Not a discouraging word

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

There are times when we 'judge' someone over and over again, all because they have a whole bunch of 'do-overs' in their lives. We point out how many times they slip and fall, but God sees only the returns! He is celebrating each and every 'do-over' because he knows that individual is not content to backslide, nor are they content to just 'abide' where they are - they want to change. It is hard to change, and he knows that. He relishes every one of those times we call out to him with a new commitment to 'do-over' life's decisions. He also gives us much grace to move beyond those moments!

Discouraging things happen and they are always trying to pull us down, hold us back, or keep us focused on something that wasn't the right choice. That is Satan's tactic, not God's. God isn't going to guilt us - he is going to encourage us, even when discouragement abounds. We have a new 'position' - we are in Christ. As followers of Christ, that means God's love is always there in our lives - he isn't going to quit on us. Satan's greatest hope is that we will cave under the weight of discouragement. Don't give him the satisfaction!

There are two responses to discouragement - we can either cave under its weight, or we can be driven closer to God. God gives us great blessings, but we might feel unworthy of them right now. He gives us great privilege, but we don't want to 'impose' upon those privileges because we feel too dirty, haggard, and sin-riddled right now. God sees the heart - he knows the actions we have engaged in are not what our heart truly desires. He knows that 'in Christ Jesus' we were made new and that we desire that newness of life to reign supreme in our lives. 

So, press into his grace and goodness, not your guilt. He is waiting to restore, you just need to ask. Trust him more than you are trusting those discouraging words your enemy is hurling at you right now. They are truth! Just sayin!

A new leaf

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. (Romans 12:2)

Ever made a really dumb decision? I know I can list a few, perhaps even more than a few. We all make mistakes sometimes, some 'dumber' than others, with some standing out as the 'dumbest' of the 'dumb'. These probably have led to some pretty deep hurts - hurts that seem to hang around long after the decision was made and done. What do we do with the deep hurts that are part of our past mistakes? We can repent, 'turn a new leaf', and move on, or we can harbor those hurts, rehashing the guilt of those decisions over and over again. 

When the hurts of the past aren't in the past, we find the rehearsal of those hurts to sometimes be worse than the original 'misstep' was in the first place. God wants to do a work within us of actually getting those hurts into our past and having them reside there permanently! Those hurts, continually rehearsed, will hinder us from moving forward in life until God affords us the pathway to finally let go of them. We need to follow that path he lays out.

God's voice is gentle - it isn't accusatory. If the voice of accusation is holding you back today, it is time to change who it is you are listening to! God's voice is sometimes no more than a whisper, but it is calling us onward, not back to the past. If God asks us to deal with something that we thought was in the past, it is only because we didn't fully deal with it at the time he asked us to let it go. God doesn't rehearse our sins, so we shouldn't either. He covers them with the blood of Jesus, removing all the stain of our guilt, and gives us a new pathway to follow. 

It is possible we haven't been ready to let go of the past. We hold onto something, even when it isn't doing us any good, bringing us down and loading us up with all kinds of guilty feelings. I want to tell you clearly today that God is ready to transform you right there. Right where your missteps got you into so much difficulty and caused you so much hurt. Listen for that 'whisper' of his gentle voice today and see what he will do as you respond to his voice. You don't have to live under that load any longer. Just sayin!

Toying with Temptation

Do you 'toy with' temptation? If you act carelessly when it comes to the things that tempt you, kind of ignoring them, and then find yourself 'playing with' the thing that is tempting you, you are probably not resisting temptation very well. It is meant to be resisted, not ignored or toyed with at all. 

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (I Corinthians 10:13)

Temptation comes in all forms. It can be something from 'without' such as cookies in the cookie jar 'calling' for you to eat them when you are trying to watch your weight. It can be from 'another' such as when a coworker wants to share some juicy gossip over lunch about your boss. It could even be from 'within' such as when you are feeling down on yourself and overspend on the online store.

Simply defined, temptation is the desire to do something, especially when it is unwise or just plain wrong. Sometimes we try to 'put lipstick on the pig' and tell ourselves the thing we are considering isn't 'all that bad' because you need to be happy once in a while. It doesn't matter the 'shade of lipstick' you try to use to dress up that pig we call sin; it is still sin!

Whenever we toy with temptation, we are allowing it to toy with us. If you are like so many others, there is a point of 'no return' when the temptation overtakes all manner of reason or will-power one may exhibit at other times. This is why God tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee the scene. (James 4:7) We aren't to entertain his wiles, nor are we to consider what he says as trustworthy. We are to resist - not in our own power, but in the power Christ gives when we call upon him for his help.

