Believing

Overcoming Fear {1 John 4:18-19}

12:00 AM


January 22, 2019


Here we are at week 3, and God has been doing a huge amount of cleaning in my life.  Right after Christmas, I began a purge – of stuff that cluttered my household and my heart.  Then this study began.  For me, it began a bit earlier than 3 weeks ago, because I needed to read and research each topic and scripture. 

What I’ve discovered during this clean up and purge is it all boils down to Lordship.  Seriously, there are a lot of very good Christians around us and right here this morning with us.  But if we are truly honest with ourselves and each other, Jesus is not LORD over ALL of our lives.


Last week I shared some of my anxieties (Read Here) which God then led me immediately to where I am today.  My anxieties are just that - mine.  I own them.  I hold them.  I carry them around with me.  But the remedy is so simple.

It starts with believing.  Oh you can say you’re a believer on Sunday, then go to dinner afterwards and discuss all your troubles and go home and worry about your bank account, your job, your future and your kids’ future.  But you said you believed – Really?

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There is no fear in love

But perfect love (that’s God) drives out fear

Because fear has to do with punishment

The one who fears (that’s us) is not made perfect in love.

Here’s the kicker – fear has to do with punishment.  We are usually afraid of something we sin – a behavior or something we are doing (gossip, slander, porn, abuse {physical or mental or substance}, shopper, diet, exercise), whatever, and we have truly not confessed it.  Maybe our fears are sins/behaviors we’ve passed on to our children and so we are afraid of their salvation.

Perfect love (that’s God) casts out our fear – you’re afraid of your past, and your sins are never going to be completely forgiven – God casts them out (Micah 7:18, Psalm 103:12, John 1:29, Isaiah 38:17).  God casts them out and He doesn’t care where they land.  Remember the story of the demon possessed man and the pigs?  Your demons are gone!  Well, that is if you believe what Jesus says, then they are.

I think we don’t quite associate our anxiety or fears with demons, but maybe we should.  We allow these demons to stay inside of us instead of truly believing what we profess to believe.

Somehow as I was studying, praying and learning about this, led me to read about Joseph being thrown into the pit and sold into slavery.  Some of us are sold into the slavery of our fears and anxieties.

Satan is so incredibly clever that as soon as he sees a weak link in our armor, he moves in and whispers and we believe him.

“I think that if I had understood as I do now that this great King really dwells within this little palace of my soul, I should not have left Him alone so often and never allowed His dwelling place to get so dirty.”  St. Teresa of Avila

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Instead of being held captive in your “what ifs”, you truly need to BELIEVE.  And I’ll be the first to admit that this has been difficult, but it begins with scripture – if you don’t know it and own it, you will not have the fighting power you need to survive all your fears.  We need to be more like Jesus right?  When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, He was taken for a reason – to be tempted.  Hello!!!  We will ALL be tempted.  Life here on this side of heaven will not be all rainbows, flowers and sunny days!  We have been told there will be difficulties.  But we have got to stop with all the excuses (“Well, we are only human…”)  Seriously, we are believing the wrong person! 

Instead of cowering when Satan lies, we need to kick him in the teeth!  I mean take the Word and kick him in the teeth!  He wants to take you down.  He wants to take your family down.  Instead we need to be like Jesus.  Three times Satan tempted Jesus and Jesus responded with “It is written” (Matthew 4).

Each time you feel defeated and you allow yourself to live there in that pit of anxiety or to be possessed by the demon of fear, Satan laughs all the way to the bank.  Are you really worried about your bank account?  Or are you going to turn your eyes upon Jesus?

We have every reason to live in victory.  There is NO FEAR IN LOVE and we can start by believing God.  It starts with true belief.  Belief in perfect love. 

God has a plan.  He ordained my life as well as my kids’ before we were ever even thought of (Psalm 139).

I have never associated myself with boldness – but today, I see it as a lack of fear.  Having the courage to face the trials or even the courage to face the day to day.  It means trusting His sovereignty and not leaning on my own understanding.

It takes intentionality on my part, it takes making my trust bigger than my fear/worry/anxiety.  It takes fixing my eyes on Jesus.  It takes repetition.  Trusting God is not a one-time thing.  Over and over.  Moment by moment.  Learning to trust Him more.  Oh for the grace to trust Him more!



