Preparation for Hard Times ~ Warplanes 2

 We're in Chapter 9 of Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGard Smith. As I said yesterday, the hard times make life difficult for everyone. But the sneak attacks might take you by surprise in a whole different way. Maybe you've been diligent about your Bible reading and prayer. You're feeling particularly good about your relationship with God and with Jesus. Your heart feels lighter and more spiritual than it has in many years.

Then you notice that you feel lonely in a room full of friends. You got up feeling spunky, but are still sitting in front of the television set at 3 in the afternoon. The energy for that new project suddenly tanks, and in any case you don't know what was so good about it in the first place. What's going on here? The spiritual invaders are dive bombing right into your life in a sneak attack. You feel tired and you're tempted to give up--to compromise to get some peace.

But there's the rub: compromising on your spiritual ideals to gain peace is not a true or lasting or fulfilling peace. Why not? Because life is all about conflict. The kind of peace you truly want doesn't come with ending the conflict, but in dealing with it...toe to toe, so to speak. And the battleground? Your own heart. What!? Are you telling me that I'm creating my own misery? 

No, I'm not telling you...James is telling you, when he says in his letter: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" Wait a minute...are you blaming me for the sneak attacks!!!? I'm sabotaging MYSELF!?

Unfortunately, it's those sneak attack desires that bring conflict...being greedy, or coveting what others have, or pride that keeps you from moving forward. Yes, it's a long list of things that take you by surprise, and that you probably won't admit to having. But truthfully, you can only find true peace when you're prepared to meet these enemies head on. And the battle? It's against your own destructive personal desires and against your fear of those unexpected calamities.  Oh, no! You're asking me to take responsibility for the unhappiness and discontent in my own life? 

As strange as it may sound, I am asking you to prepare for battle. Because it's only with preparation that the battle with sneak attacks can be won. How to prepare yourself to win? You must use the quiet times in your life to turn your heart over to God...He will prepare you for whatever struggle you have to face.  Whether you have daily devotionals of Bible reading and prayer, a quiet time of solitude and reflection on God's will and your life, or reading a book that gives you thoughts to consider, you really must take time to gird yourself with God's word. You'll find that out of these quiet times, you'll gain strength and courage for the spiritual battles ahead.

Ask yourself: Am I alert to all the quiet times God brings my way each day? A wonderful day with the family brings protection from loneliness later on. A friend's encouragement brings protection when you feel low and discouraged later. Shared friendships or family relationships prepare you to face hardships of all kinds. But you have to soak in the good times...realizing that it's God's way of preparing you, so that you're not caught off guard by sneak attacks.

Basically, you will want to do what Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan. Jesus didn't mince words: His reply was "It is written." So you must read your Bible, because you'll learn--and take comfort in--how godly people in all time periods dealt with their struggles--the same struggles that you have. And you'll come to know in your deepest heart that God was--and is--on your side. How many of you are losing your battle with Satan because you don't stay connected to God? 

What about your prayer life? Did Jesus pray? Why? Make it part of your quiet time because in times of trouble, it's your first line of defense. Call on yourself to rearm, shore up defenses, and pray for support while you have some quiet time! It's up to you to put on the "full armor of God," which is truth, righteousness, and faith. This is your only assurance of salvation! You must use God's word as your weapon against sneak attacks. 

No, we don't usually worry about being attacked by warplanes. Attacks on you and me are more subtle and come from within. You and I struggle for peace within and harmony without. But knowing that Christ fought and won the greatest battle of all time over death, we can be assured that through our faith in Him, we can gain the victory in our own life. 

Give these truths some thought and have a wonderful Sunday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Preparation for Hard Times~Warplanes

Each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. Song of Songs 3:8

I have two thoughts this morning about Chapter 9 of Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGard Smith, which is titled "Preparation: Warplanes." One thought is about a book I taught when I was teaching at MTSU for a year. Another teacher recommended it, so I didn't really know the book until I had already given it out as one the students would read that semester. Obviously naive, I wondered how bad it could be. Well, for me, it turned out to be pretty bad. The title of the book was Welcome to Hard Times. The "hard times" part of the title was the name of a town in the old West that had built up out of absolutely nothing. One day a bully came along and completely destroyed the town. That was the shocker for me...as I prefer books with happy endings.

