The Search for Significance

It has been quite overwhelming to me that out of the fifty or so women I see each week in the Made to Crave classes, the search for significance in some form or another is the number two reason why women are in this study. The need for praise, the tendency to control, to get angry or fearful, or the desire to be and look good are all indicators that we are looking for something we think we lack. If we look closely, we will see that the focus at these times is either ourselves or our reactions to someone or something else.

I was reminded sharply of my own need this past weekend. I have been sharing this story with my classes over the past week:

Last weekend my husband and I had some company over, and the young man and my husband knew quite a few people in common. Because of this, their conversation was rapid and quite exclusive.  A few times I interjected to add some pearl of wisdom. On at least four separate occasions my husband interrupted or corrected me. It stung. It hurt. Mostly it stung and hurt because we had talked about this very thing before…

My husband happens to be a very tall man, 6’3” to be exact. I only measure in at 5’1”. Most of the time when we are standing in a circle of friends talking, he can make just a minor pivot of 30 degrees or so and unintentionally cut me out of conversation. I have a great view of his elbow, and not much else. He can also be an intense conversationalist at times, which makes me rather rude if I stand there tapping on his elbow. It looks suspiciously like I just need to gain his attention, or that I’m ready to go home. Sometimes this makes me quite ready to go home.

The Lord and I have talked about this. What bothers me about being interrupted, cut off, or cut out? Obviously, I feel insignificant when that happens. Invisible. Even though I am aware that God knows even the number of hairs on my head…I feel invisible. When I feel invisible, it can become very easy to engage in actions that I feel no one would notice anyway… a sweet treat, a game (or ten) of Yahtzee on my Kindle when I should be studying, sitting too long in front of the television. . .who really cares about these things except me?

God does. He cares about my motives and what drives me to choose something that will comfort me or allow me to escape my current situation that doesn’t involve Him. I am thankful for that, and for a God who loves me far beyond what any earthly being could. I pray that I will learn to depend upon Him more and more as each day passes.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! [1 John 3:1]

Video: The Invisible Woman

Blessings

What do we do with our desires for things other than God when we feel God is not there for us? Is it our deepest hurts, our flesh, or is it the enemy who lies and tells us that God doesn’t love us or want what is best for us?

This world is so broken. I have many friends who have been through hell on earth and back again. Was God absent? Was He asleep? Didn’t He care?

Only God Himself can heal hearts. Only He can combat the lies that consume us. Satan is so treacherous, and he keeps us from being all that we were made to be. He diverts our attention to anything that will keep us from the Truth.

Once again, music rolls through my head, and the words to this song express the realities of these questions the best—although not better than His Holy Word. It’s just that sometimes we need a word from someone who has been through trials themselves to speak to us. Laura Story does that through her song “Blessings.” 

Laura’s husband has been through a lot. Here is an excerpt from an article on her from www.thefish959.com:

Shortly after inking the deal with INO Records in 2006, a trial entered Story’s life that would not only provide her with a deeper understanding of God’s sovereignty. After one year of marriage, Story’s husband was hospitalized with a brain tumor.

“There was a time he was on a breathing machine and we weren’t sure he was going to make it. I spent my whole life singing, ‘’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,’ but until Jesus took me through something where my only option was to trust Him, I didn’t really know that sweetness,” reflects Story. While supporting her husband through surgery, radiation, complications, and intense physical therapy, Story composed new rubber-meets-the-road songs to reaffirm God’s presence in her darkest hours.
“It’s hard to understand why God would allow us to go through this, but I know He works all things together for good, and I feel my new album is reflecting that. Though He leads us through valleys, that’s when we get to trust Him and draw closer to Him all the more. Though I’ve doubted, His grasp has never released, never slipped. He’s remained completely faithful to me. He has proven that He really is my foundation and my hope.” 

Bless the Lord oh my soul, all that’s in me bless your name,

Forget not your power untold, not your glory or your fame

For you came to heal the broken, to redeem and make me whole, 

Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul… 

Listen to this song here:

Laura Story, Blessings

If you have ever felt this defeat, and would like to encourage others, please leave a comment to this post. 

