"But I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion; says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him." Lamentations 3:21-25
I had the privilege of attending Women of Faith last weekend with my sister-in-law to listen to some of our sisters in Christ teach and inspire us out of the depths of pain and joy in their lives. We had a wonderful time of learning and worshiping... in addition throw in a few grace-filled, laughable moments at the hotel (now they're laughable...at 11pm they were not)! Furthermore, the spectacle of well over a thousand Starbuck's caffeinated, sleep deprived women meeting their dismay to encounter broken, flooding potties at Lakewood Church (we need a miracle, Jesus!) and you've got yourself a women's conference!
Despite the drama, I knew there was a message forthcoming that would speak directly to my heart. I hadn't attended a women's conference in several years, so I went expecting to hear from the Lord. I knew there was something God wanted to say to me because I could hardly sleep the night before. I know this may sound crazy, but I had a inner knowing that there was a message that Satan didn't want me to hear.
As I settled in to listen to the last speaker of the day, Christine Cain, her first words sent a shock right through me, "You've put an expiration date on something God has never said is expired. There is something God has said to you that for some reason you've given up hope." I sat bolt upright in my seat. Christine had my thorough attention and my hand couldn't scribble the notes fast enough. I'm sharing my notes with you today because I know I'm not the only one. I'm not the only person who has given up hope on the dream God has placed in their heart and needs to be encouraged and inspired. I'm not the only one who needs their faith to be revived. I'm not the only one who needs to return to standing on God's promises instead of standing on discouragement, doubt, and fear. The truth of the matter is, friend, that when life gets hard, we begin to believe lies.
Christine read from Genesis 18:9-14, 'They said to him, 'Where is Sarah your wife?' And he said, 'She is in the tent.' The LORD said, 'I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?' The LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' 'Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.' But Sarah denied it, saying, 'I did not laugh,' for she was afraid. He said, 'No, but you did laugh.'"
Our posture internally is one that laughs with doubt and unbelief. We, like Sarah, eavesdrop, not really leaning into our faith because we don't really believe God is able. We never declare the truth of God's Word because we are too busy looking at the facts (our limitations and the situation) which cripples us with doubt and fear. His promises must be bigger than our doubts! Remember, God gave the promise to Abraham and Sarah when in all reality it was impossible for Sarah to conceive. The promise came when there was no chance of it happening and then came the silent years of waiting. I ask you, what is your posture when you're waiting on God? Is it joyful and faith filled or have you become a grasshopper against the giants in your mind (Numbers 13)? God isn't glorified by what I can do. God is glorified in the impossible! What impossible situation do you face today? I promise you, God is in it! Nothing, absolutely nothing is to hard for the Lord (Gen 18:14). A powerful truth that we need to cling to in the dark, doubting places is this: It's not that I am able, but that God is faithful! God prepares the womb of our faith during the wait. We are cynical and doubtful, but when was the last time you judged God faithful in your circumstances?
If you want to see Jesus in your life, look at the hard places where God has you. We try desperately to pray our way out of difficult situations, but God always has a message in the hard places. Don't try to ignore or run from them! All of our deficiencies were taken care of at the cross. The death of Jesus on the cross should NEVER hit us casually. I don't have to be enough because God is everything that I am not on my behalf. The cross wasn't just about eternity, it's about experiencing heaven daily. When life hands you hardships that leave you shaking your head thinking, "I don't get it," obey anyway. Trust God's heart when you can't see his hand.
When was the last time you believed that nothing is impossible with God? That dream you're holding, which you think has expired-that time has run out...ask God for the faith to believe again. Stop having the discouraging conversation in your mind over something God has already said and simply BELIEVE. Doubt, fear, and unbelief will always keep you out of your promised land. Again, trust God's heart when you can't see his hand.
2 reasons we don't see God's promises fulfilled in our lives:
1. We confuse our due date with God's appointed time. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every mater under heaven" (Ecc 3:1). God needs to work in us during the waiting period in order to prepare us for the promised land. Your dream will be fulfilled at God's appointed time-don't put your due date on it.
2. It doesn't look the way you want or though it would look. Do we trust that God is good and does good? "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Heb 11:6). Do you trust God in the gap among the promise given and the waiting season?
We may not see it the way God sees it, but don't give up! Believe that God is faithful. Believe that he is at work in your life during the silence. He is preparing you for your promised land that you may bear much fruit! "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).
