i want margins!

i read this the other day and i think i struggle with this in my life...

Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That's marginless.

You need margin in your life. When you're not hurrying and worrying all the time, you have time to think. Time to relax. Time to enjoy life. Time to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).

ahhhh....margins sound nice. there are just so many things i want to do. i think maybe i want to be a stay-at-home dog mom...

are you settling?

when the israelites were about to enter the land god was giving them (canaan) there were two tribes (reuban and gad) who requested to moses to stay in the land they had just conquered (outside of canaan). they had a lot of livestock and it seemed perfect for them to settle there. even though this upset moses, they eventually got permission from the lord to settle in the land. NUMBERS 32

lindsey...this is for you- let me explain, lindsey is the queen of using play-on words, or as we like to call in our family 'dad jokes' because growing up my dad would always make these jokes that made you roll your eyes because they were kinda funny but more annoying. let's see....the only example coming to mind is the other day i told a patient to just 'keep on eye on their problem'...and they said...'oh keep an EYE on it...haha!' so hopefully you get the point. lindsey if you are reading this please post some of your best! :)

so anyway, sometimes i think we do this in life. we SETTLE! (haha, get it?) we settle in land that looks good to us or seems logical. and we may be happy with what we get, but are we maybe missing god's best for us? i'm sure the land god was reserving for the israelites was awesome...and the other land may have been fine, but they hadn't even seen what was yet to come.

maybe when asking god for something we want, we ask him if it is his desire for us to have it. sometimes we think we know what we want, but sometimes not getting what we want ends up being a blessing.

so when you are thinking about 'settling' too soon....hold out for god's best. he's waiting to bless you, but sometimes you just have to be a little patient. :)

by their fruit

does believing in god make you a christian, or follower of christ? does knowing about god make you saved? sometimes it can be confusing... i know i have met people who know the bible well or seem so know god.

something god has shown me in my life is to look at people's fruit. does their life show that they love and honor god? jesus tell us in matthew 7:16 that 'you can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.'

so doing good things doesn't show god we believe...he knows our hearts. but it does show others who we serve.

but don't be fooled...even if people know god and fear him, it doesn't mean they honor and serve him. 'you say you have faith, for you believe that there is one god. good for you! even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.' james 2:19

so the son of man must be lifted up...

i love the bronze snake story in numbers. i remember the first time i heard it...i had thought i knew every story in the bible, but this one was new.

the people of israel are complaining (again...) of no bread or water... and god sends poisonous snakes and the people start to die from the snake bites. then god tells moses to make a snake and put it on a pole and whoever looks to it will live. all they have to do is look...they can't save themselves.

the healing wasn't in the snake...it was in god. jesus later refers to this story in john 3. 'just as moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.' john 3:14-15

just like the israelites were all bitten by the snakes, we are all bitten by sin. and we can't save ourselves. there's nothing that can keep us from death (separation from god forever)...but we can be healed if we look to jesus.

'for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.' john 3:16

the snake was a symbol of death for the people of israel. it became a symbol of life when they were told to look to the snake to be healed. jesus' death on the cross is a symbol of life for us, for when we look to him as our savior, we escape the death that sin brings.

happy easter!