WHY ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

Isaiah 58:6-9  "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked to clothe them, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord  will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I."

Why are you doing what you are doing?  What are you seeking?  Approval from people?  Approval from God?  Are you seeking attention? Or perhaps you're seeking an award?  Are you doing things because you really want to?  Or maybe you're doing things because that is what is expected of you?  It's great to do things for others, it's great helping out and serving, but sometimes we need to search our heart and honestly take an inventory as to what our motives are.  

The way we treat others has an impact on our hearts, our souls and our spirit.  If we're kind to people just because it's expected, that's a false motive.  If we're doing something to get noticed, that's a wrong motive.  When we help someone or serve someone, we need to do it without expecting a "Thank you".  Oh yea it's great to get a "thank you" but make sure you're not doing it just to hear that.  We often feel very disappointed or even angry when we do something and we aren't thanked.  We often feel like, "Well I'll never help them again, I didn't even get a proper thank you."  Sound familiar?  I have heard well meaning people say this and it saddens me.  

Let me explain it this way:  what if God acted the way we do?  What if every time God did something for us and we didn't thank Him, He would throw a fit?  "Well, I'll never bless Debra again, I didn't even get a simple thank you."  Seriously people think about it!!!  What are our motives behind what we are doing?  Is it to honestly help others or is it for our pride?  

Okay maybe I should talk about family, our own flesh and blood family.  Are we so busy helping the  homeless, helping others and giving to others that we neglect our own family?  God clearly states that we are not to turn away from our own family.  "Honor your mother and father" does not say only if they treated you right.  It does not say as long as they were loving parents.  It doesn't say as long as they gave you everything you wanted.  God wants us to treasure our families as dysfunctional, imperfect and as messy as they can be. Sometimes pastors and people in ministry get so involved helping others, they neglect their own families.  

God want us to check our motives.  Why are we doing what we are doing?  To get our name in the paper?  To get your face on the 6 o'clock news?  To get an award you can hang so everyone can see how giving you are?  

Okay now I'm going to challenge you, why aren't you doing what you should be doing?  Why aren't you willing to give up some of your time, money or possessions to help someone else in need out?  Seriously think about that for a moment.  Are you willing to go the extra mile to help someone in need?  Are you willing to give the coat off your back to a homeless man?  Are you willing to forgive someone who may not deserve your forgiveness?  Are you willing to give your last $20.00 to someone who can't afford the groceries they put in their cart?  

God's light will shine forth from us only when we do things with a right motive.  God's love will pour out of us and onto others when we get ourselves off our mind and begin thinking of others first.  There are so many believers living weak, pathetic and pitiful lives because they do things with a wrong motive and a wrong heart attitude.  It's not all about me!  It's about others!  It's about what God wants us to do!  Get rid of our pride!  Get rid of our selfishness!  Check our motives!  

PRAY SCARY PRAYERS

Ephesians 6:18  Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.  Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.  

For way too long, we believers have been praying wimpy, whiny prayers.  I myself have been guilty of this.  I have to really stop and think about my prayers before I pray them, or better yet I write them down.  Sometimes I think my written words are better and more powerful than the words that come from my mouth.  Prayer has always been important to me but when I saw the movie "War Room" it really affected me.  I became driven and determined to change my prayers.  I have watched that movie 10 times and I have read the book almost 3 times.  I have read the book "Fervent" and taken notes and listened to talks on prayer over and over and over again.  The funny thing is that when I was in the middle of all this prayer study, my life was in the middle of change, which ended up distracting me from my prayer journey.

We bought a house, sold a house and moved.  Also I have a new granddaughter (which is a very pleasant distraction). My mind has wandered about as I try to figure out how to rearrange my new flower beds, I have planned for our children's visits, I have cleaned and rearranged furniture and pictures and wall hangings and all the other stuff that goes along with a new home.  The problem is I have been so distracted that I forgot to keep studying and living in prayer.  

Distractions are good sometimes but not so good when they keep me away from my prayer journey.  Slowly but surely I am getting back into a routine, but I have noticed the enemy is distracting me with good things so I will think God is doing this.  But I know now that it's the enemy.  He doesn't want me in my war room.  He wants me distracted and busy.  Why?   Because he knows how powerful prayer is.  He knows that when I pray, God moves mountains.  He knows when I pray in the Spirit, God will make the mountains in my life disappear, and that frightens my enemy.  

