Just As They Had Been Told

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.  Luke 2:20 NIV

After I retired from teaching, supervising, and administrating in the public schools, I began doing what I should have been doing all along.  I began reading my Bible each day.  I had never read the Bible all the way through until I took a 365-day Bible from my shelves and purposed to read it all the way through in 2004.  They say that doing something for 21 straight days will form a habit, and it did form a habit, notably the best habit I have.  As I read the Bible, I underlined passages that spoke to me in some way each day.  By 2007, I almost had the whole Book of James underlined.  In 2008, I began to add the date in the margin to whatever I underlined that day.  Doing that would actually give me a mental nudge as to why it spoke to me the previous years.

I have given that introduction to explain the significance of the phrase which concludes Luke 2:20 – “which were just as they had been told.”  In four years of reading Luke 2 in several different versions, I had never noticed nor underlined Luke 2:20.  I had read through the Christmas story early in each year in the 365-day Bible, but that verse did not give me pause until last December when I was asked to read the Christmas story in Luke aloud to a group of women at a church Christmas party.  I was using the hostess’s Bible, and it was an NIV, not a version I usually read.  I asked how far she wanted me to read, and she said to stop wherever it seemed appropriate.  I stopped after Luke 2:20, and I have pondered the closing phrase of that verse throughout this past year.

Angels appeared to the shepherds in their fields and announced the birth of God’s son, our Savior.  The angels didn’t appear to the king.  They didn’t go to the priests.  They didn’t go to the Roman soldiers.  They didn’t go to the tax collectors.  They appeared to the lowly shepherds.  And when the shepherds went to see the baby in the manger, they returned to their fields and their herds, praising and glorifying God because everything the angels had told them was just as they had been told.

I pondered how it wasn’t only what the shepherds were told that was just as it had been told. What Mary was told about giving birth to the Savior came to pass.  What Joseph had been told about his fiancée Mary came to pass.  What Elizabeth realized when her baby (John the Baptist) leaped in her womb upon seeing the pregnant Mary had come to pass.  But, it reaches far beyond that.  What Adam and Eve were told about the heel of man wounding the serpent was to come to pass.  What Isaiah prophesied about a man of sorrows would come to pass.  And, as the prophet Micah proclaimed in Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” would come to pass.  Everything that we have been told has come to pass or will come to pass because God is not a man that He should lie.

Today, Christians rejoice at the birth of Christ, our savior, but not many of the Jews beyond the shepherds who came to worship Him at birth were thrilled at His appearance.  You see, the Jewish nation was looking for a Jewish king to rule them, a messiah who would save them from Roman oppression just as Moses had delivered their forefathers from Egyptian slavery, a mighty warrior who would conquer the circumstances for them.  They needed a bailout of sorts.  The baby in the manger was not what they expected.  The 12 year old in the temple was not what they expected.  The 20-something carpenter was not what they expected.  The 30-year-old water-to-winemaker was not what they expected.  The healer of men and feeder of thousands was not what they expected.  So, He did what was expected of Him by the Father, He died for the sins of His people — our own individualized, personalized bailout.  Not a king on earth, but the Prince of Peace from Heaven came just for us just as we had been told.

I cannot celebrate Jesus,
our Lord in the cradle,

without also celebrating Jesus,
our Lord on the cross,

and Jesus,
our Lord in the dark tomb,

and Jesus,
Our Risen Savior!

Merry Christmas to all my family–
those in the blood,
and those under the blood!

Bettye Bunch

December 24, 2009

A Tale of Two Trout (written from New Orleans)

It may have been 1977 when Ken and I first came to New Orleans. We were married in 1968, and for several years, we never had a “real” vacation. We would go to visit relatives where we could stay and eat for free on Ken’s vacation weeks. After we moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and thought we had hit the jackpot with those high salaries paid in what we then called “The North” and later learned to call the Midwest, we started actually going on vacation to tourist-type places. However, we still did not have enough money to live high on the hog — maybe not even enough to live low on the hog.

I don’t think we stayed here in New Orleans more than a few days/nights back then. I do know that one morning we went to the Court of Two Sisters for breakfast/lunch. We loved the beautiful surroundings, but the prices on the menu almost gave us a heart attack. Rather than getting up and leaving and having them think we were backwoods hicks, I ordered the least expensive (Zach has taught me not to say “cheapest”) item on the menu — trout. I had never had trout in my life and certainly not for breakfast.

