Category: Bible

2010 Resolution # 6

tlc4womenLeave a comment
heartchageministry.com

My final resolution is Commitment to Jesus Completely. Pastor Rob Koke taught on three forms of commitment and I have to say that I want when God searches my heart for Him to find that my commitments to him are core and not private.

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son. God gave it all. The very least I can do is give Jesus everything. Everything means all of it. It means I have to make a commitment that reaches beyond my selfish ambition.

There are three forms of commitment according to Pastor Rob Koke.

There is the belief in God that is public commitment. Public commitment means that you say it because it sounds good. Politicians say at the end of their speeches, “God bless you and God bless America.” They say it because everyone says it and it sounds good and it’s good for business. Public commitment is what we say because it sounds good. There is no other fruit to bear witness to that belief. Only words. Merely words. Some of us come to church on Sunday because it pleases our spouse or our parents or in our mind it’s what we are supposed to do but in no other way do we show any sort of commitment to Jesus. It’s not displayed in our lives.

Then there is Private Commitment. Private commitment is what we think we believe, and we really do think we believe it until something happens to prove our commitment and we find out we didn’t really believe it after all. This is like Peter when he at the last supper with Jesus, after saying you are the Messiah, after following him for three years he says to Jesus, I’m going to the mat for you. Jesus says, “Peter, before it’s all over tonight you’ll deny me three times.” Peter is like NO WAY, NOT GONNA HAPPEN. But it happens.

Private commitment, as I understand it, is I believe my house is going to serve the Lord until another idol rises against it. A woman, raised her children in church, her husband and she were elders in the church, she grew up in the church and she goes still today. Only her children have grown up and moved away and her husband has died. She has found love again but to do things right and get married, she must give up her husband’s pension. So she says in her heart that God will understand her fornication and she and her friend move in together. After all, it’s not her fault the government is the way it is. Suddenly her testimony is tainted and everyone is shocked. Private commitment, we believe it to be right until it might cost us something. Private commitment shows a distrust of God. We need to trust him that he will work it out. Private commitment is, I don’t believe there should be pictures of half-naked bodies on the Internet, until I look at my kid’s MySpace and then I think that it’s her own private site and none of my business. It isn’t that I don’t love God. I believe Peter loved God, the woman who is shacking up loves God and the parents struggling with the kid’s MySpace page love God but it’s a love that is willing to be put aside for what we want.

Finally there is core commitment. Core commitments can be that we believe if we stand on a rooftop and jump we will get hurt because no matter how much we will it to be different, gravity takes over and we fall rather than soar. Core commitment are those things that we believe that can’t be shaken no matter how much we try. Job had core commitment. He said, I don’t know what is going on but I know God is God. Abraham had core commitment. He was going to sacrifice his son but He knew God will not forsake him. Peter had core commitment after he wept bitterly, met up with his frailty and overcame it.

Lord, help me to trust you. To be so entwined in your life so that our hearts look like one. That would bless me beyond imagination!

2010 Resolution #5

tlc4womenLeave a comment
http://www.ecofriend.org/ entry eco-bible...-friendly

My fifth resolution is to study the bible and not form my own idea of what it means. The Lord asked me an important question a few months ago. He said, “Where can deity dwell? Many lift their hands in worship and sing Hallelujah but their homes are legacies of chaos.” I repented that day and went home to earnestly seek out if I was the one he was speaking about because I really want to live a holy life. Not a religious life, there is a HUGE difference.

I’d like to live a life that honors God. One that looks different than my neighbors. I want to live a life that glorifies the Father and doesn’t stain the name of Jesus. That means I have to live out what the bible says and not what my excuse is. It means that maybe I have turn some shows off that are just not healthy for my family to watch. It means that just because every other kid on the block is getting drunk at parties doesn’t mean mine have to be. It means that I am not going to bring my children to wrath by standing in church and saying one thing and going home and doing another. It doesn’t mean I am going to be perfect, or that God expects me to be, but there is a long way from excuses and perfection.

I was praying for my TLC women because I saw something that struck my heart. I have a nice big group when we do self-focused bible studies. In other words, when I bring a study that is helping the women overcome some of their life struggles then they LOVE it! When I do a bible study to study the word of God for it’s own merit, they don’t love the study or me as much. They don’t do their homework. They drop out in record numbers. I was praying that their private commitment of ‘what’s in for me’, becomes a core commitment of ‘my testimony is not the only way to help people’. Knowing the word of God, for the word’s sake, and not my own, is what’s important. As their leader the buck stops with me, what am I not communicating to them? I have to accept that responsibility.

