The Love of God

Do you know the extent of God's love for you?

You may say, "Well, yes. He is my Father."

Guess what? He loves you MORE than just a father. It's true, a father's love is insanely deep. However, not only does God want to be your Father, he wants to be the lover of your soul!

Let's go back to the scripture for a moment. You remember in Genesis there is this guy named Abram, whose name gets changed to Abraham. He makes a covenant with God and from Abraham and Sarah come the Israelites. It's a story we are told as kids, right? Minus the bloody, nasty parts, of course. Don't want kids throwing up or having nightmares now, do we! But isn't everything in the bible important? Of course. In fact, it's actually an integral part of the story! (A lot of my knowledge comes from Ray Vander Laan. If you want to check out his stuff go to www.followtherabbi.com.)

In Genesis 15, Abram asks God how he would know that God would give him all the things God has promised. (This is called chutzpah is Hebrew, which is like persistence. But I won't get into that right now.) So God tells Abram to go get a cow, a goat, a ram. a dove, and a pigeon. What he doesn't tell Abram is what to do with them. However, Abram apparently already knows what to do. This tells us that this was a cultural ritual. (It still is in some places.) What this ritual was is that terms would be made between men and they would agree on the terms, unless it was between a greater party and a lesser party in which the greater party will set the terms. They would then kill the animals and place them where the blood would pool in a valley. Once there was a river of sorts, they would each pick up their tunics, take off their sandals, and walk through the blood. In doing this each would be saying, "If I break my promise, you can do this to me." ("This" being killing and walking in the blood.)

Gross, right? No wonder they didn't tell us this part in Sunday morning Bible class! But if we think about it, God's willingness to do this ritual for Abram's sake shows his immense love! He is the God of the universe for goodness sake. He could have just said, "Because I said so!"

So let's continue with what the text says. Abram then waits for God, making sure the birds of prey stay away from the carcasses. (Again, gross!) The sun starts going down and Abram falls asleep. In his sleep, he realizes what his end of the bargain is, to be blameless, and he because terrified. No kidding. Abram knew that if he even stuck his little toe in that blood, he was a dead man and the promises God had for him would be no more. So, then a smoking pot "walks" through the blood. (This would have been a pot with holes in it that women would have in their tents to put the burning coals in from that days fire and put the top on. It would then smoke all night and the women would then pour out the coals the next morning to make the next days fire with.) This represents God as the greater party would always go first. Thus, it was Abram's turn. The text doesn't say this, but it's as if he walked up to the valley and God, the torch, and moved him out of the way saying, "No wait. I've got this." God walks through the blood a second time. God is saying, "If YOU break YOUR promise, YOU can do this to ME."

At this moment, Jesus was sentenced to death on the cross.

Let that sink in for a moment.

When I told that to the Jr. High students at church Wednesday and their minds were blown. They couldn't believe that no one had connected those dots and told them about it before!

There's more. "What?" Oh yeah!

Fast forward to Exodus. Moses has lead the Israelites out of Egypt and they have stopped at Mount Sinai. This is where I think, "Oh, yeah. This is where God gives the ten commandments!" There's more to the story. This isn't just where God sets ten rules the Israelites have to follow. This is a wedding. God marries his people. The ten commandments weren't two tables with 5 on each one, it was 10 on each, a Ketubah, a contract. This is still practiced in Jewish wedding today, Instead of having vows, the bride and groom will write up a contract each to God of what kind of a husband and wife each will be. Ray Vander Laan read the first one, "You shall have no other idols before me" in this new light as so: "I will have no other lovers."

Powerful, right? "Didn't something happen with the Israelites while Moses was on the Mountain?" Yes. The golden calf. See, while Moses was getting the Ketubah from God, the Israelites decided that he wasn't coming back and so they needed a new god. They melted down their earrings and from it made a golden calf and started worshiping it, throwing a big party. (We won't get into what kind of party it was, but I will say it wasn't G rated. Even Ray Vander Laan didn't want to get into it.)

Fun fact: instead of wedding rings on their fingers, the Hebrews would wear rings in their ears, earrings. Wait, what did they melt down? Their earrings. Their wedding rings. During the wedding between God and his people, his people cheat on Him! You'd think he'd be done with them. Seriously, if it was my wedding and I found out something like that, the wedding would be off! But God doesn't do that. He keeps loving them! He purifies them and then the wedding resumes.

