Risk and Faith

Risk is required in the exercise of faith. If all were known ahead of time, no faith would be required. Consider Abraham. He was told to leave Ur, the only home he'd every known, to travel to an unknown place by simply following God's daily lead. I doubt Abraham would have told us it was smooth sailing, nor do I think he would say things turned out the way he imagined them.

I am on a faith journey involving risk. My husband and I believe we have usefulness in what God is doing around us in Virginia, so are making needed lifestyle changes to prepare for a longer stay. We are selling our home, taking the risk there will be a home for us when it is sold. Since my home matters quite a bit to me, this feels risky. We're also risking that our jobs will continue in the coming few years. Nothing is certain as we risk except that God is good and that He is favorably inclined toward His children.

When have you risked in faith? What was the outcome?

Righteousness and Truth

Last night I thoroughly enjoyed the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in major league baseball. I laughed, cried, cheered and rooted passionately for right and justice. I was deeply impacted by the conviction of what was right in both Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. They both chose a very difficult course of action for the sake of righteousness. They chose to walk in the TRUTH that God loves every person.

No one is outside the grace, love and acceptance of God Almighty. He created each of us. His many- faceted creation shouts the fact that God loves variety and color. He let the races happen at the Tower of Babel and today we hate based on differences, just as they did in those days. In God's sovereign plan, He is working good out of even that day in history when the people he created acted outrageously prideful. We are easily trapped in pride. It leads us into hunger for power and control and into hating those we cannot control. 

The power of choosing righteousness was demonstrated in the way those two men walked out their convictions. Certainly, they were not perfect, but they were stubbornly determined. They spoke with their lives rather than their words. Such wisdom.

May we who claim a relationship with Jesus the LORD OF ALL, live in such a way that people will be compelled by our lives through our choices of love in action to want to know and love Jesus.

Love and Acceptance - Jesus' Style

My daughter and a good friend posted an article on Facebook today prompted by the current Supreme Court proceedings on redefining marriage written by a member of the Gospel Coalition advocating we take a stand against homosexuality. I agree with the overall premise of the article, but struggled with its tone. I wrote this response to my friend:

I do not want our country to make same-sex marriage equal to God's clear design of marriage between a man and a woman. I have prayed for God to break through with righteousness in the midst of the debates.

However, I disagree strongly with those who attack gay and lesbian people as uniquely sinful and beyond the reach of God's love and grace carried in His people to them. It seems to me the folks who wrote this article elevate homosexuality above pride, lying, adultery, divorce, alcoholism (drunkenness), obesity, (gluttony) and other sins God also hates.

God's instruction to Israel to humble themselves and pray so He could heal their land, contains a principle I am applying and hoping in for this season. It seems to me a call to prayer and humble grace-filled living, not a call to war within the messed up Body of Christ, would be far more God-honoring and productive.

I do not agree with this writer's application of "love your neighbor as yourself." We MUST love and welcome sinners into our homes and churches, exposing them to the truth of God in love, not becoming their Holy Spirit, but inviting them to the best behaviors that honor God and give them abundant life this side of heaven. If this writer's approach is applied, it seems to me a homosexual would experience judgement first and God's love through us second IF they stayed around long enough to experience love. I don't advocate putting practicing homosexuals in positions of leadership in the church, just as I wouldn't want a person still controlled by alcohol in leadership. I wouldn't want a man or woman in leadership who was abusing people, either. The focus on one sin over others grieves me. It is our natural tendency as humans, but we are called to view all things through the mind of Christ in us, the Holy Spirit.

I don't agree with everything I've read by Rob Bell, yet he seems to be hated in this article. When a believer is corrected, there is a process of one on one, then two or three and THEN, if there is no repentance, they get treated like a sinner/tax gatherer (people Jesus loves and hung out with to win them to His Father). I suspect that process hasn't taken place with Rob Bell. He has been publicly decried and defamed by Christians demonstrating to the world that Christians do not love well.

I wrestle often with what action to take in our country where my voice counts in what we do and do not do. I choose to vote for candidates that align with God's heart. Sadly there are fewer of those each election. I express my opinion respectfully to those elected, whether my choice or not, on issues that matter. I pray for God to win.