We all know what the Lord hates. Yet we call ourselves believers and then continue to sin. We can’t keep talking out of the both sides of our mouth and continue to have any sort of testimony in our communities. Pastor Mark Crow preached a message in which he quoted statistics on church attendance. He said the builder generation the generation of WWII was 65% churched, the Baby Boomers were 32% churched, the Gen Xers were 16% and this new generation is 4% churched. See, we said we loved the Lord but we didn’t teach it to the next generation and if we did it did not match our walk.

If we are going to rationalize the word and make excuses as to why we are addicted to porn or alcohol or shacking up with our significant other or have a society where we take pride in being called a baby mama or baby daddy then we really can’t say we are believers. The words and the actions don’t match up and actions speak louder than words. And our kids are watching what we do not what we say. Lord let us become the women you’ve called us to be and not women who say one thing when our lives clearly show another.

2010 Resolution #4

tlc4womenLeave a comment
http://www.newsweek.com

My fourth resolution is my tithe before wants. Everyone of you know how I feel about tithing. I believe in it and I give my tithe not out of a feeling of I must but out of a feeling of I want to. I am a cheerful giver. When I was first a believer I was taught to tithe and the reason for it and I got it! How could I not give him everything when he gave me everything?

Only I have confession to make. I have absolutely no problem tithing my money. I give tithes and then some, I give offerings and plenty of them but I don’t always give the tithes of all of my life. Remember tithe is not just money. That would be easy for me to give I’m not a control freak about the tithe. I am a control freak about the 80% I live on I’ll admit that. What I don’t always give is my time and talent. Sometimes, I tithe my time to the Internet, sometimes to a good book, sometimes I tithe my time to sleep, sometimes I tithe my time to a good friend who I want to share a tea and gossip with and many times I tithe my time to chores and work.

I’ve become really good at fooling myself. I say, “My whole life is a tithe, I work for the church.” Not true, the time I work for the church is service to others and not about my personal relationship with the Lord. Sometimes I feel like Jesus is speaking to me when he said to the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, “Could you not have kept watch with me an hour?” I am so so sorry at the time and I try to do better but just like the disciples I go back to the slumber of my life. I don’t neglect my prayer life, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t take the challenges that come my way necessarily as first fruits but rather I take them for granted and sometimes give what is leftover.

This year, I’m striving to stay awake. Take an assessment of your life. Do you tithe? Money? Time? Talent? Or do you give the leftovers? It will determine your life’s blessings. Wisdom comes from the Lord. God knows I need more wisdom, yet the word tells us she cries in the street. I want to still her cries this year and I want to sit at her feet. That demands my attention and the best of me, not what is left over.

Merry Christmas!

tlc4womenLeave a comment
ew.com

Luke 2:8. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
15. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
18. and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
19. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
20. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

May your home be filled with Joy as you celebrate our Savior’s birth!

Merry Christmas!

What do I Need? Part 2

tlc4womenLeave a comment
http://www.sodahead.com

Ephesians 1:11-23 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free – signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life. That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you – every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask – ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory – to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him – endless energy, boundless strength!
All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.-The Message

What Do I Need?

tlc4women2 Comments
christmas-ideas-world.com

During this season a question keeps getting asked of me. “What do you want for Christmas? What do you need?” Normally, I have a list of things people can buy. One Christmas I gave Casey the job of getting white Spa Towels, big and fluffy. I gave Anthony the job of getting a lip gloss from Bare Essentials, you get the picture. This year wasn’t an exception, I gave everyone their list but the question struck me this year in a different way.

Do any of us really know what we want? Do we understand what we need? I mean those of us who are followers of Christ say we need God, yet we come to him as our last resort. We try every other angle first and then come to God when nothing else is left to try. We raise our hands in service as an act of submission then go back to the chaos that leads our lives. Why is that? Do we believe in the chaos more than we believe in the Father?

This year I want and need for my home to serve the Lord. What I see is that many of us leave a legacy where God is unwelcome. What do we want? What do we need?

We enter relationships where we say we want one thing but then find that thing boring and move on to the more dangerous partner. The one who is unsettled, the one who is unprepared to receive us. Or is it that we are unprepared and unwilling to make a commitment to wait even if it means being alone?

Maybe the problem is we really have no idea what we want and we certainly have not conferred with anyone as to what we need. So we are tossed here and there by what sounds good to our ears at the moment. We go off chasing things we think we need so desperately only to find that it is unfulfilling. Only it didn’t meet the need we thought and we leave disappointed and ready to chase the next best thing.

Israel had a legacy of chasing whims until one day God said he’d had enough and stopped speaking. 400 years later we heard his voice in the sound a baby’s cry. We believe the story, we believe the salvation but we don’t know if we are ready to make that commitment. What if we aren’t happy with the results? What is happiness? What is the thing we are chasing? Do we even know anymore? Is a good enough life, good enough?

