Engage One Another: Change is Painful

Date: 2012.01.19 | Category: Bible Study, One Another, personal | Response: 0

Change is painful. It’s easier to keep doing what you’ve always done, rather than start something new and different. People will resist change until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change. So with a new year, I decided that I wanted a fresh start. I wanted to change before the pain of remaining the same became a reality. For me, the one area of my life that is glaringly out of balance is the physical since I never really exercise beyond vacuuming and I enjoy eating and being sedentary. I realized that I needed to change my habits to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Caleb fought for the nation of Israel for 45 years, never lacking in strength or ability (Joshua 14:10-11). He maintained his strength by remaining physically active. So I started working out on December 30, 2011. It was time to stop resisting.
The battle to move from the main level to the lower level where the treadmill is has been difficult. As a woman, I can argue a thousand reasons why taking that 15 minutes on the treadmill is wasteful. I can fight the mental arguments all day long; however, the real catalyst for my exercising was someone to encourage me.
Our “one another” verse for this month’s retreat devotional is Hebrews 10:24-25. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
In order for me to begin exercising and to continue down this path to more healthy living, I needed a catalyst – someone to “spur me on.” Working out is more than clothes, shoes, and MP3 players. It’s mental. Several friends have mentioned that exercising is beneficial, but only one person actually spurred me on to do it. With kindness, my friend agreed to work out with me, to encourage me to persevere, and to make sure that I followed through. My friend even drove me to the gym the first few times.
It’s the same with love and good works. We ought to be propelling each other toward love and acts of kindness.
Spur towards love: Let’s not delay in choosing to be the one who will inject love into our family. Choose to live lovingly by spending time together, hugging each other, giving a small gift, doing a little project for one family member, or writing a blessing and reading it aloud over him/her.
Spur towards acts of kindness: I say acts of kindness because I want to avoid confusion. We don’t earn our ticket to heaven by doing good things and presenting a litany of great accomplishments. Our service and kindness to each other is to overflow from our love for Christ. If someone you know has need of a blanket, bring them a blanket.
How can you get started in love and good works? Ask the Lord to bring you a spur. Run toward meeting together for the purpose of encouraging each other in your journey with Christ. Women’s ministry often gets a bad rep of only being a glorified social club where ladies play church and spend the majority of their time in frivolous chit chat about cupcakes. Cupcakes are good– but as women, we need so much more than moist cake topped with good frosting. I want my friends to crave my frosting and ask for my recipe, but I want the frosting to segue into deeper questions like “What does the Bible say about sweetness? How can my life be transformed through Christ to be sweet like this cupcake?” There’s nothing wrong with getting together to eat cupcakes, but allow yourself to be malleable enough to be sharpened, to have some rough edges removed, to be shaped into God’s image.
Time is running out. The Day of the Lord is approaching. If you’re meeting together, don’t quit. If you’re a younger woman wishing for a Titus 2 kind of lady in your life, ask for it. If you’re an older woman wishing you could impact a younger woman, invite her over for cupcakes. If your neighbor is not yet a Christ follower, seek out opportunities to bless them with good deeds. The Day of the Lord is approaching. Let’s set in motion a love and good works lifestyle that encourages one another.

GOLDEN PUNCH

Date: 2011.12.15 | Category: Recipe | Response: 0

Golden Punch

1 pkg Lemon Jello, dissolved in 2 c boiling water
2 c sugar, dissolved in another 3 c boiling water
1 8 ounce jar Real Lemon Juice
1 46 oz can pineapple juice
1 1oz bottle almond flavoring.
1 qt ginger ale

Combine all ingredients except Ginger ale. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale just before serving. Serves 30 ppl.

