The Hit

It was about 4:30 am on a September morning in 1996. The phone rang with that eerie sound that only a call that early can make. As I guardedly picked up the phone and said hello; in a rush of panic it was my sister telling me my parents house had been hit by a car. That the oil tank, furnace and water main in the basement had taken the hit and there was 200 gallons of oil spilled and water was gushing all over the basement floor. An awful smell had filled the house as well as an oily vapor. My parents bedroom was on the first floor and the hit happened right there in the side of the foundation under their room. Both of my parents had been thrown from the bed in the impact. And my dad was having difficulty breathing… “come quick” was the last thing she said and she hung up.
I threw on some clothes and headed to my parents in the dark of that early morning. It was a 17 mile drive and I had no clue what I would find when I got there. As I approached the intersection just before the house there were fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, reporters. I was stopped by the police, as I explained I was family, they said “there has been a toxic spill we cannot let you drive down there, there could still be an explosion”. I was gripped with fear that my family home would go up in flames, but I parked right there and got passed the officer and headed to my family. Mom, Dad, and three of my sisters were on the neighbor’s lawn; half the neighborhood had been awakened and all were pajama clad watching this scene unfold.
This devastation happened in a matter of seconds when a drunk driver came speeding down the street at over 100 miles an hour and could not maneuver the slight curve in the road. The car hit the neighbors porch first then into the side of the stone foundation. As I stood there and looked at this old 1973 Maverick sticking out of the house, with nose buried right up to the windshield I wondered how the young man survived. He made it out of there with a broken leg and broken nose. Minor compared to what could have happened.
When I compare the devastation of my parent’s house to our spiritual lives I have to agree that I can just as quickly be destroyed, beaten down, crumble before God. Life happens and it’s trials and difficulties can come in the twinkling of an eye. My spiritual foundation can take a hit when; those I love and trust assail me with insults and innuendo, slander and gossip, divorce and abandonment. When the Dr’s report is one that says… “This is terminal”. Or my child is rebellious beyond comprehension or succumbs to drug addiction that I never saw coming. That is if my spiritual foundation is based on religion and works, neither of which matter much in the grand scheme of our sufferings. There are not enough good works, liturgy or behavioral modification plans that will keep any of these things or worse from coming into my life.

Luke 6:48
"48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built."

My parents house was built in the early 1900, the foundation was field-stone. The hit it took that day sent those stones flying across the basement, literally there were huge stones scattered everywhere, and there were small stones that even ended up in the dryer on the exact opposite side of the basement. Older foundations like that one cannot withstand that kind of impact. Today’s concrete foundations are built with reinforcement rod throughout; its thickness’s are consistent and can withstand much.
I not only want a house foundation that will take a hit, I want, need, have to have a spiritual foundation that can too. The practice of religion is not, nor can it ever be a foundation that will withstand life’s hits. Jesus is the Rock on which we are to build our Spiritual foundation. Matt 16:18 tells us that Jesus is the Rock Peter is to build on. Likewise we are to do the same. Jesus is our Righteousness, without Him, anything we do is nothing more than wood hay and stubble (or field stones).

1 Corinthians 1:30 &31
"30It 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. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

After the accident at my parent’s home, the foundation was rebuilt, the house was lifted up and a NEW foundation was laid. One that was up to code (for 1996 anyway). With that, the floors which had their sway before, now lay level. The New Water meter and piping didn’t leak so the water bills were accurate and the New Oil tank, furnace (yes that too was destroyed) kept the house warmer and ran more efficiently. (as well as the new dryer).
Trials and sufferings come at times to knock down the old foundations of fieldstone, (religion, works etc) so that the Master builder can come in and give us a NEW Foundation. HIM. So that when the HITS come and they will, we survive in His strength and power. Let Him rebuild your foundation, put away anything that is not of Him for it won’t take the Hit.

Over Taken

I remember the days when I was absolutely smitten with my husband, those early days when my every thought was punctuated with him. When I rose in the morning my first thoughts turned to him, and my mind would whirl all day long with pieces of the moments we shared. I was head over heels with him. Over taken with a love for this man, a love I had never known before. If I asked you if you knew such a time in your own life, you could most likely echo back to me your own remembrances of being smitten. We know those feelings well. A love that transforms us, it causes us to be filled with happiness and brings a skip to our step.

