Crucifixion

God afternoon and Merry Christmas Family,

I can't seem to get away from this theme but Jesus truly was our example. This means in order to understand how I should function as a Christian all I need do is study His life as written in the Word of God.

I remember when we went as a family to go see the movie The Passion. I felt a bit odd because I didn't really want to cry, though I was struck to the core by the depth of Jesus' suffering for us. Instead I was a grimly elated. Jesus paid it all for me so I wouldn't have to.

I remember thinking, "I'm glad Jesus died. I'm glad He suffered. I'm glad for every stripe, every mocking word, every humiliation He suffered. I'm glad He went to the cross!" I'm still glad.

Oh, how I love my Jesus, but there was no other way for my sin to be paid for. If there was the Father would have told Him. It was either me or Jesus. Am I glad that it was my sin that He had to suffer for? Oh no, but my sin was pretty much a done deal and someone was going to die for it. Again, I am grimly elated and grateful that He was the one.

I say grimly because Jesus died not only for my sin but as an example to me. Somewhere, somehow I will be expected to suffer for someone else. No, my suffering will not pay for their sin. Only Jesus could have done that. But I can, and will be called often, to lay down my life so someone else can have the opportunity to be blessed. So will you dear one.

From giving money away that we wanted to spend on ourselves or actively, generously, and aggressively loving those who treat us badly, we will all encounter these crucifixion moments.

Like Jesus, we will all at once, have a choice and no choice at all. None of us are forced to be nailed to the cross, yet for those who are truly His, how can we do anything else but our Father's will?

The reality is we will love and forgive so many, but the majority will reject the kind sacrifices we make in His name. Yet, we keep taking up our cross for the few, even the ONE, who will see Christ in our willingness to put them before ourselves.

I'm glad He gave up His life for me.

May someone somewhere, somehow, be able to say...

....I'm glad Lauren gave up her life for me.

Stay in Prayer and in the Word and have the best Christmas ever!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren

Prosperity?

God Evening Family,

Having money does not mean you are prosperous. You are not blessed because you have material wealth, business success, or the respect of the multitudes.

Like wise you are not impoverished because you lack financial security.

The word prosper (prosperity, prosperous, prospered) really is an Old Testament word. In the New Testament we only find prosper and prospereth used once in 3 John 2,

Beloved, I wish above all things that thous mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth...

and prospered used in 1 Cor 16:2,

Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him...

In each of these scriptures the Greek word euodoo is used. This word does mean success in business affairs in a figurative sense. But the main definition is simply, help on the road.

I'm finally learning that true wealth has nothing to do with how many zeroes are at the end of a number. True wealth is not found in what you possess but in who possesses you. It's not in who you know but who you put your trust in. Who is helping you along the way makes all the difference.

Jesus became poor that we might become rich. What does that mean? When Jesus hung on the cross His fellowship with the Father through the Holy Spirit was broken. This is true poverty. But Jesus was willing to pay the price that through His suffering we might all receive the treasure of God with us. The Holy Spirit is the grace of life that enables us to excel beyond our own earthly and fleshly limitations.

Riches are not money...true riches are inside information. It's almost like cheating. We don't have to figure out everything ourselves the way the heathen do. We need first

to be in relationship with the Holy Spirit and second be listening for His slightest whisper. There is no value in wracking your brain and burning the midnight oil in worry. God favors those who are devoted to His Spirit and understand without Him they can do nothing.

God's people perish for lack of knowledge needlessly. He who holds all knowledge hungers for eager students. He will give help to any who will trust Him...and wait.

Let us say we are prosperous because He is our help. Let us say we are blessed we trust Him who has all knowledge. Let us say we are rich because He loves us and gave us His Spirit....our Helper on the road.

...For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God...1 Cor 10:4-5 KJV

Stay in Prayer and in the Word!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren

The Holy Spirit

God Afternoon Family,

This bears repeating in the light of the coming Christmas Season.

The Holy Spirit is so awesome. He truly is God with us. He is waiting, anticipating the moment when we will realize HE IS PRESENT. He longs for the one who will acknowledge Him and inquire of Him. It is the one that says "Teach me Holy Spirit" that causes His heart to leap with joy.

We go through our lives so hurried and distracted. We just breeze past the Holy Spirit, and sometimes trample over Him, to do what we think is best. He is so humble. He just picks Himself up brushes off our footprints and waits some more.

