IDOLS

I came across this little video by Leslie Ludy tonight. I have seen/heard it before but  the message was so good to hear again., especially as God opens my eyes more and more to what true idolatry in our time really is. I pray that you will listen with an open heart, and that God will make plain to you what your idols are-even things that seem "normal" to everyone around you. Try not to compare yourself to anyone you know, just let Him search your heart and open your eyes to the things He wants to rid you of, so that He can take that place in your life! Its so hard to pry our cold fingers off the things we have clung to for so long, but I am convinced, as we follow His leading and rid ourselves of them, we can experience a freedom and joy that we didn't know existed...In Him. I pray that the Lord will shatter the illusion that is this world, with all its enticements and comforts, and that He will show you and me, that He is the only real Treasure and the only true Comfort, that will always satisfy our soul.

"Lord, Cut Me Open" by KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia

I came across this little exerpt from a book by KP Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia. I have posted a link so you can read it on the GFA website and maybe spend some time looking around and reading about this ministry. Daniel and I have been so impacted by GFA, and we love KP Yohannan's writings (especially Revolutions in World Missions and No Longer a Slumdog). This article is so good and straight to the point. It challenges me to remember that the Lord wants our LIFE, He wants it all. He wants us to be transparent and real about who we really are. He wants us to give Him complete control and in turn, to experience true Life in Him as well as His joy and peace. I hope this challenges you as well!

Link:

KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia

"Lord, Cut Me Open"

Why haven't we yet fulfilled the Great Commission? Why are we so ineffective in building God's kingdom?

Is it because we lack money or literature or because the Bible is not translated into all the world's languages? No, I don't think so.

The deepest reason is this: We who form the Church—that's you and me—are not real in our walk with the Lord and in our obedience to God's Word. Unless our hearts change and we become genuine, transparent, open and humble in our faith (and through that, in all areas of our lives), we will never make an impact on the lost world!

Many of God's people have felt a deficiency in their Christian lives, especially when they read God's expectations for them in the Bible. In order to fix this problem, they have gone from one seminar, book, conference or convention to the next, always looking for a formula or recipe to become a powerful, effective Christian overnight.

Churches have also recognized that something vital seems to be missing. In hopes of reviving their people, they constantly come up with new plans and activities. They invite the best music groups they can find, the most eloquent speakers and even prophets to breathe new life into their congregations. But after all the excitement is over and everyday life sets in once again, nothing much has changed. So they search for new plans and new speakers, hoping for better results next time.

David had a deep longing to be close to God and to be used of the Lord. He too felt he wasn't all God intended for him to be. However, his approach to meet this spiritual need was entirely different from most of us.

David was a man who didn't go to one of the prophets—Samuel, Nathan or Gad—to ask for a formula. He didn't invite them to hold a seminar at his palace with the hope that some of their anointing would fall on him.

David simply went into the presence of his God with a prayer that shows he knew exactly where his root problem was.

He cried, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24, KJV).

David wanted to be real, not only with his outward actions, but beginning with his innermost thoughts. He recognized that his words and actions were only a reflection of his thoughts, and his thoughts were simply the evidence of what he was really like in his heart.

Therefore, David prayed and asked the Lord to try him and to cure those wrong tendencies of his heart that showed up in his thought life.

Many years later, Jesus said, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts . . ." (Mark 7:21). In other words, we reflect the true reality of who we are by what we think. Everything first happens in our thought life before it is translated into words and actions. What we speak or do is only what has been going on inside of us for a long time.

Our problem is not that we lack Bible information, speakers, or opportunities. Rather, our problem is that we don't want to face the truth of who we really are. We don't want others to know it either, and we even try to fool God. We never ask Him to search our heart and reveal our secrets. Instead, we pretend with a spiritual life we don't live, a peace we don't experience and a holiness and commitment we don't possess.

We will never make any progress in becoming more like Jesus unless we permit God to cut us open, search our hearts, try us, know our thoughts and then change us from the inside. Only then can we become real according to the Word of God.

