WHEN SAYING "HELLO" MEANS SAYING "GOODBYE"

We've just finished the Christmas Season - and now we cheer and celebrate and look forward to a NEW YEAR... 

Come on, 2019... we're counting on you to be a good year. A great year. 
Who doesn't like new beginnings? 
BUT.... 

In order for us to say HELLO to 2019 

We have to SAY GOODBYE to 2018. 

Duh.

When it comes to "LIFE" I sometimes forget this. 
I don't want to say "goodbye" to something in order to say "hello" to something else.

I want to have the new without letting go of the old.  It never works.

If I want to say hello to a forgiving heart, I have to say goodbye to unforgiveness.  

If I want to say hello to a fitter body, I have to say goodbye to my sofa.

If I want to say hello to hearing God's voice, I have to say goodbye to all the media and social media "noise" that drowns out the voice of the Holy Spirit.

If I want to surround myself with people who encourage me, I have to say goodbye to people who discourage me.

And so, there is the rub.
The conundrum.
The problem.

I am always saddened by people who SAY they want new life in Christ, but continue to hang on to the old life they used to live. 

People sometimes reach out for help and want to embrace a new life.. but.. they are unwilling to say goodbye to things like adultery, lust, addiction, jealousy, anger, lying, envy and greed. 

They say they want a new life.
BUT
They keep clinging to the old one.

We get used to being broken.  We accept being powerless. We feel secure that our anger is justified. We embrace our lust and addiction.

We think we are powerless to say goodbye to these things. 
And. We. Are.

But Jesus has ALREADY OVERCOME THEM.. FOR US.
He is the ONLY ONE who has the power to help us say goodbye to the old life so that we can say hello to the new one.

Jesus said goodbye to His heavenly Father for a season so that He could say hello to you...Forever.

He will help you say goodbye to every fear, addiction, and power that sin has over your heart and mind. In an instant? Sometimes.  Forever? Always. 

You cannot hold on to the old life if you want to live a new one.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

1 Corinthians 5:17

SAYING "OUCH" IS NOT A SIN

A friend of mine recently went through a harrowing couple of weeks when her adult son needed emergency heart surgery.  The surgery went well.  Surgeons were pleased.  End of story? Nope. A week or two after the surgery he was rushed back to the hospital. The doctors determined that he had an infection as a result of the surgery.  They gave him medicine.  He was allergic to the medicine.   So many people were praying. God intervened and he is healing and doing well.

Nice story. 
So what does it have to do with you? With me?

The story begins because someone had a "broken heart" and knew he needed help.

How did he know?

He felt the pain.  

What if someone had convinced this young man that nobody cared about his pain? 

What if he felt like he would be bothering the surgeons with his pain? 

What if he was embarrassed that something was wrong with him? 

What if someone had convinced him that saying "ouch" was wrong?

How sad the end of this story would have been.

Saying "ouch" is not a sin.  Even if you love and follow Jesus, things come our way that HURT. That WOUND.  That robs the BREATH from our lungs and depletes every TEAR we have.  

Who told us we had to be robotic spiritual soldiers?   
Not God. Never God. 

I can go to my Father in heaven, with my tears, with my broken heart, with my confusion and simply say, "This hurts. This REALLY, REALLY hurts."  Or... with a covered over wound... and admit to Him, "When that happened, Father, it really really hurt me. It wounded me. They wounded me."

I am not sitting in judgment. 
I am not asking for vengeance.
I. Am. In. Pain.  

I am a child, with a wound, showing it to my Father because I know He cares about it.  He cares when someone hurts me. He cares when someone rejects me. He cares when I am afraid. He cares when my own sinfulness has brought me pain.   He cares. He cares. He cares. He does. 

Are you in pain?  Did you bring it on yourself? Bring the pain to God.
Are you in pain? Did someone else cause it? Bring the pain to God.

