For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12

My husband has been wanting a new set of knives for years.  I couldn’t figure out why.  After all, I’m the one who does most of the cooking in our house.  I was proud just to have a knife set, albeit the cheapest one available more than a dozen years ago.  Sure, one of the blades comes off and the tip broke off another, but they worked for me.  Or so I thought. 

My mother-in-law gave us a new set for Christmas.  Saturday morning I skeptically pulled a knife from the block, believing the new would perform just as well as the old.  Was I wrong.  My arms didn’t tire out from needing to use brute force as an onion split apart in fear of the new weapon.  Everything I chopped succumbed to the sharp edges of the cold steel.  I quickly realized that my husband was right.  My old knives were awful.  They didn’t start out that way, but twelve years of use had their effect.   

The same is true in my life.  I have coping patterns, behaviors and attitudes that I’ve used for years.  Perhaps they were advantageous at first, but not any more.  Like my dulled set of knives, the progression of beneficial to worthless was gradual and I never noticed it.

We’ll be cutting through some great topics such as love, forgiveness, sacrifice and joy in the coming year.  It is my hope that they won’t just be words on a page.  I pray they’ll penetrate into our lives, slashing through our old ways and transforming us more into the likeness of our Creator. 

    Don’t just listen to Krista, Michele and me.  Pull out your knife, the word of God, and let it penetrate your marrow. 

We expected it for years.  The coming of Messiah to free us from our oppressors.  Oh, how we longed for that day.  But suddenly the corporate turned individual.  I was expecting, awaiting to give birth to the Son of God.  What an incomprehensible thought!  I mean, the holy scrolls recorded long ago that a virgin would be with child, but I never thought for a second that girl would be me.  And yet, here I am.  Expecting.

How about you?  Do you think the things written in the Bible only apply to the corporate whole, or are you brave enough to believe they can be personalized?  Let’s expect immeasurably more than we can conjure up together.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”  Ephesians 3:20,21

One action changes everything.  Don’t believe me?  Just read Acts 18:24-26.

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately.” Acts 18:24,25

Can you picture Apollos?  He had such a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures that he could both recite verses and teach on their meanings.  Highly educated, he used history as well as current events to compare and contrast to Scripture.  He spoke with great fervor, drawing friends and bystanders alike in with his passionate words.  He didn’t misquote or teach for his own gain.  What a man.  There was just one problem:

he knew only the baptism of John.” Acts 18:25b

What he spoke was true and accurate, but it was only half the story.  The good news—the shocking, beautiful truth of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection—is so tremendous that I’m grieved to think that some only got to hear the okay news.  But here’s where the okay turns good again, and it all happened with one action:

When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”  Acts 18:26

Invited.  Verb.  Explained.  Verb.  Okay, so in this case it’s two action steps, but you get the idea.  It would have been tragic for Apollos to keep preaching only the first half of the story.  Fortunately, countless people were able to hear the full gospel, all because someone invited him into their home.

Is there an action step you need to take today? 

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17

Over 1 billion not served.

Can you imagine how that would look hanging below the golden arches?  A broadcast that 1 billion people worldwide are going hungry.  An announcement that in the time it takes you to read this short devotional, several children will have died from malnutrition.

McDonald’s might not be announcing it, but it is real nonetheless.  It’s a statistic that shocks me to the core, but in my complacency and comfortable life I prefer it to remain just that: a statistic. 

I do my part, I try convincing myself.  I give to global missions and support a few children around the world.  That’s enough, isn’t it?  Not to the child who just died.

I give out of my abundance, but there is one who gave so selflessly that it leaves me speechless:

Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, ‘The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all!"  Luke 21:1-4, The Message

Where are you on that scale?  Do you give offerings?  If so, will you ever miss them, or, do you give your all?

I hope that as we drive by McDonalds, we will be reminded of the plight of 1 billion people worldwide.  I also pray that our faith will be accompanied by actions to stop this worldwide emergency.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”  James 2:17, emphasis mine

If you are so moved, here are just a few suggestions of ways in which you can help alleviate hunger.

Sponsor a child through Compassion International or World Vision.  Give a microloan at Kiva.org.

Some might say it was nothing more than coincidence—me walking out of town at exactly the moment he walked in.  Yet not even providence could have arranged that as I followed my son’s casket outside the city to the place I would bury him, the one who claimed to be the giver of life entered town.  He saw my sorrow, my devastation.  Perhaps he heard my heart breaking as I buried yet another loved one.  First my husband.  Now my only son.  How much more could my aging heart withstand? I wondered, so lost in my grief that I barely noticed this man and the crowd following him.

