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Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Micah 7:8

Micah, a prophet of the 8th century BC speaks of God’s judgment against Samaria, Israel’s capitol and Jerusalem, Judah’s capitol. He denounced money-grabbing rulers, priests and prophets and the exploitation of the helpless. There was rampant dishonesty in business and a great deal of sham religion by people bent on social climbing rather than true worship. These sins meant destruction but in the aftermath of destruction comes the promise of restoration, God’s specialty.

When sin is the normal order of life, healthy relationships are impossible. Buildings may crumble, but the emotional and spiritual erosion of humanity is the high cost of worldly gain. A consequence of disobedience is shame but when your hope is in the LORD a light comes to cast away the shadows of sin’s sorrow.

Corporately, Israel and Judah failed until there was only a remnant left to seek God’s will and glory. In that state of destitute darkness came a Holy Infant, the Light of the World.

Basking in the Son,

Gretchen

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. Matthew 16:24

Salvation is free. Discipleship is costly.

The Pharisees, now joined by another groups of Jewish leaders the Sadducees, continue to follow Jesus’ every movement and action, sifting it through their educated knowledge and failing to see His connection to Heaven. The great obstacle was their preconceived notions and sense of entitlement in relation to their Jewish heritage. They sought personal justice and power, man’s agenda, NOT God’s. I will add here that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had very little common theological ground. They were simply unified in their resistance to Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ.

Jesus knew His earthly life was coming to a close. He alone understood and saw what lay before Him and His beloved friends. His disciples recognize Him as He is, the Savior, but they have no inkling of the cost He and they are about to pay. Jesus will give up His flesh to establish His Kingdom on earth in the hearts of man. His disciples will also be called to give up all rights to their flesh as citizens of this Kingdom. Just as Jesus’ cross took His life, they must voluntarily live crucified to this world.

The cross we bear is our sacrifice to the allure of this world in exchange for the things of Heaven. We are missionaries in a foreign land although we are only in our own back yard.

Love,

Gretchen

The Great What If

Many years ago I taught high school music. This required intermittent performances throughout the school year. Music has never been difficult for me. I love it, I understand it, I can do music….what I struggled with was making order out of chaos with groups of teenagers. Sometimes tuning and timing were issues but that isn’t the point. Getting permissions slips signed, reservations made, timetables reasonable, students in compliance with bus seating charts WAS THE PROBLEM!

I am a fairly organized person. My life requires this, it’s not rocket science, it’s survival and I wish to continue forth successfully. Allow me to give you a window into my organizational/ leadership crisis as it applies to adolescent students.

“Students, we will leave tomorrow afternoon at 3:25 to sing at the senior citizen’s center.” said Mrs. Rooney gently.

Student 1 interrupting, “Mrs. Rooney, Mrs. Rooney! WHAT IF I have a sore throat?”

“Just move your mouth, we won’t put undue stress on your vocal chords, just be ready to leave after school.”

Student 2 loudly from the bass section, “Mrs. Rooney, Mrs. Rooney! WHAT IF I stub my big toe, get an infection and my mom can’t get me an appointment until 3:15.”

With a hint of impatience, “Please wear you steel toed boots when in the upright position until after tomorrow’s performance.”

Student 3, “Mrs. Rooney, Mrs. Rooney! WHAT IF my great aunt Bertha gets the flu and Uncle Joe can’t stay with her because he has a flat on the ole’ chevy and I have to go get him after school?”

With great exasperation, “I am no longer taking any ‘WHAT IF’ questions. We will leave tomorrow afternoon at 3:25 to sing at the senior citizen’s center.”

Trying to make a plan and carry it out in the midst of everyone’s hunger for an assurance that no matter what, everything is going to be okay and the leader knows best was exhausting.