I know people think I'm weird or strange, that's okay.  I'd rather watch "The Walton's" type shows instead of "The Office".   I'd rather watch "War Room" for the 11th time instead of watching a suspense filled drama or mystery.  You know it used to bother me when people thought I was strange, I sometimes think my husband my children even think I'm weird, but it doesn't bother me anymore.  I know who I am and who I belong to.  If God wants me to pray in the Spirit, I will.   

Too often some of the religious denominations dismiss the power of the Holy Spirit, seriously!  If I would tell you I pray in tongues, would you believe me?  If I told you that I have experienced the POWER of the Holy Spirit pouring down on me, would you dismiss me?  If I told you I have a gift of discernment, would you cross me off your christmas card list?  Sadly if I talked about the power of praying in the Spirit in some religions, I would laughed right out the door.  The idea of a war room or a prayer closet sounds absurd to many of you.  

For way too long we have over looked the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in each one of us believers.  We have down played His strength and we have dismissed His whispers as nonsense. Listen Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit for a reason and it wasn't for us to have wimpy, pitiful, scared lives.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power of God. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, living inside of us.  Read your Bible!!!  

Our prayers can sound pathetic and scared.  Instead we need to scary prayers.  "God break us of our pride and selfishness."  "God remove every word and thought in my body that does not bring you glory."  "God break my heart for what breaks yours."  "God change me to be more like Jesus."  Do these sound like scared prayers or scary prayers?   You know the enemy does not want me to publish this today.  My computer has randomly shut down about 15 times, I am not joking or exaggerating. I have gotten texts and phone calls.  My washer and dryer keep beeping me.  My husband came in to fill his cup with ice.  It's actually funny how much he has tried to distract me all the time I have been writing this.  

You see Satan knows how powerful the Holy Spirit is and can be if we ever get to the point that we fully tap into that power.  The enemy knows more about the Holy Spirit than we do.  Think about that one for a moment.  Satan is afraid of what will happen if we every fully learn how to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.  Pray scary prayers, not scared prayers.

AFFECTIVE OR INFECTED?

Psalm 1:1-3. Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.  But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

This seems like a no brainer.   The sheer thought of following the wicked or standing around sinners is something that would never cross my mind.  Yet as believers we are called to reach out to the lost and broken?   So this sort of sounds opposite of what Jesus taught, so what does this verse relate to the teachings of Jesus?  After all He hung around sinners and those others considered wicked.  I have a feeling these verses are talking about constantly hanging around the wicked and sinners.   I may be wrong, I may be confused but I don't think so.   You see there is a big difference in following the wicked and just hanging around them.   There is a difference in standing around and joining in with sinners and simply being around them.   The difference here, I believe, is being there so that possibly our beliefs could affect the 

wicked and the sinners and not letting their lifestyles infect our beliefs.  

Am I making sense?   Let's  take a look at our health medically.    You cannot catch health.  If there is someone your around who eats healthy and exercises, you probably won't catch their healthy way of living unless it inspires you.  On the other hand if you are around someone with the flu, you have a great chance of being infected by the flu bug.   Do you get what I'm saying?   I hope so.   

You see when I read these verses it inspires me because when seek the truth of God's word, when we follow His laws, it brings life to us.   It renews us, it refreshes us, it helps us be fruitful in serving Him.  The way we live our everyday life, the way we talk, the way we treat others can influence others in a great way.   The way we handle the storms and trials in our life can also influence others.   The thing we need to remember is we are God's representatives on Earth.  If we act like everyone else, if we act wicked, what is that saying about God?

We need to be around the sinners and wicked but while doing so we need to constantly follow God's law and live like Jesus did.  We need to be a living example of Jesus in a wicked and sinful world.   But in doing so we must never act or feel like we're better than anyone else because we're not!   We are all sinners!  And we can all still be wicked!   But luckily, as believers, we have the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ to forgive us and get us back on the right path.    

Do you want to succeed in life?  Do you want to affect others in a positive way?  Do 
you want your life to change?  Who are you allowing to infect you?   Who are you 
affecting?

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MESS

Proverbs 8:32-35  "So now, children, listen to me!  Blessed are those who keeps my ways.  Heed discipline and be wise, and do not neglect it.  Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For whoever finds me finds  life and obtains favor from Adonai. 

