It will launch just before Thanksgiving. I've been hard at work here...
Showing posts with label devotional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label devotional. Show all posts
The Women of Advent - My New Book! {...join my launch team?}
I've written my first book.
It will launch just before Thanksgiving. I've been hard at work here...
It will launch just before Thanksgiving. I've been hard at work here...
Word for 2011
Finally, I've composed my thoughts. There's been a word rolling around in my spirit in the latter part of 2010, and I knew it would be my word for the following year. It would be the word that would characterize my hours and my days. I didn't choose it, I believe "it" chose me.
The word?
Sow.
Sow - [soh],verb
1. to scatter (seed) over land, earth, etc., for future growth; plant.
2. to plant seed for: to sow a crop.
3. to scatter seed over (land, earth, etc.) for the purpose of growth.
4. to implant, introduce, or promulgate; seek to propagate or extend; disseminate
5. to strew or sprinkle with anything.
–verb (used without object)
6. to sow seed, as for the production of a crop.
Legalism is the counterfeit to spiritual sowing. God cannot and will not bless the works of my flesh. He cannot be pleased with any works of righteousness I could ever do. But when I sow, believing in a righteousness outside myself, I will reap some 30, some 60, and some 100 fold. You see, grace provides seed for the sower. My seed is a gift. I didn't earn a single seed. The ability to sow is a gift.
But I have to sow.
I will sow, in 2011, with intention. I will sow in several specific areas, and into a few specific people. I will sow in faith in the finished work of Christ.
I heard it said recently that where I am today, good or bad, is a result of decisions I made 20 years ago; and where I will be 20 years from now will be because of the choices I make today. Sowing. Reaping.
That being the case, I am excited about my next 20 years, because the revelation of the grace of God is so very strong on my life right now, in a way it wasn't 20 years ago.
Right now, were I to sow with what I myself am able to accomplish ("sow to the flesh") I will reap corruption in 20 years. But if I sow to the Spirit ("Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord"), I reap life...pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
You reap what you sow, more than you sowed, later than you sowed it. All sowing is an investment into the future. It is never God's will that I build and someone else inhabit. It is never God's best that I plant, and someone else eat. I want to sow into relationships, into my health, into the Kingdom, and also be there when the seeds sprout, and then throw a party when one seed becomes a hundred pieces of fruit, and each one of those pieces of fruit contains yet a hundred more seeds!
Call me foolish, but I am absolutely convinced that I will reap a blessing that is all out of proportion to every single seed I sow in 2011. I shall not sow sparingly.
Our friend Joe Ewen said that adversity is a precursor to opportunity, and persecution is the herald of the hundred-fold return.
Thank you, persecutors! Seriously. I mean sur-russly. Thank you, thank you. Bless you! Come by my house anytime in the coming year, so that I can share the bounty with you - because it is by your hand and your mouth that I have been so unfairly advantaged! When the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, life becomes enchanting and incredible.
Since that be the case, I best get to sowing, because every single thing I plant is going to produce a massive bumper-crop, to the glory of God.
Sabbath Rest
Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day...(Jer. 17)
this sounds suspiciously like a passage in Hebrews:
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest...(Heb. 4)
The Sabbath was spoken of as a perpetual covenant. How is it perpetual? Christ is the substance of the Sabbath shadow, and in Him we have a perpetual covenant of rest.
You cannot know rest without the grace and peace that comes to you through the gospel. Paul's words "Grace and Peace to you" were no mere greeting. He knew that grace and peace were prerequisites to rest. You will never have rest, so long as you are burdened by your own insufficiency...or the insufficiency of others.
Without grace and peace, you will always be burdened by someones insufficient ability, insufficient finances, insufficient education, insufficient experience, insufficient humility, insufficient wisdom, insufficient performance.
Isn't that the essence of all burdens? We grow anxious or angry or addled or agitated when we ourselves, or someone else, does not meet an expected standard. When we fall short, through ignorance, willfulness, or inadequacy, there is immediately created a sense of burden.
I can almost promise you that burden-bearing has become second nature to you. You have likely developed a sophisticated, even unconscious network of mechanisms to compensate, carry, and continue beneath a variety of burdens. You likely are living as though some form of burden bearing constitutes normal life.
I can definitely promise you that a burden free life is what God means to be second nature to you. We are commanded to bear no burdens whatsoever on the Sabbath...
...and Jesus is our Sabbath.
Without the "grace and peace" found in the gospel, we operate in a mode of either drawing confidence from ours and others' performance, or we operate in a mode of ever-so-slightly eroded confidence, based on the under-performance of ourselves or others. The more disciplined and accomplished we are, the more confidence we feel.
The more disciplined and accomplished someone else is, the more confidence we feel in them.
The only problem is that, like Paul said, everything we once thought of as asset, is now considered liability. The new sufficiency is Christ's all sufficiency. The new ability is Christ's ability. The new work is to rest.
And if you think resting in the finished work of Christ is easy, then tell me, if you will, why legalists can't do it? I'll tell you why - because it takes doing the real work of God, which is believing on Jesus, whom God hath sent. All other kinds of work comes easy as falling, and fall we always do.
The hard work is found in laying every. single. burden. down.
Every moment.
Every day.
Today.
Today is your Sabbath, friend. Today is the time to cease from your own efforts.
I defy you to obey God's Sabbath imperative without a deeper understanding of grace than what you now have. Living by the law is way easier. It is far-and-away easier to live life trying to please God. It is exponentially more difficult to lay burdens down, submit to the gift of righteousness, and put no confidence in the flesh.
We think bearing burdens justifies our own existence. The cooler the burden a man bears, the cooler the man. And some burdens are just plain cool...admit it. Who do you know, who complains about the burden of being in a higher tax bracket, the burden of a successful career, the burden of an estate, the burden of keeping his pool properly maintained?
In our culture, those burdens mean that you are a rock-star.
Well, it is equally cool to bear the burden of fasting, prayer, and early rising. In fact, we can't help but let it slip in "casual conversation", if we regularly bear those burdens. When we fall short in the area of Christian perfection, it feels so...so...so holy to angst about our imperfections, and go immediately to work on them. Cool packs on our back, they are. Tokens of our ability to out-perform.
In kingdom culture, success is measured by how little you bear, not how much. The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant, and we still have our part of it to remember and keep.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
Do. No. Work. Bear. No. Burdens.
The burden has already been borne. Sins and sorrows were carried by Christ to the cross. The work has already been done. Christ said, "It is finished." All that remains is rest.
There yet remains a rest for you. Work very hard to enter into it.
Funny - the holiest believers I know are the ones who don't work at being holy. So untorque yourself, friend. Rest may not be cool, but it is necessary to your sanctification.
this sounds suspiciously like a passage in Hebrews:
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest...(Heb. 4)
The Sabbath was spoken of as a perpetual covenant. How is it perpetual? Christ is the substance of the Sabbath shadow, and in Him we have a perpetual covenant of rest.
You cannot know rest without the grace and peace that comes to you through the gospel. Paul's words "Grace and Peace to you" were no mere greeting. He knew that grace and peace were prerequisites to rest. You will never have rest, so long as you are burdened by your own insufficiency...or the insufficiency of others.
Without grace and peace, you will always be burdened by someones insufficient ability, insufficient finances, insufficient education, insufficient experience, insufficient humility, insufficient wisdom, insufficient performance.
Isn't that the essence of all burdens? We grow anxious or angry or addled or agitated when we ourselves, or someone else, does not meet an expected standard. When we fall short, through ignorance, willfulness, or inadequacy, there is immediately created a sense of burden.
I can almost promise you that burden-bearing has become second nature to you. You have likely developed a sophisticated, even unconscious network of mechanisms to compensate, carry, and continue beneath a variety of burdens. You likely are living as though some form of burden bearing constitutes normal life.
I can definitely promise you that a burden free life is what God means to be second nature to you. We are commanded to bear no burdens whatsoever on the Sabbath...
...and Jesus is our Sabbath.
Without the "grace and peace" found in the gospel, we operate in a mode of either drawing confidence from ours and others' performance, or we operate in a mode of ever-so-slightly eroded confidence, based on the under-performance of ourselves or others. The more disciplined and accomplished we are, the more confidence we feel.
The more disciplined and accomplished someone else is, the more confidence we feel in them.
The only problem is that, like Paul said, everything we once thought of as asset, is now considered liability. The new sufficiency is Christ's all sufficiency. The new ability is Christ's ability. The new work is to rest.
And if you think resting in the finished work of Christ is easy, then tell me, if you will, why legalists can't do it? I'll tell you why - because it takes doing the real work of God, which is believing on Jesus, whom God hath sent. All other kinds of work comes easy as falling, and fall we always do.
The hard work is found in laying every. single. burden. down.
Every moment.
Every day.
Today.
Today is your Sabbath, friend. Today is the time to cease from your own efforts.
I defy you to obey God's Sabbath imperative without a deeper understanding of grace than what you now have. Living by the law is way easier. It is far-and-away easier to live life trying to please God. It is exponentially more difficult to lay burdens down, submit to the gift of righteousness, and put no confidence in the flesh.