Remember, you're not able, but God is faithful!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Pulling Back the Shades Launch Team!
"...so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God." 1 Peter 4:2
I am thrilled and honored to have been chosen as a member of the launch team to help promote the new book, Pulling Back the Shades, by Dannah Gresh and Dr. Juli Slattery!
Is it possible for Christian women to be both sexual and spiritual? Or must we exchange one for the other? Is it God's desire for his married daughters to repress their healthy sexual yearnings while camouflaged behind "mommy porn?" God is pleased and honored when his daughters find their desires fulfilled and their sexual longings satisfied with the man he has given them as their husband. Why? Because His is the beautiful creator of sex and the author of the cravings we possess for our spouse.
Perhaps you have read Fifty Shades of Grey and don't understand the "hype" against it. Or perhaps you're a Christian wife who was drawn into the propaganda and succumbed to purchasing the book (hoping you didn't bump into your pastor at the bookstore)! Furthermore, while reading you were secretly aroused despite the fact you felt conviction with the turning of each page. Now you are left holding a distorted view of sexual intimacy fueled by pain and humiliation instead of the self-giving love God created. If this describes you, I want to say, "I'm sorry." I'm sorry that Satan's lies are so subtle and easily bought. I'm sorry for any destruction that has come to your marriage bed, but I want to assure you we serve a God of redemption! He can take anything the accuser meant for harm and use it for good (Rom 8:28). In the words of Christian singer Jason Gray, "Nothing is wasted in the hands of our Redeemer." So I encourage you to run to the Savior and ask for his forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we ask him (1 John 1:9) and then begin following him on the road to restoration and healing.
So, on to the question at hand, "Have I read Fifty Shades of Grey?" Let me say, with as much humility and indisbutably lacking condemnation towards others as I can convey, "No, I've not read Fifty Shades of Grey." This is one path in which God's grace enabled me to remain strong in my convictions, but just as I say this, I humbly admit I don't always choose the right path; therefore I don't saunter haughtily past those with book in hand. I simply understand through many of my own life's circumstances and consequences how crafty Satan can be.
For those interested, here are my two (yes, only two!) reasons I have not read Shades:
1. I want to honor God through holiness. A Christian's body belongs to the Lord, is a member of Christ, and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. I was bought at a steep price, the blood of Christ, and am now called to "glorify God in my body" (1Cor 6:20). Christ didn't shed his blood for me so that I could continue in my former ignorance and passions (1 Pet 1:14). His calling is to be holy and any act of fornication, adultery, or any other sexual sin is committed by the believer in the Most Holy Place where God dwells (1 Cor 6:19). But you may ask, "Is erotica sin?" God's plan is for the fulfillment of sexual desire with my husband, so any sexual fulfillment absent of my husband is missing God's intention and therefore is simply the gratification of lust. We must not continue entertaining ourselves with which Christ died to free us!
2. I love and respect my husband. The Scriptures tell us "do nothing out of selfish ambition, but look to the interests of others" (Phil 2:4). Reading a book such as Shades is purely self-gratifying and not seeking the best interests of our spouse. To say you're reading it to enhance your sex life is simply a delusion. True "enhancing" can only be found within the mutual confines of the marital relationship, not through a one-sided fantasy. I love my husband too much to intentionally bring smut into our marriage bed and I respect him enough to allow him the honor of fulfilling our desires together.
I don't need to give you a long list of reasons why this book is not suitable reading material for Christian women. When Jesus said, "Follow Me," he beckoned us to walk a narrow path that many in this world would choose to avoid. I am hopeful that Pulling Back the Shades will help women encounter authentic, god-glorifying sexual intimacy rekindling God's original design.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Blooming Through Perseverance
"People who do what is right may have many problems, but the Lord will solve them all."
-Psalm 34:19
Have you ever had one of those days where situations don't turn out the way you've hoped and prayed, where every step you take is a purposeful fight for joy as your soul clings tightly to God's grace? When there's an inner knowing, a deep drawing towards God that assures your dependence upon Him is the only way you're getting through the day...the week...the year. I've been fighting my way through months where my prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears, whispers of doubt assail my soul, and the incessant attack of my faith under siege by the enemy is more than I can bear.
