What are you doing with your extra day?

This is the question my husband asked me a couple of days ago.  It took me a couple of moments to realize that he was talking about February 29.  Our extra day.  I’m  actually be in LA for some meetings today so it doesn’t feel like an ‘extra day’ but…..

Let’s talk about it.  What are you doing with your extra day?

I’ve got a couple of suggestions (I’m sure that surprises you 🙂

If you’ve been reading this blog but you haven’t joined us in reading through the Bible in 2012, I encourage you to start today.  Actually start with March 1 so you start out ahead!  God has some new and special things to tell us this year as we commit this reading and thinking time to him.

Or, if you started reading but got behind and stopped – your extra day is a great day to get started again.  Start on March 1 and you’ll be ahead, too!  This whole journey is about getting more of God’s Word buzzing around in our heads and our hearts.  It’s not meant to frustrate us or make us feel guilty if we get behind.  Just start back up  – it’s all good.

Here are our readings for March:

Each Day the  Lord pours his unfailing love upon me.

Each Day the sun rises to remind me of his faithfulness,

Each day he walks beside me – protecting me,

and guiding me.

Each day I feel his love and gentle spirit.

Each day he forgives me and removes my guilt.

Each day he brings new hope and purpose.

Each day and every night I sing his praises

and speak to him – the God who gives me life.

Jesus is teaching a large crowd of people and the disciples are worried about the fact that it’s getting late and the crowd is getting hungry.    They want to send the crowd away to nearby villages to get something to eat.

Instead, Jesus tells the disciples to feed them.  He ignores their concerns about how much food it would take and asks them ‘ How much bread do you have?’

This is the same type of question God asked Moses in Exodus 4 when Moses said the elders of Israel would not listen to him.  God asked him ‘What do you have in your hand?”

What did Moses already have that he could use?  How much bread did the disciples already have?  In both instances, God wanted to use what he had already given them in order to fulfill his purposes.

I think the same is often true of us today.  We think we need more skills or gifts or talents in order to really serve God.  But God has already given us what he wants us to have and he asks us to use it in his name.

 God’s question for all of us today is “What do you already have in your hand that you can use to complete the work I have planned in advance for you to do?’

Mark tells us that Herod respected John the Baptist and liked to listen to him even though the things they talked about greatly disturbed Herod.
That’s a sure sign of the Holy Spirit working.
Have you had this happen to you? It’s happened to me many times.  Something catches my attention while I’m reading the Bible or listening to the Sunday message and then – BAM! – it hits me!  This is about me! This is God speaking about my life. A light goes on. Trumpets in my head blare out Tah-tah-da!
Sometimes its an awesome experience because it brings an understanding that I was searching for.
Other times having a light shine on something in my life is a deeply disturbing experience because it requires repentence and change. More than once I have walked out of church very angry because of the truth the Spirit had revealed to me about me and I just didn’t like it.
But not liking it doesn’t change the truth, does it?
Dear Father, we claim your promise that you will change us from the inside out if we let you. We ask you to renew our minds and transform our hearts.

Today we read about the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. I thought it was interesting how many details Mark included regarding her suffering and all of the doctors she had fruitlessly spent her money on. He gives us a pretty clear picture of how her life had been filled with hopelessness and pain and frustration.

But she doesn’t give up. She believes Jesus can heal her. And Jesus does heal her – and tells her that her faith has made her well.
Right after that, Jesus tells Jairus to ‘just have faith’ and his daughter is healed also.
I visualize Jesus walking through the crowds, encouraging them to believe in him, to have faith. Yes, he’s healing people because he cares and he loves them. But the real reason for the healings was to point the way to his Father-to give glory to his Father. So that people at that time who saw it and heard about it would believe and have saving faith.
And so people like us who read about it and hear about it now would also believe and live by faith.

Dear Father, we do believe. Please grow our faith as we take this Journey through your Word together.

