It's Friday and my head is spinning because of the amazing week I've just experienced teaching at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women along with Dr. Rhonda Kelley. I took the photo above to show the beautiful flowers that grace the prison grounds with the barbed wire fences in the background! The flowers are an analogy for the women we encountered . . . beautiful spirits despite the setting they are in. I don't want to forget them; what a privilege we had in teaching them! Table 1: Michelle (Mouse); Sandra (long hair); Joshie (quiet, short talker); Carlene (anthropology?!) Table 2: Melissa (dramatic); Betty (forgiveness); Angel (quiet, ad libber) Table 3: Brenda (Indian); Mary (artist); Edna (patriotic lifer); Angie (Toastmaster) Table 4: Demetricy (sound tech); Sandra (Starr); Stephanie (monotone); D.D. (pony tail!) Table 5: Helen (dreads); Cindi (travels!); Sabrina (Jaycees Pres); Shelia (short hair); Ashley (curly hair) Table 6: Deidre (well-spoken); Erica (short afro); Carolyn (GED tutor); Jeannette (Deli)

This month I’m digging into the book of Malachi. No, I didn’t just choose it randomly; it’s the focal book of my Sunday morning Bible study group. But I am choosing to make it more than a Sunday morning drive-by. Have you ever read Malachi? If yes, then you already know that it’s not your feel-good, don’t-sweat-the-small-stuff kind of book! Instead, it is full of reminders to the Israelites that they needed to shape up or ship out. If you’re looking for a place to land in your Bible reading this month, I’d love to have you join me in Malachi. As the Lord opens your eyes to His truth, feel free to add comments with your insights and encouragements. Here’s a little something to chew on as you get started. In chapter one, the Lord brings up the issue of “blemished sacrifices,” taking offense to the fact that they probably wouldn’t offer crippled or diseased animals to their governor, so why do they offer these animals to Him, the Lord Almighty? Ouch! What am I offering to the Lord that is so much less than the absolute best He deserves and demands? I better process this carefully so that I am not included in the “cursed is the cheat” admonition, directed to those who have better but give less. Now it’s your turn. What’s God teaching you so far this summer, whether it’s in Malachi or one of the other 65 books He’s pulled together in His bestseller?

Starving SteinMart

"Temptation doesn't take kindly to being starved" (Lysa TerKeurst in Made to Crave). Have you experienced what it's like to starve temptation in any area of your life? How did it make you feel? For Lent this year, I gave up Steinmart. For more than 40 days, I willfully chose not to go to my favorite store in the world because I knew it was a place I wasted time and money, a place I went to for ‘retail therapy,’ a place that tickled my fancy and fed my ‘stuff’ habit. I wanted to use the time I typically spent shopping doing something more productive . . . like finding a place for all the stuff I had already bought at Steinmart and beyond. For the most part, it was not a difficult assignment. I found great pleasure in clearing out a couple of cluttered areas – the corner in my bedroom and the spare room on the second floor. The pleasure was not in the decluttering (the process always wears me out mentally and emotionally as I wrestle with what to do with what I thought I needed so badly that I bought it and brought it home). The pleasure was in seeing a clean spot in each of these rooms. But then I’d get a coupon in the mail, an alert on my smartphone, or an email in my inbox. The temptation started as simply as that. The higher the discount, the greater the temptation. But then I’d look at that cleaned out corner and smile. Nope, not going back there today. Can’t say ‘ever’ because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but that day I didn’t go to Steinmart. As a matter of fact, I threw away the coupon, ignored the alert, and deleted the email. I focused on the end goal rather than the instant gratification. Fast forward to today and relating this to food issues (focus of Made to Crave). I love to eat. It is my sustenance, my comfort, my entertainment, my friend. It is to me all the things I say it shouldn’t be because I know in my head that food is fuel, and I really only need a limited amount of fuel to accomplish the tasks I have before me each day. And yet I eat. Starving physical temptations is difficult for me. I need to stay focused on the end goal and not be so caught up on instant gratification. Stay tuned. I've got a lifetime to work on this!

Damage, Danger, and Deception

A friend recently shared how she had to have some trees removed from her backyard due to damage from Hurricane Gustav. She didn’t have them removed back in 2008 right after Gustav blew through Southeast Louisiana; she had them removed just a few weeks ago.

Why the delay? In her words, “we put the removal process off as long as we could because of the pleasure of beauty and shade the trees brought to our yard.” Sure, if the roots had been exposed like the photo above, it would have been obvious that she needed to do something right away. But instead, it was easy to ignore because the roots were still in the ground. Even though there was always the danger that the damaged roots would give way and the tree could fall and hurt someone or something, it was easier to put it off. Removal required effort and change.

