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"Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

Have you ever been "hasty in your heart" in talking to God? You know how it is -- you crawl into bed at night and suddenly realize that you have not given God any time that day, so you hurriedly utter some prayers before you drift off to sleep?

Or you approach God at your set "quiet time," and after you do a cursory reading of His Word, you begin your litany of prayer requests for your family and church, and perhaps a few missionaries.

Sound familiar? Sadly, it is all too familiar to me, and I have found it necessary to repent on more than one occasion for my rude and callous behavior before a holy God.

My dear daughter-in-law, Bethany, inspired me to write about this today, because her Facebook post was this very Scripture. As soon as I read it, I was reminded of Matt Redman's song "Let My Words Be Few." Please take the time to give this a listen:



Think about these words the next time you come to God in prayer. Do you approach your spouse or your dearest friends in the same way? If I came to my husband and said, "Okay, I have about 5 minutes, and this is what I need to say," and then got up and left without even giving him the opportunity to interact with me, how do you think that would go over? Communication is a two-way street in human relationships, and it must be the same with God. Prayer is so much more than presenting our laundry list of requests, my friends. Yes, God wants us to bring Him our every need (Philippians 4:6), but He also wants us to stop and listen to what HE has to say. John 10:27 says "My sheep hear My voice," but we will never hear if we don't stop babbling long enough to listen.

It takes stalwart discipline to sit in silence, particularly in this age of technology. If tweeting and texting and Facebook posting and television consume a great deal of your time, perhaps you need to be reminded that those pursuits do not feed you properly. Remember Jesus being tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4? He had not eaten for 40 days, and Satan tried to tempt Him by saying, "If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread." Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Then, in John 4, at a time when the disciples were encouraging Jesus to eat something, He replied, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (vs.32). In verse 34, He went on to say that His "food" was to do His Father's will. He lived and breathed and ATE the will of His Father, and did not care to fritter away His precious time in worldly pursuits.

This week, I encourage you to take stock of how you spend your time. If more of it is spent on worldly pursuits than in God's presence, perhaps you need to make some adjustments. If you can watch 3 hours of television in the evenings, but claim to not have time to pray or read His Word, try keeping the TV off for a week and spend that time seeking God.

Discipline yourself to be silent and listen for His voice, and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

I was reading the sixth chapter of Galations last week. (It's a good book. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.) It's all stuff I've read before, but this time some of the verses really jumped out at me. Mainly, the first couple:

Brothers, if any is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

These two verses are about how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. As believers, we expect more from our Church family, and we should. But that doesn't mean that when someone commits a sin we severely rebuke and excommunicate them; we must build them up with love.
In Martin Luther's commentary, he writes that Paul is not talking about doctrinal errors, but of the transgressions committed from giving in to our fleshly nature. If a brother or sister does something they shouldn't and repents of it, then those who are stronger must help that person get back on track. I'm not saying that whoever sins is so much weaker than those who help them, but in those moments we feel incredibly weak and should look to those who maybe don't have a problem with the same kind of sin, or have overcome it in the past. Don't be afraid to seek out help. It may be embarrassing or shameful, but chances are pretty good that the person you go to has committed some embarrassing and shameful sins as well. And if they want to rebuke you and just make you feel bad instead of helping to build you back up, find someone else. I hope no one thinks I mean to find someone who dismisses the sin, saying it's no big deal. It's just that after someone truly repents of what they did and doesn't want to do it anymore, what they need is help, not condemnation.
As it says in verse two, we are to bear each other's burdens. We are supposed to help our brothers and sisters with all of their burdens. Whether the burden is sin, financial, grief, anything, we are to help. If we do this, we fulfill the law of Christ. According to Luther, the law of Christ is the law of love. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." So let's commit to helping out our Christian family. Be there for them, help them. In other words, love them.

I am in Wisconsin visiting family, so my dear niece, Catharine, is filling in for me today. You will love it!

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I stood in stunned silence and stared at myself in the hotel-room mirror. This was a very big problem. I replayed the previous 45 seconds in my mind a few times and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why do these things happen to me??? I breathed a heavy sigh and went to the room next door where my parents, husband and son were waiting for me.

My mom took one look at me and immediately said “What’s wrong?”

“I just flushed my glasses down the toilet.”

“You did WHAT?”

“My glasses fell into the toilet when it was flushing and they are gone. They went down. I couldn’t get them.”

I had to explain the sequence of events a few times because it was just so…bizarre. I’d bent over to pick something up off of the bathroom floor while the toilet was flushing. My glasses, which were pushed up on top of my head while I did a few makeup touch-ups, fell off into the industrial strength flush of the hotel-room toilet and in a second they were gone. GONE.

