Animal idolatry

As my grandmother aged she changed. Something about the aging process changed her from the woman I knew growing up to a different woman while still being the same woman, if that makes sense. Somewhere inside the woman that age was turning her into was still the grandmother I knew all my life. The older she got, the more age got the better of her, the more she changed.

She's in her 80's now and living in a nursing home. But once upon a time, about ten years ago, she lived in that place between being the grandmother I grew up knowing and being the woman that now suffers from Alzheimers and other ailments. And somewhere in that place, between where she is now and what she used to be, she had a dog. One single dog. That was nothing new for her. I'm not sure I can recall a time in my life when my grandparents didn't have at least one dog. They just seemed to be dog people. My grandmother favored Chihuahuas. My grandpa favored whatever dog he had at the moment. My grandmother preferred to keep her dogs at home. She trained them to do two things, 1) stay out of the kitchen and 2) sleep in a dog crate. That was it. Beyond that her dogs had the run of the house to do as they pleased including biting the grandkids. My grandpa preferred to take his dog with him. He taught his dogs to get in his truck, to wait there with the windows down, and he often bought them chicken from restaurants just because 'they like it'.

That was my grandparents and their pets. They often had two dogs. His and hers. That was just...Grandma and Grandpa. They had their dogs and you enjoyed them or put up with them depending on your feelings about dogs because Grandma and Grandpa always had them.

So my grandmother having a dog was nothing new, nothing special. She had her dog. In her mind her dog was well cared for and loved. And maybe it was. But her dog lived in the house, was rarely, if ever, bathed, covered in fleas and barely housebroken. But Grandma loved her dog and well...by that point Grandma lived alone. She needed the companionship of the dog, we all told ourselves and each other. She needed what protection that dog could offer. She needed...whatever she thought that dog could supply. We helped her get flea medicine and bathe the dog.

But somewhere along the line that dog became two dogs. Then three. Then four. Then...I don't know what the final count was before we convinced her she should not have all those dogs. But my poor grandmother loved those dogs. She really and truly loved every one of them. She had one that my uncle bought her as a puppy that once grown would bite her on a regular basis. That dog was the cause of her getting stitches more than once. We couldn't convince her to part with it because by then my uncle had died and in my grandmother's mind that dog was all she had left of her son.

Someone else gave her a very old Chihuahua. That dog had problems. It could barely eat and had had a stroke or something. It had no control over its tongue. That poor dogs tongue hung out of its mouth constantly.

The thing is that somewhere in her time of collecting dogs she lost the ability to see them as dogs. It started with the Chihuahua that couldn't control its tongue. That dog required a whole lot of care. She hand fed it and took to taking it everywhere she went. The dog was grown but she carried it in a purse, even taking it into restaurants because somehow my grandmother had the idea that because the dog could not eat hard food and had a hard time with other types of food that the dog could not be left alone for any reason.

We all dealt with it, trying to encourage her to leave the dog at home for its own good, trying to convince her that there were places she wasn't allowed to take the dog. And in the end Grandma took the dog everywhere until she somehow decided that it was best left at home when she went to town.

Long before that day came my grandmother took to calling that dog her baby and somehow from there that one dog being her baby became all of her dogs being her babies. And in her mind those dogs were truly her babies. I don't think she was able to distinguish between the dogs she called her babies and real babies. I have seen her interrupt strangers in town, strangers that were talking of their children or grandchildren, strangers speaking of brand new babies born into their family, to tell them about her 'babies'. The strangers would think by the way my grandmother spoke that she was talking of real babies and they would join the conversation thinking they were discussing real babies.

When my grandmother told them that her 'baby' was sick, those strangers worried over those babies thinking they were human babies. We tried talking to my grandmother about it to no avail. Strangers that found out she was speaking of dogs and not babies would either smile and extract themselves from the conversation or laugh about how they thought she was speaking of real babies.

But the thing is to my grandmother...she was. In her mind those dogs were babies. Her babies. And she truly could not see the difference in them and in real human babies.

We chalked it up to her age the same way we chalked up other things to her age. It was just one of those things about Grandma now that didn't used to be there.

Up until my grandmother started referring to her dogs as babies I had NEVER heard of anyone calling their animal their baby. I had known many people that loved their animals. Had met and known people that went to great expense and invested lots of time in their animals but somehow all the people I knew or met had PETS not babies. No matter how much they might love their animals they still had PETS.

Back then I did very little online. No social media. No blogging. I had email and did little else beyond some research now and then. As a result I thought this phenomena of calling animals babies was some odd trait my grandmother picked up as she aged and assumed it wasn't something most other sane people did.

Now I know better.

I can't count the number of people I've met in town that spoke of their 'babies', the number of people online that call their animals their 'babies; or 'fur babies' and well...the number of people that just plain speak of animals as if they are somehow kids or at least humans.

Just the other day I saw a post on social media about someone that had seen a dog on their daughters neighbors roof. Apparently the neighbors leave a window open so their dogs can go in and out as they wish but instead of going into the yard they go onto the roof. I have to admit I found the concept a little odd but the pictures were amusing. Who expects to see a dog sitting on a roof?

But it was the comments that bothered me. So many people spoke of how the owners were negligent in letting the dogs get on the roof. Some spoke of animal cruelty.

