How Can Scripture Relate to Us Right Now? Part 2

Last week we discovered that God fills what He creates. If you didn’t get a chance to read that yet, go ahead and do that now.

Now that you’ve read part 1, let’s take this notion one step further. On the last day of creating, God made humans. What can that mean for us?

Well, although people filled what was created on day 3, if the same logic is applied then we can see that God intends to fill us, too! After all, He fills what He creates!

I don’t know about you, but it baffles my mind how the creator of the entire macro-level cosmos also has a divine plan to fill the micro-level individual! What lesson has greater bearing on our lives today than knowing that God desires to fill us?! To make us whole!?

It doesn’t matter how deflated we feel or how far from grace we think we’ve fallen. Neither a void too vast nor a transgression too unforgiveable exists beyond the healing hands of our God. He can work through any person or situation! Remember, He was the one who called an entire universe into existence simply by saying it should be so.

Of course, it will take the entire rest of the Old Testament, and through the gospels and beyond in the New Testament, to find out exactly how God’s plan to fill and restore us to Himself is realized, but isn’t that amazing?! His plan for us was conceived with the rest of creation! If there is any area in your life which needs to be forgiven or restored, go to Him. He created you to fill you. Let God be God. He’s pretty good at it!

There are so many more lessons in the Creation Account, but to start with the idea of creating and filling is pretty basic, isn’t it? As elementary as it is, perhaps this traditionally common Bible story has now taken on new significance for you? The more time you invest in the Word, in a translation you are comfortable with, the easier it will be to connect high-level dots and minor details all the same. You will begin to see old stories anew. Chapters which were once possibly too overwhelming to make sense of will become like old friends when you visit the verses contained within them again and again.

The next part of Genesis goes into the story of Adam and Eve. Go ahead and read it in Chapter 2, but before you do ask that the Holy Spirit reveal something that you never noticed before. Once you notice, pray again that the Spirit may reveal how that recognition may hold some relevance in your life, right now. You may be surprised with what else you can glean from Scriptures once you call upon the Spirit and ask for help as you read.

Pray:
Father God,
Thank you for meeting each one of us exactly where we are at in our walk with you. I’m so grateful that you also provide a helper in the Holy Spirit so that your people can understand the truths contained in your Word. Help me to remember to call on the Spirit for clarity next time I open the Bible. Let what I learn take root in my heart and affect my actions so that others may be drawn closer to you as well.

In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name,
Amen

How Can Scripture Relate to Us Right Now? Part 1

I’m wondering if either of these thoughts have ever crossed your mind?

How can the Bible have any bearing on my life right now?
Parts of the Bible seem so hard to understand!

Me, too! I’ve thoughts like those before.

If you’re new to exploring your faith, I adamantly believe that you are precisely where you are meant to be in your spiritual walk with God! I also firmly maintain that the best place to get to know Him better is in His Word as revealed to us in the Bible, so you are in a great position to take your next step in cultivating a relationship with Him!

On the other hand, even if you’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover and are more seasoned in your faith, you’re also in the right spot! You know that intricately complex movie that you watch again and again, yet notice something new every time? The Bible is the same way.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through its pages. We can read the same verse hundreds of times and glean something new each and every time. Read a commentary by a great theologian or two? Even more is revealed. Read in an entirely different season of life? Verses previously skimmed over can morph into wisdom-rich lifelines.

