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Resting at the River’s Edge provides an opportunity to participate in reading through the Bible in a systematic way. Here’s more details about the plan and our schedules.

Track your reading along with us using the table below, the downloadable half-page PDF or the May/June bookmark.

Share what God is teaching you with otherse. E-mail me, leave a message on the Apprehending Grace Facebook page, or post a comment at the end of any blog.

Enjoy God as you watch spring unfold!
Sandy

Download All 2012 Bookmarks Here

Download a Half-Page PDF of the May Reading Plan Here

Here’s May’s reading plan:

I took a trip out of town a few months ago. While driving an unfamiliar freeway, I rounded a corner and saw the most beautiful billboard! The earth was shown as if seen from space and it was beautiful shades of blue and gray. It was set against a midnight blue sky with stars that seemed to twinkle. Whether they actually twinkled or not, I don’t know, but I know I was spellbound. Then my eyes and mind took in the whole billboard. Moving past the image, I saw the words that were plastered in large letters overlapping the earth just a little and splashed across the midnight sky: ADULT WORLD.

I was so saddened that this beautiful billboard would be advertising such sin. Isn’t that just like Satan – to make sin attractive and inviting. Truly, the billboard was one of the most eye catching things I’ve seen in a long time.

Scripture says the woman looked at the fruit and it was appealing to the eye (Genesis 3:6). She was in the Garden of Eden. Everything was appealing to the eye! God had planted Adam and Eve in the middle of paradise, which included a close personal relationship with the Creator of all things. And satan put up a billboard that said “ADULT WORLD.” “Come, experience things that God has restricted.” “Come, see how attractive they are.” “You’re an adult, you can make your own decisions. Come check it out.”

God gives wonderful gifts to His children. He also provides instructions about how to use His wonderful gifts. Satan takes those good instructions and twists them and challenges God’s authority. “Did God really say…” “You will not surely die…” (Genesis 3:1, 3) “Come on, nothing bad will happen.” “Come on, no one will know.” “Everyone else is doing it.”

Satan’s influence in our world is significant. God’s Truth is no longer respected by many people. Many Christians struggle to maintain their agreement with God’s standards when family members and friends follow the world. Yet it is upholding God’s standards that bring power into our lives. It is living righteously that brings God’s blessings and anointing. It is knowing and trusting His Word that brings victory.

The better we know God’s Word, the less attractive sin becomes. The closer we draw near to Him, the less we desire the things of the world. Let me share an example in the natural. After my husband’s heart attack, certain foods became much less attractive to him. He understood more intimately the devastation that a diet heavy in saturated fats could bring. Most of those foods became like a poison to him. In three years he’s had two pieces of cheese cake. And for the most part, he hasn’t been severely tempted to have more. Yes, he might have wanted them, but saying “no” was easier because he understood the consequences.

The more we know God’s Word and the more we experience intimacy with Him, the more we understand the negative consequences of sin.

Friends, the world is constantly bombarding you with messages that are contrary to God’s Word. Immersing yourself in Him and His Word is the best antidote to living in 2012. Temptations are all around us and the world encourages us to enjoy them. The weapons we wage war with to fight those temptations are not the weapons of the world. Scripture says “on the contrary, [our weapons] have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV). Take up the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17 NIV) to “demolish arguments [of satan] and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Satan may make sin appear beautiful. Don’t fall for it. Trust the Truth of God to find the true beauty in His gifts.

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you.
James 4:7-8a (NIV)

Oh – and by the way –should you fall, remember that we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. He offers complete forgiveness to us every time we turn to Him in sincere repentance. His grace is that real and that powerful.

Set Apart for Holiness

⁷So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I, the LORD, am your God. ⁸Keep all my laws and obey them, for I am the LORD, who makes you holy….

