You Deserve This

 

Really? I do?

Now, why on earth would I deserve that? Did I do a heroic act of service that saved the fate of Wendy’s stores everywhere? Is it because I was born a middle-class individual (which intimates that everyone not born in a first-world country gets less because they deserve less)? Is hot, juicy, and tasty food at 2:00 AM a basic human right?

      I am pretty sure that I don’t deserve 24-hour burger availability. Even though I might pay the two bucks or whatever it costs to purchase this piece of GMO, fat-saturated, processed cow (?) meat in a bun, I still don’t “deserve” it because I don’t “deserve” the money in the first place. I may have scrubbed dishes and mopped floors for fifteen minutes to get the money, but I don’t even “deserve” the precious opportunity to have a job and I certainly don’t “deserve” the laws in place that assure me fair wages. I “deserve” nothing; I didn’t give two cents to get into this world, and it doesn’t owe me a thing. The only thing I deserve is Hell.

     Many of us know the Bible verse that tells us “the wages of sin is death.” In other words, I’ve messed up on some level at some point, and I deserve to suffer eternal death in Hell for it. But here’s the good part! Just like I do have the undeserved opportunity to have a job, live in a good country, and eat a burger for breakfast if I want to, I also have the undeserved opportunity to escape the punishment for sin. The rest of the verse above says, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We deserve the punishment, but instead we are extended the ultimate gift…. Grace. The very essence of the word “grace” IS undeserved. We can’t earn it; we can never in a million years deserve it. I don’t “deserve” a juicy, hot burger, and I am a hundred thousand times less deserving of this beautiful gift of eternal life.

     Just as I will probably not choose to take advantage of the midnight burger option, many will turn down the option of undeserved life. Sadly, unlike the burger (which will almost certainly contribute to high blood pressure), the gift of eternal life is the most beautiful, beneficial, wonderful and essential part of human existence. If there is anyone reading this who has not taken advantage of the undeserved gift of grace, I hope that you will stop and do so now. The Bible says to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” This means that all you have to do is take God at his word—believe what He said, which is that Jesus Christ (God Himself) became a man and took our punishment for sins. He died so that we don’t have to suffer eternal death. Then after three days of being dead, God gave him new life and he emerged from the grave! If you want to know more or you are completely confused about what I am talking about, I’d love to explain it better. My email is breezie@becominggodlymaidens.com .

     Don’t buy into the lie of advertisers everywhere—you deserve nothing. And neither do I. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will be able to appreciate our privileges, the greatest of which is the grace we have been given.

Chicken Feather Romance

I say,

How can you not see the

Romance

In scrubby bushes

And chicken feathers?

Isn’t all of life

Romance?

You just have to look at it that way.

Who needs moonlit walks

And candle-lit dinners

When you can find

Romance

In chickens and dirt?

There is a

Big-picture romance

That cannot happen

Without both

The seaside bungalows

And

The dust and bird scat-

Those who love and live the latter

Will taste the romance

Sweeter

And find blessing

Beyond compare.

And what if there

Are two little pairs

Of bare feet

Running in the dust,

Running through the

Scrubby bushes and the

Feathers—

Innocent, dirty little feet—

And one pair is white

And one is brown

And both are scrubbed

By me everyday

And put into little shoes

On Sunday

And run through

 My kitchen

Leaving little

Muddy footprints

That I clean up?

What if I scrub

These twenty toes

And a hundred more

And love every one of them

Because each

Is my precious gift

To watch grow out

Of a dozen shoe sizes

And become the

Beautiful feet

That bring good news.

To touch a heart—

To touch a life—

To touch a people;

This is my dream.

Big dreams come

In a thousand little pieces

The ordinary,

The extraordinary,

The miraculous

And the mundane.

If a snapshot of a dream

Is chickens

And children

And dirt

Then

Bird scat

Diapers

Sweeping

Must all be

Very romantic

It’s part

Of the greatest

Romance—

A savior wooing

His bride

Drawing His people

To Him.

And I say,

How can you not see

Romance

In scrubby bushes

And  chicken feathers?

(c) 2012 Breana Franks

Empty Chairs

Did you know that we're the surviving 78 percent of your generation?

Look around you... your church, your school, your neighborhood. There should be more of us here. But they're gone, and we can't get them back.

They were aborted.

They were killed in the womb.

