In the Shadow of His Wings

The bird you see in the video (I use that term loosely since I just got the camera 9 months ago and have used it 3 times) is called a Killdeer and has become a "friend" of mine and Squirt's since we began walking on our road again. We pass him/her (with Killdeer you can't tell) about every other day and receive the same greeting you see here. The reason is that Killdeer lay their eggs in an indention in a gravel road or shoulder and then work tirelessly to protect them. They first will puff up (reminds me of Batty Koda in Fern Gully, "Puff up, puff up. They [humans] hate that you know.") and will actually walk towards you. If that doesn't work, they will fly a short distance and then act like they have a broken wing. The point is to get you to chase them away from their eggs, thereby protecting their young.

Seeing this small bird that is maybe 1/100th of my size protecting her/his children every day has made me think about all the references in the Bible to God protecting us under His wing. Psalm 17:18 states, Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. Then there is Psalm36:7, How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. And finally, Psalm 57:1, Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.

Just like the Killdeer lays eggs in the gravel, God has placed us on earth where we will suffer trials and temptation . However, just like the Killdeer eggs, God is willing to do whatever it takes to protect us if we will just let Him. The Killdeer is willing to sacrifice its life pretending to be hurt in order to lure predators away from the eggs/young and God sacrificed the life of His only Son so that we can be saved from the sin and temptations of this hard world we are born into.

I heard a story once about a farmer that raised free range chickens. One night, one of his corn fields caught fire and burned down completely. As the farmer walked the field the next morning to assess the damage, he found the body of a hen. He took the toe of his boot and kicked the body over and, to his surprise, about 6 chicks came running out from under the wings of the dead hen. The hen had given her life to protect her chicks "under the shadow of her wings."

That's what God has done for us. He has sacrificed His Son so that we, like the Killdeer eggs and the baby chicks, may be saved to live eternally. I praise God for the reminders in His creation of what He has done for us. I know I need reminding and if I will just look around at nature, I will find just the reminder I need that day. God wants to make absolutely sure that I feel safe and secure under "the shadow of His wings."

When God Ran

In view of my last post, I wanted to share this video with you to let you know that no matter how deep a sink hole you find yourself down, God can find you, because He is looking for you.

Stuck in a Hole

I have never actually seen a sinkhole, that is, until recently. We still had the old cistern that people once used to catch rain water to use for cooking, laundry, and drinking. It was covered by what looked like a table on our deck. Well, long story short, the cistern was made of metal instead of concrete and it rusted through apparently a while back. When we tried to weed the iris bed that surrounds our deck, the earth just collapsed. As we kept testing, we found that we had about a ten-foot round sink hole in our back yard caused by the water leaking out of the cistern underground. The main problem was that the cistern and surrounding area was about twelve feet deep. It was scary to say the least.

It took three dump truck loads of river sand to fill in the cistern and the surround area. About half of one load was needed to fill in the tracks left in the backyard by the front end loader. See, it was during our little rainy season where it was raining about every other day and at times we would get 2-3" at one time. That left us with the sand on the driveway and a front end loader digging holes in the back yard trying to keep from getting stuck in the mud, which, by the way, it did about three times.

In life, sometimes I become the victim of a sinkhole. I think I am doing fine and on solid ground, then, whoosh, I find myself at the bottom of a deep hole with no way out. It is strange how sin can just creep up on me like that. I think I am so close to God not even a piece of paper could get between me and Him. Then He, or someone He sends, confronts me about a sin I wasn't even aware of. Down the sinkhole I go.

I'm in too deep to get out by myself and I am in danger. Not too long ago, there was another house in the area that had a cistern that they were using for trash. The son lost a ball in the cistern, went after it, and was overcome by the methane gas. The father finds him in the cistern, goes after him, can't get out, and is also a victim of the methane. Two people died just because they couldn't get out. I will die if I don't get out. But it's too deep.

So I start to cry out for help. Along comes my Heavenly Father, hearing my cries for help and my pleas for forgiveness, and He comes to not only get out of the hole, but also fill up the hole so I don't fall in again. Sometimes that gets messy and we get stuck in the mud while we are filling up the hole, but we do eventually get it filled in.

