Three Things

1. This  happened yesterday.

Our 11 year old got baptized in Jesus' name. Such rejoicing and joy! It was his choice alone.  He'd been asking to for quite some time. Just wanted to make sure he was at a place where he was ready and understood the choice he was making. My cousin called me yesterday afternoon and said her daughter saw my post about his baptism on Instagram and had quite a few questions about baptism and why he did it. When asked if she wanted to get baptized too, she said no, but then quickly changed her answer to yes. Amazing how one act of obedience can have a ripple effect like that. 

2. This quote.

"Some knowledge is too heavy...you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able.” 
― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

3. This blog post.

The Gospel of Genesis 13: 'It’s impossible for us to empty ourselves because we’re constantly so full of ourselves. None of us can give up everything. Before Christ, we are sinners — dead and full of utter need. But even after Christ has justified us, until he comes back to vanquish sin finally and fully, we still wrestle with our sin. We are sinner-saints. So some days we’re the Abram of Genesis 13 but most days we’re the Abram of Genesis 12."

Drinking From a Deep Well of Wisdom: The Teachings of Elisabeth Elliot

I've never met Elisabeth Elliot. But in my head she's my mentor and friend.

Her teaching style is practical, biblical and refreshing in a day and age when many don't teach simple truths from the Bible like how to be a woman, tending to home and how God can use our pain as a platform for His glory.

In my 20s, I used to listen to her daily radio broadcast Gateway to Joy when I could catch it. Last year, BBN radio started broadcasting her show again and I now listen regularly via their app. Listening in has come to be the favorite part of my day. And I've been reacquainting myself with her writings. I'm currently reading: The Path of Loneliness: Finding Your Way Through the Wilderness to God. It's a lesson-filled work on how God can use loneliness of every sort (from rejection, singleness, moving to a new place, etc) to work out great blessing in our lives.

In the book she writes: “Loneliness is one kind of ‘dying’ most of us learn about sooner or later. Far from being ‘bad’ for us, a hindrance to spiritual growth, it may be the means of unfolding spiritual ‘blossoms’ hitherto enfolded…”

I can't pinpoint any other woman who's ministry and teaching has impacted me as deeply as Elisabeth Elliot's. 

Her life is a study in joyful surrender. It's the kind of surrender I want in my own life. So I turn her words over and over in my head and turn to to the scriptures she mentions to see them in the light that she held them up in.

If you don't know about Elisabeth Elliot, a quick Google search will acquaint you with her remarkable life.

She was a missionary in Ecuador more than 50 years ago when her first husband was killed by the Indian tribe they were trying share the Gospel with. Elisabeth ended up staying there with her young daughter and ministered to the same tribe that murdered her husband. She eventually remarried years later only to be widowed after her second husband died of cancer. She married again but at 88 years old suffers from dementia which brought her teaching to a halt more than a decade ago. All seems like a cruel hand of fate, but if you read her books and hear her teach, you will learn that for her "in acceptance, lieth peace." And there was (and is) no shaking her fist at the sky and cursing God for the turn of events in her life. God shines through every broken part of her story.

She has written more than 25 books (a few which are staples in my library.) And on her website are archives of her newsletter which went out for many years which include more golden nuggets of wisdom.

I've always loved the knowledge that older women have and when I was younger enjoyed spending time with the aged mothers of our church to glean from them. Reading Elisabeth Elliot is just like sitting with those church mothers.

I hope you get acquainted with her and find something from her teachings that suit your fancy.

Who are some women you look up to and like to glean from? Do share!

When We Don't Recognize Our Savior: Thoughts On Looking Up

"And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him." Genesis 42:8

For the past few weeks, I've been turning this verse over and over again in my head. 

It's the story of Joseph. HIs brothers had come to Egypt to buy bread during the famine. They faced their brother, the same brother they'd thrown in a ditch and then sold to slave traders. The brother they'd grown up with. But they didn't recognize him. Maybe it was his accent. Perhaps, it was the attire he was wearing. I wonder if he had facial hair that made him unrecognizable. Either way, they didn't know him. But he knew them.

I find this so fascinating. The emotions he must have felt for his brothers while they felt nothing because they didn't know who we was at the time. 

Joseph was at the time his brother's savior. He had the provision they so desperately needed. But they didn't recognize him.

It's easy to dismiss this as minor: It had been many years. They may have even thought him to be dead. Plus, he was treating them like strangers when they came to him.  But this fact wouldn't have been mentioned twice if it was inconsequential. 

