Trust Archives - Kristina Lunde

April 20, 2022 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Daniel’s Mother on Child Training

Dear Modern Mama, Please consider this Bible verse as a parenting goal. God never showed me the outcome of my child training here on earth, but this is what He taught me:

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.

The Ten Commandments

“The way he should go” sounds very broad, but go back to the ten commandments in Exodus 20 (repeated in Deuteronomy 5) to review God’s primary guidelines for life. The first three commandments focus on our relationship with God. If we set God first above all else in our lives, the rest will fall into place. That means nothing gets placed ahead of God, not even our children. (Don’t know about you, but that challenged this dedicated mama!)

God’s name deserves worship, not to be abused or taken in vain. Using God’s name as intended means that we respect Him, tell others about God, and speak His truth in love. If we focus on God and His teaching in our own lives, it will flow out from us into our children. The time, energy, and resources we spend training our children can be filtered through God’s priorities for our own lives.

With God as our number one priority, we can invest in other relationships. The fourth commandment tells us to honor our father and mother. Our children will watch how we respect our parents and elders. If kids learn to treat family members with appreciation and dignity, they will apply those concepts to other adults. The other commandments list acts of disobedience against God and other people: murder, adultery, stealing, lying, and jealousy. Child-training teaches what obedience looks like, both how to act and how not to act.

God’s Plan

My husband and I taught our eldest Daniel and his younger siblings the ten commandments as we prepared them for God’s plan. You will not find us mentioned in the Bible, but we raised our children with love and dedication, teaching them about the Lord our God, the Holy One of Israel. Our goals for our children included a disciplined lifestyle, regular prayer time, and loyalty to God—concepts based on the ten commandments. I admit being very strict about some things, especially prayer and nutrition. My Danny-boy always ate his vegetables—the other kids, not often. Daniel learned everything so quickly and he loved to pray. To this proud Mama, my Danny-boy seemed to be a born leader.

When the Babylonian invaders kidnapped my Danny-boy and took him captive to their pagan nation, I became distraught. I never got to say goodbye, nor did I ever see my son again. Little could I imagine that God had orchestrated this for His good and His glory. I often thought of my forefather Israel. He saw his son Joseph again in that strange land of Egypt, decades after Joseph was presumed dead. Losing a son like that breaks a mama’s heart, but I had to keep going, raising my other children and still trusting God.

Sometimes, dear Mama, we will not understand God’s plan until we get to heaven. God may launch our precious children from home long before we are ready to release them. Yes, I questioned God, His purpose and His ways, but ultimately I realized that the Lord my God is worth trusting even when I don’t understand.

God’s Parenting Lesson

Check out my son’s book, the biblical book of Daniel. You will learn that he continued to live out the priorities my husband and I taught him. My Danny-boy faced a lot of adversity as a captive in a far-away pagan land, but our Holy One of Israel blessed and protected the Israelites in exile. Despite much opposition, my Danny-boy and his friends shone like bright lights in the darkness, living out their love for the Lord our God. Looking back now, I understand Isaiah’s writing:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

And so, dear modern mama, I want to encourage you. Keep training your child in the way God directs, according to the ten commandments, because you may never know what God has planned for them.
Love to you from Daniel’s mother

March 31, 2022 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Ten Leprous Men and Their Walk of Faith

Our Wednesday night children’s lesson, taken from Luke 17:11-19, focused on Jesus healing the ten men with leprosy. Pastor David told the Bible lesson in his casual interactive style, involving kids in acting out the story. Adult volunteers didn’t usually get a character assignment for the drama, but this time everyone joined in. Portraying the leprous men, adults and kids cried out from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Pastor, acting out the part of Jesus, answered, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And then we started walking . . .

How many times had I heard this Bible story?! Children’s lessons often focused on the one man who came back to say thank you for the miracle. Other presentations pointed out the grateful man’s nationality as Samaritan, people rejected by the Jews as outcast half-breeds. Samaritans who received healing and demonstrated faith in Jesus challenged Jewish expectations of the Messiah. Again and again, Jesus the Messiah healed, taught, and expanded people’s understanding of His power and purpose. And this Gospel account still does that today, if we open our hearts to Jesus’ teaching in His Word.

