Day 7 :: Who is the Lord?

God is holy.

God is a giver.

God is forgiving.

God is healer.

God is Redeemer.

God is loving and merciful.

God is the Satisfier.

God is righteous.

God is just.

God reveals Himself.

God is merciful.

God is gracious.

God is slow to anger.

God is abounding in steadfast love.

God will not remain angry forever.

God removes our sin.

God is compassionate.

God knows us.

God is everlasting.

God is ruler over all.

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Every earthly thing can be wrong today, but these things that describe the Lord--they never change.  He never changes.  In the midst of whatever is wearying my soul, I need only to think upon the character of the Lord and my soul can bless Him.   

all attributes listed found in Psalm 103

Day 6 :: The gaze of the soul

A woman came to Jesus uninvited.  She had heard of His whereabouts, that He was dining in the home of a Pharisee, and even though she knew her presence wouldn't be favored by most, she came anyway.

She came to pour.  To anoint Jesus' feet with precious oil and wash His feet with her tears.

The owner of the house scoffed inwardly at Jesus, thinking that if Jesus was a true prophet, He would know this woman's past--her reputation as a 'sinner'-- and He would never would have allowed this demonstration.

As Jesus often did, He responded to these thoughts with a parable.  A moneylender had two debtors, one owing significantly more than the other.  The debts of both were cancelled, and Jesus asked which debtor would have loved the moneylender more.  Of course the one who had the larger debt, the Pharisee replied.

Jesus then compared the Pharisee and the sinful woman to these debtors.  The woman was anointing Jesus' feet because she had been forgiven much and therefore loved much.  The Pharisee hadn't even bothered to give Jesus water for His feet upon entering the house.

Jesus looked at the woman and said, "Your sins are forgiven...Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (story from Luke 7:36-50).

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While Jesus used the woman's pouring of oil on Him as a teaching point, it was not because of this act that He saved her.

Her faith in Jesus saved her from her sin.  The pouring of expensive oil and washing of Jesus' feet was a demonstration of her faith.

We can pour blessing on the Lord, acknowledging who He is, but if we don't have faith it is worthless.

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).

I believe God.  I believe in His Word, and the promises that He has given.  But sometimes, when life gets hard and I don't understand what He's doing, Satan comes and throws fiery arrows of doubt and my faith is threatened.

It is in those moments that I take up my shield of faith, and I fix my eyes upon God and keep believing.

A.W. Tozer said, "Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God."

And when my soul is gazing upon God my faith can remain.  The things of this life that Satan uses to try and shift my gaze, grow dim.  God in His glory and power becomes brighter.

If faith is a gazing of a soul and blessing is a kneeling of the soul, I need to get into the habit of gazing upon God in order that my soul might kneel before Him in blessing.

Tozer calls it 'the inward habit of beholding God'.

"A new set of eyes will develop within us enabling us to be looking at God while our outward eyes are seeing the scenes of this passing world." (Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

This is what I want.  To live in this life, with the pain and struggles that come, but to never look away from God.  I want my soul to stand firm in belief.

If my gaze is on God, I think blessing Him can't help but happen.

In the midst of busy days and troubling circumstances, may the eyes of our souls be fixed upon God and as our gaze remains on Him, may we, like the sinful-forgiven woman, pour blessing upon the Lord as a demonstration of our faith in Him.

Day 5 :: Scripture for your Sunday

God, who made the heavens, is great, and He is worthy of our blessing.  Let us remind ourselves today of the greatness of God and let our souls bless the Lord.

Day 4 :: We are never forsaken (A Puritan Prayer)

"I bless thee for tempering every distress with joy;
         too much of the former might weigh me down,
         too much of the latter might puff me up;
Thou art wise to give me a taste of both.
I love thee
         for giving me clusters of grapes in the wilderness,
         and drops of heavenly wine
                 that set me longing to have my fill.
Apart from thee I quickly die,
         bereft of thee I starve,
         far from thee I thirst and droop;
But thou art all I need.
Let me continually grasp the promise,
        'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' "
                                               -excerpt from The Valley of Vision-



Today, may you be reminded that God will never forsake you. May you rejoice in the wisdom of God to give you all things.  May you taste of the heavenly and long for Jesus.  Whether you are in want or enjoying plenty, He is all you need.  Run to Him today and bless the Lord.




This is Day 4 of a 31 series, Made to Pour: Living a life of Blessing.  For a list of all posts in this series click here.

Day 3 :: What does it mean to bless the Lord?

After my fourth child was born I faced some of the most challenging days of my life.  I had four children, all four years of age and under, one with special needs, and it was exhausting.  I couldn't function properly, think straight, and most days it was all I could do to make it to bedtime.

There were a handful of times during those months where I found myself face down on the floor of my bedroom, crying and praying, begging God to help me.  I was desperate.

