A Christmas Story Twist-Application: Part 2

(I will be referring to the Scripture in 

Part 1 throughout this entry.)

I ended Part 1 of my last entry with a question.  My question is concerning King David & Mephibosheth found in 2 Samuel 9.  Why did God begin the chapter in verse 3 & end with verse 13c-And Mephibosheth …; he was lame in both feet?  Again, I find this interesting.  Why did God want this to be the last thing to be itched in our minds?  Why not leave it on a perfectly good note or portion of scripture in verse13a & b- And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table;….  This would have kept us at the fairy-tale ending, “And everyone lived happily ever after.”

One reason I think God chose not the fairy-tale ending was it was not a real life situation.  We live in a sinful, fallen world, with disappointments, & struggles.   Life is hard, & not fair.  God never intended for our lives to be this way, but He knew from the beginning of time that Adam & Eve would choose to sin.  So, “where one man brought sin into this world, many are now sinners”, well….

A second reason that comes to my mind is I need a reminder that I am a sinner.  I am spiritually crippled in two feet.  If Mehpibosheth was crippled in only one foot or an arm, he could probably easily compensate.  I easily compensate with my easy way-outs sometimes.  I start to trust in myself, & lean on my own understanding.  Mehpibosheth & King David had a three day physical reminder, because Mehpibosheth ate at the king’s table the rest of his days.

Because of how Mephibosheth’s disability happen, he lived in hiding for fear of being killed.  King David didn’t have a clue Mephibosheth existed until he inquired.  We see this in 2 Samuel 9:1-King David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of King Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”  Jonathan was King Saul’s son who David loved dearly with a brotherly love.  Jonathan had made a covenant with David, & David wanted to not only honor Jonathan, but their covenant.  This question was total GRACE!  David didn’t owe this to Jonathan, & David especially didn’t owe anything to King Saul, who hated him!   This is something he desired to do out of love.

After Mephibosheth came before David, David tells him not to fear.  David begins to bless him by giving back all King Saul’s property, gives Mephibosheth King Saul’s servant & his servant’s family to take care of his property.  David ends with the biggest blessing of all, wanting relationship with Mephibosheth by feasting at his table at every meal-crippled feet & all!!!  Mephibosheth was treated as one of David’s sons.  WOW!!!

A third reason might be, when you have crippled feet, you can’t really go anywhere by yourself.  You are not independent.  You are needy if you like it or not!  You might have to stay planted a while until someone else moves you. 

Fourthly, maybe because of his disability, Mephibosheth thought of himself as a dog as we see in verse 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”

It’s time to see God’s grace:

In paragraph reason one, I ended with “where one man (Adam) brought sin into the world, many are now sinners….”; the rest of this sentence is “so by one Man’s (Jesus’) obedience, many will be righteous (be saved).”  We don’t need a fairy-tale ending, because we have hope, & can have a changed life in Jesus.  

Just like Mephibosheth, there is nothing I can do to be accepted more, or loved more by the Father.  Jesus has done it all for me.  I don’t need to compensate.  Because of Jesus, I don’t have to fear, I can come boldly to the Father’s throne of GRACE!  

The Father desires & waits for me to come to His banqueting table & rest, without a care in the world because I am casting all my cares on Him; be refreshed, nourished, & enjoy His fellowship-cripple feet & all!!  The Father would love for me to choose to plant myself, & need only Him.   

The HUGE difference between me/the Father, & David/Mephibosheth is the Father doesn’t even see my crippled feet.  What GRACE!!!  Why you might ask?  Again, it is because of Jesus covering my sinful crippled feet with His blood, & the Father sees Jesus.  I am free from the Father’s wrath once & for all, because the work of the cross was finished once & for all.  Because of the cross, I don’t have to work for my salvation & I don’t have to work for my sanctification, (making me more like Jesus everyday)!  Where Mephibosheth believed his worth was equal to a dog, the Father sees me as His dearly beloved child, His princess. 

Finally, the Christmas Twist:

With all this said, you might ask, “Where does Christmas come into this story?”  Without the grace of the manger, I would still be in my crippled state.  Jesus had to leave His throne room of glory, to come to earth, humbly as a newborn baby, born of a virgin.  He lived a perfect life, taking my punishment on the cross.  Then, after three days He arose from the grave, & is now seated down at the right hand of the Father.  

