Distraction or Accessory

If you have children - of any age - you will recall the times you were knee deep in a project or crisis and your little one was constantly underfoot, asking the infinite number of questions.  Better to the point have you worked with adults who constantly question what you are doing and how you are doing it?  Frequently we encounter distractions that hinder what we are trying to accomplish, sometimes well intentioned, sometimes maliciously intentioned.  In either case, we see an objective in front of us and instead of moving forward in the direction of completion, we are forced to side-step, back up or stop altogether.  How like working for the kingdom of God this is.  

Matthew 9:23-25  When Jesus arrived at the official's home, he noticed the noisy crowds and heard the funeral music. He said, "Get out! The girl isn't dead; she's only asleep." But the crowd laughed at him. When the crowd was finally outside, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up!  Jarius, the leader of a local synagogue, had come to Jesus beseeching Him to heal His daughter who had just died.  One would think that this leader held the respect of the local people.  Yet when he arrived with Jesus at his home, there was no respect.  There was noise and funeral music playing.  Noise.  The prime distraction in our lives.  Why do you think that Jesus told all the people to get out?  Hadn't Jesus performed miracles in the past in the midst of crowds?  Have you ever thought about that?  

Imagine the atmosphere at that moment.  Clearly there was a crowd in the home because the last verse describes them as such when they were finally outside.  The "noise" that they were making was in Greek defined as: 1) to make a noise or uproar, be turbulent; 2) to disturb, throw into confusion.  Sounds to me as if there were some demonic spirits present in that home.  Turbulence and confusion are tools of the enemy, not of the Lord.  Perhaps He was more interested in saving a young girl's life than providing entertainment for an unruly crowd.  Perhaps their disbelief would have hindered the belief of the parents.  After all, Jesus acknowledged that miracles were hard to come by in His own hometown because of the disbelief and lack of respect due the Son of God.   

A desperate father had come seeking the impossible - perhaps this prophet, this man Jesus about whom everyone was talking could really pull off this miracle.  Anything was worth a try.  He had nothing to lose and everything to gain...or did he?  Imagine his thoughts as he brought Jesus into his home filled with unruly relatives and townspeople.  Clearly they were non-believers because they laughed at Jesus.  This leader is also being laughed at because he is the one that brought Jesus, believing that a miracle would happen.  Would this ridicule continue if Jesus did not raise his daughter from the dead?  What would happen to his position in the synagogue and in the town?  Imagine his wife's state of mind.  Confusion is easy to visualize in the midst of the noise of the crowd.  

Jesus understood everything about the situation including the parents' state of mind.  He desired an atmosphere of faith not disbelief.  Hence the question for us today.  What type of atmosphere do we create in which we are seeking to have the Lord move?   Are we hindering the move of God at times by our "noise"?  Are we part of an unruly crowd that actually keeps the Lord from performing the impossible as happened in His hometown?  Think about the various ways that we could be undermining the move of God.  Multiple scenarios pop into my mind.  Am I talking instead of listening?  Am I voicing my own opinions instead of allowing God access to the situation to speak His heart?  Could it be that I am misinterpreting "signs" and thus communicating distortion to those around me?  The more I ponder this, the easier I see that it is to become a hindrance to God rather than an accessory to His work.

My heart's desire is for God to look at my life and say, "Send her.  She is a willing vessel."  However in order for that to happen, I truly have to be a willing vessel.  My belief in the power of God must supersede the unbelief that surrounds me.  The doubters, the naysayers, the critics abound in our lives.   Do we become part of the "noise" of life, or do we become those that clear out the room so that God can work. What happens in our churches?  Are we part of the group that says, this is not the time nor the place for God to do "that kind" of work, or do we bring Jesus into the house to work His miracles?  The first century Christians fought every kind of persecution that we could imagine.  Life did not suddenly become easy and wonderful because they accepted Christ.  On the contrary, life became very difficult.  Yet they persevered and because they did, we have our faith today. 

It is time, my friends, time for us to step into our responsibilities and our callings as Believers, as followers of The Way.  Sitting on the bench of the team of the Body of Christ will not work in these times.  Our very way of life is being threatened by the ominous shadow of those that would have Christianity wiped out of America and in fact the rest of the world.  Will we be the Jarius's of today and boldly go get our Savior to bring restoration to this world, or will we be the noisy crowd who just laughs with the rest? My choice and yours.  Walk in the power and authority of Jesus Christ and don't look back!