We think bearing burdens justifies our own existence. The cooler the burden a man bears, the cooler the man. And some burdens are just plain cool...admit it. Who do you know, who complains about the burden of being in a higher tax bracket, the burden of a successful career, the burden of an estate, the burden of keeping his pool properly maintained?
In our culture, those burdens mean that you are a rock-star.
Well, it is equally cool to bear the burden of fasting, prayer, and early rising. In fact, we can't help but let it slip in "casual conversation", if we regularly bear those burdens. When we fall short in the area of Christian perfection, it feels so...so...so holy to angst about our imperfections, and go immediately to work on them. Cool packs on our back, they are. Tokens of our ability to out-perform.
In kingdom culture, success is measured by how little you bear, not how much. The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant, and we still have our part of it to remember and keep.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
Do. No. Work. Bear. No. Burdens.
The burden has already been borne. Sins and sorrows were carried by Christ to the cross. The work has already been done. Christ said, "It is finished." All that remains is rest.
There yet remains a rest for you. Work very hard to enter into it.
Funny - the holiest believers I know are the ones who don't work at being holy. So untorque yourself, friend. Rest may not be cool, but it is necessary to your sanctification.
Your New Year, In One Word
Words have such power. They literally define moments, days, and lives. I remember, not so long ago, when our oldest son was beginning his downward spiritual spiral, I reached a turning point. Let me explain.
We Atchleys are name callers...in our happy moments and in moments of angst, we name. It is how we celebrate and how we cope. Words are the tools of our trade, they are all we know. So we called our son "foolish" and a "player" and yes, even a "goober".
When I had reached one of my lowest points, and was muttering and name calling, the Holy Spirit said to me, "Rename him." Not "rename him" as in call him Bob instead of Josiah. But rename him as in calling things which be not as though they were.
I cannot begin to tell you how hard that was. You see, he had more than earned the names we'd called him. It had always been a relief and a release, of sorts, for me to call a Spade, a Spade. I am known for that. It feels honest and right and even courageous to tell it like it is.
Religious spirits are the hardest ones to discern in ourselves. Easy to discern in others, hard to see in ourselves. The God of all Grace has a ministry of renaming. Gideon was a "mighty man of valor". Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Saul became Paul, and I too will be given a white stone with my new name on it, one day.
The God of all Grace leads us to tell it like it could be.
So, almost every time (I wish I could say "every time") when a name was on the tip of my tongue, when that son of mine tweaked me the hardest, between clenched teeth, I would sometimes literally groan out these words:
Wise! Pure in heart! Godly! My wise, Godly, pure in heart son.
The rest of my son's story is still waiting to be told, there may yet be some roller coaster rides before his story line levels out. Still - I can't wait to tell the rest of his story, because I am confident in the finished work of Christ. See, government rests on Immanuel's shoulders, not mine. I am free to be in happy relationship with my boy.
All because of grace. All because of saving, sanctifying, amazing naming grace.
I named the year 2010 "Create". And "create" I have. Big masterpieces, like the atmosphere and design of a wedding...and tiny works of art like baby booties, big projects like a kitchen remodel (Tim the Tool Man and I), and smaller projects like a dining room repaint. Last year was the first time that I prayerfully sought God, and then "named" a whole year. It was so effective and so incredible that I am certain I will do this the rest of my life.
Soon, I'll share with you my name for 2011. In the meantime, what will you name the coming year? How will you re-name the circumstances and people in your life that have hurt you, and deeply at that?
God is the God of the New Name.
How 'Bout YOU Do It?
Interesting experience, I had today. Navigating the crowded parking lots of Knoxville, I pushed my brimming grocery cart to my car, unloaded its contents, and turned to push it all the way back to the area where carts are Supposed To Be. I was feeling a bit virtuous about it. Then, I happened to spy a lone cart. This cart had been left, in the middle of the parking lot, smack dab behind someone's car. For that car to get out of its parking space, the driver would have to move that grocery cart (left by some other rude stranger) out of the way.I shook my head slightly, and I'm pretty sure I made one of those "tsk tsk" sounds. "People these days."
...and walked right by.
Immediately, I realized that I was just as guilty as the person who left their cart standing in a rude place. I went back, just three steps, and got that cart, put it together with mine, and pushed both to the store. I had almost violated the number one law of love...okay, maybe number two law of love, but it's way up there:
If you notice that a job needs doing, you are the one to do it.
To walk past it, shaking your head at the thought of the other person who was supposed to do that job, is to BE the other person who was supposed to do that job. You just became "them".
If you see it needs done...do it. Don't walk past it, and get irritated with the person who didn't do it, if you won't do it either. That would be hypocrisy at its most deceptive.
Later that day, in another store, for extra measure, just to buffet my body and just to please the Lord, I also picked up some stray trash in the women's bathrooms, and took a moment to straighten merchandise that was plundered. Nothing obsessive compulsive...just small actions to drive home to my own heart and mind the idea that the person who sees the job undone is the one in the best position to do the dang job already.
What Do You See?
"And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."
Mark 8:24
If you are still under the law, you see "men as trees walking". You've experienced the touch of Jesus, maybe even come to a saving knowlege, but you are not seeing clearly. Yet you might go years - alas, decades, thinking that you see just fine.
Then, one day, you hear the gospel preached by a pastor-teacher who is walking in a New Covenant understanding, and you realize that "seeing men as trees walking" isn't the same as seeing Jesus clearly and centrally. You have not been seeing the world as you could and should.
Does this offend you?
Let Jesus put His hands on you again, afresh. The moment you see the God of all grace, the moment your focus is on the finished work of Christ and not on your performance, you finally see everyone else clearly, and through the eyes of love. In fact, through the lens of the gospel of grace, as taught in all the New Testament, everything in all of Scripture becomes clear.
No Weapon Formed...
Have you ever had an instance when, all of a sudden, a passage of Scripture takes on "flesh and blood" in your life? All of a sudden, what you've read in Scripture takes on context?
Me, too. About this whole "weapons" thing...
When you walk in a conscious awareness of the unmerited favor of God, He comes to your personal defense. This is because you have made the God of Jacob your refuge by choice, not by default. You have submitted yourself to the righteousness which comes only through Christ Jesus. When you make it all about Jesus, all for Jesus, through, by and to Jesus, you simply live in an unfair advantage. There is no other way of putting it. No weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that speaks against you in judgement, you will, in time, show to be in the wrong.
Not because of any righteousness of your own, but because you are in Christ...no one who criticizes you prospers in their effort because of Christ. Not because you prayed a prayer, not because you attend church, not because you decided to be a better, more self disciplined Christian, not because you perform, but rather, you live in an unfair advantage when you know you can't do anything right! You have believed the report of the Lord, and thus to you is His arm revealed! Your unfair advantage comes by blood. By blood inheritance, you are "unfairly favored" in life, and no one can touch you.
Funny, I woke up some time back with the feeling that something else was going to come to light regarding people we love, who have moved on awhile back. I even dreamed about them recently - an unsettling dream that left me concerned for them. In my dream one of them was sick to the point of death, but keeping up a pretense of being well - all because they wanted to be "right", to be thought of as being well. There was nothing we could do to change that. I woke up sad for them.
Then, that very morning, Tim "just happened" to run into someone else who had left our church years ago - the two of them had an amiable conversation, and he told Tim some things that we found to be...interesting. Of all things, a small part of the conversation was concerning the very ones I dreamed about the night before, and about whom I sensed that more was going to come to light. And more did. Nothing of any consequence in this season, but new information, nevertheless.
Maybe for a moment or two, the old knee-jerk reaction was there. The urge to vindicate oneself resides in every human being. But I realized - "...what they said and did, didn't prosper!"
Then, without my having to choose to feel the right thing, the same concern for them washed over my heart, sweeping away what little debris of self-vindication had collected there. Because of my grace foundation, I know that I am loved and accepted and protected by God. I'm aware of possessing such wealth, that it makes the judgement of another person feel like what a billionaire must feel when the law gives him a hundred dollar speeding ticket.
"I can afford this. Why let it bother me?" I'm way wealthier than the one who is writing the ticket. He can write me all the tickets he wants, and he might even be right, according to the letter of the law. I still get to go home and enjoy my wealth, figuratively speaking, while those who write tickets will go back to doing just that....issuing tickets to others for their infractions. I've chosen a different way of life, and I get to go live it.
So I'll take the ticket. It has no impact on my destiny or my day. "Thanks, officer. And I love you. Come over for dinner sometime!"
Friends, this is what I mean about context. This is what the Scripture means when it says that no weapon formed against you will prosper. It doesn't mean that no one is ever going to form a weapon against you. It means they will! Put that in your Promise Box...there are many, even other believers, who carry weapons and write tickets. They will utilize both.
But it won't prosper. Any weapon, in order to prosper, must "inflict pain" or some level of damage that affects your outcome. If it doesn't inflict at least a little damage, if it doesn't at least alter your outcome a little bit, if it doesn't weaken you, at least....the weapon didn't prosper.