The Book of Mark starts off with the ‘Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God’.
I forget sometimes how blessed I am to have a personal relationship with the ‘Good News’.  I never realized how much the Good News really changed the way I view everything until my husband and I got involved with Apartment Life Ministry. We lived in an apartment complex and we cared for our neighbors. We shared our faith with them most often in actions and listening instead of testimonies. As I listened to them describe their issues and their problems and the hurts in their lives, I had a new understanding of how Jesus really is the Good News. He was the answer to all of their questions. A relationship with him was the piece that was missing in every one of their dilemas.
We were truly blessed to be able to share with our neighbors the Good News and we saw some of them accept the truth and believe.
Thank you, Dear Father, for the Good News that is Jesus Christ, your son. Please open up our eyes to the people around us who need to hear this Good News.

Can you imagine what it looked like when the whole community of Israel went into their tents and came out with so many offerings that they had all of the materials needed for the Tabernacle? Exodus 35: 21 tells us that their hearts were stirred and their spirits were moved.

And then The Bible goes on to tell us that all of the people volunteered their skills. Some of the women were skilled in sewing while others were skilled in spinning. God gifted many of the craftsmen with the special skills that they needed in order to build the sanctuary. I wish I could have seen that sanctuary – I bet it was spectacular!

It’s still happening!  When I look around me, I see people everywhere that God is gifting with special skills to accomplish what he wants done today.  When our spirits are moved and we bring our offerings to God with a willing heart, he enables us to do his will – sometimes in truly spectacular ways and sometimes in special, small ways. But always in ways that bring joy to us and glory to him.

Dear Father, we ask you to move our spirits and stir our hearts today so that we are ready to do the work you will enable us to do right here in our neighborhood, our school, our workplace.

When I read about Moses meeting with God in Exodus 43:42, I imagine Charlton Heston walking into a tent and a cloud lowering over it. That would be a truly awesome experience!

And then I imagine me sitting on my couch with my Bible in my hands (like I am right now) and a cloud lowering over me as God talks with me. Because that’s what he’s doing when I read his word – he’s talking with me.

It’s a very intriguing image, isn’t it?

 As we sit down with him and listen, what are we hearing?

When I read these instructions from God about all of the different sacrifices the Israelites needed to make, I’m thinking about my life and is there anything I need to give up (sacrifice) in order to get into a closer relationship with God?

Dear Father, like Moses, we ask you to let us know your ways so that we may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor.

When I was a young mother, I attended one of the best Sunday school classes of my life.  In the class, an older mother (Grandma Holly for those of you that knew her) shared some of the family values and traditions that she had started in her family.  We  immediately adopted one of her traditions.

Sunday morning has always been an important time for me – a time set to meet with my church family and worship God.  When I became a mother of 2 young children, the Sunday dynamic quickly changed to being one big hassle from the beginning to the end.  If you have ever had little kids, you know what I mean.   The struggle to get everybody up, ready and out the door on time created way too much stress for a ‘day of rest’ like Exodus 31:15 tells us.  It was hard to enjoy going to church and even harder to get anything out of it except a headache.

The tradition we adopted was to spend Saturday night preparing for Sunday.  Just like Jewish families prepared for the Sabbath on Friday night, we decided to do as much as we could to get ready for Sunday on Saturday night.  So our Saturday night dinner table discussion included our plans for Sunday – what we were going to wear, what time we were leaving for church and what we were going to eat afterwards.  We even ate dinner by candlelight quite often on Saturday nights as an indication that this was a special dinner just like the Sabbath dinner is for Jewish families.   We stopped planning anything on Saturday night that would cause us to be out too late.  

Amazing what some preparation can do!  Sunday morning became almost hassle-free.  Everyone knew the plan and the expectations.  This also helped when the kids moved into teenagerhood because they were rock solid on knowing our family value of being prepared for Sunday and attending church together on Sunday morning.   As they grew older, the  Saturday night expectations changed but the habits of our Sunday morning routine were established so there were very few issues.

This was a truly great tradition for our family!

We read in Exodus 13:21 that the Israelites were guided by pillars from God.  We would certainly like a pillar to show up to guide us sometimes, wouldn’t we?    A nice big pillar of fire would sure come in handy when we’re trying to make some of these decisions that are flying at us from all directions.

And then we remember what we have in our hands.  We have the entire revelation of God’s word.  It’s his handbook to us for all of life’s problems and issues.  It’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We just need to read it, digest it and apply it to our lives.  And that’s what we’re doing this year.  We’re committed to reading it, meditating on it and letting the truths we read guide us and change us.

This is much better than a pillar.  Thank you, dear Father!