It is clear to me that as we move ever closer to our Lord Jesus' return, we will experience much more of this and will not be able to sway our country. We will still stand for Christ, I just think the issue will not be what we think of homosexuality, but it will be that we are
Christians who love God and agree with what He teaches us.

A wise woman added this to the conversation on Facebook:
"A quote from Rick Warren reminds us that we have been cleverly set up to fail:  'Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means that you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.' 
So, in this cultural mindset of "all-or-nothing"-"either you love 100% of everything about me or hate 100% of everything about me", we are instantly pegged as being haters, accused of being "intolerant" and "homophobic", filled with hate speech, with an all-or-nothing mentality of "if you don't love us and everything we are, you hate us with everything you are." I don't need to spell it out. We've all felt or heard it. It's a helpless feeling of feeling bullied and overpowered, people incorrectly putting words in our mouth."

Our very lives will be hated, not only our words. Our goodness and love will be hated and that is already happening.

I think ultimately we need to address these cultural problems one person at a time, as Holy Spirit directs. As the hearts of people are won to Christ and His ways, one by one, the tide will turn. We need to actually demonstrate God's grace and love to each person we meet and by loving them in their mess, establish a way into their hearts for God's truth to take root and transform them as He is transforming me.

Yours for transformed lives, one at a time...
Linda

Honor

I have been living among a group of people who highly value giving honor to one another. I have seen the results and am compelled to share about it here.

First, the results:

• Every person has dignity and is spoken of and treated highly regardless of title, race or circumstances.
• There is safety to be vulnerable and honest about struggles with one another.
• People eagerly and enthusiastically serve the needs of others.
• Gossip is abnormal and assertively discouraged.
• People hold their heads high because they experience unconditional love.

Now, the reasons:

By one Miriam-Webster definition, we give honor to "one whose worth brings respect or fame." In American culture, that means someone with a book, position, title, money and/or a following on Twitter or a blog!

However, in our church, we honor the ones God loves. At its core, the culture of honor I experience at Lifepoint Church is based on understanding the God-given worth and value of every person. People matter to God, so each one matters to us. By modeling and encouragement the leaders at our church have built into the culture a refusal to gossip, an insistence that we speak of people with dignity and honor and that we fill any gap in our understanding of a person or the situation with trust, rather than skepticism and speculation.

Favor and Glory

Reviewing notes taken during some recent sermons at church, I found a statement made by Pastor Daniel Floyd that put me in a pondering mode again. He said,

Favor is the expression of the God's grace that accomplishes God's purpose for His glory and our good...The favor of God doesn't necessarily bring comfort and ease to my life.

Consider the stories of Noah, Abram, Moses, Joseph, David, Ruth, Esther, Mary and Jesus who all found favor with God AND had great challenges and what many of us would consider unbearable circumstances to endure.

The person I pondered today was Mary, the mother of Jesus. When God "highly favored" her, she became an unwed mother. In her culture this brought shame on her and her whole family. Furthermore, her son was killed by the government in a horrific manner before her eyes. She most likely bore the unkind, even hateful stigma of people around her every day after God favored her. Her life did bring glory to God and I am certain if she could tell us today about her life, she would say every minute was worth it because of the joy she has now.

I must admit I don't have what it takes (yet) to live and embrace such a highly favored life. I am pondering and wrestling with that today. Will you?

The Greatest Gifts

I've been thinking about these words for a couple of days now. What precious and magnificent presents we have been given!

Merry Christmas to each of you (which means - a peaceful, content day of worshipping Jesus, the Christ, God's anointed One)

^{Ephesians 1:3-6} How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

^7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
^11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
(The Message)

A Wedding "Down Under"

Recently I have been absorbed in preparations for my daughter's wedding in Australia. I returned just a couple of days ago and am recovering from jet lag. The wedding was wonderful and I am delighted in her choice of lifelong love.

Below is a photo of the happy couple and our family. Celebrating and savoring the sweet moments.
Linda

Today's Tragedy

The school shooting in Connecticut brings tears to my eyes, grief to my heart and weariness to my soul. I am asking God to bring comfort to the families of those killed and to the survivors and their families as they walk a desperately painful path ahead. I am weary of evil. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That was demonstrated today and is demonstrated in me and each one of us when we choose words or actions that are evil. I long for Jesus' return and the end of Satan's reign.  Meanwhile, I am reminded not to "cast the first stone" and to pay closer attention to God's instructions for LIFE for me and those around me.

