Thursday, August 30, 2012

Sorrrrrry...

So, here is the situation.  I am having a crazy time trying to write the things I want to communicate about Chaos in the Family and the consequences of sin.   So, be patient with me as I continue to work it out so it makes sense to you.  When you get the next blog, hopefully you will think, ‘What was so hard about communicating that information?”  If you are thinking that, I will know I have done my part in taking time to communicate well. 

So, today just let me share with you that we have 47 missionary women signed up for the Prague retreat.  Only three slots remain open.  Please pray that God will strategically fill those last three openings. The team is getting so excited!  Lots of preparation is going on. 

As I was reading more information on Prague, I ran across the following story in a web article.  Enjoy….
 
Little Quarter is a special part of Prague - it surrounds the Prague Castle and is rich in baroque and renaissance architecture.  One of the streets there is the narrowest street in Prague.

It is so narrow there must be pedestrian traffic lights so people won’t collide – maybe two dogs could be side by side, but they would have to be very small dogs. If you are square-shouldered or well….fat, you shouldn’t enter the street at all – you can get struck!

It is steep, full of stairs, doesn’t have a name, but has two traffic lights. It goes from U Luzickeho Seminare Street to the Certovka Restaurant, offering spectacular views of Charles Bridge.

Most of the tourists see the street as an attraction, so they push the walk button, take a few pictures and when they go, they don’t take the light seriously, so in the end they push by somebody so close only lovers usually do ‘that’.

“One time, one really corpulent German tourist got stuck” remembers the owner of Certovka Restaurant. “She couldn’t go up or down. The personnel tried to push her back to the street, but in vain. In the end we had to soap her, so she would slide more easily. She just had to go somewhere else for her lunch.” He smiles.

Who knew we could possibly need to pack soap for our trip! Ha,ha,ha   

His,
Vickie

Monday, August 20, 2012

"Stopping the Chaos in the Family" and 36 Missionaries Already Signed Up for Prague!

Well, well, I see how it is with some of you! Ha, ha, ha. I had a few contacts that really liked the blog last week until the correction came out relieving Adam of being the soul villain of the fall in the garden. Girls, girls!

Speaking of the blog, it obviously had a mind of its own Monday morning because it ran a repeat blog from our "10 Commandments" series. Hmmmmm. I like what one of my dear friends had to say about that blog. "There are no accidents" and she needed to hear that blog again. Maybe a few of the rest of us did, too.

When we ended our blog last week, we can safely say sin entered the world. And where there is sin there is chaos, lack of order, confusion, feelings of being overwhelmed, not knowing what to do, etc. Why? It’s called consequences. That, too, was demonstrated in the Garden:

Genesis 3:7-13:

7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." 11. He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

I want to stop here and compare the last verse of Genesis chapter two (2:25) with our verse today from Genesis 3:7.

Genesis 2:25 "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."

Genesis 3:7 "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."

Are you catching this? When sin had not entered the world, Adam and Eve were running around the Garden naked and perfectly content and they were not ashamed.

But the minute sin entered the world, contentment was gone because of the consequences of sin. Genesis 3:7 ‘Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.’

Guilt leads to shame and... Well, let's just see what all it leads to

Genesis 3:8
8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
  • It leads to hiding

Genesis 3:9-10
9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
  • It leads to fear

Genesis 3:11-12
11. He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
  • It leads to blame

So summarizing today’s point: When sin takes place, it sets into motion the emotional consequences of guilt, shame, hiding, fear, and blame. And, those five consequences can produce a chain effect of chaos in the world around us, specifically in our families. We will begin to look into each consequence next week and how it works to produce chaos.


36 Missionaries Already Signed Up for Prague!

The word is getting out about the retreat Pure Joy is taking to Prague in October. The missionary women are starting to register at a more rapid speed with only 14 places to be filled. Please continue to pray God’s direction on those last 14 women. Also, I am going to ask you to start praying for the healing of one of the missionary women who was in the early sign up bunch. Her name is Kim, and she and some of her family were in a car accident several weeks back. We have been praying for her diligently. She has several broken ribs and they had to remove her spleen just for starters. So please pray, because she had to go back into the hospital last night.

I am going to ask some of the women who have already registered to write a few snippets concerning living in Prague, Czech Republic, so you can look forward to that!

Keep praying! We only have 25 more missionary women to sponsor, so listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and give as He directs!!

Love you all so much!

His,
Vickie

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

"Stopping the Chaos in the Family Continued" and Prague Update...

Last week we looked at Genesis 3:2-3.

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

And I left you with the following question: What the heck was Adam doing during the interaction between the serpent and Eve? Because I suspect some of you feel the same way about your husbands, you are asking, “Where is he?”

Pull up a chair and a good cup of coffee and get ready to do a couple of “hmm's”.

Let's look at where God's word tells us Adam is in Genesis 3:6.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

What???!!!! He was standing right there??? God’s word says, he was with her. Wow!!!

