Benefit of the rain

One morning there was a gray, cloud filled sky. You could see the wind rushing through the trees and hear an occasional clap of thunder. It looked like it could be a little scary. From the perspective of my 5-year-old son it was scary enough to get his trusted stuffed hippo to hold on to. I didn't like my son being scared but I looked outside and saw puddles in our wet driveway that were rippling from the rain. My heart was filled with joy. There's been a drought in our area of the country all summer. When you add in the nonstop triple digit temps the fields were not looking good. There's been growing concern about grocery prices and the many other ways this would effect us all in the near and distant future. Seeing the rain fall was like drops of hope in my heart. Yet I looked next to me and there was my little boy, his heart filled with concern and fear because of the possible storm that was brewing. I realized the benefit of the rain far outweighed my son's fear of the storm.

This reminds me of us Christians when we see a storm or a possible storm brewing. Quite honestly I'm going through this right now. I see a couple of storms or possible storms brewing on my horizon now. I'm looking at the Lord saying, “I really don't want to do this. Can you just make it go away?” I know He can but is that what's best for me. Maybe I need what's in that storm. It never sounds pleasant to go through a challenging circumstance but there could be benefit in it. One benefit I can see is learning to cling to the One who deserves our full trust, God. Instead I find myself fearing and stewing. That's a big flag to me to refocus back on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my soul.

Is my Heavenly Father right next to me? You bet He is. Is He going to protect me? Yes, just like I would protect my son if a true threat of harm came. But the storm that morning was not a true threat of danger. It only sounded scary. So I comforted him best I could, just as I have felt the Lord comforting me through the verses I've been reading in my quiet time lately. Divine timing on those verses! Yet, I need to come to that place that whether this is a true storm or just sounds scary I can trust God completely and have no fear in me. I'm not at that point yet, but I hope to be soon. Then I'll be able to do as my son did when he no longer heard the thunder. He sat his hippo on the couch and announced he wasn't afraid anymore.

So if you're in a similar situation remember that maybe the benefit of what you'll receive in this storm may far outweigh the fear or long suffering your having to deal with.

Oh, and if you think about it, I would appreciate your prayers.

Why does Luke get a cookie mom?

The other day I was in my kitchen with my one and a half year old son on my hip.  It was dinner time so I was looking in the cupboard to gather the things I needed for dinner.  My son saw the last chocolate chip cookie we had in the cupboard and pointed to it.  He just got up from his nap and didn't have a snack so I gave it to him.  A couple minutes later my five year son came in and saw his brother with a cookie.  He had asked me for a snack not long before that but he's always asking for food.  (It's true boys eat a lot.)  My 5 year old said, "Why does Luke get a cookie mom?" 

His question frustrated me.  In my mind I thought "Does it matter?"  Then I thought, I wonder if God feels like that with us.  Sometimes we see someone with a talent or gift that God gave them that we wish we had.  Or maybe success in an area we've been trying so hard to get success in.  When we see our brother or sister with those God given things we ask the question my 5 year old son asked.  God, why did you give them such a beautiful voice?  Why haven't I been given the opportunity to minister like her?  And on and on we could go.  I know I've been guilty of this. 

As a parent I know the flood of thoughts that came through my head.  Does it really matter that Luke got a cookie and you didn't?  I feed you and give you things you want sometimes just because I love you.  But in that moment, that moment of selfishness, those things aren't remembered.  Only the injustice we feel has been done to us in this moment, is remembered.

Another thought that went through my head was, "Even if I told you would you really understand?"  In my son's 5 year old mind he doesn't have the capacity to understand the full picture of things.  We are the same in the Lord's eyes.  WE are the child.  HE  is the Father.  There's no way our minds can understand the fullness of the reasons why He does the things He does when He does them.  And quite honestly, He doesn't owe us an explanation.  But He does deserve our trust.

Or maybe we're feeling, as sometimes our children do, that our Father loves one of the other children more then us.  Even if we know in our minds that's not true, sometimes it may feel that way.  Our minds think we see the proof that "they" are loved more.  After all look at what they got and I didn't.  Yet we forget all the times He has given us something or showed us His love.

Next time you're tempted to wonder why God didn't give you something, know that He hasn't forgotten you and that He loves you more deeply then you could possibly think or imagine.  In the meantime rejoice with those who are rejoicing.  Be happy with your brother or sister in Christ.  God will bring the things to you in the right time.  In His time.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Isaiah 55:8-9   

Two sets of armor

Yesterday the Lord gave me a picture of a warrior in God's army on the battlefield fully dressed in the armor of God. Except they had two sets of gear for battle. One larger then the other. The larger of the two sets was the Lord's armor and was gleaming silver. The smaller set was a reddish rust color and not a complete set. At times the warrior would fumble between the two gears. He/she would always have to put down God's shield of faith when trying to trade pieces. Also the warrior was not standing in ready battle position but was looking around at the gear on the ground and bent down to trade off. It was very ungraceful and uncoordinated. Although the Sword from God's armor the warrior kept.

