This post is sixth in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
~ ~ ~
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (NKJV)
Each of us has a different idea of what location, type of food, and music makes for the perfect party. But no matter what feast is celebrated, we'd all agree that an essential component is plenty of people.
For most of us, family is first on that list.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
~ Psalm 127:3-4 (NKJV)
In ancient times, people comprised an important element of strength and wealth, whether the warriors and loyal subjects of a king, or the workers and children of any man.
Children not only enable a man to build up his possessions with their labor and stewardship, but also extend their parents' influence and legacy to the children of another generation. Whatever other comfort one may attain in old age, loving children are a treasure above all others. As our children produce more children, riches become exponential.
The presence of children is not only important for a festive celebration. Children are cause for celebration.
When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD.
Psalm 128:2-4 (NKJV)
Whether by choice or by providence, plenty of people have no children. Some are grateful for that. Others ache for what might have been. And a good many parents also ache over less-than-loving and estranged children.
If such people fear the Lord and yet are somehow denied the joy of children, does the psalmist err to count children among their blessings?
Or is the psalm perhaps inclusive of prophecy concerning another family?
… Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD …
Paul evidently had no wife or children, yet spoke of Timothy, Titus, and Onesimus as his sons. Peter likewise spoke of Mark. All three of John's epistles lovingly address his recipients as "my children."
If we name Jesus as Lord and are adopted children of His Father, we are members of an eternal family, our spiritual blood tie more enduring than any natural or adoptive bond. As we mature and mentor others, we raise up a new generation of spiritual sons and daughters. As our children produce more children, riches become exponential.
This eternal family, these sons and daughters, are an important part of our spiritual strength and wealth. They extend our influence and legacy.
They are cause for celebration, and co-celebrants when we feast—both now and in the Father's kingdom.
Father, Your kingdom come. Please make us faithful as we raise up the next generation of saints, by Your power and grace.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Getting to Sleep
This post is fifth in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
~ ~ ~
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
~ Psalm 127:2 (NKJV)
Getting to sleep used to be a simple matter. Most nighttimes past, my head hit the pillow, sleep embraced me within moments, and my next conscious thought did not seep in until daylight.
During the last few years, sleep has become more of a tease. I'll play that game for up to an hour. Whether sleep eludes me when I go to bed, or a moment of wee-hour wakefulness grows into sixty, I refuse to stay in bed once an hour has elapsed.
Occasionally, I'll get up and attack a pressing task before taking another stab at logging some Z's. But I know in my heart that's not the way to go. So most often, I'll get up and read the Bible for an hour or two, then easily give myself to slumber. Without fail.
For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
~ Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NKJV)
Wisdom and wealth—King Solomon possessed greater stores of them than any mortal before or since, gratuitously indulged in both, yet found no pleasure in his intemperance. As I've said before, Solomon carried Wisdom, but Wisdom did not carry Solomon.
So it is with me. And perhaps you. I forget or otherwise fail to consciously choose wisdom.
I have well learned that if I go to bed thinking about the Lord's goodness, getting to sleep comes as easily as breathing. But if thoughts prevail of those pressing tasks, or of the problems that seem to have me boxed in, my mind remains in this world rather than the world of sleep.
… for so He gives His beloved sleep …
Sure, I need to get the proper nutrition for the right hormones to bring on sleep. Though I'm one of those oddballs who can sleep about anywhere, an environment conducive to sleep is helpful when insomnia is a problem. But ultimately, getting to sleep by night is like getting productive by day.
Or, if you prefer Christian vernacular, getting to sleep is like getting fruitful.
When the focus is on me, when I indulge in cares about this world, when I rely on my own wisdom and knowledge to untangle a problem—all of them as the devil prefers—there is no peace.
When the focus is on my Lord, when I indulge in His Word, when I rely on the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit, there is perfect peace from the Prince of Peace.
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
~ Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)
It's all about You, Lord. It's all through You. Please remind us often. I love You. : )
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ ~ ~
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
~ Psalm 127:2 (NKJV)
Getting to sleep used to be a simple matter. Most nighttimes past, my head hit the pillow, sleep embraced me within moments, and my next conscious thought did not seep in until daylight.
During the last few years, sleep has become more of a tease. I'll play that game for up to an hour. Whether sleep eludes me when I go to bed, or a moment of wee-hour wakefulness grows into sixty, I refuse to stay in bed once an hour has elapsed.
Occasionally, I'll get up and attack a pressing task before taking another stab at logging some Z's. But I know in my heart that's not the way to go. So most often, I'll get up and read the Bible for an hour or two, then easily give myself to slumber. Without fail.