What separated us from them? We didn't get in the right line while they got in the wrong one. We didn't say or do anything to pick pro-life parents or deserve to live while they deserved to die. Knowing this, can we honestly sit back and do nothing? Can we ignore the fact that we missed out on countless friendships? That the missing chairs in our classrooms should be filled? Can we let it keep happening?

No.

We have voices.

The unborn and the dead don't.

It's our obligation to be voices for the voiceless.

It's our obligation to protect the innocent-- the unborn and the mothers, who also become physical and psychological victims when they believe the lie.

I hope you decide to watch this three minute video; it's worth your time.

Http://www.VoicesForTheVoiceless.org

   

We are the 2 Percent






REJOICE!

     ~Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!”~

     So many times in both the Old and New Testaments, God’s people are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. Practically, this seems like a hard command. How on earth, while we are wading through our everyday ups and downs, can we rejoice at all times? But considering who we are and what has been done for us, how can we NOT rejoice? God has forgiven us, given us hope, taken away our guilt and given us purpose! To rejoice always does not mean that we have a happy face all the time and that everything rolls off our backs. It does not mean that we only cry happy tears. It does not mean that we are singing and dancing at all times. It does not mean that we are required to paste happy plastic smiles on our faces when life is not playing along or we are failed Christians. Joy of the Lord is something deeper—it is the song that springs from our hearts when we are happy. It is the strength we find when we have nothing left. It is the peace that gives us hope for a positive future when life just stinks. The emotions we have do not affect our joy; we can be crying our eyes out and feeling like our hearts are breaking, but our joy does not disappear.

     There is, however, a difference between having joy and acting on it. We can’t just let our joy sit, unseen, at the bottom of our hearts’ reservoir. We must REJOICE! We must let our joy show for all the world to see! This is part of our witness. Our joy should be visible for the unsaved to see and thirst for. Nobody wants to be like a sourpuss. If religion turns your personality into a wrinkled-up raisin, than it is just that—religion. Religion, not a living, active relationship with the God of the Universe. People can tell the difference!

     Joy is something that I have been thinking about. I think that sometimes I do not do a very good job of showing my joy. I am not a very effervescent person, and I tend to be extremely serious most of the time. I have been learning to lighten up; however, I have also found that unless I watch myself, my default expression is one of absolute crabbiness! I sometimes listen in amazement to what comes out of my mouth—often, even when I am thinking positively, I say one negative thing after another. Time to be more intentional about reflecting my inward joy? I think so! A wise man I know once said, “I’m not going to walk through life looking like I was baptized in pickle juice… keep the smiling, keep the joy… It gets the joy back when you stop focusing on trivial stuff.”

     It’s time, Christians, to stop focusing on the trivial stuff. It’s time to focus on the eternal stuff. Who cares if I get less than a 95 on my Ethics test? Who cares if I drop a clean fork now and then while I’m working in the cafeteria? Who cares if say something stupid to someone I just met? These things won’t matter in two weeks, so I shouldn’t let them steal my joy now. The important thing—what I should be focusing on—is that God has big plans for me. He has a beautiful life for me, and He has an even more beautiful eternity for me. He has a beautiful eternity for YOU. Rejoice! Are you ready to let your joy shine?

Images copyright Breana Franks 2012

Summer

No Internet access for six weeks.

No Internet access for six weeks!

No, that’s not a cry of horror. That is a cry of delirious joy. This summer, I will be totally off the ‘net and away from all electronics (except my cell phone) and out in the cool pines. This is an occasion to forget about makeup, emails (hooray for snail mail!), Youtube (sorry Jordan-from-MessyMondays), and movies. It is also and occasion to

READ.

    My reading list currently consists of six of John Steinbeck’s novels that I’ve not yet read, the rest of Kisses from Katie, Culture Making, and Tom Sawyer in Spanish (we’ll see how much of it I can actually understand). I will, however, be adding a few new books to my list, since I have decided to take up the

Louisa May Alcott Reading Challenge!

Just in case you want to join the challenge :)

     I want to read two that I’ve never read before: Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out and Flower Fables

    

     Another thing that I am going to read a lot of this summer is my Bible. Working 40 hours a week without school or other commitments means that I will have a lot of time on my hands. What a perfect time and place to seek Yahweh.

