There are moments in our lives that stay with us forever, and then there are some things that slip silently into the night and we completely forget about them. Several years ago I was a stay at home mom enduring another sweltering summer in Georgia. My then three year old daughter was a handful, but add her very busy nine year old brother into the mix and well you can imagine that something was always happening in our home. Let's just say that life is never boring in the Scalise household.
This particular summer was especially unsettling for me. My husband was an Associate Pastor at a church I had grown to love, when our Lead Pastor told us he was gently "pushing us out of the nest". He said that he believed my husband would make a great Lead Pastor. This was something we had not even discussed. We love teenagers, and had determined that our ministry was to be Youth Pastor's until we were well into our Senior Years. Well the whole process of leaving this town and church that I had grown to love and looking for a place to Pastor was making me a nervous wreck.
You see I often suffer from an "anxious" heart! My husband believes it's because I like to be in control of things, but let's not go there right now. I am one of those people who gets excited by the prospect of change, but then reality hits when the boxes begin to come out! I become anxious when I realize that I am leaving a place I've called home for four years, and wonder, just what is going to happen when we get to the new place, and WHERE is it going to be? You can hear my "anxious" heart even in my breathing! Sounds crazy right? Well I have so many questions, so many concerns about our "next" adventure that at times I feel I can't even breathe.
I remember this one particular morning that summer. I had got up before either of the children, a major accomplishment since they both like to watch morning cartoons. I went to grab my Bible and devotion book to read in the living room only to find them gone from their usual place. I marched out into the living room fully intending to harass my husband, who was still home, about taking my things. Instead he simply laid the Bible down he was reading, took me in his arms and gave me a great big "bear" hug. He never said a word. He just held me.
Honestly at that moment I felt like God Himself was holding me close to His heart. He wasn't telling me, "It will be all right Gina.". He wasn't even saying, "This is the path to take, walk in it." No, instead I felt like God was simply giving His anxious child a great big "bear" hug which said, "I'm here! Don't be afraid.".
There are many times in life that we become anxious. Maybe you are anxious because you don't know what the future holds for you. I can't calm your heart with words, but I believe that if you let Him, God can! He wants to give you a great big "bear" hug today! He wants you to release your worry over what the future may hold and He wants to remind you of just WHO it is that holds your future!
I encourage you today, if you are suffering from an anxious heart, get out your Bible and turn to Luke 12:27-30. Then go on to Philippians 4:4-7. Here it says this beginning in verse 6- "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the PEACE of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
My wish for you today is that you will experience God's PEACE!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Stand by Your Man...Part Two!
Okay, so I come from a long line of Maine boat builders. Maybe that's why I LOVE Noah's wife so much. Here's a picture of my grandfather standing next to one of the fishing boats he built. Kind of neat huh?
I left off the last blog by saying that Noah's wife had her own faith in God. We all know the story, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was in a unique way a savior of mankind, but for Noah where would we be today? The Bible goes on to tell us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people. God had an idea! He was sick and tired of the sin that was going on in the world He had created, and He had to destroy mankind. Yet when He looked on the earth he saw this righteous and godly man, Noah. He decided to save Noah and his family and start all over again. God spoke directly to Noah and told him what to do. He laid out the plans for the ark and told him exactly how He was going to destroy mankind.
All right so here it is, the standing by your man part! Imagine with me that you are living in a place where you have never seen the ocean, and you have no clue what rain is. Imagine that your husband comes to you and says, "God told me last night that I need to build an ark because He is going to send rain and make a huge flood over all the earth!". Remember you have no clue what rain is or a flood for that matter and you don't even know what a boat is! I am trying to get you to realize that Noah, his wife and the rest of his family must have been teased, ridiculed and mocked for what they were trying to do. People must have gathered in his yard just to see what the old "coot" was up to now.
They were evil people in that day, so they must have jeered at his wife when she would go off to the market. His son's must have been picked on at "school" for what their father was saying. Noah wasn't even quiet about his project from the Lord. In 2 Peter 2:5 it says that Noah was a "preacher" of righteousness. I have never met a quiet preacher yet, have you? Especially when he knows he has something to tell people to try and help save them from destruction. He was trying to convert the sinners before it was too late!
