Do You Love God?

My best friend turned me on to the stories of the martyrs of Christendom.  Martyrs are people who suffered persecution, and often death, for their faith in Jesus Christ. The first martyr was a man named Stephen, We’ll learn more about him on Monday. He died with the gospel on His lips and his eyes on Jesus (Acts 7:56). The history of the church is replete with men and women that “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11). People like Perpetua and Felicity, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer, Martin Luther, and on and on and on even to the present day. Tertullian wrote, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”

But what enabled them to stand under such extreme abuse and the threat of death? And why did some give in to the demands and recant their testimony? What made the difference? We get a clue in the verse from Revelation above. And we find more in the book of James – who by the way was Jesus’ half-brother and was only converted after the resurrection (Acts 1:14). James wrote, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (Ja 1:12). What makes someone die for their faith? They loved God.

Consider Jesus’ words in John, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (15:13). The Lord was talking about the love of one Christian for another, but could it not also apply to the Christian’s love for God? If we count God as even a friend, but more than a friend, as our Creator and Father and Redeemer, should we not also be willing to lay down our life for Him? Did He not do the same for us? How, then, should we love God? “. . . with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). With your thoughts, desires, actions, emotions, intentions, affections, obedience, and yes, your physical body – which may even mean death rather than denying your Beloved.

God has already expressed His love for you and me at the cross. Men and women throughout history have returned His love with their own lives. I’ll leave you today with the question all believers must answer: Do you love God?

Telling Yourself the Truth

Yesterday, we talked about telling ourselves the truth over our feelings. We considered in a general sense Philippians 4:8 – today we’re going to see how that works in practical application because knowing Scripture without applying Scripture has no power in our lives.

Most of us don’t pay attention to what’s going on between our ears, and our thoughts don’t naturally default to what is true and right and pure. Our sinful nature sets their course – usually right into the pit. That is why Paul said we must “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 Cor 10:5). We can say that our feelings and emotions are “arguments and pretenses” and the “knowledge of God” is truth. We must identify those errant thoughts, feelings, and emotions and confront them with God’s Word.

My feelings say, “God will never forgive the awful things I’ve done.” What is true? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9). No sin is beyond the reach of God’s grace. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom 5:20).

My feelings say, “I can’t live the Christian life.” But what is true? “[The Lord’s] power has given us everything we need for life and godliness . . .” (2 Peter 1:3). My feelings say “I am useless to the Kingdom of God. But what is true? I am “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” My feelings say, “This situation is impossible!” But what is true? “Nothing is impossible with God” (Lk 1:37)

Without question, the most common feeling we have is that we are unlovable. “God could never love a wretch like me.” Let’s take that argument captive and bring it into the truth of God’s Word. The truth is “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth nor anything thing else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). Nothing is truer than that.

Those are just my own feelings and thoughts. The same principle applies to yours Beloved. You can and must overdub the lies with God’s truth or the enemy will eat you alive. Pay attention to what your feelings are telling you and then search the Scriptures for what is true. Then hold onto the truth with all you’ve got. Message me if you need some help.

Trust in the Lord

I took my heavy heart to the Lord this morning, asking for a word for today. I told God that somebody needed hope this morning. Somebody needed peace. Somebody needed Joy. And that somebody is me. I need to hear from God in the deepest part of me. And He spoke two simple words: “Trust me.” Then came: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

It’s a very good word for me right now – and maybe for you too. Trust means to have confidence in; to feel safe. I confess, my anxiety level has been off the charts this week. Things and people I love are not in a good place. But when I trust in God, I am confident that the situation – and the people involved – will be safe, even when they are out of my reach.

I have to remind myself of that multiple times a day, which brings me to trusting “with all my heart.” The heart, in the original Hebrew, is really the mind, the place of thinking and reflecting. So, trusting in the Lord with all my heart is thinking about how faithful and trustworthy and powerful He is. It’s reminding myself that nothing and no one – big or small – is too much or too little for Him.

But leaning on my own understanding will cause me to think about all the ways this situation might go wrong. It’s like trying to steady myself against the false wall they use in the theater. It won’t hold me up. My understanding is clouded by my emotions which are wrapped in hurt and fear. There is no stability there. The wall – and I – will fall.

