Psalm 12

Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore;
    those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
Everyone lies to their neighbor;
    they flatter with their lips
    but harbor deception in their hearts.

May the Lord silence all flattering lips
    and every boastful tongue—
those who say,
    “By our tongues we will prevail;
    our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
    I will now arise,” says the Lord.
    “I will protect them from those who malign them.”
And the words of the Lord are flawless,
    like silver purified in a crucible,
    like gold refined seven times.

You, Lord, will keep the needy safe
    and will protect us forever from the wicked,
who freely strut about
    when what is vile is honored by the human race.

Here we find another lament of David.  He looks around and says what I have often heard said these days, though the language is perhaps a bit different.  "Why is there so much evil?"  "Why doesn't anyone follow God anymore?"  "Things have never been this bad."

But David turns to the Lord and opens with "Help!"  Did you know that is one of the best prayers?  That one word communicates so much: surrender and faith.  It says, "Hey, Lord, I know you're the only hope in this situation."  It looks in the right direction for hope and assistance.  Don't ever feel ashamed or afraid to simply say to your loving heavenly Faith and Creator-King, "Help!"

In the pattern of a lament, after issuing his complaint/plea-for-help combo, David expresses confidence in God to shut down the proud and boastful.  Then there's the stanza where God speaks.  It is almost like, mid-prayer, David turns to God's word for language to express his confidence that God is going to answer his plea for help.  God will arise!  His word (promises) will be fulfilled!

David closes with a word of praise to God, the one who keeps the needy safe and protects the vulnerable from the wicked, even if it seems like at the moment they are prevailing.

A Psalm of Contrasts

As per the usual in wisdom literature, God's steadfast faithfulness and power to protect his people and triumph over evil are set in contrast to the pride and dishonesty of "the wicked" - those who refuse to acknowledge God.  Another comparison is presented between their words and God's.  The speech of these unfaithful and unloyal humans is at best unreliable, at worst harmful.  God's word, however, is as trustworthy and pure as can be.  Human tongues wag in confidence their plans will come to pass and nothing can stop them.  But the Lord arises, able to make his word come to pass.

It is worth the time to present a final contrast that may not be as obvious, but I find most personally convicting.  The last line of the Psalm reads, "when what is vile is honored by the human race."  To read that word in the context of this psalm, vile can be understood as lying, deceitfulness, boasting, pride, and plundering the vulnerable.  If I were asked, outside of reading this psalm, what I'd put in the vile category, none of these things would make my list.  I'd be thinking of gross, deviant behaviors that make the daily news and leave us thinking, "Thank goodness I'm not like that!"  But lying, deceit, pride, boasting, benefiting from the plunder of the poor?  Well, I can be like that!  In contrast, we find the faithful - loyal to God and fellow humans - who humbly turn to God, trust in his protection and power, and strive to help the poor and needy.

Good News!

Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, those who put their faith in him have a door opened to freedom from wickedness (dependence on self) and unto faithfulness (humble surrender to God).  God takes hard hearts, prone to lies, flattery, and deception, and gives hearts of flesh in return, hearts soft toward him and toward our neighbor.  The self-preservation-at-any-cost way of living is replaced by a hopeful, faithful, peaceful existence grounded in the love of our powerful and loving Creator-King who sees the poor and needy and is risen.

I am humbled by a psalm like this.  On my own, without the Lord's intervention in my life, I was in the group David talks about in verse one.  But he has intervened and given me faith and his Spirit.  I am no longer at the mercy of my pride and desires!  Nor are you if you have put your trust in Jesus.  Yes, temptation will come - we are not yet in the new earth - but sin's power over us is no more.  We belong to the Lord and are part of his family!

People will fail us.  We will disappoint ourselves.  But "the words of the Lord are flawless."  Indeed, what he says he will do.  Consider the contrasts in this psalm and, as you meditate on the gospel today, rejoice!  When you were poor and needy, the Lord came to your aid.  Jesus' work is complete and he will return.

When we are tempted to join in David's lament,"Lord, no one is faithful anymore! Evil is winning!" may the Spirit quickly come to our aid, reminding us of God's triumph over evil, his good and true promises, and his love and power at work in his Church (us!) and in the world.  Further, may the Lord guide us into his way for us today and in the coming days, showing us when and where we can be part of his "arising" to the aid of the poor and needy.

