Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

“You loved me first and I loved you second!!!”  Will was screaming/singing this in the backyard today. 

“Mommy, did you hear the song that I just wrote?”  he asked. 

“You wrote that?  or is that a song that you learned in church?”  I clarified.

“I wrote it, Mommy.  You know how the bible says Jesus loved us first.  Then we loved Him second.”

Ah, to be a child again.  Isn’t it that simple sometimes?  Perhaps it truly is that simple all the time and we adults complicate things.  He loved us first, therefore we have love.  He went before us, therefore we have a path.  He carries our burdens so our load is lighter.  He weighs our hearts, therefore we seek approval from no one else.  He is the beginning and the end. 

There are times when I feel like life is so complicate.  There are so many different choices.  There are so many different obstacles that not only are placed in my path, but seem to be literally pulling at me to stumble over them.  I long for simplicity.  I have heard so many women lately talk about living in “simpler” times.  There was no Internet, no TV, and a time when kids played outside more.  Today I realized that to live in simplicity doesn’t necessarily mean living with less conveniences (the stuff), but living with more perspective; with eternity in mind.  The Gospel is simple.  How precious God was to make it so simple even a child could grasp it’s concepts. 

While I was working out I noticed an interview the Ellen Show was doing of Sean Penn regarding his recent Oscar win.  Of course they were discussing homosexuality and the politics surrounding those agendas.  Sean said something that really broke my heart.

“It’s just really sad the sophomoric view our nation has regarding equality of homosexuals.”  Of course, he was referring to homosexual marriages.  Instantly this verse came to my heart….

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”  1 Corinthians 1:18, 27-29.

I suppose God’s word and His teachings are simple and sophomoric according to the world.  I choose to be simple.  I choose to pray for these lost souls.  Today I am grieving the sin in this world and this generation of our children.  As this age advances, may we fight to stand in our “prehistoric” truths.  May Christ reign in OUR world; in our hearts and in our lives.  We are the generation our children will first look to for guidance and we MUST be a people after His own heart.

“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), I am the Lord and there is none else.”  Isaiah 45:18

I was just emailing a dear friend of mine and God gave me this verse to give to her.  She is battling a family stomach virus.  Boy, have all of us had that this season or what?  YUCK! However, I ended up realizing that I, TOO, needed this word tonight and wanted to share it with you guys.  Just something to think about as my fingers are throbbing in pain, presently.  (I’m seeing the Dr. tomorrow).  ANYHOO…you know, there really is no “waste place” when we are in Christ.  Everything was “created” — planned and purposed.  There is no wasted time on His clock.  So inhabit your week.  Live out the week He’s given and live it out to bring Him glory.  Whether that be a week of family sickness, where all you are doing is disinfecting and sleeping, or running around a hundred miles a minute trying to get things ready as I AM so that finally when all of us can be together as a family I’m not running around with my head cut off.  Perhaps you just brought a baby home from the hospital or your are still carrying your baby inside your womb.  Rest if He desires it for you.  Stop fighting that.  Rest physically, but more importantly rest in HIM spiritually.  There is only ONE God.  May we serve our ONE TRUE GOD and stop being driven by our idols of accomplishment, tidy house, workout kings, being the best chef, or best dressed. (I’ll stop but could go on and on) To sum it up, inhabit your week.  It’s not a waste; nothing in Christ ever is.

It’s hard to type with one hand.  Chris has sternly requested that I NOT type so my fingers can heal, but I can cut and paste.    I wanted to include a quote that one of my dear friends sent me this week. It was so encouraging to me and I couldn’t believe how perfect it was in terms of all that I’ve been struggling with.  May this encourage you as well.

The following is a quote from Andrew Murray who at the time, was suffering from great pain due to an injury years before.
 
“In times of trouble, say, first, He brought me here.  It is by His will I am in this strait place; in that I will rest.  Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.  Then say, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons he intends me to bestow.  And last, say, in his good time He can bring me out again.  How and when, He knows.
Therefore, say, I am here  (1) by God’s appointment, (2) in His keeping, (3) under His training, (4) for His time.

