Believing God

This past year, 2010, I have come to find, very certainly, that I am quite uncertain about just about everything... except that which is very simply stated about God. -- who He is and who I am to Him.


I have also been learning; that is, trying to learn that who I believe Jesus to be, is foundational to my ability to love. I assert, along with most orthodox Christians, that the primary characteristic of God lies in the fact that all things come from Him, and are completely in His jurisdiction and control.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
     ~Colossians 1: 16, 17

But sometimes there is a gulf between what professing believers say, and what their lives reveal about what they really believe.

"You practice what you believe, the rest is all religious talk"

I have hit my head against this wall...more than once.

In the writing of words, I uncover my own meaning and unveil God. It is where His Word meets me as I listen for His voice, trying to keep the truth foremost in my mind. It is my worship, and  ultimately He is my audience of One.

But when all is said and done, though I say I love God, believe in Him and trust Him implicitly, I still live my life looking to others to supply what only He can give to me.

Love, and acts done in God's pure love, can only take place if relationships are free from expectations. And there are no expectations, if I believe God is truly the source of EVERYTHING. The moment we look to put someone, or something as our source of happiness, or comfort, we put it in the place of God.

God is not little. In fact, everything that is going on right now is in fact perfect, and is going according to God's plan EXACTLY. Everything is in His perfect timing. God's not in a hurry like we are. The people and situations which occur in our life - those good and those difficult -  are there according to God's perfect plan for us. His plan of sanctification...which is for us to become like He is.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

        ~Romans 8:28,29

    God gives great freedom when we realize that people and situations offer opportunity for God to demonstrate the reality of our relationship to Him. He gives them for the purpose of testing and revealing who his children are. As he loves through us, we realize we are loved by God. people and situations are God-given for the purpose of testing and revealing the children of God, the objects of God's love...if we only have the world's kind of love (which centers on using and getting) in us, sin's powerful, selfish grip on our hearts will be evident in our inability to love.
      ~Norm Wakefield

Here is the reality of what life is like when God is little, and I have become "bigger than God" in my own heart and life.


-worries.

-fears.

-fears what others think.

-offended.

-easily believes lies and becomes blinded to the truth.

-is bitter and questioning of God's love.

-is certain they are right. Pride. Spiritual pride.

-develops a "gospel" centered around works and performance in hopes of eliminating pain and suffering, though this may be done without even realizing it.

-works based relationship with God because though they may say, they do not live as if God is sovereign and reigning over everything.

-manipulative

-controlling.


-sleepless.

-judging of others because they do not truly believe that God is judge and must control others standards/ and or lifestyles.

-life is clouded with deception.

-gives a perception of themselves to others that is not real.

-angry. Stressed out.

This list is endless...and many times much on this list is me. But even when I make God small, in reality, He is still Big, and EVERYTHING is going exactly according to God's plan. Nothing thwarts His plan...especially not me.

Even when I blow it...at work, with my kids, my husband...He still has it all planned, from before the foundation of the world. There is meaning to suffering, even the suffering that I bring on myself.

According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love..
   ~Ephesians 1:4

The Truth is....He Reigns.

He reigns over the future.

He reigns over the past.

He is reigning now.

He will reign for all eternity.

There is nothing He doesn't reign over.

...A person’s life is like grass. Like a flower in the field it flourishes, but when the hot wind blows by, it disappears, and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.  But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, and is faithful to their descendants, to those who keep his covenant, who are careful to obey his commands. The Lord has established His throne in heaven; His kingdom extends over everything.

     ~Psalm 103:15-19

Until there is a revelation of God's "bigness", we as humans live as though He is little, or maybe not even God at all.

If I am truly His child then I will live, and keep coming back to, the freeing and liberating truth that God is working through and planning everything that comes our way. It is for our good, and it is out of His great love for us.


With this as our foundation in which we view all things in life, we have not only hope, but peace... and fear and worry are not our constant companions.

I have been learning, and am relieved to learn, that it is not my responsibility to change my heart or the hearts of others. What a great burden that would be to carry. This gives me peace especially in regards to my own children and their hearts. I am not to discipline my children in order to change them, or to break their stubborn wills, but because God tells me to discipline my children. I must trust God to change their hearts.

And He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
     ~Malachi 4:6

This is what it means to...

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding...

     ~Proverbs 3:5

                           This is what it means to be free.

                         Free to love God, free to love others.






Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

 

....then Just Don't Do It

Whoever speaks, let him speak as it were, the utterances of God.
       ~1 Peter 4:11

You have been called. To a different standard. To a gentle way. To a holy life.


