Heart Checklist

I spent some time this week trying to look over my heart and sort of take stock. It’s easy for me to get caught up in what I hear, or think I hear, God saying in the moment so I think it’s important to step back every once in awhile and look at the big picture. (Actually, it’s probably important to that more than every once in awhile.)

Here’s what came up: I am most consistently convicted about the way I spend my time and the way I use my words. 

Honestly, that’s nothing new. It’s sort of like running through a checklist of things I’m still bad at. It’s roll call and we’re all still present. 

“I want to be a person who loves well. But that doesn’t start the way I often think it does.”

This time, however, I started connecting the dots in a way I don’t think I have before.

I tend to spend my time pretty selfishly and the thing is, my time is not all about me. I guess it’s not really “my” time at all. Because I know from experience that love changes everything and a first step to loving someone is making time for them. It’s like we’re biologically incapable of not responding to that kind of love. When someone doesn’t just tell you, but shows you that you’re important, it changes you. Everyone wants to be loved, appreciated and accepted and we all respond to attention. 

My time is about loving people well but I think my words are linked to something deeper inside: being a person capable of loving people well. After all, from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What I’m realizing is that the role of the Gospel in my life isn’t mostly about me pointing other people to it. It’s easy for me to try to simplify the Gospel into “salvation” or even me living my life in ways that show other people who Jesus is. But I’m still in the middle of my own redemptive process of letting the Gospel change my life too.
I know that sounds a lot like textbook Sunday School recitation but the practical implications are huge. It means submitting my heart to Jesus’ total redemption because without it I’m no good to anyone.

I’ve been thinking lately about 1 Corinthians 10:23 where Paul says, “’All things are lawful’ but not all things are helpful.” (ESV) 

Okay, fine, that makes sense but I like this version better from the Message: "Looking at it one way, you could say, 'Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.' But the point it not just to get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well."

That comes down like a hammer in my life. Hard. So often I just want to get by. I want to take advantage of God’s grace and take a sick day. Honestly, it’s especially true when it comes to the words I use. It’s so easy for me to shrug it off with a “there’s grace for that” attitude. And there is. But that isn’t the point. To once again, quote C.S. Lewis, “(I) thought (I was) going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace.”

Every time I try to halt construction because I think it isn’t a big deal, it doesn’t give me more time or ability to love someone else. I’m just as inept as ever. 

I want to be a person who loves well. But that doesn’t start the way I often think it does- by managing my time or biting my tongue or any other number of actions. It starts exactly where I don’t want to look, my own heart. 

Jessica Noblett

I Want Friends, But I am also Needy

Dr. Mike Emlet, from CCEF, offers a helpful insight when it comes to approaching relationships and the guilt that may come when we realize we bring needs to the table. 

The Sweetest Words

Valentine’s Day was this past weekend, and I hope we all had loving messages from folks we care for. But the sweetest words I ever read were not on a Hallmark card or a candy box. Not on a card tucked in among roses, but in my Bible. Just two words: “But God..”

I don’t think anyone can really get to know God without reading and rereading the Old Testament. That’s where we see what God actually SAID, and what He DID, and His very character is unfolded before us. Even the long lists of strange names and the big numbers serve to show us the magnitude and magnificence of His works!  I know that I could never get to know God just through my own experiences. It would be too easy to substitute my wishes for His, and ascribe my opinions to Him. Too easy to pick the traits I love, and downplay the ones that are hard, like sure justice, and then to build myself a God who suits me. 

And those words, “But God” show us, over and over, the times when God stepped in and changed the way things are going.

So often we seem to be like a toy train that goes too fast or hits another toy, and jumps the track. We need a big Hand which can reach down, remove the hindrance, set us back squarely on the track and get us going again in the right direction. And because we know that God never changes, we can be very sure that He is watching over us now just as He did then, and doing His “But God” thing to save us from who knows what! Sometimes in life we can look back and see how God intervened and did what only He could have done, but most of the time we are probably blissfully unaware.

That is our God, loving us. And the best “But God” of all, Ephesians 2:

“Once you were dead because of your many sins….. BUT GOD is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!”

Surely the greatest manifestation of love in all of time, past, present and beyond!

