Fresh Start

2/1/12

I want a fresh start.  Do you ever want a fresh start?  I want to start over physically – gonna eat more healthy and exercise more and place boundaries around my time so others do steal time that I should be using to be more healthy.  I want to start over financially – gonna pay every bill when it comes, not when it is convenient – gonna tithe more and be more diverse in my giving – not gonna waste money or overspend.  I want to start over spiritually – gonna not sin today at all – gonna live in the power of the Spirit all day asking Him to flow thru me in every word I say and ever expression on my face and every deed I do.

We have this opportunity every day. We don’t have to wait till the first day of the year or the first day of the month or the first day of the week.  We don’t even have to wait till tomorrow.  We can start over right now.  When I put something in my mouth that blows my “eating healthy” goal, I don’t just keep right on doing it all the rest of the day.  I stop right then and start fresh from that moment on.  Same thing with finances….made an impulse purchase?  Just don’t do it again or take it back if that is an option.  

Now how about spiritually?  Ok, this morning you raced thru your Bible study like it was an academic assignment.  Pick it back up that afternoon or evening and ask God to reveal Himself to you thru His word.  Didn’t spend any time on your knees today? Stop and do it now or the very next moment that you have in private. (If you are taking the time to read this – PLEASE STOP and get on your knees if you haven’t today.)  Do it first thing in the morning (after your shower so you don’t fall asleep. J )  Spoke out of turn, should have kept your mouth shut today?  Ok, do you need to seek forgiveness from any person? Do it.  Get on your knees and seek forgiveness from your heavenly Father first.  Make it right with Him and then go and seek to make it right with others if necessary.

Don’t give up just because you failed.  Every moment is the opportunity for a fresh start.  There are larger things, like failed marriages, that take on a larger “fix”.  However, start that relationship fresh today.  Start on your knees seeking wisdom and guidance from God and then go to His word looking for the answer to that prayer.  

Don’t stop, keep moving forward.  Don’t give up on the day, or week, or month just because you failed right now.  I fail my Father everyday and yet He promised that He began this work in me and He will see it to completion.  Every day is another day in the process of my sanctification.

Waiting…..

Have you been waiting on God?  Waiting on Him to take action on something?  I have.  There are many things in my life that I have been praying about for a long time and am waiting on God for an answer.  I do not doubt that He hears me and right now the answer is to wait and to watch.  Over a year ago, I made the ring tone for my cell phone ”While I’m Waiting” by John Waller.  I was waiting on God to change several things in my life.  He did move me from one job to another but I am still waiting.  I have chosen to just move forward in obedience and continue to worship and praise Him……just like the song suggests.  It’s a real learning and growing experience.

Let me share.  I am learning to obey Him in a new way – in the basics like worship, praise, reading the Word, service.  I am learning that sometimes I don’t “feel” like singing praise so I just mouth the words cuz deep in my heart I really DO believe I just don’t “feel” like it.  This is such a good lesson to learn.  Just like in marriage, you don’t wake every morning “feeling” like being loving and serving your spouse but you do it because of your love and commitment to him or her.  Just like a job. No matter how much you like your job, somedays you just don’t “feel” like going to work that day.  However, you drag yourself out of bed and go anyway if for no other reason than you need a paycheck to pay the bills.  Sometimes my relationship with God is like that.  I don’t like to admit but it is true.  I don’t “feel” like opening the Word, or praying, or praising but I do it out of obedience.

All of us are waiting on the Lord for something.  It could be for Him to save a loved one, or take an aging or terminally ill loved one home.  It could be for a job or better one, for a husband or just a boyfriend.  It could be for your home to sell so you can move on.  It could be for direction in ministry or education, or vocation.  It could be for your child to understand what you are trying to teach him or her….like potty training or their abc’s or their multiplication tables or how to drive or to finally leave home. Whatever you are waiting for is in God’s hands.  He has perfect timing.  Right now while we wait we are to just move forward in obedience.  Do what comes next.  Take the next step.  Matthew 6:34 tells us not to be concerned about tomorrow because today has enough to be concerned about.  Walking in this every day is difficult.  I have been in a place where I really didn’t know what the next step was in a certain relationship.  I have learned to just take each day as it comes.  Ask the Lord for wisdom and the right words or when to just keep quiet.  It is difficult, especially for someone who likes to communicate, but is a very good place to be. 

I am learning to “be still” to “stop striving” to “cease” for a while…..while I am waiting for God to make me who He wants me to be.

