Shelly A. Faust

Archives for April 2014

When God Seemed Scary

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Hebrews 4 16

I remember being afraid of God.

Not the reverencing, hold-in-high-esteem-because-He’s-God kind of afraid.

Just plain scared.

Because God seemed scary.

My mind created an image of Him based on things I heard or experienced and attributed to this Creator God of the universe. This God who was in control of all things but still allowed bad things to happen and let people die.

He also seemed unreachable. Too holy and too powerful to bother.

And a God who sent people to hell? S to the C.A.R.Y.

SCARY.

So I said the sinner’s prayer ALOT and repented of all my sins before I went to sleep every night so that I would not live eternity in a tormenting, fiery place filled with more scary things.

And, of course, I made sure to say my bedtime prayers.

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray dear Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake (you know, if that creature in the woods got me), I pray dear Lord my soul to take.”

or

“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done . . .”

But something began changing. I was slowly being introduced to a God much different than the one I had been serving hiding from in fear. I began to discover mercy and grace and unconditional love and a loving, beautiful God whose thoughts of me are too numerous to count.

A God who rejoices over me with singing.

A God who knew me before I was in my mother’s womb, who planned and designed me, and whose plans for me are for good and not evil, to give me a future and a hope.

A God whose faithfulness reaches to the skies and whose love isn’t based on anything I can do but on what Jesus has already done for me.

A God who desires that ALL people would go to heaven but instead of forcing and demanding and insisting we do it His way, gives us each the freedom to choose.

I don’t have an exact moment everything changed or a date I can show you on a calendar. It’s been a process for me. A gradual knowing and revealing and discovering God as I welcomed the Holy Spirit into my life and began opening the scriptures for myself. An intimate finding of the true nature and character of a heavenly Father as I bent my heart in prayer. Not just a memorized and recited string of words but a vulnerable opening and sharing of the deepest places of my heart.

In our current study with Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Studies, Wendy Blight (author of Living So That) talks about prayer as a way to know God more. And also how the Holy Spirit reveals divine secrets to us as we study His Word.

My heart responds with a resounding yes and amen.

Because this is where I found Him.

To know about God or to simply know there is a God is not that same as knowing God intimately, personally- His heart, His true character, His promises, His Word.

We can know of Him but misunderstand Him. We can listen to what others tell us about Him, but sometimes He is misrepresented – even from the pulpit.

We cannot know God the way He desires to be known unless we spend time with Him.

Time in prayer and time unwrapping truth in His Word.

Our memory verse for Week 3 reminds me and confirms that, yes, God does desire for us to come to Him – to approach the throne of grace with confidence and a bold assurance. How can we come confidently (freely, openly, boldly) unless we have a personal relationship and an intimate knowing of the One we are approaching?

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Until I began to know God (instead of holding to some false idea of who I thought He was) I could not come boldly before Him and certainly did not understand His mercy and grace.

He must be searched out, discovered, and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Only then can we know and understand how wide and how deep His love is for us. Only then can we truly know Him.

He is worth pursuing, friend.

There is treasure in finding Him.

Hearts are filled and lives are changed in the presence of this Holy God who loves us more than anyone can ever explain to us.

You, too, can know Him.

No matter where you are in your journey, make the choice today to know Him more.

Spend time with Him in prayer.

Discover Him through His Word and Holy Spirit.

And prepare to be amazed.

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Linking with Proverbs 31 Online Bible Studies – Living So That Blog Hop. (Topic 2: Finding Treasure in the Word)

That Dirt Road & My Own Great Betrayal

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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I stood at the altar during praise and worship on Palm Sunday, overwhelmed in His presence. Eyes closed, hands raised, I joined with my church family in celebration of the King of Kings.

Shouts of praise could be heard from all around the sanctuary.

Sounds of adoration and proclamation filled the room.

“Jesus!”

“The King is here!”

“You are worthy, Lord!”

