Grace is given here.

Featured / Renee / 1 Comment

In our home patience doesn’t run rampant. It is a conscious and practiced effort. A daily dying to ourselves, adorning the fruit of patience, and seeking the Holy Spirit to temper our flare ups. My husband and I are growing three small soldiers, three warriors to add to the army of God -and we view it this way- as if we are preparing them for battle. To demonstrate impatience toward them robs us of demonstrating “the righteousness of God,” to them, which James tells us, “the wrath of man does not produce (1:20).”

Nothing quite upsets my nerves like knowing I have a large order in the bakery to fill. The first icing attempt, the first cookie dough ball, the first cupcake batter measured into one of twelve meticulously arranged cupcake liners, and my hand is nearly always shaking. When I told my mom I was starting a small business, and that I was going to use the farm’s resources to bake professionally for our community, she stared at me for a moment before genuinely asking, “why?”

As much as I love to bake, and as much as I feel called to this particular ministry it disagrees with my personality in a number of ways. The interaction that this particular industry requires is not one that I tend to participate in naturally. I’m an introvert by nature requiring moments of solitude before the Father to recharge my social battery. Interacting at catering’s, making small talk, and functioning effectively in highly socialized settings are not my forte. I also consider one smudged line, one unevenly baked pastry, one crooked icing flower as a failure to the whole endeavor, resulting in a manic tossing the whole project, and starting over. If I can’t deliver perfection why even try?

So, naturally, as I’m dotting the center of icing flowers or writing meticulously atop royally iced sugar cookies and my toddler runs franticly into the kitchen lineman style tackling my shins, causing my writing to streak a colored line from one end of the pan to the other, my flesh desires wrath. It desires justice. It desires repentance from the underserved tackling and unannounced destruction of my project. It demands retribution and affirms I am the victim of an egregious wrong goading me into what is rightfully mine: the shattering of my porcelain temper.

And I have failed in the pursuit of the spirit to lead my flesh in too many like moments. I’ve yelled and I’ve cried. I’ve frantically lost my head, spinning in circles to throw towels on the flooded floor of the guest bathroom where the sink -that one of my children left plugged -was left with the water running. I have failed to demonstrate the holiness and righteousness of God to my children when I have yielded to wrath.

But, grace is given here. In these moments of flesh led failure the Father affirms his righteous holiness to me through the conviction of my anger. I seek my children. I ask for their forgiveness. The conviction of the Holy Spirit leads me to teach them that “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” In every instance where my thermometer is brought to new heights I have a choice: pursue my own unrighteous indignation or pursue His righteousness through the fruit of patience.

Were it not for the grace of God there would be no such overcoming. Were it not for the grace given to me on the cross through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection there would be no such redemption from the sin separating us at birth from the very holy presence of God.

In these moments the spirit leads me to remembering that grace is given here. I can’t deliver perfection. Even as a believer, a born again new creation as Paul defines in 2 Corinthians 5:17 my sin struggle still rears its ugly head every day. Every day is an overcoming. It’s tiring, and at times can seem to be impossible. But, grace was given to me so that I have victory over sin and death. Victory that has already, “overcome the world (John 16:33).” I have a choice in moments where my flesh rages against my spirit: I can appropriate the victory, resisting the devil and causing him to flee (James 4:7) or I can yield to my flesh in these moments, forfeiting the righteous pursuit of Christ’s character, which I should be in constant pursuit of growth toward His likeness (Eph. 4:15).

Ultimately, present salvation from the temptation to sin is mine, but I rob myself of the benefit of growing into the likeness of Christ when I yield to the flesh, rather than appropriating the victory I have in Christ. He’s given me victory over my impatience and futile pursuit of perfection. He’s given me victory over fear, doubt, social anxiety, illness, and even death.

I’m reminded daily, by my own shortcomings, that God does not call the equipped. Rather, he equips the called. In doing so, therefore, he removes any doubt, that there may be no confusion as to who gets the glory. In Him is the grace to even be part of bearing testimony to His name; being given the opportunity to grow more into Christ’s likeness every day is grace. It is unmerited, miraculous, awesome grace.

Cultivating openness in your home. A post about parenting.

/ Renee / Leave a comment

A dear friend and I were recently discussing parenting our teenagers through the stage of life where they are being tempted by their own desire, and enticed by social pressures and expectations to embark on relationships that are more than just friends. Navigating this stage of life as a parent is no small task. Especially in a world where courtship is much quicker than a letter in the mail or a horse and buggy ride between homes. In a world where cell phones make access to one another instant and connections immediate, their perceptions of what constitutes intimacy and exclusivity can veer from God’s design quickly. We were discussing cultivating relationships with them that prevent behaviors like lying, deception, manipulation, and otherwise rebellious behaviors. As our children begin to discern right from wrong, and face consequences for sinful behavior, they are learning the terms of their individual relationship and accountability before God on their own, apart from their family structure. 

In the US our children won’t legally be adults until they’re eighteen, but Biblically, there is no distinction for the point at which they step out from beneath the umbrella of their parents. No particular age or time is specified. For that reason, shepherding them through the stages where they are nearing, or possibly at, the point where they would stand accountable apart from us is an element of parenting responsibility before God that can not be shirked. It can’t be left to assume their youth leaders or Sunday school pastor is taking the lead on cultivating their heart in such a way as honors God. That responsibility has been left up to parents. Youth pastors, other mentors within the body of Christ, absolutely have an influence. I depend on those influences to reinforce what we are working through at home, but they can’t be the sole source of my children’s spiritual training. 

As Christian parents, the lens of accountability ultimately leads back to God’s instructions for parents and children and our obedience in keeping them. We are instructed in the Proverbs, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (22:6).” In Ephesians, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (6:4).” We are commanded to diligently teach God’s word to our children in Deuteronomy, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (6:6-7).” The responsibility of parents is to train our children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. However, for many families, there seems to be a juxtaposition of training and not departing. Many Chrisitan homes, homes that are more diligent, more Godly, more submitted, than ours still experience their children walking away from the faith. They still experience periods of rebellion with their child(ren). They face what seems to be a lack of fulfillment in the expectation that God will not allow their child, if trained in the way he should go, to depart. And yet, they do. 

