Force

Force… Webster says that force is energy that may be exerted. That property which may produce action in another body is force. I’ve wanted to force lots of things….

I’ve wanted to force people who have addictions to just STOP. I’ve wanted to force people who refuse to consider the Message of Christ to just HEAR. I’ve wanted to force those who cause hurt to others to SEE. I’ve wanted to force those who won’t bear their own personal responsibilities to GROW UP.

Can’t be done. Personal choice is just that....a personal choice. I can only choose for myself.

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you….” (Joshua 24:15)

Serving the Lord does seem undesirable at times. Our enemy still deceives us and lies to us. His MO hasn’t changed….(method of operation) In the garden, he caused Eve to question whether doing what God said was really in her best interest. Genesis 3 tells us how that devil questioned what God ‘really’ said….and why. “…God knows that when you eat….you will know what He knows…”, the serpent hissed. And Eve considered what he said, believed him, and the story continues.

Today, the enemy still will cause us to consider what God has said and why. IF we give him even a moment …if we stop to consider his lies….he still wants us to choose to know evil. (..that tree was knowledge of good AND evil…remember?)

God always always always says what He says for a reason.
God will never never never force us to comply.

Force is certainly within His power. He is the most powerful force that exists. But He has chosen to give us choice. There is and can be…no evil in Him.

He longs for us to choose Him. “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable…..then choose for yourselves..whom you will serve..”

Who do you serve? What do you serve? What is it that controls your choices?

Father forgive me when I consider the enemy’s lies. Forgive me the times I’ve even for a moment questioned if what You ask of me is good. Help me to see the choices when they come…protect me from deception and enable me to choose You in every situation.

“…for me, I choose to serve You.”

Offerings

Offerings… There’s a Christmas song I like, ‘What can I bring Him, poor that I am’….

Voluntary giving something to God …what can I possible give to God? Everything I have comes from His Hand in the first place. Everything in my reality is His. Yet, He has given me dominion over the realm of my life.

What can I possibly add? What God might lack, He could speak into existence just as He spoke into existence every single thing you and I have ever known. What He might want, He could certainly have.

But would it all be worth having?

Again, I marvel at the love of God for me…..and I marvel that the only thing He wants that He can not ‘make’……is my choosing Him over all else.

The blessing of our 36 year marriage has been the freely given commitment to each other. I’ve never forced my husband to stay. I’ve never manipulated circumstances ‘so that’ he will love me. He chooses to do so. And I am secure in that. I daresay he would say the same thing.

God loves us, wants our love in return…but will not force our choice. It grieves Him that some do not choose Him. He is sorrowful that they will suffer because of it, and has gone to great measures to be sure we know WHAT we are choosing when we do not come to Him.

“…tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death…’ …” (Jer. 21:8)

“ ..I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may life, and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His Voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life….” (Deut. 30:19,20)

“I am the way and the truth and the life…” ( words of Jesus in John 14:6)

Good or evil. Life or death. Those are the only two choices.

“…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” ( Joshua 24:15)

Temple..

Temple… I have seen pictures of temples, read about temples…but a temple is not ordinary in our culture, so it takes effort to think about it. “You are the temple of God” Paul told the Corinthians, (1 Cor. 3:16)

All those who are disciples of Jesus Christ are temples of God. The Old Testament has many object lessons for us about this temple language. Solomon built a temple that had been long in coming. His Father began the project with the planning and gathering of materials to be used. “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord..”(2 Chron. 3:1)

Every single part of the temple has meaning, but recently, God called my attention to the Most Holy Place, the place where the Presence of God would come.

“Solomon built the Most Holy Place….and overlaid the inside with ..fine gold.” (vs.8)

When I read this, the accuser asked me where the gold was in my heart. (He won’t be able to do that always…(Rev. 12:10) He got me thinking and searching, sorrowful that there was none that I saw..

Then I found another altar, the Tabernacle that was the first one, the temporary, portable one, the one where God manifested Himself to the wandering Hebrews in the wilderness.