As a people freed from slavery and learning to become God’s nation, the Israelites received instructions in Leviticus for their safety, health, and relationship to God. In addition to butchers, interpreters of the law, and sacrifice intermediaries, the Levite priests became experts on infectious diseases. Detailed dermatology lessons (Leviticus 13:1-46) helped priests examine and pronounce the afflicted person as unclean (e.g. spreading rashes, raw flesh—what we call contagious) or clean (e.g. baldness, a healed rash). Leviticus chapter 13 taught priests when to isolate and re-examine, while the next chapter (Leviticus 14:1-32) described ceremonial cleansing procedures for people declared clean. As recorded thousands of years ago, God gave instructions to keep the Israelites from spreading disease, long before our science-based infection control procedures (e.g. gloves, lab tests, microscopes—even basics like soap and running water).

Ten men with infectious skin disease, translated as leprosy in most Bible versions, stood at a distance, as dictated in Leviticus. Rather than the obligatory cry of “Unclean! Unclean,” these men called out to Jesus for mercy. In compliance with the levitical code, Jesus sent them to the priests. He never pronounced them healed, but the directive to show themselves to the priests meant that their healing would be confirmed.

As we walked around the room acting out the biblical drama, this passage became an object lesson for me. Trying to insert myself into that their walk of faith, I thought of the march to the temple. How long do we have to walk? Are these lumps, ulcers, and discolorations disappearing? Does my back/foot/hand/head look better yet? My self-examination might last the entire trip!

That walk required faith from the ten leprous men—faith that Jesus healed them. Jesus supported the priest’s authority to distinguish clean from unclean and to validate the miracle. No matter what evidence of healing the men observed during their journey, they walked in obedience to Jesus’ command. By faith, the ten men believed that their presentation to the priest would result in a clean examination. And by faith, the healed Samaritan man returned to give thanks to His Savior.

Lord God, please forgive me for my arrogance in thinking I cannot learn anything new from a familiar Bible passage. Thank you for the example of the ten men with leprosy, especially their walk of faith and obedience to your command. Please help me to believe and act on the truth of God’s Word, even when the journey is long and my faith is weak. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
[Originally posted February 2022]

March 30, 2022 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

God be the Center

“Be thou the center of our least endeavor.” These words from the hymn “A Christian Home,” written by Barbara B. Hart in 1965, echoed in my ears after last Sunday’s church service. That phrase, for God to be the center, formed a punch line before the final line of the last verse:

O Lord, our God, our homes are Thine forever! 
We trust to Thee their problems, toil, and care; 
Their bonds of love no enemy can sever 
If Thou art always Lord and Master there: 
Be Thou the center of our least endeavor: 
Be Thou our Guest, our hearts and homes to share.

What it does not mean

That second-to-last line surprised me with what it did not pray for:

God, center my self-focus as I reflect on past pain and suffering.
Yes, in retrospect, I recognize God’s comfort and help through past troubled times. But I need to make Him the center of my life from this moment forward.

God be the center of my upcoming project.
Yes, I want God to be my foundation as I pursue the projects that He guides me to accomplish. But I need His guidance on more than just the big tasks.

God, be the center of my future.
Yes, I entrust what lies ahead to my Creator and Savior. But I need Him in the present moment.

God, be the center of my success.
Yes, I pray for God to be with me in my proud moments of achievement. But that is not the only time I need to be centered on God.

What it does mean

Of course, I desire God to be the central aspect of my past, present, future, projects, successes, goals, achievements, and choices. But what about inviting God to be the center of my everyday tasks, chores, and responsibilities? Even more humbling, what about establishing God as the center of my least-favorite, most-disgusting, often-dreaded activities? What if I pray God into the center of my everyday life, the here and now, even when I find it boring and undesirable?

Brother Lawrence’s writings, published in The Practice of the Presence of God, focus on his insights and time with God during the everyday tasks of life. Born Nicholas Herman in the early 1600s, Brother Lawrence spent years working in a monastery. His writings describe how he disciplined himself to focus on God as he worked, most frequently peeling potatoes in the kitchen. Five hundred years later, Brother Lawrence’s words still stand as a testament of how to involve God as the center of our least endeavor.

How

In Matthew 6:11, the Lord’s Prayer gives me an example of inviting God into my everyday life: “give us today our daily bread.” Not provision for the future, not pantries and freezers full of food for an entire month, but just enough for today’s nourishment. This verse helps me pray for God’s provision, for Him to supply me in the amount and timing that fills my needs, not what I think I deserve. In this way, I learn to trust God for His help in essentials of daily life.

