When most of your body doesn’t work “normally”, is weak and everyday life is simply more difficult because of that weakness, you learn to be thankful for what you can do, and don’t let bother you what you cannot do. I learned these things early in life.
Right around my 13th birthday I began to have difficulty speaking, eating, keeping my eyelids open, raising my arms to do my hair (a very important aspect of a girl’s life) and carry things, like school books, and was generally tired and worn out all the time…not your typical teenage lifestyle. When I had a couple severe episodes of choking, my parents went into high gear to find out what was wrong. It took about 2 years before we had a diagnosis: Myasthenia Gravis. A big name for an auto-immune, neuro-muscular disease which robbed me of the ability to function normally and almost robbed me of my life many times in the next several years. The strongest part of my body seemed to be my legs. I could still walk; my legs worked better than my arms and the rest of my upper body.
It is by God’s grace and mercy, His kindness to hear hundreds of prayers on my behalf, that I am alive today and can tell you that my heart’s desire is to love and serve the living God with all I am and do. I’ve been trying to do that in my stumbling, halting way for over 40 years.
Through MG (myasthenia gravis), breast cancer and most recently, a broken femur and surgery on both femurs to insert titanium rods (ye old Wolverine woman), I am happy to tell you, I’m still kicking and ready to Walk for “Run to Rescue”, a challenge presented by She Is Safe (formerly Sisters In Service)! I want to help little girls and women in places in the world where they would not otherwise have the opportunity to learn of their loving Savior, Jesus Christ, or have a safe and healthy life, like you and I have, were it not for the intentional intervention of lovers of Jesus who often risk their lives to bring Life to them.
You and I can have a part by partnering with She Is Safe as they partner with ministries in many of the hard places of the world. Did you know that the word “fellowship” Paul uses can be translated “partnership”? Fellowship is not coffee and donuts! It is faithing for the Kingdom; putting our faith into practice, risking for Jesus.
What have I risked for Jesus? Not much. I want to, as my legs are now able to carry me in an almost normal fashion, walk for Jesus, walk to Rescue, so His life can be expressed through others who are really risking for Him, to rescue those who are without Him. And I get to “Partner” in a small way and get to participate in the rewards in a tiny way, of those efforts to reach the least, the last, the lost, the left behind.
I need more sponsors who will give to “Run to Rescue” once I complete my 30 mile goal. Little girls and women in dire need physically and spiritually around the world also need more runners, walkers, rope jumpers, mountain climbers…whatever you can and like to do…you can do it for the Kingdom!
Please take a look at the She Is Safe web site at www.sheissafe.org or http://sheissafe.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/run-to-rescue-2/ for info on Run to Rescue.
All Jesus asks is “a life for a life”. This is how we know what love is; Jesus laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (I John 3:16). Love is a verb.
Jacque
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
August 14, 2011
“Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” Hebrews 7:5
The reference given for the verse quoted at the top of the page of the devotional was Hebrews 7:5. But the reference did not ring true so I looked it up. I knew that verse was in chapter 12 and I didn’t think it was in chapter 7 as well.
Sure enough, 7:5 is in a discussion about Melchizedek and the priesthood he represents as opposed to the priesthood of Levi. Fascinating stuff; a mystery to us, this Melchizedek. But the writer was not here in chapter 7 talking about the discipline of the Lord; that is for chapter 12.
The book of Hebrews is my favorite book of the Bible (I’ve confessed this before), if I may claim a favorite. I’m not one to choose favorites in anything since it can be prejudicial, or perceived that way. But I love this book, and so an exception. I figured out one time reading through it, why I love it so much. No other book of the Bible, in my opinion, speaks of the superiority of Jesus in such a point by point way, going into the far reaches of history, revealing so much yet making you hunger for more. So much there; so much to ponder and grow on.
So here is the author of Hebrews, as he starts chapter 12, pointing us to Jesus, admonishing us to “fix” our eyes on him as we go through life, especially in the difficult times of our lives. And to hark back to all those he had just enumerated in chapter 11, those who lived by faith in the One they couldn’t see and what He had promised but was not yet accomplished in their lifetimes…but has come to pass in ours: the revelation of Jesus the promised Savior of mankind and his ultimate rule over all, his kingdom come.
I reread the chapter, because I have so much to learn and it is so rich in truths hard to grasp, on the one hand, yet, on the other hand, simple enough to get a grip on, and hang onto (the truth is profound yet, as one has said, “near us”, accessible, “graspable”, yet we can never fully grasp it!). The author speaks of looking to Jesus as we live in a hard world, remembering those who lived by faith before us, giving us examples to follow, and who even now surround us. Then he speaks of not fainting when our heavenly Father treats us like sons by instructing, disciplining us, for a much greater purpose than the discipline we received from our earthly parents. God’s purpose is holiness and the peaceful fruit of righteousness. As I read I thought of Job.
