Monthly Archives: December 2013

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

Slowing Down

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Last year was crazy for my family. To look back on our calendar is almost embarrassing. Our days and weeks and months were so packed that it took us over a month past our middle child’s birthday to even find an open date to celebrate. However at the same time 2013 was good… crazy busy… but still good.

My husband and I set some financial goals several years ago and we met them in this year. In 2013 we paid off two vehicles and a land loan and saved all our Christmas spendings… this is the second year in a row that we have charged nothing in order to purchase Christmas gifts for our family. We now have three paid for vehicles in our driveway (yes they may have 100,000 miles on them, but they are paid for) and our plan for this year is to pay down one last line of credit that remains from the financial issues that hit us from 2006 through 2010.

God has been faithful.

What I learned through these years of struggles is that there are no shortcuts and when someone offers you good advice… take it.

A wise man will hear and increase in learning,
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

Proverbs 1:5

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

Proverbs 12:15

 

My family is not all that big on resolutions. We just keep taking one day at a time. We have life goals and all the years just seem to run together. The days and weeks and hours are hard for us to keep up with. My husband works a swing shift and we homeschool so our “Friday’s” can be any day of the week. Our “weekends” are not tied to Saturday and Sunday. Schedules in this house are examined and adjusted quite frequently. Regular routines really don’t happen here and that’s because too many things have to be shuffled according to who has what commitments where and when.

As a matter of fact our life was so tightly scheduled in 2013 with all its “stuff” that opportunity for spontaneity was non-existent.

This made me crazy… really almost crazy.

By the end of 2013 I was in tears with my husband as I broke down over the way the past year had played out. My health was declining and my mind was blown. I couldn’t even complete a sentence or remember what I was doing as I walked from one room into the next. I had watched several loved ones say their last goodbyes to husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, sisters… and all I could think about was how precious time is… and how I never had enough of it.

It was as if my whole life was just going from one event to the next… my concern of taking on the position of Children’s Ministry Director at my church was losing my own relationship with Christ. In October I went to a conference and one of the quotes I wrote down was, “Is the work I am doing for God destroying the work of God in me?”

I have to say this past year the answer to that question for me feels like yes…

So 2014 must be different.

I cannot be so busy doing the work of the Lord that I forget the Lord of the work (another quote from the conference)

I was full when I began this call, but this year ended with me empty… completely poured out… and weary.

This last month has been spent on the couch… having been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and having to have my husband and children literally carry me out of places due to the lack of my own ability to walk and also having sickness with a cough, fever, and congestion.

Our family will bring in the new year with antibiotics and cough medicine… but we will still bring it in together… and that’s what is important.

The past month of sickness has given me the opportunity to just rest. I have not set an alarm clock with the exception of Sunday mornings this entire month… but also in not doing so my “quiet time” with the Lord and my writing time has suffered. I had planned to do a lot of writing this month on Devotions From Exodus Part Two… but this body has not allowed it.

I debate almost daily on dropping this blog and social media thing and going back to the days of keeping all my thoughts and prayers safely tucked away in my spiral notebooks… it doesn’t make anyone mad there and I never flip back through the pages to see if anyone “liked” it, but so far I keep pecking away on this keyboard… hoping that with it someone will be served, encouraged, exhorted, reproofed, rebuked, taught, strengthened, or maybe even just made flat out mad by the realization that someone cared enough to “judge them” and force them to look at something in a different way.

As I stare at 2014 from the view point of my living room loveseat sickbed… I ponder how to do things better… allowing room for spontaneity and interruptions… because too often those are the God moments we miss because it’s not in our plans. I want our life to be open enough to go when He says go, to not quench the prompting of the Holy Spirit because we have to be somewhere at a certain time… but at the same time not to live aimlessly with no purposeful intentions.

I look at my girls and I know that we are over half-way on our opportunity to teach them and love them in the way this space of time allows us. It won’t be long that they will be out making their own choices and living with the consequences of them… I know that at any point and time what my husband and I teach them can become irrelevant to them. At any time the enemy could snatch their attention away from us and lead them into darkness. At any time… so that means we have to take advantage of this time, this day, this moment. This is our opportunity to build them up and train them and cover them in the armor of God before we shoot them into this world to be an example of Christ.

So for 2014… my goal is to slow down and be more here, just here.

Proven Path Ministries

As the Heart Turns

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I have been working on the handouts for the Romans study that I am doing with my kids at church. We are currently in Romans 10… as I was reading these verse and cross-referencing and looking up the original Greek I ended up in Deuteronomy.

…if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 

But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish.
(Deuteronomy 30:10-18)

What we can so clearly see in cross referencing Romans 10 and Deuteronomy 30  is that God has always asked for our heart… and He has always done all that is needed for us to give it.

He never asks more of us than we have the ability to give… because He never asks of us what He has not already accomplished for us. The beautiful thing is that we are justified and counted righteousness not for what we succeed in doing, but just simply what we step out in faith attempting.

