Every Day Wonders

If you are anything like me, we all crave order and certainty. Predictability offers safety.

However, we take our everyday life for granted.  We need to fall in love with life anew.  Only when fearing we might lose that life, do we become more mindful of our blessings. 

                                 How can we become more enchanted with life?

First, we need to think how a child reacts to a cute bunny, a dandelion to blow, or a rainbow after a rain. 

Even as adults we can be filled with wonder.  When we travel to a new place we find wonder in the landscape, architecture, art, and creativity of the people. 

So why don’t we feel such awe every day?  Do we see our lives as ordinary, dull and boring? 

As we become familiar with own space we turn off our curiosity and lose the ability to see things as unique. 

There’s nothing wrong with the mind’s powerful tendency to turn the miraculous into ordinary, unless you’d like to feel enchanted by life again!! 

Here are a few suggestions we might try to bring back the joy of renewal.

Try seeing things with a “beginners” mind……as if seeing things for the first time.  See people you know with fresh eyes and wonder.  Each person is unique. 

When walking around your house notice things that you already own. Let them bring back memories.   I still have a few wedding gifts.  Each one brings me back to our marriage and the person who gave me that gift.   They are a bit of magic in my life.

When you go outside, really see a tree.  See the spaces between the branches.
Find a shape in a cloud. See that cute squirrel doing his tricks.  And that bird.    He’s serenading you.

When you message someone or see some new wonder of AI just imagine how your grandparents would have been awestruck by such magic.

                            Practice becoming enchanted with the ordinary. 

Practice experiencing things as if for the first time.  Taste your food as if it were the first time you’d ever tasted anything so delicious.  Can you fall in love with life and recapture a sense of magic and wonder? Can you feel a sense of the enchanted all around you?

                                It’s  all there, waiting for you to see it.
                                            God’s gifts to you 

  Who cares about hair?  Well, perhaps you do.    All those ads about shampoos appeal to us.  We want thicker, fuller, beautiful locks.  Both women and men.  Did you know that God cares about your hair? 

I read a sign in front of one of our churches.  “God is watching you.”  That’s rather scary isn’t it.  Nothing we do is in secret.    Yes, I know He is all knowing, all seeing and all wise.  But does that include everything about me and you? 

 “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?  Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”  (Matt 10:29-31)  

It all seems rather humorous if you think about it.  Of course, Jesus was just telling us that God not only cares about sparrows falling but included us and our hair!

When the Lord spoke these words to those early Believers they brought comfort to them.  They believed He truly was the Messiah of Israel as well as the Savior of the world.  He was God’s anointed One.  He was the only one able to keep the commandments perfectly, since humankind is unable. 

Jesus wanted to reassure His followers, that God knew them personally, even to the hairs on their head.  Many of them would be sacrificed in the Roman arenas or crucified on crosses. Once they believed who Jesus was, they could no longer worship the Emperor or the Roman pantheon of gods.  That would have been so easy to do.  Just accept this Jesus as one of the gods and save your life! 

However, persecution only seemed to attract more disciples to this Jewish man who could heal the sick, cause the dumb to speak and open the eyes of the blind.

If knowing that God counts your hairs, does that bring comfort to you?  Do you really want Him seeing all you do, where you go and what you watch on TV. 

If God knows sparrows and hairs, He also knows your heart!

I enjoy reading the exploits of King David. He was chosen by God while still a shepherd to be future king of Israel.   He was the youngest of his clan.  He had limited leadership instruction, and yet God chose him for a special job.  Being a king demands obedience but with attributes of fairness, discernment, decisiveness, and loyalty of one’s subjects.  

David is securing his hold on the throne of Israel.  He appoints   men to carry out important jobs for him.  He looks for men of character who also demonstrated loyalty to him.  David’s kingship was always in jeopardy throughout his reign.  Even from his own sons! 

As King, David, gave assigned tasks to his most trusted men.  When reading
 1 Chronicles 27: 25-31, we read of David’s assignments.   The writer lists13 to 14 different men who are assigned various tasks.  I was amazed when reading the list.  Some are appointed to oversee royal store houses; some in charge of the field workers; some to watch over the king’s vineyard.  But reading further on, I find Shitrai who oversaw the herds grazing the fields; Obil, in charge of the camels; Jehdeiah in charge of the donkeys! 

                                                      Donkeys??

  Now why would a donkey watcher be listed in Scripture? Isn’t there really more important scriptural information that we need to know?  So, what do camel herders and donkey watchers have to do with us here and now anyway? 

Why is it important for us to know them?  In fact, I daresay, that most of us skip those verses entirely. But wait.  Here’s a message for us.  God has appointed each of us a task at any one particular time.  Whether we are washing dishes, cleaning our bathrooms, mopping the messy kitchen floor. 