Norma Stockton

Free to Love

(By Thor Knutstad)

Being free to love provides the power to appeal to strong satisfactions. Focus more on loving others well rather than resisting temptation. The fruits of holiness are visible with more freedom to love, so make every effort to love more, not sin less. You are free to love. Gospel freedom means that I neither indulge my whims nor keep my rules. Whim - indulgers and rule keepers are slaves to the corruption within them that demands a kind of self-satisfaction [unto works and performance]. Christ has, through the cross, set us free to love.

The world's compulsive need to feel whole and complete is a lie. It screams of a preoccupation with satisfaction and makes you want relief from feelings of pain and brokenness. We were designed for purity and for the peace of Shalom. The cross and resurrection are leading us there. But it is not yet realized. In the meantime, walk in the freedom to love. Yes, walk holy - but an over focus on sin and struggles will reduce the power of the Gospel in your life. Yes, confess. Repent. And make loving others
well your only deep satisfaction. For it is there that truth will set you free.

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Video Resource for Everyday Gospel Series

Much of the content for the Everyday Gospel series has been inspired by the work of Pete & Geri Scazzero. Check out their story. 

Your Love, The Love I Know.

(By Diego Cuartas)

It was last year, around this time, when I was reflecting on the birthday gifts God had given me through so many people. I was prompted then to write some thoughts, which eventually became a song composition. Don't ask me to sing it, just read the words. And perhaps it is your turn to reflect on how much you are loved by the one who formed you. The Bible (Psalm 139:14) gives us a glimpse of what went into your creation and mine. Sit back and allow the words on this timeless passage to run through you and help you recognize how much purpose (intention) God has placed in the creation of you...

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."

Your Love, The Love I Know.

No contradiction, in your love

No confusion, you are all love.

I may feel like your hand is against me

I may see the clouds gather all around

yet I hear a voice peaking through the darkness saying that  I'm yours.

I see the pattern, that in pain

My heart is tender to receive.

Consuming fire

Consuming fire

Consuming fire

Your love is what I know.

God Has Led, So Here I Go!

(By Lois Robinson)

God laid something on my heart in early November and has not released me of it. I have asked Him whether this is a blog entry or not, and His answer is Yes. So here goes...

 I don’t know about you, but I heard so many conversations, remarks and dialogue about the decisions made by many retail stores to open on Thanksgiving Day for shopping this past year.  They were staying open longer and longer, even around the clock in some cases. I saw pictures on Facebook of pup tents set up outside of Best Buy in order to get the “best buy” AS SOON AS IT OPENS! Frustrated, angry conversations would ensue about it, voicing concern to the department stores who were so ridiculous to be open for business about the people who had to work and deserve to be with their families. I heard ENOUGH IS ENOUGH many times. “What is this world coming to” was another. One population of people up in arms about the retail decisions but rarely do anything about it, one population that loved it so they can shop and spend more, another maybe happy to get the extra money working to pay the light bill, whereas another one may resent that they had to work. And finally, another population did not care either way, quite apathetic to the entire issue. It doesn’t affect them either way so who cares. 

God raised up something inside me while I listened and observed. It went something like this: We are such a superficial people. Listen to us. Complaining, angry, confused. Talking, talking, talking about the injustices of the retail store hours on Thanksgiving. Oh God, if we would only get this fired up about the things that break your heart like we get fired up about the “SHOPPING CENTER HOURS,” we would really make a difference in this sin-sick world. If we, God’s people would rise up against  child, elder, spouse abuse, the homeless, poverty, gang violence, sex trafficking and sleeping churches who are called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ, injustice, kids who are dying and no one cares, other countries that don’t know Jesus and no one cares, Christian marriages that are deadly but other Christians say stay in it even if it kills you, misuse of the Word of God, teens cutting themselves to pieces, girls and boys starving themselves to death (literally to death), grade school children in deep depression to the point of suicide, children having sexual addictions, drug addictions, alcohol addictions and the list goes on and on. 

Ask yourself- On a scale of 1-10, how angry do you get about those things mentioned above? You may find that you do not think about them much at all. If you find that that is the case, I want to remind you of a truth:

God desires to Raise UP a People for HIS NAME, HIS PRAISE AND HIS GLORY!!!

