God, would you like some old mashed potatoes?

First, I heard the concept of serving leftovers to God from the book, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Over a year ago, I read that book and felt an enormity of conviction about my love relationship with God. What stuck with me are the crazy things people in love do, and whether or not I feel that way about God. But, just recently, I have been obsessed with the concept of serving leftovers to God. I re-read the chapter, “Serving leftovers to a holy God” tonight. The lack of commitment to Christ I see is driving me crazy. And all the time, as I see people making time for everything in the world but God, I think these words, “Well God, I already served dinner, but would you like some of these cold mashed potatoes from yesterday?”

There is a reason why this problem burdens my heart. I have served God leftovers most of my life. I could go to church nearly every Sunday and not offer to God my first and best. I could spend my time in church each week, and still manage to avoid total abandon with Christ. Since, I spent so long in this self-made prison, I can’t help but recognize when I see it in others. Don’t misunderstand. I am not saying, “Oh. I just wish everyone could love Jesus like I do!” It is not about me at all. On the contrary, I just can’t stand to see people locking the shackles, when I have felt freedom. I also know that we cannot break free without radically loving Christ. He doesn’t want our second serving. He wants our first. In fact, he calls giving lame, second best sacrifices evil (Malachi 1:8). So, it isn’t busyness. It’s evil.

What does all this mean? What does it look like to give God our second best? I’m not sure it looks the same in everyone, but I do know one thing. What is most important to you is constantly on your mind. If you have kids, no matter what you are doing they are somewhere readily accessible in your thoughts. You don’t think about them in certain places, but you are constantly reminded of them by things all the time. How often does God enter your thoughts? We are controlled by what is in our mind. If we are filled with the spirit, we want to serve God. That is what it looks like to give God first position. If we are filled with busyness and activity and self we are controlled by ourselves and what we consider our best interest to be. We forget to do things we planned to do at church, we miss fellowships together and we have legitimate and good excuses that let us off the hook with other people. But God is not fooled. He knows whom He taken a backseat to.

I had a powerful moment with God recently that nearly brought me to tears. I had to cry out to him and say, “God, I have to know… if what I see is okay for everyone else, it must be okay for me. So, can I serve you when I don’t have a valid excuse to do otherwise, or can I put the blessings you have given me like children and family first?” I know you already know the answer to this in your mind, and so did I. I know God is above my darling husband, and my beautiful children, and all of the other things that loving these blessings brings into my life. But, in that moment, I needed to know it with my heart. “God, I know I am supposed to put you before all the things in my life, but that’s not what I see in other Christians. So is it ok, or isn’t it?” And God spoke to my spirit. And with a sigh of relief and a heart satisfied, I knew that if I gave Jesus all I had, first and always, He would give me more that I could love others with. I have to put Christ first, and in doing that I will have more love for my husband, and more patience with my kids and more compassion for other people who just don’t get it.

Jesus is amazing. Don’t serve Him re-warmed ham and beans. A King deserves a feast!

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." ~ Matthew 6:33

Feed Me!

Some things are better left unfed. My daughter has a guinea pig. If she didn’t feed it, I can’t say I would miss the smelly creature if it… eh-hem… perished. However, she continues to feed it, and it continues to live and stink up the entirety of our school room. I do not like that pig, but it must be fed.

Our flesh is like an animal. It needs to be fed to thrive. The more we feed it, it grows and thrives. Our flesh desires things… worldly things. It desires sin and relishes in it when we feed it with our inconsistent behavior. Before we know it, our flesh can be a fat, over-fed pig stinking up our lives and everyone else’s.  But, God does not desire that for us. See, the flesh is supposed to weak in comparison to the spirit. The spirit rushes in and floods our lives. It draws us toward spiritual growth and gives us discernment with the weaknesses in the flesh. So, why is it then that we continue to struggle with our fleshly desires? Well, the spirit, too, requires good feeding.

