Reality Is....

Yesterday I took my three little ones for a day out on the town.  We had a thrift store shopping spree and went to the salon (a first for my girlies).  The girls were all in the salon chairs, happily getting their hair trimmed up and my stylist casually said, "What are you doing for spring break?"  To tell you the truth, I had forgotten that was next week.  I replied with a slight smile, "School!"  She looked at me funny and then asked if we homeschool.  I said we did.  She blurted, "Oh wow, I could never!  I get so impatient with my son. I wouldn't ever consider it.  I love him, but you know, there are days when I'm happy to see him go off to school.  How do you do it?!  I would just never have the patience."   I almost bust out laughing!   I replied, "You never have enough patience!  I don't have enough patience!  Are you kidding me?  I'm a mom just like every other mom.  I have frustrated days!  That's why we don't take spring break.  We take other days off during the year."  (Mom sanity days off...)
It struck me how funny it was that she thought I was something amazing, different or special to be able to homeschool my kids.  Nope!  That's not the case.  I'm a broken down, emotional train wreck on days.  And then there are the really bad days.  Well...  Maybe it's not that bad, but you know what I mean.  There is nothing inherently good about me.  That is, in my flesh there isn't.  But in my spirit- well, I am a new creation.  I have the mind of Christ.  I am loved.  I am a daughter of the Most High.  But in my flesh, watch out!
I am thankful for forgiveness more and more every day.  Especially since I often have to ask my children to forgive me.  It's a practice I am fully willing to do though, if it means restored relationships with my beloved daughters.  I used to think forgiveness was a transaction with God.  Literally, here, I give you my junk and You take it and pour a little blood on me and I can go about my life knowing that I'm covered.  Heavenly life insurance.  That's all that was.  A little exchange of junk for security.  But there was no real life change in that.
Lately I have come to understand more that forgiveness is not just an exchange or life insurance policy.  No, we've already been forgiven.  Jesus did it before we were even born.  So if I don't "have" to turn over my junk (sins) to Christ to have them covered, because He already covered them, then what is forgiveness?!  Forgiveness is submission.  Forgiveness is submitting to Christ that area of your life that is still causing grief.  It is asking Christ to identify the lies you have believed, call them lies (sin) and asking Christ to take them from you and give you the truth.  Then it is believing the truth.  But in that He does not leave us to our own devices.   He even gives us what we need to believe!  Otherwise, He knew we would fail even that small task.
Thank You, Lord that I'm not "all that".  Thank You that I can never be sufficient in my flesh.  And thank You for being the Life.

An Eternal Truth for Precious

(To read this post, you have to understand that I will not be using my children's real names.  For your reference, Miss A is the oldest, Precious is the middle and Bug is the youngest.)

This morning I listened as my three girls got ready for the day.  They were chatting along about how our middle born has trouble with sucking her thumb.  Our oldest, Miss A, said, "You need to work harder to stop sucking your thumb.  Stop forgetting and just cut it out."  Precious replied, "But I forget all the time.  I can't seem to get myself to stop!  I do really well for a long time, but then I forget and next thing I know I'm sucking my thumb.  I want to stop!  But I keep forgetting.  I know it will make my teeth stick out.  I just can't stop!"  A tried again, "But you have to!  It's not good and it will make your teeth stick out."  Bug joined in, "You need to stop, Precious!"  I listened intently as this continued on.  It came time for mom to jump in as Precious began to be very discouraged.  She continued saying, "But I just can't!  I try and try and try!  Then I forget!"
I called her in to my room so we could chat in private.  I asked her, "Are you sick of sucking your thumb?"  She nodded yes.  I asked, "Every time you try to stop, what happens?"  She said, "I forget and suck my thumb again."  I said, "So every time you try to stop, you fail?"  She nodded yes.  I said, "Yeah, me to.  I have bad habits that I want to stop.  I try and try and try, but every time I fail.  Do you know why?  It's because it's the job of the flesh to fail.  In my own efforts, I will always fail.  God made it that way."  She replied, "So that we would ask Him for help!"  I nodded.  
Yes, it is the job of the flesh to fail.  We shouldn't be surprised when our own efforts come to nothing.  Yet, we are so often!  But when our own efforts fail, we are reminded again that it is the job of the flesh to fail.  We should rejoice!  Because when we fail, we are reminded that only Christ's Life in us can succeed.  Not our efforts to live a righteous life.  It says in Philippians 3:8-9, "But moreover, I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is out of the law, but that which is through the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith."
If we were able to attain righteousness out of our own human effort, than why did Christ die?  No, it was because we were helpless to ever hope for righteousness that God sent His Son to die for us, to take our place.  Not only that, but then He imparted to us the righteousness that belongs to Christ.  God sees Christ's righteousness.  None of our own human effort attains a thing.
So Precious needed God's help.  I told her to go ahead and agree with her sister.  Go ahead and say, "You're right, Miss A.  I am unable to stop sucking my thumb on my own.  Really I am.  I want to, but I can't."  Instead, we prayed and asked God to do the work for her and are waiting on Him, in His time to do it.  Meanwhile, I told her to stop trying, to rest and wait.  We will expectantly wait for God to do the work in His time.  
And just like that we had an eternal truth for Precious today.  Thank You Lord.
Grace and Peace my friends.

