Tag: life matters

Honor- An Anniversary Reflection

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

A few days ago my beloved husband and I celebrated a big milestone anniversary. Thinking about the days and years that brought us to this occasion has been very profitable to my own daily life. Let me explain. Here in the West we mark significant occasions with many kinds of celebration or commemoration. The hallmark of these is ‘honor.’ We participate in the solemn ceremony and vows of marriage, mourn the death of a loved one at a funeral with various memories and words. Cities and nations honor fallen heroes and great leaders with parades, speeches, statues or even naming streets, buildings, and bridges after them. As we participate in these events, we take time to give honor—respect and recognition of the worthiness of another.

When we reflect on the day of our marriage, or celebrate in ceremony the worthiness of a person who has accomplished much, or are reminded of a loved one’s passing, we think about the noble, good and right things of that marriage union, the work of the hero and the life of the deceased. This is a satisfying exercise of thought. So it is with our honoring of God. We reflect on Him and His work in the world even as we celebrate and commemorate life events.

But even more helpful, I think, is the thought of places in those relationships and lives that were less than good.  Looking back on my marriage, I am reminded of the continuing need to  “… as [one] who [has] been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentle ness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other…just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” Colossians 3: 12-13.  In the ups and downs and daily frustrations involved in living with other human beings, this is really hard. Being changed into the image of Jesus is not a painless or simple “one and done” operation. It is an on-going work of choosing to be like Him in attitude, action and words. Giving up my need to be right, or have my needs met is so contrary to my still-fallen human nature. But thanks to my Heavenly Father, the work is happening! These many years have be marked by lots of “head-butting” and exasperation but God has used those situations to deal with me and is making me more aware of my need of Him to change my heart. I praise Him and own the truth that if it had not been for His kind work in my heart, my marriage would have ended years ago. Because of His grace, I have been blessed with the joy of companionship and love afforded by the bond of matrimony for many years. For this I honor God.

So as I reflect on this anniversary, or think of a loved one’s death on the anniversary of his passing or I join in the ceremony of remembering horrific events like 9/11, I am reminded of God’s sovereign reign over all things, His love and blessing to me and others and I praise Him for the lessons He has taught me through the good and bad of these things.

Choose to honor God by acknowledging HIS might and goodness in all things

There are so many ways to be reminded to praise God for all He is and does. The birth of a baby, the delight in graduation from school, the pain of loss in the face of natural disaster or man-made misery, all call me to remember that God is on His throne. In His almighty power and wisdom, He is still in control. He loves His own and has intimate concern with every part of His good creation. He has plans for every turn of human events even when we see them as mysterious and inscrutable. He is using all my circumstances and all the events of my life to make me more like my Lord Jesus Christ.

As I celebrate my wedding anniversary, attend funeral services for my dead friend, or participate in Memorial Day Celebrations at the Veteran’s Cemetery, I am reminded of the honor due those who are the focus of the events. But even more I am reminded to honor God, the One who brings every occasion to pass. I honor Him as “The Blessed Controller of All Things” and rest in joyful peace knowing that He is “…working all things together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Question: What life events and world troubles turn your heart to God? Have you pondered the ways God is using and has used these circumstances to draw you to a rich and eternal relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ? Will you honor and praise Him today for the good and bad of your life?

 

 Your Ideas are Showing

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

In this age of trends, buzzwords and memes we Americans are eager to show what we believe in ways that often fail to think through what we are really saying. I recently saw a bumper sticker that read “Protect Abortion Rights-Don’t Criminalize Women.” The ideas, presuppositions, and implications in those six words are powerful. They reflect the zeitgeist of our time. I am distressed at the way we, as supposed “enlightened” and “educated” people, have succumbed to such shallow thinking, careless logic and complete moral blindness.

Let’s pull apart the thoughts in this bumper banner. The well-coifed and immaculately groomed driver of the upscale (and upsized) SUV is shouting at every driver and passerby what she believes. I daresay it is likely she has never thought through the implications of what she is saying.

