Myth: “If I commit my life to God, he’ll make me a missionary to Africa.”

Tags

Africa, CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, FEAR, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, Mike Yaconelli, RELIGION

I had copied and pasted this a couple of months ago and didn’t credit the source. From the looks of it, I think it came from here.  But just know that I so resonated with the sentiment. Maybe you will, too.

Jeremiah 29:11

I had the dream again last night. I’m walking down the aisle of my church, but there’s no wedding march playing (sigh), just the off-tune ramblings of the church organist struggling through another verse of “Just As I Am.” A preacher is there waiting for me, and so is my mother, sister and third-grade teacher, Mrs. Boulter. (Remember, this is a dream.) It’s at the end of a revival service. The preacher asks those who want to “commit themselves wholeheartedly to God’s purposes for their lives” to come to the front of the church. In my dream, I tell the preacher I am ready to do whatever God wants me to do. Everyone is so happy. Mrs. Boulter is happy. I’m happy. The organist is happy.

louris.yamaguchi / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The next scene, however, is something altogether different. It’s nighttime. And I’m stumbling around inside this primitive hut with a mosquito net wrapped around my head and body, blindly swiping at insects with a gigantic King James Bible. I try to scream, but it’s useless. A small town girl from Ohio has turned into an unwitting missionary. In the middle of Africa. And I’m miserable. I wake up the same way every time—drenched in sweat, with the sheets twisted around my head, clutching the phonebook.

I know it’s only a dream. Still, I’ve heard the stories. If you “give it all up to God,” something terrible will happen to you to test your faith and see if you’re really a good Christian. It would be just my luck to have to quit my job and leave my family so God can ship me off to Africa to be a missionary. And I’ve never even been outside Ohio.

I’m a Christian. I want to be totally, unapologetically obedient to God. But if I give God my entire life, I’m afraid he’ll do something extreme to prove a point. He might take away my boyfriend to see which one I love more—”him or Him”? Worse yet, what if something happens to my family because I said God could “have it all”? My mom will get cancer. Or my best friend will be killed in a car wreck. (You know, those things you never say around the donut table in Sunday school, but they’re legitimate fears.)

I love God. And sometimes I’m this close to giving him everything. But in order to prove my love for God, I feel like I have to do something drastic. And I’m not ready for that yet.

—Kate

Let’s be honest—most of us are afraid of God. And we should be. He’s the all-powerful King of the universe. In comparison, we are helplessly powerless. But because we fear him, we hold back from him a few things we feel we can’t live without, afraid that he’ll strip them from us. A relationship. A job. A standard of living. Health. Dreams. It’s scary to know that God wants what’s best for us—because it may come at a price.

Anyone who’s familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac knows that sometimes God asks us to give him what we’re clutching protectively to our chests. What if God asked you to give up what’s most dear to you? What would you do? How would you react? The danger is camping out in that line of thinking. If you continually live in fear of God and what he will do if you surrender your life to him, you likely won’t surrender. The Bible teaches, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

God’s will is always tied to who he is. (Read that again.) The rumor that God is a sadist in the sky, waiting for some unsuspecting woman to give her life to him just so he can toy with her, is a twisted myth. That’s not how the Bible describes God. It’s not his nature.

Instead of fearing him, if we believe he is a loving God, we will be convinced all his plans for us will be full of love and for our good. If we trust the Father, we will trust his plans for us … even if they take us through difficult times, down roads we wouldn’t otherwise choose or even to the “Africas” we fear the most. Life with God may not always be “safe,” as we’d define it; but he will always, always be good to us. Our lives are in good hands.

“The real issue in life is not the search for God’s will; it is the search for God. The issue in faith is not knowing what God is doing, rather it is knowing that God knows what he is doing. The issue of faith is seeking God’s presence, not God’s plan for my life, because there is no plan outside of my knowing him.”

—Mike Yaconelli

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

See also

Psalm 34:8; Psalm 84:11; Philippians 1:6

Photo credit: louris.yamaguchi / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The Gift of Prophecy

Reblogged from The Beausejour Pulpit:

The Gift of Prophecy:

“Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy...But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.” (1 Corinthians 14:1,3-5).

Read more… 570 more words

We Are at War

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, DIVINE PROTECTION, FAITH, FULL ARMOR OF GOD, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, John Eldredge, LOVE, SPIRITUAL WARFARE

I’ve been slapped in the face with that fact this week, and it took me a while to remember that.  I’ve been negligent about praying for protection of some very important relationships, thus lulled into lethargy about it. I’ve bought into the “it’s not me, it’s them” mentality, unable to see the big ole plank in my eye, and quick to think I have the right to be offended, hurt and that I’m right and they’re wrong, etc. And this morning, I had a revelation about it.

