Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
[Hezekiah] removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it (it was called Nehustan). -- 2 Kings 18:4 (NIV 84)
Wow. The actual serpent that Moses had made in the desert...the one that represented Christ, that brought healing to those who looked at it.
That relic was roughly 677 years old, if my math is right.
In its time, it was a powerful symbol of the grace and goodness of God.
Out of its time, it was an idol and a distraction from the worship of the One God.
I have come face to face with some Nehustans in my life this afternoon. In their time and place...wonderful. Now, not so much. No...incense is not being burned, but they are taking up space physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Do I have the courage to do what Hezekiah did...break them into pieces, get rid of them? Now that their purpose has been served?
Not gonna lie, it won't be easy and it won't be painless. But if I'm going forward...it is necessary.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
SSMT 2015 - Verse 12: Ps 121:3-4
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
...and I'm a day late AGAIN for the next installment in the Siesta Scripture Memory Team for 2015. My, goodness, time is flying by so fast I'm losing track...
But I'm moving on to the next two verses of Ps . 121...
He will not let your foot slip -- He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep -- Ps 121:3-4 NIV 84
I wish, sometimes, that that verse said, 'He will not let your tongue slip'...oh, wouldn't that be wonderful! Not that I have goofed up there lately...but I have a meeting coming up and I would really like assurance that my tongue will not slip. But He's guarding my feet...it's up to me to guard my tongue.
Still. If He is guarding my feet, then I have to believe that this is the time and place that the meeting should happen. So if it's the right time and the right place...then I kinda have to trust that whatever He has put in me is the right thought for the moment.
All I have to do is make sure I don't wander off into what *I* think or feel. Omit opinion and stick to reality. Because truth is truth.
And He who guards my feet will not let me slip.
...and I'm a day late AGAIN for the next installment in the Siesta Scripture Memory Team for 2015. My, goodness, time is flying by so fast I'm losing track...
But I'm moving on to the next two verses of Ps . 121...
He will not let your foot slip -- He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep -- Ps 121:3-4 NIV 84
I wish, sometimes, that that verse said, 'He will not let your tongue slip'...oh, wouldn't that be wonderful! Not that I have goofed up there lately...but I have a meeting coming up and I would really like assurance that my tongue will not slip. But He's guarding my feet...it's up to me to guard my tongue.
Still. If He is guarding my feet, then I have to believe that this is the time and place that the meeting should happen. So if it's the right time and the right place...then I kinda have to trust that whatever He has put in me is the right thought for the moment.
All I have to do is make sure I don't wander off into what *I* think or feel. Omit opinion and stick to reality. Because truth is truth.
And He who guards my feet will not let me slip.
Friday, June 12, 2015
All Things New: Abram, The Unknown Road, Pt 1
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
The moment anyone brings up the topic of transitions in the Bible, Abram/Abraham immediately comes to mind. Like several other Bible characters whose stories are traced over a lifespan, he went through several transitions and I'm going to spend two or three weeks looking at them.
So, today I'll look at Genesis 11:27 - 12:5, which is the foundational transition for Abram and his family.
We start with a bit of a back story; Abram was born to Terah in Ur; he and his two brothers grew to manhood and married there. The middle brother, Haran, died. For reasons that are not explained, Terah then took his family and left Ur, headed to Canaan. But along the way they settled down in an area that was, coincidentally, named Haran. Or perhaps they found a nice place to stop, then decided to stay and named the place Haran after they settled there. Mr. Scofield, whose notes are included in my NIV 84 text, subtitles Gen. 11:31 - 32 as 'Wasted years at Haran'. I can't really find a compelling reason to assume those years were wasted. We do not know what prompted Terah to leave Ur, and we do not know what prompted the family to settle in Haran instead of following the initial plan to go to Canaan. I'm inclined to think this was part of God's plan all along, but as that is not indicated either we have to assume that those things are not essential to the narrative one way or the other.
What we do know is that, after Terah died, Abram received direct instructions to
Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you (Gen 12:1)
Out of the entire entourage that had left Ur, only Abram was instructed to collect his household and continue the journey. I think it's interesting that the instructions are not 'proceed to Canaan as your father planned' but 'go to the land I will show you'.
