Be Reconciled

“Go and be reconciled.” Mt 5:24 NIV

A college professor who was teaching on the high cost of unforgiveness asked each of her students to bring a sack of potatoes to class. For each person they refused or were unable to forgive, they had to select a potato and write the date on it beside that person’s name. Then for a month, without fail, they had to carry that sack of potatoes with them everywhere they went. After lugging those sacks around for a while each student began to recognize how much weight they were carrying; the amount of energy it took to focus on their bag; and that they had to be careful not to leave it in the wrong place. Eventually, as the potatoes began to rot and stink, they realized that getting rid of them was the only smart thing to do. Imagine for a moment how many potatoes you might be forced to carry in a similar experiment. Even one potato would become foul and burdensome after a time. Jesus said, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matt 6:14-15). How would you like God to forgive you in the same way you forgive others? If that thought makes you uncomfortable, then do something beyond yourself. Don’t depend on your desire and ability to forgive others. Be obedient to God. Ask the Spirit of God to work through you to empower you to forgive!

A reflection on the simplicity of Obedience…

When I was a young child in school, I loved when teachers would offer “extra credit.” While many subjects came very easy to me, others required more attention. Early on I discovered the power of “extra credit.” Those subjects I liked and enjoyed I would study and prepare more readily. However, those subjects I deemed unappealing, I would find myself procrastinating and seeking short cuts to completing the assignments. When teachers would allow me, I would do something extra or turn in an additional assignment to show them that I was really trying. Often the extra credit paid off and would be reflected in my grades as well as affecting their view of me. As students we used to call it “playing the game”, finding short cuts and essentially manipulating favor with teachers. I didn’t think of it that way at the time. After all, everyone did it. Some believers are like that in their spiritual walk with Christ. Are you playing a game with God and trying to manipulate His favor?

 

Rather than following God’s simple requirements to pray and read the Bible daily, go to church, and love your family, many choose the “extra credit” sacrifice. I’ve known Christians who attend church only on holidays, serve one time in prison ministry or volunteer one time a year in children’s church and talk about it for years to come as if they’ve earned ” extra credit” with God, as well as favor with other people around them. Instead of sharing the proverbial “fish tale”, they continuously share the “extra credit” tale of how they earned points with God. We like “extra credit” because it helps us get noticed by those around us. However, the most powerful people in the kingdom of God are not those who do sensational acts to get in the spotlight, but those who are consistent in their walk of faith. God wants our daily obedience.

 

According to Scripture, we are to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We need to seek and obey God every day. He has given each one of us an assignment and if we are willing to obey Him daily, we can fulfill that assignment.

 

When we start obeying God, we will see His power released in our lives. Maybe your marriage needs healing, your family needs reconciling, or whatever the circumstance, if you have sinned and fallen away from God, don’t try to earn “extra credit” with Him, just go back to the simplicity of repentance and daily obedience to His word. He is faithful and just to strengthen and receive you.

Resolving to Sow Mercy and Grace

We are told in Galatians that we will reap what we sow. If we want to reap grace, we must sow it. If we want to receive mercy, we must sow mercy. In relation to this, let us resolve to show grace to those who may see things differently than we do. Let us also resolve to always be humbly open to correction. That does not mean we automatically change our position because some disagree with us, but let us remain open and check out their position to see if there is truth we need to receive.

 

Some of the worst divisions in the body of Christ are between those who agree on 99% but disagree on one thing and then divide over it. This is extremism—a root of deception. This root is often the result of immaturity, instability, or insecurity. Even so, I don’t consider myself wise enough to judge other people’s motives without clear evidence. If I had endured their life experiences, I might be in much worse shape than they are. Therefore, I resolve to sow grace and mercy whenever I can, while not compromising my own convictions without clear biblical evidence that I need to.

 

In Philippians 1:9-10, we have a basic truth required for discerning truth:

 

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

 

We will not discern anything or anyone correctly without love. Love is the basis of “real knowledge,” and “all discernment.” More importantly than knowing someone’s life experiences, and judging from that, is having love for them. I may disagree with their doctrines or positions, but if I do not sincerely love them, I will not claim to understand why they believe as they do. Why is this important?

 

We are called to love our enemies. Giving others mercy and grace for believing the way they do, even while continuing to disagree with them, can help us love them. This is how we will come to a true understanding of them. “Understanding” comes from the term to “stand under” someone else’s position. We are called to make disciples of all nations, and we cannot disciple anyone we do not understand.

