HeartWords

GIFTS FOR A KING—FRANKINCENSE

georgia1023 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:35:28 +0000

Leviticus 16:12 “He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain.”

Frankincense is a costly and aromatic gum obtained by slitting the bark of a tree found in India, Arabia, and the East Indies. The juice is released through the “wound” of the tree and after hardening for 3 months is sold in what are called “tears” or hardened lumps of resin being used as sweet smelling incense, playing a key role in worship, as well as a perfume and a medicine.

Incense figures very prominently in all of the rituals carried out in the Tabernacle that God had Moses build and every ceremony thereafter. Exodus 30:7-8 tells us that Aaron was to burn incense in the morning and again in the evening so that it would burn constantly before the Lord for “generations to come”. Visually, the smoke ascends toward heaven and symbolizes worship. In the same way, as we lift our hands and hearts to God, we are offering Him the sweet smelling sacrifice of our worship.

As the incense burned in the Tabernacle was a sweet, pleasing aroma to God (signifying constant worship) so our worship and our prayers are pleasing to Him. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that we are to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—-which is your spiritual worship.” Aaron was to burn incense constantly before the Lord and our worship is to be the same. Not turned off and on but constantly living our lives as sacrificed to God; not our own, bought with a price. Not only do we offer our bodies and our lives in worship vertically, but God uses us horizontally. II Cor.2:14-15 says, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

In addition, consider that the tree the gum is taken from only releases its juice after being wounded and our worship during times of brokenness, pain or sorrow is especially pleasing to God. To be able to worship in the midst of trauma allows us to be open to God’s healing touch because worship causes us to focus on the One worthy of our worship and away from our pain for a time. At the times I have been truly broken, I have discovered I was most able to worship. At those times, it is less difficult to truly acknowledge my own neediness and repent of my desire to be on the throne of my own heart. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 gives us a good description of those whose worship is true; they are the ones who understand their own emptiness. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (vs.3)

Herod saw Jesus as a threat to the kingdom and ordered all male babies under 2 years old killed. He saw the potential of losing his kingdom so took drastic measures to prevent that. He saw a future king but would not worship. The wise men brought this expensive gift to the Baby Jesus not only to acknowledge Him as King but to offer their worship, as well. What are we bringing to Jesus this Christmas? Our sweetest gift for Jesus this Christmas is sincere, ongoing worship because it’s not enough to acknowledge Him as King without worshiping Him, too. There is really only room for one King this Christmas. Who will it be? Psalms 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

GIFTS FOR A KING: GOLD

georgia1023 — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:26:16 +0000

Matt.2:10-11 “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold, of frankincense, and of myrrh.”

When we were in Egypt in 2008, we were privileged to visit the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where, among other things, we saw the treasures of King Tutankhamen. One of the outstanding features of the household goods, clothing, chariots and jewelry was gold. Even all those thousands of years ago, gold was prized above other metals and considered “fit for a king”. The cathedrals we visited in Moscow, Russia in October had solid gold roofs while inside, the icons and crypts were decorated with gold. Again, “fit for a king”, not for just your average, everyday Joe. When God gave instructions to Moses about building the original Tabernacle and then much later to Solomon for building the Temple in Jerusalem, gold was a key ingredient.

The Magi brought 3 gifts to Jesus and the one always mentioned first is gold. They recognized that even though He was baby (small child), He was a king. In fact, He was The King that had been prophesied about for centuries. Gold has always been seen as having great value because of its scarcity in addition to the difficulty of getting it out of the ground. Bringing gold to Jesus was their very best and sacrificial in nature.

