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Saturday, February 23
every morning
every morning, as i set off to go to work, i see an older couple walking on the path on the parkway. it's probably one of my favorite thing of the day. around 7:10am, they're power walking along the road. sometimes they have a friend walking with them, but they're out there every day (unless it's raining). the best part of seeing them walk is that they hold hands as they walk. it's just a great expression of life-long friendship. :-)
Friday, February 22
The Names of God
I'm doing a personal devotion on the names of God right now. It's been awesome because it's revealing Who God is in so many different ways. I'm half-way through the book and here are the names I've learned:
ELOHIM: God the Creator
EL ELYON: God Most High
EL ROI: The God Who Sees
EL SHADDAI: God Almightly, All Sufficient One
ADONAI: The Lord
JEHOVAH: The Self-Existent One
JEHOVAH-JIREH: The Lord Will Provide
JEHOVAH-RAPHA: The Lord Who Heals
The thing that strikes me about the names (note: plural) of God is that there really is not one that suffices in a description of our Great God. There is El Elyon, which is God Most High, but that does not convey the compassion displayed in El Roi, the God who is so intimately involved in our lives that He sees us. El Shaddai, God Almighty, shows God's awesome (in the true sense of the word) omnipotence, His mighty omniscience, while Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Rapha make the Almighty nature of God so much more personal by His provision and healing us.
He is beyond one name. He is God, but there is so much more to His nature that we had to come up with a host of names to describe Him to all generations. Our God is so great that we need so many words to describe Him.
Doing this study in conjunction with the study at church has been a wonderful opportunity to not only learn the names of God through a devotion, but to see the names play out in the Old Testament. I cannot imagine needing El Shaddai more than when the prophets were speaking the very words of God to rebellious Israel. I am not sure one can identify Jehovah Jireh better than when Elijah was fed by the ravens or when the widow's food miraculously lasted. When God revealed Himself to Hannah, she needed to know that there was a God who saw her misery as a barren woman (and would heal her as Jehovah Rapha). So many times God reveals Himself to humankind as a exactly what we need. The amazing thing is that God continues this even now.
Tuesday, February 19
Elisha and Jonah
1 Kings 19: 19-21: The Call of Elisha
19 So Elijah went up from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowering with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you."
"Go back," Elijah replied, "What have I done to you?"
21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowering equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
Compare this to Jonah:
Jonah 1:1-3
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Our College and Career class is doing an Old Testament Survey and we are currently reading about the Divided Israel and the prophets. Though I've read about Elijah and Elisha, I was particularly struck by the passage in 1 Kings, especially when read in comparison with the passage with Jonah. I know that this comparison really isn't fair. I mean, it's Elisha who asked for and received a double-portion of Elijah's ministry. While that is true, Elisha and Jonah had two very different reaction's to the call on their lives.
1) Our reactions matter: God used both men, but it took a lot to get Jonah to cooperate. I mean, being swallowed by a "great fish" really is the giant, glowing billboard on the Spiritual road of life: "JONAH YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY." And as much as I'd like to pretend that I'm more like Elisha, in reality, my heart is too often like Jonah's when God calls me to do something. Jonah struggled much more than he had to because he decided to run from God's call rather than standing up to answer it.
2) Burn your old life: Elisha didn't just leave his old life; he didn't give himself an option of going back. HE BURNED HIS OXEN AND EQUIPMENT. There are few things as dramatic as that. Many times we keep the things that God has called us from, keeping us from fully committing to what He wants for us.
3) God accomplishes His will regardless, but it's better to cooperate: Reading about Elisha's life is like reading about a superstar. He had such an awesome ministry! So many miracles. I flinch when I read Jonah's story. Not only does he initially run away from God's call, he has a poor attitude when he sees what God is doing. Jonah's story ends with a tongue-lashing from God on Jonah's poor attitude regarding God's compassion (the same compassion that perserved his life!). We might not like the call (really, being a prophet in the Old Testament is a tough job), but God's purposes are so much greater than our own.
19 So Elijah went up from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowering with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you."
"Go back," Elijah replied, "What have I done to you?"
21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowering equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
Compare this to Jonah:
Jonah 1:1-3
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Our College and Career class is doing an Old Testament Survey and we are currently reading about the Divided Israel and the prophets. Though I've read about Elijah and Elisha, I was particularly struck by the passage in 1 Kings, especially when read in comparison with the passage with Jonah. I know that this comparison really isn't fair. I mean, it's Elisha who asked for and received a double-portion of Elijah's ministry. While that is true, Elisha and Jonah had two very different reaction's to the call on their lives.
1) Our reactions matter: God used both men, but it took a lot to get Jonah to cooperate. I mean, being swallowed by a "great fish" really is the giant, glowing billboard on the Spiritual road of life: "JONAH YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY." And as much as I'd like to pretend that I'm more like Elisha, in reality, my heart is too often like Jonah's when God calls me to do something. Jonah struggled much more than he had to because he decided to run from God's call rather than standing up to answer it.
2) Burn your old life: Elisha didn't just leave his old life; he didn't give himself an option of going back. HE BURNED HIS OXEN AND EQUIPMENT. There are few things as dramatic as that. Many times we keep the things that God has called us from, keeping us from fully committing to what He wants for us.
3) God accomplishes His will regardless, but it's better to cooperate: Reading about Elisha's life is like reading about a superstar. He had such an awesome ministry! So many miracles. I flinch when I read Jonah's story. Not only does he initially run away from God's call, he has a poor attitude when he sees what God is doing. Jonah's story ends with a tongue-lashing from God on Jonah's poor attitude regarding God's compassion (the same compassion that perserved his life!). We might not like the call (really, being a prophet in the Old Testament is a tough job), but God's purposes are so much greater than our own.
Saturday, February 16
hello
an awesome way to spend v-day...in case you're making plans for next year.
i don't have much to say. life is chugging along with a pretty boring pattern: work, clean/obligatory event, church, work, clean/obligatory event, church... it's not too bad, but i've recently decided that the two-day weekend is much to short when your husband is a baptist music minister.
in other news, we found a lizard in our house this morning. he was hanging out by our sliding door. this is the second lizard sighting in two days. they freak out when evan tries to put them outside and we might have broken yesterday's lizard's foot. poor guy.
work has been pretty busy. i had to write a grant in two days. i'm getting much better at fudging things (which is horrible to admit!). i wrote some great papers in college, but i think if i were writing them now they would be even better. anyway, the grant is pretty good. i was impressed. i did leave work a couple times nearly in tears. oh well.
i'm hoping to get into beach shape. the weather is finally getting warm enough to see at the beach(i know, crazy because it's february).
i don't have much to say. life is chugging along with a pretty boring pattern: work, clean/obligatory event, church, work, clean/obligatory event, church... it's not too bad, but i've recently decided that the two-day weekend is much to short when your husband is a baptist music minister.
in other news, we found a lizard in our house this morning. he was hanging out by our sliding door. this is the second lizard sighting in two days. they freak out when evan tries to put them outside and we might have broken yesterday's lizard's foot. poor guy.
work has been pretty busy. i had to write a grant in two days. i'm getting much better at fudging things (which is horrible to admit!). i wrote some great papers in college, but i think if i were writing them now they would be even better. anyway, the grant is pretty good. i was impressed. i did leave work a couple times nearly in tears. oh well.
i'm hoping to get into beach shape. the weather is finally getting warm enough to see at the beach(i know, crazy because it's february).
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