bible

Seek the things above: Being faithful

Continuing the “Seek the things above” (Colossians 3:1) series, today, let’s think about this question:

What does it mean to be faithful to God?

Let’s think about it this way … what if your spouse said to you, “Hey, honey, I love you so much. And I want you to know I will always be faithful to you on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that’s not going to cut it!

No, being faithful isn’t an on-and-off switch. It is a part of life, it is a part of who you are. It’s not something to be labelled a couple times a year, or just on Sundays, and then to be neglected the rest of the time. That is not faithful.

In marriage, we are to be faithful to our spouse by always and continually keeping the vows we made to them. In our relationship with God, we are to be faithful to him by keeping the commitment we made to him the day we were baptised: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) Walking in newness of life. What does that mean? Well, the Bible is it’s own best commentary! The text in Romans 6 goes on to explain what this new life is:

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” (Romans 6:6-13)

To summarize in a word: obedience.

And if, on that final day, we want to hear from him, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21), then we need to BE that good and faithful servant now, obeying what he has told us. Not only on Sundays, but everyday. And what a comfort that we can “know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9) But our faithfulness to God will never be as perfect as God’s faithfulness to us- and even if we suddenly WERE always perfectly faithful from this point on, there is nothing we could do to remove our past sins. Just as it goes on to talk about in the next couple verses of Romans 6 – we are under grace:
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:14-15)
God calls us to be faithful, and we must – but it is by his grace we are saved.

I hope you’ve found this encouraging. As always, if you disagree, or if you have questions, or just want to talk more, my goal is always to simply convey accurately what the Bible says and I am more than happy to discuss in greater detail – whether in the comments below, or if you’d rather talk more privately, you can always email me. I love to hear from you!

Leave your thoughts below, or drop me a note! :)

Seek the things above: Are we like the Bereans?

For this week’s “Seek the things above” post, I want to pose some questions which I hope will be thought provoking.

Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because it is what you’ve always heard? What your culture commonly believes? What your parents taught you? What your preacher, priest or pastor told you? How do you know what they told you is true? Does the Bible tell us we’ll just get a feeling about it – or does the Bible teach us to study his Word to know his will?

What about the Bereans? When the apostle Paul went to Berea and started teaching in the synagogue, it says that they “were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed” (Acts 17:11-12 ESV)

Do we follow this example? Are we noble like them? Do we examine the scriptures daily to see if the things that are taught to us are so?

Are the people who teach us today infallible?
Or is it possible to be taught error?
Do we compare the things we are taught to the things God has said?
Did God make his Word available to all?
Do you have a Bible?
How often do you study it?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Seek the things above: Want vs. Need

Well, I’ll be perfectly honest – I’m going to be stepping on my own toes for this week’s “Seek the things above” post. It’s about want vs. need.

I wish I had more of the attitude expressed here in Proverbs 30: give me only what I NEED. I’m more fond of wants and comforts than I wish I was. And, sure, many people in our society wouldn’t look at my life and call it the most luxurious. We don’t make tons of money by US standards. But is that really the standard? Compared to many countries today and throughout history, my life of temperature controlled rooms, running hot and cold water, mechanical servants to wash my dishes and clothes, soft mattresses, a wealth of information at my fingertips, and food prepared by others accessible in minutes, is downright posh. And yet I get impatient when the internet takes a while to load.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with money in and of itself. It’s just a tool. 1 Timothy 6:10 is often misquoted as saying “money is the root of all evil” – but that isn’t what it says. The verse actually reads, “For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” It’s the love of money that is the problem, not the money itself. But that love of money is so prevalent in our society. We’re constantly being told we “deserve” things we have no real need of or right to own. People are judged for having clothes that aren’t to-the-minute fashionable, or cars that aren’t a “statement”. Or what about a cell phone that is 10 years old? That will get some full blown laughs.

