He Saw You

Today during my devotions I read from Hebrews 12.  The Inspirational Study Bible that I use has a Life Lesson for almost every chapter.  This one caught my attention like the story I posted a couple weeks back about the little girl and her mother.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

"He looked around the carpentry shop.  He stood for a moment in the refuge of the little room that housed so many sweet memories.  He balanced the hammer in his hand.  He ran his fingers across the sharp teeth of the saw.  He stroked the smoothly worn wood of the sawhorse.  He had come to say good-bye.

It was time for him to leave.  He had heard something that made him know it was time to go.  So he came one last time to smell the sawdust and lumber.  

Life was peaceful here.  Life was so...safe....

I wonder if he wanted to stay...I wonder because I know he had already read the last chapter.  He knew that the feet that would step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they'd been  pierced and placed on a Roman cross.

...If there was any hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity.  His divinity heard the voices....

And his divinity saw the faces.... From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you read these words, he saw them all.

And you can be sure of one thing.  Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice....

And not only did he hear you, he saw you.  He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew him.  He saw your face in shame the hour you first fell.  The same face that looked back at you from this morning's mirror, looked at him.  And it was enough to kill him.

He left because of you.

He laid his security down with his hammer.  He hung tranquility on the peg with his nail apron.  He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of his youth and locked the door on the comfort and ease of anonymity.

Since he could bear your sins more easily that he could bear the thought of your hopelessness, he chose to leave.  

It wasn't easy.  Leaving the carpentry shop never has been."

(From God Came Near by Max Lucado)

Most of us never leave the carpentry shop. The place where we are happy and comfortable.  Where life is simple...easy....   We never step out and do what we know God wants us to do.  When will you answer the cries for help?  God has a place for each of us in His ministry.  It's not always where we think it will be.  Listen for his voice and step out of the shop.

Choices, choices...

"You never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so.  You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided."  Phillips Brooks

Last year was a hard year.  I think it was hard for most of us in some way or another.  I look back on it with a deep sigh of relief that it's over.  I often have wondered why God allows us to go through the hard times.  Why do we sometimes "walk through the valley of the shadow of death"?  Why did this family member lose their job, or that friend have to go through a divorce? Why?  

I read a book once that was about different paths that people take.  It was a fictional book, but it made things seem so much clearer for me.  There was a woman who was trying to escape from a foreign country where she was being prepared to marry a man she had never met.  She didn't want to be forced to marry someone she didn't know so she ran away.  The family of the man she was to marry put the word out that she was to be brought back, dead or alive.  She had shamed their family honor.  

During this time, the book tells about a man who is having visions of this woman.  He felt that he was supposed to save her somehow.  Shortly after he started having visions of her, he met her as she was fleeing her country.  He saw different scenarios of what would happen if he took one path vs. another.  He was shown what would happen based on what choices he made.  

That was such an interesting thought to me.  I never understood how God could allow us to go through certain things like working at a job where the people are hateful or where you do your best, but you still get fired.

We all like that God gave us free will, right?  Free will allows us to stop and smell the roses if we want to, or go to the beach if we need a break or just want to spend some unscheduled time with our family.  We can drive fast in our convertible to take our minds off of our troubles, or choose to eat one meal over another...chocolate instead of vanilla.  Free will offers us so many options.  But what about when we make the wrong choice?  When we take a job based on what we think we need rather than the more fulfilling job that God has waiting for us?  What if this family member lost their job because they "chose" the job based on the wrong reasons.  What if that friend had to go through a divorce because they "chose" the wrong man or woman?  We love free will until it bites us in the tush and then we just love to blame God for it.

If you're going through what has been the greatest trial of your life, let me encourage you to hang in there.  Don't blame God.  Our everyday choices, not matter how big or small they may seem, direct where we will go in the future and ultimately direct our trials.  Will there be trials that come about when there is no reason?  When we didn't make a wrong choice?  Yes.  As much as I would like to say no, the answer is yes.  We live under the curse.  But God will be there to bring us through to another tomorrow where we can make yet another choice.  And always remember that God is never suprised by what we do.  He's never suprised when we make a wrong choice.  He's seen from the beginning to the end of every choice we will ever make or ever could make.  Ahhh choices... I need to go to the beach...

Alicia

Today I felt led to share an excerpt from "In the Eye of the Storm" by Max Lucado.

Theresa Briones is a tender, loving mother.  She also has a stout left hook that she used to punch a lady in a coin laundry.  Why'd she do it?

