A Reminder or Christmas in July

¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (from 2 Corinthians 5)




This morning I was thinking about a post I put here back in December. It was about how good and pure and forgiving God really is and I believe it more and more each day.


Like I said in that post:

God has made a way for us to come back, and He's not keeping score of every little sin. It's finished. The hard part is getting our minds around that.

And in thinking on that and knowing that, I can more easily extend grace to the ones around me, including me. I find that my former very, very religious self would be extraordinarily harsh and unforgiving, always pointing out specks in eyes without seeing the heart (ask the Mr. about that one). My motives were honest enough, trying to save everyone around me, but I just didn't get it. God already forgives us and the only thing stopping the peace of that is us believing it.





A friend of mine once told me that my unbelief about His goodness was probably the worst sin.  What father would give his son a stone or a scorpion?



I fail often, but I don't stay down because I finally know that God is love.



The best way I can explain it anymore is like the Apostle Paul said, running the race, not looking behind, pressing onward toward the goal and not trying to fix or re do or change anyone or anything else. I set my mind on what is good and right and just and praiseworthy and let the rest fall away. He provides my every need. I am more loving, more sharing, less worried about not having enough of anything, knowing that He can do anything!


In that way the Kingdom of God will spread in our own spirits, hearts, families, and communities.  Until it is once realized fully, we can be there now, with Him in our hearts.

Peace!

Not in the Whirlwind

Things change.



I'm one of those people who would be perfectly happy (I think) where nothing ever changed and every day were pretty much exactly the same.





The last year and a half or so has been very humbling for me. Previously, I had it all figured out.



Yes indeed.



But, somehow I've been given the opportunity to see all sides of many subjects, to explore the gray areas in what I thought were pure black and white issues and I have come to the conclusion that I don't know a darn thing. It's wonderful....






I've gotten to see how I must have been perceived to others as well during my ultra-sureness about God and Christianity, and it wasn't always pretty. But it is teaching me grace in all areas. Be patient with people (including myself) where they are. God works in His time and in His way and it isn't by force.




I became irritated recently when things weren't going exactly my way on a certain subject. The issue is right at the forefront of our family life (at least in my mind) and things aren't being done in as timely or everyone agreeing with me way as I would like. I briefly found myself wanting to push, argue or demand a decision, but something inside me reminded me of something.



I'm not in control.


And He's got it, whatever it is, it'll be okay.




I find the enemy pushes and is bully-like (the whirlwind, earthquake and fire)......But the Spirit of God whispers and draws. He is calm and patient and remembering that, I will try to be as well.

Hope

His mercies are new every day.


It is all under control, even when things "out there" or even inside our own selves seem so much otherwise.


It occurs to me that our Hope of Glory is in the future but also now.


We can look to the future, but then again we can look to Him inside us where the Spirit dwells and get another perspective.  The Kingdom will come but is also within you if you are indwelt by His Spirit.


The hard things of life have only driven me to LOOK for the answers and when we look, we ask, we dig, we plead, but we are now going to Him that is All and without something to drive us there, we don't go.





I've been thinking on that. The things that I wish weren't there or didn't happen did for a reason and that reason may not be at all what I first thought. They are the things that make you seek, that slap you out of the bubble of day to day and search for more.


There is so much more!

I think we all know that.


Today I have hope. Tomorrow, I may be seeking again, but that's okay, too.

Encourage One Another

And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds,(Hebrews 10:24)




Kansas Bob posted yesterday on how we could show grace in our everyday lives. It's a wonderful idea that we need to remember, so simple yet so elusive as he says.


Here was my comment:


I would (add) remaining silent when it would be so satisfying to zing someone or to give in and start arguing when someone is trying to pick a fight. 

I'm working on those two today. 




Okay, I thought, got it. That was what was really pressing on me yesterday. And then I went out and acted ungracefully anyway.....sigh.



The flesh is clingly people!  But there is GRACE. And I thank God for it. No matter how badly I act, I know that I am in Him and there is Grace. I don't beat myself up, I ask for another chance and start new every day.

Thank you Father that YOU are that good. Seventy times Seven.




