Be Spongy with Me

In today's buff world, sponginess isn't sought after, but we're a people set apart.

A few weeks ago, while preparing for Bible study, I realized that there ARE ways we want to be spongy, and one of them is when it comes to God's Word. I'm posting today at the Internet Cafe about Spongy Christians and the devotional makes a great object lesson.When I did it at the Bible study (well, tried to. I got tongue tangled) I didn't use water, just had a sponge with me, but it still worked well because we've all used sponges so much. ;-)

Come see what I'm talking about!
Spongy Christians at the Internet Cafe.

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Matthew: An Introduction

I have to admit that when we decided to study The Sermon on the Mount at our ladies Bible study I was a little disappointed. I really, really wanted to dive into 1 Samuel, but we had spent most of last year studying in the Old Testament, so we moved into the New Testament since some of the girls love the New Testament like I love the Old Testament. But as I prepared for tonight's study I changed my mind. I cannot wait to jump into The Sermon on the Mount, and wish we were studying the whole book of Matthew!

So let's look at Matthew, the man, for a moment. What do most of us equate with him personally? Tax collector, something that Matthew himself reminds of us as we read the Gospel. As much as some of don't like tax collectors in our day and age, being a tax collector in the days of Jesus was close to being despicable. But it did have its advantages--namely wealth and social standing. I loved how this put Matthew into perspective for me: “Since tax collectors generally were fairly wealthy and were despised by the local populace, Matthew's calling and response were completely out of the ordinary and required nothing short of a miraculous turnaround in this tax collector's life.” His unique background gave him the training he needed to be able to write the account. Combine that with his Jewish upbringing and training in the Scriptures, and you have a man able to interpret the life of Jesus from the perspective of the Old Testament expectations.

The Gospel of Matthew breaks the 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments acts as a bridge between them.

“Matthew demonstrates repeatedly that Old Testament hopes, prophecies, and promises have now been fulfilled in the person and ministry of Jesus. Matthew begins with the 'fulfillment' of the messianic genealogy in the birth of Jesus and then goes on to demonstrate the fulfillment in Jesus' life and ministry of various Old Testament prophecies and themes and the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. The early church likely placed Matthew first in the New Testament canon precisely because of its value as a bridge between the Testaments.” ~Michael J. Wilkins

In the early years of the church, Matthew was the most widely read Gospel, as it was through much of church history since it verifies Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, who brought salvation to all of us, not just the Jews. Matthew also acts as a “manual on discipleship” because it has an extended collection of Jesus' teaching ministry, especially The Sermon on the Mount.

There are five distinct messages Matthew:

• Matthew 5-7 - Kingdom-life disciples. What it means to live out a radical kingdom life in their everyday world.
• Matthew 10 -  Mission-driven disciples. Jesus' disciples are to go out and live out the message of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
• Matthew 13 - Clandestine-kingdom disciples. What it means for Jesus' disciples to live as kingdom subjects in a world not yet fully manifested with God's power.
• Matthew 18 - Community-based disciple. Discipleship to Jesus that is expressed through a church characterized by humility, purity, accountability, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
• Matthew 24-25 - Expectant-sojourner disciples.  Disciples are to live each day in expectant preparation for His return with power. (The New Application Commentary on Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins.)

When you study these five messages, you get a full picture of the kind of discipleship that was to be taught to the disciples of Jesus—us! These teachings were to be the basis for obedience to Christ and they became the basis of instruction as many early churches used them to teach believers how they were to live.

NOW do you see why I wish we were studying the whole book of Matthew? Wow! But at this point we're just studying The Sermon on the Mount, which is still really cool. It tells us what it is to be kingdom-life disciples. “Jesus expounded the reality of a radical everyday discipleship lived in the presence and power of the kingdom of God within the disciples' everyday world. This kind of discipleship involves an inside-out transformation into the righteousness of the kingdom.”

An inside-out transformation. 

That's real transformation, not just a mask that's put on when it's convenient.

It sounds like a task way beyond me. And it is. But it's not for God! And look how Matthew opens and closes his Gospel account. “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a con, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) Matthew starts with “God with us.” And then check out how Matthew ends in 28:20 “...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

God with us, forever, working that inside-out transformation in us. It doesn't get much better than that.

Why don't you pick one of these messages and read it this week?

*Quotes taken from The New Application Commentary on Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins.

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Knowing Your Character, Knowing Yourself

Lately I've been interviewing the characters for my manuscript "Beyond the Rapids" and it's made me stop and think about more than just those characters. It's made me think about myself. It's also made me think I need to interview myself. Now there's a scary thought.

Here's just a small sampling of the questions I've been answering for Seth and Torie, the major characters in my manuscript...