I can see it now from so many perspectives, any of them a possibility and none of them capable of being proved as the correct answer. The one thing we do know is we have no evidence as to who told Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was it God? Was it Adam? Was it both? What we can be sure of is that she knew enough to quote the command and add just a little bit of drama! "Neither can we touch it.”

All that being said, here are a couple of different thoughts that run through my brain regarding just how Adam and Eve opened the door to sin. Adam was supposed to have watch care of Eve. He knew the command first hand from God Himself. So, why didn’t he just step in and guard her from the lies of the enemy?

Could it be because . . .

• Adam is there checking out plant life while being totally clueless of the interaction going on between the serpent and Eve. She takes the fruit, takes a bite, hands it to him, and says, “Hey, try this” and he does, never looking up.

Is your husband clueless that the enemy has been tempting you?

• Eve wasn’t willing to listen to Adam warn her about eating from the tree because she didn’t need Adam to tell her what to do and she could take care of herself.

Have you created an attitude with your husband that you don’t need his advice, and you can take care of yourself?

• Adam wanted to please Eve more than he desired to please God.

Adam: “Honey, God told me we aren’t supposed to eat from that tree.”

Eve: “I know honey, but it looks so good . . . really I think it will be ok. Surely, He isn’t going to get that upset about some fruit. Look, I’m eating and I’m still alive. Come on, have some with me, please.”

 Do you desire to please others and self more than you desire to please God?

• Notice Eve appears to have never asked Adam’s opinion. She saw, took, and ate.

Do you as a woman ask your husband’s opinion or do you not because you don’t want to hear what he has so say?

It really doesn’t matter how many scenes we come up with in this story line. We come down to these truths: Adam heard directly from God not to eat from the fruit tree. But, he made a choice to listen to the woman instead. Wow! Wives, you have a power of influence that is extremely potent to your marriage and family. Men become stupid when it comes to women! I say stupid instead of ignorant because ignorant means, “I didn’t know.” Stupid means, “I knew and I did it anyway.” Adam listened to Eve instead of God! Girls, please, please make sure you are grounded in the Word of God and the things of God as you encourage your husbands in daily life. Even if he is sold out to God, he is listening to your counsel.

Now sin has entered the world because Eve listened to her own desires and gave way to the temptation of the enemy and Adam made a choice to eat when she handed him the fruit. They each had a choice to obey God's Word or Not!

Any time we are listening to the world ( self, others, the enemy) instead of God sin enters 'our' world. When sin enters 'our' world, chaos companies with it! Think about it!


Prague

We have 25 missionary women registered for Prague as of today. Please continue to pray for the last 25 spots. As of now, our first 25 women who have signed up are coming from countries such as United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Spain. How exciting!

I love you all!

His,
Vickie

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Missionary Women Registering for Prague...and "Stopping the Chaos" Continues...

The missionary women are registering for Prague. Please pray that God will get the word to every woman who needs to be there! We have 16 of the missionary women sponsored as of this writing. So, that leaves us with 34 for more to go. Please be praying about the opportunity to give toward the sponsorship of these women. No gift is too small or too large (smile).
I am excited about a couple of things God is up to for this group. He is always about the business of doing something unique for each group of missionary women. Love that about Him!!! I am working with a young woman in Albertville, Alabama who will bring to this group of ladies something we have never done before! Totally Awesome!!

Also, Patty and I made a trip up the road Saturday to Clarksville, AR to do follow-up from our Dominican Republic (DR) trip. We had lunch, shared about the trip, and showed a video that one of the missionary women from DR produced from our time in DR. The women also shared some things they are doing for our missionary women in Prague. Debbie, thank you so much for your church’s encouragement and support of Pure Joy International.

Well, we continue our journey of ‘Stopping the Chaos in the Family’ . . .

I hope you were able to take the time this past week to read Genesis Chapter 3 daily. I hope you have a nugget bag because I suspect you’re about to mine some important principles from this chapter in the next couple of weeks. I can promise you we will be parked here for a while. It is so crucial, because we had order in the world up to this point. Then sin entered the world and the result was . . . Chaos.

Let us begin with the last verse I gave you in the previous week from Genesis.

Genesis 2:6-17 “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

Know what? God gave Adam the first command ever given after placing him in the garden. I suspect Adam heard God’s voice for the first time when this command was given. “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Wow! Never lose sight of this truth! God told Adam, “don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you shall surely die.” He told Adam this when Eve wasn’t even in the picture. To this day, we don’t really know who told Eve this command. Was it passed on from Adam or was it given to her by God as well? What we do know is that she knew the command. Ok, well maybe she didn’t really fully know it since she added to it, but she had the principle given to her at some point before the serpent entered the scene (vs.1-2).

