Fellow Workers

1 Corinthians 3:9

We are God's fellow workers...

Good morning Zebras,

After ten years of reading Oswald Chambers' devotional My Utmost for His Highest almost every morning I am encouraged that God has finally started showing me some of the same things He showed Oswald almost 100 years ago.

Today's entry starts:

Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him.  A great number of Christian workers worship their work.  The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God.

We are busy, busy people, we do a lot of things FOR God, but we need to be doing things WITH God and to do that you have to slow down enough to spend some time with Him.

He is the power; He is the one who enables us to reach the lost and encourage the faithful.  It is not our great plans and abilities that will change the world; it is God's great power and love.

Don't worship your ministry, worship the God who gave it to you and order your life accordingly.  Because the goal isn't activity it is transformed lives and that only happens when God is involved.

John 15:5

I am the vine, you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

Love,

Jill

Love

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Good morning Zebras,

Today’s attribute is “Love” and this is my second attempt at writing this z-mail.  The first ended in failure for two reasons.  First, I was trying to combine two attributes into one z-mail.  I just figured I could do today’s and tomorrow’s and be done with it.  But just like Moses learned in the desert when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it: God’s work must be done God’s way if you want His blessing.

And secondly, I tried to write the z-mail without looking up the backup verse.  I figured I knew enough about God’s love that I could just “wing-it.”

Can you say “Pride goeth before a fall?”  So in defeat I went to take a shower and regroup.

When I came back down I decided to look up the verse used to prove God’s love for us.  I really expected it to be John 3:16 and so I was surprised to see it was Romans: 8:35-39.

And then I had something to say.

When I was a group leader in Bible Study Fellowship, we studied the book of Romans.  I remember vividly when we got to this verse.  Person after person shared about how they knew that nothing could separate them from the Love of God.  No trauma, no heartbreak, nothing.  But I couldn’t agree because I didn’t feel that way.

I knew there were things that could separate me from the love of God, because it had already happened.  When I was a relatively new Christian something happened in my life that separated me from God’s love. And although I’d found my way back I couldn’t confidently say that it wouldn’t happen again.

But I was so challenged by the other women and the truth of God’s Word that I couldn’t let it go, so I asked God to explain it to me.  How could I have been separated from His love when Romans 8:35-37 says that is impossible?  And here is what He showed me.

Just because you feel a certain way it doesn’t make it true.

In my hurt and anger I turned away from God and as I turned away I lost the “feeling” of God’s love.  That does not mean I lost His love, because if I had it would mean that God’s love was dependent upon me.  But it is not--it’s dependent upon Him.   

Sometimes we think we can mess up so badly that God no longer loves us, or we judge God’s love by the amount of blessings He’s throwing our way. But neither one is true.  God loves us because He chose to and sending His Son was proof enough.

Love,

Jill

Raisins and Flakes

Matthew 17:5–8 (ESV)

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Good morning Zebras,

I was going to name this z-mail “Balancing God” but I didn’t want to give the impression that God is something that needs to be balanced in your life.  The Bible is pretty clear on that point.  God is to come first and then everything else “balances” under Him.  It is arrogant to think that the God who created the universe should be allotted a time slot like a TV program.

So instead God told me to name it “Raisins and Flakes”, because He used my cereal to teach me a lesson.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bowl of Raisin Bran that had too many raisins in it.  What was intended to spice up the boring flakes had, in my humble opinion, overtaken the bowl.  So the next day after I poured my cereal, I picked out a lot of the raisins and threw them away.

And I started ranting. Not about the raisins, but about the lack of solid Biblical teaching on the nature of God, especially His holiness.

Thursday I opened a new bag of cereal and this time when I poured it into my bowl I saw there were too few raisins.  It was basically a bowl of flakes.  And although I prefer a bowl of flakes to a bowl of raisins, neither one is Raisin Bran. Good Raisin Bran is the perfect balance between raisins and flakes.

And that’s when God taught me a couple of lessons.

First, strong Biblical teaching is a necessity, but a few fun stories lighten the mood and make it easier to digest.  And second, as difficult as it may seem, we need to strive to understand the “balance of God.”

God is holy, but He is also love.  He has grace but He is also the righteous judge.  He forgives sins, but punishes those who reject Him.  And the list goes on. 

It’s so easy to get out of balance with God, to focus on one attribute more than the others, but when we do that we end up getting ourselves confused and misunderstand God.  For me, too much holiness and I am like the Israelites hiding in fear of the Lord totally crushed because I can never live up to the “law.”  Too much grace and I can get lazy about my walk forgetting what it cost God to extend it to me.

Finding just the right balance of holy fear and overwhelming love is not easy but I believe it is what allows us to victorious walk out our faith.  (1Peter 1:13-21)

Love,

Jill

For Our Good...

Good morning Zebras,

In preparation of the upcoming Zebra events we purchased a bunch of little zebra zipper pulls to take with us and distribute to the ladies who attend so that they will have a constant reminder that they’re not alone, that there are other women out there who are CRAZY about the Lord. And also to remind them of the weekend they spent at Jesus’ feet and what God said to them while they were there. 