Our spirituality is like a muscle. When we work it out, when we live it, it gets stronger. It gets strong enough to fight the ghastly flesh. Our spirits need to be cultivated with the Word of God. When we fellowship with other believers, when we walk in the counsel of men who are Godly, we water our thirsty spirit. We can exercise our spiritual muscle by following God in obedience.  Learning He is faithful, we have some reliable memories to draw from. We build relationship with our Creator, and spend time with Him in prayer and stillness. It is then, by the power of the Spirit, flesh can be combated. (Romans 12:21)

So, is the flesh or the Spirit being fed in your life? What do you spend your day thinking about? If your cluttered mind is full of a busy schedule, your flesh is being fed. If you have a pet sin, that is nowhere near as wretched as your neighbors, you are feeding your flesh. If you can’t wait to talk about the latest news about someone else you heard, your flesh is so happy and fed! But, filling our minds with things that are good and holy and of God, meeting and encouraging others in the faith, and spending time with the one true God, builds the only weapon we have against self-destructing flesh. So, what will you feed today?

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” ~ Galatians 5:16-17

Do you know whom you have believed?

 

                       My brother-in-law knows a lot about Tim Tebow. Actually, he knows a lot about a lot of athletes. He could probably walk up to Tim Tebow and start a conversation the things Tebow likes or has done. There’s a problem, however. The famous athlete would probably scrunch his eye brows and say, “Do I know you?” You see, much to my brother-in-law’s dismay, all his time getting to know Tebow would be useless in having a friendship. He “knows” Tebow, but Tebow has no idea who he is.

We can be that way with God. We have learned lots of stuff about Him. We have been in Sunday school and church for many years, categorizing information. But do you know the God you believe? Is God likely to say to you, “Ahhhh, Yes… my dear and faithful servant” or “I never knew you.”?(Matthew 7:22-23) You may be thinking that is an extreme example. You may not be intimate with God, but it isn’t as if he doesn’t know you at all. Perhaps you have been close to God, but you have found it hard to spend time with him, lately. After all, you’re in a busy season, right? Maybe He recognizes your cry for help, as that tends to be when he hears from you. Maybe you have let Him in just a little, holding His Matchless Grace at bay, rather than letting Him flood your life.

Your God wants you to know the God you have believed in. He desires a deeply intimate relationship with you. Do you know what your mother’s handwriting looks like? My mom has a wild script that is only hers. No one writes like her. When I see my name drawn by her hand, I cannot mistake the author. I know her and I know the works of her hands. Do you recognize the work of your God’s hand? If you frequently wonder what God is doing, what He wants you to do, or you can’t recall the last change He made in you, your God may be longing to spend more time with you .Cry from your heart, “Lord, help my unbelief!” You see, like the man Jesus encountered, even if we believe in God, our hearts are sick with unbelief (Mark 9:14-29). We want to believe, but all this stuff gets in the way. In tragedy, we know we need Him. Then in daily busyness, we drown ourselves in activity, and we forget what he has done. We lose sight of Him, and we forget what He looks like. He becomes someone we were once close with.

 

Most of us women have had many friends over our lifetimes. Some are so close to us they can finish our thoughts. Some are merely acquaintances. Some have endured time and trial and stuck with us, while some were dear to us long ago, but we have at some point gone in in different directions. But, how many friends do you have that you only call when you need something; you only talk when you call, and you never listen; they never pop up in your mind, and you don’t involve them in your daily life. You don’t like those kinds of friends, so you try not to be that kind of friend. So it goes with God, to know Him is to spend quality time with Him and in His word.  He desires that of us. (Proverbs 8:17)

 

Sisters, don’t let Christ become unrecognizable to you! Know whom you have believed. Think on Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill your life and teach you about God. Don’t waste another day getting to know things of no eternal value. Knowing a lot about the Lord is great; following His laws is good too. But, He created you to have communion with Him, and you in turn will glorify Him, and through that you uphold His law and are filled with the Holy Spirit! Do you know the God you believe?

“That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed,because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guardwhat I have entrusted to him for that day.” 2Timothy 1:12

Where’s the meat?

 

My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Over the years, I have tried to pass off some meatless meals as satisfying. But, as he combs his fork through the meal I have offered, he inevitably will ask, “Where’s the meat?” You see, when my husband sits at the table after a long day, he expects, well, MEAT. Not lettuce wraps, not soy burgers and not meatless manicotti, but meat.

