Tag Archives: Lord

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I Am Fully Yours

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Psalms 96 (AMP), “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless (affectionately praise) His name; show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods. For all the gods of the nations are [lifeless] idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come [before Him] into His courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before and reverently fear Him, all the earth. Say among the nations that the Lord reigns; the world also is established, so that it cannot be moved; He shall judge and rule the people righteously and with justice. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all the things which fill it; Let the field be exultant, and all that is in it! Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy.” Before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge and govern the earth! He shall judge the world with righteousness and justice and the peoples with His faithfulness and truth.”

Do you ever, like David, think about who God is, His magnificent, awesome, powerful, mind-blowing character? Then think about how small and fragile we are? I do. Yes, He is my Dad. I can be real with Him and He can be real with me. Just like He was real with David. Once when reading through the psalms I thought to myself, “David was kind of a whiner.” You know what God said to me? He said, “Kind of like you.” That wasn’t God being angry with me, or even His correction. It was my Dad being real with me. I swear I heard Him chuckle when He said it. So even though we are close and I am getting for familiar with Him every day, I have to still remember Who He Is. He is God. C.S. Lewis in the “Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe” puts it this way, when the children are in the Beaver’s home, one of them ask about Aslan, the lion who represents Jesus, “Is he safe?” Mr. Beaver answered, spluttering in exclamation, “Safe! Safe? No, He is not safe…but He is good.” He isn’t “tame.” He is wild and extravagant. He’s the wave pool, not the lazy river. He’s every adrenaline junkies dream.

But He is good. He is on our side and He loves you!

Father, I am overwhelmed by Your love! You made the worlds and set the stars, the suns, and the moons in the sky. You placed the deep waters in the earth and called forth all live. You created, in minute detail, every flower petal, every rain drop, and every downy feather on the swan. Yet, Your mind is full of me. You own everything, the cattle on a thousand hills, the very air I breathe. Yet, You gave your life’s blood to purchase me. I am fully Yours.

I was held hostage by the enemy, was a slave to my own sin. I was covered in my own blood, ragged and dirty, filled with sorrow and shame, when You came to me and covered me with Your robe of righteousness. You called me Your “Beloved,” and accepted me into Your family. You have cherished me as a loving Father, pursued me as a faithful lover, and taken care of me as a trustworthy husband. I am fully Yours.

You have captivated my heart and You alone know my inward most parts. You can discern the thoughts and intents of my heart. Preserve me in Your righteousness. Hold me in Your love. Deliver me in Your mercy and Grace. Uphold me in Your Justice. I will praise you all of my days. I will serve You with a full heart. I will faithfully pursue the calling You have placed on my life and generously give to those You love. I am fully Yours.

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Who Can Save Us?

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The world looks to all kinds of places, people, and possessions for their salvation. We all at one time realized that our lives weren’t the best. We tried to run and hide, we tried to find an escape, if only for a short time, we tried to cover up our mistakes, change our address, get a new job, or get a new spouse, only to have to face the hard truth, our lives were a mess. Some tried drugs, alcohol, relationships, immersed themselves in work, or in serving others, and still couldn’t find fulfillment. Others went to doctors, psychologists, counselors, palm readers, and fortune tellers, consulted our horoscopes, the stock exchange, googled, twittered, and tried to re-invent ourselves. But when we looked in the mirror, or looked at the condition of our soul, we were sorely disappointed, the change wasn’t there, was only skin deep, or wasn’t enough, or worse yet, we had changed so much that we weren’t even us anymore.

So where do we place our hope? Who can save us?

Psalm 62:1-2 (AMP), “For God alone my soul waits in silence, from Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my defense and my fortress; I shall not be greatly moved.”

Romans 5:8-9 (NIV), “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

We can’t fix us. We can’t even clean us. We end up being white washed graves, looking good on the outside, but full of death on the inside. A doctor, a psychic, a teacher, or a religious leader, can’t change us. A ten step process, a secret formula, or some new “spiritual” phenomenon, won’t change us, not fully, or completely. Bull dog tenacity, strong willed perseverance, nor stiff necked stubbornness, can’t get us what we need, what we so long for.

We need a Savior. Who can save us?

