the last bits of juice. Then with her stomach totally full of sweetness she stretched out on our sun-warmed concrete patio and smiled, “Ahhhh!”

As I was thinking about the baby bunny eating the peach I remembered the prayer of the Psalmist:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8 (NIV)

I realized that the Lord had given me a parable and I sensed him whisper to my heart … Will you delight in me like the bunny delighted in the peach? When you savor the sweetness of my Word to you and my Spirit in you, like the bunny thrilled over the peach, then you will be filled with my love, joy, and peace.

But sometimes you’re so busy grazing on grass that you don’t even see the peach of my presence in your midst. Other times you’re so worried about crows and cats that you miss out on eating the peach that I put out before you.

Relax! I’m watching over you. And I give myself to you. Hop over to me. Taste and see that I am good.

Yes, Lord, I want to be as the little bunny – trusting your protective care, free to play and explore, observant to discover the gift of your grace, delighting in your deliciousness. As the bunny was captivated by the peach, may I be captivated by you, O Christ! Fill my thoughts. Be my one desire.

Oh, that I’d be as the man you talked about Jesus …

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44 (NIV)

Jesus, knowing you as my King is the treasure of life! And the field that you are buried in is my heart – what joy it is to discover you alive in my heart! I give up everything for the treasure that you are to me! I give up doing things for myself. I give up doing things in my own strength. I seek your kingdom first and only.

In all that I do today – as I type these words, as I eat lunch with my son in a few minutes, as I clean the kitchen, as I do my work for today, as I greet Kristi and our girls when they return from Marci’s baby shower, as I take pictures of David and his date before prom, as I enjoy dinner and the evening with Kristi, as I pray from the Psalms – may I delight in you with me. Jesus, you are the peach that pleases me!

May Jesus be the peach that pleases you today and every day!

All of collective humanity, throughout all time and every age, at some point and time is on an eternal quest to find some meaning or reason for our existence. We are each, in our own way, driven to find the true meaning of life.

To the hedonist, life is seen as finding its greatest meaning or reward through some new source of pleasure. Pleasure to those so-minded is in and of itself a reason for existence. Yet one can never find true meaning in this way; for in the final analyses, the lust for some new experience is both its own reward and curse. The senses become overwhelmed by the pleasure of sensation in whatever form it may take. Lust in all its forms only gives birth to greater lust, and this in and of itself is only a form of slavery. Cursed indeed are those who find themselves enslaved to their passions.

We have all known the pain or sorrows of life: the loss of a loved one, the pain of sickness or disease, that hopeless desperate feeling engendered from within the human heart, that for whatever reason leaves us feeling isolated, alone, and out of control. What human soul has never experienced the helpless feelings of desperation that such times bring? At such times our hearts are gripped with fear as the very ground of our existence becomes shaken to the core.

If life teaches us anything it is that it is constantly changing. One can never be sure what is coming. Things are never all bad or good. Our lives are like train tracks for side by side we face both the challenges of pain and sorrow alongside the wellsprings of hope and meaning. I would submit to you that we all have that great fundamental need to find some reason that goes beyond ourselves for our existence and meaning.

I would submit to you that what we are all looking for is not to be found from within our own hearts or life experience. The human soul is capable of being puffed up by an overestimation of our own worth or pulled down by the weights and sometimes the emotional and physical chains that life brings.

The eternal quest for meaning is a search for relationship that goes beyond ourselves. God the Father sent his son Jesus Christ to die in our stead; that by his resurrection we would, through the Son, find ourselves not just forgiven, but also connected to the heart of Father God. I can look back over the decades of my life’s experience and in so many ways and forms have had him touch my life. He shows his love in so many ways. The wonder of every new sunset and the beauty with which he paints the buttercup are both divine examples of the heart of Father God.

I have known the joy of having him touch my heart with the joy of his presence. God touches and moves on each human heart in so many diverse ways. We can be in a time of praise and adoration with thousands of others in a service. Yet as I reflect back on such times his touch has always brought with it that internal realization that he moves on each one of our hearts one at a time. Even in a crowd, that relationship with him is what matters.

