The Follow Up Talk

Hi there! Here are my thoughts after reading a couple more chapters in John. John 12 : True Worship & Testimony My first thought is about how I show gratitude. Mary was a perfect example for us to copy. For her family, Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life and probably did other things that we do not know. We do know that they were all close. Mary literally poured out her gratitude to Jesus by giving him an expensive and precious gift and by serving Jesus in one of the most humblest of ways- anointing his feet with oil using her “crown of glory”. Her actions remind me of Revelations 4 where it depicts rulers bowing before God and laying their crowns down to him. This was Mary’s way of laying down her crown and honoring Jesus. How do I honor Jesus? What is most precious and valuable to me? How can I lay it before Jesus to show that I am thankful he’s my God? How can I use it to honor him, in private and in public? These questions are worth asking to help bring us to a place of tru...

Before last night, the highlight of my week was smelling the aroma of lily of the valley from my backyard. I had cut a few stems and brought them indoors to enjoy. These flowers are beautiful and diminutive with bowed heads and a powerful punch of a scent. As I stared at them, I was reminded that when we are bowed down to God in worship, we create a sweet aroma to God. As I said, that was before last night. Last night our church had a Zoom "Ladies' Night". It was supposed to be a time of fun and enjoyment, but our leaders decided it would be best to change it into a time of prayer. I grew up being surrounded by prayerful people, but in my older years had left some of that atmosphere behind. I wasn't attending prayer meetings as much as I had done in my teens - mainly because of laziness and because it just didn't seem like I saw people doing it as much, so when I saw a special meeting for it, I would shy away. When our ladies night was turned into a prayer night o...

Another week has passed and I hope it was a good one for you all. One of my highlights was my son waking up super early and looking for me. He found me in the living room reading my Bible and said he would love to join me for devotions! It was just too cute hearing a four year old say that, and super sweet getting some cuddles while reading the Word - before the day really starts and I have to wrestle him to get any extra cuddles! Here are some of my thoughts while going through a few more chapters in the book of John. There are so many things to talk about in each chapter, but I focused my thoughts on the first things that jumped out at me. John 9 - God's Purpose in our Weakness Here we see an amazing miracle of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind. The disciples asked Jesus - whose sin caused this man to be born with blindness? Jesus replied - neither; his blindness was meant to fulfill God’s purpose. ( verses 2-3 ) What is confusing for today is whether the answer Jes...

Hi there! I am enjoying reading John a chapter at a time and spending the time to think about the message John is sharing. Below are my reflections from chapters 6 through 8. If you are also reading John, I hope you are enjoying it and that it's provoking reflections of your own too! John 6 - Eat this Bread I kept reflecting on the fact that this was Passover time and the significance of this setting. Crowds of people left their homes to seek Jesus- who later became the ultimate sacrificial lamb slain for all our sins. Passover is a time to remember the miracle God did for the Israelites. God saved their firstborn children and allowed them to finally escape Egypt. It’s a time where Israelites are careful about the bread they eat in order to recognize the significance of their escape. Here in this passage, we have crowds seeking Jesus and being fed with bread. We see them seeking more bread on the following day - as Jesus comments that they only wished for more food. As Jesus expla...

Lately I've been reading the book of John and have had more reflections jump out of me than I originally thought I would. I've jotted them down in my bible and then realized that I might as well capture these thoughts here too. Out of the four New Testament books about Jesus' birth, ministry, and death, I am most drawn to the book of John. There I can see the beauty in how God's Word is crafted together. John doesn't just tell what he saw, he points out the deeper purpose and connection that Jesus has to the Old Testament, to God, to Israelite traditions, and to the creation of the world! I invite you to journey with me as I chronicle my musings on the book of John! John 3 - Nicodemus - Born Again It's interesting how this chapter starts with Jesus teaching Nicodemus about the Spirit - how you need to be born in it and how it moves in ways unknown and unseen - then ends with John the Baptist teaching his disciples that Jesus has the Spirit! John 4 - Samaritan W...

Our small group chatted recently about a comment our pastor mentioned a few Sundays ago. The comment left some of us scratching our heads and trying to understand how we really  felt about it. Our pastor said that he's noticed a common thread stated by people who experience hardships. They all said they would not change their bad experiences because they now value the good lessons they learned following their trials. The common sentiment was that the pain and hard lessons were worth it in order to grow. I intellectually understood this point, but my physical and emotional, pain-understanding being, disagreed! Do I want to experience hurt and discomfort just to learn how to lean into God and understand that He is my shelter and Comforter? The answer is no , not really. I'd rather just know it. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. We live with our human nature, ripe with opportunities for exercising freewill. This freewill can positively and negatively impact our live...

Slowly, I've been working my way through Lysa Terkeurst book,  It's Not Supposed to be This Way  and would highly recommend reading it. I love the concept of dust  that is discussed to describe our lives and how God is a Master Potter and works with dust -- works on us and our brokenness to make something new and better! Today I was reading my Bible and Moses' prayer in Psalm 90 was a very cool connection to most of what I have been reading. I wanted to share a short segment that I highlighted and my prayer that goes with it. Psalm 90:3, 12, 14-17   3: You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 12: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 14: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16: Let your work be shown to your servants, and your gloriou...