That reality will make us powerful witnesses for Jesus, even if we don't say a word. We will be so transparent and so genuine that if the world around us tries us with fire, we will come out as glittering gold.

If you truly desire this reality, stop looking to plans and activities as your solution. Begin today to call out to the Lord as David did. Say, "Lord Jesus, cut me open. Please search my heart, try me, know my thoughts, reveal to me who I am, and change me, at any cost, to become what Your Word says I ought to be." Believe me, there is no prayer the Lord delights to answer for His people more than this one!

Reflecting His Image, Chapter 4 © 1998 by Dr. K.P. Yohannan

Celebration Day

One year ago, TODAY, Feb 4th, our life as we had known it was completely torn apart. Whoo Hoo!!! Cause for celebration, right?

I think so...

You see, our life WAS torn apart.  BUT, this wasn't a surprise to God. I believe it was allowed by Him. He intervened at a point that seemed good to Him. He chose at that moment in our life, to strip us down to nothing. To take us from the "broad way that leads to destruction" and put us on the "narrow road that leads to life." He took tragic circumstances and sin, and showed us who we REALLY were. We lived for ourselves. We had all that we could want, and thought He had blessed us. We had money, status, nice job, nice house, nice cars, nice clothes.... Because we were involved in our church, listened to Christian music and had lots and lots of head knowledge, we thought we were ok. We could have both the world and God, and that made us feel secure. American Christianity at its best! Galatians 5:19-21 spells out what our lives were really defined by- "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." I'm sure most of you would say you don't practice those things, but WE did! There are maybe a couple things on that list that didn't define us.(We just knew how to play the game). How could we ever have thought that we had LIFE? That we knew the Lord personally and intimately? We were SO deceived.

 So, on February 4, 2011, God in His sovereignty and grace, said ENOUGH! We didn't deserve it and we weren't seeking it. But, little by little, He brought us out.  First the surrender came b/c we couldn't face the circumstances without Him, and then it came b/c we realized we couldn't live a moment with out Him. He began to show us what true LIFE in Christ was all about (and it was nothing like the life we had been living). He called us to really read the Scriptures and live by what we read. To take Jesus' words literally instead of skimming over the hard stuff. Luke 9:23-26 says "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

He called us and still is calling us to live by faith, to trust Him with every moment, every dollar, every need and every desire. He is showing us that every moment we have a choice to be yielded to the Spirit of God in our lives. He showed us further in Galatians, what the fruits of the Spirit are-"Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" and we are witnessing those fruits being born in our lives! He is continuing to strip us of all the things that have defined us for so long and bring new life <in Him> out of it. He is teaching us to live eternally, for His Glory, and not our own. That this life is passing quickly and we have already wasted so much of it on ourselves.

I write all of this for many reasons. One, b/c as I woke up this morning, I was tempted to self-pity. It felt justified and real. But I wanted God to turn my head back to all He has done. To all the beauty that came from ashes. Second, I wanted to remember that the call to die is still the same today as it was a year ago. Jesus said in John 12:24 "Truly Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also." I know He was foreshadowing His own death here, but He was also saying we must follow him in that death. We must die to ourselves and our plans and live yielded to Him every moment until eternity. And Third, to be a witness to those of you who knew us then and know us now. We are living proof that Jesus truly does make all things new. There truly is power in the Blood of the Lamb. He is the Good Shepherd and longs for us to give our lives completely to Him, that we might experience His life in us. Its the "exchanged life" and its a GOOD life! Its REAL life. Even as I write this, I am praying that these words would not just be words to me. I want to believe these words in the very depths of my heart, to remember them every moment of every day. To live by them, to walk by them, and to die by them.

SO.....Today shouldn't be a day to be sad (although Satan loves to tempt me with the idea) but a day to look back and see the salvation of the Lord!

