Bible – Page 2 – Erin Ulerich

We Were Made for Meaning

Late one night when the noises in the dorm rooms around me faded, I sat on my floor asking big questions. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do with my life?

It was my Junior year at Belhaven College. Only one more year until graduation. Shouldn’t I know what I wanted to be when I grew up by now?

In those quiet moments I read 2 Corinthians 5:14.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, for but Him who died for them and rose again.

From this verse I gathered that I was supposed to live for Christ and not for myself.

But what does it mean to live for Christ?

If I had written this post on that night twenty-something years ago, I would probably have written a list, a “10 Ways to Live For Him” that would have sounded very spiritual and pretty near impossible. I’m sure an hour-long devotion at 5:00 am before your big toe hits the floor would have made the list.

Thank goodness blogging hadn’t been invented yet.

The truth is that “living for Him and not for ourselves” will probably look different for each of us. It even looks different in each season of our own lives. Living for Him may involve caring for your mother or father while they struggle with cancer or Alzheimer’s. It may involve changing 1,234 diapers in a season of caring for babies. It may mean waiting. Waiting for a relationship, waiting for a child, waiting for an answer. Waiting and clinging to His promises.

But behind the scenes “living for Him and not for ourselves” looks pretty similar in each of our lives. Living for Him involves getting to know Him and learning to hear His voice.

We get to know Him by talking to Him through prayer, by reading His Word, by being part of a community of people who are also living for Him, a place where our faith can be encouraged and strengthened.

The word for compels is a Greek word that means to hold together, to compress, to arrest. The love of Christ holds us together.

The word compels mean to force or drive, especially to a course of action.What action does the love of Christ drive us to?

When we grasp what He has done for us, the love of Christ toward us drives us to live for Him, and not for ourselves. We live for Him in response to His love for us.

My 10 ways – list-making-college-self lived for Him in order to earn His love. What a waste. The glorious truth is that We already have His love! The life He lived and the death He died is proof of His love for us. There is nothing to earn, but plenty to be thankful for.

In the process of living for Him we get to know Him. As we get to know Him we grow closer to Him. And no matter what our season of life looks like on the outside, growing closer to Him brings meaning to our life.

We Were Made For Truth

We say what we think. We live what we believe.

If we believed what God says about us, it would change the way we live.

God is With Us

God’s desire from the beginning has been fellowship. To be with us.

In the very beginning, God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. When sin entered the world, that relationship was broken, but God’s desire did not change. Throughout the Old Testament, His heart cry is repeated: “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

And then He opened the folds of time and stepped into our world, as one of us. Jesus, Immanuel, which means God with us.

With us. Not watching from a distance. Not a kind, but powerless, force hovering around us. But walking among us, experiencing life in this broken world.

Through Jesus, God knows the pull of this world on our hearts. He knows what betrayal feels like. He knows what it is like to watch people you love make wrong choices and walk down destructive paths. His feet grew dusty, His heart weary. He felt the limitations of our human body.

Jesus lived the life we cannot live, perfectly obeying God’s law. Through His life, death on the cross, and resurrection, He calls us back into relationship with Him – the relationship we were originally made for.

When there was no way, God made a way. Immanuel, God with us.

And Jesus’ parting words were, “I am with you always..”

Then He sent His Spirit to be with us, His power inside us. Today, right now, He is with us. His relentless, loving devotion to His people has not changed.

We were not made to be alone, and He has not left us alone.

Linger in the beauty of this truth. Savor the sweetness. God is with us.

There is Joy in His Presence

I love this picture of my dad. I love the joy on his face. He is a kid just enjoying being a kid.

I love seeing that joy on my children’s faces, too. I love it when they forget I’m around, and they are in their own world, just being kids.

I also love it when they snuggle on the couch with me in the mornings. Sometimes we just watch the sun rise, transforming the darkness outside our windows. Sometimes we talk about the dreams they had during the night. And sometimes they whisper big questions into those quiet moments, questions about life in this broken world.

I love the privilege of speaking truth into their lives. It gives me joy to be with them.

The longer I am a parent, the more parallels I see between children and being a child of God. Just as my children draw security and comfort from these early morning visits with me, I draw security and comfort from time in God’s Presence.

I have to admit that I haven’t always viewed time with God as being a joy-filled experience. There have been times in my life when being in His presence has been uncomfortable. There have been times when I’ve been nervous and prayed loud-and-fast-and-got-out-of-there-as-soon-as-I-could. I could still say I had time with the Lord, but I didn’t really spend time with him. I threw Him my list of needs and got out before He could say anything.

I was fulfilling a sense of duty, but it did not nourish my soul.

