Decide to be a Disciple

You can decide to be a disciple of Jesus:

Your Heavenly Father's goal is for you to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ.

Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up spiritually.

They are stuck in perpetual spiritual infancy, remaining in diapers and booties. The reason is that they never had the intention to grow.

Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship- the process of becoming like Christ-always begins with a decision.

Jesus calls us, and we respond:

"'Come, be my disciple,' Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him." (Matthew 9:9)

When the first disciples chose to follow Jesus, they didn't understand all the implications of their decisions. They simply responded to Jesus' invitation. That's all you need to get started:

Decide to become a disciple.

Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you.

It is at this point of commitment that most people miss God's purpose for their lives. Many are afraid to commit to anything and just drift through life. Others make halfhearted commitments to competing values, which leads to frustration and mediocrity. Others make a full commitment two worldly goals, such as becoming wealthy or famous, and end up disappointed and bitter. Every choice has eternal consequences, so you had better choose wisely.

Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living!  (2 Peter 3:11)

Being Christlike is the result of making Christlike choices and depending on his spirit to help you fulfill those choices. Once you decide to get serious about becoming like Christ, you must begin to act in new ways. You will need to let go of some old routines, develop some new habits, and intentionally change the way you think. You can be certain that the Holy Spirit will help you with these changes. The Bible says,

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

This verse shows the two parts of spiritual growth "workout" and "work in" is God's role Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit works with us, not just in us.

This verse, written to believers, is not about how to be saved, but how to grow. It does not say "work for" your salvation, because you can't add anything to what Jesus already did. During a physical workout you exercise to develop your body, not to get a body. When you workout a puzzle, you already have all the pieces- your task is to put them all together. Farmers work the land, not to get land, but to develop what they already have. God has given you a new life, now you are responsible to develop it "with fear and trembling" and that means to take your spiritual growth seriously! 

Christianity is not religion or philosophy, but a relationship and a life style.

The core I love that lifestyle is thinking of others, as Jesus did, instead of ourselves. The Bible says,

Thinking of others is the heart of being Christlike and the best evidence of spiritual growth. This kind of thinking is unnatural, counter-cultural, rare and difficult. Fortunately we have help:

God has given us His Spirit. That's why we don't think the same way the people of this world think. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

What about you, have you decided to be a disciple yet?

Have you decided to be a disciple of Jesus? Have you decided to grow? Are you making an effort to grow, or persisting in your growth? Are you beginning to act differently?  

Please feel free to join my devotional blog. I would love to hear your story about how you are growing in your faith.

How Well Do We Know Our Father?

Our Heavenly Father knows us personally and loves us just as we are and more than anyone possibly can. He wants us to know Him and love Him with all of our hearts. The more we know our Father God, the more we can love Him! Following are some amazing attributes of God that remind us of all that He is and how we can approach Him with faith and confidence:

1. Because God is spirit...I will seek intimate fellowship with Him.
2. Because God is all-powerful...He can help me with anything.
3. Because God is ever- present...He is always with me.
4. Because God knows everything...I will go to Him with all my questions and concerns.
5. Because God is sovereign...I will joyfully submit to His will.
6. Because God is holy...I will devote myself to Him in purity, worship and service.
7. Because God is absolute truth...I will believe what He says and live accordingly.
8. Because God is righteous...I will live by His standards.
9. Because God is just...He will treat me fairly.
10. Because god is love...He is unconditionally committed to my well-being.
11. Because God is merciful...He forgives me of my sins when I sincerely confess them.
12. Because God is faithful...I will trust Him to always keep His promises.
13. Because God never changes...my future is secure and eternal.

"And He Made the Blind See . . ."

WHILE WORKING ON MY BOOK, because of a stroke I’d recovered from, I’ve recently adapted to a limited memory by setting a notebook open and ready on my kitchen table, pen poised to be picked up.

I can’t be sure how the scribes of old were inspired to write down the words that were later compiled into the Bible we cherish today, but since I’ve dedicated myself to this literary project to promote the faith, my mind is like a fax machine that’s always on and receiving memories and other new material that feels important enough to share.

Rather than losing a thought that pops into my head, now I can jot it down. Once I can recall the gist of the idea, I fire up my trusty Samsung with voice transcription, dictate the story, and send it off to my editor as a text email.

In the 2014 film, The Theory of Everything, Stephen Hawking slowly succumbed to ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, loosing muscle coordination and eventually his ability to speak. I fully expected to lose my ability to see which is why I was learning to use my Samsung to communicate.

During a recent seven-year period my eyes kept getting worse and worse as a result of a rare and incurable disease. I went to doctor after doctor and no one could offer me any hope that over time my sight would improve.

