Salty Zebra

  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.   1 Peter 2:9-10  Some people enter into the faith as a transactional relationship. God gives them forgiveness and salvation and they give him allegiance and try to obey. What they don’t realize is that unlike other transactional relationships, like the ones we have with our cellphone or internet providers, this one is permanent. When I became a Christian I didn’t just become a God client, like a T-Mobile user or a Comcast customer, I became a member of God’s family. This verse expresses it in three ways: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.   In Jesus, we are chosen to be God’s people. In fact, we couldn’t come to Christ if we hadn’t ...

  Classic picture of a Southern Baptist potluck, the epitome of fellowship! They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   Acts 2:42  What does it mean to be a part of a church? Now, I’m not talking The Church, God’s global body of believers that are joined together in Him. I’m talking about a local church where you meet together regularly in person. Why did God give us this design for how we are supposed to live together and grow in Him? We already have the Holy Spirit and our call is to the lost ( Matthew 28:19-20 ) who are typically not found in churches. So, why did God establish local churches in the New Testament?   In a local church, we have the opportunity to receive regular teaching. I know that these days we have so very many teaching platforms available to us from books to podcasts, YouTube videos to Facebook groups. But sitting in church on a Sunday morning (or Sunday evening, or Saturday...

  Wordle courtesy of CoPilot But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”   Acts 1:8  God has no limits, and when we serve Him, neither do we when it comes to doing His will. In our reading today, Acts 2:1-13 , the disciples spoke in languages they didn’t know when they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They didn’t take a quick DuoLingo course or attempt to gesture their way through explaining things, no, they spoke clearly, fluently in a language that they had never spoken or understood before. The people in the city were amazed. The passage lists out 15 different people groups, though these could certainly represent far more than that and tells us that they were God-fearing Jews from all over the world staying in Jerusalem. Had they come to Jerusalem for business? To worship God? For a festival? I couldn’t say, but the fact is they all spoke differen...

 A week ago, our pastor's father, who himself is a retired pastor of over 35 years, spoke at our church on what he called, "The prayer of importunity."  Now that's a word I'd never heard before and I was fascinated by it. Over the last week this message has been brought to my mind more times than I can count and when it returned to my mind this morning, after reading today's LGG blog post , I decided it was time I shared my musings with you.   The biblical prayer that this message, and my subsequent musings, were based on can be found in Luke 18:1-8 . In this passage, Jesus tells a story, a parable, about a widow who had a great need. She sought out the local judge who, unfortunately, was a person who feared neither God nor man, to get the justice she so desperately required. Being this type of person, he had no intention of granting the widow's request, but she didn't give up, and so eventually he gave in, not because he had had a change of heart or ...

  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20  People’s last words are given great weight and value. When you know you’re dying, what is that most important last thing you want to convey to the world? Jesus’ last words to us on earth, the Great Commission, are so important. They sum up our call to action, His will for us in our lives for the rest of earth’s timeline. So what is it that Jesus wants us to do?   Make disciples. What is a disciple and how does one go about making one? Here’s what Webster had to say: DISCIPLE, noun [Latin , to learn.] 1. A learner; a scholar; one who receives or professes to receive instruction from another; as the disciples of Plato. 2. A follower; an adherent to the doctrines of another. Hence the constant attend...

  And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”   Mark 15:39  What was it the centurion saw that convinced him that Jesus was God’s Son? This scripture tells us that the centurion confessed this after he saw how Jesus died. I don’t think it was the moment of Jesus’ passing* that impressed this truth on the bystanders, but all that they had witnessed leading up to it. So, what was different about how Jesus died?   Perhaps the centurion first saw Jesus as He was led to Pilate, bloodied and bruised from the beating He had received from the high priest’s guards and compatriots. Perhaps he was in the room when Pilate questioned Jesus and Jesus remained silent before him, as a sheep before the slaughter ( Isaiah 53:7 ) except when He was asked outright if He was the king of the Jews and Jesus confessed only that Pilot had said it was true. Scripture tells us that Pilate was amazed that Jesus re...

  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26  Who am I? I am a wife, a mom, a follower of and believer in Christ. I am a traveler, a writer, a lover of coffee. None of these are necessarily physical attributes, and yet, when I think of death, the first thing that comes to mind is a natural, physical death. That is what has made these verses so difficult for me to grasp.   From the moment I wake up in the morning, I feel the reality of my physical body. I spend the better part of most days taking care of that body – feeding it, cleansing it, trying to decrease it’s pain. I use my physical body for so much, even writing this post. And yet, my physical body does not represent all, or even most of me. Who I am, like I mentioned before, is made up of relationships, interests, thoughts and dreams. None of these are...

  Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.”   Luke 9:23-24  Jesus ushered in His upside-down kingdom. In it, whoever would like to be first must be last. Whoever loses their life for Jesus’ sake will save it. It went contrary to everything the religious institutions stood for. It defined true success and happiness and divested the clergy of all of their perceived power and uniqueness. Turns out that God loves everyone and wants us all to come to Him and live in relationship with Him. Instead of it being a select few that acted just right in public and gave lots of money to the temple, God actually saw value in prostitutes and tax collectors as well, if not even more so because they were capable of seeing their need for God and appreciate His grace and provision for them.   Pe...

