End of a season

Dear friends and followers, I will be discontinuing this public blog effective immediately.  It has been an honor and privilege to share my random thought here, so thanks for your faithfulness.

Take care-

TEMPTATION

I looked at a pack of cigarettes today. Not a confession, nor is there  shame attached, but for some reason as I passed the cigarette case at my local grocery store I noticed the type used to smoke.  Now, I have not smoked in twenty-one (21) years.  I do not miss it although I had a multiple-pack-per-day life-controlling habit prior to my deliverance.  This morning the pack just caught my attention and then I walked away with a “What was that?” rattling around in my brain.

I know exactly what it was. I know that the enemy of our souls is not creative. I know that he will use ANYTHING that has worked before to see if we (I) will fall for it again.  The Word calls them ‘strongholds’ and warns us to guard against anyone or anything that can take us captive. After all, Jesus came to set captives FREE! John 8:36 says “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” That, my friends, is a promise.

So what so we do when we are tempted? Not IF, but WHEN.  I think the best thing to do is walk away.  That works for the physical proximity of the temptation, but the thoughts that begin to crop are are usually the deeper issue. I believe that one of our greatest playgrounds are our minds.  BUT, we do have the power to take each thought captive and compare it to the TRUTH of God’s word.  I heard Pastor Dan quote Billy Sunday once, saying: “One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake." How true.

Today, I will walk away and think on what is true when tempted.  Care to join me?

Take care-

FANS

This morning I posted the following on Facebook: “I wish people were as excited to win their neighbors and coworkers for Christ as they are about this game. The results today are unpredictable but we know Who wins in the end.” Which brought forth some great comments.  I love the conversations that a random post can create using Social Networking.

Living and working on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois, I see a great number of devoted fans for both the Packers and the Bears.  The tension of today’s playoff game has been building for a couple of weeks now as the line-up began to take shape.  It is quite a rivalry between the fans of these two teams.  Although, I have never seen as many fully-devoted fans as Packer fans.  Coming is all ages, shapes and sizes, I have observed eighty-year-old women grocery shopping in green and gold jerseys.  Fans… passionate and loyal… rarely meek about ‘their’ team.

I can’t help but think about how the followers of Christ could change the world if, even 4 months out of the year, we would passionately talk about ‘our’ Jesus and His transformational love as if He were our FAVORITE.  If we could just set aside our inhibitions to boldly talk about how our lives have changed by knowing Him with people who have yet to meet or commit to following Him.  

Just sayin’...

FREEDOM

“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” John 8:36 is the way that we end our readings in FREEDOM SEEKERS ministry meetings.  We BELIEVE that there.  We also see it being walked out in everyday life.  During 2010 our goal was to work through the Twelves Steps with the people who attended.  The leadership team knew that it was a tough goal to accomplish when we set it in January, but we also warned them to expect miracles and life change if they fully engaged in the process.

Throughout the months we watched many people begin to look at the depth of the toll that their life-controlling habits had taken and we even watched some take responsibility  for the roles that they played in many of the sideways situations of their lives.  We also watched people grow faint and fall off the path.  Many were deeply challenged and resisted that God had change and freedom in store for them. Our attendance greatly plummeted from an average of 30-35 to 15-20 in a weekly basis.  Yet, as leaders, we chose to stay the course.

And...VICTORY! We saw those who toughed it out gain great freedom. In fact, six members celebrated one year of continuous abstinence from the behavior that brought them to Freedom Seekers in the first place!  Many others are well on their way to the same anniversary.  All have reported to experience varied levels emotional freedom from the baggage that lingers after years of addiction.  My husband Jim and I, in our combined 49 years of recovery can testify that we have never been involved in a recovery group where such a large number of members work through all twelve steps and have as many members celebrate a year ‘clean’.  

So we celebrate and say “LOOK WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE!”  Congratulations to M, B, S, V and J.  Also to our amazing Leadership Team for a job WELL DONE!

YOKED

It is my personal opinion that marriage is the hardest thing a person can do in life.  Harder than parenting as kids eventually grow up and the relationship changes (they leave the nest).  You see, you take two people with God’s gift of free will and yoke them together and by God’s grace there are moments of harmony.  Similar to an old fashioned three-legged race, the participants frequently fight against the yoke that binds them together but occasionally experience the rhythm necessary to move forward.