There is only One who can. In fact, He already did. Not two thousand years ago, but before the beginning of time! We just have to accept it. Apply what was purchased on the cross, by the very blood of the Son of God, to our lives. Then He doesn’t give us the “wash and wax” or just to a make-over, He makes us brand new, something never seen before, not put together out of old junk, no Frankensteins here, just a complete new edition. It’s a miracle, plain and simple. All the work, the time wasted, the pain and brokenness, all for nothing. We hurt ourselves and others trying to do it on our own, and it’s time to stop.

Maybe you are still living in the living hell of this fallen world. Just give up, surrender your heart to Him. He knows what you’ve been through, and He knows what you need. He sees your brokenness, your hurts, your faults, and frailties. Only He knows how. Nobody knows you like He does. You can trust Him with your life and with your heart. He is trustworthy. He is faithful.

Psalms 62:5-8 (ESV), “When we give Him our heart, truly and completely, then we can say with David, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

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Don’t Be A Victim

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Some people have a victim mentality.

They are always being attacked, provoked, short-changed, overlooked, underappreciated, ridiculed, and the list goes on, and the world owes them something. Sometimes all they want is an excuse, a reason for their less-than-perfect lives, or why they can’t hold down a job, why they drink too much, eat too much, abuse drugs and other people, why they are lazy, or sick, or broke. Other times they want compensation for what they consider their they were robbed or cheated of, and even more astounding, they want someone to support them, to take care of them, and to be a leach off of the hard work, or spiritual maturity of others.

I know some of those people. I am still frequently amazed when I find out exactly what they are supposed to be a victim of. I am often reminded of something our Senior Pastor jokes about when he mentions people like that. He says, “My mama put me on a cold potty when I was two and I never got over that.” We all laugh, partly because it can be pretty accurate.

These were the reasoning I have heard: Their ancestors were slaves…their parents didn’t want them, love them, or were abusive…they had an alcoholic parent…they were bullied in the sixth grade…their husband, or wife, left them…and on it goes.

I am not belittling any of those things. I have experienced most of those. However, we don’t camp out in those awful experiences. We certainly don’t live there. So many times I have wanted to give this sound and loving advice to those who are stuck, “Get over it!” I have given a softer, nicer, more politically correct version of this.

Our prisons, our welfare system, and our schools are full of “victims.” It’s a shame. God’s chosen people were taken out of slavery in Egypt and they were led by God, personally, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet, they couldn’t shake that slavery mentality. They saw themselves as victims of Moses, who they accused of trying to kill them, and of God, who they said had led them out just to let them starve and die in the wilderness. Do, a trip that should have taken days, took forty years! That’s what a victim mentality will do, rob you of your inheritance and delay the promises. Aren’t God’s blessings, his provision, better than a “free ride,” better than any so-called entitlements?

God calls us His children, those of us who have accepted Jesus as Lord. He says that we are Kings and Priests. We are chosen, blessed, redeemed, saved, delivered, Holy, righteous, loved, and accepted (and those are just a few things He says about us.) How can we ever perceive ourselves as being a victim? “But, Satan keeps attacking me,” you say. Sure he does, that’s his job, it is who he is. Satan wants to keep you a victim. Don’t listen to him, or any other voice that tells you that junk, whether it is a family member, a teacher, a friend, or even the President of the United States, listen to God. His job, who He is, is love. He is our Father. He’ll protect those that are His like a mama bear protects her cubs. He is a Mighty Warrior King!

I know people who have gone through some stuff, but they chose to live as His children, and they are productive, generous, loving, and unselfish people. They give, they don’t expect to receive. Some of those people have been raped, sexually assaulted, abused, were raised by parents who were addicted to drugs, alcohol, or food, they have made bad choices, messed up their lives, but they have moved on. Others, life has dealt them some blows, sickness, broken bones, broken hearts, and broken marriages. Yet, they choose to persevere, to fight the fight of faith, to trust God.

