Growing 4 Life

Starting With What We Know

6 Comments / March 18, 2019 April 3, 2024

I have a jigsaw puzzle app on my iPad. I will often put a “digital” puzzle together while I am watching TV or listening to my audio Bible or a sermon. I am a chronic multi-tasker and need to keep my hands busy!

I normally choose puzzles that have plenty of differences, as the ones that have the same shades of color throughout can frustrate me. The most recent one I put together was a little bit of both. There were areas that were different and there were areas of sameness. When I first started to put it together a few weeks ago I decided to first work on all the pieces that looked the same. I wanted to get the hard stuff out of the way.

But, after a few days, I found this puzzle very frustrating and I left it in favor of easier ones. I was having such a hard time figuring out where all of those green pieces went.

A few weeks later, I decided to give it another try. As I stared at the puzzle and thought about how to best work it out, it came to me: Work with the obvious pieces first and then the rest will fall into place.

And you know what? That was exactly right. I filled in all the different areas and when it came time to place all of the green pieces it was so much easier.

But I first had to place what I knew before I could figure out what I didn’t know.

As I was thinking about that puzzle, it dawned on me that puzzles in life can be a little like this. We want to know all the answers. We want to know where all of those hard-to-define pieces are going to fit and how it’s all going to end. But, if we are a believer, we should first start with what we know.

And what do we know? What pieces can we put into all of our puzzles (i.e. trials, frustrations, storms, adversity) first?

Let’s talk about some of them–

Piece ONE— God loves us so much.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. I John 3:1

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

Piece TWO–God is working all things together in the way that is best for me. Even if it doesn’t seem that way at the time.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

Piece THREE— God desires me to be conformed to the image of His Son. In fact, we are predestined for this! This is more important than my happiness, my dreams, or having an easy life.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29

Piece FOUR— Sorrows and troubles are part of our journey here on earth; We cannot avoid them.

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Piece FIVE— God is aware of the minutest details. He hasn’t abandoned us.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Matthew 6:28-32

Piece SIX— Our first priority is to seek God and His Kingdom.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Piece SEVEN–Puzzles and trials are testing me and perfecting me.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produce patience. ⁴But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

Piece EIGHT–Supernatural peace through Christ Jesus is possible–no matter what the circumstances.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Piece NINE–This life is temporary and the best is yet to come!

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” I Corinthians 2:9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:3-9

__________________________________________________

When we put these nine pieces in our puzzle first, the other pieces will slowly fall into place. Oh, it doesn’t mean it will be easy–but it will be easier than if we don’t do this.

Life has its ups and downs. And sometimes we face things that do not make sense; things that are horribly painful; things that are unexpected.

In the swirl of thoughts that goes on whenever we face a trial, we may forget to first contemplate these nine truths from scripture that apply to every situation–no matter how great or small.

I hope this is an encouragement to someone today. I don’t know what you are facing but God does.

The Other Side of Self-Esteem

11 Comments / March 4, 2019 March 4, 2019

There is a constant push to view ourselves highly. We are wonderful. We are beautiful. We can do anything.

The world, and, more increasingly, the “church”, encourage us to accept ourselves as we are. To love ourselves first and foremost. We are even told that we can’t learn to love others unless we have this deep, abiding love for ourselves first.

Even as I write the above sentence, I grimace inside. Nothing could be further from the truth.

And as more and more people are loving themselves first, we find a world filled with arrogance, pride, grudges, broken families, split churches, and miserable workplaces.

The fruit of the self-esteem movement has been less than stellar.

But there’s another side to this word that we don’t often talk about. And that is this: Sometimes we don’t feel all that wonderful. In fact, we feel like a big loser. We don’t have any self-esteem at all–or do we…?

I’ve been thinking about this as I’ve personally struggled through something recently.

Let me first state that I am sharing this because I believe that there may be a few of you out there who struggle with this, too. Honestly, I don’t really want to share this and–please understand–I am not asking for you to encourage me or build me up. I am sharing this simply because it has happened. It is happening. And I am trying to work through it in a godly way. And maybe my struggle and how God is teaching me through it will help you, too.

A few months ago, God started allowing a few things to happen in my life that started to dig away at my confidence. While I try not to hold on to anything too tightly, I did possess a comfortable confidence in my purpose for this blog and for life, in general. But, gradually, through a number of different avenues, the assurance that I was in the right place doing the right thing faded away and I was left with a lot of question marks.

It all came to a head one day last week. And, frankly, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. Thoughts poured into my head of my inadequacy, my countless flaws, my unfitness for ministry, my lack of wisdom, my selfishness, etc. If I am honest, I was a little frustrated that God had made me the way He did.

And I started to spiral down into a very dark place.

And then God turned the light on.

And I remembered something just in time:

Self-pity is just another way Satan gets us to focus on ourselves.

Did you notice all of those thoughts that poured into my head started with “my”??

When we esteem ourselves highly we are self-focused and everything that happens is about us. Whether we take self-esteem in the arrogant, prideful direction or we take off in the self-pity, woe-is-me direction, both lead us to a place of self-absorption and away from God.

How important it is that we take our eyes off of ourselves. If we aren’t careful, we can allow circumstances to lead us down one of these paths. Whether it’s the praise and glory of men or it’s their criticism and ridicule, both have the potential to lead us into this trap. We must take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), stay diligent in prayer and reading the Word, and then choose to live with great intention in order to avoid these traps and stay on the right path.

We can take great comfort from Paul’s words to the Philippians in chapter 3–

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (vs 12-14)

In these verses we read that we will never attain perfection. It is here we learn that we must press on amidst the praise and the criticism. We must keep reaching forward and pressing toward the goal. This takes intention and perseverance. It takes single-mindedness. There is no time for pouting or self-pity. These are mammoth wastes of time. As are boasting and arrogance. Both sides of self-esteem are danger zones for Christians.

