Psalm 46 (as I see it)

For the choir director. 

A Psalm of the sons of Korah,

set to Alamoth. 

A Song. 

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.

           Therefore we will not fear,
                          though the earth should change
                                     though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
                                     Though its waters roar and foam,
                                     Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.

                                                    Selah.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.

             God is in the midst of her,
                          she will not be moved;
             God will help her when morning dawns.
                         The nations made an uproar,
                         the kingdoms tottered;
                         He raised His voice,
                                       the earth melted.

The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. 

                                                    Selah.

Come, behold the works of the LORD,
          Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
          He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
                        He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
                        He burns the chariots with fire.
Cease striving and
know that I am God;
         I will be exalted among the nations,
         I will be exalted in the earth.

The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. 

                                                    Selah.

what to say to 'stuck' singles

We all know singles who seem stuck in life. They're functioning adults, but they haven't found their career or spouse yet. No family yet. Maybe they keep going back to school. Drift in and out of dating. Their current position may not match their education. Maybe they talk about feeling 'stuck'. Maybe that's just the word that comes to mind when you see them. So, what do you say when life runs you up against these people?

Well fret yo-self no more. I'm a professional stuck.
And here's what we need to hear from you:

1. There is no stuck.

Remember that time I debunked my entire blog post on point number 1? Yup.

No really, we don't see stuck in Scripture. We see Abraham maturing in faith as he waits on God's promises. We see Joseph growing in favor with those around him as he sits in jail. David pens our favorite Psalms while in the 'holding pattern' of waiting to rule the kingdom. Paul and Silas take their shackles as opportunity to fellowship with God and a church is born. 

There should always be forward movement in Christ-likeness. A growing in grace and the knowledge of God. A reaching forth to things before us. Don't let singles sit back on their haunches because they seem to be in 'dead time.'

2. Look for the illumined step, not the assumed step. 

We can assume life will take a direct path of highschool, college, marriage, children, more children, (perhaps more children), marriage of said children, grandchildren, retirement etc. And deviation from that path can be met with disappointed tolerance, questioning suspicion, or active frowning from others.

But God is the great creative. He weaves paths as diverse as we are. So challenge singles not to stare at where the next step should be, but to seek how God could be leading them. To ask for varied counsel. To read widely. To pray big. To research how God is at work in the world around them, and consider how their skills fit in with that work.

3. Advancing God's kingdom doesn't require advancing to the next phase of life. 

I'm limited by being single. Yep. Been there. Actually I come and go from there pretty often. Have the bumper sticker. Own a rental on that beach. You get the idea. It's easy for singles to think they're strapped in what they can do for God. But I've read my Bible from cover to cover and have yet to find that anywhere. Remind 'stuckies' of this. And while you're at it, remind them of this closely connected point:

4. There's no qualifier for glorifying God. 

Are you eating? Are you drinking? Are you doing, I don't know, whatsoever? Then you can glorify God. Marrieds have no corner on whatsoever. It's a free for all.

5. God doesn't keep good from obedient children.

He's not withholding something best. An understanding of His love and sovereignty must lead to that conclusion. But singles can get fixated on the good we seem to be missing in marriage and family. So point them to God's love and sovereignty.They need to hear it.

6. Your life counts. 

My sister's life has followed a most beautiful arch. I've admired it from her first crush on my brother in law, up til now as she mothers their four children. I cannot adequately express my respect for her. So I well nigh fainted when she confessed, "Beth, I admire your life so much. How God is using you for eternal things. The opportunities you have..." I was like, what? And now we have this habit of dive-bombing each other's lives and pointing out how they count, the worth they have for eternity. Do this to singles around you. Trust me, they need it. 

7. Be a good student in your current classroom. 

Someday I think God will teach me about marriage and parenting. But right now I'm in a different classroom of faith. Different lessons. Encourage singles not to shove their current 'classwork' aside. Challenge them to learn how to be good students now. 
.........................................