This year, I have to be honest. I need no material thing. I want no material thing. The Lord has spent this year talking to me about rest. I have changed a few things in my life to enjoy my life a little more but I have a long way to go. I know what I need and I know what I want and it’s nothing you can buy in a store. I want more Jesus this year. I want more time to spend time in relationships. You and I both know what will happen now. Things will come up left and right to make me take my eyes of the focus of what I need. We call those things the tyranny of the urgent. It will be up to me to stay focused. Just like an athlete I will have to train.

Enough about me, what is it that you need this year?

He Prepares A Table For Me

tlc4women5 Comments
http://interiordesign.lovetoknow.com/Image:Xmasdinner.jpg

When we think of preparing a table we think of a feast. That is exactly what this post speaks to. A feast with a variety of food, the best china and silverware and all the finest food that’s been elegantly prepared. Now stretch your mind a little and instead of seeing a feast of food, look at a feast of possibilities because all things are possible with God. God prepares a feast for you and your only mandate is to come and choose from among the endless possibilities. He prepares opportunities for your success and great surprises as well.

The man whom you choose should never be limiting. He should see the endless possibilities in himself and in you and should prepare an environment where those possibilities are able to thrive and come alive. He should not be the one who fills you wth doubt and he should not be the one who places limits on your potential. Instead he should be your greatest ally. He should be your best encourager.

That is not to say that he doesn’t steer you in the right direction as he has your best interest at heart. That is not to say that he won’t say no to certain things that are not beneficial to you. How will he know that? He is a man of God, a man who truly took the time to get to know you. He is a man who wasn’t only after sex but after a whole woman because he is a whole man. He is a man who knows what it means to be a husband, a man who has died out to his selfish desires as he looks after you.

And what is your role in all of this? You have prepared yourself. You’ve become the woman who is attractive to a man who isn’t carrying around baggage. You aren’t selfish, lazy or determined to sabotage a good relationship because you failed to recognize a whole man.

1 Corinthians – Christmas Version

tlc4women2 Comments

My Christmas Tree before the dogs decided to play tug 'o war with it.

First Corinthians- Christmas version

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny tinsel, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with colored lights and crocheted snowflakes, hang stockings on the mantel and attend a myriad of holiday parties, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.. But giving the gift of love will endure.

-Something to think about as we try to provide the “perfect” Christmas each and every year.
The stuff is forgotten but the memories of love, happiness, friends, and family will remain.

The Spirit Of The Wannabe

tlc4women4 Comments

In the bible there was a man named Adonijah who thought he was leadership material and announced it by taking over a kingdom. He had a few followers but the true leadership of the time wasn’t behind him. He took over without the blessing of King David who had promised the throne to Solomon.

1 Kings 1:5 Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. 6 (His father had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.) 7 Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support. 8 But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei and David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.

Because he never qualified for leadership, he was unseated rather quickly. Rather than take it like a man, he went to the King’s mother to complain that he had been unseated unfairly. In Adonijah’s own eyes he was owed something. So we find Adonijah complaining with the victim mentality of how he is now owed something and trying to make a deal he has no right even asking for.

1 Kings 2:13 Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. Bathsheba asked him, “Do you come peacefully?” He answered, “Yes, peacefully.” 14 Then he added, “I have something to say to you.” “You may say it,” she replied. 15 “As you know,” he said, “the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the Lord.

So there is nothing new here. It is the Spirit of the Wannabe and it struck a chord with me. Leadership always makes a place for itself. It can’t be faked. I have been a leader my whole life. Part of it is that I was a first born and so naturally bossy and a take-charge personality. A bigger part is a God-ordained gift. Pastor Doug laughs when I bring up the Spirit of the Wannabe and has added to the phrase, “Those that don’t wannabe leaders often are.” It’s true. Leaders naturally lead and others always see their ability.

The Wannabe tries to overtake a position without qualification. The Wannabe is the one crying loudly about how victimized they are and yet how much of a leader they are and how they would do things differently. They create chaos and in that chaos they try to overtake a position. True leadership makes a place for itself through natural talent, appropriately directed. Satan was an angel who had a gift of praise and worship and a position in a kingdom but like Adonijah he tried to forcibly take a position that wasn’t his. Satan was the first one with the Spirit of the Wannabe. He got a few followers but was not able to sustain it and he was unseated in quick order.

You see a true leader really doesn’t fail. The idea may not work but it doesn’t keep the leader stuck in a losing proposition for any length of time. The true leader gets up and tries again even when they don’t want to because their gift directs their path. They never need smoke and mirrors they just are. Leadership is natural but it still has to be developed to its full potential. This is where the Wannabe and the Leader part ways. The leader takes the time to develop skills, the wannabe fakes it saying phrases like “fake it till you make it”. Only the problem with that is authentic leadership doesn’t have to fake it, and wannabes never make it.