The Child

At church this Sunday morning, there was a beautiful sketch of Christ leaning his face against a child in an embrace of love. As I looked at the picture I couldn’t help but feel that I wanted to be that child. Lord just hold me close like that and love me. With no cares, no worries, no responsibilities, just in the moment with Jesus. Then it came to me that although, I get caught up in being a “grown up “ Christian, I am always that child.

It is true that faith without works is dead. The church has a job to do in winning the souls of the lost and comforting those in need.  But even the most valiant and courageous soldier must sometime remove his armor.

What parent among you does not long to have your grown children be small just one more time?  You want to embrace them, protect them, and love them while their trust in you is so complete. Their trust is not affected by hardship or disappointment. All they have is love.

Scripture says “if we have faith of a little child”.  Take time to be that child again. We don’t always have to come to Christ with works, prayer or even with praise. Sometimes we can just come be with him to love him and to let him love on us. We should never forget that we are above all else, children of the king and his capacity for loving us is unlimited.

The Handmaiden

In a royal household there are many servants. They may be housemaids, cooks, servers, butlers, managers, and many more all with various roles and duties to fulfill. Each position is important and is necessary to insure the proper function of the household. But I want to focus on the position of the royal handmaiden.

Throughout history, the masters of any house would have personal attendants. These attendants were the closest to the master of all their servants. They would continuously faithfully carry out the bidding of their masters and were the most trusted of all the servants. Not only were they the most trusted of all servants, but they were most often women.

In our Master’s house there are many servants positions as well. Prophets, shepherds, healers, prayer warriors, missionaries, teachers name just a few of these servants.  But still there is a special place in our Lords house for the handmaid of Christ.

The handmaid of Christ walks with him daily. She listens for his every word and is ready at a moment’s notice to do his will. She places her needs and wants aside to fulfill the duties of her position. She is cautious of her words and deeds so as to not bring shame upon her masters house. Hers is a position of honor and she is held dear to the Master’s heart.

To be a faithful handmaid there are some things you must do.

Spend time with him. Find time in your life to devote to prayer and listening for his voice. He will speak to you and tell you what he desires of your life.

Be sure that whatever task you feel led to is His will and not your own. One sure way to tell His will is that it is never the easy way. No task given by God has been comfortable or easy. If it is easy for you then it is not a sacrifice and is most likely serving a need of your own and not a need of Christ. However, the blessings you receive will more than make up for any hardship you may face.

Be resolute.  When you know in your heart that the Master has called you for a purpose despite anything the world may say, you must be determined to achieve it.

Be faithful. Do not grow weary of the task. For God’s grace will increase your strength, your faith and your ability.

Be humble. Remember your position of service is an honor given by His grace and mercy.

Remember, that being a servant close to your Master places you in the position to truly know his heart. Then as you know His heart, yours will be the hands that wipe away the tears of the hurting. Yours will be the arms that comfort the sick and lonely. Yours will be the hands that feed the hungry. Yours will be the tongue that speaks encouragement to the weak.  Yours will be the heart to give love to the unlovely.

We are all to serve as the handmaids or man servants of Christ. We are the children of God and joint heirs with him. But until our time of inheritance, we hold a place of honor and trust with our Lord. We have the great honor of serving His will in this life.

Eighteen Months

You sit in the leather chair facing a large oak desk.  The wall behind it, as well as the adjoining walls, are hung with certificates, degrees, doctorates all proclaiming the qualifications of the man who is speaking.  The words sound like distorted voices you would hear while under water. The air seems to have been completely sucked from your lungs while your pounding heart reverberates throughout your whole being.

Your spouse immediately begins offering words of encouragement, taking charge and beginning to make plans.  As they hold your hand, every muscle in their body is fighting to not give in to fear and to not reflect anything but determination and support in their countenance. In the days to come you feel disconnected. You don’t want to talk about it. You want to pretend you never sat in that office or heard those words.

TWELVE TO EIGHTEEN MONTHS.

