Genesis 3.  It’s one of the most pivotal chapters in the Bible.  I’ve heard many people blame Adam and Eve (or simply Eve) for the state of man but, the fact is, Satan wouldn’t have given up if Eve had said no that day.  As the population of earth grew, someone, somewhere would have one day given in to the temptation.  It just so happened to be the first of us.  God took a big risk creating us with free will, didn’t he?

Genesis 3:15 (GWT)–I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other.  I will make your descendants and her descendant hostile toward each other.  He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.

And just like that, in the instant after sin, there is Jesus.  Oh, Satan.  You may bruise Him, but He will crush you.  God didn’t take a minute to count to ten.  He didn’t rant and rave, then come back all calmed down and ready to give grace.  In verse 13, he asks Eve, “What have you done?” and in verse 15, he redeems her.  That fast.  How can we possible look at God and picture Him as a mean, nasty judge waiting for us to mess up so He can smite us?  It’s clear right here:  He is grace and mercy and love.  Look no further.

But if you need more proof?  Six verses later, in 3:21, He’s taking care of the very children He just cursed.  Did He lay down punishment, then storm away?  No.

Genesis 3:21 (GWT)–The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.

Abba God.  Still hands on.  Still active.  Still taking care of His children in spite of the fact that they just ruined everything and set into motion the plan that would ultimately lead to His Son’s suffering.  Do you see it?  Not only did He provide, He dressed them Himself.  It’s almost tender.

That’s my God.  Just.  Powerful.  Almighty.  Demanding respect and obedience.  Yet graceful.  Forgiving. Loving. Tender.

Don’t miss it.  He loves you that much.

-JB

Sometimes, God takes you to a place you’ve been before and you never thought you’d go again.  It’s like this precious gift that He sets in front of you, and as you sit there, you marvel that He gave it to you.  He brings life where there was death.  He brings hello where there was goodbye.  He brings love where you thought love was long gone.  He brings acceptance where you thought there was rejection.

Sometimes He just surprises you, and He says, “Everything you know is wrong.”

Am I being cryptic?  Yes. But not on purpose.  It’s just that God gave me a gift yesterday, and it’s one that blows my mind so wide open that I can’t even put it into words right now.  (Uhm, no.  I’m not pregnant.  And it’s not another book contract.)  It’s one that’s had me on the edge of tears most of the afternoon, one I certainly don’t deserve.

It’s one I might marvel at forever.

-JB

I am loving this new Word Wednesday! Hope you are too. There is something about reading deliberately, reading to listen, that is completely different than simply reading, isn’t there? When you take it slow and you are open to a new Word, things happen. Now, to get those words from my head to my heart! How about you? Are you ready for Genesis 2?

Genesis 2:7 (GWT)–Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the earth and blew the breath of life into his nostrils.  The man became a living being.

The way I am reading the Bible this year ties Genesis 2 to a verse in John.  See if you see the connection.

John 1:3 (GWT)–Everything came into existence through him.  Not one thing that exists was made without him.

It literally made me hold my breath when I tied those two together, back to back.  Yes, I’ve read them before.  Yes, I know it.  But I had never put them side by side before and let the thought gel.  Jesus isn’t out there somewhere.  He’s not even right next to us.  He is, literally, a fundamental part of us.  He makes up our DNA.  His breath is personally in us.

It makes me think of CPR… or of a kiss.  To breathe the breath of life into someone, you have to be face-to-face, no space between.  It is intimate, personal, a close “invasion” of space in a world that likes to keep things at arms’ length.  God is God.  Jesus is God.  He didn’t have to breathe life into us.  He could have simply spoken it and made it so.

But he didn’t.  He chose the intimate and personal, the face-to-face and possessive.  The “you are mine and I’m not afraid to get close to you.”  Jesus isn’t worried about getting close to us.  He wants to be close to us.

Is it any wonder the world chases after all manner of things to fill the God-space?  He is our core building block, and if we deny Him, we lose our breath.  The world is gasping for air.

Now, what are we going to do about it?

-JB

Don’t you love it when you’ve heard a song a million times and then, on pass one million and one–BOOM!  God tunes your ears in?  (And doesn’t BOOM! work perfectly for TobyMac?)  It’s no secret that my daughter got her TobyMac fandelirium from her mama, so we all know I’ve heard “Momentum” more than once.  Shucks, I can still remember the first time I heard it.

So, what did God hit me with this time?  What if we all lived our lives like the lyrics of “Momentum”?  Out loud.  Unapologetic.  “Ardently enthused about God.”  Totally sold out and 100% on fire.  What if only a handful of us lived that way?  Do we even realize what God could do with people like that?

I was actually convicted, driving down the road and jamming to that beat.  I’m not as sold out as I should be.  I’m for sure not as out loud as I want to be.  And what’s holding me back?  Absolutely nothing.  Seriously.  I gave it some real thought, and there is no good reason.  After all, the last thing I want to hear from Jesus at the end is, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16).  That’s the scariest thing I can think of.  It literally makes my muscles tighten to imagine it.