The structure was put together in great detail by Divine instructions. There would be sacrifices, and even the manner in which that was done was stipulated. “Make all the utensils….pots to remove the ashes…” (Ex. 27:3)

Ashes !! Imagine ashes being anywhere around anything overlaid in gold. Disgusting ! We have a wood stove, I know about ashes. The killing of animals and dealing with blood…that, I’ve thought about. Not the ashes though…

And then I realized…I’ve brought all these needless sacrifices into the altar of my heart, and they are just burned up ! Nothing I can ’DO’ is of any consequence to remove my guilt. The only sacrifice I need offer is a ’sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His Name’ (Heb. 13:15)

That doesn’t mean I no longer ’DO’ good things…’do not forget to do good and to share with others’ (vs.16) ..but all those things are to be done in praise of Him and what He has accomplished in me. Else….they are just burned to ash…creating a black veil that keeps me from seeing the overlay of gold on the altar of my heart…put there by Jesus Christ when He cleansed this temple and made me fit for His Presence.

It is finished.(John 19:30)

“There is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”(Heb. 10:18)

‘My body is a temple of the holy Spirit…I am not my own, I was bought at a price. Therefore, I will honor God…”(1Cor. 6:20 personalized by me)

Revelations

Revelations… Not the book in the Bible…that would be Revelation, no S, not a plural. However, I have had several revelations over the past few days…

Revelation is the act of disclosing or discovering to others what was before unknown to them. It is the disclosure or communication of truth to men by God Himself, or by His authorized agent.

We have a book in the Bible that contains the Revelation given to John. Yet really, every book of the Bible is revelation. There will always be yet another truth that we have not seen, understood, or applied. It is alive, The Living Word…always fresh and relevant.

There is a Divine Agent who brings the words on the pages to life, giving revelation of the truth there. Jesus said that The Father would send this unseen tutor to teach and instruct us, to be our Holy Reminder… Who will empower us to recall and to apply the truth we are given.

But He’ll not force-feed us. He’ll not impose His will over ours. “..how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13)

When I can’t get it…when I don’t understand what God wants, what scripture says, how to make decisions, where to go from here…I can ask for Help. And He will send Help.

But The Holy Spirit of God is not like a pigeon. Pigeons will light on your head, crowd in around you, expecting…searching…

God’s Holy Spirit “descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove…” (Luke 3:22) We know that God does not change. (Num. 23:19, James 1:17, 1 Sam.15:29,Heb. 13:8) His nature and character have never changed and will never change. He is still today, like a dove.

So if you’re waiting for Him to crowd in on you like a pigeon, forget it.
But if you want His help, ask Him for it. Luke 11:13 tells us to ask. And when you ask…don’t put conditions on it. He is trustworthy. There is no need for fear.

Father how grateful I am for Your Holy Spirit.

Alone

Alone… I’ll be alone this week-end. In a crowd…

I often feel alone. The weight of responsibility, struggles against personal issues, business decisions, financial needs and responsibilities, concerns about family, ….it gets heavy sometimes. Often, the enemy accuses and tries to deceive me…trying to convince me that I am alone…the only one. He is a liar. I am never alone. He tried that on Elijah…had him thinking he was the only one.

Then the Lord answered.

“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” ( 1 Kings 19:11)

Elijah had been God’s mouthpiece. It got him a lot of problems to deal with, especially from Jezebel. She didn’t like the message and she was intent on shutting him up. Elijah just got overwhelmed, and did what I often want to do…and have done. Run. Hide.

At least he had run to a place that was connected with God…a place where Moses had met with God. Now that he was there, there was “a great and powerful wind……but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.”(vs.11)

Ok…He’s supposed to be passing by, you’d think it would be a really big thing…but the powerful displays were just shaking ground and blowing wind. No comfort there !

“After the earthquake came a fire..” Surely God will communicate thru these appearances of flames…right? “But the Lord was not in the fire.” (vs.12)

Sigh… I’ve looked for God and EXPECTED God to come to my aid in ways like that. Make a grand entrance Lord…come in and rock the house. And He certainly can and has done that. He’s there in the powerful miraculous things He does. He’s there in the mega-church gatherings, He’s there in the big conferences with thousands gathered…He’s there in the praise rallies. But it’s just hard for me to hear Him in all that noise and activity.

