Category: This and That

Untimely Death & The Sins of Others

Ministry news comes in many forms, the greatest is the good news! The eye-witness accounts of the salvation of souls and the transformation of lives as people turn from worldliness to godliness. The joy of families having healthy babies and training their children to grow up following the Lord the best they know how. More good news from the mission field of churches being established and left in the hands of the national people. The saint that has followed the Lord faithfully to the end of their life and are now in the presence of the Saviour. The rejoicing when those in our church surrender to God’s calling on their life, whether it is for them to be in the ministry or simply becoming a more godly Christian. These are the reports that fill the heart sometimes until it wants to explode in praise to God the Father for all the good God does in the hearts of men.

Then, the flip side, the news that can shake your faith and leave questions in your mind about the goodness of the Lord. The things that I cannot shake this week does not have to do with worry about life but the why’s of life. In the closet of my heart hang these questions of why do evil things have to happen? Why do godly people suffer? Why do Christians willfully make choices to sin against the Lord?

All people have these questions, some people even use them as an excuse not to believe in God or allow Him to have an influence in their lives. But me, God chose me to be in His service and I still have questions, doubts even. Yet, I must have faith and hope that He is Omniscient (all-knowing), and Omnipotent (all-powerful), and Omnipresent (ever-present). Not only does God see the imperfection of this world He sees the questions hanging in my heart.

For me this week it revolves around death… untimely death. A deacon in our church has been given a 2 month diagnosis with his 14 brain tumors that have returned after 6 years of remission. Then there is the situation of a missionary’s wife we support that was killed on Valentine’s Day. The likely suspect is her husband that was arrested a few days ago. The report that our city is one of the highest leaders in partial birth abortion just makes me sick to my stomach. Then the thought of 2 Christian friends I have known in the past that have taken their lives. The list can go on from car wrecks to household accidents… the evil report of untimely death can weigh heavy on the heart of people in the ministry and hang over you like a cloud if you let it.

The report of sin has also been weighing me down… Finding out about people’s choices to sin gets to me. It has caused me to question every motive of a person and whether they really love the Lord, or whether the conversations we’ve had in the past were actually real conversations or fake representations of who they were.  Whether their motives were pure when they did right. The grief of knowing secret things of people’s lives can really mess with your head if you let it.

I remember a time when I was an assistant RA (Resident Advisor) in college and in the middle of the afternoon some of the girls in our dorm started having a conversation about a trip they went on and how they went to a concert instead of the girl’s house like they had reported. The room got silent as they realized I was sitting there and in my heart I sighed because now I was going to have to let the Dean of Women know about it… their choices obligated me to have to take action according to the rules of the school.

Churches have specific leadership requirements and people do not see how their sin keeps them from serving in the particular positions that they wish to work in. Or their choices disqualify them from service and obligate someone else to confront them and remove them from service. It’s a grief to know about all the faulty choices people make. The questions hanging in my closet are: Why do people choose to hurt themselves and the name of Christ by choosing to sin? Do they realize how their sin affects others?

When others sin, it sits on the doorstep of my mind and  it causes me to make a decision about how I feel about them, what I think about them, how I am going to respond to this knowledge of their choices. It is my response to these thoughts that determine if I will allow the decisions that others make to be a stumbling block for me.

People generally do not walk away from God in an instant, it’s a slow process, like the Chinese water torture method of dripping. The dripping of doubts and questions may break my heart and my will to fight for God’s Kingdom. It may not be that I fall into that same sin that someone else is involved in but if I allow Satan to bring thoughts, questions, and doubts about who God is and His goodness then it could take me steps farther from Him. The more questions and doubts I allow the more steps away from God I could take until I finally walk away… Oh Lord, I never want to walk away from you or the work you have for me! Please help me with my thoughts!

The solution for the questions hanging in the dark closet of my heart has to be that I must give over my questions and thoughts of all the evil reports that I hear over to the Lord. I must do what it says in I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him.”

Some people have thick tough skins and it may not bother them to hear of untimely death or church members sinning but many things eat like a canker sore at my heart and cause me to run them through my head a million times over.  I have no other spiritual choice than to say, “Lord, I can’t handle this, please take this from my mind and memory right now. I can’t fix this, only you can.”

God takes them from me, and the rest of the verse tells me why, “he careth for you.” God does not want me to be weighted down heavily with the evils of sin and the problems of this world even if they have to do with members in our church or members of my family. He wants to carry any and all burdens from me.

