“You Do Not Have Because…”

“You do not have because you do not ask.” ~James 4

“Ask, and it will be given to you.” ~Jesus in Matthew 7

“If you don’t ask for His blessing, you forfeit those that come to you only when you ask.  In the same way that a father is honored to have a child [ask] for his blessing, your Father is delighted to respond generously when His blessing is what you covet most.” ~Bruce Wilkinson, “The Prayer of Jabez”

I’ve already written about “Ask” (My Word for 2013), but I wanted to share this little message with y’all after today’s bold-faced reminder that I need to be “Asking” more. Oops! :) 

I wanted to remind you in case – amidst the ‘Twenty-Thirteen’ noise – you’ve also forgotten to seek our Father’s hand & blessing in your life each day.

There’s no need to turn this biblical idea into an entire doctrine, as many have done. Yet – with that in mind – let’s remember simply that God wants us to ask Him for divine help. 

For favor. 

For guidance & wisdom. 

For blessings in our lives. 

For His hand of protection.

For His love to shine in our hearts so we truly believe He loves us.

We don’t ask so we can spend our God-given blessings on the wrong things. 

We ask so we can serve Him more faithfully. So that our needs (& our family’s!) will be provided for. So that we don’t succumb to temptation because we’re empty & have unmet legitimate needs. 

We ask so that we can walk in His perfect grace & will for our lives. So that we can fulfill His plan for our lives – to know Him more and to freely share our gifts with the people around us! :)

In light of this, are you & I beginning to see more clearly why He loves when we ask Him to meet all our needs?

Jesus taught us in The Lord’s Prayer to ask His Dad for our daily bread!

And guess how often we should seek this bread from Him? Yep, daily! (I know, mind blown).  

God’s assigned each of us a portion for every single day we’re living on earth. Wouldn’t it be a SHAME to forfeit His provision simply because we didn’t believe it existed… or because we doubted that something so good & so craved by us could actually happen? And happen every day at that!

This, my friends, is called doubt. Doubt is our enemy.  

In Hebrews 11 we learn that, 

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

God is daring us to believe that He has what we need. He’s even daring us to believe that He’s real! We can’t please our heavenly Father or receive His full benefits without first believing in Him AND His goodness.

So… are you in need?  Then what are you waiting for – pray for God to take care of it! 

“And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 4

Love, Summer

 

Called to Shine!

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

~2 Cor. 4:7

This scripture is kind of famous :)

I’ve heard people suggest that the phrase “earthen vessels” indicates human weakness, as in When we mess up, it gives God glory (praise) because it shows people that any good in us must be supernatural.

And until recently, I’ve thought the same.  I believed God was honored when I lapsed into my old lifestyle because then any “goodness” I otherwise displayed would clearly be from Him.

But it seems like God may be challenging this belief of mine.

Have you ever wondered…. what are our “earthen vessels” really?  Do they refer to our bad behavior?

Does God, who put His precious treasure in me, receive any honor when I act selfishly?  Or does my hypocrisy hinder Him from being revealed to the people around me & honored in the eyes of men?

Yes, I’m a frail “jar of clay”!  But perhaps my frailty doesn’t refer to when I act how I did before Jesus came into my heart and transformed it.  Perhaps Scripture means my weakness is something else.

God put His Spirit inside of us so we’d be different… and so that this difference would draw others like a light.  The whole chapter of 2 Corinthians 4 talks about this very thing:

“The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…

For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”  ~2 Cor. 4:4-8

Light is what attracts people, not darkness.  Our world is already brimming with that.

My earthen vessel, then, seems to be my limited strength, my tendency to get weary (physically & spiritually), my lack of outstanding mental & physical traits - NOT MY SIN.

When a normally weak person can suddenly forgive his haters, persevere through great pain, or speak amazing wisdom beyond his years (like the disciples, a group of uneducated fishermen)… that grabs people’s attention.  Why?  Because it goes against the norm.