Hear me - no weapon formed against you can prosper, when you have, by conscious belief and choice, placed your faith in the gospel of Christ. You dwell in a Secret Place, where, when a weapon is fired, it doesn't do any lasting damage.
Not because of any righteousness of your own, but because you are in Christ...no one who criticizes you prospers in their effort because of Christ. Not because you prayed a prayer, not because you attend church, not because you decided to be a better, more self disciplined Christian, not because you perform, but rather, you live in an unfair advantage when you know you can't do anything right! You have believed the report of the Lord, and thus to you is His arm revealed! Your unfair advantage comes by blood. By blood inheritance, you are "unfairly favored" in life, and no one can touch you.
Funny, I woke up some time back with the feeling that something else was going to come to light regarding people we love, who have moved on awhile back. I even dreamed about them recently - an unsettling dream that left me concerned for them. In my dream one of them was sick to the point of death, but keeping up a pretense of being well - all because they wanted to be "right", to be thought of as being well. There was nothing we could do to change that. I woke up sad for them.
Then, that very morning, Tim "just happened" to run into someone else who had left our church years ago - the two of them had an amiable conversation, and he told Tim some things that we found to be...interesting. Of all things, a small part of the conversation was concerning the very ones I dreamed about the night before, and about whom I sensed that more was going to come to light. And more did. Nothing of any consequence in this season, but new information, nevertheless.
Maybe for a moment or two, the old knee-jerk reaction was there. The urge to vindicate oneself resides in every human being. But I realized - "...what they said and did, didn't prosper!"
Then, without my having to choose to feel the right thing, the same concern for them washed over my heart, sweeping away what little debris of self-vindication had collected there. Because of my grace foundation, I know that I am loved and accepted and protected by God. I'm aware of possessing such wealth, that it makes the judgement of another person feel like what a billionaire must feel when the law gives him a hundred dollar speeding ticket.
"I can afford this. Why let it bother me?" I'm way wealthier than the one who is writing the ticket. He can write me all the tickets he wants, and he might even be right, according to the letter of the law. I still get to go home and enjoy my wealth, figuratively speaking, while those who write tickets will go back to doing just that....issuing tickets to others for their infractions. I've chosen a different way of life, and I get to go live it.
So I'll take the ticket. It has no impact on my destiny or my day. "Thanks, officer. And I love you. Come over for dinner sometime!"
Friends, this is what I mean about context. This is what the Scripture means when it says that no weapon formed against you will prosper. It doesn't mean that no one is ever going to form a weapon against you. It means they will! Put that in your Promise Box...there are many, even other believers, who carry weapons and write tickets. They will utilize both.
But it won't prosper. Any weapon, in order to prosper, must "inflict pain" or some level of damage that affects your outcome. If it doesn't inflict at least a little damage, if it doesn't at least alter your outcome a little bit, if it doesn't weaken you, at least....the weapon didn't prosper.
Hear me - no weapon formed against you can prosper, when you have, by conscious belief and choice, placed your faith in the gospel of Christ. You dwell in a Secret Place, where, when a weapon is fired, it doesn't do any lasting damage.
"Tis merely a flesh wound!" I can't tell you how many times I've laughed my behind off at that very movie line. I identify with it - with one exception: When my arm or leg gets chopped off, the blood squirts in a shocking way...but then another arm or leg appears almost instantly. The rest is exactly the same as the movie - I'm still hopping around, talking smack. Now, if I can just learn to keep my mouth shut, I'll be a real leader.
When you understand the unmerited favor you have been given, all because of the obedience of Another, you simply can't be touched.
Another thing that distracts us is the lust of vindication. St.Augustine
prayed-"O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself."
That temper of mind destroys the soul's faith in God. "I must explain
myself; I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything; he left mistakes to correct themselves.
When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the
discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
~Oswald Chambers
Lord, cause me to be your version of a Godly woman, not my own version. Make me into a leader after your Own Gracious Heart, who is willing to go to all lengths to love those you've put in my sphere. Help me not to criticize, but rather to pray.
Another thing that distracts us is the lust of vindication. St.Augustine
prayed-"O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself."
That temper of mind destroys the soul's faith in God. "I must explain
myself; I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything; he left mistakes to correct themselves.
When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the
discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
~Oswald Chambers
Lord, cause me to be your version of a Godly woman, not my own version. Make me into a leader after your Own Gracious Heart, who is willing to go to all lengths to love those you've put in my sphere. Help me not to criticize, but rather to pray.
In Which Sheila is Still Shouting "Grace, Grace!"
I saw this sign in front of a detox center for legalist women...not really, but it could be true.Tim and I love the law of God, as given through Moses. It is the legalist who is anti-law; because she insists on her own understanding of the law, she ends up misunderstanding God's law, misapplying the law, which is, in fact, to be anti-law.
Friends, to truly love the law of God is more than a mere sentiment. It is more than reading the Old Testament and feeling good about it. To truly love God's law, is to invest significant time investigating it, understanding it, and being vigilant to communicate it accurately, and apply it Biblically.
Anything short of that, is sloppy scholarship, anemic passion, and misguided stubborness that masquerades as love for God's law, and that is to be a practicing antinomian, no matter what your creed is.
The law is good when used lawfully, the Bible says. Tim and I are completely passionate about the lawful use of something so precious and potentially powerful as the law. Therefore, we are to be counted amongst those who love God's law. Legalists do not actually love God's law at all - if you are even able to get past all the scholarly sounding rhetoric, you will find that legalists only love their own perceived performance of the law. The parts of the law they have been able to keep make them feel holy. They perceive God's blessings that have been in fact given to them unearned and undeserved - as being contingent upon their own "higher standard"...their own higher level of personal holiness. The law makes a legalist feel better about themselves, and definitely makes them feel better than you.
So tell me. Which person actually loves the law? The legalist? Or the grace-girl? (or grace-guy...whichever.)
See the difference? Hands down, no further discussion, the grace-girl is the one who actually and passionately loves the law of God, because she has carefully studied and zealously guarded the intent of the law, as communicated by God, both old covenant and new.
I use the female gender simply because "I are one" - and because to get the women using the law lawfully, is to get half the church using the law lawfully. Historically, there have been powerful women who have passionately supported the gospel of grace...and "devout" women who have stubbornly opposed the gospel of grace.
Friends, to truly love the law of God is more than a mere sentiment. It is more than reading the Old Testament and feeling good about it. To truly love God's law, is to invest significant time investigating it, understanding it, and being vigilant to communicate it accurately, and apply it Biblically.
Anything short of that, is sloppy scholarship, anemic passion, and misguided stubborness that masquerades as love for God's law, and that is to be a practicing antinomian, no matter what your creed is.
The law is good when used lawfully, the Bible says. Tim and I are completely passionate about the lawful use of something so precious and potentially powerful as the law. Therefore, we are to be counted amongst those who love God's law. Legalists do not actually love God's law at all - if you are even able to get past all the scholarly sounding rhetoric, you will find that legalists only love their own perceived performance of the law. The parts of the law they have been able to keep make them feel holy. They perceive God's blessings that have been in fact given to them unearned and undeserved - as being contingent upon their own "higher standard"...their own higher level of personal holiness. The law makes a legalist feel better about themselves, and definitely makes them feel better than you.
So tell me. Which person actually loves the law? The legalist? Or the grace-girl? (or grace-guy...whichever.)
See the difference? Hands down, no further discussion, the grace-girl is the one who actually and passionately loves the law of God, because she has carefully studied and zealously guarded the intent of the law, as communicated by God, both old covenant and new.
I use the female gender simply because "I are one" - and because to get the women using the law lawfully, is to get half the church using the law lawfully. Historically, there have been powerful women who have passionately supported the gospel of grace...and "devout" women who have stubbornly opposed the gospel of grace.
There ain't nothin' new under the sun. I've seen it before, with my own eyes. A woman with a firm superiority complex becomes a willing tool of religious spirits, and that woman will oppose all emphasis on grace. (At the very heart of it, this is exactly why Paul and Barnabas were opposed...)
Acts 13 says this, "But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region."
Yeah, I want to talk to the women. You better believe I do. Girlfriend, you can choose to be "devout and prominent" or you can be the righteousness of God in Christ - but you can't mix legalism and gospel. Every time you do, you will end up expelling others "from your region" - usually, in our age of propriety, you'll do it by being the one to leave.
Here is the sort of devout woman I want to be:
"Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures...And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious...attacked." (Acts 17)
Throughout history, for every devout legalista, God has raised up a leading grace-girl. I so want to be the grace-girl. I want to be persuade-able, tender towards the Gospel. I want to be God's woman, not my own version of God's woman.
(Which means, I will actively support the Pauls and Silases in my life, but that's another topic altogether...Jezebel cannot give honor where it is due, and she certainly can't stop controlling the men in her life, and she will ultimately never keep her mouth shut. She's convinced that she knows more.)
Oh my. I think I'll stop now. I've riled enough religion as it is. Few things are scarier than a woman who is devout for all the wrong reasons, who is unpersuade-able, and envious of the powerful women who embrace the grace message of the gospel.