The more we 'toy with' temptation, forgoing the instruction to allow him to show us a way out of temptation's path, the more we will give into the wiles of our enemy. Just sayin!

Get on with it

If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. (Galatians 6:1)

I think this should probably read 'when', not 'if', because all of us will eventually find ourselves needing forgiveness and restoration, no matter how hard we try to live according to the principles of grace, goodness, and kindness. We all slip up in weak moments, saying or doing something we later regret. When that happens, do we judge one another, holding onto those judgments and allowing bitterness to form deep within our heart? Do we lovingly restore one another, without judging the actions of the other, not giving place to bitterness and anger? Easier said than done, huh? We might want to remember that what we criticize the most in others may just be at the root of what we find ourselves struggling with, as well. The adage, "It takes one to know one", is certainly true and it is also quite convicting!

Stoop down and reach out - that indicates a change of position on our part, doesn't it? It requires us to get 'off our high horse' and get into the thick of it with the one who has fallen, helping them out of that mire they got so bogged down in. It is hypocritical to find fault with others for the very things that also trip us up and get us bogged in the mire of sin, isn't it? If we want to be strong in our own faith, it means we also need to be humble in our approach to others who find themselves sinning, as well. 'There but for the grace of God, go I' is more than a proverbial expression of grace and humility - it is the truth that we all find ourselves in the need of forgiveness. When John Bradford first spoke those words, he wanted his hearers to recognize our very life and whatever fortune we find within it is entirely based on God's guidance and his mercy.

All that go through in life is a teachable moment, when we allow God to use it for his work within us. Even when we find ourselves 'fallen' and in need of restoration, he can use that moment to teach us how to make different choices next time. Be assured, there will be a next time! Lovingly embrace one another, show grace when it seems to be undeserved, be humble about your own propensity to make unwise choices, and get on with the lesson! Life is too short to live with regret, and it is too long to live with unforgiveness! Just sayin!

Help! I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

H.G. Wells said, "If you fell down yesterday, stand up today." Those words may seem rather simple, as we all know the 'action' of 'standing up' once you have fallen down is a little more difficult than we might imagine. I have fallen more than a couple of times in my lifetime, banging up my knees or elbows, but when I was younger, I bounced back from those falls a whole lot quicker than I do in my sixth decade of life! Just because we are 'growing up in Christ' doesn't mean we won't fall, and it certainly doesn't mean a fall will result in us getting up 'easier' just because we 'know Jesus' a little better than we did in our earlier years of following him. Sometimes we just need to cry out for help to get up! It isn't a bad thing to admit we need help, although some may think it is a sign of weakness to admit it. 

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. (James 1:5)

Some of the reason we fall is that we aren't 'aware' of what we are doing, and we don't take the time to ask God for clarity. We just trudge ahead into the 'unknown' and then wonder why we are flat on our face in just a short time. If you have already moved ahead of Jesus, don't despair! He stands ready to help you stand when you aren't able to do it on your own, but you do need to ask for his help. There is just something about admitting we need help that breaks down some of the stubborn pride and self-sufficiency that caused us to fall in the first place. Sometimes we want 'all our options open' when we pray - like a 'blanket covering' over all the 'possible options' for how we could get out of the situation we find ourselves facing. God doesn't want us to limit him to the 'options' we can imagine as much as he wants us to trust him to reveal the 'one way up' that he has designed.

God loves to help, but we have to allow him to help. It would be far better that we never find ourselves 'falling' and 'unable to get up', but when we find ourselves in those circumstances, it is far wiser to ask for his help than it is to struggle to find our way up! We all fall. Don't be afraid to admit you need his help. He stands ready to help. Just sayin!

Is it a weed seed?

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

Tricked, deceived, deluded, fooled, misguided - regardless of the word we use, the meaning is all the same. When we are 'misled' down any path, we reveal quite foolish choices that lead to very foolish actions. We cannot plant one seed and expect a different harvest. Seeds bear the fruit they were created to bear - period! Ignore God's wisdom to avoid such paths that lead to sinful actions, and we will reap the consequences of those actions. Can a man really claim to be 'ignorant' of his choices? He may be 'uneducated' or 'uninformed', but even those 'excuses' are without excuse. God makes a way for each of us to be more than adequately 'informed' and 'educated' through the wisdom that comes in his Word, through the prompts of the Holy Spirit, and even in the example of others who follow Christ. We can attempt to make excuses for our sinful actions, but we are all really without excuse.

