Before & After

In the Middle, He is Building with Living Stones

April 12, 2017

Living Stones

You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple.
He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.
What’s more, you are his holy priests.
Through the mediation of Jesus Christ,
you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
1 Peter 2:4-5, NLT

In the Old Testament, God visited His people in many places: He gave Moses marching orders at the burning bush (Exodus 3), met Noah right where he was with a building plan for a big boat (Genesis 6), and whispered Truth to Ezekiel on Mount Zion (1 Kings 19:1-13).

Once the Tabernacle was built, Israelites had a place where they could go to seek God, make offerings, and find atonement for their sin. The presence of God abided there, in the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest could go (Leviticus 16:2).

After the permanent structure was built, God’s dwelling on earth was in the Temple. I love Solomon’s prayer, from the Temple dedication. The humble words ring true for us today:

But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

1 Kings 8:27-20, NIV

The Tabernacle and the Temple symbolized the Holy God’s willingness to make a way to dwell with sinful man (Exodus 25:8). When Jesus walked the Earth, He called Himself the Temple, the dwelling place of God, and He lived among sinful men (John 2:21). Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:22-23). He came to reconcile us to God (Colossians 1:20).

With His death and resurrection, Jesus created a way for Gods people to commune intimately with Him, at any time, in any place (John 4:23-24). In fact, God’s people became His dwelling place, because His Spirit inhabits each one who belongs to Him (John 14:17). We are called living stones, the building blocks of God’s Temple (1 Peter 2:4-5).

Before & After Building the Church

My friend Esther is an amazing artist. She gave me these pictures she painted of the church we both attended in Phoenix, Arizona. The first one captures the building operation. This was a long process, fraught with hiccups and delays. The second photo, the After, is the completed building, a beautiful place where believers meet for worship and fellowship.

You and I are like this church. We are being built up, together, as living stones.

We are a monument to the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us. At the beginning, there is just rubble and no discernible order, but the Builder knows the plans. Sometimes, there are unexpected delays in our progress, though times of waiting are never unexpected to the Lord. Sometimes, portions that we thought were finished must be torn down and built again, but God is faithful.

The Lord will finish the work He began in us (Phil 1:6). We are being built into God’s spiritual temple. We are meant to offer spiritual sacrifices, to being glory to the Lord, Our God, Our Maker.

Esther BeLer Wodrich firmly believes that surrounding herself with beauty brings sanity amidst the chaos of raising four kids alongside her husband. Immersing herself in drawing and painting, she balances her creativity with her relentless pursuit of excellence. Esther spends a ridiculous amount of time holding her breath while working on intricate details but so far has yet to pass out.

Esther prefers to start an artwork with a clean desk, the blinds open, an audiobook playing and a hot cup of coffee. However, especially during her kid’s summer break, she will take whatever she can get.

Broken for You

March 23, 2016

This is the last post of Lent 2016. This project has been such a pleasure! I hope you will join us next year and each year after, as we meet in the middle here, during Lent.

His Body was Broken for You

This is Holy Week — the time when Christians commemorate the week leading up to the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ — when He was broken for you and for me. Here at the Meet Me in the Middle Project we have been thinking of how the in-between times, the times of waiting, point to this important event.

Life is full of waiting. The Bible is full of waiting too. The people of Israel were waiting for a Messiah. Jesus was waiting to fulfill the prophecies. His disciples were waiting for His Kingdom to come in power and glory. The Pharisees and religious leaders were waiting for a chance to discredit Him and, finally, to kill Him. After His body was placed in the tomb, the women were waiting to anoint His dead body properly. And God was waiting for just the right time to demonstrate His love and power by creating the most unlikely solution to the problem of sin and death.

So often, we want to rush ahead of the waiting. We often hate “the middle.” I know I do. Right now, our family is at a crossroads. My husband will soon leave military life and enter the civilian world. In a few months, we will be leaving the home we have known for the last four years and settling in a new place. Our hearts are feeling restless to move on, but our bodies are still here. Some days, this in-between time feels excruciating.

Maybe someone you love has a difficult diagnosis? This is painful too. We don’t like having that “stuck” feeling because we want everything healed, fixed, and resolved, especially for the people we love. And when the diagnosis won’t come, or the healing is slow, or the illness isn’t ever going to resolve, we feel so helpless.

Some of you might be at home with little ones, wishing you could get past diapers and sleep schedules. Some of you might be aching just to hold your own little one, but your body won’t obey your orders or respect your wishes. Some of you might be looking for a special someone to share your life with, but you keep coming up empty. Often, where we find ourselves waiting is the last place we want to be.

How can we hold on to hope when the waiting goes long?

I know the answer and yet, at the same time, I don’t. I know the Truth, but I haven’t yet figured out how to stay there, peacefully. The Truth is a great encouragement nonetheless: all the threads of waiting are tied together, in Jesus.

The Arrival of Jesus is Always on Time

If we are packing the groceries in the car, the last thing we want to do is break an egg. Yet, as they say, we can’t have an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

There are times when brokenness is ordained.

Jesus was called to be broken for us. We are called to be broken for Him. And living in a fallen world means that brokenness here on earth is inevitable. In fact, God does His best work among the broken — that’s where He can just. plain. show. off. Because nothing is broken by chance. Nothing is broken without purpose. God is always working to fulfill His great and wonderful plan, on our behalf.

