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I remember having conversations years ago in high school with classmates who just couldn’t comprehend how I could be having any fun at all in life–

I didn’t drink or do drugs or party.

I didn’t go to R-rated movies.

I got up on Sunday mornings to go to church.

I did not have sex until my wedding night.

As a teen, I did or didn’t do these things because I was a Christian and Christians, at least back in those days, had a pretty specific list of things that identified them as true believers. I was so blessed to be in a family where I was taught to follow God and to obey His Word. Sometimes the obedient behavior came from my heart and other times it was just done out of duty or routine (that is just the simple truth).

As the years passed, I continued to live my life based on the Christian principles found in the Bible. Only my motivation became more about my realization of my wicked sinfulness, my desperate need for a Savior, and the amazing way God had offered a way for me to be reconciled to Him through His son, Jesus. My outward behavior became a reflection of my love for God and was no longer about a set of rules. Upon getting married as a twenty-something, my husband became my partner in this walk with God and we continued in the typical Christian lifestyle. We both had grown up with such a rich, godly heritage of which we both feel so undeserving. 

As the years went by and because of our deepening love for God and growing knowledge of His Word, we carefully made decisions about what TV shows we would watch and what music we would play on our car radio, basing our decisions on whether or not our choice would please the God who saved us. We tried to live our proper roles as husband and wife, as taught in scripture. And we trained our children to obey and respect us and tried to teach them to know God and to walk with Him. We didn’t commit adultery and tried to be very careful in our relationships with the opposite sex.

Oh, we weren’t even close to perfect and we made lots of mistakes and so many wrong choices. We’d argue and fight. Sometimes we’d watch something we knew we shouldn’t. But we’d confess and move on, always desiring to stay on the narrow road, despite our flesh that would sometimes demand otherwise. 

As our children grew older, our dedication to our Lord and Savior was tested and tried, but we continued to do our best to make choices to honor and please Him. We made unpopular decisions about what our children could watch, listen to, and read. We made difficult decisions about what our daughters would be allowed to wear. And we made very tough decisions about who they could hang out with and where they would be allowed to go.

Now, please hear me carefully. We made choices, yes, all by God’s grace and we made a lot of mistakes, too. This isn’t about us. This is about the life of peace and joy we can have when we walk in obedience to God’s commands as written in scripture.

A lot of people view their decision to become a “Christian” as a life insurance policy for their eternal destiny. They have no interest in living a life dedicated to Christ here on earth. Their main goal is to avoid hell. But I want you to know that I am so thankful I have lived a Christian life, even if there is no heaven.

Don’t get me wrong–I believe there is heaven. I believe, according to what we read in God’s Word, that I am going there when I die. But I want you to know that the choices of obedience I have made throughout my life have not only led to a better life in eternity but they have led to a better life now.

Our family has been spared great despair and heartache because we have chosen to follow God and obey His Word.

This is not about how great we are because, quite frankly, we aren’t all that great. Our family is filled with sinners saved by grace. We still argue and struggle and do sinful things. Quite frequently. No, this isn’t about us. This is about God’s tremendous grace extended to sinners who have accepted His free gift of salvation and truly desire to live lives that please Him.

The standards and guidelines set forth in scripture for our lives are not put there to make us miserable. They are there for our protection. God sets them for US. He knows that we are protected from terrible consequences when we follow His Word.

We are spared messy relationships and heartache when we save sex for marriage. We are spared hardened hearts and many temptations when we do not put evil things before our eyes. We are spared agonizing addictions when we avoid alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. We are spared disunity and broken relationships when we follow God’s plan for marriage and parenthood.

And so there is a reason God gives us the guidelines that we read in His Word. If we choose to obey, we will avoid horrible consequences. Oh, we can’t avoid all the bad stuff of life. We will still get sick and lose our jobs and have really hard things happen to us. But when we are walking in obedience and right relationship with God, He will give us peace and meet our needs, strengthening and protecting us in even our darkest trials and moments of deep despair. 