I am writing here about saying "Ouch" to a Father who loves you.  At some point in time, He will heal what needs to be healed, He will cleanse whatever infection has gotten in and around our hearts because of the wound, and His love is the only medicine that will heal.  All other medicine will not heal a broken heart.  

Read that again: His love is the only medicine that will truly heal us.  We were never meant to get through life with bandages on a broken heart. He wants to give us NEW and HEALED and WHOLE hearts. 

Only the Great Physician can heal our destroyed hearts.  And only when we humble ourselves enough to admit how broken we really are.  Because we really are very, very broken. Most of us? No. All of us. 
Today... say this and believe this:

"He. Cares. About. My. Pain."

In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears.2 Samuel 22:7

  

SUNGLASSES

I haven't had to wear my sunglasses in quite a few days.  Thing is, the weather here in Tennessee has been rainy, or overcast for a million months... give or take a couple of million.   I love wearing my sunglasses... 

But it's not the sunglasses I love - it's the sun that is flooding my face with its  warm light that I love.  

I prefer sunny days. Blue skies, with puffy clouds.  Fresh breezes under a warm sun. Don't you? Who doesn't?

Today it rained again.  The forecast for tomorrow is more rain. I don't have to be a genius to figure out that I won't be using my sunglasses anytime soon.

I guess I should throw my sunglasses away. Right?

I don't know anyone who decides to throw away their sunglasses just because they face a couple of rainy days? Do you?

We all have know that the day will come when the sun will shine. Brightly and in our eyes. 
As we drive. And walk.
It will shine for days and days on end.

We will wear our sunglasses again. We know this even on rainy days.

AND...I don't throw away my faith when I have a couple of days of rainy weather.   

I have faith in the One who made the sun.

"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

Jeremiah 31:25

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL

I love that quote by Francis Chan because he sums up exactly what the Enemy of Humanity does in order to distract us:  he makes us change our idea of what success means.

Distraction is his diabolical device. Here's how he distracts us:

The first step is changing our audience.  Our audience becomes other people rather than God. We want people to applaud us, we want people to know our name, we want people to think we have succeeded..............and when they do, we convince ourselves we have succeeded -- when --  from eternal perspective... we have failed. 

The second step is to change the location of where we want to succeed.  Jesus always spoke to His disciples about "The Kingdom of God" (email me and I'll email you all the verses).... another Kingdom.. an Eternal Kingdom.  "If you want to be great in THAT Kingdom", He said, "become a servant of all."   In the first chapter of Acts, after His Resurrection, the Bible says He spent many weeks speaking to them about The Kingdom of God, but these people STILL focused on the Kingdom of Israel... "are you going to kick those Romans out now, Lord?"  It comes naturally to us to focus on here rather than there.. that's why the Holy Spirit HAS to come and live in us... to teach us, lead us, convict us, comfort us.. Succeeding here brings some satisfaction.. but can never compare to the glory that awaits us.  We need to choose to succeed there more than here.  Sadly, most of us cannot "see" that far.

The third step is forgetting the real story.
If we say we believe the Bible, then we know that it is the story of the fall of man. It's tragic, really.  There is sure death waiting for every soul. Every soul will have to pay for every sin.  BUT God has provided a way.  We believe that every person can be delivered from Death, given new Life, be restored to our Father in Heaven and live again.. live forever.  There is no song, no sermon, no story, no funny personality, no clever turn of words- NOTHING - that can change the story but JESUS.  What He did, what He is doing and what He will do.   The story is Jesus. 

Good for you if you have succeeded in your career or ministry. Enjoy the moment.  Trust me...it will pass.

Just take a moment to consider if heaven is applauding you.

Or if you are applauding yourself. 

 

 






 

HOW TO BE HAPPY

So, o.k., here are my suggestions for living a happy life. Ready?

1) Stop trying to "be happy" and focus on being thankful. Be thankful for things you have no control over that are falling in your favor today: you can see, you can walk, you have a job, you aren't starving, you aren't living in a gulag in a third-world nation.  It is an undisputable fact that happiness and contentment rise when your thankfulness does.