Seasons of Growth (Part 3): Harvest

Date: 2011.11.10 | Category: Bible Study, garden | Response: 0

It wasn’t the way I expected. It was mid-August, and Rob and I began heavy harvesting half our garden. It either had to be harvest time or destruction time. The new bike path would be blasting through the middle of our garden and we would lose 3-4 tomato plants. The weather was strange this summer and the harvest had been slow. The construction took half my garden and I was tempted to give up. “Oh well, just let everything compost. Maybe next year will be better.” But I couldn’t just give up. I found some perseverance, and began harvesting that half of the garden, transplanting what I could to extend the growing season for the peppers. I expected nothing from the remaining pathetic-looking garden. At the beginning of autumn, just before frost, we harvested anything remaining in “the other half.” All the investment seemed to pay off when I saw my countertops full of home grown produce. With all the changes, I had never expected to reap that much.

Praise God the harvest isn’t limited to my plants. In this season of Thanksgiving, I am truly rejoicing in all that God is doing among His people. For a year we have prayed “Lord, stir up our spirits. Do Your work in us. Transform us by Your Spirit.” We know from Galatians 6: 7-9 that the Law of the Harvest is always in effect. We plant, we water, and we reap. We reap according to what we sow.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

This autumn, I thank God for His goodness to us. I thank God when I hear that some of you are casting off the old ways of sin and obeying the pattern of Christ. I thank God for the faith you are demonstrating as you seek to break generational patterns. Keep preparing the soil of your heart. Keep pruning the vines to increase the harvest. Keep persevering and working so that the harvest of righteousness will be great in your life and in the life of our church.

Extravagant Love: Engaging Family and Friends

Date: 2011.11.02 | Category: Bible Study, One Another | Response: 0

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
One of the very first scripture verses I memorized was Ephesians 4:32. I was 5 years old and my mother gave me a nickel when I could recite it word-perfect. Parts of this verse I’m still working on mastering. I can recite it word-perfect, but I haven’t learned to live it word perfect. I’m still being transformed into the one-another-Christ-follower that Jesus wants me to be.
Be kind and compassionate…. Fail. Right there, I stop, I fall short, and I fail. I pray for the law of kindness to be on my tongue (Proverbs 31:26), but in the heat of the frustrating moment I say unkind, harsh, judgmental, and merciless things to the people I love the most. My heart isn’t tender.
Forgiving each other… Fail. Again. If I were in a church service listening to a sermon about forgiveness I would say, “I don’t hold any grudges. I live with short accounts. I forgive people.” But as I sit here and write this devotional, and really ask myself “Do I forgive?” I have to say, “Probably not.” After all, if I were truly forgiving, then I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t say all those unkind, harsh, angry words to my children and my husband in the heat of the moment because I would forgive their sins, their shortcomings, and their inability to handle things. I would dispense forgiveness immediately. If I were a forgiving person, forgiveness would run out of me like a waterfall.
God forgave me in Christ…. Success. Wow. Right there it’s sealed with the tiny preposition IN. Word-perfect flesh came down from the golden sky and spoke to us, lived with us, and touched us. God couldn’t “take it” anymore, and He was determined to end the separation that we had created. So He sent Jesus. In. God extended forgiveness before we had stopped our wrong behavior. God forgave me in Christ. In Christ is the location for Forgiveness, USA. God is predisposed toward forgiveness.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy on me. Lord, give me a tender, soft, kind, compassionate heart – a heart like Yours! Forgive me for saying (or thinking) unkind, harsh, judgmental, and merciless things to the people I love the most. May I truly be kind, tenderhearted, compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted, forgiving one another readily and freely, as God in Christ forgave me. Thank you for crowning me with love and compassion. Show me kindness so I can impact my world for Your Glory. Amen.
Questions for thought:
1. Am I truly forgiving? Do I say all those unkind, harsh, angry words to my children, or my husband, or the people I care deeply about in the heat of the moment? Do I forgive their sins, their shortcomings, and their inability to handle things?
2. What is one act of kindness I can demonstrate this week?
3. What is one scenario that cycles in my life where I fail to dispense forgiveness?
4. Where does God want to change my disposition in that scenario?

