Getting Bumped Into (I am sure that I am not a bumper!)

God made people.  He started with one man, this was "not good."  He made Eve.  They got together and low and behold they had children.  These children had some children. Then (grab your seat for this one) these people that where born from people, they had some people of their own.  I am hoping that I have utterly shocked you.  And I must continue on in the same shocking way to let you know that this has been going on since that the day way back in the garden  when God made Adam.  The thing about all of this is, we are people and we are around a bunch of other people.  This gets pretty messy.  People bump into one another.  We get bumped into and we do a fair share of bumping ourselves.  Jason is doing a sermon series on Colossians and wow is it good!!  I know that it is good because I have been blessed to sit in one place three Sundays in a row.  Anyone else know the glory of this?  Praise be for snacks that keep my Malachi happy and quiet during the sermon.  Anyway, this series in Collosians has been so good.  And one of the main points today was about this little problem of running into one another.  It is a problem don't ya know.  I have been bumped into and let me tell you, it is not a picnic.  I mean can you believe the nerve of some people!!  Back to the sermon: church is full of people and people run into one another.  Paul exhorts the saints in Colosse to bear with one another in love and thanksgiving.  There are many things to be said about bearing with one another but the gist is,  it is not pleasant or easy.  We are to strive for unity.  We are to suffer long with one another and we do this all in thanksgiving because of the gift we have received in Christ. And it is good to remember that the person that bumped into you is a saint.  Yes I did say that they are a saint.  Treat them this way when they forget it.  Treat them this way because when we are ugly (yes, we are bumping into others all of the time as well) God treats us this way.  In fact, we are numbered with the ones that yelled, "crucify Him." Remember that we love Him because He first loved us.  Remember that you where at enmity with God.  God came when we where a bunch of dead bones and breathed His living breath    into us.  We are to treat the brethren with humility knowing the gift that we have received.  When we are bumped into, be kind and suffer long, cover it with love, for your brother or sister.  If you have been doing some bumping, go and seek forgiveness.  Christ has died that we may have peace with Him and having peace with Him means that we strive to the utmost to have peace with one another.  And remember that you bump into your husband and children the most.  Learn this in your home.  Model for your children.  Have peace in the home and joy in the fellowship that God has given you in His Son.

In This Manner Walk

There was a man.  He would become the father of many nations.  But we meet him unmarried.  He finds a wife; she will stumble kings with her beauty.  He moves away from his family, away from his homeland to a land he does not know.  He takes his nephew with him.  He is faithful to his own.  He will send a servant back to his family in the future.   I do not imagine that leaving was easy.  But God told him to go and where to go and Abram obeyed.  He was promised great things would come from him, that the earth would be blessed by him.  Walking with God is not for the faint of heart but Abram is no ordinary man.  God brought him out under the stars and told him that his decendents would be as the night sky, innumerable.  Abram believes God and it is credited to him as righteousness.  This is a great story!!  It has so many elements of an epic.  It continues in the same fashion.  Abram becomes a mighty prince with great wealth.  Kings make treaties with him.  Kings pay him tribute.  He has an army that is competent to fight against mighty kingdoms.  He is loyal to his family and rescues Lot in a great battle.  He talks with God and even gives advice to the Almighty.  But in all of this, Abram has no heir, no son.  He is old now.  His wife is way beyond the childbearing age.  But again he is promised a lineage.  Abram gets a new name.  Sarai gets a new name.  And they are promised that a year from this appointed time, Sarah will give birth to a son.  His name is to be Isaac.  Abraham is the father of nations.

We are told in Deutoronomy to teach our children about God.  We are told we are to teach them when they wake up, when we are out and about with them in the day, and we are to talk of God when they go to bed.  They are to know this story of Abraham.  They are to know it so that they will walk with God like their father Abraham did.  Abraham is the father of the faithful and we are the faithful.  His story is to guide us, to encourage us, to remind us that we are apart of a greater story.  Do you not see the irony in the above story.  God promised Abraham that a great nation would come from him.  But Abraham has no children.  Generally nations are made of people.  But Abraham believed God.  He believed him again when God tested him and told him to sacrifice his only son.  Abraham got up early and went to the top of a hill and made an altar.  When his only son asked where the sacrafice is, Abraham tells him that God will provide one.  Little did Isaac know that the altar was made for him until his father grabbed him and bound him and put him on it!  But God spoke to Abraham and told him that he had passed the test.  A goat was provided and Isaac was spared.


