What Is That To You?

What Is That To You?

Good morning!  I want to share with you the concept of my and Steve’s latest Bible Study.  It’s entitled “What Is That To You” and is a result of...well, of me trying to not be such a busybody, always trying to straighten everyone else out, and instead, as Jesus told Peter, to basically mind my own business.  When I do that, when I keep my eyes on Christ, following Him and not checking to see what you are doing (yes you!) then I have time--much more time--to consider the teachings of Christ and to determine what they mean to me.

Obviously, the scriptures are for everyone and yet we are told to work out our own salvation.  Does that mean we are to decide how and when we get saved?  Hardly!  Rather, it means that each of us has our own story of our experience of allowing and receiving Jesus into our lives.  For some it was an earth-shattering event because of the revelation of just how much in need of a Saviour they were.  Others (like me) were saved as a young child and did not know the extreme benefit of having Christ Jesus dwell in us.  The lessons were taught way back when and we believed them, believed what the preachers preached and the Sunday School Teachers taught.  But then, somewhere along the line, our thoughts became questions and we wanted better, deeper answers to the things we’d always believed.  Not that they were necessarily wrong, but...but that more insight was needed, more understanding of the behind-the-scenes action that was taking place.  As I go through different stages of life, I find that some scriptures that I had relied upon for various seasons have become more study-worthy, such as the one pictured above:

When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!”  (John 21:21-22)

Peter, like I so often am, was questioning about what role others are to play in this adventure of life we are all on.  He was more focused on John and what he was doing than he was on himself.  Jesus, however, was more concerned that Peter knew his place, his calling, and his pathway.  Ouch!  Peter must have felt the sting of that rebuke: “What is that to you?”  I know I did.  It’s as though each time I read these verses, Jesus is saying the same thing to me:  Stefanie, what is that to you--that thing you keep observing in others?  What is so important in that soul’s life that it keeps you from doing what I have planned for you, My child?  Keep your eyes on Me, Stef, and don’t worry about others.  Stefanie?  You follow Me!

So, here I am.  Keeping my eyes on the prize ahead for me but prizes aren’t just randomly handed out in God’s kingdom.  Prizes are more like rewards, awards even, for accomplishing specific tasks.  My path isn’t the same one you will trod, nor is yours one that I must walk down.  Oh sure, they will intersect at times and even run along a parallel course.  When they do, I want to be your companion not your competition nor your thorn in the flesh.  I want to keep you encouraged and motivated and inspired to keep walking, to keep standing, and to be still when the time is for you to do such things.  But mostly I want to mind my own business and follow Jesus where He leads me.  I can’t very well do that if I am watching others, now can I?  My eyes must stay on my Saviour!  Even if I could walk in your shoes, they weren’t designed for me.  I have my own pair and they must be broken in, I must be broken in, as I follow our Lord down this road He has prepared for me.  It is pleasant when a companion is travelling beside of me, no doubt, so when our paths do intersect, let’s be teammates and not adversaries.  Life is not a competition:  we all can be winners when we focus on our goals instead of one another.

Let’s pray!

Dear Lord, the lessons You teach aren’t always received joyfully.  Some of the instructions are hard and I often fail on the exam.  I can’t use a cheat sheet, Father, and get by on others’ knowledge.  Some lessons I must learn for myself because I am in a constant state of flux.  What was true and simple in my yesteryears is now sometimes complex and questions arise as to how I am best to deal with the situations in my life today.

Thank You for Your Word, Lord.  So much of it I have read and studied many times in my life but now those words have deeper meanings.  I pay more attention to key phrases and specific word choice in scriptures that in the past I skimmed over or didn’t completely understand--nor take the time to do so.  Also, due to my ever-changing roles in life (wife of a middle-aged husband, grandmother, Mom instead of Momma, blogger, and the different positions within my church that I participate in), my mentality has changed as well.  I’m not a child any longer and I am responsible more than ever for the biblical truths revealed to me concerning my behaviour, my lifestyle, and my representation of You.

Thank You for this new study, Lord, and I am excited to discover the revelations You show me as I take Your Word to my heart as my crazy head examines myself and I contemplate why I believe what I believe and if changes need to be made.  When changes need to be made.  Quicken me, Father?  Help Steve and my pastor and my friends to sharpen me.  “What is that to you?  Follow Me” is the command given.  Oh how I anticipate what these things are to me, Lord Jesus, as my journey with You continues!  May my eyes stay on You is my prayer today.  Keep those squirrels and rabbits at bay, I pray in Your holy and precious name.  Amen.

Smart Phones Don't Make You A Smart Person

File this one under the “Who’s The Dummy Now?” folder.  Seriously.

This morning as I was quasi-awake but not quite wanting to face reality, a nagging thought, a tiny whisper really, kept echoing in my mind:  go check your bank balance.  Unable to shake it, I gave up those last hopes of much-needed beauty sleep and got up.  I (of course) went to the bathroom, did my business, washed my hands, and sat down to my computer.  Can you imagine my dismay and shock as I saw where nearly $400.00 in bank fees had been charged to my credit card?  Oh my cow!!  That earlier whisper had been right!!

I closely examined my charges, realized what mistake had been done, and sure enough:  it was my fault.  While fighting down the instinct to panic and tempering it with what a valued customer I was, I rationalized to myself and then later to Steve that I thought the bank would surely waive the fees since it was an honest mistake and no harm had been done.  And if they didn’t?  Well, we’d just transfer our funds (what was left of them, anyways)  to another one!

