Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. When he became king, God said He would give him anything he wished for, and Solomon asked for wisdom, so that he could be a good ruler to his people. For the first half of his life, he did some great things for the Lord. He built an incredible temple for Him, he judged his people righteously and prudently. But the end of his life, he had completely turned away from the Lord and was serving other gods.
I think this happens to a lot of people. They will be following after God and living good lives, and later in life, have completely turned their backs on Him. I’ve seen it in many people I know that are close to me, and have heard lots more stories of others. What causes someone who falls away from the Lord to do that?
It’s called backsliding.
It’s what the Israelites did all through the Old Testament. They would be following God and keeping His commandments for a while, and then pretty soon, they were going to the idols in other countries and totally living in sin. Jeremiah talks about this a lot, and he’s the one who calls it backsliding, which God portrays as being very serious. He quite often makes known His displeasure in the way they have completely forsaken Him by proclaiming harsh judgments on them.
But you see, backsliding, as horrible as it is, is not just something that we see in the Israelites or the people that have turned their backs on God. It’s something that all of us do (whether we want to admit it or not). I’d like to ask the question: How did Solomon end up the way he did? I mean, he couldn’t have just woke up one morning and decided he didn’t want to walk with God anymore! He started by marrying wives from different countries—something God had told him absolutely NOT to do. So he started going away from the Lord by not following the commandments God made. He kept making little decisions (I’ll just marry this girl from Egypt, and build this other girl a temple for her god, and I’ll just worship this idol a tiny bit…) every day.
And if we’re not careful, that same thing can happen to us. If we decide to skip reading our Bibles for a few days, or stop praying so often, pretty soon our Bible reading will become more and more infrequent and we will lose any interest in prayer or fellowship. Sometimes I look back at my life and remember how a few months or years ago, I had felt really passionate or convicted about various things, and I realize that as time has gone by, I’ve forgotten about them, and they don’t matter to me anymore. Doing things like this can either weaken our relationship with God, or, if it goes on for too long, they can destroy it.
But just like God pleads with the Israelites saying, “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings,” (Jeremiah 3:22), He’s pleading with you to repent of your own backsliding (maybe you’ve gotten lazy about your relationship with someone and need to spend more time with them, or have been getting angry a lot, or have been lazy about doing things you need to get done, or have watched movies you didn’t used to let yourself watch) and use the strength He promises to give you in order to change and get back on track.
Now don’t get discouraged when you see an area you need to improve on, decide to change, and then several days or weeks go by, and you still find yourself struggling with it. That happened to the Israelites too. There are several verses throughout Jeremiah where either Jeremiah or the people are asking God to forgive their backslidings, and help them to do better. One of them is in chapter 14. It says:
“O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.”
This verse shows that they had obviously tried and failed several times too, but the key thing is to go to God every time you find yourself failing or backsliding, and re-make that commitment to do better.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Someday Soon, The saga of Miriam Kercher and Hannah Swayze's Future (Written by Miriam Kercher and Hannah Swayze)
Chapter 1
A Day by the River
“Weeeeee!” Miriam’s raisin-like, shriveled old body went flying into the river.” Hannah, I think you finally had a good idea. It took you 55 years, but you’ve finally done it.” But Hannah was to busy searching for her dentures in the murky waters to hear her. They played in silence for several minutes when Miriam gloated yet again. “You should feel this mud over here! It’s great! Why, this sure beats sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for hours while they---“
“Miriam, you maleficent, malingering Kercher! Don’t be saying that aloud or else somebody’s going to overhear you talking about that.”
“Huh?”
“Ooooh, never mind. Just hesh, then alright?” They both quickly forgot the close call they had just experienced, and carried on with their toes-in-mud-digging, swimming, and fishing-for-dentures-ing. Soon it was getting late, and two disheveled, yet jubilant old women headed for the back door of their house, eager to find some chocolate milk. But before they reached for the door handle, Clementine, Hannah’s oldest daughter stepped out.
“Mom! You were supposed to be taking Miriam to the doctor to get her pace-maker put in. Don’t you think it’s time you grew up? After all…you are my mother.” Hannah smiled a toothless grin, and before she could reply, Nella gasped. “Mom! Where’s your teeth? We just bought that set!”
