Am I open to new things?

In John 9:1-34, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. The people asked the question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" There wasn't any other option for someone to be blind. It had to be sin. Jesus gave them a completely different perspective. It didn't fit their little formula: if someone is blind, it is because of sin.

What kind of formulas am I using when I see things? Am I open to something new? I can't put Jesus into a formula saying, "This is the way he works." Jesus doesn't fit human formulas. He is free to work in mysterious ways that baffle the religious people.

When the leaders saw this newly-healed blind man, they couldn't accept the truth that Jesus healed him. They wouldn't believe what was obvious, right in front of their eyes. Am I blind to what Jesus is doing because it doesn't fit my formula? When the truth is staring me in the face, do I make rationalizations because if it is true, it will shake all the foundations I had set up for myself?

Lord, keep me open to the new things you are doing! Don't let me get stuck in formulas and procedures. Keep my eyes on you and all you want to do in me and through me and around me.

Mark 5 Thoughts

Jarius was a leader in the Synagogue and probably had the same feelings about Jesus as the rest of them. BUT when it came to the possibility of his daughter's healing, he thought differently. It's easy to dismiss something a far off but when it touches our family, we have to face the truth of it.

The woman with the blood hemorrhage was desperate. She was unclean. She felt so ugly inside from bleeding that long. She was desperate for a touch from Jesus. She risked it all to touch him. At once she knew she was healed. She didn't want to bother Jesus. She decided to just touch him, which would have made Jesus unclean in the Jewish law. It was a risk she probably felt he would never know.

Sometimes we are so desperate and think we can just barely touch Jesus. But he always knows and will meet us in our desperation.

Both Jarius and the woman were desperate in a different way. Jarius was desperate for healing for his daughter. He risked his reputation in the Synagogue to have Jesus touch his daughter. The woman risked breaking the Jewish law by touching someone while she was unclean. Both risked a lot because they believed Jesus was the answer to their need. He is the answer to your need, too. Jesus knows our desperation. He loves us so much. He wants us to reach out and touch him. He doesn't care if we get him "dirty" with our sinful, ugly lives. He loves us enough to meet us in that unclean state. But he loves us enough to not leave us there. Healing will flow when we reach out and touch him in our desperation. Don't wait! Touch him now. He's waiting for you.

Jesus and his family

In Mark 3:20-21, 31-35, we see that Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him because they wanted to take him home. They had heard that the disciples didn't even have time to eat. The reason they came in the first place was to put a stop to what he was doing. They couldn't believe what he was doing was what God wanted. They were concerned about physical things more than about spiritual things. In the New Living Translation, they said, "He's out of his mind." They were more concerned about the outward appearance and how what he did effected them and their reputation. I also believe they were genuinely concerned about his physical well-being. They were on a mission to make sure Jesus was taking care of himself.

In verses 31-35 when someone told Jesus his mother and brothers were outside, he responded in a way that I always felt was a little harsh. He acted like they were nothing even though they were his family. He knew what was in their hearts. He knew they didn't support what he was about. He knew they had really come to put a stop to what he was doing. He knew he had to do what God has called him to. Jesus' response told them that they were not his family if they were trying to do something that was out of God's will. We are all his family if we do the will of the Father.

His family's concern was legitimate. I can especially relate as a mother. Jesus' mother must have been very concerned that Jesus wasn't taking care of himself and would wear himself out. But their concern was not what God wanted them to be concerned about. They saw their son/sibling and the physical part. God wanted them to see the Messiah--HIS son and be concerned about doing the will of the Father in Heaven. They couldn't see past the physical realm into the spiritual realm.

What realm to I see? Am I so focused on the physical life that I miss what God is doing spiritually? I don't want to stand in the way of what God is doing. I am an administrative person. I always see the physical stuff around me; what needs to be done to make things happen. God wants me to see past that. Sometimes he is doing something in the spiritual that looks a little messy physically. If I step in and try to stop it or help, I could mess up what he is doing in someone's life.

Lord, give us eyes to see both the physical and the spiritual. We don't want to stand in the way of what you are doing in our lives and in the lives of the people in our spheres of influence.

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

Psalm 111
1 Praise the Lord!