 

Instructions for Life

How many times have you either said or heard, "If only someone had told me!!!"  We lament because disaster could have been averted if only we knew.....if only we had that hindsight as foresight when we needed it most.  Life seems full of surprises and we react to a situation because we are caught off guard.  In the circumstances that matter the most, we should be proactive and not reactive, yet are we?  Think about your relationships, your life circumstances, your faith.  Have you ever made that exclamation I stated above?  If only.....

I have good news for you!  Contained within scripture are instructions for life that will aid us in avoiding disaster and guide us through difficult situations.  Actually, the entire Bible will serve that purpose.  However recently I came upon a single verse that in its simplicity is often overlooked.  Please allow me to share it with you.  2 Corinthians 13:11 Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.  Paul is closing his last letter to the Corinthian church.  The preceding verses as well as the first letter were filled with instructions as to how to live a Godly life and witness to the world who Christ is.  When you are saying goodbye to someone and you are not sure you will see them again, you want to be sure that your last words summarize your most important thoughts.  Paul tries to capture the essence of walking out our faith in these few words.  Not only did they  apply to the Corinthian church, they apply to us today.

First, Be Joyful.  We have so much to rejoice over.  As Christians, our salvation has been bought by the blood of Jesus, but even greater than that, the veil is torn and we now have access to the Throne of God Himself.  We get to commune with Him, dialogue continually, celebrate as He dances and sings over us.  We get to call him Abba, Poppa, Daddy, whatever nickname you use in intimacy with Him.  We exchanged our yoke for His, a lighter, easier one.  Our future is with Him.  We have surrendered control of our lives to Him and get to serve Him out of love and not mandated performance.  Our joy is what should attract others to a relationship with Him.  No matter what our circumstances we should be joyful.  James 1:2  Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.  The apostles had significant troubles as they faced increasing persecution from all angles.  Yet because of their joyfulness in spite of those circumstances, the number of believers grew exponentially.

Second, Grow to Maturity.  We are not to be content with standing in the threshold of salvation.  Once we accept Christ into our hearts, we have walked through an open door.  However if we are content to stay there, we will never know the bounty that the Lord has waiting for us in the kingdom.  First please acknowledge that the Kingdom of Heaven is here now within each of us.  Study out the words of Jesus and you will know that this is truth.  However, if a believer is not growing daily in maturity through the Word and through time listening to the Counselor, Holy Spirit, then that person is stuck in the doorway of faith.  We are called to transformation and that only happens through growth. Romans 12:2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. As I wrote 2 weeks ago, once we become believers we are no longer of this world and we are expected by the Lord to change and not just changed once, but changed daily as we grow in the maturity of our faith. 

Third, Encourage each other.  We are the body of Christ together.  Not a single one of us is complete without being connected to the rest of the body.  We must look to our brothers and sisters within the body and lift one another up.  If we allow one part of the body to collapse, then it impacts all of the body.  We are not self-sufficient.  Have you ever been encouraged during a rough time by a brother or sister in faith when your own "blood" family would not support you?  I know that it happens all of the time.  God has created us for relationship and once we become part of the body, we are responsible for maintaining healthy relationships within the body.  There is only one way you can survive being set apart (which we are all called to be once we accept Christ).  Survival is achieved when you are connected to a life-giving, life-affirming body.  Isolation is not an answer that comes from the Lord.  Isolation is a strategy of the enemy - isolate then destroy.  It is a predator strategy that you see carried out in the animal kingdom daily.  Instead we are called to help and be with each other.  Hebrews 10:24-25 Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.  1Thessalonians 5:11, 14  So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy.....Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

Finally, Live in harmony and peace. Don't cause strife and division in the body.  Be mindful of how you live and invite the Shalom of the Lord to inhabit your circumstances, prevail over your life.  When we work to be of one mind in Christ, harmony is inevitably the result.  Does that mean that everything in your life is perfect?  Not hardly.  Jesus Himself warned us that many trials and tribulations would come our way once we picked up our cross to follow Him.  However it is amazing how peace will prevail in the midst of trouble when we choose to focus on Him instead of our circumstances.  I vividly recall in some of my most difficult moments in the past that people would ask how I could be so peaceful in the midst of the circumstances.  My answer was always the same: He gives me that peace and the assurance that this too will pass but His love for me never will.  Be a testimony to the world that His peace is what they too want.

Paul concludes with this promise: The God of love and peace will be with you.  Wow, that is powerful.  Follow these simple instructions for life and this is the promise of the Lord.  He will be with you and He is the God of love and peace not war and strife.  That is what I want in my life - today, tomorrow, forever.  Simple instructions ~ Incredible outcome.  Life - pure, simple, His way.  Embrace it!   

Praise and Worship - Really?