We did some touristy things during the day, and that evening we went to the Hotel Pontchartrain for dinner. A fellow sport writer and colleague of Ken’s had recommended that we eat there and try the turtle soup. I should interject at this point that most sports writers are reimbursed for their meals on the road. So, this colleague and Ken were used to eating at nice places on the company’s dime. We were not on the company’s dime on vacation. We were on our last penny except for our credit card.

The menu at the Hotel Pontchartrain was another heart attack waiting to happen. The cheapest thing on the menu, and this was in the 70s, was trout for something like $22. I sighed and ordered trout again. May I say that I enjoy shellfish. I could eat shrimp, crab, oyster, and lobster prepared in just about any fashion any day. Trout is not one of my favorites. I would take catfish over it any day or night. Maybe my memories of New Orleans and that two-trout trip shape that opinion.  Ken said the turtle soup was delicious.  I only tasted a bite of it because we needed to make a mortgage payment later during the month.

There is not much else I remember about that trip except seeing a streetcar with the name “Desire” as its destination. I also remember taking a boat tour of the Mississippi River in the rain.  It was the first of many boat trips in different parts of the world, but I was so disappointed that I was not rolling on that mighty river in beautiful sunlight on the delta.

Ken checked out Emeril’s menu a few weeks ago and told me the desserts cost $10. I told him I didn’t care, that I was going to order whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted because I don’t have to eat trout now if I don’t want to.

I may not have the salad tonight and may go straight for the $8.00 gumbo. I am debating between rib eye which I love and ordering something that is definitely regional. I will decide when I get there. I am also wondering if walking three blocks there and returning in the dark is a safe thing to do. I know my angel may not fly as fast as I drive, but I am depending on him to walk with me as slowly as I walk. I will be moseying here in the Big Easy. Why do people want to live life so fast?  I love to mosey.

The Name of the Lord

The _____ of the Lord is a strong tower
The righteous run into it and they are saved
The _____ of the Lord is a strong tower
The righteous run into it and they are saved

I fell asleep last night with that chorus running through my thoughts, but I could not think of what word went in that blank.  Does that ever happen to you?  I awakened this morning still singing the chorus, substituting all sorts of words trying to find the right one.  I sang, “The joy of the Lord is a strong tower . . . the strength of the Lord is a strong tower . . . the blessings of the Lord are a strong tower . . . “  I just kept going with all the nouns in my spiritual repertoire thinking that something would feel right.  And, when I started to read my 365-Day Bible for June 9, with devotions by Max Lucado, I found my answer:

June 9  –   God’s Name in Your Heart (by Max Lucado)

The Lord is like a strong tower; those who do right can run to him for safety.  Proverbs 18:10  (New Century Version)

When you are confused about the future, go to your Jehovah-raah, your caring shepherd.  When you are anxious about provision, talk to Jehovah-jireh, the Lord who provides.  Are your challenges too great?  Seek the help of Jehovah-shalom, the Lord is peace.  Is your body sick?  Are your emotions weak?  Jehovah-rophe, the Lord who heals you, will see you now.  Do you feel like a soldier stranded behind enemy lines?  Take refuge in Jehovah-nissi, the Lord my banner.

Meditating on the names of God reminds you of the character of God.  Take these names and bury them in your heart.

Bettye Horton Bunch
6/09/08

Imperative (A commentary on worship)

imperative  (adj.)

1.  of vital importance; crucial

2.  giving an authoritative command; peremptory

Grammar:  denoting the mood of a verb that expresses a command or exhortation, as in come here!

Origin:  late Middle English from late Latin — “specially ordered” — translated from two Greek words which meant “to command” and “make ready.”

Psalm 95

A Call to Worship and Obedience

1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

When I first moved to Alabama, a friend of mine who grew up in Wisconsin and retired to Tennessee shared with me how she couldn’t find an Assemblies of God church in her community that she liked.  She had grown up in the Assemblies of God, but she didn’t feel comfortable in any of the churches she had visited.  Her problem boiled down to this:  the worship service.  She thought all the worship leaders were acting like cheerleaders, calling out commands to the people in the congregation to lift their hands, to clap their hands, to shout to God.  She felt worship should be something that happens spontaneously within an individual without someone telling that person what to do.  She and her family ended up attending a Methodist church that has a traditional song service.