Well, last night we had a rain storm, the window near the boxes of zebras leaked and the boxes got wet.  Since a bunch of moldy zebras, don’t say “I love you and you’re not alone!” in quite the same way, I dumped all the zebras out of the boxes and onto the floor. 

This morning I had the task of repacking them.

And as I sat on my knees, touching each little zebra I thought this is an excellent opportunity to pray for each and every one of these zebras personally and for the women it will eventually go to.

I love how God can take something that should’ve been an irritation and turn it into a blessing if we will only let Him.

Love,

Jill

Generous

2 Corinthians 8:7–9 (ESV)

But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.  I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Good morning Zebras,

Today’s attribute is “generous”

When I pulled out the ornament and saw what the attribute was I started trying to guess what the back-up verse might be. 

Would it be James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him.” 

Or maybe James 1:18: “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.”

Or could it be Luke 11:11–13 (ESV): “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

I mean there are so many wonderful verses to choose from. Great verses that show us how generous God is by all the wonderful things He gives us.  So I was a little surprised when I looked up the verse on the back of the ornament, until I started thinking about it.

Just like the people who followed Jesus for the food, I was expecting a verse that proved that God was generous to His people by giving them everything they needed here on Earth.  But that isn’t what proves God is generous, if it was then God would only be generous to some people.

There are people, who love the Lord who don’t have enough to eat and there are people who care nothing about the things of God and have an abundance of material wealth.  Obviously worldly possessions do not prove the generosity of God.

So what does?

Jesus.

Whose death and resurrection allowed us to be reconciled to God, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and given eternal life.

Love,
Jill

Full of Truth

John 14:6 (ESV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Good afternoon Zebras,

Yesterday when I put a bowl of jelly beans under the “Christmas tree,” my husband finally asked when I was planning on taking it down.  Now some of you may remember that I put the tree up the first of December and each day during advent I was supposed to pull out an ornament which had an attitude of God written on it and hang it on the tree.  But of course, I didn’t want to stop there.  I wanted to share with all of you everything I was learning so God’s attributes became of the focus of the December z-mails.

But December is long gone and I still have four ornaments to go and out of respect to my husband who for some crazy reason does not want a Christmas tree in the house year round, I am going to try and finish this up over the next two weeks.

So, today’s attribute is “full of truth.”

I actually pulled this ornament about two weeks ago and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Of course the obvious topic would be the truth of Christ as revealed in Scripture.  That no one comes to the Father except through Jesus and that the only source of truth in this topsy-turvy world is the revealed Word of God.

But that isn’t what I have been thinking about.  What I have been thinking about is whether or not people really want truth.

For example, if someone asks you how their hair looks after a haircut, if you are like me, you have to stop and think for a moment.  Do they want the truth? Or do they want me to tell them it looks great even if there’s a mile-high cowlick on the back of their head?  Chances are that part of them just wants to hear it looks great. 

Except it doesn’t look great, it looks weird and deep down inside they know it.

So why do they want me to lie to them? Because they want to be reassured that it isn’t as bad as they think it is. They know they look like a squirrel, but they are hoping no one else will notice.  It is like the “Emperors’ New Clothes,” as long as no one says anything they’ll never find out they’re naked.

But small, white lies to save others’ feelings may be fine when it comes to things that don’t matter, but it is life-affectingly-important when it comes to God’s Word. That is probably why the Bible commands us to tell the TRUTH in love, because it’s truth that will set men free.

Love,

Jill

Read the Book

Exodus 20:5-6 (NIV84)

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Good morning Zebras,

Today’s verse from the Ten Commandments has always bothered me.  It just never made any sense.  I don’t know anyone who has a perfect family tree. So shouldn’t that mean we are all going to be punished for the sins of our parents? Yet according to Deuteronomy 24:16 God does not punish children for the sins of their fathers. And we know through Christ all sins are forgiven.  So what does it all mean?

Our first inclination may be to dismiss the whole thing because it’s from the Old Testament, but the Bible says ALL scripture is God-breathed and useful for training…not just the “new” parts so I think we need to try and understand what God was saying.

Here is one possible explanation from the New American Commentary:

God has determined to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned from their parents.  In other words, God will not say “I won’t punish this generation for what they are doing to break my covenant because after all they learned it from their parents who did it too.”  Instead God will indeed punish generation after generation if they keep doing the same sort of sins that prior generations did.

Now that makes sense. God will not forgive us our sins simply because we learned them from our parents.  Bad teaching does not excuse bad behavior and it does not prevent us from reaping the consequences of our actions.

But it is also very disturbing because now the responsibility lies with us.

Of course all sin is forgiven only through our faith in Christ, and God reveals truth to those who desire it, but think of all the things we have learned from our parents and our culture that we have not checked against Scripture to see if they are true.  And if we’re “accidently” doing things that are displeasing to God, we may be teaching others to do the same.

Five hundred years ago people may’ve had an excuse. Only the priest and teachers of the law had copies of God’s Word.  But that isn’t true anymore, at least not in the United States.  Bibles are easily accessible and the average American home owns four.  But do we study them?  Because having an unopened Bible is no different than having no Bible at all.

Love,

Jill