As a teenager, I rebelled in countless ways. I disregarded my parent’s rules for our home on a regular basis. I was disrespectful, dishonest, and manipulative. In my home growing up, the parent establishing rules was my mother. The parent who sought to train us in Biblical principles was my mother. I realized from a very young age that any infraction was a disappointment to her, subsequently causing me to conflate the idea of who God was to me through her. Additionally, a narrative of secrets and hiding was introduced to me at at very young age through sexual abuse that began when I was seven. It was reinforced that hiding was the right response when my mom read in a journal the details of what was occurring and instructed me not to tell anyone. The image of my accountability before God translated to something like: He will call to account the things that I consciously allow Him to be part of, like a grandparent whose knowledge of your failures and achievements can be vetted and marginalised, but His intercession for me doesn’t extend into my life in tangible ways, therefore my sin must not extend into eternity in ways that would condemn me either. I believed that whatever was hidden, kept in the secret part of me, was off limits to God in the same way that the burdens of the abuse I carried were mine alone to bear. 

During the conversation with my friend, I mentioned a confidence that my oldest daughter, who is nearly fourteen, is very open with me. This has been confirmed in a number of ways, and at this point, I trust that she tells me nearly everything to the best of her ability, and that the information is genuine and accurate. She asked if I had five tips to cultivate that sort of relationship. I don’t know if I will get to five exactly. I’m not sure that the thoughts that I’ll unravel in this post are even tips necessarily, as much as they are convictions rooted in wisdom, which has been granted to me by the Holy Spirit, after nearly two decades of living in rebellion before Jesus finally grabbed ahold of my heart and began sanctifying me. I’ve been praying over a post for this blog. So, here it is. 

Cultivating honesty in the home begins with transparency. The natural inclination of the sinful flesh is to hide from the presence of a holy God. In Genesis, after Adam and Eve had sinned, Moses writes, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8).” Our children create their first perceptions of who God is through our conduct for right or wrong. Sinful behavior must always be addressed through the lens of the creator who has established the boundaries for it. Yet, if our children don’t ever observe sin being confessed openly, if they’re not witnessing repentance, if they don’t understand that you are just as much of a sinner in desperate need of a savior they will misconstrue your place in the hierarchy and place you far too close to God and far too far from themselves. This, in and of itself, creates distance and further perpetuates the desire to hide sinful behavior. In our home, there is regular dialogue of the depths of sin that Jesus plucked my husband and me from. We confess and repent of sin they can see and sin they didn’t see. By God’s grace, to the best of our ability, they are being given a model of confession of sin, repentance, and restoration to the Father through obedience and submission. As a side note, this did create an almost too level playing field at one point that we had to address and create a distinction from them, so that they understood, while their mom and dad are just as much sinners as they, God has placed parents in a position of authority and that comes with specific stipulations for respect in conduct toward them. Modeling transparency in the home will cultivate an environment where confession and openness can thrive. 

Recognizing and accepting that you are not the ultimate authority in the lives of your children is another step to cultivating openness. You’re the one who woke up with them every hour when they were newborns, you’re the one packing the brown bag lunches every day, folding all the laundry, grabbing the groceries and as a result it’s easy to forget that these children, who God has entrusted to us, are just given to us on loan, to steward for His glory. They are His children, not ours. This really changes the shift in the perception of their rebellion as not being a personal affront against me, but a personal affront against the living God to whom they’ll give account. The practice of their confession, repentance, and reconciliation begins with mom and dad. Too often, we hold onto the pain caused by the wrongs they’ve done, and not realize that by reminding them of it, by withholding trust from them, by extending punishment in the form of emotional isolation, repercussions that extend beyond the established consequences (I am not saying there shouldn’t be consequences for their behavior, that’s not Biblical, and not what I’m saying), when we take their sin personally and react based on our emotions rather than responding through the lens of Biblical truth, we misconstrue the way that God responds to their sin, and make it harder for them to recognize that the exact place for their sin is at the foot of the cross. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, His substitutionary atonement for us on the cross, the psalmist writes, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us (103:12).” The author of Hebrews writes, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more (8:12).” Paul writes in Ephesians that, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (1:7).” If the omniscient, holy God, the only one capable to rightly condemn us, doesn’t because of Christ, we have to model that to our children. That doesn’t mean withholding consequences, but it requires that we train them in the consequence of sin and we don’t treat them differently because of it. They should be restored, as Paul writes in his letter to the Galations, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted (6:1).” Holding our children’s rebellion in that secret place of our heart that would whisper to us, how dare she or how could he do this to us places us on far too close a place that only God rightly maintains and He removes the memory of our transgression, therefore we must be willing and able to do the same, and model the mercy of our heavenly father to our children. 

Finally, (I know this is only three ideas) but lastly, if your children have trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, have believed in their heart and confessed Him with their mouth, then the most powerful parenting companion you could ever hope for dwells in them. I need to keep a better score. I wish I knew the number of times that we faced a conflict with one of our children, and rather than tracking them down in my hurt feelings and angry pride, I prayed instead for conviction in them, and for conviction in my heart as well. I pray this over our marriage, I pray it over my children, I pray it over conflict with other believers, I pray it for others who are having conflict that I might not have anything to do with, and the Lord has always, and I am not exaggerating, always, answered. My prayer goes something like this, “Lord, if it’s my heart that needs changing, please change it, if it’s their heart that needs changing, please change it. Please reconcile us to one another for your glory.” Often times it’s a blend of both hearts that come quickly to a place of reconciliation, but with my children, when I know that I am acting out of Biblical truth and accountability for their training with a desire to demonstrate who God is to them and his holy standard for their life, they come back to me in repentance, in conviction. We reconcile quickly, and discuss next steps of how to adjust conduct, expectations, etc. from there. 

I told my friend that her diligence in accountability was also an excellent way that she is training. It is absolutely our job to follow up with their cell phones and what they’re being exposed to. It is absolutely our job, as parents, to follow up on conversations, on friendships, on the perceptions they’re forming. If we bury our heads in the sand and don’t chew on the tough meat of raising these children, we have side-stepped our charge to train them and will be held accountable for it. Every thing that our flesh whispers to us will be a direct contrast to biblical truth, and so telling your children about the sin from which God redeemed you will feel like something you shouldn’t do, it will seem as if it’s giving permission somehow for them to sin, but it will give them a clearer picture of a God who not only forgives, but restores. We don’t want to let go of the pride that insists that, as our child, they have no right to treat us that way, but recognizing that their behavior is actually an affront to the holy God before whom they’ll give an account allows us to more quickly be reconciled to them and help them as they seek to modify behaviour where necessary. Turning ultimate control over to the Holy Spirit feels far less like action than it does abandonment, but when we do abandon our expectations and yield them to the expectation God has for their lives, they no longer conflate the image of who God is and isn’t, because they start recognizing conviction for themselves, and begin establishing their accountability before God in their individual walks with Him. That is our ultimate job as parents, to train them up in the way they should go, which Lord willing, is on their own individual pursuit of Christ above all other things. 

