knowledgeofgoodandevil

I have been a Christian for a long time. I accepted the Lord when I was 9 years old. I don’t have one of those testimonies where I left my life of prostitution, drugs, and living on the mean streets to become a Christian. I got scared into salvation. I was a happy go-lucky 9 year old, who knew the gospel, but didn’t really think it applied to me just yet. I was only 9 years old. I saw a movie at my church called, “A Thief in the Night,” The movie is a cheesy movie about the end times, the rapture specifically. This girl is married to a Christian man and she wakes up one morning to find his electric razor on and bouncing around in the sink of their bathroom. She realizes he’s disappeared and she doesn’t know what to do about it. You see the rapture has taken place and God has taken all His children home. I immediately went home, after seeing that movie, and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, in my bedroom. I didn’t want to be left behind.

I was really scared by that movie. I also didn’t understand God’s daily forgiveness. So, every night, when I went to bed, I prayed to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I did this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT after I got saved. I needed to make sure. This was a huge burden on me. I knew I sinned throughout the day, so at the end of my day I would just cover my bases and accept Christ all over again.

Well as you know, God knows everything and He knows everything about us. He knew my struggle, of accepting Him every night before I went to bed. God needed to set me straight. He needed to educate me on the Christian basics, so I wouldn’t have this burden of accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior every night before I went to sleep.

Two years later I go to my first Christian Summer camp. It was a week, camping on the glorious Lake Clark in Alaska. A week of dodge ball, canoeing, hiking, singing, laughing, and preaching. I was ecstatic. I had so much fun. I think it was my first night there, my camp counselor of my cabin shared her testimony with us. She said she accepted Jesus Christ as her savior when she was young. We were all laying in our bunk beds listening to her talk. She said she wasn’t sure about her salvation, so every night she prayed to accept Jesus as her Savior, just to be sure. My ears were pricked! Someone did the same thing as me? I listened more intently. She said she was burdened by this, so she made a decision to accept Christ as her Savior once and for all and believe that she was truly saved once and for all. To make it official, she said she took off all her clothes and laid down on her bed to give all of herself to the Lord. I cringed at that part. I was eleven years old at this time and shared a bedroom with my sister and brother. I wasn’t going to be doing any naked conversions. But even though I wasn’t buying into the naked part, I knew the Lord was speaking to me through her. I didn’t have to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior every night. I was already saved.

Along with my camp counselor’s naked testimony, we had a speaker who we listened to morning and night. He talked about exactly what I needed to hear. He explained that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we still sin afterwards. We didn’t lose our salvation, we just needed to ask the Lord for forgiveness when we sin. If we don’t, it puts a veil between us and God, so our prayers aren’t effective. He taught us to pray and get daily forgiveness from the Lord. Oh, I thought to myself, well that makes sense. Between my counselor’s naked testimony and the preacher’s teaching on daily forgiveness, I had been relieved of my burden.

So I wasn’t unsaved when I sinned. I just needed to confess my sins on a daily basis. And even though I had accepted the Lord hundreds of times, I was going to do a once for all conversion, but without the naked part. I think I waited until I got home from camp. But when I did, I made one final conversion. God knew what I was doing, it was closure for me. So I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior one last time. I now had confidence that I was truly saved. My counselor’s naked testimony had helped me, the preacher at camp had helped me, and God used both of these people to unburden a sincere 11 year old, who He knew, loved Him, and wanted to get to know Him better.

I heard Levi Lusko speak a few weeks ago. I don’t know if you’ve listened to him before, but he’s really great. Part of his message was about women who pray to God to just use them, they need a ministry. These woman pray to God asking him to use them, meanwhile their son Billy is yelling and pleading for his mom’s attention. In the middle of this prayer, the mom turns to her son and tells him to “shut up” she’s praying right now and to leave her alone. Levi said that Billy was her ministry and she was neglecting her ministry. I laughed. It was an exaggeration, but then there was a lot of truth mixed in with that.

