Incorruptable Beauty #2

Being clean, such a wonderful feeling!  Just as I need a clean face before I put my makeup on, so I need a clean heart to be able to serve my God.  If I want what I do to stand the test of time and eternity, than I must always remember to be living my life the way that God wants me to live. 
The way to being spiritually clean with God is repentance.  Repentance is one of those words that we don't hear too often anymore.  It seems that we make a lot of excuses for our sins and failings.  We seem to not want to admit that we are wrong.  It is pride that keeps us from repenting; but I think that it goes a bit deeper.  We, as women, have been trained from our babyhood that we need to be strong, beautiful, kind, pleasing, great housekeepers and cooks, awesome mothers, and sexy wives.  So often, we try so hard to be all of these things.  We try so hard that we begin to believe that it is only in doing/being perfect at them, that we are truly loved and wanted, and clean of sin.  We try so hard, that we can't imagine that we might be wrong, or in sin, or failing.  I don't know about you, but I can think this way; and I can believe that God wants me to be this way.......trying hard!  This is where the lie comes in.  To repent of something means that you are in agreement with God that what you have done, or failed to do, is wrong....according to God!  Not according to man, woman, society, friends, magazines, books, or myself!   God never, ever stops wanting us or loving us.  And, God never expects me to try hard! I am just supposed to obey from a heart of love. If I am looking at repentance from any other point of view than God's, I am wrong. 
I have discovered that if I want to live a life that is pleasing to God, than I must involve God in ALL of my decisions and in ALL that I do or don't do.  I must realize that my mind needs to change, what I think about myself needs to change!  For if my mind is changed my actions will follow.
I have come to realize that I put so much pressure on myself to be the 'Perfect Woman;' and I allow myself to be persuaded by this world or my friends as to what that 'perfection' looks like.

 

1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

I belong to God. I was bought with a price and I do not belong to myself any longer.  If I believe this to be true, than my actions should follow.  Therefore, God is the One who gets to decide how I look, how I act, what kind of wife and mother I am to be, what find of friend I am to be.  He alone is to decide what kind of woman I am to be.  It is when I go outside of this truth that I find myself feeling discouraged, feeling guilty, and like a failure.

 

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

As I begin my day my prayer should be one that seeks to please God and not self or others.  If I am pleasing to God than I'll be a woman who is godly; not perfect, but godly.
As I cleanse my face, in preparation for my make-up, I pray that my mind is cleansed as well.  I ask the Lord to remove any thoughts that are contrary to His word and to His will for my life.
As I wrote in my first post about this, dirt and oils clog our skin's pores and that produces blemishes.  If my heart is clogged with sin and selfishness, than sinful action occur.  The same holds true of my mind.  If I allow impure thoughts, ideas, desires, and needs to clutter up my mind, than I will not be allowing God to guide my day and it's decisions.   Don't get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to be pretty, wanting to be a good wife and mom, to be a godly servant friend.  But, it is wrong if we allow anything or anyone other than God to dictate to us how-to be this kind of woman. 

Romans 12:1–2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

(This is the second post of a series titled, Incorruptible Beauty.  Please ask permission before you copy or use any portion of this series.  Thank you) 

"The Proof"

As a pastor's wife, one of my most challenging areas of service is the area of loving those who are disloyal.  You know, those persons who love you and respect you, as long as you don't cross them, or you don't have to tell them the truth.  Or the ones that you thought had it "all together," but really, they didn't.  Even those who taught the word with boldness and yet, they find it easy to disregard God's word so that they can feel justified in what they are doing! 
I have once again been reminded that true love is an action and not a feeling.  Jesus took our griefs and our sorrows upon Himself.  He took our sins and our failings, our self-righteousness and hate; and He bore those horrible things on His body as He died on a tree....for me.  Jesus, I'm sure, did not feel like going to the cross; in fact, He prayed that the Father would "Take this cup from Me......."  Feelings don't have much to do with true love.  Feelings are a part of love and feelings can come as we love, but true love gives despite feelings!  True love says, "Not My will, but Yours be done."  Jesus' death was the proof of His love for me!!  It was by this very action that I now live this "abundant life."
God has given to me life, abundant life.  How I choose to spend the minutes, hours, and days of this life, prove/show my love for the Farther; but in the living, I must die.

"Time For Lunch!"