This week, I’ve experienced major conflict and discord within important relationships: family, work and a vital team at church – the pastoral search committee. ALL THIS WEEK! Coincidence? I’m thinking there’s a praise in there. I’m thinking we MUST BE CLOSE to doing God’s will in the committee. I’m thinking the enemy is trying to stir up trouble, not only there, but within our personal lives, to distract us. To crush us. To discourage us. To steal and kill and destroy.

After I thought about that this morning, I opened an email devotional & guess what I found for today?  I just LOVE it when God gives me a GC!  

Below is the actual devotional and this is the link: http://www.ransomedheart.com/daily-reading/we-are-war

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)Have you ever wondered why Jesus married those two statements? Did you even know he spoke them at the same time? I mean, he says them in one breath. And he has his reasons. By all means, God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. Why won’t we face this? I know so few people who will face this. The offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it, because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.

There is something set against us.

We are at war.

I don’t like that fact any more than you do, but the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it through to the life we do want. This is not Eden. You probably figured that out. This is not Mayberry, this is not Seinfeld’s world, this is not Survivor. The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death. I am sorry if I’m the one to break this news to you: you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth.

 Where did you think all this opposition was coming from?

 Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

Lord, You are so amazing. Thank you for your infinite grace, mercy, love and patience for your “stiff-necked people.” Forgive me for my oblivion to the snares of the enemy and my heart being shut to extending that same grace, mercy, love and patience to my brothers and sisters that you’ve extended to me. Thank you for showing me the plank in my eye. I ask that you send your angels to fight this battle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Protect our relationships with each other from discord and by the authority in Christ, help us to fight and flee the accuser of the brethren. May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

Unplug and Be Refreshed

Tags

BLESSING, CHRISTIANITY, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, PEACE, Psalm 23, Sabbath, Ten Commandments, TRUST

English: An image of Psalm 23 (King James’ Version), frontispiece to the 1880 omnibus printing of The Sunday at Home. Scanned at 800 dpi. Français : Illustration du Psaume 23 (version autorisée par le roi Jacques), en frontispice de l’édition omnibus du Sunday at home. Version numérisée à 800 dpi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the reflection I wrote for yesterday’s sermon. Now I just need to COMPLETELY take it heart and follow it.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself lying cushioned by a velvety green blanket of grass under a sky painted the most perfect shade of blue, with the occasional white cloud billowing by. Feel the soft, gentle breeze lightly brushing against your skin. Hear the tranquil murmuring of a nearby brook as it caresses the rocks. Lazily watch the path of a butterfly as it floats along its path. Empty your mind of everything except the pleasure and experience of this moment right now. Be refreshed.

That is the mental image I always have of the first verses in Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” (NIV) Do you long to experience that? I DO!

We are on this quest to DO. To ACCOMPLISH. To be EFFICIENT, ACTIVE, DILIGENT and INDUSTRIOUS. On our vacations or days off, we feel the need to fill them with activities, to be productive, even if they are fun activities. If we slow down or try to relax, we may feel guilty because we are “wasting time.”  I think we’re being lied to by an enemy that doesn’t want us to be refreshed.  Are you BUSY? Being Under Satan’s Yoke?

Why did God include “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” in the Ten Commandments? As a burden or another rule to follow? Or did He give us a gift? A precious gift of restoration. A time to come to Him and allow Him to refresh us with His Living Water.  Do you know that deep satisfying feeling as you drink ice-cold water when you’re parched with thirst? We feel replenished, freshened, rejuvenated, revitalized. That’s how it should feel if we let Him quench our soul-thirst. If we allow Him to refresh us.

He knew our tendency was to STRIVE and try to do it on our own! Re-read those verses in Psalm 23. He MAKES me lie down, He LEADS, and THEN He REFRESHES. So this needed and vital Sabbath rest is partially about “unplugging” from our physical work because we are tired. And tired disciples are ineffective disciples. But it’s also about “unplugging” from striving on our own.  It’s about “unplugging” from whatever is taking us away from those green pastures and quiet waters. It’s about “unplugging” from the world’s pull on us. It’s about “unplugging” from the lie that we have to DO because if we don’t, then it won’t get done. It’s about relinquishing our control and allowing Him to do His work in us and through us.  It’s about being still and quiet and listening to the One who loves us. It’s about “plugging” into the One who can do all things.  Even restore and refresh us. And then we are able to find rest in His promises.