Now that is love. Pure love. Not just from a Father but from a spouse who loves unconditionally and intimately. To know that this is the kind of love that God has for us, and not just the Father/Child relationship that everyone talks about, speaks deeply to me!

Think about our young girls! For them to know that they can be fulfilled in every way because they have a God that loves them as a beautiful bride could be life-changing! They could know that they don't need to look for love from outside sources, from boys their age who are struggling with the same things that they are. Plus, thinking back on my own life, I think I may have looked at some things differently if I had thought of God as my husband and not just my Father. God is our Father, but he is also the lover of our souls. Yes, lover. He wants to know us as deeply as a spouse. Deeper even!

I think that this thought might bring a new perspective to our girls as they look at their relationship with God and what they do with their lives. It sets a new light on "God is always with you." It's no longer God the Father watching you and making sure you don't mess up and when you do He is going to punish you, it's more that God is with me because He loves me deeply and he WANTS to be with me, he CHOSE me.

There is a song by Francesca Battistelli called "He Knows My Name" in which the bridge says:

He calls me chosen
Free, forgiven
Wanted, child of the King
His forever
Held and treasured
I am loved.

Not only does this speak to being a child of God but, in my opinion, also a lover, a spouse, of God. Wanted, His Forever, Held and Treasured, Chosen, Loved; these are all things that a husband would say to his wife (and visa versa). My husband wants me, I am his forever, he holds and treasures me, he chose me, he loves me. As well, I want my husband, he is mine forever, I hold and treasure him, and I love him.

Imagine some things that girls fall into because of the world we live in. What if they had the mindset that when they start worshiping something besides him that they have cheated on him? How would that impact them? Would they still do some of the things the world likes to tempt them with? How does that impact you?!

Just as we all have a love language, God has a love language. His love language is obedience. Just as I feel loved when someone gets me a thoughtful gift, God feels loved when I obey His commands.

I will show God that I love Him by keeping His commandments. I know I am going to mess up, but I know that He is going to forgive me when I do. Because of His love I will strive to be blameless. His love is my motivation. He is the lover of my soul. Is He yours?

God is Good! His Love Endures Forever!

This past weekend, Tanner and I made the trip up to Ohio to spend time with his family and to go up to Michigan to hear Ray Vander Laan speak at Gull Lake Ministries! We went up Wednesday night and got back home Tuesday night. I would love to say that we had a wonderful flight and lots of time to spend with his family because we flew; sadly, I can not. We were unable to board the plane to get up to Ohio, so we drove. 16 weary hours. What is worse is that we left after our plane was supposed to leave. Yes. We drove all night. From 6:40pm to 12pm the next day. I think I got about 1 and 1/2 hours of sleep... maybe. Tanner only got about 1 or 2 hours. I will never do that again. Ever.

So, we got there, rested for maybe 10 minutes and then kept on going. My mother-in-law threw a Scentsy party for me and Tanner got to spend some time with his best friend! It was pretty fun. His whole family (well, most of it) was there and the guys talked while us girls talked Scentsy.

Friday, we went up to Michigan and met my parents and sister at Gull Lake Ministries. My family and I went two years ago (which is crazy since it is so close to where Tanner lived.. small world!) and loved it, so I was super excited for this year! There we listened to Ray Vander Laan speak for 8 sessions! He spoke that night, Saturday morning, twice in the afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Monday morning! Listening to him is like standing in front of a fire hose! There is so much to learn from him! He studied under a Jewish Rabbi for a while and has taught High School Bible for 37 years! He takes tours over to Israel! And I'm sure that is just a portion of all that he has done! (Check him out at www.followtherabbi.com!) My sister and I both bought brand new notebooks to take notes in, and she filled hers half way up! I didn't write as much, but that is because I am a terrible note taker and I can only write down so much that will be coherent later. As you can assume, this was a terrible burden in High School. Ha ha!