So be on your guard, my friends, and don’t follow my example. Don’t spend even a second in the trap that I landed in last week. We must take our eyes off of ourselves and rest them confidently on Jesus. I conclude with these encouraging words from the author of Hebrews–

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Disregarded Sins

8 Comments / February 28, 2019 February 28, 2019

The other day my phone screen went black. I could hear the texts coming in but I couldn’t see them. I fooled with the buttons but nothing I did was successful in giving me back my screen. In my thoughts, I started to complain. What in the world? Why now? Normally, I will tell someone where I am going, but not this time. If I didn’t answer texts, my family might worry. Thankfully, there was an AT&T store nearby so I stopped in there, borrowed the phone of a nice man to call my husband and let him know what was going on, and spent an hour (or more) trying to figure out how to solve my problem.

Somewhere during that hour, while I was waiting for the AT&T representative to return from the back of the store, I realized what a ridiculously unimportant, first-world problem I was having. Really? I am going to complain (in my head, mind you) about such a thing? What is wrong with me?

But we do it so easily, don’t we? We literally complain about everything. Or am I alone in this?

Every time I read Numbers 11, I am struck by God’s lack of tolerance with complaining. Go ahead and look it up. It is incredibly sobering. God hates complaining. It is a vile sin and strikes at the very heart of His sovereignty in our lives. Any complaint-no matter how big or small–is a way to let God know that we are not happy with our lot in life. We are in essence letting Him know that we don’t think He is doing a good job and that, at this particular moment in life, we really don’t trust Him.

We don’t normally think of complaining like this. We view it much more casually than it really is.

Philippians 2:14 lets us know that God’s hatred of complaining continues on into the church age–

Do all things without complaining and disputing.

All things. When our phone dies. When it rains for our summer picnic. When we get sick. When our arm hurts. When someone disappoints us. When we are betrayed. When something really bad happens. We are supposed to live all of life without complaining. That is a really tall order in a complaint-drenched society.

Complaining can become almost habitual if we aren’t careful. It can even be the main gist of the conversation when we hang with friends or family. It can become a way of life.

But perhaps it is time to change. God hates it. This is reason enough to break ourselves of the habit.

As if that isn’t enough, in the next chapter, Numbers 12, we go on to read about the sins of gossip and envy.

Numbers 12:1-2 puts it like this–

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. ²So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it.

The Lord becomes so angry about this that He strikes Miriam with leprosy!

Was He more angry about the envy than the gossip? We can’t really know, but we do know that both are sins that are very serious in God’s eyes.

We read about gossip in Proverbs 16:28: A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends.

And envy is one of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:17): You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

Both are considered sin in the Lord’s eyes. And for that Miriam paid dearly.

But in this age of grace, we are not often struck down for complaining or for gossiping or for holding envy in our heart towards someone. Does this mean it is any less grievous to God than it was in the Old Testament? Has the age of grace changed how God views sin?

Most certainly not.

And it’s these sins we view as small and inconsequential that can be the most damaging to those of us who truly desire to live a life pleasing to the Lord.

While we feel pretty good about ourselves for avoiding the big, obvious sins, these other sins sneak in unobtrusively through the cracks in our spiritual armor and before we know it, they have taken up permanent residence in our souls.

Has any of these sins made themselves comfortable in your Christian life today? I know I had to really do a heart and mind check after reading these two chapters.

If God hates these things so much, why do we treat them so casually?

After awhile, we can get discouraged. When we realize some of the sins that have become a part of the fabric of our lives, we can be frustrated or overwhelmed. I don’t believe this is what God intends.

We know He uses the Word to convict and correct us (2 Timothy 3:16) and we know that we are foolish to read the Word and then to remain unchanged (James 1:22-25). And so, as God shows us the sin in our lives, we should thank Him and then begin to intentionally eradicate (or at least greatly lessen!) that particular sin in our lives.

And here’s the wonderful thing–not only will we please God but we will reap the wonderful benefits personally. Curtailing sin has a way of doing that.

If we aren’t complaining all the time, it is much easier to be grateful. And when we are grateful, we are much more content. And when we are more content we are just naturally happier. See how this works?

When we make pleasing God our main priority, He naturally takes care of our peace and happiness. It’s an amazing thing. God’s plan for us is right and good. He is not a mean ogre in the sky making demands (as some people would think). He is a gentle and loving God who wants and knows what is best for us. And it is best for us to not complain, to not gossip, and to not be envious.

But, most importantly, it is best for Him and His glory. What kind of testimony are we if we have these sins in our lives?

When Christians gossip? Envy? Complain? What kind of impression is the world getting?

I’ll tell you: They are thinking “these Christians are just like us.” And, rightly so–because it’s true.

We can remove all kinds of worldly things in our lives but if we are complaining, if we are gossiping, if we are filled with envy–well, we are still very worldly. And we are a discredit to our Lord and Savior.

I say all this to myself, too. It is convicting to think about, is it not? And these sins sneak in so subtly, don’t they? May we never let our guards down.

I thank the Lord for His Word and I thank the Lord that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can change. It is never too late!

Let’s begin that change today.

The Common Denominators

4 Comments / February 25, 2019 February 25, 2019

What are the commonalities that all false religions share? If we understand these things, it will help us to easily determine if anyone’s religion is true or false–even those that would use the vernacular of scripture (God, Christ, etc.) It is important to remember that using the name of Jesus does not give any religion a free pass. Oftentimes–in fact, most times–they are not talking about the Jesus of the Bible.

