Fruit & Restoration

I'm taking a bit of a break right now...time with the Lord, time with family. I look forward to renewed inspiration and thinking during these moments.

In the meantime, the July issue of Exemplify Magazine is online, and it is ripe with teaching with the theme of "Fruit of the Spirit." I am blessed to be one of the featured writers this month.

Click here to read these fruit-filled articles.

See you all soon!

A Psalm 71 Perspective

"From birth I have relied on You;

You brought me forth from my mother's womb.

I will ever praise You.”

Psalm 71:6

I’m amazed as I flip through previous chapters of my life—amazed at God’s faithfulness, His unfathomable love and favor upon me, even through the world’s ugliest offerings.

Chapter 1: My Childhood

The world offered me abuse, anger, despair, hopelessness and pain.

~ But looking backward, in the midst of it all…

God saved me with sacrificial love, Fatherly affection, protection and compassion. He showed Himself faithful.

“Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of evil and cruel men.

For You have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD,

my confidence since my youth.”

(vs. 4-5)

Chapter 2: My Youth

The world offered me a broken family, ridicule, deception, bad counsel and manipulation.

~ But looking backward, in the midst of it all…

God overwhelmed me with true love, a church family, unconditional acceptance, & pure, unadulterated Truth. He showed Himself faithful.

“Since my youth, O God, You have taught me,

and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds.”

(vs. 17)

Chapter 3: My Young Adult Years

The world offered me temptation, betrayal, empty pleasure, feelings of inferiority & illness.

~ But looking backward, in the midst of it all…

God worked in me true fulfillment, God-confidence, grace, encouragement & healing. He showed Himself faithful.

“Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter,

You will restore my life again;

from the depths of the earth You will again bring me up.”

(vs. 20)

Chapter 4: My Not-quite-as-young Recent Past

The world offered me more temptation, grief, discontentment, distractions, depression & confusion.

~ But looking backward, in the midst of it all…

God gave me a learning curve in His infinite mercy. He poured out His power, His comfort, His wisdom, His strength and stability in me. He showed Himself faithful.

“And I'll take up the lute and thank You

to the tune of Your faithfulness, God.

I'll make music for You on a harp,

Holy One of Israel.

When I open up in song to You,

I let out lungsful of praise,

my rescued life a song.”

(Vs. 22 & 23, the MSG)

Chapters 4 & Beyond:

The world will offer me more of the same, I’m sure--even worse as I learn to deny myself and follow Christ more devoutly.

~But looking ahead, in the midst of it all…

I will follow hard after the Lord, remembering His love through all of my past. And as I set my eyes on the future hope of Heaven, just as He has always been faithful, I pray He will find me the same.

"Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God,

till I declare Your power to the next generation,

Your might to all who are to come. (vs. 18)

I'll write the book on Your righteousness,

talk up Your salvation the livelong day,

never run out of good things to write or say.

I come in the power of the Lord God,

I post signs marking his right-of-way."

(vs. 15-16, the MSG)

Your turn, friends. What do you have to say about your life from the perspective of Psalm 71?
Are you looking at your circumstances through His grid?
How have you found Him faithful?
When He comes, how will He find You faithful?

"Set Apart" Series, Part Three: Confessions & Questions

I have a confession to make: I'm at a place in life where I have more questions than answers about what it means to live the "set apart" life. Let me just share with you a handful of Scriptures regarding living out our faiths in the world.

We are "the light of the world." Matthew 5:14

We are to "go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Mark 16:15

We as disciples of Christ are to "be brought to complete unity to let the world know" that Jesus loves them. John 17:23

We're not to "conform any longer to the pattern of this world," but to test and approve what God's perfect will is. Romans 12:2

The Bible teaches us to "say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives in this present age." Titus 2:11

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

"Friendship with the world is hatred toward God." James 4:4

"Do not love the world or anything in the world." 1 John 2:15

The verses go on and on, and it is very clear to me that God wants me in this world, sharing my story and letting His light shine in and through me. At the same time, He wants me to live a holy, blameless life, set apart for Him. For me, the rub comes while I'm trying to live these Truths out practically. Just when I think I've got a grasp on the balance in the two, something comes along to drive me back to my knees asking.

Living out the "set apart" life starts with confessing I have no idea how to do so. I need the Lord's wisdom, discernment and leading. As I pause and ponder, I also pray and praise, knowing that I'll only have what I need if I ask the Lord to provide it for me.

As I've shared from my gut with the Lord this week, here are some of the questions I've thrown out at him:
How can I be holy & blameless without clinging to legalism?
How can I be a light in this world without some of the darkness absorbing me?
Can I be out among those lost without becoming consumed by self-righteousness and judgment?
When something unfamiliar & scary comes along, will I trust You to help me face it, or will I try to protect myself?
Am I too wealthy, God? Do I need to give up more of my possessions?
How do I reach out to the hurting without their hurts consuming my heart and mind?
Is it okay to relax and have pleasure, or should I use every waking moment to reach others?
What in the world do I do with all this technology, God? What is the balance?

