Recently I have had the most amazing experience! On December 6, 2009, I went forward to an altar in my home church and received real, undeniable healing in my body from the Lord. From sick to healthy, just like that. No bells or whistles or even electricity. I asked Him, and He touched me – it was that simple.
Let me go back a little ways so you can rejoice with me about this properly! I am currently 37 years old – and I have been sick with a thoroughly disgusting and horrible disease called ulcerative colitis since I was 21 years old. I wish it was something less revolting because then I would feel so much more comfortable sharing details with you. I will say that it involves a lot of bleeding, a lot of discomfort, and a life of just having to know where the bathroom is in any establishment at all times. The last time I had a colonoscopy – which is in itself a humiliating thing – I had over thirty ulcers in my colon which had to be biopsied. It has been terrible. We have had to come home from many places early because of me and my stomach, and there have been entire years where I was pretty tied to home because I had to visit the restroom fifteen or twenty times a day. It is a horrible condition.
For all of this time, I have been very faithful to go forward to pray any time anyone opened up an altar service, never doubting that I could be healed. I have known and have believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is our Healer. I have known many people who have experienced a miraculous healing, and have even had the privilege of praying for people who have received healing during our prayer! But all these years – over sixteen years - my sickness has just continued. It has been better and it has been worse, but it has never been good or normal. I long ago forgot what it was like to be normal, and I had somehow resigned myself to the fact that this was just the way my life was going to be. Perhaps it was just my thorn in the flesh, my cross to bear.
So, I have not a clue why that night turned out to be so different, why the Lord chose that Sunday night to heal me. I had no inkling of what was coming, no goose bumps the days preceding – and I really don’t think I was having a particularly holy time in my walk with the Lord that weekend. I don’t think I had read just enough of my Bible that week, or that I had finally crossed some sort of unseen spiritual barrier which somehow finally made me eligible for healing. I can’t begin to tell you why that night was the night.
But it was.
It took me a couple of days to snap to the fact that something was radically different. I have had times – even months at a time – where things were a bit better, where I might just need to go three or four times a day instead of twenty. But this was not like that. On the Wednesday of that week I told my husband – could this really be? Have I been healed? Now it has been over six weeks, and I still want to cheer every time I think of what Jesus has done in my body! Is it strange to shout with happiness in the bathroom?? Maybe, but I just don’t care! I am so, so thankful – He truly does make all things new.
So, here’s what I want to ask you to consider… what is it that you have been dealing with all these years? What is the thing that you have been carting around, the thing that you have just resigned yourself to accept in your life as normal? It might be a sickness in your body like I experienced. But it could be lots of other things, too – maybe anger, or bitterness, or unforgiveness, or fear… this list could go on and on. Perhaps you are like me, and have gotten very good at just living your life as though you were perfectly healthy and normal, when in fact you have a horrible, stinking thing in your life all day every day.
Well, please be encouraged! God really is Who He says He is – He really does heal us and make us new. Don’t listen to those nagging doubts, don’t settle in and accept this thing as normal, even if it has already been sixteen years or even sixty years! Live expectantly for the day that He comes in and takes away the thing you cannot get rid of by yourself – He will! And in the meantime, rest assured that He is with you every step of the way – and know that you will one day look back at this time of affliction and remember it as the time you learned so much about the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. And as a sweet and holy time of learning about sharing in the fellowship of His suffering.
Believe that Jesus can and will heal you, that He can take this thing from your life…just like that.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Finding Beauty, Part 2
It's 4 o'clock on Christmas Morning - Merry Christmas! What a beautiful day to celebrate the Saviour's birth - I hope that you and yours have a wonderful day together. Here is the second part to the last entry...
Finding Something We Have Lost
I just finished reading a book about women in Afghanistan. Every woman in the western world should have to read this book. It is very sad, and very graphic, but until we read accounts like this we just have no idea how so many of our sisters around the globe are forced to live. Under the Taliban, they were not allowed to leave their homes, not allowed to have even one inch of themselves showing without fear of great physical punishment, and not allowed the great blessing of an education - in fact, they were not allowed to use their minds at all. No voice, no say, nothing. . The women in that nation had been stripped of something fundamental to humankind - their dignity.
Now zip back around the globe to say, a water park near Houston in the summertime, and take a look with me. Everywhere you look there are women of every age - younger than ten to older than 70 - bearing just about everything you can bear without being completely naked. Beyond outward physical appearance, the majority of women - young and old - are so rude and mean that you cannot stand to hear their conversations with each other. If I could have had a dollar for every curse word, argument, and outright inappropriate comment that I heard in three hours at the water park, then I would have arrived home a considerably richer woman.
But I didn't feel rich when we got home. I just felt sad. Women certainly aren't oppressed here - this is the land of the 30 minute sitcom in which all fathers are bungling idiots and all mothers and daughters are man-hating eye-rollers who have mastered the art of biting sarcasm. This is the land of Sex and the City - where women are so in control that they don't even have to have any self-control. Right?
Wrong.
Years ago there was a movie made based on the great book by Catherine Marshall, A Man Called Peter. At one point during the movie, Catherine, as a college student, speaks at a youth rally and addresses a crowd on being a woman. She makes the point that never in the history of mankind has there been a poem written about the beauty of a brash, rude woman, or about the loveliness of a woman with the odor of tobacco smoke on her breath. And never has a man written a love song about a woman who can drink him under the table. She challenged everyone to remember that there has only been one person in history Who came and revealed the true beauty of women, and that person is Jesus. He is the true champion of the woman.
She was right, too. Look at the way women are treated in the countries around the world that have are not being touched by Christianity. More often than not, women in those lands are treated as, at best, second-class citizens, and at worst as something like an animal, valued only for their bodies and for their service. And shame on us, in nations rapidly becoming something called "Post-Christian", who by our own hands and own choices give away the very thing that Jesus restores to us, the very thing that makes us beautiful - our DIGNITY.
What is dignity? Webster's defines it first as, "bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation," and secondly as "nobility or elevation of character; worthiness". Dignity comes from the deep peace of knowing that when we ask Jesus into our hearts and lives, that He restores us into the right relationship with God for which we were created. It is the quiet confidence that comes with knowing we are beloved daughters of the King, enabling us to hold our heads high. Dignity affords its bearer respect; one does not have to demand it or fight for it.
A true beauty is borne out of this dignity. It really does affect our bearing, our conduct, and our speech. A beautiful woman is not brash or rude. She is not garishly made-up or scantily dressed. She is not blown this way and that by the winds of her emotions. She is modest, kind, and steady. It is this kind of beauty that the world needs.
In another of her great books, Christy, Catherine Marshall relates the experiences of her mother, who spent a year teaching in a tiny community deep in Appalachia. She was most impressed by the tremendous reaction of these women who had lived so long without hope or beauty in their lives to something as simple as tea in a china cup. Just a little bit of beauty, a little bit of dignity in a woman of God goes such a long way in restoring a whole community!
