Happy Father's Day

Some days it feels like we live in a nearly fatherless world.  Dad's leave, dad's travel, dad's were never there to begin with. 

I have the extreme blessing of being surrounded by a lot of amazing dad's, from my own dad, to my brother, to the man I married.  These men take fatherhood seriously and I could not be more proud or thankful to have them in my life.  

If you don't have men like this in you life, take heart, you still have a Father who loves you. You can read my thoughts on this and a little about my own father's father here.  Blogs by Christian Women is another blog I write at once every other week or so.   I would love for you to check it out!

Happy Father's Day to ALL the amazing dad's out there!  You are making a difference!

Passions or Idols?

Baseball.

Basketball.

Horses.

My family.

Financial stability.

Reading.

Passions or idols?

How do you tell the difference?

Sometimes I give the ancient Israelites a tough time.  I mean how hard could it be to let go of the golden calf and just trust God?!?  Seriously???  Why was it that every time they turned around they had a new idol they were worshiping, a new something or other that they were convinced would make their life better, easier, more fulfilled.

It wasn't that they didn't believe in God or didn't worship God, they just really wanted to worship these other gods too.  Maybe it was so they could be like the people around them, maybe it was so they could keep their options open.  I don't know why they kept turning to other gods, I just know they did.

Boy, am I glad I'm not like them! (read really thick sarcasm here).  The thing is, I am JUST like the ancient Israelites.  I believe in God, I love God, I worship God.  I also love a lot of other things.  My question is are they passions or are they idols?

Passions are things that you love to do and find fulfillment in doing.  They are pleasing to God and in alignment with what he desires for you.  You spend time doing them, but they do not take time or attention away from your relationship with God.  

Idols on the other hand, may have started out as a good thing but they quickly took over your life.  You love the idol and think you might find fulfillment in the idol, but ultimately you won't, because the idol will never be enough.  It will constantly leave you craving more, never filling you up.  It will eventually take your time and attention away from God.  It will damage your relationship with God. 

There are things in my life that are simply passions, but if I am being truly honest, I have a couple of idols I need to get rid of too.  

The idols we face today may be different than the ones the Israelites faced thousands of years ago, but don't be deceived.  We still face idols today, every one of us.  And God is pretty clear about what he thinks about idols.  

He hates them.  He won't stand for them.  And those who worship them will ultimately be possessed by them. 

God loves you.  He will let you worship whomever and whatever you choose.  I encourage you to choose wisely.  

Don't let your passions become your idols.

Will You Float or Will You Paddle?

There are days i wake up on fire for God.  I tangibly feel his presence.  I sense his Spirit.  I hang on his word.  I live for him.

And then there are days, recently occurring more than I would like, when I find myself going through the motions.  When, I don't think I have done anything different, yet God feels far away.  And when I try to draw close to him, I can't feel him or sense him.  In my head I know he is there, but my heart misses him.  

Like a loved one I haven't seen in far to long, I feel like I have missed the day to day connection with him.  I say my prayers, I read my bible and then I start to knock out my list of things I have to get done.  And I miss the connection.

Has this ever happened to you?  Am I the only one?

This morning I sent 2 of the 3 kids off to a neighborhood church's vacation bible school and I pulled out every trick I know about connecting with God.  I listened to worship music; I got down on my knees, forehead to the floor; I wrote in my journal; I read his word; I prayed his word.  And guess what?  We connected.

Not in the most profound way we ever had, but I felt him, and I felt loved.  

But I still couldn't help feeling like it shouldn't be this hard.

Am I allowed to say that?

I love Jesus with my whole heart, with everything I have.  But some days it's much harder than others to connect with him.  Someone once told me, if you aren't actively paddling toward God then you are drifting away from him.  As soon as you stop to rest, as soon as you get lazy, you start to drift away.  Maybe that is what has happened to me.  

There is a verse in 2 Corinthians that I simply love.  It has been in my index of go-to verse for a while now, yet this is a verse I have never fully learned to live.  

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

2 Corinthians 10:5

I know there are lots of people who live this.  Who live every moment, every thought, every word and every action of every day for Christ.  But this is not me.  Oh, how I wish it was! How I wish I could say my every thought is obedient to Christ, but alas, I cannot.  