And it was out of my desperation that my soul learned the value of blessing God in these moments.  Not because He removed the things that made me desperate, but because He enabled me to see Him.  On my face before God I recognized my need for Him, and my soul was able to bless Him.

"Bless the Lord, oh my soul..." (Psalm 103:1).  The word bless used here, in Hebrew is 'barakh'.   In addition to meaning 'bless', do you know what else it means?

To kneel.

Does this mean that I need to fall down before the Lord in order to bless Him?  Not necessarily, although there are certainly times when physically bowing and kneeling before the Lord is appropriate.  For me, it was in my moments of deepest need, coming to Him in humility because I knew I needed Him.

I've been reading through the gospel of Luke over the past few months, and one of the things that I've been taking special note of is people's responses to Jesus.  They all encountered the same Man, the same miracles, teachings, and outrageous claims.  Some responded with anger, some fear, some wonder.

Luke chapter 8 records the story of three people:  a demon-possessed man, a ruler of the synagogue, and a chronically ill woman.

The man possessed by demons had been living in the tombs, held captive by the power of evil.

The ruler of the synagogue had a daughter who was dying.

The woman had been bleeding for 12 years, seeking to be healed with no positive results.

Vastly different people facing hard life issues.  The interesting thing to me is that their responses to Jesus were exactly the same.

Each of them, upon seeing Jesus, fell down before Him.  (Luke 8:28, 41, 47)

Why did these three people fall down before Jesus?

They fell down before Him because they recognized who Jesus was.  Even the demons who were dwelling in the man among the tombs. They knew He was powerful, they knew He could handle the issues they were facing, and they demonstrated that knowledge by falling at His feet.

Kneeling is an act of the body, yes, but it represents an attitude of the heart.  An attitude of reverence, awe, wonder, and acknowledgement of the one to whom it kneels.

It doesn't have to happen on my knees, or on my face.  My soul kneels before God when I acknowledge who He is and what He has done, and even in my darkest moments, I can bless Him because He is God.
  

Blessing the Lord is a kneeling of the soul before an Almighty God.

"Come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!" Psalm 95:6

Day 2 :: Made to Pour, Living a life of Blessing

I don't know about you but life doesn't always go the way that I want.

Shattered dreams, unwanted circumstances, miscarriage, death--life altering events that threaten to shake my soul.  I certainly didn't ask for these things to happen, but they do.  We live in a broken world that constantly affects us, sometimes in painful and discouraging ways.

But it isn't just the big life challenges that shake me.  The mundane, messy moments of day-to-day life seem to all too easily rob me of a steady soul.

Like the other night, when my 14 month old decided to act like a one week old baby and woke up every hour, wanting nothing to do with her bed and everything to do with being held by her mother.

And my four and five year old girls who bicker, quarrel, and speak unkind words to each other all.day.long.

Laundry piles up, sleep deprivation wears me thin, crumbs lie scattered on the floor regardless of how often I vacuum, the car won't work right, I get stuck in the rain with my four small children and no umbrella, people disappoint me, and what is my response?  I'd like to say that my soul follows that of the psalmist's:

"Bless the LORD, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name."  Psalm 103:1

But as I take inventory of my heart, I realize that my soul doesn't always respond to the Lord with blessing.

I want it to.

To bless the Lord.  With every part of me.  And do it over and over again.  No matter what.

So, I started asking myself some questions:

• What does it mean to bless the Lord?  
• How do I bless with all that is within me?  
• Why should I bless the Lord?  
• What if I don't feel like He is blessing me?  
• What is hindering me from blessing Him?
• Does blessing the Lord relate to blessing others, even my enemies?

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Through the month of October I'm going to make an effort to answer some of these questions.   I won't pretend to be a biblical scholar; the idea of blessing in Scripture goes far beyond my theological understanding.  However, I do hope to uncover some of the ways my life can bless--the Lord and others.

God has filled me with blessings, yes (we'll talk about some of those), but in Christ, I've also been filled with His Spirit.  My soul has been filled, shouldn't it pour out of its fullness?

The dictionary definition of pour is:  to flow rapidly in a steady stream.

Maybe one of my jobs as a follower of Christ is to steadily and rapidly pour blessing upon God.

And, then to pour it out to others.

This month I'm inviting you to join me as I seek to answer what it looks like to live a life of blessing.

Exciting News and 31 Days Series

For the past few years I’ve participated in a blogging challenge, called write31 Days.  The Nester started this, and eventually invited other bloggers to join her in choosing a topic and writing on that topic every day each day during the month of October.  

Each year I enjoyed pushing myself to publish a post every day, and it was fun to be introduced to other blogs during that month who were doing the same thing.  My writing was challenged, I learned a lot through each series, and it stretched me to try and communicate what was in my heart.

