All in Obedience
A much younger friend works out with me to help me improve my health. She regularly reminds me that I “pace myself” when I’m doing any given physical challenge. While she would like for me to exert myself fully throughout, instead I start slowly and gradually increase my effort. She says I hold back.
You are a living stone. In the previous verse, Peter said Jesus is a living stone. You are being compared to Jesus! Wow!
You are being built into a spiritual temple. The architect and builder are none other than God himself! He promises to complete the project.
During an appointment with a trusted doctor, I mentioned that some of the foods I loved had begun causing me some stomach distress when I ate them. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “That sometimes happens to women of your age.”
God has called me to do a task. A big one. He’s confirmed it over and over, and yet, for the past two years, I have done all manner of things to avoid it. Why do I do this?
As we travelled through Mississippi almost to our destination, we noticed a car on the side of the road. A woman stood beside the opened back door crying so hard her whole face turned red.
Everyone needs rules, right? But what if those rules tend to keep our spirituality bound instead of giving us the gift of freedom in Christ?
You’re thinking to yourself as you roll your eyes: not these same old verses again! Wait. Hear me out.
Repetition is good. I’m a slow learner and I’m forgetful. Nagging is annoying, but repetition isn’t nagging. Repetition is effective communication. Brain scientists believe seven repetitions help us remember almost anything. One form or another of the phrase “do not be afraid” in the Bible is repeated 365 times. One encouragement on fear for every day of the year!
In Texas this week, we have had an unusually long period of snow. We do occasionally get snow but it rarely sticks around more than a day or two. Today is the first day since the snow began falling that the temperature has risen above freezing. Icicles are falling, and the snow is finally melting.
Mean words. Potty-talk. Critical comments. It was the beginning of a long summer, and I purposed to tackle the issue of the ugly mouth I heard coming from my children. For that summer, my children and I focused on the verse above. We memorized it. We talked about it. We defined words and explained concepts within it. We looked for it lived out in others. We noticed the opposite qualities lived out in others. And most importantly, we asked God to help us walk out this verse in our family relationships. That was hard for a big sister with a huge vocabulary that could slice and dice, and a little brother who had strong, fast arms, fists and feet!
Life’s difficult circumstances can turn peace into panic. Our survival may depend on living through complicated medical treatments, making difficult decisions about our children, struggling with financial hardships, providing care for a loved one, coping with unhealthy habits, or confronting generational family dysfunction. But “hopeless” situations are the perfect ground for God to show us His glory, as he did for Moses and the Israelites.
I knew the holiday season would prove difficult for my mother. She had moved into an assisted living facility in the midst of the COVID plague and could only receive visitors through a plexiglass wall. There would be no family Christmas gathering for her.
Travel, travel, travel, how many times have I complained about having to travel during the holidays? We’d pile the kids, luggage, and presents into the car and off we’d go. My bad attitude about doing it every single year probably affected everyone involved negatively.
My dog and I had just begun our walk when I observed my neighbor high on a ladder. He was trimming one of the large trees in his yard, as he often did. His landscaping was one of the best manicured in the neighborhood. I’m not sure what prompted me to speak that day--maybe his height on the ladder or his far reach of the chainsaw.
My friend was having trouble getting her 7-year-old daughter up and ready for school in the mornings. After repeatedly asking her daughter to do her morning routine, she decided she had enough. She asked her daughter to come to the bathroom to brush and style her hair, but she didn’t keep asking. Her daughter hadn’t come in to get her hair styled by the time my friend was finished in the bathroom. When the girl wanted her hair brushed, the mom calmly told her that she had missed her chance. She didn’t follow her mom’s instructions, so she would have to go to school with her hair as it was. Hair au naturel – the natural consequence.
It astounds me that Apostle Peter wrote these words while in prison in Rome eighteen months before he was sentenced to be executed. The fifth ruler of the Roman Empire, Nero, was unsurpassed in his cruel behavior. Surely Peter knew his death was imminent when he wrote the New Testament letters.
“Shiphrah” and “Puah”, I stumble over the pronunciation of their names, but they, on the other hand, did not stumble when it came to obeying God. They stood firm.
Jeremiah, the prophet, only recorded two prayers in his book of prophecy. I especially enjoyed studying the occasion for one of those two prayers. God had asked him to do something that appeared incredibly illogical. Jeremiah obeyed, then wrote down his prayer. He began with a reminder to himself that the God who made the heavens and the earth could, obviously, do anything. Jeremiah then stated his question to God, “The Babylonians are outside the walls of Jerusalem and about to destroy everything and take us captive. Why, then, did you have me purchase this piece of property with silver near Jerusalem and record the transaction on a sealed scroll with witnesses?”
Our daughter recently got a puppy which had been rescued from a trash bin. She named it Gwinny -- cutest little black and white thing you ever saw. Of course, she stocked up on all sorts of puppy items for Gwinny including a comfy little bed with soft sides.
Yesterday, we marveled at Abraham’s trust and immediate obedience when God commanded him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Today, let’s study, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”
On the way up the mountain, Isaac asked his father about the absence of the lamb for the offering. Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” (Gen. 22:8).
Yesterday, a sweet friend presented me with a lovely figurine of a little hummingbird drinking from the throat of a tiny orange trumpet flower. I was transported back to a time several years before.