I have just come up out of a sinkhole, both literally and figuratively. I have done what was necessary to correct the problem and am now desperately working to fill the whole. It is messy, but with God's help, I will fill in the whole no matter how painful things become.

Remember...great pride comes before a great fall. A lesson that is painfully learned.

What Tools Are You Using?

My husband and I have separate tool boxes. The reason is that most of the time, his tools never make it back into the box. His tools usually end up either left outside "somewhere" or on some unnamed shelf in his tool closet. Either way, when I wanted a simple screwdriver or hammer, I never could find it. So I went to WalMart to buy myself my own set of tools and I take them out and use them whenever I want because my tools go back in the bag so I can find them the next time I want them. Case in point, I "loaned" him my tape measure. It is pink so I thought that he would surely give it back to me. Nope, it is still lost. I finally shamed him into buying me another small tape measure.

This guy in the video also has an amazing set of tools. He is playing the piano with tennis balls. Personally, I would not attempt to play a piano at all, more or less, with tennis balls. You see, I don't have the tools. I can't juggle and I do not know how to play a piano. So I will leave this stunt up to him and do something else.

In all churches each member has their own toolbox full of gifts and talents. And we are all expected to use our own toolbox to serve in Christ's church, not someone else's. Even if I could lift my husband's toolbox, I could not use over half of what is in there because I don't know what it is or how to use it. It is the same with gifts and talents. We are all different and if we try to be someone other than God created us to be, we will be using tools that we just don't know how to use. Everyone needs to stick to their own toolbox.

Also in churches, we do not need to "guilt" someone into trying to use tools they are not meant to use. For example, "We really need a nursery worker and if you don't do it, we might have to close down the nursery to the 3 and 4 year olds and make them sit in the service." Or, "We really need a teacher in the 4th and 5th grade. I know you would be great at it and we can't find anyone else to do it." When we do that, we are not waiting for God to provide, we are forcing a new tool into the hands of someone who has a heart for service, an inability to say "no," and does not have any knowledge of how to use that tool effectively.

In Romans 12 Paul tells the Romans that there are many gifts but only one body. He says that if we are a head, we should not desire to be a foot. Or if we are a foot, we should not desire to be a head. See, a place for everyone and everyone in their place as predetermined by God when He formed them in the womb. And I feel it is no accident that the chapter on various gifts is followed by the greatest discourse on love in the Body of Christ that has ever been written.

Think with me just a minute. Is it really a loving thing to place a guilt trip on someone just to fill a position? Are we actually saying that we do not have enough faith that God will raise someone up to fill that position? Is it loving to place a person in the most uncomfortable place they have ever been and stand back saying, "Well, it will be good for him?" What kind of testimony is that to our faith that God will provide our every need according to His riches in glory?

As members of the body, let's allow everyone to be whoever God created him/her to be remembering there is no unemployment in God's church. If we wait on God, He will provide just the right person for that position and all will be well. If we don't, we will be like our juggler here minus the tennis balls and trying to use ping pong balls. Without using our own set of tools, we are worthless to the Body and committing a sin by doing something out of obligation instead of faith. After all, does Romans not say,"That which is without faith is sin?"

Please pray fervently about people to fill positions and allow a "no" to mean "I don't have that tool in my toolbox, so I can't help out the Body in this way." I know there are many times in my life where I have felt obligated to do something and all I made was a mess. Be loving...don't do that to some other member of the family of faith. As family, we are all suppose to think of others before our need to fill a position, aren't we?

Where Are You?

When my boys were small a game came out called "Where's Waldo." The point of the game was to find "Waldo" in this huge crowd of people. My boys were rather good at finding him, however, I always had to stare at the crowd for hours and hours before I could see him. In fact, I've been looking at this picture for a while and I can't see him in there either. He seems to be invisible.

You know, I am sometimes invisible when I am out in the world or at church. I was noticing my body language yesterday at church and I was sitting there with my arms folded signifying I did not want to be disturbed. When welcome came, I just shook hands with the people who came to me. I never left the pew.

I am five foot nothing and you put me in a crowd and I am here to tell you, I disappear. If you don't believe me, come with me to one of the mega churches in our area and see how many people run into/over me. And if I get separated from my group, they can't see me in that mass of people and I surely can't see them. I just don't stand out.

