Anyway

Today’s lesson was from James 2 reminding us that faith without action is dead faith.  As I was preparing for the teaching I had to ask myself: ” What keeps me from acting on my faith”? When God calls me to do something I sometimes freeze. ” Is it God”? I ask (that is usually a cop out because I am chicken little and don’t want to do what I sense He is telling me). Or I might let fear keep me from stepping out in faith. Remember, the opposite of faith is fear and fear is faith in the wrong kingdom!

Mother Teresa’s Poem

I promised that I would post the poem that I read in class today. It was engraved on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta.  So here it is:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self- centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today people will forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best anyway. You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it never was between you and them anyway. 

So my dear friends give the world your best. You will never regret it.

Fasting and Feasting

Here we are the middle of January and I am wondering why in the world I decided to fast from talking too much, from judging others, having a critical spirit, etc. I did ok for the first few days until someone had road rage and I was their target. Judgements sputtered out. And I did ok until someone hurt my grandaughter’s feelings and my claws came out. My resolution to talk less and listen more was going great until I decided to give my sermon on the mount to my husband. So what went wrong? What went wrong is that my resolution has two parts: Fasting from anything that separates me from God and feasting on God’s Word. The problem is that I wasn’t living up to my resolve to feast on the Word.

Remedy

Resolutions are only as good as our dependency on the Lord. We can have great intentions. We can even live up to our resolutions for awhile. But then our resolve breaks down and we need the supernatural (above the natural) love of Christ to press on. So often we have an attitude of : I can do all things…. forgetting that God’s Word says:  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He strengthens us with His Word.

This week I felt as though I was knee deep in alligators. Today as I pondered the fact that I am only half way through the week and things aren’t  going well,  I sought the Lord. Just like the Israelites I cried out to God for help. I so relate to their whining. But here is the thing. God always responds. He is for us and not against us. When we try and do things on our own, when we make great promises and fail, if we turn back to Him He responds with love. His Word is His love letter to us and He wants to write His letter on our hearts. When I returned to feasting on His Word, my resolve to fast from those things that separate me from Him became easy. Fasting and feasting. Why not give it a try?

What Does Worship Really Mean?

I keep hearing a contemporary worship song ringing in my ears: ” Here I am to Worship”. As I hum the words (wouldn’t dare sing out loud– too scary) I wonder: “What does worship really mean”? As we begin our new year together I thought it would be good to unpack the meaning of worship. The word means to give value or worth to something or someone. We can worship or give value to just about anything or anyone. But as Christians we are called to give value and worth to God above anything or anyone else. Now here is the problem. There are so many things pulling at me to worship— self, material possessions, relationships. Let’s be honest with one another, those same things pull on you too. Every day is a battle to focus on worshipping God first above the things of this world.

What to do?

There is a way to grow in our worshipping God and that requires focus, time, and willingness to invest in the One who created us. For starters begin each day with meditating on His Word and with thanking Him for another day to serve Him and others. That will reset or calibrate your day with Him at the center of your universe. I have to do this every day or else I easily climb into center place. It’s easy for me to imagine a crown on my head with everyone serving me (ok friends and family that call me Princess I can hear you chuckling now). It’s just the truth. But I am not the center of the universe and that is not up for grabs. Jesus Christ is the center and He longs to sit on the throne of my life and yours. The next step is to step into your day seeking the Lord in everything that you do– talk to Him and even more important listen. Apply what you read in Scripture that day and focus on where He might be at work in your day. Paul was pretty clear about how to worship by centering on Him through prayer: The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Worshipping God means being anxious for nothing but praying… and in praying His peace will come.