For me, the Creation Account in Genesis is like this. It’s one of those stories that many are familiar with: believer, agnostic, or otherwise. Its multi-faceted layers appear to hint at no end in sight. Just for reference, here’s a summary of my exposure to Genesis over the years:

An illustrated children’s bible showing Adam and Eve covered in leaves
Memorizing the days of creation for a religion test every year in grade school, only to forget by the time I had to memorize the 10 Commandments
As part of a Literature class on great books, along with the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, and The Odyssey as an English Major
As a Philosophy and World Religion Major delving into Judeo-Christian traditions
As a new believer, every time I started a Bible-in-a-Year plan, with the sincerest of intentions to “finish this time”
As I read references to it in books related to God’s design for marriage while I was struggling in my own
As I read references to it in books related to the need to create a margin for sabbath as I wrestled with burnout

You get the idea. Lots of surface-to-moderate level exposure throughout different seasons of life. Nonetheless, this past year, it was as though I read Genesis for the VERY FIRST TIME! Here’s what I learned: Order in terms of what was created when may not seem like a huge deal, but it really is extraordinarily important! As it turns out, among other reasons, God’s character, forethought, and intentions are revealed in the established order of Creation.

The lesson in a nutshell? What God Creates, He Fills. I don’t know about you, but the older I get the more I appreciate easily absorbable information which can be recalled with little-to-no effort. For information to be useful to me it needs to be able to come out of my brain as easily as it can take up residence in my brain. It’s even better when this info is based in the grounding truths of God! What God Creates, He Fills is a neat and tidy message I can get behind!

Now, let’s see what I mean. Grab your Bible or click here to read the Creation Account in Genesis 1.

Notice that what God created during the first three days of creation, He proceeded to fill, in the same order, over the next three days. So, what He created on days 1, 2 and 3, He filled on days 4, 5 and 6, respectively. For example, God made light and dark on day 1, and He filled those empty spaces with the sun, moons and stars on day 4.

Here’s a graphic for all the visual learners out there!

Image from: http://Image from: https://spreadingthefame.com/2020/01/16/order-of-creation/

What He creates, He fills! Isn’t that amazing?! Go ahead, and read the creation account again, but this time specifically focus on the create/fill correlations.

Next week we will delve into this teaching a bit more and find out what truth it can hold for us!

Pray:
Father God, thank you for revealing yourself in Scriptures. Trends, culture, and relationships shift over time. It can can be challenging to know fact from fiction, especially when the fiction is delivered by people with good intentions using seemingly harmless words. But, with the help of your Spirit, I am learning that the only real truth is what you chose to reveal in Scriptures. What a gift! By turning to your Word, I can how I ought to act in any situation. Do you know what else is incredible? That while your Word reveals new insights time and time again, it also remains absolutely unchanging. I know it is always true no matter when I turn to it for guidance or comfort. Thank you! Continue to open my eyes and soften my heart as I seek out the wisdom contained in your Word.
In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name,
Amen

Praying the Lesser Known Names of God

What if I told you I hold a title of “Lady” based on owning a small plot of land on the other side of the pond? It’s true! My husband purchased a very tiny land parcel in Dunfermline, Scotland as my birthday gift this year, compete with a printed proclamation of “elevated” social status and all. A title tells you something about the person bearing it’s name. Here are some more examples.

Although my name is Helen, that’s not what everyone calls me. My kids call me, “Mama.” My only sister’s daughter, my niece, calls me “Aunt Ellie”. My mom used to call me “Helen Jean” when she really wanted to get my attention. My email signature for work has some initials after my name, indicating my level of education and area of expertise. Each of these names, or additions to my name, tell you something about me. Some attribute. What are some of the names or titles people call you? What do those words tell others about you?

Did you know God has different names to reflect His attributes as well? Usually when I pray, I start out with “Father God…” or “Lord God…”, but He has so many more names, especially when you look at the original language they were written in! These names provide so much more dimension than the name “God” or “Lord” alone. We can call on these names when we want to humbly worship or petition Him in ways that correspond to various aspects of His character.

Abba is an endearing term that means “Father” similar to what a young child might say to their own father when they want him to know how special he is. Here’s a few more:

Adonai = “Lord” (Exodus 4:10-12)

El Shaddai = “God Almighty” or “God the All-Sufficient One” (Genesis 17:2-3)

Yahweh-jireh = “Yahweh will provide” (Genesis 22:11-14).

