Help!

The verse under "Help" is Isaiah 41:13

Thunder?  Really? (My thoughts when the bomb sounding explosion startled me awake last night).  Of course the unnerving sound immediately followed with two screeching girls racing to our room to claim their spot in our bed.  Our spacious king size bed quickly felt like a claustrophobic toddler bed.  I opted to go to my daughter's bed.  She followed behind. 

As I stayed awake peering through her rain streeking window, I remembered everyone experiences storms.  Yes, natural, literal storms and figurative, "storms" or trials in our lives.  I reflected on the outline I finished just an hour earlier on "Help".  I prepared it to speak to a group of church secretaries.  Even though my body experienced complete exhaustion from days of studying, writing, rewording, and rearranging, my mind still had the capacity to worry. Ugh!

What if its still raining tomorrow?  I won't be able to wear my new leopard print clogs.  (It had already taken me an hour to pick out my outfit, even with the help of a friend).  I guess I could wear the other outfit with my new, clearanced, purple rayon shirt/jacket (I may have created a new fashion word.  Scary.)  Oh, wait.  I just washed that shirt/jacket, and the inside tag was correct. Fabric100%rayon IS "dry clean only". It shrinks.  Oops.  Oh, am I'm speaking about "Help" in less than 12 hours?  I need help! Not fashion help, (well, that too. And since when did this former tomboy even care about fashion?)  I needed help to refocus.  Help to live out all I'd studied this week.  Help to rest.

Isaiah 41:13 

"For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’"

And yes, God helped me.  I slept five hours straight, in spite of the flailing legs and arms of a nine-year- old next to me.   Guess what!  It wasn't raining until after I spoke. (I packed flip flops just in case).

Bonus:  I received a take home cup (pictured above).  Ironically, I almost yelled for help.  You don't know how hard I tried to pop off that screw on top.  Oh, I need help!

        



Approaching the Throne

This morning my nine-year-old, J, had to face the unthinkable (at least to a 4th grader).  Last Thursday as she waited outside for school to start, she got her library book out of her backpack to read (not sure she read much).  When the students scurried inside to start the day, she left her book behind.  She didn't say anything about it until last night when we were gathering school items for Monday morning (We had to find lost books for her two sisters, too).

So today, I walked into school with her to look for her book.  We checked the office.  She talked to the librarian.  We dug through lunch boxes, jackets, and folders in the lost and found.  No book.  Then the unfathomable.  She had to approach her teacher and admit she had lost her book.  I walked with her to the classroom, and waited outside the door.  Her teacher, Mrs. P., welcomed her to class.  "Did you forget a book for an assignment?  Come on in and finish it," she said.  J, looking down at the ground and shuffling her feet, took the dreaded step into her classroom.  "No," J said.  She then, very timidly with a downcast face, explained the situation to her teacher.

Now, Mrs. P.'s response.  Mrs. P. has the reputation of being very strict.  She made a girl stay in for recess for humming.  As J weeped last night, she anticipated she'd have to stay in for recess for two weeks!  To our surprise, Mrs. P. said, "Did you check the bookshelf?  Go look and see if it is there.  Accidents happen.  Don't make something small into something big."  I couldn't see J's face, but I'm sure she felt relief as she sauntered over to the bookshelf and found another copy of the book.  (We're still not sure if it was the one she lost).  I thanked Mrs. P. for her mercy, hugged J., and left.

J's experience of approaching her teacher reminded me that we must approach God.  Unlike J's careless mistake, easily overlooked by her teacher.  Our purposeful disobedience toward a perfect, and just God must result in punishment.  The punishment required: death (Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death...).

No wonder people are surprised when they hear that we can approach the throne of God with confidence.  The Bible says, in Hebrews 4:16, "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

The throne of grace in this verse is the very throne of God in heaven mentioned 37 times in the book of Revelation (Biblestudytools.com).

The verses just before Hebrews 4:16 explain that Jesus is our high priest that makes it possible for us to stand before the throne of grace with confidence (may blog about high priests sometime...Love it!).  

What about you?

Will you approach the throne by yourSELF or with your SAVIOR?  Jesus wants to represent you as your high priest.

Will you approach the the throne with GOOD WORKS or GRACE?  God offers you grace, a gift through Jesus.  Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (emphasis mine)
 
Will you approach the throne as a COWARD or with CONFIDENCE? Without Jesus, you will coward before a judging God.

Choose a Savior, Grace, and Confidence today! 

Labor Day

Labor Day, the official last day of summer. (Pretend today is Labor Day.  It took me a several days to get all this down.)  Our family labored today.  My husband cleaned our van (even vacuumed the sand from our trip to the beach a month ago).  I attacked the overflowing, outdated condiment filled refrigerator.  My girls "worked" hard at swimming as much as they could in our neighborhood pool, the last day it was opened this year. 

"Labor" Day, it made me think about work.  It reminded me of some conversations with friends I've had over the past few weeks.  I have several friends from other religions.  A few weeks ago, my Hindu friend said, "All religions are the same.  Everyone tries to be a good person."  It was not the appropriate time to tell him what the Bible says about being a good person.  Last week, my Muslim friend had a similar response.  She believes her good works in life must outway her bad works to go to heaven.  When she asked if I do things to please God and commented that Christianity and Islam are the same, "We both try to do good things for God", I had the opportunity to share what the Bible says about good works.

Most people would agree, "good people should go to heaven".  Why wouldn't they?  We live in a society that feels people deserve a reward for being good citizens, showing kindness to their neighbors, and giving to the poor.  Isn't that enough to deserve heaven?
What does the Bible say about being a good person? 

Romans 3:10 says, "as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

"Righteous" means, 'keeps God's commands, innocent, acceptable or "right" before God.'  According to the Bible, no person can consider themselves a "good person".

Isaiah 64:6 says,
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment ;

In other words, anyone who thinks his or her righteous deeds (good works) will allow us access to a holy (perfect) God, needs to look closer at this verse.  Our sin makes us unclean.  There are many examples of "unclean" in the Bible.  The Bible says that lepers were "unclean".  Not only were lepers not allowed to enter the city, they were not allowed to worship.  Likewise, because we are "unclean", we are not allowed to stand before God.  God cannot allow sin into heaven.  If we try to present God our good deeds, he calls them "filthy", "unclean", "unfit".

TO BE CONTINUED...

Can't wait to hear about the good news?  Here's Hope