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“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8

God never ceases to remind me that He has got this. It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged, and the honest truth is that I was nervous to start writing again. I’ve been in what some people would call “a rough season” lately. My family has been grieving the recent loss of my father-in-law as well as the continued grief from the loss of my sister-in-law earlier this year. True to the nature of our world, even the smaller things haven’t let up either. It very much has felt like one of those “When it rains, it pours” situations. The saddest part, though, is in knowing that many, if not all, of you, have been through seasons like this as well.

As I stared into this stormy season, I prayed that God would show me the good within the bad. I knew that God was not abandoning us and that He was working good things even in the most tragic times. My prayers were answered. I was able to see a bit more of God’s timing, His good, and perfect plans still holding strong and protecting us. Trusting in Him has never failed to show me that good is there and that even better is coming. Our God’s heart breaks at the evil in our world, especially when that evil breaks our hearts. Out of all God’s creations, He cares most deeply for us. 

There is a song lyric that has been ringing loudly in my head that goes, “There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.” God has overcome the night. He has overcome the evil in our world. He is there, strongly present, in the most tragic seasons of our lives. Our Lord does not grow weary, He never stops working for the good of those who love Him. I encourage you to keep praying when it’s the hardest to pray. Pray for eyes to see the good that God has been carrying out in your situation. Invite the Holy Spirit into your pain, into your anger, into your darkest moments. God does not abandon us, He does not forsake us, and He will not fail us. Hope can always be found. Then, when you do find those bits of peace and joy, don’t forget to praise the God who gives unconditionally.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

“So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” John 16:22

“Now let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant.” Psalms 119:76

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Last month I had the opportunity to attend RefresHer 2022 with Ignite Life and a whole bunch of our Kingman Women. The amazing team that put this outreach together truly amazed me and gave me so many new tools for BeComIng who God wants me to be. While there was such wisdom given by the speakers, Robin Smith definitely spoke to me the most. She discussed what it means not just to live pure in your sex life, but also in every other part of your life. She related the other parts of our lives to different rooms of our house. The entryway was letting Jesus be your Lord and savior. By letting Jesus past the entryway and into the other rooms of your house, you can be fully transformed by His loving Grace. 

As many of you know, I have a unique testimony when it comes to coming to Christ as well as getting to marry my husband. I had dated my husband both within and without having a pure sex life. Pure sex life is the biblical model of waiting until marriage. But that’s not the only area that Jesus wants us to live purely. After being married now for almost 6 months, I can tell you that it is extremely rewarding and difficult at the same time. It’s definitely one of the most challenging adventures I’ve taken on. Just before I attended the RefresHer, Jon and I had hit a particularly messy part of our marriage. We were arguing almost every night, we weren’t loving each other as Christ loves us, and we just weren’t being the Godly parents we wanted to be. After the RefresHer, I went out on a date with my husband. We sat down and I confessed all the things that I felt I wasn’t walking out in purity. 

As a result, Purity has taken on a completely different definition for myself and my household. Purity means making sure you are reading/watching and listening to things that honor God, bring you closer to Him, and don’t hurt your relationship with Him. It means that you have an appetite for what God feeds you, not what the world tries to feed you. Robin asked us, “Does your day start with Jesus? Do you allow Him to sit with you and just hang out?” That’s what He really wants, after all. He wants to know us in such an intimate way. What about the gifts that God has given you? Are you using them to further the kingdom of God or are you keeping them tucked away? In all the areas of your life, I would urge you to ask this question: Is Jesus comfortable where I am taking Him? If the answer is no, then maybe we shouldn’t do that. 

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis wrote: Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh,” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…” Safe?” said Mr. Beaver …” Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Why do we expect God to be safe? Why do we expect life to be safe? Why do we expect our dreams, interpersonal encounters, and best-laid plans to be safe? When we were younger we didn’t ask this question. We let our soul ask its own questions: where is the romance, what is my irreplaceable role, do I have a beauty all my own to unveil??? None of these questions are safe. Not one. They have led us into our deepest wounds. But they are where our greatest joys live too.

