Tag: Salvation

More Than Just Thankful

Posted on by Dorci

It was November, 1982 and I was on a Greyhound bus headed for Ohio.  I’d be spending the holidays away from my family.  I was 19.  Two years before I’d been asked to leave home one night and I’d been running ever since.  I had a lot to run from, but to where, or who, I didn’t know.

My boyfriend at the time knew a couple there, who, coincidentally or not, pastored a church. How he knew them I have no idea. We drove up their driveway and stayed in their living room for the next month and a half.

If I felt lonely before, I felt even lonelier now.  I was almost 2000 miles from home, spending some very cold days in strange house while everybody was off during the day.

Thanksgiving came and went, and the days and nights got even colder.

Something settled in my chest and I couldn’t stop coughing.  Nights were the worst, and it was a small house.  I lay there night after night, thinking I just might cough up a lung, and all I wanted was for someone to take care of me.

It was Christmas day and we tagged along to the wife’s parents’ house.  I sat in the living room staring at the activity, knowing I didn’t belong.  I asked to use the phone.

I called home and my little sister answered the phone. I told her where I was and we both started crying.  She begged me to come home.  I wanted to, but did I belong there?  Did I belong anywhere?

My mother got on the phone and tried to convince me she wanted me to come back.  She said she’d send the money.  I told her I didn’t know.  Staying was painful, but going back would be painful, too.

The couple we were staying with had bought a home in town.  We began helping them move, and they began dropping hints that once they were in the new house, we needed to find another place to stay.

I supposed it was time to go home, and back on the bus we went.

And I was thankful.

A lot happened in the next six years.  There would be a lot more running, but to where, or who, I didn’t know.

There would come a day when I’d find out.

It was a Sunday morning and my husband and I had been invited to church.  We took our 6-month-old son, walked through the sanctuary into a tiny gathering of people who met in a few rented rooms in a strip mall, and I found the Lord.

I know people like to say God finds us, but God knew where I was all along.  He was with me on the bus and in Ohio.  He was with me all the time I was running.

And I’m thankful.

 

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”   James 1:17

In the world I had only a general feeling of thankfulness, but no one to direct my gratitude to.

Now I am more than just thankful.  I know who I have to be thankful to.

I know who was responsible for every sunrise and sunset I continued to see against all odds.  I know who walked with me and whose grace and mercy covered me as I roamed the streets of a town I didn’t know. I know who healed me when there were no doctors.

And I know He was with me as I got a job as a front-desk receptionist at a computer company who had a lawyer whose calls I would answer, who would eventually steal me away to be the front-desk receptionist at his law firm, where two women worked who went to church together in a tiny congregation that met in a few rented rooms in a strip mall.

I know it’s God, my God, my Savior and my Lord, who has blessed me with all things.  Even when I didn’t know it.

And I’m thankful.

Are You Still Wrestling?

Posted on by Dorci

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Ephesians 6:10-12

The closest I’ve ever come to a wrestling match is breaking up my boys when they were little.  They never wrestled angry, just for fun.  It’s a boy thing, I guess.

But the second I was saved, I faced a wrestling match of a spiritual kind.  Whether I acknowledged it or not, I was on the mat, and my opponent was out for blood.

He still is.

He knows every trick in the book and he’ll use them to his advantage.  He knows my weaknesses, he knows when I’m tired, he knows when my attention is on something else.

But I think his greatest advantage is coming at me when I’m nowhere near the ring.  When I’ve let down my guard, and he looks less like an opponent and more like a movie everybody else is seeing that somewhere deep inside I know I shouldn’t, or that shiny thing I can’t afford, or an attitude I think I’m entitled to.

Do I wrestle then?

Do I go to God in prayer and fight the temptation, or do I just give in?

Maybe I assume that if everybody else is doing it, it must be okay.  Or, I might think I don’t want to bother God, because, well, I really, really want to do it.  Or have it.

So, just like I think I’ll trick my body into ignoring the calories of a strawberry cupcake if I eat it really fast, somehow we believe God will turn a blind eye if we do this one thing really quick.  It’ll just a take a minute.  Or a couple of hours.

And before we know it, satan has us pinned.

Theoretically, we know scripture says there’s a struggle with the enemy.  The question is, are we struggling back? Are we fighting to put aside our own will and certainly the enemy’s, and seeking God’s will for us personally, or have we given up the fight? Have we assumed certain things are okay because everybody else, even other Christians, are doing it?

The enemy is ruthless in his efforts to defeat us.  He’ll fight dirty, he’ll fight hard, he’ll simply wait until we’re too tired to keep fighting back.  Until the world around us is screaming “Barrabas!” (or at least trying to blend in with the crowd) and we don’t want to be the only one screaming “Jesus!”