My husband is one who refuses to be a victim. The day after school got out his junior year (way back in 1973) he was out drinking with some buddies on some logging roads in Washington State. Those roads are steep, gravel or dirt, have mountain on one side and a drastic drop off on the other, and worst of all they corkscrew up the mountain. Their bad choices resulted in a horrible car accident where my husband broke his back in seven places. He shattered vertebrae and is still missing two. He spent three months in the hospital and six months in a body cast. That was the end of high school wrestling. The doctors told him he would never walk again and his limitations if he did were numerous. God had preserved his life, even at a time when Eddie was not serving the Lord. Now, so many years later, he is now fifty-eight, he still works hard. He refused social security disability all of those years ago, preferring to work and support himself and his family. He still has pain but works, every day, sometimes even sixty hour weeks in a factory. When I met him, he had already been married and divorced twice. He could have played the victim, and lived a life lonely and bitter. We have been married for thirty years this summer. He has never seen himself as a victim.

Another man I know was raised by an abusive mother, had little affection, hardly any money growing up, and lived out in the middle of nowhere. He later made some poor choices and ended up a drug addict. Did he camp out there? Is he a victim? No, he happens to be that Senior Pastor I mentioned. He has traveled the world and had preached to thousand at a time. He has decided to put his trust in God and has let his past be a stepping stone, not a stumbling block. He chose to forgive and love his parents and got to personally lead them to the Lord before they died. He ministers as a covering over dozens of churches and ministries all over the world. He refuses to be a victim, so He is used by God in a big way.

There are many other stories to tell. I am sure you know some of each mentality, two ways of thinking, victims and fighters. Victims lose, fighters win. Adding God into the equation makes our victory sure!

So, what will it be?

Victim or Victor?

II Corinthians 2:14 (KJB), “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”

If you chose victor, then get in the word and find out what God has to say about who you are! If you are not sure where to start, google it. Modern technology can be used for good. Get off all those social network, log off that game, and go to one of these great sites. You can search just about any topic and find out the truth.
http://biblehub.com/revelation/18-12.htm
http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=be+content&c=&t=niv&ps=10&s=Bibles

God, how awesome is it that you have already won the victory through the shed blood of Christ. I accept what You have already done. I am not fighting for a victory, but from Your Victory!

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Is Your Heart Clean?

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Psalm 51:10,16-17 (KJB), “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me…You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

David knew his heart wasn’t clean. He had just committed adultery with Bathsheba. When kings were going out to war, David stayed behind, just sending his men to fight. One night he sees a beautiful married woman bathing on her roof. After sending for her and conceiving a child, he tried to cover his track by calling her husband home to sleep with his own wife. Uriah, however, is more honorable than his king and refuses to sleep in comfort with his wife while his own men were still on the battlefield. David then digs himself in deeper and causes the unsuspecting husband to be placed in a dangerous place in battle and is in fact responsible for his death. Still, unrepentant, he marries the woman.

None of this was hidden from God who sends his prophet, Nathan, to prove it. I know, we all see David as such a wonderful person. God even said that David was a man after His own heart. So we hate to look at this part of his life. I say you can’t separate one from the other. God didn’t say that before the sin. In God’s eyes the sin was always there. David didn’t pull a fast one on God. He knew what was going to happen from way before time even was created. It is David’s reaction to the correction of God that makes him so special. Was he perfect? My lands, no! But that isn’t the question we need to ask. The right question is “did he repent.”

Let’s look at a few places in Psalms that show a repentant heart.

Psalms 32:1-2 (NIV), “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.”

3-7 (AMP), “When I kept silence [before I confessed], my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand [of displeasure] was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord [continually unfolding the past till all is told]—then You [instantly] forgave me the guilt and iniquity of my sin. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! For this [forgiveness] let everyone who is godly pray—pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely when the great waters [of trial] overflow, they shall not reach [the spirit in] him. You are a hiding place for me; You, Lord, preserve me from trouble, You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!”

David is clear. When he tried to stay silent, keep his sin to himself, it was rough going. Consequently, when he acknowledged his sin, he tells us God forgave him instantly. He then goes on to tell everyone who is Godly to pray the same way, asking for forgiveness. We don’t have to get saved again. We don’t have to start all over again in our walk with God. We repent, turn from our wicked ways, and go on.