But God has a way of wiggling His truths into our hearts, even when our fingers are in our ears. He has a way of bringing us back to our senses when we stray off His path.

Why does He do this? Simply because He loves us. Because He wants us to experience the joy found through a relationship with Him.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

The more I spend time with Him, the more I see this as a lifeline, and less as an item on my to-do list.

I wrote this poem years ago, as my view of time with God began to change:

As I sit at Your feet and lean upon Your knee, As I read Your Words to me,

A hunger fills my lonely heart. It is You I desire to see.

When I’m with You I catch a glimpse of what this world should be.

Haziness clears, what is important appears, And it is You I desire to see.

In Your Presence is peace and fullness of joy, Unlike any other place I can be.

As Your loved daughter, a child of the King, It is my Father I long to see.

As I sit at Your feet and lean upon Your knee, As I read Your Words to me,

A hunger fills my peaceful heart, And with you I long to be.

The search for joy brings us to the feet of the One who loves us beyond measure.

Nothing Can Separate Us From God’s Love

In the book I am writing, the main character tells her friend, Stephen, about meeting the Jewel Maker. Their conversation tells us a lot about Stephen and about the Jewel Maker.

“Has He talked to you, too?”

“From time to time, yes. Like you, He speaks words of healing to me.”

“What does He tell you?”

Stephen’s face clouded. “That He loves me.”

“Why do you look so sad when you say it?”

“The shame I feel about not going after Jade covers me and makes it hard for me to really believe His words, even when I know they are true. His words seem to roll off, instead of reaching my heart. I am uneasy in His presence. I am nervous, although He is only ever kind and loving.” – Angkura: The Fight for Hope

Although my story is fiction, shame is real. Shame is the intensely painful feeling that we are unworthy of love and belonging. (Brene Brown)

And thought the majority of us never talk about it, we’ve felt the blush of shame running over us. We’ve had times when we couldn’t even look ourselves in the eye in the mirror, much less open ourselves up to get close to others.

Shame is a fungus. It flourishes in the dark, covering us with its lies. Shame separates us from God by convincing us that that though God’s love is real, it is not meant for us. Shame works overtime to make sure we feel alone, and that we stay alone. Eventually it convinces us that we are alone.

Shame convinces us that we are the only ones who make mistakes, the only ones who numb emotional pain through food, sex, video games, or mindless TV shows. Or by staying too busy to think or to feel.

The numbing only works for so long. We feel horrible about our actions, and resolve to not give in next time. But shame dives in and convinces us that we are worthless and stupid to think we could ever change.

The longer we are quiet about our shame, the stronger its voice grows.

Lets turn on the light and look at truth.

What does God say to us? He says I love you.

He says it through His Word, He says it by providing a way for us to know Him, He says it through the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. He can even say it through the smile of a stranger.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
³For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…
⁴Because you are precious in my eyes,
    and honored, and I love you… Isaiah 43: 1-4

God says I have called you by name. You are mine precious, loved.

Shame pours over us, like a relentless waterfall, seeking to wash the truth away. But even if just a smidge of truth gets in, hold on to it.Truth is worth fighting for.

In these beginning days of October, we’ve seen that God’s love is lavish and extravagant. His love never ends, and His compassion toward us is as abundant as His love. And now, today’s beautiful truth – Nothing can separate us from His love. Nothing – not even the darkness within us. God’s love is real even when we don’t really feel it.

In the warmth of His marvelous light we find life.

God’s Compassion Never Ends

It had been one of THOSE weeks. You know, the ones where life hits in relentless, pounding waves. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t get my footing. Dirty laundry formed mountains around my house, my kitchen was a mess, my husband stepped on a ~~spike used in Roman times~~ nail at work, and my children were perfecting the art of getting on each other’s last nerve.

One morning between getting them off to school and getting ready for work, I crawled into my comfy chair, which was strategically angled so that I could look out the windows and ignore the messy house. I opened a devotional book and the first three words were a gift.

“Rest in me…”

Rest. The word brought verses to mind and comfort to my heart.

When I thought of Be still and know I am God. (Psalm 46:10), I heard “I’ve got this. You are not on your own here.”

The verse Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) was like being lifted into strong arms.

I leaned my head back to bask in these words, to drink in the truth. And I fell asleep. Not a graceful dozing off, but a mouth wide open full-blown snooze.

It was exactly what I needed.

God knows we are living in a broken world where things are difficult. He knows we try to handle it on our own, and He gently reminds us that He hasn’t asked us to. We are just kids. We are His kids.

As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103: 13-14

There are days when I feel my dustiness, my weakness, my need for rest.

God’s love for us includes compassion. His compassion is equal to His love.

He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love. Lamentations 3:32

He loves lavishly, and His compassion and comfort are lavish as well.