Young Love, Simple Love - Part 1

Been thinking about my faith journey, and it's a long conversation, so I'm going to break it into parts....there's a place I am trying to get to in the conversation, so if you feel like bearing with me....

Confessions of a Believer

I came to the Lord at a young age. It was during a Vacation Bible School that our church hosted during the summer. We gathered for songs, Bible stories, crafts and snacks, and each day there was an opportunity for us to ask Jesus to be the Lord of our Life. I remember the absolute “yes” in my young heart – I wanted Jesus in my life. I responded every day to the altar call, each day passionate to put my hand in His. A kind volunteer took me aside to explain that I only needed to respond one time, that was all it took, but I didn’t care – I wanted to say yes again!

I was an avid reader, so reading the Bible was a pleasure. My mother’s parents gave me my first Bible, a New American Standard version with a puffy brown cover with fancy gold lettering on it. I loved it! I read as much of it as I could. On Sundays I watched and listened in awe as people began to speak in tongues during the services. I was particularly impressed with the Pastors wife, Mrs. Barr. She was like a machine gun, just rattling out this strange yet wonderful language in quick succession….oh, how I wanted to speak in tongues! I read in the Bible about the Holy Spirit, and one quiet day I sat alone in our living room, a patch of sun surrounding me, my Bible on my lap when I asked the Holy Spirit to fill me up and give me this prayer language. I began to speak in tongues on that day, and all I did was ask. God was so good to my young and trusting heart!
Without comprehending what I was doing, I began to experience the flow of the Holy Spirit activated in my life. With my sister, we had “Bible studies” under the playground tree, inviting our friends to hear stories about Jesus. We prayed for a miracle multiplication of cookies in our class one day, (no child wants to be the one responsible for not having brought enough for everyone), and we ended up with leftovers! Several times we had the opportunity to share Jesus with friends on the sports bus, to answer their questions and pray with them. One friend grew up and gave her life wholeheartedly to the Lord. I ran into her in my early 30’s, and she was married to a Christian man and they were serving in youth ministry at their church. God is so good! So often I found myself being faced with people coming and sharing their hearts with me and I would have words of comfort of encouragement for them, even words of discernment or knowledge. This could happen in the cafeteria, on the school bus, at band concerts, after sports games….it was just a regular part of my life. I had no idea there was a name for what I was doing, there was no label, it was just the life flow of the Spirit of God flowing through my heart. I loved God and He loved me! .........more coming

Help for When Your Anxious

I read this article last week....here's an excerpt. Centuries have gone by....nothing new under the sun!

“As we’ve seen, anxiety arises from an excessive desire to be freed from pressing evil or to obtain some hoped-for good…..Whenever you urgently desire to escape from a certain evil or to attain a certain good, strive above all else to keep a calm, restful spirit. Steady your judgment and will, then go quietly and easily after your goal, taking all the appropriate means to attain it.

By “easily” I don’t mean “carelessly”, but rather without hurry, trouble, or anxiety. Otherwise, instead of obtaining the goal you seek, you will hinder it, adding more and more to your perplexities.

Examine yourself often, at least every morning and night. If your soul has become anxious, make it a priority to bring it quietly back into the presence of God, placing all your hopes and affections under the direction of His holy will.

When you become aware that you are growing anxious, commend yourself to God, as the Apostle Paul urges, and resolve firmly not to take any steps whatever to obtain the result you desire until your disturbed state of mind is altogether quieted. Of course, this is the approach to take uness it’s necessary to do something without delay. In that case, you must restrain yourself from acting impulsively, even when you must act immediately.

Frances De Sales 1567-1622, a bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, was well known as a preacher and writer.
.Discipleship Journal, May/June 2009, Issue 171, “Soul Disturbance”, p. 66

• I love that he talks about waiting on the Lord AND going after your goals. We tend to think that "goals" are new, are business....yet this preacher, hundreds of years ago, gets it!
• I also love that he talks about taking "appropriate means" to attain your goal - go after it! People think waiting on the Lord is inactivity, waiting for God to move, to drop the answer from the sky, into the lap....yet we have to move forward, take a step.

Did you like this?

The Life Church Rocks!

Wow. I am sitting here this morning amazed at the light that shines out of the people I do life with. There is such immense faith, creativity and courage in their hearts. Their response to hard things emboldens me, lifts me up. How do they respond?

