I still smile when I see a mother trying to coax a toddler away from some fascinating object or play .. to no avail … until she walks away calling “Bye-bye! I’m going !” and suddenly the fascination evaporates and the toddler hurries after his mother.
I had a angora goat for a pet who was every bit as stubborn as goats are reputed to be. She had a propensity to eat exactly the things she wasn’t supposed to. If I scolded her or tried to distract her I would either be simply ignored or bucked out of her way. But if I hid myself suddenly I would hear her bleating cry and her feet hurrying to find me.
What is it about the fear of being abandoned that has such strong motivating power in God’s creatures?
The shearwater are a very fascinating bird.
The chick hatches from an egg laid deep in an underground tunnel. After two months of brooding by its parents it hatches with a ferrous appetite. It takes both parents regularly bringing food back to the tunnel where the chick simply sits and lives for the return of its parents and the food they bring!
Then when the chick is almost ready to leave its cozy home the parents abandon the chick. It waits but no parents or food appear. The chick loses weight – excess weight that it had gained to sustain it during this time of abandonment leaving it just the right weight to be able to fly!
Finally after a few days the chick is desperate enough to move to the entrance of its tunnel and then on a dark night it finally leaves its nest and somehow follows in the footsteps of its parents across the ground to the ‘taking off’ place.
Finally its struggle is rewarded ..it reaches that place and stops.
The smell of the ocean is a strong lure…triggering the instinct to let go and spread its wings. The chick is chick no longer but soars above the ocean joining the adult flock of shearwater flying effortlessly above the waves.
I was thinking …….
I found ten places in scripture that talk about God hiding His face. Several of them are voiced by King David who cried out for God not to hide His face from him as in Psa 143:7 “Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.”
There are also scriptures that speak of God ‘setting His face’ against someone that clearly indicate judgement as in Lev. 20:6,”I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.”
Could it be that God turning His face away is not a judgement but rather a last yearning effort to turn man’s heart to Himself again? That in hiding His face He is purposely creating a fear, a sudden recognition that something is wrong - just as we saw in each of my real life examples?
Do we not all , as self-centered children want to do our own thing but at the same time want God to sit and watch .. blessing what we are doing?
God speaks to us but we are not listening ….. until as he says as in Micah 3:4 “Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. “
The people had disobeyed … had behaved badly … but did not feel remorse so He said He would turn His face away…. Making them cry out to Him!
A child is quite content as long as his mother is in view….but when he is aware that she is gone then he cries out !!
Why then does God say that He will not respond but will keep His face hidden from them?
A child’s first reaction to realizing his mother is gone is to simply cry out because he is suddenly afraid. In the same way the first reaction of man is to cry out simply because maybe things are going so good anymore!! “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled” (Psalm 104:29)
God does not immediately answer man’s cry allowing him time to contemplate what he has done… to recognize his sin and cry out in repentance ready to listen to what God has to say, as David did in Psalm 88:14 “LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?”
What makes God hide His face from us ? Is it what we would think of as gross sin ?
Maybe not ! Look again at my life examples. In every one of them the purpose of the ‘face being turned away’ was to stir up the child, the goat , the bird… to MOVE !! They needed to leave their ‘comfort zone’ .
Is that not often where we get stuck ? We like where we are and we don’t want to move? We love our comfort zone and prefer to stay there.
God’s still small voice is often not enough to move us - away from a habit, out of a situation, out of a relationship, into a ministry , from one level of maturity to the next.
The shearwater bird spoke another message to my heart. The parents overfed their chick so that when the day came that they abandoned it, the chick had ‘reserves’ that kept it strong to pass the test of finding its true purpose .. soaring high above the ocean waves.
How often have you hear someone say … “And just when I thought everything was going sooo good !! everything fell apart!” Did they stop to consider that perhaps the blessings had been sent by God to prepare them for what was to come? To 'fatten' them up so that they would have the strength and resources to pass the coming test?
And too I found it fascinating how the shearwater ‘followed in the steps of its parents” even though the chick was in the dark in totally unfamiliar territory.
