Root Of Bitterness

 

Reading the Bible can be a “dangerous thing”.  What I mean is… I should be in bed.  I am exhausted, but while I was winding down with an evening coffee, I decided to read the Torah Portions for the week.  Well, let’s just say it’s two or three hours later and I just had to share with you what I learned / found!  It’s very cool.  I hope you think so too.

 

This week’s reading included Genesis 25:19-28:9, Malachi 1:1-2:7, Romans 9:6-16 and Hebrews 11:20, 12:14-17.  It was when I got to Hebrews that I was really struck.  Hebrews 12:15 warns against a “root of bitterness”.  Do you know what that refers to?  In my ESV there is a little number that led me a a verse / passage back in the Old Testament – Deuteronomy 29:18.

From the ESV:  ¹⁸Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. ²⁰The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

I’ve also been reading from the Complete Jewish Bible, which is a paraphrase of sorts.  Here’s what the CJB says, in the same passage:

18 So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from ADONAI our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. 19 If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, 'I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although "dry," [sinful,] will be added to the "watered" [righteous].' 20 But ADONAI will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of ADONAI will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. ADONAI will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 ADONAI will single him out from all the tribes of Isra'el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah.

The particular part that struck me was… “I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing”.  We have become a society who does what we want and have an attitude of “what’s right for you is right for you and what’s right for me is right for me”.  That’s WRONG!  The Bible INCLUDING the Old Testament tells us HOW to live, HOW to worship, HOW to be the people of God.

Before when I read Hebrews 12:15, I just figured I needed to steer away from bitterness.  But the ROOT of bitterness is so much more than that… it’s an attitude of doing what we want.  It’s an attitude of entitlement.  The root of bitterness referred to in Hebrews is a poison, and brings death.

 

Anyway, that’s my thoughts.

 

Still diggin',

Thinking On Scripture… Deuteronomy 12

Deuteronomy 12 (ESV)

Verses 1-4

These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers has given you to posses, all the days that you live on the earth.  You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.  You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire.  You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.  You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

Verse 8-9

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

Verses 29-32

When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘how did these nations serve their gods? – that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.  Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.  You shall not add to it or take away from it.

My Thoughts

Verses 1-4 … You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way … Sounds like God has a very specific way he wants us to worship him.

Verses 8 and 9 … everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes … sounds a lot like society today.  “What works for you, works for you.  What works for me, works for me.”

Verses 29-32 … do not inquire about their gods … You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way …  Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do … You shall not add to it or take away from it.

I know I’m going to hear a couple of arguments:

1. But that’s the OLD TESTAMENT.  My simple response to you is: IS it the BIBLE or is it not?  IS the BIBLE true, God’s Word, or just a story book?
2. God was only speaking to them, in their culture; it doesn’t apply to me.  So who is God talking to?  His people?  I think so.  If I consider myself one of God’s chosen people, His daughter, one of His bride, wouldn’t those verses apply to me as well?

We are not careful to do ALL that the LORD has commanded us to do.  We are sloppy messy Christians doing whatever we please.  I am guilty.  I do not worship my God in the way He has commanded that we worship him.

We are the CREATED.  He is the CREATOR.  Does that not give him the right to make the rules?  To tell us how he wants to be honored?  WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE??? You really think we have the right to tell God how we are going to worship him?  No, we don’t.  We are called to OBEDIENCE!  What an arrogant people we have become!?!? I am sickened… I am in agony… My heart HURTS that I have hurt my God, my Savior!

So where do I go from here?  How do I change?  What changes need to be made?

These will not be fast changes.  The things that will change will come, only with baby steps.  The changes to come, in my life, and in the life of my family will come as we learn more, as we dig into God’s Word, as we allow Him to direct our paths, on this new and different, deeper level.

 

If you LOVE me, you will OBEY my commandments … Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.  (John 14:15, 21-24, ESV)

 

The words of Jesus, are the words of God.  The words of God are the whole Bible.  To show my love for my God, I need to obey … like a child.  A child is eager to please, eager to obey, to show their love… Is my relationship such as that – Am I eager to please, to obey my Heavenly Father?

 

These thoughts were sparked in part by: Truth or Tradition- Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter? a podcast by Jim Staley.

 

Continuing to dig, learn and grow.  I hope you will join me.

 

Still diggin',

More On Prayer, From “In Constant Prayer”

 

The paradox of worship is this: we perform these acts of worship, but they are not actually for us.  We do these things for God and then we are the ones who are changed.

