Happy *Dependence* Day!

Wait, did you read that title correctly?  Yes, you did.  I didn’t forget how to spell the title for the national holiday that falls on July 4th.  Rather, I’m taking another spin on things.  While I’m very grateful for the independence or freedom that we Americans enjoy because of faithful servicemen placing their lives on the line, I’m also very grateful that we as the Body of Christ are called to be dependent.

I’ve heard it said that the Christian walk is the opposite of our natural walk…as babies we are completely dependent upon our parents.  As we grow, we become more and more independent from them.  In fact, our parents are to train us so that we can be productive and independent citizens in society.  If a 40-year-old adult is living off of his parents, we would say this person is immature (to say the least!).

However, the Christian walk begins with us being independent of God and dead in our sins.  Only after God causes our hearts to become alive, can we follow Him.  At first, we drink spiritual milk much like a baby, but then we learn how to chew the meat of His Word.  As we grow more and more in Christ, we discover who we are compared with Who He is and this results in a greater dependence upon our heavenly Father.  We become humbled and realize how much more we need Him.  If a long-time Believer was still drinking milk like a new Christian, we would say this person is [spiritually] immature.  We must be challenged–and we must heed these challenges–so that we can truly grow up in Christ and become more and more dependent upon Him.

So, celebrate your freedom today!  But, remember that the freedom we truly cherish is the one that has given us freedom from the bondage of sin.  Celebrate the independence that the USA has enjoyed for so many years.  But, remember to celebrate your *dependence* upon Jesus Christ each and every day of your life.

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.  Romans 6: 18

If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.  John 8: 31-32

Blessings, Wendy

(This was originally published in my irregular Iron 2 Iron email newsletter, which was communicated prior to my knowledge of ‘blogs’.  Gasp!  Yes, that long ago.  After my introduction to the world of technology, I posted this here on Iron2Iron in July 2008.  Then, I thought it was worth a re-posting today.  Some of the content has been slightly changed, however.)

 

 

 

Lessons Learning

As our oldest son stands at the threshold of Independence, I have begun to look over the past 16 1/2 years of parenting with an evaluative mind.  What have we done well?  What do we need to change for the sakes of our next three children?  Let me share a couple of thoughts with you…

• Don’t look around for the world’s best parenting formulas.  When I first became a mother, I read all the popular books, magazines and gained much insight from the world on parenting.  That conflicted many times with the Word of God on parenting, and that ended up just confusing me.  I always chose what was easiest at the time, so that usually meant a behavior-modification program or doing nothing at all.  I walked by sight, not by faith.  My advice?  Stand alone on the Word of God.  Even when it’s difficult, act in faith and know that God has revealed His perfect instructions on parenting in His Word.  It doesn’t seem to make sense to spank a child, does it?  The world tells me in my heart that it’s pointless and harmful.  Yet, the Bible says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction will drive it far from him.  It also tells us that the rod will actually deliver his soul from hell!  This is just turn-you-upside-down and right-side-out kind of thinking!  But, I’ve done this in faith and seen it work.  If you are completely anti-spanking, cleanse your paradigm from the abusive, non-restorative spanking you may have experienced or known about.  We are talking about spanking that is done NOT in the heat of the moment, but out of self-control.  The purpose is to demonstrate that there are real consequences to our sins.  Then, after this consequence of spanking, there is a time of discussion that includes confession and asking for forgiveness.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9).  And, to see my children relieved because of that cleansing is such a blessing!  We actually have a closer relationship with one another because they know their sins are washed away and they are now restored.  The world had fooled me in my earlier years of parenting into believing that time-outs were a wise discipline technique, but when we use time-outs solely and in substitution for God’s biblical instruction on parenting, then we are saying our wisdom is greater than God’s wisdom.  Walk out in faith and parent as God has instructed us to do.  Believe me, you will be thankful when your children are mature and responsible and self-controlled teenagers and adults.