Really?

This was a dog that appeared well cared for. And yet the fact that the dog willingly went onto the roof meant the owners were cruel and negligent. I just can't make the connection.

There are rules, laws even, about animals of any kind being allowed in businesses where food is sold or served and yet more and more these days I see dogs, and a few other animals, in grocery stores. And no one tells them to remove the animal from the store. Workers pass by the dog like its not there or worse, stop and chat with the owner, talking about or to the dog. What happened to the rules and laws that mean those animals cannot be where food is sold?

I recently was at a doctors office, waiting in the car for a relative to come out, and discovered that another patient had brought their dog to their appointment. They did leave the dog in the car, something the dog was either not used to or did not like because it barked nonstop the entire time I was waiting in the parking lot. When my relative came out of the doctors office they commented on how the dog could be heard inside and how the receptionist was upset because it was disturbing to listen to.

There's nothing, in and of itself, bad about someone taking their dog anywhere and leaving it in their vehicle but this person took a dog that obviously cannot handle being left alone in the car and parked right up next to the front of the doctors office ensuring that everyone around, including patients in extreme pain, had to listen to their beloved pet.

I will be the first person to admit that I am not what the world refers to as an animal person. I can take animals or leave them and if I'm doing the care taking, more often than not I will leave them, but I don't mind a well behaved, well trained animal so long as it's clean and not in the store where I'm buying my groceries. I'm sorry but seeing a dog sitting in the baby seat in a shopping cart and knowing someone is going to place their baby in that same seat later is disturbing. So is the thought of buying food that someone's dog may have licked or even peed on. Yes, I have been in the store when someones dog, while riding in the cart, peed. In the floor. On the food in the shopping cart. What did the owner of the animal do? Hurry away from the evidence that their pet just left on the floor. I have no idea what they did with the things in the cart that were ruined.

But the thing is...animals don't seem to be seen as animals anymore. Somehow they are being elevated to something higher than humans, more akin to some kind of god. Maybe it's always been there and I just never saw it but it seems to me that it's escalating at a rapid pace.

There are contests for animals, usually dogs. There are day cares for dogs. Spa's for dogs. Vacation spots for dogs. There are fancy dresses, life jackets, suits, and Halloween costumes for dogs. You name it, you can probably get it for your dog and a good number of other types of pets too.

Somehow, somewhere along the line animals, especially dogs, followed closely by cats, have become idols in the extreme. And no one seems to see it. I see posts on social media all the time, posts by professing 'Christians', that speak of their 'baby' or their 'fur babies' and no one, not even the other professing 'Christians' correct them. No one says that those animals are pets and not kids. No one asks them if they realize they have made idols of their animals.

Scripture tells us that man is to use animals to serve us. We are shown animals that are used for transportation, animals that are used for food, even animals that were used to show God's wrath. But we are told not to make an idol of anything. And yet, here people are, idolizing animals to a point so far out there that I don't even know how to describe it.

I have a relative that owns a dog that takes food right out of her kids hands, that eats her food while she's eating it. And that's okay because the dog wants it. Ummm...really? This same dog bites her kids for any and every reason and it's okay because this nearly year old dog is just a 'little puppy' and 'needs to chew'. This same dog is referred to as her 'baby', 'kid' and is 'one of the family'. In fact it's one of the family to the point that they take it just about everywhere with them, even to visit friends and family.

Is that not idolatry?

Is that not placing the same, or more, importance on the dog than on the kids? This dog, by the way, was given the real human baby's favorite blanket. It is allowed to chew on all the kids toys because this dog is 'one of the kids' and it is 'Mommy and daddy's baby'.

I wish that these examples I've given in this post were rare and unusual happenings. I really wish they were. But they aren't.

There is an entire television channel dedicated to animals. I had the misfortune of seeing part of a show on that channel recently. It was something about animal rescues and in that episode the police, I don't know if they were actual police or animal enforcement officers, went to a house where they said the owner hadn't been seen for over two or three, I can't remember which, months. They walked around the outside of the house, a house that looked like it was lived in, and were VERY upset to discover a dead dog inside a dog house in the backyard. It seemed that these officers were actually disgusted at the dogs deceased condition.

They talked about that 'poor' dog. They talked about how could anyone do this to an animal. And all the time I was sitting there watching I wondered when they were going to get around to worrying about where the person or people were that belonged in that house. If they had been missing for two or three months...should the animals have been the number one concern?

But the animals were the number one concern. From that dog house in the back yard the officers continued their look-see around the house then talked about going inside. They spoke of seeing a dog that was still alive through a window and a bird cage that they couldn't tell if it was occupied or not. But they did not wonder where the person or people were that should have been in that home. They worried about what they would find inside that house but it wasn't the worry of finding dead people that concerned them, it was what condition they might find animals in that had them worried.

About the first thing they noticed when they entered the house was several guns propped in a corner. What I noticed was they weren't cheap or old guns. They appeared to be in good condition and they were higher powered rifles. They didn't strike me as the kind of thing a person would just move off and leave. The officers took notice of them but never mentioned that where there are guns like that there should be people. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe people just up and move off and leave their fancy guns every day but in my experience gun people don't just leave their guns. They might leave everything else but they don't leave their guns. Not without some serious extenuating circumstances anyway.