I sort of understand. I'd envy me, too...not that I'm "powerful", but God certainly gives me every good thing I haven't earned and do not deserve.
Thoughts on the Poor and Needy
my dining room table, a completely unstyled photo, after a day of school today. this picture represents fabulous wealth...the well fed puppy on the chair, the laptop, the school books, the knitting that sits, casually waiting for the fact that I am so rich I have spare moments to do something creative...
I'm haunted by Ann Voskamp's observations, from her brief trip to Guatemala with Compassion International. She visited families in the ghettos and slums of that country, a country still reeling from its recent mudslides.
Every day I sweep and cook and straighten with my steam mop and my all natural cleaners and my clean rags that match my kitchen, I'm thinking of a mother in Guatemala I have never met. Vicariously I visited this mother, through Ann's blog, and the visit changed me.
Utterly impoverished mothers want clean homes, too. They want all the same things I want, and they work harder than I do, with fewer tools, to accomplish far less.
And some can chalk it all up to an absence of capitalism, and still sleep at night, without doing one thing about the poverty they have seen on their big flat screen TV.
After her visit with this particular family, Ann felt compelled to tell the Guatemalan mother, "You are a good housekeeper", and upon translation, the mother began to weep.
And I've never gotten over it.
and these came in the mail this morning...God has a sense of irony, too.
How do you fight a mudslide? How do you cherish all the home keeping hopes and dreams that all mothers have in a place that menaces your soul, day in and day out, with its filth and stench and poverty? Somehow, this mother kept her shack as clean as she could keep it...noticeably different than the shacks that surrounded hers.
And she needed the same affirmation that I need...she needed to be told that her ordinary work did not go unnoticed.
So here I am, in my climate controlled home, blogging to the scent of spiced pumpkin and the music of Acker Bilk. Feeling absolutely tiny. My spirituality pales to that of a simple woman, fending off the mud, daily wiping the grime of the ghetto off of her home and her family.
I'm thankful for every blessing I've been given.
I spent some time early this morning getting to know this particular Tuesday, and it is an Acker Bilk sort of Tuesday. Really. It is. See for yourself.
Given. Given, given, given. I have not earned a single thing. This is what irks me about conservative talk radio...as much as I wholeheartedly agree with the conservative philosophy of hard work, and no government entitlement programs. At one time, I took in a steady, almost daily diet of talk radio, and it made me arrogant and hard inside. It made me intellectually bright, and proudly skeptical, complete with the strong suspicion that anyone who is poor deserves to be. It is their own fault. They haven't worked hard enough to earn the American Dream.
If we take this logic to its inevitable conclusion, then the last and the next heart-wrenching event in your life, Mr. Rush-Fan, is entirely your fault.
Because you deserve hell. Cut and dried. There is only One of whom it was declared, "I find no fault in Him" - all your hard work and good intentions mean not one thing....all your righteousness comes from Him, along with every blessing you have under God's sun.
Transitioning the foyer from summer to fall...this means getting the sheaves of Harvest Wheat back out. I desperately want and need "Harvest" to be more than a time of year to me.
I'm done with so-called Christianity that is so full of its own self righteousness, that it can't identify itself with the poor and needy. Yeah, even when they deserve to be poor and needy. But for the grace of God, there go I.
Missional is Personal
We are a missional people, who serve a missional God. Ours is a vast, overarching purpose, and that purpose is the glory and praise of God.
I get it.
I say "True, and true again."
But I've seen a bit of Gentile legalism creep into the missions mindset. When we veer away from God's heart of grace, even a little bit, we end up far away from the goal in the end. When a missions mindset is birthed from being love-sick, it is powerful. But when it becomes a measuring device with which to rate a church's or believer's quality of devotion, we've slipped into a works mentality that is anti-mission, anti-gospel, and anti-grace.
Missional is forever personal. Every concept you and I carry about our God has to be properly rooted in Genesis - every thought about God and what we imagine His "purposes" to be, must begin with God Himself. God could have created an army with which to accomplish heavenly work, but no. He created one man and one woman, to whom He gave unearned dominion, and with whom He simply would walk and talk in the cool of the day. And He still is lavishing unearned favor to sons and daughters that He simply wants to walk and talk with.
If I make the gospel as personal as God makes it, I am going to sound...maybe...just a little bit...."man centered". Does that mean the gospel I have come to believe is man centered? Not in the least. I will go so far as to say that if I have not made the gospel intensely personal, if I do not bask in the love of God for me personally - me, Sheila Atchley - I will ultimately be a hindrance to the mission.
And I will ultimately be a pain in the behind of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and a sharp ache in the neck of my leadership in my church. Because I will have made it all about "mission" instead of Presence. King David was a man after God's own heart, not because he focused on some big-mission-picture, but rather because all he really wanted, was to be in the presence of God 24/7...so much so, he put the ark in his back yard.
Christ didn't die for a mission. He died for a people. The people He died for, are made up of individuals. Christ paid the ultimate price, for you and for me, and that is forever the Gospel.
Bottom line, I will never...ever...be able to give to you what I don't own for myself. I'd love to give you a lake house and a brand new SUV, but I don't own any of those things.
The gospel of God is all about the unbalanced, crazy, mighty, unending grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I have to own that for myself to be able to give that away.
I have to be in the presence of God, up close and very very personal, to have the fragrance of Christ all over me. I have to carry something of the manifest presence to be of any effect whatsoever. Who are we, to think for a moment, that anything of any lasting value can be accomplished apart from the supernatural presence of God? There is no mission without utter, naked intimacy. There are no children, there is no heritage, no reproduction without intimate presence.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that alone will I seek after. Not to be a heavy hitter in some divine Mission Impossible, but rather to be Song of Songs intimate with the God who loves me.
Me. Me, me, me. You heard me. I said the "m" word. Oh, how He loves me! He is jealous for me...
I get it.
I say "True, and true again."
But I've seen a bit of Gentile legalism creep into the missions mindset. When we veer away from God's heart of grace, even a little bit, we end up far away from the goal in the end. When a missions mindset is birthed from being love-sick, it is powerful. But when it becomes a measuring device with which to rate a church's or believer's quality of devotion, we've slipped into a works mentality that is anti-mission, anti-gospel, and anti-grace.
Missional is forever personal. Every concept you and I carry about our God has to be properly rooted in Genesis - every thought about God and what we imagine His "purposes" to be, must begin with God Himself. God could have created an army with which to accomplish heavenly work, but no. He created one man and one woman, to whom He gave unearned dominion, and with whom He simply would walk and talk in the cool of the day. And He still is lavishing unearned favor to sons and daughters that He simply wants to walk and talk with.
If I make the gospel as personal as God makes it, I am going to sound...maybe...just a little bit...."man centered". Does that mean the gospel I have come to believe is man centered? Not in the least. I will go so far as to say that if I have not made the gospel intensely personal, if I do not bask in the love of God for me personally - me, Sheila Atchley - I will ultimately be a hindrance to the mission.
And I will ultimately be a pain in the behind of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and a sharp ache in the neck of my leadership in my church. Because I will have made it all about "mission" instead of Presence. King David was a man after God's own heart, not because he focused on some big-mission-picture, but rather because all he really wanted, was to be in the presence of God 24/7...so much so, he put the ark in his back yard.
Christ didn't die for a mission. He died for a people. The people He died for, are made up of individuals. Christ paid the ultimate price, for you and for me, and that is forever the Gospel.
Bottom line, I will never...ever...be able to give to you what I don't own for myself. I'd love to give you a lake house and a brand new SUV, but I don't own any of those things.
The gospel of God is all about the unbalanced, crazy, mighty, unending grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I have to own that for myself to be able to give that away.
I have to be in the presence of God, up close and very very personal, to have the fragrance of Christ all over me. I have to carry something of the manifest presence to be of any effect whatsoever. Who are we, to think for a moment, that anything of any lasting value can be accomplished apart from the supernatural presence of God? There is no mission without utter, naked intimacy. There are no children, there is no heritage, no reproduction without intimate presence.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that alone will I seek after. Not to be a heavy hitter in some divine Mission Impossible, but rather to be Song of Songs intimate with the God who loves me.
Me. Me, me, me. You heard me. I said the "m" word. Oh, how He loves me! He is jealous for me...
"Vital Optimism"
This is just a thought...one point, taken from the teaching I did at the Master Builder's International Conference last week.
Been contemplating the reality of jaded Christians...oh, for about the past year or so. Many, many start well, but don't continue well. They don't leave the faith necessarily, they don't even visibly "backslide". They simply become critical, unloving, and (deep down) unbelieving.
Maybe they get tired. Most have been hurt and disappointed by life and by the church.
Well, join the flippin' club. You heard me right. Sorry if you were expecting sympathy, but you aren't getting it. You don't need sympathy, you need someone to shake you out of your self awareness.
Anyone who has been in ministry - lay or otherwise - for longer than 5 years has seen some sordid stuff. They have bumped into the weaknesses of others, even (gasp!) their spiritual leaders. They have had prayers seemingly unanswered. They have been disappointed.