Even biblical tales of marriage include challenge: 

• Adam & Eve (Genesis 3:12 - “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit…”)  
• Abraham & Sarah (Genesis 12:11-13 - “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well…”)
• Then Abraham’s son Isaac & Rebekah (Genesis 26:6,7 - “So Isaac stayed in Gerar. When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”)

OK, just to be fair I am sure that wives have done some less-than-stellar things too, they just weren’t written about as much in the Bible.

I believe that the problem begins before the wedding dress is purchased or the hall reserved.  First, couples tend to RUSH IN.  There are a few factors to this… we believe Mr./Miss. Right is a limited time offer, we DO buy the book by its cover, we figure that we can ‘work out the details later’, or in the far back recesses of our brains we figure that we can always get out later if it turns out to be a train wreck.    This is one of the reasons the divorce rate in almost equal between Christians and those who claim no religious affiliation.  It is the human nature.  God says "Be still and know that I am God" in Psalm 46 because He knows that waiting and trusting are not in our nature. We tend to trust ourselves first just hoping that it will work out.  When we consider something as serious as the life-time commitment of marriage before God, stand back, observe and wait is not our usual route.

Feel free to toss in your comments and check back with my next post as I continue the discussion about this.

Take care- 

SETBACK

We all have them. Seldom do we speak of them. When we do speak of them it makes others uncomfortable right along with us. Today a group of us moved a friend’s belongings into storage.  He experienced a setback.  This one cost him his freedom. 

How many times is that what happens to us?  Sometimes not literally our freedom, but we mess up and it costs us BIG TIME.  Is this not the reason that Christ came to walk with man on earth?  Hebrews 4:15 states “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.”  We relate to Jesus better when we realize that He came as man.  He had the experiences we had growing up (except the video games and action figures due to cultural differences).  He wore a diaper, learned to crawl, skinned his knees and went through puberty.  HE ‘took on flesh’ and ALL that entails.

Yet He did not sin.  That does not say that He was not tempted.  He chose differently.  His focus was SO on God that He didn’t turn from God’s BEST for Him.  We battle.  We justify. We wrestle.  Sometimes we walk away VICTORIOUS, without sin.  Sometimes we don’t.  EVERY DAY our Spirit (which is perfect and made whole through the indwelling Holy Spirit) and our souls (our thoughts and emotions) battle.  Sometimes we realize this, sometimes we act surprised by this.  

But provision has been made: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16).  God, who is never surprised by our set-backs and failures has made provision for them AND for us to have the power to pick ourselves up and get back on track.  Even more so, to help us to not mess up in the first place.

Run to Him regularly.  He LOVES to reveal Himself to you.  He even wrote a book about it.

Take care-

RELATIONAL

One of the KFA values in that we are RELATIONAL.  Few need to have that word defined as we are all wired for this.  Some more, some less… but inside each of us there is a place reserved for the ‘warm fuzzies’ of community.

Today in our staff devotional time, rather than spend time teaching our team about how to be relational I asked them about what they saw the characteristics of the value to be.  They spoke of meeting emotional needs as well as felt needs, listening, sharing, give and take as well as having a sense of being involved in something bigger than one’s self.  After hearing this I asked them to think BIGGER and we looked at ways that KFA can be relational with our community.  Many of the answers we in support of events that we already do as outreach as well as some good ideas for future planning. 

After speaking of the changes in culture that prevent those who are far from a relationship with Jesus from coming INSIDE the walls of a church we spoke about ways that we can take the church to the city.  I love the hearts of those whom I serve with.  They are leaders and visionaries.

I read from Dan Kimball’s “They Like Jesus But Not the Church” with regard to how emergent generations see the church/organized religion as too legalistic and uncaring.  I presented them with the new drawing of an unbeliever’s journey to God and spoke about the fact that while Jesus’ finished work of the Cross bridges the chasm of sin and gets people to heaven, that WE are the assigned bridge builders that get people to the work of the cross… or even a realization that they NEED the work of the cross.

Our neighbors watch us.  They know how we spend our time and money.  They know what we love.  Let’s be intentional about building bridges toward a journey with Christ for them.

Take care-