"What's In a Name?"

Shakespeare's Romeo asked the question, "What's in a name?"  Juliet apparently was a bit confused by her attraction to Romeo and his pursuit of her.   His name meant "enemy" to her, therefore, they dialog the famous passage we all know.

So, what is in a name?  I have grown up in circles where naming children was merely superficial, ie. you like the sound, you name them.  I'll have to say, that's pretty much the way I named my children.  While I can't speak for everyone, I think there may be many people like that.  But not so, in scripture.  Perhaps most of you have never heard this name that I'll share,  from the past, present and probably never will in the future, but I love the thought process it's benefited me with this week.

I've been reading the book of Joel.  As you know, he is one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament and definitely a pretty common name.  His name means "The Lord is God", but it's Joel's dad that interested me!  "The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel."  PETHUEL...not really a bad name for sound and the meaning, well, I would pray that all believers should live up to this name!  "Openheartedness toward God"  Apparently, Pethuel lived up to his name and God blessed him with the fruit of a son used in a major way, though we call him "minor".  The book of Joel, son of Pethuel became a part of the inspired word of our Creator to His creation. 

What's in a name, indeed!!  Much in every way.  Let us live up to the name of Christian and never grow tired of that life.  May you be blessed with growing passion and desire to demonstrate to a watching world an "openheartedness to God" in everything you do!!  Oh, Father, may I always be such to You!  It brings to mind the old hymn, "I Surrender All".  This needs to be the Christian's daily cry to God!

Best Advice for Life

Hosea is another great book that gives us a look into the personality of our God.  His passion and love for His people is relentless.  He wants us to know how much He desires relationship and how much better our lives will be when we get that!

I just want to share a bit from chapter fourteen in hopes that it excites your thoughts as it did mine.   He first says for Israel to "return" to Him because they had stumbled because of sin.  And He goes on to say that the power of other countries (Assyria) will not save them nor will horses or the works of their hands.

Then He displays His desire for them with these words:  I will heal.  I will love them freely.  My anger will turn away.  I will be like dew; and Israel will blossom like the lily and take root like cedars.  He goes on to talk about growth, beauty and fragrance.  Then He encourages them with, "It is I who answers and looks after you.  I am like a luxuriant cypress and from Me comes your fruit."  WOW!  And if that is not enough, He gives us the best advice for life:  "Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them.   For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous will walk in them, BUT transgressors will stumble in them."  It doesn't get any simpler than that yet the majority find it too difficult to heed.

I'm trying to keep my posts shorter, so I'll stop, but I hope you won't.  Dig deep and reap richly from this profoundly simple passage.  It goes a long way to reveal the "much mores" of God and the benefits of bowing down in humble adoration and vigilant service.

Effective Prayer

On the heels of "Fuzzy Memory", I may be displaying that as I post today.  In other words, I may have posted this thought before but if so, well, it's worth repeating.  In regard to prayer, "let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace"  and "the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much", are both verses that should encourage us greatly in the practice!  God uses prayer to display His power in lives!
And what's very important for us as believers to remember is that we should NEVER be hindered in our boldness because of our failings.  The "righteous" man is not about us but is about our Savior.  He and He alone provides the righteous covering for our audience with the Father.

Do not ever be hindered from coming to God in prayer about anything.  Always come faithfully and boldly! Because you, dear brother and sister, are always covered with Jesus righteousness and therefore your prayer will be effective to the honor and glory of God.  It's all about Him!

Fuzzy Memory

As I walked today and tried to pray, many thoughts kept bombarding my brain.  It’s truly warfare to try to pray, but it’s a worthy battle to fight.  Therefore, my walk was full of both conversation with my Father and unruly, scattered thoughts about spiritual life.  (Yes, the Enemy doesn’t care what you think about as long as you are not praying.)

One of those bombarded thoughts had to do with our works.  Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference between what God is doing in us and what we contrive on our own.  I constantly fight moving forward with ideas to implement God’s word.  I call it “fight” because many times this is my movement and not His.  I must wait for Him to show me when and how to move.  One of those distinct times in my life was when I began teaching four and fives.  The process that was involved in getting me to that place took about five years and I didn’t even realize it was going on until after it happened.  It’s a long story and I won’t go into it here, for that is not the reason for this post, but what I will say is that God does not need any help to get us where He wants us to be.  We just need to be faithful and committed where we are right now until He does the moving.

I’ve been teaching this age children now for many years and I will say that I am just as excited and passionate about this job as I was in the beginning.  And this coming from a person who had said, “I will never teach any child under first grade.”  Our lives must always be bowed down and open to the whatevers God has to bestow on us.  And we should know that it will be “immeasurably more than we ask or think.”  Take it from me, that has been proven in my walk with Jesus, time and time again!!

Well, back to the subject of today’s post:  Recently, I had someone say something that cast an inferior slur on this privilege with which I’ve been blessed.  It wasn’t malicious but it was like “just” teaching fours and fives was Christian Easy Street.   I’ve had many roadblocks in my walk as a believer and many through the years of teaching these precious little ones.  This is just one more roadblock, I know, but since it’s recent, it still rather nags on me. 

It was nagging today and I thought, “do I need to pray to be used of God another way?”  Do I need to teach older people?  As I thought on this, I realized that this is the Enemy working my most horrid sin to my disadvantage: PRIDE.  For what reason do I need to even think I need to move when God has not even hinted at this?  Is it for recognition?  I fear that’s it exactly.  And I know for a fact, that is NOT God! 

