My Security Blanket 11-29-10

"You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom (society), living at ease and feeling secure, bragging as if you were the greatest in the world! You say, `I'm self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone!”         Is. 47:8

Right now, in what or in whom are we placing our security? Our money, our stature, our power, our spouse, our name, our title, our talents, our looks, our routine, our stuff?

What does God have to say about what or whom we entrust our security to?

• Hab. 2:9   “You believe your wealth will buy security, putting your families beyond the reach of danger.”
• Job 8:15    “They cling to their home for security, but it won't last. They try to hold it fast, but it will not endure.”
• Ps. 69:22    “Let the bountiful table set before them become a snare, and let their security become a trap.”
• Is. 47:8  "You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom (society), living at ease and feeling secure, bragging as if you were the greatest in the world! You say, `I'm self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone!’” 

From God’s perspective, what’s the true security solution?

• Prv. 3:26    “...the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.”
• Prv. 19:23    “Fear of the LORD gives life, security, and protection from harm.” 

~Now, we cognitively know this to be true, but have any of us ever secretly whispered to ourselves, “I’ve tried trusting God with ______, but in doing so, it seems more and more and more ‘bad things’ keep happening. And now I am beginning to question everything about God. Honestly? I actually am beginning to believe that God’s actually ‘not all that in control’ and not all that interested in me. Life’s more about who gets lucky.”

If any of us are entertaining these kinds of thoughts, nothing could be further from the truth, and we’re wise to both recognize our vulnerability and then seek wise counsel and prayer.

The devil wins when he can get us discouraged to the point of despondency. 
Jn. 10:10 “The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.” 
But God’s purpose is very different: “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”             Jn. 10:11

  “I love the LORD because He hears and answers my prayers.
Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!
...I saw only trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the LORD: "Please, LORD, save me!"
How kind the LORD is! How good He is!
So merciful, this God of ours! The LORD protects those of childlike faith.”  
Ps. 116:1-6

May God bless us in the challenges we face this week!        
Shaun and Betsy    

I'm the Boss of Me 11-22-10

“Jesus Christ...the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” 1 Tim. 6:15

We all know that Jesus is the Ruler of life. But here’s a question: is Jesus the Ruler of our personal life? Really? ~Every single area of our lives, big and small?
Or are we more like the depiction in Is. 29:13, “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men.”?
Question: In the pockets of my life, is the Lord:

• Ruler over my home, ...but not ‘the office’?
• Ruler over the office in general, ...but not my lucrative transactions?
• Ruler over my finances, ...but not my relationships?
• Ruler over my relationship with my spouse (ohhh, except for the bedroom, ohh, and that other ‘little area’)?
• Ruler over my kids, ...but not my worries about them?
• Ruler over my calendar, ...(Really? What does my calendar actually reveal about my priorities?)
• Ruler over most of my actions, ...but definitely not Ruler of my thoughts or Ruler of my heart?

OUCH!

Next question: If I’m the ruler of my own life (or parts of it), how am I doing? ...Really, how am I doing in my self-appointed ‘ruler role’?

Some of us are tired. We are flat tired. The reality is, we are flat tired of trying to be ‘god’ of our lives! In Matt. 11:28 Jesus beckons us:  “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The word “come” is an imperative, meaning “come here, come now!”

If we do, we will realize some great promises: 

• "This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it--the Lord is his name: 'Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer. 33:2-3)
• “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”(Jer. 17:7)
• “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity.” (Jer. 29:11-14)

Ever heard, “I’ve tried religion and it doesn’t work”? Actually, this is true, religion doesn’t work. ~But He does. And He WORKS when a soul chooses to release control in all areas of life and embrace Him wholeheartedly. (All areas, big and small)

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving! “Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.” Ps. 95:2 “Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man’s behalf!” Ps. 66:5 
Much love,
Shaun and Betsy                                                              

Safe House vs. Liberty House 11-15-10

“God is my strong fortress; He has made my way safe.” 2 Sam. 22:33

Are we feeling “safe” in Gods arms? If the answer is yes, praise God…but let’s dig deeper: Are we feeling “safe” because we’re fearfully hiding behind impenetrable walls of our ‘safe houses’ or are we feeling “safe” because we’re living in freedom behind liberty walls of understanding (understanding of ourselves and the world that surrounds us and choosing to walk in the Spirit vs. hiding behind rules that work for us)?

Let’s flesh this out a little: The Lord does not give us an endless list of rules. He makes His standard very clear, and if our relationship to Him is one of wholehearted love, we will do what He says, regardless of our feelings at the moment. If we hesitate, perhaps it’s because we either love someone/thing else in competition with Him, we are fearful, &/or we are self-righteous, and are refusing to live in the Spirit?

As we mature in Christ, we learn what it means to “walk in the Spirit” and we become attune to the Spirit’s promptings in every circumstance/relationship we encounter. And when the Spirit ‘checks our behavior’, we promptly obey. ~~But, heads up: We are wise to understand that unless God clearly defines “this spiritual check” as a “NO” in Scripture, “this check” does NOT necessarily apply to all believers.  In other words, in ‘matters of grey’, it is inaccurate to deduce, “If God wants this for me, He must therefore desire this for all believers.” No, this kind of deduction would be choosing to live in fear, judgment and legalism, rather than walking in the Spirit’s wisdom, knowledge, love and understanding.  (e.g.: use 1Cor. 6:12 and 1Cor. 10:23-24 as our guide in even in the bedroom!)

