in the Pharisee standing at the altar.
At least, I see who I used to be.
It wasn't intentional.
Pride snuck in while I was being good.
Doing the things I was supposed to do.
Knowing I had sin, but comparing it others.
Read the story again yesterday and I saw myself.
I am not sure it was that I even thought I was better,
just not as bad.
Saw myself in another story as well.
Priscilla Shirer shared in One in a Million that a rebellious sheep will have its leg broken by the shepherd.
Wounded, the sheep must now be carried by the shepherd.
Resting on the shepherd, the sheep learns his voice.
When healed, the sheep KNOWS its shepherd's voice.
The rebellion is gone.
I have had a broken leg.
I have been carried.
I know my shepherd's voice.
Reading that story made me think of the book of Ezekiel.
Time and time again the Lord says He is doing this or that so"they (or you) will know that I am the Lord."
We are going to know He is Lord.
We need to know He is the Lord.
We are delivered because He is Lord.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE....AND YOURS.
This is what I wrote over Jeremiah chapter 42 in my bible.The full caption reads:
DO NOT GO BACK TO THE CAPTIVITY THAT I HAVE DELIVERED YOU FROM
You need to read the chapter for yourself. Here is what I am going to say. When things get hard, either as a consequence of your actions or just because, do not go back to the captivity Christ has delivered you from. Sometimes things get rough just in our head. A comment that hurts a little, even when nothing was intended by it. A nod of approval neglected. Sometimes things really are difficult. Either way, do not go back to the captivity He has delivered your from.
Not back to old habits.
Not back to old thought processes.
Not back to old self-loathing or pride.
Do not run back to old friends if He has removed them.
Do not go back to old lifestyles.
Do not run back to the "good" if it held you captive from the best God has.
Face the difficulties under the wing of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will protect you. He will cause you to survive. He will cause you to thrive. You go back, it will be worse than before. It will be the death of you.
He is the One who delivered you from Egypt, for His name's sake.
To go back is to belittle that name.
To belittle the name He has given you as well.
Redeemed.
Precious.
Adopted.
Child of the Living God.
It may not be easy. Probably won't. Fear will knock and, at times, try to beat down the doors of your heart and mind.
You stand firm.
You keep focused on Christ Jesus and do not look back.
If you are going to fall before anything or anyone, you bow that knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You hit your knees in praise and prayer, and you keep those feet facing forward, planted firmly on the ground He has placed you on.
Do not retreat.
Do not concede defeat.
Do not think that I am talking just to you.
It is written in my Bible for a reason:)
Deliberate.
Delivered.
May we be so, Lord Jesus, may we be so.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
YES I STILL HAVE A BIBLE...
I know.
It has been over a month.
You have been asking yourself,
Does this girl even read her Bible anymore?
Yes I do.
Yes I have been.
I just finished up the Old Testament.
The people have returned.
The temple rebuilt.
The apathy renewed.
Just like us isn't it?
Things get turned around in the right direction.
We get lazy.
Maybe just me.
Stop being deliberate in my pursuit.
In my actions.
In my choices.
Now in the New Testament.
Reminding me of how deliberate our Christ was.
How deliberate He is.
How deliberate He will be.
He has, is and will deliver us.
He is deliberate about it.
He is deliberate toward you.
He is deliberate toward me.
With His grace.
With His love.
With His discipline.
God, our Father, knows exactly what He is doing.
Take peace in that knowledge.
You are deliberately delivered.
It has been over a month.
You have been asking yourself,
Does this girl even read her Bible anymore?
Yes I do.
Yes I have been.
I just finished up the Old Testament.
The people have returned.
The temple rebuilt.
The apathy renewed.
Just like us isn't it?
Things get turned around in the right direction.
We get lazy.
Maybe just me.
Stop being deliberate in my pursuit.
In my actions.
In my choices.
Now in the New Testament.
Reminding me of how deliberate our Christ was.
How deliberate He is.
How deliberate He will be.
He has, is and will deliver us.
He is deliberate about it.
He is deliberate toward you.
He is deliberate toward me.
With His grace.
With His love.
With His discipline.
God, our Father, knows exactly what He is doing.
Take peace in that knowledge.
You are deliberately delivered.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
IS HIS NAME....
I know the last couple of posts have been challenging.
Could even be down right depressing and discouraging.
So I wanted to encourage you today
with the same verse I have been encouraging myself.
Their Redeemer is strong;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
Isaiah 50:34(a) NJKV
We are not in this alone.
We are not depending on our own strength.
Whatever you are going through,
get this good news in your head.
Our Redeemer is strong!
The Lord of hosts is His name!
Glory!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
CRUSHED
...because I was crushed by their adulterous heart
which departed from Me,
and by their eyes
which play the harlot after their idols;...
Ezekiel 6:9 (NKJV)
I had to go back and re-read this verse a second time. The word that jumped out at me....crushed. God is talking to Ezekiel about the children of Israel. They have not had loyal hearts. I knew He was upset with them. I knew He was angry. Crushed though? I never think of God as being crushed. I have been crushed. It is a word I can relate to quickly. Heart-break in my youth, betrayal anytime. Crushed is a word many of us can relate to. Kinda feels like being kicked in the stomach. It is different than anger. More than being upset. It is deeper. To your very being.
