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God’s timing is perfect for this blog: Just the other day a friend posted on his FB a need for prayer for a young man who was suicidal. Fortunately the young man knew that this friend and their home was a safe haven. This young man is reaching out and grasping at any ounce of hope that he can find and he chose this friend who happens to be a mature Christian.

“The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.” Proverbs 20:14, NIV

Like the young man who is struggling with suicide, his heart is full of deep waters at this time. My friend is the man of understanding. Would you please pray along with me during this urgent time that my friend will have the wisdom and discernment to be that man of understanding that can draw out these deep waters in this other young man’s heart and bring the hope of Christ to him during these dark moments?

We all have deep waters and it takes a special heart that can draw them out. Do you have someone that draws out your deep waters? Are you the one of understanding? This is the wise counselor. You are needed so much, look for those you can draw out. There is a light that shines in us as believers that brings hope to others when they see us. But they are seeing more than us because we reflect the radiance of Christ. It is His reflection back at them that tells them there is hope. You are that messenger of that Good News.

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about-1-week-oldThey are the most precious inheritance we leave here on this earth in every generation. Do we really understand the depth of our investment and accountability in them in regards to their overall mental health and well being? When I worked for a non-profit as a mental health consultant for early childhood, I understood this to a deeper level than what I ever believed before. We need to invest in our babies from the very beginning and we need to guard them throughout their childhood stubbornly and fiercely. If we do not teach our children to love and fear the Lord in this lifetime, then we have failed in the job that God gave us for such a time as this. And if we allow any harm to come to them when we have every opportunity to protect them, woe to us. This is our time as Dad and Mom’s and Leaders. Never exploit the children, but teach them in the way they should go.

While these commands were given to the children of Israel and are still relevant, they are also relevant to those that have been grafted in: the church.

“Here O Israel: The Lord our God , the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on  your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down  and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NIV

and then Jesus refers to little ones in the faith or children:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.'”… Luke 17:1-3 NIV

The reason why these verses are so important is that is it shows how careful we need to be with those who are young and vulnerable who trust us as adults. Being an adult survivor of child abuse, I know the impact of it and how it can cause so much destruction in so many ways long into adulthood. As adults, we have a choice to stop generational sins and we can protect the threats of harm to little ones by not breaking their spirit and exasperating them. We can guard their mental health and their well-being, especially spiritually, by loving them well and honoring their preciousness before the Lord and letting them remain children. Crushing their spirit, allowing harm to them, contributing to their growing up before their time, can put them into harmful situations whether we intend it or not. Taking out our anger on them can damage them physically, emotionally and spiritually and set them up for later mental health issues as well as rebelliousness against us as parents and ultimately against God whom we are commanded to teach them how to love. This harm can unknowingly be done even with our best intentions as parents or leaders by putting them out there in the ‘limelight’ or giving them too much responsibility before they are ready or mature enough to handle it – we are always accountable. As adults we are too familiar with and know that harm comes, even unintentionally. What will be do to guard them so that doesn’t happen? Where is that fine line of letting them learn and protecting them?

It is truly important to love and obey God as an adult and to pass this on to your children in a LOVING way! How will you take responsibility of this in the life of your child? Or better yet, if you were a child that was embittered and harmed, how will you allow the spirit of God to re-parent you to learn to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind? If you let Him do it, it can happen and you will experience great freedom! Your next generation will live a freedom like you will have never imagined, but will yet to live yourself! Go for it!

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I have been on the road the past two weeks and it’s been tough to find the time for a blog.

Right now my daughter’s mother-in-law and I have been trading off  driving about every 3 hours. We went to my daughter Rachel’s graduation from Purdue University at IUPUI in Mechanical Engineering.

