Don't Look Back

Do you remember reading about Lot in the Old Testament? He was Abraham’s nephew who wound up living in Sodom. Most of us know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. They were the two cities where sin was running rampant and the righteous judgment of the Lord was looming on the horizon. Eventually fire and brimstone rained down on them and all inside died.  

Well before that supernatural storm, two angels came to Lot’s door to rescue Lot and his family from the impending doom, but only he, his wife, and their two daughters left. For some reason Lot’s sons-in-law thought it was a joke.  Lot, his wife, and their two daughters didn’t really want to go either but did.  Literally, the angels had to hold their hands and pull them away from their home in that sin-filled town.

Then the angels gave pretty specific directions to Lot and his family saying, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley, escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away,” (Genesis 19:17).

3 out of the 4 members of this little nuclear family obeyed the angels. One did not. The wife looked back. Instantly, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

 The family was emotionally tied to Sodom—it was their home.  The command to “not look back,” was a way for them to start breaking from the past. When we look back at our pasts with longing and with a desire to go back to “the way things were” we lose out on the new thing that God is birthing. Sometimes, “the way things were” isn’t very healthy or righteous. We need to run from those things and head for the hills.

The idea of “not looking back” has been a theme this year for me.  God has been changing my life so drastically and shaving stuff off that could be looked back on with longing.  He has told me over and over to “not look back” but to know that He is all. He will provide for every need I shall have in my life whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.

This year, God had me escaping “the way things were” and providing me with the journey of letting go of the emotions of my past including the sense of security that money provides, and the sense of direction a degree provides. He has given me this year to distance myself from desiring these things emotionally anymore.  2010 has been a year of running to the hills and looking forward at what God has in store for the next chapter of my life.

What has the theme been for you in 2010? Pause and pray about where He is going to take you in 2011. Any scriptures come to mind?

Quiet Moments

Gifts are a beautiful part of the Christmas season. We have been following in the Magi's footsteps for centuries by giving each other gifts. I want to challenge you to do something new this year in the gift category. Whether out buying a gift or at home crafting a gift, decide to use that time in prayer for the recipient of the gift. 

Take this week of gift giving, and intercede for the people who will be receiving the gifts you have gotten for them. Pray that they will know the Savior in a bold new way this year. Pray that their faith will be deepened and that they will have a craving for the Word of God like they have never had before.

May He open up conversations for you this week with those seeking the Savior. May your joy be evident--even at the grocery store with all your kids in tow when the clerk tells you they just ran out of what you were there to pick up. (wink)

Rejoice for unto us a King is born! He is our Wonderful Counselor, our Mighty King, our Immanuel.

Know Beyond Knowing

When I was in high school, I had a thought that God had to be more than a flannel graph character in the children's Sunday school lesson. God had to be bigger than asking Noah to build an arky-arky. God had to be more than Father Abraham and his many sons..stand up, turn around, sit down, amen! (remember those songs?)

I began to have a deep craving for the Divine. A longing to know God in a way that I hadn't known Him before. A desire to have His magnificent shadow pass over me--to feel His presence. I wanted to touch, taste, see, hear, and feel Him. It wasn't enough anymore to study the Bible and see maps of where Jesus and Paul had walked. I wanted more.

To be enveloped by Love, Himself, had to be possible. If it wasn't possible, why had I chosen to lay down my life: my hopes and dreams for a flannel graph character? I began crying out to the Father of Lights who gives good and perfect gifts, begging Him to reveal His presence to me. Nightly, I would kneel in my bedroom waiting for Him to come.

Then one night, He came. In that single moment, alone in my bedroom, I knew beyond knowing that God was real. Yahweh was more than a flannel graph character or a Sunday school song.  I knew beyond knowing that I was safe in laying my life, my hopes and dreams, down before Him. His presence invaded my life and I have never been the same.

Why should I share this...my sacred night...with you? Simple, many of you haven't had a sacred night with the King. Many of you have been roaming around wondering if God is anything more than a character in a book. You wonder if He is anything more than a man who once walked the earth, you wonder if He is anything more than a church service.

Close your door and come before Him. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Ask Him to meet you where you are in the center of all your doubts. In the center of all your knowing. He will come. He will meet you. You will know beyond knowing that God is real. You will know that His heart is love and it beats forgiveness. You have been mercifully loved. You have been extravagantly loved.  You have been gracefully loved.

