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Christ in YOUR Christmas Part 2

12/14/2022

Today we continue our Mary musings. Last time we explored Mary's love and knowledge of God as a reason for God choosing her for perhaps the greatest mission ever completed by a human, outside of the life, death, and ressurection of Jesus.

Today, I want to examine her responses to the things that happened in her life. When Mary was first approached by the Angel Gabriel, she was afraid. I would have been too! And the information she received couldn't have been easy to hear. Let's think about this.

She was a virgin, pure in thought and body. She more than likely had a good reputation. She was engaged to be married and life was looking like it was working out pretty well. Then BOOM! She's pregnant and Mary's got some 'splaining to do. Can you even imagine what Joseph thought when she told him what sounded like the most cockamamie story he had ever heard? Seriously, what man would have believed that? It must have seemed that her marriage went right down the tubes.

Then there's the little concern about the law of the land. In Jewish law, audultry was punishable by death. Although not married, engagement was more like marriage is in our culture and she would have been considered an adulteress. So now, she was facing a life of disdain and reproach, if she managed to keep her head. And all of that for being completely innocent.

I don't know about you but that might have made me very angry and tempted to question the love of God. Afterall, she lived a pure life, she loved God and had kept herself according to His law and now God was placing her in the worst possible position that a woman could face in those days.

(Meanwhile, a few months earlier, Mary's cousin Zacharius had also received some rather unbelievable news. He and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a baby after being barren for their entire lives. Zacharius argued with the angel since he and his wife were "old and stricken in years." As a result, the angel shut his mouth and caused him to be mute until the baby was born.)

Now this is what is interesting to me. Both Zacharius and Mary questioned the angel. Zacharius doubted that it COULD happen at all while Mary only questioned only how it WOULD happen. "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

Now, let's bring this home. When your life completely falls apart, when God allows hardship, loss, and devastation to invade your life, when He changes the total trajectery of your plans, goals and dreams, how do you respond? Do you, like Mary automatically respond "behold the handmaid of the Lord" or do you argue with Him trying to convince Him that this is not a welcome change? Do you consider yourself blessed as Mary did or do you begin to grow suspicious of God and His love? Are you so in love with God that your faith in His Divine plan causes you to submit to Him once again in total trust and humility? Are you okay withyour life will looking nothing like you imagined? Are you willing to give up all the blessings you have in order to do what the Lord is calling you to?

Are you a doubter or a questioner? Are you a Zacharius or a Mary?

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Christ in YOUR Christmas Part 1

12/9/2022

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What do you do to keep Christ in YOUR Christmas? It is so easy to get caught up in all the trappings and responsibilities (some self-imposed) of the season, so to keep Christ in my own personal Christmas, I ponder one aspect of the Christmas account in scripture each year.

In the past I have focused on the miracle and implications of the incarnation, the different Bible characters, how God chose to speak to men throughout that time, the supernatural events that involved nature, and others. This year, I chose Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Although I identify most with the Apostle Peter before Pentecost on a personal level, (sincere but lacking wisdom, impulsive, and generally blundering my way through life), the person I aspire to be like is Mary.

Out of all the women God could have chosen to not only birth the Saviour, but raise Him, God chose Mary. I want to be the kind of woman that God could choose for such an important assignment, don't you?

In the next couple of blogs, I want to take a look at the characteristics that made Mary the kind of woman that God could choose to use!

Mary KNEW and LOVED God.

She attended the synagogue and was educated in the scriptures as much as all the women of her day were. She had heard the prophesies concerning the coming Messiah. She knew that He would be born of a virgin. I'm sure she never imagined that she would be that virgin, yet still, she believed God's Word would come to pass and she was waiting for it. From the words she spoke both to the angel and in a moment of praise, we can see that Mary was a God worshipper. He was no stranger to her.

By the time she reached Elizabeth's house, we see that she had fully comprehended and embraced being God's choice to mother the promised Messiah. In a spontaneous moment, her praise of God burst forth from her spirit as she declared;

Luke 1:46b
“My soul exalts the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant;
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49 For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.
50 And His mercy is to generation after generation
Toward those who fear Him.
51 He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things,
And sent the rich away empty-handed.
54 He has given help to His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
55 Just as He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his descendants forever.”

In order to be used of God, I must know Him! I must love His voice and be responsive to His leadings. I must believe that God is still working in the world and using women to bring about the fulfillment of His plan for this sick and dying world. I must be like Mary.

Oh that God would fine tune my character to the point that He could use me for such a grave and glorious assignment. Oh that He would cause His revelation to be so real in my heart that praise would burst forth from my mouth everytime I meditate on it. Oh, to be used as Mary was for whatever purpose God has planned for my life.

