Write Thinking

My Goal for Summer 2012: Memorize the Book of James

I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to memorize the Book of James over the summer.

Ten years ago, when we hadn't been going to the Boise Vineyard for long, one of the pastors recited James. I will never forget how amazed I was, how wonderful it was to hear the words of this book (I consider it the "Book of Advanced Christianity") spoken from memory. They seemed to come from this man's heart, as if he really was James.

This morning, with memorization in mind, I read the first chapter of James in several different versions.

An aside: It's almost embarrassing, the number of Bibles I own. I have been given Bibles by the publishers I write for or have written for. I have bought others for myself because I've worn out a favorite Bible or because I wanted a particular translation or a particular study version or needed a small one for travel. (All of this in addition to my vast Logos Bible software.) I have also given away many, many new or gently used Bibles to local prison ministries and to a local women's and children's shelter. And yet my Bible shelf is still packed to the brim.

Anyway, after reading James 1 in the New American Standard (my preferred study Bible because it is one of the most literal, word-for-word translations), the English Standard Version (another word-for-word, though not quite as literal as the NASB), and the New Living Translation (a favorite dynamic equivalent translation for devotional reading), I opened the The Voice Bible (another dynamic equivalent translation). I reviewed The Voice in a past blog post. However, I was still amazed by how much I loved this version, how beautifully it renders the Scriptures into English, and I have decided it's the one I'm going to memorize.

Anybody care to join me? Pick your own version of the Bible, of course.

~robin

P.S. Here's a YouTube video of Psalm 23 from The Voice. Oh, the beauty of the Scriptures!

Unless You Are . . .

As regular readers of Write Thinking know, I am a participant in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and love to encourage others to find a BSF class in their area so they can participate in this in-depth study of Scripture. This year we are studying the Book of Acts (and related letters of Paul). As always, very rich.

This past week, we reached a verse that is (and has been for many years) brightly marked in my Bible:

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1, NASB95, emphasis mine)

In the margin, I've written:

"Beware this phrase ["unless you are ... you cannot be saved"]! It diminishes the grace of God. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!"

I've been a follower of Christ for over 35 years, and I've seen the damage that can be done by legalism, damage that is caused by any additional condition or requirement that churches/believers try to put on people for them to earn salvation. "Unless you are (fill in the blank), you cannot be saved." There is only one way to be saved: belief in Jesus (“if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;” Romans 10:9). Thank God I didn't have to do anything else to receive His forgiveness. Thank God that He reached down and accepted and saved me just as I was—a mess!—and then He started me walking on the path of sanctification that I continue to walk today.

November is the month of Thanksgiving for Americans. A great time to remember to thank God for His mercy (not getting what we most surely deserve, i.e. hell) and grace (getting what we most surely don't deserve, i.e. heaven). I pray that you will join me this month in daily thanking God for His amazing, grace-filled, merciful blessings that He has poured out upon us.

~robin

Engaging Scripture

My home church just finished a three week series on the Bible, including why we can trust it and how we can study it. I loved when the pastor said there are "multiple ways of engaging with Scripture."

Engaging Scripture. Isn't that a great way to think about it?

I love to read and study the Bible every morning. When I don't begin my day with it, everything feels off. I read through the entire Bible regularly, and I almost always have a study going as well (such as BSF or a Beth Moore; something that makes me dig deep). I love encouraging others to make consumption of the Word an integral part of their lives.

At church yesterday, they had a panel join the pastor to discuss their own Bible reading/study habits, what works for them, what obstacles they have to overcome. I don't know about you, but it helps me to know others sometime struggle with focusing their thoughts or shutting out that growing list of To Dos.

Bible reading/study shouldn't be a legalistic thing in our lives anymore than eating a decent breakfast/lunch/dinner is a legalistic thing. But Christians need the nourishment it provides every bit as much as they need their fruits and vegetables every day.

Henry Cloud said (and this may not be an exact quote): "When your maturity isn't strong enough to do something, add external structure." That applies to regular exercise (if you aren't disciplined enough to do it on your own, join a gym) or any other good habit we are trying to form, including reading/studying Scripture. External structure doesn't always mean we're being legalistic. It can mean we're trying to form a good habit.

I want to engage Scripture in my life. I don't merely want head knowledge. I want it to go deep into my heart. I want it to come out of me in the way I interact with people and in the words in my books and in the way I face trials or the ho-hum of daily life.

There are a couple of books (among others) that the pastor recommended to help with Bible reading/studying. I went straight home and ordered them, so I thought I would pass along the titles, just in case you wish to do the same:

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig S. Keener

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart

May you engage with Scripture in a new and wonderful way in the days to come.

