Smoldering Stubs

This past week has been long and hard.  Various things were going on, it almost seemed like there was a problem in every area of my life.  There were a  few 'impossible' situations to deal with or at least think of the best way they should be dealt with.  Someone dear to my heart was hospitalized.  One of my children got put into a bad situation that couldn't really be avoided.  Old health problems coming back.  Divorce attorney, that just says stress.  Bad news here and hard times there.  

I found myself crying out 'Where are you God?  What is going on?"  I remember hearing Elizabeth Elliot say it is not our place to question God, only to trust Him.  As I picked up the "Solution (aka God's Word)" too look for the right answer.  I read Isaiah 7.  It says something like this.  King David's family was told that a couple of kings were getting together to go against them. The Bible records their hearts were shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.  That really caught my attention.  That was how I felt this very week.  I had been, once again, shaken.  Shaken hard.  I knew my answer was here.  Then God spoke, He told Isaiah to go tell David's family,  "Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood".  Really?  I had to stop and think.  Keep calm.  Don't be afraid.  Smoldering stubs?  I suppose to God that was all it is.  No big deal.  Just some smoldering stubs not two big, huge armies. Then the Lord told them what would and wouldn't happen.  God said "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."  

Wow!  I really can understand the response because this is just how I felt between the time I read what God said and that response.  David's family said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”  Oops.  God pretty much said, guys, don't try my patience, just do what your told.  My words of course.   

 I would love to have the faith that Mrs. Elliot had, never questioning always believing.  At this point in my life I don't.  I am more like the Israelites wondering in the desert grumbling and complaining.  When will this end?  Will I eat beans and rice forever?  Did you bring me out here to kill me?  Am I going to die before I ever even see the promised land?  More like David's family being shaken and saying, 'No way will I test God'.  But, here He is right when I ask.  With just the right answers.  Telling me that it is not only okay to ask Him for a sign that I will one day leave the dessert but that it is His idea in the first place.  Even a big sign.  Even though I took what I had just read as my 'sign' being me, I asked God to give me another sign.  It may take awhile as it isn't something that could happen right away.  In spite of having to wait, God chose to give me a different sign.  A list of things I have learned from the rough week.  Things He is using to mold me into who He wants me to be.  Things I would have never learned otherwise.  Things I can share and use.  It looks something like this.

God is faithful even if I am not.

He has a plan and it will work out because He can see the whole picture not just the one pixel that I see.

I can be my own attorney in a lot of ways.

He loves my children more than I ever could.

The court house is a bounty of free information and help!

People are more willing to do their job when you treat them like people.

People want you to say Thank you.

All hard work brings profit.

Don't believe every 'that is impossible' you hear.

Keep calm.

Don't be afraid.

It is no big deal to God and HE is still on the Throne.

He works it out in the end.

This is about Him and not me.

I know Mrs. Elliot went through some very hard times in her life.  To never question worked for her.  But, I am not her.  God has not only allowed me to question, He has let me know that as long as I am working to serve Him, He will meet me where I am.  He delights to make smoldering stubs out the times when life shakes us like trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

 

Enlightened Romance

Have you ever stopped and thought about what real romance is?  Years ago, I spent too much time reading romance novels.  From the time I was a young girl I read various novels putting one down to find myself empty and picking up the next to refill the void.  When the Lord came and claimed me for His own He also impressed upon me to stop reading these novels.  I have to admit that it was hard going.  But He gave me the strength to do it and He also gave me something to occupy my time.  The Bible.  At this time in my life I was very ignorant of God's Word.  I had no idea that it was THE most romantic book on the face of the earth!  I'm not talking Samson and Delia, which to me seems more like two people who have some serious issues.  Certainly, not David and Bathsheba we won't go there.  I am talking about the stories like we read in John 20.  One of my favorite stories in the Bible.  The story of Mary's broken heart and eternal fulfillment. 

Early in the morning we find Mary going to the Tomb of Jesus to discover the stone removed.  I picture it as a highly emotional event.  She had likely cried for days and this morning her tears were spent.  She walks closer, her heart starts to pound, thoughts flood her mind, she turns and runs for help.  When she meets Peter she quickly tells him what has happened.  Peter is definately known to be a very emotional man.  We never read that he tried to clam her like someone with less zeal might have done.  He just took off running as fast as he could go.  He came to the same conclusion, the stone was gone and so was the body.  With nothing left he went home to soak it all in but Mary, she stayed.  And there she stood crying as she gave one last glaze into the tomb.  She must have been shocked to see the two angels. They questioned her tears and she responded that her Lord had been taken (I am ready to cry at this point!) and she did not know where He had been taken to.  At this she turned, (hold your hats girls, this is the good stuff!) and saw a man (not knowing it was Jesus she thought he was the gardner) he asked who she was looking for.  She replied heart broken and desperate, as tears formed and rolled off her cheeks.  Tears she thought were gone after days of heart wrenching sobs.  "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  Can't you just hear His soft, tender voice, the voice of Love itself!!  Then she got it, she recognized Him.  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).  WOW!  To me these few little words are more romantic than the books I used to read front to back!  "Mary!"  "Rabboni!"  My spirit wells inside me when I read it.  It had to be this same voice, this same Love that called me.  The same call during a time of broken desperate sobs.  Oh, to be sure, God Loves us.  God Himself is Love, He is the author of true romance, the kind that fulls your heart forever, not temporarily.  True love that will last throughout eternity.  The Love our Creator has for us should make our hearts sing.  We should be hungry for Him.  We are hungry for Him, sometimes we just get our fill in other places.  But I am hear to tell you, there is nothing in this world that can fulfill every part of your being like God can.  It is truly what we are made for.  As you read this I pray that you are enlightened to true romance and

[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!