I will thank the Lord with all my heart
as I meet with his godly people.
2 How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!
All who delight in him should ponder them.
3 Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty.
His righteousness never fails.
4 He causes us to remember his wonderful works.
How gracious and merciful is our Lord!
5 He gives food to those who fear him;
he always remembers his covenant.
6 He has shown his great power to his people
by giving them the lands of other nations.
7 All he does is just and good,
and all his commandments are trustworthy.
8 They are forever true,
to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.
9 He has paid a full ransom for his people.
He has guaranteed his covenant with them forever.
What a holy, awe-inspiring name he has!
10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.
All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.

Praise him forever!

(NLT)

Have you ever sat down and wrote out all the amazing things God has done in your life? It is a wonderful exercise in thanksgiving to Him to think again of all He has done. Here is my Psalm of thanksgiving to God:

Praise the Lord! You are so good. You are faithful to me and my family. Everything you do is wonderful. Even when it feels like you are not there, you are working in the background where I don’t always see you. You brought me out of the pit and set my feet on solid ground. I am no longer shaken to the core with anxiety. I no longer feel like I’m only one step ahead of it. I am healed. I don’t struggle with it any longer. It is no longer my constant companion. I fear you instead of fearing what life will bring. The husband you brought into my life is my lover and friend. He is the exact person I needed to walk with through my life’s journey.

You have given me four wonderful children who you are pursuing and wooing and bringing into your kingdom. I know you will be faithful to them in whatever they need to walk through in the life you have for them to live. You have brought the best spouse for Amber. You knew exactly who she would need. You have brought her the perfect soul mate. A first grandchild awaits me in a few months. That makes me so excited. Thank you for bringing this miracle child into being. Thank you for protecting this child in her mother’s womb. I trust you to do this. You will and are bringing the best spouses to the other children as they seek you for their soul mates.

Thank you for friends who encourage me in my walk with you and for a church family who is loving and caring to me and to others. You knew exactly what church family would be the best to walk with me through my struggles with anxiety and depression and be able to help bring me to complete healing.

Even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death you never left me. You were and are constantly with me. You work everything out for good in my life. I will praise your name forever and ever as long as I have breath within me. Praise your holy name!

Unauthorized

Matthew 7:21-23 in the New Living Translation says, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. On judgment day many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.’”

Are we followers of Jesus? The way you tell is if we obey our Father in heaven. It doesn’t matter if we do wonderful works that produce many results. If we aren’t doing it as a result of something God told us, we don’t know Jesus. He only did what he say the Father doing. We have to have authorization for what we do to for it to be effective.

I have had experience with this. When I was working at the church, we would have staff meetings and try to think about events and activities that would cultivate relationships and bring people closer to God. We would schedule an event we thought would be good. We would try and get volunteers to help. Sometimes it would be like pulling teeth to get anyone to help. The event would come and go and hardly anyone would show up. I would feel like we were pushing something that God really didn’t want to happen.

One winter, our pastor wanted to do something totally out of the ordinary. His wife had had a clear word from the Lord and the pastor was adamant that we needed to follow it. He wanted to do a 13 week course called, “From Slavery to Sonship” by Jack Frost. He wanted to suspend small groups during this time. I remember thinking this wasn’t going to work. I figured only a few people would want to do it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the response. Almost everyone in our church wanted to be a part of it. It was well attended and God did some awesome things in people’s lives.

I learned something very important at that time. When God is in something, it usually doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get others excited about it. When we are trying to make something happen, we can wear ourselves out getting it off the ground. Sometimes, even when God wants something, it will take effort but the effort it takes will not be exhausting, it will be for exhilarating.

I don’t know about you but I want what I do to be authorized by the Holy Spirit. I want it to count for God’s kingdom. I want lives to be changed. As Revelation 2:11 says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” God is speaking. We just have to tune in. May our ears really hear what God is saying and act on it. If we all did this, I can’t even imagine how much different life would be.

In Secret or for all to See?

“In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven” Matthew 5:16.

This verse shows us that we are to let our light shines so people can see our good deeds and praise the Father. In another verse, Matthew 6:3-4 it says, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

These two verses seem to be conflicting verses. One is to let your light shine so people see your good deeds. In another, you give in secret so the Father rewards you in secret. Are the two in contradiction? They must mean two different kinds of things. What could it mean to “let your light shine so they may see your good deeds?” That must be different from giving to the needy.

