The Transforming Word of God

I've been thinking a lot about changes lately, perhaps because of all the historical novels I've been reading. Some changes are easily accepted by the vast majority of us—like indoor plumbing and refrigeration. Some are more difficult to assimilate into our daily lives. It doesn't seem like that many years ago that I advised someone struggling with finances to give up the cell phone because it wasn't a necessity. Funny how it no longer appears to be the luxury it once was. Speaking of cell phones... Technology has brought rapid change to our lives. Just sitting here at a computer, typing away on a blog, is something I would never have dreamed of thirty years ago. Even the idea of a personal computer was unheard of when Bob and I were married almost 45 years ago. And smart phones? Other changes have come slowly, gradually. Like clothing. My grandmothers wore house dresses, although my Grandma Wallace did buy one pair of jeans for gardening. I remember how surprising ...

"Good behavior owes itself to lack of opportunity". I love this quote passed on to me from one of the ladies in my Community Bible Study core group. How true it is! If I don't have the opportunity to misbehave, I won't misbehave. Like dieting. If I don't have chocolate in my home, I won't eat it because I can't eat it. If I think about those things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable (Philippians 4:8), I will not be thinking about things that lead me into temptation, that lead me to opportunities to misbehave. The first two verses of Psalm 1 say it another way: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. No opportunities to misbehave when delighting in the law of the Lord, when meditating on it day and night. Admittedly, we do not want to believ...

    What do you think of when you think of good works? My first thought is of Mother Theresa. Or a medical missionary to the jungles of Africa or South America. Or maybe someone who courageously works with the homeless. Something tangible. Something with results that show. Something big and difficult.     So when I looked more closely at Ephesians 2:10, I was intimidated. Such a familiar verse, but it never had me questioning myself before. The verse reads like this: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”     Walk in them? That would mean that good works are just a way of life for me.  Matthew Henry wrote that to walk in good works is to “glorify God by an exemplary conversation and by our perseverance in holiness.”     And apparently the Apostle Paul thought good works were extremely important, judging by the frequency of his call t...

Why do I always feel as though my life isn't my own? Someone always needs something from me. Friends and family need a listening ear. Housework beckons and is never done. I need to stop what I'm enjoying to fix a timely meal. You know how it goes. And it is nice to be needed. Just as any mother knows, hearing "Mommy" this and "Mommy" that often wears on her nerves, yet she wouldn't have it any other way. And it's nice to know that someone values your advice or your time or your efforts. But, sometimes... Just why do I think my life should be my own? The truth of the matter is, my life is not my own. First, I belong to God. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31, ESV). And because I belong to Him, I am "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29, ESV). Jesus Himself said that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve" (Matthew 20:28 ESV...

Have you ever felt as though you were in a whirlpool of activity, a whirlpool that was sucking you down, down, down? Or perhaps it was more like you were being carried downstream in a rush of responsibilities over which you had no control, unable to fight the currents that were swiftly carrying you toward the falls and eventually plunging you to self-destruction? I have. During those times, I continue to read and study my Bible. I even have prayer times, albeit rushed or while lying sleeplessly in my bed at night.  Recently, when panic won out over sleeplessness, I left my husband snoring away on his side of the bed and escaped to the other end of the house, where I cried out to God for His peace in the midst of it all. Remembering a verse I memorized a long time ago—"Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you"—I opened my Bible to Psalm 116:1-9:  I love the Lord, for he heard  my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his e...

Everything is ready for tomorrow—presents are wrapped, cookies are decorated and packaged, ingredients are ready for my crockpot dish—and so I'm taking a few moments on this Christmas Eve to write what's been on my heart for the past week. As I reflect on the birthday we celebrate, I realize we think about the Babe in a manger more than the reason for His coming. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Easter. Remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary about the son she would conceive? "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 2:32-33). This would be the long-awaited Messiah, although He would not fulfill the prophecies as the Jews anticipated. He would establish a spiritual kingdom, but His earthly kingdom is yet to come. And when Joseph thought he should divorce Mary quietly ...

'Tis the Christmas season, a most busy time of the year—an exciting time of the year. It's also when we celebrate the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I think there is something miraculous about every birth: to hold a newborn in your arms and to realize that incredibly formed creature began from a microscopic egg and seed; to try to imagine that wondrous infant curled up inside mother's womb; to feel those tiny fingers curled around your own. Yet the birth of Jesus Christ was a far greater miracle. Just imagine God Himself hiding in a woman's womb, developing and moving and then being born. Imagine the creator of language crying to let His mother know He was hungry or uncomfortable. Imagine He who breathed life into the first man wearing diapers, learning to talk, learning to walk. I remember holding my own infant son in my arms, born 35 years ago today, in the midst of the Christmas season. Gazing down at his tiny features with adoration, I ...