Whew!  What a whirlwind of events this past week.  Right now I’m having difficulty typing.  I believe I’ve fractured THREE of the tips of my fingers on my left hand.  Garage door accident.  Trust me.. you don’t want the details.  I don’t even WANT you to “feel my pain.”  I almost threw up when it happened because the pain was so excruciating.  Well, let’s move on from that.  Our trip to New Orleans was an event.  I probably will blog about that whole thing later.  Basically, I have two words for that place:  Dark and Dirty.  (Perhaps that will be the title of my Orleans entry)    BUT, I’m sort of stuck on the topic of love tonight.  Maybe I’ve a lingering Valentine’s Bug in my spirit today, but I’ve just got this on my mind and THIS is what I’m writing on tonight.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear……We love, because He first loved us.”  1 John 4:18-19

Ah, perfect love.  What is perfect love?  What does it look like?  So often, I think our minds and hearts are so wrapped up in God’s love for us as being His compassion, His faithfulness, His protection, His healing power.  I could go on and on about the amazing attributes of our Great God.  But what does His loving us look like?  I’ve been grappling with this all week and I am realizing this:  God’s love for us isn’t about blessing us with happiness.  It’s about blessing us with holiness.  His love for us is so great that He will do whatever it takes to mature us spiritually and to make us holy- bringing us closer to himself to fulfill our God given purpose, here, on this earth.  And yes, I’m talking about tragedy.  Yes, I’m talking about hardships.  People, please prayerfully consider that our God truly has his fingerprints on every single thing in this life- the horrible and the miracle. 

I live in fear.  Finding myself sitting on that flight home from Louisiana in a thunderstorm trembling and sobbing, I realized this is truly a sin stronghold in my life.  And it’s not just a fear of flying.  The Holy Spirit has begun to uncover a deep rooted issue in my life.  I mask my fear with worry; and I justify my worry with being caring and responsible.  Does any of this make sense?  Do you just feel like you need to fret when you leave your children with a babysitter for an evening or a night so you can get away and spend time with your husband?  Do you find yourself having trouble sleeping at night because you are plagued by the “tragedy” that could befall your family any minute.  Does your stomach ever tie itself in knots because you’re worried about your finances, or your children’s behaviors, or your husband’s faults?  That’s fear.  It’s not being “extra cautious” or “responsible”.  It’s fear and Satan is covering it in these innocent terms so you will continue to carry it.  I only speak this harshly because these are the very things that haunt me day in and day out and I’m SICK OF IT!  I’ve been weeping over this sin all week!  I write this because now that I have discovered it, I feel like, through Christ, I can fight it.  I write this so you, too, may be made aware if you are struggling in this area and need Christ to aid you in the tearing down of this fortress of oppression.

So there is no fear in love?  In the past, this has always meant to me that because God loved me, He would protect me from all things that I feared.  Therefore, I shouldn’t fear.  It only took time and time again of seeing horrible situations happen to GODLY people to realize this no longer applies.  Then, the fear returned.  But, God’s word is the truth.  Perfect love does cast out fear.  It removes it completely.  How?  I recently heard Beth Moore talk about loving God, UNconditionally; regardless of our circumstances.  If these horrible nightmares my mind conjures up DO ever happen in my life then I KNOW it will NOT be the end of me…. it will be the beginning of something great God will do through my life to bring about holiness.  This, my friends, is how God’s sovereignty works.  Something Beth Moore suggested that spoke volumes to me was to write out your worst fear and then “go there” in your mind and really have that conversation with God.  In the end, after much sobbing and beating my chest, I found myself on the floor crying out to my Savior.  For those of us in Christ, you know this is where you would finally land.  This is the sovereignty of God.

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He, himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Hebrews 2:14-15

In Christ we no longer have to live in slavery to our sin.  His love is perfect.  Not in the sense that it loves us by giving us a perfect, blessed life, but that it gives us GROUND to stand on in our very IMPERFECT life.  His love is perfect in that He can take our sinful, imperfect hearts and make us holy heirs in His kingdom.  Because He loved us first, we may share His holiness.  His fingerprints were on everything before they ever came into being.  He knew us before we were born.  Would not His hands STILL be on our lives?  Our God gives and He takes away.  And although He does bless us with gifts that add to our happiness, He is most interested in our holiness.  “He disciplines us for our good… all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  (Hebrews 12:10, 11).  This is the sovereignty of God.  Trust Him in anything as He trains you with everything.

“The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?  Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not.” 

Numbers 11:23

I love how God always proves our doubts over the seemingly impossible..possible.