Reign

Romans 6:12, "Do not let sin reign in your body."

The word reign can be understood in two different ways:
1. to rule over, make all decisions for (sovereign)
2. that which advises the decision maker

At royal court, there are varying degrees of authority. The King or Queen is the most powerful, but they have advisers that temper that power. If at any time one of the people they have at court is known to be a traitor to the crown, action is taken to remove that person and all of his influence at court as to prevent a threat to the royal family, the palace, or the nation.

When sin is allowed to stay at court in your heart or mind, it causes a traitorous uprising amongst them. It begins subtly taking control of your thoughts and actions, and you don't even realize how easily you hand over your power and authority. Soon, it is no longer you that is truly making your decisions, but rather the clouded judgment that sin has brought in. Sin is a traitor - it doesn't want what is best for you. It just looks enticing and friendly in the moment to get you to look away as the Enemy steals from you and attacks your palace.

So, how do we stop this? We are choice-makers. We have the ability to choose whether sin is allowed to stay at court or we take action against the traitor and all its influence. When sin tries to re-enter and advise us on our decisions, we have the power of Christ to make it leave and never come back. One work from us in Jesus's name makes the order final, just like when a king's seal is placed on an order to his people. There is no questioning the king's order, no trying to convince him otherwise. Once you've ordered sin out of your court, nothing and no one should be able to change your mind. Remind yourself of sin's traitorous nature and the harm it wants to cause in your life. Stick to your order and ask the Holy Spirit - your right-hand adviser - to help you. When the temptation comes to let sin back in, the Holy Spirit can be there to remind you of why you ordered sin out of your court and the havoc it was causing.

Royalty and the royal guard never lose their vigilance in protecting their court from the enemy. They know that if they do, the life of the king or the entire nation is at dire risk. they take all threats against the king seriously and protect him to the fullest extent. The same goes for the Holy Spirit and angels in the Christian's life. If we step into a danger zone, there is only so much the Holy Spirit can do to keep us alive and well - He cannot defy our free will to choose danger. We have to be vigilant at all times - it's when we get lax that sin can easily re-enter and destroy us.

How would Jesus respond to marriage equality?

When the Supreme Court ruling came out in support of marriage equality, social media blew up. We all saw it and many of us probably responded in one way or another. I purposely avoided responding to anything related to it because I wanted the time to really seek God's heart on this issue. Not just on how to treat those who live a different lifestyle than I do, but how to move forward as a Christian in a world that increasingly doesn't want Him. I spent some time in the book of John, exploring every interaction Jesus had with non-believers, and I came up with this image of Christ's response to the world around Him.

• His heart breaks with love for the sinner (John 3)
• He would treat them better than anyone else does - something they wouldn't expect from a Christian (John 4)
• He knows that the dead (physically and spiritually) will hear the voice of God and live (John 5)
• He would not pick and choose who can receive from Him (ex: feeding the 5,000 - He fed everyone in attendance) (John 6)
• He would be rejected by His family and friends who disagree with His teaching (John 6 & 7)
• He would NOT condemn them but tell them to "go and sin no more" (John 8)
• He would NOT force them to believe or live according to His Word. He knows the truth and the freedom it provides, but He also knows that judgment will get Him nowhere (John 8)
• He is a shepherd: a gentle leader, protector, and healer. He searches for the lost, broken, and hurting and knows what they need. He offers to meet those needs and endures their stubbornness. They follow Him because they know he'll provide for them and keep them safe. (John 10)
• He would NOT judge those who don't believe (John 12)
• He would disregard what others think of Him and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit (John 12)
• He would love them with agape (unconditional) love. Love is a choice to give up one's own needs or wants, not based on feelings, beliefs, or "chemistry" (John 13)
• He would be hated and persecuted by the world, and He would give His life for them anyway (John 15)
• He would rely on the Holy Spirit to grow in agape love, endure persecution, and be confident in who He is to God (John 15 & 16)
• He would PRAY (John 17)
• He would die so they can live (John 19 & 20)

In the wake of all that has been happening in America, from war to violence to denial of scripture, my mind has raced and my heart has struggled to know how a Christian should respond. How do you love someone unconditionally without saying their sin is okay? This is what the Holy Spirit showed me:

• Spend time with them, get to know them and their heart, build a relationship
• Spend time with Jesus. Maintain your own Christian walk and grow intimate with Christ
• Get to a place in Christ where they can see that you're different and want what you have
• When that door opens, teach and challenge them in the love of Christ

God loves us too much to let us live in sin because He knows that sin leads to death BUT He accepts us as we are now and gives us the love and support to become the person He created and designed us to be.

When a designer is putting together a project, they spend a lot of time planning, looking at ideas and options, deciding the best way that they want to present their image or message. They try various looks and characteristics together, play with fonts, colors, and graphics until it is just right. All of the trials along the way may be good, attractive, and appealing; but the designer has a vision in mind of what he or she wants the end product to look like. Only the designer knows perfection. When God designed each of us, He had a purpose and intention for our life. He knew which characteristics would best fit together to serve that purpose. To anyone else we might just seem "good," "attractive," or "appealing," but to the Designer we are perfect because He knows the exact purpose, image, and message for which we were created. His love and pride for His creation never fails, even if the creation fails to live up to its purpose. God doesn't cast us off and leave us to be ruined. Instead He comes and makes little changes to our character to restore us to His original vision. 

God loves us exactly the way we are but loves us too much to leave us that way.

