Serenity Now!

The sound of waves gently breaking on the shore.  Seagulls and pelicans flying peacefully overhead.  Iridescent shells lying in wait in the sand.  A thrilling book and surfers as entertainment. 

 

These are the things I’d been looking forward to for years.  A chance to get away to my favorite place in the world and de-stress, unwind, unravel.  Be still. 

It started the week we were supposed to leave.  My son’s car needed a repair.  And before his was back from the shop, our car decided to join it.  For three or four days, four of us juggled one car for rides to work and back. 

The day before we were to leave on my long-awaited, much-needed dream vacation, my husband’s foot seemed to reinjure (how he didn’t know) and at 2:30 am, T minus 6 hours, he was in the emergency room with an extremely painful, right foot.  It was broken. 

Somewhere around 9:00 am we managed to load up our rented vehicle and hop on the freeway.  Finally, we were on our way.   Here I come, peace and quiet! 

We were out of the city, well on our way.  Traffic wasn’t bad. A pick-up truck pulling a trailer and boat passed us.  I was talking to my husband who was doing his best to drive on his gimpy foot, when I saw his eyes suddenly grow wide. 

I turned to the road to see a tire roll off the trailer and fly up in the air fifty or sixty feet.  My husband swerved to avoid it when we heard something come down hard on the roof of the rental car.  We pulled over and looked.  Something—a nut, a hubcap, something had dented the roof about a foot back from the windshield.  We still have no idea what it was. 

We got back in the car and headed on our way.  At long last, we were headed toward rest and relaxation.  My mind could let go of the world and all the problems that come with it for a little while. 

We finally arrived at our heavenly retreat.  The moment I’d waited for.  Nothing but time spent in the tranquility of the sand and sea.  Nirvana. Xanadu. 

Serenity now!

During our week at our refuge from the world, the garbage disposal broke, a toilet broke, the rental car was dented twice by a huge, square pole sitting in our parking space and while our sons were out on a solo trip to a comic book store, a ladder fell out the back of a truck on the highway and my son was forced to run over it. 

I wanted so much to run away from the world, even if only for a week.  Seven days of peace from bills, pain, work, t.v., the horrid news. 

Seven days with my family.  Seven days to exhale. Seven days to rest. 

And there were some definite times of rest and relaxation.   But I found I couldn’t leave all my troubles behind.  Going away was no magic cure-all.  It wasn’t the answer to my weary soul. 

Jesus is.
 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus invites us to come to Him to find rest for our souls.  And He is wherever we are. 

It’s not the sand and the waves, or the mountains and stars, or an exotic city where we’ll find true rest.

It’s in the person of Jesus Christ. 

We can lay our burdens down at His feet and know He’ll give us rest, peace, joy and a way through our troubles.  He is the rest our souls are longing for. 

So if you dream of going away on a fancy vacation to get some rest, remember vacations aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.  And even if it goes off without a hitch, it's only a temporary solution to our permanent need for Jesus.  

He loves you and He's waiting.

God bless!

Dorci

The Treasure:

What's your favorite place to get away with Jesus? 

The Way of Love

Tommy’s taken some time out of his successful life as a doctor, spending the day out on the golf course with his buddies when he receives an alarming phone call from another part of the world. 

His son, Daniel, is dead. 

And all at once, a life that seemed to have every duck carefully placed in a row was upside down.

And thus begins a father’s journey in the movie The Way with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.   It is a poignant look at a man who has been caught up in the world’s version of success and has, ironically, become somewhat cynical and bitter.  And when the unthinkable happens we see the ensuing inner struggles of a man who suddenly realizes he doesn’t have things figured out quite the way he thought.   

FYI - If you haven’t seen the movie yet, this will contain some slight spoilers. 

The last time the two men spoke they were engaged in an awkward conversation as Tommy drove his son, Daniel, to the airport. Daniel tells his dad about the journey he’s going to make and, in an effort to try connecting with his dad, asks him to come along.  Tommy cynically laughs it off, saying that not everyone has the luxury of taking time off from work to do such a thing. 

And now the time was gone. 

Tommy makes the pain-staking trip to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to retrieve his son’s body and his belongings.  Daniel had just begun his journey on the road of El camino de Santiago, The Way of St. James, a pilgrimage that millions have traveled over the last thousand years.  The journey can begin on any of a number of paths, but the destination is always Galicia, Spain, where some believe the remains of the apostle James are buried.  Depending on the origin of one’s journey, the pilgrimage can take weeks to months. 

