New Life

At the beginning of summer, I bought a hibiscus at Costco. It was on clearance because all of the flowers had fallen off, but it was a full tree-looking plant with a braided trunk and I thought it would look great in our living room.

As the weeks went by, more and more leaves turned yellow and fell off. By the time I figured out what it was – it was spider mites – the plant was just bare sticks.

I thought it was dead, but I decided to put it out on the back porch.

Suddenly one day, I noticed buds forming on the plant and soon new leaves were shooting up all over. Before I knew it, it was full of bigger, healthier leaves than before. Then a beautiful blossom opened up, then another and another.

This once dead-looking pathetic excuse for a plant was now this flowering, full-leaved beautiful sight.

All I could think of as I looked at this creation made anew was how great God is. What being out on the porch in the sun and the rain did to this plant is what He does to us.

God can take a beaten-down, broken wretch of a human being and turn it into a glorious new creation, filled with life and purpose and love. He takes something ugly and dead and turns it into something beautiful and alive.

All we have to do is turn to Him and accept His love.

If you want to learn more, check out a site such as Not Religion to help you get started.

Have you ever felt like this?

Most people face this same struggle as Dilbert on a daily basis. Do we do the right thing and receive no recognition, or do we seek to gain the acceptance and recognition we all desire?

When we choose to follow Jesus Christ, our perspective changes. We now have placed God at the head of our lives, seeking His approval and His alone.

When we remember this, we know that doing the right thing never goes unrecognized, for He sees all that we do and we will be accountable to Him alone for those choices.

It is so freeing to know that we do not need to go through life struggling to gain acceptance from people, who are fickle and will never be pleased.

Our Father in Heaven loves us so much that He sent his Son to free us from our sin and restore our relationship with Him. He forgives all we do and accepts us as we are.

We no longer have to struggle will feeling like our good acts go unnoticed by an uncaring boss, competitive co-workers, busy parents, or anyone else in this world, for we know that the only one we need to place our focus on sees our every move. And no matter what we do – even when we fail – we can never lose His favor.

An e-mail from God

In our typically busy lives, sometimes God gets squeezed out, even if for a short period of time. I love God. I think about Him all of the time, but sometimes I run out of hours in the day and find that I haven’t made any real time for Him – reflecting on His Word and spending time in prayer.

One great way to keep God’s Word in the forefront is to have a verse of the day e-mailed to your inbox. I always check my e-mail and the first one I see every morning is my “e-mail from God,” as I call it. It is like He is sending me words of wisdom and encouragement every morning.

I know that sounds cheesy, but I look forward to His e-mail each morning. I take a few moments – longer if I can – to think about how the verse speaks to my life.

There are many websites that offer this feature. I use air1.com.

Today’s verse is:

Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety.
Proverbs 29:25 NLT

In an increasingly busy world, it important for us to find creative ways to keep God’s Word at the forefront of our mind. Why not sign-up to receive His Word in your inbox every morning?

Happy Fourth of July

On my political blog, I frequently complain about the ways in which the government is taking away our rights and freedoms.

It is important that I remind myself that true freedom – the freedom that comes from being a follower of Jesus Christ – cannot be taken away by any government.

Remember that on this Independence Day.

Who are these people?

I always hear about people who say that they do not believe in Christianity because the basic premise is that we are all imperfect and not good enough for God without His forgiveness and these people do not believe that they are not good enough, so they reject Christianity.

I find myself wondering, who are these people??

I do not know a single person, including myself, who feels “good enough.” I do not know a single person who does not feel bad about something they did or are doing, something they said, something they didn’t say, the way they acted, the way they treat others, who they’ve slept with, who they’ve hurt, the list goes on.

Who are these people who feel like they are just fine the way they are?

For the rest of us, those who struggle to accept the mistakes we have made and continue to make, there is consolation in knowing that no matter what you have done, what you are doing, or what you will do, God knows about it all, down to the depths of your soul, and He still wants you.

In fact, if you were the only person willing to accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only one willing to accept His forgiveness, He would have still come to earth and died for you.

If you are anything like me, that is hard to believe. To this day, I still find it hard to believe that the same God who created the heavens and the earth finds me worthy of His love. But it is true.

I was so skeptical about Jesus because I was raised to distrust organized religion. God spoke to me through a song that I heard on Air 1 and I began to dig deeper. As I read information on-line and in books, including the Bible, God began to show himself to me in a variety of ways. It was just amazing.