We are moving her and her husband back to the Seattle area so she can start her new job. Anyway, as Jane, her mother-in-law, and I trek cross-country, I am reminded of past road trips to visit family and moving around with my husband’s career. America is big and the land is vast and diverse with its people. But it’s also a reminder of a how much bigger world we live in beyond this nation. Then conversely, I start to think about how really small this planet earth is within a huge universe and then my perspective changes to  how small we truly are and how very big God really is. That is reality.

That our big God cared to give us such a unique terrain to live on and with everything we need to survive on it amazes me. He also made people so unique with their different cultures, traditions, etc. What I love about God is that He believes that each and every one of us is so important that He gave us a free-will and opportunity to explore and find Him while here on this planet. People matter to God and they should matter to us.  Every time I look at another human being, I remind myself, this is a child of God, regardless of whether they love or serve Him.  Each one of us comes with our own stories: troubles and joys. And these stories that we are made of is what makes us unique. And yet we are significant to Him in all our ways, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you should care for him?” (Psalm 8:4, ESV)

Keeping a right perspective helps keep us humble and from thinking we are bigger than we are. No, we are very small, but we are very important to the God who created us. A narrowed focus can keep us stuck; thinking beyond ourselves reminds us there is more to life than just us here on this earth. When we can reach past ourselves to others around us, it pulls us out of our inward focus to do something good for someone else, to learn their story, to learn to appreciate and love them right where they are at. All of the sudden, our problems seem smaller.Travel Crazy Horse

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“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9a

I never used to like being weak. To me, being weak always meant you couldn’t take care of yourself. It meant you had to admit you needed help. To be strong meant competency and reliability. But there is a sense of competency that comes as a believer, when you practice your reliability on the One that can provide for every need that you have. As I have been through so many life lessons and matured more in my faith, I have begun to understand that weakness is for my benefit. When I am weak it causes me to seek out my God, a rock and a refuge, who holds me up with His mighty right hand and protects me under His wing. When I am weary I can rest and trust in Him.

God was more concerned with Paul’s integrity and that he didn’t brag about his own knowledge, but that he would brag all the more about his weaknesses and frailty, his sufferings, so that Christ could be known through Paul’s weaknesses. And that is exactly where He wants me to be, too. The areas in my life where I have been weak and will still be weak; the hardships that I suffer, or insults for what I believe in, those are the areas in my life that God wants to glorify Himself through for others to see.

What a comforting thought: behind every suffering, every weakness, every difficulty, is an opportunity for you to shine for Christ. Paul even said he delights in these… that may seem a bit tough to swallow, but as I start to see the big picture in this and in my own life, I tend to not hold onto the grumbling so much anymore when these trials come. Instead, I am learning to embrace them (mind you they are not delightful yet, but one day…); I am catching glimpses of this power being made perfect in me through these times of weaknesses. Such a testimony we can be, one to another. Allow your weaknesses and watch His grace work mightily in you!

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”rainbowfarm

 

 

 

 

 

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I think standing is underrated and definitely taken for granted. I probably wouldn’t have said this if I weren’t having such difficulty with joint pain lately in my hips. After a few days of this pain I would rather sit, or complain and cry. I think of those who wish they even had two feet or or two legs to even stand on. I’ve got it good. Really. Makes my pain seem so minor in perspective.

There are a lot of verses I can think of to support standing. Not necessarily just a physical standing position. What I like about it though is that whether I am seated or standing, I can still stand no matter what my situation. The key is, to not ever stand against myself. “A house divided against itself can’t stand.” (Mark 3:25) “Stand” or the Greek word ‘histemi’ literally or figuratively can mean to abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set (up), stand (by, forth, still, up). It is an upright and active position (not passive or lying down). A house in this scripture can mean literally a house or even a family. How many families do you know have been torn apart if they have been divided one member against the other?

So, how do you keep from being a house divided? How do you personally keep yourself true to your doctrine that you follow in life so that it matches up with the word of God? Because the moment you step away from what you know to be true in God’s word and start following another path is the moment you begin to be divided against yourself and I promise you, you will not be able to stand, and you will suffer greatly the natural consequences.

