Put a mark on their foreheads

(Taken from art.thewalters.org)

"With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. (Ezekiel 9:2b). 

The phrase "writing kit" caught my attention. Why was it so important to know he wore a horned inkwell about his waist? I immediately read anticipating the explanation for this unusual identifier. 

"Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it" (Ezekiel 9:4). 

Oh dear! The next verse terrified me.

"As I listened, HE (the LORD Almighty) said to others, "Follow him throughout the city and kill without showing compassion..." (Ezekiel 9:5). 

(Taken from Dreamstime.com)

The one with the pen gave life. The one with the sword brought death. In this moment, the pen was mightier than the sword because it brought life not death. My mind went all over the place, but the first thing I must see is that God spares His children. This is a consistent storyline throughout the Bible. He spared Adam and Eve in the garden. He spared Cain and put a mark on him so no one could kill him. He spared Noah and his family for his righteousness. He spared anyone who put the blood of lamb on the door posts when Israel lived in Egypt on the night of the Passover.  You get the idea. God is for us. He searches the earth to and from looking for the one fully committed to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

So God seeks the one seeking Him,  but what about  us? What are we responsible for? If we believe in the LORD,  we will be appalled at unrighteousness and evil. In fact, we will hate it. This is not the kind of hate that wants to kill or destroy but the kind that comes from deep sorrow and grief because it knows there is a better way. We will hunger for the best in others and fight for righteousness. This is not about selfish gain or vain glory. So, the pen writes to bring life knowing once the sword is used the choice is gone.

Now don't get me wrong. I know the pen can bring death, too. I learned that as a child when I sent a note to a boy I liked. "I like you. Do you like me?" And he answered with big bold letters, "NO!" Written words hurt. They are painful. I later learned as an adult I should not write things down that are unkind. People can read them over and over. There is something devastating because the imprint of the visual sticks. So, I get it. The pen can hurt. And in some cases the pen is used to set about death, but the pen can choose to give life or death. And in this account the pen gave life to the righteous one.

In this passage, the pen wrote a mark. What was that mark? Listen to this quote in David Guzik's commentary, 

“There is a prophetic significance in the Hebrew word for the mark. It is the Hebrew letter T (Tau), which at that time was written as a cross. Without being superstitious we can rejoice in this anticipation of salvation through the death of Christ on the cross” (Wright) (https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide2017-Eze/Eze-9.cfm).

The life giver wrote a cross. The significance of the cross was that Jesus gave His life that we might have eternal life. Jesus died on the cross that we might have righteousness. When we are in pursuit of His righteousness, we will grieve the detestable things around us. So, what are the detestable things? I imagine you can give a long list, but I will give just one. Idolatry for one is a big one. This beast can manifest itself in so many ways that we often do not realize we are in its grip. I will let you consider the countless ways you see idolatry in our culture. Oh my. Father, forgive us! Personally, we must deal with our sin and this is when we can change our culture's detestable things. It starts with the one. 

So, today if the man with the linen clothes and a writing kit at his side were to come and mark you, would it be with a pen or would he step aside for the sword? Pursue righteousness at all costs and righteousness is found at the cross in the one who died as an innocent man to pay our debts that we might have the free gift of eternal life. 

Did you know that ants have resilient intelligence?

Did you know that in a flood fire ants will float as a community bonded together and they can stay this way for months? An ant can only stay under water for about 24 hours. For this reason, the floating ant colony is constantly shifting and moving so that no ant stays under water too long. If the ants stay together and hold onto one another they can survive. It is in their community bond that they develop resilience in the face of adversity. 

As I pondered the floating ant colony, I realized we can learn a few lessons from our fellow creatures in how to build resilience in our lives. I love how they interlink their legs and they just keep moving. It is when we turn to one another that we develop strength to be resilient to move through adversity. As we take time to listen and lift someone up as they share their story, we become what helps them to keep moving forward. 

