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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.

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.

True love

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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.

Keeping the faith

/ Renee / Leave a comment

During our Bible time this morning, the preacher for the ministry that we use in our private study, Stephen Armstrong of Verse by Verse ministries, said that it is common for people to share encouraging sentiments such as, “keep the faith,” or to make statements like, “I have faith.” My husband and I shared a glance over friends we have that would call themselves, “spiritual,” or, “people of faith,” but, really, what does that even mean? It got me thinking about all the things I find myself putting my faith in, even as a believer, that are not Christ alone.

Money. It is a real shake up of where my faith lies when we’re in a season where we’re not sure how the ends are going to tie. An unexpected fifteen thousand dollar medical bill rocked us a few months ago. Our youngest had to be transported by ambulance to Cleveland’s Rainbow Babies Trauma unit after a four wheeler accident with our oldest. After receiving counsel from our general practitioner, we drove her to Fairview where a full trauma assessment was done on her, and before I could catch my breath my baby was in a neck brace, strapped to an hospital bed, being loaded into an ambulance. During the height of these circumstances, when we were facing potential surgery for her injuries, unsure of the extent of the damage, and overall scared, my anxiety hit a full fledge code red and before I knew it I was hyperventilating, sobbing, pleading with the Lord that He would sustain and heal her.

During the course of my prayer I was flooded with calm. A few of our closest friends and family were praying, we were praying, and in the midst of the panic came a calm that sustained us the rest of the night and into the next few days as we walked through recovery with her at home. Then the bill came and I was panicking once again. We’d just come through Christmas and a vacation, savings were at their slimmest, what were we going to do, how could we ever pay that much money? I so easily forget to remember who the sustainer of my days is. The amount has already been reduced to just a few hundred dollars after insurance cleared the charges. What I forget to remember, at the height of uncertainties, is that the outcome I am so fearing, the Lord not only knows, but controls. That kind of power is humbling to behold. The sort of faith that sort of power is owed, is unimaginable.

The Lord knew our faith would waver. He is faithful despite our faithlessness. The enemy would love nothing more than the human sentiment of “belief” to be in anything other than Jesus. Just a generic, “faith in humanity,” or “faith in the goodness of people,” that ultimately has no real basis in anything sustainable, is good enough for Satan as he keeps our eyes from the true source, living hope, by a faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Faith is a precious and powerful thing.

In the gospel of Matthew, in Matthew 14: 35-36 Matthew writes, “And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.” At this point in Jesus’ ministry he had stopped healing and miracles via public displays and had transitioned to performing miracles after requiring assurances of faith. He did this for a very specific reason, but Malachi 4:1-2 gives us insight into the faith that these people demonstrated, and as a result received healing:

“For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.

 But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

The “sun of righteousness,” is Jesus. He is the light of the world, in Him there is no darkness, He is the light that dawned on Galilee. The Hebrew word used by Malachi for “wings,” is translated to “hem.” What we learn from the account in Matthew is those who knew this prophecy of Malachi, demonstrated faith that Jesus was Messiah, and received healing by faith when they touched the hem, or “wing,” of his garment.

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t trusted in Jesus as your savior, today is the day to put your faith where it will count for all eternity. Believe in the One who not only knows the outcome of all of our days, but controls that outcome.

God bless.

Expectations

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Having a goal oriented personality makes unmet expectations an opportunity for the gospel every day. As a mom, there are a certain number of tasks in our home that I know need to be accomplished for our days to roll out smoothly. When those tasks go unmet, often because I’m sick and can’t keep my usual pace, it causes me to rely on my family to pick up the slack. When their efforts don’t meet my expectations it makes me impatient. I find myself complaining in my heart, lamenting the ideas that I had of achieving the goals I had set for that day, and the image of a family that loved me enough to help without complaint, whistling as they worked, despite the fact that they’ve all had their own set of tasks and agendas for the day.

The issue isn’t with the tasks of our home or even with my needing help once in a while to ensure all of them get done. The problem is the control I want to wield over how and when my needs are met, rather than trusting that the Lord has already met all of my needs and resting in the satisfaction that brings. Moreover, the greater issue looming deep beneath the surface excuse of just wanting to make sure all the things get done, is my pride needing affirmed that I am capable of balancing all the spinning wheels just fine on my own. The Lord will find ways to remind me that this is His show. Not mine.

While I’m fussing and focusing on the dishes being unwashed before the end of the school day, because once the kids get home it’s much harder to get the chores done and all I want to do is spend time just soaking in their day with them, helping with homework, or whatever else they’d like to do, I’m focusing on what my expectation for this given outcome was, rather than God’s.

