I know I’ve probably posted this previously, but it’s still worth checking out. I remember distinctly being blown away by the radical sentiment of the author. I found out recently that he was a young pastor in Zimbabwe who was martyred for his faith and a little poem was found among his papers that went something like this:
“I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense and my future is secure. I’m done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by Holy Spirit power. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!”
One of the things God is reminding me lately is that there is such a thing as timely grace. I think most of us spend way too much time thinking about possible future scenarios involving us or our loved ones. Or in my case, sometimes obsessively thinking about these things.
It’s easy to get caught up in imagining what we would do if we lost the job or wrecked the car or had a terminal illness in the family. Usually those kinds of thoughts lead to great anxiety as we picture ourselves overwhelmed in such a scenario.
First of all, those what-if cases rarely ever happen. Second, we tend to leave God out when we bring anxiety into the picture where it’s just us trying to figure out what to do and managing it all by ourselves.
Most importantly, we forget one very vital piece of information. In my experience, God will often give you the grace to deal with any of these situations should they ever actually happen. But God doesn’t give you that grace ahead of time. It’s only at the exact moment you need it most that it comes.
Hebrews 4:16 says “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”.
The problem is that we want to be like Israel in the desert with the manna. We want to hoard and stockpile grace in case it might run out. We want plenty of grace in plenty of time to be prepared. But that’s now how God works.
God knows what we need when we need it. Faith means trusting in God’s timing as much as God’s provision. Seeing God come through in the clutch makes our faith stronger and reminds us that all things really do work together for good because God designed it that way.
“My faith demands that I face the uncertainty of the future in the confidence that in any meeting of affliction, I am held by the tether of God’s grace. My way is well known to my Master, and therefore I walk in confidence. No testing will come that will not be accompanied by sustaining grace. If I failed to believe that, I would be impoverished beyond measure and would deny the truthfulness and example of Scripture. God’s provision has been adequate in the past; it will be adequate in the future. The secret of our courage lies in our confidence that the future is controlled by the providence of a sovereign God” (James Means, A Tearful Celebration).
I saw this testimony on Facebook and I had to share. It’s the power of Jesus to save and transform anybody at any point to be a true disciple. I’m copying and pasting the post but also providing a link to the original post in case you want to check it out as well:
“I get a lot of messages from gay men and women asking me how I came out of homosexuality. Many of them tell me they want out of the lifestyle but they still feel sexually attracted to the same sex. What do I do they say and they all ask that same question.
There is no shame in asking those questions or feeling that way because in His time he will show you.
I didn’t want out of the gay lifestyle when Christ came to me. I was happy being gay. I had a boyfriend. I saw no need to change. Christ came to me while I was yet a sinner and began to deal with my heart FIRST. He came to me FIRST while I was living in my sin. I hadn’t repented or anything when he began to deal with my heart. That’s important to note. So many times we want people to repent at an altar in front of everyone and people don’t even know why they are doing what they are doing or why they are even repenting. As Christians we need to be sensitive to the needs of sinners.
When God began to deal with my heart I began to see in the Word of God where I was wrong about the way that I was living. I still felt gay but I began to read in the Bible things that I didn’t want to do…..BUT YET I began to follow what the Word said and NOT how I felt. And so I repented of my sins but at times I still felt gay.
If you will follow the process of Jesus Christ then he WILL change your life! God gave me a poweful revelation of the Love of God that immediately broke the chains that held me bound to that lifetsyle. I felt instant freedom but I still didn’t feel convicted about it.
After repentance I walked away from a lifestyle that I knew and loved and began to follow after a man that I didn’t know and his name was Jesus…..but still felt gay. I told God that if he would help me that I would never go back to that life and it’s now been 6 years now and I have never one time went back to it and I have never slept with a man since then. Never ever.
It was about 2 years into my walk with Christ after repentance that Jesus began to show me why I was wrong. I’ll never forget the day that conviction came to me over the lifestyle that I once lived. I felt so
ashamed that day. I cried like a baby. 2 years AFTER becoming a Christian Jesus Christ sent a strong conviction to me. Think about that. I felt so grieved that day knowing that I had grieved the heart of Christ with my old sinful lifestyle but it was 2 years later. Why are we rushing new converts?
