Visit

Holiday season is upon us.  Visit any store and they are evidence of the time of year.  Today is Halloween.  Yes, that means I am writing a few days late, but better late than never.  I live in a small community, where despite turning off the lights in hope to avoid tricks, I still get the little treat-ers.  This year I gave in and got candy since I know they are coming. 

Halloween night is much like many people's Christian walk.  They visit God briefly, get what they want from Him and leave.  He is delighted for the visit, gives us what we need because He is gracious and lives us. However, our visit is really one sided, to get what we came for, much like the little dressed up characters that will be knocking on my door.

Then there's Thanksgiving.  People visit, they fellowship a little, gives thanks and have a meal.  

 Thanksgiving also represents a little different walk with God, the Sunday Christian.  They visit, fellowship with other believers and maybe even God, they give thanks, get fed spiritually and then go on their way.  Again, God loves to have a visit from His children, but it is still lacking.

Then there is Christmas. One of my favorite memories as a child was having my aunt and cousin visit with us Christmas night and stay till late on Christmas day.  It seemed that it stretched out the celebration.  We would watch old home videos and reminisce. We would make ornaments. There was fellowship, giving thanks, great food, general fun, exchange of gifts, sweet treats, and a long visit that sometimes would span more days. 

God desires that we visit Him longer, more frequently, fellowship deeper. He wants us to reminisce of the things He has done for us, brought us through, and His extravagant love.  He wants us to have reminders, like the ornaments that point us back to those times. He wants deeper fellowship. He desires  to give thanks always. He wants us to great on His Word daily. He wants to enjoy us, and for us to enjoy Him. He wants us to share our gifts with others.

The truth is, God doesn't just want us to visit. He desires us to move Him in to our lives. He wants us to have spent so much time with Him, that when we go visit others, He is taken with us. That His presence can visit strangers we pass  the street, and transform their life.  He is a polite guest, and will never stay longer than we want, and never keep us from leaving if we desire. How intentional are we in our visit with God.

Enjoy

We must intentionally take time to enjoy life.  It is not enough to go through life fulfilling obligations. We must take time to frolic and enjoy the beauty around us. We must intentionally enjoy the relationships that we have, instead of taking them for granted. We must intentionally find joy in everyday things.

First

Wow, 31 days, and this prompt from yesterday is my last to complete.  I made it.  This was a first for me.

Matthew 20:16 NKJV  So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.

As a child I remember always wanting to be first. First in line, first to be picked, first  get whatever.  As an adult, I realize that waiting is a better option.  Being the first to get new electronics, is bad. You pay a higher price, and all the bugs have to get worked out at your expense.  When I have my nieces and nephews, and they are complaining about being last I will say "you save the best for last." Of course this starts a while new argument.

We have to stop trying to put oneself above others. Jesus taught a parable  on this very subject. It is a timeless argument to want to be first, or best,  greatest. Even if we don't say the words, our actions show it. God does not honor that at all. 

We are not in a race against others. We are not competing against anything. We don't have to prove itself. The truth is, the one standard we have, we will always fall  short of, Christ.

Instead, we need to start making every effort to put Him first, intentionally.  I think back to one of the first blogs I ever wrote, on a message that impacted me, and has stuck with me. We must intentionally put God first in our:

Finances
Interests
Relationships
Stuff
Time

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Leave

Hebrews 13:5 NKJV  Let  your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

I struggle with a fear of rejection.  Some of that fear came from the fact that most of the people  knew me best are gone.  The leave came from death but it left a hole in my heart.  Or that my mother, for the most part has left me mentally due to dementia.  Or that distance has created a gap in relationships because I didn't take time to stay connected in life's busyness.

The feeling started as a child, and well, followed me in to adulthood. I didn't  recognize it's roots in childhood, until I really started processing my feelings over the past year. I found in my lion exterior was a child who felt rejected.

As I processed my childhood, I realized the rejection I felt was imagined.  The adult circumstances that surrounded me, that I was to young to comprehend, the devil used to build a lie upon. It wasn't rejection, it was God's protection. not only for me, but for others also.

I realized that as a young adult, some of the rejection I felt was if my own making.  I had built walls around me, based on my childhood perception.  Walls I thought would protect me, but in reality created the very thing I wanted to be protected from.

I also realized, that another part of that rejection was a sanctification process. God removing from me people that did not belong in my life. People that might deter me from the calling and purpose He has for me. Not that the people were bad, or that I was better than, but that we were on different paths that may intersect at a better, more opportune time.

