Opposition...

In my study this morning, I read about some of the events recorded in Acts about the life of our brother in Christ, the apostle Paul.

This phrase in the reading material of my study caused me to stop and reflect…..

“ The positive response to Paul’s teaching stirred up opposition to him.”

The positive response?!? Brought opposition?!? Man, that’d make you want to quit wouldn’t it?

When you have some success at what you are attempting to accomplish, it’d be nice simply to not have to listen to negative responses, much less be faced with resistance and obstacles.


Human nature is ugly so often. And our enemy doesn’t miss many opportunities to make trouble.



At one time, Paul had been passionate about stamping out the movement of what was known as ‘The Way’…the way of Jesus Christ.

Passionate, but dead wrong.


Then he met Jesus.
Then he found out how horribly wrong he’d been.
Then he began the mission of his life....

……to tell anyone he could get to listen, that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of The Most High God. Jesus was the remedy and cure for the cancerous sin nature in mankind. The sin nature that Paul himself struggled with. (Romans 7 records Paul’s testimony about that very thing)



God had equipped Paul for all this. He had the best of education. He was a talented communicator. He had some political advantages, he was a Roman citizen.

He had lots of success.
He preached the story of salvation all across his world.
He convinced lots of people, made lots of converts, trained lots of other people to do the same.


But it was never easy. It didn’t begin easy, and it never got any easier.

There were opposing voices even within the believers who loved him.
There were attempts to stop him. Permanently.

I thank God right now that he wasn’t.



I thank You Lord God for recording and preserving these stories in scripture. Thank You for showing me that even Paul had to bear up under opposition….opposition even from within the circle of friends. Thank You for showing us how he met struggles and overcame them. Thank You Lord that you never left him without Your help and the assurance of Your Presence with him.




I am so very thankful for these words our brother Paul penned….

“ So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1Cor. 10:12-13)





I think Paul knew what he was talking about. I think he probably gives us some great advice here.

Anyone is prone to fall.
Everyone faces difficulty.
Each of us has to choose good over evil.

And God will never leave us alone in a situation.
He is present.
He sets a boundary around us.
He offers an escape.



“…All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.”
(1Cor. 10:13 The Message)

Breath...

Breath… Ever feel like you can’t breathe? Feel like you are suffocating? ….like the air you breathe in just isn’t enough somehow, and you find yourself sighing over and over?

I often find myself doing that.

I just don’t always breathe right. Don’t breathe deeply enough. Breathe in the wrong stuff…

When God formed the first human, Scripture says “He breathed the breath of life into him. And the man became a living person.”(Gen.2:7)

“The heavens were made when the LORD commanded it to happen. All of the stars were created by the breath of his mouth.”(Ps. 33:6)

God created life and every facet of our reality.
God sustains life and every facet of our reality.

Don’t be fooled. You don’t do it.

Government doesn’t do it.

Education doesn’t do it.

A wealthy economy doesn’t do it.

Medicine doesn’t do it.

Not even religion does it.

He does.

“When You turn Your face away from them, they are terrified. When You take away their breath, they die and turn back into dust.”(Ps. 104:29)

A look into history will show that when the blessings begin to be withdrawn, when things get tough and the tough can’t seem to bring about restored blessing….people begin to pant and search for God, begging for help.

Time and time again, He has brought restoration and healing. How I praise Him for His mercy, and the perfect love He offers. My human nature is incapable of that perfect love, I am slow to extend love to those I deem undeserving.



Thank You Lord God that you do not have a heart like mine. And thank You Father that you have said, “I will not find fault with my people forever. I will not always be angry with them. If I were, I would cause their spirits to grow weak. The very breath of life would go out of the people I created.”(Isa. 57:16)



The breath of life within me is more than the oxygen my lungs process for maintaining this flesh. The real breath within me is what He breaths out.

Some days, I choose not to breath it in.

Some days I choose to ignore the breathe He provides, and choose to choke and spew on whatever is available. And be assured, the enemy of my soul provides alternatives to the breath of life from God.

Today, I choose life.
Today, I choose to breath in, what He breaths out.