The “right” to an abortion is a legal perversion of our time. When a child is conceived, sexual intercourse has taken place. With very rare exception (rape or incest) these interactions have been a CHOICE for the parties involved. Each partner has consented to an act in which human beings have engaged since the beginning of time with the full knowledge that the conception of a human child is a possible or even likely outcome.  Until very recently in human history the taking of the life of an unborn or newly born child was considered murder.  Our society has thrown off the “shackles” of admitting we live under the  Creator who has declared the taking of human life a heinous moral wrong.  (One of the 10 Commandments: Thou shalt not kill. Exodus 20:13) As a result our lowest, twisted moral selves have legally sanctioned self-indulgent and irresponsible behavior and even called the evil of murdering the weakest and most defenseless of us “good.”

The couple who CHOOSE to have sex which results in pregnancy can CHOOSE to carry the baby to term. Then, in a few days or months, if they find the baby is inconvenient or not perfect, they can CHOOSE to “terminate” it. “WAIT!” you cry. “That’s murder!” Yes. So what is the difference? What makes killing a baby who is 9 weeks from conception different from one that is 9 months and one hour from birth and one who is 9 years old? Absolutely nothing except time, nutrition and location.

from conception to natural death we are obliged to honor and preserve the life God has bestowed

We “enlightened” and “educated” people of the 21st century have taken leave of our sense. We have abandoned our God-given conscience regarding life and the moral imperative for its preservation.

Consider that bumper sticker: “Don’t Criminalize Women.” Why not? If a woman CHOOSES to murder her child, why not recognize she has committed a criminal act? She has violated what humans have known for millennia: the unborn child is a living human being. The “tissue” in a woman’s womb, from the moment egg and sperm unite, is a living being created in God’s image. That “unwanted” or “inconvenient” child did not CHOOSE to be conceived. We “already-born” “former fetuses” have the obligation to CHOOSE to care for those we conceive. Self-indulgence may run headlong into personal responsibility and “Adulting” may be hard, but there are so many resources and ways to deal with “mistakes” or “problems” that none has an excuse worthy of murder.

QUESTION: What do you believe? Are you giving thought to what is behind the clever saying you posted or “liked” on Facebook? Is it morally true?

Unlikely Beginnings

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey
The gardeni springing to life from unlikely beginnings

A few days ago I made an early morning wander through our yard and marveled at the tiny buds of lettuce and green beans bravely pushing above the brown earth. Amazing isn’t it, that plants and flowers emerge to full-blown beauty from seemingly insignificant, nearly invisible and unlikely beginnings.

Lettuce seeds are very small and completely camouflaged when they are dropped into waiting rows in the dirt. How can that wee bit of organic “crispy” yield such a huge, harvest of summer salad? And the carrot seeds- equally tiny, equally unpromising give us what Beloved Spouse, THE family gardener, calls a “tonnage crop.” We eat so many pounds of carrots all winter it is astonishing when compared to the few grams weight of seed that was planted.

And then consider the flower beds’ denizens. Iris, columbines, daisies, tulips, and hostas all withered and disappeared over the winter. The thumbs of flower beds poking into the matted brown remnants of lawn are punctuated only by gawky dead twigs of rose bushes. Shapeless mounds of rumpled brown and gray earth–tattered remains of last summer’s glory–seem unlikely to have any life, let alone beauty within. Then comes spring. Warmer days, sunshine and gentle rains bring the tiny signs of life from the barren clods. Tulip, iris and hosta nubbins poke up. Little green knobs declare that columbines and daisies are wakening to a new and glorious season. THE gardener, decked in warm jacket against the bite of early spring wind, has shoveled, hoed, raked and planted the rectangle of organic detritus into rows. Wee bits of life promised in seed-packet pictures have been deposited and now are marching in hopeful green rows. They are soldiering their way to vegetable profusion.

So it is with our lives. Often great accomplishments start in small, nearly invisible ways. Consider the small box Beloved Spouse has. It is a rough cardboard shipping container—with “garden stuff” written on one end with magic marker. It contains a big collection of seed packets: opened and unopened. Packets are dated from this year and several previous years’ plantings. The opened ones have made their way to the garden rows and the unopened ones linger in the box with “I’m not sure why I bought this variety” or “This is a great kind of cucumber- I don’t want to forget which kind I used.” Each packet contains hundreds of un-used possibilities. Similarly, our lives have many seeds of creative projects that we overlook, discard or deem unworthy of our time and effort.

I’m pondering several things as possible “new crops.” Calligraphy projects to letter, books to write, and quilts to make. The ideas are tiny and seem pretty un-promising just now. If I plant them into the days I have been given, water and tend the little seeds of inspiration, who knows what kind of yield I may see.