Recently I have become profoundly cognizant of my deep inner need to come before my Lord in true worship.  Consequently I have simultaneously begun paying close attention to my thoughts, actions and heart when I am coming before Him to either praise Him or worship Him.  I question my motives and my posture.  I am now asking myself the W questions: where am I worshipping Him, why am I worshipping Him, when am I worshipping Him.  Then I pose the same questions for praise.  In order to answer these questions accurately, I must first define what these two words are: praise and worship.  What do they really mean?

What are the first things that come into your mind when you hear the word, "worship"?  Do you think about church and your weekly service?  Do you by chance think, "oh yeah, that is the leader's responsibility.  I am here to join in."  I hope not.  I pray that you have already embraced the real meaning of worship.  One of the easiest ways to describe worship is to utilize the illustration of pagan gods.  Seriously.   Pagans were well known to "worship" multiple gods.  Their many temples and complex rituals illustrated how extensive their worship was.  They had household gods and altars within their homes that permitted them to worship these gods frequently, privately and as the need arose.  The worship of their gods dominated their lives.  Was their worship relegated to occurring inside the temple on a routine basis?  I think not.  They were obsessed with their gods and their worship was continual.  

Now think about the early Hebrew people as they were leaving Egypt.  Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron "Go and worship the Lord as you have requested. Take the flocks and the herds, as you said, and be gone.  Go, but bless me as you leave."  Exodus 12:31-32  What did Pharaoh picture when he gave that command?  Remember that the Hebrew people had been enslaved by a pagan nation for 400 years.  Did the Hebrew people themselves even know how to worship their Lord?  I wonder. Once in the wilderness, though they quickly fell back into the patterns with which they had lived for centuries.  They had yet to grasp what the Lord was seeking from them.  Once they had escaped the Egyptian army via the Red Sea, they sang a song of deliverance.  Their worship at that moment was a combination of praise, testimony and worship of the greatness of God.  (Exodus 15).  They weren't in a church, or a synagogue or a temple.  They were standing out in the middle of the wilderness and God had just established that HE was there.  Worship erupted!  Praise of His glory erupted!  

Has God ever moved in your life?  Does that initiate worship and praise?  I don't mean the put out the fire at the last possible minute - although He has certainly done that for me as well as many folks I know.  I mean has He ever moved in your life?  Do you only praise Him at that moment or does it become another component of your ongoing worship?  Do you continually add to His countless attributes of magnificence and worship Him?  Worship is a lifestyle. It is not a weekly act of offering up music and songs.  Our very words spoken daily, our acts in daily life, are our sacrifices of worship.  Do we indeed lay our lives on the altar of worship and sacrifice ourselves to Him?  Ephesians 5:18-20 Let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts. And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I wonder if we truly grasp that last verse - How do we not grasp "always" and "everything"?

Finally, consider praise as a weapon.  Psalm 149:6-9  Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands -- to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains, to execute the judgment written against them. This is the glory of his faithful ones. Praise the LORD!  Do you see praise as a powerful weapon in your spiritual tool belt?  God has declared it so.  Are we using it that way, or do we simply see praise as saying "Thanks,God."  Look at all the attributes that God used in this psalm to describe praise.  We cannot use these attributes if all we are doing is coming to Him with a grateful heart.  We need to be declaring His power, His authority and using the testimony of His word as the fuel for these praises.  Not our words - His words!  We must be warriors in our praise and our worship.  Please don't be passive and don't enable performance oriented worship.  This is about Him and not about us or someone's musical talents.  They are only background vehicles to ushering in His presence, but our hearts and our openness to His power being exhibited through us is critical!!!! 

I don't think I will allow myself to approach my relationship with Him the same from this point forward.  The times when I come together with my brothers and sisters in Christ for corporate praise should pale by comparison to that which I share daily with my Lord and the Lover of my soul.  Everything I do up to that moment should be building to a wonderful crescendo. All of us coming together would hopefully be building to the same crescendo like a wonderful orchestra in which each instrument has been played daily, individually, so that when we come together it is an orchestrated sound that pleases God's ears and His heart. Is this what your worship experience is like?  Is this how you praise the Lord?  If not then let us all come into agreement that the Lord will never hear anything less than that from us again.  Hallelujah!!!!

Shalom not Chaos

Do you remember the first time you became aware that you were being wooed by the Lord to walk with Him?  Even if you had accepted Jesus as a child, there most likely was some point as a teenager or an adult that you began to understand the significance of your decision relevant to being set apart.  We visited that very topic last week, but there are so many aspects to this crossroads.  Deciding to pick up your cross and follow Him should have resulted in changes in both your thinking as well as your life.  This is especially true the older we are when we make that change.  What happened to your relationships when you made that decision?