Shalom!

Jesus is so Irritating!

Am I allowed to title a blost in that way?  I mean, can I tell the Lord that He is annoying?  It's not His fault, really.  He is simply busy being the Lord of my life and, unfortunately, I don't always appreciate that living under the Good News of what He's done for me means I can't just do and be whatever I want.  Here's where He's getting under my skin (under my sin?!) this week.  And, truth be told, I am very thankful for it!

Philippians 2:6-8 says this about Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

That's really awesome, right?  He was God, but made Himself nothing so that we could be reconciled to God by His death and resurrection when we believe in Him.  That's the Gospel Christians talk about and celebrate.

But guess what Paul says to the believers in Philippi just before that, in verse 5?

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

[crickets, or maybe an expletive if that's more your style]

I have been thinking a lot about how polarized people feel/are right now and how heavy everything seems.  As someone who often sees the value, even if just in part, of people's perspectives on both sides of an issue, it grieves me a lot to see so much posting of trite memes and sarcastic one-liners, in general, but especially by fellow believers.  It's easy and makes us feel good, but we have to call it what it is: wrong and dishonoring to our God and fellow image-bearers.

In the verses above what I read is this: Jesus had every right to be a trite meme and sarcastic one-line poster in His day!  He knows what's in the heart of man (John 2:24) and He knew His own righteousness; He knew how often people came to Him for selfish reasons and personal gain, but not to love Him. He alone in the history of mankind had the "right" to judge everyone He met.  And what did He do?

He served.  He died.

He looked over the crowds and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

I guess in one sense, He did make a judgment about them.  But it was motivated by compassion (love) which protected Him from writing them off as a bunch of idiots.  You poor fools lost in your sin!

This is how God directed my thinking yesterday as I vacuumed my kitchen - yup, our kitchen is carpeted; it's silly! - while trying to process all the information and opinions I have encountered on social media and in the news this week in light of the evil at work in our world.  Living in the era of social media and quick access to information, no matter how true or incomplete, fuels our natural tendency to make rash judgments (not to mention fools of ourselves)!  All of us do, whether we post about it to let the world know or simply hide it in our hearts, pridefully smug.  I, too, form opinions and am quickly tempted to write off certain people or groups as hopeless at best, or unredeemable at worst.  Can you relate?  I imagine some of them may feel the same about me!

But not Christ.

The only One who could have pronounced judgment, instead made Himself the way to be rescued from it!  And Paul reminds the Philippians and those of us to walk with Jesus in 2021:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 

What must we do with our hard, judgmental hearts when they act up? Go straight back to the primary message of the kingdom of God: repent and believe the good news!  That is the Word of God to those responding to Christ for the first time to those who have known His salvation for decades.  This is surrender to His will.

Find yourself out of step with His will, casting judgment on others?

Repent and believe the good news.

Christian, you and I have been made new!  The made-new listen to the Spirit, confess the sin to their loving Father, and remember the risen Savior and the glorious work He has done in their lives.  All this reminds us of how eager we are for others to know this freedom: from sin and also the freedom from needing to play God and decide if people are worthy or not.  He says they are!

But wait, there's more! The Lord also shows us His way and transforms us into people of compassion, people who speak life, people who reflect the light of Christ in the world, people who model their relationships with others according to the mindset of Christ.

Thank goodness He provokes us by His Spirit to get us back to Him.

Praise God with me today that Jesus is so irritating!

New Year, New You? Start here.

Before you sign up for that gym membership and go out and grab all your clean eats to start the year of right on Tuesday, I have something I want to say to you:

But [Jesus] answered [the devil], “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  Matthew 4:4

He was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 in response to the devil's temptation, after forty days of fasting, to turn stones into something to eat.

[God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

And now, a question for you: Who are you?

Are you a number on a scale?  A checked-off to-do list?  A physical accomplishment?  How your kids behave?  Your salary?  Your degree(s)?  Your leadership position?  How clean your house is? Your relationship to someone else?  The neighborhood you live in?  The car you drive?

Sisters and brothers, we need to give all this up!  Who you ARE is none of these things!  And I don't know about you, but the harder I try to find my identity in any of the above, the more miserable and dissatisfied I become.  Our souls were not made to be satisfied by things, accomplishments, physical appearance, or relationships.  Our souls will find their satisfaction and peace only in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to save His people from their sins.  And the place we learn about who we really are and how to become what He desire us to be is from our Creator in His Word.

