Tag: Hebrews

The Sad Spoon :(

On By nataliehmetcalf2 Comments

Lately my sweet little 5-year-old James is having a problem telling the truth. We discovered it when he received a red mark in class from his Class Dojo app. (Technology these days!!) When we asked him about it, he straight up lied. I was shocked. Surely my little lamb was not lying! Not James! Not my little munchkin man!

Oh yes… and since then we have noticed that he likes to stretch the truth or “conveniently” forget things. The problem is that most of the time he flies under the radar. He usually doesn’t give us problems, so we haven’t had to discipline him often. So last week, when he lied about eating the twentieth piece of candy corn, my husband had to lay the hammer down… the dreaded sad spoon. I was shocked Andy even knew where it was. Well you can just imagine the scene. Andy took James into his room and you have never heard such wailing and gnashing of teeth. And then James made the mistake of saying, “That didn’t hurt!” So, Andy had to give it a second try. And I think that one did the trick.

sad spoon

While this was going on, I was in my room alternating between laughing and crying. At first, I was laughing, because hello, it’s the sad spoon!! But as soon as James started to cry for real, my heart started to break. I love that little man so much, and it hurt me to hear him cry. But if we did not discipline him and allowed that behavior to continue, what type of parents would we be? And what type of child would we be raising? The sad spoon spanking was for his own good.

I couldn’t help but think how this parallels to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Look at Hebrews 12:5-6.

My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastens everyone he accepts as his son (NIV).

Yes, God disciplines us. Sometimes when we go through painful things here on earth, they are part of the Lord’s discipline. Why? Because He sees some things in us that need to be corrected.  Just as Andy and I don’t want our son to continue to lie, God does not want his children to continue in sin. Not all of our hard seasons in life result from discipline from the Lord, but Scripture clearly teaches that some do. And even though discipline is painful, isn’t it encouraging that God corrects those He loves? If He didn’t care, He wouldn’t bother, and would let us continue in disobedience which would ultimately destroy our lives.

I wish I had time and space to go through the rest of Hebrews 12 but that would be a super long blog post, so I’ll leave you with verse 11:

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (NIV).

James couldn’t understand why he had to go through the pain of the spanking, but Andy and I knew that it was necessary. And our prayer is that he will remember the pain the next time he is tempted to stretch the truth. As humans, we can’t see the big picture or understand all the ways of the LORD,  but we know that He works all things out for our good. We can take heart that He has our best interests in mind. And that any discipline will ultimately produce righteousness and peace if we will only submit to Him.

Natalie

 

The Blessing of Strep

On By nataliehmetcalfLeave a comment

I just changed my sheets and my toothbrush. That’s mom code for “I’ve been sick!” Last week I discovered I had strep throat (which I have never had in my entire life- so bizarre!) I was under house arrest Thursday and Friday. Since then James has had some weird virus thing, and I just got back from the pediatrician’s office. Surprise: he has strep too!! I have had ALOT of time at home, and it looks like there is more to come. On the bright side, it has forced me to tend to some areas that needed attention. I finally  tweezed my eyebrows, finished decorating for Halloween, and realized the ferns on my front porch were completely brown. Ha!!

I have also been forced to BE STILL which I think can be one of the biggest blessings, you know what I mean? And the positive of having kids this age is that they are more self-sufficient, so I have had lots of time to just sit with the LORD in His Word, without being rushed out the door. And during that time of stillness, He showed me something, as only He could.

Lately, I have been a little obsessed with the book of Hebrews but it always makes me feel intimidated and overwhelmed, because, hello, have you READ Hebrews??? I can handle the Old Testament language but it’s the heavy doctrine and theology that makes me feel completely inadequate. Reading Hebrews reminds me how much I don’t know. But it makes my heart soar, especially Chapter 11, the Hall of HIS Faithfulness. 😊 I know that for me to really understand Chapter 11, eventually I have to tackle the rest of Hebrews, which has just seemed daunting and exhausting. This week, the LORD stopped me in my tracks through strep throat of all things! I was stuck at home, and I  thought it was now or never. I asked the LORD to show me, to help me understand the deep doctrine and theology in His word, starting with Hebrews 1:1-2 (ESV).