But he didn’t overlook me.  I don’t know what it was, but this man who said he came to give us life and to give it to the full (John 10:10) did just that.  First, he noticed me.  Me.  Not the throng, but little ol’ me.  Then, he looked deep into my eyes and said, “Don’t cry” (Luke 7:13).  What happened next is most remarkable.  He touched my son’s coffin and told him to get up.  And he did!  My boy, you know, the one that was dead, started talking, and I mean talking.

I grabbed hold of my son, fearing I was dreaming.  As I felt the warmth in his skin, I knew this was no dream.  Nor was it something providence or coincidence could cook up.  It was life.  Abundantly.

Well, with my boy alive, it made no sense for me to keep walking to the cemetery, so I immediately changed course.  My son did, too.  So did the others in the funeral procession.  Instead of taking the path leading to death, we followed the One who offers life.  How ‘bout you?  Which path are you on?

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

Two sisters with two very different personalities.  Yet when their greatest time of grief came, both Mary and Martha said exactly the same thing:

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  (John 11:21 and John 11:32)

Perhaps their motives for saying it were different.  Maybe one said it with bitterness, angry at Jesus for not coming sooner.  Maybe the other was simply stating what she knew to be true.  We can’t say for sure.  But what we do know is they both said it.  Even more remarkable, we get to see what isn’t said by the one whom these remarks are directed to.  No chastising.  No condemnation.  No lectures on having more faith.  Instead, during Mary and Martha’s darkest hour,

Jesus wept.”  John 11:35

Those facts are so tremendous I can scarcely take them in.  Savor that truth.  Let it penetrate to your marrow, for it applies to you, too. 

When you’re grieving—whether it be the death of a loved one, a marriage, a friendship, a miscarriage or a dream—God can handle your pointed comments.  There is nothing about them that should make us feel guilty or embarrassed.  In fact, they just might move God Almighty to tears.  Then, in His perfect timing, God will do what He does best: redeem.

Mary of Magdala

Objective:

Desiring a position in which I can utilize my gifts and find purpose.

Previous experience:

Previously inhabited by seven demons.

Oh, come on.  This resume would never stand a chance.  Inhabited by not just one but seven demons?  And submitted by a woman nonetheless in a time and culture where women’s rights were virtually non-existent.  No one would’ve given this a second glance.  No one but him who cast the demons from her, that is.

Luke 8:1-3 tells us that Mary Magdalene traveled from town to town with Jesus and the disciples, caring for their needs and supporting them out of her own means.  Wow!  Mary was also one of only a few women the angels shared the news with of a Risen Lord.  And as if all that is not incredible enough, Mary was the first person Jesus spoke to after the resurrection, giving her a specific mission: “Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ " (John 20:17). 

Mary of course repeated Jesus’ message.  In fact, I’m sure she didn’t just say it to the disciples.  She probably never stopped repeating it.

I know Mary, a former demon-possessed woman from the town of Magdala, found purpose in her life’s work of serving the Lord and telling His story to others.  Do you think your past is stopping you from finding purpose and fulfillment?  Think again.

No one else was around.  She knew there wouldn’t be.  She purposefully avoided them.  Well, that’s what she told herself at least, but the fact of the matter was that all the townspeople were much too willing to sidestep her.  So here she was again, drawing water in the heat of the day when everyone else had come in the cool of the morning. 

“Hmmph, who needs them anyways?” she muttered.  “Besides, I’ve got my man at home.  He loves me. . . I think.”

She stood staring at the well, her thoughts lost in the deep waters.  “Come on,” she said.  “Back to work.”  As she shook her head to break the trance, she noticed a man.  Not just any man.  A Jew.  That much was fully obvious just by his physical characteristics.  Great.  What does he want and why is he here?  Doesn’t he know that Jews don’t associate with us Samaritans?

Ahh, yes.  He knew alright.  He also knew many other things—things such as worship, salvation, God, living water and even about her five husbands and the man she was now living with.  And soon she knew something, too.  This man was Jesus.

The excitement within her was so great that she couldn’t help but leave everything behind.  Abandoning her water jar—and her shame—she ran full speed towards town shouting “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29).

Can we just hit the pause button for a moment?  I mean, am I missing something here?  If I knew I were the talk of the town, the last thing I would want to do is broadcast the very events that gave everyone such liberty to talk.  Come to think of it, even if I didn’t think people were gossiping about me, I still wouldn’t joyfully announce my sins for all to hear.  It just doesn’t seem logical.  Nor does the result of that “illogical” action:

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (John 4:39).

Seriously?  I thought my testimony had to be pristine in order to cause others to believe in God.  Oh wait, that’s just the common misconception I’ve bought into.

