Joy in Obedience

Camy here! When I was in college, we had a few couples from the church who would occasionally open their home to us, feed us dinner, talk with us about whatever we wanted. It wasn’t a regular ministry, but we knew they were always there for us if we needed them.

I wanted to give back to the college students at my church in the same way those couples had helped me with my walk with Jesus. So my husband and I recently started having a college Bible study at our home on Sunday around noon. We cook lunch for the students and then have a Bible study lesson. Right now, we’re going through a video Bible study on sex and dating.

This past weekend, I was making some Japanese tea for the students (all of them are at least half Japanese) when it hit me how happy I was to have boisterous college students eating teriyaki meatballs in my living room. Talking about history classes and raunchy coworkers and random things. Coming into the kitchen asking for more food. Barreling through bags of chips and bottles of soda.

But it wasn’t just a happy-happiness, it was a really deep-seated kind of joy that I felt down in my gut. A joy that really had no logical explanation—it was just there. And it filled me entirely. David’s words about cups overflowing came to mind.

I knew, in that moment, that this was what God wanted me to do, to open my home and my heart to these students. I wanted to chat with them about silly things like YouTube videos and about serious things like sex. I wanted to help them grow in their relationships with Jesus. I was filled with joy and a desire to serve the Lord in this way, to be obedient to Him in this way.

Is there something Jesus wants you to do for him? Have you hesitated in going through with it even though you know it’s something God wants? Remember that with obedience comes love and joy. You won’t be disappointed if you keep Jesus’ commands.


Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Formula for Danger. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she ponders dogs, knitting and spinning wool, running, Asiana, and other frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter for giveways!

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What if Mary had said NO?

Last weekend we put out a new nativity set that my Grandma purchased for us for our Christmas gift this year. It's a beautiful set, and I love that it's the centerpiece of my dining room. Of course, I had to pause as I was setting up beautiful Mary. In fact, it made me think, "What if she'd said no?"

This morning this thought came to me again as I was reading Called and Accountable by Henry and Norman Blackaby. Here is what they had to say:

"One of the most significant illustrations of hearing and responding to God is found in the life of Mary, Jesus' mother. God's eternal purpose was to bring a Savior into the world, and through that Savior to bring his His great salvation to every person. He found the one through whom He would choose to work--Mary, a quiet servant girl. An angel from God announced God's purpose through her. Then came her amazing and wonderful response: "'Behold a maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her" (Luke 1:38). And God did what He said He would do! Impossible to man, but possible with God (Luke 1:37)." p. 19

It made me stop to think about how willing I am to follow what God has asked me to do. Do I always respond like Mary. No. Are there things He's asked me to do that I haven't followed through with yet? Yes.

Often, I ask God to lead me to new places so I can reach new people, and sometimes I wonder if He's waiting. Waiting for me to finish the assignments He's giving me. Waiting for me to say yes to all He's already asked.

Only Because You’re Makin’ Me!

“Nathan, you need to ride in Grandma and Grandpa’s car. I’m riding with Aunt Kristy.”

“But I want to ride with Aunt Kristy,” Nathan whined knowing that Kristy would be making a stop to pick up his cousin Kai on the way back to my parents’ house.

I went into a long explanation about the amount of seatbelts in each car, where the booster seats were, laws about kids sitting in the front seat, and other stuff that made little difference to my six-year-old. All he knew was he wanted to ride with his cousin and I, the meanie mom, was keeping him from it.

We went back and forth for a few minutes.

“Nathan please, we’ve had a really fun day with Grandma and Grandpa. Let’s not ruin it over something silly.” Please God, I sent up a desperate prayer for my precious, funny, but often intense youngest son, speak to Nathan’s heart. Tell him he needs to obey.

Suddenly Nathan got quiet. Kristy’s van came into view—the van that Nathan wanted to ride in.

My shoulders tensed. God, come on. I don’t want to make a scene.

Just as I was preparing another speech and psyching myself up to physically stuff Nathan into his assigned spot, I heard him say . . .

“Okay, fine.”

“Fine what?”

“I’ll do it.” I heard the emotional edge in his voice. This was a tough move for him. “I’ll ride in Grandma’s car.” His volume rose for emphasis. “But only because you’re makin’ me.”

Thank you, God. I’ll take an “Only because I have to.” At least he’s complying.

“Thank you, Nathan. I’m very proud of you.”

“But next time, I’m riding in Kristy’s car no matter what.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

“I really want to ride with Kai.”

“I know.”

“But since you’re MAKIN’ me . . . “ his teeth clenched.

“You made the right decision, Nate. Thank you so much.”

I heard my sister and Dad snickering behind me. My oldest son Christian groaned, as if to say, “I can’t believe I’m related to him.”

At the time Nathan’s response stood as a mark of new maturity. A year ago the battle would have raged on and ended with Nathan enduring consequences and me exhausted. This time he’d done the right thing. He wasn’t happy but he did it without a humiliating scene.

Later I thought more deeply about Nathan’s “Only because you’re makin’ me” comment. How many times do I respond that way?

“Okay, fine, I’ll follow that law. But only because I have to, to avoid going to jail!”