The miracle of the Loaves and Fish has been on my heart lately.  Here in this story, Jesus and the disciples were on their way to having a time of rest, a bit of a vacation.  But the multitudes followed them.  The Bible tells us that the day was turning to night, and that Jesus had compassion on the crowd of people, for He knew that they were hungry. As Jesus looks at the crowd, He sees an opportunity to serve them, but also our Lord takes the time to teach the disciples another lesson.....a lesson about our God's love and care of people.  Jesus could have just let the people return home for their supper.  He could have let the disciples have a bit of a rest; in fact,wasn't that was what was supposed to be happening?  But our Lord never passes up on an opportunity to love on people. And, He wants us to do the same. 
As Jesus asks the disciples to "feed the crowd" the disciples are taken aback by this request. And I can understand why!!  I can almost see their faces.  Their mouths' drop open, eyes widen, and then the spoken words of, "Where are we going to get that much food?"  Jesus asks, "How much food do you have?"  "Only this boys' lunch," they answer back.  So Jesus tells the disciples to tell the crowd to sit down!  What??  Just, "Sit down?"  No, "Tell them to go home," or "Tell them to go and get themselves some dinner and come back tomorrow?"  Nope, just sit down.  Then Jesus takes the few loaves and the fish and makes into them.....a great feast!  There was enough for all!  And not only that, there were 12 baskets of leftovers too! 
The Lord was showing that He had power over creation, but I believe more importantly, He was showing the disciples (and me) that He will give to me all that I need so that I may give to others!!  There will be no lack!  We have heard it said, "Where God guides, He provides," and this story proves that fact.
God wants it ALL.......everything!!  There can be no holding back. When He calls, there can be no, "But I need my rest," or "I need time to myself."  Now rest and relaxing aren't bad or wrong.  But, I need to be willing to give of these to my Jesus when He asks for them!! What if the young boy had wanted to keep his little lunch to himself?  He could have, for it belonged to him. I too, can keep my "little bit," but that is all I will have, a "little bit." 
Jesus asks us to bring what we have.....and to bring all that we have.  It may be a lot or it may be a little. The choice is ours.  I can keep my "meager loaves and fish," and feed myself.....and maybe a few others.  Or I can give my "little lunch" to the Lord and let Him bless it, break it, and feed many.....myself included!!

 

The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.  Psalm 34:10

Unless the Lord.......

A while back, one of my grand kids asked me if I had a photo of the house that I grew up in. At that time, I didn't.  I don't know why I never took a photo of it.  I guess I always thought that I would go back home, and see it with my own eyes.  Recently a friend from home was able to take a few snapshots of my childhood house for me.  Now I have something to show my grand children.  The house doesn't look as it did when I was a child, in fact it looks quite sad and run down. While I was growing up, my dad was good at keeping up with home repairs.  He made sure that the paint was freshened every five years or so.  He made sure that the trees were trimmed, and that the fence did what a fence should do.....keep the kids in the yard and keep strangers out.
As I was looking at the photos it struck me that everything in life can fall to disrepair if we are not constantly maintaining it.  And this holds true with my life......with all areas of my life.  My marriage, my friendships, my work, my physical health, and the most important, my relationship with God.  As I looked at that run down house and yard, I was reminded again of how easy it is to let "things go." I get so busy with life, with doing my own thing, that I forget to maintain those things that are so very important.  If I leave a hole in the roof of my house, then the roof will leak and after a while, it will fall down.  If I don't sand and repaint the peeling paint around my home's window frames then moisture and bugs can get into the wood, and they will rot away to nothing.  If we don't expend the effort to trim our trees, and mow our yard.....well, you get the point.  The same holds true for my spiritual life and for my relationships.  I need to expend the energy, and take the time, to maintain them!  This means that I need to be aware of "peeling paint and rotten roofs."  I need to be asking the Lord if all is well with us, if all is well with my marriage and with my other relationships. I have learned that it takes more work to rebuild, than to repair and maintain.  So, I am asking for Him to show me the "leaks and the peeling paint," so that I can be a good steward of the good things that He has entrusted to me.
"Unless the Lord builds the house, it's builders labor in vain....."
Psalm 127:1

Words to Live By

God spoke........
It was so.......
And, it was good!
Got it?

I Will See God!

