Monday, June 23, 2014

A Little Dab Will do (You in)

Seventy-seven percent of people in America claim to be affiliated with the Christian faith.  I find this statistic completely at odds with the absolute flavor of paganism our nation has adopted.  I base this statement on what calls to us, what captures our attentions, what things are near and dear to our nation's collective hearts.

Our country doesn't worship Jesus or even God; we revere the god of SELF. We are people who are far more concerned with material gain, comfort, entertainment and temporal happiness. We don't want the boat of our affluent (when compared to the rest of the world) way of life rocked. We want to dabble in a hodgepodge of religion; we want to paste on the badge of Christianity, meanwhile living in selfish abandonment to the pursuit of pleasure and fulfillment.  We worship our TV programs, our weekend adventures, our food, our right to do whatever we want, our entitlement to spend our money any way we want. We, as a nation, are pseudo Christians, God-followers in name only, whenever it's convenient and doesn't disrupt our plans, step on any toes, or render us unpopular with contemporary culture.

Pseudo Christians exude sophisticated tolerance and support Godless evil: abortion (disguised as "choice," the proliferation of sanctioned gay pride,  socialism, divorce (and subsequent broken families), and whatever else currently constitutes a modern world view.  Pseudo Christians don't regard the Word of God as their plumbline-it is too archiac, ancient and legalistic; surely humanism is much more sane and intelligent.

Then are those of us who claim we believe the Word of God, but we can't be bothered to know what it even says. And even worse, a segment of us actually do know what it says, but that somehow doesn't translate into obedience; somehow giving scripture lip service is enough.  If we ignore the holy, sovereign God long enough, our hearts become callused and numb to the Truth.

This floppy "faith" boils down to direct rebellion against the Almighty.  Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love Me, OBEY My Commands."  Denial is easier and much less demanding.  He also said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me," Matthew 16:24.  Denial of self is against our religion ("have it YOUR way," spouts Burger King).

Let's just create a man-made, palatable god, one who smiles indulgently down at us as we make choices that, after all, are our own business!  Our god-recipe produces a politically correct,  kinder and gentler god, one created in our own image, much better than the real, Holy, non-conformist God. Our new deity is tolerant, lenient, sympathetic and liable to wink at our little foibles (sins).

The trouble with this man-made God is that He is tame, under our control, and less powerful than we are, and herein lies the danger. How can we worship a god of our own shaping?  We are weak and fallible, created of flesh and bone, and we think we can come up with something better than the God of universe?  How arrogant of us!  We are the made, not the Maker.

I always chuckle at the ancient Israelites and how they actually thought the idols they fashioned with their own hands out of (REAL GOD-created) materials like rock and wood, would spring to some sort of powerful life and respond to their worship and prayers.  But we're no better. We surround ourselves with prestige, power, material stuff and the life WE choose, and wonder why we feel so empty and dissatisfied.  Jesus shunned the culturally "fulfilled" life, even to the extent of remaining single and chaste, wholeheartedly devoted to the Kingdom of God, laying down His life in death to buy our eternity. "He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin," Hebrews 11:25.

Our religion, in contrast, is modeled after the satanic snake, who said to Eve in the Garden, "Did God really say?"  After all, he couldn't possibly mean the hard words contained in scripture. No god could be so narrow minded. Yet Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it," Matthew 7:13-14.  Really?  Jesus was that intolerant?  Who does He think He is, putting limits on my life?  I'm an American; I do what I want." Ok, that's fine, but don't think you can label that Christianity.

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people," (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Relationship Between Thoughts, Words and FAITH

This will probably be a hard blog to swallow. It might offend and even possibly scare those who profess Christ, but my goal is to challenge each one of us (mainly ME!) to truly understand what the Word means in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things HOPED for, the evidence of things NOT [YET] seen."

What follows is a blog I read from a New Age woman I really respect, even though I totally disagree with her beliefs. And while her methods differ radically from mine in that she delves into the soulish "energy/true self" stuff, which I highly oppose, she does, however, hit on some valuable truths: that much, if not ALL of what we struggle with, IS spiritual ("For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12).

Rather than completely avoid anything that even smacks of Spiritism or the occult, we can rescue the baby from the bath water. Remember, Satan cannot CREATE, he can only POLLUTE what has already been created by ALMIGHTY God. God can use even secular and anti-Christ stuff to bring us truth; just as He used ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat in the desert (1 Kings 17).