The children love me for a very short time.  In fact, a teacher of older children told me once that by the time she gets my group, I am merely a fuzzy memory!!  HA!!  She said that years ago and she was absolutely right!  For many of them, it’s not even “fuzzy”.  It’s completely gone!  But what does that matter.  What is my motive?  I want to be used to help equip these precious ones with a foundation that will be built on for many years and aid them in their seeking God.

So what does it matter if they ever remember me.  Not one whit!  God is my reason for everything I do.  He has told us that it is He “that works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)   And 1 Peter 1:4 says that we have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade”.  And I’ll add “or be fuzzy”. 

“Only one life; ‘twill soon will be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last.”                                            C. T. Studd

Incapable of Innocence

The word "innocence" strikes a cord in me that is refreshing, lovely, and hopeful.  The dictionary gives this definition: lack of guile or corruption; purity: the healthy bloom in her cheeks gave her an aura of innocence.  Even that sentence gives me a brief retreat from the reality that is in the world.  I guess that's why I love stories and movies from, what many say, "times of innocence".   Or there's the excitement I feel when I see and hold a newborn baby in all it's dependence and complete innocence.

Well, I could go on with my thoughts on all those things.  But the reason for the post today is from reading Hosea.  As I read over chapter eight, God is describing the senseless deeds of Israel.  They are important to Israel but God knows these deeds mean nothing and are going no where!  Israel has transgressed against God, His covenant and His law.  God tells them they are like a wild donkey and though He has given them ten thousand precepts, those precepts are regarded as strange!!  (That sounds familiar!!)  He also tells them, "they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind"!  There's the "nothing and no where" I was talking about.

And the subject of this post:  "How long will they be incapable of innocence?"  That phrase "incapable of innocence" struck me in the very opposite way I started this post.  It is not refreshing but oppressing; not lovely but ugly; not hopeful but unsettling.  And the part that really bothers me is He is talking about His people.

My works are important to me but what does God think about the things I do?  Am I pleasing Him from the heart?  Are my motives for His glory?  Am I moved by my great love for Christ??  Do my cheeks have a healthy bloom that gives me an aura of innocence?  That needs to be our prayer!  For that "aura" should be the light of our Savior shining through everything we do.

"How long" indeed?!!  May I be growing in the grace of my Lord each day and with each day have a greater capacity for innocence.  Amen and Amen!!!

Closed Doors

We have many “closed doors” in life.  I mean those places in life when something is over and you find yourself in new space.  Death, of course, is the biggie.  And it’s so final.  But for my post today, death is not on the list.  I’m talking about those last times you do something; an event, known or unknown that changes your way of life.

One example for a woman is the last time you nurse your baby.  Nursing your child is a big deal.  It’s what keeps the child alive and growing. Can you imagine that we would not remember the last time it happened.  And it’s an event that’s definitely going to take place; be it breast feeding or bottles, there will be a final time.  I’m glad I didn’t know.  It would have been too sad.  I only have two children and for someone who remembers a lot, I do not remember that last time.  But it did happen. 

So you get the point, and for my post today, I will not elaborate further on “lasts” but I want to discuss a “closed door” that occurred for me yesterday.

While I do not want to belabor the details, I do want to say that as soon as I heard  some “words expressed”, I knew the door was closed.  And the door will remain closed until that person opens it.  I won’t open that door again.  And for my post, the words are important because it hit me how often (mostly without words) we live out those words to God.

The words were, “I don’t trust you with my…”!  I don’t trust you!  For me, the words really hurt.  I didn’t lash out irrationally about it, although I wanted to.  I did say a few things but all in all, it was like having the air knocked out.  Why in the world would this person not trust me of all people??!!

Oh, my!!  How that came back on me today.  God is so teaching me this lesson lately on a weekly basis.  “You don’t trust Me? Why in the world would you not trust Me?”  It dawned on me, that dryness or darkness or the tunnel walk in the spiritual life may sometimes be of our own making.  We may have let God know that we don’t trust Him, so, for a time, He closes the door.  And He may not open the door again until we come “knocking, asking, and seeking”!

Demonic Vacuum Cleaner

I love my vacuum cleaner.  It’s been a faithful cleaning tool now for over twenty years.  While I should be thankful for such service in a world full of cheaply made machines, there are times I think it is possessed.

It has little wheels that allow it to glide easily over my hardwood floors.  Then for no apparent reason, as I am cleaning vigorously, it gets stuck on a half-inch round cord.  Now the cord is an easy jump for the little wheels, a little shake should solve the problem; but no, it usually takes stopping and lifting it off the cord.

Sometimes it will lie down on its side.  It will be going great, and I have no idea how or why, but it will roll off it’s wheels!   Of course, there’s no way to get it up with just a pull this time.  I definitely have to stop, pick it up and put it back on its wheels.   I’ve gotten so irritated at it that I’ll just pick it up and carry it because that’s the only way I can get it to do what I want without interrupting my plan.

Today was such a day.  As I carried it around, I thought of many things in the spiritual realm in regard to my feelings about my vacuum.  First, there is no original sin in this machine, so of course there is no demonic influence.  The only sinfulness going on here is me getting irritated at a machine.

Second, I thought that this little vacuum is a very good picture of God and me.  How often have I become tripped up on something minor and He pulls and I don’t budge?!   How often will I be going along and out of the blue lie down on the job? He lovingly picks me up and carries me through the rough place, reminding me of His faithfulness and truthfulness.  My feelings cannot come into play.  I must trust Him.  Of course, I did not talk to my vacuum this way, but I do thank God for instructing me even in the base things of life!!