Walking in His ways doesn’t mean we will always get it right… it just simply means our heart is turned toward Him.

Keeping His commandments doesn’t mean we will never break them… it just simply means our heart’s desire is to keep them and obey them and we know it and recognize it and acknowledge it when we don’t and when we find we can’t.

Turning our hearts toward Him is living a life or repentance not a life of perfection, but a life that is being perfected.

Turning our hearts toward Him causes us to take His Word as our very life… because it is.

In the study guide for the kids I asked:

Now think about it… who came to who? Did God come for you? Did He bring His Word and His salvation to you? How far do you have to go to be saved? What do you have to do?

How amazing is it that God made His gift of salvation so easy that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are at… anyone who believes can be saved. God brings His Word to us. Take a moment and just close your eyes and think about the Scripture verses that you have in your heart. Say one of them now. It doesn’t matter which one. Just say one.

See, God’s word is near you… in your mouth and in your heart.

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 

Romans 10:8-10

As the heart turns the mouth follows…

Proven Path Ministries

The Price is Right

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“What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?”

Matthew 26:15

Matthew 26:15 is Judas’ words to the chief priest who were out to silence Jesus. I read this verse and with our current events I couldn’t help but see the application today.

In this same chapter of Matthew we also are told of a woman who walks into the room with an alabaster jar of perfume and pours it out upon the hair and feet of Jesus.

This jar of perfume is believed to have been worth 300 denarius… a denarius was on the average a one day’s wage, so this perfume would have been almost an entire year’s pay for this woman.

Here we are given a stark contrast between this woman and a man named Judas… the measuring line being the worth they place on Christ. This woman came humbly and gave Him her very best. She poured out quite possibly her life’s savings onto the feet of this man who was like no man she had ever known. In this act she showed that there was nothing in this world worth more to her than Him.

Many today would respond as the disciples…

“But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.” (Matthew 26:8-9)

I suppose this was not very morally responsible of this woman now was it? She could have fed hundreds on that perfume, yet she just poured it out on someone’s head and dirty feet. Oh the waste!

No what she did might not have been morally responsible, but it was indeed theologically correct…

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.

Psalm 23:5

Now on the other hand… we have Judas.

Now he was indeed morally responsible. After all the morality police of the day had determined that this Jesus was causing an uproar in the community. I mean He was breaking their Sabbath and causing people to question their teachings… This Jesus might be theologically correct but He simply was not being morally responsible… I mean look who He associated with.

So Judas, feeling morally responsible, asks… what will you give me to betray Him?

Jesus said of the woman, “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” (Matthew 26:13)

For this woman the worth of Christ outweighed any moral responsibility of her current culture. Had she given this perfume to the poor she would have been celebrated and given her own holiday… people would have waved to her and thanked her for her great generosity… but instead she walked in and through knowing tears she poured it out on One.

Though she was mocked, though others snarled their nose at her, though some gawked at her audacity to even enter the room… she came and poured out her best for Him.

I wonder if she was sitting outside the door as He spoke to the disciples… I wonder if she heard Jesus speak of His death… of what was to come… and instead of being like the disciples with their hands over their ears claiming that would never happen… she walked in knowing that if Jesus said it, it was as good as done.

She made her choice based on the word of God… not moral responsibility.

Moral responsibility sways with the culture… you see moral responsibility led good Germans to turn in even family members hiding those nasty Jews. Moral responsibility euthanizes the elderly and terminally ill and aborts babies with deformities because they are better off that way.

You see if your morality is not based on correct theology its ability to discern right and wrong and decide worth is askew.

For the woman with the alabaster box… Jesus was worth more than 300 denarius equivalent to over 100 shekels.

For Judas… Jesus was worth 30 shekels… not even one third of the cost of the woman’s perfume.

For the woman their was no price too high to pay for the opportunity to honor her Lord…

For Judas the price offered him was enough to betray Him… and after all it was the morally responsible thing to do.

So I ask you, what has been offered you to turn your back on Christ?

Is there anything in your life right now that you have exchanged for Christ?

What worth have you placed on Him?

What has He cost you?

What price are you willing to pay?

 

 

Proven Path Ministries

Thou Shall Not Be Shocked

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Here we are today in week 3 of our Advent 2013 season… and I see that all over Facebook is the reaction to Phil Robertson’s A&E ban from Duck Dynasty… my question is for those who profess to be believers… Why so shocked?

This candle #3 of Advent was to represent Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for rejoice. In this week we are to remember that we are to rejoice in all things.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.

The Lord is near.

Philippians 4:4-5

What happened to the rejoicing this week?

Persecution should give us reason to shout and rejoice… not grow angry and stiff-necked.

