Honest Prayer

I am still facing brain fog and exhaustion from being sick on the weekend.  I tried to write a new post, but it wasn't making sense.  I came across this prayer I wrote about this time last year.  I thought I would share it with you, as prayer -- honest conversation with our Heavenly Father -- is such a huge part of our relationship with Him.  I have mentioned before that I deal with clinical depression.  In the fall of 2010 I had an emotional breakdown, and I refer to it in this prayer.  The prayer askes God to bring me back to a place of intimacy with Him.  That prayer was answered in amazing ways just a few moths later, as God gave me this commission to share a message about commitment.  God is awesome.  He loves me and He loves You, too! Strive to have deep, real conversation with the God who loves you so much that He died for you!

March 23, 2011

Father,

I don't know why it is,but I connect with you better on paper or on the computer. Is that OK? I guess I need to do what works. I'm sorry I haven't made the effort to do what works recently. God, I want to live for you! I don't want to be controlled by food or coffee! I don't want to waste my days in distraction and clutter – physical and mental clutter! I want clarity and clutter-free living! Let me focus on praising You! You gave me life and didn't stop there. You died to give that life meaning and to give me eternal life! You want to be with me. You WANT to be with me! You don't just love me, you like me, too! Oh Lord, you created such a beautiful world! You created mountains and blue sky, flowers of every colour imaginable, animals of every shape and size. The creatures in the ocean are so spectacular! The complexity of a single cell is mind boggling – the complexity of a living human is beyond description. How could that complexity ever have occurred by millions or billions of random mutations. It doesn't make sense, yet people are taught that as fact – just to get You out of schools and science. But You are the one that created everything that science tries to explain. Scientists are rewarded for discovering how something in this world or in the universe works – yet You are the one who thought up the idea and spoke it into existence!

Father, this world bothers me. I do feel like a pilgrim out of place. Help me to love the people around me enough to do whatever it takes to share You with them. I feel like I have blown it so many times. I guess I still have the wrong concept of sharing You with others. I so want to share the victory you have brought to my life, but in the absence of victory, how do I share You. My depression in the fall totally ruined my witness to my family. I don't know how to share You. Probably because I haven't been walking closely enough with You to have anything to share. Please forgive me! Please help me to change! I want to make a difference in this world. I want to be a disciple. I want to make disciples. Restore to me the joy of my salvation! Restore to me the joy of Your presence! Let me know that You are near me. Draw me ever closer to You! Help me to put aside the distractions that have ruled my life so that I can focus on pleasing You. Not pleasing You for salvation, but pleasing You out of gratitude. And to be honest, when I am living a life pleasing to You – I feel so much better about myself and my life. I want to be in that place again.

With love from your daughter,

Cindy

I'm sorry that I have gotten behind on my posts.  I haven't been feeling well.  Here is Friday's photo.

Love One Another

Jesus explained many different things to His disciple at the Last Supper, prior to His sacrifice on the cross. The Apostle John records one of those commands.

(Jn 13:34) A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

The Old Testament commanded in Lev 19:18 to “love your neighbor as yourself.” With Jesus' command, we now have a picture of what that love needs to look like. It needs to be just as real and as sacrificial as Jesus' love for us. This deep, real, humble, transparent, self-sacrificing love is supposed to be the hallmark of a Christian.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul also explains how important it is to love one another. From the Message Bible it reads:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (1Co 13:1-3 The Message)

Not only is love supposed to be the hallmark of Christians, Paul makes it very clear that we cannot accomplish anything worthwhile without love. Let that sink in.

• Do you know your Bible really well and can quote many passages from memory? Without it being done in love, all the work you put into knowing God's Word is worthless.
• Are you a talented speaker or teacher? If your teaching does not come from a heart of love, your message will simply be background static.
• Do you have incredible faith? Paul says that without love, that faith amounts to nothing.
• Do you sacrifice time or money for the church or the poor? If your motive is something other than love you have accomplished nothing.

OUCH! That certainly challenges me!

One of the best ways to learn and live out that kind of love is in a small group. That's exactly what Jesus had with His disciples. A group of 6 to 12 people works well. The purpose of the small group goes way beyond the topic you are studying. It is about living out your Christianity in a group. God wants to bond your small group together in love. He wants it to be a fun place to be. A place where you can celebrate and relax together. A place where His love is evident to all.

He wants you to feel so safe in your group that you can share your deepest hurts and your greatest failures. I have been in groups where people shared that they were still struggling with gambling, alcoholism, and homosexual temptations. I have been in groups where acceptance and love opened doors for healing of these things and many more. I suffer from clinical depression. My Monday morning small group helps me to stay connected to God's love and His truth. When I need help, I can send out an email and have several people praying for me. IT WORKS!