I am free from that life today, thank you Jesus!!!
Here’s what I want to tell you today. Repent of your sins whatever they are and wait on the Lord. Do all that you know to do according to the Word of God. Don’t live by how you feel but rather by what the Word says and Jesus Christ will lead you into ALL truth.
Christ is a powerful process if you will just follow. He will deliver you in his time….not someone else’s. He has changed my life little by little by little. Not with BIG things but with the smallest things. He’s still changing my life today.
Today I am delivered. Today I am not gay. Today I don’t have the feelings that I used to have. I am free in my mind. I am so thankful to a God who has saved my soul from eternal fire.
Listen to me when you’re coming out of this lifestyle I want to be honest with you…..most Christians do not know how to help you. It’s no fault to them. They just don’t understand AT ALL. If you are putting your trust in man then you are going to be let down. I want to encourage you to TRUST in God and TRUST what the word of God says….with your whole heart. There are mean ministers who slam gay people for that sake of handclaps from the audience. I’ve been in those services. There are mean Christians who hate the way the way you are. There are mean people everywhere especially in the world. Don’t keep living like you are because someone was mean to you. You are seeking something else because when you lay your head on your pillow you feel deep down that something isn’t right.
When you start coming to church you’re doing to deal with all kinds of nonsense but let me tell you what else I found. I found a group of Christian people who know the power of God and how he changes lives. They have loved me while Christ was changing me. They have helped me more than I ever thought possible. You might be surprised who is sitting in your congregation who have been exactly where you are right now. The enemy wants to bring meaness to the forefront but the LOVE of God is the most powerful thing that there is! Jesus loves you even when others don’t. He died for YOU!
Be honest with God. Tell him exactly how you feel. Tell him that you still feel attracted to the same sex. Talk to God. He knows. He understands. Be honest with him but walk away from anything that doesn’t align to his word. Then give him time to bring you OUT of it.
I found out what coming out of the closet really means….it’s when I came OUT of the world and into His marvelous light!! When I came out of the world I became a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away and ALL things have become new to me!
I was ‘trans’ formed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2) NOT ‘trans’ formed by mutilating certain body parts. Trans is a Christian word. We are transformed through the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Ghost will lead you into ALL truth! didn’t become gay overnight and I’m thankful that I serve a God who has given me space to make powerful changes in my life.
I am learning what it means to be a man….a Christian man…..because I used to feel like a woman.
“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.
Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.
A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?
A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing YOU have to do. There’s nothing you HAVE to do. There’s nothing you have to DO.
The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”
There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.
Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking).
I always like the acronym for GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.
That means it is undeserved.
It’s the flip side of mercy. If grace is getting what you don’t deserve, then mercy is not getting what you deserve. And salvation involves both.
I know several people who are dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one. It’s never easy, especially with the recent end of the Christmas season that makes loss even more difficult to bear. I found a post with the lyrics from a Michael W. Smith song from his second album. Let these words sink in and express your own grief and loss:
“Sad goodbye Never quite got said Now the time is gone We’re moving on Even though it hurts so bad
If I could I’d turn back the days And I’d love again To be your friend In a hundred different ways But we can’t turn back the time The days
So if I never said, all I needed to say I’ll say it now You know I loved you once I love you stronger today Please love, find me a way Words, I still need to say But I don’t know how
Can’t stand still Still I can’t move on Lord, I need your strength Need you and me ‘Cause a part of me is gone
In time, I will know What I’ve yet to see That through all the pain You hurt the same And you’re standing here with me More than anything it’s you I need
So if I never said, all I needed to say I’ll say it now You know I loved you once I love you stronger today Please love find me a way Words, I still need to say Please show me how
Words, I still need to say
So if I never said, all I needed to say I’ll say it now You know I loved you once I love you stronger today Please love find me a way But I don’t know how Please love find me a way Please show me how” (Amy Grant / Michael W. Smith).
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to tiny books. The smaller, the better.
I have a tiny testament that easily fits in the palm of my hand. I also have a small Latin dictionary and an even smaller hymnal. All these tiny books are super old as well as super small.
