True Obedience Brings the Promises of God

I have been reading Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets, a powerful and challenging book.  I quote him (at length as what he says is so amazingly eloquent):

"Whether or not God directly controls every event in the life a Christian can be answered by stating that the basic laws of sowing and reaping, cause and effect, individual responsibility and the free will aren't negated when we come to Christ. All Promises from God are attached to conditions-governing principles. Most, if not all, of these conditions involve responsibility on our part. Protection is no exception.
      Most of us don't like that. It threatens us and somehow weakens God in our minds to imply He's not in total control of everything. And the majority are greatly offended if anything is taught implying that a failure to receive protection, provision, healing, and answer to prayer or anything else from God could be our fault...
     Why are we offended and opposed to a teaching that says our unbelief kept us from receiving something when so often the Bible says if believe and do not doubt or waver we'll receive (see Matt. 17:20, 21:21; Mark 11:22-24; Jas. 1:6,7)?
     Why are we offended when it is implied that our inability to persevere created lack when the Bible says that we "through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:12)?
     Why are we confused or angry when it is suggested that our not doing something caused failure when the Bible says if we're "willing and obedient" we'll eat the good of the land (Isa. 1:19, KJV)?
      As many as 80 percoent of those who consider themselves born again don't tithe, thereby opening themselves to a curse. Yet they are offended when someone implies that their lack of provision might be their own fault (see Mal. 3:8-12).
     We don't forgive and still hae the gall to think God will hear and answer our prayers (see Mark 11:25, 26).
     Often we eat poorly, don't exercise and abuse our bodies in other ways. Then we blame our sicknesses on God's will...
     We know faith comes through hearing and meditating on God's Word (see Rom. 10:7), and most of us do very little of that. But let someone imply that we didn't receive a promise because of unbelief and we're irate."  Thanks to Dutch for speaking the truth!

I submit that we prefer to lie to ourselves and believe that God somehow supersedes all our poor choices and complacencies and then sovereignly overrides our decisions in order to produce the best in our lives. That ain't biblical truth though, folks!

Someone once said, "Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain.  The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be."

Daniel Kolenda wrote, "As long as the enemy can keep the people of God convinced that they are powerless against the circumstances they face, their impact on earth with be anemic."

So let us own our part in obedience to God's Word, and we will "reap a harvest if we do not give up (Gal. 6:9b)."

Quest: 21 Days to Change the Course of Our Nation

I am on a quest: a 21 day prayer and Daniel "fast" (very similar to a strict Vegan diet :) to impact the course of our country. During this time period I have also given up most forms of entertainment so as to focus on praying and seeking God, not only for the upcoming election, but also for revival in our country: For the United States to turn from our gods of "enlightenment," money, entertainment, worship of the environment, prestige, etc., to the roots of our founding: One Nation Under God.

Last night my husband and I watched the movie, "2016: Obama's America."  I invite you to watch it, no matter what political party you support.  It is incredibly well done and enlightening, and contrary to what you may think, it doesn't slam Obama. It reveals the roots of his life philosophy, his political agenda, and what my friend Jody said, "...helps explain [his] unusual [presidential] behavior."  It helped me to understand why he doesn't mind exponentially increasing our national debt and deficit. Why he is sympathetic to Muslims and terrorists. Why he is not a fan of America.

Do you truly want a government that will bankrupt your children? That will saddle your grandchildren with a debt that will break them?   Do you want the United States to be vulnerable to the terrorists of the world?  Do you truly want a world-wide level playing field? Have you thought about the consequences of your voting choice this upcoming election, or are you following the lemmings off the edge of the cliff?

Character Matters

Character, rather than intentions, is what separates the men from the boys, so to speak. It's what separates the doers from the dreamers, the givers from the merely sentimental.  I have been reading about the lives of old time Christians-the revivalists who changed the world. And though all of them were doers and sold out to Christ, some had major character struggles that eventually led to their ruin. I'm not talking about people who slipped up and then repented, but those with  glaring personal flaws that tainted their ministries.