This morning I was studying the writings of Paul in Corinthians and began to ponder the circumstances that prodded Paul to write what he did.  First consider this scripture - 1 Corinthians 7:22-24 And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, the Lord has now set you free from the awful power of sin. And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God purchased you at a high price. Don't be enslaved by the world. So, dear brothers and sisters, whatever situation you were in when you became a believer, stay there in your new relationship with God.  Rampant slavery as well as sexual immorality and pagan worship was an intricate part of society.  Imagine yourself as a brand new believer in Corinth and trying to figure out how you function in the midst of this environment.  Notice that Paul does not say, "evacuate, evacuate!".  Paul admonishes them to begin to see themselves as slaves to Christ and not to the world, but to stay where they are ~ in the marriages that they are committed to as well as the current "life position" (slave or free man).  He is not advocating rebellion and chaos, rather an influential lifestyle that reflects God's love throughout.   

Tremendous chaos was resulting from this new movement of people following The Way.   Those that were outside this movement were alarmed at the rapidity with which it was growing and the spirits of fear and Jezebel were manifesting at every turn.  Yet the apostles did not advocate a violent revolution but instead a revolution of love and caring.  The early followers of Christ changed the world as it existed not because they forced their beliefs on others, but because they were able to walk out their beliefs of love.  The power of love is the most influential force on the face of our earth.  Yet how many of us have walked this out from day one?


Let's consider the typical situation of a marriage that is unequally yoked because of the spouses came to know and accept Jesus after the marriage took place.  Far too often the believer becomes a zealot and tries to force this new recognition of the power of God onto their spouse.  The spouse resists because they have yet to hear this call in their own hearts and simultaneously they have seen the person they had married change before their eyes.  Without time to acclimate to this new persona with whom they are now living, the changed person begins "preaching" day and night in disbelief that their spouse is not getting it.  Chaos, disharmony, tension, anger all begin to mount and their is no Shalom in the home.  There is no agape love which is the core value of what Jesus taught us.  The same scenario begins to play itself out in the work place, in social circles, in extended family circles.  How could we have missed the mark so badly?

1 Corinthians 7:17  Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.  The more significant aspect of this discussion is the understanding that God knew exactly where you were in life when He began wooing you.  Clearly there is a purpose we are to serve in our given circumstances or else He would have waited until our circumstances changed before He called out to us.  The Lord has assigned us a place.  This is not to say that when we are caught in bad circumstances because of decisions made in this fallen world that He chose those circumstances for us.  I personally believe that He allows us to walk out the consequences of human decisions made out of free will, whether ours or others.  The "walking out" becomes how we honor and worship Him or how we defer to the world.  Simply put, God knows where we are at all times and He is loving us through those circumstances if we will allow Him.

Believers are meant to change the world through love, not violent revolution.  We are meant to disrupt, but to disrupt through love and the introduction of Shalom to the atmosphere around us.  People should see that we are different, that we are set apart.  Ultimately however that is meant to draw them to Christ, not send them running in the other direction.  So each of us must ask ourselves, does the way I live my life draw people to Him because they want what I have, or does it send them away saying, "I sure am glad I don't follow her God."? We must eagerly pursue Shalom in every aspect of our life and seek His strength to walk in love no matter what the circumstances.  We are not to resign ourselves to living a quiet unnoticed life that allows us to blend in with the environment around us.  Instead I urge you to live a life that proclaims you are loved and you are the physical embodiment of His love on this earth.  If we will all walk in love, we will change the world.







 

Impact of Being Set Apart

One of the consequences of deepening my relationship with the Lord is an increased awareness of how different I am from those around me and indeed from whom I used to be.  Whether it is wisdom, maturity or a heightened sense of how God sees me, I am seeing life and my past through clearer eyes than previously.  Fortunately I am not alone in this.  There are other folks with whom I speak that are experiencing the same discomfort with the rest of the world.  Little things, like walking through a department store, shock me into a fresh appreciation of just how far away from God our society has gone.  I am appalled at the garments that I know people are going to buy to wear or worse yet, put on their children.  I was walking through the mall with a mission to get a cable my husband needed for worship and in front of me was a young couple with twin girls not more than 3 years old.  These little girls were dressed as if they were ready to go "clubbing".  I was in shock.  Where was their innocence?  Would they ever get to just be little girls?