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To Know Christ in His Fullness, We Must First be Empty Ourselves

10/13/2022

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Charles Spurgeon wrote, “You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything else but Christ.”
We ask God to fill us but are we willing to empty ourselves so that He has something to fill? We cannot be full of Christ and full of worldly pleasures.
When our stomach is empty, we hunger for nourishment. When our spirit is empty of self, then we can hunger for Him. And when we hunger for Him, He “…will not allow the righteous to hunger…” He will fill us.
To know His fullness, our eyes must be fixed solely on Him, our ears must be attuned to hear only His voice, our hands must be empty to receive from Him, and our hearts must be set squarely on nothing but Him. We must lay everything else down.
Until we realize that earthly pleasures will ultimately and regularly bring disappointment, that they can disappear as quickly as a puff of smoke, we cannot see the need for the fullness of Christ nor do we have room for Him to fill us. So God will allow disappointments.
Those disappointments of life are God’s way of emptying us so that we can be filled with Him alone.
Until we realize that no relationship, no amount of wealth or fame or influence, can fully satisfy, we cannot know the fullness, the complete and total satisfaction, joy, and peace that can only be found in Christ.
Solomon summed up earthly pleasures and pursuits this way, “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Jesus said, “I am the true vine….Abide in Me…These things I have spoken so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:1-11)

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I've Been in the Valley

10/7/2022

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Did you ever feel the Lord doing something deep and extensive and revolutionary in your heart but you just can't put your finger on all of what it is? Do you sit in quiet with Him to discover it and feel the giddiness, like a child at Christmas, of waiting to see what He is doing in you? Can you feel it stirring as you go through the day? Does it captivate your thoughts as you lay awake in the early morning hours? That's where I have been these last couple of months. Well, that, and on vacation. (And it was wonderful too! (#40yearshitched)

In my next couple of entries here, I will be sharing where I’ve been, since some of you are asking, and what I've learned of God along the way.

Where have I been? I’ve Been In The Valley
For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
84How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
3 The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
4 How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!
They are ever praising You. Selah.
5 How blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion!
6 Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring;
The early rain also covers it with blessings.
7 They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them appears before God in Zion.
8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.
9 Behold our shield, O God,
And look upon the face of Your anointed.
10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!

I've been through some very long, deep, dark valleys these last couple of years. I've known fear, shame, heartbreak, loss, anger, and pain so great that I didn't think I would ever recover from it. I've felt as if I was living in an alternate universe and questioned my own thoughts, sanity, and even my faith. I made some of the biggest decisions I've ever had to make with little or no approval from my friends, those I went to for counsel, or family.
I went against "the grain", allowing myself to be in vulnerable positions but holding to the hope and promise that God had spoken to me, in prayer and by other means, about my situation.

When you face life's battles, you will get well-meaning, It-makes-sense, I-can-show-you-in-the-Bible-advice from those who love you and care deeply for your welfare. Even though I loved them for it, I knew that God was leading me in a different direction and that no one but me would have to live with the results of my decisions. Therefore, I had to make sure I obeyed God at all costs.

(In Acts 20, a similar thing happened to Paul. Those who were in the Spirit warned him of the dangers he would be facing if he went to Jerusalem but Paul knew in his spirit that it was the will of God to do so, even though much hardship and even death might await him.)
You see, 39 years ago my heart "found a house...even Your altars, O Lord of hosts." So even in this valley, I sought His voice and He spoke very loudly to me. He truly was my sun and shield in ways I had never known before.

I passed through the valley of Baca (weeping) and my tears became to me a spring. As one translation puts it, I DUG DEEP and found "a pleasant pool where others find only pain." With each step I took, I could say "Jesus is with me. I will not fear. I can trust Him” even though my knees were wobbling and my heart was trembling.

He took me from strength to strength as He gently guided me through the valley and into the light.

When my foot slipped, He caught me.

When my faith waned, He quickened my embattled spirit and refreshed my weary soul.

And when I finally said, "Lord, I'm done, I can't do this one more day", He said, "Ah, finally, I've been waiting on you to get your hands completely off of this situation so that I can do what I promised you." And He did just what He said He would do. Praise His Holy Name!

And that was the lesson that He wanted me so much to get. Although it was the hardest time of my life and one I never want to repeat, I would not now trade it for anything easier.

I learned that there are some things that the Lord can only get to us when we're in the valleys of life. We have to let go of all that we think we possess. I learned to treasure His workings by focusing on His Person instead of the problems. He put every part of my faith to the test. He picked my life apart. I didn't always pass the tests the first time, but fortunately, the Lord allows re-takes and He's a great study partner.

