Category - Uncategorized

Last week I got to spend the morning with a mother from our church and her two young children. At the kitchen table, we began to discuss what Kevin’s job entails. I began by explaining that he works at the Star Center, a place that helps adults and children with disabilities. Not missing a beat, her three-year-old daughter asked me, “Mrs. Renae, what’s a disability?”

Children ask great questions. When they encounter new objects, people, or concepts, they don’t hesitate to ask about them. Some questions catch us adults off-guard and leave us stammering through unrehearsed answers. But there is one question that we should always have a ready answer for, “Why do we do all this “Jesus stuff?”

In a recent sermon at my church, one of our pastors used Deuteronomy 6 to support his main point. After referencing the Shema, he pointed out the difference between the word “when” and the word “if” in the proceeding passage.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances, which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²² Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, ²³ but He brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that He swore to our fathers. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. ²⁵ Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

I have never been a slave of Pharaoh in Egypt. But I have been a slave of sin in death. I have never seen the blood turn to water, locusts fill the sky, or any of the other plagues, but I have watched houses and lives ripped apart due to living selfishly.

God has brought us out of sin with His strong hand. And He anticipated the day that our children and youth turn to us and ask, “Why do you follow Jesus?”

For the past two weeks, I have been studying Ezra 7:9b-10. It’s a beautiful description of Ezra’s character and commitment to God. It’s also a great challenge to us as believers.

“…the gracious hand of his God was on him, because Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.”

1. It’s a matter of the head. It’s difficult (if not impossible) to explain a topic that you have never studied. For example, I am a pro at explaning how to make a pb&j. After all, I eat one almost every day for lunch. However, it would be impossible for me to explain how to tile a floor; I’ve never done it. To live the Gospel, we must know the Gospel. We must study it for ourselves. We cannot depend on the teaching of others around us. It’s a personal study.

2. It’s a matter of the heart. Once the Gospel has taken firm root in your head, it cannot stay there. This can be called obedience-it’s not just knowing right from wrong, it’s choosing the right because it’s right and fleeing from wrong because it’s wrong.

3. It’s a matter of the hands. The truth of God’s love for us ought to break our hearts and stir us to action. Knowing that God loved me so much that he sacrificed himself for me creates the passion to share this love with the people I come into contact with.

All three of these aspects of belief play into each other. It starts with personal Bible study. This is when you have the opportunity to sit alone with God and read His word to us. Lord, thank you for giving us your Word. Help us to become more diligent students of it.

My mother is the person with the green thumb in our family. Most of the time, I manage to keep a plant alive, but I can never save one once it decides it wants to die. However, mom can.

Junior year of college, mom and I went shopping and I decided to buy my second favorite plant to put in a pot outside my dorm room – the bleeding heart plant. Ever since my childhood, I have been fascinated by the intricate flowers that bloom into hearts and which, over time, sprout little flowers that give the appearance of bleeding.

I kept it alive all semester. But the day we moved out, one of my roommates hit it with her suitcase. The base stem cracked in half and plant juice oozed from it. Within a day, the whole plant turned brown. So I took it to Dr. Mom, Plant Rescuer. After spending the summer in ICU on her back patio, the plant sprang back to life. It grew to twice its size and beauty since being with her.

We all have moments, maybe even days and weeks that we feel crushed beyond repair. All it takes is one blow for us to turn brown and quit thriving.

There is a point in the book of Hosea in which God has finished listing the graphic way in which He is going to destroy the wickedness In Israel. At the end, He tells them, “…you have no help but Me” (Hosea 13:9). Other translations phrase it as a question, such as, “At your destruction, Israel, who will help you?” Israel knows that no one but God Himself is mighty enough to prevent the destruction which God is planning.

We have to learn to turn to God in these times of crisis. If we’re crushed because of our own sin, then we must first turn away from it and then turn to God.

The Lord is faithful. Hosea 13:14 reads, “I will ransom them from the power of Sheol, I will redeem them from death. Death, where are you barbs? Sheol, where is your sting?”

God is powerful over the death in our lives. When we seek Him and obey His commands, then He will heal us – not so that we will return to our former life – but so that we may live with greater joy.

I couldn’t get Him out of my head. Still can’t. I spent three solid days thinking about Him. The more He bothered me, the less I could forget Him. And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him.”

Stories possess a power of persuasion that direct answers struggle to convey. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan tells David a story in order to cause David to admit his sin.

This past Sunday, one of the seventh grade girls in our Sunday School class repeatedly argued that she only has to respect the people who give her respect first.

Rather than confront the issue head on, I told her this story.

“Union University held cheer camp last week. Two of my coworkers brought their daughters. One is five and one is four. When cheer camp ended at lunch, these girls would spend the rest of the day in our office. Their parents let them stay in a back office together under one restriction – that the only reason they could leave that room was to go to the bathroom.

But before long, the four-year-old would sneak out of the room and crawl up to the secretaries. She would giggle and laugh and try to talk with them as they were on the phone. Then the five-year old would follow and roll on the floor with the younger girl. Both were promptly sent back by one of the mothers; they were in big trouble. The four-year-old cried because she knew she had been bad. The five-year-old cried, not because she knew she had disobeyed, but because, as she said, it was “unfair.” After all, the other girl had left first; she was merely following.”

So I turned to our seventh grader and asked, “Which of the girls obeyed the rules?”

“Neither.” She replied.

“Should the five-year old have been punished, even though she was just following the four-year-old?” I asked.

“Of course. She was told to stay in the room and she left.”

“How does this apply to our conversation about respect?”

She sighed, “I get it. Okay? I have to be responsible for me.”

Our obedience is not contigent upon other people’s obedience. When God tells us  to obey, He expects us to obey even if everyone around us is doing the opposite.