Philippians 4:4-9

A few years back, a colleague and I crossed paths to and from the school office, and out of nowhere she commented, "You always seem so calm." I said, "Really? Because there are a million things going on up in here", pointing to my head. "I don't always feel like I have my act together." She replied, "Well you could have fooled me!" 

I think that the reason why this brief interaction has stuck with me is because I only have one possible explanation for her observation - JESUS! 

We all have very busy lives; and if our schedules aren't jammed packed, then certainly our minds are moving a mile a minute, or even faster! 

I love, love, love this passage out of Philippians - it's one of my most marked up pages in my Bible. I've had chapter 4 verses 6-8 memorized for years. These three verses have been an absolute lifeline whenever I find myself wanting to unnecessarily jump into a battlefield of the mind. I rehearse verse 8 over and over until my thoughts start to change.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

Last summer I clung to verses 6 & 7. It was a very stressful ending to a school year and all I prayed for was the Shalom of God. 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

But it wasn't until recently that I added verses 4 and 5 to my memory work in conjunction with the rest of that passage. And I am so glad that I finally did. 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Because I choose to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, not only do I inwardly experience my Heavenly Father's Shalom, but my testimony to others is my outward ability to Rejoice...in the Lord...ALWAYS! 

As believers, our attitudes, among other qualities, is what catches the eyes of those who have yet to choose to follow Jesus. Our attitudes are our testimonies to those who don't even ask us to tell our stories. Our attitudes are what can give hope to the hopeless. 

May you have a clear sense of the Lord's nearness to you today.

Psalm 119:9-16

The longest Psalm, 119, is loaded with verses that celebrate God's Word. At first it might seem strange to bask in the significance of a bunch of laws and ordinances, but for those of us who are United States citizens, don't we do this with our Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights? 

Having had the opportunity to visit the National Archives in Washington DC, it is quite amazing to take in the security of the actual documents. But then to consider that these documents serve as the blueprints for our government's structure, it cannot be dismissed that we celebrate (and sometimes debate) these man-created laws. 

How much more should we, as Children of God, hold in high esteem God's covenants? 

The last week, I've taken my morning devotion time to dwell among Psalm 119:9-16. What I share below are my unedited thoughts, as they came to me at 5:45am. So forgive me if it doesn't seem to flow as I hope my usual devotions do.

Ps 119:9 - How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

The only way to live according to the Word of God is to know what the Word of God says. And there is a difference between knowing enough to get the gist and really knowing it so that it actually changes the way that we live.

Ps 119:10 - I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.

My first-born/Type A personality really resonates with this verse. It is straight forward and coincides with my work-a-holic tendencies. If I simply stick to the well layed out plan that has stood the test of time, since time began, my life will not only be fulfilling to me, but pleasing to God as well - which of course is my heart's ultimate desire.

Ps 119:11 - I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

There are parties of people who think that memorization of anything, not just Scripture, is an outdated practice. However, there is some compelling research that states otherwise. That being said, the reason why Believers should practice memorization of God's Word is that it changes you from the inside out.

Ps 119:12 - Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees

As a teacher it's very gratifying when students are excited about your class. It's incredibly frustrating when students are totally apathetic about learning. And it's humbling when students choose to do what I've asked, not because they think learning is great, but because they want to please me.

Ps 119:13 - With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth

Synonyms of recount - tell, relate, describe, recite, repeat, rehearse
With intention we should be regularly reviewing God's ordinances so that we can check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.

Ps 119:14 - I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.

There is something about rules and laws that brings out a person's rebelliousness. But really it's not just about my own safety and well-being. It is so that a community of people can live in harmony and that's something to rejoice about.

Ps 119:15 - I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

Jesus says that He is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14) Our meditations and considerations should always begin and focus on the path Jesus has laid out for each of us.

Ps 119:16 - I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your Word.

1 - Delight and neglect are opposite - something you delight in will never be neglected. Something that is left neglected, you do not delight in.
2 - Neglect is the result of putting something off for other priorities. It's why our physical health, our relationships, our financial health, our home environments become in such bad shape. 
***Be diligent about putting First Things, first.

My One Word for 2019

Ever have the experience of walking into a room knowing that you're supposed to remember something, but have no idea what it is? Of course you have, we all have at one point or another. What strategies do you use to recall the thing that you've forgotten? Sometimes I just stand still and mentally retrace my steps. Other times, I will physically go back to the space I was previously in and re-walk my path. I tend to be in a continuous state of conversation with myself and so I will also rehash my self talk to try to bring to mind the thing I thought about as I was in a deep dialog with myself. And then there are times when I just have to stop trying to remember and just move on hoping that sometime in the not too distant future, I'll think of it again. 

The last few months I have had the feeling of being somewhere and not quite sure what I'm supposed to do next, just like walking in a room with a purpose and totally forgetting what that purpose is.  

And so, I'm using the My One Word to try to figure out what my next steps should be. I have gone through the brainstorming and selection process and determined that my word for 2019 is ATTEND. 