I think it's also interesting that, despite the fact that he had been instructed to leave his father's household, Abram took Lot with him. This kind of makes me wonder, as I have mentioned in other posts, if Abram had designated Lot as his heir, as he had no children and Lot's father had died. That would've made Lot a part of Abram's household. Or, it could be that Lot was tired of Haran and just saw an opportunity to strike out for new territory. Either way, Abram complicated his life by taking Lot along. But he couldn't know that as they set out.
However, he had an amazing promise:
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
(Gen 12:2)
There are transitions that happen to folks from outside their control; sometimes without even a hint that it was coming. But there are some transitions that happen because an individual considers and then chooses to step into that transition. Abram could've shrugged that message off as a product of indigestion or some such thing. He could've convinced himself it was his imagination. He could even have heard God clearly, but then reasoned that God couldn't have meant him and gone about his life as usual.
But Abram heard. He believed. And he left. And he didn't even know where he was going.
But he knew when he got there.
...they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem...The LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'To your offspring I will give this land.' So he built an altar there to the LORD. (Gen 12: 5b - 7a)
How many times did Abram find a nice spring or oasis, where his livestock grazed and the land looked promising...only to hear nothing from God to indicate that this was his destination, so he packed up and kept moving? How many times do we follow God's instruction until we get weary, or find a place that looks good, and yet know that this is not the place?
Do we have the strength of will to keep going until God says 'stop'?
Because that's the thing about transitions...you have to end in the right place.
Where am I on the journey God said to start? Have I heard Him clearly say, 'This is the place' or do I still need to stay in obedience to His last word...'Go' and keep moving?
The moment anyone brings up the topic of transitions in the Bible, Abram/Abraham immediately comes to mind. Like several other Bible characters whose stories are traced over a lifespan, he went through several transitions and I'm going to spend two or three weeks looking at them.
So, today I'll look at Genesis 11:27 - 12:5, which is the foundational transition for Abram and his family.
We start with a bit of a back story; Abram was born to Terah in Ur; he and his two brothers grew to manhood and married there. The middle brother, Haran, died. For reasons that are not explained, Terah then took his family and left Ur, headed to Canaan. But along the way they settled down in an area that was, coincidentally, named Haran. Or perhaps they found a nice place to stop, then decided to stay and named the place Haran after they settled there. Mr. Scofield, whose notes are included in my NIV 84 text, subtitles Gen. 11:31 - 32 as 'Wasted years at Haran'. I can't really find a compelling reason to assume those years were wasted. We do not know what prompted Terah to leave Ur, and we do not know what prompted the family to settle in Haran instead of following the initial plan to go to Canaan. I'm inclined to think this was part of God's plan all along, but as that is not indicated either we have to assume that those things are not essential to the narrative one way or the other.
What we do know is that, after Terah died, Abram received direct instructions to
Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you (Gen 12:1)
Out of the entire entourage that had left Ur, only Abram was instructed to collect his household and continue the journey. I think it's interesting that the instructions are not 'proceed to Canaan as your father planned' but 'go to the land I will show you'.
I think it's also interesting that, despite the fact that he had been instructed to leave his father's household, Abram took Lot with him. This kind of makes me wonder, as I have mentioned in other posts, if Abram had designated Lot as his heir, as he had no children and Lot's father had died. That would've made Lot a part of Abram's household. Or, it could be that Lot was tired of Haran and just saw an opportunity to strike out for new territory. Either way, Abram complicated his life by taking Lot along. But he couldn't know that as they set out.
However, he had an amazing promise:
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
(Gen 12:2)
There are transitions that happen to folks from outside their control; sometimes without even a hint that it was coming. But there are some transitions that happen because an individual considers and then chooses to step into that transition. Abram could've shrugged that message off as a product of indigestion or some such thing. He could've convinced himself it was his imagination. He could even have heard God clearly, but then reasoned that God couldn't have meant him and gone about his life as usual.
