Love – The Verb

For God so loved the world that He have His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life . . .

John 3:16

Love is an action.  When I was first told that, not only did the information come as a surprise, but it was so contrary to everything I believed and had been taught, that I actually resisted it.  Action is my word of wisdom for today.

It’s true.  The person who loves you is the person who treats you with love and performs loving acts on your behalf.  Based on His actions, God is love.  I could have avoided a lot of foolishness if I’d known that before.

As a social worker, I’ve had opportunity to meet survivors of various forms of abuse – financial, sexual, physical, and emotional.  My encounters with them have taught me that it would be a mistake to believe a man loves you just because he says so.  It would be wise to really observe a person over a period of time before you develop an emotional attachment.

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The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Don’t miss out!

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath

Mark 2:27

When I was younger (early childhood through early adulthood) I did not enjoy going to church.  I wish I had known that the Sabbath was made for me.  In my mind, going to church is an integral part of the Sabbath.  If I’m not in church, the Sabbath is just like any other day.  Sabbath is my word of wisdom for today.

If I’m in a bad mood before church, the negative is always lifted by the time I leave.  I also noticed that, when I need them, the Holy Spirit will remind me of sermons.  Other people have told me that if they skip church, their week doesn’t go well.

On another level, I like seeing the kids in Sunday School become friends and stick together as they grow up.  My prayer is that they remain lifelong friends so that they can face the challenges of life with godly support and counsel.

Some people have jobs that require them to work on the Sabbath.  Other people think they have something more important, or better, to do on a Sunday morning.  I wasn’t able to say this when I was a young woman, because I didn’t know any better; but now I can truly say to those people, “You’re missing out”.

 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God . . .

Hebrews 4:9

The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Media and the Christian Life

Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling

Zechariah 2:13

When I read the challenge question, and the list of media – internet, television, movies, music, magazines, etc – we were considering, my gut feeling was one of being overwhelmed.  The sheer volume of media one must respond to is stressful – and then we have to consider and contend with content.

Just this past Wednesday, I met another sister in Christ, who shared her belief that silence, prayer and fasting were essential to hearing from God and discerning His will on what choices to make.  “Silence?”, I said, “What does that mean?”.  Essentially, silence means to unplug.  No cell.  No internet.  No texting.  No television.  No landline.  Dealing with all the media is overwhelming.  The enormity of the undertaking to unplug, however, is prohibitive in itself.  I’m so dependent that I have to plan for a day of silence.

Regardless, I take it as a worthy challenge.  I would like to plan in a day to unplug.  Maybe the easiest day to do it would be a Sunday.  Without the distractions of modern media, it would be easier for me to read my Bible and pray.  When I’m plugged-in, which is almost 100% of the time, the challenge is to guard & build my relationship to God, to others, and to myself.  So I have to do a couple of things.  First, distinguish between the urgent, important, and all other.  Second, use media to build relationships rather than pass along useless/negative information.  Three, ignore/delete message from people I don’t know.

Peace.

Be Passionate

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!

Revelation 3:15

I like to read.  My favorite section of Barnes & Noble is its Bargain Books.  There are some good reads there.

One such good read is The Unlikely Disciple, by Kevin Roose.  While an undergraduate student at Brown University, Kevin decided that, rather than doing a semester abroad to have a cross-cultural experience, he would just spend a semester at a Christian University.  He chose Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell.

The book was entertaining, and I had a few good laughs.  It was also a challenge to my faith.  Kevin was raised in a fairly secular environment, although he did profess a faith.  His family rarely went to church.  As a person who was raised in church, I realized that I assumed that everyone knew a little something about Christianity.  Who doesn’t know the Adam & Eve story?  His lack of familiarity with things I consider basic was a surprise to me.

I also saw the Liberty students through Kevin’s eyes.   They did not know Kevin was “undercover” and planning to write a book about his experience, so they had no reason to “perform” for him.  They spent so much of their time praying, reading the Bible, and talking about Jesus that I started to think, “These people are too holy”.