It's Not a Competition

This weekend I was challenged with the fact of competition. The constant internal dialogue that goes through my mind comparing my life with the lives of others. The reality of how often I do the full once-over of all the other women in the room and think to myself "I bet she's never been through what I have" or "Thank God I'm smaller than her." Yeah, those sickening words run through more heads than just mine if anyone else is ever being honest. I thought about how often I think, "If only they could understand the stuff that has happened to make me the way I am" or "She's got it so easy compared to me" and realized that over the years, my past has been a sort of badge of honor for me. Like the more bad stuff that I can pinpoint that has happened to me, the better person I am now for it.

For example, when I share my testimony of God's faithfulness in my life, a lot of times my experiences with depression, anxiety, suicide, etc. come up. This weekend, when I was asked by a new friend what my story is, I was super convicted about how much of my past I share with some people. See, there's a huge difference between using simple details of your past to show how God brought you into new light in Him, and giving details that make people feel sorry for you, worry about you, or give you attention. That second one is, without a doubt, a form of pride, and not a healthy kind of pride. When I share my testimony, is it about what God did or about all the junk I suffered because of my disobedience?

It is likely that all of my readers have heard "Let It Go" from the Disney movie "Frozen." One of the lyrics in the song is "the past is in the past" and I don't think we quite understand how important that is in our Christian lives. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13 to forget what is behind and press on toward what is ahead, toward the high calling of God. So then, our testimony is not so much about the past that God pulled us from, but rather more about how we are pressing into His calling on our life NOW. Rather than saying "I dealt with this for such and such years and was so depressed I wanted to die" and drawing people's attention to our suffering, we should be turning people's heads toward the hope and faithfulness of God's promises.

This doesn't mean to discount our sufferings or make ourselves unrelatable to those who need to hear of Christ's redeeming power in our lives. Paul also said we should glory in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces character and hope. But immediately before that, Paul tells us to rejoice (boast) in the glory of GOD and the grace that provides us with faith and a relationship with Him. In our sharing of what Christ has done in our lives, the ultimate redeeming story is the part where we show others how His grace can set THEM free.

My challenge to you is to leave the past in the past. Yes, it is always good to learn from our mistakes and see the ways that God has changed our lives. But it is more damaging to us and others when we bring up all the stuff we've been through merely for the competition factor of who's dirty past is the worst. When we do that, we are bringing glory to the suffering and building our pride rather than turning heads to the One who has taken our suffering and turned it into joy!

An oldie, but oh so good!!

Lesson 2: Depression does not define you

When I was first diagnosed with depression I felt like it had officially become my label - who I was and all I could ever be. That's not the case though. As a Christian, there are a lot of things I am, but depression is not one of them. In Ephesians we are given a whole list of things that we are and have as a result of Christ's sacrifice. This is just a few:

• every spiritual blessing
• holy
• blameless
• His child
• grace, freely and generously given
• redemption
• forgiveness
• purpose
• chosen
• salvation
• makred with a seal
 

To this day I still have friends that limit me to what they know of me in my depression. When they talk to me, that's all they want to know about, and if I say I'm fine, they go fishing for reasons that I shouldn't be. It's just as hard for me to believe and remember every day that I am free in Christ - not defined by the label of depression.

If you listen to Christian radio, you've likely heard the song "You Are More" by Tenth Avenue North. The chorus of that song says: You are more than the choices that you've made, You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, You are more than the problems you create, You've been remade.

I've posted the official video here:

I encourage you to listen to it, and really pay attention to the lyrics. This song describes me and so many people in similar situtations so very well. But I am finally learning what it means to be described the way God describes me.

 

Think before you label someone based on the outside. You don't know what's going on inside.

My Encounter with the Beatitudes

This week I spent a good deal of time taking a deep look at The Beatitudes, one of Jesus' most remembered teachings, from Matthew 5. First, I'll comment on the deeper meaning I found in the passage itself and then leave you with the charge that God gave me at the end of my time studying this scripture.

Matthew 5:1-12

The Sermon on the Mount

¹Seeing the crowds,^(A) he went up on the mountain, and when he^(B) sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

²And^(C) he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
^3(D) "Blessed are^(E) the poor in spirit, for^(F) theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴"Blessed are^(G) those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
⁵"Blessed are the^(H) meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
⁶"Blessed are those who hunger and^(I) thirst^(J) for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
⁷"Blessed are^(K) the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
⁸"Blessed are^(L) the pure in heart, for^(M) they shall see God.
⁹"Blessed are^(N) the peacemakers, for^(O) they shall be called^(P) sons^[a] of God.
^10(Q) "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for^(R) theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
^11(S) "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely^(T) on my account. ^12(U) Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for^(V) so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

v3 - "poor in spirit" - those who recognize their need for God
v4 - Jesus came to comfort those who mourn, who have repented and are looking for a new beginning
v5 - Meek = recognizing our need for God through humility
v6 - when we are searching for God to fill us, He will fill us beyond satisfaction
v7 - when we show mercy to others, God is inclined to show mercy to us
v8 - purity of heart as such that we come to God with a child-like faith, desiring more of Him and not questioning His motives but trusting that He has our best interest in mind
v9 - we are called to minister the peace and love of the gospel to the world, bringing healing to those who need it
v10 - withstanding persecution brings about blessing; it is basically a guarantee that we will not be liked by those around us because of the message that we bring

Jesus has called me to:

• recognize my need for Him
• ask Him for repentance and find comfort in His salvation
• come to Him humbly adn seek His face to be fulfilled
• show His mercy to those around me
• approach Him with the heart of a child, putting off all my doubts and worries to allow Him to cleanse me of my impurities
• bring the peace of His gospel to the world with my life as a witness to His glory
• and withstand persecution for the sake of His name, knowing that ultimately He will be glorified and bless me in return.