One of my favorite photos is one of Princess Diana and Mother Theresa standing side by side. These are two of the most recognizable women of the twentieth century, both well known for their good works and kind deeds to mankind. Princess Diana was certainly a beautiful woman and always conducted herself in a manner befitting a princess. But it is the other woman in the picture who is arresting - a woman with very few material possessions and who was as tiny as a child, yet with a power that the greatest statesmen of her time could not help but acknowledge. She carried herself as a handmaiden of the King, and her great beauty touched an entire generation.
So this is the secret - this is what truly makes a woman beautiful. Not anything applied externally, nor anything she can buy, but simply her dignity in Christ. True to the definition stated earlier, the wholeness and health of a life in Christ absolutely affects our bearing, conduct, and speech. As ambassadors of Christ, we do take care of our bodies and appearance, and present ourselves to the world with modesty and quiet confidence. The Lord freely gives us what no amount of money could ever buy - an understanding of the great worth each of us has as a woman made in the image of the Almighty God.
This is also the key to helping the thousands of hopeless women all around. A simple truth is that what God does in us, He always wants to do through us. When God gives us beauty in exchange for our ashes, He restores us to reality - to what we were created to be. It would be wrong to act as though we didn't know Him when we do - it truly must revolutionize the way we think, dress, act, and speak. We are no longer like everyone else, and it should show. When Christians do not live modest, temperate lives, it hurts others so much. When we represent God, we must do our very best to live lives worthy of His honor.
It would be very wrong to keep the Good News all to ourselves - we must share it with others. The hurting wives, mothers, sisters, daughters all around us are crying out for the real thing. They are desperate for true beauty in their lives, longing for it. No magazine or television show can give it to them, but you and I as daughters of the King can. Wear your dignity as a crown. Lift your head up high, confident in the fact that your Father in Heaven has clothed you in His righteousness. Walk through life in true beauty, let it impact your bearing, conduct, and speech. A beautiful woman of God is a lovely window into Heaven for a hungry, hurting world.
Finding Something We Have Lost
I just finished reading a book about women in Afghanistan. Every woman in the western world should have to read this book. It is very sad, and very graphic, but until we read accounts like this we just have no idea how so many of our sisters around the globe are forced to live. Under the Taliban, they were not allowed to leave their homes, not allowed to have even one inch of themselves showing without fear of great physical punishment, and not allowed the great blessing of an education - in fact, they were not allowed to use their minds at all. No voice, no say, nothing. . The women in that nation had been stripped of something fundamental to humankind - their dignity.
Now zip back around the globe to say, a water park near Houston in the summertime, and take a look with me. Everywhere you look there are women of every age - younger than ten to older than 70 - bearing just about everything you can bear without being completely naked. Beyond outward physical appearance, the majority of women - young and old - are so rude and mean that you cannot stand to hear their conversations with each other. If I could have had a dollar for every curse word, argument, and outright inappropriate comment that I heard in three hours at the water park, then I would have arrived home a considerably richer woman.
But I didn't feel rich when we got home. I just felt sad. Women certainly aren't oppressed here - this is the land of the 30 minute sitcom in which all fathers are bungling idiots and all mothers and daughters are man-hating eye-rollers who have mastered the art of biting sarcasm. This is the land of Sex and the City - where women are so in control that they don't even have to have any self-control. Right?
Wrong.
Years ago there was a movie made based on the great book by Catherine Marshall, A Man Called Peter. At one point during the movie, Catherine, as a college student, speaks at a youth rally and addresses a crowd on being a woman. She makes the point that never in the history of mankind has there been a poem written about the beauty of a brash, rude woman, or about the loveliness of a woman with the odor of tobacco smoke on her breath. And never has a man written a love song about a woman who can drink him under the table. She challenged everyone to remember that there has only been one person in history Who came and revealed the true beauty of women, and that person is Jesus. He is the true champion of the woman.
She was right, too. Look at the way women are treated in the countries around the world that have are not being touched by Christianity. More often than not, women in those lands are treated as, at best, second-class citizens, and at worst as something like an animal, valued only for their bodies and for their service. And shame on us, in nations rapidly becoming something called "Post-Christian", who by our own hands and own choices give away the very thing that Jesus restores to us, the very thing that makes us beautiful - our DIGNITY.
What is dignity? Webster's defines it first as, "bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation," and secondly as "nobility or elevation of character; worthiness". Dignity comes from the deep peace of knowing that when we ask Jesus into our hearts and lives, that He restores us into the right relationship with God for which we were created. It is the quiet confidence that comes with knowing we are beloved daughters of the King, enabling us to hold our heads high. Dignity affords its bearer respect; one does not have to demand it or fight for it.
A true beauty is borne out of this dignity. It really does affect our bearing, our conduct, and our speech. A beautiful woman is not brash or rude. She is not garishly made-up or scantily dressed. She is not blown this way and that by the winds of her emotions. She is modest, kind, and steady. It is this kind of beauty that the world needs.
In another of her great books, Christy, Catherine Marshall relates the experiences of her mother, who spent a year teaching in a tiny community deep in Appalachia. She was most impressed by the tremendous reaction of these women who had lived so long without hope or beauty in their lives to something as simple as tea in a china cup. Just a little bit of beauty, a little bit of dignity in a woman of God goes such a long way in restoring a whole community!
One of my favorite photos is one of Princess Diana and Mother Theresa standing side by side. These are two of the most recognizable women of the twentieth century, both well known for their good works and kind deeds to mankind. Princess Diana was certainly a beautiful woman and always conducted herself in a manner befitting a princess. But it is the other woman in the picture who is arresting - a woman with very few material possessions and who was as tiny as a child, yet with a power that the greatest statesmen of her time could not help but acknowledge. She carried herself as a handmaiden of the King, and her great beauty touched an entire generation.
So this is the secret - this is what truly makes a woman beautiful. Not anything applied externally, nor anything she can buy, but simply her dignity in Christ. True to the definition stated earlier, the wholeness and health of a life in Christ absolutely affects our bearing, conduct, and speech. As ambassadors of Christ, we do take care of our bodies and appearance, and present ourselves to the world with modesty and quiet confidence. The Lord freely gives us what no amount of money could ever buy - an understanding of the great worth each of us has as a woman made in the image of the Almighty God.
This is also the key to helping the thousands of hopeless women all around. A simple truth is that what God does in us, He always wants to do through us. When God gives us beauty in exchange for our ashes, He restores us to reality - to what we were created to be. It would be wrong to act as though we didn't know Him when we do - it truly must revolutionize the way we think, dress, act, and speak. We are no longer like everyone else, and it should show. When Christians do not live modest, temperate lives, it hurts others so much. When we represent God, we must do our very best to live lives worthy of His honor.
It would be very wrong to keep the Good News all to ourselves - we must share it with others. The hurting wives, mothers, sisters, daughters all around us are crying out for the real thing. They are desperate for true beauty in their lives, longing for it. No magazine or television show can give it to them, but you and I as daughters of the King can. Wear your dignity as a crown. Lift your head up high, confident in the fact that your Father in Heaven has clothed you in His righteousness. Walk through life in true beauty, let it impact your bearing, conduct, and speech. A beautiful woman of God is a lovely window into Heaven for a hungry, hurting world.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Finding Beauty, Part 1
Have you ever wondered what makes a woman beautiful? Why do some people just have it when most of the time it feels like you never will? Why is it such a full time job? All of those magazines have an unending supply of tips and tricks to cover things up or fix a flaw, but isn't there something that can help us feel and actually be beautiful all the time?
