Tolerance and Righteousness are not Synonyms

    Paul founded the church at Corinth during his second missionary journey.  Most of its membership were ex-pagan Gentiles.  As a result, they still walked in their worldly desires. Their spiritual immaturity blinded them to the seriousness of their behavior. Paul (and God) desired this church to be victorious over sin.  Painful as it was,  Paul was obligated to address their questionable behavior

    Paul’s heart must have been breaking as he penned this letter to a church he had founded and loved.  He reminds them right away of their call to holiness and commends them on their spiritual gifts.  3+ and a wish.  

   The Corinthian church had lost its focus.  There were arguments over petty events.   They pledged allegiance to different apostles instead of Jesus.  There was a rash of jealousy and quarrels.  There were quarrels and disagreements.   They were in critical danger of conforming to the world, and they were unconcerned about that possibility.

   Corinth is a long way from America,  but the similarities are chilling.  The Full Life Study Bible calls the believers at Corinth, “worldly Christians”.   These Christians had not submitted to sin and rebellion.  They were not immoral or unrighteous.  Most troubling, they were tolerating sin  in the name of love.  They didn’t want to offend by calling out sin among their brethren.  They had not  conformed to the world, but they were walking a fine line. Paul was filled with grief because of this and in                         I Corinthians  5:2  he suggests that the church should be also.    In the name of tolerance, in fear of “hate speech”, we hesitate to speak out against immorality. We ignore racism in the name of “minding our own business”.  Too many of our leaders are afraid to speak truth for fear of income loss.  The evil around us should fill us with grief.   And send us to our knees in repentance and petition.  Later, Jesus will call these people, “lukewarm” and that will not end well.

Come, See, Be Changed

  John,  the beloved disciple.  One of the first disciples called.  Part of Jesus’ inner circle.  A fisherman by trade.  The author with the most to say wrote his account of the gospel almost twenty years after the others.  Ancient sources indicate an elderly John, living in Ephesus was asked to write his memories of Jesus Christ.  Presumably to refute a false narrative that was being circulated.  John begins by calling Jesus the “word made flesh” and immediately makes clear that Jesus “was with God in the beginning”.    If you are only going to read and study one book in the entire Bible,  John’s gospel is the recommendation.  For those who are questioning salvation or the newly saved,  this is the book for reference.

    John waited twenty years to write his gospel.  That apparent hesitation is thought provoking.  John was Jesus' beloved friend.  His writings show that the feeling was mutual.   Was John's hesitation to write  borne of that great love?  Perhaps John felt as did Mary,  the mother of Jesus.   Of her, Luke said,  “but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Luke 2:19 .

   John’s book has a tone of love, respect and awe that can only be felt by one who has been with Jesus.  John shares some but not the whole of the miracles he witnessed. John extensively quotes Jesus. His writings testify that he knew Old Testament scripture well.  John is the only disciple who records Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus,  a conversation that sums up the entire gospel message.    

   836 times throughout the Bible are the words “come and see”.   John records them twice in the first chapter.  In verse 39  Jesus tells two of John the Baptist’s disciples to “come and see”  and in verse 46 Phillip invites Nathaniel to check Jesus out for himself.  “Come and See”.    But, in 4:29,  John’s record of this phrase is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry on earth.  A familiar story of the Samaritan woman at the well.  

   This woman,  unworthy and unclean in the eyes of everyone who beheld her.  A woman with a reputation for adultery,  immorality and  self-indulgence.  People turned the other way when she appeared,  shunned by her family and former friends. She had been with Jesus only a few moments but it was enough to change her life.  Being in the presence of Jesus should change us.

  When this woman shouted “Come and See”  in the streets,  people ran to see.  Scripture says that  Jesus stayed there for two more days and many believed His message.  They believed because they came to see.  They came to investigate for themselves the things they were hearing about the man, Jesus.

   John’s gospel invites us to come and see.  In the presence of Jesus, we will be changed.  As you  read and study the Word,  don’t fail to open your eyes and see,  but also be changed.  

BIG Announcement

 

    I’ve always been told to write the book you want to read.  In early 2021,  I knew I wanted to read the Bible through this year.  I had used the One Year Chronological Bible on several occasions and even used the format with a different translation.  I didn’t want to revisit that, and I didn’t want to start in Genesis and go straight through.  I get too bogged down midway through the Old Testament.  So,  I did what you do these days,  I went to google looking for  read the Bible through in one-year charts.  There are lots.  A genre read the Bible through in one year caught my interest.    As a teacher, writer, and reader,  I love to categorize by genre.  As a child we made a genre project to learn the books of the Bible and it is still imprinted in my mind. (see my Instagram)  This one from IntoThyWord   promises to “keep your pace up and prevent you from losing interest and giving up”.   In their version,  you read from a different genre every day.  For example,  Sunday: Gospels:  Matthew 1-2,  Monday: Law:  Genesis 1-3;  Tuesday: History Joshua 1-6  and then through Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Epistles.  As I started the reading,  I found skipping through the scriptures a little confusing, so I decided to do a week in each genre.  Seven days in the gospels,  the next week seven days in law and so on.  Using my Full Life Study Bible,  I started each week in a new book,  reading the info about timelines, purposes,  etc. And,  of course,  journaling.    Seven weeks in I mentioned what I was doing to  my writing group leader.   Within a week, I was contracted with Illumify Publishing to publish this idea. 

