Don't Forget to Remember

     As Mother's Day approaches, I have so many fond remembrances of my mother who left this earth many years ago.  Her teaching and encouragement have often served as my port in the storms of life especially her love of the Psalms.  She taught me early in life to turn to the Psalms and pray them as she did.  She found comfort in their words and read them every evening.  In addition, she also closed every note, card or letter with the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 ("The Lord bless you and keep you...").  Of course, at the time, I did not think much of the way she ended her writing as I was not a committed Christian, but now I cherish this memory.  My mother planted so many seeds of faith in my life that God has brought to full flower as I have walked with Him.  For these and so many things, I am grateful.
     I also remember, with a chuckle, the many "Mom-isms" my mother gave me when I was growing up.  Things like:  "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" (translation:  Be nice to others not unkind); "Be careful to put on clean underwear without holes in them in case you are in an accident" (I never did get that one as they generally cut clothes off of you if you are in serious shape);
"Never let the sun go down on your wrath" (translation:  don't go to bed angry as you will not sleep...make peace with others); "If you are too sick to go to school, you are too sick to play outside" (self-explanatory); "Don't jump on that roll-away bed.  It is meant for sleeping not jumping" (said to me moments before I jumped on the roll-away bed, fell and cut open my head resulting in stitches).  Of course, there were many others that I found myself repeating to my own children.  It is good to remember the words our mothers have passed on to us for they were said out of love.

Mother's Day flowers from our children!

     In the same way, we ought to meditate daily on all that God has done for us throughout our lives.  Wouldn't it be a blessing to sit down and make a list of His blessings during the day instead of thinking about the things that went wrong?  Looking at Scripture, we find in Psalm 106 the words of praise but also the words of confession and repentance.  The Psalmist started by praising God:  "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!" (Psalm 106:1)  Then the author goes on to describe Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord and their covenant with Him.  Recounting and thinking about our sins is a good thing for us to remember.  When we see what a great sinner we have been, we can truly appreciate the wonderful salvation of our Lord.  Likewise, we need to recall God's commandments and direction to us in the way that we live.  Repetition is good for us as it was for the Israelites who tended to quickly forget all God had done for them.  This is why we need to teach our children and grandchildren the truths of walking with Christ.  If we do not teach them truth, the world will certainly instruct them on how to follow their fleshly desires.
     One of the surest ways to remember the instruction of the Lord is to read His Word daily and spend time in prayer.  Each time we pick up the Bible, we find in its pages an encounter with God.  Psalm 119:11 tells us to hide God's Word in our heart so we might not sin against Him.  The more we know His character and understand His precepts the more we will be able to follow Him in obedience.  Looking back on our lives gives us perspective as we see how God has worked in our behalf
.
     Just as I often sit and think about my mother and all the good things she taught me, it is also good to meditate on God's Word, His blessings, who we are in Christ and what God has done in our lives.  This gives us a reality check.  Psalm 106 did that for the people of Israel.  They needed to remember their sin and God's mercy upon them.  Revival begins when our heart is tuned to the Lord's heart.  Let us never forget to remember all He has done for us and is doing in us!  Selah!

P.S.  Happy Mother's Day!

Losing Our First Love

     One of the downsides to putting something away in a safe place is remembering where you put it!
I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me and it is not just a sign of age.  When I was raising our four children, I would misplace items simply because I would become distracted by someone calling for help.  In short, my full attention was not focused on what I was doing.  The same thing happened to my parents one day and the result was funny to say the least.
     My father put his Brylcreem for his hair on a lower shelf and the toothpaste on the upper shelf of the medicine cabinet.  Ordinarily this was just the other way around.  So, when my mother went to brush her teeth, she grabbed the Brylcreem which was in a tube that looked similar to the toothpaste.
Needless to say, she was not a happy camper and it took a while for her to get that nasty taste out of her mouth.  While misplacing things is no fun, losing our first love of Jesus Christ is far worse.
     Jesus spoke to the Church at Ephesus in the book of Revelations 2:1-7:  "“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’  In this passage, our Lord commended the Ephesians for many good things they were doing.  However, they had lost the zeal and ardor that once characterized their love for Christ and the salvation He gave to them.  They were going through all the right motions but the flame and passion had gone out of their relationship with the Lord.  This is serious business both for a church and for individual Christians.  How does this happen and what are the signs?
     Life can be very distracting especially if we are parents of active young children or we work a demanding job.  We can easily put off prayer time or Bible study thinking we will do it later; yet, later never seems to come for us.  The longer we put off doing these faith building exercises the more distant we become from Christ.  This is not unlike a marriage or even a friendship.  If we neglect that other person, we will build some barriers.  Lack of communication is a relationship killer.  It takes effort to keep a relationship alive and growing.  This is one way we can lose our first love.
     Another thing that can isolate us from the love of Christ is when we are angry with God or unwilling to repent of sin.  When a tragedy occurs in our life, it is easy to blame God for what has happened, but if we hold on to that anger, we will be the loser in the end.  We often do not know why God allows certain things to happen.  He has the big picture and we do not.  This is where we have to trust Him in all areas of our life and yield to His Lordship.  Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God has good plans for us even if we do not see the results at the present time.  Likewise, if we have sinned and are unwilling to repent of that sin, we have raised a barrier between ourselves and the Lord.  Jesus said that if we love Him we must obey Him and love one another.  This is contrary to living in sin.
     Apathy also can cause us to lose our first love for Christ.  It is a spiritual laziness where we spend more time listening to the "flesh" than we do to the Holy Spirit.  We could read our Bible, but that takes effort.  Or...we could go to Bible study, BUT there is this special on T.V. tonight.  Having been a Christian for 47 years, I am well acquainted with all the excuses for not building my zeal for the Lord.  It takes discipline and effort to serve the Lord.  Lets face it, it takes effort to work on any important relationship, and our fellowship with God is the most crucial one we will ever have.
     Now, we must ask ourselves, "Have we lost our first love?"  Here are a few signs:  We make excuses for not attending church; we have little or no spiritual appetite to read the Word; prayer time is a burden rather than a blessing;  our heart is cold towards the Lord rather than the passion we once felt; we do not go out of our way to tell others about Christ; we justify areas of sin or compromise;  we are critical of others rather than forgiving and we avoid Bible study with friends  when we used to enjoy it.  These are just a few of the signs that we have lost our first love.
     Jesus calls us to return to our first love for Him.  He desires to fellowship with us.  In this crazy world in which we live, it is easy to get caught up in all the busy activities of work, children and other obligations.  However, we must never neglect our relationship with the Lord.  May we be diligent in seeking Him every day and then, see how all the rest of our life will fall into place.  Selah!