I used to be really disappointed that I didn’t have a more exciting testimony. My life has been pretty boring compared to most. But I have come to realize that I am blessed beyond measure. I do not take it for a granted anymore.

While I know that some of you were blessed to grow up in Christian homes and have stayed on the straight and narrow, having a similar testimony to mine, there are just as many– if not more–of you that are living a life that’s just full of the consequences of your sinful and unwise choices.

The really good news is that today is a new day! Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We can begin to obey God and His Word right now. We can’t change our past but we can change our future! Start living for God today, choosing to obey Him even when it’s really, really hard.

And you, too, will learn that a life lived for Jesus not only gives us the promise of heaven but sweetens our life here on earth, as well. So much so, that even if heaven didn’t exist, I’d still choose to follow hard after God.

For years and years, we have lived in relative comfort as believers in the Westernized world. This is actually rather an unusual circumstance, if you study any history at all. True believers have been persecuted throughout almost all of history and many are being persecuted today in other parts of the world, as well. We have been so blessed.

Or have we?

While I do think it is an awesome blessing to not have had to suffer the loss of our lives, well-being, and material possessions, I do wonder if we can really know how spiritually strong we are without persecution?

I just finished a book over the weekend entitled Things We Couldn’t Say by Diet Eman. In it, Diet tells of her experience in the Dutch Resistance Movement during World War II. This books unfolds a little-known and fascinating piece of history and I highly recommend it.

But what really surprised me — or maybe really did not surprise me — was the fact that so many people who called themselves Christians didn’t do a thing to help the Jews.  To them, the lives of God’s chosen people were not important enough to risk their own.

And I just have to wonder…

What would I have done?

I want to think that I would have gladly dug a little hidden basement or false wall in order to save a few from a horrible death. And I do think I would have. But then I have to ponder– would I really have been courageous enough?

Or let’s turn our thoughts to Africa and the Middle East, to any Muslim country, where a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is a death sentence. I just heard of a young, pregnant woman who was sentenced to death for her choice to follow Christianity. This is not uncommon. When Muslims accept Jesus Christ, they are basically saying that He means more to them than their life. Could we say that?

What if you knew that tomorrow you would be arrested and imprisoned for following Jesus Christ? What would you do? What if you knew that your life and the lives of your family members could possibly be at stake. Would you still choose to call yourself a Christian?

You may say, “Well, why even bother talking about that? That isn’t my situation.” Sure, this is purely hypothetical at this point so why even bother discussing it? But I do believe this discussion can help us to think through some things. I want to think about this right now in my own life for two reasons–

1) I want to be prepared if (or should I say when?) persecution comes. And so I have to think what I can do right now to prepare myself for it. I believe that to stand strong in suffering and persecution I need to have very deep roots grown in the soil of biblical Truth. I want to study God’s Word and hide it in my heart. I want to know God well and be trusting Him now, in the small stuff of life. I want to lean on Him, fellowship with Him, and have Him as my highest priority right now so that my relationship with God is mature and my faith is built on the solid foundation of The Word when suffering comes.

2) The winds are a-changing and the persecution that we have eluded for so long seems to not be such an impossibility anymore. Clouds are appearing slowly (or not so slowly) on the horizon. The sky is darkening and we can feel the heaviness in the atmosphere. Unless something changes drastically, it won’t be long now.

And I have to ask myself: Will I be ready for it? Will you be ready for persecution? Will our children be ready to face what comes?

Let’s dig deep into the Word of God. Let’s memorize scripture. Let’s get to know God on a deep level. The time for casual Christianity is over (not that there is ever a time for that, truthfully) and we need to put on our armor and prepare ourselves for battle.

I want to stand with courage and confidence in those days. The third verse of the old hymn “Stand Up for Jesus” may just say it best–

Stand up, Stand up for Jesus!
Stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you,
ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armor,
each piece put on with prayer;
where duty calls or danger,
be never wanting there.

 

 

Well, after giving it much thought, I have made a decision.

