THE PHONE CALL

One phone call can change your life.  You're just sitting there, your phone rings, and someone on the other end is saying something you don't want to hear.  You don't want to hear that someone's child is not recovering from a serious illness; you don't want to hear that a friend has been rushed to the hospital; you don't want to hear about that accident involving someone you love.

The last two days have been filled with hearing things I don't want to hear. 

I cannot control what people say.  I cannot control what happens to people. I cannot control bad news.  And at times, I cannot control my emotions.  I cannot make myself NOT CARE about what I just heard. Sometimes it isn't ONE BIG earth shattering thing that gets you down - but a bunch of small things coming all at once.  Last night, at about 8:30 the flood of sadness just overwhelmed me.  For a number of reasons, I felt completely alone and abandoned.

Now, the truth is just the opposite.  My life is filled with people I love and who love me back. Still, when one small thing after another hits you all at once, it can get to you.

I tried to read the Word, but my eyes were not seeing.  I tried to pray but my heart was not in it.  In my brain I knew/know that my life was/is perfectly blessed. Still, I was sad about so many things I had heard.  And as whiny as I know I am being, I missed my mother.  I missed my father. I just wanted to talk to someone who loves me.  I whispered that to the Lord.  

And then the phone call came.

I looked at my phone and it was Carol.

My friend.

She was just calling to say "hi"

I know the Holy Spirit prompted her to call.
His timing, as always, was perfect.
It was not a coincidence.
It was my Father in heaven.

I'm so thankful she followed His lead.

It was exactly the person I needed. 

God knew that.

When our call was finished, so was the sadness.

I am good. 

One phone call can change your life. 

A few months ago, we were visiting with some friends in another state. Their family - children, grandchildren - were visiting also.  We love these people.  And I was surprised to hear that one of the family members, who is the pastor of a very large and healthy church, had been so discouraged decades ago about his faith in God, his call to ministry.  As a matter of fact, one day he drove home to tell his wife that he was not going to continue his seminary training. He was quitting.  And he told me that I called him. At that exact moment.  I don't even remember doing so.  But evidently, I called him to say that he had been on my mind, he had been in my heart all day that day. And I encouraged him to keep going.  I don't remember what I said. I don't remember making the phone call, but he did.  He told me it was a turning point for him to realize that God DID CARE and DID HEAR.  He continued on and became a pastor.  Who knew what God was going to do through a phone call?  God did.

O.K. So what?

  

Let me suggest to you that when someone comes to your mind today, maybe it isn't just a random thought BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT placing that person on your heart.  

Make the call.  Pick up the phone.  Let them know that you were thinking about them. Don't let yourself be talked out of it.  Don't assume you are not God's instrument of peace in someone's life today.  

If the Holy Spirit is the One who orchestrated your encouragement, then God's will has been accomplished.  If it WAS just a random thought, then at the very least, you connected with a friend.  The world is FULL of people whose hearts are breaking, who wonder if God sees them and cares about them.  Maybe God would like to borrow your voice and your phone to call His discouraged child today and say, "I see you.  I care. I'm right here. Right now."

MAKE THE CALL.  

One phone call can change someone's life. 

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Hebrews 3:13 (NIV)

WHEN ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH

"God never gives you more than you can bear" is the go-to verse for people trying to encourage people who are positive they have been given more than they can bear.  As they struggle under the weight of whatever is trying to crush them, drown them,  we assure (convince?) them that they have the ability to overcome. We tell them "You can do this or God wouldn't be allowing it!"  But is that true?  Because they are sure that they are going under. They are convinced they are on their last gasp of air.  And is it fair to tell someone, in essence, to stop whining because if they couldn't bear what they are being called upon to bear at the moment, God wouldn't be allowing it?

Here's the portion of Scripture containing that phrase:
"If you think you are standing strong,be careful not to fall.  The temptations in your life are not different from what others experience.  And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can bear. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." (1 Cor. 10:12-14)

The word used "temptation" can also be used for the words "testing" and "trial" 
But NOT ONLY "testing and trial" but ALSO TEMPTATION TO SIN. 

