LORD, teach us to pray!

One time I had a friend share with me that she was diagnosed with cancer and on another occasion a friend shared a very trying time in her marriage. I found myself struggling how to pray so I asked God to teach me how to pray.

I love that the disciples had the same feeling as they watched John and Jesus pray. They knew they lacked. So, they asked!  "LORD, will you teach us to pray as John taught his disciples?"

Jesus provided a model to pray, but He also used stories to teach the importance of persistence and to trust the generosity of God.

Do you struggle knowing what to pray, too? If so, just ask Jesus to teach you how. I promise it will bless you and give you words beyond your understanding and ability to pray.

Check out the story below.

LORD, teach us to pray.

He is Worthy of Praise because HE is Love and Truth

Probably twenty years ago, the LORD convicted me of treating Him like Santa Claus instead of Holy God. So I did a fast of asking God for anything. I took thirty days and I determined in my prayers to only praise God for what I knew about Him. 

I had no idea how this would radically change my life and how I pray. It gave me God confidence and I discovered that my prayer life was more fruitful. My faith and trust increased and others noted my prayer life. 

What started out as an act of repentance produced good fruit. I guess this is what John the Baptist and Jesus meant when they said, "Produce the fruit of repentance" (Matthew 3:8;Luke 3:8).

I am loving the slow process of writing out what I am learning about God as I read the Illuminated Bible. I first read the chapter and then as I color in it, I am listening to the Street Lights Audio Bible. I might listen to the chapter three or four times. It reveals truths I did not catch in the reading.

This week love and truth are the two characteristics that have stole my heart. God is love! God is truth! 

How might I give Him praise for these qualities? How might I repent for the lack of them? Or even repent for my family, city or nation for the lack of them? How can I encourage love and truth? 

Father, we praise You! You are the Light of the World that brings love and truth. Thank You that Your love and truth set us free. Thank You for these gifts that abound in You and are freely given to us so that they abound in us.

Lessons Learned as I Messed up Telling Ruth 1

Before we began the story of Ruth, Greg shared background information about where the story fits into God's timeline. He emphasized that Ruth happened during the time of judges when all were doing things in their own way which was contrary to God. He also shared that the Moabite nation was an enemy to Israel and cursed by God.

I took the time to explain that God chose to use a widowed Moabite to teach Israel the lesson of loyal love (chesed in Hebrew or translated as kindness in English). This is key to the story because the LORD has loyal love for us and we should demonstrate loyal love like Ruth did for Naomi. 

I then told the story twice. It wasn't until Senda retold the story back to me that I realized in both of my tellings I skipped the line where Naomi thanked her daughter-in-laws for their kindness or loyal love to their dead husband's and her and asked God to give them rest in a new marriage.

Seriously, I missed it twice even after telling them how important this is to the entire text. Ugh!

So, when Senda was done telling, I told her, "I am so sorry. I just realized as your were telling, I missed the most important line twice."  I then explained the line to her and Abel and told them where it went in this story.

I asked if I needed to retell so they would know where it went in the story. They said, "No." They got it and understood.

This is one way an oral culture and a literate culture differ. An oral culture can hear parts of a story in a circular way. It doesn't bother them for us to to say, "Oh I forgot this part. It goes here." For them it makes sense. They get it and they do not need the linear outline. Where a literate person feels that they have hurt the story if it is not linear. 

John Walsh helped me understand this by saying that we should think of it like a family telling a story at the dinner table over and over. It may not be told the same everytime because different people tell it. But the same story is told. The content is in tact, but the order may fluctuate.

I have noticed through the years that this happens as my friends in eastern cultures retell a Bible story. This can be because people from eastern cultures focus on the big picture of a story while people in western cultures focus on the details. Neither are wrong. Both are a perspective. Our perspective can cause a shift in how we hear a story and retell a story and as a trainer of cross cultures I find myself in this different perspective periodically.

Sometimes, if I do notice a mess up I will do a retelling with a story correction and then point it out or ask if they noticed I added something. With this couple, I don't need to because I know their skill level and ability to tell. 

I also provide audio recordings and YouTube recordings for future reference and accuracy checks. I also provide the drawings as a resource. These are helpful. 

The other resource that helped me better understand this ambiguity was the Bible. One year as I read through Acts, I realized that they told the story of Jesus over and over but differently each time. It was reordered with each audience and parts were emphasized and other parts removed based on who was telling and the people group. All were accurate, but a little different. 

We must remember that the Bible was first orally created in an eastern culture.  

This does not mean that we should add our commentary, devotional thought, or preach what we think it means when we are telling a Bible story. Those need to be dealt with outside of the telling of the sacred text. They have their place for explaining and helping people understand a text, but should not happen when the text is being told as a whole.  We need to keep the sacred sacred. This is why we use clear beginnings and endings when we tell a Bible story. 

Everything in the Bible is true and in Ruth, we are told...

...May God honor the telling of His Word!

A good storyteller will mess up. For me, it felt like a royal ugh!  Yet, my friend's just nodded and made the mental story correction. 

Have you ever told a Bible story and had to make a correction after skipping a part? What happened? What did you learn from it? 

The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt 

Ever felt like you have just done too much for the LORD to love you or accept you? Or have you ever felt like if people really new the bitterness or jealousy in your heart they would not accept you? Well, today's Bible story is a parable Jesus told to illustrate how deep and far the Father's love is for us!

The Prodigal Son

God is Looking for Obedience not Emotions

He drew on the chalk board three doors and then he slowly went to each door and began to draw so that his hand motions matched the emotions he was describing. 

