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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!

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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Daily Bread

8/16/2021

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A friend gave me a bread recipe. She titled it "Charlie's Everyday Bread." It was a simple recipe, a bread without fanfare or pomp, suitable for supper or morning toast. It wasn't loaded with seeds or grains, not eye-catching like rye/pumpernickel swirl, and not delectable like cinnamon raisin. Yet, its simplicity made it useful in so many ways.

God's Word is also called "The Bread of Life." Jesus and the Word are one and His Words in scripture will never leave us wanting. They feed our spirit, guide our thoughts, and command our emotions. He is waiting to feed you. He has something for you. It may not be earth shattering to some, but it will surely sustain you for today. Oh how we need Him every day!

As part of my reading today, I read the story of Peter walking on the water. I always sit up and take notice of Peter in scripture because I identify with him on many levels. He was zealous, sincere, adventurous, transparent, impulsive and mostly blundered his way through life, living fully by learning from his many mistakes.

It was Peter who corrected the Lord and was subsequently rebuked. It was Peter who cut off Malchus's ear out of his intense loyalty and in defense of the Lord. It was Peter who boasted of his loyalty and then denied the Lord three times.

It was also Peter who wept bitterly over his faults and failures. It was Peter who immediately wanted to walk on the water with the Lord and believed that the Lord could make the water hold him. It was Peter that the Lord mentioned in His first appearance after the resurrection. And it was Peter who received the name "The Rock" from Jesus in reference to building His church. (Sorry Dwayne. Peter had it first.) It was to Peter that God first revealed the inclusion of the Gentiles in His Kingdom when He gave Him a vision and proclaimed all animals clean. And it was Peter who guided the Roman church after the ascension. And tradition reports that it was Peter who requested to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus Christ.

As I read the story this morning, a few things I had never thought of before stuck out to me.

~The first was the idea of "gradual sinking." The Bible said that Peter BEGAN to sink. I know ships sink gradually, but people? Yet, I noticed that this sinking began when Peter took his eyes off the supernatural Christ and started looking at the terrifying storm. When we lose sight of Jesus, the object of our faith, doubt, fear, and unbelief begin to creep in. We must keep our eyes always on the one who is with us in the storm and believe that the storm will not overtake us.

~After rescuing Peter from drowning, the Bible says that Jesus and Peter walked back together to the boat. As they walked, the storm was still raging. It did not stop until they had re-entered the boat. Yet, Peter who had just a minute before been sinking into the depths of the sea, was at peace. The storm had not changed. The wind had not died down. The waves had not become smaller. Everything was the same except that Peter held tightly to the hand of Jesus and he was at peace. So when a storm develops in our lives without warning, we must hold out our hand to Jesus and say "Lord, save me" and then hold tightly to His hand until the storm passes and we have safely reached the other side.

~After the boat reached its destination, many of the townspeople came to Jesus bringing the sick and feeble to Him for healing "beseeching Him that they might only touch His garment." Sound familiar? Just a few days before, the woman with the issue of blood had been healed simply by touching the hem of Jesus' garment. That story must have proceeded Jesus and the disciples to the town where they were docked. Our testimonies, no matter how big or small are important. We MUST tell them! These are what bolster the faith of others to believe. When Peter and Jesus reached the boat, the disciples exclaimed "Of a truth, surely you are the Son of God!" The townspeople, upon hearing of the woman's healing also knew that Jesus had power to meet their most pressing needs. "And as many as touched were made perfectly whole." Although the Bible doesn't record it, I imagine that those who were healed also went away proclaiming the goodness, the power, and the person of Christ.

I was challenged to go and tell! Tell of the things that Jesus has wrought in my life. Recall the storms that He has brought me through. Recount the times that He touched and healed me in my body, my mind and my spirit. How will they hear if we do not tell? No story is too small, too ordinary, to plain if the hand of God is what brought it about.

I pray that my dose of daily bread for today will somehow touch and bless you today. Tell me, what did God feed you this morning when you sat at His banquet table? He has prepared something just for you, just for today. It may be simple, but it will fill you and provide all you need for today.

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Ignore the Pecking Crows

4/26/2021

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I was outside today and saw a hawk flying in the sky. Three crows were dive bombing him, disturbing his flight, causing him to weave and bob to avoid their vicious attacks. He endured their harassments for a short time but then quickly began to circle, spiraling upward as he went until he reached an altitude so high that the crows refused to go there. There he soared and soared, freely gliding, dipping and rising. It looked musical as if the wind through his wings was producing a song of freedom, of deliverance, and peace.

