I do it. You do it. We all do it, and we all need to stop it. We need to stop it in ourselves and we need to love each other enough to step out of our comfort space and exhort one another to STOP IT!

Of course by now you are wondering what the IT is that I am writing about today.  Well, let me state it as succinctly and authoritatively as possible by telling you what Jesus said about IT.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ~~ Matthew 7:1-51

In other words, stop being so critical and judgemental. Just stop it. Of all the things that we do as believers, as called out ones, that is lethal and toxic to the body of Christ, this is surely close to the top of the list right under arrogant, self-righteous and prideful. 

In my favorite devotional book, “My Utmost For His Highest” Oswald Chambers writes: 

“The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known.”2

Why do you suppose he wrote that? Because it’s true and if we are honest with ourselves about ourselves, we know it is true. I know when it’s true of me and I’m sick of it. I long to be holy as God is holy and I thank Him now and every day for conviction and for the power of His Holy Spirit to change me as I surrender myself to Him. There is freedom in Christ from all manner of sin and silliness, trial and trouble. 

Let’s go before Him today and confess the sin of pride and surrender our right to be and stay critical, self-righteous, judgmental and full of pride. In its place let’s put on the fruit of the spirit, empowered by the Spirit at work in us and seek to do no harm with our tongues.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. ~~ Galatians 5:22-26

Stephanie

1 http://www.biblegateway.com 

2 http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/06/17/devotion.aspx?year=2009

I was walking from my office to the Raws Building, intent on my mission as usual.  I was looking at the ground or shrubs around me when I happened to glance up.  Right there alongside the Raws building was a beautiful tree full of bright fuchsia flower buds.  I was startled because I never saw that tree there before.  I had missed it because I wasn’t looking up.  

What do we miss because we are so engrossed by life, so engrossed by our surroundings and happenings that we fail to look UP.?  I’m not referring to the trees or the clouds, which are of course well worth a gaze here and again, but looking up in our mind’s eye to consider God.  

Colossians 3:1-2 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

What are you missing because you have your eyes fixed on the temporal?  Look UP and see the things that are above.  Look UP and see the beauty of Christ.  

Diane

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6(ESV) Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 (NKJV)

Over the years I have shared this verse with numerous couples and challenged them to pray this verse for their marriage. I have encouraged others to pray this verse in the face of conflict.  Recently, I was driving to work one morning and I was praying this verse as I had been for a while when it occurred to me I was skipping parts, not intentionally but just the same, I was. I realized I was leaving out some very important parts.  

I was praying “that we would be like-minded and that with one mind and one mouth we would glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Then I remembered I had left out “toward one another.”  That makes it much more personal.  We are called to be like-minded toward one another. Some people are easy to be like-minded with, others not so much.  I think if we pray to be like-minded that somehow it seems as if the other people will be persuaded to think like we think.  To be like-minded TOWARD ONE ANOTHER implies that most likely both people will change.  

The other part of the Scripture I was leaving out was even more important: “toward one another, ACCORDING TO CHRIST JESUS.”  The only way to be like-minded in a way that will glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is ACCORDING TO CHRIST JESUS.  In myself, I am more inclined to be self-minded that I am to be like-minded. I want my own way.  I think my way is, maybe not the only way, but the best way.  For me to be like-minded toward others according to Christ requires the power of God in me to accomplish such a feat.    

If we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, pursue to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, we will with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our homes and churches will never be the same.  

Diane

I have recently been challenged with this question.  Now, if I was honest, I would tell you that I crave coffee every morning.  But, that’s not exactly what I am asking myself with this question.  

  Scripture tells us that as the deer pants for water, so we should pant for God. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalms 42:1).  After I take my dog for a walk she immediately comes in seeking water, and often if we find a puddle or walk by the lake she will drink from it.  Based on that observation and the above Scripture, I have to ask myself – do I seek out God like my dog seeks out water after a walk?  In the summer, if I am working outside or in the heat – I understand the craving for water or liquid refreshment.  

At KESWICK, we deal with men who are struggling to overcome different addictions in their lives.  It is probably appropriate to say that they once craved a substance or something in a powerful way.  My husband craved heroin in his past to a point that all he thought about was when and how he could get it.  

Do I crave God like that?  I hate to say it, but probably not.  There are definitely times I am drawn to God and I am looking forward to spending  time with Him, but certainly not in the way that people crave  drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling, or food.  It is even safe to say that I do not crave God to the point that I crave food.   

1 Peter 2:2 states: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…”  Have you been around a hungry baby? Do you desire God or a spiritual connection with God like a baby desires their bottle?  

Based on this question I am attempting to spend time with God before each meal and before I go to bed at night.  Not a lot of time, just some reading or prayer.  Maybe for you it might be that you need to spend time with God before a certain TV show that you just can’t miss, or before you read a book – or go shopping.  Whichever it is… Do you seek to spend time with God as much as you feel the need to do other things in your life?