My husband is currently teaching a series on world religions in our Sunday School class at church. He gives the history and then shows us how they differ from what the Bible teaches. Personally, I am finding it extremely helpful. I never really knew what these religions believe or how far off they were from scripture.

Today he talked about Jehovah’s Witnesses and something really struck me. Let me give a bit of background first: The founder of the J.W. religion, Charles Taze Russell, just decided–as an 18 year old–that he didn’t care for what the Bible said and so he decided to just make up a religion of his own. Using verses out of context and twisting them all round, he came up with what would become one of the main cults of this current age, impacting at least 255 different countries across the world.

One of the things he didn’t like from the Bible was its teaching that men who rejected Christ would go to hell. And so he just changed it. In his religion there is no hell.

And this is what struck me: All false religions create a god of their own making and to their own taste.

As I thought on this further, I realized that they have more than that in common. Let’s take a look at four of these commonalities–

First, and foremost, they rely on works. A false religion always, always, always teaches that one must do something in order to attain heaven. Oh, some will say that it’s grace plus works (such as Catholicism and Mormonism) but there are always works involved. Whether it’s the meditation of the Buddhist or the idol worship of the Hindu or the five daily prayers of the Muslim or the praying to Mary or the Saints of the Catholics or the required door-to-door witnessing of the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses (just to mention a very few of the many, required works of these false religions)–all false religions require works. One cannot possibly be saved without them.

In contrast, consider the wonderful news of scripture! Ephesians 2:8-9 could not make it any clearer–

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not of works, lest anyone should boast.

It is through faith in Christ alone that we are saved by God’s grace alone. No works. Nothing we can do. It is a free gift. Christianity is the only true religion and we can know this because it is the only religion where God reaches down and saves us of His own accord.

Prideful man can hardly fathom that he is so sinful that there is nothing he can do to reach God. And so he strives and works and wrongly thinks he’s looking pretty good in God’s eyes–when all he would have to do is simply repent and accept God’s gift.

Secondly, false religions turn to human wisdom and create a God of their own making. Instead of turning to the reliable Word of God, they turn to their own thoughts, visions, dreams, and minds to create and develop their own religion. Search the roots of any false religion anywhere and you will find a man who one day decided that he knew more about God than anyone else. A prideful man who thought he knew the truth.

This is one of the main reasons I just love the Word of God. Our faith is based on the Word, not on any man. The Bible was written by many men as the Holy Spirit directed them (2 Peter 1:21). And yet, even with so many different human authors, by God’s miraculous plan, this one book, upon its completion, was consistent and cohesive in every way. A never-changing guide for believers throughout all the ages. We can rest confidently on its truths and doctrines. God has given us His truth within its pages. He is King of the universe and it is our duty to obey. It is outright rebellion to determine that we don’t like this doctrine or that one. We are simply his subjects. All people are–whether they want to admit it or not.

Of course, in a culture obsessed with independence, most people are not going to bow to anyone–even God. No one is going to tell them what they can and cannot do or where they can and cannot go. And, so along with the outright rebellion of the world, we also have those who claim to be Christians changing and twisting long-held doctrines of the scripture. It’s under the umbrella of “evangelicalism” that we now hear of major doctrines being changed to cater to “felt needs”. Perhaps these changes are also being made to cater to the evil world we live in rather than bear the brunt of their hatred, should we disagree.

Thirdly, false religions always by-pass, minimize, or ignore the cross. The Bible teaches us that our salvation come through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. There is no salvation without His sacrifice. There is no other way for us to be reconciled to God (I Timothy 2:5). But false religions make very little of the cross. Some bypass it completely and change who Jesus was. They say He was a prophet or a wise teacher. Others will give lip service to the cross but the thrust of the religion is in works. Jesus isn’t enough. When you want to see if a religion is false, look at the place of the cross.

This is one of the ways we can know that the current false religion that goes by the name of “Christianity” is a false religion. They have completely minimized the cross and the Word of God (more on that below) in favor of mystical experiences. It is based on feelings instead of facts; on personal experiences instead of actual reality; on relativity instead of absolute truth.

Fourthly, false religions always by-pass, twist, or minimize the Bible. Since the inception of biblical Christianity (the book of Acts is the beginning) the focus of this true religion has been on the Word of God. As mentioned above, we will find all we need for life there (2 Timothy 3:16). The Word is living and powerful and a discerner of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12). It is there we read about God’s plan for man’s salvation (John 3:16). Without it, we are powerless creatures vulnerable to any direction a false religious leader may take us.

This is why you will find that all false religions either bypass the Bible altogether (such as Buddhism and Hinduism), override its doctrines by providing sacred documents of their own (such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses), or minimize scripture by teaching its followers that they cannot and should not read the scriptures for themselves (such as Catholics and Amish).

This last one is so critical. This is because, while a false religion that looks fairly close to Christianity can still fool us on the first three for a little while, this fourth one becomes clear immediately. Whenever the focus is taken off of the Word or the Word is taken out of context to meet some speaker or author’s agenda, our “antenna” should immediately go up. This is usually the first area of compromise.

We have seen this in the mainstream church over the past several years. Does the Bible really teach ______________? We don’t like that so let’s remove it. We need a new “interpretation” for a more advanced culture so let’s change _________________. Pulling verses out of context, we hear the false message that God wants you to be healthy and rich.

Over and over we are seeing this. So if you want to know if someone is caught up in a false religion (even if it is called “Christianity”) look here first. What is the place of the Word in their lives? What is its place in their church? In the books they are reading? I can almost guarantee you that its place will be minimal–if it has any place at all.

