Thursday, July 28, 2011
Stake your claim!
God gave Joshua an assignment that must have brought great joy to Joshua. God appointed him to divide the land among the Israelites. That would have been good news for a couple of reasons. First of all, if God gave him instructions to divide the land, that was confirmation that God was going to defeat their enemies and give them possession of the land. But there is more reason for rejoicing.
Think about this…God gave Joshua the privilege of telling the people what they had been given as the chosen people of God.
And we can rejoice in that assignment as well because that’s exactly what God has called the leaders in His kingdom to do today. One of the most important roles teachers, preachers, ministers, and all believers have today is to tell believers what they have in Christ!
Sadly, many Christians hear more about what they lack than they do about what they have. They hear more about what they are NOT supposed to do than they do about what they CAN do through Christ. Since they don’t know what they have in Christ they spend their lives trying to get what God has already given them. We are joint heirs with Christ. Everything that He has belongs to us as well. We are complete in Him. His inheritance is our inheritance. We don’t have to wait for it and we certainly don’t have to earn it. We get it simply because we are children of God.
“16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” Romans 8:16-17
And notice that we have already been given everything we need for life!
“2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises…” II Peter 1:2-4a
Like the Israelites, we have been given an unconditional gift from God. Through Christ, we have everything we need. Everything that Jesus has is ours; His faith, His wisdom, His strength, His power. It is all available to us. It is our Promised Land. It is our inheritance.
Everything we need for life and for living a Godly life is ours. It’s an unconditional gift of the grace of God. But just like the Israelites, whether or not we live out of the abundant life God has given us is conditional on us following His leadership all the way to the life He has for us.
So many Christians get stuck in the wilderness because they have crossed the Red Sea into salvation, but they stopped short of crossing the Jordan into God’s promised land of His abundant, victorious life. It’s ours, but we don’t live in it.
God wants us to stake our claim - take possession and live in the abundant land that He has given us as believers. We can quit walking in spiritual poverty and live out of the riches of the Kingdom of God!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wandering and wondering....
In preparation for the release of my new book looking at the Book of Joshua, I'll be posting some excerpts from it here.
Do you ever feel as if you are wandering through life and you wonder why? Well, you are not the first.
At the Red Sea, with deep water before them and Pharaoh’s army behind them, the Israelites found themselves in an impossible situation. If God didn’t make a way, they would either die or be taken back into captivity. But God miraculously parted the Red Sea and they crossed over on dry land. Safe on the other side, they looked back as the army chasing them was crushed by the violent return of the walls of water into the dry sea bed.
But that miracle and all the miracles that followed weren’t enough to convince the Hebrew nation that God could do the impossible. They continued to murmur and complain on the entire journey to the place where they could finally cross over to take possession of the Promised Land; the land that was already theirs. The group they sent to spy out the land returned with reports of a beautiful land, flowing with milk and honey. But sadly the reports also included facts about the inhabitants of the land. They were described as strong giants who lived in fortified cities.
The people were struck with fear. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, spoke in favor of going on to claim the land under God’s leadership and protection. All the others were paralyzed and willing to settle for less than God had given them. They owned Canaan, but they refused to take possession of it.
As a result, that generation of Israelites was destined for an aimless life wandering around in the wilderness instead of an abundant life in their promised land. They were owners of the richest of lands, but they lived the rest of their lives in a vast wasteland because they were afraid to take possession of their bountiful inheritance.
It’s a perfect picture of the lives of most modern day Christians. We don’t exercise the courage, the drive, and the wisdom to live in the abundance of what we have already been given. Either we don’t know what we have inherited in Christ so we live in mediocrity and failure, or we know what our inheritance is and we refuse to take possession of it.
We are joint heirs with Christ. Everything He has is ours as well. That is our inheritance. But we haven’t taken possession of it. Over and over we stand at the point where we can cross over to live in the abundance of His power, His provisions, His righteousness…His LIFE. And over and over, out of ignorance, fear, or apathy, we settle for spiritual poverty and aimless wandering in spiritual wilderness.
If that is happening to you there is no need to wonder why...The answer is crystal clear. God never intended for us to wander in the wilderness. He has given us abundant life and if we will follow Him, He will lead us right to it and do everything that needs to be done for us to experience it fully!
Do you ever feel as if you are wandering through life and you wonder why? Well, you are not the first.