2) Accept your utter lack of control over most everything you are trying to control.
You cannot avoid rainy days but you can be thankful you have an umbrella.
You cannot make everyone love you but you can be thankful for the people who do.  
You will not succeed at everything, but you can be thankful that at least you tried.
You cannot avoid losing things and people you love, but you can be thankful for them while you have them,
We are ALL living life on the borrowed mercy of God. 
We are ALL under His control whether we acknowledge it or not.
ONLY GOD IS IN CONTROL OF ALL THINGS.
Accept that and trust His love for you,

3) Stop talking negatively about other people. 
No. No. Seriously. Don't talk about the annoying co-worker, your in-laws, people at church. Everyone on earth has the self-control it takes to NOT SAY WORDS.  You will not believe the effect your gossip is having on your inner being until you make the effort to STOP.  STOP assuming you know why someone is doing what someone is doing, or what his/her motive is, or what they are thinking.  
ONLY GOD KNOWS FOR SURE WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOMEONE'S HEART and life, 

4) Expect from others what you expect others to expect from you.
We have such high standards and high expectations of others, but expect others to give us a break when we don't meet the standards we expect from others.  We expect people to be polite, yet want them to excuse our rudeness; we expect people to have love that covers a multitude of our sins, but won't let anyone off the hook when they show signs of being weak and human. 

"Merciless Christian" is the epitome of an oxymoron. 

You cannot be one if you are the other.

Have compassion on other people in the same way you'd like other people to have compassion on you - and you'd be surprised at how happy your everyday life will become,

OK.. well for today let's focus on these four and try them for a week or two.. and check your happiness status.

"Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy."Matthew 5:7

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Thanks

COMPROMISE AND THE WONDERFUL CHRISTIANS WHO DO

Compromise.  Seems like a word we all need to embrace or we are going to destroy ourselves and the world.  

Compromise.  One definition is: 

"a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions; settle a dispute by mutual concession."

Compromise.  In our destructive, hate-filled society, it seems like the answer.  We all agree to disagree and just get on with our lives.  Seems. Like. The Solution. 

Unless you continue to search the definition of the word. 
It also means: 

"accept standards that are lower than is desirable.

as in - "we were not prepared to compromise on safety"

Compromise ALSO means:  "to weaken (a reputation or principle) by accepting standards that are lower than is desirable."

You have to change your mind - and lower your standards - in order to compromise.

It's easier to change your mind and just get along with everyone.  Getting along with everyone seems like such a loving, enlightened thing to do.  And it is.  

But getting along with God seems...uhhh... more important.   To me it does.

All of a sudden, I see posts on Social Media by those wonderful compromising Christians. They seem so loving to frown at those archaic standards in the Bible.  They talk about God's love... that's great.. I love God's love...  I love them, also.

AND if they want to compromise, that's their choice. Compromisers are always about CHOICE.  Here's the deal though:

It isn't the compromise that surprises me. 

It's the venom of the compromisers.  

It isn't like they calmly say, "Oh, I've decided to change my mind about what I believe God's standard is" and then go about their daily lives. 

OH NO... they INSIST you agree with them.

They INSIST you compromise with their compromise.
It is unacceptable to them for you to continue to hold to the beliefs you have always held.  It isn't enough for them to change - they INSIST that you change with them.

They turn on anyone who will not agree with them.

Especially other Christians.  They rant..and dare I say.. RAVE against anyone who has the nerve to not want to compromise.

I mean.. I want people to like me.. I don't want to upset anyone. I am aware that I have no right to cast a stone at anyone about anything.. EVER... still..

God is merciful, but He does not compromise.  

This concept seems confusing to so many.  Why is that?

God is merciful, loving, forgiving and full of compassion toward humans. He knows we are weak. He knows we will sin. He LONGS TO FORGIVE.

