Momma-Preacher: Meditations on Deuteronomy 6 and 11

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words I command you today shall be on your heart." Deuteronomy 6:5-6

Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that [I do] not [speak] with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm...what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place...but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did... Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today...Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes...You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. - Deuteronomy 11:1-2,5,7,8,18-19

Every night I tuck them in bed after hurried mornings in a divided house; away all day eye-ball deep in  the damaging effects of sin on and in our children, while they are in someone else's care and under someone else's teaching in this Egypt I live.

And when I read to them from the scriptures, or talk to them about a spiritual truth, or unpack to them some more of the nature of God as revealed in Christ and proclaim the gospel to them like the momma-preacher I sometimes become and they have a glazed over look in their eyes, and they sigh and start fidgeting around, and interrupt, and are obviously not captivated with what I am pouring my heart out to impress upon them, I remember Deuteronomy 6 and 11.  And I am renewed in faith and spurred on to remember its my being in love with God, and his words being on my heart, and because I have "seen"the chastening of the LORD in my own life and have experienced his work in my life, I am the one who's going to be passionate and motivated in love and obedience to the One who has captivated me with His great love... not my children.

Not yet anyway.

That doesn't mean they won't be captivated one day themselves.  I pray they will.  I trust they will.

But for now, for now with a heart on fire and hands that serve them and a life laid down to nurture and teach them, I talk with them about this great God, who I love, and about his ways- which are wonderful and always good- and His amazing story and how he redeems and their only hope.  I talk with them when we're doing our everyday stuff and when I get 5 minutes to tuck them in at night.  And I entrust the seed to the One who gives it life and who promised it will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it out of this momma's mouth.

 Quieted,

Sheila

A whiff of heaven

Explaining sanctification to a 7 year old is really... clarifying. I think all we who claim to be Christians should at some point try describing the process of "being sanctified" to a child.

It was a really precious moment. And quite frankly I wasn't expecting it. Actually I was tired, cold and day-dreaming about when I'd get to be in a quiet house with sleeping kids sipping a cup of vanilla roiboos tea latte, when a sweet(and very smart I might add) seven year old friend of mine came up to me at the bleachers and declared, "Uhm. Mrs. Sheila. I don't think I'm a Christian anymore."

Ding Dong. Publishers Clearinghouse just knocked on your door and you're in your PJ's Sheila!

I turned and looked the serious and concerned little guy in the eye and asked why he didn't think he was a Christian anymore. He explained that even though he believed in Jesus as his Savior he was still doing things he knew were wrong. He sited an example from school today and said, "I still joke about things in a bad way and I know its wrong."

My heart was instantly rejoicing!

First, here I was in a most un-suspecting moment, given a priceless opportunity to invest in eternity. Always be ready.

Secondly, the tenderness of this precious boy's heart! So ready to confess. So willing to see the error of his natural ways. Oh that we would all be so childlike! We can't enter the kingdom any other way!

Third, NOTHING else satisfies like doing what your Creator and Savior has given you the grace to do! When you do what you were made to do you can understand why Jesus said, "I have food you know nothing about," leaving his followers scratching their heads wondering where He found chow while they were gone.

I had been feasting myself on crackers with cream cheese, watching my son play baseball on a beautiful spring evening, but when this golden moment was before me and I took it, I tasted the pleasures of heaven. I think I inhaled a whiff of the joy of the Kingdom while I labored in the Master's field for a few minutes.

"You know honey, the very fact that you are troubled by the joke you made at school today is evidence of the work of God's Spirit in you! Being a Christian is kind of like planting a seed in your garden. When you plant a seed what do you see?"

"Dirt."

"Yeah. You see dirt for awhile. And then pretty soon you start to see a little green pop out from the dirt. But even before you saw the green sprout, under the ground that seed was doing its work. Eventually, the seed will grow and grow..."

"I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW what your saying now Mrs. Sheila! When Jesus came to live inside of me I couldn't really see it. But pretty soon He'll get bigger and bigger!!!"

Aroma of heaven. Joy unspeakable.

"Yes sweetheart. You just keep telling Jesus thank you for dying for all your sins. You keep telling Him your sorry when you know you did wrong. You keep following Jesus, trusting Him and He'll just get bigger and bigger in you!"

Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. - Exodus 23:30

And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. -2 Corinthians 3:18

"The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." - Isaiah 55:10-11

Quieted,

Sheila