Category: discipline

What God’s Doing – Cementing

Posted on by Dorci

The last year and a half have been something else. It’s been a long journey slogging through marshes, dark, creepy forests full of eyes glowing in the dark, deep shark-infested waters, rocky, steep exhausting climbs and riding avalanches down the other side. And that’s on top of an exhausting three years, on top of an excruciatingly painful fifteen years, and so on and so forth. 

Up until the last year and a half, I handled the stresses pretty well; not perfectly of course, but I’ve held on to Jesus through it. But this last trial has been different. It’s a long story in itself, but suffice it to say it came just as I felt I was finally coming back from the stroke, and it came on with vengeance. One thing after another, after another, after another…

I’ve prayed my heart out until I’m blue in the face. I’ve been worried, upset, frustrated, at the end of my rope. And yes, I’ve gotten angry. I’ve lobbed up those prayers we sometimes pray when we feel up against a brick wall – “Why God? Why more? Haven’t I had enough?!” And there have been days I’ve wondered what was the point. Why keep praying? Why keep trusting? 

Then this morning at church we sang a song that reminded me of a truth Peter spoke as many around them started to become disillusioned with Jesus and walk away. 

Jesus asked the Twelve “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

“Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'” (John 6:67-68a)

It seems not only in my life, but in the lives of so many others, the trials and suffering of all kinds is ramping up. The time to Jesus’ return gets closer every day, and God is preparing us. God is cementing our faith in Him and giving us a strength we’ve never known before. 

Yes, the journey can be confusing, frustrating, painful, and some days it can be downright maddening. It can creep up on you like a riptide and threaten to carry you away. I know.

But keep holding onto Christ. Keep telling Him how you feel. He can handle it, and He wants to help you through it. It is His grace and mercy that He disciplines us, His children, to mature us. There is no where else to go where we can find the eternal truths found in Christ, no where else we can find the kind of pure, genuine and lasting love He has for us. No where else we can go to find His peace, His joy, His hope. 

Let’s let Him cement our faith in the way He knows we need so it will be absolutely unshakeable, in the way that will bring Him glory upon glory, and take us into the Promised Land where our reward awaits with Him. Oh, what a glorious day. 

Please, if you need prayer, I’m here. You can leave a comment or email me. 

For His glory, 

Dorci
<*)))><

 

Heavenly Father, I lift up each person reading this. May you hold them tight and comfort them as they each walk their journeys, identifying with Jesus in His suffering. May you bring much good out of it – a strong faith, godly character, obedience, perseverance, wisdom, the salvation of souls around them, and the spreading of your love far and wide. I pray it all in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, amen. 

The Sacrifice of Praise

Posted on by Dorci

 

Well hello there. You might have noticed I’ve been mostly absent the past year. I’ve been dealing with more health issues than I can tell you, and I’m still trudging through it all. It would be easy for me to say it was a wasted year, but in God’s hands I know nothing is wasted. Sometimes the Lord calls us to go with Him outside the camp, outside the comforts we know, die to ourselves and share in His sufferings so that even in the middle of the pain, the grief, the suffering, we will come to know He is still good and faithful and worthy and offer our Great High Priest a sacrifice of eternal praise.

“The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”
Hebrews 13:11-15

I don’t understand it all, but God does. Instead of trying to explain it, I thought I’d let Brandon Lake say it for me.

May the Lord bless you all with enduring faith.

(please scroll down)

 

Hard Fought Hallelujah
by Brandon Lake

Yeah, I don’t always feel it
Yeah, but that’s when I need it the most
So, I’ma keep on singing
‘Til my soul catches up with my song

There’s times when my hands go up freely
And times that it costs, oh-oh
There’s days when a praise comes out easy
Days when it takes all the strength I got

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (ooh, ooh)
And I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, oh
‘Cause God, You’ve been patient
God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
So I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah, whoa-oh
Hallelujah (ooh, ooh), hallelujah

I’ve wrestled with the darkness
But I’m tryin’ to reach for the light
Yeah, the struggle keeps me honest
And it breaks down the walls of my pride

‘Cause faith isn’t proven like gold
‘Til it’s been through the fire, eh-eh
My head, heart, and hands are feeling heavy
But that’s when I lift them just a little higher

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (ooh, ooh)
I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, whoa-oh
God, You’ve been patient
God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah, oh
Hallelujah, hallelujah (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (hallelujah)
I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, whoa-oh
God, You’ve been patient
And God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah (ooh)
Oh, hallelujah (mm, eh-ah, eh)
Hallelujah

Oh-oh, oh, oh-oh-oh
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle-
Halle-, mm-mm
Hallelujah

 

Martha, Martha

Posted on by Dorci

“As they went, He (Jesus) entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me.’

