Dare to be different!

Countless times God tells His people to be separate. Even in the old testament, God told the israelites to COME OUT, to separate themselves from the rituals of the people around them. My fear is that all too often....I am not too much different from the world around me. I constantly need to remind myself.... " If I am not persecuted for being different, then I probably am not different enough." The Word of God speaks very clearly about the fact that if we are going to be true followers of Jesus, we WILL be persecuted ( In John 15:20 Jesus says, " If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you."However, the truth of the matter is that God is more concerned about me conforming to His image than He is me being comfortable and He makes that clear in Hebrews 2:10 that our salvation was made perfect through suffering.

We have to come to the place where we are willing to give up our reputation to follow Jesus. To CONFORM means, " to be similar or identical." If we look like, or conform, to who  Jesus is the world may not view us to be the most popular. The good news is that the more we follow Jesus, spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word, the sacrifice does not seem so big compared to the cross... In fact, the more we are with HIM, the more we start to really only care about what HE thinks about us, which is all we are supposed to care about anyway! Galatians 1:10 says we are only supposed to seek the approval of GOD, not the approval of MAN.

So, I know all of this sounds kind of harsh. Persecution....no reputation....unpopular and I am not undermining the fact that this is a STRUGGLE. I want you to think about something with me though. In the midst of the pressures of this world to be perfect, it is crucial to know as women that Jesus says we are enough. The outside doesn't matter, He looks at our hearts. The fact that we only have one Person to truly seek ultimate approval from and that is Jesus is kind of FREEING! Even better news...the one Person who we need seek our ultimate approval from, MADE us and loves us with an unending love. We do not find our identity in what others think about us. We find it in Jesus Christ.

Dare to be different, don't let the world frighten you into blending in.  Do not hide His righteousness in your heart as it says in 40:10 because you are afraid of the judgement of the world. Jesus tells us He has overcome the world in John 16:33 and He says you are let your light shine! :)

Sanctification

Define sanctification: "To set apart" for a special use or purpose.

Sanctification is a work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God & are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

It means that you become more and more like Jesus and when you become more and more like Jesus, you become more and more set apart. When you are like Jesus, you are becoming the exact opposite of the world... The Word of God has a lot to say about sanctification and how we are to "PUT OFF" the deeds of the flesh and "PUT ON" the Spirit.

Here is a visual....

THE FLESH=
Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, bitterness, wrath, evil speaking, drunkenness

VS>

THE SPIRIT=
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, self-discipline, tenderhearted, forgiving, compassion

The Bible says we are to PUT OFF the flesh and put on the Spirit... ok. Here is the picture. We're girls. When we get ready to go somewhere we typically change shirts a few ok no..several times!! When we take one shirt off and put another on....do we typically leave one sleeve of the first one on? Or maybe the first shirt neck is still hanging? Of course not! There is literally no trace of the first shirt when the new one is put on. THAT is what Paul says our goal should be in Colossians 3:5-11 and again in Ephesians 4:17-32! He says we are to take off the OLD MAN and put on the NEW MAN. 

Now you may be thinking....it is impossible for me to completely get rid of everything that resides in that above list that represents my flesh! and you know what? your right. We will not be perfect until we see Jesus face to face. However, the daily desire and commitment to die to ourself and take up our cross, our choice to not feed the members of our flesh but to take every thought captive and be filled with the Spirit.

1 John 3:2-3 says, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He  is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure."

Living in the reality of Christ's return changes a believer's behavior. Don't you want to be found living in a manner worthy of the Gospel when that day comes? The Bible says those that know and love Jesus "purify" themselves as He is pure in anticipation of that day that shall see Him face to face.

This is sanctification.

A Passion for His Presence

Have you ever realized that we serve a God whose presence is always near to us? A God who is familiar with every thought and feeling we encounter, and a God who, "considers everything we do?" (Psalm 33:13-15). What excitement we find when we realize that He is indeed our Emmanuel...our God with us! It is etched within His character and defined by His Name. He is our always present Lord!

