Family

Friday night I was watching a move that made me ponder what is commonly considered true family.  We have the family of course that we were born into, we have the family that we marry into and we also have the family that we choose and that chooses us.

Legally, our family is considered blood relatives, legal adoptions and those we marry, however, in the bible the body of believers is often referred to as the “family” of believers.   We are referred to as God’s children, and the brothers and sisters of Jesus.

Hebrews 2:11 (NIV) “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

Are these family ties any less than the families we are born into?  I started to wonder if that if I truly believe that “blood is thicker than water” and treat my spiritual family without the same regard as my physical family am I missing out on my inheritance?

In Genesis God tells Abram to leave his mother and father to follow Him.  He tells Abram that all the people of the world will be blessed through him.

Genesis 12:1- 3 (NIV) “The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

From this promise, the Hebrews consider themselves children (the physical descendants) of Abraham; The chosen people of God.

Through Jesus we have been adopted into the family.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (The Message) How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

It was by His design that by faith in Christ Jesus we became His children….

Romans 9:6-8 (NIV) “It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”

Galatians 3:7-9 (NIV) “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. “

Now in our blood families, we have those that we get along with, and those that we don’t, but because of blood ties we forgive each other.  We feel the need to forgive them…..We feel the need to love them unconditionally.  Why then do we not feel this with our chosen family?

I am not saying that we condone each others bad behavior,  but we try to remain understanding and love them regardless.  When our children make poor choices, we are disappointed, but do we stop loving them? By no means!  Why then is our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ so conditional, so legalistic?  Why do we not show the same measure of forgiveness?

God holds no greater respect for one person over another in His family.  He loves us all and gives us all the same opportunity and grace.

Romans 3:22 - 24 (NIV) “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

During the holiday seasons we all endure family get-together’s with that one gossipy aunt or one uncle who drinks a little too much and gets a little too flirty, but we enjoy ourselves and have a good time with those we love. (Thank you Jamie for this insight)

During this holiday season I challenge those who have strayed away from their brothers and sisters in Christ to show the same acceptance as you would a blood relation.  Come and have fellowship with those you love.  Accept one another “warts and all”.  Understand that we all have our hang-ups and we work through them the best we can.  It is only when we stand together and with God that we can truly overcome.

Revelation 21:7 (NIV) “Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”

I love my Physical, Adopted, and Chosen family……All the same! <3

The Majestic Courtroom

   I enter the courtroom, before me stands a judge. Not just any judge, the perfect judge. He loves truth and righteousness and despises deceit.
    I realize at once that I know him, and that he knows me….intimately, my innermost thoughts, the darkest depths of my soul. A pitch black cloud of guilt, shame, and fear envelops me. In my fear I think, “Surely he can’t see me in this darkness.  He can’t see the truth. I can hide my guilt from him. I will not confess my guilt.”
    My counselor, whom the court has appointed for me, advises me that the judge already knows the truth, and that the evidence the court has against me is enough to condemn me to death.  The evidence of my life speaks so much louder than my words.
    There is no purpose in this cloud, yet it remains and turns to despair.  My heart breaks.  My soul sinks deep down within me.  Realizing that even in the darkest places I am fully exposed before this judge, my heart cries out “Guilty”.  My soul grieves for the loss of righteousness and I am truly repentant.
     The couselor steaks a claim in my repentance by standing with me and assuring me that he will continue to be with me to counsel me. He reminds me of the innocent man that came before me. This man has already served sentence for my actions. The court has been satisfied. The debt for my actions  has been paid.

   The counselor disperses the pitch black cloud bringing me fully into the light, He asks me to put on the clothes of the man who sacrificed for me and he presents my brokenness before the most honorable judge with a cry for mercy.  The judge replies “Granted” and picks up the pieces of my broken heart and restores it.  He lifts up my downcast spirit and sets me on a path to righteousness.

Something Positive

I was thinking the other day about the chains that go around Facebook. Most are sweet, some can be silly, and some serve a purpose such as breast cancer awareness. I thought it would be nice to start a chain that honored and built up marriages and families. So, here's one I thought up. List 10 things you really love about your husband/wife. Don't just list the superficial things but get deep...really honor them. Pass this along to your friends and see their answers! Here's my list....

1.) I love how everyone thinks by looking at him that he is intimidating but he is really a big teddy bear.
2.) I love that he never speaks a bad word about me to anyone.
3.) I love that he still wants to hold my hand when we walk after 22 years of marriage.
4.) I love that he thinks I'm sexy :)
5.) I love that he is my best friend and I am his. We talk to each other about everything.
6.) I love how he loves his children.
7.) I love that he goes to work every day and always provides for us.
8.) I love that he loves God and speaks truth to me even when I don't want to hear it :).
9.) I love that he challenges me to know why I believe what I believe in.
10.)I love that I never have to worry about infidelity, He is so totally loyal to me.