I love the fact that ants do not let any ant stay under water too long. This makes me want to look around me and see in my community who needs to be lifted up. Who might need me to go down so they can go up for fresh air? 

If we seek to work together and help each other to keep moving to make sure that no one stays under water then we can keep each other from drowning in adverse situations. I love that the focus is on "us" not "me". The colony's survival is dependent on the survival of each ant. Fewer ants means greater exposure and vulnerability to predators or not enough in the colony to keep everyone above water. For an ant, isolation is dangerous. This is true for us as well. When left alone we are also vulnerable and at greater risk to predators and the elements. We need our community to process and find strength.

How can you build teamwork within your family, community, or work environment? What can you do to ensure that no person is left behind or underwater too long? What needs to happen with communication to check up on each other? How do you provide a safe place so that people feel that they can say, "Help, I am drowning?" Are you willing to move underwater for a period so someone else might move up to the surface? Can you trust those around you to provide a way for you to move out of the underwater conditions in a safe time? How can you assure those around you that you are willing to help them if they are underwater too long? 

The ants resilient strength is born in their community and willingness to move together and make a safe place for all in the colony. They are able to survive for long periods of time because they work together. Without each other, they will not survive and will be picked off by predators. What do you need to do to develop resilient intelligence like an ant?

Do you have Resilient Intelligence (RI)?

I was recently asked to speak on resilience. I wondered how the person who asked me to speak had come to the conclusion that I was a resilient person. I found myself asking myself, “Do I have resilience?” By definition, a person with resilience has the ability to bounce back in difficult circumstances. As I reflected on various life circumstances, it occurred to me that God has allowed me to face some very unique circumstances that reveal that I have the ability to bounce back. I realized I am a resilient person. One moment that wrought great havoc in our lives occurred when Tropical Storm Francis dumped 25 inches of water on Houston in less than an hour. Greg and I were sound asleep when the phone rang. When I picked it up my sister-in-law was frantic, “Get up and prepare! A tornado is coming toward our neighborhood!” We lived in the same subdivision, but in different city grids. It was 5:30 am in the morning and I was almost six months pregnant with Grant. Fast movement was not on my list of things to do at 5:30 am. Greg jumped up to go see what he could see, and he came back running into the room before I had fully stood up and said, “Forget the tornado! We are flooding! We need to get out of here!” Greg immediately started telling me what to gather. It was all very fast. I packed up a bag for Mikayla, who was two at the time, while Greg packed up important documents we would need. He had the forethought to place some files in the attic. 

We had just bought and had delivered a few days before our first pieces of real wood furniture. They were in the garage because Greg was in the process of staining them. I do not know how, but the two of us lifted them onto sawhorses so they would not be standing in the water. One hour later when Greg went to open the door, it was already two feet high outside. We realized that we couldn’t open our door without flooding our home. He ran and flipped off the circuit breaker so that we wouldn’t risk getting electrocuted and we called our neighbors to get them up. We had two dogs and a cat. There was no way we could manage all of them, but we had two floaties and a little life preserver my mom had just bought for Mikayla that summer. So, Greg climbed through the window and held the floaties as I passed the dogs and Mikayla through. Somehow, I hefted myself up over the ledge and out the window. 

At this point, the water was now waste deep. Greg carried all of the bags while I carried Mikayla. We had the two dogs laying perfectly still on the floaties between us as we began our journey of wading out to safe ground. We had no idea how far we would have to go, but we hoped to make it to our family that lived in different sections of the subdivision. It was so surreal. Mikayla kept crying, “Swim! Mommy, swim!” We passed by neighbors that refused to leave. I started to cry when I saw Samantha in her diaper looking out the window at us crying. I wondered, “Will I ever see her again?” We kept walking. We discovered that fire ant mounds were floating toward us and we had to dodge them. It was the craziest thing. They were fully intact and flowing rapidly with the water. We were very alert to the debris, tree branches, and the possibility of snakes because we lived right off the bayou. Fortunately, for us as we approached my parents house about eight city blocks away the water was only up to their front porch. It had not reached the inside of the house. When it was all said and done our house filled up on the inside about two feet deep with sewer and mud. And yes, we had a few surprise moments with snakes. Anything the water touched was destroyed. Our cat was rescued by a speed boat and we found ourselves to be homeless and very uncertain about what tomorrow would entail. 