This sharpened vision has also had me look behind me at my own past and I was humbled and ashamed at some of the things of which I was guilty.  Even though this is embarrassing, I am sharing because there may be someone reading this who is walking the path I walked and God so wants to free you from this bondage.  All of my life, my appearance was very important to me.  Can you imagine that as a college student in the early 70's I did not own a pair of jeans???  I "dressed to the 9's" every day.  It was imperative to me that I stood out.  Please understand, this is not "set apart"; I was not saved until my late 30's.  My self esteem was so poor that I did whatever I needed to make myself feel noticed.  Since I knew my legs were my asset, I wore short skirts and if you can imagine this ~ hot pants suits.  I made my clothes and would make suits but instead of skirts, there were hot pants, or a split skirt over the hot pants.  I turned heads alright, but I also gained a reputation that I did not earn. My attire created an impression that was not favorable.  At the time I was incredulous that anybody would believe those lies.  But why wouldn't they?  Actions speak louder than words.

Fast forward. I am now a mom with teenage sons.  I still have a cute figure and still have good legs.  What am I doing?  The same thing I always did, dress to turn heads.  What I never realized until very recently was what I was doing to the young men that were surrounding me because I had three sons.  Men are very visual and are from a very early age.  Simply look at how pornography has seized our youth.  I never stopped to think about what was happening in these impressionable minds because this older woman was "hot".  I shudder now as I take responsibility for what I may have caused these young men to think.  Here I was the mother of one of their friends  who talks about loving the Lord and walking with Him, even giving them advice about how to live their lives for Him, while all that time I am sitting there in inappropriate attire.  

We are responsible for the ripples that our behavior creates.  We are responsible for the impact of our actions and our words.  There is a reason that parents who live a life of "Do as I say and not as I do" have recurring dissonance in their lives.  I look back on my behavior after my divorce and realized that I was guilty of wanting my sons to not reject me the way that I felt rejected because of my failed marriage.  I loved the Lord and was walking out trust with Him by moving and starting over.  Yet my attire and my behavior of partying with my sons and their friends spoke a very different message.  How could I expect them to honor me and respect me when I did not honor or respect myself?  I should not be surprised that my relationships with my sons took a downhill turn at this time.  I could not understand it then, but I do now.  Sadly, I do now.  

If we are going to love the Lord and follow Him with all of our heart, body and spirit, then we need to do so unconditionally and expect to be rejected in the process.  Mark 3:21, 31 21 When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him home with them. "He's out of his mind," they said. 31 Jesus' mother and brothers arrived at the house where he was teaching. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them.  Jesus was totally engaged in ministry and He and His disciples were not taking time to eat.  The fervor with which He was ministering disturbed His family.  Their summation?  He was out of His mind!  I can just hear the conversation amongst His family members: "We need to do an intervention.  Let's get him outside and then we will take him away and try and bring him to his senses."  Sound vaguely familiar to anything you experienced?  I can vividly recall my sons being told to not bother me when I was out on our deck.  "Your mother is "talking" to God."  Then being criticized when I came back inside.  Rejection by those that should know us the best because we choose to make God first is difficult to accept.

We must study ourselves and our behavior.  Are we trying to be accepted by this world and its standards or are we choosing a higher road, one that requires us to make decisions that are not conventional?  What does our behavior, our dress, the choices we make for entertainment tell the world about us?  What is foremost in our lives?  I battle with being judgmental about the choices others are making.  I look at them and realize that the agony I am feeling is because I have walked that road and know that it is indeed "vanity fair".  This road is the one most often chosen by the world, and yet the Lord has told us in no uncertain terms that the road to heaven is narrow and the road to hell is broad.  Why should we expect that we would not struggle to stay on this narrow road?  We live in a fallen world and we still must battle the dark forces that are in this world.  One of the most effective ways is to reckon our flesh dead so that we can resist the enemy.  In other words, we have been freed into the battle not from the battle to live as overcomers.    

This has been an exposing word to share with all of you.  I am not proud of what I did.  There are many aspects of my life for which I am eternally grateful that God provides grace to restore me after my repentance.  I wish I could turn the clock back and relive certain aspects of my life. I have no idea what kind of bad seeds I have sown yet I believe that my God is a restorer of life and I pray that He nullifies those bad seeds and replaces them with good seed in each person's life that I impacted.  I continually examine my life now and ask God to show me how He is seeing me.  If I need to be convicted of a change, I pray that He shows me loudly and clearly.  I do not know if this word was for you, my precious friend, or perhaps for someone you know.  In either case, please seize this opportunity to cleanse your life and yourself.  Draw closer to Him in all that you do.  The further we separate ourselves from the world, the closer we come to Him.