I don't know about you, but I want more than a crop of weeds to lay at God's feet. I want good crops - like kindness, understanding, forgiveness, grace, and peace to be the 'crops' that emanate from my life. Does that mean I never see a weed or two creeping through? Nope, it just means I allow God's Spirit to show me where the weeds are growing, helping me to 'pluck them right up' and rid my 'garden' of their presence. A weed is a pretty accurate description of sin. A weed is a 'wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants'. According to Wikipedia, a "weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation" because it grows where it is in direct "conflict with human preferences, needs, or goals". In most cases, these are plants with characteristics that make them "hazardous, aesthetically unappealing, difficult to control in managed environments, or otherwise unwanted" in one's garden, farm, or other 'planted area'. 

Thinking upon that definition a bit, we might begin to consider some of the choices we have been making as a little too 'weed productive' in their outcomes. Those actions are producing unwanted outcomes that are in direct conflict with our needs and God's preferences. Maybe it is time God does a bit of 'weeding' in our garden. If so, don't resist because the 'crop' produced when the weeds are finally ousted will delight you more than you will ever know. Just sayin!

Bunny-Friendly?

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. (Philippians 2:14-16)

Do everything readily - just how well are we doing on that one today? I know that I drag my feet when it comes to things around the house that really could use my attention, like the high-low dusting. As long as the surfaces look reasonably 'clean', I can let it go until the dust bunnies start creeping out as you walk past their hiding places! My BFF quips that we are 'dust bunny friendly', but every now and again, we have to eliminate the 'herd' of bunnies, but somehow our inattentiveness to getting all of them allows them to rebreed! Sin is kind of like dust bunnies - it 'rebreeds' when we aren't willing to take the necessary steps to 'attentively' remove all of it!

Good living is only accomplished when we allow the 'clean up' of our lives to occur without hesitation or 'squabbling' with God about it. I know I am not the only one that drags their feet or squabbles a bit too much with him over whatever step of obedience he is seeking. Being honest with ourselves about our reluctance may actually be the first step toward us moving into full obedience. While God does want us to focus on not allowing silly quarrels and bickering with each other to get us off-course in our walk with him or bring any disgrace to him by our actions toward others, he wants that willingness to no longer quarrel with him to come first. We may call it 'reasoning' with God, refusing to see it as 'bickering' or 'second-guessing' his desires for us, but to be perfectly honest here, it is just selfish rebellion that holds us back and allows so many of those 'sin-bunnies' to rebreed!

The moment we stop quarreling with God, stop trying to find ways to just 'hit the surface dirt' in our lives, the more we will become 'displeased' with the 'bunnies' that lie lurking within the crevices of our lives. That is when true 'clean-up' begins to happen. None of us wants to be 'sin-bunny' friendly, do we? Just askin...

What we behold, we become

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error. (Voltaire)

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. Blessed are those who fear to do wrong, but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble. (Proverbs 28:13-14)

Voltaire also reminded us that "God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." How well are we living today? Some will say their life is 'pretty good', others will remark that 'it could be better'. Either way, we still have room for improvement no matter how long we live. We can never 'outlive' doing right any more than we can outlive doing wrong! We need to be honest with ourselves when we don't live up to what God desires of us and confess that we need his help to 'do better'. Mankind has always made haste to get into trouble. What we need is God's help to make haste to move away from sin's pull! 

Concealing our sin gets us nowhere. Confessing it is the beginning of true change, but confession alone is not enough. We need to repent - do a '180' so we no longer are pursuing that sin. A man makes the greatest 'progress' toward righteousness when his eyes are on the one who can make him strong enough to resist the pull of sin. Repentance changes our focus - that '180' actually changes what we are focusing upon. Too many times, our focus remains on the thing that entices us away from God's right-living and then we wonder why we are so easily caught in the snare of sin. What we 'behold' we 'become'. 

Why are we slow to turn from our sin? It is probably because it 'promises' something we secretly desire, and we haven't asked or trusted God to change those desires. If we want to be free of sin, we need to ask for God's help. When he offers that help, we cannot pick and choose what we part of his help we will utilize - we must utilize ALL of it. He gives us the scriptures so we can identify our sin. He provides the Holy Spirit so we can be taught how to resist that sin. He affords us the opportunity of relationship with others who also walk with him so we can have the encouragement of others to live well. Use all of them and we might just see our way onto a new path and away from sin's pull. Just sayin!

Personal Scripture

My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He always did what was right, so he is able to defend us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too. If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him. If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us. But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him. (I John 2:1-5)

A long time ago, I had a pastor who told us it was okay to substitute our own names into scripture. For example, I could read this passage as, "My dear Lauretta, I write this letter to you...", making it come alive to me personally. When I began to realize scripture was written for ME, I began to find it both comforting and a little convicting. At times, it opened up doors for my healing and peace. At others, it brought me to my knees in repentance. Either way, scripture did its work IN me because it was written FOR me. It is written for all of us - you included!

