Why does it seem to be so hard for the body of Christ, the church, to love each other like He loves us? It was His greatest commandment to us, and also our biggest failure to carry out.
We do so many good things in His name, yet if love is not the main marker of those, it's all for naught. So many of us try to earn our way into the Lord's good graces even though we know better than to think it possible to do so. Yet we still try.
We smile at those we gather with Sunday mornings, some genuine, some not so much, but we put on His love in our own way to the best of our ability. I honestly believe we all desire to love like He does, we just suck at it.
I see why it's hard to love those who've hurt us, yet we need to. I see why it's uncomfortable to be around those different than us, yet we need to. I see why it's stretching for us to continue to show the love of Christ to those who don't seem to want to allow the Lord in and change their hearts, yet we need to. What I don't understand is why it's hard for us to love those in our fellowship who've never done anything to us, yet we distance ourselves from them. How do we rationalize any of it?
In the world we have our defenses to keep our hearts safe, or rather to try. It normally doesn't work very well and ends up hurting us, but still we know that it's not safe so we try to protect ourselves.
In the church we are told that LOVE resides there, and that it's safe. Many keep up their walls to protect themselves not willing to chance that the body of Christ truly is a place where His love reigns and they will be safe. There are however some who take those words to heart and allow the essence of who they are to permeate that safe haven of love. They look to the body of Christ to have the heart of Christ and so many times are then wounded deeply to find that the church looks just like the world in terms of their ability to love the unlovely. How tragic is that?
Thankfully, there are also those who truly love like He does in the exact same body that those who don't belong to. And, all of us, if we're blessed to the utmost, will encounter both. One for refining us, and the other for showing us an example of what Christ's love in action looks like. I am so incredibly grateful to have both in my life.
Now the answer to not being wounded in church is not in avoiding church. That on the surface takes care of the problem, but instead hurts us further. We allow bitterness and resentment to grow where we should be allowing iron to sharpen iron. What's necessary to grow in the spirit of Christ in such times where we are hurt is praying to have an unoffendable heart while loving the unlovely in those who've hurt you.
It's not fair to hold others to a standard of Christ's perfection in love, and not hold yourself accountable to the very same standard. We need to have Christ's grace flow freely through us in love which covers a multitude of sins. We need to take our eyes off the work our 'brothers and sisters' in Christ need to do, and allow the Holy Spirit of God to work in our hearts on what He's doing in us.
We need to not be okay with any area of our lives/minds/hearts that does not accurately reflect Jesus Christ's heart. We need to throw ourselves upon His mercy asking Him to work in us that we would look like Him and thanking Him for doing exactly that. He continues to work in us to will and to do for His good pleasure, and will finish the work He started.
Let us not hinder Him by our pride whether that pride be in self-exaltation or self-abasement. Let us let Him love us into wholeness and work in us so that we may have the privilege of doing the exact same for His other children. Love heals. Thank You Father. Thank You Jesus Christ. Thank You Holy Spirit.
Showing posts with label God's grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's grace. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Friday, August 19, 2011
How He intertwines things...
How God intertwines things is nothing short of amazing. How He takes such seemingly unrelated things and puts a connection between them to start pulling them together is indescribable. I would LOVE to be able to have His eyes and see, even if for just a brief moment, how all the different connections He's made are coming together and relate. I think I would be completely speechless at the beauty of His majesty in it, not even caring to understand it, but just to see the beautifully woven, and intricate knitting together of loose pieces of His plan that fit together just so to form a covering of love over the earth. Hmm, I can imagine I sound about nuts now, so let me explain...
This week, I had my stepmom call me to see how I knew someone on my facebook page. I felt immediately defensive because I didn't know them at all, I had become friends with them about a year ago, and had spoken with them briefly a few times in that time period, but didn't personally know them and was wondering why she was provoked to ask me that. She told me to pull up their profile and look at the picture, so I did. She then exclaimed that's ________!!! I had to laugh. A pastor in Pakistan that I had become facebook friends with, had my stepmom's close friend in his profile pic. She just couldn't believe that her friend who told her some Evangelist in Pakistan had taken him in and was having him speak to people there, would also coincidentally be the person who "liked" my blog post that day. I really was just kind of awed by it, but God is awesome so not really too impressed, lol.
Fast forward to last Friday, a woman at my bible study was sharing how a man she didn't even know, but had been praying for over a year and a half, came to the church the Sunday before and she got to see the fruit of what she had been praying into that whole time. She felt really blessed to have been witness to that. Another cool thing, but again, God is awesome so...
