Finding the Balance

Pin It

I'm afraid this painting isn't going to give you the instant point that I am trying to make, but I love it so much that I really want to use it. It's a Vermeer, and it's called "Woman Holding a Balance". Which is the point I'm going for, but you'll really have to look hard to find the balance in it. Maybe that's the point? It's really hard to find a balance in life??? Anyway....


Listen to this. I stumbled on it this morning as I was spending time reading my Bible.

Psalm 119: 29 - 32

Keep me from deceitful ways;
be gracious to me through your law.
I have chosen the way of truth;
I have set my heart on your laws.
I hold fast to your statutes, O Lord;
do not let me be put to shame.
I run in the path of your commands,
for you have set my heart free.

Is it possible, what I think I am reading here?

That there is grace and freedom for our hearts in keeping God's law. Is that what you read, too? That is a lovely, lovely thought, isn't it? I tend to think of the law as a wall that I bump up against, that keeps me from doing what I might want to do. But David says he finds grace and freedom within the law, and that is a beautiful thing, that in keeping God's law, we find grace being poured out, and true freedom.

The statement: "I have set my heart on your laws." gives me pause. It's a fine line, in some ways, isn't it? I love the Bible. I love God's Word. But I have seen people use it as a weapon, and not to defeat false ideas, but to club others down. So while I, too, want to say that "I have set my heart on your laws,", I don't want to elevate God's law above God Himself. When I think about what Jesus set His heart on, I think it was on first on His Father, and doing His Father's will. And after that, it was on people, the people for whom He came to lay down His life.

He never tried to be holier than the Pharisees (even though He WAS!) by crossing more t's and dotting more i's when it came to keeping the law. But what He seemed to care about most, (and I make this judgment based on the stories that tell us how He lived), was spending time with His Father, and then spending time with people: teaching them, healing them, discipling them.

I never want to elevate my love for the Bible (or the law) above my love for my God, my Savior, and His treasures: His people, His bride.

So, in my life, let there be balance: let me have a love for God's Word, for His law. Let me find the grace and the freedom that is in the law. But let me first love God, and then treasure people, for they are surely what He treasures.

Resisting the Holy Spirit

Pin It
This morning, I read Acts 7, where Stephen becomes the first follower of Jesus who is killed for his beliefs. And I think I "got it" in a way I haven't gotten it before.

Now, the action really starts in chapter 6. In verse 8 of that chapter, Stephen is described as a man full of God's grace and power, who did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. He must have been quite something: loving, and full of the power of God, to the point that God was working miracles through this man. I would have gone to see him. Would you?

But he ran into a little opposition from some of the "powers that be" of the day: men who were members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen. They list the cities these men came from, and some of them came from the province of Cilicia. The footnote in my Bible points out that Tarsus, where the apostle Paul was from, was in Cilicia. And when Stephen was stoned, many of the men who stoned him laid their clothes at the feet of Saul, so Saul (Spoiler Alert! Saul later becomes Paul after believing on Jesus) may well have been one of the ones who was resenting Stephen, and opposing him. Verse 10 says that these men could not stand up against Stephen's wisdom, or the Spirit by whom he spoke. So, while we know that Paul was a passionate man, and a "Hebrew among Hebrews", as he describes himself, what was it that Paul couldn't stand up against? Stephen's wisdom, and the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Which brings me to this question: What is it that brings people to Christ? It is NOT when we are better debaters than others. For it is the Holy Spirit's job to draw men to Christ. And He is the One who gives power to our words. Even if, and sometimes, especially if, our words are simple. Have you ever experienced that? When someone makes a simple statement, but you feel it zinging home, straight into your heart? This is what the Holy Spirit does: He takes our simple words, or even our wise words, and gives them power beyond what they innately possess.

We make the mistake of attributing far more to ourselves than we should ever take credit for, in terms of how responsible WE are to affect change on another's point of view. And we make the mistake of relying far less on the power of the Spirit than we should. If we could only catch a glimpse of how insignificant our words are, but how essential His power behind our words is, I think we'd be seeing things much more accurately. And I think we'd be praying for His help a lot more.

So anyway, these men from the Synagogue of the Freedmen persuaded some men to bring blasphemy charges against Stephen, in front of the Sanhedrin, the high court of the Jews. They accused him of blasphemy against Moses, against God, and said that he spoke against the temple and the law."For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us."

Chapter 7 is Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, and really, it reads like a Reader's Digest condensed version of Genesis and the history of the nation of Israel, beginning with Abraham, and going to Solomon, and then on even to the prophets. And why does he do this? I think he is saying to the Sanhedrin, "I totally get and believe that God appointed first the tabernacle, and then the temple. David wanted to build it, his son Solomon ultimately DID build it. But what y'all don't get is: (and this is verse 48 of chapter 7, by the way)

"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:

'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things?'

"You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him."

Here's what Stephen was accusing them of: Y'all think this temple is so great and holy. Don't you get that our own prophets have pointed out that God cannot be contained in a box? Or a house built by man, however grand, sacred and holy? You can't keep God locked up in there, and limit how He moves.

And now, He has sent to you the promised Righteous One, and you're STILL resisting the Holy Spirit by rejecting Him.

So, how do I apply this to my own life today?