Like my husband, there are just some things we expect to see. There are some things that logically go together, like meat and potatoes. God also has some expectations from us. As we grow and mature in Christ, spending time in His word and walking in His ways, he expects that we will move from milk to solid food (Hebrews 5:11-14). Our appetite changes as we mature. The same is true in Christ. Growing in Him, we hunger for more. We thirst in a way that can only be satisfied by the Lord. When we try to stave off hunger with the world, we feel empty. But when we let our cup be filled by Christ, we are satisfied, yet we come away with a greater hunger.

 You see, hunger for the Word is something you expect to see from a mature Christian. The people that you admire that love the Lord Our God with all their heart, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30) are the ones who have a history of walking with Him. He proves Himself faithful as they walk, and they desire Him more. They are not filled once with Christ, and then satisfied for life. They have experienced a satisfaction so deep that they cannot imagine trying to replace it with milk meant for babies. God’s power supplies us with everything we need to accomplish the purpose He intended (2 Peter 1:3). We are meant to return to the Lord, hour after hour, filling with His power and then taking it out to fulfill His plans.

We are driven by hunger! A starving man will do whatever it takes to get food in his belly. If a man knows what it is like to be hungry, he will work hard to keep food in his home, earning money to feed his family. Our hunger drives us to work hard to stay full (Proverbs 16:26). The more we hunger for God’s word, the more we grow in maturity and knowledge of Christ Jesus. Maturity is marked by hunger. We see maturity and we expect to see hunger, as my husband expects to see meat on his dinner table.

Are you hungry for the word of God or are you still being spoon fed baby food from the pulpit once a week that leaves you in your immaturity? God did not intend for us to stay baby Christians! When we are babies, we are easily persuaded from the truth, but Christ has equipped us to mature in the faith and unite in Him (Ephesians 4:11-14).

Are you hungry? Do you thirst? Christ longs to fill you up! He expects you to fill yourself with Him, to choose maturity in Christ over the counterfeit the world offers!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” ~Matthew 5:6

No Other Name

What is the name your heart sings? My spirit is deeply moved by the song, “Forever Reign” by Hillsong. For a few months, the bridge, “My heart will sing no other name…Jesus” has just taken up residence in my spirit and I find myself mindlessly singing it as I go about my day. Then, this Sunday, a wonderful young man with the love of God pouring from his heart, led our church in worship to this song. He said, “If it’s the song of your heart, sing it like you mean it….. ‘My heart will sing no other name… Jesus, Jesus’...” And I was moved by the voices exalting the Lord around me, sealing a promise to lift up no other name, but that of Jesus. Since that moment, I have wondered what other names the heart can sing. Generally, we think if the heart sings a name it’s a love song, a song of two mates for life. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if my husband were a romantic poet and told me things like “My heart sings Erin”. If you know my hammer-swinging hubby, that will make you laugh. But, I am fairly certain that singing the name of our loved ones in life is not the only danger. Of course we are to love our spouses, but there is no name above the Lord God (Philippians 2:9). And since we could sing the names of our spouses above Jesus we could also sing our children, since it’s hard not to focus on them when they are so needy!! We also can sing money, when the day’s earnings are your source of safety and security and not the Lord (Luke 16:13). We can sing comfort, when we stay where we are safe rather than stepping out in faith with the Lord (2 Timothy 1:7). We sing busyness when we say yes to every activity we can be involved in but say we are too busy for the Lord, or too tired (Matthew 11:28). We sing unforgiveness when we choose to let bitterness take root in our spirit instead of pouring out the same forgiveness we receive (Hebrews 12:15). We sing anger when we choose to let it fill us and rule our decisions rather than choosing to be filled by the Healer (Ephesians 4:26). So, what name will your heart sing? It is my desire that my heart sing no other name but Jesus… Jesus. "Sing the glory of his name;  make his praise glorious." ~ Psalm 66:2

Rest Time!

     When my kids were small and we were transitioning from the long naps of their baby days to no naps of school days, I instituted “Rest Time”. Rest time was essentially down time. They had to spend time in quiet, even if they didn’t sleep. No television, no noise, and most importantly, no mommy. That’s right. Rest time was not only for the sanity of the preschoolers, but also for mommy. I will never forget the days where I would get excited that rest time was coming, needing a time where no one was touching me, but inevitably, when I happily announced, “Rest Time”, my kids’ faces would fall and they would cry “No!!!! Mommy! I don’t need rest time! I want to play. I have things to do!”