 

 

 

 

My Thoughts on Perspective

In 2013, my husband and I traveled to both Israel and Jordan. While in Israel we had the opportunity to actually swim in the Dead Sea. It is so buoyant from the vast amount of salt deposits that you can actually float continuously in the water. Many believe that the Dead Sea is a dead thing, useless and without value. As you might expect, one’s first thoughts of the Dead Sea don’t exactly bring to mind wealth or abundant natural resources. In fact the name alone, the “Dead” Sea, would steer away most people from perceiving it to have any evident value at all. However, the Dead Sea’s unusual buoyancy might well suggest that the region is more than a pool of undrinkable water in the middle of a desert. In fact, in 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, “One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is four times the wealth of the United States”. With that revelation our perception of the Dead Sea now changes to an item of significant value. It is interesting isn’t it, the power of perception and its rapid shift when money or another’s influence is involved? Our core values and convictions mold our perception. If our core values and convictions are skewed with untruths, then our perceptions are not valid. We must first make sure that our core convictions are consistent with the truth that God has revealed to us in His Word. Reading the Bible requires that we change our perspective. Therefore, since man’s perspective will always be limited, we need God’s perspective in everything we do. As we pray for God’s perspective in our decision-making, our minds are enlightened with His revelation allowing us to see things more readily in His truth:

 

  • While we see a man struggling to find work to maintain his family, God sees a man sharpening his skills and strengthening his courage.
  • While we see a woman overwhelmed with stress and worry, God sees a confident, strong woman emerging from the ashes of tragedy and sorrow.
  • While we see a pitiful, helpless individual without an address or a phone number, God sees someone on the verge of beginning a new life.

 

I frequently ask myself, am I working from a position of man’s perspective or from God’s perspective? And then I pray that God will align my thinking to His thinking, and that His perspective will be my perspective; when I pray, when I read the Bible or when I disciple others. Only His perspective is without flaw. Only His perspective is the foundation of truth.

Small Beginnings

“There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.”

Dwight L. Moody

 

Although Bruce and I have been blessed with many opportunities to minister this year, I remember when God first planted a seed in my heart to pray for the nations. I stared at a large multicolored map of the world and was in awe of the massive opportunities for prophetic intercession. I suddenly realized how, empowered by the Holy Spirit, my prayers from the small living room in my home could actually affect a nation and its people. Suddenly, the Lord illuminated a tiny speck on the map, one of the smallest nations in the world. This was my prayer assignment. I was somewhat disappointed. I wanted to storm the heavens of pivotal nations in the earth, but the Lord gave me a small beginning. Today I pray readily for whatever nation God places on my heart and now God is actually allowing me to go forth to many of these small nations to share the message of the gospel. This year my husband, Bruce and I had opportunities to minister in Croatia, Slovenia, Malta, and Italy to name a few. God is so faithful and hears the heart cry of His people! He heard my heart’s cry! Praise His name! And why? Because he planted it there!

 

How about you? Are you in the day of small beginnings even now? What has God called you to do?

 

If you are in the day of small beginnings, take heart. The Lord is rejoicing to see the work begin and He who called you to the work is faithful to strengthen your hands to do it, faithful to send workers into the field he called you to, faithful to encourage you by His Spirit and with His Word, faithful to provide all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, and faithful to lead you into victory if you keep pressing toward the prize.

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thess. 5:23).

When the Impossible Becomes Logical

As a teacher I have always been fascinated by the sciences. One day I was watching a large cluster of cumulus clouds floating in the sky. Over the years I’ve learned a great deal about these clouds. Fluffy, puffy, cumulus clouds are so very beautiful on a pretty spring day. As children I’m sure we’ve all experienced the fun of searching for shapes of people or animals hidden in these magnificent clouds.

 

Do you realize that just one of these medium sized cumulus clouds is equivalent to the weight of 80 elephants? Imagine 80 elephants suspended in the sky. Assuming the weight of one elephant is about 6 tons that means that one medium cumulus cloud weighs about 480 tons. The thought of 80 elephants suspended in the sky is truly mind-boggling! Furthermore, the water is not in elephant-sized pieces, it is in tiny, tiny particles, which float on the warmer air that’s rising below. Amazing! Isn’t it? So how many suspended elephants would be equivalent to one huge storm cloud? About 200,000. That’s right, 200,000 elephants suspended in the sky. In fact, the clouds in a single hurricane weigh more than all the elephants on the entire planet! Forty million elephants!