Job was declared a righteous man by God; it wasn’t a made up idea of Job’s. But Job knew God and lived with all his might in the way he understood God wanted and required men to live (Job 27-31), and he knew he was in right standing before God. So when the calamities blasted into his life, he clung to his rightness and his understanding of God. But like us all, Job’s understanding of God and His ways was limited. Job’s world began to shrink, enclosed by walls of pain and accusation.
Pain and suffering are powerful inducements to inward looking, to a focus on only oneself. We see only a tiny part of the whole of reality when we focus on ourselves. We unknowingly close off ourselves to the bigger picture. And life is in reality lived in that bigger picture, of which most of us for most of our lives live in oblivion. We see through a glass darkly, so darkly.
This shrinking of our world leads to accusing the only one we believe can make a difference in our pain: God. We believe God is all powerful, as the scripture teaches us, but we have somehow skewed that to mean He will be all powerful for us whenever we want Him to be, according to our concept of the world, our very small world, enclosed by our problems and pain and suffering. We lose perspective living in that small world. And as with Job, God has to teach us about Himself.
Are we listening?
Job saw only his problems and pain and knowing he had lived right in the world, he couldn’t understand why God didn’t justify him before others, especially his accusing friends. Friends indeed. They all had the same theology, the same understanding of God; who He is and what He does. So when the fingers of accusation pointed at Job, Job pointed his finger at God, accusing Him of injustice.
God had to teach him. I say “had to”; He didn’t have to but He did for God is gracious and compassionate and very, very patient with us. Even though in our small worlds it doesn’t always feel like He is.
God had to teach Job.
Are we listening? He is teaching us through His instruction to Job. That is why He had it all written down! God let Job know Who He really is (Job 38-41).
And Job got it (Job 42). He had nothing to say in response to God. He was humbled before the living God. There was no more self-justification, only humility and repentance.
Are…we…listening. Do we get it?
When God speaks…we must listen, and with keen ears, ears that “hear”, as Jesus said, which meant ears that take in what is said with the determination to do, to obey.
Our response to pain and suffering, to the hard times of life, should be the same as Job’s response to God. Speechlessness and humility. “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (Job 40:4).
But God is not finished. “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you and you instruct Me. Will you really annul my judgment?”
“Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?”(Job 40:7).
Are we listening?
“Then Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask you and you instruct me.’
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”(Job 42:1-6).
I do not understand the ‘why’ of much of what happens to us. But I am coming to know the 'Who’ and I continue to give myself to His Sovereignty, hard as it is sometimes, at least initially. He is the only One with the right to say what is what, not me. Light comes only from Him, His words. My response, our response should be repentance.
We must always go back to the scripture. God caused His words to be written down for our instruction. If we are not taking these words in, and submitting ourselves to them, is it any wonder we end up as drifting boats on a vast ocean of troubles, crying out to a heaven which seems brass?
The text in the devotional may have been mistakenly attributed to Hebrews chapter 7, verse 5, but the admonition, which is actually in Hebrews 12:5 (a quote from Proverbs 3:11), we do well to listen to, with “ears that hear”, ready to obey: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” God only instructs, disciplines and chastens sons, that is, His blood bought, born twice children, male and female. He has a purpose in it. Believe it. Humble yourself under His hand.
I only know this because I’ve been walking this pathway, learning these things. I have tested the truth of God’s words. I pray I do not soon forget.
I’ve written this for my dear friends who are yet making their way to that truth. Please keep moving in the direction of His light. “The entrance of Your words gives light.”
I love you.
Jacque
“Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” Hebrews 7:5
The reference given for the verse quoted at the top of the page of the devotional was Hebrews 7:5. But the reference did not ring true so I looked it up. I knew that verse was in chapter 12 and I didn’t think it was in chapter 7 as well.
Sure enough, 7:5 is in a discussion about Melchizedek and the priesthood he represents as opposed to the priesthood of Levi. Fascinating stuff; a mystery to us, this Melchizedek. But the writer was not here in chapter 7 talking about the discipline of the Lord; that is for chapter 12.
The book of Hebrews is my favorite book of the Bible (I’ve confessed this before), if I may claim a favorite. I’m not one to choose favorites in anything since it can be prejudicial, or perceived that way. But I love this book, and so an exception. I figured out one time reading through it, why I love it so much. No other book of the Bible, in my opinion, speaks of the superiority of Jesus in such a point by point way, going into the far reaches of history, revealing so much yet making you hunger for more. So much there; so much to ponder and grow on.