Safe Word

Many families have a "safe word" in place. Simply, when a child is away from home and someone unknown to that child (i.e. a stranger) suggests to the child that the parent has sent him/her to pick up the child and take them home--the child can ask for the "safe word". Should the stranger know the safe word, the child then knows this person has been sent from a parent and they are safe with this person. Should the stranger not know the safe word, the child knows this person isn't safe and; therefore, shouldn't go anywhere with him/her.

Now that you know the concept of the "safe word," I want to alert you to the fact that God has set up a "safe word" with us--His children. It is called the Bible. In this book are dozens of illustrations, quotes, prophesies, and warnings that will help us to recognize Him--to know His voice.

When we hear different words as we go about our day suggesting anything contrary to the Word of God, we know not to go with it. For example, I have been bombarted with this word over the years, "Who are you? You aren't anyone special. Why would anyone want to be friends with you?" Yes, I used to come across this antagonistic message frequently.

I know this doesn't line up with the Word of God. So, now I say back to this stranger, "Nope, can't go there with you. Lord, take this message away. I choose to rely on Your Word for encouragement and strength." Funny thing, this stranger comes around less and less these days.

The key concept in all of this is the fact that the Holy Spirit will NEVER say anything that is contrary to the safe word--the Word of God. We are free to go with Him whenever He speaks. In able to discern if it is the Holy Spirit or if it is a stranger, we must be grounded in the Word of God. This is our plumb line for truth.

Books by Christian authors, speakers on Christian radio, and yes, even our pastors are not the plumb line for truth in our lives. It is the infallible inerrant Word of God. Infallible means to be completely trustworthy, dependable, and certain. Inerrant means it is true without possibility of being in error.  Mere men will fail at times. We can depend on one thing with men--they will be in error at some point. Their perceptions will shift, or they may go off with a stranger and try to say that stranger knows the safe word. Only the Word of God is dependable in being free from error. It is incapable of being false.

Knowing that the Word of God is incapable of being false and that we can trust it wholely, why do so many believers choose to not know the safe word? Why do we go off with various strangers that teach the latest trends? Why do we not test the Spirits as it says to do in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

I want to submit to you that it is because certain Christians have been "burned" by the church. Somewhere along their journey, they encountered a pastor or a fellow parishoner who spoke legalism over them saying it was the Word of God. Because they didn't know the safe word, they believed what was being said and now...they don't want to return to the Word of God--to the perfect (inerrant) Word of God because they are believing the lie told to them by a stranger.

So these believers search out mere men to translate the Word to them so they never have to sit under that legalism again. The problem is--they are still believing a lie. The Word of God is life giving. It is full of grace and mercy. It is not a chain that we, Lovers of the Word, are bound under.

Oh beloved daughter of the King, open the Word, eat of the sweetness, know your Father's heart for you. Know that He gives good gifts and we have at our disposal the best gift of all--His Word. Pray for the wounded hearts who are tired of living under man's law disguised as the Word of God. Pray they will be restored to the Beautiful life giving  freedom  that comes from knowing the Father's voice clearly.

Maybe legalism isn't what keeps you from the Word. Maybe you are saying, "That's all great, but I just don't understand the Bible. It isn't written for us today. I don't get it." Well, there is a Helper who longs to teach you the truth that is found in the Word. He is the Holy Spirit. Before you open your bible today, pray a simple prayer asking Him to open your heart and your eyes to what He wants to teach you. He will teach you. He will grow your desire for the Word of God in your life. Before you know it, you will have a deep longing to be in the Word daily. There will be an attraction to this marvelous Truth that you didn't have before.

The next step is to find a Bible study where you can sit under someone who can help you discern the Word of God. Someone who can guide you through the more difficult passages. Someone who can point you to the tools needed for further study and understanding. Things like context, history, and original languages will be invaluable to unearthing treasures in the Word.

May your appetites be changed. May you desire the Word of God in your daily life. May it be as sweet to you as a chocolate truffle. Enjoy your safe journey!

Friend

Yesterday, I had breakfast with a friend that I haven't seen in a good long while. There was a season in our lives when we were much more connected. My first inclination is to say it is the busy-ness of life that has pulled us away, but I do believe there has been more to it. See, the Lord brings people in and out of our lives in various seasons.

A year or so ago, she and I were walking a very similar path and God had put us together to encourage each other. Our assignments changed and God brought other lovely people into our lives and distanced the two of us. So breakfast yesterday was a sweet gift from the Lord.

She spoke truth and wisdom to me. There was a moment in time when the Spirit said to me before she starting speaking, "This is me speaking to you, not her." As she was speaking, the tears of comfort were welling up in my eyes and spilling down my cheeks.