~robin

Sound of the Wings

This morning's Bible reading was in Ezekiel, and when I came to this passage, it caused me to stop and ponder.

“Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. Moreover, the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.” (Ezekiel 10:4–5, NASB95)

First of all, I pondered "the glory of the Lord." I don't have any idea what that truly means. I might think I do at times. There are moments when I feel His presence and stand in awe. But mostly it is a mystery, one that won't be solved until I depart this world.

But the second verse is what caused my imagination to take wing. Listen and imagine the sound that the wings of the cherubim make. Have you ever heard the sound of birds' wings as sparrows flit from tree to tree or the sound of a hummingbird's wings as he hovers nearby? Now imagine that sound from wings that are 100 times or 200 times or 300 times bigger. Feel it echo through you. Like someone playing percussion on your chest. It's "like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks."

Wow! Kind of sends a chill down your spine, doesn't it?

Glory. Majesty. Awesome God.

~robin

Nailing Down Biblical Truth Before Life Topples

When I was a young Christian, the pastor of my church often said that Scripture needs to be interpreted with Scripture. A believer must not simply take the word of a teacher or preacher nor should we take Scripture out of context. We should examine the Scriptures, the whole of Scripture, to make sure we are not led astray. This became a cornerstone of my walk with Christ and established very early on a love for the written Word of God.

In my current Bible study (To Live Is Christ by Beth Moore), a recent lesson was on this very thing. The key passage was from Acts 17:11 which says:

“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (NASB95)

Toward the end of the lesson, Beth wrote:

When we've learned to examine the Scriptures for ourselves, we have a few things nailed down when life starts to rock. I cannot express to you how studying God's Word has helped me when the earth around me seemed to quake. At times when everything seemed to fall apart in my life, the Word abiding in me kept me from falling apart with them.

Then she asked:

What is at least one Scripture or biblical concept you've nailed down that has kept you from toppling when everything around you seemed to rock?

Wow! Important question. Right now, the whole world seems to be rocking, doesn't it? The stock market falling again. Unemployment high. Governments in chaos. Riots. Wars and rumors of war. And of course, my own little personal world did quite a bit of rocking over the past year or two: broken ankle, losing my mom, having cancer.

So how did I answer Beth's question about what is nailed down in my life? The first two that popped into my head were:

"His grace is sufficient" (2 Cor 12:9) and "The joy of the Lord is my strength" (Neh 8:10).

I could have continued on if I'd had more time and the space to write the answers. An examination of the lessons learned through my life and the faithfulness of God (both when life is smooth and when life is rocky) would produce lots of answers. A long, long list of them. But the workbook only gave me two short lines to fill in so I stopped with the above.

Now I'm curious. How would you answer Beth's question? What Scripture or biblical concept have you nailed down that has kept you from toppling when everything around you seems to rock? Don't think about it too long. Share your first impression, the answer that popped into your head immediately.

~robin

Bible Observations: Psalm 135:18

“The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear, Nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them.” (Psalm 135:15–18, NASB95)

There is quite a gem in the above snippet from Psalm 135, one of the psalms included in the "Great Hallel," and it is this:

We reflect the God we perceive. We reflect (become like) who we believe our God to be. We either reflect the God of the Bible or we reflect those things or people or habits that become our idols.

So the question I'm asking myself today is, Who am I reflecting to the people who know me? Who am I reflecting to my readers (of my books, of my blog posts)?

I certainly hope I'm giving the right answer.

~robin

Bible Observations: Satan Wants to Sift You

Do you mark in your Bible(s)? I don't know how anyone can keep from it.

I underline (love gel ink with sparkles in it) and I highlight (yellow, pink, & orange are my colors of choice). I make notes anywhere there is white space, hopefully with pens that won't "bleed through". I use the little sticky "flags" to mark particular pages so I can find them quickly. Some passages all I do is write a date in the margin. When I run across those dates, sometimes I know exactly what was going on in my life then; other times, I've forgotten what seemed so important at that time. (Yes, that is a page from my Bible at right, the same page I'm writing about.)

While I'm a very technology-type of gal (I sometimes use the Bible on my iPhone in church or at BSF; I love my Logos software on the computer), I want my leather Bible with its thin sheets of paper when I'm studying. I want my highlighters and pens and ruler on my desk, ready to use at any moment. My Bible is very personal to me, and there is comfort in going to it every morning to see what God has to say to me.

Sorry. Went slightly off topic there.