²³Do not live by the customs of the people whom I will expel before you. It is because they do these terrible things that I detest them so much. ²⁴But I have promised that you will inherit their land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I, the LORD, am your God, who has set you apart from all other people.
Leviticus 20:7-8, 23-24 (NLT)

While these chapters may seem tedious, there are several things that I really like about them:

• These chapters are all about God teaching the Israelites how to live a life worthy of being God’s chosen people. The repeated theme is “Be holy.” I love that God teaches us what we need to know. We aren’t expected to always know what is right and what is wrong. When we don’t know, we simply go to God who gives wisdom generously.
• God tells the Israelites, and us by extension, to “set yourselves apart to be holy.” We are to live differently. We are to be proactive about it – we’re not to go with the flow, join the crowd or do our own thing. We’re to follow God’s approach to living. Sure, many of the verses in these chapters don’t apply to us today…but their underlying principles do. We’re to live more circumspectly, always aware that our God lives among us and He is a holy God.
• Not only are we to set ourselves apart, God also makes it clear that He has set us apart. God is always the one who moves toward us first. He sent His Son so that we might have life…long before we were ever thinking of turning to Him. He set us apart to be His very own people…so we’re to set ourselves apart.

God is so good! He didn’t have to set us apart – He didn’t have to choose us. He doesn’t have to help me to become holy, but He does.

Loving Your Neighbor
These are the major principles of the chapters that I like, but there are also some individual verses that jump out at me. Did these verses wake you up as you read them?

“Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 19:18 (NLT)

A few words catch my attention…Never…bear a grudge…against anyone…OK, Lord. You’ll have to help me with that sometimes. I’ll agree with you, but…please help!

Notice the second half of this verse – This verse didn’t originate with Jesus in the Gospels. He is quoting this verse. You won’t find the phrase “love your neighbor” anywhere else in the Old Testament. Pretty cool, huh? That buried in the midst of all these laws in Leviticus is the law Jesus said was the second most important one (Mark 12:31).

It’s a Life-Giving Law

If you obey my laws and regulations, you will find life through them. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 18:5 (NLT)

Obeying God’s laws brings life. The stereotype, of course, is that God’s laws are restrictive and lead to a life that lacks joy. Not so. They bring life – LIFE! I’m reminded of this verse in the book of James:

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:25 (NIV)

When are we going to get it through our heads (and hearts and wills) that making God-choices leads to blessing? I want the blessing. Lord, help me to make Your choices. Today we studied the book of 1 John with a group of friends. One of the promises this book carries is that if we pray anything according to God’s will, we can have confidence that He hears us and answers the prayer. (1 John 5:14-15) Asking God to help me make His choices is undoubtedly a prayer that is within His will. Praise God! I can have confidence that He is answering that prayer!

Living a set-apart life, pursuing holiness and seeking to make God-choices – three different ways of saying the same thing, actually – requires diligence and reliance on the Holy Spirit who is alive in us. He will teach us and enable us to live such a life. I want LIFE – how about you?

^9bOur Father in heaven,
may your name be honored.

¹⁰May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth,
just as it is in heaven.

¹¹Give us our food for today,
¹²and forgive us our sins,
just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

¹³And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9b-13 (NLT)

As I read Matthew 6 recently, the Holy Spirit whispered into my spirit “Do your prayers reflect Jesus’ Instructions?” I am sorry to admit that often my daily prayers do not reflect the same priorities as Jesus’ prayer. I so easily fall into the pattern of praying needs – my needs, the needs of family members and friends, and needs that touch my heart from around the world. Jesus includes a pray for God to meet our needs, but it’s almost incidental compared to the other elements of the prayer.

I am reading through the Bible in the New Living Translation this year. While I have a favorite translation, I like to read other translations because the different phraseology sometimes draws my attention in a new way. That can be especially true when I am reading well known passages like the Lord’s prayer. It’s easy for my eyes to skim over the words that I’ve heard and read so often. When I read the Lord’s prayer in the New Living Translation, it came to life in a new way.

Before looking at the prayer in more detail, however, let’s look at how the prayer was introduced in Luke’s gospel:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1 (NLT)

Luke tells us that it was after the disciplines saw Jesus praying that they asked Him to teach them to pray. What’s interesting is that the disciplines presumably knew how to pray. They had been raised in Jewish homes and were regular attendees at their local synagogue. Prayer was not something they were unfamiliar with. The disciples recognized something different about Jesus’ prayers, however. They saw prayers that were more vital than any they had seen before. They saw lives changed as people were healed – physically, emotionally and spiritually. They were stirred in their spirits when Jesus prayed. They recognized that their prayers didn’t carry the authority and power that Jesus’ prayers did…so they asked Him to teach them.

