Barbara Rainey's Blog

 

Do you sometimes feel like your world is disordered and confused? Your circumstances are heavy. They don’t line up with your plans. And we live in a world that feels unsettled. It’s easy to start wondering, “Where is God?” in the midst of this daily chaos.

As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s good to remember that focusing on gratitude is exactly what we need when life is difficult, complicated, and feels out of control. Whenever I pray and talk to God about difficult circumstances, I hear His Spirit remind me to give thanks.

He has reminded me to thank Him for difficult people and the difficult situations; that simple act helps me remember He already knows. I’m acknowledging He isn’t surprised. I’m thanking Him that He has a plan I can’t see clearly just yet. And most of all I’m reminding myself that He is working in hundreds, even thousands, of ways I can’t see or may never know because of His providence.

Providence has been described as “the evidence that God has not left this planet alone in the vast universe or forgotten for a moment the human situation. God visits, touches, communicates, controls, and intervenes, coming before and between man and his needs. Providence is the ground for thankfulness” (from Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 2).

Believing that God is providentially working in my life and your life, in my circumstances and yours, is a choice we make. Will you give thanks today for what God has allowed in your life? He does command us to “give thanks in all circumstances,” even things that may not make sense now. He has a plan for your life. Will you choose to believe that He is at work?

Here are two ways to help you and your family focus on and practice being a grateful people this Thanksgiving.

First, grow thankfulness by meditating on what God has done. Read Scriptures like Psalm 118:21, 118:28, and 138:2. Think about how God has worked in your life (make a list) and thank Him.

Second, grow thankfulness by learning about faith heroes who have gone before us who modeled gratitude well. One of my favorite Thanksgiving stories is about William Bradford, who clung to the idea of providence in the midst of difficult days and unwanted circumstances. If you have children at home, I suggest you read this story out loud together with them, perhaps in the morning as they are packing lunches, at dinner, or at bedtime. Our kids need faith heroes and Governor Bradford is a good one for any child of any age. Even the child in us adults.

When William Bradford was just a boy he suffered great loss, more than any child should have to bear. When he was 16 months old, his father died; he never knew the man for whom he was named. At the age of four, after his mother remarried and for reasons unknown, young William was sent to live with his grandfather. Two years later, his grandfather died and he returned to live with his mother and stepfather. The greatest loss of his young life occurred a year later when his mother also died.

The Bible tells us that God “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4), so we must believe that He was fully aware of all that was going on in young William’s life. What was God doing? Why did He allow such pain to fall on one so young and alone?

After being moved to his fourth home in seven years, William found himself living with two uncles in another village in England. They were delighted to have him as another worker for their farm. However, William’s trials were not over. He soon became sick and did not recover quickly.

In his long illness, we finally see a glimmer of hope that God was indeed in control. Because William was unable to do manual labor, he was allowed to learn to read and write—skills that very few commoners were able to acquire in the 1600s. William likely received his education from a local minister. Though his sickness left him frail and weak, by the age of 12 he had read many books from the pastor’s library, which of course included the Bible and books such as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Ephesians 1:11 says that those of us who know Jesus have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” God’s providence—that He was providing William’s training and preparing him for future use—is clear to us now, though it was not so obvious at the time to him or anyone else.

William’s Bible reading drew him to God but also left him with questions. As a teenager, he was invited by a friend to attend another church in a nearby town. It was, however, a church that was viewed as opposing the Queen of England and so was somewhat risky to attend. There had been arrests of some who went to this church, which believed in teaching the true Word of God as man’s authority. In spite of his uncles’ strong objections, William chose to walk many miles each Sunday to attend this church. There he met Mr. Brewster, who mentored him in the faith and became like a father to him. Years later in 1620, Mr. Brewster joined William Bradford on the journey to the new world aboard the Mayflower.

God allowed William Bradford to endure a life of trial because in His providence God was preparing him for his future calling. That calling included leading the colonists of Plymouth as they journeyed over the Atlantic to the new world and then serving as their governor for over 30 years.

Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “For I know the plans that I have for you.” God wanted William to learn to read and write, to learn to think and pray, so he could follow in the path God had prepared beforehand.

Do you believe God has plans for you that are no less significant than His plans for William Bradford? You might want to talk about this with your children or husband and then pray the prayer below, taken from the book, The Valley of Vision. It is similar to one William and the Puritans who sailed on the Mayflower might have prayed. Some of the words sound different from those we use in our prayers today, but sometimes it is good to pray using words written by someone else.

A PURITAN PRAYER

Heavenly Father,

I believe Thee,

I accept Thy Word,

I submit to Thy will,

I rely on Thy promises,

I trust Thy providence.

Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,

and wisely administers all my affairs.

Help me to see Your providence in all that concerns me

And may I ever give You thanks.

Amen.

As you think on gratitude this week, begin every day by whispering this prayer. Then pray and ask to God help keep your faith in His all-knowing providence through every detail of your week.

We look forward to growing in gratitude together this month. May God be pleased to see all of us more desirous of giving thanks in all things, every day!