We offer our songs of praise, and we are the ones who are moved to joy.  We offer our thanksgivings, and we are the ones who are blessed by them.  We over the ancient prayers of the psalms, and we are the ones who begin to hear “the prayer of God that rises in our hears,” as my friend Father Edward Farrell says.  We offer the gifts of bread and wine in the Eucharist, and we are the ones who are fed and strengthened. {page 48}

In today’s ME society, I don’t think we really get this; so many people, me included, just don’t do things for the sake of doing them anymore.  If I don’t get anything immediate out of it, why would I continue doing it?  Why would I fake it until I make it?  Why would I get out of my comfort zone and just try it?  We want perfect praise and worship in our churches, but the praise and worship isn’t about us, at least it’s not supposed to be.  Our offerings of praise are for our Lord and our God.  If we don’t, the Bible says that all creation will!

I have misunderstood prayer all my life, I think.  It’s not that my teachers and parents didn’t try and didn’t do a good job of explaining it.  They used acronyms such as ACTS – adoration, confession, thankfulness, supplication.  Or something like that.  But it didn’t stick.  What was the purpose?!?!  God KNOWS all that!  God is God; why does He need our prayers?  And yes, I even learned that prayer was for me.  I heard that prayer was a conversation with God, to build our relationship.  I get that.  I can pray like that.  I guess.

This liturgy of prayer – this praying at specific times each day – why would we?  Right?  The author provides a number of comparisons, but this one came to mind for me.  Praying the hours is inconvenient (much like taking a weekly Sabbath is inconvenient); in today’s busy-ness getting together with a specific friend, or having a weekly date night with my husband may be inconvenient, but it’s so necessary.  Lately these scheduled times of talking with Jason have been missing (until the last few days) but Jason has been making an effort to call me away from whatever I’m doing to just sit and talk to him.  Now, it’s not at set times of day, but the principle is the same – we are MAKING time in our busy family life to just be together and talk.  I think that’s the least we can do for our God – be specific and purposeful in our meetings with Him.

My prayer life has been so hit and miss.  I say I’ll pray for people, and I do.  I’ll ask for this and ask for that.  Very often my prayers are in exasperation – “LORD, help me not throttle this child!” or “God, you gotta deal with Jason, cuz I sure can’t right now!”  I don’t want my prayer life to be only supplication.  I want the other aspects in there too.

The author goes on to say in another chapter that we plan everything in our lives (to some degree) but we don’t plan our prayer life.  If you want something to happen, you plan it.  Vacation. To do lists abound! Housekeeping even.  Is prayer on your to do list?  It hasn’t really been on mine.  So if we are so methodical and so organized with all other aspects of our lives, why not set aside specific times of prayer?

Other reviews of this book have been critical of the content, because no specific scriptures are given in support of this but there are a number of passages that come to mind.  Daniel and his friends continued their prayers even in Babylon, did they not?  The author of “In Constant Prayer” also mentions that Jesus and his disciples were often praying a specific times.

I love this, from pages 54 and 55:

Sometimes it seems we have convinced ourselves that even though we are expecting God to work in mysterious ways on our behalf, our call to offer praise and worship to the One who made us is the sort of thing that can be taken care of once a week in an hour or so between the Sunday school hour and the Sunday buffet.

The call that comes to us from the tradition of the daily office, the call that comes to us from the untold millions of the faithful who went before us, suggests something else altogether.  It suggests that we are to worship God as much as we are to petition God.

I believe that God does call us to be intentional in our daily lives and not just fly by the seat of your pants.  I have been learning that over and over for a number of years.  I don’t know why our prayer life would be any different.

Still diggin',

In Constant Prayer

 

I am loving this book.  It is not quite what I was expecting.  But I am excited about it.  I know I have spoken with a friend or two about my frustrations with prayer and that’s why I chose this book to review (the formal review will be on Just Our Thoughts).  I wanted some more insight.  This book is part of a series called The Ancient Practices; Sabbath, the last book I talked about here, was also from that series.  I loved that book and learned a lot; I am applying much of it from my life, slowly.  I want to develop habits and make the practice meaningful in my life, so I must move slowly.  I feel the same process will need to be taken with this book as well.  Slow and steady!

