Sunday Meditation

I’ve been meditating on Psalm 84 for the last few days. There’s a lot in that short psalm so I’ve been taking it one verse at a time. It was appropriate that on a Sunday, I should come to verse 4, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.” As I was reading through some sources, I came across this thought. Be a dweller, not a visitor, in God’s house. To dwell is to live there. Most of us don’t live at our church. Some pastors and their families may live on the property, but I believe there is still a principle here. God’s house was ‘home’ for this psalmist. It’s where he longed to be. It made me wonder, is God’s house ‘home’ for me? Is it somewhere I long to be? 

Spurgeon says about this verse, “To come and go is refreshing, but to abide in the place of prayer must be heaven below. To be the guests of God, enjoying the hospitalities of heaven, set apart for holy work, screened from a noisy world, and familiar with sacred things—why this is surely the choicest heritage a son of man can possess.” The phrase that struck a chord with me here is to be screened from a noisy world. We are definitely living in a noisy world!!  For my part, I have been around so much sorrow lately, the sorrow of those I care about and some of my own. I know I need the fellowship of other believers to be refreshed.  We all do. Galatians 6:2 tells us to bear one another’s burdens. Being an active part of a local church is one of the ways we can do this.

The second half of the verse says they will still be praising God. Spurgeon says, “So near to God, their very life must be adoration…Communion is the mother of adoration. They fail to praise the Lord who wander far from him, but those who dwell in him are always magnifying him.” When we dwell in God and in His house, we will be praising Him. We won’t be able to help ourselves!

This verse ends with that little word, Selah. Spurgeon says, “It is worthwhile to pause and meditate upon the prospect of dwelling with God and praising him throughout eternity.”

I will end with that thought. I hope you will join me in pausing and meditating upon the prospect of dwelling with God and praising Him forever! That thought alone should provide a screen from this noisy world!

photo: Lake Murray, SC

Stay in the Sanctuary

My word for the year 2022 is perspective.  This isn’t something that I just draw out of a hat.  I’ve heard some say that their word for the year chooses them.  I’ve said that myself, but in truth, God gives me my word.  I usually know what it is by October or November of the previous year.  It always comes about through my study and work on the word for that year.  God is pealing back the layers and has something else for me to learn.  Some things take a year, some take longer.  For the past three years, I had three different words: hope, abound and believing. All are from Romans 15:13.  Sometimes I am a slow learner!  

As the last two years have unfolded, there have been unprecedented things going on in our world.  Living abroad, I may have a little different perspective on those things than others in my peer group.  There are times when my perspective becomes blurred.  I don’t know what to think.  There are times when that blurred perspective can turn into discouragement and a sense of hopelessness.  It was during one of those times that I realized I needed to gain God’s perspective on what is going on in the world around me.  

I searched on a Bible website for the word perspective in the King James Version.  The response I received was, “Sorry, we didn’t find any results for your search.”  As I dug a little deeper, I found that while the word might not be there, the idea is.  I’ve also realized that there is only one way to gain God’s perspective on the world around us.  That is to stay in the sanctuary.

What exactly does it mean to stay in the sanctuary?  

In Psalm 63:1-2, the psalmist says, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” The ESV says, “my flesh faints for you…”  The psalmist needed His God!  According to my study Bible, this was written by David while he was in the wilderness of Judea.  He was either running from Saul or possibly Absalom.  He was desperate in His need for God!

Webster defines sanctuary as a consecrated place, the room in which general worship services are held.  A secondary meaning is a place or refuge and protection.  Strong’s defines sanctuary as a sacred place that is set apart.  So a sanctuary is a consecrated place that is set apart and provides a refuge and protection.  Spurgeon* said that the sanctuary was “where God met [David] and manifested Himself to him.”  

Where is the sanctuary for us today?  

It could be a place.  Maybe it’s in a comfy chair.  Maybe it’s in a quiet room.  When I had small children at home, I often asked my husband for an afternoon to go to the library.  There I would find a table in a far corner away from everyone.  The place is not as important as what you do while you are there.  Our true sanctuary is God’s Word.  It is here in His Word that we can hear His voice as He speaks to us.  It is here that we gain His perspective on world events, what is happening in our private world and even what is going on in our own heart.  It is here that we have a refuge and find protection.

I want to write more about this in the future. For now, I encourage you to stay in the sanctuary of God’s Word.  Instead of sinking in discouragement and hopelessness from yet more bad news, run to Him in the sanctuary and be encouraged as you begin to look at life through the lens of His Word!  As Spurgeon said, “There is no help like that which is of God’s sending, and no deliverance like that which comes out of His sanctuary.”

*****

*Spurgeon’s Treasury of David has proved to be invaluable as I study through some of this for myself.  I have the three volume set, but you can access his notes here for free.