But Abram heard. He believed. And he left. And he didn't even know where he was going.
But he knew when he got there.
...they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem...The LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'To your offspring I will give this land.' So he built an altar there to the LORD. (Gen 12: 5b - 7a)
How many times did Abram find a nice spring or oasis, where his livestock grazed and the land looked promising...only to hear nothing from God to indicate that this was his destination, so he packed up and kept moving? How many times do we follow God's instruction until we get weary, or find a place that looks good, and yet know that this is not the place?
Do we have the strength of will to keep going until God says 'stop'?
Because that's the thing about transitions...you have to end in the right place.
Where am I on the journey God said to start? Have I heard Him clearly say, 'This is the place' or do I still need to stay in obedience to His last word...'Go' and keep moving?
Friday, June 5, 2015
All Things New - Noah: The Solitary Road, Part 2
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
I've been kinda mulling over Noah and the dramatic New Beginning he and his family had.
They had a year...over a year...of transition. They were in the ark with all the animals and each other, and they had no real way to know how it was outside. After 5 months, the ark ran agound on Mount Ararat, but the water still covered everything.
I'm not sure just exactly when Noah opened the window...the narrative says 'after 40 days', but doesn't really indicate when the 40 days began. I'm just kinda guessing it was 40 days after the ark grounded; that way he could see when the mountain tops around him became visible two and half months after the ark quit floating. The release of the raven and the dove are not linked chronologically to the rest of the dates, except possibly by implication.
In all, they'd spent a year and ten days in the ark. How wonderful it must've felt to walk in the sunshine and feel the breeze.
But it was not the world they'd last seen 375 days earlier.
All that moisture that had been locked in the firmament beyond the sky (Gen.1: 7 8) had fallen to the earth and evaporated out into the atmosphere. There were clouds; they may even have seen the sun more clearly than they had before. And there was weather..I think God pointed out the rainbow as the sign of the covenant that He would not destroy the world by flood again so that they wouldn't freak out when it rained. After all, the only thing rain had been to them up to that time was judgement and disaster. Now there would be rain and storms and, in some parts, snow and ice. But all that was still to be discovered.
There was so much to be discovered.
But no people.
I wonder if the fact that everyone they'd known was gone...lost in the flood...was overwhelming to them as they walked out into the sunshine. At the very least all their extended family... siblings of Noah and his wife, cousins, aunts, uncles were gone; some of Noah's own children may have been counted among those who rejected God. It was one thing to sit cooped up in the ark while terror raged around them and wonder if those others really all died..it would be another thing entirely to walk out into a brand new world and see the finality of that judgement.
One of the key elements of transition is coming to grips that what was before cannot be again; it is gone, it is over, it is done. It may not have been pleasant memories they shared of what had gone before...but the loss and absolute denial of any kind of return had to be bitter, even as they thanked God for delivering them safely.
That bitterness may have played a factor in later bad decisions. Noah's intoxication, Ham's disrespect of his father and Noah's subsequent curse of Ham's son, Canaan...all may have had to do with grief, anger, repression of emotion, all those things psychologists and prayer counselors will say can lead to such things.
The plain truth is that it is hard to let go of what was. But a major transition in life often means we cannot carry old relationships, old thought and behavior patterns, old familiar issues with us at all. Or we'll walk out into a new shining world brimming with promise and miss it all as we agonize over what is not.
What things am I hanging on to that need to be remembered with honor and released? What is before me that I do not recognize and cannot imagine? How can I appropriate God's grace to let go of the past and walk bravely and expectantly into the future?
I've been kinda mulling over Noah and the dramatic New Beginning he and his family had.
They had a year...over a year...of transition. They were in the ark with all the animals and each other, and they had no real way to know how it was outside. After 5 months, the ark ran agound on Mount Ararat, but the water still covered everything.
I'm not sure just exactly when Noah opened the window...the narrative says 'after 40 days', but doesn't really indicate when the 40 days began. I'm just kinda guessing it was 40 days after the ark grounded; that way he could see when the mountain tops around him became visible two and half months after the ark quit floating. The release of the raven and the dove are not linked chronologically to the rest of the dates, except possibly by implication.
