I give up

"For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13

I was reminded of this verse this morning.  It is good news.

Also, some sisters introduced me to a new song this week.  It is called Abide by Jenny and Tyler (look it up on YouTube, it's good).  Here's the first verse:

You strive, o man, and you strive again, your heart too proud to rest
You labor on, singing those songs, to cover your weakness
Do you fail to recall who you really are and Who caused you to be?
Return o man; return and rest, to a burden light and yoke easy

I continue to feel burdened and conflicted, but I choose to believe that it is God who causes me to will and to desire to do His will.  So, I must also believe that He will be the One to cause me to work for His good pleasure.  I choose to stop striving.  I choose to return.  I choose to rest.  So, in a sense, I give up.  I give up trying to manufacture that which the Spirit must produce in me and through me.  I give up trying to be the "good Christian."  The labor of God is to trust in the Son.  So, I choose to wait on my God, knowing that He will prompt me to do what He wants me to do when He wants me to do it.

Praise Him for the help of His presence

A song was shared last night, and I wanted to share the last verse.  It says:

Build me, Lord, with other saints,
Independence ne'er allow,
But according to Thy plan
Fitly frame and join me now.
In experience not my boast,
Nor in gifts would be my pride;
For Thy building I give all,
That Thou may be glorified.

Just another reminder that God is building something.  May we give all to be fit as a living stone into a holy temple, a building, a house for the Holy Spirit to dwell in.  No stone is bigger or more special or more important.  May we lay down our pride and our boasting in our experience and our gifts to be cut to the shape and fit together with the other saints.  Let us remember that this is ALL to the end that God may be glorified.

I am also enjoying Psalm 42 this morning. 

"Why are you  in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence. 
 O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar." (verses 5 and 6)


When our soul (our soul can be defined as our mind, emotions, and will) becomes disturbed within us, let us not just accept it or dwell on the bad or whatever.  Let us tell our soul, "Hope in God!"  Let us praise Him for the help of His presence.  Let us not dwell on circumstances or how we feel.  It's easy to praise Him for His blessings (though I know I don't do that enough).  But let us praise Him for His presence even when we can't see the blessings.  Let us remember the character of our God.  He is good, ever-loving, ever-compassionate.  AND HE IS WITH US.  


I praise You, Lord, for the help of Your presence!

Some Thoughts on Devotion to God

If you have kept up with my blog over the last year or so, you'll notice a pattern.  I won't blog for a month or more, then I'll post several posts at once.  Well, what often happens is I'll have something on my heart to write and for one reason or another I never post it.  And it's not until I realize it's been a really long time since I've blogged that I realize I was supposed to post what was on my heart a month ago.  So I do that and usually several more things will just flow out.  So, that explains why this is my third post this morning.  Perhaps it will be a bit shorter than the previous two.  Perhaps...

First of all, I've been working at the Appalachian Outfitters tubing on the Chestatee River this summer, and though Memorial Day weekend was quite busy, the following week was super quiet.  So, in the past three days I've read half a book just while I was at work (and that's quite an accomplishment for me, I'm a slow reader and I get bored easily). 

The book is called The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun.  I read it a couple of years ago, and let me tell you it is SO good.  It is an autobiography by and about the life of a Chinese Christian who has preached the gospel throughout China, was a leader in the Chinese house churches, was persecuted greatly by the Chinese government, and spent years in prison for his faith.  I highly, highly encourage you to buy it.  But let me warn you, it will rock your world. 

As I was reading it at work yesterday, I contemplated the devotion to Christ that is evident in the life of Brother Yun.  And not just in that he never denied Christ in the face of persecution.  One thing that I remember being huge to me the first time I read this book was when Brother Yun was only sixteen years old, when he had just come to know the Lord, he wanted to know more about Jesus and he knew Jesus' teachings were recorded in the Bible.  So, he fasted and prayed and asked the Lord for a Bible.  He says:

"I went home, and every morning and afternoon I ate and drank nothing.  Every evening I ate just one small bowl of steamed rice.  I cried like a hungry child to his heavenly Father, wanting to be filled with His Word.  For the next one hundred days I prayed for a Bible..."

On the hundredth day, the Lord miraculously provided him a Bible.  And so I feel that I can no longer in good conscience ask why I've seen so few miracles.  It has become clear to me that I do not have the dedication or devotion that this dear brother had even at sixteen years old.  I am grieved by this.  I know that there is no condemnation.  I can honestly say that I know that I am loved by my God. He accepts me and adores me and delights in me because I am His daughter.  But I desire to be useful to Him, to be one used to advance His kingdom on this earth.  May He increase my capacity and increase my devotion to Him.  And may my devotion to Christ be from a place of loving Him with my whole heart.

Proverbs 31:10-31

I've wanted for a long time to write something on Proverbs 31:10-31, so here goes.  First of all, read it.  I don't know how widely accepted this view is, but I've heard several times that this passage makes women feel guilty, like they're not good enough, like they'll never measure up to this mysterious "Proverbs 31 woman."  Instead of looking at this as a woman to measure up to or a list of requirements to make one a good woman or a good wife, let's take it for what it is, a rare biblical picture of what a woman in whom Christ dwells looks like.

First of all, in NASB, verse 10 reads, "An excellent wife, who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels."  In KJV the word "excellent" is translated "virtuous."  According to Blue Letter Bible, the Greek word means:

1) strength, might, efficiency, wealth, army

      a) strength

      b) ability, efficiency

      c) wealth

      d) force, army

It is translated 56 times in the Bible as "army" and 37 times as "man of valor."  And this is the word used to describe an excellent wife, a woman of strength and might, a woman of valor. 