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.”

Paul knew the stories of the overseers.  He knew about the storehouses, the vineyard keepers; he knew about the donkey keepers. 

No task is unworthy or too menial, if we do all for glory of God it will be pleasing to Him.  Just perhaps this is what Paul means when he mentions prayer without ceasing. Our prayers and our work, however menial, can all be done with a grateful heart. 

No job is unimportant!  No work is too small, no work is forgotten.  We are not preachers, or teachers or bible scholars.

                                     But camel herders and donkey watchers do count!

                                                Quenching Our Thirst

Jesus had many encounters with women.   He was a great liberator of women in a society which had given them a lesser role, many women became His devoted disciples.  Mary Magdalene, the sisters Mary and Martha, Joanna and other women whose names we will never know. 

Although the Lord came first to His own people He had several dealings with gentile women as well.  Perhaps one of the most interesting is His encounter with the “woman at the well.” We don’t know her name, but her story is one of the most famous in Scripture. 

She was Samaritan woman The Samaritans were disliked by the Jews, who thought they were inferior because of their mixed blood.  In fact, they were so disliked that the Jewish travelers were take a longer route north, rather than go through Samaria. 

Jesus and his band of disciples took the shorter route north and went through Samaria.  I’m sure this was intentional on the part of Jesus.  He had reasons for traveling through Samaria. 

It is high noon, and Jesus is sitting at a well, outside the city.  His disciples have gone into town to buy food for lunch. 

                                                Here she comes!

The Samaritan women is coming for water.  Jesus sits at the well.  He is dressed as Jewish man in His shawl with tassels. She says nothing to Him, but He initiates a conversation. 

She has chosen to come to the well in the heat of the day.  She isn’t with other women.  We might guess that she wasn’t liked or viewed as an outcast in her society. 

This Jewish man is waiting at the well.  He asks her for a drink. (John 4:7) She replies that it is strange for a Jewish man to be speaking with her.  He questioned her.  She answered.  He told her about her life. How did He know?  Was He a prophet? 

He told her about living water.  It is not to be found at this well.  What water is living?  How could water be living?  She wanted it. She would never be thirsty again. 
He presented to her who He was.  He was the only one who could give her the life changing “water of life.”  It was the message of salvation not only for Jews but for these Samaritans and anyone who comes to Him as Savior. 

With one simple message, Jesus presents the true gospel.  The gospel of good news of salvation.

Thus, this outcast woman could represent all of us.  We have gone our own way.  We “draw our water” from a “worldly “well.  We are living in a dry and arid land. 

                     What we need is the living water………of Jesus.

                                       He will quench our thirst.

Who is Chemosh and why should we care?

Chemosh is not your average household name.  In fact, you probably have never heard of him.  Why would you?  He is a rather obscure name in the Old Testament.  Why would we even bother knowing who he is?  Except perhaps he is someone we need to know.  Because this guy has influence today!

When God gave King Solomon, the special gift of wisdom, he used his gift wisely for many years.  Even the Queen of Sheba came hundreds of miles to pay her respects, to witness his wisdom and view his glorious kingdom.  She was awed by what she saw “Even the half as not been told me” she said (1Kings 10:7)
 Solomon was given wives to cement peace treaties; provide raw materials for his many building projects and to secure the borders of his kingdom.  These wives came from pagan backgrounds and brought their religious traditions with them. Three 700 hundred wives and 300 concubines all lived in his harem.  Can you imagine that many women living together? No wonder he only visited them occasionally!!

Solomon built a beautiful temple to His God.  The God of Israel. The one true God, that we worship today.  It was the most beautiful temple in the world.  It was finally destroyed by the Babylonians. But In order to keep peace among his many wives, Solomon also built a temple to Chemosh, god of the Moabites (1Kings 11:7)

            Did not God say, “Thou shall have no other God’s before me?”

Chemosh was a remote deity, who could be worshipped with no entanglements, no dos or don’ts, no threats of judgement.  But he was also a fearful god.  His worshippers offered him sacrifices but he gave nothing in return.   This so call god didn’t love or provide comfort for his people.  He was not a personal god.  He was a god in name only. 

Today this god might be called a humanist. He is meaningful to people who believe that man’s destiny is not involved with God of the Bible.   Man becomes the maker and breaker of his own life.  To the humanist mindset, man must provide spirituality for himself.  Man, himself is worshipped, in his own being and identity. Man glorifies only himself and does not reflect his Maker’s image.  He becomes his own Chemosh. 

