Christianity

Homeschool Advice Part 3 | Getting Started

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

Besides three myth-busting posts (1, 2 & 3), I’ve also offered two other posts’ worth of advice just prior to this one. However, before we go much further, I want to offer encouragement to the possibly nervous prospective homeschooler. Let’s face it: taking your kids’ education into your own hands can be daunting. If you’re like me, you may tend to drown yourself in what-ifs or start worrying about your ability to teach Algebra 2 before your little one has even learned the alphabet. If this is you, allow me to offer a little advice for getting started.

You Will Grow into It

For starters, you are not required to homeschool all the grades right off the bat. Whether you start in Kindergarten or you’re pulling your middle schooler out of a toxic environment to homeschool, the good news is that you will start where you are and grow into it. Don’t worry about the next step, but keep your mind on what you need to do today. God will give you the light you need for where you are now. Learn to live and thrive right there, trusting Him for what’s next.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
(Psalms 119:105)

A friend of mine likes to comment on this verse by saying the promise is for a light for our path, not a floodlight to illuminate the whole journey. He’s not wrong. God will give us what we need when we need it, and sometimes just in the nick of time.

Don’t forget, God’s call to homeschool may or may not be for the duration of your child’s education. I thought I would homeschool until college, but the Lord had other ideas. The year before my kids went to private school, I couldn’t have imagined us being able to afford it. Yet when God wanted them to go, He provided – and they went.

With this in mind, I encourage you to seek the Lord each year to clarify what’s next. If He calls you to teach your own all the way through high school graduation, you can trust Him to provide the necessary tools or people in your life to fill the gaps in your own ability. With resources like homeschool co-ops, tutorials, personal tutors, Khan Academy, and more, you are definitely not alone in the journey.

So my friend, don’t worry about how you’ll teach Finite Mathematics or Physics to your five-year-old. Focus on what you need to teach your children today, and trust the Lord to provide the light for the next step if and when you need it.

You Are the Parent

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
(Proverbs 22:15)

When it comes to the actual fact of doing school, it’s important to remember that your child is not in control. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I vehemently despise unschooling for the very reason that it is nothing more than lazy parenting wrapped in a cutesy label. There are foundational subjects that must be learned in order to become a functional member of any society.

Indeed, subjects such as basic math, reading comprehension, and critical thinking are also vital for a person’s own protection against manipulation from a variety of levels. And it’s up to you, the parent, to enforce this learning.

Is it difficult? Yes! Absolutely. Parenting is not always easy, and homeschooling is basically non-stop parenting with a side of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Your kids will push your buttons. They will wheedle and whine and try to distract you from getting to school. They will pretend to be sick; they will take forever to eat breakfast; they will drop their pencils 87 times and take a full minute to pick them up each and every time.

You will have days where you feel outnumbered (because if you have more than one child, you are), and you’ll have days where you find yourself casually perusing the intake forms at overseas boarding schools.

But if you are called, don’t give up. Pray without ceasing, take a deep breath, and remind yourself: you are the parent, and by God’s grace, you can do this. Then, soldier on.

You Are the Teacher

When your children complain that they hate math or despise reading, tell them it’s OK – it’s actually good for us to do things we don’t enjoy! I used to tell mine, “I totally understand. I hate cleaning toilets and I don’t really feel like cooking dinner tonight, but I’ll bet you’re glad I’ll do it anyway.”

Don’t be deceived by the homeschooling catalogues that show smiling children, eyes filled with wonder and eagerly tackling their subjects while mom beams down with unruffled hair and pride. You may have a golden day or week, but much of homeschooling is far more like trying to get chores done well, only these chores make a difference whether your kids have a firm educational foundation or not.

It’s your job as the teacher to facilitate learning in the best way you know how. Teach to the best of your ability. Ask God – daily – for wisdom on how to teach. He will give you ideas on how to get topics across to your kiddos if you just ask, so ask away. But most of all, keep your expectations of your homeschool, your children, and yourself in reasonable bounds.

Part of being the teacher is setting and keeping priorities. And you know what? School is a priority. I’ve already written about keeping God’s Word and prayer first. Second should be the hard work of school, no matter what else.

Here’s the thing about homeschooling: there are a bazillion distractions. There are a ton of fun things to do, places to go, field trips to take, social opportunities to indulge. All these are good, but they can quickly overtake time you need for the basics of grammar, reading, and math. It is vital to set school hours and keep them as stringently as possible, even if there are necessary interruptions like sickness and doctor’s visits.

This not only establishes your homeschool as a priority, it teaches kids how to prioritize work over fun and prepares them to be self-disciplined. With the amount of work-from-home options available today, it may also give them skills needed for a future career.