Don’t let the enemy defeat you by stealing your convictions and shoving you into the world’s compromise.

Calories are calories, and God’s truth is the truth.  Period.  He loves us too much to turn a blind eye.

Who knows, maybe God wants us to have that particular shiny thing. But He most definitely wants us to ask.  He wants us to stand with Him and when we do, He’ll be in the ring with us and we can’t lose.

The goal in wrestling is to gain a superior position over our opponent.  God tells us how to do that:

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13

Whatever you’re dressed in today, make darn sure you have on the full armor of God.

And be prepared to fight.

 

In the love of Christ,

To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain

Posted on by Dorci

Yesterday Pastor Chuck Smith, who founded Calvary Chapel, went home to be with the Lord.  If you aren’t familiar with him or Calvary Chapel, I’ll give you a little history. 

Chuck Smith began as a pastor for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the 1950’s. 

In the 60’s, Chuck’s wife, Kay, began to have a burden for the youth who were entering the generation of sex, drugs and rock and roll.  It was long hair, bare feet, tie dye and everything was groovy.  They were in the thick of the Vietnam War, God was dead, and they didn’t trust anybody over 30.

Chuck and Kay began praying for the youth, and then they began inviting them to church. 

When some of the so-called hippies did come, as the infamous story goes, they were met with a sign that said “No Bare Feet Allowed” because new carpeting had just been installed. Chuck tore down the sign and said he’d rather rip out the new carpeting than turn those kids away. 

He soon left that church and began pastoring a small, non-denominational church called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California.  He began expository teaching of the Bible and the traditional worship music of the past became underscored with guitars and drums. 

The youth started coming in droves. 

Pastor Chuck, pointing a generation to Jesus

Suddenly, a close-to-middle-aged man was heading up what would become known as the greatest revival of our time called The Jesus Movement. 

Scores of young people were getting saved and baptized in the California ocean.  They became known as “Jesus Freaks.”  They left the hippie lifestyle and lived to worship Jesus and passionately tell others about how He died for them, too.  Calvary Chapel also started an outreach of worship called Maranatha! Music, which I think is some of the best worship music ever recorded. 

The movement of the Holy Spirit during this time was a phenomenon the likes of which most had never seen.  In the time since, over a 1000 Calvary Chapels have been established worldwide, along with many Calvary Chapel Bible Colleges.   

One of those Calvary Chapels was established in the 1980’s.  Through a long series of events, my husband and I found ourselves there one Sunday morning in 1989.  And it was that morning that I met my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We attended that church for 22 years. 

So even though I didn’t know Pastor Chuck personally, although we did have the opportunity to see him teach once while we were on vacation, I deeply felt his passing. Without Calvary Chapel, I don’t know where I’d be right now. 

Oh, I know God could have led me to another church, but there was something about the atmosphere of Calvary.  That same powerful presence of the Holy Spirit that was there in the 60’s was there in the 80’s, and He moved my heart in a way that I became not just saved, but radically saved. 

But life happens, and sometimes years of so much “life” has a way of allowing discouragement to set in. And as I get older I feel myself slowing down.   

But as I reflected on Pastor Chuck’s life through a barrage of Facebook posts from so many who loved and admired him, and seeing all the lives he touched, my faith was energized.  We have so little time and so much to do.  Pastor Chuck was 86 at his passing, but really, his life went by so quickly. 

I could imagine Chuck Smith standing there before Jesus as they gazed into each other’s eyes, knowing all they’d been through together.  Knowing that, while Chuck wasn’t perfect (who is?), he was obedient to Christ’s call on his life.

And that’s all God asks any of us.  He doesn’t ask us to be another Chuck Smith or Billy Graham.  He just asks us to obey Him, and let Him take care of the results. 

So with that, I say with Paul:

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:20-21
 

 

A short but honest look at how I came to Christ at that Calvary Chapel in 1989 will be one of 40 stories featured in a book of testimonies that will be published before the end of the year.  I believe the book will be inspiring to those who already know Christ, and instrumental to bring many unsaved to faith in our precious Lord.  I’ll keep you updated on the details.  I hope you’ll get a copy for yourself and somebody you love.

The Race is On

Posted on by Dorci

And crying with a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Luke 23:46 

Faith doesn’t come only when things are good – when the sun is shining, the bills are paid, and everyone loves us.  Who needs faith then?

But when the storms rage, the money jar is empty and the enemy knocks at the door, that is when we need faith.  That is when the exercise of our faith in God is most beautiful and He is most glorified. 