The Cross

Worshipping God means remembering what God did when He sent His only Son to earth— when He looked down at us with great love and said: “Son, you must go and rescue my beloved people.” Worship is recognizing that when Jesus Christ went to the cross He went out of obedience to the Father; He went out of love for us; He went because He was destined to be our Savior. So what is worship? Worship is giving value and worth to Christ and what Christ has done for us. Worship springs forth from a heart that is grateful. So the real question is not whom or what are you worshipping,  the real question is: ” Do you have a heart filled with gratitude for what Jesus has done for you?” When your heart is filled with gratitude, worship spills out naturally like a river looking for the path to the ocean. So together let’s set our intention on having a grateful heart.

New Years Resolutions

Here we are standing at the edge of the year 2011 and stepping into the New Year 2012. As I stand at the edge of the bridge to the new year,  I find myself reflecting on the past year. Each year, the week after Christmas I focus on praying in the new year asking the Lord to give me a fresh perspective, a refreshed outlook, and an eager expectant heart– expectantly waiting for the shift. You see I believe that healthy things grow and growing things change and because of this every new day, every new week, month, and year is a challenge to grow and specifically to grow closer to God.

New Year’s Resolutions

I dragged myself to spinning class today. I had to drag myself because the Christmas cookies I had eaten were weighing me down. I lOVE my spinning class because we spin to worship music and I close my eyes the whole time (not recommending this for outdoor cycling). The instructor gave a fresh perspective on New Years resolutions that I want to share with you. She said: ” We do not need to resolve to do anything. We do not need to solve anything again. Jesus Christ solved everything for us on the cross. Instead, we need to be refreshed, and replenished.” How true. And it through repentance, through the act of turning away from our sin and back to God, not through our strong will or strong resolve, that our lives are refreshed and ready to enter the new year. So here is my suggestion for the new year. Take time to retreat for an extended time with the Lord. Ask Him to show you any area of your life that needs to be recalibrated; any area of sin, any area of your life that has separated you from Him. Ask Him to forgive you and turn back to Him. That doesn’t require a resolution. That requires a tender humble heart. Then in the new year you can start on a clean page. And as you stand on the edge of the cliff of the new year you can leap over the edge with freedom– no baggage to take with you, only a refreshed spirit and a heart eager to draw near to Him. And for those of you who are interested in joining me for a spin check out  http://nmotionstudio.org/

A Centered Christmas

Here we are with four days left before Christmas. I began my blogging on the holidays at Thanksgiving promising to offer you ways to keep centered on the “reason for the season”. As we approach the celebration of the birth of our Savior, I am reminded that He is the reason we celebrate. This morning I read in the news that Lady Gaga won entertainer of the year. Her platform was tolerance. I have been pondering that all morning and realize that Jesus had quite a different platform. He came to seek and  save the lost. His mission was to bring hope to the poor and set the captive free; His mission was to destroy the works of the devil. And His goal was not to be entertainer of the year. His message was quite different. His words were: I have come that you might have life abundant; I am the way and the truth and the life; the way to the Father is through me; come to me all who are weary and heavy laden… His message was sobering, was needed, was unique. His claims were outrageous. He did not come with a message of tolerance but a message of hope for all who would turn to Him. He said the way was narrow. He said that those who believed in Him would have eternal life. His message was beyond the limits of the message of tolerance. His message was LOVE. He knew that if we focused on being tolerant only we might miss the real reason He came— to set us free from the bondage of sin and death; to set us free from the bondage of intolerance. He brings ultimate freedom to those who believe. And I vote the same way every year. Jesus is number One. How about you?

Have a blessed Christmas and New Year!

 

Spiritual GPS

Here I am again. Your Christmas fairy (or nag depending on how you look at it) checking in to see how you are doing with keeping the Christmas season holy. As promised, I have been blogging on ways to learn to work from a place of rest. In other words, following Jesus’ instruction to not be distracted by the busyness but to remember to first seek Him,  and learn the secret of entering into His Presence through prayer, meditation, and listening to His voice. Jesus said that He had to leave this world so that He could send His Holy Spirit to lead us. So how well are you doing in allowing Him to lead during the distractions of Christmas?