1. What does your character want more than anything else in the world?

2. What is his/her goal?

3. Whom does he/she dream about, yearn for, hate?

4. What virtues characterize this person?

5. What is your character's greatest fear?

6. What one thing does your character hope no one will ever find out about him/her?

7. In one word, what motivates your character?

8. How would your character describe him/herself? (Self-concept determines destiny.)

9. What makes him/her laugh?

10. What is your character's personality temperament?

11. What is their deepest unfulfilled desire of their heart?

12. What is he/she most proud of accomplishing?

13. What is he/she least proud of having done or being a part of?

14. What are their warts?

15. What are their phobias?

16. If they had only one day to live, how would they spend that day?

17. What kind of obstacles will most challenge them?

18. What will it take for this character to get to where they need to be with God?

19. What is the pivotal issue of faith that will draw them to a closer relationship with God?


I don't know about you, but it would take me more than a few minutes to answer these questions about myself. In fact, some of these have had me pondering for several days now. Not just idly thinking or wondering, but heavy-duty thinking. And I don't know that I've come up with the answers even now!

Knowing our characters as we write fiction is important if we're going to tell their story and show how they get from point A to point B. Especially as we write Christian fiction that carries a message with it. But yanno, knowing ourselves helps us get from point A to point B without going around Robinson's barn 30 million times, or without wandering in a wilderness for 40 years.

Just like knowing the answers to these questions (and at least 100 others like this) will help you plot your characters' stories, knowing the answers about ourselves will help us plot our lives so the message of our lives is crystal clear to those that are watching and reading our lives.


So tell me, are you open for an interview with yourself?

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Because Everyone Needs Friends

Maybe January affected me more than I thought.

Maybe I missed my little lap warmer (but kittens that poop in the house lose their house privileges) and maybe I was just trying to not have to clean the turtle tank as often... Whatever it was, it's been fun. Well, once we got past the poop and dead fish stage. LoL

Our critter number has grown from Turtle, Gracie and the 2 cats and 1 kitten, FlufferNutter (isn't she adorable?) to 4 new residents in the turtle tank.

See, it's Turtle's fault. If we weren't given a turtle 1.5 years ago, none of this would have started and we'd simply have Gracie and the cats...

But everyone needs friends!

The newest friends for turtle? Yoyos! (The skinny silver fish resting on his leaf hammock.) Oh. my. goodness. I love those things! We started out with one (this one) and he delighted us with his antics so I googled his breed: yoyo loach, and learned they like to be with friends. So I had to buy a couple more because everyone needs friends and I want happy yoyos because happy yoyos are characters and full of personality. So far we've seen them cleaning the tank (ahem, that's their official purpose), cleaning turtle's back and head (he didn't like it when they tried cleaning his eyeball. Huh. Imagine that), playing  tag and taking naps on their sides! These critters are crazy. And that's why I love them.

Since FlufferNut has been banned from the house, she thinks her life is over. She loves perching on shoulders (so does her sister who lives with Abby's classmate. What's with that?) and she crawled inside my middle son's hood today. They both loved it! Because they're friends.

(See the background? That's all the rain we're getting instead of ice. SO thankful!)

And that's the tale of my critters and what happens when Patty grows tired of hovering near the window to see if the rain has turned to ice while her kids were going back and forth to the college campus.

So, from a wet, but wonderfully ice-free very-Southern Illinois, Turtle and I wave good night to my friends in blogland.

The last one to bed feed the Yoyos.

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Iced, But Not Out

I'm posting today at The Barn Door about something this little peppermint sprig taught me about persistence. I hope you can join me there!

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Betty Bee and the Long Tongue

It's Friday! So I thought I'd do something I haven't done in ages. I'm participating in Fiction Friday--a meme I started back in early summer of 2008 so we'd have an excuse reason to pull some of our fiction out and post it. =) I handed the reigns over to Karlene quite awhile ago and I'm excited to see it's still going. Today Lynn is hosting it her site, Faith, Fiction, Fun and Fanciful. Be sure to go there for more links to Fiction Friday. And better yet, join us by posting some of your fiction and linking up with us!



~*~*~*~
Betty Bee and the Long Tongue

Betty Bumble Bee settled onto a clover blossom and dropped her head onto her front legs. As she watched the honey bees scurry from flower to flower she became sadder and sadder. Oh, how she wanted to be like them: so slim and trim and so useful. Everyone loved the honey bees because they made honey. They could zip through tight spaces and always had such fun. Betty Bee wanted very much to be a honey bee instead of the bumble bee she was.

Josie Butterfly swooped in for a fast landing. “Hiya, Betty Bee. Why are you just laying here and not gathering pollen?”

“Because I’m sad.” Betty Bee turned her head away so she wouldn’t have to see a honey bee working on a nearby dandelion. “Besides, why should I worry about it when the honey bees are on the job? They can do a much better job of it than I can. I wish I were a honey bee instead of a big, bumbling, bumble bee!”

Josie slowly fanned her wings as she thought. “Betty Bee, don’t you know that honey bees are picky? They need nectar to make honey.”

Betty Bee stroked her antenna. “So?”