The Promises of God

I am reading a little book about the promises of God.  At the end of each section there is a time for reflection and a question.  The question that I read today was “In light of the promises that you have read from God’s word this week, what do you want to say to you Savior?”  Tho’ts like; “How can I say thanks…”, ”Undeserved”, “could not express my gratitude”, “Indescribable”, “Speechless”, “No other word but amazing”….and the list goes on.  These are lines from a song or a title to a song that has been written by people who have been overwhelmed with the goodness of our Lord in their lives.  Overwhelmed is a good word for what I feel.  Humbled by the fact that the King of heaven left His throne to come and die for me and then promises me good things and longs to do “exceedingly abundantly” above and beyond anything I could ask or think.  He wants to give me a “peace that passes all understanding”.  WOW!  That’s all I can say.  But to quote one of my favorite newer choruses “How Great is my God”.  Today please sing with me “how great is our God” as you remember all His unconditional, loving promises that he gave to you His child.

His “Joy”

Most of the time when the passage at the beginning of Hebrews 12 is read it is to encourage us to keep on with Christ after just reading the famous 11^th chapter the “Hall of Faith”.  

Much of the time verse one is read and then just the first phrase of verse 2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus”.  We are then encouraged to go forward keeping our eyes upward fixed on Jesus….looking to Him for our strength and courage to move forward and “keep on keeping on” in our faith.  However, a great disservice is done to us when the rest of the passage is left out.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  ³ For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. ~NASB

Yes, we have a great cloud of witnesses to learn from (Rom 15:4).  Yes, we should, no we must, look to Jesus for our strength to get thru each day.(Phil 4:13, Col 3:1-3, 2 Cor. 12:9) Yes, leaning on Him and having the life testimony of others who did and kept the faith is a great encouragement.  But I find another phrase and concept in these verses that encourages me and draws me closer to lean on Jesus.  “Who for the joy set before Him….”  Let’s explore what that “joy” was.  What was that “joy”?  The “joy” that was set before Him so that He could endure the cross, the shame, the hostility; He did not grow weary and lose heart.  I believe that this “joy” is us/me.  His love for me as His child, His creation, and His desire to spend eternity with me in his heaven, giving the best He has to offer me; I believe that this was the joy that motivated him.  

Maybe I get this cuz I am such a mother.  I have had people say to me that I was “born to be a mother”.  There isn’t a kid out there that I can’t “mother”.  My nurturing instinct is so strong.  It’s like my job to mother people. I am a born nurturer. There isn’t a good thing that I wouldn’t give to my children if I was able.  I have kept things from them because it was the best for them.  I have had to sit back and not get involved so that a lesson could be learned.  It pained me, grieved me, but I know, and have now witnessed, that it was best for them.  The ultimate goal is for them to completely lean on Jesus and that meant getting me, the parent, out of their leaning area.

Jesus, as part of the trinity in Genesis 1, created me in His image.  He made me (Ps 139). I am His precious child.  He loves me more than I can imagine loving my own children.  He created me, I came from Him, in His image in a way that I can never say that my children came from me.  I was simply the carrier.  God created them.  The intense, deep love that I feel for my children cannot begin to even compare to the love that my Jesus, my Savior, has for me.

I was that “joy”.  His love, the love of the Creator longing to save His creation, was the joy that sent Jesus to the cross.  The tho’t of being able to spend eternity with me sent Jesus to the cross.

I know that I have deeply personalized this tho’t.  But it is personal for each of us.  We are each individually His creation.  I think of the song that says, “O the love that drew salvation’s plan, O the grace that brought it down to man, O the mighty gulf that God did span, at Calvary”.

 Ponder this.  It will change you.  Just meditate on these verses today and tell me that they did not affect you in your walk, your intimate walk, with you Savior, Jesus Christ.

What are we Teaching our Children?

This morning I watched a 7 year old do the weather.  It is a Wednesday thing that is done on a local station.  However, I have never seen such a young co-host.  He was really good.  He knew what to say and could read the script incredibly well.  I was impressed with this very young boy and also with his parents who had taught him.

I have also recently seen a product that encourages children to read by age 2.  That too is incredible since some can barely speak and be understood at that age.  I am impressed that we have figured out how to teach children this young and that parents that are willing to put the time and effort into doing this with their child.