As I continued to stumble through my time in the desert, I felt as though I was languishing and surely not a pillar of spiritual strength, so of course I admonished myself agreeing now with the Assailant. But just as quick as I began to agree, a word illuminated my spirit, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all" (Is 7:9). A glimmer of hope broke through my desert wandering, a moment of refreshing where I sat and drank heavily. When you've been wandering in the desert, gasping for water, the only satisfying drink to be found is at the well of Living Water. "Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again'" (John 4:13).
One morning as I fought the spirit of heaviness that sought to consume me as I struggled to focus on my joy giver, my Sustainer, I hear my daughter say in a random conversation, "Even a flower blooms in the desert when it rains." It caught me by complete surprise and I asked her to repeat what she said. This simple statement hit my spirit with such weighty and heavenly significance! Winter annuals in the desert are highly reliant on rainfall in order to bloom, just as believers are highly dependent on Jesus, our living water, in order to grow.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (Js 1:1-4). Our desert experiences are times of testing in which our heavenly Father whispers, "Persevere," but on one particular morning, when my feet were weary of the battle in which I stood, I tearfully cried out, "I don't know how!" I was drawn to investigate further this word of perseverance since it is "the one who perseveres under trial who will gain the crown of life "(Js 1:12). Taking a closer look at the Greek definition of the word, Hupomeno, I was astounded to see it's meaning: "to abide under." To abide? And then it hit me, our heavenly Father allows desert experiences as a means of drawing us to deeper abiding and utter dependence upon Him as a means of strengthening our faith as Paul would conclude in 2 Cor 12:10 whereby he proclaims, "for when I am weak, then I am strong." When James exhorts us to persevere, he is in essence shouting, "Abide under God in your burdensome place!" Although our burdensome places are at times exhausting, extremely difficult, and last far longer than we think we can handle, we are able to endure bravely and trustfully abiding with hope "as our sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb 6:19). While God never promises to reveal thorough understanding of our trials, we can be confident that God indeed is working all things for our good (Rom 8:28). So remember, the next time you are stumbling through the desert and it begins to rain, you're just about to bloom!
-Psalm 34:19
Have you ever had one of those days where situations don't turn out the way you've hoped and prayed, where every step you take is a purposeful fight for joy as your soul clings tightly to God's grace? When there's an inner knowing, a deep drawing towards God that assures your dependence upon Him is the only way you're getting through the day...the week...the year. I've been fighting my way through months where my prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears, whispers of doubt assail my soul, and the incessant attack of my faith under siege by the enemy is more than I can bear.
As I continued to stumble through my time in the desert, I felt as though I was languishing and surely not a pillar of spiritual strength, so of course I admonished myself agreeing now with the Assailant. But just as quick as I began to agree, a word illuminated my spirit, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all" (Is 7:9). A glimmer of hope broke through my desert wandering, a moment of refreshing where I sat and drank heavily. When you've been wandering in the desert, gasping for water, the only satisfying drink to be found is at the well of Living Water. "Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again'" (John 4:13).
One morning as I fought the spirit of heaviness that sought to consume me as I struggled to focus on my joy giver, my Sustainer, I hear my daughter say in a random conversation, "Even a flower blooms in the desert when it rains." It caught me by complete surprise and I asked her to repeat what she said. This simple statement hit my spirit with such weighty and heavenly significance! Winter annuals in the desert are highly reliant on rainfall in order to bloom, just as believers are highly dependent on Jesus, our living water, in order to grow.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (Js 1:1-4). Our desert experiences are times of testing in which our heavenly Father whispers, "Persevere," but on one particular morning, when my feet were weary of the battle in which I stood, I tearfully cried out, "I don't know how!" I was drawn to investigate further this word of perseverance since it is "the one who perseveres under trial who will gain the crown of life "(Js 1:12). Taking a closer look at the Greek definition of the word, Hupomeno, I was astounded to see it's meaning: "to abide under." To abide? And then it hit me, our heavenly Father allows desert experiences as a means of drawing us to deeper abiding and utter dependence upon Him as a means of strengthening our faith as Paul would conclude in 2 Cor 12:10 whereby he proclaims, "for when I am weak, then I am strong." When James exhorts us to persevere, he is in essence shouting, "Abide under God in your burdensome place!" Although our burdensome places are at times exhausting, extremely difficult, and last far longer than we think we can handle, we are able to endure bravely and trustfully abiding with hope "as our sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb 6:19). While God never promises to reveal thorough understanding of our trials, we can be confident that God indeed is working all things for our good (Rom 8:28). So remember, the next time you are stumbling through the desert and it begins to rain, you're just about to bloom!
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