Happy Thanksgiving!

 ....a day late. We were busy Thanksgiving Day and I had not put a post together ahead of time...so here it is a little late.

Instead of a list of things that I am thankful for, I am sharing about the thing I am Most thankful for: my salvation! There are an innumerable host of things/people/experiences to be thankful for, but not one compares to the gift of New Life, so today I want to share my testimony:

“When did you get saved?” It seems like a simple and straightforward enough question, but for years it was one I really didn’t enjoy being asked because I really have no recollection of the day that I got saved or where I was, or anything like that. Other people were able to point to a specific day in their life or some situation, but I always had to tell people that I didn’t know but that I knew I was saved because I had asked Jesus to come into my heart, forgive my sins, and I believe He did. By faith I accept His promise of salvation to “whosoever believeth in Him.”

Shouldn’t I be satisfied with that? After all, salvation is by faith in Christ, not a day, so why did it bother me so much not to know the date?

The main reason it bothered me was that, while my memory is not that great in many other areas of life, dates of birthdays and anniversaries normally stick with me….whether I want them to or not; so why of all days could I not remember the date of my spiritual birthday? At one point I had over 70 birthdays and anniversaries memorized: friends, family, acquaintances, and people I had never met; but not the most important day in my life.

Then one day years ago, as a part of a school project my mom assigned, I was supposed to answer a list of questions with essay style answers. One of those questions was about the date of salvation….Even though I knew I was saved, I decided to reaffirm my salvation that day and thus have a date, not for salvation but for reaffirmation, to add to my testimony. It was poor reasoning for reaffirming my salvation and, yes, the date was more important than it should have been, but I will add here that I really didn’t put my faith in the date, but it was a Big Deal to me…obviously. Also obvious: I had a lot of growing to do. It wasn’t that long after, that the papers disappeared--I think I must have thrown them away eventually--and I couldn’t remember that date either. (I can’t help but smile to myself at this point).

With time this became kind of funny to me and I realized I needed to give up the date thing and instead use my testimony as an example of the importance of faith, not the date or the specific prayer.

It was just three or four years ago that my mom was looking through some old papers (well sort of old anyway lol) and came across one that listed that special and elusive date. After I gave it to the Lord and learned to accept my lack of need for an exact date, the Lord gave me the date.

I was excited when Mom found the paper and I was grateful to the Lord for this special gift because I knew He didn’t have to give me the date. I could have gone through my whole life not knowing that date and it would have been fine; it wasn’t a necessity to life, but God’s mercy is so great and He delights to often give us things that are not necessary to life. 

Blessed and thankful to be His daughter!

Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:8  But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9-10  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The Second Commandment

In its commonly condensed form the second commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” sounds almost like an expansion upon the first but, while there is some overlap between the two (you’ll find that all ten commandments daisy chain beautifully from one to the next), there is a difference that is important enough to necessitate the giving of a separate command. To appreciate this difference let’s take a quick look at the first command and make sure we understand its meaning.

Command #1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. We understand that there are no other God options (capital “G”) to choose from. Jehovah Himself is not aware of any—Isaiah 44:8-B “Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.” But the number of gods (little “g”) to be had is only as limited as human desiring. The first commandment is therefore dealing with idols. Idols are anything that takes the place of God in your life or robs God of “your” time, strength, resources, energy or simply assets. You could underline the “before” in “no other gods before me”. It is important to understand that idols can even be Christian service if it is not the service that the Holy Spirit has led you to. Christian service without the Holy Spirit is fruitless, and therefore robs God of whatever you have invested into it.

So we see that God is jealous over “our” resources. Not envious, as though they were something He wished He could own too, but jealous because they really do belong to Him. So what about things that don’t rob God of our talents, energy, or time? Well that brings us to the second command.

To understand the second commandment it is helpful to unabbreviate it by not just reading Exodus 20:4 but also reading verses 5-6. If you do that, you see that God is jealous over our worship and love, or our hearts. When we give God’s reverence to things that are not God, then He is justly offended to be so robbed. But how do we do this? Well, I can think of several ways: when Christians celebrate Halloween they are hallowing a day or keeping a holy day to the father of lies. If this is worship, it is done in foreign currency that God cannot accept; and if we think that we can clean it up by various “trunk or treat” methods, are we not then fools to think that God would accept counterfeit foreign currency? When Christians wear anything as a good luck charm, that does not rob God of our assets, but worse it signifies our belief that God is not as able, or at least as willing, to aid us as our charm is. The flip side of the coin (no pun intended) is when Christians do things such as refusing to pick up a tails up coin believing it to be bad luck. Is anything more powerful than God in whose hand we rest? “Christian” rock is another example of the making of a graven image or strange fire. Even if the words are pure Scripture it cannot be used to worship God when the vehicle by which they travel belongs to the devil. The fact that you stole a car in order to get to church does not justify auto theft.

Book Review: Ribbing Him Rightly

Beneth Peters Jones did a marvelous job hitting the nail on the head in the book, Ribbing Him Rightly. She explains the roles, duties, and privilege of being a fine Christian wife--along with Scripture to back it up. The title perks interest, (at least it did with me) and refers to the wife's function in the marriage--and as a godly woman. We women, in fact, have way more in common with ribs and their function than one would think! When God created woman from out of man He used Adam's rib to do it. He could have just as easily used one of Adam's toes, or anything else, but I believe God had a purpose for choosing a rib. Besides giving fascinating insight into the similarity of ribs and their functions, and godly wives, Mrs. Jones speaks plainly and practically--using humor, irony, and personal experience to reach the heart of the reader and cause them to think. Although I am not married I have already read this book twice and enjoyed it immensely. My mom read this book when she was a teenager as well, and she said it helped prepare her mentally for marriage, and understanding better how guys think.
Lastly, it's one of those books that is very applicable (practicality not formulas) and could be passed on from mother to daughter with benefit for both. Enjoy your read. :)