Sherry Sharp

“The LORD said to Job: ‘Will the one who contends with the almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!’” Job 40:1-2, NIV Translation

While waiting for an appointment last week, I became privy to a conversation taking place right next to where I was sitting. Actually, I became included in the conversation when one of the women heard me comment about having had the Covid-19 virus this past winter. A very young woman who said she was twenty-two years old immediately jumped onto my admission by sharing that her family had also endured the virus and that her parents were still experiencing side-effects. Then, she said something that completely caught me off guard; she stated, “this is why I don’t believe in God.”

Of course, my heart was breaking as I could only think that at such a young age, over something relatively mild as her challenge, she had passed judgement against God for not fulfilling her presumed duty, and that she still had a lot of life left with more and doubtless deeper challenges ahead. What then will she say of God?

Job is one of my favorite Bible characters because he lived through the toughest of all earthly tragedies losing everyone and everything known to him. Still, he loved and trusted God, knowing everything comes from Him and belongs to Him. The young woman leading into this story is not unique in how she reacts when her story does not play out as she desires. We all tend to think that because we pray a certain request to God, that He is obliged to follow our directions; when He doesn’t, we think the deficiency is in Him. Years ago, I heard a speaker say, “God is not a sugar-daddy of whom we make requests, expecting that his sole responsibility is to fulfill our desires.”

We will all face disappointments in this world. I pray that when we do, we will lean into God and not pull away. He is our Comforter and Sustainer. Through Jesus Christ, God is our very best Friend in all circumstances.

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” Philippians 4:8-9. (The Message)

A couple of days ago, while searching the internet for a drawing of Jesus I love and wanted to buy for a friend, scrolling down the page, I could not believe my eyes; after several beautiful renditions of pictures of Jesus, in a bold large photo popped up a rendition I was not expecting; a nude woman displaying her curves in a crude and suggestive manner. My first reaction was to say out loud, “WHAT??” Talk about switching gears!

The Scripture verse from the book of Philippians encourages us to take control of our thoughts and to keep them positive and pure. The instruction by Paul comes from a man who was every bit as human as you and me. He knew the struggle of harnessing and reigning in the thoughts running through the minds of people who live in a broken society. Living in our current generation where every action, lifestyle, and deviant behavior is demanded of us to accept as being “normal,” might confuse some, but make no mistake, friend, God is not confused, and His Word is very clear. Our culture may believe we have progressed with the mantra that everything I want to think, do, and say is not only okay, it’s going to receive everyone’s stamp of approval, or else…!! You may fill in the ellipses with whatever comes to mind and then look around; you will see it happening in a home, relationship, family, school, church, and city near you.

Back to my opening remarks, my human eyes and thoughts are not without sin, so seeing the photo on the internet did not make me faint; however, I do try to practice God’s precepts and fight against my flesh. In frustration, I clicked out of the page source claiming to have pictures of Jesus, (sigh) and thought about how hard it is to keep our thoughts pure when unsolicited images bombard our surroundings from every direction. Pray, pray, pray for our children’s futures where so many opportunities exist to corrupt their minds and hearts from a very young age, then, pray for those in our world who need a good dose of reality, knowing that if we do not confess to God and change our behavior here on earth, we will answer to Him one day. Our God is long-suffering in His patience, but it is only as enduring as we each have need of oxygen to breathe.

His forgiveness awaits all who long for it and who will humble themselves to ask!

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13, NIV.

A “right of passage” I remember embracing as a young teenage girl is the day I used my allowance to purchase a diary. While boys have secret thoughts too, girls by nature like to document personal thoughts as “sacred writings” kept in a designated book called a diary. The importance of such writings is emphasized by the fact that most diary’s come with a key for locking away ones deepest and most personal thoughts. The key is often worn on a chain around the neck of the author, lest anyone dare be tempted to open her book and read what is meant for her eyes only!

If you are over fifty years old, you may be familiar with what I call a mother’s proverb; “Do nothing you would not want to have appear on the front page of the newspaper for all the world to see.” Given the current technology of cell phones, a camera rests in someone’s hand at all times, night and day. Security cameras run 24/7 in public areas, and social media is now the preferred platform for documenting one’s deepest thoughts. Some people see progress as exposing unbridled desires for all the world to see; such desires, once considered locked up safe and sound by the key hanging around ones neck, now threaten to find their way onto a Twitter-feed.

Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of privacy, one thing is certain; God knows everything about you and me. Whether we choose to bare our souls before the world or not, we have no secrets before The Creator. And, He knows not only what we do, God knows every thought we have, every unspoken desire, and even the intentions of our hearts. I pray that this reality keeps us ever humble and eternally thankful for Jesus. His cross of reconciliation is our only hope of facing God “as one approved.”

For deeper insight, this week I invite you to read the book of 2 Timothy.

“But these [miraculous signs] are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.” John 20:31, NLT.

“But these [miraculous signs] are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.” John 20:31, NLT.