The Problem of the Flesh

     What in the world is the "flesh".  What does that mean and why does it matter to me?  Or more often in Christianity, "I'm going to put to death my flesh!  See, I no longer will (list your favorite vice)".

  Let's look at a biblical definition of "flesh".  

Romans 8:5-8  Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Flesh = hostile to God, not submitted to God, cannot please God, and death

John 3: 5-6 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Flesh leads to more flesh.

John 6:36 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.

Flesh = nothing gained

Galations 6:8  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Flesh = destruction

Romans 8:12-14  Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation-- but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die

; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Flesh = death

Acts of the flesh according to the Bible, include:

Galations 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

These are the acts of the flesh with which Christians are the most familiar. We would all agree that the acts listed above are bad, right? Or at least we may say they're not such a great idea.

Remember, flesh = death.

In my last post I talked to a friend of mine about acts of the flesh. I mentioned some of them can be positive and lead to some change. But they do not bring Life. Here's a good way to look at it.

Negative Flesh:                                                                        

Anger/hatred                                        

Envy/discontentment                          

Over eating                                           

Drunkenness                                         

Laziness                                                

Impurity/porn/adultry/etc.                       

Positive Flesh:

Peacefulness
Contentedness
Dieting
Sober
Exercise and motivational plans
Purity
 

Now wait!  All of those things listed in the Positive Flesh side look really good!  Doesn't God say we're supposed to be peaceful, content, sober, pure and maybe throw in some dieting to boot?  After all, it's the "Daniel" diet!  That's much better than the "caveman" or "Paleo" diet!  Right?!  (Sorry, I can't help pick on dieting.  It's the one that speaks the most to me.) 

Dieting makes me think of fruit.  Are you hungry?  Imagine it's lunch time and you've been offered three apples.  One is obviously squishy and smelly.  It has little flies around it.  Ugh!  Rotten apple!  You pass that one by easily.  The next one is the best looking apple you've ever seen in your life.  It's big and red.  It's shiny and I betcha it's juicy too.  Mmmmm.....  You just can't wait to bite into it!  You grab it up- you've never wanted an apple so bad!  You take a big huge bite into it and WHAT!  It's plastic?!  Are you kidding me? It looked so real and yummy.  What happened?  And who would serve plastic fruit anyway!  How insane.  Well, there's one left.  Might as well go ahead and take it.  It's not that special looking.  It's just an apple.  Nothing more to say about it.  You bite into it and it is sweet, juicy and the most satisfying apple you've ever had.  

If you haven't figured it out by now, the rotten fruit correlates to negative flesh.  It's pretty easy to spot.  We know what it looks like, smells like and we can see the flies.  I mean, we're "good" Christians, right?  We would "never" do anything like that.  
The plastic fruit is our positive acts of the flesh.  They really look good.  I mean, they look so righteous, they're squeaky clean!  But there is no Life in them.  Plastic fruit, if it could produce plastic seeds, will always then again produce plastic fruit.  Remember, flesh begets flesh. 
The last fruit, seems to be nothing special, but it is perfect.  It nourishes your body.

So where does Life come from?  

Go back up to Romans 5:5-8.  "but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace."

And John 3:6 "but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

John 6:36 "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life."

Galations 6:8b "whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

While that is only a glimpse of the Life we have in Christ, I think we'll have to save the definition of Life for another day.  

Grace and peace to you in God our Father.

                                                                                                One Grace Woman

                                                   

    Lately I've been reading through the book of Galatians.  It has really been hitting home in ways that I had never noticed before.  So much of what we do comes out of good intentions.  We really think that we have to do certain things to be a "good" Christian.  And I've noticed a trend in female Christendom that eating healthy and/or losing weight is a part of those things.  We talk about wanting to be healthy, eating non-GMO foods, low carb, no refined sugars, no fake sugars, no fake fats, etc.  We want to be all that God created us to be.  And certainly, He didn't create us to eat that junk!  Our bodies are His temple anyway, right?  Shouldn't we show respect to His temple?  And how about for our husbands?  Isn't it respectful of our loving hubbies to make sure that we look good for them?  And yes, for several of those reasons and more, I started on a diet.  Then a friend asked me about the diet I was on and it brought up all sorts of thoughts.  Let me share with you a note I wrote to her.

