Je n' parle pas francais

When I was in high school I was required to take a foreign language course. I thought it would be neat to learn Spanish because I have some Spanish speaking family members and it is a rather commonly used language in California where I was going to school. But the class was full and I was unable to register for it. So I ended up in French. I was disappointed. I struggled my way through french for two years and found no delight in learning it. A few nights ago my children and I were talking about foreign languages and I shared with them the only phrase I could remember from my two years of study.... Je n' parle pas francais... "I don't speak french."  I had retained so little because I found no joy in it. On the other hand my children began laughing at the joy they had found in speaking 'pig latin' to one another a few years ago. They found so much delight and laughter in conversing in such a silly way and they got to be quite good at it. They would hold entire conversations with each other in 'pig latin' and thoroughly confuse their momma. They began to converse again and found that the "language" had not escaped their memory. They still found delight in it. I however, found frustration in 'pig latin' and could never seem to decipher it. What a difference delight can make in our understanding and retention of a language!

Blessed is the man whose... "delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."  Psalm 1:2

 The law of the Lord, His Word, is the language of God. It is God's Word that His Holy Spirit uses to speak to our hearts. Our understanding and retention of what the Holy Spirit speaks to us, depends greatly on the delight we find in learning His language. Do you wonder why some people seem to understand and retain His Word so much better than others? What does your time in His Word look like? Has it become a chore, a time of frustration or drudgery, just another item on your to-do list? Do you often say with a sigh... I need to do my Bible study? Or do you look forward with eagerness to your time with the Holy Spirit as He teaches you His language? Do you delight in the law of the Lord, and meditate on it day and night?  I pray that each of us will draw closer and closer to our Lord as we delight in learning His language and that His language becomes so deeply written on our hearts that our conversations with the Lord become simple, automatic, and filled with more delight.

Keeping Christ in Christmas

For ideas to help you Keep Christ in Christmas, click here.

JUMP!

I spun a little cobweb in my heart today.
Who will sweep this mess away?
A web of doubt, of stress and worry.
No time with the Lord; I'm in a hurry.

I spun a little cobweb in my heart today.
Who will sweep this mess away?
A web of fear, from lack of trust.
A web of self-reliance, saying that "I must."

I spun a little cobweb in my heart today.
Who will sweep this mess away?
A web of hatred and discontent.
A web of pride and quick judgement.

I spun a little cobweb in my heart today.
Who will sweep this mess away?
A web of longing for earthly things;
of wanting what the world brings.

I spun a little cobweb in my heart today.
Who will sweep this mess away?
Then I heard my Saviors voice
as He softly said...
"The broom is in my hand, my child,
but you must jump off the web."


How often do we know that our sin needs to be swept away, yet we continue to cling to it, even if only by a thread? Our Savior wants to sweep our hearts clean of all unrighteousness! He wants us to JUMP! To turn away completely from whatever sins we're still holding onto. He is standing there waiting for us to give the mess to Him. If we're still holding on when He starts to sweep... we may find that our life will be bounced around and we may get bumped in the process. But when we turn completely and allow Him to work... our hearts will sparkle when He is done; As they will be filled with His glory! Just as cobwebs gather in an empty house... sin gathers in an empty heart. But when we are filled with His presence, those cobwebs we spin... cannot remain, because the broom is in His hands!

Mary, Did You Know?

The words of this wonderful song spoke so strongly to me today that I felt compelled to share them with you....

Mary, did you know
that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Did you know
that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know
that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Did you know
that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know
that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
and when you kiss your little boy
you've kissed the face of God?
Mary, did you know
the blind would see
the deaf would hear
and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap
the dumb will speak
the praises of the Lamb?
Mary, did you know
that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Did you know
that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know
that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb,
this sleeping child you're holding
is the Great I Am?

The lyrics were written by Mark Lowry and the music by Buddy Green. The song has since been recorded by many artists. Click here to hear it sung by the writer.

Page One: Prologue

I love to write. I've found it to be my outlet in an otherwise full life. My prayer is always that anything I write will glorify the Lord, and that He would direct the people of His choosing to read it, and that He would use my life experiences that I share here, to draw others closer to Him.