…after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Acts 5:40-42

Once again it just seems like a whole bating thing to me. Let’s get them “christians” all worked up and mad over stuff that don’t mean jack, Jack! Please… is this not the whole Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays all over again. The Black Thursday vs Black Friday. The Abercrombie & Fitch distraction away from the abortionist trial. With common core, obamacare, cutting our military, and all the other political foolishness that is trying to get pushed through in this presidency… our backs should not go up against the wall over Phil. Let’s stay focused here people. I dare say that Phil has not once asked for anyone to get behind him and support him… however I would guess that he would indeed love for you to get behind his Christ. Follow Him… and boast in Him and His cross… and be willing to come behind Him carrying your own.

How easily we forget that we forfeited our “rights” the moment we died in Christ.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

John 15:18-20

Our nation has been polluted for too long with a false christianity… and well persecution does an amazing job of weeding out the weeds.

I remember when I was in high school and trying out for sports, one of the ways the coach would make first cuts would be to run us like crazy… those who really didn’t want to be on the team would not show up for another tryout date. However those that truly loved the game and were willing to give it all they had would persevere through the tryouts.

It’s been pretty darn easy to be a Christian here in America for the last 200 or so years. It’s been so long since we have known what persecution was that we find ourselves standing with mouths gaped open over the ridiculousness of what is happening in our nation. We should not be so surprised…

Perhaps God is ready to begin vomiting the lukewarm out of His mouth. Here in America we have become better at marketing Christianity than actually living it. We don’t have to share the gospel with others, we just need to by the t-shirt. We don’t have to do what Jesus would do… just wear the bracelet. We don’t actually have to go to church in our cars… just put a fish magnet on the back.

It’s easy to say you love Jesus when the crowds shout Hosanna… but when they shout Crucify… that’s a little different now isn’t it.

I read the GQ article… I had too skim through the language… the writer was much more rude and course than Phil… and well he also wrote in a very condescending and ridiculing tone… at least that is how I read it. He also was able to pick and choose what parts of Phil’s words he wanted to use to get across his own agenda concerning the article. Which by all means is his right… he’s the writer. I can choose whether or not his view is one I share or even care about.

Let’s face it. This is the day we live in… it is indeed a reprobate day.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20-21

I was piled up on the couch today watching old “Good Times” episodes with my family. In one of those episodes Florida looks at James and says, “we might not be able to change the world, but we sure can keep the world from changing us“

As I was looking for the episode in which the above quote was shared I came across this one and decided to share it instead…

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

Dear World, I am a Christian

confessions

I started out my blogging days sharing my own personal trials and struggles… as I have blogged further my blog has transformed more into a teaching blog with an occasional “here’s where I am today” post. It’s not that I have become less insecure in myself, or have felt the need to become private… it’s just that it’s the turn this ride has taken.

I have realized that the world knowing my opinion on all things is not really relevant to anyone’s spiritual growth… if anything it can be the cause of someone’s stunted growth. I just want to teach the Word… most of my blog posts high word count is due to quoted Scripture… unfortunately this means they usually don’t go viral… most people had rather spread one person condemning another… like the mother posting the pictures of her half-naked sons while she condemns the girls who post themselves half naked… or the woman who is giving marital advice after only being married for a year… spreading like wildfire I tell ya!

However I do have my own opinions about things, and well also, I have learned that there are just a few things in this world that I could just care less about… and so after my disclosure about how I rarely post stuff like this anymore… here I go posting it. Here’s my letter to “the world”.

Dear World,

I am a Christian. I understand that you have been given some crazy examples of me throughout the years. I doubt I can clear them all up in this letter, but let me just try to clarify a few things. First of all, I loved you. I mean I really loved you. I craved everything you had to offer me. The fame, the money, the success. I desired your ocean views, your mountain tops, your white sand of the deserts, even your jungles… I mean welcome to the jungle, you got fun and games…

You see I liked the idea of having someone do everything for me, however I still didn’t want anyone telling me what to do. That’s what it meant to conquer you. I had to be on top of you, looking down on everyone and everything else. Everyone would wait on me and I would treat people however I liked and no one would say a word. They would watch me spiral down into the depths of depravity and addiction before anyone every tried to tell me what to do, think, or feel… as long as I was helping them on their pursuit to conquer you too. Then the kicker would be to smile down on all the little people below me, the ones worshipping me, screaming my name, with my best “oh you guys just make my life complete” smile and wave from your stage. I might have to deny my dignity, but it would be okay because you would give me power.

I had no problem with your Playboy, strip joints, or porn shows. I had no concern about the sacredness of anything, no problems with homosexuality, divorce, shacking-up, I mean really what was the big deal. I had no qualms against abortion, after all its better to be dead than unwanted… right?

Right?

Yes, that’s what I thought. It was better to be dead… than unwanted. So today as a Christian, I realize it was never really about you World. It was about being wanted. I thought you would provide that for me, but you always left me… well… wanting. The problem wasn’t you, it was me… and no, I am sorry, we can’t be friends.