When I’m stewing because the laundry didn’t get rotated, and the clean clothes options are limited, and I feel like my family has willfully neglected to help out, and that their unwillingness is a direct reflection of their love for me, I have provided a self-absorbed, selfish example of immaturity and a lack of faith in the provision the Lord has made for us. The closets spill out with clothes and I’ve conflated the love of my children for their mother with whether or not they leapt at the opportunity to cycle one load.

Too often I subconsciously set an expectation for the sort of mood I’d like for my husband to be in at the end of a long day and when his mood and my imagination don’t align I’m discontent, sink into bitterness, confuse him with sharp tones and cold shoulders even when all he has done is work diligently all week long, and exist in our home in the way he needs to, rather than in the way I hoped he would. I don’t stop to consider what he might have hoped my mood would be like, or even what he needed from my presence so that our home could be a place of restoration for him.

In reality, my children help with daily tasks. The problem is that my heart becomes anxious, angry, and defiant when I am faced with my own limitations. In reality, my husband’s mood is often generous, kind, and affectionate and it’s certainly within his right to be less so when he needs to be. The problem is my heart that seeks the affirmation of my worth based on his praise or recognition. It’s not my family’s job to meet all my needs, nor should I expect them to, the problem is that I’ve substituted my expectation that they can for the truth that God already has.

Jesus’ death and resurrection has already met all of my needs. This doesn’t mean that I can neglect our home, let the dishes rot, and laundry mold; rather, I should be tending these things because they have been given to me by the Lord to steward and in keeping them well, I’ve honored him. Too often I confuse the tasks as mine to do, as if I’ve set the agenda, but the tasks I have are the ones that have been given to me by the Lord to do. It is His home that I keep, His children my husband and I have been given to raise, my husband belongs to Jesus first. When I reorient my mind to the truth of the gospel and ask, what is His expectation of me? All of a sudden my expectations pale by comparison to the One whose testimony I bear as I accomplish His tasks for my day. Whether the dishes get washed or the laundry gets done is immaterial if I have given my children the picture of a mother burdened by bitterness, short tempered, and unloving. But if while accomplishing the tasks I am able, with a heart of gladness, grace, and joy, I have demonstrated the sort of character they can expect to find in their savior when they come to Him needing grace, then I have accomplished the expectation for me that is my savior’s.

My expectations mean nothing if they don’t begin and end with: glorify God today in all you do and passionately prefer Christ over everything else.

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t accepted the free gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross you are toiling for a world that is perishing. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Come to Jesus today. He will give you the purpose of your life: to glorify Him and grow His kingdom.

God bless.

Giving credit where it’s due

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Last week, in my women’s study, we posed the question, “do we credit God with the outcome when the circumstances didn’t go our way and praise Him just the same?” My heart is often geared toward the glory of God’s sovereignty and goodness when things haven’t turned out great, because the world ideology suggests that when things go badly, it’s because God isn’t good, and when things go well it’s because He is only love and just wants our happiness. There is also a connection drawn between reward and punishment. When things go good for us, then it must mean God is pleased. When things go bad, it must mean that He is displeased.

If only good things happen when we serve faithfully, it would reaffirm that since we’ve served faithfully that we are being rewarded. But, what happens when we face a trial in the midst of serving faithfully? Does this mean that somehow we’ve gotten it wrong, and that God is displeased? If someone isn’t pursuing the Lord at all, living in sin, but by all appearances living a thriving and blessed life, how does that complicate our view of a God that has some sort of incentive program for the living?

The problem isn’t with God at all, rather it’s with our limited perspective. The trials of this world are a result of sin, introduced into the world by Satan, and everyone is subject to the problems of the world whether we are born again in Christ or not. It stands to reason that God’s mercy extends then to all who live on the earth in the form of life itself, sustenance, and any pleasurable thing at all.

The Bible says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Every person alive has the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of a sunset, the ability to taste a delicious meal, to smell the wildflowers bloom in spring, and participate in the daily mercies of a loving God whose will it is that none should perish (2 Peter 3: 8-10), the difference is that for the unredeemed man (or woman), this world is the closest to Heaven it gets. For the redeemed, this world is the closest to Hell we’ll ever get. What the world fails to realize is that it is the love of God that He is just and will one day separate sin, death, and suffering from the eternal state, but in doing so, anyone who has not accepted Christ will not have access to Him in eternity. In choosing to face God apart from Christ you have chosen to receive His righteous condemnation for a sin debt that you can’t pay for on your own. Because He is holy and will remove all sin, your presence will be removed from Him eternally if your unrighteous state has not covered by the righteous blood of Christ. We are all born into sin, from the point that Eve, and Adam with her, chose their desire over God’s command and sin entered the world, everyone born after was born owing a debt that couldn’t be paid. A loving God will not allow sin to reign forever. It is both His love and His judgement for sin that make up equal parts of His character. Yet, His love is demonstrated to us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

When we fail to recognize God’s hand in the daily mercies and as a means of drawing us nearer to Him through the trials, we don’t rob Him of glory, He is worthy of glory and will receive it regardless, we rob ourselves of the grace to be able to participate in the right worship of His glory. Jesus said, in response to being told to silence His followers from praising Him, “If they are silent, even the rocks will cry out” (Luke 19:40). We’re told in Psalm 19:1, “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” Evidence of God’s glory is all around us and when we fail to see Him in every aspect of our daily lives we rob ourselves of the knowledge of God.