 

• Saturate your home with the Word of God.  I believe my biggest mistake in the early-mid years of parenting was that I became lazy with this.  I mean, we home schooled!  We attended church regularly!  Good churches, too, where my husband and I were growing spiritually!  We hung out with Christian families!  But, God has showed me in the past year that oftentimes I depended more upon these methods than upon the actual Word of God.  I was assumptive when I believed that doing these things would just turn out Christian adults one day.  I underestimated the power of the world around them and the sin within their hearts.  While all those things are good, we cannot put the responsibility on our pastors or on our home school curricula for training our children in the ways of the Lord.  The very scripture passage that drove us to home school was not consistently being lived out…”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  (Deuteronomy 6: 5-9)  My advice?  Don’t be lazy.  Pray for the ability to weave God into all of your world.  Wash your children with the Word of God.  Memorize scripture individually and as a family.  Pray together.  Read the Word together.  Establish daily discipline of personal time in the Word when they’re young.  Make decisions based on the Bible.  Discuss these things with your children.  Look for eternal applications in temporal things. 

 

• Protecting your kids may not be the most important thing as a parent.  That sounds very odd, I know.  Of course we are to protect our children, but I’m talking about protecting them so much that they never experience hurt, or trials, or failure.  Years ago I heard an expression that made an impact on me:  “She protected her son all the way to jail.”  We can keep our children from experiencing the consequences of their actions so much that they never learn there are actually consequences to wrong-doing!  One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn to do is to allow my children to fail.  It’s so difficult to watch it happen, and I often want to step in as the protective Mama Bear, but we need to guide them in these lessons and we need to equip them with ways to deal with failure or trials.  My advice?  Trust God.  Seriously, it’s that easy…and that hard.  But, I’m learning to really believe that God is a GOOD God and He is in control.  His Word tells me in Romans 8:28 that He works all things together for GOOD to those who love Him.  I’ve had to humble myself and admit that God can take care of my children better than I can. 

That’s it for now…I’m definitely learning more lessons than just these three things, but it’s time to get back to real life now. 

Rejoicing always, Wendy

eucharisteo: #2 Sunday afternoons that allow me to quiet my mind and my soul and that prepare me for the upcoming week

eucharisteo: #1 the inerrant Word of God

Eucharisteo!

Cherishing the new, long-awaited book by Ann Voskamp, I sneak time before each bedtime to read another chapter.  Her poetic style almost lulls me to sleep save for the challenging thoughts included within.  This blog is not a book review, although I highly recommend buying your own copy and sharing it liberally with friends in your life.  Rather, this is a focus on the key concept of the book:  eucharisteo.  Voskamp tells us that this is the original language for the phrase “He gave thanks”.  Included within this word, eucharisteo, are the concepts of grace and joy with thanksgiving.  Even though I’m only on chapter four, this book is already prompting me to dive into a life of thanksgiving…just simple thanksgiving for simple gifts in all of life.

I look down at the pen, this pen I keep wielding, one writing her way all the way to one thousand.  This pen:  this is nothing less than the driving of nails.  Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo.  I’m hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart.  It starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it’s been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent.  Because that habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper.  The sleek pin of gratitude. (“One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp, p. 49-50)

Ann used her pen and a journal to cultivate an ongoing list of thankfulness. 

What will I do?  How does eucharisteo look for me?

As I considered this question, I began to drift my thoughts towards facebook.  So many people are connected to facebook…why not express my eucharisteo on this medium? 

My personal expression of gratitude will be poured out on facebook for the next month…or more?…and I hope you will come along beside me.  Maybe it will just be reading my status updates, and remembering to thank God for something in your life.  Maybe you will join in and comment.  Or maybe you will take up the eucharisteo lifestyle yourself.  Afterall, this isn’t really optional. 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Treadmill Tales

How is it that some of my most profound thoughts occur in the shower or on the treadmill? 

This past summer I began jogging fairly regularly.  I’d run in the past, but nothing very seriously.  However, this past year I routinely got myself out of bed, while the kiddos were still sleeping, and ran at 7:00 am three to four times a week.  (This Sleepy Head even got herself out of bed for 6:00 am runs during our youth group’s mission trip!)  Personally, I think that getting up before 9:00 am should be crime, but I was determined to stick to it so I had to set my previous sleeping habits aside.  With a goal set before me, I got up and ran.  There were days that I looked forward to it, but there were many more days that I did not.  While out running, I would often have to bribe myself with “just to the light post” challenges so I wouldn’t give up prematurely. 

After the running routine became, well, routine, I started to see some spiritual correlations. 