  Another thought is closer to the analogy that LaGard has made with warplanes. Kelly, my granddaughter, is married to Eric, a Harrier pilot. He just got back from a tour in Afganistan. His life on the job is training in his Harrier jet with his squadron. You're probably wondering: What does this have to do with my spiritual life?

In this parable, LaGard talks about his walks into the beautiful Cotswold hills, where he can look down on life below, almost Godlike. But it seems that the hills and valleys of this area are perfect for practicing wartime manuevers for the Royal Air Force. So one day, when he was deep in  reverie, war planes came swooping down at him, which was not only jarring, but shook his body and nerves to the bone. It felt like an invasion!

 Life is like that, isn't it? Our lives resemble a war zone, because life is about conflict. You may be going along very well, when suddenly--out of nowhere--comes bad news! From peace and security, you're thrown into catastrophe! The bad news may be unbelievably bad...your husband has cancer, your teenager is pregnant, your child is very sick and may die. Or even less life-threatening news, but still disastrous--you've lost your job, or your child failed a year in school...and so on and so on. From a position of control and security, you suddenly feel adrift. Like a Harrier jet, catastrophe just swooped down and shattered your life into bits and pieces! And there is no escape. 

Remember how Job lost everything? Flocks and herds, servants, and even his sons and daughters...one piece of bad news after another. What had he done to deserve it? Well...as it turns out...nothing! It can happen to any of us: death and disease, alienation, fear, loneliness, and many other kinds of disaster are part of this world. And since you're in it, you may experience more than your share of bad news. 

And yet, you may have managed to get along with all your problems, with nothing being really catastrophic. You may simply experience sneak attacks of depression or loneliness or anger. And just when you thought you were doing so well! Here I want to quote LaGard directly: "Nothing is more terrifying than those spiritual intruders--those secret thoughts, forbidden relationships, and fleshly desires that drag us down. Those moments of weakness that attack us just at the point when we think we are strong. Even those times when we get so tired of fighting off temptation that we are tempted to let the intruders win, hoping in vain that we can find peace in compromise." 

I know that Eric would never allow foreign intruders into our territory. He knows who he is:  a Marine who understands why he's fighting. He knows that he's a Christian fighting an Islamic threat to the security of our country. And it makes me feel safer and more secure knowing that he's on our side. But I'm really talking now about your own personal invaders. Will you fight, or will you compromise to have some peace? Tomorrow I'll give you some ways to deal with those spiritual invaders that are destroying your peace and happiness.

We're going to celebrate Michael's 9th birthday tonight. I've got several things to do before I go to their house: wrap his presents, make some muffins, and chose something to wear. I hope all of you have a very good weekend! 

Blessings...Mimi   

Advice From One Devil to Another~

 This morning I want to give you one more excerpt from The Screwtape Letters. I hope you'll read it with thoughtfulness and decide if it's relevant to your own life. As I've said, it is a different perspective of what goes on in the non-physical world every moment of time. As hard as that is to conceive--which is exactly what Satan wants--we must do our best to be aware of the battle of good and evil for our own sakes and that of the world. This excerpt is about extremes--a problem for many of us right now in a world that is creating extremes from which to choose daily. Remember that this is written while a war is going on for Great Britain.

Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:

"I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes except extreme devotion to the Enemy [God] are to be encouraged...." 

"Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the "Cause," in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours--and the more "religious" (on those terms), the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here."

Perhaps you don't agree with the philosophy of C. S. Lewis about the subject of extremes--or any other subject for that matter. My idea is to give you a way to "think out of the box," so to speak. To jolt your intellect into real thinking--some of the meat as opposed to the cereal. And I expect you to simply choose for yourself whether it is valuable to you or not. 