And yet here these officers were, noting the guns, but giving no thought to where the person was. They just went right on talking about what animals they might find in the house and what condition those animals might be in.

We never did find out where the owners were but the officers were pleased to rescue one living dog from a house where the owner was missing. It was as if the animals were all that mattered.

I can't help but see in that show, in that animal station, the promotion of animal idolatry. There are kids shows that promote dogs as the most important characters, shows that portray dogs as being human like, shows that, well...push dogs.

But it's not all dogs. There are just as many shows about cats. Although that's pretty much where the animal love ends. There's some push of horses and other furry things but very little about lizards, snakes, birds, or any other kind of nonstandard pet.

There are even complete shows about the killing of alligators and snakes. No one seems to care if a snake is captured and cut open while its still alive but let a dog go out on a roof of its own accord and it's animal cruelty. Catch an alligator with some kind of line and hook then shoot it in the head and it's perfectly fine but don't neglect to feed your cat. Let cattle and chickens live in filthy, feces infested muck up to their knees then kill them and eat them and that's okay but don't chain your dog without giving it a place to get out of the sun.

It seems that animal idolatry is everywhere, even in chickens and cattle. There are those that won't eat meat because it's animal cruelty. Those that plaster certain breeds of animals on their clothing and coffee cups. Those that think so highly of their pets that they could care less that they just put their animal in a shopping cart where a child will later be put, a child that could have life threatening allergies.

I know of a family whose young son is so allergic to cats that he goes into anaphalactic shock if a cat has been in their yard and the boy goes outside, even if there is no sign of a cat anywhere around. There are people that are terrified of animals. And yet, people bring their pets into stores despite laws and rules forbidding that very thing.

Is that the reason the Lord put animals on this earth? Are dogs here to have their owners cooking them fancy dinners, buying them wardrobes of clothes and piles of toys or are they here to serve people, providing security, assistance to the disabled, clean up of the earth through eating waste, providing transportation, and search and rescue missions? Dogs can be well cared for while being trained to serve and help the people around them.

Are cats here to be bought fancy canned food, elaborate tree scratching posts (designed to mimic experiences they would have living in the wild), and having their every meow catered to or are they here to hunt mice and other rodents?

Are animals here to serve?

Or to be served?

The enslavement of marriage

I recently wrote a post over a feminist poster that I saw, something that I tried very hard to just skim past when I saw it but then what I saw stayed with me so much that I needed to write just to clear up my own thoughts.

Well, today I saw something that effected me very much the same way. It was once again something having to do with feminists although I was kind of amazed that this came straight from a man's mouth. I know there are all types out there and I know that there are men that support women't causes but...feminism is so much of an anti-man cause that I would think that no man would want to support it. I know I wouldn't want anything to do with it if I was a man and yet...a man said something that was so disturbing to me that I am once again writing about feminism, not because I really want to but because my mind simply has a hard time understanding how anyone out there can think this way, much less how men can think this way.

Doesn't feminism directly disregard men?

Aren't feminists of a mindset that women are somehow victimized because they are women and that all men are the reason for all their woes simply because they are men?

And yet...there was this man saying what I wish I could quote word for word but what amounted to:

Women are so brainwashed by a fake sense of needing to conform and to have security that they willing enter into the 'marriage tradition', possibly the most horrid example of enslaving one person to another in all of history. People take their kids to church were they are taught that women can never reach the heights that men can. There are feminists that still want their dad to walk them down the aisle and 'give' them away. Homosexuals didn't fight for equality in all things they fought to be allowed to marry. Social pressure toward marriage is so strong that they actually fought to be included in this 'disgusting ritual' that is the base of enslaving women. Women will never be equal until we get rid of such enslaving traditions.

Oh...my. I don't even know how to respond to that. My first thought...that was written by a MAN. Um, what man is so for women usurping them that they would think such a thing much less give voice to it?

I know someone that claims that women aren't treated fairly because they make less money than men do. Maybe I'm super sheltered, I've only held a handful of jobs in my life. I've never tried to climb a career ladder, never desired to gain ground in a job. But...isn't minimum wage the same for women as it is for men? Do men make more money as a whole? I have no idea. I know when I was in high school I had a teacher encourage all the girls to go into construction work because federal laws require equality in the workplace and that means construction companies must hire women to meet a quota of female to male workers. Trouble is there are very few, at least at that time, women that want to do construction work. And so...said our teacher...women in construction can pretty much set their own pay rate because the construction companies have to hire a certain number of women to keep out of trouble with the government.

My high school years were a long time ago and so much has changed since then that we may as well be living in a different world but I'm sure there are jobs where women are paid exactly the same as men and that there are jobs that women actually make more money than men do. It's just the nature of any game. Lawyers make more money than store managers, doctors make more than taxidermists. And I have no doubt that there are some jobs out there where women make more money than men do. I know from experience that child care is a profession that is proliferated with female workers and male workers are rarely encouraged to work in that field. Having worked in several child care facilities many years ago, and knowing many parents now, that is mostly the result of the parents feelings about having men caring for their children. There is simply a safety issue involved with men looking after children that most parents don't consider to be a concern when the caretaker is female. And so...men aren't very prevalent in the childcare workers. Or at least they didn't used to be.

