Month: September 2015

Jesus is Felony Friendly

 

This past weekend I had the privilege of being one of the speakers at a Women’s Conference.  My topic was Bible 101.  No it was not on facts like there are 66 books in the Bible and Paul, who was Saul; his job before writing most of the New Testament was to persecute Christians.

Actually it was on the fact that if we believe the Bible is true and I do.  2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

That we will believe Genesis 1:27

So God created human beings in His own image.

And if we are looking in the mirror and we don’t see His image; then the question becomes do you know what His image is supposed to look like?

Philippians 2:5-6a

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God….

We do have a book full of what it means to look in the mirror and ask ourselves the question “do we look like the image of God”?

So what does this have to do with Jesus is Felony Friendly.

Romans 5:6 says

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 

Then Romans 5:8 says 

But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

A sin is defined as a an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. The synonyms are words like misdemeanor, crime, offense, wrong doing, etc.

God loved us in our sinful nature so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for us.

John 3:16-17

 For this is how God loved the world: He g ave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

God woo’d us from our own jail cell.  The jail cell of our sinful nature Galatians 5: 19-21

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,  idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these

The challenge becomes when you are labeled by society as a “once a sinner always a sinner”  it is easier to stay or re-offend than it is to change or be transformed.

Romans 12:2 says

 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

To be transformed  means learning a new way, and how many of us if we are honest “re-offend”? We especially in the early states of learning to be transformed “re-offend” when all we have in our life is the world.  We have no one there to disciple us, to teach us, to emulate?

Do you know someone that is trying to change and not “re-offend? I know that the pat Christian answer is read your Bible, pray, go to church, but my prayer today is that you will not give that answer to someone but instead do what the Bible says today in Matthew 28: 18-20

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

But as you train and teach remember yourself that in 1 Timothy 4:12b-13

Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.  Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.

I’ll choose “B-2”

Trial is a season of unexpected and open ended pain that tests our faith.

James 1 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Read that first sentence again in James 1 WHEN troubles come or the NIV says ” WHEN you face trials of many kinds”…

In the Sunday sermon, this past weekend, the guest preacher said ” you don’t chose your trials”.

As much as I agree, we don’t go to God’s rolodex and say “here, I can handle this trial with everything I have going on”; or “here, let’s pick ‘B2’, that trial looks like one I can beat.

I do wonder how many times we say we want to believe but we become the seed that fell among the thorns in Matthew 13

The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

So in essence because God loves us so and He wants the best for us “we do choose to be in a trial”. We choose this first with our disobedience to Gods word. We also allow worry and the lure of wealth and popularity, to choke out the flame of obedience and love we have for God and doing the things He wants us to do.

Giving up the “Good” to do the “Great”

Ask my husband and he will tell you I have a real hard time saying “No”. I can be a real giving person with little to no regard to the how, the outcome or, worse yet, how it will affect me.

I recently said “yes” to something without thinking everything through. I just knew it was for a good cause and I kept rationalizing that “it was for a good cause.”

As the days came and went and the weeks came and went, my anxiety and panic attacks increased. I blamed it on being re-triggered from the motorcycle accident.

As the event that I was going to be a part of was getting ready to take place, my anxiety increased to the point that I could not handle it and I had to walk away at the last minute.

As soon as I walked away, my anxiety subsided. I could not believe it, could it have been that easy?

I am not sure if you are like me but I like to fix things. I want to fix people. I have a real hard time with “boundaries” all in the name of “it was for a really good cause” or “they really needed my help.”

A major thing that I have had to deal with these past few weeks, which is NOT in my DNA as a first born, take charge, make it happen, bull in the china shop personality is; it is not my responsibility to fix everything or everyone.

God gives each of us gifts but more importantly He gives us a calling.

I am gifted in many things and it’s ok to do those things once in a while. For example, I love to have people over for dinner, but I am NOT called to be a caterer (yes, I do know that: been there, done that).

God over the past few years has been giving me subtle hints that my ministry was going to start taking on a different look. I was so set in my “no, it has to look this way” that I did not listen.

Just recently I realized that I have been doing a lot of good things, at the expense of not doing the great.