I understand that this is happening in churches across America, and it has almost become a generational war within the church.  I have read articles that refer to this as “worship wars.”  I love the old hymns, and I love communal singing, but I am so glad that I have learned the difference between singing songs and praising the Lord.

The pastor at the church I attend in Scottsboro is preaching a series of sermons on Psalm 95.  He just completed his third Sunday on that Psalm.  He hasn’t told us how many sermons are in the series.  On the first Sunday when he began his sermon, my grammatically-focused mind started to look at the commands in Psalm 95.  We English teachers called them “imperative sentences.”  I thought of my friend and her cheerleader comment.  And, I thought of David who must have been and still is one of God’s greatest cheerleaders.  He exhorted others to stand, to shout, to bow, to clap, to rejoice.  He not only exhorted others, he had to exhort himself to do the same thing.  And, if you read closely, he exhorted/commanded God.  David was a bold in his worship and in his commands.

It was David who first brought instruments into the temple to praise the Lord.  I guess he started the worship wars, for the music has always changed down through each generation.  Those who cannot worship because the music isn’t right are letting their feelings about themselves hold back their feelings about God.  If we want to go back to the “old music,” then we will have to return to the Psalms of David.  Then it is imperative that we worship God in the manner that David cheers or commands us to do.  Part of the word “imperative” comes from a Greek word meaning to “make ready.”  That is what David is telling us in Psalm 95.  We need to make ourselves ready to worship the Lord.  When we enter into His presence in a spirit of worship, we will not be offended by commands.

I remember attending football games in high school when the main cheer seemed to be “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, victory, victory is our cry.”  If those in my generation could shout that on command from cheerleaders jumping up and down with their pom-poms, why can’t we have victory shouting before the Lord?

As David — the great psalmist and cheerleader for God — knew, it is imperative that we worship God.  It is imperative that we do it with a heart of praise.

Bettye Horton Bunch
September 10, 2008

Texting

A few weeks ago, I shared with the women’s Bible study that I teach about some of the messages I come up with when I text.  My cell phone is intuitive, and sometimes when I am typing using the ten digits on the phone, I come up with words that I didn’t intend to write.  Sometimes these words make me chuckle.  For example, if I haven’t typed “Chattanooga” in its recent memory, it will give me “Chattamonga” out of that combination of keys.

Recently, I have felt like my phone is preaching to me.  Before that Bible study, a friend was texting and asking for prayers.  I had texted back to her and told her that Satan was the father of lies.  When I reviewed my text before hitting the send button, the phone had produced “Satan is the father of kids.”  I told the Bible study that that really got my attention.  Satan sends out his lies disguised as sweet little kids.  We fall for them, and we think we are having fun, but sin is only pleasure for a season.  Satan’s kids grow into demons, addictions for many of us, which are hard for us to overcome . . . except through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

This morning, I was reading in my 365-day Bible, and I came upon the passage that means a lot to me and two of my friends.  I texted this to them (and a few others):  Ecclesiastes 4:12 -  And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

When I typed the word “conquer,” the phone spelled “booster.”  And, so often that is what we need from our friends.  We don’t necessarily have to go off and fight a spiritual or physical war everyday, but often we just need a boost from friends.  It brought to my mind the old Three Musketeers movies that I watched when I was a kid.  The three of them were forever climbing over walls.  To accomplish this, sometimes one of them would hold out his hands and let the other place a foot in the clasped hands and give that person a boost over a wall.  Sometimes, they would just climb on each other’s shoulders until someone reached the top.  When two of them were on top of the wall, they could then reach back down and give the third a boost up.

Even in all of their shenanigans, the Three Stooges, another childhood pleasure of mine, ultimately had to give each other a boost before they ever succeeded in their schemes.  After all the insults, the eye poking, and the slaps were exchanged, they still had to cooperate and work in unity to accomplish their goals.

May you be blessed to be part of a triple-braided cord here on earth while we await a Greater Three.