The post Giving Thanks for God’s Providence When Your World Feels Out of Control appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

 

Like all new parents, Dennis and I welcomed our first four bio babies with joy and great anticipation for what God had planned. It was no different with our adopted daughter. We had equally lofty hopes and dreams for life with her.

Our story, like most adoptions, was marked by the unmistakable hand of God. An unexpected visit, a casual conversation (or so it seemed to us), a phone call, a hymn on the radio … all signs of His guiding, preparing, orchestrating and confirming this His will for our lives as a family.

In those early years I learned that God has been adopting those who come to Him by faith for millennia (Ephesians 1:5)! A beautiful truth. And His heart for orphans is clearly seen in the Scriptures: “the Lord upholds the widow and the fatherless” (Psalm 146:9); and Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18).

But adoption is not His plan only for little ones needing a forever family, but it’s also His plan for we the parents, any siblings, and the extended family of these grafted-in children.

Here are three more lessons I learned from the hand of God through the experience of being Deborah’s mom. If you missed the first three, click here.

4. There is always hope as long as there is breath.

Every parent wishes and longs for formulas, guarantees, and the best skills to try with our kids. Often we look to human experts for our hope instead of God. There’s no question He uses books and podcasts and His people to give guidance. But what we as broken people do, often without realizing it, is place our hope in those people, books, and tips. It’s the nature of our hearts to wander, to find something more concrete than a God we can’t see or touch.

Like every parent before me I too looked to ‘experts,’ even other parents, to solve my parenting challenges, thinking if I can find the right therapy or parenting style I can solve this. Again, there’s nothing wrong with learning. It is crucial. Parents must work and pray hard … never give up … always believe the best … and give our kids everything we can. But we are broken, flawed humans in need of God’s grace and redemptive help. Only He can work the heart change He and I desire.

One of the best resources available for adoptive and foster families today is the Christian Alliance for Orphans. Dennis and I helped found this organization in 2003 and I’ve been a board member for years. I hope you’ll check it out, but remember no one resource is guaranteed; none are the final answer. There is no magic wand for parents of adoptive kids, foster kids or biological kids. Parenting is not a science, it’s an art!

God has taught me my hope must be in Him alone. As we worked hard and prayed faithfully for our daughter, my hope was that our efforts would result in all her learning the important lessons by the time she was 18. Then I changed my prayer to age 20, then 21. Sometime in her early 20s I surrendered my hopes and desires to God and His timing.

I said to Him one day, “God, You are in control and I am not. I will trust you with my daughter’s life and if it takes till she is 40 or longer for her to come to You and fully surrender to You, I will trust. I will not waver in my belief in You and Your plan. Lord God, You know what you are doing.” As long as my child—your child of any age—breathes, there is hope. Your child is not yours, but His.

5. Women are quick to believe and also quick to be deceived.

A tiny little nugget of theology for you: The word “believe” means a conviction of truth, a belief in God and divine things. We see this in the women who went to the tomb on Easter morning and were quick to believe Christ had risen. The men didn’t believe and were reproved by the Savior while the women received His approval. Eve was also quick to believe, but her belief in the words of satan, spoken by the serpent, resulted in deception.

This little truth about us as women has helped me pay closer attention to what I’m believing. Having watched both the adoption world and parenting techniques for decades I have learned we who belong to Christ can often be the most gullible. No therapy, essential oil, vitamin regimen, or learning style works for all.

My lesson that I share with you is be careful what you place your faith in. Again, be careful what you believe and where you place your hope. Listen to the leading of the Spirit and be united with your spouse in decision-making.

6. God has plans and purposes that are beyond your imagining.

He loves your children more than you do and is fully capable of rescuing and redeeming them without your help. In fact, sometimes we hinder His working when we become hovering parents.

The wonders we have watched Him weave into our adopted daughter’s life have left us astonished. We have seen her faith mature into a wisdom beyond her years. She has resolutely believed God when I would have thought it impossible. Had I the power to orchestrate and run her life the outcome would not have been as beautiful as what God has done!

God is fully capable of executing His will without my help! He used us as parents for that is His design, but His working in her was not dependent on us.

Like Job, I have learned that I don’t have to understand what God is doing. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). He asks me to worship Him no matter what I experience and endure.

My duty in all seasons of life is to bow before Him and surrender. “I appeal to you therefore … to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God … Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).

My responsibility is to continue to believe He is good and in control. God’s job is to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28). He is fully capable. We must be willing to wait.

The most important work you can do for your children, adopted or biological, your foster kids, or your adoption work is to be surrendered to Christ fully, daily, in every situation and circumstance. Over and over and over.

When you are surrendered to His plans and His work, you will find rest for your souls.

And you will find, as I have, that God is enough!

The post 6 Lessons I Learned About God as an Adoptive Mom that Every Parent Needs to Know (Part Two) appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

Stepping into the hotel lobby, I took a deep breath and exhaled. After traveling all day I was more than ready to be done with crowds of strangers and with airline demands. Happily I stood with the luggage a few steps from the front desk while Dennis checked us into our hotel.