• Self-discipline in doing anything that our flesh doesn’t want to do, anything typically difficult, takes consistent practice and commitment.  We know what we want…and we also know what would be good for us (or spiritually speaking, glorifying to God).  It takes an awareness to know what our flesh desires, an awareness to know what tempts our flesh, and an awareness to know what would be better.  Oftentimes what looks good to us right now can be the enemy of what is best for us in the long run.  What does your flesh want that you know needs to be brought under discipline?  On any given day for me it might be:  anger, food, drink, lust, laziness, etc.

 


• Goal-setting is tantamount in running a race, and that includes running the Christian race.  If I just woke up on a beautiful, lazy summer morning without any purpose in mind, I would either turn over and go back to bed or begin my day doing all the little urgent things vying for my attention.  However, with a specific goal in mind (running), I woke up and immediately got on my running clothes and shoes  and warmed up my muscles to prepare for the run.  As a Christian, I could constantly be swallowed up by my life’s situations and take my eyes off of Jesus if I don’t have a purpose set before me.   What is your spiritual purpose?

 

• In the midst of a hard run on a hot summer day, all I want to do is quit.  When my muscles hurt and my lungs have no more capacity to breathe, the only thing that keeps me going is prayer.  When I run, I find that praying helps me to accomplish something important while I’m exercising, and it causes the time to breeze by.  I  pray for specific prayer requests, but I also pray “Lord, help me!  Give me endurance.  I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”   It isn’t a coincidence that that very prayer can also be said when I’m in the midst of a spiritual crisis and I just want to give up and be sucked into the anxious circumstances that surround me.  As I witness God strengthening me physically, I grow in faith knowing that He also will strengthen me spiritually.  Are your eyes fixed on Jesus, or on everything else around you?

 

• Even though it was often difficult to get myself out of bed to run, I always felt better once the run was finished.  Regardless of my initial perspective (“this is going to be hard, this is going to hurt, I don’t want to go through with this”), my mind and body were always renewed…and stronger…after the discipline of a good run.  I find this to be the case in my Christian walk, too.  Whether it be bible study, prayer, memorizing scripture, serving in the Church, it can often seem overwhelming to begin.  But, afterwards I am always renewed and stronger.  Spiritually speaking, it’s also revigorating to discipline my flesh.  It doesn’t seem like it will be easy to say ‘no’ to temptation.  In fact, I often just don’t want to say no!  Once we get through a particular temptation victoriously, though, we are renewed…and stronger…for the next time our flesh cries out.  Are we even in the habit of saying “no” to our flesh?  Do we see the need to discipline it?  Can you imagine how your Christian walk will change by surrendering to the Holy Spirit instead of your flesh?

The apostle Paul uses several references in the New Testament to disciplining the body, but I want to leave you with my favorite verse related to this topic.  It’s probably my favorite because I can so easily identify with it while I’m running…

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.    Hebrews 12: 1-2

“Holiness, Holiness, it’s what I long for” (or is it?)

A casual survey on the block asking Christians if their desire is to be holy would likely result in a resounding “YES”.  Even in my overtly rebellious days I can’t imagine saying “no” to wanting to be holy.  That’s what a good Christian wants to be, that’s what we sing about in our praise songs, that’s the word that comes up in our prayer requests.  We want to be holy.   Or do we?

But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  1 Peter 1: 15-16

If we believe that the blood of Christ has saved us from our sins, and made us righteous and accepted by God, then we are called children of God.  We have become new creations; we are not dragging around our ‘old man’ or continuing on in those ways.  We have been told to put off the old and put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 24).  As children, we are commanded to obey our parents..is this any different for us as children of God?  Jesus Himself tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14: 15). 

We are commanded to be holy.  Some of us may view this as a challenge:  “No problem.  I’ll just pull up my bootstraps and do my very finest.”  Others may begin the journey and fizzle out because of the difficulty.  And, then there are those who look at this and say “No way can I do that.”  All of these responses, though, eventually result in living  the old way (according to the flesh) because of defeat in our own strength.

This boils down to the grace of Jesus Christ.  Will we view the work that Jesus accomplished on the Cross in a cheap manner?  One where our behavior tramples all over the shed blood of Christ?  He saved us, whew!, so I’m covered and can keep living in whatever manner I please?  Or will we grasp the cost of this sacrifice on our behalf?  Because Jesus gave His everything for our sakes, endured the wrath of God in our place, lived a pure and blameless life because we couldn’t, will we gratefully sacrifice our flesh and old ways?