I want to talk about a different love, a love so perfect and complete, a love that never disappoints our pushes us away. This is the love of Jesus. I have been over taken by it. It has become like a consuming fire in my very spirit.
I remember as a child of about 8 years old asking Jesus into my heart. I can still picture sitting in a room in my old church, with a couple of other young girls saying the words of the prayer. I lived years with Jesus as my Savior. I did my best to follow the example set by other older woman. I tried my hardest to change my behavior. Usually failing, and failing badly. I walked around holding a sign that said “Christian”, but I was not over taken.

There is no behavior modification plan I could put in place that would fill my heart. It took being in a place where I could do nothing myself to fix my brokenness, hearing about Jesus that loved me so completely even though I couldn't fix what was wrong, and believing that God was who He said he was before I bent the knee, both literally and figuratively. As I was studying a Beth Moore bible Study on “believing God” that’s when it happened. I climbed out of my chair and hit my knees. I asked him to fill me, to reveal himself to me. Just like those first few months after meeting my husband, that feeling of being smitten over came me. A love that had not let me go as a young child, was now alive and active in my being. I hungered for time with Him. I found myself having a love for His word, I would dig and search out a morsel of truth at a time. I wanted to know Him, to see Him for who He was.

Submitting my empty behavioral modification plan to him was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I had to stop believing that I was in control and could handle my own sanctification process. That all consuming love became the catalyst of turning it all over to Him. Off the throne; daily became my prayer. Jesus was no longer a part of my life, He was and is my life.

1 Peter 1: 18 – 23
18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.[b] 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

I am so very thankful that Jesus has over taken me, that His love has redeemed me from an empty life. When you and I try in our own strengthen to change, it is a lie and it is empty. He longs to fill us with His complete love, a love that will over take us. When we try to live a ‘godly’ life with out being over taken by the Spirit of God and filled with Him. We live a lie, produced by self. Submitting to the work of the Spirit is the only thing that can produce a life worthy of the name Christian. Time to drop the sign and live in the Spirit. Be over taken by Him.

Prepare Your Minds

Our minds are our greatest battlefield. it is there that we initially believe in anything. There are a mulitiude of books written on this subject. One that I have read "As a Man Thinketh" By James Allen; This "classic" has been around since the turn of the century and it seems to be even more relevant in today's stressful and competitive society. As Allen states, "a man is literally what he thinks", or as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out! Or put another way, "All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts."

I have learned that I cannot blame others for my life, or my state of affairs - they very well can be my creation, the end product of my thoughts and actions. Allen states that "man makes or unmakes himself by the thoughts he keeps and cultivates. Man truly is his own worst enemy!" Allen goes on the say "Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in."
How profound and how true. How we let fear run our lives - again proving how powerful our thoughts can be.

That is what man has to say about preparing our minds. Allen's self-help style book has indeed helped many find ways to think their way to a positive life, but God has something even more for us. Positive thoughts are great but when we apply His ways and not just the "positive thoughts" what a profound transformation of our minds that will come about; So what does God have to say;

I Peter 1: 13 - 16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written "Be Holy, because I am Holy.

God and Allen have something in common. Both state that our minds need to be prepared. But they differ in what we are to prepare them with. Allen wants us to replace fear and doubt with "positive thoughts" That can be a pretty wide field, as one mans positive thought might be another mans undoing. But God says: Focus on the Grace I am offering you. Jesus the gift of Grace given you when He was revealed, fill your mind with him. Now that is the true "power of positive thinking". When I focus on Him, he will remove my fears and doubts and replace them with his protection and will.

