Your tears on my face… Day #48 in my journey to a Revolution

Be prepared for the mess. Life groups are not always easy. When you do life with others, be prepared to go through trials with each other. There are moments of good but there are also some very difficult times as well.

In all the small groups I have been in, I saw 4 couples that thought they were infertile get pregnant.  One couple in particular had given up hope and after 5 years resolved they wouldn’t get pregnant. Lo and behold they had a little baby girl 5 months ago that was a complete surprise. One guy who was divorced remarried and has a wonderful wife and little baby girl. Many many babies have been born. Job raises have occurred. The list could go on.

There have also been hard times, I have watched 4 couples struggle with infertility. I have witnessed numerous sets of multiples but also the loss of one. I saw another couple lose their son to cancer. In one small group, one guy’s step dad had committed suicide.  Another time a girl thought she was miscarrying during our group. One of the guys in my small group went through a horrible divorce. Another couple struggled financially and had to move away for a different job. The list could go on here too.

It makes my heart heavy just thinking about those times.

My pastor has said before that compassion means “your tears on my face.” I love that because almost the only way for that to happen is with a hug. I know some people feel like they have to have magic words to say in times of loss but ultimately our job is just to sit and be quiet.

It makes me think of the story of Job. The Bible says Job was blameless and upright. He was blessed with a lot of children and a lot of wealth. He had 7 sons and 3 daughters, and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys and a large number of servants.  The Lord gives Satan the opportunity to attack him and Job loses everything. He loses in a matter of minutes his kids, his wealth and finally his health.  Even Job’s wife stops supporting him and tells him to “Curse God and die!” The scripture says in Job 2:10 “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”  What does Job do? He is sitting in a heap scraping at his open wounds. What do his friends do? Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar weep with him, tear their robes and sit on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. The Bible says, “No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” They are a small group offering support to their friend.

I wish the story stopped there but Job is miserable and they start trying to give him reasons why everything happened. I believe the friends were trying to help but their reasoning was incorrect. How many times do we start talking and giving reasons for why people experience hard times?  What we need to do is offer hugs and just sit and be quiet. It is hard because we want to make sense of everything but in the end we don’t know the conversations of heaven just like Job didn’t know in Job chapters 1 and 2.

So as we experience the mess in life groups or other settings, our job is to do what it says in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” We don’t have to solve things just be a support.

Can you legislate respect? – Day #4 in the Book of Esther with Karen

Xerxes asked his wisemen, “According to law, what must be done to Queen Vashti? She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes.” The wisemen told Xerxes that not only did her decision affect him, it affected the rest of the kingdom as well. If nothing was done, then all those who heard about her actions would respond the same way. Disrespect, discord would abound. The answer? Let a royal decree be written, a law of the Medes and Persians which could not be repealed. Vashti would never again enter into the presence of King Xerxes. She would never again see his face, never again hear his voice. One decision, one act of disobedience and her life was never the same again. What happened to her? The Bible isn’t clear. Was she exiled to the farthest corner of the kingdom? Was it a death sentence? Did men come with a black shroud, cover her face, and take her to be executed to insure that never again would she look into the eyes of the king? We don’t know, but the punishment was swift and sure. We grieve for Vashti. We want someone to be her advocate, to come to her defense, to rescue her from this terrible fate.

A graphic picture, almost too graphic for our taste, the price of one act of disobedience. Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God. It was one act, one sin, but the result was immediate. They could no longer walk in the Presence of God, they could no longer see His face, or hear his voice in the cool of the evening. Pain, suffering, thorns, thistles, exile from the Garden and death. Their decision didn’t just affect them, but the rest of the world as well. But the Good News is that an advocate has come, someone to rescue us from the terrible price of sin. His name is Jesus. Esther 1.

Well, Xerxes had Vashti exiled, or executed, either way she was never called before the king again. And then he sent out a decree that all the women in the realm would respect their husbands from the least to the greatest, and every man should be ruler of his own household. It’s interesting what we humans try to dictate. Obedience to law can be legislated and enforced, but respect is of the heart. It isn’t birthed out of law, but out of love. Oh, the outward appearance can look like respect, someone saying, “yes sir”, or bowing and scraping to another’s orders. But real respect, the kind of respect these men really wanted from their wives, begins with the husband truly loving his wife. Not orders or laws, but love, a love that treasures her, values her. When she looks in his eyes she sees wonder and awe that she would say yes to him. That kind of love breeds respect.

