It’s All in Your Perspective

Years ago, when I was young, my family would gather at my Papa and Granny’s house in Alabama each summer for our annual family reunion. It was a joyous time for me because growing up I only saw my cousins once a year. Now you have to understand, I’m a city girl. Born in the big city of Atlanta and raise a stone throw from town my whole life, so going to Papa’s was an adventure. It seemed like Papa lived 100 miles from anything that resembled a town. There was one small gas station on the highway and that was it. My grandparents lived in what my city friends called “the sticks.”

Entertainment was hard to come by way out in the sticks. My cousins and I had to make up games to play. And we had to do it outside because that’s where- according to my granny- kids were supposed to play.

Some of the greatest adventures were on the side of my Papa’s house, There was a slope that started at the pole barn and went all the way down to the strawberry patch. To us “youngin’s” it was a huge ski slope. We’d take turns ridding down on  pieces of cardboard, trash can lids or what every else we could find that would slide across the green grass. When objects for sliding couldn’t be found, we’d lie on our sides and roll all the way down. It was great fun that kept us entertained for hours.

Recently I went back to my Papa’s house. He passed away over 18 years ago, but some of my cousins own the house now. After walking through the house I wandered outside and stood on the top of that giant hill looking down. I smiled because that hill that was so huge when I was a child really wasn’t big at all. It’s barely a mound. Memories flooded my mind of how big it seemed as a child when in the reality of adulthood is was so small. It was all in the perspective.

In the first chapter of What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, Lysa makes the observation, “When you look at your everyday circumstances through the lens of God’s perspective, everything changes. You come to realize that God uses each encounter you have with Him as a divine appointment.” (page 16)

Last Thursday, we talked about how the little things in our lives can be so frustrating. A slow cashier at the grocery store, the guy that cuts you off in traffic, your boss who wants you to go and do a task you didn’t plan on in the middle of a busy day. We can view these things as annoyances or see them as God does. Divine appointments.

A few years ago, the Pastor called me while on my lunch break to ask if I could take Mrs. Ellis to the doctor. I’ll be honest. I didn’t see it as a divine appointment at all. I saw is as an inconvenience because it took me out of my comfort zone.

First, I didn’t know Mrs. Ellis. She sat on the other side of church and didn’t really come that often because of her health. I not comfortable with strangers.

Second, I would have to drive to an area of Orlando that I didn’t know while relying on someone I didn’t know to give me directions. How lost were we going to get? How many left turns was I going to have to make across four-lane highways? Again, not something that I like to do.

And third, I was going to have to wait for her to finish with her appointment so I could drive her home. I wasn’t thrilled about waiting around for what I knew would be hours. It was Wednesday and I had a lot to finish to  prepare for Wednesday night service.

Nope…. I didn’t see it as a divine appointment.

Well, I survived that trip and many more just like it. She was a delightful woman who I enjoyed getting to know. I would have missed it if I hadn’t stepped out of my comfort zone that first time. She passed away not long after I meet her, but I’ll always remember how her stories touched me.

Divine appointments. God’s perspective. I’ve learned from these two things that my view, my perspective is not always right or best. I’ve learned to step back and look at the situation again. Sometimes a predicament that seems so huge to me is really like that hill in my Papa’s yard. Small. Tiny to God.

I’ve also learned that when a situation arises that I’m not comfortable with I should look at it through God’s lens. Sometimes I can see what God is doing, but sometimes I can’t. I have to learn to trust Him in those times I can’t.

Now We're Off and Running

Thank you all for being so understand about our need to move our meeting to the church. Rodney is feeling a little better today. But bless his poor pea-pickin' heart, he won't stay home and rest so he'll be worn slap out by tonight. Can't you just hear the southern accent?!? (See Darra, I can sound like a deep south Alabama girl too!) Thanks for your prayers for him and his dad.

I enjoyed last night so much. I liked the new style of discussing the book we used last night.  I think the topic style freed us up to tie different parts of the book together.  Hats off to Sharon for organizing one of the themes that ran throughout the book in such a cool way! Plus we finished the book and are off and running on the next one! Yeah!