Christ is our example.  Rather than avoid it, He walked through the suffering, through the pain, through the rejection and spitting and scoffing and unbelief – even by His own friends.  Why?  Because He had faith in His Father, the Father who sent Him to the cross.  He kept faith that He had a plan and a purpose in His suffering. 

They would never know anything but how to reject, how to accuse, how to inflict pain unless He died.  Unless He offered forgiveness for their sins and they took it.  Only when their eyes were opened and their hearts were wiped clean of sin would they have the capacity for true love.  So He gave Himself so they could be forgiven and bring love into the world.

And they would go on to trust God through their own sufferings, to commit their spirits to their heavenly Father like their Savior did, so others could hear of Him, have their eyes opened and hearts wiped clean of sin.  So they could learn how to love like Jesus did, completely and unselfishly, and fill the world with it.

The torch has been passed to us, and we are called to do the same.

Grace and peace,

 

Which Rich?

Posted on by Dorci

A wealthy society, prominent schools, medical access, fine clothing, a good church. Successful.  A community where anyone would be fortunate enough to have a home and raise a family.

Sound familiar?

Like one of countless neighborhoods in America, doesn’t it? 

Only this community, more specifically the church in this community, is mentioned in the Book of Revelation.  Jesus Christ speaks directly to her, the Church in Laodicea.  But He doesn’t send His congratulations at being a center of modern medicine, or for being a mecca for trade and wealth, or for dressing themselves in fine clothes. 

They had made the mistake of finding contentment in their earthly treasures.  And in their wallowing, they had become spiritually destitute.

They thought they had everything, but because He sees differently than we see, Christ gives them an eye-opener – a warning and a call to repentance.   He tells them they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.    

They had allowed their prosperity to rob them of their zeal for Christ, and their faith had become lukewarm.  Good for nothing.  Tasteless. And they were in danger of being vomited from His mouth.

Sound familiar?

America has anything anyone could want.  Lady Liberty lights the way to welcome countless people from around the world who come to find their American dream – a job, a home, education, medical expertise. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And we’ve become spiritually impoverished. 

We are now the home of the seeker-friendly church. We’ve watered down the gospel for fear of hurting someone’s feelings.  We’ve made it exciting for fear of alienating young people.  We’ve rested on our American laurels.  We’ve molded to the world instead of allowing the truth to mold it.

And we’ve become, in large part, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. 

But as always, Christ gives us hope.  As He counseled the Church in Laodicea, I believe He counsels the Church in America, and wherever else it applies, to “buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” Rev. 3:18

It’s not in a white-collar career, a mini-mansion, a car with heated seats, clothes fresh off the Paris runway, or in any kind of fame that we are made whole.

It’s not in a set of religious rules, or intricate stained-glass windows, or hip, modern teaching about how nobody needs to worry about hell, maybe peppered with a cuss word here or there to prove that Christians aren’t all stuffy. 

It’s in the person of Jesus Christ. 

It’s in believing in Him and putting faith in Him and His work on the cross.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth or a finely-tuned Sunday morning service. 

But:

1. Those will not save one soul.  And in this sin-sick world, people need Christ.  People are hungry for the truth, hungry for answers, hungry for hope and starving for love.  And it’s a sin for a church to rob someone of that knowledge in favor of an entertaining Sunday get-together. 

2. Those are not our goal.  Our goal is to know Christ and take what He infuses into our souls to the world as salt and light.  Our goal is to give ourselves over to Him for the sanctification of our souls and renewing of our minds. 

Our goal is to get up on the cross with Christ and die. 

It’s to overcome the world, not give in to it.  To overcome the enemy, not join forces.  To overcome the sin that entangles us, not sit and wallow in it. 

And this can only be done as we hold onto Christ.  And if we do, He gives us a promise:

“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Rev. 3:21

We have a short time here, and then the reward.  May we see ourselves through Jesus’s loving, gracious, sober eyes and remember the reason we’re here.

Grace and peace, love and joy,

 

 

Hello again!

I’m excited to announce that my testimony, along with 39 others, will be published in a book and released sometime later this year!  Some stories, like mine, will be about how, against all odds, the truth of Jesus Christ penetrated hearts and brought people to a saving faith in Him.  Other stories will be glimpses into the lives of believers and how they were able to keep holding onto faith despite trying times.  All will be stories of hope and the miracles that only Christ can do. I’ll let you know more details as they’re announced.  I’m excited to see how the Lord will use the book in the lives of many hurting people desperate for real hope in a world that’s increasingly lacking it.  Add it to your Christmas list!