Meditating on God's Word

Just wanted to pop in and share this with you today. If you're not meditating on the Word of God, you're missing the blessing (Josh. 1:8; Psalm 1:1-2). This is a great article by Sarah E. Fisher (author of hebrewwordlessons.com) on the meaning of hagah, meditation:

Hagah: The Noisy MEDITATION – Hebrew Word Lessons

Giving God His Due: Build a Home

I was standing in the yard waiting for Dora the Explorer to do her nightly business when I looked toward our back door, the glow from the kitchen light beckoning. To me it is a guidepost toward home. To me it is a beacon of rest, laughter, family, security, sustenance, comfort --the list goes on and on, because the concept of home is not restricted by what we can see through a door. Home is subjective, personal, built by years of traditions, physical labor, compromise, and love. The home Scott and I have built does not, will not mean the same thing to you unless it becomes your home as well, unless you spend much time here, joining in our traditions or sharing your own with us, putting in the work, making concessions and receiving them, and loving as we love you. Home, when shared prodigally but appropriately is exponentially made better.

In this world, Scott is my home. Wherever he is, that's where my heart is. It's not mere statistics, however; he is my home not only because our names are listed together on our marriage license or mortgage, but because of time and traditions, work and compromise, and most of all, love. By sharing those things together, we have created a home within one another, a home that is in many ways duplicated and reflected in our home of brick and mortar, the home that we share with others. He is not simply someone I hang out with, and our home is not just a place to crash. I am not simply someone to help him remain organized any more than our home is just a place to store our stuff. The home we share in one another is exponentially made better when we share it prodigally but appropriately with others.

Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers in her book, God, Sex, and the Conservative Church, talks about the physical relationship God reserved for a husband and his wife. The expression "making love" has to do with the fact that as a couple experiences intimacy, their bond is being strengthened physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Love, more love, a deeper love, a better love is being made. And though their particular bond is exclusive to them, the love they make is used to produce children and is taken with them as they go out into the world through appropriate, prodigally loving interactions with others. 

When we talk about being ambassadors for Christ, when we understand we are salt and light to the world, when we are commissioned to make disciples, the message is that we are to be portable. We are to be taking our "home" on the road, so to speak. Those things that give us roots, and at the same time give us wings --the courage, boldness, and freedom-- to do incredible things for humanity are to be shared appropriately and prodigally with others. The comfort we receive on our worst days from those we love is to be passed on to others. The excitement as we sit on the edge of our seats watching our children open Christmas gifts is meant to be shared with the world. The security that typically goes unappreciated as we turn out the lights and head up to bed, is a security we should seek to provide in all our relationships. But how is this possible? What does appropriate and prodigal sharing look like? It looks like Jesus, the love and peace and joy we experience in Jesus, designed to be spread throughout all the world. In our marriages, wives submit to and respect their husbands; husbands love their wives as Christ loves the Church. In our friendships and work relationships, we love others as Christ has loved us, and we lovingly urge them to seek reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. In our homes, we serve one another and together serve the Lord. In our bodies, we revere them as God's temple, the epicenter of His presence in this world. We set godly boundaries, hold others accountable, teach, train, comfort, and love lavishly (Proverbs 27:6; Colossians 3:12-17; Titus 2:11-14). And through all of this "home-making," we bring glory to the God who began it all, who created a temporary home for us here and who prepares a place for us to live with Him in eternity, Home in the truest sense of the word.

Revisit

I recently wrote a post about giving the Lord His due. It's not gonna happen, at least, not in the sense that I could ever give Him all the glory and honor He is due. Not even on my best day. But I can give Him all I've got. One way is through revisiting. It's a spiritual discipline I just made up. Well, not really --there's nothing new under the sun, right? And in 1 Samuel 7, Samuel set up a stone, named it Ebenezer, which means stone of help, and said, "Thus far has the Lord helped us." In Joshua 4, Joshua commands the men to set up twelve stones as a memorial of the wonder God worked at the Jordan River, and His provision for His people. Revisiting --okay, you might call it remembering-- is a great way to give God some of that glory He is due.