So here is the author of Hebrews, as he starts chapter 12, pointing us to Jesus, admonishing us to “fix” our eyes on him as we go through life, especially in the difficult times of our lives. And to hark back to all those he had just enumerated in chapter 11, those who lived by faith in the One they couldn’t see and what He had promised but was not yet accomplished in their lifetimes…but has come to pass in ours: the revelation of Jesus the promised Savior of mankind and his ultimate rule over all, his kingdom come.
I reread the chapter, because I have so much to learn and it is so rich in truths hard to grasp, on the one hand, yet, on the other hand, simple enough to get a grip on, and hang onto (the truth is profound yet, as one has said, “near us”, accessible, “graspable”, yet we can never fully grasp it!). The author speaks of looking to Jesus as we live in a hard world, remembering those who lived by faith before us, giving us examples to follow, and who even now surround us. Then he speaks of not fainting when our heavenly Father treats us like sons by instructing, disciplining us, for a much greater purpose than the discipline we received from our earthly parents. God’s purpose is holiness and the peaceful fruit of righteousness. As I read I thought of Job.
Job was declared a righteous man by God; it wasn’t a made up idea of Job’s. But Job knew God and lived with all his might in the way he understood God wanted and required men to live (Job 27-31), and he knew he was in right standing before God. So when the calamities blasted into his life, he clung to his rightness and his understanding of God. But like us all, Job’s understanding of God and His ways was limited. Job’s world began to shrink, enclosed by walls of pain and accusation.
Pain and suffering are powerful inducements to inward looking, to a focus on only oneself. We see only a tiny part of the whole of reality when we focus on ourselves. We unknowingly close off ourselves to the bigger picture. And life is in reality lived in that bigger picture, of which most of us for most of our lives live in oblivion. We see through a glass darkly, so darkly.
This shrinking of our world leads to accusing the only one we believe can make a difference in our pain: God. We believe God is all powerful, as the scripture teaches us, but we have somehow skewed that to mean He will be all powerful for us whenever we want Him to be, according to our concept of the world, our very small world, enclosed by our problems and pain and suffering. We lose perspective living in that small world. And as with Job, God has to teach us about Himself.
Are we listening?
Job saw only his problems and pain and knowing he had lived right in the world, he couldn’t understand why God didn’t justify him before others, especially his accusing friends. Friends indeed. They all had the same theology, the same understanding of God; who He is and what He does. So when the fingers of accusation pointed at Job, Job pointed his finger at God, accusing Him of injustice.
God had to teach him. I say “had to”; He didn’t have to but He did for God is gracious and compassionate and very, very patient with us. Even though in our small worlds it doesn’t always feel like He is.
God had to teach Job.
Are we listening? He is teaching us through His instruction to Job. That is why He had it all written down! God let Job know Who He really is (Job 38-41).
And Job got it (Job 42). He had nothing to say in response to God. He was humbled before the living God. There was no more self-justification, only humility and repentance.
Are…we…listening. Do we get it?
When God speaks…we must listen, and with keen ears, ears that “hear”, as Jesus said, which meant ears that take in what is said with the determination to do, to obey.
Our response to pain and suffering, to the hard times of life, should be the same as Job’s response to God. Speechlessness and humility. “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (Job 40:4).
But God is not finished. “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you and you instruct Me. Will you really annul my judgment?”
“Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?”(Job 40:7).
Are we listening?
“Then Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask you and you instruct me.’
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”(Job 42:1-6).
I do not understand the ‘why’ of much of what happens to us. But I am coming to know the 'Who’ and I continue to give myself to His Sovereignty, hard as it is sometimes, at least initially. He is the only One with the right to say what is what, not me. Light comes only from Him, His words. My response, our response should be repentance.
We must always go back to the scripture. God caused His words to be written down for our instruction. If we are not taking these words in, and submitting ourselves to them, is it any wonder we end up as drifting boats on a vast ocean of troubles, crying out to a heaven which seems brass?
The text in the devotional may have been mistakenly attributed to Hebrews chapter 7, verse 5, but the admonition, which is actually in Hebrews 12:5 (a quote from Proverbs 3:11), we do well to listen to, with “ears that hear”, ready to obey: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” God only instructs, disciplines and chastens sons, that is, His blood bought, born twice children, male and female. He has a purpose in it. Believe it. Humble yourself under His hand.
I only know this because I’ve been walking this pathway, learning these things. I have tested the truth of God’s words. I pray I do not soon forget.
I’ve written this for my dear friends who are yet making their way to that truth. Please keep moving in the direction of His light. “The entrance of Your words gives light.”
I love you.
Jacque
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