I have immense respect for Noah, his wife and family. They must have gone through some very trying times. They must have been looked on as crazy by the people surrounding them. I can just hear the people now..."Rain, we have never seen rain, what are you talking about?", or "Flood what are you talking about? This boat you are making is HUGE Noah, have you lost your mind?". Noah's wife must have been free from the bondage of other people's opinions! WOW, that's a gift! Free from the worry about what her parents would say, free from the worry of what her friends would think of her. Free to obey God no matter what!
Noah's wife must have been a woman of God. She stood by him even when she may have not been exactly sure of what he was doing. She had to have faith in God and in Noah. Nobody without faith could have done what she did. How could she have backed her husband in building a large ocean going vessel to escape a flood when she had never even seen rain? Without faith how could she have raised three sons with the constant sound of hammering in her ears as they joined daddy in his boat building adventure? How could she have stepped onto the Ark that fateful day and left nearly everything behind, knowing that the world she would come back to would never be the same? She must have believed that God could and would save them just as He promised! She may have even been aware before she married Noah that her husband to be was destined for a special service to God.
The most crucial thing to her faith was the fact that her eyes had to be fixed on the world to come after the flood. She lived and raised her family for more than half of her life in a world that was filled with sin and doomed for destruction. She had to teach her sons to stand up to the wrong things in her world and live for the right things! She must have known how easy it would be for her sons to cave into the temptations all around them. Isn't that what we are supposed to be teaching our children today? That this is not our final destination? This is just a temporary dwelling place! Don't become a slave to the things around you, but look forward to heaven!
Her family had to be close because they had to move further and further away from the beliefs and practices of the people around them. They also had to prepare for a time when there wouldn't be anyone else, except them. Here is where I could go on to discuss the three women that Noah's sons married, but my blog isn't about them. Again they are three nameless women but I believe that they had to have a strong faith in God too! Otherwise I don't think they would have made it on the boat! (I really love it that God often doesn't name peole in the Bible who do great things! I think He wants us to all realize that we are somebody!)
What courage and determination Noah's wife must have had to sustain her lonely position. To face the destruction of everything she knew. What spiritual strength would have been necessary to endure the hostility and ridicule that she must have faced? This woman a nobody? No, she must have been one of the greatest women to ever live. It doesn't matter that we may never know her name this side of heaven, she impacted the world's history forever.
Here are four things I believe that Noah's wife must have had:
1. She must have viewed life as an adventure to experience, not as a trial to be endured!
2. She must have kept herself ready! Preparing as best as she knew how for the upcoming adventure and trusting God for the rest!
3. She must have trusted her man as she followed him into the ark that day! Anticipating what God would do next!
4. She must have been a prayer warrior! I believe she had to have had that..."Cast your cares upon Him" mentality that says take it to God...and leave it with Him! Because you see I believe that she must have known this "floods" come and go in your life, But God is Forever Faithful!
It took team effort to pull off the ark. When all was said and done I believe that Noah realized he couldn't have done it without the help of his wife and sons. She had been as busy and as faithful to the call as he had been. Stand by Your Man...I couldn't help but think of this song when I was writing this message. Our men may not be perfect, and they may sometimes say and do things we wonder about. But God wants us to stand firm with them in the call He has given them! Think about Noah's wife today in a whole new way, and maybe even thank God that He hasn't called your husband to build a big boat in the backyard!
Blessings!
The Original Stand by Your Man Woman
A few years ago I preached a Sunday night message on a woman who I believe is probably one of the most overlooked heroines of the Bible. She has a place in Bible history. Many women in the Bible are never even named, just like this lady. So...let me ask this...have you ever heard a message on Noah's wife? Well I know that I hadn't even really thought about Noah's wife until I was doing some research on the internet and I came across a very interesting article on her.
Noah's wife is referred to five times in the Bible as just that, Noah's wife. No name just a description of who she is by being associated with another person. There is a whole message right there! How many times have I been referred to as Randy's wife, not Gina? Or Josiah's Mom? I know that when I was growing up I was forever labeled by my brother's, Gary's sister or Steve's sister. It really isn't a pleasant thing to be labeled that way. We all want to be noticed for who we are, not who we are related too. Okay, that was way off track let me get back to who I really am talking about.