But whether or not women are paid equally to men...why would a man encourage this...dare I say, craziness of feminism? It seems to me that feminism is in direct opposition to men.

My faith gives me guidelines for what men and women are to be. Men are to be the providers, the protectors. Women are to be the home keepers, the nurturers. But even if a person didn't believe in the Lord...is it really all that hard to see that men and women are different? That that difference is a good thing? And even if they can't see that, can they not see that feminists are about as against men as they can get?

I've had little experience with feminists but here lately I've had a few more encounters with the feminist movement than I'd like. I've said it before, and will no doubt say it again, I believe feminists ruined life for women that truly want to be...women. They took a country that saw women as weaker vessels, a country where men held doors for women, lifted heavy items, and generally, as a whole, looked out for women and turned it into a country where women are seen as the same as men. More or less.

I've had people tell me I should put my children in daycare and go to work. Why? Not because they had anything at stake in the way I was living but because that is the mindset of our country now. Men work. Women work. This is desired.

I recently ran into a cousin that I haven't seen in years. She works full time and both her children are in public school. Over the Christmas holiday she had the same time off work that her children had off from school. This cousin actually told me, while standing in front of her daughter, that she would much rather work than be at home with her kids.

What is wrong with this thought process?

Years ago I was babysitting for a woman that was working when I started keeping her child but then wound up unemployed. This woman paid me to watch her child, day after day, while she sat home collecting unemployment.Why? Because she couldn't handle her own toddler.

This is what feminism has brought us to. This is the mindset of America today. Children are institutionalized almost from the moment they're born so that women can work.

And now I hear something so degrading to marriage that I can't even think of a proper way to describe it. I'll admit that the modern American marriage isn't what it should be. I've seen married couples stand in their yard and scream at each other. I've seen husband's abuse their wives. Seen wives chase their husband with a baseball bat. I've heard a wife speak all kinds of horrific things about her husband while said husband was home caring for their children.

Marriage today isn't what it should be. But it isn't enslavement, not by a long shot. Not in America. And it isn't just some ritual or tradition that we keep to the detriment of women.

How can anyone feel that marriage is an enslavement to women? I know there are countries where arranged marriages are the norm. I know there are cultures where women truly are treated as less than human. And I know that the very cultures and religions that practice those things also exist in America, and that they practice those things inside America despite laws that do not allow such things, but as a whole American women freely choose to marry and they choose who they will marry.

Some women chose to be stay at home wives, some chose to raise their own children rather than pass them off to others to do the job the Lord gave them to do. But with very few exceptions these are women that willingly chose to do this. They want to be a stay at home wife. They want to be a stay at home mom. They want to be there when their husband comes home from work. They want to care for their children.

These women aren't enslaved. They aren't oppressed. They aren't mistreated. I know because I am one of these women. My sister is one of these women. My friend is one of these women. We don't feel enslaved. We feel blessed. Our husbands love us. They care for us. They look after us.

My husband works long hours, often dealing with physical exhaustion and pain, working in the cold and rain, giving up his time, effort, and energy to make a living for our family. And he does it all for us. I'm not enslaved. I'm not mistreated. I'm not oppressed in any way. And no, I'm not brainwashed into thinking these things. I am loved. I am cared for. I am taken care of. I am protected from the harsher side of life. I am protected from the physical and mental demands of holding down a job. And...I am blessed.

I am not, and never have been, a slave because I am married.

I have to wonder if the man that made that statement has ever been married. Does he even truly know what marriage is like? Has he experienced it? And if he did...was he an enslaving kind of husband? If so...than maybe he should look at himself and not at marriage in general. Did he mistreat his wife? Was his dad an abusive husband? Did he feel like his mother was a slave to his dad?

What would prompt a man to speak against marriage? What would prompt him to hold such contempt of marriage, under the guise of giving women equality, that he would go so far as to say homosexuals should not have wanted the right to marry (I happen to agree with him but not for the reasons he feels that way). Do the homosexuals know something that this man doesn't? Maybe they see that marriage is a good thing. Maybe they see the give and take, the support, the security in simply knowing someone is there for you, someone to share your life with, and they wanted to be a part of that.

Now...I am NOT for a single second advocating homosexual marriage. Such a thing goes against Scripture. And it goes against the very nature of what marriage is. A union created by the Lord between one man and one woman to represent the relationship between Christ and His people. It is a holy union that cannot be attained by people committing what Scripture refers to as sodomy and is an abomination to the Lord. What I am saying is that maybe, just maybe, homosexuals somehow sense the importance of marriage and that despite the sin that holds them hostage in their thoughts and deeds, that maybe they see that there is something special in marriage. And maybe they understand something that the man that spoke against marriage, on behalf of freedom for women, does not understand.

Marriage is not enslavement. Marriage is an honor.

Romans 12

I read an article recently that referenced Romans 12. That article left me kind of wondering how the author came to the conclusions they did but it also left me thinking about Romans 12.

In that article the author asked some questions along the lines of…

If the world treasures things…do we?

If the world see’s something as okay…do we?

If the world loves it…do we?

