Life with Christ

In the Midst of Chaos

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With our home in the middle of some improvements going on the word “chaos” keeps coming to mind. The dirt, dust, disorder, and unpredictable nature of projects has had me feeling a bit frayed and frazzled. I decided to do a little digging via the helpful use of internet search engines into the definition of chaos. The consensus of the dictionaries seems to be that it is complete disorder and confusion. Most of the dictionaries also included the words abyss and chasm. Some even ventured to give the definition of the darkness of outer space before the ordered universe.

This lead me to search “what does the bible say about chaos”. The verses that came up were about the darkness that existed before God created light and order. Other verses referred to the sin that separates us from God’s light and love. There were verses about the fallen angels and the end times and final judgment. Chaos and God’s plan to bring order and purpose in the midst of it really is the bible’s theme cover to cover.

From the very beginning Genesis 1:1-3 ” In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and God said “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
God’s order, His creation was good then the fall of man happened, sin entered the world. Ultimately the Old Testament leads us through God’s plan to send His only Son Jesus, God in the flesh, to bring order to chaos. God is continuously working to provide order to the chaos of our lives through Jesus.

The New Testament leads us to God’s final plan as He states in Revelation 21:5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

The only hope and salvation to the chaos in our day to day lives is a relationship with Jesus. Let Him fill your heart and life with order, meaning, and purpose. He will bring meaning and teaching to all the frazzles in our lives.

Urgency

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As I watch this world and my country grow more and more evil everyday I feel a greater and greater sense of urgency to share the love of Jesus and the joy that He fills my heart with. I know who wins in the end and I am on the winning side!  Jesus…King of Kings and Lord of Lords!!  Are you ready?  If you die today where will you go?  Here are some verses that are bringing me comfort tonight.

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

1 John 4:4 “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Where Can One Find Love in a World Full of Hate?

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Tonight at church we sang a praise song that I have heard sung by multiple artists and have sung multiple times myself in worship.  The praise song “Let my Words be Few” such a familiar song struck a new “chord” in my heart that it had not before.  As we sang the words “Jesus I am so in love with you”  God pressed the question on my heart “Why do you love me so much?”  As we continued to sing the answers to this question started flowing.  Being a part of the praise team I am ashamed to say that I hold back emotion quite often.   My emotion may cause quite the comotion as truly pondering this question made me want to fall flat on my face in humility.

First and foremost Jesus created me.  He is the creator of life itself.  Because of Jesus I have breath.  Because of Jesus I have senses to experience life in the good and the bad that life has to offer. In Acts 3:15 Peter refers to Him as “the author of life”.

Once sin entered the world by the choice of Adam and Eve God could have just wiped the slate clean. (Genesis chapter 3) With His creation now separated from Him by the curse of sin He immediately started His plan to save us.  The one and only way to bring us back into a loving relationship with Him once again of course allowing us the freewill to choose Him.  Ultimately His plan was to come to earth as a man, fully human, and fully God.  To live a sinless life.  To pay the price for our sin.  “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 The fact that He left the glory of heaven to feel pain and temptation alone is humbling to me.

He came to earth humbly to serve.  He led a life demonstrating Love in its true form.  The perfect sacrificial LOVE.  My thoughts then went to the image of His suffering on the cross and the look of love and forgiveness in His tender eyes.  I know the amount of sin my life alone placed on Him.  God calls to all of us.  God calls to EVERY human being.  We often forget that He also came to die for our enemies.  The very people who hated Him He was carrying the weight of their sin as well.

Then my thoughts went to how He conquered death and rose again in three days proving that He is exactly who He said, GOD.  Death has no victory over those who put their faith in Jesus.  We will die physically, but our soul will live for eternity in heaven.  Then came the image of Jesus coming back again this time to conquer evil once and for all.  The image of His return coming down from the clouds is something I long for if I don’t get to see Him because of my physical death first.  So you see it is hard for my “words to be few” when I truly contemplate why I can sing “Jesus I am so in love with you”.  Of course after all this flooded my heart and mind during our song worship the Holy Spirit confirmed every bit of this through the words of our pastor.  It seems any time God wants to draw me even closer He will affirm and reaffirm His point to me.  Having a pastor that courageously preaches the word of God is truly a blessing.