In my research on Noah's wife I discovered that according to Jewish tradition the name of Noah's wife is Naamah, which means pleasant one. What a nice meaning. I think she had to be a pleasant woman to have to deal with what she went through. Noah's wife had an important part in a miracle of God. She was a somebody. I believe that she was just as much hand picked as Noah was. She had a purpose and a reason for being. She fulfilled her god-given role as a "helper" faithfully. She helped Noah during several hundred years of farming. She supported him during approximately 120 years of boat-building. She was with him for more than a year of zoo-keeping on an enormous houseboat, and many other things as well.
The world back then was a very different place than it is now. Disease as we know it was almost non-existent. It wasn't unusual for a person to be a first time parent at the ripe old age of 100. Of course back then we know they lived well into their 800's. Can you imagine that? The plant life was different, the atmosphere was different...and Facebook was not up and running!
Yet there are similarities to our world too. First of all the population was growing rapidly. Scientists guess there must have been around a billion people alive at the time of Noah. They were not cavemen either, they were rapidly developing many new skills, much like we are experiencing today with our technology that seems to change every few hours. The most important similarity however is the sin that existed in the pre-flood world, just like our world today. It seems like you can't even turn on the television without hearing about the violence and wickedness of this generation. We are truly living in a society that is much like the days of Noah. God was watching the world of Noah very carefully, and you can be sure that He is watching our's with just as much interest.
Noah's wife knew that her world was under God's judgement. Her husband had told her that God planned to destroy the earth with water because of it's sin (Genesis 6:13, 17). God also gave Noah specific directions for building an ark (meaning box) to preserve his family and the animals. I don't think she would have had a problem with any of this. Noah's wife was very much aware that her God had created her to be a helper to her husband.
Many women today believe that fulfillment comes from living a lifestyle that is independent and separate from their husbands, but the exact opposite is true! When a woman takes an active and supportive role as a wife she enables her husband to become all God created him to be and in the process God accomplishes His purposes and plans for them as a couple. The Hebrew word for helper means to provide what is needed or lacking. The idea is for someone to come alongside another and by her assistance and support enable that person to accomplish what could not have been accomplished otherwise. Noah's wife knew that God would have revealed His plans to Noah before her. She wasn't a nobody, but rather a real somebody fulfilling her feminine role! She obeyed God by submitting to her husband's leadership. The word says of Noah that he was a righteous man, and because of this she knew he would not have abused his position.
One thing I think we have to come to realize and remember about Noah's wife is that she had her own relationship with God. Her faith didn't hinge on Noah's faith....I'll write more about that in another blog!
Noah's wife is referred to five times in the Bible as just that, Noah's wife. No name just a description of who she is by being associated with another person. There is a whole message right there! How many times have I been referred to as Randy's wife, not Gina? Or Josiah's Mom? I know that when I was growing up I was forever labeled by my brother's, Gary's sister or Steve's sister. It really isn't a pleasant thing to be labeled that way. We all want to be noticed for who we are, not who we are related too. Okay, that was way off track let me get back to who I really am talking about.
In my research on Noah's wife I discovered that according to Jewish tradition the name of Noah's wife is Naamah, which means pleasant one. What a nice meaning. I think she had to be a pleasant woman to have to deal with what she went through. Noah's wife had an important part in a miracle of God. She was a somebody. I believe that she was just as much hand picked as Noah was. She had a purpose and a reason for being. She fulfilled her god-given role as a "helper" faithfully. She helped Noah during several hundred years of farming. She supported him during approximately 120 years of boat-building. She was with him for more than a year of zoo-keeping on an enormous houseboat, and many other things as well.
The world back then was a very different place than it is now. Disease as we know it was almost non-existent. It wasn't unusual for a person to be a first time parent at the ripe old age of 100. Of course back then we know they lived well into their 800's. Can you imagine that? The plant life was different, the atmosphere was different...and Facebook was not up and running!
Yet there are similarities to our world too. First of all the population was growing rapidly. Scientists guess there must have been around a billion people alive at the time of Noah. They were not cavemen either, they were rapidly developing many new skills, much like we are experiencing today with our technology that seems to change every few hours. The most important similarity however is the sin that existed in the pre-flood world, just like our world today. It seems like you can't even turn on the television without hearing about the violence and wickedness of this generation. We are truly living in a society that is much like the days of Noah. God was watching the world of Noah very carefully, and you can be sure that He is watching our's with just as much interest.