Further, in Mark 3:27 Jesus says that no one can enter a strong man’s house and take everything he has unless he first binds the strong man. In this particular passage Christ has been talking about Satan as the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of being possessed of Beelzebul. Jesus is teaching them that no one can enter a house and steal whatever they want unless the person watching guard is some how tied up. Jesus knows it is Satan who binds the strong man and robs him of what he has. Have you allowed Satan to have a foothold and bind you or a member of your family, a spouse, a child, to destroy you or the family unit? If you were alert and watching over the affairs of your home all the time, you would be ready for a thief. But Satan is a liar and a deceiver of the light, so his deception will be very subtle. You will barely recognize it.

The way to “do battle” is to take an alert posture and be active to stand along with putting on the full armor of God. Ephesians 6:10-18, ESV reminds us:

1. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.

2. It is not flesh and blood that we wrestle against, but against rulers, authorities and against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

3. Take up the full armor so you may be able to withstand (stand against or stand opposed) in the evil day.

4. And after having done all, to stand firm. (Go to this scripture right now and remind yourself of all the armor you will need to stand).

STAND, STAND STAND – don’t let the enemy of your soul have his way in your life or in the life of the ones you love! You don’t have to fight the battle… You have to stand! God says the battle is His, not ours and He has already won the battle for us!

Divine-InspirationComic by Willem Samuel

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We just finished celebrating my son’s 15th birthday yesterday. I love celebrating him, because I can remind him especially on the day of his birth, how wonderful he was made (but I tell him this all the time anyway). Because of some of his awkwardness with his autism, kids that don’t understand him will bully him at school and then he struggles with his value of worth and identity in Christ.

I don’t like to think of self-esteem as an important goal for people to focus on, as I think it is a humanistic point of view that values self more than God. I do, however, think everyone should have a healthy view of who they are and how they are seen in God’s eyes. In fact on Day 6 of God’s creation, man was the only one of all of his creations that He said was “Very good.” Of course there are ramifications of sin after the Garden in which I can expound on later and I won’t get into all of that here in this post.

Ever think you’re not special? That you might be worthless?  That’s what the Enemy of God would have you think. You don’t have to go further than Psalm 139 to be proven wrong:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days written for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (13-16, NIV)

As I think of the intricacies of a tapestry being woven and well thought out by the designer, I can’t help but think how much joy it must have brought God to design and weave each one of us. And He has known us before we were formed… how awesome is that. Don’t we struggle on this earth to want people to understand and really know us? Our God does! And He is with us and mighty to save. He takes great delight in us, quiets us with his love and rejoices over us with singing! (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

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This is a tough topic to consider and as well to live out. There is a fine line in our faith of being broken and living victorious, but may I suggest that if you are living “broken” in Christ, you are victorious.

There is a brokenness of our will that says, I need you God. I can’t do it my way anymore; I agree with you God that I am a sinner and I need your salvation. And when you first come to salvation in Christ this is where you need to be. But after you have been saved, there is still the process of being broken. It comes through the “working out of your salvation”; a continual dependency on the grace of God while living out the rest of your life here on earth. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Galatians 2:21, NIV We need to learn daily how to submit our will.

There is a type of humility that comes when we keep an accurate picture in our hearts and minds that we can’t live a moment without the grace of Christ in our lives. The moment we begin to think we can do anything without Him is the moment we need to realize that pride and self have just entered stage-left. As a result, we will reap natural consequences when we take our eyes off of Christ to take center stage. Every breath we have breathed and every next breath that we take has been given by Him. It is vital for us to always keep a sober view of ourselves and keep a close watch on how we live our lives. We do this by keeping a close comparison of our lives to the truth of Scripture and on Christ Jesus, not by comparing ourselves to others or what the world says we need or whom we should look like. Jesus Christ and His Word are our plumb lines.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17, NIV

God wants us broken because this is where He does His best work through our lives: when we have a broken spirit. He detests the proud. Out of brokenness comes new life. We have never “arrived” as Christians here on this earth. Our wills will continue to battle with us here in this life, until we have our new heavenly bodies. We must continually “die to self” to allow the will of God in our lives. Don’t ever be too far from brokenness, if at all.