I think Crazy Love was a great relationship check up for us. It helped us to look at our relationship with God in a unique way. I hope as we dive into What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, we'll find the courage to step out in faith and say yes to whatever God ask of us.  Lysa says, "We all feel a tug at our heart and a stirring in our soul for more, but we are often afraid to venture past our comfort zone. Outside our comfort zone, though, is where we experience the true awesomeness of God." (page 12-13) I'm ready to get outside my comfort zone. I think I'm ready  because my comfort zone is so small. I'm ready for more.

I hope each of you enjoy this book. My prayer is it will continue to stretch us for God.

An Example for Thursday Night

Yesterday I sent an email to everyone with the new directions for our book club discussions. Below is a copy of it if you need a refresher.


Lastly, I’ve decided to change the format of our discussion a little bit. I wanted to give you a heads up so you can prepare for it. Instead of going chapter by chapter, I want everyone to pick two or three concepts/topics from the book they want to discuss. It could be a section that really touched you or something that you have questions about. We’ll go around the group and talk about them one at a time. With all of us, we should be able to cover a good many of the topics in the book. I think it will enable us to discuss the entire book. I really would like for us to read 12 books this year.

I wanted to give you an idea of how to choose your topic by listing mine for Thursday night.

1. On pages 33, 62 and 68 Chan discusses how Christians live like God was created for us. Thursday night I’ll read the small passages on these pages and we’ll talk about it.

2. Concept of a Lukewarm Christian. pages 84-88  What do you think? Is it an oxymoron?

3. Concept of living out your love pages 102 & 119-120  I've got some ideas for our group I want you to pray about.

I hope this helps you get ideas for what parts of the book you want to talk about. Don’t worry if your topics overlap with someone else’s.

I hope you enjoyed Crazy Love. I know it was a challenging book, but I got a lot out of it. See you Thursday night!

January's Meeting

I'm so excited about our first meeting of 2011.  I can't wait to see the new faces at the table and love on the ones that have become so important to me!  I do want to give you all a heads up. Wear your favorite shirt because you know me, Happy Snappy, I'm going to take a picture of the group for the blog. It needs to be updated with all the new faces!  So do your hair and wear your favorite color! LOL

Love

Love, now here a subject we girls can get into! From our earliest memories; love was at the core of our dreams and imaginings. Fantasy of the perfect knight, riding on his white horse, coming to sweep us off our feet and pledge his un-dying love or dreams of our wedding day full of flowers and candles and the most handsome man on the plant. Oh yea, love is right up our alley.

Then why do we struggle with loving God so much?

Jesus is truly our “knight in shining armor.” Look at all the things Christ is for us. He’s our rock, our fortress, our deliverer, our God, our strength, our buckler, our salvation, our high tower (Ps. 18:2) our hiding place (Ps. 32:7), our help and our shield (Ps. 33:20), our guide (Ps. 48:14) our glory and refuge (Ps. 62:7-8), our hope (Ps. 71:5), and our portion (Ps. 73:26). This list is by no mean inclusive, but it surely paints a picture of a God who is worthy to being loved.

So I ask again, why do so many Christians struggle with loving Christ?

As I complied this list from the Psalms I came across this verse in chapter 63:

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;”

Here the psalmist tells us three things. First, he seeks God early in the day. Yikes, I struggle with getting up early to do my devotion! Second, he thirsts for God’s present. Have you ever been really thirsty? Your body craves water until you get some. That craving doesn’t stop until you satisfy it with water. And lastly he longs for God like a person would for water in the desert. I looked up the word long. It means to pine for or feel a strong desire for or  to crave. Amazing. The psalmist truly loves God.

So why do Christians struggle with loving God?

I believe it’s because we forget that we need God’s help to love Him. He knows that for us, He’s not the tangible person who we can see and touch. He knows that due to that, we struggle to love Him. We know we need to love God so we try harder to do so in our own power only to fail over and over. “But the solution isn’t to try harder, fail, and then make bigger promises, only to fail again. It does no good to muster up more love for God, to will yourself to love Him more. When loving Him becomes obligation, one of many things we have to do, we end up focusing even more on ourselves.” I agree with Francis. I’ve lived in that vicious cycle.

