How You Do It

My husband says it all the time, “the Bible is our instruction manual for living”.

For living.  Living is not always easy, and we are all beginners really.  There are certain people in my life that I look to, who are older than I, and further along in the journey.  They seem to have such wisdom.  There is a peace that comes with time and experience in knowing you can trust God.

It’s not that these people don’t face trials and hardships, it’s just that in the context of a whole life, they’ve seen similar circumstances before and they know that the God who saw them through the last ordeal is there with them in the current one.

I’m so glad we have people to follow as well as the instructions.  God didn’t just say, “Now Go!  Find your purpose!  Live your destiny!”  But He actually told us how to do it, and through other people we can see how to do it.

Last night in our Modern Girl’s Guide To Bible Study class, we looked at how our spiritual nature coincides with our physical beings, in that no matter how full we get, there comes a time when we are hungry again.  For some of us that’s only a couple of hours.  Hunger is common to all men, no matter how old we get.  Feeling dissatisfied keeps us looking for more from God.  I don’t ever want to outgrow that.

Christine Caine puts it this way: “We cannot stop or settle where we are.  God wants us to keep pursuing Him and the dreams He has for us.  As long as we’re alive, God has a purpose for our lives.”  (from A Life Unleashed).

I think of my friends Margaret and Jean.  They are both superb examples of women who walk through life with grace and wisdom, yet they are constantly looking for more from God at the same time.  They are willing to stretch and grow and try new things – even though they are in their 70’s and 80’s. It seems a tightrope to me, while I’m in my 40’s, to find the balance between satisfied experience and continual hunger. But while it is a precarious position to be in, they show me how it’s done.  These women make others stand in awe and ask the question, “How do you do it?”

Oprah Winfrey said in the September 2009 issue of her magazine, “Fulfilling your purpose, with meaning, is what gives you electrifying “juice” and makes people stand in wonder at how you do it.”

We all have someone who is watching us.  We have younger women searching for an example, scanning the horizon of the known, for something to hold on to when passing through the unknown.  God, help us to be that kind of example that makes them ask, “how do you do it?”.

Half Way There

Last week we began a discussion on what’s the difference between a good cause and a God-cause.  We often wonder through out our lifetimes, “why was I born?”, “why am I here?”, and  “what is my purpose?”.  Rick Warren jump-started a huge discussion in our culture when he wrote “The Purpose Driven Life”.  He launched his career, expanded his church, and opened lines of communication about God all across the American landscape.  The book sought to answer these questions we face.  In it he states, “But there is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.”

Today is my daughter’s 18^th birthday.  My children are nearly grown now, and I’m beginning to see the fruits of my investment and of pouring my life into theirs, which is a wonderful thing for a parent.  But I vividly remember those years when they were young and every day felt like a scene from the movie Groundhog Day.  I would wake upwith fresh hope, only to repeat the same tasks and chores of the day before, feeling caught in the cycle of daily maintenance routines and constant care of little ones.  I remember occasionally looking in the mirror, seeing fatigue on my face, exhaustion in my eyes, and a serious case of bed head, saying to myself, “who are you?” and “how did you get here?”  Then as the kids began physically needing me less and less, I really began asking the questions, “what else am I here for?”  and “where is my life going?”

To begin answering any of those questions, I had to realize who I was.  I didn’t even begin to understand until the year 2004.  I began reading Purpose Driven Life, I went to the Hillsong Conference in Australia, and I came home and turned 40 years old.  While in Australia I saw modeled before me, women who knew and understood that they had a responsibility to the female half of God’s church.  I learned for the first time, that I too, was intended for a purpose. I am a royal princess.  A beloved daughter.  A girl made in the image of a Heavenly Father who loved me. I had a destiny built into my soul.

I read in Ecclesiastes 3:11 ¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  He said I was “beautiful”!

My whole perspective began to change.  I began to look for the things God would want me to do.  I started realizing what Jesus meant when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it to the full.” (John 10:10)  A full life.  Not a routine,  drudgery, hold-your-breath-and-get-through-it kind of exisistence?  I wanted it.  I looked for it.  I began reading God’s Word more, letting Him breathe His life into me.  I began reading other books, full of passion and zeal.  I surrounded myself with people going in the same direction I was going.