Let's go back to that first verse of the passage, verse 10, "An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels."  Far from making us feel guilty, this should give us hope.  If there was ever a statement of the worth of women, of wives, here it is.  Far above jewels.  We get caught up in the whole, "wives submit to your husbands" and "wives are the weaker partner" stuff, we miss out on the fact that we are given great worth in fulfilling the role God has called us to as women.  Also, remember that marriage is to be a picture of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-33).  The husband represents Christ and the woman represents the church.  Though I am not married, that does help me with the idea of submitting and being weaker and all that.

It seems to me that verses 13 through 24 are practical examples of how the life of Christ is worked out in the life of a woman.  They are not rules.  "She rises also while it is still night" is not meant to make you feel guilty for sleeping in.  An excellent wife is not afraid of hard work.  She takes care of her family.  She cares for the poor and needy.

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.  She opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness in on her tongue.  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness." (verses 25-27)

These are some beautiful ways the Holy Spirit can work through a woman.  It's not really that she is strong and has a lot of dignity.  These are her clothing.  She puts them on.  She puts on the strength and dignity of Christ.  She is not worried about the future for she has put her trust in God.  May we always open our mouth in wisdom and may the teaching of kindness be on our tongue.  Oh, how I am afraid of one day being a contentious wife.  But Christ lives in me, and He is infinitely wise and kind.  He is able to make the teaching of kindness be on my tongue rather than the nagging or complaining I fear to be on my tongue.  She looks well to the ways of her household.  She works hard because she loves her family and she loves Christ.

And I believe it is all summed up in this:

"But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."

I view this passage as similar to New Testament passages such as Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  Certainly I do not look at those passages and think, "Yes, according to this checklist I'm perfect."  I think, "Oh, in my flesh, I can do none of these things, but this is what Christ looks like."  So, as I ask the Holy Spirit to form more of Christ in me, I ask Him to form these things in me.  I ask Him to form love, joy, peace, etc in me.  It's the same with Proverbs 31.  If we see that we often open our mouth and something other than wisdom and the teaching of kindness comes out, we ask the Lord to manifest Christ in us more in our speech.  And we trust Him because He alone is the One who able to keep us from stumbling (Jude 1:24).

So, my sisters, whether we are married or single, let us be women of valor, women whose clothing is the strength of God.  If you are married and have kids, fight for your family in prayer.  A dear sister has shared with me on several occasions that she prays daily for her children because she knows so many kids raised by godly parents who have strayed from the Lord.  Prayer is the best way you can defend your children against the enemy and the world.  If you're single, be fully devoted to God and fight in prayer for those in your sphere of influence, especially those you live with.  Let us not eat the bread of idleness.

Christ Who is Our Life

This is a quick intro.  I've used the words exhort and exhortation before on this blog, but I realized that a year ago I didn't know what the word exhortation meant, so I figured it would be beneficial for me to define it for those who, like me, didn't know what it means.

The dictionary.com definition for exhortation was "the act or process of exhorting" (very helpful, right?).  Here's one of the definitions for exhort: "To give urgent advice, recommendations, or warnings."

And one of the Blue Letter Bible definitions is: "Persuasive discourse, stirring address- instructive, admonitory, conciliatory, powerful hortatory discourse."  One brother explained it as saying "stop doing this and start doing this."

So, now that I've explained that, I'm sure you're super excited to hear what is coming next.  In case you haven't caught on, it's an exhortation.  I don't know how persuasive or stirring it will be, but it will certainly be very hortatory (whatever that means).

The main thing I want to get across is that JESUS CHRIST = LIFE. Speaking of Jesus, John wrote, "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men" (John 1:4).  Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6).  Jesus said, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:9-10).

It is not just that Jesus is your ticket to eternal life.  HE IS YOUR LIFE.  Here and now.  Paul says in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  I could go on and on listing verses about Jesus Christ being our life, but I think I've sufficiently backed up this concept.

So, here's my urgent advice: examine yourself.  Ask yourself honestly, "Is Jesus Christ my life?  Is He my source?"  This sounds strong, but it's true: if there is a part of you that says "no," do not tell it, "That's silly, I've gone to church for this many years or I read my Bible every day or I lead a Sunday school class" or anything else, because Jesus said, "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" (Matthew 7:22).  Or perhaps some will say, "Lord, Lord, did we not teach Sunday school in Your name?  Was I not a youth pastor in Your name? Did I not read the Bible in Your name?  Did I not lead people to Christ in Your name?"  And to some He will say, "I have not known you."

Jesus is not an addition to your life to make it better.  He does not add on to what you already have, make you a better person.  He makes you new.  He puts His Spirit within you.  He puts His life within you.  It's not about what you do for God.  It is a matter of LIFE or DEATH.  It's not about being a busy church-goer.  It's not about how many Bible studies you've done.  If His Spirit is not in you, you are not His.

"The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.  But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (1 John 2:10-11).  God is love, and if God lives in you, you will love people.  Look back at 1 Corinthians 13 for a refresher on what true, godly love is.  Patient, kind, doesn't keep a record of wrong...  This is truly a supernatural love, a love our flesh cannot muster up.  Do you see that love in yourself?

This is not to say those in whom Christ dwells will be perfect all the time.  We still have a flesh to deal with.  But it's a good idea to ask the Lord, "Where is my source?  What am I drawing life from?  Day by day, am I abiding in Christ?"  It is only when you abide in Christ, remain in and with Him, stay close to Him day by day, that you will be drawing true life from the true Vine.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she asked He would give to her "living water" of which she could drink and never thirst again and this living water would become to her "a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:7-14).  I exhort you, if you feel the Lord calling you, if you are convicted that the life of God is not in you, if you have strayed from living by the Spirit, stop making excuses, stop putting off coming to Jesus, simply ask Jesus for living water.  He will certainly give it to you, and you will truly experience what Paul means when he says, "To live is Christ."