Down and Out, Check it Out

By Hally Franz –

Have you had an occasion to “fall out” lately? If you recently “fell out,” that means you’ve experienced uproarious laughter in response to some joke, event or other humorous stimulus. My father regularly fell out. Dad’s been in his eternal home for over eight years now, and some memories have become foggy, as they do over time. However, I will always remember vividly my father’s laughter.

It was the kind of leg-slapping, red-faced, body-shaking laughter that caused observers to be tickled even with no idea what provoked it. It often started out in loud cackles, which gradually turned into silent convulsing hilarity. Sometimes, the laughter slowed like it was ending, only to erupt again. It was a glorious site. Who wouldn’t want to know the joke that caused such a response?

Have you fallen down? I am notoriously clumsy, experiencing numerous notable falls in my lifetime. I remember one particular incident as a teenager. I was a band kid with good grades, great friends, middle-class parents and an average social life. If I were a profiler, that’s the band kid profile. I played a most graceful instrument—the trombone. One morning, as I ran to catch the bus with my arms full of books and my trombone in hand, I wiped out just as I neared the bus steps. My instrument went beneath the bus, and my books scattered.

Fast forward some years, and there was a fall on ice when I was seven months pregnant. That might explain—well, never mind. Only days ago, a faulty flip-flop and a terribly treacherous border where concrete transitioned to grass were enough to send me down once more. This fall happened after school, so several other parents rushed to help me and grab tissues for my bloody nose. All is fine; I’ve learned to bounce a bit over the years.

When someone falls out, we want to know why. We want to know what we’re missing, so we boldly ask. And, when someone falls down, we rush to their aide. We ask how they are and what we can do. So, when fellow believers fall out of step or stumble in their faith, why don’t we rush to see what’s happening? Why don’t we boldly seek answers and offer help immediately? Next time we find someone down or out, let’s rush in with a listening ear and some Christian first-aid. And, let’s help get them back on track.

PRAYER: Gracious God, move me to respond to the spiritual needs of those around me, boldly offering help and humbly accepting the opportunity to give it.

BIBLE VERSE: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18 NIV).

A Feast to Remember

By Dianne E. Butts –

Thanksgiving is perhaps the most famous feast in America. As we prepare to celebrate our American feast, you might be interested in a little history and information on the Jewish Feasts. God gave the Jews seven feasts to observe. These feasts are both historical and prophetic, meaning they both remind the Jews of their history with God and point to future events prophetically.

Now, I have called them the Jewish feasts because God gave them to the Jewish people in the Old Testament, however they are actually meant for all people, which is why they are really called the Feasts of the LORD.

Speaking prophetically, the first four Feasts have occurred. Three occurred very close together, then a gap of time before the fourth. Then a larger gap of time passes to the (yet-unfulfilled) remaining and final three in our future. Here are the Feasts of the LORD:

1. Passover occurs in the spring of the year and lasts one day. On the Jewish calendar it is the 14^th of Nisan. It corresponds to the Christian Easter, except that Easter is always on Sunday which is why it seems to move around our calendar. Historically, for 1,500 years, from the time of the first Passover in Moses’ day, the Jews killed the Passover lamb on Nisan 14. Prophetically: Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb, was crucified on Passover.

2. Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on Nisan 15 and is seven days long. At the first Passover, God instructed the Jews to make bread without leaven. Historically, in the Bible leaven almost always represents sin and Jews spend time in the spring cleaning the leaven (sin) out of their lives and homes. Prophetically: Jesus was the bread that feeds the world without leaven (sin).

3. Feast of First Fruits: begins on Nisan 18, literally within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Historically it celebrates the first harvest of barley after God brought His people into the Promised Land. Prophetically: Jesus was raised on the third day, the first fruits of the harvest.

4. Feast of Pentecost is the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks of seven days after Passover. Pentecost is on the 50^th day. Historically it remembers the Law coming down from God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Prophetically: Jesus, who paid the death-penalty for the breaking of God’s Law, ascended to heaven on the fortieth day after His resurrection. The Holy Spirit descended upon the church on Pentecost.