Phillipians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Now copy and re-post this with your answers...dont forget to tag me! I would love to see your answers <3

♥ Jim ♥

Friendship

I have a few friends who have been dealing with betrayal lately. Everyone always answers, " a good friend would not have done that" or "they must not have been your friend anyway." This is simply not true. Good friends will let you down. Good friends will hurt your feelings. Only a good friend could. Think about it. If they did not matter to you, how could they betray you?....you don't normally hold expectations of those you do not consider friends, other than common decency.
Jesus modeled for us the perfect life, in all aspects, including friendship. If we look at His model, He had a few close friends that He did daily life with, and that He entrusted with certain aspects of His life. This did not stop Him from reaching out to others who were hurting or in need. He ate with them and spent time with them, but He looked only to our Father for His comfort and strength. He knew men would betray Him, especially those he held closest to him. Judas led the temple guards to capture Jesus whichin turn led to His torture and crucifixion. Jesus called Peter His Rock, and Peter denied knowing Jesus 3 times because he was afraid to share in Jesus suffering.
We hold high expectations of our friends. We entrust them with much and hope that they won't hurt us. When we are hurt, we hold on to it for such a long time, and vow not to trust so much the next time. We harden out hearts just a little.
We need to guard our hearts from the beginning....not harden, just entrust them to God and even hide them in Him. If we entrust our hearts to Him, He will keep them safe. He will soften the blows when they come. He gives us the power to forgive. We should cherish the close friends we have and be quick to forgive. If we expect that they will hurt us at some point, and try to find compassion for the reason behind the perceived betrayal, we can forgive, completely.
There have been times that I felt betrayed. In particular there was one time I felt rocked on my heels by betrayal. I was hurt and angry; it was the worst kind of betrayal. I trusted someone with something very personal and it was displayed out through gossip and came back to me in a very hurtful way. I prayed that God would show me some redeeming value in this person so that I could forgive. He has always been faithful for that. He showed me the things He loves about that person. Although I do not know that I would ever trust this person in the same capacity, I have forgiven, completely forgiven them. I actually blame myself for putting such faith in a person to begin with. That faith belongs to God alone.
God has shown me that sometimes its not right that we put such expectations on others. We hold out our broken hearts and expect them to heal us, and when they dont have the power to make us feel better or sometimes even worse, they scoff at our pain, we feel betrayed....but are we really? Is it their place to fix our brokenness? If they do not respond the way we feel they should, is it their response or our expectations that betray us? Jesus foretold Peter's betrayal. He expected it, and forgave Peter and through Jesus forgiveness, Peter was restored.
Be encouraged. Hide your heart in God. Allow Him to be your comfort and strength. He will not betray you. He loves you like no person can. He forgives and has boundless compassion for you. He understands your innermost thoughts, even how those thoughts were formed. He knows the hurts in our lives that have shaped us, and uses them to heal us through helping others. He makes them purposeful!
Give your Heart to God...Find good friends to spend time with.....Be a good friend to others!

My "Apostrophe"