Fourth of July had given us the perfect excuse to escape the scorching desert heat of our home in Phoenix and head north to enjoy higher elevations and cooler temperatures. We checked into our hotel in early afternoon to freshen up before heading out to enjoy the evening celebration. The “incident” occurred shortly after we arrived, and with no “backup” on hand I was nearly blind for the remainder of our trip. When I say “nearly blind” it’s only a slight exaggeration. I’ve worn glasses since kindergarten and I am terribly, terribly nearsighted. While I enjoyed our evening of festivities and fireworks and our hike around a scenic (or so I'm told) lake the next day, it was difficult and at times frustrating to not be able to share in much of what my visually UNimpaired family was enjoying.  Never again will I take the gift of corrective lenses for granted!

But, better physically blind than spiritually so.

Jesus showed great compassion and love for the lost, but his interactions with the scribes and Pharisees took on a very different tone. In Matthew 23, in what could be best described as a “rant” on the Pharisees, Jesus calls them both hypocrites (6 times) and blind (5 times). They had become so caught up in rules and legalism that they’d abandoned the true reason for the law in the first place – guidelines for a life of holiness that allowed communion with God. For many of them, their faith consisted of nothing more than religious showmanship that fed their selfish pride, and God was simply a vehicle for status and self-aggrandizement.

It is so easy to be critical of the Pharisees. We read these words and feel an identification with Jesus' righteous anger towards men who would rather see a crippled man continue to suffer than rejoice in a miraculous healing that "broke a rule" of Sabbath rest.  Men so devoted to the rules that they were completely blind, not only to the love and compassion and awe-inspiring miracles of Jesus, but to His identity as their long-awaited Messiah.

In verses Philippians 3:4-6,  Paul addresses his own walk in the robes of the Pharisee.  He had the right lineage, the right training, the right lifestyle, and yet he says:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith  Philippians 3:7-9 (emphasis mine)

As I read this passage, I had to ask myself "Am I living out my faith inspired by the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord?"   Paul was acutely aware not only of the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice on his behalf, but also his own unworthiness. It is only when we realize those two things in concert that we can begin to fathom a faith like Paul's and live it out for ourselves.

Simply put, the faith of Paul the Pharisee (then called Saul) was all about how great Saul was. The faith of Paul the Apostle was about how great GOD is.

The same goes for us when we seek to follow Christian rules rather than follow Christ. Legalism keeps us so obsessed with who we are that we miss who God is. We just as well flush our spiritual glasses down the toilet and satisfy ourselves with the notion that we live a pretty good life most of the time, checking the right boxes and NOT checking the wrong ones (Devotional time? Check! Cursing? Nope, not today! Hooray, victory!) Really? Is that why Jesus died for me? Just so I could live out the "be a better person" rules a little more successfully?

Living out the faith Paul talks of here is a very different thing. When we begin with the realization that any notion of righteousness we lay claim to cost Jesus his life (we can never check enough boxes to be good enough for a Holy God) we are able to approach our faith from a place of humility and gratitude. As Christ-followers, our lives should be examples of vibrant faith, inspired by the love of a Holy God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

My prayer is that we as Christ-followers would live lives that bring Him glory, that we would be vibrant testimonies to what God can do even through a shambles of a human-being (in my case, anyway!), and that we might reflect Him more and more clearly every day.

If you have a calendar you can clearly see what day it is and chances are you have very specific memories about September 11, 2001.

I was in the 6th grade. I remember being really confused about what was happening. I learned about the attacks in one class and then in all my other classes we watched the news footage. It was unreal.

To be honest, I had never heard of the World Trade Center buildings. But I saw them so many times as the footage was played again and again. It was a confusing time for a 6th grader.

After a few days of watching the news in school I remember thinking, "alright, I know it happened. I've seen this all before...can I please play my trumpet in band again?" Obviously I didn't wrap my mind around the fact that 3000 people had died and their family and friends were still grieving. I couldn't understand that we were going to war.

Every year since then we have spent today remembering what happened that day. A lot of things have changed in our country as a result of that attack. We can argue whether they are good or bad changes but they have happened.

It's good to remember. As long as we aren't remembering by living in the past and not moving forward.

My brother is serving in the Air Force and is currently stationed in England. Today, he and his wife welcomed their first child into this world. He's just 3 1/2 hours old as I type this (and it's a good thing you aren't in the room because I may be crying). Here is part of my brother's Facebook status, "So.... I know everyone is excited and all, however I believe the excitement is outmatched here in this hospital room." 

Ridiculously sweet.

I couldn't be more excited for them! They are celebrating life today!

I went to an FCA meeting at the high school today and mentioned to a few students that my nephew might be born today. One said, "oh...that'll be awkward." But how? Why is it awkward to celebrate this new life today?