Jesus tells us in Mt 19:14-“Let the little children come to Me, & do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  

I have three grand daughters; Audrey-2 1/2, Haven-4 1/2, & Lauren-6 1/2.  I love each one dearly.  Each one are at different stages in their lives & each one has different personalities.  When I see each of them, they run up and give me a great big hug.  Lauren stays in my arms a few seconds.  Haven stays about 1-2 min.  But Audrey, if Mama or Daddy aren’t around, those little arms are constantly going up, & she is glued to my hip.  Naturally, I will never turn her away from reaching down, picking her up, & loving on her.  I desire to hold her, no matter how heavy she might get.  On my hip or not, we go everywhere together having fellowship.

God the Father desires this same thing.  He desires for me to reach up to Him, to stay glued to, or to rest on His hip-“so to speak.”  To spend moment by moment going everywhere with Him & having fellowship.

Please, don’t miss going to the manger this Christmas, 

crippled feet & all!

Merry Christmas!

ann :)

A Christmas Story Twist-Historical: Part 1

Before I begin this entry, 

I am going to let you know that this will be a deep, 

spiritual, thought provoking one; not light-hearted!

    This Fall Semester I have been involved with a Bible Study called LOVED -Learning to Rest by Clara Jones, who is one of our pastors wives.  This study is all about learning to rest in the Father’s love through Jesus.  It has been a powerful study!  The lecture/teaching from Clara last week was on resting or abiding in Jesus.  Part of our homework assignment was studying Mephibosheth.

I have always enjoyed the story of Mephibosheth.  In fact, when I directed children’s choirs way back when, one of our Christmas Programs was called, “No Phibbin, Mephibosheth.”  I certainly didn’t receive these thoughts years ago.

You might not be familiar with Mephibosheth.  In fact, you might not can even pronounce his name :)  I think it is worth our time to review & refresh our memories before diving into the meat of this entry.

King Saul was the first king of Israel.  During his reign, he & the Israelites were at war with Goliath, the nine foot Giant, & the Philistines. David, a young boy, came on this scene when his father sent him to check on his brothers who were fighting in the war.   Secretly, David was already anointed by God to be the next king over Israel.  After David killed Goliath, David’s new job was to help sooth King Saul by playing his harp. 

     Jonathan was one of the sons of King Saul.  If I have my facts straight, he was suppose to be next in line to be king.  Somehow, Jonathan knew God’s plan that he would not be Israel’s second king, but David would be.  Through the years, King Saul hated David & spent most of his reign trying to kill David.  Despite all this, Jonathan & David had a special bond of brotherly love between them.  Jonathan even made a covenant with David that would bond them forever.  Now to Mephibosheth.  His father was Jonathan, which makes King Saul his grandfather. 

In one days time, King Saul, Jonathan & other sons of King Saul, were killed in another battle.  Even though God already anointed David king, it needed to become a reality to the region of Judah.  In those days, when a king died, the new king, who was outside of the previous king’s family, usually would kill all of the previous king’s family!  Now, we are finally up to this passage.

2 Samuel 4:4

Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became disabled. His name was Mephibosheth.

Which now takes us to this passage!

David and Mephibosheth-2 Samuel 9

1 King David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of King Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”  2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”  “At your service,” he replied.

3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”  Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”  4 “Where is he?” the king asked.  Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”

5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.  6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.  David said, “Mephibosheth!”  “At your service,” he replied.  7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”  8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”

9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)  11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.

12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.

       God ends this chapter & story with verse 13-And Mephibosheth …; he was lame in both feet.  I find this interesting.  God also states his disability in verse 3.  Why did God begin & end this Chapter this way? 

The Christmas twist will come

in continuation Part 2…

ann :)

Legacies: Part 3-"Still Juicy"

        Now for the final & REST of the story!  I’m not going to give a big review.  It would be very helpful if you would read Legacies: Part 1 & 2 to fully appreciate Part 3.  This is the continuation of my Legacy of Tithing based on Mal 3:8-12, bringing the whole  tithe into the storehouse (God’s church).  God says to test Him in doing this.  Again, I believe that due to Dave’s & my tithing throughout our lives & especially during the hardest times of our lives when we didn’t have any money, God has been very true to His promises & blessing.

        Well, I left off around December of Dave’s fourth year in medical school.  In Legacy Part 2:”Juicy Part”, I wrote about the miraculous provisions that God provided for us by (1) me becoming the resident manger in our students housing complex, (2) & the extraordinary Conference Week, ending with us finding out that we were NOT deferred as we wished in Dave’s coming up residency program.

When February rolled around Amy was over 3 1/2 yrs old, & Ben was about 20 mons old.  Dave had doubled up his course load & had finished up early.  The negative aspect in doing this was no more money came in from the Air Force.  Dave was still working odd jobs at the hospital.  Through-out these medical school years we babysat children for a weekend or up to 10 days while their parents were on vacation or gone to conferences.  This was great money for us!

