The Struggle

You might not know, I am a Case Manager at the TN Baptist Children’s Homes, and I work with the older residents who are preparing to leave our organization and live independently as adults. I have complained that our residents have it too good. Yes, too good (at least in material ways). So many wonderful people care about these children and pour out their love on them with money and gifts, and everything they might need is provided. Not to discourage anyone from giving, but our children lack for nothing. (Funds to maintain the facilities, pay the staff, and keep the lights on is the less glamourous need.) Our residents enjoy activities many children in regular families do not. The abundance of material things and special activities removes the opportunity for them to pine for and work for a treasured item or fun event. They come to believe they are entitled to these things. It removes the drive to work and fosters laziness. They do not experience the struggle of work – the need to work for what they want - the struggle of doing something less desirable for a delayed reward. It impacts their character development. Praying about a material need and depending on the Lord to provide is not needed. They do not understand that those who give to them work to earn the money and then give sacrificially. Entitlement, selfishness, ungratefulness, and laziness result. Things just come too easily. 

The residents at the children’s home are not the only ones experiencing a lack of struggle. When things are too easy, we do not develop properly before the Lord. Jesus addresses this in Luke 6:20-26:

Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

 We are blessed by being poor, hungry, sorrowful, and hated? That does not sound right. Woe to us who are rich, well-fed, happy, and loved? Sounds crazy! But Jesus knew that when life is too easy, we do not run to God, we do not depend on Him as much, we do not ask Him to fight our battles. Patience, forgiveness, and endurance in our character remain undeveloped. We stay weak and immature.

 If you are in the midst of a struggle, count it as a blessing, and let God do His work in you. What is God teaching you? Is this struggle a result of disobedience to Him? If so, now is the time for confession and repentance. If not, He can hold your hand through your storm and guide you onto the right path.

 If things are smooth for you right now, work to not become complacent in your relationship with God. Discipline yourself to study His Word and make prayer a priority. You will likely face a fiery furnace eventually. Prepare for that day and recognize it as a refining fire.

 When children or young people approach you with their wants, pause before fulfilling their every wish (listen up, grandparents). Consider providing them an opportunity to earn the money or at least part of it. (Most of the times I have prayed about a material need, God has provided me a way to earn money to pay for it.) Teach them to work and to give to others from their earnings. Let them see you do this. Do not rescue them too quickly from difficult situations but help them pray about their responses to the struggles and problem-solve. Do not provide the answers too quickly but help them think. Remember, the caterpillar will not become the beautiful butterfly without the struggle of escaping the cocoon.

 joyce hague

How to Be "Comely"

 

Interesting word from Psalm 33:1 - “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise is COMELY for the upright.” Webster’s defines “comely” as having “a pleasant appearance” and lists these synonyms...They can apply to male or femaleJ:

 “ attractive, beauteous, beautiful, bonny, cute, drop-dead gorgeous, fair, fetching, good, good-looking,goodly,gorgeous,handsome, knockout, likely, lovely, lovesome, pretty, ravishing, stunning, well-favored”

 If today you feel you need something to make you beautiful, practice praising the Lord. Focus on Him. We know how lovely and attractive a young parent’s face is gazing down at his or her newborn baby (and we are going to have twin great-grands in May or June;-).  There is nothing so beautiful!

 But gazing at our dear Lord should totally change our countenances. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.” (Exodus 34:29) I have a quote right by my desk. Perhaps I have shared it with you before... maybe on a card.

 

This past semester, I have been studying the book of Nehemiah with a ladies’ group. The bravery and courage of Nehemiah when someone needed to take a stand to save God’s city of Jerusalem and to change the direction of the Israelites spiritually is needed today! Our memory verse for the class was Nehemiah 9:5b-6. This is exactly what helped Nehemiah in his daily challenges to motivate the people to WORK, in spite of strong opposition. If you don’t know this book, it is a learning experience for you. Don’t let the lists of names keep you from reading it. His prayers and petitions to the Lord can be prayed by us.

 So to be “comely,” or beautiful, or handsome, or drop-dead gorgeous, look at these verses and take them to heart. FOCUS on the God Who made you to praise Him. Nehemiah 9:5b-6 covers it all:

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.”

 What else do we need to change our outlook and our countenance to joy and thanksgiving? You can be “comely” all through these holidays, no matter your circumstances. Focus on our dear Lord and it will show!