My heart is warmed in quiet reflection as I bring to my recollection how many ways he touches our lives. Yet with every new revelation, with every new awakening within my heart and the body of Christ, what we are on is a quest to know His heart. No one moves my heart and thirsty soul as He does; He and only He can bring into your life true meaning.

I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3:24)

January 19

Genesis 19:12-14 (NIV) ¹²The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here–sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, ¹³because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Angels had come to deliver Lot from the city of Sodom before it was destroyed. The angels were willing to deliver all those related to Lot. I wonder if the outcry to the LORD against its people was from the citizens of Sodom. Man is so obtuse that he can complain to God about the consequences of his own actions and those of others doing the same things. Sin has a way of torturing those it has mastered. The people refused to be freed from the sin by forsaking it. To stop the misery that sin caused, the people had to have their lives cut short.

Lot warned his sons-in-law of the impending doom, but they seemed to think he was joking. Why wouldn’t they take him seriously? Was it because Lot’s life was so compromised that they couldn’t imagine he would be the special recipient of an angelic mercy mission? After all, he sat in the gate as an official of Sodom, and he probably joked around with the best of them. He probably fit right in since he had become a judge. I believe his compromised life caused his message to sound like a joke.

There is a no less serious judgment coming on all the earth (2 Peter 3:7). We have been given a message and a chance to go out and warn others too. When they see our lives, do they consider our message a joke? Or do our lives add credence to our message? The way we live will add power to, or detract from, the message. Let us live in such a way as to add conviction to the words we speak so that others may be spared from the impending wrath of God.

Consider: Does my life backup the message?

Streams in the Desert – January 19

Times have changed, but life’s hard times haven’t

Men ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke 18:1).

“Go to the ant.” Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. “I once,” he said, “was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I sat alone many hours. Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the top. This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson.
–The King’s Business

Prayer which takes the fact that past prayers have not been answered as a reason for languor, has already ceased to be the prayer of faith. To the prayer of faith the fact that prayers remain unanswered is only evidence that the moment of the answer is so much nearer. From first to last, the lessons and examples of our Lord all tell us that prayer which cannot persevere and urge its plea importunately, and renew, and renew itself again, and gather strength from every past petition, is not the prayer that will prevail.
–William Arthur

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, “If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notice it.” It is the old doctrine, “Practice makes perfect.” We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing, we know what the result would be. If we would only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

The motto of David Livingstone was in these words, “I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose.” By unfaltering persistence and faith in God he conquered.

When my oldest son was around two, I would put him in the bathtub each morning to keep a close eye on him while getting ready for work. One day he asked if he could play with his new ship my husband had bought him the day before. I said yes, and he was quite entertained for a while.

As I sleepily sipped my coffee and put on mascara, Benjamin said something about his toy. Half-listening and focused more on my make-up than my son, I said, “Oh yea, that’s a great boat…”

Quickly correcting me, he said, “Da-da says it’s a ship.”

“That’s right,” I said (not really knowing the difference). A couple minutes later, my talkative toddler said something else about his toy and without thinking, I again said, “Hmmm…. yes that’s a nice boat.”

A second time, my son said, “It’s a ship.”

Glancing at his reflection in the mirror while continuing my routine, I said, “Oh yeah that’s right.”

Believe it or not, a few minutes later, this happened a third time — Benjamin telling me about his toys and me half-awake answering him with, “That’s a great boat…”

But this time, he yelled, “MOM!” I quickly turned around only to see my son holding his toy up and looking at me with frustration as he said, “Can you say SHIP?”

The Bible says, “The tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!” (James 3:5, NKJV)

My exchange with my son is quite small in comparison to some of the firestorms that have started with just a few words. Countries go to war and couples go to divorce court over mere words. The tongue is a weapon, that’s for sure. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can set off a virtual forest fire.

By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it. This is scary:

“You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue – it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women He made in His image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!” (James 3:7-10, Message)

I still don’t know the difference between a boat and a ship, other than one is small and used for fishing and waterskiing, while the other is much bigger and usually found on the ocean. But I could know their differences if I chose to study them. In the same way, if I care about the things that defile my life and grieve the Holy Spirit, I can learn.

