Thursdays in the Truth: It's Fall, Y'all, Throw Open Your Windows!

Fall has finally found its way to Arizona.  It’s not fall like other places might define it but it’s our fall.  This is the season where your flesh doesn’t melt from the bone the second you step outside.  Native Arizonans may be heard to say there is a “chill” in the air.  We know you east-coasters and mid-westerners giggle every time we say it.  Seriously, over night lows in the 60’s are the best! 

It’s glorious.  I’ve been opening my windows and even “encouraged” the Mr. to install a new screen door.  Today, though, I saw something that gave me pause.  There have been a string of burglaries in several of our west valley neighborhoods.  Many people are on high alert.  Today a woman recounted a situation where a man knocked on her door even though she had a no soliciting sign on it.  She was certain he was up to no good.  She even listed tips to stay safe.  Among other things, she suggested keeping all windows and doors shut and locked, to keep all blinds closed, and never answer the door. 

I have been opening my windows and my doors every day.   Hello!  I just bought a new screen door.  That’s the whole reason I bought the blasted thing.   The first thing I do every morning is open all the blinds.  I love the sun pouring in the house, especially now that it’s not 120 degrees outside.  I was torn.  I wait all year to be able to enjoy nature from the bug-free comfort of my own home.  I didn’t really want to close it all up again. 

This got me thinking.  Don’t we do this as Christians?!  We are afraid of what others will ask of us or that maybe they will judge us or even worse, God may choose to use us in a way that is far from our comfort zone.  So we close ourselves up and life the comfortable life from deep within the confines of our safe “Christian” world.

I immediately had to go to the Word to find my encouragement.  I believe I was led to several verses. 

First, there is the question of worry.  A lot of us avoid stepping out of our comfort zones simply because we are worried about what we may find.  James reminds us in chapter 4, verse 14 that we do not know what tomorrow brings.  Jesus even says in Matthew 6:34 not to worry about tomorrow.  I don’t know about you but I have consumed a considerable amount of my life with worry.  You may ask yourself how to not worry.  That brings up my second point.

Now there is no question that there is evil in the world but God comforts us with Proverbs 3:5.  He tells us to trust in Him and not to lean on our own understanding.  So it’s ok that I don’t have all the answers.  He’s with me and if I step out in faith, He’s right there with me.  I can trust Him to see me through whatever situation I find myself in.

So what is the big problem with keeping in your comfort zone?  Well, quite honestly that’s not why God put us here.  He has plans.  Good plans.  And I don’t know about you but when I look back and compare my plans with His plans, His plans are always better.  We each have our own work in the Lord, but we all were given the Great Commission in Matthew 28: 19-20.  How can we “go and make disciples of all nations” from the comfort of our carefully crafted life?  The answer:  we can’t.  We’ve got to take risks and possibly get messy.  There is no way to enjoy the wonderful blessings of God without stepping out in faith.

Now, I’m not suggesting you should deliberately put yourself in dangerous situations and hope for blessings. That would be crazy.  I just don’t think that we should shut up the doors of our hearts to keep God all safely contained and hope for blessings. 

How are you opening up your heart and letting God in?

Thursdays In the Truth: Common Lies About Reading the Bible

Common Lies About Reading the Bible:

1.  I need a degree.

2.  There is a special way to read the Bible and I don’t know it.

3.  I am not smart enough.

4.  I need to know how to use lexicons and commentaries to read the Bible.

5.  I don’t understand the Bible so I am not going to get anything out of it.

6.  I read but it doesn’t make sense.

7.  I don’t have enough time.

Before we start, let's just get the time issue out of the way.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  We all choose to spend our time in different ways, but one thing is true for everyone, we spend time doing what is important to us.  We find the time needed to do what we want to do.  It comes down to your priorities.  If you want to make time for God, you will.  If God is not a priority, you won't find time for Him.

Above are just a few of the excuses and lies I hear for not reading the Bible.  Satan is good at getting us to believe his lies.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy… John 10:10  Satan’s whole goal is to convince you that you don’t have time, you are not smart enough, the Bible doesn’t apply today, the list goes on.  He will use anything he can to keep you from reading your Bible.