At the Red Sea, with deep water before them and Pharaoh’s army behind them, the Israelites found themselves in an impossible situation. If God didn’t make a way, they would either die or be taken back into captivity. But God miraculously parted the Red Sea and they crossed over on dry land. Safe on the other side, they looked back as the army chasing them was crushed by the violent return of the walls of water into the dry sea bed.
But that miracle and all the miracles that followed weren’t enough to convince the Hebrew nation that God could do the impossible. They continued to murmur and complain on the entire journey to the place where they could finally cross over to take possession of the Promised Land; the land that was already theirs. The group they sent to spy out the land returned with reports of a beautiful land, flowing with milk and honey. But sadly the reports also included facts about the inhabitants of the land. They were described as strong giants who lived in fortified cities.
The people were struck with fear. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, spoke in favor of going on to claim the land under God’s leadership and protection. All the others were paralyzed and willing to settle for less than God had given them. They owned Canaan, but they refused to take possession of it.
As a result, that generation of Israelites was destined for an aimless life wandering around in the wilderness instead of an abundant life in their promised land. They were owners of the richest of lands, but they lived the rest of their lives in a vast wasteland because they were afraid to take possession of their bountiful inheritance.
It’s a perfect picture of the lives of most modern day Christians. We don’t exercise the courage, the drive, and the wisdom to live in the abundance of what we have already been given. Either we don’t know what we have inherited in Christ so we live in mediocrity and failure, or we know what our inheritance is and we refuse to take possession of it.
We are joint heirs with Christ. Everything He has is ours as well. That is our inheritance. But we haven’t taken possession of it. Over and over we stand at the point where we can cross over to live in the abundance of His power, His provisions, His righteousness…His LIFE. And over and over, out of ignorance, fear, or apathy, we settle for spiritual poverty and aimless wandering in spiritual wilderness.
If that is happening to you there is no need to wonder why...The answer is crystal clear. God never intended for us to wander in the wilderness. He has given us abundant life and if we will follow Him, He will lead us right to it and do everything that needs to be done for us to experience it fully!
Friday, July 22, 2011
What God's doing now...
It's been a while since I've posted...And I've been through a lot in the past two years. Today God drew me back to some old videotapes of previous speaking engagements. I watched them and realized that I have lost something. Well, let me re-phrase that. Actually, I haven't lost anything. I just forgot for a while that I have everything I need for life and godliness. Im suddenly remembering again that I have everything I need to do anything that God calls me to do in His power and strength. God is showing up in a fresh new way and I have had to face the fact that He has been showing up all along and waiting for me to join Him in what He was doing.
He is reminding me that what I have is Christ...His power...His faith...His love...I can speak to Him and know that He will listen and respond in whatever way is best for me. I can listen to Him and know that He will speak clearly to me. I can do all things through Him.
What I have been realizing over the last few months is that I once spoke boldly and with confidence when I spoke of Him. And the stress of dealing with things that have happened in our churches, in the world, and in my family have pretty much just sucked the joy and confidence out of my awareness. It's still there because it's the joy of the Lord and it's confidence in what He can do. But I've just taken responsibility to handle things that have never been my responsibility to handle. I've tried to fix things God never expected me to fix. I've let things and people bring me down and distract me from where I should always be focused.
And that has caused me to operate almost on auto-pilot. I knew the truth. I taught the truth. But I failed to live the truth. Even though I taught the full truth of God's grace every Sunday morning and many times during the week too, I neglected to apply it to my own life.
God never moved. He has not left me. He did not forsake me. I knew that all along. But I've learned that I need to constantly remind myself of the truth I know so well! I've learned that if I don't, even the teacher is capable of forgetting the lessons she teaches others!
I don't know how often I'll post to this blog. I don't even know if anyone will ever read this post. That doesn't matter. I just wanted to record in some special way that God has brought me out of a low spot...a low spot where I planted my feet and dug in my heels for a while... and He has set my feet on a rock...a rock that's on higher ground than I've experienced in quite some time.
The joy is back...the excitement of waiting to see what God is going to do next is back...the assurance that God is in control even over situations that seem impossible is back too. And my desire for the things of God is back in it's appropriate place in my life. It's top priority!
And most of all, I'm experiencing the peace that passes understanding and the faith that moves mountains again!
And I like it!
He is reminding me that what I have is Christ...His power...His faith...His love...I can speak to Him and know that He will listen and respond in whatever way is best for me. I can listen to Him and know that He will speak clearly to me. I can do all things through Him.