I want to ATTEND with more purpose to God's Word. I want to ATTEND with more of my heart to His desires for my current circumstances. I want to ATTEND with more intention to my relationships, personal goals, and use of my time. 

The Bible verse that I landed on is Isaiah 30:21 - Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

So here are some action steps that I've taken since the beginning of January.

1 - Last year I hand copied larger passages of Scripture during my morning quiet time. It's not a bad thing to do, but really, the practice didn't leave a lasting impression on my day. So this year, I have decided to just take a single verse and copy it and write a brief reflection. I like this much better. Now I just have to figure out a way to keep this daily verse in front of me so that it has a chance to make a dent of difference in my day. 

2 - I'm not consistent at it, but I've been trying to get in my bed about 45 minutes early so that I can do some reading that will support my word ATTEND.

3 - Reading non-fiction tends to lull me to sleep easily, so I have a notebook where I can write some reflections of what I'm reading. Journaling is something that I enjoy doing, but just haven't been disciplined enough to do it regularly. (Obviously, otherwise it wouldn't be over a year since I've written a blog post.) My intention is that by recording my thoughts, I'll be more ATTENtive to what I'm reading and consider how it can be used to develop my character or purpose or thinking or whatever. 

4 - I know how powerful goal setting can be. But again, I just haven't been disciplined to sit down and write out a list of goals and action steps. But this year, I'm determined to make 2019 different than 2018, 2017, 2016 - you get the idea...and I know that being purposeful and ATTEND to my goals is the only way that measurable change will take place. 

It's been a month since I selected my word and while I haven't had any epiphanies - there is still time for that - I am still excited about my word and the potential that it has.

1 John 5:14-15

In my 18+ years as a junior high teacher, I've had some version of the following conversation a bucket-load of times:

Student: I didn't know...
Me: Did you ask?
Student: Um, no?
Me: Then how were you supposed to know???
Student: I don't know...
Me: You need to ask, then you would know that you needed to (fill in the blank)

If I got paid a dollar for every time something like this scenario happened, I'd probably have enough money to pay for Christmas gifts one year! Well, maybe not that much, but it sure does seem like this happened all.the.time!

As I rehearsed and practiced the words of 1 John 5:14 and 15, this is what came to mind. 

Verse 14 states that if we ask anything according to God's will, He hears us. 

Lots of people get hung up on how they're supposed to know God's will. How are they supposed to ask according to His will, if they're not even sure what God's will is?

Easy. 
Ask. 

Ask while you pray. Ask while you read your Bible. Ask while you're speaking with other believers who may have walked a similar journey. 

Sometimes God makes His will crystal clear. 
Other times, our hearing God seems a bit...staticky and we have to do our best and make a step forward, trusting that God will provide feedback along the way so that we are able to stay on course. 

Verse 15 states that we can know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God hears the things that we ask of him. I think that this is amazing because it's not just that God hears us with his auditory system, He hears us and will take action on our behalf. 

So the next time that you have something that you want to ask of our heavenly Father, be assured that He will hear you and He will provide an answer. 

Hebrews 4:16

Have you ever met someone and felt an immediate and unexplained kinship with them? The connection between you and your new friend provides the opportunity to relate in unique ways. 

About a decade ago, I was attending a fairly large church and looking for a small group Bible study to become involved with. The church had an online catalog of all the small groups that met and I chose to visit one that coincided with my demographics - single and thirty-something. 

Within minutes of meeting the existing members of the Bible study group, it felt as if we had known each other for years. We talked about ourselves and eventually our conversation turned to where we had grown up and gone to school. We discovered that two of us had attended the same high school - I was just a few years younger. While we didn't know each other back in the day, we realized that we had a few mutual friends. Our instant familiarity now made sense. 

There's something special about the people that you grow up with - even if you don't know them at the time. You share common experiences, mutual friends, and an general understanding of the community that helped shaped you as an individual. 

For my friends and I, we were able to share more deeply, quickly and our friendships are still some of the most important more than 10 years later. 

Hebrews 4:16 starts off with "Let us THEN approach the throne of grace with confidence..." What allows us to do this? What's the THEN there for? We need to back up and read verses 14 and 15 to be clued in. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, because the one who sits on the throne is able to sympathize with weaknesses because He had been tempted in every way, we are, yet was without sin. 

Jesus is familiar with what it's like to live on this earth with all of it's guts and glory because He's done it Himself. Jesus is not a high priest who is oblivious to our situations. Our confidence comes from the knowing that He can relate to us. The mercy and grace that we are offered is because Jesus first walked in our shoes. He knows what we need, when we need it, how we need it and why it's needed. 

What an incredible gift this is to us! To know that our Savior is approachable because He can relate to our needs is such a comfort. 

So let this be your reminder that there is nothing too big or too small for you to bring before the Son of God. You will find all that you need to sustain you. Have confidence in this Good News.

Hebrews 4:12

By Kelvin Kay [Public domain, GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)],
via Wikimedia Commons

I have had several occasions to visit the National Archives in Washington D.C. to view the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights documents. If you've been there too, or seen one of my favorite movies, National Treasure, you know the security measures that are in place to protect these documents not just from theft, but from minuscule pollutants in the surrounding atmosphere. 