Pointing a long bony finger at her comrade, Hannah accused, “It was her fault. She was up in the dogwood trying to re-tie the tire swing when she fell down onto my head. After I finally got her clawing, gnarling self off my shoulders, they had fallen into the creek.”
“Well,” Miriam defended, “if she hadn’t been accusing me of being a sissy I wouldn’t of been up there in the first place. Hannah Hishbod! You’re a—“ But they could no longer contain themselves and broke out in a delighted cackle. Nella simply shook her head and herded them inside for the third bath of the day. After they had sipped a cup of chocolate raspberry tea and a three hour nap, it was time for bed.
A Day by the River
“Weeeeee!” Miriam’s raisin-like, shriveled old body went flying into the river.” Hannah, I think you finally had a good idea. It took you 55 years, but you’ve finally done it.” But Hannah was to busy searching for her dentures in the murky waters to hear her. They played in silence for several minutes when Miriam gloated yet again. “You should feel this mud over here! It’s great! Why, this sure beats sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for hours while they---“
“Miriam, you maleficent, malingering Kercher! Don’t be saying that aloud or else somebody’s going to overhear you talking about that.”
“Huh?”
“Ooooh, never mind. Just hesh, then alright?” They both quickly forgot the close call they had just experienced, and carried on with their toes-in-mud-digging, swimming, and fishing-for-dentures-ing. Soon it was getting late, and two disheveled, yet jubilant old women headed for the back door of their house, eager to find some chocolate milk. But before they reached for the door handle, Clementine, Hannah’s oldest daughter stepped out.
“Mom! You were supposed to be taking Miriam to the doctor to get her pace-maker put in. Don’t you think it’s time you grew up? After all…you are my mother.” Hannah smiled a toothless grin, and before she could reply, Nella gasped. “Mom! Where’s your teeth? We just bought that set!”
Pointing a long bony finger at her comrade, Hannah accused, “It was her fault. She was up in the dogwood trying to re-tie the tire swing when she fell down onto my head. After I finally got her clawing, gnarling self off my shoulders, they had fallen into the creek.”
“Well,” Miriam defended, “if she hadn’t been accusing me of being a sissy I wouldn’t of been up there in the first place. Hannah Hishbod! You’re a—“ But they could no longer contain themselves and broke out in a delighted cackle. Nella simply shook her head and herded them inside for the third bath of the day. After they had sipped a cup of chocolate raspberry tea and a three hour nap, it was time for bed.
Chapter 2
“Our evil plan is working.”
“Oh no! No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! There’s NO possible way I’m going to fall for the ‘going quilting at the senior center’ trickery. After all these years of you two refusing to let me teach you how to quilt…” She sighed. “I’m not that stupid.” So Clementine grounded them from leaving the house for 3 days.
A few hours later, Hannah could be found in her rocking chair, newspaper over the face, snoring, when Clementine and her very loving and affectionate husband Moses walked into the living room. “Honey, I’d love to take you to the Bahamas for our Anniversary, but who could we persuade to watch the kids?”
“Well what about Terry? She’s a nice girl, Sweetheart.”
“Yes, I know she is, Snookers, but for a whole week?” I don’t know if she can handle that. After all—“
“Shhhhh! You’re going to wake up my mom, Pookums!”
“Sorry. I don’t know what we’re going to do, Bitsel, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
They shook hands lovingly and then left the room. As soon as they were gone, the newspaper flew off Hannah’s face onto the ground and she was running (or hobbling) as fast as she could toward Miriam’s room. As they consulted in whispered tones, Hannah exulted, “you’ll never guess what I just found out!”
DAH DAH DAH DAH
Chapter 3
Chewing for Two?
Pound, pound, pound “Hey you sniveling old women! You let me out of here! I’m going to tell Moses and Clementine about this! Heeeeeeeeeelp!”
“Terry, be quiet in there or we’ll have to duct tape yer mouth.” Turning to Miriam Hannah groaned. “You’re lucky you can’t hear. That girl’s as crazy as a coot.”
“Ey?”
“Nothing. You almost done chewing that gum?”
“Well yes, but it’s lot harder when your chewing for two, and it’s mixed with caramel and popcorn at the same time. I still think we should try my blender idea.”
Triumphantly following Hannah’s reluctant permission, Miriam shuffled over to the cupboard where she took out the blender and began pouring in the ingredients: bubble gum, caramel squares, popcorn, orange soda, and a tad of milk. “Here’s you milkshake, Hanney.”