In the last 18 years of working with college students, I think I actually have seen and heard it all when it comes to young women and the agonizing search we all go through to find fulfillment and a little bit of peace. I am not claiming to know everything, but I can say that along the way I have learned a few things. I think the best way to tell you how to find real beauty in your life will be to begin by telling you what beauty is not.
What Beauty Certainly is Not…
I hate going to the mall. Now that I'm a mother, I understand what my mom went through when my sister and I were teenagers in the 1980's. Or when I went through a phase in which I would only wear a horrible pair of black boots (think combat boots) because I was convinced they just looked so cool with leggings and a long, skinny skirt. Now I understand why my mom got that sad look in her eyes!
I know, moms aren't exactly known to be paragons of fashion, but we have lived awhile and know a thing or two about life. We have watched our beautiful, carefree little girls turn from someone who could look gorgeous wearing little overalls with her hair in pigtails to someone who chases after trends which most often make us look a little silly. Really! Just come to my house and look at my picture albums. Trendy styles look silly in a few years, or at the very least very dated. How about that beehive hairdo from the 60's? Or the 70's in general? See what I mean?
Somehow we have the mistaken impression that wearing just the right thing or using just the right product will make us cool. Every year, the magazines promise that this certain eye shadow combination or that certain hairstyle will provide instant beauty. Perhaps we should be suspicious when those very magazines make fun of their own selections as outdated by the very next issue! Frosty blue eye shadow was the going thing when I was in high school, and after a couple of decades in hiding now it's back again. It's very difficult to keep up with what they say (whoever they actually may be) is in style and beautiful.
Have you looked at a fashion magazine lately? I don't mean one of the gossip magazines, but the real photo spreads of the real fashion designers' lines. While decades ago the fashion houses were turning out the lovely clothes that real people could and did wear, now they are putting out the strangest concoctions that I can't imagine anyone could wear to any normal social function. And they make the models - all beautiful girls - look hideous! Like skeletons with teased, bizarre hair and ghoulish makeup they glide down the catwalk. No smiles, just glaring, vacant stares. It seems to me that even the great fashion industry is very confused about what makes real beauty.
And then there is the tremendous impact that the music industry has on what we perceive to be beautiful. A few years ago a certain singer and others just like her made it ever so popular to wear very low-slung jeans with a midriff-baring top. Suddenly, everywhere you went in America everyone from six year olds (who rarely buy their own clothes) to grandmothers (who really ought to know better) were bearing their midsections for all the world to see. And another pathetic trend is a direct result of our nation's lack of self control when it comes to the booming internet pornography industry. Suddenly now, everyone is a pole dancer, or worse. Very little is left to the imagination. Even Wal-Mart sells clothing that looks suspiciously like lingerie in every size for women - from the youngest to the oldest. Surely as we walk down any city street we cannot buy into the idea that this is real beauty. It looks very cheap and trashy, on us and on everyone else.
What is beauty? Why is it so hard to find, so elusive? It is certainly not something that we can buy and apply externally, not a fashion trend, not a hairstyle. So, what is it?
More to come....
In the last 18 years of working with college students, I think I actually have seen and heard it all when it comes to young women and the agonizing search we all go through to find fulfillment and a little bit of peace. I am not claiming to know everything, but I can say that along the way I have learned a few things. I think the best way to tell you how to find real beauty in your life will be to begin by telling you what beauty is not.
What Beauty Certainly is Not…
I hate going to the mall. Now that I'm a mother, I understand what my mom went through when my sister and I were teenagers in the 1980's. Or when I went through a phase in which I would only wear a horrible pair of black boots (think combat boots) because I was convinced they just looked so cool with leggings and a long, skinny skirt. Now I understand why my mom got that sad look in her eyes!
I know, moms aren't exactly known to be paragons of fashion, but we have lived awhile and know a thing or two about life. We have watched our beautiful, carefree little girls turn from someone who could look gorgeous wearing little overalls with her hair in pigtails to someone who chases after trends which most often make us look a little silly. Really! Just come to my house and look at my picture albums. Trendy styles look silly in a few years, or at the very least very dated. How about that beehive hairdo from the 60's? Or the 70's in general? See what I mean?
Somehow we have the mistaken impression that wearing just the right thing or using just the right product will make us cool. Every year, the magazines promise that this certain eye shadow combination or that certain hairstyle will provide instant beauty. Perhaps we should be suspicious when those very magazines make fun of their own selections as outdated by the very next issue! Frosty blue eye shadow was the going thing when I was in high school, and after a couple of decades in hiding now it's back again. It's very difficult to keep up with what they say (whoever they actually may be) is in style and beautiful.
Have you looked at a fashion magazine lately? I don't mean one of the gossip magazines, but the real photo spreads of the real fashion designers' lines. While decades ago the fashion houses were turning out the lovely clothes that real people could and did wear, now they are putting out the strangest concoctions that I can't imagine anyone could wear to any normal social function. And they make the models - all beautiful girls - look hideous! Like skeletons with teased, bizarre hair and ghoulish makeup they glide down the catwalk. No smiles, just glaring, vacant stares. It seems to me that even the great fashion industry is very confused about what makes real beauty.
And then there is the tremendous impact that the music industry has on what we perceive to be beautiful. A few years ago a certain singer and others just like her made it ever so popular to wear very low-slung jeans with a midriff-baring top. Suddenly, everywhere you went in America everyone from six year olds (who rarely buy their own clothes) to grandmothers (who really ought to know better) were bearing their midsections for all the world to see. And another pathetic trend is a direct result of our nation's lack of self control when it comes to the booming internet pornography industry. Suddenly now, everyone is a pole dancer, or worse. Very little is left to the imagination. Even Wal-Mart sells clothing that looks suspiciously like lingerie in every size for women - from the youngest to the oldest. Surely as we walk down any city street we cannot buy into the idea that this is real beauty. It looks very cheap and trashy, on us and on everyone else.
What is beauty? Why is it so hard to find, so elusive? It is certainly not something that we can buy and apply externally, not a fashion trend, not a hairstyle. So, what is it?
More to come....
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
What Spills Out
Imagine that you were searching through your grandmother’s attic one day, and you came across an old steamer trunk. Opening the lid, you were surprised to find a treasure trove of old and beautiful things – lace and linens, precious family jewels, fine old leather-bound diaries, and some beautiful and very expensive vases. One vase, in particular, catches your eye, and you decided to put it in your living room, front-and-center on the mantle. It is beautiful. Everyone who comes by your house notices and comments on its loveliness – it proves to be a real showpiece.
Now imagine that you move to California. Again, the vase gets special placement on the mantle where everyone is sure to see it, and where it adds a real element of beauty to your whole home. For many months, years even, it sits there looking lovely – until the day of the earthquake. One afternoon, everyone is busy doing their thing when suddenly the ground starts trembling, everything starts rattling and shaking. Pictures fall from the walls, books fly off their shelves, and yes, the beautiful vase succumbs to the violent shaking and tumbles off the mantle to the ground.
