January verses, Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2015.  (Living Proof Ministries, lproof.org)

My staff verse for 2015

Fruit, and the importance of Memorizing Scripture

I am reading through the Bible using a different system this year; it seems a little disjointed to me, since the reading bounces around the different sections of the Bible throughout the week.   So I started off my reading time as I should be doing every day, praying that He would reveal to me exactly what I needed to hear today. 

The passage this morning in Matthew 3-4.  Yes, that passage is chock full of things that the Lord wants us to know - the ministry of John the Baptist, and his encounter with the religious leaders of the day; the baptism of Jesus by John; the temptation of Jesus and how he resisted Satan using scripture. 

My first observation came in chapter 3, verse 8.  John is addressing the religious leaders of his day.  He could see through their façade of piety, and he called them on it.  Without going into the background of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he pointedly asked them if they were bearing the fruit that showed their repentance.   

If John were looking at me today, would he see any fruit that show that I am repentant?  Galatians 4:22-23 gives a list of the fruit that should be evident in my life as a Spirit-indwelled believer:   love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  I thought about it for a while.  Am I bearing fruit that is evident to others, both believers and unbelievers alike?  Sometimes I wonder what kind of fruit others are seeing. Is it good, nourishing fruit, or is it shriveled, rotten, under ripe, bitter fruit?  Is it fruit that I have in abundance, or are there only one or two pieces? My prayer is that the Lord will work in my life so I bear good fruit, and good fruit in abundance. 

The second observation that I made today is  from the temptation of Jesus.  One of the major reasons we memorize scripture is to combat Satan. For every temptation that Satan threw at Jesus, He responded with "It is written." THAT is what I need to be doing when I am tempted, especially when I am tempted to dwell in my past.  I am NOT that person any longer, God has re-created me into His image, and I need to reflect that. I am significant in His eyes.  Since I've joined with Beth Moore and Living Proof Ministries in memorizing 24 verses this year, my prayer is that God will reveal exactly what passages I need to memorize so that I have an arsenal to be used when I'm plagued by the temptation to think I'm insignificant.

Yes, the Lord did speak to me today in my quiet time, as I knew He would.  I need to meditate on His word and commit it to memory because it is through that discipline that the fruit of the Spirit is developed in my life.  His word is what I need to combat Satan, and to answer those who have questions.  Lord, help me continue to hide Your word in my heart so I may bear much fruit, and so I can say "it is written" when the tempter attacks.  

Welcome to 2015

Well, it's 2015.  2014 was a pretty eventful year - some major life events, lots of minor ones

First, the major:

• Graduated summa cum Laude with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies from Liberty University
• Started a new job as Administrative Assistant to the Worship/Executive Pastor at my church
• Moved my daughter to Minnesota, where she is following the Lord's leading by attending Kairos, a discipleship training school under the umbrella of Reign Ministries. 

The minor:

• Tried my hand at several new recipes. Some were keepers, others not so much.  I think this year I need to expand my blog to include those, especially the successes, although most of them I've found in other places on the Web.  Most of them, however, I've made my own by varying ingredients to suit our tastes.  
• Finished one quilt, but have two more sitting, waiting paitently.
• Discovered that my job requires much more artistic creativity!  I've broken out my Cricuit again!  Now, maybe I'll actually get some scrapbooking done this year as well

This was a practice for gifts I gave out as Christmas gifts. For the gifts, I used gold lettering and mounted them in black frames.

 I'm really enjoying my job, but it is far more challenging than I thought it would be. I've been there about 3 months now, and I still make far more mistakes than I should.  For whatever reason, I'm so afraid of disappointing my boss, that the anxiety can be overwhelming at times.  I really need to work on that, and on trusting the Lord.  I'm really dealing lately with a lot of self-esteem issues, which is silly.  I've proven I can do things, and do them well, so what's my problem?  The job may become even more challenging this month.  If so, then I will learn even more to trust on the Lord, and do my best.

One of the things I really like about the job is that we have accountability groups every week.  We are held accountable for reading our Bible/quiet time; prayer time - specifically prayer time for our church and its leaders and  sharing our testimony and witnessing.  We have to choose and memorize a staff verse, and have been assigned reading - this year it's John Piper's Desiring God. I've started to read it, and have found a study guide on line that I'm going to work on as well. Because we have to memorize our staff verse, I've decided to join in with Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries (blog.lproof.org) Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2015 (SSMT).   I played around a little today, and came up with this for my first verse:

 I think I'm going to try to do something similar for every verse that I memorize over the course of the year.

Last year I did pretty good with reading. In addition to reading for school, I also read Good to Great in God's Eyes, by Chip Ingram; Wounded by God's People, by Anne Graham Lotz; Transforming Together,  by Ele Parrot; and The Pursuit of God,  by A. W. Tozer.  I've started both Miracles, by Eric Metaxas, GodLess America, by Todd Starnes, and God's Pursuit of Man, by Tozer.  I don't know how far I'll get in those three, I'm going to concentrate on the assigned reading first. I hope to be able to blog after each chapter.

I'm really proud of Amanda and how she has let the Lord work in her life. She's learning a lot, growing a lot - not only mentally, but more importantly, spiritually.  It's exciting to watch her learn to trust the Lord for everything.  The program is totally faith based, so she has to raise funds. We are helping to support her some, mostly with her personal finances, but the rest come from donors.  Seeing how God provides is exciting - scary and challenging, but exciting.

What will 2015 bring? I don't know.  But the year is the Lord's and I'm leaving it up to Him!

The "Other World"

I'm reading A. W. Tozer's Pursuit of God, and just finished the chapter on Apprehending God   The chapter talks about understand God as a real personality, a reality, not just an ideal.  To begin to understand God in this manner, we have to accept the reality that there is another world out there, a spiritual world.   Tozer points out that the very root of Christianity lies in belief of a spiritual world, the invisible.  Yes, I know conservative, fundamentalist Christians tend to downplay the spiritual realm, but I don't understand why.  It was never really discussed when I was a child.  In fact, aside from talk about the Holy Spirit, I feel like I was actively discouraged from believing in another, spiritual, world.  I remember being told that while Satan exists, demons don't, or at least they don't affect us at all. They are unconcerned with Christians.  At least that is what I thought.  But now that I am older and wiser (?), I know that there is another world, a spiritual world.   It is very real.

 We live on two planes - one of them is this earthly world, the physical world that we are a part of; the world that we live, breath, eat, drink, work, play in.  But we also, as Christians, must be conscious of the "other world", the world where our souls are in touch with God.  That is the world where He speaks to us.  Yet at the same time, and this is what so many Christians want to deny, that world is also populated by evil. It's the same world where Satan and his host reside. Yes, I do believe that there is a spirit world out there that we cannot see, but certainly can know.  If our eyes were opened to that spiritual world, and we could really see what is going on, I do think that quite possibly it would be as the author Frank Peretti described - angels and demons

standing, watching. One waiting to jump on every opportunity to defeat and destroy, and one (Christ himself, in the form of the Holy Spirit) standing guard waiting to fight at our simple command.  That's the whole point of the armor of God. Why else are we instructed in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God, a spiritual armor, if we aren't in battle against spiritual forces? 

I thought of the hymn, Open My Eyes.  The author, Clara Scott, asks God to open her eyes to the truth that God has for her, to understand His will.  However, it's risky really asking God to open our eyes to the spiritual world.  I believe that when we do, we see the other things, the things that we don't want to see.  Yet Lord, I still pray that you will open my eyes.  If I am fully protected by His armor, then having my eyes opened to the spiritual realm is actually pretty exciting! 

Lord, help me put on your armor - the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, my feet covered with the gospel of peace, holding onto the shield of faith, with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.   Then, and only then, am I prepared to see the other world, and everything that it contains.  

Listen to a beautiful piano version of the hymn http://tinyurl.com/p6pke93

Interruptions - And God's Grace

We are creatures of habit. We all have habits that we preform automatically, without really even thinking about.  We get up about the same time, go about our business generally in the same order, drive to work using the same route, follow the same routine during our day, sit in the same pew at church, and get a little disoriented when our routine is interrupted by something. 

