A Precious Child

Don't you just love to look at pictures of children? Even when they're messy and dirty and causing mischief, they're just so cute! I have a picture of my youngest when he was about 2 years old, sitting on the floor, with his face almost entirely covered by ketchup from the hot dog he'd just eaten!

Of course, not every picture of a child is "cute." Pictures of starving children, homeless children, abused children...these are heart-wrenching images, but, for me at least, there is still just something so precious and endearing about the child, the innocence in their eyes, and you just want to clean them up, feed them, hug them and make everything better.

Now, pictures of ME? That's another story! I love taking pictures, and I HATE being in them...because when I see a picture of myself, I see all that's "wrong" with me...I'm too tall, too skinny, my teeth are not a Crest commercial waiting to happen, I always have the whole "red eye" thing going on, and somehow, every picture was shot on a bad hair day. Oh, and I often seem to have my mouth open in pictures (which is really quite realistic, since about the only time I'm not talking is when I'm eating). Trust me--there is a REASON I use Eeyore for my profile pic; he's more photogenic!

The other day, I came across a picture of one of my nieces that I just love...it's one that I played with in Photoshop, cropping it down to focus in on the eyes, which were particularly striking, and then posterizing it:
As I looked at this picture the other day, I thought about how a picture of a child just makes you want to hug them, and it struck me--THIS is how our Father sees us. He never, ever looks at us and thinks, "wow, she could stand to lose a few pounds," or "lose the beard, seriously, man." No, he just looks at us and sees something so precious He longs to hold us. He looks in our eyes and LOVE overwhelms Him (not that God can be overwhelmed the way WE think of it, but you get the idea).

Now, I could go a lot deeper with this (and probably WILL at some point), but for now, I just want to stop right here, because if we can truly GET this one point, that God LOVES us and we are absolutely precious to Him, no matter WHAT we look like on the outside (in fact, He MADE that outside, and He's pretty proud of it!), if we truly GET how we make Him feel...when we really get a hold of that truth, it will indeed set us free. Free from our self-critical natures, free from our fears, free from the baggage we carry around, from our concerns about how others see us. Free to just Love Him. And there IS nothing greater in this life.

Go right now and find a picture of yourself--or better yet, look at yourself in a mirror. Not at your faults, not at your physical features...look at YOURSELF, the you that God sees. See the child there that He loves so much He just wants to pick you up and hold you...even when we've messed up, He still looks at us as a precious child and just wants to clean us up, feed us (spiritually), hug us and make everything better. Now, if THAT doesn't make you feel pretty good about yourself, nothing will!!

He loves you, as if you were still a little child...because, to Him, you are.
Be a child, and love Him back, freely, openly, without reservation!

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31

"Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." " Matthew 19:14

Kingdom Building

Disclaimer--I know so little about how to do construction, it's scary. I can't dig a foundation, and even if I could, I would have NO idea where to go from there. So, if you're a builder, a contractor, or just plain smarter than me, just try to ignore it if I say something that displays my ignorance of all things construction.

Habitat for Humanity can build an entire house in a matter of days--so fast that I used to suspect they couldn't possibly be very GOOD houses...they must be pretty shoddy if you can put them up that first, right? But the fact is, these houses are as good as most, better than some. So how do they build in sometimes as little as a week what it often takes months for others to do?

Well, my apologies to Habitat here, because I'm about to really oversimplify this, but essentially what they do is this:
Make a plan
Get willing volunteers
Give their volunteers the necessary tools and supplies
Send the volunteers off to work.

Now, for a moment, I want you to imagine a scene. You're building a house, and everyone's been given their tools. Some have hammers, some screwdrivers, some saws, and so forth. Once everybody has their tool, you send them off to work, but when you come to check on the progress, nothing has happened. NOTHING. There has been NO building done on this house. And so, you start looking around, and what you discover is someone trying to install a window with their hammer (THAT's not gonna be pretty!), someone else trying to cut a piece of wood with their screwdriver. You also notice a few people just wandering around, picking up wood and looking under it, or just looking around dumbfounded. You ask a couple of them what they're doing and they tell you that they don't know where their tools are. And then there's a whole bunch of people sitting in a corner, talking. As you approach this group, you hear the conversation...they are talking about HOW to build a house, what a hammer is for, how to hold a screwdriver, safety precautions when using a power saw.
You look at this group, and notice that all of them still have their tools, but they've stuffed them into their pockets, or set them off against the wall.
There is ONE guy who seems to have been working--sweat is just dripping off the poor guy, there's sawdust all around his work area...but when you ask him where the wood he's cut is, he says every time he cut it, somebody would tell him he was doing it all wrong, and he had to start over.