So where do you begin?  Spend some time praying before you open your Bible and ask God to help you to understand what you are reading.  Luke 24:45 says, Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  The Message says it this way, He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.  Jesus is actually speaking here.  He had just been crucified on the cross and rose again.  He appeared to his disciples.  His DICSIPLES.  The men that knew him better than anyone else, the ones he had spent so much time with.  Jesus opened THEIR minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  If he is willing to do that for his disciples, who had spent so much time with Him and should have known by now, won’t he do that for you?

There is no magic way to read the Bible.  There is no set way that works for everyone, but I can tell you that if you open your Bible, and ask God to give you understanding, He will.  There are days I read and nothing pops out at me, and I might not even understand what I am reading, but I stay faithful.  Most of the time, something hits me when I read or I learn something new, whether it is gaining knowledge or being convicted or hearing a truth I needed to hear at that moment.  For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12

Stop believing the lies.  Stop convincing yourself that you can’t read the Bible or don’t have time.  Make time.  Ask God for wisdom and understanding.  Get a friend to do it with you if you need the accountability.  We cannot expect to know what God is calling us to do or how to handle life and all the situations we are thrown if we are not investing our time and energy connecting to Him. 

Thursdays in the Truth: Manipulation

Manipulation

Isn’t it just a nasty word? For some, it may bring heartache or anger, reminding them of the past- maybe themselves or loved ones who have been manipulated by another person or situation. No one I know thinks manipulation of a person in a positive light.

But can manipulation be a good thing? A doctor can actually manipulate a “frozen” shoulder while a patient is under anesthesia to get it rotating again, and to regain function of the shoulder. That’s a good thing.

I just returned from a women’s conference featuring the famous bible teacher Beth Moore. The conference was amazing and 9,000 women strong. There was worship music, great bible teaching, and so much more.

One thing keeps coming up in my head is from when Beth prayed. In more than one instance, Beth prayed for manipulation. When she said it, it caught me so off guard. The word manipulation has such a negative meaning for me.  I am somewhat of a control freak, and that word means I am not in control. Beth prayed for God to manipulate our lives, circumstances and situations for His good will.  I often pray for intercession, or God’s hand to be in situations, but I have never prayed for God to manipulate me, or my life. What a thought!!!

Manipulation has been in my daily prayers since I left the conference. I want God to use me for good. I want HIS will for my life, not mine. I pray for God to manipulate me, my interactions, my circumstances, my friends, my family, and my whole world for HIS will.

My prayer for you today is that he does the same for you- Manipulation.

-Andi

Thursday's in the Truth: Oh Pickles!

Have you ever dropped a dish that shattered in a million pieces? Perhaps one of your favorites, a Le Creuset that was holding a potluck size batch of pasta salad that you spent at least an hour preparing? Perhaps in the driveway as you were rushing to get said pasta salad into the car so you could get it to the potluck previously mentioned? And when that dish hit the ground, did any unsavory words fill your head and shoot out of your mouth like word vomit? Yeah, me neither. ;)  Ok, fine.  I said it.  That was my word vomit.

I know how those words got in my head.  There was no slick invasion.  There was no Trojan horse.  I heard those words around the playground as a kid.  I heard them in movies.  I heard adults I knew using them.  And, as a kid, I thought it was quite cool to use them as well. 

Now, as a mom, I’m like the language police.  We don’t even use the “S” word in our house.  You know the one.  It rhymes with "lupid."  Even still, I can’t prevent my kids from hearing those other words outside of my house.  I mean, how can we have a rule against using the "S" word if they’d never heard of it.

Lately I’ve been reminding my kids that what goes in is bound to come out.  It’s true for farts and it’s true for bad language. 

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”  Luke 6:45 reminds us that “his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”  So if we allow it into our hearts, it will eventually come out of our mouths. 

That’s all well and good but you might be thinking along the same lines as my children.  How can you control what you hear?  Sure, you can monitor which TV shows or movies you watch or which music you listen to but you can’t control the people at the store who are spewing vulgar profanities.  You can’t un-hear the nasty way they speak to others.  So then what?