We recognize His glory, His handiwork, through the daily pursuit of Him. The closer we walk the more ready our hearts are prepared to worship Him through all circumstances, good and bad. We recognize the suffering brought upon us is a result of sin, that death, disease, and sin are products of the enemy, not of God. While these things are the result of the enemy, God still uses them to accomplish His good and perfect will so that even our suffering isn’t purposeless. The Bible says that, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). He is powerful enough to bring beauty from ashes.

Jesus knew that the consequence of sin being introduced into the world was death. He came to solve the problem of our sin. Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t received the gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection, turn to Him today. We will still face death as believers, the physical death of our earthly body, but we will not experience the second death. As believers we die once, but without Christ we die twice, once in our earthly bodies and again spiritually at the judgement. Revelation 21:8 tells us, “As for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Come to the saving knowledge of Jesus today.

God bless.

The problem with concession

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There have been plenty of points in my life where I found myself teetering between the expectation of the world and the holy expectation of God. Human nature wants to find a compromise. It wants to ‘have its cake and eat it too,’ so to speak. Choosing righteousness is not the natural inclination of the flesh. Scripture tells us that, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). But, the problem with making a concession is that I’ve not satisfied God partially with my partial obedience. I have not been able to keep some of God’s expectations for me and indulge in keeping from obedience the parts that are too difficult to keep. This has ultimately caused me inexplicable strife and grief, as I attempted to choose between what I wanted to do and what I knew the Spirit was calling me to do. The problem is not the expectation of God. Rather, it reveals a hole in my faith that God is in control of the outcome and a lack of trust that the outcome He has and that His will for me are good.

Since coming to faith in Jesus, the main concession that I wanted to make was keeping my past sins secret. I thought that by serving faithfully, and living obediently (nearly to the point of legalism) it would eradicate the need for me to make confession, to face the consequence of sins that I had chosen prior to coming to salvation, early in my walk, and even daily sins that, by comparison, seem little in contrast to the sins of my past. But, they are not little to God. Ten years ago, as a new believer, I had decades of world habits, sin patterns, and struggles that I attempted to just stifle and snuff out. Walking in obedience required the exposure of some of that sin, only by bringing it into the light is it able to be properly handled, and absolved. It was the only manner by which I ultimately attained freedom from sin and shame, though the regret and shame of my past is still a daily overcoming, I now live in the freedom from fear of my sin being exposed. Additionally, I was piling new sins on top of the pile of former sins, as I became more and more sure that I was able to atone for my past insurrections through acts of service and obedience. I became judgmental and self-righteous at times; I was becoming one of those Christians that for so long gave me ’cause’ to avoid the judgement and hypocrisy of the church.

When Christ said His yoke was easy, it was not because the Christian walk is, but because He is yoked to us, and walks beside us as we pursue the Christian walk. It’s no wonder the apostle Paul wrote, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I could not carry the yoke of my former sin on my own. I could not atone for some of the earthly consequences of sin by simply living righteously enough to erase the past. There were still steps necessary to take in order for me to find true freedom. Repentance and confession to God for sin precedes any further action, but it was necessary for me to confess to those that had been directly affected by my sin, seek forgiveness, and demonstrate behavior in accordance with God’s holy expectations. Confession and repentance does not mandate any expected response, though for the believer, the command is forgiveness and reconciliation, these should not be the motivation for confession and repentance, rather the motivation comes from a heart that desires to be obedient and reconciled to God.

Jesus Christ came so that we may have hope. Our human nature will wage war against the sort of obedience that the Biblical prescription for handling sin requires. But, at the root of it, is the reality that we can accomplish none of it on our own. I was so rooted in behavior that sought to hide my sin it took ten years before I was able to start making confession and the Lord had to press hard down on me to get me to comply. I didn’t want to utter the truth of the things I’d done to the man I love more than anything in this world, second only to God, but in doing so he was given an opportunity to obey, extend forgiveness and the grace of Christ to me, and as I revealed more and more of truly what God had changed about my life, the glory of God was able to be revealed all the more.