So before you proceed with your resolution-making for 2019, I must ask:

Do your new years resolutions include a plan

to feast on the Word of God?

Because according to Him, we need His Word as much as we need bread to survive!  If Jesus needed the Word to refute the evil one, how much more do we?

Filling up on a diet that daily reminds us that we are sons and daughters of the King of kings, who have an eternal inheritance that can never spoil, perish or fade, who are indwelt by the Spirit of God who will equip and enable us to resist the temptations of the world, flesh, and devil, who are loved with an everlasting love by which our souls were made to be satisfied, will protect us form trying to hang our hope on one or more of the idols I listed above.  The Word that reminds us that we are in much greater trouble that we ever thought, but that God's rescue plan is beyond what our wildest dreams could fathom.  Feasting on the Word of God keeps us in our place, not in a humiliating way, but in a humbling one that will cause us to wonder and worship the God who formed, saved, and sustains us and to desire to extend mercy and love to others, for we have known a love that must be shared.  You will even find you love you more, when you look at yourself through God's lens, not the world's distorted mirror.

Let's neither trust in useless idols to define us, nor invent a god in our head who is not God at all; instead, let's dive into His Word where He reveals Himself so we can know Him.  He has done this, and it should leave us astonished!  Why God?  Why?  Well, 2019 is the year for you to dive into His Word and find out!  The transformation He offers is of far greater value than any resolution can offer you this year.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

    and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him,

    and he will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh

    and refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 3:5-8 

With all my love in Christ,

Heather

PS: I'll share some resource ideas later this week, if you need some ideas of where to begin!

Live Alive {Day 17}: Arrogant and Rude

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

I thought it would be fun to look up the definitions of today's words:

• arrogant: having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities

• rude: offensively impolite or ill-mannered

Raise your hand if you'd like to be described as arrogant and rude?  Yeah, me neither!  And yet, here we are, often expressing arrogance or rudeness before we've even had time to think about it.  Our sinful nature is so quick to exert itself!

I am particularly struck by the definition of arrogant.  The arrogant person has a false understanding of their importance or abilities.  They are essentially deceived.  Wow.

We've all been there, though, right?  I mean, we want to show the person in front of us that we are cool, worthy, able, etc.  We inflate a resume; we exaggerate a story; we assume our right-ness; we inflate our importance.  Having rude paired with arrogance is perfect, because rudeness is a natural outpouring of an arrogant orientation.  We think our need to get somewhere is more important than another's so we tail them on the highway or cut them off in traffic.  We are sure our story outdoes the one the next guy just told, so we butt in and share ours to show the superiority of our experience.  We believe we are contributing more in a relationship, so we justify rude comments or belittling behavior toward our spouse or friend.  (Guys, you know it's a serious problem when it even affects our relationships with people we love, not just a stranger in a car who drives too slowly!)

Love calls us to a new alive way of living that is the opposite of arrogant and rude.  Here are some antonyms for our two words of the day:

• arrogant: humble, modest, meek, unconceited

• rude: decent, gentle, nice, polite, refined

Love is humble, modest, meek, and unconceited, decent, gentle, nice, polite, and refined.  That sounds about right.  The first list concerns mostly what's happening inside our heads, our perspective on who we are.  The second, on how we interact with others, in thought, word, and deed.  How beautiful would it be to be described like this?!

We need a perspective change before we can experience a behavioral transformation.  Looking to Jesus is the ticket!  He resisted the temptation to both while He walked the Earth, so that we could be rescued from them!  We can unashamedly say, Hey, I'm arrogant and rude, because the Gospel gives us a proper perspective on who we are.  It flattens us in the dust by telling us the truth about our self, rescuing us from the deception that arrogance wields over us.  Then, the Gospel picks us up, dusts us off, hands us clean clothes, fills us with power, and gives us a job to do!

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:3-4

Paul encourages the Philippian church to live like this.  If it came naturally, they wouldn't need reminding.  But just like us, they needed reminding.  Paul goes on to tell them to have the same mind of Christ among them, who, though equal with God, humbled Himself before God and was obedient to the call on His life.  Then the Lord lifted Him up and exalted Him and gave Him the name Lord!  

