We started with a game of “Dad Says” (like the game Simon Says), which brought a lot of laughs. Then we sat down and started talking about obedience.
What does the word obedience mean? One thing that I noticed when I was getting ready for the lesson was that obedience isn’t just doing what someone tells you to do. For one thing, what kind of attitude are you having while you are doing the task? Is it really having an obedient heart if you are groaning and rolling your eyes while doing the task?

Also, obedience is doing a job completely. Our example was taking out the trash. If we tell our son to take out the trash and then later we go out and find he left it sitting by the dumpster instead of putting it inside the dumpster, he really hasn’t been obedient to complete the whole task. He knows what is required of this chore…remove the filled trash bag, take it to the dumpster outside, and put in a new trash bag.

There are many verses on obedience we can find in the Bible. One we read was Philippians 2:8 where it tells us Christ was humbly obedient in His dying on the cross. We also talked about examples of obedient people in the Bible. One was Jesus as a boy (Luke 2:40–52). He was obedient to His parents even though He wanted to stay at the temple. “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.” Luke 2:51  We talked about Naaman (2 Kings 5) and how when he did obey he was cleansed of the leprosy. Our son also brought up Daniel as an example of someone who obeyed God instead of the king.

I’ve been thinking of other examples. Some were examples to us in their disobedience, like Moses when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God told him (Numbers 20:1-17). Another is Jonah who was swallowed by a big fish when he disobeyed God (Jonah 1-4).  Can you think of others who either obeyed or disobeyed?

We have been given many examples of obedience and disobedience. We can learn from each of them and apply these lessons to our personal lives. We have a choice in what we do.  Will you obey or disobey?

Have a day of blessings!

The plan was for the work to be done by 7pm to make way for family movie night: the fourth installment of Love Comes Softly. But life often happens to the best laid plans these days. It was 7:45 before we began, and after bedtime by the end. But how else will family time happen, if we don’t just squeeze it in?

The demands and the desires press hard against me and the clock mocks me with its tick-tocking. The toilet overflows, the man-child erupts, the showered girl needs a towel, and a mama simply tries harder, runs faster, to hold it all together.

The other day, we visited friends who had experienced a healing that just may have saved his life. The wife sat quiet beside him, with the golden retriever who thinks he’s a lapdog sprawled across them both. Steve spilled forth his joy, and thanksgiving, and with humbled inability to put words to any more, he spilled the rest from his eyes.

As we listened, I watched a magnificent hummingbird through the picture window behind him. The petite gracefulness nothing short of a work of art. She perched on a branch for a while, then motionless hovering over the necter, then perched again quietly and effortless.

I think of the bird tonight. I have not hovered motionless and perched, effortless and quiet. But I want to be the beautiful bird that sucks necter from life with the poise and artistry. Instead I am an ant, who scrurries helter skelter after the boot drops. Right up and over those who are closest – but in my way, the crazy madness of the ant pile, biting, stinging. The high-pitch is because I’m not breathing from my diaphram. My chest aches, my ears ring, and my shoulders are a tight-rope.

I speak too many words, overflowing like the toilet. And I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee.

While I mop up the contamination from the bathroom floor, I wonder how I will clean the contamination that overflowed my heart. The words from Haggai that flowed into that heart only two days ago bite and sting my spirit now. Because the impure indeed defiles what is pure when it touches it (Haggai 2:12-13). I have presented my members as an instrument of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13), and sown discord, not peace. I have looked into the mirror and walked away and forgotten Who I am to look like (James 1:23-24).

God disinfects with mercy and grace. Forgiveness, too. And a new day dawning tomorrow. He lifts me up–I am not an ant trampled under foot. And He humbles me–neither am I the hummingbird, beak dripping stolen sweetness. The bird God watches is the sparrow.

And I sing because I’m happy and I know he watches me.

For the past 2 years, my husband and I have been embroiled in a complicated and frustrating battle regarding a real estate issue. It’s truly a current day David and Goliath scenario, and we’re little David. Day by day, it’s up and down emotionally as the lawyers go back and forth.

So we decided that whenever our minds drift into the “what if’s” and the figuring out, we would turn our thoughts to scripture, specifically Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

This discipline has kept our minds fixed on truth instead of faulty thinking. Last week, we received a call from our lawyer saying that we were at a dead-end. I felt my stomach flop, but my husband (normally the worry-er) was strangely at peace. Then he shared with me an email he read moments before the lawyer’s phone call. It was from our friend, Pastor Chuck:

“‘What do you mean, “If I can”?’ Jesus asked. ‘Anything is possible if a person believes.’” (Mark 9:23 NLT)

 God will build your faith by planting a dream within you. But that dream will require a decision of faith, and then God will stretch your faith as you face delays, difficulties, and dead ends.

It is then that God comes in and delivers. God does a miracle. God provides a solution. For instance:

·   In Moses’ case, God parted the Red Sea. 

·   In Abraham’s case, he and Sarah miraculously conceived a child. 

·   In Joseph’s case, all of a sudden his dream came true, and he found himself no longer imprisoned in a dungeon; instead, he was the second in command in Egypt. 

 And Jesus was resurrected! God can even turn a crucifixion into resurrection, and that means he has the power to transform your dead ends into deliverance. He builds your faith through delays, difficulties, and dead ends, so that when he delivers you, God gets all the credit!

 When faced with a dead end, the best response is to expect God to act. What are you expecting God to do in your life? Jesus says, “According to your faith let it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29b NIV).

 When you wait for deliverance, then God gets the credit. And you can look back to see how God led you through a path of faith, expanding and increasing your trust of him with every step. Your faith is stronger, and now you can say with confidence, “I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me …” (Psalm 27:13 LB).

Reading that email moments before the phone call gave my husband the wisdom to know how to respond. We’ll wait for the Lord, and we’ll wait with the expectation that He will be glorified when this issue is resolved. Already, we have seen God work, and soon the lawyers and town officials and many others will too.

Are you facing a difficult circumstance? One which seems impossible? Leave a comment so I can pray for you, and you can pray for me too. Together we will see God do the impossible! 

Susan

www.eternitycafe.blogspot.com

www.susanpanzica.com