I would not recommend lobbing all seven of these points at your single friend at once. But we need to be reminded of these truths. And in the end, these truths encourage and refresh us much more than what is often said. 

Beth 

would you recant?

"If a gun were pointed at your head would you be strong in your faith? What would it take for you to recant? Are you willing to die for Christ?" Last week, questions like these crowd my social media in response to a mass shooting that appears to have targeted Christians. 

I've been asked questions like these since I was young. And of course I would loudly affirm my faith with the other awkward adolescents around our Sunday School table, or raise my hand with the masses of pimple-cheeked teenagers at Christian camps. But my insides would always whimper I don't know.

The Christian Martyrs of Nagasaki
[public domain] via wikipedia

I still don't know. It's never happened. And (let's be honest) there's a high probability it won't happen to me. Of course, I sincerely hope I would act on what I know to be true about God and eternity. That I would face death with my belief strong and steady. That there would be special grace to make the ultimate decision. However, that's not required of my faith today. 

But very much IS. 

You see, I may never be asked if I will deny my faith with the cold metal of a loaded gun pressed to my head, but let me tell you what I am asked:

Skipping one day of Bible reading isn't going to affect you, right?

Has God really given a clear 'no' to this questionable activity?

Why don't you (insert lifestyle choice that dishonors God)? 

Do you really have time to seek God over this? 

Will you choose right even when it feels wrong?

What do you believe about_______?

Will you esteem this fellow believer as better than yourself? 

Won't you linger over that carnal image? 

Will you deny self?

Do you really have to suffer long and be kind towards_______?

What makes you so different?

How can you live without wild parties, drugs, and sex? 

Do you really need to forgive that person?

Are the consequences of choosing this sin really that bad? 

Isn't 'down time' supposed to be 'me time?' 

Don't they deserve the silent treatment? Angry word? Curt response? 

Will God really work this together for good? 

..............................................................

Each question bombards me in some form almost every day. 

Each question demands an answer. 

Each answer will either deny or affirm my faith. 

Reality is, no one just up and dives in front of a firing squad while blurting out I'm Christian so kill me! Faith doesn't come Herculean. It must be built. I am to keep on reckoning myself dead to sin. To hold fast to what I've been taught. I am to daily take up the cross of identity with Christ. To add to my faith. 

We've got to quit thinking in superlatives and exotic possibility. To stop reclining on the stage of daily life while waxing eloquent about the bigger role we think we could master. Today, we'll be required to act out faith in both soliloquy and public address. Whether openly questioned by others, or simply called to believe in unseen things when embraced by the all-too-seen pleasures of sin. In these unexpected moments, my faith will be tried. 

And these moments? They're essential to the plot line. They are the plot line. They're worth an eternal weight of glory. They're more precious than gold that perishes. They make possible a well done thou good and faithful servant from a God who sees each split-second choice. They're necessary to pleasing Him who has called us to be soldiers. 

If we refuse to obey in these small moments, why do we think we'd obey in the big your-life-hangs-in-the-balance ones? But obey in the small-- affirm our faith in the little--and if the big comes, I think it won't appear that big. It will be met with a faith waxed strong through practice. A believer well-exercised towards godliness... 

A confidence in the glistening eternal matured on the worn, wooden stage of the temporal. 

Beth 

when the normal becomes hard

This was me all Monday: 

Don't wanna do dishes one more time. No more loading/unloading the dishwasher. No more stiff, smelly rags. No more food-gunk in the strainer. No more sore knees from standing on that floor so long...no more wiping down the counters and chipping dried stuff off the stove. Grumblegrumblemurmurgrumble.

I felt completely justified in launching this all-day pity party. Mostly because our kitchen goes from this:

(ok, blogger fail. I neglected to snap a pic of our kitchen when it was clean this week. Just imagine a tiny, warm, farm-style place.)

to this:

in about 5 minutes on any given day. It's fast. and it's total. It's gross. and it doesn't evolve into something better if left alone. 