And the prayer He prayed in response to their request is surprising in its simplicity and power. Let’s look at it a bit more closely.

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be honored.
Matthew 6:9

Jesus begins by exalting His Father in heaven. The New Living Translation says “may your name be honored.” The New International Version has a better translation: “Hallowed be your name.” The word translated “hallowed” or “honored” means holy, consecrated and sanctified and is derived from a word meaning “sacred.” In that single phrase, Jesus recognizes and declares God as above all things and completely holy.

I frequently begin my prayers with the simple statement “God, you are so good.” Somehow that beginning centers me – it’s like breathing in a breath of fresh peace and it pulls me from the chaos around me into the center of God’s presence. The beginning of my prayer isn’t meant to get God’s attention, it’s meant to place my full attention on God and His goodness. Jesus’ prayer goes a step further. It exalts the Lord beyond His goodness to His perfect holiness. “Oh, Father in heaven – hallowed be Your name.” The phrase itself steps me into worship.

An aside: I began this blog a couple of days ago. It got interrupted and I am now returning to finish it. It’s early in the morning and quiet in the house. The day hasn’t gone crazy yet. As I whispered the words I wrote – “Oh, Father in heaven – hallowed by Your name” – tremendous worship filled my heart. I am so glad we serve a holy God. It is His holiness that makes His goodness possible. If He were not perfectly holy, He would not be perfectly good. “Oh, Father in heaven – hallowed be Your name.” Wow!

May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth,
just as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10

After declaring God’s holiness, Jesus speaks into the spiritual realm and asks God to bring His Kingdom to earth – here and now. He asks for God’s will to be accomplished on the earth. Jesus knew two things as He prayed this prayer: That God’s will is good – it is His will that all be saved; and that God’s will meant great personal sacrifice for Jesus. Jesus knew He was praying into His journey to the cross and He knew He was praying into His journey of making it possible for all to be saved. When I pray God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven,” I don’t know what that means for my future. What I do know is that I serve a perfectly holy, just and good God. I can trust Him with my future.

So let’s step back from the immediacy of our lives and pray into the future. “Lord, I want Your will to be done.” Praying into that future affects the immediate. Lord, if You don’t want me to have this job, I don’t want it. If You don’t want me to have this ministry, I don’t want to have it. If You don’t want me to have this spouse, I don’t want him or her.

I know. Those things are easier to write than to live when we really want the job, the ministry or the spouse. What I really want more, though, is Jesus and His life for me. “Father, Your will, not mine.”

I think it’s very easy to make this portion of Jesus’ prayer over spiritual and not apply it to our own lives. When we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying two aspects of the prayer. There will come a day when God’s Kingdom will be on earth so we’re praying “come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Until that time, however, it’s important to recognize that we’re praying for His will to be done through us. God isn’t just going to superimpose His great and glorious Kingdom here on earth (at least not yet) – he’s going to work it out in our lives. And that’s a good thing – what a glorious opportunity God gives us to live the life He (in all His holiness) has purposed for us!

Give us our food for today,
Matthew 6:11

God cares about our physical needs. In this simple phrase, Jesus’ prayer tells me two things: (1) ask God for what you need today, and (2) don’t worry about tomorrow’s needs. If we always trust for God to meet our needs today, is there any reason to worry about tomorrow’s needs? No. Yet we are very good at turning tomorrow’s needs into today’s worry, aren’t we? Just a few verses later Jesus encourages the disciples to trust God for everyday things:

²⁵“So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. 
Matthew 6:25-26 (NLT)

As Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He included one phrase “Give us our food for today.” Implied in that sentence is our trust that God will provided the food we need – every day. “Lord, give us the food we need for today and I will be satisfied.”

and forgive us our sins,
just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.
Matthew 6:12

The phraseology in the New Living Translation is a little different from the more traditional phrasing of this verse. It puts our forgiveness of others in the past tense – “Lord, forgive my sins just as I have (already) forgiven others.” There is a relationship between God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others. Unforgiveness hinders our relationship with God.