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I’d love to discuss questions or comments. Please feel free to send an email if you’d like to discuss this topic further.

Discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit

/ Renee / Leave a comment

As I prayed over the topic the Lord had for me to consider today, and these words came into focus, I admit, I didn’t want to type them. I don’t feel like an expert on this front. I may have said even a year ago that I felt more confident discerning the voice of my Lord, but then I walked through a period of trial that caused me to doubt and question, do I really know the voice of my Lord?

Further, I realized a doubt cloaked in the guise of self preservation and wise discernment came.

Do I trust the voice of my Lord?

As humans, our flesh is bred to believe the lie that when things are going well, it must be because we did something right. Contrarily, we believe that when things are tough, and trials come, that it must mean that God is displeased and that we are being punished. However, walking through a trial isn’t an indication that I hadn’t rightly heard the voice of the Lord and obeyed. I don’t need to look any further than the book of Job to know this to be true. Job 1:1 states, “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” The writer of Job establishes, in the opening line of the book, that Job is blameless, upright, feared God, and shunned evil. These characteristics, if my flesh logic is correct, should mean that Job will face no adversity from this point forward. Certainly, God would be pleased with a man like this and therefore, have no cause to punish him. But, Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us of the Lord, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are it your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” And so, as we read on in Job, we learn that not only does “good behavior,” not always yield “good results,” but we also gain understanding into exactly where the source of trial, destruction, and death come from.

Job 1: 6-12, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

In this ethereal exchange we gain critical insight into the nature of God and the tactics of the enemy. First, Satan is among those who come to present themselves before the Lord. He has been given authority for a time, but it is not omniscient authority. Satan still has to present Himself before the Lord. 2 Corinthians 4:4 reveals, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” The “god” of this world, refers to Satan. He has been given authority for a time, but not eternally. Jesus says Heaven and earth will pass away, but that His words will never pass away (Matthew 24:35). When this world passes away, so will the reign that Satan has been given. Second, it is the Lord who brings Job to Satan’s attention, “Have you considered my servant Job?” If we reflect back to Isaiah 55:8, we remember that God’s ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts. We know that God works together all things for the good of those who love Him, and have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). We know that God had a purpose for drawing Job to Satan’s attention, and that the purpose was good. However, this does not mean that good things were about to happen to Job even though he was righteous. And yet, God was working those things together for the good of Job, despite his despair and suffering, the goodness of God was not diminished. Neither was Job’s conduct the cause of despair and suffering, which means that despair and suffering is not viewed by God in the same way as it is viewed by us. He has the whole picture, while we just have a small window. Finally, Satan misunderstands a critical element of the believer’s source of hope in that he associates our loyalty and faith to that which he can impact: our physical and temporary state. He falsely believed that by impacting Job’s life in such a negative way that Job’s spirit would reject the Giver of life and all things, in whom Job knew was redemption and recognized this as a greater state than any temporal belonging.

Job 1: 21 reveals the rightful position of the heart in response to suffering and trial.

Job 1: 12-21 states, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Understanding God’s will isn’t exactly as mystical as it may at times seem. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 says, “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” The will of God is to rejoice always, and pray without ceasing. The will of God is to give thanks in everything. Job was stripped of every blessing, his livelihood, his belongings, his future, his children. In response, he fell to the ground and worshipped.

Job says something else that has always confounded and amazed me. A statement of such assured hope, in the midst of such egregious crises, heartache the likes of which I can only imagine, and gives me such hope. In Job 19:25, Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth.” Job knew that, in the end, the things of this world are temporal but my Redeemer will stand. In that day, the agony and heartache of this world will fade. The tears will dry. The doubt and fear will flee in the face of His glory. Knowing this adjusts and aligns the pathways of the heart necessary to open channels of gratitude that flood my heart with His grace.

Gratitude is easier when things are going well. It’s much harder leaving the clinic with a cancer diagnosis. It’s not as simple while walking through the tender ground of a cemetery with your back to the loved one who isn’t coming home. It’s much harder in these moments.

But, the will of God is to give thanks.

So, how do I know when the voice of the Lord is speaking to me versus my own idealization of circumstances? As well intended as they may be, they still aren’t the perfect and sovereign understanding of a holy God. Discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit begins with walking closely, knowing the Lord, so that when trials come I don’t forget that He is good. Discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit comes with a critical check question: Am I giving thanks in this trial? Bad things don’t mean that God has forsaken us. Bad things mean there is an enemy constantly seeking to undermine God. Reject his attempts to take your eyes off the giver of every good and perfect gift and cling to the hope that is in Jesus Christ.

Today is the day of salvation. If rejoicing during trial seems like a language you don’t speak, the words will come into focus when rejoicing during trial means a heart overflowing with gratitude in response to the sacrificial death of a sinless savior who erased the debt of sin, and imparted righteousness in its place. Receive the joy of salvation today.

God bless.

Spiritual warfare

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize that nothing happens as coincidence, as bad or good luck, as fate, happenstance, or any other cultural mindset to preclude the existence and intervention of an omnipotent, omniscient, and sovereign God.

If you look closely at world patterns, at religion and belief systems, ideologies, you begin to see the way that the enemy has infiltrated our thought patterns, behaviors, and social norms. His undermining of God’s authority has come by the interweaving of a double sided coin intended to spread lies and suppress truth. The enemy would have us believe that we have more control in the outcome of our circumstances than God. We may not consciously think this, but how often do we plan out our day without consulting Him? How often do we seek His kingdom over our own? How often do we sacrifice comfort for the labor of taking up our own cross to follow him? How often do we die to self in order to obey?

God is either sovereign over all or He is sovereign over nothing. His word is either infallible or it isn’t. There is no middle ground by which we’re able to accept the pieces that make sense and dismiss, modernize, or ignore the pieces that we don’t understand. We don’t have to understand it to accept it. In fact, without the Holy Spirit, the Helper, teaching and revealing truth to us we won’t understand a bit of it. God has chosen to reveal Himself to His people through His word, but it is the Holy Spirit who opens our spiritual eyes, who removes the veil so that we may see the truth of God’s word, and as we journey in our walk with Him, the revelation of God will come during the process of our individual sanctification.