I’ve got a new prayer.  I want to be on fire for God.  I want to roll with His momentum.  I want to be everything He called me to be.

How ’bout you?

By way of update on my first novel…

The revisions on Freefall have been accepted!  I received an email last week saying I will get my line edits soon.  More tweaks, but I know working with Emily is going to make this novel even better than I dreamed it would be.  This is getting exciting!

According to the system, I’ve been assigned a cover artist.  Cool!  Someone is looking at my vision and drawing a cover.  Wait a sec… That just hit me.  A cover.  For my story.  An image representing my words.  With my name on it.  Wow.  Wowwowwow!  Trust me, anybody reading this will be the first to see it when I receive it.  I am not sure when that will be, but you’ll surely hear me shouting when it comes about!

As for the second book, whose working title is Broken Ranks, I’m working on the proposal and tweaking the ending.  Every time I think I’m done and ready to sub it, it pulls me back in for one more change.  It’s probably the most important book I’ve ever written, and some part of me is a little nervous about getting it exactly right.  It started as just another book, but circumstances made it real and a friend has allowed me to dedicate it to her son.  Once I decided to do that, everything changed.  There is so much more to this one than “just” a story.  If you are so inclined, please pray I get this one right!

And this is where we are right now.  I have a sort-of idea for another suspense, but I can’t even begin to think about it until Broken Ranks is ready to roll.

Oh, and in the middle of all of this we’re moving.  Again.  And remodeling.  As in painting an entire home interior.  Uhm…  Okay.  God will make the time for me.  He has in the past, I know He will now.

In the meantime, anybody really good at wielding a paintbrush?

-JB

Well, here we are at Wednesday with a fresh new challenge for a fresh new year.  In case you missed last week’s post, we are reading Genesis one chapter a week this year, really chewing on what God has to say.  (Every time I say that, it makes me want to quote Thoreau:  “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”) What gripped you in Genesis 1 in a whole new way?  Drop into the comments and share!

(Side note… This year I’m reading the Bible in a year and using the God’s Word Translation.  I try to read a different translation each time.  The bulk of my quotes will come from GWT during this challenge.)

Genesis 1:27 (GWT)–So God created humans in his image.  In the image of God he created them.  He created them male and female.

The idea of “beauty” has been on my mind a lot lately.  (I even posted about it last week.)  I’ve read this verse scores of times.  It’s something I know pretty well in my head.  This time, it collided with the beauty thing and really stopped me.  (There’s God throwing that holy pillow at my head again…)

There is nothing in all of the universe and beyond that is more beautiful than God.  Nothing.  He possesses a beauty and a sheer awesomeness that, when coupled with His holiness, will take our breath clear away when we see him face to face.  (Oh, I can’t wait for that day!)

And we are made in His image.  Every single one of us. I don’t know about you, but I have (quite a few of) those moments when I look in the mirror and say, “Ugh.”  Too much this, not enough that…  When I read Genesis 1:27, God whispered in my ear what a sin that is.  In essence, if I call myself ugly, then I call HIM ugly.  I call Him a liar.  I tell Him He somehow made a mistake with me.  In essence, I tell Him the world knows beauty better than He does.

When it’s worded that way, it’s kind of scary, isn’t it?  I would never disrespect God that way, and yet I do it every day when I take a critical look at myself in the mirror.  (Or when I take a critical look at someone else, but that’s a post for another day.)

This is what I want the young women in my life to see.  It’s especially what I want my daughter to see.  God’s lighting this fire in my heart for them.  He’s lighting a fire in my heart for me.  God’s image is beautiful, no matter what form it takes.

-JB

Since today is a holiday, I thought it might be fun to do something a little less serious and share some of my favorite things right now.

For starters, check this girl out.  We are not reality show watchers ’round here, so the fact we “found” her is a miracle in itself. Last spring, we were flipping channels and were completely stopped by Xenia’s voice. The girl is, I believe, seventeen years old. Seventeen. My jaw never dropped over a voice before, but wow. When she sang the Script’s “Breakeven” and changed the words to “I pray to a God that I DO believe in,” Paul actually said, “That’s our girl!” If you haven’t checked her music out, you need to.

Also sort of hooked on this digital version of the Bible right now. It’s on my iPad, and it’s how I’m reading the Bible in a year this year. I’ve never read a digital Bible before and I have to say, it really makes it fresh. It’s like reading it for the first time. This is what inspired our new Genesis Word Wednesday.

Totally re-reading this book right now. If only I could pull off description like Siri Mitchell…

Also just finished this book. I didn’t get to review it like I had planned, but still in love with Kaye’s ability to make me think I know what she’s up to and then surprise me. And it’s the little things, people, the little things that make a story sing. Love all of the little things she drops in.