I learned that God is TRULY GOOD. HE IS! It was a process. I had to get to the revelation that 1. God is good. 2. God is good to me. 3. God is good at being God. (Thank you, Lysa Terkeurst)

No longer do I say it but in the back of my mind think, "Well then, why is this happening to me?" He's always up to something good even in the midst of the turmoil of life and the attacks of the devil.

As a Christian, you might be saying "DUH, I already know that." But for me, I found out that profession is not possession. It's not until life implodes that we truly find out what we possess as Christians. I thank God for all that I can possess in Him and that when I needed it, He got it to me. I'm not the easiest of students, but He is patient and LONGsuffering and eventually, the light came on in my stubborn heart and joy flooded my life.

I no longer fear valleys nor do I see them as I once did. He will always give "grace and glory" to those who walk with Him, no matter what path He has chosen for you to walk.

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God's Tracks

5/6/2022

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Does God leave tracks? According to Psalm 23, He does. In verse 3 it says, "He guides me in the paths of righteousness." That word, paths, can be translated tracks.

Tracks vs paths, what's the difference? Tracks indicate that something or someone has has already walked the way that you are going lately. They aren't very far ahead of you. They've already been where you are headed. God, Jehovah Jireh, the one who provides, sees and provides every provision that we will need as He goes before us. When we get to where He's already been, we lack nothing!

In this Psalm, the tracks lead us straight into the Valley of the Shadow of death. We need not fear, God walks WITH us! He comforts us, protects us, and feeds us there. We aren't in the Valley of Death, we're in the valley of the shadow of death. The thing about shadows is that they often cast a much bigger image than the actual object that is causing them, distorting their actual size and shape.

A few years ago, I was mowing and a shadow the size of a 747 jet swooped over my head. It surprised me so much that I ducked! I thought a plane must be flying too low or in trouble. When I looked up, I saw a Blue Heron soaring along the woods edge. The Heron's shadow was much larger than the actual bird. I thought a jet was crashing. I wonder if he laughed when he saw me duck in fear at his shadow?

Satan loves it when we look at the shadows and fear. In that valley, things loom large and dark. We must remember that behind every shadow is the light. Goodness, mercy, and the faithfulness of God will follow us all the days of our lives if we belong to Him, even if we are in a valley. David also said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom should I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life: Whom should I dread? (Ps. 118:27) In Psalm 139:12, He said "Even darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and Light are alike to you." Why? Because God is above it all! He sees what we cannot see. He knows what we will only find out as we walk though.

Are you in a valley? What should you do? Dig a well!

Psalm 84 says, "Blessed is the person whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the roads to Zion! Passing through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion."

One version I read says, "Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where other find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring." I love this!

Imagine finding the Brook of Blessing in the Valley of Tears, outpoured from the very hand of God! All we need to do is dig deep, hold tight, and keep walking. At the end of every dark valley, there is light. At the end of every shadow, there is the warmth of the sun. In and through and out of everything, there is God! Follow His tracks!

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In Just One Moment

4/2/2022

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Psalms 6-10

These verses reminded me of how quickly things can change in just a moment of time. In 2017, a prophecy was given to me telling me that my life was going to completely change. At the time, I doubted the words. I even feared the words, but as the years following unfolded, the truth of those words brought me comfort and hope because I found them in God's Word.

In these Psalms, David had suffered from the actions of his enemies for many nights. He laments in Ps. 6: 6-7 to the point of soaking his pillow in tears but then, He remembers the promises of God. He remembers that when the Lord hears, He responds and things change.

In Just One Moment...
-a dead soul lives
-rebellion becomes submission
-what was lost is found
-what was stolen is returned
-strangling fear becomes perfect peace

In Just One Moment...
-Everything changes
-Evil is returned to whence it came
-A hard heart is softened
-Lying words are exposed
-Righteousness is exalted
-Integrity is rewarded
-Patience becomes provision
-Light dispels darkness
-Faith becomes sight

Pray! We must always pray and never give up! Righteousness and integrity will be rewarded. Vindication will come. God answers and saves the upright in heart. Wickedness will not go unpunished. Justice will prevail. God pushes back the enemies of our soul and their end is shame and dismay, for that is the wage of rebellion. Our reward is goodness forevermore.

We will give thanks and tell of His wonders for He maintains every just cause. He will be a stronghold in trouble and oppression to those who trust Him completely and seek Him with a whole heart. He will not fail or disappoint. His ear is not deaf to our cry. His arm is not too short to reach out and help.

Our enemies are no match for our God. He fights in our place while we rest in His promise. We must pray, believe, trust, wait, and worship.

From the moment we cry, "Father, I am outnumbered and overpowered. HELP!", He moves. And when that answer reaches us where we are, everything changes in just one moment.