The Bible says, “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit” (1 Peter 3:10, NKJV).

I may not be able to perfectly tame my tongue, but I can choose my words. Jesus said it starts with what we put in our heart:

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34, NKJV).

As God’s Word becomes a priority in my life, one benefit is the overflow from my heart to my mouth.

“He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit” (Proverbs 17:27, NKJV).

If I’d had more knowledge on “ships” I wouldn’t have upset my young son. Likewise, as I gain understanding about the tongue and the various ways it defiles, I am less likely to be the cause of strife. My words can be vain, irritating, hasty, irreverent, insincere, proud, and malicious; OR my words can be modest, helpful, sincere, respectful, humble, and kind. And like the fierce winds that oppose a ship on the open sea, I can use the rudder in my mouth to maneuver peacefully through tough conversations or perceived attacks.

So, although I’m bound to be careless with my words at some point or another, it’s what I choose to keep in my heart that keeps me from recklessly starting a fire. I am the vessel and my tongue is the blade that adjusts my direction. Can you say SHIP?

The Only Way to Shut Up the Devil Is at the Cross
By: Whitney capps, crosswalk.com

Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Col. 2:15).

Living a life unashamed is a hard thing to grab a hold of. I mean, live confident in the work of Jesus? I get that. Forget the mountain of debt I had against God? Live completely free from the guilt and shame of that? So much harder, right? Shame is a stubborn weed that comes back no matter how many times I pull it, you know?

When the devil begins to attack us, it’s best not to argue with him. I’ve lost quite a few arguments with the devil. I know I have authority over him, but when he starts reading my rap sheet of crimes against God and comparing me to other women, I can get sucked into a “me” spiral. When this starts to happen, the only solution is to take me out of the equation. The only way to shut up the devil is at the Cross.

The church at Colossae knew about having an attacked, vulnerable faith. One of the purposes of Paul’s letter to the Colossians was to firm up their faith and remind them of their confidence in the Cross. In Colossians 2:14-15 (NIV) Paul says, “Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

The only way to shut up the devil is at the Cross.

In the Ancient Near East, agreements and business transactions between two parties were handwritten into formal contracts—not unlike today, but with a few more brush strokes rather than keystrokes. When one party was indebted to another, his name would be written below the agreement. When the debt was satisfied, the name would be scratched out, a line drawn through it, or one would hammer a nail, piercing the name, signifying the debt had been canceled.

In Colossians 2, Paul uses this same idea with the phrase “legal indebtedness.” The law of God was the written contract that held us in debt to Him. Sins stacked up, and our charges against Him were incalculable. But through Jesus Christ, God has canceled those charges! Because of the very specific word choice Paul used in verse 14, his audience would have envisioned the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet blotting out the debt we owed God. Every charge against us was nailed to the cross. Our account with Him had been settled. He can forgive us because though we failed to uphold our end of the contract by keeping the law, Jesus paid the price for our crimes against God. We were unable to meet the terms of our agreement with Him.

So, Jesus did that for us by living a perfect, completely sinless life and taking on the shame of our sin by dying a criminal’s death in our place. This is referred to by scholars as expiation. To “expiate” our sin means that Jesus satisfied the legal requirements that God demands of us.

This is the gospel. Our debt is paid! The nails that pierced Him declared us free and clear. What marvelous news! It’s a sweet reminder to combat our shame and guilt. The Cross is the antidote. The Cross sets us free from shame.

Halford E. Luccock shares this story in his book, Unfinished Business:

“One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone.”

Then he added by way of explanation:

“Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”

Isaiah spoke about Jesus hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. Matthew reached back to that prophecy to help us understand who Jesus is and what He came to do. Jesus came to bring hope to the world. Hope is so often in short supply in our world. Fear and negativity can cloud our vision of the future. Jesus has come for those whose hope is failing.

Isaiah put it this way:

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Isaiah 42:3 NIV).

Matthew quoted him,

“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world.” (Matthew 12:20-21 NLT).