Looking back on it, this babysitting again was only from the Lord, because I didn’t have a clue to what I was doing when I signed up for this.  I had Amy at the time, so I guess I thought I could keep another child during the day, off & on, not for continual days at a time.  All this happened because I was a member of the Medical Wives Club which was a support group for the wives of medical students.  This Club had many functions you could sign-up for, so I signed-up for babysitting.  When I got my first weekend babysitting call, I must say I was a little shocked.  Again, this turned out to be an awesome blessing because, one family with three young boys fell in love with us, & especially with Amy.  We gave them a lot of attention, & because of this, the parents called on us a lot.  When Ben came along, it became a little much, so reluctantly we had to give it up.

Back to February, Dave finally had a little time off.  This sweet family who we sat often for, offered us their house in Sugar Mt so we could go snow skiing.  I hadn’t snow skied much, so I definitely wasn’t good at it.  It was fun having Dave’s middle brother & wife go along on the trip with us.  We always had fun with them, & many belly laugh stories.  One in particular came out of this trip.  I’ll have to write about that another day.  

         

             Anyway, about a little over 24 hrs after being there, we got a call to let us know that Ben had fractured his leg.  My parents were keeping the children while we were on the ski trip.  Mother & Daddy always did special things with the children like playing one on one with them, going to the park, etc....   Daddy was playing with Ben by throwing Ben up in the air & catching him around Ben's ankles/legs.  Ben loved this game.  Anyway, this is how Ben got his fracture, & Daddy dreaded making that call to us.  We left Dave’s brother & wife, & turned all the way around to get the kids.  That leg cast looked about as big as Ben was-poor thing!  All of February became a most difficult month due to this situation.  Lesson: even though you tithe, life is not always easy.

May finally got here with graduation.  Hallelujah!!!  Graduation was a lot of fun, and full of different emotions, like: telling all our close friends good-bye, and packing for the big move to Biloxi, MS.  Many of us student families had our own furniture, and the apartments came fully furnished.  It all worked out to pick & choose from our furniture & the Married Housing furniture, & put either one in storage.  When it came time to leave, we went & got out all the furniture.  To our horrors, we found out that someone had gone through the storage unit, & stole furniture.  They picked and chose a little here & there from every one's furniture.  This way, they knew they would get away with it, because we would all have to come together for small claims court.  Naturally, none of us did, & they did get away with it.  I was sick that we lost our antique legal table that we use to use as a kitchen table.  They also stole some of the Married Housing furniture which went into our apartment.  The Married Housing Office was strongly requesting for us to pay for their missing furniture.  I didn't blame them, but we didn't have the money!  PTL, again it was a God thing, when all was said & done, we didn't have to reimburse them.

             Biloxi or Bust!!!

             We made it to Biloxi in fine shape.  I couldn't believe the house the military put us in!  Since Dave was a Captain, we got a very large three bedroom home.  I was in love.

             Now, since we didn't have a kitchen table & chairs, we were eating on a card table.  I began praying for three things that were desires of my heart during the last couple of months of medical school.  They were:

1. Kitchen table & chairs, also matching China cabinet.

2. Microwave oven

3. Piano

            I felt the kitchen table & chairs was a need, but they also could be put in the category of desires.  I just didn't know how the Lord would see this one.  Anyway, I had met a sweet friend quickly after our Biloxi move who had one little boy at the time.  A friend of theirs asked if they would like to buy a dining room table & chairs for $200, & a matching China cabinet for $200.  She said that they were not interested, but she might have a friend who could be interested!  Duh!!!  Since it was us, their friends would have charged much higher.  Well, God supplied us with a very nice diningroom table (not kitchen table), chairs, & matching china cabinet for $400.  Mother was so ready to get all our wedding China, etc... out of their attic, & so was I!  It was like Christmas all over again as I unwrapped our fine belongings, and put them into the China cabinet.  PRAYER DESIRE REQUEST 1-ANSWERED

          As soon as we walked into the Biloxi house, PRAYER DESIRE REQUEST 2  was answered yes.  There was a microwave built into the kitchen.  Y'all might think that this is a no brainier, but microwaves were not super common in every home back then.  The first time I had ever heard of a microwave oven was when my Mother-in-law was all excited & brought one for their home.

