Jeremiah #2

First let me say that Jeremiah is a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGG book with LOOOONNNNGGG chapters. I have had to amp up my Bible reading or I will never get through it I'm afraid. Also, I read the commentary after every chapter so it is taking me doubly long. However, if I were not to read the commentary I wouldn't understand half of what I'm reading.

That being said, I am truly amazed at those crazy OT people. Chapter 34. So Jeremiah has been warning King Zedekiah and all of the people of Jerusalem OVER AND OVER that they will not succeed in fighting against the Babylonians. God had already determined to hand over the city of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. In vs. 8 - 11, Jeremiah brings to light the evil practice of the enslavement of Israelites by their own people. This was a violation of God's law (Ex. 21:2-11). Perhaps in a desperate attempt to win God's favor, King Zedekiah grants all of the slaves their freedom. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves in accordance with God's law. So, after the people had made the covenant in the temple before GOD, sure enough, the Babylonian army broke off its attack. They had to break their attack to repel an attack on them by the Egyptians.

So now the people of Jerusalem start hoping for an Egyptian victory, and then they start thinking "hmmmm... if the Egyptians are successful and take down the Babylonians, we are gonna' have some major rebuilding to do here. So we probably need to get our slaves back!" So the people reneged on their promise to God and took their slaves back.

WHAT???? Seriously. They make vows before God in His temple that they will let their slaves go in accordance with HIS Law.......amazingly the attack from the Babylonians stop.........did they not think maybe they should be THANKING God for this reprieve? For another chance? But, NOOOOO, they forget all about God again (seems to be a general theme of the OT) and take their slaves right back to start rebuilding! Truly amazing.

So, as you can imagine, they pay the price for this. Vs. 12-20 shows God rebuking the people for their inconsistency. When they rescinded their promise they profaned God's reputation because the covenant had been made before God in His temple. God's punishment matched their sin. By revoking their covenant, the people had not proclaimed freedom for those Israelites who were wrongfully enslaved. Therefore ironically God would give them freedom to die by the sword, plague, and famine. Uh-Oh. BIG MISTAKE PEOPLE!!!

So I started thinking about how we do this exact same thing really. We tell God we will stop doing certain sinful behaviors "if only He will (insert your request here)". But then once our prayer is answered, most of us continue about our sin like nothing ever happened. At least I think just about everyone is like that. I know I have done that exact thing. Maybe not as fast as the Israelites reneged on their promise, but.......over time. It might be a slow, gradual fade back to the sins, but it happens.

COMPASSION

Last week sometime I heard the phrase "be the hands and feet of Jesus". Could be a song. Could've been from something I read. Not really sure. But that phrase has gone through my head a lot over the last week. You know, it would be a lot easier to lead a "self-filled" life, rather than trying to be Christ's hands and feet. It means putting other's needs before your own. It is the opposite of what our culture tells us today. There are so many needs all around us.......many greater than our own. We need to have compassion. God has taught me compassion in numerous different areas in the past year. Compassion for those with addictions. Compassion for those going through financial hardship. Compassion for single mothers. Compassion for those with loved ones in hospitals. Compassion for those with cancer. Compassion for mothers with really sick children.... So, those are just SOME of the areas I can think of right off the top of my head. Guess you have to go through some hard things to gain compassion. Or at least it has worked for me.

C - caring about/for others
O - offering to help
M- meeting needs
P - prayer for those in need
A - acts of kindness
S- serving
S - sharing the burden
I - not about I
O- owning the problem
N- noticing needs

God's Word

Man, how I love God's Word. I am happy to be able to say this because just a short few years ago this was definitely not the case. I truly thought it was boring. Now I am just fascinated by what I read. God definitely "opens the eyes of your heart" the more you delve into His Word. I only wish that I had a better memory at this point in my life. So many times I find myself fascinated by something in my morning reading and by afternoon I can't remember what it was! Sad, I know.