This scenario is not unfamiliar to the child of God. The devil comes to mock, accuse, and lie about the child of God. He is like a crow, pecking, trying to keep us grounded to get hung up in the muck and mire of life.

It’s then we remember that Christ Himself now causes us to rise above the little irritants, yes I said little irritants of life, because the devil has been defeated by the work of Christ on the cross and has put the enemy under our feet! His attacks are futile, at best. Praise God!

So we can sing with the Israelites, “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted: The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.” Ex 15:1 And He has “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ep 2:6 “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Col 3:1

Second Samuel 22:49 tells us that God ”will also bring me out from my enemies; You also raise me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent person.” So as the devil attacks, God causes us to rise above and causes us to soar with eagle’s wings.
So SOAR, child of God. Don’t look at your enemies or those who are coming against you. Look up at the one who is seated on the right hand of Almighty God and RISE. RISE up to be seated with Him! He is your vindication, your victory and your very great reward!

Isaiah 40:31
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

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We've Moved Too Far From The Cross

2/8/2021

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After nearly 30 years at the same church, we are church hunting. To make things more difficult, we pastored the church that we left, of course, so finding a church has proven be a little more tricky, so we have been traveling around quite a bit to different churches, even trying different denominations. I've been surprised by what I'm hearing.

I hear a lot of songs about Jesus, sermons where His name is mentioned, but hardly any preaching on Jesus and I have to wonder, who is Jesus to these folks? He seems to get no more than lip service. I've heard that sin is just a general term, a condition we all have so that's okay-even to be expected. We're told that we're a mess and that's okay with no mention of the victory afforded us by the cross of Christ. We "manage" everything the Devil throws at us, but is life meant to be managed or conquered? Did not Christ conquer sin and evil? Did He not win the victory so that we could live in peace and as overcomers? Isn't that what His Word promises us? And repentance is almost romanticized as some change of heart that we make where we just decide one day to quit running from God and start running to Him. There's no mention of Godly sorrow, which is, most notably, a precursor to repentance.

2 Cor 7:10 God designed us to feel remorse over sin in order to produce repentance that leads to victory. This leaves us with no regrets. But the sorrow of the world works death. If we do not understand the true nature, cause and effect of sin, repentance can be shallow, which is not true repentance at all and so we continue on in mediocrity and defeat.

For years, I have tried to settle something in my heart. I've known Christians who were in their 80's who have all their lives moved deeply and powerfully in the Spirit whose only testimony at testimony time is sharing about the day that Jesus saved them. With tears streaming down their faces, they retell of their salvation experience of decades ago as if it happened yesterday. I had to ask myself, does salvation mean that much to me? To be honest, there were many years that I didn't feel so moved about the cross and what Jesus did there because I, like many others had moved on past the cross and into the deeper things of the Spirit. And I've realized that my faith had wandered from Jesus, His Cross and all that He accomplished there to trusting in MY faith, MY confession, MY works. It's a subtle transition, but oh, so dangerous. I realized that by leaving the cross, I had grown malnourished and weak. I was not walking in victory and my prayers seemed to be weak and pathetic, unlike what they used to be. In some ways, I became the Devil's punching bag and instead of punching back ( power provided by the Cross), I just covered up and prayed that it would stop.

With all the extra time I have had the last year, (thank you Covid-19), I've spent a lot of time reading scripture and I'm seeing that the whole book points to Christ and what He accomplished on the cross. I'm fearing that the church has moved too far from the cross and we're missing out. And if we're not getting it, there's no hope for the world.

hear a lot of sermons on peripheral issues (mostly that talk of my part in the Christian life, but not Christ's part in me living for Christ) and few that just teach and exalt Christ's sacrifice, or His healing power. Calvary just seems to be "the given" in every sermon. I've heard little on the baptism of the Holy Spirit which scripture says is necessary power for witnessing and available to ALL believers. Not once has there been prayer for believers to receive this necessary tool. Last days preaching isn't even last, it's non-existent except to mention our need for revival. As far as sanctification, I've heard what it looks like, but not how it happens. And I've never been reminded that the cross of Jesus Christ and what it accomplished is just as important for my sanctification as it was for my salvation I come away from services pondering the scriptures used and wondering how they used them without mentioning the main point of the passage. This is dangerous ground. It's changing "the gospel."

Christ and the cross should never be seen as only a starting point. Isn't it so human to be thrilled with something, until it grows old or outdated and then we "move on" to deeper, more practical subjects. I see this as a danger especially in Pentecostal circles. The cross of Christ is not a stepping stone. He's the Cornerstone. He is the foundation and culmination of all history, past, present, and future and is the central point of all that has been and will be. He is our destination. It is His blood that gives us access to God. All and every blessing we receive through the Holy Spirit comes ONLY because of what Christ did at Calvary. And in the end, all things will be summed up in HIM!