          Finally, how God answered yes concerning PRAYER DESIRE REQUEST 3, about seven months down the road after moving in, Dave's Grandmother sent us some money out of the blue.  After tithing, Dave wanted me to use some of the money to buy a good used piano.  We were blown away, on how God had used his Grandmother to meet some of our needs & my desire.

Notice all these desires were answered in about seven months!!!

Pass it on!

           Through our testimony of tithing, God gave us the privilege to share with our new best friends in Biloxi, who I mentioned in DESIRE PRAYER REQUEST 1.  They were not tithing at the time.  After seeing how God met our needs & desires, through the passage Mal. 3:8-12, they began to tithe.  PTL!!

            I love this verse, because it has a condition and a promise.  
And, God is true to His promises.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, 

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

What legacies are you passing on?

ann :)

Legacies: Part 2-"Juicy Part"

Here is a quick review from my last blog entry-Legacies: Part 1 

I shared how I have been blessed with three legacies: 

1. Legacy of the faithfulness in marriage based on how God Almighty created marriage. (Gen. 2:24)
2. Legacy of corporate Sabbath/Sunday worship & rest.
3. Legacy of tithing based on Malachi 3:8-12.

I want to continue with the legacy of tithing.  Since my story is based on the verses in Malachi, I am going to restate this passage.

Malachi 3:8-12(NIV) 

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you (God’s people) rob Me.  “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing You?’  “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me. 10 (Command) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, (WHY-Provision) that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, (WHY-Blessing)“and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Still reviewing, I stated that these core beliefs of tithing were ingrained by the Lord through my parents when I was a small child after being caught steeling from God by not giving my 5 cents tithe.  Yes, your read that correctly.

If you are new to reading my blog, it might be important for you to understand that I married my high school sweet heart.  We were only 19 (Dave) & 20 yr old.  We were married after Dave’s second year of college.  Before we knew it, I was pregnant with our first child.  In fact she came the day Dave graduated from college.  Praise the Lord (PTL) that Dave chose not to go through the graduation ceremony.  We were babies having babies.   

We had Amy the Summer before Dave began medical school.  PTL Dave went through medical school on a military scholarship.  I hate to call this a scholarship, because it wasn’t free.  Dave did pay a heavy price by giving his time for all those years, & it did change the course of our life.  One of the greatest benefits of going this route was so I could be at home taking care of Amy.  Then, less than two years later, we had Ben.  I must admit, I was scarred to look at the man for getting pregnant again. 

Now for the “juicy” part!!!  Sometimes, in looking at the beautiful Spring flowers or the colorful dancing Fall leaves, you can see GOD is just showing off.  In Legacies: Part 2 & 3, I hope you will see how GOD just showed off during one of the hardest seasons of our lives.  I firmly believe it was connected to our tithing.  We tithed no matter what.  

At the end of medical school, close friends gave monetary gifts to Dave as a graduation present.  I really admired Dave because he chose to tithe these gifts instead of just doing something fun with them.  If anyone deserved to just have some blow-off fun, it was him after working so hard in school, & working extra jobs to support us.  

I have never consciously thought about testing God in this command.  Tithing is something I did in loving Him.  Tithing doesn’t mean when you tithe, God will automatically bless you with wealth.  He does say that He will meet our needs, and bestow hidden blessings beyond our thinking.  

Hopefully, you will see through my examples in this blog & the next blog how God blessed us in the midst of hard-times as we tithed through-out these years.

1. Over half-way through Dave’s medical school we had two babies, and money was very tight.  We were living at the medical school’s married housing apartments.  It was perfect for us.   Dave could walk to school so I could have our one car when needed.  Many who lived there had children.  It was really great to just walk outside our front door, & friends of all ages were all around.  We did have a resident manger who lived on the property, but no one knew them.  They were an older couple that had nothing in common with the medical or dental students.

One day Dave walked in our door with a bright idea.  Out of the blue, he thought why don't I be the resident manger!!  Yes, ME!  After the shock, I thought, why not.  Dave went to the residence office the following day.  Would you believe, the day that Dave had the idea, the resident manger had just put in their notice.  On top of this, the staff were thinking about making one of the student residents the manger of the apartments.  If you think that this was all orchestrated by chance, well think again.  Because of this blessing, we didn’t have to pay for our housing & had very little utility bills.  God is good and very faithful to His promises!!!

2. During the last two years of medical school, all the students begin thinking about their special fields of residence they would like to go into.  Dave was very interested in surgery at that time.  Because of this, the surgery department asked one student to go to a National Surgical Conference, all expenses paid, in Atlanta, GA.  It  was held in early December.  Dave wanted me to go with him to the conference.  I definitely wanted to, but we didn’t have any extra money to pay for my expenses, since he was free.  Did that stop us?  No!  I don’t even remember who kept the kids.