God has called us to walk out our purposes in the authority of our King Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, bringing glimpses of His Kingdom into areas of darkness. Oh, may we be a people that rise up to be ambassadors of the light! 

I have been reading through the Book of Acts, describing how Stephen, Peter and the disciples pray and then GO OUT! They got their marching orders straight from God through the person of the Holy Spirit and went out! Amen! People were healed, demons were cast out; they became disciples of Jesus Christ. 

In the Powerful name of Jesus, let us grow emotionally and spiritually mature.  We must begin to cry out to our Father, “Break our hearts for what breaks yours” as the Mercy Me songs so well says. Let us not continue to be blinded by our own agendas and hardness of hearts.      

Challenge: What is God’s unique, one-of-a-kind design on your life? You do have one, and you cannot escape it just because you weren’t raised in a healthy home, weren’t raised in a Christian home and the list goes on and on.

I would encourage you to dive into Scripture, check out the early church in Acts. Stay tuned into Pastor Nate’s sermon series. Let’s all become the Church we are called to be! 

Amen and Hallelujah, the Highest Praise.

It’s NOT up to me?

I’ve recently been having some startling revelations the way I tend to think. I first noticed it the other day in a kind of silly situation, when my husband was invited to play in a pick-up game of soccer. It was a busy day for our family, and we had a lot going on with our two kids, so he decided to turn down the invitation and not go. I could not handle him missing the opportunity to have some fun! So I started offering all kinds of solutions for how we could make it work. I listed at least 20 different solutions that would allow him to go, but instead of getting excited about these ideas, my husband ended up getting more and more annoyed. His annoyance, in turn, made me annoyed. I thought my ideas were great solutions and I couldn’t understand why they would bother him!

As we talked out our conflict for a few minutes, we realized that it bothered him that I kept offering ideas after he had made his decision. I realized that I was doing this because I felt responsible for my husband’s happiness. I thought that if I didn’t make it work for him to go to the game, if I didn’t solve our problem, that he wouldn’t be happy. And I felt that his lack of happiness would be entirely my fault. In my mind, it all depended on me. 

So moving on from that little soccer situation, I started noticing lots of other areas where I tend to think that everything depends on me. It has surprised me that I tend to think that a lot, and one of the areas I’ve been noticing it is in my relationship with God. 

For example, the other day I was just doing my usual stay-at-home-mom thing, mopping my floor, blasting some music. A song came on called Take My Life, and as I listened to it, I started feeling a combination of defensiveness and shame. 

Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing
always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as You choose.

Here am I, all of me.
Take my life, it's all for Thee.

As I listened to the lyrics, I wondered how anyone with integrity could have even written it. “‘Ceaseless praise? Always…only…for my King? Not a mite would I withhold? All of me, it’s all for Thee?’ Well, there’s not a chance that I’ve lived up to that standard,” I thought. I wanted to just move on to the next song and forget that I had even heard it. I knew my life didn’t line up with those lyrics. I knew that there are so many places of my heart that don’t belong completely to God, and I felt shame. 

But as I continued mopping, something BEAUTIFUL happened in my heart as I listened to that song. All of the sudden, I realized that I was looking at it all wrong. I was feeling like it was up to me to love God enough, to make my life be completely for God, all the time. I felt that it all depended on me.

God spoke to my heart then. He told me that it’s NOT all up to me. He reminded me that a huge purpose of His command to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength’ is to give me a standard that is so high, that I actually CANNOT reach it on my own. He wants me to realize my need for Jesus, my need to be saved, that not up to me to perfect my life. The Good News of the Gospel is that God Himself, with all the resources of heaven, is committed to developing His life in me. He’s determined to purify me, to give me an undivided heart, to make me like Jesus. 

Wow. With that chance of perspective, I suddenly felt rest, instead of shame. I even wanted to keep listening to that song, and to worship, instead of skipping on to the next. Instead of hiding, I wanted to show up before God, to use my strength to thank God for using all His strength, to make me His alone.

I’m so thankful that everything does not depend on me. I don’t have what it takes to make my husband happy all the time, let alone make my heart belong to God alone. What I can do, though, is let me husband decide if he wants to work out a chance to play soccer or not, and as I do my part to need God, I can let God do His part of working out His plan for me to love Him wholly. And that sounds like a much better idea to me. 

Sarah Howard