You had asked for the truth and got it.  Eighteen months on the outside with taking every treatment that can be pumped and prodded into your ailing body. As you are led from one treatment to another, the reality begins to sink in more with every needle prick. And the quiet tears begin to flow. The prayers come; the anger comes mixed with the questions. “Why me”? What are they going to do without me? Who is going to take care of this or that? The emotions erupt in volcanic proportion with fallout landing on anyone who is around.  Then one day it is all gone.  All of the emotion is spent.

If what man says is true and your life has become finite with X number of days available to you, a choice will be made. You can spend your remaining days partying and in denial. You can spend your remaining days angry with God and all of life. You can sink into a depression and self pity. Or you can look around and cherish everything that is really precious in your life.

Think about it.

Your spouse, that gets on your nerves so badly with his stinky socks and farts.  You wonder if the man was ever capable of putting a dish in the sink or picking up clothes.  If you had to watch another football or golf game you think you would scream.  His sense of humor is sooo corny. And you wonder if he speaks your language because he cant seem to understand what you are saying most times.  But if you KNOW that person would be taken from you, it changes how you see them.  Those corny jokes become sweet and more humorous. The dirty clothes and dishes don’t matter. What matters is when you are cuddled up beside them while they touch your hair. When you can look in their eyes or hear in their voice how much you mean to them. And you know what they mean to you. You know that if its only eighteen months or eighteen days, you want to spend them with this person.

Your children. They don’t listen to you. They don’t show appreciation. They sure don’t do what you think they should.  You wonder how their lives veered so far from the path you had chosen for them.  But you have X number of days.  With X number of days, you begin to see past their choices and mistakes. Amazingly you can only see the face of the little child who snuggled up to you that you have loved so dearly. You can see the same vulerability that they had as they climbed in your lap with tear streaked faces and scraped knees.

Ambition. Ambition could be your job, your business or your dreams of stardom. I used to measure my success by my bank account.  But with eighteen months, what you accomplish here doesn’t matter anymore. All the money or acclaim this world has to offer wont give you one day more.

Finally, and most importantly, there’s God. You are left with one inevitable truth facing you. Your life is completely in God’s hands. At that time, you can choose to completely surrender all control to Him and accept that whatever the outcome may be, that you trust Him.

God made this perspective very clear to me one night several months ago and it has completely changed my life.

Besides the change in perspective that I have already discussed, it made me think. If I had only eighteen months left what would I want to do with them.  I came to the conclusion that I would want to spend every last day being completely committed to my God.  Not because there would be an end to my life and I was afraid of hell. But because He has been so good to me that I want to give everything back to Him that I can.  All that I am, all that I have, however imperfect I may be.  He has sheltered me, loved me, saved me, protected my family and brought me through unimaginable dark times. In my darkest hours He wrapped me in His love and wouldn’t let go.

A lifetime seems like it will last forever.  While we know there is an end, we can’t typically relate to it. If we were to live our lives as if we only had eighteen months to live you would find that you could throw off unnecessary shackles. You would find it easier to focus on the ones that you love and the things that really matter. Live like you have only eighteen months even if you have 180 years.

Still Waters

The Spirit of God is likened to a beautiful pool of water. When you first see it and begin to approach it you have a sense of anticipation. You just know it’s going to be good. As you step in ankle deep your heartbeat picks up as you begin to experience a difference.  You keep on going till you’re waist deep. Next thing you know you are up to you neck treading water. You float, dip your head under, and come up exuberant, renewed and never disappointed.  Then you make your way back out of the water and step back into the world as it was before. You feel better.  You feel refreshed and ready to move on.

This is how most Christians live. And there is nothing wrong with it. But like still deep waters, the Spirit of God has so much more to offer.

I would say to you to leave the shore behind. Pursue Gods Spirit so far that you can never go back. Don’t satisfy yourself with having just enough of Him that you feel more capable of getting by in this world.  When you dive deep under the surface of the waters, you find a whole new world full of beauty and wonders that you never experience by being a shallow swimmer. There is abundance of life there that cannot be seen anywhere else.

