faith

The Heart of the Matter

| Marie Griffith

I continued my reading in Numbers last week so that’s where my Monday School comes from today. See the Monday School page to find out more.

Moses’ authority was challenged by his own brother and sister in Chapter 12 and Chapters 13 through 14 recounts more complaining and an all out rebellion of the people of God.

God told Moses to send spies to check out the good land of Canaan which He was giving them. Moses wanted to know a few things about the Promised Land. What was the land like? How many people are there and are they strong or weak? Are there trees on the land?

Besides confirming all the good things about the land, I’m certain Moses expected to receive information to help him and the other leaders develop a strategy to occupy it.

The report from the spies began well. They admitted the land flowed with milk and honey, but the report focused on the strong people who lived there and the large fortified cities. Caleb spoke up and reassured the people the land could be taken but this only made the other spies exaggerate their report even more. Of the people who inhabited the land the other spies said, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”  

Again, Caleb with Joshua, pleaded with the people:

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:7-9   

The people were so fearful……..so angry at the leaders for bringing them out of Egypt…………..so convinced that what God promised wasn’t true………hysteria took over and they wanted to murder Caleb and Joshua.

Ten of the twelve spies came back from the 40 day assignment convinced there was no way the land could be taken. The other two were more certain than ever of God’s promises. It makes me wonder. Did the spies stay together on their undercover journey? Or did they separate into smaller groups to explore the land? What did the spies talk about during all those late night dinners around the campfire? Did each of them know what the others thought? What did Joshua and Caleb see that the other ten didn’t?

God pointed out the difference between Caleb and Joshua and the rest. First in Numbers 14 then in chapter 32:

“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”    Verse 24

‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of those who were twenty years old or more when they came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob— not one except Caleb and Joshua, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’    Verses 11-12

Caleb and Joshua saw the same land and the same people as the other spies, but their hearts made them see with eyes of faith.

The ten spies saw the fortified cities. Caleb and Joshua saw the land God promised His people. The ten saw how big the people were and saw themselves as grasshoppers. Caleb and Joshua remembered the promises, remembered the miracles and deliverance, and saw themselves as God’s chosen ones.

Caleb and Joshua followed God wholeheartedly. It’s always about the heart.

Long after Caleb and Joshua, when the teachers of the law asked Jesus which commandment was the most important – this was his answer:

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  Mark 12:30 ESV

I like this version of the verse because it sounds like a promise too.

Maybe we love more and more wholeheartedly as we continue our journeys and grow in the knowledge of who He is. Maybe we love God in proportion to our understanding of His love for us…….and our faith grows as our love grows.

Then let us ask for understanding.

 

 

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash

 

Three Days In

| Marie Griffith

My thoughts for Monday School are on Thanksgiving. I expected to write about one of the many verses on thankfulness but when I read this story I knew this had to be in Monday School.

I like to think of myself as a grateful person, but I realize I’m more like the people in the story than I want to be.

Three days.

That’s how long the people of Israel traveled before they complained.

The first part of Numbers is about censuses, assignments of duties, march formations and camp set up. But by the end of chapter 10, the people of Israel are on the move. Verses 33 & 34 say, “So they set out from the mountain………..the cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.”

After almost a full year at Mount Sinai the people of Israel began their journey to the Promised Land. Three days in “and the people complained….” But the complaining turned into something worse.

“The rabble with them began to crave other food and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetites; we never see anything but this manna!”   Numbers 11:4-6

The people did the same thing three days into the trek from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. (Exodus 15) They complained about water. After they saw the Red Sea parted and walked to the other side on dry land…….they complained about water. This time they grumbled about food. The bread of heaven had ceased to satisfy. It wasn’t good enough. And with each complaint the people romanticized their time in Egypt.

We do the same. We may not say it out loud but we grumble in our hearts. The business we prayed for finally happens and as soon as it’s more challenging than expected we dream of the easy days before it started. The promotion we wanted demands more conflict resolution skills than we care for and we want to give up. We pray for good friends but distance ourselves when the relationships requires more give than take.

Like the people of Israel, we want the Promised Land but not the difficult journey. We want the privileges without the responsibility, the transformation without the work, the patience without the perseverance, and the faith without the fight. We want all the good stuff without any of the hard stuff.

Like the people of Israel, we forget. We forget the miracles, the healing, and the promises kept. And we choose not to remember how it really was in Egypt.

We would never say it but we ignore God’s Presence, doubt His promises and despise His provision.

And like the people of Israel, sometimes God gives us exactly what we think we want.

 

For the rest of this story read Numbers 11.