What I have been realizing over the last few months is that I once spoke boldly and with confidence when I spoke of Him. And the stress of dealing with things that have happened in our churches, in the world, and in my family have pretty much just sucked the joy and confidence out of my awareness. It's still there because it's the joy of the Lord and it's confidence in what He can do. But I've just taken responsibility to handle things that have never been my responsibility to handle. I've tried to fix things God never expected me to fix. I've let things and people bring me down and distract me from where I should always be focused.
And that has caused me to operate almost on auto-pilot. I knew the truth. I taught the truth. But I failed to live the truth. Even though I taught the full truth of God's grace every Sunday morning and many times during the week too, I neglected to apply it to my own life.
God never moved. He has not left me. He did not forsake me. I knew that all along. But I've learned that I need to constantly remind myself of the truth I know so well! I've learned that if I don't, even the teacher is capable of forgetting the lessons she teaches others!
I don't know how often I'll post to this blog. I don't even know if anyone will ever read this post. That doesn't matter. I just wanted to record in some special way that God has brought me out of a low spot...a low spot where I planted my feet and dug in my heels for a while... and He has set my feet on a rock...a rock that's on higher ground than I've experienced in quite some time.
The joy is back...the excitement of waiting to see what God is going to do next is back...the assurance that God is in control even over situations that seem impossible is back too. And my desire for the things of God is back in it's appropriate place in my life. It's top priority!
And most of all, I'm experiencing the peace that passes understanding and the faith that moves mountains again!
And I like it!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
New look...new attitude...new beginning
No, I'm not returning after the LONGEST migraine in history...In July of 2008 I posted a blog that said I was taking a few days off to try some new medicine to get over recurring migraines. Here I am 10 months later, just now returning. My migraines actually got better pretty soon after that post, but my life got crazier. I didn't even think that was possible at the time!
Here's what happened...In 2007, we moved from GA to AL for Tim to begin a new pastorate. Our nation was a different place then; at least economically. We had a home we LOVED in GA, a lake home we LOVED in AL, and thinking that we could surely sell the home in GA, we bought another home we LOVE on the new church field. Originally we had planned to live in the lake house until our GA house sold, so we moved our clothing and essentials from GA to the lake house. But the 45 minute commute (sometimes twice a day) quickly became too much for Tim. So we found a 1940s bungalow, gutted it, and renovated it exactly like we wanted. We loved the way it looked when we finished. So we emptied the GA house and spread the furniture between the lake house and the renovated house. And we moved all our clothing, essentials, and stuff for daily living from the lake house to the new house.
But shortly after that, the economy plunged and we got stuck with three houses. Not only did we have to PAY for all three of them, we had to take care of them. And by July 0f 2008, about the time I stopped writing my blogs, we were at a point where we knew that something had to go. We had to keep the house we were living in full-time because that was our "home"; where we worked, lived, and ministered. The house in GA just would NOT sell. So our only viable option was to sell the one house we didn't want to sell; the lake house.
We had experienced such wonderful times in that house with our family. We loved being on and near the water; teaching our grandkids to ski, enjoying our daughter and son bring their families and friends to have fun with us there, extended family reunions there, and just the peaceful times of sitting on that awesome porch with the incredible view; relaxing with God and each other. And what incredible times of Bible study we both had in that setting!
But when we put the lake house on the market it sold in less than a month, so we knew that God was in that plan. We had to take a huge loss on it, but at least we were out of the payment and the maintenance issues. But that meant that we had to then move all the furniture from the lake house BACK into the GA house. So for the third time in less than a year, we moved.
Add to all that another million or so church/ministry/financial/family issues that were going on at the time, and that was about when I had a near "come-apart" and took a break to recuperate.
So why am I back today? Nothing has changed about our circumstances really. Most of the "issues" still exist; the GA house still hasn't sold; I still miss having a waterside "get-away" house; the economy is even worse now....I have to admit that the last few years have been the most confusing and frustrating years in all of our years in ministry and I still don't know what God has been and is still doing....But for reasons I can't really explain, I feel like the fog is lifting and I am somehow experiencing peace now in the midst of all of it.
I have had a hard time seeing past the present and having hope for the future, but God is beginning to restore the hope to me. I truly feel that He is about to do something though I have absolutely NO tangible evidence on which to base that feeling. But if I did, it wouldn't be "hope" or "faith"....It would be "sight" and that's not how we are supposed to live.