It leaves me thinking…do we? There are so many things, so many places where something is accepted or seen as normal simply because it’s what is accepted. When I first became a parent I did a lot of things without thinking, things that I’d always done in my life so I just continued those things with my children. It wasn’t until I’d been a parent for quite a few years that I started questioning whether or not some of those things were something I really wanted to teach my children.

As a Christian my life is so different from what most people see as normal that my sister has said I make things harder than they have to be because there’s so much I want no part of. What she doesn’t understand is that my life isn’t hard. Not for me. Giving up all those sinful things was the easy way. It was much easier than continuing to allow them in my life because sin hurts my heart, hurts my soul. Staying away from those things brings peace, contentment, and joy. It’s not hard, it’s easy.

But it isn’t that way for so many ‘Christians’ today. Christianity can’t even agree on how to be ‘Christians’ so how can any ‘Christian’ figure out what is acceptable and what isn’t. I’ve read that divorce is higher among ‘Christians’ than it is among those that aren’t ‘Christian’. ‘Christians’ are homosexuals. ‘Christians’ have abortions.

And because those ‘Christians’ accept so much of what the world sees as being good there are some that are left asking ‘if the world is okay with it…are we?’

As I read that article I found it sad and encouraged at the same time. Christians shouldn’t need to ask those kinds of questions. And yet they do. Even true regenerate Christians are presented with so much in our world that sometimes we have to really use discernment to know whether or not it’s acceptable in the Lord’s eyes.

I picked up a book not that long ago because the title caught my attention. It was about the doctrine of election. As I lifted it off the shelf I thought I might have found a book that I would and could enjoy. Only it wound up presenting four different views on the doctrine of election. It wasn’t just scripturally based as I had hoped. I had to use discernment as I looked through it to figure out if it was a book that I should read. I put it back.

Movies come out that claim to be Christian and yet so much discernment is needed to see if it’s truly okay. I don’t ask myself ‘if the world loves it…do we?’ but the need to discern things is there. The need to be careful not to let influences that don’t need to be in our lives is there.

I wasn’t sure I saw the connection that the author of the article I was reading made to Romans 12. In fact the author really didn’t make any connection beyond stating a reference to Romans 12. But when looking at Romans 12 I could see the connection that the author of that article failed to make.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In the first verse alone there is plenty of option to ask…Does the world? Do we? Paul is speaking to ‘brothers’, to the elect, to the regenerate. The message, the question, is being given to true born again Christians.

 ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The next verse gives us more to go on. As true Christians we should be able to discern most things without asking ourselves if they’re okay but when in doubt here’s yet another verse to help us. Is something we are holding, looking at, or thinking about what would be considered conformed to this world? Does it hold with the world’s standards? Does it renew our minds to the Lord’s standards? If we test it can we discern the will of God? Is it good in his eyes? Acceptable? Perfect?

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Does something in our life…in our culture…promote the idea of thinking of others more highly than it does the thinking of ourselves or does it encourage us to think of our own desires and needs before those of others? What do we see if we truly look at something soberly, through our faith, and not through the eyes of the flesh?

 ⁴ For as in one body we have many members,^[e] and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

I will admit to failing to see a connection between this part and looking at things of the world except maybe in the way we look at each other, rather in the way we look at other believers.

⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,^[f] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Do our actions show the depth of our faith? When we do something do we do it in faith? When serving others do we do so with all we have to give them? If we teach do we do it in faith that the Lord is leading what we teach? Do we lean on Him as we instruct others? When we give do we do so generously?

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Is our love true love? Do we love out of the abundance of our hearts or do we love because it’s expected of us? Do those we encounter, those in our daily lives, feel our love? Do we hate what is evil? Does that hate show? When our children encounter sin do they know that it is something we hate? Do we embrace only the good? Do our children see that in our lives? Do others?

¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Does the world see this love? Do we feel it or are we simply going through the motions?

¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,^[g] serve the Lord.

Do we serve the Lord in all that we do? Does it show? Do those around us know of our beliefs? How would they describe us if asked to do so?

¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Do we have hope even when it looks like all hope is lost? Do we become easily angered when things get rough? Do we pray always?

¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

These are things that are seen rarely in our society….are they seen in us?

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Ohh…that’s a hard one. Do we do it? Do we react differently to persecution in any form than the world does?

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Are we happy for others simply because they are happy? Do we hurt for those who hurt?

¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.^[h] Never be wise in your own sight.

The further I go the harder this gets. Do we think we’re better than others or do we see even the most disreputable person as better than we are? I will admit now to having a hard time with this one. Do we see ourselves as wise? Do we see others and ourselves as the world leads us to think of ourselves and those around us or do we see them as instructed in Scripture?

¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Do we live…and act…honorably in the sight of everyone? Do we treat someone as they have treated us or do we respond out of the love Christ has put in us? Do we react as the world tells us we should or do we react out of our faith?

¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

This is another one that gets hard. Peace is often hard found with many people. Do we try to find it even in the hard times?

¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it^[i] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Do we leave anger and vengeance to the Lord even when we are wronged? Do we leave it to the Lord when our children are wronged?

²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Could we feed someone that had harmed us or our children? Do we? How do we respond to those that do or say things that hurt us or those closest to us?

 ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

When we are surrounded with evil…an everyday occurrence in our society…do we hold onto the good and ward off the evil that tries time and again to get the better of us?