Blessings...Mimi 

More Screwtape~

You may be wondering why I continue with images of devils and their thinking. I suppose it's because I'm still listening to The Screwtape Letters and find that it's having a singular effect on me. I hope by now that you're feeling some of it too--that tickling at the back of your mind that you haven't thought of this side of your spiritual life in some time--if ever. While striving to be good, we forget how easily we can be bad! This is just a short passage from the preface of the book. Do you believe that spending time reflecting on the way Satan operates in the world  might be beneficial to you? I hope you  see how this idea  catches you with its unique and extraordinary theme in so many ways:  first, mentally, then emotionally and  spiritually. And isn't that what you're praying for? To increase your spirituality!

**********

The Screwtape Letters, from the Preface

Bad angels, like bad men, are entirely practical. They have two motives. The first is fear of punishment: for as totalitarian countries have their camps for torture, so my Hell contains deeper Hells, its "houses of correction." Their second motive is a kind of hunger. I feign that devils can, in a spiritual sense, eat one another; and us. Even in human life we have seen the passion to dominate, almost to digest, one's fellow; to make his whole intellectual and emotional life merely an extension of one's own--to hate one's hatreds and resent one's grievances and indulge one's egoism through him as well as through oneself. His own little store of passion must of course be suppressed to make room for ours. If he resists this suppression he is being very selfish.

**************
You might ask yourself: Is this the way I move through the world? Controlling people to the extent of not allowing them to be who they are? Mothers can do this to their children, or the father to his children, or the children to their parents when they're old. Wives to their husbands or husbands to their wives. Elders to their congregation. The government to the people. I've definitely noticed that it's pretty much everywhere--control and conquer. Seems that no one wants you to be you! Satan and his angels--and all who deny Christ--are in rebellion. If you're not a believer--and I mean a true believer--then you're in rebellion as well. It makes for a world of controlling people who do not care about your happiness or your peace! Think about it.

Have a good Thursday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Screwtape to Wormwood on Aging: Middle Age

Well, I have to say that this is an interesting and mind-rattling kind of experience. I'm used to reading the Bible and writing lessons which are generously filled with God's goodness, mercy, kindness and love. Exhorting others to see this fact is a goal that keeps me involved with the project. But having recently found a dramatic recording of The Screwtape Letters, I'm seeing how it has affected my mind with a jarring interruption of daily thinking. In a way, it isn't surprising, but in another way I find it more energizing than I expected. Maybe that's because we fall into a trap of sorts--not thinking of Satan's constant barrage of tactics to get us to be something other than God wants us to be. How easily we fall into traps is a frustrating and frightening thought, but we must recognize that without some effort on our part to keep our hearts and minds in the right and righteous place, it won't happen. I encourage you to find a time each day to fill your mind with God's word.

And I'm going to give you another passage from The Screwtape Letters--partly because I am not taking the time to write pieces for my blog right now, but mainly because I want to share it with you for your contemplation.

Aging: Middle Age

Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to perservere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it--all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is "finding his place in it," while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.

I hadn't realized that I stumbled on the recording of The Screwtape Letters so early after it came out. I ordered my set from Christianbook.com, a company I trust. It has been many years since I paid much attention to C. S. Lewis, but he has always kept a place in my heart. I also ordered Mere Christianity and The Four Loves, which is read by C. S. Lewis himself. Hearing his words again is a wonderful and deepening experience that I hope you'll share. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Blessings...Mimi

Screwtape to Wormwood on Disappointment~

I'm an avid listener of books recorded on tape! Ever so often I decide what I'll listen to before going to sleep, and right now it's Mere Christianity. But during the day--when it isn't so scary--I have been listening to The Screwtape Letters. Both of these C. S. Lewis books are reminders of what seems to have been lost in today's fast-paced world--the fact that our spiritual lives are serious and should be tended to seriously. Our repeated protestations of "I'm a Christian" may not cut it in the end. The latest version of The Screwtape Letters is a dramatization of the book by Focus on the Family. It's done by a wonderful cast of characters and the man who plays Screwtape is inspired! Jon and Phillip both have iPods and I know they'd both enjoy hearing these valuable insights about living the Christian life. I just have to figure out how I can get an iPod!

