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Life Giving

19
Mar
2011
Category: Dvora, Scripture Meditations  Tags: ,  4 Comments

This morning, as I considered my relationship with Jesus, I realize how often I fail Him in so many little ways. I remembered how, when I first married, one day, Rich, the kids and I were talking at the kitchen table. For some reason, everyone got upset… it all came out wrong. While we talked, I’d notice Rich’s leg bumping into mine… and kept trying to move to give him more room, and the conversation deteriorated. Later that night, I told Rich how awful I felt. I told him, “You knew I was messing everything up… why didn’t you tell me to shut up?”

He looked at me gently and answered, “That was why I kept tapping your leg with mine…”

I looked at him in shock, “you mean…” and I realized how very gentle my husband was and what a blessing I’d been given, and how I’d disappointed him by not noticing his gentle and caring warning, which, if heeded, would have prevented what happened.

I’ve had many reasons to think about that moment with him since he died. And I realize, that all too many times I ignore the gentle tap of God’s spirit in the little things of life. And I felt terrible when I realized I had disappointed my husband by ignoring his warnings… but what about when I disappoint the Savior and Lover of my Soul? A bad attitude here, going to bed late there, an extra game drawing my attention from important things, only 5 minutes or 10 or 60… As I thought about this, a new thought came to me.

Do I even begin to comprehend what the Scripture says when we consider that Jesus gave His life for us? Not just that He died for us… but His life? He lived for us.

  • Born of a virgin, He was a weak, helpless baby
  • He was a toddler learning to walk
  • He was a teen learning to live differently from His peers
  • He was a young man, learning a trade, supporting His family
  • And at 30, He was baptized, fasted, taught, had disciples, walked a dusty earth
  • He was despised and rejected

When we say Jesus gave His life for us, do we grasp what the creator of the Universe has done? Do we get it?

“In the beginning God”
(Genesis 1:1 NAS95)

“Then God said…” (which means he spoke “words”)
(Genesis 1:3 NAS95)

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”
(John 1:14 NAS95)

His entire life was a part of our redemption–not just His death! And the resurrection? The proof of a perfect life. His death, an accepted sacrifice, His resurrection, the seal of our redemption.

And so I pray, that I will be more sensitive to His gentle taps on my heart to obey in the little things and the big things…

And be more appreciative of what it means when I consider  how God gave His son to give me life.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
(John 3:16-18 NAS95)

Elections in Israel

10
Feb
2009
Category: Dvora, Israel  Tags: , , ,  One Comment

I was reading the news this morning, and realized that today is election day in Israel. I do not know how things will turn out. I find it rather disconcerting that one of the major players, Bibi Netanyahu, is up for consideration. How could he even be a part of the game? The country already gave him one vote of no confidence.

As I look at what is happening in Israel, I realize that they are suffering from the same problem so many are suffering from. The lack of true leadership. In today’s world, it seems like all of the leaders have their own agenda. Ceratinly the best good of a nation and her people is only a buzz word. Today’s world, and perhaps it has almost always been that way, has been about power and control.

Yet control is elusive. A figment of our imaginations. So quickly everything spins out of control. Then what.

I love my people, Israel. I love my nation, Israel. I love my people in the US. I love my nation the US. A citizen of both nations, I am deeply concerned for both.

In Israel, there is rarely a comprehension of why they really exist. I remember asking a soldier once, after he told me he did not believe in God, and that Abraham was a myth, “Then what are you fighting for? If the Jewish people are based on a myth, and God did not make a covenant with Abraham, why are you Jewish? Everything you are fighting for is based on a lie.”

He looked shocked… and admitted he had never considered that perspective before. Israel IS REAL — and Israel is so closely intertwined with God’s plan for this world that it is too awesome for words. But as was written in the prophets:

…My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)

And so now, elections come, and again, the hope is in a new, god-less leader, and not in the God who made a covenenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Elections came in America. I knew of many Christians who but their hope in President Obama.

God’s people perish for lack of knowledge. We have let ourselves think that the worlds solutions are the solutions that God’s people can live with. But they are not.

The same word for Israel applies to America:

“If my people, which are called by MY name, will humble themselves and pray.. then will I hear from heaven… and heal their land.”

O Israel, O America, return to the God of Creation, the one true God.

May the results of the elections not be the beginning of judgement for our rebellion, but a beginning of hope because we have repented and turned to Him.