The Vines We Cling To

Where I live, a beautiful sunny day can change in moments as ferocious storm clouds roll in seemingly out of nowhere. And though it happens every summer, I am often caught unawares and unprepared. I don't have an umbrella and of course I'm wearing shoes I don't want to get wet, much less have to walk through ankle deep water in.

These type of storms are similar to what's been happening in my life lately. I've had unexpected events cut into my otherwise sunny day. These circumstances came out of nowhere and knocked me down, like the fierce winds of a S. Florida afternoon thunderstorm storm. I found myself thinking, "This wasn't supposed to happen" and "Why God?" and "This isn't fair" and "I can't take this."

My response reminded me of Jonah's temper tantrum as he watched Nineveh from afar, waiting to see what God would do. After he finally and with reluctance complied with God's command and told the Ninevites they needed to repent, he left the city and sat on a hill.

"Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind,and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said,“Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” (Jonah 4:5-9)

God graciously provided a vine to shade Jonah from the sun. It was a gift from God that comforted Jonah. Then God sent a worm that ate up the vine. This angered Jonah. God used the worm to save Jonah from what the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (Black) calls a "vine centered life." "A vine centered person is one who is so taken up with the joy of God's good gifts that he or she ends up loving the gifts more than the Giver." (Kindle location, 187639). In other words, idolatry.

God has removed good gifts from my life over the past few months. These were gifts that had become disordered affections in my heart, idols that I loved and cherished more than God. Any of God's good gifts can become idols to us: friendships, ministries, jobs, children, even our hopes and dreams.

My reaction to losing these gifts, like Jonah's reaction, revealed that I did not love what God loved. I cared more about my own comfort and desires. In fact such emotional responses reveal that an idol is reigning tall on the throne of our heart. Tim Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, suggests looking at these emotional responses as a clue to our heart idols:

“Look at your most uncontrollable emotions. Just as the fisherman looking for fish knows to go where the water is roiling, look for your idols at the bottom of your most painful emotions, especially those that never seem to lift and that drive you to do things that you know are wrong. If you are angry, ask, ‘Is there something here too important to me, something I must have at all costs?’ Do the same thing with strong fear or despair and guilt. Ask yourself, ‘Am I so scared, because something in my life is being threatened that I think is a necessity when it is not? Am I so down on myself because I have lost or failed at something that I think is a necessity when it is not?’ … When you ask questions like that, when you ‘pull your emotions up by the roots,’ as it were, you will often find your idols clinging to them”(p. 169-170).

As I've wrestled through my own emotions in recent months, I've learned much about my heart and of my need for grace. My heart is an idol making factory. I come by it naturally. My sinful heart is prone to wander from my one true love. But God has not left me alone. Just as he graciously removes my vines to show me that I've wandered, he also graciously leads me back home to him. His grace for me is just that big and that amazing. And the more I have dwelt on his grace for me, I've found that it comforts me more than the vines ever did.

Do you have vines you cling to?

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What Adoptive Families Wish Their Churches Knew

Often, when I think of a courtroom, I think of judgement, brokenness and sadness. As a social worker, I sat in court to support a rape victim as she gave her testimony against her rapist. As a counselor, I sat in court to speak on behalf of juvenile offenders. I’ve even sat in court as part of a jury selection for a heinous crime.

But there was one time I sat in a courtroom for a joyous reason. That day was the culmination of years of prayer. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed. I listened intently as the judge declared that three children standing before him were taking on the name of one of my dearest friends. They had been adopted.   

The Beauty of Adoption

Most of us know someone who was adopted or who has adopted a child. According to the U.S. State Department, more than 7,000 children were adopted from other countries in 2013. Over 50,000 children were adopted in the U.S. in the same year. And there are millions of orphans around the world still without a place to call home...to read the rest of this post, visit the ERLC, my writing home today.

Teaching Children Church History

I grew up in the church and was blessed to learn theology at a young age. But it wasn’t until I started attending a Christian school as a teen that I learned the stories behind that theology. It was in a class on Church History that I discovered the people and places that helped define the truths I took for granted such as the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, justification by faith, and how it is that I attend church on American soil.

A lot has happened since the day Jesus ascended into heaven and charged the disciples to spread the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Many people have died in the cause of spreading the name and fame of Christ and his gospel. In our day and age, learning the history of the church from the time of the New Testament until now, is important. We live in an age where few know what they believe and why. Truth is often seen as relative and depends on what one feels like doing in the moment. In truth, we live in a time not all that different from that of the early church.

We need to teach our children about the history of the church..to read the rest of this post, visit Redeemed Reader, my writing home for today.

Encounters With Grace

Have you ever had a day where you displayed yourself at your worst? Where you spewed forth ugliness that you didn't know you were capable of?

I had such a day recently where I was unkind to my children. I was frustrated. My words dripped with sarcasm. I yelled. Then I gave myself a timeout. I went into my room to gather myself, pray, cry, and hopefully figure out how to make things right.

Over the sound of my sniffles I heard a little sound on the other side of my bedroom door. I walked over and found a note on the floor. It was from one of my children. Scrawled in all caps it read, "I LOVE YOU MOMMY."

I opened the door and found a little boy with open arms waiting to give me a hug. I apologized for my behavior and asked him to pray with me.

I had an encounter with grace.

What is Grace?

