skip the stun grenades & make more silver.

There's a verse that has been coming off the pages of my Bible lately as if someone was screaming it at me. It hasn't left me alone for weeks, and I think it's time to share.

Matthew 12:30 - "Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me."

Whoa. Back up and read that again. No seriously, read it again.

Sometimes Jesus said things that seemed complicated or that maybe didn't make sense at first, but can you really second guess this statement?!?! Go ahead, look it up in a dozen different translations of the Bible - you'll get the same thing every time.

So guess what that means? There are no gray areas in Christianity, no sitting on the fence while we make up our minds. Our apathy, our "I'll get to it tomorrow" attitude simply does not cut it in the Kingdom of God. If that's the way we're treating our citizenship, then we are quite literally helping out the other side, working AGAINST the amazing God we claim to serve.

Tough, huh? Well, it gets more convicting from there.

When you get into the fun nitty gritty of the Greek, the words used to express the idea of "working with" and "working against" God are actually translated as bringing together and scatter. So if I'm not actively trying to gather people into Jesus, then.........I'm actually scattering them?? Sending them in a different direction...and with force?!?! I mean think about it, that's what scattering really is. It's a forceful movement. Scattering a crowd isn't something that's done with a whisper. It happens with ohhhh, let's say, a stun grenade! This isn't casual, it's not something that happens slowly - it's immediate, it's violent, and it's not pretty! How terrifying is it for you to think that your spiritual inactivity has this effect on those around you?

I'm not talking here to people who aren't following Jesus. I'm talking to Christians who think it's enough to keep their nose clean and show up to church. I'm talking to people who love God but who go about their everyday existence with a To-Do list that they feel excuses them from being "too involved" in the Kingdom. I'm talking to those (myself certainly not being excluded) who are afraid to take a risk.

We sit on our hands, claiming to not want to misuse the talents or the life God's given us. We wait for all the "right" moments where we can say just the "right" thing......and in the end, it's all just an excuse for our own fear or laziness. If you flip from Matthew 12 over to chapter 25, you find the parable of the three servants. Each was entrusted with a certain amount of silver, and the scripture says the amount they were given was based on their ability. Well, when the master gets home from his trip, it's the two servants who took a risk and multiplied the silver who get rewarded. The servant who buried the silver gets his portion taken away, and he gets thrown out of the house.

The master doesn't say, "Well, we only gave you a little silver because you were the one with the least ability. You didn't have much, so it's not a big deal. Don't worry about it."

The master doesn't say, "You know, you did at least protect what you were entrusted with. Good job!"

No!! It's not enough to take whatever gifts, whatever talents God has given you----and simply protect them. Regardless of how much ability you feel you have, it's not enough to hand back to God exactly what He planted inside you. He is expecting multiplication. He wants us to take a risk, to invest ourselves, our time, our lives, into developing and using the things He's given us for the expansion of the Kingdom. The servant who got the least entrusted to him probably had the least experience, the least knowledge about investing the master's money......and so he assumed it would be fine if he just protected and guarded what he'd been given. Don't make his mistake. Don't assume that because you're not quite sure how to best utilize and invest your talents that you can bury those things and wait until later to pull them out and clean them off. Step up to the plate NOW. Understand that knowing the Master means you will be held accountable not for how YOU thought you could best handle your gifts, but for how HE intended those things to be used.

Get out there and dig up your silver!!!!

protect your growth.

So I've always enjoyed fall---the changing colors, of course---and all the cool things that come with it. You know---pumpkin pie, bonfires and the like. But I've never basked in the beauty of fall before. This year, it has captured me in a way that almost escapes words.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was leaving my job, the trees in the parking lot caught my attention as if I'd never seen them before. They have changed from green to red very gradually from the top down, and at the time only the tops had turned. The sun was starting to set, and the colors in the leaves were highlighted in a way that made the trees look like they were glowing. It honestly stopped me in the middle of the parking lot. I felt completely overwhelmed by the flawless beauty that God has designed into nature all around us. And in that moment, I felt God begin to speak.

For us, fall is beautiful at first. But when the pretty colors begin to fade, fall is a season that looks like dying.

Yet fall is not a death. It is a season of preparation.

Fall is a time when nature prepares for what obviously comes next.....winter. We take this so for granted that year after year we miss the lessons to be learned in our own lives from watching creation prepare itself for a difficult season. I have certainly missed it myself, but how glad I am that God speaks in such small simple ways! Each fall, animals and even plants.........PLANTS (!!!!!!!!).....prepare for winter with a grace that humbles me. It is wired into creation to know when it is time to pull in, protect the growth of the previous season, and wait for spring. Every year, without fail, this process happens. Not only does it happen, but it happens with purpose and right on time.