How often do we feel we are in the dark and we are groping to find our way?
Do we not also have the example of spiritual fathers and mothers who have gone before and left their footprints for us to follow ?
I love how God put His words in us and around us in so many ways to ensure that we will not miss His voice in our lives !!
I love what David said… “I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved” (Acts2:25)
Should that not be the heart’s desire of every child of God ? That we live in such a way that we are continually looking into the face of God….. so that our feet stay planted firmly on the Rock of Ages ?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Who and What Controls You ?
I dreamed that we were living in a time when Christians were being threatened and we knew it was only a matter of time before we would be killed for our faith !
I was trying to explain to my sister-in-law and her husband, who had come to visit, the dark time we were living in and how we needed to be strong. Suddenly a vehicle with two uniformed men drove up and I thought .. "Oh..here they come to kill us..” But they only dropped off a huge chain link cage full of chickens.
The phone rang and I turned away from the window to answer it. It was a man asking that we agree to contribute a roaster full of food to feed some down and outers off the street … about twenty of them. I argued that I didn’t think it was a good idea because I was a Christian and I was expecting to be killed shortly and if I agreed to feed these men and was killed before I could serve them then they would go hungry.
The man wasn’t taking no for an answer even though I further explained that with expecting to be killed I had not gone grocery shopping and didn’t have any food in the house. He still wasn’t accepting anything short of me agreeing to contribute to this meal… so finally I agreed after he told me that perhaps I was a little ‘squirrelly’.
I needed a larger roasting pan than I had so I sent Vic out to go buy one. He came back with a huge one. He had to bring it home on a wheel barrow. It had large legs and a ceramic animal head on it. It would never have fit into a normal oven but in my dream I was quite pleased with it and decided it would be great to roast potatoes in it -- that would be my contribution to this meal.
The day came for us to bring the food to these men and they were already gathered in a large room. The men were shabbily dressed and unshaven. Before the meal was started a man obviously in charge addressed these men asking them to stand if they had had a change of religious faiths since their last meeting. One of the men stood…. And I thought.. “They are taking note for when the killing starts.” I knew it was now only a matter of time.
OK.. so you have the idea by now that I am a crazy dreamer …. Always have been !!
Every one of the details in my dream I can connect back to conversations or comments made to me the previous day, although taken individually they made a whole lot more sense than the crazy quilt my untended mind wove them into.
I think not one of us would argue with the fact that we have a subconscious mind that keeps on working when we are asleep – even though it sometimes seems to lack intelligent discretion as to how to use the information stored in our brains that it obviously has access to.
However, I think few of us have spent much time considering that perhaps, to a greater extend than we realize, our conscious mind is influenced or controlled by our subconscious. We may think that we are consciously in control of our thoughts, our deeds, our actions, our decisions… when in reality the very converse might be true!
I watched a documentary on TV the other night that really made me think.
The documentary detailed a study done on this very subject. What they found is that not only do we have a subconscious mind but we also have two ways of seeing.
One is the obvious - our physical eyes relaying sight information to our conscious mind --- but then they learned that we have another sight path we are not even aware of.
They did an experiment that consisted of flashing a word very quickly across a blank screen. Most people could catch it. But then they used what they called a mask … a jumble of lines clumped together. When the mask appeared on the screen very quickly following the flashed word – no one saw the word... only the mask and yet when they were asked if the word that they did not see look more like ‘this’ or like ‘this’ they were all able to pick out the word that looked most like the word that had been flashed onto the screen. So even though consciously they had not ‘seen’ the word, their choice of which word they chose when given the multiple option was ruled by something they were not aware of in their conscious mind.
My mind was racing toward the spiritual implications of this study!
I love when God’s Word is confirmed by scientific studies – often done by men who do not profess any belief in a Creator God!!
Does scripture not teach us that we are not to be ruled by our ‘outer’ man but rather by our ‘inner’ man... our spiritual man within us?
“Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (I Peter 3:4)
The outer man is to die... so the inner man can live in righteousness in the image of Christ.
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth……. put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:5,10)
Consider …. If my subconscious mind takes what my conscious mind feeds it and works with it ‘behinds the scenes’ where I am not aware… then what if my spirit takes what I give it and works with it ‘behind the scenes’ where I am not aware. Then, if this is true I will be influenced in a powerful way to act and react and think... not according to my conscious physical brain but rather my ‘inner man’ or my spirit!!
Look what God’s Word says in Psalm 51:6 “Behold You desire truth in the inward parts and in the HIDDEN part You will make me to know wisdom.”
That is an incredible concept, don’t you think?
While there seems to be little wisdom in how my subconscious mind uses or abuses the information it is fed….we have a decided advantage in our spirits.
“By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (I John 4:13)
If we belong to the Lord we have His Spirit in us watching over and working with our spirit… using what we give Him to work with and applying the wisdom of God to make it truly life changing.
But there is a catch, isn’t there. The Holy Spirit can only work with what we give Him. If we do not feed our spirits with the Word of God then perhaps the Holy Spirit must sit idle.
Interesting isn’t it ? that both our subconscious mind and our spirit are fed with words?
And maybe we need to think more seriously about what we do allow through our 'gates' -- our eyes , our ears -- because maybe the words , the sights are NOT gone when we turn off the TV set or close that book, or walk out of the place where we really shouldn't have been. Maybe they continue working in a hidden place to conform us to the image of what we have seen or heard.
And maybe when we spend time in God's word, or fill our spirit with worship through prayer or music .... that is NOT gone either when we turn to go do other things. How encouraging to think that God's Word in us is working in hidden places to make us wise in the things of the Lord.
As we become mature and strong in the Lord, perhaps maturity is not so much that we have controlled our conscious mind as it is that we have fed our spirit and grown strong from the inside out !!
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph.3:16)
I was trying to explain to my sister-in-law and her husband, who had come to visit, the dark time we were living in and how we needed to be strong. Suddenly a vehicle with two uniformed men drove up and I thought .. "Oh..here they come to kill us..” But they only dropped off a huge chain link cage full of chickens.
The phone rang and I turned away from the window to answer it. It was a man asking that we agree to contribute a roaster full of food to feed some down and outers off the street … about twenty of them. I argued that I didn’t think it was a good idea because I was a Christian and I was expecting to be killed shortly and if I agreed to feed these men and was killed before I could serve them then they would go hungry.
The man wasn’t taking no for an answer even though I further explained that with expecting to be killed I had not gone grocery shopping and didn’t have any food in the house. He still wasn’t accepting anything short of me agreeing to contribute to this meal… so finally I agreed after he told me that perhaps I was a little ‘squirrelly’.
I needed a larger roasting pan than I had so I sent Vic out to go buy one. He came back with a huge one. He had to bring it home on a wheel barrow. It had large legs and a ceramic animal head on it. It would never have fit into a normal oven but in my dream I was quite pleased with it and decided it would be great to roast potatoes in it -- that would be my contribution to this meal.
The day came for us to bring the food to these men and they were already gathered in a large room. The men were shabbily dressed and unshaven. Before the meal was started a man obviously in charge addressed these men asking them to stand if they had had a change of religious faiths since their last meeting. One of the men stood…. And I thought.. “They are taking note for when the killing starts.” I knew it was now only a matter of time.
OK.. so you have the idea by now that I am a crazy dreamer …. Always have been !!
Every one of the details in my dream I can connect back to conversations or comments made to me the previous day, although taken individually they made a whole lot more sense than the crazy quilt my untended mind wove them into.
I think not one of us would argue with the fact that we have a subconscious mind that keeps on working when we are asleep – even though it sometimes seems to lack intelligent discretion as to how to use the information stored in our brains that it obviously has access to.
However, I think few of us have spent much time considering that perhaps, to a greater extend than we realize, our conscious mind is influenced or controlled by our subconscious. We may think that we are consciously in control of our thoughts, our deeds, our actions, our decisions… when in reality the very converse might be true!