There is a lot of talk of grace these days. Much of it is for good. Such talk reminds us that we are completely dependent upon God for all things: our lives, our salvation, our needs, our sanctification, and everything in between. It reminds us that God has bestowed kindness on us that we haven't deserved when he gave his Son to rescue us from sin. And it reminds us that all things come to us by his grace.

But some of the talk we hear about grace actually cheapens it. Like when we use grace to excuse sin. Or when we use grace as a reason to stay where we are. And when we use grace as a reason to give in and not fight against the battles that wage in our heart.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." (The Cost of Discipleship
p. 45)

The undeserved kindness my son gave me prompted me to apologize and seek forgiveness. Though this encounter with grace was a dim shadow, it did remind me of the grace God has for us. A grace that moves and pushes us away from where we are. As Romans tells us, "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance" (2:4).

God's grace does not leave us as we are. It is not an overlooking-grace or a grace that shrugs shoulders and says, "that's just the way you are." It's not a giving-up-grace or a giving-in-grace. It's not a grace that says everything is okay just the way it is.

Rather, God's grace is an all-transforming-grace.

God's All-Transforming Grace

Titus 2:11-14 says this about God's grace:

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

God's grace teaches and trains us. It changes and transforms us. His grace sculpts, cuts, strips, chips, and molds. It interrupts, redirects, puts up road blocks, tears down idols, and breaks strongholds.

Such grace does not say that we are okay when we are in fact not. God will not keep us where we are. He is always pushing us to where we need to go. All the things we think we need, all the things we cling to, and all the things we put our hope in are all obstacles to his grace. And they are all things he will remove to clear our path to what we need most: himself.

We'll know we have encountered God's grace when we see it. We will feel the conviction of the Spirit and will be prompted to repent. We'll find a growing distaste for sin. We'll desire change and feel dissatisfied with where we are. The more we encounter God's grace the more we'll want to honor him. The more we'll want to be like Christ. As the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (Black) puts it, "The gospel produces such loving and longing for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ that we desire to honor him with our lives."

God's grace is a wonderful, marvelous, and amazing thing. It is so marvelous and amazing that we should never want to cheapen or lessen it. Instead, we should rest in it, rejoice in it, and praise God for it. We should yield to it as it transforms and changes us. We should sing of it. We should seek to know more of it. We should study it in Scripture, tracing the grand story of grace from Genesis to Revelation. And as my son did for me, we should reflect it to the world, pointing to the God who is grace.

Have you encountered God's amazing, all-transforming grace?

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Teaching Children a Biblical Worldview

We live in a constantly changing world. Morals, values, and even truth shifts on the shaky fault line of our culture. Whatever one feels in the moment is the deciding factor in determining what is right and good.

As believers living in such an environment it can be confusing, disconcerting, and even a bit frightening. And what about our children? How do we teach them right from wrong when there is no standard of truth in our world today? How do we provide them a steady foundation for life? How do we teach them how to make wise decisions amid all the competing voices and clamor of this world?

The answer is we give them a Biblical world view....to read the rest of this post, visit For the Family, my writing home today.

Book Review and Giveaway: The Biggest Story

What's the biggest story in the Bible? Is it the plagues in Egypt? Is it the story of David and Goliath? Is it the one about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead? Or maybe it's the story of Jesus' death and resurrection?

Actually, it's the one about the Snake Crusher.

The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden
is the new children's book written by Keven DeYoung. It's about the biggest story, the story of redemption. It begins with a perfect world, the first man and woman, and a deceitful snake. It tells the story of what happened in the Garden where Adam and Eve believed the Snake's lies, disobeyed, were removed from Paradise, and the presence of God. Before they left the Garden though, God gave them a promise that one day, a snake crusher would come and make things right.

The rest of the book follows the familiar stories of God's people who failed to follow God over and over and of God who kept his promises all the same. "It was a very good thing God was always rescuing his people. Because it seemed that no matter how many times God saved his people, the Israelites were never quite safe from themselves" (p.66).

And then the promised Snake Crusher is born. The book goes on to talk about Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection. The promise given back in Genesis came true. Jesus conquered sin and death at the cross. "Our story is the story of God doing what we can't, in order to make up for us doing what we shouldn't. The Christ suffers for our sin, that we might share in his sinlessness...God kicks his own people out of Paradise and then does whatever it takes to bring them back again" (p.107).

The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden ends with the glorious promise of the Snake Crusher's return to make all things right where we will live with him forever in a place where there is no more bad guys and no more tears.

This book is filled with engaging prose, and fun images that my children enjoyed. The story is Christ-centered, God exalting, and filled with hope. It shows children that God keeps his word. No matter how far God's people strayed, God never failed to keep his promise to bring them a deliverer. The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden also incorporates theological truths, woven throughout the story, teaching children that Jesus is the second Adam, that he is the final and perfect prophet, priest, and king, and the fulfillment of God's promise to Adam, Abraham, and David. It also highlights the truth that God is holy and we are sinful. We need salvation and we need Jesus, the Snake Crusher, to restore us back to God.

I highly recommend this book to all families who have elementary age children. The story of redemption is the biggest and best story and one our children need to hear over and over again.

I have one copy to give away. Enter below, U.S. residents only. Enter below. Update: Lisa is the winner of this giveaway. Congratulations!

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Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for my review. The thoughts and opinions are my own. This post also contains Amazon affiliate links.