To Us or FOR Us?

Say what you want about her politically, but I love the way that Sarah Palin talks about her youngest son. Trig was born in 2008, months before she accepted the Republican party's Vice-Presidential nomination. Having a young child at this point could be seen as an inconvenience even in the best of circumstances, but with Trig the case is even more unique. You see, Trig was born with Down Syndrome. Many parents would question "why me?", and while I am sure that the Palins had these same questions at some point after the prenatal diagnosis of Trig's Down Syndrome, you will never catch any of them referring to Trig as anything less than a blessing. In fact, in Sarah Palin's book "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag" comments on Trig as not happening to her family, but rather for her family.

How often do we question the hardships we face as happening to us? As Laura Story's song Blessings proposes, what if God's blessings come in the hardships? I believe that this is the case. In the book of John, Jesus meets a man born blind. When Jesus asks whether the man's affliction was caused by his sin or his parents, Jesus says the answer is neither. The man's affliction wasn't a result of human consequence, but rather was simply part of God's eternal and mysterious plan. I won't try to even pretend that I understand how God's plan works, but I think it is important to remember that God always has a plan, and sometimes that plan includes using your faith despite your affliction to bring glory to Him.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

Lessons from Judah

                One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 was to read through the bible completely in a year. Luckily I have several bible reading plans in the back of my HCSB Study Bible that keeps me on task with my goal. Even though I am reading through 4 books of the bible at any given time during this year, I am amazed at how much Genesis has fascinated me. Maybe it’s because we are working our way through Genesis in my Sunday school class as well… Any way it goes, I am constantly amazed at how plans were laid out in Genesis for things that wouldn’t occur until the Gospels.

                The topic that has really caught my eye this week is Judah, one of Jacob (or Israel)’s sons. Judah was the founder of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and as we learn in Matthew, Jesus’ forefather. With a biological connection to the Savior, it only makes sense to look at Judah’s life.

                Judah wasn’t the firstborn (that title went to Reuben). He wasn’t the father of a line of priests (that would be Levi). He wasn’t the son of Jacob’s favorite wife like Joseph and Benjamin. He didn’t even hold an obviously special place in his father’s heart. Rather, Judah, I believe, proved his worth during the seven-year famine.

                Don’t get me wrong, Judah was by no means perfect. In the limited knowledge we have of  Judah, we see him as someone who plundered Shecham’s land after Simon and Levi killed all of the males, a guy who willingly slept with a woman who he thought was a prostitute but turned out to be his daughter-in-law, and a jealous young man who sold his brother into slavery.

                It is after these occurrences that we see a different side of Judah. Once again, God proves that no one is unusable with Judah. When his family is out of food, the brother’s head to Egypt and buy food from Joseph. When Joseph decides that the only way they will get more food from Egypt is to bring their younger brother to Egypt and until then Simeon will be kept as a prisoner, it is Judah that sacrifices himself in response. Reuben volunteered his own children if Benjamin did not return from Egypt. Judah volunteered himself.  When Benjamin is caught with Joseph’s silver cup, it is Judah that pleas for Benjamin, and it is this pleading that results in Joseph finally revealing his identity.

                This sacrificial mindset is a foreshadowing of what his descendent will be born with the sole purpose of doing. Unlike Judah, however, Jesus didn’t go through all the bad to get to the good. He was born with the sacrificial mindset that it took Judah years and years to obtain. I could go on and on about the sacrificing of Christ, but that’s not what this post is about. This blog is about encouraging people, so here’s my encouragement for the day:

                Don’t be discouraged by what you have done in your past. All of us have things that we are not proud of, and even things that we might feel are unforgiveable. You are not alone and you are not unforgivable. God uses all people. Judah had many skeletons in his tent but that didn’t stop God from using him. Judah sold his brother, slept with a prostitute/his own daughter-in-law, and was a plunderer. Even with all of that baggage, Judah went on to provide the line that Jesus was born to. Judah was the tie between Abraham and Isaac and Jesus. Don’t give up on yourself because God won’t. 

Your Fellow Water Walker, 

-Ashlee

Psalm 69

I know I haven’t posted in a while but I have really been struggling trying to decide what to post. Here lately I have been noticing how there seems to be a longer than usual list of prayer requests going around. From car wrecks to suicides to sickness, people are really hurting.

                There is a middle-school-aged boy at my church that has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and in the little over a week since we learned about this, it has rocked our church and community. I live in a rural area where even without Facebook, gossip would still spread like wildfire. This means that any time there is a sickness that comes all of a sudden people know, people care, and people pray. I am so thankful for that.

                However, no matter how close a community is or how many people offer comfort; it ALWAYS pales in comparison to the comfort that God can offer. I started this blog as a way to offer encouragement to those who happened to read it, but a lot of times I am forced to realize that posting a passage of scripture would be better than thousands upon thousands of words that I could write. So here it goes. Below you will find the words to Psalm 69. There is a lot of pain in this psalm, and it may even be hard to read because of that pain. I encourage you to keep reading though. The hope isn’t in the pain. The hope is in the comfort for the pain.

If you are suffering in any way, I urge you to run to the Great Comforter. He is the only one who can really offer the comfort that so many need.

Psalm 69
A Plea for Rescue

    For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” Davidic.

 ¹ Save me, God,
for the water has risen to my neck.
² I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;
I have come into deep waters,
and a flood sweeps over me.
³ I am weary from my crying;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without cause
are more numerous than the hairs of my head;
my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me,
are powerful.
Though I did not steal, I must repay.

 ⁵ God, You know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from You.
⁶ Do not let those who put their hope in You
be disgraced because of me,
Lord GOD of Hosts;
do not let those who seek You
be humiliated because of me,
God of Israel.
⁷ For I have endured insults because of You,
and shame has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons
⁹ because zeal for Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insult You
have fallen on me.
¹⁰ I mourned and fasted,
but it brought me insults.
¹¹ I wore sackcloth as my clothing,
and I was a joke to them.
¹² Those who sit at the city gate talk about me,
and drunkards make up songs about me.

 ¹³ But as for me, LORD,
my prayer to You is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant, faithful love, God,
answer me with Your sure salvation.
¹⁴ Rescue me from the miry mud; don’t let me sink.
Let me be rescued from those who hate me
and from the deep waters.
¹⁵ Don’t let the floodwaters sweep over me
or the deep swallow me up;
don’t let the Pit close its mouth over me.
¹⁶ Answer me, LORD,
for Your faithful love is good;
in keeping with Your great compassion,
turn to me.
¹⁷ Don’t hide Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me quickly!
¹⁸ Draw near to me and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.

 ¹⁹ You know the insults I endure—
my shame and disgrace.
You are aware of all my adversaries.
²⁰ Insults have broken my heart,
and I am in despair.
I waited for sympathy,
but there was none;
for comforters, but found no one.
²¹ Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink.

 ²² Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for their allies.
²³ Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
²⁴ Pour out Your rage on them,
and let Your burning anger overtake them.
²⁵ Make their fortification desolate;
may no one live in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
²⁷ Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.

 ²⁹ But as for me—poor and in pain—
let Your salvation protect me, God.
³⁰ I will praise God’s name with song
and exalt Him with thanksgiving.
³¹ That will please Yahweh more than an ox,
more than a bull with horns and hooves.
³² The humble will see it and rejoice.
You who seek God, take heart!
³³ For the LORD listens to the needy
and does not despise
His own who are prisoners.

 ³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and everything that moves in them,
³⁵ for God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah.
They will live there and possess it.
³⁶ The descendants of His servants will inherit it,
and those who love His name will live in it.