   It wasn’t as fast as it sounds.   When my friend at the company said,  “I want to publish that book.”  I said,  “what book?”.   When a meme from a book marketing seminar popped up on my fb that suggested God wanted me to take a leap of faith and said “Jump, Baby, Jump” , I thought “ what a coincidence”.   When Beatrice Bruno, The Drill Sergeant of Life Faith – Family – Freedom said “We getting ready to go home,  you need to write what God has given you to write”  and suggested that those left behind will be scrambling for books and articles to explain what has happened,  I felt a little sick to my stomach.   When a friend posted on her facebook "Everyone is important. God placed you on this earth for such a time as this. Pray and ask God to reveal to you what your purpose is. What he has for you to do at this time, this appointed time. Be prepared and be willing to step out in faith for what He has for you".   I jokingly asked if she was trying to be the dew on my fleece.   When she immediately PM’d me with “God wants you to step out and not be afraid.”   I took a very deep breath.  The next morning,  when I prayed for God’s direction,  he said, ( in so many words) You’re not getting a burning bush.  I knew He had been as clear as he was ever going to be. 

    When the publisher and my “team”  told me the book had to be ready for fall due to its content of being a read the Bible through in a year document,  I could see the wisdom in that.  What I couldn’t see was how in the world I could submit the manuscript by May 1^st.  Sixty-five days from day of decision.   This didn’t just require writing,  it required research and a LOT of prayer. 

  On April 29 at 4:49MST,  I pushed “send”  and the completed book went to the editor for first re-writes.  I have a detailed timeline of deadlines but Illumify believes it will publish August 10. 

   I always wanted to publish a book but this was not the book I thought it would be!   It is the book God intended me to write.  This blog will be moving to my new website soon.   I need and want your prayers as this endeavor unfolds.  I don’t intend to be a New York Times bestseller,  I intend to point people to the Word of God.  I’ll need your help to spread the word about His Word.  

Old Gold, Gold and Silver

    A few years ago,  my daughter and I had a heart-to-heart conversation.  She's the practical one,  I'm the emotional one.  We were discussing my move from my childhood/adult/entire life home.  She wanted me to move closer to her.  I'm still not sure why she thought this was a convincing argument.  " You need to move out here now while you can still make friends.  When we have to move you out here and put you in a home,  you won't have friends and it will be too late to make them then."  I'm even less sure why I bought that argument.  But, I moved out here.  

   I joined a group of women at a local church about four months after the move.  Over the past three years, they have become my tribe. Yesterday this circle of friends assured me that they would visit me in the "home".  One even offered to move into the "home" with me.  I'm reminded of a Girl Scout chorus,  "Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."   My move afforded me some silver friends.   

   Through my lifetime, there have been women who saw something in me I could not see in myself.   Rosie Yandell,  Estee Eubanks,  Debbie Sprouse.  Here in Colorado,  a woman who asked me to be her "assistant"  and join her in planning and executing service projects for our women's group.   We planned together,  laughed together,  ate a lot of lunches,  and attempted shopping together.  She hates shopping so I ended up doing that while she stayed home and directed me by phone!   She was a model for a woman who was living until she died.  I knew her for months before I knew her body was ravaged with cancer.    Three weeks ago she text me from her hospital bed  with directions for an upcoming project we were working on.  Five days later,  she went home to Heaven.  

   I was blessed to spend 30 years ministering to girls and young women in Oklahoma.  My bouts with homesickness are directly related to these women and the events they post on Facebook.   Last weekend three of them spent the weekend with me in my 'new' home.   One was a product of that ministry, the other two co-laborers in the ministry.  They are part of my "golden friends".

  Six years ago, God miraculously reunited me with the women of Evangel University from the 1970's.  The girls I lived with for four life-changing years in college.  We hold an annual reunion now but the real benefit is calls, cards, emails and fb posts that hold us together all year long.  I guess they are "Old Golden friends".  

    Our world is so full of 'woman power'.  There are volumes of books about lifting women up.  It's not a bad sentiment,  it needs balance.  More importantly it needs to be bathed in scripture and prayer.   Women of God should indeed lift each other,  not with the words of the world but the Word of God.   I am 'not enough',  not by myself.  I need other women to come alongside me.  I need to hear the truth even if it hurts.  I need to celebrate good news with someone.  I need to join other women and cry out to God for our needs and the needs of our mutual sisters.  We need each other.  Together we need the Holy Spirit to bind us together "with cords that cannot be broken"  by the lies of the world.