In the aftermath, you are walking through the house, amazed at the mess just a few minutes of shaking has left. You notice a terrible smell – something has surely died in your living room! You move towards the back of the room, and the smell intensifies – grows almost too strong to go any further. What in the world could be causing that awful stench? Then you happen to look down – and there is the beautiful vase, the showpiece of your home. It has fallen to the floor, and its lid – the one that was so tightly shut – has popped off and the contents spilled out. Something so old and so vile has spilled out on to the floor – maybe something that was left in there years and years ago - leaving a mess and a smell that you would never in a million years have known was tightly shut up in such a beautiful container.
Gross.
This vase is like our hearts. As we know and walk with the Lord, oftentimes our externals get pretty well cleaned up. We stop looking and acting like “sinners” – no more smoking, partying, getting drunk, foul-mouthed, perverted, selfish self; just the new and improved, halo-firmly-in-place self. We get cleaned up and look quite presentable. Everyone thinks we have it all together, and even we ourselves start thinking we are pretty alright - until the day of the earthquake. Then we are surprised by the disgusting stench that falls out of our hearts and spills all over the floor. Who knew that junk was in there?
Unfortunately, I have a quite recent example of this. In the past five years, I have had two ectopic pregnancies which have both resulted in miscarriages (these happen a lot to women who have their tubes tied, I now know – so file that info in the back of your mind somewhere for later). A miscarriage, to anyone, is such a devastating experience. There is such a roller coaster of emotions… you find out you are pregnant, even though you aren’t supposed to be able to be that way, and it seems like a miracle - joy! Then you go for blood work, everything seems to be progressing the right way – hope! You begin to dream a little, think of names, decorate the nursery in your mind, wonder what that little one will be like… Then you start feeling horrible, maybe bleeding and cramping, and fear begins to grip you. You try to pray, to hope, but your body just betrays you and the baby is lost. Then you have to pay the doctor’s bill. Everything about the experience is horrible.
But what was even worse than the experience itself was what spilled out of my heart afterwards. I was so angry at God, and found myself actually thinking things like, “how could you let something like this happen to me when I have been so good?” or “I thought you were a good father and wanted to give your children good gifts?”. Wicked, ugly things that totally question God’s character and motives came spilling out of my heart and threatened to poison my whole life. I found myself becoming more irritable, more short-tempered, sad, and just angry. My husband and children must have wondered what in the world was wrong with me!
Thankfully, I came to my senses and realized what road I was traveling down – the road that leads from anger to bitterness to rebellion, straight to deception and death. That is a horrible, lonely road and I do not ever want to be on it again. The good news is that God IS a good Father, and He is patiently waiting with open arms for us to come back to His embrace, helping us to lay down that something ugly and to be filled with something else that makes us just a little more conformed to His image - joy, peace, hope, faith.
So what is the lesson? Well, just this – we live in a fallen world in which bad things happen. Loved ones die, hurricanes blow everything away, jobs are lost, people hurt us, serious illness strikes - the list goes on and on. Sometimes the Lord allows us to go through things that hurt, and through it He helps us to see the things that we have kept hidden in our hearts. Things we might want to hold on to and not surrender to Him. Control of our lives that we just don’t trust Him with. The part in our heart that says “I know what is best for myself, so just back off”.
Through these painful experiences, we learn a lot about ourselves and so much about Him; we can understand a little better the Fellowship of His suffering, and we can learn even more to lean on Him and to trust Him. Don’t be afraid of the earthquakes and storms life will bring – for they are sure to come…know that God will help you clean up what spills out and make you more like Jesus in the process.
Now imagine that you move to California. Again, the vase gets special placement on the mantle where everyone is sure to see it, and where it adds a real element of beauty to your whole home. For many months, years even, it sits there looking lovely – until the day of the earthquake. One afternoon, everyone is busy doing their thing when suddenly the ground starts trembling, everything starts rattling and shaking. Pictures fall from the walls, books fly off their shelves, and yes, the beautiful vase succumbs to the violent shaking and tumbles off the mantle to the ground.
In the aftermath, you are walking through the house, amazed at the mess just a few minutes of shaking has left. You notice a terrible smell – something has surely died in your living room! You move towards the back of the room, and the smell intensifies – grows almost too strong to go any further. What in the world could be causing that awful stench? Then you happen to look down – and there is the beautiful vase, the showpiece of your home. It has fallen to the floor, and its lid – the one that was so tightly shut – has popped off and the contents spilled out. Something so old and so vile has spilled out on to the floor – maybe something that was left in there years and years ago - leaving a mess and a smell that you would never in a million years have known was tightly shut up in such a beautiful container.
Gross.
This vase is like our hearts. As we know and walk with the Lord, oftentimes our externals get pretty well cleaned up. We stop looking and acting like “sinners” – no more smoking, partying, getting drunk, foul-mouthed, perverted, selfish self; just the new and improved, halo-firmly-in-place self. We get cleaned up and look quite presentable. Everyone thinks we have it all together, and even we ourselves start thinking we are pretty alright - until the day of the earthquake. Then we are surprised by the disgusting stench that falls out of our hearts and spills all over the floor. Who knew that junk was in there?
Unfortunately, I have a quite recent example of this. In the past five years, I have had two ectopic pregnancies which have both resulted in miscarriages (these happen a lot to women who have their tubes tied, I now know – so file that info in the back of your mind somewhere for later). A miscarriage, to anyone, is such a devastating experience. There is such a roller coaster of emotions… you find out you are pregnant, even though you aren’t supposed to be able to be that way, and it seems like a miracle - joy! Then you go for blood work, everything seems to be progressing the right way – hope! You begin to dream a little, think of names, decorate the nursery in your mind, wonder what that little one will be like… Then you start feeling horrible, maybe bleeding and cramping, and fear begins to grip you. You try to pray, to hope, but your body just betrays you and the baby is lost. Then you have to pay the doctor’s bill. Everything about the experience is horrible.
But what was even worse than the experience itself was what spilled out of my heart afterwards. I was so angry at God, and found myself actually thinking things like, “how could you let something like this happen to me when I have been so good?” or “I thought you were a good father and wanted to give your children good gifts?”. Wicked, ugly things that totally question God’s character and motives came spilling out of my heart and threatened to poison my whole life. I found myself becoming more irritable, more short-tempered, sad, and just angry. My husband and children must have wondered what in the world was wrong with me!
Thankfully, I came to my senses and realized what road I was traveling down – the road that leads from anger to bitterness to rebellion, straight to deception and death. That is a horrible, lonely road and I do not ever want to be on it again. The good news is that God IS a good Father, and He is patiently waiting with open arms for us to come back to His embrace, helping us to lay down that something ugly and to be filled with something else that makes us just a little more conformed to His image - joy, peace, hope, faith.
So what is the lesson? Well, just this – we live in a fallen world in which bad things happen. Loved ones die, hurricanes blow everything away, jobs are lost, people hurt us, serious illness strikes - the list goes on and on. Sometimes the Lord allows us to go through things that hurt, and through it He helps us to see the things that we have kept hidden in our hearts. Things we might want to hold on to and not surrender to Him. Control of our lives that we just don’t trust Him with. The part in our heart that says “I know what is best for myself, so just back off”.