Okay take a good look at this garden in the photo.  This is a photo of one section in my garden.  This undisciplined garden is a mess.  I love a structured garden with every plant in it's place, by surrounded  mulch to keep out the weeds.  As you can clearly see, this garden is far from my vision.  It has been allowed for the last few years to just go wild.  Now some people love a wild flower garden....I do not.  In my mother's words, "it's messy".  I do not like messy!  When I look at my flower garden I see so many endless possibilities of what it could be and how it could look.  I see the potential that is there.  It's just hidden amongst the weeds and various plants that have been allowed to take over with no discipline or structure.

I think God sees us the way I see my flower garden right now.  We are messy!  We are undisciplined! We are running wild!  Okay maybe not all of us are this way but you have to admit that there are times when we run our mouth without thinking.  We do something we know is wrong but we do it anyway.  We know we should do something or say something but we don't.  We know that program we watch on TV is something we shouldn't be watching yet we tune it in every week and even set up our DVR so we won't miss it.  We know that book is full of filth and trash, yet it intrigues us and draws us in.  We know that  homeless man on the street needs a few bucks to grab a burger, but that money is for our cigarettes or beer or designer coffee.  

We know better!  We know the truth of ourselves.  We know we should be better disciplined but discipline can be so painful, not just physically but emotionally.   We don't like to be told what we should and shouldn't do.  We don't want restrictions.  We want to live free and without a care in the world.  If we feel we need to tell someone off, we do it!  If we feel we have the right to seek revenge, we do it!  We do what we feel is right in the moment without thinking or caring about how our words or actions may affect someone else.   Many of us live undisciplined lives!  Our lives are like my garden, a mess.  And to top it off we don't look in the mirror and take an honest look at ourselves.  We don't blame ourselves for the mess we've made of our lives, we blame God. 

"God why did you allow this to happen to me?"  "God why did you allow my life to become such a mess?"  God why didn't you do something to stop me?"  "God where were you?"  "God why did you abandon me?"  "How could a good God allow this to happen?"   Sometimes the answer to these questions is harsh and hard to breathe in but....look in the mirror!  God gave us all a free will.  We can chose to do and say whatever we feel like, but there are consequences!  That's the hardest truth to face is the consequences of our actions and our words.  

Listen I know discipline is not easy but it's much better to learn from our mistakes the first time than to have to learn over and over and over from the same dumb mistakes and sins.  Trust me until begin to listen to wisdom, until we start to heed the whispers from God, until we allow Him to discipline us, our lives will be as  messy or even messier than my garden.  The true beauty of discipline and learning to listen to God's wisdom is that our mess will become beautiful.  

When we allow God to discipline us and prune us and teach us, when we allow God to deal with weeds and the mess in our lives, when we allow God to remove the mess....we will have beauty.  This plant has been disciplined. The weeds have been removed, the mess has been removed and because of that, the true beauty of these flowers can now be seen.  Trust me, it was not easy, it was hard work and actually painful at times, but the reward is so worth it.  Just look at how beautiful these flowers are.  If there were weeds, we couldn't see the flowers. 

What beauty are you hiding behind your weeds?  Are you willing to allow God's discipline so that your true beauty will shine?  God will bless those who listen to Him.  God's favor is waiting for those who seek Him.  Life, a blessed life is waiting for those who breathe in His discipline and learns from it.   Listen life is hard enough, why not try it God's way?  You don't know what you're missing.  When I truly began learning and listening to God's whispers, my life changed dramatically.  When I truly breathed in and learn from God's discipline my heart changed.  Was it easy?  No.  It was ugly, it was messy, it was hard, but it was so worth it, still is.  Yes I am still allowing God to discipline me and prune me and remove the weeds that hide my true beauty.  

God's favor and blessings are available for you today, are you willing to risk the potential pain and discomfort? 

I'M TIRED OF LIVING LUKEWARM. ARE YOU?

Revelation 3:16  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth.    

Now stop and think about it before you answer the question above.  Seriously think about your answer because either way you answer will affect your life and infect your soul.  I don't know about you but I am tired of living a lukewarm life.   Are you?  For some of us this lukewarm lifestyle is comfortable.  We go to church on the weekend, we may pray at night or in the morning, but as far as really getting involved with God on a daily basis, reading His word, meditating on His word, learning from His word and actually getting off our high horse and allowing Him to change us, well that's just a little too radical for us.   Creating a prayer closet our home?  Well that's just wasting good space.  