Eph. 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, 10 regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

John 17:1 Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, 2 just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

Eph. 1:19b These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

All things start, end and center on Jesus. He is the pinnacle of everything. All praise goes Him. All power and authority are His. All things are subject to Him. There's no higher place than Him. We must be found in Him to have access to God. God looks for His Son before hearing prayer or bestowing any type of blessing. I believe that God is totally interested in how we think of and treat His Son. If we diminish Him or cut Him out as we move on to bigger and better things, I believe that God does the same to us because God is all about His Son and what He did for us. If He doesn't see the blood, He doesn't hear our prayers. Jesus, His blood, His sacrifice is precious and essential in having access to God so what He did for us must also remain essential in our minds.

Even now, we need Jesus. He lives to intercede for us. The intercession of Jesus is the constant reminder in heaven that we are no longer children of wrath, but are bought with the blood sacrifice that once and for all satisfied the law, satisfied God's wrath on sin and took our punishment. His intercession is our peace as we travel forward from the point of salvation through His on-going sanctifying work in our lives.

Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, oh, forgive!” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die.”
Charles Wesley, Arise my Soul Arise

Don't use the Savior, treasure Him. Honor Him. Worship Him. Don't move away from the cross. Keep your mind stayed on Christ and what He did and why He had to do it. He's not a peripheral subject. We need Him still. We get no prayer answers unless prayed in His name and He is involved in every answer.

Do you look for Christ is scripture when you read? Are you asking, "what does this have to do with Jesus?" T. Austin Sparks wrote, "We are not trying to make Him bigger than He is, but we are trying to reach His real dimensions; and the need of the Lord's people is to have a new apprehension of the greatness of their Christ, a new appreciation of the Son of God's love-and what a mighty, majestic, glorious, wonderful Son He is-and then to remember that unto us that Son is given. "

Truly, I know so little of Christ. I don't know about you but I pray often that not one drop of His precious blood would be wasted in my life. I want all that He died to give me and all that He desires me to know of Him. And so, I stay close to the cross because it is the constant reminder of where I have been and where I am headed.

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Good Gifts: Answered Prayer/Red Letter Journey Stop #2

8/12/2020

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“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:7-11

This passage is my next stop on my red-letter journey (just reading the words of Jesus). I had committed to read only scripture and nothing else except my concordance. I do this several times a year. I love other’s words but I love The Word the most! Some days, I just hug it to my chest and cry because it’s life to me. The first time I did this was when I was pregnant with my 2nd child.

I was not able to have children. I was miraculously healed as I sat by myself with the Word in my living room. (That’s a story for another day.) After my first child was born, I had two miscarriages and I have to admit that it threw me for a loop. Didn’t God fix my body? Why was I having miscarriages? Did He renege on His promise? Did He change His mind? Did He change?

A few years later, I sat down to read my Bible. I had recently finished a book about generational curses and had seen some things in it that spoke to me which I had committed to prayer. When I opened my Bible, a promise calendar I had received in the mail fell out so I decided to read the promise for that day. It was from 2 Samuel 22:20-22.

“He also brought me forth into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
“The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
“For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not acted wickedly against my God.

At that moment, it really didn’t mean anything to me. Later that day, I went to the doctor because I had been feeling flu-ish for a while. I was completely shocked when the doctor told me I was pregnant. Now normally, I would have been afraid because of the previous two pregnancies but instead, I felt a sweet peace and that verse echoed through my mind and I felt sure that God was promising me this child.

At about 8 weeks, I started to spot as I had the previous two pregnancies and the doctor informed me that my placenta was detaching and there was nothing they could do. I saw it on the sonogram. If it continued, I would lose the baby. Again, that verse echoed through my mind and I felt an overwhelming sense of peace.