Then earlier this week, a woman that I esteem very much, e-mailed me and asked me if I had ever heard of the book "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23". I laughed and e-mailed her back and said yes, that I was reading the book and it was surprisingly good. I found that to be so funny because when this woman I didn't even know gave me the book and told me she just felt like I should I have it, and to do whatever I wanted with it... I just politely took it without any real desire to read it. Apparently I am a respecter of persons, unlike God, b/c once this 2nd woman whom I admire brought it up to me, I made the choice to get it read sooner rather than later. That's a whole different post to elaborate on that, so I'll defer back to my main point.
Now to today, I was talking with my stepmom, and she told me her bestfriend was reading "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23". I, of course, laughed! Then told her the book was much better than I thought it would be and told her about a specific section in it, to which she laughed and said that was the exact same section her BF was telling her about. What are the chances that we would both be reading the same book that was copyrighted over 40 yrs ago and talking about the same part in it??? I love it, I absolutely love it.
All of these things are so scattered and meaningless for the most part, yet God, who always is in control, is making the connections. He is pulling what looks to be parts of totally different puzzles together to make a grander and more magnificent picture that we could have thought possible, and it's all under the radar with no fanfare at all. I picture the world in my mind's eye covered with thin red lines, criss-crossing all over the surface of the world, connecting even the most hostile regions to each other, where nothing can stop what's been started, and I just can't even explain how wonderful, loving, merciful, and just our God is.
I so wish this blog wasn't jibberish to the lot of you reading it, my heart's desire is to have these conversations personally with each of you, as opposed to just releasing my thoughts into the cyberspace, but I really like to talk and get things out so this will just have to do, lol.
I pray that you all are blessed with a weekend full of things that bring remembrance to how you've been blessed, even when you haven't seen in as such. God's hand is always in our circumstances, and I so appreciate the people in my life who've helped me to see that for what it is.
This week, I had my stepmom call me to see how I knew someone on my facebook page. I felt immediately defensive because I didn't know them at all, I had become friends with them about a year ago, and had spoken with them briefly a few times in that time period, but didn't personally know them and was wondering why she was provoked to ask me that. She told me to pull up their profile and look at the picture, so I did. She then exclaimed that's ________!!! I had to laugh. A pastor in Pakistan that I had become facebook friends with, had my stepmom's close friend in his profile pic. She just couldn't believe that her friend who told her some Evangelist in Pakistan had taken him in and was having him speak to people there, would also coincidentally be the person who "liked" my blog post that day. I really was just kind of awed by it, but God is awesome so not really too impressed, lol.
Fast forward to last Friday, a woman at my bible study was sharing how a man she didn't even know, but had been praying for over a year and a half, came to the church the Sunday before and she got to see the fruit of what she had been praying into that whole time. She felt really blessed to have been witness to that. Another cool thing, but again, God is awesome so...
Then earlier this week, a woman that I esteem very much, e-mailed me and asked me if I had ever heard of the book "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23". I laughed and e-mailed her back and said yes, that I was reading the book and it was surprisingly good. I found that to be so funny because when this woman I didn't even know gave me the book and told me she just felt like I should I have it, and to do whatever I wanted with it... I just politely took it without any real desire to read it. Apparently I am a respecter of persons, unlike God, b/c once this 2nd woman whom I admire brought it up to me, I made the choice to get it read sooner rather than later. That's a whole different post to elaborate on that, so I'll defer back to my main point.
Now to today, I was talking with my stepmom, and she told me her bestfriend was reading "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23". I, of course, laughed! Then told her the book was much better than I thought it would be and told her about a specific section in it, to which she laughed and said that was the exact same section her BF was telling her about. What are the chances that we would both be reading the same book that was copyrighted over 40 yrs ago and talking about the same part in it??? I love it, I absolutely love it.
All of these things are so scattered and meaningless for the most part, yet God, who always is in control, is making the connections. He is pulling what looks to be parts of totally different puzzles together to make a grander and more magnificent picture that we could have thought possible, and it's all under the radar with no fanfare at all. I picture the world in my mind's eye covered with thin red lines, criss-crossing all over the surface of the world, connecting even the most hostile regions to each other, where nothing can stop what's been started, and I just can't even explain how wonderful, loving, merciful, and just our God is.
I so wish this blog wasn't jibberish to the lot of you reading it, my heart's desire is to have these conversations personally with each of you, as opposed to just releasing my thoughts into the cyberspace, but I really like to talk and get things out so this will just have to do, lol.
