Discord or Harmony?

Mental strongholds: patterns of thought formed before even sentences are possible.

Have you watched a baby?  Really watched them.  They are living sponges. All they have are their senses to tell them of their life just beginning.

Do they hear tones of love OR anger?
Do they see affection OR distance?

Indeed, before they even know what life is they are inputting data without pause that will determine their course for years, possibly their entire life.

But we, as Christian adults, should pause.

I Corinthians 10:24 states, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of another."

Yesterday, in America, we celebrated "Independence Day."

Mankind has raised the concept of independence to a place of idolatry. Not only rejecting the concept of a Creator and the accountability our position as the created naturally assesses, but also rejecting the concept of becoming a harmonious member of a society, a marriage, a family, and most importantly - the Body of Christ.

There is an evil in all of us that seeks its own way.

Paul wrote the Corinthians a third time, "For I am afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I want you to be... I fear there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance, disorder...that I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin, and debauchery in which they have indulged...our prayer is that you may be fully restored...strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace."

Take a moment to slowly re-read those words.
Let them sink in.

Choice and its destiny; 

powerful when divinely embraced for others, 

destructive when egocentrically driven.

Do we make choices to harmonize our sphere by serving another's good before our own or do we make choices of discord, seeking our own?

It's that simple.  Make no mistake; our choices are intentional, no matter what lies we tell ourselves.

The harsher truth is, short of God, mankind tends to duplicate the example set before the eyes and the ears prior to the ability of putting words together is possessed.

This reality takes the responsibility of marriage and family to another whole level... stratospheric level!

My parents determined early in their marriage to read and learn how to become a harmonious unit; and they partnered together towards harmony.  My husband's parents, I am left by observation, mostly chose independence. Dad did his thing; mom did her thing.

Subsequently, I came into marriage with the belief every married couple sought to harmonize, yet my husband's reference point was, well, not that. When I would inquire where he was going or when he would be back, he bristled.  It took me some time to figure out his reaction to my persistent petitions of accountability was rooted in the independence in which he was raised.

Begs the question: do our beginnings - good or not so good -  excuse our present? Absolutely not.

Go back and read what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. We all have beginnings that miss the bulls-eye of God! Paul counted himself among the worst of beginnings.

It is not how we begin, but how we choose to persist.

In a day and age when people are screaming for individual rights to the point of rioting, Christians among themselves need to be representing and living God's sovereign heart for harmony. For the married couple, start with your marriage. For Christian singles, work on harmonizing within the Body of Christ, strengthening relationships as you edify others before you seek out edification.

I challenge each of you as a student of God, regardless of your beginning, bring yourself under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit and allow His correction to re-shape that which perhaps was misshapen from birth.

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child. thought as a child, reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11)

Paul made a choice that changed the trajectory of his life. In fact, he made many, many choices every day that kept him on God's track, so that he could confidently say, "I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."

How's Your Hearing?

Depravity is defined as "moral corruption; wickedness"

No matter how good you believe yourself to be, you are depraved.  I know, I know, no one likes to be in that camp, but fact is this side of Glory, we all are.

There is not a single day where you and I don't have to make the intentional decision to live for righteousness and then proceed through our day vigilantly on guard, empowered by and listening to the Holy Spirit. The condition of our relationship with the Holy Spirit is KEY to both our success and our failure. For if we think we can grieve the Holy Spirit through willful sin, glossing over it, never repenting, we become dull of hearing, and duller with each passing day, until we are utterly deaf to His shaping, correcting, and directing words.

There is a movie line where a grieving husband references his marriage, "She was horrible to me sometimes; I was even worse to her." Then comes the question, "Did you love her?"  He replies, "More than anything on Earth."  Then come further questions about why the choice of infidelity. The husband replies, "I don't know; I just did it. Sometimes you just do things; you want to take it back, but you can't."

That's depravity.

"I was wrong to treat her the way I did, and she was wrong to treat me the way she did. Now, neither of us has the chance to say I'm sorry."

That's revelation.

Retained sin, persistent strife, velcroed offense, formidable pride all keep us unable to receive Holy Spirit revelation, and subsequent direction, until it is often too late to make amends. It is indeed a ploy of our enemy.

You see, light and dark can not coincide. Once the decision to even taste a morsel of evil is made, fellowship with God immediately breaks until acknowledgement and repentance come.  Look at Adam and Eve.  It took but a taste... a single taste... to break fellowship with God and send them running into hiding. Generations later, the Adams and the Eves of this world are still tasting, still running, still hiding....and still shattering one another in the process.

Question: Are you hiding from both God and spouse as a result of willful sin, trying to formulate a fix of your own making?  It will NEVER work. Not with God. Not with your spouse. Fellowship will remain broken.

Understand, repentance and reconciliation are two separate events.  Repentance ushers in God's forgiveness.  God's forgiveness ushers in reconciliation.  You cannot begin the process of reconciliation without genuine repentance before God.

To gloss over the repulsiveness of sin is at the very heart of human depravity. We must never cease in seeking to see as God sees.  We must never cease in seeking to line up our heart with His.  And we must never cease the all out pursuit of righteousness this side of Glory.  For even Paul stated, "For now I know in part...", but in part beats willful blindness and deafness!

Begin by confessing known sin to God. Confession goes to work on a hard heart.  There are over one hundred Bible verses pertaining to hardheartedness. Look them up.  Study them.  

I am leaving HERE for you a link to Charles Spurgeon's sermon on grieving the Holy Spirit given in 1859. Powerful; if you are short on time, scan down to point three and read through it at least twice.  Until you address hardheartedness and the effects of grieving the Holy Spirit, you will be both blind and deaf.