Tommy arrives in France and decides to have his son’s body cremated for the return trip.  He begins looking through his son’s backpack at the things he’d chosen to take with him on his journey of discovery.  It’s perhaps the first time in a long time that Tommy had taken a few moments to really study his son. 

And we can’t help but think about how we’re spending the days of our own short lives. 

Tommy decides to honor his son by taking him on the journey anyway.  He throws the backpack over his shoulders, the box of ashes tucked safely inside, and he sets out to make the 500-mile trek in his son’s stead. 

Tommy reluctantly picks up a few friends along the way, each of whom has their own reasons for traveling The Way.  But their reasons seem rather selfish and superficial compared to the heavy burden that Tommy carries. 

The others approach their goals half-heartedly, but Tommy remains steadfast in his mission to do this last loving act for his son. 

As they all reached their destination together, it occurred to me that the only one who successfully accomplished what he set out to do was the one who, in love, set out to do something for someone else. 

It was too late to reconcile with his son, but through choosing this unselfish and loving act he gains much more—a heart of forgiveness, humility, love, and peace.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."  John 13:34

Jesus made this statement to the apostles the evening He had washed their feet.  He didn’t just say He loved them, He became their servant.  That is what God says love really is and this is the way we’re to live our lives. 

It’s love that gives us the strength to do the hard thing--the ability to lay aside our pride and our own lives in order to finish what God’s called us to do. 

We are all on a journey called life, and loving others is what makes life worth living. The specific ways we’re called to sacrifice throughout our lives may sometimes go against all common sense.  Sometimes we may just not feel like it, just like Tommy didn’t feel like going on the trip with his son.  But God says that by choosing to live a life of sacrifice we’ll gain a lot more that we ever gave up.

As I watched the movie I couldn’t help but also make comparison to Christ and the road He walked in our steads, too.  Like the story, while we were dead in our sins, Christ embarked on a journey for us, a journey we couldn’t take ourselves.  He journeyed to the cross and laid down His life for us to purchase our souls from hell. 

It was His love for His Father and for us that kept Him steadfast on the road to an agonizing death.  But to Him, the reward of giving us eternal life made the journey worth it.

Question4U: What is one thing you can do to live your life more unselfishly?

Blessings and Love,

Dorci

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

“There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear

has to do with punishment.”

1 John 4:18

God recently drove this truth home in a very personal way. 

If you haven’t been with me since I started writing about my long and winding road, I’ve been on a journey of sorts for the last several years.  It started with God telling me plainly, four times in one month, to be strong and courageous.  I knew I was going to face something but I had no idea how big the battle would become. 

The circumstances don’t matter much.  We all have difficult times in our lives. If we become fixed on the details of the trial we miss what God wants to do in our hearts and in our lives.

My instruction was to be strong and courageous.  Translated, that means to hold onto something, or in this case Someone, Who is stronger than myself.  Hold onto God.  And I had a hard time doing that.  I struggled.  Hard. 

As the years went by and my prayers for the specific circumstances of my trial seemed to go unanswered, I felt more and more confused.  Why would God leave me here?  Doesn’t He care? 

As I was working on cleaning out my house last month, God was cleaning out my heart. 

I’ve searched my heart these last eight years and have seen more than I wanted.  There are things hidden in the attics of our hearts that only God knows are there.  And sometimes He’ll take your hand and lead you up those ominous steps into the darkened, creaky room and uncover a pile of dusty old attitudes, some worthless misunderstandings and some poisonous character flaws that He wants to throw out. 

He wants to heal us. 

As I cried out to God again, He took me up those stairs and uncovered a root cause of a lot of my issues: fear. 

Now I knew I had fear, but in that moment God began to connect some dots in my mind.  He reminded me that perfect love drives out fear.  I knew that, too.  So what was I missing? 

I went to my concordance and looked up those words.  Perfect means complete, mature.  When we receive God’s love and it matures in our hearts, there is no room or need for fear. 

God knew the fear in my heart.  He knew, more than I did, how much that fear ruled my thoughts, my actions and my decisions.  He knew that not only did I grow up with a lack of being loved, I grew up among circumstances that instilled fear.  And that fear was cemented over and over again.  The combination of being unloved and filled with fear really was a form of punishment. 

