What Goes in Must Come Out

 Matthew 15: 10-19

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

I read these words and I honestly have to wonder... why couldn't the disciples understand this teaching?   To me it seems so obvious.

What goes in must come out. 

Makes sense right? 

I am reading a book right now in which one of the characters is a severely obese man.  He died. His wife and children are both thin and loved this man whole-heartedly.  He loved deeply his wife said.  He hated that he was fat, but he loved eating too much. She continued talking about how much he hated his love of eating but was unsuccessful in figuring out how not to eat so much.  So what he ate... came out.. in excess fat.   In someways, I struggle with the same thing!  I do love food dearly... so this passage reminds me that I need to do better. 

But that's not where this passage stops.   Jesus is just using it to make the point.  What does in must come out. 

If what is coming out is foul... what does that say for what it going in? 

The way a person speaks and lives out their lives shows what is going into their lives, or perhaps more clearly, it shows what they are focusing on. What their heart is sending out comes out of one's mouth.  As Jesus puts it: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 

It's a fight isn't it? To be mindful of those evil thoughts and more.  

This is my fight too!

I'll admit that I had to fight against that today. It caught me off guard how long I considered it.  I saw a coat I liked at Talize but was rather unimpressed with the price.  YES.. it was a fair amount for a good quality used coat, but it's been an expensive month and I felt like I couldn't catch a break.  I consider swapping out price tags!   Can you believe it?  Would have been easy enough...but I caught those way-ward thoughts. And I did not let them come to fruition. 

WHY?  Why did I stop myself?  1. I don't want to be a thief and 2. I had just read about planning out my day.   Would that be something I would want to plan????  NOT!!!!   It's not something I would want to be known for either. 

As I left Talize I thought about how God blessed me with letting me find this coat.  I need a good work outside with the rabbits coats as my old $5 coat from years ago.  AND if I stopped and thought about it... of course the price of coats would go up in 10 years wouldn't they?

What Does one do?

The only way you can fight what's in our hearts is by filling our hearts with something else!  That's it. Just as we can fight what we put in our mouths... so if we like to eat we food we just need to switch it out for lower calorie food and eat more slowly.  :) 

If we want to change what fills our heart we need to provide some competition so to speak.  We are naturally filled with sin and working (as believers) to be filled more with the things of God allows those things to come out of our hearts instead. 

How does one invite more impact from God?  Daily devotions, attending a faithful church where God's word is preached, reading books of faith, having friends who love God, and taking the time to see God in the things of life.   

What do you pull out of this passage? 

To Have Dominion

 Today's passage is from Genesis 1:28-31 and reads as follows from the ESV

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God blessed Adam and Eve when he first created them.  For some reason I read those words and I wonder.... did they recognize the importance... or perhaps the wonder of being blessed by God?   

I know that my life is fairly good.  God has richly blessed me in many ways. And you know what?   I often fail to recognize it.  I just take my life for granted in WAY too many ways.   I don't stop to seriously consider what if my fellow died?  What if something horrible happened to my lad?  What if our house burned down?   I just blithely go along not seeing God's richest blessings upon my life.   I need to stop doing that. 

But what else does God say in this passage?

The first people are to be fruitful and multiply.  There's a huge world to populate!  Within that command there is also the addendums of "subdue it, have dominion over it". 

He is also very clear.   All plants... tree, green plants, any plant with seed...it's ours to eat.  All the animals could eat them too! 

So why then do we eat meat?   This is not a vegetarian/vegan/meat-eaters debate.  It's a solid question of why?  The short answer is sin.  Sin changed everything, more profoundly I think that we can even imagine.  Plants don't do enough anymore for us, and for many many animals that walk upon the earth.. plants simply aren't enough.  Look at the obligate carnivores like cats!  I wonder sometimes what cats were like before the fall of mankind.  Because I can't imagine my Lizzy being a plant-eater.... Benji maybe cause he literally eats whatever I put in front of him.  :)   But Lizzy is a bit more discerning.... she likes meat!  And her body (as is Benji's) is designed to eat meat.  So it just shows how sin affects on the cellular level doesn't it? 

All that is as it is.  My mind just can't conceive of a pre-sin world and what it would have looked like.  I do know that one day God says, the lion will lie down with the lamb, in peace.  Rather cool eh?

In the meantime... we're to fill the earth and subdue it.   We are to have dominion over it.  Dominion is like to rule you know?  Which means you are higher in authority, in a position to subdue. 

There are lots of ways to subdue you know?

You can beat something into submission or one manipulate and coerce into obedience/submission.  A person can show the benefits in a relationship to make a mutually beneficial status.

For instance lately on my facebook video feed these videos of people working with horses pop up.  People who take the time to listen to their horse (some of them rather scary dangerous) and by doing so, they are able to transform that horse into a gentled animal.  A horse that has been subdued without force.  Its very amazing to see the change in that animals' demeanor.   It doesn't change the fact that the horse is owned by a person, or at the very least under the control (or dominion) of someone. But the relationship is not one of fear, but of cooperation. 