  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14  As I was vacuuming the living room this morning, I was thinking about Christmas coming up. I was considering where I should place my Christmas tree this year. I was wondering if my daughter would be able to come home for a day or two to help me decorate. I was up late last night working on Christmas gifts for my family. It’s still October, and yet I’ve got Christmas in my heart! I can’t help but wonder if the last four weeks of studying God’s faithful love for us throughout the Old Testament have been preparing my heart for this. But, just as the world was both perfectly ready and completely clueless when Jesus arrived, I feel the same way about our celebration of this wonder that is fast approaching.  God taught us to mark special occasions and important memories with celebration. No, there ar...

  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.   Ezekiel 34:16  Many (Most? All?) of the prophecies in the Old Testament had both a near-term fulfillment as well as a future, eschatological one. What is eschatological you might ask? According to Wikipedia (because I couldn’t get webstersdictionary1828.com to load up) it, “concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself.” So, many of the prophecies in the Old Testament referred to something that would happen soonish, like within the next few hundred years, as well as something that would happen closer to the end of the world itself. In this case, the prophecies in Ezekiel referred to the people of Israel being freed from Babylon and returned to their home in about 70 years. When Ezekiel was talking about the wicked shepherds at the beginn...

  He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed. [Isaiah 53:5 NET]  There are lots of ways I could approach today’s SOAP verse, in fact it took me two days to settle on where I wanted to go with it. There is SO MUCH in Isaiah 53 , and I think this was the first time I had read it in the NET version. What made it different? The language used in this translation was more in line with the physical than the emotional or spiritual. For example, in Isaiah 53:3 most versions say, “A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The NIV takes a slightly different approach and says, “a man of suffering, and familiar with pain,” but the NET goes further in this ‘physical’ direction saying, “one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness.” Now that’s an aspect of Jesus that I had never heard nor considered. Yes, of course I know He experienced great pain leading up ...

  And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”   1 Kings 8:61  Last week we looked at things that could become little ‘g’ gods in our lives, taking God’s place in our hearts and minds. Today we shift to the opposite approach and consider what it means to have a heart fully committed to God.   I read somewhere recently that people have often had to learn who God is not before they can begin to comprehend who God is, so I’m going to first approach this question by looking at what it doesn’t mean. Putting God first in our lives doesn’t mean locking ourselves away from society and blocking off all other people and influences. God made it pretty clear through Jesus that while “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength” is the greatest commandment, the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself” ( Mark 12:28-34 ). Part of loving God...

  Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”  2 Samuel 7:16  This is quite the promise! Why do you think God made such a great promise to David, a man who failed time and time again? Scripture tells us in 1 Samuel 13:14 and then later in the New Testament in Acts 13:22 that David was a man after God’s own heart. What was it about David that God would call him this? It certainly wasn’t his perfect righteousness. He was a confessed adulterer and murderer. He failed time and time again during his life and it was well documented for us later. Got to be honest, I’m pretty glad all my failings aren’t documented for posterity! So it isn’t righteousness that earns us this place with God. I was curious about what the Bible showed about David that would cause God to say this and I happened across this article . In it the author breaks down seven reasons that David would be called a man after God’s own heart including: h...

   But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  We had to have Saul before we could have David.  David wasn’t ready yet initially – According to the timeline on this website , David wasn’t even born until Saul had been in power for 12 years. God knew what kind of a king would be best for Israel, but He also knew that they would have to have their kind of king first before they could appreciate what God had for them. Sometimes our best option isn’t ready for us when we are ready for it, so we have to be patient!   The people wanted a king like the other countries, one who was handsome and tall and strong. Samuel sought the same, both in Saul ( 1 Samuel 9:2 ) and in his successor ( 1 Samuel 16:6 ). They probably wouldn’t have even accepted David if God had brought him to them fi...

Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep. Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. Joshua 1:7  Do you feel strong and brave? I know I often don’t. People sometimes tell me that I am though. I don’t know what to do with this. Much of the time I’m doing good to get around the house, strong is not something I’ve identified with for years. But people aren’t often commenting on my physical strength, but the strength necessary to live life under the circumstances I face. Constant, daily, chronic pain is a difficult burden to bear. Uncertainty about health issues, like degenerative illness and a brain tumor, give each day a different look and feel. The loss of my ability to function normally in daily life, to get around and to do the things that most people my age wouldn’t give a second thought, is something that I still wrestle with mentally and emotionally. I have arg...

  You must love the LORD your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5  Have you ever thought that you ought to be able to earn heaven on your own merit? You look around and see the evil in this world and, by comparison, you look pretty good! You don’t see anything particularly awful in your life. You don’t kill people, and apart from that pen you walked away with from the bank, you really don’t steal things. You live by the golden rule and generally treat people the way you want to be treated. Surely God wants a heaven full of people like you, right? Hmm…   Shortly after parting the Red Sea and rescuing the Israelites from the Egyptians, God gave them a short list of laws, rules to live by. These were to maintain their relationship with Him but also to provide a good place for them to live. We all have laws we have to live by and they are primarily made to keep us safe and healthy. You need to wear your seatbelt and drive *ab...