Extravagant Love: Loving God’s Way

Date: 2011.10.05 | Category: Bible Study, One Another | Response: 0

John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Jesus gave us a command to love one another. It seems simple enough if we stop the verse right there. But Jesus continues speaking, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus, the embodiment of God’s love, showed “love to the loveless that they might be lovely.” Loving as Jesus loved means that our love must really take the interest of the other person at heart. God’s Way of loving is over the top. God’s Way of loving is intense. And God’s Way of loving is worth imitating.
Consider Jesus. How was His love extravagant, over the top, intense, and worth imitating when he dealt with the following women:
• the woman caught in adultery (John 8 )
• the woman who broke the alabaster box of perfume (Matthew 26 and Mark 14)
• the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5)
Paul expands on this command to love one another in Romans 12 with “be devoted.” Devotion carries the idea that we are to be loyal, committed, zealous and faithful to each other. Are we loyal or treacherous? Are we committed or withdrawn? Are we zealous or lackadaisical? Are we faithful or untrustworthy? Do we treat each other with respect and distinction? Are we truly loving, truly devoted, truly honorable in our friendships?
Christ’s love is excessive, extravagant, and lavish. His love is without margin and without budget. Jesus is devoted to us now, in spite of our past, beyond our present condition, and because of His glory. Read Romans 5:6-8 and journal your thoughts.

Excessive means going beyond the usual, necessary, or proper limit or degree. How would your expressions of love change if they reflected the definition of excessive? Answer in context of the believer and the non-believer.

Prayer: Lord, love through me. Bear the fruit of love in my life by your Spirit. May I come to know how wide and how deep the love of Christ is. Enable me to love more fully and to love others like You do. Show me who it is You want me to love extravagantly. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Seasons of Growth (part 2): Fruit Bearing

Date: 2011.08.09 | Category: Bible Study, garden, personal | Response: 0

In my last post, I wrote about some basic gardening practices and used those ideas to build an analogy about spiritual growth.  Just as a gardener does not plant all her seeds at once but plants different things at different times, so God plants different seeds of obedience in our hearts at different times during a season of growth.  In this post, I’d like to continue with the garden theme. This time we’ll focus on the particulars of bearing fruit.

I’ll start by stating the obvious. You have to have four basic elements for fruit.  Dirt, nutrients, water, and sunlight.  I’ll forego a long winded explanation on these elements and merely say that the proper balance is needed for ideal fruit bearing, no matter your crop.  Yet I’d like to direct your attention to a specific crop: Tomatoes.

As I child, I didn’t like tomatoes nearly as much as I thought I “should.”  I ate them. I didn’t savor them. My dad has a passion for tomatoes and I’m sure it drove him batty to watch me put ketchup on my cold tomato slices to “make them taste better.”    Over time, my preferences have changed and I love a cold tomato sandwich on a hot summer day.  Tomatoes thrive in hot weather with adequate watering.

Weather isn’t my only consideration with tomatoes. Tomatoes need frequent attention in order to produce a healthy crop, because they will begin to grow sucker shoots. “Suckers,” as we call them, truly suck the life from the plant and prevent the plant’s energy from reaching the bloom stalks and thus the fruit. A sucker should be pinched off (even if it’s large) so that the plant will grow properly and produce large tomatoes. A sucker always appears at the base of a leaf directly below the bloom stalk. So if you want “better” tomatoes, pinch off that sucker. When I am suckering the tomatoes, I am sometimes worried about how the plant will recover from such a wound. That is why I try to catch the suckers when they are small.

There’s a completely different philosophy of gardening out there that says something like this. “Stick the plant in the ground and let it go.  You’ll get tomatoes.”  True. Tomato plants will bear tomatoes even if left to itself.  Sucker shoots, if left attached, will also bloom and bear more tomatoes.  So why would you remove the suckers? Wouldn’t you want an abundant crop?  When the gardener removes the suckers, the vine is strenthened and the first blooms can mature sooner into larger fruits with meatier flesh.

