Food for thought

Lovest thou Me? John 21:17

The Word of God is to hurt. O.C.  What? What is sweet, loving, or compassionate about that?  We want the mercy, grace, and unconditional love, then we can try and convince ourselves that the Word does not hurt; but we are only adding to the depth of that hurt. We will never reach the bottom of that hurt because we cannot.  God can and will but we must let Him reveal the deep hurt of His word.  We all indeed fall short of the Glory of God.  Living in our fleshly tent we know this is a thorn in our side we all must bear.  If God did not love us and desire a personal relationship with us He would not hurt us with the truth of His word.  He would not show us for who we are if we are not one with Him alone.  We would indeed remain blind.  The hurt comes when we realize how much we do not deserve His love and forgiveness, when we see our missed opportunities to be Jesus to a hurting world and we know we could have done more.  There is no comfort for our selfish shortcomings once the hurt of the Word of God sinks in and it produces the humility God knew we must have all along.  The hurt of the Word of God is mercy, grace, love, compassion , strength, wisdom, power, and understanding; and we run and hide for the most part like injured dogs licking our wounds of selfishness in shame.  "By His stripes we were healed."  Are we brave enough to hear the hurt of the Word of God and to accept the fact we crucified Jesus by our sins so by His stripes we could be healed?  We are each one guilty, imagine, no one is better than the next, we all fall short.  We have no right to think we are special, better, or deserving.  We have truly been blessed in this nation and we think we had everything to do with it, we had nothing.  God puts nations into power and God destroys them.  Why? Because we refuse to realize who we are and who God is.  We become prideful and arrogant and we all know pride cometh before the fall.  What part of the word humble do we not understand?  I think we do understand and painfully so because to be humble would mean we would have to die to ourselves, be willing to be last, the least, be willing to become poor in order to become rich. We would have to live the inverted paradigm and we reason this is impossible.  We are right, it is impossible for us and the only way to do this is to surrender and let God do it through us.  Die so we might live. "Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me."  Do we believe what we sing? Do we even hear what we sing?  Are we willing to go to the cross and be crucified with Christ?  Christ died a physical death so that we might be free from sin and able to commune with God as His brothers; the longer we put this off the deeper the pain of our grief shall be.  We must die to ourselves and consider all else rubbish; it is the one common job we all have here to do.  How much denial will we swallow before we are at the depth of a pain we can no longer live with?  Most of us think we will probably not be asked point blank in the face of life and death if we love Jesus?  Ah but we are! "Do you love me ... feed my sheep." and if it fits into our hectic schedules maybe we will put it on our to do list. How pathetic is that!  Ever consider the fear of God? If not, I suggest you read the Old Testament because we will all answer one day one on one with God alone.  Only God can discern the heart and we know what is between us and God.  " Are we able said the Master?" , "Will they know we are Christians by our love?"  We must accept and acknowledge who we are apart from God. We are sheep who wander, but it is written " My sheep shall hear My voice, I will call to them and they will come to Me."  We can try and hide, licking our wounds but it will only intensify.  We inflict our injuries by not facing the hurt of God's Word in sweet surrender, for it was finished at the Cross on Calvary.  We are the ones who refuse to surrender all. God can control our knee jerk reactions, our emotions to what the world throws at us but we must know the hurt of God's Word or we will not want Him to.  It is the sweetest most humbling pain and God's strength has been given to us to endure, only then will we be about our Father's business. As the body of Christ we have that one goal.  "Love as I have loved."  

Father grant us the courage to go where we are scared to comprehend the truth of the sweet humbling pain of Your Word, so we may be transformed into Your image and feed Your sheep. May we be good and faithful servants.  In Jesus our Savior's name I pray. Amen

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)

Food for thought

Discipline of Dejection

"But we trusted... and beside all this, today is the third day..."