I pray that you all are blessed with a weekend full of things that bring remembrance to how you've been blessed, even when you haven't seen in as such. God's hand is always in our circumstances, and I so appreciate the people in my life who've helped me to see that for what it is.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
You can find His hand in most things
God's been showing me His hand in my life through the various things, situations, and circumstances that I've walked through. I wanted to share two of the most recent with you.
An example of seeing God's hand afterwards...
A couple weeks ago I went to this training on SOZO ministries, which is basically a Holy Spirit led time of encountering God personally for an individual. We had a few corporate time where we were practicing what we were learning, and this particular instance we were asking God about personal walls that have been built and whether we could break them down. God showed me this huge wall around me, with a couple holes in it, and then told me it was not safe for me to break it down. I was so angry with God, not understanding why He would have called me to this place, and then told me that I can't do what I felt was necessary to walk into the freedom He wants to give us. I was really hung up on the whole "not safe" for me to tear down the wall that I had built to protect myself. I just did not get it, and was offended with God because I felt like He was holding out on me. I, of course, asked Him to forgive me for feeling that way, because I know that's not who He is, and accepted His forgiveness and moved on being blessed immensely with the rest of the training seminar.
I can look back now and completely see how still having that wall is beneficial for me. I do believe that God desires for me to be without self defense mechanisms and be able to trust Him, but He also knows me better than I know myself, and knew that I still needed it b/c I wasn't in a place of knowing Him intimately enough to get rid of it and fully lean on Him through the painful things that are a part of life. I don't have a clue how He's going to use what I am currently needing to walk through for His glory, and it doesn't matter. I believe Him that He will. It is comforting to know that even when you can't see His hand in something at the time, sometimes you can look back and see it later. I love that part of God!
An example of seeing God's hand in it...
I had left the dentist the other day with the boys, first visit with no cavities, and they had given each of the boys this horrible squeaky toy to take with them. I had already decided to throw each squeaker away the second the boys took their eyes off of them, when I spotted a garage sale sign. I desperately needed out of that car so I turned left from the right lane, thankfully the coast was clear, and pulled up. I left the boys in the car, knowing by the squeaks that they were enjoying themselves, and browsed the very small selection of goods. It was totally a God thing that I stopped. I had the most amazing conversation about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit with the couple running the sale. They were blessed to hear my testimony of God's love and protection in my life, and were able to encourage me in some areas where I wasn't really feeling/believing the grace of God for me personally in certain areas. I got back in the car and was able to endure the 17 min trip home without even needing to throw those ridiculous squeaky toys away. I am curious though why the dentist felt it was a good idea to give out yappy dog toys to children, has He not heard of temporary insanity? I'll have to to let them know that they can most likely get better toys for cheaper from Oriental Trading on our next visit, lol.
For anyone who's interest has been peaked on what a SOZO is, here is a really brief overview http://www.bethelsozo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=28
An example of seeing God's hand afterwards...
A couple weeks ago I went to this training on SOZO ministries, which is basically a Holy Spirit led time of encountering God personally for an individual. We had a few corporate time where we were practicing what we were learning, and this particular instance we were asking God about personal walls that have been built and whether we could break them down. God showed me this huge wall around me, with a couple holes in it, and then told me it was not safe for me to break it down. I was so angry with God, not understanding why He would have called me to this place, and then told me that I can't do what I felt was necessary to walk into the freedom He wants to give us. I was really hung up on the whole "not safe" for me to tear down the wall that I had built to protect myself. I just did not get it, and was offended with God because I felt like He was holding out on me. I, of course, asked Him to forgive me for feeling that way, because I know that's not who He is, and accepted His forgiveness and moved on being blessed immensely with the rest of the training seminar.
I can look back now and completely see how still having that wall is beneficial for me. I do believe that God desires for me to be without self defense mechanisms and be able to trust Him, but He also knows me better than I know myself, and knew that I still needed it b/c I wasn't in a place of knowing Him intimately enough to get rid of it and fully lean on Him through the painful things that are a part of life. I don't have a clue how He's going to use what I am currently needing to walk through for His glory, and it doesn't matter. I believe Him that He will. It is comforting to know that even when you can't see His hand in something at the time, sometimes you can look back and see it later. I love that part of God!
An example of seeing God's hand in it...
