What Satan Hates Most

     As a kid in the eighties, while most were dancing to Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams, and Chicago, I was dragged to every church service, youth group, and revival meeting within a hundred mile radius, cruising to The Hinsons, The McKameys, and occasionally things would get a little wild with some Carman.  (Sidebar:  The 80's music is still the "real" rock & roll.  Just sayin'.)  There are a few things I would change about those days, but I cherish those evenings in the car with Mom.  I learned to play the drums in the car, pounding the dashboard song after song.  I literally kept two drumsticks (butter knives) in the glove compartment and whipped those puppies out as soon as we hit the road. I marvel at Mom's patience with me through those times and will never forget looking over on those drives to see her singing and praising, sometimes laughing or crying, even clapping (we survived).  Any ability or tendency to publicly praise the Lord unashamedly I owe to my precious Mom.  (Among many other things!) 
     I remember a popular song by the Paynes called, "The Conversation" that described a hypothetical conversation between Satan and Death surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In part of the song, Death tells Satan that "The greatest kings and rich men have walked through my dark door. This Jesus, He's no different.  He's just a mortal man.  And I make this vow to you, He won't escape my hand."  Of course, we know that Jesus changed everything about mortality when He came on the scene, and His resurrection is still shaking Satan up, today.
     There is nothing Satan hates more than resurrection.  He hates everything about Christians (godly living, Bible study, faith, etc.), but most of those things he can distort into salvation by works or undo by temptation.  Resurrection, however, is untouchable.  He can lie about it, but in reality, it cannot be denied, undone, or manipulated.  This is not to say he will not try to prevent it, label it falsely, or persuade us it happens through our own power, but when Jesus rose from the grave, Satan's fate was sealed.  He cannot reverse the resurrection.  He knows his time is short (because generations are moments to God), and his motivation is revenge against the God who defeated death.  His only way to carry out any sort of attack on God is by attacking His children.  Satan considers no part of our lives off limits, but I firmly believe he will fight nothing more than any sort of resurrection work God intends in us.  Satan, of course, despises any soul that is born again, but he also hates any resurrection work in your life as a result of salvation.  If you desire a personal resurrection - to more devotion to His Word, to a return to being a faithful or more active member of the local church, to overcoming the death that results from addiction - Satan is outraged, and it is game on.  If God is working to resurrect a dying marriage, Satan doesn't pull any punches.  And if a church is experiencing resurrection from death by works unto life in Christ, it is no holds barred.  Resurrection in us means God is glorified, and God's glory is what Satan has despised from the beginning.
     Satan knows that every resurrection requires a death.  Forgiveness requires repentance and the death of sin.  We will never enjoy newness of life until we are "baptized into death" (Romans 6:24).  It has been my experience that we are usually fine with the "life" part of that verse, but the "newness" ruffles feathers every time.  The death of our preferences, our traditions, our opinions, our comforts, our works - everything must be on the table, because when Jesus died, He left nothing of Himself.  His work on the Cross was a complete sacrifice, and every part of Him was placed in the tomb.  Satan knows that "living Christ" requires death on our part, so he is working feverishly to cultivate the old desires, ideas, and methods.  He convinces us that our lives are our own...that our success or happiness is when we get what we want.  He nourishes the ownership mentality in churches, too, because he knows that resurrection will only ever result from complete surrender to God's will, and a resurrected church will resurrect individual lives in the community it is called to reach.
     So, just a quick heads-up, today.  Be mindful that spiritual warfare is real and presently very active.  As in the song I mentioned, there is much conversation surrounding any person or church that is nearing resurrection.  But, don't lose heart, for the glorious thing is that the song ends with "He is risen!" 
   