"And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him." Genesis 42:8

A few months back, I had been awakened earlier than usual by what felt like a hand on my shoulder rolling me over. Only thing, there was no hand on my shoulder and there was no one awake but me. This happened a few days in a row. A day or two after it stopped, I realized that it had been the Holy Spirit, gently waking me. But instead of recognizing Him, I determined that it was a bad night's sleep or nightmare that roused me awake. I missed my Savior because I didn't recognize Him.

How many times have we all done this? We don't recognize His provision because it didn't come in the manner we thought it would. We don't recognize His Word because it came from a person that we least expected. Sometimes we are face-to-face with our Savior, but we just don't recognize Him.

Those early morning wake-ups have led me to be more sensitive to how Jesus is moving in my life. I've found myself looking up more instead of looking down and around at my circumstances.

"Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground." Genesis 42:6

It could have been that Joseph's brothers missed the chance to recognize their brother because they were bowing down. A good look in the eyes may have changed everything.

Sometimes we are bowed down with our heads in devotionals and books and sermons or in ministry or volunteer work in the name of Jesus that we don't recognize our Savior right before us. 

My prayer lately has been: Jesus, I don't want to look at You and not recognize You. Help me to look at You face-to-face. Here's to looking up into the face of Jesus.

. 

Why a Failed Vision Is Not Always a Bad Thing

Earlier this year, I'd chosen the word fulfill as my one word for 2014.

I'd had visions of God fulfilling some things in my life that had a tangible and concrete measurement. The things I was counting on fulfilling and being fulfilled were things I could clearly see outside of myself.

Of course, God had another plan in mind.

Turns out there were some things fulfilled within me instead. God has done and is doing a inner work in me that I could never have imagined for myself. Instead of giving me things, He has done a new thing in me. There was been a renewed hunger for His Word and His presence alone. I've enjoyed time spent just relishing in His presence: Quiet mornings in the Word. Late nights spent in worship and prayer. Building myself up on my most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

This year, God has ignited in me a love for my enemies. Instead of retaliating, I've learned to walk in love...no easy feat in my own strength. It's all been the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart. It's easy to spew out hateful words when you're wronged. Hard to bite your tongue when your toes are stepped on and you are continually wronged. 

Luke 6:35-36: But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

God promises to fulfill His promise that our reward will be great and that we will be children of the most High if we do good to them who aren't so good to us. I don't take lightly that this is being fulfilled in me.

And then there's the purging work that I hadn't anticipated. Jealousy in the hidden closets of my heart. Fear and anxiety lurking in dark corners. And unbelief rearing its ugly head when least expected. Crazy how God set it up that more time spent in His presence reveals all the sin and impurity in our lives. 

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”

God can't fulfill things on the outside until He completes a work on the inside. That stripping process, though not cute and often very uncomfortable, is quite necessary for progress.

2 Timothy 2:19 & 21, “The Lord knows those who are his, and those who claim they belong to him must turn away from all wickedness…If you keep yourselves pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master’s use for every good work.”

While, I had a vision for this year that didn't pan out exactly how I'd seen it in my head, God's vision has exceeded mine in ways I didn't quite expect. Thanking God for all the times this year that I faced those ugly things that rose to the surface and dealt with them head on. 2014 was indeed the year of God fulfilling a purge in me. It will be exciting to see what God fulfills in and through me in 2015.

Happy New Year to you!

Forgiven and Fruitful: Wednesday Night Bible Study Notes

Last week's Bible Study was good. Still turning over the message in my head. Sharing the goodness below.

One of the more obscure parables is the parable of the barren fig tree found in Luke 13:6-9 

Galileans had gone into the temple and killed Galileans whose blood was mixed in with the sacrificial blood. It was a horrible event. Jews believed bad things happening meant a wrong standing with God. It was against this backdrop that Jesus taught the parable of the fig tree.

God is the owner o f this vineyard. Jesus the vineyard manager.  God noticed the fig tree was not fruitful but Jesus asked for one more year to make it fruitful.

How does fruitfulness really take place  in our lives?

1.     Fruit is received. If you’re going to be fruitful, you have to start with God's work in us. God’s work didn’t end at the cross. It continues in our fruitfulness. This Holy Spirit makes us fruitful, not our works.