What is safety? Something that is safe has been denied the chance to do harm. But if you deny even the possibility of bad then can you really trust the good either? You live in a middle ground, frequently played on by Hollywood movies like the Matrix, the Truman Show, and (here’s a stretch) Brigadoon. When God created people he created them with free will so that their choice to love Him would be genuine. Not forced. Not safe. Bad things followed and a rescue was initiated. That’s the crazy love story we live in today. A very unsafe space of radical love, danger, tough choices, uncertainty, testimony, opposition, conquests and so much more.

How are you living your life? Are you trying your hardest to stay safe or are you trusting in a God who has nothing but good for you? Yes, there will be hard things but they will transform you in ways He wants you to grow if you turn to Him. Don’t place safety over the goodness of God’s character. Trust the questions of your heart to a God who knows you best and loves you most.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor.
[Isa 61:3b NIV]

The Bible uses the most beautiful Eden imagery to describe growing in Christ. Oak trees are incredibly evocative because these massive organisms grow from such humble, tiny acorns. Before they can push up that first tender sapling, acorns must first send down a robust taproot deep into the soil in order to absorb the rich nutrients below. The Apostle Paul must have been aware of this fact when he reminded us that we are to be “rooted and established” in the fertile soil of God’s love for us (Ephesians 3:17). What a glorious image! However, not everyone is on the same page about our growth to be more and more like Jesus is to proceed.

Grace, Truth, and Time

     John Cloud and Henry Townsend write in their book, How People Grow, thatGod’s primary nutrients for us as growers are grace, truth, and time. These three elements, processed in the relationship, must all be present to make healthy growth possible. We need to root down into the grace of God’s love before we can even begin to face the hard truth of what needs to change, and we need time to train with others in order to learn God’s healthy strategies for growing into “oaks of righteousness.” 

Four Common Models for Growth

    Cloud and Townsend write about four incomplete models for growth that most of us encounter. Each one has essential elements of truth, but none has all three aspects of grace, truth, and time.

• The Sin Model: God is good; you are bad; stop it. This model does not include the Holy Spirit as a grace-filled source for change and does not include the time needed to process sin’s challenges and consequences with safe, godly people.
• The Truth Model: Just learn more Scriptures and doctrine, and somehow, your behavior will mysteriously change. This model points to the need for taking in God’s word and infers the time needed for change, but the support of others and God’s grace to sustain a grower are not mentioned.
• The Experience Model: Just get the pain of your life out, and you will have the power to heal and change. We do have to find out what is below our emotional water line and confess this truth, but this model does not mention supportive others, God’s grace, and time for unlearning and re-learning. 
• The Supernatural Model: God can instantly heal you and deliver you. Passively depend on the Holy Spirit to make change happen. Just get out of the way so Jesus can reproduce His life in you. God does deliver instantly, but most often, He chooses to develop us over a lifetime. This model contains God’s grace but does not make room for asking and receiving forgiveness, then digging in and training with safe others to do the gritty work that change requires.

     Which model has been the primary driver of growth in your life? Are all three nutrients of grace, truth, and time a part of your journey to be more like Jesus?

God’s Growth Model

     Our Abba, our Daddy-God, is a fantastic gardener, tending us carefully, knowing what fragile little shoots we are. His growth plan contains the grace, truth, and time we need in order to root down into His love and grow into “oaks of righteousness.”  Does the following plan feel doable to you?

• Tell God the truth about your mess.
• Ask Jesus to come to live in your heart.
  • Receive God’s forgiveness, cleansing, and acceptance.
  • Accept God’s offer of a “do-over.”
• Train with His Holy Spirit as your coach by:
  • Studying God’s Word and asking the Holy Spirit to help you understand what God is saying to you about your true identity in Christ and your true role in life.
  • Talking to God constantly about everything.
  • Asking for help to bond to healthy others yet be yourself and accept the mixture of good and bad in yourself and others during the growth process.
• Process your journey with others to receive:
  • Reality checks.
  • Love and acceptance.
  • Support and counseling.