"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?  Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ~ John 2:18-19

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:  that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." ~ Romans 6:4

Those Things

     Our ladies Bible study group has recently begun The Quest.  I am so thankful for God's timing in our group's choosing this study and for Beth Moore's obedience to God's leading in its writing!  Last week, some of the reading was in Romans 4.  I loved it all, but I was snagged by verse 17, and at some point in each day since, I have found my heart and mind rehearsing "...even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."  The thought of God calling things into existence...from the very universe to the innermost desires of my heart is just too much!  He not only sees my shortcomings and blesses me despite them, but those things...all of those things of mine!  He digs to the root of my hopes and ideas and recognizes them as an existing substance of things hoped for.  Whether they have been buried in me since childhood or are the most recent seeds taking root, He sees them as present and tangible things.  If they are false, He is not ignoring them nor ignorant of their potential damage, and I trust Him to expose them and help me cast down any imagination that is trying to exalt itself against His knowledge (2 Corinthians 10:5).  But, what if they are not false? 

     What if, like Abraham, there is a plan for me that God already sees, grows, and even addresses (calls)?  What if, while I am laughing in unbelief, He is not simply having a more positive outlook than I or chuckling at His daughter with the wild imagination but is, instead, viewing everything with a mind of infinite wisdom and actually calling those hopes and desires into being while I am still wondering if I'm a fool for entertaining visions so immense and far-fetched?  (Just seeing that in writing makes me feel silly.  As if I could "out-envision" God!)  What if, while I am writing this, He is removing obstacles and laying foundations for works that will leave me speechless?  What if  the world laughs at what I'm implying?  What if I laugh when I read this tomorrow? But, what if God has the last laugh?  What if the desire is the call, and it is already a recorded creation and work of God which He is presently building and blessing?  What if He calls me called?
     I know that personally, I have found myself (like Abraham) questioning God's plan...examining the evidence and stacking up the arguments against the humongous calling of God.  Piling, sorting, and dragging things into place that eventually obscure it. That saves me investing my faith in something so seemingly out of reach.  The thing is...no amount of our denying its chances of coming to fruition annuls that He has called it into being.  The earth is His creation.  No amount of transcendent thought changes that.  A new heart is His creation.  No power in hell can change that.  Perhaps, instead of trying to understand why He would call us and how on earth He will bring it to pass, we should rest in the fact that He has called and calls it as though it already exists.  And then, by faith, we can rejoice that He will have the final say!

     "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work 

in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." ~ Philippians 1:6

    

Psalm 23 (part 1): The Pastures

     Though one of the shortest psalms, Psalm 23 is undoubtedly the most famous of all the psalms.  It is carved into headstones and quoted in foxholes.  It is familiar but seems dreamlike and something we have seen on flannel graphs and paper fans at tent meetings.  Sometimes, we dread hearing it.  Other times, we crave to hear it audibly whispered in our night of despair.  Because, more than ever, our world needs a Shepherd.  Someone to feed us.  Someone to lead us.  Someone to give us rest.  

     This song of praise was most likely written near the end of David’s life.  Undoubtedly, David is feeling nostalgic.  The way I do every fall.  He has grown past the despair that so often laces the psalms and truly realizes that to be a captain and a king, ultimately he only needed to be to be lead by God.  Psalm 23 speaks of God’s ever abiding presence as our Good Shepherd, not only sustaining us and leading us to still waters and green pastures, but beyond the valley of the shadow of death to paths of righteousness.    