Too holy?  Is there such a thing?  My word of wisdom for today is passion.  The letter to the church of Laodicea might have been written to me.  Whatever we do, let’s be passionate about it.  Despite being a fun read, Kevin & his classmates discussed & struggled with some heavy contemporary issues.  Whether I agree or not, there’s something about people who stand up – and stand out – for what they believe in that commands respect. ____________________________________________________________

The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Good Shepherds

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers. 

Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.

Acts 20:28-29

 I praise God for all the people in my life who have shared the gospel with me and helped me to grow in the gospel and people who showed me how to put my faith into practice.  My word of wisdom for today is shepherd.

Before I met Janet, prayer was perfunctory.  Something you did in church or before you ate or during the holidays.  When I started hanging out with Janet, the two of us would walk around the city, and would pray for the city while we walked around; or as we talked, we would stop our conversation & pray about the different things we were talking about.  For her birthday & for other special events, she invited people to her house for prayer.  She was a good role model, showing me that prayer was something you could do all the time, and it was an activity worthy enough to invite people over to do together.  She and Angela taught me the importance of praying to God rather than complaining to people.  They taught me how to be committed to prayer.  The two of them were committed to showing up to our weekly prayer group, even as others’ attendance was uneven.  They were dedicated.  Neither of them are pastors or hold official titles in the church, but God has been using them in my life, and I’m sure in other people’s lives.

Now, when I’m walking around the city (and I walk a lot), I pray.  I notice that praying lifts my mood & helps me start my day on a positive note.  Prayer is also a good way for me to get my mind off the negative.  I’m also at a point in my life where I’m learning how to take my problems directly to God, instead of looking to other people to talk to.

I wish I knew that before. __________________________________________________________________________________

The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Foolish Questions

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law; because these are unprofitable and useless.

Titus 3:9

 I’ve seen a lot of controversies, arguments and broken relationships because of people’s inability to stop digging for information.  This may be pretty basic to you, but it took me a long time to realize that sometimes people use “innocent” questions as an excuse to start gossiping with me.  It also took me a long time to realize that I don’t have to answer every question.  Those realizations gave me relief.  There are some questions I’ve learned to avoid.

1. Did she say anything about me?
2. What did she say about me?
3. Why did she say that?
4. Who was there?
5. What do you think is going on with . . . ?

There’s no reason for a person to come to me or through me to find out about another person.  The fact that 2 people cannot speak directly to one another raises a red flag for me.

The last thing that stirs the pot is people who want to “vent” their frustrations over something that happened in the past. My pastor gave me this rule of thumb.  Problems should only be discussed with a person who is a part of the problem or, a person who is going to be a part of the solution.  To address it to someone else is to gossip.

I wish I knew that before. _________________________________________________________________________________

The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Elohim

I am the Lord, and there is no other;

Apart from Me there is no God.

Isaiah 45:5

I’ve been reflecting a lot on what it means for me to accept my lot in life, particularly accepting things I can’t change.

One of the things that I have to continually remind myself to accept is that God is God.  I cannot change Him to suit my needs.  The only thing I can do is summon the courage to accept His changing me.

I have a book entitled Knowing God by His Names, and so my word for today is Elohim, which means omnipotent power.   Elohim is one of the names of God.  The Omnipotent Power is my God, and I need to recognize & respect that fact.

The King James version of Psalm 100:3 reads as follows, “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”.  The first time I read it, the verse struck me.  If someone had come up to me and asked me if I created myself, I would have said, “Of course not!”  Yet, I often act and think like I did create myself.

Know ye that the Lord, He is God.

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The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

Family

“Now at last my husband will become attached to me,

because I have borne him three sons.”

