STAY NEAR THE SHEPHERD

Lately, the hope that God is involved in every moment in the lives of us, His children, came into question.

Can I, a faulty child of the Father, expect Him to answer every prayer?

Yesterday I was riding my bike home…there were six miles between me and home.  The weather had reported “no rain” for the day.  It began to lightly sprinkle.  I prayed, “LORD, please don’t let it rain (or lightening) until I get home.” It sprinkled on and off.  It did not begin to rain (lightly) until I was three fourths of a mile from home.  I walked into the house damp, not soaked.  No lightening. Safe.

I asked the LORD the question, “How much do You desire to be involved, interactive with me?”

Then I read Psalm 23.  He is my shepherd: I shall not want (by implication to fail, lessen).  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in the paths of righteousness…I fear no evil for He is with me…comfort is present…a table is prepared…He anoints my head with oil…my cup runs over…goodness, mercy follow me all the days of my life…I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever…

Yes.  The LORD is interested in every day, every hour, and every part of my life.

Keep close.  Stay near the Shepherd.

JUST WALK AWAY . . .

This song touched me growing up. “How About Your Heart.”  My sister Connie, brother Arnold and I sang it as a trio:

How About Your Heart

Is it right with God

That’s the thing that counts today

Is it black with sin, is it pure within?

Won’t you ask Christ in today

People often see you, just as you are outside

Jesus really knows you, for He sees inside…

By Bennie S. Triplett

There is strong inclination to be part of the crowd: but think of tomorrow. Who is this crowd? Where are they going?



If people around you are angry, drunken, drugged, violent, immoral players, in your heart, walk away! There is a better life for you. You may even have to move away, leave them behind.  When my husband, Eric, left the Navy after four years, his friends back home were heavy alcohol drinkers…he moved to Florida. When I lived in Dallas in my twenties, I worked in a large government contract company, LTV, and didn’t know how to handle the social interaction … it was a good company; I was just not ready for the moral challenges of a naïve minister’s daughter. I moved back home.  Interestingly, I moved back to Florida at about the same time that Eric moved down from Massachusetts.  The rest is history.  Forty-six years ago, we married. What if my heart had not been in the place it was! What if my future husband had stayed in Boston near his drinking buddies!



If we don’t get it right inside, we might live a lifetime missing out on our best possible life. There is a good plan for you, and it is found in the Book written by your Creator, Jesus Christ.  The Bible.  Sure, strong opinions, especially during a highly charged political and moral environment will easily distract and engage us. But protect your heart!



The Heavenly Father is there waiting to give you direction…think through Psalm 51:10. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me . . . take not your Holy Spirit from me . . . restore to me the joy of your salvation.” Guard your heart.

THAT WE PERISH NOT

As God says in the book of Jonah:

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.’  So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.  Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’  So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,  ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God:  yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?’  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." (Jonah3)  

Will we escape? We’re denying our children The Ten Commandments, we’re not reading Scripture to them; we’re not giving them “food for their souls”.

Will we escape?  We’re killing newborns. We’re defying God’s laws “For two, said He, shall be one flesh” and “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife; they two shall be one flesh.”

Will we escape?  We glamorize violence. We don’t punish the guilty. We think it’s ok to sleep around, divorce at will, destroy the peace and safety and comfort of our children. They, in turn, turn to drugs and alcohol.  It is because we have selfishly neglected home and marriage and unselfish dedication to our God and families and nation.

Will we escape?
 
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) .

YOU CAN RESPECT HIM

Why, because he is!  He is a man in God’s image.   Every person is gifted because he is created in God’s image.  The genius is there; you can trust that it is created in him.

Listen carefully to your husband day after day.  Watch him with fresh vision and hope.  Look deeper than the surface you will discover his strengths, his gifts.  He will be profoundly encouraged if he suspects you are seeing him this way.  Your passion can rise again; you may see fascinating layers to his personality he may not even know are there.

You are the closest real person to encourage out your husband’s gifts.  You have a lot to gain by the investment you make in him - or lose by not making it.

If you have not always known that there is reason to believe in the man you married, with years of marriage behind you, disappointments and all, you will be challenged at first to see his gifts.  But no matter what he has or has not accomplished you can begin again to learn to believe.

Look for a spark, a focused interest in him.  As a wife, and being closest to him, you may be the first to recognize his uniqueness!  Uniqueness needs understanding and pride from you if you choose to take the opportunity presented to you.