These are two sets of battle gear many of us Christians have. The silver one we know about because it's God's armor talked about in the bible. The second set is the gear we use when we go in battle against our fellow warriors, our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a smaller set because it is a weaker set but still has the power to hurt and do damage. It's incomplete and doesn't hold God's power. We always have to put down our shield of faith when fighting against each other and don't have God's protection. We keep the Sword, the Word of Truth in our hands but we use it against each other and strike each other with it. This causes damaging blows in the family of God.

The armor of God gleams and shines His light. It's crisp and clean. The reddish set it tainted and stained with the blood of past kills. The blood is rotting away the armor.

When we are picking up the other equipment or are trying to decide which piece to use, our eyes are off God. They're not focused on the battle or the task at hand and we are very clumsy, uncoordinated and weak. We are not protected from the advancing enemy's attacks and we do not posses grace. Which is exactly what we need to be extending to our fellow brethren. Grace. God's grace.

This should not be. We should not be fighting and attacking God's people – our own people. We must stop backbiting, gossiping and vengeful bickering. We need to straighten up, look back to the eyes of the one who gave us grace and extend that gift to our brothers and sisters. We don't have time to waste figuring our which piece of armor to use against each other. The enemy is advancing with great force and we are in battle! We are in war!

Our King is returning soon and it pains Him to see we have each other's blood on our weapon. Especially the Sword. The Word of Truth meant to give life. Let's turn our hearts back to our King so we may shine His glory.

This morning in my quiet time I was writing all of this down and the Lord began to speak to me more about it. He said, "My Spirit can not fight against itself. My Spirit is grieved. You are fighting me." All of us who are God's children have the Spirit of God in us. We are to be Christ with skin on. We may have different skins and different personalities but we have the same Spirit. He continued, "Don't you sense the pain this is causing? The divisions?"

"If you are injured by them (others in God's army) come to the Healer. Don't attack back. Using the same tactics will only cause more pain and more division.

I want you to be radiant for Me. Seasoned with grace. Not tripping over armor. Clear the battle floor!" (Throw out that second set of armor.)

"Time is short. What is the King to find upon His return? …

A bride in blood? Not the blood of her own but of her fellow man. How beautiful is that?

It pains me.

That's really my blood on my bride."

My heart was greatly grieved. I know held on to anger in my heart towards my brother or sisters in Christ and I know I've talked about others before but never quite saw it in this light. I said, "I'm sorry Lord! Help me to speak words that are true…"

The Lord quickly interjected, "It must go deeper then that! DEEP inside you. Deeper then where words have their point of origin! The heart. The soul. The spirit.

Forget your evil thoughts. Flee from damaging deeds. Let me create a clean heart. One made of flesh, not of stone. Turn your cold hearts from hate. Love each other with an everlasting love. Let peace and healing flow through the camp. Restore – Let restoration come.

Bind up your wounds and fight the good fight of faith.

God is strong. His mercies are new every morning. From everlasting to everlasting.

Prepare your heart for the Lord. The battle is on. The war is strong. Prepare your heart for the Lord!"

“If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galatians 5:15

Faith Statement

Saying you're a Christian today is vague. That means so many different things to different people. I believe there are core christian beliefs. The beliefs that to say you are a christian anywhere in this world you must believe.

Past that there are many different things one Christian believes and the other does not. That is why there are so many different denominations. Personally, I hate these denominational walls. I'm so looking forward to when we're in heaven and there are no more walls. All in heaven will know what absolute truth is. Most of these differences are not so big that it will determine if you will or will not have eternal life. The beliefs that do bring eternal life are the core Christian beliefs. They are very much worth standing up for. So I would like to break it down and say what it is that I believe. The core beliefs.

This is what I believe:

I believe that Jesus Christ is God's son and born of the virgin Mary.

Luke 1:6-7, 31-32, 34-35

That He was fully God and fully man. Colossians 2:9

I believe that Jesus lived a sinless life. II Corinthians 5:21

I believe Jesus died on a cross and that His bloodshed paid for the sins of all mankind. I Corinthians 15:3, Hebrews 9:28

I believe that after being dead for three days He rose from the dead.

I Corinthians 15:4, Luke 24:1-8

Through Him and His work on the cross we are saved from our sins and made right with God. Romans 4:24-25, Hebrews 10:10

I believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to forgiveness of sins and being made right with God. John 14:6 This is the Gospel. The Good News of Jesus Christ.