I had left the dentist the other day with the boys, first visit with no cavities, and they had given each of the boys this horrible squeaky toy to take with them. I had already decided to throw each squeaker away the second the boys took their eyes off of them, when I spotted a garage sale sign. I desperately needed out of that car so I turned left from the right lane, thankfully the coast was clear, and pulled up. I left the boys in the car, knowing by the squeaks that they were enjoying themselves, and browsed the very small selection of goods. It was totally a God thing that I stopped. I had the most amazing conversation about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit with the couple running the sale. They were blessed to hear my testimony of God's love and protection in my life, and were able to encourage me in some areas where I wasn't really feeling/believing the grace of God for me personally in certain areas. I got back in the car and was able to endure the 17 min trip home without even needing to throw those ridiculous squeaky toys away. I am curious though why the dentist felt it was a good idea to give out yappy dog toys to children, has He not heard of temporary insanity? I'll have to to let them know that they can most likely get better toys for cheaper from Oriental Trading on our next visit, lol.
For anyone who's interest has been peaked on what a SOZO is, here is a really brief overview http://www.bethelsozo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=28
Sunday, April 3, 2011
OUCH again!
Chase (4 1/2 yrs old) the morning after his fiasco, that is a smile ;)
Chase was trying to learn how to ride a scooter and had gone about one foot and lost his balance. He started screaming and I picked him up to see blood all over his face. I pulled him close to me, spoke calmly to him to try and put him at ease, and then pulled him back away to see what happened. He had a torn his upper lip when the handle bars of the scooter caught him just right to do some damage. I get him and Trey (my 3 yr old) into the car and called my MIL who's a nurse to see where I should take him. She said that a prompt care would be able to do stitches to that's where we went.
We get to the Prompt Care, wait a lil' over an hour to be seen, and then have them tell us they don't think that they will be able to help us there. She asks us to just hold on while she pages the Plastic Surgeon and to see if he would be able to help us out. I start softly singing praises and praying over Chase and he's calm as can be, the Didj most likely helped with that too though, lol. We're waiting about 25 min, and I prayed to God that if we needed to be going somewhere else that was fine, but that I wanted to know what was going on. Less than a minute later, the RN comes in to tell me that they are still waiting for the plastic surgeon to call back and they'd let us know ASAP what was going on. I just continued to sing over Chase while we waiting and about 20 min later she comes back in to say that they got ahold of the plastic surgeon's RN and he's in surgery and will be for a while, which is why he never called back. They wished us luck and sent on downtown to the ER.
Chase fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. I was regretting my choice of 4 1/2 in stiletto heels as I carried my snoozing 40 + lb boy into the ER. They get us checked in and told us to wait. The wonderful grace of God allowed Chase to sleep the entire hour and a half we waited. As I walked back to his room, Chase woke up and was inconsolable. He was tired, hurting, and scared. We get into the room and had a wonderful Dr and RN's and child help specialist that tried to comfort Chase and calm him down.
The Dr told us that they would use ketamine (sp) to sedate him, that he would still be awake, but that he wouldn't feel the pain, nor would he even be aware of what was going on. I've heard before that when people are given things that put them out there is an unfortunate possibility to the demonic spiritual realm gaining access b/c of the unnatural state of consciousness at that time. I figured regardless whether that was true, I was going to be covering my baby in prayers. I prayed for God to send warrior angels to encamp around Chase as he went out, and fight off anything demonic that would try to come, and also prayed that God would send more angels to sing over Chase, and that whatever part of his brain was active at that time would be seeing Jesus and his beauty and anything wonderful that God would want to entertain him with.
The RN came in and told us that as Chase woke up from the ketamine that there was a good chance he would be aggressive and agitated, to not be surprised if he yelled out for no apparent reason for the next day, and to expect horrible nightmares. I thanked her for the information, but told her that I was NOT receiving any of that for Chase and that I believed that he would be just fine, although I would not be surprised if those symptoms did manifest. She also said that his lip would hurt much worse the next day and to keep ice on it. She pulled up video on youtube and told us that this is a bit of what we could expect with Chase
This is the video the nurse had me watch on the effects of ketamine (sp).
The Dr came in and they proceeded to try and get the IV's in. Chase struggled against them and pulled out 2 of the IV's, and they finally got a 3rd into his hand. I felt horrible b/c I never even thought to pray over that part of this fiasco. They got the ketamine into his system he went under. His eyes stayed open and he had a few tears fall down his face as they were stitching him up. I continued to pray over him in the spirit and once they were done, held his hand and started singing songs to him that I was just making up as I went.
He started coming to and was so peaceful and quiet. The RN was amazed and asked what church we went to, LOL. We left and headed home after filling a prescription that the pharmacist told us would taste horrible even with the flavoring we added.