QUESTION: What project or plan is lying in your subconscious waiting to be planted?

Faith- Really?!

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Faith is complicated. And simple. Many times I’ve heard phrases like, “just have faith” or “I’m a person of faith.”  What does the speaker (or the meme-maker) mean? I venture to guess that the first suggests that the speaker is exercising “positive thoughts” about some desired situation yet to be resolved. The second seems to say that she considers herself to be moral, upright and one who thinks about “spiritual” things with some regularity.

what is ‘FAITH’, really?

 

But the truth is that FAITH depends on what or to whom it is applied. I believe many people are not totally clear about just what ‘faith’ means.

Here is the main part of the definition I found on www.dictionary.com.

Noun

  • Confidence or trust in a person or thing:
  • Belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion.
  • Belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.
  • A system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

Notice that the first definition requires confidence or trust of something or in someone. Let me give you an example.

I can stand staring at a chair and declare most emphatically “I have faith that chair will hold me if I sit on it.” But until I actually sit on the chair, my ‘faith’ is just words. Until my action matches my declaration, I don’t really have ‘faith’. The one who has true faith knows what he believes about the object of his faith and is willing to completely trust himself to that object with its implicit message: “I will support you”.

In the case of the chair, we need to know how it is made. We need to know it will be capable of holding us up if we sit in it. If it is made of flimsy material or the joints aren’t glued or screwed adequately it cannot hold us without collapsing. It cannot support us even if we say with vehemence and stern authority that we have faith in it. If the object of our faith is untrustworthy our faith is useless and downright dangerous.

It is the same with our need to know just what it is that will happen to us when we die and where we will spend eternity. Many people have a vague ‘faith’ that their good deeds will outweigh their bad actions. Others think “everybody goes to heaven” with ‘faith’ that God won’t send any one to hell or maybe there isn’t a real hell. Others avoid thinking about the subject altogether. The truth is that we all will die and we all will face the judgement of Almighty God. Where we spend eternity will be the result of what and who we trust.

Eternity is long and the afterlife is real. A real heaven and a real hell exist. There IS a God to whom we will bow and answer for our deeds. On that solemn Day of Judgement what will we say? Jesus says He is the Way to a right relationship with God, but how do we know Who and what is Jesus? Can we trust Him with our soul and eternal destiny? I urge you to read the Gospel of John (especially chapter 10) for a clear answer to that question.

Being a Christian says that I trust or believe specific things about Jesus Christ that will influence my life and my eternal destiny. What is it exactly that I believe and trust about Jesus?  Upon what is my ‘faith’ based?

The Apostle Paul succinctly states it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

“For I delivered to you, as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

God is perfect and holy, we have sinned and deserve His wrath as punishment. Jesus- God Himself- came to live among us as a real man.  He was crucified and God the Father laid all our sins on Him.  He died in our place under God’s wrath so we do not have to face that terrible judgement. He raised from the dead and lives forever so that we can have eternal life. His perfect life, His death in our place and His resurrection assure only those who believe in Him that they have been saved from their sin and will live forever. There is no other way to approach God and to be sure of our entrance into Heaven.

 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life…” Matthew 7:13-14.

God urges you to seek Him NOW while you are being moved to approach Him. You don’t know that you will have the next minute of life, let alone time enough to decide about what you believe. Once you are dead it will be too late.

So if I believe this about Jesus, how does faith act? It takes God’s Word, The Bible, seriously. It hears what God says and obeys what He has commanded. It believes the promises He has made. We obey Him when He says “have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3.  We believe Him when He declares “the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 7.  These are examples of exercising the faith we have been given by our gracious Heavenly Father.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2: 8-9

QUESTION:  So do you just say you have ‘faith’ in Jesus without really being clear what it is that you trust and believe? Do you act on your faith? What does your faith show itself to be genuine?

Why Weddings? Why Marriage?

