GCI Women's Ministry

I love the salt, butter and crunch of hot, fresh popcorn. It’s my snack of choice in the evening, even over dessert. We had popcorn a lot as I grew up, so part of my fondness for it probably has to do with childhood memories.

Have you ever thought about popcorn? No other variety of corn is like it. With a little heat and oil, the kernels explode into fluffy white morsels, completely different from regular corn, which softens up and stays the same color – and doesn’t explode! When I think of popcorn and several of my other favorite foods, I marvel at the profusion of wonderful flavors we get to enjoy.

If everything in life were random and accidental, I doubt we’d have popcorn, avocados, chocolate or tea. And, if life were merely a matter of survival, why would we have all the things that make life sweet and fun? All we would need is something to keep us alive and give us energy, much like the bland, nondescript food in the movie Matrix.

Only someone who loves people could have come up with all the foods that make life enjoyable. And not only food, but also colors, fragrances, sunrises, sunsets, clouds, rainbows, flowers – the list goes on. That someone is God, who loves us so much he even included popcorn on his list of what would make life more interesting for us.

Eating has been likened by some to a worship experience. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV©2010 throughout). Now I realize in the context, this verse is referring to food offered to idols, but it can apply to any time we eat and drink. In Ecclesiastes 9:7, Solomon also referred to eating: “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.” It seems God wants us to enjoy our food and drink.

The last part of 1 Timothy 6:17 says God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Isn’t it interesting that even though life can be dreadfully difficult and full of problems at times, God gives us many things that remind us of him and his thoughtfulness? For those with eyes to see, the rainbow and the silver lining of the clouds remind us he is there and we can continue to hope. Being thankful for all the little blessings keeps us mindful someone cares for us and has made provision for us beyond this life too.

Noticing and thanking God for popcorn (insert your favorite food) draws us into unplanned moments of worship. We can worship God through cooking, eating, drinking, exercising, sleeping, gardening, crafting and any other human activity. As we engage in any endeavor, we can acknowledge God, thank, praise and honor him. Everything we do is participation in the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even eating popcorn!

It was on TV news. A body was found in a ditch behind a house. The man appeared to have been tortured and then drowned. His body was thrown away like so much trash. Police were unsure of the motive, but believed it might have had something to do with drugs.

It happens every day—lives are carelessly taken and just as carelessly tossed aside as refuse.

An outside observer, perhaps from another planet, might notice how babies are thrown in dumpsters, and children, women and men are abused, humiliated and exploited daily. He would see how casually and callously murder is committed. He would watch as people cheat, lie and steal from each other, with little or no regard for the misery left behind. What else could he conclude, except that human life is of little value?

An outside observer did notice just such a situation on this earth. His heart was broken by the way life was disrespected and disregarded by the very people who had been given such a precious gift. He decided to give his own life—the most valuable life ever lived—to redeem, restore and reconcile them to himself.

His plan was to come to earth as one of us. He was a normal child, born to a typical family, and even learned a trade before he began the work of his primary mission. One of his goals was to reaffirm the value of human life. He reached out to many whose lives were considered worthless by others. He declared their value by promising a rich, full and eternal life if they would only believe in him.

He was rewarded with a cruel death. His body would have been dumped in an anonymous grave if not for a handful of people who cared enough to lay him in a new tomb. His life was considered worthless by those he came to save, and to all appearances, we were back to square one.

All was not lost, however, because three days after the horrible death of the Savior of the world, a ray of hope appeared with the dawn. He wasn’t dead! His life was important. He was not left in the grave but was resurrected to life. As a result, we know our lives are important to him. All life is important to him, to be respected, valued and treated with dignity.

Because of one life—one very important life—we will not be left in the grave, but we will also be resurrected to life, to be forever with the Father.

I think I know my daughter pretty well. We spend a lot of time together and enjoy each other’s company. When I tell her I understand her, she comes back with, “You don’t know me like that.” I tell her I do know her like that because I’m her mother. It got me thinking about how we really don’t know other people very well and they don’t know us, not deep down. We often judge others based on how well we think we know them, but we don’t allow for growth and change. We put people in boxes with well-defined walls and corners.

