Month: April 2018

Six of the towns you give to the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee.  In addition, give them forty-two other towns.” Numbers 35:6

Taking 3,000,000 people out of slavery in Egypt, across the Sinai Peninsula and to the edge of the Promised Land took many, many miracles and obedience to God’s sovereign authority. By miracle and God’s leading, Moses organized the Hebrew children into twelve tribes.  Each clan would receive a portion of land to settle, but the tribe of Levi was charged with leading worship, caring for the Ark of the Covenant and maintaining the tabernacle. They would not be settlers but priests caring for the spiritual health of the new nation.

The Levites would needed a place to live, so Moses instructed the other eleven tribes to set aside cities with land plots to herd and farm.  Six of these cites were to be havens of refuge, a place for those who have made egregious mistakes to go and live in peace, away from the danger and retribution of the offended. In these cities, only God’s judgment mattered.

If you read the entire passage of Numbers chapter 35, you see that God makes a complete separation between malicious murder and a careless act that leads to the accidental death of another. God knows the heart of man. He does not tolerate selfish disregard for human life or hatred, but gives help to those in life’s most horrendous messes.

This wonderful all knowing God has a plan for your chaos.  He sent His only Son to be our city of refuge.  In this we find perfect knowledge and assessment of complete and unbiased truth. Give your broken heart and out of control life to Him.  He has a place for you and it is good.

Love,

Gretchen

Don’t Grow it Young

My childhood was lived in a much simpler time.  The world was smaller and people depended on certain societal standards to support them throughout the seasons of their life.  For instance, my siblings and I were often left in the car while our parents took care of business. This is unheard of today, but we were not the only children in vehicles at Piggly Wiggly. 

There was strict ‘stay in the car’ protocol, and every child knew it.  First, never, ever get out of the car! Second, if you break rule number one, someone had better be blue or bleeding! Third, be nice! Fourth, never, ever get out of the car!

Occasionally mom took us with her, but my brother and I thought it was great fun to put the brussels sprouts back when mom turned to reach for the carrots.  We were also prone to bicker and beg in her presence, but when we were alone in the car we knew we had to amuse ourselves constructively. We had crayons and coloring books, we played I-spy, found pirates in the clouds and challenged each other to greater cleverness with jokes and riddles.  Life was mostly good……….

One sunny day mom and dad had business to attend to in a bigger city further from home. They went into the store, taking my two younger sisters with them and leaving my older brother and I to wait in the car.  We were probably eight and nine years old.  Several parking spaces over was a pickup truck with a couple of adolescent boys also awaiting their adult’s return.  To entertain themselves, they took a shotgun from the gun rack in the back window and aimed it a my brother and me.  We began crying, the boys laughed and continued their pretend target practice.  Greg and I got down in the floorboard of the car, crawled to the opposite side, cracked open the door, climbed out and were sitting on the pavement terrified when mom and dad returned.  Dad left for a moment while mom calmed us down.  I believe those young men learned that pretending to shoot defenseless people was never an acceptable game to play. Dad was a giant of a man that day.

Several years later I was again sitting in the car when mom returned with her purchases. At the same time, a woman exited the store with a dirty, ill clothed toddler on her hip and gripping another small child by the hand. She held a cigarette in the corner of her mouth, keeping a stream of rough language spewing while jerking the children angrily. It made me sick and I said to mom, “I never want to grow up and be like that.” Mom quickly replied, “Then don’t grow it young.” In other words, you will be tomorrow, what you chose to be today.

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away. Proverbs 22:15. 

(Note: A rod is not a device of punishment, but rather, the tool of a shepherd to guide and direct.)

Children become what they are allow to be. Today matters a lot, because something is taking root.  Love them enough to change them for the better.

With Deepest Love,

Gretchen

Jesus said to His disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, But woe to anyone through whom they come. Luke 17:1

The Bible, God’s Word, is very clear: If you believe Jesus is the resurrected Son of the One True God, know God is loving and Holy, and your sins are forgiven, then your behavior must show it.  Actions are the evidence of one’s true heart and a strong influence on those seeking answers, or struggling with temptation. The believer is called to be a light of hope guiding others through the storms of pain and sorrow and down the straight and narrow road of righteousness.