“Jesus I am so in love with you” why….?

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

John 1 1-14 gives further understanding of exactly who Jesus is.  Then again I recommend reading the entired bible from cover to cover to really know God…and then read it again and again!  🙂

Powerwashed Soul

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The last two days I have been doing some powerwashing to the outside of our home and to outside furniture. To look at a lot of it especially from our road it wasn’t all that noticibly dirty. Goo gobs of dirt began to break loose by the power of the water as I began to spray. It was gratifying for me to see the finished clean product that I really didn’t even know was as disgusting as it was. The same holds true with our souls. We really have no idea how disgusting we really are until the power of the blood of Jesus starts to wash away all the hidden closets of our soul. The more we ask Him to cleanse us, reveal to us what we need to change, to disclose our hidden sinfulness the more He power blasts His forgiveness into our hearts. I know I need my daily power blast through His word and continuous prayer!! Thank you Jesus for power washing my soul on a daily basis!! 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Distractions can be Little Snots

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nose

Through the years serving on the praise team, choir, and singing special music at church there have been many distractions within my own worship. So often the distractions have an element of hilarity to them. Those who know me well are aware that stifling laughter is NOT something I have become well-versed in. That is when the Holy Spirit seems to provide me with the greatest help! “Lord please keep me from laughing at that person I just saw picking their nose!” “Lord please give me the ability to sustain from laughing after seeing my friend fall when trying to exit the building right in the middle of this song…OH PLEASE HELP!!” There are the typical missed words, music blunders, technical difficulties, and miss counts that happen. “Just keep singing…Just keep singing…smile…and just keep singing!!”

Tonight was one of those nights. Being in front of the congregation one does not want to be the distraction to the worship of others. There is always the concern that no undergarments are showing and that pant flies are always zipped. Tonight it was my nose!! I had yawned several times prior to church starting which triggered my eyes to water. We begin our Sunday night services with the opportunity to actually come to the altar, kneel and pray for various prayer needs. Tonight I knelt at the stage to pray for our country, peace with turmoil that is happening in a neighboring town, and for our church ministries. With having watery eyes and then leaning my head far over to pray the perfect scenario developed within my nasal cavities to form the pesky watery mucous we candidly refer to as SNOT.

As we went on up to lead worship I was able to sniff the watery substance keeping it contained. That is up until time to actually start singing. Singing and sniffing my nose at the same time is not a skill I have ever acquired. As I sang I felt the liquid drip and roll down onto my upper lip. Trying to hide the snot with the microphone I become very distracted in my worship. The image in my mind was that the bright stage lights would catch the liquid just right and send off a sparkling prism-like effect. In my mind my nostrils had become like a light house crying out for attention to be noticed by all. As a last resort I snuck my left index finger up to do a quick swipe in between songs. Hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do sometimes!!

This distraction got me to thinking that it is normal in our walk with Jesus to be distracted. Our focus might get knocked off balance from time to time. What I have noted in my own walk is that the more I know Him, the more I study God’s Word and spend time in prayer the shorter my distractions are. I am not sure if Satan has thrown any less distractions my way, but what I do notice is that when distracted God helps me direct my focus back to Him so much quicker now than say even just a year ago. There are so many little snots in our lives that can distract us from God, but the quicker we ask God to wipe them from us the more focused on Christ we will be. The more focused on Christ we are the more freedom, joy, peace, hope, love, and security we will have! Lord help me to wipe away all the distracting snots in my life and look full into your face always!!!!