At about 14 weeks, we traveled to Illinois to attend a Campus Pastor’s retreat. The second day there, I started to bleed heavily and passed a clot the size of a small saucer. My husband rushed me to the nearest medical center. They informed me that I was having a miscarriage, and transferrered me to the nearest hospital about 30 miles away. I refused to let the ambulance leave until my husband retrieved my Bible from the car where I had left it when we arrived at the emergency room. All the way to the hospital, I hugged 2 Samuel 22 to my chest and reminded God of what He had said to me. At the hospital, I received the same diagnosis from the gynecologist who saw me. There was no heartbeat and too much blood. Then something just rose up in me and I sat up on the bed, looked that doctor right in the eye, stuck my finger in his face and said, “I don’t care what you say. God promised me this baby and I’m having it when it’s due!” And then I laid back down. Well the doctor didn’t quite know what to think (and frankly, neither did I because I didn’t see that coming at all! It just came out!) He ordered an internal sonogram to take a look and prove to me that he was right in his diagnosis before committing me to the nearest mental facility. He came to my room afterwards with a puzzled look on his face. “You did not lose the baby. It’s just a really active one. It’s literally bouncing off the walls, going from side to side. That is why we couldn’t find a heartbeat. Furthermore, your placenta is perfectly attached and there is no scar tissue or any signs of bleeding. I really don’t understand this.” Needless to say, my second daughter was the only one of my four children that was born on her due date just as I had said and just as God had promised. When she was born, I sent a birth announcement and a letter with the plan of salvation to the doctor.

Not every story turns out this well though, does it? Not all of my stories have. And if you’re like me, you might ask the Lord “Why?” It seems that there is a disconnect somewhere because this scripture and many others clearly promise that if you ask, seek and knock, believe, and ask according to His will, you will receive what you’re asking, seeking and knocking for. So what is missing? Did something get missed in the translation?

This is where the rubber hits the road in the Christian life, isn’t it? When things happen that seem to us contrary to what the Word says and we have no explanation. When we pray and pray for something good and it doesn’t come to pass. Well meaning people might just tell us that God is sovereign, everything happens for a reason and He knows best, and just to trust Him. That sounds so noble and there is some truth in that, but after so many times of repeating this mantra, a subtle distrust, an underlying suspicion of God will develop. The scripture above tells me that I should be delighted when God answers my prayers but I shouldn’t be surprised. I believe God really meant what He said in the A-S-K guarantee and is just looking to show Himself strong, to show off a little, just for me. He’s looking to delight me, as a good father does.

And here lies the dilemma. Sometimes what God says doesn’t happen for me. It might happen for others, but sometimes it doesn’t happen for me. So instead of just letting it go and setting myself up for it to happen again, I want to know why. Obviously, the problem lies with me. I want to know why because I believe that God meant what He said and that He is perfectly capable and wanting to prove Himself to me, and His Word trustworthy.

To glibbly say that God is sovereign just doesn’t cut it for me. If God’s sovereignty means that God is going to do what God is going to do, then what is the purpose of prayer? Why is there so much instruction in the Word concerning prayer if our prayers are not going to make a difference? Sometimes our prayer experiences make God look more schizophrenic than like the good father mentioned in the passage above. The distrust that builds causes us to neglect prayer or to quit praying altogether. Except when we’re in church. Or someone asks us to pray. Or we are desperate. Oh, we would never admit it out loud. It sounds too blasphemous. We just let life bowl us over instead of causing us to ask hard questions in search of the truth. And God gets lost or mis-represented in the shuffle.

Asking, seeking and knocking prayer is not some form of spiritual exercise to keep us busy. It’s not just some religious thing that we do because God tells us to. And it certainly was never meant to be an exercise in taking a shot in the dark! He has purpose in it and there is power in it, if we do it His way!

God does not hear every prayer. Uh oh, I think I probably just kicked someone’s sacred cow. But it’s true. If our hearts are not right before God and others, He will not hear our prayers. If we are not born again, if we have unforgiveness towards someone, if we are mistreating others, God will not hear or listen to our prayers. This is step one. If this describes you, stop right here and make it right, whatever it is or your prayers will not be heard or answered by God.

Step 2: Remember Honi? Remember how he was criticized for putting a demand on God? Remember how God answered and even adjusted His answer to meet Honi’s demands? Could it be that Honi was not being a spoiled brat but was actually acting in great faith? Isn’t it faith that moves the heart and hand of God? Jesus couldn’t resist faith. He never denied a faith-filled request-not once. What is faith? What does it look like in prayer? Is it simply an acknowledgement that God exists or does it go much deeper than that? How are faith and prayer related? Could it be that prayer takes faith and faith puts a demand on God? Could it be that prayer is more than just asking God for something, but actually expecting that because He is good and keeps His Word that He will give us what we asked for?

We may never understand everything about how prayer works in the Kingdom of God until we are living in the age to come. Still, there is plenty that the Bible says can happen, should happen, and that happened in past history that is not happening in my life. If God is no respector of persons, then that tells me that it's possible in my life as well. It seems to me that there is alot of prayer going on in the world and very little happening that we can see. I don't believe that prayer was meant solely to be an exercise in waiting, or patience, or blind trust. I think prayer is for the purpose of seeing results, of seeing God's Kingdom on earth as it was intended when Christ brought it here. This is what turns the head of the skeptical, unbelieving sinner.