 

 

 

 

 

Called to be seperate

On this rather long and winding path I have taken to get closer to Christ…a path I did not choose,  nor did I ask to be placed on…I have found myself being further and further separated from the things of this world and even, for the most part, the people of this world.

I have a sister that not only thrives on social connections but she seems to truly need them. I guess she’s always been that way. I, on the other hand, have never been that way. When I was a child, going to school, I needed…and I stress the word needed because I was lost without her…a best friend. She was always like a security blanket for me. So much so that when she would miss a day of school I was lost…all but didn’t know how to function…without her.

I had several best friends over the years of school and had the same dependency on all of them but as I got older I developed friendships with more of the girls I went to school with. Those friendships filled the days when my best friend wasn’t there. By the time I was in high school I no longer had that need. In fact, by then we had moved so much that I no longer had any close friends. I simply went through my days at school and went home. And I was okay with that.

As the years passed and I became an adult with a family of my own people…friends…came and went, family ties that were once strong faded away while those I had never been close to before became closer. Life…happened. And while it happened I found myself slowly…ever slowly…being pulled from the world and those in it.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have strong relationships with family. I have friends. But I don’t have the same connections to the world a lot of people seem to have. I don’t need them and quite honestly…I don’t want them.

But looking back over the years I can see a separation from the world in me that started even in childhood. I was always the girl that was happy with one friend. As I grew older I was happy with only family relationships. I never felt the need to be surrounded by friends.

It’s neat to look back over our lives and see how the Lord prepared us for what we are today. The Lord…will separate us from the world. That was the point. It is a point I can’t make though without going all the way back to my childhood. Back to the days when…in kindergarten…I would stand just inside the classroom door and cry until my best friend arrived, back to the days that…when school was just too much…I would cry and the teacher would send me to the nurses office because I didn’t feel good and I would be sent home from school, back to the days when I literally didn’t know what to do on a day when my best friend was absent.

I was separated then. Separated from all the kids around me, separated from the life of school. I had no interest in it and no desire to be even a small part of it. And so I had that one friend that I was close to…and that made the days bearable.

From those days…the separation never ended. I was so often in the world but rarely was I a part of the world. Even in my teen years.

As a Christian that is a good thing. It’s what we’re called to be in Scripture. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to understand that and it was much more recently that I was able to connect that separation that I feel in me to the calling that was placed upon me.

As I go through life…when I’m in town amongst the ‘world’…I feel no connection to it. There are things I enjoy doing but there is nothing I feel I must do…for myself, not the have to do this kind of tasks of caring for a family and a home.

It is a separation that allows me to enjoy the things in the world but to not feel the need to have the connections and interactions…and experiences…that so many do. It is a separation that takes me from the nonsense of this world and places me in the Lord’s will for me.

This separation…I have had family members say that I make being a Christian harder than it has to be because I separate from so much. What those family members don’t understand is that first, I didn’t choose that separation, it’s just there, and second, the separation makes everything easier. It takes the stresses and pressures of much of this world away and leaves me with a peace that only the Lord can give.

 

The mysterious treasure

I well remember the day the Scriptures came alive for me like they never had before. I remember how fascinated I was to just turn the pages of the Bible and read it at random…just to see if I could see in all of the Scriptures what I had seen in some. And how amazed I was that I could.

I felt that I had been allowed to know a secret that had been there all along but I hadn’t been told until that moment. And I was mesmerized.

My husband says I fell in love with the Scriptures.

Maybe I did. There was just something so…amazing in them that captivated me. There is still something amazing in them. There are verses in the Bible that tell of the mystery being revealed. That was how I felt, like the mystery had been revealed.

Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Ephesians 3:2-6 esv

That verse alone says so much about the mystery. How it was given to Paul through revelation. How it was kept for those that would be allowed to know it. I have found it fascinating to read ‘which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations.’ It was a secret that was kept for those the Lord wanted to reveal it to.

When I think of the world, of all the people in the world, for all time…and how the secret is revealed to those that receive the ability to understand the mystery. How amazing is that?! It’s like being handed a box that holds a secret so great that we can’t fathom it all. And we can’t share it because the secret doesn’t exist except for those that are given the same secret.

And in some ways that is exactly what happens. We are the ‘box’ in which the secret has been placed. We are the ‘box’ that has been entrusted with the mystery. Those of us that are in Christ are not only handed the key to unlock the mystery but the very secret that is kept for those that have been entrusted with it are the key to the ‘box’. They are the ‘box’. We hold within us a secret so great that it has been kept and handed down through all of eternity, from the very creation of the world, so that it will be preserved and passed on to those that are yet to come that will also be the keepers of the secret.

What would you do if someone handed you a box and told you it held the mystery of the world in it? Provided you understood that the box truly held those mysteries and you believed it with everything in you…what would you do with that box? How gently would you handle it? How long would you study the box? How would you transport it? How would you store it? To what lengths would you go to protect it?

I wrote a post a while ago titled ‘how far would you go’. In it I asked how far you would go to see to it that those you love knew the truth. Now I ask how far would you go to protect the secret…the mystery…if it was handed into your care?

How special would you feel to know that out of all the world you had been chosen to protect the mystery and carry on the secret?