On a practical level, here is some good counsel for those of you with children from Brooke McGlothlin.
http://www.themobsociety.com/2012/12/how-and-what-to-share-with-your-children-when-tragedy-strikes/

Praying and hoping in God...
Linda

Waiting in Silence

I have wondered for weeks about what to write in this space. The quiet is sometimes deafening and sometimes imperceptible. It is deafening when I want to hear something and imperceptible when I am at peaceful rest with God.

God says in Luke 6:43-45 it is out of the overflow of my heart that my mouth speaks. Perhaps then, I can safely say, my soul is at peace, at rest. I have no agenda, no need to speak. I am enjoying God while I wait for Him to say something worthwhile through me.

Money, money, money...

Hebrews 13:5
"Let your character and moral disposition be free from the love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and intense craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have. How can you do that? By realizing that God Himself has promised: I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not ever leave you helpless in any degree, nor forsake you, nor relax My hold on you. DO NOT believe any thought or suggestion to the contrary"!

I recently spent way more than I should have on me. The family budget for the month took a hit. I am taking steps to recover some of the funds and tightening my spending for the coming months to move back into a healthy place. 

I've pondered the "why?" behind my actions and am still working on it. The Bible verse from Hebrews gives me some clues. I have learned that I shop (and overeat) to address some feeling I'd rather not face. When I'm not content, according to Hebrews, I have forgotten or don't really believe that God is with me, loves me and will not fail me. The key is there. Now to unlock my heart and get that truth working in it.

Advice to the young

A young friend asked what I've learned so far that would benefit him. Here's what I said...

It's hard to condense a partial lifetime of learning into a few pieces of advice, but here goes:
1) Love God (which includes friendship, listening, talking, obedience, humility...) with your whole being and love Him more than anything (activity, item you own, etc) or anyone else in your life. This takes practice and effort and sometimes just takes "chilling out" with God.

2) Care for your soul - there is a place for things other than God that feed one's soul. Those things should be done only to the extent that you have something in you to give to the people closest and dearest to you first and then the rest of the people around you.

3) Use the gifts God has given you (we all do have spiritual gifts) to build up the people closest to you first, then the church you are part of, then the larger church in the world and then the people around you that don't yet know God.  Enthusiastic and consistent use of gifts in love will often result in God giving more spiritual gifts to you to steward.

4) Love and be friends with people who show interest in God whether they enter a relationship with God or not.  Keep those friendships.  People are not projects/evangelism targets.  They see our hearts and know whether we really like them as people or if we're just being "friends" so they can be saved.  Lots of damage is done by Christians who leave God and His timing and love out of the pursuit of unsaved people.

5) Remember that everyone has something to teach you, no matter if they're 2 years old or 100, rich or poor, homeless or not.  If you approach people with that humility in your heart, you will be a very rich person.

What would you add?

Still Waiting...Expectantly

I've waited what I think is a long time for God to fulfill a desire He planted in my heart many years ago. I'm still waiting AND I think I'm waiting with more grace and patience than every before. I've learned much in the waiting:

God is always good
God is always on time
God LOVES me and has good plans for me
God is favorably inclined toward me
While I wait God is "tweaking things" (remember "You've Got Mail"?), positioning me and the myriad other details needed to fulfill that dream so we/they converge at just the right time.
While I wait God is changing me (and sometimes I think that's why I am still waiting!); He is refining my attitudes, my longings and my character.

Waiting is good and it is challenging, especially for people like me who COULD run ahead and make things happen for themselves. Had I rushed ahead, I could have missed these excellent lessons or learned them in a much more difficult way.

Learning...always

I learned something today from my daughter and was reminded of my dad and my grandfather. Both men are/were persistent and constant learners. My dad has new information ready to share each time I talk with him. He reads and learns.

My grandfather (his dad) also read and learned and grew. The week he died, while in the hospital, he continued to read and learn from God. On the day before he died, he excitedly shared something he'd learned from the book of Psalms with his pastor.

I've said before and will say again, I want to be like him! I want to learn and grow and change every day until God decides I need to be in glory with Him.