It still just doesn’t add up, but Romans 9:33 provides the key:

See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (emphasis mine)

The goal of the cross wasn’t just to take our sin.  Jesus also took our shame away.  Regardless of if we’re single, married, divorced, a Samaritan, Jew or Gentile, may we too drop our shame and loudly proclaim Christ.

The dancing couldn’t be contained to just her feet.  Her entire body swung and bobbed to the tune no one else could hear.  They thought the music ended much too suddenly.  Hannah, however, knew it had just started.

In an elaborate (and to my mind, incomprehensible) form of worship, Hannah celebrated and praised as never before.  Her prayer, recorded in I Samuel 2:1-10, overflows with gratitude, love and reverence.  You can see the obvious delight she takes in the Lord in just a few short stanzas:

My heart rejoices in the Lord” (verse 1)

There is no one holy like the Lord” (verse 2)

Observers understood her joy after God opened her barren womb, but how, they wondered, could she praise God in the midst of saying good-bye to her only child?  What brought about her gladness as she kissed her recently weaned Samuel farewell, knowing she would only see him once a year?  How could she leave him in the Lord’s service when her heart so desperately wanted to keep him at home?  Did she know what would become of Samuel?  Did God reveal to her that her son would become one of Israel’s greatest prophets or did He enlighten her with the fact that Samuel would one day anoint King David?  Probably not.  Did she know God would keep her womb open and allow her to have five more children?  Doubtful.  So how could she rejoice after fulfilling her promise to give him over to the Lord?

I think Hannah heard the song.  While others scratched their heads and wondered, Hannah praised.  She danced to the music created in the skies.

The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”  Exodus 15:2

In an life-long act of absolute surrender, Hannah’s pride, shame, and selfish ambitions peeled back for her to hear the words that Her Rock, Her God, Her Strength and Her Song sang.  And so she danced.

Unheard of.  A queen listening to the advice of a commoner.  My fairy-tale derived images of royalty can barely comprehend that thought.  And yet, once again, we see Queen Esther defying any stereotypes one might have of someone in her position.  Mordecai, Esther’s beloved uncle, revealed a plan in which the royal advisor wanted to annihilate the Jewish people.  No doubt concern for her dear relative and other kin permeated throughout her thought processes, but Esther also had to consider her own life for no one, not even the queen, could approach the king without first being invited.  As Krista described previously, Mordecai reminded Esther that, despite her crown, she too might be at risk of being put to death due to her heritage.  It is with a brazen confidence that she asked for others to pray and fast with her, and “when this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.  And if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16b).

Esther’s life expanded on the meaning of Ephesians 6:1-3 long before it was ever penned:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." 

Esther no longer had an earthly father or mother, but respected and loved Mordecai as he adopted those roles in her life.  Even when she was beyond the age of being called a child, she still obeyed her “father” and it did go well with her.  In fact, we could probably even paraphrase Ephesians 6:3 to say she lived happily ever after. 

Maybe we could learn a thing or two from Queen Esther as we lay down our crowns of pride and self-reliance and glean from the wisdom our parents, uncles and mentors have to offer.

As a footnote, I want to thank my dad for being my Mordecai, the one who has helped me go on straight paths and has stood by me even when life got a little too bumpy.  I love you.  Happy Father’s Day!

I wonder if she resented it.  Her beauty that is.  After all, that’s ultimately what took her away from the only remaining family member this young woman had left.  And speaking of family, did she ever question why her parents died when she was so young?  Did she wonder how much more she’d have to endure?  First the loss of her parents and then the unexpected separation from her father-like cousin who cared for her as his own.  Did she resent being seen only as a beautiful face?  Was that as demeaning to her soul as the fact that the one thing she valued most, her virginity, would be handed to a man for a probable one-night stand?  And the competition.  Oh, the competition.  She never would have signed up for this strange beauty pageant, the one in which the winner takes all and everyone else would spend the remainder of their days in the harem.  Did she become catty as they fought for the crown?  Sure, she received royal beauty treatments and even had seven maids assigned to her, but I still wonder.  Was it hard to not reveal her ancestry and the fact that her family had been exiled from Jerusalem?  Did she gag as she partook of the special food given to her, the very foods that her Yahweh had commanded not to eat?  I wonder.

As we flip through the few pages of Esther’s short book, we can easily miss the trials, despairs and grief she invariably experienced.  The chapters in her life are complete and we can look at the end and somehow convince ourselves that it made the beginning easier.  But Esther, like us, didn’t know how her story would unfold.  No doubt she felt alone, confused, scared.  Maybe angry at God as she realized that her dreams weren’t necessarily His dreams for her.  Perhaps she was upset that people wouldn’t appreciate her for who she was.  Can you relate?   