I watched a documentary on TV the other night that really made me think.
The documentary detailed a study done on this very subject. What they found is that not only do we have a subconscious mind but we also have two ways of seeing.
One is the obvious - our physical eyes relaying sight information to our conscious mind --- but then they learned that we have another sight path we are not even aware of.
They did an experiment that consisted of flashing a word very quickly across a blank screen. Most people could catch it. But then they used what they called a mask … a jumble of lines clumped together. When the mask appeared on the screen very quickly following the flashed word – no one saw the word... only the mask and yet when they were asked if the word that they did not see look more like ‘this’ or like ‘this’ they were all able to pick out the word that looked most like the word that had been flashed onto the screen. So even though consciously they had not ‘seen’ the word, their choice of which word they chose when given the multiple option was ruled by something they were not aware of in their conscious mind.
My mind was racing toward the spiritual implications of this study!
I love when God’s Word is confirmed by scientific studies – often done by men who do not profess any belief in a Creator God!!
Does scripture not teach us that we are not to be ruled by our ‘outer’ man but rather by our ‘inner’ man... our spiritual man within us?
“Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (I Peter 3:4)
The outer man is to die... so the inner man can live in righteousness in the image of Christ.
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth……. put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:5,10)
Consider …. If my subconscious mind takes what my conscious mind feeds it and works with it ‘behinds the scenes’ where I am not aware… then what if my spirit takes what I give it and works with it ‘behind the scenes’ where I am not aware. Then, if this is true I will be influenced in a powerful way to act and react and think... not according to my conscious physical brain but rather my ‘inner man’ or my spirit!!
Look what God’s Word says in Psalm 51:6 “Behold You desire truth in the inward parts and in the HIDDEN part You will make me to know wisdom.”
That is an incredible concept, don’t you think?
While there seems to be little wisdom in how my subconscious mind uses or abuses the information it is fed….we have a decided advantage in our spirits.
“By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (I John 4:13)
If we belong to the Lord we have His Spirit in us watching over and working with our spirit… using what we give Him to work with and applying the wisdom of God to make it truly life changing.
But there is a catch, isn’t there. The Holy Spirit can only work with what we give Him. If we do not feed our spirits with the Word of God then perhaps the Holy Spirit must sit idle.
Interesting isn’t it ? that both our subconscious mind and our spirit are fed with words?
And maybe we need to think more seriously about what we do allow through our 'gates' -- our eyes , our ears -- because maybe the words , the sights are NOT gone when we turn off the TV set or close that book, or walk out of the place where we really shouldn't have been. Maybe they continue working in a hidden place to conform us to the image of what we have seen or heard.
And maybe when we spend time in God's word, or fill our spirit with worship through prayer or music .... that is NOT gone either when we turn to go do other things. How encouraging to think that God's Word in us is working in hidden places to make us wise in the things of the Lord.
As we become mature and strong in the Lord, perhaps maturity is not so much that we have controlled our conscious mind as it is that we have fed our spirit and grown strong from the inside out !!
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph.3:16)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The Skunk Cabbage
As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to be His disciples. What is a disciple? A student…. One who observers and obeys.God’s Word is portrayed in His creation and if we will but stop to take the time to observe we will see ‘sermons’ all around us picturing for us the way that we should go.
Each year I look forward to one of the very first evidences of spring – the skunk cabbage that I see from my kitchen window.
I have been enjoying it’s bright yellow color this spring every time I stand at my sink.
The other day I was wondering about skunk cabbage. It is not perceived as a popular plant but surely it must have a purpose. I decided to do a little research on the skunk cabbage and this post is the result of what I learned … and what the skunk cabbage calls me to obey!
1. Skunk cabbage loves wet soil.
Skunk cabbage will have nothing to do with dry parched land… no, it insists on growing where the ground sits in water all year. Look for wetlands where little else will grow and you will find skunk cabbage thriving!
Are we like the skunk cabbage – thriving in the Living Water ? Thriving where we may at times find ourselves alone?
