Category: Whispers (Page 1 of 177)

It is important for all of us to own our feelings, or we will project them on others who may have no idea why they are blamed for not knowing what is wrong. It doesn’t help that many feel their church friends would view them as unspiritual if they confessed to such feelings of depression, anger, anxiety, etc. So emotions are kept inside and not dealt with. How much better to have good Chrisitan mates and friends that we can be honest with and share our struggles, admitting what is going on inside of us without judging and helping us deal with those things!

We can lie to ourselves only so long before we can’t stuff things anymore and we miss the joy of being alive emotionally. The deeper we are willing to go with the Lord, the more we are able to embrace our emotions and process them. Really, they are gifts from the Lord, like a warning light on our dash that tells us something needs attention. We may feel angry when our boundaries are violated, or frustrated when we said yes to something to which we know we should have said a simple no. Sometimes our anger is a sign that we feel inadequate or not good enough, or have unrealistic expectations that haven’t been met. The warning light goes on within us and we can ask the Lord to take us to the source of our problem. Let us not keep covering over our feelings, but ask the Lord to help us honestly admit and process them, giving it all to Him that He may transform us to be more like Him.

Jesus gave us his own example of living according to His Father’s will for His life. He was not detoured by the cries of others who wanted to make Him king to save them from Roman rule, but went on to be crucified. He lived his life in complete faithfulness to His Father’s will. We are also to live wholeheartedly for the Lord and to live the life He has purposed for us, not like someone else whose calling is different than ours. Paul said in Eph. 2:10, “He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” The work He has for us to do is unique and not the same as others, so we have no need to copy someone else and should ignore voices that tell us otherwise. Years ago I remember hearing about a pharmacist who was proudly sharing how all of his children became pharmacists like him. I wondered at the time, did some of them feel pressured to become one and as a result missed their true calling?

We each have to live our own life with the Lord that is unique and the real question is: will we be faithful to His will? We were never asked to live someone else’s life, for one day we will have to give account for how we spent our life on earth and if it was lived as God had planned.

New seasons in our lives may not mean a change of location, but might be a new job, a new ministry and we need to be open to whatever it is that God has waiting for us. That calls for listening and finding out where the Lord wants to place us. We are not to rush ahead, but to wait for His timing when He will have everything in place. Only then should we move on to what is next and do it with an expectant heart.

As Al and I age, God moves us on into a more hidden time, and we have to take care for ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are no longer very visible, but spend a lot of time in secret with the Lord as we pray (our prayer list is very long), study, and write, etc. This is an easier transition for me than Al since I am an introvert and never liked being up front. But we have peace in where the Lord has placed us and we want to be fruitful in this fourth quarter of our lives. We hope that new growth will pop up out of the soil of our hearts, just like when we walk the Paul Bunyan trail and see new life.

Let us all be open to times of transition in our lives, when the Lord opens a new door to us and we have to say good-bye to the old. We never know what awaits us, but like the Psalmist said in Psalm 86, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song…Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Declare His glory amongst the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!”

The good thing is, we can rest in the sovereignty of God and place complete dependency on Him. He is worthy of our trust. When we try to control, we get worn out and disappointed, for things still happen that were not in our plans. Like I suspect many dinners planned in detail for Easter with guests not able to get there.

Lately I have been reading from Isaiah, and in chapter 30 it tells of the Israelites’ rebelliousness and unwillingness to look to the Lord for their help. They took things into their own hands and sought protection from Egypt instead. But the Lord tells them Pharaoh will be of no help and they need to look to Him. “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling…’” The Message version says in verse 15, “Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me—the very thing you’ve been unwilling to do.”

Why does it take so long for us to learn that we can completely depend on the Lord, and not depend on our own strength or look to others rather than Him? Things may not go the way we had in mind or planned, but it will ultimately be the best.

I read what Pastor Jentezen Franklin had to say about the thief’s words that helped me understand more the depth of his simple prayer. Up to that time he had been mocking Jesus but something must have happened in his heart in his final moments as he knew he would soon die. The word remember in Hebrew means to restore what has been broken or to put back together what has been torn apart or separated. Franklin writes that the thief wasn’t asking Jesus to simply think about him when He got to heaven, he was really saying he was torn apart by sin and when you come in to your kingdom, put me back together and restore me. Jesus responded by saying, “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” Jesus was not only promising reconciliation but immediate paradise! What a change must have happened in this dying man’s heart!

It reminded me of a story told to me over coffee time at church a couple Sundays ago by a friend sitting next to me. She and a friend regularly go to a nursing home and sing for them and share Jesus. She had gotten to know a patient who was 102 years old over the course of her visits. This patient knows she hasn’t got a lot of time left and my friend asked her if she knew Jesus. She had never accepted Him but when asked by my friend if she would like to receive Him, she was ready and prayed the sinner’s prayer. Just like the thief on the cross she opened  her heart to Jesus and is now ready whenever she is called home to spend eternity with the Lord.

Isn’t it amazing and wonderful that the Lord hears our prayers and forgives us and restores us, no matter if it is our last breath. May we be faithful witnesses to show the way to all those the Lord brings across our path.

Cyrene was in what is now known as Libya in North Africa and about a thousand miles from Jerusalem. Simon was a long way from home, probably going to Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus didn’t have strength to carry his cross after his beatings and a soldier demanded Simon help and carry it. We don’t hear anything more of Simon in the Bible, so did he stay and see Jesus crucified? We don’t know, but it must have had an effect on him to carry the cross behind Jesus and see His suffering.

When we come to know the Lord, it says in Romans 6 that we have united with Him in His death and resurrection, and our old self gets crucified so we are no longer a slave to sin but alive to Christ. That means daily we die to self so we can live for Him. In a real sense, we all bear our own cross as we put Jesus first and ourselves last. Today, many are suffering persecution or have painful health issues as they bear the cross for Christ. I have friends who live in continual pain without complaint, even though they have gone to many doctors. I count them as bearing their cross for the Lord.

Let us practice Jesus’ words in Luke 3:24-25, “If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind. For the man who wants to save his life will lose it, but the man who loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Daily we need to be filled with the Spirit as it says in Eph. 5:18, not filled with more techniques and disciplines, but with the Spirit. It is a work of God and He is the one doing the action of filling us up, and the result is fruitfulness and growth. We can’t fill ourselves by other means, even if it is worship or ministry or studying. We need the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts anew.

We come to the Lord just as we are and in the truth of His love. In our own strength, we are unable to transform our own lives to be like the Lord, but we simply open our hearts to Him in truth. The ancient spiritual writer, Bernard of Clairvaux, said we are to be like a reservoir that is filled with the Spirit and is being filled with love, wisdom and knowledge. The result is we then pour it forth in all we do. We might say the proof is in the pudding, or in our attitude and actions. We learn our transformation is not from spiritual disciplines and self-effort, but the fruit of God’s life in ours. It may show up as a quick willingness to forgive those who hurt us rather than getting angry.  Or instead of trying to fix ourselves, we become receivers of God’s grace and mercy. Let us put the Lord first and foremost in our lives and open ourselves to the continual filling of the Holy Spirit.