Through these painful experiences, we learn a lot about ourselves and so much about Him; we can understand a little better the Fellowship of His suffering, and we can learn even more to lean on Him and to trust Him. Don’t be afraid of the earthquakes and storms life will bring – for they are sure to come…know that God will help you clean up what spills out and make you more like Jesus in the process.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Garden
This spring and summer, I have officially become a gardener – and it is such a great experience for me. I am about as hopelessly suburban as you can be, having lived my entire life in safe, clean neighborhoods in six different states all across the country. I have never had to live in a big city nor have I ever spent a significant amount of time living the rural life. But there is something about the latter that has always been such a lure to me – maybe it was because I read and reread the Laura Ingalls Wilder books until the covers fell off when I was younger. Maybe it was because both of my parents were actually raised on farms, as were all of the generations of my family before them, and I was always enthralled by the stories they all had to share.
Whatever the reason, I have always been a country girl wannabe. There has always been something inside me that wants to know how to raise a little garden, and so I spent all fall and winter reading everything I could about small plot gardening. Finally the time came to get everything started – my youngest daughter and I put the seeds in some soil in our empty egg cartons, and it has gone from there until today we have a real garden in our back yard, and it is really actually producing things that we can eat – amazing!
The really amazing thing, though, is how clearly the Lord has been speaking to me about fruitfulness and about winning souls throughout this little mini-adventure of mine. No wonder Jesus spoke so many agricultural parables – it really makes so much sense in the gardening context. Let me share just a few things I have learned from my garden this summer.
1. You can read all you want to about gardening, and technically be a “gardening expert”, but nothing is going to grow until you actually plant some seed. Ouch. So many of us, as Christians, really do think we know it all. We have read so many books, and have heard so many sermons, and we can tell you how to do anything. And yet so few of us have fruitful lives – so few of us regularly lead people to Jesus. And then we wonder why our country and the whole world around us is lost and hurting and going downhill so fast! Perhaps it is because we are afraid to try, and fail. Or perhaps we lack the faith to believe that something might actually grow if we plant some seed. We have many reasons and excuses, but the mystery and miracle of it is that when we plant seeds in the ground, very often something grows! When we plant nothing, every single time we get nothing.
2. Once the seed sprouts into a tiny little plant, it needs daily nourishment and tender care to thrive. This is very obvious, but so neglected in our churches and ministries. It is wonderful, beautiful when a new life is born – when someone is saved. But if you let those little seedlings sprout up in the starter containers, and then walk away before you get them into the ground where they can really take off – well, they are doomed to failure and death. They will be green for just a short time before they wither away and die. It is not enough to take someone to a big event where they hear the gospel and respond. We are dooming people to certain spiritual death – not to mention an unbalanced idea of what serving the Lord even is – if we do not take them by the hand and walk with them as they learn to serve and follow the Lord. We must help them learn how to grow, how to thrive, and how to be fruitful themselves. This, of course, takes a lot of time and commitment – so we must leave behind our selfish excuses and become willing to sacrifice our time and lives to build the Kingdom.
3. Once the seedlings are in the ground and growing into maturing plants, every thorn, vine and weed in the world will try to choke the life out of them each and every day. I think the thing that has surprised me the most about this garden would be the weeds. Where do they come from, and how in the world do they grow so fast? I mean, I can pull all the weeds in a certain corner of the plot, and two days later they are back and threatening to choke my plants. And that word is not an exaggeration – all of the weedy things in the ground really do that. At first, they look like any other green thing in your garden, but they soon reveal themselves to be sharp and thorny, and they all grow in the most invasive and gross manner. They wrap their tentacles around every living thing and would certainly choke the life out of everything if no one took the time to yank them out by the roots – frequently. Do you see the spiritual connection? We Christians often underestimate the desire of our Enemy – he really does want to strangle the life out of every believer – especially the new and tender ones who might be easier to catch. We have to watch out for them and take care of the young ones, not just every now and then, but regularly.
4. Healthy, vibrant, producing plants do not grow without daily, disciplined care. Once again, discipline is the key. If you want a healthy and thriving garden, you cannot tend to it for a day or two and then walk away for a week. Well, you can, but you will have to spend a lot of time working through the junk that you let slip in when you weren’t looking. As Christians, we need to learn and help others understand that walking with the Lord is not a Sunday-only or a Thursday night-only thing. When we say we lay our lives down, we mean every day, all of our life. To grow and flourish as a Christian, it takes daily discipline – in study, in prayer, in thought, in action, in communion with God and with others. It is not a here and there thing. It is everything.
I think there is such a beautiful poignancy to the fact that the amazing story of humanity begins and ends in the Lord’s garden. We too often settle for such a drab and pathetic imitation of what life really could be, when all the while God wants us to know and share His abundant and vibrant reality of fruitfulness.
Whatever the reason, I have always been a country girl wannabe. There has always been something inside me that wants to know how to raise a little garden, and so I spent all fall and winter reading everything I could about small plot gardening. Finally the time came to get everything started – my youngest daughter and I put the seeds in some soil in our empty egg cartons, and it has gone from there until today we have a real garden in our back yard, and it is really actually producing things that we can eat – amazing!
The really amazing thing, though, is how clearly the Lord has been speaking to me about fruitfulness and about winning souls throughout this little mini-adventure of mine. No wonder Jesus spoke so many agricultural parables – it really makes so much sense in the gardening context. Let me share just a few things I have learned from my garden this summer.
1. You can read all you want to about gardening, and technically be a “gardening expert”, but nothing is going to grow until you actually plant some seed. Ouch. So many of us, as Christians, really do think we know it all. We have read so many books, and have heard so many sermons, and we can tell you how to do anything. And yet so few of us have fruitful lives – so few of us regularly lead people to Jesus. And then we wonder why our country and the whole world around us is lost and hurting and going downhill so fast! Perhaps it is because we are afraid to try, and fail. Or perhaps we lack the faith to believe that something might actually grow if we plant some seed. We have many reasons and excuses, but the mystery and miracle of it is that when we plant seeds in the ground, very often something grows! When we plant nothing, every single time we get nothing.
2. Once the seed sprouts into a tiny little plant, it needs daily nourishment and tender care to thrive. This is very obvious, but so neglected in our churches and ministries. It is wonderful, beautiful when a new life is born – when someone is saved. But if you let those little seedlings sprout up in the starter containers, and then walk away before you get them into the ground where they can really take off – well, they are doomed to failure and death. They will be green for just a short time before they wither away and die. It is not enough to take someone to a big event where they hear the gospel and respond. We are dooming people to certain spiritual death – not to mention an unbalanced idea of what serving the Lord even is – if we do not take them by the hand and walk with them as they learn to serve and follow the Lord. We must help them learn how to grow, how to thrive, and how to be fruitful themselves. This, of course, takes a lot of time and commitment – so we must leave behind our selfish excuses and become willing to sacrifice our time and lives to build the Kingdom.