Just that morning before church I found myself buried in the scriptural account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The people lined the street and shouted in celebration and praise. The scenario now seemed strangely familiar and personal as I imagined that dirt road in the midst of my own celebration.

Suddenly I could hear the thunder of the feet of those running after and alongside Jesus.

The Bible says a great multitude spread out their clothes and placed branches on the road before Him. They cried out in great praise and honored Him as He rode by.

I closed my eyes and could hear them shouting the same words coming from my own mouth this morning.

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!”

I began to draw a parallel in my mind and my heart was suddenly broken and in great conflict – wanting to praise but knowing what the next week held and remembering times of my own great betrayal.

There would be another crowd just a few days later but their cries would be much different.

I know there is tremendous debate on whether there were any of the same people present in both crowds. It was certainly two very different crowds but I have to wonder, though, if maybe some of those who celebrated Jesus on Sunday were some of the same who condemned Him on Friday?

Could it have been some of the same people who believed in Him but were afraid to stand up for fear of being put out of the synagogue by the Pharisees?

  • for they loved the praise of man more than the praise of God (John 12:43)

These words are written into my own story as I spent many years trying to please people even at the expense of pleasing God. But I rejoice in the freedom found by pursuing relationship with my Savior, to know and to be known by a Holy God.

Or could it have been those who once believed but chose to listen to the voices of opposition? The Pharisees certainly turned the mood that week by speaking falsely against Jesus. I can just imagine the terrible lies they were spreading as their resistance ensued in the following days. Nothing like a little slander and defamation of character to sway public opinion.

The enemy does that to us, too. Doesn’t he?

He twists and turns and lies and manipulates any way he can to keep us from believing God is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.

Or maybe it was those who misunderstood Jesus. Their expectation of His being the long-awaited Messiah involved an earthy kingdom. As the days progressed, it became apparent Jesus would not be taking up residence in the palace.

When He didn’t meet or fulfill those expectations, I can imagine there was some confusion and disappointment.

He was not the messiah the people were expecting.

Maybe you’ve been disappointed, too.

Maybe you’ve had some expectations about Jesus that haven’t been met.

Sometimes our loved ones don’t get healed in the way we expect them to be healed.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Sometimes we cry out to God and He is silent.

I don’t know if you’ve been any of these people, but I’ve been all of them. I’ve praised Him on Sunday and denied Him on Friday. I’ve cared more about man’s opinion of me than God’s. I’ve believed lies from the enemy. And I have allowed disappointment and discouragement to set in when God didn’t meet my expectations.

Through all of this, He has never stopped loving me.

He has never stopped loving you.

No matter which group you are in (or have been in), God loves you the same. No matter how many times we have rejected or denied Jesus, He willingly died on the cross for each of us. His love, mercy, grace, salvation, hope, healing, and forgiveness are available to each one of us in the same measure. We just have to accept it.

Jesus died on the cross but the story doesn’t end there.

Three days later the earth shook, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus rose again. He’s alive today and desires a living, real relationship with you. With me.

What He offers is not a bunch of religious activities or a list of rules to follow but a loving, personal, intimate knowing of each other. A daily communing. A moment by moment abiding in His presence.

Don’t miss out by listening only to what others have to say about Him. Find out for yourself who He is.

Easter is a time to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. But we don’t hang up our faith when we put away our Easter clothes. We get to celebrate new life every single day.

I celebrate the new life I found in Him many years ago when I said yes to His gift of salvation.

If you haven’t said yes to this gift and haven’t received Jesus as Savior but you want to – might I encourage you . . . say yes today!

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And Romans 10:9-10 assures us, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

I would love to pray with you! Please feel free to comment below or send me a private email.

xo

Shelly

Winners Announced!

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Congratulations

Hey friends! Just a quick update with the names of our winners!

  • Week One – Tracy!
  • Week Two – Tracey Malone!

