He is jealous for me

Sometimes I like to just think about one of God’s attributes. For some reason, today, the fact that God is jealous has been sitting in my head and I have been pondering exactly what that means.

The first place my thoughts go is to the kind of jealousy we usually talk about. “I am so jealous of how she looks in that dress.” “I am jealous of the way she can sing.” Obviously these sound like they fall under the category of coveting. Those things don’t rightfully belong to me, so being jealous is actually a sin. I also think this type of jealousy is a sign of weakness. If I am jealous, I am not happy with what I have. And it seems like such an uncontrollable, emotional response.

Sooooo, how on earth, based on these thoughts, can God be jealous? He can’t covet because He doesn’t sin. There is nothing that doesn’t rightfully belong to Him anyway. And the hardest part for me is how can God have what I kind of view as a weak uncontrollable, emotional response?

I decided to go look at a bunch of verses that deal with jealousy. Most of them relating to God’s jealousy occur in the Old Testament. I was reminded that we can’t view God’s attributes through our own experiences. God’s jealousy for us is something different altogether.

“For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deut 4:24.

“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God.” Exodus 20:5

All of our worship (our time, our devotion, our praise, our everything) belongs to God and only God. It is rightfully His. Jealousy therefore becomes an acceptable response when our worship goes to something else.

If I accept the idea that jealousy is the appropriate response to my actions (and who am I to say how God should respond anyway?), then I start to be extremely thankful that a God who knows all about all the crap in my life...all my faults and thoughts and screw-ups....is still jealous when I turn to things or people other than Him. How cool is THAT!?! Even in the midst of me being consumed with material things or a pan of brownies or any other thing that is not Him, his reaction is still one of love and care and never giving up! He is jealous for me!

HE is jealous for me. (God....the creator of everything!)

He IS jealous for me. (Right now!)

He is JEALOUS for me. (He cares and loves me THAT much!)

He is jealous for ME. (Beth....who sins every hour of every day)

Read that sentence and emphasize and think about each word separately. This is such an amazing concept and I don’t think I fully appreciate it. God was SO jealous, that he was willing to sacrifice his Son, to bring us back to Himself! That is crazy jealous.

And to think there are so many other attributes of God to study and ponder. And I am betting that each and every one will lead to the same response. Pure worship of the One and Only.

Here for the party!

I am so excited!! This Sunday is my hands-down favorite event in the life of our church. I LOVE BAPTISMS! I am trying to think of any conflicting event that would prevent me from attending and can’t really come up with anything.

If you are part of our church and have never attended one, you don’t know what you are missing. It is not some stuffy old ritualistic ceremony that we do just because it is what churches have always done. It is a celebration of the most amazing transformation in a person’s life. People are going to hell. God intervenes. People make a choice to follow Him and will now spend eternity with Him. That is a reason to hoot and holler and cheer if ever there was one! Buckeyes score (well last season, anyway) and the crowd goes wild. That is a dumb touchdown. This is eternity with our Creator!!! If you aren’t moved to respond, I’m not sure you get it.

I’ve had many proud mom moments along the way...but none of them even come close to the joy I felt and the celebration in my soul when my kids made the “adult” decision to accept Christ and then to publicly share their commitment through baptism. That’s my immediate family. I get just as excited watching my Grace family! Those are my brothers and sisters.....FOREVER!

If you haven’t ever been to a Grace Fellowship baptism, I challenge you to join us this Sunday evening. It may not be The Shoe on a Saturday afternoon, but people will be cheering. It may not be our church building on a Sunday morning, but people will be passionately worshiping.

Your kid might have a game that night...your favorite show might be on tv....you might have a busy day and just not want to drive over to Broad Street. It’s all a choice, my friends. But I hope you choose to come to the party!

No Joke. It's War.

War: a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism; a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end. (Merriam-Webster)

Can someone be engaged in a war and not even know it? Or more specifically, can CHILDREN be engaged in a war every day and their parents are totally oblivious? They absolutely can! My kids are, and many of your kids are too.

I have a confession. I am a snoop. I am on Twitter and Facebook most every day. I am friends with (FB) and follow (Twitter) many of my girls’ friends. Yeah, they are not always crazy about it. But if people are going to throw things out on the World Wide Web (emphasis on the world-wide), (1) I don’t think I am invading anyone’s privacy, and (2) aren’t we supposed to love and protect our children the best we can?