5. Feast of Yom Teruah, also known as Rosh Hashanah, is the Feast of Trumpets. This is the first of the three feasts in the fall of the year. Historically, this day is known as “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble,” “The Day of the Awakening [Trumpet] Blast,” “Yom HaDin” (The Opening of the Books”), and “Yom HaKeseh” (The Hidden Day). Prophetically: This is the next feast to be fulfilled on God’s prophetic calendar, and many believe the Tribulation will begin on this day in some coming year.

6. Feast of Yom Kippur.  Historically celebrates The Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for those people who believe in, trust in, and love God. Prophetically: Israel calls upon Messiah.

7. Feast of Tabernacles is also known as the Feast of Succoth or Booths. Historically the Jews built booths of sticks to “tabernacle” or live with God. Prophetically: When God/Messiah will come to “tabernacle” or live among us.

The Jewish holidays Purim and Hanukkah also appear on the calendar, but these are not original, prophetic Feasts of the Lord. Purim remembers the near slaughter of the Jews in the book of Esther. Hanukkah remembers the re-taking and purification of the Temple by Judas Maccabaeus in about 164 BC.

This article has been re-posted with a correction: Jesus did not ascend to heaven on Pentecost as the article stated, but 40 days after His resurrection.

This Toll Booth is Closed

By Cynthia Ruchti –

Each hash mark on the highway ticked off another few inches of a very long road trip. My friend and I made use of every moment, brainstorming new projects, talking about the latest antics of our drama queen and king grandchildren, proposing answers to the national debt crisis, and discussing the intricacies of nuclear physics. Come to think of it, we didn’t get to the last two subjects.

Fully engaged in what is always stimulating conversation with this dear heart-friend, we barely noticed the scenery flying by. My friend drove and I took notes when we landed on a plot solution for a new book or a recipe for slow cooker pork chops. The designated recording secretary for our road trip’s discussions, I filled a small notebook, writing in the margins, flipping pages for a new rabbit trail subject that caught our attention.

Aware of every nuance of thought and the joy of having time to talk out things we’d only been able to hint at when separated by too many miles, neither of us noticed when my friend pulled into a toll booth with a red X overhead.

Three other toll booths boasted bright green Xs. They were open for business. We, however, were stuck in a closed lane with no way out except to brave the oncoming toll traffic and back out, against the flow of racing, unforgiving steel.

My friend was mortified that she’d missed the big red X. Closed. It had happened so fast, as everything does on a superhighway. We laughed about it after the problem was resolved. But today, as I remember that moment of realization that we’d missed the warning and driven straight into a dead end because we were momentarily distracted, I wonder how many other times in life that’s happened to me.

PRAYER: Lord God, don’t let my attention waver from the signs You place all around me, the warning signs, the dead end signs, the bridge out warnings, the flashing lights that can keep me from veering off course if I just pay attention. I don’t want to get caught in a relationship or emotional or spiritual place with no easy way out.

BIBLE VERSE: “The LORD says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you,’” (Psalm 32:8 NLT).

Will the Real Superwoman Please Stand Up?

By Kathi Macias –

I’ve always been a control freak who wanted everything to run smoothly—perfectly, actually. No bumps or surprises, just—well, a “tight ship,” as they say. And somewhere along the line I got the idea that I could make that happen—if I just tried hard enough. I think it may have started when I first saw Superman on our family’s black and white TV and wondered, Is there a Superwoman somewhere? When I put that question to the adults in my life, theysmiled and patted me on the head and said, “I don’t think so, dear.” So I decided to sign up for the job—a reasonable if somewhat naïve aspiration for a six-year-old, not so reasonable and way beyond naïve at twenty-six. Two decades after the birth of my Superwoman dream, I was still running as fast as I could and getting nowhere. My twenty-year-old dream was going down for the count, and I was nearly at the point of throwing in the towel—until I met Jesus.

