Week Sixteen - Thoughts on Holy Week

I'm on social media daily, posting a thought or an encouragement, and others are doing the same thing. Often, we share each other's posts, but today I wanted to not simply share a picture but talk about two special ones that gave me fresh thoughts about Easter week.

The first read, "Jesus didn't say, 'I am finished.' He said, 'It is finished.' He was just getting started" (Tony Evans). 

Oh, what joy in that statement, that truth. The cross was not the end of Jesus; it didn't defeat Him. He came to give Himself for us on that cross. The cross was the goal, not the punishment. Jesus' mission was finished, but He was not!

Dick Brogden's statement stopped me in my tracks. He said, "The agony of the cross was felt (by God) before the creation of the world and will be felt long after re-creation. An eternal God bears eternal wounds." 

I'd never considered God being so acutely affected by the cross, but since Jesus is God, the idea of coming in human form and experiencing the pain of sin would be a wound shared equally for all eternity. 

So what was finished? The cross completed God's promise of restoration for mankind. Now, it is time to do our part: to accept Christ's sacrifice and be restored to God. That part, our part, is still ongoing. Have you done that?

The other post that caught my attention stated, "This week wasn't just history. It was His heart saying, 'I'll go first, I'll pay it all. My love for you is this deep.'" And that's what He did. 

Christ's sacrifice on Calvary paid in full the cost of our sins, the punishment we deserve, and the price of redemption. He went there so we didn't have to. 

And He didn't have to! He went because of love, a love we find hard to understand and sometimes hard to accept. We could never pay the penalty of our sin and find forgiveness without the immeasurable love of Christ. Sin demands punishment, and the book of Romans tells us that the "wages of sin is death." So when Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world and died, that payment was complete.

If you fail to accept His offering, you will pay the wages of your sin. Eternal death is the price. How odd that anyone would refuse such an offer. 

This Holy Week is a great time to meditate on what Christ did. It is a time of humble praise and wonder that God would send His only begotten Son to die on a cross for people who reject and scorn His sacrifice.

And if you have not yet yielded your stubborn and prideful heart to the loving compassion of Christ, this is a good week for you to lay down your will and give way to His deep and sacrificial love for you.

Week Fifteen - Continually

Several years ago, I journeyed through the Bible, exploring individual words. My meditation, research, and journaling resulted in my 50 Bible Words book (I've put a link below), and, Lord willing, I have another book of 50 More Bible Words coming out later, drawn from that same journey. 

Today, the Lord again brought to my attention the beauty and power of meditating on individual words. The word He pointed out was continually. Psalm 71, vs. 3, reads, "Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort." Vs. 6 says, "My praise shall be continually of thee." Vs. 14, But I will hope continually."

The habit of praise, hope, and security is uplifting and full of spiritual comfort. God's faithfulness and immutability mean we can continually come to Him. He is always there, never leaving or forsaking us, no matter our circumstances.

Dick Brogden wrote, "Conflict with the enemy and comfort from God are both continual. Our response is continual praise." 

While I agree that the enemy is always at work, I don't want to look at life like that. I try to avoid the enemy and keep him away from my home and mind. But I had to agree, he is always lurking in the shadows, but my God lives in the light! I can continually come to Him for comfort and assurance. He always has my back, and I can praise Him even in the darkness because He is light - in Him, there is no darkness!

He is my habitation, where I escape the world and the enemy. He is that strong tower where I can run in and be safe. I can continually go there. He never tires of me!

Praise is not just a comforting habit; it's a powerful weapon against the enemy. He can't linger when I sing praise to God, quote Scripture, or even confess my sins. These actions repel the enemy, so God's praise is continually on my lips, empowering me in my spiritual journey!

And hope? It's not just a fleeting feeling; it's a constant companion in every circumstance, for God is fully able. Even when things don't work out the way I think they should, there is still hope, as my God knows all things and works all things according to the purpose of His will (Ephesians 1:11). Because my hope is in Him, I yield to His sovereignty and wisdom continually.

