Welcome Changes

"Now to Him, Who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us."  Ephesians 3:20

So spring hasn't sprung yet, but we Nolands are celebrating two other visible and welcome events.  

1) Julie has had a dark mole on her shoulder since she was a teenager. Multiple doctors have diagnosed it as harmless through the years, but any friend or family member who saw it told Julie to get it checked or that she had better keep an eye on it. However, when Addy's little fingers found and played with the mole (anything's a toy if you play with it) Julie, who's terrified of needles and knives, made an appointment to have it removed.  Even more importantly, she followed through and let them remove it.  They did a biopsy, "just to be sure," and discovered the mole wasn't harmless at all. Julie has since had additional abnormal cells removed.  We've been a bit in shock since melanomas aren't supposed to threaten sweet daughters in their early twenties.  Praise God for concerned, vocal friends and family members, and for tiny probing fingers. 

2) Our second celebration centers on finances: for the first time in fourteen years we're financially clear of credit card debt and have an emergency savings account.  Our problems started with a little bit on a credit card and grew to be a little bit on several credit cards before blooming into real debt on several cards. Just when we were sure we couldn't do it because of a house that wouldn't sell and two sets of utility bills, etc.- God sent the tools, people and jobs to help us pull out of the quick sand and step forward on solid ground.  In two years God has helped us pay off (and tear up) all credit cards, pay a large tax debt for 2011, and manage medical bills for shoulder surgery.  Praise God for Dave Ramsey's plan and for FBC Benton's push for Financial Peace University. Praise God for baby steps and strides of marital determination, teamwork and self-discipline. We're even getting a tax refund this year - unheard of in this house for decades. 

What "harmless" little thing lurks in your life?  How is God highlighting the potential for disaster?  What is He using to get your attention? In our cases, God used concerned comments, toddler hands, bills, and a financial class to drive us in the right direction. It would have been easier to keep sliding downward and for Julie to ignore what she couldn't see, but praise God, He kept working with us until we responded. 

Real change takes time, but a willing heart plus God's power leads to change worth celebrating.

Wide - - - And Deep

Nobody but God could have created the universe - even if He used a big bang to get it all started.  Nobody but God could hang stars in the sky, part seas, stop earth's rotation, dam the Jordan River for a day, call down Jericho's walls, raise up an army from skeletons, send down fire from heaven to lap up a flooded altar, feed five thousand from a sack lunch, fill nets to the breaking point in an empty lake, raise decaying bodies back to life, raise Himself from death to life, and ascend to heaven.  Our faith says, "Way to go God! Hallelujah! He reigns!"

Those biblical miracles happened a long long time ago, but we stand firm in their reality.  Our faith is more likely to get shaky when it comes to the personal today-details. Could such a God be called on to help me with my minutiae?

A friend called yesterday as she navigated the city. She had lost her directions and was nervous about the meeting ahead of her. We prayed on the phone, she found her directions, attended her meeting and life flows.  A modern-day miracle.  We lose things we need now, but does losing something merit prayer? merit God's miraculous intervention?

One day I was writing a lesson on forgiveness when someone called, picked a fight, made me mad as a hornet, then hung up on me.   I fumed back to the computer which abruptly crashed.  God wouldn't let me keep writing about forgiveness until I practiced it.  After a time of release, prayer, and preparation for the call that would come, the phone rang, forgiveness was practiced and the computer was "healed."  it might be tempting to call all of that a coincidence, but I couldn't,  God's Word says,  "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!'”  Matthew 25:23
Would we see more wide-scale miracles if we were faithful to recognize the daily miracles of God's Presence? Maybe we're calling them coincidences when they're God's stepping stones to greater miracles.


"For with God, nothing will be impossible." Luke 1:37   Some of His most "impossible" acts are deep within us, for our eyes and hearts alone.

