Author: LizG

Wife, mom, grandma & great grandma.

On a Life of Substance & Purpose

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 12-14 MSG Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? … 12-14 Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 NIV The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? … 12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.  What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Philippians 3:7-9 MSG The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

Observation

Ecclesiastes is believed to be the writing of King Solomon (“Questor” or “Teacher”) and represents his philosophical outlook on the world and on life in general toward the end of his life.  He had everything the world could offer in abundance – worldwide renown and respect, wealth, wives, a palace or two, horses and chariots and so on.   He was the wisest man of his time, but he had fallen into the very human trap of allowing his acclaim, pride in his accomplishments, material possessions and his wives to turn his heart away from remembering God’s part in it all.  All that he possessed was suddenly purposeless and meaningless.

He starts Ecclesiastes by stating that all you can gain in this life by your own efforts is “hevel” (smoke, vanity, meaningless).  It is like “Spitting into the wind” or chasing after the wind, which is defined as wasting time doing something totally pointless, fruitless or futile, without substance or value.   For King Solomon, despite his riches and fame, the joy was gone from his heart and all that he possessed and did was hevel.  

On the other hand, then we have Paul, a man who gave up everything – status, power, authority, recognition among his peers – to know and serve Jesus. “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung.”  Like Solomon, Paul recognized that all earthly accomplishments and acclaim are hevel, but, unlike Solomon, Paul was willing to trade it all in to fulfill God’s will and purpose in his life.  “I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.”

Impact on Me

So, now I face the uncomfortable question of which of these two do I most resemble?  Am I, like Solomon, chasing after the wind, looking for the praise of my culture, doing what will increase my wealth, status, authority, power over others OR am I willing to be like Paul and submit all I am and have to fulfill God’s will and purpose?  Is knowing and serving Jesus enough for me?  Do I secretly crave the praise and adulation of people or am I willing to let the Holy Spirit be my promoter – setting me where I need to be doing what I need to do at the precise moment God needs me to be obedient regardless of the cost to my reputation, financial position, comfort, perceived abilities?  Am I willing to appear a failure, if necessary, to accomplish God’s will and purpose? 

Jesus was willing to do all these things.  His obedience, His sacrifice, provided us with righteousness that cannot be gained on our own.  “I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.”  Do I trust God enough to give it all?  Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!

Prayer

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, All-Wise, All-Knowing, Gracious and Merciful Father, You know my heart.  I am human, fallible, inconsistent, selfish, unfaithful, but the Holy Spirit lives within me and is working on changing me so I can be more like Jesus.  I pray that You will give me insight, wisdom, knowledge, understanding and strength to believe in You when what You ask me to relinquish seems too hard to do, too much to give up.  May I stand before You on that day and know that I lived a life of substance and purpose in Christ.  May I remember that all I have is Yours and You are the rewarder of the faithful.  I am safe and secure in Your hands.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On The Bottom Line

Romans 12:1-2 Phillips. 1 With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. 2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Romans 12:1-2 MSG. 1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 

Observation

This chapter 12 of Romans could be titled, “The Universal Practical Guide to Worshipping God in Your Living.”  Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters explaining how only faith in Christ provides forgiveness of sin and redemption, and that faith is not based on or evidenced by the adherence to any Jewish religious rules, practices, or The Law.  Living by faith in Christ transcends culture and religious rites, rituals and rules; it is based on:

  • 24/7 worship,
  • our glad obedience/submission to God’s will, and
  • allowing Him the freedom to change us in order to fulfill His plan in and through us – “bring the best out…develop well-formed maturity”. 

This might require us to be as counter-cultural as Paul is asking the Jewish believers to be regarding new Gentile believers – by accepting that faith in Christ is not proven by works, but, rather, weighing all against the heart of God to redeem and restore relationship with all of His creation.  With this heart, we can embrace others in the Body of Christ in spite of differences in practice as long as Jesus is their Lord and only Savior.  Paul lays out the bottom line for all believers here in chapter 12:

  • submit (“give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him”),
  • be changed and matured by the Holy Spirit (“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within”)
  • serve with humility trusting in God’s plan/purpose for you (“Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it”), and
  • let your love be sincere, motivated by mercy, grace, and redemption  generously poured out to all (Romans 9-end).