Someone once said,  “The Unexamined life isn’t worth living.”  So here’s the Question: Do you feel as if God is about to do something “big” in your life?  Do feel a season of growth or productivity coming on?  If so, then here’s the Challenge Question:  What is your sucker?  What thing, whether good or bad, could be sucking the life from this season of amazing fruitfulness?

John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
What might be your greatest obstacle to growing in Christ? You might be like a tomato plant, on the verge of bearing lots of big-ole tomatoes.  Allow God to remove (prune) the suckers, so that you may continue to grow and bear fruit in His name.

Seasons of Growth

Date: 2011.07.14 | Category: Bible Study, garden, personal | Response: 0

I’m not a gardener. I don’t have a green thumb. Yet, when you look at my garden, you might say, “Really? Really? No green thumb?!?” The truth is that I’ve been grafted into the green thumb club.

Both my husband and I have fathers who garden. Over the years we’ve tried to gather as many gardening skills as possible.  Using the right tools, ideas on soil composition, and thoughts on fruit preservation have been part of our inheritance. The success of our garden doesn’t depend entirely on apprenticeship. Our garden went to the next level of success because of research. And of course God causes all things to grow.  When the snow melts, we rent a roto-tiller and plow up the hardened ground, adding compost and fertilizer. We plant and harvest all spring and summer.  In the Fall, after frost, we harvest the last bits and rent the roto-tiller again, this time plowing the spent plants into the garden to compost all winter and feed next year’s garden.

Different Seeds, Different Times, Different Soils
Here’s what I want you to think about. A lush, fruitful garden doesn’t happen over night and it doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in stages. Different seeds are planted under different weather and soil conditions. Broccoli and cabbage are cold weather vegetables that are set in nitrogen rich soil long before the danger of frost is over. We planted our broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower during Spring Break, which falls during the last week of March. If we had waited till the weather warmed up, the broccoli would not have produced any florets. Broccoli bears under “harsh” conditions.

Two weeks later, we planted again — a different kind of seed. Radishes, lettuce, and spinach are also cold weather vegetables but they prefer sandy soil. Too much nitrogen and the leaves will “burn up.” Who wants brown lettuce? Not I! The proper amount of fertilizer and water is important for healthy growth. We planted half of the seeds in the packet because these plants will stop producing early and once again thrive in the the fall.

Two weeks later, we planted again. This time, once a week, for 4 weeks I planted one row of bean seeds. Staggering the planting helps manage the effort required at harvest time. Planting the seeds at the correct depth prevents the black birds from eating them.

The weekend after Mother’s Day, we planted again. This time, it was tomatoes. I love tomatoes. A cold vine-ripened tomato sandwich on a hot day is as refreshing to me as a steaming plate of pasta with marinara sauce on a cold day. Now if I had planted tomatoes when I planted everything else, the poor plants would’ve died. Tomatoes need warm temperatures to grow and produce fruit.

Application
Why would I ramble on about how to plant a garden? What does this have to do with anything “spiritual?”  Notice I didn’t plant all the seeds at once.  God doesn’t transform our lives in the same way that Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother magically and immediately transformed her situation. Usually He will urge us to follow Him in one area or to forsake one sin at the time. At certain times,we will be making progress in one area and at other times another area.  By contrast, during certain seasons, God will “plow up” our hearts, seemingly taking away everything that we have, preparing our hearts for another season of growth.  God will identify areas of our life that aren’t producing fruit.    If you have identified multiple sins to deal with, I would encourage you to find a mentor to help you prioritize and navigate the path of healing and repentance.  Ask for God’s strength and power found through the “washing of the word” of God to transform you each day. Allow the Holy Spirit to work the garden of your heart.  God will cause fruit to come to bear in the proper season so that you can reap a harvest of righteousness.

