The Thanks-Giving Challenge - Out of the Ashes

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you all! I hope each one of you had a beautiful day, reflecting on and giving praise to the Lord for all that He has done in your life!

If you haven't visited Out of the Ashes Mission recently, I'm hosting a special challenge this weekend (the 22nd to the 25th) for Thanksgiving. I know, it's already late Friday...but don't worry, there are still 2 more days for you to get involved!

Stop on over and check out The Thanks-Giving Chain Challenge here.

"Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God."

2 Corinthians 9:6-12

Thank you so much and have a blessed weekend in Him!

Life Lessons: Sickness, Surrender, and My Precious Jesus

Hello dear readers...

I'm terribly sorry that I haven't yet posted the pictures that I promised to. My mom and sister have been sick for the past couple days, so I've been much busier than usual, taking on the "motherly" duties. :) It's been a wonderful time of once again recognizing (I feel like this is a continual lesson) my need to lean solely on Christ, especially when I'm tired and worn out, my emotions are spent, and there's still a million things to be done.

Over the past two days, there have been many times of falling into impatience, anger, self-pity, and bitterness. But isn't our God so good?!  He continues to pick me back up and graciously lead me to surrender...again and again.

Surrender. Giving thanks in every circumstance. Serving with a joyful heart. These are the things He is teaching me right now, the lessons that are so hard to learn. But He is teaching me, slowly but surely. Even when I don't feel "spiritual", even when I don't think that I'm growing in Him, even when I see the ugliness that I thought was gone boil up inside my heart again, I must trust my God. He has promised to continue refining me into His image; shouldn't His Word be enough? I must look to Christ, not myself.

"I am Yours; save me!" These words often pass my lips throughout the day, yet I wish that I reminded myself of this truth more. It needs to be His work in me; there is nothing I can do to change my selfishness, my bitterness, or my pride. He alone can change my heart and bring forth the dawning of His light in the dark night of my soul. I must trust Him. Oh Lord, help my unbelief!

I came across these verses tonight from Micah.

"But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, o my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me."
~Micah 7:7-8

Oh, this is so beautiful! How great is our God; He is our ever faithful Rock! And though we may fail, though we may fall, He will pick us up and bring us to victory in Him! Oh, my friends, let us wait for our God. Let us surrender ourselves completely to Him and watch expectantly to see what He will do.

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Well, I wasn't planning on writing all that I did above. I came on my blog planning to write a quick note saying, "Sorry that I haven't posted pictures...don't have time, so here's a quote from Charles Spurgeon,"(by the way, the quote from Spurgeon is below) but I just started typing and that's what flowed out of my heart.  Now that I think about it, I probably could have posted the pictures in the time it took me to write what I did. :) But, it's okay. The pictures will get posted eventually, but I needed to reflect on His faithfulness tonight...and He knew that. Again, I'm overwhelmed...He is so good.

So, here's that quote (that I mentioned above) from Charles Spurgeon. I read this tonight and it blessed me greatly. May it turn your gaze towards your Savior with a heart overwhelming with gratefulness and love. He is certainly worthy of it!

"My Master has riches beyond the count of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or the eloquence of words. They are unsearchable! You may look, and study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Savior than you think Him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them. There is no music like the music of His pipe, when He is the Shepherd and you are the sheep and you lie down at His feet. There is no love like His, neither earth nor heaven can match it. Lord, teach us more and more of Jesus, and we will tell out the good news to others."
~Charles Spurgeon

True Encouragement

Friendship. It is one of the Lord's greatest gifts, isn't it?

But let me ask you...

• What type of a friend are you? 

• What do you enjoy doing most with your friend? 

• What is the highlight and foundation of your friendship? 

• What draws the two of you together?

These are usually pretty eye-opening, and sometimes gut-wrenching, questions to ask yourself. What are your answers to them?

Alright, now hold onto those thoughts, and let's transfer over to another point I want to make.

A couple days ago, I was reading through 1 Samuel 23 and was impacted by something I found in verse 16. (For context purposes, both verses 15 and 16 are posted below.)

"Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. ¹⁶ And Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God." (1 Samuel 23:15-16 NASB)

"Encouraged him in God." I had never heard that phrase before in the Bible and it begged for me to stop and ponder its full meaning. 

Well, what do other translations say? I wondered.

So, I started by looking up the same verse in a couple other translations, to see if I could unbury some treasure there. Here's what I found:

New International Version (NIV) - "...And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God."

English Standard Version (ESV) - "And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God."

Looking at all three translations together paints a beautiful picture, doesn't it?

Saul, the king of Israel, pursuing David for his life, even though (and I think especially since) he had been anointed by Samuel as the future king. Jonathan, the king's son, betraying his own father and risking his neck to visit his best friend in need. 

But why did he visit David? Was Jonathan lonely? Did he just need some "man time" with his friend? What was his reason for going on such a dangerous mission?

"And Jonathan...encouraged him in God...strengthened his hand in God....helped him find strength in God."

That was his mission. Those were his reasons.  

What a beautiful example of a Christ-centered friendship! And oh, what a convicting message!

How do I react when I know my friend is in need? When she is hurting? Or doubting? Or fearful? Or discouraged? Am I an encouragement or a further discouragement? 

And if I am seeking to encourage, what type of encouragement am I giving? Just typing in "Christian encouragement quotes" into Google proved to be quite an eye-opener. The below quotes are supposed to encourage the struggling Christian. Here they are:

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival." ~Winston Churchill

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do any of you distinguish a problem here? The first thing to be noticed: Why is there no mention of Jesus Christ at all?