This really didn’t surprise me because all my life I’ve had trouble seeing. When they saw me squinting in school I was tested and needed glasses. Of course, I never told my mother because she couldn’t have cared less, so I just sat in the front of the classroom to see the chalk board better. My eyes finally got some much-needed attention when I married.

My backup guardian angel, my husband, saw to it that I got glasses right away. My sight was much better for years until 2005 when I began feeling a gritty, sandy substance painfully irritating my eyes. After a few weeks of constant pain, I sucked it up and headed to en eye doctor.

Besides the obvious dry-eye syndrome, I had two infections. Eye drops didn’t help, so two weeks later I was back in his office. Next, he had me try a series of antibiotics, and still no results. In a bold and somewhat desperate move, he filled my eyes with an antibiotic and sewed my lids shut so the medication would take—first one, then the other. I hated needles, so this was a real pain.

After going through all that, the infection did not clear up. Next, it was on to a specialist when things finally got so bad you’d have thought I had Ebola or something, with blood oozing out of my eyes. He saw my condition as dire and indicated I should have my eyeball removed from my eye socket in order to stop the infection from spreading.

Instead of taking that drastic step, they tested the infection again and decided on a special antibiotic that they would dispense at the clinic over a two-week period. There was some improvement, but after visiting five specialists over the course of two years and trying their remedies, the infection persisted.

Finally, a Chicago specialist isolated the rare bacterium and was able to identify the disease. My prognosis was not good—no cure and permanent eyesight loss. When I asked him how I could have picked up such a nasty bacteria, he said that the eye infection was rare, but the bacteria I could have picked up off of a doorknob.

More antibiotics, no effect, my eyesight was getting worse and worse and now I’m worried that I’m going blind. By May of 2006 my left eye was sightless. Now, I couldn’t drive which made things even worse. A frantic search was on for a cure before my other eye went blind. More drugs, more procedures, still no cure. Then, it happened.

A year to the day after my left eye went blind, I woke up, walked into the kitchen, and I could see the gray shadow of my husband’s outline through my left eye!

“I can see you!” I yelled, excited beyond measure.

“What, honey . . . you know that’s impossible!”

We were told by the foremost expert in the field that once lost, blindness was permanent. To be sure I wasn’t imagining things, he waved his arms, and I could see the movement! As the day went on my sight got better and better until it was completely back to normal.

I’d been the beneficiary of many impossible miracles during my life, so I recognized this as a Miracle of the Divine Kind, got on my knees, and thanked God for the mercy of a healing against all medical odds.

Calling the doctor the next day, he insisted what I described was impossible and that my good eye was compensating, making it seem like my blind eye was seeing. He asked me to come in so he could run some tests. When they showed my blind eye could indeed see, he said he’d never heard of that kind of spontaneous regeneration before. Even he declared that it had to be some kind of miracle and made sure I realized just how fortunate I was.

Though my sight had returned, the eye infections were still there so several more years of trial-and-error medications. By 2011 a cutting-edge procedure was tried.

It was a tailor-made cocktail based on a blood sample from me that was sent to California, mixed up, and returned to the Midwest. Finally, by 2012, exactly seven years after my ordeal started, the infection began to fade, then, went away completely!

I have to wear glasses, my eyes are hypersensitive to laser light, but I can drive again and I CAN SEE!!

At the beginning of my ordeal, though my eyesight was failing, the Lord picked me to become a Hopelifter, turning my apparent weakness into the Holy Spirit’s strength.

The $10 Christmas Tree . . .

I recently added a chapter about God and finances to the Second Edition of my book that should come out hopefully sometime in 2015. A believer can attach faith to just about anything, and here's a good example of attaching faith to money.

Christmas 2014 was closing in. We'd gone to the story to stock up for our traditional Christmas day gathering where both sides of the family would be coming to visit, share a meal, and exchange gifts. The grocery store bill alone left us nearly broke and we still hadn't gotten a tree.

We went to a garden center where we knew they still had trees.

I said a little prayer, just in my head, asking God to help us find a big, tall, fat, full tree, but one we could afford, thanking God in Jesus' name.

I've been through this so many times before that my faith was strong and I always got a little excited to see what God was going to do for us. Walking through the store entrance, we made our way back to where the Christmas trees were. Realizing we didn't have much money left, I was stunned to see their sign that said, ALL TREES $10!!

Knowing we could afford one at that price, we searched and searched until we found the perfect tree, cut off two feet from the bottom, and almost felt guilty paying only $10 for such a beautiful tree! Feeling blessed and thankful, to return God's favor by paying it forward, we tipped the man who tied the tree to the top of our truck $10 as well.