 

This way of prayer – the prayer that has sustained the life of the faithful for centuries – has a way of sneaking up on you and not letting go. Which is what often happens when we come in contact with God. Communion with God is several things – predictable is not one of them. {page 11}

 

I found the above passage to be true in my studying of the weekly sabbath!  Here’s another passage that hit me.  I am learning, and I guess I always knew it, that we, as modern Christians, don’t pray enough, or correctly.  Now, I get that there is really no correct or wrong way.  But there is a better way, maybe.  A way that will get us closer to and in a better relationship with our Lord and Savior.  I want to find and learn and do that better way.  Here’s the passage from page 25:

 

In a very different context, the singer Michelle Shocked once said, ‘Politics and are are too important to be left to the professionals." This is not a jab at professionals; it is a call to amateurs.

The daily prayer of God’s people – the divine office, the liturgy of the hours, the work of God, morning and evening prayer, whatever name you want to use for it – is too important to be left to the professionals anyway. {page 25}

 

The topic of this book is the liturgy of prayer, the practice taken from Psalm 119 to prayer seven times a day.  The ancients set up seven specific times of day, or hours.  The traditional hours are: daybreak, before the workday begins, noon, midafternoon, sundown, before bed and midnight.  These are not commands by God, to pray at these times, but what a great idea.  The author of In Constant Prayer goes on to say on page 30 that “there is plenty of freedom to choose a regimen that allows for the shape and pace and structure of our individual daily lives.”

 

Lastly, I love how friendly this author is.  The following quote made me chuckle, but it’s so true!  We serve a GREAT and MIGHTY and GRACIOUS God!

 

The One who has drawn you to begin will guide you as you go along.

“If you ask for bread, will you get a stone?  How much more then can you trust your heavenly Father?” Those words from the Son of God suggest to me that God’s answer to the petition “o Lord, open our lips” is not likely to be, “I am sorry; you picked the wrong prayer book, and you are saying them seventeen minutes too late each day.”

Pick a set of prayers and begin.  IF we can be trusted to work our our own salvation with fear and trembling, as Saint Paul once wrote that we must, we can probably be trusted to pick out a prayer book. {page 41-42}

 

Still diggin',

A New Book and Topic

I know it’s been a while since I posted here.  I finished a couple of books on the topic of Sabbath.  Now I’m continuing in the Ancient Practices series with a book on Prayer.  I look forward to sharing with my readers what I am learning.  I’m just 10 or so pages in and I am enjoying the book and the topic already.

In Constant Prayer (The Ancient Practices)

Still diggin',

The Coming Celebration–Passover and Unleavened Bread

 

The more I study and read and learn the more I see how God’s plan for his people works for me in my life and in today’s society!  I’m just going to share some thoughts and tidbits of information.

 

Passover requires a ridding of leavening from our homes.  Crumbs hide everywhere!  God commands a spring cleaning.  So neat!

 

Earlier I shared a passage from Exodus that gives the command and instructions regarding Passover.  I didn’t realize it was a seven day celebration “wrapped” in two Sabbath days.  I didn’t realize it was for all generations, forever.  (gonna do some more digging on that – the forever part – is the same word in the original languages as when Jesus talks about never changing, etc)

 

Leading up to the Passover were the nine other plagues of Egypt.  Passover is a time of remembering the Israelites being set free; this is a freedom celebration.

 

I have not rid my home of leavening; I will not be able to do so before Passover starts unfortunately; I need to set myself a reminder for next year because it will take quite some time for me to accomplish this.  For this year, I am taking a baby step.  I am learning about Passover and what it means and the traditions around it.  I plan to teach my children about what Passover is all about.  I plan to connect Jesus as our Passover Lamb and why Easter is celebrated during Passover.  I want to move to celebrating Passover and not Easter.  Passover is the celebration of freedom, not just for the Israelites but for us as well; freedom from our sinful nature through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

 

Traditionally, the first day of Passover would be the feast day.  I have not yet decided when we will have our Easter / Passover dinner.  Jason may be away that weekend, so having our special dinner on the night of the 19th might not a bad idea.  It works.

 

Lent is done when Easter begins.  Lent is a time of fasting or abstinence or giving something up, in preparation of the celebrating of Jesus’ resurrection.  Lent is instituted by man.  Passover is instituted by God.  Jesus’ death and resurrection happen during Passover that year.

 

Still diggin',

Thinking On Scripture

In regards to Passover:

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
(Exodus 12:14-20 ESV)

FOREVER. Hmm.  (emphasis mine, above)

 

Still diggin',

Is she reading my mind? Is she living my life?