Now I don't deny that you have to be thinking while listening, if you want to catch the point of these conversations. But I'm going to give you a little taste of the flavor, so you can decide if you'd like the whole meal. Millions of people love this book. Lewis was a little disconcerted that it was so popular when his many other books were so much more profound in his view. But being more human than we'd like, we really enjoy the idea and the drama of The Screwtape Letters. See what you think of this excerpt.

This is senior devil Screwtape talking to junior devil Wormwood:

"Whatever men expect, they soon come to think they have a right to; the sense of disappointment can, with very little skill on our part, be turned into a sense of injury."

AND:

"Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants--"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own." And there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt."

Something to chew on for a Tuesday! Today I'm going to get started on all the things I want to get done before my company arrives.

Blessings...Mimi

What Does It Take To Have A Good Home Life?

In looking for some kind of uplifting reading this morning that I didn't create myself, I came across this writing about home life from C. S. Lewis. I admit I'm a fan of his, simply because he is so clear and unbiased in his teaching about being a Christian. This piece is from God In the Dock, and I believe it addresses some of our very big problems at this time. And it seems to me that people like Lewis--who study and write, observing others as they go--are ahead of their time in more ways than he could imagine. So here straight out of the book are some thought-provoking words.

Realistic Expectations ~

If Christian teachers wish to recall Christian people to domesticity--and I, for one, believe that people must be recalled to it--the first necessity is to stop telling lies about home life and to substitute realistic teaching. Perhaps the fundamental principles would be something like this.

1. Since the Fall no organization or way of life whatever has a natural tendency to go right.... The family, like the nation, can be offered to God, can be converted and redeemed, and will then become the channel of particular blessings and graces. But, like everything else that is human, it needs redemption. Unredeemed, it will produce only particular temptations, corruptions, and miseries. Charity begins at home: so does uncharity.

2. By the conversion or sanctification of family life we must be careful to mean something more than the preservation of "love" in the sense of natural affection. Love (in that sense) is not enough. Affection, as distinct from charity, is not a cause of lasting happiness. Left to its natural bent affection becomes in the end greedy, naggingly solicitious, jealous, exacting, timorous. It suffers agony when its object is absent--but is not repaid by any long enjoyment when the object is present.... The greed to be loved is a fearful thing....

3. We must realize the yawning pitfall in that very characteristic of home life which is so often glibly paraded as its principal attraction. "It is there that we appear as we really are: it is there that we can fling aside the disguises and be ourselves." ... In fact, he [such a person] values home as the place where he can "be himself" in the sense of trampling on all the restraints which civilized humanity has found indispensable for tolerable social intercourse. And this, I think is very common. What chiefly distinguishes domestic from public conversation is surely very often simply its downright rudeness. What distinguishes domestic behavior is often its selfishness, slovenliness, incivility--even brutality....

4. How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can't be comfortable and unguarded, can't take his ease and "be himself" in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse's neck. It will never be lawful simply to "be ourselves" until "ourselves" have become sons of God....

Must we not abandon sentimental eulogies and begin to give practical advise on the high, hard, lovely, and adventurous art of creating the Christian family?

Whoooo! Whoooo! I couldn't have said it better myself--which is always the problem: someone else has already said it much better than I. But I am thankful for such good common sense about a problem that is plaguing not only our country, but the whole world. And as usual, I'm asking you to give some thought to your part in the inner sanctum of your own family. It really is up to you!

Many blessings on this windy Monday--at least here in Albuquerque. Winter is rushing in with a big blow which has already begun this morning. Some areas east and north of us will see snow today.

Mimi

Eve~The Mother of All Living

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: 

  "This is now bone of my bones

    And flesh of my flesh;

  She shall be called Woman,

 Because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined  to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which is Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"

And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, not shall you touch it, lest you die'."

Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. "

~

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself."

~

And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"

Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said,"The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

~

So the Lord God said to the serpent:

"Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the

field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her

        Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel."