Blissfully sipping her drink, the recipient of this delicious beverage commented, “You know, we forgot to feed Terry.”
“Oh yeah. After we put the kids to bed at 5, I completely forgot about her. I better go get the tortillas. Too bad that’s the only thing that will fit underneath the door. Oh well. All the less work for me.” She chuckled softly to herself, as she shoved the girl’s meal under the door. “Be good in there, Terry or we’ll eat the tortillas ourselves. Just be grateful you’re in the room with the toilet. We still have to wear our DEPENDS.” They heard nothing but a sob and much sniffling for a reply.
***More episodes from the Being Old While Staying Young Publishing Company are soon to come!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What's Underneath it All?
Isaiah chapter 4 gives a very detailed description of the judgment of the Israelites for their sin. It speaks of how their crops will be destroyed, their land overthrown, and they will be taken into captivity. As I read about all these punishments, they seem very tragic and unappealing. But the verses that really seem horrible to me and cause me to shudder are the ones that describe what will happen to the women. God uses 8 verses to list one thing after another that He is going to strip from them. This list includes anklets, necklaces, bracelets, chains, mufflers, bonnets, ornaments, headbands, earrings, nose rings, outfits, mantles, wimples, pins, glasses, fancy cloth, hoods, and veils. He says they will be made bald, that their beauty will become burning, their sweet smells will be a stink, and they will be in mourning. I look at this list and can’t help but imagine myself in this predicament. Bald, completely devoid of any jewelry or beauty-enhancers, wearing the plainest of all clothes, mourning, and just utterly unattractive. And when I see myself that way, it makes me wonder what people would then really see in me.
When someone looks at me, they don’t just see me-the real me, that is. There are some things about me that sort of cover me up. People look at me and before I even say a word, they see my appearance—my clothes, my hair, my face…etc. Then after I begin speaking to them, they hear my voice, they hear me laugh, and they can see my personality. Sometimes it takes a long time for them to actually see way down deep to the real me. The me that reacts to various situations, and the me that deals with hardships or temptations.
When the Bible tells something, it does not waste any extra space on superfluous words. It says exactly the main facts and nothing extra. But here in this chapter, God uses eight verses just to list all these ‘beauty’ things that will be taken from the women. I think this fact can show us something about how important these outward things had become to the women. It looks like they became a little too caught up in their fancy hair-do’s, and their pretty dresses. After all, back in Bible times when Isaiah was prophesying, the only women who wore excessive amounts of jewelry—especially ankle jewelry—were the women who were considered flirtatious or inappropriate, and this particular section of scripture is the only place in the whole Bible that actually uses the word ‘anklet.’ Here, many, many, many different forms of jewelry are mentioned.
God saw that underneath all their fancy jewelry and beautiful things, these women were hiding something truly disgusting. We need to be careful that we are not using our appearances or charm or to hide what we truly are underneath it all. We need to carefully examine ourselves to make sure that if all those outward things were stripped away from us, we would not be left with something repulsive.
When someone looks at me, they don’t just see me-the real me, that is. There are some things about me that sort of cover me up. People look at me and before I even say a word, they see my appearance—my clothes, my hair, my face…etc. Then after I begin speaking to them, they hear my voice, they hear me laugh, and they can see my personality. Sometimes it takes a long time for them to actually see way down deep to the real me. The me that reacts to various situations, and the me that deals with hardships or temptations.
When the Bible tells something, it does not waste any extra space on superfluous words. It says exactly the main facts and nothing extra. But here in this chapter, God uses eight verses just to list all these ‘beauty’ things that will be taken from the women. I think this fact can show us something about how important these outward things had become to the women. It looks like they became a little too caught up in their fancy hair-do’s, and their pretty dresses. After all, back in Bible times when Isaiah was prophesying, the only women who wore excessive amounts of jewelry—especially ankle jewelry—were the women who were considered flirtatious or inappropriate, and this particular section of scripture is the only place in the whole Bible that actually uses the word ‘anklet.’ Here, many, many, many different forms of jewelry are mentioned.