Let’s illustrate with an innocuous example: 

• Say woman #1 births her child at home with a mid-wife in a few hours, with no drugs, virtually no pain and consequently believes that “this is the way birthing is.” 
• Enter woman #2: In the hospital, she births for 36 hours in extreme pain, uses pain suppressant drugs, and ends up having a C-section anyway. 
• Woman #1 now forms judgment and believes that woman #2 had a difficult birth because she didn’t have a close  enough relationship with God, her husband, &/or the doctor, and therefore, she “tightened up” ~~and the subsequent birthing experience was the sad result. (From her limited vantage point, woman #1 deduces that if woman #2 had had a close relationship with God, her husband and the doctor, and had used no drugs, she would have experienced an easy birth likened to her own.)

~~Some people’s ‘safe houses’ are small; they’re sturdy and impenetrable, and reality is: This ‘safe house’ is good for them and glorious to them! (And we who live in more freedom should not try to poke at their walls.) ~~Where it gets tricky, especially in leadership, is when the person who resides in the ‘safe house’ 1) demands that others build the same kind of house for themselves, and 2) deduces that those that don’t build and live in ‘this kind of safe house’ are therefore a) ungodly &/or spiritually immature, and b) should be dealt with accordingly. 

Love’s great foe is pride and fear.
Love’s great friend is humility and understanding.

So why do so many believers design “safe houses” for themselves from which some choose to judge the world and other believers? Many factors…a person’s history, current modeling, etc., but ultimately, we believe it’s because the person who’s making harsh judgments is actually living in pride and fear instead of humility and understanding. We believe God desires all of His kids to live in a “liberty house” full of freedom, guided by His love and holiness! And as we mature in Him, He allows us to experience more and more of this kind of liberty, but He understands that some of us are just not ready for such a house (perhaps until heaven)…and that  ‘safe houses’ are good and glorious.

Much love this week,      
Shaun and Betsy

Hope and a Future 11-9-10

“Do not be afraid, stand firm and you will see deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”
 Ex. 14:13

Feeling defeated? Losing hope? Ever feel like you’ve been set free from a particular personal “captivity”, only to find that you’ve backtracked the very next moment?

In Ex. 14:1-4, the Jewish people had just experienced the most amazing deliverance from bondage, yet in very short order, found themselves backtracking. However, what appeared to be confusion and chaos was in reality God’s purposeful plan.

God was in the process of strengthening His ‘victorious battle strategy’ but when God’s plan didn’t “appear” all that victorious, the people became disenchanted and in their confusion began to crave their former captivity. Why? For the same reasons that our friends go back to their abusive situations. ~~Captivity was familiar to them and this familiarity somehow brought comfort.

God has a “purposeful plan” for our lives. He desires to heal each of us regardless of our pasts, and to fully enable and equip us to enjoy His abundance for our lives. 

• “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. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”  Jer. 29:11-14 

• “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, is anything to hard for Me?” Jer. 32:27 

• “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this _____. For the battle is NOT yours, but God’s” 2Chr. 20:15 

We’ve all heard, “Well, I’ve tried ‘it’, and ‘it’ didn’t work.” But remember, the ‘it’ is a ‘HE’ and He WILL answer and deliver us from every heart pain we have and will ever have.

Our part is to CONSTANTLY lean on Him with all of our weight, seek Him wholeheartedly with a focused mind, purposefully set our affections upon Him, and humbly bow down, spreading our hands out to heaven in utter dependence. He is FAITHFUL!!!! The question is this: Are we?

Big hugs this week,
Shaun and Betsy                                     
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=WViN2yOEDhk 

Who's Meeting MY Deepest Needs? 11-1-10

Question of the week: Who meets my deepest needs? …On a daily basis, on whom do I rely the most and to whom do I go first to get my heartfelt desires met?
The correct Sunday school answer is: “I love God above all and implicitly trust Him with my deepest needs.” ~~But is this true? Do my actions back this statement and prove that I significantly invest in my relationship with Him? Or do my actions prove that I’m merely going through ‘spiritual motions’ and lack real dependence upon my Savior?

God’s no fool. He knows whether or not we truly LOVE HIM by how we operate in every area of our lives. ("If you love Me, you will obey what I command." Jn. 14:15) No, when we neglect God's commands, yet we tell Him how much we love Him, we are the fools.

Think about it…we, like God, don't measure enduring love by what we hear either. ~~Loving and affirming statements are important, but the old adage stands true: Actions speak louder than words.

Rev. 2:4-5 tells us that the church at Ephesus had forsaken its "first love." What did Jesus tell them to do? Christ gave these believers a three-step plan for restoring relationship with Himself: 1) Remember from where you have fallen 2) Repent 3) Do the deeds you did at first.

Why this recommendation?

1. Jesus deeply desires restored relationship. (This is WHY He died…loving us despite our filth, with no detail of our life catching Him off guard…ever!)

2. He knows that when we place our trust in the wrong source our lives are marked by frustration and disappointment. (People simply lack the resources to meet our deepest needs and sooner or later will hurt or offend us.)

Let’s use a marriage relationship as an illustration: Picture a couple who is experiencing marital trouble right now. Got this couple in mind? (Perhaps a very familiar couple? ;) )  Straight up, Jesus wants to meet this couple’s inner-most needs/desires more than this couple can even fathom they have such needs/desires! 
So what happens when this couple thankfully comes to the end of their talented selves and decides to follow Jesus’ advice in Rev. 2:5? (Realizing from where they have fallen in their relationship with God and with one another, repenting, and striving to do what they did in earlier days when their love relationship was flourishing.)Their entire lives will change as a result of consistent and “full-weight” dependence in the live-giving power of Jesus to daily meet their needs, that’s what!
Let’s do some soul searching this week: ~~Who am I depending on to meet my deepest desires? If “Jesus” isn’t my honest answer, am I ready to heed Rev. 2:5?
Much love and God bless you!                        

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=WViN2yOEDhk 
Shaun and Betsy