For quite some time now, I have yearned to hear from God like I did years ago, but for the last couple of years I have only heard silence on many days. I've heard enough to continue to teach and write, but it just hasn't been the intensely personal and revolutionary revelations of the years before. And He has not yet told me why I had to and why I'm continuing to pass through that time.... But I am beginning to hear Him clearly again and I told Tim yesterday that I feel a new excitement about what God is about to show me.
So here I am again, if anyone is even interested. The blog has a new look (which I will explain in a later post), to symbolize my new attitude at this new beginning. I don't know if I will post to the blog daily, weekly, or just whenever the "Spirit" moves, but for whatever it means....I'm back.
Here's what happened...In 2007, we moved from GA to AL for Tim to begin a new pastorate. Our nation was a different place then; at least economically. We had a home we LOVED in GA, a lake home we LOVED in AL, and thinking that we could surely sell the home in GA, we bought another home we LOVE on the new church field. Originally we had planned to live in the lake house until our GA house sold, so we moved our clothing and essentials from GA to the lake house. But the 45 minute commute (sometimes twice a day) quickly became too much for Tim. So we found a 1940s bungalow, gutted it, and renovated it exactly like we wanted. We loved the way it looked when we finished. So we emptied the GA house and spread the furniture between the lake house and the renovated house. And we moved all our clothing, essentials, and stuff for daily living from the lake house to the new house.
But shortly after that, the economy plunged and we got stuck with three houses. Not only did we have to PAY for all three of them, we had to take care of them. And by July 0f 2008, about the time I stopped writing my blogs, we were at a point where we knew that something had to go. We had to keep the house we were living in full-time because that was our "home"; where we worked, lived, and ministered. The house in GA just would NOT sell. So our only viable option was to sell the one house we didn't want to sell; the lake house.
We had experienced such wonderful times in that house with our family. We loved being on and near the water; teaching our grandkids to ski, enjoying our daughter and son bring their families and friends to have fun with us there, extended family reunions there, and just the peaceful times of sitting on that awesome porch with the incredible view; relaxing with God and each other. And what incredible times of Bible study we both had in that setting!
But when we put the lake house on the market it sold in less than a month, so we knew that God was in that plan. We had to take a huge loss on it, but at least we were out of the payment and the maintenance issues. But that meant that we had to then move all the furniture from the lake house BACK into the GA house. So for the third time in less than a year, we moved.
Add to all that another million or so church/ministry/financial/family issues that were going on at the time, and that was about when I had a near "come-apart" and took a break to recuperate.
So why am I back today? Nothing has changed about our circumstances really. Most of the "issues" still exist; the GA house still hasn't sold; I still miss having a waterside "get-away" house; the economy is even worse now....I have to admit that the last few years have been the most confusing and frustrating years in all of our years in ministry and I still don't know what God has been and is still doing....But for reasons I can't really explain, I feel like the fog is lifting and I am somehow experiencing peace now in the midst of all of it.
I have had a hard time seeing past the present and having hope for the future, but God is beginning to restore the hope to me. I truly feel that He is about to do something though I have absolutely NO tangible evidence on which to base that feeling. But if I did, it wouldn't be "hope" or "faith"....It would be "sight" and that's not how we are supposed to live.
For quite some time now, I have yearned to hear from God like I did years ago, but for the last couple of years I have only heard silence on many days. I've heard enough to continue to teach and write, but it just hasn't been the intensely personal and revolutionary revelations of the years before. And He has not yet told me why I had to and why I'm continuing to pass through that time.... But I am beginning to hear Him clearly again and I told Tim yesterday that I feel a new excitement about what God is about to show me.
So here I am again, if anyone is even interested. The blog has a new look (which I will explain in a later post), to symbolize my new attitude at this new beginning. I don't know if I will post to the blog daily, weekly, or just whenever the "Spirit" moves, but for whatever it means....I'm back.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
still away...
So sorry I'm not back to posting yet - came back from vacation with a series of migraines - on new medicine and hope to be feeling better and back to posting soon.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
on vacation...
We've been on vacation this week - I'll be back on the blog site Monday, July 28th.
Debbie
Debbie
Friday, July 18, 2008
The problem with tradition....
"knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
Peter is referring to the practice of redeeming someone who had been taken into bondage. A price had to be paid so that they could be set free. What set us free was more precious than gold or silver. The blood of Jesus Christ was the payment God accepted to set us free. We have been set free from the bondage of sin and the curse of the law, but that’s not all.
