Say NO to Eeyore 12-3-12

“All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.” Deut. 28:2

Many Believers live their daily lives with the demeanor of a worn out donkey. Like Eeyore in “Winnie the Pooh”, these folks let out long sighs and constantly complain about the heaviness of their unique burdens.

To be around these kind of Believer’s can be exhausting. Plus, let’s not belittle the fact that these people are defaming of God’s Name to all onlookers.

~So why would we ever permit ourselves to be one of them?

Personal example:

One of our kids experienced a rather large disappointment recently. Although he was “human” in his initial reaction, he quickly realized that a lot of people were eyeing him (and his response). So amidst the adversity, with the maturity of someone twice his age, he surmised the equation:

He had elected to “live his faith out-loud”,

 So, the manner to which he behaved directly reflected the way people view his God.

He realized that choosing to behave in obedience to God does not “just happen” and therefore must be purposefully and intentionally implemented.

What did he do next?

In a very practical manner and despite his feelings, he chose to “praise God for the privilege of being called by His Name, to put off his old self (his down-trodden mind-set), and to be made new in the attitude of his mind.” (1 Pet. 4:16; Eph. 4:22-23)

What followed?

Astounding blessings from heaven flowed into his life.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Eph. 1:3

This week let’s choose to live in a manner that speaks to the position we have in Christ…a blessed Royal Heir to the King of Kings!

He is coming for us soon,

Much love,

Shaun and Betsy

Alert and on Watch 11-19-12

STAY ALERT! KEEP WATCH!

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the Spirit is willing, but the body is weak! Matt. 26:41

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Pet. 5:8

So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.

1 Thess. 5:6

Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. 1Tim. 4:16

Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Matt. 24:42

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Col. 4:2

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Eph. 6:18

“God hears the prayers of the righteous.” Prv. 15:29

All around us we are seeing people we care for being sideswiped by the devil’s tactics.

Oh that we may be humble enough and wise enough to ask for prayer, and diligent enough to hold up others in prayer, as we live alert and in watch for God’s eminent return.

Matt. 24 is upon us.

In Him,

Shaun and Betsy

Warning 11-12-12

“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. 
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, 
but everyone to come to repentance.” 2Pet. 3:9

God needs His kids to understand this truth: We are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one group 1) we are the smell of death and to the other group, 2) the fragrance of life. (2 Cor. 15-16)

Living for Jesus will produce two “aromas” for recipient noses: fragrant and pleasing OR pungent and rotting. Have you noticed?

2 Thess. 2:10-11 tells us that one day, people will perish because they will refuse to love the Truth and so be saved. (To these folks, Christ’s aroma will be pungent and rotting.) And for this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.

Does this sound familiar? ~This scenario has occurred a number of times in the past and will occur again. Rom. 1:25-28 tells us, “They exchanged the Truth for the lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator… Since they didn’t think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not be done.” (Interesting study: examine what God means by “depraved mind”.)

One day, the deception will turn into a “full-blown” falsehood as men fully embrace the lie and will then attempt to make living for Almighty God illegal (dead).

Recall these forewarnings in Scripture:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 1Tim. 4:1-2

 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth. Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

2 Tim. 4:3-4; Matt. 24: 10-13

 If true believers look at it through temporal lenses, this news can appear to be a real downer. But if we “see” through God’s eternal filter, this news is rather exciting in light of His eminent return.

Until then, God beseeches us to LOVE others, live a holy life, teach the Word, to be constantly prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have; to correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction… And if we should suffer for what is right, we are blessed and need not fear.

(1Jn. 4:11-12; 1Thess. 4:7; 2Tim. 4:2; 1Pet. 3:13-17)

Living out loud for Him,

Shaun and Betsy

Confident Hope 10-29-12

“Rejoice in our Confident Hope.

Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” Rom. 12:12

Got problems?

Some troubles can be solved by thoughtful contemplation and dialogue.

Some can be resolved through evaluation and rearranging our priorities while others are mitigated through good counsel.

Some can only be relieved through heavenly intervention facilitated by prayer.

And some are never fully solved, but are our best “life teachers” if we embrace them.

~God’s sovereign plan for our lives doesn’t eliminate personal responsibility, and in recent days, we Cleary’s have employed ‘all of the above’ to tackle a particular challenge in our own lives.

Not surprisingly, we continue to find that our principal source of comfort, strength and guidance comes through unwavering faith and trust in God and His promises to lead us through this challenge. After all, He is the One who allows challenges, desiring to work them “in and out” for His glory.

Rom. 4:20-22 speaks of Abraham’s unwavering faith in God and His promises. How interesting it is when we substitute our own name in the blanks.

Why not try it now:

“(Your name) never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, ______ faith grew stronger, and in this, ______ brought glory to God. ______ was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever He promises. And because of ______’s faith, God counted _____ as righteous.”

Cool, huh?

People and this world will fail us, but God never lets us down.

May God bless us this week as we “live out loud” for Him.

Much love,

Shaun and Betsy

Divine Hunger Games 10-22-12

“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God.”

1 Chr. 22:19

God always has a “soul lesson” to impart to us amidst a trial.

Amidst our soul lesson, God trusts us with His divine wisdom to the degree that we know His heart.