God saw that underneath all their fancy jewelry and beautiful things, these women were hiding something truly disgusting. We need to be careful that we are not using our appearances or charm or to hide what we truly are underneath it all. We need to carefully examine ourselves to make sure that if all those outward things were stripped away from us, we would not be left with something repulsive.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Bible Clubs
One of the reasons it's been such a long time since I've posted anything is because I was at a camp called Operation Eternal Impact. Me and a bunch of my friends went to some apartment complexes where there's pretty rough neighborhoods, and did Bible clubs for the kids. I didn't take very many pictures, but this is what I did take.
This is Leonesha. She's this really loud, funny kid, and she kept making us paint random words on her face. Like on her forehead it says Nana, and then later she made me paint, "I love my family" on her chin.
This is Leonesha. She's this really loud, funny kid, and she kept making us paint random words on her face. Like on her forehead it says Nana, and then later she made me paint, "I love my family" on her chin.
Alizabeth and me
Hannah and Hannah both got their faces painted matching.
For one of my stories, I brought these glasses, and then afterwards we were all playing with them and trying them on. This is Daniel.
And my own little contribution to dorkiness.......
Monday, August 25, 2008
Change
There's a Bible verse somewhere that says, "Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." I've decided to take that little passage literally and make some drastic changes to my blog. I don't exactly know why, but that black background was starting to get on my nerves with how gloomy it always looked. So, feeling in my heart that this was the right thing to do, I put the pedal to the medal (to borrow the coloquialism) and here it is!
Woot! Yippee! Hooray! Jumpin' Jihoodles! Hazzah!
How do you like it?
Woot! Yippee! Hooray! Jumpin' Jihoodles! Hazzah!
How do you like it?
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Just a teeny little thought for the day...
Our first and most important command is to love the Lord. The reason a lot of people don’t like reading Leviticus very much is because they can’t find anything to daily apply to their lives. But I don’t think that’s the purpose of Leviticus. Its purpose is to show us how holy God is, and to increase our appreciation for His sacrifice. So it’s okay if we go a couple days without a new application for our lives as long as we have increased our love for God by seeing salvation in a new light, or recognizing His holiness because we are getting to know Him better, and that is the whole point for reading the Bible in the first place. Yes, serving Him can increase our love for Him, but sometimes we just need to get to know God better, and not forget about our original purpose from the beginning.
Friday, July 25, 2008
A Common Bond (and some other jumbled thoughts)
I’ve often looked at the men in the Bible, all the “greats,” like David, Moses, Job, Daniel, and others, and have really admired them for their amazing hearts for God. I always find myself wanting to be like them, but feel like there’s just no way that I can even begin to match up to them because of how godly they are. But recently I decided to make a list of all the things David did, that made him so pleasing to God. The list included things like trust, integrity, righteousness, fear of the Lord, and many others. But as I read about different people in the Bible, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities between all those great men. Job showed the exact same trust in God during his trials, as David in his. Moses showed that obedience, and Daniel exhibited similar integrity and praise for God. Each one was definitely different, possessing his own qualities and struggles, but I think there must have been one important, core thing in common between all of them, and also all the other faithful guys throughout God’s Word. I don’t specifically have one word or adjective to describe it perfectly, but I think that core thing that gave these men the strength to do righteous things was the relationship they had with their God in the beginning. Now, I said “their God” on purpose because they really did make Him their God. You can sense it in the things they say (whether in their prayers or the things they said to others) that there’s something in that relationship that goes really, really deep. They love God very much. God is like an old friend to them, someone that has been there by their side wherever they’ve gone, whatever they’ve done, and He’s been teaching them things all along the way. They’ve had to learn hard lessons and endure hard things, but God has taken them through it all, and become very precious to them.
That’s why Daniel could not stop praying to God even as he was about to be consumed by a den-full of lions. That’s why David could praise God, even when his very life was threatened by Saul, and why he could go to the Lord for comfort when all his men were angry with him. It’s why Moses could continue leading the complaining, unfaithful Israelites through that hot, miserable desert his whole life, and why Job could sit in the dark room of his house, in severe pain and misery, with the sense of losing his possessions and his ten children. On top of that, he had to deal with (what used to be) his friends despising and criticizing him, and he could still say “I know that my redeemer lives.”
So I guess my reason for saying all this, is that I’m probably not the only one who’s wanted to be like Job or David, and felt very hopelessly like it was impossible, that I was totally inadequate, because these guys are just so strong. I mean, they made it all the way to the Bible, after all! But I would say, don’t lose hope. Try to study them and find the things in the beginning of their lives that may have started to bring about that beautiful friendship with God.