As a country we do remember those events that took place 12 years ago. We remember to help us move forward. We remember the sacrifices that were made to encourage ourselves to live sacrificially. We remember the lives of those in the buildings to remind ourselves that we are never guaranteed tomorrow. So we live the most out of our today (as Christians, that includes pursuing Christ's plan for our lives).

We should remember the lives lost, and celebrate the new life all around us. It helps push us forward. It brings a smile to our faces. It challenges us to be the best we can be.

One day last week I had the tremendous privilege of reading Rees Howells, Intercessor in its entirety. This was not my first time; this treasure is one I read over and over again. When I sense the slightest spiritual dryness, it is life-giving water for my thirsty soul. When I feel the need to be challenged anew to lay down my life for my Savior, Howells' biography fits the bill.

One of the chapters deals with when Howells allowed the Holy Spirit to come in and take full possession. He claims that he knew God before this time, but was apparently living a rather nominal Christian life. As he explained it, he knew he had been "quickened" but had not yet "been raised up with Christ to that place of power." Howells was attending a revival when he heard for the first time about the personhood of the Holy Spirit and how, if you claim Christ, the Holy Spirit must be given full possession of your body.

Many of us can relate to Howells' spiritual state before the revival. We often forget Paul's probing question to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19,20).

When Howells heard the truth about the Holy Spirit, his eyes were opened. The Holy Spirit said to Howells,

"As the Savior had a body, so I dwell in the cleansed temple of the believer. I am a Person. I am God, and I am come to ask you to give your body to Me that I may work through it. I need a body for my temple, but it must belong to Me without reserve, for two persons with different wills can never live in the same body. Will you give Me yours? But if I come in, I come as God, and you must go out. I shall not mix myself with your self."

Though Howells was honored to think that the Holy Spirit would come indwell him, he suddenly realized what that meant. Every bit of his fallen nature was to go to the Cross. From that meeting, Howells went out into a field and wept because, "I had received a sentence of death, as really as a prisoner in the dock. I had lived in my body for 26 years, and could I easily give it up?"

Howells fully intended to say yes to the Holy Spirit, but he wept for days as he considered the cost. It took him five days to make the decision -- days in which the Spirit dealt with him, exposing roots of pride and selfish ambition. Finally as he agonized about the decision, the Spirit said, "If you can't be willing, are you willing to be made willing?" As soon as Howells said he was willing to be made willing, the Spirit came in like a flood.

What struck me more than anything about this testimony is that he wept for days as he considered the cost. The preacher at the revival meeting made it abundantly clear that this was not a decision to be made lightly. This was no "Just come to Jesus tonight and your life will be great" sort of message. I fear we hear the "cheap grace" message far too often in American churches, because we're big on racking up the numbers of salvations and baptisms so it looks good on the monthly report.

Friends, the decision to follow Jesus should not be made lightly. And in our efforts to share Jesus with others, it is our responsibility to be honest with them about the costs involved. Following Jesus doesn't mean we will no longer have any problems. It doesn't mean we will never be sick or weak. It doesn't mean we will never be tempted to sin.

What it DOES mean is that we relinquish every part of our flesh to God, so He can use us for His purposes. It means DAILY crucifying our flesh, nailing every bit of it to the cross as the Father reveals parts of our lives that are not in keeping with His will. That may mean ditching the television because God wants you to use that time in prayer. It may mean relocating to a different neighborhood or state or even country, because God has called you to minister to a particular people group. It may mean doing a major overhaul of your finances because you have been spending too much money on frivolous pursuits, and God wants you to use it instead to help someone else.

We sin against God when we communicate to others that the gospel is easily swallowed and easily lived out. Many believe they are following Jesus simply because they go to church, when in reality their church experience is more like a country club. I have been in churches like that, and it's scary how you get sucked in to thinking you are okay spiritually because you are behaving like everyone else.

Brothers and sisters, remember Peter's exhortation: "I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). The words "aliens and strangers" does not give me the feeling that we are supposed to "fit in." We are not supposed to look and act like other people, even if those people are in the church we attend.

God calls us to intimate fellowship with Him, and that won't look the same for you as it does for me. The point is that we daily offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). Daily relinquish your will to the Holy Spirit, and ask Him to "guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13). Pray for your eyes to be opened to the needs around you, and for your ears to be eager to hear when He speaks. He has redeemed your life for a purpose. Let Him use you as He desires.

There was a point in my life, or well, let's be honest, several points, where I was spiraling out of control. Doing, saying, being the very things I knew contradicted my faith, but the worst of the worst was my absolute failure to admit I had done anything wrong.