I have since left the Egypt of high school and arrived the in the Canaan of Kindergarten. Five year olds are much more willing to hear a sound plan and stick to it without question. However, I have recently found myself responding to God’s call with a “WHAT IF!” God’s call is simple. “Obey Me, Trust Me, I will provide.” I am old, I lead others in faith, God has never, NEVER! failed me. Still, my instinctual response to God’s precious voice is, “BUT WHAT IF”…..what if my family thinks I’m crazy? What if I can’t pay my bills? What if my children need me and I can’t go? These are legitimate concerns and yet, I know, MY GOD IS ABLE, so why does my heart pause and say, “WHAT IF?”

Moses in his own way asked many times “What if?” when he was called to return to Egypt and deliver God’s enslaved people to freedom. Peter had an earth shattering “WHAT IF” on the night Jesus was arrested. The Biblical narrative is story after story of people crying out for God’s reassurance and God’s answer is, “Follow Me, obey Me, Trust Me. I love you!”

The greatest faith is the faith of a child reaching up to hold a hand. When I am walking my little line of turtles, (have you ever seen small children loaded down with backpacks traversing sidewalks looking every direction but forward?) across campus and I feel five little fingers touch mine it is wonderful, it is trust and I am faithful to their need. So, WHAT IF I reached up and took the hand of my Father and never turned loose? He is faithful to my need so I think I will.

Peace Be With You!

Gretchen

 

 

 

Therefore, the LORD Himself will give you a sign” The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah, the Old Testament Gospel writer foretells the Good News of Jesus’ birth 700 hundred years before the fact.

Ahaz, Judah’s king would except nothing from God or His prophets, but Isaiah speaks anyway of a child, “Immanuel” that brings judgement. We think of this as a bad thing in the frame of a comeuppance, but it actually means a perfect, flawless justice. This is something wonderful coming in love from the weaver of our souls.

Later, “Emmanuel” the Christ child, God with us, came as the greatest wonder the world has ever known. This prophecy for Ahaz, an arrogant king, is a promise for us all. God always had a plan to save and always will. When we think all hope is gone, remember God is NOT in the giving up and quitting business. He is the world’s only rescuing, redeeming and restoring specialist.

The virgin’s child: Perfect justice, perfect love, perfect exactly what you need.

Love,

Gretchen

Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His Heavenly Hosts. Psalm 148:2

A most lyrical passage that I encourage you to read in its entirety.

Doxology: A liturgical expression of praise to God. The word comes from the Greek term doxa meaning opinion. The Psalmist gives His opinion…God and God alone is worthy to be praised throughout all creation. Nothing has been created apart from God and the entire universe is capable of praising God and yet, all this glory is God’s gift to each of us.

Verse 14 completes this beautiful acknowledgement of all that God has done by recognizing the bounty, the “horn” or cornucopia, of God’s provision.

God is so Good! The whole world declares His works and I don’t want to be left out of the choir! Sing loud, sing proud. I’ll be the squeaky, somewhat flat soprano with a southern drawl!

Do Re Mi,

Gretchen

But our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20

The community of believers is a colony of Heaven. The Ruler of Heaven and earth is our governing authority. The benefits and blessings of Heaven are ours. Its justice system is our hope and we stand firmly to defend and support our homeland.

There are all manner of fun little quizzes on social media that invite users to answer a series of questions and react to various statements. The collected data can supposedly determine your place of origin and residence. This fun pastime has yet to determine I am a citizen of Heaven, but I am reminded every time I begin these surveys that I am a consenting product of my environment.

As a new creature in Christ, I am a representative and ambassador for the place I call my home, Heaven. Someday, our Prince will return and take us Home to where our heart is. Let me invite you to come with me to the most wonderful place in the universe. Heaven! It’s out of this world!

Love,

Gretchen

 

Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name. I Chronicles 29:13

Worship is man’s faithfulness to our faithful God. For Israel’s second king, David, worship of the One True God was a priority, not an afterthought. David is now at the end of his life so his son Solomon has been crowned and given the blueprints for the Temple. In addition, David gave generous gifts to the Temple building fund and the people of Jerusalem followed and gave also.

God made it clear to David that he would not build the temple he dreamed of. He is passing the torch to his son Solomon. From father to son, traditions and admonitions are given and the people come forward in support of the Temple building and give deeply. They gave back to God what God had extravagantly given to them.