I love you all.

Made to Crave

Over fifty women have attended a Made to Crave class in the last week, most seeking guidance on their issues with food or something else they crave instead of God. How exciting it is to know that God is moving women to gain spiritual weight!

Our bodies and our spirits were made for God! We were created for His pleasure! What an awesome thought! Along with that thought, though, comes the realistic fact that we were not created for our own pleasure. Not that God doesn’t want us to have pleasure in our lives—He certainly does! He made every good thing that we enjoy: food, our families and friends, our work, our homes…all these He has given us for our enjoyment. It is in our flesh that we over-indulge in all these pleasures and put them above the place they were meant to have in our hearts.

We must give each and every day to the Lord. We need to get off our thrones and hand them over to the King of Kings, letting Him rule us during our day. We must stop depending on ourselves to conquer the lies and tactics of the enemy, and depend on the One who already accomplished the conquering.

“Keep your focus on Me. I have gifted you with amazing freedom, including the ability to choose the focal point of your mind. Only the crown of My creation has such remarkable capability; this is a sign of being made in My image.

Let the goal of this day be to bring every thought captive to Me. Whenever your mind wanders, lasso those thoughts and bring them into My Presence. In My radiant Light, anxious thoughts are unmasked as you bask in My unconditional Love. Confused ideas are untangled while you rest in the simplicity of My Peace. I will guard you and keep you in constant Peace, as you focus your mind on Me."*

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. [Psalm 8:5]*

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. [2 Corinthians 10:5]*



*Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (January 29), ©2004

Sarah Groves, The Word (Conversations, 2001)

Catching Up

It has been so long since I posted to my blog. I have been all-consumed with my daughter’s wedding, and I must say, I had no idea how deflated I would feel when it was all over.

So many people have asked me about the wedding, so I thought in the tradition of journaling or blogging I should get some thoughts down before they slip away forever. After all…it has been over a month since the big event!

So much adrenaline and so much planning goes into such an occasion. At least it did for me. The ultimate desire is that when it is time for the wedding everything will go smoothly and there will be no more frantic rushing to finish something left undone. I was so thankful for all the help I had to make sure that this was the case.

Jeremy, the groom, being a music major and seminary graduate in worship studies, concentrated solely on making the ceremony concentrated on Christ. There were many comments to me about the beauty of the ceremony, Kevin Hass’s wonderful message from Ephesians 5, and the musicians. It was truly a worship experience, as many have commented. One good friend even told me it inspired her to have her vows renewed, as she was not married in the church, and has since come to the Lord.

Near the end of the reception, one of Jeremy’s older relatives came to me to thank me for making her feel at home. She told me she was Jewish, but that she loved the ceremony, and that Amazing Grace was one of the most beautiful songs ever written, no matter what religion you were. She put extra icing on the wedding cake for me that day.

The help my dear friends and family gave me to get everything set up and taken down meant so much to me. It is so hard for me to ask for help to do anything, and these dear people helped us with such joy. I could never thank them enough.

I realize that I have suspended my study on Covenants. Yes, I am on to something new. I will be doing quite a bit of teaching in the coming months. In February, I went to a conference to hear Lysa TerKeurst, President of Proverbs 31 Ministries, speak in Williamsburg. She had just published a book: Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desires With God, Not Food. This book has actually taken me further on a continued journey of a desire to be a better steward of my body and soul. In June, I will begin teaching at my church during the Sunday Bible Study hour, using this book and DVD series as a tool, sharing my own experiences with addictions, and what I have learned and am learning about victory over the lies of the enemy. In addition, I will be teaching at the church where I work this summer for their ladies summer Bible studies, beginning June 28 and ending the first week in August.

From this time until then, my Fill-r-Up blog will be devoted to discussions regarding this subject. I am very excited about sharing my life with people who are interested, the good and bad of it, and how God is working in me. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)

Creation of the Image Bearer...Continued

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. [Genesis 2:7]

God’s breath. The breath of life. His breath straight into Adam’s nostrils—divine CPR. Imagine waking up and being fully cognizant of your Creator, in a perfect environment, no need for fear or confusion like a newborn. Nor were there any of the other emotions we experience upon wakening, such as the impending pressures or boredom of the day ahead.

