Who have you been whispering to?
When you see someone sinning do not talk about them to others- talk about them to God. We tend to see sin in those we care about, or in simply the people around us, and we do the exact opposite of what we are supposed to do. We talk about them. But what we should be doing is praying for them. Only the Holy Spirit can fix sin. If he or she is someone you know well are comfortable with, perhaps you could find a gentle way of pointing the sin out. But in the end that person has to choose to not sin anymore. If your close friend is talking about suddenly enjoying alcohol and you know that the temptation to become a drunk is there (this is a sin by the way. There are those who claim drunkenness is not, but it is.) It would be wrong to not try and dissuade him or her from the temptation. If your friends are watching bad movies and you act like that’s okay, then you are encouraging their sin. I am thinking of myself here. I was watching a show last year that had a nude scene. You didn’t really see anything but it was obvious what was happening. I kept watching because I figured it was fine as long as you didn’t see anything. My dad happened to be over at the time and he pointed out that the show was bad. Suddenly I realized my error and sin and was able to shut it off. No song on the radio or movie on Netflix is worth losing your relationship with God over. But the other day I had a person I know well mention something they were doing that I knew right away was a sin. This person is a professing Christian. Yet there it was. I mentioned that it wasn’t really something a Christian should do and got shot down. So I went and discussed the whole thing with my close friend. I was greatly troubled. But in the end all we could do was talk about the person and speak badly about this person, because once you mention one thing a person is doing wrong to someone else a thousand other things you’ve seen him or her do come to mind. That was no solution. I then felt God say. ‘You shouldn’t talk to others about people. You should talk to me and let me help them.’
It’s true. Only God can help these people. He knows their hearts and what is going on, and He is never there just to criticize. God is there to guide and help. In the end He will judge us. But for now He is doing His best to help us, if only we would stop trying to be Him and start letting Him be in control.
So. Next time. I personally will pray when worried about someone and will work hard to not simply talk behind their backs, which is a sin I need to work on. And I am sure many of the rest of you who are shaking your heads at me in disgust are guilty of this too. We all are. And we all need to try and do better.
Category: encouragement
Why do we worship?
Why do we worship before the sermon?
Have you ever wondered why we worship before the pastor starts speaking? Of course most would say ‘it’s to praise God.’ Some might say, ‘it’s to give time for late comers to find their seats.’ Both are accurate. Yet it’s more than just praise to God. Worship is about getting into the right head space and heart space. We enter church with the world’s problems following behind us.
“My TV broke and I don’t have money for a new one. Do I really need a new one? Is it important? But I like watching the Christian stations. But the other stations can have such terrible things on them.” “My cat keeps scratching the couch. What can I do? Do I need a cover?”
So on and so on, our minds go.
These things distract from the word of God and the time spent with Him. The worship is a physical act and takes a physical action. We sing and our mind moves to the music. Soon our hearts are taken by the words and eventually we feel the Holy Spirit raise our hands and we praise. Then the sermon comes and we are ready. Even before prayer we can get into a better headspace by spending some time in worship and focusing on God. Sometimes I personally find lighting a candle helps. Little Things that Aid your mind in their thoughts and focus. Sometimes pacing and walking helps you focus on God. But these are things you can’t do at church when the pastor is about to speak. What we can do is worship and get our minds and our hearts out of our day-to-day problems and on to God, and soon we will see that God has answers for all of these problems. Perhaps God won’t tell you if you should or should not buy a couch cover to keep your cat from scratching it. But He will guide you in your need for financing or your health problems or even the fight you had with your neighbors. If you are open to Him God will show you what to do in all your life. But first you need to focus and that’s where worship helps.
Are you waiting for answers?
Are you waiting for answers?
The promise of God does not always come fast. So don’t start doubting even if you have waited 10 or 20 years. He has His time.
Why do we become downcast and fearful when we have a God who loves us? When we have Faith in God and know He is God and He can and will deliver, why do we doubt?
James says that the doubters should expect to receive nothing from God.
But Jesus said ‘if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.’ So where is the cut off?
At what point does faith only the size of a mustard seed turn to doubt?
In the moment where you used to say ‘I know God can do this.’
And now you say, ‘God probably won’t do this.’
You aren’t doubting that God is real or that He is there, but you are doubting that He will answer you. I say this more to myself than anyone else because I have had too many of those moments.
(I have also had moments of complete doubt that God would answer and He did, probably because He knew that I needed to see Him do something because I was slipping. He is still good to us.)
His Word warns us that if we doubt who He is and what He will do that He won’t answer us. That’s not having only a little Faith when we pray. That’s having no Faith at all. We must believe or how else can we expect to see answers.
Now. There are times when we have Faith and still don’t see an answer. There were times like that all through the Bible. But our Faith cannot depend on what we see God doing, it has to depend on who God is. Our Faith is in God not in the works of God. We have to trust Him.