“ God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching me what is true. It is useful for correcting my mistakes. It is useful for making my life whole again. It is useful for training me to do what is right. By using Scripture, I can be completely prepared to do every good thing”(2 Tim. 3:16-17 personalized by me)

Call me a Bible banger. Call me a religious finatic. Call me a Jesus freak.

Call me whatever you like.

He calls me friend. (John 15:15)

I breath oxygen and have a heartbeat and pulse because He created human life, a life so very different from plant and animal life, because of His breath.

I breath the breath of God as I inhale what He has said, what He has done, and as I “Receive The Holy Spirit… that He breaths on me …” (John 20:22 personalized by me)

Don't be satisfied with anything else than the life made available and sustained by the very breath of God.

Limbo...

Limbo… Have you ever felt like you were living in it…just suspended somehow? Waiting?

Waiting to be a teenager.
Waiting to be 21 years old, that ‘magical’ ‘legal’ age.
Waiting to get married.
Waiting to have children.
Waiting for the children to be grown.
Waiting to have the house paid for.
Waiting for retirement.

Waiting to get a doctor’s report.
Waiting for a treatment plan.

Waiting on some difficult situation to get better.
Waiting on financial burdens to be lighter.

Waiting for next year when political offices change.
Waiting on the next election.
Waiting for the right candidate to come forward.

Waiting, waiting, waiting….

Living in limbo while you wait….trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, what not to do, and how to keep from doing that…..

And waiting on promises.

I often feel like I’m in limbo.

There are seasons of my life when that feeling is a constant thing.

There are times I want to do what the Thessalonians did, but Paul wrote to them, it’s recorded and preserved in scripture, so I have been instructed against it.

They believed in Jesus Christ, Who He is, what He accomplished. And they believed He was coming back to get them. So, they just pretty much quit the business of life, sat down and waited in limbo for that to happen.


“ Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him….
…….. stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter….
We hear that some among you are idle…..Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.
And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him.
Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed.
Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
(2 Thes. 2:1,15 3:11-15)

It is true. I am in limbo.

Between eternity past, and eternity future.

But I am not to just sit and wait. I pray in agreement with Paul, “ May the Lord direct my heart into God's love and Christ's perseverance.( 2 Thes. 3:5 personalized by me)

Retirement...

Retirement… It’s a biblical concept, but I wonder if we haven’t distorted it.

After the tribes of Hebrew people left Egypt, and while they were traveling thru to the land that God intended to give them, there was a portable structure called the Tabernacle that served as the place to meet with God.

When the people moved, the Tabernacle was disassembled and moved with them, the structure itself and all the furniture and furnishings that served various purposes in the worship conducted there.

When the people stopped again and made camp, the Tabernacle was reassembled and readied again for worship and meeting with God.

One of the tribes of people, the Levi people, were designated to take care of everything concerning God’s Tabernacle and were also to conduct the worship activities.

If you were a Levite man, at the age of 25 you began to train for your work as a priest. At 30, you began to serve. (“Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting.” Numbers 4:3)

At the age of 50, you retired.

“The LORD said to Moses, "This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work….”(Numbers 8:23-26)

The difference in their retirement and what we think of as retirement if huge. The 50 year old Levite priest retired only from taking down the structure and from the physical parts of the worship rituals.

They didn’t ‘retire’ and go back to the tent and sit in the recliner.

Their retirement was becoming a supervisor instead of a laborer.

Their retirement relieved them early from physical stress on an aging body. It allowed the older men to advise and counsel the upcoming workforce by on-the-job mentoring.

Retirement in our culture sounds like a great thing.

But I really doubt anyone enjoys not being useful to some body, some way, some how.

Maybe so, maybe no…. don’t know if I’ll ever find out !!!

Becoming...

There is a slogan among hair salons… “If your hair is not becoming to you, you should be coming to us.”

It’s a catchy little advertising slogan. I’ve seen it printed on t-shirts and coffee cups.

I don’t use it. But during my quiet time this morning, I’m hearing it… with just a little twist…

“Connie…if what you see in yourself is not becoming to you, you should be coming to Me.”