     One verse that has been on my heart recently is Jeremiah 29:13, “you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” This verse is a part of something that God told the elders of the exiled Israelites thousands of years ago through Jeremiah the prophet. It was spoken to a specific audience at a specific time in a specific place, but I believe that it is as true for us as it was for them. God WANTS to have a relationship with me. He WANTS to have one with you. How amazing is that? When I consider the heavens, the work of His hands, what is man that He is mindful of us? Why does the creator of the universe care about humanity as a whole, much less each individual person? I can’t fathom. I want to KNOW that God, not just know about Him. I am thirsty for Him right now! Like a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for my God. He is good enough to call my heart when it is turned to things on earth and not things in Heaven. He is good enough to comfort me when I am hurting. He is good enough to hear my cry, even if I’ve only halfheartedly answered His call just that morning. He is good enough to answer odd little prayers offered in faith for His pleasure and mine. He is good enough to make it blatantly obvious in a variety of ways that He wants my full heart and my full attention—right now. O taste and see that the Lord is good! I want more of Him.

He wants more of me.

He wants more of you.

I guess the important question at this point is

Are you going to give more of yourself to Him?

“Yes” on its own is not a good enough answer. I think we all do far too much of saying nice things and not acting on them. Singing nice lyrics and not meditating on them. Making nice decisions and not living by them. So HOW are you going to give more of yourself to Him? Maybe you will give more of your time. Maybe you will spend intentional time with Him when you used to do something for you. Maybe you are going to serve others intentionally with a cheerful heart. Maybe you are going to support a mission, financially or with prayer. I hope you join with me in giving more of yourself to God. I hope you and I together will make this summer into a new adventure in our relationship with God. Oh, I am excited about this summer! What a beautiful life this is. God is good.

See you in six weeks!

What He Paints for You

One of the benefits of going to a small college is the small library that goes with it. Normally, I probably would not count this as a blessing, but it definitely has its upside. For one thing, The lack of shelf space and the constant need to bring in new books means that dozens of books are available for purchase at all times. As a book lover and a penny-pincher, I am always thrilled to find a nice old hardback for a dollar. Consequently, I am starting to collect a nice library of exegetical works. I think my Biblical Interpretation teacher would be glad to see the unsightly piles of books that are starting to collect on top of my desk, on chairs, beside my bed, and any other flat surface that can hold books.

     Often, I find that old books are more relevant than new books! I suppose ideas that are tried by time show themselves for what they are worth. I love gleaning insight from authors long gone, and I imagine them sitting next to me and speaking their words to me. What is it about the writing style of long ago that seems so much more personal than today’s writing? I have never been able to identify with the “you” that is addressed by new books, but the “you” spoken to by old books always seems to be me and no one else.

     Before school closed for the semester, I bought Expositions of the Holy Scriptures: Psalms I-CXLV by Andrew MacLaren. I can’t tell you how old it is, just that it’s old enough to not have a copyright date. I’m using it with my devotions, since I am reading through Psalms, and I thought that you might enjoy one of a few treasures I found in it (I feel like Pride and Prejudice’s Mary with her “extracts” right now).

     “Oh! If we would only see clearly and habitually before us—for we could if we would—what God’s heart inclines for His to do for us, in the far-off future, if we would only let Him, do you not think that these trifles that put us off our equanimity this morning would have been borne with a little more composure?”

Oh dear. Sometimes it can be so hard to see the big picture. Oh, trust me, I know. When I commit one social faux pas after another, cut my fingers while cleaning, mistranslate between languages, drag my hair through degreaser and spend two hours trying to fix a lemonade machine all in one day, I have a tough time seeing the big picture. I have to remember that the important thing is not that I achieve perfection. It is not that I stop tripping over my tongue, stay perfectly neat and understand how to do everything on the first try. I will never manage that! The important thing is that even in the little things, I can “set my mind on things above, not on earthly things.” Then the little frustrations will fade away and I will be left standing in awe of the awesomeness of God’s plan.

So “in the middle of your little mess, don’t forget how big you’re blessed.” God is creating a beautiful picture with your life! He uses the bad times and the good times alike, whether trivial or tremendous. As you watch the Master Artist work, you may be fixated on one gray streak of paint and wonder why He used such a sad color. Then, when you step back, you will see that it was a shadow to make something white and shining stand out in all its glory! A painting with only pinks and yellows would be a boring picture. It takes the blue and browns of life to make it beautiful.