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Weddings are so romantic! From the small and simple to the grand and elaborate, everyone seems to think the ceremony and celebrations are the focus. Very few give serious thought to the vows and relationship the two parties are entering as they “get married.” Marriage in the 21st Century is in a really strange place. As Valentine’s Day came and went this year I couldn’t help noticing how it always brings out the “aw, isn’t that romantic?!” soft news stories on local TV channels. There are stories of unusual proposals and folks finding the lost love of their lives after years of being separated by choices and circumstances all designed to elicit warm fuzzy emotions from viewers. But an interesting turn in our local reporting the other day got me stirred up to think about marriage in America. The news anchors shared the interesting and, to me, rather alarming statistics about it. Back in the 1960’s nearly 75% of Americans were married and most married in their early 20’s. By contrast, today only about 50% of Americans are married and most are now waiting until their late 20’s or early 30’s to tie the knot. Reasons for not being married include “not finding the right person” (60%), “waiting to be financially stable” (40%), and 20-30% are “not ready to settle down.”

Committing to one person for the rest of one’s life is a sobering and daunting undertaking and we rightly are nervous about it. But despite the expected “rough spots” married people plow into, it is true that marriage has great benefits for the participants and society at large. Stable marriages develop stable families which contribute dramatically to a stable society. Shared financial efforts and tax breaks are part of the benefit package. Statistically married people have better mental health and live longer, healthier lives. So what is it about the institution of marriage that is becoming so hard, so undesirable and so avoided or abandoned?

I would lay the blame at the foot of the Church and consequently the culture. The two are inextricably linked because “ideas have consequences.” What we believe, especially about God, directs our thinking and actions in every way and that is especially true in our ideas about marriage.

I am convinced that the Church is primarily responsible for the low view our culture has of marriage. Since about the mid-20th Century the theologians and pastors have begun succumbing to the lies about Holy Scripture. Many began to depart from the conviction that the Word of God is authoritative, particularly regarding human sexuality and the relations ships between men and women. Compromise has crept into the Church regarding what is plain in Scripture about sexual purity before marriage and fidelity within it. The efforts of churches to be “seeker-friendly” has become a placation of the lost and self-absorbed by ignoring or changing the awkward words and positions the Scripture contains. Excusing ‘fornication’, ‘adultery’, and ‘homosexuality’ became more important than being willing to obey God’s Word –even in the face of scoffing and derision from the world. As a result of this subtle drift, the cultural tide gathered momentum and now we have rushed into promiscuity, infidelity and all sorts of evil and perversion. God’s boundaries for our behavior have been discarded and flaunted and the result is misery and trouble for individuals and the society in which we live.

As we became more self-absorbed we began to dismiss the value and dignity of our fellow man. We elevated our own “choice” as the standard of right and wrong. As a consequence we justified tossing out marriage vows with the shallow excuse of “I don’t love him/her anymore.” Our selfishness has given us license to kill those we deem inconvenient. One young man I encountered years ago at a Crisis Pregnancy center said he was urging his girlfriend to abort their child because he “didn’t want her to lose her figure during swimsuit season.” He and more than 54 million of us have succumbed to lies about the children we have conceived. “It’s just a blob of tissue.” “It’s my/her body.” “I can’t support a child right now.” “I will have to give up my education/job/home.” “My parents will kill me.” Notice all the focus on “self”? Satan is a liar and deceiver. He has twisted our thinking to focus it around ourselves instead of God and His standards.

So what do all these skewed ideas about sexuality and conception have to do with marriage and our society? As we have embraced immoral sexual choices and devalued the lives of our un-born, we have lost our ability to see the need and worth of a committed, one-man, one-woman lifelong marriage. We have believed the lie that we are just an evolved form of amoeba-life rather than the special creation of God Almighty—image bearers of God Himself. We have dismissed marriage that God instituted in the Garden of Eden as a legal affair that is on par with the agreement to buy a car. We fail to regard it as a mysterious union of two people designed to bring more image bearers into being, to give mutual encouragement in the difficulties of life and to accomplish a joint life-work that would be incomplete or impossible for just one or the other to do alone.

To be sure, we live in a fallen world and there are many who find themselves married to an adulterer or an abuser. Our gracious God has given us guidelines and grace in Scripture to help in these heartbreaking troubles. But for most of us, marriage should be faithful lifelong commitment. We ought to see it through God’s lens and value the purposes for which He instituted it.

God instituted marriage for four main reasons:

For companionship

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

For procreation

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” Genesis 1:27-28

For service to God and man

…And God said to them, “…fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1: 28

For a display of the relationship of Christ and His Church.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5: 31-32 (for context see the entire passage: Ephesians 5: 22-33)

Let us embrace the high calling of our marriages as one of the best ways to live out our love to God and man. Let us accept the challenges marriage brings as part of God’s sovereign way of “growing us up” into the likeness of Jesus.