I want to point out that our confession of sin isn’t a way to get out of the consequences of sin. For example if you have stolen from your neighbor and spent the money, even though you confess, you may go to jail. David confessed, but one of the consequences of his sin is that the child conceived in adultery didn’t live. Now, God could have made Bathsheba barren, or taken the throne away from David, or any other thing that He saw fit. But, God, in is love and in accordance to the promises He already made to David, brings forth Solomon out of the union of David and Bathsheba, and God says He “loved Solomon very much.”

We have all messed up, in small ways and in huge ways. Don’t fret! Don’t try to hide it. If you try to cover your sin, you only get tangled up in the lies even more. Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808), said, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.” Just look at David, he tried everything to hide his sin and it just kept getting uglier. We live under a different covenant than David. Now we have the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. If we have to wait for someone to come and tell us what we are doing is sin, which means we have ignored the Spirit until we quit hearing Him. Because God loves us, He won’t allow us to stay in sin. He’ll make sure we know what He thinks one way or another. Don’t ignore that tug when you are considering giving in to temptation to begin with! That will prevent a lot of grief. Nevertheless, if you do cave, be quick to repent. He is quick to forgive.

Psalm 86:5 (NIV), “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all to call you.”
Let’s finish out Psalms 32.

Psalms 32:8-11 (AMP), “I [the Lord] will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Be not like the horse or the mule, which lack understanding, which must have their mouths held firm with bit and bridle, or else they will not come with you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in, relies on, and confidently leans on the Lord shall be compassed about with mercy and with loving-kindness. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you [uncompromisingly] righteous [you who are upright and in right standing with Him]; shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”

Besides our forgiveness, what other good things come out of our confession of wrong doing? God will instruct us and teach us the right way and we will be surrounded with His mercy and love.

Is your heart clean? Is it broken and contrite?

If not, trust Him. Come clean! He is so ready to forgive and then He even forgets. Won’t you let Him?

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Sink or Swim?

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My daughter has a friend and that woman has three beautiful children. When her oldest boy was still a toddler they came to stay with my daughter. At naptime little Liam did not want to take a nap. His patient father was trying to get the little guy down while the girls visited. Here is the conversation that was related back to me after this incident.

Dad: “Would you like to take a nap on the couch or on the bed?”
Liam: “Outside.”
Dad: “We will go outside later; right now that is not an option. Would you like to take a nap in the bed or on the couch?”
Liam: “I choose…neither.” (Yep, he used those exact words.)

Now to the consternation of his Daddy, everyone else in the house thought this was hilarious. I thought it was very cute, especially such a little guy who uses such grown up terms. He is rather a smart boy.

What does that have to do with sinking or swimming?

At our Praise and Prayer service last night, God showed me a picture of a great ocean with people everywhere. There was a storm and the waves were rolling. Some of those people were treading water, barely keeping their chins up, and sometimes bobbing under for a few scary moments. Others had simply given up the fight and were allowing themselves to sink to the peaceful bottom, far away from the storm. Those didn’t make it.

I asked God what it meant and He showed me that the storm tossed waters represented this world we live in, one storm after another. The people represented both the lost and the saved. Those that were swimming were still trying to keep themselves alive. Those that were sinking had given up the fight and surrendered to this world. I thought of the obvious question, would I sink or swim. Immediately I thought, “swim.” But God said, “I have not called you to sink or to swim! I have called you to be a life preserver.” Like Liam, God wanted me to say “neither.” Ok, so Liam may have been a cute rebellious toddler, but our choice to neither sink nor swim doesn’t come from rebellion, but out of trust.

Of course God in His mercy showed it to me this way. Those who are treading water, waiting for someone to rescue them didn’t realize they had already been saved. There ought not to have been any Christians in that predicament as we should be quite aware of the fact that we have been saved already! The sinkers represented those saved and unsaved who just plain grew weary of the fight. Those who were saved had allowed the cares of this world to overtake them. (Our Senior Pastor, after I gave this word to the congregation, added to this by saying that those treading water also represented those who were trying to do it all in their own strength. Instead of the Grace of God, they were trying to do make it on their own merit and labor.)

Jesus walked on the water, during a storm. Peter had the faith to step out of the boat and as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he too walked on the water. That is what God has called us to do. Not bob around like a floating device, waiting for someone to grab a hold of us, but to live above the storm tossed waves, to walk on the water and pull them up and out of the storms. How do we do that? First of all we can’t choose sinking or swimming. We have to renew ourselves in the word, press into the loving arms of the Father, and allow Him to change us and use us. We don’t have to be perfect for him to use us; we just have to be willing. However, we can’t save those drowning if we are clinging to them in the water.

