Author: Michele Minehart (Page 309 of 311)

I had my first “adult education” bible study class tonight. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, so I put a few ideas together. as usual, God shows that his plans are beyond our understanding, so it’ll be a good adventure over the next few weeks. the Bible is always a good adventure. but this is not the point of the blog… the point came when one woman (the coordinator of it all) said she had read up on my blog and enjoyed a post. i thought, “what blog… oh, yeah…. I haven’t touched that for a while!” so, now that people are checking, i have to come up with something brilliant. ah, pressure.
but no, actually this has been burning lately and i haven’t felt propelled to post because i thought it would just ring empty into cyber space. now i shall give it some air time.
We were at bible study last week (my usual ladies, not the special class) and Wendy brought up Jesus’ difficult teaching on the rich and heaven. She said, “how do we teach that rich people, straight up, won’t get into heaven?”
it is then, by the grace of God, that a realization came (and i know it was from God because I had never thought it before, nor understood it until it came out)… it’s not about who does or does not get into heaven. it’s about who will let the Kingdom of Heaven rule in their hearts. the rich are so filled up on their concerns about the riches of the world and whatnot that there’s no room for God to do their thing.
think about it… the beatitudes are all about the lacking- being poor, grief, giving up control and power. it’s when you have to let go of things or people that you can finally open your arms to what God has for you.
it made me really reflect- what fills my heart? what’s taking up space that God can’t get in? Oswald said this morning (can you tell what i’m reading again?) that it’s easy to find God in the hard times- it’s when things are easy that it’s tough. when life is good you have something to cling to. when life is hard you learn the difference between a rock and a sandy beach- some things are sturdy and some drift with a whim.

this thought is not as nearly put-together as i’d like it to be. but maybe it’ll come together after some further ponderings. until then, i’m going to go to sleep 🙂

I was up in the middle of the night, i’m pretty sure because God wanted to tell me something about this year’s thanksgiving. I was reflecting on thanksgiving and why this year it seems so much more real to me. this year i decided to celebrate thanksgiving instead of thankshaving. normally this holiday is one where we can list the several things that we’re grateful for. but mostly that’s just a list of how we’re better off than the next guy.
i’m hoping my holiday has changed from that.
it only takes God giving you something, and then taking it away before you were ready to give it up, to realize that’s not just about gratefulness. it’s about realizing where it came from. God is the giver of all “good and perfect gifts.” he can “give and take away.”
When you begin to see with these eyes, you see everything in your life as a gift. God gives- and not only that, but you have to realize that it was His before it was yours and it will be His again someday. in essence, everything we have is just out on loan. the person lying beside you in bed at night, the children that keep you awake, the next breath you take- its all on loan. God can ask for it back, but He gave it to us to love and enjoy for His glory while we have it.
when we see things as “mine” or “ours”, like it’s a right we have, it’s not really thankfulness, it’s just making a list of stuff. but when we see what God has given- that it’s a gift, not a right, not something deserved- then we can be truly thankful.
this all seemed a lot more clearer at 4AM.

Watched Evan Almighty last night. Not bad. Of course, sequels are never live up to the original. But for some reason, in the middle of the one of the worst nights of my life, it became clear.
God gives the ark. That’s how you know.
Noah’s ark. Jonah’s whale-belly. The disciples’ boat. They all were out, living in the midst of a storm, a storm that God can control (as seen in the disciples’ boat example), but that’s not how God chooses to show us his love. He doesn’t get rid of storms, he gives us a place of comfort in it. The ark still endured the storm. Jonah still got tossed around. The disciples still got wet. But they were in the presence of a loving God that gave refuge, a sense of peace in the midst of that which could not be controlled.
A common theme to early civilizations (we’re talking pre-pre-anything. The time that the Pentateuch was written) was the idea of “toe-voo va boe-hoo” (that’s transliterated Hebrew. sorry, no hebrew font on this app, and I’m not sure i could remember how to spell it). The uncontrollable waters. The place where, if you upset the gods who lived there, you were sure to die. A place of refuge was necessary for life to continue.
So, when Jesus calmed the storm, that was a pretty big deal. When God “hovered above the waters”, also a big deal. God is bigger than that and is in control of all that.
So why doesn’t he just make nice waters all the time? Why the storms?
Because then we’d never enter the ark. We’d never need the presence of Jesus. We’d never reconsider that maybe we’re headed in the wrong direction (in the case of Jonah). We’d never see how good God truly is because we’d never recognize our need for him in the storms.
God doesn’t choose to give us bad things, storms. And they’re not outside of his control.
My favorite line from the movie last night was Morgan Freeman’s jaunt on opportunity. He said, “When someone prays for patience, does God just make you patient or does he give the opportunity to become a more patient person? Or when someone prays for the family to become closer, does He give you warm, happy feelings or the opportunity to do something together?”
When we cry out to God in the midst of a storm, does God take away the storm or give you the opportunity to find refuge in Him?

(I also have thoughts on the “knowledge of good and evil” and the curse. But that shall come later. )