I hope that this post will help you be able to spot a false religion more easily. It really is pretty easy to discern if we look at these four things. What is not easy at all is reconciling ourselves to the truth that people we love may be caught up in these false religions. That’s the hard part.

Know and study the Word as you stand for Christ and a true biblical faith. Don’t ignore or back down, but lovingly show others how their false religion doesn’t line up with scripture as God gives opportunities. This is how we plant seeds of truth.

While most of those seeds will fall on hard hearts, a few of them will grow. We may not realize it until we reach heaven–but a few of those tenderly planted seeds will grow.

What I Learned from Jury Duty

10 Comments / February 11, 2019 February 11, 2019

A few months ago I got the letter. I was called to serve the county as a juror by showing up at the Courthouse at 8:15am on Monday, February 4, 2019.

I sighed. Jury duty is such an unknown. Will it be for one day or will it be for two weeks? It had been quite a few years since I had been called and my memory was not serving me well. I really didn’t know what to expect.

But whatever I did expect was nothing like what actually happened–to say the least. But we will get to that.

A month or so after that first letter, I received another letter. “You do not need to come for jury duty until Thursday, February 7, 2019.” I was so excited. I didn’t know why they changed it, but that meant I got half of my week back. I thanked the Lord and prepared to go on Thursday.

Going into a room of strangers and having to come to a consensus on a decision with them is not my idea of a fun time so I really wasn’t looking all that forward to this. But Thursday came and off I went to the County Courthouse to do my civic duty.

Here are a few things I learned that day–

1. I can live without my cell phone for a whole day. The first thing I saw when I arrived was a sign that said “Absolutely no cell phones on Floor___”. Ughhh. Now the day was going to be realllly long. I traipsed back to the car and said good-bye to my connection to the outside world.

After it was all over I realized that, not only did I survive a whole day without my cell phone, but I actually kind of enjoyed it. There is something extremely freeing about being without it. I do appreciate my phone and the communication it allows me with family and friends near and far, but to take a break for an hour or two or eight is definitely not a bad thing. It is truly amazing how your concentration level deepens without that thing calling your name all the time.

As I headed back to enter the building, I ended up behind two twenty-something girls yacking away. They lead me to my second lesson…

2. Give yourself plenty of time. I thought I had left in plenty of time (and I did) but I did not plan on a) having to park so far away, b) having to walk back to the car parked so far away to put my phone in it and then walk back to the building or c) having two girls ahead of me that took–literally–5-7 minutes (or more?) to get through the security at the Courthouse.

There were two rather elderly people manning the security and, although friendly enough, they moved about as fast as molasses in the winter. They pulled things out of purses, requested the girls remove their cigarettes from their jacket pockets and a few other various items; unhurriedly putting some of the unapproved items in plastic bags and tagging them for pick-up on their way out. It felt like an eternity. At this point, I am noticing that I am the only one in line behind them. All the other jurors must already be in place. I had no clock but I knew time was ticking away. When I finally rushed upstairs, I found my room and hesitantly entered, expecting to be greatly frowned upon for my tardiness. It was then that I learned another lesson…

3. Friendliness goes a very, very long way in setting people at ease. I walked in the door to receive a big smile from the lady there. “Hello, can I have your name?” She kindly joked and made conversation with all of us sitting there so stiffly and, in so doing, washed away a great deal of the nervousness most of us were experiencing. I knew the importance of friendliness before that day but it was a definite reminder that this goes a long way to make people feel at ease and cared about.

And, as believers, who should be more kind, thoughtful, and generous than we? It always greatly pains me to hear that so many in the world view Christians as unfriendly, stingy, and mean because of how some Christians act. How tragic! Today, let’s determine to be friendly to that mom in the store with the screaming toddler or to the grumpy store clerk. Let’s be extra-kind to the irritating co-worker or the mean neighbor. Let’s give a decent tip to that waitress who works hard for a low wage, depending on tips to make a decent living. And–perhaps the hardest thing of all–let’s treat our families with kindness and courtesy. Let’s not be one thing when we are out and another when we are at home. A real challenge, for sure, and one I am sure we all need to work on, but so very important. But I digress…

Anyway–

As we all sat there, the judge came in and told us that we would be serving as jury on a civil trial and it was a bit different than normal. Along with this information, he assured us that we would only be there for one day. I thanked the Lord right there and then (silently, of course!) I was just so relieved. And then the judge started asking a few questions. Does anyone know anyone related to the case? Did they ever hear of this case? A few raised their hands and were excused to leave. That left twenty of us. We walked into the courtroom to take some questions from the lawyers. After they had asked us questions, a few more were excused to leave. That left fourteen. At that point, the judge asked us if any of us would like to be excused due to personal convenience or schedule. (I mean..yeah…I wanted to go home, but I didn’t really have a pressing reason…) None of us raised our hands. “Okay, then we will just have fourteen on this jury. Let’s just pull up two more chairs.” Uhhhh….what..??

Which leads me to my next lesson…

4. When your mind raises a question it is probably for a reason. It was around this time that my mind started to turn. Either things had drastically changed since I was here the last time or there was something unusual about this case. It just didn’t seem quite right. I think this is often how God gets our attention about a false teacher or teaching. Our mind raises a question but we squish it down. Instead of researching and looking for the truth, we just ignore it and hope it will go away. Unfortunately, those questions often do go away, and in that process, our discernment muscle becomes weak and useless.

Okay, so back to the story…

Without giving too many details, the case was one where all fourteen of us had to come up with a single amount of money to award the plaintiff.