This friend got me thinking as she compared this to the danger of habitual sin in our lives . . . something that brings us pleasure but we forget that this pleasure is a deception and danger (think Genesis 3, Eve, a piece of fruit, and a lying serpent).

What’s the damaged “tree” in your life that needs to be removed? Don’t expect the process to be easy . . . if it was, you would have cut it out already. What you can expect is for the process to be challenging and the results to be rewarding. Sure, things will look different once the damaged “tree” is gone but sometimes – most of the time – different is good. Very good.

Really, God, the Desert Road?

I was doing a study on Moses and the Israelites (think Ex. 13 and Heb. 11) and was struck by Moses' report in verses 17 and 18: "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.' So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea."

Isn't that amazing? When we are faced with what we think is a challenging (maybe even terrifying) situation, we can know that God has weighed the options for us and decided THIS is the road we need to take -- this is the road that stretches our faith but doesn't push us to the point of 'changing our minds'!

The Israelites still struggled with fear, even on this supposedly easier path (see Ex. 14:10-12) but they followed Moses into the Red Sea and experienced the provision of God in a way that they may not have known otherwise.

However, knowing the rest of the Israelites’ story provides a warning: just because we've experienced a God-sized miracle once doesn't guarantee that we won't doubt or fret ever again. But that's the subject of another blog!

Borrowing from my brother-n-law

My brother-in-law James Jackson recently wrote an insightful article for Lifeway's Inside Girls' Ministry blog, and I thought it should be shared.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/girlsministry/2012/03/teaching_girls_not_to_be_the_p.html

One of the rewards of being disciplined about daily Bible reading is that, occasionally you get rewarded with a belly laugh you never saw coming. Several years ago, I got into the habit of reading a chapter of Proverbs every day. Since there are 31 days in most months, and there are 31 chapters of Proverbs, it works. So, on one random 21st day of the month, I came across this little gem:

Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging (“quarrelsome” in other translations) wife. [Proverbs 21:9 HCSB]

This made me laugh. I could imagine King Solomon, author of many of the Proverbs having a bad day with one of his seven hundred wives (1 Kings 11:3), and taking his royal sleeping bag to sleep under the stars. Come to think of it, with seven hundred wives, he may have spent more than a few nights on a corner of the palace. This must be true, because the exact same verse is repeated, word for word, just four chapters later:

Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging wife. [Proverbs 25:24 HCSB]

Now, since the Bible is God’s inspired Word, nothing gets in there by accident. And for a verse to be there twice means we ought to sit up and pay attention. It can’t just be that Solomon was having a marital spat and decided to make a dig at his 438th wife. There’s more to it.

Much is made in girls’ ministry of “The Proverbs 31 woman.” Proverbs 31:10-31 is a list of some extraordinary virtues a woman can bring into a marriage: strong work ethic, shrewd business sense, generosity and compassion to the poor and needy, wisdom and faithful teaching of her children. These are all good, good things. But is it worth at least one mocha at McDonald’s to talk with your girls about how not to be a Proverbs 21:9 woman?

How do you encourage girls not to be quarrelsome or nagging? Can you build a Bible study around Ephesians 4:29, and help the girls in your small group to hold each other accountable to “letting no unwholesome word come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for the building up of the body of Christ.”? Can you help them understand that “mean girls” who cut each other down in high school or are constantly sniping at even their closest friends are much more likely to become “mean wives” and “mean moms?”

Girls need to know that the personality they bring into a relationship with the opposite gender is, in many ways, the one that is developed in their relationships with their friends of the same gender.

Throw in a healthy dose of Proverbs 21:9 and Proverbs 25:24 in your girls' ministry. It will help your girls see the characters in the Bible as real people, and it will give them something to mull over in their current relationships as well.

What's in your hand?

What's in your hand?

A phone. A book. A pen. A computer. A bill. A fork. A coffee cup.

At any given time of the day, one of these things may be in my hand. What about yours? A child. A steering wheel. A remote control. This and so much more.

When God asked Moses this question, it was in the midst of the burning bush experience. God calling Moses. Moses questioning God's call. God laying out His plan. Moses laying out His doubts.

God offered Moses an object lesson. 'What's in your hand, Moses?' Moses looked at his staff -- the tool of his trade, a symbol of what he had done for 40 years, his comfort zone -- and complied when God said, 'Throw it down.'

God had a plan to take Moses' staff and transform it, not take it away. Consider what represents your comfort zone and, when God says 'Throw it down,' do it. It worked out well for Moses. I imagine it will be even more so for you and me!