With all the changes that are going on in my personal life, it was such a special kiss from the Lord to have this time with her.

May we all be blessed with those friends He has placed in our lives at various seasons. Thank Him for those He has placed around you for such a time as this.

The Beautiful Tapestry

Think of the Bible as a colorful tapestry that has been beautifully woven together with 66 different strands of yarn. Each strand symbolizes a book of the Bible. God, in His supremacy, wove the scriptures together; therefore, none of the strands can stand alone.

There is a danger in tugging too hard on just one strand. The rest of the tapestry could become distorted. However, the longer we walk with the Spirit, the more gingerly we will analyze each strand in light of the complete tapestry of the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit becomes our teacher in the study of the Word. Jesus says in John 14:26, "But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

When we study the Bible, we are disciplining our minds to slow down, in order to absorb all the rich color that a particular strand of the tapestry contains.

After studying the Word of God, it is my prayer that you know the Master Weaver better, that His character, beauty, and majesty will have been lifted off the tapestry and into your heart. He is a good God and greatly to be praised, AMEN

Sweetest Thing

I have tried to sit down and study the book of Ezekiel a few times. Seriously, I just don't get a lot of it. I will read and reread passages and look up to heaven like a deer caught in the headlights...clueless. Well, a few weeks ago I was prompted to read the first 3 chapters of Ezekiel. I wasn't super excited about this since it is a difficult book for me.

"Alright Lord...You want me to read this then You better show me what You want me to learn," was my hasty beginning prayer. Like He needs me to throw this threat up to Him. Oh my! Then I started reading and guess what?! I was lost by verse 5. So I finished reading what I was supposed to read and sat there a little dazed.

Since then, I have pieced this passage together with other similar passages in the Bible such as Psalm 119:103, Daniel 8-10, Revelation 4 & 10, Isaiah 6, etc... but still needed to chew on what God was saying to me. Why was He bringing me to Ezekiel 1-3? What was in this passage that He wanted to show me?

So this morning, Ezekiel's perplexing heavenly vision and assignment from the Lord came back into my mind. I opened the Scriptures and reread this passage. To better grasp what I was reading, I drew a picture of the vision on a piece of paper. Then realized it wasn't in the scenery. God wasn't showing me something about the creatures or the wheels. (curious to read the passage yet?) I pressed onward in prayer.

God was showing me something about the assignment He gave to Ezekiel. There is something to eating the scrolls and having the mourning that was written on them taste as sweet as honey, (Ez.3:3). There is something to opening our mouths, chewing, and ingesting the sweetness of the Word of God. There is a transformation that occurs when we allow the Word of God to penetrate our heart and fill our body.

These words can pierce us and cause us discomfort. Simultaneously, they bring a sweet freedom to our soul.  There is a sweet pain associated with healing. The Spirit will use the scripture to root out those lies from the enemy we have believed. He will also use the scripture as a balm to cover us.

There is something to the Word of God sustaining our life. We must be rooted in the Word, for our fruit to be pleasing to Him. We must allow the Spirit to nourish us with Truth. We must take His Word to our heart and all that we say or do is an outward expression of our primary covenant relationship with Him. It may cause our stomach to be bitter at times while our appetites are changing, but it will be as sweet as honey in our mouth and we will be free.

Scriptures for mediation: Ezekiel 2:8-3:3; Psalm 119:103; Revelation 10:2,8; Matthew 15:17-19

...with all my mind

When I was in second grade, I wanted to be an attorney. My aunt worked for a law firm in Chicago and I so badly wanted to ride the train into the city wearing fancy clothes and sit at a huge desk in a tall building. That year for Christmas, my aunt gave me all sorts of notepads and legal forms stuffed into a “legal sized” envelope. The rest of that winter, I played lawyer constantly. I was over the moon!

As the years clicked by, I went through a million of these phases. I wanted to be an architect, then a fashion designer, then a teacher, etc… I’m sure you can look back on your childhood and see much of the same. Maybe you wanted to be a nurse, or a secretary, or a stay-at-home mom.

Once I became a disciple of Jesus, I was hungry for His purposes. I didn’t want to be an architect, or a fashion designer, or a teacher if He didn’t want me to be. I started to be transformed into the woman that He desires me to be.

He may purpose some of us to be attorneys, teachers, nurses, secretaries, or stay-at-home-moms. Regardless, can you say, “Your will be done.” Are you walking each day growing in love and understanding of the Savior? May we crave His Word. May we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. May we allow the Spirit movement in our hearts to bring understanding.