What about teaching them the word of God?  What about doing what is commanded in scripture.  If we took Deuteronomy 6 to heart and implemented it in our daily lives, what would our children look like?  Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!  ⁵“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

I did this with my children.  We talked about Jesus from the moment of conception.  We sang scripture in the morning and throughout our day.  When they entered the Awana program, we inserted the scriptures that they were learning through our day and week.  We sang and talked of Jesus in the car, on our walks to the park, at mealtime, at bedtime and anytime I had their ear.  How did they turn out? Well not perfect.  Each of them struggle with areas in their lives.  But all four of them have told me in the past year that we taught them about God and everything that they needed to know to “love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and might”, but now they had to decide for themselves if they were going to live by the word.  Yep, they are honest kids.  I believe, based on Proverbs 22:6, that eventually they will follow God with their whole heart. 

Wouldn’t you like to have children that can resight from memory God’s word at age two?  Wouldn’t you like them to be able to present the gospel and lead a friend to Christ at age 7?

Well, if we will just follow the commands in Deuteronomy 6 I know that they will be able to do that just as well as the young boy presented the weather to me this morning.  I could and did.  My children could and did. Now I am sharing it with you and someday our children will be telling the world with their lives; some already are. Praise be to God!

Words

“Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  Are you kidding me?  Does anyone really believe that? 

“It’s just a word.”   Really, then how come so many peolpe react so strongly to it?   I hear this when I correct my children for the “adult” language they choose to use in my presence.

Words mean everything.  They effect us.  they trigger deep emotions and dramatic reactions, even in the most placid of persons.  A single word can make us cry or laugh or even cause us to feel ill inside.  Words…this is how we communicate.  If we want a certain reaction or response, we use a certain word. 

In this age of texting and emailing I have learned that how you type a word makes it mean something.  When I first starting working outside the home and was doing a lot more communicating via email, I found this out the hard way.  I was in a program that required all capital letters.  An email popped up from a friend and I shot back a quick response.  I did it in all caps because I didn’t think that mattered.  She was so offended because she said that I yelled at her.  I went back and looked at my response and I didn’t get it.  Then it was explained to me that typing in all caps is yelling.  Well, one of the guys at work yells his every response because he always has his caps lock on.

Recently I have been reminded more about words.  I didn’t think about how to respond to a statement that was made, so I reacted and my words were not as gentle as they should have been.  Those words were turned into venom when they were repeated and they became hurtful and what should have been a little issue to talk through became a HUGE mountain of hurt feelings.  It hurt the person that the words were said to, the person that was the topic of the conversation, her husband…..then I was hurt for the miscommunication of my words, my husband was hurt….well it just got out of hand.

I can’t help think of  a very dear friend who is known for not saying a lot.  He lives by that famous quote from Abraham Lincoln, “it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”   I am learning to live more by that rule more and more as I grow older.  I learn a lot more about people by listening than by talking.  (that’s kind of famous quote somewhere too, isn’t it?)

Scripture talks a lot about the tongue.  It calls it a “fire”. (James 3).  It sets things on fire.  Just stop and think of a moment when just a very few words were spoken and it set you on fire inside.  A few words spoken at the wrong time can destroy a family and split a church.  Oh how powerful our words are.  The Word of God is powerful too-more powerful.  Scripture tells us that it is powerful and “sharper than a two edged sword”. (Hebrews 4:12)  It can restore a marriage, mend a broken heart, unite a church and OH so much more!

Oh how we (I) need to be so careful of every word that comes out of my mouth.  Many years ago my mother gave me this little prayer to pray each morning.  It hangs by the mirror in my bedroom.  It says “Gentle Spirit dwell within me that I myself would gentle be, and with words that help and heal would Thy like in mine reveal.”    Ephesians 4:29 tells us that we should only speak words that build each other up and give grace in that very moment.   I love to talk.  I love communicating with people.  For those of us that talk a lot, remember that just gives us more opportunity to mess up with our words OR we have more opportunity to be gracious and bring the love and grace and mercy of our Precious Savior into the lives of others.   Today be gracious and graceful in your speech.  I am in this with you.

Full Time Ministry

Full time ministry….what kind of picture does that bring to your mind?  It is the pastor and missionaries you know?  Do you include the paid administrators of the church like the secretary and youth pastor?  What about the lady that sits at the piano or organ week after week….many times these are not paid positions but do you consider them in “full time ministry”.  I guess probably not.  What about the lady that has taught the Sunday School class for 20 years?  I am pretty sure she was never given a check, is she in full time minstry? What does this term mean?

I know that I am called to full time ministry and was at an early age. I don’t think I began to understand what that looked like until recently.  I hear my Savior calling me to minister, I see His Word reminding me of why and how He will do it through me.  But what does that look like every day? 