I love, love, love to write here at Growing4Life. I love my readers and I love to write about God and life and family from a biblical viewpoint. I never run out of ideas.

But lately, I have felt rather uninspired. And repetitive. And even a bit boring at times.

I think it has been because I feel rather locked in to a particular type of writing here.

And I realized that now might be a good time to stretch myself.  To take a tentative step forward into a different world of writing. For awhile now, I have been working on a novel. For years I have had thoughts for a few nonfiction books rolling around in my head. And I would love to give some effort to writing some web or magazine articles.

Even by writing the above sentences, I feel fear. What if I am not good enough? What if I fail? What if I get distracted?

This is what has kept me from trying in the first place, quite honestly.

But I have to at least try. I will never forgive myself if I don’t at least try to become an “official” author.

Meanwhile, I will still write here. But probably only a few times each month.

For those of you who have followed this blog faithfully and encouraged me along the way, I hope you will continue to do so. You have been a source of strength and encouragement to my soul. When I was uncertain if I could even write at all, you kept me going. Thank you can’t even begin to express what I feel.

And so, that is it. Nothing too terribly exciting, but I did want to let you know.

 

 

Well, it has been a great (and exhausting) week! When I have some time, I want to share some highlights and stories from the trip with you. But for this morning I thought I would share a few pictures. Unfortunately, Costa Rica is extremely careful about photographing their orphans and so you won’t see any close up shots of any beautiful faces. By the way, this beautiful country has been relatively free of any ugly insects. the picture below is the only thing seen in our wonderful accommadations! Here is a small taste of our week–

My iPad never changed the time, so I find myself with an extra hour this morning! I thought I may as well put it to good use and share a little of our experience so far in Costa Rica. Yesterday I, along with two of my daughters, my sister-in-law, and my niece, spent much of the day in the ghetto. We were delivering grocery bags of food and hygiene supplies to people who literally had none. We also painted a house that wasn’t officially in the ghetto, but was certainly not an American house. I thought I’d just give a few impressions of our day–

Frail grandma and eight grandchildren. In a teeny tiny space. With a tree in the middle.

Water was running everywhere. Was it sewage? No one seemed to know. Dogs and their poop were everywhere. People of all sizes and shapes were everywhere.

Too big shoes for little feet.

A widow with tears in her eyes as we prayed for her.

Much prayer for family members who were “enfermo” (sick). Dysentery, cancer, heart disease are all a concern here.

Tin, cardboard, and wood all put together haphazardly to create “home”.

A tiny boy left home alone while his mother went to find enough money to feed he and his three brothers for the day.

Hilly, muddy, rocky walkways with 5 gallon buckets hooked together to create a drainage pipe when needed at some places.

Faces. So many faces. Some with smiles. Some with sadness. And some shadowed with worry.

Rusted refrigerators and stoves made out of bricks and oven racks.

A humble little home beautifully decorated for Christmas already.

Sad, miserable lives but happy, thankful people.

Faith in the midst of the ghetto. Faith in spite of —or maybe because of— the circumstances.

Always a very emotionally draining experience.

Thanks so much for your prayers. We have been challenged in many ways to step outside of our comfort zone. We expect that to be part of our week. Please continue to pray for us.

p.s. The photo above is our view from where we are staying. I made the mistake of not taking any pictures with my iPhone yesterday and cannot upload my camera’s SD card. But isn’t our view lovely?

Years ago, I gathered my homeschooled brood and went to a local conference where Ken Ham was the main speaker. I can honestly say that was some of the most valuable hours we had in homeschooling. That day he made a compelling case for why our view of biblical creation is essential as believers. 

If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, I hope you will take it. But, until then, I am sharing one chapter from Ken Ham’s book called Understanding the Times that summarizes why this issue of Creation is so important. You can find this book free for Kindle right now. I highly, highly recommend it. It is a very valuable tool in not only helping us understand why it matters but in also giving us some basic points in defending biblical creationism. You can find it here.  Now, on to the excerpt I have chosen for today. 

