Many times i have encountered that folks in the world want the behaviour change, they do not really mind if the heart is not in it as long as you can see visually the results and process, it is good enough. While this can help us see, God acutally looks at the heart. The motive and the commitment.
At times, it may look foolish what we may do or say according to the world, we may not be eloquent speakers or communicators, and not that it cannot be worked on, but God calls the worldly wisdom foolishness.
There is a saying, i would rather have heart than words, rather than words but no heart. We could be great speakers but it may be just the words.
At times God uses people in my life to teach me what he wants me to be and at the same time i see that God does not miss what the world misses to see in me.
I am not sure about you, but i am a very passionate person, i love passionately. i am passionate about biblically right things. i get angry when i see the wrong doings exalted and evil being so prevalent. but at the same times, i also see that God speaks to me thru many people that i need to be careful as many take advantage of our sincerity and openness and frankness and we are left hurt and injured.
i am at peace when i am able to do something for someone because it comes from the heart, if i am taken advantage of, its their loss not mine, because they will continue in their pattern, lose friends and opportunities while i am blessed because i do it sincerely.
God justifies us because of our heart issue. it is a big thing to God. If our hearts are right, we have 90% of battle already won.
Proverbs says, above all guard your heart for it is the well spring of life.
copyright @ KC Sharma
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
God's way vs. our schemes in parenting- Isaac and Rebecah
I have often wondered about Jacob and his schemes to get ahead of his brother as I read Genesis again and again. This year I saw something deep. When we read that Rebekah was not able to have children within 20 years of their marriage, "Isaac prayed for his wife and she became pregnant." We are also told she was expecting twins. Now I want us to read precisely as the Scripture is recorded and not try to add anything to it.
Genesis 23: "The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Now in this nowhere do I find that Jacob is to learn to cheat, nowhere do we find that God approves of Jacob's cheating. I simply find it put in simple terms, God was blessing her with more blessings, not one but two boys and not just two boys, (like her family had sent her with a blessing before leaving her parents' home Gen24:60) she was going to be a mother of many (thousands upon thousands) through these two boys. So God blessed her doubly.
The verses state more like predictions and forewarnings of what the older and younger ones would do. God blesses each one according to what God wants, we are all unique and gifted to complement each other not to compete - if we understood this principle, things would perhaps be easier. When God gives us strength, it is to bless others, not for our pride; and when God gives us weakness it is not for humiliation or feeling intimidated. We need to understand that we need care without abuse and without manipulations. There was nothing wrong with one being an employer and the other being an employee. Jesus came to serve us, he did not become any less than us. If only Rebekah had understood this, perhaps she would not have taken matters into her own hands and taught deceiving traits and schemes to her younger son, Jacob.
But, Rebekah took it to mean what she wanted to hear and favored the younger one. She also does not seem to communicate that to her husband. Isaac loves Esau for the way he operates, while Rebekah seems to have her own reasons for liking Jacob. We do know what it feels like when one parent favors the other.
God had blessed Esau in his own way and God chose to use Jacob for his own blessing and blessed plan and no cheating, deceit, or manipulations were necessary.
One son good at outdoors and the other good at home, would have complimented one another best way. There was no need to sell or buy the birthright! Jacob seems to want to be two steps ahead of his brother. For people who think, winning is the only way they live, life must be very frustrating, stressful, and hard to try to be always on the toes, not peaceful. We can see that in Jacob's life. What he was taught to fight for was divinely given by God, already, but he felt he had to have his own ways.
Proverbs says, "The Blessings of the Lord make one rich and he adds no sorrow to it."
Rebekah taught Jacob deceitful ways to relate to a brother and others and we see in turn, he gets cheated by her own brother. (like brother like sister) One teaches him to cheat, and the other actually cheats on him too.
Isn't it ironic that Rebecah also goes full out to deceive her own husband in his old age with identity theft, Jacob being presented as Esau? What do you call this mothering? I have no doubt, that she stands responsible before God for her own wrong ways of parenting and 'helping God' out.
Sarah had tried to help God out by getting a child by causing her husband to sleep with her helper, misusing her own maid to get what she wanted, and when it did not seem to go her way, she threw the maid away. Rebekah, for her own ways of thinking, is getting the deceit in her family, and not only that, she is actually teaching her son to do that.