"Now to Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."  Ephesians 3:20-21
As we look through telescopes and see how wide the "exceedingly abundantly above all" God has done and can do, let's live believing He ministers and miracle-izes deeply under the microscope of each of our lives as well. 

God of Gods, You're amazing and wonderful. The scope of Your abilities - well, there's not one because it can't be measured.  We raise our praise for all You've done - creation itself and all Your past works are worthy of our forever thanks.  But, help us recognize the miracles You send today and how You're ministering today - here in this heart and that heart.  Thank You for going deep and wide with Your miracles.  We love You for loving us enough to keep working in amazing ways right where we are. Just help us embrace the everyday miracles.
In the Name of Jesus, Savior of each as well as Savior of All

The Month Between

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." 

Ephesians 1:18-19

Christmas is now 11 months away (I heard that sigh!). 

When I was a little girl, Christmas always seemed to be 11 months away, until Thanksgiving, when the promise of Christmas began fulfilling itself.  Lists, lights popping on here and there in the city, gifts displayed behind glass store windows, and  televised Christmas specials all pointed to nail-biting arrival of Christmas.  Finally, about a week before Christmas the tree went up and our hopes soared that the day was really, truly and finally arriving.

All this Spirit of the Season began in earnest at Thanksgiving, launched at a dinner table stacked high with our favorite foods and encircled by familiar faces.  Our gratitude for God's blessings opened the gate to the true Spirit of Christmas, the blessings of giving and receiving.  The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with giving to charities, missions, and to families who had less than we did.  

Then, in the blink it took for one year to transform into a new one, January hit like an Arctic blast of reality until February brought the warm fuzzies of Valentine's day. 

Christ's return is closer than ever before, although it may seem like ages away.  We're living in the month between Thanksgiving and His return.  Today we can choose to look at what we have, not at what we want. Today we can choose to minimize our needs and maximize our blessings; to consider what and how we'll give rather than what we want or need.  Gratitude begets giving and giving begets joy. 

While I've re-stored the holiday decorations in the attic, I'm calling on the "surpassing greatness of His (God's) power"  to leave the joy and generosity of the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas shining in my heart and our home until Christ returns for the greatest gift-opening ceremony of eternity.  I
  

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory 

that far outweighs them all. 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, 

since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

2nd Corinthians 4:17-18

Father, show us how to give like Christ gave, in Your will and power.  Open our eyes to see our "momentary troubles" compared to eternity.  Mold our hearts to be generous.  May we not store Your Spirit with the manger scene. Empower us to let You live through us day by day, moment by moment.   Thank You for every blessing this day has brought and will bring.  Blue skies and sunshine between the gray days - that's what today has brought.  Food in the fridge, health in the body, family in the home or at the other end of the phone call, friends we can depend on, income with which to honor You, love in every direction, opportunities to grow in You, mustard seeds of faith You'll water, and joy in Your Presence wherever we are.  

In the Name of Jesus, our Gift, the Gift above all others!  Come soon, Lord Jesus! 

In the Right Hands

"LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter.

Your hands made all of us."

Isaiah 64:8



Just because it's in calligraphy
doesn't mean it's important.
Just because we feel ordinary
doesn't mean we're less important



     From the time I had two quarters jangling in my pocket, I've invested in paper and writing implements. Woolworth's was my favorite place to shop for little notebooks, sketch pads, stationery, pencils, pens, markers, etc.  With paper always at hand, I dreamed of filling at least a notebook, and maybe one day a book cover, with meaningful words strung together in meaningful expressions which would meld into a memorable experience for me and for readers. Whenever writer's block hit, I'd change pen colors because purple might say it better, or gold metallic would get attention and respect.  When I didn't have content, I used calligraphy to proclaim less important ideas with a flourish. 

