Going To Zambia!

I am so excited to tell you that my entire family has been asked to go to Zambia this summer to teach at a music academy along with our team!  I have taken down my Zambia Report page (which was pretty old anyway) and replace it with "Preparing for Zambia."  I will update it every now and then with prayer requests so you can follow along with us on our journey.  We would most definitely appreciate your prayers!

Failure Isn't the End

Yesterday, I saw an interesting exchange between a bunny and a crow.  At first the crow was chasing the bunny and the bunny ran and hid in a wooded area.  The crow waited for the bunny for a while and then seemed to fly away.  The bunny came back out and the crow came back down, but this time the crow stayed about five feet away.  The bunny and crow watched each other out of the corner of their eyes and the crow slowly crept closer and closer to the bunny.  It seemed as if the crow thought it was being sneaky; however, the bunny was very aware of the crows presence.  Then the crow started cawing, but the bunny wouldn't move.  In fact, the bunny acted as if he didn't care.  So, the crow continued to creep closer until it was about two inches away from the bunny.  The bunny pretended as if it didn't know the crow was there, until suddenly the bunny made a quick vertical leap and frightened the crow away.  It may seem unrelated at first, but please use the link and read Matthew 26:69-75.

For me, these are tough verses to read because if Peter had spent three years eating, sleeping, and walking with Jesus and hearing His teaching all day and still had a moment of failure in his faith, what does this mean I am capable of?  I think all of us can relate because we have all experienced fear at some point and was later very disappointed in our response to the fear.  In fact, remember that Peter was the very one who told Jesus that he would never deny him, yet three times in one evening he denied Jesus.  He didn't just deny knowing Him, he swore to it.  But then noticed that once he realized the trap he had fallen in, he was filled with bitter tears.

Even though these are the only verses I am looking at today, I want to remind you that this isn't the end of Peter's story.  In fact, this really is only the beginning.  Peter ended up becoming one of the pillars of the early church, and I think we need to remember this as we read these verses and think about how we can apply them.  It is kind of like the bunny in my yard yesterday.  He originally responded to his fear by running away.  But, eventually he realized that he was a little bigger than the crow and instead of running away he could chase the crow away.

There are things that will oppose our faith, and we may even find ourselves at a very weak moment in our faith.  But we need to remember that just because we found a chink in the armor doesn't mean that we are complete failures.  The weak moments we experience remind us where we need to allow God to do some work and build up those areas.  If we come back and let God to that, we will find ourselves in a stronger place than when we first started.  A failure isn't the end of our story, it is just the beginning of God making us better.

Are you experiencing a weak moment in your faith right now?  Will you allow yourself to go back to God and let Him do the work He wants to do in your heart?

This post is linked with Faith Filled Friday.

Resistance

When we resist something, it often makes it harder on us, doesn't it?  For example, if I tell my kiddos to go clean their rooms, they just need to go do it.  If they resist, their resistance isn't going to stop the fact that they need to clean their room and it will probably make the experience even more unpleasant for them.  I don't ask them to clean their rooms because I am mean; they need to clean their rooms for safety, health, and just so they can find their things.  Cleaning isn't fun, but it is necessary.  Do you think there are times in our lives when God allows us to go through unpleasant experiences?  Maybe it is to clean things up in our lives - it is not punishment it is simply a straightening up.  Maybe it is to help us grow.  Just like it is hard for my kids to understand the why's behind my decisions, we don't always understand why God allows for something bad.  But, Jesus modeled for us how we can trust God even in the worst circumstances instead of resisting what He wants.  Please use the link and read Matthew 26:47-67.

In these verses, we see how Jesus knew what was going to happen and He didn't resist.  Why?  He told us why in Matthew 26:53-54 (NIV), "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"  Jesus knew that God's will was more important than resisting.  I'm not saying that we cannot pray through the situation because as we saw yesterday, Jesus still prayed.  He prayed hard.  But I guess if we've given it to God in prayer, we don't have to resist.  Wow...those words were really hard to type out and even harder to think about.  Resistance is a knee-jerk reaction for me.  If we are calling ourselves disciples or Jesus followers, then we need to seriously consider the fact that Jesus didn't resist.  If we are following Him so close that we are getting covered in His dust, then we cannot ignore Jesus' reaction.

Do you pray through your difficulties or do you resist?

Your Will Be Done

Twenty years ago when I married my wonderful husband, I had no idea that I was beginning a journey in which I was learning how to let go of control.  In my teen and college years, there were enough things that were out of control in my life that I think I learned to cling to control where I could find it.  It was more comfortable to have control in certain areas making life in those areas more predictable.  However, marriage isn't about control, it is about relinquishing control.  I've learned to let go of a lot of things that are both out of my control and in my control.  I've discovered that there is a lot more internal peace when we allow things to happen even if it is not the preferred way.  This is because it takes a lot of energy and stress to maintain control, but letting go really is peaceful.  Our relationship with God can be the same way.  God wants us to let go of all control and allow Him to lead us the way He knows is best.  He wants us to trust His sovereign understanding of things that we don't even know about.  Jesus modeled for us what it looks like to relinquish control and allow God's will to be what takes place in our lives.  Please use the link and read Matthew 26:36-46.

Three times, Jesus prayed that God's will would be done.  But notice that in the first prayer that we see that He is asking for what was to happen to go away.  He knew that what was to happen would be the worst thing He would ever go through in His human life.  Even with that request, He showed that He was still willing to let go of control over the situation by praying that if it was God's will, let it happen.  The next time He prayed, He showed even more recognition that He was giving control to God in this horrible moment.  He recognized that the only way to get out of the situation was to go through it.