I believe it is the duty of every believer to spread the gospel.

Matthew 28:18-20

I believe the bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is true and without error. II Timothy 3:16

I believe that God is three persons in one; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19

These are the core Christian beliefs. Beyond that I think you get into denominational differences. It's always wise to be a good Berean. I don't mean the Berean denomination. (Although they will always hold a special place in my heart because my husband and I got married in a Berean church) I'm talking about the Berean's in Acts 17:11 who examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul was saying was true. We also need to examine the Scriptures every day so we will be able to tell what is true. It is good to check everyone who speaks or writes about God and what to believe in. It doesn't matter if it's a relative, or pastor, or friend. Matching everything up to Scripture is what we should be doing. Consider the context of the Scripture. The devil is very good at twisting Scripture. That is why we should study Scripture to always know what the truth is.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

II Timothy 2:15

Weeds

I'm so excited to have a yard with flower gardens now that we have our own home. I haven't done much gardening before but I'm willing to learn. In the spring I planted a few plants in the yard but didn't do very much with it. Now it's midsummer and I haven't had much time to tend to the flower garden. When I do have time it's been to hot and humid to do anything outside. So I've discovered I am very good at growing weeds. Lots of them!! My flower garden has been overtaken by them so much that I can't see the few plants I did plant. My sweet daughter wanted to surprise me and her and her friend pulled weeds in half of my flower garden for me. So now half of my garden has short weeds and the other half has tall weeds. Almost as tall as me.

I decided I'm going to tackle these weeds and went out in the morning before it got hot. I was focused on the tall weeds because it's such an eye soar for me. When I looked at them it seemed overwhelming. I couldn't even see the boundary of the flower bed. Where would I start? Finally I started grabbing whatever was in front of me and started pulling. Even if I didn't get the roots at least I could get it short enough to see where the weeds were growing out of the ground. To my amazement, some of the weeds came out easily. I began to see why. The excessive heat and lack of rain caused the plants to start to turn brown close to the ground. With the stubborn weeds I got a shovel and broke their roots under them, then pulled them out.

As I was working it made me think about the Christian walk. When we start on our journey to become set apart for the Lord it can look overwhelming or even scary. We may give some or parts of ourselves to the Lord, like having a half tended flower garden, but when He asks us for the rest we just don't want to go there. Who knows what's lurking in those tall weeds.

Other things we hold onto to tight. We don't want to give them up, just like those stubborn weeds. We think we'll be losing out by giving up whatever God is asking us to give up. Really those weeds are hurting us, not helping. In order to blossom and be fruitful for the Lord we must let the weeds of self die. He may dig to break the root but He'll get it out of there… if we let Him.

Have you ever felt like you dealt with an issue only to find yourself dealing with it again months or years down the road? Perhaps that is like when I started to pull the weeds. Even if I didn't get to the root, cutting it down was a step in the right direction but you must come back and deal with it on a more thorough level to get the roots. Without getting the roots you'll just be growing those weeds back. God wants us to get to an even ground that can be tilled and made fertile so the right things can be planted and grow to be beautiful, fragrant flowers. It's not always easy to die to what we want and do what God wants but it is necessary. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. John 12:25-26 We must die to ourselves and follow Jesus.

Who are you?

I am reading a book a dear friend of mine gave me called Becoming Spiritually Beautiful by Sharon Jaynes. The book is about seeing yourself from God's perspective. It's a very good book. I've been getting a lot out of it. The last chapter I read jogged a memory of mine.

A few years ago I did a Beth Moore study called Believing God. In it she talks about believing we are who God says we are. What a breakthrough moment in my life. I had gone through a divorce only two years prior to this study and, though I was a Christian, I felt worthless. As if I had this mark on my life because of my past, with no hope of restoring me to be able to be used by God. For some reason I thought I had to be blemish free for God to use me. I forgot about the many examples of people in the bible who God used in a mighty way. God loves to take the least of people and make them into powerhouses for His kingdom.

Isaiah 43:18 says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."

Phillipians 3:13b-14 says, "…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Of course, at the time I had not thought of these verses. Anytime we're believing lies of Satan, scripture is not in our mind because scripture shatters any lie Satan is trying to feed you. The key is John 8:31-32 "Jesus said to the Jews that had believed in Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." We must daily, continuously be in God's word. Putting it in our hearts and minds and putting it into practice in our lives. We need to take note of who God says we are so that when Satan comes at us with his poison of lies we quickly recognize it and respond with the truth of who God says we are.

