Whose on your throne?

As I sat (actually stood) in church this morning of the songs that we sang stuck with me today. The song was The Lord Reigns the lyrics was ‘why do the nations rage when the King is on His throne? Now and forever You will reign.’

In class last week were talking about Deuteronomy chapter 17 in which Moses gives us the law and guidelines for the kings of the Old Testament. I find this interesting considering the fact that Moses was giving this law 400 years before Israel would ask for a king. God knew the temptations of the Promise Land. But, the Israelites wanted to be like the other nations. I wonder what God really thought of them asking for a king like the other nations. This is the God that brought their ancestors through the Red Sea, made the sun stand still, and won battles for the people. As the song says why do the nations rage when the King in on the throne? God is on the throne yet they are asking for more. Did they miss that God wanted to be King alone?

Today for me the words would not be why do the nations rage when the King is on the throne? Mine would look more like why do you (doubt me, worry, not trust, not completely surrender) when I am on the throne?

I go back to the desert wandering we did and how God gave the people just enough.

Was God not enough for the Israelites? Is God not enough for me?

The greatest reminder comes in the guidelines God gives to those that will be king. They need to ditch the gold, girls, and giddy up and they need to get into the word. The only requirement to be king is to read the text all the days of their life. As we read and learn we also learn to fear God. Fear meaning reverential trust. So may we all allow God to be the only one on throne, spend time with him in text so we can learn to fear and trust God. As we do thisour leadership will one that God says he/she did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

King Jesus

The last week as I turn on ESPN all the hype is Lebron James. All the analyzing of what he was going to do. Yes, he is great basketball player. How many people last night waited in anticipation to find out what King James was going to do? Is he staying is he going? One of the things that got me was the reaction of the people. The people in New York, Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New Jersey when he made the decision. Some were happy others burned his jersey in disgust. The fans of Miami sold out all of their season tickets for next year to see the trio of James, Wade, and Bosh take the court. One newspaper today had this headline: Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh = Best Thing Ever.

Yesterday I go to thinking how many times do we as followers of Christ act the way the followers of the NBA did the last week. If we as followers of Christ talked about our King Jesus as much as ESPN talked about King James the last week we could change the world. If we as followers analyzed Jesus and what he did in scripture as much as the "experts" on ESPN did the last week of James how much better would we know our King? If we were more like the fans of Miami and were completely sold out for our Trinity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit what could happen in our cities. If we would describe Our Trinity as the Best Thing Ever what a testimony that would be. The Cavaliers fans have passion, anger, and betrayal when they heard the news. If we as followers had that passion and anger when people took our God’s name in vain or discredited the Awesomeness of our God what a stand that would be.

King James plays basketball and he some great things. King Jesus did miracles and died on a cross and that is an amazing thing. So yesterday as I watched and listened to James and ESPN the song by Christ Tomlin came to mind, Famous One.

You are the Lord

The famous one

Famous one

Great is your name

In all the earth

The heavens declare

You're glorious, glorious

Great is your fame

Beyond the earth

My prayer is that we can be completely sold out like the fans of Miami for King Jesus.

My prayer is that we can be passionate like the fans of the Cleveland for our King Jesus.

My prayer is that we can be more like ESPN and proclaim King Jesus as the famous one and tell of His great name in all the earth.

A lesson from God in the Grand Prix

Tonight I was challenged. I was driving home from a great night in Des Moines with a good friend. I was listing to the radio. My car was stopped on the interstate because of a accident. Also as this time was the most amazing sunset. The sun was bursting from the clouds. The raises were shooting straight into the air. I got this smug my God made that face on and marveled in the creativity of the God I serve. I took out my camera and took a picture of the marvel.
Just a few miles later I was crying tears as I had a conversation with the God that made that sunset. The more I talked the more I cried. I should have been listening. After my talk with God I turned the radio back on. The man on the other end of the radio said we don’t need to worry. Why do we worry? The God of the universe has everything under control and yet we worry. So in a period of 5 minutes I went from praising the God of the universe in His sunset to slapping him in the face with my worry. I can trust God to make the sun rise and set each day. I cannot trust him enough with the small worries and intricacies of the day.