I've ruminated on why some people have weaker characters than others, and I believe it comes down to the practice of excusing sin.  When we allow and excuse the little sins they lead to bigger ones, until eventually, our character is shot full of holes. These holes fall mainly into the category of the sins of the flesh: lust, gluttony, addictions, pride and the like.  We become self-serving rather than God-serving.  If I excuse the sin of gossip, I am watering the seedling of criticism, causing it to grow and flourish into a tree of judgmentalism.  If, however, I nip that sprout of gossip in the bud, I develop the muscle of self-control and can resist the temptation of idle chatter. So goes the sin of allowing the eye to wander lustfully, which eventually, if unchecked, progresses from adultery, pornography, and finally to the prison of sexual addiction. With addiction comes demonically entrapment, and that, boys and girls, is much harder to escape than the beginning sin of lust.   Selfishness, anger, self-pity, dishonesty, gluttony, drunkenness, drug use, etc. follow this same pattern.

Song of Solomon 2:15 says, "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom."  To me this metaphor urges us to squelch the small sins in our lives before they rage out of control.  Confess and repent quickly, don't tolerate, excuse or nurture character flaws.  We don't have the luxury of laziness or self-indulgence. Our lives don't belong to us but to the KING!

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

Living Like We Mean It.

I just got back from a Washington funeral for a young friend, taken from us at the tender age of 18. It brought home the reality that none of us knows how long we have left on this planet, how long we're here to grace the world with our lives. I'm not being facetious or arrogant, but speaking the truth: We ARE fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14); we are workmanships of our Creator, thus we are precious and necessary, but our days as as grass: short and unknown.

 Ephesians 2:10 says: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." So we are powerfully created and wonderfully equipped, yet here for such a brief time; some of us even briefer.

Psalm 103:15-16 reads "As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more."

 Rather than be depressed about life's brevity, Jason Gray puts it like this in the song, "Good to be Alive:"

Hold on Is this really the life I'm living? 
Cause I don't feel like I deserve it 
Every day that I wake, 
Every breath that I take You've given 

 I wanna live like there's no tomorrow 
Love like I'm on borrowed time 
It's good to be alive I won't take it for granted 

I won't waste another second 
All I want is to give you 
A life well lived, to say "thank You...thank You"

Jesus gave us the great commission in Matthew 28: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Here's to not wasting another second.

Dedicated to Taylor Stacy:  "Good to be Alive" ...A man who lived like there was tomorrow!

A Generation of Fire

My generation, the Baby Boomers (born from approximately 1946-1964, according to Wikipedia), has an attitude problem.  As a collective, we are suspicious of anything the younger generation does, even God-related. We don't like their clothes, their tattoos and piercings, their music, their passion, or their anointing (ironically, some of us were radicals during the '60's hippee generation!). We are much like King David's wife, Michal, when she despised him for "dancing with all his might"(half-naked, I might add) before the Lord as the Israelites brought home the ark of the Lord (2 Sam 6:14-16).  Michal earned barrenness for her contempt. I submit we are earning spiritual barrenness for our contempt for the young Spirit-filled believers.

Smith Wigglesworth nailed it on the head when he said, "I believe you need to have something more than smoke to touch people; you need to be a burning light for that.  His ministers must be flames of fire...I tell you, a flame of fire can do anything. Things change in the fire. This is Pentecost."

My generation prefers smoke to fire. We like to talk about God, spend our regulated quiet times with the Lord, busy ourselves with Christian deeds, get together for church potlucks and fellowship, but we don't like the messy power of God. We want to be catered to. We are workaholics, so we don't mind rushing about like Marthas, but we don't like the generations of Marys who sit at the feet of Jesus and ask Him what they should do.  We want them to listen to us.  To model themselves after us.  To go to college, get a good job and have a 401-K plan. To be conservative and "balanced" in their approach to God-not to be wild and embarrassing.  We are much poorer for this attitude. While the next generation of fire-breathers completely sells out to God's call, we responsibly go to work, drive our new cars and decorate our already beautiful homes. We are self-absorbed while they are God-absorbed, and if that isn't enough of a discrepancy, we then criticize them for impractical and irresponsible living.

I'm deserting my generation and becoming an honorary member of Generation Y-those who will usher in the next revival. Hope they'll have me.