“So they won’t go to a flower that only has pollen and no nectar, which means that some flowers would never get pollinated if it weren’t for you bumble bees because bumble bees need both pollen and nectar to feed their babies.”

“They still make honey and look at them, they’re so cute.”

Josie shook her head. “There’s more to life than being cute.”

Betty Bee flicked a leg and sent an aphid flying off the clover blossom.

“Betty Bee, stick out your tongue,” Josie said, her middle legs propped on her abdomen.

“What? Are you crazy?” Betty Bee asked.

“Just stick out your tongue, Betty Bee.” Josie insisted.

Betty Bee rolled her eyes, but stuck it out. It was long!

“God gave you a special tongue so you could reach into flowers that honey bees can’t.” Josie thought that was so neat she did a loop-de-loop right over Betty Bee’s head.

Betty Bee stuck out her tongue again and studied it with her many eyes. “Yeah, I guess that is pretty special.” She said, sounding a little happier.

“It sure is!” Josie said as she settled back onto a nearby flower. “But there’s something else that’s special about you.

“Really?” Betty Bee asked.

“Really.” Josie replied. “When it’s too cold for honey bees, guess who’s out here pollinating flowers?”

Betty Bee hesitated and thought back to the last cold day they’d had. The only other bees she’d seen that day were fellow bumble bees. “Um, bumble bees?” she asked uncertainly.

Josie clapped her hands. “Right! You bumble bees don’t mind the cold but honey bees can’t stand it. If it weren’t for you bumble bees some flowers wouldn’t get pollinated and that would be really sad.”

Betty Bee stood up and bumbled about a little, buzzing in her happiness.

“Oh, and that reminds me of something really, really special about you, Betty Bee!” Josie danced around on her clover top. “You know how so many people like tomatoes?”

Betty Bee stood real still, listening closely. The family that lived nearby loved tomatoes, so this was really important to her. “Yeah?”

“Guess who needs to pollinate tomato blossoms so they grow the tomatoes?” Josie asked, so excited she fluttered above her flower.

As Betty Bee thought hard she buzzed… and buzzed some more. Soon her clover blossom was vibrating. “I don’t know, Josie. Who?”

Josie giggled. “Bumble bees do! God made them so they can buzz enough to get the tomato pollen to drop down to where it can be reached. Isn’t that wonderful?”

That made Betty Bee so excited she flew off her flower and did a double loop around Josie. “God made me special so I could do a special job!” she shouted to all the other bees, who stopped their gathering and cheered for her.

“I’m Betty Bumble Bee and I love being me!” she sang as she zoomed into a tomato blossom and began her happy buzzing. “Just don’t forget the ‘Bumble’ part,” she giggled, “that’s the most important part.”


“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;” Ephessians 4:11-12 (NAS)



~*~*~*~

This is definitely something I needed today.
And God made you special to do the job He has for you to do, too!

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It's a Choice

As you might have guessed from my last post about Cave Dwelling, I've been discouraged lately. I don't know why and I don't know what caused it. But I DID realize I was in my cave and that I needed to get out. Fast.

So I tried. I made sure the Light was on. I spent extra time in God's Word reading, studying and really digging. Morning, noon and night often found me with time in the Bible. But I was still in my cave.

I have to tell you, I was baffled. I was hunting for sin, for poor decisions, anything that I could go back to and take care of. I even knew that this discouragement might be a mind game.

Finally one morning after my Bible reading I was going over my Sunday School lesson and the words were just bouncing off my eyeballs and I knew it was a great lesson because I had already gone over it once. So I closed the book and just sat. I told God where I was: in a world that had turned gray (and I hate gray!). I told Him how confused I was, and that's when I realized something.

During the day I'm discouraged and frustrated with my discouragement. Yet every morning I wake up singing praise to God. In those moments before being fully awake I was worshiping God. How could that be? It made me realize that even though God was seemingly being silent, I was still connecting with Him enough that I woke singing praise. My intentional immersion in God's Word was having an effect, even if I couldn't see it or even really feel it.

I knew God was guiding me, He promised He would, but I couldn't see His direction. I felt as though I was trudging through a bleak, gray world and that my ankles and feet were shrouded in the fog that hid God's directional arrow. How was I to know where God wanted me to step?

And that's when I stumbled on something I want to remember even though it's nothing new.

I know God is guiding me and when I can't see God's direction, I can step in faith. I don't need to see God's directional arrows or even the next step of the path. I don't need know where to turn. I just need to step and trust God. Yes, my world is gray right now. Yes, I hate gray. But I won't notice the gray so much if my eyes are fixed on the Light.

He is the Light at the end of this tunnel I'm in.

For me, right now, discouragement is a choice of where I choose to look. Do I look at the gray I'm in or at the Light at the end of the tunnel? Do I just sit and wait it out or do I focus on the Light and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trust?

What about you?
Are you wrapped in gray too?

Let's focus on Christ, 

the Light
at the end of our tunnel.

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