Monday, May 20, 2013

The Week of Creation

I'd like to address the topic of creation vs. evolution from a different perspective than just arguing over the length of a day or a miraculous plan verses a chaotic explosion. That argument is nigh on to 100 years old. What I've watched though; is through time, the changes in the general society that has occurred.

The Scopes Trial was basically a publicity stunt, as it turns out. That was in the 1920s. By the 60's Evolution was a theory in the science book and prayer and Bible reference had been removed from the public schools, which ultimately ended up removed from the public sector. By the 1980's, evolution graduated from being a theory to being what was taught in school as the origin of the universe. Creationists have attempted to present "Intelligent Design" but that usually fails and it's now down to the brass tax of money. It's always money, isn't it? Schools who would include a creation perspective or theory are subject to lose their federal funding.

As a cook that pours a lot of love into my "creations," I have a very simple parable regarding evolution and creation. When my Grandkids are at my home, we partake of some pretty fine meals, that I lovingly prepare. My Grandchildren know I'm a creative cook, I wrote a Cook Book, and they wouldn't for a moment think a delicious and flavorful meal was the result of an explosion in my kitchen. That is the difference between a Creation and a Big Bang. Yet I digress . . .

Here's my idea. It's really simple. Before kids begin having to attend school six days a week, year round, let's have all the folks who believe in creation start observing the seventh day of creation as it was included in Genesis! Doesn't that seem easier than arguing with people who say they don't believe the Bible? Let's have the ones who say they do believe the Bible live according to that first week of creation. The seventh day was created for resting.

Sabbath is not a Jewish thing, it's a Creator thing. He created it to rest. Now if you believe the universe was created in one week, you've got to believe what the seventh day was created for. If you want to be convincing in your argument for creation, you have to do the part you can prove. The seven day week is still in "practice" and provable. The seventh day hasn't changed in all these years. In many languages the word for the seventh day is translated from the word Shabbat or Sabbath.

It's so simple. The argument for the week of creation would be much stronger if presented by a person who was actually living the proof!

And on the seventh day G-d ended his work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And G-d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which G-d created and made. Genesis 2:2-3

Sunday, May 12, 2013

When Adonai Gives a Peculiar Assignment

I find myself becoming much more quiet and reserved. I sometimes wonder if I've said too much. Often, I am relieved that I did not share certain particulars. When YHWH has given a specific assignment, yet HIS servant is told not to discuss the assignment, but simply the message that has followed, it can feel a bit like confinement. I'm by no means referring to sharing the Gospel or discussing Torah. I love talking about my G-d and my Bridegroom, and His Word is not called the Good Book for no reason. It is the Best book and I'm thrilled to know the author personally.

I'm talking about confiding in humanity, what G-d has confided to us as an individual and the discouragement that can ensue. I do find myself feeling like I have a peculiar assignment regarding my call, and nowhere to feel comfortable to discuss it, at this time. For that matter, I have no permission to discuss it and so far I'm being obedient. I think a number of the remnant are hearing some interesting assignments at this time and it's not easy to be ridiculed. Telling all my business isn't usually a temptation for me, anyway, but sometimes . . . I am also very thankful that my assignment is not nearly as peculiar as some of the guys I've read about in Scripture.

I can't imagine, even with instructions, trying to build the ark. What faith Noah had, and obedience. I have no idea if he could even envision this floating zoo he was called to build, much less imagine rain . . . He was told it would rain forty days, but we know from the recorded times of sending birds out, he had no idea how long it would take for the water to recede. Was the food supply like the widow's flour and oil that didn't run out with Elijah or was the supply getting low when the birds came back? We aren't told, and I'm sure we believe that YHWH would have made sure to their needs, but Noah was human and the outcome wasn't yet in writing. Look at all the wonders we have in writing and still we get nervous and anxious in our situations.

Speaking of Elijah, I can't imagine what it must have felt like to know a queen was wanting to kill him, and not be able to find any one else that believed what he did. I think of Elijah often as various Facebookians or Facebookites, I'm not sure which we are, discuss having no flesh and bones fellowship. We are truly blessed to be able to find fellowship and one accord, even if it is at this time touching, electronically. I am always amazed at Elijah's life, in that he had the faith to completely drench a bull for sacrifice and know fire would fall from heaven, yet going before a wicked queen was quite the overwhelming ordeal for him.

Moving right along to the prophets with books named for them. Jeremiah was told to write something that would be read to the king, only for it to be cut up and burned, then told to write it again. Jeremiah did not have a popular ministry at all, nor did he have a trendy message, it was timely, but not trendy. He spent time in a cistern and in stocks.

We all know the story of Jonah and his assignment was pretty run-of-the-mill as it "preach repentance," but his own repentance was certainly of unique circumstances. Three days and nights in the innards of a big fish. What a place of contemplation.


Ezekiel has always grabbed my heart with his assignment in laying on one side for over a year, with specifically measured water and bread with special ingredients, baked over manure. All this while restrained, only to roll over and do it for over a month on the other side. Then when that's all said and done, get up and tell these religious folk mixing holy with profane doesn't cut it and that's what they're doing!

Most of the prophets had very peculiar assignments, but Isaiah, takes the cake on peculiar assignments in the Old Testament, at least from my perspective. That poor guy had already been in sack cloth giving warning, then he was told to take off his shoes and his sack cloth and walk around barefoot and naked for three years . . .