I have learned to be better about dating the notes I write in my Bible, but the one I came to today was not one of those:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32, NASB95)

At the top of the page, I had written this:

22:31 "you" is plural in the Greek––the devil wants to sift everyone. 22:32 "you" is singular here. Jesus prays specifically for Simon and for anyone whom God allows Satan to sift.

Since I don't know Greek and am only able to comment on Greek and Hebrew because of my Logos software that allows me to hover the cursor over a word and learn the original root of that English word, I know the source of that note was from someone else. Perhaps a commentary, but more than likely a sermon. Wish I'd written down where I heard it years ago, but what is cool is, it came up in my Bible study today which then sent me to several commentaries. Needless to say, my study time was longer than usual this morning.

Here are my thoughts at the conclusion of this study time:

The enemy wants to sift all of Christ's disciples. Not just Peter and the other eleven but me too. He doesn't always get to. The Lord has to allow it. And because the devil can't see the inside of us or know our thoughts or our hearts, he often is wrong about us. He looked at Peter and knew that sometimes this fisherman and friend of Jesus spoke hastily and pridefully, sometimes he acted foolishly; the devil figured when he sifted Peter, all that would be left was chaff. Wrong! Christ was about to let Peter be sifted but what was going to be left was less of Peter and more of Jesus. He was going to come out better on the other side of the sifting.

I want that to be true of me. When I'm sifted, let there be less of Robin and more of Jesus. And since "sifting" isn't your ordinary, everyday type of temptation, I can't help hoping I won't have to go through too many periods of sifting in my lifetime.

When the singular "you" shows up in verse 32, it's when Jesus says he has prayed for Peter. Now isn't that comforting to know? The Lord didn't just throw Peter out there to bungle through on his own. He prayed specifically for him and for his faith, that it wouldn't fail. We can know that He will pray the same kind of prayer for us, individually, specifically, for just what He knows we will need at that particular time.

Hallelujah!

~robin

Bible Observations: the Good or the Best

I love the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). I think I'm an odd combination of these two women's character traits. As someone with codependent tendencies, I love to organize, to prepare and plan, to make sure that everyone gets to experience something good out of a trip or a conference or whatever. But I also seem to be able to sit and enjoy once the event arrives––most of the time.

Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost for His Highest, says: "The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best."

This is a truth I learned many years ago. We can be very busy doing good things for God and still not be walking in the best life He has for us. Many good things can squeeze the best things right out of our lives.

I've heard it said before and read it again in my current Beth Moore study: "If Satan can't make us bad, he'll make us busy." Ouch!

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by life. Like Martha, I'm distracted. How can I keep a relatively clean house and get regular exercise and do the grocery shopping and pay the bills and maintain relationship with my children and grandchildren and friends and write my books and keep up a blog and ... and ... and ... ? I know you understand. I know you have your own extensive list of to-dos.

But I have learned that my priority must be to first sit at Jesus' feet. This first before anything else. My relationship with Him is the only truly necessary thing. The rest is good, but my time in His presence, listening to Him, learning from Him, loving Him and allowing Him to love me is necessary for life. It is what's best.

This morning, I turned on my quiet time worship music and allowed the words of this song from Jesus Culture to just wash over me. I allowed Him to love me as I chose the best over the better or the good. This particular video is rather long. You may not want to watch the whole thing. But I encourage you to take a few minutes to listen and absorb the words, to sit at His feet and allow Him to love on you, too. You won't be sorry that you did.

~robin

Bible Observations: Go and Tell

Here in the Boise area, we have fallen back into a cold snap, along with more (unneeded) moisture. When I got up this morning, it was foggy. Foggy!!! Part of that is because water is running so high from the snow melt in the mountains and the continuing heavy rains that the lawns are saturated and canals are coming over their banks. We've got standing water in the common areas of my subdivision from all the rain. The clay soil just won't absorb any more. Anyway, it looked much more like February than the end of May when I opened my curtains at 6:00 this morning.

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My goal for the summer while on break from BSF is to complete two more Beth Moore studies. I am now halfway through Jesus: the One and Only. This (my sixth of her studies) may very well become my favorite Beth Moore study just because the focus is all on the Christ. I'm now halfway through. And why do I so enjoy her studies? Because they make me go deep. I'm changed by them. I can't be satisfied with head knowledge. I want to take them into my heart.

Anyway, in today's study, we arrived at the story of the demon-possessed man in the country of the Gerasenes. The end of the story has the villagers begging Jesus to leave because His power caused them great fear. The man who'd been freed of the Legion of demons wanted to go with Jesus, but He said (Luke 8:39):

"Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him."