“Okay, God, fine, I’ll be kind to that horrible person. But only because you say I have to.”

I’ll obey but my heart isn’t in it at all. I can’t help wondering, does my obedience count with God when I do it with a bad attitude? Knowing that God looks at the heart leaves me wondering. How can I make obedience more sincere? How can I learn to do those things that please God but don’t necessarily please me, with a joyful heart?

It’s something to think about.

God, help me work on my attitude in obedience, knowing that you see right through to the heart behind my actions.

By the way, the kid in the picture is not Nathan. But he does get that look at times.

Tips from the Dog Trainer

Our new dog, Belle, just started obedience training. When we took her out of the car for her first session she immediately started lunging forwarding, trying to run off and play. Other dogs barked, squealed, jumped on their owners, or found other ways to reveal why they needed to attend doggie charm school. Every quirk in every dog came out during that first embarrassing class.

One lady showed up with a Chihuahua who had a terrible case of little man syndrome. When he saw his classmates—all larger dogs—he made it clear that he planned to bite the toes off any lab, sheep dog, or pit bull that got in his way. I expected Guy, the trainer, to instruct the rest of us to protect the poor little lamb from our mean hulks. Instead, when he had the class form a circle, he put the yipping Chihuahua in the middle.

“I’m doing this for a reason,” he explained. “Little dogs have a habit of getting in big dog’s faces and occasionally need to be cut down to size.” He gently told the owner about the importance of teaching small breeds to leave big dogs alone. “The truth is a Chihuahua is about the size of a large squirrel. You know what big dogs like to do with squirrels.” That pint-sized pooch needed to be humbled, disciplined, and trained for his own protection.

This morning, when Belle managed to escape our back yard through a damaged section of fence, I realized that she needs training for the same reason. Seeing her run toward me the first time I called, “Come, Belle,” proved that she has already learned a little. But she has a ways to go. We had to purchase a special collar to train her not to lunge forward when we walk her. We were ordered to go through daily rounds of “Come, Belle. Good girl. Sit. Good girl! Stay . . . ” We’re still working on “stay.” But all of this will keep her from running into the street, leaping on a small child, and dislocating my shoulder (or my husband’s or my son’s).

Belle and that vocal Chihuahua are not the only creatures that need training. We do too. Sometimes it might seem like God is trying to spoil our fun with a list of don’ts. In reality, His limits are for our protection. Think of some of the training that you’ve received from God on how to live, not just the Christian life, but life in general. How have His limits protected you?

Thank God, today, for loving you enough to put you through His obedience program. I know I have many reasons to thank Him for it.

Set apart

Do you live your life as a woman consecrated to God?

And I don’t mean the nuns who become “brides of Christ.” I’m taking about normal Plain Jane who goes to school and fights with her siblings and does her homework and IMs too much.

This is what God told the Israelites:

“So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the LORD who makes you holy.” (Lev. 20:7-8, NLT)

The Israelites were to follow God’s laws (that good old Ten Commandments stuff) and not be like their pagan neighbors who were doing all kinds of nasty sexual things and slaughtering their children. (Yeah, I’m thinking they weren’t a great role model.)

God told His people to set themselves apart from those pagan guys. We are His people too, so this verse applies to us.

Note the verse doesn’t say, “follow My decrees and that’ll make you holy.” Obeying God doesn’t make you a good Christian.

On the flip side, not obeying God doesn’t automatically make you the scum of the earth.

God says to us, “Follow My decrees because I’ve made you holy.”

I want you to hear what this verse is saying:

God

makes

you

holy.

There’s a song we sing at youth group called “Uncommon Love.” I love the chorus:

Forgetting all I’ve said
Forgiving where I’ve been
You offer Your uncommon love.

God is holy enough and loving enough and forgiving enough to make you holy. You are a woman of God, set apart by Him to be His. He has made you holy.

So act like it.

Be bold

So, I was at this fiction writers conference this weekend. And since we’re all novelists, we get kind of emotional and spiritual and weird and weepy.

A friend of mine came to the decision this weekend, “Darn it! I’m not going to listen to the trends of the publishing Market anymore, I’m just going to write what I think God wants me to write!”

Because, of course, God trumps Market every time.

(She’s probably going to kill me for telling this story, but it’s a perfect illustration of what I want to say.)

So she pitched this WAY COOL (and yes, I’m shouting) and incredibly unique (read: unmarketable) story idea and got a very positive response. It was like God was saying, “Yeah, girl, you obey Me and we’ll go places!”

Here’s my point: Forget trends and peer pressure and just do what you feel God telling you to do. You know what I’m talking about. It’s an urging in your heart that’s been bugging you for weeks. It’s a burning on your tongue that you try to stifle because you’re afraid you’ll sound stupid.

God will NOT let you fall on your face. He doesn’t work that way. He always brings some kind of good out of any action we do for Him. And most of the time, it’s really really good.

I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but God wouldn’t ask you to do something without giving you some divine help to do it.

And if you’re not feeling that urging or that burning right now, then store up this info for when God does set that in you. He can call you anytime to do some really awesome things for Him.