In Matthew 18 and Luke 19 Scripture records one of Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness and reinforces this point. A King had a servant who owed him a great debt but could not pay. The King forgave the servant’s debt. The servant then went to those who owed him money and insisted on payment. Even though they begged for more time to pay, the servant showed no forgiveness and had them thrown into prison. The King was not pleased:

³²Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny.
Matthew 18, 32-34 (NLT)

Christ died so that our sins (and they are many) could be forgiven. Shouldn’t we have mercy on our fellow servants as well?

Remember that previous line in Jesus’ prayer – “May Your kingdom come, may Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven”? Forgiving one another is part of the working out of God’s Kingdom on earth.

And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:13 (NLT)

I like this translation of Matthew 6:13. It reinforces that I have a responsibility here – to resist temptation. James tells us to resist the devil and the devil will flee from us (James 4:7b). I like that verse!

God will deliver us from the evil one, but we must resist him. Satan tempted Jesus in the desert. Jesus had to resist the temptation. He battled it with the Word of God and satan fled.

As we walk purposefully through life, honoring God’s name and making His will our highest priority, yielding to temptation becomes less and less desirable. We will battle our fleshly nature as long as we are in the flesh, but the closer we draw to God, the less tempting those sinful natures become. The passage in James 4 continues with a key verse:

Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.
James 4:8 (NLT)

Draw close to God today – through the prayer His Son taught us to pray. Make it your own.

“Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. May Your kingdom come on earth, may Your will be done on earth – as it is done in heaven. I trust You today for the food, clothing and shelter I need. Forgive my sins, Lord. I forgive those who have sinned against me. Help me to resist the temptation to sin today – deliver me from satan’s snares.”

“For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

²Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. ³Cry out for insight and understanding. ⁴Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure. 
Proverbs 2:2-4 (NLT)

That which we tune our ears to is what we begin to hear. Mothers tune their ears to the cries of their children. Doctors tune their ears to hear abnormal sounds in our lungs and abdomen. I could listen through their stethoscopes and every sound would seem either normal or abnormal – but I wouldn’t be able to distinguish one from another. In a room of crying babies I would not be able to distinguish one specific voice.

Similarly, with all the sounds that assault my hearing, unless I tune my ear to God’s wisdom I will not hear it. And I want to hear it. Proverbs 2 continues with some of the benefits of hearing God’s voice:

⁵Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. ⁶For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. ⁷He grants a treasure of good sense to the godly. He is their shield, protecting those who walk with integrity. ⁸He guards the paths of justice and protects those who are faithful to him.

⁹Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will know how to find the right course of action every time. ¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. ¹¹Wise planning will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.
Proverbs 2:5-11 (NLT)

What tremendous benefits await those who tune their ear to wisdom! They are benefits that are clearly worth the effort. The question is how does one tune their ear to something that we’ve never heard before? What is the “sound” of wisdom? How do we find it and how do we recognize it?

God is so good! He doesn’t tell us to do something without providing a way to do it. Our key verse provides God’s approach. Let’s break it down:

Verse 2a: Tune your ears to wisdom – I see two elements to this simple statement.First, is the imperative to take action. The verb isn’t passive, it is active. So let’s start by recognizing that it’s something we need to do and making a decision to do it! Too often we pursue education for our profession or vocation, but assume that we either have wisdom or don’t. That’s not consistent with Scripture. Scripture says clearly that we can gain wisdom, just as we might gain a college education. We don’t get a college degree without applying ourselves to our studies, and wisdom isn’t something that we gain by osmosis. Just as we can glean some knowledge by hanging around others who have invested in it, we can glean some wisdom by those who have already tuned their ear to it. But do you want just the little bit of God’s wisdom, knowledge and understanding that you’ll gain from befriending a wise person, or do you want the whole gamut of wisdom God has for you? Do you want just a little of the good sense He has for you or all of it? Do you want just a little of His joy or all of it? I want it all (and I suspect you do, too).

The second element in this sentence is the kind of action we’re to take: Listen! You can’t tune your ear without listening closely. Each Sunday morning as our worship team tunes up, they strum their guitars, turn a knob or two, strum them again, turn the knobs again, and repeat this process until the strumming yields the sound they’re listening for. Quite frankly I don’t hear much difference between the first strumming and the last strumming. The musicians have tuned their ears – they’ve listened to their instruments over a period of time and know what it should sound like. We must listen closely, over a period of time, to learn the voice of the Lord. As we tune our ear to hear the Lord, sometimes we’ll get it wrong. That’s OK. God will correct us, and He loves that we are getting to know him.