While Beth didn't mention this, I can't help but note that the man who'd been set free understood that Jesus was God. Jesus said to tell what great things God had done, and the man went about telling what great things Jesus had done. God and Jesus were one and the same to the man set free.

Perhaps, since the demons recognized who Jesus was (vs. 28), that knowledge was imparted to the man before the demons left him for the swine that were soon to plunge off a cliff. Or perhaps when someone is set free of that kind of bondage, a person cannot help but see the truth of who Jesus is.

Something to ponder as I begin my cold and foggy Memorial Day weekend.

~robin

private lives, public blogs

I hope you all had a very blessed Easter! Mine was quiet but lovely. I went to my church's Saturday night service, which included the two man play, Fish Eyes. If you ever have a chance to see it, go! It is an often humorous — but also profound — look at the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus through the eyes of brothers Peter and Andrew. I laughed and laughed, but I was also teary-eyed in places. Anyway, remember the name and see it if you have the chance.

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Now on to today's post.

It's been my experience that readers often think novelists live exciting, extraordinary lives. The truth is, like most people, this novelist's life is quite ordinary. I work and I love and I hurt and I worry and I laugh and I cry.

Of course, a great deal of that never makes it into my public blogs — for the very reason that they are public. However, everything I experience does work its way into my novels, woven into the lives of my characters, a bit here, a bit there. What makes up me, makes up them.

God has a way of taking all of those things I experience and feel — the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, the ordinary and the extraordinary — and using them to teach me, about Himself and about myself. Sometimes, I would wish for fewer lessons. Or maybe I just wish for a few easy ones.

"Life is hard. God is good." That's a line from a favorite Pam Thum song. It's a truth I know deep down to my very core. Even when life is hard, God is always good.

~robin

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DL, 07062002

Far be it from me ...

First of all, I am madly writing toward the end of another book for Women of Faith Fiction (Thomas Nelson). The setting is in Idaho in the last year of the Civil War. I am loving the main characters, especially the hero and heroine, and enjoying watching those two come together despite all the reasons they think they shouldn't. But as I have lamented countless times on my blog, I sure wish I was a faster writer. Or at the very least, that my bum wouldn't become numb after so many hours in the chair. Sigh...

This morning in my Bible reading, I came to one of those verses that stopped me in my tracks:

"Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you...” (1 Samuel 12:23a, NASB95)

Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for [insert names and circumstances here]. That's what I heard God speak to my heart. When I fail to pray about anything and everything, it is a sin against the Lord.

Yes, I pray. I pray for many, many things and many, many people. And yet I am never quite satisfied with my prayer life. I always feel like it could and should be so much more. Am I the only one who feels that way? And here is another confession: Because of the Internet and global news, I am aware of so much more that needs to be prayed about, and there are times I feel like if I learn of one more person with some horrible crisis in their life, I will not be able to bear it.

In the early 1980's, my mom and I attended Dick Eastman's Change the World School of Prayer. It was an amazing course. Don't remember how many hours or days it took us to go through the class. Vague memory tells me that it was a weekend of study. Anyway, it is all about learning to pray for an hour a day, based upon Jesus' question (after he found His disciples sleeping while He had been in prayer about the coming crucifixion): “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40, NASB95).     

Basically, in this prayer course, you learn to break down the hour into 12 five-minute segments (such as praise, thanksgiving, intercession, petition, etc.). It's amazing how quickly the hour goes, and so in recent weeks, I have been putting this discipline back into practice. You can learn more by reading Dick Eastman's classic book, The Hour That Changes the World (Kindle edition; paperback edition).

And far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you...

~robin

Bible Observation: the "Servant Song"

This morning I completed reading the Book of Judges. Man, if you need a reminder (as if you would) that we are sinners at our core, the story of the Levite passing off his concubine to the mob to ravish throughout the night until she died would probably do the trick. Tomorrow I will begin reading in Ruth, a story I love (and will soon be revisiting in Liz Curtis Higgs' Mine is the Night which is in my TBR books on my Kindle).

Okay, back to the subject of this post. This past week, we in BSF studied the fourth and final "Servant Song" in the Book of Isaiah (chapter 52:13 thru chapter 53:12). By my count, there are 13 prophecies included in these verses that were fulfilled in Jesus. Probably more if you break up the verses into smaller bits, but I'm going by whole verses (which, of course, didn't exist when Isaiah was written).