Reminds me of a powerful prayer Jesus prayed:

“Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will.” ~Matt 11:25-26

And elsewhere, in Paul’s famous Corinthian diatribe:

“Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?… Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” ~1 Cor. 1:20-29

God reveals Himself through young children, unlearned men, and life’s biggest rejects: basically the weakest links.  Not the strongest.

People want to witness God’s power in spite of us, even through us, and be amazed.  They won’t see His reflection in us when we display sinfulness (as some say our weak vessel is).  Henry Blackaby taught this: that people are drawn to what no human can do in the natural – only what God Himself is doing through His limited creation.  They want to see miracles.  Our sin doesn’t make the cut.

My backsliding into old & destructive ways helps NO ONE (including me!).  It doesn’t give God honor because He’s put a gift within me that I’m refusing to let shine.  When I shine, people are drawn to this light – Him in me!  When I sin, they walk away disappointed and disillusioned, still searching for what I could have given them.

“Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring is a righteous man who yields, falls down, and compromises his integrity before the wicked.”  ~Prov. 25:26

Why are people who don’t know Jesus drawn to people who do?  “Because they want more of the same dark, perverse world?”  Or because they seek God’s treasure in us?

People are thirsty & don’t need MORE OF THE SAME.  They seek in us what they need from God: Kindness, purity, joy, forgiveness, love, peace.  They seek Jesus!  Yet how will they find Him if they don’t see Him in us, His light bearers?

Our sinful self shames His name & us because we’re acting like the sinners we used to be… and there’s no light in sin, no glory that we reflect God’s way.

We give Him great glory when we’re obedient, when we rid ourselves of our selfish tendencies and instead display Jesus’s nature.

Let’s not give our world ‘more of the same’.  Let’s be the fresh, bubbling spring Jesus said people can drink from so they never thirst again.  We’re able to do this because:

“By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” ~2 Peter 1:3

Don’t be afraid to shine.
Love Summer

Settle It Today

A most excellent post–one of the best I’ve read in a long time (author Regi Campbell).

I want to implement this principle in my life: Always settle it today.  I hope you will, too.

xoxoxox,
Summer

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What’s Down In The Well

October 10, 2011 in blog with 0 Comments

What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.

One of my young executives taught me a principle years ago that I’ve never forgotten. It was cathartic for me as a leader….and as a husband.

He said, “When something one of your employees does bothers you, confront them with it before that day ends. No matter how petty…how trivial…how embarrassing, confront it.”  Don’t go home; don’t let them go home without talking it out.

For years, I harbored grudges against my wife. “She’s not this”, “She’s not that” I’d complain to my friends (and anyone who would listen). Ultimately, my deceptive little heart used these judgements to pull away from her. I became even more critical…..more caustic. I used her “failings” to justify all kinds of failings on my end. It ended in disaster, with her leaving me and my life in shambles.

What would have happened if I had dealt with all that stuff? What if I had gone to an older, wiser friend and told him about my feelings and my judgements of her? What if I’d talked those things out with her IMMEDIATELY after I started feeling them? Who knows.

The reality is that it took her leaving to wake me up to the junk I had hidden down in my “well”. I couldn’t suppress it forever. It was going to come out; if not in the “bucket” of my words, in the “bucket” of my behavior. Like a splinter buried deep in the sole of your foot, it’s gotta’ come out or it’s gonna’ lead to real problems.

God created us for relationships. With Him, His son, His spirit and with other people. He taught us to keep short accounts…like “before dark” short. When we “man up” and deal with what’s lodged in our hearts, we’ll be healthier, “lighter”,  and more lovable.

It’s a discipline worth committing to.

Today.

I have to bring it up today.

I have to settle it today.

I have to talk it through today.

Don’t let yourself off the hook any more.

Deal with it now.

“Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”  Proverbs 4:23

P.S. My  wife came back and we started over. Married 42 years now, the 28 since she left and came back have been extraordinary, thanks to the grace of Jesus Christ and Miriam Campbell. 

*Read the original post here: http://radicalmentoring.com/2011/10/whats-down-in-the-well/.

Living ‘Plan B’

We’ve all done it.