I heard a man say, “I don’t know what she wants from me.” I’ll let you in on a secret, what a woman truly wants is for her husband to love God with every fiber of his heart, soul and mind, and then to love her next. Women are overwhelmed with respect when a dad, with tears in his eyes, lays his big hand over the small, feverish brow of his child, falls to his knees and prays. Nothing makes a woman feel safer than a praying husband. Nothing makes him seem so large as when he humbles himself and asks God for answers. Respect grows when a man stands for integrity in the workplace, when his eyes dance with delight at her arrival, not when he glances at another. Respect is birthed, nurtured. If the “wise” men of Persia thought they could simply order respect, demand it, dictate it, they were wrong. The truth is that that approach made disrespect the real law. Esther 1, Ephesians 5.

I have been talking about joining a life group and maybe you are thinking … Day #45 in my journey to a Revolution

For the past couple of days,  I have been talking about joining a life group and maybe some of you are thinking that would be great but my church doesn’t offer them.

Try looking around to see if any Bible studies are offered at your church or other local churches.  I attend a Women’s Bible Study offered at another church and there are numerous different churches represented. We typically have around 60-70 women attend. It is pretty neat because there are women of all ages from all different church backgrounds. The unifying factor is Jesus and studying the Bible together.  This year we have been in the Book of Acts but we have studied Revelation, John, Mark, and the life of Joseph over the past several years.

We do everything that is typical of a life group. We pray together, eat together, and study the Bible together. Because we sit at small tables, there are opportunities to deepen relationships with a handful of people as well.

Also, my mom and her sister teach the class and they do a fantastic job. They love studying the Bible and teaching it which is obvious in the Bible study.  I always think of this verse in Titus 2:3-5 “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the word.”

Today’s challenge is still to get in a life group or get in a Bible study. If we want a revolution, it starts with us.

 

I was very resistant to joining a life group… Day #44 in my journey to a Revolution

Yesterday we established that life groups could help alleviate some of the fear of attending church because it gives you and I a few faces that we can know from the very start.

Just last night, my life group met at my house. We have a very laidback group. We eat together which is always one of my favorite parts. I remember in high school I always chose small groups on the leader who would provide the best food. This is what I made my small group last night

We talk together. We study the Bible together and we pray together.  I know that there are some who may be afraid of joining a group for fear they don’t know enough about the Bible to participate. What is cool about life groups is that we can learn from each other. We can discuss and wrestle with the scriptures together.  None of us know all the right answers.  That is a typical life group meeting for me.

I will be honest, years ago, I was very resistant to joining a life group. My husband and I were on a worship team and had other commitments and I didn’t want to add another thing to our schedules. Finally our church did a series where everyone was asked to be in a small group for only 6 weeks. After the 6 weeks you could leave the small group, no strings attached. So Chris and I joined the Wade small group and it was there that we formed the friendships that we still have today. Over the years that small group has birthed new groups and so that original group is no longer in tact but we still have all those friendships.

If you are on the fence about joining a life group, my encouragement would be just to try one out. It doesn’t hurt anything just to check it out, you may just like it.

A great example of a small group was with Jesus and the disciples. They met together consistently. They ate together, served together and discussed scripture together. After Jesus is resurrected in Matthew 28:18, Jesus commissions them to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  It appears they all just graduated to small group leaders.  We see it in Acts 2:42-47. Acts 2:42 says “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Then in verse 46 it says “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

I can’t help but be struck by the last part of that verse. “The Lord added to their number daily.” If we want to see a revolution (a massive revision of humanity’s vision), it starts with us doing life with others. Again we see that our relationship with the Lord is public not private.

As I watched people be baptized yesterday, my take away… Day #42 in my journey to a Revolution

As I watched people be baptized yesterday at One Life, my take away for myself and for all of us is to not relent in inviting others to church with us.  One testimony mentioned that her friends, Brooke and Jason, invited and kept inviting until she and her husband agreed to hear Brooke sing on the launch day of one of our campuses. She admits that that day changed her and she was baptized yesterday.

I know my sister invited her co-worker over and over and over again. Pretty much every week for maybe 8-10 years. They had a great friendship in so much that her pestering didn’t bother him and his rejection didn’t stop her. He finally came  a couple of years back and he and his family attend. He and his wife serve on a “frontline team” where they greet people and find them seats. They are also in my sister’s small group. Here we see relentless invitation that stood the test because they had a strong friendship.

What have been my lessons over this past week?