“Funny, this.  Yesterday morning, the morning before, all these mornings, I wake to the discontent of life in my skin.  I wake to self-hatred.  To the wrestle to get it all done, the relentless anxiety that I am failing.  Always, the failing.  I yell at children, fester with bitterness, forget doctors appointments, lose library books, live selfishly, skip prayer, complain, go to bed too late, neglect cleaning the toilets.  I live tired.  Afraid.  Anxious.  Weary.  Years, I felt it in the veins, the pulsing of ruptured hopes.  Would I ever be enough, find enough, do enough? But this morning, I wake wildly wanting to live.  Physically feeling it in the veins trembling, the hard pant of the lungs, the seeing it in the steady stars, how much I really want to really live.  How I don’t want to die.” 

~~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, chapter 2.

Still diggin',

Here I Am To Worship

We had not been able to attend a church service for a number of weeks; I think that in the last three months, we missed more than we actually went!  This week was the first that I felt connected and was able to worship.  Here’s one of the songs we sang today:

It is so simple, and yet has such a powerful message.

 

Still diggin',

Finding Sabbath in the Chaos

I haven’t quite figured out how to manage my brood smoothly yet.  With the addition of Matthias in August of this year, he threw a monkey wrench into my system.  Well, actually for about 6 weeks before his birth, he started affecting my routine and system.  And I don’t hold that against him at all.  He is a very welcome blessing that we love dearly.  But he does add a new element to creating a smooth running household and finding Sabbath in our home.

 

Tonight Sabbath seemed really rough, and it’s still not over at the time of this writing as I find myself interrupted again to go and tend to a beautiful blessing.

 

I’ve had to get creative with my Sabbath time.  I’ve taken the little moments today – the moments when sitting and nursing the baby are used to bless each child around me, the moments in the kitchen alone were taken to just be silent while the world above me carried on at a seemingly frenzied pace.

 

In today’s society, we don’t truly take time for Sabbath.  My house is no different at this point.  I am alone in my quest for rest, or so it seems at times.  I take what I can get and I create what I am able.  I pray for God to guide me to the next step.

 

I’m finding it hard to give up my “crutches”.  We live in such an entertainment based world.  The TV is always on.  The computer.  The cell phone.  The radio.  Even games and books.  There never seems to be a time when there is silence around me.  Today the computer has been on, but I really haven’t been active on this machine much today.  My brother was, and I am writing this post.  I wanted to get the thoughts “on paper” before I lost them.

 

I can’t rush into them but some other ideas I have for our Sabbath time include: reading aloud to each other, playing a board or card game together, making our supper meal together if needed, having friends over in the afternoon.  But the chaos needs to settle.  We need to find our Sabbath rhythm.

 

Still diggin',

MYM Challenge - Conclusion

So, I have spent the last month or so trying to maximize my mornings.  I love mornings and I need to make them count.  I need to spend time in the Word.  I’ve tried to get up before my family but I am finding that is not working for me.

This month has not been a waste.  Even though I’ve decided I’m not going to push myself to get up before my family, I have decided that if I do happen to be up, I am going to use that time to dig and to read and to study.  I am not going to waste that time online.  This last month I have read more scripture than I had in the previous 2 or 3 months combined.

I have found and developed a plan that works for my family for this time in our lives.  I will get up when I get up.  I will spend some time in the Word.  We will eat breakfast and clean up.  Then we will go for a walk to get the mail.  When we get back from that we will start some school work.  Then lunch.  Then clean up.  And naps.  And tidy up.  And supper and baths and bed.

I will continue to get more out of my mornings as my family changes and grows.  I will not give up on getting into the Word and exercising.  I will start getting up before my family in the near future.  I am making the effort.  And effort will bring changes.

Here are some tips from the ebook for a more successful start to your day:

1. Start simple. My “start simple” is to do just what I’m currently doing – doing what works for my family at this point in time.
2. No excuses.  My level of “no excuses” right now includes getting up, grabbing some water and reading my Bible/devotional book.  That is what I want my morning to start with each day.  If I have more time, I want to include some further reading and deeper studying.
3. Prepare.  To prepare, each night I need to lay out my clothing (happens most evenings) and my books.
4. Get uncomfortable.  I get out of bed and that is as uncomfortable as it gets.  I can’t stay in bed or curl up on the couch.  I read at my desk or at the dining room table.  If I do these things anywhere else my two year old wakes.  If the children are already awake, I don’t fall back to sleep anyway.
5. Plan.  I like to plan.  It is the follow through that I struggle with each day.

