The Hard Thing

I notice that my blogs don't get many comments lately.  Of course, I have that happen every summer.

But my insecurity says people don't like what I'm saying.

I need people to like me.  Maybe you don't, but I do.  If I know someone doesn't like me, I immediately wonder why, and what did I do, and what is WRONG with them?  Seriously.  What's not to like?

Okay, that last part is a joke.

Sort of.

Yesterday a facebook friend posted this link:
http://defendchristians.org/news/major-corporation-declares-war-on-marriage-and-children/

And I reposted it.  My sister was helpful enough to give me a link to all brands they own.


That list seems to make it impossible.  As I perused it, I began to have some trepidation about my follow through.  After all I'm the same girl who banned high fructose corn syrup in our house except ketchup (before there was hfc free) and a weekly soda.  Because while I wanted to limit the junk my kids were eating, there is no need go psycho!  You know they get plenty of junk everywhere else, so why not make home a place of nutritious food?

Anyway, about two years ago I flaked on the HFC thing.  The timing just happened to coincide with the beginning  of my couponing and my attempting to stay at home, so budget budget budget. We all know healthy food is NOT the cheapest way to go.  If it was, raman noodles would not be the food of choice for college kids across America.

However, as I've gone about my day the utter impossibility of boycotting these products keeps coming back to me.  It would be very hard.  Kind of like when we made a pact as a family to limit Apple, Levis, Nike, and Home Depot purchases.  The Home depot was no sweat.  Even Levis and Nike.  However, my kids each own Apple products.  We have stood firm at buying music from iTunes.

So, as I looked at this overwhelming list (Yoplait?  Really?  Their Greek yogurt is my lunch when there is no time for real lunch at work!) I kept thinking, "Wow.  I don't think I can do this."  After all it requires diligence and long term commitment.  All things I really don't seek out.  Then today as I was driving home from running the girls around I remembered a blog I heard about on our local Christian radio.  The blog is directed at teenagers and encourages them to "do the hard thing."  I was so impressed.  It is a group of teenagers uniting in "rebellion against low expectations."  They strive to do what is right in God's eyes, not what is right in the eyes of the world.

And as I remembered that, I thought, if I am applauding a teenager for doing the hard thing, why won't I do it?  And if I don't want to do the hard thing, then how can I expect my kids to do it?

So, I'm giving it a shot.  I'm going to take my list of products owned by General Mills and try to avoid purchasing them, when possible.  If I fail, I'm not going to simply throw up my hands and say "This will never work!"  I'm going to start over and try to do this thing.

As a consumer I have a voice.  It's called my wallet.  If I don't financially support a group, then that group will listen to me.  Of course, if I'm going this alone, they will not care about my one little act of defiance.  However, if Christians as a whole stand up and say they will not support corporations who support the homosexual agenda, or abortion, or whatever cause God is burdening you with, then our voice will be heard!

And even if nobody else stands up, then I will still stand.  And I will not be quiet (like anyone expected THAT anyway.)  I will strive to not throw my convictions in others faces, but I will state what God is telling me to say.  I hope you will pray that the words I use will be His words, not self righteous rambling.

Strangely, I think that my recent study of Joshua helped me prepare for this very thing.  Because as I contemplated how little difference my refusal to support certain institutions can make, in the big picture, God reminded me of Joshua standing before the Israelites after they had conquered the Promised Land:

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.  Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for my and my household we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:14-15

God is telling me that the world will NOT serve Him.  But that does not give me permission to serve Him in a half hearted manner, simply because it's a better effort than most are doing.  He is calling me to serve Him when it's hard.  And choosing to fight this battle will not be easy, but I feel that it will be worth it if my kids grow up knowing that their parents knew who they served, and they did it as faithfully as they could.

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!

How about you?  Is God calling you into battle?  What will your answer be?

The Giants

Wow!  Has it been THAT long since I posted?  Well, that also represents how long since I've sat at my computer.  Oh, don't go too crazy.  I do check my email.  On my phone.  But I've just been too distracted to sit down and write a blog.

But in a good way.

On the fourth anniversary in this town, I've come to a startling realization.  I am actually starting to put down roots.  Studmuffin is a little freaked by this revelation.  "We don't put down roots.  We move on."  Sure, he was joking.  But there was a small grain of truth in his statement.  Move away from home to college.  I actually changed colleges three times (long story).  Move to Arlington.  Move to San Antonio.  Move BACK to Oklahoma, yet go on various job interviews disguised as vacations...

And I think that's been my problem here.  Studmuffin has been unhappy in his job, and I've felt that at any moment he could find a better job, and off we'd be.  So, I've kept my emotional distance.  I'm done with that now.

I think...

I've been trying to be purposeful about alone time with God.  Each morning as my water runs in my various flower beds, I sit on my newly painted chair with it's bright red cushion, cup of coffee near at hand, dogs at my feet and cats clamoring up the side of the lattice, and open my Bible.

Right now I'm in the book of Joshua.  I can't say as I've ever sat and studied Joshua.  Sure, I've read the common stories, and I knew the gist, but there are big things that God is telling me in the little passages.  Not that I think any passages are "little."  But they can slip by you if your heart is not listening...

Want to hear something crazy?  I've been burdened by a new movie release.  It's titled "Magic Mike."  When I first saw the previews I thought, "Yuck.  Who would go see that?"  And I've been appalled at just who WILL go  see it.  And it is saddening.