2.     Fruit is internal. Most think it’s fruit vs. bad. But it’s really fruit vs. good works like serving, witnessing, giving. We use the external things to measure fruit, but if we don’t have love these things don’t matter. If the Pharisees lived today, we’d be enamored of them. They memorized scripture, never missed a tithe, crossed the sea to win converts, prayed three times a day, but there was nothing on the inside of them. Good works are good but if they don’t come out of the foundation of Christ in us, they amount to nothing. People being changed through you, doesn’t mean you’re being changed.

3.     Fruit is passionate. In our spiritual walk, we have warring battles between the spirit and the natural. Good things can take more of our desire than Jesus. It’s not good vs. bad like we traditionally think, but good things vs. Jesus. If you want more fruit, fall more in love with Jesus. The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus instead of the good things. We can get so busy with good works that we forget Jesus

4.     Fruit is seasonal. The benefit of fruit being seasonal is that it’s cultivated by God instead of us trying to conjure it up. God puts us in circumstances where fruit will grow. Marriage cultivates the fruit of kindness. Parenthood cultivates the fruit of patience. We have to discern the season to see the potential for fruit bearing. Because its seasonal, fruit growth is gradual not immediate. Declaring that we have fruit is really pride. One day we will look up and see fruit we lacked after a season of hard times.

5.     Fruit unifies. Since we live by the spirit, let US walk by the spirit. We help each other grow. An unfruitful tree harms the rest of the vineyard. Fruitful trees help other trees grow because of cross pollination. Jesus brings the right people to help us grow. 

God With Us: Saturday Night Church Sermon Notes

Tonight's message was by a preacher on staff, Nathan Bean. This was actually his last message as he, his wife and children are moving back to Australia. I've always enjoyed him, his ability to delivery the Word with clarity and his quirky sense of humor.

The subject was: God With Us

The greatest gift of all that's been given to us is Jesus. 

Matthew 1:18-25

We often use God “in case of an emergency.” We tend to live life on our own until we need God in a crunch. Emergency seasons lead us to pray, “God be with me.” In busy seasons, praying God be with me is put a shelf but we still want to know that God is near. It’s easy for us to live life without an awareness of God’s abiding presence when we live life by our own power.

We are about to embark on a busy season—Christmas (which is the season where we celebrate God being with us). The best thing about Christmas is not presents but presence—God’s presence. As kids, Christmas was all about presents, but as you mature we are more concerned about whose presence we are going to be in during the holidays.

1.   GOD with us 1 John 1, 14 God Himself took on flesh. He came near to broken humanity in the form of a frail baby. In the world, the higher the honor a person has, the more glory they get. But Jesus didn’t send someone else to come down. He took on the form of a servant. The lengths God went through to be with you and I. It should blow us away. God doesn’t sit back and wait for us to rescue ourselves; He gets involved in our lives.

2.     2. God WITH us. We can confront anything when we know He’s with us. God does not start on us like a project and leave us unfinished. He brings everything to completion in our lives. Matthew opens with God with us and ends with Jesus saying, “I am with you.” When we go through  the hard parts of life, we are not alone. John 14:27 says we are given God’s peace. He leads us with His peace. It’s not just the absence of conflict but the presence of God’s blessings that equals peace. His presence changes us. We change as we are close to Him.

3.     God with US. In the Old Testament, God presented Himself as a burning bush, cloud, earthquake, a pillar of fire, thunder and lightning. His presence was scary and made people want to hide themselves. But in the New Testament, there is no fear in a baby. You can come near to the baby in the manger. In biblical times, shepherds were lowly members of society. But this is who God called to Himself. 

From Gratitude to Greed

The news stories on the Black Friday have been breaking my heart. A local news story reported two women fighting over a Barbie in Walmart. In another Walmart, there was a fight over a TV.  Even Gawker ran a story about the best Black Friday fights of 2014. 

What is in the heart of people that makes them go from saying grace and giving gratitude over Thanksgiving dinner to grabbing merchandise off of store shelves? It's greed. And left to our own devices, greed will grow like a wild weed in our lives.

For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-2 (NIV)

Ahab, a king of Israel, is a perfect example of greed run amuck. Ahab had just about everything character. And he had wife who was even worse than he was. He was very rich. He had one entire palace inlaid with ivory. And he had another palace in Jezreel. One day as he looked out the window of his Jezreel palace he saw a vineyard that he thought would make a nice vegetable garden for himself. The only problem was it belonged to someone else, a man named Naboth.