Peter was also telling his readers that they had been set free from the pointless lives they had lived as a result of the traditions their fathers taught them. That had special significance for the original readers of Peter’s letter. The way of life handed down to them by their forefathers had been empty, binding, and ineffective in meeting God’s standard for holiness and obedience. But God had set them free from such a pointless life of trying to please Him by keeping rules. They had been redeemed from such a life and they were now free to honor God by depending on His indwelling Holy Spirit to live through them.
My favorite quote is one from Dr. Steve McVey of GraceWalk Ministries. He says, "Tell a man who he is in Christ and he can't be stopped from godly activity. Try to control him through rules and you set him up for spiritual ruin." I am convinced that when a person comes to an understanding that God has made them holy, and that they can live out of that holiness, then they will be constrained by the power of that understanding to live holy lives. But when religious leaders try to control the behavior of church members by pounding them with rules and traditions, the lives of those church members will usually reflect everything but holiness. What you usually get from that sort of teaching is "holier than thou-ness" that covers secret rebellion and unholy attitudes.
Christians shouldn't have to be constrained by the rules. Peter is teaching us truth in the appropriate order by which we should live it. First, God has made us holy and we can live out of that holiness. Next, he taught us that we have been empowered by the life of Christ within, Who will work through us and then reward us as if we had done the work ourselves. And now, Peter is giving us one more holy motivation for living holy lives. A HUGE price was paid for our salvation. We were not redeemed with gold or silver or anything worldly. We were purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
When Peter spoke of lambs, he was referring back to a foreshadowing picture of Christ in the sacrificial lamb that had been offered up in temple sacrifices. All of Peter’s readers would have recognized the requirements of perfection those animals had to meet. And Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb that would accomplish everything the lambs could never fully accomplish, thus redeeming us and ending the need for temple sacrifices forever.
So Peter said, "Knowing all this truth should be enough to motivate us to holy lives." Knowing the power that resides within us and knowing the price that was paid to save us should constrain us to live holy lives. Rules will never constrain us to such lives. But the knowledge of God's transformation will. Tradition won't do it, but truth ALWAYS will.
I Peter 1:17-19 (NKJV)
Peter is referring to the practice of redeeming someone who had been taken into bondage. A price had to be paid so that they could be set free. What set us free was more precious than gold or silver. The blood of Jesus Christ was the payment God accepted to set us free. We have been set free from the bondage of sin and the curse of the law, but that’s not all.
Peter was also telling his readers that they had been set free from the pointless lives they had lived as a result of the traditions their fathers taught them. That had special significance for the original readers of Peter’s letter. The way of life handed down to them by their forefathers had been empty, binding, and ineffective in meeting God’s standard for holiness and obedience. But God had set them free from such a pointless life of trying to please Him by keeping rules. They had been redeemed from such a life and they were now free to honor God by depending on His indwelling Holy Spirit to live through them.
My favorite quote is one from Dr. Steve McVey of GraceWalk Ministries. He says, "Tell a man who he is in Christ and he can't be stopped from godly activity. Try to control him through rules and you set him up for spiritual ruin." I am convinced that when a person comes to an understanding that God has made them holy, and that they can live out of that holiness, then they will be constrained by the power of that understanding to live holy lives. But when religious leaders try to control the behavior of church members by pounding them with rules and traditions, the lives of those church members will usually reflect everything but holiness. What you usually get from that sort of teaching is "holier than thou-ness" that covers secret rebellion and unholy attitudes.
Christians shouldn't have to be constrained by the rules. Peter is teaching us truth in the appropriate order by which we should live it. First, God has made us holy and we can live out of that holiness. Next, he taught us that we have been empowered by the life of Christ within, Who will work through us and then reward us as if we had done the work ourselves. And now, Peter is giving us one more holy motivation for living holy lives. A HUGE price was paid for our salvation. We were not redeemed with gold or silver or anything worldly. We were purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
When Peter spoke of lambs, he was referring back to a foreshadowing picture of Christ in the sacrificial lamb that had been offered up in temple sacrifices. All of Peter’s readers would have recognized the requirements of perfection those animals had to meet. And Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb that would accomplish everything the lambs could never fully accomplish, thus redeeming us and ending the need for temple sacrifices forever.
So Peter said, "Knowing all this truth should be enough to motivate us to holy lives." Knowing the power that resides within us and knowing the price that was paid to save us should constrain us to live holy lives. Rules will never constrain us to such lives. But the knowledge of God's transformation will. Tradition won't do it, but truth ALWAYS will.
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