As a parent, I have control over where my kids spend their free time. And for the most part, I have control over who they spend time with. I can keep them from seeing certain movies and going to parties where I think inappropriate things will be happening. I can say no to “time alone” dates and I can set curfews. And we do all of these things to some extent. But....we cannot insulate our kids in a bubble and the world they live in at school and on-line and elsewhere is nothing short of a war. I feel like my kids’ circle of friends is gradually shrinking (mostly by their good judgment) because of what so many kids are doing.

When I was in school, there was a small group who lived “on the wild side.” Drugs, drinking, sex....but they were looked down on by the VAST majority. I am convinced that somewhere in the last 20 years, this has flipped. Kids who do these things are everywhere and their activities are celebrated around the lunch table on Monday. Walk through the hallways at class change time at the high school and you will be shocked at the language you hear all around you! Look up kids on Twitter and see what they are saying. I am amazed how many parents do not follow their kids on social media sites! You simply need to go as far as a Friday night football game to observe the current teen culture and just how far things have gotten.

My point is this: If parents became aware of the war that is going on every single day, and the things that are fighting for our kids’ hearts, they would engage in the battle and arm our children (yes, a 16 or 17 year old is still a child). There is hope! And I am not even going to take the God argument (I know, surprised aren’t you?) this time. I believe that most parents, Christian or non-Christian, would parent differently if they were aware of what is going on.

Come on! Wake up.....get involved....don’t assume high school is the same as when we were there....snoop a little....talk to your kids---they will tell you. Above all, be a parent and do everything within your power (and then some!) to launch a well-grounded, responsible, confident, adult into the world. Again, Come on!!

Wow! My God Did That.

I believe that God is always showing us (His kids) more of who He is. Sometimes it is through His creation, sometimes it is through the Bible, sometimes it is something someone says. While there is a ton of mystery about God, I love learning more about exactly who He is.

This week is a huge week in the life of our church. This Sunday is Commitment Sunday which is the culmination of a several month fundraising campaign for a new church building. Right now we have a long way to go to reach our goal of 1.8 million in pledges. In fact, some consultants have said that that mark is too high for our church to reach based on our current numbers and giving. I am guessing that they have a lot of experience in this area and can pretty accurately predict what is going to happen.

But. BUT. But, like I said, God wants to show us more of Himself. If we had a safe goal and we just did what we needed to do, we could hit the goal, celebrate, and stick the shovel in the ground and build a building. But this is a CLEAR case of “we are only going to achieve this if God steps in.” Yes, people are going to have to make the sacrifices, but I think the size of the personal sacrifices they are going to have to make, will only happen if God is working in their lives (and corporately, in our church).

When we have the pledges that we need to have, it will be abundantly clear that Grace Fellowship didn’t do this. GOD DID THIS. This stirs my soul to pray earnestly for this Sunday! I am SO excited and totally believing that God is going to do something amazing!!

BUT....what if....it doesn’t happen? Well, my God is no less amazing! He will continue to build his church, but it might not be through us at this very time. God is going to do what He is going to do. But I would so much rather be a part of it! So next week, when all the cards are counted and the numbers are crunched....our response needs to be pure worship! Regardless of the outcome.

My church is awesome. I love my job there...I love Sunday mornings there....I love the community I experience there. But all of that is NOTHING compared to how amazing Jesus is! If we keep that in our minds and hearts, our church will naturally grow and spread and build and plant and become more and more like the church that God intended.

When I grow up....

I have a friend at our church who lives at an Assisted Living facility. I have visited her a handful of times over the past 5 years or so. Each time I visit her, I am so incredibly blessed! Ruth is an amazing woman of God and she is exactly who I want to be when I grow up. Crazy, huh?

You probably wonder how I can aspire to be an 80-something year old woman who lives “alone” in a facility. Well, I don’t know so much about the facility or alone part, but I just love how Ruth is still serving God in very real ways. Ruth gives financially to a church that she has not been able to physically attend in years because she believes in its mission. She receives our church Grace Mail and prayer chain e-mails each week and faithfully prays for each request. Ruth has real kingdom impact on the other residents and staff in her facility.