We spent the entire morning listening to both sides and then it was lunchtime. They brought us subs which we ate in the actual courtroom while we deliberated and tried to come to an agreement. We had about an hour and ten minutes to agree on an amount. Thankfully, in civil cases, you only need a majority. We needed 12 of us to agree. Doesn’t seem too terribly hard, right? Which leads me to my next lesson…

5. Every single person is remarkably different with greatly varying life experiences. Again–I knew this. Very well. But I was reminded of this as recommendations were hundreds of thousand dollars apart and consisted of everything in between. That was because everyone came at it from different perspectives. We finally were able to get nine of us to agree. But there were five more who wouldn’t budge. They felt very strongly and they refused to move even an inch. I started to realize that we would probably be there for most of the day and great frustration started to settle into my heart. It was just about that time I learned another lesson…

6. Just when you are ready to give up hope, there is light. Oh, this doesn’t always happen, of course, but, eventually, there is a little light or a silver lining or a bright spot that helps carry us on in a hard time. In this particular case, just when we were ready to throw our hands up in despair at ever agreeing, the judge came in and told us we don’t have all day (?? Another indication that this was not a normal trial!) and that we should all fill out these little pieces of paper with our juror number and the amount we thought should be given. I wrote down what I truly believed was the right thing to write down and I thought that was that…

However, I had one more important lesson to learn…

7. Be ready to defend your answer. Would I have written down the same answer if I knew I was going to have to give my reasons for writing it? I think I would have because I believed it to be the best answer, but I would have definitely thought twice.

But let me back up for a moment. We filled out our little papers and went back to our seats in the jury box. Those involved in the case gathered back into the courtroom. And then the judge proceeded to read each juror number and their answer.

It was around that time that the judge finally filled us in on what was going on. It was a new-ish thing to do–at least in our county–and had only been done a few times before. I am not sure of the real title of it, but it was like a “mediation trial.” They had gathered a jury to hear the case and to give their opinions, in order to give both sides a “reality check”, as the judge called it.

It is actually a fantastic idea. Instead of taking three to five days to listen to testimonies of doctors, police officers, and others involved (along with wasting hours of time and thousands of dollars) we listened to one testimony and saw two PowerPoint presentations. From this we made our decisions and these decisions were read by the judge. He was going to then take both parties, now that they had heard realistic settlement amounts, and try to come to some kind of settlement with them. It was a rather old case and I think all parties involved were ready to wrap it up.

After he had explained this to us, he did something else very unusual. He allowed the lawyers to ask the jurors questions. He even asked us one or two himself. It was completely unexpected but also very interesting. It was at this time that I was asked why I had written the specific amount that I had. I had to explain why I had written what I had written. I did feel like I gave a decent answer and I do hope they found it helpful.

But this made me think of how often we say or do things without being able or ready to give a defense. Especially as believers we should be able to take people to the Word and explain. It reminds me of I Peter 3:15–

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Yes! I was caught off-guard and had to defend my answer. So, too, we may be caught off-guard as believers. It is so very important that we know why we believe what we believe, so that we are ready to give an answer at all times.

And, there you have it. An unusual day in the life of me. Thankfully, before we were excused the judge told us that this did count as official jury duty and we wouldn’t be called for another three years. Whew!

When God Doesn’t Say Yes

14 Comments / February 4, 2019 February 4, 2019

Do you think God is playing favorites when He heals some people and not others? Do you believe that you are somehow inferior spiritually if His answer to you isn’t yes?

While you might say confidently that you don’t believe that, I am afraid that sometimes we lean towards believing like this without really thinking about it. We feel forgotten and neglected and we think that somehow we did something wrong to bring on special punishment from God.

But this just isn’t true. While we do sometimes reap the consequences of sinful choices, not all bad things that happen to us or those we love have to do with our sin or lack of faith. And when God gives an answer to prayer that we don’t like it doesn’t mean He is mad at us. How can I be sure of this? Because the Bible tells me so.

If we take a walk through scripture, we pretty quickly see that many godly men and women were afflicted by many sore trials and tribulations. We all are familiar with Job, who went through terrible afflictions for reasons unknown to him at the time. We read of Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, who suffered with infertility and then died during the birth of her second son. We know about Ruth, who lost her husband and traveled with her mother-in-law to a foreign land, leaving behind everything she has ever known.

We read of Daniel and his friends, who were uprooted from their lives and taken on a pagan King’s order to live in his court. There they experienced many temptations and trials. God did not remove the trials, but walked through the trials with them.

We read of Jeremiah, who was God’s special prophet to the people of Israel and yet they hated him. They hated him so much they sought to attack him (Jeremiah 18:18) and put him to death (Jeremiah 26:24). He was speaking for God and was persecuted unmercifully.

As we move to the New Testament, we find countless more examples of godly people who endured terrible trials. All of Jesus’s disciples except John were martyred for their faith. John himself was exiled to the island of Patmos, to live out the rest of his days far from his beloved home and family. Paul suffered many great things before finally being martyred by the evil Roman emperor Nero. (Read more about the apostles here).

I’ve only mentioned a few from scripture. There is not enough room here to mention every person in the Bible who suffered miserable trials and violent deaths. So why did God allow so much heartache and pain in the lives of those who were sincerely seeking to follow Him? Was He angry at them? Did He want to punish them? Or did He have other reasons?

The answer, of course, is yes, there are other reasons and no, God isn’t mad at us. I believe this biblical answer is two-fold–

First, God is God and will do as He pleases for His glory and His purposes. We grow proud and insist that we must understand the “why”. If we can’t see how it is all working together then we assume it must all be pointless and cruel.

But Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that God’s ways are higher than our ways–

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Deuteronomy 29:29 also puts us back into our place as loyal subject and servant to the Great and Almighty King of the Universe–

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

God is God. We are His to do with as He chooses for His own purposes. We can submit or we can rebel. But it doesn’t change the fact that He is the King of all Creation. And He uses many things to accomplish His purposes, including disease, death, and tragedy.