Moments later, with room keys in hand, Dennis extended his arm toward me with a pink slip of paper. Glancing at it I read, “Call Dr. Smythe immediately.” We didn’t know a Dr. Smythe, but we did know a Dr. Smith who was my ob-gyn doc.

Instantly I knew this had nothing to do with our four kids left at home for the weekend with friends or with my own health, for that matter. It had to mean he knew about a baby. My heart rate increased and suddenly I wasn’t fatigued anymore. Could this message mean a baby was available for adoption?

We called as soon as we got to our room and heard our friend explain that a teenaged girl was in labor, the baby would be relinquished for adoption, and all had agreed this baby was for us. That phone call was the first of many unexpected surprises and wonders God was orchestrating for us.

I thought of nothing else all weekend. My prayers were for this soon-to-be-bereaved young woman, for confirmation of God’s leading, and for God to give us a name fast! When we arrived home a few days later we were now the proud parents of five.

When we brought our newborn baby girl home the next day we had no idea what God had in mind for us … all of us. We only knew this was clearly and unmistakably His plan for her and our family. Over the 40+ years of her life I have learned more about the heart and character of God than I could have any other way and I am and will be forever grateful for His beautiful, all-things-for-good idea of adoption.

But adoption isn’t just about settling the “solitary,” the orphan, in a home (Psalm 68:6). Among His many purposes is His desire to reveal who He is as Father and Savior to all adoptive parents.

Here are three life-changing lessons God kindly taught me about Himself that all parents need to know and believe. (Three more lessons are coming next week.)

1. God will rarely if ever overrule the free will of man.

A young boy decided one evening he didn’t like sitting in his chair at the dinner table but preferred instead to stand. His parents reminded him of the rules, the consequences, and then of their willingness to force his compliance with a spanking. Slowly this small person slid down in his chair. Dad was especially pleased he had won the battle of the wills, nodded his approval of his son’s decision, and resumed eating. A minute later this small human broke the silence by announcing to his parents, “I may be sitting down on the outside but I’m standing up on the inside.”

This decades-old story will remain forever true because every human has been gifted a free will. Parents can only do so much, or maybe it’s so little, to control that free will.

Even the best parenting will not guarantee that children won’t rebel and push parents out of their lives. After all, God is the perfect parent and all His kids have rebelled.

My mistake with all our children, including our adopted daughter, was assuming that, if I played by God’s rules, He’d keep His promises to bless us, He’d control their sinful desires (aka free will), and He’d prevent them from making significant mistakes.

I knew we weren’t perfect parents but I did make assumptions about God that were presumptuous.

Starting in sixth grade our daughter began making some small decisions that were not in line with what we’d taught her. Several years later she was struggling with her identity, as most teens do, but hers was compounded by the unknowns of her adoption story.

By the end of high school she’d pushed us away. We responded over these years with increased communication, continued disciplines, increased prayer, fasting for a year, reading and researching solutions and helps, and dozens of other attempts to intercede in her life for her good. It seemed to us that nothing worked.

Today we can see in hindsight that much of what we did was effective, but not as we had hoped or expected at the time. We wanted dramatic, instant and permanent change we could measure. But God was at work with the whole of her life in mind. We saw only today.

I learned nothing I could have done would have overruled her free will because God will not overrule the free will of man. Only God could reach her heart and only He knew how to accomplish that miracle of His grace. Only He knew the timing of her life.

Why doesn’t God overrule the free will of our children to save them from heartache and pain?

2. God sees the L O N G view of life and desires that we choose Him of our free will.

Like most Christian parents we knew, we imagined the end result of parenting to be an 18-year-old who graduated from high school alive, safe and healthy. She would be ready for life in every way and, most of all, ready to follow Jesus’ plan for her life.

But our adopted daughter didn’t follow the traditional path. She chose a path that for a season wasn’t wise, and decided not to choose Jesus’ way (though today she is a wise, faithful follower of Christ).

I felt like I’d failed as a parent, as her mom. Those were terribly painful days for me. But God saw the future. He knew what was ahead. He taught me how to wait through the story of Moses who, according to Hebrews 11:24-25, “refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

God was willing to wait on His child Moses’ decision to choose Him. He wants me to wait on His timing and plans for my children, too. He loves them more than I do and wants them to know Him more than I do. Sometimes we feel we need to keep helping our adult children to choose God’s way, but often times He can do more without our help!

3. My good work and my heart’s sincere desires are not enough to shape my child and guide her to follow God.

Every parent, but especially adoptive and foster parents, begins the journey fervently believing she can love enough, care enough and be enough for this child. Every one of us hopes and prays this child won’t just survive but thrive; and we pray desperately she will avoid the common traps traumatized children often face. We love our children so much we want to spare them as much pain and suffering as possible, but I have learned by watching my child make life-altering choices that we cannot.

God’s ways are higher than mine and far wiser too. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” I learned a very important lesson: God wants me and my child to understand that He alone is enough. If I was enough for my child, she would never need God.