What an incredibly rich study! This morning, I finished reading the notes that BSF students are given after completing the week's worth of study questions. The notes were fabulous, as always. But these seemed even more so than usual. I wrote in the margin of my Bible the statement in the notes that "Isaiah 52-13 — 53:12 can be called the most important Scripture in the Old Testament." So very true! I plan to camp in the notes for an extra week since spring break gives me the time to do so before I must move on to the next week of questions. I want to look up and meditate over the dozens of New Testament references.

I also think it may be time to put The Passion of the Christ into my DVD player. I confess that I'd never quite wrapped my mind around how horrid all that Jesus went through from the time of His arrest until His death on the cross until I saw this movie in 2004. I needed to be made aware of the complete sacrifice Jesus made on my behalf. And I should always remember that I deserved God's wrath but came to be cloaked in Christ's righteousness instead. What a miracle!

“As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:11, NAS)

Can't help but let thanksgiving well up in my heart over that!

In the grip of His grace,
~robin

Bible Observations: Stones of Remembrance

I completed the reading of the five books of the Pentateuch this week and have arrived at the Book of Joshua. I find this a rich book from the Scriptures. Just two days of reading has given me much to share.

When I changed career directions over 13 years ago, leaving the general romance mass market and starting over again with Christian women's fiction and inspirational romance, I had to have a total shift in my thinking. Some of that shifting was obvious; after all, the stories needed to be faith-focused. But some ways weren't obvious right away. For instance, I was to learn that editing was different from what I was used to.

But most of all, I needed God to change my thinking about what "success" meant in this new career path. I knew it couldn't be measured by sales and best-seller lists alone. It had to be something more. He used the following to give me His answer:

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8, NAS)

What He showed me was that my success is measured by His word in my heart. It can't be found on the best-seller lists or in the awards on my credenza. When He is first in my life and I live for Him, that is success.

Another time, when I was seeking an answer about what I should do in a certain situation, He took me to Joshua 3:4b:

... that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. (NAS, emphasis mine)

Now when I find myself in or about to pass through unfamiliar territory, I try to remember that even though I may not have passed this way before, God has. In fact, He is there, in the midst of that unfamiliar territory, waiting for me, with plans to take me through it.

But it was on Joshua 4 that I lingered the most this morning.

In this chapter, Joshua commands twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, to "Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan" (4:3), Joshua then set up those twelve stones at Gilgal as a memorial, a remembrance of the day God dried up the waters of the Jordan so that Israel could cross on dry land.

Those men took the stones from the middle of the river. The middle of the river is usually the deepest part of a river. And the truth is, we all bring our stones of remembrance from the deepest waters of our lives. Those memorials that I set up by writing in my journals or by writing in my books or by sharing at a women's retreat come from deep and oftentimes painful or scary waters. When others see those memorials and ask, "What are these stones?" (4:21), I can share with them the greatness of God, the places He brought me through, the waters He stopped so I could pass by on dry land. Those stones of remembrance were not easy to obtain, but they mean a great deal to me.

I want to remember each of those stones I have brought out of deep waters so that "all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty," and so that I may fear the Lord my God forever (4:24).

What about you?

~robin

Bible Observations: Bringing Out, Bringing In

My through-the-Bible reading this morning was Deuteronomy 5-7. These particular chapters have been highlighted aplenty. It is a rich section of Scripture. But this morning, it was a verse not heretofore highlighted that jumped out at me.

He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers. (Deuteronomy 6:23, NAS)

I stopped and pondered what I emphasized in the above quote: "He brought me out in order to bring me in."

What "country" (where I was enslaved) did He bring me out of when He redeemed my soul? What "country" did He bring me into as I've walked with Him through the decades? When God redeems, He does not leave us where we were. He brings us into a new place. I could fill reams of paper with a list of those less than pleasing things He has removed from my life and even more reams with a list of those good things He has brought into my life.

To the Israelites, He said:

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6, NAS)

To those who follow Christ, He has said:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9–10, NAS)

He brought us out in order to bring us in. How wonderfully awesome is that truth?

~robin

Bible Observations: Driving Out the Inhabitants

This morning, I completed another book in my every-other-year journey through the Bible. This time it was the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Pentateuch. And one particular verse stood out for me in the closing chapters:

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. (Numbers 33:55, NAS)

Pricks in our sides and thorns in our sides. That's what those things God wants us to be rid of become if we don't deal with them as they are revealed to us. If we aren't rid of them, they will trouble us in the land in which we live. You know those inhabitants I mean. Deceit. Gossip. Gluttony. Jealousy and envy. Lack of self-discipline. Prayerlessness. Forsaking gathering with other disciples. Failure to love others as ourselves. Stinginess. Worry. The list goes on and on.