God's Word is filled with verses about God's presence and the extent of His knowledge regarding His children. Psalm 139 says He knows when you sit down and when you rise, your going out and your lying down, your thoughts, and a word before you speak it ( that can be scary :). It says He is " familiar with ALL of your ways!" Now that is something to rejoice about! You serve a God who knows you perfectly and watches over you so closely that He knows when you sit down and when you stand up! Joshua 1:9 says, "...do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

The Lord also reveals to us His ever-present nature through His very Name. He is Emmanuel... " Our God is with us. He is El Roi- " The God who sees. He is Jehovah Shammah- "The Lord is there." He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. THis is interesting; Jireh literally means "to see" So God sees our needs before we are even aware of them and provides for them more perfectly that we could ever imagine! Proverbs 15:3 says, " The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good." Our Jesus Himself left this earth by saying, "...And surely I am with you ALWAYS, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

So how should we respond to this? The only word to describe our response is transformation! When we realize that the presence of the Lord Jesus is with us EVERY moment of our existence, it should CHANGE OUR LIVES! Before we say that quick angry word at a person, remember that He already knows it and is standing right before you. He is always standing right before us: While we're with our friends, while we're alone, while we're with our boyfriends. Would we do or say some of the things we do it we could see the Lord Jesus physically standing before us? Think about it for a minute...because He is that present in our lives. 

Should it not also change the way we pray when we truely realize that our Lord and our Creator is listening to our every word? Job 7:17-18 says, "What is man, that You make so much of Him...that you visit him every morning and test him every moment?" What if we stopped thinking of our quiet times as something to "check off the list of things a good Christian girl does every day" and started truly realizing that we are MEETING WITH JESUS? The same Jesus who was able to heal every disease brought before Him, spiritual or physical, and look straight into the very hearts of those He created and love them perfectly. This is the same Jesus I talk to today. A " visit" from Him every morning as Job put it! May others day the same about us as they did Peter and John- "... they took note that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13). 

So let's pray and ask Him to remind us that He is in our midst and ask Him to change our lives by giving us a passion for His presence!

A Productive Prayer Life

Prayer is all about realizing the real presence of Jesus there with us in the room and coming to realization that He is listening to every word, sees every tear and every smile...and simply yet profoundly...talk to Him.

C.S. Lewis says in his book The Screwtape Letters: once, "the man trusts himself to the completely real, external, invisible Presence there with him in the room and never knowable by him as he is known by it- why, then it is that in incalculable may occur."

When is the last time I have prayed with the realization that the presence of Jesus, the same Jesus who healed the sick, calmed the sea, and paid my price for sin is there WITH ME in the room? I fear a lot of the time I pray with a superficial " check it off my list of things to do today" mentality. Sometimes just repeating things that we have heard growing up in church that we are "supposed" to say when we pray.

We must realize that God KNOWS our hearts. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says, " ...What we are is plain to God..."

God says, " just be YOU! Don't try to act like you don't have any troubles in life. Tell me all your doubts, fears, pains, worries, joys, excitements...you can't hide them from Me because I already know them all.... but I want you to TALK TO ME about them.

In order for our prayer life to change, we have got to believe what He promises in His Word about being & meeting with us even when we can't see, hear, or feel Him.

Look 'em up!!

Proverbs 15:3
James 4:8
Jeremiah 33:3
Matthew 28:20
Psalm 3:4
Mark 1:35- He wants us to come before Him alone and early in the morning.
Psalm 5:3
Psalm 94:8-11
Isaiah 58:9
1 John 5:14-15
Luke 18:1-8- Be persistent in our asking!
Matthew 6:5-8- Jesus says He does not want our vain religious babblings that we sometimes call prayer....He wants us to tell Him our hearts. He wants secret time alone with us as His children...

Are we coming before the Throne of Grace worthy of His attention?