The only thing more amazing is the freedom that comes with being forgiven for my sins. I feel like I got a new life. That must be what they mean by “born again.”

More amazing still is the relationship that I have with God now. I know that I can come to Him with my troubles and He will comfort me. He really is an amazing God.

If you find yourself longing for a relationship with Jesus, just ask Him now to come into your life. Accept His free gift to you – forgiveness. How much better will you feel knowing that everything you have done has been washed away?

You don’t have to do any special prayer, just talk to Him like you would a friend. He is always listening. Bear you heart to Him and He will heal you.

Un-perfect people wanted

I was reading the Air 1 verse of the day this morning and it got me thinking about the “Christians” who are always condemning other people’s lifestyles and damning them to hell. Unfortunately, those are the Christians who make it into the news, etc. and impress upon non-Christians that that is how our religion is.

That is not how I understand my God. If one must lead a “perfect” life in order to become a follower of Jesus Christ, then what did He die for? Don’t these judgmental Christians understand that they are trivializing the very sacrifice made by our Savior?

Jesus died so that we would be washed clean of all our sins – past, present, and future – so that we could have our relationship with God restored. That is a pretty big deal, huge. It means that no matter what you have done, are doing, or will do, Jesus Christ wants you. He wants to have a relationship with you. Your sins are forgiven and you are clean in His eyes and the eyes of the Father.

If you are a broken, lost individual, He still wants you. You do not have to conform to some ideal set by the church establishment. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus criticized the Pharisees for doing when He was on earth. They made their idea of what God wanted more important than God himself.

When Jesus was on earth, He mended broken people and reached out to the “sinners” and the lost. He still does that. Jesus is still very much alive today and He wants to have a relationship with you.

So if Jesus wants sinners and we do not have to be living a moral life to seek Him, then what is the deal with all those commandments?

When you open your heart and begin to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ a remarkable thing happens. He changes your heart, which in turn changes your actions.

I am so healed by Jesus’ love, I want to please Him and not only that, but I want to show that love to others. I am amazed at how I find myself treating people who I strongly disliked and discounted before I met Jesus.

My heart is so transformed. I just want to share Jesus’ love with everyone I meet. But most people do not want to hear about Jesus, so I just show them the love myself. I think about how Jesus would treat this person; how would He help this person? Many times, He tells me or shows me what to do. It is truly amazing. He is truly amazing.

The verse of the day I referred to above comes from 2 Peter 1:3. The New Living Translation of the Bible says, “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.”

We don’t need to meet a certain standard to have Jesus in our life, but once we let Him in, our lives will change forever.

If it's good enought for Blair, it's good enough for me

So often in my busy life, I do not make enough time for prayer. I feel bad, not because I think that I am disappointing God or that I will lose my place in heaven, but because I need Him and I want to take the time to talk to Him, to praise Him, and to ask for His help with my troubles. I need to lean on God when I am struggling with my day-to-day life, but it is so often those struggles that keep me from making the time for Him.

The other day I got the book, The Busy Mom’s Guide to Prayer, by Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair Warner on “The Facts of Life.” In it she describes how she overcame this problem by making a journal of prayer notes – things she wanted to pray for – and became a prayer warrior my taking small bits of time to pay for these matters. The book is a journal with lots of scripture and prayer prompts divided into categories for each day. There is also plenty of room to write down your own notes and prayers.

Busyness is one of the tools that the Evil One uses to keep us distant from God. We need Him and He wants us, but the Evil One does everything he can to keep us apart. This book, or your own prayer notebook or journal, is a great tool to keep yourself on track with your prayerful relationship with God.

I Need You to Love Me

I was listening to the song “I Need You to Love Me,” by BarlowGirl on Air 1 today. The thing I hate about songs like that is that a young girl who doesn’t know that it is about Jesus would totally get the wrong message. It sounds like the cry of a woman desperate for a man’s love. “I don’t deserve you, but I need you to love me.” Yikes! Can you say “dysfunction”?

That got me thinking about how we as women are always turning to men to validate us and make us feel worthy. As men though, as humans, they are never able to fulfill us. They are not perfect. They will screw up, they will hurt us. Some more than others, but even a great guy is still an imperfect human being who will make mistakes that will break our hearts. As long as we look to them to fill us, we will never become full.