The above verse serves as a reminder to me that salvation happens in an instant but sanctification takes a lifetime. It's up to me, with God's guidance, to drive out those "inhabitants of the land," those sins that have dwelled inside me, those things I have "practiced" doing (1st John 3:7-8) that aren't pleasing to God. God wants us to inhabit a land of righteousness, to become more and more like Jesus with each passing year.

With this lesson speaking to my heart, I opened the devotional Jesus Calling and found this entry for February 26th:

I AM LEADING YOU, STEP BY STEP, through your life. Hold My hand in trusting dependence, letting Me guide you through this day. Your future looks uncertain and feels flimsy—even precarious. That is how it should be. Secret things belong to the Lord, and future things are secret things. When you try to figure out the future, you are grasping at things that are Mine. This, like all forms of worry, is an act of rebellion: doubting My promises to care for you.

Whenever you find yourself worrying about the future, repent and return to Me. I will show you the next step forward, and the one after that, and the one after that. Relax and enjoy the journey in My Presence, trusting Me to open up the way before you as you go.

Wow! A powerful reminder not to worry about the future. Doing so is rebellion. Letting worry inhabit me will be a prick in my eyes and a thorn in my side. It will trouble me right here where I live.

What inhabitants have you allowed to live in the land God has given you? Are you ready to drive them out?

~robin

Bible Observations: Taking Possession

In Chapter 13 of Numbers, Moses sends in twelve spies to check out the land of Canaan, to find out what they would be facing when they moved into the land God had given to them. This took place not all that long after they left Egypt. When they came back, they told Moses that the land did, indeed, flow with milk and honey, but that the people who lived there were strong and their cities fortified.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”

Back in 1999, I wrote in the margin of my Bible the following question:

How often have I not taken possession of God's promised land for me because the inhabitants seemed too big or too strong? Let me be like Caleb who said, "We shall surely overcome."

I paused to reflect on that question and my desired answer. Jesus said that He came to give us an abundant life. That life is so much richer than any of us can comprehend. I'm convinced of that. He wants us to possess that abundant life He promised, no matter where we live or who we are or what circumstances we find ourselves in. When we understand the land we are meant to possess as followers of Christ, we should respond about the strong inhabitants and fortified cities: "I shall surely overcome!" After all, He has promised to never leave us or forsake us and to indwell us and empower us.

I'm praying that whatever strong inhabitants and fortified cities you're facing, you'll enter the land unafraid and prepared to overcome.

~robin

Bible Observations: Isaiah 42

This morning, I finished reading the last chapter of Leviticus as I continue on my journey through the Bible in 2011. I found the next to the last chapter (26), which is about both the blessings of obedience and the penalties of disobedience, worth a careful, slow read.

However, it was my BSF study of Isaiah 42:1-17 that I most enjoyed today. There is a great deal to love about these 17 verses, but there is one in particular that is meaningful to me.

In 1997, I prayed for many months, waiting for God's direction about my writing career. While I had an idea for what was obviously a novel suited for the Christian market, I didn't want to simply seek a new market. I needed to know that this was a call from God on my life. I even had an offer from a publisher for this book and two more, but I was unable to say yes or no until I heard clearly from Him. Once I heard Him, I said yes. I told my agent to begin negotiating the fine points of the contract.

Here's the rest of the story, as I shared over on Fact and Fiction back in 2005:

Around 2:00 a.m. the next morning, after agreeing to the three book contract from Publisher #5, I woke up in a cold sweat. If I'd been buying a house, I would have called it "buyer's remorse." I was scared stiff about this new commitment.

My fear wasn't because I didn't want to write for WaterBrook. It was because the deal had been struck based upon a dream and an experience from my past — and nothing else. I had no synopsis, no plot, no experience in writing contemporary or Christian fiction. I didn't know if I could do it. And if I couldn't do it, I wouldn't just be failing myself and my publisher. I would be failing God.

Yep. Full fledged panic attack.

I went into my office, pulled out my Bible and started to read. My mind was so blank, I couldn't even pray. As "chance" would have it, I was reading through the Old Testament at the time and was in Isaiah. About 15 minutes into my mindless, fearful reading, I came to this passage:

"And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
In paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them
And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do,
And I will not leave them undone."
(Isaiah 42:16, NASB)

Everything inside me grew still. I knew the Lord was speaking to my heart. The book that I was about to write had come from Him. He'd given me that dream, and He'd drawn me from where I'd been to where I was, and He would take me to where I was going. I didn't have to know what the book was about or how to write it, because He did know. I was blind but God wasn't. He was going to lead and guide me. He was going to make the rugged places into plains.