You see I have learned that you are one big pot stirrer. I also have learned that you bear false witness a lot. I mean the only Christians I remember ever learning about from you were the Crusaders who killed people, those mass leaders who made people drink poisoned kool-aid, and those weird acting men on tv shows who got caught cheating on their wives.

But one day this crazy thing happened.  I decided that I would stop listening to what you had to say… and I would find out what was in this book called the Holy Bible for myself. You would not believe the stuff that is in that book! I found out that those Crusaders, and mass leaders, and weird acting tv show guys didn’t line up with what this book said a Christian was… I was perplexed to say the least.

Then one day it happened… I was wanted. Wanted in a way that I had never known before. Wanted by Someone who was able to call out to me from, and in a place, that I didn’t even know existed. It was wild. It was the most real thing that I have ever experienced. I died right there. Everything about you in me died. My eyes were opened to who you really were… and that’s why I am telling you we just can’t be friends.

However I still live here for now… and please don’t think I have not noticed you trying to flirt with me. I see it, I really do. You do not go unnoticed by me. Please know that it is really hard to not flirt back, but you see I just love my Jesus to much to hurt Him like that.

The truth is sometimes your flirting, just flat out makes me furious. Sometimes its easier to fight your beckoning in anger… so I lash out and tell everyone how you and everyone in you are going to hell… and well, although that’s kind of true, your actually going to just be obliterated and replaced, but it’s not really very kind of me to get all fired up and mean about it. It doesn’t really help me to reach others in you who have been just as blinded by your sirens song as I was once.

So here are a few things…

I really don’t care whether you wish me a Happy Holidays or a Merry Christmas. I don’t really care if you offer big sales on Thanksgiving. These are your holidays after all. God didn’t give them to me. Jesus never asked me to remember Him in this way… so go ahead make my day. Sale away! I mean I won’t be there for the sales, because people generally are just not at their best after overeating and no sleeping… I kind of see the worst of you on those days… and it just makes me sad.

Oh and by the way, I really find it funny when you try to tell me how I should talk to you and what I should never say to you… it really makes me, l-o-l. Although I find it very hard to not get defensive when you write books and make “documentaries” about my Jesus that are so fabricated that it is on the verge of insanity. However I have watched my Jesus, and He never defended Himself… so I am learning to only speak when it benefits Him, not me… and the truth always rises to the top.

I really do despise the way you have sexualized everything. I mean what does a cheeseburger have to do with a female’s behind. I find this to be the most accurate picture of modern day whoredom.. and I have the hardest time maintaining any speck of respect for any female who does these commercials or any person who says they are a Christian and still gives God’s money to buy these cheeseburgers which in turn is used to make these ads

The truth is World… I understand where you are at. I get it. I get that all those who are of you are blinded by you… well you are going to do what you are going to do because it’s your nature. I get that. The thing is I really just get the most ticked… at those who use my name… but crawl into bed with you. Here is where I have to bite my tongue almost off. I mean I can roll my eyes at you…. but them I want to choke.

I really struggle with the ones who claim to love Jesus one day, but then on the next day they are boasting on social media about how they are forsaking their family to meet their own selfish desires… and then to read all the “you go girl” comments about it… I am sorry that you have to see things like that. I am sorry that it is people who use my name that gives you the most ammunition against my Jesus. I also really struggle with the people who lie about their pastors and use the Word of my God as their reason to walk out of their marriages and then all of a sudden portray to have some awesome insightful relationship with God… it’s quite misconstruing to you, I get that, I really do.

I understand that when you see us join in with those forsaking their children and leaving their raising and learning completely up to you so that we can accumulate more and more and more of your goods… I mean storage building are popping up like wildflowers all over the sides of the roads, because we just can’t hold all our stuff in these little 1000+ square feet houses. I can see how that could be a little confusing to you.

Oh and yes I know… you have given it to us… and we love it… but college football. I know, I know, I know… yes I am writing to you from Alabama. Yes I see how all day Saturday, you sit and scroll down the newsfeed as people tear each other apart, accusing, ridiculing, cussing, slandering, exaggerating, getting flat out spitting mad at each other over a game. I mean they have stats memorized from 50 years back… but if you were to ask them how to be saved… they couldn’t quote you one Scripture. Yes, I do see you shaking your head in agreement, but they do usually always disclose by the end of the night after they have said their piece that God is #1. They do have to see these people in “Big Church” the next day, you know.

I mean I watch these commentators act so serious as they talk about how many yards so and so stretched out… now don’t get me wrong, I really like football… I used to be the hugest fan… I still cheer my favorite team on, when I get a chance to watch the game, but for me I found it was hard to follow Jesus and be a good wife and a good mother and still try to keep up with who was number 10. There is only so much room in my brain, and knowing the line up on this years team was not going to help me teach the doctrine of salvation to a dead soul.

I know what you are thinking… if they could just take this same passion and use it in ways that actually matter we would so kick your butt. I mean if we poured that money, time, and effort into helping orphans and widows and reaching real hurting people… you would be out of business because people would be so in love with the REAL Jesus… they could no longer be satisfied with the glitter of your fake reality… my goodness… a Christian can only dream.

