Life's a Crazy, Peculiar, Beautiful Puzzle

Some of us are straight-edged, some are curved on all sides.  Some stick out more than others.  Seems just about all of us have holes.  Some see part of a clear picture, others' are a bit fuzzy-some glitzy and some not.  Some are bright and cheery, others are muted and mysterious. 

But one thing's clear.

We are each an important piece of a grand puzzle, interlocked with countless other lives.  None of knows quite how we fit in or exactly how we'll look when this is all over.  As time goes on, we may catch a glimpse of the picture.  Only God knows for sure.

We are His masterpiece...His magnum opus.

Sometimes we try pushing our way into someplace we're not meant to be. Sometimes we feel like we've been off to the sidelines for a very, very long time. But we're each an integral part of His grand plan.

And if we'll trust Him, and go where He tells us...or trust Him, and wait...

He'll make something beautiful.

Right now things may look like just a jumbled up mess of shapes and colors. Circumstances don't make sense; the people we have in our lives don't always make sense.  But we fit into their picture, and they in ours.

And the final scene will be more beautiful than we can ever imagine.  

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Lord, help us to go where You tell us and do what You've designed us to do. Help us to wait when You want us to wait.  Help us to trust You through all our trials. Help us to love the people You've put in our lives. 

Help us to put our faith in You more and more each day, knowing that You are not a God Who doesn't care.  You love us and You're actively involved in our lives with good and godly purposes in mind.  

You are our Master.  Do with us what You will. 

In Jesus' Name,

Amen 

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

Friday Funnies ~ Dream Big and Pray Bigger!

We don't need to settle for small dreams like Bo. God has big plans for us just around the corner if we'll only ask! Plans that will fit us perfectly.

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. 
   Glory to God in the church!
   Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
   Glory down all the generations!
   Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!"
Ephesians 3:20-21  The Message

Fight the Good Fight, Keep the Faith

I watched The Book of Eli again.   And again, it’s left me with a feeling of determination, of gravity, of sober-mindedness about my faith in God and my desire to serve Him well to the end.

Just to let you know, this will contain major spoilers. So if you’ve never watched it, watch it first, if you like, then come back.  I’ll wait.

But a warning: it is rated R, and in the case of this movie, that could stand for raw and rough, but also for revelation.  There are several instances of very strong language and many scenes of disturbing violence.  Normally I wouldn’t recommend a movie with that level of crudeness, but the context in which it’s used in this movie is not gratuitous but conforms to the grave time and situations within the story.  If you’d still rather not watch it, read on anyway.  I’ve included enough of the story that you won’t miss out on the message. 

So why would I watch a movie with such violence and vulgarity?  Because it is an excellent allegory of our lives--as messy and ugly and painful as they can be—as we walk with the Lord. 

*       *       *

“You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Corinthians 3:3

A man named Eli wanders through a barren land some thirty-one years after an apocolyptic destruction of the earth and most of its inhabitants.  He carries only a backpack and a few weapons which he skillfully uses against the violence he finds at nearly every turn in this lawless land.

 

Eli guards with his life the contents in his backpack: a book.  But not just any book.  It is the only copy of the Bible left on earth.  He’s been traveling with it since the destruction and his job is to take it west.  Why?  Because a Voice told him to.

 

The Voice leads him through peril after peril.

 

Eli comes to a futuristic old west town of lawless men, run by one deranged man whose goal is to find a Bible.  He knows there is power in the Bible and he wants power. He’s managed to enslave a group of people, including a blind woman and her daughter.

The man discovers the contents of Eli’s pack.  Eli takes off in a hail of bullets, leaving several bodies in his wake.  Eli is unharmed.

 

Eli is back on the road, dutifully headed west, when he discovers the teenage daughter of the blind woman has followed him.  They find shelter for the night where he removes his most guarded possession from its cocoon and begins reading.  The illiterate girl asks him to read to her and he begins to recite scripture from memory.

She asks him if he reads it every day.  He responds, “Without fail.” 

As they continue on in their journey west, the deranged man and his band of not-so-merry men have found Eli and the girl. After a gunfight, Eli finds himself standing in the middle of the men while the ringleader has a tight hold on the girl and a gun pointed at Eli.  Eli has hidden the Book, and the man wants it.  Eli stands in total confidence that the protection he’s known for thirty-one years will continue.