We do the same thing to God. Familiarity breeds contempt but it also breeds complacency. Just as we often treat people according to our expectations of how we think they’ll act, we treat God with the diffidence that comes from thinking we know how he’ll answer prayer, how he deals with people and how he thinks. We have a tendency to make him over in our own image, imagining he’s like us. When we do this, we don’t know him like that. We don’t know him at all.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says we will one day know him as we are known. This verse says so much in such few words. First, we will someday know him as he knows us. We don’t understand God, and that’s probably a good thing. Could we handle knowing everything about him as we are, in our humble, human frames? As David said in Psalm 139, such things are too wonderful for me. Our minds would go on overload. God is incomprehensible to us for the present.

This verse also says he knows us! He knows us in the secret, inner places no one else sees. He understands what makes us tick and why we tick in our own unique ways. David talked about how well God knew him in Psalm 139 and I’m sure we can personally apply those verses. Does this make you nervous? It shouldn’t – God isn’t like us. We sometimes turn away from people the more we get to know them, but he never does.

Everyone wants to be understood, to be heard and noticed. I guess that’s why so many are blogging. Everyone has something to say, whether anyone listens or not. But blogging makes it easy to present yourself in any way you want and can never take the place of face-to-face communication. A person could have the most viewed blog on the Internet and still be lonely and misunderstood.

Being in relationship with God assures us we will be heard, noticed, understood and known. He is the only one who sees into our very hearts and knows everything we’ve ever thought, and the wonderful thing is he loves us anyway. When the world seems cold and impersonal and I feel lonely and misunderstood, I take comfort knowing at least Someone knows me like that.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, the opening words from a beautiful hymn keep running through my mind: “There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own son.” Redemption isn’t something we normally think about at Christmas, but that’s really what it’s all about. We don’t often use the word in everyday life, unless we’re talking about turning in a coupon to save money or exchanging points for merchandise. Some of us remember saving green stamps in books and redeeming them for just about anything. We sometimes talk about redeeming time, particularly making up for a misspent youth or wasted time.

Many think of redemption as a churchy word and might not be clear on the meaning. One well-known story of redemption is found in the book of Ruth, a biblical love story, if you will, of a young woman’s tragedy and triumph, and her hero-kinsman-redeemer, Boaz. Ruth’s experience helps us understand what it means to be redeemed.

Under Israelite law, the closest relative of a widow (enter Ruth) could, upon her request, marry her and thus restore the land belonging to the family, as well as continue the family line of the deceased husband. When Ruth lay at Boaz’ feet on the threshing floor, she wasn’t being inappropriate; she was claiming her right to make him her kinsman-redeemer. A closer relative who had the first prerogative declined to marry Ruth and the rest is history – Ruth took her place in the genealogy of Jesus.

By marrying Ruth, who was a gentile daughter-in-law of the wife of one of his relatives – a nobody to him – Boaz restored her honor, dignity, land and inheritance. By extension, Naomi also got back her life and was given a future and hope for more sons.

Boaz was a type of Christ, pointing to the time when Jesus would be the kinsman-redeemer of all humanity and would buy us back from sin and death. In what has been called The Great Exchange, Jesus gave himself for us, restoring our hope and future. His sacrifice saves us from bondage to the wrong master and frees us to be in Christ, with blessings now and hope for eternal life with him.

The most beautiful thing about our redemption is that it wasn’t a transaction. Just as Ruth had nothing to offer Boaz but herself, we have nothing to offer Jesus but ourselves—no coupon or green stamps required. It was a plan God formulated before the foundation of the universe, and it was motivated and shaped by one thing: his amazing love.

By becoming human and going through each stage of life – from zygote to embryo to fetus, then infant to child to preteen and on to teenage and adulthood – Jesus redeemed every bit of life by taking our lives into his own life. Just as Boaz changed Ruth’s life, making her part of his family and no longer an outsider, so Jesus has brought us into the circle of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we are outsiders no more. Our Kinsman-Redeemer became one of us to make us one with him.

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof. The music is wonderful and the story is one of hope and faith in the midst of tragedy and hardship. One particularly interesting scene is of a funeral, complete with paid mourners. I’ve never understood why a family would pay people to attend a funeral for the specific purpose of wailing and crying. I guess it added to the atmosphere and helped everyone feel sadder.