Those that are drowning have no regard for life, but their own. In great panic they tend to try to get themselves up out of the waves by crawling up and over their would be saviors. Ask anyone who has gone through lifeguard training. Sometimes they have to literally knock someone out to get them both to safety. So it is a must that we realize that we are not drowning. Jesus has already pulled called us to the surface, set us on our feet, and taught us how to say “peace” to the storms. Once we have accepted that, put our trust in Him, we stop trying to do it in our strength, by our work. It’s a different kind of surrender. Not the “I’ll just sink down where it is cold and calm, and let the fighting be over,” but it is a “I can’t do it on my own, I need Him.”

Then we can show others the way. Those who don’t know Him, need to be introduced. Those who do, but are still living under their own works, need to be shown how to be led by the Holy Spirit, how to enter into the rest of God, how to give up in a good way.

Romans 8:12-17 (The Message Bible), “So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!”

So what will it be? Sink or swim?

I hope you, like little Liam, chose neither.

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Psalm Confession

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Psalms Confession – From Psalm 4:3, 37:4, 65:4, 66:9, 112:1-9, 116:1, and 145:14, 20

The Lord has set me apart for Himself. I belong to Him and no other. My heart is not divided, so He hears me when I call. Just like a parent is always tuned in to the call of his own child, even above the noise.

Because I delight in the Lord, He will give me the deep desires of my heart. Not only does He place Godly desires there through His promises and His Spirit, He wants me happy and fulfilled.

God causes me to come near Him. He causes my family to come near Him as well. He is my confidence and hope. I can trust Him with my whole heart.

Because He does not allow my foot to slip, I am secure. My Heavenly Father keeps me alive through every circumstance. In fact, He brings me out into a wealthy place. My Lord never rejects my prayers and He will not remove His mercy and loving-kindness from me, ever.

Because I fear and reverently honor Him and I delight in His unfailing word, I am blessed. Wealth and riches are in my home and I am righteous forever. Having wealth will not harm me, it is a merely a tool to provide for my family, to help others, and to further God’s Kingdom. During these dark days, His light dawns for me. Because I trust in His provision, I am generous and I lend to the poor. I do not fear bad news, my heart remains steadfast.

I love the Lord. He hears me, even in my cry for mercy. Because He always listens, I will call on Him as long as I live.

God picks me up when I fall and He constantly watches over me to perform His word in my life. Because I love Him, He preserves me until the end of my days.

Thank You Lord, for Your steadfast love, for your unending mercy, and for Your constant provision.

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Don’t be a Fool

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Galatians 3:1-4 (NIV), “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?”

The Galatians had been let to Jesus by the Spirit of the Living God. They had accepted Jesus as crucified, their penalty paid. They had gloried in their new freedom from sin, begun a Church family, and behaved like all new believers. Then something terrible happened…

They went back to the confines of the law!

Paul calls them fools. Elsewhere in the scripture (Proverbs) it says, “A fool says in their heart that there is no God.” That sounds harsh, but let’s think about this for a minute. After having been set free from the law and sin, why would anyone want to go back? In my own experience it is because we believe the lie that God hasn’t done it, won’t do it, or can’t do it. Or even worse, the lie that says we don’t deserve it. So we try to manipulate, and work our way into His Grace. That is someone who doesn’t know God intimately. I’ve been there! I thought I knew Him, but when hit with something hard, I doubted and believed those lies. Of course He came through like He always did. It took me accepting what He had already done! How did I get to that point of acceptance? I allowed the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me into all truth. I listened to His voice and stop listening to the lie.

God isn’t withholding anything from us! That was the original lie that Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden. After all this time, shouldn’t we recognize that lie for what it really is? I know God. Personally! I am in relationship with Him. Be guided by the Holy Spirit. Not by your flesh, not by your reasoning or intellect, and certainly not by any lie.

Don’t be a fool!

God loves you and He wants only good for you. He gave Jesus, why would he withhold anything else?