Dick Brogden beautifully portrays Psalm 71, 'God is our continual refuge, our continual strength, and our continual comfort.' God's faithfulness and continuance are our secure foundation. Embrace the spirit of praise today, and let Him be your refuge, strength, and continual comfort, providing you with a sense of security and reassurance on your spiritual journey.

50 Bible Words:  https://a.co/d/b6JeSs2

Week Fourteen - The Electronic Leash

A few years ago, a pastor recommended 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke, which I found humbling and convicting. He said he reads the book twice yearly to help him maintain perspective and balance his social media activity.

Do you find your phone the first thing you reach for each morning? Many of us do. Tony Reinke gives us six reasons why we do that so easily.

1. We want to be informed about what is new in the world and new among our friends, and we don't want to be left out on something newsworthy or noteworthy.

2. We want to know what people say about us and how they respond to things we have said and posted.

3. We want to feed on what is fascinating, weird, strange, wonderful, shocking, or spellbinding.

4. We want to put off the day ahead, especially when it looks dull and routine and holds nothing of fascination to capture our interest.

5. We want to put off the burdens of the roles God has given us as fathers, mothers, bosses, employees, and students.

6. We want to put off dealing with relational conflicts, pain, disease, and disabilities in our bodies.

Do you see yourself anywhere in those six reasons? We'd all have to be honest and say we are guilty of at least one or two of these excuses for surrendering control to our phones.

Let me finish with the author's summary of the issue. He writes, "Perhaps we check our phones for more noble ends - to communicate with friends and family members or to confirm our schedules for the day - but a rush of temptations comes at us immediately in the morning, and we fumble our precious solitude. It's hard to summarize the resulting problem any better than this: The real danger with social media is not that it allows us to isolate ourselves but that by mixing our appetite for isolation with our vanity, it threatens to alter the very nature of solitude. The bottom line is that technology bends us in a centripetal direction, pulling us toward a central habitat of loneliness and filling our lives with habits that benefit the stakeholders who seek to monetize our attention."

I'd never thought of it that way. Because we see social media as free, we often fail to see the monetary gain for the companies that supply our entertainment.

Spurgeon said, "Pemit not your minds to be easily distracted, or you will even have your devotion destroyed." Vital to our spiritual health, we must listen and hear God's voice every morning. We must stop and be still to know that God is God, and we are His children. So, let's push back our phones in the morning to protect our solitude and reflect first on Him.

Then, put your phone away during the day, build authentic eye-to-eye trust with the people in your life, and sharpen your relationships. That little battery-powered object in your hand should not replace your relationship with your Saviour or the beauty of fellowship with others. Let's step away from the electronic leash and feed our souls on eternal things.

Week Thirteen - When Strivings Cease

Last week, I shared a few thoughts about lies we believe that mess up our wiring. Using Ruth Simon's thoughts from her book When Strivings Cease, we summarized that truth counteracts falsehood and sorts our wiring. Today, I want us to briefly examine her conclusion on where we will rest when our strivings cease. Again, I highly recommend this book.

Let's begin by defining what things she calls strivings. She bases her discussion on our innate need and pressure to perform and seek to sustain a standard that doesn't disappoint anyone else. This striving is why we are so tired, keep hustling, feel like we are never enough, and fail to flourish. We bend, straining to meet expectations and fill the gaps of our unknowns with trust in no one but ourselves. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it?

She says, "We strive when we long for something we believe will pull us out of despair and into a sense of fulfillment. We strive to make our dreams come true. Sometimes, those are tangible dreams like starting a business, becoming debt-free, or earning a doctorate. But sometimes those dreams are intangible, like finding love, feeling accepted, or being happy with who you are."

We have all struggled with these things, and some may still struggle. But when strivings cease, life is different. There is room for peace and grace, and a settled security catapults us into growth and maturity. 

Simons lists these seven things as signs of release from striving.

1. We no longer need to prove our worth. Our worth is found in Christ alone, and we rest there.

2. We stop chasing approval as our comfort. We find confidence and comfort in who we are in Christ.

3. We glory in our weaknesses. Weakness is no longer connected with shame but bound to God's intimate work in my life for His glory. I marvel at how He uses me despite my weaknesses.