In the context of this chapter, it appears to me that Paul is telling them that when they are tempted to sin, God will ALWAYS provide a way to escape that sin.  It is reminding them that if they WANT to obey, if they WANT to avoid sin - God will always come through with a way to avoid sinning.  In his very next breath he says, "Flee idolatry." Flee sin. I don't believe the verse is saying what we say it says.  It doesn't say, "Don't worry about hard times. Don't worry when your heart is about to break beyond repair. God has given you a get-out-of-tough-trials-free card. As soon as you can't take anymore, as soon as your enough is not enough anymore, just push the magic button and it will end."

EXCEPT IT DOESN'T END.
EXCEPT SOMETIMES IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE.
 
So... these brave brothers and sisters keep looking at themselves, trying to find enough strength to get through the waves of stress and sadness wiping them out.

May I offer another perspective? (Oh, wait.. yes.. this is my blog..)
 
How about the truth?  That sometimes things come our way that we cannot bear, that we should not bear?  That this fallen world has cruel times people go through.

Sometimes your "enough" is simply not enough to get through. You are not enough. That's the truth. You do not have enough of anything that is required to get through what you are being forced to get through.
Stop trying to find strength in your own strength. 

But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't have hope.  Have hope! But not in your strength. Have hope in the Lord. And in HIS MIGHTY POWER.
Look to Him.
Call to Him.

And that's when the Lord steps in.  And He calls to you and says, "Give it to me.  You cannot do this in your own strength. You will need My strength. You cannot conquer this by using willpower.  This is not about YOUR strength but about MY STRENGTH. Come to Me. Give it to me.  Let me fight for you."

Here's what Paul said about his own struggle, his own "thorn"  -

"Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." (1 Corinthians 12:8-9)

When we are weak, then we see how strong Jesus is.  And that's the key to our overcoming - to know how POWERFUL JESUS IS.   He may allow seasons of feeling powerless. Because He is mean? No because He is love and He wants our lives to be built upon knowing that we "can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who STRENGTHENS US."

The ALL THINGS.. can only be done THROUGH CHRIST.

Paul clearly cautions us,  "If you think YOU are STANDING strong... BE CAREFUL."

Some testings.........are too much.
We will need Outside Help.  He will carry you.
How long will He carry you? Long enough.
I don't know how long it will be until you find relief, but you will find it day by day... Every day you will have enough to get through.
More than enough to get through.
How strong is Jesus?
Strong enough.
More than strong enough.
His "enough" is not just enough.
His enough is MORE THAN ENOUGH.

It is so good to come to the end of our "enough" because it's the only way we understand that Jesus is enough.
Yes.
He.
Is.

"TESTING! TESTING! DOES ANYONE HEAR ME?" - JESUS

You know either God's Word is truth or it is not.  Either it is inspired writing or it is not. There is no middle ground.  And everyone gets to decide what they think is the truth about the Bible and whether or not it is the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  

I believe it is utter truth.  Are there some parts of it that need explanation? Yup.  Does that make me doubt that it is the very Word of Very God. Nope.  I get to believe that. You get to believe whatever you want to believe.  It's called free will. 

I love God's Word.  He has allowed me to teach it to others.
I am HONORED to do so.  It is a miracle of His mercy toward me.

But....Those of us who have decided to follow Jesus sometimes forget that we are not presenting a Book to the world, but a Person. A real human being who lived a sinless life on earth, died and WAS RESURRECTED and is SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD.  

He is still living.
And He is still speaking. 

He said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
(John 10:27)

Can you hear Him?
If you cannot, it's not because He isn't speaking.  
He clearly says that HIS SHEEP listen to HIS voice.  
He doesn't lie.
He knows who His sheep are.
Because they follow HIM.
Following infers that He is leading somewhere.
Following indicates movement.  Going from "here" to "there." 
How can we follow Someone we cannot hear?
We cannot.

I am sad at times when I meet church going men and women who think that following Jesus is ONLY about going to church meetings and helping out at church meetings and going on a missions trip now and then and tithing.

Of course sheep hang out with sheep.  There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that the plan is to be a lone sheep,out there without other sheep.
But that's NOT ALL THERE IS TO FOLLOWING JESUS.

That's not what Jesus describes. 
All through the Gospels, Jesus describes His relationship with His Father as being close and real and intimately One. He hears His Father's voice.
He says that is the RELATIONSHIP He wants with us. 
We are not merely followers of a figurehead of an organization that bears His name and reads His words spoken thousands of years ago.
We are not JUST THAT.

