August 2011

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Today’s post, written by my devo-writing partner and dear friend, Joanne Sher, challenges us to search deep in our hearts, past the superficial, laying all of us at the cleansing alter of Christ. Make sure to stop by her blog to leave an encouraging word and show your support.

Anything Hiding Behind Camouflage by Joanne Sher

We’re coming up to that time of year when it’s a good idea to watch yourself when you’re out in the woods–especially if you’re Bambi.

Firearm Deer Hunting Season will be starting in just a few months here in Michigan, and those hunters could be anywhere.

I’m not a hunter, as much as that may (or may not) surprise you. Nobody in my or my husband’s immediate family is either (that I know of, anyway). I don’t know that I quite get the fascination that folks have with heading out with their gun and shooting animals.

But camouflage I get (and if you’re curious, I JUST learned how to spell that word!). If you’re gonna be out among wildlife, you definitely do NOT want to be noticed. I’m not sure how smart deer are, but if I’d seen some strange two-legged creature walking through the forest with a stick and my deer friend suddenly fell to the ground beside me, I’d want to avoid those “two-legged creatures” from then on.

But if you are camouflaged (like this… um… handsome guy to the left, for example), the prey have no reason to fear–or at least they don’t think they do. The deer will put their guard down, and before they know it: bang bang, fall down, venison jerky.

This reminds me of the sin in our lives. Sometimes, it’s pretty obvious, and all we have to do is run the other way to avoid it.

But that isn’t always the case.

Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 11:14-15

Satan, and sin, is often difficult to distinguish from the day-to-day stuff we do, and even the things that are glorifying to God. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still wrong. Doing too much of a good thing can also be sin.

So, when things look fine, don’t let your guard down. Sin is out there, disguised as fun or “not so bad” or something else equally harmless-looking. Watch for the camouflage.

Joanne Sher is a Jew by birth, a Christian by rebirth, and a writer by gift. A native Southern Californian, she now lives happily in West Michigan with her husbad and two school-aged children.

Her first book, still seeking a home, explores God’s preparation, protection and provision through her husband’s serious health issues. She is also working on a biblical fiction set during King Saul’s reign and centered around the handmaiden of Saul’s daughter Michal.

She is also a blogger, not only at her own site,but at the FaithWriters blog, where she posts daily. She also posts monthly at Jewels of Encouragement, The Barn Door, and Internet Cafe Devotions.

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Today’s post comes from my dear friend, Jessica Patch. I visit her blog frequently, and always leave challenged and refreshed. Jessica lives in the mid-south where the heat rises much like her contemporary suspenseful romances. Her novels are relevant, provocative stories of inspiration. Readers will identify with characters that are flawed but redeemable. Using witty humor and unusual twists, she brings characters through trials and triumphs while drawing out biblical truths. Visit her blog to find out more about her and her writing.

Time For Deep-Cleaning by Jessica Patch

I’ve been watching the hoarding shows on TV the last couple of weeks.

The minute the show comes on, my jaw drops. It’s hard to imagine someone living like that. You could laugh or poke fun, even I’ve said a few sarcastic things, but the truth is, it’s rather tragic. One episode, they cleaned up the woman’s house, and six months later, it was even worse than before. In six months!

Another woman had hundreds of jars. Glass jars for soup. Plastic jars for paint. The therapist asked her why she kept them, and she said because she might want to make soup, and if she threw away the jars then she’d never make it. When asked, “Have you made soup?” She sniffed and wiped a few tears away. “No.”

These people are filling up their homes, their sanctuaries, with things they think they need, will use, or can’t part with. I’m not a hoarder. I throw everything away. My poor kids will have no tangible childhood memories. (Sadly, I’m not feelin’ real guilty here.)

But…

It made me think of little things we keep in our “sanctuaries” that we think we need or can’t part with. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 

1 Corinthians 6:19

In 1 Samuel Chapter 15, Saul spares King Agag’s life after being specifically instructed to “utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them…” (verse 3)

In verse 9, Saul kept everything that he thought was best and got rid of what he considered worthless. It cost him his kingdom.

I know in my life, there have been times God has asked me to clean house. I got rid of some things, but hoarded others. Like Saul. And I’ve paid a price. 

Matthew 12:43-45

 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

Cleaning out the mess that doesn’t belong isn’t enough. If left empty, it will just pile up again, more so. Just like the woman in the hoarding show.

I like the feeling of a clean house. But, I don’t like it empty. I want it filled with good things. My family, friends, and even my annoying dog. I want to burn my apple cinnamon candle, turn satellite radio on low, and listen to the laughter of a happy home. Put in order. And productive.