School Is a Priority for You, Too

And mom or dad? This means for you, too. School hours are just that – for school. Resist the urge to space out and play games on your phone while your kids pretend to do work. Stay engaged and keep them on task. Imagine how outraged you’d be to find out your child’s school teacher was scrolling Facebook while the class did whatever they wanted, and hold yourself to the same standard.

Remember, homeschooling is still a job even though it doesn’t bring an income. Keep in mind your “boss” is no less than the Almighty God, so treat His calling with the diligence you would a career (or more so) despite the lack of pay.

After all, the privilege of participating in shaping the minds of the future, while it may not make you wealthy or well-known on earth, will honor God and become a part of your eternal inheritance – an inheritance that will neither fade nor fail.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24).

Homeschool Myth #1: You Need Limitless Patience

~ Heather Davis ~ 4 Comments

I don’t Have the Patience

“I could never homeschool. I don’t have the patience for it!” Thus goes the most common refrain I heard from other parents when they first learned I homeschooled – back in the day, of course (my kids are all now in college).

My reply never varied. “Neither do I!” I would exclaim.

Homeschooling has been called “parenting on steroids,” and it’s true. A homeschool mom or dad is with the next generation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no weekends, no planning periods (at least not in my case) and you’ll often boast an entourage when you visit the necessary room. You’ll have every button you own pushed (including many buttons you didn’t know existed), you play the roles of both parent and teacher, and you will have every grain of patience tried, tested, and expended – often before 9:00 a.m.

Yet you do NOT need a limitless amount of patience. What you DO need is a vibrant relationship with the Most High God. He is the Giver of all good gifts, and that includes patience. Instead of needing to be able to rely on your own strong & stalwart patience, you need to live in surrender to His Holy Spirit daily, hourly, so the fruit of patience can grow in you.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience... (Galatians 5:22a, emphasis mine).

Patience Is a Fruit

Don’t miss this: since patience is a fruit, we must remember fruit takes time to grow and mature. Patience is not a prerequisite for beginning a home school; it is a fruit cultivated as you walk through the process. And it is worth the labor to cultivate.

Will you fail? Absolutely. But I would argue it is actually good for you children to see past a carefully-curated, self-reliant, perfect-but-false image and instead watch the process of sanctification unfold in a real human being.

In fact, I see it as an advantage to homeschooling that your children have a front-row seat to watching you deal with your emotions, frustrations, and become impatient with them. It’s good they get to see you deal with stress inappropriately and repent, get back up, and keep going. It’s a lesson like no other when your young ones watch you lose your cool and learn that the world does not shift off its axis and career through space like an oversized ping-pong ball when a human being fails to respond to stress in perfect patience.

It is also good for children to learn that patience is developed over time so they know that they, too, will be afforded the opportunity to develop patience rather than carrying the weight of being expected to handle every bump with perfect composure the first time around.

When they see you fail, get up, dust yourself off, and keep going, they learn to do the hard work of moving through failure and sin to a place of repentance and renewal. Not to mention perseverance; that gem of a virtue which is so lacking in modern society.

Impatience Is Human

But of course, we are a notoriously impatient species. Just think of what happened to the fledgling nation of Israel when their leader Moses took a bit over a month in meeting with the Almighty and bringing back the tablets of His covenant. Rather than taking it as a good sign when they saw God’s glory remaining on the mountaintop, the restless horde decided to chip in their varied jewelry and make a trinket to worship. Impatience isn’t a modern problem; it’s a human one.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, they people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him: (Exodus 32:1, emphasis mine).

Would it be convenient if God called us to do hard things like homeschool and just bestowed upon us a wealth of patience, wisdom, and genius right off the bat, making us supernaturally perfect at the job at hand? Of course it would be convenient. But it wouldn’t build our relationship with Him as we learn to come and ask for our daily bread – or daily patience – and rely utterly on Him.

Trusting God to Fill our Lack

My friends, more than God wants perfectly patient little children, He wants children who understand our aching need of Him and who depend on Him in relationship. The psalmist writes in Psalm 81:10, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

This is what He wants for us in anything we lack – a heart that understands its own fallibility and a desire to ask our Father for what we do not have, trusting Him to give it.

In my homeschool days when my patience was tapped (as it often was), I learned to cry out to the God who always showed such patience with me. And more importantly than anything else, I learned that my God’s grace truly is sufficient and His power is made perfect in my weakness – just as He said.

Watching the Fruit Grow

So what is the fruit of this daily struggle to learn patience, to fail and get up and try again? For one thing, I am a far more patient person than I was when I began this journey.

Perhaps more compelling is what I see in my kids, all in college as of this writing. They did not turn out perfect, nor did I expect them to. But at the ages of 23, 21, and 19, they are absolutely amazing young people. They are delightful to be around, they make me laugh and we have real fun together. Really. I enjoy my adult children, and they astonish me with their wisdom, their grit, and their willingness to do hard things.