Do I like the box that I have put God in? Do I view Him as resting there comfortably, and as long as He stays put and operates within the parameters that I have decided that He operates in, all will be well, and my life can roll along as it should? (But what if He makes demands on me that are outside my comfort level? What do I do about that?)

If I choose to put off thinking about areas where God is trying to get my attention, then am I not guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit, just like the Jews who stoned Stephen?

So, that's my prayer for today, for me, and for you who might still be reading: that I, that we, would recognize God's absolute uncontainability, His absolute sovereign power to do as He chooses, no matter what I think of it, no matter what limits I may have tried to put on Him. And that as I recognize His sovereignty, that He would indeed be the Sovereign of my life. The Ruler over me as I make choices and decisions. That I would in no way resist His Holy Spirit, but in fact, rely on His Spirit's power to empower my words and my actions for the good of His Kingdom.

The Verdict Is In

Pin It



I told you so.

I've been telling you for years.

If you know me in real life, for YEARS I have been telling you that I have a bad dog.

Here's his mug shot, as he wears the Cone of Shame:



Deacon D. Dawg has been trouble since Day One. For the first three years of his life, he did nothing but ingest anything and everything he could get his mouth on. And then he would spend the days following a binge in a terrible bulimic purge cycle of throwing up to the point that he couldn't quit throwing up, and needed intervention from the vet to NOT die of dehydration. (Why we kept him alive? One of those unanswerable questions for the ages, I guess.)

He has eaten socks, knee hi hosiery, and more socks, gloves, hair scrunchies, used feminine hygiene products.

He steals the kid's toys, and has eaten every kind of plastic toy that China has ever produced, to the point of us dubbing him a plastivore. He has uprooted trees in a nervous frenzy to demonstrate his retrieval prowess when company comes, and has brought home countless box turtles to devour. To Deacon, a box turtle is like a box of chocolates: crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside.



He has eaten and rolled in every kind of animal dropping native to Middle Tennessee.



Back when we had better access to the creek where we used to live, he has marinated himself in creek water, dipping seven, eight, ten times a day, to the point that the odor from his neck and collar were so disgusting, that we named him Mr. Stenchy.




Really, I ask you: Is this charge I bring, that my dog is a bad dog, is it wrong?

Well, in his defense, and it is a paltry defense at best, Deacon has one good thing he occasionally does: if the paper that we get on Saturdays and Sundays is thrown inside the electric dog fence, he WILL retrieve the paper, and bring it to us intact. And while this ability to retrieve the paper is a job that brings Deacon's retriever heart the greatest doggy joy, the downside is that if the paper is NOT thrown inside the electric fence, he will stand at the end of the driveway and bark, and bark, and bark his fool head off, awaking my neighbors on their one day of the week to sleep in. So, if you let him out on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you either have to be fully dressed, or feeling REALLY lucky that day to take the risk that the paper might be inside his fence boundary.

So, anyway, yesterday morning, the jury came back on the charge I have been making for years: DeakieBoy is a BAD DOG.

And the verdict is:

Back to the Basics

Pin It
OK, I know I have been AWOL for a while now.

And I'm sorry about that.

I have been trying to solve some health issues that have been plaguing me, and I think my doctor and I are on the right track. It seems I have some hypothyroid issues going on. So, for several weeks now, I have been on meds for this, and they seem to be helping, so I am grateful for that. Enough about that.

This morning, I was reading Psalms 111, and thinking about the awesomeness of God.

1 Praise the LORD.
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

2 Great are the works of the LORD;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.

3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.

8 They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.


And I was meditating in particular on verse 3 : that "His righteousness endures forever". And as I thought about that phrase, one word at a time, all I could think was how absolutely unapproachable someone would be whose righteousness was that sure. His deeds are glorious. His deeds are majestic. His righteousness endures forever.

What fellowship can possibly exist between a glorious, majestic Creator God, who never does ANYTHING wrong, and someone like me? A little nobody American mother of 2 in the 21st century, with all my waffling and wishiwashiness, really with the absolute coldness that is in my heart at times. There IS no fellowship. A fellow is a person with whom you share warm feelings of camaraderie. A co-journeyer, if you will. And the description of God in this verse has nothing to do with me, nor with how I am.

How thankful I am for verse 4, which says, that the Lord is also "gracious and compassionate". I don't know about you, but this allows me to take in a huge breath of air, and let out a sigh of relief. And then my heart fills up with gratitude.

Oh, yes, Lord, Your works ARE glorious and majestic. I DO remember all your wonders.

But this word that You are gracious and compassionate: this is life to my spirit. That You, in your righteousness, yet reach out to me, to us, in grace. And more than just a distant gracious divine nod of unmerited favor toward us. But that You have COMPASSION on us. That You see us down here struggling in the midst of the mire, and it touches your heart. This moves me, Lord, and makes me love you more than ever. And makes me want to be just like you when I grow up.

It's such a simple, simple thing, that I have known about You since I was a child. And yet it moves me again, to say, "Thank You! Thank You!"

As verse 9 says: that You would redeem us! Buy us back from the slavery we've been sold into and take us for Your own. That You would make a covenant with puny little us, and not only make that covenant, but keep it, too. That it is not dependent upon us, but just on Your very character and nature.

So this morning, I give praise to God for His righteousness, and His graciousness, and His compassion.

It's just the basics. But sometimes, I NEED to get back to the basics.