These kinds of little prayers resulting in little miracles work for me all the time and they can work for you as well! It just takes faith.

The Actual Tree we got for $10!

What Exactly is Prayer?

In our lives, just how to pray is often confusing and ill-defined as well as often neglected. Does prayer feel like a burden or an obligation to you? Have you reduced prayer to just another habit, or simply something that every good  Christian does? Has prayer become one more thing you work on to keep up with your spiritual life, or, is prayer a treasure map in the quest for fulfillment and happiness? In all of this, the primary question remains:

What exactly is prayer?

Let’s not base our definition on misguided presumptions, and thus perpetuate the same superficial view of prayer.   

To find the answer, let's turn to Jesus.

Jesus is the pray-er. The symphony of his life was conducted joyfully by an unceasing series of prayerful notes. He did not pray out of duty. He did not pray under the duress of guilt and shame. He did not pray to get God in line with His plan. Rather, He prayed because He is the Son of the Father.Jesus grasped His divine identity and as a result cast a vision for life as God intended, a prayerful life. He prayed as beloved dust, in order to talk to someone He loved.

What becomes clear as we observe Jesus praying is that to pray as beloved dust means to pray in reality. We pray in the reality of who we are. We pray as beloved children of the Father. We pray as dusty ones, sinful and broken.

We are called to pray in the truth of our identity. If we do not pray in the truth of who we are, we cannot truly call prayer being with God. Being with God implies that we have actually shown up, that we are actually present. Prayer is not a place to hide and cower like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is a place to be honest, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is not a place to avoid the truth. In fact, prayer is a place to learn the truth.

We are our most true selves when we pray. And yet we all are tempted to embrace a false posture in prayer. Perhaps this false posture is sitting in our dustiness. Rather than relating to God from our acceptance in Christ, we try to self-generate righteousness to make Him love us. Maybe we don't avoid our true selves in prayer, but we sulk in it. We spend our time in prayer brooding, beating ourselves up, and trying to manage our dustiness.

In effect, prayer becomes a place to continue with our soul rather than with God’s. We search within for answers to the problems we uncover and continue to roll around in the dust over and over, thinking it will clean us off just like Dusty the chinchilla! Prayer too often becomes a place for self talk, self fixing, self condemnation, and self obsession. For many of us, it is difficult to receive fully the Good News that we are God's beloved. It is hard for us to turn to anyone else, even God, for rescue, healing, and redemption.

If our earthly parents did not embrace us with an unwavering legitimate love, it is challenging to receive our identity as beloved of our Heavenly Father.  Yep, God is calling us to pray with Jesus,  "Abba father!" (Romans 8:15). In contrast, perhaps we embrace the promises of a beloved child while rejecting our status as dust. This may take the form of presuming upon God. Perhaps we treat God like just another of life's resources rather than the sovereign Creator of the universe who is beyond our grasp. In effect we domesticate God to fit our world. Many of us refuse to acknowledge our temporal nature in prayer. We stubbornly pretend as if we have things under control in prayer, rather than acknowledging the truth that we are feeble and needy creatures. Yet, God is calling us to pray like Jesus, on our knees in desperate need of the One who is above all things.

If we are honest, prayer feels like a challenge. We have made prayer a chore as opposed to a gracious gift. We have made prayer a place to protect a false self, rather than rest in our true selves. Jesus offered us a different vision of prayer.

What we see in Jesus is One who prayed in truth. Jesus prayed from his identity as beloved dust. This is prayer. Not a duty. Not a ritual. Not another item on your TO-DO list. Rather, it is a place of abiding. Prayer is being with a God who is always with you. This call to be with God can be a an important first step. The false postures we have spent years perfecting will not simply be undone by awareness and willpower. These false postures are habits of the heart connected too deep beliefs about God and our souls that can only be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit.  

Our false postures in prayer can only find transformation in prayer itself. If we give ourselves to the Holy Spirit's work of purging false postures and beliefs, we should take a cue from Jesus. He showed us what it looks like to pray in reality, in the truth of our identity. He pointed us to a resource to put off these false postures in prayer. We have His sheet music for a prayer symphony.

There are 150 prayers in the Book of Psalms. We can pray them with Jesus. They can help to locate us in God's redemptive work within. There are Psalms of lament, praise, thanksgiving, and confession. As we enter into the ancient prayers all of the people of Israel, God will begin to open up a pleasing view into the truth of our identity in relationship to Him. As we pray the words of the Psalms, we will hear the voice of God singing the truth of who we are in light of who He is. 