For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
~ Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NKJV)
Wisdom and wealth—King Solomon possessed greater stores of them than any mortal before or since, gratuitously indulged in both, yet found no pleasure in his intemperance. As I've said before, Solomon carried Wisdom, but Wisdom did not carry Solomon.
So it is with me. And perhaps you. I forget or otherwise fail to consciously choose wisdom.
I have well learned that if I go to bed thinking about the Lord's goodness, getting to sleep comes as easily as breathing. But if thoughts prevail of those pressing tasks, or of the problems that seem to have me boxed in, my mind remains in this world rather than the world of sleep.
… for so He gives His beloved sleep …
Sure, I need to get the proper nutrition for the right hormones to bring on sleep. Though I'm one of those oddballs who can sleep about anywhere, an environment conducive to sleep is helpful when insomnia is a problem. But ultimately, getting to sleep by night is like getting productive by day.
Or, if you prefer Christian vernacular, getting to sleep is like getting fruitful.
When the focus is on me, when I indulge in cares about this world, when I rely on my own wisdom and knowledge to untangle a problem—all of them as the devil prefers—there is no peace.
When the focus is on my Lord, when I indulge in His Word, when I rely on the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit, there is perfect peace from the Prince of Peace.
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
~ Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)
It's all about You, Lord. It's all through You. Please remind us often. I love You. : )
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Buying Time
This post is fourth in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
~ ~ ~
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows.
~ Psalm 127:2 (NKJV)
For some years now, I've considered myself a pauper of time. Lack of time for loved ones truly grieves me. Whether the checkbook has required me to pinch pennies or allowed me to indulge, I've often spent dollars and sense in my attempts at buying time.
Like many people, buying time includes saying 'no' to some things, employing as much efficiency and simplicity as possible, multi-tasking, hurrying (a sickness, I've learned), and forfeiting sleep. And even when I should have time left over, unexpected circumstances seem to steal it back.
The race is not to the swift …
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and circumstance happen to them all.
~ Ecclesiastes 9:11
"Buying time" with mere sense is as possible as buying dollars with cents. If traveling at a-mile-a-minute-plus and owning labor-saving devices gains hours, shouldn't industrialized nations be more relaxed and third-world countries more pressed for time? Though a person can have more money by either working harder to earn it or spending less to save it, can more time be obtained except by spending less?
*sigh*
There are twenty-four hours in the day to be had. Sleep is not optional.
Period.
But.
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven …
[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)
Not one of us is truly a pauper of time. God gives each of us enough. We simply spend it on the wrong things and have too little left over for the right things.
What's really sad is that I know well the way to have enough time. It's the same method to have enough money.
Give all of it away. To God. He owns it anyway. It's only when we think of time or money as our own that we waste it in the wrong places. Remembering that we are His stewards helps us make the right decisions with both.
I happen to believe in tithing. God's always been given the first tenth, and the other nine have always proven to be enough. Back in the days when I consistently gave God the first two or three hours of the day (at least 2.4 out of 24 was my intent), the remaining ninety percent of my time felt far less scanty.
Along the way of "doing for God," my firstfruits of time spent simply being with God got compromised. Nothing's been as right since.
"Wealth consists not in the abundance of our possessions but in the fewness of our wants."
~ Unknown *
True for a pauper. True for a king.
True of material wealth. True of time.
Lord, I love You so much. Time spent with You has never, ever been wasted. It's saved me untold squandered hours. Please help me—help all of us—to spend more hours with You and be rich in time.
: : :
* This is evidently a paraphrase of words by J. Brotherton:
"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants."
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ ~ ~
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows.
~ Psalm 127:2 (NKJV)
For some years now, I've considered myself a pauper of time. Lack of time for loved ones truly grieves me. Whether the checkbook has required me to pinch pennies or allowed me to indulge, I've often spent dollars and sense in my attempts at buying time.
Like many people, buying time includes saying 'no' to some things, employing as much efficiency and simplicity as possible, multi-tasking, hurrying (a sickness, I've learned), and forfeiting sleep. And even when I should have time left over, unexpected circumstances seem to steal it back.
The race is not to the swift …
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and circumstance happen to them all.
~ Ecclesiastes 9:11
"Buying time" with mere sense is as possible as buying dollars with cents. If traveling at a-mile-a-minute-plus and owning labor-saving devices gains hours, shouldn't industrialized nations be more relaxed and third-world countries more pressed for time? Though a person can have more money by either working harder to earn it or spending less to save it, can more time be obtained except by spending less?
*sigh*
There are twenty-four hours in the day to be had. Sleep is not optional.
Period.
But.