   However, most real work requires less flourish and more function.  For instance, my job teaches me that justice could hardly be dispensed without sticky notes, staples and blue ink pens. A clear, legible print is preferable to calligraphy.  Cases wouldn't, couldn't be scheduled without a simple calendar, and where would I be without whiteout?  The little container on my desk keeps all these "ordinary" tools available for the opportune moment. In other words, I don't keep parchment paper and calligraphy pens in my office since sticky notes and ball points get the job done better.   



The real tools of justice!



     Is that why God made us from clay - squishy, flawed, muddy, wet, messy everyday clay? He makes an orinary, common substance extraordinarly useful by His power. Feeling more like a Post-it than parchment? God's purposes mean we're valuable and irreplaceable for certain callings and jobs. Feeling as unique as one silver staple in a row of staples?  Our feelings don't change the fact that God can use us to "hold it together" as a testimony to His power among people falling apart without Him.    

     Thank You God for preferring to work with imperfect, weak people instead of using inanimate objects to express Your glory. Thank You for breathing life into us and molding us. Today, Lord, we ask You to be creative and artistic in our lives.  Remove the hard chunks in our spirits and personalities to make us more pliable in Your Hands. Thank You for not tossing us out as unusable. Write Your glory into our lives for others to see.  Mold us to be more Christ-like in every circumstance.  Thank You that You're creative enough to make something beautiful of our messy, flawed, muddy, squishy lives.  We submit everything about ourselves - our minds, hearts, emotions, wills, words, gifts, work - into Your capable fingers. 

In the Name of Jesus - the Word of God

"Isn’t the potter free to make different kinds of pots out of the same lump of clay?

Some are for special purposes. Others are for ordinary use."

  Romans 9:21

How terrible it will be for anyone who argues with his Maker!

He is like a broken piece of pottery lying on the ground.

Does clay say to a potter, “What are you making?”

Does a pot say, “You don’t have any skill”?   Isaiah 45:9

 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - I Clean Forgot

"What I want instead (of animal sacrifices) is your true thanks to God; 

I want you to fulfill your vows to the Most High. 

Trust Me in times of trouble and I will rescue you and you will give Me glory." 

Psalm 50:14-15  

"For You are great and perform great miracles. 

You alone are God." 

Psalm 86:10

  The sign for "forget" in sign language is to swipe your right hand across your forehead to symbolize that whatever might have been there left the premises.  This sign portrays a good old Southern phrase, "I clean forgot." To sign "remember" you hold your left fist in front of you, thumb up, while bringing your right thumb from your forehead to meet the left thumb. This sign signifies pulling something out of your mental file cabinet to look at it again.  (If I mangled the explanation, click here to watch a video of a really sweet teen-aged guy teaching these signs: How to sign "forget" and "remember" )                  
     Our spiritual short-term memory makes each immediate challenge appear bigger than any we've ever had to face.  This false perception leads us to question and doubt whether God can handle this one or not.  If we don't counteract the questions and doubts in time, they can cause us to clean forget every past hurdle God has knocked down, every wall He's burst through, the seas He's parted and calmed, heavy fog He's lifted, sicknesses He's healed, doors He's opened, mountains He's leveled and blankets of peace He's used to cover and comfort us.

     How can we prevent clean forgetting and be better rememberers? We can follow King David's example and recite and repeat what God has done from the beginning as well as what He can do now (see pretty much any Psalm by David).  When we share answered prayers, we're sealing in the memory. When we ponder and review each miracle God performs in our lives as it happens, we etch it into our memories before the cement hardens. When we revisit all the ways God's grace and personal ministries have strengthened us, we build immunity to spiritual short-term memory loss. 
     Father, You're incapable of being incapable! Mighty God of miracles, You perform daily miracles we appreciate for seconds because the next challenge looms ahead. Don't let us file these faith-shaping events away. May we guard and treasure Your Words and Your Ways as defenses against doubt. Cleanse our hearts of sin but clutter our minds with memories of every time You've ministered to us.
In the Name of Jesus Who never forgot what His Father-God could do


Inspired by Live Loved, by Max Lucado