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Halo slipping?

“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” – C. S. Lewis

For a few years, my family was just three of us: my two adolescent daughters and me. So, one of those years I bought a box of Hallmark cards with a graphic of these three angels, representing our trio. One of them, you see, has her eyes open, her feet askew, and her halo slipping. We sent the cards out to our friends and family.

A few years later, one of my daughters bought the ceramic depiction of that card as you see above. We all laughed and remembered those days of just the three of us. As we talked, we confessed that, when we sent out those cards, we each felt we were the angel with the slipped halo. Surprised? Then let me ask: Which of the three angels do you identify with?

Most of us know we don’t measure up to God’s standard. We aren’t conforming to his perfect plan. We have a bit of rebellion in us. Or we just can’t get it together. It’s good that we see that! It’s that acknowledgement that will compel us to reach out to Jesus, the baby of Christmas, the Savior of the world, to ask him to forgive our sins and make us righteous and pure in his sight.

He will do that, if we ask. It’s why he came.

Corrie ten Boom said it this way: “Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that he gave his only Son. The only requirement is to believe in him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.”

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” – Luke 2:14

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Feeling the joy?

“Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again.” -George Whitefield

I was feeling down. I won’t go into details, but a weary sadness had settled in.

On my way back home from an errand, it occurred to me that joy was a fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life. Maybe he could help. So, I began talking to him, telling him that I was sad. Immediately it occurred to me that I should sing Joy to the World. So I sang it all the way home. And I thought about the words: Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. My heart felt a little lighter.

Then I saw the accumulated snow/ice at the end of my driveway and realized I’d better get that out of there before it froze again. So I grabbed a shovel and started to work. Ten minutes later, I saw our neighbor coming across the yard saying, “Let me do that.” He took the shovel and finished the job. But, the best part was that he was dressed in a red sweatshirt with brightly colored ornaments – the kind of shirt that made me smile.

I went in the house to wrap Christmas gifts, thinking of the people I love and the gifts I want them to have. Happy thoughts moved in. Joy had returned.

There is joy in Christmas, but I had lost it. A little conversation with the Holy Spirit brought it back. All I had to do was ask, listen, and do what he said. I love how he works – through music, neighbors, or silly sweatshirts. He will do it for you, too. He doesn’t make all our troubles go away, but he does bring joy in the middle of them – if we ask, if we let him.

“Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” – John 16:24b

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The View from Above

“God wants us to choose to love him freely, even when that choice involves pain.” – Philip Yancey

Why is life so hard? What have I done to deserve this? Why doesn’t God do something?

Job asked those questions, too. At the beginning of his story he had it all. Then everything began to fall apart. He lost his wealth, his children, and, finally, his health. His friends insisted God wouldn’t be doing this to him if he hadn’t sinned. If he would just admit his sin, everything would be OK.

So Job began to pray asking what he had done wrong and what he could do to appease God and get the pain to stop. No answer. What he doesn’t know is that God didn’t do any of this to him. Satan did – with God’s permission. It was not punishment, it was a test to see if he would trust and serve God even when things didn’t go his way.

There are some standard take-aways from Job’s story including that God doesn’t always protect us from the evil in this world and that trouble isn’t always (maybe seldom actually) a punishment for sin.

Those are good points, but, in my mind, the greatest lesson from Job’s story is this: Though others criticized, condemned, and shamed him, it is what God said about him that mattered. And God said he was blameless and upright.

When we choose to trust Jesus with our lives, God sees us as one of his beloved children. When we focus too much on what others think of us, or what Satan says about us, maybe the story of Job will remind us to ask God what he thinks*. That’s all that matters really.

” . . . you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you (Isaiah 43:4a)

*Hint: He tells us in his word.

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This Present Moment

“Leave the broken, irreversible past in God’s hands, and step out into the invincible future with him.” – Oswald Chambers

I heard someone say, “A truly happy person is someone who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.” Can we live fully in the present moment even it’s not what we planned? Do we spend too much time in the past or the future and miss engaging with the now? What can we do to change that?

The Past

We can all look at our past and find things we don’t like. Things we said. Things we did. Things that happened to us that changed the trajectory of our lives: Hurts, rejection, unresolved relationships.

Wise counselors tell us to acknowledge that these things are painful, but unchangeable. We can’t redo life. We can, though, forgive those who have hurt us. And we can confess our own mistakes and sins and receive God’s forgiveness. When we do that, we will feel that a weight has been taken away and this present life is refreshed.

The Future

When we look ahead, we can fall into worry far too easily, anticipating what could possibly happen that will be hard. And there will be those things. But that’s what the life of faith is all about: Trusting God even when we don’t understand. Trusting him because we know his character is good, kind, loving, powerful, just. The future is full of his promises, his presence, and his protection. Let’s choose to believe that!

The Present

When we let go of the past and trust God for the future, we will be fully alive to today. We can count on it!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13

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So thankful . . .

As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I am sharing a prayer written by a dear friend of mine. I hope it blesses you as it has me!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Promises, Blessings, and Smiles

“The promises are of no use or comfort to us, until they are meditated upon.” – Thomas Watson

Are you smiling today? If you are more stressed than joyful or more worried than peaceful, there’s something you can do that might help. Turn to God’s word, not just to read it, but to think about it, to ask him to help you see what he wants you to see. Here’s an example:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul (Psalm 23:1-3a).