     God wants us to grow! The people around us need all the grace and truth-wrapped-in-love we can give them. We can indeed grow into mighty oaks that pass on Jesus’ ability to provide the right response, at the right time, and for the right reason, if we receive the grace, truth, and time to grow, He is offering us. What do you say, little acorn? Are you ready to grow God’s way?

“Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith”
Colossians 4:6

I’m not exactly sure what God is speaking to me right now. There definitely is a theme to the message, though. 

• Sunday morning, Matt preached about Love 401. 
• My devotions this week have been about Cori Ten Boon and Rosa Parks. 
• Today’s scripture is quoted above. 

So, what is this theme: Love your enemies.

I’ve searched and do not find any current relationships that hold this struggle. The only confusion I can come to is that there must be something in my path that I will need this for. 

I’ve been walking with Jesus throughout my adult life. There are no words to describe the comfort that a relationship with Jesus brings in times of struggle or the sense of community in times of celebration. Through it all, God is good. 

I remember when I first came across the concept of praying for those who hurt me. I had a laundry list of reasons my feelings and behavior were justifiable. I struggled with low self-worth, repressed trauma, and self-sabotage. I was also miserable. I was absolutely sick and tired of being sick and tired. I didn’t even know HOW to start praying for people I had deep-seated animosity toward. 

These are the steps I took:

• Pray for the willingness to pray for that person
• Pray for God to help me see that person through His eyes
• Pray for blessings for that person

I must start with asking God to make me willing to pray for people who have hurt me. I begin by laying my wounds at His feet. He knows my pain and honors that wound. Once I have let God have complete possession of my pain, I can see past it. This doesn’t happen all at one time. It’s a process that may take several days, weeks, or months. 

Everyone is walking around with baggage they don’t share. Once I am willing to pray for the person, I start asking God to help me see them through His eyes. To change the lens of my glasses to “Son” shades. Praying to see others through God’s eyes helps me develop empathy and compassion, regardless of the situation. 

Now I can set my flesh aside and ask God to bless that person with all He has for them. 

I want to tell you this is a simple process, but it is NOT easy or quick. It does not guarantee that anything will change in the person I see as my enemy. It also does not require that you reconcile an unhealthy or abusive relationship. 

This process heals ME. It empties the poison of pain and resentment from my soul. It allows me to grow closer to Jesus and show His love to those around me. 

“⁶ I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: ⁷ ‘Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? ⁸ Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? ⁹ Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?’ ¹⁰ Then I thought, ‘To this, I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. ¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.'” [Psalm 77:6-11 NIV]

  Do you know the difference between a lament and a complaint?  A complaint emerges out of a victim mindset, often talking about God being unkind or unfair. There is no forward movement with a complaint.  Instead, the one groaning pitches a tent in a swamp of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment, waiting for someone to come along and fix the situation. Our complaints often emerge from pride, demanding that we escape any suffering.  A lament, however, honestly and humbly expresses grief, suffering, or sadness directly to God, asking Him for comfort and His energy to move forward. When we lament, we cry out with our eyes fixed on Jesus, telling Him the truth of our situation with the expectation that He will help us move from chaos to confidence.  Why this confidence?  God has promised to work all things for good, even when we don’t like our circumstances, would not have chosen them, and are lamenting them.  Jesus also promised to return and do away with all this suffering, a hope that can steady our trembling knees and keep us marching on.

     One of the best strategies to keep us moving forward is to remember what God has already done.  When we look in our rearview mirrors to remember the times God has moved mountains or even pebbles in our lives, we re-fuel our faith.  Why is this?  Since God is unchanging in His love for us, and since His love never fails us, we trust that He loves us now, even if seeing His footprint in our current struggle is so difficult. 

     Psalm 77 is a wonderful template for going back to move forward.  Asaph’s song of remembrance begins with an expectant cry that God is listening (v.1-3). then concludes with God’s rescue (v.19:20).  Asaph moved from tragedy to triumph by first voicing his lament by asking five common questions that we are often afraid to voice when God doesn’t appear to answer prayer (v. 7-9).  Then he chooses to remember God’s deeds (v.10-12). After looking in the rearview mirror, He is able to tell himself that God is still the Great Redeemer (v.13-15). He then sings of God’s power at Sinai and the Red Sea (v. 16-18).  Asaph moves from a humble cry to conclude that God often leads us to safety, but that way may have to be made through a great sea, where God’s footprints are not visible (v. 19).