     There is a bigger discussion here though that I've been trying to work through myself.  The diet- it doesn't control our flesh. Low carb, no refined sugars, no fake sugars, no fake fats or any diet-type eating does nothing to control our flesh. And we can work and work and work in our own strength, lose weight, look great... Then when we get tired and give up on that, we're back to our flesh. All that working hard to lose weight, be healthy, look good- it's all positive flesh. We're still in our flesh, doing fleshy things. It's just as bad as eating poorly, stuffing ourselves. It's all flesh. Both good flesh and bad flesh are still flesh. You know what I mean?   My diet- it's been good for me. More than that, it's been like the Law of God. The Law brings conviction, it points out our sin even more than we saw it before. The Law brings repentance. The Law does its work, pointing out the need for a Savior. But when I set that Law up, I'm setting myself up for failure. In my own strength I will always fail. It's the job of the flesh to fail.

Flesh = death

Diets = death

Low carb, no refined sugars, no fake sugars, no fake fats = death

Healthy eating = death

(I'm serious.)

So what produces life? Only Christ. Only Christ produces Life. And it's not Christ &... (Christ & diets.... Christ &  low carb, no refined sugars, no fake sugars, no fake fats.... Christ & works...) So even though I'm currently on a diet, I know deep in my heart it is not the end. It is not going to produce Life in me. It will produce death. I'm still on it in the meantime- while the Lord works out other areas of my life. When HE is ready, He'll tell me and I'll go off it. I'm sure He has a time in mind.

    Meanwhile, I've been researching Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It's been eye opening and a really fantastic thing. At the same time, the Lord is really showing me that I utterly rely on myself every second of every day. What I've come to is the end of my own physical, mental and emotional strength. It's all gone. Every last ounce is gone. (You have no idea how true this really is- I am trying my best to make it clear.) I wake up and now have to acknowledge, "Lord, my strength has failed. My own sufficiency is decimated. I am unable to do it!! Thank you Lord, for Your Strength. You are my strength." I literally mean, "Lord, You are my physical, mental and emotional strength and apart from you I have nothing!"

My husband used to pray, "Lord help us to do better...." And then he would say, "God never answers my prayer." A good friend later said, "Yup, God never answers that prayer. God will never answer a prayer to strengthen your own flesh so you can keep trying in your own self will. However, He will make sure that your flesh fails to point out more acutely your need for Him."

I know this is not what you were asking for when you asked about my diet. And the diet system is a good program that will work for a season. I'd even say, "Go for it." And God can use it. But what I really want to say is that in no way will it ever give you Life. In no way will it ever give you Peace. In no way will it ever give you what you're really desiring.

There is something much, much bigger here that we both need to grasp. I'm not there yet, but I sure do trust in the Lord's timing it will come. Meanwhile, I'm not sweating it.

Grace and peace to you my friend. Don't sweat your body image. It is not you. It's just your flesh. You are seated at the right hand of the Father. You are loved and accepted. You are a daughter of God and He made you uniquely to be you! You can't get any more accepted than that! 

Oh- and don't think I'm sitting like a blob over here all the time. The Lord really is my strength and has graciously allowed me to make it to every appointment my kids had this week, make some meals, get some housework done, etc. Every single moment is a gift from Him. Every single step! This song is what the Lord used to take me down this path-

 "Please Be My Strength" by Gungor

I've tried to stand my ground
I've tried to understand
but I can't seem to find my way

Like water on the sand
or grasping at the wind
I keep on falling short

Please be my strength
Please be my strenth
I don't have anymore
I don't have anymore

I'm looking for a place
that I can plant my faith
one thing I know for sure

I cannot create it
I cannot sustain it
It's Your love that's keeping (captured) me

Please be my strength...

At my final breath
I hope that I can say
I've fought the good fight of faith

I pray your glory shines
through this doubting heart of mine
so my world would know that You

You are my strength
You and You alone
You and You alone
Keep bringin me back home

I hope that the Lord used something in this post to bless you.  Remember, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law (diets/healthy eating), Christ died for nothing!"  Grace and peace to you!

Welcome

    Hi and welcome to my blog!  I hope you find something here worth reading and taking the time to pray about.  Don't ever just take my word for it on the subjects covered here.  Always take things back to the ultimate Authority and Author of Life.  

    I didn't ever think I would be a blogger.  In fact, I'm slightly skeptical of blogs in general.  But lately I have found a few blogs with truly honest people that have changed my mind.  Like Lisa at Overcoming Myself.  Her post on women, perfection and imperfection...  It was like she had reached right into my mind.  (See the post here.)  It was a hard-hitting, revealing post that peeled back some layers on my heart and was exactly what I needed from the Lord right at that moment.  I pray that you may find similar insights here.  If you find anything of value, praise the Lord.  Don't think for one second that had much to do with me.  I have come to find that my work is of no value.  Yet whatever work the Lord does has eternal value.  That being said, we will prayerfully move on together.  

Grace and peace to you from our God and Father.