In Just One Moment...
-Jesus will stand in the clouds and call us home
-In the twinkling of an eye, we will be changed
-Time will be no more
-Sorrows will cease
-Fears will vanish
-Questions will be answered
-Wounds will be healed, pain forgotten
-We will see clearly, understand fully, comprehend completely
-We will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ
-We will be perfect
-Never again to know the pain of evil
-Never again to bear the stain of sin
-Never again to regret our past or fear the future
-Never again to worry, or question, or doubt
-All wrongs will be righted
-All injustice corrected
-All evil defeated
-All wickedness rewarded
-All promises fulfilled
-All will be well

In Just one Moment

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Peace In Tumultuous Times

10/12/2021

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I was listening to a song this morning called "I Give You Jesus". A line in the chorus is "He's the peace that passes all understanding." This verse became special to me back in 1999. We were involved in a devastating car accident that put 3 of my four children in ICU. Two of them experienced life altering injuries so the future was very uncertain. We were fortunate to be surrounded by praying, faith-filled friends who supported us. One thing that I remember specifically about that time is the inner peace that I experienced. As we watched monitors rise and fall, infections come and go, and hurdles try to hinder our race, it was as if those prayers were like a steel rod that went through my hips and supported me on either end. I literally felt the prayers. Never once was I afraid for my children. I was not fearful of how their lives might change or how all our lives might change as a result of their injuries. I even acknowledged that if we got to the hospital to find out they had died, God would see us through it. But you see, God had spoken to me about their futures when I prayed over them during naptimes. So there was this deep seated, lasting peace way down in my spirit. At first I thought I might be going crazy because common sense and what I saw other mothers experiencing that were in my same situation, told me that I should be panicked and devastated. But I wasn't. This I felt was what the Bible was talking about when it spoke of "peace that passes all understanding." It is that deep seated peace that is the foundation of your life and it won't make sense in your mind outside of the belief that it is God given.

Since the accident, I've been through some circumstances that did devastate me. I struggled and fought to find peace and in that struggle I felt that if I could just understand the "Why's" and "How's" of what was happening, then I could make some sense of them and have peace. Subconsciously, our humanness tells us that if we understand something, then we can, through cognitive means, affect or change it which in my case would mean I could get through it, come to terms with it, maybe even affect it in some way and find peace.

But understanding did not come. And peace was nowhere to be found. My life was totally out of control and there was nothing I could do about it except to remind myself to keep breathing. So I did the only thing I could do. I ran to Jesus. I ran hard and fast and plastered myself against Him and He wrapped His loving arms around me and told me something that was hard for me to accept. He told me that it wasn't necessary for me to understand right then. I just needed to listen, obey and trust Him. I just needed to believe what He had spoken to me and what I had spoken to others from the very beginning of all of the craziness. I just needed to believe that He would bring me through and that my life would be happy and fulfilled again and all that Satan had stolen from me would be returned. I realized that understanding what was going on in the natural was not going to change anything. Satan is the author of confusion. You can't make sense out of his insanity. I realized that only God could change things and I believed that He would.

He taught me to focus on and pray about the real source of my struggle. In reality what I was experiencing in my life was the result of a spiritual battle that was raging in the heavenlies. Ephesians 6:12 plainly tells us:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

That is a hard thing to remember when you are caught right smack in the middle of it and evil is lurking all around you. We tend to focus on people or circumstances. That's when we get into trouble. But if we discipline ourselves to look at things from God's perspective, there is always hope. He is always up to something good, even in the midst of the chaos. And we are never alone or left without direction and comfort. And He is ALL-mighty! Knowing that I stood on the side of righteousness and truth brought me great comfort and confidence.

At the scene of the accident I heard the doctor say that two of my children were unresponsive. At that time, I was being dragged out of my vehicle and was completely weak and wobbly. But when I heard that, all the days I had prayed for them flashed before my eyes. All the things God had shown me about His desires for them ran across my field of vision and a voice that was deep inside of me screamed in my ear, "that can't be!" Immediately I was in full control and I ran to them and prayed and rebuked the spirit of death hanging over my children. Of all the people that witnessed it, I was the most surprised.

This also happened to me just a few years ago as I was confronting someone about a situation that was clearly out of my control. Just as it had been at the scene of the accident, all the prayers I had prayed, all the work and sacrifice I had willingly given for the Lord, flashed across my mind and although I was seemingly just as helpless as I was in the field where I crashed with my children, I boldly declared that God would intervene on my behalf and change would come.

But as the situation went on and grew increasingly worse, I began to seek understanding above just standing in faith out of a need to relieve my own pain and to try to un-wedge myself from a situation where I felt that my life was being held hostage. I was stuck somewhere that I didn't want to be. I forgot that it's more important to focus on what's happening in me, what God is saying to me, than what was happening outside of me that I could not control.

