Offense Will Come

     Hello there! How are you doing today? Oh yeah this is a blog not a conversation. Sorry!
I have some pretty serious things to talk about today, so before we begin let me just say that again I say these things because the One who loves me lover you and is calling you to something deeper than you are in right now. Whether that is a new relationship with Jesus, a worshiper or a pastor of a church. God always wants to go deeper with us, if we will seek Him.  Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 
     This post is about offense, so really no offense if I hurt your feelings. ;-)  First of all God never promised us a life without hurt and offense in fact His word says offense will come.
Luke 17:1 Then He said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come,"
     Oh yeah, offense is coming, hopefully not from me but it will come. So here is what got my mind rolling with the whole offense things. I was at a prayer meeting at our church and I got a word from God that I shared with the group. It had the word "now" in it. I know that when God was speaking to me about what our church is doing "now" didn't mean that it wasn't doing that same things years ago, just a confirmation that "now" we are currently doing what He has called us to do. Really had nothing to do with past actions of our church one way or another. There are leaders who have attended this church their whole lives, or pretty close to it. (For someone who has moved around as much as I have that is so hard to believe!) We have only been there over a year. After I got home I thought about what God had said and how what I could have said to make sure there was no offense at all. I don't believe there was any but again it could happen. Sometimes I speak about changing our lives using things in our past as our deciding factors, it could be that some would see offense. If I use past relationships or words that are spoken as indicator of our heart condition both past and present, I want it to always come from a place of love, His love, but I am human and sometimes a bit blunt.
     I have had past relationships in my life that I have had to repent from, in fact before my hubby and I got married we had to repent of aspects of our relationship. We didn't understand at the time the full impact of our actions but repentance was what God was calling us to do through our pastor. We did things wrong, we are human and make mistakes, but I know Someone in the restoring business.
     Here is the things, we all have past, something that we are not proud of and somethings that we wish would never be brought back up. EVER. Those things we wish we could hid in the darkness are usually the ones that cause the most offense.  Quite frankly Satan would love it if you would keep those things hidden and be easily offend when people push those buttons, or hurts. It keeps you from the love of God and all the good things He has for you. Offense seems to momentary put a guard around our hearts protecting others from seeing the places we hurt.
Mark 4:22-23 "For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."
     There are moments when as Christians, we are the worst about offense. We walk around with our noes in the air. We know best. Or something. A few years ago we left a church we had been at for 4 1/2 years. It was a time of big change and there were lots of people who were leaving. I walked into the foyer and felt "This place isn't home anymore." drop into my Spirit.  I prayed for 6 months before I  shared with my husband what God told me. I didn't want to leave. I begged God for 6 months, on my knees and with tears, to change His mind. But He didn't, and we finally left. It was hard, we left friends that had become family for the unknown yet again. And even thought it was "only" our church and not our city or state, because of all the other people who had left, there were a lot of hurt friends who didn't even ask why we left, just spoke and felt bad about us, it felt like me move to a new city in a new state. We had to make new friends, put my outspoken self back out there to be judged and possible rejected.  In those months of searching for a new church, which we were blessed is was very short, many of our friends and fellow church members left the same church. I really believe some left out of offense rather than waiting for God to call them out or doing the work that He needed to do there.  The church where God planted us just went through, and continues to go through changes, as we are trying to bring heaven to earth. Again I have seen member leave over offense.  It really breaks my heart because that offense can become a root, and before we know it, that root colors everything we see. Everything. We lose our way and don't know why we don't love church or Jesus the way we did before. If we do finally get pulled out of the oppression that comes with roots of offense it takes time to then repent of all the things said and done during the time of rooted offense.
     Offense is also a heart condition, based on our past hurts. We choose everyday to live in offense. Please guard your heart from offense, of every kind. It is  going to come, could be in the color chosen for the carpet in a church renovations, or a new worship song, or a lie spoken about you by a friend. It could come from closer than that, a spouse. Those we love hurt us the most, right? Offense is going to come. Check you heart and see if there is offense there.  Repent and be free then chose to live as much as you can offense free. Choosing instead to live in Forgiveness. Realizing that people who are walking in flesh will hurt us by their words or actions, or lack of. But our choice needs to be forgiveness.
Luke 12:3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven time in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you say 'I repent', you shall forgive him."  
I would challenge you to forgive even if they never come to you and say sorry. Better to live in over forgiveness than offense.  

I challenge you because of the One who loves me also loves you!  Seek first the King!!!

Heather

As always scripture taken from Biblegateway.com.

