Preparing a way for The Way

Most of us girls wouldn't even think about going out of the house in our pajamas, without make up, or at the very least, brushing our teeth.  I have a morning routine, empty bladder, comb hair, eat, brush teeth.  Even if I'm not dressed when I bring my boys to school, I'd like to look decent from the windshield.  I need to get myself a little bit ready, at the bare minimum.

I've had those other moments when I was not "ready" and I just quick run to the store because it just has to be done.  Lo and behold I run into someone I know.  Ug, yep, here I am in the raw.  A little embarrassed that I couldn't even take the time to care for myself and show that I actually care for the outside world enough to give them something nice to look at.  (Disclaimer:  I'm not a superficial individual that only cares about what others think, but its a debt to society to at least brush your hair and teeth).

Sometimes I feel like that when I go out without reading my Bible, or praying, or singing a few songs of adoration for our Lord.  Its the same thing.  We need to be ready to minister to the outside world.  If we skip the preparation of our soul, we won't even be aware of the need for it.  When we are feasting on our Lord's presence we will see opportunities, we will be ready, we will be prepared to love, to look past wrongs, to do it God's way.

Its our debt to society to brush our teeth, fix our spirit on Heaven, and go to the store.  Intentionally be aware of the basket, keep it off, and shine our lights.  At my home church, Brandon Valley AG, our motto is Love God, Love people, Make a difference.  But loving God has to come first, we won't be prepared to do the others with out feasting on our Lord first.

Oswald Chambers says "A Christian worker is the one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people.  The secret of the worker's life is that he keeps in tune with God all the time."

2 Corinthians 3:18  We all with open face beholding...the glory of the Lord

Sink or Swim

There is a vast sea, each of us are in it.  Some of us are there on our own accord, others have been placed there by God himself.  Each as a choice in how he will respond.  One man will fight the seas.  He will thrash, crash himself against the water, and flail his arms in frustration.  He is left exhausted, unable to be still and rest.  He is drowning.  

But there is another man, he is moving in a precise pattern, without chaos and confusion.  Other times he is saying completely still on his back, just floating.  This man is building endurance in  his sea, he is resting in this place he has been put.  

 Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.  Psalms 37:7

Sometimes we are not moving anywhere in life.  We are just in a sea that can either swallow us, or create a strength and serenity in us that would not have been learned in any other environment.  Cooperation with the Lord will bring these traits to us.  Do not hurry yourself through these places.  We are building endurance and character for another season. If we do not learn this now, we will not be prepared for the later things.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

Digging Wells

"When we do anything out of a sense of duty, we can back it up by argument; when we do anything in obedience to the Lord, there is no argument possible; that is why a saint can be easily be ridiculed."  Oswald Chambers

Most of what God asks us to do won't make sense to the rest of our culture.  The word submission is thought of as weakness.  Pouring ourselves out relentlessly will leave us exhausted  right?  Paul found delight in that very thing.  He was able to be a "door mat" and not have the self pity that usually accompanies it.  He was able to find joy in this selflessness. (2 Corinthians 12:15 I will very gladly spend and be spent for you)

Isaac is a pretty good example of this.(Genesis 26)  He just had a hundred fold harvest, by the way -that is a CRAZY big number, and was wealthy beyond belief.  He has all his father's resources and more.  He was on top!  Then, the Philistines fill up his wells, and the king tells him to beat it.  In the middle of a famine, Isaac was the only one succeeding.  I bet that put a bee in their bonnet.

It would have been pretty easy for Isaac to throw his weight around.  That would make sense, stand up for yourself boy!  It was his duty!

Nope.  You may know the story.  He moves over ten miles and digs a new well.  The Philistines fill it again.  So again Isaac takes all he has and moves again.  He does this 2 other times.  No grumbling, no fighting.  He simply keeps digging wells until they stop bothering him.  He knew God had a place for him in this land.  He just had to keep looking until he found it.

God wasn't moving Isaac out into the desert without water.  He won't move us to the desert without water either.  God never leads us to dry ground.  We need to keep digging wells, no matter how absurd it looks to the others.  The Lord will show us where to dig, its up to us to pick up the shovel and do some of the dirty work and keep worshiping.  If we worship loud enough, we won't be able to hear anyone else ridicule us.  

Noah didn't stop building in the midst of the mud slinging.  Its imperative we keep ourselves in God's light and remember what He told us there.  Its easy for us to doubt when we feel vulnerable.  After Isaac's submissive obedience, God spoke to him for the first time and gave him a wonderful promise of an entire nation.  

A Season of Gracious Giving

As a conservative I do not feel warmth towards the term entitlement.  Feeling like you deserve certain privileges,  often with out doing anything to earn them.  I'm a hard working Mid-Westerner who will just do it myself, by golly!  I don't need someone giving me anything, I'll work hard and earn my own reward.  In fact, I'll just reward myself when I'm done!  

But does this attitude inhibit my ability to receive good gifts from God and others?  If it isn't okay to receive a gift without earning it then how will I ever receive salvation from Jesus?  There will NEVER be anything I can do that will earn that one.  

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

The fact is, God wants to lavish great gifts on us and rewards us.  He wants us to ask. 

 Christmas is coming soon.  Our kids are excitedly making lists full of gifts.  As a parent, its hard to decide what to get them when they have so many dreams and desires.  I would LOVE to bless them with every one of them.  I can tell you, my kids don't really deserve it.  Sure, they are great kids, but boy do they argue with each other.  But there is nothing they could do to get me to not buy them Christmas presents.  

But what if they didn't write anything on that list?  How would I know what to get them?  It wouldn't be any fun for me to shop, and there would be very little anticipation for them or me.  No dreams and nothing to look forward to on either end.  Half the fun for me is anticipating the look on their face when they open their presents.

