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Jesus Had a Choice
If God asks you to give something up, there’s a purpose in it, and you’ll always have a choice. Even Jesus had a choice.
“No one takes it (His Life) from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” John 10:18-19
Hold Your Peace
“The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.” Exodus 14:14
The Hebrew word used for be still can also mean- hold your peace, rest, cease & hold your tongue. If you want the Lord to provide a way though like He did for Moses & the Israelites, you need only be still and let Him fight.
No Virginia, God Is Not Like Santa Claus
I overheard a conversation between a parent and a child that went like this:
“That’s enough now. You need to be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents.”
“I’ll be good.”
Not anything earth shattering. Not anything new. I’ve heard this said many times. I’ve been told this many times. I’ve even said this many times myself. But this time when I heard it, it smacked me. It actually made my stomach knot up and I didn’t know why. It was commonly spoken and commonly believed, why did it suddenly upset me?
It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I figured out that that way of thinking prevented me from receiving from God most of my life. I thought God was like Santa. He would only give me things if I were good. He only loved me when I was perfectly well behaved. I didn’t think that God loved me, because I wasn’t perfect. Is this way of thinking preventing you from receiving from God too?
Honestly, there are a lot of people out there who think God is the same way. They believe that God only loves us when we “be good.” He only approves of us when our behavior is within the little box of rules and regulations. We need to be flawless to be loved. We are only given the things we want and need when we are “behaving” and being “good.” But it’s a lie. The truth is that God loves us all the time, unconditionally. The whole Bible illustrates that He loves us and that He gives good gifts to all people. Period.
Here’s some truth about God’s gifts:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.” James 1:17 (NIV)
“For God’s gifts and His call can never be withdrawn.” Romans 11:29 (NLT)
“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. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17 (NIV)
“Therefore as by the offence of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one (Jesus) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Romans 5:18 (KJV)
What was His best gift? I think it was Grace. The grace that came in the form of a small baby born in Bethlehem approximately 2013 years ago. His name was Jesus. You wanna know why?
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:6-8(NLT)
God gave Jesus (the person of grace) to everyone who will ever be born, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. No matter what family you were born into or what country you were born in. No matter your past, present or future behavior. Whether you are wealthy or poor, brilliant or slow-witted, Jesus was given to you so you could be reconciled to God.
“And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s wrath. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” Romans 5:9-11(NLT)
God is not trying to control your behavior, like your parents did with the “no gifts from Santa” hogwash. He wants you to know Him and have a relationship with Him. From that you learn how much He loves you! You also discover who He made you to be and are set free from the lies people have spoken over you. The change in behavior comes as a side-effect from knowing who you are and how much you are loved. You are righteous and holy because Jesus is righteous holy, not because of what you do or don’t do. This is the reason He sent Jesus. This is the reason for the celebration of Christmas.
No Virginia, God is not like Santa Claus.
A Thousand Years
I love soundtracks. And in that vein today’s Musical Monday song is on the Soundtrack for Breaking Dawn Part One, where Bella and Edward get married, it’s A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.
I love this song. It makes my hopeful romantic tell my inner 7 year old to put on her princess gown and be ready. Because someday her prince will come. It’s that kind of a Monday people. Brace yourself.
Inner 7 year old’s Musical Monday Pick is Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty
Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet (AKA Random Chat with my Coworker)
Halley’s Comet, 1986
My coworker and I were talking about Halley’s Comet. It was last visible in March of 1986, when I was 10 & 11/12ths. He glared at me, because he’s like a decade older, then said something about Mark Twain being born and dying the same years as Halley’s Comet. I thought that was odd so I looked it up. Turns out it is true!
Here’s what Wikipedia had to say: Mark Twain was born on 30 November 1835, exactly two weeks after the Halley’s Comet. In his autobiography, published in 1909, he said, “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” Twain died on 21 April 1910, the day following Halley’s Comet.
Feel free to tuck this little random nugget away for conversation lulls.
Happy Friday!
PS: If you are wondering, Halley’s Comet will visible again on 28 July 2061. Mark your calendars!
Random Random Random
I’m having a week where my thoughts are bouncing all over the place. SO I’m going to share some random. If you need fun….there’s some fun in here. If you need a deep word or something to study, I’ve got some links in here to the Living Word. If you need visual inspiration, gaze into the above photo of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. For more you can search Sleeping Bear Dunes images. You won’t be sorry.
**Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a beautiful place. I am quite sure it looks like this in Heaven. Who needs gold streets when you have beauty like this? Not me.
**My friend’s husband, who is also my friend too, posted this on FB this morning: “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” So true. Just look at the above photo.
**”It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago….” Random Bob Segar lyrics that are stuck in my head. Any Michigander who cannot immediately identify that these are Bob Segar lyrics from Against the Wind…I say tsk tsk.