Here’s a Special Note:

It’s important that when we converse with other Christians, even our friends in the ministry, that we do not dump reports of sin and evil on them in every conversation that we have. You really do not know the sensitivity they have about dealing with facts of sin and evil. Some people may grieve,  others will get angry and may feel motivated to do something about it personally when it is not their place to say or do something.

I have been so thankful for a few situations where friends have known of someone in the ministry that have fallen into sin and told me about the person having a sin problem but have NOT disclosed the details.

Philippians 4:8 is very significant in revealing what my thoughts and reports should be:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

We live in a sin cursed world where things do not make sense at times and the hope we have is to think on God’s good things… that is why it is so wonderful to hear good news from afar and to see the work of God in the hearts and lives of people in His church. Good news can be the relief to help take the burdens off of others’ shoulders. We should not reject real and serious problems with the “power of positive thinking.” There is a time and place for everything. Asking the Lord to give you discretion on how to deal with sensitive topics and whether you should disclose details on “negative” or sinful reports will help you make wiser decisions and relieve others from unnecessary burdens.

As I pillow my head tonight I can have peace that the questions hanging in my closet have been given away. God’s taking them to Goodwill for me and replacing them with lovely things to hang in their place. Thank you Lord for taking my burdens and caring for me!

And another side note:

Does this mean that because I have questions or doubts or that the knowledge of other people’s sin bothering me that I am not qualified to counsel other women that confess their faults? No, any time a lady brings a problem to you, you are responsible for pointing them to the Lord and helping them find answers in His Word. You are not responsible for changing them or coming up with a solution to change them. God changes people, His Word and Holy Spirit must be used to convict them so that they can change. Notify your pastor and let him know if someone has spoken to you. And remember you should always keep matters of counseling private and cast any and all things to the Lord so that you can live free from the bondage of knowing too much.

Making My Sick Kids Feel Special Part 2

This sick bug is sticking around and finally claimed the baby. It’s running it’s course but as the others start to feel a little better they need a few more things to do before we get back to homeschooling.

Here are some more ideas for you of things we have done this week.

1. Write them a Get Well card. I took a huge piece of paper and wrote “Get Well Everybody” in bright colors and put swirls and confetti and smiley face stickers on it and taped it up on the front closet door in the living room so they could see it. My oldest kept commenting that he really liked it. He loves to write his own cards when Papa (what they call my husband) or I are sick. His best card said, “GIT WELL SOON,” and it reminded me of “Git ‘er done!” and brought a smile to my face because that’s exactly what I want to do with sickness, git ‘er done with!

2. Sing a song and tell some jokes. You be the song leader and let them pick out a few songs they like to sing and open up and let ‘er fly! Do the hand motions, get silly, get those little bellies rolling with laughter (be careful to slow down if they get to coughing), and build up their immunity with happiness. We did a few hundred verses of The Wheels on the Bus and various Bible songs and it took another 10-15 minutes of our time away from the TV.

Let them tell their favorite jokes and you tell some great children’s jokes too and keep their mind off of the downside of being confined to a room. We have a Bible Knock-Knock joke book and you can even look up jokes online or get joke books from the library. I just hope you don’t have to endure lame knock-knock jokes by the amateurs for days on end like we do sometimes, ha ha.

3. Jammie Drill! Jammie Drills are something I learned off the internet where you get the kids dressed for bed in their pajamas and make them think they’re going to bed, then 5-10 minutes later you sound an alarm and yell “JAMMIE DRILL! Get in the car now!” They grab their shoes and load up in the car and take them on an adventure, such as, pick up french fries from the drive through or play at the park in the dark.

So here’s the twist because the kids are sick they are already in their jammies all day long and you can call the drill when you would like. Open up your windows, if you’re in a safe neighborhood, and let the house air out for a while you take them to pick up a little snack or go look at the ducks in the duck pond or run a check to the bank. We drove to the local health food store and picked up more supplements, my husband going in, and me sitting in the car with the kids for a few minutes. He bought them mixed berry dark chocolate which they devoured on the drive home.

4. Ask Questions. We receive Highlights in the mail and one section in the magazine they ask all sorts of questions. I have written some of these questions down on little slips of paper and added some of my own and placed them in a jar. We pull them out every once in a while and all make thoughtful answers.Some of the questions are science oriented or silly, “What would you do first if you wanted to plant a garden?” or “Name 4 things you can brush.”