As many of my other posts, I think I'll leave you with the words of a song (really just words taken from Hosea 6:1-3)that are ringing in my head as I write :

HOSEA (by Shane and Shane)

Come let us return

He has torn us into pieces

He has injured us

Come let us return to the Lord

He will heal us

He will bandage our wounds

In just a short time He'll restore us

In just a short time He'll restore His church

So we might live

We might live in His presence

In His presence

Oh that we might know the Lord

Oh that we might know the Lord

Oh that we might know the Lord

Let us press on to know Him

Let us press hard into Him

Then as surely as the coming of the dawn

He will respond

Picture Update~Thanksgiving into the begininning of December...

My 3 sweeties

Advent-A new Christmas Tradition for us!

With all the changes God has made in our lives, it only seems right for Him to change the way we have always done Christmas. After all, we ARE celebrating Jesus' birth! As we have prayed for Him to show us how to celebrate in a very Christ-centered way, He has led us to this thought of Advent. I have always seen these calendars with all the doors that you open (some with candy), but have never really paid much attention to them. Sadly, for us, Christmas has been about decorating, buying presents, getting presents, Christmas movies, music, parties, food, etc... and really NOT about Jesus at all. Of course, I am sure we said He was the "reason for the season" but when I am really honest with myself, I know He never was. So, this year we are changing the way we do everything! Not to be legalistic or pious. But b/c we truly want to celebrate Jesus! We want to focus on Him, not ourselves.  

I have been reading a great book by Noel Piper called "Treasuring God in our Traditions" if you don't have it, GET IT! http://noelpiper.com/She really points everything back to the Lord and shows you how traditions should and can be centered around Him. The chapter on Christmas has so encouraged me in centering everything we do this Christmas around Jesus.  Advent in Latin means "coming". So I love the thought of looking back to the events leading up to Jesus' birth and then looking forward to Jesus' second coming!

So, all that said...God has given me (through a friend) what I think is going to be an awesome way to celebrate Advent and Christmas. We are going to make a Jesse Tree! For those of you that are confused about what this is, don't feel bad, I was too... 

Basically, the concept of the Jesse Tree is based on Isaiah 11:1, and the prophecy that the Savior would come from "the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit." Each day we will place an ornament on our Jesse Tree to represent the events or people we learned about each day through the month of December. The tree becomes a great visual and daily reminder of what we're really celebrating during Advent season. This 25 day celebration is a vehicle to tell the Story of God in the Old Testament, and to connect the Advent Season with the faithfulness of God across 4,000 years of history. 

The story of Christmas actually begins in Genesis so that is where we will begin! We will cover significant events throughout the Old Testament — each story pointing to the coming Messiah. It’s like an overview of the whole span of His Story — leading right up to the climax of the coming Christ! Our desire is to not only highlight an important scene from God’s epic in time, but to always unwrap more of Jesus, the gift hidden in every story. 

A few friends and I  went ahead and made the ornaments ahead of time so we could be ready on December 1st. It was alot of fun getting together and making them! One of my friends put together a blog to take us through each day of December http://www.jesusistherealgift.blogspot.com/, so we are READY! All we need is our tree which we are getting this week. I am so excited about doing this with our children.  I want them to grow up seeing us worship our Savior and center what has become a worldly, materialistic holiday, around the real reason for Christmas-JESUS!

I am posting pictures of our ornaments for you to see and get a "feel" for what this will look like...feel free to copy these and make your own!

What A GRACE!

I am so amazed by God. I am home now from sharing my testimony (for the first time in front of a small crowd), at a women's retreat here. I am amazed b/c God has shown me again HIS Grace in my life. Its nothing I've done. Its nothing I would have chosen for myself! But, in His goodness and mercy, He plucked me off the wide road and put me on the narrow. What a Grace! He chose to grab me out of my sin...I mean, I didn't even realize I needed Him to! What a Grace! As I prayed and prepared to speak, He took me to Isaiah 48:10-11 that says~

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

For My own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another."

Wow! He did the work that needed to be done. Not because of me, but because of Him. For His Glory. He HAS tried me in the furnace of affliction and like Job 23:10 says~ "But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold."

