Never a dull moment....

We decided to bring the Little Tikes slide and Jungle Gym outside today.  It is huge and heavy and a pain to take apart/put together.  Every Spring we put it out on the deck and every Fall we drag it back down to the basement.  Each time we complain about how hard it is we vow to never do it again!!!  Today was no different.  I directed the kids to take up the pieces one by one, we reassembled them and began the arduous task of trying to pop the last piece in place. 

Three of us pushing, two pulling...straining...readjusting...
groaning.....gasping....then the glorious SNAP!!!!

REJOICING...jumping....squealing....
giggling as Gabe and Shelby quickly started playing on it and for a split second it felt like Christmas all over again. 

Then, what was that?   A raindrop?  Really, is this a joke?  No big deal, a little rain....here you go kids a plastic table cloth to keep you safe and dry.  More squealing...."Mommy you're so fun, letting us play in the rain!" 

Next, a chair blew across the deck with a HUGE gust!!!  Uh oh!!!  The heavens opened and dumped a bucketful of rain right on our heads!  Scrambling, more squealing, running and screaming for the back door!  Safe and sound (and very wet inside :) 

As soon as everyone settled down...what's that?  The downpour stopped.  Oh look the sun is out....hey kids, there is the RAINBOW!  Seriously?  You've got to be kidding me!

In the car this morning I heard them say that every storm has been hand crafted by God perfectly for your life and sometimes it takes a hurricane or tornado to get our attention.

Well, I think this one was just for the sheer entertainment of the occupants of heaven by God who just had to chuckle at the sight of us :)

Your back always faces something....

Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday.  Millions celebrated the freedom of the cross through Jesus Christ.  Churches everywhere preached the Good News and called for lost souls to turn to the cross.  So I was picturing it today in my mind and I saw it so clearly.  At all times your back is facing something!  It is an interesting posture.  To turn around you face your back as an action not just a state of being. Kind of like saying, "Talk to the hand!"....just talk to my back!   

When we stand before the cross of Christ and accept the free gift of salvation our back is turned against sin.  Every time we turn around to sin our back is on the cross.  There is no middle ground, no half way, no stopping point as you pivot.  You are either facing Jesus or facing your own selfishness.

Psalm 66:16-20
Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.


I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.


If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.


Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

As we consider Jesus' sacrifice on the cross let us see what we must put behind us to take in it's beauty.  If we feel distant or unheard, maybe we just need to turn around and face Him.  The cross is not just a time of acceptance but a time to turn your back on death and choose life.

Has God failed to live up to your expectations?

Today is Good Friday.  I marked it on my calendar 2 months ago and decided to read "The Prisoner in the Third Cell" by Gene Edwards to my kids today.  We put the traditional schoolbooks aside, babies down for a nap, and gathered everyone on the couch for 90 minutes while I read it aloud to them.  It is a Christian fiction book based on the Holy accounts in the Bible.  It brings to life the ministry of John the Baptizer and raises the all important question, "What will you do when God disappoints you?" 


John the Immerser was called to a devout and minimalist life.  He devoted his entire being to serve God and make ready the way for the Messiah.  He died after an obscene dance by a young girl and an even more obscene request.  When faced with the executioner's axe we can imagine John was wondering where God was and why He wasn't rescued from being presented on a platter to his enemies.  After all, John was a faithful soul assigned with the most important announcement since Gabriel the angel declared Jesus' birth.  John was related to Jesus on earth and he did his job perfectly, yet this was his final end.  It is reasonable to think John had some unanswered questions!  


Scripture tells us that as John sat in his prison cell he second guessed Jesus being the Messiah and sent three of his own disciples to ask Jesus if He truly was the One. 

Luke 7:20-23  "When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”  At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.  So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.  Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me?  What does that mean exactly?  I looked up the Commentary on that phrase.  It explains it this way:

1.  Jesus was intimating that people were going to and currently were being persecuted for believing He was the Messiah. 

2.  There are reasonable and sufficient arguments to confirm the truth to those that are honest and impartial in searching after it.  Having their minds prepared to receive the truth, then we are challenged with objections that cloud the truth and we must resist becoming worldly, careless, confused and sensual.

3.  Christ's education in Nazareth, his residence at Galilee, the status of his family and relatives, his poverty, and the commonness of his followers-these were stumbling-blocks to many, which all the miracles he preformed could not help some overcome.

Therefore, You are blessed, when you are wise, humble, and not overcome by these prejudices. It is a sign that God has blessed you, for it is by His grace that you are helped over these stumbling-blocks and you shall be blessed indeed, blessed in Christ.

Jerusalem found itself disappointed a few days after the Triumphal Entry of Jesus. Praise and hope turned to anger and rejection of a man who looked more like a man to them than the God He claimed to be and whom they were waiting for. When faced with this same question of disappointment, they answered by nailing Him to the cross.