As you immerse yourself in God’s word and Spirit, He will reveal things to you that can only be experienced at the deepest levels.  When you reach there, it is only you and Him.  The world is so far away it cannot impede on the peace that envelopes you and the wonders that surround you.

It takes effort. It takes decision and commitment. But God has so much more for you than you can imagine.  Don’t be satisfied with less. Go deep.

A Linen Belt

Jeremiah 13:1


God told Jeremiah to buy a new linen belt. Since linen is considered a rather fine fabric by today's standards, it must have been very rare and costly in Jeremiah's day.

God was specific that Jeremiah was not to let the belt touch water. The belt is symbolic of God's people, clean, pure, close to God when serving the purpose it was designed for. Had the belt become wet it would have become mishaped and drawn.  If it didnt shrink too much, you could have probably still tied it around you. But it would have lost its ability to function as designed, its beauty and its value.

After a while (the bible doesnt specify how long) Jeremiah is told to remove the belt. He is then told to take it to a distant place and hide it in a crevice in the rocks. Once Jeremiah reached Perath, God told him to place the belt in a crevice in the rocks. After many days God commanded Jeremiah to return and retrieve the belt. The belt was soiled, ruined and worthless.  Although this scripture goes on to declare Gods displeasure and judgement for the nation of Judah, the significance of the belt itself is what stuck with me.

It made me realize that it is too easy to lay aside our purpose. Our intent is never to abandon our path or our calling. But in doing so we find ourselves distanced  like the belt, from the one we serve and end up in dark places where we dont belong. In those places, we spiritually and emotionally decay until we are useless to ourselves, the ones we love and the one we serve. It was and is an unneccessary waste.

Be vigilant of the value in your calling for you have value and purpose in the site of the Lord. Stay close to Him and you will not find yourself in dark places where you dont belong.

I CHOOSE

                                                                                 

      John, chapter 8 tells us of an adulterous woman who was brought before Jesus.  It is an account that almost every believer has heard a sermon about at some time or another.  Terrified, scripture tells us that she was drug out in humiliation and shame. She could only listen while her accusers demanded that she be stoned to death. But Jesus did not look upon the woman’s shame and pain.

      Think of the utter hopelessness she had to feel. She was caught in the act of adultery.  She could not defend herself. She could only plead for mercy. However the law did not allow for mercy and she knew this.

I will not call this a story because it diminishes the word of Christ.

      Scripture reflects that as the crowd clamored for her destruction, the only response Christ gave was “He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone”. Every reference I have heard to this scripture has reflected upon the revealing of the sin of the accusers. But there is more to be learned.

      Jesus could have very easily made a big sermon standing over the woman about the cost of sin. He could have preached about “all have sinned….” He could have made any number of comparisons using her as an example and still have spared her life. She would have been just as grateful.  The crowd would have been just as amazed.

      But Jesus chose not to look upon the worst part of her. He chose not to acknowledge the worst shame in her life. He chose not to accuse and He chose not to judge. The only time Jesus addressed her was after the crowd had dispersed when he said “Woman, where are thine accusers. Has no man condemned thee? Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more”.  No lectures.

      Something to note however is that although Jesus did not judge this woman, neither did he judge the accusers. He made them judge themselves. He didn’t tell them they were a bunch of hypocrites.  He didn’t find fault with them for following what was their laws.  They questioned him about why he would not uphold the law. In paraphrase, he simply told them “I know who I am and where I come from .Basically you are going to do what you want if I am here or not”.     But the awesome thing he said was “Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man”

I CHOOSE

      I choose to not find fault. Fault is there in front of us everywhere we look. It is blatant and irritating in your coworkers, your family, and your church. It is like the gravel in your shoes that gets harder to ignore with each progressive step you take.

      However finding fault serves absolutely no useful purpose. Fault finding does however create negative emotions and a negative attitude.  In response you will react either defensively or aggressively when interacting with those you are judging.  These negative emotions then take the focus of attention away from other aspects of the individual.

