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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Dust in the Hands of Faithful God

A few days ago, I was running an errand with the children and a message by Chuck Swindoll came on. The message was all about Joseph, and I was captivated by it.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what the Word says about Joseph. Over and over again, as pain and turmoil entered Joseph's life, Genesis tells us, "But the LORD was with Joseph", when his brothers threw him into the pit..."But the LORD was with Joseph" when he was in jail..."But the LORD was with Joseph"....when Potiphar's wife falsely accused him.

So...as part of his message, Swindoll quoted Tozer as saying, "It is doubtful that God can use any man greatly until He has hurt him deeply."

My first thought at having heard that was..."Well, THAT STINKS ROYALLY!" and then, "YEAH! There's still hope for me!" ;)

Seriously, though....I've thought about that quote all week long, and I think what I got from it is this....

God's Word says that He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Jesus came here to earth, and was found spending time with the lost, the corrupt, the unlearned, the sinful.

God allowed Saul to go down a long path of destruction before He chose to blind him and humble him.

He allowed David to be savagely pursued by King Saul before David was to rise as King of Israel.

In His Word, God talks of the refiner's fire...of how we are but clay, and He the Potter.

I think what He is showing me is that He has the right, as my Creator, to turn me back to dust in order that He might build me up as He desires me to be.

Ooooooh......not what I would have chosen, I gotta tell you. It's been a bitterly painful last few months in my household..and the pain is still quite raw.

But...what is His greater desire for me? For you, if you are in a similar situation?

His greatest desire for all of His children is that WE not be what others see, but that He be all that is visible from our lives.

It's a painful process. One I would never sign up for as an elective class....not in a million years!

But, I realized tonight, as I was spending some precious time with one of my cherished sisters...I realized that being pummled to dust in the hands of the Almighty is still better than being elevated to celebrity in the hands of the evil one.

Dust in the hands of faithful God.

Thank you, precious Daddy, for reminding me once again that you are, indeed, faithful...even when I am faithless.

I love you, LORD.

I trust You.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Homeschooling is in Full Swing!

We're having such a great time homeschooling..I truly love it, and am thankful that I have this opportunity and time with my precious kiddos.

What I've found is that life as I knew it before has pretty much come to a screeching halt...there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all that I'd like to be able to do, and still teach our kiddos.

The 3 of us are working through a Precept study on Matthew, and I've been so proud of the kids. It's a study that is geared for adults, yet they are just working right along with me on it.

The deepest desire of my heart, for my children, is that they learn to study the Bible, and that they love God's Word...and trust Scripture to interpret itself.

Yesterday, we were studying through Matthew 2:1-12, and were learning about the two kings mentioned therein...Herod and Jesus.

The kids did such a great job of telling me all that they learned about Herod from the verses that we read.

Then Caedmon had a pretty serious question..."Mom, weren't all of Israel's kings chosen by God? And, Mom..if that's so, why would God have chosen a bad king like Herod?"

Mind you, he just turned 7. (sorry...a little pride just slipped in!)

So, I said, "Well, Caedmon, that's a great observation. I know that Saul and David were anointed by God to be kings over Israel, but I don't know if every king was chosen by God. So, what we do in a case like this is we write our question down, and keep studying. In time, Scripture will give us the answer."

I then wrote the ? on the board.

We kept on digging in, just to the 1st 12 verses of Matt. 2, and then read (around verse 11 or 12) that an Angel of the Lord appeared to the magi, and told them not to go back and report to Herod where they had found the Baby Jesus, the promised Messiah and King of Israel.

Caedmon yelled out, with such joy and excitement..."MOM! That's the ANSWER! Don't you see?! If Herod had been appointed by God, God wouldn't have sent an angel to tell the magi not to let Herod know where Baby Jesus was!"

It was so awesome! I thought that any minute I'd actually be able to see a lightbulb going off over his little head. :)

I then explained to him, "Caedmon..what you have now is a theory. It's a good theory, and you used great tools of deductive reasoning..but we don't know 100% that it's true yet. We have to keep digging, and as we do, we'll either find more verses that support your theory, or we'll find verses that will explain why it's not correct. But, either way, you're going to know the truth. "

This little snippet was the perfect example of why we have chosen for me to homeschool them. I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world...even clean baseboards. :)
( mine are dirty right now, and it's really getting under my skin!)

Until next time...
Jes