I've read alot of "self-Help style books over the years, I guess I need to know the "how to". The Bible is one of the best self-help books I have ever picked up.
I Peter 1: 13-16 lays it right out there. It starts with telling us we need to be self-controlled, not in a self over God way. But in a submitting self to God way, as we can never truly control our selves. It's when we submit self to the Holy Spirit we will be able to begin to prepare our minds, then we are to focus on His grace, which then will lead to living obediently, and not conforming to this worlds evil desires. And then Peter ends with; In all of this he longs for us to be Holy as He is holy.
We start with Prepare your Mind and end with Be Holy. That's a huge undertaken if done in the flesh. There are not enough "positive thoughts" I could fill my fleshly mind with to produce Holiness. I pray that as I focus on His Grace I can then be Holy as He is Holy.

Do you know what you have?

Ephesains 1: 3 – 14

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

We have every Spiritual Blessing in Christ:

• We have been chosen in Him
• He has made us Holy and blameless in His sight
• We have been adopted as His sons
• We are His pleasure and part of His will
• We have been given Redemption through His blood
• Which includes Forgivness of Sins
• We have the incomparable riches of God’s Grace
• We have His Wisdom and understanding lavished on us
• He has made known His will to us
• We are under Him
• He has worked out everything
• We are included with Christ
• Marked with a seal; the Holy Spirit!
• We are His inheritance.

Do we grasp what is ours in Christ?

Do we see that each of these statements are past tense. It has already happened. It was ours before we even knowingly became His. The Christian life is the process of becoming what you already are in Christ.

Lets look at the difference between the polliwog and a child. A polliwog is born as a shapeless mass with a tail. After a while it sprouts some legs. Eventually it takes the form of a frog or a toad. But when a human baby is born it comes with all the necessary parts--they just need to grow. The same thing is true of a Christian. When you were born into the family of God, you were not a spiritual polliwog. You were complete. You have all the parts of a Christian; you simply need to grow.

When God saves a person, that work is total and complete. He stands perfect before God. The rest of his life is just a matter of growing so his practice will match his position. Christian maturity is like a baby learning to use all the parts they were given at birth.

Instead of seeking more favor with God or trying to be more “perfect” for heaven, we should thank God, who has " qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. " (Col. 1:12). We are already perfected for heaven. Nothing we do will make God love us more than He already does.

When we know what we have in Christ as it clearly states in Ephesians 1:3-14, that ought to change the way we live. People will not have a desire to live righteously unless they understand who they are. The mature Christian understands his privileges, possessions, and resources so he can live consistently with who he is in Christ.

Do you know what you have?

He Woke Me

One O'clock am I was pulled from a deep sleep. Not by my child, or by my dog. But by God himself. I felt my eyes being pried open and wondering what am I doing awake. I know just seconds before I was in a wonderful deep sleep. there was no loud noise that roused me, no dog or puppy whining to be let out, no cat nudging at me for the same purpose, no 7 year old climbing over me to get into the middle after a bad dream. No, I was drawn awake by God Most High.

He knows me well. He knows how I fret. He knows that I run scenarios around in my head till I can't stand my self. But somehow I still slept last night. I think for some reason He just needed to wake me up to remind me that He is God. That in all the insanity that surrounds me, His peace is all encompassing.

As I laid there this morning knowing it was Him that woke me, I went to him directly in prayer, seeking to know what it is He wanted me to know, or what I may need to do to clear the way between us. I waited.

I prayed for my family, my friends, my church, and then it came to me.

Philippians 4. That's all.

Thankful that I had no major sin I needed to confess, I thanked Him and said I would read it in the morning when I got up. He didn't much like that and kept me awake until 5am. Why I just don't listen is beyond me. I could have gotten back to sleep, but no I tossed and turned and finally when my beloveds alarm went off I sat up, finally grabbed my bible and read Phil 4.

He said, No in the Message. Which meant I had to go downstairs to get it. I did.

And I read:

Phil 4: 6-9 (from the Message) 6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

8-9Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

I smiled; told Him I knew all that. Then I got ready for work.

After dropping my little guy off at school, I started praying and may I tell you that I have never felt the spirit in prayer like I did today. Tears ran down my eyes for no other reason then that I was in total communion with Him. The power and peace that filled me as I prayed over this day and what was to come. I prayed using Phil 4:6-9. When I came to the end of praying, I felt so filled. So loved, so confident in Him.

Thank you God for waking me, for your persistent heart in seeking mine. For all that you fed my spirit.