What a difference! Now I could latch on to verses like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and “All things should be done decently and in order”—biblical affirmations of my desire to do things right, to do things efficiently and effectively, to do things with power and authority. Finally I was invincible—in Jesus, of course. Now all I needed was a godly role model and I’d be on my way.

I began my search in earnest, reading through the Scriptures until I came to Proverbs 31.Eureka! There, at last, was the epitome of the Superwoman I’d been hoping to become since I was six years old. The perfect woman—perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect housekeeper, perfect entrepreneur—all rolled into one! Not only did her husband and children praise her, but God must have approved of her as well or He certainly wouldn’t have included her as an example in the Bible. My dream was alive and well once again! At last I would be able to “get it all together,” to win instead of fail, to run a tight ship, and to keep things under control. Life was good, and the future looked bright.

There was only one problem. I hadn’t figured on all the loose cannons rolling around the deck of my not-so-tight ship….

You see, I had a family—meaning, I shared my life with other human beings. Not only were those other humans imperfect (and yes, I was aware that I was imperfect as well), but they didn’t consider me Superwoman at all. It seemed the harder I tried to organize them, the more unruly they became.

After years of trying to get them to march in lock-step, keeping their rooms clean, their clothes hung up, their homework done (I’m including my husband in this line-up!), I achieved nothing except exhaustion. And then one day—finally—I fell to my knees and cried out, “God, I’m tired! I just can’t do all this. It’s not fair! Why do I have to do everything?”

If God chuckles—and I imagine He does—He undoubtedly did so at that moment. In fact, I think I may have heard Him, even as He silently but firmly answered my question: “Nearly everything you are doing is by your own assignment. All I asked you to do was come and sit at My feet. Sadly, you’ve been far too busy for that.”

Talk about a reality check! And so Superwoman hung up her cape, apologized to her family, and reduced her to-do list to one item: Spend time with God. At last I had figured out that if I did that one thing, God would see to it that the rest got done—with or without my help. And as time went on, much like the Proverbs 31 woman’s experience, my husband and children rose up and declared me blessed.

A Suspicious Thought

By Rosemary Flaaten –

I generally don’t think of myself as a suspicious person. One of my strengths is positivity and, perhaps  to a fault, I see the best in people, believing them to be trustworthy. But, I’ve noticed a sliver of suspicion, not so much about others but towards God. Oswald Chambers is noted as saying that the root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, aligned themselves with the questioning of the serpent, “Is that really what God said?” Up until that moment, they believed that God loved them, and that He had their best interests are heart. That simple question flooded their minds with doubt and sin was ushered in on the wheels of suspicion.

We do the same thing. Deep in our souls we wonder, “Is God really good?”

I’m not going to offer a trite response, instead, I offer you this challenge: Take two pieces of paper, placed side by side. At the top of one, write “good” and on the top of the other write “bad”. With pen in hand, start creating a list on each page of all the things in your life that fit on either one of those pages. Things such as a house to live in would go under the good. It may not be big or fancy and it may have a large mortgage, but if you have a roof over your head, then it goes on the “good” page.

Family members and friends should be listed on the “good” page. Perhaps, within those relational spheres there are unhealthy relationships. Those names can go on the “bad page,” only if nothing good has ever come of those struggles.

Hopefully, our physical or emotional health is readily placed on the “good” page. But, there are seasons in our lives when our health is more bad than good, so place it accordingly.

I am amazed that my accumulation of “good” heavily outweighs my “bad”. The prolific blessings in my life give evidence that God’s promise through Jeremiah continue in my reality: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them” (Jeremiah 32:40).

God’s goodness is truly astounding!

PRAYER: O God, enlighten the eyes of my heart that I will see your goodness so prolifically bestowed on me and then grant me a heart of gratitude.

BIBLE VERSE: “Your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6 NIV).

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