Tonight was a yet another moment of God teaching me to trust.

Later on my drive home I heard a song. The song is entitled Whatever your doing by Sanctus Real. The lyrics I know came from the mouth of God into my not trusting heart.

It's time for healing time to move on

It's time to fix what's been broken too long

Time to make right what has been wrong

It's time to find my way to where I belong

There's a wave that's crashing over me

And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace

It's hard to surrender to what I can't see

but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone

Time to begin again

Reevaluate who I really am

Am I doing everything to follow Your will

Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills

So show me what it is You want from me

I give everything I surrender...

To...

Time to face up

Clean this old house

Time to breathe in and let everything out

That I've wanted to say for so many years

Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but I believe

You're up to something bigger than me

Larger than life something Heavenly

Got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart!

Tonight I had an experience similar to one found in Acts 2. Acts 2 is the passage where the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. The passage in chapter 2 tonight that I really could relate to with the coming of the Holy Spirit was verse 13 which said, “Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.” Tonight at the final Tulip Time parade some of my wonderful friends and I had a lot of fun. We yelled at friends going by in the parade. We ate a lot of great food. We cheered for bands. We laughed together. We Dutch danced to The Nadas. My friend Joy and I shared a chair. We laughed and chatted with my students. It was a good night. A fun night. A night filled with joy. A night where many who saw us probably said they are drunk. No. That is not true. If those strangers knew me they would know it is not true.

What I was experiencing tonight was something greater than any beer or wine it was TRUE HOLY SPIRIT JOY. For some people being a follower of Christ means it is wrong, or frivolous, to display too much happiness or high spirits. The fruits of the Spirit will be evident in the lives of people who are walking with God. The second fruit mentioned in the Spirit’s list is JOY. Right after love the greatest of these is joy. Our joy had little to do with the food we ate, the bands that were playing, the people we saw or talked to. Tonight our joy came from a deep connection that we had with God and each other. We were celebrating the good in life tonight rather than complaining about all that’s wrong. We chose to have the joy of Jesus in our hearts. We all shared a Spirit-filled joy –a sense of having our lives all firmly founded on the rock of Jesus Christ. Any life with Jesus as its center is a joyful life, no matter what is going on in the world. Tonight was that kind of joy as we had a good time not caring what was going on around us.

My Jesus I love thee!

Two weeks ago I was sitting in my Gospels class with Dr. Brown (my new hero!)
In devotions that morning she was telling us about how she remembered Jesus growing up in the church. How they portrayed Jesus as a blonde lighter skinned man. I sat in church and looked at the Jesus in the stained glass behind my pastor yesterday. He was not blonde but he did not look very middle eastern either. My professor went on to read to us from Time magazine 2008 future revolution ideas that stated Re-Judaizing Jesus as one of them. The reason why I write (ok type) this is because tonight someone asked me to summarize my two weeks. Oddly it was something one of the graduates mentioned at our communion service last Friday. For most of my life I put Jesus in a box. I let Jesus operate in the small box I put him in. I knew the Bible stories about Jesus. I knew how to pray. I had scripture memorized. I went to church twice on Sunday. I did the “Christian” thing. All of those things I let Jesus stay in the small box I put him in. Since going to Seminary almost two years ago my box keeps getting larger and larger. The answer to Who is Jesus has changed for me. I sat in Global and Contextual as my first class as was amazed at the passion of Dr. Magnuson and his passion for Muslims. My box grew in love for Muslims. As I sat in Hermeneutics I was in awe that I actually knew what that word meant and at the seeing the big picture and not jumping into the spirals. As I took Systematic Theology Dr. Lawrence and his presentation of community through the Trinity blew me away. I could go on and on about each of the classes at Bethel. Each time I leave I process. Each time I process my box gets bigger. The box does not just get bigger but so much better. I pray God continues to widen my box and open my eyes to the glory of new things.

