Encouraging one another, all the more
What do we know about spiritual gifts? Not a lot. A simple google search on “passages relating to spiritual gifts” pulled up about three passages from scripture. A little over a month ago I participated in a corporate fast with my church. Prior to the fast, we were asked to fast from something and to fast for something. The question being: “What distances you from God (that you could fast from) and what brings you closer to Him (that you could fast for)?”
I love this time of year. Winter’s leftovers are fading away and new life is popping up everywhere outside! This time of year energizes me and brings a renewed motivation to accomplish some of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. For me, I want 2018 to be a year of finding healing and wholeness in Christ. I desire to spend more quality time with God and have a more fruitful prayer life. But so far it’s felt like I’m doing the same thing day in and day out: devotionals, studying a book of the bible, and praying through the prayer requests in our small group. Honestly I was starting to get bored with it.
Why was it that finding a seat in the lunchroom was one of those monumental moments, not only in books or hollywood, but also in reality?
For the past six years, God has been bringing me through a journey of enlightenment and freedom (that’s fancy talk, for “a bumpy road of obedience and discipline”). First, it started with the scaling back of material things to an almost minimalist lifestyle. I say almost minimalist because our tiny house is bursting with stuff, and I NEED IT ALL! Really I don’t NEED it, but the pieces I do have in my home have sentimental value and allow me to be creative by showing my personal style. My husband calls my style “granny chic” because my collection is filled with lace doilies, knitted blankets, tea cups, milk glass, scented candles, and nothing matches. Six years ago we went from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home to a cozy 800 square foot home. We moved. I cried. But God was faithful.
Jesus is really good at taking an issue to the extreme, am I right? Did that guy take your coat? Well, give him your shirt too! (Luke 6:29) Did you think about that woman with anger? You just killed her in your heart! (Matthew 5:21-22) You think you are following the Law? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE LAW! (pretty much the whole first four books of the New Testament)
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. -Proverbs 4:23
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
As the new year started, I dove into the only real New Year’s resolution I made for 2018: actually and intentionally reading the Bible every day on my own. Not for class, not in church, not for the sake of my son, not at the prompting of my husband or prayer group. One might think as a seminarian, missionary, Christian blogger, yada yada yada I would already be doing this. One would be wrong. Well, we’re 23 days into January as I write this and I’m pleasantly relieved to report that we’re going strong. I chose, somewhat randomly, to start in the book of Joshua and it’s been fascinating. Having grown up around church, I am often struck now reading the Old Testament through adult eyes and realizing that many of the stories were presented through unnecessarily rose-colored glasses, sometimes changing their meaning altogether. (Judges, for example, not what I […]
“New Year, New Me!” It’s a phrase you see and hear about all over the place this time of the year. Everyone is setting out to make new goals and setting out to change themselves. Some goals will stick and others won’t. It’s a time where people redefine themselves and ask the question – who am I?
As I completed a study of Exodus this past month, I was stunned by the many stories of people in the Bible confessing their belief in God and then quickly turning to an idol or to their own way. I am reminded of my own broken, messy story that gets messier when I listen to the world rather than to God or when I choose what is easy over what is right in God’s eyes. When I, or you, do that, we are intentionally falling away from our Great Redeemer and the Overseer of our souls.