 

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Splash

| Marie Griffith

I read one of my favorite Bible passages yesterday and it was like I was reading it for the first time. Maybe it’s because I’m reading a different version but I noticed some words I hadn’t before. The passage is a prayer for the church at Ephesus……a prayer for strength and insight.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:14-19

This is beautiful. All of it. But these are the words that jumped out at me:

….and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

What is the fullness of God? The phrase is seen again in Colossians 1:19 referring to Jesus: “for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” It’s everything of God. His wisdom, Spirit, light, love, power and glory.

Amazing! We can be filled with the fullness of God. That’s what Paul prayed for the church then and what we can pray for one another now.

But how are we filled with all the fullness of God?

The love of Christ. To be rooted in it. Grounded in it. To comprehend it and know it.

This is a supernatural knowing that surpasses knowledge and God is the One who gives it. But we can be willing seekers. We can humbly ask Him to give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We can resist the idea that we know all we need to know and instead ask for clean hearts and greater faith and the strength to comprehend.

Then when we’re filled we will pour out. We’ll be filled again and again as we follow and learn, and pour out again and again. Even better than that.

We’ll splash onto others a life-giving splash because that’s what God’s love does.

 

This is the most recent session of Monday School, the newest feature on my blog. You can find out what Monday School is all about here.

Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar on Unsplash

 

 

Monday School

| Marie Griffith

From the time I could read I’ve talked about what I’m reading to anyone who will listen. When I was a girl this happened when my sister and I played school. Most of the time, I was the teacher and she the student, though I never minded being the student. A good teacher is always a good student first.

Not only do we learn as we read, we continue to learn as we meditate on, share, and discuss what we’ve read. The Bible is no exception.

The Bible, especially, is meant to be read and thought about. A lot of times I’ll read a passage and one verse or phrase will stick in my head until I’ve considered it, asked questions about it and shared it with others. My intention is not only to share what I think about it, but to cause others to ponder and ask questions about it as we discuss it. Yes, I will teach and explain sometimes but only with a desire for the hearers to read and think about it for themselves. Mostly I want to have a conversation about it. I’m a fellow journeyer – learning to love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind and learning to love others well. I have a long way to go and the journey is better with others.

Beginning today, I will share a passage, verse or phrase that’s stuck in my head. I’ll call it Monday School. It’s a little like Sunday School but not really because there isn’t an attendance chart or gold stars for memorizing verses.

Maybe sharing what’s stuck in my head will get it stuck in your head too and we can talk about it until it isn’t stuck anymore. Or maybe it’s one of those that should stay stuck in our heads until it pierces our hearts which is the whole point of God’s Word anyway.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  Deuteronomy 6:6

“The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.”
– Dwight L. Moody

A few weeks ago I was reading in Matthew 8.

5 When he (Jesus) had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant,[c] ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel[d] have I found such faith.

The phrase that stood out to me: “When Jesus heard this, he marveled….”

Jesus marveled…….he was astonished or filled with wonder because of the centurion’s faith. It made me think about my own faith in God. What do I believe? Why do I believe it? Does my faith cause Jesus to marvel?

I can’t fake faith. Maybe on the outside…….maybe I can fool others but I can’t fool God. He knows my faith or lack of it. Then I remember Hebrews 12:2 where it says Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Jesus is making my faith perfect. I don’t need to fake it.

And now I’m the one marveling.

Do you ever doubt? Do you struggle believing God?

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

 
Astonish

Share Your Story

| Marie Griffith

Each of us has a tale to tell if we would only tell it.
Frederick Buechner

Your story matters. Your little stories, your big ones, the whole story of your life so far.

We learn about ourselves and others and the world through stories. They change us and connect us. Stories deepen our understanding of one another. Stories help us see what really matters…..past what we wear, our age, and the color of our skin. Past what we fix up and try to hide. Stories help us see the heart. A friend recently wrote, “Stories push us to grace.”

But I’m not talking about our Instagram stories, or any of the ones we post to social media. I’m talking about sharing your life. Your life is a story and a collection of thousands of stories and your stories are best told within relationships.

I’m talking about the kind of stories shared with a group of friends over lunch. The face to face kind you share with your teenager because he’s struggling with his faith. Listening to a story that makes you laugh so hard your face hurts. Sharing the stories of triumph or fear, tragedy and faith, joy, failure, hope and love. And especially the stories that bring tears to our eyes.

So no matter how you do it, keep up with your stories. Write them out in a journal. Share them with those you’re close to. Type them out on a blog, whether you publish it or not. Because it’s important to keep track of our stories. Our real stories. The messy ones we prefer no one to know. The ones about living inside ourselves and those that make us uncomfortable.

We keep track of our stories so we don’t forget who we are. So we remember what we’ve seen and felt and lived through. Because when your friend goes through the same thing, you can be there, sharing your story, and making your friend feel less alone. Or you sit there and say nothing at all because you remember the times it was all you needed.