It is certainly not easy…and I’m thankful that it is not.  I don’t want to take the grace of Jesus, nor my sanctification (this pursuit of holiness), for granted one bit.  Knowing that I’m working with the Holy Spirit as He purifies me gives me perseverance to press on.  Knowing that He who began the good work in me will finish it gives me confidence.  Knowing that I can do all things through Jesus Christ gives me all the strength that I need. 

But, knowing that I am called holy (or righteous or perfect) because of Christ’s sacrifice…because of HIS righteousness…….is the perspective that I need most as I’m called to pursue holiness.  Weird, I know, that we are holy yet we are also becoming holy, but that’s the way it is.  God views us as accepted and holy because of Christ’s work on our behalf; yet, while on this earth we are carrying around our flesh and this process of controlling the flesh (also known as mortifying or subduing it) is our work as we pursue holiness.  To call myself a child of God, but to live in a way that is actually a child of the devil, is a lie.  I must control my flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit.  I can no longer go around living like someone who hasn’t been saved from their sin, who hasn’t been made accepted in the presence of God.  I must walk as a child of light, since I’m now light in the Lord.  I’m no longer darkness, so I need to stop taking part in the acts of darkness or flesh.

Challenge:  do you call yourself a child of God?  If yes, examine your life.  Are you living in disobedience to God’s commands?  If so, you are telling God that you are wiser than Him and that you know better than He does what is good for your life.  Maybe your sins are obvious…maybe they’re more hidden…ask God to reveal where you are not longing for holiness.  Better to chop off the branch of a dead tree than to allow it to keep hanging on without bearing fruit.  Pursue holiness, bear fruit, follow the Lord, imitate Him, be holy for He is holy…and He is your Father.

Thankful Thoughts

Apparently pumpkin puree and apple pie spice elicit overwhelming feelings of gratitude in some people.  If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would love hosting Thanksgiving dinners, I would have laughed in your face.  You could say that about a lot of things, but we’ll just stick with the turkey dinner on this post.  But, it’s true.  I really and truly enjoy hosting Thanksgiving.  This year the boys helped me in making “pilgrim hat” place cards, complete with Puritan names for each individual.  I named my husband “Humility” because he really is about as close as a human can probably get to it.  If there was a “Proud” maybe that would go well on my plate.  So, the first thankful thought pops in my head:  “boy, do I ever have an amazing husband!”  I’m thankful for his loyalty and faithfulness, both to me and to God.  The thankful thoughts continued rolling through my head–my children, my parents, my extended family, my friends, my church family, material blessings, health, etc.– and by the time I went downstairs to the basement pantry the tears were falling like miniature waterfalls from my eyeballs. 

It feels good when we’re thankful!  I just don’t get that kind of charge when I’m sitting around complaining or fretting over something that is worrisome.  God tells us to be thankful and to live thankful lives.  That’s an ongoing thing, not just a special event once every 365 days.  So, let’s do it!

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Lessons Learned in the Absence

After six blog-free months, it’s time to return.  Why the long vacation away from Iron 2 Iron?  Loads of reasons, but there’s no better time to resume writing than in the quiet and dull season of Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Here are some points to ponder since my last blog entry:

• The grace of Jesus Christ is anything but cheap and easy.  Have you heard of “The Cost of Discipleship” by Deitrich Bonhoeffer?  If not, read it!!
• Too many times I am quick to dismiss and give permission to my sins because I think they’re just a part of my personality.  That’s wrong thinking.
• Running is a great way to better understand our sanctification process.
• Do not ever grow weary.  Keep fighting the battle. 
• Confessing your sins to others is a great way to jump-start your spiritual growth.
• Holiness is not legalism.
• The law leads to grace and grace leads back to the law.
• I am forgiven.  I think I often forget this.  Do you?
• Parenting a teenager keeps me dependent on Christ.
• “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  2 Timothy 3: 12

These bullet points contain so much within them.  I’m hoping that just typing them out will trigger many blog posts with explanations, encouragements and challenges.  During this past half year I’ve watched God working as He dissects my heart; moves me from a place of comfort, and even sin, to a place of obedience; comforts me in one of the lowest valleys I’ve traveled so far; and prunes me carefully, yet powerfully.  So, in between the Thanksgiving day preparations and addressing Christmas cards, I’ll pen the next post.  I’m glad to be back.