A friend of mind from college told me a story about her life that has haunted me ever since. She was a missionary kid. I went to a Christian college, and we had a lot of missionary kids and pastors’ kids (mks and pks). Missionary kids and pastors’ kids had a horrible reputation at our school. If some kid went off the rails at school and got caught drinking, someone would say, “Oh, they’re a “pk,” and everyone would nod and say, “Oh, that makes sense.” Well my friend was a missionary kid. She was from a big family who served as missionaries somewhere in South America. My friend was the youngest and the most stable of her siblings. She told me about their Christmases while their parents served as missionaries. She said, her siblings would stay at home, by themselves, all day on Christmas day. There was no special food, no presents, no celebrations at all. Their parents thought it important to go out on Christmas day and celebrate with other families they were ministering to. They would bring presents, and special food to these families, but leave their children at home with no celebration what’s so ever. It’s no wonder, none of my friend’s siblings walked with the Lord or even claimed to be Christians. They were all grown and wanted nothing to do with God. God took their parents away on special days. Who would want that?

We as women have a tough job. Not that there is no joy in what we do as mothers. There definitely is. And not that we don’t find satisfaction in what we do. Certainly there is. However, the question is often asked,

“What are you doing for Jesus?”

We can answer, “Well…I’m a mother…”

“No, that’s a given, what are you doing for Jesus?”

“Well…I’m a wife…”

“No, that’s a given, what are you doing for Jesus?”

Well I am a wife and mother and I: wash clothes, pray, do dishes, read my Bible, sweep floors, read labels for gluten, grocery shop, chauffeur kids, clean toilets, fix meals, fold clothes, vacuum, organize, teach, read to my kids, coach my children, encourage my husband, pray for my husband, pray, pray, pray…

If we are mothers we HAVE a ministry. Our ministry is to raise our children. Somebody’s got to do it. Somebody has to raise the children. Or somebody has to do the bare minimum of feeding them and making sure they don’t smell bad. God gave us the children, take care of them! They are your ministry Mom!

In her book, “The Shaping of a Christian Family,” Elisabeth Elliot wrote:

“I am reminded of Amy Carmichael’s story of a donor to her work in Dohnavur, South India. He wrote that he wanted his money to go into “spiritual work.” In her experience in India, she said, she found that souls were “more or less firmly attached to bodies.” Bodies require houses and therefore house cleaning: food and therefore cooking; clothes and therefore washing. Amy, who had spent years in itinerant evangelism, was willing to relinquish that for motherwork, and became Amma (Tamil for “Mother”) to many hundreds of Indian children. “I wonder how many thousands of tiny fingernails and toenails I have cut!” she said. pp. 157.

Our souls are “more or less firmly attached to bodies.” The souls of our children ARE “more or less firmly attached to bodies.” And like Amy Carmichael said, those bodies need to be fed, washed, hugged, listened to, fed again, sheltered, clothed… as you know, the list never ends. It takes a lot of work to raise children. Taking care of their physical bodies is just the minimum. We need to care for them spiritually and bring them to the Living Water, as well.

That is what Levi Lusko was saying. We may have lofty ideas of heading to faraway places to minister to the poor, but as long as you have little people in your home, they are your ministry. And God is good with that, Levi Lusko’s good with that, and you should be good with that. So if you ever get discouraged or are challenged that you aren’t doing enough for Jesus, just remember Amy Carmichael’s quote, “Souls are more or less firmly attached to bodies.” And those bodies require much care. Especially if they are teenage boys. Teenage boys require the sleep and food of a bear. (But I digress). Be encouraged, sister, somebody has to take care of those soul attached bodies. AND that IS your ministry.

I like to defend God. I think He gets a lot of bad press, from people taking His name in vain to evolutionists denying His creation. God is good to all of His children. I want to spend time on this blog telling you about how God has been good to my family. Because God IS good – all the time.

I’m from a little town in Alaska. I grew up there. My dad had a tire shop there. He did pretty well for himself. Think dirt roads with lot’s of pot holes and you get the picture. Dad has since retired. My parents live in Anchorage now. But Dad’s shop is still there. He goes back occasionally to check on things. This summer dad went back to our small town to do some maintenance on the garage. Like all car garages, dad had dug a deep whole in the floor, so he could look up at the vehicles he was fixing. The floor of the garage was starting to collapse because of the hole in the floor and dad realized he needed to fill the hole to support the floor and keep it from collapsing in. Dad is no spring chicken, but he was determined to get that hole filled in. He had some gravel delivered to his garage. They delivered the gravel, a big mound right in front of his garage. Near the hole, but not in the hole.

