A Parent’s Love

       I’ve loved my daughter since the first day I held her in my arms- at two days old.  Even though I was scared, wondering if I’d be a good parent, just looking in her eyes made me want to share all the love I had with her.  Four years later we brought home our son who was 3 ½ and all I wanted to do was share my love with this child who had a troubled start and suffered loss in his life.  Two children: both my own by adoption, both dearly loved, both so different and with different beginnings.

       Boy, have I been frustrated as a parent!  Despite how I tried to instill certain morals, values and beliefs, in the end they have made their own decisions and some of those decisions have caused me great pain.  It has been very difficult to watch them get hurt or suffer for choices they made when I tried to advise them on better options.  It has been difficult to watch them accept worldly standards in morality, beliefs and values.  Some of their actions (given their standards) truly bother me, and sometimes, are very hurtful towards me, but they are adults and I cannot change them.

       Both my children have hurt me, mostly unintentionally but not always.  They’ve pushed the limits I set, lied to me even when I saw with my own eyes, and ignored me for lengths of time that I wanted to spend with them.  They’ve both gotten in trouble and had to figure out how to fix it.  In many ways as parents, we let go and hope they come back to us in the future.  There is no manual for the kids given to us, only the assurance that God knows what He is doing and it is best for parents and children both.

I still love them very much no matter what they say or do.  They are and will always be my children.

       Given my past history with the Lord, I believe He loves me ever more than I love my own children; and He is patient beyond measure.  He watched as I made bad decision after bad decision, wanting to be in control of my own life only to muck it up.  He watched as my standards caused me to choose actions harmful to myself or others.  He watched as I got angry at Him and ignored Him time and again.

Yet my Father still loves me very much, no matter what I’ve said or done.  I am and will always be His child.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rm. 8:38,39

The Little Green Man

       When I was young I had quite the imagination.  Still, when the phone would ring and I was told it was for me I would get nervous because it could be that creepy little voice of nightmares, the evil Little Green Man.  It was real and not my imagination.  And the voice would start out calling me by name and then telling me some horrible thing he would do.  I don’t remember much more, but I’m sure it scared me at the time, especially from ever going down any Texas Rd. where he lived just in case it was his!

       Meanwhile, on the telephone downstairs (back in the days when you could call your own house), one of my sisters was placing that call to me while they both laughed at my gullibility.  To me, it really was the voice of the Little Green Man.  I was sure of it.  Obviously I was wrong.  It wasn’t the voice of that non-existent evil troll, but my sister’s voice.

       Though God could choose to speak audibly to us His followers, He often speaks through His Spirit in us.  There are three main voices we hear: our mind, the enemy, and God.  Of course, He often speaks through His Word, but He said we could hear His voice. 

But you do not believe for you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice*, and I know them, and they follow Me. Jh. 10:26,27

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear His voice*, Hb. 3:7

the disciples heard God’s voice audibly. 2Pt. 1:17,18

(*voice- G5456- phone- sound, tone, voice/ uttered sounds, speech)

       So how do we know whose voice we are hearing?  Usually our mind will cater to our flesh and desires, the enemy will tear us down or lift us in pride, and God will always speak truth, urging us to holiness and humility.  One of the ways we get to know His voice is to spend as much time with Him as possible -draw near Him (Jm. 4:8), seek Him with all your heart (Jr. 29:13; Dt. 4:29)- not just talking but LISTENING.  We must also use discernment. “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hb. 5:14) “The simple believes every word, but the wise man watches his step.” (Pr. 14:15)

Test all that we hear against the Word of God.

-Is it Scriptural, good Christian principles, and agrees with God’s names, character and nature?

‘God’ tells me to leave my husband. Nope. Not God. Against the above.

‘God’ tells me to make peace with someone who spoke lies about me to others. Pray. Probably God. Agrees with the above.

‘God’ tells me to say something mean to my enemy.  Nope. Not God. Against the above.

‘God’ tells me to love the person who just hurt me and ask for forgiveness for my part in it.  Pray. Probably God. Agrees with the above.