How much do these things really matter in the long run? At the end of our lives when we are on our deathbed are we really going to look back and say to ourselves, “Boy, I sure am glad I bought that new iPad in 2012”? Yet how much focus do people put on those things now? And when I say “people”, I’m very much including myself. I don’t have an iPad. I don’t have an iPhone. Have I ever been guilty of feeling a little sorry for myself when my friends are all talking about their new apps and I see their Instagram pictures? Yeah, sometimes. Shame on me. I have all I need — and WAY more.

We start to get dependent on our economic standing. Too often, more faith is put in banks accounts and portfolios than in God. We start turning into the rich man mentioned above in Proverbs 30. We become the rich man in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” We become enslaved to our wants and belongings which have become our idols: “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5) And we have forgotten what we NEED.

Again it’s not that having money is wrong. It’s an issue of where the HEART is, as it says in Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Where are my “treasures”?
Where is my heart?
Who am I serving?

A life focused on God is so much more fulfilling than a life of accumulating stuff.

Leave your thoughts and comments below! Or, if you ever feel like discussing something further, feel free to drop me a note.

Seek the things above: Take up your cross meaning

So, we’re continuing on in the “Seek the things above” series for Wednesdays … and actually, this time delving into a verse I mentioned last week, but as one of the comments from that post was mentioning an interest in a printable of this verse, I wanted to dive into it a little more.

Luke 9:23 … it’s such a fundamental passage to follow Jesus, and we have heard it so many times. And to us, the cross immediately makes us think of spiritual things. But have you ever thought about the fact that at the time that Jesus said this, it was *before* he died on the cross, and so when he mentions it here, it wouldn’t have had and religious significance to them? What would they have thought of a cross? A form of execution. A means of punishment. It would be like someone today saying, “Take up your electric chair.”

And this really sheds some interesting light on the meaning of the passage, when you stop and think about what a cross is. It is something on which a person dies. Sometimes you’ll hear people mention this verse when talking about various incidental problems in their life … maybe their boss is rude, maybe they have headaches, and they’ll say, “Well, that’s just the cross I have to bear.”

But is that really what this verse is talking about? Is that what the take up your cross meaning is? If you think about the context in which Jesus spoke it, that doesn’t make so much sense. Just like saying “take up your electric chair”, wouldn’t make you think of everyday type problems, it would make you think of death.

So if we’re supposed to take up our cross DAILY, though, how can that be? How can I die daily? Well, Paul actually said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.” Physically? No. But let’s look at a couple passages to see what this could mean…

Romans 6:1-11: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:19-24: “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

There is the continuing thought of an “old self” of ours who we crucify and put off in order to follow Christ, and a “new self” we become to follow him. Luke 9:23 is something much more profound than just dealing with the hassles of life, it is a choice of who we will be – it means we have to give up having everything my way, like in the days of the Judges where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 ESV), and instead living our lives God’s way. It’s denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following after him. And it’s doing it every day. It’s not sugar coated, and it doesn’t mean life will always be easy. But it is always worth it.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
(Romans 8:18 ESV)

Leave your thoughts and comments below! As always, my goal isn’t to convince people of my opinions, but instead to take a look at the Bible itself to see what it teaches. :)

Seek the things above: The value of the soul

Happy Wednesday, all! :) Continuing on this week in the “Seek the things above” Wednesdays series of posts … with thoughts on the soul this week.

Sometimes we hear fictional stories in which someone “sold their soul to the devil” … usually a red-caped pitchfork-bearing figure offering someone a legal document and haggling over price. That’s not how evil presents itself – with a “Ta da! Here I am!”. I think it would be much easier to recognize it were that way! But no, the devil doesn’t appear to us holding a pitchfork and giving us an ultimatum.

Rather, he tempts us in everyday things, when our guard is down. The Bible figuratively describes him as “prowling” (in 1 Peter 5:8), or as a “snare” (in 2 Timothy 2:26), or even in “disguise” (in 2 Corinthians 11:14). In other words: sneaky. Not announcing “Here I am, the devil! You know, the one you’re supposed to resist.” No, it’s in moments when we are not paying attention. Moments when we are not thinking, “Would I really give my soul for this?”