This summer I have stopped paddling.  It's summer and I started to float, hoping I would float closer to Christ, but that is not how it works.  You can't just float down the lazy river and hope all those arguments and pretensions that go against the knowledge of God will simply be demolished on their own!  If you don't take your thoughts captive something else will, and it most likely won't honor God.

Unfortunately, demolishing and taking captive are not verbs that are accomplished easily.  You can't rest and relax your way into demolishing anything!  It's hard work to take something captive!

I made the mistake of thinking since I was taking a semester off of school I could somehow take a semester off of the hard work of drawing closer to God.  But I can't.  As soon as I stop actively drawing closer to him, I start to drift away.  As soon as I stopped paddling, I stopped all those arguments and pretensions stopped being destroyed, and my thoughts were no longer captive and I started to drift away.  

This morning God told me to pick the paddle back up.  He encouraged me to start paddling again, to find my way back to him.  Will it be easy?  Nope.  It's gonna be hard.  But oh, so worth it?

How about you?  Will this summer find you floating or will you paddle?

Rights

In America we pride ourselves on our rights.

We have the right to freedom of religion, free speech, freedom of the press, the freedom to assemble, the freedom to keep and bear arms.  We have civil rights, women's rights and human rights.  We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  

These rights are all good things.  

The problem comes when we put our rights above Christ.  

This is what happened to the church in Corinth.  All through the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul is trying to convince the church to give up the "rights" found in the Greco- Roman culture for life in Christ.  In the Greco- Roman culture sexual immorality was allowed, some considered it a right of passage for young men to engage is sexual activity with a prostitute (1 Cor 6: 12-20).  It was someone's right to seek litigation if they had endured hardship at anothers expense (1 Cor 6:1-8).  It was someone's right to dine in an idol's temple or eat meat sacrificed to that idol if one's place in society deemed it so (1 Cor 8:1- 13). Paul points out in chapter 9 that he too has rights, rights as an apostle.  Rights he has willingly given up in order to further the gospel message.  

We all have rights, and rights are good. But sometimes our rights are simply not right.  Sometimes, we pursue our rights to the detriment of others.  We work hard for our money and it is OUR money.  We have the right to do what we want with it, buy what we want, and we shouldn't have to share.  Meanwhile our neighbor goes hungry.  It may be our right to to hoard our wealth, but it is not right.

We have the right to pursue our own happiness.  We deserve to be happy just as much as the next person, but when our happiness comes at the expense of others our right is not right.

We have the right to say what we want, watch what we want, do what we want.  But when those rights cause pain to others, cause others to stumble or degrade the name of Christ, our rights are not right.  

Christ had rights too.  As Philippians 2:6--8 points out, he was the very nature of God, equal to him in every way.   Yet he willingly gave up this right and humbled himself, becoming a servant, obedient even to death on a cross.  He had the right to be worshipped, it was his right!  Yet he willingly let that right go so that he might save you and me.  

That is the life we are called to live.  That is the life Paul wanted the Corinthians to live.  We have a lot of rights, and those rights are good.  But they are not always right.  Sometimes we must give up our rights in order to be right with God.  

The Foundation

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11

There are so many strong Christian leaders I have become a fan of over the years;  Francis Chan, Timothy Keller, Beth Moore, the list could go on, yet none of these leaders can lay a foundation on their own.  None of them are strong enough, wise enough, or holy enough.  

Only one can lay the foundation and that is Jesus Christ.

In the third chapter of Corinthians, Paul is frustrated at the Corinthian believers because they insist on dividing into camps.  There are those who follow Paul, those who follow Apollos, and even some who claim to follow Peter, though we have no record of him ever being in Corinth!  Paul responds to this division by reminding the Corinthian church that each of these leaders they follow are all merely workers.  It is the Lord who assigned them their task (1 Cor 3:5).  This reminder still bears repeating today.  Two thousand years after Paul spoke these words, we are faced with more divisions then ever before.  There are Catholic/ Protestant Divisions, divisions between and among denominations, churches, and leaders.  

The foundation for all of this, in Paul's day and in ours, is Jesus Christ.  He is the foundation that all the different workers will build on.  But Paul warns the church of Corinth to be careful what they put on top of this foundation, some materials were made to last and others were not.  Today we have leaders who  promise prosperity for all who believe.  Some leaders tell us we can have it all - the American dream and a strong Christian faith.  Some leaders tell us we can believe what we want and we will all go to heaven.  There are many, many different types of materials that have been placed on the foundation Christ laid.  But only one that is true.  