If you have served God for 20 years or more, I mean really served God, which means serving others faithfully either on the mission field, or in a local church, you have lived 3 lifetimes compared to the pew-warmer or the non-church-goer. You've come up against the worst in human nature, often by just looking in the mirror.
I don't care what you've encountered or who has hurt you or what your family history is, you have not been through more than the apostle Paul, and he managed to remain fresh and free and unjaded for his entire life. How? I think partly because he made it his conscious goal. Read I Timothy 1:5 with me:
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
What is the goal?
1. Love from a sincere heart
2. a good conscience
3. an unfaked faith
I want to focus on number 2. The Greek application of a "good" conscience in this exact, particular verse actually means a "happy, pleasant, joyful, agreeable" conscious awareness.
A pleasant outlook. I think it would be well called a "vital optimism".
Lord knows, the love from a sincere heart and an unfaked faith would preach for fifty years, but for now, I want that vital optimism. The only way to have it is to believe the gospel. Any other functional belief system, especially one built on law and self effort, will wear thin after a few years, and you will become jaded and cynical.
(I call it "functional belief system" because there is what we SAY we believe, and then there is how we actually function in our day to day life...)
Two things the gospel addresses - two functional (and false) beliefs:
1. I must do well.
2. Others must do well.
Grace reveals both of these false foundations to be the shifting sands they truly are. As soon as the winds and storms come and beat upon these false beliefs, you will experience chaos in your soul.
No, you must not do well. You must believe in the substitutional sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He did well on your behalf.
No, others must not do well. You must love others. Faithfully. With some degree of continuity. The only "onus" is on you. The only one you are ultimately responsible for is you. What is your responsibility? Love God, love others.
Oddly...amazingly..."slap-your-forehead" epiphany - when you love God and love others, you will do well.
To subscribe to those two false yet alluring beliefs (I must do well - others must do well) is to live in a self imposed, artificial holiness, "not understanding what you say, nor the things you affirm". You will ultimately lose your vital optimism. You will become a jaded woman, unable to change your mind. Oh, you will still be able to gather followers, and you just might fake it till the day you go be with Jesus.
More power to you.
But, if you don't mind, I am going to follow Paul's example, not yours. My top three goals are to love sincerely, to keep that fresh, happy conscious awareness, and to walk every day in unfaked faith in a supernatural God.
Who is with me?
Hospitality
"...you will do well to send them on their way well cared for, as is right for servants of God:For they went out for love of the Name...So it is right for us to take in such men as guests, so that we may take our part in the work of the true faith."
(III John 1:6,7,8)
We've had overnight guests for the last several days. Joe and Yvonne Ewen from Scotland, along with Ted Lyke from south Florida, and others who have drifted in and out for meals and fellowship. My daughter Sarah and her husband have hosted several guests overnight at their home all this week.
One translation of the above Scripture says of hospitality to a guest is to "bring them forward after a Godly sort..."
Just bring them forward. For a few brief hours or days, spirit touches spirit, life touches life, and all are blessed, our guest is "brought forward after a Godly sort", and sent on their way feeling loved and cared for.
Hospitality is taking part in the work of true faith. Tim and I, as hosts, become part of every sinner brought closer to Christ, every saint who is encouraged and edified, we are considered by God to be a significant part of each and every bit of it.
There were ten around my dinner table tonight. That's not unusual. It is lots of work, but the rewards are absolutely out of proportion to the labor. Huge reward.
Late last night, maybe even the wee hours of the morning, I was aware of the presence of God as I was falling asleep. It hit me, as I lay there, that every bedroom in our home was full, two in each one, plus a dear friend who was sleeping on the couch. All these precious people, slumbering peacefully and safely under our roof, under our watch. Everything was still and quiet, but for the sound of the cicadas and the faint relaxing sound of the waterfall that pours into our pond outside. I was so, so tired from all the activity of the day, but it was "the good kind of tired", and falling asleep with the house full-to-bursting was the best part.
Tonight will be much the same. I'm not sure if the couch will be occupied or not, but if it is, the more the merrier. Same thing on Saturday night. By the time Monday rolls around, I might be ready to rest "for a wee bit" (as my Scottish guests would say!)
Dear friend, Mike Giordano from southern California, sharing the Word with us (off his i-pod...Mike is ever the cutting edge kind of guy!)
these are just the ones they brought back to filet and eat for dinner. All in all, they caught 21 fish today!
So. Who wants to come stay with us next?
::smile::
(III John 1:6,7,8)
We've had overnight guests for the last several days. Joe and Yvonne Ewen from Scotland, along with Ted Lyke from south Florida, and others who have drifted in and out for meals and fellowship. My daughter Sarah and her husband have hosted several guests overnight at their home all this week.
One translation of the above Scripture says of hospitality to a guest is to "bring them forward after a Godly sort..."
Just bring them forward. For a few brief hours or days, spirit touches spirit, life touches life, and all are blessed, our guest is "brought forward after a Godly sort", and sent on their way feeling loved and cared for.
Hospitality is taking part in the work of true faith. Tim and I, as hosts, become part of every sinner brought closer to Christ, every saint who is encouraged and edified, we are considered by God to be a significant part of each and every bit of it.
There were ten around my dinner table tonight. That's not unusual. It is lots of work, but the rewards are absolutely out of proportion to the labor. Huge reward.
Late last night, maybe even the wee hours of the morning, I was aware of the presence of God as I was falling asleep. It hit me, as I lay there, that every bedroom in our home was full, two in each one, plus a dear friend who was sleeping on the couch. All these precious people, slumbering peacefully and safely under our roof, under our watch. Everything was still and quiet, but for the sound of the cicadas and the faint relaxing sound of the waterfall that pours into our pond outside. I was so, so tired from all the activity of the day, but it was "the good kind of tired", and falling asleep with the house full-to-bursting was the best part.
Tonight will be much the same. I'm not sure if the couch will be occupied or not, but if it is, the more the merrier. Same thing on Saturday night. By the time Monday rolls around, I might be ready to rest "for a wee bit" (as my Scottish guests would say!)
Oh, how I love church life.
Dear friend, Mike Giordano from southern California, sharing the Word with us (off his i-pod...Mike is ever the cutting edge kind of guy!)
Mike and young Matt-the-artist (standing), fellowshipping with Joe and Yvonne (sitting)
Praying together...church didn't dismiss last night until 11:30 pm!!!
big fish, caught this afternoon, fried and grilled and eaten just now!
Happy men - Ted (giving the "thumbs up, Imahappyguy" sign), my Tim, Ron, and Joe
So. Who wants to come stay with us next?
::smile::
Another Day is Done
Watching the flooding in Pakistan on television this morning, I was struck by the fragile flower that life is. (I know...this is a heavy way to begin a post - and on my twin daughters' birthday at that! Stick with me, I hope you'll be encouraged.)
Our life is a vapor, Proverbs says, and then it vanishes away. I saw a man in Pakistan, about my age or older, clinging to a large chunk of something, hanging on for dear life, in all those raging flood waters. I will never know if he made it out alive.
But I have him to thank, whoever he is. For some reason, it hit me with vivid reality that life is lived one long day at a time. Thousands of days that man had lived, and it all came down to what may have been his few final minutes. I watched that man, for a moment, and was overwhelmed with the fact that he was born, had a childhood, probably loves someone, or several someones. A lifetime of memories were right there, clinging and fighting just so that one more day could be lived. That man, if he lived, will never again have an ordinary day.
I hope I don't, either.
Someone said "the days are long, but the years are short" and they were exactly right. My life has been lived, thus far, one minute...one hour...one day at a time. I was born, I had a childhood, I've learned a few things and loved a whole lot of people. Countless moments, one after another, add up to what is my whole life today. Much effort, many prayers, tears, laughter, pain, and joy have gone into my one life already.
And it could easily be all over in a matter of minutes.
The human body cannot go ten minutes without oxygen. In ten short minutes, my whole life, all its hours and its days and its years, could be finished. Final. Any thoughts yet unspoken or unwritten would die with me, unexpressed. Memories that are mine alone will slip into eternity with me, they will not be left behind in a box or gathered up with my things. Why do we not spend more time reminiscing? The Lord has been so good, and I am commanded to remember! So that my children, and their children, will remember. So that my friends will not forget.
Anything, to be remembered collectively, must be talked about, and more than once. Time has to be taken, around dinner tables and over telephones, and in cars and in front of the fireplace. Moments must be stolen back, and memorials made to the faithfulness of God. "Remember when...??"
And how about these words: "I love you."
And, "I am sorry. Let's begin fresh, slates wiped clean. You - a spouse, a parent, child, or a friend and child of God - you with an eternal spirit, you are far too important to be abandoned this way, and I want to come back and rebuild that which is eternal: our relationship. Quick! Hurry, let us go back to loving each other before the sun goes down, and this one precious day is over!"
Fragile woman, I am. Because my life is as a vapor, no day is ordinary. Every day is a gift. Life is far, far too short to not place urgent and immediate value on my relationships. Theoretically, in less than ten minutes, all that has been left unsaid, will never be said, this side of heaven. Every wrong not made right, will be left just as it stands in the heart and memory of someone I say I care about.