Compelled to Tell

Date: 2011.05.12 | Category: personal | Response: 0

I recently read a blog post from a ministry friend.  Her post was the catalyst for my thoughts. Her basic question was, “What story gets our attention?” citing the recent headline news of the Royal Wedding and Terrorist’s Death.  While I made impromptu plans to make sure the “princesses” in my life watched the royal wedding, and while I surprisingly was not one of the last people on earth to know about bin Laden’s death, the story that bears telling and re-telling and re-telling is the story of Jesus, the story of amazing love.

I find myself telling and telling and retelling this story over and over again, not because I am “Director of Women’s Ministries” but because I love the story.  I can’t help it.  I have to tell.  When my girls beg me to tell them a story, my automatic fallback is the story of Jesus.  What our God of the Bible has done is a regular visitor for bedtime stories.  One of my girls will come to me and confess that she has done something wrong. I tell her the story.  I’m in conversation with my friends, and I have to tell the story.  I don’t tell it the same way every single time, but I nearly always come to this point.

This is why Jesus had to be born, live, die and be raised again: so that you might find forgiveness, and freedom, and life.

The story of God, found in the Bible, can be summarized as follows.  We have all worked for, earned and deserve death because of the wrong that we commit or the right that we omit. But God loves us. He wants to give us the gift of His Son Jesus Christ so that we might have eternal life with Him in heaven.

Sometimes I tell the story. Sometimes I live the story. Sometimes I pop in a video.  But I tell the story.  I tell the story of Old Testament heroes and New Testament saints.  I tell the stories of missionairies of the past.  And I try so much to tell how God has moved in the lives of His people.  God’s redemptive story isn’t finished yet. So whether you are rejoicing in a recent wedding or coping with grief over the loss of a loved one, my prayer for you is this, Eph 3: 16-19:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

When the world began and the first man disobeyed God, a world full of curses erupted.  At that moment, amid the curses, God made a promise and at the proper time God sent Jesus to this planet.  Jesus lived a perfect life and that’s why he could carry our imperfection to hell and back through the cross.

Drink This

Date: 2011.04.06 | Category: Bible Study, personal | Response: 0

This piece first appeared in the quarterly newsletter “At the Well” for the Women’s Ministries at EFCCL.

At the Well. If I were thirsty, if I didn’t have any water — no refreshment — where would I turn? I’d want to find a water fountain, a stream of clean water, a place to purchase bottled water. Anything. Anything to quench my thirst. I’ve been so desperate for a drink that I’ve had hot tea on a sweltering day. I’ve filled my water bottle from a natural spring whose bacteria level was questionable. I’ve quenched my thirst.

As we walk the journey of this life together as women, I would want you to quench your thirst and drink from God’s Word. Many of you may already have a favorite Bible verse, a life verse, that constantly encourages you. Yet if you could take only one drink, drink this: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Mt. 22:37-39 This verse, termed the great commandment, is repeated throughout our holy scriptures. (See Lev 19:18, Deut 6:4-5, Deut 10, Mk 12:30-31, Lk 10:27). Truly it’s the crux. It’s the cross-roads where going to the grocery meets God. Oftentimes we try to compartmentalize our life. Church and God are here on Sunday. Monday is laundry day. Tuesday is the board meeting. Work takes priority, or there’s no money to pay the bills at the end of the month. We can live in such a way that God seems far removed from our thoughts and we can begin to act like an unloved person.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart… Note this opening. Jesus doesn’t begin with ‘Love Me with all your friends’ or ‘with all your purchases.’ He begins with our heart, the very core of our being. By necessity our relationship to God must grab us at the very core of our selves. Our God-life is spiritual. If we rip out the spokes of the wheel, everything else collapses. I urge you to keep the spiritual component of your life fresh, engaged, and intact.

