Food for Thought

I came across this question in my homework the other day and thought I would open it up to those of you who read my blog - don't worry, I already did the homework, but I would love to here your answers!


Do we have to sin? Explain. (Refer to Rom. 6:6,7,14)



Again, this is just food for thought, but if you would like to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Childlike Prayer

"God, thank you for the food and um, that we got to play outside yesterday and um, oh yeah, help me not to be afraid at night because I don't need to cuz the boogie man is not real and the Lord is my shepherd I shall not be afraid. Oh, and please let it be sunny tomorrow, not too sunny, a little cloudy, but sunny cuz I want to play outside. Amen."

This is a prayer of my four year old. I am humbled that even with the limited amount of Scripture she knows, she still prays Scripture. Of course, not all the time, but that even at four she would do that is just so cool! I just love how kids keep us humble.

 “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. " Matt. 18:3-4

Are You Being Honest?

Recently, I posted a video about wrong worship. Feel free to look it up on Youtube. It was a video of a worship team singing familiar songs, generally sung in churches, but changing the lyrics to reflect what some people are really thinking as they sing them. Such as changing the focus to themselves, rather than God. This sparked some controversy. While the video was somewhat humorous, in that it was funny to hear the songs with the different lyrics, the point was to get you to reflect on what your own heart is like as you sing in worship to God.

I bring this up because of one comment that was made regarding whether or not we should sing songs that about our response to the greatness of God, if we do not live the reality of that. Examples would be "I Surrender All", "You're All I Want", "You're all this heart is living for".

Now can any of us say this is true all the time? Of course not! Not even the apostle Paul could say that (Rom. 7:15). But the reality is, even when we sing songs that exalt the name of God, we must ask ourselves, "Do I really believe this?"

I'm not trying to say we shouldn't sing either of these types of songs, in fact, I think just the opposite. I don't know about you guys, but how many times have you been in church worshipping and the Holy Spirit convicts you and you start to pray, "Lord, I have not surrendered all. In fact, I've been holding back in this area. Please help me to give it over to You. I want this to be true for my life." Or "Am I living like I believe that You can move mountains? Or that You are mighty to save my neighbor who wants nothing to do with You? Or even that Your name is great? Do I really believe that? Oh, Lord, help me with my unbelief (Mark 9:24)!

So I ask, are you being honest? Let me clarify what I mean by that question. When you come to worship in fellowship with other believers, through singing, prayer, and hearing the Word; or when you praise God in your own home/office/car/school/whatever, do you come before God with an honest open heart asking Him to show You what is truly in your heart that You may repent and turn from your sin? Because that is true worship.

Now I challenge you: when you do sing songs, whether they are to uplift the name of God, or making a statement of how we are to live in Christ, let it motivate you to integrity. Be challenged by them to make the changes necessary to make them become truth. Don't shy away from singing, because they are not yet truth, rather ask God to help you make them truth.

Be honest in a way that transforms your heart.

I Just HAVE to Share!

I've been completely stressing out this last week. Our house is still a disaster zone as we continue to paint and move furniture. On top of that I have major papers due for school and finals coming up. I think my boys are sick and my kitten has fleas.

These are just life stuff, but what I HAVE to share is what I read this morning...

Isaiah 11 is where Isaiah not only prophesies about the coming Messiah, but also His eventual reign over a perfected earth. 

Now that may not seem exciting to you, but Holy Cow! Isaiah is basically telling the people of Israel and Judah that with all the crazy stuff that was happening to them and that was going to happen, their hope was to be placed in the fact that Jesus will not only come to earth as a man, die and be resurrected, but that He will return again and set up His kingdom where those who have been obedient to His call will live with HIm for eternity. This is in the Old Testament people! Before Jesus even came, before David was even born. Way, way, way back, this is where they were told to place their hope.

Boy, do I feel like Peter right now. Peter took His eyes off of Jesus for just a moment to look around him at his present situation and started to drown, when if he had kept his eyes ahead of him, on Christ, he would have continued to defy the laws of nature. (Matt. 14:22-36).

Basically, I was reminded to quit looking around me at what is going on in this life, and look to what I know is to come! Whew! What a relief and fresh sense of energy and renewal. 

Nothing in the present matters outside of the context of the future. If that doesn't give you a new perspective, you're dead.