Proverbs 4:25-27 “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer

Luke 10:38-42 “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Pit of Depression

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stormy waves

This week the tragic death of one of my all-time favorite comedian/actors, Robin Williams, has had me thinking a lot about depression. There is no one that is immune to slipping into the pit of depression and despair. It is a disease that allows a person to look healthy on the outside while on the inside they spiral deeper and deeper into a state of helpless loss. Depression will sink its claws into the rich elite, the poor, every culture, every ethnicity, every social stature, and every belief if it is given the upper hand. I am no counselor, no psychiatrist, and I am not an ordained minister. What I know of our human psychological and spiritual health has been years of life observation and from studying the Word of God. My role as a nurse has allowed me to care for patients and families in their darkest of times. Many times I actually cared for a person who had attempted suicide while serving my years in a critical care nursing position. Having grown up as a preacher’s kid I saw my father care for the depressed as well as the direct effect that ministering to others had on him. My first- hand experience is the daily battle of temptation to listen to the lies of Satan or chose to listen to God in my own personal life. The conclusive definition of depression as a Christian, mother, wife, and nurse that I have come to is that it is Satan’s lies telling us how worthless we are. The more weight and burdens we carry upon ourselves the deeper we will sink. The more lies of worthlessness the great deceiver can get us to believe the closer he will lead us to an unproductive and destructive life. God created each of us in His image and to have a specific part in His perfect plan. He knows us so well He knows how many hairs are on our head. (Matthew 10:30) Satan wants nothing more than to destroy our purpose, our worth, and to destroy us from the inside out.
Christians can often fall victim to depression because Satan already knows he does not have our soul, but if he can make us unproductive in our walk with Jesus he will do so. He does not want our lives to lead others to Christ. The scriptural picture that keeps coming to mind is when Jesus was walking on water. (Matthew 14:22-33) When Peter realized it was Jesus walking toward the boat he was the only disciple who asked Jesus to invite him to come out of the boat and walk to him. Peter took a huge step of faith to walk on storm driven waves to meet Jesus. As long as he looked to Jesus he stayed upon the water. As soon as he started to look at the wind, waves, and realized his personal human weakness he sank. That is the way life is for us. As soon as we start to look at life’s problems, storms, our own sin, sins that have been committed toward us, our chronic illnesses, all the overwhelming tasks, etc… we can easily start to sink into the pit of depression if we try to rely on our own human strength. Satan will lie and tell us that we are worthless, a failure, that everything bad is our fault. The lies are far too many to list.
The one thing that God has shown me again and again is that He indeed will turn ashes to beauty. Isaiah 61:1-3 “Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” No matter how overwhelmed I feel in my own weaknesses God always has a surprise waiting. It has been within my own deepest regrets, dark times, and my greatest sadness that God has shown me just how deep His love, grace and beauty runs.
My heart aches as I learn of more and more children, teens, and adults that have sunk so deep into the pit of depression that they want to end their own life. We have no idea what lies Satan is burdening others with as we walk through our daily life. God can protect us from this pit if we cry out to Him. God can use our lives to help pull others from the pit of despair. As we focus on Jesus, on loving, serving and encouraging others God will provide the power to walk on top of the stormy waves of this life.

Let’s Get Our Worship On

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earth

There is not really a style of music I don’t like especially when it comes to songs about Jesus. Tonight our church hosted a concert of a Southern Gospel singing group. One of my children commented that they looked out at the crowd and all they saw was shining gray hair. Giggles overwhelmed me after having made the same observation myself prior to the comment. The confession must be made that I love the old hymns and well harmonized music right along with all those who have earned those shining hairs. It was thrilling to see how happy the music made the older crowd, to see them truly get their worship on, and I am pretty sure I witnessed a senior fist pump with a “woot woot”. To worship with seniors, to worship at a youth conference, a children’s worship service, all ages and all ethnicities is an absolute joy. To meet fellow believers in a time of pure worship gives true glimpses into heaven and eternity. There is nothing more exciting to me as I view the stats of this blog and find that there are friends reading along from other countries. Oh how awesome it would be to get to worship in all the favorite styles of music with my new friends. Knowing that most likely I will never meet any of you in my life time I pray that we will all meet face to face in heaven one day. Eternally we will sing perfect notes in perfect harmony right to the perfect face of Jesus! How awesome to hear all the styles, voices, cultures, ethnicities all joined in song to praise to our Lord!!!

Psalm 47:1 “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.”

Psalm 47:6-7 “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praise. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.”