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world…

Well you can guess what happened. I was blown away. I wept as I read how the very radiance of the glory of God offered himself up for us and took on the penalty of the sin we deserved.  I almost had a FREAK OUT as I was reminded how everything down here was just a copy, a shadow pointing to the REAL  sacrificial Lamb to come, God’s perfect son. How Jesus entered the REAL Holy of Holies in Heaven (can you even wrap your head around that??) and made payment for our sins. How it is finished, our sins are forgiven, once and for all, and even now Jesus is our High Priest interceding for us! And by the time I reached Hebrews 9:28, “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (ESV),” Moses and I were singing “when we all get to Heaven!!!” At that point my husband said it might be time to call it a night.

What a blessing the LORD gave me in some tough parts of Scripture that take effort to read and time to just SIT and BE STILL. I am by no means saying I understand the book of Hebrews, but the LORD gave me a glimpse. This is my take-away. There are some parts of the Bible that don’t lend themselves as well to “Bible study” in the way many use that term today. We may feel like certain sections and books of the Bible are not as applicable or relevant to us, but that’s not really the point of Scripture, is it? It’s first and foremost about GOD and who He is. And, if I were writing a Bible study on Hebrews 1 and 2, it would be hard to put together a list of application questions, and yet those verses absolutely rocked my world, demanding a response from me. They have been etched in my mind to the point that I had to write this blog post!

Which is what God’s Word does. We are changed by it. Hebrews shows us who Christ is, and we are changed when we behold the “one who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven… ” (Hebrews 8:1, ESV) What a Savior.

Happy Fall Break everyone!

Natalie

When all the Chocolate Disappears

On By nataliehmetcalf1 Comment

Disappointment… You know the feeling. You realize something has not gone the way you had hoped, and your stomach drops. Sometimes it feels like an instant slap in the face. Other times it’s a gradual realization until you feel bamboozled. (Isn’t that a fun word?) And if you are anything like me, the following days can be worse than the actual moments of disappointment. The individuals closest to you might suffer the consequences, which COULD include: constant discussion about said disappointment, an increased atmosphere of irritability, and the sudden disappearance of all chocolate in the home.

crunch bag.jpg

The first definition that came up on my google search was this: “disappointment: the feeling of sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.”

Notice the word “feeling.” Wow! That struck a chord with me, because I get so caught up in my feelings, and they can get me in big trouble. Feelings are not bad in and of themselves, but because of the Fall (Genesis 3), they are tainted by sin and can (and will) lead us astray.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. We cannot trust our feelings to lead us through life.

Keeping in mind that feelings should not be the primary guides for our decisions and actions, is disappointment a positive or negative thing? Negative!! Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where we would never experience that horrible feeling in our stomach when we are let down in a situation, or fight back the tears when we are betrayed by the ones close to us?

The LORD brought to mind this verse from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:3-5, ESV)

Look what Paul says about our hope. As believers, we do have a hope that does not disappoint. Here, Paul is building upon the hope he introduced in Romans 5:2, “the hope of the glory of God.” This is the promise that God will perfect us one day, and we will spend eternity with Him in heaven, if we are saved through Christ Jesus. That hope will NEVER disappoint us.

That’s great Paul, but how can this unbelievable hope on the promises of God help me handle the disappointments while I am here on earth? Can I apply this future hope NOW so that I don’t continue to lash out at everyone around me or stay in bed for the next six months? (That’s one of those jokes with a hint of truth ha!)

Look at Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (ESV) Some translations say faith is the confidence, evidence, even reality of things hoped for. Those words give such a strength and objectivity to this idea of faith. The author goes on to give us a list of heroes in the faith such as Abraham, Moses, and my personal favorite, Rahab 😊 who have gone before us living their lives with their eyes fixed on this future hope. They lived here on earth amidst major trials and HUGE disappointments, but continued living “by faith” because they believed the promises of God and placed their confidence in that future hope. In a way, they were celebrating their future hope while they were here on earth, almost like having a pre-victory party. Can you imagine being that confident in something? What a beautiful picture. We can (and should!) have that same level confidence, because WE serve the same GOD who has given us the same promises through His Son!! He will NOT disappoint us.

So perhaps there IS a correlation between faith and dealing with my disappointment. Maybe if I fix my eyes on the future hope in my Savior Jesus Christ, and think on who He is and what He has done for me, I won’t get as worked up when things down here make my heart sink. Could I train my mind to outsmart my emotions and start running to the One who doesn’t disappoint? Could I refocus on HIM and the glory He has waiting for me, instead of myself and the sadness, hurt feelings, and disappointment I feel?

Well, I definitely have a LOOOONG way to go. To give you an idea of where I am in this department, the family size bag of Nestle Crunch bars I bought from Kroger a couple of days ago is almost gone. And I’m the only one in the family who really eats chocolate. 😊

Natalie