As Americans we believe that these documents written just over 200 years ago maintain some sort of authority over our lives. They spell out why we exist as a country. They define our freedoms and our rights. And as such, every law that exists in our country, every decision our Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government, whether or not we agree with them, is fundamentally tied to these documents. Men and women fight and die to keep the freedoms and rights these documents provide. In essence, these documents are very much a part of how we live out our lives within the borders of this country.

For the word of God is living and active.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that God's Word is living and active. If we place such high esteem on the Declaration of Independence, how much more should we esteem the Holy Scriptures? 

God's Word does not need security measures placed on it to be protected - by its very nature, it protects itself. It cannot be stolen and held for ransom. It's message will never fade. It's contents will never become irrelevant. 

Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

When the Words of God are read and spoken, both our natural world and spiritual realms are changed. Our hearts and minds are transformed. The words of Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 uphold what is written here in Hebrews:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

Testimonies have been given countless times since mankind was created and the Word of God recorded of how powerful and life-changing Scripture is. I realize that I've shared part of what you're about to read just recently in another blog post but I'll go into more detail here.

Several years ago, I was going through a period of great anxiety due to experiencing lots of losses over a two year span. Some losses were greater than others, but one in particular, the death of a friend from cancer, really messed with my mind. My thoughts constantly centered around my own health and I became convinced of my own eventual decline and demise. My physical body even began to be affected with this type of thinking. 

If that weren't bad enough, one Saturday morning I woke to a message that felt like it was whispered into my ear, "You're going to die." When I became fully awake I KNEW that I was under a serious spiritual attack. I KNEW that what I felt like I heard was a big, fat lie. I KNEW that the only way to fight back was with Scripture. And so I read my Bible. Reading it silently was not sufficient. My circumstances demanded that my reading be aloud. My circumstances demanded that I read and read and read for most of the day. Whenever I stopped reading, those nasty, ugly lies started to swirl around in my mind. 

I reached out to several friends to let them know that I was dealing with something huge and to start praying, but it was the power of God's Word that got me through that hideous day. 

While I did seek medical counsel and was diagnosed and treated for the grief I was experiencing, nothing but the penetrating double-edged Sword of the Spirit was able to help me make a break-through with my negative thought patterns and provide me with words of Truth to live by. 

This is why, to me, memorizing Scripture is so important. It's life-giving! Anytime I need God's Word, it's with me so that I can be filled up. 

I know that many who are reading this have your own story to tell about the power of the Word of God. How your life has been changed because what is written in between, "In the beginning..." (Genesis 1:1) and "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen" (Revelation 22:21). 

But if you are reading this and have yet to experience and come to believe for yourself that God's Word is living and active, I ask that you reconsider any doubts or disbeliefs that you may hold and read it for yourself. Ask questions. Open your heart to the possibility of being made a new creation. God longs to meet with you. God's greatest desire is for you to seek Him out. In response, He will answer. He will get to you faster than you can get to Him. 

God and His Word is alive! 

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

It happens to me all the time. I'm in the middle of a conversation with someone and I'm trying to recall some factoid, but after 10 seconds or so, I whip out my phone to Google what my memory has failed to instantaneously provide.

I know many educators who think that if you can find the answer with a quick search, then it doesn't need to be memorized. Save the students' thinking power for more rigorous work.

I am not one of those educators. I believe that there is enough evidence to show that when we train our brains to memorize material, it helps build stronger neural connections so that we can apply the learned content to new learning situations. I won't go further into what I've learned about how our brains work, but if you're interested, let me know and I'll pass along a couple of resources. 

But what does memory work have to do with Deuteronomy 6:6-7? When I was meditating and memorizing these verses, it struck me that in order to have God's commandments upon my heart, I have to know them. Not just be able to look them up online or even in my Bible. No. I have to know them for myself in my mind and heart. If God calls me to have conversations with others about His Word, then I better have those Scriptures handy. 

While some may believe that memorizing anything, much less God's Word, is an archaic learning strategy, those of us who practice it can testify otherwise. There are clear benefits to impressing Scripture into our thoughts.

The book from which I am choosing my verses from, 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart by Robert J. Morgan, gives seven benefits to committing Bible verses to memory:

1. It gives us clearer thoughts.
2. It steadies our nerves.
3. It allows us to have healthier emotions.
4. We have purer habits.
5. We have happier homes.
6. We have greater respect.
7. We will gain an eternal optimism.

I can think of additional reasons...

• Even if I don't have my Bible with me (or my phone) I have God's Word with me.
• I learn God's voice.
• I can more easily discern Truth from lies.
• I am more inspired and have greater vision.
• I am able to hold myself more accountable to being obedient to God.

Let's not loose the art of memorizing Scripture because a search engine can recall it for us. Let's continue to be intentional about hiding God's Word in our heart so that our lives are marked different by everyone with whom we come into contact.