The song that comes to my mind is one I learned and had memorized as a little girl.
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
(Oh my Saviour) If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

It is now (if ever I love my Saviour, 'tis now etc)
It is now (if ever I love my Saviour, 'tis now)

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Lenten Worship

This past week in my Discipleship in Community class we started off the week looking at the early church in Acts 2:42-47. In verse 46- 47 it states, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” What a beautiful picture of worship. One of the reasons we go to worship is stir ourselves to praise. Worship is a corporate confession of sin. This is not to say that we are confessing through other people. Corporate confession is followers of Christ gather together to worship in their total fallen state and with out Christ cannot make it. So as I worshipped this morning I was joyful and thankful because I know without this Via Dolorosa or the Way of Sorrow that Jesus walked down my worship would be that of tears and sorrow. Instead as he walked to the cross I can worship with joy in the faithfulness of God’s covenant to send a Messiah to save us. The worship of joy strikes down any pride that has welled within me and has me humble crawling to God through Jesus grace. Through Jesus and his sacrifice of blood God can look at me with eyes of love, forgiveness, and mercy.

This morning as I went to church and worshipped I was screaming on the inside,

“My sin-oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! --My sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more; praise the Lord, praise, the Lord, O my soul!”

As we go to worship may we honestly confess our sins to God. In our confession have joy in the Lord and delight in His salvation. As I leave I will say I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.

That is something to Give thanks and be joyful about!

According to HIM!

I got this in my email today. I just had to share it! So good.

Question: What rock ‘n’ roll chica has the rare combination of one of the most unique names in musical history and *mad* guitar skills?

If the name Miley Cyrus came to mind, please dismiss that thought immediately…you’re fired.

Ladies and Gentlemen, her name is Orianthi Panagaris, her eco-friendly guitar is named “Pepper,” and you probably know her as “that blond chick that sings‘According to You.’”

According to you
I’m stupid
I’m useless
I can’t do anything right
According to you
I’m difficult
hard to please
forever changing my mind
I’m a mess in a dress
can’t show up on time
even if it would save my life
According to you, according to you

Who is “you”? Apparently it’s the guy she was dating who obviously didn’t have a lot of good things to say to her:

According to you
I’m boring
I’m moody
and you can’t take me any place

Can anyone out there relate to Orianthi and her unhealthy relationship? I would bet that there are a few voices in your world that would fall under the category of “According to You”…that cause you to feel “stupid” and “useless,” and any other number of things, making you wonder if you mean anything to anyone.

Sometimes it’s our parents, teachers, coaches, or even the images and expectations we get from the media that make us feel worthless. But ultimately, those messages come from the one that the Bible calls the enemy of our souls, “the accuser” Satan.

Satan accuses you of being worthless, unlovable, incompetent, and hopeless…why? Because if you have trusted Christ, you are God’s child, which means Satan wants nothing more than to steal the joy out of your life, kill your dreams, and destroy your hope of finding God’s amazing plan for your life.

In the song “According to You,” Orianthi discovers another voice which she refers to as “According to him”:

But according to him
I’m beautiful
incredible
he can’t get me out of his head
According to him
I’m funny
irresistible
everything he ever wanted

Aren’t those the words we all want to hear? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a person in our lives who believed in us and saw the best in us even through our flaws?

You do have Someone like that. There is a heavenly song playing for all believers in Jesus Christ that started even before the universe existed called “According to Him” - and here are just a few of the lyrics:

According to Him*

I love you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

According to Him

I know the plans I have for you, they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

According to Him

No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what He has prepared
for those who love him.

According to Him

His unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

According to Him

He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
He is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

Are you picking up on how God feels about His children? In Christ, we are way beyond “beautiful, incredible”…in fact, according to Him, He chose to die rather than live without us.

So now, like Orianthi, you have a choice between two voices. Don’t listen to the accusations of the devil and the world. Instead, tune your soul into the melody of heaven that assures you for eternity that you have the unfailing love of your Father, the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And just like you would pass along a link to an amazing video on YouTube to your friends, get the word out about the Bible’s version of “According to Him.” You have friends that are trapped in the world of negative messages but you have the voice of the gospel that will allow them to choose a different perspective – that they are loved by God the Father when they put their faith and trust in Christ.

According to Him… He made you, He loves you, He died for you.

Got Love?