Now go on over here and add your thoughts for Everyday Grace that we can encourage one another.

Sin and the Hot Stove

I was discussing in my Sunday school class yesterday the idea that sin in itself carries it's own punishment.  I used an analogy that a friend of mine used on me once. It's a lot like touching a hot stove. Your mom can tell you over and over and over again not to touch the hot stove, but it's not until you do that you understand.


That's HOT

Ouch!


And you don't do it again.




One of the kids picked right up on this idea and said that a lie you told at age 20 you could still feel the pain of at 86. I don't know why he picked those numbers, but what truth. THAT is it's own punishment.



So we talked about how God forgives and forgets our sins for His own sake, but for some reason we can or will not forgive ourselves most of the time. We talked about how annoying it would be if they forgave a friend for something and that friend continued to apologize endlessly about it. I also mentioned how we are usually harder on ourselves than on everyone else combined and I got an amen from another kid in the class.






So why did God let Eve eat? He could have certainly stopped it.




So we would KNOW.


?



You can't know how sin hurts until you touch the stove.
And you don't forget the burn so that you don't do it again.





God doesn't want to hurt us, but we have to learn. The hard way.







And there in is love that we can take comfort in the God who IS love that doesn't remember our stove touching, but is there to meet us on our way home.

All Things New

I  saw this last night:

It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans about the Law being dead and now we can be married to another. Christ is the end of the OLD way, the Old system of judgement, eye for an eyeness, retribution for every little infringement of the letter.


It seems as though as hard as we try as Christians, we can't seem to let the old stay dead.   The Old Covenant sneaks it's way into most every flavor of Christendom in some sense. But that's not really the point of this post, I guess.


It's what the picture says.






He makes all things new.

Dawn

This hymn and especially this passage keeps coming to mind:

 O what peace we often forfeit,
 O what needless pain we bear, 
 all because we do not carry 
 everything to God in prayer. source and credit

When I first believed, I used to pray all the time, it seems like all things were answered and I saw miracles in my life.



Then, I stopped becoming like and coming to Father like a little child.

Stuff happened.

or

Stuff happened and I stopped coming, or maybe a little bit of both.



I became disappointed, confused, bitter, lowered my expectations, and eventually apathetic.




Prayer is so easy and so hard. I know I've said that before, but it is. I think about all those times, the prayer times, the hope times, the KNOWING times, and I am refreshed. He is never unwilling to listen, I am unwilling to come. WHY? I don't know, I guess I figure I'm too busy or I'm too sinful, or I'm too tired, or it "won't work" or whatever else.


It's not a magic formula, He's not a genie, He may not answer the prayer the way I think it should be answered  now or ever, BUT.....if I don't believe that He hears me, if I don't go....well, I lose connection with the head.  He IS good. He's not arbitrary and unloving.


He sends help, inspiration, peace, joy, acknowledgements that He hears us, always, if we will just look for them.


Pray this weekend, believe, trust, appreciate and be joyful.

It's Easy

There are a few members of my family getting married this year. My girls and I went to a  bridal shower on Saturday afternoon. To be honest, I really didn't want to go. It was kind of a hike, my routine would be upset, and I just wasn't feeling jolly.



We had a great time of course. It is great to see that love goes on. People find each other, want to get married and make more people. It is a strange and beautiful thing.


I was reminded of the Mr's and my wedding and how we used a very popular song with this in the lyrics:

This was hanging in the room of the church that the shower was held at Saturday

When we got married, I truly believed this. I wish the best for this couple. Don't forget why you got married. Don't ever give up on each other, on love. It is worth it.

The Battle is the Lord's (but we have to believe it)

This is something that I knew, but it has been re introduced to my thinking in the last couple of days.  Reading in Joshua this morning, I saw this:

When Joshua was very old, the Lord told him, “You are very old, and a great deal of land remains to be conquered. ² This is the land that remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all the Geshurites, ³ from the Shihor River east of Egypt northward to the territory of Ekron (it is regarded as Canaanite territory), including the area belonging to the five Philistine lords who ruled in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as Avvite land ⁴ to the south; all the Canaanite territory, from Arah in the region of Sidon to Aphek, as far as Amorite territory; ⁵ the territory of Byblos and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath. ⁶ I will drive out before the Israelites all who live in the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, all the Sidonians; you be sure to parcel it out to Israel as I instructed you. ⁷ Now, divide up this land among the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

To sum up, at least from my understanding of what is going on here, God is telling Joshua that the land is still full of enemies, but go ahead and claim it as your own anyway. Just do it.