But the biggest thing that I came away with from those series was a shift in why I was blogging.  My first series, 31 Days of Fall from the Kitchen, fell in line perfectly with the name of my blog.  In fact, I began blogging because I wanted to share recipes and projects around my home that we were doing ‘from scratch’.  I enjoyed finding new recipes, taking pictures and hitting publish on those posts.  

Then our son was born in 2012, and things changed.  God was working in my heart in ways that were hard, but good, and He was showing me the importance of my faith in Him as daily sustenance for facing the issues of life. My heart was full and it was out of this fullness that I felt the need to share how God was using Mason’s life to change me.  

I published this post on September 28, 2012, publicly sharing, for the first time, about Mason’s Down syndrome.  I knew I was going to spend the month of October following that post, writing about some of the things God had taught me during the first 6 months of his life.  

What I didn’t know was that my desire to blog would shift from cooking and home decor to sharing about God’s Word and the impact that having a relationship with Jesus had on my life.  

If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, most likely you’ve noticed this shift.  I even changed my profile “about” section to reflect that ‘Only From Scratch’ was not just about food, it was about many aspects of my life, but I still didn’t feel completely comfortable breaking away from recipes and projects.  I don’t always know who reads my posts and I wasn't sure why people were reading my blog, for the recipes or for the posts from my heart.

Over the last year or so, I have prayed about where to go with my blog.  I don’t earn an income, and other than the occasional review I might do for a book or product, there are no financial benefits for me.  I simply write because I enjoy it, it’s an online journal for our family, and it’s helpful for me to process the things that God is doing in my heart.

Because it’s not for profit, I’ve often wondered if I should keep it up. If this little corner of the Internet ever produces an income, I’d be very grateful.  But, I’m not actively pursuing that.  

I also struggle with continuing to blog when I compare myself with other bloggers.  The number of followers, the amount of likes on a post or picture on Instagram, the number of times something was pinned on Pinterest, comments--all these things that I see other people getting in mass volumes can be discouraging.  Social media is a wonderful tool, but it can also be handled wrongly, and I struggle to maintain a proper balance. When I compare myself to others, I rob myself of the joy that blogging has been for me.  

When I reach these points of discouragement, I often say to Bradley, “I’m going to quit my blog.  What’s the point of this?”  And, then, when I’m down and having a silly pity party for myself, I receive an email or a comment or a Facebook message from someone who says that what I shared was an encouragement, or that they could totally relate to what I had written that day, and ‘thank you’.  Bradley gently reminds me that even if the numbers aren’t enormous, being able to encourage just one person is worth it.   

Knowing that God is using what I share to encourage others is certainly a blessing, but in the last few months, specifically, I have discovered that writing about my walk with the Lord energizes me. That might sound strange to some of you, but I'm finding that this is how God has wired me. I've been journalling for the past 18 years. I process what He's teaching me by writing it out.  Yes, I like to cook and decorate our home.  But I love Jesus.  I love studying God’s Word, and I love to write out how God’s truth powerfully affects every aspect of my life.   If you had asked me a year ago what I liked to do when I had time alone, it would usually be to go run errands alone, sew, work on a project around the house, or try to take a nap. Now, when Bradley offers to watch the kids for me, I get excited because that means I will have an opportunity to write out some of the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head.  I may browse a store or two, but then I'll end up at a coffee shop with my Bible, laptop, journal, and some books.

What's the exciting news?

Bradley and I have been working for the past few months on creating a new blog.  A new look, a new name, a logo...it’s pretty exciting.  We're working with a designer, and I'll be switching blogging platforms, so it's been a lot of work, and there is much more to do! I seriously underestimated what it would take to launch a new website. But we're in the final stages (I think) of development, and once I get things organized on the new site I'll let you know.

While I’m excited about the new name and face lift for my blog, I’m most excited because I’ll have a space where I can write about things for which I’m most passionate. 

There may be an occasional recipe or project thrown in, because those are also elements of my life, but the majority of what I’ll write will come from how God’s Word is shaping every moment of my life.

As for the 31 Days series, I have gone back and forth about whether or not to participate this year.  I'd love to challenge myself to try and write and publish a post every day this month, but I don't know if it's going to happen.  I realize that sounds like 'breaking the rules' (read some of the tips on write31days), but I'm just trying to be realistic.  

Tomorrow I'll be back with my first post, but for now, here's my topic:

This post has ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated, so if you've hung in this long:

THANK YOU!  Thank you, for reading, for commenting, for praying for our family, and for sharing in the exciting things that God has been doing in the life of my family over the years.  

And, thank you to the Nester, for starting write31days, and for inspiring me to push myself in my writing.  God used that little nudge to uncover something in my soul.