In this same passage of scripture Jesus commands that we forgive others, over and over and over. If we are to be Christ’s witness, then our testimony begins with forgiveness. The first step in a sinner’s new birth is forgiveness.  This abstract, illogical act is in complete and total contrast to this world and its agenda.  God is the source of justice and condemnation, but He is doing everything possible to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation, so this must start with His Body, the church and its people. Be forgiving, extend grace, strengthen and guide one another so that all may know the Love of Christ.

Love,

Gretchen

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3

There was nothing, and then there was something.

This is the beginning of the universe and linear time. Creation occurred at the Word of a God that always was and always will be. Was it a big bang that is still expanding, or just a beautiful wonder placed immediately by God’s hand? It doesn’t matter because, He alone is the maker of all things. There is beauty, order and wonder amid logic contrasted against the unexplainable, all wrapped up in the place we call home. Do not be threatened by one thing that is definable and another that is not. God did it, and that is enough. It’s not a weakness of intellect, but a strength of character to be certain that God can and did.

Hebrews twelve reads like a roll call for Faith’s Hall of Fame. While we struggle with the daily things that challenge our spiritual resolves, this epistle writer has given us the testimony and evidence of the reward awaiting the faithful, who know beyond doubt that God did do all things and still can and will.

Happy Friday,

Gretchen

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:5-6

This is the fall of man, our eternal doom. Satan does not take “No,” for an answer. This serpent boldly approached Eve with an invitation that was turned down. Eve repeated God’s command. Satan responded by questioning a given fact and manipulating semantics and theology, then he went for man’s simplest needs and pleasure.  The fruit was pretty, tasteful and nourishing for both mind and body.  He made sin look like man’s best hope!  He threw our Loving Creator into the role of liar and selfish dictator and introduced a craving to be God’s equal. This was not truth it was death……………….for you and for me.

Thankfully this story is not the end of man’s history.  Satan hates God and as God’s crowing creation, he hates us by association. Did you hear me? Satan hates you! He leaves those he attacks, naked and afraid.  God clothes and comforts.

Temptation is very personal. Universally we all fall short of God’s glory but God sent His Son to die for the sins of the world. Within this there is a very intimate love extending to you personally.

Satan’s small victory is not the end of your story. The ultimate mission of evil is to illuminate the option of love. That will never happen because the very definition of God is Love.  Love wins the day…….everyday!

Fly the W!

Gretchen 

What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:Psalm 8:4-6

This is a familiar and beautiful Psalm written by David as he ponders the wonders of the universe and feels small beneath the heavens. He is in awe and praises God because He placed His own glory on man when He created Him in His own image.

As small as we are in the whole order of an infinite space and time, God loved us and put all His creation under our feet.  We have authority, better defined as responsibility to stewardship and love.  Yes, we have rights, but are the many things we can do, correct and productive to God’s plan for us and our fellow man?

Man’s authority, given by God, was meant to be our greatest strength, a power to overcome and defeat our foe, Satan. We are God’s crowning creation, His breath, His love.  Be strong and courageous, your Father has you covered!

Feelin’ Sassy,

Gretchen

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven. Luke 10:19-20 

Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples to go before Him and minister in every town He was about to visit.  They had directions for success and rejection, social behavior and financial maintenance.  They returned to Jesus, amazed at the power they were able to employ.

In creation, God gave man authority or dominion over every living thing. Stewardship is another translation meaning responsibility for something that does not belong to you. In this, God gave Adam power over Satan. The serpent challenged God’s authority and Adam caved at an astronomical cost. 

Adam’s mistake does not mean our failure is inevitable.  We are like Adam because we have a free-will, but we also have the same God-gifted supremacy over Satan’s ploys, no matter how crafty. Use your words! They are your power, and then put your words to action with your hands and feet. 

Our power is in God, not ourselves.  Our victory and the greatest hint of Satan’s eventual and complete and total annihilation is his loss to Heaven’s love and your faith.

Blessings,

Gretchen

The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:10

Sin entered the world and changed man’s relationship with God, but from the very beginning God provided a means of atonement shown by the sacrifice given by Abel. Cain made an offering also, but it was unacceptable to God. His bitter resentment festered and eventually he took vengeance upon his brother, mankind’s first murder.