This day was not ordinary. It was not common. It was filled with the atmosphere of eternity, and loaded with value. I pray I have invested it well.
Because I will, one day, stop breathing. Less than ten minutes from that moment, I leave it all behind. Ten short minutes.
I began it by filling the house with sunflowers - always sunflowers for my girls' birthday.
Stopped by this shop
For a dozen of these. Oh...my...heavens. So good.
Justin and Hannah brought this home from an antique shop today. Timothy Paul will be joining us for dinner here, by this time next year.
Dad and a few of his kids, playing "that game".
And playing...and playing...(it is nearly eleven, as I type, and they are playing it again!)
Happy Birthday, my Sarah Howe! Your first birthday as a married woman, and you are more beautiful than ever. As the sunflowers will always say, "I am so proud of you!"
No...it has been no ordinary day. Tomorrow will also be absolutely stunning in its unique opportunities and responsibilities. The sunrise will be God's encore of the miraculous. The moment my eyes open, it will be time to be about the business of loving God and loving people. Oh, God! May I live tomorrow's minutes and hours with full awareness of their worth!
Add It To My Resume - I am a Church Planter
(my grandbaby...)
Why is it we tend to focus on what we have not (yet) done, as opposed to what we have done?
I remember when I first realized that I am a gardener. For the longest time I actually thought that since I didn't tend to large expanses of lush gardens, that I was not a gardener.
This sort of bedeviled thinking has crept into my thoughts on ministry. My husband and I have planted one church, so far - the one he currently pastors. We and a few (a very few...a reeeeeeeally, really few) stalwart souls planted it from the ground, up. One church. More than most people ever plant in a lifetime. It has grown to be a thing of beauty.
To think that I am not yet a church planter because I've planted "only" one church is like saying I am not yet a mother because I have had "only" one child. Ridiculous. The fact that I have had four children does not make me more of a mother than the woman who has had only one child.
Now I'm not talking about stretching the truth. I won't be calling myself a photographer just because I've snapped a few pictures, or an artist because I've painted a landscape. (Well, I've almost painted a landscape. I have yet to finish my first painting. Shoot - I am compulsively honest.) But most of us aren't into stretching the truth. A lot of women I know tend to sell themselves too short, rather than the other way around. (There are a few who oversell themselves, but I usually can smell that a mile away, and I avoid those few.)
My daughter is no less a mother, just because her child is yet unborn. Now that is a concept! That concept speaks to all things yet unborn in our lives - things that God sees, but we don't. Much like the way He called Abraham the Father of Many Nations. Much like the way He called Gideon a Mighty Man of Valor.
Because your God has better plans for you than you know, you yourself are more than you realize.
Who are you?
Have You?
Today, I laughed until I cried.
I laughed so hard, I stopped breathing.
I mean, I ugly laughed. (You know - when your face is helplessly frozen in a humiliatingly ridiculous expression.)
I laughed until I thought I was going to die.
I laughed so violently, my whole life passed before my eyes. That made me laugh even harder.
And it made me realize, for the millionth time, that laughter is one of the "sounds of joyful shouting and salvation" that the Scripture talks about. The devil hates laughter with unholy passion. He'd rather you fear him, give him credit for all the bad things in your life, blame him, anything but laugh in spite of his existence.
Being convulsed in a spit giggle is a sign of great spiritual strength. I'm tired of Christians who have forgotten how to unselfconsciously laugh their behinds off. G.K. Chesterton said, "It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light." He didn't mean your bathroom scales, either. I am telling you, it takes real brains to be funny, and it takes humility to laugh regularly and genuinely and so hard your head feels like it will pop off.
Most are too self absorbed to notice the hilarity that surrounds them on a daily basis. Hey - takes a self absorbed woman to know one. When I'm not laughing, I'm not noticing, either.
Going by the hermaneutical principle of "first mention", it is no mere coincidence that the first time laughter is mentioned in the Bible, it was a Great Woman of the Faith who was cracking up. Giggles are surely a sign of impending Promise and Blessing.
I swear, I tell the Lord all the time, that all I want to do is have some fun. He assures me that that is what He wants for me, more than I want it for myself. Its just that, as I'm having fun, He keeps making me do stuff. I guess if I'm giving my life away hilariously, it doesn't seem so awful. Giving my body to be burned is an actual sacrifice when I am absolutely in love with the life He has given me, and the people He has put in it. So the Lord slips in a good punch line, as I set myself on fire, figuratively speaking, again and again. God is good to me like that. If that messes with you, I am sorry.
The way I see it, laughter, at the appropriate things, at the appropriate and even inappropriate time, is one of the permanent expressions of a saint. Every negative emotion you and I experience is temporary. There will be no sad or mad tears in heaven. No frowns. No furrowed brows or anxious faces.
You may have heard of the Toronto Blessing. I'm not sure what I think of all that laughin' in church, ya'll, but I'm fine with bustin' loose at my own table.
The Knoxville Blessing. I'm so glad I had a visitation today. (and I have my daughter Hannah to thank for it, but that is another story...)
"God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." (Gen. 21:6)
I laughed so hard, I stopped breathing.
I mean, I ugly laughed. (You know - when your face is helplessly frozen in a humiliatingly ridiculous expression.)
I laughed until I thought I was going to die.
I laughed so violently, my whole life passed before my eyes. That made me laugh even harder.
And it made me realize, for the millionth time, that laughter is one of the "sounds of joyful shouting and salvation" that the Scripture talks about. The devil hates laughter with unholy passion. He'd rather you fear him, give him credit for all the bad things in your life, blame him, anything but laugh in spite of his existence.
Being convulsed in a spit giggle is a sign of great spiritual strength. I'm tired of Christians who have forgotten how to unselfconsciously laugh their behinds off. G.K. Chesterton said, "It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light." He didn't mean your bathroom scales, either. I am telling you, it takes real brains to be funny, and it takes humility to laugh regularly and genuinely and so hard your head feels like it will pop off.
Most are too self absorbed to notice the hilarity that surrounds them on a daily basis. Hey - takes a self absorbed woman to know one. When I'm not laughing, I'm not noticing, either.
Going by the hermaneutical principle of "first mention", it is no mere coincidence that the first time laughter is mentioned in the Bible, it was a Great Woman of the Faith who was cracking up. Giggles are surely a sign of impending Promise and Blessing.
I swear, I tell the Lord all the time, that all I want to do is have some fun. He assures me that that is what He wants for me, more than I want it for myself. Its just that, as I'm having fun, He keeps making me do stuff. I guess if I'm giving my life away hilariously, it doesn't seem so awful. Giving my body to be burned is an actual sacrifice when I am absolutely in love with the life He has given me, and the people He has put in it. So the Lord slips in a good punch line, as I set myself on fire, figuratively speaking, again and again. God is good to me like that. If that messes with you, I am sorry.
The way I see it, laughter, at the appropriate things, at the appropriate and even inappropriate time, is one of the permanent expressions of a saint. Every negative emotion you and I experience is temporary. There will be no sad or mad tears in heaven. No frowns. No furrowed brows or anxious faces.
You may have heard of the Toronto Blessing. I'm not sure what I think of all that laughin' in church, ya'll, but I'm fine with bustin' loose at my own table.
The Knoxville Blessing. I'm so glad I had a visitation today. (and I have my daughter Hannah to thank for it, but that is another story...)
"God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." (Gen. 21:6)
My Anchor Holds...Or, A Strong Consolation
My soul needs strong consolation. You?
It is found in only one place: this gospel of grace through faith in Christ. I marvel freshly at how different my whole perspective is, since re-soaking my heart in the doctrines of grace. Truly, God can take a woman who has walked with Him many, many years (37 to be exact) and change her mind. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul!
So I've been thinking lately, as I look for grace-sightings in the Old Covenant, about how the high priest entered once a year into the Holy of Holies, to make his offering in the presence of God. He was "anchored" so to speak, outside the veil, by a rope around his ankle. If he didn't do it all exactly right, he died on the spot, and was pulled out of the presence of God with that rope.
There is no hope to be found in our performance, friends. We will never...ever...get it all right.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
Because of Jesus, I too am anchored. There is a rope tied to me. And when I don't do it all exactly right, if I stray, if I am faithless, I do not die.
Rather, I am pulled right back to God, rather than away from Him. God pulls me to His very heart, and breathes life into my moments and my days. Because the wrath of God was spent at the cross, I am the recipient of a great, great hope. I experience unmerited favor each and every day. God is rich in mercy towards me, and towards my seed, to a thousand generations. This is a generation-spanning rope, and I am tied securely fast, and in this I find not just any consolation...
I find...strong consolation.
My anchor holds within that veil...where God is, in other words. Anchors have to be tied to something, and weighted down by something. I'm tied to Him, Who is Great, Who alone is consolation, and Who is heavy with His own Weighty Glory. And. And. Because I am tied to Him, all that is tied to me is tied to Him.
You are so blessed, if I love you!
::she smiles::
Because if I love you, I carry you in my heart always, I can't let go, and my Father is always wanting to know what and who is on my heart.