Trust me. 

This frustration eclipsed my entire day. Couldn't focus on work. Couldn't think of anything else to write about (obviously). Couldn't revel in anticipation over this awesome recipe for tofu nuggets I'd downloaded for supper. Couldn't, because I was hating on my kitchen. (now, my frustration was with the kitchen, not the lovely people who share it with me. I would not be writing this post if it were otherwise. Trust me.) 

I dreaded this monotonous task until I was faced with doing it, and every minute of the many it took to restore my kitchen to presentability. And when I glanced at the clock, I hated this kitchen for swallowing whole most of my home-after-long-workday-and-grocery-shopping evening. It wasn't til much later in the evening that I remembered. Remembered what I'd written a friend just a few hours before:

'Study at the feet of Christ. Bow your head and out loud, invite Him to labor over your books with you. Mix fellowship with God into what you do. In the end, this is more important than knocking out an amazing grade.' 

Yep. Conviction of cosmic proportions. I had divorced my normal from my spiritual. 

Yet. Again. 

I do it all the time. Put certain activities under a spiritual heading and others under everyday life. But I think Satan rejoices in that. Because it's not the truth. Truth is every moment of a believer's life can be a spiritual one. One of speaking/listening to God. One of worship. One of abiding. 

And it takes something more than just 'going with the flow' or sheer determination to live every day spiritually. It takes a dependence on the Lord. Takes faith. Takes a filling of His Spirit. Takes intentional asking, seeking, and knocking. The Word dwelling richly in us. Without Him, we can do nothing. But through Him? You know the answer to that. 

A woman named Lydia Baxter understood this. If her online biography is correct, she spent the majority of her adult life sick and bedridden. Normal monotony for sure. Yet at age 65, just four years before her death, she penned this well-known hymn text:

Take the name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe;
It will joy and comfort give you,
Take it then where’er you go.

I fell asleep Monday night praying for this. To seek the filling of His Spirit before the mundane tasks. For conscious abiding in Him as I go about my normal. To take that precious name and all that it means into the crooks and crannies of everyday. 

Whether they need scrubbed clean or not. 

Beth 

dear women

Single Threads is not a platform for discussing current events. Mostly because I'm no good at it. But there's something about what's been trending online that I can't leave alone.  

_______poses topless for________.

 Nude photo of______makes the front of________magazine.

 _______tweets image of her...

These headlines trend all last week. And with everything in me, I want to reach past them. To take the hand of these women. To look them in the eye, and speak soft and gentle and firm. To tell them something like this...

...................................................................

Dear women, nudity sells. Topless will always trend. Our bodies? Always have a buyer. 

My guess is, you get this.

But I don't think you get who you are. 

Whether or not you feel it, like it, or believe it, you are made in the image of God. He formed you in your mother's womb. You bear in your body the indelible mark of this Creator. It's what makes you so beautiful. 

And get this: He didn't create you to be the way you are today.

Because everyday the world paints us glossy with its message. Liberated! Empowered! Cast off morality! Be yourself! Do what you like! It's your body. Your life. You own it. Flaunt it. Be shocking. Break down respectable. You're worth it. Want it? Get it. Do it. Live it. At all cost. 

And like the emperor in his new clothes, we believe these words. We thrash about in our power and right thinking we are making ourselves. We expose, and flaunt, manipulate, and consume. But we're not making. We're destroying.

You see, broken people will always break things. 

And the broken festers just under that shiny, painted veneer. You'll find it as a vicious gnawing for acceptance. Acrid lust eating at your very center for something, anything that hints of love. Obsession for whatever empowers, satisfies, and pleasures you. Poison of must-have-more that pushes through your veins. From the very Garden of Eden, humanity chose this path of destruction. And, try as we might, we cannot stop our feet from hitting that path the moment we're birthed into this spinning world.  

But understand this: you don't have to be this way.