First that means communing with Him.  Being in His Word, praying, studying the Word, taking it apart for inspection, allowing it to pentrate every single area of my life….even the secret ones, changing me and conforming me to the women that He desires me to be.  I certainly can’t be a minister of the Word to someone if I don’t know the Word.  AND I certainly shouldn’t be ministering if I am not living what I say I believe.  It means being there for people, to meet them in the circumstances that they are in and be willing to walk with them through it, reminding them that they are not alone because Jesus is there…..being Jesus with skin on.  That means “bloom where you are planted”.  It means taking captive every moment as an opportunity to share and serve Christ.  Never let the opportunity pass to pray with or over someone.

I wanted that to mean NOT working in an office doing a boring job that I do not enjoy.  I wanted that to mean going out and caring for others, sitting at my computer and writing blogs and encouraging emails.  Well…right now it doesn’t.

May I share what “full time ministry” means and has meant as I look back at my nearly 40 years as a Christian? It meant being a faithful student of His word in Christian school, it meant leading friends to Jesus instead of to drugs and alcohol and sex and other stuff, it meant being a faithful loving wife creating a supportive and loving environment for my husband to come home to, it meant raising four children in God’s word….speaking it to them when we walked and worked and traveled and laid down, it means continuing to be there for them as they leave home and transfer their depence from me and their dad to their heavenly Father, it meant and means using my gifts at church and in my community in teaching and encouraging others, and ministering in music and serving meals and being there to listen to a grieving friend…….

Doesn’t all that sound like full time Christian ministry to you?  It does to me.  We are all commanded to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

This means all the time.  Make disciples wherever you are.  If you are a mom of young children, then you need to be ministering to them and teaching them God’s word.  If you are teacher at school or in the church then study hard and prepare well and teach in the power of the Spirit.  If you sit at a desk and do boring work, do it unto the Lord for it is Him that you serve and not man. (Col 3:23-24)

Expectations

I have said for many years that we shouldn’t expect anything from any person in our life.  That way when they do come through for us, we are thrilled and when they don’t we are not let down.  NO expectations means that everything is gain.

That obviously does not work in every circumstance but it certainly cuts down on our disappointments.  I recently heard a little blurb in a message and then read a devotional from Acts 3:1-9 and it got me thinking. 

This story is about the lame man who was carried to the temple every day to beg alms.  He was not carried there to receive healing but to beg for money. Ever wondered who carried him?  Was it family that hoped he would beg enough for them too?  Was it some devoted friends who went to the temple every day?  Was it people on their way to their work that carried him?  Did they expect any payment from him for doing this?  I just wonder.

What about the lame man?  What did he expect?  Well, we are told – he expected alms.  He was begging for money.  He set his expectations so low. He was in front of the temple of GOD and he was begging for money.  Why didn’t he ask to be healed?  It hadn’t been that long since Jesus had returned to heaven.  Maybe he wasn’t able to get to one of the crowds where Jesus healed some people.  Do you think that he had heard about Jesus healing the lame and causing the blind to see?  I just wonder.

When Peter & John were entering the temple they looked at him and told him specifically to “look at us”.  Then they said those words that have been preached over and over again, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” (KJV)

He was healed.  He expected money for the day, maybe even a couple of days, but instead he was healed.  Let me remind you that he had been lame since birth.  This man was given something that he had never known.  He had never walked.  Peter and John, through the power of God, gave him a freedom that he had never had before.  Never again would someone have to carry him anywhere.  Never again would he have to ask for help walking or something as simple as getting his own cup of water.

Jesus has done that for us.  We ask for stuff.  We think that He is our vending machine but He has offered so much more to us.  We too have set our expectations too low….and sadly we have these low expectations of our Great and Mighty God.  God has given us so much (just read Ephesians 1) and yet we go asking for stuff.  I am so very guilty of this.  He has given us everything for life and godliness.  Everything for life.  That means that we have every thing that we need at our finger tips.  We are just too lazy or too blind or too self focused to reach out a go with it. 

Take some time today to read through Ephesians 1 and look at all that God has given you, if you are a child of God. I personally love the verses (4-5) that tell me that He purposefully (intention) chose to adopt me as His own child according to His kindness.  Think about all that it means to be adopted.  I will write about that soon.

One last thing….after the man who had NEVER walked was healed, he went into the temple “leaping and praising God”.  After you read Ephesians 1 and realize some of the things that God has given you, do a little holy dance in praise and worship of your Great God who has adopted you cuz HE LOVES YOU!!