I could go on, I really could, but I think I will close it up… once again I am way over the current word number for the recommended attention span of todays readers and there is no commercial break… oops, there’s another one. It just kind of slipped on out there. Forgive me.

Well, World, in closing, just let me say that it had been fun, I mean really parts of you were an absolute blast… but the more I got to know you, the less I liked you and the deeper in you I went the less I liked me… and well now that I see you through the eyes of a Christian, you break my heart. You see, my God so loved those in you that He sent His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life. That is something you can never offer anyone. Your pleasures are short and fleeting and they will never satisfy.

I truly am sorry for the way so many have misrepresented my name. Some of them were just ignorant, some just needed to spend more time getting to know Jesus and probably after they did have felt rotten about how they spoke or acted in their ignorance (I know I can say that about myself). However the truth is, not everyone who says they are me… are really me.

If you really want to get to know me… you have to read about my Namesake. You have to learn about Him and you have to learn about His Father and His Holy Spirit… and you really need to just go ahead and start at the beginning. Let Him know that you are interested in finding out the truth about Him. You have to put away all of us who say that we are Christians, because the truth is, we simply do not always represent Him very well at all.  You will understand all this much better if you ever get to really know Him yourself. The struggle of being called by His name when you really are of Him will all of a sudden make perfect sense to you. You will learn to depend on and to often extend to others this thing called grace.

Sincerely,

A Christian

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advent Study, Proven Path Ministries

The Candle of the Way

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Jesus said to him, 

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life;

no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 14:6

This Sunday was the lighting of the second Advent candle… the Bethlehem Candle or the Candle of the Way…

second-day-of-advent

The beautiful purpose for this candle is to remind us of all the prophets who proclaimed that the way of salvation would come through God through One. From the beginning the promised seed was a singular seed… their would always be only one one Son. The eyes of the people of Israel and the eyes of every people that had ever heard of the promise were always watching for the One.

There has never been many ways to the Father… their has always only been One.

To Adam and Eve came the promise of a seed…

To Noah and his wife the covenant was given to carry through great judgement…

Through Shem and his wife the promised carried on…

To Abram and Sarai the blessing was bestowed and the promise of a son of promise was given, and by faith they believed and were made new and given new names to illustrate their faith, Abraham and Sarah… when their bodies were dead out of death God would bring forth life… and Isaac would be born. Abraham would be known as the friend of God.

To Isaac and Rebekah- To Jacob and Leah… it’s funny, to this day I am still perplexed that the promised seed of God would carry through the youngest son of Leah, the wife that Jacob hated and was deceived into marrying… by human standards you would think surely it would be the first born of Rachel, the wife that Jacob loved all along, but God doesn’t do much of anything according to human reasoning and understanding… does He.

To Judah and Tamar- a woman unwed… a single mother as we would call her in our day, would carry this promised seed through their son Perez…

To Salmon and a harlot from Jericho named Rahab… to her son Boaz and a widow from Moab who would travel with her mother-in-law to meet him in a little town called Bethlehem- Ruth would have a son, who would have a son, would have a son named David… who would be the greatest king Israel would know and a man whom God would call a man after His Own heart.

To David a covenant would be made that from him would come the Son who would rule over not all of Israel, but over all the world… from him would be born the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. The promise of this son would be carried through the womb of a woman that David would be the picture of David’s lowest point in his life… a moment that would change the course of his life and the life of his family forever… Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah… Solomon would lose the majority of his father’s kingdom because of his hunger for sin and it would only be the promise of God to his father and his father’s fathers that would sustain the hope and life of this people of God.

Prophet after prophet would come and remind the people of Israel of the promise. Prophet after prophet would come to add a little more information to how the Messiah would come…

What would be the way? How would they know? Would they recognize the King? How long will it be?

  But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.

Micah 5:2-3

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Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:

Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son,

and she will call His name Immanuel

Isaiah 7:14

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I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near;
A star shall come forth from Jacob,
A scepter shall rise from Israel,

Numbers 24:17

There would be 400 years of silence to the people of Israel. The prophets would stop… but the promise would remain.

Then one day, when many in Israel where no longer looking, when priests and scribes had decided to come up with their own way to salvation… There would, in this day, be born the One, this Immanuel, God with us, to a young virgin girl named Mary… and this One would rock not just the nation of Israel, but the entire world, and not just for a time… but for all eternity!

The seed of promise was here! The way of salvation had come. Here He was this little child, laying in the arms of a woman who would care for Him and be smiled upon by a man named Joseph who would protect Him as his own son. They would guard Him, this treasure in a jar of clay, with their very lives… to only watch Him one day bear their own sin on His this body on a cross on a hill called Calvary…

Remembering that unless that seed dies… it cannot bring forth life.