Easter reminds us that God is constantly ready to surprise us with His plans and His abilities to fulfill them. Are you feeling broken? Don’t worry, that means that you are poised and prepared to become what He intends for you to be.

I’m sharing this post at Kristin’s Three Word Wednesday:

Welcome to Ash Wednesday, 2016

February 9, 2016

Ash Wednesday Marks a Beginning

There’s so much I want to say about #MeetMeintheMiddleProj and Ash Wednesday and Lent. Sometimes, when there’s too much to say, there’s no way to say it. You have to SEE it instead. But in pictures, we’re limited too. A photograph captures a single moment in time.

Life is a journey, not a postcard.

But something amazing occurs as we look at pictures—our imagination is ignited. Sometimes we remember being there when an event happened. Sometimes we see the story that’s behind the image. With a Before & After collage, we can mark change that has occurred between the pictures. It’s as if we can imagine what happened in the middle.

Stuff happens in the middle. Still, we want to plow through the middle and get to the end. We crave resolution and peace. We want closure. We want the happy ending. But living and growing happen in the process, not in the ending. In fact, every ending is just a new beginning and more change is always bound to come.

For many of us, time spent in middle places can grieve us. Our comfort must be that God is right there with us, in the middle. He rolls up His sleeves. He’s always at work. He’s not distracted. He doesn’t nap, or take a vacation, or call in sick. He is steady.

It’s easy to miss seeing God at work. When we struggle, we often feel lost, forgotten, and overlooked. We might wonder, Where He is in all this mess? He’s there, at work in the middle:

Between Christmas and the Cross, Jesus worked miracles, and signs, and wonders. He worked to fulfill God’s promises. He worked in the hearts of His followers.
Between the Cross and the Resurrection of Easter, Jesus worked powerfully to defeat Sin and Death. His work broke the Curse. He raised Himself from the dead. His work continues in us.
Between your wounds and your new life, Jesus is the healer. Between newborn babies and young adults leaving the nest, Jesus works in their hearts through you, and in spite of you. Between your sin and your reconciliation, Jesus purifies your heart.

Jesus rocks the middle, y’all. So, why shouldn’t we? We were created to be like Him. We have the same Father. We’re being nurtured and pruned by the Holy Spirit to be more and more like Him everyday.

We need to start recognizing and celebrating what happens in the middle. We need to see how the work that we do in the middle, imitates Him. To model ourselves after God is to glorify Him.

Before & After – Making Peace

The Before & After collages below (for Pinterest and Instagram) come from my dear friend, Cati. They remind me that Jesus came to make peace. As we put our homes in order, we participate in making peace from disorder. We sort, discard and prioritize. We clean and wash, renewing and refreshing bed linens, dishes, clothes and floors. In the same way, over time, Jesus rearranges our priorities, discards wrong thinking and behaviors. He makes us clean. Jesus is faithful to bring order where there was chaos.

If you get discouraged when you see a mess, remember that bringing order and peace honors the Lord. Just as you can do this in a bedroom, so you can do this in a relationship or within your own heart, by imitating Jesus.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Matthew 5:9, ESV

FOR PINTEREST

FOR INSTAGRAM

Meet Me in the Middle Project is a creative way to share the truth of the gospel (during Lent) on blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram, through Before&After collages. Post a collage, tell the story, explain how it demonstrates the gospel. Simple!

If you have a blog, you can grab our button in the sidebar and join right in! Otherwise, Please use #MeetMeintheMiddleProj on social media.

Easter Sunrise

December 29, 2015

These pictures and this post first appeared on brittalafont.com

My sweet friend Mindy Hopman took these pictures for the Before & After Project in 2015 on brittalafont.com. Easter sunrise demonstrates how God is always at work in the Process. Thank you Mindy! 🙂

Sample Pinterest Pin Description:

Watching a sunrise is like seeing God at work in our own hearts. We start out in the dark. As time moves on and we come to know the Lord better, His Light shines brighter in our lives. We grow in righteousness. We see increase in our faith and in our love for Him and others. We become a display of His splendor, not our own (Isaiah 61:3).

For Instagram

Sample Instagram Post:

Easter is the biggest #BeforeandAfter

God gives us Befores & Afters to give us hope during dark times and remind us He is always at work to accomplish His purpose in and through us. #MeetMeintheMiddleProj #LentenCuration #ObserveLent #Lent #ChurchYear #Easter #HeisRisen

“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:55-57, ESV).

The Hidden Reward of Income Tax Prep

December 29, 2015

A participant in a Bible study I was teaching gave me this Before & After—what a relief she must have felt to have her Income Tax forms completed and organized! So often I get discouraged by this kind of messy project.

Sample Pinterest Pin Description:

Though I know I function much better when I get right to a task, the thought of starting can leave me feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes this leads me to procrastinate. It is good for me to remember that:

God is not a God of disorder but of peace…(1 Cor. 14:33a, NLT)

Another possibility: The death and resurrection of Jesus brought peace where chaos reigned. When we bring order to our jumbled lives in any way, we are walking in a manner that demonstrates His Way.

For Instagram

Sample Instagram Post:

Even in the mundane details of our life, we see that God is not a God of disorder but of peace…(1 Cor 14:33a). Jesus came to rescue us from chaos and bring peace—when we bring order we are walking in a way that demonstrates His Way.

#MeetMeintheMiddleProj #LentenCuration #ObserveLent #Lent #ChurchYear #orderoutofchaos