How long will it take to get this house built? FOREVER...and then some. Because the ONLY way you're going to get the house built is to get these people to start USING these tools...and using them PROPERLY. You've got some with tools who aren't working at all, and others who ARE working but they are completely ineffective because they are using the wrong tool.

Well, it strikes me that the church today is frighteningly like that group of building volunteers.
Look back up at those simple steps Habitat takes:
Make A Plan. Get volunteers. Equip your volunteers. Send them to work.
God has a plan to build His Kingdom. He had this plan since, well, since forever...and ever since He laid the foundation, He planned to use volunteers on this project. The volunteers are those who choose to put their faith in Him. Believers. Christians.
Then He gave each "volunteer" the tools they needed...these are our spiritual gifts. "in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues."

So far, so good...most Christians can agree that God has called them to serve, to be a "volunteer" for His Kingdom, as it were. And most of us agree that God gives us each a spiritual gift when we become a believer.

So, why isn't the Kingdom growing the way (I believe) God desires? Well, first, without gettting WAY off my topic here, let's define Building the Kingdom; I'm talking here, really, about fulfilling the Great Commission. Reaching the lost for Christ, seeing them come INTO the Kingdom, and THEN teaching them how to grow in their relationship with Christ, and equipping them to become "volunteer" builders themselves.

I believe we (the Body of Christ) are not doing our job of fulfilling the Great Commission, and I believe that a big part of the reason can be seen in this house-building example. At the building site I described, everyone there had "volunteered" and said they were willing to help; they are professing Christians, those who have SAID that they have made Christ Lord, and they will obey His will for their lives. The tools are the spiritual gifts that God has given us.

But the building isn't getting done, and there are several reasons for this that I want to point out:
--Some Christians are just wandering around doing nothing, because they have no idea what their spiritual gift IS. They're still trying to FIND their tools. If that describes you, let me give you some suggestions to FIND your tool--first, while Spiritual Gift tests are interesting, and, in my opinion, often quite accurate, they are NOT the best way to find your gift (again, in my opinion). There are TWO good ways to find your gift: First, ask those who know you best what THEY think your gift is. Second, and this is radical, I know--DO SOMETHING!!
Teach, Participate in a Missions project, go on visitation, help organize an event,...just go DO something in your church, and you'll know pretty quickly if God has given you a gift for that particular ministry. I've done lots of different jobs in our church, and I've learned a lot of things that God did NOT give me a gift for; I've also learned a couple of things He did gift me with, and that has become my focus. (that does NOT mean, by the way, that I don't need to practice those other things...but that's a topic for another day, I won't chase that rabbit here).
--Some Christians have their tools; they KNOW what their spiritual gift is--but they aren't using it. They'd rather sit around and talk about the NEED to use these tools, HOW to use the tools, and criticizing how others are using their tools. Sadly, this seems to describe a majority of those in our churches today; they fill our pews, they can certainly talk about what needs to be done, and find fault with what others are doing...but they don't bother to actually pick up their OWN tool/gift and start helping out!!
--Finally, there are a few out there using their tools for the wrong purpose. What am I talking about here? Sometimes, those who are WILLING to do the work take jobs within our churches just because they "need" to be done, NOT because they sense God calling them to do them. I once got a NEGATIVE score in Mercy on a Spiritual Gift test--I am probably NOT the best choice to head the benevolence ministry or an encourager's ministry. If someone handed me three paper bags to sort by size and store, I'd lose them all within a week's time--so my skill set probably doesn't include organizing an event. But ask me to speak, or to teach, and I'm all over it!! Now, let me add one thing--I don't teach or speak because I'M good at it, but because God has gifted me with it. It may seem a small distinction, but it all makes ALL the difference! Maybe I AM good at it, maybe others really enjoy it--I certainly hope so--but if that is the case, that is to God's Glory, not mine...I'm just USING the tools He gave me.