Water … life giving . Jesus, the Giver of living water !
"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (John 4:10)
2. Skunk cabbage is named for its distinctive smell.
Skunk cabbage is known for its skunky carrion smell.
Its strong odour attracts the insects, beetles and spiders who seem to enjoy it while they pollinate the plants flowers.
Christians give off an ‘aroma’ that is perceived both as a fragrance and a smell of carrion.
To God we are the fragrance of Christ but to those who are perishing… the sinful men of this world…. we are the smell of death !!
“To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” (II Cor. 2:16)
3. Skunk cabbage creates its own environment.
The skunk cabbage has an interesting ability to adapt to harsh conditions around it . It simply warms itself up ! Enough to melt snow around it …keeping itself from freezing.
We as Christians are called to create an environment of love and peace and gratitude even when circumstances would indicate an opposite attitude.
How successful are we in obeying the example of the skunk cabbage? Do we bring peace into a stressful situation ? Do we have a calming effect when emotions around us are heated ? Does our love cover a multitude of sins?
"And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8)
4. Skunk cabbage is (almost) immortal
In my study on skunk cabbage I came across this quote …”IMMORTAL?: Eastern skunk cabbage has such an amazing survival strategy that botanists theorize that the plant's central rhizome could live for at least thousand of years, if not indefinitely. Specimens several hundred years old have been found.”
Do we as Christians not have an amazing survival strategy ? When we are born again we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us … and in Him we have the promise of eternal life !!!
Christians give off an ‘aroma’ that is perceived both as a fragrance and a smell of carrion.
To God we are the fragrance of Christ but to those who are perishing… the sinful men of this world…. we are the smell of death !!
“To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” (II Cor. 2:16)
3. Skunk cabbage creates its own environment.
The skunk cabbage has an interesting ability to adapt to harsh conditions around it . It simply warms itself up ! Enough to melt snow around it …keeping itself from freezing.
We as Christians are called to create an environment of love and peace and gratitude even when circumstances would indicate an opposite attitude.
How successful are we in obeying the example of the skunk cabbage? Do we bring peace into a stressful situation ? Do we have a calming effect when emotions around us are heated ? Does our love cover a multitude of sins?
"And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8)
4. Skunk cabbage is (almost) immortal
In my study on skunk cabbage I came across this quote …”IMMORTAL?: Eastern skunk cabbage has such an amazing survival strategy that botanists theorize that the plant's central rhizome could live for at least thousand of years, if not indefinitely. Specimens several hundred years old have been found.”
Do we as Christians not have an amazing survival strategy ? When we are born again we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us … and in Him we have the promise of eternal life !!!
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. 3:3)
5. Skunk cabbage puts down deep roots.
5. Skunk cabbage puts down deep roots.
How about you and me ? Are we growing ever deeper into Christ ? Are our roots so established in Him that no man, no enemy can pull us away from our stand in Jesus? Are we so grounded in our faith that nothing can make us waver ?
"Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (Col. 2:7)
6. Skunk cabbage has medicinal properties
When the bear come out of hibernating they will look for skunk cabbage plants to eat as a laxative to get their systems going again.
The peppery sap of the plant has been used to treat ringworm.
The fleshy underground stem is eaten by animals or was baked to supplement the winter diet of Indians.
Christians are called to bring healing to those around them.
Do our ‘leaves’ , our ‘roots’ freely supply what those around us have need of ??
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." (Matt.10:8)
The next time you come across the brilliant yellow of the skunk cabbage .. stop for a moment and listen to the wise advice hidden in its design.
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." (Matt.10:8)
The next time you come across the brilliant yellow of the skunk cabbage .. stop for a moment and listen to the wise advice hidden in its design.
Wishing you a very Blessed Resurrection Son-day !
"And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!"
(I Cor. 15:17)
BUT .........
"He is risen!"
"He is risen, indeed!"
(I Cor. 15:17)
BUT .........
"He is risen!"
"He is risen, indeed!"
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