3. Once the seedlings are in the ground and growing into maturing plants, every thorn, vine and weed in the world will try to choke the life out of them each and every day. I think the thing that has surprised me the most about this garden would be the weeds. Where do they come from, and how in the world do they grow so fast? I mean, I can pull all the weeds in a certain corner of the plot, and two days later they are back and threatening to choke my plants. And that word is not an exaggeration – all of the weedy things in the ground really do that. At first, they look like any other green thing in your garden, but they soon reveal themselves to be sharp and thorny, and they all grow in the most invasive and gross manner. They wrap their tentacles around every living thing and would certainly choke the life out of everything if no one took the time to yank them out by the roots – frequently. Do you see the spiritual connection? We Christians often underestimate the desire of our Enemy – he really does want to strangle the life out of every believer – especially the new and tender ones who might be easier to catch. We have to watch out for them and take care of the young ones, not just every now and then, but regularly.
4. Healthy, vibrant, producing plants do not grow without daily, disciplined care. Once again, discipline is the key. If you want a healthy and thriving garden, you cannot tend to it for a day or two and then walk away for a week. Well, you can, but you will have to spend a lot of time working through the junk that you let slip in when you weren’t looking. As Christians, we need to learn and help others understand that walking with the Lord is not a Sunday-only or a Thursday night-only thing. When we say we lay our lives down, we mean every day, all of our life. To grow and flourish as a Christian, it takes daily discipline – in study, in prayer, in thought, in action, in communion with God and with others. It is not a here and there thing. It is everything.
I think there is such a beautiful poignancy to the fact that the amazing story of humanity begins and ends in the Lord’s garden. We too often settle for such a drab and pathetic imitation of what life really could be, when all the while God wants us to know and share His abundant and vibrant reality of fruitfulness.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Can it Really be that Simple?
I have been a Christian a long time now – more than half of my life, and long enough to see so many people give up on following Jesus. Jesus Himself never said that it was going to be too easy – many people find it very difficult to give up their own say in things and to surrender everything to Him. GK Chesterton said it best: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." (Chapter 5, What's Wrong With The World.) So true!
But being an effective follower of Christ is not impossible, nor is the way to become an effective follower of Christ a secret. One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is in the film National Treasure, when the character of Benjamin Gates finally realizes that he literally has been holding the key to the treasure the whole time. He looks at the lock on the wall and says, “Can it really be that simple?” The dialogue ends for a few minutes, and we see that yes, it was that simple as the key in his possession unlocked the door to a treasure far beyond anyone’s ability to imagine.
Yes, it is that simple! There are a few principles that we have learned along the way, and everyone who understands these things and applies them to their life has a much easier time resisting the schemes of the Enemy - who really would like to destroy each and every one of us. Not only do these principles help us resist falling into traps, they also open the door to real and abundant life – True Christianity. So many Christians who really love Jesus and want to serve Him never get past the drudgery of trying to follow a self-imposed list of do’s and don’ts. That is not at all what Jesus meant when He said abundant life! He wants to give you peace and joy and fullness – real life, full of hope and purpose – like the massive treasure chamber that stretches on and on at the end of National Treasure. As many people are wrapping up another school year and heading home for the summer, this seems like an ideal time to outline the three things it takes to make it and thrive as an effective Christian.
1. Real Friends – For those of you who have never gone back home for the summer as a believer, let me let you in on something that might surprise you… while some old friends are treasures, not all old friends are your real friends. When you begin the journey as a follower of Christ, you need some real help along the way. Real friends are the people who will walk along beside you as you all follow Christ together – people who will love you enough to tell you the truth and to redirect you if need be, but who will also encourage you as you seek to live how God asks you to live. Of course we don’t abandon our friends who are lost – hopefully they will see and hear what God has done in our lives and seek Him also. But we need to have real friends that will help us walk with the Lord. Friends who will lift you up and encourage you, who make you think with the great conversations you have together, who will be a reminder of the way you are striving to live. One hint: do not isolate yourself! Remember all of those gross Discovery Channel shows? Which antelope gets picked off by the lionesses first? Right, the sick and lonely one all by itself, off to the side. Don’t be that one! Please pick up your phone and call someone from your small group, come back up to a summer Chi Alpha meeting on Thursday nights, stay connected – and find a church to be a part of while you are home. Which leads us right up to the second thing every effective believer must have…
2. Real Responsibility – Have you ever noticed that when you go back to Mom’s house, you immediately regress to the 12 year-old version of yourself? You may have been the most responsible person in your whole dorm – great grades, part-time job, super small group leader, neatly folded laundry… but the moment you hit Mom’s house, you become a whiny, lazy baby? Well, that’s because you can! Your mom does everything for you out of sheer force of habit. But here is a news flash – you and I and Mom all know that it is kind of gross for a twenty year old to sleep until noon every day, to shove dirty dishes under the bed, and to wait until your mom does you laundry for you. There is something really wrong with that, right?! It is the same way in our walk with the Lord. We must have some real responsibility or we will not only stop growing, we will actually begin to regress. We must always be mindful of the people around us. It is no accident that you are rubbing shoulders with the people you find yourself around this summer. Minister to them, serve them, share your faith with them, love them. Do unto them as you would do unto the Lord. (This includes your family, of course - even your sister that you have fought with all of your life!) And please do not think that it is healthy to take a three month break from church. Find a church to be a part of near your home – if you are having trouble finding one, I would be so glad to help you. You will be a breath of fresh air to a pastor and congregation who think all young people have forsaken God altogether. Recognize your responsibility as a Christian to be salt and light to a hurting world everywhere you go. Make your summer count for the Kingdom!
3. A Real Devotional Life – This is so vital. I wish everyone in Christendom understood this principle, but most people just brush it aside as unnecessary. We must feed ourselves daily if we want to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. The basic elements of a healthy devotional life include prayer and study. Set some goals for yourself this summer. If your prayer life is currently nonexistent, then make a pledge to pray for 10 minutes every day. Write a list of people and things to pray for, and set to it. You will be amazed that once you do this for a few days, 10 minutes will just not be enough! Prayer seems difficult and maybe even boring until you really do it and find that you are not just talking to yourself – God is with you and He will speak to you. Also, foster an attitude of thankfulness throughout the day. God is so good, and often we miss hundreds of opportunities to recognize His faithfulness in our lives. Put your mind on Him all day, every day and it will change your life. Finally, take your mind and stretch it. Dig into the Bible this summer – maybe read the New Testament, or pick a section of the Old Testament to read – or just read the whole thing! Try reading the Bible using a commentary if you never have – your depth of understanding will be greatly increased. Or challenge yourself to read one or two of those books people around here are always talking about. Again, if you need suggestions, I would be glad to help you, or CS Lewis is always a great place to start (Narnia is awesome, but I am referring here to his non-fiction.) Stretch your mind – think deeply about the Lord. We are not called to be an ignorant and brainless body of believers; we can have the Mind of Christ!
Yes, it really is that simple. Do some serious self-evaluation on these three things, and take steps to remedy the areas in which you might be lacking. This doesn’t have to be a terrible summer that you wish you could forget – it can be the best summer of your life!