And would you believe it? Each one of them has more patience in their early 20s than I did even in my 30s and 40s. They are not perfect, but they are exponentially more impressive and enjoyable than I was a their ages.

Patience, it seems, is not only taught through personal trial but also passed on to your young as they participate in the process. Our God is just good like that.

So if you are thinking of homeschooling but fear you don’t have enough patience, allow me to set your mind at rest: you don’t. Instead, you have something far better – 24/7 access to the Father of Lights who loves to give good gifts to His children and is there with you through the painful parts of acquiring those gifts. And you also have my testimony that it is worth it.

I hope that helps in some small way.

Excerpt from My First (Really Bad) Book

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

So, here’s a public admission, if you will. I’m working on a book. It’s been a long time coming, in part due to health challenges and the general busy-ness of life. And I confess – it’s sometimes difficult to give time to projects (like this blog, for example) that don’t offer financial help to my overworked husband and my three college kids. Yet, I believe the Lord has told me to write the book, so write I will. I’m starting to get some traction, but most of my writing time is devoted to the book at present.

But, I don’t want to leave y’all totally alone! The truth is, I’ve written two books before – truly bad ones. I’ve learned much since those first efforts, so maybe this time will be different. It’s in the Lord’s hands – my lot is to obey. Nevertheless, even from a bad book, there are good elements. Below is an excerpt from my first ever book; a scene I still like for the way it illustrates the seriousness of sin.

I’ll set up the scene by saying the character, Liam, is a successful star of sorts who meets the love of his life, a young lady named Stace who is a believer. Though she loves him, she keeps him at a distance because she doesn’t want to yoke herself with a man who isn’t committed to seeking the Kingdom of God first – even though from a worldly perspective, he would be a “dream guy.” Toward the end of the book, a freak accident results in her death. As she’s dying, she prays for Liam to see what she sees, and he has a supernatural experience with the Risen Christ. And now, on with the show:

For a moment, the Man held this posture, His hand poised over Liam’s blood-stained one, then He raised his head and looked Liam directly in the eyes. And Liam’s reality splintered.

In a flash, Liam found himself in a garden. In some inexplicable way, he knew it was not just any garden; it was the Garden – Eden. Amazed, he looked around, inhaling deeply of heady aromas. Everywhere he looked, there was beauty; well-tended and lovingly nurtured. Many of the plants were either in flower or heavy with a wondrous variety of fruits. The temperature was pleasantly warm. Birds twittered and darted among the trees and insects buzzed in and around the flowering plants…

As he moved forward with a steadily increasing sense of awe, he saw a woman who could only be the first woman, Eve. Just as he was about to call out a greeting, Liam noticed that she was not alone. Apparently, she was deeply immersed in a conversation with a creature unlike anything Liam had ever seen, for neither of them glanced his way as he approached.

Taking advantage of their inattention, Liam stopped beside the low hanging branches of a tree and observed the creature closely. Although he could not understand the words, something in the silken tones of the creature’s voice was appealing, even soothing. As it spoke, it paced slowly before the woman, displaying its beautiful, scintillating scales to great advantage. However, to Liam’s eye, something in the sinuous way it moved as it spoke was suggestive of a snake. This must be the serpent.

Apprehensively, Liam took a step closer stopping only when he noticed that the woman and the beast were not alone. Nearby, a man sat leaning back against a tree, half-listening or perhaps pretending not to listen as he idly wound then unwound the tendrils of a vine around his finger.

As understanding struck him, Liam’s heart sank; he knew this story. It was one of the first he learned from the Bible.
Wait – could he stop this from happening? If he stopped this first great tragedy, would it save Stace? Maybe that’s why he’d been brought here!

Running to the woman, he tried to distract her, to warn her, but she seemed not to hear.  He whirled around to grab the man’s shoulders and haul him to his feet if necessary, but Liam’s hands passed through empty space. For the first time, he realized he wasn’t actually in the Garden. Rather, he was seeing a memory, painted in vivid color and for all the world like some sort of three-dimensional movie. Although he experienced the scene as if he were a part of it, he could neither interact nor interfere.

Sickened, he watched the woman listen attentively to the deceiver; watched her eyes growing thoughtful. Though her husband was still close enough to hear, hands now resting limply at his sides, he made no attempt to engage in the dialog.

Liam looked again at the woman. A subtle change was coming over her face. The childlike guilelessness he first saw began to harden, touched by a tinge of disdain. The serpent continued its ceaseless spiel, and her eyes began to drift toward a tree.

Suddenly, a Voice broke into the scene, “The tree she looks upon is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life is not far away. Watch, and learn.”