Matthew 7:11

¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

If I can give good gifts to my kids without making them earn it, can I do that for others too?  God doesn't love me because I earn it, He doesn't give only when I deserve it.  Then neither should I.  I shouldn't make others earn my love, or my gift.  

This is a little painful to me as I watch our country spin without a foreseeable parachute.  There are so many out there that don't seem to deserve my help.  But   God did not make me judge.  He has called us to be gracious givers.  Givers with unmerited favor, marked by kindness.  Think of it also when someone wants to bless you.  You don't have to earn it, deserve it, or even like it.  Just take it, because its a blessing to the giver as well as the receiver   

Authority not Arrogance

Once upon a time I did a study about overcoming addictions.  I used to fill my feelings with food.  The thing that I had a hard time with was going before Jesus and crying about my sins.  To be moved with sadness because of the sadness I cause Jesus by my sins.  Its almost like they wanted you to remind yourself how horrible you were just so you would cling to Jesus.

The worst thing my kids can do is after a discussion on a mistake is to say "I am so stupid, I'm so bad, I'm a horrible person."  So why would God want to hear us lament over how horrible we are?  Do I go before God in prayer with a feeble heart?  With a false humility, "uh, Jesus?  If you see me, my sinful heart and all that I am not, would you maybe like to take care of this problem I have?  But, I mean, only if you think I deserve it."  Why would Jesus come to bring us a new Royal Heritage for us to stay tied to our old sinful one?

I believe the condition of our heart in our prayers weighs heavy on the influence of our prayers.  It is our right to go before God.  We are already seated with Him, Jesus has already brought us into righteousness, we do not need to sneak into the thrown room, we are to LIVE in the thrown room.  We have every right to be there with Him, to expect Him to answer.  He wants us to call life to the lifeless and light to the darkness.  It is not arrogance it is authority.

A New Class

In "high society", they hold heritage very close, legacy is a big part of who they are, and who their future families will be. They look to their past in order to know their future.  Their lives are already laid out for them before they are born, they are looked as "black sheep" if they turn from their family road map and go their own way.  (I know how this works, I watch the Gilmore Girls)  

I don't really relate to that, I grew up like most of America, Middle Class.  We value heritage, but very few of know anything that happened to our family a few generations back, especially what happened before the boat crossed the big ocean.  Most of us middle classers value our current families, and the future of it higher than what our ancestors might think of or current trajectory.  We don't really care what they would have thought, of course we are respectful and honor them, but we look ahead more than back.  -Maybe its just me then.

 But.....as soon as salvation became ours, we began living out of a different heritage, not high class, not middle class, or even lower class.  -A lot of churches think we should be poor to be holy.-  We began to live under the Legacy of Christ.  He, and all of His ministry, are now our heritage.  We are now wealthy, high class, and we should look back on that to see where our future is.  Jesus was sent to give us that road map, so we could duplicate His ministry, His power, His presence to the Earth.  It no longer matters what earthly family you come out of, because at that moment you said 'yes' to Jesus, He began writing a new identity and destiny into you.  A destiny full of authority and a future full of adventure!  Guaranteed.

We are now a new class, we are free from the chains of expectation, generation, and no longer locked into the hierarchy of the worlds order.  I guess its the original "New World Order."  

Fence or Freedom?

I often get very tired when I'm reading.  I think its genetic, when my mother sits, she falls asleep.  Usually this is a pain in the butt, but yesterday it had meaning.  I sat to read "Culture of Honor", a really great book by Danny Silk.  (I love all that comes out of Bethel church in Redding.  They got it together. )  So, I started reading a chapter that was talking about the 4 keys to unlock the New Freedom mindset of God.  He was explaining that Abram had to leave his family, and God promised He would bless all families from his own. 

And that's when I fell asleep.  But, I still knew what was happening.  I saw myself behind bars, not jail.  Its was more like a really big wrought iron fence with no way out.  Its grey and dingy here.  I asked God what this was, He said it was where I was.  Safe, protected, not in danger, but not taking any risk.  See, in my life, I am safe, I am comfortable, there is little need to take risk.  In fact, I really hate risk, just ask my husband.  I'm a play it safe kind of gal. 

Then in an instant I was Laura Ingalls running through the tall prairie grasses. *sigh, love the prarie*  This is the place of danger and also excitment.  I am open to all things to come at me, yet I am so free, its like I'm called to be here.  I can breath, I can be who God created me to be, its beautiful, bright, full of yellow and wheat colors and full of expectation.  I woke up, and I knew God was talking to me.  Then life happened and I didn't get to finish reading.

This morning I began reading again, I stayed awake this time.  Mr. Silk continued, (paraphrased) "God wants us to leave our identity placed on us by our family, He wants us to go beyond what they expect from us, He wants us to throw off our social-class world view and to begin seeing the way He sees, to begin living the way He lives." 

We need to find a way out, and walk beyond of the fenced in yard.  Sure the yard is everything you've ever known, its safe, its what you know, its predictable.  But like all those pioneers, they took courage and went beyond what was expected of them, they took up the challenge to blaze a new trail.  Its wasn't particularly safe, there was risk, but they rarely traveled alone.  We will not travel alone either.  The wide open spaces are waiting, and God is calling us to new things, bigger things, the truer things. 

I will no longer associate myself with the worlds identity of me. (I know this is a process) I'm not just Sarah, oldest daughter, type A, stay at home mom, borderline crunchy granola mom.  I am SARAH, princess to the King, hands and feet of the Creator, pioneer of the Spirit, worker unto the Lord....and so are you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=nFbMvFdRDvg&NR=1