Some kids were making fun of Theresa's daughter, Alicia.

Alicia is bald.  Her knees are arthritic.  Her nose is pinched.  Her hips are creaky.  Her hearing is bad.  She has the stamina of a seventy-year-old.  And she is only ten.

"Mom," the kids taunted, "come and look at the monster!"

Alicia weighs only twenty-two pounds and is shorter than most preschoolers.  She suffers from progeria - a genetic aging disease that strikes one child in eight million.  The life expectancy of progeria vctims is twenty years.  There are only fifteen known cases of this disease in the world.

"She is not an alien.  She is not a monster," Theresa defended.  "She is just like you and me."

Mentally, Alicia is a bubbly, fun-loving third grader.  She has a long list of friends.  She watches television in a toddler-sized rocking chair.  She plays with Barbie dolls and teases her younger brother.

Theresa has grown accustomed to the glances and questions.  She is patient with the constant curiosity.  Genuine inquiries she accepts.  Insensitive slanders she does not.

The mother of the pointing children came to investigate.  "I see it," she told the kids.

"My child is not an 'it,'" Theresa stated.  Then she decked the woman.

Who could blame her?  Such is the nature of parental love.  Mothers and fathers have a God-given ability to love their children regardless of imperfections.  Not because the parents are blind.  Just the opposite.  They see vividly.

Theresa sees Alicia's inablility as clearly as anyone.  But she also sees Alicia's value.

...What did Jesus know that enabled him to do what he did?

Here's part of the answer.  He knew the value of people.  He knew that each human being is a treasure.  And because he did, people were not a source of stress, but a source of joy.

God offers salvation to everyone.  If you find yourself judging others, remember that God values them.  Think of what you can do to show God's love to the unlovely.

--- 

Isn't it great to know that God loves us no matter what?  It doesn't matter what we've done, what we've said, who we know, who we don't know... He has seen everything we've done, heard everything we've said...He even knows who we do and don't know.  And still,  just like a loving, bragging parent, God loves us.

Thursday, April 23

Welcome to Grace Exposed! This is my first official try at a blog. Hopefully it goes well, if not...well, at least I tried it!!

Throughout my life, there have been many, many ups and downs. The "ups" definitely outweigh the "downs", but the "downs" seemed so terrible while I was going through them. Financial difficulties, miscarriage, friend issues, school troubles, work changes, death of a loved one...life is full of change. Change is the only constant.

In all this change, in all this stress and through all these hardships, how do we find the strength to hold our head high during financial difficulties, to grow closer to our spouse during a miscarriage, to make it through all these trials? The only way I have found that actually works, is through peace. Our strength is in having peace. I know what you're thinking. That's stupid. Peace? Really? Yes, really. No, don't roll your eyes at me. I'm serious. Peace. Peace brings a calm to any storm. Remember when Jesus was on the boat? You know the one I'm talking about, a huge storm was raging, big waves, boat being thrown all over everywhere, grown men screamin'... Peace? Where?! There was NO peace anywhere even near that boat, right?
Sure there was.

At the stern of that ship as it was being tossed around like a toothpick, there was a man sleeping. A man who grew up like we all did for the most part. Physically birthed from a woman, grew up around family. Had friends, lost friends. Probably had more trials than most of us have had if we're honest... As hard as He worked to be what He was sent to earth to be, He was constantly rejected and told He was performing wonders through the work of Satan (Matt. 12:25-45). How many of us have quit doing what we know we're called to do because of rejection? That's a WHOLE nother blog!

So there He was, this man Jesus, sleeping away during this terrible storm...which was bad enough to be called a hurricane...after a long emotional exhausting day of teaching, and His disciples wake Him up. Jesus, we're going to die!! Don't you care? (Mark 4:38) Jesus gets up and calms the storm using 2 Greek words that translate to "Hush, be still". Now you and I both know that we'd have been like "What just happened?" Jesus knew He had nothing to fear from the storm. We should know that as well.

No matter what the storm is that you're facing, Jesus is there with you, always offering you the peace that only He can give. You can't find peace anywhere else. I've often wondered how marriages last without Jesus. I know that whatever occurs, that Jesus will provide the peace. But I have to have the faith that Jesus is there with me no matter what before I can have that peace. The great thing about peace, is that it gets easier to have peace with every trial you go through. Each trial is a stepping stone. Will your stepping stones take you up? Or down? I choose to go up...through Jesus.