So there dad stood, in front of the garage, shovel in hand. In his mind, he pictured it taking weeks to fill that hole with the gravel. His hips ached just thinking about it. He took a deep breath. How in the world was he going to get this done? As he stood there, a couple walking by, stopped and asked my dad a question. Did he know of anyone that needed help with anything? They were looking to get paid to do practically anything. Dad looked at them. He asked them how much they were looking to get paid. Twenty bucks they said. Dad smiled and handed them the shovel. I need help he told them. He told them he needed them to shovel the big mound of gravel into that hole in the garage. They went right to work shoveling. They finished in an hour and a half. Dad paid them $100 and thanked them. They thanked Dad. And Dad thanked God for supplying the labor he desperately needed to fill that hole with gravel.

My mom doesn’t drive anymore. Her eyes got bad awhile back so she had to turn in her driver’s license. Right around that time, they moved to Anchorage, so Mom could take buses around town. Mom had a doctor’s appointment one day and as she came out of the hospital to head for the bus stop she could see this young guy either drunk or high yelling at a lady. The lady was yelling back at him. They were getting very heated and very loud. It scared my mom. As my mom warily watched them another lady appeared out of nowhere. Mom didn’t see where she came from, but she sat right next to Mom and told her, “You are going to be okay. I’m going to sit right here with you until the bus comes.” Mom felt comforted. And the lady sat there until the bus came. It was like the lady read my mom’s mind. But it wasn’t the lady who read mom’s mind, it was God who read her mind.

For those of us who are God’s children, He watches out for us. He loves us. He protects us. He knows the numbers of hairs on our head.

Psalms 34:8 reads, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”

I love that verse. I just gave you a little taste of God in my parents’ lives. God is so good. He sent two people to Dad to help him fill a hole. He sent a lady to keep my mom company while she waited for the bus. God does these things all the time for His children. He loves His children.

God is good all the time. I’ve said this before. Not some of the time. Not occasionally. He is good all the time. He hears our thoughts. He knows our name. He gave us Psalms 34:8 so we would know how good He is. Come and taste Him and see that He is good. He will never disappoint.

My kids aren’t perfect. I know, I know, you may have thought otherwise, but it’s true. They can bicker and fight like the best of them. So we are walking into church today. My daughter is complaining to my son how he picks on her. He’s telling her she annoys him all the time. She shoots back to him that she doesn’t annoy him all the time. He shoots back that she does. And on and on it goes. And we’re walking into church at this time. We sit down, the three of us, with me in the middle. They are still going at it.

I turn to my son, “Back off and leave your sister alone!”

I turn to my daughter, “Back off and quit poking the bear!”

Both start, “But…!”

“No! I say. I repeat myself.

To my son, “Back off and leave your sister alone!”

To my daughter, “Quit poking the bear!”

A truce is called. I know they aren’t done, but they know I AM! They know if they push any farther, ipods will be confiscated. I have leverage and I’m not afraid to use it. So there is a temporary quiet, a temporary still in the storm. Just to insure the peace treaty, I give them both the look. They know what that means: no one better say anything, Mom has had enough!

The service continues, my kids can’t argue because WE ARE IN CHURCH. While singing praise songs I think about my kids. I am frustrated, a little angry at both of them. I have given up so much for them and I don’t have perfect children. What gives? I have sacrificed my time, money, my education, and I have two bickering teenagers. The time passes and the anger ebbs. Some frustration is still there. It will rise up again, when my children fight, again. But for now, the frustration and anger have ebbed.

We do communion at the end of the service. Our pastor has talked about why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross. He tells us the details of the horrific death Jesus Christ suffered. They pass out the communion bread. I hold it in my hand. It’s a sharp holey piece of cracker.

“This is Christ’s body which was broken for our sin. The holes represent the holes in Jesus’ hands and feet.” We take the cracker as a symbol of Christ’s body crucified for our sins.

They pass out the grape juice in the little cups. My focus on my unruly children has completely shifted. I’m thinking about Jesus Christ now. I’m thinking about His blood that was shed for my sins. The singer leads us in singing, “Amazing Grace.” We all sing the first stanza. The women sing the second stanza. All the men are to sing the third stanza. I am holding the little cup of juice. Both of my kids are holding their own cup of juice. No one is talking, we are singing, “Amazing Grace.”

On the third stanza when all the men are supposed to sing I hear a baritone voice next to me, “Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come.” My heart skips a beat. The baritone voice continues, “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.” I feel a dampness on my cheeks. I can’t look at my son right now who is the baritone singing. I can’t look at this 15 year old man/child. He might stop singing. He might get embarrassed. I look forward, holding my little juice cup, letting the dampness on my cheeks swell to a steady flow.