Expected God to work on our timetable.  Anticipated how our lives would unfold.  ‘Known’ our future career, life plans, how many kids we would have, who we’d marry.

Then life rudely interrupts.  How dare you, life!  This is my story, and you’re wrecking it.  Dr. Del Tackett (Focus on the Family) describes this as “Someone stepping on our script”.  Life is all about me, so whoever stands in the way is the enemy.  Right?

Have you ever had this experience?  Our response to these detours, delayed dreams, disappointments, and every other ‘D’ word says a lot about who we are… and what we put our hope in.

The reality is that sometimes, following God is HARD.  He does not give us the blueprint for our lives, the road map we will travel, the extreme disappointments or detours we sometimes face, the failures we encounter (our own and others).

This doesn’t sit well with our Inner Control Freak–the OCD one that wants to figure out life and keep it under our thumb.  We want to call the shots.  The American Dream after all is about realizing your plan for your life–Higher Powers not included.

But I’m learning that the sooner we surrender the American Dream and follow God’s dream for us, the better off we will be.

Blasphemy?  For diehard Patriots, it seems to be.

God is — if you haven’t figured it out yet — unpredictable.  Yet He’s still in control.  He knows ahead of time what you’ll face, good/bad/and ugly-ugly.

This weekend I read where Jesus tells His followers that our Father knows what we need before we ask.  Good news!  He sees beyond our finite timeline and already knows our life’s twists and turns–some exhilarating, some terrifying, and some crushingly painful.

I had this very experience 2 years ago when I moved to Atlanta.  I moved there with the highest of hopes–believing God had told me to go.  I jumped at the chance, in faith.  I didn’t foresee that in the months to follow, every hope and dream in my heart would be dashed.  (Sad story?  No way–God has turned me in a brand-new direction that is much better than the plans I’d had in this city!)

My time there wasn’t without purpose, but the wandering and deep pain was brutal, at the time.  I wondered if God forgot me or if He just never intended to bless me.  Every faith-filled promise was challenged at my core.  At some point, I stopped believing God was for me and assumed life was bitterly hard.  I’m a little sad to say I gave up hope.

During my time there, two Scriptures continuously “popped up” everywhere I turned:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.”
-Isaiah 43:1-2

And then this one, a promise I HATED (truthfully!).  When I came across it, I rolled my eyes, scoffed and quickly flipped the page–or tuned the speaker out.  Just a little telling of my heart’s condition, huh?  Eep.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11

The truth is, I didn’t believe Him.  Hope?  I didn’t want hope–it had gotten me nowhere except heartbreak.  So I glossed over this verse whenever it came up.  Plans to prosper me?  Yea, right.  I’ve heard that one before honey.  I’m in the digging-in-your-heels-and-fighting-like-hell stage.  Hope-filled futures and prosperity weren’t even on my radar.  I was just trying to survive.

I wonder if you’re experiencing this right now, or if you may someday.  I hope not, but if this happens in your life, you are hearing ahead of time that God cares for you and that you aren’t alone in walking this difficult path.

9 months into my Atlanta venture, He let me know something else, too.  Out of nowhere, as if trying to get a message across to me, this thought kept resonating in my heart:

You are living Plan B. 

……….

Hold the phone.  Say what?  HOW?  I’ve been following ‘Your’ voice this whole time.  Right?

Then a week or two later, my roomie told me about a little book titled Plan B.  At its mention, something jumped within me.  Suddenly I knew I was living Plan B.  I didn’t know how or why, but I realized I was missing God’s “divine will” for me somehow.

In retrospect I see the truth in this.  I was pursuing the wrong dream, one manufactured in my own heart, not His.  That’s what I followed when moving to Atlanta–myself.  I didn’t know that then.  I was fully [and wrongly] convinced that God Himself said to go, but as months and then a year dragged on, that Voice spoke the truth that I was living outside His ideal for me.