Now let’s look at Genesis 3:1-5 (emphasis mine):

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

In verse one, I want to use the word subtle instead of crafty which many Bible translations use. The reason is that I want us as women to understand the enemy is subtle. He isn’t marching into our paths with a big neon sign saying, “I’m getting ready to trip you up!” In fact, God’s Word tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:14 “Satan masquerades as an angel of light.” Obviously, the serpent wasn’t so scary and offensive that Eve ran off yelling for Adam to save her from the big monster! Instead, she was actually tempted by him. Girls, please know that the enemy works subtly in our lives with his temptations. Temptations are anything that would cause us to put other things first before God, spouse (if married), and children. These things would initially just cause us to be distracted from what God’s plan is for our life but eventually lead us to sin.

Also, I want us to understand that the serpent came to Eve not Adam. Why? I suspect God’s Word in 1 Peter 3:7 hints at the answer. Women are the weaker vessel. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the women as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Isn’t it interesting that it appears that even the serpent knew the order of things in his approach in the garden? He approached Eve instead of Adam.

Ok, so we see the serpent is subtle. We also see his plan of attack.

  • First, get Eve to doubt God. “Did God actually say . . . ?”
  • Second, convince Eve that God is a liar. “You will not surely die!”

Today I close with these challenges for you. Where has the serpent deceived you regarding your relationship with God, your marriage, or your family? Where do you doubt God? What are areas of your life that God has given as promises to you through His Word, yet you have allowed the enemy to call lies?

Keep reading Genesis Chapter 3 because next week we are going to answer the question, “What the heck was Adam doing during this interaction between the serpent and Eve?”, because I suspect some of you feel the same way about your husbands. Where is he?

His,
Vickie

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

"Chaos in the Family" and the Journey to Prague continues...

Before I get to our Chaos in the Family portion of the blog today, I want to give a big thank you to the ladies in England, Arkansas where Lisa, Faith, and I traveled Monday night to do a follow up time with the ladies there that invested in praying, sending cards, gifts, and financial support for our Dominican Republic trip in May. Thank you so much for your sweet spirits and hospitality. But most of all, thank you for having a heart to minister to missionary women overseas by praying, going, and giving.

As we continue to prepare on our journey to Prague, we have 18 women registered as of today. Continue to pray as the word gets out that the exact women God wants to be there in October get signed up. Thank you already in advance for the prayers, because where it all takes place is in the heavenly realm. In fact, as I was typing that last line this thought ran across my brain . . . “Ask them to make prayer deposits, Vickie”. I like that, because I can actually visualize people doing that and you don’t even have to leave the house! Ha, ha, ha! Would you please be willing to support this trip by making a prayer deposit daily or weekly? And encourage us by letting us know what some of those deposits are!

We added one last person to our team Monday night. All spots are filled and overflowing! Pray for me as I listen for God’s direction for how to best utilize each one of the team members on this trip and to place them where I truly believe God is directing so that He may be glorified!

Chaos in the Family

For those of you who are just joining us, I began addressing the issue of “Stopping the Chaos in the Family” several weeks ago. Please go back and read those blogs (http://purejoyinternational.blogspot.com/2012/06/chaos-in-family-series-and-prayer.htmlto catch up with us.

Last week I ended our blog by asking you this question: Do you feel that your husband is taking care of you? Does he see you as a gift that God has brought into his life?

Today, I want us to look at the flip side of that coin before we look at the first time chaos entered the world. Genesis 2:18 says, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” That helper was Eve.

Now let me ask you this question: What are helpers and what do they do? They come alongside; they help us be successful, to accomplish a job, to give insight, etc. In short, a helper truly becomes a blessing to our lives. Would your husband be able to say about you that you are a blessing to his life?  May I ask you another question? What was Eve helping Adam do?

Go back to Genesis 2:15 and we will see that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. So Eve was helping Adam take care of that which God had given them together! Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” There was no ‘mine’ or ‘yours’, but ‘ours’ and ultimately HIS! Genesis 2:25 goes on to say, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Translated from the Vickie commentary, “life was pure, it was content, and it was peaceable.”

Adam and Eve together as one were serving God and exercising watch care over His provision.

Are you functioning as one? Are you mindful that all that you have is from Him?

The answer to how chaos entered the world is in Genesis Chapter 3. In fact, Genesis Chapter 3 is so full of practical principles regarding the chaos in our lives today that I am going to ask you to read that chapter every day between now and the next blog. Pay close attention to every word you read. Ask God to give you an understanding of this chapter in a very personal way. Watch Eve’s conversation with the Serpent. Watch Adam’s conversation with God. Watch God’s proclamation to Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Question what the heck Eve was thinking!! Question Adam’s ridiculous responses to an All-Knowing God’s questions. See God’s compassion to give Adam and Eve the opportunity to repent instead of cover up their sin. This is some good stuff, girls!!! Don’t blow over it.

And, by the way . . . none of the above would have taken place if the following commandment had not been given to Adam in the garden in Genesis 2:18. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

IN SHORT, CHAOS ENTERS OUR DAILY WORLD WHEN WE DISOBEY GOD!!!

Enjoy your read of Genesis Chapter 3 this week!

I love you all Mucho!

His,
Vickie