Author: Rebecca Edwards

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I Squish Evil!

Dear Sisters,

Pondering this month’s topic, I am inclined to react the same way I do when I see one of the often-present Hawaiian roaches in the house: Shudder…Dance-in-place “Yuck!” Mad dash for a paper towel—SQUISH! Likewise, when I see or hear of evil around me, I want to eradicate it from my house, from my very presence. (This is all very humble and righteous of me, of course!)

Leave it to the Lord to bring this topic around to face me—the very evil He wishes to eradicate is within me. Did you note that Jesus did not make it His mission to cleanse the Jewish people of evil, or the Roman government (much to the Jews’ chagrin), He did not even cleanse His childhood town, Nazareth, (the place that wanted to stone Him because they thought He was a little too uppity for His own good)? We all know quite well the state of His friends. Heck, one of the closest of His disciples betrayed Him, and the rest left Him.

Nope. His mission was the individual. How often did He say things like, “[You,] go and sin no more…” “I forgive your sins…” “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” He did not fuss and worry about the big, bad evil within the world—He knew He had that conquered—His being God and righteous would take care of Satan. He spent the majority of His time on earth striving to show men and women the evil within their own hearts (even the white-washed ones), and how He could purify them.

Although I would, selfishly, comfortably, like to point outside myself and do the “evil dance,” hoping to condemn and remove the evil over there; I am grateful our Lord is so intimate and engrossed with me that He will not leave me in my state of ignorance, pride, and evil. With Paul, I discovered “the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom. 7:21-25a.

Paul goes on to tell us how Christ set us free from the law of sin, that we are no longer slaves—chained to sin, so we should stop volunteering ourselves to a sin ‘master’, but instead live a new life by the Spirit—as true adopted children of God and heirs to His kingdom. All through Romans 8, Paul talks about this life by the Spirit:
• I am to stop the practices of my human/carnal nature, and this is not like a quick diet from sweets to squeeze into that new swim suit, but the picture is of an actual funeral—I am to put those things to death—I no longer do them/respond to them because they are in the ground, eaten by worms;
• I am to allow the Holy Spirit to lead me (even when I don’t want to follow);
• I can call out to God: ‘Abba—Daddy!’; and
• I am to suffer with Him (I will face the same rejection and persecution by the world that Jesus faced)… but, Hallelujah!—we get to be glorified with Him as well!

So now, we get to joyfully anticipate our homecoming sans ‘roaches’ (WOOHOO!), “having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Rom. 8:23b-25

Running with you,
Rebecca

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Whom Have I?

Dear Sisters,

“‘My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?’” Mark 15:34b.
At the instant of His separation, Jesus cried out in anguish: “Why?”
His cry rang out from the top of that desolate hill, not because He did not know the answer, rather because the shock of being alone was so severe, His soul reacted much like we would when lost and completely alone. Initially the pain of aloneness is too glaring and sharp to enable us to express more complex thoughts and emotions. The bleak condition of our soul’s bareness leaves us nothing to cling to except the basic knowledge that this singleness should not be so—thus the almost childlike wail, “Why?!”

The answer to Jesus’ question (and ours, if we are honestly alone, (not as a direct result of our sin), has resonated throughout all time: “Because I have something better for you.” That begs another question: What could be better than the Trinity? Nothing. Nothing can improve the Godhead—certainly not a fallen creature such as myself. Yet, our loving Savior immersed in glorious relationship abandoned that eternal union for me—for you. Because we could not save ourselves. Because God loved us and wanted us to be with Him. He was willing to endure separation and sin (who knew neither) to redeem His creation—so He could save us from our utter and eternal loneliness. So He could enjoy communion with us forever. Delight in that: forever together!

Today, dear sister, hear Jesus’ cry echo through the ages. He knows loneliness. When you weep bitter tears of solitude, you can know that He intimately identifies with your suffering. Though all others may desert you, your soul can rest in everlasting peace and contentment because of Jesus’ willing embrace of loneliness for your sake. That never-ending union is the ultimate victory.
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
–Psalm 73:25-26

Running with you,
Rebecca

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Good is Best

Dear Sisters,
As I considered this month’s topic, I originally thought the word “good” was a bit insipid, bland. I mean “great” or “awesome” just pops off the page. Something tremendous must be happening when those adjectives are applied. However, looking through the Word, I was surprised to see how often “good” appeared in some of my favorite passages—even referring to creation, our Savior, and the Gospel.