Anyway, a short thing that I learned this time around was that the green pastures is not what we think. What it would mean to an easterner is a lot of  green tufts of grass growing up in the desert (because that is where the shepherds have their sheep since there is limited farm land) from in between rocks where the water had pooled from the rare rain. So it's not that God plops us belly deep into alfalfa; He gives us enough for today and will provide for later. This really took root in me! Especially with the new house and all it's payments and bills. Like today, I realized that Tanner had spent more than I thought he did getting my oil changed and washing my car and getting a few needed groceries, because that is the wonderful husband that he is, and we didn't have enough to pay what bills we needed to pay before Tanner gets his next paycheck. After digging up all the change and cash I could and putting in the back and we still didn't have enough, I just looked to the sky and said, "God, I trust you wholly." Tanner then texted me later saying that his boss gave him an amount of money for the some scrap metal. With that added, we had enough for the bills and some groceries to last us until next paycheck. I almost cried, saying, "God is good! His love endures forever! He makes me lie down in green pastures! Thank you, God!" It was an awesome experience.

After parting with my parents and shoving all our belongings into the car, we drove back to Ohio to spend the rest of Monday with Tanner's family. When we woke up the next morning, planning to leave at 7:30am, his dad made blueberry pancakes and thick, wonderful bacon! Then we started loading the car. This is when Tanner realized that he had left his door open all night. Normally, that would have been fine, but it had rained all night. His seat was soaked, the back was soaked, my camera bag was wet (thankfully my camera and everything in it was fine), my purse was wet (again, thankfully nothing inside was too wet), the mirror that my mom had bought was wet... It totally ruined the morning. We dried everything off as best we could, though his Monte Carlo has fabric seats and not leather seats.. but that could be a good and bad thing when it comes to water, and put a tarp and towel on the seat to keep the water from getting on us as we drove. After we carefully loaded everything in the car, met Emily's, my sister-in-law, new goat, and said our goodbyes, we drove off home bound. We got in at about midnight and unloaded only the necessities, rolling the windows down and keeping the sunroof open so the car could dry out over night and the next day in the garage, and went straight to bed. The back of the car is still wet and Tanner is working on ways to dry it out as I type. This includes kitty litter and a probably a whole roll of paper towels. This should be interesting.. ha ha! I trust him. :)

All in all, it was a very eventful extended weekend! Now to figure out what to do about the flight credit we have... :P

Keep on keeping on!

~ Elisabeth

Just Another Update on the Happenings of My Life.

We are all moved in! Well, not completely unpacked.. almost! The tv is still sitting on the floor, there are still boxes chilling out on our bedroom floor and in the office. It's a work in progress. We are still debating on blinds, so there is still cardboard in the windows upstairs, but it's all good.

I went to get my driver's license switched over and changed today. It was a lot faster than I expected! One thing I didn't know is that, here in Louisiana, they don't have temporary licenses! They just print up your license right there! I was so excited because then I didn't have to worry about bringing anything else to the airport tomorrow! Woo! The unfortunate thing is, they had to keep my out of state license. :( So, now all I have is the black and white version of it. I was very sad. It was a good picture too! In this one I dressed up and was all pretty, ready to have my picture taken.. double chin. UGH! T.T I'm so upset! Now I have to wait like four years to get a new picture taken and hope that I have lost weight! Ah well.. :/

Ah yes! Plane! Tomorrow we are heading out to Ohio to see Tanner's family! We are so excited! We haven't seen them in almost 9 months! Tanner has been really missing them and his best friends. Tanner's mom is also hosting a Scentsy party! Yay! I am excited about that. :D We will be leaving for the weekend though. On Friday we will be heading up to Gull Lake, MI to hear Ray Vander Laan! I wrote a blog on the last (and first) time I heard him talk two years ago. I can't believe it's been that long! O.o Anyway, my parents and sister will be there for that. After Ray Vander Lann's last session Monday morning, Tanner and I will head back down to Ohio and spend the rest of the day there and leave Tuesday afternoon. We are trying to squeeze in as much family time (and friend time) as possible! It may not be a super relaxing weekend, but it will be fun and we are looking forward to it.

Hopefully, when we get back, we can get the house into shape and then I can take some pictures! :D A girl can hope. :P Definitely before my birthday! ... Oh my goodness.. I'm turning 21 in 25 days! BAH!! Time flies so fast!! Tanner and I will have been married for a year in 4 months and 10 days! Oh wow.. Next thing I know it will have been 5 years and I'll be pregnant! O.o Why time.. why do you have to go by so fast?! *Sigh* :P

Keep on keeping on!