Bettye Horton Bunch
September 3, 2008

Apply Blood

And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mark 14:24

For the past 15 or so years, I have had to stick my finger at least twice a day with a lancet to draw only one tiny drop of blood to test my blood sugar levels.  For most of those years, I have used a specific brand of monitor.  Recently, I switched to another brand.  As so often with the routines of life, one gets in a habit of doing something, and it is done repetitiously from day to day without thought.

This morning, the words “Apply Blood” caught my attention and took on a new meaning.   When I turn my blood monitoring meter on, it has the message, “Check Code.”  Then, it advances to “Apply Blood.”  At that point, I apply one tiny drop of blood to a monitoring strip and wait for the reading.

When I saw those words this morning, I thought of how many times in life we need to apply His blood, but instead we try to apply our own take of and solution to the situation.

If you are facing discouragement, apply His blood.

If you have lost a dear friend, apply His blood.

If you have financial problems, apply His blood.

If someone has done you wrong at work, apply His blood.

If there is fear in your life, apply His blood.

If you don’t have direction for your life, apply His blood.

If you have sinned and feel people are judging you, apply His blood.

If people speak evil against you, apply His blood.

If your children are not living for the Lord, apply His blood.

If you need healing, apply His blood.

If a relationship has gone bad, apply His blood.

In all circumstances in life, apply His blood!

My tiny drop of blood is nothing compared to what Jesus shed for us.  Check your code.  We know that our DNA is the biological code that makes us who we are.  Jesus has given us His DNA when we accepted Him into our hearts.  My code on my test strips this morning is aptly the number “1.”  Put Jesus first in all circumstances; apply His blood.

Bettye Bunch

May 13, 2008

Trash Talk/Righteous Reply

My first two years of teaching were at George Washington Carver Junior High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I had grown up in a segregated school – white – in Alabama, and here I was teaching in a segregated school – black – in Oklahoma.  I cannot say it was culture shock, but it was certainly a lesson in cultural awareness.

I learned a new term right away at Carver.  It was an insult game played primarily by my male students.  They called it “Shootin’ the Dozens.”  Some called it “Playin’ the Dozens.”  One male would start out by saying, “Yo mama is so ugly that . . .”  Fill in any insult that a 13 year old could come up with.  Some were downright insulting.  Others were very witty as the young men tried to “out insult” the other . . . and their mamas.  This would disrupt the class on a daily basis until I started using this statement, “Speaking of yo mamas, I think I need to call them.”  No matter how much they were trying to insult each other and the other’s mother, they didn’t want their own mother to know.

It wasn’t but a year or two later that I noticed sports announcers beginning to refer to football players engaging in “trash talk” at the line of scrimmage.  I could just imagine the guards on one side and the linemen on the other saying, “Yo mama’s so ugly she wears your helmet backwards to cover her face.”  However, I am sure their insults were more grown-up and more vulgar, their taunts more challenging.

Trash talk is defined in the The New Oxford American Dictionary as “insulting or boastful speech intended to demoralize, intimidate, or humiliate someone, esp. an opponent in an athletic contest.”  My attention was drawn to the topic of trash talk as I read the story of David and Goliath in my daily Bible reading recently.

Goliath was a giant of a man and a giant trash talker.  He looked at David and saw a young, handsome boy.  He was insulted that the Israelites had sent a boy out to do a man’s job against the greatest of the Philistine warriors.  And, to heap insult upon insult, David wore no armor.  Goliath looked at him and said, “Come here.  I’ll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals.”  Trash talk.

David had tried on Saul’s armor, the armor of the Israelite king whom the Bible said stood head and shoulders above all the other Israelites.  But, David was just a boy.  He took off Saul’s armor.  He took his childhood weapon, a sling, and five rocks to do battle with Goliath who was nine feet tall and whose coat of armor weighed 125 pounds.  David probably weighed no more than that himself.

And, here is where the trash talking ended for Goliath.  David had a righteous reply:  “But David said to him, ‘You come to me using a sword and two spears.  But I come to you in the name of the LORD All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel.  You have spoken against him.  Today the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll kill you and cut off your head.  Today I’ll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals.  Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel!  Everyone gathered here will know the LORD does not need swords or spears to save people.  The battle belongs to him, and he will hand you over to us.’”  (1 Samuel 17:45-47 NCV)

One of the problems we face in life is that we cannot always identify the enemy that comes against us.  If he were nine feet tall with full armor, we might recognize him immediately for what he is.  But, just as the serpent deceived Eve, so often we are deceived by voices with promises that we would like to fall for.  As someone noted recently, how could Eve not be suspicious of a talking serpent?  Did any other animal in the Garden of Eden talk with her?  Satan began his trash talking there in the Garden of Eden, the most perfect place on Earth.  But Eve was weak in her reply.  At this point, some would point out that women are all emotion and no logic.  Tell that to Adam who also partook of the forbidden fruit.  Neither gave a righteous reply.