His name is not only the hope of the world at large. He is the hope for the weakest and smallest person. He is the hope for us all. He takes us, weak as we are, and builds on the smallest glimmer of hope.

Jamie Buckingham quoted Hugo Gryn, a London rabbi, in Charisma magazine. Hugo told of a holocaust experience in the German magazine, Der Morgen:

“It was the cold winter of 1944 and although we had nothing like calendars, my father who was a fellow prisoner there, took me and some of our friends to a corner of the barrack. He announced it was the eve of Hanukkah, produced a curious-shaped clay bowl, and began to light a wick immersed in his precious, but now melted, margarine ration.

Before he could recite the blessing, I protested at this waste of food. He said, ‘You and I have seen that it is possible to live up to three weeks without food. We once lived almost three days without water. But you cannot live properly for three minutes without hope.’ “

No matter what we face today, Jesus is our hope. Even if we’re weak and our hope is small, He has come to give us a bright picture of tomorrow. We can rest in that.

Fickle.

For a long time I thought that word was a quaint, southern lady-like version of a cuss word. Not a real cuss word of course, but I remember hearing my grandmother whisper it when her rolls burned or when she was poked by a stick pin while laying out a new pattern on some material.

As I grew older, I learned it means to be likely to change. More specifically, it describes someone who isn’t constant or loyal in their affections.

Fickle.

Jesus described people this way. He said,

But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned to you, and you did not lament.’” (Matthew 11:16-17 NKJV) .

On the surface, this saying is hard to follow. But other translations shed some light on its meaning.

“How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always too busy…’” (Message).

“You’re like children playing games on the playground, yelling at their playmates, ‘You don’t like it when we want to play Wedding! And you don’t like it when we want to play Funeral! You will neither dance nor mourn.’” (Passion).

In other words, they’re fickle.

But Jesus wasn’t talking randomly. He wasn’t being rude in His criticism. He was making a point about how people inconsistently judge the things of God.

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children” (Matthew 11:18-19 NKJV).

The Message Translation says,

“Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they?”

Now we’ve hit the nail on the head. From Jesus’ generation to ours, human nature hasn’t changed. Opinion polls are worthless — they’re just opinions — beliefs and judgments often based on feelings. “Well, that can’t be of God because do you know what he did 20 years ago?” Or “I know God forgives, but He would never use a flamboyant personality like that guy.” Really? Are we being fickle?

God has given us His Word as a guide. It shows us the path of life. And more importantly, His Word shows us which results to be looking for — regardless of how we got there. John the Baptist was an unusual character who separated himself from society but he fulfilled his purpose and produced results (revealing the coming Messiah). Jesus was a complete opposite personality, in the center of everything, touching lepers, eating with tax collectors, and letting former prostitutes and demon-filled women serve His ministry. And undoubtedly, Jesus produced eternal results.

“Wisdom is justified by her children.”

So I encourage you today to be cautious of opinions — yours or others. Opinions are fickle. They’re often based on the emotion of the day instead of God’s Truth, which is only found in His Word. Instead of being whimsical, unsteady, or like a yo-yo (all synonyms for fickle), choose the opposite: aware, constant, faithful. In a generation bombarded by media-driven opinion polls, let the word fickle be your occasional slang and not a description of your behavior and judgments.

The term “God Adventure” sounds kind of intriguing and exciting, doesn’t it? Even a little mysterious! If you have an adventuresome spirit, just those words may make you want to explore what a God adventure is – learn more about it!

A “God Adventure” could be following God’s leading to take a new job. It could be a missions trip or a move to a new city. Maybe you’re actually going to commit to leading a Bible study at your church or reach out to a needy family in your area. How about working on reconciling a broken relationship with a family member or friend?

Not all God adventures are so positive or encouraging. Sometimes a God adventure comes your way uninvited and unexpected. It can come in circumstances that involve loss, unfair treatment, illness, or broken relationships. These are the wilderness places that God uses to shape, refine, and carve character into us, if we’ll let Him. The process is so painful, but the result is pure gold.