For the minute forget the past, forget the attitude of those around and think just of you and your husband and God!  Once you “see” with spiritual eyes, you decide to encourage what you see in your husband, you may just make the difference in his future .  .  .  and in yours.  You may see the future of your world.

Serve him lavishly.   You will know how.

Who Am I?

WHO AM I?

Often we are tempted to wonder, "Who am I?" 

Ponder this question, because there is a good answer.  Remember that you are:

·          Female.  Males have difficulty understanding what makes a female "tick."  He finds it impossible to grasp your perspective, unless you tell him. Neither can you grasp what being male is like.  A beginning place is to understand that (females are created in the image of God: female) you always will be; men are created male!) "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen.1:27) The Creator Who made the differences does not need to explain Himself unless or until He pleases:  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa 55:9)

·          Created to glorify God.  If you do this one thing in life you will be successful ...  God says of mankind, "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." (Isa 43:7)

·          In His own image.  Male AND Female made He them (Gen 1:27).  Somehow when someone looks at you, they are seeing a facet of God.

·          Unique.  There is no one else like you -- like every snowflake, every blade of grass, every leaf on a tree you are the only one ever made just like you; "fearfully and wonderfully made." (Ps 139.14)

·          Gifted.  You have gifts...likely many!  You are awesome, from your DNA, every cell: ponder the person you are! Discovering what they are and developing them is an adventure. You can when God leads you. (Ps 68:18)

·          Influential.  No one else is positioned where you are.  You have influence. (Pro 11:16)

·          Inspirational.  Just as you have been fired up about a topic from what someone else has done or said, so you can be inspired from inside and do the same. 

·          One who makes a difference; your family, friends, your husband are different than they would have been were it not for you.  Your children are different because of you.  "Her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her." (Pro 32:27, 28)

·          A Lover; you are affectionate, you love physically, intellectually and emotionally; (Body, Soul and Spirit). (Tit 2:4; Pro 14:1)

·          An Empathizer.  You can feel what others feel. (Gal 6:2)

·          Intuitive.  Somehow you have understanding, a sense, discernment that is insightful to others in your world.  (Book of Ruth).

·          A Protector; you are the Keeper ("Guard" in Greek), like a she-bear; pity the one who messes with your man, your children.  Abigail in the 25th chapter of I Samuel saved her household from being destroyed. In her situation, what would you have done?

How you think about yourself is very, very important. There is an ideal to copy…She was wise, gifted, an entrepreneur and such a loving wife that her husband praised her. (Pro 31) We can do that!

THE reason for "BUILDING MY HOUSE"

It's a lifetime pursuit...This Blog Project comes from two places.

One: The Bible is right. I've tested and tried it all of my seventy-six years. I have grown from six or seven years old determining to obey God as I thought He deserved because I feared disobeying Him.  Later, I grew to obeying the Bible and thus, obeying God because I loved Him and believed Him. This growing love and faith led me to believe that God, and His expression of Himself in Scripture is the final authority for wisdom. My deep belief is that the Bible explains how to apply its message from Jehovah God to me for the best life I can live.

Two: Writing a book that did not take off, did not go where I'd hoped, taught me something about our culture: The title "Submission Is Not Silence" probably scared off readers.  To my mind, the word submission intimates getting along, being a team player, a self disciplined female that would be good in any relationship: with friends, marriage, the Church, or joining the local Club. Everybody submits if they will get along.  But I did not realize that for many women, girls, wives, mothers it meant being controlled by some powerful entity. I don't like to be controlled either.

This "Building My House" Blog is a new expression: giving my "two cents" and hoping to hear back from you about important issues. I love women and girls. I had such a time figuring out how to "go, do, be" I would find it fun and an adventure to hear back from you!

My life verse may be:  "Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands." (Proverbs 14:1)

Building my house?  I believe the LORD instructs you and me how to do this. Building my house is about my personality, my life, my marriage, my family. You, girl, are powerful, gifted, beautiful: you are created in the image of God..."male and female created He them."

I am not bragging: you should know that from the first day I was born (so my mother and father told me) the Bible was read out loud to me and to my siblings...every single day! Then my husband, Eric and I took the tradition and have done the same every day of our forty-five years of marriage.

The result for me is: I believe! It has worked as it "sank in" all my life; it still works in teaching me how to correct myself, be humble, how to love and be a giver. Working in your head and heart and soul, this is how to "build your house".  It is by being your best self.


If you would, I'd love to interact.

Lizzie