Yahweh-raah = “Yahweh My Shepherd” (Psalms 23:1)

Yahweh–nissi = “Yahweh My Banner” (Exodus 17:16)

Yahweh-rapha = “Yahweh who heals” (Exodus 15:26)

Isn’t that amazing!? Which attribute do you need to call out to today? Which one do you need to speak over a loved one? Which one do you feel led to praise Him for? The names for God go on and on in the Bible. We would be hard pressed to find a need that would not coincide with one of His very many Names. He is quite literally all-encompassing. Our every need can be met in and through Him, and He wants to meet those needs. We simply have to call out to Him by name and ask.

Pray:
Yahweh-Jireh, you alone are my provider! Nothing of this world can fill voids in my life that only you can fulfill. If there is any place in my life where I am lacking then what I yearn for in those areas is not really a need at all. I trust you to meet my every need as I need it! Thank you for that! I am so grateful that I can call on you by name and that you know me by mine. You have an entire universe hanging in the balance, and yet you care about me and our relationship with one another. That truly leaves me speechless! Today, I do not even want to ask you for anything at all. I just want to praise you for being you and for your ultimate provision found in the resurrection and ascension of your son.
In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name,
Amen

To add to the conversation about calling on the names of God, here is a song our home church loves to sing during worship on Sundays. Now that we know that Jireh means “provider” see how much more meaning the words can hold and enjoy!!

How to Overcome Negative Emotions

Despite currently communicating my thoughts in writing and for anyone to see, I used to be much more guarded. I would only share if among my closest friends. Also, any number of other criteria needed to be checked off my self-created mental list of what would deem a situation safe enough to discuss what was on my heart. You may be thinking this girl has some trust issues. You wouldn’t be wrong. God’s working on that, too, dear reader, but as I was saying…

I attended a women’s retreat and was placed in a small group with only two other individuals: one of my best friends and the retreat’s guest speaker, a woman who had gone to seminary with our pastor. In other words, all boxes in aforementioned mental checklist were checked to the Nth degree, and my brain told my heart it was safe enough to share (or did my heart tell my brain?). Leave it to God to create such a space at such a time when those listening could not only be trusted but offer life-changing counsel as well.

Once in that safe little bubble, I shared that I had been feeling guilty about the life I used to lead and was trying to grow away from. I had been feeling guilty over all the time I wasted away. I even felt guilty for feeling guilty. I knew better! Needless to say, I was guilt-ridden about all the things, and I had dared not tell another soul about all this pent up guilt until then.

How could I genuinely lead the life I was being called to live if I had such a negative thought pattern holding me captive to my past?

In typical pastor fashion, the guest speaker in my very small group tried to coax a solution out of me as opposed to just telling me what my issue was. I totally fell for it. She asked where my guilt came from. Not quite picking up what she was putting down, I guessed the source of my guilt was a nun who had taught me in Catholic school. Spoiler alert: that wasn’t it.

She gently pushed a little more. “God doesn’t want you to feel this guilt. If it doesn’t come from God, where does it come from?” Just like that, literal dots were being literally connected by literal lines all over the place…figuratively speaking…and I responded by blurting out, “It comes from Satan?!?!”

She knowingly smiled and explained how if something comes from the enemy it cannot come from God. She prompted me to call the guilt out by name and declare that it would not have a place in my life any longer. That was easy! If it wasn’t from God, and I knew it wasn’t (knowing is the hard part, sometimes), then I surely didn’t want any part of it!

I declared, “Guilt, you no longer have a hold on me.” And guess what? It didn’t. From that moment on, I have been liberated to peacefully and simultaneously co-exist with the knowledge of who I once was and who God continually calls me to be.