We fall into deception when we don’t seek to understand the true heart of God, but choose instead to embrace our ideas about the heart of God and make decisions based on our own feelings.

Example: Each of us has at least one someone/something in our life that has caused (is causing) us pain. When interacting with this person/circumstance, we have choices to make. Probably the biggest choice is whether we follow our gut (feelings) or whether we choose to ask God to fill us with His heart for this person or circumstance, and then follow His promptings moment to moment.

Probing questions:

How do I get to know God better?

Well, if someone wants to get to know me better, the best way to do this is to hang out with me. So, if I want to understand God better, I may want to hang out with Him. The more I get to KNOW God’s heartbeat, the more I fall in love with Him and am saddened to hurt Him. ~I will no longer covet merely His power and miracles, but I will yearn for the stuff that He deeply desires.

How do I hang out with God?

Read His love letters, pray to Him with the help of His Holy Spirit within, worship Him in His creation, and learn more about where He resides.  ~We gain God’s perspective on this world when we better understand His world.

~A neat way we Cleary’s have been hanging with God lately is viewing or reading accounts of heaven (and also hell), providing us a atypical perspective on ‘our here and now’. Here are a few neat YouTube links:  

http://youtu.be/49wut32Cguw

http://youtu.be/UYwC2-utH4A

All of us “get” that living for God amidst enticing indulgences is not easy, and embracing lessons (vs. evading pain) amidst our current challenge is even more difficult. … But God isn’t in the business of fixing our troubles! He’s in the business of revealing Himself to us as we live through life’s difficulties.

In order to live for Him, our desire for God’s happiness must become more alluring than what the world (or our flesh) is offering.

Let’s endeavor to really KNOW Him better this week.

Check out this link!   http://youtu.be/K-eSRcr9CWw  

Much love,

Shaun and Betsy

Intoxicated with Who? 10-8-12

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth (leaders of the people) committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.” Rev. 17:1-2

Sometimes our prosperity, popularity or physical attributes blind us to our spiritual helplessness. Positions of leadership are especially vulnerable. Many leaders today fall into one of two camps:

1) Proud, arrogant, self-indulgent, intoxicated with personal perceptions

OR

2) Confident, meek, selfless, intoxicated with the Living Spirit

~But before we start pointing fingers, let’s insert our own name in the following blanks:

______, be sure, your sins will find you out. It’s time for judgment to BEGIN with the household of God. (Num. 32:23; 1Pet. 4:17)

Be holy, for God is holy, ______. Offer your body as a living sacrifice. (1Pet. 1:16; Rom. 12:1)

The Lord God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth…YET, ______, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. (Ex. 34:6-7)

______, how your adulterous heart has hurt Me. You have turned away from Me and by your eyes have played the harlot. (Ezek. 6:9)

OUCH, huh?!

God our Savior desires ALL men to be saved and to come to knowledge of truth. 1 Tim. 2:4 So…after examining our own life and making some changes, perhaps we can encourage a loved one to do the same? (It takes guts to question someone we care about. That’s why we must examine our own life first, pray for our loved one, then with a compassionate heart speak forth only when God opens the opportunity.)

The time is short! “An overwhelming scourge WILL sweep by us…. The Lord will rise up…to do His work, His strange work, and perform His task, His alien task, so stop your mocking. For suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder, earthquake, great noise, windstorm, tempest and flames of devouring fire.” (Is. 28:18; Is. 29:5-6)

Crazy times we live in! ~Let’s live out loud for His Name sake.

Much love,

Shaun and Betsy

E P or D? 10-1-12

May the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ.   Heb. 13:20

For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Is.18:5; Jn. 15:2

God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. The Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.   Heb. 12:10; Prv. 3:12

Equipping, pruning or discipline…similar in appearance, poles apart in immediate purpose, partnering in eternal objective.

Question: How do we discern the difference, thus granting us a smidge of understanding, which in turn helps us to embrace the trial so that God can “have His way in us”?

First, ask acknowledge and ask this of God: “I know that nothing takes You by surprise, Lord, and I know that You are in COMPLETE control (even when things appear so out of control), so please help me understand the divine lesson(s) You are trying to teach me through this trial. If it’s discipline, help me to recognize, repent and renounce. If it’s pruning or equipping, help me to embrace this trial and learn what You are trying to impart to me. (And if it is spiritual attack, please protect and deliver me for Your name sake!)”

Second, recognize that we do not live isolated lives, and thus, divinely inspired multi-purposed trials are common. ~ Life isn’t always about “me”. God is also at work in the lives of others involved in our current trial.

Third, embrace the trial (versus run from it), and excavate the lessons (versus gloss over them).

Forth, realize that we are human, with human frailty, and we will struggle. (Paul referred to this inner struggle in Rom. 7)  God understands and He Himself will help us “stand tall” again.

Fifth, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, ABIDE, ABIDE, ABIDE, ABIDE. This requires ongoing quantity and quality time with God.

Sixth, OBEY HIS PROMPTINGS…a constant and purposeful choice.

Seventh: Amidst all, live with a resolute attitude of thankfulness and praise.

How can we say these things? Because Cleary’s constantly live in trials…even this last week. Oh, our trials may look different than yours, but the fundamental lessons are the same.

Let’s finish strong; He is coming for us SOON. May God bless us as we live for Him this week!

Much love,

Shaun and Betsy