Believing That God is Good

This post has been a long time coming. It is something I have been thinking about for several months. I am finally sitting down to try to put some of my thoughts into words.  I pray that I am able to convey some of what God is teaching me.

From some of my previous posts, you may remember that my word for 2021 is believing.  There have been so many ways that the Lord has used this word in my heart over the last several months.  What He is teaching me now is something that I desperately need to learn.

Believing that God is good…

There is so much going on in the world today:  illness, death, grief, political upheavals, weather disasters and the list goes on and on and on…Last week, my husband and I were getting ready to call it a night.  Right before I turned out my light, the emergency alarm went off on my phone.  Of course, it was all in kanji which we don’t read well.  We finally figured out it was landslide warning.  We have had so.much.rain!!  There are floods and landslides throughout Japan.  We are safe and live in a safe area from these particular kind of disasters.  A day later, we were awakened by an earthquake at 5:00 a.m.! Talk about an adrenaline rush!!  Some other things have been happening in our world here that caused my hubby to say recently, “Man, when it rains it pours!”  Literally!

It can all be so overwhelming.  Sometimes I may be wondering where God is in all of this.  I believe that God is all-powerful and that He loves me.  I believe as the children sing, “there’s nothing my God cannot do.”  But will He?  

“Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.”
~Psalm 119:68

The psalmist here is appealing to the character of God.  This is throughout Psalm 119.  He talks of His faithfulness, His compassion, His righteousness and His mercy.*  These are all things that make God and everything He does good.  It’s all about Him and His character, not me and the circumstances I am facing.  Jesus talked about faith as small as a mustard seed.  These seeds are so small, I can hardly see them.  God blesses that amount of faith.  

I have been following the CaringBridge sight of someone who is dealing with a seriously ill husband.  The journey has been long and hard, but her updates are full of God’s goodness.  This week, I listened to a podcast series featuring Stephanie Wesco.  Her husband was shot and killed 12 days after they arrived in Cameroon to serve the Lord as missionaries.  As I listened, I heard a testimony of God’s goodness in spite of such a horrific loss.  

It is difficult to read the CaringBridge updates through the tears.  I sobbed through part of the podcasts with Stephanie Wesco.  I want that kind of faith, but I don’t want the trials and hardships that grow that kind of faith.  I have had to confess that to the Lord multiple times.  I know He already knows.  I pray that I will be willing to endure whatever He allows in order to grow my faith.

I think David sums up my thoughts perfectly in Psalm 27:13.  “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  May we all take his admonition in verse 14 to heart.  “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”

*Notes shared from the MacArthur Study Bible

 

 

Perfectionism and Unbelief

Many years ago, I was told I was a perfectionist.  At the time, it was a type of “diagnosis” of a problem that I had.  Being the type of person who enjoys research, I started reading up on perfectionism.  It wasn’t flattering as I saw myself in some of what I was reading.  I am more the “I’ll do it or die trying” than the “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all” type of perfectionist.  I started to realize what it was like to live with someone like me and started to work on changing that.  

Sometimes I think I have perfectionism licked.  Other times, I see it rearing its ugly head.  Although there is nothing wrong with striving for excellence, it becomes a problem when you are running over anyone that is in your way.  

Revive Our Hearts podcasts is having a series right now on perfectionism entitled When Life Doesn’t Line Up: The Crushing Burden of Perfectionism.  Out of curiosity, I began to listen.  The first episode, A Matter of Worship, was a good reminder to me of how far I’ve come.  I also saw a few areas that I need to work on.  The second episode, I’ll Never Measure Up, stopped me in my tracks.  

You may remember that my word for 2021 is believing.  When the Lord impresses on me a word for the year, He teaches me many things.  Sometimes these lessons come from surprising places.  Listening to that second episode was one of those surprising places. 

The episode is a discussion.  One of the women asked the questions, “Is it possible that a root of perfection is unbelief? That we are not trusting God when we are rising up to make everything around us go exactly as we think it needs to go? Are we at the root struggling with unbelief?”  The author of the book they were discussing responded, “I think that is very perceptive, because one of the reasons that I need to control things and I need to make everything around me just the way I think it ought to be is because I don’t have confidence that God is going to do good.” [emphasis mine]

As they continued to discuss this and situations where we don’t have the confidence that God is going to do good, I couldn’t help but think of times where that is true in my life.  Every time I try to manipulate circumstances for the outcome that I think should take place, I don’t have the confidence that God is going to do good.  Every time I nag my husband to do something the way I think it should be done, I don’t have the confidence that God is going to do good.  Every time I am trying to work the budget from every possible angle to make sure there is enough money for what is coming up or warn an adult child about a possible terrible outcome to some plan or action on their part, I don’t have the confidence that God is going to do good.