Bonus: You can apply the latter practice to anything at all which is not from Him: call it by name and declare its hold on you defeated. Once the emotion or fallacy from the enemy is recognized, called out and conquered, replace it with this truth:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Pray:
Father God, thank you for orchestrating moments in my life which can only be composed by your loving hands. Thank you for the people you put in my path, whether for a lifetime, a season, or just a few hours. Thank you for the ability to get to know you better through your Word and through fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is in knowing you better that I can better know your voice and discern it from the enemy’s. If something is not aligned with your will for my life, please awaken me to what that could be and remove whatever may be getting in my way.
In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name,
Amen.

How to be Intentional About Seeking Blessings Out

Can you imagine how refreshing it could be to pick up your phone and use it for something other than responding to text alerts, email notifications, and the pings of an app? To allow that device in your hand to contribute to your actual, overall well being as opposed to distracting you from the life unfolding all around it? It can be done!

A few years ago, especially in times of distress, I started writing down any blessings I noticed around me. Sometimes, I would plot out these new-found treasures within the fresh, crisp pages of a newly purchased journal. However, more recently, for about the last 3 years or so, I’ve opted for the convenience of an app (just like what you might keep your grocery list or to-do list in).

Our device of choice can actually be our blessing if we use it in the right ways. The beauty of using an app as a “Blessing Tracker” is two-fold in its tremendous simplicity and accessibility. It just so happens to be perfect for jotting down the activities of a God who can literally make His move in any place, at any time, and through any person or situation.

Originally, these lists served as a tangible proof of an intangible faith. The documented eyewitness accounts reinforced the notion that if God provided once before He could and would again. Over time, these singular, bulleted testimonies could also be reviewed as a more concerted assemblage pointing to a larger tale being told. Isolated instances transformed into a cohesive, exquisite validation of an interwoven thread, revealing His sovereign hand at work throughout my life.

Eventually, the proclivity to remember blessings was enhanced by belief: a belief that beyond a shadow of a doubt our God is absolutely good, loyal to His promises, protective and restorative. He was and is a deliverer who can use any circumstance for His glory. I no longer need to remember the lists living in my phone as frequently as I did several years ago. Instead, there is a present and profound trust living inside of me.

The lists grow exponentially when I’m intentional about seeking His blessings out, especially when I’m still enough to notice. How else could I end up with a list of “Quarantine Blessings” showcasing 54 examples of His presence revealed in perfect timings and more-than-sufficient provisions during the beginning of 2020?…or another list of 76 blessings during the time immediately preceding, during, and after my mom’s unexpected passing in 2019?

The blessings will yield blessings! They bless at the time of bestowing and yet again upon remembrance. If you share those testimonies, they have the potential to bless even still. Try keeping a list of your own! What can you notice today? Tomorrow? How will you choose track them? An App? A voice-recorded text? Do you have another idea? Drop it in the comments. I’d LOVE to hear about it, and I’m sure others will as well!

As I close this week’s post, let’s keep this key verse in mind:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7

Pray:
Father God, thank you for all the ways you have provided for me in the past. I know you are still at work today, even if I am too busy to notice. I apologize for not noticing enough and for not praising you enough. Open my eyes so that I may better see my circumstances as reflections of your handiwork. Help me to better notice the blessings that are all around me. Please help me to remember that anything good in my life is a gift from you.
In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name,
Amen

Finding my Voice

Now, this is what I originally drafted to be my maiden blog post, but I decided to add some additional content last week at the last minute. So, here I am, stringing words together in hopes that they strike some chord with you. That you can relate to something I’ve been through, how I dealt with this thing or that, or that I can offer new perspectives on an old problem. But how?

It’s one thing to sit around a kitchen table with friends and offer advice or lend an ear. It’s an entirely other matter to sit at a computer and rally enough thoughts together that they coherently blend into something substantive enough that someone else would want to read them. Thus…here I am…finding my voice. Do I focus on being a parent of three? A spouse? Full-time professional in post-graduate school? Self-declared DIYer?