I did a book group with some other women on the book, Captivating, by John and Stasi Eldredge. That book is a real eye-opener to the issues we face as women trying to feel, well, captivating.

There is only One who can ever make us feel worthy. As the song says, He’s “a God who has all things and still [He] want[s] me.” Think about that for a minute. The God that created the heavens and the earth cares so much about you. He wants you. He loves you.

Even more amazing is that He knows everything you have ever done. Even the things that you are so ashamed of that you have never told anyone else. And He still loves you.

There is no man that will ever be able to give you that kind of love.

My husband is a great man, but there are times when he is emotionally distant. That can be so hurtful. Now that I understand that I can always turn to Jesus in times like that, I no longer experience the hurt that I once did when I feel like my husband is not there for me in the way I want him to be.

I was not created to be filled by him. I was created to be filled by Him.

My Testimonial

I'm getting baptized soon and I had to write a testimonial of my journey. Here it is:

When I was growing up, I always felt like I had an aching hole in my heart that could never be filled. I thought it was because I never knew my father, who chose his drug habit over his family and left when I was a baby.

In my teen years, I turned to alcohol and men to try and fill that void, but of course, that only made me feel worse. When I wasn’t caught up with partying and bad relationships, I threw myself into what ever I was doing and turned into an overachiever.

I became pregnant during a bad relationship phase in my junior year of college. I felt hopeless and alone. Looking back, I can see how God made several attempts to reach me, but I was too busy with school and single-parenthood to pay attention.

I wouldn’t say I had a bad life. I turned things around for myself and started living a more moral life. I stopped partying and developed a healthy attitude toward relationships with men. I was a “good person,” yet I still felt so much guilt and shame for all of the things that I’d done in my youth. I kept myself too busy to think about it too much, but that feeling of inadequacy was always there.

I was looking for a radio station one day that my husband had told me about and accidentally stopped on the Christian music station Air 1. I wanted the kids to stop listening to the popular radio station because of the inappropriate language, so I decided that even though we were not Christians, we would try out this station for a while. We listened for months. I knew the words to most of the songs, but I was still not a Christian. I wasn’t even interested in becoming one.

Then one day, one of the songs grabbed me. The line said, “I exist for You.” I remember thinking, “What is it about Jesus that could make someone say such a bold statement as ‘I exist for You’?” With that, I started to learn more about Jesus. I remained skeptical for some time, but the more I sought Him the more He showed Himself to me.

I don’t know exactly when, but I eventually learned to turn to Jesus when I felt sad or alone or worthless or guilty. I experienced His love for me and felt His forgiveness. Now, even when I don’t feel Him, I have faith that He is there. I finally have forgiveness for and freedom from my past mistakes. Now that I have had this burden lifted, I can live my life with a greater purpose – to follow and serve Jesus Christ.

We're Sorry

I was reading a blog yesterday that had a lot of anti-Christian comments. Not just anti-Pat Robertson or anti-Fred Phelps, but a total hatred of all Christians. I was sad that people have such a bad opinion of Christians.

Then later on, I was reading a message board that is Christian and I could not believe how many of the Christians on that board represented the self-righteous, holier-than-thou, God-loves-us-but-not-you type of Christians that everyone hates.

No wonder so many people dislike Christians. So many Christians give everyone a reason to hate us.

I had never in the course of my life had a bad personal experience with Christians, but that is largely because I went through most of my life not knowing any Christians. I was raised in a religiously sterile home. My mother had had such a damaging experience with religion, that she swore it off and never shared a single iota of her spiritual beliefs with me. We celebrated Easter and Christmas as purely secular holidays and I never, ever went to a church. I knew nothing about God.

Within the last couple of years I have had many personal encounters with God and I am now a Christian, but I came to that through a much different avenue than most people. It’s not about religion, it about a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not a Christian because I think I am perfect, I am a Christian because I know that I am so far from perfect that sometimes I find it hard to forgive myself, but Jesus will always offer me forgiveness. And I know that God loves me and wants to be a part of my life even though He knows that I will never be perfect.

When I was first curious about Christianity, my neighbor lent me the book, Son of a Preacher Man, written by Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Now there is someone who has every reason to hate Christians for being self-righteous and casting out their own when someone makes a mistake. Yet after a long battle with addiction, he was able to find his way back to Jesus because it is about Christ, not this religion called Christianity. Jay Bakker and some others started a church called Revolution. It’s interesting stuff. Check it out. This is what it means to me to be a Christian.