To ignore the intervention and action of the enemy would be short sighted. It would dismiss fundamental truths taught in scripture. It would ignore the experience and example of Jesus’ life and ministry. From the very first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 3, at the very beginning of scripture, the enemy heard the prophecy concerning a coming Messiah who would crush him. He knew that this foretold Messiah would defeat him. From this point forward, Satan has sought to destroy God’s plan. He has gone to extreme lengths, including the genocide of Jewish boys beginning in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible. Pharroh realized that the Jews had grown mighty in number as slaves under his command. He ordered the murder of thousands of Jewish male children. In this story a baby named Moses was delivered by God through the hand of his mother in the Nile. Later, God would use Moses as a picture of redemption when he would raise Moses up as deliverer to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, out of their bondage and slavery.

Satan tried again when Herod heard, through wise men traveling to Bethlehem, that a king for the Israelites had been born. Again, this wicked king sought to destroy the male toddlers and babies born in that region during this time, and he succeeded to kill many. But, Jesus was delivered to Egypt through a dream sent to Joseph, the husband of Jesus’ mother Mary, warning him that the family was in danger.

Satan has sought to destroy the Israelite people since the beginning of scripture in order to prevent the foretold Messiah from accomplishing the will of God to bring redemption for mankind and reconcile us to the Father. He thought that he had succeeded when Jesus drew his final breath on the cross.

At the point of Jesus’ death, Satan knew that Jesus was the foretold Messiah. God announced the ministry of Jesus, Himself, as Jesus obeyed in a public declaration of faith by being baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately after Jesus was proclaimed as Messiah, Satan began his attempt to destroy him. You can read about this in the book of Matthew chapter 4. He followed Jesus into the desert and sought to entrap Him into sin, which would have invalidated His ability to offer Himself as the sinless savior. But, Jesus was able to resist Him by refuting His lies with truth. In our engagement with the enemy, the Bible doesn’t tell us to declare war, take up arms, and seek to do God’s job. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. As far as we’re told, we are to resist the devil, and he will flee” (James 4:7).

Satan must have sighed in relief as Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb but, oh, how he must have trembled when that stone rolled aside. Satan knows that God’s people are key to the second coming of Christ, so he has continued His attempt to defy God and stop God’s plan by the destruction of God’s people, and His church during this time. However, the books of Isaiah, Revelation, the Gospels, all reveal that Jesus has already defeated Satan. He is simply working within his God ordained time until the day when Jesus crushes him once and for all. The Bible says that the enemy will ramp up the attack as he feels the last days coming.

God is either sovereign over all or He is sovereign over nothing. We know how the story ends. Those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, who have had truth revealed to them by the power of the Holy Spirit, know what’s coming. If you don’t know how the story ends, seek the Lord today.

Today is the day of salvation. The plan includes defeating Satan once and for all and establishing a new heaven and new earth where he will no longer have any reign or control. Don’t ignore the spiritual attacks the enemy will wage against you to keep you blind and consider the truth of the gospel. The Bible says, “for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

God bless.

Even if

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The study of scripture and making it part of daily practice, even when we don’t feel like it, is part of the refining process that God uses to make us more into the image of Christ. I remind myself, when I’m called to obedience that just feels too hard, that if I’m not sweating drops of blood due to the agony of understanding what obedience will require, I still haven’t been asked to obey to the same extent as my Lord. But life really has a way of knocking us down. In some of those hard moments, I’m prone to sarcastically, even bitterly, lament, “well, I’m not Jesus. I don’t have the strength that He did.” He was, after all, God in human form.

While it is true that Jesus is God, and was God while He was on earth, when he took on flesh He became fully man, which means He surrendered His authority, willingly submitting Himself to the will of the Father. At the point that Jesus sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane, He had the same amount of power that I have access to by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, really, when I find myself in a pool of self-pity thinking that I have every right to wallow because I’m not Jesus, what I’m really saying is, I’d rather wallow in this pool of pity than I am willing to come to the table of discipline and ask God, “what,” instead of “why.” When we ask God, “in what way are you desiring me to grow in your likeness through this,” rather than, “why could you let this happen to me,” we enable the sort of growth that the Lord mercifully uses to sanctify us.

Anxiety drives a lot of my function. I’m afraid of the outcome of events, to an almost paralyzing degree at times, even if all that is being asked of me is simply to interact in social settings. My thoughts turn into a raging series of “what-ifs,” that play like a highlight reel in my mind. Some of these fears are products of things I have actually experienced. Some are the result of knowledge I have due to some of those experiences, but remain hypothetical, and only serve to make me more anxious and more withdrawn. When I fall into these pits of fear and worry, it’s most often during periods of time when I’ve placed myself into the driver’s seat, thinking that if I can just budget well enough, if I can parent well enough, if I wife well enough, if I daughter well enough, if I person well enough, that all will go well. But, the diligent study of scripture teaches us that when things go well, it is simply because of God’s grace, and not as a result of anything we’ve done or not done well enough.

We study scripture because it teaches us about God’s character and rightly positions Him in the driver’s seat. What I learn from my savior, is that willing submission leads to the accomplishing of God’s will through me. When I yield to His control, rather than seeking to cling to the idea that I harbor the capacity for control myself, He is able to accomplish His will through me. Nothing I do will prevent His will from coming to fruition, but when I toil, wrestle with God, seek to fulfill what I believe His plan to be on my own terms, I rob myself of the ability to be used by Him. As long as I dwell in the fear of “what if,” I will never abide in the perfect peace of “even if.”

Even if things go poorly, His plan is perfect. Even if everything looks hopeless, He is still on the throne. Even if I feel like I can’t go on, I know His strength will sustain me. Even if I am called to sacrifice for the name and glory of God, I know that He is making all things new, and will one day restore all that I’ve lost. Studying scripture, even when I don’t know where to start or what to do, and diligently practicing the implementation of its instruction, brings me into the shadow of His wings, as I dwell in the secret place of the Most High. (Psalm 91:1)

Even if I can’t see the plan unfolding, and don’t know the outcome, I can be certain He is bringing together all things for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Today is the day of salvation. Even if you’ve spent a lifetime running, rejected, hurting, alone, it’s not too late to see Him work miracles for your good, and to His glory.

Isaiah 55: 6-7 provides this promise:

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

No matter where you are in life, seek the Lord. He will have compassion. He will abundantly pardon even if you’ve run from Him for a long time. His desire is for you to come to Him.