Uselessly, Liam continued to watch as the woman moved toward the forbidden tree, watched her examine the fruit closely, weighing it in her palm as if the weight of consequence could be measured by the heaviness of the fruit. The subtle change he had begun to see in her face moments ago steeled into something so entirely modern that he reeled with the shock of it. He recognized it as the very look that had haunted him from his own mirror on so many occasions. It was a face filled with Pride; ruthless, stubborn, and petulant pride.

With the painfully familiar expression came another: doubt. Almost, Liam fancied, he could hear her inner dialog. Perhaps all the serpent had implied just might be true. Perhaps God was being stingy, withholding something that was good for them because He wanted no rival. Perhaps there would be no death. Such thoughts swam in her eyes as plainly as if printed there.

The woman took a bite of the fruit. Then, quickly as if she feared taking this step alone, she handed some of the fruit to the man who was with her, and he ate as well.

In that one, seemingly insignificant and ordinary act, the first man and woman turned their back on the One who had given them everything, even life itself.

A weight of horror settled on Liam, and he could only observe in futility as the shock of comprehension, then shame, distorted their faces. No longer did their expressions radiate an almost uncanny, beauteous innocence; no longer did their eyes dance with joy untainted with sorrow. 

The knowledge they’d craved did not bring the power they hoped. It never did. It never did. Oh, if only they had listened! He felt the ache of it so deep, he could hardly stand.

As the couple turned and fled deeper into the garden, Liam saw the discarded remnants of the fruit lying on the ground and he knew: Death had entered here.

Having rejected the Tree of Life for the one Tree forbidden them, they now knew they had chosen poorly and now their innocence had been ripped away leaving behind a ragged wound. The days of walking with their Creator in simple love and trust had ended. The horror and shame of what they had done drove them to try to hide from the God Who Sees.
Liam ached for them.

But quickly, other scenes flashed past with brutal intensity; the far-reaching consequences of one simple act of distrust until the mind-bending network of billions of sins and their consequences culminated in the ultimate price. Death, it is true, but a death like no other.

The Man – the same Man who had knelt by Stace – now raised in a gruesome display before a mob. This time, he wasn’t He clothed in intense white but caked in blood and dust, bearing on His head the very symbol of the curse of sin – branches of thorns twisted into a sick parody of a king’s circlet and shoved down over His brow, Blood from numerous scratches ran into His eyes.

God’s own Son, battered and torn, crowned with the unfathomable weight of countless sins, covered in shame and wretchedness that belonged to mankind – yet He wore it willingly. For the two rebels in the Garden. For all humanity. Even for the very ones who jeered from the crowd, He suffered humiliation and agony and Death.

For the first time, Liam understood the wonderful, terrible reality of the God who came to rescue those who rejected Him by paying the price of their insurrection with Himself.

And yet, still many did not believe. So many, oh so many, chose to believe themselves wiser, stronger, more progressive or modern or advanced than to believe in something so foolish as a God, never knowing that what they rejected was the glorious exhilaration of true Life. And such a Life—Life lived in harmony with the power, wonder, and endless love of the very Creator of life!

The scene shifted, and Liam saw himself ad a very young man; saw his mockery of his parents and his rejection of the two hard-working, plain people who loved him as best as they could. But he turned his back on them to become something more than a small-town hick. And Death entered that relationship.

He saw himself after his first big break, flattered by the attentions of many young ladies and reveling in his own sexual prowess, never once thinking of anything but his own pleasure. And Death stalked into many relationships.
He saw himself grow in fame and begin to wield some control over what roles he would accept, sometimes withdrawing like a sulky child when his whims were not met. And Death prowled among his business relationships, too.

Again and again, Liam watched countless moments of his own life; moments where he had chosen to feed his pride or flaunt his aptitude, often to another’s detriment and always to achieve a sense of personal victory. And side-by-side with each distinction and achievement as his self-importance swelled, Death walked through wide-open doors into many places in his life.

Finally, he saw himself waking alone in bed the morning before he had first met Stace, and he knew—the Thing that had stalked him when success and wealth failed to fill a deep void within; the Thing that clawed with hateful fingers at his throat and stifled his breathing – was Death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23, ESV).

The Great Apathy

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

You know what really tangles my kite strings? It’s a thing I’m calling the Great Apathy. The powers that be in my nation longer bother with trying to dress their lies in a modicum of truth. What’s worse, the public as a whole seems to have accepted this as perfectly normal.

Blatant and egregious falsehoods in media, politics, and advertising? Of course; why not? Please pass the sugar.

I cannot claim to be surprised. After all, I’ve read the Bible several times through and am well aware of the course this planet travels.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Yet I also find it darkly humorous that my countrymen will feel smug enough to doubt we could ever fall under the sway of a tyrant the likes of Adolf Hitler or believe such obvious lies as Putin critic Alexei Navalny’s passing from “sudden death syndrome” in a Russian prison.