I actually didn’t know where I was going, but that wasn’t as important as being committed to the journey at that point.  I discovered, when you know who you are, you’re halfway there!

Sunday, September 16, 2009

I thought it might be helpful/cool if I could give people an insight into our focus in the worship service for the week. That way you can prepare with us, as we get ready to meet with God and each other.

This Sunday, we will be focusing on reverence. I really want to get into God’s presence and be overwhelmed by Him. Being in God’s presence should inspire reverence. The great thing is that we can boldly come into God’s presence. The vast majority of Israelites never had the opportunity to enter God’s presence. And when the chief priest had the opportunity to enter God’s presence, it was accompanied with fear (when they tie the rope to your leg so that they can pull you out if you die, that’s probably when the fear rises up). The great thing is that we have the privilege of boldly coming into God’s presence.

But I wonder if sometimes we take God’s presence for granted and forget that He is holy, holy, holy, perfectly set apart. I wonder if our free access causes us to forget our reverence. I don’t want to be fearful, but I want to be awestruck in His presence, at a loss for words.

When John is shown a glimpse of heaven, he tries to find human words to describe The Indescribable. And his descriptions end up sounding a bit ridiculous with trumpet-like voices, jeweled beings, and myth like creatures. That should inspire reverence. Something so majestic, other-worldly, eternal, that human descriptions are ridiculous.

So prepare your heart for reverence this Sunday, and, in preparation, read through Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

Don’t miss Sunday! Cause it’s going to be awesome (and I mean that in the deepest sense of the word)!

…for a good cause

Today I was invited to attend a luncheon with my friend Brenda at the Governor’s Mansion.  The First Lady was there along with about 20 other professional business people from our community.  We gathered for a good cause.  It was for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.  I met some nice people and learned a lot.

But it got me thinking about the many causes that we can give ourselves to.  As women, we seem to have an abundant supply of the compassion gene.  Which is a wonderful and blessed thing.

Lately though, I’ve been keeping an eye on my own teenagers and the growth of their compassion for others, and their felt need to be a part of something bigger than they are.

There is such a thing as a good cause, but I believe there is also something which can be a God-cause.

How do we grow to discern the difference?  I think maturity tells us what to bleed for. Sometimes that maturity comes from the hard-earned experience of bleeding for causes that, in the end, didn’t make the impact on the world we anticipated they would.

Working in a church, I am privy to many causes that come along.  Worthy, worthwhile causes that can potentially change people’s lives.  Just in the past few months at Capital Christian Center alone, we have been in support of Food for Thought (feeding the children of our city), Go Red for Women (heart health), Advocates to End Domestic Violence, Beyond Us Offerings (funding missions and various endeavors for Christ), Relay for Life (cancer research), and currently Big Brothers/Big Sisters, just to name a few.   Some of us sponsor children through Feed the Hungry.  We help dig wells for clean drinking water in Africa.  We want to educate people and buy books for students who cannot afford an education.  Needs arise, people cry out for help, and we always want to do all we can to ease suffering. It’s right and good that we help.  God gives us His Spirit of love and compassion. But when the needs are so prevalent, how do we know the difference between a good cause and a God-cause?

I think a God-cause is what you are personally called of God to do.  It’s different for each and every one of us.  Our God is that big and that diverse, and He gives us such freedom to be who we are, touching the people in our own circle of influence.  He does not put us in a box.  He does, however, show is what love looks like, by displaying it for us.

There’s a great book by Brian Houston, Pastor of Hillsong, called “For This Cause”. In it,  he states, “Jesus Christ knew who He was and what the purpose of His life was.”  He also knew He was here to die.  His whole life was summed up in one powerful statement. In John 18:37 Jesus declared, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world.”

Without knowing your God cause, it is possible to be pulled in so many directions and have your resources so scattered that you feel like you make little difference to anyone.

But I do know this: You and I were put on this earth to make a difference!  You were not an accident, and the people God has placed in your life are there for a reason.

I hope you’ll join me in this discussion this week.  Let’s talk about your God-cause. And if you’re not sure what it is yet, let’s talk about that too.  I’m so grateful I don’t have to figure it out alone and that you are in my world.  Love you!

WHAT MATTERS

Today I have been thinking about things that matter.  (And what doesn’t.)  In 100 years it will not matter if I drove an expensive car or a cheap car.  It will not matter if I lived in a mansion or in a shack.  In 100 years it will not matter if I shopped at Nordstrom or Goodwill.  It will not matter if I bought my makeup from Sephora or from SaveMart.