But when I acknowledge God – and this word is powerful – He will make twisted things straight. Acknowledge is not just a nod in God’s direction, like “Yes I see you there.” It is to know God in the most personal sense. It is the same word that describes the intimacy between a husband and wife that leads to full surrender. And deep, abiding, trusting love.

Right now, the path ahead of me is dark and full of twists and turns. But God knows the way I need to go. He will lead me, if I trust Him, lean on Him, and stay close to Him.  Yes, “Trust me” is the word I need. Perhaps God is speaking the same to you too. Beloved, trusting Him with all our hearts is the only way to hope and peace and Joy. We have His Word on it.

Real Words for Real Life

Yesterday I wrote about controlling our thoughts. I want to take you through how I apply exactly what I’ve been telling you. Whether it’s temptation or discouragement, the battleground for the believer is the mind. The enemy works on our thoughts, interjecting lies and accusations and enticement. You and I need to know how to fight this battle according to the Word of God.

I have been slogging my way through graduate school for the past four years. The last course I took has been a bear, not so much for the material or the assignments, but for my life. I have a lot of heavy responsibilities pulling on me every day and my schoolwork always gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list. I’m still trying to finish the last assignment from last semester. The enemy is planting thoughts such as: “What’s the point of going to school? You’re a woman in the Baptist denomination – they won’t let you do anything with all that education.” “You just need to quit and focus on being a grandmother.” “Wouldn’t you like to make pretty ruffled dresses instead of pounding out assignments?”

My weary mind takes the suggestions and starts to think, “Yeah, I’m tired of all this studying. What am I doing this for? It’ll never get me anywhere.” And then I realize, I’m playing right into the devil’s hands. I have to follow Paul’s directive and “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). I reject these discouraging thoughts. Then I remember Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

The Spirit asked, “What is true here?”

What’s true is that God called me to this. Psalm 139:6 is marked with the date of my first day of college: 5/31/13. What’s true is that I can’t see God’s plan, but I know He has one (Jer. 29:11). What’s true is that God always finishes what He starts (Phil 1:6). What’s true is that He called me, is equipping me, and will use me (2 Tim 3:14). What’s true is that He turned my life upside down to get me to a place where I could get a Master’s degree for free as a staff member at BCF.

Satan can’t stand up under all that truth, and neither can my feelings of discouragement. The Bible is a practical book full of real-life wisdom. Beloved, grab onto the Word and use it.

God of the Impossible

“This is impossible. It’s hopeless – this will never change.”

Those are the words that have been running through my mind lately over a very difficult situation. I keep putting it in God’s hands, but something happened recently that weighs heavy on my heart – and my mind. And that’s where the problem lies. In my mind. All those defeating thoughts bubble up in my head like water boiling on the fire. When these thoughts start, I can feel my anxiety rise. And the enemy loves it. He pours more gas on the flames until I am in a pit of anxiety and despair.

But the Spirit brought a Word to mind: “Whatever is true . . . think about such things” (see Philippians 4:8). Then He whispered to me, “What is true here?” I realized what He was up to. He was trying to turn my thoughts away from the burden I feel and toward the burden-bearer.  He was soaking the dry ground of my mind with the Living Water of His Word.

What is true is that “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). The Spirit took me on a mental Bible study, calling to mind the many times God worked out the impossible. Like giving a 90+-year-old couple a baby (Abraham and Sarah). Or parting the waters to let two million people cross over on dry land (The Hebrew nation crossing the Red Sea). Or bringing down a massive stone wall with shouts of praise (Joshua and the battle of Jerico). Or causing the sun to stand still in the sky to give His warriors victory (Josua and the battle at Gibeon). How about a shepherd boy bringing down a giant with a slingshot (David and Goliath)?  Can a virgin give birth? She can if God is behind it (Mary’s immaculate conception).  Think about demons being driven out, paralyzed men walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and the mute speaking. Or mothers being given back their dead children, sick people made well, thousands fed from a little boy’s lunch, and water turned into wine.  

Then He asked me, “Now Child, is your situation more impossible than these?” No, it isn’t. And neither is yours Beloved. I don’t know what burdens your heart today, but I know that you and I have a God who specializes in overcoming the impossible. And that’s the truth.