If only we could be so wise. Ecclesiastes tells us that to everything there is a season, and our lives are certainly no exception. We go through fall seasons in our lives, where God asks us to prepare for difficult times. Too often we kick and scream and protest against a process that is going to save our lives in the end. What would happen if trees didn't lose their leaves and pull in vital nutrients before winter arrived? All the growth that tree had worked for through a summer season would be lost to winter's cold. In creation, what appears like death in fall is in fact a protection from REAL death.


So what about us???


When God nudges us, asking us to start protecting the progress we've worked an entire season to gain, how do we react? Maybe we listen, but too often, we look at God and scoff. We think we know what's just around the bend. We think what He's asking us means the death of what we want, and so we say no. Or sometimes I believe we just don't want to pull back. We feel like we've come so far, gained so much momentum....and we refuse to lay our own agenda aside to listen to that still small voice that asks us to wait. In our open-24-hours, get-it-now society, waiting has become a four letter word of sorts. We find it almost ridiculous to have to wait for anything, and we make the mistake of allowing that perspective to bleed over into our spiritual lives as well. Jesus knows what tomorrow holds---and while it may look like a beautiful seventy degree spring day to us, He knows when icy winter days are in our future.

Learn to wait on the Lord....not just with your lips, but with your attitude and with your life. God does not ask us to wait for no reason. It is for the protection of our very lives and our destiny in Him. Psalm 27

i wonder.......

In my walk with God, I have often found myself wondering about plenty of things. But no subject has ever left me as perplexed as when I sit and ponder satan. I suppose I really shouldn't spend any of my precious time on Earth questioning the state of his existence...yet I can't help it. He was once an angel---an angel with a gift of worship, and I guess it confuses me primarily that he got the choice to rebel against God. The simple fact that angels are beings created with one purpose - to do God's will - throws into question for me the idea that lucifer could rebel against God. That's one whole topic in itself--and I'm sure that thousands of pages could be filled with all sorts of intelligent debate on the subject - most of which would be light years ahead of my own weak attempts at figuring it out.

But the other night as I sat thinking, I began to wonder what God felt when lucifer rebelled and took so many angels with him. Obviously...now...most of us see satan as the ultimate archenemy. He is the one who manipulates good, who seeks to steal joy and peace from every hour of our lives. And yet he, too, is a creation of the Most High God.

Yes, he has strayed so far off that little, perhaps nothing, is left that would tell you of his former glory.

It was in that thought where I realized he must not be so different from us...there is, of course, the difference of a creation which is created to love - and by cause, created to make a choice from the beginning. But he is still the creation of God.

And so I wonder.....does the plight of Satan break God's heart???

Does He miss the worship that once came from lucifer? And does He long for the music He created that angel to make? I almost feel blasphemous or disrespectful having these thoughts in my head. Yet it somehow makes me so profoundly aware of how far off our own lives can get when we choose rebellion. Lucifer was not created to love, not created in the image of God. Human beings bear our Lord's image - we represent pieces of who He is. If a creature created solely to worship before the Almighty could become the prince of darkness, how dare we ever trust ourselves? How much further can WE fall??? How much more degraded can we become---and how much more do we grieve God's heart in doing so?

sex and the movie theatre.

Ah yes, "Sex and the City." It seems to have been a constant headline trailing across my home page the past few weeks. Not to mention the fact that hundreds of women, young and old, came streaming through the doors of the restaurant where I work to drink cosmopolitans and live out the fantasy that they live in the world of their favorite show's characters......I guess. I'm not really sure what drives middle aged women with families to dress inappropriately, get drunk, and rent a limo....all to go see a movie about people who do nothing but chase one sexual conquest after another. Oh, well there is that one character who's married----but they seem to just write her off as naive and lame. But enough of my opinions about the show......I do have a point.

I've realized that all too many Christian women have been lulled into accepting and even embracing the whole "Sex and the City" empire. I am quite frankly STUNNED that anyone who is remotely concerned with their personal purity would go and see this movie. I will agree that I watched a few trailers for it online, and one of them made the movie look quite innocent.

But SERIOUSLY........the name is "Sex and the City." What do you really expect?!?!?! And if your common sense hasn't kicked in at that point, a 45 second trip to IMDB will give you all the information you could need to let you know that this film is one you should pass on. With an R rating for nudity, both male and female, and explicit sex scenes, including threesomes, is there really any question about whether or not a follower of Jesus Christ should subject themselves to this movie?