But then again…

I’m wondering what families they polled to discover this fine achievement. All the families I know are groaning under the cost of groceries, and no one is moving because they can’t even afford to downsize with the current cost of housing.

And that’s just ONE lie. There are so many others. I’ve seen ground beef labels with fine print stating, “beef flavor added,” a bag of oranges reassuring me the orange color was added, and bitten into apples only to see red dye staining the flesh of the fruit.

And don’t get me started about the lack of grammar and thoughtful communication.

Evidently, this dinner cut is owned by a stir fry?? That or someone in their marketing department doesn’t know the difference between a plural and a possessive noun.

Then there’s the entire alphabet soup mess of biological confusion. Don’t get me wrong. I feel truly and deeply grief-stricken for the people caught up in this princedom of lies, but I can’t claim to have zero anger towards those who propagate the chaos and confuse hurting people who are already suffering.

On one hand, we’re told there is a difference between biological sex and gender (which is honestly just Gnosticism in modern clothes), and on the other hand we can read how scientists discover “for the first time” how men’s and women’s brains work differently.

Of course, any married couple, preschool worker, or person who interacts with other persons in real-world settings on a daily basis could have told you this centuries ago. But for some reason, many of my countrymen have fallen under the spell of “science” – or more aptly “scientism” as a friend of mine calls it.

What I’m wondering is what happened to a people who took in data, ruminated on it, and acted according to their own values systems? Today’s average jill or joe seems to do nothing more than search social media or other online sources for the acceptable attitude of the day and adopt it. Data is increasingly difficult to come by, and lies increasingly dominate.

Then again, the current ruler of this world is a liar and the father of lies.

I’m just thankful this place isn’t my home but only the land of my sojourn. While I’m here, I hope to share the hope I have in Yeshua (Jesus) my Lord with everyone I can, convincing them to trade their fragile earthly citizenship for an eternal one in the Kingdom of God.

Friend, if you are also struggling with the ugly spread of deception you see pervading our society, dividing us into groups at war with ideologies neither group fully comprehends, I invite you on a journey. Go outside and take a walk in the fresh air. Marvel at the beauty of a budding tree or the flight of a bird. Then return, pick up a Bible, and read the greatest love story ever told, asking the Author of the story to help you both understand and believe it.

Then someday, we will have eternity to enjoy the goodness of God together as we relish our release from the bondage of deceit, decay, and death. But we don’t have to wait – we can be free of the great apathy now and engage in real-world pursuits rather than theoretical imbibing of Kool-Aid and red or blue pills.

Let the Creator of all that is untangle those knots in your kite strings and learn to fly free from the entanglement of sin and self. You won’t regret it.

A Chronology of Obedience

~ Heather Davis ~ 9 Comments

Reading through the Bible chronologically in a year or so lends a different perspective than taking deep dives into a specific book or passage. This is the – oh, I’d say maybe sixth time I’ve followed a chronological one-year plan, and each time the Lord has given me a few new pearls to string together. This year, I’ve been noting the chronology of obedience reiterated through the pages of the Text.

One of the big themes I saw repeated throughout Genesis and Exodus is that quite often, obedience to God precedes the miracle, sign, or blessing from God.

Take a look at these by-no-means comprehensive examples:

The Call of Noah | Genesis 6:9-9:22

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood … For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven… But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you…

Genesis 6:14-18

Noah had to build the ark before the flood ever happened – in part because a large seaworthy vessel does little good if one begins construction during a catastrophic weather event. He and his family were not saved from the general destruction until after they obeyed what doubtless seemed to be a rather bizarre set of instructions.

The Call of Abram | Genesis 12

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…

Genesis 12:1-2

Note that God did not provide Abram with a roadmap complete with a large red X marking the destination, but instead directed him to “the land that I will show you.” Imagine having that conversation with your wife! As a wife myself, I can state for the record that I might slightly doubt my husband’s sanity if he told me we were moving but we wouldn’t know where until we got there.

And the promised sign? God would make a great nation of him and make his name great. Becoming a “great nation” is not an event that tends to happen in one’s own lifetime, as it would take generations for one person’s progeny to number enough to be considered a nation. We can see clearly that Abram’s belief was not about personal gain but was instead God-focused.

There’s a lesson in this I’m taking to heart.

The Offering of Isaac | Genesis 22

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 

Genesis 22:12-13

Again, God didn’t provide the animal for the sacrifice until Abraham’s arm was poised to strike. Sometimes God’s provision comes in the very nick of time, even when our obedience seems to be more costly than we feel we are able to pay. Yet in reality, God Himself always shoulders the true burden.

This moment in history, like the others, deserves a deep dive of its own – far to much to cover in this overview. But can I at least comment that it wasn’t unusual for pagan gods to require child sacrifice? God’s dramatic display here showed that He would be the one to provide the sacrifice, foreshadowing the ultimate provision of His own Son of the promise for the greatest and most complete sacrifice humanity will ever know.