On the first door, he drew fast with large sweeping motions as he described a family with fear. Their shoulders were hunched and they walked around with worried expressions. He said, "This family was terrified they would do it wrong and not fast enough. They felt like they must hurry before the LORD passed over Egypt to take the first born son."

On the second door he drew with very slow and precise motions to make sure every part of the frame was covered. He said, "This family was subdued, quiet, focused on the details with very little interaction. This family felt that it was all about the details and getting it just right."

On the third door he slapped a quick line on the top and a quick line of each side. He shared, "It was sloppy but done with laughter and alot of noise as the family gathered."

He then drew one more door, but he didn't draw over it. He then turned to us and said, "Which families were passed over?"  Everyone agreed the first three but not the fourth.

"Why was the last door not passed over?"  

We answered, "Because they didn't obey God! God said to cover the door post with the blood of sacrifice and all doors with the covering would be passed over."

"Did the emotions matter as they obeyed? Did their emotions stop the LORD from doing what He said He would do?"

"NO!" We all cried out.

"So as you go to do ministry you will face many highs and many lows. Your emotions will want to drive you, but you must obey what the LORD has called you to do and trust that He will do as He said."

His words are echoing in my heart and mind today!

I don't even remember my professor's name! But, everytime I read this passage or let my emotions get the best of me, I remember this truth! God is looking for the one that obeys Him. My emotions do not determine God's faithfulness. God is faithful. He will do what He says. 

Today, I will remember the promise that He is my ever present help in a time of need.

How about you? Which family most represents you right now? Where do you need to walk in obedience regardless of the emotion? 

For some, it might be at the very start, believe on the LORD Jesus and you will be saved. 

Did you know that this passover moment was a foreshadowing of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and that anyone who believes in Him will have the gift of life? Regardless of your emotion your belief is like the blood covering over the doorpost when death comes it will not hold its sting. 

Shalom y'all! 

The Boaz Blessing

Have you ever had someone verbally bless you? 

I love it when someone blesses me. There is something special about a kind word that softens the heart. It can come through a greeting, a text, a kind word, and even a kind deed. As I studied Ruth 2, I noticed something that was profound to me. Boaz was the owner of the land and as a landowner, he had workers harvesting the fields. When I think of most bosses, I do not envision them walking into the office shouting out, “The LORD bless you!” But this is exactly what Boaz did. As he approached his workers, he shouted out a blessing to them, “The LORD bless you!” and they called out a blessing to him in response, "The LORD bless you!" 

Now, Boaz didn’t just bless his workers, but as he had a conversation with the young foreign, widowed, girl that showed up to glean with his women workers, he gave her a blessing, too. But it wasn’t an ordinary blessing. 

After acknowledging Ruth’s good character Boaz said, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” 

I honestly had to sit on this blessing for a while as I answered the question, “What do you learn about God?” I was reflecting on Boaz’s blessing and these three words repay, reward, and refuge stood out to me. 

In order to repay someone, it implies that something that was lost will be restored. 

In order to reward someone implies that something will be given that you do not already possess. 

In order to provide refuge under His wings implies that there is the intimacy of one being held close under the protective shelter of one’s strength. 

It occurred to me that Boaz recognized that the LORD was the One that can restore what was lost, give us what we don’t possess, and provide us with safe intimate refuge as our Protector. 

Keep in mind he said this to a young woman that recently lost her husband due to illness, left her home to go to a foreign land to care for her widowed mother-in-law, and left her people’s culture and gods to follow the God of Israel, the Most High God. How little did he know that his blessing her would open the door for him to become the answer not just for her but for the whole nation of Israel and the world. 

Boaz became her husband and the father of their son, Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse. Jesse became the father of King David and King David was the grandfather of Jesus. Boaz not only provided the intimate protection that gave her refuge that was safe and secure, but he restored what was lost in her husband and gave her more in a son. 

Not every blessing we give will have such profound outcomes, but when we give a blessing, it implies that there is something to give. We must take note that the blessing comes from the LORD. He alone is the Giver of all good things even if we may become a part of the solution or answer to the blessing in time. The good gift is from Him alone. 

Some might hold back in giving blessings for fear they may have to sacrifice as part of the solution, but we must remember that if we hold back in giving the blessing then we might miss out on the greater good that will come. 

What if we all gave Boaz’s blessing to one another? 

May the LORD repay you for what you have done. 

May the LORD richly reward you. 

May the LORD give you refuge under His wings. 

Please know that it is my heart's cry over you right now! May the LORD bless you so you can go and be a blessing! 

Shalom, y’all! 

(The Ruth 2 Storyboard was created by Alice Swartz! She created it during our study and then blessed me by sharing it with me!)

Our Cedar Table

Gorgeous! Incredible! We are blown away by what our son-in-love, Zach Davy, created for us through his business Sunshine Cedar Company.

The furniture is Amish handcrafted to the finest detail and it's made from locally sourced cedar.

The richness of the color and live edges give the table character and beauty that make you want to just look at it. It is so amazing that such beauty was hidden inside a tree. I love how God cares about details and gives beauty even in places one would never know about unless you did further inspection.

Greg and I were very sad when we realized our big round table was too big for our new dining room. God blessed us with so many divine appointments and memories that it was hard to let it go. We cherished the memories around it. It was our hospitality platform and hard to imagine anything better.

Until a conversation happened around making a table that was a part of Zach's story. What better way than to use one of his cedars for our table! It is just one more way of his family and our family becoming one.

I am being a little obnoxious in saying to the kids that I look forward to grandbabies filling up the whole bench! 

In the meantime, we cannot wait until you come and sit at our one of kind Nebraska raised cedar table. 

Your presence is requested to start our new table memories! 

Reach out to zach@sunshinecedarco.com if you'd be interested in a quote for custom built cedar furniture.