God bless.

Never forsaken

/ Renee / Leave a comment

One of the promises of scripture that comforts my heart on a regular basis is the promise that God will never leave me, nor forsake me even though I don’t always believe it. As embarrassing as that is to admit, it’s hard to feel like God is near when I feel so alone. This promise comes from the book of Deuteronomy. It came through Moses as an encouragement to the Israelites, God’s chosen people, as they prepared to enter the promised land without the man who had led them since the Exodus. Moses had been leading the Israelites for forty years, but the time God had ordained for him to lead them was coming to an end. As he prepared to transfer leadership to Joshua, Moses knew the difficulties that the children of Israel faced, and how difficult it would be for them to keep the faith. He’d watched their insurrection and disobedience for forty years. He witnessed their faithlessness, their sin, and their rejection of God play out over decades of consequence. Yet, here God was, promising them that despite all of this, He would never leave them nor forsake them.

God is faithful to fulfill His promises even when we are faithless.

Connecting to the God of the Israelites who parted the Red Sea, who rained down plagues on Egypt, who sheltered Noah and his family through a flood of judgement waters that eliminated all other life on earth, who became Immanuel -God with us- and healed the sick, lame, and blind, seems like a stretch and that this promise, that He will never leave me nor forsake me, must not truly apply to me. Especially when I’m feeling alone, neglected, rejected, hurt, abandoned, or hopeless.

Yet, this promise reaches into the spaces of my heart that prove faithless and despite my faithlessness, He is faithful to fulfill His promises.

I am not a child of Israel. I’m not a Hebrew woman, born into one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I am not of the people who wandered the wilderness for forty years before finally standing before the promised land. I am not of the peoples who were rescued by God from Egyptian slavery. On the contrary, I’m a Gentile.

The Jews of Jesus’ day looked on the Gentiles as far less than them, detestable, right for judgement, and unworthy of their God. Yet, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, Isaiah would prophecy that when Jesus came to Israel with the promise and offer of the kingdom, that He would be rejected by them. This was so that the promises of God would extend to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6 states, “he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” God said it was too light a thing that Jesus would only redeem Israel. He came so that salvation may reach to the ends of the earth -to me. So when, during His ministry, the Jewish Pharisees claimed that His power for miracles and healing came as a result of a demon, and Jesus knew in the hearts of the people that they did not receive Him as Messiah, this prophecy was activated for the beginning of fulfillment. Jesus went to the cross because it was too light a thing that He would come for the redemption of Israel only, but so that His salvation could reach the ends of the earth. The fulfillment of this prophecy is still unfolding. Until the ends of the earth have been reached with the promise of salvation, until the last of those whose names were recorded in the book of life before the foundations of the earth were laid, have been born into the family of God, this prophecy will continue to unfold in fulfillment.

The promise of God to the Israelites in Deuteronomy is my promise too. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, my salvation by faith in the redemption that is offered as a result of this promise, means that I have been grafted into an inheritance that I did nothing to deserve. In Romans, Paul attempts to explain this mystery to new believers so that they may understand that there is no distinction between a Jewish believer and a Gentile believer, that the root, the faith in Jesus death and resurrection, is what makes a person holy. Paul writes, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” (Romans 11:17). Paul is also identifying that the Gentiles who were grafted in should not take a position of superiority over those who have walked away from truth {branches that were broken off}, rather, recognize that the sustaining, nourishing root of the olive tree is what defines the tree, the branches are simply a product of the root. Paul is teaching humility, acceptance, and obedience to the calling of the believer to represent Christ and assuring them that once they have been grafted in, the promise extends to all who believe.

When I am faithless, hopeless, and despondent, buried by the burdens of this world, afraid of future trials, suffering from the brokenness of sin and its effects in this world, the same promise that God gave the children of Israel to never leave them nor forsake them is a promise extended to me as a branch, grafted into the nourishing root of a tree that extends the faithfulness of God to each and every grafted in {and sometimes faithless} branch. As a result, I can rest in His promises, hope in His word, and look forward to the promise of eternal redemption from sin and death because of His life, death, and resurrection.

I am not a child of Israel, but because of the blood of Christ, I am a child of God.

Today is the day of salvation. If you have not been grafted into the promises of God, complete with the hope of an eternal inheritance because of Jesus Christ, receive the gift of salvation today, and rest in the faithfulness of God, Who will be faithful to fulfill His word even when we fall short.

God bless.

Beauty from ashes

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The love of God is a mystery. Why He would come to earth, willingly yield His authority, the beauty and perfection of Heaven to empty Himself, and save me, is a mystery. The Bible says that Christ, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2: 6-7). The Bible also says that He did this when we were in opposition to Him. Paul writes in Romans, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Imagine, laying your life down in the most horrific manner, while your mother, your siblings, your best friends looked on, all for those who, at the foot of the cross, mocked you, despised you, and rejected you.

On the cross, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, gave His life all the same, redeemed the criminal next to Him by his profession of faith -the single greatest example that works contribute nothing to salvation – the love of God is a mystery. It is incomprehensible. The love of God is too great to leave us as we are. Once we accept Christ, we embark on a journey of being made into Christ’s image of willing and obedient submission to the Father; trusting in the goodness and perfection of His will, the journey we embark on is a daily death to the flesh that at all times is still in opposition to a Holy God.

John MacArthur explained the war with the flesh and the spirit in this way: there is no war if there is no spirit, the dead, un-regenerated flesh can do what it wants, it’s the point the Holy Spirit makes us alive by His indwelling in our heart that the battle begins. But, for this time, we still wear the rotting, corrupt, coat of flesh. The believer will shed that coat when we are reunited with Christ at the point of death, and glorified in Jesus Christ, but for now, the flesh still desires sin, it still desires things of this world, which is why we are commanded to take up our cross, deny our flesh, and follow Him. The mark of salvation is the war waged by the spirit to sanctify the believer, removing all lies the enemy would have us believe, and exchanging the desires of our flesh for righteousness in willing submission, as demonstrated by Christ’s death on the cross. The apostle Paul writes, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” taking every thought captive, and making it obedient, is only activated by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

That process is called sanctification. I wanted to lay all that mysterious groundwork out there to give a tangible example through the eyes of our eight year old. She has professed salvation, she recently made a public declaration of the profession of her faith through baptism, and she’s going through a tough trial. Her best friend is moving across the country at the end of this school year.