GPS

I don’t know what I would do without a GPS in my car. For those of you who do not know what that is or would rather not know what that is I am going to tell you anyway. For me it has been my sanity. A GPS is a global positioning device (a fancy way of saying, for those of you who are directionally challenged, it is a miracle device to get you where you need to go). I am the person who gets lost in my own neighborhood. Enough said. The Presence of Christ in our lives is our interior GPS. His Holy Spirit guides us to the degree we surrender to His lead. I made a commitment during this season (and all year and forever) to ask the Holy Spirit to lead me each day. Here is practical step number 3 (or is it 4?): Never leave home without your Holy Spirit GPS. Of course He doesn’t leave you. It is you that forgets that He is there. So each day (only 13  more days until Christmas) ask the Holy Spirit to lead. If you have packages to wrap, Christmas shows to attend, and children to dress up as little angels for the Christmas play remember to start each day asking the Holy Spirit to lead. He is a much better lead than you. He may even ask you to scratch some more things off your Christmas “to do list”. After all He just wants to be with you. Don’t let the “shoulds and oughts” diminish the reason for the season.

God is In Control

So today was not my best moment. I have loved writing these blogs about how to de-stress during this holy season. I have been doing well so far. Even polished my halo a few times. But today was worth sharing for all of you who want to delete my halo sounding world. I had an all day spiritual retreat planned. But alas my fellow retreaters were too busy (and so was I ) to have a retreat day. Sounding like trouble already right?! I was delighted to have a day to go Christmas shopping or whatever….

Call for Help

My daughter called for help. She needed help with her little kids, her big kids, her life in general and there went my free day. Here is where I lost my halo. I ADORE my grandchildren and my children. But I wanted to be selfish. I wanted my free day. Now here comes the good part. The part where I reminded myself that I had given my calendar to the Lord. Did the Lord have a better plan than my going on retreat? Yes. In the last few posts I have been talking about being Mary– sitting at Jesus’ feet. Today I had to remind myself that I am called to be Martha too. (if you need to refresh the story read Luke 10:38-42).

God is in Charge

God is in charge of your calendar. When the Christmas season threatens to overtake you remember He has the best plans. I had the most amazing day. I spent time hugging on my younger grandchildren. We played house, fed the pretend baby, had a tea party and then off to school. I took my older grandchild to the doctor and I had the privelege of being able to speak into her life. Yes, the Lord had a different plan for this day. When I finally got home tonight I looked around at my messy house with the evidence of little people’s toys and clutter. I sat down in the middle of it all and thanked God for erasing my plans and giving me something even better. So for all of you Mary’s and Martha’s out there. Don’t stress. God is in control.

Holding one of my angels (Payton)

Working From Rest

How are you all doing with your decision to slow down, pace yourself, and remember the reason for the holy season of Christmas? I promised you I would write so that together we could navigate our way around the distractions of life and into the Presence of God. Sounds unrealistic during this normally stressful busy time doesn’t it? And now to make matters worse I have dared to suggest that we work from a place of rest. What in the world does that mean?

Progress

In my last two posts, I suggested that you write down your to do list and scratch off those things that were unnecessary— the sacred cows that are known as the “shoulds and oughts”; those things that we have on our list because we feel like we have to do or we need to do because we have always done them. Some of the things on our should list are sacred because we fear that if we scratch them off we will fall off of our perfection cow. Do you really think I am calling you a cow? Not hardly. What I am telling you is that we all have things that we do for reasons that are not necessarily led by the Holy Spirit. We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us (after all Jesus told us He had to leave in order to send His Spirit to guide us) and then we proceed with our own agendas. If we really mean it, if we really want the Holy Spirit to lead us in the dance of life, then we need to stop stepping on His feet and dragging him along in the dance that we chose for ourselves. That being said, I am hopeful that you scratched off of your list all of the things that you do not need to do. God never told you to do them. What is up with that? Why do we push ourselves to do things we were never called to do? That will have to be another post for another time. So here we are having scratched off our sacred cows and we now have a fresh list of things to do this Christmas that will bless you, others, and most of all the Lord. I suggested you then pace yourselves to accomplish your list by writing down a schedule on your calendar and offering your calendar to the Lord.