Lynne Jahns

Welcome back Lynne, we’ve missed your writing.  Congratulations on your accomplishment of completing the requirements for your Doctorate.  Soon, Lynne will officially be Dr. Lynne Jahns.  

On Friday I wrote to you about how we can think more highly of ourselves than we ought to and wind up with stinking thinking -thinking which places us in the place of God and encourages you/me to study and judge the world by what is inside us, rather than what is holy and righteous and true according to the Word of Life.

Another way one can be on a pedestal is like this.  I can place someone else there and live life to please that person above the Lord. Many times and in a variety of ways this way of elevating another is just as difficult to discern because to our way of thinking, it is good. We might say or ask, “So what’s wrong with wanting my husband, family, fiance’, boyfriend, parents, boss, etc., to be happy?  When they’re happy, I’m happy.”

More often than not, it is difficult for us to accept the thought that we would ever place anything in our lives before God.  Every good Christian knows that isn’t the way to live. And, as long as the happy feeling we need to “feel” better is achieved, all is well with us and, we will not likely be challenged to think any differently.

  However, the moment the need is not met or the person doesn’t provide us with the kind of experience we need to be “OK,” then we begin to see more clearly that things are out of order and our allegiance, or loyalty, to God is shared by another.  In either case, whether it’s you on the pedestal or the throne of your own heart or whether you have placed another person there, life is revolving around someone else other than God and He will share His glory with no other.

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.  Isaiah 42:8

Know this: For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Psalm 62:5-7

Dear sisters, there is so much more that can be said on this topic and much has been written. One such book written by Ed Welch is, “When People Are Big and God Is Small.”  In more ways than most of us are comfortable imagining, our view of God is way too small and therefore, we are easily undone by life’s happenings. When we don’t meet our own expectations and, when other people let us down, we sometimes/often don’t know what to do.

Today’s challenge: Examine your heart and life for pedestals. Are you thinking more highly of yourself than you ought? Is there a person or persons in your life around whom your well-being and peace revolve?

Today’s encouragement: Remember your first love. Remember the joy of your salvation. Fall in love with Jesus. Hunger and thirst for Him and don’t stop eating or drinking until your soul is satisfied. 

May we let Him fill all those gaps, all those leaky places. May we dare to trust Him to really and truly be our all in all.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.  So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:1-4

Stephanie

Are you a pedestal person? Or are you a person who puts other people on a pedestal?  Both positions are dangerous.  Lest it appear like I am pointing the finger away from myself, I’ll use me as the example of what this might look like.

First let’s define pedestal. It’s a structure meant to display something.  Anything that is on a pedestal is meant to be displayed or admired. For example, I have a plant pedestal in my home that allows me to observe whatever plant of the moment is thriving upon it. 

Now imagine with me that the pedestal of which I speak is in my own mind (or yours). This could/would mean that I greatly admire myself and that I might be prone to treat myself to some level of high esteem (or that I at least want to be treated like something.)

Right now I am oh, so ready to come to my own defense in this matter. Ah, but I am afraid I cannot, simply because I know myself. I know the thoughts that I think at times and I know that in those moments I am oh, so full of myself.

You know the thoughts I mean, don’t you?  Any person with a heart bent toward God knows from whence I speak.  Over the past year or so, multiple moments have occurred that have brought pedestal awareness to the surface.  Some of my worst thinking about other people happens in those moments. In each incident it was ME on the throne of my heart reacting…not CHRIST in me.  (Thank the Lord God that in Him there is no condemnation!)

Put another way, the most common way pedestal thinking shows up in me is anytime I perceive someone to be talking down to me. Wham! The pedestal shakes, topples and I find myself scrambling for solid ground.

Over, and over, and over again, life will give us opportunities for growth. Lately that’s exactly what is happening and I hate/love it all at once.  I hate the pain I feel in the midst of it, and yet I love the fact that the ground on which I land is unshakeable and sure because it’s at the foot of the Cross.  This is the safest, most secure place that I know.

There is one God and He alone is worthy of praise; He alone will have the place of esteem in my heart.  I thank Him and praise Him (yeah, even when it hurts) for loving me so much as to allow me to fall down so He can pick me up and hold me close while His Holy Spirit teaches me how to “be” without needing to be.  I thank Him that my need to be is as He wills and not as I will.  I thank Him for His patience and His kindness, His mercy, His grace and for the truth of His Word, wherein I find freedom to live and move and have my being.  Being that is not dependant on pedestal placement in my own heart and mind.

There is one God and Him only will I serve.

Question:  Do you have pedestal moments…and when you do, what does it look like in your life? 

Let’s praise the Lord now for His kindness in revealing the ways this is true in us and praise Him for loving us so much that He died so that we might have life and life more abundantly; life unfettered by the deceitfulness of the sin of pride.  Let’s thank Him now for lifting us up out of the miry clay and setting our feet upon the Rock; the solid Rock of Christ Jesus. 

Let’s praise Him, thank Him and then ask Him to help us change. 

Selah.

Strip me of all that is me and fill me with all that is You.  

Recently, during a counseling session, I found myself praying: “Strip me of all that is me and fill me with all that is You.” 

I was somewhat caught off guard by the impact of the statement on myself so I took a moment to jot it down. “Strip me of all that is me and fill me with all that is You.”

It’s not a new thought, by any means, but it was so unintentional on my part during my prayer that I was struck by what God was saying to me in that moment.   John communicated a similar thought in John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

As I consider how to share my heart with you, I can think of nothing of value to add. So today’s Victory Call will simply share this statement for your edification and meditation today.  As you meditate on this prayer, know there are 800+ others considering the same thought today.  

Strip me of all that is me and fill me with all that is You.

… that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Eph 3:19 

Diane

Luke 5:15, But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

The report that immediately precedes this verse is of Jesus cleansing a leper.  Although He “charged him to tell no one” (vs. 14) word spread about Him and great crowds gathered.  

Before I came to America’s Keswick almost 10 years ago, I was very involved in ministry in our local church teaching Bible study, working in the nursery, counseling, small group, and Sunday school.  We also sought various opportunities to expose our neighbors to the gospel through babysitting, ice cream socials and conversations at the bus stop.  Ministry (vocational or non-vocational) can be exciting, stressful, demanding, tiring, and a blessing.  It is energizing and draining at the same time.  

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you ARE in ministry.  Wherever God has placed you, therein is your ministry.  Are you a full-time stay-at-home mom, a full or part-time employee, self-employed, retired, widowed, engaged, a new believer or a veteran believer?  In your circle of influence you have ministry.  It may be to a husband and children, or neighbor, or co-worker or client or a brother or sister in Christ. Daily, God gives us opportunities to express the gospel in word and/or action.  

More than any of us, Jesus knows the demands of ministry.  Wherever He went He tended to draw crowds. 

I think the word in our verse that draws my attention is “but.”  “… great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. BUT he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”1 It would be easy to think that when ministry is demanding we must re-double our efforts to get the job done, but instead of re-doubling His efforts Jesus actually withdrew.  He didn’t withdraw to isolate or to mumble and complain. throwing His hands up in desperation and quitting (as I think some of us are prone to do). No, rather He withdrew to connect with His Father through prayer.    

How connected are you to the Father in prayer regarding the ministry opportunities He is providing in your circle of influence?  When the demands of ministry become overwhelming do you put it in overdrive or do you drive over to a quiet place and pray?  

Diane

1 Caps for emphasis

Luke 4:13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

A very familiar passage of Scripture retelling a time shortly after John baptized Jesus, when Jesus entered the wilderness/desert and fasted 40 days, during which time He was tempted by the devil. 

Each time Satan tempted Christ, Jesus responded without wavering with the truth of Scripture thwarting Satan’s best efforts. (See Luke 4:3-12).  Finally, “when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” (vs. 13)

What are the opportune times in your life?  Perhaps there are times in our lives when we sin at the first suggestion of temptation. We don’t even make an effort to overcome or have victory.  Perhaps there are times we put up some resistance, half-hearted at best, and soon our hearts give in to the temptation and we sin.  Perhaps there are times that by faith we mount our best counterattack, and experience the victory won at the cross.  

I find that all too often, I fall into the second category.  I offer some resistance to temptation and walk away, but then a few days, hours or even minutes later I have somehow convinced myself that it isn’t really sin, or it is no longer sin, or whatever the ploy of the day is, and I no longer see it as temptation but rather as a choice I am making.  Two areas I experience this most frequently regard food and purchases.  

Why am I sharing that?  I believe it illustrates that Satan does not slither off easily. Half-hearted efforts to overcome temptation and to walk in victory still leave the other half of the heart to the cravings of the flesh.  Satan is oh, so patient.  He will wait until an opportune time to draw you away into sin, whether it takes seconds, minutes, weeks or years.  He will wait until an opportune time.  

What are opportune times?  Those times we fail to have on our battle armor of faith and truth.  When are your opportune times?

Diane

ARMOR:  The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength. Nahum 2:1   Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:10-11  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Ephesians 6:14-17 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:12

ACTION:  Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, …Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. Luke 12:35 & 37  

RIGHTEOUSNESS:  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. Job 29:14

CHRIST HIMSELF:  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13: 14 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3:27  

THE NEW SELF: …and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24 …and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:9-10  

COMPASSION, KINDNESS, HUMILITY, MEEKNESS, PATIENCE AND LOVE: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, Colossians 3:12 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14  

FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE: But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

WOMEN: 

STRENGTH:  She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. Proverbs 31:17

A GENTLE AND QUIET SPIRIT:  Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:3-4

RESPECT, MODESTY AND SELF-CONTROL: …likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness-with good works. 1 Timothy 2:9-10  

How is your spring wardrobe?

Diane