Worship as Prudence
I feel richly blessed to have a husband who is always brewing something in his head. He will disappear into a warp zone in his head and later I find that he has outlined a whole sermon. Yesterday, we had a coffee date and he preached to me, it was very romantic. I love his heart and how God talks to him. He isn’t one to zealously or enthusasically share his thoughts or teach me or others, when uninvited. Yet, if he is invited, prepare yourself for insight that changes you. God has gifted him with knowledge and the ability to communicate it well. He has taught me and inspired me, yet he is a prudent man. He has taught me over the years by his example to be cautious and obedient to Christ as to when and what to share with others. He worships in humility and prudence with his mind.
Proverbs 12: 23 A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly.
This verse cuts at my heart. While, I am a passionate woman, I continue to be prone to speak my mind, heart, knowledge, insight, etc. Even as I blog, it is a matter of prayer. I go thru a process as I study–to desire Christ be glorified and not me, to be prudent with my knowledge and my heart.
Worship is prudence sometimes, because it takes the humility, dependence on Christ, a desire for God’s glory and not self, to RESTRAIN my lips, or in most cases, to RESTRAIN my fingers typing.
Worship is prudence if it brings my mind in submission to Christ and the joy that brings.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (3)Busy at Home
I have been thinking lately about “busy.” What does it really mean?
Titus 2:4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (ESV)
titus 2:4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (NIV)
This must be important, since God would speak to it. So, when a woman is at home, what does being Busy at home, mean…
I would venture to say that there are two types of busy at home
1. Frantic busy: last minute shopping for the last minute meal, last minute phone calls, emails, and trip to the store to get diapers or dog food, because your baby is wearing the last diaper you own. This kind of busy is the gal that is out of breath because she is running in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail. This busy gal is not ever getting time to rest or to enjoy those she loves or she does do those things and lets everything else fall apart around her. She isn’t really busy at all, she creates chaos by not managing/stewarding well, then has to urgently respond to the chaos- which can mask as busyness. Does she enjoy her life creating chaos? Maybe, frantic is fun? She is a busy gal, but she doesn’t seem to ever get it all done. She is urgent driven/minded.
2. Smart busy: planner and sabbather. She menu plans and reads to her kids. She makes love to her husband and has time to play a board game with her family. She is super busy, but is working smart and hard, sometimes fast at working, like during naps when kids are not needing her attention. This smart busy gal is ready for the impromptu visit or call. She is busy at home, but in a different way than the frantic busy gal. She may not get everything done, but smart gal seems to be focused not chaotic.
So, when do each of these busy gals read their Bibles? How about exercise? hmm. Those are good tests for me personally when I can tell my heart has veered over to frantic or urgent driven work. God in his grace offers opportunities for me to get back on track with stewardship of time and resources and doing more smart busy work.
Busy at home is not an “of course.” I could work myself in to a sweat and “miss” those moments that God has called me to, like playing with my children, affection, words, tenderness, laughter, all in exchange for a folded load of laundry? No, thank you!
God wants me to fear Him with my busyness, that I would be motivated primarily to work for his view not for others, that he would teach me to be smart in my labor.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (4)Internet Busy Body
When is the last time you found yourself going around from house to house being idle? Or, perhaps calling too many friends in one day? Surely, not you, NOT me!
I never thought of myself as a busybody. Busy body has a very negative connotation, doesn’t it? I think of the town gossip lady and is not busy at home, but off out and about her life…I certainly never thought I was idle, lazy, or pointless or wandering about my day, looking for some one or something to scratch an itch.
Until… I found that the Internet is my “town” to meander. I have found myself recently “going from house to house” or “website to website” seeking something. Information, book reviews, someones blog, or my email that seduces my attention.
1 Timothy 5: 13Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.
I try not to check email too often in my day, but this takes such discipline, lately. I think the heart of this temptation for me is the same sin battle that the busy body who wants to see things, people, know stuff, because she isn’t content with what she already knows and has.
When is it ever appropriate to “surf” the Internet? Perhaps, I am researching… But, most commonly I only surf as a time waster. If I am researching I usually find the information quickly, thankfully. I am here to repent of the time waster surfing which is sinful busy body behavior!
By God’s grace, my slices of time for Internet will stewarded more wisely.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (2)Fear of the Risen Lord!
In celebrating Jesus this week, I am in awe specifically of the fear of the Risen Christ. Mary Magdelene and the other Mary were afraid when they saw the tomb empty and still afraid when the angel told them that Jesus was alive. Their fear of God was strong.
Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you. 8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
”Afraid yet filled with Joy” I can’t imagine how they must have felt as they ran to tell their dear friends that the Lord was alive!
I have been pondering the fear of the Lord versus my fear of man, for awhile now. I am working thru a second time the book by Ed Welch’s book When People Are Big and God is Small. In this book, I have realized how deep my fear of man is and how shallow my fear of the Lord is. As I read this account of the “Marys, ” see them in a different way, somehow. I see them in wonder, awe, fear, curiousity, joy, and somehow I see them trembling with hope.