I am thankful to report that not only did Chase not scream out throughout the rest of the evening, but he also slept soundly through the night. The next morning when he woke up, his lip looked so bad, and when I asked him how it felt, he said fine! I about fell to my knees in thankfulness and praise b/c I never even asked God to take away the pain of it. It never occurred to me that was even a possibility, but yet God did that for Chase anyways.
I'm grateful to say that our biggest battle in this whole mess is getting chase to take his almost 2 tsp of this nasty medicine 3 times a day. Praise God!
Chase was trying to learn how to ride a scooter and had gone about one foot and lost his balance. He started screaming and I picked him up to see blood all over his face. I pulled him close to me, spoke calmly to him to try and put him at ease, and then pulled him back away to see what happened. He had a torn his upper lip when the handle bars of the scooter caught him just right to do some damage. I get him and Trey (my 3 yr old) into the car and called my MIL who's a nurse to see where I should take him. She said that a prompt care would be able to do stitches to that's where we went.
We get to the Prompt Care, wait a lil' over an hour to be seen, and then have them tell us they don't think that they will be able to help us there. She asks us to just hold on while she pages the Plastic Surgeon and to see if he would be able to help us out. I start softly singing praises and praying over Chase and he's calm as can be, the Didj most likely helped with that too though, lol. We're waiting about 25 min, and I prayed to God that if we needed to be going somewhere else that was fine, but that I wanted to know what was going on. Less than a minute later, the RN comes in to tell me that they are still waiting for the plastic surgeon to call back and they'd let us know ASAP what was going on. I just continued to sing over Chase while we waiting and about 20 min later she comes back in to say that they got ahold of the plastic surgeon's RN and he's in surgery and will be for a while, which is why he never called back. They wished us luck and sent on downtown to the ER.
Chase fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. I was regretting my choice of 4 1/2 in stiletto heels as I carried my snoozing 40 + lb boy into the ER. They get us checked in and told us to wait. The wonderful grace of God allowed Chase to sleep the entire hour and a half we waited. As I walked back to his room, Chase woke up and was inconsolable. He was tired, hurting, and scared. We get into the room and had a wonderful Dr and RN's and child help specialist that tried to comfort Chase and calm him down.
The Dr told us that they would use ketamine (sp) to sedate him, that he would still be awake, but that he wouldn't feel the pain, nor would he even be aware of what was going on. I've heard before that when people are given things that put them out there is an unfortunate possibility to the demonic spiritual realm gaining access b/c of the unnatural state of consciousness at that time. I figured regardless whether that was true, I was going to be covering my baby in prayers. I prayed for God to send warrior angels to encamp around Chase as he went out, and fight off anything demonic that would try to come, and also prayed that God would send more angels to sing over Chase, and that whatever part of his brain was active at that time would be seeing Jesus and his beauty and anything wonderful that God would want to entertain him with.
The RN came in and told us that as Chase woke up from the ketamine that there was a good chance he would be aggressive and agitated, to not be surprised if he yelled out for no apparent reason for the next day, and to expect horrible nightmares. I thanked her for the information, but told her that I was NOT receiving any of that for Chase and that I believed that he would be just fine, although I would not be surprised if those symptoms did manifest. She also said that his lip would hurt much worse the next day and to keep ice on it. She pulled up video on youtube and told us that this is a bit of what we could expect with Chase
This is the video the nurse had me watch on the effects of ketamine (sp).
The Dr came in and they proceeded to try and get the IV's in. Chase struggled against them and pulled out 2 of the IV's, and they finally got a 3rd into his hand. I felt horrible b/c I never even thought to pray over that part of this fiasco. They got the ketamine into his system he went under. His eyes stayed open and he had a few tears fall down his face as they were stitching him up. I continued to pray over him in the spirit and once they were done, held his hand and started singing songs to him that I was just making up as I went.
He started coming to and was so peaceful and quiet. The RN was amazed and asked what church we went to, LOL. We left and headed home after filling a prescription that the pharmacist told us would taste horrible even with the flavoring we added.
I am thankful to report that not only did Chase not scream out throughout the rest of the evening, but he also slept soundly through the night. The next morning when he woke up, his lip looked so bad, and when I asked him how it felt, he said fine! I about fell to my knees in thankfulness and praise b/c I never even asked God to take away the pain of it. It never occurred to me that was even a possibility, but yet God did that for Chase anyways.
I'm grateful to say that our biggest battle in this whole mess is getting chase to take his almost 2 tsp of this nasty medicine 3 times a day. Praise God!
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