Month: July 2015

Ecclesiastes 2:14

The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.”

The whole scope of life comes down to heaven or hell. We are souls and for believers in Christ our citizenship is in heaven. Satan knows this better than we give him credit for. Why then are we to believe that Satan would not want to be involved in our personal relationships. We spend the most time and are influenced by our spouses. We should walk in light not darkness.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

 2 Corinthians 11:13 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

 Satan has a plan for each of us.  We must seek God first and pray for discernment. Many men can masquerade as Christians and not be, even Satan knows the bible. Look for fruits of the spirit, over time. Anyone can fake love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control but not for an extended amount of time. The earthly qualities of a man may all be their but if he isn’t a Christian or he doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, move on. How tempting is it to think he will change and believe. Satan is cunning and the father of lies. Dating an unbeliever is straying from God’s plan and falling into Satan’s plan for your life.

2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case, the god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Satan blinds unbelievers to not see the gospel, and while it is true that every one of us were blind at one point in time. God is clear not to marry an unbeliever. The person may come to God and become a believer but God will give you the right person at the right time and if the man doesn’t believe right now he isn’t for you.

Prayer for today:

Lord please let me trust your process in bringing me a man of God. I trust your timing and wanting to be equally yoked. Allow me to have discernment in dating and to not let Satan distract me from a partner that you would give me. In Jesus name, Amen

Shame, I have felt it. Have you? The pains of knowing I could have, should have, wish I could go back and change it behavior. If I allow it shame will consume me. I will always look to the past and wish for a better future. Shame is a waste of time.

Conviction is beneficial. Conviction allows me to admit my mistake, take the actions to change the behavior, and move forward.

When I am ashamed, I think of Peter. He told Jesus I would die for you. I would never betray you. He sounded like a really bad love song. A little girl scared Peter enough for him to deny Christ, a child. He wasn’t as strong as he thought he was.  He did however years later  according to historians die for Christ.

We are all a work in progress. If we allow shame to take a hold of our soul,  we are stuck in the past. We are stuck in the could of, should of, would of done differently world. It is a sad and lonely world.

Jesus, went to Peter; I think to clear the shame. Peter had denied Christ three times, when Christ could have used a friend, Peter was denying him. Peter, I am sure felt tremendous guilt over his actions. Jesus, wasn’t angry that his friend had left him and denied knowing him.  Jesus didn’t leave Peter, behind and move on. Jesus approached his friend in love. Jesus’ love for us is unconditional. Jesus, asked Peter, three times, “Do you love me?”

Each time Peter, replied, “Yes, Lord,  you know I do”.

The first response Jesus gave was, “Feed my lambs”.

The second request, “Shepherd, my sheep” and the third, “Feed, my sheep”.

I love this, Jesus didn’t lecture Peter on his sin.  He addressed Peter’s sin with love. Jesus pointed to action; he didn’t want Peter living in the past.  Feed my lambs, we all start somewhere even as babies in Christ, Shepherd my sheep growing a little more, feed my sheep, more mature with refinement. Jesus knew Peter wouldn’t start out feeding sheep. Peter would start with feeding lambs, then being a Shepherd, moving into feeding sheep.

Jesus loved with conviction. He always loved and corrected while pointing us to the father.

Living in shame is selfish because it points inward to the person with the shame instead of pointing outward living life for God. We were never intended to live under condemnation. Today if shame is at the root of your soul, please leave it at the cross.

Do you love Jesus? Feed the lambs.

Do you love Jesus? Shepherd the sheep.

Do you love Jesus? Feed the sheep.

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

 Jesus took all sins to the cross; he wants us to live a life in abundance for him.  My prayer today is for peace, to be able to leave the pain and shame behind, and to move into a beautiful position of Christ’s Shepherd.