This story is to be remembered when we walk through times of unrest.  Maybe it is our health that is at war with our flesh.  Maybe it is money troubles.  Maybe it is job transition.  Maybe we have moved or someone we love has moved away from us.  Or, we have lost someone dear.  Abraham walked in faith.  Where is eyes could not see, faith did.  He is our template.  And he is our template because Jesus was his.  Jesus is the ultimate Abraham.  He obeyed His father perfectly.  When things look hopeless, remember Abraham.  When you cannot see how the promises of God will be fulfilled in your life, remember the greater story.  Ask for faith.  Ask for more faith.  And keep on asking!  We are to walk by faith, always.  Why do you wonder at your trail?  Are you not promised trials?  I remember Jesus telling the disciples that trials are apart of following him.  But then we stumble when this promise comes our way.  Jesus says, follow me.  Jesus says that following him comes with trials.  We say, yes we will follow you.  We receive trials.  We wonder what in the world is going on.  Why are things so hard?  Why does it seem that I am having so many hardships?  Wow, it boggles me that the word is so little in us.  Know the word, love the word, go to it and remember the stories.  Remember Abraham, he will point you to Christ.  Remember Joseph as a slave, he will point you to Christ.  Remember Moses cast out of Egypt, he will point you to Christ.  Remember the wanderings in the wilderness, they will point you to Christ.  And the list goes on and on.  Get the right stories in your head.  Teach them to your children.  Bind them in your heart.  Be so full of them that the are the lenses that you see everything through.  And take heart when troubles come your way, for they are promised.  And remember what comes after them and from them..... resurrection life.  Death and resurrection.  Death and resurrection.  Death and resurrection.  This is your pattern.  This is your guide in hard times.  Walk worthy for you are headed somewhere.  You are daughters of the Most High and heirs accordingly.  We are the seed of Abraham, we are the chosen people of God.  We walk in our unrest with certainty of our heavenly citizenship.  This should strengthen us and embolden us.

Bible Study #1

I want to start a little Bible study here.  I am currently in a Bible study at my church and it leaves with me with much to chew on.  I want to start a little blog bible study to help me flesh out some of the ideas that I am meditating on.

Lets start with the book of Isaiah.  This book can read like a tragedy if you just pick it up with out context.  But this book is apart of a greater story.  This book is one full of promises: promises of judgement, promises of restoration.  This book holds so many prophecies about Jesus's coming.  About the savior coming to save His people.  There is so much to unpack here.  I want to point out one comparison that is going on.  Jesus will save his people and he will do it in a way that no king of Israel could do.  Israel wanted a king just like the other nations.  God said it was a bad idea because it was idoltry.  He was their Lord and they needed no other.  But they insisted.  So God gave them what they wanted, gave them over to their desires (as Romans 1 says).  They nation put their trust in this king.  And they started to act like the nations around them.  This was a bad thing.  You will always imitate who you worship.  And if that someone is a Mannesah, then you are in serious trouble.  Israel had found a savior.  And they where very happy to mimic the other nations.  The nations around them had gods. But these gods where wrapped up in their monarch.  Now Israel is just like these pagan nations. The thing that the book of Isaiah makes very clear, the thing that God had been saying all along to them is, you still need a savior.  I gave you a king and it did not work.  I am your God.  You are my people.  And it is clear that God is telling them that the kings are not the way.  The kings are not the deliver.  For these kings ended in exile.  These kings failed and pointed to the one, the only one, that could save Israel and deliver her.  Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.  He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.  Uzziah, Jotham, Manessah, and Hezekiah where the kings of Judah during Isaiah's ministry.  Uzziah was a great warrior and made Judah strong, yet he needed Jesus and failed the people as a true deliver.  Jotham continued to be a mighty man like his father but did not take down the high places, he was not the true King but he needed  the true King to save him.  Manessah was a rascal that led Israel into unthinkable sin, in a crisis (being captured by the enemy) he humbled himself and called on the Lord to deliver him, and God did deliver him!  Hezekiah was a man of faith and walked before the Lord in strength.  Yet he sinned in a way that led Judah into captivity, but he called on the One that doesn't mess up, that always saves and God came and extended his life and postponed judgement on Judah.  What do make of this?  Kings need the King.  Mighty ones need the Mighty one to deliver them.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the kings.  God did give Israel a King.  They wanted a king, and God gave them Jesus.  It is almost as if the theme of the garden is back in this story.  You see that tree, don't eat it of it.....yet.  You see those other nations with their kings, that is not for you......yet.  God wants us to see that He is our all in all.  God is the one who gives victory in battle.  When we forget this, we act like Hezekiah in his pride and show off how awesome we are.  We can see the irony in Hezekiah's story.  Hezekiah has a great battle with Sennacherib of Assyria.  God utterly defeats the mighty men of Assyria using His angel to cut them down.  Other nations hear the stories from this great battle and want to come and meet the famous Hezekiah who's God is mightier then the mighty Assyrians.  Hezekiah is pleased that Babylon has come to see him in his splendor.  He shows them all of the things he has acquired failing to give the glory to God.  Babylon is greatly impressed with Judah and its treasures.  And it is this nation, the nation that comes to admire and praise Judah  that later comes to take her into exile, no doubt knowing where Judah keeps her most precious treasures.  This story is a good reminder to us to give glory to God in all things.  When we have a good day at work, we thank God for it.  When we achieve academic success, we thank God for it.  If our children are obedient and pleasant, we thank God for it.  If our marriage is the stuff that dreams are made of, we thank God for it.  The kings continually point to Christ.  They point to him because in their victory, there is God delivering victory to   them.  They point to Christ because in their failings, there is God lifting them back and restoring them to fellowship with Him.  And we are to take these lessons and remember them in our victories.  We  are to remember them in our failings.  God be praised when life is good.  Sing to Him in these times, praise him, thank him, bless others.  God be praised when we fail.  Repent and thank him.  Manessah was restored after  sacrificing his sons to his gods.  But when he humbled himself before the Lord, God lifted him up.  When we fail and fall before God, He lifts us up.  This is  a little side note but one worthy of study.  When we lift ourselves up, God brings us down.  Manessah lifted himself up.  He wanted to be worshiped.  God took him and thew him into exile.  Manesseh then gets on his knees and repents and begs God to forgive him and show him mercy.  God bends down and picks manessah up and restores him to the thrown.  The way up is down, the way down is up.  I think Doug Wilson said it that way.  And the story of the kings in the book of Isaiah constantly testify to this.  As soon as these kings get puffed up, God brings them down.  As soon as these kings repent and humble themselves, God lifts them up.  