I would tell you that God is good. I would tell you that everything He does is good. (Psalm 119:68) After thinking most of the day on this podcast, I have realized that there are circumstances where my thoughts and actions are showing that I don’t believe that like I thought I did.  And so today, the Lord put His finger on something that He wanted me to know, a place in my heart where I am not believing that He is good and that what He does is good when it isn’t what I would have chosen.  

This is a very transparent blog post.  Maybe this is an area where you are lacking as well.  If so, leave a comment and let’s pray for one another.  I long to have that confidence that God is going to do good no matter what!!!

Psalm 91

The group memorizing Psalm 91 at Do Not Depart is finished according to the schedule.  I am still working on it.  I’ve been struggling with the last few verses.  I’ve also been struggling with the meaning behind some of the verses.  We know that God allows pain and suffering to those who love Him, so what does He mean when He says, “No evil shall come nigh thy dwelling.”  I have done some study on my own, read my study Bible notes and notes in a commentary.

You may remember that I have been pretty much confined to a chair due to a recent injury.  Today I took the time to go back and read the posts that were written about each week’s memory verses.  I would encourage you to do that even if you didn’t memorize the chapter.  They were such a blessing to me and gave me much to think about.  We live in such tumultuous times.  God is our peace.  It is my prayer that we will all run to Him for protection.

Here are a few of the most thought-provoking statements in those blog posts to me.  I wanted to write them out for my future reference and thought I would share them with you.  If you read the posts or have been meditating on Psalm 91, please share some of your thoughts in the comments so we can encourage one another.  I linked to each post in the Bible reference.

Psalm 91:1-2, “Regardless of the devastation that the coronavirus threatens us with, we can rest assured that if we stay in our shelter, once the storm passes, our souls will have survived.

And we will still be with God. Together.

He’ll help us pick up the pieces and put our lives back together. Then, as now, He will remain our refuge, our fortress, our God.

In Him we can trust.”

Psalm 91:3-4, “The mouse had taken the bait. And lost his battle.

We, however, don’t have to take the bait of worrying, of panicking, of complaining. We can go higher. Call for help. Avoid the traps.

God knows where our traps have been set, and if we’ll shelter in His nest, we will be safe. He’s got this. Let’s let him fight this one for us.

Count on His faithfulness.
Trust His goodness.
Rest in His love.”

Psalm 91:5-6, “We have a safe place in Jesus, despite our vulnerability in the world.

Ultimately, vulnerability isn’t our weakness. It’s our opportunity—to run to safe refuge in God.

It’s in God’s shelter that we are finally safe.”

Psalm 91:7-8, “While our bodies are just as susceptible to destruction as any other, our souls are not as susceptible. They are protected.

Our immunity doesn’t rest in the physical (although God can still perform miracles there also). Our advantage comes in the peace of God’s presence in us and around us.”

Psalm 91:9-10, “By trusting in God as our refuge, we not only are protecting ourselves, we’re also protecting those ‘near our tent.’

God’s protection ripples out.

When you stay close to God, others around you also benefit by His shade.”

Psalm 91:11-12, ” He doesn’t always stop the catastrophe from happening to us in the physical realm…Even when we can’t see God, He sees us. We are always on His mind and always in His works.”

Psalm 91:13-14, “Getting to know God more doesn’t have to be complicated. But you do need to consciously choose it.

Loving God more means spending more time with Him, being more aware of His presence, learning more who He is, talking with others about Him, talking more in person with Him.

The more you know God, the more you’ll love God. You’ll then hold on to Him in love because you want to, not from guilt or fear or obligation.

You’ll know Him by name.”

Psalm 91:15-16, “We often don’t see the gifts. Our blindness causes us to miss out on God’s good gifts.”

I think, perhaps, the fact of God’s presence is the dearest truth to me next to His love.  It is something that I dwell on continually. God reminds me of it when I don’t. This psalm is full of reminders of His presence.

Thank you, Lisa, for allowing the Lord to use you in this way.  The time spent in this psalm was exactly what my sore, anxious, weary heart needed.

Growing in Our Relationship with the Lord

One of the challenges I faced when moving to the field was the lack of accountability and companionship around the Word.  In the states, I was involved in a small group Bible study.  I had a Bible memory accountability partner.  I had “iron sharpening iron” relationships.  When I moved to the field, those all went away.  On top of that, vocabulary cards started to replace Bible memory cards.  Instead of spare minutes spent in communion with the Lord, those spare minutes were spent studying for language school.  

To read more, click here.

*I posted this photo on Instagram several weeks ago.  Furlough is such a challenging time to find quiet space.  I grab it where and when I can!

Proverbs

I have mentioned in the past the What do I know about my God? study.  I started it years ago and it has been life-changing!