      Fault finding creates walls between people. In judging others, you increasingly isolate yourself and in time find that being “right or righteous” becomes hollow and lonely.

      Who cares? People are not going to change who they are because of your disapproval.  The church will not change how it worships because you think  they should. Your boss is not going to change how he runs his business because you know better. Scripture says to not worry about the speck in our brother’s eye without first removing the beam from our own.

     I CHOOSE to not look for fault. I CHOOSE to try to look for the good and the positive in everything and everyone in my life. When my nature kicks up and my flesh wants to react by finding fault, I will consciously choose to not entertain the thoughts.

      Some days may prove more difficult than others. But each day I have the opportunity to start with a new pledge. I CHOOSE TO LIVE IN THE FULLNESS OF LIFE, THE FULLNESS OF JOY, THE FULLNESS OF LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP.

  I feel so humble to know that my Jesus chooses to not look at the worst part of me.  If the Son of God said “I JUDGE NO MAN”  then who in the world am I to try to judge or feel ill will toward anyone else.  

  

The Introspective Warrior

When I first began this website, without hesitation, I felt led to call it “The Introspective Warrior”. I did not think on it hard or long. It just felt right. I briefly associated it with the battles one encounters as being part of the army of the Lord. Another light association for the title would have been about battling our way through hardship in our Christian walk.

However, now I think the Lord has revealed the deeper meaning for the title of the site. It is true that we do battle with the principalities of the air. It is true that we must fight as soldiers for Christ to lead a lost and dying world to know the Savior. It is also true that we each have our own battles and demons to overcome in our lives. But I want to ask, what drives us in this fight?

History has recorded numerous times of the persecution and torture of Gods people. We know that in the Roman period, Christians were killed in the arenas for sport and entertainment because of their faith. We know that during the medieval period that certain segments of the Christian faith were persecuted and martyred for defying the Roman Catholic Church. The Nazi’s tried to destroy the Jews and completely exterminate them. We also find that in the early 1900’s how the Mexican population was denied the ability to worship. Their churches were closed and Christians were executed leading to a war that lasted for years. Missionaries throughout the world have become martyrs for the cause of Christ. God’ s people when accepting the cross seem to also accept a target on their head.

In my mind I have envisioned warriors from the beginning until present day. I tried to imagine what it takes to make a person able to become a true warrior. I determined that the person must first make a decision of commitment. He has to be willing to make a choice that he will stand for some ideal. Then this person must be trained for battle and the art of warfare. Whether it is swords or tanks the warrior must be strong, skilled , alert and prepared.

Our bible tells us how to obtain our armor and to prepare ourselves for spiritual battle. A warrior must be able to take orders and follow the direction of their commander. We must also be listening for Gods direction in our lives. But no matter how well trained, no matter how skilled, and no matter how the commander leads, the warrior is only as good as his belief in the cause.

When our country was discovered by Christopher Columbus, it is recorded that a cross was erected immediately upon the shore. We know that the primary objective of the pilgrims in establishing our country was to obtain religious freedom. The freedom to worship God in whatever manner the individual wanted. We fought a war for that freedom. So what gives people the strength, conviction and courage to endure in the hardest of times?

I know that every soldier who has experienced battle and loss has had to ask himself why he does this thing? Why would he give his last ounce of blood and all of his heart in a cause that may require his ultimate sacrifice? The answer is love.

The answer is love of those he fights for. Duty and honor are not enough to encourage people to that level of sacrifice. It is love. Only love led Christ to a cross to die for us. Love moved God to send his only son to become man’s salvation. Only love has given masses of people the strength and conviction to fight for their right to worship. Only love of God, Country, Family and Freedom will cause an exhausted wounded warrior to step up to battle one more time.

We cannot be effective warriors, if we do not look inside ourselves. We must examine with truth what is in our hearts. To be an effective warrior for Christ, we must first really love Him. If we love Him, we can then love others. Then we have a reason to fight. We have a reason to be strong. We have a reason to put on the whole armor of God.