Hide and Seek

Joy likes to play “Hide and Seek” and I like it too because her version calls for Nana to sit in the recliner with a blanket over my head while she wanders around the living room searching. Of course, she knows where I am, and when she finds me she climbs into my lap for a minute or two of snuggles and then she’s off and searching again. My part is just to sit there and wait. I like this game.

God calls us to seek Him. The Bible is full of admonitions to “Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:4, 6); “Seek my face” (Ps 27:8); “earnestly seek [God]” (Ps 63:1); “seek [the Lord] and rejoice” (Ps 70:4) and so many more. The meanings range from seeking out in prayer, worship, petition, inquiry, desire, trust, and encounter. But what is so sweet to me is the promise that whatever our reason for seeking the Lord, He says, “I will be found by you” (Jer 29:14). Unlike my and Joy’s game, God isn’t hiding from us. He wants us to find Him, so much so that He puts Himself right in our path so we can’t miss Him. Truth be told, God finds us. Like He found Hagar in the wilderness (Gen 16) and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and the lost sheep (Luke 15).

Our act of “seeking” is not done with the eyes. Moses said, “If you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deut 4:29). That’s so much more than a casual five-minute devotional before racing out the door. That means engaging your mind and will – your thoughts, desires, emotions (oh, there’s a biggie), and determination, and applying yourself to understanding Him through His Word – both written and in the person of Jesus.

When Joy and I play our little game, I sit and wait to be found, but as soon as we turn our hearts toward God, He reveals Himself – and He’s dropping “hints” all the time. It might be the beauty of a sunrise, the face of your child (or grand), a song, a random kindness, or even driving past a church one day. He is constantly wooing us to Himself.

Beloved, the God of the universe wants you to know Him. He wants you to find Him.  He is not lost, nor is He hiding. Just turn your heart in His direction. He is as close as your next breath.

Defense!

My football team lost yesterday. We’re not used to losing. We are winners. It has left a very bitter taste in our mouths. My husband will probably wear all black to church today. Why did we lose? Because we let them into our “house” – our end of the field. But even more so, because we didn’t defend the gate.

Isaiah was a prophet of the Lord to Judah. He continually warned the nation about their sin, idolatry, and disobedience. He prophesied the nation’s fall to Babylon as God’s punishment. But he also implored them to turn from their sin and return to God. He insisted that they guard their lives as fiercely as they guarded their city. The walls around Jerusalem were thick and strong and wide enough for armed sentries to stand guard all around. The troops had a high vantage point so they could see the enemy coming and warn the rest of the city. Immediately they shut and fortified the gates and put all their effort into defending that strategic point. If the enemy ever got past the gate, the city was all but defeated.

Isaiah called for Judah to be strong and “turn back the battle at the gate” (28:6). The defense point was the gate – not their doorstep. They kept the enemy away from their homes and families by keeping them out of the city. In football the gate is not the goal line – it is the 50-yard line. Almost every time the other team crossed the midpoint of the field they steamrolled into the endzone. If we’d never allowed them to get past the fifty-yard line, we would have won. The principle of defending the gate works in war, in football, and our lives.

You and I have to defend our gate. If we wait to battle sinful thoughts and desires after they’ve infiltrated our hearts and minds, we’ve already lost. What is the gate? It’s eyes and ears. It’s what we see and what we hear. No. Wait. The gate goes farther back than that. The gate is our choices – what we choose to see and hear and even what we choose to think about. When we choose well (see Philippians 4:8-9) we shut the gate. When we choose poorly – inappropriate websites, movies, books, t.v. shows, music with sexually explicit lyrics – we swing the gates wide open and leave ourselves with no defense. There’s so much this world throws at us that we can’t choose, but when you can, you need to keep your heart and mind secure with godly things. It’s not a game. Beloved, don’t lose the battle at the gate.

Think About the Good Stuff

Words are powerful things. They can build up or tear down. Words can change a person’s life – for good or bad. I am very careful with my words to Joy – one because she just inspires sweet words, but also because I don’t want to imprint her heart with negative words.

Words are under much scrutiny today. Speech writers plan every single word a politician says (if they stay on the script). Universities have a list of “trigger words” that must not be spoken lest someone is offended or traumatized. There are words that our society has declared unspeakable – words that meant something completely inoffensive just twenty years ago. Our culture has its ears on high alert, like radar scanning the air for every utterance of potential offense. You must carefully measure every word before you speak these days. Perhaps King Solomon was on to something when he said, “Let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). The less you say, the less risk of saying the wrong thing.