So, what does He want from us? Does He want our gold or is there something more He requires of us: Something that is probably more difficult than gold? Psalms 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The Little Drummer Boy sung about in Christmas carols played his drum for Jesus as the best and only gift he had; the Magi brought gold as their best. The lesson for us is this: no matter what it is, our best is just the gift Jesus wants for Christmas and all year round. I have always thought I had to “do” things for God but have been learning that what He wants more than anything is my heart. It doesn’t seem enough does it? There should be some thing that I can give….something tangible that I can see. Some people have “gifts” that are very obvious while others are not. Ever play the comparison game? In the comparison game, we always, always come up short. Have you ever noticed that? If I compare myself to anyone else for any reason, I’m the loser and the condemnation begins. It’s a trap, isn’t it? It is so tempting to compare ourselves and the gift we bring to others and their gifts. I think the enemy would like to have us comparing ourselves to each other all the time. Comparison becomes absorbing so our “shortcomings”(in whose eyes, I wonder?) are all we see, instead of the “gold” that God has given each of us in order for us to give it back to Him. My “gold” doesn’t look anything like yours and yours doesn’t look anything like that of your neighbor. Regardless of what your “gold” is, it is a precious offering to the King of Kings, that Baby born so long ago in a humble, dirty stable. If we judge by outward appearances, that is certainly not an impressive beginning yet the Magi brought gold as a part of their worship of this new King. They followed the star to the stable and brought their finest treasure. Just as they honored Him with their gold, we honor Him with our sacrificial gifts. They may not be gold, but the King will be pleased. Ephesians 1:5-6 says, “Long, long ago, He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son.” (The Message) His gifts to us are “lavish” and impossible to repay. From us He only wants the thing hardest for us to give——ourselves, completely, nothing held back.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

georgia1023 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:14:46 +0000

Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”

It is 2:49 a.m. and I’ve been awake since about 2:15. I’ve been lying in bed with my eyes shut tight trying to will myself back to sleep but it just didn’t happen. Yesterday morning Dennis and I finally gave up on going back to sleep and went grocery shopping at 4:00 a.m. There are not too many shoppers at Winco at 4:00 in the morning. (Note to self: no shoppers but aisles full of people stocking shelves!) Our days and nights are mixed up. Our bodies are telling us it is 2:49 in the afternoon. Actually 3:49 since Chelyabinsk, Russia is 13 hours ahead of Milwaukie, Oregon. It took a little over 2 days to get home and we went through several time changes in the process. We pretty much have no idea what day or time it is but here’s the deal: landing at J.F.K airport in New York was a wonderful thing. I would gladly suffer the ravages of jet lag to be home. “Home” meaning not only my own bed but more specifically, my own country. As always, I’m struck by how thankful I am to live in this country with it’s freedoms. Yes, we have a lot of warts, but we are free and we have amazing amounts of blessings from God. Our song, “God Bless America” became reality 517 years ago when this land was officially discovered. The blessings started then and have not stopped since. Our greatest blessing is that, in spite of the sin we see around us (and that we have allowed to happen), God has not taken His hand from us. Maybe our song should be “America, Bless God”……….?

Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Yesterday, our pastor talked to the children (and us) about an “attitude of gratitude” and, sadly, it’s mostly at this time of year that we think about being grateful. See, an “attitude of gratitude” means it is part of who we are not just something we do from time to time like expressing thanks. Thankfulness comes out of a grateful heart. Gratitude should be part of our character, our make-up, so it is automatic; it’s how we live. Of course we should give thanks but without an “attitude of gratitude” we fall under the category of those who express thankfulness without knowing WHO they are thankful to. (Don’t you always want to know who or what people who are not believers are thankful to?)

I want to have an “attitude of gratitude” but I fear that, once the “being back home” thing has settled down, I’ll be back to being thankful from time to time. For right now, though, I am so grateful for the blessings of God on my country and, most especially, on me. Comparison is not always a good thing but, in this case, it points out once again the necessity of recognizing who God is and what He has done for me. We are told that we are “blessed to be a blessing”; not because of who we are or our tremendous accomplishments, but because of who He is and the favor He has lavished on us. Throughout the Old Testament God reminds the Israelites to “remember” where they came from and who He is. Sometimes they did, but many times they didn’t and they brought about their own downfall. Let us “remember” how God has blessed us as individuals and as a country and be grateful because that is who we are: a people who don’t just cry out for more of God’s blessing but who recognize He has already given it. Let’s truly have an “attitude of gratitude.”

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of God dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