Jesus asked us to contemplate this question in Matthew 16 … “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26 ESV)

What would I give in exchange for my soul? Is it worth giving up my soul for some “petty” vice? For some momentary pleasure from sin? For pride? For a billion dollars? How about for the whole world? When I stop and ask myself, I know the answer – no way! It’s a incomprehensible loss in any trade. But I don’t always keep that in mind. I mess up. Big time. We all do. Me, you, everyone that is old enough to understand right and wrong. I thank God that he has given us an avenue of forgiveness – that our souls don’t have to be lost forever. And when I think about the cost the God payed to save our souls – with his own life – that again reminds me of the value of my soul, of your soul, of all souls.

I read this interesting quote from C. S. Lewis about the soul, above. Of course C. S. Lewis, and all the rest of us who are not God, can be wrong about anything. So we have to compare anything a person says to the Bible (and I certainly hope you do this with anything that I say!) to see if it is true. So while I’m not saying everything he taught is true, there are many things he said that were very thought provoking, like this quote. It’s such a great reminder of who we are, and where our focus should be. And if we keep that in mind, that this body is temporary, that we are something much more – then it is easier to remember not to trade that for something wrong which our bodies want.

You can click the image above to get the printable version, to hang and be reminded of the perspective of this life. I know I need that reminder everyday.

Do you ask yourself if things are worth giving up your soul? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below! :)

Seek the things above: Bible verse printables

Well, in continuing the Wednesday “Seek the things above” series, I’ve had a section of free Bible verse printables up near the top of my page for a while now, but I realized I’ve never really mentioned it here in my posts! I just updated it today, changing some things around, and adding some new verses, and I wanted to explain that section – and share them with you in case you haven’t seen it before. :)

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Jesus quoted the beginning of this verse in Mark 12, speaking of the greatest commandment – to love God first and foremost.

I decided I wanted more verses around our home – more visual reminders of where our hearts and minds should be. Of course, just having God’s words on the wall is not really the goal .. it should be in our hearts. We are to teach them to our children and always have them in mind and in our talk. But having something visual can cue my thoughts and remind me, as the verse also mentions having them around us in more physical senses – like on the doorposts and gates.

So I started making Bible verses into prints for our home, and I wanted to share them with anyone else who would find them helpful in their homes as well.

They are all 8×10, which is a common frame size, though some are horizontal and some are vertical. Click any image to get to the printable PDF file, and print on regular size printer paper, and just trim the white borders after printing to be left with your 8×10 print. (Although, I would recommend printing on heavier paper like cardstock rather than typical printer paper. One option is to have it printed at a place like Office Depot or Staples… they’ll typically print a full color cardstock copy for less than $1. You can get to the verse printables from any page on my blog by hovering over the “Printables” icon under my banner, and choosing “Bible Verse Printables” from the drop down menu. Or, in this case you can just click here. :) Here are a few of them:

See the rest here.

It is so encouraging to enter a home and see evidence of God’s Word in it – not just on the walls, but in the hearts, actions, and speech of those who live there.

Leave your thoughts and comments below. :)

Seek the things above: Lessons from the weekend

This past weekend was soooo wonderful! I found out (kind of last minute) about a Christian ladies retreat happening just a couple hours away from me, and I so craved to go. A couple friends were coming down from Boston to speak, which is how I heard about it, but I thought I had found out too late and that I couldn’t get in so last minute. Let’s just say there were a bunch of phone calls, a bunch of frantic Facebook messages and emails – and I found out that there was still room! YES! I was super excited, both to see my friends and to spend Friday and Saturday in a group of ladies studying God’s word together.