Now I know that by now, your religious alarm bells may be going off! Oh no! Not that name it-claim it, blab it-grab it faith stuff! But just hang with me! If we want to have God's power in prayer, then we better understand God’s rules of prayer. We had better understand what scripture really says about prayer. Try reading the red letters and doing them! Go ahead! Experiment. Even if it makes you step out of your comfort zone! (Swimming upstream is never easy!) Wrestle with the parts that are hard or are not your experience. Be willing to take responsibility when the fault lies with you and make adjustments. If these red letters are not a reality, ask God why? Don’t we want to have all that Jesus bled and died for us to have? Don’t we want to live in the power and blessing of the Kingdom of God that was ushered in with the coming of Christ? I don’t want one drop of His precious blood to be wasted on my ignorance. I don't want the Holy Spirit to be inactive in my prayer life. If there is power available for me to live and see God’s power in my life and the lives of others, I want it! Don't you?

Step 3: Faith-our part in the prayer process. This is our next stop on this red-letter journey.

Below: My little miracle baby today!

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Players, Ponderings,and the Possibilities of Prayer/Red-Letter Journey Stop #1

7/30/2020

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I’ve been doing a lot of pondering lately. As I thought about the account of Moses and the children of Israel in the desert, I pondered how the Israelites, having just been delivered from the oppression of Egypt, having just come through the Red Sea on dry land, and after spending 3 days sanctifying themselves in anticipation and preparation for meeting God Himself, could so quickly get to the place of worshipping a pagan image. How could they dance under the shadow of Mt. Sinai at the same time God was meeting with Moses, celebrating amidst the noise, smoke, fire and thunder of God's very presence? And why are we so prone to forget and wander from God, forgetting all that He has done and putting our trust in everything but Him?

I pondered on what true conversion and salvation looks like, how the Bible defines it, and how it is necessary for citizenship in the Kingdom of God (but not necessarily the modern definition of church). This was after reading a question posed by my Pastor when he raised the question of the difference between being a follower of Jesus and being a fan of Jesus. I pondered the difference between the church of God and the Kingdom of God. (More to come on that too!)

But today, after reading just the red letters of my Bible, I want to begin to broach the topic of prayer answers, or lack thereof, of asking and receiving, of faith and doubt, of the role players in prayer, and the possibilities in prayer.

Haven’t we all asked the “Whys?” of unanswered prayer and hard circumstances? Why God? Why this? Why now? Why me? I know I have. I don’t particularly think that it’s wrong to ask God questions, however, I do think it’s wrong to question God, to question His ability, motives and His methods. That only leads to bitterness, doubt and unbelief and is a dangerous place. Yet, at times, things happen that cause us to grow suspicious of what God is doing. His ways are higher than ours, His thoughts massively deeper than ours, and are done with an eternal purpose (a Kingdom purpose) in mind which may tax our ability to understand His eternal idea in the temporal. And although I do believe that God is sovereign, I don’t use that excuse to neglect my investigation of why things happen to me and what God wants me to learn, grow in, or change as a result. I don’t allow myself to think that I have no control of my own life because it is obvious from scripture that our lives are planned by God, but we have some input, the scripts can be altered. Prayer changes things.

I worked with a young lady whose life motto was “Everything happens for a reason.” It was a glib expression that she used everytime something bad happened to her. What I never understood was why she never took it one step further. She never tried to find out what the reason was. Seriously, I could have helped her out so many times if she would have asked but she continued in her self-imposed ignorance, rendering herself a particle in the chaotic cosmos of life, floating along as helplessly as a dried leaf floats down a fast moving stream. I am someone who wants to understand the “Whys?” of life, even if it proves me to be at fault. Even if it hurts. That’s called growth! That doesn’t mean that God has explained every bad thing that has ever happened to me, because He hasn’t (yet), but He has shown me many times when I was partially, or totally ignorant or complicit in them and I was able to make adjustments so that they could be avoided in the future. I’ve also found that the understanding the truth helps ease some of the angst that comes with hard times and gives me hope for the future.

I’m sure that Zacharius, after questioning God’s ability while ministering in the temple, never did that again. After being rendered mute for his wife’s entire pregnancy, I bet he learned his lesson. Just think of it. When Elizabeth wanted pickles and ice cream, he just had to go get them because he couldn’t tell her to go get them herself. Can you imagine having to go through the first pregnancy, at their age, without being able to say one word? Just having to listen to her complain of back pain, swollen feet, stretch marks and not being able to tell his buddies how much he was suffering too? Wow! What a predicament! LOL! While Elizabeth was telling everyone what a miracle her baby was, Zacharius was prevented from saying one word of his experience in the temple and boy, what a story he had to tell.