But back to our main point – Abraham’s obedience came before God’s miraculous provision. We stand at a point in history where the miraculous provision has already happened. So, why do we yet hesitate to obey? Food for thought.

The Whole Life of Joseph | Genesis 37, 39-46

Ok, that’s a lot to take in, so let’s narrow it down to Joseph’s trial with Potiphar’s wife, shall we?

“He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

Genesis 39:9-10

Here’s a case where the obedience to God actually brings the poor man into a greater amount of trouble. Because of his obedience to God and his refusal to be seduced by a powerful woman, Joseph spends time in jail.

Let me rephrase that: he spends time in jail for doing the right thing.

Obedience to God often comes at a great personal cost. This is reiterated in many ways through the Book, but this is a powerful example. Yet God did use all these circumstances to ultimately position Joseph in a place where he could save his family from starvation. He also had to forgive them for selling him as a slave – a fact that may shock us in today’s “trauma-sensitive” environment.

So in Ol’ Joe’s life, we see that obedience leads from the frying pan to the fire and then into the coals themselves before God’s miraculous delivery is brought about.

Never forget, at our historical moment, the most miraculous has already been done. Yet we still have miles or months of obedience ahead before we get to see the total fulfillment in our eternal reward!

Dang, I didn’t even get out of Genesis, and there are tons of others: Moses and his call to deliver the people from Pharoah – another painstaking and unpopular process. Joshua and the silent “battle” of Jericho. The list goes on and on.

This time through the Word, I’m relishing the overview and remembering that my obedience may not pay out in earthly comfort, convenience, or reward. But in the long run, my choosing again and again to trust God will be worthwhile.

Friend, so will yours. Chronologically speaking, obedience is the only safe bet.

Job: A Summary of Reflections

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

A brief walk-through of a few of my reflections through my latest reading of the book of Job:

JOB 1:6 – Why do most English translations grant the accuser a proper name when the original language is merely a noun with a definite article roughly translating to “the accuser?”

JOB 1:8 – Imagine the honor of being showcased by the Almighty as an exemplary servant! I mean, yeah, the temporal consequences stunk, but still…

JOB 4:12-16 – Job’s buddy Eliphaz seems to confuse either nightmares or demonic visitation with a word from God.

JOB 8:4 – Bildad isn’t the most comforting, either. I can’t do better than the paraphrase of this verse I heard on Wednesday night: “Sorry your kids are dead, but they probably deserved it.”

JOB 11:6b – And his pal Zophar tends more toward condemning than comforting, too. The title of this section in the ESV says it all.

JOB 13:5 (NIV) – Nice one, Job. Silence would indeed suit these guys well.

MOST OF JOB – Lord, help me not to be like Job’s fair-weather friends. Teach me how to shut my mouth and listen more. Also, I hope Job got some better friends after this crisis.

JOB 38 – What is it about the human race (yours truly included) that makes us believe we are actually entitled to know things? We are created things yet we somehow think all our whys should be indulged by an answer, as if we could possibly grasp the vast and ancient wisdom of the Ancient of Days. How like a small child we are, sulking when our Father doesn’t provide us with an answer we can come to terms with and not realizing we aren’t even capable or understanding even if He deigned to tell us (see also Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6).

JOB 41 – What in the sweet summer sunshine is Leviathan and how can I avoid ever meeting one??

My overall takeaway from this past reading of Job is to stay in my lane and trust my God even when nothing around me makes any sense. Lord, help us to remember who we are and who You are, amen!

When Job Is My Portion

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

This past Saturday, I woke to one of Tennessee’s typical grey winter days. After reading my morning portion of the Word, I caved in to my Aussie’s pleading stares and vocalizations. A quick check of the weather app assured me the looming clouds would not spill over for “at least 60 minutes,” nonetheless, I donned my rain gear and set off with the furry victor happily trotting at my side. Since my portion is in Job at present, it seemed appropriate to me to listen to said book while I walked to enhance my morning’s reading, and I decided to backtrack and listen from Job chapter 1.

The weather app lied.

About a half-mile into my walk, a misty drizzle started. It was fairly warmish and the drizzle was light, so I decided to keep going. Besides, my poor pooch had already missed several walks this winter due to my state’s bipolar weather and my own health issues. As I passed the lake, I noted my friend the limpkin still inexplicably hanging out at the water’s edge despite being a good 450-odd miles from the northern edge of his typical range – not to mention last week’s snowpocalypse.

He stared at me as I passed, possibly wondering why the crazy human trudges through the mist and still stops to snap photos of him. Good question. I moved on, listening to Job’s lament and feeling a bit dissatisfied with my choice. But I kept walking.

