Praise the Lord! He rescues us from the pit! I don’t know about you, but I have been in the pit many times throughout my life. Sometimes it’s sin that throws us into the pit, however, sometimes it is circumstances out of our control that throw us head-long into it.
Do you know how precious metals are refined? Smelting is the process in which gold is separated from ore and other metals. The ore is first pulverized with extreme pressure to create tiny particles, which are then melted at almost 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. As the gold becomes molten, most of the impurities are burned up.
No matter how you slice it, life is full of challenges. Each hardship represents some sort of loss; loss of a person, home, safety, stability, or purpose. This is why these experiences can be so painful.
I sat in Bible study one evening, during a time in my life I was struggling with obedience to the Lord in a particular area. Experiencing the cycle of sin, regret, asking forgiveness, and then continuing to regret over and over made me weary.
The nuisance of being stuck in the mud on a country dirt road is frightening if a tow truck is not around the corner. Wheels spinning, dirt and smoke billowing contribute to frustration. Cell phone in hand—whew! Help is on the way.
Last year was one of the most difficult years of my life while enduring ongoing and worsening health issues surrounding my beloved husband and brother. Several months before the medical journeys began, God led me to a Bible study on spiritual warfare. I tried to wiggle my way out of it, but my Savior knew I was on the threshold of experiencing new types of brokenness and vulnerability—new enemy territory.
The dollar bills I keep in the console of my car are sweet reminders of my youngest grandson. While in my car one day he said, “My Dad has thousands of dollars in his car so that he can give to homeless people.” Wow! Out of the mouths of babes. I sense caution sometimes about when and why I should give a handout to a person regardless of their disheveled appearance. Obviously, personal safety is an important issue because our world is a dangerous place—just as it was when Jesus walked on this earth.
Origami, the art of folding, dates back some thousand years to an ancient Oriental process of folding a two-dimensional piece of paper creating a three-dimensional sculpture. Oftentimes, the sculptures are representational of nature or objects—birds, flowers, or shapes.
Fish intrigue me. Not my typical consumption of salmon, which usually goes unnoticed, but the visual perfection and extravagant beauty of living sea life in its natural habitat is what fascinates me. The shapes, markings, lavish color and movement often entice me to stop and enjoy fish whenever I may see them— in stores, zoos or aquariums.
The Lord’s case against His people comes to a head in Micah 6. In His own words, He has not “burdened” them (6:3). Rather He has “redeemed” them from slavery and sent able leaders in Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (6:4). And so Micah proceeds to clarify that worship of the exalted God is really not a matter of burnt offerings or sacrifice of a firstborn (6:6-7) as was the pagan custom.
Ladies, I am so glad for the sun and the rain and the pruning and fertilizing of the word of God under the shepherding of the Lord and the Spirit. Living securely now is a given for those who believe. As Jesus prayed in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” We are truly blessed.
Micah carries on the shepherd theme. By implication Israel will no longer be abandoned (5:3). In the meantime, the Good Shepherd not only lay down His life for us, for the sheep (John 10:11). The God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, (wishes to) equip you with everything good for doing his will, and…work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 13:20).
Micah wrote in 742-687 B.C., 700 years before Christ was born. All of Israel knew the prophecy, that Bethlehem was to be the birthplace of the Messiah. The chief priests and teachers of the law knew it when King Herod asked where the Christ was to be born (Matthew 2:4-5). Simeon knew it as he waited in the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:25); so did Anna (Luke 2:38). That origins of Messiah were from of old, from ancient times, was a given to those waiting for His birth.
Doom and gloom; doom and gloom! I don’t know about you but that’s how I look at the writings of the minor prophets, in the main. We study the likes of Micah who spat out the truth of God in no uncertain terms, and so he should. The people needed to understand they couldn’t continue to disobey the Law as God set it out in the Mosaic covenant. There were consequences. Hear says Micah in classical Hebrew poetry style (1:2); Listen (3:1, 6:1): the LORD does not like your sin.
He insisted on creating a garden beside his new country home, but the iron ore boulders stood in the way! Daddy persevered. He’d already sold off the largest ones for the iron, but he had to heave the mid-sized ones over the fence one-by-one. Even though only smaller ones eventually remained, they continued to ‘show up!’ Seems novice gardeners soon discover that stones continue to work their way to the surface of the soil! Clearing the land would never totally end on that rocky hilltop. That’s how it is with our own maturing in Christ, our sanctification. It’s never finished, a principle believers learn just like my gardener daddy learned about rock clearing. We’ll continue to grow up in Christ until the time we actually see Him face-to-face.
Have you ever been wronged or betrayed? Of course you have. It’s a devastating part of being human. One particular betrayal comes to my mind from the workplace, and I remember wondering if I would ever get beyond the hurt. When the betrayal comes from someone you loved and trusted, the wound seems beyond healing. With God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit, believers can begin the journey of forgiveness. The memory might fade with time, but it never truly disappears. Not so with God! When Christ died in payment for our sins, an amazing thing happened—something our human mind can’t fully understand.
We collapsed, sweaty and aching. We’d just relocated the entire office and classrooms of a non-profit organization to its new location—a vacant building on the campus of a downtown church. The organization loved their new space but not all the details of the move. Seems the six foot round glass table wouldn’t fit in the new setting. We’d offered it to the church but hadn’t heard back. After a cool lemonade, four of us rolled it across the street and donated it to a non-profit resale store. They immediately displayed it in the front window with a conservative price of $75.00. We smiled at the thought of a long day’s work well done.
I love a good love story. Most women do! I do not, though, like to work-things-out when there’s been a conflict. That’s a relationship skill I’ve continue to work on. Years have passed, but I’ll never forget the six weeks of long silence from my fiancé. I wondered if I had made a mistake saying ‘yes’ to the proposal in the mountain chapel only two months earlier. Why hadn’t I heard from him? He traveled with a Christian band and consistently called and wrote—the days before cell phones, face-time and texting! As the days mounted, my angst and anger also grew. If we were to have a future marriage, reconciliation would definitely need to take place.
Broken relationships rank close to the top of painful life experiences. Friendships, marriages and the workplace offer opportunities for relationships to rip apart. I even watch with a sensitive heart as my granddaughter’s first friend/boy, as she calls him, begins to develop and remember the angst of my own teenage relationships. Broken adolescent friendships fade in comparison to the pain of loss God felt when Adam and Eve introduced sin into Paradise. The morning walks with God in the cool of the day morphed into hiding and shame. Mankind’s broken connection with our Creator set in motion what would eventually fracture the entire Universe.
Disappointment—that which we experience when expectations or wishes are not met. All of us face numerous disappointments throughout life—someone says something that hurts, a project fails, an illness interrupts plans… The list could go on and on. How do you handle disappointment?