I feel it is pretty obvious that today depression is an epidemic in this nation.  Depression lies at the root of much evil. It brings out wrong behaviors in every aspect of life.  Relationships are strained and you do not have to look any further than your own family and your bathroom mirror to see it. " In this world you will have trouble, but my peace I leave with you."  So why don't we run to Jesus and live? Do we believe the lie that we are in a deep dark hole with no way out?  Are we too busy feeling sorry for ourselves, under our time constraint, pressure of circumstances (which we choose to create by the way) that we actually believe we do not have time to read and get to know our Father and Creator? Sounds pretty absurd when you write it down but in reality it is the lie we live as a truth in this society of busyness.  The truth is, we believe the lie and are depressed because all has gone to hell in a hand basket so to speak.          "But we trusted..."  "Oh ye of little faith..." we are.  If we trusted, a good portion of our time would be spent poring over the scriptures in pure joy renewing our minds and it would be evident in this busy stressful world.   Yet we do not, and then here comes our meaningless prayers of 'help us save us!'  "The meaning of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not the answer." O.C.  What does this mean? We should ponder a while this profound statement.  "The meaning of prayer is THAT WE GET A HOLD OF GOD", that IS the answer!  It is a shift of focus, we do not demand our prayers be answered to our desires but that our desires become one with our Father.  "Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Church is not where you go once a week to hear a sermon and walk away feeling you have somehow honored God by your presence! We are the church, as believers in Christ, be it any day of the week but for most we are at best luke warm.  Nothing will turn out in joy for our lives if it does not line up with our Father's will. We desperately need to let this sink in and understand it; for if we do not, depression will, and it will add fuel to the fire for disastrous results. We must renew our minds in the truth of God's word or we will not know where or how to run to Jesus and live.  Renew, Renew, Renew! Let truth become the truth you live and we can throw all those antidepressants away!  Sounds easy when you write it on paper, the hard part is the lie we believe and that is -  surrender is hard; surrender means to give up and we have been taught in this world that to succeed we must never give up!  Sweet surrender / never give up! May I suggest one thing only that we never give up, our determination to surrender all!  Then we will understand the answer to our prayers  for God will have helped us through knowing Him alone.  "God would grant through the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man." Ephesians 3:16

Father our strength, security, wisdom, and hope all come from You alone, may we realize our true desire is knowing You and may we be obedient to act on this desire and get alone with You, constantly renewing our minds so Your thoughts may become ours.  In Jesus' Name I pray amen.

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)

Food for thought

Destitution of Servanthood

"Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." 2Corinthians 12:15

"Though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor."

When we look at the world, by its standards we see we are rich; so why would we want to become poor? Mama didn't raise no fool! Are we sure about that? We think only materially and Jesus was speaking spiritually. This is very important to understand and apply to our lives.  Are we not rich but refuse to become poor? ouch!  Why is this so difficult for us as believers?  I know Jesus is showing us as much now as He was in person back then but we are frightened by the leap of faith we must take from being what we think of as rich to become poor.  Remember we are products of the Fall, we must learn to invert the paradigm my friends.  We must see with our spiritual eyes how poor and destitute we really are.  "Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of Heaven." Jesus did not come for the rich, He came for the poor, and believe it or not that is us if we truly die to ourselves so He might live through us. He became poor and so must we if we want to be as Christ in this life; the choice is up to us.  The problem is that we are blindly deceived by the world's standards. Jesus came to show us who we are in our poverty of worldly riches without Him.  How many miserable rich people do you know?  I bet we could all make a list but are we willing to put our name on that list? Probably not, because we have reasoned ourselves into our worldly standards of comfort. Hey, I don't like this anymore than any of you! Why? Because it is a constant battle to deny one's own self, it is indeed a thorn in our side that cannot be removed in this life.  Without that thorn it would be a no brainer, there simply would not be a choice to make. Putting our name on that list of miserable rich people is the first step to self recognition of who we are and why Jesus had to die so we might come to Him and find life.  We will never know joy without this spiritual awakening.  Oswald Chambers wrote " Jesus' idea of a servant of God is that we serve Him by being servants of other men."  Jesus the holy Son of God actually came to us and lived His life here for our example to follow! "I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as ransom so you MIGHT have life and life more abundantly." Might have life - the choice to live that life is up to us each and every day.  We do not get saved by works and yet through our faith comes good works.  "Oh, ye of little faith" has a definite sting, and it should. We want fuller lives and we seek it in all the wrong places. We are guilty and yet forgiven. How merciful is our God indeed.  "The real test of a saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples' feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men, but count everything in the estimate of God." O.C. Well, there you go that's it in a nut shell.   