Related articles

• Tired by Tuesday? (smoothersailing.wordpress.com)
• How to Stop (billhogan77.wordpress.com)
• Monday Morning Musings: Remember the Sabbath (cindypowell.wordpress.com)

The Bible Series - on The History Channel - March 2013

Reblogged from New Life:

• 

I am so excited about the new Bible mini-series that is going to be aired on The History Channel Sunday nights in March. Here's a brief overview of this project:

The Bible is an upcoming television mini-series, produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, which is based on the Bible. It begins March 3, 2013, airing weekly in primetime on History Channel, culminating on March 31.

Read more… 132 more words, 1 more video

Been hearing really good things about this series. This Sunday night is the first episode.

It’s Easy as ABC

Tags

BLESSING, CHRISTIANITY, CONFIDENCE, FAITH, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, JOY, LOVE

A lthough things are not perfect B ecause of trial or pain C ontinue in thanksgiving. D o not begin to blame, E ven when the times are hard. F ierce winds are bound to blow. G od is forever able. H old on to what you know;       I magine life without His love, J oy would cease to be. K eep thanking Him for all the things L ove imparts to thee. M ove out of “Camp Complaining.” N o weapon that is known, O n earth can yield the power P raise can do alone. Q uit looking at the future; R edeem the time at hand; S tart every day with worship. T o “thank” is a command U ntil we see Him coming V ictorious in the sky. W e’ll run the race with gratitude; X alting God most high. Y es, there’ll be good times and yes some will be bad, but…

Z ion waits in glory…where none are ever sad!

Author unknown.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Love Yourself

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, GOD, Great Commandment, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, LOVE

Came across this article on the Proverbs 31 Ministries site. I thought it really dovetailed with my Valentine’s Day post and my struggle with feeling loveable to God.

By Annie Downs

It’s fairly popular right now in entertainment and media to preach the message “Love Yourself!” The world tells us to raise our self-esteem, to like ourselves more. It’s not that they are wrong, I think that is a great message. But the question they don’t answer is why we should do it. There is this funny verse in the Bible that we read all the time, but I wonder how often we really know it. It has stung me a time or two, as one who wrestles with loving all of me, when I realize what it is really asking me to do.

Matthew 22: 34-40

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I remember being a junior in high school and my mom was giving me a ride home from soccer practice. I hadn’t talked much to my parents about the issues that were swirling around in my head, so it surprised me when she brought it up.

My mind was full of evil whispers of how unlovely I was, how much I needed to change, and how God had messed up when He made me. I heard these things in my head, I didn’t know I could call them lies, so I let them fester and grow until they were a tangled mess suffocating my soul. And I lived like that, in the self-hate, for years.

Why didn’t I just talk about it? It’s a question I’ve rolled around in my mind for years. In the end, I think the truth is that I didn’t talk about those things in my head because I didn’t know that I had a choice to think of them as anything but truth. It is the classic story of someone eating a mud pie because they didn’t realize they were sitting in the yard of a bakery.

We took the curve a mile from my house and I remember watching the houses pass as Mom said, “how do you think you can love your friends if you don’t love yourself?”

I was puzzled. ‘Who cares if I love me?’ I thought. I remember genuinely considering that my mother did NOT know what she was talking about- no teenager ever does.

She didn’t push me, she just let it mull over in my mind. I don’t know that I even answered her, or if I did it was something teen-angsty about “Uh, Mom, you don’t even understand how much I love my friends and I love God and that’s all that matters.” And then I probably got out of the minivan and took my sweaty soccer self and sat on her beautiful couch waiting for her to cook dinner for our family.

That conversation has stuck with me for over fifteen years. And as I grew up, and God rescued me from many of those lies and taught me how to fight for truth, I realized (gasp) that my mother was right.

While we are capable of loving others even when we are drowning in self-hate, there is a freedom in love that comes with following the second greatest commandment.

Do you love yourself? Do you see yourself the way God sees you? Do you recognize how absolutely loveable you are? Because when you do, when you see all that truth, you can’t help loving your neighbor.

To love someone is to believe in them. When someone believes in you, it changes everything – how you carry yourself, how you treat others, how you live day after day.

The beautiful thing here? God loves you. God believes in YOU. And when you see how truly amazing He thinks YOU are, it’s hard to resist loving yourself too.

Another interesting thing about this passage of scripture is that Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. I think that is fascinating. He is answering their questions, but there is also something about how Jesus always spoke truth to the His specific audience.

Maybe I’m  over-analyzing, but isn’t it true that sometimes those of us who are seen as the best behaved Christians are the ones who are struggling the most with self-approval? Those poor Pharisees (I’m not being sarcastic- I do feel a bit sorry for them, maybe because I am far too similar to them), working so hard to follow all the rules and maybe despising themselves a bit when they made a mistake. Yes, they were trying to trap Jesus, but maybe part of that motivation was they were sick of seeing Jesus obey and love so freely when they were working so hard. And I’ll bet it was frustrating.