I want my inside the same the way. Filled with my family-God the Father, His Son the Bridegroom, and the Holy Sprit my Friend and Teacher. I want the warm glow from His light to shine softly, while His fragrance fills every chamber of my heart…drawing others to come in and cozy up. I want my inside to be a joyful, happy place. Put in order. And productive.

What do you want your inside home to look like?

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As I got ready for church this morning, Pandora radio blaring in my bedroom, this song brought me back, reminded me of all God’s done.

“When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me, how He filled me with the Holy Ghost,

how He healed me to the uttermost…”

Christ freed me.

He didn’t give me a band-aide but instead, reached deep inside me with His freeing, healing, life-transforming love and set me free. So this morning I’m gonna shout hallelujah, thank you Jesus, Lord You’re worthy of all the honor and all the praise.

Stop and think back over your life, to where you were when Christ found you and where you are now and rejoice with me.

What has Christ freed you from? What area of your life is transformed because of His healing love?

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Today’s post comes from Jan Cox from Under the Cover of Prayer. We know we need to pray. The Bible tells us to pray consistently for others, ourselves, the world, and God’s saving message, but coupled with the sovereignty of God, the act of prayer can become confusing. If God is in control, do our prayers really matter? Can we pray about anything, anytime, or are some prayers more righteous than others? How do we know when we get a yes, no, or not yet? Will a giant billboard fall from the sky? Today Jan raises numerous questions for us to ponder, then discusses one in greater detail. After you read her thoughts on prayer, share yours with us.

God Can Hear Our Prayers

How can we know that God can hear our prayers?

How can we know that God wants to hear our prayers?

How can we know that God can act on our prayers?

I have been mulling around these questions.

Question one:

How can we know that God can hear our prayers?

Besides the fact that I just know He does, through my faith  – I have come up with several reasons from Scripture why we can know for sure that He does hear our prayers.

1. The belief in the all-encompassing POWER of our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I love this passage in Colossians:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17 NIV).

Don’t you just love the phrase – By Him All things were created, and in Him all things hold together? That certainly solidifies it for me. There is POWER here.

2.  The majesty and immensity of our God of creation. After watching the video by Louie Giglio I held my breath.

“This is what God the LORD says— the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it”  (Isaiah 42:5).

Louie’s video shows the universe – to the ends of the universe and what we see when we get to the last picture – is outstanding, gluing all things together for me. God does HOLD ALL things together. We go to the ends of the universe and the Hubble telescope show us – a Cross.

Another video by Louie Giglio (for a quick check go 2:50 minutes in) talks about a cell adhesion molecule called Laminin.

Here is a diagram of the Laminin molecule.

Laminin is vital to making sure overall body structures hold together.

And it is in the shape of a Cross.

Christ does hold ALL things together.

These are two very important reasons why our God can:

  1. Wake me up during my night’s sleep whenever He chooses to call me to prayer, or to rethink my past day.
  2. Put people and incidents in my daily path – God-incidents.
  3. Make miracles happen.

His power is one reason why my prayers are important.

He can call me to pray; He can hear me when I pray; He can answer my prayers.

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Jan, a former school teacher and small business owner, found a new passion in writing in her retirement. She has published two devotionals and a number of articles for magazines and a Bible study. She is owner of Under the Cover of Prayer and moderates the site. She also writes at A Better Way. Jan has written a children’s book in which she is also the watercolour illustrator. She hopes to publish it this year.

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Today I’m on Ink From Earthen Vessels. I’d love it if you’d join me.  We’re talking about learning to trust. A few years ago, I trained for sprint triathlons and part of my training involved long runs. These runs served two purposes–they increased my endurance and confidence. At the beginning of my training, lacing up my shoes for an hour-long run, completion seemed improbable. But each day, I added to my mileage, running hills, adding in swimming and biking, until a two-hour session became routine.

The result? By race day, staring across the wind-stirred lake, the task ahead didn’t seem quite so daunting. I’d done it before, many times. Maybe not in a lake, but I knew what it felt like to push past exhaustion. At the end of my swim, as I jumped on my bike with rubbery legs slightly numbed from the frigid water, staring at the mammoth hill bearing down on me, I focused on my past training–the countless laps, hills, and miles I’d pushed through day after day. Contrary to what my brain tried to shout, I could do this…because I’d done it before.

I believe our faith grows in much the same way. Standing before that first trial, all we see is the bouldered road ahead, but after years of following our Savior and experiencing His strength made perfect in our weakness, the boulders appear to shrink and the incline seems to level.

Philippians 4:6 says: Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (NLT)

When praying for aid, take the time to count your blessings, to remember all God has done and the many times He showed up. I believe your concerns will appear to shrink in light of God’s faithfulness.