About halfway through my short route, the drizzle picked up to a light rain. By this time, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had begun their potshots and part of my mind drifted to my own times of trial. The rain lent a dismal ambience to perfectly complement the audio.

When the light rain began to drift toward downpour, I debated the merits of fighting the rain for control over my phone’s screen to make a call. Instead, I put my head down and determined to finish the last 3/4 mile or so as quickly as possible. Then I saw movement. Through the raindrops coating my glasses, a familiar vehicle drew near.

My husband had noted the increase in damp and come to my rescue. Hallelujah!

The whole experience reminded me of a dark and dismal time in my life. Like Job, I’d lost a lot (though not all). The people I’d called “friend” abandoned me in my hour of need, and I felt myself alone, groping through a cold and misty waste with nowhere to turn. Then out of nowhere, as I trudged ahead in a grim and hopeless determination, my Rescuer appeared.

I found the Word of God – not just the Book but the Redeemer it speaks of: Yeshua Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Immanuel, God-With-Us. My Lord and my God. In my darkest hour, in abject fury and despair, I shouted my unbelief and unbelievably, He came to my rescue anyway.

He took me under the shelter of His wings and slowly began the work of healing my wounded heart, untwining the deeply-rooted sins that infected my soul, and cleaning up the mess I’d made. My journey since then has still had moments of despondency and pain, but I now have a safe and warm destination to look forward to.

Just as my husband picked me up and drove me home, my Lord and Savior is carrying me through the murk of life. And I know that someday, He will bring me Home. This is what I keep in mind when Job’s lot seems to be my portion. Even without the Book, Job himself clung to this hope and kept going.

My friend, so can you.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

(Job 19:25-26)

Should Christians Cuss?

~ Heather Davis ~ 4 Comments

As I walked and talked with the Lord one morning, He clarified something for me. I’ve heard several people who identify as Christians use swear words. Years ago, I had a long evening conversation with a pastor on my back porch. During our chat, he defended Christians cussing as a “subculture” issue where the words were nothing more than adjectives. In his eyes and in the eyes of many others, the answer to the question, “Is it OK for Christians to cuss?” is an emphatic yes.

But I would argue that we are asking the wrong question entirely.

In Matthew 12:34, after calling the corrupted religious leaders a “brood of vipers,” Jesus went on to say, ‘For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

So really, the question is: if you feel the need to cuss, what is abounding in your heart that cursing is what comes out?

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Matthew 12:34-35

After delineating the works of the flesh, Paul informed the church in Galatia that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . .” (Galatians 5:22-23).

It’s worthy of note that cursing is none of those things. At best, it’s contemptuous; an expression of disgust or contempt for the object or person on the receiving end. At its worst, cussing is an expression of anger. In fact, I can’t think of a swear word that doesn’t come from a place of anger.

So, if your heart is full of anger and contempt, it’s only natural for these to fuel what comes out of your mouth. But if your heart is full of Jesus, different things will come out; the fruit of His Spirit.

Something to think about today.

<3<3

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:19-25

Like Trees Walking

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

And [Jesus] took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when He had spit on His eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.”

Mark 8:23-24, ESV

Healing the Blind

I love the Gospel accounts of Yeshua (Jesus) healing the blind because I know He’s in the same business today. For any who are willing, my Lord still heals spiritual blindness – a blindness far more profound than the mere absence of sight. Of all the blind men He healed, the one that resonates most with me is the healing recorded in Mark 8:22-25.

Distorted Vision

Mark’s account is singular in that Yeshua’s healing did not seem to “take” at first. This unnamed fellow’s sight did not immediately return. Instead, he began to see in stages, and his first glimpse of the world offered a distorted image of reality.

I can relate because I also began to see in stages after the Lord first touched me. He did not heal the abysmal spiritual darkness in me all at once. Instead, my first glimpses of the real world remained distorted by the lens of secular humanism I first embraced as a teenager.

The humanist worldview led me to view life as a silly option and death as the more logical choice. The more I saw through this murky lens, the darker life grew until blackness reigned unchallenged.

Worldview Breakdown

Secular humanism provides insufficient answers to questions of mankind’s purpose and meaning. Their efforts to touch these concepts lead in circles, much like Pooh and Piglet following their own tracks in the snow.

In adulthood, questions began to buffet me in the thick darkness of my chosen worldview:

  • If the end justifies the means, then why does my conscience prick me when I cause someone pain? 
  • If mankind sets the standard for right and wrong, what man gets to set it?
  • When others use me and I feel wronged, am I right or are they?
  • When social standards change, does right and wrong change, too?
  • Is life built on such an unstable foundation as all this?
  • If man is the measure of all things, then what’s the point?
  • Why bother with life at all?

Years spent groping in this philosophical darkness brought no peace but only multiplied my confusion. And quite frankly, the longer I groped in this darkness, the less sense the humanist worldview made.