David presents a different principle: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). David doesn’t concern himself with how men perceive his words, He wants to speak in a manner that pleases God. He knows that the words of his mouth are the evidence of his relationship to God and they are rooted in the mediation of his heart, his most private thoughts.

Words that please God come from a heart that thinks about God. Do you need some inspiration? Spend some time in the Psalms – the mediation of David’s heart. The words of the Psalms reveal David’s deep love for God. His thoughts range from praise and worship to honest lament and raw emotion, but he always comes back to what he knows – God is trustworthy and loving. God is faithful and just. God is gracious and merciful. God is . . . and that’s how you turn the thoughts of your heart – and the words of your mouth to “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy” (Phil 4:8).

So what will you think about today, Beloved? I’m setting my mind on the good stuff – a little girl and a big God.

Get Ready!

I’m sure you’re familiar with Ephesians 6:10-18 and the Armor of God:

The Belt of Truth is a foundational garment that provides support and bears the weight of the Sword.

The Breastplate of Righteousness covers the heart – the seat of our emotions, thoughts, and affections.

The Shoes of the Readiness of the Gospel of Peace enables us to take the Gospel with us everywhere we go – spreading it like holy seeds.

The Shield of Faith protects us from the fiery darts of the enemy – darts of doubt, temptation, fear, self-defeat, anger, bitterness, hatred, and animosity.

The Helmet of Salvation covers our minds where the enemy battles us most fiercely.

The Sword of the Spirit – the Word of God – is the only defensive piece of the Armor.

And prayer which is our source of power, strength, and discernment.

My sister-in-love is always reminding me to “Pull those straps tight every morning!” And she’s right. But here’s something I had not noticed before now: “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground . . .” (v. 13). Every day is a spiritual battle. Every day we face off against the devil. Every day he lobs his darts and tries to take us out. But there is a “day of evil” coming when the battle will be like nothing you or I have ever experienced. We have no way of knowing when that will be, so we must be prepared for it every day.

Do you remember the story of “David and Goliath?” When David told King Saul that he would take on Goliath, Saul dressed David in his own tunic, armor, and helmet. “David . . . tried walking around” and said, “I cannot go in these because I am not used to them” (1 Sam 17:38-39). Fellow soldier, you and I have to get used to wearing the armor now, so that when that day comes, it is as natural to us as our favorite pair of jeans. We have to strengthen our arms to hold up that Shield and know how to use that Sword to its fullest advantage. We can’t be clunking into war in uncomfortable battle gear.

Beloved, the day is very near. Put your armor on. You need to get ready.

More than Live, Love, Laugh

This week in VBS we are learning about the value of life. One night our lesson was about God’s design for us. We were made by a Designer for a wonderful purpose. I asked the 5-6 graders what are the three purposes for which man was designed. One student blurted out “Live, Laugh, Love.” Somebody’s mama loves Hobby Lobby. The correct answer was “to know God, to praise God, and to love God.”

Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Paul said that everything God does in this world is so that “men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him . . .” (Acts 17:27). Of all the things that God created – which is everything – only man was designed to know his Creator. When we miss getting to know God, we miss the foundational purpose of our lives.

We were also made to praise God. The psalmist said, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6). Praise is the natural response to knowing God. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, seen the Eiffel Tower, and witnessed both sunrises and sunsets and my reaction is always the same: “Wow!” How much more so when we see even the smallest glimpse of God.

We were made to love God. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Your heart is the foundation and seat of your thoughts, passions, desires, and intelligence. Loving God with all your heart is an emotion driven by reason or conscious thought. The mind is the part of the inner person that thinks and processes information into understanding. Loving God with your mind involves making choices driven by a thoughtful process of information. The soul is the immaterial (and eternal) part of the inner person, Loving God with all your soul involves emotion fueled by desire and affection; a special connection to the beloved (in this case, God).  Strength is a marker of great degree or quantity, something beyond measure. Loving God with all your strength denotes a measure of quantity, abundance, and ability, in other words – obedience. When we know God, praise God, and love God all the rest falls into its proper place. Beloved, do you know your purpose?