Verse 2b: Concentrate on understanding – It’s not a lackadaisical approach that will tune your ear and give you understanding, it is the concentrated approach. Have you ever watched someone when they’re learning something new? Think of the child learning to tie his shoe. Or perhaps you’ve watched a great basketball player in slow motion as he concentrates on the basket as he sets up his shot. In both examples, you can see the concentration on the person’s face. They are focused on the task at hand, shutting out all outside influences that might ruin their concentration. God tells us to approach understanding like that – concentrate on it! Don’t just try it once, but concentrate on hearing God and understanding His ways. Block out the influences of this world and seek His wisdom.

Verse 3: Cry out for insight and understanding – Don’t go it alone! Cry out to God for insight and understanding. Ask God for it! He promises to give it:

If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking.
James 1:5 (NLT)

Notice the word “gladly.” He doesn’t give it begrudgingly. But you must cry out for it!

Verse 4: Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure – Search high and low for it, as you would for money that you’ve lost or hidden treasure. Don’t give up easily! I lost my passport once. I emptied drawers and filing cabinets. I looked under furniture. I even cleaned off my desk – and I’m not a clean desk person. What have you searched for lately? Think about your search, then think about applying those same methods and intensity in finding wisdom, understanding and insight.

As I’ve been reading through Proverbs, God has been reminding me that I don’t seek His wisdom often enough. When I do the results are tremendous. Just today Phil was trying to do something on our website that he couldn’t figure out. He had spent quite a bit of time researching and trying various things, all to no avail. Then he started thinking about how God gave Joseph wisdom for succeeding in every position he held. So Phil paused to pray. He went back to working on the website, did a few things that made no sense to him and within minutes he had accomplished what he’d been trying to do for days! God’s wisdom is so good. We’ve had experiences like this in the past. Seeking God’s wisdom brings success. It was the topic of my last blog, and God is impressing it upon me enough for it to be the topic of this blog.

Let’s ask God for His wisdom before we waste time trying to live in our own wisdom (or lack thereof). He’s so good, He’ll give it generously! We have His promise.

 ⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

¹⁰“Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge over pure gold. ¹¹For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can be compared with it.

¹²“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment….¹⁴Good advice and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine. 
Proverbs 8:1012, 14 (NLT)

As I read verses 10 and 11, the Holy Spirit grabbed my attention with the understanding that choosing silver and gold is so much easier than choosing God’s instruction and knowledge. Let me rephrase that – choosing to pursue silver and gold is so much easier than choosing to pursue God’s instruction and knowledge. Our society highly values the pursuit of silver and gold. Far be it that anyone should set aside the pursuit of these things to pursue God’s wisdom. I mean when was the last time you heard someone say that they were going to work less so they could pursue God more. It happens, but not a lot and most of the world (even those in the Church) would look at such a person with a bit of suspicion.

But then I read on, and learned that wisdom brings along good judgment. Good judgment is one of the greatest values in the workplace. Having wisdom and good judgment leads to the discovering of knowledge and discernment. Scripture continues, telling us that good advice and success belong to wisdom, as does insight and strength.

Now let me see if I have this right. If I pursue (and presumably attain) wisdom, I will also be receiving good judgment, good advice, success, insight and strength. It would seem to me that if I had all those things, there could be little doubt that I would be successful in the work world during the (less) time I’m spending there. I am also totally confident that my spiritual life, my relationship with God, would bring greater satisfaction, joy, peace and victory.

OK, there was an important parenthetical in that last paragraph that perhaps I should qualify. I assumed that when you pursue wisdom you would “presumably attain” it. Well, I have it on good authority that you will:

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
James 1:5-8 (NIV)

God’s Word promises that He will give wisdom to all who ask. When we really believe that verse, we live in expectation that God will give it. (See my blog “What Do You Really Believe” for more on this.) And when we live in that place of faith, God responds by generously giving us wisdom. What’s it take to live in that place of faith? Pursuing Him more so that we might know Him more.