Evolving from some lower life forms and pulling himself up through evolutionary life forms, our humanist Chemosh, demands only that man himself is deified.  He is the god of his own power.  The humanist refuses to accept that the laws of logic, uniformity and morality come from the foundation of knowledge given to man through only one holy God.   

As Solomon was influenced by the paganism of his day, let us not fall into the same trap. Man’s worldviews are faulty.  Truth does not come from within man himself. Truth is found only in the knowledge of the Creator. Truth came in the form of a man, not untouchable and never a fearful Chemosh.  He came to save all mankind from the sins of man’s own doing. We might even touch the hem of His garment!

               He has a name, Jeshua or Jesus, our Messiah and Savior.

I love getting a new pair of shoes. Have you noticed how many types of there are?
We use special shoes for running, just walking around and special ones for mountain climbing.
They have yet to make us shoes that help us walk on water.  There was only One that could do that.  Peter tried and failed except with the Lord’s help. 

The Prophet Isaiah (12:7) also talks about feet.  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation.” 

                We need special shoes for mountain climbing.

We all face mountains in our life.  Some of the trails will be easy but others will be difficult.  We need special equipment for the rocky paths. 

Paul wrote to Timothy about preparing for his climb, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed who handles rightly the word of truth.”
(2 Timothy 2:15)

So how did Timothy prepare for mountain climbing? How was he able to bring good news, to proclaim peace and good tidings of salvation? He had to study. 

 Timothy did not have a neat little Bible with headings, and numbers and verses.  He only had the Hebrew scriptures on scrolls. However, these told of the coming of the Messiah.  He used those vary verses that he read and applied them to Jesus.  Jesus proved himself as the Messiah of Israel.  He came as a baby foreordained to be God in the flesh. 

Many of the Lord’s teachings were given while on a mountain. He often went alone to a mountain to pray.  He told his disciples they could move mountains by their faith!

We are unable to “move” those mountains without the proper shoes……of faith, hope and love. We can climb the high mountains with Him and sit at His feet.  

Feet are not beautiful in themselves but when bringing the Good News of salvation to others we too have beautiful feet……… and special shoes for those mountains in our life. 

                        Go Mountain Climbing! 

                                                Time and Time Again.

When reading Genesis 1:5, the Creator of the universe is creating time.  “God called the light day, and darkness He called night.  So, the evening and morning were the first day.”

Time was created as a gift for man.  However, time was determined not by a clock but by the sun and moon, light and darkness.  The early Hebrews planned their lives around the seasons and the feasts that God prescribed for them.  (Lev. 23) These were not only celebrations but as remembrances of God’s saving grace.

 Spring meant planting and fall was the harvest. They only had heavens and stars to give time.  The cycle of the moon and planets gave them the months.  God gave them a lifestyle.  The Sabbath was devoted to worship and rest.  Even the oxen got a day off.

But you and I are regulated by clocks, giving us minutes and hours in a day.  We feel productive when we accomplish the tasks that we feel must be done.  We go to jobs, take kids to school, and the myriads of daily living assignments.  After all, we are time-oriented society.

There are hundreds of books on time management.  Seminars by professionals on how to make your work, job or life more productive.  Time is of the essence they say.

If time is a gift related to God and God is love, then time is indeed a gift.  God isn’t in a hurry.  However, we feel that life is short and there is so much to be done!  God is above our technology-oriented society.

The kingdom is the ultimate rule of God.  Jesus brought the kingdom in its inception, and it will be completed when He returns.  Meantime the kingdom of God is within us.  So, seeking God’s character and to know him implies setting apart specific times to worship, study and praise Him for who He is.

This all leads up to “Seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you.”  (Matthew 6:33)

                         Our time, like all of God’s gifts can be squandered. 

• Redemption has the literal sense of “buying back”.  Let us “buy back” the opportunities that God gives us, liberating time so that we can make good use of it, taking advantage of the occasions which are  given us  to minister to others. 
• Listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and see where He leads.  This is a gift promised to all Believers.

Time and time again…….how will you use it?  

Do you remember the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk?   A beanstalk grew overnight where his mother had thrown out some magic beans.  Jack climbs the Bean Stalk and sees a wicked Giant.    When the Giant tries following him down the beanstalk Jack cuts the stalk, and the Giant meets his demise!   

David in the Old Testament, was also a giant killer.  He confronted the giant of the Philistines.  This guy had a name.  Goliath.  The Hebrews were terrified of him.  Which man was willing to try and take on this giant?  David, as a young man, volunteered.  He confronted Goliath.  Not with his own strength but he had faith that God would protect him.

                            David succeeded in giving Goliath a permanent headache!