Mourning death of loved ones is normal and good, but in I Thessalonians 4:13 we read we are not to mourn as those who have no hope. I’ve always understood this to mean we can be assured of the resurrection for those who have accepted Christ and died in the faith. But I’ve come to understand it also gives hope for those who didn’t come to belief before death. All human beings are included in Christ. His life, death and resurrection are big enough to cover and include everyone who ever lived, and even those who died before drawing breath.

When I lost two babies to miscarriages, I mourned the loss of children I wouldn’t know. I found a comforting book called I’ll Hold You in Heaven by Jack Hayford, with a profound message of hope for all who have lost children to miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth. He said we have reason to hope and believe we will see those babies again. They are not lost simply because they didn’t draw breath. As David said, God knew him in the womb. And the fetus who became John the Baptist leapt for joy when his mother Elizabeth met Mary, who was carrying Jesus. All life is known and precious to God and his life and love are extended to us before birth and to those whose lives are cut short even before birth.

When contemplating the question of people who didn’t know Jesus before death and those who didn’t even draw breath, we would do well to remember a few things – God is all powerful. Even though we believe this, I think we sometimes still put limits on him. Is death too strong for him? Is anyone out of his reach? Is anyone so incorrigible they can’t be softened by the gentle yet passionate love of God? Are we qualified to make a judgment about the state of anyone’s salvation?

Theologian Karl Barth, who was not a Universalist, said he preferred to leave the question open in hope and put the outcome in God’s hands, to be “reverently agnostic.” In his book, God Here and Now, Barth said: “A grace which automatically would ultimately have to embrace each and every one would certainly not be free grace. It surely would not be God’s grace. But would it be God’s free grace if we could absolutely deny that it could do that? Has Christ been sacrificed only for our sins? Has he not … been sacrificed for the whole world? … [Thus] the freedom of grace is preserved on both these sides.”

We don’t have all the answers. Many things remain beyond our grasp. The questions we have about those who lived before Christ, died without him and didn’t live to know him are difficult and unanswerable. But we can reverently hope and trust in our God who is love and in whose love is power, wisdom, freedom and grace for everyone.

Remember when previously owned cars were called used cars? I don’t remember when someone decided the word used made the cars sound less attractive to buyers, but when it happened I laughed. No matter what you call a car someone owned before you, it’s still used. I guess euphemisms like previously owned, well loved, retro or antique make some people feel better about buying used items.

The word used can bring negative images to mind and usually has bad connotations. We like new cars and new clothes and shoes; we want new sheets for our beds and new towels for our bathrooms. And no one wants to be used. When someone uses people for their own ends, society generally frowns.

So why do Christians want to be used by God? Besides the negative connotations, being used implies passivity. It makes us think of someone selfishly taking advantage of other human beings and their freedom.

God called Moses his friend and Jesus calls us friends. Friends don’t use each other. When they do it’s called betrayal. As friends of God, we are called to participate with the Holy Spirit in his ministry of love, not to be passive puppets whose strings are pulled whenever God needs something done. God is our Father and calls us his children. As parents, we wouldn’t use our children and I believe God doesn’t use us either.

Christianity is participation in the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God wants people who love him back and he loves freedom. That’s why he gave us freedom of choice, the choice to obey or turn away, the choice to love or not. He gave us freedom to work with him or not. We are not forced, but allowed to make our own decisions. We freely choose to love him and participate in his work.

Participation has a much more positive feel, doesn’t it? I would rather participate than be used. It’s much more motivating. I realize this might sound like simple semantics to some, but words are important and have power. To think the Creator of all things wants me, by choice, to participate in what he’s doing in this sad, fallen world moves me to want to get involved. When we participate we have a real sense of accomplishment–not out of vanity or selfish pride, but knowing we’ve made a contribution and pleased and delighted the only one whose opinion counts for anything. Will God say well done to someone he used? Why would he reward a puppet on a string? Do we really love someone who uses and controls us? Or do we resent him or her?