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On Monday, I talked about leaving a legacy of love and allowing Jesus to transform hearts, and thus communities, through us. I shared a very easy way to have a tremendous impact in the lives of hurting children and youth–look them in the eye and smile–demonstrate acceptance, not rejection; love, not contempt. Today I want to challenge you to take it a step further by building, then walking across, bridges, an action Jesus modeled daily while on earth.

When you look through Scripture, you’ll notice Jesus never stopped at a passing glance. When he encountered the hurting, rejected, or mistreated, He stopped what He was doing and carved out time in His busy day to connect. Because love is a verb, demonstrated by action. Each day, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ, to demonstrate that we truly belong to Him, by how we respond to others.

When our daughter was young, we lived in Southern California. My husband worked with a man who had a teenage stepdaughter. Looking to catch a few free moments to clean house, I asked the teen to come babysit our daughter while I focused on my to-do list. Before long I realized God brought this teenager into our lives for a purpose. Her step-father drank,  profusely, and often called people in the middle of the night (including his boss–not a wise idea) drunk. His marriage was a mess, their home was a mess, and Shaundra* was thrown smack dab in the middle of it.

Before long, Shaundra started hanging out at our house nearly every weekend. She’d nap on our couch, or join my daughter and I as we walked through the neighborhood. Often, she’d talk about how different our home was–no yelling, no fighting…relaxing. She felt welcomed, loved, accepted. 

This went on for about a year, then they moved. A few years later, her step-father died from alcohol-related issues, and I have no idea where Shaundra is today. But I do know while she was in our home, she experienced a bit of the love of Christ.  And each day we interacted, she caught a glimpse of effective parenting. Each evening she spent at our dinner table, she caught a glimpse of a Christ-centered marriage.

About three years later, we moved to a neighborhood with numerous latch-key children. Having spent most of their time raising themselves–or learning how to act by what they watched on television–these children behaved much differently than our daughter did and often I felt uncomfortable. They used language I prefered my daughter not to hear and spoke of things I’d rather my daughter not learn about. As time progressed, I grew increasingly uncomfortable and longed to shield our daughter from these neighborhood girls.

One day, while we were snuggled on the couch, a story book spread between us, our doorbell rang. I answered it to find Anna* standing on our front stoop.

“Can Ashley play?” A smile spread across her face.

Giving my “Mamma-Bear” full rein, I shook my head. “Not today.”

Her smile evaporated and pain registered in her childish eyes. A knife stabbed to my heart at the look of pure rejection on her face and as she turned to walk away I knew instantly–Jesus never would have done that!

Throwing the door open, I called out to her and she spun around, her vibrant smile returning. I invited her in to listen to stories with us, then invited her back for an afterschool Bible study which I launched the following Monday. By the month’s end, I had a kitchen full of girls each Monday evening. We read Scripture together and talked about how much God loved them. We played games and ate snacks.

Before long, this girl started spending nearly every evening at our house. She joined my daughter and I for our nightly story reading, and occasionally her mom stopped in for a chat. I taught the Bible study girls to cook and shortly before Christmas, they cooked a meal for their families, hosted at our house. And during the meal, these girls’ parents caught a glimpse of effective parenting as my husband and I interacted with our daughter. They caught a glimpse of biblical romance as they watched me and my husband respond to one another, and they experienced a taste of the initiating, accepting, all-encompassing love of Christ.

I often look back on that moment in time–the day God presented me with a choice to love or spurn, to build a bridge or a barrier–and I’m so grateful He called me to the table and stopped me from adding one more barb to this young girl’s heart.

What about you? How authentic is that welcome mat placed outside your door and how far will you allow God’s love to reach through you?

Do you have any bridge-building stories to share? Any attitude-changing moments like I had upon answering my door so many years ago? Or maybe you’ve stood in Anna’s place and know what it feels like to be turned away…or better yet, invited in.

As you begin your day today, remember we are Christ’s ambassadors. God expects us to be His image-bearers, to show others what He is like by how we live our lives. Jesus never turns anyone away. How can you demonstrate that truth today? 

1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (NIV)

* Names have been changed for privacy purposes.

Love this song in the video below. Listen to the words and make this your heart’s cry today. “I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else to do what God has called me to do myself…I refuse to turn my back and try to act like all is well…I refuse to make one more excuse…” ~ Josh Wilson, “I refuse.”

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About a week ago, I spoke with a woman regarding the number of homeless children in America.

She responded with a hand-washing, “If the women would be responsible…”

It’s easy to point fingers, but like I tried to express to this woman, a scared and lonely child struggling to survive doesn’t care why they are where they are. They care about one thing: Will anyone help me!