She’s so little and my mama heart wants to just pluck this pain from her, relieve her of the nights she’s gone to bed crying, and though I’ve laid beside her stroking her hair and reassuring her that it’s all going to be okay, I know that this is part of the call as her parent to train her up. My husband and I have been struggling to know how to comfort her. We’ve offered family games, treats, special trips, anything to see her little face brighten. Recently, he said to me, “this is something that she’s just going to have to work through with the Lord. I don’t think there’s anything we can really do to help.” My heart just cringes at the thought there is something my baby is going through that I can’t help, but he’s right. This is a work of the spirit to sanctify her, and grow her in the likeness of Christ.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:7, “so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The genuineness of her faith is being tested. What she believes about who God is and what His word says is being refined and it is our job to train her up in this faith.

Connecting the dots for her heart is where the training is, discerning any lies the enemy might plant there, and planting seeds of truth to combat his attacks is part of what our mission is. The other part is fervent prayer covering her, and petitioning the Lord that she would rightly use truth to combat the lies of the enemy. Through this trial, she will either come out of it more like Christ, submitted to the plan and purpose of God, trusting that He is good and faithful, or she will come away with a view of God as a taker, as someone who doesn’t see her pain, and didn’t fix her problem. Redirecting her focus to the enemy, to the one who is the taker, the destroyer, is part of our work as parents. Satan would deflect blame at all cost to God. It’s our mission to make sure her view of God is rightly placed amidst her suffering.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “the thief {satan} comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The life Jesus refers to is eternal. He came to give us eternal life. It’s why He submitted to the will of the Father despite egregious suffering, the extent of which most of us today will never know. Redirecting our focus to the enemy in times of trial, understanding that God is good, that His plan of redemption began before the foundations of the earth were laid, and rightly positioning our hearts in obedience to His will even when we’re not sure of the outcome is the refining fire by which our faith is tested and made more like Christ. God loves us too much to leave us as we are, so from the point of salvation He begins refining. He will accomplish that work despite our obedience, our shortcomings, our failures, and He is able to accomplish His purpose through the sinful, faithlessness of man.

The most beautiful picture of this was demonstrated by the healings of Christ’s ministry. When he saw the sick, demons possessed, the hurting, and the lame, He was moved by compassion and healed them, but they had to move forward from that point, and walk in the faith of the One who healed them. There’s an example in the Bible, where Jesus, who was moved by compassion, healed ten lepers. In Luke 17: 11-19, Luke records, “Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” All ten knew who Jesus was. All ten were healed. Only one received salvation. One of the characteristics of God is compassion. His grace extends to the believer and the unbeliever, but what is in our heart is what determines if we are truly well. We don’t become magically perfect at the point of salvation. That glorification will come when we shed our earthly flesh coat and are in the presence of the Lord, but in the meanwhile, we walk with the faith that it is by our faith that we have been made well, eternally well, redeemed before a holy and righteous God by the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is why we do not “grieve as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our hope is eternal despite our temporal circumstances. He makes beauty from ashes, regenerates that which is dead, and puts us on a path of being made into the image of Christ. Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t accepted Jesus’ death and resurrection, receive Him today.

God bless.

Rhythms in our home

/ Renee / Leave a comment

Some days go off without a hitch. We’re five minutes early to school, no one battled anyone else to the near death over the bathroom, homework is finished and tucked away in backpacks, and it’s easy for me to feel like I’ve got this mom thing down. These days are rare. When our girls snuggle up with each other and giggle reading books together it’s easy for me to think we’re doing something really well and, that as parents, we’re raising really good girls.

Then there are mornings that I find myself pushing a boulder up a steep hill just to get to the car. Sharp tones are stabbing each other with unkind words, someone is crying, no one owns shoes, and I think to myself, what a failure you are.

What I’ve done in each of these moments is substituted myself into a place of imagined authority and credited myself to outcomes which are not mine to own. In the best of our moments, God is sovereign. In the worst of our moments, God is sovereign.

The Bible says in James 1:17 that, “every good and perfect gift is from above,” meaning that every good grace that comes our way is from the Lord. The Bible also says in John 16:33 that, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” Jesus knew that our days wouldn’t go off without hitches. He knew that the enemy would seek to disrupt our focus, distract us from obedience and righteousness, weigh us down with troubles that would keep our eyes from being fixed on the grace of the cross. But Jesus finishes this verse by saying, “but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The rhythms of my heart can’t be so closely attached to the outcome of our circumstances or I’ll forever be ebbing and flowing with the tide of inconstant outcomes.

The points that I feel like such a failure, my lowest places, are the places where the grace of God redeems my shortcomings, and floods our life with His peace. When I release my hold on the expectations I have and give the moment to Him, yielding to His expectations for me in that moment, I’m given the opportunity to bear testimony to the redeeming work of Christ to my family. My flesh would think that if only I’d prepped lunches the night before, if only I’d lined up the shoes, maybe we should all wake up forty-five minutes earlier and we’d be able to avoid such catastrophe, but these are horizontally minded solutions, not vertically minded willingness to be aligned with the image of Christ in the midst of His moments, when they come at the cost of a disruption to my day. When I fall into the false notion that the moments are mine, I fail to see the truth that they have always been His. In the worst of the moments I have the opportunity to demonstrate the grace and love of Christ to my family, and in doing so keep with the rhythm’s He has ordained for our life.

Jesus encourages us to “take heart,” for He has “overcome the world.” In the short term, Satan is the prince and power of this realm. He has been cast here, not to hell, He and his demons are here. This is confirmed in Job 1: 6-7, “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” So what does Jesus mean when he says, he has “overcome the world?”

In the garden, Eve chose the fruit that God commanded them not to eat, ate from it, and gave it to Adam who willingly disobeyed the command God had given him, ushering sin into the world. At this point man was forever divided from God, unable to be reconciled to God because of sin. When God addressed each of the characters from this story found in Genesis 3, He said to the serpent in verse 15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The serpent was animated by Satan, who sought to disrupt unity with God and His creation. It would seem, for a time, that Satan was successful. However, God’s words to the serpent are the first messianic prophecy, or proto-evangelium, that we find in scripture concerning Christ. God said, “He will crush your head,” referring to the offspring of the woman who would be born of the Holy Spirit, not man’s seed, meaning the child she bore would not be born into man’s likeness, into sin, but the first and only ever birth in which the child was born into the image of God. Between Adam’s creation and Adam’s first child, sin entered the world, the Bible says that Adam was made in God’s image, but that his son was born into his likeness, or born into a sin state that, from birth, every human is helpless to rectify on their own.