In all, they'd spent a year and ten days in the ark. How wonderful it must've felt to walk in the sunshine and feel the breeze.
But it was not the world they'd last seen 375 days earlier.
All that moisture that had been locked in the firmament beyond the sky (Gen.1: 7 8) had fallen to the earth and evaporated out into the atmosphere. There were clouds; they may even have seen the sun more clearly than they had before. And there was weather..I think God pointed out the rainbow as the sign of the covenant that He would not destroy the world by flood again so that they wouldn't freak out when it rained. After all, the only thing rain had been to them up to that time was judgement and disaster. Now there would be rain and storms and, in some parts, snow and ice. But all that was still to be discovered.
There was so much to be discovered.
But no people.
I wonder if the fact that everyone they'd known was gone...lost in the flood...was overwhelming to them as they walked out into the sunshine. At the very least all their extended family... siblings of Noah and his wife, cousins, aunts, uncles were gone; some of Noah's own children may have been counted among those who rejected God. It was one thing to sit cooped up in the ark while terror raged around them and wonder if those others really all died..it would be another thing entirely to walk out into a brand new world and see the finality of that judgement.
One of the key elements of transition is coming to grips that what was before cannot be again; it is gone, it is over, it is done. It may not have been pleasant memories they shared of what had gone before...but the loss and absolute denial of any kind of return had to be bitter, even as they thanked God for delivering them safely.
That bitterness may have played a factor in later bad decisions. Noah's intoxication, Ham's disrespect of his father and Noah's subsequent curse of Ham's son, Canaan...all may have had to do with grief, anger, repression of emotion, all those things psychologists and prayer counselors will say can lead to such things.
The plain truth is that it is hard to let go of what was. But a major transition in life often means we cannot carry old relationships, old thought and behavior patterns, old familiar issues with us at all. Or we'll walk out into a new shining world brimming with promise and miss it all as we agonize over what is not.
What things am I hanging on to that need to be remembered with honor and released? What is before me that I do not recognize and cannot imagine? How can I appropriate God's grace to let go of the past and walk bravely and expectantly into the future?
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
SSMT 2015 - Verse 11 Ps. 121:1-2
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Well, I've commented before about how quickly the time is passing, often as I post the bi-weekly verse at the last minute on the due date. But June 1 blew right by me without even a nudge to remember to post my SSMT verse.
I've been mulling over memorizing a longer passage for a while; and I think I'm going to spend the next two or three months working on Ps. 121. It's one of my favorite psalms, and I think I've used one or two of the verses in the past. But I want to learn it all.
So, I'm going to take it two verses at a time, which means today's...or, really, yesterday's...SSMT verses are
I lift up my eyes to the hills -- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth -- Ps. 121: 1-2 NIV 84
I've heard verse 1 rendered as if the psalmist is looking for help to come from the hills, but that's not it. He looks at the hills, but he knows that all help comes from God who made those hills.
Well, I've commented before about how quickly the time is passing, often as I post the bi-weekly verse at the last minute on the due date. But June 1 blew right by me without even a nudge to remember to post my SSMT verse.
I've been mulling over memorizing a longer passage for a while; and I think I'm going to spend the next two or three months working on Ps. 121. It's one of my favorite psalms, and I think I've used one or two of the verses in the past. But I want to learn it all.
So, I'm going to take it two verses at a time, which means today's...or, really, yesterday's...SSMT verses are
I lift up my eyes to the hills -- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth -- Ps. 121: 1-2 NIV 84
I've heard verse 1 rendered as if the psalmist is looking for help to come from the hills, but that's not it. He looks at the hills, but he knows that all help comes from God who made those hills.
Friday, May 29, 2015
All Things New: Noah - The Solitary Road, Part 1
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
When I decided to look at folks who went through transitions, I kinda figured I'd start with Noah. He was the first to really come through a transition and begin again with a promise.
Noah was a unique individual. In a society that had become so evil and godless that God's heart was grieved and filled with pain, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. - Gen 6:9 (all scripture today from the NIV 84).