Can there be any reason that makes sense not to pursue wisdom? Well, in case you don’t agree with me yet, let me share one more verse. Here’s Hosea 4:6a in two translations:

my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6a (NIV)

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Hosea 4:6a (NLT)

Lack of the knowledge of God destroys us, God’s Word says. Conversely, pursuing the knowledge of God brings with it good judgment, discernment and success (among other things).

God’s Word provides so much encouragement to study His ways and get to know Him. Let’s be a community of believers who prove God’s Word to the world. Let’s be people who prove that when pursuing God and knowing Him is more important than pursuing worldly riches, we become people of knowledge, wisdom, discernment, insight, good advice, and success.

Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet
In August, we’ll spend most of our time at the River’s Edge with Jeremiah. I’ll be honest with you…there are some books of the Bible that don’t make me excited when I think about reading them. Known as the “weeping prophet,” Jeremiah is one of those books. Let me be more honest…I’m so wrong! The book of Jeremiah is full of great material and reveals the heart of God tremendously. Here’s a quote that I love. God is speaking to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah.

This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
Jeremiah 2:5 (NIV)

Do you hear the Lord’s broken heart? “What fault did your fathers find in me…” Now obviously there is no fault with God, just as there is often no fault with parents when their children choose rebellion. And the parents’ hearts break. God’s heart breaks when we stray far from Him. He watches as we follow worthless idols, knowing that doing so we will be come worthless ourselves.

I bet there are other verses in this book that you know but perhaps don’t know the reference. Check these out:

[The Lord is speaking] “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5a)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

¹³You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14a)

Someday my emotions will catch on that the weeping prophet knows the heart of God and I’ll rejoice at the thought of reading the book of Jeremiah.

Mark, James & Peter
Our New Testament reading will have us in these books:

• Gospel of Mark – We’ll finish the Gospel of Mark, reading chapters 8 through 16.
• James – The book of James is a favorite of many. It was written by James, the brother of Jesus, and many people believe it was the first New Testament book written.
• 1 Peter – This book of encouragement was written to Christians facing persecution. We’ll be exhorted to live a holy lifestyle and submit to authority (and who doesn’t need those lessons?).

The month holds some great opportunities for learning and reflecting as we rest by the river’s edge with God’s Word. I pray that you will come to know God’s heart in a greater way as you read during the month of August.
Blessings, Friends!
Sandy

The recommended reading schedule for August is below.

To download a PDF of the August 2011 recommended reading plan, click here.

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
1 Cor 6:7

In my blog last week, I jumped off this verse, concluding that the Apostle Paul was able to overlook offenses because he kept his eyes on the prize – Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He was so focused on Christ – what He had done, what He was doing and what He would do in the future – that he didn’t have the time or expend the energy to deal with slights, real or imagined. That’s a great message and one I need to remember.

But it wasn’t the message I had in mind when the Holy Spirit highlighted the verse to me. As I was typing out the phrases that might answer the question “Why not rather be wronged?” I could feel indignation (righteous indignation I would like to think) welling upwithin me. But God was showing me that the indignation, even if it was righteous, would lead to actions that didn’t reveal His heart to the offender. He brought this verse to mind:

¹²Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, ¹³because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
James 2:12-13

Mercy triumphs over judgment. That’s grace! God is being merciful toward me instead of giving me the punishment I deserve. But grace carries two meanings – it is both that which is extended to me by God, and it is the reflection of that grace working in my life. (See a short blog about it here.) What that means is that in my life, I should be striving to allow mercy to triumph over judgment…not nursing my indignation whether it is righteous or not.

Considering the tremendous grace God has shown to us, it is not our place to measure out punishment. Paul put it this way when writing to the Romans:

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:17-21

Paul begins the passage with a warning not to repay evil for evil and ends with the injunction to overcome evil with good. He leaves little wiggle room for bringing lawsuits or claiming “our rights.” Between the two verses, Paul gives what might be even harder instructions – we’re to actually bless our enemies – not just with words, but in deed.

And then there is verse 18. God often brings this to my mind: “As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” That wording implies that I ought to be proactive in bringing about peace. I’m not to just make peace in my heart, but to take whatever action is possible to make peace when there is friction between me and someone else. Yes, boundaries may be appropriate, but “if it is possible” I’m to make peace.