If you can't do it in holiness......if you can't do it with a smile on your face.....if you can't do it with a gentle tone.....then just don't do it.


Simple.....

God said,

"....but according to the Holy One who has called you, you also become holy in all conduct".
       ~1 Peter 1:15

When I speak, my kids should not get confused with who is speaking. My words should sound like our loving Father.

Tender. Soft. Patient.


And when I am speaking confidences in the teacher's lounge, my colleagues should not have to hear whose side I am on. My words should be like God's Son, Jesus.

Encouraging. Thought Provoking. Gentle.


Or...the Christians who I run into at the grocery who attend our former church, they shouldn't have to have their peaceful morning disrupted. My words should be filled with God's Holy Spirit, the Comforter.


Sweet. Kind. Embracing.

"You have been called. Perfect Divinity has spoken to you. And He has called you to act holy in all your conduct. Not just how you behave at church, at Bible study, or with the lady at check-out.....He has spoken directly to you about how to conduct yourself.... at all times"

If I can't talk with Understanding and Respect to my colleague about the smallness of my room this year, and how difficult it is to get the technology running all because she moved me.......then don't do it.


If I can't ask with a Gentle Tone and a Smile for youngest to sit correctly in his chair and stop tipping it backwards as he picks the green out of his dinner.......then don't do it.
 
If I can't speak with Hope and Assurance of the state this world is in, and how it's going to "H..E..double toothpicks in a handbag".......then don't do it. 

If I can't Kindly and Tenderly ask (again) that oldest to turn his glassy glaze from the window back to his third homework page.......then don't do it.



If you can't do it in holiness, don't do it. Stay quiet. Pray. Ask for Divine Intervention and a Changed Heart......then do it just like Jesus would do it.

So...the next time I request the backpacks that have been thrown in a heap on the laundry room floor to be cleared away (for the countless time), I want the Lord to be able to nod and say...

                         

                           "That Mama sounds just like Me".





Lord God....I confess that much of the day these sons of mine do not hear You in my words, in my tone, in my conversations. Father, hear my cry ~ Give me Your language, Your love, Your voice! So that these children hear You when they hear me.

And let me not say anything at all at home, at work, while I'm out.... if I am not going to say what You would say.Cause me to only say it like You would...(and you spoke often in a whisper)..or to say nothing at all.
 
So those who choose to listen, think it's You....speaking through me.





Always seeking Higher Ground,


Nora

Faith Is

Read this quote from Martin Lloyd Jones this morning...sure hits the spot. MUCH too often, I react to circumstances.  Faith according to our Lord’s teaching is primarily thinking; and the whole trouble with a man of little faith is that he does not think, and instead he allows circumstances to bludgeon him. . . .

"We must spend more time in studying our Lord’s lessons in observation and deduction. The Bible is full of logic, and we must never think of faith as something purely mystical. We do not just sit down in an armchair and expect marvelous things to happen to us. That is not Christian faith. Christian faith is essentially thinking. Look at the birds, think about them, draw your deductions. Look at the grass, look at the lilies of the field, consider them. . . .


Faith, if you like, can be defined like this: It is a man insisting upon thinking when everything seems determined to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual sense. The trouble with the person of little faith is that, instead of controlling his own thought, his thought is being controlled by something else, and, as we put it, he goes round and round in circles.

That is the essence of worry. . . .  that it is the absence of thought; a failure to think. "
         ~Martin Lloyd Jones

It is in all of us instinctively to react to adverse situations faithlessly. Our sinful natures will believe a lie, instead of the Truth; that God is sovereign, in control, and loves us.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
     ~II Timothy 4:3-4

The Spirit of falsehood vies for our minds and emotions continuously. It is the Cosmic battle between the Lord of the Truth and the Great Deceiver. The devil’s lies are not really that clever, but because of our sinful nature and propensity to believe him, we think that they are.

         Jesus came into this world of lies to testify to the truth:

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
      ~John 18:37

                       Truth is:

That which propositionally affirms the reality of nature.
      ~ Ravi Zacharias


Not just about philosophy…fundamentally, Truth is about who God is.
     ~ Os Guinness


God’s perfect perception of reality…God is the fountainhead of truth.
    ~ R.C. Sproul


Conformity to fact or reality….reliance on Scripture.
   ~ Webster’s 1828 Dictionary



Insanity is the loss of the proper contact with reality; believing that the lie is real and acting upon that false reality.