The enemy of the promise thought he had won… after all he had watched the seed of promise pass from father to son for thousands of years… he had tried for ages to destroy it… but had never been able to succeed… and now finally he had done it!

This seed of promise was dead… with no son to carry on the promise… so the enemy of the promise thought.

The enemy didn’t catch that unless the seed dies it cannot bring forth life… the sons that would be born of this seed would not be according to the flesh.

 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:12-14

His death would be the way of salvation for all who would believe.

Those who would follow Him would even be known as the people of the Way…

But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; having a hope in God…

Acts 24:14-15

Before they were known as Christians as they were known as the Way… because He had said to them…

 

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life;

no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 14:6

Poetry, Proven Path Ministries

Hope

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Hope

He alone provides our peace
Opens our hearts, gives light to our eyes
Patiently He calls, awaits our pause
Engaging us here in the depths of our souls

Hear is voice so still so sweet
On bended knee hear Him speak
Praise His name with lips of thanks
Enter His gates with feet of dance

Hope in Him for our God is great
Order your steps to walk in His ways
Prove His Word with each step of faith
Exalt His name for His wondrous grace

Happy are all who call on His name
Our joy is full our sins erased
Placed as far as the east from west
Eternally secure in Christ is our rest

Hills may come yet even mountains flee
Ordered by Him obey even the wind and sea
Picture Him now in His glorious light
Ever sovereign on His brides behalf He fights

How beautiful my Savior- why in we He delights
Often we fail Him yet He softens His eyes
Purposed are we to be conformed into Him
Engraved on His heart to finish what He begins

Help is found in trusting His Word
Obedience to Him is the fruit He seeks
Pleasing to Him is the surrender to His will
Everlasting lovingkindness in Him be still

~ NLHV

Adventskranz 1. Advent

Advent Study, Proven Path Ministries

The Last Advent Post for the Candle of Hope

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Today is the last post from the candle of hope… tomorrow we light the candle of the way.

So far we have looked at hope through the eyes of Creation, Eve, Rahab, and Ruth… today we will look at hope through the eyes of a woman named Bathsheba.

So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

2 Samuel 11:3

As I researched the name of Bathsheba, what I learned was that her name meant, daughter of an oath.

From the knowledge of this definition of her name, I found myself researching oaths in Scripture…

This is the word which the Lord has commanded. If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Numbers 30:1-2

The whole chapter of Numbers 30 teaches us how God feels about oaths, about vows, about promises that we make with the words of our mouth. I encourage you to read the whole chapter because these are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses, as between a man and his wife, and as between a father and his daughter, while she is in her youth in her father’s house (Numbers 30:16).

Bathsheba, daughter of an oath, the wife of Uriah… this woman did not belong to David… she never did… and she never would. She was the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah.

In the New Testament, in the book of Matthew when we read the ancestry of Christ, in the English translation we read…

David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.

Matthew 1:6

However, in the original language Bathsheba’s name is not written, it simply reads, David moreover begat the Solomon out of the one who had been wife of Uriah…

When I researched the definition of Uriah’s name I discovered that it meant, the flame of God.

Solomon’s name comes from the Hebrew word shalom which means peace.

David’s name comes from the Hebrew word dod which means beloved or love.

So we could read this verse in Matthew as the Beloved moreover begat the Peace out of the Flame of God

Now go with me for a moment into my train of thought…

Beloved {…for God is love (1 John 4:8)}

moreover begat the Peace {…so that in Me you may have peace. (John 16:33), For He Himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:14)}

out of the Flame of God {And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3-4), The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)}

Our God begot the Son according to the flesh out of the Holy Spirit within the womb of a woman because of the oath of hope He made to a woman in the very beginning… an oath that came as the result of a great transgression that was rooted in deception against an oath between God and His beloved

 

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Genesis 3:15

Bringing it now back to Bathsheba… the daughter of an oath. There have been many who have tried to condemn Bathsheba in this predicament of David’s. Yet I see nothing in Scripture where God condemns her… as a matter of fact God never gives ownership of her to David… always in Scripture she is the wife of Uriah.

David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 

2 Samuel 11:4

David took her. She did not come a calling. It appears to me that he took her against her will and raped her. We see clearly in Scripture that she grieved over this transgression. We see her unwilling to cover for David and allow him to not be held accountable for what he did to her.

The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

2 Samuel 11:5

Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.

2 Samuel 11:26

The word for mourned in this verse is saphad and it means to tear the hair and beat the breasts; generally to lament; by implication, to wail — lament. Bathsheba was a broken woman and she was broken by the hands of David… who would now take responsibility for her and God would redeem this crazy twisted mess through the son of Bathsheba, the daughter of an oath, would have a son who would be the one who would carry the oath of the Son of David who would be the very Son of God, Jesus the Messiah.

Bathsheba was a woman who held on to an oath and was not afraid to call a king on it. As we look at the wives of David, she is the only wife who ever walks into David’s chamber and demands he keep his word. She did it respectfully… but she indeed did it. 

