God Will "Make Us Pancakes", No Matter What.

In this world, we put conditions on everything we do. Think about it. If our husband calls us darling, we’ll make him pancakes. If we work, we get paid. (If we work, we can pay the bills, feed and clothe our family, and an endless list of other things.) If we go the speed limit, we won’t get a ticket. If we consume less food, we lose weight. (If we consume more food, we gain wait.) If we love our spouse in the right way, we will be loved the way we think we should be loved. (That’s a little complicated at times, but that’s how we think of it, anyway.) If we clean the house, it will smell good. If we follow the recipe, the food will turn out right. If, if, if . . .

I think sometimes in this conditional world, we tend to forget that God’s love is UNCONDITIONAL. We don’t have to “call God darling” in order for Him to “make us pancakes.” In fact, it’s quite the opposite. With God’s love, He will love us even if we don’t make Him pancakes. In fact, He will love us even if we make Him spinach, which He hates.

What I mean is, God loves us no matter what we do. Even if we don’t love Him like we should. Or love others like we should, for that matter. And believe it or not, He loves us even if we hurt Him. Even when we sin. Even if we nail His Son to the cross. (And we did). But He still loves us!

So don’t ever feel like you’re not good enough for God’s love. You are. On the contrary, don’t feel like you are good enough for God’s love. You’re not. God loves you period. But you’ll never deserve it. God is a gracious God who gives us and loves us so much more than we could ever deserve.

With a God like this, how can we NOT give Him the glory? How can we NOT fall down and worship Him? We all need a little reminding each day that God is not like us. He is not like the world we live in. He will make us pancakes, even if we DON’T call Him darling.

Specks and Planks.

It's happened to all of us. There you are, in the middle of a conversation with someone. You say something, and the person you are talking to corrects you. You said "is" and you should have said "are." The grammar Nazi. And you sit there and think, who is this person to correct my grammar? Her grammar isn't perfect either. And if you're like me, you might even remember some vivid examples where this exact person said something improper, and you wanted to point it out, but didn't. You resisted, because you know you're not perfect either. And now you want to point it out. But then you would be that annoying person who constantly drags up the past. It's so annoying! I mean, don't correct my grammar when I know for a fact yours isn't perfect, either.

I was reading in Luke 6 last night. What I want to point out is not necessarily some grand insight. But something stuck out to me that I'm not sure I had ever noticed before.

Pharisees were often doing "righteous" things, just to be seen by men. They were obsessed with law keeping, and pointing it out when anyone broke the law. They were all about the check-list, while not always having the heart to go with it.

In Luke 6, beginning in verse 6, it is the Sabbath day. And Jesus comes to the synagogue to teach. There was a man there, who had a withered hand. Verse 7 says, "And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him."

This jumps out at me because it is a clear description of the attitude these scribes and Pharisees had. It wasn't just that they noticed when someone broke a law. It was that they were walking around looking for people to break it, just so they would have a reason to point a finger! What a terrible way to be!

Jesus, speaking in his Sermon on the Mount, says "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the plank that is in your own eye?" (Matt. 7:35) These Pharisees were walking around trying to find specks in other people's eyes. But they sure had an ugly plank in their own eyes!

We need to constantly be evaluating ourselves to see if we have any planks we need to get rid of. It's so easy to become judgmental and to be just like these scribes and Pharisees. Especially when it's in an area that we are experts in. We feel we know all there is to know about it, and we look for others to make mistakes so we can point it out to them. But there are plenty of mistakes we ourselves are making.

James warns us against judging our brothers as well. "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?" (James 4:11-12)

If you are constantly judging others, you may want to question if you are really practicing Christianity or not. You may very well be a "judge of the law, but not a doer of the law."

This stuff about judging your brother or sister is serious business.

I am challenging myself, and readers. Next time you start to judge your brother or point out their wrongs, stop yourself. Stop yourself, and immediately do a self-evaluation. Evaluate your own heart and your own mind. After all, only when you are perfect should you throw the first stone.

Because This is What Love Is...

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is."

-St. Augustine

The divorce rate in America is large and growing. Divorce for first marriage is 41%, second marriage is 60%, and third marriage is 73%.

I do not claim to know much of anything about marriage, especially since I've not quite been married for two months yet. But I have learned a few things that I'd like to share.

First, marriage was founded by God. Because marriage was founded by God, He intends it to be a certain way. God gave Eve to Adam to be his "help-meet." And from that day until now, His intention has been "one man, one woman; for life."

The trouble is, the Beatles had it wrong when they said "All You Need Is Love." And America has bought into the notion that they were right.

Love is a loaded word, with a lot of different meanings.

People are getting divorced because "I just don't love ____ anymore."

Guess what? You're not always going to be in love! It comes and goes. God didn't intend for marriage to be a bed of roses all of the time.

St. Augustine had it right when he said that "love is like an earthquake that subsides...and when it subsides, you have to DECIDE..."