Let’s change the way we think of and talk about working for God and serving his people. Let’s not ask God to use us, and let’s not think of ourselves as being used. Rather let’s see our ministries and work for the Kingdom of God as fun, exciting, loving participation with our friend Jesus.

I like a nice, hot cup of tea, so much that I dream of a cup that never empties and never cools. Hey, if it worked for the widow in 1 Kings 17, why not for me? Just kidding. But there is something comforting about a full cup. Empty cups make me sad.

I learned a new song at a women’s retreat in Newfoundland, Canada, called Fill My Cup, Lord. The retreat was several years ago but the lyrics and melody have stuck with me. It’s a prayer for the Lord to quench the thirsting of my soul, to fill my cup and make me whole.

In ministry, we often say we can only be effective if we’re working from a full tank. I think this is especially true of introverts, but none of us can pull up water from an empty well. A relationship with God that is alive and growing is the best way to keep ourselves ready for participating in what God is doing.

Sometimes my cup gets a little empty. When I get low on spiritual energy, and if I’m low on physical or emotional energy at the same time, it can be difficult to bring the level back up to full. I’m not alone in this. As I’m sure you can attest, those in ministry often have to take a little time to recharge after the weekly church service or any ministry opportunity. I’m always in need of down time after speaking at conferences.

So how do we fill up the cup? Besides vegging out a little, the best thing is to spend some quiet time with God: a little scripture reading, meditation, solitude and especially prayer. It’s easy to let life crowd out these disciplines, but we all know they are essential to enjoying and nurturing our relationships with God.

Nurture and enjoy – that’s how I’ve started thinking of staying close to God. I used to stress about my relationship with him. I wondered if I even knew what one was supposed to look like. I worried I didn’t know how to have a relationship with someone who’s invisible. During a silent retreat last spring, I stumbled upon a timeless truth, one practiced from the beginning of the early church and one the significance of which I had not fully realized. That truth: prayer is a gift of God to help us discover, uncover and recover the relationship Jesus has always had with the Father, and which he now shares with us.

I felt as if the proverbial light bulb had switched on over my head. I realized I had been looking for something more dramatic, more romantic and certainly more exciting than prayer as the way to be in relationship with God. Of course I already knew this, and so did you. But don’t we all sometimes take prayer for granted? And it’s easy to let it become the time we bring our list of needs to him, rather than a time of nurturing the relationship and enjoying his presence.

Filling our cups isn’t only about being ready for ministry. It’s about letting God fill our souls with himself and his never ending supply of Living Water.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, NIV).

When we read these verses from First Corinthians, we think of how we are to reflect these characteristics of love in our own lives. We measure our behavior, our actions and reactions toward others. As we realize we fall short of this ideal, most of us then ask God to help us have more love.

Paul was telling the Corinthians this is what love looks like, and it’s a good pattern for us to follow. After all, love is the royal law mentioned in James 2:8. Love is a fruit of the Spirit and doesn’t come naturally to those with carnal natures – guess that about covers everyone.

But what if this chapter is more than a model of behavior for us? So many of Jesus’ words and Paul’s writings are seen as prescriptions for living—ideals of human behavior we all know can never be reached. Were their words intended to be legalistic yardsticks with corresponding punishments?

Rather than a prescription, 1 Corinthians 13 seems to me a description of God. John tells us God is love (1 John 4:8). God doesn’t have love or give love and he certainly doesn’t love as humans do, hot one day, cold the next, at times loyal then fickle in destructive cycles.

Substitute God for love in this chapter and what do you see? God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. God is not rude, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.

This chapter is not a vehicle for judgment or condemnation of ourselves or others, but a beautiful picture of a God who didn’t just give us a royal law of love but is himself the royal law of love. We don’t merely serve a God who loves us and wants us to love each other, but a God who embodies and exudes those listed characteristics of love. All of Scripture points to Jesus, who is the exact representation of the Father. We may even say that here we are presented with his resume.

The love chapter tells us who God is and how Father, Son and Spirit interact. It shows how he treats us, provides for us and will deal with us in the future. And yes, as dearly loved children we want to be like him. Some day we will be. But for now, don’t beat yourself or anyone else over the head for falling short of this ideal. Rejoice in God who alone is ideal, perfect love.