Imagine holding that box in your hands and knowing it contained the most powerful thing in the world…and that it explained everything there is about the world…imagine knowing you were responsible for that box.

Several months ago my sister told me about a television program she watched where they speculated on whether the Ark of the Covenant could have been radioactive…nuclear even…because of what happened to anyone that touched it. She said that in the program they said most if not all of the consequences for touching it could be explained by nuclear power. At the time I found it interesting and even thought of Moses. How he glowed after encountering God.

the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him. Exodus 34:35 esv

That, too, I would think could easily be explained through some sort of nuclear power. As could the verses about the burning bush…

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Exodus 3:2-6

As I was listening to my sister talk of the possibility that the Ark of the Covenant may have been nuclear I found the topic interesting but also had no need to know or even speculate on whether or not it was. I know what or rather Who caused the consequences for touching the Ark of the Covenant. What method He may have used to bring about those consequences isn’t something I feel the need to know. Not that we can ever know.

But as I write this I am reminded of that conversation. What would you do if you were handed a box and told that it is the mystery of all of life but that its nuclear and you must handle it exactly this way.

I am reminded, too, of a program my children like to watch. It’s set in the 1800’s and in one episode the men take a job transporting liquid nitrogen. Oh, the care they take with those glass bottles after being told that jostling can make them explode.

How careful would you be if you held in your hands a box containing a nuclear mystery that would explode if you handle it the wrong way? How afraid of that mystery would you be? How careful would you be to handle it just the right way?

The mystery spoken of in Scripture isn’t nuclear, it won’t explode if you drop it, but it’s no less powerful.

And it’s been entrusted to a select set of people.

And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Matthew 13:11 esv

            Not everyone can see or understand the mystery. It’s a secret. It’s big…huge even. It’s profound. It’s unlike anything else you will ever encounter. And if you’re truly in Christ…you hold the key to the mystery. You have been told the secret.

            It is a treasure that has been entrusted to a select set of people. Scripture even tells us who they are…

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:4-5 esv

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11

            Now do you see the treasure you hold? Not only have those that were entrusted with the secret been told the mystery but they were chosen…hand picked by the Lord…to know that mystery. And He didn’t just look down on all the people in the world today and select those He would give the secret to…He chose who would know the secret before the earth was made.

            Before He created anything…He thought of His people…the one’s that would be entrusted with the secret. He knew their names before He formed the earth.

            Imagine that box again. Here it is…in your hands. You hold it. Just after being handed the box…before you knew it was nuclear…you held it in your hands amazed at the mystery you were entrusted with. Then you learn its nuclear and if you mishandle it, it will explode. Now you’re afraid of it.

What are you supposed to do with it?

When it was simply…if you can call it simple at all…the mystery of the world it was amazing but now you know. You know it comes with great power. And you now hold that power in your hands.

What…

Are you...

 Supposed…

 to do with…

IT?

I ask again…how would you handle it? How would you treat it? This powerful mystery you have now been entrusted with, that you were chosen before time to be entrusted with…is now in your hands.

And it’s a treasure beyond comprehension. It’s worth more than gold, more than all the money in the world. There is nothing on earth worth as much.

And you have it.

It was hidden ‘through the ages’ and has now been revealed to you.

… the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Colossians 1:26-27 esv

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages Romans 16:25 esv

            And only those that have been chosen to know the secret can understand the mystery.

And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,  Mark 4:11 esv

            This mystery…is understandable only by those that were chosen to know it…only those that it was given to.

And not only were you chosen to know the mystery…you were prepared to know it.

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9 esv

            Why were you prepared for this mystery? Why were you chosen before all of creation to be handed this mystery? What did you do to earn such a treasure?

            For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship… Ephesians 2:8-10 esv

            You did nothing to earn the treasure. You weren’t even given a map to find it. You were simply handed the treasure as a gift.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV

            Everyone knows that finding a true treasure requires a map…a treasure map. It’s the stuff stories and legends are made of. They are the object of many childhood fantasies. But the treasure you hold came with no map and…if there was no map to get you here…how do you now hold the treasure?

…these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit... So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 esv

            You weren’t given a map…you were simply handed the treasure. Nothing you did, will do, or could do would have ever lead you to such a treasure as this. And if you had somehow managed to find the treasure on your own…which Scripture tells us is impossible…you would never have understood it.

            And still the question remains…how? How did I get here? How did I acquire such a wonderful treasure?

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 esv

            You were drawn here…dragged here, as the Greek translation says. It was not you that got yourself here but the Lord who prepared you for the secret He chose to impart to you. his preparation was so complete that he began to prepare you for it long before you were born. He chose your parents, your grandparents. He put those people in place and prepared the way for your birth. He chose where you would live, who your friends would be. He set you in the life He wanted you in at every stage. He went ahead of you and cleared the path He wanted you on, placed the people He wanted you to meet on that path, and set your feet in the direction He wanted you to go.

            Whether we wanted to go that way or not…we were made to go the way He wanted us to.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 2 Corinthians 2:14 niv

            You were a captive of Christ that was set on a path before the creation of the world. Your course was set long before there was a path to follow. The treasure was yours when you…weren’t. It was yours…held in trust…long before you were born, before you were conceived.

            Why were you given the treasure?