**I enjoy the French Peas from Veggie Tales…so I’m sharing this from Josh and the Big Wall. If you need some fun today, or haven’t ever watched the Veggies, check this out: Keep Walking
**If you want to read about Jericho minus the slushies, it’s in Joshua Chapter 6. You can find that here: Jericho Story on Bible Gateway
**Thinking about Joshua makes me think of the sun standing still in Joshua Chapter 10. Want to read about someone praying powerfully, that one will knock your whole self for a loop. Moving mountains and the sun standing still. God’s just cool. Oh…you can find that sun standing still chapter here: Sun Stand Still on Bible Gateway
**We have a lot of people with J names in my family, but not as many as the Duggars. In my immediate family there are 4 J’s out of 16. Okay it seemed like a lot more before I counted.
**God’s love is a consuming fire that ignites and inspires but never burns up. Let that one soak in. I’ve been soaking in that for 2 weeks and it still blows my mind. Need an example from the Bible of God’s consuming fire check out Moses and the Burning Bush on Bible Gateway.
**Okay this is bugging me. I need to count. There’s one A name, one B, one C, one E, one H, one K, one O, two P’s, one R & two T’s. So the percentage of 4 out of 16 is 25%…which is a higher percentage than the others, so yes there are a lot of J names. Phew. I feel better now.
**Remember in Bambi when Thumper says, “Mama says, if you can’t say something nice don’t say nothing at all.”? Well, Thumper’s Mama must read the Bible. God actually shut Zachariah’s mouth so he couldn’t wreck the blessing, He’d just given him. Zachariah was literally muted from the time God spoke about them having a son until Elizabeth gave birth to John. God did this to prevent Zachariah from speaking doubt and negative. Our words have creative power. So we need to stop speaking the problem and start speaking God’s word over our problem.
This has been random thoughts with Jill. Have a fabulous day!
Time for Change
On Monday I talked about how I will not be moved. By that I mean that I won’t let go of God, His word or His promises. No way no how. But as serious as I am about hanging on, I’m just as serious about change.
As much as I love my cozy comfortable bed and simple little life, I crave change. I need it. When my life gets boring or monotonous I create whatever change what I can. I used to move to a new place once a year or so, until I bought my house. Now, instead of moving, I rearrange my furniture or move my bedroom to another room in the house. I paint walls. I dye or cut my hair. I take road trips. I even take a different way to work, just to have something different. Being still is difficult when you continually have the desire to go somewhere, anywhere, else.
It’s not that my life is bad. It’s not. I have a job. A house. A car. I’m healthy. My family’s healthy. I have great friends. I go to a great church & love my church family. I’m grateful, truly grateful for the blessings in my life. But there’s something in me that craves the new.
It’s not that I’m discontented. I’m not. But I love to learn new things. I love to create processes and set things up and then turn it over to someone else to maintain. Once I master something, I’m over it. I need the challenge. I need the adventure of learning new things or discovering new places.
Had I been born in the 1600-1800s I probably would have been one of those people continually going west. Although I wonder how that would have gone because I’ve never actually made it to Oregon on the Oregon Trail game. Ever. Has anyone? Ever? Even as an adult I cannot beat that stupid game. Anyway…
It’s funny that I posted about the song ‘Moving On’ the other day because I’m really feeling the need to move on. Like I said, it’s not that I need to escape a horrible situation or bad people. I don’t. I just need some change.
Then I went to church last Sunday and got challenged a bit in my idea of moving on and change in my Pastor’s new sermon series called… Move. No seriously…after thinking about and talking about this all last week with my friends, I go to church and hear it’s time to move! You can check it out here. Pastor D talked about how growing and moving forward always starts in God’s Word. The answer is always the Word.
God’s Word is amazing. It transforms our thinking. It is the light unto our path. It is alive and sharper than any two-edged sword. It teaches us. It edifies and encourages us. It brings healing to our hearts and bodies.
If you are frustrated or feeling stuck… If you are in a place that you can’t really move… If you need some change… Maybe God’s calling you higher. Maybe He’s challenging you to go deeper. Maybe it’s time to move and change INSIDE.
Happy Thursday.
I need a break
I am counting down to my upcoming vacation. I am sooo excited. I haven’t had a real vacation in quite some time, and I need it desperately right now.
There’s something about taking a break from life and unplugging now and again, it recharges and rejuvenates. For me it can be a spontaneous road trip to anywhere I can get lost in the beauty of the earth God created, a completely planned trip and itinerary or anything in between. No matter what I adore traveling. I love to explore new places. I enjoy sitting and watching the waves hit the beach at Lake Michigan. I enjoy walking around art museums and seeing the different architecture in historical towns. I enjoy taking a camera and capturing little details that other people may not bother to look for. Those things make me happy.