Most Unlikely Choices

     Having been in several beauty pageants and then, having had the experience of broadcasting a number of beauty pageants for a local radio station, I learned a lot.  Doing interviews with the contestants which we aired before the pageant gave me an opportunity to get to know the girls.  When it came time for the decision, I had my favorites in mind, but things did not always go the way I had imagined.  Each judge came to the contest with their own set of ideas as to what made up a winner.  Of course, they were guided by certain standards as laid out by the pageant committee, but ultimately, their life experiences played a part in how they evaluated each contestant.  Even watching the Miss America pageant over the years, I often was surprised by the person who captured the crown.  So is it any wonder that we, at times, stand back and say to ourselves, "Why did God choose to do things this way?"
     As I was reading in the Book of Ruth (one of my favorites), the author made it clear that Ruth was a foreigner.  She and her sister Orpah came from Moab.  Moab was a nation that worshipped the fish god Chemosh, and was started by the son of Lot and his oldest daughter.  Their incestuous relationship brought about a people that would later cause Israel problems even though they were related to Abraham.  Nevertheless,  Naomi and her husband Elimelech along with their sons went to this area during a famine.  During their stay, their sons married Moabite women; however, both Naomi's husband and her two sons died with no children to carry on the family name or inheritance.  Only Ruth returned to Naomi's community of Bethlehem with her refusing to leave her alone while her sister Orpah returned to Moab.
     Ruth was willing to leave behind her country and relatives to follow her mother-in-law and care for her needs.  She proclaimed her fidelity to her and to her God.  While she gleaned in the fields to find grain for their food, she met Boaz who would later become her kinsman/redeemer.  He was a relative of Naomi's and had heard about Ruth and her kindness towards Naomi.  Under his protection, Ruth worked the fields safely.  According to God's plan, Boaz took Ruth as his wife when another kinsman did not wish to marry her.  The result of their union was the birth of Obed who not only carried on
Elimelech's family name and inheritance, but would also be the father of Jesse who would later be the father of King David.  What is even more astounding is that through this lineage came Messiah.
     Here we see a Gentile woman coming from a pagan culture that came out of an immoral relationship between a father and daughter.  God chose Ruth to be the wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed.  This is really a foretaste of what the Lord would do in tearing down the wall of separation between the Jews and Gentiles.  Furthermore, when we look back further in the line of King David and our Lord Jesus Christ, we find another Gentile.  Rahab the Harlot who hid the spies in Jericho would become the wife of Salmon who would father Boaz (Matthew 1:4).  God's plans are amazing and at the same time puzzling.  Would we have chosen a prostitute or a foreign woman who worshipped a pagan god to be in the royal lineage of our Savior? Ah but God's ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).
     Through this action by God, we see that Gentiles would be part of the Lord's plan of salvation.  Not only this but we also see how wrong we can be when it comes to judging people or looking at situations we may face.  Our God is sovereign over all the affairs of men, and He chooses to do things  according to His good will and for His glory.  We are often left to ponder why this happened or that took place, but one day, we will see Him face to face.  We will understand His grand design that now we only see in a mirror darkly.  Until that day, let us rejoice that God's work of salvation began before the foundation of the world.  He chose us and called us by His name.  For that, we should be thankful, and marvel at His plan to include two unlikely women in the lineage of His Son.  Selah!