Perhaps what’s so challenging about focusing on any one of these identities is that they are somewhat transient and incomplete. By and large, they depend on other aspects subject to change and are still only a portion of who I am, even on a good day! For example, although parenting and marriage are relatively permanent (until death do us part!), how those roles play out in my life will largely depend on the season of life I’m in, thus rendering them transitory; and the totality of these parts are still wildly lacking, thus leading me right into the present conundrum of finding my voice.

Nonetheless, do you know what doesn’t change? Christ’s love for me. I was made in His image. According to Psalm 139:14, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, regardless of how I may feel or which hat I have on. I am His. And so are you. Every other role we are blessed with can be seen in light of our relationship to Him. When doing so, we can more fully appreciate the roles temporarily assigned to us, better recognize the Lord’s provisions, and respond in love accordingly. It’s in Him that I am finding my voice, or rather, more correctly, finding His voice inside of me. How about you? Do you yearn to hear His voice? Go to Him. If you don’t know how, ask Him to show you. He will, and He’s been waiting for you to ask.

Get the series delivered right to your inbox each morning:

Greetings!

Believe it or not, my 8-year-old came up with the blog’s title, “Living Simply with God”. While I was trying to make sense of themes, content specifications and everything else that comes with launching a new site, she plopped right down next to me and asked what I was doing.

As I write today it’s Monday, which mean’s yesterday’s sermon is still fresh in my mind. James 3:3-13 tells us that our words can be used to uplift or to discourage. The pastor practically applied to how we interact with the people in our homes, and how our words can have long-lasting effects on those we care about the most, for better or for worse. Remembering this, instead of impatiently asking her to leave mommy alone, we simply talked. So many probing questions came from her ever-expanding and inquisitive mind; I could hardly process them quickly enough.

“What was the blog about? Why are you doing it? Do you have time for this? Are you scared to do something new? Are you going to make make your own YouTube Channel?! What about vlogging?!”

We went back and forth, and I shared that I am doing this because I love Jesus, writing, processing what I learn (usually from reading, asking questions, or making mistakes) and encouraging others. “I can keep all the journals I want, but what good is that if I am the only one who knows the miracles it contains? Wouldn’t it be better to share how we experience small miracles in the every day, possibly giving hope to others so that they can persevere as well? Maybe someone can recognize that they are not alone. I want others to experience Him in the tangible ways that we have experienced Him.”

“Mama, what’s tangible?”

“It’s something that you can feel or touch. It’s something that you know is there. I want other people to know he is there, too. Our world can be scary right now, and it can be hard to know what to believe. I’d like to help with that and perhaps offer some new ways of looking at things, but I also feel led to do it simply. Understanding how He is at work doesn’t have to be complicated.”

“Mama, what are you calling it?”

“It still needs a title.” Nothing I had scribbled up was quite right.

At first, she strung along almost every Sunday school word you could think of. I said we needed something a tad bit shorter. I needed to capture how we can simplify our lives, how we can know Jesus, how He is enough.

Mama, how about, “Living Simply with Jesus”?

“Yes, you did it. That’s the name, and I’m so thankful that you had a part in this!”

And just like that, not only did I get a title and a fabulously challenging discourse with my youngest, but we also experienced the fruit of obeying His Word. The very fruit I’m longing to tell you about downright blossomed (does fruit blossom?) and fell right down into our laps as I chose patience and conversation over dismissal and solitude, all the while considering how to explain how God works. The irony is not lost on me.

For every tale of loss, addiction and uncertainty, I can counter with testimonies of provision, deliverance, and guidance.

Together, we are going to explore ways we can simplify our lives, create margin to notice blessings (even in the midst of extreme heartache), and focus on what really matters. Take what you can, and leave the rest. You do you, and I welcome you alongside me as I share what God has done and unfailingly continues to do in my life, my family’s life, and in the lives of others.

Let’s do some life together and find some blessings along the way. Shall we?

I’d love to share some more about how this blog came about. Take a look!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: