Nothing In life is Free….or is it? April 12, 2009

Galations 3:1-6, 11-12

You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.  2-4Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!  5-6Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God. 11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.“

I was thinking today about churches that practice legalism and why people stay in that environment. I came to the conclusion that there is something safe about having rules and guidelines to “stay in the good graces” of God. As someone who, by nature (or nurture) tends to follow the rules, I can understand that logic. Rules tell me what is expected of me, what keeps me out of trouble, what keeps me safe and I can know the outcome if I follow them. I am also a list person, an organizer, clean freak. Why am I this way? Only God knows, but as such, I struggle with things that take me out of the drivers seat. I like to know the outcome, I like to know the expectations, I like to be in control. I struggle with the feeling that my eternal value is dependent on someone other than me. Yes, I KNOW that it’s not dependent on me or my behavior, but I have struggled and continue at times to struggle with this fear. I am fully aware that there is nothing on earth that I can do to earn the love of God. There is nothing I can do to make Him like me more than he already does, nor is there anything that can rip me from His hands. So, why is the struggle to perform for Him still there? I think it comes down to my unwillingness to rest in the truth. Truth is a person, Jesus. Yes, all too often I refuse to REST in the fact that Jesus has already done the work for me. We all REFUSE to rest in this truth every time we “do something” to earn his favor. He has redeemed me. He has payed my way. He has covered my screw ups past, present and future. There is a huge difference in doing good works because we love Him vs doing good things to make Him love us more. Yet, these two motives get mixed up for me sometimes. I do love my beautiful Savior, so much so that it brings me to tears even typing it out, but I must remember that I cannot even love Him unless He causes me to. I feel like the Galatians… I feel as though someone has come and bewitched me with this belief that nothing in life is free. But it is free, this love offered to me by God. It’s free to me and it’s free to you, but came at a great cost to Him. What makes me feel that I have anything that could come close to repaying Him?? Such pride. God forgive me.

Who were you? February 13, 2009

I was watching Tvland today (i love old shows) and was fascinated by the commercial for something called High School Reunion. It is crazy to me how some people change drastically over the years but some stay just as immature and shallow as they were in high school. There are so many rolls … class clown, cheerleader, mr/mrs popularity, the loner etc… So tell me, who were you in High School and How have you changed?

I don’t know what I really was in high school… I would probably go with the cheerleader since I was the captain of the cheerleading team.

Haggard and oprah January 30, 2009

Did anyone see Ted Haggard on Oprah yesterday? It was quite interesting watching Oprah try to pigeon hole the man into agreeing with her. If you did not see the show, Here is a news link about it. If you did see it, I would LOVE to hear what you thought.

Relationships January 23, 2009

Ok, so I have not written anything in a while because life got really busy for a while. Today, I have a favor to ask. I am getting ready to teach a small group of highschool girls about healthy relationships. How to identify unhealthy or even dangerous patterns in a guy before getting serious with them. The most recent statistic says that over 40% of girls aged 14-18 know someone being beaten in a dating relationship or have been beaten in a dating relationship. The stats for emotional abuse are much, much higher. With that stat in mind, I have been preparing this talk.

Here is where you come in, if you could please answer one or more of the following questions for me in comment form, that would be wonderful!!

What do you wish you had known to look for in the opposite sex when you were a teen?

What qualities are the most important to look for when choosing a mate, (both positive and negative traits)?

what are the warning signs to look for in a potentially unhealthy relationship?

What character traits would you consider to be deal breakers in a relationship?

How long do you feel is a sufficient time to really “know” someone well enough to consider marriage to them?

Thanks for your help!

I am a cat person October 15, 2008

Yep, that’s right, a cat person…I have never liked dogs. Well, I have not liked dogs since my first puppy, Muffin when I was three. They drool, they bark loudly, they stink and the sniff everything…which I find very annoying. Cat’s are low maintenance and cool. They just sort of mind their own business, eat, sleep and occasionally they might play a bit. So why am I writing a small essay on the characteristics of cat and dog owners? Because after almost eight years of “discussion” my husband finally got a dog.

Her name is Lexie. She is a dachshund mix and we rescued her from the “gas chamber” just days before her certain death. (insert tiny violins here) I have to say, she is the cutest dog… and she has “puppy-eyed” her way into my heart. I am smitten with a dog… and I can not believe it. How about you, are you a cat person or a dog person?

Other side of the ocean October 8, 2008

I feel like I am being awakened from a society induced coma. It’s as if my eyes are being forced open to the state of the world. Global poverty, the slave industry and the AIDS/HIV epidemic are rampant. There is a group of missionary/musicians whose only reason for using their music is to make money for foreign missions…they are called Unnamed Servant. ALL of the money from their cd sales goes to missions. They and their families give their lives to foreign mission fields. I got the opportunity to meet them this month and was blown away by what I saw in them. Here are lyric from two of their songs from their latest album called Anthem.

On the other side of the ocean, people forgotten in commotion forged under blood red skies.
You’ve seen this world in pictures fly covered, starving children left to believe this is life.
The trash they live in eating the scraps their given, still not enough to survive
Disease and malnutrition false hope in the west’ religion, this is enough to make God cry.
From a distance, you can’t feel it, you can choose just to close your eyes
When you’re in it, you can taste it, you’ve got no choice but to give your life.
You’re home bound, can you imagine, sister raped, how can this happen, now there’s talk of genocide.
Society is all in a panic Mother cries from images too graphic and you thank God it’s not your life.
Go ahead change the channel watch a show where weight loss is a battle, so sad they had too many calories. Send your check to support a child, you did your part now you can smile and get back to your American dream.
Oh say can you see a world with out poverty, where the widow can eat, and the orphan can dream
Where the slave is set free, the oppressed find liberty, and avoid military and the farmer rewrites history?
From a distance you can’t feel it, you can choose just to close your eyes.
When your in to, you can taste it, you’ve got no choice but to give your life!

Your attendance twice aweek, your tithes and your offerings its vanity
Its not for me the worship you’re leading the sermons your preaching, it’s just noise to me

You can keep your cds the building your making, the money your saving in my name causes me so much shame, none of it matters, it just doesn’t matter.. People starving, dying,  and I’m the bread of life

Recognize, the face of God in slanted eyes, darker skin and foreign smiles. Recognize value of human life even when it’s not white. Recognize.

This cd is extremely controversial for most of us in the west. I have found that the young people who hear it, love it, it stirs them to a passionate desire to be the hands and feet of Christ. I have also found that a lot of the “adults” who hear it, tend to be less excited about it…saying it’s not practical..it’s too extreme…it’s too radical.

I will admit, that it was my first thought too…but my next thought was, but God, if I am wrong, please change my heart. Guess what?? My heart is breaking… I cry everytime I hear the songs…I cry when i see the hell that is reality for millions of people across our beautiful ocean! I believe that Jesus was pretty radical, extreme and impractical at times! I am beginning to see that in the American church we have made Jesus into this blonde haired, blue eyed gentle passivist who never got his hands dirty. How much further can we get from the truth??

What about you? After reading these few lyrics, what thoughts come to mind? Is it convicting?

beloved one September 29, 2008

I have been fascinated lately by John, the beloved disciple.  It all began when I started praying that I would crave Jesus like I crave oxygen. I  long to be intimately connected with jesus on a minute to minute basis not just on certain times of the week or day.

One day I was praying and I got this picture in my mind of John the disciple leaning against Jesus’ chest. I love that picture now, but at first it made me really uncomfortable. See back in Jesus’ day, people reclined on the floor to eat dinner. They laid on their sides, raised up on one arm  on pillows at a table that was only several inches off the floor. So, the verses in John that describe the dinner times with Jesus and the disciples are very intimate. THen the picture of John laying his head on Jesus’ chest, now that it close…it’s like spooning!  Disturbing?? It was to me the first time I heard it. 

ok, now that you are over the initial disturbance, think about how close that is. Think about having your ear up to the chest of the Christ, hearing His heartbeat, hearing him breathe.  What kind of man was John that he was so comfortable with such intimacy? What kind of man was so unabashedly in love with Jesus? NOt only in love with Jesus, but obviously completely aware of the love that Jesus had for him too! It was unhindered love and affection between the messiah and one of his beloved.

THis is the kind of unhindered love I want to have for Jesus. I want to love Him with my whole broken, human heart.  I want to be completely consumed by the love He has for me. I want to see His eyes burning with Love for me!  When we know that kind of Love, we are going to spill it out on those around us. That is the essence of what Christianity is….knowing the love of God and letting it flow through us on a broken world.

I want to burn with love for this God…. I want to burn with Love for His world.

Living in Rome August 26, 2008

Where can a dead man go?  Question with an answer only dead men know, but I’m gonna bet they never really feel at home  if they’ve spent a lifetime learning how to live in Rome.

-nickel creek  “when in Rome.”

I love Nickel Creek. They are pretty much phenomenal musicians!  I was listening today and just appreciating their amazing vocal blends and instrumental melodies when the lyrics above jumped out at me, bringing me to tears!  I am not normally so easily brought to actual tears but I have had a pretty tough day!    Back to the lyrics though…. I have been really praying a lot lately about becoming a more “kingdom minded” Christian. I want to see the church as a global entity not just  the building that I go to every Sunday and Wednesday or even as  just the other local churches. I want to live a life that has more value than the amount of “stuff” I own or how much money is in my checking account, savings or investments. I want to be so detached from my “stuff” that I would not even hesitate to give it all away.  It’s not mine to begin with… I am merely a conduit God uses to disperse His blessings. I really, really don’t want the typical “American Dream” of a house and 2.5 kids and the dog. I don’t want to spend my life learning to live in Rome.  If I am so focused on becoming wealthy, I am teaching my child that is what matters most. If I esteem high paying jobs over the ones that may not pay as much but are fulfilling the call that God has placed on my life or my child’s life, I am teaching her to live in Rome.  If I am more concerned about looking good than being Christlike, I am just learning to live in Rome.

Rome is not my home, This world is not my home. I think that sometimes in our effort to be relevant and approachable  Christians, we begin to look too much like we are “home” instead of aliens in a foreign land. I am so guilty of this.  We are so immersed in this culture, that it’s like a fish in a bowl, we become incapable of grasping what life is like out of water.  My heart’s cry is to learn to live with a bigger goal than just spending all my energy surviving this life, but to get to know my betrothed, who I will spend all eternity with.

How about you? Have you spent a lifetime learning to live in Rome?

Another discussion or discussion part II June 26, 2008

Ok so my last blog raised some really great discussion and St Lewis brought an interesting spin to it I thought I would open another discussion for it. What about chick flicks? First of all, what is your definition of chick flick and second of all is it like porn for women?? Does it promote skewed expectations for relational happiness??

I will say this, for me, a chick flick is a movie that is silly and over the top in the area of cheesy romance… because I think it’s funny. I don’t like movies with sex or nudity in it. I like the little teeny bopper movies like a walk to remember. I like the movie how to lose a guy in 10 days. As far as relational expectations, nope… I do not begin to get disillusioned in my own relationship. Although< I know some people who do. For me, I am too stinking rational for my own good sometimes.

ok so, Come one people, throw your comment out, we don’t all have to agree, let’s talk though!!

discussion? June 19, 2008

I  was talking to someone this week about horror films.  I thought since I have heard so many Christians lately talk about how much they love the gory films like the Saw series etc… I would bring it out here.

Do you or don’t you watch these types of films?  And why?  If you do, how do you make it jive with the verse in Philippians: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  

Discussion??

pics June 17, 2008

Some pictures I took this weekend. Rather than clicking on these…if you want to see them more clearly, check them out on Flickr by clicking HERE

“Oh, Beee-have!” February 28, 2008

Ok, so I am really not an Austin Powers fan, but the title just sort of fit!

Counselor’s have a term called behavior modification. Simply put it is a system of reward and punishment designed to stop “bad” behavior. It is a human attempt to tame the outward expression of human depravity. In essence it is a way to make our sinful nature appear civil. I know there are some positive and wonderful ways that this method is helpful when dealing with things within human control but that’s not where I am going.

I have been thinking about how the church seems to have adopted this human method for making sinful people look holy. It seems that we have become a people who seek to modify our behavior in order to feign a holiness that we are called to BE! We get very concerned about looking like Godly people so much so, that we have lost the essence of the Gospel. Jesus did not die a painful and humiliating death in order to guilt us into behaving. No, He died in order to free us from our sinful natures. He came so that we would become New Creations. When we come into a relationship with Him, the very nature we posses becomes different. We take on the nature of Christ. That does not mean that all of a sudden we are perfect images of Jesus, it just means that now we are capable of being like Him. Like owning a laptop that is windows vista capable. You still have to install the correct program, but you already have in place the necessary equipment.

The way to becoming holy is not about cessation of bad behavior as much as it is seeking the face of God. As we gaze on His perfect beauty, we will be transformed. As we are falling in love with this Creator who is in love with us, we will change behaviors that do not please Him.  It won’t be about earning His love, it will be about showing our love to Him. It becomes a gift from us to Him as much as the ability to change is a gift from Him. So let’s stop being behavioral modifiers, let’s just become lovers of Christ. Let’s become like Him! We don’t have to fake it. Oh, praise Him for understanding our frailty and loving us regardless!

September 5, 2007

Well, I am beginning to feel excited about my upcoming trip to Nashville, Tennessee. I will be there for almost a week and will be sitting under the teachings of some of the best from the Christian counseling bigwigs! Tim Clinton, Henry Cloud, Norman Wright just to drop a few names. : ) I will be taking mostly classes that relate to teenagers since that is where my heart is and where God has me for now. Some of the classes I will be taking are:

1. In your anger sin not- a basis for anger management in adolescents.

2. The singlehood Phenomenon: why our young people are choosing not to marry

3. Stressed and Depressed Teens.

4. Deliverance as Part of the Therapeutic process.

Ok, may sound very boring to you, but I am so happy that I am about to pop!

Wow August 20, 2007

I just wanted to post this quote from the book I am reading right now. The book is called The Vision and the Vow by pete grieg. It just struck me and I wanted to share it. I would love to hear any comments on it.

When a vision is born in the pride of a prayer-less imagination , it is nothing more than a projection of self-what Freud called the ego. self-projected vision is beamed indiscriminately onto the world by an inner drive to be larger than life in every conversation, in every context and in posterity, too. Self-projected vision is an empire-building compulsion; it comes not to serve but to be served. The great tragedy of such a self-referenced visionaries is the loneliness that awaits them at the end of the road as a diminutive Wizard of Oz finally steps out from behind the apparatus of his dreams.

Sadly, the Church is full of people whose motives are fundamentally egotistical while their vocabulary is entirely Christian and their ministries apparently fruitful.

Many will realize to late that it is not enough to have a vision, not even a vision that is expressly Christian. All my achievements will mean nothing on that day when Jesus looks me squarely in the eye with a single question: Did we know each other?

Our vision as Christians is not of a program, a path or a plan for global domination; it is of a person. And He looks at us now as we look at him and says very simply, “come follow me.” We know not where, only that it will be with Him.