Enter Christ. Through His death and resurrection Christ has overcome the world. His overcoming of the world means that He has redeemed, for the believer, the sin state that each of us are born into and condemned by at birth. The long-suffering love of God allows the world to endure for a time so that all who will come to faith in Christ may be able to do so, but God’s long suffering nature is not all suffering and one day He condemn the world for its sin.

When the rhythms of our home fall out of sync, when our melody is more like nails on a chalk board, whatever is stored up in the base of my heart is what flows out of me into the midst of those moments and pours out all over my family. Do I trust that this disrupted rhythm is an attempt of the enemy to distract me from the calling of obedience to emulate the testimony of Christ’s death and resurrection to my husband and my children -my first ministry as a wife and mom- or am I too distracted by the shortcomings of what my expectations were that I allow a flesh led disruption to the faith and obedience to Christ, which I profess, to be the testimony that I bear to my family? My will or His?

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t received the overcoming work of Christ by grace through faith, trust Him today. The good days and the bad days are all opportunities for the love of Christ to be reflected by our conduct and there is no greater peace than trusting that the days belong to Him and that He has already overcome the troubles we face in this world.

God bless.

The body of Christ

/ Renee / Leave a comment

There are a couple of things on my heart this morning, and honestly it was hard to choose between them, especially after missing a few days last week. Illness has swept our house, we battled the flu for nearly two weeks, and frankly I was just so depleted I couldn’t bring myself to the table to write. I landed on this topic today because of the image that the worn down state I was in last week, gives us of the importance of being part of a church body.

There isn’t anything in the Bible that says that in order to be saved, you must be part of a specific religion, go to a certain number of services, tithe a certain amount, or anything like that. It isn’t a gospel issue. However, the emphasis on gathering as believers in the books of Acts as the early church was established, the group that Jesus established around Him through the disciples during His ministry, the couplings he made of them as He sent them out in His name, the author of Hebrews stating, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:25), are all indications that the church, the body of Christ, and the regular assembly of its members is an aspect to the Christian walk that is necessary for our good.

The verse in Hebrews states that in assembling we are given the opportunity to exhort one another, and so much more as we see the Day approaching. “The Day” references the day of the Lord, the point of His return. Leading up to this point in time, the Bible says that the spiritual attacks of the enemy will be amplified, and that as believers we will face specific persecution as the enemy seeks to thwart the plan of God. Gathering together gives us the opportunity to exhort each other on toward righteousness, it strengthens and encourages us, and it glorifies God when the body is unified and exemplifying His characteristics toward one another.

Sin is such a sneaky and deceptive divider. The original sin divided Adam and Eve from their perfect unity with God and the enemy still uses sin as a divider today as we seek to hide our shortcomings from one another, avoid too much transparency lest anyone see the real us, and as a result the sort of ‘assembling of ourselves’ that the writer in Hebrew encourages us not to forsake is diluted. We can only exhort one another on toward righteousness if we know the specific pitfalls each other faces. Without a tribe of believers around me who know my specific sin struggles, I can hide away in the corners of my mind the battle the spirit wages against the flesh. The more hidden I keep it, even though I think that in doing so I can control the narrative of it, in actuality, the deeper I hide, the less control I have and the more likely I am to fall. The deeper I fall, the more I desire to hide. The deeper I hide, the greater the battle the enemy wages against me that my friends, my fellow believers, won’t want me part of their walk anymore, that I’ve disqualified myself from being part of their righteous community. The guilt fuels bitterness and resentment, and ultimately division from the body. Suddenly, Satan has me right where he wants me, separated from the flock, an easy target.

The Bible says that we are to engage in regular confession, repentance, and reconciliation with one another. As believers we are called to be discerning and wise with one another. If one of us falls into sin we are called to demonstrate good judgement, to address the sin, and seek to bring our brother or sister back into obedience through confession and repentance and we should desire that the body of Christ around us would do the same for us.

Hanging in our dining room, above a cabinet full of family photo albums, things we’ve collected over the years, and 90’s DVD’s, is a canvas photo. In the foreground is a small lamb, flanked by dark woods on either side, and completely unaware of the danger of its surroundings. It gazes out of the portrait nonchalantly, clearly lost, alone, and without protection. In the background, Jesus is on a full sprint run toward the lost lamb, on His way to rescue it from certain peril. When I first saw this photo, my breath caught in my throat and my eyes burned because when I saw this photo it wasn’t a lamb in the foreground that was lost, in danger, and alone. It was me. All the years I spent running from Jesus, hiding from the flock, He never gave up pursuing me. Not only did he rescue me, he placed me within the folds of a church family who has tirelessly loved my husband, me, our children. They have prayed over us, exhorted us, restored us, discipled us, disciplined us, and within this body of believers we have been able to demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ through confession, repentance, and reconciliation. It isn’t a gospel issue to be part of a church body, but it is necessary for the exhortation of the believer to keep us encouraged as we walk the narrow path, flanked by darkness that would seek to devour us on either side.

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t received Jesus as your Savior, today is the day to accept the eternal gift that is offered by grace through faith in His death and resurrection. If you are a believer, and not part of the sort of church that exhorts you, that judges you, that seeks to see you repent of sin, and encourages you toward righteousness, that depends on you to do the same, it’s time to find that sort of church. It is not loving to affirm sinful behavior. It’s the greatest sort of evil you could enact on someone to affirm sin patterns that disrupt and divide someone from obedience to Christ.

God bless.

Behind the scenes

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The season that we’re in is between Kindergarten and middle school age children. We’ve been married thirteen years, so we’re not newly weds and not yet aged. We’re in the mid years of paying off our mortgage, with fourteen years left to go. My car is well over 100k miles, nearly ten years old. Our dog still barks and leaps on company even though he’s trained and nearly six years old. I find myself needing to remember that this season is such a fleeting and precious place to encounter the all sufficient grace of Jesus Christ.

In the newborn throes of wake ups every hour, in the weeks that melted into those first few months as a new parent, I would catch my focus elsewhere. Especially with our first baby. I was only 22 and didn’t have the foresight to realize that when she was almost 13, I would see her toddler arms reaching up to hold me, while at the same time picturing her upcoming graduation. A slowing occurred when our second was born, I saw more of the days we were in while we were in them. By the time our third baby was born I was 30, and in those eight years the Lord grew the awareness in me that moments aren’t meant to “get through,” but that they are minute by minute opportunities to recognize God’s grace unfolding behind the scenes on a second by second basis.