This one is the smallest prayer book I’ve ever seen. For me, I love the idea of carrying around these precious promises of God in my pocket and having a handy prayer guide for whenever I can’t find words of my own to pray.
I’m reminded sometimes of how small I am in comparison to God. More like infinitesimal and microscopic next to the Creator whom the whole of creation can’t contain.
Yet, the verse says He is mindful of me. He knows the number of hairs on my head and when I stumble or fall. He knows every word on my tongue before I speak it.
That’s comforting when the universe seems so big and dark and void of hope. I need the nearness of an Incarnate God more than I need the majesty of an Infinite Being beyond my comprehension.
Well, I need both. I need a God close enough to know my need and a God big enough to meet it. I need a God who’s near to hear my prayer and a God mighty enough to be worthy of my prayers.
I suppose my next thing to collect will be tiny books. Now I just need a tiny shelf to put them all on. I can stare at all my small books and remember how small I am in the eyes of God, yet He still knows me by name.
“Having Christian convictions can’t ever negate having Christ’s compassion” (Ann Voskamp).
It’s not a case of either/or. It’s both.
In today’s culture, there are those on one side who let their compassion override their convictions. They preach tolerance (except for those who happen to disagree with them) and teach that loving people means loving their sin.
On the other side of the fence, there are people whose convictions have turned them into people who not only need to be proven right but everyone else must have their faces rubbed in the fact that they’re wrong.
If you truly follow Jesus, you’ll have both. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery “Neither do I condemn you” with compassion, but He also told her “Go and sin no more” with conviction. Yes, Jesus loved sinners and ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, but He loved them into repentance and transformation. When He ascended into heaven, they weren’t sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes anymore. They were devoted disciples living a new way of justice and holiness.
Remember, it’s not either/or. It’s both/and. God was compassionate toward you while you were a sinner far from grace but He still calls you through conviction to repent and turn to Jesus in faith.
Yesterday was a hot one. Today was also a hot one. Tomorrow will most likely be a hot one. Are you sensing a trend yet?
It’s called summer. It’s like stepping out the front door into an oven. Except in my case living in Tennessee, it’s like an exceptionally moist oven. That’s because it’s very humid.
If it were 100 degrees with no humidity, I could adjust. I could learn to live with heat. But humidity is just not fair. It’s especially unfair to people (like me) with curly hair who just want to look normal and not like an alpaca who stuck its finger in an electrical socket.
But there is still a lot of summer to go. Officially, we have until September 21, but as everyone in Tennessee knows, hot weather is here until at least October. Maybe longer.
So my advice is to drink lots of water, wear sunscreen, and stay inside from 2 pm until November 2 (or maybe longer depending on the outcome of the election).
I see people in the heat wearing hoodies and jackets and long sleeves. I’m not judging, but why? It’s already heat stroke weather. There’s a heat advisory. If it’s me, I’m not adding to the risk. I mean you can wear all the layers and polyester you want. It’s a free country, but just know I will be sweating all the more when I see you bundled up in 95 degree heat.
But fall is coming. My favorite season because it’s not too hot, not too cold. Plus, you can legitimately wear hoodies and flannel and not die.
By the way, I get equally annoyed when I see people in t-shirts and gym shorts in the middle of winter. That’s just as dumb in my humble opinion.
But because we all made it through another week of living in a sauna, I brought you a joke to enjoy. Hope you like it.
This post is a bit outside my wheelhouse, so to speak. What follows is some good advice that I wish I had learned earlier (or maybe paid better attention to when someone else was trying to teach me). Some of these may be more applicable than others, but I hope they will all be usefulat some point in your life:
Don’t call someone more than twice continuously. If they don’t pick up your call, presume they have something important to attend to.
Return money that you have borrowed even before the person who loaned it to you remembers or asks for it. It shows your integrity and character. The same goes for umbrellas, pens, and lunch boxes.
Never order the expensive dish on the menu when someone is treating you to lunch or dinner.
Don’t ask awkward questions like ‘Oh, so you aren’t married yet?’ Or ‘Don’t you have kids?’ Or ‘Why haven’t you bought a house?’ Or ‘Why haven’t you bought a car?’ For God’s sake, it isn’t your problem.