Ecclesiastes 5:2- He wants us to come before Him reverently. Do not come before him flippantly.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 He wants us to come before Him often! Never leaving the throne of grace. Hebrews  4:16 says, " let us draw near WITH CONFIDENCE to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." We must come with a pure, bold, expectant heart.

A few other favorite verses on prayer:

Nehemiah 2:4-5- Nehemiah prayed FIRST, then SPOKE.
Exodus 33:11- The LORD spoke to Moses, " as a man speaks with his friend."

May we have the plea of the disciples simply asking, " Lord, teach us to pray..."

"The Garmets of Salvation..."

Through the months of Jonathan and I being engaged, the Lord began to sweetly teach me of His love and character as I prepared for our wedding. I have wanted to put it into words but have not had the opportunity until now. One of the sweetest memories was as I began dreaming and searching for ....THE dress. While trying on the most beautiful article of clothing I have ever worn....it came. It was sweet. It was quiet. It was a voice that said what Isaiah 61:10-11 so beautifully explains.... 

            

           " He has clothed me with the garmets of salvation. 

              He has covered me with the robe of righteousness..."

Since a wedding is a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ, that dress was a symbol of the purity and righteousness of Jesus being PLACED OVER ME. My sin....my fleshliness....my selfishness....COVERED with the righteousness of Jesus. It is not in my own effort that I  can be like Him...it is something that He does, something that He willingly lays over me. There is no more striving...it is finished, Jesus said. His beautiful, perfect righteousness laid over my sinful, fleshly self. This is how He sees me. Because of this, I view the forgiveness of Jesus differently now. Whenever my sin and my fleshliness are overwhelming and debilitating, I view myself in that white dress....that white dress representing the righteousness of Jesus that HE has placed on me. Forgiven....paid in full....covered in the purity of Jesus.....Praise Him!

-N

The Presence of Jesus

"From Heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on Earth. He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do."                                                                                       Psalm 33:13-15 

Something that the Lord began showing me years ago was the realness of His presence in my life. The fact that He KNOWS me and is constantly watching me is life- changing. Psalm 139 says He knows when I sit down and when I stand up, He knows every word I am going to speak before I speak it, and that He is, "familiar with ALL of my ways."  Proverbs  15:3 says, " the eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good."  This is not something I should take lightly but should be a convicting, life-altering reality in my daily life. Jesus stands before me always and knows everything that I say and do-- shouldn't this make me think before I utter a harsh word or selfishly blow off someone else's needs? He "CONSIDERS everything I do"( Psalm 33 says). I don't know about you, but most days I would like to forget this truth...I am terrified to think that the God of heaven is CONSIDERING every one of my words, thoughts, and actions, and yet some days I do not slow down enough to even consider that He is aware of my behavior. Paul warned the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:54 about the dangers of not recognizing God's presence. He said, "Awake [ from your drunken stupor and return] to sober sense and your right minds, and sin no more. For some of you have not the knowledge of God [you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, lacking the sense of God's presence and all true knowledge of Him]. I say this to your shame." Not only should this be a strong convicting reality in my life to make me more aware of my sinful tendencies, but it should also be a mighty force that causes me to not fear man, to not fear circumstances, and to not fear any other earthly dread. Jesus has already won and He is so present in my life that He literally says I am, " in the shadow of His wings.(Psalm 63:7)" Why should I fear? Joshua 1:9 says, " ...do not be afraid, do not be discouraged for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."  His presence in our life should be convicting, be peace- giving, but also should be simply enjoyed. How I long to be someone who, as Isaiah 58:2 says, "...delights in the nearness of God," and who, " ... comes into His presence with thanksgiving...( Psalm 95:2)." Someone who lives their life as Deuteronomy 12:18 says, "celebrating in the presence of the LORD your God in all you do," and someone who says, " ...in Your presence is fullness of joy...(Psalm 16:11)." Someone who always is mindful that Jesus left this earth saying,“…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”(Matthew 28:20).

Psalm 41:2 says, " You uphold me in my integrity, and You set me in Your presence forever."

Thank you, Jesus

-N