Oh, that last guy...he represents those few poor folks at church who ARE working, they ARE using their gifts, the WAY God intended...but they don't seem to get much accomplished because everything they do gets criticized by the pew sitters, the very ones who aren't actually working themselves. Whatever you do, DO NOT be one of these critical pew-sitters!!

WHAT is your tool? How are you using it? ARE you using it? What are you helping to build for the Kingdom? If we are to accomplish all He has planned for us to do, we need EVERY "volunteer" out there, working!!

There are so many great verses regarding spiritual gifts, I just can't choose! So, I'll put a couple of verses here, and also some Scripture references...go check them out!
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11
Also read:
Romans 12:6-8
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 Corinthians 14:26
1 Corinthians 12:8-28 (it's long, but worth it!!)

Piling On

I've had this post in mind for awhile but haven't had a chance to write lately. And I'm not sure it really says all I want it to, but it'll do for a start...I'll change it if God gives me another direction for it!

Piling on is a football term for when a runner is tackled and the play is over, but then one or more other players "pile on" top of the runner, even though he is already down. You see this especially when there is a fumble--someone dives for it, then someone else, and pretty soon there's twelve guys all piled on top of each other. Did that tenth guy REALLY think he was gonna come up with the ball? Of course not, he just wanted to be part of the action.

Sometimes, it seems like Life is "piling on," as has been the case for a couple of my friends lately.
One close friend has been trying for several years to adopt two boys from a foreign country; recently her family accepted God's call to MOVE to that country as full-time missionaries. THEN her dad was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer, and also lost his job of 38 years.

Another dear friend has recently faced surgery on her dad which turned into a near-death episode and a long hospital stay; the diagnosis of late stage cancer in her brother, who is already paralyzed from a car accident years ago; her own fairly major surgery and recovery; and most recently, a scare with a bad report on a test her mom. Not to mention that she now has a teenage driver, which is enough stress for anyone!

This two friends were there for me when life was "piling on" for me a couple of years ago...in a five-month period, I lost my father, my house and my job, and my will to keep going on. And so, to watch them face these trials, well, you just wish you could make it all better. But I can't...I do, however, know the One who can!!

It was on the day that she got the bad test results for her mom though, that I witnessed a different version of "piling on." During choir practice, we always have a time for prayer...after all the requests had been voiced that night, our choir director said that he just felt a special need for us to really pray for my friend who has had SO many things happening lately. But rather than just have someone pray for her (which is good, I encourage that!!), he asked that we all actually gather around her and pray. So, there were all were, like one great big pile, covering the one person in the middle who had the ball.

Only the ball wasn't a football, it was the "ball" of problems that life had been piling on. And as we all gathered around her, and prayed, one at a time, for specific needs in her life and in the life of her family...well, God joined us there. "Whenever two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Prayer works, anyway, whether you are alone in your bed or surrounded by 5,00o others...but when believers come together, physically, and earnestly seek God together...well, something truly supernatural happens! It happened that night...I think we ALL left that huddle with lighter spirits, lightened burdens. And oh, yeah, those test results? They turned out to be fine...

It is time for Christians to start "piling on" each other. Instead of shooting our own wounded, we need to take the stance that we will leave no one behind. The marines will risk their own lives, to go back for a wounded, or even a dead, comrade...they will not leave them alone.

Our churches today are too often sanctuaries full of individuals trying to make it on their own, instead of the Body of Christ, banded together. Too often, we live each other alone to fight our battles...and the devil loves it!! It's so much easier to defeat one isolated soldier, than to have to face the whole battalion!!

Not even sure WHY I picked these two verses, but they just keep coming to mind as I type this:

"Troubled on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 10:37

My Dogs are Fighting

No, I don't know Michael Vick; it's not that kind of dog fight...

I've written about three different versions of this post; it's a subject that I need to prepare as a topic for a women's ministry event (so if you want to hear more, ask me to come speak to your group!) because there is no way to really handle it completely here, even if I made it a series of postings. So, this is like the Reader's Digest Condensed version...