We go to church and say we believe yet we're living with our boyfriend or girlfriend.  We read our Bibles yet we read romance novels and other books that glorify sin.  We pray  for God to help us, yet we don't allow Him to change us.  We ask for forgiveness yet are unwilling to forgive others.  Do you get where I'm going here?  Trust me I have drifted into the lukewarm area of Christianity many times, but this verse always bring me back to my senses.  

Spew - to discharge or eject the contents of the stomach; to vomit; to cast forth, or eject as with disgust or anger.   I do not want God to spew me out of His mouth.  Do you?  

Do you like lukewarm drinks or food?  No!  No one does.  It tastes so much better if the food that's supposed to be hot, is hot and if the food that's supposed to be cold is cold.  Drinks that are lukewarm is positively gross, at least to me.  I do not like warm ice cream or warm hamburgers.  I do not like warm coffee or warm slushies.  Lukewarm is mediocre.  I don't want to eat that way and I certainly don't want to live that way.  I am tired of it.  Are you?  When will we ever learn?  When will we ever get a grasp on the truth of this verse.  When will we ever accept the reality that God does not like lukewarm Christianity?


Okay let's be honest honest here...we do not want to face truth about our life.  We do not want to admit that we are lukewarm.  We want to say we're red hot on fire for God, yet are we willing to give up the garbage in our life?  Are we willing to give up what we are reading?  Are we willing to give up what we are watching?  Are we willing to give up some of our buddies at the local bar?  Are we willing to stop complaining and whining?   Are we willing to totally, I mean TOTALLY surrender to God?  

For a while now I feel like I have been living lukewarm.  I've made excuses for myself because we moved a couple months ago.  To be honest, I lost my focus.  Oh yea I got it back occasionally but not for long.  Something else always popped up that needed my attention.   There was always something that needed to be done, or so I thought.  Last night I had a wake up call for myself....lukewarm is mediocre and I do not want to live a mediocre life any longer.  

I allowed the enemies lies, schemes and strategies to distract me and steal joy.  Lukewarm just seemed so comfortable.  No ruffled tail feathers, no one getting offended, no drama, no tears.  But in all the things I didn't have to deal with because of my lukewarm attitude, I also missed out on the joy, the peace and the thrill of being red hot, on fire for Jesus Christ.  So watch out world, I'm back!!!

Are you hot or cold?  Are you lukewarm?  Get up and fight to become all God wants you to be.  Stop living a mediocre life.  Stop compromising.  Stop allowing the enemy to lie to you.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation.  The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

As I sit here in my new home I glance outside and become overwhelmed.  Why?  Well this new home we purchased comes with a variety of gardens and flower beds.  I am struggling because these gardens are the sort of gardens I am not used to.  I am used to a structured garden where every flower has it's place.  Well these gardens were not planted by me.  When the flowers began popping up I was curious.  Then I noticed a large variety of these plants and flowers popped up wherever they wanted to and spread throughout the gardens.  No structure at all, no pattern.  This is a control issue for me.  I want to be in control of this garden and I can't.

Spring is a time here in Michigan that I love.  All thing start to come alive.  The old dead leaves are gone, new ones are opening.  The dried up flowers left over from the winter freeze is being replaced by a fresh new flower.  The hard surface of the ground begins to break anitiesway to allow new life to burst forth from below.  New life, new beginnings, new start.  The harshness of the winter freeze is gone (well almost).  The season of hibernation is done.  

The thing about spring that amazes me is that for months these flowers, these plants, these trees appeared dead.  There was no life in them at least that is the way it appeared to the naked eye.  But if we were able to look underneath the surface, deep down below, we would probably see the roots growing stronger and going deeper in search of nourishment.  The struggle of plants and trees in the winter is real and yes sometimes the harshness and bitterness of winter can kill even the hardiest of trees and plants.  Sometimes the cold is too much for the even the perennial plants and flowers that were created to withstand this weather.  

Spring, new life, a rebirth if you will, means another chance, another opportunity to make things brighter and better.  Without fall and winter, there would be no spring, no summer.  I love the 4 seasons here in Michigan because it gives me a chance to witness the miracle of life and death.  It allows me to appreciate the spring and summer months.  It allows me to rest from my gardening ( ha ha).  Seriously the anticipation of new life with new possibilities intrigues me and challenges me.  