When the Hebrews had crossed the desert and were finally able to move back into their promised land, twelve spies were sent to scout out the territory.  Ten of the twelve spies came back with their report.  “There we saw giants!  We were like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight.”  (Numbers 13:33) These ten felt like grasshoppers, something to be crushed underfoot………. but two of the spies were positive that God would give them this land.  Hadn’t God proved himself already?

                                                   We too have our own giants!

Fears, frustrations, hopelessness that constantly confront us and our faith.  Obstacles that seem too big for us to handle. We even inject every day small problems with emotional steroids that make them into giants!! I know because I have these giants in my own life.

Overcoming our own giants requires that we continually stay in contact with our Giant Killer.  Our heavenly father gives us the strength to confront these giants just as he gave courage to David and those early warriors. 

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”   

We need God’s armor.  My own isn’t sufficient for defending myself.  Staying in contact with my “Commander in Chief” gives me the power I need to be my own giant killer.

                                                           Yes, you too can be a giant killer

Thanksgiving is almost here.  Most homes will have some type of delicious bread, muffins or rolls.  Don’t’ you love the smell of bread baking in the oven? 

 Bread is called the Staff of Life for good reason. Most societies have some sort of bread, perhaps small fry breads, tortillas, flat breads.  There are wheat breads, rye breads, oat breads and corn bread! Even a brand called Wonder Bread!   I love that name.

When I made my last trip to the store, I was amazed at the long aisle filled with bread or bread products.  There were at least forty types of bread and more if you count donuts. 

The first bread mentioned in Scripture was the unleavened bread used in the first Passover.  (Exodus 12.)  The people were told to make their bread in haste without leaven, because they had to leave quickly before the bread would rise.  

While on their journey to the Land of Promise, God provided a type of bread for the Hebrews.  It was sweet to the taste, and it supplied them with the nourishment they needed for the journey.   Manna from heaven! 

Bread was so meaningful that on the table in the tabernacle were twelve loaves of bread which represented the twelve tribes of Israel. When David and his men were on run from King Saul, he entered the tabernacle and took that bread to his band of men. (1 Samuel 21) God forgave him.  Hunger and survival were more important than those twelve special loaves of bread.

Our Lord Himself said. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48) or again, in His special prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) As in most Jewish writing, there are layers of meaning in the scriptures.  Bread can mean sustenance, assurance of life, and food for our souls. 

The book of Leviticus contains no fewer than fourteen references of bread.  The themes of bread in this context provides a means of developing and maintaining closeness to God; first by maintaining  purity, then by observing various  festivals and finally by rule of laws or commands. (Leviticus 21-24)

Bread can be associated with wealth or work ethic as found in Proverbs 12:11. “He who works his land will have enough bread.”

Leaven in bread is often associated with disobedience.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Just as today we hear the expression…….” Got any bread? Or…….” Can you lend me some dough? Bread plays into our everyday living!!

 We are supplied with physical bread for our bodies; spiritual bread for our souls; and we are to work for our daily bread.  God provides the increase.

                                                               Yes, Bread is Wonderful!

There is a beautiful hymn called “Under His wings, I am safely abiding.” The meaning of those words is precious to Believers.  We associate wings with safety, knowing that our Father loves us and takes us under His protection regardless of what we suffer in this world.

We think of wings in regard to birds, or chickens who provide protection for their offsprings.   Psalm 91:4. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge, His faithfulness will be your shield and defender.”

Yeshua (Jesus) uses the same type of analogy, when He looks over the city of Jerusalem and the coming destruction by the Romans in AD70.  Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you were not willing.” 

The idea of being covered with God’s wings means protection.  But to the Jewish men it has another meaning as well. 

They are often seen wearing the Tallit…. or long shawl covering their heads, with long fringes intwined with blue threads.  All of this is very symbolic. The binding of their arms and having a small scripture box on their foreheads remind them of God’s instructions found in Exodus 13: 9. “And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand/arm and as a memorial between your eyes.”

When the man wears his tallit he is under the “wings “of God.  The tallit when opened resembles “wings.”   Wrapping himself in his tallit, he symbolically places himself under God’s sheltering love. 

The Lord spoke of entering a prayer closet.  Another symbol of being wrapped in a tallit, a covering which provides a type of prayer closet.  Women do not wear the tallit but they too are covered with His protection as they are under His wings symbolically.    

Yeshua wore the tallit himself.  Remember the woman who touched the hem of His garment? The story is found in Mark 5:24, 25. “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched garment.”  This was probably his tallit, since it had long fringes. 

Even without being touched by the fringes of His garment, we too come under God’s protective love through our Messiah.  We are under His wings and with love and mercy He surrounds us.  “Have mercy on me, my God have mercy on me for in you I take refuge. I take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”  Psalm 57:1.
                                      
                                                Are you abiding under His wings?