Always open the door for the person coming behind you. It doesn’t matter if it is a guy or a girl, senior or junior. You don’t grow small by treating someone well in public.
If you take a taxi with a friend and he/she pays now, try paying next time.
Respect different shades of opinions. Remember, what may seem like 6 to you might appear as 9 to someone else. Besides, a second opinion is good for an alternative.
Never interrupt people while they are talking. Allow them to pour it out. As they say, hear them all and filter them all.
If you tease someone, and they don’t seem to enjoy it, stop it and never do it again. It encourages one to do more and shows how appreciative you are.
Say “thank you” when someone is helping you.
Praise publicly. Criticize privately.
There’s almost never a reason to comment on someone’s weight. Just say, “You look fantastic.” If they want to talk about losing weight, they will.
When someone shows you a photo on their phone, don’t swipe left or right. You never know what’s next.
If a colleague tells you they have a doctor’s appointment, don’t ask what it’s for, just say “I hope you’re okay.” Don’t put them in the uncomfortable position of having to tell you their personal illness. If they want you to know, they’ll do so without your inquisitiveness.
Treat the cleaner with the same respect as the CEO. Nobody is impressed by how rudely you treat someone below you, but people will notice if you treat them with respect.
If a person is speaking directly to you, staring at your phone is rude.
Never give advice until you’re asked.
When meeting someone after a long time, unless they want to talk about it, don’t ask them their age or salary.
Mind your business unless anything involves you directly – just stay out of it.
Remove your sunglasses if you are talking to anyone in the street. It is a sign of respect. Moreover, eye contact is as important as your speech.
Never talk about your riches in the midst of the poor. Similarly, don’t talk about your children in the midst of the barren.
After reading a good message, consider saying “Thanks for the message.”
APPRECIATION remains the easiest way of getting what you don’t have.
I am including the original post to give credit where credit is due.
What follows was originally penned by Elisabeth Elliott. It speaks to the distinction between wanting to obey and willing to obey. The key is that you obey even when you don’t feel like it. You do the acts of love and then the feelings of love will follow:
“We don’t always have complete control over what we want to do because ‘wants’ are determined by circumstances, feelings, other people, social climate, times in which we live. Nobody ever wanted a pair of Reebok tennis shoes before Reebok tennis shoes were invented. The fact that you want it doesn’t mean you go and buy it. It’s a matter of ‘willing’.
The same thing is true of the will of God. We can determine to will to do the will of God. It’s a conscious choice. You may not w’ant’ to do what you know God wants you to do, but you can will to do what He wants you to do.
Don’t ever allow the devil to take you in with the argument, “You gotta do what you gotta do because if you do something that you don’t wanna do or you don’t do something that you wanna do, You’re being a hypocrite.” That’s rubbish! Do you think a mother changes a baby’s diaper only when she wants to, when she feels like it? No, she does it when the baby’s diaper needs to be changed. She WILLS to do it. It has nothing to do with whether she feels good about it.
Here is a poem I came across:
[ I believe the author was Anna J. Graniss.]
“I saw a little child With bandaged eyes Put up its hands To feel its mother’s face.
She bent and took The tender, gropy palms And pressed them to her lips A little space.
I know a soul Made blind by its desires And yet its faith keeps feeling For God’s face.
Bend down, O Mighty Love And let that faith One little moment Touch Thy lips of grace.”
The same thing as what our loving God does. Even if we are made blind by desires, the things that we want–yet faith–which is a willed act, keeps feeling for God’s face. And when we will to come to Him, will to seek His face, then He in tender love reaches down and takes our hands and leads us to Him.
George McDonald said, ‘f I felt my heart as hard as a stone, if I did not love God, or man, or woman, or little child, I would yet say to God in my heart, ‘Oh, God, see how I trust Thee because Thou art perfect and not changeable like me. I do not love Thee. I love nobody. I am not even sorry for it. Thou seest how much I need Thee to come close to me, to put Thy arm around me, to say to me, ‘My child’. For the worse my state, the greater need of my Father Who loves me.’
If anyone feels he/she has no religious feeling whatsoever, but still desires God, believe me, the Father waits for your slightest move in His direction and He will meet you” (Elisabeth Elliot).
As Christians we need to be sensitive to the needs of sinners.
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