His Sheep hear HIS VOICE.
If we cannot hear His voice, 
either we are NOT really His sheep or we are listening to too many other voices. 

I'm not saying to sit around until you hear voices in your head.. lol... 

But I AM saying that we shouldn't assume He will never speak to someone's heart, never speak to someone's thoughts.  That He will NEVER speak comfort, direction, love, mercy and grace to us.. personally.  

Does it happen every day?  Not for me.
But I know that through my lifetime, there have been moments when I clearly HEARD HIS VOICE....

Take the time to ask the Holy Spirit to help you HEAR the voice of Jesus. It isn't weird.  He speaks. To our hearts. In our thoughts. 

Jesus is speaking.
Do you hear Him?

THE CREATURES LOVE CREATED

"I have loved you with an everlasting love" -GOD

Today, Valentine's Day, people are saying "I love you" millions of times to millions of people.  It's the day that people are pressured, forced, lovingly buying candy, flowers, chocolates and jewelry so that she won't be angry will feel loved.
It's a happy day for many...
And a not-so-happy day for millions of people who have no one to say it to, and no one to say it to them.

LOVE.  Who could have warned us that nothing we accomplish will mean anything if we don't have love in our lives?  God tried. God tries. Mostly we ignore Him.

• Why didn't someone caution us to not allow that person who loved us with unconditional love to slip through our fingers?

• Why do we let someone who loves us the way we long to be loved  get away? 

• Why don't we do whatever it takes to, whatever it costs, to hold on to that Love? 

• Why do some children decide they don't need their parent's love?

• Why do some parents choose to love themselves more than their own child?

• Why don't Christians love each other the way we are told commanded to? 

• Why does Love hurt so much?

• How does Love heal so much?

Sometimes we value things MORE than we value love.

Sometimes we think our value is in things and not in LOVE.

No thing can fill the void left by no love

I have loved people who did not love me back.
I have loved people who did not love me as much as I loved them.
I have loved people who didn't see any value in the love I offered.
I have loved people who broke my heart.

In our - my - humanity I can convince myself that the way to heal a soft and broken heart is to harden it.

We believe that the person who does not love is the blessed one because the person who does not love does not hurt. 

We are not created to live without love.

Because it is LOVE Who CREATED US.
We, humans, are the creatures Love created.

Love (God) doesn't stop loving just because we don't love Him.
He keeps loving.
He keeps calling.
He keeps wanting.

True love never dies.  
But it cannot live in a hardened heart.
True love comes from heaven.
And it comes in to a NEW HEART given by God - who IS LOVE.

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

 Hebrews 4:7

“

FORGETTING STUFF

See that face? This is what I look like several times a day when I find myself in a room in my house but don't remember WHY I went there in the first place. 

Yesterday, I walked away from my computer to get my reading glasses so that I could actually SEE what was on my computer.  I walked back in to my office three times WITHOUT my glasses. I'd get distracted by something, sit back down at the computer and then when all the words looked fuzzy, I'd remember why I got up in the first place. They say it's part of aging - this forgetting stuff.

I would say that it's also a sign of maturity.  The whole "forgetting stuff" thing is one of the keys to a peaceful, victorious life.  (You're welcome).

Forgetting stuff when it comes to people is extremely important.  Well, I mean, some people do some things that are not easy to forget.  Some people hurt you so deeply, betray you so utterly, that you'd have to have a lobotomy to forget. I guess the idea is to NOT DWELL on what they've done.  As we say in New York City, "fuggeddaboudit"...  

Make the choice to ask the Lord to help you to "forget" .. to move on..   You can run it over in your mind... and get angrier and angrier..   Sometimes I have to ask myself, "Why are you so determined to not forget this? What possible pleasure are you getting from remembering and dwelling on the pain they caused you?"  I never have a good answer. 

Forgetting stuff is also the way to walk in the freedom that Jesus came to give you.  Some of us have done things that are not easy to forget. We have hurt people, we have betrayed others and God so completely that we can hardly look in the mirror.  We have sinned. We have really sinned when we knew better.  In our brains we say that we know that God has forgiven us, but in our hearts we keep beating ourselves up, we keep expecting the other shoe of God's wrath to fall on our lives at any moment.  This is also a good time to ask yourself, "Why do I keep focusing on my failure? What possible good can come from refusing to forget I am a sinful but forgiven worm?"  This one has a simple answer.  His name is Satan.  He accuses.  Re-accuses. And Re-re-accuses.  The way to stop focusing on your failure is to REMEMBER that God says, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake and remembers you sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25)   God is the inventor and creator of the whole "forgetting stuff" idea.

