SHAKE

One particular word at the beginning of my Bible study this morning got me to thinking about food, seasonings and restaurants… strange wouldn’t you say?  But it really doesn’t surprise me as I have discovered over the years, that God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives!  So, I tend to go with the flow and see where He might be leading me with the wide variety of subjects that pop up during my morning Bible studies.

After coffee, quiet time in the Word and a quick shower, I went back into the study to put on my shoes and socks so that Fiver & I could go out on our morning walk.  As I pulled on my socks, I glanced over to my desk where my Bible and computer were sitting and then over to Fiver who was anxiously awaiting our walk and had to laugh!  I laughed as I thought about my earlier study and began to remember the many times that Piper and I went to The Cattleman’s Steak House in both our hometown of Santa Rosa and the other location next to the highway in the neighboring city of Petaluma.

For years it was our favorite restaurant... in fact, I proposed to Piper at the restaurant in Petaluma… well… in the parking lot actually!  Romantic right?   But that’s a whole nuther story!  The first thing I recalled was when one of the wait staff would come by the table with a large pepper mill and ask if they could grind some fresh pepper onto our salads.  I wasn’t a huge fan of pepper so I’d ask for just a touch while Piper would smile and keep nodding her head as they twisted the mill and say “more!”  Her liking of pepper always served to remind me of her more adventurous side!

The other memory was that of the “Bean Girl” who would come by our table after our dinner was served carrying a large kettle of baked beans.  I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about how much Piper enjoyed them, while I usually said “No thanks!”  What can I say? I was spoiled by my Mom’s cooking and soon after we were married, by Piper’s personalized recipe for baked beans in the orange crockpot we got as a wedding present!  Our kids hated them… but I loved them!  So, to me… the beans at Cattleman’s were just a little too bland for my palette.

The word that set me off in this direction at the start of my Bible study was “SHAKE!”  As soon as I had sat down, turned on my computer and dated my note page, I clearly heard the word “SHAKE” spoken from the small-still-voice on the inside of me.  So, I wrote it down in caps at the top of the page and proceeded to look up the first verse that came to mind, which was the main scripture that I had studied the previous day in Philippians 4:4-5.

While reading from different versions yesterday, I suddenly thought about a little obscure translation that I had found a number of years ago entitled “The Letters of St. Paul to Seven Churches and three Friends with the Letter to the Hebrews” by Arthur S. Way, second edition 1906.  Way’s translation of this particular verse instructs us to: “Rejoice in the sense of the Lord’s presence always.  I will say it again – rejoice!  Let unselfishness be known, as your distinguishing character, to all men.  The Lord’s coming is now at hand!”

I hadn’t remembered that translation and the thought of being able to rejoice at any time, in the midst of any situation BECAUSE you have a continual SENSE of HIS PRESENSE with you, really struck a chord with me!  It seemed to give me a much greater understanding of what the writer of this book was trying to convey to his or her readers.

From there I began to look up all the verses where the word “SHAKEN” is used from various translations.  Scriptures like Matthew 21:10 where the writer tells of Jesus’ final entrance into the city of Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry, reporting that: “As He made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, "What's going on here? Who is this?" or the incident in Luke 1:28-29 when a young teenage Mary is greeted by the angel of the Lord who tells her of God’s plan for the world saying, “… Good morning! You're beautiful with God's beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you.  (and) She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that.” 

And it goes on and on from there like the time the Jailor was stunned by a prayer induced earthquake and “…got a torch and ran inside.  (and) Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Paul and Silas.” (3 scriptures -The Message)  The various uses of the idea of receiving a SHAKING seem to have to do with either an incident where God has caused a personal SHAKING in your life where you are forced to make a decision or when someone or something else causes a negative SHAKING in your life… and whether you prepared or not for it! 

Scriptures like Psalms 27:3 do a great job at summarizing the question of how to be prepared for the negative attacks in our lives as the Psalmist declares that: “My heart will not be afraid even if an army rises to attack. I know that you are there for me, so I will not be shaken.”  But the one that I liked the best is where Luke tells of a prophesy of King David’s when he wrote in Acts 2:25 that King David declared that, “I continually see the Lord in front of me. He’s at my right hand, and (therefore) I am never shaken.” (last 2 scriptures: The Passion Translation) 

Luke here did a masterful job in bringing my Bible study this morning back in a full circle… concluding with the identical thought that the Lord had started me out with… mainly that our success in handling the “SHAKINGS” in our lives… whether a positive one from the Lord or a negative one coming through the adverse situations or circumstances we face in our lives, are dependent upon our personal proximity to the Lord!

In other words, are we in a place in our relationship with the Lord where we have “the sense of the Lord’s presence always” and/or “continually see the Lord in front of us, (where) He’s (close by) at our right hand” or not?  A quick litmus test would be the answer to the question of “Who or what is the first thing I think of when something SHAKES me?  Is it the Lord or something else?”

Hmmm… something to chew on!

Have a great end of the week!