FROM MY JOURNAL PART 3

Understanding is not always easy.  If the disciples were confused, as they spent days, weeks, and years with Jesus, it is easy to see why we are confused.  But we have the whole story.  We have the Bible.  Shouldn’t it just be clear?  Easy to understand?  Well, as clear as mud!

April 26, 2011

He is not here: he has risen!

Luke 24:6

What wonderful but frightening and confusing words:  Not here!  Where is he?  Where can I find him?  Who took him?  What do I do without him?  How can I anoint the body?

Fear:  Where is he?  What happens if we don’t find him?

Wonderful:  He has risen!

Confusion:  Huh?  What exactly does that mean?

Lord, help us deal with and understand this one sentence.  You are not in the tomb.  Just how do we keep track of you?  We put you right where we can find you – In the church, In our Bibles, In the small corner where we go to study or read.  We feel safe with you there.  Right where we put you.

So we always know where you are.  BUT YOU JUST REFUSE TO STAY PUT!  How do you expect us to know where you are if you won’t stay where we put you?  Do you expect to go to work with us?  Walk down the street with us?  Invite you to go along to the restaurant, the store?  The next thing we know – He is not here!

Lord you are not in the tomb and you refuse to stay in the tombs we put you in!  Lord help us roll away our stones.

He is risen!!  OH, MY OUR LORD JESUS, YOU ARE ALIVE – AMEN!!

PS But we still get confused.  Keep sending those light bulb moments.

July 5, 2011

Joshua 7:20, 25b,   John 8:7, 9,   Matthew 7:7,   Acts 14:27   Revelation 3:20

Scriptures on stones and doors

At the end of a Sunday School class, I made a statement:  Today we don’t throw stones, we just shut doors.

Dear Wonderful Lord, It is hard for us to understand much in the Old Testament.  One man sinned and the whole family stoned.  Why the whole family?  Why death?  Why did the whole community have to participate?  But we are New Testament people and see sin through the CROSS.  We like the time Jesus said to throw the stone if you are free of sin.  We know no stones will be thrown because we have ALL SINNED!!  We no longer throw stones or punish a whole family – or do we?  As the discussion progressed, we realized we don’t throw stones, we just shut doors.

That person

• has tattoos everywhere – shut the door quick
• they want praise hymns – shut the door fast
• she sinned – shut the door
• their father sinned so the family is not our kind – shut the door firmly
• look at their clothes – shut the door quickly

Forgive us Lord, this list could go on and on.  We feel smug because we don’t throw stones but we feel fine shutting the door.  Forgive us Lord!  Move through us.  Move through this church.  Be the force that gives us courage to open our doors.

Lord, when we see someone who

• sins – let us open the door of forgiveness

• dressing differently or covered with tattoos – let us open the door and invite them in
• is suffering because of the actions of another – let us open the door of understanding and compassion

Lord, since our hands do not hold stones, let our hands open doors.  When a seeker comes to our church, I pray we open the door BEFORE they even have a chance to knock.  AMEN and AMEN.

8-30-11

Matthew 18:21-22 and Luke 23:34

Scriptures on forgiveness

Sometimes prayers are peaceful.  Comforting.  Sometimes they are just pleas for understanding.  The call for UNITY has me confused.  (Disclaimer:  Being a neighbor to, working beside at a charity function, etc. with those of other faiths or those with no faith, I have no problem with.  It is the call to worship with and in unity with those of other faiths and claiming the god of other religions is equal to or the same God I worship is where I have a problem.  Unity, during this prayer, meant worshiping with or allowing access of our church to allow other faiths to worship in.)  This prayer is long.  I have taken it from my journal to show how we can be honest with God.  How I struggled with this in 2011 and, honestly, how I struggle with this today.

Dear God, today my heart is heavy with confusion and lack of understanding.  Please help me, others in this church and in the USA that are having the same problem.  This country is beginning to remember the 10 year anniversary of 9-11.

This country shed tears.  I cannot imagine how your heart must have felt.  Lord, I read about forgiveness and am told to be understanding, to be in unity with other faiths.  That is my problem.

We have studied the Old Testament and read time and again where your people turned away from you, suffered, called on you and you saved them.  Is that where we are?  The suffering part?  Lord, many people are calling out to you.  Many people want you back into the fiber of our country.  We are trying.  Are we just not enough?  Do more need to cry out?  How do we do this?  Is it because we are not Jewish?

Lord, I am confused.  I am scared and I am mad.  Some at you because you rescued people, but do not seem to be doing that for us.  You lifted up leaders.  Why aren’t you doing that now?  Have we – the USA and the church – moved so far away from you that you cannot hear us?  Lord, so many are reaching for you, but it seems like you have washed your hands of us.  I know you haven’t.  You created us and you love us.  Lord, we are crying out – rescue us.  Lord, rescue us.

Told you I was confused and scared and mad.  Lord, give me – us – understanding on the unity part.  I hear them but I do not understand.  I thought the Bible said to stay away from idols and false leaders, but we are to work with, in unity, a group that wants to kill us?  That has killed us!  How can the church preach “One Way, Through Jesus” and then say, be unified with those that believe differently.  Why are we sending people around the world to spread the Gospel – to be fishers of men – when the church turns around and says to work in unity?  Does that save them or condemn them?

Lord, I need help!  Give me some hope.  Give me some understanding.

I thought writing this might put my heart at ease but I am even more confused than ever.

Where do I find the true answer?  I can find scripture to support and condemn.  Show me the truth.

I could go to different people but, again, could find people with words to support or condemn every side of the issue.

My great God, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I am calling out for understanding.  I am calling out – calling out to you.  God, save your children.  Save your church.  AMEN

October 18, 2011

Scriptures on harvest:

Genesis 8:22 and Deuteronomy 16:15

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.”

Matthew 9:37

Harvest – When I hear that word I see fields waiting – wheat, beans, corn – waiting to give back what was planted and tended and given a chance to grow.  Thank you that there will always be a seed time and a harvest time. 

Lord, your farmers are in the fields.  Protect them.  Let their minds stay on task and be safe.  Prosper them.  Let their yields and prices be strong.  Give them strength.  Let their bodies be strong during this harvest so they can work the long hours and then allow their bodies and minds rest when the opportunity arrives.  Give them perseverance.  Farmers are true stewards of your earth!  Let them have the vision and wisdom to move from planting to tending to waiting to harvest to waiting to planting.  Yes, they need perseverance.

Thank you for all involved in agriculture!  Send a special blessing that they will know their efforts, their work, their calling is directed by you.

But our church is to have a different type of harvest.  We are to harvest souls!

Lord, instill in this congregation the desire to be farmers for God.  Let us each plant the seed of your Word.  Let us each tend and nourish all believers.  Let us have patience as we wait for the spiritual growing that only your Holy Spirit can give.  Let us all be prepared for the harvest as believers unite in worship.

Lord, instill in this congregation the desire to be farms for God, so that when the final harvest begins, not on “kernel” will be lost in the field.  AMEN and AMEN

From my Journal Part 4 will be next week.  What will I find as I look at the final journal?  You will have to check in and see.

Have a week where you find peace, joy and something to giggle about.

PS:  I did not realize how long this had gotten until I ran it off.  Hope your eyes are not tired.