God wanted to fill me with the love that I lacked to drive out the fear and heal my heart.  And as long as I was holding onto Him--talking to Him, getting to know Him by reading His Word--and allow Him to love me, that fear would be driven far away. 

God had never left me.  On the contrary, God was in the trenches of spiritual warfare with me.  God loved me, perfectly and unconditionally, and He wanted me to be filled with love, not fear.   

Your issue may not be fear.  It may be something different.  The circumstances don’t matter much.

Be strong and courageous. 

It’s when we’re in a trial that we’re keenly aware of our need for Him.  We reach out, we pray, we learn more about Who He is than we otherwise would have.  We open our hearts and let Him fill us more and more with His love.  And His love matures in our hearts. 

And that’s when healing begins.

Let God love you even more than you think you’re worthy to be.  Take your eyes off your circumstances.  They’re only a vehicle for God’s grace and healing in your life. 

Trust Him.  Trust Him to know what He’s doing in the middle of your trial. 

Trust Him to see what’s up in your dark and dreary attic.  Because hidden beneath the piles of junk that God wants for us to throw away are treasures of godliness that lead to a rich and full life in Him.

Blessings!

Dorci

Riding Bicycles and Other Wild Adventures

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalm 139:9-10

I must’ve been no older than five or six.  I held onto the handlebars of my little two-wheeler for dear life, glancing back at my dad as he pushed me down the center of our cul-de-sac.  I was wobbly and unsure.

Sure enough, after a few practice runs, I looked back and saw my dad standing there where we had started with a proud grin on his face.  It was a scary and thrilling moment.  I rode on for a bit and then turned around and peddled back to him.   

Now I am grown up and, inevitably, the time came that I didn’t need my dad anymore.  But now I have my heavenly Father and I will never outgrow my need for Him.  He guides me and never lets go.

 

Those first risks I took on a child’s bike were preparation for the more formidable adventures I have faced since.  Now, instead of facing a scraped knee, the Lord and I face wild waves in a darkened sea, swinging rickety bridges, and flames leaping from the mouths of volcanoes. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Funny how sometimes I’ll get through one of these adventures (we’ll just agree to call them that) and keep on going, forgetting to look back to see where my Father is headed, or if He’s still standing back there, waiting for me. 

I can put my brain on auto-pilot in the morning, assuming all is status quo, not realizing I’m headed straight into a tornado. 

I need to go back and grab my Father’s hand again.  I can’t go through these adventures without Him and survive.  Not well, anyway.  There’s a lot He wants to teach me along the way, like how to love and forgive when I’m staring into the jaws of a crocodile, or how to trust and even have joy when I'm climbing a vertical rock. 

And one fine day, I’ll sit down with my earthly dad and tell him about all the adventures the Lord and I had and what I learned.  And I’ll thank him for trusting me with my first push. 

Q: What great adventure are you and Lord having and what is He teaching you?

Lessons From a Rosebush...or, Is It Pruning Season Again?

I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away.

And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you.

John 15:1-3

I don’t know about you, but this isn’t usually what I picture when I think of a rosebush.  Not many stoop to admire bare canes studded only with thorns.  

But the caretaker of this rosebush appreciates the work he has done in order to sculpt a living, growing masterpiece.  He knows that a lack of pruning will create a spindly, weak plant.

He has a vision for the beautiful and useful plant it will be when the pruning is over, colorful buds begin to re-appear and the powerful fragrance it gives will attract birds, bees and us when it is once again in full bloom.

 

The funny thing about pruning a rosebush is that it’s done just when the plant seems to be at its most beautiful--full of large, boldly-colored, intricate blooms.   The husbandman, in his wisdom, decides when and how much to prune each plant and for what reasons according to its individual needs.  Pruning a plant too early or too late can have devastating effects. 

Like the regal rosebush, we who are the children of the King find ourselves in varying stages of growth.  Some are newly planted and some are full of energy and ready to begin blooming. 

Some are full of growth and busy being pollinated by birds and bees or being picked by a child to give to his mother.  Some are being carried down the aisle by a bride and others are being used as a perfume or a healing medicine.  Some inspire song lyrics (or part of a band’s name), and some are being showcased in paintings and admired by many. 

And some have been pruned and lie dormant.

Pruning for the rosebush is as easy as sitting still.  Pruning for us can be a little more painful.  Sometimes it can be so painful we aren’t sure we’ll survive it. 