When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.  He was hungry when the tempter came to Him and challenged Him that if He were the Son of God to change stones into bread.  Jesus’ righteous reply was, “It is written . . .”  Then the tempter transported Him to Jerusalem and placed Him atop the temple and challenged Him to jump to prove that God’s angels would save Him.  Jesus’ righteous reply was, “It is written . . .”  And, a third time the tempter offered Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship Satan.  Jesus’ righteous reply was, “It is written . . .”

The sooner we know what is written, the sooner we will have a righteous reply to the enemy of our souls.  The sooner we recognize the trash talk of the enemy who comes to us with promises which hold no reward at the end, the sooner we will be able to give the devil a righteous reply.  David did not need earthly armor because he knew that the battle was the LORD’S.  Jesus did not succumb to the promises of the devil because He not only knew His Father, He knew what was written.

Bettye Horton Bunch
May 15, 2009

Friend of God

On Sunday morning, on the way to church, the chorus, “I am a friend of God” came to me, and I sang it as I drove.  I do some of my best singing and thinking as I drive.  No one hears me but God, so I can sing out loud without criticism.  When Pastor Derek began to lead worship, the first chorus was “I am a friend of God.”  That thrilled me.  God was telling me again that I am His friend.

Sometimes it is very hard to accept that I am a friend of God.  It is easy to accept that I am His child, but being His friend seems to be a much closer relationship than even being a child.

After a particularly hard day yesterday, both physically and emotionally, I picked up my Bibles and devotion book to head for my back porch this morning.  That’s where God and I meet each day . . . outside in His world . . . not in the house in my world.  As I walked to the back porch, the words, “I am a friend of God.  I am a friend of God.  He calls me friend,” came to me.

I finished my reading in my 365-Day Bible.  I finished the devotion for the day.  I picked up my The Answer Bible which is the New Century Version.  I have been reading it straight through this year, and I am in the Book of John.  Near the end of my reading, I paused for a minute to look at the bird feeder because all the various birds, including some large doves, had leaped frantically in flight and had scattered in every direction.  I knew there must be a predator around.  It only took me a few seconds to notice that a large hawk had perched in the tree above the feeder.  I didn’t see or hear it come, but the birds at the feeder did.

I thought of how when trouble comes into our church, our life, our home, we tend to want to run.  At times in my life, I have even run from God.  Some of us face the problem as with the birds this morning.  We run the wrong direction.  We disband.  We don’t congregate at the feeder together.  We see the enemy, and we flee.  God wants us to run to Him.  He wants us to congregate in His place of worship.  He wants us to feed upon His Word.  He wants us to run toward His light and to walk His path.

Are you running this morning?  Which direction are you running?

As I returned to finish my Bible reading, this was the passage I ended with.  I would like to think it was there just for me, but I am certain Jesus put it there for you, too:

John 15:12-17 (New Century Version)

For this is my command:  Love each other as I have loved you.

The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing.  But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father.

You did not choose me; I chose you.  And I gave you this work:  to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last.

Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name.

This is my command:  Love each other.

If we know Jesus as as savior, He calls us friends.  At a time when so much is happening in our church, our lives, and our homes, we should be running to Him.  We should also congregate to face the enemy, not flee. The enemy wants us to disband and to flee.  Run to God, but do not forsake to assemble together!  Produce fruit.  It makes the enemy mad!

Bettye Bunch
May 16, 2007

Middle C

Max Lucado

from Traveling Light

I the Lord do not change.

Malachi 3:6 (NCV)

When Lloyd Douglas, author of The Robe and other novels, attended college, he lived in a boardinghouse.  A retired, wheelchair-bound music professor resided on the first floor.  Each morning Douglas would stick his head in the door of the teacher’s apartment and ask the same question, “Well, what’s the good news?”

