I read once that western cowboy stories are America’s knight-in-shining-armor stories. That author obviously wasn’t talking about the recent ones. But about Matt Dillion and ones like him.

Marshal Matthew Dillion was someone you could look up to – literally and figuratively. James Arness was 6’7”. He stood head and shoulders over everyone else in Dodge. But more than that, he was a hero. He stood for honor, justice, fairness, and right. He was a gentle man full of quiet strength. I am working my way through Gunsmoke episodes on Netflix and it always amazes me the way he walks right into danger – because it had to be done. Wrong had to be faced and stopped. And whoever was being hurt had to be protected.

I look at the “heroes” now and I don’t see any. They are just as apt to murder as the bad guys are – sometimes you really can’t tell them from the bad guys. Hollywood talks about flawed heroes as being more realistic. Maybe that’s so, but then who do you look up to? Who do those “heroes” inspire to be better people? Who learns about honor? Or justice? Or what makes a man?

So many of our kids are latch-key kids who raise each other. I wonder how they would be different if they had heroes like Marshal Dillion to learn from, to look up to, to want to be like.

I’ll miss James Arness. While he was here, it was like Matt Dillion was still here, too.

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I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be the first. I walk through the produce section and some of that stuff looks really strange. I wonder who it was who had the courage to eat it that first time.

Eve was first. Everything she did was a first.

She began at peace. At peace with everything around her. Creation. Her husband. And God. Imagine what that was like. She had everything she needed. Even the animals were her friends.

Then it all changed. She ate the fruit from the one tree God had set off-limits. She listened to the serpent’s lies—that it would make her wise.

Instead of wisdom, she got embarrassment, blame, hurt, grief and guilt. She would give anything to get a do over. To just go back in time and say “No!”

But faith was also one of her firsts. God had talked to Adam in the garden each night. It doesn’t say that she was with them. But she heard the curses—especially the one to the serpent:

And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Imagine that first pregnancy. Imagine watching her body change. Feeling the child move. And only Adam to help when the pain started. I wonder how they knew what to do during that first birth. There were no mid-wives or doctors to tell them what to expect or what to do.

But she was focused on the promise of a Savior—someone to crush the serpent’s head. When Cain was born she said:

“With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”

Cain was not the promised one. He went on to kill Abel, the son with faith. When Seth was born she chose a name that meant “restitution” because:

“God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

Eve had a strong and simple faith in a Savior to come. I’m looking forward to meeting her one day!

Filed under: Women of the Bible by micki
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She has always amazed me. I know it was a different time. I know that living was different then – that women roles were different. But she still amazes me.

Her husband gets a call from God and leaves civilization to camp out in the wild. For a weekend that might be ok – but they lived that way always. He was rich, so I guess they had whatever “amenities” were available in a tent. But still …

But the thing that amazes me most about her came when they traveled to Egypt then again in Gerar. Both times Abraham asked her to say she was his sister (so “that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake”). Twice!

She was his half-sister, so he wasn’t telling her to lie, exactly. But he was leaving her totally alone. To the point where she had to become other men’s wives.

Imagine just how alone she must have felt. God was her only hope. She had to trust that he would save her. There was no one else. No husbandly knight was going to come over the hill – armor glinting in the sun.

And her trust was not misplaced. Each time, God intervened. She was saved.

What I learn from her:

Husbands can’t meet all our needs. It’s not fair to expect them to. They were never intended to. Husbands and wives are designed to work as a team. Building a life – building a family. Reflecting Christ to each other.

But God is the only source of help. Of strength. He is everything we need. When we try to make our husbands take God’s place everything falls apart. They have to fail and we have to be disappointed – it will never work.

Look to God – his armor always glints!

Filed under: Women of the Bible by micki
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Glenn likes ice. I can be shivering, holding my cup of hot tea, and he will have a glass full of ice cubes surrounded by a little soda.

One time I went to get a tissue from a box and they were wet. I looked around to see if we had a leak in the roof. Turns out Glenn brought more ice cubes upstairs and laid them in the tissue box while he did something else. He assumed that it would dry before anyone needed a tissue!

And every now and then pieces of ice cubes will break off and fall on the kitchen floor. If it’s small he figures it will evaporate.

I usually find it when I walk into the kitchen and step in a puddle of ice water.

Marriage is like ice puddles. They’re surprising. They require patience. And a sense of humor.

And it helps to marry your best friend!

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There’s been a lot of news reports about kids and bullying. People talk about how to fix the problem or what laws to pass. And those poor kids who have committed suicide.  I can only imagine how alone they must have felt – to think that there was no other way to stop it.

When I was growing up my brother had to deal with bullies. One day they would act like his friends and the next day they’d beat him up. But it was localized. It didn’t go out to all the world and color impressions of him everywhere.

Now someone dearer to me has dealt with it. For two years he has had to stand up for what’s right in the midst of threatening emails, insults, slander, and charges of heresy. And things have changed with the internet – the lies spread all over the world and there is no one to call them what they are and shut them down.