Pruning can come in the form of trials through financial loss, relationship struggles, in sickness, the death of a loved one or removal from a ministry.  It can come through sacrifice like a move across the country or world. 

All these can cut into our flesh and leave gaping wounds.  But the Caregiver of our souls binds up our wounds with His Word, applies the Son and fresh water through His Holy Spirit.  And when we are filled up and the time is right, we will begin to bloom again. 

We can’t see all the reasons why pruning comes at the time it does and why we sometimes have to be cut back so far.  But God knows the reasons.
 

Some Reasons to Prune Rosebushes and Us

1. To remove old, dead and damaged wood;

            Sometimes a part of our lives may be over, or we may have allowed some bad attitudes, like unforgiveness, to creep in and damage our faith, and they need to be cut away to allow for new and exciting things to begin growing.

2. To shape the plant;

            God shapes us as we mature so that we grow up in all areas and no part of us is lacking.

3. To remove canes that are growing in the wrong direction;

            Sometimes we may pick up some wrong thinking about who God is.  We learn to put away these false ideas about Him as He reveals who He really is so that we can know, love and worship the One, True God.

4. To encourage vigorous blooming and new, healthy shoots;

            Sometimes we feel like we’re cut down in the prime of our service to the Lord.  But God knows that we will be even more useful and more capable when we identify with the Lord in His suffering and so adopt His mind, His humility, and His heart toward people.  God changes our attitudes so that we are even more productive than before.

Whatever the individual reasons for our pruning, it is all meant to clean us up.  I find it interesting that in the verses in John above, the word for prune has the same meaning as the word for clean in the last verse.  What seems to us to be meaningless pain and suffering is really the Lord cleansing and preparing us during a time when we are still and listening intently to Him as we read His Word.  He grooms us so that we will reflect His beauty and magnify His Name. 

Wherever we are in our growth, we will soon find ourselves in another season, many times one we didn’t expect.  But God has a vision for you and me.  He knows each of our needs and how best to accomplish His plans. 

As we realize more and more that there is indeed a master plan, we can grow to appreciate the beauty of every stage of growth, offering comfort to others, being patient with ourselves and trusting in God's loving and wise hand.    

The Nails in the Long and Winding Road

“Then he {Jesus} said to them all:

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily

and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,

but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’”

(Luke 9:23-24 NIV)

I started writing about my long and winding road back in March of 2009.  And like the song, it’s been a wild and windy night.  And like all winding roads, the turns in the path have kept me from seeing the end of it.  Where was I going?  What was this road leading me to?  I just kept walking, or standing, or crouching in a bend somewhere behind a rock to cry for a little bit.

 

God always got me up and walking again, but to where I didn’t know.  Oh, I know all roads for the believer lead to God Himself.  Though He’s promised to be on the road with me, there’s always a bigger revelation of who He is and of who I am in Him along the way.

 

But I’m beginning to catch a glimpse of what lies at the end of that road, and I don’t necessarily like it.  It’s fuzzy at first, but as time goes on, something starts to come into view.  It’s tall, it’s crude and it’s ugly.  It’s a cross.  It’s my cross. 

No one stands there to force me onto it.  But God is there to help me up, to be my strength as I crucify myself.  The nails are what I’ve been picking up along the way.  Every dream demolished is a nail.  Every time I’ve been misunderstood, every new body part that decides to start screaming with pain, every sleepless night, every rejection has been a nail, an opportunity to kill the flesh.

And I can throw those nails across the valley and run off the path, away from the cross, which would be the easiest thing to do.  I can hold onto my so-called right to be understood, or to have my dream or what have you.  That doesn’t mean I would get them, it just means I’d get resentful and bitter that I didn’t have them, because they are my rights.  Right?

Or I can give up my rights, climb up on the cross, with God beside me, and use those nails to die to myself.

 

I give up my right to be understood, or even heard…   Wham!

I give up my right to have my prayers answered in my way, in my time…   Wham!

I give up my dreams…  Wham! 

I give up my right to ever, ever, ever sleep through the night again…   Wham! 

I give up my right to be pain free…   Wham!

I give up my life…    

That’s what I want to do.  And if I do, if I get up on that cross and die, God promises to raise me to a life that is more full of life than I had before because then He can fill me up.  I die, He lives. And when He lives in and through me, all His dreams for me can be realized. 

And tomorrow I’ll have to get up and do it all over again. 