Security

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Yesterday at church my husband’s cellphone fell out of the pocket of his Bible bag and plummeted to the floor. The end result was a completely shattered screen and a non-functional phone. I couldn’t help but notice the significance of what the phone fell from and where he was the time the phone was broken. It seems we all are so glued to our phones these days as well as other technologies. It is with guilty fingers I am typing this blog today. Life seems to stop when one of these devices ceases to work. The first thought “Oh no what am I going to do?”

Now there are certain safety aspects to having a phone. Taking call for my job deems it is a necessity most definitely for me. We cancelled our home phone line because it was rarely used and we have not missed having it. The phone in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is our lack of looking up from the phone to experience the world around us that gets us into trouble.

The question of where does our security lie? Is what has fleeted through my thoughts from the time I heard of the phones demise. The fact that our first reaction so often is panic when our phone doesn’t work is a clue in what our society has put its trust in. Last year on vacation I had to spend half a day taking care of my phone that without warning just up and died on me. There was a need for a call shift as soon as I got home, but still frustrating to waste family time having to take care of a phone. Now the significance of time being even greater as this was the last vacation my father would be with us.

Will our phones save us in a true disaster? No all cell phone service will be caput. Will our stocks and bonds save us? No they can be gone with just a click of a mouse of a hacker’s computer. What about our homes? One tornado or fire…gone.
The fact that Mike’s phone fell from his Bible bag reminds me of how secure the Word of God is. Oh sure the book itself can burn and be destroyed, but nothing can destroy God’s spoken word. It stands forever. He spoke this world into existence. The word actually became flesh to take on the sins of this broken world to give us grace and mercy we are undeserving of.

John 1:1-18 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

The only thing that lasts is Jesus. The world didn’t recognize Him then and it is obvious it doesn’t recognize Him now. We are too distracted by our “own securities”. What we think is secure. We hold onto what we think is within our own power and control. How much control and power do we have? Can we control how long we have a heart beat? Can we control the weather? Can we control the evil of this world or the evil that is within our own selves? Only Jesus had the power to speak the world into existence, only Jesus could speak and calm the storms, only Jesus could pay the price for our sins (the evil within each man), only Jesus conquered death, only Jesus can give us grace and mercy, only Jesus can bring true hope of eternal life, only Jesus brings true security.

Yes this will sound weird that I am glad my husband’s phone broke in the way it did. The daily reminders of who God is, the truth, and what really matters are priceless. My true security does not rest in the “stuff” from this life.

From Trash to Treasure

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For my oldest daughter’s fourteenth birthday she wanted to go somewhere fun. We decided on the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. This museum is no ordinary museum. It is basically artwork you get to climb on and play in. The museum is housed in an old city warehouse building. There have been hours and hours of many artistically talented people who have welded metal piece after metal piece to make tubes and staircases to climb in, on, and amongst. There are old airplanes, trolleys, a fire truck and a school bus to name a few of the highlights. The school bus actually teeters off of the rooftop 11 stories high. There are many fun slides including a ten story high slide. Everywhere you look there are old things like broken glass to make beautiful mosaic art, broken shells, old soda canisters, jars, old records, old architectural pieces from city buildings, all kinds of repurposed trash compiles this fun and whimsical place into beautiful sculptures and pieces of art. There is even a working Ferris wheel up on the rooftop. Usually I am drawn to more nature types of attractions, but this is one industrial sight I love to visit. This place took so much creativity and design. The intricate tunnels are such that you see your child walk into the mouth of a giant whale and then their head will pop out from under a sculptured tree across the room like a mole. Each piece in this grand design is important. If any piece especially a rot iron bar decided that did not want to serve its purpose it would be detrimental. As I enjoyed the whimsy of the museum I couldn’t help but be reminded of our grand designer and creator God. He has a specific purpose and plan for each of us. How detrimental is it to our lives when we decide to not follow His purpose and plan?

Matthew 25:14-30 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.” ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

When we are not fulfilling the purpose God has for our life God will give that blessing to someone who will. We miss out on abundant and eternal life. When we trust in Jesus and allow Him to work through our lives He blesses in ways that are unimaginable. Jesus spoke this parable using a monetary example because that is something we can identify with. God’s plans are much greater than any monetary or material gain. “Well done my good and faithful servant.” or “darkness”, “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” We have a choice.