My natural instinct is to yell and scream and throw things. To start a website to answer all the ugliness – to spread the truth as far as the lies have gone.

But what would Jesus do?  How did He react to slander and lies?

He said fear not…  But how?

I think I have to choose to believe. Not a one-time thing. Every day – many times a day – choose to believe that …

God is good
He loves us
He will not leave us alone
He will give us strength or He will give us way out
He will use this to bring us closer to Him and make us more like Jesus (Rom. 8:28)

It may take time. And trust. And lots of prayer. But, while we wait for His last child to come to Him, He has promised that no hurt is ever wasted.

Filed under: Faith Workings by micki
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We went to a park the other day. It was a beautiful day, but really windy.

As we were sitting in the car, a truck pulled up next to us. We started watching as the man pulled out piece after piece of something. Then he started putting the pieces together. It took a lot of time and energy just to get the pieces assembled.

Then came the wet suit and some kind of harness. As he put the final pieces together we figured out that he was going wind surfing.

He picked up the whole – managing to balance the board and sail in all that wind – and got it to the water. The balancing and getting on weren’t the most graceful, but he managed it.

Then it was beautiful.

I know it took a lot of energy and strength, but he made it look effortless. He went with the wind. Then he came back against it. And then he went across the wind and back. He was able to use the wind to travel all around the river.

It made me think of what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8)

What if we learned to work with the Holy Spirit the way the wind surfer worked with his wind. Looking effortless doesn’t mean it is. Among other things, it took constant effort and awareness. It took learning how to work with it – not against it. And it took respect for the power.

I wonder … what could that life be like?

Filed under: Faith Workings by micki
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I’m almost always in the mood for a western. Not the new icky Lonesome Dove kind. I like the old white hat/John Wayne kind. Where good guys stand up for right and win. Where there is a right. Where there’s a satisfying ending. The Silverado-Open Range-Gunsmoke kind of westerns. Someone once called them America’s knights-in-shining-armor stories.

I read recently that Wyoming’s governor has now made 10 principles derived from “”the Code of the West”  a symbolic part of state law.*

Folks in Wyoming are officially urged to:

… live courageously, take pride in their work, finish what they start, do what’s necessary, be tough but fair, keep promises, ride for the brand, talk less and say more, remember that some things aren’t for sale, and know where to draw the line.

Sounds like good ethics for Christians to follow too. How ’bout it – wanna join me ‘n ride for our brand?

*reported by Associated Press

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… asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Col. 1:9-10)

Paul’s prayer for the Colossians gives us another glimpse of a life that pleases God.

That word filled literally means to cram full. Adds something to the picture doesn’t it! He’s not looking for a nice polite kind of full. Paul wants them so full that it’s been squished down and packed to the brim. Imagine knowing and understanding God’s will that well.

And there is a reason for it. It’s not just to say “got that” and check it off a list.

We’re supposed to walk, that is live. That knowledge means we’ll know how to live in a manner worthy of him. To live in a way that adds to his reputation and makes him proud.

Fully (that is all and every way) pleasing him.

And bearing fruit. Only a living plant bears fruit. First, we show we’re alive by the things we do. And second, by increasing (growing) in the knowledge of God.

This time, in verse 10, Paul uses a different word for knowledge. This one carries the idea of recognition or discernment.

I wonder if it is like exercise. The more you use the knowledge you have, the more you walk worthy, and the more you are able to recognize what will please him. And walk worthier.

What a prayer! And, of course, you realize that prayer is for us, too. We can pray it – and we can live it!

Filed under: Faith Workings by micki
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Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
(Psalms 37:3–6 ESV)

Here’s one description of a life that pleases God. The word trust carries the idea of being confident, bold. We are to be confident in the Lord – bold in him – and do good. It’s not just generic boldness. It’s the boldness to do good. To do what Jesus would do.

But then he goes on to say dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Dwell has the idea of permanency to it. It’s not a hotel for a night. It’s living there.

The word that surprised me was befriend. Befriend faithfulness. When I looked it up, I found that the Hebrew can also be translated as pasture it, tend a flock, or pastor.  What a picture! Faithfulness doesn’t just happen. We have to nurture it.  Feed it. Give it what it needs to be healthy. Faithfulness is active.

And if we do those things – trust – do good – dwell – befriend faithfulness – delight in the Lord then he will give us the desires of our heart.

But what are they?

The first things that might come to mind are things like healthy children or a nice house. But look deeper. Verse 6 tells us what those desires really are. Righteousness.

Imagine it!

Revelation says “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” But this goes even further.

If we live this way. God will act.

Commit you way to the Lord. Trust in him. And God will act. Not only will we not have to mourn our sins anymore – we’ll be spotless. Wholly righteous. Shining like the sun.

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There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting.  (Phil. 1:29 MSG)

The Message usually makes me think. This sure is something to think about …

Filed under: Faith Workings by micki
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