I have my knowing God pages in alphabetical order so that I can find them easily.  If you notice one of the taps in the back, it says Proverbs.  That’s what I would like to share with you today.

Years ago when my children were younger and at home, we were a homeschool family.  Because of what we do and all the travel that involves, it was a necessity.  We didn’t usually take the summer break that others had, but we did have a lighter schedule.  I tried to make the summer school days different from the rest of the year, so it wouldn’t seem like such a chore.

One thing we did during those summer months as a family was to read through the book of Proverbs each month of summer.  Each of us had a theme each month based on what we were struggling with or needed to work on.  I’m sure you’ve heard before that there are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs and 30-31 days in each month.  You can easily read the chapter that corresponds with the date.  As we read the Proverbs for that day, when we came to a verse that matched the theme we were working on, we would write it out on our page.

Although I have read through the book of Proverbs often, it has been awhile since I spent a summer reading with a theme in mind. This post made me want to do that this summer.  I didn’t join in on the group, but I have been reading on my own.  It has proved to be exactly what I needed.

One thing I have started to do to help me not be so absent-minded is to keep a page at the beginning with possible topics.  That way when I am ready to start again, I can prayerfully choose my next topic.

If you have never read through the book of Proverbs with a theme in mind, I would like to encourage you to do so.  There is a wealth of guidance in those pages.

*****

“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.” ~Proverbs 1

Weekend Reads

When You Don’t Want to Read the Bible-“Has the idea of reading your Bible ever seemed like too much work?  Like you’re investing in something that doesn’t have a very good return?”

Even On Your Best Day-“Indeed- grace is a wonderful enabler to do God’s will. But it’s also a gentle exfoliator along the process of sanctification, opening and revealing the places where we are not depending on God. It’s no wonder that, as we get older and grow in our faith, those openings become more apparent and the needs seem to increase and to feel more out of control.”

Amy Carmichael’s Secret to Fighting Discouragement-“I’ve often wondered how Amy could maintain such supernatural joy in the face of ‘griefs which can come down like an avalanche over the soul.’ Reading her writings has taught me that there were four main things that bolstered her spirit and her faith—saturation in Scripture, delight in the presence of God, the support of a Christian community, and the glorious beauty of the natural world.”

Register Now to Memorize Matthew 5:1-19-“We invite you to slow down with us for a new Bible memorization challenge.”

Compass Book Ratings-I was happy to find this website.  Sometimes I see a book that I think I might like to read and then I am disappointed with the content and often stop reading.  This site rates books as others rate movies to help you make an educated decision.

*posted on Facebook by Christian Funny Pictures

90 Day Bible Reading Update

おわりました！ Finished!   It has been a long time since I posted.  I have really been tested through the process this last month.  I have been preparing for a special guest from the USA.  I have been quite ill with what is probably influenza.  But through it all, God has been good to me.

When I began this journey, I didn’t think I would be able to complete it.  I actually was able to finish a little early.  The illness probably helped with that, since I didn’t feel like doing anything anyway.  I passed some of the hours reading.

This journey was well worth the effort.  If you have not done this, I recommend that you try.  I have seen God and His marvelous plan of salvation in a way I never saw it before.  His love is on every page. From Genesis to Revelation there is the constant reminder of God’s sovereignty.  “In the beginning God…The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.”

Thanks to all for your prayers and your encouragement.  If you decide to start this journey, please let me know so that I may do the same for you.

“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” ~Revelation 1:3

90 Days Update

It’s about time I updated again on reading the Bible in 90 days.  In my last update, I mentioned that I was a little bit ahead.  I am glad that I did that or I would definitely be behind this week.  Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you and I have had a lot of days this week that didn’t go as planned.  While I was able to fit some reading in, it wasn’t a whole daily portion according to the schedule.

I have heard people say that reading the Bible in this way reads like a novel.  I understand why they would say that.  I am seeing the connection to so many things in the Bible that I haven’t even come to in my reading yet.  For example, as I read about King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles, the phrase, “In the year that King Uzziah died….” from Isaiah 6 came to my mind.  It gave me a whole new perspective on that chapter.  I know that I will never read it the same again.

Reading through Esther as a whole was so exciting, even though I already knew the outcome.  This is so easy to do since it is only 10 chapters.  And today I start with the book of Job.  I have been studying and teaching through this, but I am looking forward to reading it straight through.  I know it will help me as I prepare for my next lesson.

I am still a few days ahead which is an encouragement.  I know someone who is trying to catch up and I am thankful that is not me.  I think I would give up.  Maybe not…at this point, by the grace of God, I have read too far to quit.  If you would like to join me, it is not too late.  A lady in our church started 2 weeks ago.  Grab a schedule here, and start counting your 90 days from today.  Be sure to leave a comment below so I can pray for you and we can encourage one another.