Everyone welcome?
Everyone welcome?
I have noticed that certain groups who claim the title ‘church’ have decided to plant an ‘Everyone welcome’ slogan under their banners. We all know what they are gesturing at. But it made me feel like something should be said.
All Churches. All! Welcome Everyone to come and join. But the true Church refuses to dumb down or corrupt the Bible’s teaching just to make certain people happy. Guess what? There are parts of the Bible that are offensive to everyone. The lady who has just started attending after being involved in a messy legal custody battle may be offended by the verse that says to love your enemies, or the verses that tell about divorce being a sin. The man who has attended Church his whole life may suddenly notice 1 Thes. 5:12 and 13 says to respect and listen to those in the Church who give you spiritual guidance, but all that does is bring to his mind a mentor he once had who he didn’t like so he feels angry and offended. Do we change the words of God to suit these two people? No. God’s word is meant to be hard to handle at times and sometimes it even hurts or makes us angry. It’s supposed to help us change and guide us into being more like Christ. If the Bible says your lifestyle is a sin, it’s a call to look at yourself and to decide, do I want to live this way? Or do I want to change and become a new person through Christ? If you’re a mess and the Bible points it out that doesn’t mean it’s closing the doors on you, and neither is the Church that continues to preach the Truth, it means that the Bible and the Church are trying to help you and to guide you out of your mess and sin and into the fullness of living for Jesus. News flash. We all came through the front door of the Church with a set of sins. But that’s why we’re at Church. To sit down and listen to God and hear what He has to say. And when it’s uncomfortable and feels offensive, we choose to look at ourselves and see what God is calling us to change. If you want the Church to change what it says so you feel comfortable there, than you have missed the point of Church. It’s not here to make us feel good and then we go home, it’s here to prepare is to go forward as true followers of Christ. Everyone is welcome. But come expecting to be changed. That’s why we go. Because we want to be more like Him and less like the mess we were when we walked in.
Seek Him openly
Seek Him openly
Last weekend I was at our Church camp. I go every year. Since the pandemic (and I’m not blaming the pandemic itself) camp has been a little hallow. Where we used to hear messages from the Lord and saw people being healed and set free we now were interrupted by tye other christians who were skipping church to roar around near by on their quads and seadoos. Fine to do when service isn’t on. The alters were empty at the end of services and many of the seats were empty throughout. I thought that perhaps these two years were a shift that would mark the new normal in our Churches. Then this year came. The services were packed, the bikes out front of the kid’s chapel were so many you could hardly see grass. The alter was full at the end of the services and children of their own choosing came forward to pray. They prayed for others, they knelt by the alter with their Bibles clutched in their hands, teenagers went to the front to seek and anointing from God. It was marvelous! It was like God was saying, “this is the true shift. This will be the new normal.” Where even five years ago you would mostly see older people seeking God and standing for prayer, now we see people who are so young they are coming from kid’s church where they get to watch puppet shows to stand at the alter of the main tabernacle and give their souls to Jesus. No one coaxing them or calling them forward, just a longing to be there, nearer to the heart of God, seeking Him openly. Let us pray that we see more of this, a great revival coming forward as the Holy Spirit spreads afresh through our people. We can’t be good deciples unless we are filled and refilled by Him.
God has a reason for your defeat.
When God permits bad things to happen.
We use much of King David’s life as an example of good coming out of bad. Least in his family and promoted to King and all of that. But we don’t usually look at the Times when we saw bad things happen to David and didn’t really see something good come out of it. We don’t often mention the times when he was not redeemed by God involving something that God let happen to him. David was a warrior. As a warrior he fought countless battles, obviously. We like to talk about the battles that David won, but what about the battles David lost? Many people who wanted dispose of the Bible like to come up with ridiculous reasons for doing so. One such reason was that it was said to be Historically incorrect and used people that didn’t exist. I won’t spend the hours going through each group and person that has been proved just as real as God said in His word, but David (yes, David and Goliath, David) was one of them. Then, as so many times before, an artifact surfaced. It was a record account written by a prominent King at that time. It recorded a battle the King won against the king of Israel who was named David. In the moment when David was defeated by this King we have the record from, it was probably a crushing blow to him, something that felt horrible. David didn’t see God’s plan and goodness in his defeat during this battle. But like so many other times, God had a will that was beyond our understanding. God used David’s defeat to prove his existence and the truth of the Bible thousands of years later. Sometimes when we are defeated, many times when we are defeated, we don’t see God’s purpose or plan we just see the defeat. And sometimes we will never ever see what God was doing in that moment of pain, but like David losing this battle God will work it out for good sometime in the future. It might not even be something he’s going to work out for our good. But it will work out for the good of the Kingdom. Next time you are defeated and crushed, remember that God has a plan and a purpose whether you understand it or see it, or even if you never understand or see it, God is working and he has a plan.