We need to copy the good that we find in these 4 kings.  We need to know that we will have blessing and victory if we follow God.  We need to know that when we forget God, he gives us over to our sin so that we can call out for him and enjoy restoration.  In all of this we see that God is at the center, even when we forget him.  He does not forget like we do.  He does not forsake, as we do.  He wants us to want Him.  He wants us to glorify Him.  He wants us to relay on Him and acknowledge Him in all things.

The King that we live under has no spot nor blemish.  He is the King that we are to mimic.  He is the King that is our King.  We are his people and we are to walk worthy of such an awesome King!!

Blessings to you on your journey!

Gaunt and Loving It

There is a table spread.  Great care has gone into the making of this feast.  There is a Lovely Lady handing out invitions, calling to all who are hungry, calling to all who are simple, to come and dine with her.  This table  is not just symbolic.  This table is God's table.  This is a table of joy and fellowship with the Maker of all things.  He wants to feed your hungry soul; He wants to make it fat.  This table is a way of life.  Who you eat with is important.  I think it is safe to say that it is what makes you who you are.  Food goes inside of you and bestow something to you.  It makes the hungry full.  It makes the thirsty satisfied.  It nourishes and strengthens you for the days work.  And at God's table, you eat heavenly food.  This food is for the soul.  This is food prepared by Him and it also goes inside of you and changes you.  It makes you more like Jesus. It gives you the strength you need to fight the great fight.  It gives you wisdom for the tasks at hand.  It gives peace where there is no peace.  It is heavenly food.  It makes the soul fat.

I cannot help but notice that skinny is so in.  Images of sunken cheeks overwhelm the covers of most magazines.  These women are wasting away.  We put them in pretty clothes, air blush them and then we are told that this is beautiful.  The problem is, too many of us listen to this message.  We need to take care what table we long for.  God's table of fat souls or skinny appetites that long for too little.  Too little on their bodies, too little in their souls.  We need to start listening to the Lovely Lady, to Lady Wisdom.  Two very different women inviting you to very different feasts.  One feast leads you to Christ, one to worldliness.  This is only extremely sad when christian women are tripped up by Lady Gaunt.  Lady Wisdom promises fullness and joy in God.  Lady Gaunt promises that your worldly desire to be envied will be satisfied.  One is full and one is empty.  Oh that God would send His Spirit and fill us with the desire to thirst after Him.  We need to be fed,  we need to sit at a table.  What table are we found at?  Are we at His table but looking at the feast of carrots and cucumbers and envying it?  May we be found at His table, eating His food with thanksgiving and laughter at the joy we have.  Here is to the full life, to the fat soul.

Blessings,
Erin

The World On Fire

Pentecost is not just another religious holiday.  It is the new beginning.  It was the beginning of the new heavens and new earth.  The remaking of the Church and the world.  The remaking of the heavens.  Fire that resurrected a people and land that where barren and dry.  Fire that gave new life to Jews and ushered in the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God.  Fire that did not consume but gave life (remind you of another story?).  Pentecost is a an end to one story and the beginning of another.  It is the beginning, climax and end.  But it all points to Jesus.  All glory to Him who sits on the right of God.  And His first big act as King is to send a messenger that had been promised.  To send the Holy Spirit to dwell with the church in way that had only been hinted at in the Temple.  It was the fulfillment of the burning alter.  The candlesticks come alive and ready to do some real damage here on earth:  to come and set the prisoners free, to come and declare the good news to all people not just a select group.  And as we look back and remember what God has done, we work hard at spreading the good news of a world made new.  We do this by loving the ones that God has put in front of us.  And when those people are loved, we move out and keep moving out with the good new until all peoples know what we know: that Jesus is Lord and that we have peace with God through His Son!