But being an effective follower of Christ is not impossible, nor is the way to become an effective follower of Christ a secret. One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is in the film National Treasure, when the character of Benjamin Gates finally realizes that he literally has been holding the key to the treasure the whole time. He looks at the lock on the wall and says, “Can it really be that simple?” The dialogue ends for a few minutes, and we see that yes, it was that simple as the key in his possession unlocked the door to a treasure far beyond anyone’s ability to imagine.
Yes, it is that simple! There are a few principles that we have learned along the way, and everyone who understands these things and applies them to their life has a much easier time resisting the schemes of the Enemy - who really would like to destroy each and every one of us. Not only do these principles help us resist falling into traps, they also open the door to real and abundant life – True Christianity. So many Christians who really love Jesus and want to serve Him never get past the drudgery of trying to follow a self-imposed list of do’s and don’ts. That is not at all what Jesus meant when He said abundant life! He wants to give you peace and joy and fullness – real life, full of hope and purpose – like the massive treasure chamber that stretches on and on at the end of National Treasure. As many people are wrapping up another school year and heading home for the summer, this seems like an ideal time to outline the three things it takes to make it and thrive as an effective Christian.
1. Real Friends – For those of you who have never gone back home for the summer as a believer, let me let you in on something that might surprise you… while some old friends are treasures, not all old friends are your real friends. When you begin the journey as a follower of Christ, you need some real help along the way. Real friends are the people who will walk along beside you as you all follow Christ together – people who will love you enough to tell you the truth and to redirect you if need be, but who will also encourage you as you seek to live how God asks you to live. Of course we don’t abandon our friends who are lost – hopefully they will see and hear what God has done in our lives and seek Him also. But we need to have real friends that will help us walk with the Lord. Friends who will lift you up and encourage you, who make you think with the great conversations you have together, who will be a reminder of the way you are striving to live. One hint: do not isolate yourself! Remember all of those gross Discovery Channel shows? Which antelope gets picked off by the lionesses first? Right, the sick and lonely one all by itself, off to the side. Don’t be that one! Please pick up your phone and call someone from your small group, come back up to a summer Chi Alpha meeting on Thursday nights, stay connected – and find a church to be a part of while you are home. Which leads us right up to the second thing every effective believer must have…
2. Real Responsibility – Have you ever noticed that when you go back to Mom’s house, you immediately regress to the 12 year-old version of yourself? You may have been the most responsible person in your whole dorm – great grades, part-time job, super small group leader, neatly folded laundry… but the moment you hit Mom’s house, you become a whiny, lazy baby? Well, that’s because you can! Your mom does everything for you out of sheer force of habit. But here is a news flash – you and I and Mom all know that it is kind of gross for a twenty year old to sleep until noon every day, to shove dirty dishes under the bed, and to wait until your mom does you laundry for you. There is something really wrong with that, right?! It is the same way in our walk with the Lord. We must have some real responsibility or we will not only stop growing, we will actually begin to regress. We must always be mindful of the people around us. It is no accident that you are rubbing shoulders with the people you find yourself around this summer. Minister to them, serve them, share your faith with them, love them. Do unto them as you would do unto the Lord. (This includes your family, of course - even your sister that you have fought with all of your life!) And please do not think that it is healthy to take a three month break from church. Find a church to be a part of near your home – if you are having trouble finding one, I would be so glad to help you. You will be a breath of fresh air to a pastor and congregation who think all young people have forsaken God altogether. Recognize your responsibility as a Christian to be salt and light to a hurting world everywhere you go. Make your summer count for the Kingdom!
3. A Real Devotional Life – This is so vital. I wish everyone in Christendom understood this principle, but most people just brush it aside as unnecessary. We must feed ourselves daily if we want to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. The basic elements of a healthy devotional life include prayer and study. Set some goals for yourself this summer. If your prayer life is currently nonexistent, then make a pledge to pray for 10 minutes every day. Write a list of people and things to pray for, and set to it. You will be amazed that once you do this for a few days, 10 minutes will just not be enough! Prayer seems difficult and maybe even boring until you really do it and find that you are not just talking to yourself – God is with you and He will speak to you. Also, foster an attitude of thankfulness throughout the day. God is so good, and often we miss hundreds of opportunities to recognize His faithfulness in our lives. Put your mind on Him all day, every day and it will change your life. Finally, take your mind and stretch it. Dig into the Bible this summer – maybe read the New Testament, or pick a section of the Old Testament to read – or just read the whole thing! Try reading the Bible using a commentary if you never have – your depth of understanding will be greatly increased. Or challenge yourself to read one or two of those books people around here are always talking about. Again, if you need suggestions, I would be glad to help you, or CS Lewis is always a great place to start (Narnia is awesome, but I am referring here to his non-fiction.) Stretch your mind – think deeply about the Lord. We are not called to be an ignorant and brainless body of believers; we can have the Mind of Christ!
Yes, it really is that simple. Do some serious self-evaluation on these three things, and take steps to remedy the areas in which you might be lacking. This doesn’t have to be a terrible summer that you wish you could forget – it can be the best summer of your life!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
He Really Means Everyone!
We just came from the awesome Tuesday night prayer meeting we’ve been having at the Chi Alpha building this semester, and tonight’s emphasis was on praying for our families. So, I know I said that my next entry would be on some practical ways to bring some more discipline into our lives, but I feel really stirred up to write a little testimony tonight. I promise I’ll get back to that discipline thought later.
Tonight we prayed for our families, and I know what a huge deal this is as a college student. Many people are like I was – I grew up in a home with parents who are Christian and who both come from a very strong Christian tradition, but I myself wasn’t paying any attention to the things of God at all – I was just living for myself. When my eyes were opened as a student, and I began to truly walk with the Lord, I began to see lots of things that I had never noticed before. Like that my sister, who also grew up in that same Christian house, was not living for God, either. And that my boyfriend’s parents and brother were not believers at all. Neither was his grandmother. I began to realize that many of the people I loved most in the world were not saved. And for the first time in my new walk with the Lord, I began to get a real burden for these people that I loved.
After a couple of years, we graduated and were married, and began to share the burden for our family members – by this time both of our siblings were married, too, and none of them were serving God. In our new-believer zealousness, we tried to convince our family members – at every possible opportunity - that they needed God, that they must accept Jesus. But, we soon found out that not too many people are argued into the Kingdom. In fact, both of my in-laws point blank told us that we must stop talking to them about Jesus – that was enough.
So, we decided that the only way to win them was to pray, and we began to pray in earnest for God to save our families. Oddly, prayer is often our last resort when it really ought to be the first! We cried and prayed for Eli’s Mom – that she would be surrounded by godly people who would really influence her. If we couldn’t talk to her about Jesus, maybe someone at work could. Well, within a few months of this new prayer direction, she changed jobs, and was put into an office with four Pentecostal men! And, her best friend was saved at an independent church. So suddenly, she was surrounded by people talking about the Lord all day long! She will tell you now that she started to read the Bible then just so she could prove all of us wrong – and it didn’t take her long at all to believe. She asked Eli if he would baptize her one morning when they met for breakfast, and he nearly choked! We were so excited.