4. We hold God as greater than our accomplishments. To Him goes all the glory for anything we have done. It is all by His grace and gifting.

5. We know peace apart from pleasing others. We now impart peace instead of trying to derive peace from others. Our peace is found in our settled resolve of God's unconditional love.

6. We understand that God is for us and no longer against us. He is working all things for our good. There is now no condemnation from Him as we walk in the Spirit. God is on our side, and we are on His.

7. Jesus so captures our gaze that we stop chasing everything else. He becomes preeminent in our thoughts and decisions. Pleasing Him becomes our goal in every area of our lives. Jesus is King, and we answer only to Him. As Paul writes, "That we may be found in him" (Philippians 3:9).

Today is a good day to measure your strivings. Are they producing undue stress? Can you exchange them for one of these truths of release? Do you understand the truth presented here, or are you holding on so tightly to self-performance that you are afraid to let go and let God?

Week Twelve - My Wiring is Messed Up

Today, I want to share thoughts from When Strivings Cease by Ruth Chou Simons. But before I do, I want to encourage you to read. Read good books that grow your faith, challenge your thinking, and give you tools for life. And when you do, copy the quotes that speak to your heart into a journal. I even underline these quotes in my books. Then, when I go back, I have collected thoughts that spoke to my soul, and they help me revisit those times when God brought more truth to me or helped me understand things. Read and record what you read!

___________________________

Jay Adams believes our messed up wiring is due to sin. That is an adequate explanation, for we are all sinners and live in a sinful world. Larry Crabb believes our problems come from lies we have believed or accepted as truth. And that can often be the case, for the father of lies is always busy sowing seeds of falsehood.

Ruth Simons grapples with finding the source of our striving, our relentless struggle to sort things out, reduce stress, and find a foundation of truth. She says, "Realigning your mind, heart, and identity to grace, not works, is a daily battle. If you find your assurance in who God says you are by the work of grace, your responses will reflect what you value most - what God has done for you."

This realignment of grace is salvation, and it helps us understand who we are and who He is: the God of all comfort, the God who makes us whole, and the God who sorts out our messy wiring. Grace is the foundational truth.

She also addresses the lies we come to believe. "Lies don't have to attack every area of our lives to be effective; they only need to chip away at what we haven't settled once and for all," she says. And I've found that so true. I can have loads of truth plugged in, but one nagging doubt can blow a fuse!

Here are four lies Simons mentions that mess up our wiring.

1. We seek self-improvement that depends on us, not God.

While busy trying to fix ourselves, we fail to yield to His work. He promised in Philippians 1:6 to do a work in us, an eternal work, and if we will but rest in His promise, we will find improvement comes from the work of the Spirit, not from our self-directed efforts.

2. We fret over our image instead of reflecting His.

Vanity captivates us. We want to look good, be perceived as good, and admired by others. But our focus is plugged into the wrong socket! Christ in me—that is the hope of glory. Christ working through me—that is the beauty of Christian living. My image must be of Christ—even when I have a bad hair day!

3. We believe God's holding out on us and needs us to look out for ourselves.

The Lord helps those who help themselves. Really? Where do you find that in Scripture? That is not Bible truth. Instead, God says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things (clothing, food, etc.) shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). God looks out for you. He isn't holding out on you. "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). If you believe the lie that you must take care of yourself, you are not trusting God. You are taking on a burden too large for you to carry.

4. We welcome the lie that we are beggars and not heirs.

Oh, how the enemy loves to make us feel like beggars. When we accept this lie, we fall for all kinds of self-incriminating thoughts. We fail to venture forth with God and sometimes believe our false humility is virtuous. When God speaks of humility, He isn't referring to His children as unworthy; He's talking about submission and trust. We serve a mighty Father, and as His children, we can claim all the promises of heaven. There is no need for God's children to beg for bread when the table of grace and love is fully laden.