Don't worry about how it looks to you, I've said it, just go ahead.


That is where the battle lies for me so much here in the past and lately. It takes many many years sometimes to see God's promises manifest. And for those who couldn't see the proof or were scared off by the enemies in the land, God judged them, counted them unworthy.   It was said that Abraham didn't actually even get all his promises in this lifetime. That is a hard thing to grasp.

It does seem unreasonable to tell us to believe and then not make good right away doesn't it? I mean Abraham had to wait so long for Isaac and went ahead and took matters into his own hands. Who can blame him? Where was God's voice saying not to do that, just wait longer?



I don't know, just some thoughts. God seems to be more concerned that we trust what He said than seeing the evidence. That's where our minds get in the way.  It's the easiest hardest thing to do.



Without faith it is impossible to please Him, we live by faith and not by sight, faith is the substance of things hoped for, Lord I believe help my unbelief.

It's All How You Look at It

I want to thank all of you who have encouraged me this week. I am feeling much better now, maybe venting is good.



Things that don't usually bug me have been bugging me and things that normally bug me have not been bugging me and it occurred to me that nothing has changed.

Glass half empty/glass half full... It's the same glass the same level, but how I see it on any given day can change so drastically it is wild sometimes.



The Apostle Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to think upon the good things and to fix our eyes on Jesus. When I'm doing this, things all fit together, hope abounds, I am grateful.  But then I get lazy or distracted or grumbley or bored and the devil takes over.



This life of faith is wonderful at times but very very very hard. I am in Christ, but it is up to me to remain (and I don't mean in an I can be unsaved way, but in a focus way) in Him. I am becoming increasingly aware that I really don't know what that means, but it is real for sure. I find that the hardest part of it all is inside my head.



I don't need things to change, I need my mind to change. I need to change my mind. Turning to Him in prayer and deciding that without Him I can do nothing (again, not sure what it all means, but I know).



My perception of His being far off, abandon-y, unloving and unfair lately is all in my head. I'm not sure how that happens, it is all how I look at it I guess. I need to remember this since I'm sure the battle will continue at some point. But for now, I'll take the small victory.

Not Today Mr. Devil

Doubt and fear, fear and doubt.




I felt myself spiraling into what can only be considered a mild to moderate deep dark depression lately. Maybe it's just woman-y things or the winter that won't end over here.

I found myself praying for help- really praying for the first time in a while. You see, I've bit a bit irritated with God lately, for reasons I won't get into now, but He still is good.




It lifted and I felt His warmness again.





A friend of mine said once that instead of shutting the enemy out at first sight I am sitting down and having tea with him, discussing at great length all the accusations he has to tell the Father about me. She's right.




I'm forgetting to think upon the lovely things. The things that are good and lovely and wonderful.  Shine light in the darkness and it flees. The darkness cannot completely snuff out the light, but light chases the darkness away immediately.  I'm  forgetting being too lazy to pray, to remember His goodness to me, His promises. I've been jaded and surly and downright pouty about a lot of things.


It snuck up and I didn't even realize it.


FAITH! I had it, have it, will have it. Despair and hopelessness cannot take it away permanently. It may seem far off, but the Spirit never is, it's just what we are giving our attention to.




So here's to giving our attention to things that deserve it.


Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Garbage

While I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking about what Paul said when he was talking about considering all things as garbage, rubbish, dung, compared to knowing Christ.


In context, what he meant was all his religion, scripture learning, and zeal for his brand of spirituality. And yes, much of his was God given commandments but they were now passing away.




Read Philippians chapter 3 for the whole story.