Life here is SO fleeting. I think about all the many years satan and his cronies successfully robbed me from a proper, righteous, loving relationship with my husband and he with me. While you and I do not possess the ability to control anyone or anything, we do possess the ability to control ourselves and our choices.

I edify you: do NOT participate with the enemy of God, do not be a spouse who persists in selfish, depraved living, who participates in shattering another's soul. Yes, God possesses the ability to heal, but willful wounding is very deep indeed and will leave scars. The only one who wins is satan himself.

"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,

with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Get rid of ALL bitterness, rage and anger,

brawling and slander,

along with EVERY form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another,

forgiving each other,

just as in Christ, God forgave you."

Eph 4: 30-32

You cannot do the above without GOD,

and GOD cannot be present and active

in your life with known sin.

It's that simple!

Humbly I ask, "How's your hearing?"

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Determine To Be An Overcomer

Just as Christ is, so too determine to be an....

https://youtu.be/R8DIvyBf


"You, dear children, are from God
 and have overcome them (who oppose Him),
because the One who is in you
 is greater than the one who is in the world.
They are from the world, and therefore,
speak from the viewpoint of the world,
and the world listens to them.
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us,
but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth
and the spirit of falsehood."
I John 4: 4-6

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Bases Loaded, Home Run!

I came upon the video posted at the end of this writing and was so taken by its pointed accuracy.

Here's the thing, ladies, I'm here to tell you you can and will live through the deconstruction Patrick hits on in the video and be stronger on the other side. There is nothing more strengthening than to have everything shaken to pieces only to find the bedrock of Christ beneath your feet.

You cannot love someone to righteousness! Let me say that again: you cannot love someone to righteousness. Only God can bring real change to mankind's heart.

Christian men, here's my message to you: God gave you a beautiful creation HE made to be your wife. It is not your place to critique her, to demand change, complain, grumble, nor use her like a commodity in an effort to take the heat off your plank. (Matthew 7:3) That said, it is your place to edify and nurture her with love, kindness, and liberty into the fullness of Christ.

I am beyond fed up, having heard the "oh, he's just such a nice guy" deception too many times through the years as so many spectators fall under deception's spell. 

Do YOU live with these men? Because until you do, you have no idea the battle Christian women fight to see their husbands grow up into Him and own outside their walls what they so carelessly vomited on those within their walls.

Ladies, if you fall under this societal epidemic, REACH OUT....for you are not alone! There are strong sisters who have risen out of dark water who can be with you as Christ takes YOUR hand, as He did ours, and lifts you up out of the drowning. You are beautiful and beloved!

The point here is not to advocate for divorce as the first nor the only option, but one must put into place strong Godly boundaries. Secondly, the point here is not to tear men down, but to say loud and clear to the men: the way UP is most definitely NOT in the tearing down of God's beloved daughters in an effort to shift blame off personal sin and deflect responsibility. 

The path for us ALL is humility, deep personal inspection, and dedicated growth towards righteousness.

(If you received this post via email weblist, please visit HERE and listen to the linked video.)

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The Shape of Your Life Will Always Be About Choice

Writing has long been very cathartic for me. A long week has come to a close. I have fed the dogs and fed myself. Here I sit in the quiet of the house. Alone.

I have never shied away from being alone. Truth is I am a closet introvert. These days I hold a senior leadership position in a large corporation that equally compels me into times of solitude to recharge as did my many years homeschooling my three adult children. As I told a dear girlfriend tonight, “I am peopled-out, but would welcome quality time with you.” She responded, “I understand that.” How I pray everyone is blessed with such a deep relationship. They minster to the soul in a way shallow relationships never will.

This month I turned fifty. Fifty years on this planet. Fifty years of memories. Oh, the memories. Even the once-tormenting memories bring a grateful smile now to my countenance. 

Why? Because I lived through them, and greater still, because they compelled me out of the boat and ON to the deep waters with my Savior.  I did not sink! 

Experiencing walking ON the angry, death-seeking waves of life with my Savior has brought the following truth home to me in ways saying or reading them would never have achieved!

The higher the waves, the higher the walk;

the higher the walk, the higher the dependency ON Him;

the higher the dependency on Him,
the higher the victory IN Him!

Today, I look for opportunities to infect others with boldness to believe in Him; His ability to cause those who believe in Him to rise above the dark, the deep, the menacing ugly waves of life; for I ask you, what good are life's lessons if kept in secret and taken to the grave?

Life is a long series of choices we are GIFTED to make. We are not at the mercy of life's events (waves). We, being created in the image of God, are granted the amazing ability to choose how we process and subsequently respond to life's events, both those we plan for and those that come at us full-force. The gift of choice has to be among the greatest gifts granted to us by our Creator.

While it is true I have gleaned valuable wisdom from the full-force, unwelcome waves of life, the greater truth is I am not bitter.

I sit now, and I allow myself to meditate on that sentence I just typed. I see God smile. I smile back.

“I'm really not bitter, am I, God?”

“No, My beloved, you are not.”

Wow. Ten, even five, years ago I would not have thought myself capable of typing such a sentence with truth, but God.

“For You have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,

my confidence since my youth.”

Psm 71:5

Forever grateful.....
forever.

Determine to make life choices that OPPOSE hate and bitterness, that keep both your hands and your heart open. 

Remember: 

The higher the waves, the higher the walk;

the higher the walk, the higher the dependency ON Him;

 the higher the dependency on Him,

the higher the victory in Him!  

To God alone be all the glory!

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