For Our Instruction

I just love Romans 15:4  “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  That says that the Word was given to us so we could learn, and be encouraged.  There are a lot of other reasons that the Word was given to us, but God specifically says in this verse that the Word was written down for our instruction.  Of course we have to read it and study it to get the instruction from it.  It is not enough to listen to other’s interpretations of it; it is for our learning so we should read it.

I have personally come across a piece of scripture that has been mighty encouraging and helpful for me.  It is the story of Caleb in Joshua 14:6-14.  Caleb was one of the 12 spies sent in to spy out the Canaan land.  He and Joshua came back and said “yes, let’s go and take the land.  God will give it to us.”  Ten spies came back scared of what they had seen and full of fear.  Well, we know the story they wondered for years, actually decades, cuz they didn’t believe God and go in and take the land. 

Now Caleb is 85 and they are ready to go in and he requests to take a specific hill country, trusting that God will be with him. Now it’s not just that Caleb was faithful the first time to come back and be willing to go in and fight the giants, trusting God for the victory that makes an impression on me.  It’s not just that Caleb is still strong and ready to fight at 85 that really impresses me.  It’s a phrase that is repeated three times is these 9 verses; he “followed the Lord fully”.  This is not just said about Caleb but Caleb confidently says it about himself!  Wow-that’s confidence!  He followed God fully and he was confident in that.  He had an attitude of fortitude.  He walked so close to the Lord that he confidently knew that the Lord was the one fighting the battle; he was just privileged to be available to be the feet, hands and body to go.  He knew that this BIG job was not too big for His HUGE God.  

This story is such an example to me that I can win any battle, even the one with food, is I will yield and obey my God.

 I know that this is just a simple truth but it is one that we need to learn.  And how do we learn, we learn by reading the scriptures that were given to us for our learning.  (Romans 15:4)  Get into the Word and let it get into YOU!

Direction

Do you struggle with directions?  I have gotten pretty good over the years.  I had to.  Early in our marriage, my husband would drive us somewhere and then tell me that I had to get us home.  When we were first married, my hubby and I would travel to his sister’s farm about 45 minutes away.  Each time we went, he took me a different way.  I knew that I would never be able to get there by myself.  Sometimes, it took almost a hour.  After the birth of our first child, I stopped working and stayed at home.  I had to travel to the farm by myself. I was amazed at how easy it was to get there.  It only took about 35-40 minutes. It is a straight shot!  No back roads, only ONE turn off the main road!  Can you believe that?  For a year or so, he had me convinced that the farm was hard to get to and you had to take all these back roads.  If I had paid more attention to where he was taking me and less time starring into his big deep blue eyes, I would have realized what he was doing. 

The Christian life is like this too.  We wonder around not paying any attention to what God is doing. We are saved and we are happy that we are going to heaven.  “It’s all good.”  We go to church and say bedtime prayers but that’s about it.  Maybe we read a Bible story to our kids before bed time.  If we would dig into the word and listen, God has so much to share with us and getting us from point A to point B would be easier and take less time.  I am not saying that God will reveal everything that He is doing or has planned for you.  If He did that we would run and hide, I am sure of it.  However, if we would pay as much attention to things of God as we do other things we would get it sooner. 

• Do we spend as much time learning words to Christian music as we do to secular music?
• Do we spend as much time memorizing scripture as we do memorizing trivia (sports, movie, TV, entertainment news, politics, etc)?
• Do we spend as much time in front of the word or in front of a preacher as we do in front of the TV, computer etc?
• Be as commited to not missing Sunday morning corporate worship as we are to getting to work every day (the paycheck is much bigger from God)
• Be as confortable engaging in conversations w/ Christian friends as we are our work or school friends

None of these things in and of themselves are bad things.  I watch movies.  I even quote from movies.  I watch TV, not much anymore but I do have one fav show.  I listen to secular music sometimes too.  None of this is bad but if God and His word and His people and worship are not first in our lives how will we know where we should be going?  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has plans for us, “plans for our welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”  So you ask, “how do I know what God wants me to do next?”. Ask Him.  Simple huh?  James 1:5  says  ^“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” 

Remember God doesn’t usually talk to us with a loud voice from heaven; He speaks to us through His word.  Don’t ask God for wisdom and then expect Him to just place it upon you like a wig or a crown.  Read His word.  I promise that you will find the answer there.  All you have to do is ask, then read and listen.  How about starting today, right now.  Turn off the computer and open your Bible.