The Bride and the Bridegroom

I remember it well - my wedding day. The photographer was at our house taking pictures as my bridesmaids and I were getting ready for the big day. I remember the excitement of doing my hair. I remember the flash of the camera as my mom arranged the veil on my head. I was the bride. The pulse of my heartbeat began to increase in anticipation. We had arranged for the groom - my husband...oh that sounded sweet! - and the groomsmen to pick me and my bridesmaids up after they were finished washing and decorating the cars, and getting themselves dressed and ready.

The most memorable moment of that day took place after we had finished taking all of the indoor and outdoor pictures. The girls and I had come back into the house for refreshments. I had taken a sip or two from the cold glass of orange juice I held in my hand as I stood in the kitchen. That's when I heard the honking in the distance. My heart skipped a beat. Then I heard the sound of the cars coming down our long driveway. He was coming for me! This is what I had been waiting for. The moment had finally come...and I was ready.

This can be your story too. It's not exclusive to women on their wedding day. You have read my experience as a bride on her wedding day, but you know what? I'm looking forward to experiencing this again. No, I'm not planning on remarrying. I'm still smitten with the husband I married 28+ years ago. Praise God! What I'm looking forward to is the day when the Lord Jesus Christ - The Bridegroom - returns for His bride the church. And sisters - brothers too! - that means you and me. We who know the love of God and have embraced His love through faith in Jesus Christ are the church...His body...the bride of Christ.

Just like I knew the arrangement as a young bride on my wedding day, we too have been told the plan for that great day.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

Are you ready? Are you waiting?

A Sacrifice of Praise

October holds many special memories in my mind of thanksgiving and praise. To tell the truth, because my heart is in two countries, it seems that I celebrate Thanksgiving Day for almost two months. And of course, October 31st falls between the two. I will always remember on that particular day in 1964... I awoke with an excitement and peace in my heart. It had begun the day before.

"I will pick you up after school," Preacher Merritt had told me. "Be sure and wear warm clothing, and bring an extra coat." I had been excited at school all day and couldn't wait to get home. But along with that excitement, I was also a little anxious. My Mother had been upset with me for almost two weeks after having put my trust in the Lord at a small church I had been attending. We were hardly on speaking terms. I had listened almost daily to her anger and frustration that I would go against her wishes. But I had determined in my heart to follow God and being baptized was an important part of that decision.

True to his word, Preacher Merritt was waiting for me when I got off the school bus. It was a sunny day, but cold and windy. He came to the front door and waited for me as I got my clothing together. My Mama was watching my every move, though she did not say anything. I knew that I had stepped across a line in my family that had never been stepped across. I had defied something deeper than simply disobeying a time frame or doing chores.

Both of my parents had deep seated anger and resentment against a church that had hurt them deeply when I was a child. Just days before, Mama had lashed out at Preacher Merritt after he had stopped by to see why I had left church after Sunday School. He had planned to announce my decision to follow Jesus to the congregation that morning, but as he was speaking, he noticed that I was no longer there. Mama had told me I had better come home or she would come and get me. I knew she would and I didn't want the embarrassment of her coming in and dragging me out or making a scene. I had experienced her irrational behavior before. As I listened to Preacher Merritt speak to my Mama in his age-old voice filled with wisdom and kindness... her facial expression changed. Her anger settled and she just stood there looking at the two of us. I think she resolved in her heart that this was one battle that she could not win. Reluctantly she agreed to my baptism. But she would have no part of it.

As I got into the car with Preacher Merritt, he explained to me what would happen when we got to the lake. I kept thinking about how cold the water was going to be and the sacrifice he was making to go into that cold lake with me. I'm not sure how old he was at the time but he had white hair and had been the pastor of the church for many, many years. At least one of my high school friends was at the lake waiting for us. As we walked down to the lake and began venturing into the water, it felt ice cold to me. Preacher Merritt was a little unstable on his feet as I was. Neither of us had ever been in this lake before and were not sure of what it was like under our feet. We slowly walked out, testing the bottom of the lake with each step. Finally having reached a place that seemed appropriate enough, in waist deep water... we turned around. As we did, I saw my Mother's car pull up and she and my younger sister got out and walked down to the lake. I don't know if she just came out of curiosity or if she felt compelled to witness this event... but she came. Though her expression was solemn and she said nothing to me before or after... it was a blessing I did not expect.