--Maylou Holladay

Now You See Him; Now You Don't

 

In an account in the book of Judges, chapter 13, the angel of the Lord appeared to Mrs. Manoah to tell her she would bear a special son. He told her how to act concerning her pregnancy and how to treat the boy and added, “He shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” When Manoah heard this, being a wise man, he asked God to send the man of God to them again to help them know how to raise the boy. God listened to Manoah and sent the man again to instruct them. Following this, the Bible tells us, “The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.” The boy, Samson, grew and was blessed by the Lord. However, the first thing recorded about him was a desire to do exactly as God had instructed His people not to do – he wanted a Philistine wife. His parents, understandably, were upset and begged him to reconsider. But the Bible gives us this insight – “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord.” I can imagine they were upset by several events over the next few years, yet God chose not to relieve their puzzlement and anxiety.

Centuries later, Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, had several encounters with the angel of the Lord, in which he was instructed to do hard things – marry your shamed betrothed, claim her son, run for your lives to a foreign country, move back home. Joseph complied fully, immediately, every time. On the occasion of their celebration of Passover in Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, Joseph and Mary lost track of Him. They didn’t know it for a day, then began looking for him. If you have ever lost track of a child in a public place, you know it Is a most terrifying event. For three days, they searched frantically, not even knowing where to look and having no success and, in Mary’s words, “in great distress.” Yet God, who had spoken to them often, did not give the answer. He knew exactly where Jesus was, but chose not to ease their distress. Jesus confirmed to them His activity was God’s doing.

 There are many other events in Scripture in which God spoke to a person in one situation but left that person completely “in the dark” in another. Often we wish God would let us know what is going on or what He wants us to do. We’d like to interpret the bizarre events around us His way, if we knew what that is. We want to do what pleases Him, if we only knew. 

Could Manoah and wife have watched the events of Samson’s life and not been concerned, trusting what God had said years before? I don’t know. Could Mary and Joseph have looked for Jesus without anxiety, knowing God knows everything? It hardly seems possible. Can I live calmly, not knowing why certain things are the way they are in my life? Or worse – not even knowing what things are in my life? I’ve had plenty of opportunities to attempt it, but I’m not sure I’m improving. 

Romans 15:4 tells us, “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” One of the things we can learn from Scriptural accounts like these is that God is always doing His work, no matter how the circumstances look to us. Can we believe that? If we did, would it make a difference in our lives?

--Lynda Shenefield

 

The Ever-Deepening Word

 

“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens over the years” (Spurgeon).

On our way to AWANA recently, my younger two children were bemoaning the fact that they never learn anything new, because they already know all the stories. First of all, I am sure that is not completely true as we have not taught them every story in the Bible. But second, even if they had heard all the stories, as I explained to them, God’s Word is powerful enough to continuously show us something new, something we hadn’t seen before, a connection we hadn’t made yet, or an insight into God’s character we hadn’t noticed in that way. There is always more to see and learn.

In our Sunday night women’s study, we have been reading and discussing Jen Wilkin’s book Women of the Word. Here Wilkin first addresses how to view Scripture (as a book about God and not primarily about us), false approaches to Scripture (like the Xanax approach – reading the Bible just to make us feel better), and how to study it properly. She shows how helpful it is to have the metanarrative (the big story) of Scripture in mind when you’re reading any one part of it. This means understanding how the text I am reading today fits into the greater story of Creation – Fall – Redemption – Restoration. She writes that “we must ‘zoom out’ from any one particular book or passage and gain an appreciation for how it plays its part in unfolding the Big Story.” As we discussed this in class, the concern came up: What about those who read the Word but don’t read it this way? Maybe they haven’t been taught this metanarrative and are just appreciating a passage for what it says by itself. And, here, I think, we come back to Spurgeon’s quote. That’s the beauty of God’s Word.

God’s Word is for the new believer who is simply reading one of the gospels to know Jesus better. But it’s also for the one who has been saved for 50 years who is reading the same gospel and making connections between Christ’s works and Old Testament prophecies, or deepening her understanding of Jesus’ teaching that at first seemed so confusing, or seeing nuances in how the different gospel writers tell of the same events. There is always more to discover and more to see.

In the day of immediate information, quick soundbites, scrolling social media feeds, and constant distractions, it is hard to sit down, be still, and really study the Word. It is not easy to wrestle through passages we don’t understand without immediately turning to a commentary. It is tempting to just choose to do the quick and easy devotionals that give us an encouragement for today instead of actually opening our Bibles and thinking for ourselves. But it is vital (2 Timothy 2:15).  May we be faithful to stay in the Word and may we take our responsibility to disciple other women seriously, for this surely includes teaching them how to study the Bible, so they too can glimpse more and more of the glories of God through His Word (Psalm 119:14-18).

So whether you have been saved for three days or three decades, there is truth for you yet to learn when you open your Bible. There is beauty still to be seen, encouragement still to be gleaned, understanding still to be sharpened, wisdom still to be developed (Hebrews 4:12). So, open the Word, read, and study. God’s Word is truly wider and deeper still.

--Amy O'Rear