Bring Shalom to Chaos

Okay, so this took me a little longer than I thought it would, but it's here now. Just a warning, this may be a really long post. It also may be a little crazy, but I'll try and make sure it makes sense. :) Also, I can NOT do justice to what Ray Vander Laan said, and I also don't claim that I have done any of the reasearch and whatnot behind it all. These are just my observations about some of the things that Ray Vander Laan said and some things that stood out to me. That being said, to the blog!

First of all, I just want to show you all a picture of how my notes, which I think reflects how my brain works, but I digress.

Now, on to the talking about it all, though expect about three more pictures. :)

One of the first things he said was that we are to hagah the word. He went on to explain what that word ment. Hagah is like a sound word and it means to completely mediate on it and to read and know every detail. He also said another word, hakak, which means inspired, but I can't remember how he used it exactly. The next thing that caught my attention was what he said about what the story behind the forgiving people 7 times 77 times. Most of us interperate it as 7 being the perfect number so you just keep forgiving. But Ray Vander Laan (here on out refered to as RVL) pointed out something I hadn't thought of before. Now if we go to Adam's line, from both Cain (evil) and Able (or really Seth who replaced Able after Cain murdered him).

As you can see, if you follow the lines down seven times, you find Enoch being so good that he just "disappeared" with God up into heaven where as it says, in Genisis 4:23-24, Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Interesting huh?

The next thing that stuck out was something RVL said about the branches that don't bear fruit. We seem to think of it as the stump being God, the vine being Jesus, and the branches being us. But when RVL met an owner of a vineyard, his view changed a bit. If we really look at the story, we find that the stump is Isreal (Judah), from where Jesus comes from. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Where is God in this equation? Well, he is the vineyard, of course!

He enthusiasticlly cares for his vineyard and makes sure that the branches bear fruit. Speaking of which, let's talk about the bearing fruit thing. See, over there, they don't attatch the vines to poles or whatever. They grow on the ground. But there are parasites and what not on the ground making it hard for the plant to grow good fruit. So, when a vineyard owner sees this happening, he props it up with a rock or something to help the branch out. Later, if it still doesn't, it's thrown into the fire. With this in mind, we look at that passage. God first props us up to try and help us bear fruit in our times of trouble. Of course, later if we still don't bear fruit, we get thrown in the fire.

I think that from now on this is mostly going breif little tid bits that caught my attention. :)

"At your moment of success... you are at your most vulnerable. Because you may not continue to trust in God, who got you there." Meaning, that we trust in God when we are aren't doing well. But when we are at the top, we sometimes forget to keep trusting got. At the top is the best place for Satan to get us to think we did it all ourselves and not with God's help.

The cross symbol may have actually started as an anchor. Like our faith is our anchor. I thought that was pretty cool. :)

We are the salt of the earth. In bible times, salt was used to make the fire burn hotter and longer. And the fuel for the fire was, a lot of times, manure. Meaning, that we are going to have to be mixed with some pretty nasty stuff in order to show God. We are meant to be bringers of Shalom to Chaos. So, we are meant to be in the mist of chaos, the manure, to be the shade.

I also thought it was a little curious that the Romans used the eagle as their icon and we also use the eagle as our national icon.

And all of this is only two pages of my notes... Because I am getting a little bored of this, which is sad to say I know, I'm just going to make two more points and hope you can maybe make out the notes above. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have or if you want to know exactly what a section says. :)

The two main points that he made was

and

Back from Vacation!

Well, after 8 long days traveling and somewhat relaxing, I am back home. And though I had loads of fun, I am so glad to be back. We flew into Milwakee, then drove to Gull Lake for our first stop in our trip. This is the one I was dreading most. The Ray Vander Laan conference. In all actuality, it was pretty good! I learned a lot of stuff! (I'll be making another post later about all of that part.)

After that was over, we drove back towards Milwakee, staying in Chicago for a night, and then headed for San Diego. We spent about three full days there. Unfortunately, it was chilly the whole time, so the beach, though we had fun splashing in it a bit, was freezing. Meredith and I simply had on our shorts and a t-shirt and we chased the waves and then got chased by the waves.

Over all, it was a pretty fun vacation. I'd post pictures, but I'm not on my computer and my pictures aren't uploaded. Ha ha! Now, to plan my birthday party. O.o