From the very beginning, the Lord had given me Psalm 130:7-8 which says:

Israel, wait for the Lord; For with the Lord there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8 And He will redeem Israel From all his guilty deeds."

The phrase "abundant redemption" resonated in my soul. There were other things too. A prophetic word given to me about my life and how the Lord would provide. At the time, it didn't make sense but it all came flooding back in amazing accuracy as things unfolded before me. And also a prophecy that was given in church where the Lord assured me that He would breathe life into something that was dead, that HE alone was my source and only solution. These things, although they brought little understanding, sustained me when I focused on them instead of what was going on around me. There were many, many times of sweet fellowship with Jesus where I felt Him hiding me in the cleft of the rock as the storm and the battle raged all around me. Many nights I felt Him wrap me in Himself as I slept under the weighted blanket of His love. And each and every day, the Lord gave me promises from His Word instructing me in my prayers, comforting me in my sorrow and fear, and giving me courage to believe for what seemed impossible.

So today, as I listened to that song, I realized that peace is something I can have even when I don't understand. God's peace is higher and beyond all understanding. It is superior to understanding. Paul and Silas experienced this in prison. The three Hebrew children experienced it in the fiery furnace. Stephen experienced it as he was being stoned to death. The early church experienced it in the midst of the coliseum while lions tore away at their bodies as their spirits went on to Glory. Peace is God's provision, to be obtained through faith, in the most horrible times of life. Not only did Jesus die on the cross to bring about peace with God but also to give us peace IN God through the power of His Holy Spirit living inside us.

True peace comes through Christ alone. Hebrews talks of a sabbath rest. When Christ died on the cross, He stated, "It is finished." Everything that we need to have peace and rest in this life no matter our circumstances, was purchased there for us in that moment of His torment. Therefore, we can live in tumultuous times and have constant, deep peace within.

I feel peaceful at times without the Lord like when I settle in on the back porch with a good book, when I turn off my cell phone for a few hours, or when I walk in the woods and sit by a stream, but feelings of peacefulness are not true peace because feelings are fleeting, temporary, variable, and sporadic. They are dictated by our surroundings. They provide a provisional relief, but do not have the longevity nor depth of everlasting, constant peace that only comes from God.

True peace, God's peace, can only be found in a living, loving relationship with Jesus Christ and when you have that, peace is ever-present because the Prince of Peace now lives in you. His peace truly does pass all understanding, no matter what you are going through. It's a peace that doesn't make sense but it doesn't have to. It is far above the need to understand. Understanding resides in the mind of God and if we seek Him will come to us in His time and in His way, but until that time, there is peace.

If you do not have this peace in your life and would like to, comment below. I would love to talk to you about a personal relationship with the Prince of Peace. He said that "ye must be born again" to enter into His Kingdom of Peace. Would you like to join me there?

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Squirrels, Sin and Psalm 51

9/10/2021

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Squirrels, Sin and Psalm 51

The Squirrels
We have an overabundance of bird feeders at our house. Consequently we have an overabundance of squirrels. Now, if the squirrels ate like birds, I wouldn’t mind, but they don’t. They eat like squirrels. The term “squirrel proof” is an oxymoron. You see, squirrels are smart, patient and tenacious. There has not been a feeder invented that they can’t crack! I’m pretty sure that our house is known to the squirrel population as the Penn Hills buffet-where every day is free if you have a bushy tail. The staple finch feed provides a variety of delicacies. The suet packs a protein punch, and the fruit and nut adds just the right amount of sweet for dessert. The weekend special also includes the added delight of whole roasted peanuts in the shell, perfect for eating or hoarding.

So, to remedy this problem we put out a trap to catch the little guys for relocation to a less gluttonous environment-for their own good, of course. At first, they were leery of the trap sitting on the deck but they did notice the BIG…FAT…roasted nuts that were at the very back of the weird wire box. For the first day, they circled the trap, sniffing and examining. It seems that somehow they knew that going inside wasn’t a good idea. The second day, they sat and watched as the blue jays flew in and out, each time grabbing a nut and eating it right in front of them. Eventually, they got braver, (Hey, if the blue jays can do it, why can’t we?), and put a paw or two just inside the door. Finally, one of them took the dare and went all the way in, grabbed a nut and ran back out. You see, the pressure plate is a little bent so it sometimes takes repeated pressure to spring it.

One day, it happened. Two squirrels, who were hanging out together, came by the trap. One of them went in, grabbed the nut and BAM!, the door slammed shut. Panic ensued! The trapped squirrel was all over the 6 sides of that cage. The free one ran around the outside and over the top trying to find a way to open the door. Eventually, everyone calmed down a bit, and the two squirrels sat nudging each other through the cage wire, appearing to try to comfort each other and distressed because there was no escape. It was almost heartbreaking to watch.