Parenting is a partnership with God. The challenge is remaining dependent on Him while working out all the tests and trials of being mom and dad without slipping into believing it all depends on us.

Next week in part two, I’ll talk about how to remain hopeful as a parent and share an interesting little truth I’ve learned about us women that impacts our parenting and all of our lives!

I’d love to hear from you if these lessons I learned encouraged you, especially if you are an adoptive parent.

The post 6 Lessons I learned About God as an Adoptive Mom That Every Parent Needs to Know (Part One) appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

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I am excited to share with you (those who took our survey a little while ago already know) … we have added two 11×14 2026 poster calendars to our Etsy shop! The first, with 12 different names of Jesus, we’ve called our “I AM Calendar”, with images taken from our Holy Week Easter devotions and others chosen to mirror His names.

The second calendar began with some of my favorite verses drawn from our “Whispers from God” note cards created last year. Each month is a different promise about God or a promise about us, and it’s titled “Whispers from God to Me.” The images are both meaningful and beautiful.

These calendars were inspired by two of my daughters who have framed large monthly calendar pages in their homes. When I saw theirs, I kept thinking how beautiful and helpful it would be to have reminders of God’s love and care for us hanging in homes everywhere.

We’ve printed only a small quantity of each design to test these calendars with you, our friends. If you love either or both of these calendars, order ASAP, or they might be gone. And with holidays coming soon, they make great gifts. Don’t tell my daughters, but I’m buying for them as soon as our inventory arrives!

The post “I AM” and “Whispers From God to Me” Calendars Are Here! appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

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October is almost here! And with that comes Halloween and lots of mixed feelings for moms and dads as they decide what to do about this increasingly popular but often ghoulish holiday. While there isn’t anything wrong with dressing up and handing out candy to friends and neighbors, there is another celebration that I would like to highlight, either as an alternative for your family or as a balance if you choose to celebrate both.

All Saints’ Day gets no attention in our culture, but it’s been celebrated for centuries by Christians as the day to remember those who have gone before us in the faith. Every year on November 1, All Saints’ Day has been set aside to show gratitude to God for the lives of His saints–those who were well-known and those who were not.

To help you practice this faith-centered day, we’ve created an easy way for you to give thanks to God for these heroes. A few years ago, we began offering printable cards to string on a banner, but many of you aren’t DIY-ers, and you’ve requested a product that’s ready to go. We’ve listened!

Our “All Saints’ Day Banner” includes a set of 15 cards. Five cards with photos of famous saints and a short bio about each for you to read to your children. Also, included are blank cards for you to personalize with photos of the people God has used in your life or your children’s lives (friends, family members, teachers, preachers, or authors), along with a sentence or two describing their influence.

Pair this banner with my Tales of the Resistance book, which contains longer stories of five saints from around the world who believed God for big things and inspired many as a result. God recorded His own Tales of the Resistance stories in Hebrews chapter 11, which many preachers have called the “Hall of Faith,” so we might be inspired by their faith to remain strong and faithful too. Believing we need to continue to be inspired by those who are nearer to us in our history led to the creation of our All Saints’ Day Banner.

Display the banner on your mantel or in a wreath in your home in the month of October. Add a new card throughout the month and read a story from Tales one day each week, leading up to All Saints’ Day on November 1. It’s a great way to celebrate those who have gone before you.

These are available now in our Etsy shop. Order yours today and start a new tradition this October!

Happy All Saints’ Day!

 

The post What Is All Saint’s Day? Should I Celebrate It? appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

As some of you know, for the last few years I have pursued a degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. One of my courses, The Story of Scripture, was a high-level look at the entire Bible as God’s story to us. My professor gave us the creative assignment of writing our own interpretation of His story in any medium—a song, a painting, a mural, or whatever we could dream up.

I’ve become interested in poetry in the last few years so I excitedly took that last creative option and ended up writing a 30-page book called, The Wonder of the Word: Meditations in Rhyme on the Story of God’s Love. As I shared the completed poem with the Ever Thine Home staff everyone agreed we should make it available to our readers.

The Wonder of the Word: Meditations in Rhyme on the Story of God’s Love is a beautifully illustrated poem, thanks to the help of my friend Julie, that tells the story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. I hope this little book will help you take in the whole of the Bible so that you feel the deep love of God through each victory and struggle of His people throughout the ages.

In 30 pages, The Wonder of the Word tells a beautiful story of a beautiful Creator who longs to have a relationship with each and every person. It was a joy and a labor of love to write. I learned so much in writing and putting it together and hope that you might be inspired and learn from it as well.