Written that I may not sin - when I see it as a personal letter to me, I begin to appreciate how much care God takes to help ME live right. It isn't just the early church that received this letter to live in such a way that they didn't sin, but it was for each of us personally. The message is clear - God wants us to stop accepting sin in our lives as 'normal' or 'expected'. He wants us to forsake the selfishness of sin and settle into the selflessness of living for and with Christ. In turn, he gives us the means by which to do exactly that!

Sin doesn't need to hold us back - it can be taken away and we can find a new purpose in life - obedience to God. We might find it a little intimidating to hear some of these passages put in the personal tense, but if we truly want to be free of our sin, we need a 'personal God' who meets us right where we are. If anyone sins - it is pretty much a 'given' that we ALL fit that bill. We have Jesus to help us with being free of that sin - not just forgiven, but free from it. Too many times we fail to equate forgiveness with freedom. Jesus replaces that sin with his righteousness. We replace the desires to sin by getting truth INTO our lives.

Jesus deals with our sin, but we learn to deal with the temptation to 'sin again' by getting God's truth into us. The scripture doesn't have to be hard for us to understand, especially when we allow it to become 'personal' to us. Just sayin!

Don't concede that ground

We speak often about compromise - making subtle 'adjustments' in the way we see things in order to either justify what we are doing or to convince ourselves that the rules God has laid out for us are old fashioned and outdated. The concessions we make in life may eventually be our undoing. We may not see that now, but at the end of every concession is another one. Compromise doesn't take us from 100% loyal to God's 'rules' to being 100% disloyal to them in one step. It is a build-up of steps, tiny ones at first, leading to bigger ones the further we move away from the 'rule'.

“In the last times there will be people who laugh at God and do only what they want to do—things that are against God.” These are the people who divide you. They are not spiritual, because they don’t have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves safe in God’s love, as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. Help those who have doubts. Rescue those who are living in danger of hell’s fire. There are others you should treat with mercy, but be very careful that their filthy lives don’t rub off on you. (Jude 18-23)

It is impossible for truth to be 'untouched' when compromise occurs. It is as though we 'remake' truth to fit the circumstances. Whenever we alter truth, we move one step further from God. Adjusting our reference from 'true center' is always going to cause us to live 'off-balance'. We are created to keep God at the center, but we struggle to remove ourselves from that 'seat' of authority, don't we? A divided soul is open to compromise and sin. God's place is central in our lives - the seat of authority belongs to him. Unseat him and all of life gets a little wonky!

When we make adjustments to what God says to be true, we are actually turning away from truth. We are telling ourselves it isn't 'valid' for the situation. How does sin get an inroad into our lives? By 'validating' what isn't really 'valid'! With every concession we make toward sin, our love for God becomes secondary. It isn't that we don't love God any longer - it is that we don't give him his right place in our lives. We still want to 'keep him around', but we don't want to make him our all in all. Sin's pull is hard to resist at times, but the first sign that we are making a concession for our behavior is the very moment we need to fall to our knees and ask for God's strength to resist that urge to concede that ground to the enemy of our souls! Just sayin!

Nagged into obedience?

Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too. Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours. (Galatians 6:1-5)

Have you ever tried to 'nag' someone into obedience? It doesn't work well, does it? In the long run, one or both of you will come to have ill feelings toward the other. Nagging doesn't change behavior - it might even intensify it as the other seeks to magnify the 'annoyance' the disobedience brings you! We all do things we shouldn't do from time to time - we are all human, all have a sin nature, and all think way too highly of our 'self' at times. It is 'when', not 'if' we do something wrong, because we will all eventually find ourselves in need of a helping hand to be free of whatever it is we are struggling to overcome. Notice, it is a helping hand God asks us to bring, not the conviction of criticism, annoyance of nagging, or condemnation of shame.

Gentleness is key to helping one trapped in the downward spiral of sin. Foolish behavior seldom just goes away - it requires consistent change, and that change is only possible when Christ is the driving force within that change. What happens when we go to a person who is making foolish decisions, attempting to persuade them otherwise with a whole lot of 'opinion' as to why their decisions are wrong? They frequently reject such 'advice' as 'not applicable' to their circumstances, don't they? They cannot see that our 'opinions' matter all that much because 'their circumstances are different'. Nagging won't do the other person any good and may even drive a wedge that splits the relationship we had with that individual.