Blessings,
Erin

Worship Changes You

"All cultures have a cultus at the center. The center of every culture is its worship. There is no such thing as a religion-less culture, and the same is true of all sub-cultures" (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 12). I found this quote over on Doug Wilson's blog.  I have meditating on things pertaining to this quote over the last couple of weeks. Jason has been preaching on Colossians and one of the points he made last week was the way God changes the world.  God changes the world and the people in the world using a means that looks like  foolishness.  The world cannot wrap their minds around it.  But that is not the problem and should not be a shock to us.  But we God's people seem to have forgotten as well.  God spoke the world into existence and it is His word that came and dwelt among us and took on flesh to die upon a tree for our sins.  And it is by the preaching of the Word and about the Word that God recreates us and the world, every Lord's day.  He meets us where we, takes us to the heavenly places and changes us using the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Lord's supper.  And this is related to the above quote because worship is at the center of what we do.  And worship is at the core of who we are.  That is why idolatry is such a problem  If you are worshiping the wrong thing, it will rot you to your core.  And this is why christians need to understand the centrality of worship.  God uses Sunday to change us.  it was designed this way before the fall.  We do not just need it because of sin.  We need it because we where meant all along to grow and change more and more into His likeness.  And Gods mean has always been the same.  His word is not just a book full of proverbial sayings that  warn and admonish, although they do that as well, His word when preached on Sundays is powerful and life changing.  It really does change us at our cores.  God is recreating us through his word preached.  He is recreating the heavens and the earth every Lord's day.  His supper really nourishes and changes our souls.  We need to love this truth.  To stand in awe of the way that God has, is and will change this world and the people in it, until the waters cover the sea.  This wasteland is not a wasteland.  This worldly pit is not a pit at all.  God is transforming us and the world every Lords day and we honor God most when we say  "Amen' to what he has declared rather then trying to figure out what could make worship more effective.  That is pride and arrogance on our part.  Go to church, open yours ears and your heart to Gods word, sing loudly, "amen" loudly, and love that you are being made more and more into his likeness every time you hear the word preached.  And thank God that you have a pastor who preaches the word of God without fear!!!!!

Coming Up On Sixty

I remember when my dad had his first big heart attack. He was 37. Crazy to think about because I am 32. He was working like crazy to support his big family and coming home after his ten hour shift to remodel the kitchen. He really is the kind of man that I look at and think, wow, he is good at everything. He would often come home from work and get on the ground and wrestle with all of us. He fixed everything and fixed it the right way. He was the best driver (something important to us Johnstons). He was my basketball couch and biggest cheerleader at softball games. I think he was convinced that I could of gone pro. He also took us to church every Sunday and made sure that we all had our first communions and reconciliations. We put money in the offering at church even though we did not have much. He was a hero and to a little girl he was invincible. So 37 is a bit young to die. Too young to die. Too young to leave behind 5 girls and 1 boy with their mamma to take care of him. Not many die and live to come back and talk about it. But my dad is not a normal guy. He is the seventh son of a seventh son and their is magic in this. So he did the magical thing and died and came back to life! And thanks to God that he did! My dad is now approaching he 60th year and we are planning a huge party for him. I do think that we are all a bit surprised that he is still here. But more then being surprised, we are grateful!! He is a man of many talents. He is a man tested by hard Providences and remained loyal and faithful. Not many men get to care for a wife as sick as my mom was and I must say that he did it with grace and integrity. I remember when my mom was super sick at the end of her life and she was really getting into knitting. At this point in her sickness she was home-bound. My dad went out and bought her a truckload of yarn and needles. When she got super into card making, he made sure that she had ample ink and paper to satisfy her Hallmark adventures. He loved and adored her. He was loyal and kind. He never, never said a selfish word to her or acted in a way to make her feel like a burden. It was the kind of love that inspires! It is the kind of love not easily forgotten. It is the kind of love that invented its own language! The kind of love that had him crawling into her hospital bed again and again. It was the kind of love that stayed strong for us kids when our mother passed on leaving him behind and broken. It was the kind of love that gave us an example to follow. And this man has been an example to us all on how to be a son, constantly taking care of his mom by bringing groceries, visiting often and always speaking of grandma with awe. By being an example as husband and caring for my mom with a loyal admiration that was breathtaking. By being an example as a father in providing for a large family and working off our tuition so that we could go to private schools. By being an example of grandpa and continuing to help us all out with our individual families. By being a good man. Hears to my dad and many, many more years with us!