Walking away, frustrated and a bit teary at the misconceptions and rush to judgement apparent in the woman’s words, I realized much of her response came from a lack of knowledge. And I can’t help but wonder if we all, including myself, share a bit of this woman’s faulty thinking.

Let me give you an example, one I hope will challenge us all to look a little deeper. You are at the mall with your spouse and children. It’s a Sunday. You’ve just left church and are heading for the food court for burgers and fries, topped with ice-cream. On your way in, you pass a pack of teenagers. They’ve got gaudy jewelry dangling from every edifice, are cloaked in black attire and chained belts, have cigarettes dangling from scowling mouths, and use words that set your ears on fire. So what do you do? You pull your children closer with an obvious frown and move to the farthest door–the one that will add the most distance between you and one of these foul-mouthed, disrespectful teens.

One of them, abused by her father and rejected by her mother, looks up, and sees the disgust on your face, and although she tries to add more bricks around her already encased heart, the dagger slices before the mortar sets. Your look confirmed what she already believed to be true–she’s worthless, scum, unlovable. Ushering in a surge of anger to shield her breaking heart, she sucks harder on her cigarette and tells herself again and again she doesn’t care, about that woman with the fancy clothes and perfect life, about her father and mother, about herself–about anything.

And I’m speaking to myself here. Often when I see troubled teens or rebellious children, my first response is to jump to judgement, instead of love. But the problem is, judgement pushes people away. Love, on the other hand, draws them near. And with the large number of children living in foster care, and an even larger number living in abusive and extremely impoverished homes, the chances are we’ll come across one of these deeply wounded throughout out week. And when we do, it’ll be easy to move aside, or point fingers, or give ourselves a pat on the back knowing our children would never behave in such a way.

But God looks deeper. He looks beyond the sin and anger and displays of hatred to that three-year old crouched beneath a much-too-thin blanket while his world falls apart all around him. And He does more than look. God reaches out, providing a solution in His Son, Jesus Christ. And He’s asking us to join Him–to be conduits of His love by offering a smile that says, “I see you. You don’t disgust or frighten me. You aren’t worthless or to be avoided. In fact, you’re a child of God who’s deeply loved.”

This problem of poverty, abuse, and homelessness isn’t going to go away any time soon, and as my daughter reminded me yesterday while I wept over the children working in sugar plantations in El Salvador, I can’t change the world. But I can share Christ’s love and change faulty thinking. I can lay down the judgement and allow–no, invite–God’s love to flow through me.

And in each attitude change and expression in love, God can use me to sprinkle His life-changing love, grace, and mercy over a hurting world.

Because here’s the thing, those teens we see huddled outside the mall today will soon grow into adults. More than likely, they’ll have children of their own. Without role models in their life, what kind of parents do you think they’ll become? And what kind of children do you think they will raise? Hurting children grow up to raise hurting children who grow up to raise hurting children. It’s a vicious cycle that leaves countless wounded.

But God wants to flip it. Grace-filled children grow up to raise children surrounded by Christ who raise children surrounded by Christ. Love creates an equally powerful and long-lasting cycle, and each day we have the opportunity to create one legacy or the other.

On Wednesday I’ll share two stories to illustrate how we’ve seen this play out in our own lives and in the meantime, I challenge you to do one simply thing: When you encounter others throughout your day–the woman who cuts you off on the freeway or the scowling teen or rebellious child–build a bridge instead of a barrier. Offer a smile instead of a scowl. And take the time to pray for them and their family.

Before you go, I invite you to stop by the Literary Momma where I talk about the importance of laughter in marriage.

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Pre-baby, I used to dream about parenting. I had this idea that everything would fall into place and I’d spend my time snuggling pudgy-faced children with a picture book spread between us. Yep, it’d be easy. As long as I followed steps A, B, and C, everything would work out great. But once our sweet little baby came, reality hit and a terrifying thought ballooned: “What if I can’t do this?” Worse yet, “What if I mess our daughter up?” I worried about everything from vaccinations to nutrition, but my biggest concern centered around her faith. How could I encourage her to fall madly in love with Jesus—to make our faith her own? Not knowing what else to do (Read the rest here, then join the cyber chat at Mom’s Together.)

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Have you ever noticed how readily we cling to the negative, no matter how irrational it is? Things spoken to me during my elementary years have stuck with me throughout countless successes and accolades, tearing at the walls of my heart. Think of your own life and those evasive lies you’ve allowed to wiggle their way in.

Countless people can tell you again and again how smart, or pretty, or resourceful you are, and yet you’ll cling to that one statement hurled in the heat of the moment to the contrary. Which is why it’s so important to guard our words, because once spoken, they penetrate deep and can never be returned.

I’ve always struggled with my tongue. (Read the rest here.)