Long story short, my bank did indeed waive my fees.  They admonished me gently that the next time I tried to do something on my own, that perhaps they could better assist me and no penalties would be added to my account.  I humbly took the sweet representative’s advice and assured her that I would do just that.  No more relying on my smart phone with its tiny little words that my feeble eyes can’t always discern.  Oh sure:  I rely on this modern technology to keep me updated on all the latest things and people and news and so on but you know what?  There’s nothing like real, good, true, one-on-one conversation with someone who is on the other end of the line, waiting to assist me, wanting to hear my story, and offering to help get me out of whatever bind I have most recently gotten myself into--or preventing me from blundering in the first place!

Sounds kind of like Jesus, doesn’t it?  How many times do I start my day off reading a devotion by some writer, and then later reading a couple more of them in my email, “liking” the memes posted by my friends that show a verse of the day or some other uplifting quote and/or picture to encourage me that I should be at peace and happy and blissful as I bask in the knowledge that God loves me?  And while there is nothing wrong with these venues, there is no replacement for the Word of God, The Holy Bible.  When I go to It, there I get the personal touch and words of my God, straight from the top, if you will.  I read His commands, His directions, and read of His infinite love and patience through the stories He allowed to be written for my edification.  I can speak to Him directly through prayer and know that my “call” goes through every time, that I don’t have to worry if wi-fi is available, and mostly?  There are no overage charges with God!  My minutes don’t expire.  My data is not capped.  Why, my every thought has already been sifted through His capable hands so I don’t even have to worry about my SD card not having enough space on it nor my phone’s memory running out.  Ha!  I don’t even have to worry about recharging my battery because my Power Source is unlimited in the things He can take care of.

Lesson learned, Stef.  Just as my smart phone can’t make me smarter, neither can half-hearted attempts on my part make me more like Christ.  I have to apply myself to Him, not just to the icing (as my pastor likes to call it).  Although I do love the icing, it’s the cake, the Christ, that makes me full.  

Rejoice with me as I thank God for this blessing and lesson?  Thanks!

Oh dear Lord, how You must shake Your head at these kids of Yours, kids like me who often have to keep repeating the same lessons over and over, while You sit back, not saying “I told you so” but instead giving us the opportunity to finally get it right.

Thank You for the return of the money I nearly lost in my haste to do things on the road with my phone instead of slowing down and making sure all was the way it should have been.  Thank You for the love of my husband who did not rant and rail at me for my carelessness and who--even though I said “There goes my Christmas presents for this year”--continuously shows me patience and forbearance.  He’s so much like You, Lord!  Thank You for his example to me.

Mostly though, God, I want to thank You for mercy.  It’s there when I mess up financially, physically, personally, and spiritually.  Your grace amazes me daily, Father, and I thank You for pouring it out on me.  May I do the same is my prayer today, in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

PS

Thank You for not charging me fees when I mess up, Lord! Thanks to You, my account has been settled and secured. Though it's a debt I could not afford, because of Your sacrifice, it's one that I don't have to repay. As if!

Jeremiah Buys A Field

Well, this definitely wasn’t how I thought my Bible studying would go today!  I figured I would come in here to my Pretty Purple Room, read a bit, and then write an uplifting blog about thankfulness and such since this is the month we celebrate things we are grateful for.  However…

As I continued my study of Jeremiah, the title of the chapter was “Jeremiah Buys A Field.”  He was in prison and the Lord spoke again to him, telling Jeremiah he was to purchase some land outside of Jerusalem where the soldiers were residing in as they overtook that great city.  Sounds kind of odd, huh, to buy land that used to be yours (as a citizen) and now the enemy occupied?  But our boy Jeremiah was nothing if not obedient to the commands of our Lord so he did as he was told, even though the doubts assailed him and he wondered if he was being foolish.

Do you remember yesterday how I unabashedly mentioned that sometimes it was as though the Bible was written just for me and that It spoke to me at often inopportune times (such as this one today when I thought I’d be learning more about Jesus and how to adapt my ways to His)?  Well, gulp, God did it again.  Or at least I think it was God.  Because of the pathway this scripture led me down, I am questioning whether God is involved at all.

Of course He’s involved, Stef!  Duh!  He wrote the book.  Remember?

You see, while my mind knows this, my soul was found in a sudden turmoil as I read in verses 31-32 of chapter 32 that “‘For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My face because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’”

Suddenly my thoughts went back to the land I was cheated out of and the hurt that it caused--and apparently is still causing--in my heart, in my life, and in what was once my family.  Like God, I was provoked to anger as I read these verses, because of the evil that overtook my siblings when my parents died.  Yes, evil is a harsh word and not one that we like to use when discussing affairs of the dead.  In this case, though, evil is what indeed permeated lives, minds, and spirits, leaving a legacy of hate, mistrust, and lies rather than one of love, hope, and a future.

As I battled this war in my heart, deciding I was not going to let my anger turn into sin, I tried to veer my thoughts into my own version of Devil’s Advocate, reasoning within myself things from the viewpoint of those who wronged me.  Again I admitted to the validity of their belief that what they did was “right.”  But just as when it all occurred until now, I guess my struggle is that I still cannot reconcile the evil with what they did to me and my sister’s kids to the people that they profess to be.  And that is just too sad to further contemplate.  Again.

So, without rehashing all of the angst and gadding about in the past, I instead am choosing to look to the future, to the promise of all wrongs being made right, and to the day when God tells Jesus it’s time for Him to go get His children.  God’s going to tell Him to bring His bride home.  Home.  To a land flowing with milk and honey and where Christ Himself is the Light.  There will be no disputes over who owns/deserves/is entitled to any of it for there we will truly be joint-heirs with Christ.  The division will be over!  The anger gone!  The lies we believed about one another will be confronted, settled, and peace will reign.  If you don’t believe me, believe then God Who said:  “‘...I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.’”

I’m ready to be planted!  How ’bout you, friends?  Are you ready to put all of this fluff behind and look forward with great anticipation to our Lord’s return?  Even so, come Lord Jesus is my prayer.  Amen!