Christ asks us to come alongside - be gentle, not critical. Be open to hearing their heart and sharing in their hurt. Take those troubling things to God on their behalf. In other words, do 'warfare' in the spiritual realm when they aren't up to the fight themselves. We each have so much to offer one another, but it must be done in a loving, caring manner. It cannot be motivated by selfish ambition or pride but must be with humble spirit. When we care for each other in a loving, compassionate manner, we are opening the door for Christ to heal hurts and set paths straight once again. Sometimes we will be able to give advice, but what another does with it is their choice. We can never fill the place or position of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He will help with the choice - we stand alongside and pray them through to the other side of that choice! Just sayin!

Exchanged birthright

The moment we begin to justify sin in our lives is the moment we need most to turn back to what God says about each of us. We were born to do wrong - sinners even before we left our mother's womb. Born with the 'birthright' to sin. We aren't born without a will, but rather with a will that is oftentimes opposed to the will of our Creator. As we begin to develop, we use that 'will' to get what we want. As I have said in the past, we don't need to be told to be selfish, self-centered, or self-directed. It comes quite naturally to want all the toys, attention, and permission to do whatever we want!

I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother’s womb. You want me to be completely loyal,
so put true wisdom deep inside of me. Remove my sin and make me pure. Wash me until I am whiter than snow! (Psalm 51:5-7)

If we have this 'birthright' of being born sinners, how do we overcome sin? There has to be an exchange of nature - our nature for the nature of Christ placed deep within our souls, spirits, and hearts. God relishes the moment we realize our need for his grace - for the removal of sin and the desire to be made pure before him. When we cry out for grace, his response is to lavish it - not in limited quantities, but in overwhelming 'quantity'. He is generous in grace - a gift we will never find anywhere else. As our psalmist cries out, he reminds God that he needs God's wisdom, not just in bits and pieces, but in ways that will affect him at the core of his being. Maybe we have been content with bits and pieces of God's wisdom in our lives, but the more we realize our 'bent' toward compromise in our life, the more we will recognize we need more than just dribs and drabs of his grace and wisdom! We need to only ask - he does the washing. We need only to cry out - he fills the void deep within our spirit that was made for him, and him alone.

Complete loyalty is something most of us yearn for in our walk with Jesus. Yet, sadly, we all seem to struggle with this on occasion, don't we? We get our eyes off of him, placing them squarely back on us, what matters to us, what will make us feel good, or what will fulfill some plan we have concocted in our finite minds. Then, when things seem to be failing with those choices, we find ourselves crying out once more. Someone once asked me if I thought God ever got tired of our ups and downs in this faith walk. I know he is disappointed when we fall into sin, giving into temptation in our lives, but his grace is never far away. His love never wanes. His hand never stops reaching. We may not realize the intensity of his love, the faithfulness of his grace, or the depths of his wisdom, but it is there even when we don't realize we need it! We may not realize we need to exchange one 'birthright' for another, but he does and the way has already been prepared for that to happen. We need only ask! Just sayin!

Tripping 101

If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet. (Psalm 24:15)

I don't know about you, but my 'feet' get in the way a lot! I seem to 'trip up' over some things others see coming a mile away. Sin is just like that for most of us - others can see it coming, while we are standing there totally oblivious to its soon coming attack! Why do we get our eyes off of God so easily and find ourselves looking in places for our help? I think it is because we have so many 'influential voices' in our world today - we just lose focus and don't even know we are allowing it to happen. It is as though our society has created the perfect environment for 'passivity'. God never wanted 'passive followers' - he wants followers who will keep paying attention, regardless of the circumstances.

If I keep my eyes on God... That pretty much says it all right there. We must maintain our focus - God doesn't do that for us. We must train our eyes to 'retain focus', not just stare blindly in any old direction. As I was training in the military, we'd go out to the shooting range. On this range, the targets started out 'stationary' so we could learn to 'zero in' our rifles and get used to firing them. In rather short order, we were placed on ranges with 'moving targets', popping up here and there all over the range, making it necessary to focus on the entire range, not just a stationary piece of paper a few hundred feet away. Those targets would pop up, requiring us to direct our focus, aim, and fire. Your overall score was based on how well you recognized the target. We didn't have to always hit the center of it, but we did need to hit it!

God might just be interested in training us to recognize him wherever he is and in whatever he is doing. We want a 'stationary target' in life, but God's actions in and around us are seldom 'stationary'. He is a creative God, even a 'recreative' God. As he goes about his work in us, he expects us to maintain focus. We may not always hit the target dead center, but when our focus is attentive, we see the target and our aim is adjusted so we hit it! God knows there will be lots of distractions in the 'range', but he wants us to recognize the target and aim for it. Aim requires attentiveness. Perhaps we trip up so often because we aren't as attentive as we need to be to his voice, his prompts, and his Word. Just sayin!