Noah's wife knew that her world was under God's judgement. Her husband had told her that God planned to destroy the earth with water because of it's sin (Genesis 6:13, 17). God also gave Noah specific directions for building an ark (meaning box) to preserve his family and the animals. I don't think she would have had a problem with any of this. Noah's wife was very much aware that her God had created her to be a helper to her husband.
Many women today believe that fulfillment comes from living a lifestyle that is independent and separate from their husbands, but the exact opposite is true! When a woman takes an active and supportive role as a wife she enables her husband to become all God created him to be and in the process God accomplishes His purposes and plans for them as a couple. The Hebrew word for helper means to provide what is needed or lacking. The idea is for someone to come alongside another and by her assistance and support enable that person to accomplish what could not have been accomplished otherwise. Noah's wife knew that God would have revealed His plans to Noah before her. She wasn't a nobody, but rather a real somebody fulfilling her feminine role! She obeyed God by submitting to her husband's leadership. The word says of Noah that he was a righteous man, and because of this she knew he would not have abused his position.
One thing I think we have to come to realize and remember about Noah's wife is that she had her own relationship with God. Her faith didn't hinge on Noah's faith....I'll write more about that in another blog!
Monday, March 12, 2012
What Will You Do with Your "Broken Pieces"?
Wow...it has been quite a while since I last wrote. I didn't mean to stop...but life sort of got in the way, imagine that! I spent last week in Maine for a very relaxing visit with my family as we celebrated my mother's cancer free report. For that I am praising God!
Last evening my husband and I were honored to share our testimonies with the women and men of a great church in Columbus, Georgia. In my testimony I share about allowing God to take the "broken pieces" of our life and put them back together to create something beautiful. My broken pieces came after the death of my first husband Rob, and the three miscarriages that Randy and I have suffered. Our family was able to spend the evening with some really great friends there in Columbus, and we enjoyed an incredible time of fellowship. Lots of laughter!
This morning after two wonderful cups of coffee with my friend Julia I was sitting in her living room waiting while she got ready to head out for breakfast. From my vantage point in the living room I could look right into her dining room, when all of a sudden there was a loud crash and I watched as all of this crystal came falling off the shelves of her hutch. It was eerie to say the least. No one was in the living room and I couldn't imagine how this had happened. My first thought was, there must have been an earthquake? But I hadn't felt any tremors. The next thought was well, I have to admit it did look a little like something out of a "Poltergeist" movie, but I knew that it couldn't be that either.
My friend came flying around the corner and looked at the mess lying there on the floor. I only had to take one look at her face to realize that those had been special pieces to her. Her son and my husband began to pick up the shattered glass while she told me with tears in her eyes that they had been her mother's glasses. All I could do was hug her, there didn't seem to be anything else to say. The boys were taking the larger pieces of glass and putting them on her dining room table she was clearly not sure what to do with those pieces and then I remembered a scene from this phenomenal movie.
The movie is "Joshua" and there is a scene where a glass angel gets broken and it's really special to this lady. She yells at Joshua, who is type of Jesus in the movie, and tells him that her life is like that broken glass, shattered and no one can fix it. After Joshua leaves town he has a beautiful glass heart delivered to her, and the person who gives it to her says, "Imagine something this beautiful coming from all that broken glass!" It's like a light comes on in her, because she realizes that what was being said is this, "You can trust God with your broken pieces, He can and will make something beautiful from them!"
I encouraged my friend NOT to throw away all those pieces, but instead to find someone who can make something beautiful out of that shattered glass. It may sound like a strange idea, but honestly I've seen too many beautiful things made out of the "messy" things in our lives! I've watched God restore the broken pieces of my life and countless others, and make them shine for Him. Somewhere there in Columbus, Georgia I believe there is an artist, who can take those shattered pieces and make a beautiful piece of art full of old and new memories!
You see not only do I have a story of "broken pieces", but my friend does too! She is one of my heroes! She is a cancer survivor! As a matter of fact, I think it's very fitting that those goblets were pink...you see Julia is a PINK WARRIOR! One of several friends of mine who have fought breast cancer and won!