Forgetting stuff includes forgetting the pleasure that comes from sinning.  You know, if every time we sinned it felt like someone was sticking a long needle in our eyeballs... none of us would sin.  Who wants to feel that kind of pain? But the Bible acknowledges that sin has pleasure (Heb.11:25) for a season.  

It feels good to be addicted.  There was a high that caused the world to go away. 
It felt good to commit adultery.  It was exciting. He made you feel like he was the only one who ever really truly loved you. 
It was wonderful to steal from your employer. You remember the days you were a hero with lots of cash.
Refusing to forget the pleasure of sin is the one sure way to forget the consequences of it.  A good question to ask is, "What am I gaining by remembering the pleasure of my sin?  How is it helping me to overcome it?"  This is another question that never seems to have a good answer.

Finally.. NEVER FORGET HOW GOOD GOD IS BEING TO YOU.  AND ME.
NEVER FORGET THAT STUFF.

Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. 

Psalm 103:2

THE DESTRUCTION OF WINTER

Yesterday, I got an email which included an article someone had written about the awesome truth that there were two minutes more of daylight than the day before.  

Daylight is conquering the darkness... two minutes at a time.  

It is happening RIGHT NOW -  while we are in the MIDDLE of WINTER, while the roads are icy, and while the snow keeps falling and the temperatures are reaching record lows in some places.  Spring and Summer have risen up and are beginning their annual destruction of Winter.  Just because all you can see is evidence of Winter doesn't mean a thing. Winter is going down... being destroyed... one minute at a time.

I did some scientific research for this blog... ( I "Googled") and asked: 

"What time will the sun go down today?" and the answer is "5:01 PM".

I asked a second question: "What time DID the sun go down yesterday?" and the answer is "5:00 PM." 

I will have an extra minute of daylight today.  Get the barbeque grill ready, folks!  Summer is coming.

In the same way, no matter what "season" you are in right now it will change.   You may be in a WINTER season right now, where everything is dark, and cold and difficult.  It may seem like God isn't doing anything to change your season...  But that's only if you look at what you can see with your eyes.  If you choose to ONLY look at what's going on around you, you will never believe that God is changing your season.  
OH... but HE IS..
HE IS..

I am OLD ENOUGH now to look back on my life and understand that God is MORE FAITHFUL than Summer.  God is MORE EXCELLENT that the flowers in the Spring.

You may not see your season changing, but God is changing it one minute at a time.  The sun is setting later and RISING EARLIER.

Hang in there. 

If you have called out to Him, if you have asked Him for His intervention in this cold, depressing, discouraging"Winter" season... be encouraged!    Your "winter" is being destroyed. New life is getting ready to be revealed.  Even as you read.

"Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning."

Psalm 30:5 (NLT)

FOUR WORDS. JUST FOUR WORDS

Of all the things I love about God is that He isn't a phony.  He doesn't try to hide things from us.  He doesn't paint a picture of the heroes of the Bible as MORE THAN we are. He shows us the humanity of humans. 

They doubted. They wondered. They balked.  They walked away.  They came back. They failed.  They wanted Him, but not as much as He wanted them.

I love all the stuff He didn't take OUT of The Bible.  

I am especially encouraged that He let us see that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus struggled with God's Will.
Who can blame Him? Who wants to be nailed to a Cross for the very people who want You nailed to a Cross? 
I wouldn't. 
 
And though He asked for a way out....
..... in the end....
four words... changed my future.
Four words.... gave me life everlasting.

"Thy.  Will.  Be. Done."

He submitted His will to God's will.
AND RESURRECTED US ALL FROM SURE AND CERTAIN DEATH. 

Four words.
"Thy will be done."
Are they easy to say?
No. Excruciating. Will we struggle to say them?
Yes.
But whatever we are facing, 
they are the four words that will resurrect us. 

I don't usually post link to songs.. but.. this song is a good example of what we should say when we doubt what God is allowing.  A friend who is going through a very, very difficult season sent it to me because God is using the song to get her through.

Here you go.

THY WILL