By grace, through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, I am pulled by God, to God. My anchor holds me and draws me into His presence. And there, I bring Him my weakness and my need. I bring Him those I love.
I'm not hoping in hope. No...my soul hopes in God alone.
Strong consolation. A sure salvation.
..."by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil..." (Heb. 6)
It is found in only one place: this gospel of grace through faith in Christ. I marvel freshly at how different my whole perspective is, since re-soaking my heart in the doctrines of grace. Truly, God can take a woman who has walked with Him many, many years (37 to be exact) and change her mind. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul!
So I've been thinking lately, as I look for grace-sightings in the Old Covenant, about how the high priest entered once a year into the Holy of Holies, to make his offering in the presence of God. He was "anchored" so to speak, outside the veil, by a rope around his ankle. If he didn't do it all exactly right, he died on the spot, and was pulled out of the presence of God with that rope.
There is no hope to be found in our performance, friends. We will never...ever...get it all right.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
Because of Jesus, I too am anchored. There is a rope tied to me. And when I don't do it all exactly right, if I stray, if I am faithless, I do not die.
Rather, I am pulled right back to God, rather than away from Him. God pulls me to His very heart, and breathes life into my moments and my days. Because the wrath of God was spent at the cross, I am the recipient of a great, great hope. I experience unmerited favor each and every day. God is rich in mercy towards me, and towards my seed, to a thousand generations. This is a generation-spanning rope, and I am tied securely fast, and in this I find not just any consolation...
I find...strong consolation.
My anchor holds within that veil...where God is, in other words. Anchors have to be tied to something, and weighted down by something. I'm tied to Him, Who is Great, Who alone is consolation, and Who is heavy with His own Weighty Glory. And. And. Because I am tied to Him, all that is tied to me is tied to Him.
You are so blessed, if I love you!
::she smiles::
Because if I love you, I carry you in my heart always, I can't let go, and my Father is always wanting to know what and who is on my heart.
By grace, through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, I am pulled by God, to God. My anchor holds me and draws me into His presence. And there, I bring Him my weakness and my need. I bring Him those I love.
I'm not hoping in hope. No...my soul hopes in God alone.
Strong consolation. A sure salvation.
..."by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil..." (Heb. 6)
The Gospel is Worth Our Cheerful Endurance
Go find your hairbrush. Go on...I'll wait. Draw from it a single one of your hairs. Now, take that hair and tape it to the front cover of your Bible study journal. It will be an icon for you, both of what is about to happen in your life story, and the outcome of your story. That single hair will also remind you of how to deal with what is about to happen.
In short - it will be more than difficult, but you will be more than just okay.
If you stand firm on the gospel of Christ Alone, here is what will happen to you:
You will be betrayed. (meaning: someone who you thought was with you, will leave you. Usually they will betray you "with a kiss" - saying with their lips that they love you, and still want to be your friend...or your family.)
Betrayal does not come by the kiss of just anyone, otherwise it wouldn't matter. No, betrayal comes by the kiss of a dear one, always.
But listen to me. It is a loss at first, but in the end, you will not have lost so much as a hair from off the top of your beautiful head. This is experience speaking! I have found the words of Jesus to be dramatically true.
Expect to be betrayed and lose those ones, yet expect to lose nothing. The Christian life is full of paradox. Bear it all with cheerful patience. Patience is no patience at all if it is not cheerful. Otherwise, it is just fleshly stoicism...an unattractive martyrdom.
You are not going to suffer the loss of so much as a hair from your head, see. That is yours and God's little secret. So let them kiss you and walk away. The gospel is worth your cheerful endurance, and it is through this cheerfulness that you possess an untroubled soul.
I taped a single hair of mine to the front cover of my Bible study journal just now. It is for me an icon of the fact that I am living a dream I do not deserve. In spite of weathering the worst, I am receiving the best.
If God is fully committed to the preservation of that hair from my head, how much more will he preserve and protect my heart...my reputation...my relationships and my resources? I've been betrayed, and I have lost, but as I look at the bottom line of my balance sheet, there is more in the bank than ever before, so to speak.
Each time I open that journal, and break open the word of God, I will see...a seemingly unimportant part of me that God has committed Himself to keep count of, and to protect...a single hair of a woman with an untroubled soul, a soul breathing deeply of the atmosphere of eternity, where all is undisturbed Shalom.
"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls."
In short - it will be more than difficult, but you will be more than just okay.
If you stand firm on the gospel of Christ Alone, here is what will happen to you:
You will be betrayed. (meaning: someone who you thought was with you, will leave you. Usually they will betray you "with a kiss" - saying with their lips that they love you, and still want to be your friend...or your family.)
Betrayal does not come by the kiss of just anyone, otherwise it wouldn't matter. No, betrayal comes by the kiss of a dear one, always.
But listen to me. It is a loss at first, but in the end, you will not have lost so much as a hair from off the top of your beautiful head. This is experience speaking! I have found the words of Jesus to be dramatically true.
Expect to be betrayed and lose those ones, yet expect to lose nothing. The Christian life is full of paradox. Bear it all with cheerful patience. Patience is no patience at all if it is not cheerful. Otherwise, it is just fleshly stoicism...an unattractive martyrdom.
You are not going to suffer the loss of so much as a hair from your head, see. That is yours and God's little secret. So let them kiss you and walk away. The gospel is worth your cheerful endurance, and it is through this cheerfulness that you possess an untroubled soul.
I taped a single hair of mine to the front cover of my Bible study journal just now. It is for me an icon of the fact that I am living a dream I do not deserve. In spite of weathering the worst, I am receiving the best.
If God is fully committed to the preservation of that hair from my head, how much more will he preserve and protect my heart...my reputation...my relationships and my resources? I've been betrayed, and I have lost, but as I look at the bottom line of my balance sheet, there is more in the bank than ever before, so to speak.
Each time I open that journal, and break open the word of God, I will see...a seemingly unimportant part of me that God has committed Himself to keep count of, and to protect...a single hair of a woman with an untroubled soul, a soul breathing deeply of the atmosphere of eternity, where all is undisturbed Shalom.
"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls."
Mountain Moving Faith
A faith that moves mountains is simpler than you think. Jesus said it best, when He said, "...if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'be removed and cast into the sea'..."
A mountain represents a Present Problem. A mountain is a problem so looming, it chills you with its consuming shadow. A mountain is a problem that fills your field of vision, blocking out everything else. A mountain feels too big, and seems too urgent. It is an obstacle to living a peaceful and ordinary life.
But in Christ, you have been given a measure of mountain moving faith. The mysterious paradox of mountain moving faith is this: you aren't supposed to work it up.
You are supposed to speak to the mountain. In the case of mountain moving faith, actions speak louder than words. Your actions do all the talking, in fact.
First, you acknowledge your mountain. You let it be there - tall and daunting. Let it be every bit as unvanquishable as it is. This isn't mountain climbing faith you have, it is a faith that moves the mountain...it is a faith that allows you to live with the same joy you had before your mountain existed; the same joy as if your mountain did not exist. For all purposes in your life, this mountain is no longer in the way of anything God is able to accomplish.
Secondly, you do the next thing, without regard to the mountain. Let your actions do the talking - and your actions are declaring, "What mountain? Before my God you shall become a plain!"
Plan your weekly meals. Shop for the best ingredients. Kiss your spouse. Redecorate. Wash the car. Take a vacation. Do your job, every day. Obey God in the very next thing He says.
This is the critical thing - live! Keep calm, carry on. Really live, and do it smack-dab in full view of your mountain. The very act of living, of doing the next thing, is the faith-speak it takes to move the mountain!
And if simply living and doing the next thing seems too easy - you have never encountered a real mountain. When facing a real mountain, ordinary days seem impossible.
With God, all things are possible. Let your actions shout "Grace, grace!" to your mountain!
The Lord sent you here today so that I can tell you, when you "speak" to your mountain, there will come a day, not too far away, when suddenly you will feel the warmth of the sun. The chilling shadow will be gone. You will look up, and behold: the mountain is brought so low, it is at sea level! Gone!
And in its place will be a road. Proceed with great joy.
Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth...(Is. 40)
A mountain represents a Present Problem. A mountain is a problem so looming, it chills you with its consuming shadow. A mountain is a problem that fills your field of vision, blocking out everything else. A mountain feels too big, and seems too urgent. It is an obstacle to living a peaceful and ordinary life.
But in Christ, you have been given a measure of mountain moving faith. The mysterious paradox of mountain moving faith is this: you aren't supposed to work it up.
You are supposed to speak to the mountain. In the case of mountain moving faith, actions speak louder than words. Your actions do all the talking, in fact.
First, you acknowledge your mountain. You let it be there - tall and daunting. Let it be every bit as unvanquishable as it is. This isn't mountain climbing faith you have, it is a faith that moves the mountain...it is a faith that allows you to live with the same joy you had before your mountain existed; the same joy as if your mountain did not exist. For all purposes in your life, this mountain is no longer in the way of anything God is able to accomplish.
Secondly, you do the next thing, without regard to the mountain. Let your actions do the talking - and your actions are declaring, "What mountain? Before my God you shall become a plain!"