The light we have is Jesus Christ. He is the one that shines in the darkness. He brings light where darkness has ruled. When he comes, darkness or evil has to flee. When the light is turned on in a dark room, the darkness doesn’t have to be chased out, it is completely gone. In light, darkness can’t even be present. Letting our light shine is to take the kingdom of heaven, Jesus, into the places where darkness, sin, and evil, reign. It means to share him with those who feel hopeless and rejected—the down and out in our society. These are the good deeds I think this verse is talking about. When we show love and kindness to the people that everyone else has given up on, we shine our light over them. Think about someone who the neighbors are complaining about. Maybe it’s a co-worker who everyone is whispering about. Maybe it is the gay or lesbian couple down the street that everyone keeps their children from being around them. Maybe it is the person who is addicted to drugs and keeps asking you for money to feed their addiction. Whoever it is, we are called to let our light shine. That means we treat them as Jesus did. He ate meals with the sinners and tax collectors of the day—the prostitutes, the thieves, the poor of his day. He wasn’t afraid of his reputation. He wanted them to find freedom. He had compassion on them.

The other verse is talking about giving to the needy. That would probably mean money. It would probably not be something you do for someone but something you give to them. This kind of thing is to be done in secret. We aren’t to flaunt the idea that we give lots of money to those in need. We can give without everyone knowing about it. Only then will we receive the reward our Heavenly Father wants to give us.

I don’t know about you but I have learned something by writing this. I began not sure how this was going to turn out. Now, I think I know the difference between the two. I don’t believe they are in conflict. They are two different kinds of giving; one is with our very lives and one is with our finances. Both are to be done but they are to be done in different ways. Let’s shine our light into the darkness for all to see (the kinds of things that might get the neighbors talking but may not be nice things they say about us) and let us give to the needy around us without letting anyone else know. I love giving without others knowing about it. We’ve been the recipient of this kind of giving and we’ve done this kind of giving. It’s kind of fun to give without someone knowing it was you.

Lord, bring us to the place where we take your kingdom into the darkness and shine our lights there for all to see what you are like and praise you for it. Help us to give financially to those in need, too. Show us when and where, Lord, you want us to spend our money and our lives. Bring about your light in the darkness around us so people can find hope where they have none. In Jesus name, amen.

Rest for our Souls

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls” Matthew 11:28-29.

Have you ever been weary and burdened? We all have. Our Heavenly Father is calling to us to come and find rest for our souls. This rest doesn’t mean no activity or “vegging out” like I like to say. This rest is a rest for our souls. It is a rest that happens even while we are doing activity. Sometimes my mind is racing and I am anxious even when I’m sleeping. I have so much on my mind and I’m so burdened that I can’t even sit down for very long. I’m antsy and nervous because things aren’t going right or I have a big decision to make. Before I received healing for my anxiety, this could have pushed me over the edge. Now, I find that I can rest even when I have burdens weighing on me. This is because I have learned how to rest even during these kinds of times. I know my Father in Heaven loves me. He wants what is best for me. I can rest knowing that he has all things in his hands. He works it all out for my good. As I’m contemplating this new decision, I can rest in his plan for my life. I can wait and not be anxious because I know he will show me the way. I might have to lay it at his feet a number of times in the day and spend time asking him what his plans are and declaring that he will show me the right path but I can have rest in my innermost being while I’m doing this.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:5-6. He is trustworthy. It takes us to acknowledge him in all situations but he promises to direct us if we trust him.

Lord, I ask you to help us be able to find this rest that you are talking about. Help us to be able to unload our burdens to you and allow you to direct our paths. This means giving up our right to make decisions but the peace that comes when we do this is so much better than when we run our lives. Thank you that you are trustworthy and will lead us the best way possible for us. Thank you for taking our burdens and giving us this rest for our souls. Amen.

God's amazing grace

Jesus said in Matthew 3:15 to John the Baptist, “It must be done because we must do everything that is right” (NLT). Do I do everything that is right in my life? Do I stand up for right? Do I always defend the fatherless and the widow? Do I always turn the other cheek? I wish I could say yes to all of these questions but I can’t. I blow it many times a day. The good news is that God’s is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” Exodus 34:6 NIV. He is “drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes. If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.” (from the song How He Loves by David Crowder Band) God’s grace is so vast, it covers up every bad thing we have ever done or are going to do. We drown in his grace, become a new person, and our old self falls away.