~

To the woman He said:

"I will greatly multiply your sorrow

and your conception;

In pain you shall bring forth

children;

Your desire shall be for your

husband,

And he shall rule over you."
~

Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it':

Cursed is the ground for your sake;

In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it shall

bring forth for you,

And you shall eat the herb of the

field.

In the sweat of your face you shall

eat bread

Till you return to the ground,

For out of it you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return."
~

And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 2:21-3:20
 ~

Blessings...Mimi

Eve ~ Wife & Mother 3

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18
~I want all of you to think about what Eve has done, why she made a bad choice, and the effect that her decision had on the world. The importance of reflecting on this is to understand that when you decide to do something, even though you have good reasons, you must also look at the consequences! Once you've made a big decision, it takes on a life of its own and grows exponentially over years of time without your being able to control it. So the only purpose of reading about what Mother Eve did is for you and I to learn a lesson that is valuable in our own lives. So I'll continue my train of thought.
~
Now, Eve is not only out of her beautiful home, but one son has killed the other. And even though God gave her a son to replace Abel, could a mother ever forget a son who was as good and as worthy as Abel? Do you think this is part of her consequence for eating the fruit? I believe in a roundabout way it was, and though it might not have seemed like such a big decision at the time, it turned her life--and the life of her husband--inside out. In truth, it cost her TOO dearly. 

I have to wonder about the relationship between Adam and Eve: What did they think of each other after their decision to disobey God? Could they ever feel the same about each other? The consequences of their sin would necessarily change everything about their relationship, and their relationship with God. For Eve, gone were the walks with her God in the cool of the evening. Gone were the conversations with her Creator. Gone was the loveliness and innocence of her life. Gone was the security and comfort of her garden home. Gone was her independence.

Eve paid a terrible price for her decision to ignore God's command not to eat of the fruit of that one tree--the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Even the name is seductive. But may I ask you a question? What price are you paying for your sins? If you want to examine that question, look at where you're hurting. And ask yourself why you're hurting. I would venture to guess that it's because you're being stubborn about a situation which you could do something about. Hmmm...really? Being stubborn is a form of pride, of thinking that you're too good to ask forgiveness of the person who has done you wrong.  And it's also a sign that humility has abandoned ship. Oh, we all believe ourselves humble, but from what I see, most of you don't actually know what that word means. I'm not trying to be harsh--just making an observation. And, of course, I include myself. Humility is not a natural trait and has to be cultivated.

And one more observation I would make is that our country is suffering because there are few mothers at home, and few fathers who take a leading role in the family. The children are spoon fed by the government from an early age, and as they grow older, they know nothing about the Bible or God's laws. They know little of morality and kindness. And if they grow up to love God, it's more like a miracle than an expected result. What do your children see in your life? Do you say one thing and do another? That is the worst kind of hypocrisy. Life is fragile. And life as we know it is hanging by a thread. You probably haven't read the sermon by the fiery New England minister, Jonathan Edwards, who scared his congregation by telling them that they were like spiders hanging by a thread over the fire of hell. At any moment, they could fall into the fire and be lost forever. I'm reminded of his sermon because it seems to fit our situation now.

What will you do to make a difference in the world we live in? What CAN you do? You can decide that your decisions will not take your family in the wrong direction or out of connection with God. If Eve had another chance to choose, what do you think her choice would be? Honestly, she represents all women everywhere who have choices to make that are disastrous to their families. And we must remember that in spite of her choice to eat of the forbidden fruit, Eve is the Mother of all Living--that includes you and me--and is a blessing to all women everywhere.

Have a wonderful weekend. Give Eve's life some thought in comparison with your own and learn!

Blessings...Mimi

Eve ~ Wife & Mother 2

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."  Genesis 2:18

~

I hope you took time to reflect on the kinds of temptations you feel are affecting your life, and that you'll also do something to get the upper hand with them. It may sound easier than it is, but obviously, no matter how difficult we find it to be, it can be done. And I hope you realize that the spirit of God is always waiting and willing to help you do a good deed, and getting rid of temptations in your life is definitely a good thing.