God has mercy...but He doesn't COMPROMISE.  

God doesn't say, "Oh, you know what? Now that it's 2018, I'm thinking that maybe I've been a little hard-nosed about all those silly little laws about sex, and murder, and lying and jealousy.  Especially since those lawbreakers are people you are related to.  WHY DON'T I JUST COMPROMISE AND LET SIN RULE AND REIGN IN THE UNIVERSE?" 

HE LOVES US TOO MUCH TO COMPROMISE ON THE REASON FOR ALL THE PAIN AND SUFFERING IN THE WORLD - SIN.

He is willing to forgive you for it. He is longing to take away that guilt that is crushing you because of it...BUT...

He doesn't compromise His standards. He still has something He calls sin. And He still insists on telling us that it will separate us from Him. Now. And forever. 

My enlightened fellow Christians are vitriolic (filled with bitter criticism or malice) toward anyone who has the nerve to say something like, "I choose to believe what I've always believed." 

It isn't judging THEM to stick to what I BELIEVE. 
I STILL BELIEVE WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED - God LONGS TO FORGIVE SIN... BUT HE DOESN'T OVERLOOK IT...

And rather than fall on the mercy of God,they decide God isn't relevant anymore.

Whether you've have an abortion, or your brother is a homosexual, or your son is committing adultery, or your daughter is sleeping with her boyfriend, or your nephew struggles with drunkeness, or you allow yourself to hate someone, or you refuse to forgive someone who has asked for forgiveness, or you are jealous... 

DOES GOD STILL LOVE THEM? LOVE YOU? LOVE US? 
DOES HE CONTINUE TO HAVE LONGSUFFERING AND LOVE TOWARD THOSE OF US WHO ARE WEAK IN OUR FLESH? ABSOLUTELY!!

HOWEVER...God doesn't compromise by telling you not to worry about it.  He doesn't say it isn't sin - He says "I sent my Son to completely pay for that sin.  I sent my Son to cleanse you of the guilt and anxiety that sin brings."

If someone is ill, we don't "compromise" and convince them they aren't sick. How is that LOVE? Would you tell a child with a fever, "Don't worry about it. You aren't sick. You are merely expressing yourself."

Are you JUDGING that child by wanting to have their illness cured?

Are you being narrow minded for refusing to go along with the crowd who is insisting that the fever is not caused by an illness?

Are you loving that kid by overlooking their disease?

NO.. we would get that child MEDICINE so that they can be healed.  

Real LOVE doesn't overlook the sickness. Real LOVE admits it is there, and finds the cure.

Real LOVE is what God has. He expects us to ADMIT we have the sickness called "sin" and ask Him for the cure:  The Blood of Jesus.

If you have decided that God didn't mean what God said, and you have decided that what was formerly an abomination to God is now acceptable behavior - you are allowed to believe that.

If I don't want to lower, change, or reinterpret what I believe about God, that is my right.

Right? Right.

My whole point is to state this fact and ask the question that follows it:

The compromisers always have such venom toward those who refuse to compromise.  Why is that?

"For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold."

2 Timothy 4:3

(AMP)

FOLD SOMEONE'S SWEATER TODAY

She was a cup of water to my spirit.
She was a light to my weary eyes.
She lifted my eyes and head.
She erased, for a moment, all the rejection I was feeling.
She had no idea that twenty years after being in her presence for less than five minutes, she would be a woman who taught me a great big lesson.
She? 
She was an assistant in a doctor's office.  
Me?
I was there for a routine appointment.
She?
Picked up my sweater that I'd tossed on to the seat and folded it neatly for me. 

That's it. That's the end of the interaction.  The end of the story. Before she took my temperature and blood pressure, she saw my sweater in a lump on the chair and picked it up and folded it. Then she left. 

She didn't know that I was going through a season of sadness and brokenness. Rejection.  Confusion. Pastor's wife. Pastor. Trouble at the church. People rejecting us. 