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31a

“How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Isaiah 52:7

“’Well done, good and faithful slave. ‘” Matthew 25:23a

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

“Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I Timothy 6:12

Quickly finding “good” in the dictionary in the back of my Bible, I read: “complete, right, commendable.” This added with the insight from the verses above, instead of a lukewarm description, now “good” conjured a picture of deliberate precision, tranquil unity, and comforting assurance. The term doesn’t need to render energy proving itself—it just is. “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” John 10:11

Today instead of frenetically chasing today’s worries, sit for a while, taste and see God is good (Psalm 34:8), and be glad. “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.” Proverbs 12:25
Running with you,
Rebecca

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One-Flesh

Dear Sisters,
The other day, our eldest asked—we knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time until one of the kids did—“Dad, did you fall in love with Mom the first time you met?” She was almost breathless with the anticipated Disney love story. Ryan replied, “No.”
Stunned silence. (I can laugh, now.) Honestly, at that time of our meeting, neither one of us thought of the other in the starry, dreamy way many movies tend to portray lovers. In fact, there are still moments that we don’t feel that Disney-magic for each other. However, we can both look back to one moment in time when we jointly, before witnesses and more importantly, before God, swore to marry one another, to meet each other’s needs in spite of difficulties or comfort, and to remain with each other until death.

At our wedding, something new and unique was created. Something to be nurtured and fed—a part of both Ryan and myself—something God mixed and intended to be strong and full. In the beginning, God made woman from man. He brought her to Adam who recognized Eve was made from his body and then God said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24. Sexually one, yes—but ‘one flesh’ is much more than that small part of our lives.
Too often individuals seem to enter marriage thinking and acting as if they continue to be separate individuals with separate bank accounts and separate medical history—together for the benefit of the feelings they receive from the other, independent in other parts of their lives they wish to reserve for themselves. Because of this, once the feelings recede or difficulties surface, it seems all too easy to ‘dissolve’ the marriage. Unfortunately, it is easy to divorce (on paper)—but the destruction of a living, breathing marriage is a travesty. I have wept bitter tears hearing of and seeing the end of marriages of friends. My heart is wrung wondering about the children—and knowing both halves of the torn marriage are shattered. Yet, thanks be to God!—even in the midst of divorce, God is our Redeemer and our Hope! I am so grateful that even my worst decisions are not a hindrance to His great plans for me—simply something He uses to teach His child and to ultimately accomplish His plan (Romans 8:28).

Marriage was not created to be a simple ‘social contract’—cancelled when its usefulness runs out—though marriages do benefit society in protecting the family and raising adults who can function in our world, to their own and others’ benefit. The process of becoming ‘one flesh’ was a glimpse of Christ interacting with His Church. He loves the Church even to the point of sacrificing His life for her, and she is to respect Him. Paul calls it a “great mystery” in Ephesians. Certainly Jesus’ thoughts and actions are mysterious—wholly unlike our self-tainted views. I mean—sacrifice? Who in their right minds marches up to the altar and commits to sacrifice for someone else?!

There is a great amount of flowery love-talk, but the actual “doing” of love is often absent. A wedding is like the vision you have when someone says they are going to the hospital to give birth to a baby. You picture a cute, cuddly, clean, sleeping baby. However, after birthing five children, I can tell you, the vision is more realistically a frazzled dad hovering over a sweating, yelling woman who works the hardest she ever has to produce an equally noisy, messy baby.

So, our earthly ‘one flesh’ process is quite a lot less of the mysterious and dreamy one-ness and a heck of a lot more like the messy, hard work one-ness. That hard work is our forever curse here on earth: saying, “No” to my own selfish desires, and seeking instead to serve the other. We create something beautiful together here on earth, though: a marriage together—beauty that Christ likewise intends for His bride.

Running with you,
Rebecca

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Honorable Steadfastness

Dear Sisters,
Resolute. Not vacillating. Loyal. Steadfast.
Words are fascinating to me—especially more distinctive and emotionally-stirring words. Easily, I can get sucked into reading a dictionary or a thesaurus. Ever since I was a little girl, I have desired to unpack the meaning of words, to really understand the depth of an important concept.
When I hear the word, steadfast, I think of honor, love, faithfulness. I see visions of glorious lives of honorable men and women. However, being steadfast is not a good thing if what you are steadfast to is not honorable in itself. My husband and I shake our heads when our children chose to remain steadfast to a (usually not so cleverly crafted) lie. We ourselves are steadfast night owls, often draining our potential for the following day.
My husband remarked how grateful he is that God is steadfast—how we should have been cast off as a human race long, long ago, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. All those years Israel and Judah were unfaithful and disloyal to God, yet He still sent His Son. Then His people cast out their Savior, their God, and hung Him on the cross! How often do I turn steadfastly toward rubbish as well? Yet, He remains resolute toward me in His love.
Be careful who and what you are steadfast to, dear sister! “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect…. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” Rom. 12:2; 9b. Be meticulous in your choices. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” I Cor. 15:58. Oh, there is great comfort in knowing our hard work in the Lord, even the sometimes mundane service, is of worth. Steadfastly rest there!
Running with you,
Rebecca