I'm back to the beginning in saying that I have more questions than answers, but I know as I continue to seek the Lord, He will teach me His heart. I'm skeptical of anyone who says they've got it all figured out, because I truly believe that the more we grow in our faith walks, the more questions we have, and the deeper they are.

I also believe this is where grace comes in. So many times, we use grace as our "get out of sin free" card, and it is true that when we repent, His forgiveness is readily available to us. But the deeper part of grace is that when we want to live righteously and falter out of ignorance or immaturity, His grace is there to meet us when we hit our knees asking the whys and hows. I love the way the Message puts it for us in Romans 8:26-28:

"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting,

God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along.

If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter.

He does our praying in and for us,

making prayer out of our wordless sighs,

or aching groans.

He knows us far better than we know ourselves,

knows our pregnant condition,

and keeps us present before God.

That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives

of love for God is worked into something good."

It all goes back to the Lord. (Doesn't it always?) I'm so thankful He loves me enough to help me sort through my weaknesses, my wonderings, my wanderings. I praise Him that He takes my desire to please Him and brings it in line with the will of the Father as I surrender to the Holy Spirit. "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." 1 John 4:4

What are some of the deep wonderings and ponderings in your faith walk?

"Set Apart" Series, Part Two: Snub & Run

In Part One, I pondered if the set-apart life could really be done according to 1st Peter 3:8 & 9. Based on the comments received on the blog and on Facebook, it's obvious people are hungry for discussion on this.

For Part Two, I'm going to pause & ponder the rest of that passage in 1st Peter. Verses 10-12 (The MSG again):

"Whoever wants to embrace life

and see the day fill up with good,

Here's what you do:

Say nothing evil or hurtful;

Snub evil and cultivate good;

run after peace for all you're worth.

God looks on all this with approval.

But He turns His back

on those who do evil things."

I love the way this is worded in the NIV too. "Whoever would love life and see good days..."

Do we as believers in Christ really desire to love life? Do we want to embrace it? Not love it and embrace it in the sense that we love life more than we love Christ, but do we love the life that God has given us to live by the power of the HOly Spirit--that life mentioned in John 10:10--"life to the full."

I think the two verses build on one another:

"The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy,

but I have come that they may have life & have it to the full."

We already have life to the full living in us, but whether we live it out to the full or not is a whole different story.

Sometimes we are content to be discontent with life. "The world is falling apart..." "I can't wait to be in Heaven..." True. But I don't want us to get to the point where we allow our thinking on the ick Satan is doing to rob us of Christ's fullness alive in & available to us today.

So if we truly desire loving Christ's life in us, this passage shares how to do that. Peter chooses to go back to the advice given in Psalm 34:

"Say nothing evil or hurtful;

Snub evil and cultivate good;

run after peace for all you're worth."

Sounds so easy, doesn't it? I can't think of anything I pray about more than God helping me in these areas. My words come from the overflow in my heart, and folks, it ain't pretty in there a lot of the time. If my spiritual life could be measured by how much time I spend in the Word, I would get an "A" for sure. But if it were measured by how much time I live out the Word, well, I'd never graduate!

But we don't ever graduate, do we? His grace gives us opportunity after opportunity to live life His way. He loves us that much.

I love the picture in my head when I read "Snub evil." There's no major rant, no violent declaration. Just snub and run on ahead. God in us is too good to spend time chewing out evil. We hold our heads up high, realizing we have the Word of life in us, and we go on to "cultivate good & run after peace." HE is the Prince of Peace, and when we run after Him, evil runs the other direction.

Don't mean to trivialize the power of evil. In every post on a passage of Scripture, there is another passage to give it more depth or light. Sometimes we are faced with a horrible battle with evil, and the Lord gives us more intense training in our faithwalks. We are to stay aware and on our guard against the devil's schemes (1st Peter 5:8). We are to fight with spiritual weapons (Ephesians 6). But I would still argue that if you are running after the Lord, you will be fully aware and armed when those intense battles come.

Please don't be intimidated if you are not to this place on your Christian journey yet. I've been a committed Christian since childhood, and I'm still not. But the question is, do we have the want-to? And if we're at a place where we have the want-to, are we willing to go about it God's way? We can't get there on our own.

"'Not by might, not by power, but by MY Spirit,' says the Lord." Zechariah 4:6

"...apart from Me, you can do nothing." John 15:5

I can't leave the topic without the last few points of the passage. They are key:

"God looks on all this with approval.

But He turns His back

on those who do evil things."

When we live life HIS way, He approves. When we do evil, He doesn't. He's holy. Yes, there's grace and forgiveness when we repent, thank goodness, but if we struggle with the same sins on a repetitive basis, we are wise to remember He is holy and that He hates sin. Often I have to get to the place where I've grown to hate my sin so much that I am more submissive to Him than ever to help me turn from it. Inevitably, when I do, it's hard and uncomfortable. But it's worth it in the end, because "life to the full" is so much sweeter than life to the comfortable. Full life keeps on giving and flowing. Comfort-driven life not only has limits, but also begins to deplete.

Wild stuff, but true. What are your thoughts?