That's where I've been. It seems that the harder I tried to learn, the harder I became. No matter what brand of Christendom it is, religion is religion. It was love and the supremacy of knowing Him, even without learning all the details that has turned my heart around.






And I find that loving, really loving in the midst of life: the good, the bad, the trying, the wonderful, the depressing, the boring, the hopeless, the hopeful, the fearful, the doubt, the certainty....


Is much more challenging than religion. Religion I can do, easily.




This is the real deal. But I cannot fail. He has promised otherwise.

What is Grace?

I like the way it is said here.



What she says reminds me of a similar moment I had recently in which I understood the very same thing.



There is no condemnation for those of us who are IN Him. He loves us. If we can really get that, I think we could really start living.



In my experience, the fear of punishment, while an initial starting point to my walk, cannot hold up. It was a realization of  God's love that has changed me.


 How would your life change if you thought that no matter what you did or didn't do, God would not cast you out? What if we lived that way? Would we run out and sin like crazy? OR would this grace give us the freedom to love all the more? 

What If?

A friend of mine once asked me not too long ago, "What if every darn thing that you could think of was taken care of?"



I thought what a strange thing to say, I've got problems, lady, you don't know. I sat and thought about it a bit, the simplicity, the sheer relief it would be.








What if...


The very hairs on our head were numbered?
  
It was our Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom?

We cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us?

Our sins were as far removed as East from West?

When Jesus said it was finished, it really was?

There is now no condemnation to those in Christ?

God is love?



I started living like and believing that all these things were as they are written (without any of my usual yeah, buts). The change in how I see God, the world, my fellow man, and life has become so...much......more.


Fear not.

What a Great Idea

A neat old church house near where we live. I think it's a UMC.

I saw this whilst surfing the interwebs today.



Chicago Church Money Giveaway



 Although I believe the church we call home (and probably most churches) have an awesome outreach and heart for missions, putting the power and some means in the people's hands to fill needs that they personally see in their day to day is wonderful.



What do you think?





*Also check out Petra's comments about this story over at her blog TGS. She's also embedded the sermon that went along with this event. It put it all together for me.

No Worries

Worry was like a prison for me. Over the last several years, bit by bit, I have been able to let God transform my mind to the point that things that would have sent me into a tailspin before are not that big of a deal.



It's all in the mind.


The apostle Paul says we have the mind of Christ, which I believe would be evident in the Fruit. However, he also urges us to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. So I've been testing.




I find that lately I have many more questions than answers, but the one thing I do know is that all that the opposite of the fruit is not the way of Peace.



And Peace is what we all want, right?



The first area was love. I decided I was going to put my prejudices and goody-goodiness aside and just love people where they were.  It is not my job to be the Spirit and in many ways my lack of love was bad ambassadorship.



Next on my plate has been forgiveness.....no I don't hold unforgiveness of others at all. It is me. I decided once and for all that I do forgive myself and that that is the only way to go on. No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit....



And that all ties into worries. If we are going to believe what God said about worry then we are not to do it. How? I am taking the whatsoever is lovely approach and filling my heart and mind with those things that would lead to peace.



I turned off the news and the brimstone and hellfire sermons and speculation of the end of the world and am trying to LOVE, LIVE, FORGIVE, and be JOYFUL.



We as believers have work to do and the fear of the above was paralyzing. We are to believe on the ONE that God has sent and to be ministers of reconciliation.



The Good news is that Jesus came to give life and to give it more abundantly. I don't know what all that means, but I do know that we are to overcome the world just as He did.




He leaves His peace with us, so I'm taking it.

No Record of Wrongs

1 Corinthains 13 came up again yesterday. In the NIV it says in verse 5 that Love:

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Other translations put it differently, but I like the way it is said here-no record of wrongs.



The Prophet Isaiah speaks of forgetting the former things, and the Apostle Paul of leaving it all behind and pressing on. Linear time is something that we mortals are burdened with. We can't do anything about the past; things that are but shadows can haunt and keep us down (and fearful) as if they were reality. It is a form of faithlessness when we keep bringing up our pasts to Him over and over when He Himself says He won't remember.  He knows our hearts, we need to trust Him when he says: "Peace be with you".