For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hb. 4:12

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1Jh. 4:1

…God, who cannot lie… Titus 1:2 (also Nm. 23:19)

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Jm. 1:22

       We must discern the voices we hear or the thoughts we have, to know if they are our own, the enemy or of God.  

The following list from 2Cr. 11:3,4 also helps because it encompasses basically all things not of God.  I list examples to help in understanding…

We must watch that our thoughts are not deceived and corrupted by:

     another Jesus- an unforgiving, selfish, vengeful, mean, lazy, uncaring in actions, Jesus was 

                          none of these.

     another spirit- confusion, anger, bitter, covetousness, pride, condemning, money or status 

                         loving

     another gospel- gospel of: self improvement, prosperity, name it claim it, etc

Don’t be afraid to hear God’s voice, just use wisdom and know God doesn’t lie so He would never go against who He is or His Word.

Risalamande

       I sat once again slowly savouring the fluffy white sweetness of the dessert as it rolled around in my mouth feeling for the one whole almond, amidst the varying size pieces, for one of us to find… perhaps me.  My only hope was that someone would find it soon so that we could all relax and just enjoy the flavour of the wonderful Danish dish usually served at Christmastime and which I looked forward to more than the meal.  If we are not careful we can chomp on the whole almond and there will be no prize for the one who finds it.

       So every year it gets quiet during dessert as we sit and gently chew on our special rice pudding with cherry sauce on top (though I usually pass that by).  Occasionally a person pulls out a larger piece out of their mouth to make sure it isn’t complete before eating it- such poor etiquette! J   But it forces you to mull on the risalmande, savouring every bite, fully enjoying the texture and flavours of the dish.

       The Word of God is similar to the risalamande in that we need to take small mouthfuls at a time and mull on them a bit looking for those whole almonds or truths that will help us ‘win the prize’ of eternal life.  Sure, we can rush through the tasting, chewing and swallowing, but how will we get the full flavour and enjoy the texture of the dish if we are consuming it so fast?  What happens if we quickly chomp down on the whole almond thus losing it’s full meaning in our lives?

       For an example, I was reading Luke 16 the other day, slowly savouring the words looking for that nugget that would jump out to me for that day when I read these verses:

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money*."The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed** him. And he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted^ among men is an abomination^^ in the sight of God. Lk. 16:13-15 ESV

*treasure, riches **sneered, scoffed at    ^exalted: with power, in influence, set the mind on, aspire to ^^foul, detestable thing, pertaining to idols and idolatry

       Now, I’ve read this many times and various parts of the chapter have jumped out at me but that day I couldn’t help but think of how much society is like this, sneering and scoffing at those whose ultimate goal isn’t wealth, power and status.  Continuing to think on it, I pondered North American Christians today who also aspire to wealth, positions of power and social or spiritual status.  Have these things not become our idolatry even in the church?  I think they have as wealth can mean possessions as well as money.  We love our money and our possessions every bit as much as the world.

       Though we may be able to conceal this love from the world, or from our family and friends, ultimately God knows our hearts and knows all the idols that we have.  These things we aspire to, exalt in our own eyes, they are and abomination to God.  As I pondered further I looked around the room at all the stuff we have acquired over the years, stuff that cost money, much of which was unnecessary and I had to think how much more that money could have done for the kingdom of God just by sharing it.  Then I had to thing of the ways to apply this knowledge…

       This is how one savours the Word of God trying to find that daily morsel that will lead us to further understand the Truth.  This is what we call meditation (unlike the eastern forms which are cultic in nature), and about which the Bible speaks plainly.

This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth,

but you shall meditate on it by day and by night,

so that you may be careful to do according to all that is

written in it…

Js. 1:8

To meditate on according to the Bible:

   -the Law (Ps. 1:2)

   -on His promises (Ps. 119:148)

   -on His statutes (Ps. 119:48)

   -on His works (Ps. 143:5)

   -reading, exhortation, doctrine, and the gifts (1Tm. 4:15)