You see, months before moving, God warned me not to spite someone I knew (an Atlantan)–that if I did, I would delay my future.  Then He repeated Himself.  He warned me that my disobedience would cost me precious time and delay a huge blessing in my life.  Per (my old) usual, I strongheadedly forged ahead anyway.  Never a good idea.  I believe my tough time in this city was the price I paid.

So that painful journey wasn’t God’s “Plan A” for me?  Nope–I really don’t think so.  He graciously walked me through it, true to His word, but it wasn’t without severe repercussions.  I don’t recommend taking your own road for this reason :)  But sometimes our stubborn wills won’t learn any other way.

Atlanta turned out to be exactly that: a detour keeping me focused on the wrong dream, and taking me away from the right man and the right city–Plan A.

I’m so thankful to say that towards the end of my Atlanta experience, God rapidly brought the puzzle pieces of my life together for marriage and relocation to Austin, TX.

Oh Lord, thank You for speaking to me there.  Thank You for encouraging me ahead of time, letting me know You’d walk through the waters with me and not let the fire set me ablaze.  You are so kind and merciful to tell us what we need to hear before we walk through it!!  Even if we don’t recognize You in our midst, thank You for being there anyway.   

So now, ‘without further adieu’, here’s the message I needed to hear so desperately last year–the central message of this Plan B book I’d heard about.  I only wish I’d read this then!

Have you ever felt like you stepped out on faith and smashed it to pieces?

Maybe you honestly felt like God was calling you to do something or go somewhere, but once you did it everything seemed to begin to fall apart. Now you’re trying to pick up the pieces and get your life back on track, while wondering how you could have felt so sure about something that ended up being so wrong.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, but does it ever feel like the silver linings of all the clouds are tarnished?

You are desperately searching for a ray of hope in the midst of the storm that is your life, but it seems like every time you see a light shining down from the clouds, it turns out to be a bolt of lightning that knocks you back down. You know that storms are inevitable and rain is necessary if fruit is to be produced, but you are wondering if the storm is ever going to end.

Do you ever feel like you are asleep and can’t wake up?

You are drifting in and out of consciousness, knowing that you need to wake up and get going because there is so much more to life than where you are at and what you have done, but you can’t figure out how to snap out of the funk and get things moving in the right direction. You know that for things to get better, you have to stand up and get moving, but it would be so much easier to pull the covers up over your head, shut out the rest of the world, and let yourself fall into a deep sleep.

“What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would?”
“What do you do when your life isn’t turning out the way you thought it would? “
“What do you do when your dreams are shattered? “

Pete Wilson is pastor of Cross Point Church in the Nashville, TN area and he addresses these three questions, among others, in Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up The Way You Thought He Would.

Have you ever read a book that seemed like the whole purpose of it being written was so that you could read it at the exact time and situation you are in? This was that book for me. At a time when I was feeling beat down, hopeless, and searching for answers, this book was a God-send. Literally. As I was reading it, I felt like God was using the words of Pete Wilson to communicate a message of hope and comfort at the time I needed it most.

Thank you, Pete Wilson, for writing this book and for your willingness to allow God to speak through you.  Find out more about the book: planbbook.com.

And now, my earnest question for you: Have you ever lived Plan B?  What did you learn thru this experience?

My Witnesses

Jesus said “You will be My witnesses” once the Holy Spirit descends upon you (Acts 1).  Awesome!  But what kind of witnesses are we?

Today I read this great devo by the Pocket Testament League.  This is (part) of it:

What I do — how I live — matters as much, or more than my words.  It is one of the reasons so many people are turned off to Christianity.  They don’t want to be like us.  They don’t see any benefit in being a Christian.  They don’t see any difference between Christians and everyone else.

What kind of a witness are you? 

Where is there inconsistency between your life and your message?

Something we should all consider!

To make His name great!

How can we make His name great?  How do we do that?

By humbling ourselves.  By kneeling at His feet and asking Him where He wants us to go, who He wants us to love that day, what He wants us to do.

How?

I don’t know.  Does He humble us?  Do we humble ourselves, as the Bible says?

I want to make Him great.  I don’t want to get in the way.  How do I magnify Him — especially when my flesh wants the magnifying? 