The fact is we need God’s help to love Him. “If you merely pretend that you enjoy God or love Him, He knows. You can’t fool Him; don’t even try.” If you have a hard time loving God like the psalmist did, Francis gives you a guide. On pages 110-111, he instructs us on how to pray and ask God for help. I know it will be a help to some. It’s helped me. Everyone can love God more than they do today. We just need to seek God and ask for His help to love Him more.

Offering Leftovers

Offering leftovers. We do that each day, don’t we? Leftovers for dinner. A few scares minutes spent with our children during a busy day. A mumbled prayer as we fall asleep. A five-miunte devotion before work. Leftovers.

We’ve heard message after message about giving our best to God. Putting Him first. But do we really take those lessons to heart?

Francis stated, “Leftovers are not merely inadequate; from God’s point of view (and lest we forget, His is the only one who matters), they’re evil. Let’s stop calling it “a busy schedule” or “bills” or “forgetfulness.” It’s called evil.” Ouch. Strong words. But let’s face it; we need to hear those strong words. We need to hear them when we are being confronted with our sin. I believe too many times our sin is being sugar coated to make it an easier pill to swallow. I’m afraid many will find, when they stand in front of their Maker, that the “sugar-coated sin” would have served them better as the bitter pill it truly is.

Mark Buchanan writes, “Physical sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to.” Isn’t that so true? How many people walk around with deep rooted sins that they resign themselves too instead of working to purge them from their lives?

Pastor Kenric talked about the root of our sin a few weeks ago. People try to “fix” the symptoms instead of looking to what the root of the problem is in their life. I can relate because I’ve done this myself. I’ve tried for years to lose weight, without much success, but I never wanted to look at why I have a weight problem. This year, however, I did. I found my reason and now I’m working on correcting it, with God’s help of course! Is it easy? Absolutely not! But as I look to the future I know when this battle is won that my struggle with food will be behind me. I’ll be free!

Last week, my husband Rodney and I had a meeting with Kyle’s teachers at school. The meeting was set for one o’clock which happened to be the time school let out. After checking in at the front desk, we made our way across the campus to the Harvard building. Just about the time we were walking across the courtyard the final bell rung and a rolling tide of high schoolers rush toward us. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream as we weaved our way through the continual on slot of teens. I also had the feeling we were in hostile territory. The looks we were giving were ones held for the invading enemies in a foreign land. Gezzz.

I couldn’t help but think of the Christian life as we made our way to the guidance counselor’s office. Francis says, “If live is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream….I believe that much of the American churchgoing population, while not specifically swimming downstream, is slowly floating away from Christ. It isn’t a conscious choice, but it is nonetheless happening because little in their lives propels them toward Christ.” Sad isn’t it? I don’t want to be caught floating downstream. I want to actively pursue Jesus.

How about you?

Well chapter five is behind us.  On to chapter six.  Here's the video for it.

Christian or Not?

I’ll be honest. I struggled with chapter five too. Francis brought up several issues that rubbed my Baptist upbringing the wrong way. First, I had issues with the concept that the “lukewarm Christian” is an oxymoron. “To put it plainly, churchgoers who are “lukewarm” are not Christians.” That’s a strong statement. Now, I think I was offended by this statement because in the previous chapter I identified with some of the examples of a “lukewarm Christian.” However, after thinking it over and studying the issue, I came to realize that as a child of God, saved and sealed until the day of redemption, I will fail to live up to God’s standards. Some of those failures look like the examples of a lukewarm person, but God’s grace is there for me in those areas that I fail.

Secondly, I’m curious to hear your conclusions on the sower and the seeds parable. Do you think the seeds that fell on rocky or thorny soil represent a believer or non-believer? I’ve read the parable many times this week. I can see Francis point, “Is this idea of the non-fruit-bearing Christians something that we have concocted in order to make Christianity “easier”?” Is it a feel-good philosophy that we are feed to explain why some people don’t bear fruit? Are there any examples of non-fruit-bearing Christians in scripture? Or are the people who fell among the thorn and rocky soil Christians that just didn’t continue to follow Christ their whole lives? Hummmm

I was raised on the belief that to “be saved” one must say a prayer and accept Christ as their personal savior. We’re told that upon doing so that we are forever saved and nothing can cause us to lose our salvation. But I’ve watch many people do this and then go on living their lives as if nothing ever happened. They seemed sincere at the time, honest with God, but failed to produce even the most basic fruit- church attendance or baptism. So are these people the seeds that feel on rocky and thorny soil? Are they just lukewarm, not really caring about living for Christ? Did they do “just enough” to achieve a home in heaven? Can they go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus?