Impact on Me

The book of Romans is cram-packed with teaching by Paul on what really happened on the Cross, Who Christ is, what His sacrifice really provides for all mankind, and how I should respond to/show my gratitude for this free gift of redemption. 

Here Paul is saying that I need to:

  • submit myself to God, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to search me, know me (without reserving any private areas),
  • allow the Holy Spirit to bring areas that need changing to my attention, and
  • give the Holy Spirit freedom to work the change in me that makes me ready and able to fulfill God’s will and purpose for me.

This requires me to have the courage to trust Him with my secret places of pride, shame, sorrow, guilt, stubbornness, fear, selfishness, criticism, and all the other ugliness I have hidden away in the locked closets of my soul. I am then shamefully faced with the question of how much I really do trust Him.  Would I really be willing to let Him be in charge of cleaning out those closets, truly putting my past, my present, my future under His scrutiny and in His hands regardless of the cost to me?  Am I willing for Him to reveal my deepest darkest secrets if it serves His purpose to heal and release me or others?  It all comes down to the bottom line – how much do I really trust Him?

Prayer

Lord, my desire is to trust You so unconditionally that I will have no secret places, no locked closets in my soul full of shame, guilt and unforgiveness.  I want to cooperate with You in the process – “be changed from the inside out”–so I “may prove in practice that the plan of God for you (me) is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”  Help me to hear the song You sing over me – that it may ring in my flesh, my heart, my spirit so I may worship You with my “everyday, ordinary life…and place it before God as an offering.”  I want to live in Heaven’s culture, having my actions determined by what You see with Your eyes and how You love with Your heart.  I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.

On Setting Things Right

John 3:16-17 MSG “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Luke 11:1-4 MSG One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are.  Set the world right.  Keep us alive with three square meals.  Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

Observation

The last few years have made everyone recognize that things are not right with the world.  This pandemic has disrupted whatever was considered normal on a worldwide basis.  All that once seemed stable, secure and reliable are now not so much.  These verses above bring us the only secure hope that withstands every challenge of the ages – knowing that God is in the process of putting the world right again.  “Set the world right” is also translated as “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” 

The people of Jesus’ time understood living in an insecure world.  Their history was a sad story of Gentile and homegrown kings and kingdoms that came and went – Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Rome and a series of evil rulers from Judah and Israel itself.  Even the religious leaders gave them no hope of fulfilling the intricate and burdensome rules for righteousness before God.  If you were poor or sick, God hated you and was punishing you.  Jesus says, “Not so!”  “He came to help, to put the world right again.”

He is saying the same thing to us today.  His kingdom is still the only truly safe place that cannot be breached or conquered by any enemy – man or devil.  We can get confused and discouraged when we don’t experience that same promised stability, security and safety in our temporary physical lives. Jesus said we would have trouble in this world; He certainly did.  The promise of stability, security and safety are eternal and sure in spite of the circumstances we encounter.  Unlike other human kings, Jesus’ first concern is for our eternal welfare, not His personal gain.  Setting our hearts in His kingdom will produce righteousness, peace and joy in the midst of what this world turns upside down.

Impact on Me

I have a choice of what kingdom I choose and which king I serve.  The last couple of years have drawn a striking border between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God.  In all of the confusion and conflict created by dueling authorities touting their information as correct, there is one source that has not wavered or been shaky.  God’s plan is to set the world right using anyone who will seek His direction, listen and obey His calling, serve His eternal Kingdom goals rather than be distracted by the havoc caused by any earthly one.

I confess that I am impacted emotionally by wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, floods, political infighting, greed that disregards the lives of others and all the other things that seem to turn the world upside down.  How can I be stable, secure and safe in the midst of the swirling chaos?  I must choose who and what rules me.  If I am first a subject of the Kingdom of God, I must have faith in and follow His plan, walk in my calling, set myself as a servant to fulfill His will and purpose.  In this way, I will be assisting in setting the world right according to His plan, not mine.  I will trust that my obedience to Him will contribute to His ultimate result, even if I don’t see that result with my own eyes.  I will allow the Holy Spirit to give me insight into the eternal so my focus will not be distracted by the temporal.  I will know that whatever I suffer here on earth is less than the sacrifice made by Jesus to come as a Man to redeem me and whosoever will come. 