Before glory, comes humiliation.  But even in humiliation there is the constant comfort of knowing we belong to God and are His beloved child.  And that is enough to carry us to glory living alive in humility in the meantime!  We know we are hopeless and helpless without our Lord.  We know everyone else is, too.  Meditating on the Good News of the Gospel keeps us grounded in the reality that we deserve nothing, yet have been given everything!  I can't be arrogant and rude to you if I'm lost in the wonder of God's love for me; that love will pour out of me in compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience.

So, what am I trying to say today?  Simply this:

If you want to be able to flee arrogance and rudeness and live alive, you need to stay close to Christ, regularly remembering what He's done for you, His promises to you, and how He's called you to take up your cross daily and follow Him.  We cannot have an "exaggerated sense of [Christ's] importance or abilities" because there aren't enough words in the world in all the languages to express His majesty and greatness!  The Gospel keeps us in our place in the very best way, because it meets our needs while eliminating all cause for arrogance and rudeness.  The Gospel sets us free to love one another.

If you are in Christ you are ALIVE!

Enjoy Him, and the rest will fall into place.

Heather 💛

Live Alive {Day 15}: Patient & Kind

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

Yesterday I shared how alive people put others before themselves, thus living out the second greatest commandment, and the first, too.  For as we are obedient to the second - love your neighbor - we live out the first - love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Not absorbed with our own needs, because we know God's got that all in hand, we are able to look to the interests of others.

I promised that we'd get into the nitty-gritty of this loving your neighbor business in subsequent posts, and this is the first subsequent post!  As a structure we'll use these verses and take the descriptors of love set-by-set:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  I Corinthians 13: 4-7

Perhaps you've heard these verses at a wedding.  They're nice, aren't they?  Yeah, till you think about actually living them out and you're like, how in the world?!

Before I go on, a reminder:  the only One who ever perfectly lived out this kind of love on earth was Jesus.  The Bible says God is love and I talked in an earlier post about how alive people are serious about God's love.  His love is the basis for our relationship with Him, for he so loved the world.  Without that love, we are lost.  Jesus showed us the extent of God's love, (that would be death on a cross).

While living out that love in the world - a love we long for but struggle so much to give and receive - Jesus said to His disciples that he had a new command for them: love one another.  The love He was talking about is the love described above.

Another reminder: Jesus sent the Spirit.  Alive people rely on that strength to try to live out this kind of love, not their own.  You Cannot Love Like This Alone.  Please reread that sentence.  If you want to have any hope of maturing into this kind of love, you must stay close to the Spirit of God.  He's the source of the alive life, every day and always.

With all that background, today we hit patient and kind.  These two seem kind of obvious, right?  Naturally, we love others when we are patient with and kind to them.  But, boy, others sure make it hard to do: a co-worker isn't pulling his weight, a friend never asks how you are doing, a child pushes back in every little thing, a spouse doesn't love you the way you need, a driver cuts you off, etc., etc.  At each of those junctures we have a choice: trust God and try to live alive or turn back toward death and live for self.

We not only live out the alive life when we choose patience and kindness, we also come more to life and are filled with praise for the Life Giver.  When the Spirit pricks our heart and prompts us to choose God's way, there's a jolt of energy to our faith.  Hey, wait a minute, I am "hearing" God speak to me!  I am still wrestling with a desire to disobey, because I like me so much, but wow, God is at work in my life.  That's incredible.  Maybe there's hope for transformation after all.

If that's not enough reason to pursue the live alive, I'll give you one more.  Choosing patience and kindness also increases our compassion.  You know, because sometimes we're the one in need of patience and kindness.  Remembering that we're just as human as the person driving us bonkers or the person who has an inconvenient-for-us need drives us back to how merciful God has been to us.  I mean, 'cause seriously, there was nothing convenient for Jesus about his years here on Earth!  But love brought Him and love kept Him on the cross.

The alive life of patience and kindness isn't about a grin-and-bear-it and hope-it's-over-quick tolerance, but rather a dependent pursuit of the alive life by practicing patience and kindness with all our neighbors, i.e. anyone God puts in our path.  Right at this very moment I am having trouble trying to practice this in my own house with my people, so I'm gonna hop off here and think about this for myself.