Part of my new learning experience is “boundaries” and asking the question: what is this going to cost and is God asking me to do this or is it part of my human DNA of wanting to help?

My question for you as you wrote down your goals yesterday:

What is God asking you to stop doing, which may be “good”, but He wants you to do something “great?”

Giving myself permission NOT to be Competitive against myself

Have you ever been to or watched a bidding war? And the person who really wanted to win starts bidding against themselves?

I feel that since January 2011, I have been bidding against myself and didn’t know it; I just knew that the PTSD was not going to win. I had to overcome it and be healed.

Sometimes God does not take away the “thorn” and you (I), have to be OK with that.

My new normal started in 2011, but today 2015, four and three-quarter years after the attack I am still bidding against myself.

I still use that dysfunctional coping skill I learned so well growing up; “act as if nothing happened”, and just keep doing things the way you have always done them.

I read the book “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann the other night. In the book a statement was made: “what you focus on, is what you get”.

I realized that I have been focusing so much on “overcoming” the PTSD that I continue being competitive with myself instead of taking the words Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10. You will find them here, this is from the Message (a paraphrase version)

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

So my question to you is: what’s your thorn that you are trying desperate to be healed from and maybe God is saying “if you continue to focus on being healed, you won’t focus on Me and what I want to do with you”.

Remember today is a new day, no matter how bad yesterday was, no matter how bad your past….the only thing under consideration is your very next step….so make it count.

 

**** secondary***** I have attached a goal sheet. Less than 3% of people actually obtain their goals and the number 1 reason is because they are not written down. So here is a goal sheet for you to use. It’ll be interesting to see when we get to the end of the week how well you stayed on task and actually accomplished the goals.

Goals sheet participant Goals sheet participant

Shut Up B*#ch

Mom, I don’t understand. Why did you smack me? Those are the words he calls you. Why can’t I call you that?

Mom. I don’t understand. I just said the words he said. You know that guy who you told us to call dad. You know the one who yelled from his car as he drove by with another girl in the car.

Mom, I don’t understand. Why am I now in time out for telling that woman to shut up? I just used the words you used when that other girl from the car started talking.

Mom, why am I locked in my room? Do I embarrass you when I tell people shut up? I’m just using the language I hear others use when they are talking to you and the language you repeat back.

Mom, knock it off, you’re embarrassing me. Don’t you know I am just practicing for when I grow up and get me a baby mama like you. You know the one; the one where I can tell her what to do, call her names and then when I show back up, she’ll let me in. I’ll do all those things to her you let me watch on TV. I’ll treat her the way your music teaches me to treat the babies mama. I’ll treat her just like all those guys treat you.

Mom, and dad, your kids are watching. They hear what you hear. They see what you see. They do what you do.

If you don’t think kids are watching you then why did Rodney Atkins write a country song about it? This song spent 4 weeks at the top of the county music chart and was song of the year in 2007. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Atkins)

Driving through town just my boy and me
With a happy meal in his booster seat
Knowing that he couldn’t have the toy
Till his nuggets were gone
A Green traffic light turned straight to red
I hit my breaks and mumbled under my breath
As fries went a flying and his orange drink covered his lap
Well then my four year old said a four letter word
That started with “s” and I was concerned
So I said son now where’d you learn to talk like that

Chorus one

He said I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool
I’m your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We got cowboy boots and camo pants
Yeah we’re just alike, hey ain’t we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I’ve been watching you

(http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/r/rodney_atkins/watching_you.html)

Parenting is much more than having sex, and having an egg and sperm unite. It is a long term relationship with a child who is expecting you (the parent) to teach and train them to love, to serve, to become a productive member of society.

But just like everything in life, there are choices and consequences. Are you making the right choices? And if the answer is NO, then maybe you need to ask yourself this question:

Do I really want to be a parent?

If the answer is NO, then maybe you should call someone and make arrangements for someone else to raise your children. Because if you don’t, the streets will, and I can guarantee you won’t like those results.

If the answer is YES, I want to parent. Then decide today to get the help to make the much needed changes.

But for a lasting change the first call needs to be to Jesus. He needs to be the King, the Lord and the Savior of your life.