This morning my devotion was on 1 John 2:3-4. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” So God says that if a person doesn’t keep his commandments, which will produce fruit, then he is a liar and the truth is not in him.

So I’m drawing some conclusion. First, I think the lukewarm mentioned in Rev. 3:16 and Christians are two separate types of people. The members of the church of Laodicea were more concerned with material things than with the things of God. They hadn’t put on the “white raiment” God was offering to them.  Their conversion wasn’t true. They were a church filled with people who claimed to be Christians, but were not. And for this reason they disgusted God.

As for the ones who “say the prayer” and accept Christ as their Savior but go on to live their lives as if nothing happened, I don’t see how they can claim to truly be Christian. I understand that some lack the discipleship that they needed and so they fall back into their normal lives. But even then, if the conversion was true, the Holy Spirit would lead them to the discipleship they needed. I was saved as a child at church camp. Upon returning home, I didn’t darken the door of a church for many, many years. I wasn’t taught how to seek God, but something in me knew I was made for more than I had at the time. Part of me longed each week to be in church. I remember hiding in my bedroom every Sunday morning, ashamed that I wasn’t in church. Even then I wanted more. True conversion will produce a desire for more of God.

As for the seeds… I’m still pondering it. I think I’ll ask Kenric what he believes.

So, hopeful I haven’t scared you off with all this heavy thinking. I’m looking so forward to our first meeting of 2011! Come prepared….. we’re going to have a blast!

Profile of the Lukewarm

Well, did you survive it? Chapter four was a tough chapter. The profile of the lukewarm was thought provoking. It held many tough questions about our love for God. In each profile there is a small part of each of us. None of us are perfect. Thank the Lord for his grace and mercy!!

I think the greatest benefit chapter four held for me was to remind me where I fall short. Without these reminders, it’s difficult to grow. It’s not easy to take a hard look at ourselves. Painful even. But with this look, we’ll know what areas we need to improve. God spoke to me through many of the profiles. Reminding me to put Christ first. To reconnect. To trust.

Francis tells us, “We are all messed-up human beings, and no one is totally immune to the behaviors described in the previous examples. However, there is a difference between a life that is characterized by these sorts of mentalities and habits and a life that is in the process of being radically transformed.” I am thankful to God for being willing to show me mercy and grace and radically transform this sinful soul.

Here is the video for chapter five. You’re not off the hook yet! LOL In this chapter Francis examines how we serve God. Do we give him the best or the leftovers?

The Dreaded Chapter Four

Well, here I go again. Diving into chapter four.

If you haven’t reached it yet, I warn you… brace yourself. There will be some tough questions ahead, but I encourage you to think about the questions Francis’s poses to you. Try not to skim over them and wonder if they apply to someone else. Really stop and think about each one. It will be tough. You might not like the answers, but without a little pain it’s hard to see the need to grow.

Most of us know the parable of the sower and the seeds (If you don’t- read Luke 8:4-15). When you read it, did you automatically think you were the good soil? I did. But are we really the thorny ground? How many things distracted you from God today? If you’re like me, hundreds. Our lives are so busy.

My mom is constantly telling me to “slow down.” She’s told me over and over that I have too much on my plate. I need to say no to things and make a little time for me. To some degree she’s right. I look at how busy my life is and I realize that I do need to regulate what I fill it with, but not so I can have more time for me, but rather for more time for God.

Time killers. They are the things I need to regulate.  Things that rob me of time I could be spending with God. Television would be the biggest one for me. That one is a no brainer. But how about the car radio? Now this might not work for those of you with kids, but what if we-DARE I SAY IT- turned off the radio and prayed while we drove. I would have at least 30 extra minutes of prayer time a day! How about this one? Social Networking sites. There’s a time robber for some people. Sleep would be another one for me. Can you think of ones that apply to your life?

I’ll leave you with one of the tough questionsFrancis will ask you. “Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm and partially committed fit better?”

Think about it…..