We drove the captured squirrel out of the neighborhood, across the interstate and into the nearby game lands and let it go. Several days later, we caught his friend and some others and reunited them. I’m pretty sure it’s them that wave to me each morning from the walnut trees that grow by the creek where I walk.

Sin
Sin is very similar to the squirrel trap. The devil will bring something or someone along. It may not start out as sinful but over time and given too much attention can become enticing in a wrong way. The devil is smart. It looks real good but that inner voice warning us of actually stepping into the trap keeps us at bay and out of harm’s way. But given time and right circumstances, we begin to see others doing it without consequence and eventually we just give in and enter the trap worn down by the temptation and our time-weakened resolve. We may even get away with it for a little while, but once the Devil knows that we are all in, BAM!, the door shuts and we are trapped in our sin almost before we realize what is happening. The Devil is patient.

Sin is deceitful. It weakens our conscience by slowly deluding us into thinking that wrong is right. We are warned to not be ignorant of the devil’s schemes, to be on the alert, and to not be fooled over and over again in scripture but our enemy is a formidable one. Today especially, we must realize that our culture lends itself to this kind of a morally eroding environment and we must guard our hearts against it at all costs. The devil does not have a moral compass.

Psalm 51
David had this very same experience in his sin with Bathsheba. Then he committed murder to cover up his sin! Does it get any worse? And yet, David was a man after God’s own heart who had faithfully served and loved the Lord up until that time and who still loved the Lord. We don’t know for sure why David was in the palace instead of out on the field with his troops. Was he tired or battle weary? Was he ill? Was he burdened with the responsibilities of being King or knowing that the Messiah would come through Israel? Or perhaps he had grown comfortable with having the comforts of life. Whatever the reason, David got himself into quite a pickle. This did not surprise the Lord. He appointed David knowing beforehand that this would happen. He did not take his throne from him afterwards either. And in fact, David will have a prominent position in the new heavens and the new earth. However, David lived with some of the consequences of his fall for the rest of his life. Consequences are good deterrents when the Devil decides to give it another go in your life.

(As a side note, interestingly enough, Saul’s sin DID cost him the throne, even though in today’s world, his sin was much less awful and was even done appearing to be service to the Lord. Hmmm… food for thought and study. Perhaps God judges sinfulness according to what’s in our hearts and not just by the things that happen in the weakness of our flesh or the arrogance of our own thoughts.)

But thank God, HE is tenacious! He does not let go of His own easily. He is a God of redemption. Like he did with the prodigal son, who was left with nothing but his sin and a dung heap, God waited until the appointed time to confront David. And from Psalm 51, we know he repented.

In verse 10, he asks the Lord to “Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me.” David realized that without a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, he would likely sin again. Actually, that verse can be translated “Create for me a new heart.”

Sins of the flesh and presumptuous sin are two different things. Willingly sinning is presumptuous sin, evidence of an unregenerate heart, and it separates us from God . Sins of the flesh are stronger than our own resolve, no matter how sincere it may be. Addicts of any kind know this all too well. So why did everything work out for David and cost Saul his life?

David realized that his heart was dirty. He regretted sinning against God by sinning with Bathsheba. He knew he needed a heart change in order to bring about a behavior change.
He realized that he couldn’t do what was needed by his own resolve, a 12 step program, or an accountability partner. This is simply works and works cannot change a heart.
He went to the only one who could give him a new heart and humbly submitted himself to God’s will and way. God did not disappoint. He forgave, cleansed and restored David to his rightful place in the kingdom.

David also realized that in order to continue in his re-instated position in God’s family, he would need a steadfast spirit. A new heart and steadfast spirit speak of the salvation and sanctification that we receive through Calvary. It is then that the Holy Spirit has latitude in our lives to keep us and change us. If our faith is in any other thing-our past successes or callings, our knowledge of the Word of God, our lengthy prayer times, our reputation in the Christian community, our spiritual activities, our work for the church, our character, any other thing-we are doomed to fail. Even the Baptism in the Holy Spirit will not save us or keep us from sin. Only the cross of Christ can do that. If our faith is in what Christ accomplished, and what He pronounced as finished on the cross, then it will come to fruition in our lives. Faith is the victory!

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I'm Resting on His Laurels

9/6/2021

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Resting on His Laurels (Hebrews 4)
4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works
9 Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.
For the Christian, every day should be a Sabbath rest. We’re resting on His laurels. In a negative connotation, to rest on your laurels means that you become complacent or lazy basking in the memories of former glories. However, since Christ has already accomplished all that can be done or needs to be done, we rest in His victory. We rest in His completed work. There is no higher achievement that we can obtain concerning our salvation or eternal destination.

