March 11th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

{This was originally posted in March of 2009.}

As I mentioned in Lent, Fasting, and Other Outlandish Ideas, I am fairly new to the world of fasting and incorporating this spiritual discipline into my walk with the Lord.

I said in that aforementioned post that Richard Foster points out that fasting reveals what controls us. I must attest that this is true! I was thinking this morning that the I fast are often the roughest with my children. They’re irritable, I’m irritable, it’s often not a pretty sight. It’s hard not to get short with them when they’re following me around wining that they want a snack (after eating a whole bowl of something or another); I either catch myself eating a handful of something with them without thinking about it (Arg!) or somehow begrudge them that graham cracker as I hand it over!

I know that food is more than a survival necessity for me (unlike my husband, who doesn’t really care about eating. Seriously!) I eat when I’m bored, I eat when I’m frustrated, I eat when I’m lonely or sad… somehow we seem to use food to stuff down emotion. I often remark when we watch Biggest Loser that the trainers have to also be half-therapists for the amount of counseling they end up doing at the gym! Take away our comfort food and push us outside of what we feel capable of, and we lose it – all those emotions that we’ve expertly stuffed for so long are raw and exposed!

I’m realizing that, in a less dramatic way, fasting does this for me. When I get frustrated with the kids or start feeling trapped in the house, what do I do? Grab a snack. If I’m concerned about something or upset, what do I do? Grab a snack! Take away my snacks, and I get irritable! Not only am I hungry, but now I’m just stuck with my irritation and upsetting emotion with nothing to stuff it down with!

I had already been thinking about this today and then came across one of my favorite Psalms during my devotional time; this has always been a special passage to me, but it means even more with this framework of where my satisfaction and comfort is coming from.

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Psalm 63:1-5

How often do I come to a place of realizing that I am empty and incapable, and instead of realizing that the hunger in my soul is for God, I stuff a cracker in my mouth? When I am emptied of myself, do I long for His the comfort of His presence, or for an oreo as my comfort food?

Obviously physically our bodies need food and water to survive. But are we eating to satisfy legitimate physical hunger, or are we masking the symptoms of spiritual longings for His presence? Only God can satisfy our soul “as with the richest of foods.”

How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
Psalm 65:4 (NASB)

*Picture from wikipedia.org

August 12th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Oh, girls – this is good. God’s Word is so rich!!

Remember how I said that my “study foci” were lining up amazingly well? Well, this one just about knocked my socks off.

So, as I mentioned, I’ve been pulled to the Gospels, particularly the Sermon on the Mount. I keep reading Matthew 5 over and over again, turning some things over in my mind. As I mentioned before, that term “blessed” shows up time and time again in the Psalms, and the beattitudes line right up with those beautiful Old Testament chapters.

After some time in Matthew 5, I flipped to Revelation 1. I’ve also felt compelled to really study Revelation, and have started reading through it along with John MacArthur’s 2 volume commentary. Yesterday as I read Revelation 1:3 -

“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near”

- I noted that that word “blessed” is the same greek word used in Matthew 5. Interesting.

Well, today John MacArthur was talking to me about that ;), noting that the book of Revelation is bracketed by promises of blessing – first in 1:3, and echoed in 22:7

“Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”

In addition, he listed five other promises of blessing in Revelation.

•14:13 – blessed are those who die in the Lord
•16:15 – blessed is the one who stays awake (because He will come like a thief)
•19:9 – blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb
•20:6 – blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection
•22:14 – blessed are those who wash their robes so they may have the right to the tree of life and enter by the gates into the city

I had to come inside from my outdoor quiet retreat with my coffee to consult with an online concordance… so far Psalms, The Sermon on the Mount, and Revelation were all echoing one another. Anything else?

WOW! ♪♪♪Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth Thou hast for me!!♪♪♪

Ok, how long was it going to take me to think back to the Abrahamic covenant, the Land Nation and Leader promises that we’ve discussed… I don’t know, 100 times? …all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Through the promised Seed, through Jesus, all peoples on earth would be ‘blessed.’

Why wouldn’t Jacob let Jesus go after wrestling with Him? He wanted His blessing.

The Psalms echo with the idea of those who are blessed, and after comparing those passages with Matthew 5 we summarized:

True blessing begins in a right relationship with God as our only Savior and Lord, continues as we deal rightly with our sin and thirst for His righteousness, deepens as the Word sinks into our hearts and lives, and pours out of us in genuine love for those around us.