When I was growing up I collected all the different God Milk ads from magazines. They would have famous people with a milk mustache. I still posters of them in local high schools. I recently read a devotional entitled Got Love? Here is my own take of the idea Got Love?

I look at my day and I can say I got Love. I have fallen in love with so many people in my short life. I take a look at my family pictures sitting around my house and I see love. I see love a grandma and grandpa and aunt and uncle who are far off. I see the love in a picture of the whole family smashed in the living room at grandma’s to take a picture this picture totally 25. I have pictures of friends around the house on walls and in places I will smile when I see them. Today I had 22 students tell me that I should tell my professors I am not allowed to leave for 2 weeks to go to class because they will miss me. Students who insist I make a binder with their pictures on them and a paper they sign just so I do not forget them in the two weeks I am gone. I cannot tell you the random hugs, notes, and encouragement I get from teenagers on a daily basis. The thing I realized reading the devotional is that not that I do not have love but it actually has me. I do not crank out love to please people or win them or even to manipulate them. God gives it to me everyday. Each day when I receive it from God it pous over onto (and hopefully into) others. This love does not come into my life stay a while and leave. When it is God’s love it comes, finds me, and it stays. There are days when I have a bad connection, interruptions, and huge pauses in my locve. There are days like my own life where there are no prom dates, dates, or all those things girls dream of when they watch the Bachelor. Love brings people together in little, gentle, lasting ways. When God is the author love always find a way and the rewards are amazing. I have been disappointed and annoyed with love and those that I love. But, I always have the Lover of my soul Jesus Christ who helps me grow and deepen me more in Him in the rough patches. The few years I have never felt more loved by Christ. Through his love I have plenty to go around. I am amazed at the people who love me back even when I am unlovable. I pray people will blossom in the warmth of my love. In this I feel satisfied. So this year I am going to be a valentine everyday of the year and share love to everyone I teach, know, and meet. Ask yourself Got Love?

God's Love Lap

As we approach the holiday of love I ask myself what does love really look like? I was reading a book for homework and came upon this story. This comes from George Barna’s book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions.

Here is the story.

Children often need reassurance that they are loved by those whom they trust and depend upon. My oldest daughter loves to ask challenging questions of her mother and me. Several years ago, while spending a laid- back Saturday lounging around the house, she wandered into my study where I was working at the computer.

“Daddy,” she began innocently, “do you love me?”

After turning away from the computer to give her my full attention, I affirmed that she was more important to me that anything else in the world and that I loved her very dearly. She smiled and then let loose the big one.

“How do I know you really love me?”

Ah, the thoughts that went through my mind. I thought to myself let’s see. I wiped your poopy behind every day for two years, ran a car into the ground carting you to sports practices, spent hours awake late at night holding you or calming you when you had earaches or stomachaches, spent more money than I’d care to tally on special adventures and events, played silly games until I couldn’t bear it any longer, and so on.

I just replied, “ I hug you and kiss you and tell you all the time how much I love you, “ I replied.

“Yeah, but how do I know you really mean it?” she pressed forward, digging for the golden nugget of truth.

“I work really hard to make the money that provides your food, clothing, home, and toys.”

“Yeah, but you have to do that. That’s what every parent has to do, but that doesn’t mean you love me.”

I invited her to sit on my lap while I told her the ultimate, indisputable way that she could know that I loved her more than anything on the planet.

“Buddy, I do everything I can to try and raise you up to be the woman that God made you and wants you to be. There is nothing more important than that you love, obey, and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul. And I do everything I can to help you be a little girl who grows up to be a big girl who is God’s pleasing and faithful servant. There’s nothing more special that any parent can do than to help his or her child honor God; and I will never stop trying to do the things that bring you closer to Him. That’s more important than buying you nice clothes or giving you a cell phone, than letting you see every movie you want to see or giving you the biggest room in the house. I really want God and other people throughout the world to be blessed by who you are. “

Her big, dark eyes continued to stare intently into mine for a few seconds after I finished delivering my best shot. Then she pursed her lips, grinned, nodded her head up and down a few times, and simply said,

“Okay,” and went bounding out of the room. She has never asked me that question again. I hope it is because she sensed the truthfulness and sincerity of my reply.