    So what does rest time look like for you, now? How do you let down? What brings you refreshment? Have you thought about it lately? It seems like in today’s society we have conjured a wrong Idea about rest. God actually instituted rest time for us and he called it the Sabbath. It did not include self-indulgence or plopping down in front of mindless television programs. So why have we bought this cheap counterfeit of rest from the world? Does kicking back the world’s way displease God? It’s just a little music, it’s just a movie, it’s just a few glasses of wine, it’s just a cheesecake…  What does biblical rest look like? God defined rest for us when He created the heavens and the earth. For 6 days he labored. On the 7^th , He rested. Why? He wasn’t tired! The Lord of All Creation was NOT exhausted from all the creating. Psalm 121 tells us that God will not sleep or slumber. His rest is a wonderful example of a commandment yet to come. Exodus  20:8 gives us the 4^th commandment: to remember the Sabbath. Then in the New Testament, we get more understanding on biblical rest. Mark 2:27 says, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." God knew we needed rest! He created the Sabbath for us, not because He needed a break, but because WE need a rest in the Lord. We don’t deserve a rest! Not in the worldly sense of relaxation, but we NEED rest in the Lord. Relaxing in the world’s view is still us being at work. Our minds have been twisted to accept this as rest. But, God defined rest for us. He defined it as getting together with other people who love God and worshipping Him (Hebrews 4:10 and Hebrews 10:19-25). The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat, and it means to stop or cessation. When is the last time you just stopped before the Lord? (Psalm 46:10)

     Unfortunately, when it comes time to rest in the Lord, we tend to sound more like my children did upon the announcement of rest time. “NO! Not church! Not today!  I have too much to do! I want to play!” Remember, rest was created for you! We don’t work all week in the world so that we can rest on the weekend; we rest so that we can get out in the world and work. The Lord is the only place we can truly find rest. Once you have tasted His sweet soul rest, you can no longer settle for the world’s knock-off of rest! The Lord’s rest will satisfy our soul to peace, and the world’s rest will leave us weary and anxious. When will you return to His arms and the only rest that recharges us for the task at hand? Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. Psalm 116:7

Make me new!!

The Lord is making me new!  It is so funny to look back and see what God started with. I mean, He really had a big project in me. I am cursed with a haughtiness of always thinking I have it all figured out. It has been the curse of my flesh since birth. I should have realized this earlier in my life. My mother probably can’t even count the times she told me at age 13 that I did not know everything. I just thought she could benefit from my advice in raising my younger siblings. Unfortunately, I had no special revelation from the Lord, just a haughty little spirit that I have fought from the womb. I would justify by telling myself it wasn’t my fault God blessed me with above average intelligence. Time and time again, the Lord reveals to me what a bone head I am without him. The Lord has taken me on a transformation journey over the past few years. Little by little, I have decided I do less damage to the people in my life (not excluding myself) when I lean NOT on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). I daily fight my know-it-all heart. Sometimes I even try to tell my great amazing God how things would be so great my way. And somehow, He still wraps me up in His big understanding arms, and he holds me while I kick and scream that I didn’t get my way. And then, He gives me the desire to be more like Him. And in that desire, action is required of me. He makes me a new creature every day that I submit to His ways, obey His will, and rest in His perfect grace. Sometimes, I can look back from a little down the road and see what a disaster my idea of perfect would have been.  I just need to rest in His assurance and stop fighting even if I cannot see. Usually, I cannot see. But, always I can trust. I must choose it. God’s word tells us we are a new creation with him (2 Corinthians 5:17) and that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentation 3:23). I don’t know about you, but I need His compassion every morning that I wake up and go to battle with my flesh. Thank you Lord for making me new! So, what about you? Are you tired of trying it your way? Are you ready to be a whole new you: satisfied, full of rest, and joyful in disposition? Allow Him who created you the pleasure  of making you new, too! He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down,for these words are trustworthy and true.”(Revelation21:5)