Father… how?  How do I get out of the way?

Here’s the video that prompted this question: http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?s=/vod/MW131v2_WS

An Open Confession

God,

I’m so sorry for not making Your priorities mine these last few months.

I’m sorry for vacillating between Your will and mine.

I’m sorry for seeking to get my own needs met in place of Your will.  Or in place of others’ needs.

You keep repeating to me, through many others (a total answer to my prayer to You!), that I seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness.  Then all else shall be added to me — but that is NOT why You encourage me to seek Your kingdom.  You want me to seek it because You have transformed my life and because I am not my own.  Many people will be blessed through my obedience, a life lived for Your kingdom, not its own.

This explains the lost feelings here in Atlanta.  This explains why the last 9+ months I haven’t been able to make sense of my life’s path… because I’ve been traversing two different paths.

Where do I belong? 

What defines me, really… not a pretense but the real me? 

What am I here for – not only Atlanta, but in this world? 

What am I here to do? 

These questions have all but haunted me since I stepped on Georgia soil.

You want us to get to a place of brokenness so we realize this life is not our own.  And we should want it that way because Your agenda for our lives is far better than anything we could’ve ever hoped for, dreamed, or imagined.

You want my life to be clay in Your hands because You want to bless so many through me.

You’ve given me a testimony that can break chains – I know because it has!  You’ve given me gifts that others desperately need to receive.  You’ve given me words to say and write that heal.  Not my words… Yours.

But how can they if I shut my mouth?  How can You bless and bring life when I choose to speak death, or not speak at all?

Lord, I haven’t understood Your ways; I can say that even now.  Your ways are higher!

I am just so sorry that, in the midst of not understanding, I’ve squandered so much.  My name (in part) means “Opportunity”, and those You have given me — more than I could number.  But how many have I not used?  How many relationships have I sought out for selfish reasons?  How many days have I idly wasted or filled with my own appetites :(  How many times has my pride interfered with me speaking what You’ve placed on my heart to help others?

I know it’s a journey; I know I’ll never do it perfectly (though I’ve tried).  I know You’ve brought me to this place, this day, for a reason…

You want my whole heart.

How else can we learn to believe Your promises than when we’re facing desperate circumstances?

And what other way can You capture our entire heart than to strip away all other lovers?  We learn to walk by removing our crutches, and that’s what You’ve done.

I’ve never fully abandoned myself to You.  Too much interfered.

I’ve feared blind faith.  I’ve feared trusting anyone, anything again.  But You, Father, are fully trustworthy.  You prove that time after time after time again.

How many prayers of just my own have You answered, often at lightning speed?  How many times have You delivered me from warfare far too powerful for me?  How many times have You spoken to me?  Touched and healed me?  Touched and healed others through my prayers?  And I’m just talking my own prayers.  My mind spins to think of the innumerable others whose prayers You’ve raced to answer.

I’m sorry.

I know You forgive me.  I thank You for that.  I don’t want to take that lightly.  Godly sorrow changes things; worldly sorrow doesn’t end.  I’ve experienced both, and Your sorrow is far better.  Thank You for giving it to me these last two weeks.

I’ve wanted and expected from You, but I’ve put those things before You.  I’m thankful You haven’t given me certain things yet.  I would’ve run back into my selfishness again, needs met.

It takes being without to understand how dependent we are on You.  And to stay with You.

Twice I’ve been without power here in Atlanta, and I’ve learned how much doesn’t work without it.  Many people worldwide live without the luxury of light and electricity.  In America, our lives all but stop without it coursing through our homes.

That reminds me of You.

How far can we go without Your light?  We flip a switch, but nothing flickers.  The object we want to come to life remains dead without power to enliven it.  It remains a square box, a dark room, a quiet radio until power returns.

I’ve been trying to conjure up such power myself – but I’ve learned Your power isn’t able to be counterfeited.  It is impossible to rip off.

It either is…

… or it isn’t.

I’ve been trying to reach people, to touch their hearts, with my words.