No matter how much we try not to let it, we are all influenced greatly by the culture we live in.(And I hate our culture in a lot of ways, for more reasons than I care to get into right now). And this one is a very self-centered one. This culture seeks to gratify self. It seeks instant gratification. It expects everything to come easy for #1 (self), and if something is not easy, IT MUST BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY.

But guess what? LIFE ALWAYS ISN'T EASY. It's not always perfect. God wants us to be "joyful in the LORD," but we are not meant to be defined by our shallow happiness.

When the feelings subside, you have to make a decision. Moms, if you don't "feel" like fixing your child's lunch, do you let your child go hungry? In a normal circumstance, I would assume you would absolutely not. You would fix their lunch because they need it, even though you don't really want to.

In the same way, your spouse is today the same person you fell in love with so long ago. The same good-willed soul that you said "I do" to. If you don't "feel" like loving or "feel" like respecting your spouse, you have to choose to do it anyway. Be mature.

It won't always be easy. No one promised that. But it's worth making the decision. Marriage is full of many blessings. And the more trials you come through together, the closer you come out in the end, even if you don't like each other very much during the process. But we can "count it all joy, when we face trials of various kinds..." (James 1). We can know that God is doing something in us and through us to become more like His Son, and to ultimately bring glory to Him.

Let's do what we can to stop this epidemic. Let's be mature.

Let's CHOOSE.

You Don't Have to Miss Out on the Blessing Just Because You Are Young

It really bothers me when, during discussions about spiritual growth through trials, sometimes older people will make comments like “When you get to be our age, you can REALLY look back and see it.” And sometimes when an older person is giving me some sort of advice, sometimes I feel talked down at, as though I will never understand until I am their age. And it’s as if they know so much that I don’t know. And they will try to explain how God is doing this for a reason…and I will be thankful for it later, looking back. And many of the things they are saying, I have already seen and learned. And as I try to explain this to them, they won’t listen to me.

It bothers me because you don’t have to be old, with 60 years experience under your belt to be able to see God working in your life. It’s not about a difference in age. It’s really about a difference in spiritual maturity.

And guess what? I’m only 20 years old, and I can look back and see where God did things for a reason, even though I didn’t like it at the time. It might not be something as big as the death of a spouse, or a child, for instance. But there are things that were hard for me at the time, and now I am thankful they happened the way they did.

I wanted to leave public school and go to Mars Hill Bible School for years. And I didn’t get to. Not until 9^th grade. But looking back, God used those years in public school to mold me. And I have an appreciation for Christian education that I probably wouldn’t have if I had grown up in it.

I wanted a boyfriend all through my pre-teen and teenage years. I longed for it. I depressed myself over it. I let it define who I was that no one liked me and therefore I was ugly and undesirable. I never even had my first kiss until the end of my Sr. year at age 18, and now I am thankful; He is my husband today. And I can see many reasons that I won’t post publicly that God protected me until HE was ready. He saved me in every way for the one I would spend my life with. He helped me develop patience. He showed me that things on earth simply don’t happen on our desired timeline; that our desire is not always His will; that sometimes His answer to prayer is “wait.” He helped me see that He is truly at work. He gave me time to pray for the man I would spend my life with, and He answered that prayer, fully and infinitely beyond anything I could have asked for.

I could “testify” for days. I could fill up this entire page with God’s work in my life. But my point is this: you don’t have to be old to see God’s hand in your life. You don’t have to miss out on that blessing while you are young. You don’t have to get old and wish you had this insight “back then.” Because the truth is, if you are prayerful and you try with all your heart to live out God’s will, and to seek His direction, and to ask Him for wisdom through trials, you can see it now. No matter how old you are. So don’t miss it. And don’t feel like you are exempt from looking for his fingerprints just because you’re not 60. If you’ll open your eyes and try, and look through “eternal” and “Christ-like” glasses, you’ll see it.

The Most Popular Lie

MYTH:

"God will not give me more than I can bear."

Many people believe this popular lie.

Yes. You are reading correctly. I said it is a lie. And that's Scriptural.

The verse actually says :"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

A temptation and a burden/trial are two different things. James 1 makes a distinction between the two. Temptations are opportunities for sin. Trials, on the other hands, are completely out of our control. Things like death, illness, natural catastrophe, etc. And frankly, God WILL allow you to fall into trials. Why? "that the testing of your faith might produce perseverance." (James 1:3)

This brings us to an age-old question: Why would I believe in or love a God who would allow me so much pain? He is trying to mold you! He is trying to produce steadfastness in you . . . to bring you to full maturity!

God WILL give us more than we can bear sometimes, because it forces us to rely on Him. It forces us to let go and realize WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE!

So don't believe the lie. If you do, it has great potential to destroy your faith the next time God tests it. And He will. Not because He is a big, mean guy upstairs. He is using tests to make you look more like Christ.

It's a good thing. Glorify Him.

(The thoughts of this blog come from a chapel message my husband, Matt, gave at Heritage Christian University)