Sunday, December 4, 2011

Parental Pride

John 1:6-9
6 "There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light."

I have been thinking a lot about my unborn daughter today. She has been especially active and I have enjoyed feeling her move around as I wrote a paper and sat in church. I feel so blessed to have her within me.

Lately I’ve been having problems sleeping, so I’ve begun daydreaming until I fall asleep (counting sheep doesn’t work for me). As I lay in bed last night trying to fall asleep I imagined what my daughter will be like. Not what she will be like as a baby, but as an adult. I dreamt up her wedding, and prayed for her future husband. I dreamt of what she may look like, and how much she will love her daddy. But mostly I imagined how she will love God.

I was just daydreaming, but I can’t describe the pride I felt as I imagined our daughter giving her heart to the Lord and telling others about him. It made me wonder about how much joy Zechariah and Elizabeth must have felt watching their son grow.

This is the same Zechariah that temporarily lost his voice after doubting Gabriel’s proclamation that he would have a son. I know he and Elizabeth would have been more than proud of any child, but their child was prophesied about as the one who will clear the way for the Messiah. According to John, he was there to testify and witness about the Messiah. He was so popular people actually thought he was the Messiah.

I wonder about the pride they felt as their son learned the Jewish traditions. I also wonder if they got to see him as an adult. I wonder if they were there when he baptized the true Messiah. If so I can’t imagine the pride they felt as he lowered his earthly cousin, but his heavenly savior, into the water and raised his sinless body from the river.

I wonder how often Elizabeth prayed that her son wouldn’t get caught up in his own popularity. I wonder if she ever had to remind him that he was not the important one, but God was. I wonder if she ever felt inferior while raising the man who was to testify to the living Messiah.

I am so excited that I get to pray for my daughter. I’ve already begun praying for her salvation. I can’t wait until the day she tells me that Jesus is living within her. I know that moment will be one of the greatest moments of my life, and I feel blessed that I get to teach my daughter about Christ, and live an example of a Christian life for her.

Dear God, thank you for giving us parents to learn from in the bible. Help us to remember that the greatest gift we can ever give a child is a personal relationship with You. Thank you so much for calling us to share Your love with the world. We love you! Amen

God's Will

This morning I realized that almost everyone I know is in the place of waiting on God. Even if they are beginning new things in one aspect of life, they are waiting on God in another. At first I wondered if it would ever stop; if we would ever not be waiting on God to do something, and then I realized I don’t want it to stop.
The moment I am no longer waiting on God is the moment I am in Heaven with Him. It means He has finished with me on earth, and I’m not ready for that yet. I want to see more people come to know Him. I want to teach others about His love. I want to see victories in the lives of other Christians.
During church we were given our purpose. “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17). My purpose is to bring Glory to God and to proclaim His name in all the earth. I know I personally will not proclaim His name in all the earth, but maybe through writing about Him, His name will be proclaimed by new believers.
I don’t have any idea what God has planned for me, but I do know that it will be all about Him if I let it. I believe He wants me to write about Him, so I will continue to share His word through this blog.
 I want to encourage all believers to listen to God and not to hesitate when He asks you to do something. He will never force you to do anything, but remember that if you don’t do something He asks, He will eventually ask someone else to do it. Don’t miss a chance to serve the Lord.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Lying in the Valley

I have to say something more about God accomplishing His plans in His ways. Earlier this week we were shocked to find out Cameron didn’t get a job he had applied for. He had basically been told he got it, and then he received a phone call saying he didn’t. He didn’t not get the job because of anything he did, if anything they said he was overqualified.
Anyway, the why doesn’t matter, what does is that it hurt. It hurt bad! We had really thought this was God’s way of giving us the insurance we so badly need for our newborn. Well, it wasn’t. We had been obedient in our timing of having a child, even though we didn’t understand about the insurance, but all of a sudden we couldn’t see how it was going to happen. We felt like I imagine Mary feeling about Christ being born in Bethlehem. We knew God had a plan…and we sincerely thanked Him for that plan, but it was still hard not to ask “how will we get insurance for our baby.”
There are reasons she can’t be on my insurance, and Cameron can’t get a personal policy, so he’s gone without health insurance for a little over a year. But yesterday he came home and told me his boss hired a group insurance specialist to come to the office to show their options. Today, we found out that we WILL be offered group insurance! We don’t know about the price, but we trust that God will take care of that! He provides all of our needs, and today we were honored to see Him providing for our needs in a situation when just two days ago we couldn’t imagine how He would meet them.
Today I am grateful that Cameron didn’t get the job for a big reason: if he had, I wouldn’t have been able to see God making an impossible situation possible. I told my dad, sometimes it’s nice to be thrown off a mountain, because you land in a valley. It’s the best feeling in the world to lie in the grass next to my Jesus and see the magnificence of his works rolling by like clouds in the sky!

God's Census

“1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.” – Luke 2:1-3
Back to the Christmas theme today! Sorry it’s taken so long to get back on track.
This little passage means to world to me! In Micah it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and this verse in Luke tells us how God accomplished that. Much of the time I don’t understand how God is doing something. I know I’ve said this a lot lately, but God is really revealing His infinite power to me in this area.
I’ll be honest, I don’t like it when I know that God is going to accomplish something, but I don’t understand how. I’m sure Mary had some of the same questions running through her mind. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, not Bethlehem…so how was this prophecy going to be fulfilled? I know this question would have worried me to no end if I were her. But, God had that problem all figured out (haha, He knew from the beginning of time how He was going to accomplish this).
Not only does the fact that God had it all planned out amaze me, but how He did it is amazing. Luke tells us he had Caesar Augustus order a census…and then adds that “this was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” WOW! Not only did God use an ungodly man, a ROMAN, to accomplish His will, but apparently this was a rare thing.
This touched me deeply today, because it let me know god will accomplish His will in ways we can never imagine. I know that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8), but it is incredible to really see how he can use such unlikely circumstances to fulfill his promise!
Lord, thank you for using ordinary circumstances to accomplish Your will! Thank you for being the one who gives all power to the leaders over us (Romans 13:1). Thank you for always accomplishing Your will, and for allowing us to play a part in that. In Your name I pray, Amen.