When I write an article or post something on the Broken to Breathless Facebook page, I try to accompany it with a picture that "fits" the text. I begin searching photos I have saved over the years, photos I've taken of friends and family, of places we've visited or events we've attended. And though I'm on a mission, so to speak, though there's purpose in what I'm doing, sometimes I can't help but get lost in my thoughts; I can't help but remember how good God has been in giving us so many great people in our life or in the interesting ways He has provided for us over all of these crazy years. This blog was designed as an offering, a means by which I revisit the myriad ways God teaches and leads and transforms, and I praise Him for it. This blog was designed as a place to give Him as much of His due as I can possibly give and share with you as accurately and eloquently as I can His matchless worth. It is my opportunity to revisit and proclaim, because if we're revisiting, if we're seeing even the trials and troubles of years past in light of the good God has brought out of them, how can we not share that with others? How can we not celebrate?

So, that's it for today. Revisit. Go through an old calendar. Look at your photos from a few years back. Sit quietly and remember your parents or their parents. Hold your first dog's collar in your hands or the pressed flower from your child's funeral. Touch the scar from your surgery. Go to a department store and smell your dad's favorite cologne. Call your college roommate and stroll down Memory Lane together. Listen to music from the '80s. Visit a cemetery. Step into your childhood Sunday school room. Open up one of your old journals. Revisit the good, the bad, the ugly. But revisit them through the lens of God's great love for you, His provision, His faithfulness, and His desire to see you become ambassadors for and imitators of Jesus Christ. And give Him His due.

Do You Give Jesus His Due?

We seem to give a lot of thought to what we as human beings deserve. We expect certain things for ourselves. We decide what should be allotted to others. There are concepts like generosity and boundaries: we don't want to enable but we do want to help and fix what seems to be broken. What sort of intervention does the situation warrant? What sort of assistance does the person warrant? Measuring. Jesus talks quite a bit about measuring and judging, and quite frankly, many of these verses are misquoted and used by the ignorant and nominally religious to tell faithful Christians we should not judge things like good fruit from bad, or wolves in sheep's clothing from the sheep. NOT what Jesus meant, but that's a topic for another day. What is on my mind today is measurement, equivalency, God's economy.

Do you give Jesus His due?

Please don't just read that. Please don't leave the question unanswered. Take as much time as you need and answer honestly, I'll wait.

I don't. That's it. That's my answer. And, in order to move forward with this, there's no way I can. I am finite. My mind is sometimes dim; there are truths in God's Word that time and understanding have not yet enabled me to plumb. My vocabulary is limited and I am unable to express all I feel and all of the unfathomable qualities Jesus possesses. I am trapped within a body that requires sleep, on a planet that requires me to breathe oxygen, in a society that requires me to work; I cannot exalt His name 24/7, sing His praises every second of the day, and keep my mind steadfastly on His glory at all times. BUT, in the moments I am awake, with the breath I have remaining, when my thoughts are not obliged to my schedule for next week or the email to Phil in Accounting, do I give Jesus His due? I don't.

And that's where the measuring thing comes in. He loves me anyway; the things He has done for me --His death on the cross, giving me His Holy Spirit, the wisdom of the Scriptures-- will never be retracted because I fail Him. Abundance in exchange for ashes; I'm not expected to "repay" Him. That, in and of itself is an unspeakable gift! But it is His marvelous, creative, faithful, magnanimous, vouchsafing, gracious, merciful, peaceful, and mighty nature that makes Him worthy of every ounce of glory I can give. He gave, is giving, and will give His all for me; I want to have the same thing said of me for Him. I want my heart to change so my answer will change. I want to put safeguards and self-checks in place. I want to place reminders everywhere to draw my attention to the only One worthy of everything I've got. I want to fill my schedule with praise and adoration as intentionally as I fill my schedule with grocery lists and birthdays and videos to "Watch Later." I want honoring my Lord and Savior to be as much a part of my being as drinking coffee or writing. But all of this requires more than a desire. Worshipping someone other than ourselves goes against our human nature; being grateful is difficult in a world that will chew you up and spit you out as soon as look at you. A changed heart, a mind that is trained first and foremost on God and His Kingdom, a schedule that reflects an impeccable and purposeful devotion to the Lord, and an essence inhabited by love, honor, and obedience requires discipline. Over the next few posts? weeks? I plan --Lord willing-- to share with you some practical disciplines I have prayed about and am implementing that my heart might be drawn into a perpetual posture of praise. It is my hope and prayer that as I ask myself this question again and again (and I pray you will join me in asking it of your life), my posture will improve, my life will be aligned more closely with Jesus' design for it, and He will be glorified.