I don’t know the ending of our stories, but I do know that it shares at least one thing with Esther’s.  We can get a crown, and we don’t even have to enter a beauty pageant.

     Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when

    he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God

     has promised to those who love him.”  James 1:12

Mother-in-law.  The words are enough to send chills up spines and cause many to tell harrowing stories.  Is there ever a story to be told about mother-in-laws, but it’s not what we’d expect. 

In an incomprehensible act of events, Ruth leaves her family, homeland, gods, customs and traditions to follow her deceased husband’s mother, Naomi.  She heeds Naomi’s advice on several occasions, including one that might have sounded as foreign to Ruth as it does to me: she uncovered a sleeping man’s feet and laid down by them in a marriage proposition of sorts (Ruth 3).  For as unusual as the customs might have seemed to Ruth, there was one thing that was not strange in that foreign land: love.  Evidences of it poured out between Ruth and Naomi.  Their beautiful love story reminds us that love has no bounds.  God crafted our hearts in such a way as to allow this incredible affection to extend beyond family lines or romantic relationships.

Some of you, like Naomi in her younger days, devote the majority of your time caring, loving and providing for your children.  Others, like the older Naomi, display the same level of concern and compassion to those they didn’t birth.  I want to say Happy Mother’s Day to moms, women who replace their empty crib by “adopting” countless children through volunteer work, those who raise foster children, and all women who play a pivotal role in a child’s well being. 

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”  Matthew 18:5

Happy Mother’s Day.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. ‘Go, look over the land,’ he said, ‘especially Jericho.’ So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.”  Joshua 2:1

Honestly, I just don’t get it.  The spies went and entered someone’s house?  Shouldn’t they have been doing more spy-ish things, like ducking behind cacti while the mission impossible theme song played in the background?  And why of all places did they go to a prostitute’s house?  I don’t want to give God’s guys a bad wrap here, but this really just doesn’t seem logical to me.

But what makes even less sense is that this prostitute made it into God’s hall of fame.  Better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Rahab is listed among spiritual giants such as Abraham, Noah, Joseph and Moses.  What on earth could a prostitute do to be ranked among the likes of such men?

Well, she hid the spies.  That simple.  When the king of Jericho came looking for them, she lied and said they had already left (Joshua 2:4).  I’m not trying to make light of what she did.  I have no doubt Anne Frank was exceedingly grateful to the people who hid her from the Nazis and thereby saved her life.  The spies’ gratitude is just as apparent as they agree to wipe out all of the city except for Rahab and her family.  But what is it that makes Rahab so extraordinary?  Hebrews 11:31 gives us the first half of the answer:

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.”

Faith.  Rahab exhibited tremendous amounts of it as she talked to the spies, yet it is only part of the solution.  James 2:24-26 completes the equation.

You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

How is this equation playing out in your life?  Are your deeds linked to your faith?

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6b

Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” Genesis 25:28

The mother in me wants to know why Rebekah loved Jacob but not Esau.  Did his abnormal amount of hair repel her?  Did he do something as a young boy that she was unable to forgive?  Was it simply that she didn’t have a taste for wild game?  She momentarily piques my curiosity until I am reminded that favoritism is a human condition, one that is noted even in the lives of the few women we’ve studied so far.  Hagar wasn’t favored.  Neither was Leah.  Even Isaac, a patriarch of the faith, gave his affection only to one of his two sons.

What are we to do?  If favoritism dates back so long ago, should we admit defeat to its power?  Absolutely not!  All I can do is desperately cling to my life verse:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” Ephesians 1:18, emphasis mine

My eyes still fail me even after aides such as LASIK and contacts.  My vision continues to deteriorate, and emotions, prejudices and biases further interpret the ways in which I “see” people.  God, please help me to use the eyes of my heart—the eyes that I trust you to enlighten—in order that I may see others the way you see them.  Show me the areas in which favoritism distorts my vision.  Help me see past fame, wealth, race and beauty.  Infuse me with your love for my kids so that I may transmit that love to them equally.

For God does not show favoritism.” Romans 2:11

If you’re a mom, how many times have you wished you had some sort of directions for raising your kids?  Well, now there is a book that provides those directions, or more aptly, points to and highlights the book where these answers can be found.  Mothering like the Father: Following God’s Example in Parenting Young Children gives examples of ways in which God the Father parents us, and how we can implement those examples in our lives.

Mothering like the Father is easy to read, provides practical advice, and even offers questions at the end of each chapter that can be used for personal reflection or discussion with your spouse or friends.  I’d highly recommend you read this book, which can be found on amazon or at www.motheringlikethefather.com.