RESTORATION - Praising a God Who Restores

At the age of 28 she was on her second marriage, had three children and was trapped in a life entrenched in lies, cheating and stealing. She justified her actions. She thought she'd never get caught. But he caught her. The man she'd made a covenant marriage vow with. She confessed all to him - not to hurt him, but because she couldn't carry this any longer. She will never forget the pain she saw in his eyes. Pain she knew had forged deep into his very soul. Pain SHE had caused. He gave only one ultimatum. "Never lie to me again." He didn't chastise her, he didn't reason with her, he didn't even ask why she had done it - maybe he was afraid she'd lie some more and didn't want to risk that. He professed his love for her but firmly let her know he would not tolerate lies within their marriage. But truly, it was the pain in the eyes that convicted her more than any words would have. They'd been married for five years. She'd put him through so much during that time and he still clung to whatever minute strand of hope he could find that things would eventually work out.

That Sunday morning in church God broke her. She could not move - she didn't remember the sermon - all she heard was God calling her to give her life and every rotten thing she'd done over to Him. Somehow the pastor even knew. This sweet fundamental baptist church always had an invitation at the end of service, but today it went on for what seemed an eternity in the eyes of the soul that sat wrestling between the pull of the world and the gentle touch of the Spirit. About the fourth time through "I Surrender All" she moved, slowly, hesitantly, not knowing what to expect but desperately needing something to change. As she prayed, change came. Slow and deliberate - the Spirit began to sooth the anxious soul, mend the shattered heart, heal the broken marriage and tenderly pour life back in. THIS is RESTORATION. THIS is the beauty in the life-giving, life-changing, power of the Savior. Marriage restored. Life restored. Family restored. Future restored. All done by a GOD who RESTORES!

21 years later that same woman now celebrates with great joy 26 years of marriage to a man that never gave up on her! 21 years later she's celebrating a God that took a wretch and transformed her into someone who loves others, and desires to share her love for God with them. She's not perfect, she still struggles and she knows she has a long way to go - but she has hope, joy, peace, and a husband and a God that she can always rely on!

PONDERING THE PROMISE (When God Makes a Promise...He Keeps It!)

Today is Day 12 of the 40 Days of Praise Challenge. It's been an interesting ride so far! I've learned so much about God through the depth of the Scriptures that I had not forged before and through the encouragement of the women that are traveling this road with me!

Rather than being vague - I will be completely transparent. There have been many challenges in my life that would present opportunity for the Lord to be my comforter. Those include several moves where I found myself engulfed in loneliness and steeped in depression. They include turning over my children to the Lord at various times in their lives during some trying and yes even some rebellious moments. Moments where they were injured, car accidents, and even a time where one ran away and left my heart broken and in unimaginable pain. Grieving over choices made and painful consequences. It was God's comfort and grace that saw me through those moments but the most challenging time in my life is the health issues I have been dealing with for more than five years now. Debilitating illness that left me nearly bedridden for several months and in so much pain throughout my entire body that I threw myself at His feet for comfort and relief. 

While reading Psalm 119:48-52, I zeroed in on the word "PROMISE". I don't know why but the pull to communicate a little more clearly what the Psalmist is talking about here was strong. We all know that God made promises to his people and I have professed my faith in Him in the keeping of those promises, but have never felt so driven to be able to articulate this more clearly than now. Our hope and our comfort are found here...the promise, that we would be reconciled to God. 

Hebrews 9 declares the first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship that were very specific - including the measurements and technical elements involved with the building of the tabernacle to the particular sacrifices to be made for the atonement of the sins of men. There were two rooms - one was called the Holy Place, the other the Most Holy Place. (Read Hebrews 9:1-5) The priests were required to regularly enter and perform religious duties. But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. There he made blood offerings for his own sins and the sins of the people. "The Most Holy Place was not freely open...the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them." (He. 9:8-9) These physical regulations were in effect only until a "better system" could be established. "So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves - he entered the Most Holy place once for all time and secured our redemption forever! For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf...once and for all he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him." (Heb. 9:11-28)

"And so dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise." Hebrews 10:19-24 NLT 

Could not have said this better myself. Seriously, the Word of God has all this and more and I think I get so busy with life I don't focus in on the important, life-transforming word's within this book. There's beautiful communion to be found with our Lord when we take the time to humbly sift through the pages of our Bible and focus in on the many aspects within that relate to our Creator and His chosen people. Our COMFORT is truly found in His promises and that is why I believe God tugged at my heart to dig deeper into His Promise! Praying you found comfort in these truths as well! 

The Art of Learning to Delight in Him

It's been an interesting few days. Only 4 days into the 40 Days of Praise challenge (#7xfor40days) and I am finding such a richness and depth of fellowship with my Savior that I never dreamed possible. I am gleaning understanding into the richness of His Word. I am finding out things about myself that I need to work on. I am finding out things about myself that I praise God for. All around it's been amazing AND there are still another 36 days to go! WOO HOO!