I know that I am not the only one who is dealing with heartache over the news from Connecticut.  I know that I am not the only one who was praying for the destruction and loss of life that occurred when hurricane Sandy hit the east coast. I know that I am not the only Christian who has prayed and struggled to find answers to why our nation voted in a president who does not care about the lives of the unborn.  I know that I am not the only resident of Washington state that is disgusted over the new laws that allows people to openly use drugs, and to "marry" a person of the same sex.  I know that I am not the only one to have been praying of late, "Come quickly Lord Jesus!!" 
As I was reading in Job this morning, I was in a way comforted to remember that sin and suffering have always been around...well, as long as humans have been around that is!  When God created man and woman He expected them to follow and obey.  He expected them to love one another, to have children, and to live a care-free life in the beautiful garden that He had created just for them.  But they did not obey...they did not follow.  Adam and Eve thought they knew a better way, they thought that it was no big deal to disobey God's command.....But it was and it is a big deal to disobey God's command.
I find it strange that we, as a nation, have taken God out of every nuance of public life, but then the people of this nation who wanted Him gone, blame God when horrible things happen!!

Proverbs 19:3 A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.

As we can see from this verse it has always been so.  Man blames God for the choices that man makes!! 

I know that people do not choose hurricane force winds, and I know that the children in Connecticut didn't choose to die in such a horrible way, but God gives ALL men a choice!!  And (I hate that it is so) we ALL bear the consequences of anothers' CHOICE!!  That is why it is so important to make GODLY choices and to teach our children to make GODLY choices. For if we take God out of our day to day lives, then all we have left is......HUMANS!!  And humans, without God are evil!  They are selfish, mean, cruel to one another, back biters, haters, adulterers, murderers, sexually immoral, drunkards, liars, disrespectful of authority, war mongers, and they say that good is evil and evil is good!

 Lord Jesus, help us all!

When a Christian goes through a terrible time, when suffering is all around us, we need to know that God has a purpose and a plan for it.  Just as He had for Job.  Here was a man who in a matter of a few hours, lost everything that was precious to him.  He lost his home, his business, his children, and the respect of his wife.  He truly felt like he didn't deserve this kind of treatment from God.  As Job is pouring out his anguish, his pain, his heartfelt cry to God, the Bible says that he never sinned with his mouth!  This teaches me that God understands our heart's cry, He knows that we don't understand His ways, He knows that in our humanness, we feel like He is to blame for life's trials and heartache.  What I have found is that God allows me to go through times of heartache and pain so that I may bring glory to His name.  As I go through difficult and painful times with integrity and trust in my loving heavenly Father, people see that God is real, that He cares for me, that His love for me never fails.  It is in these times that I experience the peace that this life can never give to me.

I will end with these words from Job........

Job 19:25–27 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

 

As A Child

Mitch and I enjoyed having our four youngest grandchildren visit last weekend.  I love having the kids around, but it can be quite hectic at times!  They are a bundle of energy and they all love to play rough-house, board games, and thy really enjoy coloring or creating paper crafts.  We had dvr'd the movie, Spy Kids, and they loved watching that (and acting like spies later on...too cute!!) along with other cartoons.
To digress a moment, Mitch and I were not able to have this kind of playtime with our older grandchildren, because we lived in Colorado when they were young.  Now, we get to take them to lunch, or to the movies or shopping.  I enjoy having grown-up conversations with them, but feel a bit "cheated" for not being around when they were little.
Anyway, while the little ones were here, there was a point where they were all in the kitchen asking for a treat, yet they had just asked to play a game.  One of the littler ones, who is potty-training, said "I need to go potty Ninnie, will you help me?"  Then, one of them asked for a drink!!  I told them that I could only do one thing at a time, and needed to help the one on the toilet, before we had an accident.  The other kids patiently waited while I was in the restroom, and when I came out, I gave them their treat, and then we played a game.  I remember thinking to myself, don't they know that I can only do one thing at a time?  I even told them, "give me a sec....there is only one of me and four of you!" I can still see their sweet faces, expecting their Ninnie to grant their requests!  There was no hesitation to ask me for these things, they knew that I would give them all that I could give.
 It was in this moment that God brought to mind these verses:

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Matthew 7:11 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 good things to those who ask Him!

God tells us to come to Him as little children. The Bible tells us that we cannot inherit the kingdom of God without being like a child.  It is an innocent child that trusts that the person they are looking to is eager to help and eager to grant their request.  This is how God wants me to see Him.

God was reminding me that He longs to hear my requests and that He wants to grant my every wish, so to speak, if it is good for me!  God loves to see my sweet face expectantly waiting on Him to do awesome things for me.