Category Archives: Betsy’s Thoughts

Spiritfire- Proverbs 22:5 “The Cost of the Path of the Wicked”

“In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares,
     but he who guards his soul stays far from them.”
 

One can imagine the wicked person barreling down such a path, legs scratched through their hole-torn pants, snagged by the thorns and snares that should hold them back but are disregarded because of the foolishness that drives them on.  Folly’s house is their destination and the stench of death is the mesmerizing aroma that they cannot resist.  This terrible place is where their soul is captured and begins to rot in the blinding darkness of worldly desire.

The righteous person is one who values his soul like a treasure and is repelled by such a path.  Even if they naively wander down this path they quickly turn away at the first prick of the thorns.  Wisdom’s house is their destination and the waft of a blessed life is the captivating aroma that invites them in.  This wonderful place is where their soul is free to thrive.

So, where is Jesus?  Because He is the Righteous One, He saved our souls not by avoiding the path of the wicked but by paying its price and redeeming those at its end!  Its thorns were placed on His head as a crown, and its snares lashed out at His body and tore His innocent flesh.  He cleared the path by taking the sins of the world on His own shoulders, carrying the punishment of death to the place of destruction, and crucifying it with His own body.

Jesus gave us a new path.  It broke the old paths of fear and shame by giving us Himself.  “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  (John 14:6).  This path is straight, narrow, and direct to the eternal inheritance that is free to all who confess Him.

-Betsy

Spiritfire Proverbs 21:9 “Avoidance or Breakthrough”

“Better to live on a corner of the roof
     than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”
 
When I read this proverb to my kids, my wife and I tried to explain to them about the need to choose their spouse wisely.  That led to an interesting conversation 10+ years in the making.  What is it like to be married to a quarrelsome spouse?  This proverb says it all.
 
Now, when I asked “Where’s Jesus?” for this one, my wife (who is awesome!) was the first to speak:
 
“In Proverbs, it talks about a wife that is so quarrelsome in their home that her husband is better off living away from her on the roof.  But with Jesus, it’s just the opposite.  People wanted to be with him so desperately that they tore the roof open to lower their crippled friend into the home that Jesus was in (Luke 5:19).  Instead of a wife that the husband wants to avoid, Jesus is the husband that the church bride wants to be with.”
 
The Spirit spoke through her to me again about Wisdom’s theme of ‘avoidance’ that we saw in 20:19.  Again we saw how Jesus fulfilled wisdom’s call and flipped it to be an invitation.  Jesus didn’t avoid.  He draws us in.  Or as my wife concluded:
 
“In another way, just as the husband is escaping from his argumentative wife, more-so Jesus is the husband who “stands at the door and knocks” (Rev. 3:20) and He will come in and eat with us.”

The Holy Spirit Loves Me

The Holy Spirit really loves me.  Of course, you say.  But I mean it.  He REALLY loves me!

This afternoon, I was putting together our new weed whacker.  I was trying to be careful and follow the assembly instructions but I managed to push the main handle sections together backward.  Ugh.  So I tried to pull it apart.  It wouldn’t budge.  I sat down and pulled the handle with my feet.  Nothing.  I called my son to come out and play tug-of-war.  No go.  I tried to wedge a flat-head screwdriver between the sections.  Nope.
I evaluated the situation and realized that it was unusable.  Weed whackers do not work upside-down.  It’s not just unsafe, it doesn’t work.  I couldn’t take it back to Walmart for an exchange without telling a lie. So I started my favorite prayer:

“Holy Spirit, please help me.  I can’t do this without you.  Please help me get this thing apart.”

And I continued wedging and pulling and praying.  Ugh.  Still no success… or so I thought!
I swallowed my pride and decided to show Brian.  I picked up the weed whacker and to my surprise, it was straight!  What?  I checked again.  And again.  Perhaps once again.  Hmm… I know that it was backward and that it didn’t twist or change in my hands.  There was only one explanation.  The Holy Spirit fixed it for me.
Yup, that’s right.  He fixed it for me.  The first thought in my mind was, “the Holy Spirit really loves me!”  It wasn’t a scream or shout or burst of praise.  Just the simple thought that has been a reality in SO many times of my life.  Everything from finding lost items to figuring out tricky computer programs to giving my family a free van.  He really loves me and cares about what concerns me (1 Peter 5:7).
Thank You, Holy Spirit.  I love you, too.
-Betsy

Color It In

I learn so much about the Father’s love for me from my kids!

The other day, my husband drew a picture for my daughter to color in.  She eagerly skipped off to her crayons and filled it with pretty colors.  When her masterpiece was complete, she ran to him yelling, “Daddy, Daddy!  Look what I made!” He gushed praises over her wonderful picture, noting each detail of beautiful color.  He gave her full credit for the picture, never taking personal credit for being the original artist – his joy was in sharing her happiness.

Why am I not more like that with my Heavenly Father?  He gives me opportunities to do wonderful things for Him and for some reason, my usual response is pretty dorky.  “Thank you, Oh Father, for giving me the honor of serving You…” which isn’t a bad response but it isn’t one that a normal kid would say to their loving Dad.  My daughter didn’t timidly bow before my husband to present him with her picture – she ran to him, proudly shoving the paper in his face in expectation of his highest compliments.  I know that God loves me more than my husband loves our daughter, so I need to start acting like it!