The old man would pick up his turning fork, tap it on the side of the wheelchair and say, “That’s middle C!  It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now.  The tenor upstairs sings flat.  The piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C.”

You and I need a middle C.  Haven’t you had enough change in your life?  Relationships change.  Health changes.  The weather changes.  But the Yahweh who ruled the earth last night is the same Yahweh who rules it today.  Same convictions.  Same plan.  Same mood.  Same love.  He never changes.

And my take on Middle C . . .

In sixth grade, I took six weeks of music lessons before my mother made me quit because my clarinet squeaked more than it produced a pleasing sound.  However, by that time, I had learned my Every Good Boy Does Fine mnemonic to remember the lines and FACE to remember the spaces between the lines.  However, today I still can’t recognize middle C from any other note.  I do not have an ear for music.  I do not have a voice for singing.  However, I have a heart for the middle C.  To me, the middle C is Christ on the cross between two thieves.  That middle C is One that I recognize, and One that I have an ear for.  I can sing praises to His name, and He does not care if I know one note for another.  I know Him, and I know His Father.

I often heard it said in education that “change is good.” Being nearer the ending of my life than the beginning, I know that change, like everything else in life, can be graded on a scale.  I prefer to believe in the Christ that is constant and unchanging.  As we enter 2009, I pray that you will continue to be sustained by Christ in all your endeavors which honor Him.

Bettye Bunch

January 2009

Middle Name

Photo by Bettye Bunch

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water:
whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in
was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
John 5:4.

Often I have heard it said that there are no coincidences with God.  In the field of education, we have always been reminded that repetition is the mother of learning.  From last Friday to last Tuesday, from Bible study night in Chattanooga to Bible study night in Scottsboro, God was uncoincidentally teaching me a lesson, and He made certain that I noticed the repetition.

Before I taught on Friday night, someone prayed a prayer over me.  While I usually try to join in while someone is praying, I could not.  All I could do was listen to the words of the prayer.  And, in those words, I heard that I should not let my pride interfere with what God was doing.  When I taught the lesson for the night, one of the two chapters I taught was on pride, specifically that pride is the fruit of impatience.  On Sunday morning, my pastor in Scottsboro taught on “Blessed are the low in spirit,” a sermon on pride and humility.  Then on Monday night, as I was again studying the lesson to be taught in Scottsboro, Joyce Meyer’s show came on, and she taught on pride.  I don’t believe there are any coincidences with God, and He already had my attention on this issue before Joyce came along and placed her seal of disapproval on my mind.

I was sharing this with the ladies at the Bible study in Scottsboro on Tuesday night, and we were talking about the need to be quick to obey God’s voice.  And, out of nowhere (a code word for my scattered thoughts) I blurted out, “God knows our middle name.”  And, I didn’t have to explain those words to the ladies because most of them grew up in a household where, if their mother were getting a little perturbed that they did not respond when called or told to do something, she would use their first and middle names to emphasize the seriousness of what she wanted to happen.  One lady shared that she did the same with her children and grandchildren, and if they still didn’t take notice, they got the “full-name treatment.”  It was better than counting, “One, two, three.”

I had heard God speak my name audibly before many years ago, but now, I had felt that on the issue of pride, He had let me know that He knows my middle name, and that He had been prepared to use it if I hadn’t responded.  He had counted to “one,” and it caught my attention.  He had made it to “two,” and I asked, “What?”  He counted to “three,” and I knew He was doing something just for me.  And, to let me know that He is a forgiving God, a God of do-overs, a God of second chances, a God of forgiveness, He let Joyce add number “four” just to let me know that it really was His voice I was hearing in my spirit.

On Sunday night as I drove to church and was rounding Moccasin Bend in Chattanooga, I prayed for the patients in the mental hospital located there on the Tennessee River below Lookout Mountain.  I prayed that God would still the storms in their minds, that He would put loving and caring professionals around them, that he would place someone in their lives to show them His love.  And, as I was praying for those storms to cease, God spoke to me that sometimes in my own life He doesn’t want to calm the storm; He wants to trouble the waters.  He let me know that I had grown too complacent in some areas of my spiritual life, and that He wanted me to step into the troubled waters for my spiritual healing.  And, although He knows my middle name, He didn’t have to use it for me to understand what He was showing me.  God is so good.

Bettye Bunch
September 27, 2008