QUESTION: What is your evaluation of marriage? Does it reflect what God says or your own (selfish) ideas, desires and “needs.”?

Your Life Matters: Lessons from Saint Patrick

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

I’m a fan of the wonderful spring holiday of St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish, but having corned beef, cabbage and Irish soda bread is a great tradition.  And then there is the tradition a friend of mine and I started years ago of enjoying chocolate in the form of “Black Bottom Cupcakes” on the day.  (See the recipe at the end of this post.) I don’t remember how or why, but having the ritual of chocolate consumption is never a bad thing.  But all that aside, there is a much more serious reason I love this holiday.

St. Patrick—he’s technically not a “capital S” saint since the Roman Catholic Church has never elevated him to that status—wields an amazing influence on us today. Let me explain.

In the early 5th century, Patrick was a young teen living in Scotland northwest of present day Glasgow. He was captured and enslaved by a barbarian Celtic lord. During his six years of captivity he returned to the faith he had abandoned. After escaping, he went back to Scotland and became a cleric. When he was nearly 40, he returned to Ireland.  Palladius, the first missionary to Ireland, had gone in 451 AD. Palladius wasn’t terribly successful in his mission to the pagan Celts in Ireland. Patrick, following about 5 years later however, had strong influence and is largely responsible for establishing the Christian faith on the Emerald Isle and virtually preserving Christianity and the Bible throughout the Western world.

There are many legends surrounding Patrick, but what I think is most important is that because he was faithful in sharing the Gospel of Jesus and working to teach and nurture Christian faith among the Irish we have Bibles in our hands today.  I can hear you exclaim, “What?!” Hear me out.

Ireland became and still is the home of many medieval monasteries. There in many of them, the Scriptures were carefully copied by hand by monks laboring quietly in Scriptoriums. These isolated places were first established in the 5th century about the time Patrick was working to share the Gospel.  Hear what “Ask About Ireland”-  a website shares in explaining this to school children:

 

The first monasteries were usually built in isolated places like Glendalough in Co. Wicklow or on islands such as Skellig Michael off the coast of Co. Kerry.   Some monasteries were also built near the forts of important kings like the monastery of Clonard in Co. Meath. The monks chose these isolated places because it allowed them to pray and work without distraction.

As well as praying and fasting, some monks spent their lives making beautiful copies of the Bible. The Book of Kells, written in the ninth century, about 800 AD, is a famous example of this. It was named after a town called Kells in Co. Meath where it was once kept. This book can now be seen in Trinity College, Dublin. Another famous book which was written by monks in Ireland is the Book of Durrow.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/subjects/history/history-the-full-story/early-christian-ireland/monasteries/

 

These manuscripts of the Bible were God’s way of preserving and extending the spread of His Word. There were no printing presses for nearly a thousand years yet and Europe was deep in what has been called the Dark Ages. While the rest of Europe was experiencing a time of illiteracy, superstition, cultural and intellectual darkness, these monks were laboriously and scrupulously copying God’s Word. Their work preserved the Scriptures which otherwise would have completely disappeared.

How amazing that the quiet life of Patrick and these unknown men faithfully following their calling have given us the unspeakable privilege of having the Bible in our hands today!

So, thinking of my life, my skills, my “calling” makes me reflect on our Faithful God who uses the most obscure and interesting ways of accomplishing His work. So I ask myself, “Have I been a faithful parent, teaching my children and grandchildren to love Jesus and His Word?  Have I used the opportunities that come because of my daily life to tell others of Jesus? Have I worked to build up and encourage others in their faith? How is God using me and my plain, obscure life to accomplish His Plan?”

Question:

What is your calling? Are you being faithful to it? Do you know that you will have an influence for generations to come if you are faithful?

And here is the promised recipe:

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Mix the following and set aside.

1 — 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

1/3 C. sugar

1 egg

6 oz. (½ C.) chocolate chips

Make the cake batter as follows.

1 ½ C. flour

1 C. sugar

¼ C. baking cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 C. water

5 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. Stir dry in ingredients together. Mix liquids and combine with dry gradually. Spoon into 18 paper-lined muffin cups (Be sure to make 18!!)  Top with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 25 minutes until toothpick put into cake comes out dry.