Some dear friends of mine, a married couple, have been through this recently. A cancer diagnosis brought surgery, radiation, doctors, doctors, and more doctors. Pain, loss, rehabilitation, fear and uncertainty.

Who’d sign up for that? But, now let me tell you what I saw this “wilderness” produce in their lives …a sense of God’s presence that over-rode all the circumstances, a trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness (which is never really fully experienced until you find yourself in the furnace of affliction); a deeper love and appreciation for each other as a couple; and peace, real peace, in the midst of the storm.

They were not delivered from the experience, they were lifted above it and carried through it. Isaiah 40:31 outlines the promise of God to those who are walking through trials.

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (NKJV)

The Bible is filled with the stories of great men and women of faith, and almost all of them had one or more defining wilderness experiences that God used to prepare them for even greater use. My favorite is the story of Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers, wrongly accused by the wife of his employer, thrown into jail for something he didn’t do, and seemingly forgotten by those he had helped. In all of this, a span of 13 years, the Bible never once records that Joseph complained or railed against the Lord. Read this amazing story yourself – Genesis 37 through 47. Through his years in the wilderness, Joseph learned humility, obedience, patience, and responsibility. In God’s perfect timing, he became ruler over all of Egypt delivering the Egyptians and his own family from the famine in the land.

How can you turn your wilderness into a God adventure? For starters let this scripture sink deeply into your heart and mind – Romans 8:28

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (NKJV)

ALL things – even your trials and afflictions.

Give them to God with a sense of anticipation. You are being refined – prepared for something. Look for the lessons.

Surrender your “rights,” your arguments, and your confusion to Him. God never makes mistakes.

Rest in Him – climb up into his lap and let Him refresh you with His strength.

Trust His timing – He’s got it all together. Jeremiah 29:11 says this,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)

Stay close to Him and watch your wilderness become a God adventure!

The Lord Appeared to Isaac – Streams in the Desert – January 15

Times have changed, but life’s hard times haven’t

And the Lord appeared unto Isaac the same night (Genesis 26:24).

“Appeared the same night,” the night on which he went to Beer-sheba. Do you think this revelation was an accident? Do you think the time of it was an accident? Do you think it could have happened on any other night as well as this? If so, you are grievously mistaken. Why did it come to Isaac in the night on which he reached Beer-sheba? Because that was the night on which he reached rest. In his old locality, he had been tormented. There had been a whole series of petty quarrels about the possession of paltry wells. There are no worries like little worries, particularly if there is an accumulation of them. Isaac felt this. Even after the strife was past, the place retained a disagreeable association. He determined to leave. He sought change of scene. He pitched his tent away from the place of former strife. That very night the revelation came. God spoke when there was no inward storm. He could not speak when the mind was fretted; His voice demands the silence of the soul. Only in the hush of the spirit could Isaac hear the garments of his God sweep by. His still night was his starry night.

My soul, hast thou pondered these words, “Be still, and know”? In the hour of perturbation, thou canst not hear the answer to thy prayers. How often has the answer seemed to come long after the heart got no response in the moment of its crying — in its thunder, its earthquake, and its fire. But when the crying ceased, when the stillness fell, when thy hand desisted from knocking on the iron gate, when the interest of other lives broke the tragedy of thine own, then appeared the long-delayed reply. Thou must rest, O soul, if thou wouldst have thy heart’s desire. Still the beating of thy pulse of personal care. Hide thy tempest of individual trouble behind the altar of a common tribulation and, that same night, the Lord shall appear to thee. The rainbow shall span the place of the subsiding flood, and in thy stillness thou shalt hear the everlasting music.
–George Matheson

Tread in solitude thy pathway,
Quiet heart and undismayed.
Thou shalt know things strange, mysterious,
Which to thee no voice has said.
While the crowd of petty hustlers
Grasps at vain and paltry things,
Thou wilt see a great world rising
Where soft mystic music rings.
Leave the dusty road to others,
Spotless keep thy soul and bright,
As the radiant ocean’s surface
When the sun is taking flight.
–(From the German of V. Schoffel)