Both of my kids are holding their cups of juice. Both of them hear that the juice symbolizes Jesus Christ’s blood shed on the cross for their sins. Both of them participate in this practice because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. We all drink the juice. I’m holding my empty communion cup in front of me when my daughter slips her cup into mine. My son does the same. We have remembered the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ together, as a family. We have been reminded that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all people. I still hold the empty cups in front of me. I am reminded of the fact that both my children have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Isn’t that the goal? I can’t take anything with me to Heaven, but I definitely want to see my children there. They aren’t perfect. None of us are. But they know the truth. They know who Jesus Christ is.

The communion reminds me of our imperfection. Jesus Christ shed His blood for all people. The goal of parenting isn’t perfection. The goal of parenting is to lead them to Jesus Christ. They need to accept Jesus Christ as their own Savior. They need to be reminded of this. Communion reminds us of this. I’m here, sitting between my two kids, holding empty juice cups because we remember what Jesus Christ did for us. My husband and I drove the kids to the church. I sat between them. We brought them to the Living Water. And that should always be the goal. I remember Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and I remember what my goal is as a parent. The goal of parenting isn’t perfect kids. The goal of parenting is to bring them to the Living Water.

Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

When I was little, about six years old, I had a babysitter after school. The babysitter I had, ALWAYS took the Lord’s name in vain. I heard her it say it over and over again, so monkey see, monkey do. I started taking the Lord’s name in vain. I did it over and over again. Well my mom heard me say it and told me to stop saying it. She said she didn’t want me to say it ever again. She told me she was going to wash my mouth out with soap, if she caught me taking the Lord’s name in vain.

I was a little heathen back then. I wasn’t saved yet. So you know what’s going to happen next. I said it again. I was sitting in the bathtub talking to my sister. I used the Lord’s name in vain. I don’t know if my mom was just coming into the bathroom or passing by, but she caught me saying it. She came flying in the bathroom. She whisked me out of the tub. She yelled at me and told me she had warned me about that. I tried to justify myself by saying, “I was just talking about God.” My mom wasn’t having it. She stuck a bar of soap into my mouth. I can taste that soap right now as I’m writing this. It has been over forty years ago, and I can still taste the soap. But I have never taken the Lord’s name in vain ever since. Not one time. Not ever. I can’t even read it, if I’m reading a novel. I really learned my lesson.

People tend to take lightly, the commandments God has given us. It drives me absolutely crazy when I hear friends and relatives take the Lord’s name in vain. I don’t think people even know they are doing it. But I hear them doing it and when they do, it sends a chill up my spine. I had to endure soap in my mouth for saying it. But what does God say about taking His Name in vain?

Reading the verse, Exodus 20:7, there is a warning along with the commandment. A warning! “…for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” Yikes. This commandment is part of the ten commandments. There are only ten commandments and most of them are fairly straight forward: “thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness…” The first three verses are about our treatment of God. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain is the third of those verses, right after “having no other god’s,” and “not making idols for ourselves.” God’s not going to “leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” God attaches a consequence for taking His name in vain. He takes the abuse of His name fairly seriously.

God’s a big God. He’s the Master of the Universe. He is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful. So why is taking His name in vain such a big deal? I believe it’s respect. A few years back my kids and I were reading a novel about prairie times. One of the characters in the book was a young girl. She kept calling her mom, “ma.” Her mother didn’t like it and viewed it as a way of disrespecting her mother. The mother disciplined her daughter for this infraction. After we read that part of the book, my daughter started using “ma,” instead of calling me “mommy.” I didn’t like that at all. Right after we read this part of the book, she starts calling me “ma?” It felt disrespectful. I corrected her. It took a few times of her calling me ma and then me taking something away from her, that she finally got the picture. (No, I didn’t wash her mouth out with soap!)

For me to be so upset when my child calls me ma, imagine what it does to God when we take His name in vain? He loves us. He sent His Son to the Earth to die for our sins. He rose from the dead. He calls all people to Himself to be saved. He cares for us. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He wants us to spend eternity with Him when we die. He is good all the time. He is good to us. He deserves our respect. He deserves at least that much. Don’t take His name in vain. And if that’s not enough for you, He says you will not be left unpunished if you take His name in vain. It’s easy for me not to take His name in vain. I got my mouth washed out with soap. As one who suffered for that sin, I am warning you, my mom administered the punishment, what will the punishment be if God administers it?