I learned today that my sons’ favorite vegetables are not what I thought they were…olives and carrots! Am I a bad mom for not knowing? No! They are changing and I need to learn more about them as we go along. The older our children get the more they learn and the less I know about them simply because I am not making all the decisions for them like I did when they were toddlers. P.S. Are olives actually a vegetable? I am thinking they’re a fruit…

It’s a busy world but illness can disguise itself as a blessing. As I wrote this entire post our sick infant wriggled around in my lap in her mopey sort of way just wanting to be close instead of on the floor. Stay close to your kids by making them feel special. You are the Mama God gave to them, help them know His love so that one day their hearts will accept Him as their Saviour and in time they can turn around and be great parents themselves.

Walk Before Him With All Your Heart

After Solomon dedicated the temple of God he spoke to the congregation of people who had gathered for one of the most special occasions in Jewish history. The temple, 7 years in the making, primarily covered in gold and made of the finest materials was given. It was God’s move in day in the place where He would accept the atonement for sin on the judgment seat of the sacrifices made for people to cover their sins in the Old Testament.

Solomon said something found in I Kings 8:23 that spoke to me about serving the Lord, “And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts.”

It is true, there is no God like God because there is no other God (big G)!

“Who keepest covenant…” How important it is that God keeps His promises because without that character trait then He would be untrustworthy and fault could be found Him, kind of like the faults that are found in us… No imperfection or forgetting with Him, He is going to do what He has promised in His Word that He will do. You should be able to breathe a sigh of relief that you do not have to speculate whether He will come through or not regarding His Word, He will, and that’s settled.

“…covenant and mercy…” Not just covenant, but mercy is included! Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve and the longer that I parent the more I realize how important mercy is. He says in Lamentations 3 that His mercies are new every morning. I’ve tried to start implementing that verse in my parenting, you can have a bad day and deal with the kids all day on character issues or behavioral problems, but start fresh with new mercies every day. One of the best pieces of advice my mother-in-law gave to me was that we need to forgive our children… it was like a light bulb went off above my head because I was just insistent on nipping a specific behavior in the bud that belonged to my oldest son. I need mercy because I am just as intolerable sometimes, God’s children are always in need of getting a little less of what they deserve because boy do we deserve plenty! If we never received any more mercy than what God gave us when we trusted Christ as our Saviour and He saved us from the punishment of hell for our sins, then we should be forever grateful and use that to motivate us to serve Him more faithfully each day.

Then, the passage states, “with thy servants.” It’s pretty obvious that not everyone is a servant of Christ. Not everyone allows their salvation experience to place a servant’s attitude within their heart. We can see people in church services every week that never lift a finger to even pick up a small piece of trash off the floor or they look at you with a deer in the headlights look when you ask them to help. “Who, me?” Likewise, those called to God’s work can often be in the position of service but not serve. God convicted me recently that I had not been willing to do any and all work for Him. He pointed out specific things that I had said aloud that I did NOT want to do or did not want to do anymore. There’s a difference between delegating certain responsibilities to others so that you can focus on the tasks that only you can do and drawing a line in the sand and being unwilling to do specific jobs that may need to be done. When we draw the line in the sand and create a list of things we will not do for the Lord, perhaps we’ve taken His place on the throne of our hearts and pride has replace the humility we once knew when we said, “wherever you lead I’ll go…”

Which leads to the next point, (pun intended) the last part of the verse that says, “…thy servants that walk before thee with all thy heart:” Can we walk before God with less than “ALL” of our hearts? Perhaps we can, Solomon eventually left God with all of his heart and let his hundreds of wives steal his heart from God. It’s amazing that God works with us in the moment of our heart’s tenderness or hardness to Him because even though God knew Solomon would raise altars to other gods because of his wives, God still hears the temple dedication and appears to him for the second time later in the next chapters. God knows we can walk before Him with less than all of our heart, we’re reminded of those things in Matthew 22:37 when Christ said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Have you stopped giving Him your all when you meet Him each day in prayer time and devotions? He knows, He sees.

We have a duty to keep up the fire of servitude within our hearts, in Paul’s letter to Timothy he urges him to stir up the gift of God within himself. He told Timothy to ask God for a new gift from the Lord, he tells him to stir up what’s already there. If stripped of our ministry title(s) and position in the church where do we stand before God? You know, like who you really are when you’re standing alone in your closet… Have we been a willing servant or the servant only willing to do certain tasks for Him? Have we been walking before Him with all our hearts? Surely if God is pointing something out to you that you will forsake those things that keep you from walking with your whole heart toward God and lift up your arms to our wonderful covenant and merciful God and make things right with Him. John said it (3 John 1:4), but I believe that God also does, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

Walk before Him with all your heart my friends: He keeps His promises, He’s merciful, and there’s no god like God in this entire universe! We serve a wonderful God! Stir up the gift that is within thee and light a fire among those you work with so God’s work will be revived and you can make an eternal difference.