But You’ve opened wide my eyes to how empty and hollow these words are without Your truth and Your heart behind them.  I could say the perfectly wrong thing to a hurting person, thinking it was just what they needed to hear.  But who am I to know what they need most?  That only comes through You.  And I can’t fake it.  I’ll always be in danger of doing that if I’m operating apart from You.

I’ve wanted it to come easy.  But some things, the best things, You’ve taught me come with a fight.  We must fight for our own freedom and for that of others.  And no war is won in a day.  It can take weeks, years sometimes… but great battles yield great victories!

I’m sorry I’ve questioned Your heart, Father, during these trials — during the stripping away of everything to bring me to You.  Hard times left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.  Eventually, somewhere along the way, I resigned myself to believing that the Christian life was, more or less, about not getting my desires met.  I thought the carrot would always dangle in front of me, and that You were — dare I say it? – cruel.

But that’s not what You were teaching me.

You were teaching me to seek Your kingdom first, not my own.

You were teaching me that You come #1.  Before all my desires.  Before the fulfillment of promises You spoke to me years ago.

Thank You that You’re jealous for me, like a Husband should be.  Thank You that You wouldn’t let anything else take precedence in my heart or my head.  Thank You that You haven’t given up on me even when the rest of the world has :) because of my faults.

This isn’t a pretend apology.  This is the real deal.  Thank You.  And I’m sorry.  I’m sorry for being so ungrateful, for not springing outta bed at the prospect of a new day — the way I used to as a young girl!  I was so full of hope.  Thank You for restoring that hope.  I know it’s coming.  I know it’s here.

Seek first Your kingdom and YOUR righteousness (not my own!!!)… and You’ll take care of the rest.

Thank You for teaching me that I don’t have to constantly seek ways to make money.  You have that taken care of, You just ask that I align my life with Your will, and provision will come.  I need not fear getting ripped off by some employer or getting taken advantage of.  And if it happens, You’ll take care of them.  You’ll pay me what I’m due, in due time.  I just need to seek Your desires, not simply my own.

You want my heart, and You want all of it.  You aren’t content with my heart pieces.  Thank You for that, Father!!!!!!

That’s how You change the world: one person, one fully-surrendered heart, at a time.  You light one light, and it lights another, until the whole stadium is filled – like the “Candlelight Ceremony” at ACU.

Thanks.  What a battle it’s been!  What a victory’s been won :)

Thank You for bringing me to the point of seeking Your kingdom, not my own.

I love You, Lord.  I’m excited because I know Your plan is beautiful — not just for me, but for everyone around me.  You crush me and my will to bring forth a much more beautiful plan… Yours.

* Confessions of a [Recovering] People Pleaser *

I’ve watched many friendships die because of a competitive spirit. 

Why?

Because sometime after college, a lot of friendships changed from openness to “Show and Tell”.  The distance between us made close friends into acquaintances.  Our lives became busier, with fewer phone calls and less “face time”. 

With passing time, Facebook confirmed our suspicions: old friends are taking separate roads.  Alternate lifestyles, divergent career paths, new interests, weddings and childbirth.  Former strong believers fell off the wagon and God haters jumped on.  The reality of our friendships became clear: many were merely circumstantial, conditional. 

This rude awakening hurts.  Maybe that’s why we call the shift from school years to work life the ‘real world’.  During this shift, the reaction of many is to withdraw in isolation or shallowness.  Other people cling to dead relationships, in denial.  Still others muster up all their strength and ‘discipline’ to becoming the best they can be.  They hope in the process of proving themselves, that they will earn love.  No one I know goes through this period of time with a fully-intact heart.   

Scripture talks about this.  It says that in the last days, the love of many will grow cold.  Why?

Because of ever-increasing wickedness.

Is that what we’re experiencing?  Do people begin lashing out, shutting down, or changing from caring to competitive because our world’s becoming more wicked and self-centered? 