How many times have you heard someone say this? When I hear it, I wonder if the person has been lying up ‘til now. If I ever get the urge to utter such an expression, I stop myself and rephrase. It’s the same with let’s be clear. I don’t use these phrases because I don’t want to imply I’ve been the opposite.

Honesty seems to be in short supply these days. In my state, we just went through an election with all the attendant campaign promises and smearing of opponents. Several propositions were on the ballot and I found it difficult to sift through the conflicting information and make an informed decision for or against. I wish the politicians would just be honest!

Has honesty gone the way of eight-tracks, vinyl records and other outdated technological gadgets? A character on a popular TV show says everyone lies. According to him, everyone has something to hide or thinks they have something to gain from not telling the truth. It’s human nature to want to protect oneself. I hate to distrust everyone but I suspect this TV character is correct. Is dishonesty the new best policy?

Colossians 3:9-10 gives a good reason for honesty: “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (NIV).

Paul said we died and our lives are now hidden with Christ in God and he is our life (verses 3-4), so the old self, with its earthly nature (verse 5) needs to be put to death as well. According to Paul, this isn’t automatic, but something we must give attention to as we go through the process of being transformed and renewed.

As new creatures in Christ, we are experiencing the lavish love of God and have abundant life in him. C. Baxter Kruger, in an interview on the GCI website, said the abundance of God as Father, Son and Spirit is expressed in us. This allows us to give ourselves away entirely and then receive ourselves back from God and one another. He goes on to say our understanding of our acceptance and of being included in Christ allows us to let things go, to just be in Christ. This means we are not in a self-centered mode, but calm and assured, free of fear (my paraphrasing).

This means we don’t need to fear telling the truth, to others or to ourselves. We have nothing to hide, we don’t need to protect ourselves and we have nothing to gain by lying. Life is complicated enough with having to make up or remember stories. And the truth comes out in the end anyway.

Our new selves are being renewed in the image of our Creator. As we grow in grace and knowledge of him, his honesty, transparency, candor and forthrightness will shine brighter and brighter in us as light in the darkness. Does everyone lie? Perhaps; we’re still human. But let’s surrender ourselves to the renewal and transformation of the Holy Spirit and just be honest.

When we pray, we usually expect an answer, either yes, no or wait. Some cite the story of the persistent woman and the unjust judge in Luke 18 as an example of how we should keep praying until we get the answer we want. One author likens our prayers to filling up a prayer bowl and when it gets full, we can expect something to happen.

But what if getting an answer isn’t what prayer is all about? Can we be satisfied with no answers?

The story of Job is an encouraging if puzzling example of God’s presence but lack of answers during difficult times. Job asked many questions of God including the age-old Why? Why did he lose his family? Was God punishing him for sin as his friends suggested? Why did this calamity happen?

God didn’t directly answer his questions. He pointed Job and his friends to himself, to his omniscience and his omnipotence.

Boiled down to the simplest element, God’s answer was I AM. Job must have realized this was enough because in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 40, Job said: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more” (NIV throughout).

Then God told Job to brace himself and be ready to give some answers while God asked the questions. And he asked some good ones, including, “Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” (verse 8b). Later in chapter 42, verse 5, Job repented, saying his ears had heard of God but now his eyes had seen him (verse 3). He had nothing more to say.

There often are no answers to the hard questions, particularly Why? Many think God should be answering these questions and when he doesn’t, they turn away in disbelief, becoming skeptical of his very existence. It’s hard to accept that in this life we won’t always receive the answers we want and hard to explain this to others to their satisfaction.

I want answers too, but for now the only answer we need is God himself. Job realized this after going through tremendous grief and pain. Paul learned of the sufficiency of God’s grace after receiving no relief from his affliction (2 Corinthians 12:9). We too must learn and accept this, not out of resignation to victimhood or giving up in hopelessness, but out of the realization that God himself is our salvation, our sufficiency and our hope.

Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

We will have problems. Bad things will continue to happen. We will still pray and expect God to answer, but many answers will elude us. God’s grace is always sufficient. Resting in his love and grace will ease our questioning minds more than all the answers in the world.