>The Original Rainbow

>

The Lord smelled the soothing aroma;
and the Lord said to Himself,
“I will never again curse the ground
on account of man,
for the intent of man’s heart
is evil from his youth;
and I will never again destroy
every living thing, as I have done.”
Genesis 8:21
God was sorry that He had made man, and He sent the flood. What we see here is that even though God had to judge the earth, His heart still broke over the judgment
It reminds me of when I have had to discipline my own children. I knew it had to be done, but still it broke my heart to have to do it.
God promises here that He will never again destroy every living thing because of the wickedness of man’s heart. He promised that while the earth remained, so would hot and cold, seedtime and harvest, and day and night.
The earth was forever changed after the flood. Rain, once never seen, would now be a regular occurrence, a needed regular occurrence. What I love about God is that He knows the heart of man. God knew that the experience that Noah and his family had just been through was overwhelming, and He also knew that fear would grip them at every rainfall and every storm. Fear that somehow they had finally sinned badly enough that God had changed his mind and sent another flood.
So therefore, God, in His infinite mercy and grace, gave Noah a sign. He set His bow in the cloud. I love that. God didn’t say “a bow”; He said, “My bow.” This bow would be seen by every generation, by every nation, a reminder forever that God keeps His word.
God always gives us a sign. He never leaves us without hope. As believers in God and partakers of Christ, there will be times in our lives that we feel we have messed up so bad that God would remove us from Him, that we have lost our salvation.
Fear can grip us that we could be forsaken, but that is not the promise that Jesus gave us. Jesus promised that he would never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He promised that nothing could snatch us out of the Father’s hands ( John 10:29).
Jesus made us this promise and he gave us a sign to remind us of this truth. Just as God places His bow in the sky, He also places His Spirit in us as a sign that we belong to Him and as an ever-present reminder that He is with us.
Oh Father,
How thankful I am that You are who You are. How thankful I am that You are not a man, that You would lie or change Your mind. How thankful I am that You keep Your word. The true feeling of peace does not come when all is right with the world. The true feeling of peace comes in knowing that in spite of what is wrong with the world and what is wrong with me, You love me. You love me and You are with me.
Even though I stumble, even though I fall, You do not leave me in my failings. You might have to discipline me, allow me to fall, but You are always there to pick me up, wash me off, and assure me that You are still there with me, always with me.
My Father in heaven, great and awesome and holy is Your name. Thank You for Your longsuffering, for Your grace upon grace.
My Jesus, I love You, and it is in Your name I pray,
To You be the glory forever,
Amen.

>Rolling in the Deep

>

On the same day
all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11
I remember the picture I had in my mind of the flood, the picture formed through the “story of the flood” before I had studied the Word of God for myself. This picture in my mind had the animals all nicely lined up two by two, walking up a plank into the entrance of the ark. Noah and his wife stood off to the side, watching the parade of animals and smiling at each other.
Then Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives would follow the last set of animals up the plank and into the ark and close the door. They would then look out a window and smile as the first raindrops fell to the ground.
In my picture, it would rain and rain and rain, and slowly the ark would rise and float off as the waters and the earth flooded. This is kind of a nice picture of the judgment of the earth—not at all accurate, but nice.
The truth is a little more dramatic.
First of all, it was not Noah who closed the ark door; it was the Lord (Genesis 7:16).
Second, the flood was not so slow and easy. The fountains of the great deep burst open.
Ever wondered how the Grand Canyon really was made? Let God burst open the fountains of the deep, and you’ll see a canyon. Have you ever seen the power of the geysers in Yellowstone? They can’t even compare with what must have happened on this day. If you have ever questioned the validity of the flood, just look at the real evidence around you in nature. It is there.
My husband and I visited Sequoyah Caverns in Valley Head, Alabama. In these caverns you will discover fossils of sea creatures in the walls and the ceilings. It is amazing evidence right before your eyes that the Word of God is true and that a worldwide flood did in fact occur. I am sure that these Alabama mountain caverns are not the lone evidence.
Some mighty powerful waters forever altered the earth as Noah and his family knew it. I also am pretty sure that Noah and his wife were not looking out the window and listening to the gentle rain on the rooftop of the ark. I believe they were inside the ark with their faces to the floor, praising an all-powerful God who had the authority and ability—and the right—to destroy them along with the rest, but was great in mercy and loving-kindness, and was true to His Word that He would save them if they trusted in and obeyed His voice.
Oh Father,
How mighty and awesome You are! You are He who creates, and You are He who destroys. You are He who creates life, and You are He who ends it. All things are in Your hands. All power rests in Your Word.
You are patient and You are compassionate and You are slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness, yet You will not be mocked. You will not strive with us forever.
One day we must face You—we will face You either in faith or in rebellion. Oh, how You desire that we face You in faith! You have made the way; the door is still wide open. Oh, that many would come. Oh Father, You have every right to destroy me, and yet You have chose to save me. How very good You are. How in awe of You I am.
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.

>Feeling Alone In A Crowd

>I was asked to share this past Tuesday morning at a women’s group about feeling alone in a crowd and the art of friendship… I must say it was terrifying.