Within this last year I remember going through a rough time of being anxious. As I was struggling to find the root of it all, I was dwelling on negative thoughts I had in my head about myself. Out of nowhere the Lord said to me, "Who told you these things?" I thought for a minute not sure what He was talking about. He continued, "Who told you you're unworthy, unlovely,…(long pause)... Because it wasn't me. Would you like to know what I think about you?" Boy, that stopped me in my tracks and made me realize I was listening to the lies of the enemy, Satan. He's always trying to take joy and productivity away from the believer in Christ. He'll take anything he can from you. We need to learn who we are in Christ and know the promises God has given us as His children and act like who God says we are. WOW!! If we all did that, we would be powerhouses for God.

So, who does God say we are? What does He think about us? Well, to Him you are precious, beautiful, dearly loved, co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). As Beth Moore explains in her Believing God bible study when we look at Ephesians 1:1-8 we see God says we are blessed, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven. We are loved! We don't become the sin. We confess it and we're forgiven. I am redeemed! Realizing that was a breakthrough for me.

There are several different lists out there showing us our identity in Christ. There was one in the Spiritually Beautiful book I'm reading. I'll name just a few she mentioned. I am valuable to God (Matt. 6:26), I am free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1), I am the fragrance of Christ (II Cor. 2:15), I am a saint (Eph. 1:1). You could probably do a search on the internet for some more statements like these if this is an area you'd like to look further into. Your pastor probably has one too.

I encourage us all, as believers, to learn who we are in Christ. Believe what God says. And act like we believe Him. We can all defeat insecurity, inadequacy, and inferiority by knowing who we are in Christ. How God sees us. Then we can be the dynamic warriors God made us to be.

Purpose

     A few years ago I came back to the church I grew up in after having been gone almost 15years.  I reconnected with a few people I knew from growing up there.  Most of them are the parents of people from my youth group.  Ahhh…my high school youth group…good memories!  I loved that youth group!  My youth pastor was/is awesome.  You can see the love of Jesus in his eyes and glowing around him as he smiles.  He has this tone of voice as he speaks of the Lord that's so loving yet honest and firm.  He truly shined Jesus for me (and still does for so many).  I looked forward to Wednesdays and hated it if I missed. 

     As I talked to the parents of the kids that were in youth group with me I discovered many of them are now on the mission field or in ministry of some kind.  It didn't take long before I grew frustrated with myself.  That I wasted so many years in my late teens and early twenties living for myself.  Years I could have invested in growing in the Lord and doing things to grow His kingdom.  Where did those years get me?  What have I done with my life?  I did come back to the Lord and He has taken me from where I left off with Him and has been growing me quickly.  The Lord has blessed me with children and a wonderful husband, though I took the long way around to get there.  Still I thought, "I am just a wife and mother.  Nothing extraordinary about that.  Not like being a missionary.  Other then vacations, I've never even left the city I was born in." 

     After what seemed like weeks of being frustrated and hard on myself it's almost like the Lord had enough of my wallowing.  In firmness and love He showed me something I will not forget.  He showed me two cups.  One made of gold and adorned with jewels that shined.  The other a simple wood cup that was worn down.  The gold cup was extraordinary and valued.  This is how I was seeing the church value missionaries.  The wooden cup was an ordinary cup that gets everyday use.  That symbolized me, a wife and a mom, a very common life.  The Lord showed me that both of these cups had equal value to Him.  If you lost either of these cups you would know it.  The gold one has high value but the wooden one is used daily and would be greatly missed if it was lost.  He showed me that raising these beautiful children was a blessing and an honor and He highly valued the time, energy and effort I am putting into raising them in the ways of the Lord.  Bringing them up to shine the light of Jesus into the next generation.  Tending to them day by day.  This is highly valued by the Lord. 

     He showed me that even the churches value system can get messed up sometimes.  Missionaries are important!  Absolutely!  As are pastors, ministers, deacons, elders and other leaders in the church.  In God's eyes, everyone is important.  Everyone has their place in the body of Christ.  Jesus shed the same amount of blood for every person.  Not one person had a higher or lesser price to pay for their salvation.  We are all equal value.  He loves us all equally.  He showed me that living in the city I was born in is exactly where He wants me right now.  Being where God wants us to be is vital. 

     A peace and a joy came over me as I was assured that God is in control.  He knows why He's fashioned one for noble purposes and the other for common uses.  He knows where I am and is not disappointed.   That assurance was awesome but God showed me the wooden cup again.  It began to turn just slightly and I could see God was still working on this cup.  He was fashioning beautiful details on it and more that I couldn't see clearly.  "I'm not finished with you yet."  He whispered in my heart. 

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common uses.  Romans 9:21