The theme of the series was giving God the pen in your life – allowing your decisions to be dictated by His will. And so, of course, we studied His will which has been revealed in the New Testament, and discussed how to shape our lives according to what He has taught. I’m terrible at taking notes, but I did jot down several points this weekend that I especially wanted to hang on to, and I thought I would share a few of them here. :)

1 – { On letting God’s plan pen our marriages: Importance of love to women & of respect to men }
Of course, both men and women desire both love and respect – it’s not exclusive to either sex. But if you had to choose one at the expense of the other, typically love is of more importance to women, and respect is of more importance to men. There have been some recent studies/polls that have shed some interesting light on this. But really, those studies just confirm what was taught in the Bible in Ephesians 5:33: “Let each one of you LOVE his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she RESPECTS her husband.” Love for her, and respect for him – some of our deepest needs as spouses. And an interesting point that was brought out – when we wives feel unloved, we tend to react in disrespectful ways. And when husbands feel disrespected, they tend to act in unloving ways. Neither one may be meaning it to come across that way, but that is how it seems to the other spouse. And so it can turn into a viscous cycle – he feels disrespected, acts in ways that seem unloving; she feels unloved, acts in way that are disrespectful. And on and on. But if we focus of fulfilling the command in Ephesians 5, to love and respect, we can break this cycle. I appreciated this point a lot in the class on marriage this past Saturday – and I definitely want to do a better job of showing respect for my husband. As a woman, I naturally want him to feel loved, and I need to make sure he knows he is respected, too.

2 – { On letting God’s plan pen our families: “It’s easy to have secular homes.” }
I thought this quote was so poignant: “It’s easy to have secular homes.” It just happens without effort. Sports, education, entertainment, etc. etc. And the point is certainly not that all secular activities are wrong – the point is that it takes work to have a Godly home. It takes effort and time and sacrifice. And it is completely worth it! But if we aren’t actively trying to have a Godly home, it’s not going to just happen on its own. As it says in Romans 12:1-2- “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

3 – { On letting God’s plan pen our attitudes: Recognizing Him for our blessings. }
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, and Moses reminded them of their difficult life there, and how God had taken care of them through it, and how much He was going to bless them in the new land they were going to enter — and he gave them a warning: “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14) This is a warning which I think we all need. We tend to turn to God when times are hard – when we feel we really need Him most. But then, once we have been blessed, we tend to forget about Him. We still need Him just as much … but we get full of the pride of life and forget where our blessings came from. This passage was an excellent reminder to stay humble and recognize God as the giver of all good things, and to not forget Him in times of prosperity and comfort.

All in all is was a wonderful weekend, with so many lessons to learn and encouragement from sisters in Christ. Plus, it was just plain fun to spend time together! I was so happy to see my two friends from Boston – I hadn’t seen either of them in a couple years! We had a great time growing, talking, learning … and laughing together.

I love having friends to be goofy with – but who also know how to be serious and talk about important things. There was a lot of both this weekend. :)

Leave your thoughts and comments below! What are some passages or lessons you have been thinking about lately?

“Seek the things above” – Walking on the water

As I mentioned in my launch post on Monday, I’m planning to continue my “Seek the things above” series on Wednesdays, which I started last week. I generally read my Bible everyday, but I’m trying to do better about spending more time actually *studying* my Bible, not just reading it. Writing these posts will be helpful to me to have a specific goal of study, and hopefully will be helpful to others. I welcome comments of course, but if you ever have a question or disagreement that you don’t feel comfortable posting in the comments, please feel free to drop me an email, I’m more than happy to talk with you! :)

This week, it’s some simple thoughts on the walking on the water. And by simple I don’t mean easy-unimporant-simple. I mean straight-forward-getting-down-to-basics-and-fundamentals simple. Here is the account as recorded in Matthew 14:

Generally, I think, when we remember about the account of Jesus walking on the water we remember that Jesus walked on the water, and that when Peter tried, he sank. But an important thing happened in verse 29 — “Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water”

It must have taken a lot of guts to get out of that boat. I think if I had been there and Jesus had told me to get out, I would have done it, but that if the Lord wasn’t asking me to get out, I would have happily stayed in the boat. Peter didn’t do that. He saw his Lord walking on the water, and wanted to go to him – and requested to come out to him. He had faith at that point that Jesus could make it happen. And it did happen: Peter walked on the water.

But then comes the part we remember well – Peter began to sink.