Second, if we are saved, this world is not our home. As believers we recognize that we are simply pilgrims in a foreign land. We are weary travelers that have much to look forward to. Our best life isn’t now but is still to come! Hebrews 11:13-16 reminds us of this so beautifully–

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. ¹⁵And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Notice the first sentence of these verses: These all died in faith. Every one of them died, just as every one of us will, as well. We are born to die. It is life in this fallen world. But those of us who have faith, have a very different future ahead of us. For we have defeated death! (I Corinthians 15:55-57) And we desire a better, heavenly country.

When we turn our focus to our eternal perspective, it changes how we view temporal trials. Oh, it doesn’t take the hurt away but it is a comfort. Our trials are temporary and serve a greater purpose–one that we cannot always see or understand. And we realize that the entirety of our life here on earth–all of the joy, the pain, the pleasure, the sorrow–is but a moment in our eternity.

From studying the scriptures we recognize that trials are a part of life. All lives. And that a godly person is not released from them simply because they follow Christ. But we also can see in His Word that God hasn’t left us without hope. He walks with us through the trial, giving us abundant grace and bountiful mercy.

Sometimes we ask for the storm to calm or the trial to cease but God chooses to say no. This doesn’t mean He has deserted us or is angry with us. Instead, we can confidently know that He has a higher purpose and we can be assured that He will walk with us every step of the way.

So why do some people still insist that when God tells you NO you must be a weak Christian?

Nothing in scripture would indicate this anywhere. So we have to assume they are getting this vain philosophy from the teachings of man.

And, actually, we don’t have to dig very long before finding it. A quick google search revealed several sites run by familiar names and ministries that insist that it is God’s will to physically heal all sick Christians, while deplorably mangling God’s Word in their attempts to back up their premise. This is a blatant falsehood that is slithering its way even into the evangelical church. It is most disturbing because it is NOT TRUE!

We know from God’s Word that we will have trials, we know from His Word that we will get sick and die, we know that we will be persecuted–sometimes unto death. We live in a fallen world. Evil abounds. And all of us, at one time or another, will feel the sting of pain and death. It cannot be avoided–no matter how much a false teacher promises that it can.

I just want to conclude by encouraging you to stay in the Word. There are so many false teachers out there and if we listen to them we can grow quickly discouraged. Is it not incredibly disillusioning to believe that we will be healed if we have enough faith–and then not experience healing? How many seedling faiths has Satan destroyed by this devilish movement?

Know the Word. Know the Word. Know the Word.

By doing so, we can quickly identify that healing is not always granted. We understand immediately that Christians aren’t promised to be free of trials. (In fact, if anything, they are promised extra trials and persecution for following Jesus. John 15:20). And it’s only through knowing the Word that we can recognize if what is being said to us is twisted, out of context, and inconsistent with the rest of scripture. It truly is our only protection.

And so what does scripture have to say about my initial questions? Is God playing favorites when He heals some and not others? We know without a shadow of a doubt that the answer is NO. And are you spiritually inferior if God says NO to your prayer for healing or relief from a trial? And, of course, we can answer that with a rousing NO, as well.

We can rest assured that God deeply loves us and holds us in His hand–no matter how He chooses to answer our prayers. I will end with these very encouraging verses from Psalm 37:3-4–

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
²⁴Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

When God Opens Our Eyes

4 Comments / January 28, 2019 January 28, 2019

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to Florida with a couple of my dear friends. It was planned before I knew I was headed back to work and, at first, I stewed a bit. Could I really afford to give up five days to vacation in Florida? And then I realized that God was well aware of what my situation would be and perhaps He thought I needed a bit of down-time before jumping from one busy season to the next. I decided to just enjoy it.

Before I left I realized my favorite shampoo was running low. Thankfully, I thought of it while I was at the grocery store and I hurriedly grabbed a bottle from the shelf while shopping a day or two before. I took it home and squeezed a bunch of it into an emptied travel shampoo bottle to tuck into my carry-on. The bottle still had a little water in it from trying to rinse out the previous shampoo so I wasn’t sure if that would mess up the shampoo or not. I wasn’t too worried.

The first morning, as I began to wash my hair in the shower a bunch of water came out of the bottle. Oops. As I took the rather gloppy shampoo and rubbed it a bit in my hands it didn’t feel quite right. As I rubbed it through my hair it was even more weird. Would a little water make that much difference?? I didn’t think so. But, of course, I was using unfamiliar water, as well. Maybe it was harder…or softer…or just different than what I was used to. My hair was notoriously flat and lifeless that day and every day of that vacation because of this weird shampoo experience.

It wasn’t until the final day that it FINALLY hit me!

Like a lightening bolt, it hit me.

As I rubbed that lifeless, watery formula through my hair for the last day, my eyes were suddenly opened. This wasn’t shampoo at all. It was conditioner.

How could I have been so stupid not to realize it before? I still couldn’t confirm it but the more I thought about it the more certain I was that this must be the problem.

When I got home, I pulled the “shampoo” bottle from the shower. Sure enough. The company that manufactures it uses the exact same bottle for shampoo and for conditioner and I had carelessly pulled one from the shelf, never checking to make sure it was actually shampoo.

Now besides feeling really stupid, I felt…well…enlightened.

I finally had solved the puzzle.

And that was a good thing.

And–you know by now–I can’t let such a good analogy pass me by without talking about it here. Even if it does let the whole world know my rather embarrassing story.

