Can We Barter with God?

Most of us a familiar with the “five stages of grief,” as outlined by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. One step is ‘bargaining’–an understandable though illogical attempt to control the situation by cutting a last-minute deal, usually with God.

Peter Jones, over at Kuyperian Commentary, explores the way our prayer and other devotional acts at all times, not just at a time of grief, are intertwined with God’s blessings. Is there actually a cause and effect? If so, can we manipulate God by our actions?

ALWAYS: A good word for hard times

Friends:  It’s been a rough week. I won’t go into details here, but if you’re a praying person, I would appreciate your prayers, especially for our Lucy. In the midst of everything, I don’t have many helpful words. But I happened to sign up for iDisciple last week, and this morning I read a really solid piece of writing from Stasi Eldredge.  (She and husband John are both wonderful writers. Look them up!)

Here is her devotional post entitled “Always”.  I’d just link to it, but I’m not sure you can get to it since it’s subscriber content. I couldn’t find it on her blog, as it is obviously not brand new. But since this past week was also the 9/11 anniversary, this piece seems especially appropriate.

I stopped getting the newspaper years ago because my heart couldn’t take it.  I would open it up and weep.  I didn’t know my tears were intercession, but they were.  They were then and they are now.

It’s been a week.  2:50pm a week ago today the first bomb went off, exploding our sense of safety and so much more.  I find myself today so very sad.  How are you doing?  My prayer is that my tears and yours join in the intercession for the many to aid in their healing and to bring the presence of Jesus.

“Help Christians in Iraq”

It’s been a long week, folks, and tonight it seems self-evident that there is nothing I could possibly say here that is more important than what was said on Kuyperian Commentary last week:  

“A thousand friends are too few; one enemy is one too many.”

“As the hostile situation in the Middle East continues to escalate, our Christian brothers and sisters are being killed for taking the name of our Lord. Each day we read reports of violent deaths, beheadings, and the desolation of Christian communities throughout Iraq. In the northern region of Kurdistan, home to the Kurdish people, our Christians brothers and sisters have become refugees sheltering in besieged villages and towns.

“Kurdistan, very nearly the last sanctuary for Christians in the Muslim Middle East, is now under siege by the Ji’hadi terrorist forces of ISIS. Tens of thousands of refugees from the rest of Iraq and Syria are now threatened–along with the dynamic Kurdish Christian communities.

“The Nuun Fund has been established to speed urgently needed gifts to our friends at the Classical School of the Medes in the cities of Erbil, Dohuk, and Sulaymaniyah. Thanks to the work of the Nuun Fund relief supplies are starting to make their way to our brothers and sisters and the refugees they are caring for in Kurdistan.

Will you be a friend to the Christians in Iraq? Will you commit to prayer and to giving? Click here to give today!“

To read the rest of this post, dated August 13, 2014, including a plea from Pastor George Grant, click here. 

And thanks for praying, and giving. 

“Where is God?”

June 25, 2013

It’s been Lucy’s plaintive question nearly every day recently. “Where IS God? Is He up in heaven?”

He’s everywhere, Lucy. He’s here with us now.

“But Mama, I don’t SEE anyone else here. ”

God is invisible, Lucy. He is so great, He isn’t limited to just one place–if He had a body, He would be. God can be everywhere at once.

I draw a breath, ready to launch into a discussion of the fourth dimension, and the fact that God is eternal.

“…I still don’t see Him,” says Lucy.

Five Forgotten Founders

Thomas Kidd’s July 3rd blog post over at Kuyperian Commentary is entitled “The Top Five Forgotten Founders.” In reading it,  I was pleased that I had actually heard of two of these men, even though my knowledge comes exclusively from the excellent Broadway musical, 1776. Since the other three men were entirely unfamiliar to me, I thought perhaps that my Sunday readers would find the list to be worthwhile, too. 

A Single Eye: Reflecting on Spiritual Sight

I have been meditating on a verse of Scripture for the past few days…or not exactly meditating–more like, revelling in it:

 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.   (Luke 11:34  ESV)

Some translations read single or sound or clear, instead of ‘healthy’…all of them have seemed appropriate to me recently, since for at least two years I had definitely NOT had two eyes which were sound and clear.

Weight, not Volume

It is a truism that things are often not what they seem. I was struck recently by a verse of scripture which suggests that volume (the apparent size of something) is far less important than weight (its true value). 

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We’ve all done it: we open a package–it’s a big box, suitably heavy. But what’s inside looks so much smaller than the outer wrapping promised. We are hard-pressed not to feel disappointed.  Why does size excite us so? Our Let’s Make a Deal impulse is to take whatever looks bigger: Do you want what’s in the box? No, let’s choose what’s behind the curtain!

Both Sun and Shield: of fathers and Our Father

I came across this thought while re-reading an old journal this week. It struck me as appropriate in honor of Father’s Day, and in observance of the imminent official start of summer, to look at our Heavenly Father as described by the sons of Korah:

The Lord God is both sun and shield. He will give grace and glory.”  Psalm 84:11

“Was the psalmist being clever?” I wondered.  Is this a contradiction? Or a paradox?  How can God be both my light and shade? Both tanning bed and sunscreen?  Both sun roof and umbrella?