I am not gold-yet! But, I am seeing fruit that has come from months and months of pruning and affliction. Such joy that has come from what once was devastation. Isn't that what He does? He makes all things new. Not back to how they used to be. Not better. NEW! New b/c we now have HIS life flowing in and through us. And, like John 15 says, we have HIS joy, a joy that is full and satisfying! A joy and satisfaction that only comes through true surrender to Him! Why wouldn't we want this? Why would we choose ourselves and the unfulfilled life instead of this?

We are a little obsessed with Shane and Shane. Not b/c of them, but b/c the words and scripture they sing really bring us into God's presence. Their newest album called "The One You Need" is incredible. But the one song I am loving and can't get enough of especially tonight is called "Your Love." If you have iTunes, you MUST check it out! But I want to leave you with the words...

 "Your Love"

I'm overcoming fear

With Your perfect love, Your perfect love

You're opening my ears to hear

The sound of a lover's voice

You're calling out, You're calling out

Let me see Your face, Your loving face

Your love tears me up

And when its done

Puts me together

I'm overcoming fear

With Your perfect love, Your perfect love

You're opening my ears to hear

The sound of a lover's voice

You're calling out, You're calling out

Let me see Your face, Your loving face

Your love tears me up

And when its done

Puts me together

Your love calls me out

Of my death and my failure

Love, Your love

Your love tears me up

And when its done

Puts me together

Your love calls me out

Of my death and my failure

Your love tears me up

And when its done

Puts me together

Your love calls me out

Of my death and my failure

Love, Your love, Your love

Mary's Surrender

I am overwhelmed with thoughts about Mary, mother of Jesus, this morning. We watched an awesome movie last night, called The Nativity Story. If you haven't seen this movie, I HIGHLY suggest you watch it! It was so good to go into another Christmas season, having watched this. One thing, especially, that really stuck out to me, and is just driving me back to the thought of the "crucified life" or the "surrendered life" (as we so often call this Christian life), is Mary's circumstances in the story. I mean, I know we all have thought about how shameful it was for her to be with child, when she was not married and was betrothed to Joseph. This clearly was not Joseph's child, so she was thought to be unfaithful. That is huge, but to me its deeper than that. I just look first at the Lord sending Gabriel to tell her the news that she will conceive a child that is the Son of God! (I don't think I can even begin to imagine being visited by an angel, nor being told I will conceive when I am still a virgin, and that it will be the Son of God...that is just insane). Mary, supposedly being very young, responded like this: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." She is surrendered! She is not questioning, she is not complaining, she is not saying "no way!" She simply says "whatever you want, Lord." Its so amazing that Mary, the mother of Jesus, before Jesus was even conceived, was denying herself, giving up her life and what she had planned,and carrying her "cross" as Jesus would later demand of his disciples in Luke 9.

So....now the thoughts of the reality of bearing  this child. The shame would be huge! The movie did a great job of showing the humiliation she endured. Friends and family turning their backs on her and treating her as if she was a whore. Then trying to explain it to her family and to Joseph when she returns from her visit w/ Elizabeth. How could anyone believe her? It sounded nuts! But, she didn't waver. I'm sure she had human thoughts and emotions, but she knew God was doing something great in and through her and she would stand firm in the truth. (Does this hit home w/ you? It does for me as we have had to explain things to friends and family-things that God has called us to, that he has asked of us, knowing that sometimes we are thought of as fools). And then there is Joseph, who would've suffered great embarrassment over his "betrothed" being pregnant, and not by him. But I love what the Matthew account says of him in Matt 1:19, that "he was a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly" Even this was huge. The penalty for unfaithfulness in that time, could be death. He could say the word and have justice by having her stoned. Isn't that what we would want, justice? When we are wronged and embarrassed and shamed by someone else?