A daily living out of your life in brokenness says, “I am so grateful, Savior, that not a day, not a single moment goes by without it being by Your grace. Thank you Jesus.”

We can rejoice in that!

 

George Barna has just started a blog series on brokenness that you might find interesting:

http://www.georgebarna.com/2012/04/the-maximum-faith-series-article-1-the-importance-of-brokenness/

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This June will be my oldest daughter Jessica and her husband Bailey’s 3rd wedding anniversary. Time seems to go by so fast. Just before her wedding day, I wanted to purchase a beautiful set of pearls for her so that she would always remember them as a gift from her parents, and also one that she could wear on her special day. Not long after the wedding and once they had settled into their first home, she realized they were missing. She had found the bracelet and earrings, but the necklace was lost. She was so sad that she couldn’t find them. I was sad too, when I heard that she had lost them.

Jessica's PearlsJust this Sunday morning I received a text from my daughter as she was preparing for a little getaway with her husband. She wrote, “Guess what priceless wedding present I found in our luggage today?” It was early and I was still trying to see the message clearly as I was just waking up.  I replied, “No clue.”  She wrote back, “The pearl necklace you bought me!” Oh for joy! I was so excited for her. They had been missing for almost 3 years! I imagined her joy was greater than mine. I was also reminded of the scripture about the pearl of great value. So was Jessica. We eagerly pulled out our Bibles from 400 miles apart from each other and searched out that scripture. The next text we sent to each other (almost simultaneously)was the reference to the same story in the Bible. We were on the same page with each other, mother and daughter without knowing it. It was a special moment.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13: 45-46, ESV)

Have you ever gone searching for something of great value and then once you found it, sold everything you had so you could purchase it?

I think about the great cost it is for us as believers to follow Christ. He is that fine pearl that we have found. Do we continue to value that fine pearl? What are all the things that we so willingly have given up and sacrificed to follow Him? Maybe it has been a painful sacrifice, but the joy has outweighed it all? Or maybe you have found the fine pearl, but are still contemplating the cost?

Conversely, I think of Christ who left glory in His Deity with the godhead to come to earth in human form. He chose to humble himself by taking on the form of a human being, even to become obedient to death on a cross (See Philippians 2). In Hebrews 12:2 it says that Christ, “for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Death did not hold its victory over Him. His goal was to reconcile humankind to himself. The joy set before Him? Huh? To endure the cross? Who would find that joyful? God alone…because His plan was perfect. It was His joy to know that He was purchasing back mankind, once and for all for His own glory. You are a fine pearl to Him. Your value is so great, that Christ laid down His life and then raised it back up again for you. And because He now lives, we too live and we all have a citizenship in heaven that we are waiting for with Him.

Christ gave everything for you. Will you answer the call in your heart to give everything you have in turn for Him? If you are a believer, will you continue to count that cost daily? Maybe even considering it all joy… even when trials come? If you are searching for that fine pearl, will you sell everything you have to purchase it? It’s the greatest cost and the greatest reward!

 

 

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“Jesus wept.” John 11:35, ESV I was reminded of this verse today by a dear friend who also is an excellent Psychologist.

I think what is so profound about this short verse is that it shows the deep compassion and humanity of Christ for those He loves. He wept. It literally means that He shed tears and it means to weep silently or shed quiet (actual) tears. Christ wept when He heard the news of Lazarus’ death and when He witnessed those who were mourning for Lazarus. Not only did He weep, but it says He was deeply moved and His spirit was greatly troubled.

Have you wept like this? Remember “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV

And “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”…”For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 17-18, ESV

Romans 12:15 says we are to weep with those who weep. When we weep, Christ weeps.