 

And then, Eli is shot.  He stumbles and his face twists with confusion.

   

The man snarls at Eli, “Where’s your protection now?”  And we wonder the same thing.  Why would God allow him to be hurt?  And even more, why would God allow him to be placed in a position where he feels he has to give up the Bible to this abusive, power-hungry man?

Eli gives up the Book’s hiding place, it is taken and the men are gone with the girl.  Eli gets back on the road and continues his journey west, led by the Voice, as if nothing has happened.  The girl musters some courage of her own, and finds her way back to Eli.

They reach the ocean where they cross by boat to a sanctuary.  The guard asks him why he’s there.  He says he has a copy of the King James Bible.  The girl looks at him quizzically, and so do we.

 

They enter the sanctuary where they meet with the proprietor who is in the process of collecting a library of books which have become precious in this post-war era.  He’s never seen a Bible.  He, the girl and Eli sit down.  Eli asks for some paper.

 

Meanwhile, the man is back in the old west with his stolen Book of Power.  The Book is opened and we see the pages but there are no words, only raised dots.  The blind woman stands in front of it, having no clue as to the treasure that lay right in front of her.  He screams at her to read it.  She throws her hands down in anger, and she feels the dots.  Time stands still for her as she realizes this is a Bible, a Bible she can read. 

Back at the sanctuary, Eli begins to recite the Bible, from memory, word by word, verse by verse:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
                 deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

We are taken up close and we see Eli’s eyes, and suddenly realize that he is blind.  And yet, he sees more than anyone because the truth of God is written on his heart.  It is the light from the sun and the voice of God that led him, gave him discernment, and filled him with wisdom to walk across the country for thirty-one years, facing death at every turn, fulfilling his mission. And so it is with us.

My friends, our life in Christ is a journey, and we’ll most surely encounter struggles, pain and evil along the way.  And God will use those times of trial in ways we may not ever know until we stand with Jesus in heaven.  Because Eli was shot and the girl’s life was at stake, he had to release the Bible. No doubt the Voice told him to, a Voice with which he had become very well acquainted.  And in doing so, the Word of God that gives freedom to the humble was taken back to a lawless town and the truth was spoken.  Ironically, the man who wanted to use it for his own gain lost the very power he coveted. 

And because Eli persisted in doing God’s will, the Bible was produced again en masse, and its message filled a lost and dying world.  Eli sums up his belief about the Bible’s message by saying it’s about doing more for others than for yourself.  And so it is. Rather than saving Himself, Jesus Christ died for us so that we can be saved and live with God forever.  And this is the message we carry in our hearts. 

Whatever comes along on your long and winding road--the good, the bad and the ugly--our ultimate purpose is to carry the Lord, and with Him, the inspired Word of God, in our hearts. We are the living letter of God given for our own lost and dying world.  Keep focused, keep true and finish well.

 

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

2 Timothy 4:7-8 kjv

God Is Good...All the Time!

(Speaking of Jesus) who, in the days of His flesh,

when He had offered up prayers and supplications,

with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death,

and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son,

yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Hebrews 5:6-7

“God answered my prayer for (insert your prayer).  He is so good!”

We often hear people say this, and it’s true, God is good and faithful to answer our prayers.  But what about when He answers them with a “no”?  Or even worse, the dreaded “wait”? 

Do we say things like, “God didn't let me get that house!" or "God hasn't brought me a husband or wife!" or "God didn't let me get that job I wanted!" or "God didn't heal me or my loved one!  He is so good!”  Not usually.

Are we sending ourselves, and each other, a subtle message that God is not good when He doesn’t answer our prayers in the way and time we wanted?

Hebrews tells us that even Jesus prayed loudly and with tears to be saved from death.  He knew He had to face this death, but His humanness recoiled from the horror of it. 

Jesus, God’s beloved Son, knelt in the garden, alone, sweating drops of blood, pleading to His Father to take the cup of suffering and death from Him. 

And the Father heard His prayer.  But His answer was no. 

God had a good reason for telling His Son no.  He had a greater purpose than keeping His Son from seeing death.  He wanted to keep all of us from a spiritual death. 