Here’s a brief excerpt to give you an idea of what’s inside:

Pentateuch Beginnings. Chaos. Creation. Contest. Covenant. Commands.God. Spirit hovered. Chaos. The Word spoke. Then: Light and lights, life and kinds multiplied. Adam made, named, slept. God formed; Eve woke. How Triune God fashioned me from man’s side.With beauty pure and God, they walked and dwelt; harmony, freedom, no shame was theirs. See sly enemy stalk. Both listened, both knelt. How I too with them rebelled against Thee.Eden. Lost. Sin and death aggregated. Noah, one upright imperfect man found in the whole world deteriorated. How God promised: a multi-colored vow.Sin remained. God called Abram, declared: “Leave.” Promised land, offspring, blessings; with an oath made by Covenant. By faith just believe. How I watch Him call Jew and Gentile both. Surprise Isaac. A miracle. A type, foretelling the foresworn coming Savior. Abraham fully obeyed, raised the knife. How God will give His Son to deliver.

For a minimum donation of only $16, you can get a copy .

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Years ago we had neighbors with children about the ages of our middle kids. One of them was an angry child who knew bad words and used them at times. He played rough with our kids and found kindness difficult.

The mama bear in me wanted to protect my little cubs. But I also wanted to have a positive influence on our neighbors, so I chose to continue letting this child come over to play occasionally while I closely supervised the interactions. When needed I had conversations with my children after he went home.

Even with my noble intentions, over time I began to dislike our little neighbor’s presence, attitude, and actions more and more. Anger was growing in my heart. I knew Jesus wanted me to love him, but in truth I didn’t want to love this child. In my mind, behavior like this didn’t deserve to be rewarded with grace and love.

One day I realized my attitude and my lack of love was not pleasing to my God. The Holy Spirit showed me the truth about my attitude. The Spirit was inviting me to let Him make my heart more pure and clean like Jesus, who loved even those who hated Him.

As a member of the Trinity, part of the Holy Spirit’s job is to “sanctify” me, to purify me, to make me more holy. “Sanctify” means to set apart from that which is evil and not like God.

God commanded His people, Israel, to be holy in Leviticus 11:45. He repeated the instruction to us in 1 Peter 1:16, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Jesus demonstrated how to love and forgive and be holy toward those who didn’t deserve it—which meant everyone. We are called to be like Him.

Even though God knew He was asking the impossible of His sinful children, nevertheless He asked, knowing He was giving us the ability to become holy by the power of His Spirit. He initiates this relationship and then gives us what we need to please Him.

Here are some Scriptures that speak of this ongoing purifying work of the Spirit:

· The Spirit calls and urges us to become holy … “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

· The Spirit makes us holy by giving us His divine nature … “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness … he has granted us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:3-4

· He purifies us by giving us the fruits of the Spirit, giving us the power to be loving, peaceful, kind, patient, etc., especially in difficult circumstances (Galatians 5:22-23).

· He purifies us so we become more like Christ … “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23

· He convicts us of sin which means He shows or helps us see our sin … “And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” John 16:8

The Holy Spirit convicted me that my attitude toward our neighbor child was sin. It was not a holy response because I was responding out of my own human nature, which is compromised, broken, set on serving self. I needed God’s divine nature to rule over my own nature so that I could then become sanctified and holy.

Once I see what the Holy Spirit has shown me about my heart, I have a choice to either refuse out of pride or to surrender to Him and His desires, which are for my good and for the good of others. It is then, when surrendered to the will of the Spirit, that my motives can become pure.

With our neighbor child, I knew my opinion, my sense of what was right, didn’t matter before a holy God. Jesus loved this child and died for this child as much as He did for me. My proud heart could only be changed by Jesus.

The Spirit delights to help all of His children recognize our naturally sinful responses. Only He can produce purity in a surrendered human heart. One of my role models, Elisabeth Elliot, said, “One doesn’t surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered over a lifetime.” So be encouraged that our inability to stay surrendered is normal!

I surrendered to the whisper of the Spirit and prayed God would give me His love because mine was insufficient. I asked Him to remove the coldness in my heart and replace it with His love that was pure, kind, patient, compassionate, did not act unbecomingly or take into account a wrong suffered.

To my great surprise, I discovered soon after I prayed that my animosity toward this child was gone. I didn’t cringe when I saw this little one walk down our driveway. I began to feel compassion instead of anger. My eyes were opened to see it wasn’t all the child’s fault. His home life was a significant factor.

What I experienced was the work of the Holy Spirit, my Purifier, who loved me enough to show me the truth about my heart and possessed the power to change me. I experienced the truth of Romans 5:5: “… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

After I saw what God could do with my heart over a neighbor child, I began asking Him to help me love others, like my own children when they weren’t so easy to like. Or my husband on some days, because let’s be honest … those closest to us are those whose flaws we see most clearly. They hurt us and disappoint us more often than others.

Changing a cold, hard, stubborn heart is a miracle of God. Why? Because we humans have a free will. No other living creature resists His voice. But we can resist the desire of God’s Spirit to change our hearts.

I pray God will grant you the desire to be more like Him and the willingness to see your sin and surrender to His work in your heart.

Reflection

1. Who are those you have a hard time loving? Whose name suddenly popped into your mind as you read this question? If no one’s name was obvious then review your family, your co-workers, your neighbors, and those you know in church. Be willing to be brutally honest with yourself. Remember God already knows anyway. These relationships are between you and Him alone.