 

As a Christian seeing the power and majesty of God across the earth strengthens my belief that “with God nothing is impossible!” He is a God who makes the impossible logical! To this day the sight of fluffy, puffy, cumulus clouds brings a huge smile to my cheeks….

80 dangling elephants indeed!

 

Logical! Logical! Logical!

When the Body Rebels, His Spirit Prevails!

Paul stated in Romans. “ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…….For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. “ (Romans 7:15&18)

How well I understand that passage! Discipline, ugh, oh how the body rebels! Discipline is definitely not a natural behavior. I don’t perform it readily. It requires intentionality. However, discipline becomes merely legalism when we try to do it all on our own. There are times in my walk I feel the discipline slipping and the excuses brimming, shall we say! It manifests in those midnight desserts, missing days at the gym, or procrastination in areas where I know I shouldn’t. And eventually, in my frustration, I cry out as Paul did, “ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate doing I do…….For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Paul knew that if he abandoned his dependency upon Christ and attempted to live the Christian life out of his own resources, He would never prevail. Although we can renew our minds through studying God’s word, we can never elevate our flesh to a place where it can fulfill God’s purpose in our lives in our own strength. When we lack understanding, personal weakness causes us to beat ourselves up, and hang our heads in shame. However, the Word states, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”( 2 Cor 12:10) Why? Because when I am weak then I yield myself to Him and He meets me there. Through His Spirit, strength abounds in me. And finally, that which I cannot do on my own, He does in and through me, simply because I am His daughter and I ask for His help…My Father loves me and sustains me and when my Body rebels, His Spirit prevails!

 

August 24, 2014

1) Gym √

2) Bible study √

3) Healthy breakfast √

4) Work √

 

Hindrances to Bible Interpretation

Language, context and culture are significant in affecting our overall interpretation of scripture. Lets begin by using a cultural example.

If our cultural blind spots affect our reading of the Bible, then they may also affect our application of the Bible. The story of The Prodigal Son serves as a perfect example. Americans tend to treat the mention of the famine as an unnecessary part of the plot in this story. We may notice the mention of a famine and may even believe that it makes matters worse for the young son. However, since, he committed his sin, it goes without being said for us that the main issue in the story is his wastefulness, not the famine. This is evident from our traditional title for the story: the Parable of the Prodigal (“wasteful”) son. We apply the story as a lesson about willful rebellion and repentance. The boy is guilty of disrespecting his father and squandering his inheritance. He must now ask for forgiveness. However, many Christians in other parts of the world view the story differently. In cultures more familiar with famine, like Russia, readers consider the boy’s spending less important than the famine. The application of the story has less to do with willful rebellion and more to do with God’s faithfulness to deliver his people from hopeless situations. The boy’s problem is not that he is wasteful but that he is lost.(reference: E. Randolph Richards;Brandon J. O’Brien. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible) This is not to suggest that one view is more right than another, but removing cultural blinders does help to expand our view and our overall understanding.

The following is a list of common Biblical misunderstandings attributed to language, context and culture. I pray that this list will provide Biblical insight and clarity to your study of the Bible:

 

1) Misunderstandings may occur in genealogical sequences in the use of the term father. If you ask me who my father is, I am very likely to identify one individual man. Father to an American is the person involved in conception. To the ancient Jew, father was any male blood relative who was of significant influence. In Matthew 1:1 the writer tells us “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Does this mean that Jesus was the grandson of Abraham? Just reading the rest of the chapter tells you that this is not the case. A Jew regarded father to be a term that indicated lineage, but not necessarily the person involved in conception.

 

2) Individual words can have different meanings. The word for create (bara in Hebrew) was a word that could only be used in reference to God. When Genesis says “In the beginning, God created (bara) the heaven and the earth, “the significance is lost if one does not understand that the statement could only be used in reference to God. If it was an ordinary process that perhaps even man could do, the word that was used was asah (to make).

 

3) When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to “dress modestly,” we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear immodest clothing. The context suggests that Paul is more likely concerned about economic modesty–that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.

 

4) According to some cultures, readers might assume that Moses married “below himself” because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying above himself.