The rest of the New Testament has plenty to say about those who are blessed, as well (this is just a smattering of the many references):

•Matthew 11:6 – “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

•Matthew 25:34 – “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

•Luke 11:28 – But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

•John 13:17 -“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

•John 20:29 – Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

•Galatians 3:9 – The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ” ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

•James 1:25 – But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

•1 Peter 4:14 – If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

From Genesis through Revelation, the Scriptures echo with the blessing of God poured out on mankind through an opportunity to know Him, walk with Him, hear from Him, live like Him. An invitation to be one of the blessed ones.

God’s Word is rich. His grace is deep. The blessing is amazing – and undeserved.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3

August 6th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Know what I’m loving this week? This is a bit of a departure from my typical “things I love” posts… we’re not talking about a housework gadget or coffee or birthday cake… this is one of the things I love most of all.

I love it when God speaks.

I’m not talking an auditory voice (although, I’m positive He does that, too!) – I love it when God clearly shows me something in His Word.

If you haven’t noticed from the random bunny trails I take within the “studies” on here, I tend to have quite a few topics and study-focuses (foci?) spinning in my head at once. I have been spending a lot of time in the Proverbs this summer and specifically reflecting on how the Proverbs speak to parenting. I hope to come back to this down the road, but buckle up… we’re taking a detour.

Back when we were going through the Psalms, I had a lightbulb moment (or at least a partial lightbulb moment) when I did a word study on “blessed” in the Psalms. After compiling the verses in the Psalms about those who were blessed, it was ringing a bell – Jesus’ definition of those who were “blessed” in the ‘beattitudes’ lined up amazingly well with how the Psalms described the “blessed.” It gave me a deep hunger to study more closely the words of Jesus.

I had the privilege of walking a dear friend through the book of John after she came to know the Lord in high school. As we discussed how the Old Testament and New Testament tie together, I loved that she exclaimed, “Jesus is like the decoder ring to the Old Testament!!” This is such a great analogy! I think it also works a bit in the reverse – the teachings of Jesus make much more sense to us with the background of the Old Testament in our minds!

I think we often miss out on the vivid pictures He paints and the Truths that He teaches because we are unfamiliar with the Old Testament that He draws from so frequently – His listeners would have known the law well, if not had it memorized, so it makes sense that He would allude to it frequently. And sadly, it usually flies right over our head.

So, we read those words of life, shrug our shoulders when they don’t make sense to us, and take a blind stab at what it means based on how we feel about it. I’m speaking about myself here, too – that’s why I have felt burdened to start studying the words of Jesus, keeping them in context with the entire scope of Scripture, longing to hear more of what He is telling us as His followers.

As we continue through this bunny trail, I will tell you more of the spinning ‘foci’ in my mind that are lining up as I study Jesus’ teachings. I’m sorry if it bugs any of you that I keep switching subjects, but I’m loving that God is redirecting. His Word is so rich – sweeter than honey from the comb – and it is a delight to study it with you. I hope and pray you hang on for the ride, that God would bless you as you consider His Truths, and that the Holy Spirit would use them to change and transform you into the image of Jesus Christ.

Open our eyes to your Truth, Lord – how we need your decoder ring!

August 5th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Image via Wikipedia

Every once in a while, a golden moment happens at our house. The children play together peacefully! AG helps her brother find toys and doesn’t tattle on him or get annoyed with him or take everything away from him. LB doesn’t smack his sister on the head, or hit her arms, or knock her down. No one is screaming or smacking or stealing toys or whining.

Right now, AG is sitting on the floor reading a book. LB is peacefully playing with a bucket of toys a few feet away. If only I could somehow capture this peace and make it last…

These moments are not common, although thankfully they have been more frequent in the past few days than they have been for a while! As a mother, they make my heart sing – I see my kids loving each other and enjoying one another, and it thrills me.

It always brings to mind for me Psalm 133, a very short (only 3 verses long!) but sweet psalm about unity:

How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

As the anointing of Aaron provided a rich spiritual blessing for the nation, and the water flowing down Mt. Hermon filled the Jordan river and provided a rich physical blessing, unity is good and pleasant blessing.

Sadly, Christians far too often act like my small children. We get possessive of “our” ministries or “our” posessions. We tattle on one another rather than seeking a solution for another’s good. We whine and cry and throw a fit (sometimes figuratively, sometimes not) when we don’t like the music choice at church or we feel like our “needs” and wants are being overlooked. How this must grieve the heart of the Father.

And how it must please Him when we work together as we should – the body of Christ working for His glory, not our own.

How good and pleasant it is.