I have the incredible privilege of being married to the closest model of a saint I have ever known.  I will share an example of this blessing God has poured out to light my path. Back in the late 80's we lived in Boulder Co. in a nice neighborhood with swimming pools and movie stars, OK not movie stars but cabanas in the middle of cul-de-sacs.  We were having an annual neighborhood cookout with fancy table cloths and live music by the pool. Adults only, evening attire.   My friends who know me can laugh because this type of event is way out of my comfort zone. Dressing up, socializing with for the most part people who couldn't give a rip, not my thing to say the least. My husband is very laid back and seems to enjoy the moment what ever circumstance he is put in.  I have come to love and admire that about him but it used to be the sand in my oyster so to speak.  As the caterers arrived to set up for the evening, my husband saw they were short handed and he could be of help.  So he proceeded to go and do as they asked of him.  Cutting up amongst the workers and having a grand ole time.  Then dum dum dum! a neighbor who did not know my husband started snapping orders at the workmen and you guessed it, he was very rude and belittling to my husband as well.  My husband just acknowledged him and did as he was told, never saying a word.  That night we got all dressed up and walked over to the event and I wish you could have seen the look on that man's face when he realized he had been so rude to his neighbor. This continues to be the mirror my husband holds up for me to look in and even though its difficult to make myself look and see my own failures I am so thankful for the light it sheds on my path.  It gives me the courage each day to persevere in dying to myself.  Jesus lived so He might serve and be an example to us all and it is a true blessing not to be able (for any of us) to pat ourselves on the back when we are brave enough to look in that mirror.  I am indeed thankful for these mirrors that light the path of servanthood in Christ alone.  "Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven."   ''The last shall be first"  " whatsoever you do for the least of these, you do for me."  Watch your actions, they really do become your destiny, for actions will indeed speak louder than words. As Charles Spurgeon said, "men count words as pennies but deeds as dollars". 

Father  I am so thankful for your patience with us.  Let us rejoice whatever the situation we find ourselves in, in the joy that we are walking in the Spirit and serving You for Your glory. May we be doer's in the life of Christ our Savior . In Jesus name I pray. amen

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)

Food for thought

"For the love of Christ constraineth us."

"We are living in a material world and I am a material girl." Madonna.  I have always detested that song. Why? Because it is so evidently true of us and no one likes to hear the truth when it hurts.  I see with spiritual eyes the sickening truth of what this nation has become and it is not one nation under God.  We do many charitable things in the name of God - but drive into traffic or watch someone speed down a neighborhood street. How about the relative or neighbor you don't particularly care for? Be honest, that's an ouch! Watch the backstabbing presidential debates and ads, or listen to people bash the opposing candidate. I'm just saying where the rubber meets the road I see very little evidence of one nation under God. God help us - and oh if we truly meant it!  When tragedy strikes, like the Murrah bombing in Okla. City or 9/11 in New York/DC we see people put the insignificant things aside, and we see some pretty amazing Christ-like qualities. How sad that it takes a disaster of great magnitude to bring out those qualities in us in everyday life for the most part.  We also see in disasters looting and riots, the line in the sand is drawn and you are on one side or the other.  The world becomes pretty black and white for a moment, but on a day that all is well there are many shades of gray and that is where we live most of our lives. " ...Lord, Lord didn't we...? and He answered them I knew you not." Those are the most tragic words any of us could ever hear. Our shades of gray are pretty black and white to God and we are either for Him or against Him in every decision and action we take. For example, let's say you are driving your child to school and they have realized they forgot their homework. They panic. You respond by flying down a neighborhood street to retrieve it, not once thinking about anyone else. They're upset, they might be late, or maybe you will now be late to work or worse even yet you are just upset by the inconvenience of it all.  Most likely they make it to school on time and you make it home or to work whew! what a hectic morning! glad that is over right? wrong! What about your nerves? Ever think of how that set the stage for your child's day. Ever think about what could have happened?  We all know what being in a hurry does, it practically demolishes us in the moment and isn't that what Satan is after?  Elisabeth Eliott once told a friend that Jesus was never in a hurry.  Say that to an anxious person in a hurry and I bet most won't thank you for it, no more likely they will snap your head right off. If you are ever in this position count it joy when they do because you have planted a seed. If you are going to point out some truth, always do it in love and expect persecution in return. Do it with love and hold tightly to your Father's hand, let Him speak through you or say nothing at all. We must learn what it is to walk in the spirit. We live in the chaos of busyness but we do not have to. Practice saying no to good things so you can say yes to a life lived abandoned to following after Christ who died so we might live. "I surrender all, for all to Him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow" Not being stressed or in a hurry, or living a life of guilt, sounds like heaven on earth and it is or could be. The choice is ours each and every moment of every day.  My daughter, when she was small, used to say " Where we go today mommy?"  I love her so much! What words of wisdom from a child.  Ask yourself "where we go today?" Then reach for your Father's hand; someone just might be looking to you to see where we go today. We must ask ourselves: am I following Christ? Because somewhere someone will be affected by where I go today!