 So Bathsheba went in to the king in the bedroom. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king. Then Bathsheba bowed and prostrated herself before the king. And the king said, “What do you wish?” She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your maidservant by the Lord your God, saying, ‘Surely your son Solomon shall be king after me and he shall sit on my throne.’ Now, behold, Adonijah is king; and now, my lord the king, you do not know it. 

1 Kings 1:15-18

She was daughter of an oath… and oaths were meant to be kept. As we consider Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, in the lineage of our Christ as we look at this candle of hope in Advent… what I see is that she is a another picture of Romans 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

I can’t imagine the hurt this woman experienced as she was taken by the highest authority in her land, conceived a child through a sexual encounter, had her husband killed by the one who took her, then looses the life of the child because of the sin of the one who took her… how she must have felt like a powerless pawn in the hands of man.

Yet, at the same time I see a woman filled with the hope of the knowledge of an eternally good God. One who knew oaths were meant to be kept and God Himself watched over them… this was her hope and this is our hope. God’s Word is true…

Forever, O Lord,
Your word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:89

 

We will see this even more next week as we look at our next candle in the Advent wreath… the Candle of the Way.

Adventskranz 1. Advent

Advent Study, Proven Path Ministries

Hope from a Harlot

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Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope for His lovingkindness,

Psalm 33:18

In our first Advent post we looked at the candle of hope through the life of Ruth… as we continue to look at the female ancestry, according to the flesh, of our Savior this Advent, let me first ask you, where do you think Boaz, the husband of Ruth, got his heart for her?

Have you ever pondered why this man… this mature wealthy upstanding Israelite, would be willing to risk it all for this destitute young widow from Moab? 

Could it possibly be that because this man Boaz was the son of a woman from Jericho named Rahab?

Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. 

Joshua 2:1

Rahab in the Hebrew is rachab and it simply means a harlot in Jericho. The word origin is a verb and means enlarge, to be or grow wide or large, make room, make open wide. It can also be translated as extends, rejoice, relieved, speaks boldly.

Ponder with me for a moment on this woman we all know only by, hey- she’s a harlot in Jericho. I doubt seriously that her mother gave birth to this young woman, and held her in her arms and looked up to her husband with his proud beaming eyes and said, honey, let’s name her Rahab, she will be the best whore Jericho has ever known!

We will never know, this side of eternity, the name by which she was called when she was carried by her father and held closely to her mother’s chest… but we know that she loved her family. She loved them so much that she was willing to risk her own life and dignity to provide for them and to save their lives.

Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

Joshua 2:12-13

We also know that she feared the Lord our God. She has heard about the God of Israel. She had heard what happened in Egypt. What we see in her, is that she placed no faith or allegiance to the gods of Jericho… she was a woman who seemed to recognize pretense when she saw it. Yet, she also recognized truth.

I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, 

Joshua 2:9-12

This woman was known as a harlot in Jericho, but she displayed the original verb form of this name by which she was called…

She was not out just for herself, she expanded the scope her hope of salvation to her whole household. She was out to enlarge not to belittle. Her door was open wide to the spies… not for business… but for protection. She was willing to make room in her home for them and she was not afraid to ask that their doors be opened wide for her and her family. She was not afraid to ask these men who were enemies of her land to make room for her and her whole family in theirs. She spoke boldly.

I am sure she also breathed relief and rejoiced when the spies said…

 “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

The men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household. 

Joshua 2:14, 17-18

 

So Rahab gathered her family and she hung that cord of scarlet in her window and she waited for the hope of their salvation…

How fitting it would be that one day her son, whom she would name Boaz, would take for a wife a Moab widow named Ruth… whose name meant cord.

He would be this woman’s hope as that scarlet cord that hung in the window of a home in Jericho was his mother’s.

Who better than he, would know not to judge a woman by her circumstances but judge her by her heart. Who better than he would not be turned away from a foreigner, but would be willing to open wide and make room for her in his heart and home. Who better than he would see this woman through eyes of mercy and grace…

How beautiful it is that God records their names, these particular names, for us, in the lineage of His Son. His Son who takes a bride of sketchy background and harlotry ways and redeems her and gives her HOPE. Who with arms open wide and a heart enlarged, speaks boldly on behalf of His bride, His family- the children of God- and makes room for them in the land of Eternity…

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

John 14:1-3

Rahab knew what it was to make room and to have room made… and I have no doubt that within the heart of her son she spoke the same truth… take them as they are son… extend hope, extend grace, extend mercy, trust in the One True Living God… and obey Him, love all as you have been loved… let God be God… when you see a chance to save, to help, to restore, to redeem… do it… make room.

 

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

Psalm 4:1

Advent Study, Proven Path Ministries

Hope in the Palm Tree

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Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

Genesis 38:6

This Advent as I ponder the candle of hope… and look at the ancestors of Christ… it was not my original intent to share of the female ancestry, but it seems I keep going there. So far we have looked at Ruth and Eve. This morning when I pondered who I would study, my mind went to Tamar. Since this seems to be the pattern that God is setting in my heart… the rest of the week we will continue to look at hope through the lives of the women in the lineage of Christ.

