With Friends Like Christians, Who Needs Enemies?

When I survey my life, the biggest hurts I've endured have been at that hands of other Christians.  The times I've been been stabbed in the back the most and maligned the worst have also been at the hands of other Christians.

So it makes me ask, "With friends like Christians, who needs enemies?"

With so much wrong in the world, why do we have so much time to criticize each other for such simple things?  It's not to say that Christians are always above reproach, but we spend the majority of our time trying to tear one another down, if not with politics then by denominational discord.

If, after reading the same Bible, we can't be on one accord, how can we expect to help draw others to God?  If, after attending church from week to week, our hearts remain hard and callous towards those who differ from us, how can we say that we truly love God?

Love is not expressed with thinly veiled hatred or poorly disguised bigotry.  Love does not lift up oneself in order to cast judgment on another.  Love does not claim to pray while spewing criticisms in private.

So what's my point?  Christians need to be on the same page.  We need to remove ourselves from the equation and keep our eyes on Jesus.  Our ministries should model His, not the other way around.  We cannot bend Him to fit what we believe or what we want to be true.  Aligning our ways with His allows us to be on His page from His book.

We've been given an instruction Book for life.  We need only to read and allow His Spirit to help us apply it.

Sunshine and Rain

     As a transplanted Ohioan living in the South, I am well accustomed with myriad weather fluctuations.  From October until April, Ohio is blanketed with cloud cover more often than not.   I can remember those clouds invading the happy moments of my life as Fall approached and the long, sunny days of summer began to fade.  As the sunshine dwindled, so did my happy moods.

After studying biological rhythms in graduate school, I now realize that the fluctuation in my moods had a direct link to the extended lack of sunlight shining through the windows.  Without getting scientific on you, sunshine triggers happy things in our brain.  So why am I telling you this?  

Our part of the world has been gray and gloomy for days now.  We went for almost a week without sun, shrouded in a cover of rain and sleet.  My mood hit the skids pretty fast.  It's been years since I felt like this, and I was determined not to get sucked in.

This little initiative required much more work than I thought it would...

I gave myself pep talks daily, and asked God to help me not to allow my mood to reflect the weather patterns.  He prompted me to focus on the things that I could be thankful for.  That helped.  

Another truth I focused on was our need for rain.  Beats a drought, right?

But perhaps the biggest thing I realized was how happy I was when the sun peaked out from the clouds today.  The joy I felt went far beyond what it has in the past.  Of its own volition, a smile spread across my face.

In previous years, the sun was out so much that I had begun to take it for granted.  Isn't this so like us?  In good times, we grow complacent and often feel entitled.  But when the clouds of life encroach on our comfort and threaten to disrupt our well-laid plans, we balk.

So what's the moral of the story? Clouds help us to better bask in the the sun.  Troubles help us appreciate blessings.

What do you think?  How do you deal with clouds?

Rich and Satisfied

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/4309806528/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Today is a new day.  A new year.  Since God allowed me to see it, I realize that He still has work for me to do on this Earth.  I don't take it lightly.

I'm not afraid, but I sometimes feel inadequate and unworthy of the task.  Who am I?  I am a broken vessel. I am filled up with love for others but often too afraid to let them get close to me for fear of the pain they cause when I open up my heart and let them in.

The last year was filled with challenges.  Some were welcomed, but truly most of them weren't.

In this fresh year, I want to LIVE and BE, not just DO.  I have been on auto-pilot as life has been flying by.  I am starting to realize that there will always be clothes and dishes to wash.  Something will always require my attention, but I have a right to ENJOY each day.  That will not happen without deliberate efforts on my part.

So what are my plans for this year?  First, I plan to write more.  Second, I plan to have way more fun.  Third, I plan to fully embrace ALL of the things God wants me to do and take leaps of faith every chance I get.  I know there is more to life than this insane rat race.

He came to give me life, abundant life (John 10:10 NLT).  I am ready to live a rich and satisfying life, with joy overflowing from every part of me.

The cool thing is that I have control over this.  For all of us who love control, this is good news!  I can control my attitude and reign in my thoughts.  This will go a long way toward overflowing joy.  I can't always control my circumstances, and I definitely can't control others, but I can work on controlling me.