Stormie O’Martian explores that same theme in her book, appropriately entitled Just Enough Light For The Step I’m On (1986, Harvest House Publishers). The image that comes to my mind is Psalm 119:105: “your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” God guides me with His word, giving me what I need on my everyday walk with Him.

My Prayer

Lord God, let my least endeavor be filled with your presence at the center. No matter how insignificant or irritating I find my everyday task, help me to rely on you as my foundation and guide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
[Originally posted June 2021]

March 23, 2018 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

God’s Encouragement in My Valentine Eggs

Crack, plop. Crack, plop. The eggs dropped into the mixing bowl, as my foggy brain tried to keep track of the count. Ten eggs was more than I usually used for cooking or baking, but this was an egg bake I was preparing for our Valentine’s Day MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) event.

As a mother without preschoolers, or “mah-wop” (MWOP) as my husband Craig jokingly calls me, I volunteer with our local MOPS group as a mentor mom. That morning I was bleary-eyed, having “pancake-flip-flopped” my way through three hours of insomnia the night before. At least I would be in good company that morning; most MOPS do not sleep through the night either.

As I grabbed one of the eggs from the carton, I looked closely and noticed a surprise:Printed inside the Goldhen egg carton I had purchased from Aldi, I found a Bible verse. The small print inside the egg carton lid spelled out Psalm 118:24 (RSV): This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24 is a special verse for our family. Craig and I realized that our mothers had hung that verse, printed on the same mini-banner, in their respective kitchens in our childhood homes. My father began his daily professional dictations in the 1970s by quoting Psalm 118:24. Craig and I chose that verse as a theme for our wedding ceremony.

And there, on Valentine’s Day morning 2018, was the reminder that the day is the Lord’s and therefore worth rejoicing in. I called Craig over to read it, joking that he should take credit for placing our wedding verse there as a Valentine’s greeting for me. No, Craig could not take credit for that valentine. I gave credit to our Creator God, whose word energized me when I felt exhausted before a long day.

The Bible says that God’s word will always complete what it is meant to bring about. God promised that through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55:11, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Studying the Bible helps us learn about the blessings and purposes of God’s word.

I am so grateful that God used His words, printed on an egg carton, to surprise and encourage me on Valentine’s Day.

October 31, 2017 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Oswald Chambers and the Ouch Question

“Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him?”

Oswald Chambers’ question, from his October 23rd devotional in My Utmost for His Highest, is what I term the “ouch question.” An insightful challenge, Chambers’ ouch-inducing question demands a convicting look at the purpose and priorities of my life. My usual prayer format: Thank you God for ——,——, and ——. Please do —— in ——’s life. Amen. In other words, I express gratitude for past and current blessings and then add my requests for more. How selfish and self-centered—as if I am using a formulaic method to get what I want. I echo my mother’s advice to say please and thank you, but in a perfunctory way that does not acknowledge the God of the bigger picture.

The omnipotent God may not bring healing. He may not ease my friend’s suffering. He may not ease someone’s money woes. God may not stop the onset of a bigger challenge than what I see when I request help with the immediate problem. I am so very ignorant of God’s bigger picture and higher purposes.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. Job 1:21b.

Note the juxtaposition as Job acknowledged his God-given gifts and recognized his losses in the same sentence. He then concluded his prayer with a respectful desire to praise and honor the Lord. Anyway. In spite of. No matter what happened. Job did not sin with his lips even after his bitter wife told him to curse God and die (Job 2:9-10). Likely still sitting in the ashes scraping himself to ease the pain and itching of his sores (Job 2:7-8), Job’s words continued to resound with faithfulness to God.

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. Job 19:25

God used Job, in the depths of his suffering, to express a Messianic prophecy. There was no changing of loyalty, no defection, no change in Job’s commitment to God. Yes, some anger and venting expressed straight to God, but no backtracking on his faith. Actually, Job’s resolve to follow God seemed to increase even as his friends accused him. Job remained faithful.

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Job 13:15

The King James version says “yet will I trust in him.” In the midst of his trials, Job obeyed steadfastly and trusted God’s outcome. That is the kind of heart that would answer yes to Oswald Chambers’ question. Job’s heart did not love conditionally based on blessings given. Job exemplified a steadfast, ongoing love that did not depend on current circumstances or diminish in the face of suffering. Such true faith did not waiver in trusting or hoping in God. Instead, Job’s faith rested securely in God.

Lord, Oswald Chambers’ question really hurts. Ouch. Forgive my hesitance and fear in asking, but please grow my faith. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.