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It’s Saturday morning! I know you already know what day of the week it is, at least most of you do, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s the made up image of Saturday morning, that a lot of us who grew up in America adopted as the ideal for Saturday morning that I’m referring to.
You know what I mean. Saturday is the day you get to sleep in, watch cartoons, and eat pancakes that someone else makes. It’s sort of an accepted, institutionalized form of denial. It works really well but is rarely pulled off in the grown-up world. So that’s why I’m excited when I say it’s Saturday. I actually pulled it off!
I’m lying in bed next to the syrup stained plate as I write! My husband actually made pancakes and coffee! Yum!! If only the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour were on…life would be perfect.
I’m savoring the moments of denial because any minute my kids will wake up and I will be reminded that I have no clue how to be a grown up, I’ll have to get dressed, fling myself into a wheelchair, try and find all the places that I stacked unpaid bills, get the laundry started and finish editing my book before Tuesday’s deadline.
By then my poor husband will be in real need of denial time. Maybe he should go watch Speed Racer. That was his favorite Staurday morning cartoon.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (Romans 11:5)
13And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
I was driving with my six-year-old in the car yesterday. He talks non-stop and at times it’s all I can do to stay focused. Just as I was enjoying a rare moment of silence he , “God has a collection.”
He had my attention now. “Really,” I asked knowing He had more to say.
“Yeah,” He continued, “He has a collection of people on the earth who worship Him.” He paused and added, “We are that people.”
I waited quietly. I knew He was speaking from the Spirit. I knew he was speaking about the remnant that has always remained on the earth worshipping God. Then he said, ”That’s why God doesn’t like killing. It takes away from His collection and He gets angry.”
In both of the scriptures above, remnant is referring to the believers left after prophets were killed. Somehow before, that fact had escaped me. I wondered why God was speaking to me about this now, especially through a little child.
I opened my e-mail this morning and there was a letter from Voice of the Martyrs. I read about our persecuted brothers and sisters, and thought about the many who give their lives for Jesus all over the world. Josiah’s words reverberated in my spirit. “We are that people.” We are the only beings on this planet called to worship Jesus and and share His love with a hopeless generation. We are the only ones who can bring Him glory on the earth. The only way to be a part of the remnant is to lay down our lives- even unto death.
There is no other way and no other people. We are God’s collection. We are that people.
Right now I am in the thick of finishing the final edits for my first book Walk It Out. When I have a project like this I tend to be hyper focused. Already today, I’ve been on my computer for over three hours and it’s only 8 a.m.!
This is the hardest part for me. First of all, details aren’t my forte. On top of that I’ve written and read this book so many times that sometimes I can’ t see the trees for the forrest, if I can use the inverse of an old saying. And to make it just a little more interesting there are still times when I read it, that I have to just stop and cry.
Sometimes I wonder when I’ll stop crying over these things, and then I think again. There is a part of me that doesn’t ever want to stop crying. The healing of my heart has by and large been accomplished. I’m not crying so much out of pain as I am out of tenderness. It’s something that happens when the Lord crushes us. The wounds heal, but the heart is never the same.
The more we allow God to break us, the more room in our hearts He has to touch us with His own feelings. We start to experience the very emotions of Jesus. We feel the love and compassion that He has for others. We grieve over the sin and injustice that break His heart. Not only that, we are filled with the pure joy of living that only comes from the Giver of Life.
The process is never what we expect or want, but the results are so worth the pain. So I continue to live and write and cry and laugh as I embrace the cross that creates the way for all He wants me to be. Whatever cross you’ve been given, and however difficult it is, embrace it fully and get everything out of it that the Lord will give you. It is a gift. The promises of God can never be fully realized until the cross is fully embraced.