God rested (ceased from His work) on the 7th day. He ceased because He was finished. All of human history was written and finished. The history of every single human being was conceived and settled in the mind of God. Everything that was to be created was created. Every twist and turn of history was seen and known by Almighty God. God saw all the way through to the end from the beginning and when He was finished, He rested. He wasn’t tired. He ceased. He was finished.

And because God is finished then we also are to rest in His finished work. We do this by resting in the salvation of Christ and Him crucified. This is all that the Apostle Paul sought to know because in Christ is everything we will ever need for salvation.

For many years as a Christian, I believed that one could lose their salvation because of sin. I still believe that, but through my experiences the last couple of years, I have come to know and experience the tenacious love of God. There is a difference between temptation, presumptuous sin, and sins of the flesh. I realized that “most sinners are more lost than they know and most Christians are more saved than they know”-Loren Larson.

For years, I believed that one sin could separate me from God and that repentance from that one sin would reconnect me to Him. As time moved on and I sinned and repented, I imagined that there must just be a hole worn through my page in the Book of Life from all the erasing and replacing of my name. I worried what would happen if the Lord returned in between my times of weakness- where my own resolve was not enough to keep me from being overpowered by the temptation- and my times of repentance. I have found that I’m more saved than I know, that there is provision for me anytime I sin, even if that sin has not come to light in my conscience yet. My faith in Calvary positions me in Christ by believing in His finished work. All that is left to do is to rest.

The reason for my trouble, both sinning and knowing my standing with God, was a result of a misunderstanding- or rather an incomplete understanding- of the Cross of Christ. I realized that Christ was not as precious to me as I knew He should be and that puzzled me. Unfortunately, I know many Christians who struggle in the same way. It’s a miserable place to live, there’s no victory over sin or temptation, there’s condemnation from the devil, and a general sense of doom, pressure and fear. The good news is that it’s totally unnecessary!

When Paul spoke of the Sabbath rest, he was telling us that spiritual, emotional, and physical rest is ours. It is based on Christ’s works ours. We couldn’t “do” to gain salvation and we can’t “do” to keep it. We are saved through Christ and kept through Christ, thus Christ is and will ever be the center of both our salvation AND our sanctification. Nothing comes to us from God unless it comes through Christ’s finished work on Calvary, thus Christ is the most important object of our faith and is what opens the door for the Holy Ghost to work in our lives. Think about it, all scripture points to Christ. All authority has been given to Christ. Christ now reigns and will forever reign. Christ is central and supreme in everything.

This does not mean that we “do” nothing but what we do is in response to what Christ has already done and is doing in our hearts and lives. These are the works that will remain for all eternity because they are authored and fueled by the finished work of Christ in our lives. So many Christians labor in spiritual activity to maintain favor with God and to increase their spirituality. Unfortunately, you can’t pray enough, read enough, fast enough, or serve others enough to gain anything. Even what rewards we do gain through following the leading and instruction of the Holy Spirit will be cast at Jesus’s feet because it is ALL Him! It was done for Him and by Him in us. The number of crowns we receive at judgement will not affect our salvation or standing with God at all. Jesus told the disciples to not rejoice in that the spirits were subject to them but to rejoice that their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They could DO nothing to be included in that book except to put their faith in what Jesus did on Calvary.

Our only labor is the fight of faith that must be fought to stay in the rest that was provided us through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. We fight against the attacks of the enemy in our minds that try to convince us that there is something WE need to do or not do in order to stay in the place where God finds pleasure in us. It’s not by works. Our works are as filthy rags. It is by faith alone. The fight of faith that is talked about in scripture is not to gain anything; it is to keep what we gained freely through Jesus. We didn’t work for it and we can’t work to keep it. We gained it through simple faith, we keep it through simple faith.

I’m not saying that reading, praying, and fasting are not important, they are, but they will do nothing to either effect or increase us in salvation or in our legal and right standing with Christ who has now justified us once and for all. We are saved, justified and sanctified completely and totally by Christ’s work on Calvary. HIS WORK!

Holy Ghost guided spiritual activity merely opens our hearts to allow the Holy Spirit latitude to work in our lives to bring our performance up to par with our position in God as the changes He makes in us spur us on to good works. That is the process that most call sanctification. There have been many definitions of sanctification through church history but I believe that we are sanctified at salvation simply because the Bible says we are. (1 Corinthians 7:14) It is the work of the cross. However, there is a gradual sanctification that follows as we allow the Holy Spirit to work to change us into a representative of our new position. He can only do this because we are already sanctified through our salvation and justification.