The Bible does not say, “Go into all the world and change the culture.” The Bible says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.”(Mark 16:15) Do you know why the culture has changed away from Christian values? It is because hearts and minds changed in regard to the Word of God—its authority over all of life. Do you know how to change the culture back? To see hearts and minds changed in regard to the Word of God. That is what changes the culture. And it has got to start in our homes and in our churches. But we have let generations of children from the Church have their hearts and minds changed by the system, by the world.

That is what fundamentally has changed the culture. And we helped, as the Church, when we accommodated the world’s teaching. Just as the Israelites took the pagan religions of the age and incorporated idolatry into their thinking, so we have done the same: evolution and “millions of years” are actually the pagan religion of this age—and the Church has adopted it. We are no different than the Israelites—therefore we should expect no difference in regard to what God does in dealing with us.

To summarize, there has been an attack in our age. The Church is reaching out to the world, preaching the gospel, and conducting all its programs;  but there has been a vicious Genesis 3 attack upon God’s truth, casting doubt upon the creation historical account by asking “Hath God said?” This attack comes under the guise of “millions of years.” In response, much of the Church said, “At least it didn’t hit the cross, so we are OK.” True enough, it did not hit the cross directly, but it hit the Word from which the message of the cross comes.

Much of the Church continues to say, “It didn’t hit the cross.” Had this attack of the world upon the foundations of Christianity been a direct attack on the cross, they would have said, “Oh, this is an attack on the gospel.” Instead they have said, “You know, this ‘millions of years’ attack on Genesis is just a side issue.” No!—this attack is hitting the very Word of God itself, from which the gospel comes.

And then the attacks multiply and come stronger and faster: evolution, “millions of years,” ape-men, and so on. For the world, it is a direct hit on the essential foundation of Christianity. “Aha!” the world says, “We’re undermining the Word of God. We shall be free from all its negative limitations at last!” And much of the Church continues to respond with only, “But it didn’t hit the cross.”

Now, what happens in America as this unbelief sweeps across the nation, and in the rest of the world as it sweeps across the globe? Most Christians continue just to say, “All we need to do is trust in Jesus.” But why are people in the world going to believe the message of Jesus, which comes from the Book that has been totally undermined in their eyes? Then many Christians say, “We have got to get the Bible back into the schools.” But how can you get the Bible back into a system that does not believe the Book itself? Then many Christians say, “We have got to get the Ten Commandments back into the schools.” But how can you get the Ten Commandments back into a culture that does not believe the Book from which they come?

One of the things I have noticed about American churches is that, for a lot of people, they are more concerned about “future things.” They say, “Oh, Jesus is coming back again.” Now, don’t get me wrong, eschatology[35] is important. But the problem is just this: millions of Americans bought the “Left Behind”[36] series, but most of those millions of Americans did not buy creation books—because that is considered “not important.” They say, “Beginnings don’t really matter,” and yet the issue of origins is exactly where we have lost the authority of God’s Word in this age.

The solution is that we must be restoring the foundation of the authority of the Word of God. We must be boldly confronting the false foundation that believes it is man who determines truth.  We need to take hearts and minds and see them changed in regard to the Word of God, to stand on the Word of God, to have a consistent Christian worldview. When true Christians, equipped Christians, get into politics and on school boards, the culture changes. Out of the heart a man speaks what he believes to be true.

“And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;  and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” (Isa 58:12)

Ham, Ken (2013-01-28). Understanding the Times. Chapel Library. Kindle Edition.

 

Do you struggle with pride? Our first inclination is to deny that this is a battle we fight everyday. If we are believers we realize that we can’t truly understand God’s plan of salvation until we realize our sinfulness, our unworthiness, our brokenness. Now, I’ve always known that I probably struggle a little bit with pride. After all, we all do to a certain extent. But, while I am well aware of many other sins in my life, I really didn’t think that pride was that big of an issue for me. Until yesterday when my “little bit” bubble was burst quite soundly thanks to my Bible Study leader who shared something from Nancy Leigh DeMoss entitled “Brokenness Bookmark: The Heart God Revives”.

