Does It Matter What You Do?

Today ends week 19 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

Do you believe that what you're doing today matters?

College student, young wife, new mom?
Mother of teens, new grandma?
New at your job, getting ready to retire?
Peaceful and secure? Picking up pieces and starting over?

Whatever our stage of life, whatever our circumstances, what we do matters. We impact our own lives with our choices, and we impact the lives of others. Our actions take us places.

In Israel in the days of the judges, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). Mostly, what they did was wrong. Forgetting God, people floundered and sin reigned. Israel was not a nice place to be.

Ruth, however, didn't fit that mold.

Ruth decided to leave her homeland and follow the God of Israel when she traveled with her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem. She worked hard and honorably to sustain a simple life for Naomi and herself.

Boaz also chose to do what was right in God's eyes. After they married, Ruth and Boaz blessed Naomi with a grandson ... who became the grandfather of David, who became king of Israel and from whose line came Jesus, the Messiah.

And after Jesus, in a letter to a young church, the apostle Paul instructed believers to think clearly about their choices--their reasons for making them and the results, in each others' lives as well as the lives of the other residents of Corinth.

I didn't expect to find a similar theme running through the books of Judges, Ruth, and 1 Corinthians. But there it is. What we do matters.

And where we find that either what we've done or what we're doing doesn't please the Lord, how good to remember this and begin again: "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11).

Just as God had mercy in the days of the judges, he has mercy now.

The Swirled Emotions of Mother's Day

Today ends week 18 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

Mother's Day is like a multicolored lollipop ... only instead of colors swirled together, it's emotions.

Mother’s Day can bring a lot of joy.

To new moms, first-time moms, moms whose children are succeeding and accomplishing goals, moms with healthy babies, women whose own moms are loving, understanding, and supportive.

Mother’s Day can bring a lot of pain.

To women who can’t conceive, women who’ve miscarried, women with sick babies, women who’ve lost children, women who’ve had abortions, women whose children are prodigals, women whose own moms were not shining examples of motherhood, women in grief.

I am among those for whom Mother’s Day is a glad day. But I have experienced losses of various kinds and had to deal with grief.

One of the worst kinds of grief is disenfranchised grief, when people grieve “without the benefit of social support or others’ recognition of their struggle.” *

The Bible tells us to honor our parents. The honor is due them for their position if not for their behavior.

But the Bible doesn’t mandate a special day for churches to make a big deal about the happy moms and new babies in their midst. And definitely not at the expense of those who already woke up on Mother’s Day with heavy hearts.

And I'm guessing that many of those heavy-hearted women stayed away from church today.

Because churches often recognize moms or dedicate babies on Mother’s Day. I’m not sure why. Yes, we are to honor one another (Romans 12:9, 13:7), and moms deserve honor and encouragement, and those babies can make for an entertaining morning.

But if the observance doesn’t also acknowledge the real hurt of moms who grieve and women who long to be moms but are not … then those who struggle find their grief disenfranchised by those who should be the first to love.

So this is a plea for all of us to be aware.

If your church celebrated Mother’s Day in any way that disenfranchised the grief of moms and childless women among you … maybe you can help turn things around for next year.

And maybe you know a woman for whom coming to church on Mother’s Day was a struggle, or a woman who stayed away. Maybe you can speak a simple word of acknowledgement, or write a note, or give a hug.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:14).

* The quote is from counselor Cheryl Savageau in the chapter on grief in Parents of Missionaries (IVP).

Deep and Wide

Today ends week 17 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

Did you feel like you were wrestling with the book of Romans this week? I did.

Speak a little more clearly, Paul? Make it easier, please? I want to understand more fully than I do.

I'm looking forward to the conversation about Romans tomorrow night with the women in my group!

What do I understand from Romans this week?

The reality of coming judgment.

The "no condemnation" decree for all who are in Christ.

And the amazing deep-and-wide love of God for the world.

Keep Calm and ...

Today ends week 16 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

The apostle Paul amazes me.

The Ephesians start a riot ... and he wants to talk with them.

He must say good-bye to beloved believers he knows he'll never see again ... and he prays for them.

He's about to be flogged by Roman authorities ... and he waits for the right moment to tactfully let the centurion know that he too is a Roman citizen (and therefore can't be flogged without a hearing or formal sentence).

He learns he's the target of a planned ambush by forty men who want him dead, and he quietly asks a soldier to get a hearing for the young man with the information about it.

In prison or under house arrest--more than once, and for years at a time--simply for preaching the gospel, he spends his time encouraging other believers and teaching anyone who wanted to know about Jesus.

About to be shipwrecked, he shares the message of safety he's received from God, gives thanks, and eats.

Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, Paul stayed calm. He accepted his circumstances yet made decisions and took action too. He stayed present to the moment, trusting God for the outcome.

We know from his letters that he sometimes struggled. Who wouldn't? Yet he learned contentment, because he knew Christ.

And ultimately, that's why we read the Bible.

The Secret of True Power

Today ends week 15 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

The book of Acts relates the birth and infancy of the church. And the power of the Father and of the Lord Jesus is all over this book--from dramatic manifestations of the Spirit to instantaneous healings to miraculous escapes. Amazing. God's power always calls up awe.

But also amazing in Acts are the new Christians themselves.

They believe. And they act.

They preach. Good news--redemption and a risen Lord.

They face difficulty, and they pray.

Persecuted, they keep on proclaiming the gospel.

I know I'm not the only one who reads this book and wonders why my life doesn't look more like theirs.

Clearly, they believed what Jesus had told them: Wait in Jerusalem ... receive power and the Spirit ... be my witnesses.

Yesterday, UK blogger Anita Mathias included in a post these words from John, about a Roman father who sought out Jesus to heal his son:

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. (John 4:49-53 ESV)

Taking Jesus at his word, she wrote, is the sublime simplicity of faith.

And of power.

Well, I'm in need of power. You?

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

Won't you join me in taking Jesus at his word this week?

Praying "Make Me"

We've been in week 14 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. 

I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings. But this week I'm reposting thoughts based on Psalm 23 from my friend Lynn Lusby Pratt. I remembered this post when I read Psalm 25:4: "Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths."

Lynn loves Jesus and loves God's Word. She's an excellent editor and a creative, prolific writer too. (Check out her book Devotions by Dead People.)

Psalm 23 woke me up.

Groggy, for I had slept badly, I tried to rise up on one elbow. Before I was even conscious of having a thought, I found myself thinking, Psalm 23.Giving in to the lethargy I felt, I lay back down. In the 5 a.m. stillness, I whispered, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He . . ."

Something didn't seem right. Maybe the part about still waters came first.

I started over several times but could not get past the green pastures. Then I noticed a different emphasis: "He makes me lie down."

I sighed. How wonderful that would be, if the Lord would make me lie down in green pastures. My need for rest and comfort began to turn into a dreamy hope.

Lying down in green pastures. I could almost feel the breeze combining with the warm sun to cause goosebumps. I smelled the alfalfa field of my childhood and saw monarch butterflies.

Make me. Usually a phrase of defiance, isn't it? But over a period of several weeks, I turned the "He makes me" of Psalm 23 into a "make me" prayer: Make me lie down, Lord. Make me lie down in the green pastures of your care.

And I wondered. What else might the Lord make me do or what kind of person make me be if I would allow him?

Exodus 31:13 (and others). "I am the Lord, who makes you holy."
Make me holy.

1 Samuel 2:6. "The Lord brings death and makes alive."
Make me alive.

Job 36:10. "He makes them listen to correction."
Make me listen to correction.

2 Corinthians 1:21 (and 1 Peter 5:10). "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ."
Make me stand firm.

Psalm 4:8. "You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."
Make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 7:9. "O righteous God . . . make the righteous secure."
Make me secure.

Psalm 90:15. "Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us."
Make me glad.

Psalm 119:98. "Your commands make me wiser than my enemies."
Make me wise.

Matthew 4:19. "I will make you fishers of men."
Make me a fisherman.
1 Thessalonians 3:12. "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other."
Make my love increase.

1 Samuel 12:22. "The Lord was please to make you his own."
Make me your own.

I hope these prayers strike you with the same awe they did me. I have prayed them over and over. And I've learned to close my prayers with Psalm 95:6. "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."

Make me, Lord.

Reasons to Read It

Today ends week 13 of reading through the Bible in a year with a women's group at my church, and also on the Facebook page for my book A Woman's Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year. I've committed to blogging once a week about something from that week's readings.

I've been traveling and visiting and out of my normal routine for nearly two weeks. I would like to tell you that I always keep up daily reading no matter what--but it just wouldn't be true.

Still, when I finally do get my Bible open and read, it feels like a big breath of fresh air. I need this.

We all do.

Tucked into the past week's readings in Deuteronomy are these instructions for the king of Israel and for the Israelites:

“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel."  17:18-20 NLT

"And Moses commanded them, 'At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.'" 31:10-13 NLT

We'll come across similar instructions as the year goes on.

Isn't it interesting that regular reading of what God had to say to his people is linked to humility and obedience and having a respectful, informed awe (fear) of God?

Isn't it interesting that part of that knowledge of God comes from doing what he says and experiencing the results?