When we do not have faith that God has sovereignly ordained our circumstances, and is more powerful, and important than anything that could ever happen to us, then we are acting without the proper contact with reality of who He is, and what He has promised. Thus we could be, in all reality, regarded as...

         insane


 The ultimate source of truth is God Himself.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself...
      ~ Colossians 2:1-2

Culture refers to Christians as “people of faith”. Our faith is not faith in faith or hope in hope. Our Faith is trust that overcomes our feelings and inclinations and instead of reacting, we think...

We are to have faith like a child, but what does that mean? It means that a child's trust in their mother or father overcomes their feelings and inclinations. While playing with dad at the pool, children don’t want to jump off that diving board into the deep water; but their faith and trust in their knowledge of the truth, that their daddy will catch them, is what conquers their fear.
     ~Dr. Del Tackett (The Truth Project)

My faith is in the truth. And truth is the person of Jesus Christ.

Faith is not an action; it is a response.
       ~Beth Moore 

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ...
     ~II Corinthians 10:5

True faith isn't based on what God does, it's based on who He is. If we try and base our faith on what we feel God is doing, we're going to struggle every time. 

  


Faith is just believing,

what God says He will do.

To listen, pause the music located on the right sidebar (just press the larger half button in the center at the bottom of the player)

 John 14:6 and (Boys singing a favorite children's song with their mother;

Faith is Just Believing)      


He will never fail us,

His promises are true.

If we but believe Him,

His children we become. (John 1:12),

Faith is just believing

the wondrous things He's done.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
        ~John 14:6

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

The Dignity of Work

A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.
    ~Proverbs 20:4



In ancient Judaism the highest level of spiritual life was to be a scribe and spend all your time studying the Law. So it's easy to imagine that this would also be the highest kind of Christianity.

And Eusebius, an early 4th century church father, considered secular work to be less spiritual than devoting oneself to God's service. He was one of the first to draw distinctions in life regarding what was considered sacred and what was considered common.

There are two ways of life given by the law of Christ to His church. One is above nature and beyond common human living, holy and permanently separate from the common customary life of man. It devotes itself to the service of God alone. Such is the perfect form of the Christian life.
      ~Eusebius

Eusebius perpetuated the idea that first-class Christians are those who serve God alone. The second-class Christians are those who have secular employment. So if you want to be a first-class Christian, then you must devote your life to serving God alone. And it was that kind of teaching that led to monasticism. Where priests gave up decades of their life, contemplating their spiritual navel, as it were, looking inward and constantly asserting their own humility before God.  They believed that this in and of itself made them a perfect Christian, or an elevated Christian whereas anyone outside farming or doing a trade or working in a business was a second-class Christian.

Your job is not a secular job, it is a spiritual duty. You are serving the Lord with your attitude and your diligence. You're serving the Lord. You're doing it unto His honor and to His glory. You're even serving mankind for what you do provides a service to man that helps them in their life.
     ~John MacArthur

This idea of secular work making you a less than perfect christian is still around in Catholicism, but the Reformation dealt some pretty heavy blows against it. Martin Luther said there is absolutely no difference before God though there may be before men between one who preaches the Word of God and one who washes dishes.


Later on in the 16th and 17th century, the Puritans view was that God calls all workers to their tasks in the world dignifying all legitimate kinds of work. Above all, the Puritan doctrine of vocation sanctified common work.

If we look externally, there is difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all.

       ~William Tyndale

Wash the dishes with the motive of Glorifying Christ... and God will be tremendously pleased.

God looketh not … principally at the external part of the work, but much more to the heart of him that doth it.
       ~Richard Baxter

Paul faced a wrong attitude toward work in the early Thessalonian church.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
     ~2 Thessalonians 3:6

 
In Roman society menial labor was done by slaves. It could be there was a strong mentality for some that it's beneath them to work. They've never worked and now when they don't have the income that came from their prior occupation, they're thrust into the situation where they need to work and they're just above that, they're not about to work. It's true that christians are to take care of the poor, but the poor were defined as those who could not make a living on their own because of extinuating circumstances.
 
 Or maybe some of them thought; if Jesus is coming, and we're in the day of the Lord and God's fury is about to fall and the Lord is about to return, we don't want to get involved in work. We need to be evangelizing instead.
 
But the Apostle Paul was very clear regarding what our attitude should be toward work.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
      ~2 Thessalonians 3:1

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,  knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
    ~Ephesians 6: 5-8

Our Christian faith has sanctified every occupation. There isn't any difference between the secular and the sacred, there isn't any at all. The church should remember that Jesus was a preacher for three years but a carpenter for at least 20. That sanctifies work. All of life is God's. All of it is for His glory.
     ~John MacArthur

Integration, of the secular with the sacred, is one of the most attractive features of the Puritans. Their goal was an ordered and disciplined daily life that integrated personal piety, corporate life, everyday work, and the worship of God.
   ~C.S. Lewis

Dos and Don'ts in the Workplace

From Richard Baxter's A Christian Directory

• Choose that employment or calling … in which you may be most serviceable to God. Choose not that in which you may be most rich or honourable in the world.