What changed? First Peter was walking on the water, then he was sinking. Nothing changed as far as God’s power. The thing that changed was Peter’s focus. And, as an result, his faith failed.

When Peter asked to come out onto the water and he began to walk on the water, he was focused on going to his Lord. But what does it say right before he began to sink? “When he saw the wind, he was afraid.” When Peter lost sight of his goal, and started focusing on all the immediate problems around him (the wind and the waves) that is when he began to sink.

And so it is with us in our lives. When we focus on the goal, we make progress toward it. But when we lose sight of our eternal goal, and instead get caught up in all the problems and concerns of this life, that is when we begin to sink.

I find this passage so encouraging to keep my eyes on Jesus, and not lose sight of the goal.
What are your thoughts?

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“Seek the things above”: Urgent vs. Important

We were discussing this verse the other day, and it really struck home. Life is busy, and there are always so many things to capture our attention. And while there is nothing wrong with doing our jobs, fulfilling our responsibilities, or even enjoying the lovely things in this world, if we get so caught up in it that we’re not remembering that this world is not all that there is, then something is wrong.

I remember one time hearing someone talk about keeping a proper balance between what is urgent and what is important. Some things are both important and urgent. If you’re getting married in 10 minutes, that is important, and it’s about to happen right now, so it is urgent.

Some things are urgent, but may not be important. When someone knocks on your door, you don’t think to yourself, “Oh, I’ll answer the door sometime later this week.” It is something to be taken care of immediately. It may or may not be important (maybe it’s just a salesman), but it goes in the urgent category.

Other things, like reading to your kids or exercising, are things that we may recognize as important, but may not feel so urgent, because they are things that could be done at any time you choose. It takes a conscious choice to set aside time to do them, and you do, because you recognize its importance. But it rarely feels “urgent”.

But focusing on the eternal things is what is the most important, although it rarely feels urgent. And that is why this verse is such an important reminder to have the proper priorities. By contrast, this whole life can feel urgent – it is happening now. But it won’t last forever, and all the things of this earth that we were seeking won’t be important.

This is something I need to be reminded of daily. So I made the above printable, to hang and remind myself to “seek the things above”. (You can click on the image to go to the printable file.)

What are your thoughts?
What verses help you keep your focus?
Leave a comment below! :)

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A crazy week and dangerous week

Wow, has this week been crazy. A couple weeks ago my well-loved car broke down. *sniffs* The hood started smoking, we pulled over, and as my husband, Tim, inspected everything and saw that the oil was milky – the engine block was broken.

Traffic Cones by Vince Mig

Poor Linus. (that was my car’s name. Do you name your cars??)
Our three year old daughter heard Tim say that there was milky oil, but apparently she didn’t understand fully because she keeps talking sadly about how our car had trouble and got “milky Oreo”. I wish!

So last week we bought a new vehicle. Not brand new, but a 2010, low mileage in great condition, and I loooove it!! It’s a manual transmission, too, like my old car, which I really wanted!!! *squeals*

We got it last Thursday.

Monday, we got rear-ended on the interstate.

Double Line by Peter Griffin

I don’t know what it is, but the same principle that seems to draw birds to just washed cars seemed to apply to our just-bought vehicle. We were all in the car, but we were not seriously hurt. I’ve been having to have a lot of therapy this week because I have an existing neck problem from being rear-ended by a drunk driver when I was a kid, and this aggravated the same issue. But we could have been a lot worse off.

And it got me thinking…. I really like this new vehicle we got, and I intend to take good care of it. But even so, there are some things that are out of our control. And even without the accident – where will this vehicle be in 30 years? Long gone, I’m sure. It’s so easy to get SO wrapped up in lots of everyday type activities and plans, and while we all have a lot to get done, do we forget about the things that will matter in 30 years? 60 years? 600 years?

Pretty quickly after our accident on Monday, this passage popped into my head:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Matthew 6:19-20

Bible Text by Petr Kratochvil

It’s nice to enjoy God’s blessings in this life, but let’s not forget that things here won’t last forever, and we need to be paying attention to the things that will.