1.Strengthen my friendships

2.Be relentless in my invitation

3. Don’t be afraid of rejection

4. Look for opportunities

5. Listen to the Holy Spirit

6. Walk out of my comfort zone

7. Be public and not private with my faith

8. Don’t be the cop, be the paramedic

If we want a revolution then we must … Day #41 of my journey to a Revolution

If we want a revolution a “massive revision of humanity’s prevailing vision of reality” then we (you and I) must be catalysts of change.  It starts with us inviting our friends and neighbors who don’t know Jesus to church with us.

I was so proud of my husband yesterday. He took our daughters to a “Daddy and daughter” day at the museum.  As the girls were playing and eating cookies, he struck up a conversation with someone and invited him and his family to church today. It can be that easy.

Have I had any opportunities this week to invite anyone face to face? Not yet but I’m still praying that God will open up doors and that I will take the opportunity. No fear.

If you are unchurched and live in the Henderson or Evansville area, please check out One Life today. We are having a baptism service so you will here story after story of people that have been changed by Jesus.  For more information go to www.onelifechurch.org

 

 

 

Is Evangelism the missing piece in churches? Day #40 in my journey to a Revolution

In 2006, my husband and I attended  the Hillsong worship conference in Australia. What is funny is that Bill Hybels was one of the speakers.  We went all the way across the globe to hear someone who lives in a nearby state.

Bill started his message and gave a list of what is normal now in churches: 1. Good music 2. Coherent teaching 3. Small groups 4. Children’s ministry 5. Drama, video 6. Caring for the poor 7. Multicultural 8. Concern over preventative diseases 9. Clear mission statements, goals.  He said his biggest concern was that evangelism was missing in churches.

Then he shared these verses from Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” and Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done but because of his mercy.” Bill said that the best form of evangelism is listening to the Holy Spirit.  He explained that the Holy Spirit nudges him to talk with someone  that he probably wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.  It can be as simple as talking with someone across the room.  (I found a version of it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ExmF2TWpVk)

Then he shared the scripture from Philippians 2:6-7 “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”  Jesus risked it all and came down in human form for you and I.  Shouldn’t we be willing to take some risks?  Bill mentioned an example of a neighbor who typically took out his trash at the same time.  He felt like the Holy Spirit was nudging him to go to talk to the guy. He obeyed and just started a conversation.  He didn’t invite him to church that day. He just became friends. Over time he invited him to an Easter service and the neighbor did not come. He did invite him again and the neighbor finally came years later.

Bill ended the message with this “Be attentive and cooperative with the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You never never know when God has someone prepared for you to talk to.”

In summary from Bill Hybels if we want to add back the missing piece in churches of evangelism we must:

1. Listen  and be obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit

2. Walk out of our comfort zone

14,000 uses for salt. Day #39 in my journey to a Revolution.

My prayer is that today I will have an opportunity to invite someone to church.

This coming Sunday at my church is a celebration over those people that have made a commitment to Christ and want to declare it publicly. They will be baptized. I was thinking about baptism in relation to the discussion from yesterday about keeping our relationship with the Lord private. He modeled declaring what you believe publicly which was why He himself was baptized in Matthew 3:13.

What are other scriptures that talk about the need for sharing with others?

1. Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus gives us several verbs of action – GO, MAKE, BAPTIZE.  That is our calling as believers. We are to be in action.

2. Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”  What does salt do? Why should we be like salt?  Salt brings out the true flavor in something that may lack flavor. (If we are not adding flavor then are we just a bag of salt?) Salt acts as a preservative and keeps food from decay. Before refrigeration, meat was packed with salt so that it wouldn’t spoil. Salt can bring healing to an infected wound. One website I found said that there are over 14,000 uses for salt (www.saltworks.us/salt_info/salt-uses-and-tips.asp). It listed among others that it can remove blood from clothes, it can make water boil faster, it can relieve the pain from a bee sting, remove dry skin, kill poison ivy, etc. The list goes on and on.  My pastor always says that God gives us the things we can see to help us understand the things we cannot see. He gave us the physical form of salt and all its uses to help us see His power. With Jesus in us, he can remove the blood stains of sin. He can preserve life and heal our wounds. It says in Isaiah 53:5 “By his wounds we are healed.”

3. Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world.”  What does light do?  Light helps wake you up. It can boost your mood, curb your appetite and balance your energy levels. Light gives warmth. It illuminates a room. Light helps things grow. Light provides energy and transfers energy. Light helps you see. You do not realize that you are in darkness without light. With Jesus in us, we can help wake people up. We are called to illuminate a room. The only way people know they are in the dark is if they are in the presence of light (Jesus).