Believing

Believe It or Not {John 6:22 - 7:9}

12:30 AM


Tuesday, October 16, 2018


About ten years ago, I was sitting at my son’s fifth grade basketball game chatting with another mom.  Her dad had recently passed away and she was sharing some of her sadness with me.  It had been a few years since my first husband had died, so I knew a little bit about grief, and I told her, “only God can fill that hole left by your father’s death.”  She was so thankful I told her that.  Fast forward to today.  That God-size hole is still a thing.  In fact, we all have a God-shaped void that craves filling. 

After Jesus fed the 5,000 and retreated to the other side of the lake, the follower said to Jesus, “Sir, give us that bread every day of our lives.”  (6:34)  The bread that Jesus is offering is reunion with God because that is what the soul is missing.  Our soul is not craving for something, but for someone.  And until we have been reunited to that someone, our souls will always be famished. 

What do we have to do to obtain this “bread from God”?  I just love Jesus’ answer; “This is what God wants you to do:  Believe in the one he has sent.”  (6:29)

It’s just not something you can do.  This is a bread that is given to you as a gift.  In order for bread to do your body any good, it has to be broken – your teeth have to break it in pieces and chew it up.  Jesus would be broken for us so that He could feed us.

In order for water to do us any good, it has to be poured out.  Jesus’ blood would be poured out so that it could become the water of life to us. 

The meal for our starving souls would be provided – entirely – by Him.  Our part is simple.  Take.  Eat.  And drink!  We are powerless to restore what was lost.  So God Himself did the work of restoring our salvation. 

There are two words that characterize the real gospel.

God:  The true gospel’s primary focus is reconciliation/restoration with God.  John Piper said, “The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God…’Behold your God’ is the most gracious command and best gift of the gospel.”

He doesn’t “give us this bread of life”, He is the bread of life.  Until you feast on the bread of Jesus Himself, all the other things you are seeking are going to leave you hungry.

C.S. Lewis said, “It seems that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink, and sex, and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.  Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.”  Remember Lisa’s post yesterday?  We think we want this lesser bread.

There are so many political and social causes these days.  Yes, we are commanded to love and take care of our neighbors, it just seems that we have lost the focus that Jesus died for our souls.  People don’t just need shoes on their feet and food in their bellies, they need forgiveness of their sins.  We don’t want well-clothed, well-fed people who die and go to hell.  We all want to alleviate suffering, but the most significant suffering is eternal suffering.  The suffering of the soul that is starving from being separated from God.  Our mission should not be just random acts of kindness – it should also be bold acts of proclamation!

I just want to point out something about politics while I have you here.  One of the disciples was Simon the Zealot (Jewish nationalist).  The other was Matthew the tax collector (Roman rule).  This means they were on POLAR opposites of the political spectrum.  You have Matthew the tax collector [far right] and Simon the zealot who fiercely opposed the state [far left].  Yet they are brothers in Jesus’ band of disciples.  They did not lose their opinions; they were united by a larger agenda!

The second word to characterize the gospel:  Grace.  The true gospel centers on what God has done for us, not what we should do for Him. 

The gospel leads to profound change, but it is always in response to what God has done.  Those things are done because you have been reconciled to God, not in order to be reconciled to God.  It’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 …”Christ died for our sins…”  The true gospel centers on what God has done for us, not what we should do for Him.

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Believing in something we do not see or have something to grasp, is very difficult.  But what else can we do?  The answer is nothing.  We simply have to believe.  I believe the reason a lot of people struggle with believing in Jesus is because they have never recognized that they were made for His glory.  We are so fixated on quick fixes, physical bread, that we never understand what we are missing.  God.  And the only way He could be restored to us was for God Himself to have His body broken like bread and His blood poured out like water.

We are so consumed with small things; wonderful things, but lesser things, like marriage, children, friends, houses, cars, boats, vacations, politics and world peace, that we miss the true bread from heaven, the God behind it all!  

And, are we like so many, that become offended and desert Jesus?  Are we going to hear Jesus ask, “Are you going to leave too?”  Or are we like Peter, who replies, “Lord, to whom would we go?  You alone have the words that give eternal life.  We believe them, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”  (6:68-69)

Jesus is the bread of life. 

You were created not for something, but for Someone.