As I professed my faith in Christ, and felt the chill of the cold water take my breath, I was excited! God had chosen me. Preacher Merritt wrapped a towel around me and put his coat over my soaking wet body. He had left his car running with the heater on. I watched Mama get into her car and leave as we followed behind her down the dirt road. Yet it was a time of peace in my life that settled deep into my soul.

Fall brings a time of thanksgiving and praise into my life for what God has done and continues to do. I praise Him for the seasons in our life of growth and renewal.

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. Psalm 95:2

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise... the fruit of lips that confess His name. Hebrews 13:15

Take me to the Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite things this time of year is to take a walk in the pumpkin patch. I love to look at all of their different shapes and sizes. I love watching my children and even my husband walking through the field looking for just the right ones for us to bring home.

And I must admit, I get a little sentimental when I open the pages of a well worn story book...one that I have been reading to my family every October for about 12 years. It is the story of a farmer and how that farmer takes each one of his unique pumpkins at harvest time and carefully washes it off. Then he cuts it open and cleans out all of the slimy mess inside, throwing it away to never be seen again. He tenderly carves a friendly face into his pumpkin before putting a candle deep down inside. When the farmer lights that candle, the pumpkin glows from the inside out letting all the neighbors know that the farmer has transformed an ordinary pumpkin into something beautiful.

This story has worked itself into a meaningful family tradition for me and hopefully for my children as well. Each year we have a little pumpkin party after visiting the pumpkin patch. We read our book, "The Pumpkin Patch Parable", by Lizz Curtis Higgs, eat pumpkin snacks and then carve our pumpkins. We talk about how God (the farmer) has picked us and how he cleans us up from the inside out and then puts his light inside of us so that we can shine like stars in a dark world.

I love what John says about Jesus here:

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:4

Thank you Jesus! Thank you for Harvest and for choosing us! Thank you for washing us and taking the sin from inside us and making us clean. Thank you for putting your life and light inside of us and giving us joy! May we be lights that shine a reflection of you to all that see us.

Don't You Know?

As I was reading my Bible one day, this question struck me, mostly because it was repeated often, and primarily by the apostle Paul in his letters to the churches in Rome and Corinth. Apparently, according to Paul, there were some things that he assumed that they should know. Issues had come up that wouldn`t have been issues if they were behaving according to what they should have known to be true.

Listen to his words:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Romans 6:3

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16

Or do you not know, brothers —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? Romans 7:1

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? Romans 11:2

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 1 Corinthians 5:6

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 1 Corinthians 6:2

Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 1 Corinthians 6:3

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 6:9

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? 6:15

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? 6:16

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? 6:9

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? 9:24

I can almost hear Paul saying out of his deep desire for them to know the truth, "Hello!? Don`t you get it? Haven`t you learned this? Please know this!"

Isaiah said the same thing to the people of Israel:

Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning? Isaiah 40.21

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. Isaiah 40:28

There is a saying that goes: What they don't know can't hurt them. Pretty dumb saying. What we don't know matters.

What is there to know
that you don't know
that you should know
so that if you did know
it would change your life?

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. - Jesus

He loves you, don't you know?

It's the time of year once again for Halloween and once again I struggle with where we as Christians fit into the whole picture and what do we as a family do. Being at a new school this is the first time ever that my children will be allowed to dress up for Halloween and participate in a Halloween parade. We're used to a school that only allowed children to dress up in orange and/or black, not costumes. Should be an easy solution.... we don't dress up. There's the peer pressure to participate and each day my one daughter comes home worried about what she's going to be and what others are going to be. She's quite consumed with this whole Halloween dress up idea that it doesn't leave her mind. Wanting my children to fit in and not be left out we ventured out to the costume section to see what innocent ideas they had there. I was actually mortified to see the amount of awful costumes out there! Witches, demons, etc. For her age there was nothing to choose from that would allow the fun of dressing up to remain innocent. We ended up choosing a 60's wig and will put an outfit together from her closet at home. For our family we have chosen that dressing up in itself is not wrong... it's the Satanic things that people make Halloween into that we take a stand against.