For Christ and His glory,

Heather 💛

Live Alive {Day 14}: Others Before Self

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

Well, here we are.  Again the day has flown by and I haven't gotten to get any thoughts down on the screen to share with you all.  Daily writing is so fun, but this week has been a little more hectic that expected - we have an injured pet and plans to go away for the weekend.  But after a particularly emotional Monday, the week has looked up and I praise God for how He's been hearing my prayers for increased dependence on Him.   I mean, I do really prefer the comfortable and predictable, but not much growth that happens in that cozy corner, eh?

That brings us to today's topic: Others Before Self.  God wants us to purse Him, and one of the ways we do that is by living out His love in the world in the way Christ did.  Paul says in Philippians 2:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant  than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Guys, this his hard!  Every fiber of our human nature wants to look only to our own interests and perhaps to the interests of others if it is to our advantage.  But our Lord lived so differently:

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted Him ... .  

Jesus, the only one who had any right to claim superiority over or service and praise from every other human, did exactly the opposite.  He humbled Himself.  And when He calls us to follow Him He also bids us to come and die, to self.  Christ is more than our example; He's our Savior and Lord who doesn't ask more of us that He was willing to do Himself.  Let us also not forget that He sent His Spirit to equip and help us to choose humility, too.

Alive people are people of action.  They take Christ seriously when they remember that He said:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?  Luke 9:23-25

The two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.  (Matthew 22:36-40) Much of the time the way we express our love for God is by our obedience to His command to love our neighbor.  Alive people are like this, loving God by humbling themselves so they can love their neighbor.  You all know folks for whom it is like second nature.  I would guess that it wasn't always that way for them, and they would tell you stories of how much practice it took to become more loving.

With all the pressure this week, I feel like I have been racing against time to keep up with daily responsibilities.  Monday afternoon, feeling too unfocused to accomplish anything else and knowing rain was coming Tuesday, I headed outside to race the sun and get some necessary raking done.  I had about an hour to get the leaves down the hill, onto the tarp, and out to the curb.  Part way through I told the kids to come out to get in a few sleds down the hill into the leaves before I dragged them all away.  My youngest was particularly delighted!  And of course, after a couple of runs, she wanted me to sled with her too.

My initial reaction was to say, "No, I'm in a rush here."  But I felt that good Holy Spirit prick with the truth that a sled ride or two would really not set me back that much.  Love your neighbor as yourself.

This lively little girl was so thrilled to take a couple of runs down the hill in a green saucer with her mama.  I got all the leaves to the curb with a little daylight to spare, we picked up our pet's medicine, dinner wasn't too late, and I got in a little practice at choosing another over myself.

I don't always.

I do love my Lord so much that I am saddened by how often I won't give up my time, talents,  or reputation to love Him and my neighbor.  Isn't it wonderful that He is so long-suffering and that His mercies are so great and new every morning?  Alive people remember that, too!

There are many specific ways to live alive by loving our neighbor, whether it's someone in our home, our town, at work, school, a friend, or an enemy.  Over the next few or many posts, I'll share some of those.

Love on!

Heather 💛

Live Alive {Day 12}: The Family

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

On Sundays throughout 2018, I have been reading through The Heidelberg Catechism: A Study Guide, by G. I. Williamson.  It is divided into 52 readings, one for each week of the year.  Overall, I would recommend it, but there were some of the author's commentaries that I thought went more into diatribes than was necessary.  Reading through a Catechism slowly has definitely been beneficial for adding new knowledge and energy to my faith.  I would recommend doing so!

Yesterday's Catechism questions were about how Christ teaches us to address God as Father in the Lord's Prayer.  The Catechism says Jesus did that to awaken in us, at the beginning of our prayer, that childlike reverence and trust toward God ... . This serves as just another reminder of how dependent we are on God.  We come before Him in prayer and call Him Father, which reminds us how much we need Him and that He is in authority over us.  Calling Him Father also reminds us that we are now members of His family and that He is the kind of Father all fathers long to be and that all children desire.  He does not abuse His authority or neglect His children.  We can come to him with childlike reverence and trust.  Looking at Jesus enables us to do so without hesitation.

In the commentary, Williamson wrote something that struck me about how we can't reach God on our own, but Jesus is a sufficient mediator:  

The reason is quite simple: Jesus is both God and man.  Both the divine nature and the human nature are there in one person.  Because in his human nature He is our brother, and in His divine nature is the only begotten Son of God, he can reach both God and man and bring them together.  p. 213

I know Williamson was specifically speaking of salvation, but after some conversation in our Life Group last night, it got me thinking about how alive people connect with their new family.