I also realized, and this one was something I knew in my heart from a child, that God did not reject me. In fact, His promise is to never leave me.  As I looked around in light of the revelation, I realized I am accepted.  I am surrounded by people  love me, and those times where I felt rejected had other purpose in my life.

So I chose to leave, intentionally. I leave those false feelings, those wrong perceptions, that rejection. I leave it.  The false power it had over my life. I take it back. I leave the negative effects, and take with me a corrected view.  I leave rejection here.

Unite

Unite  verb (used with object), united, uniting.

1.   to join, combine, or incorporate so as to form a single whole or unit. 

 As I read through the Bible, I am always struck by the lack of denominations mentioned when speaking about the Church because when I drive around my community, and any other community, all I see are denominations.  My heart cries for the Church to be what God designed it to be.  The Church that knows that "Christ is the Son of the Living God" and the gates of Hades will not prevail against."(Matthew 16:18)

Christ did not die for denominations.  He died for the World.  He wanted His followers to be united, just as He was united with God.   As Christians, we have to stand together united.  There are things that we may interpret differently, but they should not keep us from being in unity as long as we stand on the truth that there is only one way to Heaven, through Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God (John 14:6)

 

John 17:11  Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. 

Philippians 3: 15-16  Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. ¹⁶ But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
  
John 13:35 (NKJV) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We need to intentionally stand united with the followers of Christ, even from different denominations.  

Free

Galations 5:1 (The Message) Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

As Christians we are suppose to live free. Yet daily I hear about us living in bondage, stripped of the freedoms that Christ not only died for us to have, but that are afforded to every other person in our nation.   Although I do not agree with the hate that is spread in Christ's name, because God is love, my anger is not aroused in that they are exercising freedom of speech, it is that they are lying about the God I serve.  

Christians have stood back and allowed our freedom to be stripped.  We have allowed the world to put a harness of slavery on us, called tolerance.  We are afraid to exercise our freedom of speech.  Christ was very bold in his speech against things that were wrong.  He did not back down.  He did not spread hate.  He did not cause a scene (well except in the temple that one time!).  He spoke the truth in love.  He hated the sin, but loved the sinner.  

We must break the harness of tolerance that has enslaved the Church.  We must gain our collective voice and cry out against the atrocities that are sending people to hell, that are compromising the Church, and are limiting the freedom the Christ died for us to have.

The world has also place a harness of slavery on many called "insecurity."  We are concerned that we are not good enough to speak out.  Not talented enough, gifted enough, anointed enough, not..... enough.  These are lies from the enemy that were have enslaved us to stop spreading God's Kingdom on earth.  Every one of us is nothing in and of ourselves.  None of us are independently or individually qualified to do anything, because it is only through Christ that we can do anything. And with Christ, We can do all things for nothing is impossible.  

We must break the harness of insecurity that has enslaved many.  We must realize who we are in Christ and speak to those who are in our circle of influence.  We must realize it is Christ, not the individual that will bring about any change, we just provide a voice.  We must realize that the testimony of what Christ has done in us, can inspire others.  We must realize that with God, through Christ all things are possible, if we only believe and obey.

We must practice our freedom intentionally. 

Acceptance and Value

Last night a friend of mine was teaching a lesson on tests and trials at our Monday night Bible study.  

 

Barb went through seven tests that most people face at some point in their life.  

 She share that we face tests or trials in:
1) patience
2) faith
    A) when he doesn't deliver you
    B) when we don't understand His ways
3) love - reveals our priorities
4) endurance
5) humility
6) sacrifice
7) obedience

 

She made the comment that God will take us right were we are and continue to test us until we reach the 100% level in that area, because anything less than that is not what He wants for us.

When she said that, my mind started to wonder.  How can a perfect God accept us right where we are and work with us until we reach where He is.  My human mind just couldn't comprehend this.  When I take a test, I want that perfect score.  How can a perfect God settle for anything less. 

And that is when I felt a quickening in my spirit that He will take us at 1%,  because we are covered by the blood.  The blood of Jesus that covers us at Salvation, so God takes our 1%, but values it at 100% because we are perfected in Christ Jesus.

The work that the Holy Spirit will do in our lives to perfect us until the day of Christ is done under that covering of Christ's blood.

Hebrews 10:14 (NKJV) For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

1 John 1:7 (NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.