New life!  New challenges!  New opportunities!  Getting rid of the old in my garden is as important as getting rid of the old me, the me I used to be.  I have a new life, new challenges and new opportunities to grow and allow God to redirect me.  As a believer, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I became a new Debra.  I allowed God to redefine who I am and who I want to be.  I allowed God to transform me and change me.  No it wasn't always easy.  And at times it was painful.

The books I read suddenly became more important.  The shows I watched on TV became more challenging to me.  My choice of music impacted me more.  And if I can be honest, my choice of friendships also changed.   The old books were given away.  The old TV shows I used to watch became a thing of the past.  My music became more of the new Christian music.  By allowing God to change what I what I watched, what I read and what I listened to, this also began to change my mind and my words.

I am becoming a new creation, a new Debra.  Yes I am still becoming.  I will continue this process until the day I am in eternity with Jesus Christ.  You see when I began really believing in Jesus Christ, I got rid of the old garbage that held me back and weighed me down.  I became more peaceful, more happy, more content.  I became the me God called me to be.  

Today I challenge you all to surrender control of your life totally to God.  Allow Him to redefine who you are and who you were meant to be.  Allow Him to get rid of the old garbage, the pain, the bitterness, the anger, the guilt and the lies of the past.  Allow Him to shine His light through you and put a sparkle back into your eyes and peace in your heart. 

REACH OUT AND TOUCH

 

Mark 1:40-42  A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."  Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man.  "I am willing," He aid.  "Be clean!"  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Compassion, the kind of compassion Jesus had here is not a feeling, it is a verb, at least in my simple mind.  Sure the compassion may have started out as a feeling, but then Jesus put His compassion to work.  He didn't just sit there feeling sorry for the man with leprosy, He reached out to him, He touched him.  He did this before the man was healed.  This man still had the disease that frightened everyone away.  This man used to have to yell, "Unclean, unclean" as he walked around.  If he was in town, people avoided him and ran in the other direction for fear they would get what he got.  

I can imagine him walking through the crowd to get to Jesus yelling "Unclean, unclean".  As he pushed his way through the crowd of people yelling unclean, the crowd had to part.  Parents, I imagined, grabbed their children in fear.  No one wanted to even be within arms reach of this man with leprosy, yet Jesus reached out and touched him.  His arms and hands were full of sores and scabs.  His clothing was basically rags and filthy dirty.  Lord knows the last time this man had a bath.  I'm sure the odor from him was quite rank.  Yet, Jesus reached out and touched him before he was healed.  

Who are the unclean people in our lives we are afraid of touching?   Who is it in our little area of the world we are afraid to reach out to?  Are there people in our path we avoid?  Are there people we have compassion for, but don't do anything about?   Is our compassion just a feeling?  We feel sorry for people?  We pity people?  We're sympathetic for people's circumstances?  Yet we're not willing to reach out and touch them?  Seriously?  

Think about it for a moment, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Our words and actions should reflect our Savior's words and actions.  To be honest with you, we ain't doin' to well is we?  I know the thought of reaching out to some people and touching some people may be difficult, it is for me, but we need to!  

Some of our churches are so busy counting their numbers and making sure every one is dressed appropriately and acting according to the rules, that the lepers of our day do not feel welcome.  Some of our "religions" ostracize outsiders to the point of exhaustion.  Some of us believers stare at people who don't fit into our church doctrine.   Some of our churches don't risk going out into the community to reach out to the homeless, not to even begin to mention the addicted and the broken people of  our own community.  "That's up to the government to take of those people."  

You know there are some believers who put down the mega churches, but I have belonged to a mega church before and that church was always reaching out to the community as well as to the world.  In that church and my church now, a leper would be welcome.  In fact, my pastor would be one of the first to reach out and touch that leper.  Then he'd grab a some of us members and we would pray over the leper.  

Who are the lepers you are avoiding?  Why?  Listen I figure it this way, if Jesus can reach out and touch, so can I.  By doing a "Party in the Park" in one of the poorest and scariest areas in our area, we have reaching out and touching.  By bringing Christmas presents to a poor area in Toledo, we are reaching out and touching.  By supporting a ministry that ministers not only to the homeless but also those just out of prison, we are reaching out and touching,  By taking time away from our families at Christmas to volunteer at Share the Warmth so that the homeless in our area have a shelter to keep them warm at night , we are reaching out and touching.

Stop trying to avoid the lepers in your path.  Be the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus by reaching out and touching hearts.