Yes, I can"t wait to see what someone makes of those broken pieces. It may have been a hard thing to watch as those precious goblets came crashing down, but isn't that like our lives? The difficulties we face are hard for the moment, BUT WITH GOD, even those difficulties can be made a work of art! Let Him take the "broken pieces" of your life and make something beautiful out of it today. Don't keep worrying, stressing or crying out over your situation, instead CAST YOUR CARES on Him, because HE CARES FOR YOU! Then walk away and say, "It's in your hands now Father!" Trust Him to take it, and make it shine! After all....He is a Master Artist who delights in taking a piece of ordinary clay and making a beautiful piece of pottery!
And for my other PINK WARRIOR'S...who are still fighting, know I pray and believe every day that you too will soon hear those words...CANCER FREE!
Last evening my husband and I were honored to share our testimonies with the women and men of a great church in Columbus, Georgia. In my testimony I share about allowing God to take the "broken pieces" of our life and put them back together to create something beautiful. My broken pieces came after the death of my first husband Rob, and the three miscarriages that Randy and I have suffered. Our family was able to spend the evening with some really great friends there in Columbus, and we enjoyed an incredible time of fellowship. Lots of laughter!
This morning after two wonderful cups of coffee with my friend Julia I was sitting in her living room waiting while she got ready to head out for breakfast. From my vantage point in the living room I could look right into her dining room, when all of a sudden there was a loud crash and I watched as all of this crystal came falling off the shelves of her hutch. It was eerie to say the least. No one was in the living room and I couldn't imagine how this had happened. My first thought was, there must have been an earthquake? But I hadn't felt any tremors. The next thought was well, I have to admit it did look a little like something out of a "Poltergeist" movie, but I knew that it couldn't be that either.
My friend came flying around the corner and looked at the mess lying there on the floor. I only had to take one look at her face to realize that those had been special pieces to her. Her son and my husband began to pick up the shattered glass while she told me with tears in her eyes that they had been her mother's glasses. All I could do was hug her, there didn't seem to be anything else to say. The boys were taking the larger pieces of glass and putting them on her dining room table she was clearly not sure what to do with those pieces and then I remembered a scene from this phenomenal movie.
The movie is "Joshua" and there is a scene where a glass angel gets broken and it's really special to this lady. She yells at Joshua, who is type of Jesus in the movie, and tells him that her life is like that broken glass, shattered and no one can fix it. After Joshua leaves town he has a beautiful glass heart delivered to her, and the person who gives it to her says, "Imagine something this beautiful coming from all that broken glass!" It's like a light comes on in her, because she realizes that what was being said is this, "You can trust God with your broken pieces, He can and will make something beautiful from them!"
I encouraged my friend NOT to throw away all those pieces, but instead to find someone who can make something beautiful out of that shattered glass. It may sound like a strange idea, but honestly I've seen too many beautiful things made out of the "messy" things in our lives! I've watched God restore the broken pieces of my life and countless others, and make them shine for Him. Somewhere there in Columbus, Georgia I believe there is an artist, who can take those shattered pieces and make a beautiful piece of art full of old and new memories!
You see not only do I have a story of "broken pieces", but my friend does too! She is one of my heroes! She is a cancer survivor! As a matter of fact, I think it's very fitting that those goblets were pink...you see Julia is a PINK WARRIOR! One of several friends of mine who have fought breast cancer and won!
Yes, I can"t wait to see what someone makes of those broken pieces. It may have been a hard thing to watch as those precious goblets came crashing down, but isn't that like our lives? The difficulties we face are hard for the moment, BUT WITH GOD, even those difficulties can be made a work of art! Let Him take the "broken pieces" of your life and make something beautiful out of it today. Don't keep worrying, stressing or crying out over your situation, instead CAST YOUR CARES on Him, because HE CARES FOR YOU! Then walk away and say, "It's in your hands now Father!" Trust Him to take it, and make it shine! After all....He is a Master Artist who delights in taking a piece of ordinary clay and making a beautiful piece of pottery!
And for my other PINK WARRIOR'S...who are still fighting, know I pray and believe every day that you too will soon hear those words...CANCER FREE!
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