Only one other person had been recorded as walking with God...
Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. - Gen 5:24.
It was a pretty unusual thing, this walking with God. Noah was alone in his generation. His grandfather, Methuselah, who lived until the year the flood came may have encouraged him; his father, Lamech, who died 5 years before the flood may have encouraged him, but outside of his own family...Noah had no one who honored God with whom to share fellowship. In a society wholly given over to wickedness...such a family would be an anomaly. The scripture does not recount Noah's interaction with his peers, but looking at the track record of how a worldly society esteems those who do not join in their pursuits, we can deduce with some confidence that he had a struggle. In fact, I've wondered if part of the reason God decided to destroy civilization was to protect Noah and his family and the lineage of Seth from being annihilated by folks who hated them.
But...despite any possible contentions with those around him, God gave Noah very specific instructions on what he needed to do to survive the coming judgement and Noah did everything just as God commanded him (6:22).
Prior to his transition, God prepared him. And he did what God said to do.
Ya'll, that just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I just sat there and pondered that for a bit.
There's gonna be a part two, 'cause I want to hang there for a minute.
God prepares His people. You may or may not know precisely what's coming...but He will provide instructions that, if you follow them, will have you exactly where you need to be when the moment comes.
I think its interesting that the ark is never referred to as a boat. In fact, the word used is Strong's 8392 , tebah, which means 'a box'; the Blue-Letter Bible site states that it has the connotation of a chest or coffer; it is only used to denote the ark that Noah built and the basket that carried the infant Moses in the river.
I wonder how accurate modern renditions of the ark...which all tend to look a lot like a big boat...really are. Did he taper it fore and aft? Did he curve the outside as a hull? Did the hand of God, which closed the door, hold it steady as the storms raged and the geysers erupted and the moisture stored since creation in the firmament above crashed to the earth?
Whatever Noah did, it was what God instructed, even though it might have seemed ludicrous to him and certainly would have caused a stir in the community. Someone already conspicuous for righteous living would now be even more conspicuous for odd behavior. Peter records that Noah preached to his generation...a message of God's judgement against wickedness that was no more likely to have been popular then that it would be now. We know he had no converts...no one who repented and asked to be included. Possibly some of Noah's own children had joined the society and only Shem, Ham and Japheth remained loyal to their father and his God. Noah's siblings and their children certainly had left the family values behind.
Nonetheless, as the day grew closer Noah did not fall off the pace. The ark was completed and stocked with food. Genesis 7:5 repeats the statement, Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
For 7 days, animals from all over the globe suddenly appeared, heading to the ark. One wonders if the neighborhood began to be afraid that there might be something to that crazy preacher after all, when animals that they had never seen before traipsed through their gardens and frightened their livestock. Were there tremors in the earth leading up to the eruption of the fountains of the deep, or was there one cataclysmic heave after the animals and Noah's family went into the ark and the door mysteriously closed up tight?
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heaves were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights...and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. -- Gen.7:11-12,17-19
Noah's preparation had ended; the transition of the whole earth to a new beginning had begun.
What transitions have happened in my life that I can clearly see that God acted to prepare me ahead of time? What is He speaking to me now that I need to be careful to obey in order to be prepared for whatever might be coming next?
When I decided to look at folks who went through transitions, I kinda figured I'd start with Noah. He was the first to really come through a transition and begin again with a promise.
Noah was a unique individual. In a society that had become so evil and godless that God's heart was grieved and filled with pain, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. - Gen 6:9 (all scripture today from the NIV 84).
Only one other person had been recorded as walking with God...
Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. - Gen 5:24.
It was a pretty unusual thing, this walking with God. Noah was alone in his generation. His grandfather, Methuselah, who lived until the year the flood came may have encouraged him; his father, Lamech, who died 5 years before the flood may have encouraged him, but outside of his own family...Noah had no one who honored God with whom to share fellowship. In a society wholly given over to wickedness...such a family would be an anomaly. The scripture does not recount Noah's interaction with his peers, but looking at the track record of how a worldly society esteems those who do not join in their pursuits, we can deduce with some confidence that he had a struggle. In fact, I've wondered if part of the reason God decided to destroy civilization was to protect Noah and his family and the lineage of Seth from being annihilated by folks who hated them.