Because I think this happens to us. We are listening to our favorite preachers. Reading the books of our favorite authors. Following our favorite celebrity speakers on social media. Perhaps we are in the habit of doing a favorite activity that we’ve never thought about being wrong before. But then something doesn’t seem right. Red flags are raised but we can’t quite put our finger on it. And then God opens our eyes. Through His Word, through a concerned fellow believer, or any other number of ways and, suddenly, we realize and we connect the dots.

What we do at that point is critical. If I had continued to use that conditioner even though my eyes were opened to the truth of the situation, you would have wondered about my intellectual capacity (you may already be wondering that, anyway, given my admission above!) Of course–like anyone else would–I stopped using conditioner and started using shampoo.

And, yet, do we respond this same way when it comes to spiritual things? Do we stop listening, reading, following the wrong things and very intentionally fill our minds with the right things? Do we stop doing something that we know is wrong even though we love to do it? Do we then replace these things with things that are true, righteous, and good, as we evaluate them according to God’s Word? It’s easy to make excuses. There are plenty of ways to rationalize why we can continue to follow someone or continue on in an activity that we know is unpleasing to the Lord.

Now, of course, I would never rationalize using conditioner for the rest of my life.

But we all know why. Conditioner made my hair lifeless and dull. I never use it. Ever. And so the consequences of using conditioner were not pleasant for me.

So no big deal to switch. My life is much more pleasant using shampoo than using conditioner.

And there is probably the real difference. What some of these false and/or compromising teachers teach makes our lives seemingly more happy. What they bring us is attractive to us, if we are living only in the temporal and not considering the eternal. They offer us popularity; pleasing philosophies; encouraging, uplifting (and extremely self-centered) messages. They allow us to have our cake and eat it, too. No turning from the world, no self-denial, no concern for turning from sin. These things matter not as long as we are happy.

And our entertainment and activities make our lives more fun. We look less weird and we are more popular if we just watch, wear, and do what everyone else does.

It is incredibly hard to turn away from teachers and activities that would seem to make our lives more pleasant and enjoyable. It truly is.

But, of course, the question to ourselves should never be: “Is this too hard for me?”

But should always be: “Is this the right thing for me to do?”

We sometimes get a little mixed up about which question to ask. Especially in this self-obsessed world.

And so I encourage you to follow through. If the Lord has been opening your eyes, submit yourself to the pain, acknowledge the hurt, and then turn away and move on. It will be a very real hurt if you choose to turn away from someone you have trusted to teach you the truth. It will be a real hardship to give up an activity that has bonded you to people you love to be with. Yes, it will be a very painful process. But, in the long run, you will be so thankful you did. Just like pouring alcohol on a wound stings dreadfully when it provides a necessary cleansing, so, too, does ridding ourselves of false teachers and ungodly activities.

But when God opens our eyes, He has given us an amazing opportunity. We need to grab hold of it and take it!

What Does the Bible Say About…(Prayer)?

10 Comments / January 24, 2019 January 24, 2019

Prayer is one of those subjects that can be a little daunting. We know we should pray. We really do want to pray. But, if we are honest, it is downright hard for many of us to make time for prayer without distractions. Oh, we will pray throughout the day (and what a privilege this is!) but to actually pray for any length of time in any consistent manner can be a real challenge. It is so easy to talk about but not-so-easy to put into practice.

The other thing about prayer is that Satan has attempted to hi-jack it for his purposes, invading and deceiving many in the church with a new type of prayer that is never mentioned or supported in scripture. It is called Contemplative Prayer and you can read more about it here and here if you desire to be aware and knowledgeable about this great danger.

Whenever Satan hi-jacks something good it tends to make us biblical Christians nervous whenever the subject is brought up. And we are always wondering: How do we know if what we are being taught about prayer is actually from the Bible? This is a wise and valid question to ask. We are told to test all things (I Thessalonians 5:21).

This week my Bible Study lesson was on prayer. As I worked to prepare for this lesson, I decided to see if Pastor Dean had any sermons specifically on prayer. I was delighted to find that he had actually, in preaching through Matthew some years back, preached on each section of the Lord’s prayer, which is found in Matthew 6:9-13. He also has four introductory sermons on prayer based on Matthew 6:1-7.

As I was listening the other day, it dawned on me that some of you may appreciate these biblical (and very helpful!) sermons on prayer, as well, and so I decided to put them all here in this one place.

I feel sure these sermons will not only teach and remind you of just how our Lord Jesus commanded us to pray but that they will also give you a new and fresh vigor for your prayer life.

How Not to Pray (Matthew 6:1-7)

Praying Like a Hypocrite (Part 1)

Praying Like a Hypocrite (Part 2)

Praying Like a Heathen

Overview (Matthew 6:9-13)

The Pattern of Prayer

An In-Depth Look at the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

The One to Whom We Pray (Part 1)

The One to Whom We Pray (Part 2)

A Disturbing Trend

13 Comments / January 21, 2019 January 21, 2019

I have been noticing something recently. It’s quite worrisome and I wanted to bring it to your attention.

The Christian world is currently broken down into three categories of people:

1) Those who believe discernment and speaking anything negative about someone (even if it is true and necessary) is evil.

(I am still unsure of where someone finds this viewpoint in scripture? And, yet, so many Christians believe this. Read more about this here.)

2) Those who try to stay balanced–practicing and encouraging discernment while not making it their life’s mission.

(This is where I try to stay because discernment is truly just one part of a healthy Christian life. Although, I have to admit that this can be a challenge when you recognize all that is going on to draw people away from the only true God.)

3) And those who are extremely passionate about discernment and see it as their ministry.

(This is where people can become a little and sometimes a LOT unbalanced if they aren’t very careful.)