Isaac on the other hand seems to play a passive role. He does not seem to inquire about the LORD now that the children are born, but hold on, did Rebekah mention that to her husband? He knew and did when she was barren but now that she was pregnant, I wonder if there was any communication along those lines! She does not seem to have related the God-given info to her husband. The kids are born, and we see the Dad passive and even depending on lies for survival like his father Abraham did for his wife Sarah. What would have been different if Isaac too had inquired of the LORD on how to raise the child? (Samson's parents went to inquire of the LORD when the wife told the husband the message of the LORD. How are we to raise this child?) Judges 13: "Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” in verse 6, the wife shares with the husband what the Angel has told her.
Despite their good upbringing, what Samson chose is quite another matter, but at least the parents did the right thing.
If parents were on the same page and communicated with one another about their children and sought the wisdom of God in raising them! Parents can choose to wait on God for what God puts on their hearts concerning their children. Let us teach them to live in harmony and peace, showing the Christ-likeness to one another and to the world. Let us not favor one child over another. Yes, it is possible to have different likings for different children, but let us use that to build unity in them and teach them the good ways of God.
copyright @ Kalpana Sharma 2011
Genesis 23: "The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Now in this nowhere do I find that Jacob is to learn to cheat, nowhere do we find that God approves of Jacob's cheating. I simply find it put in simple terms, God was blessing her with more blessings, not one but two boys and not just two boys, (like her family had sent her with a blessing before leaving her parents' home Gen24:60) she was going to be a mother of many (thousands upon thousands) through these two boys. So God blessed her doubly.
The verses state more like predictions and forewarnings of what the older and younger ones would do. God blesses each one according to what God wants, we are all unique and gifted to complement each other not to compete - if we understood this principle, things would perhaps be easier. When God gives us strength, it is to bless others, not for our pride; and when God gives us weakness it is not for humiliation or feeling intimidated. We need to understand that we need care without abuse and without manipulations. There was nothing wrong with one being an employer and the other being an employee. Jesus came to serve us, he did not become any less than us. If only Rebekah had understood this, perhaps she would not have taken matters into her own hands and taught deceiving traits and schemes to her younger son, Jacob.
But, Rebekah took it to mean what she wanted to hear and favored the younger one. She also does not seem to communicate that to her husband. Isaac loves Esau for the way he operates, while Rebekah seems to have her own reasons for liking Jacob. We do know what it feels like when one parent favors the other.
God had blessed Esau in his own way and God chose to use Jacob for his own blessing and blessed plan and no cheating, deceit, or manipulations were necessary.
One son good at outdoors and the other good at home, would have complimented one another best way. There was no need to sell or buy the birthright! Jacob seems to want to be two steps ahead of his brother. For people who think, winning is the only way they live, life must be very frustrating, stressful, and hard to try to be always on the toes, not peaceful. We can see that in Jacob's life. What he was taught to fight for was divinely given by God, already, but he felt he had to have his own ways.
Proverbs says, "The Blessings of the Lord make one rich and he adds no sorrow to it."
Rebekah taught Jacob deceitful ways to relate to a brother and others and we see in turn, he gets cheated by her own brother. (like brother like sister) One teaches him to cheat, and the other actually cheats on him too.
Isn't it ironic that Rebecah also goes full out to deceive her own husband in his old age with identity theft, Jacob being presented as Esau? What do you call this mothering? I have no doubt, that she stands responsible before God for her own wrong ways of parenting and 'helping God' out.
Sarah had tried to help God out by getting a child by causing her husband to sleep with her helper, misusing her own maid to get what she wanted, and when it did not seem to go her way, she threw the maid away. Rebekah, for her own ways of thinking, is getting the deceit in her family, and not only that, she is actually teaching her son to do that.
Isaac on the other hand seems to play a passive role. He does not seem to inquire about the LORD now that the children are born, but hold on, did Rebekah mention that to her husband? He knew and did when she was barren but now that she was pregnant, I wonder if there was any communication along those lines! She does not seem to have related the God-given info to her husband. The kids are born, and we see the Dad passive and even depending on lies for survival like his father Abraham did for his wife Sarah. What would have been different if Isaac too had inquired of the LORD on how to raise the child? (Samson's parents went to inquire of the LORD when the wife told the husband the message of the LORD. How are we to raise this child?) Judges 13: "Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” in verse 6, the wife shares with the husband what the Angel has told her.
Despite their good upbringing, what Samson chose is quite another matter, but at least the parents did the right thing.
If parents were on the same page and communicated with one another about their children and sought the wisdom of God in raising them! Parents can choose to wait on God for what God puts on their hearts concerning their children. Let us teach them to live in harmony and peace, showing the Christ-likeness to one another and to the world. Let us not favor one child over another. Yes, it is possible to have different likings for different children, but let us use that to build unity in them and teach them the good ways of God.
copyright @ Kalpana Sharma 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)