• Be diligent in your callings, and spend no time in idleness, and perform your labours with holy minds, to the glory of God, and in obedience to his commands.


• Idleness is a robbing God, who is the Lord of us and all our faculties.


• Take pleasure in your work, and then you will not be slothful in it.


• This interest of God in your lowest, and hardest, and servilist labour, doth make it honourable and should make it sweet.


• The question is, How they use that which they labour so hard for, and save so sparingly. If they use it for God, and charitable uses, there is no man taketh a righter course.


• Remember that riches do make it much harder for a man to be saved.


• If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul, or to any other), if you refuse this, and then choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God's steward.


• You must not desire nor seek to get another's goods or labour for less than it is worth.


• You have far more cause to be afraid of prosperity, than of adversity; of riches, than of poverty.


• The devil suiteth his temptations to men's daily work and business.


This puritan work ethic has been largely misconstrued as the reason in our society that work is closely related to, and often motivated by guilt which produces a cultural anxiety. Instead of dealing with the truth of the guilt, it is said that to rid yourself from this unnecessary stress, you should...

 ...forget work and do what you want.
      ~Brian Dean Anxiety Culture

More and more parents today falsely believe that children should not be burdened with the everyday requirements we all must eventually face. American society tries to convince us that children would fall apart if we should put any sort of real life pressures on them. Holding our children and teenagers responsible for their own actions, expecting them to work for what they want and teaching them that money does indeed not grow on trees is looked upon as cruel and unusual punishment by some.

It is important to train our children in the work habit. The parent's attitude toward work will in a large part be the attitude of the child. Complaining about what needs to be done will be passed on to our children and their children. And If I find every excuse for shirking my responsibility, whether it is working at home, at my job, or even a day's work at the church building, my children will grow up following the example I have set for them.


Our children must learn to work "as unto the Lord" and that...

Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves.
    ~Brother Lawrence 

Lord help me to have a good attitude toward work and to not be slothful; rightly teaching my children so they may become worthy laborers in your vineyard.



Lord... Jesus embodied the human and the divine. Help me to live a one piece life, an ordinary life that is wholly sacred, because the Holy Spirit resides within, this body being the very house of God, with no divide between holy and sacred.

           I need not a sanctuary. The kitchen sink will suffice.




Always Seeking Higher Ground,


Nora

Praying for our Children

I am constantly aware that my husband and I are in the midst of a spiritual battle, and the war is being waged on our own doorstep. Caught in this cultural crossfire are my children, who do not yet have the armor of God! ...But we do. And we need to step up, stand in the gap between them and Satan, and hold up our shields of faith to protect them.

... since 1971, I have designated one day a week for fasting and prayer specifically devoted to the spiritual welfare of our children....There are too many factors beyond our control--too many evil influences--that mitigate against the Christian message. That is why we find ourselves in prayer, week after week....this act of fasting each week serves to remind us continually of our system of priorities. It is very difficult to forget your highest values when one day out of seven is spent concentrating on them.
     ~Shirley Dobson

Dr. Dobson talks about how his great-grandfather had prayed for an hour each morning for his children. And not only for his children, but the next four generations of his family. Dobson said that even though his great-grandfather had died before he was born, this man was the greatest inspiration for him. 

It staggers my mind to realize that the prayers of this one man, spoken more than fifty years ago, reach across four generations of time and influence developments in my life today. This is the power of prayer and the source of my hope and optimism.
      ~Dr. James Dobson

I too have experienced the blessings from having a praying mother. I firmly believe, her bended knees before the Almighty, have protected, and continues to protect those who have come from the fruit of her womb...even unto salvation.

Because of our love for our children, we must rest and rely on the Lord because their salvation does not rest on our diligence or our faithfulness. Ultimately, our children’s salvation rests entirely on the sovereign work of God Himself. Such a realization should bring comfort to parents. In addition, it should motivate them to bathe their evangelistic efforts in prayer to the One who does His work where they cannot – in the child’s heart.
       ~John MacArthur

This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
     ~Matthew 17:21

The case of afflicted children should be presented to God by faithful and fervent prayer. Christ cured the child. Though the people were perverse, and Christ was provoked, yet care was taken of the child. When all other helps and succours fail, we are welcome to Christ, may trust in him, and in his power and goodness. See here an emblem of Christ's undertaking as our Redeemer. It encourages parents to bring children to Christ, whose souls are under Satan's power; he is able to heal.
        ~Matthew 17:21 Commentary by Matthew Henry

One of the most important things I am privileged to do as a mother is to pray for my children.