Are you willing to take an honest look at yourself? If so, then read this:

Proud people focus on the failures of others.
Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.

Proud people have a critical, fault-finding spirit; they look at everyone else’s faults with a microscope but their own with a telescope.
Broken people are compassionate; they can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven.

Proud people are self-righteous; they look down on others.
Broken people esteem all others better than themselves.

Proud people have an independent, self-sufficient spirit.
Broken people have a dependent spirit; they recognize their need for others.

Proud people have to prove that they are right.
Broken people are willing to yield the right to be right.

Proud people claim rights; they have a demanding spirit.
Broken people yield their rights; they have a meek spirit.

Proud people are self-protective of their time, their rights, and their reputation.
Broken people are self-denying.

Proud people desire to be served.
Broken people are motivated to serve others.

Proud people desire to be a success.
Broken people are motivated to be faithful and to make others a success.

Proud people desire self-advancement.
Broken people desire to promote others.

Proud people have a drive to be recognized and appreciated.
Broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness; they are thrilled that God would use them at all.

Proud people are wounded when others are promoted and they are overlooked.
Broken people are eager for others to get the credit; they rejoice when others are lifted up.

Proud people have a subconscious feeling, “This ministry/church is privileged to have me and my gifts”; they think of what they can do for God.
Broken people’s heart attitude is, “I don’t deserve to have a part in any ministry”; they know that they have nothing to offer God except the life of Jesus flowing through their broken lives.

Proud people feel confident in how much they know.
Broken people are humbled by how very much they have to learn.

Proud people are self-conscious.
Broken people are not concerned with self at all.

Proud people keep others at arms’ length.
Broken people are willing to risk getting close to others and to take risks of loving intimately.

Proud people are quick to blame others.
Broken people accept personal responsibility and can see where they are wrong in a situation.

Proud people are unapproachable or defensive when criticized.
Broken people receive criticism with a humble, open spirit.

Proud people are concerned with being respectable, with what others think; they work to protect their own image and reputation.
Broken people are concerned with being real; what matters to them is not what others think but what God knows; they are willing to die to their own reputation.

Proud people find it difficult to share their spiritual need with others.
Broken people are willing to be open and transparent with others as God directs.

Proud people want to be sure that no one finds out when they have sinned; their instinct is to cover up.
Broken people, once broken, don’t care who knows or who finds out; they are willing to be exposed because they have nothing to lose.

Proud people have a hard time saying, “I was wrong; will you please forgive me?”
Broken people are quick to admit failure and to seek forgiveness when necessary.

Proud people tend to deal in generalities when confessing sin.
Broken people are able to acknowledge specifics when confessing their sin.

Proud people are concerned about the consequences of their sin.
Broken people are grieved over the cause, the root of their sin.

Proud people are remorseful over their sin, sorry that they got found out or caught.
Broken people are truly, genuinely repentant over their sin, evidenced in the fact that they forsake that sin.

Proud people wait for the other to come and ask forgiveness when there is a misunderstanding or conflict in a relationship.
Broken people take the initiative to be reconciled when there is misunderstanding or conflict in relationships; they race to the cross; they see if they can get there first, no matter how wrong the other may have been.

Proud people compare themselves with others and feel worthy of honor.
Broken people compare themselves to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for His mercy.

Proud people are blind to their true heart condition.
Broken people walk in the light.

Proud people don’t think they have anything to repent of.
Broken people realize they have need of a continual heart attitude of repentance.

Proud people don’t think they need revival, but they are sure that everyone else does.
Broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God and for a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.

 

You can find this and many other great resources on Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s ministry website: reviveourhearts.com 

 

 

It’s a little crazy around here right now so I won’t be able to take the time to write.  But I invite you to read one or two of my old posts today.  Here are a couple I wrote awhile ago that you may be interested in–

The Surgeon’s Instrument

Ignoring Inconvenient Truths

 

I’ll be back on Monday with fresh material! :)