I'll be honest, it is really hard for me to picture God crushed by anything. To picture my God broken. However, He clearly says in His word that He was (and is). The KJV (for my mama) says He was "broken with their whorish heart".
I always knew my sin disappointed God, but I think I pictured Him feeling similar to what I feel when the MC's disappoint me. I am upset, but not cut down deep. The idea that my "whorish heart" crushes Him, that puts a whole new weight on things. A mental and emotional image I can't seem to shake. I have seen parents who were crushed by the actions of their kids. I have seen spouses crushed by the infidelities of their significant others. I know what it looks like. I know what it feels like to an extent.
All this to say I now have a stronger desire to have a loyal heart. I want to be so very watchful for idols in my life, as small or large as they may be. I want to be sure I am loyal to Christ's calling above all else. If it means swallowing some pride, forgiving deep wounds, confessing secret sins, then fine. If it means stepping out of the comfort zone or speaking boldly into a relationship, fine.Whatever He calls me to, I desire even more for my heart to be loyal to Him alone.
Won't be easy.
Won't come naturally.
Won't feel good all the time.
But it will feel better than
the thought of causing God
to be crushed by my heart.
Deliberately Delivered.
My heart,
to God.
Loyal.
Faithful.
True.
Because
He was
deliberately
delivered
unto me
and to
you.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A LOYAL HEART
I just could not get it.
What was the difference between David, who messed up in a big way multiple times, and the other good kings, who were obliterated for doing one thing wrong?
What made David different?
Then I found my answer in 2 Chronicles 25:2,
And he did was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart. (NKJV)
This passage is speaking about Amaziah and his reign in Judah, but it spoke so loudly to me in response to my question.
When many of the good kings messed up, even if only once, they rejected the correction of the Lord.
They got angry and responded in rebellion.
When David was corrected, he humbled himself before the Lord.
He had a loyal heart.
We can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
To What is our heart loyal?
Looking good in front of others?
Convincing everyone, perhaps even ourselves, that we have it all together?
We can do them all for the right reasons.
Trying to please and honor the Lord.
It is easy to do right when it carries little consequences or inconvenience.
What about when we need to do right after we have done wrong?
When the Lord chastens us,
which we pray He does as it is a sign of His love for us,
how do we respond?
To What or Whom do we find our hearts loyal?
Our flesh or our God?
Like David, we are going to blow it.
We are going to mess it up at some point in time.
The test of our heart can come when we are corrected by the Lord.
Are we loyal to our flesh and demand we have done nothing wrong?
Are we loyal to Christ Jesus and repent then and there?
A work in progress, yes we are.
In that progress, let us (and believe me I mean ME in a big way) be deliberate in turning our hearts toward the Lord.
Let us deliberately raise up within ourselves loyal hearts to Christ Jesus.
He is deliberately loyal to us.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
HOGWASH...
is what it is. Before I ever start, let me warn you now I have a burr under my saddle. A big one. It has hit a nerve and I am fired up. That was your disclaimer.
Complete and utter hogwash. There is a trend moving within the church body (at least in this nation) that ticks me off like nobody's business on one hand and scares the fire out of me on the other. The belief that the Bible is not the complete Word of God. The argument that the Old Testament stories are just that...stories. Used by writers to invoke emotion about a deity, but with no real validity.
Adam and Eve just a parable.
Jonah impossible.
Jericho - no way.
It is a movement that has crossed into main stream denominational churches and seminaries alike, and it is wrong. Someone help us when we have pastors with their very fancy doctorates and seminary papers telling us from the pulpit that they do not believe that Bible is the absolute Word of God.
Excuse me?
When we have megachurches and minichurches alike full of people listening to men and women who argue the Old Testament is figurative more then literal.
Are you kidding me?
Let me tell you something right now, if you can't believe the "in the beginning" then you have nothing to cling to in the end.
I can not even wrap my head around how someone could believe in God raising Christ Jesus from the dead (which is a, if not the, chief tenant of Christianity) and yet finds it impossible for the very same God to put a man inside a whale. Or knock down a wall. Or make a aged woman have a baby.
Which is harder?
What is even worse is we are buying it. Hook. Line. Sinker.
Which is exactly what we are doing.
Sinking.
Into our collective pews. We open our mouths and we believe everything that man or woman behind the pulpit says. We read our scriptures from the screen. We listen without ever checking the scriptures out for ourselves. We take no notes. We ask no questions. We give away ownership of our faith piece by piece, little by little. Don't get me wrong. I don't believe for one second that we are to sit in our pews and challenge every word our pastors or bible teachers say. There will be issues that we do disagree with them on. Do they all merit beating down his or her door Monday morning? Most likely not. However, there are some that should be deal breakers for us. The validity of the Bible better be the first.
Here is the deal. God is either a liar or He is not. (He is not, Titus 1:2; Num. 23:19).