Blood speaks.  God knew what Cain had done and why he did it. The cries of Abel’s blood spoke death, an irreversible state.  Cain’s choices and his consequences were death, complete and total disconnection from God. 

Living blood, pulsing through our bodies, provides and sustains all we need to live. In contrast, blood spilled is death. In Jesus we find both a sacrifice of blood poured and a continuing source of life. He did not die. He lived!

Like Abel, Jesus was hated and murdered, but when His blood speaks, it says, “I love you and you can live!”

Happy Monday!

Gretchen

One of the great honors of my life was to teach beside an amazing woman that taught school for over 50 years.  Her name was Marie Acre and when I was ready to give up, she told me how to keep going.  I knew I could follow her footsteps, because she was my husband’s high school English teacher and if she could survive him and his friends, she had earned her bragging rights and could be trusted to lead.  Her first advice to me was, “If you don’t have a vision for your students, then you’ll never get them anywhere.” 

In the fall after my mother-in-law passed away, my husband came into the school cafeteria and sat down across the table.  He had tears in his eyes and confessed he had run home to have lunch with his mom, as he had done countless times before.  In early autumn she would keep a pot of greens and cornbread warming on the stove. This crisp cool day mom wasn’t there. The empty silence when he called her name brought reality and soul wrenching grief. I cried too and ran to Mrs. Acres’ library. I explained my husband’s sorrow and my inability to cook as his mother had. Mrs. Acre took my distress as her mission. She called her sisters, opened her freezer and pantry and by 3:00 o’clock, she had recipes and specific directions for a Rooney feast to fill our stomachs and heal our broken hearts.

Years later Mrs. Acre’s age began to show, but she was indispensable to our school and its children.  She moved from classroom to library. Well past the age when most retire, she blazed a trail, becoming proficient with the new technologies landing on educator’s desks. She was instrumental in leading our younger generation of teachers into the new world of personal computers.

There came a time when our beloved friend and mentor began to slow down. As she arrived on campus each day, in her late husband’s old Ford truck, she needed assistance getting settled in her world of books and knowledge.  My husband or our superintendent, Mr. D. Rowlett would meet her with a lending hand.  One morning her parking space remained empty and a phone call to her cell went unanswered.  Without hesitation, Keith and Mr. Rowlett headed to her home. 

Breaking and entering wasn’t easy for two law abiding men, but they managed and found the incomparable Mrs. Marie on the floor between her bed and the wall.  She said she had fallen in the night, but was content and resting because she knew, when morning came, someone would come checking on her.

ALS took the life of one of the most inspiring women I’ve ever known, but her legacy is marked by the warmth she gave to those who experienced her love for people and knowledge. She also left the greatest lesson she could have ever taught, “The night doesn’t seem so frightening when the hope of morning is only a few short hours away.”

Sing praises to the LORD, O you His saints, and give thanks to His Holy Name, For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:4-5

Blessings,

Gretchen

To serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you “What do theses stones mean?” Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. Joshua 4:6-7

(Forty years earlier) The Red Sea was an ominous barrier between the pursuing army of Pharaoh, and freedom for the Hebrew children. The people were terrified, but the Creator of all things drove a strong east wind, pushed the impassable water out of the way, made a dry path on the seabed for His people and when the Egyptians pursued the waves swept over them. The man who thought he was a god lost his army. This is what happens when the Almighty God hems you in on all sides.

Forty years later, a generation has come and gone and this young nation has learned that God is faithful and they must trust and obey Him only.  It is time to enter the Promised Land, but there is another aquatic obstacle between the Hebrew children and their homeland; the Jordan River, swollen with spring snow melt.  But God was already there making a way. Several miles upstream an earthquake loosed rock that dammed the river making a dry place downstream.  Before the river banks refilled, Joshua had a representative from each of the twelve tribes retrieve river stones so an altar could be erected to remind the following generations what God had done. Why? Because we need to remember and KNOW that God will always protect and provide for those who follow Him!

As time whisks by, the excitement and crisp edged details of the miraculous things God does for us dulls to occasional thoughts and gentle smiles.  It takes deliberate action to remember and retell so that those who come behind us will persevere.

Happy Weekend,

Gretchen