Old dogs CAN learn new tricks! It's never to late to learn, make changes and grow.

Expecting and Receiving

What we expect, influences what we receive.

When we expect a service person to be against us and frustrating, they usually are.
When we expect a person to reject us, we often experience rejection.
When we expect our spouse's habits to irritate us, they do!
When we expect good things from God, we SEE the good things He's giving us.

So, what are you expecting? What are you looking for from moment to moment? Do we not see the favor and kindness of God because we are not looking for it? I think so!

Dealing with Stress

Stress in life is inevitable. Waking and sleeping, working and dreaming - the rhythms of life have and ebb and flow. Just as the waves of the ocean stress the shore, so our life's rhythms stress us.

God invites us to peace in the midst of stress. He invites us to pull up a chair and rest with Him.

Our culture values being busy and having much to do every day. As a culture, we don't think rest and relaxation are for times other than a scheduled vacation and that usually ends up having as hectic a pace as our daily lives!

Rest is something God did after creating the world. (Genesis 2:2-4) If He rested, we can! He invites us to rest even in the midst of life's stresses and rapid pace. When we are able to adjust life to allow for rest, we must! When we cannot control the pace or stress of life, we have an oasis in God to BE in.

Food for Body and Soul

Eating food is necessary for health. It is also a tool for destruction when done for other reasons. I have eaten to numb emotions for much of my life. For various reasons my toolbox for dealing with sadness, loneliness, anger, frustration, fear and happiness has been empty except for the "food" tool. With years of life and consequences, both emotional and physical, I have worked to find other tools for my toolbox. That said, my default is still eating food.

This battle is constant, daily and draining. I know many struggle as I do.

My current question is: How do I set my mind on the Spirit in this. Food is so much dealing with my flesh, my body.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Leadership Lesson

Last Saturday I had the privilege of being a trainer of leaders. It was a BLAST!!! Let me say that again another way. I was SO in my spiritual element and SO thankful that God gave me the experiences and life lessons to actually have something worthwhile to contribute and IT WAS A BLAST!!!

Anyway, I also had a leadership lesson while doing the training. My always expressive face and body language displayed something in my heart that wasn't kind. I got to apologize to a participant (and wish I'd asked forgiveness instead) and let the whole group of 50 people know of my error. Fun times. Looking back, I'm so grateful I obeyed God and admitted my mess.

Leaders lead in many ways. Leading in humble vulnerability is necessary and pleasing to God and others.

Mind Battles

Many good writers have given counsel on dealing with destructive thoughts and lies we tell ourselves. The challenge for me is actually doing those things in a crisis. Will I trust God to be good and kind TO ME when I feel low and alone? Will I fight the waves of sadness or will I let them roll over me and bury me?

The past two days I have struggled with feeling alone despite being in relationship with some amazing people near my home and far away. Instead of choosing to see the blessing in it, I chose to see a few hours of solitude as "too much". A friend called me this morning who is bearing much and fighting to keep her heart afloat in circumstances that could easily get the better of all of us if we were in her place and I realized, I needed to change.

We are in battle with old thought patterns AND with an enemy of our souls who is bent on robbery, murder and destruction. I choose LIFE. I choose to FIGHT!!!
Are you with me??!

Good reads:
I John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Lamentations 3:22-26 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson
Believing God by Beth Moore

Choosing Well

I once asked my dad how to know the will of God. He gave me a few Bible principles that have served me well. Here they are for your consideration.

1. Listen for God in stillness - in general, don't expect to hear God well when you don't slow down and make some quiet space to hear Him. Psalm 32:8
2. God's instructions are daily and moment by moment - Isaiah 30:21
3. I need to WANT to do what He tells me to do in order to hear Him. If I just want His ideas about the way forward so I can evaluate them and decide if I'll do them, then I'm not ready to hear His direction for me. Romans 12:1-2
4. God will pour desires that align with His heart into yours and then give them to you. Proverbs 3:5-12

Temporary Goodbyes

We are leaving our beloved Alaska again tonight. We have spent two weeks enjoying some of the people we love. My soul has been refreshed by the beauty here. God really showed off in the Greatland! We say "goodbye" only for a time. We hope to return again and again. Until then...