I had an “apostrophe” this morning while driving to work. (That was for you Lisa :) ) I like to drive with the radio off sometimes and it seems like when I do, my thoughts just wander to and fro. It drives my husband nuts when he is driving with me because I will have all these thoughts jumbling around in my head and then a question or remark comes out seemingly out of the blue (at least to him) and he’ll wonder “where did that come from?” I then connect the dots for him and it sounds something like this….”I saw that sign back there that made me think of this thing and then I thought about how this one time…and it reminded me of ….. Hence the question whatever happened to….?” But I digress….what hit me this morning was the true nature of the battle of sin.
Now here we go down the rabbit hole….I was praying and meditating a couple of weeks ago about what God wants me to do next. I really wanted to hear from Him and not take off in my own direction just for the sake of forward motion. I remembered this study I did with some friends a while back in 1st Samuel. At one point King Saul does not wait to hear from the Lord (through Samuel) and Samuel Rebukes him (Chapter 13). During this meditation, I heard God telling me to fast so that I can hear from Him. Now growing up Lutheran, fasting to me was what we did at Lent. We give up something that we like such as Chocolate for 40 days because Jesus fasted for 40 days, but I now know there has to be something more to this than my tradition, especially since God Himself is asking me to fast. What do I fast from? How long do I fast?
I decided to Google the key principals of fasting. I came upon several conflicting articles but then happened upon one from IHOP (the International House of Prayer), which is a source I am familiar with and trust. It was a great article with lots of good information, but the thing that stood out for me was from this paragraph:
“Fast and pray in order to humble yourself and purify your worship. In fasting we are not trying to get something from God, but seeking to realign our hearts’ affections with His. In fasting we can more readily say, “We love you, Lord, more than anything in the world.” Lust of any kind is perverted worship, but fasting enables us to cleanse the sanctuary of our hearts from every other rival.”
Fasting is a way to weaken or overcome our flesh nature while prayer and meditation during the fast strengthens our spirit.
Okay now back to this morning. I am driving in my car, and I am chewing on ice. For those who know me, you know that I do this ALL THE TIME. I have even broken teeth doing this, but yet because of my Anemia, it is one craving I cannot seem to get past. I was thinking about how even though I know this is bad for me; I desire it, so I do it. It is the same with certain foods (5 Guys Cheeseburgers come to mind). It got me thinking about what is sin in my life…….
Now on to my epiphany; We like to point at this or that and say to ourselves (and others) “that is sin.” In many cases we point to the 10 Commandments or some Mosaic Law, however, in Romans 7-8 Paul talks at great length about the struggle of sin and law. In verse 7:10 he writes “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” He goes on to write that the living by the law is good, but living by the Spirit is what we should do. We have been released from the condemnation of the law in order that we may live by the Spirit. The Spirit convicts us of sin in our lives. Sin is those things in our flesh nature that control us, addictions, cravings, secret desires. We may not even always act on them, but still allow them to control or dominate our thoughts. For me ICE IS SIN. <----My Epiphany! How many times have I said to others…”you can conquer this”…..”Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”? Yet while saying it I was probably chomping away on my ice. Okay…I am not saying this in such a public place so that the next time you see me chomping away on ice you can point this out to me and “hold me accountable”, just merely to share my thoughts. I am human and I do struggle with (gasp) SIN. I can definitely tell you that ice and bad food is going to be a huge struggle for me and one I am going to have to ponder on for a bit to truly determine the severity of how I allow it to control me and how to conquer this.
I know this may sound silly to some, but sometimes I really feel I have to have ice, and depending upon the severity of my anemia, the cravings come and go. It has no benefit for anemia, but it is well documented.
Hopefully after reading this, you can better understand sin and how God calls us to live Holy complete lives free from this struggle. He gives us the strength and the tools to be “more than conquerors”. I also caution those who would point to sin in others lives and ask you to more closely examine your own. We should see the struggle and relate and feel compassion, for we too face this.
I said recently to a dear friend that I hope that I am never faced with the struggle she has because I am not so sure I would pass the test. Now that I fully realize my own struggle, I realize this is hard!! I totally relate. (Again, I know to some of you chewing ice and eating cheeseburgers seems like a silly struggle, but it’s mine and trust me when I say it is a HUGE one for me.)
I CAN conquer this and there is power in together. I’ll be there to hold your hand and I ask that you be there to hold mine too! I love you because He first loved me.
Your Sister in Christ Jesus
Laura

Expectations vs Expectancy

Those who know me well have probably heard me over and over again on this subject but I felt compelled to jot it down anyway. It started with a sermon that I heard from Pastor Greg at The Crossing, but has grown into somewhat of a personal montra.....LOL

John 6:1-2 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.

Throughout the New Testament we hear about Jesus drawing crowds and crowds following Him. They had seen or heard testimony of His teachings and the miracles He performed. In some cases they had also heard or seen the friction he was starting in the Jewish community especially among the Pharisees and Leaders.

John 11:45 - 48 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

John 12:42 - 43 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

We know they followed because of the things they had witnessed, but what about their future? What expectations did they have? Could they possibly know what the future held? There had to be an air of uncertainty among His followers. He did not play by the rules set forth by earthly leaders, and He certainly was NOT predictable, yet they followed. Some of them even faced persecution and they followed.

We often times look to God with expectation. We pray for God to heal this person, or to mend this relationship or to grant us something we feel we need. The problem with this expectation is that often we can miss what God has in store for us because we are so focused on our expectation.

When the Israelites cried out to God in Egypt for Him to save them from their captors, He sent Moses. Moses wasn’t at all what they were expecting, in fact at one point they rejected him and asked him to leave them so they could remain in captivity.

Exodus 14:10 - 12 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

This happened directly before God parted the waters for them and delivered them from their enemy FOR GOOD. The Pharaoh and his armies were completely destroyed. The Israelites never had to look over their shoulder wondering when Pharaoh would catch up to them. God had a plan greater than anything they ever anticipated.

In this same way they rejected Jesus…

John 7:42 Still others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?"

We look to God with our earthly expectations. God sees a perfect picture. One not clouded by judgment or by limits. He can do things for us that we cannot even fathom. He can open doors we consider locked.

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

This is the difference between expectation and expectancy…..We know that God loves us. We know that He will work all things to the good of those who love Him. We know he wants to prosper us and not to harm us. We know that He is all powerful. Look to Him with expectancy, not expectation. We need to stop expecting our version of what we see to be the answer to our troubles and be open to a greater vision. We may be praying for a change in others, when it is us that He wants to grow. (I find that often to be the case with me at least.) We need to stop sitting in the church thinking, “boy, I wish _____ were here to hear this message” and listen to what God has in store for us. We do not know that the future holds when we follow Him, but we do know it’s going to be good!

1 Corinthians 2:9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.