So like Elijah, I’m going off to be alone, and I expect to hear The Whisper…in fact, He’s already started this morning, with this reflecting time.

“After the fire came a gentle whisper…When Elijah heard it….he pulled his cloak over his face and went out….” (vs. 13)

God shows up. Every single time I seek His Face…He shows up.


He is so very good.

Taxes..

Taxes.. This is the day. I have to mail that check today.

Taxes aren’t a new thing. There are stories of taxation all thru scripture. See if you relate to any of these..

“…We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.”(Neh. 5:4)
“..his successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor..” (Daniel 11:20)

I sure relate. The stories that go along with those passages are very interesting, too long and complicated for these short writings. You might check them out…the ruler of the Daniel passage was eliminated…poisoned by one of his employees. I won’t say anything else about that !

Joking aside, I confess that I resent writing those checks. I do NOT resent helping those who can not help themselves. I do NOT resent contributing to legitimate needs or to supporting efforts to improve our culture.

“..look after orphans and widows in their distress..” (James 1:27)

“…we should continue to remember the poor..” (Gal. 2:10)

( In my humble opinion, more is spent on tearing down our culture than improving it.)

Scripture teaches that we should work together for the common good. Nothing is just about ‘Me’. At least it shouldn’t be…

“..these…were helping to support them out of their own means.” (Luke 8:3)

I don’t really like this next verse….but I want to be obedient…..

“Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes…(Rom. 13:7)

I argue with God that I owe them. He reminds me, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s…” (Matt. 22:21)

Then I complain to Him that it is NOT theirs, why should I be required to give it to them?! That check represents a lot of MY hard work. And again, He reminds me…“Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to Him than birds.” (Matt. 6:26 The Message)

He reminds me that I have no need unmet…I have MORE than enough.

I wonder that our problems might be far less if everyone adhered to this standard of behavior…

“ If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” (2Th. 3:10)

So…off to work I go.

Looked

Looked…. I remember as a child how my daddy could just look at me and I was disciplined…

There was no need for words, I knew what he would be saying had he spoken. And rather than push him into speaking…I’d comply ! It is said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. It is true that the eyes tell so very much.

“ The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” (Luke 22:61)

Peter was a brave man. He’d lashed out with his sword against armed soldiers, way out numbered.. But he’d go down fighting.. Except that Jesus called him off and even healed the damage he’d managed to do. (I would like to hear that story from Malchus, the guy whose ear Peter cut off and Jesus healed!)

I can only imagine how confused Peter must have been. Jesus had instructed them to take swords. (vs.36) Now he was telling them not to use them.

So often, Peter gets remembered for his failures, and I’m glad they are recorded because I identify with him so much. But let’s not forget how committed and brave he was. He did use the sword he’d been told to take, however misguided he was. He did get out of the boat and walk on the water, even if he did sink moments later. The rest of the crew sat inside the boat and watched.

Peter ran away with the rest of the disciples when Jesus was arrested, but he followed. He saw what was happening. He witnessed it. I’m thankful for that, for I was reading it last night and again moments ago. He followed, still in the confused mindset of all the events that were happening so fast. How terrifying it must have been, and he was ‘sifted like wheat’ as he fell into denying that he even knew Jesus much less was he a follower.

Then Jesus looked at him.

It makes me want to cry to think how Peter felt then. He’d heard the third call of the night moments before. Then the look….

But how precious our Lord is that he made sure Peter knew that this wasn’t a surprise to Him. Jesus made sure that Peter would remember His warning…Jesus had prayed for Peter. “…Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you…that your faith may not fail. And WHEN you have turned back…strengthen your brothers.” (vs.32)

How many times Peter must have gone over those last hours and the last conversations. I hope he never missed the fact that Jesus knew about his failures before he failed…and He knew that Peter would turn back even stronger than ever, to strengthen his brothers…

and his sisters…. Thank You Lord for Peter.