Think about this for a moment.  I cannot imagine being where He was.  He could have called angels to rescue Him from what was about to happen, but instead He was willing to allow God's will to happen.  Letting go of control and allowing God's will in our lives doesn't always mean that it will be easy; the fact that we have to think about letting God have control is a signal that it is difficult.  But there is also a peace that washes over us when we can allow someone so much greater than us have power and control in our situation.  The process may not be something we desired, but the end result is something that will reveal God's glory in our lives.  We just have to let go of control and let God's will be done.

Do you allow God to take control in your life?

Going Ahead

Imagine living the past three years of your life traveling with Jesus.  You ate with Him every day, talked with Him, witnessed His countless miracles, and slept everywhere He slept.  You heard many conversations He had with priests and Pharisees and saw Him silence their arguments.  You experienced Him showing authority over demons and even the weather.  You felt secure in His presence, and you knew that He loved you.  You even began to grow in your own knowledge of God because of walking with Jesus every day.  Now think about what it would be like if suddenly Jesus were taken away from you...how would you respond?  I honestly don't know how I would respond because even though I am not in His physical presence, I rely on Him every day.  I don't want to be away from Him.  In these verses, Jesus warned His disciples that He would be taken from them and He warned them of their response.  Please use the link and read Matthew 26:31-35.

In these verses, Jesus told His disciples that they were going to fall because of Him.  He explained that this would fulfill the prophecy found in Zechariah 13:7 that said that when the shepherd was stricken, the sheep would scatter.  Remember that Jesus referred to Himself as the "Good Shepherd."  But when you read these verses, do feel that Jesus was telling them this to express judgement on them?  Personally, I do not read that in these verses.  I actually think that Jesus was telling them this ahead of time in order to encourage them in their darkest moment.

Notice that Jesus told them that after He rose He would go ahead of them into Galilee.  Don't you think that is an encouraging statement?  Think about what it meant to be a disciple.  A disciple was always following in the footsteps of their rabbi.  In fact, a disciple was to be following their rabbi so closely that they would be covered in the dust his feet created as he was walking.  So with that thought, think about what Jesus was telling them when He said that He would go ahead of them.  First, He was telling them His physical location of where He would be, but I also think it was a beautiful reminder that even when they fell away, they were still His disciples.  It was as if Jesus understood that they had come to depend on Him and there was no way that they would function without His presence.

We all have moments when we fail.  We all have moments when we are very disappointed in our reaction to our circumstances.  But we can also remember that Jesus is ahead of us and we can continue to follow Him.

Do you remember that Jesus is ahead of you?

This post is linked with Sharing His Beauty.

Crawling In the Mud

Several years ago, my family took a vacation in Arizona.  For two weeks, we put over 3,000 miles on the rental van just in the state of Arizona!  One of the places we went to visit was Kartchner Cavern State Park, which is a cavern that was discovered in 1974.  The two men who discovered the cavern had found it while exploring the mountain.  There was just a simple sink hole (or blow hole), which I learned can be a sign of a cave underneath.  They had to squeeze through this blow hole because it was so small and they crawled through a lot of mud.  Eventually they discovered the beautiful structures that make up the caverns and they realized that they had found something so much bigger than they ever expected.  Hidden underneath the mountain for years, this cavern had plenty of time to build its stalactites, stalagmites and amazing columns without interruption.  Most people wouldn't have expected something so amazing from such a humble entrance.  People are like that as well.  What we see on the surface is nothing compared to what is hidden in our hearts.  We sometimes are unaware of what we are capable of!  The verses I am looking at today show us how the disciples also wondered if they were capable of causing pain to Jesus.  Please use the link and read Matthew 26:17-30.

So often, when we read through Jesus' interactions with His disciples, we see their naivete shine through, yet we also get a peek at the fact that the time spent with Jesus was also resulting in wisdom.  In these verses, we see the fact that Jesus revealed to them that one of them was going to betray them.  The thing that I find interesting was the fact that each of them said, "Surely you don't mean me, Lord?"  Each one of them so desperately wanted to believe that they were incapable of betraying their Lord, but at the same time they also found the need to ask the question out loud.  Just the fact that they had the needed to voice that question shows the same human reaction we would all have.  We each deep down know that we are capable of hurting our Lord, yet we also want to turn away from such a thought.  Instead, we say, "There is no way I could do that!"

But, isn't it interesting that the very things that we can be the emphatic about are the very things that deep down we feel doubt?  Instead we voice something loud and strong so we don't have to explore the caverns in our hearts that may reveal something that we are ashamed of.  But, at the same time, I think they were also looking for the reassurance that He wasn't talking about them.  You have to admit, there would be an incredible sense of relief if we could hear God tell us, "No I wasn't talking about you.  You would never do anything to hurt me!"  Unfortunately, we are human and we do possess the capability to hurt our Lord.  In fact, the more we shout to ourselves that we are not capable, the more we become susceptible to fall to our temptations.

So, for as much as we really don't want to explore the dark recesses of our hearts, we also discover amazing beauty and treasure when we do.  Because when we begin to allow ourselves to follow God's lead into the caverns in our hearts, we may have to crawl through a bunch of mud and muck, but we eventually we will be led into great rooms full of the beauty that God has been slowly building up in our hearts.  We will see the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control that God has been washing through the caverns - and God's work is always amazing.  It is worth the journey!

Are you willing to crawl through mud to find a treasure God is building up in you?

This post is linked with Faith Filled Friday.