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven …
[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)
Not one of us is truly a pauper of time. God gives each of us enough. We simply spend it on the wrong things and have too little left over for the right things.
What's really sad is that I know well the way to have enough time. It's the same method to have enough money.
Give all of it away. To God. He owns it anyway. It's only when we think of time or money as our own that we waste it in the wrong places. Remembering that we are His stewards helps us make the right decisions with both.
I happen to believe in tithing. God's always been given the first tenth, and the other nine have always proven to be enough. Back in the days when I consistently gave God the first two or three hours of the day (at least 2.4 out of 24 was my intent), the remaining ninety percent of my time felt far less scanty.
Along the way of "doing for God," my firstfruits of time spent simply being with God got compromised. Nothing's been as right since.
"Wealth consists not in the abundance of our possessions but in the fewness of our wants."
~ Unknown *
True for a pauper. True for a king.
True of material wealth. True of time.
Lord, I love You so much. Time spent with You has never, ever been wasted. It's saved me untold squandered hours. Please help me—help all of us—to spend more hours with You and be rich in time.
: : :
* This is evidently a paraphrase of words by J. Brotherton:
"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants."
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Ultimate Security
This post is third in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
~ ~ ~
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
~ Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)
King Solomon knew peace and security as intimately as his father David knew war and homelessness. David surely wished to assure himself that his son's destiny would be different than his own, and likely took a census near the end of his life in order to assess military strength as the measure of security.
Coming from David, that census must have stung God. More than anyone, David understood that his ultimate security lay not in any might at his disposal, but in the name of YHWH (1 Samuel 17:45; Psalm 20:7).
Throughout Israel's history, this truth played out repeatedly: to turn away from the name of YHWH was to turn away from His protection; to call upon the name of YHWH was to call down His protection in every way. Israel's days of sovereignty opened with dramatic deliverance from Pharaoh at the Red Sea. They drew to a close shortly after King Hezekiah's miraculous deliverance from Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, when Hezekiah called upon YHWH and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers mysteriously died overnight.
Of everything else the name of YHWH (Jehovah, Yahweh, "LORD") represents, it especially embodies deliverance from our ever present God.
The same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
~ Romans 10:12-13 (NKJV; also see Psalm 91)
In every story, every book, every physical act of the Old Testament lies a spiritual principle taught in the New Testament. The physical protection given to Moses, David and Solomon, Hezekiah, and countless other OT champions came through their willingness to call upon the Lord. As children of the New Covenant, we wage war in spiritual realms. Empowered by the Holy Spirit—God Himself living within us!—we possess spiritual might greater than the whole of America's military strength or any other king's army in history.
We tend to look for physical security first, and may think we have much to fear. Violent crime, economic upheaval, and hostile nations threaten physical security. New diseases and drug-resistant bacteria, environmental deterioration, and sedentary lifestyles menace health. Gross moral decay and spiritual apathy manifest the peril of living in the last days.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
~ Franklin Roosevelt
If we put spiritual security first, we need not fear the above threats, we need not fear death, and we need not fear even fear itself. In contrast to FDR's words, Jesus says our ultimate security is found in fearing only God:
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
~ Matthew 10:28 (NKJV)
Most High God, Your wings are broad and secure. Please awaken us to Your presence.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ ~ ~
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
~ Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)
King Solomon knew peace and security as intimately as his father David knew war and homelessness. David surely wished to assure himself that his son's destiny would be different than his own, and likely took a census near the end of his life in order to assess military strength as the measure of security.
Coming from David, that census must have stung God. More than anyone, David understood that his ultimate security lay not in any might at his disposal, but in the name of YHWH (1 Samuel 17:45; Psalm 20:7).
Throughout Israel's history, this truth played out repeatedly: to turn away from the name of YHWH was to turn away from His protection; to call upon the name of YHWH was to call down His protection in every way. Israel's days of sovereignty opened with dramatic deliverance from Pharaoh at the Red Sea. They drew to a close shortly after King Hezekiah's miraculous deliverance from Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, when Hezekiah called upon YHWH and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers mysteriously died overnight.
Of everything else the name of YHWH (Jehovah, Yahweh, "LORD") represents, it especially embodies deliverance from our ever present God.
The same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
~ Romans 10:12-13 (NKJV; also see Psalm 91)
In every story, every book, every physical act of the Old Testament lies a spiritual principle taught in the New Testament. The physical protection given to Moses, David and Solomon, Hezekiah, and countless other OT champions came through their willingness to call upon the Lord. As children of the New Covenant, we wage war in spiritual realms. Empowered by the Holy Spirit—God Himself living within us!—we possess spiritual might greater than the whole of America's military strength or any other king's army in history.
