Tag: Forgiveness

Glorious Resolutions

Posted on by Dorci

I used to think making New Year’s resolutions was useless.  I thought, what’s the point? Maybe you make it through the month of January, maybe you don’t.  But now I think that’s a defeatist attitude.  

And that the only goals that are sure to fail are the ones we don’t make. 

So go on!  Set a goal.  Be intentional.  Change your life. 

Just be sure that what you do is in the will and strength of God.  Because when we do something out of God’s will and in our own strength, we may go along fine for a while, but sooner or later something’s going to trip us up and we’re going to find ourselves eating a little floor. 

So whatever you do, whether it’s setting new fitness goals, communicating better with your spouse or children, being a better employee or {insert your own goals}, there is one God-given goal we have in all of them. One ultimate reason we’re here. 

To give God glory. 

In all we say, in all we do, we were made to glorify the King of kings. 

To praise and worship Him in all we do.  To proclaim His great love and the great things He’s done for us. To let the joy He gives us spill out onto everyone around us.

Can you grasp how great a mission that is?  That we’re given the gift of relationship with the Almighty God and are filled with His Holy Spirit to walk in Him and glorify Him to others is an amazing gift.  And we should use that gift wisely.

There are two kinds of people who need to see the glory of God through us:

1. Unbelievers

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:16

In case you’ve been under a rock, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And if we have even an inkling of the love of Christ, we’ll care that they are. It’s crazy out there and getting crazier by the minute. People are lost, hurt, and suffering.  And they need to know that there is a God Who loves them and whose glory is unmatched. 

They need to know that all the world’s gold doesn’t shine as glorious as He does. That no amount of fame knows the glory we know in Jesus Christ. They need to know that there is a glory that will give them peace–peace with God and peace with themselves. They need to know the glory that is so great it’ll carry them into eternity, if they receive it by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

They need to see the glorious love of Jesus in words and actions and we’re the ones elected to bring it to them.  Unfortunately, all too often they see Christians as hypocritical and judgmental.  They can get that from the world.  We need to show them the glory of Christ instead. 

2. Believers

“Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” Romans 15-5-7

It’s a tough world out there for Christ-followers, and it’s easy to get discouraged.  The sad thing is that at times I’ve been most discouraged by my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  Why?  Because their eyes have been opened. They have the Holy Spirit and they know the truth. They should know better. 

And so should I.

But sometimes we get lazy. We spend too much time in the world and let it mold us. We forget to put on Christ’s attitude and allow His glory to flow through us.  We’re human and we’ll fail.  And then we have the God-given ability (and commandment) to forgive and ask for forgiveness. 

Instead, let’s determine to love each other.  To protect each other.  To shine the glory of Christ through our love and kindness and help others on their way. After all, we’re soldiers in a spiritual war and we’re in the trenches together.  We can’t afford to turn on each other by being unkind, critical, snarky, or rude.  The enemy loves it when we do.    

So how do we do it?  How do we glorify the Lord to everyone around us?

We get up in the morning and we sit with Him.  It doesn’t have to be a big production.  Just grab your Bible and find a quiet corner.  Pray.  Read His Word.  Even a verse or two.  Just let God prepare you for what He knows you’ll encounter that day, before you have a chance to act or react in your human, sinful flesh.

His Presence = His Glory

There is nothing like starting a fresh new day with the Lord and letting Him fill us up with His glory and power and strength.  No matter what happens, our perspective will be His, our attitude and our words will be His. And all day long we’ll exude Jesus and bring Him glory. 

Only God knows what He can do through a man or woman who is determined to glorify the One Who holds the future and all its dreams and visions. 

So pray big prayers!  Set big goals.  We have a big God.

And He’s given us the treasure of His glory.

 

God bless you in the new year!

 

Jesus is the Answer

Posted on by Dorci

I sat across from the woman who’s been making my nails presentable for a couple of years now. She smoothed the jagged edges while we discussed the day’s horrific events. Another client sat next to us, giving us information as it unfolded on the internet in the palm of her hand.

His mother was dead, too.  They can’t find his girlfriend.  He was 24. No 20.

My nail miracle-worker began to tell me about a client she had seen not that long ago.  He sat across from her and told her that he saw no purpose for living. Within two days he got sick and died.  So many people living without purpose, she said.  I nodded. 

Jesus gives us purpose, I told her.

Twenty-four people are dead, no twenty-six.

And like the rest of the country, we began to ask why.

And inevitably after the whys come the finger-pointing.  We want to blame something, someone…  We want to list the whys and fix it so it’ll never happen again.

I know.  I’ve asked why about a hundred painful things in my own life.  I want to fix it so it’ll never hurt me again.

The best I’ve been able to come up with so far is sometimes there are just no answers. Not in this life anyway.  There are no whys to grasp and wrap in a neat, little, labeled package, keeping them forever locked away so they never hurt anyone again.

No answers as to why a young man would want to cause so much pain. Nothing concise as to why other young men before him took the same path.

No clear-cut answers to why any of us hurt another, whether it’s with a gun, a knife, or cutting words.

Except that we live in a world diseased with sin. Including our own.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23

And the only cure is the blood of Christ.

Unless we turn to God, we have no purpose, and we act and react in our natural, sinful state. We bully, we become angry, we refuse to forgive, we reject, we neglect, we belittle, we lie, we cheat, we steal. 

Little by little, day by day, our sins affect us and the people around us. The darkness of sin seeps into our hearts and twists our minds so that good is bad and bad is good. 

And through the world the enemy of God whispers in our ear that there is an escape to the pain of our sin.  So we pick one up–a bottle, a baggie, sex—any sex outside the God-given bounds of marriage—pornography, depression, violence. 

But we will inevitably discover that our intended escape is really a dead end that only added to the pain we were trying to forget. 

Unless we turn to God, we will attempt to be our own god and lord it over others weaker or unable or unwilling to fight back: a spouse, a friend, an employee, anyone on the other side of our computer screen, the elderly, children.

Unless we turn to God and invite Him to overwhelm us with His grace and love and forgiveness, a lifetime (no matter how short) of our own sins and the sins of others heaped upon us will overwhelm us.

Add into the mix a mental illness and a society that continues to attach stigma to it which makes it even more difficult to admit and seek help, and the mind can be even less capable of handling the stresses of this world. 

And in a world that glorifies violence as the answer, some will pick up a gun. Or a knife. Or a bomb.

It’s as simple, and complicated, as that.

It’s easy to sit in self-righteous judgment of someone who’s ended a life.  But God looks at the heart. Our hearts.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28

All sin destroys.

Each choice to sin, without repentance, is a step away from God. Sometimes we’ve taken so many steps we lose sight of Him. The good news is that it’s always only one step back.

At any time in this process, God invites us to turn to Him and ask for forgiveness.  He is always waiting with open arms.  And when we do, He smoothes our jagged edges.  He pours out His love. He works miracles in our lives.  He gives us hope and brings us peace.

Whatever the question is, Jesus is, was and always will be the answer.

We live in difficult times and we need Jesus every minute of every day.  We need to stay close by His side through prayer and the study of His Word.  We need the Holy Spirit to continually flow through us so we can be a light to the dark world and show God’s love no matter what.

It’s time we stop conforming to the world and let Jesus live through us.  It’s time to stop playing around with our faith, put away sin and start living to the glory of God. The world needs us to show them Christ, right now. 

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”  Philippians 2:1-11

Grace and peace to you,