I want to purpose to set aside a day, once a week, to fast and petition God on behalf of my boys.

I won't make it a habit to pray that my boys are in the top reading group in their classroom, or that they will understand a foreign language by the time they are 10, or that they will know their times tables by next week. Though I want them to do well in school, that will not be what I am petitioning God for. You see, I do not necessarily care if my children are book smart. Though I know it is important, I just don't care about it as much as I care about other things.

I plan on spending a lot of time asking God to give them "undivided hearts (Psalm 86:11),  and praying "that they will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel when they open their mouths (Ephesians 6:19)." I pray that God will help them to be good stewards of their time, their money, their words. I pray for their character, their faith, their decisions, their future wives.

Some mother's may have a bumper sticker on their car proclaiming they are the proud mother of an honor roll student, I'd  rather have a bumper sticker that proclaims that I am the proud mother of a child with an undivided heart.

I want them to be wise, Godly men someday who chase after the Lord;

Who grow to be strong in the faith and courage of Christ Jesus.


                  God talks of our children in the context of war.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
          ~Psalm 127:4-5

This life is a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.


Our "arrows" must know how to contend for their faith and the truth


We are to be raising our children to be warriors for God's kingdom, to know how to face the battle and to stand strong for God. I want my children to grow up not being afraid to speak His truth, even in the face of opposition and persecution.

 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
     ~Psalm 119:46

 

Lord, send us lion-hearted men

With good courageous habits,

Who ne'er will run from the devil's gun

Like hares and bunny rabbits

                                              ~C.T. Studd

We must be relentless on our knees for our children, carrying them to the throne of grace as we petition the sovereign and good God of the gospel for mercy. And while praying for them, I will also pray for myself. That I would not do anything that would hinder their love for and faithfulness to Jesus.

I cannot save my children, only God can. But God hasn't called me to save them. He has called me to care for them, and to shepherd their hearts with the word of God.

                      

   we must pray like we can’t save our children
             ...but parent like we can
                                    

                                                                     ~Irish Calvinist 

Always Seeking Higher Ground,


Nora

Love Matters

"If any of us get anything right in this life, it it because of the grace of Jesus Christ. It is because God is making us into the image of His Son. There is nothing we can do, no formula or teaching we can follow that will ensure we "get it right". There is only the Person and example of Jesus. As the scripture says "Let him who boast, boast in the Lord". Whoever you are, whatever you believe, any good in your life comes only from living Jesus. And the evil? The evil comes from trying to follow and find life in anything else..."

One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn in relatively recent history is how to love. I mean really love... let's face it. Sometimes there are people who tax the limits of our ability to love. It's easy to gloss over our weakness to love people, if they are our boss, a co-worker, even the neighbor, but the weakness of this inability to love really shows it's ugly head when selfishness gets in the way of truly loving our family.

Selfless love does not serve in order to prevent its own harm or to insure its own welfare. It serves for the sake of the one being served, and serves in the way it likes being served – whether it ever receives such service or not. That level of love is the divine level, and can be achieved only by divine help... Unregenerate man can never come up to the standard of selfless love – the love that loves others as oneself and that treats others in the same way that one wants to be treated.

      ~John MacArthur

my inability to love difficult people is not because of them...this time it is all about me... 

I want to learn to love from a pure heart. A heart that doesn't love like the rest of the self-centered world. Unconditionally and without expectation of anything in return. A healthy, God-glorifying, self- trandscending love. But a love like this cannot come from me...I can only hope to be a conduit that channels the flow of God's perfect love.

The world's kind of Love focuses on getting and using. The world values things based on their "usability". We may think we can love unconditionally...but attitudes are quickly hung out naked on the cross when expectations are not met, or comfort zones are violated. I have a problem being a servant to those whom I claim to love when it is not convenient for me. I have a problem loving them when they are not responding to me, or giving to me the way I think I deserve. Has the real goal of disciplining my children been to get them to be more "user friendly"? According to the Bible I am supposed to discipline my children because I am commanded to....not to change them or try to get them to please me. 

I must trust God to change their hearts. God may actually give us a stubborn child to see if we will obey His word and trust Him.