That was me. I didn’t love me. Life felt hard. But I worked at it and worked at it, trying to conjure up faith and good works and earn the love that was already mine. And I was frustrated with others who made mistakes but still felt loved and accepted.

The thing about Jesus is that He always knew how He was loved by the Father. So He was free to love. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom to love and be loved.

For us, that means freedom to make mistakes because they don’t affect how God feels about you. Freedom from self-hate and freedom to love others well. To obey God’s commandment, in this verse, is to love yourself.

My prayer for you today is that as you seek to love God and love others well, that you will see the call to that third person in the commandment- yourself. You are free to love God, to receive love from Him, and to love yourself. And as you do that, you will love those around you in a freer and deeper way than you can imagine.

Annie F. Downs is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. She received her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Georgia, and became an elementary school teacher. Now an author, Downs uses those same skills from the classroom to engage, entertain and educate her readers. Her first book, Perfectly Unique, is now in stores.  You can connect with her at www.Annieblogs.com.

Apologizing for the Language in this Video in Advance….

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, HBO, Newsroom, PERSPECTIVE, United States

I came across this trailer for “a new HBO series The Newsroom explaining why America’s Not the Greatest Country Any Longer… But It Can Be.”

Wow…..but please be forewarned about the language. Let me know what you think about this.

Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee?

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, GOD, PERSPECTIVE, SPIRITUAL WARFARE

This is going around Facebook….something to think about….

Grandmother says… Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee; “Which are you?”

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, “Tell me what do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft.She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked. “What’s the point,grandmother?”

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity–boiling water–but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her granddaughter.

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

—AUTHOR UNKNOWN —

The Riddle of the Red Heifer OR Pondering Ashes Part 3

Tags

Israelite, Jerusalem, Red heifer, Temple Institute

Red Heifer (Photo credit: peretzp)

Continuing with the red heifer and its ashes in Numbers 19 as I began in Part 1 and more specifically Part 2….

The entire heifer, without blemish and never having been under a yoke, was to have been taken outside the camp to be slaughtered in the presence of the priest, but not BY the priest.  The entire animal was to be burned, and the priest was to add “cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool” to the fire.  The ashes were then to be kept in a ceremonially clean place and added to “cleansing water” for purification. Verse 11 tells us “They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin.” But specifically the other verses speak of removing defilement incurred through contact with the dead. Ashes and water. Dead and living.

This site (click here) explains about the antifungal and antibacterial agents that were present when the red heifer was burned with “cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff.”  Basically, burning the entire animal rendered fat also so the animal ashes and wood ashes mixed with water became soap! The cedar wood and hyssop smelled nice plus had the antiseptic qualities necessary to make an antibacterial soap! But it doesn’t address any spiritual significance to this law.

The mystery deepens.

Then I found this article by Chuck Missler that addresses PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE: “It is this water, the Water of Purification, which is required by the Israelites today. It is needed to “purify” today’s Levitical priesthood and to “purify” the temple mount in preparation for the building of the Third Temple.”

What?!?!?

And guess what is needed for this Water of Purification? Uh, huh. A new red heifer’s ashes to be mixed with the OLD ashes that according to Jewish tradition “all the heifers are sanctified through Moses’ original heifer, and a portion of those ashes were put away for the future sanctification of Israel. ” And guess what? There are people trying to breed this red heifer.

Other articles I found such as this one (scroll down its page) from a few years ago discuss this process, although none of these have been found to have been acceptable.

And guess what else? The Mishnah or Oral Law (read about that here) holds that there have only been 9 red heifers up until the destruction of the Second Temple “… and the tenth red heifer will be accomplished by the king, the Messiah; may he be revealed speedily, Amen, May it be God’s will.“ The great Rabbi Maimonides

Amazing, isn’t it? Of course, I haven’t even addressed the issue of any relationship of the red heifer to Jesus….and I found several sites about that, too. If you’re interested, you’ll need to look those up yourselves.

Well, well. It’s been quite a foray for me. From being intrigued by a weird-to-me sacrifice to a mind-blowing revelation!!!!! As I wrote about here, my theme verse for 2012 was Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Or as the Amplified Bible says: “Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).” I’d say so.

There is a very interesting site called The Temple Institute that “ is a non-profit educational and religious organization located in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Institute is dedicated to every aspect of the Biblical commandment to build the Holy Temple of G-d on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. “  I had heard that the utensils, etc. have been made or in the process of being made, and it seems The Temple Institute has been the guiding force. It has an extensive section on the red heifer.

I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts about this!