I turn now to the aforementioned blog written by Melanie Tonia Evanst titled, "How To Empower Your Children and Protect Them...." [Read it, even though every Christian cell in your body revolts!]:

"What my true mission is however, in stark contrast to practical support, is the imparting of how energy works. That is why my suggestions and work is always about coming home to yourself – connecting to your true inner power and your ability to affect the world around you through tending to your own vibration. I wanted to really share that message today in regard to changing the torment we have regarding our children.

Firstly it was a story I just happened to stumble across, purportedly a real one, about a man whose son was bed-wetting. The story was about how this man was frustrated and upset each morning waking up to his son’s wet bed every morning, and how no matter what advice he took and what actions he implemented from child behavioural experts and doctors, nothing seemed to solve the problem. That was until someone told this man to change how he saw the situation. He took time out every day to visualise and deeply feel that his son was waking up with a dry bed, and how happy they both were that there had been this breakthrough. Within a few days of committing to this dedicated practice. That is exactly what started to happen and kept happening. The bed wetting stopped altogether.

This hit a very strong chord with me. Around the same time I had been watching a pile of Ester Hicks Law of Attraction DVDS. In one of the Abraham sessions a woman expressed how distressed she was about her daughter who was lost, destructive and irresponsible. What unfolded in that conversation with Abraham (channelled through Ester Hicks) was about to change my life and my parenting forever. It resonated so deeply with me that I felt it as absolute truth and knowing. The basis of that conversation was this: The focusing on the problem of how her daughter was being was simply holding that in place and manifesting more of it in the mother’s experience. Because the mother ‘saw’ and ‘felt’ her daughter as ‘lost and hopeless’, her daughter was reflecting back to her more of the mother’s emotional energy on that topic. Ester told the woman to start seeing and feeling her daughter as she ‘wanted her to be’. To let go of trying to fix, change, prescribe and control, and trust that a greater force was at play. Ester stated that the more we try to fix, control, change or alter anything from a state of angst and pain, and feeling a heightened state of what we don’t want to happen, all we do is exasperate it with our energetic offering.

So I got to work. I cleared and cleared, letting go of the agony of everything I felt connected with my son. When I had cleared out everything that ‘hurt’, I was able to anchor into this new way of feeling and seeing him. In my journal every night, I wrote about how he had incredible inner wisdom, how he was connecting to the deeper, wiser part of himself, and how he was stepping into his true light and rising up into Who He Really Is. I deeply felt that everything was in perfect and divine order and that he was not only going to find his way, he was going to thrive. I made it so real for myself that I felt it through every cell of my body. This was no small task – everything previously was screaming inside me that I had lost him forever, he could kill himself, that it was my fault because of what I had subjected him to, and I was a complete failure as a mother – but I knew how important it was to shift these feelings. Not only did my wellbeing rely on it (I was breaking down with the emotional devastation), but it was the most loving thing I could ever possibly do for him.

Three weeks later we were in contact, having lunch and hugging. He had already started to make huge changes and get his life on track. Truly, he has never looked back since. This complete turnaround occurred against all odds and literally out of nowhere. My son now five years later is amazing, creative, successful and a total inspiration to me in every sense. He is one of the most amazing people I know. He doesn’t even resemble the person he once was.  [See more at:  http://blog.melanietoniaevans.com/how-to-empower-your-children]

The point of the above (if you were able to get past trigger words like "vibration, visualize, channeled and energy") is that GOD wants us to EXERCISE the verb FAITH in our lives, through HIM and His Holy Spirit, not by soulish witchcraft.

I myself often inadvertently practice witchcraft by imagining the worst of a situation and/or person by dwelling on it and thinking forth and speaking forth my reality through spiritual laws set in place BY GOD. I forget that I'm a powerful being with God-endowed authority to speak into life things that are not or are in the process of dying or even already dead! "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit," Proverbs 18:21.

Thoughts as well as words can bring forth reality: "For as [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he," Proverbs 23:7.

So we must CHOOSE to think on what is good: "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things," Philippians 4:8.

We are not tiny, powerless beings who can do whatever we want in terms of thought and deed and not expect to impact the universe. We are God-created Warriors who affect the very laws of nature by our actions, words and thoughts.

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned," (Matthew 12:33-37).