As a sinner, I was of no use to Jesus Christ except as an object who drew out of Him the love of His Father.
     ~Norm Wakefield

 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous, not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
       ~Romans 3:10-12

We are incapable of giving anything to God! And yet He loved us enough to send His Son to die on a cross so that we could be redeemed. My sinfulness offers the occasion for God, the Father, to demonstrate His kind of love~a pure giving love. The great value of the ones who are difficult to love is that they cause you to go to your Heavenly Father.

 Coming across difficult people or difficult situations are opportunities for God to demonstrate the reality of our relationship with Him. As He loves through us...we realize even more how much we are loved by God. If we only know how to love the way the world does; self-centeredly trying to get a need met by using others, sin's powerful grip on our hearts will be evident in our inability to love.

According to the scriptures, idolatry lies at the heart of every sin.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
      ~Colossians 3:5

Whenever someone looks to anyone or anything other than God as the Source of all things, he commits the sin of idolatry. Looking to people to supply what only God can supply is replacing them for God! For instance...a husband may look to his wife to make him happy instead of God. An employee may be looking for validation from their boss, or a mother might idolize her children... if she is looking to them to make her feel significant.

When I look to God to supply all my needs...I am worshipping God.

If someone doesn't distinguish between the world's kind of love, and God's kind of love, he can be fooled into thinking he is loving when in all actuality he is using someone for his own selfish interest.

Love can only take place where a relationship is free of idolatry and a person recognizes God as a source of everything. The moment we look to someone to be the source of supplying our comfort, we put them in the place of God.
      ~Norm Wakefield

How I react to difficult people like a boss, or a co-worker or my children...may reveal if I am ruled by the spirit of idolatry. If I truly believe all my needs and expectations can only be met by God, I am freed from the demands of self-significance and pride and God's powerful love can then flow through me,

because you cannot love someone you idolize.

Jesus lives and gives us His Spirit so that His love may be perfected in us. I must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God's purposes behind circumstances and relationships, so I do not look to them to meet my needs.

Father God...Help me to continually receive all things and all people as an opportunity to reject the spirit of idolatry, and to turn to You for the power to love. Help me to recognize this destructive, deceptive spirit. Forgive me for seeking from others what only you can provide for me...

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
      ~1 Corinthians 13:11-13

Jesus reduce me to Love...

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora






                  

Preparing For Battle

God wants our children to be as weapons in battle. They are to be arrows, shot from the bow effectively, powerfully, and precisely.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
     ~Psalms 127:4

As a parent, I want my kids to be happy, protected, and safe. While this is natural and good...

there is a danger in these intentions if I do not also realize God's plan for my kids.

Our children our given to us to accomplish a purpose, to bring a vital blow to the enemy in the battle of good and evil. God does not intend  kids to live holed away from the battle, untrained and unprepared for the bigger picture and the role He has for them to play in it. He intends for them to be sharpened, shaped, and strengthened. We are to be training them for battle.

But the fact of the matter is...when it comes to the fight between good and evil, we are failing our kids.


It has been reported that children who have grown up in the church are making a massive exodus from the church. I've heard the statistic that 80% of kids growing up in church will leave and never return. There are many reasons given for this...one being that they are going to church, but not encountering God. But more importantly, it is reported, that when the pressures begin to mount in a young adult's life, they abandon their faith; seeking answers elsewhere.

Too many youth groups are holding tanks with pizza. There's no life transformation taking place, People are looking for a faith that can change them and to be a part of changing the world.

    ~Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research

I sometimes want to turn a blind eye and pretend that evil will never come to my little neck of the woods. But this thinking among God's people is probably why there has been such a loss of spiritual ground in America.

That... and the false idea that the church's main purpose is to entertain, instead of equipping us to live a life of self-denial in a world that hates Christians.
 

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
         ~John 15:19

In our quest to make our children happy, safe, and comfortable, have we given our children the tools they need to live life?  Life in a war zone? Looking at the world we live in, we see the spiritual forces at war for the souls of men. Are we preparing our children for this war?

As much as I may not want to face it, the fact remains: this world is not  home. We were not meant to hole up, hide out, and be as comfortable as possible until we die. Satan is on the prowl at all times. War has been declared on us as believers, whether we like to admit it or not. And I see it getting worse everyday.

God shot His son out, as a deadly arrow...purposefully, effectively, powerfully.

Would He expect anything less from us?

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Re-Centering

I rise in the dark of morning, hurting. Blinded by the light, I stumble to fresh coffee made by husband's loving hands as early morning raucus signals wakefulness of unruly boys.

I'm stiff.

          I'm tired.

                I'm closed.

                          I'm impatient, 

and serving anyone, is the last thing on my mind.