     There is great power in remembering what God has already done.  Taking time to list the way God has moved in your life is one way to look back in order to move forward. Reviewing that list often and adding to it can add some muscle to your faith, especially when God’s footprints are invisible and chaos is swirling.  We can all put on our lists that Jesus died for us and has redeemed us, already proving His love for us (Romans 5:8). So, remember and keep trusting that God’s love for you is unfailing and He is able to work all this for your good.

Verse for the rear-view mirror:

“But if from there you seek the Lord Your God, you will find Him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deut. 4:29

Seek the Lord – Seek His presence: To be before His face is to be in His presence. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God. 1 Chron. 22:19a: “Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.” and Col. 3:1-2 we are reminded to “set our hearts and minds on things above.”

In Psalm 34:10, the scripture tells that “Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” and Psalm 14:2 says that “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”

God is looking for us to seek Him. Are you ready to become a seeker today? In Jeremiah 29:13, ” …when you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.”

Have you thought about seeking God’s face instead of His hand? Do you go to God with your list of things you need from Him? Maybe you are running low on groceries or need gas in your car? You might say these are necessities that I need and so it should be okay to ask God to provide these things, right? Matthew 6:33, states “Seek God first and all these things will be added unto you.”

Today, we want to focus on seeking God’s face. Are you seeking God’s face in whatever situation you are in? What is going on in your life today? Is this a situation where you feel like you need to seek God’s face or His hand? When you get on your knees or sit to pray, can you picture God’s face and being in His presence?

I would like to encourage you to start focusing on being in the presence of God and when you pray, all those things you have on your list will be taken care of as you dive into His presence.

In my last blog, I spoke about deliverance. I pray that you have been reading the deliverance scriptures and inserting your name in the place where it pertains to what God has promised you in His word. One of the scriptures was in Psalm 34:17. This scripture speaks about the righteous crying out to God. I believe this type of cry will be the one that puts you in the presence of God as it comes from deep in your heart and soul. I pray that in this time of crying out, you will feel the presence of God as He delivers you out of all your troubles.

If you want to become a seeker, this will take time and effort. You will need to set aside a specific time daily, preferably in the morning to intentionally spend time with God and allow Him to penetrate your mind and soul. Prov. 8:17 says “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”

In Charles Stanley’s Devotion, he lists some ways you can began seeking God and it starts with scripture and prayer. He also lists a few more ways to seek God including spending time with Him, meditating on God’s word, listening for His voice, slowly digesting what you read, talking to the Lord, asking Him questions, and applying what you learn.

When you take a pause in your day to spend time seeking the Lord (Psalm 105:4), you will position yourself to be aligned with God and His will for your life daily. This will make you aware of His continuous presence (Psalm 34:1) and allow you to surrender control of your life to Him. You will begin to acquire a hunger for the Lord and pursue Him and the more you pursue Him, the greater your cravings will be.

May you have a desire to become a seeker and acquire a deeper understanding and knowledge of Him. Prov. 2:4-6

Simple Prayer: Make me aware of Your presence every day and never let me turn my eyes from You. Be the vision of my life.

Scriptures for study: Lam. 3:35; Amos 5:4; Hosea 10:12; Isa. 55:6; Prov. 28:5; Psalm 105:3

Written by Idella Zell

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live’ “[Eze 37:9 NIV].

 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [Gen 2:7 NIV].

     One of the biggest challenges in Christianity is understanding the difference between God’s job and our job.  John Cloud and Henry Townsend, in their book, How People Grow, sum up God’s job and our job the following way:

When we try to push God off His throne so that we can take a shot at creating and being the source of life, at controlling the world, judging everyone, and being the chief rule-maker, no wonder we flame out in utter exhaustion! We are not hard-wired for that amount of responsibility and stress. When we disconnect from God as the Source of Life, we are like some allergic-to-dependence, on-the-edge-of-death ICU patient, who yanks out all her tubes, only to discover she has unhooked herself from what supports her very existence.  Hurry sickness can cause some of us to be constantly on the move, no slowing, much less stopping, to catch our spiritual breath.  But God designed our entire being to function with His made-just-for-us, unforced rhythms of resting, then acting; of praying, then doing; and of receiving, then giving.