A head on collision course

Someone once said the best time to change is before you actually have to. I would say that is usually the best way to embrace change - when you desire it rather than when it is forced upon you as the only option. Scripture reminds us to allow God to examine us from time to time, knowing full-well that he will observe something within our character that doesn't quite match what he expects to see of one who draws near to him. He will then set out to work on it, but that work goes much easier when we have asked God to begin it rather than waiting for him to point it out once we have already headed down some road of compromise!

"God, examine me and know my mind. Test me and know all my worries. Make sure that I am not going the wrong way. Lead me on the path that has always been right. (Psalm 139:23-24)

We all know there are things within our character that don't quite 'measure up' when we hold them up to the example Christ set for us, or what we see modeled by others who God has used in scripture. We might realize we haven't even hit the target, much less the bullseye! When those times come, the next thing we might do is try to tell God why it was too hard for us to embrace the needed change. It isn't all that easy to argue our way out of change, though! If we don't want to embrace it now, we will embrace it later on because God isn't going to allow it to just go unchanged. He will work in another way, and it may not be as easy to go through as when he first pointed out something within us that required some work.

Now lest you think you are the only one who argues with God when he seeks to change something within you, think again. I am right there in that boat with you. We might even be 'rowing partners' in the excuses boat on occasion. Change isn't easy and it usually deals with something we don't want to face head on. I have to ask - if we saw a car heading down the road at a high speed right there in our lane, would we be inclined to veer away from that oncoming car? Of course! So, why do we resist God's request for us to 'veer' from our course with whatever it is that is about to cause a 'compromise collision' in our lives? We might not realize it, but playing 'chicken' with sin isn't EVER going to end well.

Change before you need to change - that is a lofty goal, but one I think begins with a simple prayer to ask God to show us where we might be compromising in our daily walk. When he begins to reveal those tiny compromises that will eventually lead to the bigger ones, it is the right time to ask him to help us to work on them one by one until we no longer need to deal with them. Just sayin!

Challenge Accepted

Sprinkled with the blood of Christ, our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith in Christ. We must hold on to the hope we have, never hesitating to tell people about it. We can trust God to do what he promised. (Hebrews 10:22-23)

The condition: Our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience; our bodies washed with pure water. The challenge: Come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence. We might want to know God better, somehow appreciating that we don't 'know enough about him' to really understand how he operates in our lives. We could just desire to 'feel' a bit more of God's presence with us each day. We have already been given total access to God and the mind of Christ, but sometimes we don't always 'tap into' what we already have total access into! We lack the confidence within our hearts and minds to actually 'believe fully' that what God put forward as the challenge can be totally true. We see ourselves still struggling with temptation and occasional sin, so we don't think of ourselves as 'washed clean'. If God says we are, why do we argue with him?

Yes, temptation still exists, and we slip from time to time. Yes, we can find forgiveness when we do simply by coming to God with a contrite heart, confessing our sin, and then turning away from it (repentance). So, why do we struggle so much with the challenge to come near to God full of confidence? I think it is because we believe the lies of our enemy who repeatedly tells us we are 'not worthy', 'are too messed up', 'have done this too many times', or that 'God gets tired of forgiving us for the same old things'. While I am sure God would like us to turn away from those old patterns of sin in our lives, he never rejects those who come to him with a contrite heart.

Our hearts HAVE BEEN made free - so we now must live free. The condition is met. We still live in a sinful world, full of all manner of temptation and our enemy, the devil, knows very well what has worked to trick us into compromising in the past. He looks for those open doors we give him and uses them to put just the right temptation right in front of our noses. If we start praying scripture, proclaiming what God has already said about each of us in those moments, would it be possible we could actually resist his proffered temptation a bit easier? I believe so! 

The very next time you are tempted to engage in that sin you struggle with, begin to remind yourself, God, and the devil exactly what God says about you. YOU HAVE BEEN MADE FREE! You have a clean heart! You have a clear conscience! You are no longer bound to that sin! Your mind has been renewed and is continually being renewed! Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit! Sin has been conquered by the Blood of Jesus! You are a new creation in Christ Jesus! The presence of God and his strength is your shield and defense! When you start reminding yourself and the devil of those truths, you stand a much better chance of actually facing the challenge head-on and coming out the winner! Just sayin!

I need to decelerate a bit, God!

We have been made right with God because of our faith. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our faith, Christ has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are very happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory.  (Romans 5:1-2)

Been made right - that is past-tense, my friends. We have right-standing with God ALREADY. In the day-to-day living we continue to do on this earth, God is still at work in our lives, not to change our 'standing' with him, but to help bring us out old patterns of living into the freshness and joy of living by the standards he proclaims over our lives. Sin is still at work around us - temptation still exists. Our 'standing' with God is good in spite of all the evil around us, attempting to pull us back into old patterns of living. If we trust in Jesus, having placed our faith in his 'finished work' within us, we are 'made right' and stand 'right' in God's eyes. 

