Archive for God's Heart
Wake Up!
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A busy ministry schedule has limited my time to blog, but I want to give a quick update.
This is a land of great darkness, but more than that, it is a land of great need of the light of God’s love. Our ministry here has focused on sharing the love of God to the people of Thailand and also to Jason and Sarah Ricketts, who are missionaries here.
I have walked the streets of Pattaya where there are thousands of prostitutes and hundreds of bars. Men come here from around the world for sex. Young girls and boys sell their bodies in order to make money. They are often illiterate and have no marketable skills other than their very body. The damage to their souls is beyond measure. Yet there are some here who are endeavoring to share God’s love. They teach free English classes. They teach marketable skills. They provide counseling for the trauma; most of the young girls have been raped more than once. So many have come here in order to honor their families by providing financially for them. That is important in this culture. Most families know their girls come here to work in the bars. They know their girls will become prostitutes. It is an acceptable means of employment. However, most know nothing of the horrors these young girls will experience. And once the girls experience the horrors of prostitution, instead of honor, they find intense shame and feel unable to go back to their families. Isnt’ that the enemy’s classic strategy? Empty promises and bondage in the very place you thought would bring freedom.
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It All Comes Down to Love
Posted by: | CommentsWell, fellow travelers on this journey, we have reached day 21. We will now prepare to break our fast tomorrow. I pray these days have been days of insight for you and days of personal growth in your relationship with God and others. Remember, God is always doing more than you can see and He honors every sacrifice we have made because we wanted to know his heart more.
When Jesus summarized the two most important things about a believer’s life, he said 1) love God, and 2) love others. It all comes down to love so today I end these devotionals with this section of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13. Read it prayerfully, slowly, listening and being sensitive for any way the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you.
Even if I can speak in all the tongues of earth—and those of the angels, too—but do not have love, I am just a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophesy such that I can comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, or if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own to feed those poorer than I, then hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
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Who Wrote the Book of Love?
Posted by: | CommentsIn the late fifties, a group called the Monotones wrote and recorded a song called “Who Wrote the Book of Love?” I woke up singing that old song this morning which led me to thinking about who really wrote the book of love. Of course, you know that I am referring to God. But I wonder sometimes if we really understand that the Bible is the book of love. Yes, we may give mental ascent to that. God is love. But knowing the love of God is totally different than having a head knowledge that says that God is love.
Knowing the love of God has changed my life more times than one. For me, the knowledge of God’s love has come bit by bit, piece by piece. When I committed my life to Christ as a very young girl, I distinctly remember wanting to avoid hell. And of course that is important. But my journey to knowing the love of God has been a life-long one. In my early twenties, I was overtaken by the love of God when I first knew that God had called me into ministry. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that God wanted me. I became consumed with knowing Him. I read the Word for hours and hours. However, in a few short years, I became drained by religion. I had somehow equated knowing God with keeping a list of rules (i.e., read five chapters of Psalms every day, 1 chapter of Proverbs, and part of the New Testament; keep a prayer journal which covered all the needs of the world and everyone else I knew, etc.) Now the rules represent important principles but living for the rules replaced living for God and I found myself hopeless. You can be sure that God doesn’t lead us into hopelessness.
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Why Fast?
Posted by: | CommentsAs we end our first week of this season of fasting, it is a good time to reexamine why we are fasting and what happens during a fast.
We are fasting because we feel led to by the Holy Spirit.
We are fasting as a voluntary means of submitting ourselves to the purifying work of God through his Holy Spirit believing that fasting can bring to light matters of the heart that need addressing.
Many of us are fasting food or drink. Others are fasting something else such as TV, shopping, etc.
What can we expect from God? Well, we can expect God to be who He always is. Faithful, holy, loving, patient, kind, gentle.
And we can expect that He will do as He always does, respond to our hearts.
It’s not about Him responding to our actions, but about His response to our hearts.
Our hearts which say we realize that the things of life often have unhealthy holds on our soul.
It is about His response to our hearts as we say, “Lord, I don’t know my own heart as well as You know it. Please purify my heart.”
And as our hearts are purified, we can see God; we can hear God. We can move in the world with God’s heart, and “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:11
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Home for Christmas
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I’ll be home for Christmas
You can count on me…
As I listened to the words to that classic Christmas song, something deep within me was moved.
I remembered one Christmas almost twenty years ago when my family and I lived away from my childhood Alabama home. We were going home for Christmas. Then it snowed. And iced. Yet I felt I had to go home for Christmas! I convinced my husband to drive home on the ice and snow in a little car that was certainly not an all-terrain vehicle. We made a three hour trip in six hours and I prevailed. I made it home for Christmas with my husband and two young children. I might not have been very wise, perhaps, but I was very determined.
This year, our daughter, Kara Beth, is in Dallas, Texas, with her husband’s family for Christmas enjoying a big snow. Since she can’t be home for Christmas, we video-chatted this morning together.
The following are thoughts from I message I recently shared at our church called “Home for Christmas".
The idea of “home” stirs strong emotion for most of us. Some never want to return. Others, like me, feel compelled to be there at Christmas, but I think it all has its roots in our spiritual DNA. Let me explain.
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