Congratulations, girls! Look for an email from Laurie soon! :)

And thank you, Laurie Wallin for your generosity in giving away two signed copies of your new book!

And friends, if you didn’t win, but want to get your own copy of Why Your Weirdness is Wonderful (and you do, trust me!), here are some helpful links:

Connect with Laurie

Find your own copy of Why Your Weirdness is Wonderful on Amazon.

If you missed out on our author interview with Laurie and my thoughts about the book, you can read them here

Here’s one more excerpt for you!

Sometimes I wonder what God is thinking. (OK, lots of times.) When prayer seems to fall fruitless to the floor, when personal battles rage unabated, and I’m frustrated with something in myself, it’s easy to wonder whether God’s thinking includes me at all. When I’m in one of those modes—those “Nobody loves me. I’m no good. Might as well curl up and succumb to the bag of chips” frames of mind—I often end up going on one of my nature strolls.

 Enter the humble pine cone. So easily kicked to the side of the street as I walk, it reveals a pattern that’s repeated in one way or another just about everywhere within the universe. A number-based pattern of spirals named for the mathematician who first discovered them, these Fibonacci numbers form repetitive patterns in much of nature—from galaxies to ocean waves, from pine cones to the contour of your ear.

 That’s right, we carry that design motif too. On our bodies. Inside them. And it’s all around us. Because we’re part of God’s grand design. You and I were worth fashioning. Our lives, our work, and our presence here matter more than we can imagine.

 Looking at that pine cone, I realize something: it isn’t sitting along the side of the road crying because it isn’t good enough. So why are we crying? Why are we struggling with insecurity, with the sense that we don’t have strengths or that our quirks might just swallow them whole?

 When we look at our lives, full of the mundane in many ways, we must not miss the elegance of their design. Because everything about us has something to do with our purpose: The music we love. The things that freak us out. Our favorite hobbies. Our jobs. What we think about. The classes we took during college. The summer job that had nothing to do with anything (or so we thought). And even that weirdo we dated in high school.

 It all has a point! It’s part of God’s grand design.

 If you’re like me, you might be thinking, Yeah, right! How exactly could all those parts of my life be related? And how could they possibly matter to real life now?

 Great questions. To those, I’ll ask a few back:

  1. What words might appropriately describe your life over time?
  2. What experiences have you had, and what have you gained from them?
  3. What ideas and experiences inspire you?

 During a recent season in which I felt a bit lost in my focus for work and writing, I answered these questions myself. To my surprise, words and themes were repeated again and again:coach, teacher, inspirer, supporter. In my role as the oldest sibling growing up. As a teacher’s assistant in middle school. As swim captain in high school and a coach afterward. As a resident advisor, helping college freshmen find their fit on campus. As a middle school teacher. Even my college photography studio job had a place in my bigger purpose, as I created settings that reflected and supported each subject’s uniqueness.

 My quirks, preferences, strengths and challenges, it became clear, had all been one huge becoming. Each revealed parts of God’s design in me―for me―and it all mattered. Just as every part matters in yours. 

 When life gets intense, or we lose sight of the value in our experiences, strengths or quirks, asking the three questions above―or simply noticing the design in nature around us―can get us back on track toward embracing the wonderful in our weirdness.

Once again, congratulations to our winners! You hit the jackpot!! :)

xoxo

Trust In & Cry Out to the One Who Saves

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Psalm 22

(Reposting from May 30, 2013)

While studying this morning, I found an old, dried flower tucked safely within the pages of my mom’s Strong’s Concordance. The petals, delicate and yellowed from age, secretly hold the story of a special moment in time. I wonder, “How long has it been here?” And “Who was the thoughtful giver of this once, vibrant flower?”

I smile as I consider the possibilities.

Perhaps my own daughter, who will soon be twenty-one, once held this flower in her tiny hands. I can see her gently picking this fragile gift and then hiding it behind her back as she runs mischievously toward her Maw-Maw.