But in this third circle, where we find some really good discernment bloggers, I have been noticing a trend. Not with all of them but with some of them.

And it is this: Their refusal to write about certain leaders and authors.

It has been an interesting thing to watch– to say the least. While they will easily (and rightly) give a biblical critique of someone like Beth Moore, Joel Osteen, or Bill Johnson, they say nothing about what’s going on in the Southern Baptist circles with Al Mohler, Russell Moore, J.D. Greear, and others as they change their views on homosexuality and promote the “woke” movement or any of the many other things going on in that circle. Nothing.

Thankfully, there are still a few brave souls who will speak up. But this group is quickly shrinking.

Now, in some ways I get it. To do so would, in a very real way, be to commit blogging suicide.

Many of these bloggers have the ears of certain popular folk that reside in the reformed and/or Baptist circles. And these certain popular folk not only also refuse to speak up about what’s going on but, in fact, join with these men at conferences, on radio shows, and in many other ways.

So to speak up against them would be to, most likely, lose your {relatively small} bit of fame, your preferred “discernment blogger” status, and the support of those who refuse to break with men who are headed pell-mell in the wrong direction.

While these bloggers refuse to say anything, some of them then proceed to tweet unkind words about those that do, indeed, have the fortitude to stand up and speak out. I have seen it and it is just…so wrong.

I don’t really have an answer. I just wanted to go on record saying that I see this happening and it is beyond disturbing and most disheartening.

And I wanted to make you, my small circle of readers, aware of this, as well, so that you can be on the look-out for this, too. It is amazing what someone can say by silence.

And, once again, I just encourage you to not hold any person up as your idol. No matter how they helped you grow or helped you see, they do not deserve your undying loyalty.

All of us are sinners that are still fighting with the flesh. All of us fight the desire to be popular and liked and praised. And, as bloggers, this desire can and often does drive what we choose to post or to not post. Blogging for the Lord and His glory alone is not as easy as you might think.

So I’d really encourage you to not rely on just one or two people for the whole story these days. Just as we diversify our assets in financial planning, so we should diversify our sources when it comes to this topic of discernment.

I know this is not a biblical post, per se, but I just felt this needed to be said. Hope it helps. I’ll get back to my normal type of post next time. Thanks for reading.

Test all things; hold fast what is good. (I Thessalonians 5:21)

Running Ahead of God

6 Comments / January 14, 2019 January 14, 2019

Have you ever faced something that looked utterly unfixable but you just had to fix it? You didn’t know how but you just knew you had to try and do something. And so you come up with all kinds of ideas. You might think of these ideas while you are driving or while you lay in bed at night. Always thinking about how to fix a hopeless situation that so desperately needs to be fixed.

I wonder if Sarah did that, too? Did she lie awake at night wondering if she could help God fix the situation that she and her husband, Abraham, found themselves in? She knew that God had promised land to Abram’s descendants (Genesis 15:18) and yet they didn’t even have any children. That, combined with the fact that she was really old and past child-bearing years, probably caused her much consternation.

I wonder if she fussed and stewed and worried about this seemingly unfixable situation? I wonder if she lost sleep over this?

However she faced this insurmountable problem, she ended up doing what most of us do .

She tried to fix it herself (Genesis 16:1-4). She gave her maid to her husband so that she could have children for her. From our perspective this seems extremely strange. But to Sarah this seemed a very sensible way to fix a very dire situation.

Before we become too critical of her, think about yourself for just a moment. Haven’t you done the same? Oh, it may not have been a situation such as hers that had such far-reaching consequences, but, seriously, haven’t you ever tried to jump ahead of the Lord and fix something?

I know I have. I used to think I could fix situations by talking. God has since shown me that this is unlikely. And that if I am going to talk or discuss I need to wait on His timing instead of jumping ahead and making things worse. Not that I’ve mastered this, by any means. I still run ahead of God occasionally–especially with my family. And it still almost always makes things worse.

There are so many ways we try to run ahead of God instead of waiting. And praying.

Sometimes we do need to bravely and courageously stand up and take a step forward or have a hard conversation. But, so often, we do this without prayer. So often we do this before we seek wise counsel.

History would be very different if Sarah had not run ahead of God and tried to fix her problem without His help. She literally changed the course of history.

Of course, God, in His Sovereignty, knew all of this would happen and His purposes were not thwarted. They can never be thwarted. This thought is a true comfort for all of us who have the tendency to try to fix things.

And another thing to consider here, as well, is that God uses these waiting periods and unresolved situations in our lives to grow us. Romans 8:28-29 tells us that God uses all things to transform us into the image of Christ. When we try to fix things, not only may we botch things up but we may lose out on a wonderful opportunity to grow in Christ-likeness.

The thing I have struggled with, particularly, when this subject comes up is this: I hate for circumstances to be unhappy. I long for my life to be filled with ease and comfort and happy thoughts, and–perhaps even more than for myself– I long for this for those I love, as well. And so this makes it especially tempting to try and fix things.

But, before we do anything, we should probably wait a bit, pray, and then seek wise counsel. Anything we do before that will probably, at best, be unproductive, and, at worst, make things so much worse than they already are.

So let’s leave our circumstances in God’s hands rather than trying to help Him fix things. He can take care of it and He will in His timing. And He will be faithful in letting us know when it is time for action. He does this by opening doors and giving us opportunities that could only come from Him. He does this through the counsel of those who have walked with Him for a very long time, making them not only older in the faith than us but but generally so much wiser than we are, as well. And He does this through orchestrating circumstances in such a way that leaves little doubt it is time for action.

Sarah tried to fix her situation and it made things so much worse. Let’s not jump ahead of God like she did.