The joy of seals
Seals
During holiday I have made some new friends. A group of harbour seals. I love seals! They play like no one else. Everything is a game. Growing up I lived for the days my little white poodle and I would go to the dock with my parents and see the seals.
This last time I had a thought as I looked at the seals. God put all his pleasure into them. Hang in there. I mean, they are playful and happy and goofy and I feel like God put His fun side into them. I know God is all powerful, but He clearly enjoys a smile and a good laugh too, or else He wouldn’t have created seals. So next time you laugh at something good, take a moment to thank God for it.
Good good Father
Fathers
Recently I was reminded of the times when my dad really stepped up for me. Times when I just couldn’t do it on my own. Today my dad, with an injured foot, carried my Kayak down to the water for me, walked my dog and loaded and unloaded our truck twice. And it’s Father’s Day. It should have been about him, but instead he took care of me. Why? Because that’s what dads do. Not all, but the good ones do. He’s always putting me first becuse he’s my daddy and he loves me. A good father reflects our Heavenly Father. God is always putting us first. He takes care of us. He forgives our sins and fixes our screw ups. We hurt Him and then run back to Him and He pulls us into His arms and tells us that we are His. He punishes us so we will do better and won’t end up in hell. He helps us because He wants us and loves us. He even sacrificed His only true son so that we, unworthy kids he took in out of love, would be able to see Him some day. God, who is the best Father, gives everything for us. Just like a great dad always does. A true Father mimics God in how He cares for His kids. Just as my dad cares for me.
Happy Father’s Day!
Are you as alone as you think? No. Never. Jesus is right there feeling your pain and holding onto you through it.
Up till now he had been looking at the lion’s great front feet and the huge claws on them. Now in despair, he looked up at his face. What he saw surprised him as much as anytjing in hiw whole life, for the great tawny face was bent near his own, and wonder of wonders, there were great tears shining in the lion’s eyes. They were such big bright tears compared with Digorie’s own that for a moment he felt as if the lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.
How like Digory are we? We have brokenness and heart ache and worries that we think God doesn’t see or understand. Then in a moment of wonder and fear we look up and see God looking back, smiling, big tears in His eyes. There’s an old Petra song that says, “you care so much more than I do.” We forget that. God cares more about our broken hearts, our loved ones who are slipping away, our forgotten dreams, our lost jobs, then we ever could. We feel we are the ones suffering, yet everytime we break, so does He. Jesus took all our pain on Him, past- present- future. He feels it too, and like the ragman, He comes to us saying, “let me take your old rags and I’ll give you my new. Let me take your pain and loss and I will give you my healing.” He loves us and feels what we feel. We must stop forgetting that. We are never alone in our grief, we have Him and He loves us.
Mother, you are important just the way you are!
Mother, you are important just the way you are.
I had the misfortune of seeing a movie the other day that delt with a mom who suddenly decided to go after a career instead of raising her child. There’s nothing wrong with a mom going after a career, that part wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she chose to do this because her sister told her that a woman who was satisfied with being nothing more than a mother was underachieving. In that moment my mind went, ‘I see now. That’s where it began.’ The falling apart of the country’s fabric I mean. Women are now told that it’s no longer okay to be happy just being a mommy, if that’s your dream as a little girl you’ll get shot down as not stretching yourself enough. This is false. We need our moms in this and every country. We need them as moms. Having a job too is fine, but if all you’ve ever been and all you’ve ever wanted to be was a mom there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, you’ve chosen one of the hardest, most underappreciated, and totally unpaid positions out there. But you chose it because you are special. You didn’t just want a baby to play with and then you’re done and want your own life, you wanted to be someone’s mentor, caretaker, teacher, and friend. You chose a job where someone else’s life is always put before yours. A job where you are solely responsible for guiding and maintaining another human being. You have chosen to be more than just another money seeking career woman. You have chosen to be someone who gains nothing but the love of a child and never gets payment nor awards. Except perhaps a paper cut out of a ribbon with a misspelled ‘#1 mom’ written on it, and if you are like my mom then that paper cut out ribbon is more precious to you than any golden trophy could be. You are amazing mothers, just the way you are! Don’t feel like you are less because you chose a job that leaves you without a pension. Don’t feel small because you wear old holy soles instead of seven inch high heels. Don’t forget that God designed women to be mothers. Not all choose that path and some God plans to be His workers in a different direction then motherhood and that’s fine. But we must never look down on those who have been chosen to fulfill the role of mommy. Being a mother to your child makes God smile, because you are following His plan. The world needs strong, praying mothers. Don’t doubt the importance of your role! We need you.
Happy Mother’s day! 😊
Carried in the cross 