David’s passion and heart, his love for his Savior, is being passed to the next generation. In this act of coronation, Israel has recognized that all they have came from God. The model we live today has a deep and lasting effect on the generation rising. They are watching, they are weighing and they are deciding. Live and model faithfulness to the Faithful God. It will shine a light on the path they must follow.

Love,

Gretchen

“He Himself bore our sins” in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “By His wounds your have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

Salvation does not guarantee anything but hope and eternal life. We look for justice and seek what is fair, but fair isn’t really the settlement we long for. Fair means we get what we have earned and what we need, nothing more, nothing less. Jesus didn’t live and die so we get what we earned. He came to prevent that!

Peter’s words are in the context of a passage encouraging Christians to have a good work ethic no matter the circumstances and be a good citizen because it’s the right thing to do. Jesus, who was sinless, willingly took our sins on Himself and lost His life in a most gruesome, undignified and UNJUST manner.

If we spend our energy focused on how others treat us, then our eyes are not on the things of Christ. Put the idea of earthly justice away from you. It is a stumbling block. Our hope is in Christ’s victory over death, so we in turn must die to this world and step into righteousness. In this manner we become in this world, not of it.

Love,

Gretchen

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. John 13:3

The Last Supper is beginning. Jesus’ love for His earthly friends is about to manifest itself in the most loving, unselfish way any human can love another; humble servanthood and personal sacrifice.

If God has put all things under Jesus’ power, Jesus could have devised and manipulated many things that would cast the consequences of sin onto us, the actual sinners. But He did not. He chose to follow God’s plan. It was all ways, totally and completely voluntary, purposeful and loving.

Mercy and Grace, a living reality, all because Jesus chose to love.

Happy Monday,

Gretchen

The Other Shoe Must Fall

Walking. Nothing profound or insightful, just the act of getting from point A to point B on foot. Except, in this process there is an inevitable pattern marching on. Up, down, clip, clop….. “The OTHER shoe must fall.” (If my blog had a soundtrack I would insert a horrific scream here.)

Yes, if you are going to move toward something, a foot must rise and a foot must come down. This is good, so why did someone in the annals of time connect this positive progression with good versus bad and the implication that for every blessing there is a curse, for every ray of sunshine there is a shadow lurking? Furthermore, why is it stuck in my head so that my natural instinct is to compromise joy with awareness that “The OTHER shoe” is soon coming down hard, so don’t get too excited…..or grateful?

This is a learned behavior. Children to not react to good things with caution. Youthful elation is full throttle and long lasting. A child enjoys anticipation, celebration and a conclusion of “I can’t wait until we do this again!” Oh to never leave the wonder years. Sadly, at varying ages maturity takes on survival tactics that protect the heart and mind from disappointment, failure and defeat, those moments when the OTHER shoe falls. The deeply callused heart receives a special title, cynic. No child ever dreams of growing up to be cynical, they learn it.

When I was young and struggling so badly with depression and mental balance I would search God’s word for inspiration and motivation to persevere through what I perceived to be an unrealistically difficult circumstance of heart and mind. I worried that this world was not my home and I should focus on Heaven rather than the little plot of earth I pay property taxes on. Then one day I realized…..my eternity began the day I gave my heart to Jesus. I didn’t have to wait on death, the OTHER shoe, to achieve my spiritual aspirations. Anything I wanted in death was available to me, “On earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) I began living instead of dying.

Walking is as important as breathing. I think of how excited I was on the day Thing 1 took her first steps, and years later when Thing 2 accomplished the same milestone. Even more years later the OTHER shoe came down, and those little toddling steps turned into the strides of beautiful, ambitious young women walking out my door to chase their dreams. Yes, I cried, but it was forward motion and It was good.

Standing still allows us to hear God’s voice, moving forward is our act of faith. Knowing the OTHER shoe will fall is recognizing life happens, but when God is in control, it is good.

Put your face toward the Sonshine, step into the light and walk today in your eternity. The other shoe falling is okay, it’s the only way to arrive where you dream of going.

Blessings,

Gretchen