Right now I'm in Jeremiah. As my dad said the other day, God really commands Jeremiah to do some weird things. Like going to the city gate and yelling out a doomsday message. Or wearing the yoke around his neck. In today's society, we would be calling the authorities and that person would end up in the nuthouse, right? Really, imagine if God told you to go to your local church or courthouse (or Wal-mart for that matter) and stand outside and yell "Repent! Quit your sinning. Turn to God. Don't worship all of your idols (today's world: money, stuff, money, other people, celebrities, money, your job, money, etc....). If you don't God is going to pulverize this whole place. Oh, and go ahead and let yourself be taken by the enemy, because if you do then you will end up being blessed. But if you run and hide, forget about it. You will suffer extreme hardship and DIE!!!

Hmmmm.... I'm pretty impressed that Jeremiah had the guts to do all that God wanted him to do. Would like to think that I would, but probably not anywhere near those extremes unfortunately. Just being honest. It's hard enough for me to hold my hands up while we are singing in church. I'm up to one hand now. Pretty big for me really. Pathetic, I know.

I like this verse from Jeremiah 15:16 "When Your Words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty."

Anyways, I'm now praying that God will give me understanding and memory when it comes to His Word. This is a prayer from Paul in Eph. 1:17-19 - "I pray that you, Father, will give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation , so that i may know you better. I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which you have called me, the riches of your glorious inheritance in your people, and your INCOMPARABLY GREAT POWER for us who believe." Amen. Awesome.

So much more I could write on this, but gotta' run....well, spin. I'm teaching a Thursday morning spin class now.

Isaiah and Prayer

Well, I'm finally to the book of Isaiah. It is definitely one of my favorite books of the Bible. Lots of really good verses. Actually several of my favorites.

Isa. 40:11; 40:28-31; 42:16; 43:1-5; 46:3-4; 55:11 .....just to name a few.

In the past year I have grappled with the concept of "Why Pray".... now, now, before you start yelling at your screen, let me explain. Since I believe God is sovereign, and He already knows everything that is going to happen, what good does a prayer from little ole' measly me do?

In all my research on prayer over the past year, I have come to realize that we pray because God wants us to! We are being obedient to Him when we pray. Prayer is our communication with Him. Two good acronyms I've learned are P.U.S.H: Pray Until Something Happens and P.R.A.Y: Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield.

I've learned you can pray for BIG things, minor things, specific things, and just about EVERYTHING. In fact, He wants us to!

So, sorry to have rambled here, but back to Isaiah. This is what I read a couple of mornings ago and it just showed me why I should pray. In ch. 38, Hezekiah, King of Judah, "became ill and was at the point of death..." The Lord tells Isaiah to go tell him to get everything in order because Ole' hezzy is going to die. Vs. 2: "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 'Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 'Go and tell Hezekiah, This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life."

So, this is pretty insightful for us, don't you think? Several things struck me about this.

1. God heard him and saw him. If he heard and saw Ole' Hezzy, then he must see and hear us!

2. Hezekiah prayed earnestly and fervently - this was not just a close your eyes and quickly whisper a rote "bless me Lord" prayer....this says that Hezzy reminded God of his faithfulness and devotion...and he "wept bitterly" which obviously showed God that he was sincere in his plea.

3. God will change the outcome based on our prayers. Now, this part gets tricky for me. Obviously God really does know the final outcome. He is God. He knows everything. So, does that mean He has a whole lot of different endings. For instance, is He sittin' up there saying, "well, if susie chooses option A then her ending will be outcome B, but..... if Susie chooses option B then her outcome will be option C"..? But He already knows what option I will choose. And He gives us free will. HMMMMM..... Is anyone following me on this, or is it just me?

All of this makes me wonder what blessings would be in my life if I would just pray for them. Earnestly and fervently. I've actually been reading the "Prayer of Jabez" and the author gives an illustration about a man that goes to Heaven and is being given the grand tour by Peter. There is one building Peter won't take him in, but the man keeps persisting and finally Peter takes him in. In this building are rows of containers with people's names on them. The man finds his container and upon opening it finds all the blessings that God had wanted to send to him on earth, but for which he had never asked....... Makes you think, huh?

Prayer is quite possibly the MOST IMPORTANT action of our whole day, but which we probably dedicate the smallest amount of time. Even when I have good intentions of praying it seems like something (could be satan?) happens to distract me. Well, if praying is our communication with God, then of course satan would want to stop that from happening. Makes total sense.