The death of One for the life of many.  And God is glorified daily. 

And it says that Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered.  Jesus prayed and then rested in His Father’s wisdom to answer the prayer according to His good and perfect will. 

And in saying no, God was so good. 

When we pray to the Father, through Jesus Christ, with an attitude of godly fear--a reverence or respect—we can know our prayers have been heard.  And then we rest in God’s wisdom to answer according to His good and perfect will. 

Through the “no’s” and the “waits” we can have assurance that we are being moved in the direction of God’s plan for our lives.  And as we rest in His wisdom, we learn obedience through the things we suffer.  We learn that God has a greater purpose to accomplish than He could if He answered yes to every prayer.  We learn that it is by God’s grace and mercy that He sometimes answers with a no or a wait.

So if our prayers aren’t answered in the way or the time we want, we can still say, boldly and with confidence, He is so good!

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

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

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.

How Big Is Your God?

Our Father sets before us a lavish banqueting table full of the choicest meats, the rarest of delicacies, the sweetest fruit, the richest desserts, even milk for the little ones, all served with ornate silver and intricate glassware, meticulously set on a silken tablecloth.

So why do we sit on the floor and settle for crumbs so much of the time?

That is what we do when we rarely open our Bibles to feast on the riches of His Word and when we pray puny prayers.

We serve a mighty God, the God Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the One Who can move mountains and keeps the planets in line. Our God controls it all! We serve the King of kings Who has served us a feast within the pages of His personal love letter written over thousands of years just for us. We serve the Almighty God Who invites us over and over on those pages to come to Him, to seek Him, to find Him.

We serve a Big God; why are we not willing to pray big prayers?

Lay aside the mundane and read of Him, talk to Him, know Him, trust Him, love Him, be one with Him in spirit and let Him reveal to you the big thoughts and dreams and visions He has for your life. Dare to dream in line with the God who dreamt of the vastness of the universe and the countless galaxies contained within it.

Don’t be afraid to lift up grand prayers to the One Who created the impossibly complex human mind and body. Pray lofty prayers to the God Who controls the heat of our sun and the ebb and flow of the tides. Don’t limit your prayers by what you can see, but sit with the Lord and allow Him to fill your mind and heart with magnificent visions and plans of the things He wants to accomplish in and through your life.

What an exciting life awaits us when we freely put our lives in the hands of the One Who has no limits on imagination or resources and Who loves us more dearly than we could ever hope.

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Now is the time everyone likes to make resolutions. I’ve never been a big resolution-maker myself, although I do like the thought of starting a brand, new year. We plan and have lofty ideas and goals and ways to make our lives better.

We think losing weight will make our lives perfect. Or climbing the corporate ladder and making more money, surely that will make our lives perfect. Or finding a spouse--a first one or a new one--or putting all our efforts into this relationship, that’s bound to make our lives fulfilling. Or we could just determine to pour all our efforts into serving at church. 

We make all these plans, thinking that in them alone will be the magic bullet that makes our lives all we want it to be. Somehow, though, those resolutions don’t seem to last that long, do they? And even if they do, they never seem to be quite enough and we go searching for something else to fulfill our lives.

The thing is, we can resolute until the cows come home, but unless Jesus Christ comes first in our lives and He fills that void that only He was meant to fill, we will keep trying to fill it with something else.

As I look back on this past year, I realize the one thing the Lord has shown me over and over again is that all things are but a shadow of His grand and perfect love for us. Only He is meant to fill the emptiness in our hearts and fulfill our deepest longings.

When we don’t seek God first and allow Him to be everything to us, we will automatically begin to focus on lesser gods--relationships, careers, entertainment, drugs and alcohol--to fill the void. None of that will ever completely satisfy and so we hungrily continue searching and trying to fill that emptiness with everything but Him. Even service to the Lord will not meet our spiritual needs without first seeking relationship with our Heavenly Father.

As I look ahead to the stark-white pages of the coming year, I wonder what will be written on them. Will they be filled with stories of running ahead of God and trying to fill the void of my heart that His absence has left with all those other things?