The morning began well.
I was up in time.
I had organized the points I had hoped to make and my flow of thoughts were written down. I had highlighted and underlined and asterisked all that I felt God was showing me was important for the ladies that morning.

I left my home ready.

Then, lost in my thoughts, I missed my turn.

Then, everyone’s phones are out of whack, including mine.

Finally I get in touch with my friends. (Just one of the many reasons I am thankful for my friends and that I do not travel this road of life alone)

So I make it to my destination with a little help from my friends… but now I am frazzled, unfocused, and terrified. All the old gut wrenching emotions of standing in front of others hits like a ton of bricks in the pit of my stomach.

Oh I was so disappointed in me. Confidence diminished, boldness gone, feelings of unworthiness crashing on the shores of my soul with unrelenting pounding… who in the world did I think I was to be standing up and speaking to anyone?

I thought God had moved me past this… but alas, here I was again in a cold nauseous sweat trying to smile with the best faked confidence I could muster. Contemplating on how could I turn around and run out the door without humiliating myself or the dear friend who believed in me enough to ask me to come and share.

Fear is now rushing over me, not that I will embarrass me…
I am used to that…
But that I will be an embarrassment to my friend.
What if I let her down? What if I make a fool of her? I mean for goodness sake, I am already coming in late… again.

Thoughts of faking an emergency phone call from home emerge… hey it could happen, right?

I thought I would be so well prepared, had hoped I would be so well prepared, had hoped that I would eloquently share all the wonderful things God had showed me as I researched all this stuff on friendship.

I stood up to share in my state of flusteration and absolutely forgot everything.
I even forgot to pray… which I am sure would have calmed me at least a little.
Here I was feeling utterly alone and foolish in a crowd as I stood to share about feeling alone in a crowd.

I have spent the time since my sharing trying to go back over the morning and trying to remember what I shared. Did I make any sense? And then the oh my’s, why did I share that’s?

I sent a text to another friend and shared my sick to my stomachness and my fear of how I felt I was a blubbering train wreck and she was so kind as to remind me that God used a donkey so she was sure he was able to use whatever I did (well at the moment I most certainly felt like a donkey in the King James translation)

It never ceases to amaze me how often God has to remind me that it is not about my capability but my availability. The power is not in me but in Him and in His Word. I am just a jar of clay with a treasure within it to share with whoever God chooses to bring into my path and with whomever I run into as I go in His commission command.

So now I have to remind myself of the same points I planned to share with others.

1) God said in the beginning that it was not good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18). We need help from each other (Eccles 4:11-12).

2) We cannot bear our burdens alone (Ex 18:18, Deut 1:9-12, Rom 15:1, Gal 6:1-2) even Christ had help when it came to the burden of carrying the cross (Luke 23:26)

3) We are not alone in feeling alone (1 Kings 18:22, Jer 15:17, Ezek 9:8)

4) Sometimes we must be alone in order to discover where we are in life, in our hearts, in our minds, sometimes we must be removed from the distractions of life and others to hear God. (Gen 32:24, 2 Chron 32:31, Daniel 10:8, John 6:15)

5) When we feel alone is when the enemy will attack the hardest (Gen 3:1-5, Luke 4:1-13, 2 Chon 32:31)

6) If we belong to Christ we are never really alone, no matter how we “feel” (John 8:29, John 14:17-18, John 16:32, Psalm 9:10, Psalm 27:9, Heb 13:5)

7) Whenever we “feel” alone we must remember that our feelings will lie to us. Our heart will deceive us and our emotions will confuse us. We must be guided by our renewed minds, renewed by the Word of God, not our hearts, for God is greater than our hearts (Prov 28:26, 1 John 3:20)

8) Many times when we “feel” alone we have chosen to put ourselves in solitary confinement (1 Kings 19:3) either by running away from others or by putting up walls around us by lies we tell so that others, even hopefully God, will not discover who we really are (Isaiah 59:1-6). We weave an outfit of flesh that we think others want to see and we hide ourselves from our own flesh (Isaiah 58:7) and then we live in the darkness of the prison of our own making simply because we fear how others might receive our real authentic selves.

9) We must be honest with ourselves, others, and God (1 John 1:9-10). The biggest lie spoken in our churches today is “I’m fine.”

10) We must not fear each other or fear revealing ourselves to one another. Let us never forget that our Savior revealed Himself on the cross, He laid Himself bare in order to become our friend (John 15:15). A true friend loves at all times (Prov 17:17) and perfect love is supposed to cast out fear (1 John 4:18-19) because we can know that we are loved by our Creator God whether anyone else loves us or not.

11) We must love in truth. Our actions must match our words. We can’t just say we love, we must show we love (1 John 3:18-20) We cannot love with hypocrisy (Rom 12:9) and experience true fellowship and friendship 

Bottom line is we need each other. I need people in my life who know me. I need my friends to help me on this journey called life. God said it was not good for us to be alone and being in a crowd does not make you “not alone”.
Not being alone comes when someone shares your heart, it comes from friendships that are formed from commitment and complete trust. It comes from being willing to let someone see you for you, from being willing to allow them to see your very soul. It also comes from being willing to hear and receive the hard things from those you know love you unconditionally…  
So I don’t know about you, but I get by with a little help from my friends 🙂