2. Talk to the Holy Spirit about these people. Tell Him how you feel if you want. But most importantly, surrender your inability to love to God and invite His Holy Spirit to change your heart. It’s a liberating wonder to experience heart change! There’s nothing like cooperating with God.

3. To learn more here are five verses about the desire of God to make us pure and holy as He is.

· 1 Corinthians 13

· Galatians 5:22-23

· Philippians 4:8

· Matthew 5:8

· 1 John 3:3

As you read these, remember it is impossible for you to change yourself. Only God can create a new heart that is holy and pure like His.

The post The Holy Spirit is My Purifier: He Makes Me More Like Jesus appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

My granddaughter Sophie is now two. Her every need has been met from the moment of birth, the evidence of which is my daughter’s ongoing mommy-fatigue. Little Sophie’s two older siblings have enjoyed the same lack of want, and resultant lack of worry. Millions of orphans and street children have never known a parent who imitates a providing God, described by David as “The Lord is my Shepherd … I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

Jesus, our Good Shepherd, knows our every need. To the multitudes, He taught, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31,33). Finding all we need comes from looking to a Heavenly Father. Jesus demonstrated that He Himself lived this way, fully trusting His Father to guide and provide. It’s the kind of trust little ones like Sophie possess naturally with attentive parents.

But we don’t naturally trust as Jesus did. Why? Trust in God died when Adam and Eve rejected God’s plan for their lives. Sin altered human DNA forever, leading to death. Among other physical, intellectual and psychological changes, everyone’s emotional makeup became unbalanced.

This is why Jesus came—to redeem and restore a world full of broken sinful people to our original condition. While on earth He saw the fallout of sin with human eyes and felt the impact of damaged human emotions.

Why does this matter?

The crux of the Christian faith stands on the identity of Jesus Christ who is eternally begotten not made, one person with two natures, fully God and fully man. It matters that we know He fully feels our hurts, pains and losses. If He didn’t, our God would be distant, callous to our suffering, and unmotivated to help.

But His fully human body knew real limitations, like the need for sleep, food, and shelter. His fully human body also felt all the emotions we feel, for we are made in His image. Hebrews 4:15 (NASB) describes Jesus as: “… One who has been tempted in all things as we are [fully man], yet without sin [fully God].” Jesus understands.

He gets me. He gets you. And He longs to help.

In the last two weeks of Jesus’s life the word “troubled” is used of Him or by Him three times in John’s Gospel and once each by Matthew and Mark. First, He was troubled when standing at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:33). Why? It seems probable that Jesus, as fully God who is Love, felt deep compassion for and with Mary and all those who were loudly lamenting Lazarus’s death. He might also have been grieving the entrance of sin into this world He created which resulted in death (Romans 5:12). As a result, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).

Second, following His triumphal entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, an experience of great joy and celebration, Jesus began to talk again about His death and John records him saying, “Now is my soul troubled …” (John 12:27). We call an experience of great joy followed by deep anxiety an “emotional rollercoaster.” Jesus knew that, too.

Third, Jesus became troubled over the knowledge that Judas would betray Him (John 13:21). Though He knew it was coming, He dreaded it still. He’d invested in Judas as much as the other disciples. He felt anxious and sad.

And finally, in the Garden of Gethsemane, His last minutes before His arrest, Jesus’s emotions were extreme. Matthew wrote He began to be sorrowful and troubled (26:37), while Mark wrote “greatly distressed and troubled” (14:33). Then Jesus said, “My soul is deeply grieved …” (Mark 14:33, NASB), a different Greek word meaning terror, alarm, and anguish.

But most interestingly, in the midst of the Last Supper and before His Garden experience, Jesus twice repeated a new command to us, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me” (John 14:1), and then, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (14:27). Was Jesus speaking from personal experience? Was He saying, “I know what it’s like to be in agony, to be terrified, to be so anxious as to feel trapped with no way out?” Yes, I believe He was.

Jesus never spoke on His own initiative but only as the Father directed Him, so hear the voice of a Father in Heaven who loves you more than you can imagine saying to you: “I know how you feel, I know fear and panic and terror. You … can … trust Me, your Father. Because Jesus trusted Me with His life, and He endured more than you ever will, let not your heart be troubled.”

When emotions rule. When fears control. When grief seems it will never end. God is saying, believe in Me. Believe in My Son Jesus. We love you. Love is why Jesus came to rescue you.

Again, the Spirit of God repeats these words to our hearts. After the Resurrection the disciples were gathered in a room with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish authorities. Suddenly Jesus appeared in their midst and He said, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38).

Those words are for you and me today, we who are living after the Resurrection. God is calling us to live resurrected lives that trust Him like my little grandchildren trust their parents—without fears, without anxiety, without a single concern.

Today if you face emotions of discouragement or doubt or fear that threaten to take you off course, will you talk to Him about them? He knows how you feel.