Prayer

Lord, I do pray for Your kingdom to come and Your will be done – beginning with me.  Jesus, You said that Your Kingdom is within us when we are in You.  I want to be remodeled by Your presence, working with me to become all that You desire me to be and do all that You desire me to do.  Change me from someone rooted in the worldly and temporal to someone who is fruitful because I am rooted in Your eternal Kingdom soil.  I want to be part of Your setting the world right regardless of the cost to me and whether I ever see the result of my obedience and sacrifice.  May I willingly serve as You ask.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

On Standards for Righteousness

Luke 11:37-42, 45-46, 52 NLT As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. 38 His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom. 39 Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! 40 Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? 41 So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.

42 “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.

45 “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.”  46 “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. … 52 What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”

Observation

Pharisees and Scribes were the interpreters and authoritative teachers of the Law – the rabbis/pastors who controlled the synagogues which were the places where people gathered locally for worship.  At the time of Jesus, the Law for these two groups included both the Written Law (Torah/Books of Moses) and the Oral Law (their detailed interpretation of how to follow the Law).   Both of these groups were placed on a pedestal (highly respected and considered more spiritual) by the people as religious authorities and spiritual examples to follow.  Jesus is here accusing them of losing God’s perspective by making an idol of traditions (Oral Law) – “you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

This Oral Torah (circa 200 AD codified in the Mishnah) was a code of conduct expanding on the 613 commandments of the Torah, including a wide range of highly detailed rules on ritual and worship practices, interpersonal relationships, dietary rules, Sabbath and festival observances, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages.  In the Mishnah’s 60 plus pages on handwashing rituals for all occasions, neglecting to wash your hands in the proper proscribed manner before eating bread could result in excommunication and/or expectations of God’s direct punishment of poverty or death.

Recognize the location here.  Jesus is sitting in a Pharisee’s home at his table.  All of the other guests are probably Pharisees, too.  Jesus is accusing them of looking good but really being “filthy—full of greed and wickedness” because of their practice of placing intolerable legalistic requirements on the people but contriving ways of avoiding the regulations themselves.  Jesus was accusing them of failing to practice what they preached, leaving any sound teaching neutralized and undermined by their hypocrisy.   Jesus accuses them of making idols of their traditions, of being self-righteousness, full of outward form but devoid of inner spiritual purity.  I wonder what Jesus would say at my table.

Impact on Me

Sometimes we want Jesus to be an “unoffending Jesus”—a version of Jesus who agrees with everything we already think, likes what we already like, and wants us to do what we already wanted to do before we came to Him.  We want all the benefit without the sacrifice. But that Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. If you reduce Jesus to a cartoon who is not allowed to offend you, then be prepared that such a made-up version of Jesus won’t be able to save or heal you either.  I want to constantly be giving the Holy Spirit freedom to clean the inside of me even when it is uncomfortable, shame producing or painful.

I am completely human.  I have a tendency to think I am right and, when cranky, tired, impatient or angry, I may decide that I also know what is right for you.  In those moments I become those Pharisees, wanting to standardize God’s requirements so I can be the judge of another’s obedience, commitment or faith rather than examining my own obedience to God’s requirements of me.