Do we always 'do right'? Unfortunately, no. We sometimes give into that temptation to live according to the old patterns sin had established so well in our lives. It doesn't make us any less 'right' with God, though. It makes us weak, in need of his strength to overcome those temptations, but it doesn't mean we are outside of God's grace. We may not 'feel' much different at times, simply because those old patterns have a way of leaving us feeling rather guilty or shameful over some of our actions. Know this - what God begins, he brings to fruition. He doesn't leave stuff 'half-done' in our lives. 

What we do with moments of weakness matters. If we wallow in the self-pity of 'woe is me, I've sinned again', we will soon wallow in all manner of shame and the heaviness of our guilt will somehow convince us it is 'impossible' to live without that sin in our lives. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it may be an uphill battle for a bit until we finally realize that God has a better plan, helping us break the cycle of temptation pulling us into sin one link at a time. Just as a car's engine must go through the gears one at a time in ever decreasing deceleration of the engine, we might find ourselves going through temptation's 'deceleration' one 'gear at a time'. 

Don't be overwhelmed by sin, but if you find yourself headed into that territory from time to time, know that you have a God who is merciful and wants to show you how to 'decelerate' when you are headed toward your next temptation! You might find you never reach your intended destination as he does! Just sayin!

A temporary escape

I look up to the hills, but where will my help really come from? My help will come from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. He will not let you fall. (Psalm 121:1-3)

I have spent many hours looking for some form of help simply because I got myself into predicaments that were of my own making - my own stubbornness, pride, fear, or anger getting me all muddled up in some situation I didn't really want to be involved in. It happens to the best of us, my friends. We say something without thinking it through and then wonder why we are 'reaping' such a backlash. We get involved in issues not our own, then wonder why things get out of control. The more we want to be in control of our lives, the more we can expect to encounter these kinds of troubles. The more we desire to allow God's control over our lives, the more likely we will be to avoid such conflicts and concerns. There is but one place to look to when we are in need of help (even when we are in the muddle because of our own making), and that is to him.

Our help isn't man-made. It is God-prepared, God-implemented, and God-delivered. We might think we can 'help' our way out of a particular challenge in life, but if we are to be honest here, we don't have any idea how to 'manage' the challenge, much less redeem ourselves! God's assurance to us is that difficulties may come (even those of our own making), but he will not let us fall. That means we may encounter a bit of a rocky course for a bit, but we won't allow us to end up in a place we don't belong. When we fall, we are where we don't belong! God doesn't want us to end up being pulled into compromise, much less full-on sinful acts. When we are in need of his help to avoid sin, do you think he just lets us fall since we were tempted? Absolutely not! He does wait for us to ask for his help, though!

Let's remember what God says here - we are to look to him for help - not the protection of any other source. In the times this was written, attacking armies would put the cities they were attacking into a 'flight' or 'fight' mode. Those who would not stand to fight would flee to the hills, hiding in caves or other outcroppings that would offer them temporary escape. God says we aren't to look to the 'hills' to find our help - simply because they offer us only TEMPORARY escape. God's plan is that we look to him when tempted - because his plan is to deliver us fully from that temptation! Just sayin!

The edge is calling

 I know I was ready to fall, but, Lord, your faithful love supported me. I was very worried and upset, but you comforted me and made me happy! (Psalm 94:18-19)

I don't know about you, but there have been plenty of warnings for me when I am about to 'fall' into temptation of some kind. It could just be the knowledge that what I am about to do is a bit 'out on the edge' of what God really wants for his kids. It could be that I hear a clear warning in my subconscious mind, the voice of the Holy Spirit, warning me to just stop. Either way, I had the chance, but did I always listen? Nope! Does that still happen? From time to time, but less and less frequently. Why? I have learned to lean into God's 'faithful support' when I am just about to take that final step into compromise. There is much to be said about 'knowing you are ready to fall' and and having his unfailing love and support to keep you from doing so.

Knowing when we are about to compromise is important, but it isn't always a lesson we learn the first time. It is in the repeation that we learn some things well, just as it is in the repetition that we learn to give into sin when we shouldn't. If we learn to trust that still small voice, that little niggling within our subconscious, we might find ourselves making the decision to avoid the compromise all together. Will it always be 'stopping' at the same spot of being 'right there on the edge'? No, in time we come to 'stop' a bit sooner, then a little bit sooner. Why? We have learned to trust God to keep us from stumbling - we are listening closely to his voice, and we desire to see our choices changed. God can work with that!