The small group is a place where we can learn how to love as Jesus loved. As we experience Jesus' love in our small group, it will become so much easier to share His love with others. You will be excited to bring other people into your group. Then they will experience that love of Jesus.

At 19 I was an atheist. I verbally persecuted Christians. God worked out many things in order to get me to a small group meeting. I had never seen love like that – unconditional and not self-serving. That experience brought me back. 27 years later I am still excited about small groups – and I am definitely no longer an atheist!

If you are not in a small group, I encourage you to participate in one. I can probably connect you to an online group if there is no other option. If you are in a small group that is not what it is supposed to be – start making a difference in your group by demonstrating sacrificial and unconditional love for the other members.

I'd love to hear other positive small group stories.

One Task

Today's post is by a guest author.  Shawn Ketcheson has been pastoring at the church where I attend for about three years.  He is one of the most humble and real people I have ever met.  I respect him tremendously because he is living for God's approval, not man's.  He has faced real persecution as a result of his strong stand on the Bible.  Shawn sends out a weekly newsletter to prepare us for the sermon he will be preaching on the upcoming Sunday.  This week's newsletter challenged me deeply, and fit right in with the purpose of this blog.  I asked for permission to share his newslatter with you.

My Dear Friends,

Imagine this. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and, as you rush toward the door to go to work, you notice that you have a huge plumbing problem.  Your toilet is overflowing and the shut off valve won’t turn.  You can’t miss that meeting and so you call up a plumber who says he will be right over.  You say great, head off to work and leave the house open for the plumber. 

When you get home that evening you see the plumber outside painting your house.  You notice that the job is pretty good and complement him on his work.  He seems to appreciate the affirmation.  All is well.  You ask the plumber, how did it go with the toilet.  The plumber tells you that since the house looked like it could use a bit of paint, and since it was a nice day, he thought he would just spend the day working outside. He hasn’t done the one thing you asked him to do, fix the plumbing.   You rush inside your house  and notice that the toilet has been flooding all day and that the hardwood floors are ruined.  Tell me,  how would you feel?  What might you say to the plumber?

When Jesus left his disciples nearly 2000 years ago he gave them but one main  task, world evangelization.  I can imagine him saying something like this to them.  I'm going to leave you and I will be gone for a long time.  Well I am absent, I want you to do just one thing.  Give this gospel of mine to  every nation, to every people group. Those were his instructions. That was the one thing he told them/us to do.  They understood him perfectly. After Pentecost they spread out and began the work of evangelizing.  But what has church done in recent years? Have we carried out his orders? Have we obeyed him?

As I see it, we've done everything except the one and only thing he told us to do. Jesus never told us to build colleges, universities, and seminaries, but we have. He never told us to build hospitals, seniors residences, nursing homes.   But we have.  He never told us to build church buildings or to organize Sunday schools and youth rallies, VBS etc, but we had done it. And we ought to have done it.  It is right and important and worthwhile to do these things. But the one and only thing that he told us to do, is the one and only thing that we have left undone. We have not given His Gospel to every  people group.  We have not carried out his orders.  We have been painting houses as the world floods.

Then he (Jesus) said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and

announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all.”  

Mark 16:15  The Message 

We have been called by God to give His Gospel to all.  Why do we keep giving it to the same people over and over while many have never heard it once.  Why do some spend so much time arguing about the 2nd coming of Christ when the majority on this planet have never heard that he came the first time?   

On Sunday we will explore part two of our series on Missions as we discuss the why. 

Why have we failed to evangelize the world?

See ya Sunday, Shawn

Shawn's sermon should be available online later this week.

click here to be taken to the Trinity Bible Church website

Perfect Parenting

I have had a few parenting discussions with some friends of mine. Although it is a bit off-topic, I would like to share some things from those discussions with you.

I have two boys, now 15 and 17. They both have Asperger's Disorder, which is a form of autism that does not affect their speech or academic abilities. In other words they look and sound like “normal” kids, but respond to things in very different ways. As children there were many many meltdowns (similar to temper tantrums but based on an inability to do something rather than as a strategy to get their way).

I certainly have not done a perfect job of parenting, but the challenges I faced in raising my boys has taught me so much. The first piece of advice is:

CATCH YOUR CHILD DOING SOMETHING RIGHT!

So often as parents we come across very critical. It is so easy to notice the C on the report card, rather than noticing the three Bs. It is so easy to tell them what they are not doing right, instead of finding things to praise them for. I am not talking about empty praise. Praise your child when he makes and effort to improve. Praise your child when he does his best. Praise your child when he does something that he hates with a good attitude. I'm not going to say anything more here, because there are numerous resources that look at positive parenting.

Here is my second piece of advice:

DON'T BE THE PERFECT PARENT!