The wonderful thing about blogging is that people can come and go as the Lord leads them, move on with no pressure when it doesn't speak to them, or read it again and again if it does. I hope you'll stick around for this one....

"My life is an open book"

I've heard that said many times, but I'm convinced that it's usually a lie. Our human nature is to close the pages of our lives that we don't wish others to know about. To pick and choose what others read. To hide the parts of our story that don't flatter us. To place a fig leaf over our sin.

I've wrestled with that for most of my life. See, by nature, I'm a "people pleaser", wanting to please and impress the people around me with all I say and do, and hide the things they wouldn't like. When I was very young, my parent's and family's opinion of me was what mattered the most. As time went on, I added teachers, and friends, and boys to the list of people to impress. Eventually it was a boss and co-workers, followed by my husband. Along the way somewhere I discovered that people also thought it was important to please God. So I tried to do that too, but my focus was more often on trying to please and impress the people that thought it was important, like family, and my pastor, and Sunday school teachers, and other "Christians".

Everyone on the list was impressed by different things and I was trying to be them all. Some were more difficult than others to please, so I added more effort. To please one, I might disappoint another... so I did my best to keep those things hidden. I covered them with lies. Then I worked hard to live up to those lies in order that they might be believable. Sometimes I convinced them. Sometimes I even convinced myself. But at the end of the day, I didn't know who I was, for I was being pulled in every direction. I was working so hard to be the "right" thing to everyone in my life.

I was tired.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Jesus. ~Matthew 11:28

Today my soul is at rest in the arms of my Savior, and He has asked me to open the pages of my story that I have kept hidden for so long.... so that perhaps you also might rest.

If the Lord has led you here, I pray you will choose to return and join me on a journey through the hidden pages of my story, as I prayerfully take the time to share them.... one page at a time.


Growing in the Truth:

Read Genesis 3: 4-8.

We may try to hide our own sin and disobedience under a fig leaf of lies or good deeds, but our own eyes see the truth. We are afraid and we hide. God's response is, "who has told you?" For He already knew. He is not unaware of our sin, or of our need to be covered.

Read Genesis 3:21

Jesus is our tunic, and He has clothed us in His grace, mercy, truth, and love.


To read the rest of my testimony please visit me at www.mydailysurrender.blogspot.com.

Mirror Image

I have two sons who people say are the mirror image of their dad. Do they really look physically identical? No. They have some resemblance, but certainly not identical as looking in a mirror would portray. So why do people call them the mirror image of their Dad? Well, they stand the same, walk the same, and often act the same. My sons portray to others many of the same attributes that their dad does. If someone wanted to know what my husbands’ personality and character were like, they could probably watch my sons for a while and have a pretty good idea. Children often do reflect different aspects of their parents’ personalities and character in their own. I had a fun lively and talkative young girl in my preschool class one day. One of the other teachers mentioned… “You must have a really fun dad.” The little girl started cracking up and said… “Ya, he’s pretty silly.” We imagined that he had to be, just by watching her fun personality. She was like a mirror of her dad. Her fathers’ image.

Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and Hebrews 1:3 says "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being,"

So, if we want to see God... we just look at Jesus, for Jesus was filled with His glory.

I also have two sons who we recently adopted from Ethiopia. There is certainly no physical resemblance between them and their new dad. But I continually see them watching my husband and my older sons, and copying their actions, just like a mirror. At the same time, my husband is giving them his character by the things he teaches them. They are soaking up all that they can learn from their new daddy and big brothers, and becoming another mirror image… reflecting their daddy’s personality in their own.

Ephesians 1:5 says that we have been "adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ".

So, we also, as adopted children of God, have been called to represent Him, to mirror His image. He has given us the example of Jesus to imitate, And He has also given us His character in the form of the Holy Spirit who teaches and guides us.

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image..."

It is the glory, the Spirit of God in us, that we reflect. The more we are surrendered to His Spirit in our lives, the more we will be able to reflect His image.

So, just as people can look at my boys and see their father, can people look at us and see our heavenly Father? What do we need to surrender to His Spirit right now in order to be a better mirror image?

Are You A Chameleon?