Yes, those statements might be true to a certain degree, but where is the strengthening encouragement in looking at what "lies within us"? According to the Bible, my heart is "more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick." (Jeremiah 17:9) And how do we find inspiration from suffering itself? Suffering alone does not bring inspiration.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I know that strength lies in Him and not me. I know that my friend doesn't have the strength to overcome fear, doubt, or depression on her own, so why would I point her to anything or anyone other than the only One who promises to be her strength, shield, and help in trouble? 

I must point my friend to Christ.*

And that is exactly what Jonathan did. He pointed David to the Lord. He encouraged and helped him find strength...not in himself, not in the strength of his men, or in reminding David of his incredible victories. Those two little words at the end of verse 16 make the difference between true Christian encouragement and its worldly counterpart: "encouraged him in God."

So, my dear reader, may we seek the Lord and ask Him to make us into people who are striving towards Christ-centered friendships. And may He give us His heart to love our friends with His love and His wisdom to point our friends to Him and the glories of His precious promises.  



*One word of warning though. When I say here that you're supposed to point your friend to Christ, I'm not referring to your unbelieving friends. Yes, we should point them to Christ with the Gospel, but not encouraging them with His promises. The promises of God do not pertain to unbelievers. 

Foxes in the Vineyard - Money

Martin Luther once said, "There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind, and the purse."

Does Martin Luther speak accurately or is he being too extreme? Does money have such an unflinching stronghold on our lives?

If you had asked me this 6 months ago, I would have said, "No, absolutely not. I rarely spend money on myself and I love to give."

But, did I?

To answer that, I have to go a bit farther back in my history. Ever since I can remember, I've looked forward to the day I could drive. It seems to be just a part of the American Dream to get your license at 16. Because of that mindset, I was always counting down the years until my 16th birthday would roll around.

Well, my 16th birthday finally came.....and went...with no license. In fact, I was shocked to discover that the idea of getting my license didn't even seem to be in my near future, according to my parents. Insurance was too expensive. "And besides," they added, "why do you need your license right now?"

Why?! Oh, the injustice of it all! :)

During my 16th year, I started to get desperate. Looking around, I realized that most of my firstborn friends already had their license and some were even younger than me. Suddenly, my entire focus became a mad hunt to discover a stay-at-home job. Getting my license took first priority in my life. But of course, I would never admit to that. I would mope through the house, brainstorming any and every idea I could think of to make money quickly. My mom would often ask if I had committed this desire to the Lord. Of course I had! I had asked (maybe demanded is a better word) for the Lord to show me a job so that I could get my license. Surely He would answer that prayer, right?!

Wrong. Time continued to ebb away, and then I was 17....still with no license. Now, all of my firstborn friends had their license and I was the loner still-have-my-permit girl. I had some savings built up, but not enough for insurance. Around the beginning of last December, I knew that the Lord was asking me to give some money to Gospel for Asia. My fists clenched in protest. "Lord, how could You ask something like that of me?! I'm saving up for my license, remember? If I give money away, I'll have to work all the harder to get it back again."

But the Lord continued to press this upon my heart. Finally, on December 10, the Lord opened my eyes to my complete selfishness and disobedience. My journal entry with that date shares my thoughts:

"O my Father, I am convicted! I have spent (no, wasted) so much time coveting, so much energy worrying, and so much emotion complaining that I don't have a driver's license. Forgive me, Lord Jesus. I have been so preoccupied with calculating how much I need to earn and looking at how all my friends have one...I have been so selfish, Lord. I don't want this to have a hold on my life anymore or to continue keeping me from You. So Lord....You will have to make it clear when you want me to get my license. And if I never get one for the rest of my life, help me to be content with that. In Your strength, this means no more complaining, coveting, self-pity parties, anxiety, or hard-fistedness towards money. All I have is Yours!"

It was then and there that I truly gave my money to Him, knowing that it did not come from my hand anyway, but from the Lord's. Why did I ever think it was mine to begin with?

This year, the Lord has burdened my heart to only spend a certain amount of money every month on necessities or an occasional treat. But, it must first be "okayed" by the Lord. I do not have the freedom to spend any money, even $1, on something that I do not first approach the Lord with. The Lord has been slowly and graciously burdening my heart with the fact that 2 billion people have never heard the name of my precious Jesus and are dying everyday without hope.

How could I spend even $6 on a new purse when that same money could provide two unreached people with the very Word of God? By His grace, my mindset is changing. But oh, that He might loosen my hold on money more and more everyday! I still have so much to learn!

Now, I am not saying that getting a job, possessing a driver's license, or buying a new purse is wrong. What I am saying is this: our money is not our own, so we should live in a way that declares our belief in this. Are we relying on the Lord for everything? Are we asking Him for guidance before spending the money He has given us, whether a little amount or large? Have we given all of our money to the Lord, allowing Him to use it as He chooses? He has blessed us with the money we have. What are we doing with it to impact eternity?

This is still a daily struggle. There are many times that I still want my license, many days I wish I had a larger savings account. And yet, there is such peace trusting in Him; trusting that He will provide for my every need, at the perfect time.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

Isn't this beautiful?! What is our reason for not loving money or worrying about our needs? Because and only because our God is in control and He has promised to never leave us! What an extraordinary assurance we have!

"Givers can be divided into three types: the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. Some givers are like a piece of flint - to get anything out of it you must hammer it, and even then you only get chips and sparks. Other are like a sponge - to get anything out of a sponge you must squeeze it and squeeze it hard, because the more you squeeze a sponge, the more you get. But others are like a honeycomb - which just overflows with its own sweetness. That is how God gives to us, and it is how we should give in turn."
Anonymous

Oh, may the Lord give us such a love for Him, such a desire to seek Him and His kingdom first, that we would be as the sweetest honeycomb, overflowing with the pure nectar given to us by our gracious King!