She just knew I was a woman whose sweater would be wrinkled if someone didn't fold it neatly.  She didn't ask me why I didn't fold my sweater. She didn't tell me how nice she was for folding it for me.  She didn't give me a speech about people who don't value their things and don't fold their sweaters.

She just folded my sweater because a folded sweater is better than a wrinkled one.  I mean, seriously, who writes blogs about a sweater folding woman???
I do.

And maybe it's because I was so broken at the time.
And maybe it's because I felt so attacked.
And maybe it's because I was in a raw emotional season.
Or maybe it's because I hadn't felt kindness from another human being in so long... '

BUT... her kindness.. small as it was... revived something inside.

Yes.. seems silly to write about it.
Except it isn't. 

I learned a big lesson from that sweater folding woman

We may never know how one act of caring, no matter how small, may be the thing that waters a dry and broken heart..and....gives it just enough hope to try another day.

It isn't easy to be kind in such an angry world.
If it was easy, everyone would be.

Fold someone's sweater today.

FATHER, FORGIVE US..... WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE DO.

And so..life as I knew it.. has changed for me... since 2015... a book about Mom coming out just as a movie she prayed for came out... and.. a clip of her with one of the producers on every DVD... millions of people looking for this powerful woman of prayer.. who is home with her SAVIOR... they look for her.. and find me.  And.. people want to know about her.. hear about her..learn from her...  

I have been overwhelmed.  Completely overwhelmed with emotion.
You might think my emotion is due to watching the clip of my mom's interview with Stephen Kendrick that is a special feature on every War Room DVD.  It isn't easy to see my mother.,,. full of life... ten feet tall in front of a church on a church screen...full of Jesus... full of love... with me sitting next to her at her kitchen table....unaware that months later I would not be able to sit next to her.. ever again...  You'd think my emotions would spill over.  NOPE.  I have watched her beautiful face hundreds of times..,.and feel just thankfulness to have had her..

I am overwhelmed by the people in the pews. 
I am overwhelmed by the people in the pews.
The children God loves... His children.
I am overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed by...

Their hunger for MORE of God.. their desire to know how to speak to Him... their longing to hear Him... wanting to find God's heart...and their inability to find it.. though they attend church regularly, memorizing Bible verses, volunteering... working hard for Jesus... 

And yet... 
Their questioning faces -
"Did someone like your mother really exist?"
"Does God really answer prayer?"
"Did she truly love Jesus THAT MUCH?"
"Was she serious when she said, 'When you have Jesus you have everything?'"
"Please teach us how to pray."

What?  What? What?  Why is someone who had a childlike faith, embraced God's Word as utter truth, prayed with authority, saw God answer prayer, LOVED PEOPLE WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS... 

someone unusual to other followers of Jesus?

Why isn't she the norm - rather than the exception?

It's true that not everyone is supposed to be like Molly Bruno (as a friend recently reminded me)....

But... 

God has certainly decided to raise her up... in my small circle... as an example. (1 Cor.11:1)

How is it possible in this country... that with all our efforts
All our books
All our music
All our evangelism
All our media
All our self-promotion of our "ministries"

THAT 

the people in the pew don't really pray?
the people in the pew don't really trust God?
the people in the pew are choking on despair?

We're doing something.  But is it feeding the flock?
We are promoting something.. but is it prayer?
We are doing lots of talking... but is it about Jesus?

I am overwhelmed by the hunger in God's children... Who knew how hungry they are?

I am surprised at their surprise to discover that the secret to Mom's life was childlike faith. That's it.  Believing that God's Word is true.. that.. His love is real... and living each moment speaking to a real and living Man in Heaven... Jesus.

What are we doing - those of us up in front of God's children?

I am overwhelmed by the overwhelming hunger in God's people.
I am.

Father, forgive us.  We know not what we do.