Ok, so then the angel visits Joseph and tells him that Mary is indeed carrying the Son of God and he is to take her as a wife. He is called back to Bethlehem b/c of the census (which fulfills prophecy, so cool!) and Mary must go with him. Think about this-Mary at this point is probably 8 close to 9 months pregnant, she is to now make a ridiculously long journey (the movie says 100 miles, not sure if thats accurate or not) and she is to do it on a donkey! For those of you that have been 9 months pregnant, can you imagine this? I can't. At that point in my pregnancies, I was all about my own comfort, and sadly, wanted everyone else to be too. But, she wants to go, and so she does! Again, the movie displays the journey really well. It really shows all the hardships of a trip like that in that day. So, at this point, I was thinking "God, why wouldn't you give Mary all the comforts and pleasures she could possibly want? Why would you not only make her bear all that shame and humiliation but now make her endure all these hardships of a journey at the end of her pregnancy, with Your Son? Doesn't she deserve better? And there it is....we (I) still think that when we serve the Lord, and do what he asks of us, we will not suffer, we will not be humiliated, or shamed in any way. We will have good things in this life....we will have it easy. Isn't that what He wants for us? That may sound silly, but I don't think its too far off from what we all think or maybe what we expect from God. But, He is showing me that even Mary, the "blessed among women" was to carry her cross (Luke 9), to "consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26).

So, here it is, they arrive in Bethlehem just in time. Mary is in labor and needs to find somewhere to birth this child. Joseph frantically tries to find a place and there is nothing! Again, I am asking "God! Would you not atleast provide a room for her to give birth to this baby? She has already endured so much. Please, have mercy!" But, instead, they are led to a stinking, filthy stable, complete with animals, and I'd imagine, animal poop, pee, insects, germs, etc... Now think about the sterile, comfortable hospitals we deliver babies in. Or even, home births are comfortable, sterile, calm....can you imagine giving birth to your first baby, with a man you barely know, in those conditions? I absolutely can not, and I even think "would I be willing to?" There it is again, the question of surrender. Would I be willing to go wherever he asks and do whatever he asks? Shouldn't there be limits?.....

 Jesus left the right hand of the Father in Heaven, to be become a Son of man, to be born in those conditions, to become the "life and light of men" (John 1:4),  to live to do the will of the Father, knowing he would die a horrible death on a cross so he could bring salvation to you and me. What He asks of us in return, is our surrender, our lives....is that really too much to ask?

So as I ponder these things, it also brings me back to this Christmas season. I have loved Christmas for as long as I can remember. But, I want it to be different. We say this alot, but really, why are we obsessed w/ decorations, food, a ridiculous amount of presents?What does this have to do Jesus' birth? Mary had no decorations and comforts. Jesus had no clothes! He was wrapped in rags and laid in a dirty manger. How do we celebrate our Savior's birth and not be drawn back into the world's way of twisting it into a celebration completely about ourselves? Better yet, how do we live in light of this all year, every day...every moment, and not just at Christmas?

This is a lot, I know...but this is reality! I read today's reading in My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers.(If you don't have this book, get it! Its filled with wonderful truths.) The title for today was "A Bond-Slave of Jesus" and the verse he uses is Galations 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." I want to leave you with his explanation of these verses:

"These words mean the breaking of my independence with my own hand and surrendering to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to the point three hundred and sixty five times a year, but He cannot put me through it. It means breaking the husk of my individual independence of God, and the emancipating of my personality into oneness with Jesus.....Has that break come? All the rest is pious fraud. The one point to decide is-Will I give up, will I surrender to Jesus Christ, and make no conditions whatever as to how the break comes? I must be broken from my self-realization, and immediately that point is reached, the reality of the supernatural identification takes place at once, and the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable-"I have been crucified with Christ." The passion of Christianity is that I deliberately sign away my own rights and become a bond-slave of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I do not begin to be a saint....Is He going to help Himself to us, or are we taken up with our conception of what we are going to be?"

Side note: In Luke 1: 38 when Mary says "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord" the greek word for "servant" is "bond-servant" or bond-slave." See Deuteronomy 15:16-17 for more on "Bond-Slaves."

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