May you trust the Spirit within you to give you a calm trust in God, the Three-in-One.

Because He is Risen!

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The post Eastertide Week Three: Remember His Last Words appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

Every year the world celebrates the Incarnation, the beyond-comprehension truth that Jesus set aside His deity and willingly became a single microscopic cell inside the pitch black of Mary’s womb. Think about it. The immense eternal Light of the World willingly buried His light for nine months. At His birth, Jesus, our eternal God, appeared as a warm, cuddly baby.

But without the cross, Christmas would mean nothing. We know that is true, but …

Christmas gets all our attention. My attic declares this overindulgence by the number of plastic bins stacked one on another, filled with Christmas decorations. Does yours, too? How many bins dedicated to Easter’s celebration do you bring out every year? The point is we Christians are following the world’s emphasis rather than the Bible’s emphasis.

Easter is not about a birth, but a death, which begs the question: When was the last time you wanted to gaze on a bloody, mangled body? Is the thought even too much? The answer: yes.

We turn away because it’s too much to absorb. It’s so much easier to celebrate a baby’s birth.

Even though we understand Easter’s facts, we eagerly anticipate and prefer Christmas. The story of the teenage virgin who bravely birthed a tiny baby king is a much happier one. Our hearts long to drink in the newness, the hope wrapped in downy soft newborn flesh.

Most of us give Easter little thought, time, or preparation. Like the sudden appearing of a rabbit in early spring, Easter sneaks up on us as we are recovering from Christmas’ excess. As a result, we take a minimalist approach to celebrating the greatest event of history. Like the blind following the blind, Christians have adopted softer, gentler symbols for Easter: bunnies, chicks, chocolate candies in colorful plastic eggs, and pastel clothing.

Do you feel the difference between these two events?

This is the conundrum of our Christian faith—that Jesus was born to die. The innocence of His birth stayed with Him to His last breath on the cross. There He hung—naked, tortured—and there He died. Willingly, He endured all of this for us because of infinite love.

Because of this difficulty we falter, not knowing how to celebrate Easter. The necessity of a blood sacrifice isn’t welcome in daily conversation. The sweetness of the Christmas babe being lullabied by His angelic choir is easier to embrace.

We, the redeemed, have wrongly reversed our affections. We ignore what Jesus commanded us to do–remember His death (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). He never asked us to commemorate His birth, which means we are not following our Savior’s instructions.

The more I’ve learned about Holy Week, Good Friday, and the miraculous events of Jesus’s entire life leading up to Easter, the more I’ve come to understand how central Easter is to our faith. As much as I like Christmas, I now like Easter more … because Jesus came to die. He accomplished salvation for you and me and that is why Easter must be celebrated with more effort and enthusiasm!

Here are four ways to begin correcting our upended thinking:

1. In your home, fully display the importance of this holiest of holidays. The true colors of Easter are red, white, and gold … not springy hues of pink, yellow, and lime green. Remember His blood, the color of red wine; remember His risen appearance, blinding and dazzling white; remember His victory worthy of a crown of gold!

This year consider wearing all white or shades of off-white and soft khaki on Easter Sunday. Set an all-white table with lots of white candles for your Resurrection Day feast to remember the purity of His life and death. Or center your table with a white lamb to celebrate our future as His bride at our marriage to the Lamb when we will be dressed in “fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:8).

2. Worship with exuberance what Christ has done for us on Resurrection Sunday. Can you imagine what the women who went to the tomb felt when they saw Jesus alive? What about the disciples, and the multitudes? Like a groom who first sees his bride, I imagine beaming faces, tears of happiness, pure delight, and overflowing joy. And I picture dancing. Psalm 149:3 invites us to “praise His name with dancing, making melody to Him with tambourine and lyre!”

This is the kind of worship the Resurrection calls for. Does your Easter day look like this? It should. St. Augustine wrote, “Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.” I want to be ready. Will you join me?

3. Celebrate the sacrifice and miracle of Easter with others. When we understand more of the immensity of His sacrifice, our gratitude will lead to a celebration—with laughter and music and feasting—far surpassing that of Christmas.

Get creative! Make your Easter party grand, and if weather permits, have your lunch or dinner feast outside with lights and music and revelry. Invite friends and neighbors just as we do at Christmas. Easter, the celebration of the cross and the Resurrection, should be a time of contagious, overflowing evangelism.

N.T. Wright wrote, “Easter is about the wild delight of God’s creative power … we ought to shout Alleluias instead of murmuring them. We should light every candle instead of only some. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke. Take Easter away and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have Christianity.”

4. Continue focusing on Easter after Resurrection Sunday. This year we’re offering three weeks of Eastertide email devotions on my Substack site. I wrote these to help myself and you remember in the days between Easter and Pentecost, a total of 50 days, many of the wonders of Jesus’s life, death, and Resurrection.

I hope you will join me in lengthening your celebration of Easter by reading the daily devotions I wrote for Eastertide. Click here to subscribe to Substack and we’ll send you these devotions.