My son and I were recently talking about Abraham. He had no idea that Abraham was disobedient to God and the consequences of his actions.  He had only heard of Abraham’s successes. He had placed biblical characters on a pedestal separated to do God’s work. We then discussed other biblical characters and some their acts of disobedience. He was amazed that they were not more Godly. We have only had one perfect person that walked the earth, but I think most of us place the biblical characters at arms length. We make them bigger than life without flaws to make our life with God small. David could make a present day politician seem like g rated movie. Noah was a drunk. Moses was a murderer. The list goes on and yet we only celebrate the successes of the characters and fail to look at the back-story or failures.  Each of the biblical characters had to step out in faith with action. I think taking a first step in faith with illogical obedience is scary. I know for me when I don’t see the next step of God’s plan; I think God really isn’t calling me. I tell myself if he wanted me to do this he would lay out the plan before me.  I could just do the steps. Many times in the bible all of the steps were not clear for the characters. The first step is clear, mistakenly clear, scary clear, like really God you want me to do that clear. The second step is not clear most of the time. I find when I am faced with taking a step; I don’t want to look to the bible. I don’t want to find the numerous stories of faithful people flawed just like me, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I don’t want to see them as human. I don’t want to see their struggles. I don’t want to relate because if I do then I am compelled to live fully for God. I would rather look at the successes as a whole because for me the whole story isn’t that relatable. If I break down the story to the one-first step, I then know I too have to step out in faith. God will direct your path but the path must start. I don’t know what you are struggling with today. If God has laid a first step on your heart, I would ask you to pray about the step, ask for clarification and if the answer is go then my prayer is to have the faith to take the first scary, wonderful, awesome, and magnificent step into a full walk with God

Nehemiah 6:3

“So I sent my messengers to them saying, “ I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?”

How many times have I stopped my work and came down.  I want a heart like Nehemiah.  I don’t want to be distracted   stopping my kingdom work. Nehemiah prayed for God’s guidance. He had heard troubling news that his homeland was in shambles. God answered his prayer by having him go to his king and ask for a release from his position with funding to go back to repair his town.  Released with funding two big requests, I have never asked a boss while I was quitting my position to fund my next project. He sought God and followed through with his work, even under direst. He was rebuilding and repairing a wall when he came under enemy fire. He armed his laborers and continued the work. He didn’t stop when the work became hard. When the enemy fire didn’t work, the enemies wanted to talk to Nehemiah. The enemy tried to lure Nehemiah away to kill him. He didn’t go and he didn’t come down to their level.   Why should his work cease to come down to someone? Why should our work cease to come down to someone? Why should our work stop because it becomes hard?  Why should our work stop when it takes numerous attempts with baby steps instead of one giant leap to success? Nehemiah continued his calling even when by the world’s standards he should have quit. Paul encourages us in Philippians 3:12- 14

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prized promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Paul said it best. The goal isn’t easy. We are never fully mature always evolving, BUT we press forward anyway. I want a heart that presses forward even when it would be easier to quit. I want to seek God’s calling on my life.

My prayer for today:

Please God allow me to walk humbly with you, to passionately live for you. Please do not allow me to come down from a great work and be distracted. Please prepare me for the work that needs to be done and give me a heart with trust, endurance, and faith with action like Nehemiah and Paul. Amen

1 Samuel 2: 1-2

Hannah prayed.

My heart rejoices in the Lord,

My horn is lifted up by the Lord.

My mouth boasts over my enemies,

Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

There is no one besides You!

And there is no rock like our God.

This prayer came from a woman that just gave her child to a priest to raise. Samuel, the child she had prayed to be able to conceive with the promise to give her child to God. Hannah had been tormented, made fun of, ridiculed, and mocked because she was barren.

I don’t know how many times I have been angry because of my child’s death. How could a loving God let cancer strike my baby? She died before her third birthday. She was my only daughter and I miss her. I missed her first day of kindergarten, princess outfits, being sassy as a teenager, and now maybe college trips. I miss being a mom to a daughter. I hated God for years for taking that joy away. I look at Hannah who couldn’t have children for many years and gave her first child away to God. What strength, courage, faith, she must have had or maybe she prayed for those traits as well. I know I would need prayer for strength to follow through on my promise, courage to stand firm, and faith to know God will make it right.  I want that kind of faith. I wasn’t a Christian when my daughter was sick or even when she died. In fact I didn’t become a Christian until many years after her death. I had to make peace with God and let the anger go. This is what helped me; children are gifts from God, (Psalm 127:3).

My main comfort came from:

Psalm 139.16-17

Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. God how difficult Your thoughts for me to comprehend how vast their sum is.

God knows us intimately and loves us. He knows all of our days before we began. I am not God and do not comprehend all of his ways. I miss my daughter. I don’t understand the loss. I do understand she was a gift from God.  I have a great deal of sympathy for parents, whose children’s lives didn’t quite turn out the way they dreamt of.  Maybe their child has strayed, or is no longer here on earth; maybe a child has answered a call to serve across the world and their heart longs to see them. Giving up control and releasing our children is never an easy task. My hope and prayer would be for comfort.  I have peace knowing God gave Hannah strength, courage, and faith. God can enable us to keep living in strength and to have faith that his ways, are still his ways. I am going to lay down the struggle to comprehend and release what isn’t mine to grasp. Praying for you to have some peace today even when the answers are not easy to understand.