YOUR CHILDREN INSIDE YOUR BURNING HOUSE

You love your children.  Everything you have belongs to them. You give all you have so that they can have all you give. 

Your children have access to anything in your house.  You are sure to let your children know that although you OWN the house, they have permission to use and enjoy anything in it.

Of course, there are some caveats: don't open the door to strangers and don't play with matches.

And then one day, after leaving them alone for just a few hours, you come home to a horror scene. YOUR HOUSE IS ENGULFED IN FLAMES!! 

You see fire trucks at the scene. The firemen are arguing about who has the authority and position to hold the hose, while others are fighting over which ladder to use.  While they argue, your house continues to burn, with your children inside.

The neighbors run up to you... because they are angry that the firetrucks have done damage to their lawns. While they scream at you about their stuff being ruined, your house continues to burn, with your children inside.

The TV news has arrived - and they are jockeying for the best "shot" of the burning house- which continues to burn with your children inside.

Where would your focus be?  Would you join in with the firemen - trying to decide who has more seniority, who has the right to lead the fight against the fire?

Would you be apologizing to your neighbors and explain to them that you had nothing to do with their stuff being ruined?

How much time would you spend being sure the TV camera crews got just the right angle of your home? How much would you care about your reputation and how your home looked on TV? 

Would you be standing there, telling anyone who would listen that you WARNED your children not to play with matches.. and they disobeyed you?  Would you be concerned about not taking the blame for their sin?  I doubt it. 

I think your only focus would be to RESCUE YOUR PERISHING CHILDREN!!!

And maybe now we can "see" for just one moment the heart of God for the world.

ANYTHING that distracts us from focusing on HIS CHILDREN being rescued from the fire is distracting us from what truly matters.
God wants to rescue us... even though we have created our own disaster.

And there we sit - arguing about different worship styles, or different doctrines... or politics and the people running things.. or... our 'stuff'.. or our reputation....

What matters to God is rescuing His children from the flames. What matters to God should matter to His rescued children,

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:16-17

NO ONE IS LISTENING...

I don't think there's been a time in the history of history that humans have been so bombarded with sound.   We are instantly "ear budded" in to our music, internet, TV shows. 
We have instant access to fifty six million TV shows at the touch of a button, or a movie. It's like an avalanche of sound, a tsunami of noise.  We know about things that are happening on the other side of the planet almost as soon as it happens.

We hear, we hear,  we hear... 

BUT THIS IS NOT A BLOG TO CRITICIZE these "advancements" in technology.  

I'm just calling attention to one of the side effects of living in a society that makes it possible to close ourselves off from one another with a simple pair of headphones.. a pair of earbuds...  And that is:

NO ONE IS LISTENING ANYMORE

I'm also not writing to tell you to take your earplugs out and listen to someone for a minute. NO. NO. NO. 

Listening.....true listening.....has to start in the heart - not the ears.  If you don't want to listen to me, if I don't want to hear you - it's a matter of the heart not the ears.  I can force you to remove your earbuds, put your phone down, stop texting.. but I cannot make your heart soft enough to care about what I want to say.  If you don't want to listen.. .why speak to you at all? 

It's everyone's right to decide IF they want to listen. If you want to cut yourself off from the world, that's a heart decision of yours.   BUT.. as a result.... 

We have gotten used to not being listened to. 

We have grown accustomed to speaking and no one hears us.  

We don't expect to be heard anymore.

And that's the reason I am writing this.  

To remind us - me - you - that

God has not changed. 

When we speak to Him He doesn't have His ear buds in, as He checks His text messages and emails on His smartphone and reads the headlines while watching a movie and nodding like He is listening but isn't really.

This lack of listening all around us can convince us of a lie - that God is also NOT LISTENING.  So why pray if He isn't listening?

So we stop praying.

But HE IS LISTENING.

So... speak up.

He longs to hear your heart. 
He created it.

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. 

Isaiah 65:24