When we are made new in Christ, brought back to life and called God's children, we are also adopted into a new family, the family of believers.  Jesus is our brother and our Lord and as such we are bound now and eternally to anyone else who calls on His name.  This can be super awesome, because we each have different gifts and abilities and can work together for the advancement of the Gospel in the world.  This can also be super awful, because we all have different gifts and can become divided and lose sight of the mission to share the Gospel with the world!

Amen?

Paul hits it all in Ephesians, guys!  He talks about this very thing, reminding the Ephesian believers, and those of us who read the letter today, that we are united in Christ and are headed somewhere with/in/through Him!

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 

Ephesians 4:1-7,11-16

Alive people interact with their family in some specific ways:

1. They keep the first thing the first thing!  Alive people fight to be unified with their family, remembering that we are all one under Christ. Alive people also remember that we have not attained "mature manhood" yet as a body, so they are patient with the process living in a manner worthy of the calling, like Paul says in the first few verses.  
2. They know what their gifts are and use them to serve the family!  We are all different.  There is incredible diversity in the body!  Alive people know God has given them specific gifts to use to serve the family (the body or Church) to help maintain unity and to help the body grow.  They rejoice in how God has made them and pursue opportunities to serve with them.  They know the Church needs them to use their gifts - it's God's call on their lives!
3. They help their brothers and sisters to discover their gifts and use them!  Alive people don't waste their time in jealous pride, they know that they desperately need the rest of their family. So they encourage other believers to know and exercise their God-given gifts, so they can delight in watching the Lord use them for His purposes.

Cynicism is easy.  We all know how hard it is to be unified with people who are different from us.  We still live this side of heaven and our sinful natures are still demanding dominance in our hearts.  We won't see the body perfected till Christ returns.  But alive people are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.  Hebrews 10:39

Living alive denies cynicism a seat at the table, leaving the space for hope.  Christ calls us to be unified; we will fight for that.  Christ calls us to use our gifts; we will use them.  Christ calls us to encourage our brothers and sisters to use their gifts; we will encourage and enjoy them.

We are family because God made it so.  Alive in Christ, we can have faith, press on, and rejoice together at what God does.

Not shrinking back,

Heather 💛

Live Alive {Day 10}: The Fight, Con't

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

It is a beautiful wintry morning here in Western PA .  A light dusting of snow covers the rooftops and an icy wind is blowing through the tree branches in my neighbor's yard.  Fall is cold today!

In fall there's a beautiful wave of death in the changing and falling leaves.  We enjoy watching it, despite the knowledge that what follows are months of grey!  But we rejoice in the spring, when the world comes back into color.  The changing of seasons often gets me thinking about what nature can teach us about the spiritual life.  In this case, the beauty in the dying, the waiting, and the renewal, makes me think about the role of death in the life of the person who is living alive.

I have some sorta bad news: when God makes you alive again with Christ, you aren't magically perfected.  Like, you're still gonna want to do bad things and not want do good things.  The fight is on not only against the devil from without, but against your own sin nature from within!  I find this to be a big bummer, because I so desperately want to be able to worship the Lord in spirit and truth, to treat people around me right, to no longer give in to my selfish desires all the time, and to be rid of my ever-present pride.  However, I also find this to be wonderful news, because as we learn to live alive even while the battle is raging, we get to experience what God is capable of doing in transforming us, we get to lean harder on the work and power of Christ, we get to be refined and shaped for the eternity that we will spend with the Lord!

My alternate title for this post would be Serious About Sin.  Alive people take sin seriously, and believe it or not, that is a GOOD thing.  What do I mean?  Well, Paul discusses this in many of his letters.  I was going to direct us to Colossians 3:1-10, but since our theme verse is from Ephesians, I'll post some verses from that letter for you here.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Here's how I have experienced this part of the fight - taking off the old self and putting on the new - and how it relates to the changing of seasons.  Every day, of course, we should remember we are new, confess our sins to God, accept the assurance of His forgiveness, and ask Him to help us live righteously.  That is the daily work of putting of the old and putting on the new. But there are seasons where God really wants to clean us up good in a specific area.  This can feel like death.  You're going along AOK in your Christian life, mostly just asking God to forgive you for your usual hiccups and hangups, and then BAM!  Suddenly the heavy feeling starts and seems to come from no where.  The weight of a particular pattern of sin becomes acute and you cannot shake it.