It was one of those LORD SHOW-OFF WEEKS.  I saw clearly His hand on every aspect of each day:

a. The conference began with heavy hors d’oeuvres the first evening.  That was our dinner :)  FREE!!! :) 

b. The second day, Dave went & did his thing with the conference.  I made my way over to a near by building where I could buy meals, etc…  Well, I got my favorite meal at the time-coffee.  I can usually occupy myself very well.  I did so by doing my Bible Study, & I took along the booklets that had events listed for the spouses & their families.  Since I had all the time in the world, enjoying my coffee, I began playing a game.  First, I asked myself, “If I had all the money in the world, what would I do in this book?”  After that, I went to, “If I had some money, what would I do?”  Finally, my third category was, “If I could do two events, what would I do?”  I had a great time, but best yet, it took up most of my morning.  In fact, it was about lunch time, & I was tired of the game.  So I got up to leave.  What I didn’t know during all this time a dear, sweet, older, Christian lady had been watching me plan.  As I was leaving, she asked me, “What are you planning to do this week?”  All I could do was laugh!  I ‘fessed-up & told her I was just playing around and wasn’t going to do any of it.  Well, to make an already long story short, she & her husband took Dave & I under their wings.  They bought lunch for me that day & paid for two events that I did with her.  At these events I met other older, Christian couples who took us under their wings, & who took an interest in us.

Again, coincidence!?  I think not!!  The odds of me going to the same place where I met this lady, at the same time-interesting.  These people were generous, but there was something very different from within them as they gave.  Also, because of them, we met others who took a great & invested interest in us.   Interesting, interesting….

The second couple we met through the first couple, paid for us to attend a dinner theater.  The meal was delicious.  The play consisted of a one man act who played out the entire book of Matthew in the Bible.  I have never seen this before, & I haven’t since.  It was really incredible!  This couple also paid for other meals. 

A third physician we met took us to a famous restaurant in Atlanta called Pitty Pat’s Porch.  Delicious & so much fun! 

If that was not enough, to top off these blessings, The first couple took me Christmas shopping for our children who were toddlers at the time.  The Lord provided again before we even asked.  It was a real testimony to us all week long to see the joy this couple & these others had in giving to us.  Again, this was not just human generosity & joy, but it was supernatural that came from the Father above through them.

As a side note, like I said, we were wondering where Christmas was coming from that year.  Besides the Lord providing through these strangers, the Lord provided through our parents.  We didn’t have a clue, & I truly believe our parents had not talked to each other about our Christmas.  One set of parents provided tons of toys for the children, & the other set provided all their clothes.  Thank you LORD!!!   

I must say I was floating pretty high with all these things happening.  By sides having a chance to sleep late that week, enjoying my hotel free coffee all by myself, & no interruptions while doing my Bible Study.  That in itself was a great week!  I had been reading Hebrews throughout this week.  When I got to Heb. 11-the faith chapter, I was soaring, until I hit vs 35b-38.  Here I read some saints were tortured, mocked, scourged, chained, & imprisoned.  Some were stoned, wandered destitute, & not found worthy of the world because of their faith in God.  These verses burst my bubble a little.  But in vs. 39, I received some encouragement, and all these, having a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise (at that time),  vs 40, God having provided something better for them (in the future)….  

Also at the end of that week, Dave came in & told me some unexpected news.  He (we) were NOT deferred by the Air Force.  They had pulled us for their residence program in surgery, & we were going to Biloxi, MS.  Nothing against MS, but we had fallen in love with Savannah, GA.  We had planned to go there.  Dave was devastated!  The supportive wife that I was and am, I said, “Well, praise the LORD!”  I was too high, & it went right under me.  See, we had put out a fleece before the Lord with all this residence “stuff.”  Dave had to send references to the Air Force residence program in Biloxi.  He didn’t have to send all the references he had.  Five of the references were glowing!  We really did pray about these five, if we should send them or not.  We finally did, knowing God is & was sovereign.  We knew that if we were meant to go to Savannah or Biloxi, these references didn’t matter.  

Dave called the Air Force several times to make sure we received the correct information.  It must have been a mistake!!!  After the Air Force personnel looked into our records, they couldn’t understand either why were not deferred.  Then they came back and said, “Oh, it is because of these awesome five references!!!”  What can you say!

Is this all a coincidence?!  Interesting!

to be continue….

ann :)