~

I wish I could shake a finger at you and feel better, but that isn't the case. Because we all sin and make bad choices, we are often confronted with unexpected consequences, which is exactly what Eve faced after her decision to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. Have you ever wondered what Eve was thinking as she left the Garden of Eden?  How Eve must have felt as she walked with Adam out of the most beautiful place on earth into a world of care and woe?

~

From that time on, their life would be filled with hard work and pain...suffering both physically and spiritually for their sin. No longer would there be the fulfilling work of the garden and conversations with God. Now their life would be spent with Adam laboring in the sweat of his brow, and Eve laboring with pain in childbearing. 

Because, of course, they did eat and Eve did bear children. First, they had a son named Cain, and then a son named Abel. And what did God require of them? An animal sacrifice. Abel offered a pleasing sacrifice, and Cain did not. Cain was angry that his sacrifice was displeasing and his brother's was pleasing, so he killed his brother. And I just want to say here, that your wrong choices may filter down to your children, so that they also make wrong choices. Wouldn't it work out in a more pleasing way, if you did a better job making choices?

What do you think about Cain's attitude when he got angry at his brother because HE had done wrong? C. S. Lewis was the first person to explain this phenomonen so that I understand it better: he was referring to the hatred that grew as the Nazis mistreated the Jews more and more. He said that when you mistreat someone, or do them a wrong turn, you begin to dislike them. I have tried to examine that kind of warped thinking in my own life to see when and where it shows up. I suggest you do the same, if you want to begin the process of cleansing out the old and bringing in refreshing thoughts and attitudes. 

I thought I'd finish talking about Eve with this blog, but I may have a few more words to share with you about what she experienced because she sinned willingly. A lesson for us all. 

Have a great Friday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Eve ~ Wife & Mother

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

When you think of Eve, the Mother of all Living, what comes to mind? I believe we can gain most from her life by seeing her with female eyes. What did she want from her life and what did she get? Was she any different from the woman that you are? Fundamentally, I don't think so.

Eve was created by God to meet the needs of her husband. So are you. Eve had wants and needs built into her make-up. So do you. And within her make-up is the ability to charm and seduce a man. So have you. Also within her make-up was the allure of having beautiful things...the lust of the eyes. And the appeal of food and sex and pleasure...the lust of the flesh. And add to that the glorious feeling of owning a perfect garden with everything anyone could ever want around her...the pride of life. Or, shall I say, she was satisfied UNTIL...she was given a picture of herself possessing the  knowledge of good and evil--being like God, making her a god. Wasn't that just what Eve needed to make her life complete?

Okay...HELLO...Eve could take a piece of fruit from a tree in her garden and eat it...and become a goddess??? She wasn't born yesterday...she could handle that! And when she looked at the fruit, she saw that it looked good to the eyes, was good for food, and a fruit to make her wise. Can you blame her for choosing to eat the fruit? Have you looked in the mirror lately?

All of us are tempted daily. And daily we make the wrong choices. One of my biggest temptations is to overeat. It is now a firmly entrenched habit that barely rates a grunt out of my psyche. Is it really a sin? Gluttony, you say? Well, personally, I wish you wouldn't put it that way. I choose to see the good side of overeating: good for lifting depression, good for celebrating, good for strength and energy, fills a hole in your stomach and in your heart! I'd even classify food as medicinal. I've already given you several reasons why overeating is a good thing, but you can also add sleeping better, being friendlier, loving your family...well, you see what I mean. Your problems just disappear for a while--while you're eating--and there's plenty of time to bring them all up again after you've eaten.

So what is your sin--uh, temptation--of choice? You can look up the list of 7 deadly sins to give you some ideas, but I'm guessing you already know what your biggest temptation is. Does it involve the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life? 

I've given you something to think about and I'll talk more about this subject tomorrow. Take some time to meditate on your choices and how they affect your life. I will too. 