I know you are probably scratching your head and saying this woman's totally lost it. This advice has come from years of dealing with numerous challenges in my parenting. My boys have their issues, but I also throw clinical depression and chronic fatigue into the mix. All three of us are also sinners. I have learned that the best parenting models what it looks like to be a sinner who loves God with all his/her heart.

A huge part of my depression centres on the fact that I can never measure up. I am not good enough to meet God's standard of perfection. I did not want to pass this warped thinking on to my boys. Several years ago I stopped trying to be perfect in front of them. Instead I confessed when I did something wrong.

I appologized. I told them that God didn't like it when I yelled at them, but God is the only one who can help me overcome my anger and frustration. “God forgives me, will you forgive me?” I taught them that God is the one who can change our characters. God doesn't like our sin, but He loves us more than we can ever comprehend.

Then I took it a step farther. When one of the boys was in a meltdown, I would start praying very loudly “God take away the anger in this house! Take away the frustration! Fill each of us with forgiveness and peace!” I prayed during the challenges, and there were times when the meltdown stopped in seconds. There were other times when we were talking to God for over an hour.

We pray out loud about all sorts of things – lost homework or keys, late transportation, schedule changes, not understanding homework, don't let the rain ruin my school project, etc. We also thank God out loud when He answers those prayers.

My boys are solid in their faith. They pray when they are facing anxiety or stress. They appologize when they do something wrong. Are they perfect? No, but they know what to do with those imperfections.

Be Still

I was out-of-town this past week and do not have my next post ready.  So here is Friday's photo, and Friday I will have a written post.

Spiritual Adultery

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Is 62:5)

(2Co 11:2-4) I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached ... you put up with it easily enough.

God loves each of us intimately and passionately! Jesus is our bridegroom – we are His bride! How incredible is that!

The Apostle Paul warned that any Jesus other than the Jesus taught in the Scriptures is a deception. If we follow that false Jesus we are guilty of spiritual adultery. (A theme mentioned many times in the Old Testament.) God has given me the strong conviction that a Jesus other than the Jesus of the Bible has been preached in many churches in North America today.

Both the Bible and most pulpits today agree that we are saved by grace, not works. But God's grace does not wipe out all the Biblical teaching on commitment and repentance. The Evangelical churches have swung to the extreme of teaching a Jesus that requires little more of His followers than a simple prayer asking for forgiveness. This Jesus of all grace and no commitment is not the Jesus of the Bible!

Jesus paid the ultimate price for His bride on the cross. When we claim his grace without claiming also the commitment and repentance He requires of us, it is like living “common law” with Jesus. When a couple gets married, they share vows of commitment. The bride on her wedding day is not afraid of the vows of commitment that she speaks, because her love for her groom make any and all commitments worth it. Many who claim the name of Christian don't even know what vows of commitment our Groom expects – or even that He expects any commitment at all.

Does Jesus expect commitment from those who claim to follow Him?

Please leave a comment and let's get some discussion going.

No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for

those who love him.

(1Co 2:9)

  

Before and After -- part 2

On Monday in the small group I attend, we were discussing Matthew chapter 7, verses 21-23.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

This summer God placed a burden on my heart through this passage.  That burden has led to a series of studies and this blog. (See the post entitled “The Story Behind this Blog.”)  I felt like I had a lot to share with the small group, after months of Bible study on the topic.  I shared a very short version of the “Before and After” post from February 26.  My friend challenged me, saying that some people start following Jesus at such a young age, that there is no “Before and After” story.

My friend was absolutely right.  There are some who respond to Jesus when they are very young.  Many who accept Jesus as a child, have a time of rebellion and a prodigal homecoming.  They have the “Before and After” story.  But, there are some individuals that just continue to grow in their love for Jesus and in their obedience.  Their stories are more of continual growth. 

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him.  But anyone who obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.  Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1Jn 2:3-6)

So, without a “Before and After” story, the Apostle John tells us how we can recognize someone who truly knows Jesus.  Obedience and love mark the lives of those who know Jesus.  They “walk the walk,” not just “talk the talk.”  Those who know Jesus continue to grow in their relationship with Him.  They strive to be like Jesus – to think like Jesus, to love like Jesus, to respond like Jesus.  They are not just checking off items on a religious checklist.  Those religious checklists of “thou shall,” and “thou shall not,” do not result in a relationship with Jesus.  Those who continue to grow in their relationship with Jesus will continue to grow in their obedience and love as they imitate their Lord and Savior.  Those who know Jesus will never hear him say, “Away from me!”

(I have fixed the comment section so that anyone can comment.  So, please bless us all with your comments.  Have a God-filled week!)

Isaiah 26:3

         A few friends that know God has given me a talent with a camera have asked me to include some photographs on this blog.  It will take some work to get photos that fit exactly with the theme of each post.  So, for the time being I will post a photograph every Friday with some encouragement or Scripture.  This is my favorite photograph of all those I have ever taken.