"Ahab said to Naboth, 'Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth" (1 Kings 21:2-3).

Naboth refused to sell because he was obedient to what God told him to do with the land. When Israel first took possession of the land, every family received their plot of ground. The land could never be permanently sold and was to remain in that family's possession forever. But instead of respecting Naboth's reasons for not selling, Ahad threw a fit.

"Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, 'I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers' He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat" (1 Kings 21:4).

Instead of focusing on everything he had, he wanted the one thing he didn't have. So his wife set out to make sure her husband's wants were satisfied. Jezebel came up with a plot to have Naboth murdered. And because she was queen, the plan went off without a hitch.

"When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard" (1 Kings 21:16).

Rampant greed led to the murder of an innocent man and the confiscation of his property. But God saw it. Elijah the prophet met Ahab when he went to take possession of Naboth's vineyard, and he pronounced God's punishment upon Ahab for what he and Jezebel had done. His grim prophecy predicted that dogs would lick up the couple's blood and that God would wipe out their descendants from the face of the earth—the worst imaginable curse for an Israelite. God already had a great deal against Ahab and Jezebel, but their greed-inspired brutality against Naboth was the last straw.

Left unchecked, greed will drive us to do crazy and even wicked things. I'm sure those people who went out shopping didn't expect to be fighting over TV and Barbies for heaven's sake. Contentment helps to keep our hearts in check. 

Every day, we have to keep our desires gated up lest we fall victim to greed. It's a continual challenge to change greed to gratitude.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Sometimes What We Think is the Greatest Reward Isn't

Sometimes we forget that our whole Christian walk is about one Person, and it's not ourselves...its Jesus. He is our great reward.

If you take a look around today, ministries and recognition seem to the reward. Wanting to influence and teach and have a platform take precedence over pointing people to Jesus. Sermons touting kindness, giving and love come first rather than messages about our need for Jesus. Often times those who say they love Jesus the most mention Him the least. Wanting influence and reach isn't a bad thing, but when we want those things more than we want God, then we fall into dangerous territory.

Genesis 15:1 says: After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Abram had just come back from a battle where he had put his life on the line to rescue his nephew, Lot, but God protected him. Then he met the king of Sodom and was given one sweet offer: the choice to take some of the spoil of the battle. Before he could choose, Melchizedek (a type of Christ) came out and met him, and encouraged him by blessing him. He ended up deciding not  to take any of the spoils, lest the king of Sodom should say, I have made Abram rich.

God had just proven to Abram that He was his shield by protecting him in battle. God was also letting Him know that He wasn't just the avenue to riches, but He was indeed the riches. 

Makes me wonder how many times I've looked past God to what I think are riches when He's extending His arms to me letting me know that He is the reward I'm seeking. God promises to protect and provide for us, just as He did for Abram. 

How we short change ourselves when we simply seek things from God without realizing the treasure that lies in Him alone. 

All that we need is found in Him. I'm taking great comfort in this thought today.

Feeling Grateful vs. Living Grateful: Saturday Night Church Sermon Notes

Tonight, one of the ministers on staff shared tonight's message about living a life of gratefulness.

We sometimes think we are entitled to blessings instead of seeing them as gifts from God. Whatever state, we find ourselves in, we are to give thanks. This includes when life is miserable, when it's mundane and when God seems like He's missing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

When life is miserable do you still give thanks? Jesus gave thanks when He was about to go to the cross.  You will never miss God's  goodness if you stop looking at the bad. Even when life is miserable, God has a purpose. Point yourself to the God's goodness.

When life was mundane, Jesus gave thanks. Eating is trivial, but with Jesus nothing is trivial. Matthew 15:35-37 says that before feeding the four thousand, "He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when He had given thanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied." Jesus gave thanks for what He was about to give. We create God's goodness when we give.

When God seems like He's missing, we have to create a protocol: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. No matter were you are or what you're going through start by saying thank you and not "please Gpd." When you ask first and then say thank you later, you lose the worship. Instead of asking "when God?" thank Him instead when in the middle of a hard situation. 

You will never ben an overcomer until you learn gratitude because gratitude builds faith. We must give thanks in the beginning and the middle. We to give thanks when we receive from God. But we must remember to give thanks at the end too instead of "What's next God?" 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Jesus always gave thanks publicly. We should too. How will people know what a great Father we have if we don't tell people?