 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4)

How long O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  how long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?  (Psalms 13:1-2)

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your unfair treatment, there is no health in my bones because of my sin, for my weaknesses have gone over my head, like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. (Psalms 38:3-4)

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalms 73:26)

For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. (Psalms 139:13-14)

We must not forget that the prayers of the Psalms are God's word as such they are right speech. They reveal the truth of who God is and who we are. They are not simply prayers offered by men, but our God’s revelation. Could there be a better place for us to learn how to pray? 

The child learns to speak because the parent speaks to the child. The child learns the language of the parent. So we learn to speak to God because God has spoken and speaks to us. In the language of the Father in heaven, God’s children learn to speak with God repeating God's own words, and that’s how we begin to pray to God.

Like a child, as we pray the Psalms, we are learning prayer talk. We are learning to speak to God. We are learning to relate to Him. We are learning that God is God and we are not. We are learning that we desperately need God’s forgiveness. We are learning that by God’s abounding love and grace our Father calls us beloved.

As we pray the prayers of the Psalms, the full picture of our reality will come into focus. We will be set free to be honest about our reality and our relationship with God. As we express our true feelings, the seal of pretense is broken, and the cave of the soul is revealed. We put voice to deep feelings of regret, hurt, and pain. We ask God to search us and know us (Psalms 139:23). The poetic words of the Psalms are rhythmic tools of the Holy Spirit to welcome us into reality and invite us play along with the symphony of Jesus’ soul. In short, the Psalms invite us to pray as Jesus prayed, that our lives may declare,

My heart is steadfast, oh god I will sing and make melody with all my being! (Psalms 108:1)

What about you? Have you ever felt that praying was a chore, a duty to check off your TO-DO list as part of a daily Christian ritual? Are you totally honest with God in prayer? Pause today and think about how you relate to God in prayer. Ask God to show you how to think and pray differently.

Submit yourself, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

Join along in my daily devotional blog posts! I would love to hear from you in the form of blog comments!

When You Feel Alone . . .

We all have times when we feel completely alone. Sometimes it's like nobody cares or even notices that we exist. You can be in a house full of people and still feel isolated. I know this sensation all too well because it has happened to me many times, especially when I'm at my lowest point during a bout of depression. 

The only way I know how to get out of this rut is to always remember that no matter how alone you feel, God is always just a prayer away. I pray... and ask God to help me not feel so alone and I also ask Him what I can do to get out of this lonely funk and I remind God that I cannot do it on my own.  

So I ask God to help and show me what it is that He and I can do to help me feel better. And when I do this God always helps me get back on my feet. I think He answers my prayers because we have such an extremely close relationship. You have to establish a good, sound relationship with God first and except Jesus into your heard as your savior and once you do that, many blessings will come your way. 

What is the Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Fruit is the delectable product of that which is created by the inner life of the vine. On the eve of the crucifixion, the Lord put it this way, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of it's self, unless it abides in the vine, neither you can, unless you abide in me." (John:15-4)

Earlier on a Galilean hillside, He had said, "By their fruits you will know them." (Matthew 7:20)

The fruit we bear as believers is evidence of His abiding on the throne of our lives.

At first glance, there appears to be a grammatical error in this verse. Note carefully: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." The truth is that the fruit of the spirit is love...Love, period. The nine fruits listed here are a cluster describing the evidence of the life of Christ within us. The fruit is singular here because it is the outcropping of one's life within. The fruit represents what we ARE rather than what we DO. Here we are reintroduced to the principle of BEING before DOING. What we do is determined by whom we really are.

The fruit described in Galatians is a triad: three clusters with three fruit each. They are reflected in a countenance, that is obvious, conduct that is orderly, and a character that is obedient.

A Countenance That is Obvious: Love, Joy, Peace.

Certain individuals seem to have a countenance of love, joy and peace. The word translated "love" here is Agape, God's own love. Agape is the highest level of love, the kind that always seeks the other's highest good. It is the same word we found back in the John 3:16 statement that "God so loved the world." It is no coincidence that Love is first on the list of the nine pieces of fruit here. It is the foundation of all the others.

What is Faith?

What is Faith?

The Bible teaches that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. When I was seven, I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ for what He did not for just me but for all humanity when He came to earth, down from heaven in human form.

He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross for the sins of the world. He was buried and then resurrected, proving He triumphed over death and then went to the right hand of God where He mediates for those who put their trust and faith in Him. 

So when I heard and learned about that, I responded and I surrendered, I was Baptized in the Holy Spirit and my trust and faith has been in Him ever since.

The Lord is my Sheperd

Every year Psalm 23 ranks one of the most-read chapters of the Bible. This inspiring version will show you exactly why people find so much comfort in these inspired words and sentiments.

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want, He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quit waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.