In Matthew 18:1-5, Jesus instructs us to become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  When kids are in a home that is filled with love, they are confident of their parent’s feelings for them.  They don’t know any better than to expect full affection and praise from their mom and dad.  They aren’t ashamed to parade their accomplishments in front of their parents because they know that no matter what, their parents will love their attempts.  Their scribbles are always brilliant.  The Kingdom of Heaven is our true home, and we are so greatly loved that Jesus gave His life for us to live there.

I know that God is responsible for everything good that happens in my life.  I know that He sets up opportunities for me to glorify Him and the Holy Spirit is the One Who fills me with the ability to accomplish them.  He did all the work, but He’s my loving Dad Who wants to celebrate with me, gushing love over me, noting each detail of my attempts at coloring in His picture.

Let’s get our crayons out because our Father has something great for us to color in today!

Where’s the Sunshine?

“Where’s the sunshine?” a person asked me as they were walking outside.  “Just behind the clouds,” I replied.

This is another instance of my mouth acting faster than my brain… but once my “thinker” caught up, I thought about how often we ask that question about Jesus.  Some days feel like Jesus just isn’t around.  We get caught in the clouds of whatever is going on and we wonder, “Where’s the Son-shine?”

One of my friends told me that she used to pray that God would make the sun shine in her day until He told her that the sun is always shining… instead she should pray for the clouds to go away.

This totally changed the way I pray.  I no longer ask Him to be with me because He has never left me (Deut. 31:6, Josh. 1:5, Heb.13:5)).  Instead, I thank Him for always being with me and ask Him to open my eyes to His Presence and His blessings for me throughout the day.  I don’t have to ask for something He’s already given me – His will is for constant fellowship with me and He has nothing but good things to give me.  I simply need to recognize Him, receive His gifts, and glorify Him with thanksgiving!

Cloudy days aren’t the same to me anymore, now that I’ve realized where the Son is.  He’s just behind the clouds.  Ask Him to make them go away.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 8:38-39

-Betsy

I am a Copy-Cat

Who do I look like?

I am a copy-cat.  Ever since I was a little girl, I have been copying someone… always someone that I admire and want to be like.  My big sister was one of the first that I wanted to be like – I constantly borrowed her clothes, used her stuff, imitated her hairstyles, played the same sports, chose the same glasses frames, attempted the same hairstyles, listened to the same music, etc.  There were at least two problems: We don’t look alike (she is short with dark hair and green eyes, I am tall with blonde hair and blue eyes) and I annoyed her horribly.  They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery but she didn’t seem to catch the compliment.

My copy-cat tendencies didn’t stop there.  I had a best friend in middle school who influenced me to love the boy-band “New Kids on the Block” (John was my favorite), wear “Great Lash” mascara (still wearing it 25 years later!), flirt with boys (embarrassing attempts), and basically be a typical teenage girl.  I tried to copy the 90’s rock star “Roxette,” by cutting my hair (yikes!), attempted to rap like Bobby Brown (what?!), dance like Janet Jackson (I wish!), dress like Grace Kelly (tragedy!)… phew!  So many people to copy, so little success!

Obviously, I desire to look like someone besides myself.  True, I could delve into the deep psychological reasons of why I’m not content to “be myself,” and attempt to find peace and self-discovery, yadda, yadda, yadda.  This would be a huge, exhausting battle to me that doesn’t need to be fought.  Being a copy-cat is a good thing if I know Who to copy!

From my beginning, I was created to look like God.  Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in His own Image, in the Image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”  That’s me!  That’s you!  The Father used Himself as the model for making us, sent Jesus to be the perfect example for us, and gave the Holy Spirit to empower us to be like Him.

Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

From the beginning of time, God planned to make me like my big Brother, Jesus.  I get to copy Jesus and He likes it.  He shows me the way I should look, act, and be.  When I mess up, He makes it better.  He is proud of my attempts and is never embarrassed to have me follow Him around.  He promised to never leave me or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6).  I don’t have weird self-esteem problems when I’m copying Him.  I was made to copy Him.  I want to look like Jesus.

-Betsy

Smeared Eyeliner

My eyeliner smeared this morning… three times.  It was so bad the first time that my attempts to correct it with a Q-tip only made it worse so I washed my face and reapplied only to have it smear again.  I would have washed and started again but it was time to open at work AND I only had a little powder make-up left and needed to stretch that for another couple of days… ugh.  This kind of stuff makes me irritable and self-conscious and grouchy.  Not my favorite way to start the day.

This was when the Holy Spirit quoted a Scripture to me, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

Wow.  Does He mean trials of any kind?  Even smeared make-up?  I know that Jesus cares about me and promised to never leave me or forsake me, but doesn’t this verse mainly apply to persecution and major life challenges?  Certainly not something so petty and insignificant as eyeliner.

The answer is “yes.”  It’s not so much what the trial is, but what it does to us. It seems easier to be faithful when the trial is big and obvious because we know we need a Savior.  But when the trial is little and annoying, we assume that it is too small to give to Jesus and we try to deal with it on our own.  This is when we get irritated, self-conscious and grouchy.  We take our eyes off Jesus and even little things can rock us.

We are called to be faithful in the little things so we can be trusted with the big things (Luke 16:10).  It produces perseverance which makes us mature and complete – “not lacking in anything.”  Wow.  That’s really cool.  I want to be complete and lack-less (is that a word?)!

This act of faithfulness is giving everything (including our eyeliner smears) to Jesus and trusting in Him to make it right.  And since Jesus always wins, I always win… and winners are never irritable, self-conscious or grouchy.  Winners are solid, confident and joyful – complete.

Thank You, Jesus, for the smeared eyeliner because it brought me closer to You.

-Betsy