Salvation

I woke up this morning thinking about the process of salvation in my life. My thoughts were of this house of a body I live in and how when I welcomed Jesus in all I could see was his wonderful light flooding my barren walls. The warmth and love from him was overwhelming, my whole being was flooded with peace.

People around me must have thought me crazy because I remember for the first time in my short life (I was 15) I was peaceful, quiet and still.  I was truly in awe and yet I wasn't fully aware of what happened to me...all I knew was suddenly the wind and waves inside were calm and still.

Life went on as it always does and unknowingly I went my own way, somehow I didn't put together the things they spoke of in church with my new found calm. I had grown up in the church but it all just seemed to swirl around me like a smoke filled haze.

Then one day it was like God flipped on the light in a dark room and the cleansing began. Now by his light I could see all the boxes and cobwebs stacked and piled strung from here to there. God was with me as we began ever so slowly to open box after box. Some of them were so gruesome that all I could do was weep and say, "Please, Lord, deal with this one for me."

Gently he would come along side me with his word and his presence and walk me through the process and then other times he would make me deal with the boxes myself always standing or sitting nearby, never leaving or forsaking me.

This salvation process the world can never understand. It isn't that we accept Christ as our Savior and then instantly our lives are perfect...quite the contrary now we must deal with the things we have stacked and piled that trip us up. Things we weren't even aware were there...we couldn't see them before his light came.

I understand why the world would say, "There is no God," because then they would have to see things about themselves that need to be cleared away. John 3:19 says, "...Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

God's whole purpose in exposing the darkness in me is to fill me with more of his glorious light so that he can shine his light through me and bring other people to inner peace and give them the gift of his salvation.

He wants to calm the storm in you and clear away the dust and burdens of old boxes of junk that life heaps upon us or that we collect. If those things are cleared away, we can live at peace with God and ourselves no matter how crazy this world gets.

Don't be afraid...come to the Light of Jesus and he will change your life. Ask him to show you that he's real and invite him into your very being, confess to him the darkness in your life and you will receive his peace and his love.

Quiet Life

Life can be so quiet, so mundane; every morning we trudge off to work and every evening is the same; We lovingly discuss the day, what was good and what was bad, then we eat and go for a walk... by the way this is my favorite time of the day.

Some TV, some popcorn, then off to bed we go to start the whole cycle over again; Every day I have my ears to the news and my eyes on the skies, when are you coming Lord, this world gets darker by the minute.
I look at the pristine skies and the lush tropical foliage; I watch the lizards play and think is this for real? How can it be so bad in other parts of the world and yet so calm and peaceful in mine?

When is the next big thing going to hit? I know I must sound rather grim and pessimistic but isn't that a part of life as well? We have the good and those things that challenge us as God grows us up into him.
I'm grateful for the quiet life. I'm grateful for mundane because I'm convinced if there was no mundane we wouldn't learn how to commune with the Father on a deeper level.

It takes a lot more effort to be intimate with Him in the calm than in the storm.

OH, THAT PESKY TONGUE!

The other day a friend and I were talking about the power of the tongue. For most of the morning, she had been putting herself down until I asked her this question, “Do you think we can speak something into existence?” As I posed the question several scriptures began to flood my heart.



“How did God create the universe in Genesis?” was my next question. Several times in the first few chapters of Genesis it says…. "God said" and then it happened. If we are created in God’s image as Gen 126-27 tells us, do we have the same creative power within our mouths? Certainly not to the extent that God has for the word “image” in the Hebrew means a representative figure or phantom.


But there are many scriptures throughout the book of Proverbs that deal with the creative power of the tongue. It has the power to bring forth wisdom or folly (see proverbs 10:20, 31, 15:2), it can bring health (proverbs 12:18), it is a “tree of life” (prov15:4), it can break a bone as proverbs 25:15 tells us and there are many more.


Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Wow, that sounds like creative power to me!