What other scriptures talk about the need for sharing with others?  Look them up and comment below.

Day #38 in my journey to a Revolution.

Writing this blog has been hard for me. When I had the idea back in May, I just felt like I needed something to be challenged weekly in my relationship with God. I wrestled over doing it for almost 7 months. I wasn’t sure I could write things daily about my journey and there were some commitments I knew would be hard to apply. When I saw my friend Emily start her blog on reading the Bible daily, I was convicted that God had put this in my heart and I wasn’t acting on it. God wanted me to embark on this journey to a revolution to challenge me in my faith. To push me in areas of my walk with Him that I am afraid to go.

Some of the commitments have been easier to apply to my daily life. I can read my Bible, pray, go to church and serve in a church. But when it comes to stepping out of my comfort zone and talking to others about Jesus I get scared. Yeah, I can be bold on a blog or on facebook but when I am face to face with someone I shrink away.

The other day I was watching Grey’s Anatomy. There are a lot of things I disagree with morally about that show but I still catch it from time to time. Anyways, there was a young man(let’s call him Joe) brought in by his friend (let’s call him Dave) who was severely hurt. When they are about to treat Joe who is unconscious, it is made known that Joe has certain religious beliefs where he cannot receive any blood. Dave is shocked by this revelation and is talking to one of the nurses about it. Dave says that if this was really true in Joe’s life and Joe really believed it enough to die for what he believed would Joe keep it a secret.  Wouldn’t Joe have at least told his friends?

I was pretty convicted by that statement. Am I telling my friends or am I keeping it a secret?

I have mentioned before that I have been reading Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth. She talks about how in society we tend to put our lives in 2 stories. We put science and facts on the lower story and then we put religion and belief in the upper story. She quotes Phillip Johnson who says “Even conservative Christians have so privatized their faith that they do not regard it as a source of knowledge but as merely theological ‘reflection’ on topics given by secular academia.”  Nancy says this “If we aspire to engage the battle where it is really being fought, we must find ways to overcome the dichotomy between sacred and secular, public and private, fact and value – demonstrating to the world that a Christian worldview alone offers a whole and integral truth. It is true not about only a limited aspect of reality but about a total reality. It is total truth.”

So what is the choice? Keep living as we are living? Keep the truth to ourselves? Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Pretty bold words. Do we want a revolution? Its time to speak up.

Day #37 in my journey to a Revolution.

Over ten years ago, I was heading home and I was speeding. (Yes, we have established multiple times now that I’m a lawbreaker)  The police officer that pulled me over was about my age and he asked me why I was pulled over. I admitted that yes I was speeding and I smiled real big.  He said he thought I looked familiar and I asked him if he had attended my local church. I led worship and occasionally people would recognize me that I would not know due to the size of the church.  The cop said “no way I would be struck by lightning if I ever entered the doors of a church.”  I pointed out that  I was definitely not a perfect person and great proof was the fact I was speeding just then.  He laughed and so I invited him to come check out my church.  He gave me a warning and I slowed down. Did he ever come to church? I have no idea. But maybe just maybe I planted a seed of curiosity about this Jesus guy who wouldn’t strike him down if he walked in the doors of a church.

Let’s pick back up in John 8:1-11. For some reason I was thinking of this story today and how it relates to the cop I talked to.  Jesus is sitting down in the temple courts ready to teach those that gathered around Him when the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring in a woman caught in the act of adultery. They make her stand before the group and say that the law says they should stone her.  What does Jesus do? He starts writing on the ground with his finger. When they questioned him He says “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He went back to writing. Slowly they all left and it was Jesus and the woman remaining. And Jesus said this “Then neither do I condemn you, Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Several things stood out to me in this story. I have this statement written in my Bible “Don’t be the cop be the paramedic.”  Jesus was more concerned for the victim then for the laws she broke.  He was extending grace to her. That is the whole point of grace. It isn’t earned or deserved. We deserve a penalty but Jesus took all of our punishment upon Him on the cross.

Second thing that stood out to me is that we are quick to point out others faults but not our own. These teachers of the law and Pharisees couldn’t condemn this woman because they had their own sin. The only person who could have condemned her is Jesus and he says “Neither do I condemn you.”

Lastly, I am struck by Jesus’ last statement “Go now and leave your life of sin.” He doesn’t condemn her but he does say stop going down the wrong path. Their is a cost in following Jesus. We must stop sinning.

What are you learning today? What can you apply to your life?