Our Creator came to earth as Jesus Christ to bind up our throbbing broken. Came, and we were so enamored with our own way that we hung Him on a cross. But this was His plan all along. For in dying? He killed death. Destroyed destruction. Paid for that evil choice His creation has made. Paid it in full. Bearing all our brokenness in His own body on that cross. Smitten, so we need not be slapped senseless by our own lust anymore. Then, after three days, He rose from the grave. And in doing that?

God laid another path. 

Dear women, I'm on that path. God placed me on it the moment I believed what He'd done for me through Jesus Christ. And listen close. I mean, don't miss this: Now, those destructive desires? (yes, I have them too) They're what's broken. Their power over me? Crushed like the head of a serpent after a mighty blow. And I'm whole. 

God remade me that night I believed on Him. I'm complete. I know such perfect acceptance, love, and satisfaction in Him that there's no need to wring it from those around me. Don't need to believe this world's glitter sheen: I've the solid-real of Truth. Don't need to scream me! at all who will hear. I've found my identity in my Creator. And you can find this too. 

.......................................................................

Dear women, you don't have to expose yourself to make yourself. You've been made. 

And though broken now, you can be made whole. 

Beth 

when God says yes

    10 steps to follow when God says no.           How to handle a Divine 'wait.' 

               Help! God won't let me!                            When the Creator is silent. 

We see titles like this all the time. And we should! As God's children, we've all experienced His no. And it can leave us feeling thwarted, discouraged, or (dare we admit it) just plain angry. But what about when God says yes? Does He say yes? To what things? Here's a few I came up with recently:

Daily mercies (Lam. 3:22-23)                     His ear when I pray (Ps. 55:17)

Grace (2 Cor. 9:8; 12:9)                            Guidance (Prov. 3:5-6)      

Wisdom (Jas. 1:5-6)                                  Strength (Is. 40:31; Ps. 37:39; 2 Cor. 12:9) 

Victory (I Cor. 10:13; Rom 7:24-25)           Enabling (I Thess. 5:24; Jn. 15:5)

Peace (Phil. 4:6-7)                                     Every thing God deems good (Ps. 34:10; 84:11) 

This list is a very small sampling made very quickly. Every promise in the Bible? Is a guaranteed yes. Every statement of positional truth? A yes. Asking God to work out His character/revealed will? Automatic yes. 

But let's rewind for a moment. I would say one of the biggest no's in my life right now is marriage. It's very real. And it affects my every day. I also know that focusing on that no can lead to depression, moral shipwreck, rebellion, crippling insecurity...we see it happen all the time, right?

And although the yes list above sparkles with spiritual truth, sometimes I'm left wondering how it applies to my real life. I mean, what about things like a spouse, a child, a raise, a job/ministry position, relief from a trial, physical healing...if there's no way to be assured a yes in these rubber-meets-the-road examples, then does the list really matter? 

Yes. Here's why:

When I pursue how God is saying yes and set my mind on it? When I keep on asking for those things knowing I'm going to receive them? I find that I do much more than survive under a Divine no. I thrive. I have all and abound. Plenty strength for my countless weaknesses. Peace so perfect that I can't even understand it. Not a mere shred of wisdom but a liberal, unending gush of it. Mercy new this morning and tailored to this day. Satisfaction. Deliverance. Guidance. Victory...and these? Dramatically impact my real life. 

When I claim this list of Divine yes, the no shrinks into perspective. It's no longer a massive, suffocating blanket. It's a mere thread woven into the beautiful pattern God is working in my life. A pattern that, if I could zoom out far enough, would appear to be the biggest yes possible: I am working all together for your good and My glory. (Rom. 8:28) 

.................................................................

Like a prism reflecting the afternoon light, the Divine yes shines on every part of our lives. Dancing into hidden corners of fear and worry. Beaming onto shadows of pain and loss. Making the normal surroundings of God-given responsibilities glow with warmth and beauty. God is always saying yes. Yes to being with us (Heb. 13:5-6). Yes to being for us (Rom 8:31). Yes to being in us (Col 1:27; Gal. 2:20). And working through us (Phil. 4:13)...