I guess you can tell why I love this verse so much. It is seared into my brain and into my heart. All the more so because the Lord did all that He'd promised. He led me in paths I didn't know, and He turned darkness into light before me. He made rugged places into plains, and He didn't leave anything undone.

That first book for the CBA, The Forgiving Hour, became such a meaningful book, to me and to my readers. The writing of it was unlike any of the nearly 30 that had gone before. It is frequently listed as a reader's favorite among my books. Although it has been out of print for a number of years, I'm excited that it will soon be released again. At first as an ebook for digital reading devices, and hopefully a print edition will follow.

I'm so thankful that He continues to prove Himself faithful and to lead me in those rugged places in life.

~robin

Perspectives

On Saturday morning in my year-long journey through the Bible, I came to Exodus 32.

Just before this chapter, Moses has been up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, receiving the law from God. "He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God." Wow! How awesome is that? Doesn't it make you quake on the inside, imagining such a thing, imagining holding in your arms those tablets?

Unfortunately, down at the foot of the mountain, we discover this:

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1, NAS)

A few verses later, God tells Moses to go down at once because the people have corrupted themselves. The Lord continues with this:

“They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:8, NAS)

Interesting, the different perspectives, God's and the people's. The people saw the time that Moses had been up on the mountain as long, thinking that Moses had been delayed. But God considered those forty days and forty nights as brief, saying the people had quickly turned away.

It is so important to learn to see life (and time and space and trials and joys and mountain tops and valleys, etc.) through God's eyes, through His perspective. Forty days and nights seems a long time to me in my humanness. But God is eternal. He isn't bound by time and space the way we are. Forty days and nights are as nothing to Him.

When I have God's perspective, it changes how I live and how I think. It changes how I face the trials of this life. God's perspective keeps me grounded and comforted and strengthened. It makes me "rejoice always!" (My word for this year.)

Lord, give us Your perspective today.

~robin

Bible Observations: Exodus 4

I arrived in Exodus yesterday on my one year journey through the Bible. This is one of the books of the Bible that many people know (or think they know) even if they don't spend much time in God's word. Hey, it's hard to get Charlton Heston out of your head! <g>

In chapter 4, Moses has returned to his people in Egypt by the command of God. He's been told what to say and he's been instructed on the miracles/signs he is to perform. He's even been given his brother Aaron to speak for him because Moses told the Lord, "I have never been eloquent... I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

“Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel; and Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. He then performed the signs in the sight of the people. So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped.” (Exodus 4:29–31, NAS)

What struck me here was that the Hebrews required signs before they believed God and before they bowed down to worship the Lord. I'm not saying that was wrong for them, necessarily. But for a believer today, it's a different story.

My prayer, which I wrote in the margin of my Bible, became, "Lord, help me to believe You even when I see no signs and wonders."

This dovetails perfectly with my BSF study of Isaiah this past week which focused so much on trusting God no matter what crisis we find in our lives. Believers in Christ are required to live by faith; we can trust in God's compassion, His trustworthiness, and His promises that are always surpassingly sufficient for whatever enters our lives.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

~robin

Bible Observations: Genesis 34

Bible Study Fellowship resumed this week, and it feels good to be back into the weekly small group discussion and lecture as well as the daily study questions. I've read Isaiah many times and God has used verses from this book to speak to my heart through the years. But this deeper study has been especially fruitful.

And I must say, it's interesting how my reading through the Bible is meshing with what I am studying in Isaiah. There was a great quote in yesterday's lecture based upon Isaiah's prophesy of God's retribution upon those who reject Him and the redemption and joy that God gives those who follow Him:

"The choice to believe is yours. The consequence of unbelief is not yours."

Wow! There is a powerful truth in those two brief sentences. God gives mankind free will. We can choose to believe in Him and to follow His word, but what happens to us if we don't is up to Him, not us. And the Bible spells out quite clearly that the consequences of rejecting God are severe. He is a just and holy God as well as a God of mercy and love. If we cannot count on His justice, neither can we count on His salvation.

Then this morning, I read the story of Dinah's rape by the prince of the land, Shechem. In Gen. 34:8-10, King Hamor spoke to Jacob, Dinah's father, and said, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage. Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it.”

I was struck by my study notes: The Canaanites wanted to absorb Israel in order to benefit from the blessings Jacob had received from the Lord. This was a danger Israel constantly faced from other peoples and nations—either absorption or hostility, both of which are perpetual threats to the people of God.