Blessings, Wendy

Grace…priceless.

I found out today that Christian recording artist Jennifer Knapp is gay.  She has ‘come out’ because she wants to be utterly honest with her listeners.  As I read her interview with Christianity Today, I was deeply saddened to see the recurring theme of how she just kept struggling to ‘measure up’ as a Christian:

At a certain point I find myself so handcuffed in my own faith by trying to get it right–to try and look like a Christian, to try to do the things that Christians should do, to be all of these things externally–to fake it until I get myself all handcuffed and tied up in knots as to what I was supposed to be doing there in the first place.

Wow.  This theme of ‘trying to get it right’ was observed all throughout the interview.  I get it–I relate to her all too well.  The difference is that I have had the grace of God go before me and provide me with a solid church body and people who have called me on my ‘works-righteousness’ mentality.

Ironically, one of my favorite songs by Jennifer was from her Kansas cd called “Undo Me”.  This phrase struck me curiously back  when I first heard the song.  Then I read Isaiah 6 and began to understand it.  I’m just going to copy the whole first 5 verses because it’s so important:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings:  with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one cried to another and said:  “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”  And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.  So I said:  “Woe is me, for I am undone!”

 

As God teaches me more and more about surrendering to Him, this passage takes on greater meaning.  Because I can become so performance-focused (“Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it…give me a ‘good Christian checklist’ and I’ll complete it”),  I’m convicted by how futile my performance is.  This passage gives us a glimpse at what a holy God we serve.  He is so holy that when near His presence Isaiah says “woe is moe, for I am undone!”  He realizes what a sinner he is; he rightly compares his state with God.  There’s nothing more to do or say; he is undone.

In other words, we cannot *do* enough to be a ‘good Christian’.  Pretty soon you’re going to realize this and either give up (surrender to God alone) or get mad, give up and turn the other way.  I think Jennifer Knapp has done the latter based on what I read in the interview.  Because she kept referring to wanting to measure up, I can only imagine the frustration she must’ve gone through as she struggled with sin (in her case, specifically speaking, homosexuality) and thought ‘how can I measure up; how can I do the things Christians are supposed to do’ when her flesh was fighting her spirit so badly?

You know what the problem is, though?  If she were to just walk away from the faith then it would be rather simple to deal with the story.  We would pray for her to repent and return to the Lord.  But she, along with other Christian artists lately it seems, continues to hold fast to her Christian faith YET hold fast as well to her indulgent sin.

Now the confusion sets in.

So, we’ve got Christian magazines giving her space to justify, we’ve got Christians out there agreeing with her and giving worldly wisdom as to why they’re ok with her lifestyle.  But, we’re missing a call to repentance…how on earth could I possibly be politically correct and socially acceptable to even mention that Jennifer Knapp should repent IF BEING GAY ISN’T A SIN?  In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “not that there’s anything wrong with that!”

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness…1 Timothy 4: 1-2, 7

Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth , and be turned aside to fables.  2 Timothy 4: 2-4

 

Seems like the devil’s trick this time might something like this—>  if you sin, don’t call it sin.  Find other people who agree with you, who make the Word say what you want it to say, and then continue indulging in your sin.  If someone calls it a sin, just tell them they’re not being loving or accepting of who you are.  Perhaps even throw out the ‘grace’ card and tell them that if they’d stop focusing on the law then maybe they would have grace for you instead!  But, don’t leave room to acknowledge that what you’re doing is sin…because then, maybe, you might be called to repent of it.

And, now that I’ve said the g-word (grace, of course), let’s go there for a moment.  Grace is precisely why I don’t have to juggle every good deed up in the air in order to please God.  I don’t have to do all the things ‘Christians do’ in order to be acceptable to God.  Why?  Because Christ died for me.  His sacrifice ALONE took away my sins and replaced them with His perfect righteousness.  I am now forgiven and accepted in the sight of God.  Nothing I do impacts this.  Yes, I do good works…out of the internal change that God has done in me.  The externals are an overflow of the internals.  Jennifer Knapp, in her quote, was focused on the externals.  She may sing about grace, but does she really know it?  I’m not talking about the cheap grace that says “anything goes because Jesus loves you just the way you are”; I’m talking about the PRICELESS GRACE that Jesus gave through His own life.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.  1 Corinthians 6:  9-11