Your soul craves for His glory.  You were made for it.  

The alternative is to have a starving soul.  To enter into eternal existence, hell, with your soul still famishing and starving.  Hell, a place of nothingness and fire, but worst of all, with all traces of the glorious love of God removed.  Like C.S. Lewis said, “God threatens terrible things for those who refuse to be infinitely satisfied in Him.”

Believing

Believing {Luke 1}

12:30 AM

September 25, 2018


What if we really believed?  I know, I started my last post with this same question, but I’ll be very honest with you all, God has been working at cleaning out my heart this summer, and I have recently realized that my empty heart could only be filled by believing Him.

So let me ask you, what if we truly believed God is uniquely present and active in the circumstance of each of our lives?  What if we truly believed there would be fulfillment of the word spoken?  What if instead of allowing our circumstances to determine what we believe, we allowed our believing to reinterpret the circumstances?

That would be “blessed believing.”  The Elizabeth and Mary type of believing – the kind of believing that gives birth to new life.

We see here in Luke 1, two pregnant women, neither of whom, according to their circumstances, should be or could be pregnant.  One is too old.  One is too young.  One is barren.  One is a virgin.  Yet BOTH are pregnant!

Neither allowed the circumstances of their lives to define who they were or limit who they might become.  Believing for them is not so much what they see, but HOW they see.  Each one believed more than the circumstances of her life.

Elizabeth believed she was more than just a barren, childless old woman.  Mary refused to accept that she was a no-one, another scandalous woman, but believed that she was the mother of the Holy One. (v. 35)


Both women saw, hidden within their particular situation, a deeper meaning to a new life.  They believed through the circumstances of their lives.  Each one trusted the God of the impossible was somehow in the circumstances, reshaping, transforming and fulfilling her very existence.  God was at work within these two women changing them – not their circumstances.



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God doesn’t bless people according to their age, sex, or station in life.  He blesses them according to His own good purposes.  Grace is free and God has chosen to pour it out abundantly across all of humanity.


Faith is the right and pleasing response to believing God’s promises.  And as with grace, it isn’t reserved for the spiritual elite.


I recently received Lauren Daigle's new CD, and this song resonates with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI


And if you have time, listen to this: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sufQX7NSX2k


Believing

What If We Really Believed? {Mark 6}

12:30 AM

September 18, 2018


Image result for Mark 6:6Have you ever wondered why Jesus would send the disciples out with no supplies?  Just a walking stick.  No money.  No food.  No extra shoes or coat.  He had given them authority.  What do you take with you when you go to work?  Just your purse and maybe your lunch.  How often do you bump into someone who hasn’t heard the Gospel?  Or perhaps someone needs some bit of truth spoken to them to chew on for a while?  Do you feel unequipped?  Do you tell the person to “wait right here – I’ll be back”, and return home to get your Bible or notebook?  I certainly hope not.  I hope that all the truth you have in your heart and in your head just flows out of you and right into their ears and heart. 

Or maybe your relationship with Jesus become stale?  Have you felt like you are missing something while everyone else around you seems to be growing in their faith?  Sometimes Jesus is so close we miss Him.  He is healing the sick and performing miracles, yet we don’t recognize Him (6:4).

“And He was amazed at their unbelief.”  6:6

Jesus is always with us, yet perhaps we are expecting something different to occur and we are unappreciative of what He’s actually doing in our midst.  Even in today’s world, people are coming to Jesus!  People from backgrounds we would never expect to believe, yet they are accepting Him into their hearts and are forever changed.  And we don’t believe it.

The miracle of feeding 5,000 should have opened the eyes and hearts of Jesus’ disciples for them to believe.  And when another storm came, they could have called on Him and He would be there.  As a matter of fact, Jesus knew they were in trouble and went to them before they asked! (6:48)  

In the darkest part of the night, in the middle of the storm, Jesus was walking on water to help them.  And though we don’t read it here in Mark, we are called to walk with Jesus during the storms of life and He will extend His hand and help us return to safety.

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Image result for Mark 6:56I pray that your eyes and hearts will be open to see Jesus feeding the thousands around you.  That you would see the smallest amount of sustenance – just a crumb will bring people – thousands of people - to Jesus and they will follow Him wherever He goes.  That you would share the crumbs you have been given to those around you.