Now, if you're a woman who is reading this thinking, "Well---it was really cute and funny and I just loved the show so much. It wasn't really that bad."----then I'd like to give you something to think about. Place yourself in a situation where you are hanging out with a group of friends. In the course of conversation, one of the guys in the group speaks up and says, "Oh yeah, I rented this porno the other day. It was set in Hawaii and I've always thought it was a cool place, so I figured I'd watch the movie. I didn't really watch ALL the sex scenes---it wasn't that bad."

How would you react to a comment like that? I'm pretty sure your jaw would hit the floor in shock, if for no other reason than the fact that he was standing there admitting that in front of a group of people, acting like it was no big deal. Yet, that's exactly what you do when you nonchalantly admit to having gone to see this film.

Here is my question for those of you who think that this movie is just fine. Why is it that pornography is suddenly acceptable when it's placed in the middle of a witty script, talented cinematography and name brand accessories? Because in spite of all that, it is still pornography, plain and simple. It breaks my heart to think that an entire nation full of people, women especially, have been tricked into accepting pornography as normal, acceptable entertainment. Colossians 3:5 says this: "Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires." I don't know, maybe you're the sole exception (mmmmmm, doubt it), but watching sex and nudity on a screen the size of a tennis court would certainly send me plunging into impurity, lust, and evil desires.

So come on, ladies and gentlemen. Wise up. Don't play so easily into the hands of the devil. In 1 Corinthians 6:19, it says that we do not belong to ourselves, because God bought us with a HIGH price. So quit spitting in the face of what Jesus has done for us by dragging the Spirit of God that lives in you to smut like "Sex and the City." Honor God with your body AND with the choices you make every day. And stop going to see sex at the movie theatre.

blind

John 9:39-41 - Then Jesus told him, "I entered this world to render judgment--to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind." Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, "Are you saying we're blind?" "If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied. "But you remain guilty because you claim you can see."


We all walk into the Kingdom of God blind, naked, and broken - God does not hold us at fault for that fact in itself. Our mistake, especially as believers in Christ, lies in claiming to be what we are not -- seeing, clothed, and whole. A constant awareness of our acute dependence on God for true and meaningful existence is what allows us to live most fully under the umbrella of divine grace.

what of death

We hate death. It makes everything within us scream out that something isn’t right. It comes along, and no matter our age, no matter our status in life, it has the ability to throw us off balance. And so we have rituals...wakes and visitations, funerals and graveside services. For me at times, these things were a desperate attempt to somehow put death off. It has the ability to come and take someone away so suddenly. To bury them the next day is a goodbye we find ourselves unable to make so quickly.

So we stretch it out......we bury people days, maybe even weeks after they’ve died.

The funny thing is, it actually helps.

Over the years, I’ve come to see just how important funerals can be. At least in my own experience, I’ve realized that I need that closure. It helps to see that person one last time, to see with my own eyes that they are truly gone...to sit with family and friends to remember and honor the memory we will carry in our hearts. It’s strange that at some funerals, I bawl my eyes out....then at other times, barely a single tear comes to my eyes. But either way, there’s always this brokenness, this feeling of having a crack split apart your world.......and I never really know what to do with it.

As human beings living on this earth, death leaves us feeling.......ROBBED.

It’s taken a long time for God to plant a revelation of that in my heart. We obviously grieve the loss of people because of our love for them, but there’s more to it. God IS life. He is the author of everything that we see, and all life originated with Him. As eternal souls created in the image of God, there is something within us that cries out for so much more. We know that this is not how it’s supposed to be. Death, destruction, sadness, separation----a piece of us knows those things are not what God intended for us. So as people, we stand over a casket, grasping at anything our mind can see in an attempt to make sense of death...to somehow process and absorb it. It bugs us, haunts us, keeps us up at night. We will always feel robbed by death. I’ve struggled with that, I think, because I felt like I wasn’t trusting God if I felt that way. I’ve come to realize that I was wrong, because no matter how hard we try to reason it away or simply ignore it, death will forever be unnatural to us.

But.........

that is where the beauty of the Gospel suddenly becomes so real, so wonderfully alive! 1 Corinthians 15:54-56 says this:

"Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled: ’Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Our lives on earth are indeed full of pain and loss, but Jesus conquered death’s rule when He died on the cross and rose from the grave. When we choose to be disciples of Christ, we receive the freedom that comes in trusting Jesus’ victory over death. It says this in 2 Timothy 1:10 -- "...He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News." Here on earth, we do feel loss, and we do feel robbed by death. But there is a day coming when we will be with our Creator forever, when death and sorrow will touch us no longer. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." (Revelation 21:4)

Child of God, take hold of that promise. Plant it in your heart in times of grief. Make it a banner in your life that pushes you on to share the Good News with the people God puts in your life, so that they may share in an eternity of LIFE with God.