Confessing sin to a holy God who is right to condemn and judge us is daunting. One of the things that held me back for so long from running to God was the idea that a God so holy could never forgive a wretch like me. I believed He could never love me. Never forgive me. But what I found, when finally I came crawling to the foot of the cross, was grace. I found freedom and hope in Christ.

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t received the grace of Christ, come to the cross. Come. No matter what your life looks like. There’s no need to tidy up before facing Jesus. He came to seek and save the lost. Nothing is hidden from His sight anyway. It’s not like He doesn’t already know all that you’re attempting to hide. You can’t clean it up on your own. He’s the only one who can grab the broom handle and begin sweeping clean a life stained by sin.

Mark captures the heart of Jesus in 2:16-17, “And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Today is the day of salvation.

God bless.

The facade of control

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Last night, around 5:30pm eastern standard time, a jet carrying 64 passengers departed from Wichita, Kansas. Sixty four families had someone they loved aboard that aircraft for what should have been a routine flight less than five hours from their departure.

At around 9pm EST, sixty seven families’ lives were impacted in a way that will forever enact for them a “before and after,” phase of their lives. The American Airlines jet collided with a military black hawk helicopter that was carrying three passengers. The collision occurred as the jet attempted the descent to land at Reagan National Airport, just outside of DC, plunging sixty seven people, dads, moms, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers into the thirty seven degree waters of the Potomac River.

One eye witness described the collision as a “fireball,” in the sky. An emergency rescue operation is underway to recover any survivors, but early reports presume that all sixty seven people are dead.

All of them had plans for today. All of them had agendas, meetings, schedules. I would wager that they all had plans for tomorrow, this weekend, next week. Personally, my family has plans as far out as July. I know the crater that would devastate our home if my husband didn’t come home from work today. I feel the dread in my bones. For sixty seven people, they received a phone call informing them that there has been a terrible accident and they need to prepare themselves, their children, their parents, for the worst.

The illusion that we have a say in the events of our lives is simply a coping mechanism. We live under the idea that our meticulously organized, color coded schedule blocks are somehow the fibers that hold together the circumstances of our moments, but this just isn’t the case. The aviation world, experts, pilots are shocked by the “swiss holes” in flight technology that aligned perfectly and allowed this sort of tragedy to occur, but God wasn’t surprised.

I don’t believe in coincidences, whether good or bad. This was a tragic occurrence that was completely within God’s control and timing. The wives who are now widows, the children who will grow up without their mom or dad, the parents who lost children in this horrific accident are not unseen by God who is sovereign over all. His power and presence doesn’t stop tragedy from occurring. It is within the scope of His knowledge that tragedy occurs, and He does have the power to stop these terrible things from happening before they occur. However, the moments of despair and despondency, when we are faced with a trial that we don’t have the strength to endure on our own, are exactly the circumstances that drive us to the foot of the cross.

It is grace when we face suffering beyond our comprehension and mercy that is extended in the form of comfort and peace by the hand of His sustaining power because it is one means by which God will draw us to Him. The problem is that we view these circumstances through the lens of our temporal perspective and not through the lens of his eternal one. This doesn’t mean that grieving, devastation, anger or shock are inappropriate. At the tomb of his friend Lazarus, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) and in the Hebrew the connotation for this use of the Hebrew word, “wept,” was a guttural cry of anguish and dismay at the suffering of God’s people at the hands of the consequence of sin, which is death.

God’s plan of redemption for the world began before the foundations of the earth were laid. He knew the serpent would deceive Eve, and Adam who was with her, in the garden and therefore introduce sin into the world. He knew that the law He gave to Moses for the Israelites would be impossible for them to keep, and that they would continually fall short of the holiness required of them to be reunited with Him. He knew that only by a savior could those who trust in Him be redeemed. Jesus came to earth to redeem His own and by His word we are provided all the information we need to understand why tragedies like this occur: because satan introduced sin into the world which separated creation from a holy God and allowed for pain, despair, destruction, division, and death. But Jesus came to overcome these things.

Jesus states in John 16:33, “these things {His instruction and teaching} I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

When Jesus came, died on the cross, and was resurrected three days later it was to secure, for those who would believe, a future that does not include happenstance tragedy. It will not include sickness, pain, or death. He died so that the payment for the sin of man, which made man irreconcilable to God through any other means than by grace through faith, was made.

Today is the day of salvation. Confess the sin that separates you from God and trust in the payment made by Christ on your behalf.

Pray for the families of this most recent tragedy. Unfortunately, there will be another one somewhere today, tomorrow, soon. The facade of control is that we have any but Jesus provides a solution. The tragedy and brokenness have already been overcome and can be accessed in a future day because of the blood of Christ.

Come soon, Lord Jesus.

God bless.