But I know someone who did stick out. Crowd or no crowd, Jesus stuck out wherever He went. The Bible tells us over and over how the crowds followed Him, bumping Him and pushing Him. Yet, one small dying woman, desperate to be healed, crawled her way through the crowds and was able to touch just the hem of his garment and was instantly healed. And he didn't ignore her even though she was lost in the crowd. He stopped and asked His disciples, "Who touched me?" The disciples were dumbfounded by the question and told him that the crowd was touching Him everywhere He turned (Man! What a grasp of the obvious!). The disciples were so earthly oriented, they could not see one small woman fighting her way through the crowd toward Jesus. But Jesus knew. When He asked, "Who touched me?" the woman knew that HE knew for He felt the power go out of Him, so she confessed what she had done. And you know what He told her? He didn't scold her for her struggle to get to Him. He didn't ostracize her for touching Him without permission. He looked at her with eyes full of love and told her, "Your faith has made you whole."

Are we willing to struggle through the crowds to find Jesus? We're willing to spend hours trying to "find Waldo" but are we willing to put in the time and effort to try to find Jesus? I have to confess that I do pretty go most days, but some days I give it what my mom used to call "a lick and a promise, " which means that I will deal with it quickly and then promise to come back to it later. Sadly, as a general rule, I don't keep that promise. And if enough of those kind of days are strung together, I once again find myself lost in the crowd unable to see Jesus. I, then, promise myself I won't do it again, knowing full well that I probably will.

You see, I can't stay faithful without Jesus' help. It doesn't matter how short I am or how invisible I am to the crowd. I have to struggle against that crowd and find my way to Jesus, even if that means crawling through a tightly packed crowd and just touching the hem of his garment. For you see, as Jesus told the woman, it is my faith that will make me whole and I can't be whole if I let "the crowd" overwhelm me and keep my from my Lord.

I think I'll quit trying to find "Waldo" and go read my Bible and find Jesus.

He died and rose again for a nobody like me and He would have done it if I was the only one on earth who needed forgiveness. Praise God for His love! Happy Easter!

Taking Over the World

I remember when my boys were younger and they loved to watch "The Animaniacs." Their favorite part of that series was a cartoon called "Pinky and the Brain." The beginning of each episode was Pinky (left) asking Brain (right), "What are we going to do tonight, Brain?" And his response was always, "The same thing we always do Pinky. Try and take over the world." They would then think up some hair-brained scheme that always blew up in their face.

We as Christians are suppose to do what Pinky and Brain failed to do, "Try and take over the world." However, when asked to go visit visitors to Sunday services or we have the opportunity to share Christ with someone we run into, we hide behind our fear that they will think we are weird (we are a "peculiar people," you know) or our own "shyness," "I just can't go up and talk to strangers.

I tend to be the second one. I will write all the cards you want and I will even make phone calls thanking people for attending on Sunday, but when it comes to evangelism, I hide behind my shyness. I really am shy around people. In a room full of people I don't know, I tend to go to a corner, sit, and say nothing. I even hate to attend a new Sunday School class by myself even though I know I need that close knit fellowship with other Christians.

I am in fact a peculiar Christian. Sometimes, even among other Christians, I don't quite fit in because I will make the effort to get to know my neighbors whether they are Christians or not. In the country, when your nearest neighbor is a fourth of a mile down the road, you need to know your neighbors in cases of emergency, you can call them to help you. But even in that circumstance, I let my husband "break the ice".

I have spoken before of how people will just up and talk to me about their problems. Now if they start the conversation, I am very comfortable continuing it. I guess I am just not an initiator. I have been deeply hurt by people that called themselves Christians and I have let it make me draw into a shell and not initiate conversations with anyone.

All of this shows a lack of faith on my part. I am not trusting God to either heal my hurts or give me strength to overcome my shyness. It hurts me when I think of how little I trust God to help me evangelize.

God commands me to spread His gospel message, "He said, 'All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commandments I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'"

It is time for me to take a cue from Jesus as well as Pinky and the Brain. It's time for me to start trusting God and go out and "take over the world."