• Quickly and postively
• Creatively
• Strategically
• Seeing beyond the moment to the future
• With vision and passion
• Tenacity
• Courage
• Not looking behind

There is such love in the heart of our church family, amazing, courageous, stalwart love. WOW! I am especially grateful for those who see beyond, who have caught something in their spirit for the future. Thank you, God, for this amazing group of people we call The Life Church!

Lessons Learned When a Church is Growing

I was asked what lessons I've learned while helping to lead a church that has been experiencing growth - a big question! I'll try to give you 10.

1. Growth hurts. It stretches and challenges us beyond our comfort zone, making room for greater capacity. If we try to avoid these symptoms, we won't grow and our capacity will be diminished.

2. Growth is scary. It involves risk. But with risk comes great adventure! Risk achieves what others thought was impossible.

3. Growth tests our commitment. Relationships, motivations, and attitudes will be tested, and the refining process brings out the highest quality gold.

4. Success involves failure. We don't like failure, but we learn from it. It constantly pushes us to God to assess ourselves, to renew our dreams, to expand our creativity - He is the ultimate source and end of all we do. God is endless in possibilities, hope, creativity, opportunity.....

5. We need positive, believing, hope-filled, creative people around us. They breathe life, speak life, see the potential, the possibilities, and they dream. The nay-sayers, the "realists", the offended, the negative and critical sap all vitality, creativity, hope and nourishment - it's like killing a young plant before it has the opportunity to become firmly established.

6. Good fruit rocks! Celebrate it all over the place, no matter how small. See the good, advertise the good, focus on the good, lift it up and let it shine. Shout out what God is doing. Problems always exist, but they can't be our focus. People will be drawn to what God is doing, and how will they know unless we tell them?

7. God is in charge. He's firmly in control and our journey belongs to Him, leads to Him. Therefore our trust must be firmly rooted in Him at all times.

8. When I can't, God can.

9. Rejoicing is a choice. I must choose to rejoice, choose not to be distracted from it, choose to seek the joy and express it as best I can.

10. Growing a Church is about growing the Body of Christ. We choose to do it in an organized setting which meets weekly - but our purpose is One. To lift up Christ, to help others be drawn into relationship with Him, to grow in relationship with Him. He is what we are all about.

There. 10 things I've learned and am still learning.

What Kind of Faithfulness Do We Have?

We are very proud to call ourselves "the church", to take on the identity of Christ's body, removing ourselves from the perceived stigma of simply being an organized entity. "I don't go to church, but we are the church". But if the distinction is so precious to us, do we really contemplate what it means?

If we are Christ's body, we are in sacred union with GOD. I don't know about you, but in my mind and heart, this is no small matter.

I read a book recenty on marriage, and I was struck by the similarities between the struggles in marriage and struggles in the Church. It is grievous that the Church has statistically eclipsed the world's divorce rate - we are now leading the pack - and the reasons for divorce mirror some of the issues that the Church experiences on a regular basis.

Some reasons given for divorce:

• God told me to leave my spouse (yes, people actually have said this)
• Marriage is just an institution, and I want relationship
• I'm just not happy in this relationship
• You are holding me back from succeeding (amazing)
• I've been seeing someone else (also a common problem)
• I've changed, my needs have changed
• You've changed and I don't like change
• It's too hard to stay
• I've wasted my time in this relationship
• This relationships isn't exciting enough

...same reasons people give for leaving a church

You get the drift. We can all find ways to try and justify unfaithfulness, and we can sound self-righteous while doing so. But when a covenant relationship is entered into, it's for keeps. Perhaps the permissibility of divorce within our Church culture, and the underlying lack of faithfulness, is the root of the same struggle for faithfulness in the Church? It is so much easier to give up, move on, or make an exchange than to do the nitty gritty hard work of keeping a relationship together. Will it always get better if you try? No. Does that excuse the covenant made?

The devastation of divorce is real, and there is a devastation in Churches when they experience faithflessness. I'm often saddened by the callousness of people to the pain Churches, Pastors, leaders and friends experience as a result of faithflessness - but I can't say I'm surprised.