     David speaks of the necessity of the rest God faithfully provides (“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures”).  Because God sees our need of rest, He supplies a place (“still waters”) that not only calms our hearts but also prepares us for the days to come.  Verse 3 speaks of God’s restoration as a result of being fed and rested, then His onward leading into paths of righteousness.  It is a chain reaction:  rest, restoration, then leading.  Sometimes, we are ready to plod onto our path when our Shepherd is calling us to rest.  While most of us would welcome a rest, our natural tendency is to find a sense of fulfillment in a packed schedule.  Now, before you think you must clear your calendar to find rest, let me say that ALL of Psalm 23 is spiritual.  My day may be busy, but my heart can still rest in God.  The problem is that our day usually sets the tone for our heart, and that is where God steps in and calls us to green pastures and still waters.  
     So how can we know if we are in the right pasture?  The psalm is clear that it will be green.  A Hebrew word study says this:  "A green pasture in Hebrew is dasha. The spelling of this word reveals a built in commentary, the word itself will tell us what these green pastures are. The word is spelled Daleth which is a portal to the Shin, a resting place in the Aleph – God’s heart.  Note that David says that God makes or causes him to find a resting place in His heart.  God is the one who opens this portal."  Clearly, rest is a result of accepting an invitation from the Shepherd.  Not just an invitation to kick your feet up and let someone else eek it out for a while...but a rest that is found in knowing His heart.  In the mundane, the seemingly insignificant, and the utterly chaotic, God's heart remains a source of strength and rest for someone simply willing to trust the Shepherd enough to follow Him and to know that His pasture provides rest for our souls.
     Another landmark of green pastures is still waters.  In a chaotic world, we are all bound to look around at times and realize our plates are not only full...they are grossly overloaded and dripping onto the floor.  And since we can't even carry it with both hands, we have grabbed a cart and scooped up a couple other plates, too.  Again, I will never imply that rest means inactivity, but chaos and still waters are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.  And since the Shepherd's call to green pastures is a call into His heart, we can assume the still waters there are a product of His heart, as well.  A still spirit flows from resting in what I know of God from His Word...not as a list of facts, but as a personal encounter and fellowship with Him.  
     So, I must ask myself this question:  Is my spirit still?  Matthew 12 tells us that great multitudes followed Jesus and that He healed them.  Then verse 16 says that He charged them to not make Him known that the prophecy would be  fulfilled concerning Him:  v. 18 "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased:  I will put MY SPIRIT upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles."  If we feel like everything is riding on us, and that the world needs to know it, we are not acting in His Spirit.  Then, verse 19 describes the characteristics of the Spirit of God on Jesus:  "He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets."  Jesus can calm the waters of this world and its inevitable storms, but His intention is that we enter the storm with His Spirit of calm.  That is exercising ultimate faith in Him and His Word.
     In spiritual battle, it is sometimes very difficult to remain spiritual.  Our flesh is eager to strive and let our voice be heard in the streets.  I think it is because we know the valley of the shadow of death is coming.  However, we CAN exemplify His Spirit.  We CAN exercise faith in His Word to lead us through.  He has lead us straight to His heart, and His desire is to feed us and calm us for the days ahead.  

"He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet; 

so he bringeth them unto their desired haven."  Psalm 107:29-30

  

     
                
       

                 

The Invisible Place

     Today, I choose to be thankful for the people who have truly seen Clark and me. That probably sounds strange, but in ministry, you are either in the crowd, or you are not. Most often, we have been on the outside, looking in. I'm not completely sure if God put us there or if God's people put us there, and while it is a familiar place to us now, I won't pretend it is not a lonely and painful place. It feels like a very unfair place.
   But it is a place of honesty. And it has directed my eyes past the ones who socially recognize us to truly find the ones who "see" us...the ones who just see sinners saved by grace who are trying to walk as closely to their invisble God as they can draw through His Word.
      Living in the invisible place has also helped me spot fellow outsiders. And while I would never want to label you as an outsider or spotlight the pain of it, if you feel like you share this place where we seem to live...I hope I have spotted you and that you felt visible, if only while we passed one another. I hope, that if our eyes have met, I have smiled. I hope that if I spoke, it showed sincere concern for you, personally. Because I know that some days, living in the invisible place seems less impossible thanks to one person who takes the time to look.

"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind... yet now hath he reconciled... to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." Colossians 1:21-22

Occupy

    

     I pray you have come through 2016 with many blessings. Mostly, I pray you have come "through." I must confess that this was a year of survival in our family, but thanks be, we made it through. If you have landed on my blog today with a gut-felt realization that, like me, you can look back on the previous year and not really count your accomplishments, but you can see that your only accomplishment is that you didn't go under, first of all, thank the Lord! Next, move on, knowing that sometimes, we simply are called to a season of standing (for truth, to strengthen others, or just to prove that Jesus is bigger than all this sin-crazy world can throw at us.)  But remember, that His command to "occupy" (as in, occupation) never implies inaction.