This has been eye opening to me and oh, what peace it has brought to me. As God rested in His work because it was finished, we also need to rest in our strivings because there is no work that needs to be done by us for salvation. It was all accomplished by Christ. For us to think that any works that we do affects our salvation or our standing with God is faulty because there is nothing in us or about us that could do that, ever! If there was, God would not have sacrificed His Son the way He did. By thinking that we need to somehow work to please God is a sign that we don’t believe that the Cross of Christ was enough. It is to believe that “It is finished”-almost, which essentially is unbelief. The resurrection is proof that God accepted the Christ’s sacrifice once and for all. It is how Jesus could pass through the heavens and stand before God and be declared the perfect sacrifice for all of mankind. Oh, what a debt of gratitude we owe the Lord Jesus Christ!

This does not give us license to sin. We will be judged for our deeds but the pressure over salvation is over folks. When we believe that Christ finished it all, we believe that He effectively and forever defeated sin AND IT’S POWER IN OUR LIVES! This is how we can live in victory and walk in holiness. This is why we find joy in our Christian service. This is how we live a life of rest in God. Everyday is sabbath day!

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Daily Bread with a Bit of Jam

8/17/2021

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Today was mowing day. Normally I pop in my MP3 player to mow. However, it wasn't as charged as it needed to be so I found myself pondering what I had read yesterday and was conversing with the Holy Spirit as I worked.

I was considering the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus' garment and received healing. The Holy Spirit began to call my attention to the woman. Scripture says that she was saying to herself "if I only touch His cloak, I will get well." The object of her faith was not the cloak of Jesus. It was HIM and the power that she believed He possessed. He did not disappoint her.

Her faith was not in a religious system. It was not a combination of medicine and religion. It was not in some kind of symbolism or religious tradition. She didn't worship His cloak! She had heard about Jesus! She had learned that HE had the power to heal and that He was so powerful that all she needed to do was to connect to anything that was connected to Him and she would be healed. Wow! Do I see Jesus that way? Do I really believe that HE can do anything?

The Holy Spirit began to challenge me to consider who or what my faith is in. Modern religion tells us that if WE do this or that, God will answer. If we pray more, if we speak in tongues more, if we fast, or if we find a scripture and repeat it to ourselves a million times a day, then God will hear and answer our prayer. Did you notice what pronoun stands out there? WE! It's not WE! It's HIM! Anything WE do is simply works if the object of our faith is not HIM! HE is our healing. HE is everything that we need. It is HIS work on Calvary that gives us access to all the spiritual blessings of scripture, including salvation and healing. It has never and will never depend on us! We cannot earn blessings by doing religious activities or even by becoming "more spiritual." All it takes is faith in what HE accomplished by dying on the cross. Boy, does that ever relieve the pressure of thinking that there is something that we have to do outside of having simple faith and trust in the love of God and the finished work of Jesus. That's why He said "IT IS FINISHED!" It is! It sounds too simple. But it is just that simple, yet it seems a hard thing for humans to grasp because it not only removes us from any responsibility or control but it also puts us in the humble position of being needy and without any resources of our own. We can't "help" the Lord answer our prayers. But we do have to fight sometimes to believe. We rely completely on Jesus to save us, but after that, we stop relying on Him for our sanctification and enter into the realm of religious works. You see, there are religious works for us to do according to the book of Peter, but any sanctifying work IN us is solely accomplished through faith by the Holy Spirit. We cannot change ourselves, we cannot change our hearts, even after we are saved but we sure do give it the old college try. It will always end in failure. Only Christ, through the Holy Spirit can change the heart of man.

Our only fight is to fight the fight of faith, that is to keep Jesus as the only object of our faith. To put our trust in God to do what He said He would do and to believe that what Jesus did makes it all possible. This, my friends, is why Jesus should be the most precious thing to us. Not only did we need Him for salvation, but we need Him every single day for our sanctification too. The Holy Spirit does nothing in our lives unless our faith is in the one who already accomplished it for us. Christ conquered the sin nature so that it no longer has to reign in us, as it did before salvation. Now the Holy Spirit can work it in us. We only need to allow Him access which only comes through faith in Christ and Him crucified.

That is a challenging thing in today's modern church. There is so much religion and religious activity, none of which changes anything for us on a personal level. Only when we are looking unto Jesus, the author AND THE FINISHER of our faith can we live a life that glorifies God and guarantees us victory!

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Heavenly Hay

Christ in YOUR Christmas Part 2

Christ in YOUR Christmas Part 1

To Know Christ in His Fullness, We Must First be Empty Ourselves

I've Been in the Valley

God's Tracks

In Just One Moment

Peace In Tumultuous Times

Squirrels, Sin and Psalm 51

I'm Resting on His Laurels

Daily Bread with a Bit of Jam

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