I read a quote this week by theologian Abraham Kuyper.  It said, “There are two kinds of beauty. There is the beauty which God gives at birth, and which withers like a flower.  And there is a beauty which God grants. That kind of beauty never vanishes, but blooms eternally.”

Eternity seems like a long time to me.  Sometimes I get discouraged, wondering why I do what I do.  Constantly spinning my wheels to build the church, and to keep my family moving ahead.  I mean thoughts such as, “Someone else, surely, is more talented than I am.  That women looks happier than I do.  That chick over there has better health than I do.  So and So makes a lot more money than me” can plague us.  I know my life however, is woven into a longer tapestry of God’s plan, than I can see, when I choose to live for Him.

I was honored to attend a viewing party of a DVD a couple nights ago, of a new friend who was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.  Although he passed away nearly two years ago, his legacy is enduring.  People talked not just about his giftedness in making gaskets for Harley Davidson, not just of his intelligence in business, but mostly they talked about his integrity.  The legacy of his integrity is having lasting effects.  It ripples through the motorcycle industry, but also through His wife, who has taken up the challenge to continue his legacy.  It ripples through his son, who is in college, training for ministry.  It ripples through family and friends who admired him and respected him for his quiet strength and integrity.

Even looking at the life of Leah in Genesis chapter 29, you can see that her life was filled with circumstances beyond her control.  Forced to obey her father and marry a man who did not love her, she was unwanted, distressed, and rejected yet her faith in God was strong.  She continued to express trust in God, no matter what circumstances were unfair in her life.  Leah’s eventual legacy poured forth through the entire Bible.  You can trace her heritage clear through the Kings, the priests, the prophets, the hero’s, and eventually to Jesus Himself.

You cannot use external circumstances to measure your life.  You cannot judge your life by looking from the outside either.  Galatians 2:6 says, “As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance…”   The impact of your life reaches beyond your earthly time span.  Only a few ever get into the spotlight.  It’s what you do day in and day out, the choices you make, that matter.  It’s God’s anonymous army of saints that builds the Kingdom of God.  That’s what builds the foundations of belief that others will follow.  What you do today matters.  What you do matters to your spouse.  What you do matters to your children.  What you do matters to future generations.  What you do matters to God.  The choices you make today impact people long after we are gone.

Prayer

Before I get started, BBQ THIS WEEK AT CHURCH. I will bring the hamburgers; you guys bring drinks or other treats.

I have been studying and planning for our next teaching series on prayer. I love starting new discussions because possibilities abound. And as I have been thinking about/praying/contemplating about this next discussion a thought has kept coming to me…

if you commit to discussing and actively participating then your life will be completely changed.

I don’t usually like making such bold statements because people could view it as ego or as hyperbole or inauthentic. But I genuinely believe it. In fact, I may be so excited just for purely selfish reasons.

Prayer is really a whole lot simpler than we make it to be in practice and in our imaginations.

So I’m excited for you and I’m excited for you. And I am challenging you…if you commit to discussing and actively participating then your life will be completely changed.

Feel free to leave your questions or thoughts about prayer or things you’ve always wanted to say about prayer.

And don’t forget BBQ at the church this week to kick it off!

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September 9, 2009

As I have been preparing and studying for prayer, I have found that it’s helpful (almost necessary) for me to make a list of what prayer is and what prayer is not. It becomes so easy to get entrenched in our own habits and tradition, and when something doesn’t match our preconceptions of prayer then it can’t be prayer. During the next few weeks I want my preconceptions (some of them are misconceptions) blown out of the water. So here is the list I have so far:

- Prayer is honest and authentic.

- Prayer is not a wishlist.

- Prayer starts as a discipline.

- Prayer shouldn’t stay a discipline. (These last two still need some help on the wording. But what I am trying to say is that if prayer is like being on a diet then I don’t think it will ever work. Kinda)

- Prayer is personal.

- Prayer is corporate

- Prayer is not a specific method.

- Prayer is what connects you to God.

- Prayer is not a “set aside” time.

- Prayer is our running to God.

Those are my thoughts right now. What would you add or take away? What is prayer? What is not prayer?