Thursday is the last session in my Psalms of Ascent study. I've LOVED every minute of it. I'm in the process of finishing up the last week AND going back through and making notes on words/scripture that really spoke to me through this particular study. It always seems like I learn a lot every time I'm in a Bible Study, but I do very little to apply it to my everyday life. I actually typed the following out in a word document yesterday to add in my prayer journal, not necessarily for anyone to see except me. As I went back to read it before bed tonight just as a reminder to myself, I thought I'd share it in efforts to keep me more accountable. My friends who read this...HOLD ME TO IT!!!
Something that has been a matter of prayer for me for quite some time is seeing people through God’s eyes, not my own clouded view. I’m not sure where I got the idea that everyone has to think and act the way that I expect them to act-- Evan and I have had the conversation many times that I’m just a product of my “growing up in a small town” where everyone knows everyone’s business all the time. Maybe that’s part of it; maybe it’s just my sin-nature. Whatever it is, God is certainly working on me and breaking down barriers in that particular area of my life that keep me from being close to Him.
In the past week, I have heard three messages from Hebrews 10. Here are a couple of the verses that have been jumping out at me.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)
It all started at Bible Study on Thursday morning, as we were watching the video that goes along with our study. Beth Moore has a passion for unity and encouragement in the body of Christ and the video stirred up a passion in me for the same thing. At the very end of the video, she had everyone in her audience (and us on the other side of the TV) stand up “shoulder to shoulder” as she read the following verse:
“Then I will purify the lips of the peoples that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.” Zephaniah 3:9 (NIV)
I can’t even type that without having tears fall from my face. I’m pretty sure that out of the 20+ women that were standing there “shoulder to shoulder” at Thursday’s bible study, there was not a dry eye in the room.
I have been thinking about this over the last few days. Last night, the message we heard at church was from the same passage in Hebrews. Then, this morning when I did my quiet time, again, the message was reiterated to me. The lesson from Psalms of Ascent today was from Psalm 133 and was titled “A United Family of God.” Beth Moore again uses the Hebrews 10 scripture references, as well as several other scripture references and some thought-provoking questions. One of the things she says in her writing is that "according to commentator John Eaton, the original wording of Psalm 133:1 literally translates 'the dwelling of brothers together as one.'" She then goes on to talk about how we let little, divisive, petty things cause distractions in the body of Christ. This quote from today’s lesson stepped on my toes like crazy:
“Instead of criticizing and mocking one another, we want to be ‘concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our meetings as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near’ (Hebrews 10:24-25, HCSB) As I’ve shared before, I was greatly relieved and freed when God helped me understand that unity does not equal uniformity. In both the family of man and the family of God, we can be very different and yet still practice unity. We can get along and come to love each other even if, in our human nature, we wouldn’t have preferred one another. I’m not sure many things are more fulfilling in the Christian experiences than, in the power of the Holy Spirit, finally having victory over an old area of religious prejudice.”
It hit me after I read those words that I am constantly battling religious prejudice and that I think it was something that I learned as a child. I don’t know who taught it to me, but basically the thought of “if you don’t see things the way I see them, then you are wrong.” What I have since learned (and am still in the process of learning) is that God doesn’t care if you are white, black, red, purple or polka-dotted. He doesn’t care if you are handicapped, if you raise your hands up in worship, or what denomination of church you prefer. As Beth Moore illustrated so well to me this morning, God cares about the “spine issues” or the issues that are the backbone of our faith. These would be that Jesus was born of a virgin, He is the ONLY way to God, and in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. These are issues that are ABSOLUTES and non-negotiable. The others are “rib issues” and are not matters that threaten to “break the back.” Some of them may be very important to us, but they are not a matter of ETERNAL life and death. As Beth Moore says in this study, “We don’t have to agree on rib issues. We can still thoroughly love one another even if we remain mystified as to how the other grew that odd rib. The point is that questions that arise from our differences are what send us RUNNING to God’s Word to see if what we believe is biblically sound.”
Oh, God, let me see people the way YOU see them—valued, accepted, gifted—not through my clouded view of reality. Teach me to LOVE YOU and LOVE PEOPLE and lead people that don’t know you to a REAL relationship with you!!!
Isn't Kendall just the cutest thing ever??? Everyday it just seems like she's doing something new. I swear that any day now, she is going to sit up all on her own! It just doesn't seem right to me! Today on our way to church, she was just cracking up laughing in the backseat. We have no idea why, but apparently she thought something was funny. She also started doing a fake cough while we were in Arkansas. My mom and my sister noticed it first. They said she would do it to get their attention. Now, I think she just does it because she likes to hear the new noise.
