Monday Morning Cover to Cover

Jason Lezak, anchor on the USA free relay team, just edged out Bernard of France to win gold, and it was an indescribable Olympic moment that we so enjoyed over here. How'd Jason do that? Did you hear us screaming in France, Barrett?

Every Monday morning, there's a few of us who have read the chronological Bible readings for the week and we share what lingers in our hearts as we have listened to His Word, His Voice. Read the questions at the beginning of each paragraph and choose one of the paragraphs below and read what touched me as I read. It's just a method to find our beautiful God on this journey. We read His Word not for answers for all our problems but to connect with The Living Word made flesh who says to each of us this very day: Jeremiah 29:14 - "I will be found by you."

DO WE KNOW THERE IS SOMEONE ALWAYS WITH US?
I wept at a part of the story of SM&A where the braggy King of Babylon saw 4 people in the fire. But King Neb only threw in three. That so jumped out at me and I remembered reading The Braggy King of Babylon to my kids when they were preschoolers. I took them to the Fort Worth Wildlife & Nature Park to read the golden book and act it out---thought they may remember it more that way. My 5-year-old boy Barrett pretended to be the braggy King Neb who was boasting—MINE, MINE as he overlooked a daunting valley. And my 4-year-old Brooke and 3-year-old Blair were chanting “we won’t serve your god.” And then it happened, the King saw 4 people in the fire…and that 4th person is present right here today, right wherever you are. I told my blogging friend, Jean, that HE is present with her precious grandbaby CJ in his hospital bed in Pittsburgh as this adorable little fella waits for a heart transplant. He’s right there with CJ in that hospital bed—smooth those sheets. Go look. You’ll know there’s two in that bed. How else do we make it through intense testing? Please pray for this little guy and his courageous mom & dad, Dawn and Abe.


AM I INQUIRING OF MY GOD WHEN I GET INTO TROUBLE OR INQUIRING OF MAN?
We had a business issue this week turn really sour with unexpected repercussions. We want to trust God—Daniel 3:38—like the age-old story of unashamed wild trust of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the middle of intense testing that I cannot even fathom. While I felt at times this week that I was thrown into a fire, pale in comparison to this story, SM&A were literally thrown into a fire seven times hotter than the normal fire. God is able to do anything…and even if HE does not—Daniel 3:18—we will trust HIM and wrestle through that as Jeremiah did in Jer 20:7 who says: God you deceived me. No, God didn’t deceive. Jeremiah perceived it that way. But as J wrestled with his God---even cursing the day he was born--- J realized God’s Word was like fire shut up in his bones. “A man’s life is not his own.” Jer 10:23. That’s the conclusion where I want to live moment by moment. And a verse I had not known before so spoke to me: “Senseless shepherds don’t inquire of God” about the details of their lives. Some details of our lives were in danger this week and it was so good of my God to let me see this.

AM I HONEST AND BROKEN ASKING FOR JUSTICE?
I’ve thought so many times this week about Jer 10:23, “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” So why do I try to direct my own steps? I love the authenticity of Jeremiah, not just honest and vulnerable, but a broken man wrestling with God over real “heart issues.” You’ve deceived me Lord. You overpowered me. Everyone mocks me cause of what You did. Jer 20:7. And, then, a shift occurs and J brokenheartedly replies after his honest heart spills out: “Correct me, LORD, but only with justice---not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.” v.24. I proclaim destruction but the forgiving word of the LORD brings me insult. But if I think for a second not to mention or speak Your Name, “Your Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; I cannot.” The LORD is with me like a Mighty Warrior. Jer20:9. Then, J goes right back to cursing the day he was born in Jer 20:15. “Why did I come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” I love his heart, wrestling with humility and brokenness. This guy doesn't have it together.

AM I WALLOWING IN MY MULTITUDE OF SINS OR SMILING IN GRACE THAT my SINS ARE FORGIVEN?
There is something about packing up the memories of my life that make me feel regret over how I missed God so many times in walking with HIM for 33 years. And I read Jer. 14:7 and it is so good to hear “your sins testify against you” but praise God for we know in our heart that HE has done something about my sin and HIS Grace is greater than my sins. I carried you all these years when you couldn’t walk. I know the plans I have for you and your high school boy named Britt---Jer 29:11. A future and a hope for me and for you! And He seemed to say through this reading that He is sending us to another city and “My Eyes are watching over you.” Jer. 24:5,6. Watching over that 17-year-old who is leaving all his friends for uncharted waters where he is a nameless face with about 1,200 pages of summer reading to do in his last week in his childhood home---an impossible goal doled out by the schools. What does God say in these verses: Call. Come. Pray. Seek. I will be found by you in Austin. Jer. 29:14 I’ll bring you back home to Me. We may not have the assignments done; we are going to Austin to find God.

ARE WE LOOKING FOR A LIFE OF EASE?
Seems like someone is always asking Jer 12: 1 “why does the way of the wicked prosper and the faithless live in ease…” So how does the LORD answer Jeremiah? “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5.

AM I A GOD NEARBY AND NOT A GOD FARAWAY?
Jeremiah knew how to wrestle with his God. My heart is broken within me…because of your holy words, God. Jer. 23:9 God responds to J. “Am I only a God nearby and not a God far away?” Here’s my paraphrase: Jeremiah, am I near to you on Sunday mornings and when you come to read my Word but far away when you drift in your mind and heart. Far away when you are distant with your husband and critical in your mind about your friends and eager to stiff arm those who ignore you? “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. I fill the heaven and the earth!

WILL I SPEAK THE WORDS GOD GIVES ME?
There’s been some criticism of the way that I use the Word of God. Maybe I’m wrong. I love the Word of God more than I could ever verbalize cause I am so in love with HIM. His Word is like my oxygen. It’s not my intent to isogete the text and lay it on any problem. It’s not a fix-it book. I have really wrestled with this issue of treating God’s words as holy based on feedback I’ve received. The Bible is not an answer book. We read to connect with the LIVING WORD made flesh who transforms us. Let the one who has My Word speak it faithfully…Is not my Word like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. Jeremiah 23:28,29. May you be found faithful with The Word that He has given you in your heart…the whispers of His Holy Spirit, our God MOST HIGH. And I end my post with the awestruck call of Ezekiel in Ezek 2:1-3 “Stand up on your feet and I will speak to you. The Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. Son of man, I am sending you. Listen to what I have to say to you. Open your mouth and eat what I give you." What do we need to "let go" of to receive His Words?