It is not okay.  It is not "just a movie" and it is a saddening reflection of our society as a whole.  I once heard a preacher (I think it was John Macarthur) say that when women have given into sexual depravity as a thing of normalcy, the society has reached rock bottom.  If it wasn't him, I apologize, but he has plenty to say on what GOD says about sexual immorality and here's a quick link to a list of sermons if you want to peruse the site:  http://www.gty.org/search/homosexuality

Anyway, I have been saddened by the depravity I see in our nation.  Yet I have felt a strange joy in spite of the things I see around me.  I know it's because of the time I've been spending with Him.  And I've been listening to what He has to say to me...

Right now he's hammering home the importance of seeking out and eradicating sin.  All sin.

WHAT?  ALL of it?  Surely not.  I mean, my sins arent' that big of deal.

 Right? 

In Joshua 11 & 12 I read of Joshua's leadership of the Israelites into battle.  It took me a few minutes to read it.  But this total eradication of the enemy through these territories took Joshua seven years.  Seven long years of brutally stamping out God's enemies.  Seven years following forty years of wandering in a desert...

Zoiks.  That is some serious obedience.  My Bible annotates:  Obedience is one aspect of life that each individual can control.

Okay.  I can't argue with that.  I may have no control over any other circumstance in my life.  But I CAN control my obedience to God.

As I read a few days later in Joshua 13:13 I saw that the Israelites failed to eradicate all of the people as God had instructed them to do...And again I was pricked by my own stubborn refusal to remove some sins because I view them as "no big deal."  And the rest of the world doesn't even see what I mean if I were to call these areas "sin."

In Joshua 14:6-15 I find the refreshing voice of Caleb, boldly stating that while is well into his 80s he is EAGER to take the land God has promised him and to face the giants he has already seen with his own eyes as a young man.  He knew God was bigger than any foe he would face.  Lord, help me have the strength of Caleb.

I will finish with these three verses Joshua 15:63, 16:10 and 17:12.  Each of these contain a glaring failure on the part of the Israelites.  They failed to remove all of the people of the land, as God had instructed them.  As I reflected on this truth, I was struck by one fact.  This small remnant of people that the Israelites considered not worth the hassle of removing from their land would be the source of suffering for generations to come...

On Saturday morning, I went to weeding my flower beds.  I actually enjoy weeding.  It is very rewarding and it gets me outside which is always a bonus.  However, in my newest flower bed that curves around the southwest side of my house there is a slow insidious takeover happening.  Not in the form of weeds, but in the form of grass.  Of course, I want the grass all over my yard.  Just not in my flower beds.  And it is a royal pain to remove.  That stuff creeps under and over things and those darn roots run deep.  I pulled up every twig that I saw.  And it will still come back.  And I will have to be diligent or before I know it, the darn stuff will have taken over the whole flower bed and choke out the plants I'm wanting to grow.

Sin is the same way.  I can yank it out by the roots.  I can weed it and hoe it, and in extreme cases I can spray it to kill the whole dang plant.  And yet it will come back.

Just like the sin in my life.  It may seem small and insignificant.  But if it interferes with my obedience to God and therefore my fulfillment of God's purpose for my life it is a giant in the making.  As I sat on my knees in my yard Saturday I was overwhelmed with the thought that the small sins of today could be the giants in my future...

Or worse-the giants my children must face.

Lord help me live a life of full obedience.

How Cool is That?

God smacked me on the forehead today. Don't worry. It was a good smack. One of those, "WOW!" moments.

I'm reading Romans, one chapter a day. Chewing on it. Thinking about it. Really trying to digest what I'm reading...Is anyone hungry now?

Today's reading was chapter 5. Heavy stuff.

Do you have a commentary that you read along with your Bible? I love mine. It is called
Believer's Bible Commentary by William MacDonald. God used this book to bring home His truth to me this morning. It helps my feeble brain wrap around some big concepts.

God can have nothing to do with sin. Yet while we were all still dead in our sins, He sent Christ.

His only son. The God and creator of the universe.

To die for us.

For me....

He paid the cost of my sins.

If God called me while I was dead in my sins, and I know that sin makes me an enemy of God, if He called me to Himself in that condition, how much more will He do for me as a precious child?

Wow.

Next came verse 12. Death came through Adam. Sin was now in the world. All man now lived in separation from God due to their sin, which all began with Adam. Even before the law was given. They were still sinners....

Hmmm....

Okay, I gotta say it. My brain asked the question that every "good" Christian shrinks from.

Why did God allow sin? If He had never allowed sin, then He would never have had to make the immense sacrifice of dying and bearing the burden of the entire world's sin!

Why did He allow it?

Then, God gave me this answer: THROUGH ADAM'S SIN, AND THE EVENTUAL DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST, GOD RECEIVED MORE GLORY. AND MAN RECEIVED MORE BLESSING.

More blessing?

That's right! More BLESSING.

All Adam had to do was follow God's one command to him "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 1:16b-17)

We all know he ate it.

The big dummy. I get irritated with him and Eve every time I read it. Probably because I'm just like them. My husband says a sure fire way to get me to do something is tell me I can't do it. Don't you just hate when you are all mad at some idiot, then realize you are a whole lot like them?

But what if Adam hadn't eaten the fruit?

Man would still be living in the Garden of Eden. Life would be easy. Every little need provided. We'd still be meeting up with God every so often for an occasional stroll and chat.

BUT man would not have hope of eternity spent in HEAVEN with Jesus Christ, as an heir of Christ, being like Christ forever.

These blessings came only through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Which would never have been necessary without the fall of man.

So through one tragic event, the first sin of man, God planned the blessing of every man who will come to Him through His son: Jesus Christ.

How cool is that?