God has richly blessed this endeavor and we have an incredible group of 218 people participating in some way with this challenge! When I created the Facebook group - I never dreamt it would grow to 218 people. In the group I am sharing devotionals centered around my quiet time. Yesterday's text Psalm 119: 13-16 had so much to it, I could not fit it into a single devotional - so I thought I would recap here and share some more...hope you don't mind! :)

Yesterday we looked at DELIGHTING IN HIM. We found out that delight meant captivated, enthralled, to have joy in something, in this case - God. However, the full passage reads more like this (I have combined NLT & [ESV] to give a fuller, richer context.)

"I have recited aloud [declared] all the regulations [rules of your mouth] you have given us. I have rejoiced in [delighted in the ways of] your law as much as riches. I will study [meditate on] your commandments and reflect [fix my eyes] on your ways. I will delight in your decrees and [I will] not forget your word." (Psalm 119:13-16)

In studying this passage - I started out with my focus on verse 16 - where it clearly states, "I will not forget your word."
"Word" in this instance is the Hebrew term 'imrah - this term is directly correlated to being pure (unmixed, unalloyed, refined, purified, purged) which answers the question in 119:9 - in this case it draws us back to the previous verses that gives us guidance for refining our lives:

• People of integrity follow the instructions of the Lord. (119:1)
• Obey his laws and search for Him with all their heart. (2)
• Do not compromise with evil and walk only in His paths. (3)
• Keep His commands carefully. (4)
• Acknowledge and pray that their actions would consistently reflect His decrees. (5)
• Compare their lives with His commands and strives not to bring Him shame. (6)
• LEARN the righteous regulations (we will talk about this in a second.) and
• Show our appreciation to Him by living in a manner that glorifies Him. (7)
• Obey His decrees. (8)
• Try hard to find Him - seek Him out. (10)
• Hide His Word in our hearts. (11) 
• Recite aloud all the regulations given to us. (13)
• Rejoice in His laws. (14)
• Study His commands and reflect on His ways. (15)
• Delight in His decrees and not forget His Words. (16)

When God's Word becomes our delight, His presence and deliverance are near and brings us celebrated joy!! If you take a close look at this list of ways that we can "keep our way pure" (9) we find that there is a significant amount of responsibility placed on us. This is not to seem daunting or unattainable - but it is there to show that we have a choice to make - we can choose to obey or be disobedient, we can choose to be careful or careless, we can choose to seek His ways or the world's ways. As we make our choice to follow Him there's a sweetness that comes with that decision. 

In understanding the Art of Learning to Delight in Him, I want to break that list down a little more and offer thoughts on three initial steps that may be put into place to begin to solidify this process of LEARNING this Art. 

If you go back to Psalm 119:13-16 quoted above you will see in verse 13 it talks about RECITING ALOUD, DECLARING ALOUD all His regulations. In the Women's Evangelical Commentary on the Old Testament it says that, "to speak aloud could also indicate rehearsing everything Yahweh says, rejoicing in His testimonies as much as in all riches." It is communicating the idea of learning God's Word by heart. Memorizing Scripture! I have had the privilege of acting in many plays but my largest role had me memorizing 470 lines and 15 songs. I wasn't sure I would be able to accomplish this feat - but God was with me and showed me that the more I recited my lines, the more of them I found I had memorized until at last, they were all memorized. If I can memorize 470 lines, surely I can memorize scripture! Needless to say, this revelations has left me excited to begin rehearsing Scripture!!

STEP ONE 

in our LEARNING process is - to RECITE SCRIPTURE OUT LOUD and MEMORIZE it. 

In verse 15 it talks about STUDYING/MEDITATING on His commandments. Sometimes terminology gets in the way of deeper understanding. For me the words studying and meditating are clear enough but in applying them, I sometimes struggle, because studying sounds rather scholarly and I am no Bible scholar. Meditating sounds a little new-age-ish to me and I have to remind myself that this is God's directive and meditating on His Word is a holy practice. To put it into more practical terms let me say it this way - we should be PONDERING, taking time for some silent reflection over God's Word and asking ourselves how it applies to our lives. 

STEP TWO

is to PONDER God's COMMANDS and APPLY them to our LIVES.

In verse 15 it also mentions REFLECTING on His ways. This is a little different from pondering God's commands in that we are digging into His Word to understand the character and being of God by SPEAKING out loud ABOUT what God has said and done. It's a more intangible FIXING of the EYES in this case as we are gleaning knowledge through the eyes of fellow believers. In doing this we keep our way pure out of a reverent fear for the One who created us in His image. One great way to learn through this process is taking those reflections into a circle of Christian friends and having a sweet time of fellowship discussing these things of God together and foraging through Scripture to back up your understanding. 

STEP THREE

is SPEAK ABOUT what God has SAID and DONE. 

SO to recap - our PROCESS in the Art of Learning to Delight in Him:

1. RECITE SCRIPTURE OUT LOUD
2. PONDER GOD'S COMMANDS AND APPLY THEM TO OUR LIVES
3. SPEAK ABOUT WHAT GOD HAS SAID AND DONE

May these steps find their way into our lives and allow us to become stronger in our walk with the Lord. May His blessings continue to flow in and through each of us as we continue praising Him for 7 times a day for 40 days!