Love the Lord your God with all your soul… God created us as emotional beings with feelings and passions. A love grounded in logic alone may produce a mechanical, legalistic alliance. Love the Lord in your frustrations and joys. Love Him in the way you think, feel, act and behave— and allow Him to love you back.

Love the Lord your God with all your mind… Christianity isn’t meant to be mindless. God wants us to ‘get it.’ Together with all believers, He wants us to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. We are to think on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. Scripture urges us to know who God is and to seek his will. Engage the brain with your spirit out of love for Christ.

Love the Lord your God with all your strength… Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, because you are serving Christ. Energy for work springs forth naturally from a deepening life with God. All work, exercise and physical activity should magnify God.

Love your neighbor as yourself… Each day we feed ourselves, care for our families, and nurture those in our circle. When our social life connects to God’s aim for us, we are transformed into disciple makers and we begin to feed, care for, and nurture our neighbors. The ministry of women starts with prayerful, loving relationships intended for salvation, growth and development into the women God intended. Our ministry is for women from every age and stage of life so that together we can reach up to God and out to one another. Loving well and living well is bottled up in loving God and loving others. Drink that.

If Mama Ain’t Happy

Date: 2011.03.03 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

The cliche is familiar:  If Mama ain’t happy, then nobody’s happy.  Now ain’t that the truth?  In a world where all truth is based on arbitrary language, even the most tolerant person will agree with the power of a happy or unhappy Mama.

Our media constantly suggests ways to make us happy: buying Earth-friendly cleansers, a day of pampering, a bigger diamond, a pair of funky shoes, or a Carnival Cruise. Or maybe our Happiness Tank is filled more easily with time on the phone, or shopping.  Sometimes it’s a day spent outside soaking up the sun or a couple of hours at the gym that reverses our whole outlook. Finding something to make us happy is easy.  Try pin-pointing what makes women unhappy. . .

1. How we got here to our Unhappy Place

It is sad that so many of us women (whether or not you’re a Mama) spend our days (and nights) rejecting.  We can’t even utter a simple thank you to our man when he brings home that gift certificate to the Nail Place because, after all, if we’d had the money for that type of thing, we would’ve spent it on ourselves already.   Not only do we have a hard time accepting a free gift — which we so desperately wanted in the first place– we also have difficulty accepting nothing.  We want to be loved, accepted, validated by people or so many temporal things.  Our basic problem of sin and fallenness rears its head wearing any number of masks.  We end up deeply unhappy because sin is engrained in us.

2. How to get happy

Even though the media encourages us to spend money to get happy, I believe that Money doesn’t buy happiness, it decreases it.  I find that when I’m not happy, that I need to shift my focus from myself to God. The real answer to the question “how to get happy” is simple: Trust Jesus Christ.   I know, it sounds too easy, too cliché, too Last-Century. But seriously, when I completely trust God for everything that falls under the category of “This Life” (and The next), I find Him completely reliable.

3. How to Stay Happy

So if you’ve put yourself and everything that falls under the category of ‘This Life’ into the hand of God through Jesus Christ, then what. . . .  What about the daily pursuit of Happy? Consider the following thoughts and Scriptures:

Keep your expectations at zero. Psalm 62.5

Leave place for God to work.  Philippians 1:6, Romans 12: 19

Pray a blessing on others. Romans 12:14.

Find the silver lining and point it out. Psalm 16, especially v 5 & 11

Think of others more important than yourself. Philippians  2.5

Give thanks.  1 Thessalonians  5:18.     Ephesians 5:20.

Choose contentment. 1 Timothy 6: 6-8,11

Be all there.  Psalm 69:9.  Colossians 3:17

Spread out the gratification.  1 Corinthians 10:23-24.    Psalm 106: 13-15

Focus on your circle. Acts 2:42-47
The bright joy we have in Jesus is not temporary or fleeting but it can certainly get clouded by our own selfishness.  My prayer for you is that you will find abundant, life-filled, deep happiness in your daily walk with Jesus.