Years ago the Lord revealed to me that when I spoke negatively about myself I was agreeing with the enemy and his plans for me. Negative thoughts would be in my mind and the minute they would come out of my mouth I would “eat the fruit thereof” in the form of beliefs about myself. These beliefs then created a stronghold from which the enemy could navigate through my spirit to hold me captive.


When the Lord revealed this to me I began to strictly monitor what I was saying about myself. I wanted to agree with what God saw in me and not the condemning voice of the enemy of my soul! I was amazed at how my life began to change when I stopped speaking “death” to myself and began to speak “life” instead. Remarkable the difference!


I think one that the enemy frequently used on me and on a lot of women is….I’m so fat….ewww that sneaky devil! This one was deeply imbedded in my brain. The Lord delivered me from this one when I saw that my little daughters were learning about their bodies from what mommy said about hers….ouch! That revelation stopped me cold in my tracks! I learned to shut my mouth from then on.


My friend and I also talked about how to recognize condemnation from conviction and how condemnation puts you down, “you’re nothing, you’re fat, you’re stupid, you’re slow…etc.” These are the red flag words of condemnation but it can be more subtle such as… “I could never do that or I’m not qualified to do such and such.” These kept me bound until I learned not to speak such things and rely upon my God who was capable of giving me all I needed in every situation, to do what he had called me to do!


Conviction draws us to God in repentance as we see that we have sinned and have a fear of our almighty and powerful God. God’s convictions pierce our hearts as we see him nailed to the tree and recognize that we were to share in the blame of his crucifixion because our sins put him there and our hearts break.

When we are convicted, it is in the form of confession and repentance that we are forgiven and freed from the sin creating growth in us and cleansing for us.


In the end, our hearts were encouraged and we were strengthened by our conversation. It was good of the Holy Spirit to remind us and warn us. God’s love had prevailed!

LET IT BURN!

Recently I was reprimanded for an outburst of anger. All my life I have dealt with these wrathful outbursts in one way or another. Sunday we were challenged to be a living sacrifice…but I confess I’m not sure what that fully means until now. We were encouraged by our brother to stay on the alter and allow God to deal with the thing he puts his finger on in our lives.


Galatians 5 talks of walking in the Spirit and having freedom in Christ. I won’t candy coat my sin by saying I have struggled or I am struggling for Galatians 5:19 clearly denotes “fits of rage” as an “act of the sinful nature” and furthermore goes on to state that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”


In asking for wisdom, knowledge and understanding about this thing which God has pointed out, I have come to the conclusion that I can look at this situation one of two ways. 1. I can be offended and let my foolish pride step in effectively blocking the work of the Spirit which in turn would allow me to stay as I am trapped in my sin and unable to inherit the kingdom of God or...

2. I can determine to lay on the alter still and quiet and allow the Spirit to remove this blemish from my soul, gain a victory and learn to actually be affective in my spiritual walk with Christ.

“Let it burn! Let your flesh burn on that alter!” my trusted friend EJ would say.


I confess the temptation is strong to do the first option, however I choose the second option because my life is no more my own and I don’t want my testimony to be tainted but pure. This is the true gospel to pick up ones cross and actually follow after Jesus. A time is coming when the sheep will be separated from the goats and I don’t want to be found with the stubborn goats :)!


Perhaps, if I am enabled by the Spirit of God to have victory this time by surrendering to the discipline of the Father, which by the way only means he loves me because he only disciplines those he loves, then maybe I will walk in a greater relationship with him.


But what do I do? What is my part? As I wrestled with these questions the other day my sweet husband, not knowing of my thoughts, began to sing a song “…at the cross you beckon me, draw me gently to my knees and I am lost for words, so lost in love I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered.”

I cried. God is so good.

So many times I have seen surrendering myself at the foot of the cross as an intimidating thing because it means I am totally helpless to do it myself. Pride dies there…completely. But recently, I have begun to view surrender at the cross as the narrow road or gate that leads to freedom. To be broken before him is sweet but painful at the same time.