Heart Conditions and Our Fruit

     Good Afternoon! As I am writing this it is cold and rainy outside, my cup of coffee is almost empty, but there is music playing and my youngest is watching The Little Mermaid. Life is good!
     I have again a few things to share with you today. As always there are so many thoughts going through my head I often don't know where to start. So I am going to jump into it and hope that you can follow my thought patterns. :-)  
     Looking at my heart condition (from my last post about being Enough) always leads me to looking at the fruit that my life produces. And I would have to say in the last few months I am blown away by the goodness of God and what he is doing with my family. I know that I had parts to play in the transformation of our family but God has done some very amazing things in the hearts of my husband, and 4 of my kiddos. Thank you Jesus that you loved us so much you would come down into our messy lives and lift us into your arms!!!! (My 2 oldest kids got baptized last Sunday!)
     Anyway, (sigh, life is good) back to our heart and our fruit. The Bible says in 
   Luke 6:45 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Or from  
  Proverbs 4:23 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.  
     If you got a chance to attend the Women's breakfast a few weeks ago I used both of the verse as we looked at the lives of Rachel and Leah, and you heard me say that I LOVE descriptive words. Proverbs 4:23 has the words "springs".  When I think of this word in context of what comes out of our heart I just imagine, or literally sometimes see, joy, peace, happiness, or bitterness, sadness, venom spring from our hearts and out our mouths.  That would be our fruit. If the words that come out of our mouths are bitter and hurtful, if they are swear words, if they tear down instead of lifting up then that is what is in your heart.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It doesn't matter if you have given your life to Christ. If your words and actions are bad then you are producing bad fruit and your heart is corrupt .Ephesians 5: 4 says 4 It’s not right that dirty stories, foolish talk, or obscene jokes should be mentioned among you either. Instead, give thanks to God. We all have had corrupt hearts.  I did and if I don't continually go back to God and ask Him to search my heart, it would become corrupt very quickly. It is part of our human nature to have corrupt hearts. They only way we know that our hearts are corrupt is if someone comes along and tells us that our lives are bearing bad fruit.  

     God desires you to bear good fruit, for the words of your mouth to be good and holy, uplifting and full of joy. But the only way to do that is to let Him come in and clean up the darkest parts of our heart. We can not, no matter how hard we try cover up our fruit or clean our own heart. You could stop swearing and/or saying mean things, but the fruit will come out in other ways, if you don't go to Jesus and have him clean it up.     A few verses later in it says

   Ephesians 5:8-14  8 Once you lived in the dark, but now the Lord has filled you with light. Live as children who have light. 9 Light produces everything that is good, that has God’s approval, and that is true. 10 Determine which things please the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the useless works that darkness produces. Instead, expose them for what they are. 12 It is shameful to talk about what some people do in secret. 13 Light exposes the true character of everything 14 because light makes everything easy to see. That’s why it says: “Wake up, sleeper!  Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

     If you have given your life to Christ at anytime in your life and you can see some bad fruit in your life, renew that commitment and ask Him to clean your heart. 

   Psalm 139:23 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;  

     He will come in and clean your heart, He wants to be invited in to heal the hurts and turn  the faces of those He loves back to Him. That would be you! He loves you and He wants you to be set apart for Him, having a clean heart and bear good fruit. 

    If you already have a clean heart and renew that daily, ask the Lord who you can help with the truth of their fruit. There is a world full of hurting people looking for someone to love them and help them find the Truth. Continue to set yourself apart for God service. 

     Ephesians 5:15-16  15 So then, be very careful how you live. Don’t live like foolish people but like wise people. 16 Make the most of your opportunities because these are evil days. 

   I challenge you because of the One who loves me also loves you! Seek first the King!

As always the scripture came from Biblegateway.com

Enough

     Good Morning! This last Saturday I got to host a women's event at our church. It was wonderful! I spoke on being Enough in God. It has been quite the journey for me to realize that I am enough for God to use. I don't have to be like anyone else, I just have to focus on Him.
     We looked at the story of Leah and Rachel and how these 2 ladies really lived in an atmosphere of competition and striving and jealousy.  If you have never read that story in such a way as to see  their heart conditions, I would suggest that you do.  There is so much "not enough" going on between the 2 women that they don't even know the difference between a good decision and a very, very bad one. Through out their story God remembered them. He loved them. I love that He never forgot them in the mist of their mess, of their own making, he remembered them and He chose to love them. He blessed them with the 12 tribes of Israel.
     As usual thinking about the impact that this story could have on our lives it leads me to think of the next step. How to we go from just believing that we are enough in Christ to living that we are enough. Not sure that I have that answer other than to say one step at a time. I need to continue to place one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward as I see that God is calling me. I love that He is often calling me from places that I would never go by myself. Because with out Him I am for sure not enough.   There will be more related to the whole idea of being enough in Christ. There is more to knowing Christ, but for now just believe that you are enough and move forward in the confidence that He has called you. Don't let your past disqualify you from moving forward into a relationship with God, don't let it disqualify you from doing what God has called you to do. Whether it is reaching out to the orphans, feeding the homeless, or helping women believe that God loves them and has NOT forgotten about them.  Move, move towards Him, looking at Him not on our situations.
     Read about how Leah and Rachel looked at their place in life, their situations and based their choices on the things they could see, instead of Him who is in control.
     Genesis 29:31-30:22.  Go on read it, maybe God will reveal something about your heart condition, I know He did with me.
   

Prosperity Gospel?