To Save a Life...

Recently, I shared a little bit about this with the women in my Bible study group, but I"m going to expand on it some here, for good reason.

A while back my husband and I were having some major issues in our marriage. During this time, I was hurt, angry, bitter. It had gotten so bad that I wanted a divorce and was trying to figure out how I could leave. Then, I found out I was pregnant. I did not want this baby. After all, how was I going to take care of these children on my own? What was I going to do if the child looked like him and was a living reminder each day of how much he hurt me? What was I going to do?

I could not have an abortion, but what I considered was just as ugly. Self-induced miscarriage. I spent a lot of time trying to think of ways I could make myself miscarry this child. I even looked up some things on the internet. It wasn't just because I didn't want to have another baby, but I also wanted to hurt Josh as much as I felt like he had hurt me. 

God got to me. He refused to let it happen. He opened my eyes and made me realize how ridiculous I was being. It took a miracle, but He delivered. Why? Because He is the God of miracles. 

In my brokenness, I cried out to Him. Literally, cried, weeped, was on my knees before Him in prayer, because I was tired of trying to do this on my own. I couldn't handle my life anymore. For three days, this is what I did. By the end of those three days, I was ready to listen to what God had to say, and what He said was that divorce and losing this baby was not in His plan for my life. And then the miracle happened. The major issue that was ripping my family apart was eliminated. There was still a lot of work to be done on repairing our relationship, but I knew that I was not going to go through with a divorce and yes, I was going to have the baby. I do not have a particular Scripture that God used to speak to me at that time, because quite frankly, I was not in the Word. However, because of what I had learned through the years, in my time of prayer God brought back to my mind some of the truths in His Word.

Jade is turning four today. She is a true delight! Such a blessing from God. Jade is definitely strong-willed. She is always surprising us with how well she understands things and is most always giggly and goofy giving us all a good laugh! I can't imagine my life without her.

Funny thing is that Jade is the most like me out of all of my children. It's a reminder that during a time when I wanted to self-destruct God has something different in mind - life. 

O Lord, I thank you that you are love and that you saw fit to extend your grace and mercy to someone as undeserving as me, and that you did what you had to do to preserve Jade - may she be forever Yours!

Choosing to be a Prisoner?

At church yesterday, my pastor and our worship leader spoke about freedom and being freed from the bondage of sin. I started thinking...

Imagine you have been convicted of a crime. You pleaded guilty, you knew you did it, so you didn't even bother trying to deny it. The judge sentences you death. But then someone offers to take your place. The judge takes their offer and lets you go free. You are ecstatic!! You almost had to spend the rest of your days in a prison cell until they finally decided to carry out your death sentence, but now you are free! 

Now imagine one day, you walked into the prison, went into a cell and closed the door behind you, then started crying out for someone to help you.

We are sinners who have been convicted of death. But Christ took the punishment of death for us. When we give Christ Lordship over our lives, we are granted freedom from the punishment of our sin. 

You are probably asking the question, "Why would anyone have walked back into the prison and put themselves into a cell when they are free?" 

This is what we do, when we live as though we are enslaved to sin. You see, when Christ died on the cross He took on all our sin - past, present, and future. He took it. He gave us freedom. Walking into that cell is what we do when we begin to feel defeated by sin. We go back into old habits and patterns, or even start new ones. Then we cry out to God for freedom, and He says, "I've already given you freedom, now start living like you're free!"

His death was once and for all. He doesn't need to keep freeing us over and over again. We just need to start living like we are free. 

So what does it mean to live like you are free? If you asked someone who had been released from prison what it would mean for them to now live like they were free, I'm sure they would not say that going back to their old life of crime with the threat of going back to prison would be true freedom. But being released as though you had never committed a crime, no record to stain your reputation, now that's true freedom. That is what we have been given. Christians have the choice to live in the freedom that they have been given through Christ's blood, in Christ's strength. Or to allow themselves to be falsely bound by sin. I say falsely bound, because once we have been freed by the blood of Christ, sin no longer has power over us. Satan no longer has the upper hand. We may feel like it does, because we are weak in our own strength - but it doesn't.

 

What sins are your prison cell? 

Are you going to continue to live as though you are a prisoner, or are you going to live in your freedom?