Oh how He loves us Family! He so wants to help us. Softly He speaks, barely over a whisper, the words that would take us to that place of blessing. We hear but we do not hear. Then after our lives fall apart because of our way of doing things we accuse God of not helping.

He is here! He is ever present! He desires to see us blessed more than we do. But He has a way. He will not shout, or force His way in. He is love and love waits to be invited.

Our Jesus died that we may know Him intimately. Even when He walked this earth no one had such a great privilege. Then, He could only be known in a crowd. But now His Spirit dwells IN US. He is Emmanuel...GOD WITH US! Yet we barely take notice...

How meek and gentle He is to wait for a people so stupid. How merciful the Father that He doesn't destroy us for treating The Holy Spirit like a pair of dirty socks.

Let us seek Him while He can be found Family. He waits and waits....

He will not wait forever.


Then she said, "Samson, the Philistines are here!"
He woke up and thought, "I'll leave as I did before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him. Judges 16:20 (NCV)

Stay in Prayer and in the Word.

Love in Our Lord,

Lauren

Glory to Glory

God Morning Family,

It really cracks me up whenever I hear someone preaching about going "from glory to glory" and the people start shouting, cheering, and clapping. I'm no party pooper, but I don't think many

are really studying their Bibles. When the man or woman of God begins to preach that we will go from glory to glory or victory to victory I want to shout "don't forget to tell what happens in the in-between!". If people really understood the in-between they're response would be a little more sober and alot more reflective.

First let's remember that Jesus Christ was our example as well as our Master. He walked it out so we could know what it would look like.

First when Jesus came to this earth He gave up His glory. He gave up His rights, privileges, and His own will. The glory to glory walk begins with choosing to do find and do the will of God to the exclusion of all else. Good ideas (my desires, opinions, and will) pale in comparison to God ideas.

Second Jesus was willing to endure disapproval (from even His family) criticism, and hate in order to do His Father's will. He focused on His mission even though it made Him a very unpopular person.

Third when it came time to finish His mission, to do the hard thing, He didn't shrink back. He went to His Father in prayer, was honest about His resistance to God's plan, and stayed in prayer until He was strengthened to obey.

Fourth He suffered mentally and physically. Falsely accused, deserted by those closest to Him, beaten, tortured, and hung on a cross without hope of rescue. This was God's will and it was no party.

Fifth He died. He looked like a failure. To everyone who heard His words it was as victory died with Him, but they simply lacked understanding. Man does not define success the way God does and in our way of thinking a victorious battle should never include our death. But to God the death of one righteous obedient man leads to the salvation of the multitudes.

Sixth He resurrected. The power of the Holy Spirit brought this God-Man to life. Death had no power over Him.

Finally He ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father and came into all glory and power.

This is our pattern family and there is no way around it. The righteous will indeed go from glory to glory, and many times. But the in the in-between there are great trials and suffering, death even,whether it be to the flesh or a real dying and going to be with the Lord.

Do not faint, nor lose heart in the in-between, glory and reward is in His hands.

"Yes, I'm on my way! I'll be there soon! I'm bringing my payroll with me. I'll pay all people in full for their life's work. I'm A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion. Revelation 22:12 (The Message)

Stay in the Word and in Prayer!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren

Passion

God Afternoon Family,

I have an ax to grind if you don't mind.

I'm not too fond of the church's current definition of passion.

There is a popular teaching that says in order to discover God's purpose in your life find out what you have a passion for. This in itself is not wrong but the way most Christians define passion goes something like this,

Whatever you love doing or thinking about...whatever consumes you...whatever makes you feel good...that's your passion.

May I say that is an accurate definition for anything that excites the flesh. I love overeating sweets, staying up late and watching t.v., spending weeks at an expensive resort in Maui doing nothing but being waited on, and buying whatever I want at the mall. This is my passion.

There are 3 times the word passion is used in the Bible. James 5:17 and Acts 14:15 use passion in reference to the natural man and his inclination toward fickle emotions, temptations, and weaknesses.

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. James 5:17 KJV

Acts 1:3 uses the word passion to describe the suffering and death Jesus endured in obedience to the will of His Father.

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God...Acts 1:3 KJV

The Strong's Concordance defines passion in Acts 1:3 as Sensation or Impression (Usually painful.)

Jesus said His meat (source of strength, satisfaction, fulfillment) was to do His Father's will...even to the point of death. The fact that He wept blood in the garden of Gethsemane and asked His Father to let that particular cup pass from Him, tells me His flesh, in no way, felt good about the suffering He was about to endure. Yet, through prayer, He was strengthened to obey.