Let us strive for what is ahead, believing in every good promise and in every possibility, holding on to our faith that the Spirit has placed within our hearts.

A white stone

A new name

Behold, He makes all thing new!

Fruit Inspection

 I don't want to start any heated discussions on anyone's blogs for reasons I mentioned here.


 However, I will unburden myself here anyway.


I wonder about the necessity or edification in posts I see on many Christian blogs in tearing people down. I know that the apostle Paul named names, true enough. Jesus also calls out the religious folks (for the most part, those who were prideful).  I have been seeing some poking fun at certain people with the intent to entertain. I'm talking about the mocking of mega church-types you know, and I've done it too. I mean, for the most part we are preaching to the choir, and those unbelievers who would possibly look in from time to time may be getting the impression that most of us are just high five-ing each other all the time for our super awesome discernment skills. And I'm sure that is not too attractive.




I don't think that having fun at the expense of another person is really what the Lord would want from us. Even the worst of teachers are people, made in the image of God, with real feelings and for all we know could be completely sincere in what they are doing (Sincerely wrong, I know, the road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that, but still).




A commenter on one of these types of posts recently stated that he was disgusted with the way Christians act and maybe we should be getting off our self-righteous keyboard tapping bee-hinds and going out there and feeding the poor, visiting those in prison, and telling them of the good news, showing them Christ in our actions rather than pointing the finger at those whom we are pretty sure are definitely "out" of our little club. (I'm certainly putting this in my own words, but that was the gist of it).




 I kind of wanted to high five him (or her).




When I first started this little blog here, that was pretty much what I was doing, too. Look through the oldest posts for examples, so I'm preaching to myself as much as anyone. What is our fruit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Knowing and Prayer

18 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, 2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”

6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” -from the Gospel of Luke

I was telling someone, a small someone, recently that he should pray. To which the someone remarked that it "never worked."  I started to try to lay out doctrine or give reasons or whatever, but I just couldn't do it.


I felt in my heart for this little one. I know exactly how he feels, and I have no good answer.


The innocence of children is great, but can be frustrating to us old jaded ones. Of course it doesn't always work you silly child, I would like to say,  just sometimes and who knows why?  God's will? Yes, absolutely, but we are told to pray.


I have prayed for things and they have come to pass. I have prayed for things that haven't come to pass. Sometimes I prayed for years and years before getting an answer, sometimes I got an answer right away, and some I'm still waiting on.


My prayer now for this little is that God would reveal Himself to him. That way, he will KNOW that he KNOWS the way I do, without it being something that always "works".


But it does, somehow. And I thank God for his Spirit in me that confirms that this is all true. I'm just seeing darkly. But I do see.

Go Get Your Land

 

 *This is a repost from February of 2011. It came to mind again this week since we taught on this very thing in our Sunday School class. I found it interesting that the enemies weren't the giants or the walled cites, but FEAR. This passage from our teacher's manual says it all for me:


"They knew they were promised this new land flowing with milk and honey. Yet they were easily swayed into disbelief and panic."

Disbelief and panic...yup.  However, I am in a good place with this going in right now, so a bit more optimistic than the post below. God keeps working on us when we ask, seek, knock. 


He is good, His mercy endures forever!

 _________________________________________________




Waiting on the LORD.


He's been trying to get my attention in the prayer area lately, I know it. I am a lazy pray-er, I'll admit it. I don't really know why. I take the "pray without ceasing" clause to mean that I can have prayer running in the background all the time, which I do, but getting alone and quiet with Him is something I don't do too often.  In a way I am afraid of getting too close somehow which is crazy, I realize.

He answers:

Listening to a teaching today, something popped out. It was on Deuteronomy and how God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt through the wilderness, sustaining them all those years, and now here they were at the threshold of the Promised Land and God says "Go get your land, it's yours, I'll take care of everything." And they didn't believe. So back into the wilderness they go.

This is what I have been doing for years- an endless cycle. Oh sometimes I'll step my foot in, but I think: No, not me, I'm not worthy, I don't belong here, I really don't believe you can defeat the enemies inside, etc.

Lord, help my unbelief.