I have learned through experience that God is not required (or inclined) to live up to my expectations, my plans, my determination of what is right, just or beneficial.  He expects me to listen and obey His will, plans and purposes for me while being an encouragement and help to others to do the same.  When I start imposing my standards for righteousness on another, I become the problem.  I want to be the welcomer on the inside of the gate, not the policeman stopping people outside – “You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”

Prayer

Father God, Creator of all that exists, You made me human with all of humanity’s faults – emotional, inconsistent, judgmental, rebellious, prideful to name only a few.  When I first came to Jesus and embraced His sacrifice for me, You began the process of convincing my soul to listen and obey His Spirit in me rather than its old mentors, my flesh and the world.  Today, I seek to be more merciful and gracious, one who encourages and demonstrates Your love for others.  Keep me from falling into the very human trap of judging how others are living up to Your standards by reminding me to examine myself to see where we are in the process of my sanctification.  Help me never sacrifice love and justice for following rules or traditions.  I ask this all in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

On Things are Terrible But God…

Lamentations 3:17-24 MSG I’ve forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. God is a lost cause.” 19-21 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: 22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.

Observation

The prophet Jeremiah, like King David, was one who freely and publicly lamented before God.  Jeremiah repeatedly warned that, despite their status as God’s chosen people, disaster was looming.  God’s blessing and protection were  conditional on obedience to the covenant (agreement) between them (Deuteronomy 28) and His patience had run out.  If you read 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, you can see that the moral and legal conditions were not anywhere close to being met. 

So, God allowed the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar to destroy most of Jerusalem, burn down the Temple, and carry all but the poorest people into exile.  This conquest went even deeper than the physical loss and devastation for the Israelites because the Temple was seen as the home of God’s presence among them.  No Temple meant God had stepped back, removed His hand of protection and fulfilled His promises for Israel and Judah ignoring their covenant with Him. 

Deuteronomy 28:26a, 35 NIV  The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. …36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.  There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.

So, under these devastating conditions, it is no wonder that Jeremiah confesses his “feeling of hitting bottom.”  The destruction of the Temple alone was like stripping the nation of its soul, hope and future, a sign that God had abandoned making His home among them.  He has already confessed that God is righteous  (Lam 1:18) and that Judah received its just desserts according to the covenant between them.   Nevertheless, in the midst of the crushing circumstances, he remembers “God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!”

 Jeremiah, like David in the psalms, always returns from despair to hope, trusting in God’s goodness as he remembers and holds on to the constancy of God’s mercy, compassion and faithfulness.  Like David, Jeremiah has a “but God” ending.  “Things are terrible BUT God is unfailingly good, faithful, merciful, loving and just.”   Jeremiah reminds us to keep our “buts” in the right place.  If we will keep our trust and hope in God regardless of the devastating circumstances or any lack of understanding as to the “why” of those circumstances, God is still good and we can trust in Him!

Impact on Me

This is a difficult book to read.   This book of Lamentations cries out about human struggles still common today – worshipping at the altar of other gods, defeat, loneliness, abandonment, sorrow, pain or agony due to sickness, suffering, loss or death, and shame or loss due to sinful living.  I have been where Jeremiah is at this moment – “I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom.”

However, like Jeremiah, I recognize that there is nowhere else to turn but God when I hit bottom.  Through the bitter, desperate and difficult experiences, when I reach out to Him, I have found Jesus close by, His presence ever more tangible, His comfort ever sweeter.  I am always in a place where all my efforts have failed, my resources proved inadequate, my possibilities exhausted.  Why do I wait until I hit bottom?  Why don’t I cry out on the way down?  Do I think I am weak for seeking His help?  The only weakness in this instance is my faith in His mercy, His provision, His ability to execute His eternal plan and my commitment to be used by Him regardless of the cost to me. 

I am learning as I walk with Him that God is more interested in my character than my comfort.  He takes me to the places that I need to become what He needs me to be to do what He needs me to do.  I need to remember that in the middle of the circumstances.   There is no one and nothing else that is my sure hope.  “But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: 22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.”

Prayer

Lord God, You are goodness itself.  Your faithfulness is unquestioned.  Your mercy and grace never fail.  You are working out Your eternal plan and I am privileged to be an instrument in Your hand.  Give me the wisdom to cry out to You on the way down before I hit bottom.  Remind me when I whine about the circumstances that You have everything in control.  Give me discernment into whether the circumstances are my fault, the devil’s attack, or part of Your will and purpose for me.  I pray that I will be what You need me to be and do what You need me to do in all circumstances.    Make it so, in Jesus’ name.