            …I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Exodus 33:19 esv

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 esv

            You were given the treasure…they mystery…given the secret…because it was the Lord’s good pleasure to give it to you. He chose you to be the recipient of his mercy.

All who are in Christ were given the secret of this great mystery. They were chosen to be the recipients of the mysterious treasure.

Oh, what a gift we have been given.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Touching their earthly lives

Children are such a wonderful blessing from the Lord that they bring us much joy and enjoyment on earth. They enrich our lives so much and are often our first teachers on learning to deny ourselves and put others first.

Through our children we often learn to enjoy the Lord’s creation. Through them we learn to see the wonder in a caterpillar or in the rippling of water.

And through our children we are given our best chance to live out our faith before others. Our children learn from watching us and our faith…as true, born again Christians…will impact them.

It is a great privilege to be entrusted with such blessings.

What we often forget in our enjoyment and day to day encounters with our children is that we aren’t just raising these little people that bring so much to our earthly lives….we are raising souls that belong to the Lord.

While we pray for our children’s salvation, while we live the examples we want them to follow, we may forget to stop and remember that this child that belongs to us is actually a soul that doesn’t belong to us at all.

Their souls belong only to the Lord and it’s His place to do with them what he wants. We can only guide those souls in whatever small way the Lord will allow us.

I am a homeschooling mother. Have…in fact…homeschooled my children since before they were old enough to need any form of ‘school’. In the homeschool world there is great stock placed in curriculum. There are conventions where all manner of it are displayed. You can order magazines about it, get catalogs delivered to your door that can eat up hours and hours of your days. There are hundreds if not thousands of websites offering everything from single subjects to all-inclusive curriculums. There are ‘Christian’ curriculums, secular curriculums, and more. You name it if you want to teach it to your child you can probably find it.

There are whole models of education formed around certain ideas of how you should teach your children. And there are complete models formed around the idea that you can’t teach your child, that children learn when they are ready and not before no matter what…or how much…you pump into them.

Some families are ‘homeschoolers’. That is their identity. It’s who they are and it describes everything about how they live their lives, much the way other people describe being ‘doctors’ or ‘world travelers’. It is…quite simply…who they are. And they take pride in who they are.

There are many families among the homeschool world that homeschool for the sole purpose of being able to pump ‘Christian’ content into their children. They believe that it is their place to be the religious instruction for their children and that that should include their children’s education.

Let me say…I agree with that…to a point. I do believe that as parents we have a responsibility to teach our children of our beliefs, to live out those beliefs to them, and to give them the gospel.

I don’t however believe that we can instruct our children into salvation…which is basically what some among the homeschool world are attempting to do.

Being entrusted with children…with souls…by the Lord is a privilege that comes with the added privilege of being able to live out our faith in front of our children and the ability to give them the gospel as we will probably never be able to give it to anyone else. Part of that privilege is the joy of watching our children grow and learn.

I have met many a homeschooling parent and curriculum provider that believed that getting ‘Christian’ beliefs into the ‘Christian’ child was the single most important purpose of home educating them.

The trouble with this philosophy is that it completely misses the Biblical teaching that salvation is of the Lord and that we can’t work our way into it.

If we could…if we had to…if our children’s salvation rested in our hands and in how much of the Scriptures we could get into their hearts…we would fail. Miserably.

Because salvation rests in the Lords hands alone. He is the only one that can save our children and He will do so at His will regardless of what we do or do not do.

The vessels of God’s mercy (Romans 9:22-23) are prepared for eternal glory by the Lord and they are prepared according to the plan He has in place for them. When the time is right the Lord will draw (John 6:44) or more accurately according to the Greek text…draw…their hearts and souls to Him.

What has gone into their hearts and minds prior to that moment is only what was placed in their lives so that the Lord could get them to the place where He would save them.

If it was required of us…as parents…to put everything into our children that would save them…we would fail. We simply cannot put the love of Christ into their hearts so that they will love Him above all else. Sin lives in their hearts from birth and it will take root and grow despite our best efforts to weed it out.

This sin kills our children’s hearts so much so that they are dead in sins. Only the Lord can give them life from those sins and it’s His will to do so or not and there’s nothing that we…or they…can do to affect that. While our children are dead in their sins they are in complete darkness, lost to their sins, so much so that the darkness they live in will keep them from Christ…aside from a basic head knowledge that will allow them to profess a belief that does not reach their hearts.

That is the best condition that we can hope to ‘impart’ to them through anything that we…or they…do. Everything else…salvation…is in the Lord’s hands. It’s a gift that he pours out into those that He chooses to receive it. A gift is something that is freely given, not something we work to earn.

The educating of our children in the ways of the Lord may give them a head knowledge, it may restrain them in their sins, but it will not give them salvation.

Oh, but if we could. How great it would be to focus all of our earthly time and attention on our children’s souls and know that we were giving them their very salvation.

I would gladly spend every hour of every day working the Truth of Christ into my children’s hearts if only it would save them.

But Scripture tells us that isn’t the way salvation works and that nothing I do will save my children. The good news in that is that nothing I do…no failure on my part… will cast them into hell either.

They came into this world souls that belong to the Lord, to be used for His purpose…whatever that may be…and they will go out of this world the same way.

I can only touch their earthly lives to the extent the Lord allows me to do so.