In Philippians 4:8, we have Paul telling the people of Philippi to look past all of the nasty stuff and focus on God.  I love the Message paraphrase of this verse: “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not to curse.  Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized.  Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”

So whether it is bad language or mean thoughts or inappropriate thoughts about someone, we have to choose to filter what we allow our minds to dwell on.  He’s not saying you won’t have these things in your mind.  He’s saying fill yourself up with the good stuff.  We will see ugly stuff.  We’ll see the worst.  But we get to choose what we intentionally put in our minds and what we allow ourselves to meditate on.  As 2 Corinthians 10:5 says “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

What do you allow into your mind and heart?  What do you need to filter out of your mind and heart?

Thursday's in the Truth: Wallowing in the Whispers

 

 

For those of you who truly know the inner workings of my heart, you can appreciate what it is I am about to say. And for those of you who are not familiar with my personality understand, I tend to convey no nonsense messages intertwined with the up most of love.

Each one of us has probably heard the phrase “time heals all wounds” at some point in our lives. However, when your wounds have remained unprocessed and unsealed, this very statement could not be further from the truth. The biggest obstacle to overcome is pain, whether speaking past or present tense. One thing however is for certain. Unprocessed pain will prevent you from fulfilling your God given purpose, and that my friends is what the enemy desires most! Do not for one second underestimate Satan’s ability to deceive you. Paul warns of this very same concept while preaching to the church in Corinth. It breaks my heart when I sit in counsel with a fellow sister in Christ and during the times of her deepest, darkest, unprocessed pain she feels lost and alone. I cannot help but to see it in her eyes, and feel it in her voice. Without fail, my initial question remains “When do you take the time to listen?” It saddens me to realize that the majority of the time this answer goes unspoken.

The problem is we ARE listening, but unfortunately to the WRONG voice. Author Jimmy Evans in his book titled “When Life Hurts” makes the following statement. “It’s no accident that the first recorded utterance from Satan in the Bible begins with Satan questioning the words of God, because that’s where the devil always begins. Satan can’t implant his own thoughts in our minds until he first causes us to question God’s thoughts. The two ideas CANNOT coexist.”  The same voice that spoke to Eve in the garden, twisting God’s words and confusing her mind, speaks to you and I in the midst of our pain. When you allow for pain to remain unprocessed while wallowing in your own misery, you not only can guarantee Satan will knock at your door, you might as well hand deliver him the invitation yourself.

God tells us in scripture "...........I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Friends, please understand something. God has given us complete access to not only know His voice, but also the ability to discern it. There is not a self-help book in this world that will quench the thirst of a soul quite that of scripture. When the enemy offers his whispers it is so easy to listen because we have not taken the necessary time to challenge the negative against the light of what God tells us is true.

 Peter was an ultimate example of this very point. In Matthew 16:21-28 Peter had just been given the best news he would ever hear yet, he wasn’t able to receive it. He just couldn’t fathom that through the deepest pain Christ would ever endure, that it could actually be a design of God’s even greater plan for all of humanity. This was a man who had walked side by side with Christ for the past three years, been a witness to numerous miracles, yet STILL questioned the words that Jesus spoke. And you know why……..because Satan’s ultimate goal was to keep Peter from fulfilling his purpose and accepting the destiny that God had in store for him. Satan saw the fear in Peter’s heart as Jesus explained to the disciples for the first time here that He had to die and carry the sins of the world. Satan used this pain against Peter. Jesus’ very response in verse 23 was “Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” Jesus was not implying that Peter was in fact the enemy, but He knew the whispers upon Peter’s heart were not divine.

The enemy will continue to use your pain to disarm and defeat you until you decide to deal with it. You must fight this battle suited in the armor of the Holy Spirit. You can surely opt to remain wallowing within the whispers and the lies, we all have the free will to do so. Or, you can allow for even your deepest pain to ignite the purposes of your life which God has solely intended for good. If you are not active in the word the outcome is clear……you will provide a barrier between you and Christ, and that my friends is NOT His design. To know God is to first know Jesus. John 14:6 reminds us of Jesus’ words “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

My prayer for all of you today is that you will STOP listening to the lies, STOP listening to the deceit the enemy has to offer and START listening to what God is speaking, even in the gentlest of whispers. In order to accomplish this, you must make an effort to know Him. Remember, even Elijah encountered God in a whisper as recorded in 1 Kings 19:11-12. The ultimate gift God gave us derived out of the deepest pain Christ was called to endure.

 What makes you think God cannot accomplish victory through yours?