When I think of how all these people simply stood on faithful obedience, not having in writing what we can read. In seeing this amazing faith and all these accounts of the greatness of Adonai, my perspective is completely changed and I somehow feel very grateful and humbled for the peculiar assignment I've been given.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Regrets

It's so easy to read Scripture and shake our heads, saying to ourselves, "What were they thinking?" "How in the world could they do something like that?" and yet we as a nation have done it for years, and we as individuals have made many of the same mistakes we judge these Bible characters for doing, and yet feel entitled to the promised blessings . . .

I recently read an article about a mother who said she regretted having children. I was, of course, like many of those who left comments, floored, and felt very sorry for her children. I can honestly say, I regret nearly everything I did between the age of 15 and 35. Oh, I was trying to do the right thing, but the mountain of regrets is only movable by the grace and forgiveness of my Creator, in the redemptive sacrifice of His Son. The mountain of regrets no longer stands in front of me, but there is still sorrow regarding some of those boulders which have rolled into and onto the next generations of our society. I know this next statement may be horrifically judged, but I had to confess it to my Heavenly Father and we are told in James to confess our sins, that we may be healed, raised up, and forgiven.

I regret motherhood. I don't regret my children, I failed my children. I love my children and my grandchildren! My regret is in the way I handled motherhood. I gave birth to beautiful children, I adopted great kids who were older, but I wasn't a good mother. I failed at motherhood, I failed miserably and it has horrible long term effects. I wasn't beating on them or putting them in cages or anything, but our home wasn't a refuge of shalom in the covering of El Shaddai. I didn't marry according to Scripture, and I didn't raise children according to Scripture and that was an epic failure. I didn't offer the goodness of G-d's plan. Actually, I became a mother, completely outside of the will and plan of G-d, and then set out to make it right. I can tell you now, even after working to try to make it right as long as I did it wrong, there is no making up for the wrong. The failure will be forever a part of my life and the lives that have been created in the wake of that failure. Granted, I'm in good company, considering Abraham did the same thing, but that's no excuse. I already knew how his fiasco turned out, before I began my own. Thankfully my decision doesn't bear the monumental effect on humanity that his did, I hope; but there are minimal similarities.

I became a mother for selfish reasons, and that is no reason to become a mother. I wanted someone to love and to be loved. Parenthood seemed to be my right of passage. It appeared to be for my teen-aged parents; at least from my perspective. I can now tell you, parenthood for the wrong reasons, doesn't work at all. Since I wasn't mothering according to G-d's plan and He is love, I'm guessing I didn't teach or set the example of love, properly, either. I messed up my position in the family as a daughter, so I thought I'd just start my own family as a matriarch. I hate that I did this, and there is no way to humanly fix either end of the mess I made.

I was told awhile back that my ineptness is now felt by yet, the next generation and I feel just horrible about that. I've been following Messiah now and serving YHWH for nearly 20 years. I was so sure, becoming a grandma after walking with YHWH would be like a clean slate, a fresh start, but I was mistaken. My life in Messiah came before this grandchild, long before, but apparently the damage in the previous 20 years is still causing pain and certainly can't be undone. From the feedback I receive, it can barely be endured. That information utterly breaks my heart. Nothing on this earth has made me happier, than becoming a grandma, and now they discuss my failings as well! I loved holding my grandchildren and singing to them and was delighted to help all I could, but that doesn't undo the damage of my previous ungodly years.

As I listened yesterday to the judgment, I thought of my beautiful creative granddaughter that now says I favor another. I remembered just a couple of months ago of calling three different phone numbers to wish her a Happy Birthday. Ultimately, I left a message asking someone to please have her call me, so I could wish her a Happy Birthday, but that attempt isn't even considered against the grudges that are held and the judgments which have already been formed. In the grand scheme of it all, that was very recent and already discounted, so what can I do? Absolutely nothing! I thought of how sad I was that we didn't get to share the paints and art supplies last summer, but the complete and utter break down had already taken place and it just never came to fruition. It's so pathetically sad, the situation cannot be pinpointed to a single foremost regrettable transgression, as the evidence of failure seems to keep snowballing and multiplying. I just know, I can't fix it and I regret having made the mess. I am sad about the foundation I laid for their future, so many years ago. That is not to say YHWH cannot make things right, but HE is the only one who can, and there are a lot more "free wills and choices" involved now.

Another sadness I have in this regard, is unlike Abraham in his day, I am by far, not the only one who has done this. So in our society, the problem is exponentially magnified. That should cause most of us a regret or two. I'm not advocating the cessation of procreation, I'm just stating, most of us are not procreating according to the plans and Instructions of our Creator and the results are costly. I can't even imagine all the lost souls we've created who grow up and raise more lost souls. The emotional pain is horrible to experience and to watch, and the solutions of choice for the next generations appear to be medicating and disengaging while making more mistakes in an attempt to alleviate the pain, or at least dull it. Physically, we've created an indebted generation that has no concept of anything but instant gratification or entitled dependence. We can't blame politicians because parents failed to showing them their purposed potential! For many, "stuff" equals love, virtual; is reality, and prescriptions are "necessary."

Now, as for the woman who made the news regarding her regrets at having children. From what I've read, I don't share her regret, but I can't look at what I've done and judge another. My biggest regret regarding motherhood is the fact that my failures are now behind me, while the effects of those failures, both personal and social, may be looming in the future of my progeny.