Jesus answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.’” Luke 10:38-42

Ouch. As a fellow Marthaian, reading these words of Jesus have always made me cringe a little bit.

Have you ever had thirteen people, or more, (including the Son of God) show up at your house unannounced to hang out for a while? What do you do? Maybe you start by running to the fridge to scrounge up something to drink. And what about food? Are they staying for dinner? What could you put together? You start pulling all the food you can find from every shelf and drawer, you think as fast as you’re sweating, taking out pots and pans, plates and cups, you run around the table setting it…  And you’re getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

But maybe it doesn’t end there. Maybe you’re busy finding enough chairs and cleaning the bathroom and washing the dishes and sweeping the floor, and on and on and on.

That was Martha. (And yes, I may have been known to exhibit this kind of behavior.) And then she stops, out of breath.  She can’t take the stress of it all anymore, and she marches herself over to Jesus.

“Don’t you care?”

In other words, aren’t you paying any attention? Haven’t you noticed that I’m doing all this work by myself and I’m stressed out?

Jesus’ answer to Martha was “you are worried and upset about many things.”

He had noticed, and He did care. He saw all Martha was trying to do. He saw she was trying to serve, and while that’s a good thing, He also saw she was doing it with an anxious and frustrated heart. And so He waited until she got to the end of herself and came to Him. I can imagine Him holding out His hand to her, inviting her to join them.

I know how hard it is to stop worrying and racing around trying to do all the things that need to be done in a day, a month, a lifetime, and just sit at Jesus’ feet.

Yes, some things need to be done, but some things can be left for a day, a month, or altogether. There are always things to be done, but Jesus calls us to come sit with Him.  

Martha was worried about giving them temporal food for their bodies but Jesus wanted to give her and the rest of them eternal spiritual food for their souls.

He knows we can do nothing without Him. Anything He calls us to do He wants us to do, not with anxiety, but in His strength, with His wisdom, His knowledge, and most of all, His love. Our first and greatest need is always to sit at His feet and learn from Him.

Who knows, if Martha had joined the rest of them, maybe afterward Jesus would have set a meal before them a la “wine at the wedding in Cana.”

I think we all have at least a little bit of Martha in us sometimes. We can get so stressed about life that we wonder if God even sees what’s going on in our lives. Doesn’t He care?

He sees and He cares, more than we can imagine. He knows that’s why we need Him. In the midst of it all He wants to give us His wisdom, to prepare us for things to come, to show us His will, to give us rest for our weary souls.

Sometimes God has ways of making us sit. When He has something to show us He will hold out His hand to us, one way or another, inviting us to come sit at His feet. And when we do, He’ll make a provision for all those things we are worried and upset about.

For weeks after my stroke He made a way for us to have dinner first by our church family and then for six months by our gracious neighbors. My husband took over many of the responsibilities I’d always had, and my job was to heal and to seek Him, to read His Word, and to write what He’d show me.

It’s been a hard road of frustration and sweat and venting. And every now and then I try to get up and run around, worried and upset about many things. But He keeps “double-naming” me like He did Martha, not in a condescending way, but with love and compassion, and He pulls me back to the thing that’s needed most: sitting with Him and letting Him feed my soul.

 

 

Heavenly Father, we know this life is short and you have much to teach us. Help us not get sidetracked and instead do the most important thing: spend time with Jesus. As we do, please give us His mind and heart and transform us by the power and love of your Holy Spirit. We trust you to provide and make a way and we give you all the glory for what you’re going to do. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, amen.

Unclean Hands

Posted on by Dorci

I love court shows. Well, not all of them, but there are a couple I like to watch. Every once in a while one judge in particular will bring up the concept in the law of unclean hands. That is when a someone sues another person, but they themselves acted illegally, unethically or in bad faith. 

This judge will usually explain it by using an example like this: let’s say someone sold another person illegal drugs and the buyer didn’t pay the seller the amount they agreed so the seller is suing for the money. The judge will explain that the courts can’t do that. They can’t make fair or right something that’s illegal. 

We love justice. God built into us a sense of fairness, of right and wrong. That’s why people protest, why people speak out, why people love court shows. 

The problem, though, is sometimes we’re all too willing to overlook our own sin. 

There are times we stand in prayer before the Father, the ultimate Judge, with “unclean hands.”  We’ve chosen to repeatedly walk a sinful path, to hold onto some sinful attitude, like not forgiving someone for the sin they’ve committed against us when God’s forgiven us for a lifetime of sin, and then ask Him to bless us.

Yes, we ask for forgiveness, and in Christ we are forgiven and won’t face eternal punishment for our sins, but when we’ve chosen sin we can’t expect God to bless us or protect us from the consequences of that sin.  

Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
    you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:12

In Christ, God’s called us to a holy life, a life different than the world, a life of death to self’s indulgence to sin, not only to glorify Him but because He desires to protect us from the consequences that sin brings – the pain and suffering, the lack of peace, sometimes even an early death. 

Our God is more gracious and merciful than any earthly judge, and for a time He may warn us to stop, but if we don’t heed His warning, He’ll give us over to sin’s consequences to teach us so we’ll stop sinning. 

Or, every day, over and over, we can choose to take up our cross, die to ourselves and follow Christ who gave up His life for us. We can choose to be transformed by the renewing of our minds by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, knowing our righteous Father will bless us with His favor – His delight and good pleasure. 

Course that doesn’t mean that by living righteously we’ll never suffer and it doesn’t mean every time there’s a trial in our lives we’ve done something wrong. It just means we live in a sin-filled world. 

Someday all sin will be judged and the new world will be perfect the way God intended it to be in the beginning.  

Until then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to walk uprightly, glorifying our Heavenly Father, receive His blessings, and rest in His peace.

* * *

Heavenly Father, we ask not only for forgiveness for our sins, but from the heart we repent of them and turn from them. In your strength may we daily walk the narrow road and have eyes only for You. Thank you for the amazing grace and mercy we know we don’t deserve but that you’ve shown us over and over. May we never take it for granted nor abuse it. Out of our love for You and our gratitude, may we always choose to live righteously, giving our bodies to You as living sacrifices. In Jesus’ precious name, amen. 

 

 

Choices

Posted on by Dorci

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
1 John 2:15

In some ways this command seems to be getting easier to follow all the time. Still, there can be a lot to love in this world. Why wouldn’t God want us to love it? 

You might have heard that while in English we use the one word – love – to talk about all kinds of love, there are many Greek words for love –

phileō – a friendship love
philostorgos – a familial love 
‛âgab – a sensual love 
eros – a romantic love
philarguria – a love of money

And that’s not even an exhaustive list. 

The word used for love in the command above is agapaō – to love much, or dearly, to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing, to have a preference for, to prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it. 

It’s the same word Jesus used when asked “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love (agapaō) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agapaō) your neighbor as yourself.’” 
Matthew 22:36-39

Jesus then goes on to say “‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
Matthew 22:40

The commandments in the Old Testament were given to show people how they were to love. The first four commandments pertained to their love of God, starting with the command to “have no other gods before me,” and then moved on to how they were to love others – “honor your father and mother, you shall not murder…” and others. 

Christ reiterates, and makes possible in and through us as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, what the commandments said – that if we love God first, love for others will flow from that. 

It’s even the same word Jesus used when He said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”  
Matthew 5:44

But when we agapaō the world, when our mind is focused on and busy with all the world has to offer (name your worldly passion), if we prefer those things, cling to those things, put those things first in our lives over and above God and above showing love to others, then we’ve gotten it all out of order. 

It will cause us to put off spending time with our Father, growing our relationship with Him by abiding in Him through prayer and the reading of His precious Word. 

And if we don’t remain in His love through abiding, we won’t have the love we need to fulfill the second commandment Jesus gives to love others and all that would entail. 

I have very nearly perfected procrastination. I can find a million things to do before I sit down to read or pray, or do whatever God is calling me to do. And I look back and regret that countless times. 

But I don’t want to just “phileō” God, to love Him as a friend on par with the rest of the world, as Peter confessed in John 21 when Jesus asked him twice if he “agapaō” Him, and both times Peter confessed that he only “phileō” Him.

Then Jesus asked him a third time if he even “phileō” Him, if he even loved Him as a friend. Peter was grieved because he could not yet say that he “agapaō” Him, that he loved Him unconditionally, that he was ready to put Christ above all things, or that he was unwilling to abandon Him for the sake of the world. 

But once Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he “agapaō” Christ, even being willing to endure persecution in order to tell others the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the way to being crucified upside down. 

I don’t think God doesn’t want us to enjoy the things He’s given us in this world He created, He just wants to remind us to keep it in its place, to remember that He needs to be who we love above all things, that when we have a choice, and we will have choices, our only real choice is Him because without Him we have nothing. 

I pray that whatever God is calling you and me to do, we will not put it off because we’re busy doing other things.  A whole lifetime can pass while we do other things, but in the end only one thing will matter –  how we loved the Lord and lived our lives in Him. 

In His agape,

 

 

Heavenly Father, we confess that we’ve chosen other things before you and we humbly and sincerely ask for your forgiveness. Help us to agapaō you, to walk in your Spirit every minute of the day and night, always putting you first, doing what you call us to do, glorifying you with our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.