These are challenging instructions. God has given us His Spirit to guide and enable us. Sometimes the hardest part is being willing. I find that often, what is required is the simple prayer “Lord, make me willing.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for – and serving a God who is wildly, passionately in love with me is at the top of the list. My list is long, and I’m hoping yours is, too. I have a roof over my head and am well fed. I’m blessed to be able to write this blog and am involved in a number of other meaningful ministries. I have a wonderful marriage and good family and friends. I have my own business that is moderately successful and gives me a degree of freedom over my schedule. That freedom allows me to be involved in events at my mom’s nursing home and other daytime activities that I might otherwise have to miss. Of course I could get more specific and the list would begin to bore you.

Yet for each of those things, it would be easy for me to add a “but…”

• I have a roof over my head, but that roof needs to be replaced and I can’t afford to do it.
• I am blessed to write this blog, but I don’t have time to do all the many additional things I dream about – truly taking Apprehending Grace Ministries from being simply this blog and a few other things to being a vibrant ministry.
• I have a moderately successful business, but there are so many stresses with owning a small business these days.
• I have a wonderful marriage, but…

You get the idea. For every aspect of our lives, we have a choice – to look at the blessing or to look at the disappointment. The disappointment might be real or imagined, but either way, it mitigates the joy we feel when we think of the blessing. I find that the disappointment we experience falls into two categories:

• “Not yet” disappointment – that is, disappointment in what you haven’t yet seen, received or accomplished.
• Experienced disappointment – reality crashed into your expectations.

Both find their solution in God.

Experienced Disappointment

We will experience disappointments and sorrow in this life. Things will break and people will die. Life will crush in and our hopes will be shattered in Humpty Dumpty fashion. We can hold onto that disappointment, or we can give it to the One who cares for us more than we’ll ever be able to comprehend.

²⁸Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11 (NLT)

I find that dealing with life’s shattering disappointments makes me weary. There’s no better word for it. Weary is more than just tired, it’s overburdened and tired. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines weary as “exhausted in strength, endurance, vigor, or freshness.” Phil’s family would describe it as “all used up.”

Jesus says “Come to me when you are all used up. Come to me when your strength, endurance, vigor or freshness is gone.” I love that the word “freshness” is included in the definition. When you have become stale and are about to become moldy – “come to me.”

And once you’re there – give him all your disappointments, your worries and your cares.

Give your burdens to the Lord. He will carry them. He will not permit the godly to slip or fall.

Psalm 55:22 (TLB)

Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.

1 Peter 5:7 (TLB)

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

If a “but” is taking the joy out of your blessing, you are carrying burdens you need not carry. Go to Jesus – the yoke He has for you fits you perfectly. Once there, give Him all your “buts” – and don’t take them back again. Let Him deal with them for you. (Remember, He is always working in the background to cause all things to work for your good if you continue to pursue Him.) Give God your “buts” today – then just focus on the blessings.

“Net Yet” Disappointment

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.

Psalm 13:12 (NLT)

“Not yet” disappointment is the disappointment in ourselves and/or God, that our dreams have not yet been fulfilled. Scripture validates our feeling of disappointment, but that doesn’t mean we ought to dwell there. It also validates that fulfilled dreams bring life and joy.

Pray into your unfulfilled dreams. Trust God to bring them. “Not yet” disappointment teeters on the brink of lack of faith. Push past the lack of faith into the knowledge that God is on the move! You don’t see it yet, but He is moving to bring about the hopes and dreams that are within His will and those hopes and dreams will be more fulfilling than you imagine.

Live life on purpose! Don’t just hope for your dreams to come true and don’t just pray into your unfulfilled dreams – do whatever there is for you to do today to help your dreams come true tomorrow.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James 2:26 (NIV)

Believe God for your dreams and work toward them. Make your life a “no excuse” zone. When you’ve given your energies toward praying and making your dreams happen, you cannot be disappointed in yourself. When you know that you know that you know that God is working on your behalf, you cannot be disappointed in Him.

For All Disappointment

King David knew a thing or two about disappointment. One of my favorite passages in Psalms was written by him in a period of disappointment. You probably know this Psalm – it begins with the well-known verse “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1, NRSV) Clearly this is a Psalm written in a time of disappointment. Yet David has found the secret to dealing with that disappointment. Read on:

⁵ Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and ⁶my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

……….

⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:5,-6, 8 (NIV)

In the midst of his weariness, David speaks to his own soul – he instructs it to bring it into alignment with true reality. “Put your hope in God” he says. True reality is not what we see and hear and feel around us. Our emotions lie to us regularly. I woke up this morning wanting to cry for no reason – I was just feeling sad. I could come up with reasons I might be feeling this way and it’s tempting to do that. Life makes more sense to me when I can justify my feelings – but that’s just what it is – justifying them. Why justify them, when instead I can instruct them as David did? “Why are you so downcast, soul of mine? Rejoice in God! He is my Great Redeemer and my life. He lives in heavenly places and never ceases to pray for me. He is my hope and my salvation. He is my friend. He longs to whisper His secrets in my ear.” How much more edifying that is than figuring out why I might be sad. (Don’t hear what I’m not saying – there is a time to work through our emotions, but there is also a time for setting them aside knowing that they are simply lying to us or trying to sabotage us or divert us from God’s purposes.)

Peter has a final instruction that is worth noting here:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8 (NRSV)

We do have power to redirect our thoughts, and using this power changes our perspective and our attitudes.

Let’s Leave the “But” Out

I have a blessed life. That blessed life is diminished when I let the “buts” of Satan rob me of the joy of the blessing.

Friends, may I encourage you to silence your buts this Thanksgiving and then continue the practice throughout the holiday season and 2011. Make it a lifestyle choice you make today.

Stay tuned – check out tomorrow’s blog titled “But In…”

“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.”
James 5:16b (NLT)

Several things have happened recently that have me thinking about those who have no one praying for them. I think they’re all around us and we just don’t see them. We are often so caught up in our own lives and our own challenges that we don’t look into the faces of those around us, and we notice their actions only when those actions interrupt the peaceful flow of our lives. The person walking or driving haphazardly in front of us, the rude store cashier and the angry customer grab our attention, but unless we’ve allowed God to transform our natural reaction, we probably become frustrated, annoyed and/or angry ourselves.

I’ve known for quite awhile that God allows (even sends) these people to cross my path to help transform me into the likeness of His Son – to help sand off my many rough edges. What rough edges you ask? Well, in these examples, it might be my pride (in my own abilities or my superior kindness), my impatience and my lack of love. Ouch! That’s not a pretty list. (Can kindness really be superior when my attitude is  “I’m kinder than that person?”) But God is working on transforming them and we’re seeing some improvement.

It occurs to me lately, however, that these same people may be the way they are, in part, because they have no one praying for them. The angry customer may be experiencing exceedingly difficult circumstances in his or her life, and he may be facing them totally alone. The person operating haphazardly may be in a mind trap of confusion with no one praying for clarity and wisdom.

How often do you pray for those around you? I don’t mean praying for your spouse and your children, your pastor and brothers and sisters in Christ, your family and others. I don’t even mean praying for the lost in general or specific people who need Christ. I mean praying for people you don’t know and know nothing about other than they seem to lack a joy of the Lord. It is these people – those that no one else has asked you to pray for – who may have no one praying for them. I’m guessing the answer is “not very often.” I know I don’t pray for those around me nearly as often as I should.

The truth that has gripped my heart is that perhaps NO ONE is praying for some of these people. If they grew up in a non-Christian or prayerless home, quite possibly – perhaps even probably – they aren’t on anyone’s prayer list. Or maybe they grew up in a Christian, praying home, but they have gone so far afield that their family has grown weary of praying for them. They have fallen off the prayer lists of those who once had hoped for their salvation.

I have an assignment and a challenge for us.

The Assignment
Over the next couple of days ask God to point someone out who needs your prayers. Then commit to pray for that person regularly. What a privilege to be the only person praying for someone – you may well be the key component that causes that person to turn toward the Lord.!

The Challenge
Commit to pray for each person you see tomorrow. As you sit in your car at a stop light, look at the person in the car opposite you and pray for them. As you walk through a store, pray for each person you pass and each person who serves you. Actively look for opportunities to pray for people. You will find yourself quite tired from the mental alertness that is required for such diligent praying. The first time I did this, I was shocked to realize how often I allow my mind to zone out or focus on things that were not profitable.