Blessings...Mimi 

Meeting God in Quiet Places~DVD

This morning, I want to tell you about the DVD which F. LaGard Smith so generously sent to me. I had asked him if I could use his book, Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables, for my blog. He agreed to let me summarize the chapters to share with you, then sent me a copy of the DVD. As you can  imagine, the scenery in these 7 short videos is the awe-inspiring beauty of the Cotswolds of England. I enjoy these parables on film that share God's handiwork with us, the natural surroundings God uses to gently teach us about His love and care for everything He has made, including you and me. 

 These vignettes can be viewed separately or all at once, and would serve beautifully as the devotional centerpiece of your day. If you want to lift your spirits and your soul to soar, watch these videos with LaGard's fitting analogies. The cover says: "Come on an exploration of faith in the beauty of the English countryside." And you get that beauty in every story. LaGard walks through the hills and villages close by his home in Buckland and lets nature punctuate the meaning of his parable. And what glorious meaning there is!

Like the idea behind "The Walking Stick." What does a walking stick mean to a person who is walking? It's not only a support as a staff, but comes to be a companion. In the same way, God is our staff of support and protection, as well as our companion through life. God not only wants to be our protector, but our friend...our FRIEND! Jesus made that possible when He came in the flesh. God knows our weaknesses and gives us grace. And because of Jesus' sacrifice, we can talk to our Father in heaven and be His friend.

Another parable is called "Gates." Jesus is our gate to God and into heaven, where a mansion is prepared for us. And the good people who have gone before us are waiting for us on the other side of that gate.

In "Gravestones," LaGard make the point that most of us aren't going to be remembered by those who come after us. But we can leave a legacy--something good that will give those who come after us both strength and courage. The vapor of our lives will disappear quickly, but not our good deeds and example.

I really identify with "Dreamhouse." LaGard makes a tour of a beautiful house that is for sale. He says that it's his dreamhouse, but admits that it's way out of his price range. Then he reflects on the fact that the beautiful cottage he lives in was once his dream house, the analogy being that human beings are rarely content. 

I think my favorite parable is called "Snowfall." You won't be surprised at this, but I comfort myself with the fact that most of us are the same--choosing the wrong path when the right one was clearly visible. But the prospect of having my sins covered feels delightfully magical. With a "snowfall," our sins can be covered, hidden from view and made white as snow--gone from our sight and God's. 

So don't look behind you...look ahead and see what is possible for you. See your past as a snow-covered field, and your future as a brightly lit opening--a gate to go through to reach your highest and best self. God can lift you out of your present state and into a fresh beginning with His love--if you'll let Him. And that is your part. Take a look at this DVD. It's a beautiful companion to the book, and will bless you every time you watch it.

Blessings...Mimi

The Story of David & Goliath

 The Story of David & Goliath

In a time long, long ago, in a little town called Bethlehem far, far away, there lived an Israelite of the tribe of Judah named Jesse, who had 8 sons. Three of his older sons--his firstborn Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah--were in the army of King Saul of Israel. But David, his youngest son, was watching his father's sheep. One day, Jesse gave David grain and bread for his brothers, and cheese for their captain, and sent him to find out if his brothers were doing well. When David arrived in the camp of the armies of Israel, he saw before him two armies arrayed for battle: the Israelite armies stood on one mountainside, while the Philistine armies stood on the opposite mountainside with a valley between them.

                                                        

Suddenly, a giant Philistine came striding into the valley that lay between the two mountains. His name was Goliath. He was over 9 feet tall and dressed for battle. He wore a bronze helmet on his head, and bronze armor on his body and legs, and a coat of mail. He carried a bronze javelin between his shoulders and a heavy spear with an iron head. A shield bearer walked before him.

Goliath stopped and began to shout: "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us!" Twice a day for 40 days, Goliath had come out to challenge the armies of Israel.

The armies of Israel were so afraid of him that they stayed in their tents! But when David heard his challenge, it only made him angry, and he asked: Who does this Philistine think he is, defying the armies of the living God? And King Saul was told that David would fight Goliath. But King Saul spoke to David, saying, "You are not able to fight with this Philistine because you are still a youth, and Goliath has been a man of war from the time of his youth."