Meanwhile, in another town, after hearing even more incredible news from the angel, Mary, fully believing what the angel said was possible and would happen, simply questioned the “Hows?” of his message. I have to admit, I would probably have the same questions as she did because let’s face it, she was going to be asking people to believe the unbelievable when most would just believe that she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Afterall, there had been no miracles in Israel for 400 years, unless you believe the legends of people like Honi who slept for 70 years in an old tree trunk and who drew a circle around himself in the dust and vowed not to leave it until God answered his prayer. And that story is what got me to thinking about prayer and answers to prayer.

Honi, a Jewish scholar of the first century and a supposed miracle worker, petitioned God for rain when the rainy season was late in coming and vowed not to step outside the circle until God sent it. According to the legend, he stayed in the circle until God sent rain and when God did send rain, then he complained that it was too hard of a rain, so God changed it to a nice, soaking rain. (Boy could we use this man in Centre County these days! Instead, we have Moses living somewhere incognito in the area and he parts the waters of every rain storm that heads our way! Sorry, I got a little distracted by the drought!) Some people felt that Honi was irreverent in his prayer, making demands upon the Lord. Who did he think he was? But if the legend is true, it worked! And that is when my mind began to ponder. I began to think about desperate prayer, something our Pastor speaks of frequently. I began to think about making requests in prayer vs. making a demand in prayer. Obviously, this man put a demand on God, and God answered. He didn’t pray some flowery prayer softening God up with some praise and worship and meekly asking if God wouldn’t please send some rain, not too much, not too little, piously praying Proverbs 30:7-9, and adding at the end, “if it be Thy Will.” Of course, this is a legend and not Biblical truth. So I began to look in scripture at the prayers people have prayed and at the times when prayers were answered. I began to think about our position as children of the Kingdom and what rights, responsibilities and privileges that affords us. I began to remember the times I have been desperate in prayer, when I’ve taken authority over the works of the devil in prayer, when I’ve seen instantaneous miracles in prayer, and of all the answers to prayer I’ve received through the years. But mostly, I pondered who it is that I prayed to and what He has said about prayer and frankly, I think Honi was on to something.

So, if this has piqued your interest, stay tuned. In the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing more on this and the other things I have been pondering as well because if I know anything about my Pappa God, they all fit together for a reason that is going to change my life!

What from God's Word have you been pondering lately? I hope you have a place as lovely as the pond in the photo to do your "pondering." My husband and I often walk these grounds and discuss what God is showing us from His Word, inbetween photos, of course. My hubs is so patient with me. I just can't "see a photo" without at least trying to capture it with my camera. Oh, the life of an artsy-fartsy girl but you have to admit, God puts some beautiful art out there for us to enjoy and I want to remember every single piece of it.

Until next blog, could I suggest spending some time in God’s Word? Maybe you too, could read just the red letters of the New Testament. Or perhaps look up every reference to asking, seeking, knocking, prayer. Read the new testament and record every prayer answer and every request that was answered by Jesus. Find out if Jesus ever refused to answer when faith was present. Find out if Jesus ever refused to heal. Find out what Jesus said about faith. What He said about prayer. What He said IN prayer. Put a demand on the Holy Spirit to do what He does best, teaching and revealing the Word of God to your heart. I would be so bold to say that when He’s done, your life won’t be the same either.

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The Lamplight Life

7/11/2020

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Did you ever feel like you are in limbo? Like your whole life is up in the air and you dont know how it's going to shake out? Like you're in a waiting room and everyone else's name has been called but yours? Like you're just doing nothing for God because alot the ways you served Him before are no longer part of your life's routine? Like you've lost your sphere of influence? Do you worry that you're wasting time while you struggle and pray to find a new normal because nothing in life feels normal anymore?
I've been feeling that way lately. But then I realize that time spent seeking God is never wasted time. He's heard and answered every prayer even if I don't see it yet. He does not see time as I do. What's 60 years to an eternal God? In His economy, I might not have waited very long at all.
Perhaps He is just enjoying having my undivided attention, where I'm just with Him instead of being busy doing things for Him. He has not let a single word I've spoken to Him go unheard. He has not let a single tear fall to the ground. He has kept every one and they are precious to Him.
Starting over or heading a different direction is daunting. There's so much that doesn't feel comfortable because it's new and different and unfamiliar.
I am full of desire to be busy about His business. In my heart, I want to be salt to the whole earth and light to the entire world and as I ponder how to do this, its almost overwhelming. But the key to re-starting is to start small, in my own home, to continue being light to all who enter there. That is more challenging than it sounds because home is where the real me is revealed but it's also where I can have the most impact.
So for today, I will shine as brightly as I can as the oil of His grace fuels my flame. I will surrender my tomorrow into His loving, capable hands and I will follow one day at a time even though I dont know where I'm headed. "But I do know who I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I've committed into Him until the day of His return."