Genesis 29:34

As an unmarried woman, I had long labored under the belief the marriage automatically bestowed companionship, warmth, and protection – all the warm & fuzzy feelings normally associated with family.  (That’s my word of wisdom for today – family.)  Over the years, as I saw couples that I thought were happy suddenly file for divorce; and even as I spoke with women who love their husbands & children admit that there were times when they still felt alone, I’ve come to realize that family doesn’t automatically mean “closeness”.  Leah was Jacob’s first, but unloved, wife; and she’s the one hoping that giving birth to a third son will finally make him love her.  It’s sad.

I’m not writing this to be a wet blanket.  In my very first (May 14) blog on this website, I revealed that I did not know the importance of making choices about how I wanted my life to unfold.  A family can be a place of protection, bonding, peace, warmth, understanding, etc; but now I believe family only becomes that place if you choose & plan for your family to be that safe haven.  Being happily married is better than being alone; and being alone is much better than being unhappily married.  The planning begins with God.

 God sets the lonely in families . . .

Psalm 68:6

The purpose of If I Knew Then What I Know Now is to share some insights that I wish someone had told me about when I was younger.  There’s a fuller explanation on my first post, written on May 14, 2012.

The Unprofessional Ministry

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  Acts 2:47

 To me, Acts 2:42-47 is a picture of a group of laypeople who became saved, and then did what they could to build a ministry, which prospered.  Clearly, they listened to & studied the teachings of the apostles, but my take-away from this passage is that they took some initiative & took ownership of their young church.

I have to admit that in some ways, my being a licensed professional has kept me in bondage.  It’s made me territorial.  Laypeople shouldn’t be doing the type of work I do because they’re not “qualified”.  In other ways, my lack of a professional credential has made me passive.  There are things I want to see done in my church; but I haven’t done them because I’m waiting for my pastors to give me the green light.  I didn’t go to seminary – they did.  I was talking to one of my pastors who said, “Let’s start, because if you and I don’t do it, it won’t be done”.

There is a place for laypersons & professionals to work together.  I’m only a professional in 1 area of my life.  In most situations I’m a layperson.  I think the key, regardless of the situation, is to discern what I can and cannot do.  To figure out where I can be helpful, and where I can’t.  In some situations, people need empathy, and therefore a layperson who has walked in their shoes is more useful than a professional.  In some situations, a particular skill or expertise is required, and that’s when a professional should step in.

Poetry

You heavens above, rain down righteousness;

Let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up,

Let righteousness grow with it;

I, the Lord, have created it.

Isaiah 45:8

I thank God for His poetry and His craftsmanship as a writer.  I read the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, many years before I became a Christian.  Since I wasn’t a Christian, I didn’t have the Holy Spirit to give me Godly understanding, so most of what I read remained a confusing mystery.  Yet, the one thing I was able to appreciate is how beautiful some of the writing is.  Poetry is my word of wisdom for today.

The poetry of the Bible is just as beautiful as anything Shakespeare wrote.  Sometimes I’m reading the Bible and I’m just struck by a particular phrase and how creative and provocative and rich it is.  Look at Isaiah 45:8.  Several weeks ago, I went to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden.  I am a city-girl & I love the city; but it was nice being in an environment filled with trees and flowers.  It looked good and smelled good.  It was peaceful.  The crowd was mellow.

As lovely as the whole scene was, how much lovelier would it be if instead of orchids, salvation spring up from the earth?  How cool would it be if each flower had seeds of salvation?  It’s been raining a lot lately.  What if, instead of water, it rained down righteousness?  I went out without my boots on because I didn’t expect it to rain as heavily has it did.  It poured.  The rain soaked through my sneakers & socks and I walked around with damp feet all day.  If my feet were damp with righteousness, however, I assume it wouldn’t be as difficult for me to walk in His word & in His ways.  Would I want shoes?  Would I want an umbrella?  Now I’m wondering if that’s why, before the fall, Adam & Eve were able to walk around in the Garden naked.

Thank God.