Being on the 'brink of falling' is kind of scary, isn't it? God gives us the warning that we are approaching too closely to the 'edge' because he knows the closer we get to the edge, the more unstable the footing becomes underneath us. He calls us back because he doesn't want us to fall. We need to learn to trust that voice of warning - even when the struggle with sin's pull to compromise seems a bit stronger than we'd been prepared for. God knows the desires of our heart. He sees the path we are following. Never be concerned that he won't give the warning to stop. Be more concerned that you won't listen, lean in, and learn to turn away before you actually reach the edge! Just saying!

There are always consequences

 Have you ever wondered if your rebellion has an effect on others? Wonder no longer! We cannot live outside of God's will for very long without it having an effect on those around us. Either they will suffer direct consequences of our rebellion, such as when a drug addict brings drugs into the home and an innocent child gets hurt by them, or they will be indirect, such as when a spouse engages in an extramarital affair and there is a division of family through divorce. The effects of your rebellion are felt by many more than just you.

Jonah said to the men, “I know I did wrong—that is why the storm came on the sea. So throw me into the sea, and the sea will become calm.” Instead, the men tried to row the ship back to the shore, but they couldn’t do it. The wind and the waves of the sea were too strong—and they were becoming stronger and stronger. So the men cried to the Lord, “Lord, please don’t say we are guilty of killing an innocent man. Please don’t make us die for killing him. We know you are the Lord, and you will do whatever you want.” So the men threw Jonah into the sea. The storm stopped, and the sea became calm. When the men saw this, they began to fear and respect the Lord. They offered a sacrifice and made special promises to the Lord. (Jonah 1:12-16)

Jonah knew he was in the wrong. He knew he was outside of God's will, and I believe he knew the storms these sailors were enduring was a direct result of his rebellion. He even goes so far as to acknowledge that he knows he did wrong, but he still isn't at the point of turning away from his rebellion and doing what God desired. Isn't it amazing how we can be unwilling to do what God asks and then when we realize we have been 'found out', we still choose to continue on in our rebellion? Given the chance to confess that he was wrong and then to ask God's forgiveness, he chooses to just be 'thrown overboard' and take his chances. 

Sin has a way of convincing us that our 'chances' might be okay on our own, when God clearly knows they will not be good at all. The choice to rebel against God's will ALWAYS has consequences. If not immediate, the cumulative effect of those choices will lead to some form of consequences in the end. We cannot outrun God - nor can we expect others to not suffer when we choose rebellion over obedience. It is never easy acknowledging our sin, but it is always more difficult to endure our rebellion. Just sayin!

Influence me

But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

I know sin doesn't seem to just leave us alone - there are opportunities to compromise at every turn in the road and more than we might seem to recognize. When we welcomed Christ into our lives, we actually 'died' to sin - meaning that sin has no control over us any longer. We all know that temptation is real. We all realize the appeal of certain 'habits' don't just disappear. We have to put forth some effort to resist - to 'repel' sin's pull. What we might not recognize is that by offering our bodies to God daily, we are actually asking God to help us resist or repel those urges to do what we know we shouldn't be doing any longer.

The sad truth is that we actually 'offered' ourselves to serve sin. We might not realize how often we do this, like when we engage in just a bit of gossip about another individual. Is that information you are receiving honorable? Not usually. It isn't as though you have the best interest of the other individual in mind when you are taking it all in. You just want the juicy tidbits! We 'offer' ourselves to sin by listening when we have no business knowing what is being shared! Sin has a way of luring us in, creating a sense of 'ease' for the moment, but later we find that we aren't feeling all that good about what we just did, said, or are now thinking about. We let sin have an entrance and now we deal with the guilt.

What does it mean to offer ourselves to God. I can only share what it means to me, so let me begin by saying I offer my thoughts to him repeatedly throughout the day. I know how carried away my thoughts can get when they are left to their own devices and influenced by all the stuff around me, so I need his help to keep me 'on task' with him and able to resist those 'influential thoughts' that come at me. I also ask him to guide my words so they will be spoken in a gentle, healing, and wholesome manner. Does that mean I always succeed with my thought life and my speech? Not always, but I soon recognize when I am not in a 'safe place' with both areas because he brings little moments of conviction that turn me around quickly.

Perhaps offering ourselves to him means we take time to ask him where we struggle the most. I know my thoughts and words create the majority of issues in my life. So, I start there! Your struggles may be a little different, but you get the idea. When you offer yourself to him, he will show you where he needs to 'influence' your life the most - then all you need to do is allow him to do it! Just sayin!