Father may we be ever so conscious of walking with you and talking with you. Anoint us from head to toe so your sweet aroma will drift off of us every where we go today, tomorrow and always.  In Christ Jesus name I pray Amen.

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)

food for thought

Count it all joy!

The days we are exhausted, the days you are sick, the day's you're sad and hurting. How do we do that? For most of us our minds do not put hardships and joy as going hand in hand. It is like trying to make two positives or two negatives attract. Hmmm we all know you have to have a positive and a negative to get a connection with batteries, magnets, protons and yes even people! Yet we do not like it when someone apposes our point of view we are offended and feel attack! So lets see Count it all joy um no still can't feel that one and that is the problem and the answer! We equivocate our feelings with joy. Joy being a deeper form of happiness, so happy, sad opposites right? We would never know what it is to feel joy if we have no idea what if feels to be sad or angry. So let's see, Count it all joy! not (feel) it all joy. We work and strive to have joy in our lives, we want to be happy all the time and not have hardships, live the American dream right? but what does the word say? "In this world you will have tribulation, BUT my peace I leave with you." When someone has offended you do you feel peace? I doubt most of us do and yet I have been around a few that let almost every offense roll off their back. They have either a very high opinion of themselves, or very tough skin, or perhaps they have learned to walk in the presence of God my friend. Our problem is not other people, it is instead where we seek our joy and peace. Do we seek it in people, or the things of this world? As believers we all know we are not going to find it there so why do we keep so busy at trying to achieve it. "Come to me all who are weary and heavy burden and I will give thee rest." With rest comes peace and we can have that rest and peace in the midst of our circumstances if we are willing to Count it all joy! " My brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." Negative, positive they go together, we would not know we had such a great need for God if we were just happy with no mountains to climb. We will all climb some pretty steep cliffs in our lives and we can either let fear and heart ache grip us and paralyze us from moving forward or we can equipped our minds for the journey in the truth of the word. I don't know about you but put me on a steep cliff and I want a safety harness. "Lo I will never leave you"; I'm for one taking that straight to the bank to deposit! This world is full of unknowns and tribulations so why are we looking to this world for our peace and joy? It makes no sense at all. Yet the minute we quit looking at the world through the truth of God's word we become offended hurt and miserable and believe the lies the world shoves down our throats of happiness and wonder off to go exhaust ourselves. How deep is the love and patience of our Father indeed. You and I have a choice to make every moment of every day in every situation . " Turn your eyes upon Jesus , look whole in His wonderful face and the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." Only then will we be able to count it all joy despite our circumstances.

Heavenly Father I pray we will not hesitate to run to you and live. Let us feel your loving nudge when we choose to curl up in the pain of our circumstances and die, give us the strength, courage, and wisdom to stay in your presence knowing the fullness of your love which is the fullness of our joy! Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new stregth they will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. Amen Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)