As I spiraled out of God's will and into my own wants and desires, I had the tendency to grab a hold and throw others under the bus. They did it to me. They hurt me. They. I did not want to admit fault, perhaps because I was so deceived I believed I was completely innocent. It was never me. I never did anything wrong. It was my unwillingness to admit fault that caused me to stay put on that rock bottom for so long.

But funny things happen when you open up, stop playing a character and get real about yourself. You admit you do things wrong. You admit you walk away from the Lord. You continue to walk away, because you can't admit your fault.

The cycle continues, and will continue, until you can admit you were wrong. Admitting guilt is not good times, but getting out of the dumps and back on track is as easy as ABC. Say what? Yes. 1.Admit you were wrong. 2. Believe He is faithful to forgive. 3. Carry on seeking the Lord.

We make it a lot harder than it is, because we cover and mask with layers. You got so many lies going on you don't even know what you believe, but you are sure you did nothing wrong ... so why is nothing going right?

Recently, I heard about a dear friend who went into a full blown drunken disgrace. I'm not talking about a night out at a wild party with one too many. No, he has been straggling in the same drink, drank, drunk pattern for years now. It's more than just an occasional beer, this is a habitual drunken lifestyle, with rigid repercussions. This month, in his belligerence he drank, got way drunk and decided it was a stellar idea to go ahead and bike to work. Not surprisingly, upon arrival he was promptly fired and within a few days, without income, he struggled to pay rent. He has continued to struggle because he flat out refuses that he has a problem.

You see, he can't admit his fault and so he can't get out of this rut. He continues to feel God has left him and yet refuses to see where he wandered away from the Lord. I want to shake him and say, "God doesn't leave!" His refusal to admit his own faults makes him blind to the truth and hope that surround. He has no choice but to continue on this dangerous path, because he can't admit he made a wrong turn.

It's absolutely heartbreaking.

Friend, perhaps your downward spiral, your constant conflict, might just be the warning that you have been wrong. Now is the time to check your heart, admit your fault and return to the Lord.

"Return, faithless Israel," declares the Lord. "I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful," declares the Lord; "I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 3:12-13).

Last week I concluded a 3-part series about the recent trip my husband and I took to South Africa. The picture at the right was taken at one of the schools where we washed children's feet and gave them new shoes. By the time we were through, the water was rust-colored from washing so many dusty little feet. Some of the kids wore shoes but others did not. All were given crocs to wear, which are perfect because they are easily wiped clean.

Fast forward to a similar outreach I participated in a week ago at a local school. After what I witnessed in South Africa, this was quite a change. For starters, none of the children whose feet I measured were in need of a foot washing. They hadn't walked to school in bare feet on dusty dirt roads. Many of the kids were overweight, and I don't think I saw a single overweight child in South Africa.

The other stark difference was in the shoes these kids wore. In some instances, I wondered why we were providing them with new shoes -- one kid proudly exhibited his Air Jordan high-tops, which sell for anywhere from $100 to $200 and up. I thought to myself, this kid needs new shoes? A little girl came wearing what appeared to be a brand new pair of multi-colored New Balance sneakers.

The kids in South Africa were so excited and grateful to be getting a new pair of shoes. Not so much here in America. After all, who wants a $30 pair of Converse sneakers when you can have Air Jordans?

There seems to be a pervasive sense of entitlement in this country, and sadly, that was evident even in these elementary school children. Some seemed annoyed that they had to have their feet measured, and others argued that I didn't write down the right size. I assured them that at the next station, they would try on an actual shoe to be sure I measured correctly.

It is vital that we raise our children to be grateful for all they have -- and to not give them an overabundance. At our granddaughters' joint birthday party in June, our son wisely requested no gifts. Our granddaughters have plenty of toys and tiaras and dolls, and parents are wise to know when enough is enough.

Our kids need to be grounded spiritually more desperately than they need material possessions. Remember Deuteronomy 11:19? Speaking of "these words of Mine," God says we are to "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

I wish I'd done more of that. I taught our sons the importance of going to church and doing all the "Christian stuff," but I don't think I invested nearly enough time talking with them about God and His Word, and the wonder of dying to ourselves so we can be filled with Him and live our lives as He would have us live them.

Parents, do you need to make some changes in how you communicate love to your kids? They need your time and your presence more than anything else. They need you to be living examples of people who take up their cross daily to follow Jesus. Read the Bible with them and engage them in active discussion of what it means and how they might apply it to their lives. As they get older, teach them that they are not their own, because they were purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and are to honor Him with their bodies. For girls, that may mean dressing more modestly than their peers. Boys need to be encouraged to stand strong and pure in a culture saturated with perverted sexuality.

Don't let the television or computer be a babysitter for your kids. Be sure you are their main source of godly counsel. And from a very early age, teach them gratitude and the joy of giving to others.