But someday, some bright day, the long, long night will be over, all the dying will be done, and all that’ll be left to do is live forever. 

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Whatever Happened to Holiness?

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  

1 Peter 1:13-16

Being holy sounds so lofty, so impossible, doesn’t it?  And in ourselves, it is.  But when we received Christ’s sacrifice as payment for our sins, we are at that moment, in Him, free from the law of sin and we are made holy, called out from the world to become His bride. 

The same word used for holy in the above verses is the same word for saint in Romans 8:27-- “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

We are now saints, temples of the Holy Spirit. So we are holy, but we still have a choice to behave in a holy manner.

God’s Word tells the story of Hosea who was commanded by God to take a wife, Gomer, who had either already lived as a prostitute or who God knew would leave Hosea multiple times to commit adultery.  It was a picture of Israel who had turned her back on God, gone back to the world and by that, effectively committed adultery against her Betrothed.  Hosea continued to forgive his wife and take her back, and God was saying He would do the same with His people.

Is the bride of Christ any different today than Gomer or Israel? 

We, as individual believers, wander back into the world, back to our former lovers, if you will (or never come out from them altogether), leaving the Lord behind, taking up our former ways and attitudes.  We continue to let greed, unforgiveness, sexual sins, etc. dominate our lives and we become lazy in the things of God.  We hate our enemies instead of loving them. We adopt worldly attitudes about divorce, abortion and homosexuality instead of searching God’s Word and living by His truth.  We think nothing of going out and partying with the world.  We keep the world’s view of members of the opposite sex and look on them in lustful ways. We watch too much t.v. and go to bed at night never having cultivated our relationship with our Heavenly Husband that day.  The list of choices to give our time and energies to anything other than God is endless. 

And God sits and waits for his bride to come to Him. 

Even in the church, holiness is not always a popular theme.  Some who have leadership roles in the church try to use human logic and the world’s ways to reach lost souls.  They entice people with flashy music or programs.  They try talking about Jesus in a dark bar over spirits instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit and letting His power bring salvation.  Nevermind that the Christian leader could be giving justification for drinking to a lost soul who may be an alcoholic or stumbling a fellow believer.  

I’ve even heard some so-called ministries laugh at Christians who are conscientious about being too physically close to members of the opposite sex so as not to stumble them. 

We’re all in a struggle with our flesh every day to remain completely faithful to our Bridegroom, foregoing those worldly lovers.  But God has called us to live a holy life.  He has freed us from the power of sin and His Holy Spirit indwells us to give us the power to do so.  The choice is up to us.   

Gomer was a married woman, but she didn’t behave as though she was married.  She was disrespectful, to say the least, to her husband and to her marriage vows.  And when we choose to live impure lives as if we aren’t the bride of the King of kings and Lord of lords, we disrespect Him, we cheapen His grace and we bring shame to the Name of Jesus in the eyes of a lost and dying world. 

Jesus died and rose so that we could have a relationship with Him and fulfill the high calling of being His hands and feet on this earth, encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ and making disciples.  But why would unbelievers think they needed Christ if they see those who call themselves Christians acting no differently than they do?

Our Bridegroom’s return is near.  I’m convinced that the more we’re willing to call our sin for what it is, walk away from it and the death it brings and focus instead on the joy of His return and fall in love with Him the more we’ll want to deepen that relationship and keep ourselves pure for our heavenly wedding day. 

May God bless you as you seek Him!

Dorci

Before It's Too Late!

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
   call on Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
   and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on them,
   and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7

From the time children are toddling around in their parents' shoes, their minds are just like little sponges, soaking up everything they hear, good and bad.  I don’t think we’re any different as adults.  It’s why billions of dollars are spent every year on advertising.  We see the commercials and we believe what they tell us.  We need that thing, so we buy it. 

We believe internet rumors; we believe email scams; we believe what the government tells us.  Well, sometimes.  We watch people sinning on t.v. and in movies and we laugh.  We soak up the world like a sponge and we’re left dripping with its inane gossip, its cynicism, its bitterness, and its greed and selfishness. 

And sometimes we need to sit before the Lord in repentance and let Him wring out of us the ungodliness and then we can soak up the pure holiness of the Holy Spirit. 

Time is short, my friends.  Let’s seek the Lord while we can.  Let’s stop giving ear to the world and listen to the Lord’s heart instead.  He has things for us to do, people to see and places to go.  He has a gospel to spread before it’s too late and He wants to use us to do it. 