Disciples and the World - “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor d...

BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 5:13-16 - New American Standard Bible
Disciples and the World - “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for…

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Is He Enough?

7/6/2020

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In his sermon a few weeks ago, our Pastor asked the question, "Is Jesus enough?" If the only thing that God offered us was the knowledge of the Savior, would that be enough for us to be willing to give everything that we have to obtain it? Would we be willing to give up all the other blessings that we currently enjoy to just have Jesus? Would we be willing to sell our houses and go into the unknown just to have Him in His fullness or is He just something we have added to our lives to enhance them? Is He more than fire insurance? Would He be enough? That is a compelling question. Corrie Ten Boom said that "You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have." She certainly knew this truth in her life's deepest experience. What is my experience? Have I ever really been to the place where Christ was all I had? Have I found Christ to be all that I need in the darkest, deepest valleys of life? More importantly, do the mountaintop blessings and the comforts and acquisitions of life that He has so graciously provided for me pale in comparison to knowing Him? If it was all taken away, would I find that He is all that I want? Am I in love with the Blesser or the blessings? In 1999, after a devastating car accident that left two of my 4 children brain injured, I went to an appointment at the school district office to review test results for my daughter who was starting kindergarten just 3 months after being released from the hospital. They were devastating. My formerly bright, engaging, athletic, witty 5-year-old was barely functioning on the level of a two-year-old. To add to my distress, they informed me that they didn’t know much about working with brain injuries so they were sending a counselor to take a class so that they could better meet her needs. No brain injury is the same. Even the doctors can’t give you any definitive promises concerning them. Their efforts did little to reassure me. As I left the meeting, I was distraught so I headed for my church building and sat down at the piano and began to play and worship because at that moment, Jesus was the only one that could help me and the only one that could help my daughter. As I worshipped, the Spirit of God began to minister to my heart and this chorus flowed out of me. I love to worship You
Worship at Your feet, Lord
Bow down to Your Name
And tell You that I love You
If the seas would turn to dust
And all time would pass away
I’d still be at Your feet
Worshipping You Lord Even though I wrote that chorus 20 years ago, it still ministers to me and in more recent times, it has been more of a declaration at times as I have had to let go of things that have long been blessings in my life, as I find my new normal. It has been my battle cry when I’ve felt like I just can’t go one more step. It’s been a song of resolution when hope seems far away from my situation, when it seems God’s ear is deaf to my pleas and my emotions are trying to convince me that He doesn’t care. Deep down, I know that He is enough. He is more than enough. He truly is all that I need. In Habakkuk 3, the prophet knows that tragedy is coming to Judah because they have forgotten God. He was no longer enough for them. They were distracted by other things and leaning on their own strength and not honoring the Word of God. And so God was raising up the Chaldean army to come and carry them away captive. After hearing the vision, as scripture says, Habakkuk’s response was this: Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive tree should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, YET I WILL EXULT IN THE LORD, I WILL REJOICE IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION. THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND HE HAS MADE MY FEET LIKE HINDS’ FEET, AND MAKES ME WALK ON MY HIGH PLACES. For Habakkuk, for Corrie Ten Boom, for Elizabeth Elliot, for Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, for the Apostle Peter, for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for all those who have been imprisoned and martyred for Christ, HE IS ENOUGH. HE IS ALL THEY NEED. HE IS EVERYTHING. And the secret is found in the last part of verse 19. “The Lord is my strength, and HE HAS MADE my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” So when I find myself feeling unsettled, discontent, weak, wallowing in self-pity, and pondering on doubts in my mind, it is then I know that I must rely on His strength to pull me out of where I am and up to the place of being seated in heavenly places with Him because from there I can see more clearly the whole picture. It's there that I know that Jesus is all that matters and everything that I need is found in what only He can provide. He is supreme and the center of everything. It’s then I know that the only important thing I have to do with my life is to be at His feet, worshipping and allowing His life to flow to me and then through me to a world that needs to know that He is enough.

