Filling your minds with truth

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. - Philippians 4:4-9 The Messsage

I really do love how The Message restates this passage. Oh, how my days would be different if I really allowed Christ to displace all the worry in my life. This is one of the other if…then passages in the Bible. To it I cling. Its promises I have claimed on many days when nothing on Earth was worth hanging onto, even the breath in my lungs contaminated.

May this passage be a blessing to you. I hope and pray that you will hang on to its promises and ask God to keep His Word in a way that is so clear to you, you don’t question to Whom the credit is due!

As a woman dealing with a life of alcoholism once shared, “if you think God won’t follow you around, you just watch Him.” Though these two thoughts don’t seem very attached, I believe they are. One of the noble, compelling things to think of is that God loves us so much He chases us, even wooing us. He cries out for intimacy with us. He calls us to pull our brains out of the muck, breathe deeply of the Holy, and connect with Him. Go ahead and “thank” on that for a while!

I appreciate your willingness to allow me into your brain this week. May you have been blessed by the amount of God that shined through my rambling, and sometimes poorly grammared words.

Blessings,

Shiann

What I thought I wanted

Following is a bit of poetry in song, written and performed by Sara Groves. She speaks of learning how to live in the place where you trust that God is working something out in the unseen space.

What I Thought I Wanted

Tuxedo in the closet, gold band in a box
Two days from the altar she went and called the whole thing off
What he thought he wanted, what he got instead
Leaves him broken and grateful

I passed understanding a long, long time ago
And the simple home of systems and answers we all know
What I thought I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and somehow peaceful

I keep wanting you to be fair
But that’s not what you said
I want certain answers to these prayers
But that’s not what you said

When I get to heaven I’m gonna go find Job
I want to ask a few hard questions,
I want to know what he knows
About what it is he wanted and what he got instead
How to be broken and faithful

What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted

Staring in the water like Aesop's foolish dog
I can’t help but reflect on what it was I almost lost
What it was I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and grateful
I’m broken and grateful
I want to be broken and grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful

Blessings,

Shiann

Adoption through Jesus Christ

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that Heaven has to offer. Before the creation of the world, He chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in His presence. Because of His love He had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this so that the kindness He has given us in His dear Son would be praised and given glory. Ephesians 1:3-6 (God’s Word Translation)

You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance. Galatians 4:6-7 (The Message)

It is really interesting to do a perusal of scripture about the things that God’s Word says about the idea of adoption. Above are just a couple of mentions. It has been said by many that choosing to love a child that is not your own is the closest thing to understanding God’s heart. This seems to be true, in varying degrees, if you are an adoptive parent, a houseparent at Westview, a teacher that commits to love your kids rather than just teaching them, etc. I hope that you will have the courage to love with all your heart so that you know more of the heart of God as well as await the promise of knowing a more intimate relationship with God.

Blessings,

Shiann

The parent of the virtues

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:1-17 (NIV)

There is so little in the Bible that give as clear an if…then situation than in this passage. When I desire peace, I must get rid of the things above and fill that empty space with the things suggested. It may seem formulaic, but it is so comforting to know that there really is something I can do to make things better. It is a promise that God keeps. It is not always that simple, because it is not simple to control our thoughts.

Blessings,

Shiann

You threw me into the deep

Another of the stories from my time in Bible Class as a youth that seemed to change its power in adulthood is the story of Jonah. When I read the story with more experienced eyes, the lessons opened up more fully. Let us look at the Word:

The LORD sent a big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.
Jonah prayed:

“I called to the LORD in my distress,
and he answered me.
From the depths of my «watery» grave I cried for help,
and you heard my cry.
You threw me into the deep, into the depths of the sea,
and water surrounded me.
All the whitecaps on your waves have swept over me.

“Then I thought,
‘I have been banished from your sight.
Will I ever see your holy temple again?’

“Water surrounded me, threatening my life.
The deep «sea» covered me completely.
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
I sank to the foot of the mountains.
I sank to the bottom,
where bars held me forever.
But you brought me back from the pit, O LORD, my God.

“As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD.
My prayer came to you in your holy temple.
Those who hold on to worthless idols abandon their loyalty «to you».
But I will sacrifice to you with songs of thanksgiving.
I will keep my vow.
Victory belongs to the LORD!”

Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spit Jonah out onto the shore.
Jonah 1:17-2:10

This is no silly story of a man gone swimming. It is no story simply of another person running from God's call. There are other places in the Word where God says His plans will be carried out, regardless; He doesn't necessarily require our human assistance (Esther, et al).

This is a great story of God calling a person to a task that is MUCH bigger than what any person could accomplish and then God equips and empowers the man so that he could see it through. The fish was not part of the punishment; it was part of his provision/salvation.

Jonah likely could have written his own sermon prior to his brush with death and God's provision. How much more powerful would a sermon be, however, with Jonah telling them of his person experience with God’s power? Also, how much more powerful is our story to others if we can see God’s work in our lives and share that? Look for the things that have taught you the most about how much God loves you and how He has carried you through in unique situations. Then share those things with others.

Blessings,

Shiann

Love and discipline

This week’s devotions come from Shiann’s pen:

Having been a Christian for what seems like my whole physical life and having attended church almost weekly since my birth, the stories of the Bible are old hat to me. I enjoy SO much when I get to see/hear them with fresh eyes. Please look with me at a couple of stories with new eyes over the next couple of days.

In Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s book Jesus for President, there is a very interesting depiction of the Flood.

So, by the sixth chapter of the Bible, things had already gotten really ugly. We read. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. (Gen 6:11)” Violence infected the earth like a disease. What was God to do?

At first glance, the flood might seem to us like the most violent thing that has ever happened, especially in the wake of contemporary storms and tsunamis. But the biblical narrative treats it as an act of protection from the corruption and violence that had plagued the creation. It’s like a divine chemotherapy, or the pruning of a diseased plant to save its life. God loves humanity so much that watching us kill ourselves is absolutely intolerable. So God saved humanity through the flood.”

I had to read this section several times to digest the weight of these thoughts and it has stuck with me over the last few weeks. I believe this may be a more accurate statement of how God sees the Flood story than the one I had thought. Mostly, we tell this story as a children’s story, giving little thought to the whys of the situation, just passing on the content with limited context.

If we look through the lenses of the new information, I believe we can see that discipline as discussed throughout the Bible is because “God loves humanity so much that watching us [kill, damage with words, hurt with social isolation, you fill in the blank] ourselves is absolutely intolerable.” We are to show the Fruit of the Spirit and not fall into worldly habits not because God expects us to be perfect. God sees that the alternative to these positive behaviors and attitudes is consistently hurtful to us and others.

Let us keep this in mind as we approach each other in corrective situations.

Blessings,

Shiann