What do I want? To walk in the Spirit, live by faith and please God or please myself and stay the way I am? Time is short…Father, I want to be really real, I want to be free, I want to follow you. By your Spirit, I choose door number 2. Amen.


(The song’s title is Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle and it is an awesome song!)

Psalms in the Night

I have a simple goal today…to praise the Lord. I really want to give him thanks publicly by writing a testimony of his loving care for me. Last night my heart was troubled and as I tossed and turned trying to control my thoughts and let go of my worries it finally occurred to me that possibly the daily scripture on my phone app could speak to me…I know, why did it take so long?…

Psalm 121 was the scripture and it was if the Lord spoke directly to my heart; it gave me peace and I went right to sleep. I want to simply share it with you today.


Psalm 121


I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip, he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

What a perfect word in due season, I praise him!

God, save us!!

Today, I have been in thought about God’s grace (his unmerited favor) towards us. I was amazed to find God’s response to his child in trouble when the child cried out to him in Psalms 18:1-19. God uses all his power to move heaven and earth to respond to our cries…I am overwhelmed by his love for us.


We have been trying to find our place in a body of believers here and I would be lying if I said it has been easy. Every Sunday morning is a chore to hear from the Lord where we should go or what we should do. Yesterday morning was no different and I cried out to the Lord for help. I looked over at my bible laying open to Psalm 18 next to my chair and in my desperation began to read. I saw that if I would cry out to the Lord he would answer and protect us from the enemy and his plans.


On our way to a particular gathering of the saints, we experienced great opposition from the enemy of our souls. I’m sure that many of you have experienced this on the way to church. It was so obviously the enemy that we decided that instead of turning back and going home we should persevere to see what the Lord wanted to do that the enemy did not want to happen. I want to encourage you to do the same when things seem so out of the ordinary…press in and persevere the end result will be worth it.


Long story short the Lord did a wonderful work in our hearts and brought much confirmation to the situation.


I want to encourage you today that if you are in trouble of any kind be it big or small in your eyes, cry out to the Lord and he will deliver you from the enemy. He will be true to his word in Psalm 18 but we must humble ourselves to cry for his help. He longs to save us…he sent his only son to die isn’t that proof enough?

Temptation

This morning I was reading from Oswald Chambers, “My Upmost for His Highest,” and he challenged me. Will I go on with Jesus through his temptation? I liked what he said, “They are his temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us.” This fits perfectly with Galatians 2:20 which says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The live I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”


Recently, Matty and I went to dinner with an old friend and he spoke of Galatians 2:20 in this way, “ It’s all God’s problem now.” It’s our job to cast off the cares of this world so that they don’t weigh us down. We have to stay in a position to hear from the Father to know which direction to take in our journey to follow him.


The text with Oswald’s message was Luke 22 so I turned to it and read of how Jesus was betrayed and I was struck by the way Jesus rebuked his disciples because they were sleeping instead of praying that they not fall into temptation. (Luke22: 39-46) Instantly my thoughts turned to the Lord’s Prayer and how Jesus taught us to pray, “…lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…” and I thought, why are we “lead” into temptation and by who are we led?


Again my thoughts went to scripture, James 1:13-14 says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” So according to this scripture it is our own evil desire that “drags” us away. EW…not a pretty picture!


What if I prayed and asked the Lord to lead me not into temptation and deliver me from evil every day? Man, would I have victory or what. Then I thought, why does James say, “for God cannot be tempted,” could it be that he is agreeing and confirming what Galatians 2:20 is saying? I think so. Christ is in us and cannot be tempted but salvation is a process of elimination. We die and Christ lives filling us with his holiness and cleansing away the old making it new; renewing us day by day…washing us with his word.


This is a word for you and me today to be ready for the test to come. If you are reading this it is to prepare you. Don’t fear…you’ve read this so you will pass the test and bring glory to God while increasing his presence within you! Have a blessed day!