     Hello again! It has been awhile, and things have been crazy over here in our house. It would appear that the last time I posted was over a year ago. Well I am hoping that I will be able to keep this up a bit more as  I only have one child at home. This has opened up a whole new world for me, as far at time goes.  The last time I only had one child at home was 7 years ago when our #2 son was born. Wow how time flies.

     I do have a reason for writing. I feel like I have grown spiritually so much since I started writing this blog and even more in the last year. God has done some really great restoration work in my life. I am so thankful to Him for loving me so much that He would come down into my dirtiness and lift me up!

     So here is the reason that I went through the work to find passwords and get log back in...

     I was recently watching a show that I am ashamed to say I watch (because of that I am not sharing what the show was).;-)  Although I really enjoy watching it, it really does nothing good for me. My hubby was out playing basketball and I knew that I had about 20 minutes left before he walked in the door. So I watched the preview of an upcoming show on this channel.  It is a show about a pastor and his family. There have been a lot of these shows and I really have only watched one episode and was pretty disappointed in the "pastors". But they are on TV so really what did I expect? It:s not likely they will show Jesus in a way that could actually change your life that type of show doesn't get as much ratings. Anyway...on this preview  the wife of the pastor said If I had to live in poverty I would never have given my life to Jesus. (about 90% sure these where her exact words.) She also said she knew that God was calling them to the abundant life. She and her pastor husband went looking at a 2+ Million dollar air plane for personal use.
     Ohhh, I started to get hot under the collar. What are they doing?!? When you can blatantly say if I had to be poor I won't follow Jesus you have some serious heart issues.  It seems like I remember a rich young ruler who asked Jesus about this very topic.

Matthew 19:16-20    Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”

Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 

19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?””

     In this exchange with Jesus we see him say, "go, sell what you have and give to the poor." We also the ruler walk away, but he didn't just walk away, he walked about sorrowful,  sad maybe crying. He had just been told that even though his whole life had be honoring to God, his possessions had control of his heart.  He had a heart condition. He had great possessions, those things defined him. They made him the "Rich Young Ruler". He gave that up he gives up his identification to become another no body. A nobody who gave up for Jesus. His heart was not bent in a posture of submission, but of pride in his possessions. Feels to me like our country. We believe that the more possessions that we own the more important we become.
     My heart breaks for how many people these pastors misleading Jesus to. 100? 200 or 300?  No I think they had a congregation of 4000 people and growing. Here is the thing that I have been learning about my Lord. He has called us to teach others about His love, not His hands. If everyone in their church, community and state is taken care of and not one in need, and then they wanted to buy that plane go for it! God for sure put people on this earth for Helps ministry, meaning they have the money to "help" a person in need.  But here is the thing, for a person called to Helps ministry is going to struggle with money being an idol, they may struggle with another issue that they put as an idol but money won't be it.  I believe that because of that I don't believe that they would mind being poor if that is what Jesus called them to. We are called to help take care of foster kids, widow and widowers, and the poor. I would love to hear about a community where hunger was no longer and issue, but I haven't heard that. In fact it is quite the opposite that more people are hungry and without jobs.
     Jesus didn't say this life would be easy or that if we wished/believed enough that He would give us what we want. He told us that He would be with us in times of trouble, but that this walk will make us look different than the "world".  Here is the verse that prosperity is based off of...

John 10:10
 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

The Abundant life is one where we are in search of the secret place with Him. Where we live our lives, abiding in Him, in rich or poor. Not depending on what our earthly lives look like, even if we have to work a job "beneath" us. Jesus came as a servant and we often forget how to serve. Our lives in America look so different than a servants life. We live to be served instead of getting down and dirty in areas of life where Jesus is needed the most. We all need Jesus, but Jesus doesn't show up in our things but in our lives. In our heart condition! 

If I have misjudged this couple, and I am sure that I have because I don't know them there is a chance that what they represented on TV is NOT who they are in life, I am sorry. But as a re-presentative of Jesus, not just pastor but all Christians,  they are leading people into hell, not heaven because they aren't re-presenting Jesus at all. When all I seek are the hands of Jesus and what I am wishing and hoping for doesn't show up and now I am worse than I was in the beginning, that doesn't sound like the Loving God I know. There will be times of testing and trouble to build our faith and trust in God, but God doesn't hand us things on a silver platter because those things are good in our eyes. They may take our eyes off the Face of God and puts us in a mind set of a genie god, which He is not. He loves us and wants us to have great things and an abundant life (a life spent in relationship with Him), but He wants to be first and only in our hearts. Be the One that our heart posture in surrendered to.  Saying Jesus wants you to be rich is so superficial and not what Jesus wants! He wants deepness and relationship with you! He wants us so desperate for more of  Him that nothing else matters. Talk with Him! Spend time with Him! That is what He wants and what He desires for us to want in return not what He can give to us.

So I will be praying for this family and their church members. That the Spirit of God would move and change their thought if they have wrong thinking.   They have an amzimg oppertunity 

All verse taken from Bible gate way.