Keeping track of our stories help us remember those things. If we lose track of our stories, we lose the ability to connect with people in the most essential way – heart to heart. We forget how to be with people and try to fix them instead. We forget compassion and empathy.

We forget how it feels.

Jesus was a storyteller and ever compassionate. He was weary and thirsty when he met a woman from Samaria. The woman was an outsider, looked down upon by those around her because of her lifestyle, but Jesus didn’t treat her any differently than he treated anyone else. Possibly for the first time in her life, she didn’t feel shamed. Jesus told her everything she ever did. She was seen and understood and known. The woman was so heartened by this she went into town to tell the story.

She didn’t wait until all her problems were solved or her circumstances changed. She shared Jesus with others right in the midst of her messy, complicated life.

God uses the stories of our lives. The happy times, the messy ones, the ones that almost killed us, and even the ones we think can’t be used. All for His glory.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony,……. John 4:39  ESV

Share your lives. Tell your stories. Live like it matters.

Something More

| Marie Griffith

“Something perfectly new in the history of the Universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door which had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open.”  C.S. Lewis, Day 47 in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter

Easter Sunday has come and gone. The season of Lent is over but my journey of reflection continues with the daily readings from the devotional. I’m in the “New Life” section of the book now.

Frederick Buechner writes on Day 52:  “In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen.”

God has something more for us. But it’s not out there somewhere. It’s not tomorrow or in a few years or decades from now. It’s not when you finally have the family you’re praying for. It’s not only when your marriage gets better or when the cancer is gone or when the kids behave. It’s not just when you’re free from the addiction. It’s not only when you’ve reached your goal or when you’re living your dream.

It’s here and now.

It’s in the everyday mess of your life. The laughter and tears and everything in between. It’s in the middle of your battle. When you’re fighting for faith and trying to find joy. It’s in the hard work of reaching your goals. It’s the crying out to God when you don’t understand. It’s when you’ve conquered and when you’ve failed. When you go from feeling all is right in your world to feeling it’s hopeless. It’s when you fall and get back up. And it’s when you have no strength left to get back up.

He’s the God of your every day. Right there with you in the midst of your routine and obligations. Because “what God began, God will not abandon.” Madeleine L’Engle, Day 56

Something more is here and now.

“Those who live victoriously, though they wait in great hope and expectation for the final triumph of God’s grace, live even more in present experience of what that grace in Christ can do in their lives here and now. ‘Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’ is no idle promise for an indefinite future but a simple statement of what Christ can and will do here and now if we put our trust in him and open our lives to his presence and his power.”      Howard Hageman, Day 50

 

 

Take Heart

| Marie Griffith

My Lenten journey coincides with another journey…..one I knew would be complicated and take me to hard and lonely places. But it’s a good journey. I don’t know of any worthy journey without challenges.

It’s the hard parts that make us stronger. We’re more courageous when we get to the other side of a trial. Our hearts are strengthened by God’s faithfulness and His promises become the anchors to our souls. And our trials are nothing compared with the glory to come.

“Jesus came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for the person who would join him, who would become a follower,” writes Soren Kierkegaard in the reading from Day 11 of Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. He continues, “Christ’s life is a demand.”

God, give me courage to follow. Not to admire, but to follow.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”    John 16:33

 

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photo by dietmaha @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

path photo by danielam @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderfully Wild

Image | | Marie Griffith

When I was young I thought I knew exactly how I wanted my life to be. I dreamed and planned and prepared the best way I knew how.

Not that all of it was for nothing. It wasn’t. Plans are good. We should know where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.

But all the planning in the world can’t prepare you for the wonderfully wild life of love and grace and faith and hope.

 

In response to the Weekly Photo Challenge Bridge and the Daily Prompt Tame.

The Edge

Image | | Marie Griffith

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At the edge of my grandmother’s yard there was a rock wall that separated our yard from hers. My little sister and I jumped over those rocks a thousand times. We used the rock wall as a hurdle in the pretend race courses we created.

“Run around the pecan tree and back to the barn, from the barn to the apple tree then run and jump over the rock wall. To the gravel road back through the yard over the rock wall and down to the pines. Climb the mimosa tree and down the mimosa tree then up the gravel road to the mailbox. Whoever touches the mailbox first wins.”

I can’t remember who won most of the time. Maybe we took turns winning. I do remember that when we finished the course we felt we’d done something big. Our rock wall hurdle seemed tall way back then.

The rocks are still there……exactly as they were when I was a little girl. Now I can step over those large old rocks with ease.  img_4544

The rocks haven’t changed.

But I have.

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”         Colossians 2:7

In response to the Daily Prompt Cusp.