He can not lie in the Old Testament and then be truthful in the New. It is either all true, or it is all a lie. No in-between. You can not pick and choose the parts you want to believe in. It either happened as God said it did, or it didn't. Now I know the arguments. Well, the bible was written by man....there are so many different translations....we did not really know what all the words really meant. There is legalism out there that says I must keep the Jewish laws of the Old Testament. There are those who will say I am in the wrong writing this because I have usurped my role within the body and spoken out of turn according to the New Testament. Most likely the word hypocrite will come to mind, if not to the comments. Which is fine. Absolutely fine. Why? Because my faith does not depend on what the comments section says.
Here is what I know. Here is what I have lived. When it comes down to it. When the rubber meets the road. When I am in my darkest of darks, the Word of God is the ONLY light that can defeat it. It comes down to me and that Bible. It is those words that are my sword. It is those words that speak to my soul and encourage me. Those writings that have even allowed me to know how to be saved, actual salvation, and to share that with others, and if I don't have confidence in it, all of it, I am done for. Finished. My pastor can not help and my favorite bible teacher is useless in those times. No feel good message is going to cut it. I need to know the word, believe the word, and act upon the word.
I beseech you brothers and sisters in Christ, please, please, do not think for one second that the Bible is just a story book. Please do not diminish the sacrifice that Jesus made for us (whether you accept it or not) by saying it is only to invoke emotion. Use discernment. Study. Research. Learn.
Above all BELIEVE. Have faith in the God who wrote it. Exercise faith in the Christ who died for it. Stand up and stop sinking.
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge- by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 (NKJV)
Complete and utter hogwash. There is a trend moving within the church body (at least in this nation) that ticks me off like nobody's business on one hand and scares the fire out of me on the other. The belief that the Bible is not the complete Word of God. The argument that the Old Testament stories are just that...stories. Used by writers to invoke emotion about a deity, but with no real validity.
Adam and Eve just a parable.
Jonah impossible.
Jericho - no way.
It is a movement that has crossed into main stream denominational churches and seminaries alike, and it is wrong. Someone help us when we have pastors with their very fancy doctorates and seminary papers telling us from the pulpit that they do not believe that Bible is the absolute Word of God.
Excuse me?
When we have megachurches and minichurches alike full of people listening to men and women who argue the Old Testament is figurative more then literal.
Are you kidding me?
Let me tell you something right now, if you can't believe the "in the beginning" then you have nothing to cling to in the end.
I can not even wrap my head around how someone could believe in God raising Christ Jesus from the dead (which is a, if not the, chief tenant of Christianity) and yet finds it impossible for the very same God to put a man inside a whale. Or knock down a wall. Or make a aged woman have a baby.
Which is harder?
What is even worse is we are buying it. Hook. Line. Sinker.
Which is exactly what we are doing.
Sinking.
Into our collective pews. We open our mouths and we believe everything that man or woman behind the pulpit says. We read our scriptures from the screen. We listen without ever checking the scriptures out for ourselves. We take no notes. We ask no questions. We give away ownership of our faith piece by piece, little by little. Don't get me wrong. I don't believe for one second that we are to sit in our pews and challenge every word our pastors or bible teachers say. There will be issues that we do disagree with them on. Do they all merit beating down his or her door Monday morning? Most likely not. However, there are some that should be deal breakers for us. The validity of the Bible better be the first.
Here is the deal. God is either a liar or He is not. (He is not, Titus 1:2; Num. 23:19).
He can not lie in the Old Testament and then be truthful in the New. It is either all true, or it is all a lie. No in-between. You can not pick and choose the parts you want to believe in. It either happened as God said it did, or it didn't. Now I know the arguments. Well, the bible was written by man....there are so many different translations....we did not really know what all the words really meant. There is legalism out there that says I must keep the Jewish laws of the Old Testament. There are those who will say I am in the wrong writing this because I have usurped my role within the body and spoken out of turn according to the New Testament. Most likely the word hypocrite will come to mind, if not to the comments. Which is fine. Absolutely fine. Why? Because my faith does not depend on what the comments section says.
Here is what I know. Here is what I have lived. When it comes down to it. When the rubber meets the road. When I am in my darkest of darks, the Word of God is the ONLY light that can defeat it. It comes down to me and that Bible. It is those words that are my sword. It is those words that speak to my soul and encourage me. Those writings that have even allowed me to know how to be saved, actual salvation, and to share that with others, and if I don't have confidence in it, all of it, I am done for. Finished. My pastor can not help and my favorite bible teacher is useless in those times. No feel good message is going to cut it. I need to know the word, believe the word, and act upon the word.
I beseech you brothers and sisters in Christ, please, please, do not think for one second that the Bible is just a story book. Please do not diminish the sacrifice that Jesus made for us (whether you accept it or not) by saying it is only to invoke emotion. Use discernment. Study. Research. Learn.
Above all BELIEVE. Have faith in the God who wrote it. Exercise faith in the Christ who died for it. Stand up and stop sinking.
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge- by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 (NKJV)
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