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Surrender Forward

5/16/2020

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Surrender forward. What a choice of words. My Pastor said that God has given us this "sabbath pause", otherwise known as Coronavirus to give us a spiritual reset. It's a time to examine our "normal" and decide if we want to return to it or to "surrender forward." It almost sounds like an oxymoron. In war, surrender is synonymous with failure and defeat. There’s no such thing as surrendering forward. Yet, to me, it is one of those Biblical paradoxes that arrests my attention and bemuses my mind. It causes me to settle into Kingdom thinking that far exceeds my own earthly comprehension.

Changes in routine, like the Covid19 quarantine, can cause feelings of isolation, boredom, or hysteria. It exposes vulnerabilities that in normal times, we can suppress, ignore, or hide. We grow restless, or worse, when our usual distractions are taken away and we are left with nothing but our thoughts and the realities of life. There is time and often need for self-examination and reflection of where we’ve been, where we are, and in what direction we’re headed. It’s in these times that we can have the clarity to hear what the Spirit is trying to say. His words may be hard, even unbearable. Running away may look really appealing. And while movement may be required, away is not an option because when we run, we run with what He was wanting to address. We can return to where we were. Neither of these options will produce change. Or, we can choose to move forward in surrender to His plan. The Christian life is never static. It is either surrendering forward or sliding back. There’s no resting place or arriving point on this side of Glory. The war will rage until the King of Peace comes to earth and makes peace and we, my friends, are embroiled in this battle, whether we want to be or not.

Returning to “normal” as many are desiring, will only bring us back around to where we are now. That may be okay for some people but as one who sees a need for personal change, surrendering forward is the only option. Depending on where you are coming from, that may look very scary. You may feel your plate is already full of trouble and brokenness and what if surrendering forward will only add to where you are now before bringing you through to goodness? God will always take what the enemy means for evil and bring good out of it, but what is frightening is that we don’t know what route He will take to get us there or if we can possibly have the stamina to do it. The struggle is real. I know. I’ve been there. I am there. I don’t like to admit that I sometimes get a little suspicious of God, but I do. I know that He is for me but I don’t always understand His methods. And sometimes, His methods don’t make sense. And most times, His methods are not easy on my flesh.

In her book “Uninvited”, Lysa Terkeurst poses the following questions. Do I think God is good? Do I think God is good to me? Do I think that God is good at being God? I’ve been seriously pondering these questions, conducting an honest examination of where I have been in life and what my future might look like. I’m taking a look at the “Covid19 “unedited version” of myself and allowing God to point His light fingers at the parts of my heart that, on a normal day, I try to hide from Him. He’s pulling out the things that I push way down because they’re painful or shameful to look at. I especially don’t want to discuss them with Him! But truth be told, they are there and they affect me more than I realize. They have, in many ways, determined my “normal” up to this point. They have to come into the light of God’s love. And when they do, God does what He does best. He takes them and replaces them with healing and goodness and peace. Not temporary peace, not false peace, but peace that resides, that abides and is constant, no matter my circumstances and no matter what my “forward” looks like. And now, more than ever, people need the peace that only comes from Him and through Him.

As I was walking by the creek, I was reciting Psalm 23 out loud and thinking about how each stanza applies to my life. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing! He leads me to places of refreshment and nourishment so that my life is good. Even in the dark shadows, I don’t fear. His rod protects me and His staff keeps me close to Him. He prepares a table for me and lets my enemies know that I am His prized possession and he marks me with the oil of His Holy Spirit. Not only do I lack nothing, but I have all that I need in abundance. Surely, definitely, absolutely, without a doubt, goodness and mercy (neither of which I deserve), will follow me all the days of my life.

So what will my response be? I will “lean in” and let my walls down before God. He knows my heart and loves me anyway. His eyes see through to everything I am trying to hide, even to the things I have tried to hide from myself. The things I’ve put away to deal with another day, in Scarlet O’Hara fashion, need to be put on the table. I’m running to Him, not from Him. Isolation only brings trouble. The devil loves us to isolate ourselves from God and each other. It’s where he does his best work. Eve was without Adam in the garden when the devil deceived her. And in this time of uncertainty in life, I must trust that God is good to me. I must believe that He is good at being God. And as Lysa adds, that “Today is yet another page in our great love story.” .

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Heavenly Hay

I'm Resting on His Laurels

Daily Bread with a Bit of Jam

Daily Bread

Ignore the Pecking Crows

We've Moved Too Far From The Cross

Good Gifts: Answered Prayer/Red Letter Journey Stop #2

Players, Ponderings,and the Possibilities of Prayer/Red-Letter Journey Stop #1

The Lamplight Life

Is He Enough?

Surrender Forward

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