The flesh and spirit war with each other and we are the captains of our own war.  We choose which side wins every day.  For the spirit to win we must starve the flesh and put it to death.  We must put aside the insidious sins, the secret sins, the accepted sins.  

God tells us it’s when we die to ourselves that we can really live.  Why?  Because our plans are so selfish, so temporary, so small compared to the great plans God has for us.  If we’re willing to let go of what we think may be good and listen to the Lord, then He can bless us with what is great. 

He can bless us with Himself. 

We have all we need in Christ Jesus to live a victorious life full of His power, wisdom, strength and peace and to be able to look back on a life of spiritual growth and service to the King. 

Will we? 

May God bless you as you seek His face!

Dorci

The Effects of An Icy Heart

Please enjoy the following devotion I was blessed to write for my friends' website, Halas & Phos, Salt & Light.

”And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Revelation. 22:1

“’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;” John 7:38-39a

Did you know there are actually three waterfalls that comprise Niagara Falls? The water flows from the Niagara River and is separated by two islands into the three Falls. The constant flow of approximately 1,500,000 combined gallons of water per second make Niagara Falls an amazing and beautiful sight to behold.  The massive and continual flow of water also makes it a great source of power for both the Canadian and American sides.  

But there was one day--March 29, 1848—when the water stopped flowing. 

Please read the rest at Halas & Phos here.  

God Treasure

Years ago I lost the diamond from my wedding ring. I looked down at the ring one day and there was only a gaping hole where a diamond once sat. I had no idea how long it had been since it dropped out and I had no idea where to start looking. The diamond was relatively small and I knew it would take a miracle to find it, if I could at all.

I could have given up and bought a new one. Heck, I could have even bought a bigger one, but it wouldn’t have been the same. It wouldn’t have been the diamond I was married with. So I started praying and I asked my friends to pray. 

I adopted a new posture of walking through the house, the yards and the garage with my head down, eyes scouring the ground. At night, when it was dark, I’d shine a flashlight through the house hoping to see a glint of a sparkle from my little diamond. I crawled on the ground, running my fingers through the carpet fibers trying to feel for a marquise-shaped pebble. I looked through the bed sheets, through the closet, under the couch cushions, everywhere I could think. And I kept praying.

Each day that went by it looked less and less like I’d find my diamond. A week went by, then two. Then one Wednesday night, I got in the car to drive to church. I glanced down near the pedals and saw a glint of something reflected by the overhead light. I thought maybe it was a wadded-up foil gum wrapper or something. I bent down and picked it up. It was my diamond.

How it ended up down there I’ll never know. And how, after driving the car for two weeks, it didn’t get kicked hopelessly under the seat, I’ll never know, either, except that the Lord heard our fervent prayers and rewarded my perseverance.

Most of us would search as earnestly for earthly treasure—treasure that is worth relatively very little. I wonder what would happen if we searched as fervently for God treasure? Colossians 2:3 tells us that in Christ is “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” There is wisdom and knowledge that cannot be found with a Ph.D., an MD, or a DVD. Only God holds these priceless treasures and He gives them to those who seek Him.

God says that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6b

Seeking God is not a Sunday morning project. I may never have found my diamond had I looked once or twice and then given up. And we won’t find much of God if we only look once or twice a week, either.

The hunting grounds God has given us for His treasure are His written word and the ground at His feet as we commune with Him in all kinds of prayer. And the peace and joy we experience as we walk with the Lord through this life’s hardships, receiving His wisdom and knowledge for all aspects of our lives, is a treasure that far outweighs any temporary earthly bobble, no matter how shiny.

Don’t forfeit your treasure! Seek Him and be truely rich.


Q: With what piece of wisdom has God blessed you recently? 


All for Him,
Dorci

Walk Away From the Chain

Last time I talked about being freed from a chain of bondage. Chains of bondage come in all sizes, shapes and weights, but they all have one thing in common: they keep us from walking freely in Christ. Once those chains have been laid down, though, we can be tempted to pick them back up again.

The enemy of God will whisper to us that that person isn’t worth forgiving, that we need to go back to that drug or alcohol or a myriad of other forms of physical and spiritual bondage.  And our own flesh, that is our sinful nature, will give way to its weaknesses and after months or even years of carrying these chains we can become so accustomed to them that we pick them up again.  Just as the power of God transformed us at the cross, only His power can heal our hearts, mature our spirits and allow us to walk away from the chains that bind us. 