Plan your weekly meals. Shop for the best ingredients. Kiss your spouse. Redecorate. Wash the car. Take a vacation. Do your job, every day. Obey God in the very next thing He says.
This is the critical thing - live! Keep calm, carry on. Really live, and do it smack-dab in full view of your mountain. The very act of living, of doing the next thing, is the faith-speak it takes to move the mountain!
And if simply living and doing the next thing seems too easy - you have never encountered a real mountain. When facing a real mountain, ordinary days seem impossible.
With God, all things are possible. Let your actions shout "Grace, grace!" to your mountain!
The Lord sent you here today so that I can tell you, when you "speak" to your mountain, there will come a day, not too far away, when suddenly you will feel the warmth of the sun. The chilling shadow will be gone. You will look up, and behold: the mountain is brought so low, it is at sea level! Gone!
And in its place will be a road. Proceed with great joy.
Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth...(Is. 40)
The Sad Reality of Offenses
The person most in position to advance you into the next level, is the person you are most likely to get offended by.
I plead with you, when this happens ("when", not "if") when the offense comes, stick and stay. See it through. Come under the authority of the word of God. You must come under to get over the mountain. Otherwise, you will have to repeat the lesson, and take the test over and over and over and...
...you get the idea. You can experience ten years worth of spiritual growth in a week, by simply coming under. Or, take ten years to "get" what could have taken you only a week. Either way, you never advance to "C" without going through "A" and "B".
I don't get to pick the vessel through which I am to be dealt with or promoted. I don't get to pick who I will hear and who I will not. The moment I choose not to hear, the very moment I run from the lesson, my life becomes like...
"...the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it
Not knowing what it was
But they'll just keep on singing it forever, just because
This is the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it..."
There is one, and only one, common denominator in all your broken relationships: you. The day you give up and face that fact, change your mind, deal with your issues, and go mend those relational fences, will be the day of your greatest glory. All of heaven will record it.
I plead with you, when this happens ("when", not "if") when the offense comes, stick and stay. See it through. Come under the authority of the word of God. You must come under to get over the mountain. Otherwise, you will have to repeat the lesson, and take the test over and over and over and...
...you get the idea. You can experience ten years worth of spiritual growth in a week, by simply coming under. Or, take ten years to "get" what could have taken you only a week. Either way, you never advance to "C" without going through "A" and "B".
I don't get to pick the vessel through which I am to be dealt with or promoted. I don't get to pick who I will hear and who I will not. The moment I choose not to hear, the very moment I run from the lesson, my life becomes like...
"...the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it
Not knowing what it was
But they'll just keep on singing it forever, just because
This is the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it..."
There is one, and only one, common denominator in all your broken relationships: you. The day you give up and face that fact, change your mind, deal with your issues, and go mend those relational fences, will be the day of your greatest glory. All of heaven will record it.
Finding What I Seek
I read just today about a phenomenon called "Situation Evocation". This refers to the fact that we spark responses from others that reinforce a tendency we ourselves already have. Cheerful people tend to make others smile back at them. Jaded people are dangerously contagious. Critical people get little mercy from others. The merciful obtain mercy. Just like in water, face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man, the Proverbs say.
I've noticed I can talk about how that leaders have to be "people-persons", and then ask someone, "What makes you an extrovert?" - and they will answer me with whatever is evidence in their mind about what makes them a people person.
But then, weeks or months later, if I talk about the beautiful artistic gifting inherent to the introvert, I can then ask the same person, "What makes you an introvert?" - and they will give me evidence for that, too.
Here's the thing: we all have the ability to find evidence for two opposite conclusions. Which conclusion we choose to go with reveals our heart.
If I look at my husband and think, "He doesn't care" - I find evidence of it. If I look at him and think, "He is so sweet and loving" - I find ample evidence of that.
I know. I've tried it, both ways.
It is stunning, the way my thoughts can define and dictate my feelings to me...not vice-versa. I can "truth" my way out of any lie, if only I am willing to have my perspective adjusted. I can choose a critical perspective, and my experience will soon confirm the conclusion; when I seek evil, I can find it...in anyone and anything at any given time.
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, But trouble will come to him who seeks evil. (Proverbs)
Perspective is a function of the heart. The heart of every woman is predisposed to seek either good or evil, to be either positive or negative - because the heart is wired to function from a basis of either grace or performance (works), nothing in between.
"And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work." Rom. 11:6
It is important, therefore, to be renewed in the "spirit of your mind". Allow your heart to be renewed in the gospel, begin to earnestly seek the good in your circumstances and in the people you say you care about. If you do, you'll find your perspective adjusted to function from grace instead of a mindset of "earning and deserving".
If you must "earn and deserve" with God, then so must your children and spouse and friends with you. If you rather earnestly seek good, and you receive the free gift of grace from God, so must your children and spouse and friends ultimately experience undeserved love from you.
When I hear someone refer to this as "cheap grace", or "easy believe-ism", I laugh. I've read (and love) all of Bonhoeffer's works, and I get what he meant, when he coined this term from a prison cell, suffering for the sake of Christ.
But nobody else can use it with authority, unless they are likewise suffering. Pretty much everyone who tosses around the words "cheap grace" today, are using them to look down their nose at someone else's theology. Almost none who bandy that term in our generation have actually lived grace out - it is mere concept to them, that is why they think it can be cheapened. When you "live of the gospel" as opposed to merely saying you believe it, nothing is more costly or more difficult in life than to earnestly look for the good, to "keep yourself in the love of God". (Jude)
Every time you choose to re-name and re-frame by faith, calling things that be not as though they were, not being moved by what you see, all hell will conspire against you. Please. Do not even start spouting grace until you have counted the cost. Stick with the law...it will require less of you. Law is way easier. Far from being "cheap", the truth of grace will cost you more than you ever thought you could pay, and stretch your faith beyond where you thought you could go.
If you look for good, you'll find it...even in your parents and your kid and your church.
If you look for evil, trouble will find you.
I bet you wish I made that up, but God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. What will you do with the truth of it?
While lacking the power and keen edge of God-breathed Scripture, and not understanding how "grace through faith" works, Goethe observed: “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather...If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."
I've noticed I can talk about how that leaders have to be "people-persons", and then ask someone, "What makes you an extrovert?" - and they will answer me with whatever is evidence in their mind about what makes them a people person.
But then, weeks or months later, if I talk about the beautiful artistic gifting inherent to the introvert, I can then ask the same person, "What makes you an introvert?" - and they will give me evidence for that, too.
Here's the thing: we all have the ability to find evidence for two opposite conclusions. Which conclusion we choose to go with reveals our heart.
If I look at my husband and think, "He doesn't care" - I find evidence of it. If I look at him and think, "He is so sweet and loving" - I find ample evidence of that.
I know. I've tried it, both ways.
It is stunning, the way my thoughts can define and dictate my feelings to me...not vice-versa. I can "truth" my way out of any lie, if only I am willing to have my perspective adjusted. I can choose a critical perspective, and my experience will soon confirm the conclusion; when I seek evil, I can find it...in anyone and anything at any given time.
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, But trouble will come to him who seeks evil. (Proverbs)
Perspective is a function of the heart. The heart of every woman is predisposed to seek either good or evil, to be either positive or negative - because the heart is wired to function from a basis of either grace or performance (works), nothing in between.
"And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work." Rom. 11:6
It is important, therefore, to be renewed in the "spirit of your mind". Allow your heart to be renewed in the gospel, begin to earnestly seek the good in your circumstances and in the people you say you care about. If you do, you'll find your perspective adjusted to function from grace instead of a mindset of "earning and deserving".
If you must "earn and deserve" with God, then so must your children and spouse and friends with you. If you rather earnestly seek good, and you receive the free gift of grace from God, so must your children and spouse and friends ultimately experience undeserved love from you.
When I hear someone refer to this as "cheap grace", or "easy believe-ism", I laugh. I've read (and love) all of Bonhoeffer's works, and I get what he meant, when he coined this term from a prison cell, suffering for the sake of Christ.
But nobody else can use it with authority, unless they are likewise suffering. Pretty much everyone who tosses around the words "cheap grace" today, are using them to look down their nose at someone else's theology. Almost none who bandy that term in our generation have actually lived grace out - it is mere concept to them, that is why they think it can be cheapened. When you "live of the gospel" as opposed to merely saying you believe it, nothing is more costly or more difficult in life than to earnestly look for the good, to "keep yourself in the love of God". (Jude)
Every time you choose to re-name and re-frame by faith, calling things that be not as though they were, not being moved by what you see, all hell will conspire against you. Please. Do not even start spouting grace until you have counted the cost. Stick with the law...it will require less of you. Law is way easier. Far from being "cheap", the truth of grace will cost you more than you ever thought you could pay, and stretch your faith beyond where you thought you could go.
If you look for good, you'll find it...even in your parents and your kid and your church.
If you look for evil, trouble will find you.
I bet you wish I made that up, but God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. What will you do with the truth of it?
While lacking the power and keen edge of God-breathed Scripture, and not understanding how "grace through faith" works, Goethe observed: “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather...If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."
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