I don't know why I even saw it. I was "working" (i.e., Facebooking, blogging, twittering, etc.) when it caught my eye. (Do you see it?)
It probably thought it was undetectable.

It was. Almost.

Some slight movement it made grabbed my attention. As soon as I figured out what I was looking at, I grabbed the camera and took its picture through the window. I guess I made a little noise as I rattled the blinds to get a clear shot.

Next thing I knew, it was gone. There wasn't a trace of it having ever been there.
This is what I captured on film (same picture as before, just zoomed in...):


Of course, you knew early on that I was talking about a chameleon. (The title alone gave that away.) What if I was talking about faith, though? Is your faith something that people readily see and identify, or does it blend in?

Sometimes the faith of others is as evident as their bowed heads in a crowded restaurant at mealtime. Sometimes it's murky, at best, when you see a person with a "Jesus fish" on the back of their car acting like Satan himself in traffic.

I want my faith to be obvious. I know it isn't always, but I don't want people to wonder if I'm a Christian or not. I really want to shout without the necessity of speaking that I love Jesus Christ and that He is the source of my joy. But, like the chameleon, my fear, my shyness, my whatever excuse occurs to me that day keeps me quiet. I certainly don't want people to have to really get close to figure out what they are looking at. I want everything about me to show that I am a Christian. I don't want to blend into this world we live in.

As Christians, we don't wear a specific style of dress or always have a certain symbol on our person that identifies us for who we are. It's our attitudes, our words, and our actions that speak on our behalf. In 1 John 3:18, John challenged Christians with this gentle edict, "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth." Jesus asked the same thing of us in Matthew 5: 16 by instructing us to "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Hiding our faith is completely counterproductive. God wants us to do good works in order to glorify Him. The only way to do that is to let our faith be as evident as the nose on our faces--just out there for all the world to see.


About guest author, Lianne Robinson:
I am, above all, a Christian, who is blessed and redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus. Additionally, I am a wife to Jason, and a Mommy to two great kids who keep me on my toes--when they don't have me doubled over with laughter. I enjoy the privilege of serving as the Director of Women's Ministries at Harmony Grove Baptist Church in Winfield, Alabama.

You can read more from Lianne at http://bamalianne.blogspot.com/

ALIENS

1 Chronicles 29:15 "We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope."

I have a dear friend who has terminal cancer. He will not accept the diagnosis and is fighting to stay alive. He is on a lonely path, keeping within himself and trying to hold on to this life.

From the beginning of his diagnosis, he has tried to attend church on Sundays when able. He is of a denomination that requires he attend church every Sunday or he’s in sin. My heart is so heavy for this man because he doesn’t understand the difference between “religion” and “relationship”. He is in his final days and he does not KNOW his LORD.

When we believe “in” the Lord…really believe IN HIM (John 3:16)…and accept Him as our personal savior, we understand, first of all, that we are His children and He loves us more than any human being possibly could. Once we believe that and through the study of His word, we learn that we are all aliens on this earth. Our final destination is with Him. (Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. John 14:1-3) When we believe, we understand and rest in the fact that everything that happens in our lives is part of His plan and His plan will not be thwarted in spite of us and all that we try to do in our own strength.

In the midst of trials, we often fail to realize God’s purpose until we look back over the events of our trials and see His hand in all the details. Sometimes, even after looking back, we won’t realize His purpose but we trust, knowing that God loves us and He has our best interest in mind (Romans 8:28); that the trials in our lives…our lives in general…are all part of God’s Master Plan, a plan much bigger than us.

Our Lord’s goal is to bring each and every one of His children to Him. He desires for all of us to know Him personally! When we know Him personally, we commit our lives to Him and allow Him to work through us (Romans 6:11) and our life on this earth takes on a whole new meaning. Our life becomes His vessel, a vessel that touches everyone we come in contact with. So our trials become important because they have a purpose both in refining our faith and in providing opportunity for us to draw others to our Lord (1 Peter 1:6-8). The blessing of being a child of God in trials such as my friend is experiencing is that we realize that we are aliens in this world and when He decides to take us from this world, we don’t die, we go HOME to be with our Lord!