Work From Rest

Here is the best part. When you give yourself grace not to be perfect and not to strive, then you are able to rest. When you are free to rest, then your work will undoubtedly be for God’s glory only. Remember to take each day with the space you have made by crossing off the shoulds and oughts and sit at the feet of Jesus. Talk to Him and listen. He longs to fill you with His words of encouragement. He isn’t interested if you check things off of your list. He is interested in your spending time with Him.

Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest….

Slow Down

Last week I told you that I was going to blog on ways to destress and make Thanksgiving and Christmas a holy season; ways to get off the fast lane and into the slower paced lane on the highway to holiness. I am convinced that we are all busy. The question is are we all being fruitful? In other words are we doing things out of obedience to the Lord or are we living in the land of shoulds and oughts. So last week I suggested you write down all of the traditional things you do over the holidays and the things that you think you should do and pray over the list. The next step was to think about what you enjoy doing, what you feel blesses you and others and leave those things on the “to do” list. The next step was to cross off anything that doesnt fit those criteria. Now wait a minute… I didn’t say cross off those visiting family relatives who are difficult to deal with. They have to stay on the list. You might need to ask for more grace for that one or set better boundaries. But that is a whole other issue.

Next Step

Now you are all set for the next step. Armed with your fresh list of the things you want to do and feel called to do, get out your calendar and pace yourself by writing down when you will do each item on the list. For some of you, you may not want to spread out your list of errands or things you have on your list over the next 5 weeks,  but I find it more enjoyable if I schedule in one extra thing a day.  Some people, for example do their Christmas shopping all in one day. Whichever way you do it, schedule it on the calendar.

Make Space for God

Now that you have narrowed down the things you needed to add to your schedule during the holidays, take your calendar and offer it up to the Lord. Remember Paul’s words to ” do all as to the Lord”. With your list finished, and your heart turned towards God, remember above all else to make space for God. Seek Him first thing each day. Jesus promises us that if we will seek Him and His righteousness, He will add all back to us. In other words, if you put Him at the top of your “to do” list He will help you through each day. Pretty good deal don’t you think? And a much better way to navigate your way through this beautiful season.

Approaching the Holiday Fast Lane

We are officially entering into the season that the world calls the “holiday season”. I prefer to call this the season of  Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even more accurately, I prefer to call this the season of thankfulness; thankfulness to the Lord for His gift of family and friends and most importantly for the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. I have never been politically correct. I’m not even sure that I know what that means. What I do know is that for me this is a season that is marked by being grateful to God for His many blessings. I also believe that although we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas during this time, the attitude of gratitude must remain with us all year long. This season is just a time to pause and remember that every good gift comes from God. (James 1:17)

Life in the Fast Lane

The problem is we end up in the wrong lane on the highway to holiness. We end up in the fast lane of shoulds and oughts during this season and as we race towards the season we forget the meaning of it all. So I decided to write to give us all tools to slow down; tools to get us off the fast lane and into the slower lane. The first tool is this: write down what is most important and meaningful during this time. Then write down all of the things that you think you should do or ought to do and cross them off the list. Start fresh by asking the Lord what He wants you to do. Ask yourself the question what do I enjoy doing? And take a pencil and scratch off all of the excess expectations. Put your list on your refrigerator and resist the temptation to do anything else.

Sit with Jesus

Now with all of that extra time on your hands, make space for God. Seriously, spend extra quiet time with the Lord. Learn to work from a place of rest. Learn to be like Mary and sit at His feet. Remember in order to be a better Martha you must first be a better Mary. Let me know how you do with your list (especially what you scratched off) and let’s encourage one another to find a better way to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.