Although God had created the whole earth at this time, He set aside a beautiful garden, created along the lines of Heaven itself, where He would commune with His new creation, mankind.

As He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” He says “let them have dominion over” all the animals. He then put man in this beautiful garden to work it and to care for it.

God values rule and government—order. The Bible begins with his creating order out of void or chaos. Even his placing of the lights in the heavens indicate order and rule: “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.” (1:16-18)

A lot of the commentary regarding the mandate God gave Adam in having dominion over the earth is called cultural. I also want to call it a holy mandate. This was indeed a great responsibility given to the first man and woman, the responsibility to multiply from them a race that they would teach God’s ways about caring for, subduing, and keeping the earth. I heard a term that I loved, and searched high and low for the origin of it. I finally found that C. F. D. Moule in his book Man and Nature in the NT*, uses the term vice-regent. Mankind was to represent God in their rule over the earth, subject to the rules God gave them to abide by.

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Lord,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
   to still the enemy and the avenger.

 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
   and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
   and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
   you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen,
   and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
   whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 O LORD, our Lord,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The question arises: If we are made in God’s image, and the original mandate is to be his vice-regents over the earth, to care for it, keep it, subdue it…as Christ’s followers, how are we doing with that?

Kibera slum, Kenya

Next, we will explore God’s first command given to Adam,

"You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (2:16)

Did Adam understand the ramifications of death? Did he understand fully what the wages of disobedience to the Creator would be? Did he understand enough to explain it to his helpmeet? Did God explain it to Eve as well? Did he need to since he had explained it to Adam?

Ponder these questions as we will discuss communion in the garden prior to the fall, ramifications of the fall, and the first covenant made with man.

---

*Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967

Covenants, an Aside…

As I am writing the continuation of the Creation of the Image Bearer, I realized that I was coming to some fascinating aspects that might need to be explained in depth. I found an interesting website that started with the Noahic Covenant, but the questions asked about the covenants were good ones.1 As we reach each aspect of God’s covenant with His creation and His ultimate creation, man, we need to be asking ourselves some questions regarding covenant(s). How do the characteristics of covenant apply to each situation?

So…here are the things we will look for:

• Who is the initiator?
• Who are the parties involved?
• What is the reason for the covenant?
• Is there a sacrifice?
• Are offspring affected?
• Is there a promise or oath?
• Is there a sign or witness?
• What is the length of the covenant?
• Is there a meal, an altar, or a name change?

We are getting ready to talk about God’s first command to Adam. There are some really significant aspects here that were not covered in the website, that directly relate to the coming of Christ.

Let’s explore together!

1http://preceptaustin.org/covenant_in_the_bible.htm

Creation of the Image Bearer

It is so good to be back with you in the study of covenants. I have missed writing over the last few months because of family obligations and holidays. I have so many notes that they have grown cold, and I am having to go back over them and my Scriptures and texts to see what in the world was on my mind! What a joy it is to get busy again!

We left off in the middle of the sixth day discussing God’s creation of animals. He is about to create something different, something in His own image. If you will notice in Genesis 1-2, it says of the creation of the animals that they were created “out of the ground.” Yet the wording is a little different when man is created.

One of my favorite things to do (if you have read my blog very much) is to take Scriptures and blend them together. I have taken the Scriptures from Genesis 1 and 2 and compiled them in a sort of chronological reading of the creation of man. There are some specific things I want you to ponder on in this particular lesson:

• Compare the wording in Genesis 2:19 and Genesis 2:7 in different translations (use biblestudytools.com or biblegateway.com) and consider the difference in the way God “formed” the animals and the way he formed man.
• Notice the hierarchy of the order the earth was created, and what was provided for the living creatures for food.
• Think about and study “dominion.” We will talk about this more…

Genesis 2:5-6

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—

Genesis 1:26-27a 

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
 So God created man in his own image,
   in the image of God he created him;

Genesis 2:7-25

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."  Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

   "This at last is bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
   because she was taken out of Man."

  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 1:27b-31

. . .male and female he created them.

 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.