Here are a few things that I’ve thought of to get started: Daniel was wrenched away from his home, his family, and future, and brought into captivity in Babylon. Very soon after he arrived there, he was asked to eat meat and other things God had told him not to. Guys like meat. It smells good, it tastes chewy, and it’s satisfying, ever so much more satisfying than lettuce. Or green beans. But he overcame that. He found a way to obey God, and I’m sure that helped to bring him close to God.
David’s brothers, all 7 of them, went to war. Isn’t it every boy’s dream to go to war, and be noble, and fight for your country? But David had to stay home with his parents and watch the sheep! How un-noble is that?! But he used those hours and hours of being alone in the meadow to play his harp, and play songs to the Lord. I imagine that was a time where his relationship with God really grew.
Moses grew up a Hebrew boy in an Egyptian’s house. As he grew older, he had to watch his people suffer by the Egyptians, which we know was difficult for him because he killed one of them in revenge. He ran away to the wilderness where he became the son-in-law of a shepherd for 40 years. God used this time to prepare him to be a leader to his people.
And Job uses his time of riches and his great bounty to develop his integrity. The Bible says he is righteous, upright, and shuns evil. He even makes sacrifices for his children, which is another thing that demonstrates his relationship to God before his horrible trial whams him.
Now I hope that, after you have looked at more people’s lives and learned how they developed that relationship, that you will work on using whatever situations you might have—whether you are dissatisfied, bored, afraid, unfairly treated, or everything is going just fine—to develop yours, because I think it is actually very possible for us to do the same things David did, as long as we have that deep and precious relationship with God. We need to make Him “our” God.
That’s why Daniel could not stop praying to God even as he was about to be consumed by a den-full of lions. That’s why David could praise God, even when his very life was threatened by Saul, and why he could go to the Lord for comfort when all his men were angry with him. It’s why Moses could continue leading the complaining, unfaithful Israelites through that hot, miserable desert his whole life, and why Job could sit in the dark room of his house, in severe pain and misery, with the sense of losing his possessions and his ten children. On top of that, he had to deal with (what used to be) his friends despising and criticizing him, and he could still say “I know that my redeemer lives.”
So I guess my reason for saying all this, is that I’m probably not the only one who’s wanted to be like Job or David, and felt very hopelessly like it was impossible, that I was totally inadequate, because these guys are just so strong. I mean, they made it all the way to the Bible, after all! But I would say, don’t lose hope. Try to study them and find the things in the beginning of their lives that may have started to bring about that beautiful friendship with God.
Here are a few things that I’ve thought of to get started: Daniel was wrenched away from his home, his family, and future, and brought into captivity in Babylon. Very soon after he arrived there, he was asked to eat meat and other things God had told him not to. Guys like meat. It smells good, it tastes chewy, and it’s satisfying, ever so much more satisfying than lettuce. Or green beans. But he overcame that. He found a way to obey God, and I’m sure that helped to bring him close to God.
David’s brothers, all 7 of them, went to war. Isn’t it every boy’s dream to go to war, and be noble, and fight for your country? But David had to stay home with his parents and watch the sheep! How un-noble is that?! But he used those hours and hours of being alone in the meadow to play his harp, and play songs to the Lord. I imagine that was a time where his relationship with God really grew.
Moses grew up a Hebrew boy in an Egyptian’s house. As he grew older, he had to watch his people suffer by the Egyptians, which we know was difficult for him because he killed one of them in revenge. He ran away to the wilderness where he became the son-in-law of a shepherd for 40 years. God used this time to prepare him to be a leader to his people.
And Job uses his time of riches and his great bounty to develop his integrity. The Bible says he is righteous, upright, and shuns evil. He even makes sacrifices for his children, which is another thing that demonstrates his relationship to God before his horrible trial whams him.
Now I hope that, after you have looked at more people’s lives and learned how they developed that relationship, that you will work on using whatever situations you might have—whether you are dissatisfied, bored, afraid, unfairly treated, or everything is going just fine—to develop yours, because I think it is actually very possible for us to do the same things David did, as long as we have that deep and precious relationship with God. We need to make Him “our” God.
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