So even though I don’t have a set time that I will be getting up, I do have a plan and I am getting as much out of my wake up time as possible.

 

Still diggin',

Finding Rest – learning about Sabbath.

So in continuing my study on the Sabbath I am joining up with a book club called Bloom Book Club.  We are reading a book called Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives  by Wayne Muller.  The first section is about finding rest through Sabbath.

 

If we do not rest, we run out of steam.  In our busy world, we equate rest with failure.  We do not give ourselves permission to rest, but God commanded it.  We have guilt and shame when resting but we need to let that go.  Through the fourth commandment, God gives us permission; we were commanded to stop.  If we don’t, we get sick, or have an accident.  In our busy world, God allows things to happen that force us into Sabbath and changes our world.  I want to come to a practice of Sabbath before something “bad” or serious happens to me or to my family that forces a Sabbath upon us.

 

Find joy in resting.  There are many places in the Bible that tells us about Jesus resting.  Matthew 14:23, Luke 5:15-16 and Mark 1:32-33, 35-36 are just a few of the verses mentioned specifically in Sabbath.  I love the following quote from page 25:

Jesus did not wait until everyone had been properly cared for, until all who sought him were healed.  He did not ask for permission to go, nor did he leave anyone behind “on call”, or even let his disciples know where he was going.  Jesus obeyed a deeper rhythm.  When the moment for rest had com, the time for healing was over.  He would simply stop, retire to a quiet place, and pray.

 

I can see how easy it is going to be to become legalistic about the Sabbath in our lives.  There is such a fine balance between legalism and nonchalant.  I don’t want my Sabbath time to be dreary and no fun.  I want it to be a time of refreshing and joy and I don’t think that can happen if too many rules are imposed on that time.

¹³ “ If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
      From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
      And call the Sabbath a delight,
      The holy day of the LORD honorable,
      And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
      Nor finding your own pleasure,
      Nor speaking your own words,
       ¹⁴ Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD;
      And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
      And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
      The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14, New King James Version)

 

Oh, I loved this too:  “Until the Sabbath, creation was unfinished.” (page 37)  The Sabbath becomes the end and the beginning of our week, for instance.  It’s a new beginning.  A time of rest, just like sleep, then when we wake, we are beginning a new day.  The Sabbath is the same.

 

It is good.  “Our willingness to rest depends on what we believe we will find there.” (page 40)  Do we believe that resting is good?  God sat back and looked at His work and said it was good.  I’m guessing, that if He blessed the Sabbath that it is considered good too.  Right?  So, why do we resist it so much?  Or do we really?  I think there is something in all of us that begs to rest.  I want to embrace that blessing – the blessing of the Sabbath.

 

Some Sabbath practice suggestions:

• light candles – these can signify the beginning of the Sabbath day / time.
• create specific time and space – “choose at least one heavily used appliance or device . . . and let them rest for a Sabbath period.”(page 27)
• a Sabbath meal – My friends start and end their Sabbath day with a special meal!  I love to hear her talk about it.  She said that even her children miss their Sabbath meals if they happen to be away from home at the time.  And in speaking with their oldest son (11) he confirmed this.  I want that joy I see in them.  She said that at first it was really tough to be ready and to have everything done, but now it is such a routine that they really look forward to each Friday evening.  If you could read her Facebook statuses, you would see and hear that as well!
• begin again – “Choose one common act during your day to serve as a Sabbath pause.” (page 39)  I think this one is rather strange, but I have started to take times to just pause and I am finding that it serves as a “soft reset” to my day.  Even just the act of taking a deep breath can refocus a person.
• blessings – My friend, who I mentioned earlier, has also mentioned that they have a time of blessing at their Friday evening meal.  The author mentions something called “guerrilla blessing” which is silently blessing those around us – in the bank or grocery store, or in traffic around us.

 

I have a little more reading to do on the section of REST, and the next section is RHYTHM.

Still diggin',

MYM Challenge – Week 3

Well, I’m just getting to posting about week three and it’s almost over.  I’m running a little behind as week two was hard on me.  You can read about week three on Inspired To Action.

Week 2 Recap:

As Michelle says in her post week 2 is often tough because the novelty wears off.  I can’t believe how tired I was.  There were a couple mornings I didn’t even try to get up at 7AM, my chosen wake up time.  I’ve also been struggling with kids suddenly waking earlier than they used to.  We are certainly working out the kinks.  All that being said, there was no way I could move on to the “homework” for week three.  But I’m there now.