More than it should, self dominates most early morning hours, when demands of breakfast and conflict mediation relentlessly requires attention before brain has even begun to function. Harsh words bellowed over lego wars continually beat against this growing wall of resistance as familiar dark cloud envelopes spirit. Again my day has started...angry.

God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation as David did before he fell asleep.
                   ~John Owen

The greatest temptation of our time is impatience, in its full, original meaning: refusal to wait, undergo, suffer....
               ~Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

I truly want to use every moment bringing glory to God through self-denial with each day given, but truth be known, demands batter, and self protection daily dominates decisions and actions.  Instead of taking up cross and denying myself, day is spent in a tug-a-war trying to endlessly reclaim that which is believed to have been taken; authority, power, control, money, time, freedom, self-worth, sanity until I become...
                                 ground zero emotionally.

vices designed to protect sanity and hold irrational emotions at bay, are like layers of an onion. Removal only reveals another existing just below the surface ready to quickly take its place. Everything I do is seems to be some sort of effort to preserve and maintain self-control, but in so doing I lose self-control.

prayer bench beckons...



I retreat to escape, regroup, feel better....

        until screams from youngest pull me from Facebook reverie.

Anger again seething underneath, I corral oldest who again has hurt youngest over perceived threat, and self-interest violations, and in typical Momma (as God) lecture mode, relegate oldest to familiar spot to Time Out  couch.

Why can't he learn self-control...and how to make himself feel better before he takes actions he later regrets?

What did Jesus do? When life became relentless, Jesus hiked into the mountains to pray. He needed strength. He needed guidance. He needed to be refreshed spiritually and physically. Jesus settled in to talk to His father.
                ~T. Suzanne Eller

It is a joy to Jesus when a person takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be a visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
                 ~ Oswald Chambers

When knees bow at prayer bench, remorseful son grasping stuffed toy, is finally ready to utter prayer of apology, the asking for grace from his creator...


Mom...I'm going to put my Gumby on the table before we pray, that way God doesn't think I am worshipping it instead of Him.


Wall down deep inside, begins to crumble...

          Momma (as God) begins anew in lecture mode, after all...
                                                 
                                           it's a teachable moment...


Son...that is wonderful of you to be aware of the role idolatry plays in our lives, but I don't think you need to worry about Gumby becoming your idol, it's your feelings that you continually put on the throne in your life. You hit your brother because you did what felt good at the time instead of choosing God's holy way...

Recognition hits, and takes with it wall of resistance.  I look into the eyes of my son and realize the self-incrimination of words said.

                I worship how I feel... constantly.

It’s not about exalting me, it’s about slaying me. It’s the death of self. You win by losing, you live by dying. And that is the heart message of the gospel. It is God and His glory that needs to be at the center of life.


               ~John MacArthur

I don't need to ask when this preoccupation with self got so out of control, it began at sin birth and has since been indulged with protective vices.

I believe that gluttony is as much a sin in the sight of God as drunkenness.


              ~C.H. Spurgeon

Realization sends me reeling, as son continually looks into eyes waiting.  How many hours of my day do I spend careening out of control, trying to remain in control. Hours that should have been given to the joy and service of Him. It is not the demands of loved ones, life and work that suck me dry each day, it this incessant effort to meet the demands of how I feel, giving in to all it's indulgences.

Oh to live a life completely free from the demands self continually makes every second of every day..

It's obvious. I need to make a shift in my my thinking. To re-center.

Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.


                  ~C.S. Lewis

Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
                ~Matthew 16:24

The cross was not a burden to bear, but an executioner’s device. A person seen carrying his cross had literally been sentenced to death and was on the way to the place where he would be executed. So the person who “loses his life” is the one who has died to all hopes and dreams that the “self” ever had in this life. He is willing to suffer the loss of everything, even life itself if need be, for the sake of the gospel. His reward is eternal life. The person who considers the things of this life more important than the cross shall lose his life eternally. He has made the things of this life more important than his eternal soul. We are either willing to die to everything through the cross and gain eternal life, or we will cling to the things of this sinful world and gain hell. Matthew 16:24 is about dying to self...not just self-sacrifice in order to find our true self.
                     ~John MacArthur

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
           ~Isaiah 42:8

Momma (as Sinner) looks deeply into her son's eyes...

Son, God knows where you are, and where you are headed emotionally. You need to come to Him as often as you can so that you can find your way out of your selfish feelings back to Him, back to sanity, peace, and even to joy.  God made life to not be about us, and how we feel.

God does not exist to make much of us. We exist to make much of him.
                  ~John Piper 

With heads bowed, mother and son plead for forgiveness at the throne of mercy; for the idolatry of feelings, and the indulgence and protection of self.