So when you look upon your life, prayers, or trials are you disappointed in the results?  When you look upon the cross does Jesus fail to live up to your expectations?  If so consider this: Life isn't fair.....and if it was I would be the one on that cross and so would you for He paid OUR ransom!


Good Friday gives us chance to revisit the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.  His ways are not our ways and He may not answer us in the timing or way we think He should.    I praise Him for helping me overcome my doubt instead of my doubt overcoming me.  (He can do the same for you.)

Thank You Jesus.....it really is a GOOD FRIDAY :)

He loves FIRST and forsakes LAST....

*Yesterday I was digging and did a search on the word 'forsaken' in the Bible.  These are some of the passages that it found and I noticed a theme I'd like to share.  Read the passages below and see if you see it too:

Judges 10:13

But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you.

1 Samuel 12:10

They cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned; we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.’

1 Kings 11:33

I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.


2 Chronicles 24:20

Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’”

Ezekiel 8:12

He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

Ezekiel 20:8

“‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt."

Mark 15:34

And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).  (See the blogpost "Got Spring")

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Revelation 2:4

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

Psalm 9:10
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

*God promises to never leave or forsake the believer.  He loves us first, and forsaking is always a last resort caused by a total rejection of Him.

Matthew 10:33 (NASB)
But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.


1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.



Luke 15:10

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”



2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.


*He loves FIRST and forsakes LAST.

Got Spring?

Spring is here!  Finally!  We are so happy to see the first bit of color break through the brown and burst into our garden reminding us that new life is just around the corner.  The most important season of the Christian calendar is upon us, Easter, or Resurrection Sunday as some prefer to call it. 

Recently we have started a new family devotional book in the evening with our children that is written one lesson for each day of the year.  Being in April we could feel the anticipation growing that we were getting close to the cross.  Every night it has been getting closer and then last night...PLOP!  There it was in our laps, a challenge of our present day thinking.  

There is a very respected teaching in the world today that interprets Matthew 27:46 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" as a moment when God turned His back on Jesus at the sight of the sin of the world hanging on Him.  My intention in explaining this is not to open up a theological can of worms, because believe me I am no theologian, but to challenge the believer to see Jesus and His words clearly. 

It is an important question to ponder, did God forsake Jesus (for even a second) or didn't He?  If the answer is yes, then why does He say over and over in His Word that He will not ever leave or forsake me?  After all, I am dirt, not fit to tie the sandals on the feet of Christ. (See Deut 31:6,8, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5, Psalms 23:4, 37:25)  

I have personally struggled with this concept for most of my Christian life until a couple of years ago.  I heard a teaching by Voddie Baucham where he helps to explain these words uttered by Christ from the cross. 

First, we need to understand that in the times of Jesus very few had the Word on paper.  Some wealthy people and temples were the owners of the scrolls containing Scripture.  For the masses the way the Word was shared was verbally as the scroll was read or memorized and then recited.  The Word of God was handed down generation by generation as an oral tradition. 

Second, we need to know that in a temple service the "reader" would call out the first line of the passage to let the people know what was about to be read.  Today, the passages are organized by chapter and verse for the believer.  If you look in your Bible at the words in Matthew 27:46 and then look at the cross reference it sends you to Psalm 22:1.  Actually every gospel account sends you to Psalm 22:1.  Why?  Because Psalm 22:1 is the very words Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." (In the Hebrew and then translated into the Greek for the New Testament reader) 

You see Jesus knew the Word better than anyone that has ever walked the earth before or since.  The Jews were there watching the scene unfold.  They had been waiting for a Messiah to come and fulfill the prophesies for hundreds of years.  Jesus was fulfilling them as they watched, but some were just not getting it.  The way my Pastor would tell us to turn to Psalm 22:1 today, Jesus was telling them to recall the Psalm and compare it to what they were first hand witnesses to at Golgotha.  Here is the 22nd Psalm in it's entirety:

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?


My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.


Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.

In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.


To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.


But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.


All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.


“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.


Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”


Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.


From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.


Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.


Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.


Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.


I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.


My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.


My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.


Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.


All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.


They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.


But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.


Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.


Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.


I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.


You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!


For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.


From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.


The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!


All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.


All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.


Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.


They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

The Word says Jesus knew the plan.  He knew exactly what He was supposed to do.  He asked God to let the cup pass if there was any other way.  There was no plan B.  It had been set from the foundations of the earth.

John 19:28-30 says, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.'  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.'  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (see Psalm 69:21)

I do not believe the modern day teaching that says Jesus was reacting from a feeling  of abandonment from God, like what was in our family devotional last night.  But I believe His words hold deeper meaning and that Jesus was directing an unbelieving crowd to the truth with His final breaths.  He still directs us today with those precious words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Just turn to Psalm 22:1 and see that "HE HAS DONE IT!!!  Oh Glory!  He will never leave us or forsake us!!!