The story of Judah is a twisted one. One of the most mind-blowing, yet at the same time relief-giving realizations in the Scriptures is the fact that God works His redemption plan through the lives of some desperately wicked people. God doesn’t hide their sickness. He lets us plainly see the incurable nature of their sin and the effects of its disease within us and how it affects others as well.

We are all Enosh… incurable, desperately sick, desperately wicked… we all need a Savior.

Judah was no different… neither was the woman we will look at today- Tamar.

When ever in the Scriptures, God says something like, their name was…  I encourage you to take the time to look up the meaning of that name. There is a reason God recorded it and protected it for thousands of years.

When I looked up Tamar this morning I learned that in the Hebrew her name means palm tree. I read that and I thought, well okay… palm tree. Hmmmmm…. what on earth does that mean? So, I researched palm trees and what I learned made me go, Oooooh, PALM TREE!

Yes, I love wikipedia… so to wikipedia we go. Here is some information on palm trees. I have put in bold the information that made me go, Ooooooh PALM TREE!:

The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial lianas, shrubs, and trees commonly known as palms. (Due to historical usage, the family is alternatively called Palmae or Palmaceae.) They are flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales.

Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves arranged at the top of an unbranched stem. However, many palms are exceptions, and in fact exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics. As well as being morphologically diverse, palms also inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts.

Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families. They have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are also widely used in landscaping for their exotic appearance, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, and fertility. 

Whether as shrubs, trees, or vines, palms have two methods of growth: solitary or clustered. The common representation is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, and trunk-forming members. Some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea. Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters. The trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud and a clustering habit results. Exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans, Guihaia, and Rhapis. Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members. Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters, and vice versa. These aberrations suggest the habit operates on a single gene.

Visions Palm-Trees

What I love about our God is His attention always to detail.

You see Judah’s son would be the appointed line of the Messiah…

Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” 

Revelation 5:4-5

However God had specifically chosen not only Judah’s son… but that this son would be born from the womb of Tamar. God chose Judah, but He had also chosen Tamar, just as He had chosen Sarah, just as He had chosen Rebekah.

The deceitfulness of man will never stop the purpose of God.

Judah’s sons were wicked, yet Judah was convinced Tamar was the curse. Judah then showed his own wickedness as he took this “prostitute” and then, when he discovered Tamar pregnant from doing the very same thing he had done, he was ready to stone her…

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 

John 8:3-5

Tamar sent strong convicting evidence, of the one by whom she had conceived, to Judah. When Tamar presented the proof of the one whose child she carried… Judah was in a pickle.

He could still stone her to not expose his own sin, to save his own face, but to kill her, he would have to kill his own child… Judah instead humbled himself, admitted his own hypocrisy, and lifted Tamar up, and brought her home.

But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

John 8:6-7 

Judah forgave her and dropped his stone out of mutual guilt, and not just that, but he also took Tamar’s sin upon himself. What she did was not right, she had still committed adultery, and with her father-in-law, which would be condemned in writing when the Law would be recorded by the hand of Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. Yet Judah, knew that what she did, was a result of his own sin against her. He was supposed to protect her and provide for her, but he had forsaken her.

Judah forgives her and she him and they are reconciled and Perez, one of the twins that would be born to them, would have a son, who would have a son, who would one day be married to a girl who would have a son, who would forgive, not out of mutual guilt but out of abundant mercy and grace.

and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

John 8:9-11

When Judah brought Tamar home, he did not bring her home to be his wife… but to be the mother of their son. Forgiveness and reconciliation is only complete when followed by, go and sin no more…

And he did not have relations with her again.

Genesis 38:26

Had Judah taken Tamar as a wife, then the whole redemptive picture of this moment would be maligned. It would now become a sick perverted twisted modern day American sitcom, but that is not what this moment in time in the lives of Judah and Tamar, in the lineage of our Christ, was about… not at all.

If we read this picture, and others recorded for us in the Scriptures, of our human failures and yet God’s unrelenting faithfulness, and see in it permission to sin… we are blind. Blind to the beauty of the grace of God. Blind to the cost of the blood that flowed willingly from the side of a man who cried, Father forgive them they no not what they do…

Blind to the One who is our HOPE.

The One born from Judah and woman named Tamar… the One who hung on a tree for us. The One who stems from the Only Unbranched Stem of God, the One who would build a church that would exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and would inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. The One who would be the firstborn of the best known and most extensively cultivated family on earth important to humans throughout much, no all, of history. The One who would not just be symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, and fertility but would be our Victory, our Peace, and our Eternal Life! The One’s whose family operates on a single gene. The seed of God!

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 

Galatians 3:16

Adventskranz 1. Advent