But...despite any possible contentions with those around him, God gave Noah very specific instructions on what he needed to do to survive the coming judgement and Noah did everything just as God commanded him (6:22).
Prior to his transition, God prepared him. And he did what God said to do.
Ya'll, that just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I just sat there and pondered that for a bit.
There's gonna be a part two, 'cause I want to hang there for a minute.
God prepares His people. You may or may not know precisely what's coming...but He will provide instructions that, if you follow them, will have you exactly where you need to be when the moment comes.
I think its interesting that the ark is never referred to as a boat. In fact, the word used is Strong's 8392 , tebah, which means 'a box'; the Blue-Letter Bible site states that it has the connotation of a chest or coffer; it is only used to denote the ark that Noah built and the basket that carried the infant Moses in the river.
I wonder how accurate modern renditions of the ark...which all tend to look a lot like a big boat...really are. Did he taper it fore and aft? Did he curve the outside as a hull? Did the hand of God, which closed the door, hold it steady as the storms raged and the geysers erupted and the moisture stored since creation in the firmament above crashed to the earth?
Whatever Noah did, it was what God instructed, even though it might have seemed ludicrous to him and certainly would have caused a stir in the community. Someone already conspicuous for righteous living would now be even more conspicuous for odd behavior. Peter records that Noah preached to his generation...a message of God's judgement against wickedness that was no more likely to have been popular then that it would be now. We know he had no converts...no one who repented and asked to be included. Possibly some of Noah's own children had joined the society and only Shem, Ham and Japheth remained loyal to their father and his God. Noah's siblings and their children certainly had left the family values behind.
Nonetheless, as the day grew closer Noah did not fall off the pace. The ark was completed and stocked with food. Genesis 7:5 repeats the statement, Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
For 7 days, animals from all over the globe suddenly appeared, heading to the ark. One wonders if the neighborhood began to be afraid that there might be something to that crazy preacher after all, when animals that they had never seen before traipsed through their gardens and frightened their livestock. Were there tremors in the earth leading up to the eruption of the fountains of the deep, or was there one cataclysmic heave after the animals and Noah's family went into the ark and the door mysteriously closed up tight?
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heaves were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights...and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. -- Gen.7:11-12,17-19
Noah's preparation had ended; the transition of the whole earth to a new beginning had begun.
What transitions have happened in my life that I can clearly see that God acted to prepare me ahead of time? What is He speaking to me now that I need to be careful to obey in order to be prepared for whatever might be coming next?
Monday, May 25, 2015
The Power of Heirloom Seed
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
One of our associate pastors, Pastor Scott, brought the message on Memorial Day Sunday...which also happened to be Pentecost. His word challenged me on several areas and he said a thing during the second service that was paradigm shifting for me...a paradigm that I needed shifting.
But, as a good message does, it also sparked creative connections in my spirit. He talked a little bit about heirloom seed at one point...and connections started firing off.
My grandmother, whose 110th birthday would also have been that Sunday, was a farm wife from the depression generation who never wasted ANYTHING. Most of her food was produced on her farm.
Although as she grew older they discontinued the livestock (hogs, chickens, a milk cow), she maintained her magnificent vegetable gardens and flower beds up until the last year of her life. There were vegetables in that garden that were planted from her own heirloom seed.
I remember the seed from green beans and tomatoes; there may have been others. In between services, I shared a story with Pastor Scott about Grandma's tomato seed...
In the late 60's and 70's, Grandma was an active participant in the Indiana State Fair. One of the things she entered was a plate of her cherry tomatoes...raised from her own seed, they were very small, very red, perfectly round and quite tasty. They won awards at the Fair.