Followers of Christ today must fight all the time against being absorbed into the culture around us. It is so easy to begin thinking as our culture thinks rather than the way God wants us to think in His upside-down kingdom where the meek shall inherit the earth and the last shall be first, etc. Haven't we seen denominations reject what God says His people will not do and begin practicing what the culture says is okay? Usually this is done in the name of "tolerance." (Tolerance: a: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own. b: the act of allowing something.)

For believers, the choice to obey God's call to holiness and the way He expects us to live is ours. The consequences of not doing so are His.

Do I consider what God has spoken clearly to me in His word as I make decisions about using my time and resources so that my present life has the quality of fruitful, joyful, "kingdom life?" Do I reject those cultural influences that are in direct opposition to Christian living? I certainly want to be able to say yes to those questions and to know that I always do as God would have me do in every situation.

How about you?

~robin

Bible Observations: Genesis 31

So I was reading my Bible this morning (let me know if you've joined me on reading through the Bible this year), and I came to a familiar passage, what is sometimes called the Mizpah benediction:

   “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.” (Genesis 31:49, NAS)

I have always thought this a lovely benediction. I've used it at least once in the dedication of a book. Doesn't it seem like a good thing to say to a friend? "When I'm not with you, dear friend, I want God to watch over us both—you wherever you are and me wherever I am—so that all will be well with us until we are together again."

But I was looking some things up in my Logos 4 software about Jacob (his deceiving character was reflected in his name), and I discovered that this "benediction," as spoken by Laban, is in fact a denunciation or a curse. Whoa! That came as a surprise to me. Laban was saying, "Because you are such a deceiving character, Jacob, God needs to keep His eyes on you when I'm not around to do so." Of course, Laban didn't exactly have a leg to stand on when calling somebody else dishonest. This was a pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment for sure.

One of my first pastors always said that a person must interpret Scripture with Scripture. We have to understand the context and the customs of the time and culture in order to fully understand what God is telling us through His word. That is obviously the case here.

I don't think I'll give up using this verse as a loving benediction, but it does give fresh insight into this scene between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban.

~robin

the three-sixteens

Back in the late 1970's, as I read through the New Testament several times, I noticed how often certain verses that spoke to me were numbered 3:16. So in the front pages of my Bible, I made a list of them and the point that spoke to me. Here they are:

John 3:16 - God's love for us in Jesus Christ
Luke 3:16 - the baptism in the Holy Spirit
2 Tim 3:16 - the validity of the Bible
Matt 3:16 - the Trinity of God revealed
1 Cor 3:16 - we are the temple of the Holy Spirit
1 John 3:16 - we know Love
1 Tim 3:16 - the mystery of godliness revealed

Are there other 3:16's that have spoken to you?

-rlh-

I am valuable

Last Sunday, when Pastor Tri issued the 90 Day Bible reading challenge to the congregation, he held an old Bible (New American Standard) in his hands. It was the Bible his wife gave to him after he accepted Christ back in the late 1970's. The cover had fallen apart sometime in the past, and he'd made a new cover for it. It looked pretty battered and well-used.

I don't know what happened to my first Bible (1976 - 1980). I lost a lot of my Christian library during a move back in the mid-1980's, and I assume that first Bible was among the books lost. However, I still have the NASB that I started using in May 1980. I've owned many other Bibles since then, but this was the Bible I used during what I would call some of the formative years of my faith. I thought it might be fun/interesting to start a new category of posts that look at notes in the margins and on blank pages from this old Bible.

So here's what I chose for my first post in this category:

Five Reasons Why I'm Valuable

1. Because I was created in the image of God.
2. Because I am loved by my Creator God.
3. Because of the price of my redemption.
4. Because I have a great mission in life.
5. Because of my destiny.

Wow! I don't know about you, but I need that reminder every now and then: I AM VALUABLE. God says I am, and it is impossible for God to lie. I cannot do anything to make Him love me more or to make myself more valuable to Him. From the very start, I was created in His image. He has a purpose for my life. I was born for such a time as this.

Here are the scriptures that support the above: 1 John 3:1-2; Gen 1:26-27; Eph 2:4-5; 1 John 4:16-17; 1 Cor 6:2-3; 1 Peter 2:9-10; John 3:16; 1 Cor 6:20; Jude 14-15; Heb 2:11; Rom 5:8; 1 Cor 7:23; Rev 20:4

Next time you're down on yourself, take a look at these reasons why you are valuable.

In the grip of His grace,
Robin