I am a perfectionist. Unfortunately, I am NOT perfect. Not even close. This is a highly irritating reality to people like me, cause I wanna be the “Super Jesus Girl” as Angela Thomas puts it (if you don’t know who she is, google her name and buy one of her books…you’ll be glad you did!).

This past week, God has given me lots of chances to see just how imperfect I am. Moments when I've felt like the worst Mom in the world. Moments when I’ve fallen to the same sin I’ve fallen to umpteen times before, and I wonder if I will EVER learn. Moments when pride has brought me low, when anger has bested me, when a “little white lie” came out before I even thought about it.

Now, we all mess up from time to time. But there are times when it seems like our mistakes just come in spades, when you make mistakes trying to correct your mistakes, when you realize you’ve committed a sin right on the heels of asking forgiveness for the last sin you committed…this is what my week has been like, and it makes me want to just crawl in bed, and cancel the rest of the week. But God decided HE kinda liked this week (cause He made it...) and He thought He'd just stick with it.

And then I remember that evidently, Paul sometimes felt the same way:

“For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am!" Romans 7:15-24

I love this passage in Romans because I think of Paul as such a great man of God, and he was…but he sometimes felt the same way I do, like he just couldn’t get it right!!
BUT…Paul added one other little detail, a detail that we need desperately to remember when we feel defeated by our faults:

“Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:25

God KNOWS we won’t always get it right!! That’s why He not only sent His Son to die for us, but He sent Him to Live through us, too…"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet NOT I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

There is just ONE way for me to ever defeat sin in my life, and that is to let Jesus live through me. Think of your “flesh” nature and your “spiritual” nature as two dogs living inside you. These dogs keep getting into fights (okay, dog fighting might be a touchy subject just now…but just hang with me!). Which dog is gonna win? The strongest one; the one that’s been fed right, exercised, and taken care of. Well, then, which dog are you taking the best care of? Do you “feed” your spirit with Scripture, prayer, preaching, uplifting music? Or are you feeding your flesh with inappropriate TV shows, movies, foul language and jokes (saying them OR listening to them), music that has questionable lyrics…

Do you “exercise” your spirit? The Scripture is full of ways to do that—GO and tell others about Jesus, DO something good for someone in need and let them know why you’re doing it, FORGIVE someone you’re angry with, RECONCILE with a brother…pretty much anywhere you see a verb in the Bible, it’s an opportunity to “exercise” your spirit. But instead, we exercise the flesh instead—I know, you’re thinking “exercise” is the farthest thing in the world from what you do with your flesh…but I’m not talking about jumping jacks here. I’m talking about actions...is the flesh involved more in your actions or is the Spirit?
Just an example...I could wallow in my pity and focus on the mistakes I've made this week and become pretty negative...or I could sit down and write a blog post about how to learn a spiritual lesson through this experience...guess which one I chose?!...

Which dog do you want to win? What are you doing to make sure of victory? That's the one you need to feed...let the other one starve for awhile (good grief, now I'm even getting into animal abuse...just in case the ASPCA is reading this, remember, these are NOT real dogs...if you have a real dog, please be nice to it..).

Finally, here’s a bit of encouragement…I needed it, so I’m guessing maybe you do too:
God’s not done with you, and He’s NOT giving up, ever, on making you what He knows you can be.

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Now, excuse me, I've got a dog to feed…

Never Forget

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
ONE NATION UNDER GOD,
Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

I have heard how Christians long ago
Were brought before a tyrants throne
They were told that he
Would spare their lives
If they would renounce
The name of Christ
But one by one they chose to die
The Son of God, they would not deny
Like a great angelic choir sings
I can almost hear their voices ring

Now the years have come
And the years have gone
And the cause of Jesus still goes on
Now our time has come
To count the cost
To reject this world
To embrace the Cross

And one by one let us live our lives
For the One who died to give us life
Till the trumpet sounds on the final day
Let us proudly stand and boldly say

To the Lamb of God who bore my pain
Who took my place
Who wore my shame
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
Allegiance, by Ray Boltz