Saw this on Facebook and couldn’t stop laughing:

And, finally, if you haven’t watched Kid History 6 on Youtube, you are totally missing out on one of the most hilarious videos ever. If you’re me. And Paul. And you have young children or even know young children. (The “guess” kid lives in our house and is a girl.) We have watched this repeatedly and still laugh every time.

-JB

God amazes me.  And shouldn’t that be the way it is?  Last week, I was browsing around the internet in a fog when I saw this:

The instant I read the caption on Adriana Franco’s incredible photo, my God-meter totally pegged.  Only He could make something so beautiful and amazing. Only He could pour so much symbolism into a river in the desert.  To me, that is one giant love letter in the sand.

I mean, to begin with, It’s a river in the desert.  There’s a sermon right there, isn’t there?

Then it’s water.  Water is life.  Christ is living water.  Revelation 22 says that from the throne of God flows a river of living water.  And what grows on each side of the river?  The Tree of Life.  What were we cut off from when God banned man from the Garden?  The Tree of Life.

Oh, does it grip your spirit like it does mine?  God tracing a tree in the desert using the basic building block of life itself?  You know He smiled when He did that.  You know He took the greatest amount of pleasure in symbolism like that.  It had to make his loving, creative heart beat a little faster.  It’s enough to make a non-crier like me want to cry.  He is so beautiful.

-JB

It took some time. It took some prayer. It took some searching. But today, we have a new Word Wednesday challenge. This one will be easier… and harder. For me, it has already been more spiritually challenging. In just a few days, it has made God’s Word way more “alive” to me. Are you ready?

Genesis. One chapter. Per week. Fifty chapters. Fifty weeks to carry us through 2011.

Why? Because I want to focus on God more slowly and deliberately this year. One chapter a week gives time to chew on it, to think about it and pray on it. And why Genesis? Beginnings. If anyone has been through a boatload of beginnings in the past few years, it’s me. And right now, with the world in a really crazy place, I think it’s a good time to go back to the beginning, don’t you?

We’ll start with Genesis 1 next Wednesday.  Are you ready?

-JB

I am not a crier.  Sometimes I wish I were a little more emotional, but it’s not my personality.  Either that or it’s some bizarre learned behavior.  Either way, it takes a lot to tear me up, but there are a few things that always get to me: footage of Challenger’s final launch, “Amazing Grace,” videos of little children welcoming their soldier parents home…  And this song:

I’ve blogged about it before, but in a different vein.  There’s a different, way more personal aspect on my heart tonight.  I’m being deliberately vague here, but there was a point in my formative years when someone repeatedly used the word “ugly” toward me.  Around that time, a perfect storm of negative reinforcement from several different directions kicked in.  Now that I’m older and have the benefit of hindsight, I know the timing wasn’t coincidental.  Satan, after all, loves to steal and kill and destroy, and he pulled out all the stops with me over the course of that season in my life.  After that, I was never a fan of the word “beautiful,” because I wasn’t.  It didn’t matter how many people told me different, I never could believe them.  Even today, as a grown woman who knows better, those un-beautiful moments creep up. Do I think I’m special in that thought?  Nope.  It’s a deeply held belief of mine that “unbeautiful” is one of Satan’s favorite lies to women (and maybe to some men as well).

Then comes that moment when this song comes on and God pours “love song” all over me.  He does that sometimes.  He is the lover of my soul, and sometimes, he lavishes that love all over me in ways that blow my mind.  Want to know what He said to me tonight?  There was never, ever a moment in my life when I was not beautiful to Him.  When He looked at me at my lowest points and at the points when thought I was the ugliest, He called me beautiful.  If I had been still and listened to Him, He would have told me so.  He’s not just making my life beautiful, He’s called me so all along.  Beautiful because I am made in His image. Beautiful because He loves me.  Beautiful because I am His.

And yet, my heart breaks.  I love teaching middle schoolers partially because I remember being a middle schooler.  It seems like that doubt of who we are and of our loveliness hits a peak somewhere around eighth grade.  My girls, the ones who walk into my classroom every day, are positively gorgeous, and yet I had one cry in my arms one day, sobbing, “I don’t feel beautiful.”  Oh, that I could open their hearts and pour in what it took me decades to learn, that if they listen, they will hear Him tell them just how beautiful they are.

How do I know they are beautiful?  Their hearts are amazing.  I shared my testimony with them a while back.  We talked about beauty, about how nasty that “ugly” lie can be, about how they are beautiful.  Two days later, I walked into a classroom plastered with signs:   “We love you.”  “You’re amazing.”  “You’re beautiful.” Actually?  They are beautiful.  If only they could see that.

If I could leave one thing with my girls (and my guys probably need to hear it too), it would be that magazines, TV shows, movies, other people’s visions of what is pretty don’t mean a thing.  Honestly, there is no such thing as a standard for beauty.  If you are truly you, the way God made you to be, you are beautiful.

-JB