Go with it.

The Spirit is at work in you to move from one level of alive to another.  The leaves are starting to change colors and fall.  It might get grey for a while, but the green of spring is coming!

Living alive means we are at war against the devil.  It also means we are now at war against the sin within.  But are we not more than conquerors through Him who loved us?  YEP!  Nothing can separate us from that love.  God is love, and Love will see us through.  He longs to see us go deeper and higher into the alive life.  Putting sin to death is part of that incredible process!

And, boy, will we love thee Lord more as we let ourselves be pruned, refined, and restored!  Engaging in the fight against sin in Christ makes the Gospel explode with greater meaning.  We will feel and be more alive because the Good News will just keep getting good-er.  We won't boast with pride, we'll burst with praise!  We start saying things to God like, Really Lord, you knew all along about how deep I was in that and you still love me and refuse to give up on me?  Wow!  You are so good to me. Also, I think I need to tell a friend about this.

The fight will change you.

Fight on - the Lord is with you!

Heather 💛

P.S. All praise to God for the words He's giving me each day.  Guys, I rarely have much of a plan for where these posts are gonna go, but the Lord provides every time!  And, special thanks to my children who slept in so I could get this posted this morning. I think I'll go make them some pancakes.

Live Alive {Day 9}: The Fight

Previous posts in the Live Alive series can be found here.

God's love is so great!  Corrie Ten Boom, a woman of remarkable faith who survived the concentration camps during WWII, is quoted as saying, "No pit is so deep, that God's love is not deeper still."  Make no mistake, you are 100% disqualified for membership in the family of God.  Nothing you can do can put you back in His good graces.  The nicest person you know and the most heinous criminal you can think of are all in the same condition before their Maker; He will call each one of us individually to account, and we will not be able to defend ourselves.  Our only hope is to grab on to the way He offers through Jesus back into His family, made possible by a depth of love none of us can fully comprehend!  Those who take God up on His offer are made alive and become quite serious about His love.  Living under the umbrella of that love gives them comfort, confidence, and compassion, making them live more alive than they did before.  But it's not always a walk in the park!  Which brings me to something else about alive people: 

Alive people know they have an enemy

and that they are still in his territory.  

Whenever you ally yourself with someone, not only do you enjoy the benefits of that relationship, you also take on their enemies.  God's enemy is that serpent, referred to throughout Scripture as the devil, satan, or the evil one.  For whatever reason, Jesus coming and dying and rising again was just 'phase one' of the defeat of this enemy.  Jesus will be coming back for operation final destruction, when the time is right.  For now, the Lord, in His wisdom, has let the evil one still rule here on earth.  As such, those who believe in the Lord and enter His love also enter into battle.

Welcome to the war, friends!

It's kind of a relief to know, right?  I mean, don't you have moments every day where you think, Man, it sure doesn't seem like the world is the way it should be.  We can do better that this.  Or, I keep trying and I just can't seem to get myself together.  I should be able to do better.  There is a desire deep inside of us for righteousness, goodness, for life to triumph over death - and we sure don't see that happening around us or in us.  That is because the battle is raging!

Peter admonishes us:

Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  I Peter 5:8

And Jesus said:

[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8:44

Living the alive life, however, means that we do not fear this enemy.  His defeat is certain! Living the alive life also means we stay on our guard: sober-minded and watchful.  His desire to trip up God's children is strong - he is murderous and still speaking lies!

In Ephesians Paul says, and give no opportunity to the devil. (4:27)  How do we do this?

1. Remember our new identity: we are children of God, no longer slaves to the evil one.
2. Rely on the Spirit to fight our spiritual battles, not ourselves.
3. Practice, practice, practice!  Practice recognizing when the evil one is actively trying to destroy you and practice telling him where to go.

Dear ones, if you belong to God you have the Strength within you to resist the devil.  You do not need to fear this enemy because you are alive in Christ.  You can be on guard against his schemes in your life because you are alive in Christ!  Being tempted isn't a sign that you're failing - even Jesus was tempted.  Temptation is an opportunity to live alive by leaning wholly on God for your identity, worth, strength, and hope.  He will rise up to protect and defend you!  The enemy cannot win.

Fight on in faith!

Heather 💛