I thought of a few of my own, and let me tell you, I would much rather live in the freedom I have in Christ. 

Go live in freedom. 

Bearing Children and Fruit

"My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you-"

Galatians 4:19

Today my pastor used this verse during his sermon, and it got me thinking. Why use this analogy unless there is something about this actual experience that can teach us something? I have had five children and with that five different experiences regarding childbirth, however, the more I think about it, the more I realize how they have been pictures of my spiritual growth. Allow me to illustrate, without grossing you out too much ; )

My childbirth experiences:

With my first child I was in labor (from the time my water broke until she was born) 15 hours. I was determined to go natural so I tried every method I could remember to help bear with the pain. It eventually became evident that I had back labor. This means the baby is facing the wrong direction when going down into the birth canal, putting added pressure on my back. It also means that contractions are much worse, and the baby has to be turned while you are pushing so he/she can actually come out. 

My second child was unexpectedly born early during a stressful time of life. With her, I was in labor for 25 hours. I had to be induced and could not get out of bed due to some medicine they had to give me. This, of course, made it much more difficult to deal with the pain of the contractions. Just as I was ready to give up and get an epidural, she came down enough for me to push. 

My third labor, I don't remember much about. I do remember that I needed to push before being fully dilated. The doctors and nurses didn't believe me and left the room. I had to yell for them to come back in and literally pushed her out 15 minutes later. However, since they had not done much to help prepare me, I had a lot of tearing. Most unfortunately, I could feel all of the stitches they had to give me. Ouch!

The fourth labor was much easier. The pain of my contractions was all in the top of my thighs, so it was not as intense. While obviously, it was still somewhat painful, at this point I knew much more about what to expect and had good help throughout the process. Much easier.

The fifth was a breeze. Almost. My water broke before contractions began and from that time until birth was only 5 hours. Again the pressure was mostly in the top of my thighs, which allowed me to sleep most of the time. Yahoo! The hardest part was obviously pushing, which again didn't take long, and I had much better support.

All of them ended in the birth of a new life. Each one different in it's own way and each child was bigger than the last (except my second who was early, but would have been bigger than my first had she come on time). 

So what does all this have to do with spiritual growth? Oh, I can't wait to tell you!

The labor and birth of my first child reminds me of when I came to Christ. I had spent a lot of time using what I knew trying to handle the pains and problems of life my own way. I even tried to apply what I had learned about God's Word, but still was attempting to be strong and do it on my own. I had a limited relationship with my child while she was still in my womb, but my baby had to turn to face the right direction before she could take her first breath so she could really start living and have a living, breathing relationship with me. It wasn't until I turned to face the right direction, away from the world and the reflection of myself, toward Christ, that I was able to enter into a relationship with Him, changing my life forever.

My second child came at a stressful time of life, unexpectedly. It was a long, hard labor and just as I was ready to give up - she was born. This is a reminder to me of what I consider to be a major time of spiritual growth in my life. At that point, life had been stressful for awhile, and was only getting worse. And it all came crashing down unexpectedly. I had been trying, again, to work out my problems on my own, but didn't realize it this time. Just when I was ready to give up and give in, God worked. It was a one of those big peaks along my spiritual journey, that I will not forget.

My third experience with labor is a reminder to me of those times in life when we know we need help, but no one really listens until the last minute. By that time, growth is extremely painful. Relationships may need to be stitched back together afterwards, which also can be painful. Fortunately, as we learn forgiveness, the way God intended it to be, we begin to forget the ugliness of these times and just remember the growth that came from them, and what we can do differently the next time we find ourselves in that place, so that the growth doesn't have to be so painful.

My fourth labor was much different than the previous three, but also much easier. I had great support and didn't have to endure as much pain to bring forth life. As I have grown spiritually, I have learned, how to get the support I need, and to desire change so that it comes without so much struggle. 

My fifth labor proves what I just said. In fact, growth can come somewhat peacefully. Yes, there is still pain in the process as we have to put off sin, but we know the joy that will come in the end and look forward to it. 

Just as my labors got progressively easier, spiritual growth should also. Just as my children got progressively bigger, so should the fruit we produce as Christians. 

You may think this is a stretch, but I'm marveling in the beauty of how God uses my life to show me pictures of Himself.