Friday, January 15, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Freedom
Freedom to:
love
live
laugh
cry
obey
serve
worship
be forgiven
forgive
heaven
courage
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy New Year!
I am NOT a big believer in New Year's Resolutions, but I am a huge fan of new beginnings. I love a new year, a new month, a new week, a new day. I like change. I like the thought of another chance to get something right. I like to plan. So for the past month I have evaluated 2009, and thought a lot about 2010.
As I start out this new year, I do have some plans and some goals. I got a Go Bible for Christmas from my kids (very cool that they know me that well!) and I plan to listen all the way through the Bible at least once this year. At the rate I am going it will not be difficult. And I will continue to work my way through Covenant Seminary's podcast courses. As always, I plan to train more. The last 6 months I have been sitting and I am anxious to work out again. These plans are not a surprise or a drastic change for me; they are very much just living out who I am already.
As far as writing or character traits (be a better wife, mother, friend) or losing weight or getting in shape... well, yeah, I think about those things. But for me, those things arise out of who I am inside. Rather than try to make some objective goal out of them, I think I will just work on who God is and who I am, and trust that God will bring about some results.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Random Thoughts on Phillipians
Partnership
We have a common enemy
Don't run, hold still
If we fight each other, we will both sink
Natural tendency is to take sides
Do not pursue my own desires
Realize my need
I am not strong in my own virtue
I don't have it together
Work together against each partners' weaknesses
Pray together
Associate together
Focus on those things that tear us down
Don't wait for the other to move 1st
Take the 1st step
It's not 50/50
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
FF Bruce, Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free
Monday, December 14, 2009
Freedom in Christ
I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.
I was reminded of a concept I got from Dr. Hans Bayer in the Life and Letters of Paul class I am taking via podcast.
God's will for me is what He intends to do in me, not what He expects me to do by myself.
I struggle with a stubborn rebellious spirit that does not like to submit. Quite often I know exactly the right thing to do, and I even want it, but something inside still fights against God. As I read in this Psalm this morning, I felt a great sense of comfort. I am free to obey God. I do not have to obey that old sin nature, because God, in all His Power and Strength, is working in my heart. He has set my heart free to run in the path of His commands.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
More Thoughts from Ephesians
Not uniformity
Not organizational
But maturity under the headship of Christ
We cannot have unity if we do not all recogize Christ as head... that must be the starting point
Unity under the headship of Christ
Monday, November 30, 2009
NaBloPoMo survived!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thoughts on Ephesians
Indicative/ Imperative
Somehow we are conditioned to say, "Tell me what to do'". We want the list of do and do not. This is the imperative. But Paul doesn't start there, he starts with who we are in Christ. That is the indicative. What we do must flow out of who we are. Starting with what to do results in a works based salvation, a works based religion. What God and Christ and the Holy Spirit have done and continue to do for us has nothing to do with what we do, but with who we are.
I am a child of God, bought with the price of Christ's death, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, looking forward to an eternity in Heaven. Because of what He has already done and who I am, I serve Him with my actions, I seek to please Him, I do good things.
That is the freedom of Christ. Not freedom to do whatever I want, but freedom to be able to to love Him, to please Him, to obey Him. He saved me. I had nothing to do with it.
Amen!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Missed Glory
I got there late and didn’t get to sit in the sanctuary. I was sitting in a chair on the back row of the foyer. The place was packed. The outside doors were right behind me, and I was cold. The overhead lights were bright, making it harder to focus on the performance itself. I was looking through a small window able to see only a few of the performers, listening through the open sanctuary doors. People were moving around me, in and out. A child knocked a large, obviously unbreakable ornament off a Christmas tree, and the ball went bouncing across the tile floor with metallic dings while the embarrassed parent tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. We in the foyer laughed a bit; it was funny after all. An ancient old man in front of me informed his daughter that when he was a young man he sang this. The disappointment set in as I sat with all these distractions going on around me. My thoughts began to wander… I wondered when I could find a couple of hours to listen to it by myself, to sit and meditate and worship without distraction. I almost left.
Suddenly the place was filled with music! Somehow we had reached the climax without my awareness. How did it sneak up on me like that? And then I was swept up in the glory of the resurrection; it was fabulous. It was everything I hoped it would be. If I had given up and left during the wait and the disappointment and the frustration, I would have missed the glory of that moment; in fact the glory may have even been greater because of the contrast.
How many glorious things have I missed in moments of impatience and rush?
Friday, November 27, 2009
Band, Karate, and Sanctification
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12
Have you ever worked on anything with fear and trembling? What does it mean?
First, we must take this verse in context. It isn’t talking about working for our salvation, but what happens after salvation. We do not work for our salvation at all, that is a gift from God. This is the work after salvation, the work of sanctification, of becoming like Christ. This works out from the point of my salvation. Even then it is something I rely on God to do in me. Anyway… fear and trembling.
When I was in High school I was part of a really good award winning band. We practiced every day from 2:30 (last period in school) until about 5:00. We worked hard in those hours, and that doesn’t include time spent practicing on our own. Yes, we were scared of our band director, but nobody forced us to enroll or stay in band; we were proud to be part of something so good. Our goal for each football game and each competition was simple – perfection. If you messed up your part you felt absolutely horrible, because you had made the whole band and the director look bad. We worked with fear and trembling.
In more recent history I approached my black belt tests with this same attitude. I trained many, many hours in preparation for the test; the pressure was immense. It was very important to me to do well for a number of reasons. I wanted to reflect well on my teacher, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I definitely trained with fear and trembling for both of those tests.
What if I approached my sanctification with that kind of dedication and drive? What if pleasing God with my life was so important to me that I was willing to sacrifice that same kind of time and effort and work to it? What would that look like?
May you work out your sanctification with fear and trembling.
Rebecca A Givens, 11/24/09
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Which brings me to this post. Thanksgiving is not a time to thank people for stuff, and not a time to just be generally thankful. It is a time to thank God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, for what He has done for me in a personal way. He has provided
food (literally, the turkey that we are having today, someone anonomously put our name in to win a cajun fried turkey, or maybe they just paid for it and the store came up with a good story for them),
a roof over our heads (again, the back half of the house doesn't leak because God sent us shingles, one pack at a time from various sources),
cars to drive (gift from parents),
health (even though getting old is not fun),
our family is all here together,
we have great kids (I love spending time with all my kids),
my husband loves God, me, and our kids (what a gift in today's society),
we have a great church family that loves and accepts us,
and most significantly, Before the foundation of the world, God so loved me that He gave His one and only Son to pay the penalty for my sin, so that I could spend eternity with Him. He rescued me because He delighted in me, before I ever even dreamed of doing anything for Him. And He still enjoys my presence. That's just cool.
Happy Thanksgiving!