A VERY GOOD DAY

georgia1023 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:03:03 +0000

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

These are some of my favorite verses; I think the word picture appeals to me. I’ve always had a need for approval and the thought of “a great cloud of witnesses” applauding me makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. It occurred to me this weekend that there was an element that I hadn’t seen in those verses before and it was an “ah-ha” moment. Before, there had been no faces in the crowd; they were only “a great cloud of witnesses”. Plus, in my mind, the witnesses were all in a stadium and that stadium was in heaven at the end of the race. But I got to thinking about the race itself, before the stadium. I thought of marathons where, all along the way, there are those shouting encouragement, handing out water, and watching for injuries. They have faces, names, and have very possibly run a race before, their own race. In the Scripture,the “witnesses” are those who have finished their race and they know all the pitfalls and dangers along the way. What popped into my mind, though, was one particular face, jumping up and down, and shouting words to spur me on: Jesus. I pictured Him yelling things like “come on, you can do it”, “watch out for that bump in the road”, “I’m right here with you!” and “if you can’t run, just keep walking.” Yelling and shouting my (and your) name to keep running the race and to never forget He is not only there on the sidelines but gets right out and runs with me from time to time when I need an extra boost. He is always right where He should be giving me just what I need during this race called “life”. True, the “witnesses” have finished their race, but they are not all crowded into a stadium: We are “surrounded”” as we run our own race. We’re not alone and they all know what we face as we run along. Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 says, “What has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” No matter how you run your race, remember that Jesus is always running right alongside you and you are being cheered on by more fans than you can imagine and they have gone before you. They know the route of the race; they’ve already run. Picture a football game that your team has just won and the volume of screaming and excitement and you have just a tiny picture of what is happening around us all the time as we run. Picture Jesus, jumping up and down, shouting encouragement, and thrilled. So, “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” and (vs.3) “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lost heart.” When police yell, “Hands up! You’re surrounded!” that’s not a good day. But running your race and being surrounded in this way is a very good day and a very good way to run a race.

SELF-CARE: NOT A POLICEMAN

georgia1023 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:57:56 +0000

A lot of women become overly involved in their husbands’ recovery process. They feel an overwhelming need to know where he’s been, who he’s talked to, what he looked at on the computer. They look through his wallet to see if there are any suspicious receipts; they check in his drawers for evidence of acting out. There is a great need to protect ourselves from being hurt again so the thinking is “if I know before hand, I won’t be taken by surprise again.” I think this is a pretty natural response to being thrust into that very unwelcome world of sexual addiction. Another part of thinking differently is giving yourself permission to step out of that place of policeman. I know there is almost overwhelming fear and this is a way we sometimes choose to take charge of that fear but I can tell you it does absolutely no good for either the husband’s recovery or the wife’s emotional well-being. Living in a constant state of suspicion, watching his every move is only going to increase the already high anxiety. He really has to be in charge of his own recovery and responsible for his actions before God.
Being a wife at this point is hard enough without adding the role of policeman or accountability partner. It’s a burden that we were not meant to carry.

SELF CARE: OUTSIDE THE BOX

georgia1023 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:15:54 +0000

Change is very challenging for most people and, in fact, crisis is sometimes the only thing that will cause us to make changes in our life’s routine. Years ago there was a new term that flashed through many different fields and that was “paradigm shift.” A “paradigm shift” occurs when circumstances, facts, situations, call for looking at things from a different angle. Almost as if at first you were standing in front of something and then you shifted and looked at it from the back instead. You suddenly have a new perspective even a new way of evaluating and sifting through information. When crisis strikes, our desire is usually to get things “back to normal” as quickly as possible. I know that was my goal. The day after my husband disclosed his addiction to me, I got up and spent the morning going to garage sales with my good friend and our sons who were getting an apartment. I drove in a fog, looked at items, even bought a few, laughed at all the right times, and generally acted “normal”. The next day was Sunday and I was scheduled to teach Sunday School to 40-50 adults. I almost made it. 50 minutes into an hour class I fell apart, sobbing and ran from the room leaving shocked silence behind me. “Getting back to normal” was going to be harder than I thought. In spite of the melt-down, however, I continued to try to get back to that illusive place of “normal”. No one who goes through a trauma of this type will ever return to what they once were. It automatically changes us but we have the ability to see that those changes can be for the good. It took me quite a while to finally admit to myself that there was no going back, only forward.