I love the song "Words" by Hawk Nelson:

They've made me feel like a prisoner
They've made me feel set free
They've made me feel like a criminal
Made me feel like a king
They've lifted my heart
To places I'd never been
And they've dragged me down
Back to where I began

Words can build you up
Words can break you down
Start a fire in your heart or
Put it out

Let my words be life
Let my words be truth
I don't wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You

You can heal the heartache
Speak over the fear
God, Your voice is the only thing
We need to hear
Let the words I say
Be the sound of Your grace
I don't wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You

I wanna speak Your love
Not just another noise
Oh, I wanna be Your lightI
 wanna be Your voice...

It's time for us to ignite faith. Time to speak life not death, and time to be people of God who own our authority! Not people of death whose negative thoughts and words not only poison our world, but actually keep Life from springing forth.

"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing," Proverbs 12:18.

"I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak," Matthew 12:36

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Go be Grass

Sometimes I feel like I'm slogging through certain books in the old testament. In fact I was doing this just yesterday in 2 Chronicles, thinking to myself, "these kings are pure idiots..." when I was struck by a verse that just dug into me deeper and deeper.  It actually came out of the story of a righteous king, Hezekiah, who took major steps to return his people to holiness.  Chapter 29, verse 16 reads, "The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it.  They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord's temple everything unclean that they found in the Temple of the Lord."

Our souls now (in the new covenant bought by Christ's sacrifice) are the temple of the Lord.  The HIGH priest, Jesus, has gone in and PURIFIED our souls (for those of us who have accepted his atonement), and we are made righteous through HIM!  Hallelujah!  BUT the second part of that verse requires something from us...the bringing out of the UNCLEAN ( opposite of morally uncontaminated, pure, righteous and holy.)

So what does it mean for us to "bring out everything unclean?"  "Bring OUT" struck me as infinitely significant:  it doesn't say "destroy" or "burn" or any of the equivalent, but more importantly, the stuff that defiled the temple didn't make the temple NOT the temple...the temple had dirty stuff in it, and in order to bring it into fullness, the unclean had to be removed from it-brought out into the light, so to speak.

All of us who come to Christ (and probably until we die) have areas of "uncleanness" in us...areas that erect a barrier between coming into complete intimacy with Christ AND entering into our destiny.

Case in point: I have a client I'm coaching, and no matter how many sessions we spent together, we cannot move past the main theme of her life: shame.  She is unable to believe she is worth God's love. She constantly is trying to be "better," to earn Christ's love and to be worthy of the sacrifice of his blood. No matter how much I repeat the truth: ("new creation in Christ," etc.), the fundamental problem lies in her belief system. She FEELS dirty, and no amount of truth preaching can penetrate that notion.

On a personal note, I consistently struggle with the sense that I'm not ENOUGH.  I am not spending ENOUGH time with God, I'm not reading the Word ENOUGH, I'm not helping others ENOUGH, I don't pray ENOUGH, I don't clean/exercise/watch my budget/ad infinitum ENOUGH.  After years and years of vowing to work harder, I recently found myself sidelined by a chronic illness onset. So now I scrape by, hoping to avoid absolute chaos, still struggling within, however, with the sense that I'm still not doing ENOUGH! 

So I'm bringing out that uncleanness: that area of pride that says I have to do MORE to earn His favor; to earn his love.  "Our righteousness is as filthy rags," states Isaiah 64:6.  This means our EFFORTS at righteousness, our attempts to atone for our own sin. HIS righteousness, that we appropriate at salvation however, is done deal. We don't add to it. A Billy Graham, Beth Moore, Graham Cooke, Joseph Prince, Joyce Meyers are not more holy or favored than any one of us peons.  We are equal and beloved children in HIS sight, the only sight that matters.   What we struggle with, the unclean parts of ourselves, the shame/pride, unbelief/fear, and so on, are the things we need to drag into the light. Let His light shine on those old, moldy, rotting thought structures.  As He shines His light and truth onto us, we are "changed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 13:8)," no longer slaves to belief systems that chain us to mediocrity and unworthiness.

Pastor Andy this morning in church talked about his lawn and how beautiful his grass is, and how his grass didn't have to perform for the sun...it just basks in the light of the sun, receiving nourishment, and being what it is: grass, reflecting the glory of the sun.  We too don't have to perform for Jesus. We are His beloved and we are perfect in His sight.  Go be grass. And don't forget to drag the junk out into the light of His healing presence.