But perhaps her most important feature and the one that I hope I have someday is her faithful spirit and God-centered focus. She is in a stage of life when she could easily be self-absorbed with her failing physical health like so many other people I have known her age. She could be sad and depressed because so many friends and family members have passed away before her. She could be resigned to no longer having a purpose or mission in this world and therefore given up. However, you can spend just a few minutes with Ruth and you will not find any of these things happening.

Every conversation I have had with her has been full of optimism and enthusiasm and celebration. She gets SO excited when we share with her how God is working in our church and she loves to share stories with us of how she has experienced God moving in her past and present. You will always see a well-used Bible next to her chair along with other Christian books she is reading. At 80+, she is still a student and knows she has things to learn! I love that!

Then I get sad. I think of people who sit in our church most every Sunday. Their lives are FULL of opportunities to serve people and influence others towards God. But those opportunities go completely unfulfilled.

I want to view my life as a series of opportunities...placed in front of me by God. I totally have a choice how I will respond to each one, every minute of every day. Do I want to be like Ruth and run the race with everything I’ve got until the finish line? Or do I want to live like most and just enjoy the scenery along the way, but miss the real purpose and opportunities and blessings?

It's as simple as that.

I have been thinking lately about something that is so extremely simple. The very core of the Bible, the very reason we have a church, the ONLY purpose we are even here on this earth. The Gospel.

I know people (my self included!) who spend hours, and ultimately days and weeks and months of their lives reading the Bible, learning from Christian books, sitting in study groups, listening to eloquent speakers. None of these things are bad and I have been challenged to grow by all of them. But sometimes I think we spend way too much time absorbing knowledge and marinating in good Christian “stuff”, that we lose sight of how simple one little nugget of truth is.

Here is the nugget in my less-than-eloquent words. We are all sinners: filthy, disgusting and totally undeserving of being in relationship with a holy, perfect God. But God loves us so much and wants us back in relationship with Him. And the only way that is possible is through a sacrifice. So God, in the form of a man named Jesus, came to earth and lived a sinless life and died in my place so that I can be in relationship with my Father, God. My only real purpose here on earth is to bring Him glory in all that I do and to tell as many people as possible about Him.

That’s it. As big and amazing as it is, it is beautifully simple.

I have to wonder what God thinks when he sees so many of His kids caught up in the pursuit of more knowledge. A well-written book on evangelism or a captivating speaker on serving the poor are only worthwhile if the reader or hearer is going to get out and do something afterwards!

Please don’t hear me saying to stop reading your Bible or reading other good books or even meeting in study groups. But I think we should all take a good look at our lives and see if these things are really changing who we are and pushing us to live for God and reach people and make disciples. Remember, the nugget is really simple. And if what I am doing is not totally wrapped around that little nugget, than doing those “good” things is really no different than sitting on my couch watching a sitcom or reading a totally secular novel.

I don’t want to even begin to claim to be getting this right. I have a really long way to grow. But my prayer right now is that I will begin to cling to the simple, amazing nugget of truth; and begin to let it shape not so much what I learn, but how I live.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24)

Random Stuff in My Head

Lately I have had lots of random thoughts in my head and none of them really inspire me to write extensively about them. So for now, I am going to just vomit them out there and see if any of them lead anywhere....

I think I am getting old. I take naps more often. I am having the darned-est time memorizing scripture!

Sarah being in college has gotten me thinking a bunch about my college days. Those were really great times. Tons of freedom and new-found independence, and minimal responsibilities. I didn’t appreciate those concepts enough at the time.

I have a level of restlessness and boredom in my life right now that seem unusual. I am starting to feel like there is something new for me to do. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet. I am going to start praying and listening.

While I have no basis for comparison, I am more and more convinced that dieting is just as hard as breaking a bad habit like smoking or alcohol.

I miss Africa. And I really hope I get to return there someday.

Too often I think I “exist” for God and don’t passionately pursue God.

I have relatives and friends who are going to hell. No doubt about it. Why don’t I do something?

Recently a couple at our church lost a baby at the 38^th week of pregnancy. It made me realize how much I took my pregnancies for granted. I didn’t marvel at the amazing miracle that they were.

Going from being a family of 5 to a family of 4 in our house is a real adjustment. It still feels like Sarah is off at a camp or something.

I think so many people, myself included at times, have a REALLY unhealthy relationship with money.

Praying for someone who I don’t really like very much really DOES change my attitude towards them.