As I have confessed before and continue to see sin there, God is changing me! He is bringing me to a place of trust and fear. A peaceful anticipation of God’s presence and the riches that await me in my journey with him. As I experience Christ, I find worship in the mundane and unsignificant. I find Jesus giving me more often a trembling fear and joy at the same time, a new and precious experience.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Work AS Stewardship
Stewardship: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you.
Time Management is the outflow of a conscious understanding of this, daily. The method may vary, yet stewarding God’s grace in my work is a constant dutiful awareness of the resources God has blessed me as a gift.
Managing my time well is stewarding the resources God has given me. Time is grace. Time is a gift. In each day lays opportunities In Christ to worship him.
- If I view my day and all the events of my day as a gift of God’s grace to me, then in my worship, I will steward to God’s glory.
- I will work hard in humility and my heart will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to guide my steps.
- The opposite of godly stewardship would be blind laziness.
- Any fruit of godly stewardship is again gifts of grace to God’s glory not my own.
- I am aware in my heart in prayer throughout my day of God’s evidences of God’s grace.
Work as Stewardship for me is laying aside my plans and allowing God to make my plans. If you are a productivity nerd like me or my husband, check out www.nodeglue.com for my husband’s continuous thoughts of productivity and tools that enable such excellence.
Tools for time management are to be held loosely. They don’t save me or make me a godly steward. I can use outlook daily or be an expert at “Getting Things Done,” yet my heart is set on my own glory, my familiar “hit of accomplishment.” Like a true addict, my sinful drive to accomplish replaces a pure desire to submit to God’s plan for my day.
In an effort to be successful with time management, I have squeezed my hand around my plan and revealed that the desire to “produce” was too great.
Humble stewardship holds time management loosely and wisely, aware of time traps, legalistic lists, and the passionate self-centered desire to perform for self and others.
God’s grace is a gift to steward. Work is an opportunity to worship thru the acknowledgement of His grace.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Making “sacrifices.”
Sometimes the biblical word for worship is translated “sacrifice.”
Romans 12:1 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.
This week, I read Vintage Jesus, Pastor Mark’s newest book. It has been a solid and thoughtful look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Pastor Mark! I love the following in the section on worship:
Glorymeans weightiness, importance, preeminience, priority, or that which is our greatest treasure, deepest longing, and fountain of hope. Functionally, what we hold int he place of glory is in effect our real god. People can and do hold various people and things in a position of glory and then worship them by making sacrifices. Because we have limited resources (time, energy, money), we must allocate those things to what we consider most important or glorious to us and in so doing make sacrifices for our functional god. Whatever we hold in the position of highest glory is by definition our god(s). Practically, worship is making sacrifices for what we are living to glorify. - Mark Driscoll, Vintage Jesus
What do I make sacrifices to daily?
Like in my previous posts, so many other things lure my heart to make sacrifices to, other than Christ. God’s grace is amazing and I am utterly grateful that He accepts me “in Christ.” Not because my sacrifices to worship Jesus are always pure.
My heart’s desire is: Acts 20:2424 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Philipians 3:3For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (2)“play with kids” is on my list
My sin of giving my attention to tasks more than giving my attention to the eyes and hearts of those in my home hangs out in my heart daily.
God is at work. This is one reason why I am blogging this topic to show the journey of my repentance, to process, to practice writing more, to share with strangers, to not be motivated for feedback, to ultimately give God the glory for any of my heart change.
I am a list maker. My outlook calendar usually just has appointments/meetings/outings on it. My daily list has a schedule for the day. Starting at 6 am and ending at 10- on my list are all the things I want to accomplish. The first things I usually put down are the house chores. Second, my exercise and reading goals for the day. Thirdly, I glance at the schedule and see if there is room for leisure, like a nap, or more reading…
ON SOME DAYS, I remember to put down on the list things like: play little people 30 minutes, shoot hoops with Henry, set up fort downstairs for boys, etc. I have been so busy in the last few weeks, I have neglected playing with my children. I can so easily go into caretaker mommie, that I only take care of them and don’t also enjoy them, thru play, and relationship. This is HUGE for me.
Remember, Martha’s sin, my sin? My default tendencies are just like Martha’s in Luke 10, to be distracted with much, busy, yet not choosing the “good portion” at the right time. I have countless opportunities throughout my day, to stop and choose the hearts of my kids. I don’t want to just “manage” my children and house. These moments when we giggle together, play a board game together, when I play dolls with my daughter and use pretend voices, run races in the yard together, have impromptu puppet shows, those are the moments that the kids treasure, and yet those are not my first desires. Surviving the day, as I have blogged is maintaining work so constantly so to not accrue house debt.
Honestly, God has to be yelling at me to sometimes HEAR HIS VOICE to stop working and play. So, tomorrow- on my daily list will be play with each child their choice of toy/game. I don’t believe that God wants me to legalistically place play on my list each day, yet the sin I am convicted of right now suggests that am aware of God’s grace to give me the gift of time with my children. God is renewing my desire and my satisfaction in worshipping Jesus in work and THIS is YET ANOTHER act of seeing God.
thank you, Jesus!
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