“For in that He Himself (Jesus Christ) has suffered, having been tempted, He is able to rescue those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:18

Although He didn’t sin, Jesus understands what it’s like to be tempted, and He understands our weaknesses. He desires to rescue us as many times as it takes. He is the Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one who is lost. He is the Father who waits with open arms until His prodigal son or daughter comes home.

If God has delivered you from a chain of bondage and you’ve picked it back up again, don’t give up. God loves you and He wants you to go to Him in faith and ask Him to help you again. Sometimes it takes a lot of prayer, a determination to be obedient and the renewing of our minds in Christ as we abide in Him before we will be completely free of certain things.

Years ago, I had to go through a months-long process of forgiving the man who raped me several times before I was finally, blessedly able to leave the chain of unforgiveness and walk beyond it. I didn’t feel like forgiving him, but I wanted to be obedient to the Lord. And I knew that unforgiveness would choke the spiritual life out of me if I didn’t let that chain go. After several months of telling God over and over that I was choosing to forgive, God met me in my obedience and the Spirit healed my heart.

God’s Word always tells us to put on a godly character to fill the void left by what we have put off so that we are less tempted to pick the chain up again.

“But now also put off all these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of your mouth. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender feelings of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving yourselves, if anyone has a complaint against any. As Christ forgave you, so also you do. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.” Colossians 3:8, 12-14

Continue to abide in Christ and in the truth He is teaching you. Allow the Holy Spirit to continue ministering to your heart and renewing your mind. Be careful to put your faith in the Lord alone and as you pray with a humble and sincere heart, He will meet you at the cross to demolish those strongholds.

“Faithful is He who called you, who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24

The Thud Heard 'Round the Universe

In the deepest recesses of hell, demons heard a thud last week. It was the thud of a thick chain of bondage falling from my soul and slamming to the ground. I could never have broken free of it myself in a million years, but God did. I won’t go into all the details (I’ll save it for my memoir!), but I will say that this chain was a way of thinking that I had from childhood as a result of painful circumstances and was reinforced over and over through the years.

The enemy’s plan was to slowly wrap the chain around my heart with each cruel word carelessly spoken and every evil act perpetrated against me, and suffocate the life out of me. And he nearly did.

I was saved 21 years ago, but this chain remained and even continued to wrap tighter. The funny thing is, I didn’t even realize it was there. Oh, I knew I had issues from my past to deal with and one by one I prayed about them over and over. Somehow, though, some things seemed to get worse instead of better. It’s like that in a storm sometimes.

The storm raged wildly within my heart. It became louder and more violent. Could He hear my cries above the wind and the waves? Did He care? I pleaded for mercy.

And suddenly, a new perspective occured to me.  God revealed the truth and the lie I had believed dissolved.  And the storm was gone. A chain I didn’t fully realize existed lay beside me and the only sounds left were the rattling of the foundations of hell and my heart rejoicing with the Lord's.   

God had heard my cries and He answered them in a way that only He can.

My friends, do you know that God is still in the miracle business? He loves us more than we can know and desires to bless us in ways that cannot come naturally, only supernaturally. But we must ask. Ironically, though, the times we need God the most can also be the most difficult times to go to Him.

Sometimes we think we can figure things out on our own. But we are powerless to resolve these issues ourselves. Sometimes the anger or bitterness in our heart makes us feel ashamed to face the Lord. But He knows what’s in our hearts already, and much better than we know ourselves. And sometimes we can just become so comfortable living with the chains that we begin to hang bells and whistles on them.

But God wants us to be free. He wants us to cry out to Him, to trust Him and put every ounce of faith in Him and Him alone. He knows that only He has the power to heal our broken hearts, our broken bodies and our broken lives.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10

It usually doesn’t happen in our time or our way, but if you ask and keep on asking, seeking and knocking, God will do great things in His perfect time and far better than you can ever imagine.


Q: How can I pray for you and your miracle?

All for Him,
Dorci

Joyfully Living a Sacrificial Life

A few months ago I put up a new gadget on the side of my blog where readers can post their own ideas for blog topics. I was thrilled a few weeks ago when I saw I actually had a taker. And then I saw the topic: joyfully living a sacrificial life. Oh my. Not your typical fluffy topic. I can’t even pretend to be an expert on this, but the Lord is, so I’ve been praying and thinking about it ever since, asking for His wisdom.