LORD JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH , Lord who sanctifies, help me change the start of my day from self-awareness to You-awareness. Change my self-serving heart to become re-centered on You. 

 LORD GOD EL ELYON, Lord Most High, continually remind me that the gospel calls me to a life of submission to the lordship of Christ which means to a life of self-denial.

Let my name be forgotten, let me be trodden under the feet of all men, if Jesus may thereby be glorified.…Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all.…I care not who is uppermost. I know my place…even to be the servant of all.

               ~George Whitefield

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Just...Be Still

I hang up phone, and with eyes closed, utter a prayer for a another friend going into hospital..

Lord, please let her feel your mercy and grace today....

Eyes open wide as cat jumps on counter, again..must get those dishes washed and out of that sink..and oh, must remember to feed the cat...

she goes in at 10:00 this morning, You know what she needs right now...

left eye peeks at clock.

Already 9:30?! so much to do before I have to pick the boys up from school...

Be with my oldest son today, Lord, I don't know if I can handle another phone call from the principal...

Be still, and know that I am God

~Psalms 46:10

I better leave early enough to pick up the kids so I can drop by the grocery store first...I hate having them with me when I'm trying to shop...


Make our money last until we get the next paycheck please...it's getting harder and harder to make it last...

prayer bench beckons...

                                   ...as I pass by with laundry laden arms.


I can't stop. I'd like to. Someday I hope to have enough time to pray... like Jesus and like the all Jews did throughout the centuries. The fixed hour prayer of David , the set prayer times like Daniel...

"Now when Daniel... he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." -Daniel 6:10

It's time to stop to pray, but I don't have enough time as it is before the kids come home...


This basement is such a mess, wasn't it clean for company only a few days ago?  ~sometimes the lack of virtue and character in my children really scares me.

I stop short...I did address my Lord in that thought, didn't I? 

 Father God, have I deluded myself into thinking my self-talk  qualifies as legitimate prayer? What is missing... is You. I have been having a conversation with me!

"The only thing that prevents me from praying more is me." "It's my own inflated sense of self-importance, the elevation of my work, of my agenda, that keeps me from prayer-communion."


                                                  ~ Ann Voskamp

Martha wasted an amazing opportunity. And many times, so do I. She let the demands of every day overshadow the call of the divine. In fact, in Luke 10:39-42, Jesus gently chided Martha, and affirmed Mary's choice to sit and spend time with Him in the middle of all the work that had to be done.

     Now as Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." In [Luke 10] vs. 42, Jesus told Martha her sister did what was "needed." So in Jesus' mind, whatever Martha was doing wasn't needed at that moment…whether it was to impress, pamper or comfort Him. Jesus just wanted Martha to sit down and spend time with Him.

                                            ~ (Commentary) John MacArthur

Martha's busyness was a distraction from the "one thing" that was really needed-listening to Jesus.

If prayer is conversation with Almighty God...when do I ever listen?

Realization sinks in....I am squandering the time my Lord has given to me..these hours without having to attend to the needs of my children could be spent with Him.  Even a tenth of my free time, would be more than I have given back to Him...

And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.
                                                 ~Leviticus 27:32

but Prayer is a lifestyle and a relationship, not a duty or obligation...

Prayer is a heart longing to unite with the holy purposes of God for their accomplishment...


                                                         ~John MacArthur

Slow down...choose wisely...give back my time...

Humbled, knees bend at prayer bench as human spirit is quickened, moving toward the throne of Grace that connects heaven and earth. Tears ensue, dripping hot with shame, as Holy Spirit convicts heart of idolatrous sin that chose inflated sense of self importance, that elevates a day's agenda, over Him. Even when children arrive home, midst the chaos, moments could be found to give back to Him.

The extent of prayer in one's life is a direct function of whether something else has been set up as more important than God.


                                                       ~Ann Voskamp

~Father, JEHOVAH-ROPHE I have settled for little sips at broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2: 11-13), that hold no water or satisfaction, instead of delighting in YOU; drinking fully, deeply and continually from the fountain of living water that never leaves one thirsty...

Familiar warmth floods body...and I pause exalting God...basking in His forgiveness, and the beauty of His Glory.

How could I have ever have thought that a prayer muttered here and there, as I pursue the business of the day was enough for Him...

                             

and for me?

Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer.



                                         ~D.L. Moody

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Join me as I embrace Ann Voskamp's "Walk with Him Wednesday" Community @ Holy Experience, and "slip out of bed into a fresh year" of cultivating Daniel's spiritual discipline of scheduling 3 set times for stilling in the presence of the Almighty, and choosing the "one[better] thing" of.... listening.

         

I