The Christian life is not about seeking the things, it’s about seeking after God. It’s about an active, loving relationship with the Lord. It's about the act of daily worshipping the King of kings in all we do. And if we are making plans without Him, we could be taking ourselves far away from the awesome plans He has for our lives. We could be settling for good, when He desires to give us His best. But when Christ is first in my heart, then my spiritual eyes are focused and the Lord can show me what His plans are and He will give me the power and strength to carry them out.

When we make the decision to make the Lord our number one priority, when we focus on knowing and loving Him, when we allow relationship with our Heavenly Father to fill that deep, dark longing in our souls the way He desires, then everything else will fall into place. He will make sure of it. Not that our lives will be perfect, but we will have the peace of knowing that no matter what happens, we are right in the center of His will.

Seek the Lord wholeheartedly and then wait in faith. He’ll show you where to go and what to do and how to do it, and you’ll have His power to accomplish it. And who doesn’t need God’s power to drop a few pounds, right?

All God's best to you,

Yes and Amen

At least three times a month I decide to quit blogging. And yet here I am again. Hope springs eternal, I suppose. And so does the Fountain of Life. If you tire of hearing about the ways an extraordinary God moves in and through an ordinary life, namely, mine, you might as well move along to a food or decorating blog, or go back to watching your favorite re-runs of I Love Lucy or your RPG’s.

Here is where we’ll participate in the ultimate Role-Playing Game--our own lives. Here is where we’ll leave the world behind and scratch and crawl our way to the hem of the Master’s robe and find healing for our souls. Here is where I hope to reveal the wisps of an all-powerful Holy Spirit breathing life, hope, meaning and even holiness into an otherwise meaningless albeit sometimes odd existence.

I couldn’t get by without the promises of God. Although He is well-acquainted with our own failings, we serve a faithful God Who loves us enough to want to calm our fears by telling us of His promises over and over in His Word.  And we can count on those promises as sure as if they have happened.  "For all the promises of God in Him (Jesus Christ) are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us."  (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Years ago, early on in my walk with the Lord, I began to struggle with how I could ever serve the Lord. I desperately wanted to be of use, but I had no discernible talents. I couldn’t sing or play an instrument, I couldn’t teach, I wasn’t even one of those out-going people who felt comfortable just jumping into a role.

The Lord heard my prayer about it one day and the Holy Spirit put some words on my heart that I knew I had heard spoken from scripture, but wasn’t familiar enough with them to even know which book to find them. So I started doing a word search from the few words I could remember. I finally found it and it turned out to be Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

So I held onto that promise and sure enough, the Lord blessed me with many ways to serve Him.

And now, here I am again, almost 20 years and one very worn-down body later, wondering what I can do to be useful in the hands of the Lord. How can I serve Him when even cooking dinner has become a challenge? The answer? I don’t know. I think that’s why three times a month I change my mind about blogging for the kingdom. I want to do something, if even a small thing, for my Father Who saved me from so much.

So I’ll hold onto His promise again - that He knows what He’s planned for me, and that those plans are to prosper me, not to harm me as satan would have me believe. No, my Father has planned to give me hope and a future. After all, I’m still here, right?

Are you holding onto that promise for yourself?

Friday Funnies A Lego Lesson {Jonah 1:17-2:6}

{Jonah 1:1-3}
{Jonah 1:4-17}


Jonah hangs with Geppetto in the belly of a fish. 

Keep On Keepin' On

If you look back on your life, you probably realize that you have persevered through a lot – illness, rejection, doubt, loneliness, loss, regret, death. But you’ve made it! You’re still here and you’ve learned a lot through it. I hope you’re closer to the Lord because of it. Still, the temptation can sometimes be to give up when we face yet another difficult trial. But now is not the time to give up.

Now is the time to persevere.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew perseverance and He exampled it to us all the way to the end of His life.

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)

Not only did He continue in obedience to His Father all the way to the cross and the grave, but He persevered in love. He didn’t persevere begrudgingly, He didn’t become bitter, and He didn’t become weak or weary.

He persevered with love.

But how do you do that? Maybe you’re tired right now and don’t know how you’re going to make it through. You cannot do it alone.

Persevere with the One Who gives love and strength and hope.

Hold onto Him and none else. Make Him your hope, believing in Him for all things. Make Him your Lord, allowing Him to lead you through all things. He will be with you and love you to the end.

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:36-39)