Or maybe it was taken as a token of remembrance during the celebration of the life of my grandfather?

No matter its origin or previous owner, this flower, has been picked for me today. It is a special gift and I leave it in its place in hopes that the next recipient of this time-worn concordance might find it there.

As I peer into the scriptures, the old flower and gift of remembering are not my only blessings.

Every time I open the Word of God and choose to meditate, reflect on, and study the words found here, my heart is overwhelmed at the goodness of God. Tucked within its chapters are nuggets of wisdom waiting to be discovered and promises ready to be received and lived out.

Our Memory Verse for Week 8 of our Bible study is Psalm 22:4-5. It says,

“In You our Fathers put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them. They cried to You and were saved; in You they trusted and were not disappointed.”

All week I’ve been meditating on these verses and I’ve focused on:

  • Trusting and putting my confidence in God, and
  • God’s ability to save and deliver.

But today my eyes were drawn to the word “cried.”

“They cried to You and were saved.”

I tried to picture “our Fathers” crying. Is it a sob? A boo-hoo? An overwhelming stream of tears running down their faces? Because I cry. I know what this crying thing is like.

And what is their motivation? Sometimes I cry because I’m sad. Sometimes I cry because I’m mad. And other times I cry because I don’t know what else to do.

To give me a clearer picture of what exactly is going on I dive deeper into the chapter and start from verse one.

As the psalmist petitions God and questions His absence during troubling times, He reminds God that when our Fathers of long ago put their trust in Him and cried out He saved and delivered them. In other words, “Why are you not saving ME like you saved THEM?”

He continues to beg and plead his case for the next several verses but something changes in verse 22.

I believe he receives a revelation. He shifts from words focused inward to now words of declaration and praise of the only One who has the power to save him.

“I will declare Your name! …Praise Him…Revere Him….!”

I believe the revelation he receives is that our Fathers’ crying out was not a confession or reminder to God of how terrible things were going for them (God always knows what’s going on). It was a public declaring of God’s sovereignty, a declaration of His power to deliver and save them no matter their circumstances. They gathered corporately and announced publicly that their trust and confidence was in God and God alone.

According to my Strong’s Concordance, the Hebrew word for cried in this verse is zaaq and means to shriek (from anguish or danger). And when I read further it says it is also “to announce or convene publicly:- assemble, call (together), (make a) cry (out), come with such a company, gather (together), cause to be proclaimed.”

Now, as I look back at our Memory Verses for the week (Ps. 22:4-5) I have a clearer picture and I know the place of desperation and surrender our Fathers called out to God. I understand it was not in self-pity or the “poor-me-syndrome” that brought their deliverance. It was not in questioning “Why” and “Where” and “How” that they were saved.

It was a gathering together and declaring publicly their cry of surrender to God. It was in the realization that nothing or no one else had the power to save them but God.

That, my friends, is our place of deliverance.

Whatever you are going through today, remember the psalmist in Psalm 22. Turn, as he did, to words of praise and declaration of our great heavenly Father who is the only One with the power to save. Let your thoughts rest on His sovereignty and the promises found on the pages of our Bible.

His Word is true.

His Word is powerful.

And His Word is relevant to whatever you are facing right now.

Let us cry out to our Father. Let us put our hope, our trust, our confidence in Him and Him alone. And let us proclaim together publicly that He is Lord!

He is still a God who saves!

Father, we come to you in surrender today. We declare that You are God! We praise you now and proclaim that there is no other like You! We know that no matter what we are facing or what we are going through at this very moment, YOU never change. We cry out to You in desperation knowing that You hear us. We choose to put our hope, our trust, and our confidence in You and You alone. Thank you that peace and joy are ours. We choose to receive them today. We trust that Your plans are so much greater than we can imagine. Our hope is in You. Thank you for the amazing and unconditional love You have for us, Your children. We love You! Your will be done in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

 

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