     Ezekiel 37 gives us a wonderful visual of dry bones receiving God’s CPR.  In verse 3, when Ezekiel in a vision, sees a large mass of desiccated bones littering the valley floor, God asks him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel is smart enough to answer, “Sovereign LORD, You alone know.” Then God tells the prophet to tell the dry bones to pay attention to His Word, for He is going to make breath come into them and bring them to life.  God calls the breath from the four winds and the dry bones are resurrected into a vast army.  Only God, “who gives breath to all living things” could speak life into those old bones.   

[Dan 10:17 NIV] 17 How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.”

[Num 16:22 NIV] 22 But Moses and Aaron fell face down and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

[Job 12:10 NIV] 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

[Psa 150:6 NIV] 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

[Exo 14:14 NIV] 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

[Psa 37:7 NIV] 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes.

[Psa 46:10 NIV] 10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

[Zec 2:13 NIV] 13 Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

LORD JESUS, MAKE MY HEART SIT DOWN!

Patient Trust
A prayer by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955)

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
To reach the end without delay should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
To something unknown,
Something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
That it is made by passing through
Some stages of instability –
And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
Your ideas mature gradually –
Let them grow
Let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
As though you could be today at what time(that is to say, grace and circumstances
Acting on your own goodwill)
Will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
Gradually forming within you, will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
That his hand is leading you,
And accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
In suspense, and incomplete.

Amen

Galatians 6:2 tells us to carry one another’s burdens.

I’ve been meditating on this idea heavily.

I’m coming up on almost one year since my youngest child graduated from high school. Soon after that, both of my young adult children left for college, and my nest was empty for the first time.

For many people, this is a complex and intensely emotional transition.

Life was a bit hectic just before college move-in for my youngest. The first couple of weeks were difficult for her, but I stayed pretty even. I have been pondering why my experience was not what I had imagined.

I have concluded that relationships are what held me up. I have a few deep friendships that see me through EVERYTHING. I am so thankful for those women who know me so intimately that we can just sit in the same room, be still and quiet, and the Holy Spirit does all of the talking. If you have 1-3 people in your life that fit that description, you are blessed beyond measure.

I also have friends who walk with me through the regular day-to-day life. We share prayer requests and stories about family, jobs, and church. They are consistent, and my life is rich because they are part of it. Journey and Discipleship groups are great places to start or nurture those relationships. 

Pastor Matt has reminded us that relationships are everything through the stories of the man with leprosy and the paralyzed man. We are created to be in a relationship with Jesus and each other. When those relationships are unhealthy or severed, we become spiritually sick. The pandemic forced us to separate from each other physically. This was difficult and traumatic for everyone, especially those who did not already have deep connections with other people.

I thought about the beginning of the pandemic when Pastor Matt talked about how people with leprosy were treated and expected to act. They are forced to live outside of the community’s physical safety and daily support. You’re going through life working, raising a family, tending to personal tasks, and suddenly being cut off from society.

Marrian-Webster defines trauma as “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” 

Trauma has a way of manifesting in our bodies and being stored in places that are triggered by simple everyday events. A specific smell, sound, or sight sends the person back into the event. I cannot even imagine how a person with leprosy would have continually relived when the priest declared them unclean and banished them from society.

How does a person move forward after a traumatic event? Through relationships. The relationships with professionals who guide them through the psychological and clinical obstacles. Relationships with friends and family who are supportive and caring. Relationship with Jesus to experience His healing. I believe that all three of these are necessary for healing.

How did I not experience a profound and challenging transition when my nest emptied? I was grounded in relationships. I was never alone. When I felt alone, I would get a text or a phone call from someone saying, “you’re on my mind, and I wanted to check in on you.” That was the Holy Spirit reaching out to my community when I could not do it for myself.

Jesus is in the details.

Where have you seen Him lately?