We tend to look for physical security first, and may think we have much to fear. Violent crime, economic upheaval, and hostile nations threaten physical security. New diseases and drug-resistant bacteria, environmental deterioration, and sedentary lifestyles menace health. Gross moral decay and spiritual apathy manifest the peril of living in the last days.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
~ Franklin Roosevelt
If we put spiritual security first, we need not fear the above threats, we need not fear death, and we need not fear even fear itself. In contrast to FDR's words, Jesus says our ultimate security is found in fearing only God:
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
~ Matthew 10:28 (NKJV)
Most High God, Your wings are broad and secure. Please awaken us to Your presence.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Built to Endure
This post is second in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
~ ~ ~
Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it …
~ Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)
The Hebrew word used here for "vain" (shâv') is not the same word that Solomon uses 35 times in Ecclesiastes for "vanity" (hăbêl). The latter refers to something merely empty or fleeting. But shâv' is worse than emptiness. Shâv' is desolate, destructive, deceitful.
So [Solomon] was seven years in building [the house of the LORD]. But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house.
~ 1 Kings 6:38-7:1 (NKJV)
The temple actually took more than seven years to build, because David spent his lifetime preparing for its construction—possibly since the day Goliath's sword was taken to the tabernacle. Solomon, on the other hand, having constructed the temple, apparently spent the remainder of his life erecting a king's palace and building his own house.
We spend our lives building many types of houses: a dream residence or healthy body is a physical house; a career, enterprise, business, or ministry is a vocational house; family and home are houses of legacy. Our intent is creation of something built to endure.
A house may be built to endure the passage of millennia, set upon solid foundations, and carefully laid out with sure cornerstones. Some still stand. Others are dust, having succumbed to neglect, war, or act of God, their creators' efforts now shâv'.
You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
~ 1 Peter 2:5 (NKJV)
Jesus saves souls because He is building a kingdom. His eye detects the potential for beauty beneath rough, scarred surfaces, even when rotten to the core. He recovers outcasts destined for dust and restores them by going right to heart and re-building from the inside out. His rescued treasures become polished gemstones, gleaming lights in a house built to endure for eternity.
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock."
~ Jesus, Matthew 7:24 (ESV)
The Sermon on the Mount ends with an invitation to join Jesus in constructing a house built to endure for eternity. When we live by His words—when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we turn the other cheek, when we love our enemies, when we do to others as we'd have done to us—we live like Jesus.
When we live like Jesus, we live like a King, with all the grace, honor, and dignity of the royalty we are.
Our Father in Heaven, please move us to keep Your name holy in our lives and on our tongues. Bring Your Kingdom of Heaven to Earth through us.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ ~ ~
Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it …
~ Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)
The Hebrew word used here for "vain" (shâv') is not the same word that Solomon uses 35 times in Ecclesiastes for "vanity" (hăbêl). The latter refers to something merely empty or fleeting. But shâv' is worse than emptiness. Shâv' is desolate, destructive, deceitful.
So [Solomon] was seven years in building [the house of the LORD]. But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house.
~ 1 Kings 6:38-7:1 (NKJV)
The temple actually took more than seven years to build, because David spent his lifetime preparing for its construction—possibly since the day Goliath's sword was taken to the tabernacle. Solomon, on the other hand, having constructed the temple, apparently spent the remainder of his life erecting a king's palace and building his own house.
We spend our lives building many types of houses: a dream residence or healthy body is a physical house; a career, enterprise, business, or ministry is a vocational house; family and home are houses of legacy. Our intent is creation of something built to endure.
A house may be built to endure the passage of millennia, set upon solid foundations, and carefully laid out with sure cornerstones. Some still stand. Others are dust, having succumbed to neglect, war, or act of God, their creators' efforts now shâv'.
You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
~ 1 Peter 2:5 (NKJV)
Jesus saves souls because He is building a kingdom. His eye detects the potential for beauty beneath rough, scarred surfaces, even when rotten to the core. He recovers outcasts destined for dust and restores them by going right to heart and re-building from the inside out. His rescued treasures become polished gemstones, gleaming lights in a house built to endure for eternity.
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock."
~ Jesus, Matthew 7:24 (ESV)
The Sermon on the Mount ends with an invitation to join Jesus in constructing a house built to endure for eternity. When we live by His words—when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we turn the other cheek, when we love our enemies, when we do to others as we'd have done to us—we live like Jesus.
When we live like Jesus, we live like a King, with all the grace, honor, and dignity of the royalty we are.
Our Father in Heaven, please move us to keep Your name holy in our lives and on our tongues. Bring Your Kingdom of Heaven to Earth through us.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
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