Some of you know this so well, you can go on to quote the rest of the psalm. But do we really know what it means when God said that with him as our caretaker, we won’t lack anything? He controls everything – money, health, wisdom, weather, etc. And he promises not to withhold anything we need.

If we really believed that, how would it change our level of contentment? How would it calm our anxiety?

What does it tell us about God’s provision when we read that he takes his sheep to green pastures and still waters? What does it mean to have God restore our souls? Think about these things for a while. What do these verses say to you?

God intends for his word to be read, but he wants so much more than that. He wants it to soak into our hearts as we ponder what he says, and as we accept it as truth. When we do that, we are blessed, no matter what circumstances surround us. And that kind of blessing will bring smiles to our faces!

“My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
    that I may meditate on your promise.” – Psalm 119:148

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His Personality

“Glorifying God does not mean obeying him only because you have to. It means obeying him because you want to — because you are attracted to him, because you delight in him.” – Tim Keller

At one point in my spiritual life I realized that God is a person. He has a personality, and he likes to be treated as other persons do. There is much revealed about him and his various attributes in the Bible – things like being all-powerful, holy, all-knowing, and everywhere present. But we almost have to read between the lines to find his personality. We see a range of actions – such as creation and judgment – and we see a range of emotions – anger, love, patience, resilience, for example.

But, as we get to know his Spirit who lives within us as a constant companion, we learn more. In fact, I think we learn a lot about the personality of God by looking at the characteristics the Spirit is developing within us to make us more like Jesus (Ephesians 5:22-23).

Through the Spirit, God is giving us a glimpse of his own personality. That means God is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. Thinking of him on those terms, don’t you find him attractive? Doesn’t it make us want to spend more time with him? Doesn’t it mean we can trust him?

The great and holy God of the universe has invited us into friendship with him. Let’s get to know him as the friend who never leaves, who understands, who helps us find our way even when it’s dark.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13

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Healing

God alone is qualified to answer prayer, and at some point we have to let go and trust God, who can transmute our self-focused requests into an unimaginably larger plan.  – Philip Yancey

Do you have anyone on your prayer list right now for whom you are praying for healing? Most of us do. We read about Jesus healing people everywhere he went, and we believe he can still do that today. And he does – sometimes. Often, though, we wait in vain for the physical healing to happen.

These are the times when, as Spurgeon says, “we must meekly bow to his will by whom life and death are determined.” Wait! Bow to his will when the life of someone we love is at stake? That sounds hard. And, it is.

But what do we learn when we humbly bow to his will? We learn he is loving, kind, and good, even when we don’t understand. We learn that his power is not limited to physical healing. Sometimes he’s working on something of far greater value – something we will most likely not understand this side of heaven. In the process, though, we realize there are some things more important than physical healing and, if we could see the bigger picture, we would not trade the spiritual blessing for anything – not even healing.

I have heard people testify to this very thing. That the sense of God’s presence, the knowledge that he’s walking beside them in the pain, and the confidence that his will is best for them and for those around them is worth the suffering they are undergoing. I want that kind of peace and the comfort it gives. Maybe the only way to get it is by having some of my most earnest prayers go unanswered.

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” – Job 13:15a

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A Dove on Your Shoulder

“We are 100 percent responsible for the pursuit of holiness, but at the same time we are 100 percent dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enable us in that pursuit.” ~ Jerry Bridges

If you’re like me, we have our devotional time in the morning, reading our Bibles and praying. Then the day begins and it’s hard to turn our attention to God.

So, what can we do to draw ourselves again and again into the realm of the spirit where Jesus lives, where God can speak, and where we can find power and direction for our daily lives?

Sometimes we engage our holy imaginations. In her book Soaking in the Spirit, Carol Arnott reminds us that the Holy Spirit is referenced in Scripture as a dove. So she suggests that we imagine Him as a dove sitting on our shoulder. Maybe that’s not so odd considering the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is the paraclete, meaning “one who comes alongside”. Sometimes it’s translated as helper, counselor, or advocate. Imagining that Holy Spirit Dove alongside me has been a reminder to me to talk to him all day long – to look for his approval and listen to his guidance about what I do, say, and even think.

Maybe that idea is too “way out there” for many of you, but it has helped me. What do you do to remind yourself to talk to our God all day long? To look to him for direction and empowerment? Feel free to post a method that works for you. Your “tip” may help someone else walk in step with God’s Spirit.

“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.” – Isaiah 11:2

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Hearts on Fire

“All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding creates in your heart.” – Timothy Keller

If you live in the United States, as I do, you are buried under political discourse and, almost always, it laments the condition of our world and claims one political party or the other can make it better.

As Christians, though, we realize only God can make lasting changes, and he has designated Jesus as the ruler of this world. The problems around us are beyond the ability of mere humans to fix – though we shouldn’t give up trying!

But let’s envision something much bigger than government or politics: A people of God so committed to him that they stand out as being different from the rest of the world. Those who understand both the promises of eternity and the joys and sorrows of living in the here and now, and, somehow, they live fully into that tension.

Don’t you sometimes hunger to have a passion for God that changes everything? A burning deep inside you that has to praise him and overflows with love for others? If everyone who claimed Christ as Savior had that kind of passion for him, our world would be changed – not through politics or revolution, but through Jesus’s people showing him and his love to the everyone around us.

When the hearts of Jesus’s followers are right, the real needs of this world will be met, and God will be glorified. I’m praying for revival within the hearts of the followers of Jesus – starting with me. Are you in?

I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. – Isaiah 57:15b