My dad always tried to make road trips fun for our family; of course, sometimes the effort required a little silliness to end in success. We lived in Virginia and my grandparents had their home in Pennsylvania. Many times, over the years, we traveled by car meaning we had to cross over two state-lines and the well-known Mason-Dixon line. With the trip taking a good five hours, my sister and I often drifted off to sleep, lulled into unconsciousness by the monotonous rumbling of the tires.

“Dianne, Sherry, wake up!!” With excitement in his voice, daddy would call out our names and, startled, we always fell for his ploy.

“What daddy? What is it?”

“Did you feel that?” he would ask, fully expecting a reply from his two young daughters.

“The state-line! We just drove over the line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania!”

I wish I could say we outgrew his taunting but in time, my sister and I played along because we knew it made him happy. Today, so many years later, daddy is no longer with us, but this story still brings a big smile to my face.

So, now I ask you; did you feel that?

“What?” you may be asking.

Easter Sunday! Yesterday, we celebrated the greatest gift from God to humankind. Jesus Christ, God’s Only Son came into the world, living among His creation. He died so that you and I might live. Jesus rose from the grave so that you and I could also rise up one day when He returns to gather His children. Today is Monday but please do not simply move onward without understanding the precious meaning of yesterday. Easter is the beginning of “the Story,” not the end. Take the time to reflect and celebrate your salvation.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Psalm 51:1-2, NIV

Many of you know I enjoy quilting in my spare time. On one of my recent projects, I used a pen to mark the sewing lines for stitching. The color of ink in the pen is purple. With a little hesitancy, I began, thinking to myself, don’t worry; the instructions say the ink disappears in a short time after air drying. Trusting, I marked a section of the fabric and began stitching. When finished, I set the project aside. The next day when I checked the project, sure enough, the marked lines of purple had vanished, like magic! What I had failed to understand from the instructions is that sometimes, if exposed to cold temperatures, the ink may reappear.

After finishing my quilt, I proudly displayed the beauty on the back of the sofa. Winter set in and the cooler temperature invited me to grab the quilt for cuddling. To my surprise and disappointment, the beautiful fabric displayed not only my hard-worked thread stitching, but also revealed the once magically disappearing purple ink used for marking.

The Bible tells us that we, all humanity, have sinned; as hard as we try to avoid it, sin follows us around wherever we go. Like the “disappearing ink” on my quilt, depending on our circumstances, you and I can appear lovely in our human nature; after all, we are created in God’s image. However, the conditions of our world are hardly consistent, revealing the natural human condition, which is to sin against God and each other.

Today’s generation wants desperately to remove all evidence of history and current events that reveal the marks of the darker side of humanity. How I wish that just by demanding and saying the word “cancel” we could make all wrongs disappear from our world, but this will never happen. The “Good News” is that Jesus Christ shed His blood once and for all; the price He paid permanently cancels our sin debt before our heavenly Father and is ours for the asking.

Will you join me today in thanking Jesus for His immeasurable gift, the assurance of God’s forgiveness that doesn’t change with the shifting conditions of this world?

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27, NIV

“With a unique ability to see the world though their eyes, renowned dog behavior expert, Cesar Millan rehabilitates all manner of troubled canines…” On a television program that aired in 2004, the “Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Millan made a “big bark” in the world of dogs when he introduced a new training process for dogs and their owners. Merriam-Webster defines a whisperer as, “a person who excels at calming or training usually hard-to-manage animals using noncoercive methods based especially on an understanding of the animals’ natural instincts.”

While this terminology became popular as recent as twenty years ago, it is by no means a new concept. Jesus was the original “Whisperer” since He had “a unique ability to see the world through [human eyes, He was the] renowned [human] behavior expert…rehabilitating all manner of troubled [humans].” Okay, I hope you were able to hang in and follow the rewriting of the lead-in sentence. We can do the same exercise with the definition by Merriam-Webster, as Jesus “excels at calming or training usually hard-to-manage animals using noncoercive methods based especially on an understanding of the animals’ natural instincts.”

Jesus, being both divine and human, understands the human natural instincts to stubbornness, waywardness, and just plain sinfulness! Jesus often likened people to sheep as in the Scripture from the book of John. Jesus knows, however, that people are created in God’s image, so we have the ability to learn and reason. “Rehabilitation” is sometimes painful when we insist on having our way.

I have three dogs and one cat; their ages are thirteen, eleven, seven, and the cat is a little over a year old. Thirteen years ago, with the help of a friend who knows and trains dogs, I worked and still work with my golden retriever, Daisy; she is a wonderful companion, but her continued stubbornness thirteen years later keeps me on my toes. The cat was feral, meaning undomesticated when found wandering in the woods. Over the last few months, I have worked hard with him through patient love and consistent discipline, so that now he trusts me and has become another sweet pet living in my house.

Sometimes, God has to discipline you and me for our good. If we listen to His voice, He is patient and loving. Like the beautiful Christmas carol, Away In a Manger tells us, He is “fitting us for heaven to live with Him there.”