As we collect years, love seems to be in shorter supply.  We experience hurt with people, so we resort to competitive tactics to satisfy our hunger to be loved.  Many disguise these tactics in career pursuits, a great marriage, wonderful ‘obedient’ children, the perfect pie, impressive amounts of money, church attendance and abstaining from pleasures, looking beautiful 24/7 – all in an attempt to earn love. 

But by definition, love isn’t acquired by earning.  It isn’t had by how outstanding your performance at work is or how toned your abs are.  Ladies — it isn’t because you’re effortlessly beautiful (is anyone?) or because you don’t have cellulite (that they know of ) ;).  

Those who don’t fall into the competitive trap are in one of two categories: those who believe they can’t measure up so they stop trying to prove they can… and the few who rest in the assurance they are loved already.  Loved already?  But by who, if not someone in the world?       

Whether we step up to the plate and compete with others for love or believe we’ll never hit the mark and give up, both instances indicate our love is growing cold.  We are more concerned about earning love than giving it.  And so we go round and round.  The cycle perpetuates itself. 

But what we fail to grasp is that there isn’t a limited supply of love!  There is BOUNTIFUL love, overflowing from the rafters.  However, this love isn’t found in the world.  When we seek the world’s applause, we must compete because the world only likes winners.  And to win, someone must lose.  Actually, many someones. 

But in God’s world, love knows no limits.  Our faults only position us to receive more of His love!  We’d never fear that we’re unlovable unless we recognize that we have unlovable parts, so embracing our failure can lead us to discovering true love in God! 

The truth is, love can only come from two places: inside the world or outside it.  Our life experience looks like this: We see our failures.  We experience the world’s rejection because of them.  We then have a choice: to stay on the world’s never-ending treadmill, to withdraw in despair at never measuring up, or to seek another Source of love outside the applause of man. 

Once we stop going to the world as our source of confidence and affirmation, we can truly begin living.  Freely!  And our love will not grow cold.  It will thrive regardless — shining in an otherwise hate-filled world. 

Jesus, thank You for saving us!!  From our common enemy, from our dark and cold world, from each other, and from ourselves.  You are our only hope for love, and the only way we can love others without condition.  Thank You for what You’ve done! 

Wagging Tongues

This issue is so on my heart today.  I hope my words spark change.

We all need to be listened to at times.  It is such a part of the human experience: to connect, really connect with other humans who are going through life.  Without this we shrivel up inside.  No man is an island indeed!  Every person needs to know they are safe to express themselves and loved as they are, quirky though they may be, especially in the Body of believers as our world and enemy try to daily tear us down. 

Sadly, I know a godly lady that has recently become the focus of much criticism in our circle.  It seems many believers are quick to judge fellow brothers and sisters for petty differences, from the way they talk to their heart’s motives, and then speak out against them, slandering members of their (and our) own Body!  I think many in the Body of Christ are deeply wounded by this very thing.  Where we should embrace each other’s differences, we fiercely attack them instead and reap division. 

I want people in the Body to be set free to be who God created them to be – not bound up by fear of attacks from other believers!  I’ve heard people say that their fiercest opposition and harshest critics often came from the brethren (in the church, not in their family).  Wow.  This should not be so! 

Beloved, we should be safest in the church.  Our hearts should be free to express themselves and our gifts flowing freely so we bring about God’s will wherever we go.  We should be one other’s greatest supporters, inviting others to liberty, not shame.  No stone-throwing.  Since when have wagging tongues become the norm within the Body?  How will outsiders “know us by our love” if we bite and devour one another?  Where is the Love among us that is the world’s hope? 

Jesus speaks some powerful words about judgment in Matthew 7:

Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

And Jesus’s brother James says this about the tongue:

Every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.  But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

And |sidebar| this I just found funny:

Instead, let our words be full of grace and truth!  May we encourage unity, that we may receive the blessing of Psalm 133:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
         For brothers to dwell together in unity! 
    It is like the precious oil upon the head,
         Coming down upon the beard,
         Even Aaron’s beard,
         Coming down upon the edge of his robes. 
    It is like the dew of Hermon
         Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
         For there the LORD commanded the blessing–life forever.