     I have been taking a college hermeneutics course (the science of interpreting the Bible), and the following blog is an excerpt from one of my assignments, with a few changes made here and there. It was very timely for me to study this passage, personally.  I pray it will encourage you and act as a call to action on behalf of our sweet Lord Jesus in the coming days!  

Luke 19.11-27:

     As the passage begins, we find Jesus travelling to Jerusalem. Undoubtedly, his followers were greatly anticipating this trip, as they most likely hoped this would be when Jesus would establish his throne. (“…they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. v. 11) We see, however, that the crux of Jesus’ journey, as well as the discourse He was about to deliver would be found in the encounter which had just occurred with Zacchaeus. His actions and message in this passage, as well as what would transpire in Jerusalem would echo verse ten, “For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
     As His disciples entertain thoughts of grandeur and respect in the kingdom to come, Jesus begins to speak of a nobleman that must travel to a far country “to receive for himself a kingdom,” and then return. Before he departs, he allots to each of his ten servants, one pound each, and leaves with the command to “occupy” until his return. It is important to note that verse fourteen says that his citizens hated him and sent word by messenger that they would not have him to reign over them. So, the picture is of a master who leaves his servants with a charge to keep among citizens who openly reject the nobleman’s leadership. This was prophetic of the Jews who would deny that Jesus was the Christ, and it seems fitting in our present secular culture to feel as the servants left to occupy among openly defiant rejection of our Lord.
     Nevertheless, when the nobleman returned, each servant was called to account for his actions regarding the entrusted charge. The nobleman’s response to the rebels is not mentioned firstly.  There is only an immediate call to accountability on behalf of the servants. The first servant who multiplied the pound left to him by ten receives a place of prominence in the nobleman’s kingdom.  Likewise, the second servant who multiplied his one entrusted pound by five is also placed into leadership. The third servant in the text returns the pound left to him safely secured in a napkin, declaring, “For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.” He thought to justify his idleness by accusing the master of greed for expecting increase, but the nobleman had entrusted to this servant his own possession, therefore, the nobleman was completely justified in expecting increase. This brings to mind the command of Jesus in Mark twelve to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Just as the nobleman expected a return and increase of his own possession from his servant, God is certainly entitled that we, who are created in His image be wholly given to Him. And, because the blood of His Son purchased our redemption, He is entirely worthy and justified in demanding that we refuse to sit idle with the gospel He has entrusted to us.
     The third servant is then judged by the very words he has spoken. Because he refers to the nobleman as “austere”, he will receive the harsh judgment of the one he has judged strict and severe. His pound will be given to the first servant, and when the bystanders object because that servant “hath ten pounds”, the nobleman declares, “unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.” It is most certainly reasonable that a master would entrust more to an industrious servant, in order for that servant to return with even more abundance on the master’s behalf. It is as befitting that he would take privilege and possessions from the idle, selfish servant who refuses to do good with them. Christ gives this warning to his disciples, lest while they are arguing over their positions in His future kingdom, they would neglect the most needful ministry they will share with Jesus, to “seek and to save that which is lost,” and fall short of rewards in Heaven.
     Finally, in verse twenty-seven, the nobleman addresses the rebels who refuse him as their ruler. “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” While this speaks to the Jewish nation who would reject Jesus and suffer His vengeance and wrath, it is, as certainly, applicable to all of those who will not have Christ rule over them.  Some day, we will all stand before Almighty God and answer for what we did with His Son, Jesus, sent into a world that despised Him to offer redemption for the souls of those whom He created.  He will also judge us according to how we have treated the souls He has entrusted to our care and witness.  We, as believers, must remember that Christ has given us salvation and left us with the command to "occupy", to engage, to invest, and to increase, until He comes.  

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." ~ Matthew 25:21