Incarnation and Resurrection are inseparably linked. Our celebrations of these miraculous events need to be proportionate and more balanced in our focus and attention. Don’t shy away from Easter, instead elevate it to the status it deserves. Your faith and that of others will benefit. As John Coe, professor at Biola University, writes, “As I grow older in the faith, I find that I am invited by the Spirit to learn to give up the project of moralism, of trying to fix myself by my spiritual efforts. Rather, I want to open myself more deeply to Christ’s work on the cross and the work of the Spirit in my life.”

Awed by the cross, Easter truly is my favorite holiday.

I hope you’ll join me and others in focusing on the miraculous wonders of Easter and become #easterpeople too! The heart of Christianity is not what we must do, but what He has done! For us!

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

Hallelujah!

The post Why I Like Easter More Than Christmas appeared first on Ever Thine Home.

 

Did you know that bunnies and chicks have nothing to do with Easter?

What a surprise!

Yes, I know that they are the focus of most Easter celebrations. They are comfortable and cute … unlike the cross and death at the center of the real Easter.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross is the pivotal moment in all of history, the greatest victory of all. As Easter week approaches, here are seven ways to make Holy Week and Easter Sunday meaningful, memorable, and worthy of the attention and celebration the Resurrection deserves.

1. Have your kids reenact Palm Sunday. Help them use fabric or construction paper for costumes and palm branches. Make a Hosanna banner to hang across the fireplace mantle or a doorway of your living room for the performance. Review the story in Matthew 21:1-11 to find roles each family member can enact. Then have an adult read the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry as the children act it out, and end with a prayer of gratitude.

2. Buy seven 3-inch pillar candles and then purchase and download the DIY candle wraps in our ETSY store to apply to the candles. Arrange them down the center of your table or along a fireplace mantle or on a tray in your kitchen.

During Holy Week follow these steps for meaningful daily devotions beginning on Palm Sunday:

On Palm Sunday light all the candles (1-6) except the seventh that says, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” On this day read John 6:35, 51. Talk together about what it means that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Then blow out all the candles.

On Monday, light candles 2-6 (all but the Bread of Life and the Resurrection and the Life). Read John 8:12 and talk together about why it’s important that Jesus is the Light of the World. Pray and then blow out the candles.

On Tuesday, light four candles (3-6), then read John 10:9. Talk about doors and why we need them and how Jesus is like a door. Why did He describe Himself that way? Then blow out the candles.

On Wednesday, light three candles (4-6), read John 10:14-15 and talk together about Jesus as our Good Shepherd. Pray and extinguish your candles.

Thursday’s Scripture is John 15:1 and 5. After lighting two candles (5-6), talk about vines, how grapes grow on vines, and what they need to flourish. How is Jesus like a vine? Pray again together and blow out the candles.

On Good Friday light the remaining candle and read John 14:6. This verse contains a trinity of names Jesus uses for Himself. Talk about what they all mean to us as His disciples. Pray together and blow out the candle. It is a somber day worth our honor and remembrance.

On Silent Saturday, light no candles, and if you plan ahead, buy a piece of black fabric to drape over your row of candles to symbolize the death of the light of the world.

On Resurrection Day light all seven candles and read John 11:25. Make this a day of celebration and joy, for the greatest miracle of all time has accomplished our salvation!

3. Use Resurrection Eggs to help your kids learn about Easter. God has used this resource to help millions of children understand the Easter story.

4. Watch the film Jesus together during Holy Week to feed our image-driven minds a picture of the awe-inspiring life of Jesus as He taught, loved, healed, and then died for you and me. The film is free for streaming online at jesusfilm.org.

5. Attend a Good Friday service. If your church doesn’t have one, go to another local church’s services. Gathering with other believers in a time of reflection and truth of what Jesus did for us the day He died on the cross will add greatly to your Easter experience.

6. Make Silent Saturday a day of mourning. Keep your blinds pulled or lights off all day to remind everyone that the Light of the World was extinguished on the cross. Help your family feel a sense of the loss and devastation the disciples felt the day after their Savior had died.

7. Celebrate BIG on Easter Sunday! Wear all white to remember our heavenly attire one day and to symbolize we have been washed white as snow by the blood of the Lamb.

Plan a beautiful table setting with an all-white table, using the seven candles mentioned in idea number two above. Use lots of red rose petals on your table to represent His blood during Holy Week. Place vases of white roses or tulips on your table early Sunday morning to declare “Christ is risen” to everyone present!

End your Easter gathering with friends and family for a party with lots of balloons, sparklers, music, or any kind of festivities you can imagine.

Resurrection Sunday is the greatest celebration of all for believers in Jesus. Without the cross we would have no hope and Christmas would be meaningless. Because of what Jesus accomplished for us, let’s celebrate and worship with exuberance so all the world knows Jesus is alive forevermore!

Be sure to visit our Etsy store for different Easter resources to help you focus on the real meaning of Easter!

The post 7 Ways for Your Family to Experience the REAL Easter appeared first on Ever Thine Home.