Minute Men

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremias 29:13

Seed:

John 15:1-11

Plant:

I was looking up scriptures on a Bible app on my phone this morning, and as I scrolled to the end of a chapter, there was an ad that caught my eye. It was titled, “One Minute to God Per Day.”

It made me think of all the one minute devotionals and one minute Bible reading plans and one minute prayer books you can buy these days. There’s a whole subset of Christian literature out there aimed at encouraging people to spend as little time with God each day as possible. They create an idea that if we can find one minute out of the 1440 minutes we get every day, then we’re doing something good.

Good for us that we can find time to squeeze God into our busy schedules, even if it’s only for one minute. As if that singular minute is enough to carry us through the rest of our day. As if in that brief moment, we can drink up enough nourishment from the tough of our Heavenly Father to satisfy our thirsty souls. As if that one minute is enough to combat the other 1439 minutes in which the world bombards us with all the things opposed to the things of God.

Don’t get me wrong, some days we don’t have hours to spend pouring over the Word of God. In fact, that would probably be true of most days. Kids, jobs, chores, life. All of these things are vying for, it seems, more minutes than we have to give in a day. And sometimes, it seems like the things that get the least attention aren’t necessarily of least importance, they’re simply the least loud, in our face, demanding of our time.

Often, though, those things that are easiest to put off for later are the things that matter most.

One minute a day isn’t enough time to spend with God any more than it’s enough time to connect with our spouse. If I only gave my husband only one minute of my time each day, I’d be married to a stranger… if we even stayed married at all. No, one minute wouldn’t be enough at all. It wouldn’t satisfy me, it wouldn’t satisfy my husband, and it wouldn’t sustain our marriage for very long.

We need time with our Heavenly Father much more than that. And a Holy God certainly deserves much more of our time.

This “one minute” mindset robs us of the very thing we need the most. It conditions us to embrace the crumbs on the floor rather than take our place at the table where we can feast on the Word of Life. He is, after all, the Bread of Life and Living Water.

Oh, that our hearts would long for the LORD as King David, who said:

“One thing I have asked of the LORD; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple.” -Psalm 27:4

“For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. ” – Psalm 84:10

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing.” – Psalm 34:8-9

Our desire to spend time with the LORD speaks directly to our love for Him. The more we love Him, the more we want to spend time with Him. And the more time we spend with Him, the more we will come to love Him.

God doesn’t demand our time. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to put Him off. He doesn’t need our attention, but He sure does want it. He wants a relationship with us.

Harvest:

Father, thank You for loving me. Thank You for choosing me from the foundation of the world to have a relationship with You. You don’t want a robot, You want a friend. You don’t want a slave, You want a child. You want me. Remind me of the importance of abiding in You that my life might bear good fruit. Nothing else matters without You. Amen

Rockin’ Eggs

Seed:

2 Peter 1:16-2:3
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Jeremiah 29:13

Plant:

“Who be’s there gets a rockin’ egg!”

Emberlee declared this gleefully last night as she raced to the bathroom certain to be the first one to brush her teeth before bed. It was her wonderfully innocent mistranslation of “last one there is a rotten egg.”

This is now my new favorite phrase. I’m probably going to be saying it all the time. I mean, who doesn’t want a rockin’ egg? Just sitting here thinking about it still makes me giggle like it did when I first heard her say it last night. Kids really do say the darndest things.

I have a whole list compiled of all the weird and wacky words and phrases my kids have said over the years. Things like Fruhyah (Russell), open eel (oat meal), botchaleelin sauce (Polynesian sauce), and coykin doyle (coconut oil). How funny it is sometimes how their little brains filter the things they hear.

This kind of reminds me of how we can be with God. Sometimes our brains have a funny way of filtering the things we read in His Word. We allow doctrinal biases, personal opinions, and even our own life experiences to shape our understanding of what He says. No matter how sincere we are in our convictions, however, sometimes we get it wrong.

So how do we know what we think or believe is right? How do we know if our understanding is the correct understanding? When we cease to lean upon our own understanding and in all our ways acknowledge Him.

It’s important for us to get to know God so we can truly begin to understand Him. Before we start interjecting our thoughts about scripture, or the thoughts of any other faliable human being, we need to gain a firm footing in the character of the One who speaks to us through His written Word. Scripture is, after all, breathed our by God Himself.

Just as Emberlee had no reference point for a rotten egg and therefore filled in the blanks with something with which her brain was familiar, (and frankly sounded a lot more fun lol) there are many phrases and idioms within the Bible which aren’t familiar to us. It would be a good idea, then, for us to learn what some of those are. To study the context and culture, and even some of the original language in which scripture was written, to help us fix our brain filters when it comes to God’s Word. .

It’s important for us to learn, to study to show ourselves approved, to be workers who have no need to be ashamed because we are rightly handling the Word of God. Not making the Bible mean what we want it to, but truly seeking out the intention of the One who wrote it.