A STRANGE NEW COUNTRY

georgia1023 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:11:16 +0000

A number of years ago we went on a mission trip to India. The strangeness of that trip began when we were still in the airport in L.A. The people boarding our plane were of several ethnicities, speaking different languages, wearing different clothes. The food on the airplane had a definite Asian/Indian bent and we got our first whiff of the pervasive smell of curry. In India, everything is cooked with curry. There is so much curry that people actually smell like it. Finally, we landed in a very strange place seeing things we had never seen before. We were picked up in vans and driven several hours to our host home. From the moment we got there, we never knew what was going to happen next. We got up each morning, were picked up by a driver who spoke no English, and were driven to an undisclosed location, usually a few hours away. We took our puppets and V.B.S. supplies but didn’t have a clue what would happen when we arrived in the village we were visiting. So, there we were: in a strange country, driving who knows where for who knows how long by a driver we couldn’t communicate with. We didn’t know what we would do when we got where we were going, how long we would be there, where we would eat, go to the bathroom, or go back to our lodging. The only thing that was predictable was the unknown quality of every day. Since then, I have compared that trip to the unknown, unfamiliar, and unwanted land of recovery. Everything is new, strange, fearsome, awkward, confusing, and painful. We find that we have to think about things in a different way than before, our perceptions of people’s actions and attitudes are skewed, and there are new and scary things that happen every day. The thing that is the most predictable is the unknown quality of every day. The most important thing to remember at this time is that what you are going through, no matter how hard, is not a surprise to God. When this happened, He didn’t throw up His hands and say, “Whoa, I didn’t see that one coming!” We may feel out of control but He isn’t. We can trust that He will be our guide and support through this strange and scary land.

Who is holding you up?

georgia1023 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:30:42 +0000

I think it’s very important for women to have a support system of some kind whether it’s one or two really good friends, family, or a support group of some kind. We really cannot walk this road of recovery by ourselves. Eventually I learned that but it was quite a while before I had more than the 2 friends that knew what I was going through. Maybe some of you have already discovered that not everyone is what we call a “safe” person. If you find that a person is “unsafe” for you, try not to be discouraged but look more. It’s the same with finding that right counselor. Just because they’re a counselor doesn’t mean their personality will work with yours. Sometimes people that you think are the closest to you are the ones who simply cannot handle all the emotion and pain that you’re in. You may hear yourself being blamed in some way for what is happening. People that have not gone through what you’re going through will not be able to understand your pain and why you can’t just “get over it”. They will become increasingly uncomfortable with you and wonder when you’re going to “move on” with your life.

SELF-CARE: A NEW VIEW

georgia1023 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:29:14 +0000

Change is very challenging for most people and, in fact, crisis is sometimes the only thing that will cause us to make changes in our life’s routine. Year’s ago there was a new term that flashed through many different fields and that was “paradigm shift.” A “paradigm shift” occurs when circumstances, facts, situations, call for looking at things from a different angle. Almost as if at first you were standing in front of something and then you shifted and looked at it from the back instead. You suddenly have a new perspective even a new way of evaluating and sifting through information. When crisis strikes, our desire is usually to get things “back to normal” as quickly as possible. I know that was my goal. The day after my husband disclosed his addiction to me, I got up and spent the morning going to garage sales with my good friend and our sons who were getting an apartment. I drove in a fog, looked at items, even bought a few, laughed at all the right times, and generally acted “normal”. The next day was Sunday and I was scheduled to teach Sunday School to 40-50 adults. I almost made it. 50 minutes into an hour class I fell apart, sobbing and ran from the room shocked silence behind me. “Getting back to normal” was going to be harder than I thought. In spite of the melt-down, however, I continued to try to get back to that illusive place of “normal”. It took me quite a while to finally admit to myself that there was no going back, only forward. I think this was one of many turning points for me because I realized I had to stop living in the past and try to figure out the future. I was going to have to allow myself to learn new things and to look at problems and solutions in a different way. I had to give myself permission to think differently. That didn’t come naturally because life just seemed thrown up in the air. I really needed to figure out where things belonged. Our thinking patterns are established pretty early on and solidified over time and it’s hard to change and look at things from a different angle but it’s something we have to do. Give yourself permission to begin to look at things differently: If you don’t you’re only prolonging the confusion and fighting, basically, against yourself.

SELF-CARE: RELAX

georgia1023 — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:21:26 +0000

We all have our own ways to relax. For me, relaxation takes place when I am by myself. When someone else is with you there is usually a feeling that you need to have conversation. Alone, that’s only necessary if you’re talking to God. The thought of being alone for any length of time may be frightening to some of you. Being comfortable with “alone-time” is something that is learned. In our society we are surrounded by all kinds of noise, commotion, and people. Busyness is a way of life and exhaustion goes hand in hand with it. To be able to really relax can be done in various ways. You may like to take a long bubble bath with soft music playing. Maybe you relax best when you’re at a park sitting on a bench. Not too far from our house there is a river that has a walking path along side it. Many times I sat on a bench just watching the water go by and listening to the wind in the trees. It was very soothing to let those things just wash over me and relax my mind and heart in quietness for a time. Taking a deep breath from time to time is so important during recovery. It can really help clear some of the cob-webs.