In my 14 years of salvation it's a pretty rare occurrence that God tells me to do something that makes me feel good and excites my flesh. Maybe it's just me, but God usually makes me do something I don't want to do. In the long run I'm glad I obeyed but initially I generally find that the will of God for me is not much fun and takes me way out of my comfort zone.

Passion.

There is one thing and one thing only that should satisfy a Christian, that should eat away at us until we are nearly insane, that should consume us until we burn...

To find out and then do the will of the one who died for us...no matter the pain it causes us.

This is passion.
Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work...John 4:34 NLT

Stay in prayer and in the Word!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren

Wilderness

God Evening Family,

This morning as I prayed I felt such a desire to cry out for God's tangible presence to be with me always. But then I sensed a question.

"Why do you want my presence?"

My answer seemed reasonable, at first. When I'm lost in His presence I'm nicer, wiser, happier, and stronger. Being in His presence is like living in the eye of a storm. All around is chaos but in the center is his peace. Life is easier in His presence, I prefer that to struggling.

Suddenly I realized how self-centered my desire for more of God was. I want more of God, not because He is so wonderful, but because He makes me look wonderful. I want Him near, not because He is my all consuming joy but because He makes my life more bearable. My hunger for God has a form of godliness but God has a way of getting to the truth doesn't He?

It is true that when God's presence manifests in our lives it is His goodness that allows such a blessing.

It is equally true that when we can't feel Him it is His goodness that allows that as well.

When we do not feel God we realize how corrupt our attitudes, motives, and desires really are. We cry out for the anointing but what we really need is mortification. Somehow the anointing covers up our filthy flesh, and yet it still lives. God doesn't want the flesh prettied up with His anointing. He wants the flesh dead. Therefore it is a greater goodness to leave us in the dry wilderness to die to ourselves.

In the dry wilderness we are anything but beautiful and God seems have abandoned us, yet He is nearer to us than ever. We can't feel Him or hear Him, but He's watching over us as carefully as a mother her sick children. Just as despair would swallow us up He comes, reassuring us He is there. Once we are comforted He withdraws again.

It is not enough for Him that He covers up our perversity. He wants us clean through and through, holy, just like Him. In the wilderness we are changed...if we endure.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:26-28 (The Message)

Stay in prayer and in the Word!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren

Fruitbearing

God Afternoon Family,

I am amazed at how often I forget how utterly stupid I am without God. Of course I ought not be amazed...it is because I am stupid that I do forget I know nothing unless the Holy Spirit reveals it.

This past few weeks God has been dealing with me concerning my character. If you ever watch the show The Office you should be familiar with Dwight. He has a hunger for authority and doesn't mind intimidating people to get his way. He is arrogant, overbearing, and thinks more highly of himself than anyone should. I'm something like that...or at least I was.

Lately God has been dealing with me concerning the fruit of the Spirit, which I've never taken very seriously. When I think of fruit I tend to think in terms of numbers of people who I lead, work I've accomplished, sacrifice. This is where the stupid part comes in...I rarely think in terms of this scripture,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Gal 5:22-23 NKJV

I've been saved 14 years and it took all of it for God to get me to the place where I finally understand that the end does not justify the means. Bullying people to accomplish God's will is not God's will. I may get the job done but when I think in terms of reward loss somehow it takes the sweetness out of the success.

Let me explain. God desires that men fear him not one another. Therefore if I intimidate people into doing what I say, then they do what they do as unto me, not as unto the Lord. Because they obeyed me out of fear and not a sincere desire to honor God they lose their reward. The work was accomplished but the worker labored in vain.

I am a leader in God's kingdom. I take my responsiblity for God's people seriously. If I intimidate others into fearing me above God I have caused them to sin. I have sinned. This realization has caused me to pause in my walk with God.

Without love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, etc...I am a tree without fruit and good for nothing except to be cursed by God. I am a Pharisee, the blind leading the blind.

But yet God loves me and bore with me these past 14 years until I could understand. Therefore I refuse to waste time in regret. He didn't bring me this far to leave me now. It's His will that I go forward and He will lead the way. I've confessed my sin and now He will bless Me to live a life that brings honor to Him. It's fruitbearing time!

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. Phil 3:13-14 (The Message)

Stay in prayer and in the Word!

Love in our Lord,

Lauren