Will you join me?  How will you live a more richly satisfying life this year?  Share with me.

Survival Truths

When you ask God for something, do you really think He will answer you?  When you pray, do you believe He hears you?  When you call out to Him, do you think he really cares about what you're saying?

I admit that I sometimes lose sight of these truths when I am in the middle of a big crisis (or two).  Sometimes I whine and cry and ask why this or that is happening to me.  Sometimes I allow doubt to creep in and the devil to steal my peace from me.

One thing I love about God is that He is patient with me.  He patiently waits for me to refocus my attention where it's supposed to be: off of my problems and onto Him.  He forgives my lack of faith and holds me closely.

The Word reminds me that we will have problems, but we can take heart because He has already overcome the world.  May this Truth remind you as I am allowing it to remind me tonight.

No Such Thing as Freedom of Speech

As this political season heats up, I can feel my temperature rising.  I have never enjoyed election years, but so far, this one takes the cake.  The whining and mud-slinging are just plain annoying.

Oh, I'm not talking about the candidates, I'm referring to the voters.  There are those that take freedom of speech to new heights.  Our so-called freedom of speech is not meant to be a free-for-all of hate and disdain being volleyed back and forth like a shuttlecock.

Christians have a responsibility to share their views in ways that reflect Christ's love at all times.  This doesn't mean that we have to be soft on the ideals we hold dear, but we do need to consider our desired end result.  We should examine our hearts and motives carefully before jumping on a bad wagon or plastering our car bumpers with political paraphernalia.

Every word that comes out of our mouths has the potential to be a fiery dart.  Is it more important to point the lost to Christ or prove a fleeting point?   Freedom of speech may be a constitutional right, but is it a God-given right?  Scripture gives us many stipulations about the way we speak.  We don't have carte blanche.

We should stop deluding ourselves into believing that the world can't see through the thinly veiled hatred behind our words and deeds.  As the saying goes, "you catch more flies with honey..."  Not that people are flies, but you know what I mean.

So please, before you hop in your car and "eat mor chikin" or post your latest dig at "obamacare" or "r money", please ask God to give you the wisdom to love your neighbors first.  We have to make sure that we are not using God as a shield to hurt others or propagate our own twisted opinions.  The ultimate goal is to win another to Christ.  Let's not lose sight of that.

                                             "Speaking the truth in love..."  Ephesians 4:15

Temper-Fire Starter

When I started to ponder gentleness this morning, I wasn't sure what I wanted to write.  Then it occurred to me.  "A gentle response defuses anger..."  (Prov. 15:1 MSG)

I'm not sure why that was the first thing that popped into my head.  Well, maybe I am.  Maybe it's because I sometimes have a hard time with that; more often than I care to admit.

The problem is that I sometimes flip out when I am hurt or upset or stressed out, and I usually hurt the people I care about the most in the process.  Oh, I always feel terrible afterwards, but that doesn't undo the damage I've caused.

I've always been a bit rough around the edges.  It's primarily a defense mechanism that's been in place for as long as I can remember.  But, the rest of this verse says, "...but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire."  Wow.  Is that what I've been doing?  Perhaps.

So, I don't have any wise advice on this topic today because it's something I'm struggling with right now.  What I have is an earnest prayer that God will pluck out the non-gentle responses from me and replace them with words that lift up, inspire and promote peace.

If you sometimes falter in this area, feel free to borrow my little prayer.  May God make us all more gentle today.  Amen.

His Goodness, not Mine

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.  And I will live in the house of the Lord forever.  Amen.

While this is a mishmash of several different versions of Psalm 23:6, it's how it flowed out of my heart tonight.  I hope you're okay with that.

This is the verse that entered my mind when I was pondering the fruit of the spirit of goodness.

Since I am not good, I thought of God's goodness.  We are not born good, nor do we become good.  But in God's goodness, He has volunteered to share some of it with us.  He shines through us.  We are not good in anyway without Him.  So any "good" people see in me is His light shining through.  I can't take a bit of credit.

I'm just grateful that He's so good to me, even though I don't deserve it.

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