Living a life of sacrifice can be difficult enough, but to do it joyfully? Well, that’s a whole other ball of wax. But I’ll tell you what the Lord has shown me. We can sacrifice in the flesh or we can sacrifice in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells us, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:9-11)

Jesus said that if we keep His commandments as He kept His Father’s, we will abide in His love and that our joy would be complete. Don’t misunderstand, God’s love for us never waivers. But we leave a degree of our love for Him when we choose to disobey and then we will find a measure of our joy is gone.

What are those commandments?

1. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37)

2. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13)

The more we love God the more we will love His people. And as we continue showing love for one another, we will abide in Christ’s love and we will be filled with joy. And loving others requires sacrifice.

There is no joy sacrificing in the flesh.

Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The first part of these verses speak to the bondage of sin in our lives. When left unchecked and unrepented of, it becomes a weight, keeping us from moving forward in our spiritual maturity and usefulness in God’s hands.

When we get out of the will of God, either by allowing sin to reside in our lives, or by sacrificing in a way He has not called us to, the power of the Holy Spirit cannot lead us and the sacrifice is done in the flesh--with our own strength and our wisdom, which are no strength or wisdom at all. This is a sure-fire way to burn out in our faith and lose our joy.

Sacrificing in the power of the Holy Spirit brings joy.

When we throw off that weight, choosing not to sin and when we do, being quick to repent, even of those insidious sins that we may think of as harmless, those thoughts that form in our minds that we can nurture, like jealousy or unforgiveness, then we can move forward in our faith, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, giving our lives as a sacrifice in God’s strength and wisdom.

Jesus lived a life of sacrifice that culminated in the ultimate act of sacrifice: giving of His very own physical life. He fulfilled the commandment to love others as He laid down His life, and not even just for His friends, but for the world, even while we still hated Him.

But He didn’t focus on the suffering of His sacrifice. He obeyed His Father and endured suffering for the joy that was set before Him. He focused on His reward, on the fruit of His suffering. And that reward was us. He knew that because of His obedience to the Father to give up His life He was purchasing our souls from the pit of hell and that ultimate sacrifice brought Him ultimate joy.

God’s ways are always contrary to our nature and to the world’s way of doing things. Our nature and the world tells us that to be happy we must fulfill our own desires.

But God tells us that when we sacrifice our lives, dying to our own personal desires so that we can allow Christ to love others through us on this earth, fulfilling greater missions than our own comfort, we will be filled with real joy.

Conversely, when we focus on self, when we allow sin to govern our lives, we forgo love of others, we do not abide in Christ’s love, and that brings spiritual separation, depression, fear and loneliness.

God doesn’t require most of us to sacrifice to the point of giving our lives through physical death. We are to be living sacrifices for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of ways we can sacrifice our lives every day, but each one boils down to showing love for another.

Joni Eareckson Tada

Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman who became a quadriplegic at the age of 17 after diving into shallow water and suffering a spinal cord injury, is a great example of a life given over to the Lord in humble and joyful sacrifice.

Because of her injury, Joni had been forced to sacrifice much of her independence, her previous love of playing sports, even being able to wipe her own nose. You’d think the sacrifice she was forced to make (yet more than willingly and lovingly submits to her Heavenly Father) was enough. But in one particular book I read about her life she says that, among other things, she has given up eating French fries. Why? Because her husband and friends must lift her in and out of her wheelchair and she wants to be mindful of her weight for them. Now that is love. She shows the love she has for others by choosing to give up her right to eat what she wants for them.

When we willingly give our lives to the Lord, sacrificing in the will and power of the Holy Spirit, that is when we look, act, see, think and feel most like the Lord.

We have two choices every day.

1. We can try to fill our lives with temporary, earthly pleasures to try to find happiness—a hollow counterfeit of the real joy we were meant to have in Christ.

2. We can abide in the love of Christ, allowing Him to love others through us as we lay down our own wants and desires for the glory of God and for His kingdom.

Finding joy in sacrifice doesn’t mean it will be fun. Sometimes it will be downright agonizing work. But as we continue walking in the Holy Spirit, praying and reading God's Word and abiding in His love through obedience, the joy we will have will be evident and deeply satisfying within our spirit.  We must remember to keep our focus on heaven, sending up our treasures ahead of us through our sacrifice for the joy set before us--glorifying the Lord now and abiding with Him forever.