I’m so thankful for God’s grace. When we mess up, he’s there to clean up the mess. When we fall, he’s there to pick up the pieces. He turns things around and uses them for his glory in our lives when we repent and turn from our sins. Thank you, Lord, for your amazing grace. Drown us all, Lord! Your grace is amazing!

Spending Time with the Lover of my Soul

He is jealous for me. He wants to be with me. He wants me to spend time with him. He loves me so much he doesn’t want to share me with other things. I have been like a lover who doesn’t make the time to spend with my bridegroom. I am always doing something else rather than spending time with him. He woos me, trying to get my attention but I have too much other stuff on my mind. The reality is that if I would spend the time with him first, everything else I am worried about would fall into place. He has promised that. “Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added to you as well.” Matthew 6:33.

He woos me because he wants to be with me. He delights in being with me and loving me as the lover says in Song of Songs 4:10, “How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!”

Our lover wants to spend time with us because he’s in love with us. He delights in us. Don’t miss out on the greatest love story of all by being too busy to spend time with the greatest lover the world has ever known. He’s waiting for you. Go into the bridal chamber and spend time with him. It’s not too late. He’s still waiting for you. He will whisper sweet “everythings” to you that will change your life and give you a purpose and a plan that is good, the best in the world for you. Don’t miss it!

Lead me to the Cross

Savior, I come. Quiet my soul. Remember. Redemption’s hill, your blood was spilt, my ransom. Everything I once held dear, I count it all as lost.

Lead me to the cross, where your love poured out. Bring me to my knees, Lord, I lay me down. Rid me of myself, I belong to you. Oh lead me, lead me to the cross.

You were as I, tempted and tried. You are the word became flesh. Bore my sin and death now you’re risen. Everything I once held dear, I count it all but lost. (Hillsong, Lead me to the Cross)

Lord, lead me! Show me what you want me to do today. I am open to serving you every moment of my life!

What does it take to go to the cross every day? It takes laying down my will today. It takes a surrendered heart to whatever the Father wants today. It takes being willing to go through pain sometimes heart-wrenching, to get to the finished work. It means dying to self and living to Christ. It doesn’t look like the world. It looks foolish to those who don’t know Jesus. But the rewards are bringing God’s kingdom to any situation and finding that he had an awesome plan well worth the struggle.

Lead me to the cross, where your love poured out. Bring me to my knees, Lord, I lay me down. Rid me of myself, I belong to you. Oh lead me, lead me to the cross.

Forfeiting God's Grace

As I was reading Jonah 2:8-9 the other day, this phrase jumped out at me and wouldn't leave me alone:

⁸ "Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

⁹ But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the LORD." (NIV)

Verse 8 really jumped out at me. How often do we as humans cling to something worthless and miss out on the things God wants to give us. We think we are hanging on for dear life and if we let go, we would fall to our deaths, but what we are really doing is forfeiting what God wants to do in our lives. He wants to give us grace to let go of the worthless things that we put in place of God and to receive the salvation He is waiting to bring.

When I was hanging on the anxiety and fear, I wasn't able to grasp hold of God's grace. Fear would grip me so tight, I would get into a panic and not be able to function. For example, if there was something new I had to do in the morning, like start a new job, do public speaking, I would worry about it all night giving up good sleep so that in the morning, I would make it so I wasn't able to function very well.

When I learned to let go of my anxiety and fear in these new situations, not believing the lie that I couldn't do it, I would be able to sleep well and function so much better in the morning. There were so many nights that I lay in bed wringing my hands and allowing fear to overcome me. The later it got, the more I would give in the fear, knowing I couldn't make it in the morning.

I was clinging to worthless idols, putting fear and anxiety above the peace of God. As I learned to allow God's peace to rest on me, I could let go of my fear, knowing that God had given me everything I needed to do the task set before me. I was able to find the grace from God that brings peace and rest.

Friends, I want this same thing for you. Don't allow the enemy to lie to you thinking you have to cling to something that brings fear and anxiety into your life. God has something so much better. He wants to bring you salvation in your area of greatest need. He wants to come in and save you from that worthless idol you are clinging to thinking it is the only thing that will save you. There is nothing you are experiencing that is too big for God. Let go, and allow God to bring about his salvation. It's easier said than done but it is not impossible. If I can do it, so can you!