The year after she died, My Sweet Babboo, the Princess (who was about a year and half old at the time) and I managed to get to Indiana during the State Fair, and we went with my folks. At one point, Dad commented that we needed to go to the Horticulture Building to see if any of Grandma's tomatoes were there. I couldn't understand how Grandma's tomatoes could be there, but he told us that every year that Grandma won prizes for her tomatoes, by the end of the fair there were no tomatoes left on her exhibit plate. All of them...20 or so...had been pinched and carried off by other folks. And, as the years went on, the number of other entries of very small, very round, very red cherry tomatoes steadily increased. Sure enough, when we went by the exhibit, there were several plates of those very tomatoes. Grandma's seed was still producing fruit, even though she was gone.
Y'see, that's what heirloom seed does. It is not a hybrid; its DNA does not change from one generation to the next. But seed must be saved from each generation; if all the produce from one generation is consumed, there will be none left to plant the next generation.
This requires diligent and intentional action; saving seed doesn't happen unless a deliberate decision is made to collect and process the fruit for seed. Then the seed has to be carefully stored until the next growing season...protected from moisture, rodents and insects, and calamity (such as a fire). Such valuable seed is only planted in ground that has been carefully prepared to receive it; it is never thrown helter-skelter out in the wild to see if it will take root and grow.
Now, consider all this in the light of Luke 8:11...The seed is the Word of God.
It does not change from one generation to the next.
It must be intentionally sown into each generation and preserved for the next.
It continues to bring fruit generation after generation.
What am I doing in my own life to cultivate and preserve the heirloom seed? How am I sowing that seed into the next generation?
One of our associate pastors, Pastor Scott, brought the message on Memorial Day Sunday...which also happened to be Pentecost. His word challenged me on several areas and he said a thing during the second service that was paradigm shifting for me...a paradigm that I needed shifting.
But, as a good message does, it also sparked creative connections in my spirit. He talked a little bit about heirloom seed at one point...and connections started firing off.
My grandmother, whose 110th birthday would also have been that Sunday, was a farm wife from the depression generation who never wasted ANYTHING. Most of her food was produced on her farm.
Although as she grew older they discontinued the livestock (hogs, chickens, a milk cow), she maintained her magnificent vegetable gardens and flower beds up until the last year of her life. There were vegetables in that garden that were planted from her own heirloom seed.
I remember the seed from green beans and tomatoes; there may have been others. In between services, I shared a story with Pastor Scott about Grandma's tomato seed...
In the late 60's and 70's, Grandma was an active participant in the Indiana State Fair. One of the things she entered was a plate of her cherry tomatoes...raised from her own seed, they were very small, very red, perfectly round and quite tasty. They won awards at the Fair.
The year after she died, My Sweet Babboo, the Princess (who was about a year and half old at the time) and I managed to get to Indiana during the State Fair, and we went with my folks. At one point, Dad commented that we needed to go to the Horticulture Building to see if any of Grandma's tomatoes were there. I couldn't understand how Grandma's tomatoes could be there, but he told us that every year that Grandma won prizes for her tomatoes, by the end of the fair there were no tomatoes left on her exhibit plate. All of them...20 or so...had been pinched and carried off by other folks. And, as the years went on, the number of other entries of very small, very round, very red cherry tomatoes steadily increased. Sure enough, when we went by the exhibit, there were several plates of those very tomatoes. Grandma's seed was still producing fruit, even though she was gone.
Y'see, that's what heirloom seed does. It is not a hybrid; its DNA does not change from one generation to the next. But seed must be saved from each generation; if all the produce from one generation is consumed, there will be none left to plant the next generation.
This requires diligent and intentional action; saving seed doesn't happen unless a deliberate decision is made to collect and process the fruit for seed. Then the seed has to be carefully stored until the next growing season...protected from moisture, rodents and insects, and calamity (such as a fire). Such valuable seed is only planted in ground that has been carefully prepared to receive it; it is never thrown helter-skelter out in the wild to see if it will take root and grow.
Now, consider all this in the light of Luke 8:11...The seed is the Word of God.
It does not change from one generation to the next.
It must be intentionally sown into each generation and preserved for the next.
It continues to bring fruit generation after generation.
What am I doing in my own life to cultivate and preserve the heirloom seed? How am I sowing that seed into the next generation?
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