So the question changes. It's no longer when will God stop saying no to_______? But how is He saying yes? And that, my friend, is a question with an answer as wide as eternity and as infinite as God Himself. 

Beth

but what is MY role?

I tip-toe stretch against the glass display and throw my voice over the lunchtime din: flatbread, pepperjack, toasted, everything but cucumbers, with oregano please! It's gonna be my own special bundle of sandwich bliss. I'm drooling.

And I'm pretty used to personalizing things like this. Have it your way!..You asked for it? we delivered!...Full customization!!!...We live in a buffet style, pick and choose culture. It's all around us. We expect nothing less.

But singles can carry this mindset into Scripture. We open our Bibles and are sorely disappointed to find no customized road map. We hit passage after passage tailored to wives and husbands and parents, but us? Not so much. So, because there's no First and Second Song of Singleness, I guess we're left to muck about in sub-par existence until we're launched into the upper echelons of instruction on marital and parental bliss. 

oh well...sigh...(empty pause)...

OR, could it be that in our search for tiny shreds of customized truth, we've forgotten the instruction we already have? Instruction that, if applied, would bring the satisfaction and focus to our single lives we so long for? This line of thought has me captivated. Here's a bit of what I'm learning...

1. I have a role in Christ

I'm His workmanship. Delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. Joint-heir with Christ. In the household of faith. I've become a child of God. You know these passages and more. 

This role comes with tremendous instruction. Instruction like, be kind. Forgive. Come boldly before the throne of grace. Don't let sin reign in your body. Exercise towards godliness. Be filled with the Spirit. Provoke believers to good works. Redeem the time. And that's just a sampling. Working out my role in Christ is the most rewarding focus I can have. It's tied to my very identity. Don't marginalize it in pursuit of something more 'single-ish'. 

2. I have a role in the body of Christ

Singles can feel and act like misfits in the church. I won't be missed if I don't go today. I'm just one, so my gifts/input have no value. My married peers are given much more respect and attention. No one understands my single life. There's no real ministry for me. So we stop attending, or church hop seeking for more singles. A constant search to fit in. 

But Christ has already fit us in. Do I believe that? That God has set me in the body of Christ just as He desires? That He's fitly joined me together with those in my church? That I have an effectual measure necessary for the body to make increase of itself in love? That my gifts are for building up the body of Christ? That as a joint I have something to supply that no one else can? A body part's value lies in its healthy attachment to other members, not apart from them or in a grouping of the same part. If it detaches from the body everybody suffers.

Don't take this role in the body of Christ and its wealth of instruction lightly. Pray, seek counsel, and work at applying it. You will become one of the most satisfied singles around. You'll be doing what you were created and positioned to do. 

3. I have a role as an unmarried believer

I Corinthians 7 makes a great study that I'm not about to touch with a ten foot pole. But Paul makes an instructive observation there. The married person is to focus on caring for their spouse, how they can please them. The single? Is to care for the things of the Lord, how they can please Him. 

This role for the single looks like undivided attention. How can I use this money to please the Lord? There's no financial constraints of a family to consider. How can I tailor my time to care for the things of the Lord? I don't have to be home to bathe the kiddos. Lord, how should I plan/prepare for ministering to the body of Christ? I can go and do with abandon. Everyday, I can focus solely on caring for the things of the Lord and pleasing Him. In every thing. That's breathtaking. Don't ignore it. 

.................................................

I confess that I found myself thinking "Yes, but..." several times while writing this. But that's never the right response to Bible truth, is it. These roles aren't options on the smorgasbord of single life. I can't dismiss them as I revel in my individual freestyle or pine away for something else (both tendencies of mine.) I also found that there's enough instruction within these three roles to keep me busy, focused, and satisfied until Christ returns. And I'm pretty sure...

There's more than enough grace to do just that. 

Beth