Can we turn the tide? Can we reverse the trend of divorce in the Church? Can we strengthen the faithfulness of peoples hearts in relationship to one another? I believe it is possible - anything is possible if we believe. So we will continue, one marriage, one relationship at a time. And in the meantime, I'll be checking my own heart.

Musings on Justice, Mercy & Faith

Jesus said that "Justice, mercy and faith" were the weightier elements of the Law that were being neglected by the Pharisees.

What is justice and how is it executed? Who is responsible for it? Is it always paired with mercy and compassion?

We know that we are to be just. Noah was referred to for our example as a just (lawful, righteous) man.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

We are to be just in our business dealings and in our relationships with others (doing what is naturally, morally or legally right; showing equity).

We are justified (made innocent; righteous) by faith in Christ. We can't do it of ourselves.

Justice refers to making things right.
And it is often paired with mercy.

Isaiah 58:6-7 speaks of justice, of fasting to "loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free that you may break every yoke...to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him....." Justice and mercy.

The greatest mercy we have ever received was that while we were steeped in sin, Christ came and died for us. The greatest violence in the name of justice was the violence that Christ received to Himself to make us just/right/innocent of our sin. Christ brought justice through His blood, once for all. I do not need violence to bring justice. Christ already did that. I need to do justly, do what is right, be innocent and love mercy.

I can bring justice to the world by doing justly in my corner of it. I can uphold justice by my choices, attitudes, actions, and speech. And I can do it with mercy, the same mercy Christ showed me. Humbly before God.

The horrible truth is, Christ will come back to execute final justice. At that point all will be judged, both the just and unjust. Until that time, how great a charge we have to bring Christ's justice to each and every person, that they have the opportunity to believe on Him and be saved by faith. I cannot force justice on anyone. But I can show it, live it, think it, speak it. Humbly before God.

Am I walking justly? Treating others right? Am I standing for justice? Making just choices? Am I loving mercy? Am I relying on Christ's justice or seeking my own? Am I in humility?

more to think on....

Presumption

You know when you read the Bible and a verse causes you to pause and tremble, when the fear of God, an awareness of Who He Is, rises within in you? That moment which causes you to say "Lord, is that me? Keep me!"? It leaves me trembly inside. I read such a verse this morning.

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression". Psalm 19:12-13

I often pray and ask God to shine His light on my heart that nothing hidden can remain there, so I'm not nervous about secret sins (the Bible does remind us that NOTHING stays hidden). But what are "presumptuous sins", and how can they rule over us?

Numbers 15:30-31 says "But the person who does anything presumptuously...that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him".

This tells me a few things about presumption:
1) We can be presumptuous about anything. Big or small, I can act presumptuously.

2) Presumption brings a reproach on the Lord. That word "reproach" means 'to hack with words'. It means 'revile; blaspheme'. That's what my presumption does!

3) It ends up hurting me and others around me. Not only will I be cut off, alone with myself, but others are deprived of the good measure I have been given to share with them. Presumption isolates me from others and stops my ability to share with them.

4) It means that I have despised the word of the Lord. I have gone my own way. Pride and arrogance. I've not sought what He would say, but have done what I thought was right.

5) Presumption is a sin, it breaks His commandments.

6) It adds guilt to me.

So, as I began to repent before God, I asked Him to show me what it looks like.
That moment when I don't stop to consider what His word says, to seek His counsel, but do what is right by my own knowledge, understanding or experience. When I lean on me. When I follow my emotions or what is "right for me". When I know something (a thought, attitude, or deed) is wrong, but I hold onto it anyway. When I allow sin to reign in me, presuming on the grace of God. When I don't change. When I stand in God's place and judge others harshly as if I know all that is to be known. When I don't read my Bible, but skate on grace. When I read only a portion of the word and stand on it's narrow ledge, forsaking the breadth of God's counsel.

Presumption presumes that we know what God would do, yet the Bible tells us that His ways are unsearchable. He doesn't operate the way we do. I can be all kinds of "right", yet fall into presumption. And such sin begins to control us when we fail to submit ourselves to the Word. That is why it is so vital for us to read the Bible, to let it wash over us and convict, challenge, cleanse and heal us. It shines a light on the way we should go. It does the most thorough of "heart checks".

Lord, "keep me from presumptuous sins", and let Your word do it's work in us.