Is that how we are to have dominion?   Do we take a forceful determined approach?  This is what I want and I'll get it however I want?  Or does one take the time to seriously look at the world around us and say, okay, to get to point A, I'll need to do a number of things to get to where I want.  It might take longer, but will be better in the long run for not only the earth but the people using it?  

I think too often we'd rather cut a path straight through a mountain instead of working with the landscape around us, instead of trying to accommodate the animals who share our space.   

Or I think about me and my bunnies.  Did you know there are as many different ways to raise rabbits as there are people raising them?  There are commonalities of course, but in the end, each person makes their rabbit herd work for them.   Some like a colony style, others like individual habitats for each rabbit, and yet others do a combination.  Various feeding styles, watering systems, and out-buildings (or lack thereof) make for some interesting discussions on rabbit boards.   Yet we all have one purpose right?  To make our rabbits comfortable so they want to provide an end product that suits our needs.  This I think is part of the "to have dominion" that God talks about.  

These are just some of my thought processes today.  They've meandered around a bit, but I think I have a deeper understanding of this passage now eh? 

How about you?  What strikes you in this passage?   How do you see the directive to "“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion"?

Numbering our Days

Psalm 90:9-12

 For all our days pass away under your wrath;

    we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
    or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
    and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12 So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.

What does it mean to number our days?

I've been pondering this verse over the course of the day.  The devotional I read with this basically said we need to be thoughtful about our days, reminiscing over the day spent and thinking through how you can make improvements.  Through doing that, you gain wisdom.  I can see the value in this viewpoint.  Learning from your mistakes is an excellent way to gain wisdom. 

But I think about the whole wisdom aspect from the book of Proverbs, about how wisdom is gained through a relationship with God and understanding his word.  

So then I'm thinking about how our lives are like a sigh.  A bit of a breath and then we are gone, and God himself wants us to make the most of them.

So shouldn't numbering our days mean more than just being reflective and trying to change based on our history?   Shouldn't numbering our days mean we should be intentional about what we do?  What we learn?  How we act?  Looking forward to a longer-term picture? Being intentional about spending actual time with God? 

It's so easy to just let things slide you know?  To forget to pray before a meal, to promise to pray for a friend and then forgetting, and to watch TV, or youtube, or whatever and not follow up with family and friends.  To think that volunteering somewhere covers for all the slights that you do in life.   So just perhaps we need to be deliberate about looking at what we do with our days.  Deliberate about not wasting our moment of breath. 

I'm listening to a book right now about a young man with a goal... he wants to save his brother.  To do so he'll have to meet a number of challenges... none of them easy, so he's taking time to think about what his next move should be.  Who should he get to know who can help him in his quest?  What books and course of study does he need to take?  

So when I read these words from Psalms I can see this young man clearly in my mind.  Carefully planning out his days even though he knows there will be blips in his journey.  Can he work hard enough to overcome those blips?

What about me?  Do I look to the future?  I know my end goal is glory with Christ in heaven.  I know that.  And sometimes I am too complacent about it...and at others a bit of a doubting Thomas... but really, I know that's my goal.  So maybe I should be more deliberate about working out my faith eh?   To spend more time with God and to read so more books like Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. Perhaps I need to do something more... and that will require some thought... deliberate thought, a planning out of my days. 

Can't say I'm feeling up for the challenge today.  Tired and all that after a busy day.  But tomorrow.... that I can plan out.  Time for a verse or four in the morning.  A chance to ponder and write.   Time with my fellow and boy.   It's enough for a start eh?

The Significance of a Lamb

 Starting up this blog again as a way to keep track of thoughts.

Scripture today: 

Luke 2:8-14

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

So the other day, while browsing facebook, I saw a meme talking about how in Old Testament times lambs that were unblemished would be wrapped up and placed in a manger for safe keeping.

So when the shepherds heard about a baby all swaddled up and laying in a manger they would immediately grasp the significance of this.

I have to admit to some skepticism. Would they be amazed at a baby lying swaddled in a manger? Would they immediately have that connotation of an unblemished lamb? Or would their amazement simply have been due to angels having visited them. Being told not to be afraid and to head off to see a newborn baby? Wouldn't that fact alone supercede any other thoughts? Angels came! Angels, terrifying creations of God himself, came to visit humble shepherds out doing their job.

These scary beings told them to go see a baby. Not only that... after the angels told them this a whole host of heavenly beings came praising God audibly. This was not an everyday occurrence for these shepherds. One would think that would be enough to get them off their butts and heading to town to see this baby, this sign from God of a Saviour born to them.

Perhaps those three events together... the angels coming, the heavenly beings praising God, and the baby lying like a swaddled unblemished lamb would put it all into perspective. But the baby alone? That I don't know. Mind... I'm not living in Old Testament times so I don't know exactly how immediately that significance would be grasped.

It did add an extra element of understanding to me though. That those small details show God's glory all the more.

Makes me wonder.... what small details in my life show God's glory?

I'm typing this on a new laptop. My old one died rather spectacularly. So I have a new laptop, and my hubster got my old one to work well enough for HIS needs. So in essence, we both got a new laptop for the price of one. He's needed a new one for a while so it's good that he has one now eh? God at work... if one looks for it eh?

So what small details in your life have shown you God's Glory lately?