This morning I was reading Job 42 and a series of other scriptures that gave encouragement to trust that God will restore you after your period of suffering. Job, of course, is a pinnacle example of this. After Job suffered, God blessed him with more wealth and with a lot more children and allowed him to live 140 more years- allowing Job to see the next 4 generations! While reading this chapter I was struck by verses 10-11 . 10: And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.  11: Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. After reading this I thought: "Where were these siblings and others, before the Lord restored Job's riches?" Did these people...

Have you ever read a passage in the Bible and get totally blown away? That was me this morning as I read Revelations 7:13-17 . This passage describes how the people who washed their robes in the blood of Jesus were able to enter the throne of God. Their robes were white and now they had protection, shelter, food, drink, and peace. I was blown away because of how it confirmed my earlier reading of Revelations 22 and how the words about washing our robes and the scenery surrounding God's throne inspired me to write the song in my post, Washed my Robe . I want to copy here the words of Revelations 7 for you to bask in too. 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, an...

I read Ecclesiastes 7 today and it related to conversations I’ve had with several people lately about feeling uncomfortable with where we are in life and dealing with the waiting for what we think is “perfect” to come along and satisfy us or reward us for our endurance. Chapter 7 describes sorrow and adversity as fundamental experiences that are equally made by God to make us rich in wisdom. It is a powerful concept! Right now I’m reading a book by Lisa Terkeurst about hardship and disappointment. It discussed how our heart longs for perfection and the garden of Eden. Here on earth, in between the first Eden and the second Eden- where God brings heaven to earth, we experience hardships. The verses in Ecc. 7 state so clearly that there is good in the hardship. Wisdom can be found there. I go on further to say wisdom can be found because we end up looking for and leaning on God more and more. It’s in the development of our relationship with God that we receive wisdom and are better ...

Yesterday we had a discussion about offenses, specifically about how we react to them. We discussed the purpose behind offense, which we saw was a tool the enemy used to turn us away from God. This morning I read Psalm 51 - David's plea for God's forgiveness. Verse 8 struck me as interesting. It says, "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice." The bones which God has broken. This phrasing was so curious to me because here I am thinking, what did God do? How did he break David's bones, or rather, how did God cause David to suffer? Does God allow us to suffer? My mind went to the story of Job and how God allowed the enemy to break Job down. God allowed Job to lose his wealth, health, and children. What was the purpose behind this? I believe the purpose was to show us how to respond to hardship. No matter how much hard stuff comes our way, we should never allow our hardships to turn us away from God. God went to the extremes to...

This morning I read Romans 12 and it reminded me of our study group's conversation last night about our individual need for approval. Our pastor talked about this last Sunday and we reflected on who's approval was most important to us. Romans 12:2 says: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." We were asked a seemingly simple question - How do we respond when people engage us in ungodly conversations? Do we participate to gain approval, or do we disengage and by doing so demonstrate godliness? The honest answer to this shows how much value we put on external opinions. If I'm honest, I can point out times when I have not demonstrated godliness because I wanted to fit in and create a sense of camaraderie. I placed too much value on the opinions of people and in doing so, was swayed away from God's will for me. Romans ...

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Friendship and accountability go hand in hand. True friendship will tell you when you're wrong, or at least make you feel inside that you've missed the mark. That's what we want in Christian friendships. As believers, we want to keep growing in our knowledge of and walk with God. We want the fruits of the Spirit to be increasingly felt and seen in us. Most of all, we want to grow in our faith of God so that we can withstand the pain and hard realities of being humans in a fallen world. For this, we need our Christian community. We need brothers and sisters who will do life with us and become one "fold" in our cord. The image of verse 12 brings to my mind a mythical story that describes how everyone's life is represented by a golden cord. In the story, when the supposed right time comes, a mythical being cuts a person's cord, and that person dies. I forgot where this myth comes from, but the imagery popped in my mind after reading th...

Ecclesiastes 4:4 says, "Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit." (KJV) I just want to share some thoughts that came to me as I read this verse. This verse points out a truth that is part of our basic human nature. Do we look at the exciting things happening in the lives of others and automatically say, "Whoo hoo, good for that person! They work hard and deserve it!" Or do we automatically wonder, "What about me?" I believe our basic human inclination is to look at the situation of others and compare it to ourselves and how we are doing. My son had a playmate at daycare who made me laugh a lot because she was a perfect example of this "what about me" mentality. If I told my son, "Let's go, we're having friends over tonight," this playmate would say (in a soulful 3 year old voice and huge puppy eyes), "I don't h...

I am currently reading through one of the YouVersion bible app plans by The Bible Project. I highly recommend The Bible Project - they bring in a lot of history with the text so the Bible comes to life! This morning I read Romans 2-3 and had a few thoughts on how our actions should reflect our knowledge of God's truth. In these chapters, Paul was trying to deal with the tension between Jews and non-Jews who had different ways of living out their faith in God and Jesus. These chapters tell us we need to be "circumcised" in our hearts and that God has no partiality between people. What will save us - show God that we belong to him is: Our knowledge of his law - because this is how we know what is sin, AND Our actions - because this will show that our hearts and soul believe in Jesus and that we want to follow him. Paul's words on the conflict he saw are true today for Christians. This message by our guest Pastor, Ivan Tait, is particularly convicting. Our com...