A couple nights ago she woke up in the middle of the night scared and came to me. I had never felt her so stiff and rigid. I had never experienced anything like this. She told me that she had scary faces coming towards her over and over again and that she was so scared that her body was frozen. She couldn't call out my name or she couldn't move. At 3:00 am I must say I wasn't too thrilled to be having a spiritual warfare talk but God gave me the strength to do it. I laid my hands on her and prayed over her. As I prayed I felt her body ease and relax. It was quite amazing! We prayed in her room to speak against the enemy there and asked in Jesus Name that she have a hedge of protection over her and for Satan to leave her alone. It was quite an amazing Jesus time that I will never forget.

Satan does that....he finds those weakest to attach himself to and in this case he used my daughter and this consuming idea of Halloween to make her fearful.

Satan is a defeated enemy, but he is still an enemy. His attacks are usually unannounced, usually disguised. “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Paul describes the devil as a lion on the prowl. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). So what do we do? “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:9 & 10)

Jesus defeated Satan not through aggression, but by resisting him with the Word of God and then by dying on a cross. Satan's greatest battlefield is the mind. If God lives in our heart, Satan cannot control our heart, but he does put thoughts and evil in our minds. Satan must have someone to work in and through.

What did Jesus say when tempted by Satan? "It is written..." He quoted scripture.

Spiritual warfare is real. What my daughter experienced is real. Fear gripped her so badly she couldn't move. I've experienced that to in my lifetime. The best weapon is God's Word. Let's walk and respond as Jesus did... quoting scripture to Satan.

Joy

The joy of the Lord,
The joy of the Lord,
The joy of the Lord is my strength.

I made up a little tune with these words. I sing it to myself sometimes. It's the truth. (not that I sing it to myself, rather, the words are truth)

Not coffee, nor vitamins; not the absence of stress and problems, nor a long good night's sleep - it's the JOY! The joy that comes from recognizing,acknowledging and celebrating the goodness and greatness of God's kindness and provision for us. But sometimes we have to be reminded to look for it - not that it's hard to see, but we're looking at the small instead of the GREAT. We're looking at my problems instead of the great I AM.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Philippians 3:1

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4

And just in case you need extra reminding like me...

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

And you will find strength.

How then... shall we live?

The other day I was watching a kids program on television with my grand daughter. A couple of teen girls were featured. One carried a cell phone and was constantly texting friends, and the other girl was a teen who struggled to say a kind word about anyone else. They challenged each other to see who could go the longest without texting or saying something derogatory to someone else.

We watched as the girl with empty hands would start texting with her fingers, but no phone. We also watched as the other girl continually stopped mid-sentence every time she opened her mouth to speak. Just about everything she said to someone else was of a sarcastic nature.

It is interesting how our minds become so programmed to our thinking that we don't even realize what we are doing sometimes. It just happens... And sadly, our most obvious negative patterns are what we reveal to people without realizing it. You see it everywhere... "the crude and rude." People are often shocked when a stranger extends a kindness to them.

Recently, while driving to Burnaby to a meeting, the traffic was getting congested near the Port Mann Bridge. You've been there... always, another car trying to edge into your lane. As I approached the bridge, a car needed to get into my lane... so I slowed down and let the person in. As the person moved into my lane, I couldn't see their face but I could see their hand waving back and forth with gratefulness and thankfulness. They were so exuberant, it made me chuckle and I laughed all the way across the bridge. It actually lightened my day and made me feel good. It was such a simple thing but I felt blessed.

As we live our daily lives, we become imitators of the one who holds the key to our hearts. The book of Ephesians says a lot about how we should live. But we can't live the way God wants us to, unless he holds that key. And it's not just, that God holds the key, but that He has unlocked the door and came inside.

Thank goodness, God is a forgiving God because we all mess up sometime or another. But He does admonish us to live our lives carefully, and to determine what pleases Him. He wants us to be an encouragement to other people, to be kind, tenderhearted toward one another and forgiving as He forgave us. He wants us to...

Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Ephesians 5:1

So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17