Within the next year, my father-in-law, who is one of the kindest men on the planet, looked into the eyes of his first grandchild – our oldest daughter – and just then and there knew that God was real. He knelt at the altar in church very soon after that and gave his heart to the Lord. In another year or so, Eli had a very long talk with his grandmother one day, and led her to the Lord. He was also able to pray with his aunt who was on her deathbed in the hospital – God saved her that day, and He also healed her body of cancer! She lived 10 more years.
One by one, our siblings began to become involved in a church. We started to notice that our nieces and nephews were talking a lot about Sunday school and vacation Bible school, and that lots of Christian books were being passed around the whole family. My sister’s husband, who had never been to church at all growing up, was baptized, so were my husband’s brother and his wife. One by one, all of them have become believers – all of them are very actively involved in local churches. My oldest nephew gave me a CD last summer that he made for his youth group mission trip to the orphanages of Peru (my sister led the team) – it was full of some of the most awesome worship songs!
Now, in this last year or so, we are hearing from cousins all over the place who are serving God. One of Eli’s cousins was just ordained at Fellowship of the Woodlands. I went my Dad’s family reunion and realized that all of my first cousins are the real deal – they all have very strong marriages and families and are plugged into some great churches. In fact, my Dad and his siblings were reunited with one of their first cousins who they hadn’t seen in 60 years, and she is a Spirit filled, super Christian!
If that isn’t enough to encourage you, here’s something even cooler. My mother-in-law, the one who told us to hush and who actually once said she didn’t believe that people needed to be born again, is not only saved, she is the founder of the Pregnancy Care Center in Huntsville. In the last ten years, hundreds and hundreds of babies have been saved from certain death by abortion, and so many of their mothers have become believers through this ministry!
God is just not kidding when He promises that you and your whole house will be saved!! In our individualistic society, we think so much in terms of me, me, me, but God is thinking about the whole family. He wants all of us to know Him. Tonight, my friend Robinson made the beautiful point that we who know Him first in a family are not somehow better than the rest of our families. No – we are saved because of God’s great grace! He has somehow chosen us to fill the great role as ambassador to the rest of our family. We hold the honor of praying for them and ministering to them, and of living a solid and consistent witness before them.
So, please be encouraged when you read this! Eli and I have been believers for 18 years, and in that time just about all of both of our families are saved – we are just holding out for a few more cousins (but it won’t be long!). We have quite a few loved ones who have gone on to heaven before us, and the entire course of all of our kids’ and grandkids’ lives has been changed for eternity!
God is real. His promises are real. Commit yourself to pray earnestly and consistently for your family – don't give up just because you might not see anything just yet. Be faithful to pray for your family, and God, who is faithful and just, will bring them in – everyone!
Tonight we prayed for our families, and I know what a huge deal this is as a college student. Many people are like I was – I grew up in a home with parents who are Christian and who both come from a very strong Christian tradition, but I myself wasn’t paying any attention to the things of God at all – I was just living for myself. When my eyes were opened as a student, and I began to truly walk with the Lord, I began to see lots of things that I had never noticed before. Like that my sister, who also grew up in that same Christian house, was not living for God, either. And that my boyfriend’s parents and brother were not believers at all. Neither was his grandmother. I began to realize that many of the people I loved most in the world were not saved. And for the first time in my new walk with the Lord, I began to get a real burden for these people that I loved.
After a couple of years, we graduated and were married, and began to share the burden for our family members – by this time both of our siblings were married, too, and none of them were serving God. In our new-believer zealousness, we tried to convince our family members – at every possible opportunity - that they needed God, that they must accept Jesus. But, we soon found out that not too many people are argued into the Kingdom. In fact, both of my in-laws point blank told us that we must stop talking to them about Jesus – that was enough.
So, we decided that the only way to win them was to pray, and we began to pray in earnest for God to save our families. Oddly, prayer is often our last resort when it really ought to be the first! We cried and prayed for Eli’s Mom – that she would be surrounded by godly people who would really influence her. If we couldn’t talk to her about Jesus, maybe someone at work could. Well, within a few months of this new prayer direction, she changed jobs, and was put into an office with four Pentecostal men! And, her best friend was saved at an independent church. So suddenly, she was surrounded by people talking about the Lord all day long! She will tell you now that she started to read the Bible then just so she could prove all of us wrong – and it didn’t take her long at all to believe. She asked Eli if he would baptize her one morning when they met for breakfast, and he nearly choked! We were so excited.
Within the next year, my father-in-law, who is one of the kindest men on the planet, looked into the eyes of his first grandchild – our oldest daughter – and just then and there knew that God was real. He knelt at the altar in church very soon after that and gave his heart to the Lord. In another year or so, Eli had a very long talk with his grandmother one day, and led her to the Lord. He was also able to pray with his aunt who was on her deathbed in the hospital – God saved her that day, and He also healed her body of cancer! She lived 10 more years.
One by one, our siblings began to become involved in a church. We started to notice that our nieces and nephews were talking a lot about Sunday school and vacation Bible school, and that lots of Christian books were being passed around the whole family. My sister’s husband, who had never been to church at all growing up, was baptized, so were my husband’s brother and his wife. One by one, all of them have become believers – all of them are very actively involved in local churches. My oldest nephew gave me a CD last summer that he made for his youth group mission trip to the orphanages of Peru (my sister led the team) – it was full of some of the most awesome worship songs!
Now, in this last year or so, we are hearing from cousins all over the place who are serving God. One of Eli’s cousins was just ordained at Fellowship of the Woodlands. I went my Dad’s family reunion and realized that all of my first cousins are the real deal – they all have very strong marriages and families and are plugged into some great churches. In fact, my Dad and his siblings were reunited with one of their first cousins who they hadn’t seen in 60 years, and she is a Spirit filled, super Christian!
If that isn’t enough to encourage you, here’s something even cooler. My mother-in-law, the one who told us to hush and who actually once said she didn’t believe that people needed to be born again, is not only saved, she is the founder of the Pregnancy Care Center in Huntsville. In the last ten years, hundreds and hundreds of babies have been saved from certain death by abortion, and so many of their mothers have become believers through this ministry!
God is just not kidding when He promises that you and your whole house will be saved!! In our individualistic society, we think so much in terms of me, me, me, but God is thinking about the whole family. He wants all of us to know Him. Tonight, my friend Robinson made the beautiful point that we who know Him first in a family are not somehow better than the rest of our families. No – we are saved because of God’s great grace! He has somehow chosen us to fill the great role as ambassador to the rest of our family. We hold the honor of praying for them and ministering to them, and of living a solid and consistent witness before them.
So, please be encouraged when you read this! Eli and I have been believers for 18 years, and in that time just about all of both of our families are saved – we are just holding out for a few more cousins (but it won’t be long!). We have quite a few loved ones who have gone on to heaven before us, and the entire course of all of our kids’ and grandkids’ lives has been changed for eternity!
God is real. His promises are real. Commit yourself to pray earnestly and consistently for your family – don't give up just because you might not see anything just yet. Be faithful to pray for your family, and God, who is faithful and just, will bring them in – everyone!
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