Then David told King Saul that he used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, he went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it attacked him, he caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Now David said to King Saul that God had delivered him from the paw of a lion and the paw of a bear, and He would also deliver him from this Philistine. So David, who had killed both a lion and a bear, said that he would also kill this Philistine, because he had defied the armies of the living God.

King Saul said to him, "Go and the Lord be with you!" Then King Saul gave his armor to David, but it was much too big for him. So David took his staff in one hand and his sling in the other to go out to meet Goliath. He stopped at a brook that flowed through the valley and picked up 5 smooth stones and put them in his shepherd's bag.

When Goliath saw the youthful David coming to fight him, he said: "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And he cursed David by his gods, thretening to feed him to the birds and the beasts.

Then David said to Goliath: "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." Then David said: "This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all of this asembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands."

Then, as the Philistine walked toward David to fight and kill him, David hurried and ran toward the army of the Philistines to meet Goliath. He put his hand in his shepherd's bag and took out one of the smooth stones. He put the stone in his sling and quickly slung it. It struck the giant Philistine and sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. Then David ran and stood over Goliath, pulled the Philistine's sword out of its sheath, and cut his head off with it.

So David prevailed over the giant Goliath with a sling and a stone, which killed him. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they began running away, leaving their tents with all their belongings behind. And the men of Israel and Judah ran after them and chased them out of the valley, but returned and plundered their tents.

David loved God and believed that He would keep him safe. And so the Israelites overcame their enemies and all the earth knew that there was a God in Israel!

Blessings...Mimi 

Church Bells: Reminders of Holiness~2

We all need to be reminded of holy things because "the world is too much with us." One of the reminders in England is the ringing of church bells. From all accounts, England is no longer a spiritual country, choosing rather to take God for granted with their stiff-upper-lip attitude. This has been true for many years now, and it's showing in their choices.

So even though there are at least 160,000 church towers with bells ringing out a reminder of holy things in their villages, it's what is in their hearts that matters. In this 4th chapter of  F. LaGard Smith's Meeting God in Quiet Places, he has told us that there are tiny golden bells on the bottom of the priest's robe to announce his coming before the Lord, so that he would not die.
~

A thousand years later, when Zechariah prophecied about the day the Savior of the world would revolutionize the nature of worship before God. Zechariah says:

"On that day, 'Holy to the Lord' will be inscribed on the bells of horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar." What a dramatic change from tiny golden bells on a robe to bells on horses! What a shift in attitude with the enormous "holiness gap?"

We don't understand all the underlying meanings, but the message for us is clear. If you have ever felt that you aren't worthy of being loved by God, or felt at such a distance from Him that He doesn't even care that you exist, or that your guilt is too great for Him to cover, then read on.

LaGard says: "The good news is that, with the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, we are no longer kept at arm's length from God." Christ has himself completed the work of the high priest, bringing our guilt and unworthiness before God. He offered himself as the sacrifice, and while we are unworthy, He is worth for us. Where we are unholy, He is the holy Lamb of God. This means that Jesus has given you and me unlimited access to God. You can reach out and touch God. AND...because of the cross... God has reached out and touched you!" These are amazing and comforting words.

The moment of Jesus' death, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." This "curtain of separation" is no longer between you and God. Through Jesus, you can now approach the throne of heaven--an act that could not have happened when Aaron was high priest. Think about that!

LaGard goes on to say: "Jesus is our announcement, like the bells announced the priest. In one single hour of history, His crucifixion became the greatest moment of mourning, celebration and peace ever witnessed by humankind. Jesus' death was the loudest anthem of bell-ringing the world has ever heard!"

Yes, the bells are a reminder that YOU can approach God joyfully, and find help when you need it. Or the bells may remind you to love Him and praise Him in your life. God longs for a relationship with you, and you surely yearn for a relationship with Him. The bells peal out the sound of joy, which is felt in the hearts of many around the world.

Decide today that you will meditate more seriously on holy matters. So many of us are caught up in the poor quality of spiritual life that is dominant in our society. Only you can change your attitude toward a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God.

Have a good weekend! Remember to thank God always.

Blessings...Mimi