My morning worship time comes in two parts.  First thing I get dressed.  Then I sit and read a chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month – Chapter 22 on the 22nd.  (My Sabbath study has moved to other times in the day.)  Then when the house is starting to wake up, or when I want the house to start waking up, I turn on my music and we listen to that while eating breakfast and getting our morning work done.  This part didn’t go so well because I wasn’t getting up before the family.  We’re getting there, though.

Week 3 – Creating an exercise plan.

In talking with my friend, Christi I realized that starting with Billy Blanks’, Tae Bo might be a little ambitious.  She encouraged me to just start with going for a walk and trying to get it done in the morning.  Well, I kinda shot the idea down right away.  There is no way I’d get a walk in the morning without the kids.  Plus, it’s getting cold here.  I don’t wanna walk outside.

1. The workout.  Well, then I got thinking.  We can dress warm.  We can still go outside.  And, hey, I never get to the post office.  And I have trouble getting the kids focused on school in the morning.  Maybe this can work!  So I’ve decided to get us up and going by 8AM.  Breakfast done by 9AM and us out the door for a morning constitutional.  When we get back, it’s school time.  I love it!  I can see it working for me.  We’ll go to the post office and drop off any letters we’ve written and pick up what’s there.  In addition to walking with the kids, we have two exercise machines that I will be using while I watch TV or at other times throughout the day.

2. Make it fun.  Now, while walking outside in the cold weather with my 6 kids may not be fun, getting the mail and delivering our letters there is fun.  I can’t really listen to anything has I need to be able to hear and focus on my kids’ safety.  But I LOVE walking.  I have missed it so much during my last pregnancy and recovery.  I was just too tired to expend energy on anything other than my family and home.

3. The habit workout. My habit workout will be to jump on one of the machines that reside in our living spaces.  :)

4. Do something.  Well, I am going to make this work.  Even if we only walk to the end of the street and back because the kids are being miserable or the weather is not cooperating.

5. Set a goal.  Faster, no.  Farther, no.  Loose pounds and inches, YES!  Just to get out there, YES.  I just need to get active again.  And so that’s my main goal.  To loose pounds and inches and to just do something.

6. Workout music.  Well, I won’t be able to listen to these while walking, usually.  But sometimes we need to get pumped up to get some cleaning done, or to just dance around in the living room.  I’m gonna make a playlist on YouTube for that purpose.  There will be some Go Fish Guys songs in there.  We love them guys!  lol.  What music do you listen to while you exercise?

In the ebook, Kat gives some online exercise trackers and such things.  I’ll be checking them out in the next couple of days too.  However, week 4 is looming.  I think I may push week four back a little too in an attempt to not take on too much at once.

 

Still diggin',

A different take on the Ten Commandments

Why did God give us the ten commandments?  Was it a list of dos and don'ts? Or was it something deeper?  Something different?  Something more wonderful?  Take this view from The Shack and see how it sits with you.  It certainly gave me something to think about.

“Then why did you give us those commandments?” asked Mack. “Actually, we wanted you to give up trying to be righteous on your own.  It was a mirror to reveal just how filthy your face gets when  you live independently.”  “But as I’m sure you know, there are many,” responded Mack, “who think they are made righteous by following the rules.”  “But can you clean your face with the same mirror that shows you how dirty you are?  There is no mercy or grace in rules, not even for one mistake.  That’s why Jesus fulfilled all of it for you – so that it no longer has jurisdiction over you.  And the Law that once contained impossible demands - ‘Thou shall not . . . “ – actually becomes a promise we fulfill in you.”

So what I gather the author is trying to get across (from reading more than just that passage on page 204) is that when we live in a relationship with God, Jesus actions on the cross fulfills the Law.  Very simply put, when I’m in a right relationship with God, He sees what Christ did.  Let’s think about each commandment in relation to this.

 

1. No other gods before me. 

2. No graven images / idols. 

3. Using His name disrespectfully.

4. Keeping the Sabbath holy.

5. Honor your father and mother

6. No murder.

7. No adultery.

8. No stealing.

9. No lying.

10. No coveting.

 

These things, these 10 things, would naturally be (or not be, as the case may be) in any true relationship.  In my relationship with Jason, I would fulfill or desire to fulfill many of these items.  Why wouldn’t the desire be stronger in my relationship with God?

Really.  I love it.  God. is. all. about. relationship.

 

Still diggin',