I’m sure I’m not alone. I would imagine everyone likes to go on vacation and just get away from everything for a bit. Get away from the stresses and pressures of work and family life. Get away from the general day to day grind. But what about those times when you need a break and you don’t have the vacation time or money or your situation will not allow you to have that break you need? What do you do then?
Personally I like to talk nice long walks, like 4-5 miles. It helps. When I’m really overwhelmed (when I don’t want to think) I will read or watch movies. I like to go live in someone else’s world for a few hours before coming back to deal with real life.
Jesus never took a vacation, had hobbies or anything like that. But what He did do was maintain a good balance with His time. 1. Ministry: Jesus talked to people, poured into people, prayed with and for people, healed them and etc. 2. Growing and teaching disciples: But He also took time to teach and grow His 12 disciples. 3. Friendships: He spent bonding and chilling out time with 3 of the 12 disciples. 4. Alone time and God time: Jesus went off alone to pray & spend time with Father God often. That is how He was able to do what He did. He was continually rejuvenated and refreshed by seeking God. Check out Matthew 14:13-23 to see Jesus’ priorities.
Matthew 14:13-14, Jesus heard that John the Baptist was killed and planned to take some time alone. But he was unable because the situation. So He took care of the immediate situation first, “As soon as Jesus heard the news, He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where He was headed and followed on foot from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as He stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
After taking care of the immediate situation, Jesus took the time He needed as soon as He was able. Matthew 22:23 says, “Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.”
This wasn’t a onetime thing, in Luke 5:16, it says Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. In His biggest trial, knowing He’d be crucified, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and seek the Father. Jesus knew that no matter what was going on, taking some alone time to pray and just enjoy God’s presence was essential.
When you have to deal with things you’d rather hide from or you need a break and a rest, seek God first. Here’s what I mean….
If you are a new parent with a tiny screaming baby, pray while you are giving them a bottle in the middle of the night. Praise Him for your baby’s healthy lungs and that you have a healthy child.
If you have a stressful situation at work, take a few minutes and go into the bathroom and pray. Or go for a walk around the building and pray. It’s amazing what even 10 minutes in the midst of a situation can do.
If you are at the hospital with a loved one, take a minute and go to the chapel or to sit on a bench outside and remind yourself that sickness isn’t from God, it is one of the curses from the enemy, along with lack, poverty and death. Speak life to the situation. Speak His word. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. Every single one.
If you are under attack from people, read Psalms out loud. Give the situation to God and remind yourself that the battle is His, and the victory is yours.
These are just some little things you can do to seek God no matter where you are or what’s going on. God is always with you. He’s everywhere so it is physically impossible for Him to leave you. The word tells us that He never leaves us or forsakes us. All you need to do is acknowledge His presence (even just speak His name) and He turns His attention to you.
I’ve found that these seemingly small things keep me focused on God and prevent my attitude from spiraling downward. It helps me get from day to day in the rough patches and deal with the people in my world that aren’t exactly pleasant.
“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Thessalonians 5:16-18
“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
Happy Wednesday!
Jill Smash
I generally have a sunny outlook and think positively. But there are days that are hard to remain sunny side up. The worst days for me are when I’m watching someone I love go through something and I know there’s zero I can do to help. Whether it be emotional, physical, spiritual, medical and every other kind of ‘al’. I feel powerless. And I hate that feeling.
Logically I understand there are times when people have to walk it out. They have to face and deal with things to grow. But I have this protective mechanism inside of me that when activated makes me feel like the Incredible Hulk. I want to smash everything in their way. Smash anyone that has hurt or is hurting them. Jill Smash.
I have to fight not to mother hen people. (My siblings will attest to this). I want to guard and protect. It takes actual effort for me to let someone deal with their own consequences. I always want to cushion and coddle. But I know that I can’t. I know that hurts people and stunts their growth. I know that my job is to pray and encourage. Then trust God to help them and protect them. I have to tell you…that’s a weak link in my chain. I trust God completely with my life, but I find it REALLY hard to trust Him with the people I love. Like suddenly God becomes powerless in dealing with them, but not me. I have no idea why or how I developed this wrong thinking, but I did. It’s a serious problem for me lately.
The thing I’m trying to keep in mind is that Jesus never coddled a single person. EVER. He did His part and trusted God with the rest. He always loved people. But He told them the truth too. He was balanced and was able to challenge and encourage people at the same time. That’s what I want to be able to do.
Now I just have to figure out how exactly to do that. Looks like I’ll be reading the Gospels this weekend. Happy Friday.
Musical Monday: Mississippi Squirrel Revival
I was introduced to this song many years ago and it still makes me laugh. Every. Single. Time. Happy Monday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16fG1sDagU
PS: This is a fun reminder that God can use ANYTHING! 🙂
jillbeingstill 