As I rode the fluctuating and unstable tide of humanistic morality, I knew deep inside there must be a true right and a true wrong. Without a changeless absolute truth, life was purposeless, chaotic, and ultimately meaningless.

The moral question became one of life or death for me.

Beginning to See

This is where Yeshua found me.

He began to heal my spiritual blindness, but at first I saw neither Him nor His truth clearly. Instead, I saw a distorted version of reality blurred by drab layers of humanistic philosophy. At the Lord’s first touch, I saw enough to know He was there although I saw Him only dimly.

It took several applications of the Word of Truth before I saw clearly. And what I discovered was the world, seen through the crystal-clear truth of the Maker of all things, =made a startling, stark sense.

What About You?

I don’t know where you stand, friend. I don’t know if you see Yeshua through His Word or if you see an obscure shadow of Him; a man like a tree walking around. But I pray He will heal you fully so you may see the beauty of the Light of the World and all He illuminates.

Those Worrisome Words – Christian

~ Heather Davis ~ 4 Comments

For series background info, see my previous post.

Our kickoff word is Christian.

Sooooo many people use this word, and yet in utter sincerity, I do not think it means what they think it means.

Nerd Alert – brief foray into etymology ahead!!

The word Christian actually comes from a Greek word which was coined not long after the death of the Christ, who was likely called Yeshua by His contemporaries and more commonly known today by the transliterated and (possibly Swiss-ified from the Geneva Bible translation) name, Jesus.

Long story short, His Greek title would have been (transliterated), Christos. Christianos was the Greek derivative used to refer collectively to those who followed His Way not long after His death. The English is easy to spot from there.

But what does the word mean? What, exactly, makes a person a Christian?

I’ve had a virtual conversation with an atheist who believes Adolf Hitler was a Christian. And from his perspective, it makes sense. After all, Hitler belonged to a nation which identified itself as a Christian nation, he mentioned Divine Providence (a way of referring to God) many times in his speeches, wrote about his concept of God and the Divine Image in his autobiography, and even proclaimed Jesus as Savior and Lord during a speech or two.

Surely that’s enough to make him a Christian, right?

After all, if yours truly, a mother of three, suddenly chooses to identify as a man, I can be a man – thus saith the progressive logic of the current century and thus the atheist’s puzzling little piece fits, though admittedly the picture is more a puzzle assembled than if it remained in scattered pieces.

The truth is, Hitler also used the term Christian while remaining ignorant of its actual meaning. Consider this quote straight from the pen of the mustachioed Austrian madman himself:

It would be better if they left this [missionary] work alone, and if, in its stead, they tried to teach people in Europe, kindly and seriously, that it is much more pleasing to God if a couple that is not of healthy stock were to show loving kindness to some poor orphan and become a father and mother to him, rather than give life to a sickly child that will be a cause of suffering and unhappiness to all.

Adolf Hitler, from Mein Kampf

According to the deceased dictator’s philosophy, the God-honoring Christian thing to do is to sterilize the sick and infirm, allowing them to perhaps raise some healthy orphan rather than perpetuate their inferior genetic stock.

He goes on to sing the praises of eugenics. The gist of this section of merry old Adolf’s autobiography is that allowing unhealthy, crippled, mentally deficient, or “racially impure” (presumably by his standard) people to procreate is an act of immorality.

Logically consistent, but abhorrently far from what Jesus actually lived and died to accomplish. Hitler shaped his concept of God, Christianity, and morality around his lifestyle, ethnic makeup, and opinions rather than shaping his worldview around the actual Christ as presented in His Word.

Like so many of us still do today, deceiving ourselves that we have no kinship with a freak like Hitler. Too many of us fail to see the inherent dangers of redefining what it means to follow Christ.

So is a Christian merely a person who identifies himself with the Christ and calls Jesus his Savior and Lord?

Not according to the Christ Himself:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 7:21

The Lord goes on to declare even some people who call Him Lord and do incredible feats – things I’ve certainly never accomplished – in His name will not enter. Jesus labels these Christ-proclaiming high-performers workers of lawlessness, not Christians.

So what is a Christian, if not a person who calls the Christ Lord?

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 14:23

There’s the start of the definition, though it’s necessary to know Jesus’s commands. Read Matthew 16:21-27, John 13, John 15 – heck, really you need to read the entire Book and study the types of Christ in the Old Covenant before moving on to study the actual Christ in the Gospels and letters making up the New Covenant.

To know what a Christian is, study the Christ. And remember that He tells us we can know them by their fruits.

A person is not a Christian just because they say they are, nor because they do a little Divine name-dropping or throw out a frequent, “Praise the Lord!”

Instead, observe their fruit. Do his actions bring acclaim to himself? Does her lifestyle honor herself?

Or do they imitate the life of Christ?

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:12-13