Coram Deo

Coram Deo literally means "before the face of God". It carries the notion of our living in the presence of God, under the authority of God and to the honor and glory of God. It is what each person was designed for by their Creator.

The following has been adapted for this blog:

Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life."

This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live Coram Deo is to live one's entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.

To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape His all seeing gaze.

To be aware of the presence of God is also to be strongly aware of His sovereignty. When we recognize that if God is God, then we will indeed know that He is sovereign. Living under divine sovereignty involves more than a reluctant submission to sheer sovereignty that is motivated out of a fear of punishment. It involves recognizing that there is no higher goal than offering honor to God. Our lives are to be living sacrifices, offered in a spirit of adoration and thankfulness.

To live all of life Coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and worth in the majesty of God. A fragmented life is a life that is constantly decaying. It is marked by inconsistency, disunity, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and chaos.

Integrity is found where men and women live their lives in consistency. Which means we are the same basic way in church and out of church. It is a life that is open before God. It is a life in which all that is done is done as to the Lord. It is a life lived by principle, and by humility before God, not defiance. It is a life lived under the teaching of conscience that is held captive by the Word of God.

Coram Deo . . . before the face of God. That's the big idea. Next to this idea our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles."

May I challenge you to live Coram Deo today and each day. To recognize that you are already before the face of God when you rise in the morning. A friend of mine jokingly stated: “The Holy Spirit doesn’t kick in till after my coffee” (I know she was joking).

My dear friends we are always in the presence of the Almighty God, God Most High. And if we are His, we don’t get to wait till after our morning coffee to submit our lives to the Holy Spirit. To live Coram Deo is to live “knowingly” before His face at all times.

Are you aware of Him at all times?
Do you work like He's there?
Do you love like He's there?
Do you resolve conflict like He's there?
Do you give like He's there?

Coram Deo, living face to face with God.

Sit with It

I am a fixer.

There I said it. Sitting still when I see a problem I could fix is one of the hardest things I do. My current profession requires that I be a fixer. In this arena of my life, my God given talent is well used and well appreciated. I am often commended for my “big picture” visionary skills. These skills have been useful in my ability to find problems, to diagnosis problems and to eventually fix the problems. That is all well and good in the work world. Even there sitting with the problem can frustrate me because I know I can figure it out.

In relationships or with people, fixing may not be so welcomed. This talent God has given me in the professional realm can be a curse in the relational realm. I still possess the talent. It can still be used for good, but there are times I am finding that I cannot rush in and fix things. As I learned from a dear friend this past week end there are times I just need to “sit with it”. I’m not good with “sitting” with anything. I want the problem solved, and I’m just as thrilled to work on it all night if I have to for it to be solved. I will let it whirl in my head until the wee hours of the morning. Running it through different scenarios until I find the one that fits just right and BAM I have it. I have the perfect answer for the imperfect problem.

I have been chewing on this new phrase “sit with it”. Lifting it up to God; how do I do this thing called “sit with it” you wired me God to fix things, you gave me this big picture kind of brain and gifted me to be a visionary. Show me how to sit with it.

• Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

• Zechariah 2:13
Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

• Psalm 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

• Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

In His word He tells us to be still, to sit with whatever calamity you are in, and He will fight for me.

He will be exalted as the one who fixes things ( not me).

He has roused Himself (my favorite visual) from His dwelling so to take care of the matter, I can picture Him shifting His weight, hearing the fire blazing wheels of His chariot throne pop and spark as He stands, with His right hand outstretched ready to speak into existence the true fix, the only fix that will be perfect.

Be still and wait for Him. He is never slow to respond, He is responding I need only to wait for His move, and to see if He asks me to join Him.

And it’s ok if I end up feeling empty, that I didn’t get to fix anything. As I sit with it, I need only to lean into Him with the wait. To lie at His feet, pour out my heart; even tell Him how I see it. He may just chuckle, but He’s big enough to hear my version as to how I would fix it, and still proceed with His own.

I may be able to resolve problems at the work place, but when it comes to relational problems, sometimes He asks me to wait, sit with it, to be still and know that He is God, not me, never me.