Choosing Humility

 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

Colossians 3:12-14 

This verse has an abundance of practical application for our everyday lives, but I’d like to present the one highlighted to me today. 

It’s imperative to understand due to our inability to control anything other than ourselves. We most likely will have a myriad of situations where we’ll be disappointed in how things play out, and might even wrongly nurture some accusation regarding it. 

For example, I had very recently been sweetly convicted of some offense I had towards another believer after going to them to seek clarity on a issue. Unfortunately, their peace looked a lot different than my peace in how to move past it. I kept praying blessings over the person when I’d think of them b/c I had already recognized that I felt hurt by the situation. That hurt started to become anger and I needed the Lord to bring me His peace as it wasn’t coming from the meeting of minds.

I realize the lack in details makes this hard to relate to, but each of us have people in our lives where we think they’ve gotten something wrong, and they may think something negative about us. We could become really bitter if we don’t keep our thoughts in check. It’s a part of life, but will hinder us from the fullness of life God desires for us.

 I think a lot of Christians probably do a really good job of keeping their resentment, bitterness, hurt, and even unforgiveness hidden, but I hope we’re all inviting God to daily search our hearts and reveal to us if it’s there. We want to live in harmony with all because that honors God, and also results in a more peaceful life for us. Yet, sometimes that’s not going to look like we’d like it to, and we might have to submit some angst that accompanies that, but we’re called to prefer another over ourselves anyways! 

I love how He holds me accountable to His love, and gently performs every surgery necessary for my heart to reflect His. May the Lord’s love guide, protect, and heal us all as we walk out our salvation in Christ.

Listen Up Buttercup!

All of you who are so blessed to know the Lord's voice personally and intimately, those who know His loving kindness in guidance and in discipline, those who's lives are richer and live to glorify Him in all things...  Is that you?

If it is, listen up buttercup.  You can probably quote me multiple bible verses about how God is love, how He came to save the lost, how He desires that we live in unity with other believers, how he told us to live our lives to His glory, how he told us that we are dead to sin, but are those less spiritually mature than you in your outer circles encouraged to push in harder to the Lord by watching Him in you?

If they are not, let me just encourage you to reassess how you should be walking on that narrow path in how you view His other children.  His other children should be learning about His kindness which leads to repentance by watching you.  They should want nothing more than to cleave from all worldly things and press into God by your example.  Christ in you should be calling out to them as a lighthouse in the darkness.

It's silly to think the only darkness is outside of the church.  The church itself is composed of those which once walked in darkness, and are as you are, walking closer and closer to the fullness of light, love, and liberty which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  It's also silly to declare others unworthy of your fellowship because they don't walk in the fullness of truth as you know it to be.

Stop turning God's children away from the church because they don't measure up to your probably correct understanding of what the word of God declares to be a follower of Christ, and instead just love them further into His kingdom.  Let God be the judge of where their hearts actually are, you just LOVE THEM BLAMELESSLY.

The Lord gives clear instructions in His word on how to approach the brother/sister that is sinning in your midst, and it's not to pretend like they aren't there.  You are responsible for the words that come out of your mouth, let each one be filled with love, not judgment.  Refrain to the best of your ability from coloring other peoples views by sharing that which is not helpful and beneficial to the body.

Yes, righteousness matters.  Absolutely.  But not at the expense of love.  Be the one whose actions propel the weak and feeble to push in and run the race before them.  It's already seems easy to throw in the towel and give up with the disability of sin that has left it's mark, be the example that shows that's a lie.  Allow your thoughts, speech, and behavior to show the richness of Christ available to those who persevere and press forward, forgetting all that lies behind. Be the one who allows Christ to work freely and unhindered in.  We all (believers in Christ) want that, lets join together to attain it.

Biblical backing, Romans 14:1-12

My Sweet Child, Look How Far I've Brought You...

The Lord's loving quiet whisper meets me in my place of complete dejection as I ponder the immense gap between where I am in Him and where I know I am to be.  I look to His word praying for Him to do all that needs to be done for me to be all that He created me to be.  I plead with Him to change circumstances that prevent me from attaining that place in Him.

I just want Him to know how much I want to have a life that honors Him in ALL THINGS and how frustrated I am that my life is still so dang far from that.  He pulls me close with that beautiful, loving, and kind whisper and tells me "My sweet child, look how far I've brought you."

I hate to admit it, especially so publicly, but my response was less than desirable to His encouragement.  I told Him "That's great, and I appreciate it, but look how much is still wrong with my life, and my thoughts, and even my heart."