When our third baby was born I prayed for the grace to endure just one more hour as the nights rolled out into one unyielding wave before us. I prayed in the morning for the grace to get my older kids through school for the day. I prayed for grace in the afternoon to get the house tidied and dinner on before their daddy got home, so we could rest as a family, and he could unburden from the stress of his day. The November that Ry was born was our first year homeschooling. The Lord brought me to this unyielding conviction the summer before the year of a global pandemic. When schools closed for COVID we were already well within our home routine. The kids knew there was something going on in the world, but their schedules didn’t change. Grace behind the scenes.

The thing about grace is that it is immeasurable, unfathomable, supplied in measures according to the needs of God’s children, extends behind and before us, and is part of the very nature of God. I know that God’s grace is part of who He is because it is the element of His character that prompted the cross, it was what God gave us in the form of His son that we didn’t deserve and could not have obtained on our own. Grace that is greater than all my sin.

There are certain hypothetical outcomes that I don’t know how I would endure if you asked me on the spot. My husband being killed on the way home from work. One of our children being taken. Waking up in the night to the smell of smoke and flames licking at our bedroom doors. The scream of metal crunching beneath the weight of collision and one of our children being non-responsive. I do not know how I would endure these things if they happened today.

But, I do know that if any of those things did happen, that God’s grace would be sufficient. It has already sustained me through death, through loss, through heartache. It sustained me as one of our children tore loose from my womb and passed on the white sheets of a hospital bed. It sustained me through the death of my grandparents, it sustained me through sexual abuse, it sustained me through an alcohol addiction that resulted in extreme loss for me and my family, and it is sustaining me in the rebuilding of our life as God is shaping and remaking our future into a picture that we don’t yet see. The grace of God reached down into my life, at a point where nothing I could do nothing, and saved me from hopeless and devastating circumstances. It is God’s grace that one day I will stand before the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and rather than be dismissed from His presence for judgement, I will be received into His presence because of what Christ has done. It was grace that the spirit activated salvation in my heart and it is grace that keeps me in the fold of God. His grace is sufficient.

The apostle Paul made a career of persecuting the early church and murdering Christians before an encounter with Jesus turned his life in an about face. After years of serving Christ, years of facing persecution of his own, imprisoned, and suffering from an unnamed source, he writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “And He {the Spirit} said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” The measure of grace meets the measure of our need. Every time.

If you don’t know the grace of God, today is the day of salvation. Receive Jesus. No matter where you are in your life, no matter what you’ve done, God’s grace is sufficient for you.

God bless.

True love

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The fairytale movies from when I was a kid made it look so simple. First, as a woman, be beautiful, slender, and vulnerable. As a man, be gallant, chivalrous, and handsome. Next, forsake the wishes of family, sensibility, practicality, and reality. Then, trust in the heightened feelings associated with high levels of cortisol and marry quickly, before those feelings fade, maybe even after just a few days or weeks of knowing one another. Finally, live happily ever after.

The message sent to our young people, through so many popular sources of media, is one of an emotion driven, selfish platitude for relationships that are just as disposable as they are accessible. Sites like Only Fans glamorize and desensitize the sanctity of physical intimacy. Porn addictions cause viewers to see sex through a lens of self gratification and purely as a means to an end, a way to accomplish a fleeting satisfaction, that must be repeated in order to maintain. The enemy has blinded this generation. We have traded oneness with our spouse for oneness with ourselves, and in doing so, the enemy has effectively interrupted the image of Christ and the Bride that is pivotal to the purpose of marriage and all that it represents. Satan would seek to replace God with cheap imitations of all God has to offer. He made the offer to Jesus in the desert, after He had fasted for forty days, Satan offered to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would just bow to Satan. What Jesus understood was that disobedience to the Father for the temporary gain of anything in the world was not a trade worth making. The earth is only temporarily under Satan’s reign, and as a result, he was offering something he didn’t truly possess. Satan plays the same game today, promising us that he can fulfill us with love, peace, and oneness without obedience to the Father.

Just like the false offer of the kingdoms of earth, Satan makes false promises to us. He is incapable of offering the sort of intimacy that God has ordained to be shared between husband and wife. But, the world has sunk its teeth into fleeting and temporal satisfaction. As a result, our view of God has been contorted. The Bible tells us that God loves His children with agape love. Agape is a Greek word that is defined as, “a pure, unconditional, and sacrificial love. It’s often considered the highest form of love.” In our exchange we’ve bought a lie that love is meant to serve us. We balance relationships with scales to determine each contributing part, and if our part comes up short we move on to the next, and call it love, but we have completely missed the mark.

God is the author of love and demonstrated love in this, “that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). When God demonstrated love there were no conditions. The world He came to didn’t want Him, it rejected Him, hung Him on a Roman cross, and murdered Him. If there was any shred of what’s in it for me present in Christ, there is no redemption, there is no reconciliation, there is no eternal payment made on my behalf to cover a debt I could never pay on my own. There is nothing I can offer God that He needs. The psalmist, in Psalm 147:4 states, “He determines the number of the stars, and calls them each by name.” What could I offer the One who numbers the stars? Nothing. There is nothing that I can offer Him. This is true love. The love that motivated Christ on our behalf, we who were helpless, dead in our sin, incapable of contributing, aiding, unable to repay Him in any way, was the love that the Bible says is demonstrated by the marriage covenant.

Love was designed by God to show the love of Christ for the Bride. The Bride is the Bible’s name for the church, for believers, those for who Christ died. Love is not a feeling of gratification, physical pleasure, lust, or intrigue. Love is action motivated from a heart that seeks to obey the Father, and act in accordance to His will, for His glory. Satan would have us believe that love is about our satisfaction, when really it’s only ever been about God. What satan offers is merely a cheap imitation. When love is acted out in obedience to the roles designed by God, the love of Christ is made visible to a world desperate for true love.

Today is the day of salvation. If you don’t know the love of Jesus, trust in the eternal redemption made available to you through His death and resurrection. He doesn’t need anything from you. He won’t trick and deceive you. He won’t make you promises He can’t keep. His love is an eternal, present, fortifying, peace in the midst of chaos, and is all sustaining. Trade in the cheap imitations that the world and satan have to offer and seek Christ instead today.

God bless.