There are so many treasures hidden there for us to find. Things that have been hidden and distorted and lost throughout centuries of man’s apathetic curiosity.

Not that all of us have been flagging in our desire for God, but many of us settle for what others say about Him rather than pressing on to find Him ourselves.

Harvest:

May we all be gifted with a hunger that is both satisfied and intensified only by the presence of the LORD. And may we not be content to simply feed that hunger with meager morsels, but be compelled to fill that hunger daily with a ravenous pursuit of Him.

Home

It’s finally official!! We signed papers on the new house today! We started the journey of building a home and small farm on 25 acres over two years ago, and with lots of ups and downs, stops and starts, we’re here. We’re home.

Home. That’s exactly it. All of us have individually expressed how much it feels like home here. It hasn’t taken any time at all for us to settle in, even among the boxes and clutter and things left to be done. It’s home.

I was commenting to Bill today how in every house we’ve lived in, none has had the sense of home that this one does. They’ve all been nice, comfortable, even beautiful houses. Places where we felt safe and happy and have seen lots of life unfold. But in each one, there was always a sense that it wasn’t quite home.

Does that make sense to you?

As I pondered this tonight, I felt God tell me this is kind of like it is for us who follow Him. The Bible tells us that this world is not our home. We’re just sojourners passing through on our way to our eternal dwelling place.

Just like my family and I enjoyed all the other houses and places we’ve lived in, we are meant to enjoy our lives here on earth. God wants us to find joy and pleasure and purpose right here and now.

However, when we love God, we can’t get away from the longing to be where He is. No matter how comfortable or happy or settled our lives are here, we can’t shake the feeling that there’s somewhere else we’re supposed to be.

I don’t know if this is our home for the rest of our time here on earth. We’re not planning on going anywhere unless the Lord tells us to go. I am thankful that we are here for now. I am grateful for the blessing it is to my family and me, and I look forward to ways He will use it to bless others as well. But tonight, I’m also thankful for the reminder of the home I have waiting for me. The place He is preparing for me, that He paid for with His own blood, so that where He is, I will be also.

John 14:1-5
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Psalm 84:1-5
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Be still…

The devil has been waging a fierce war in my mind lately, and I can’t imagine I’m alone in this. If you’re struggling too, here is something that is helping me today:

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

Be still… if only my mind would be still. Be still and know that He is God. Be still and rest in Him. Be still and let my eyes find focus on the truth of who He is.

When we’re too weary to keep taking captive the bombardment of negative thoughts in our mind… or lift up our shield of faith against the barrage of arrows being launched by the enemy… or even to stand… we need only be still. He is the lover of our soul. The protector of our hearts. The victor in our battles. The calmer of our minds. The strength of our bones. The healer of our brokenness. We need only be still.

The Potter and His Clay

“But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In preparation for the online pottery show I had last week, I thought it would be fun to make my #scripturepicture posts on my Facebook page leading up to the sale using verses that talk about potters and clay. It is a theme used throughout the Bible, so there are actually quite a lot to choose from. And, being the over achiever I am (lol!!), I figured I’d take it a step further and make this theme a personal study for myself. Pottery is something I believe God has gifted me to do, and as with everything in my life, I want to honor Him in it. So I asked God to lead me to His heart through something that was so dear to mine. And He did!!

This verse from Isaiah immediately came to mind. It’s one I’d heard before, but never really gave it the time and thought that it prompts us to take. Like a potter, God created each and every one of us with a specific purpose in mind. We weren’t haphazardly thrown together nor were we the byproduct of afterthought or a random happenstance. We are an intentional part of God’s creation, first and foremost made for relationship with our Creator.

In John’s Gospel account, we find a simple summary of God’s creative process as laid out in Genesis 1. The first three verses of John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.” John 1:1-3

God is our Creator. And just as a potter sits with a ball of clay and decides what he’s going to make, God had a plan in mind when He made each one of us. We are indeed the work of His hands. Through His Word – Yeshua – He spoke us into being.

There are many scriptures that speak to the majesty of our Creator. Ones that magnify just how powerful He is and how little we are. Job 38 is a really good place to go if ever we find our heads have grown a little too big. Here’s just a little of what it has to say:

⁴ “Where were you when I founded the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
⁵ Do you know who determined its dimensions
or who stretched the measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

But, once we truly get the majesty of God, Isaiah 64:8 becomes one of those scriptures that doesn’t require a lot of bible study. We don’t need to do word studies or contextual and cultural research. It is one of those “sit in His presence and let His truth wash over you” kind of verses. It requires of us only quietness, stillness, and a heart eager for Him. If God can speak us into existence, He can certainly speak His truth into our hearts.

So this week, find some time to be quiet and still in the presence of the Creator of the Universe. Because he loves little ole’ you.