If you see yourself in these lies, it is time to unplug and reconnect to grace and truth. The only reason your wiring is messed up is because you aren't drawing from the right source. Jesus' prayer for you is, "Sanctify (purify internally by the renewing of the soul) them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17).

Week Eleven - Grasshoppers Who Believe

My husband and I are one of those unlikely couples. He is Cherokee, and I am a white girl. We are both from a tiny town in the middle of America with no significant claim to fame. Our education is basic, and we aren't rich. But none of that matters to God - when He called us to salvation and service, He didn't see any of that as strokes against us. We were grasshoppers who believed; that was all He needed to do His work.

Dick Brogden said, "The more improbable the conquest, the clearer it is that God did it." And truly, God has done the work in our lives. Our length of marriage, over 50+ years now, seemed impossible. Going to the mission field seemed impossible. Raising our family of five seemed impossible. Ministry has often seemed impossible. Establishing a church and purchasing a building, turning it over to a national pastor, and a plethora of other hurdles seemed impossible. But God has done it all.

Believing is so powerful because "when God assembles a team of insignificant people and wins with them, it is pretty obvious who is responsible for the victory." (Dick Brogden) And that is what God wants. He wants the glory and praise. He gives us the victory that we might point back to Him.

There may be things in your life that you consider marks against you, but in the hands of the Lord, they are but tools, tools of service for Him. The more improbable, the more impossible, the more unlikely, gives room for God to work more abundantly.

I always like Luke 17:10, where Jesus says to the disciples, "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."

Jesus, teaching the disciples about humility and service, says there is no room for pride or bonus points in the service of the Lord. Our service is but our called duty. It is our reasonable service, as we read in Romans 12:1-2. We are merely "grasshoppers who believe." We have the privilege of service, and as Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:12, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry."

As I reflect on my life, only praise rises from my heart. I have a good husband, a happy marriage, precious children who love me, and fun, fun grandkids. My ministry is fruitful and challenging. I am so very privileged to be God's servant. There is no higher calling. I love teaching the Word and revel in its strength and beauty. Truly, I have it all, grasshopper than I am.

I hope such praise rises from your heart when you reflect on all God has done for you, fellow grasshopper.

Week Ten - What are You Staring At?

Have you ever caught yourself staring into space? Mind empty, a million miles away, and oblivious to everything around you? Maybe you were captivated by a memory or an object you saw; perhaps you were deep in thought, but for whatever reason, you found yourself momentarily stuck.

We stare at an object, wondering how it works or what it is. Or we may even be staring at our reflection, amazed at how we've aged, our uneven eyes, or our crooked nose.

And sometimes, our staring isn't done with our eyes; it is the activity of our heart and mind, staring at a situation, bewildered, confused, and wondering how we got here and how things will work out.

We all stare at times. We fix our eyes on someone or something with a vacant look and seem momentarily captivated. People around us ask, "What are you staring at?" We might say, "Oh, nothing." Or we could explain what caught our attention.

There is nothing wrong with staring, but I wanted to challenge you today to ask yourself, "What are you staring at?" Because life can be distracting. It can cause us to have those momentary moments of fixation as we try to take in everything happening so quickly around us.

But if we fixate on the world's events and keep our gaze there, we miss out on many better things. If we stare into the mirror and look only at ourselves, we grow self-focused and vain. If we stare at our problems, they appear larger than they are. So, our gaze, the focus of our heart and mind, is essential.

God calls us to fix our gaze on Him, not swayed by distractions but with unwavering focus. Getting sidetracked only hinders our progress. 

David wrote, "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord" (Psalm 25:15). "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from when cometh my help: (Psalm 121:1). "But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord; in thee is my trust." Solomon wrote, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." (Proverbs 4:25). 

If anything captivates our thoughts or fixates our hearts, let it be our Lord. Let's focus on reflecting Christ, seeing and praying for the lost, and serving others with love and compassion. Keeping our hope and gaze firmly fixed on God and watching for the Lord's return will move us forward in faith and hope. Then, when someone asks us what we are staring at, we can point them to Christ.