What held me together? What held us together? How were we able to bounce back? It was a devasting time. Our neighborhood looked like a war zone. All but three families on our street ended up divorced because the journey of returning to normal was more than they could push through. The ability to push through starts in our thoughts. It was our faith in God and the truth that God uses all things for our good when we are in Christ Jesus that gave me hope when it seemed so bleak. I immediately started praying and asking God what He wanted from us in this moment. I remembered the that the God of all comfort and compassion will pour into you so that you can pour that same comfort and compassion into others (2 Corinthians 1:3-11). So, I asked God to show us how to pour out His comfort and compassion to others. I also started praying and asking God to show me how to give Him glory through this and how to give Greg glory. These were the core spiritual truths that made me strong inside when I felt very weak. I held onto them and believed them to be true. Some might call this positivity, but I call it faith walking. I believe that my faith walking made me resilient. 

The other thing that made us resilient was our family. When we were wading out, we knew that if we could get to our family, we would be safe. We knew our family would take care of us and help us through this even if they were going through it too! Fortunately, we were the only ones in our family of four families that lived in that subdivision that flooded. Our family carried us. We knew if we could get to them, we would not sink. It was our family community that made us strong when we were weak. Our lives were filled with hard labor for many weeks and lots of rebuilding for nearly seven months. In that time our family housed us, fed us, helped us, did laundry, hauled garbage, packed up items that were salvageable and comforted us. And when little Grant was born everyone took turns caring for the baby. 

That first night as Greg and I lay in bed with our two-year-old snuggled up sleeping and our baby nestled deeply in my womb, I whispered to Greg, “Babe, we have all we need. I could not be more content than I am right now. We are together and we are safe. We are going to be okay.” I believe without a doubt that another reason I stayed resilient was because I made a conscious choice to think from Greg’s perspective and other peoples perspectives of what they must be going through and this caused me to want to serve others. I made a choice to find ways to help others. Greg found ways to help others, too. So, when our church started showing up to help us, we started sharing people to our neighbor’s homes so that they had help, too. This gave us a sense of purpose and healing. It helped build our hope because we were able to get outside of our own pain and consider another’s pain. This grew a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude in us for others and each other. We discovered the gift of gratitude. 

Resilience is something that we all want, but the reality is that resilience is not something you even know you have until you are pushed beyond your limits and discover you must find a way to bounce back and push through. I remember walking into church two days later to give a testimony for an event coming up called, Friend Day and thinking, “No one in the church knows that my life had changed. I am not who I was when I was asked to share this story, but I will not disappoint them. It doesn’t matter what I have just been through, I have a chance to encourage my church to become a people that seeks to build friendships with someone different than them.” I wanted my church body to see that I was still able to see the value in being a good friend to those around me even when I was hurting. I look back now and realize that if I could have put a word to it that day, resilience would have been a good word to describe what I hoped to model. 

Resilience is born in adversity. It receives its ability to bounce back through faith. It is empowered by community to push through and emboldened by serving others to keep moving forward. Resilience is forged in the battlefield of the mind. It does not allow itself to settle for being a victim or a whiner. It makes the choice to seek God, live in community, and serve others even when it hurts. Resilience when practiced births the gift of gratitude and thanksgiving. Resilience finds hope and pursues hope at all costs, and this is why it has bounce back strength. Adversity grows our resilient intelligence. Do you have RI? Are you willing to pray for it and ask God to grow you?