May we all feel this kind of love from our family, friends, and Lord. May we all crawl into the laps of our Heavenly Father and be reminded of this incredible blessing.

The Winter Blahs

This winter has been nuts. As a teacher it has been a nightmare as well. We have a total of 6 snow days. Winter has brought a lot of inches of snow and ice. This morning I slept in due to the late start. This morning I awoke to something different than the last days. I opened my garage door and peering in the door was something I have not seen in a while it was the sun. The sun came into my windows today all day. It was a glorious thing. The sun was flexing its muscles in the face of the darkness and dreariness that we have seen this winter. The sun was screaming and bringing with it a fresh start. The sun this morning was a reminder of how the God that loves me and created me is and always will be the God of new beginnings. Today I am looking and listening to God who sends his love with the rising of the sun.

Burning Sheltering Presence

Day 1

Yesterday I was reading my devotions and I was struck by the passage in Exodus 23:23-25. This passage says, “ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

Egypt often times in the Bible was symbolic of worldliness and bondage. Maybe as a single person you have been in a place of slavery of worldliness or bondage. For example when one refuses to accept their single state, it sets a Christian in a state of bondage, which WILL have an effect upon your life as a Christian. When a person refuses to accept their single life, they tend to focus on a spousal search. A spousal search may be all consuming because everything we do or every event we attend will always be under the umbrella of searching for a mate. This limits our vision, creativity, and our ability to be useful to others. If we will focus on Christ as our source of life instead of a spouse, God WILL fill any void we have.

The Israelites in Egypt groaned and suffered for a long time and God said nothing to them. Maybe some of you feel like you pray endlessly for a man and God is silent and not answering. But, right after the people groan it says God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and was concerned about them. God knows our hearts and he is concerned with us too. Isaiah 65:24 reads, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Here is where the passage gets real good. Just following the peoples groaning God appears to Moses in the burning bush. I am almost positive this is not the way the Israelites or Moses thought God would answer or speak to him. Go read Exodus 3 and she the conversation between Moses and God. Hear what God is saying. Listen to the love and compassion that God has for his people as he speaks to Moses. He has that same love and compassion for us. I once read that the burning bush to the Jews was a symbol of God's sheltering presence during times when the Jews will go through "burning difficulties." The bush keeps burning because God is its exsistence, so too will God will also support our existence in our time of need. So as single people maybe we are not in slavery in Egypt but just the same God is our sheltering presence in our burning difficulties.

The author of my devotional Erin Marshall added this to the story.

“But when we enclose our expectations of God in a box with a set timer, we’re saying to Him, ‘ I trust you, God, if you answer in this way and by that time.’ This strategy invites doubt and suffocates faith. God is more interested in our growth than our comfort, and he doesn’t often do things our way…Silence often promotes deeper thought and richer faith. He knows when the time and quiet are needed to fit us and our circumstance for his finished answer.”

So the next time you are waiting for God to answer. Look around and see how he has already provided and answered. Maybe it is not exactly a burning bush to show his sheltering presence, but I can guarantee he is there and waiting to answer and at the perfect time.

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable by whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” – Malcolm Muggeridge

Blessings! Until tomorrow…

-KB

Singleness in Community

I am currently taking a class entitled discipleship in community. I have been fascinated the last weeks about community. The many communities that I have been a part of and am still a part of.

God has created us for community. We were created in the image of a God of community. Stanley Grenz states, “ Only in fellowship with others can we show forth what God is like, for God is the community of love—the eternal relationship enjoyed by the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit.” In the book I read for class last week entitled Creating Community Stanley and Willits say, “ Living life alone does not accurately reflect the One whose image we bear.”

So what do these quotes say to my many single friends and me? When people ask me what the hardest part about being single is I answer the knowing you have a constant community to come home to and love you.

As I watched the preview for the movie Valentine’s Day for the twentieth time my mind got thinking. To add to that a friend of mine pointed out the many eharmony and match.com commercials flooding the television I decided to in the next 25 or so days to build a singleness in community. Each day until Valentine’s Day I am going to write about joys of singleness, contentment, trust, doubt, and where ever else the Holy Spirit leads.

Singleness in Community………