But life will often interrupt.  The little interruptions I can handle, it's the big interruptions - the bad news from a doctor, the phone call in the middle of the night, the computer network crashes (dealing with that at work for two weeks now!), the request for help from a daughter who is 2000 miles away and simply cannot write her paper alone - that force us to put our own agenda away and do what God has asked us to do.  I can't make it through them with out a bountiful amount of grace from Him, and He provides it in bushel baskets. 

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;

To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Words by Annie J. Flint

Pasted from <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/g/hgmgrace.htm>

Taking things for Granted

This blog entry is not the most well-written one, but I want to post it anyhow because I feel it needs to be said.

I watched the I Stand Sunday  event yesterday, then saw this prompt in one of my books:  Think about the things that we take for granted that deserve our gratitude:

We have:  (in absolutely no particular order)

Clean air

Clean water

Abundant food available

Opportunities galore - to work, go to school, worship, come and go as we wish

Technology at our fingertips to explore the world

Our families

Electricity and running water

A roof over our heads

Schools for our children to attend and the right to educate them as we see fit

Freedom to travel across state lines without having to show "papers" at the whim of a government official

The freedom to worship God without fear that our doors are going to be rammed in and our pastor jailed

Many in other countries do not have these things that  Americans and we as Christians take for granted.   Think about those who live in refugee camps without even the most basic amenities.  Having worked with refugees and after attending the Refugee Roundtable this summer, the conditions they live in are severely lacking.  And we complain when our internet is slow?   There is a constant joke going around about "first world problems", I've even said it myself, but it does cause me to stop and think, and pray for those who are suffering.  We have medical care that is world renown.  Ebola may be a scare, but we can get treatment for it as soon as symptoms arise.  In other countries, they often have to wait until they are too far along, which contributes to the mortality rate.   We run to the doctor for the slightest sniffle.

I think of those who are in countries where the church is being persecuted on a daily basis. Those who have to meet huddled together, with someone watching out the window.  Those who cannot freely move about without fear of a bomb going off near them, or being kidnapped and killed because they are not the right faith.  Those moms who send their children off to school, not even knowing if they will see them again that night because of the on-going, constant war in their countries.  We have so much freedom, and have had it for so long that we assume it will always be this way. But we are in danger of losing some of those freedoms.  There are people here who would deprive us of the freedoms we possess.  With tomorrow being election day, if we want to preserve some of the freedoms, we must do our part.  

Freedom of speech.

Freedom to worship God how we want.

If you want to maintain those to, then you need to exercise the third:

Freedom to vote.

Please exercise that freedom tomorrow.

Crisis Management

Cry.

Momentarily immobilized.

Pray.

Brood. 

Fret. 

Worry. 

Talk, talk, talk ...........then talk some more.

Pray some more, crying out to God for help.   

 That's usually the pattern when I have a crisis to deal with. Eventually I get to the point where I can look at a crisis objectively, see exactly what the problem is and come up with a game plan to deal with it.  Usually after spending a lot of time praying for guidance, the steps become clear.  Sometimes the steps take  a very long time to complete, other times they can be completed quickly, with the crisis resolved; it all depends on the crisis. 

For example, I've dealt with some crises that did not lend themselves to quick resolutions.  They were big issues - a wayward child, a broken marriage.  Those kinds of crises require incremental steps.  Do this.  Now do this.  Then on to the next thing.  They often take years to resolve.  Those crises are taxing.  They take a toll on emotions, physical health, and can take a spiritual toll as well.   But it is in the middle of those crises that God reveals Himself and His character. Those are the times when the most spiritual growth occurs. 

I see God working the most when I am at my lowest. When the crises seem overwhelming, those are the times I cling to Him more than ever.  I think of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.  He was dealing with a huge crisis,  the rejection of Yahweh by the nation of Israel, the fall of Jerusalem, captivity of the people.  The Jewish people were facing the consequences of their sin, which often is the reason most crises come.  This wasn't a crisis that was going to be resolved in a few short weeks/months/years. In fact, it has YET to be resolved.  But in the midst of his lament over God's judgment, he pens one of the most memorable passages in the Bible,  Lamentations 3:19-25 (NASB)

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Surely my soul remembers

And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

This is what I need to remember when dealing with a crisis.  The Lord is faithful, and his mercies are new every morning.  He will triumph over any crisis.