New and Old Treasure

I marked this verse some 20 years ago in my Bible and just read my prayer and right now I am overwhelmed by the old and new treasures God is pulling out of me. The Quest study Bible says that people who have been instructed about the kingdom of God are like home owners that have the gift of hospitality. They share all of their belongings both old and new to refresh others. May the wisdom of the past and presence bring forth refreshment that heals souls!  Amen

Where is your inheritance?

"Spare your people, LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" (Joel 2:17). 

I realize that this verse is a cry of the prophet Joel for God to move in behalf of the nation Israel during a terrible time when locusts destroyed the land. It is a desperate plea for a remember me, remember my people, and remember, we are Your inheritance. I was praying this thought when I began to praise God because He has chosen to call His children, His inheritance! What a beautiful reminder when our contemporary situation of COVID and political unrest seem distraught with destruction and implosion. Joel used the temporay pain to call the people to remembrance and repentance. 

"Rend your hearts, not your garments. Return to the LORD your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love" (Joel 2:13).

But, He also used it as a reminder to the LORD, we are Your inheritance! The nations are watching! Let them see You are at work among Your people! Now that is not just an Old Testament thought. It is also a New Testament promise. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ...(1 Peter 1:3-12).

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11-14).

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:32).

Do you see that as a believer of Jesus we also have an inheritance that is imperishable! Yes, we will face trials of many kinds, but we must remember where our hope resides. It is not in people, programs, health, politics, or even possessions. Our inheritance is eternal, imperishable and guaranteed. So this morning as I pray, I am praising God for the remembrance that I am His inheritance and He is mine. So, when I am asked "Where is your God?" I can say very securely, "He is with me. He has not left me. He walks with me on this journey through COVID and political unrest. I look to Him for my hope and deliverance." 

What about you?  Do you know where your hope rests?  Do you know you have an eternal inheritance? Do you know the blessing of being called God's inheritance? If not, read the verses again and pray they become true in you. Do you need to rend your heart, repent, and return to God? Do you know God is a compassionate and loving God? Do you know the hope found in Jesus? Can you say with confidence you have the Holy Spirit at work in you? 

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints... (Ephesians 1:18).

Why is it so important to listen to or read the Bible?

Why is it so important to listen or or read the Bible? I get asked this question enough that it is worthy of answering. Sometimes. It is asked in sarcasm, but other times in a plea for understanding.

This is a great question considering we all have so many things vying for our time and energy and the fact that we are living in a time of Biblic illiteracy. When I did my research for my doctorate Dr. George Hunter of Asbury Seminary said that America was nearly 80% Biblically illiterate. This is sad considering that the Bible helps us to grow in our relationship with God so we know how to be in relationship with man.

The Bible is a sacred text. It is holy and set apart because it tells the history of how God interacts with people. The Bible is God breathed and it teaches us and equips us (2 Timothy 3:6-7). The Bible judges our thoughts and the motives of our heart (Hebrews 4:2). The Bible endures forever (Isaiah 40:8). The Bible blesses us when we listen to it and obey it (Luke 11:28). The Bible is for all people because God loves the whole world (John 3:16). 

Have you ever listened to or read the Bible? Why or why not? Would you just listen and see what He might reveal to you? I know for myself that the Bible is what radically changed my life because through reading it and obeying it I got to know God and how much He loves me.

Remember, to be in God's Word, to be with Jesus, to be transformed! 

Click on this: Why is it important to listen to or read the whole Bible?

Resilience

I woke up this morning pondering the word resilience. It was the last thing I talked about before I went to sleep last night. I was sharing with Grant my outline for a speaking engagement coming up in February. The topic is resilience. When I woke up I had the this visual of a tree that was deeply rooted with strong character traits that helped it dig in deep into the earth so that when the winds blew it was steady. I was reminded of verses and character traits that have helped me in moments of resilience. The tree's leaves moved from green, to yellow, to red, to brown, to nothing on the branches. This showed that resilience that is built on faith and the character of God can withstand the seasons of fruit bearing and even barrenness because its roots are deep. What character trait or verse helped you stand resilient through the seasons you have walked through?  I would love to know!