What is unbecoming in me is beyond my fixing it. And once He has addressed the unbecoming mess, there’s always another unbecoming mess that becomes a problem.

Just like my house, my temple needs cleaning regularly. "What is my beloved doing in my temple as she….. works out her evil schemes?……”(Jer. 11:15)

And so, again, I find myself convicted by scripture.

“…. on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. (2 Thes. 1:10)

When, not if. He IS coming….to be recognized and acknowledged for all that He is…IN His holy people. And since I am His, that includes me.

He is coming to be glorified in me. And if you’re His, that means you too.

That process is begun. It is visible, or should be…for we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”(2 Cor. 3:18)

When He comes, it will be no longer be a matter of ‘good hair days’ and ‘bad hair days’.

For now, some days we look a little more like Jesus than others.

On that day, He will be revealed in every one of us. Never again will we evaluate each other “…. from a worldly point of view.” (2Cor. 5:16)

Temple...

I’ve never seen a building called a temple, but I have studied a lot about the worship conducted in the temple of God in scripture.

The temple very costly to construct. It was damaged by enemy forces, and restored. It was completely destroyed in 70 A.D. Some people think it will be rebuilt, some don’t. It’s according to your interpretation of end-time events.

One thing that is certain, I am a temple. Now.

“…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God…”(1Cor. 6:19)

The construction process was lengthy, and there has been lots of attacks from the enemy on this temple, lots of damages done, at a lot of different times…

… and there have been lots of restorations made. At one time, I thought the restoration came from the front end of a church-house aisle.. I have come to the conclusion that true restoration comes only from the One Who created it to begin with. He built it, He re-builds it.

Praise God, though I’m not there yet, He is in the process of restoring me to be what He intended me to be all along. Praise God, He has mended damage done from the enemy, damage from past hurts…damage from sin.

Some of the damages to this temple were done from the inside…..my temple hasn’t always been used as it was designed to be used. “…Therefore honor God with your body.”(1Cor. 6:20)

I have not always honored God with my behavior. Very often, I’ve done the damage myself. The enemy is persistent, he attacks on a regular basis. Some of his attacks are simply methods of deceiving me into tearing down the temple myself….

He’s a pesky rascal. He is defeated and he knows it, “….I am more than conqueror through Him who loved me. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus my Lord. (Rom. 8:37-39 personalized by me)


He continues to make those drive-by attacks and cause as much trouble as he can, get me distracted…. When he can catch me off guard, he still gets an arrow thru or knocks a hole in the wall somewhere…

That’s ok. There is One Who restores me every single time. He is within, on the job at all times, helping me and restoring me…



“ ….."I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple…”(1 Kings 9:3)

Flattery...

Webster says “commendation bestowed for the purpose of gaining favor and influence, or to accomplish some purpose.”

Flattery is used a lot for self-interest. People flatter others to push forward their own agenda, gain favor, be benefited.

Flattering words are always easy to hear. The flattering words might have shreds of truth in them, but there are phony. They are self-serving….far different than a simple compliment. And it covers up a person’s real intentions.

I’d never thought this much about flattery, never considered it’s root, nor its purpose. I’ve experienced flattery, and have recognized it as being manipulative. It is difficult for me to take a simple compliment, so flattery has always been quite distasteful. While I don’t enjoy a harsh delivery of truth, neither do I enjoy or want to be buttered up.


“We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else..”(1 Thes. 2:4-6)


In writing to his spiritual family in Thessalonica, Paul assured them he had no ulterior motive in his ministry to them. It was always about God and his love in providing salvation.

He didn’t do anything to make it easier to hear.
He didn’t hold out the need for repentance and a change of heart, change of attitude, and changes of behavior.

And, he didn’t flatter them by needing their praise. Ouch.

Do you feel that?

When someone else is so important to me that I need their approval regardless of whether it lines up with God’s will….I flatter them.

And I insult God.

Paul didn’t go there. I wonder how often I do.

How about you? Do you use words of praise to bring some benefit to yourself? Do you need someone to think highly of you so much that you make compromises? Like me, have you been guilty of attempting to make the truth easier to hear? More easily acceptable?