So, there you go. My random musings on prayer. I have actually just caused my own head to ache.

Whew!!!! My husband made it home....after 12 days it is really nice to have another adult in the house. It is so nice to say, "I don't know...go ask your dad." And last night, I started dinner, got in the shower, and when I came out dinner was ready!!!

And we got through all the "back to school" stuff this week....... 4 kiddos, three different schools, HUGE amounts of school supplies, etc. The only thing left now is to put money into their lunch accounts (which you can do online now...and I am forcing myself to learn how to do) and get them to school on-time on Tuesday. Oh, well, one more freshman orientation Monday night, too.

I never knew how insanely crazy life with four kids would be. I guess it is a good thing I didn't know :) Not that I would change any of it for an instant, but I'm just sayin'.... it's crazy! And expensive. I haven't officially tallied up what we spent this week on school supplies, all the stuff you have to buy at all three schools, and back-to-school clothes, but.....I know it is alot. And, just for fun, the middle school and highschool teachers all send home their own school supply lists the first week of school. You know, when its hard to find anything! And, I have from a very good source, that my high-schooler is going to need a calculator that costs $100. Really? For 9th grade?

Can't imagine when we get to cars and college................

"Single-momming It" part 2

Well, I have pretty much felt sorry for myself for a good two days now. I am so tired. I don't know how "permanent" single mothers of four do it. This is HARD. It is all on me. Nobody else. My heart really goes out to those mothers who do this ALL OF THE TIME. That must be why the Bible talks about us helping widows so much.

So, my husband has been out of town for 9 days now. I'm realizing as I write this what a wimp I must be....military families do this for months at a time, sometimes even years. Wow. I really can't imagine how they do it.

Also, not only is it physically tasking, but mentally and emotionally also. I miss having an adult around to talk to.....cell phones definitely help, but it is not the same. And, I can't use my favorite line, "Go ask your dad"............

So, if you know a single mom, give her a pat on the back.....an encouraging word....invite her and her kiddos over for dinner and companionship! It will mean the world to her!

"Single-Momming" It

Well.......the Lord keeps showing me more ways to be compassionate.

My husband is having to travel pretty much Mon-Fri. right now, which leaves me alone with four kiddos. One of those being a teenage boy who is now bigger than me and the second one 12-1/2....need I say more? And they are all home every day because it is still summer. I am counting down the days until school starts at this point.....12 days!!! And, this is with me teaching fitness classes 3 mornings a week (got rid of one a couple of weeks ago), and working from home for my other job. Luckily, I can do that job whenever I want, or have time.

And another interesting phenomenon is that I'm realizing we have been in some sort of honeymoon phase with our kids. They were past the hard infant/toddler phase and in the phase of just being happy playing outside with friends, swimming, fishing, etc. But, not anymore....in the past two weeks I have found my 14 yr. old diving off a cliff into our neighborhood pond (strictly no swimming allowed, of course) with his friends and VIDEOTAPING it and putting themselves on YOUTUBE! And then, a week later doing front flips off the drain-thingy into the other pond...apparently, I wasn't clear enough the first time... Then, I walk down the street the other night and find him on top of my neighbor's house. The ROOF!!! When I asked what they were doing up there, the response I got was, "just hanging out...."

So, now I know......the teenage years are going to be interesting... If I can just keep them breathing. I now know that I have to give them instructions like: "no getting on the roof, no taping things for Youtube, no diving into ponds, etc." Wow.

And all of this with no husband home. So, my compassion is growing by leaps and bounds for single moms. There is something about the power of a dad's authority that scares kids way more than their mom who they tower over!

However, one answer I have found to solve alot of these problems is: TAKE THE CELL PHONE AWAY. This is an incredible power that every mom (or dad) should be aware of. It is like their lifeblood or something. So, I have made a big powerplay in the last couple of days and taken my 14 yr. old's phone away because he was 7 min. late on curfew....I told him a week, but so far we are at about 36 hours and I'm realizing it is sort of a punishment on myself, too. I can't get hold of him every second when he doesn't have it. I will at least make it till tomorrow though.

So, if you know a single mom out there....pray for her. It is an extremely challenging job.