In Between

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What do you do with God when you are not in some sort of battle or celebrating some victory? What do you do with God when the storm has passes and you are sailing on smooth waters?

 

Really, I want to know.

 

When we are in crisis, we rush to God. We seek answers. We long for His presence. We crave His comfort. We pray. We plead. We beg God Almighty to be near to us and hear our prayers.

 

When we are celebrating some spiritual victory, we tell everyone. We thank God publicly and privately. We praise Him for everything from sunrise to sunset. We easily see and acknowledge His hand in all that goes on around us moment by moment.

 

So then, what happens when there is no crisis, no pain, and no struggle? What do you do between battles and celebrations? I want to know. Continue Reading...

 

Share Christ

 

It has indeed become a time in which we seem to have no shortage of things, ideas, behaviors, and people to judge. As I have been reading God’s Word over the past few months, I have been convicted. Not for things I’ve done. Not for the life I lived before I knew Christ. I’ve been convicted over and over again for judging harshly, for hating the sin more than I love the sinner, for choosing the sins to take a stand against (and those I will ignore)… for ignoring the plank in my own eye while pointing out the speck in someone else’s.

I am so thankful for a loving Father who reminds me through His word that I am insanely unworthy of His grace.  I am thankful that He reminds me what it was like to be dead to Him and lost in sin. I am thankful that He reminds me that Satan lies, deceives, and manipulates. He strikes fear in the heart of people and causes them to make terrible, life altering, irreversible, unalterable, binding choices that carry unbearable consequences. He feeds insecurities and feelings of insignificance, despair, and unworthiness. He breeds hatred, mistrust, and unforgiveness. He offers choices that lead us deeper into despair, that build walls between us and those we love and that drive a wedge between us and God. I remember all too well what that was like and know all too well how very much I needed a Savior.

My heart aches for the woman who has had an abortion and for the drug addict and the alcoholic. My heart aches for the less masculine guy or less feminine girl who has been told that he or she is gay because they don’t fit our perception of what their gender “should” look and act like. My heart aches for the porn addict, glutton, adulterer, or homosexual. My heart aches for those who feel trapped and helpless to fight his or her demons. My heart aches because they have been lied to...  deceived by Satan into believing that they have no choice but to sin and no hope for redemption. My heart breaks for them because so much of the Christian voice is being used to speak out against their sin… offering much condemnation and very little hope.

Of course we as Christians should live out what we believe and speak against sin...but at what point did we become Pharisees? At what point did we become more concerned with whether people are obeying the rules, “acting right”, and “behaving properly” than we are with whether or not they know, love, and follow Jesus? At what point did we decide that it was more important to police the morals of the world than to share the love of Christ with them?

At what point did we forget that our battle is against Satan and not people?   

When we spend our time talking about how “bad” people are, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Satan is having his way with them and they are very much in need of one thing… a Savior.

There are things that are wrong. There are things that we can never condone because they are in contradiction to the Word of God. There are things that we hate because they are of Satan and they do nothing more than destroy lives. We hate these things for what they do to people…but we cannot hate people nor can we hate sin more than we love the people who are trapped in it and in need of a Savior.

We are servants of the most High God and are called to share the message of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him. We preach Christ crucified. We should speak and act in such a way that the world will listen.

 

Your Mission Field

Today was the first day of school for my PKs.

PK2 called after school to tell me about her day...it was "terrible". 

The mom in me wanted to fix it, but a sweet friend reminded me "God is sovereign". She suggested I explain to my sweet little one that God has a reason for her to be in the class she's in, sitting beside the people she's beside, under the teachers she has this year. This is a lot for a 10 year old to digest....but I know she will understand when her heart is ready. 

I know, because I see it in PK1. He's 16. He has been on the football team forever. He doesn't start. He gets promised to play much more often than he actually plays. It's a lot of time and effort to put in for seemingly no "reward". We asked him if he wanted to quit and he did not hesitate in his response...

"That's my mission field"

He believes that and takes it seriously and it shows. Several of his teammates come to church with us now & I would not be a bit surprised if the Preacher baptizes some, if not all, of them before they graduate. PK1 understands that he is where God has put him and he has a job to do...and it is a lot more important than catching a football.

PK2 watches her brother and sees how he lives. She is growing in her faith and her salvation and I have no doubt that God will lead her as firmly as He has led her brother. She is already learning to trust God and work the mission field in which He has placed her.

All this makes me stop and question my faithfulness to MY mission fields...at work, at home, at church, in the community. Am I working them? Am I looking for opportunities to let God use me...or do I get comfy in my day to day routine?

As we start this new school year, I am challenged to look at the mission filed God has placed ME in.

I challenge you to do the same.