Thankfully the Lord is used to His children being so ungrateful and simply responded "I'm not worried about it.  Just trust in Me, and keep your eyes forward.  Don't despise small beginnings.  I'm an expert at using the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.  Seek first my kingdom and all other things will be added unto you.  I love you with a love that is not of this world.  I'm not frustrated with you.  Don't place yourself above Me by thinking your thoughts are more righteous and true than mine.  You are right where I want you.  I don't want you to be concerned with anyone's opinions on you, but mine.  It's necessary to be patient in this process, if you try to force your definition and picture of what it means to be wholly submerged in me, you will quench what it is that I am doing in you and your family."

Well, okay then God.  How does one argue with that?  I obviously don't have my Savior's heart and mind because I just don't get how He can be so for me with the host of issues I've got going on.  Yet, He is.  And for that I am so incredibly grateful.

Love...

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.

Can we hear directly from God

YES!!!!  In fact, it's God's intention that we hear directly from Him.  It's because He loves us with such a zealous love, He wants us to depend on Him and not ourselves.  He created us to be one with Him through His Son.  Our current misunderstanding of trying to live a "good life" while He's up there somewhere in Heaven watching, tallying our deeds, blowing off our failures, and waiting to fulfill His purpose in creating us until we die and get up there, could NOT be more wrong.   We are to bring Heaven to Earth now; forgive so He forgives us, treat others as better than ourselves.  He desires to be personally involved in every aspect of our lives, and the more time we spend with Him, the more we recognize Him.  Or as I like to say, our eyes are opened where we were once blind.

Now that's not to say that I hear from Him on everything, b/c I don't.  Actually, there are many things in my life where I don't, but yet I can hear for other people and what He wants to tell them.  I think part of that is spiritual maturity (I've got a ways to go to be what He told us to be made into in His word) and the other part is that the Lord wants us to rely on His body (the followers of Jesus Christ aka the church) and not get into spiritual pride thinking we don't need anyone but Him.  Let me give two examples of someone hearing from the Lord (aka prophecy)... and then one where I did.

Last week I was blessed beyond words by a man Steve and I do not know very well coming up to us and speaking some words that God had placed on his heart for us.  He addressed three areas of which he had zero knowledge, but Steve and I knew exactly what he was talking about.  I was so excited that the Lord, in His love, did such a wonderful thing for us.  I'd love to go into more detail, but since it involves someone besides me, I'll wait for the go ahead ;)

Then tonight at church, I had my heart touched in a way that surprised even me with the Lord's heart for me.  I was at the front of the church (my normal place, lol) and was just praising the Lord while the Worship Team was singing.  After a while, the Pastor asked anyone who wanted prayer to come up, and for the prayer ministry team to come and pray for whoever they feel led to (there are flexible guidelines in place as far as praying for others goes).  One of the women on the worship team came over, gently placing her hand on me, and started softly singing 'Lord she just wants to know You'  Then she heard directly from Him, allowing her voice to give utterance to His heart, she continued singing 'I want her to know Me...', which led to her singing over really private and intimate cries of my heart, allowing me to hear that my Daddy sees those places, and His desire is for me to know Him in all of those ways also.  I can't explain to you how it felt to have her verbally say what He sees in my house, where I'm literally standing as I'm talking to Him, what I'm asking in those rooms of my house, the secret 'acceptable' sin of my heart, the insecurity that hides stealthily deep in my soul, and then His promise that I will see what I desire to have.  I wish that I had the writing skills that I see in my friends blogs b/c I know that I'm not even coming close to doing this beautiful gift the Lord has given us justice.  It has changed my life.

Last Wednesday at church, they had the prophecy team come up to the front of the church and just ask the Lord if there was anything He wanted to say to anyone.  I got a few bible verses and a few things impressed on my heart to share with a woman I didn't know, and I was VERY hesitant to do it.  I finally decided that God was bigger than me, and if I screwed it up, He can fix it.    I spoke forth what I felt has been given to me to say and there was no reaction that I could see from this woman, but that was okay b/c I knew that I was just trying to listen to the Lord, and regardless everything would be alright.  Then on Sat, I got confirmation that I nailed it, and the girl was completely blown away by what I had said.  Even better though, tonight as I was leaving, she just happened to be there for her 2nd time at our church, and came up to me to tell me how the bible verses I gave her addressed the 3 things on her heart, and how the words I spoke to her encouraged her so much b/c she was really struggling in those areas.

I was already in such a place of awe b/c of how the Lord had spoken to me through someone, and now I got to be even more awed that He would be so specific through me to address the concerns of her heart.  I am a mess.  I have so many flaws. I trust, lean on, and believe in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (note that the Lord is not just Savior, but also Lord), and He works through me in spite of my problems, b/c that's who He is.  God is love, and He'll work through anyone who will yield themselves to Him.

I can honestly say that I can't believe that I believe what I do, but there isn't a possibility that anyone could convince me otherwise now.  How does one turn back and deny the Holy Spirit once they've tasted and seen how good God is?  How can people expect me to not shout it from the rooftops when it's literally changed my life and who I am for the better?  His gifts are free, we might as well utilize them.

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.