Paul warns the Corinthian church to choose their materials wisely,  because there will come a day when our work will be shown for what it is.  There too will come a day when  our work will be exposed to fire and it's quality will be tested.  A gospel built on prosperity will crumble when that prosperity does not come, or is taken away.  A gospel built on the American dream will not survive in a third world country.  A gospel in which everyone makes it into heaven will not endure God's sense of justice.  

In first century Corinth and today, the gospel that must be laid on the foundation of Christ is that of Christ himself.  He is the way the truth and the life, the one and only way to eternal life.  He does not promise us prosperity, the American Dream, or  a pain free life, quite the opposite in fact.   But he does promise to love us, provide for us, and carry us through.  

He is our foundation, our building materials, and the only one who can withstand the fire of judgment.  He is our reward.  And HE is the one we should follow.  

Happy Mother's Day!

This motherhood thing is NOT for sissies!

In my 11 years of parenting our three different children I have been peed on, pooped on and thrown up on, literally, multiple times.  

I have laughed till I cried and cried till I laughed.  I have stomped my feet in frustration, bit my tongue till it bled and screamed at the top of my lungs.

I have wiped noses, wiped butts, wiped tears, and wiped up messes. 

I have carried kids, carried laundry, carried toys, carried burdens and worries, carried books, and carried their hearts in my hands.

I have been lonely, been lost, been overwhelmed, been confused, been hopeless, and been humbled in ways I can't begin to put into words.  

I have loved with a strength I didn't know I had, protected with a determination I didn't know existed and prayed like I never have before.

This is the hardest, funnest, scariest, most joyous thing I have ever done.  

Had I known what all this would take, would I have ever entered into this thing called motherhood?

You bet!  I wouldn't change it for the world!!!

Thank you to all the mother's in this world, including my own, who have walked with me on this walk.  You all have taught me, laughed with me, cried with me, modeled for me, inspired me and motivated me in ways I could never express.  

Thank you!  Happy Mother's Day!

2 Things You Need to Know

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV)

There are two things you need to know in this life…

Jesus Christ and who he was.

 Jesus Christ and what he did.

The people in first century Corinth were wildly impressed with one's speaking skills.  A good public speaker was admired, respected and listened to regardless of what he might be saying.  It wasn't as much about what was said as it was about how it was said.  Some days it feels like not much has changed.  

We are a society who greatly values image.  We like our political representatives, our leaders and even our pastors to be well spoken, to carry themselves well and to have a certain persona.  Too often this is more important to us than what they might actually be saying.  In general we are easily swayed by a pretty face and smooth tongue.  

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul informs the people of Corinth that he did not come to them with eloquent words or superior wisdom, two things the people of Corinth highly valued, two things WE highly value.  Rather he came with the intention of sharing 2 things… Jesus Christ and who he was… and Jesus Christ and what he did.  

Lest we ever forget, let me tell you real quick who Jesus Christ was.  He was the one and only Son of God.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  He was, is and always will be.  He took on human form and lived a perfect life.  He ministered on this earth for 3 years, changing the rules of religion forever.  He healed the sick, raised the dead and gave the blind their sight.  He drove out demons, found the lost and fed the hungry.  He forgave sin.  He was a teacher, a prophet, a priest and a king. 

He was hated by his own, betrayed by a loved one, and arrested on a dark night.   He was beaten, mocked, spit on and slandered.  Though he was innocent he was sentenced to death.  The worst kind of death imaginable.  A kind of death one didn't talk about in polite company in first century Corinth.   

Yet that is exactly what Paul came to tell them.  Paul came to Corinth for the specific purpose of telling these people who Jesus was, and what he did.  

But Jesus story doesn't end there.

He was crucified.  Dead.  Gone.  For three long days.  And then, on the third day, Jesus conquered death.  He rose again.  He walked, he talked, he shared.  He was seen, touched and experienced.  And he still lives today, sitting at the right hand of God!

In Jesus, sin is forgiven, we are set right before God, and we have the chance to live eternal life!

There are a lot of things you will learn in this life.  

There are hundreds of people more eloquent and talented than I, who will tell you what you need to do to be happy, thin, healthy, rich, wise, content, loved… you name it.  But there are only 2 things in this world you need to know.

Jesus Christ and who he was.

Jesus Christ and what he did.