The Fingerprint of Identity

My goal for 2017 was to have a closer relationship with the Lord at the end of the year than I had at the beginning. I can honestly say that there were many lessons I learned, I acquired some knowledge, I gained understanding that helped me renew my mind and build upon the foundation of my relationship with Him. My "aha" moment; that moment when I could feel scales fall from my eyes, like I could see something more clearly, came in July during an interview with Ginger Green. Ginger is a board certified Biblical Counselor and a trained Christian Mediator.

As she shared about secular humanism invading the church and how the idea that Christians can't help their habits and low self-esteem is contradictory to scripture, I began to wonder if I had personally been invaded. Low self-esteem had been my specialty. I figured the best I could do was sit in a corner and be thankful for whatever God swept my way. My failures and faults were always at the forefront determining my worth. In my eyes, there was always someone with a better education that could do a better job and could execute God's missions and goals with marksmanship. Why would God choose me? 

I had been guilty of believing that my opinion of myself determined how well I could function as a Christian. As much as I wanted to change that opinion, it never seemed to improve because I didn't really know what it meant to "be in Christ." I understood the idea of being in Christ; being a new creation, scripture tells us this fact "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Corinthians 5:17. I could read it, speak it, and know it to be true, but I couldn't apply it to my own life because of my own sin. 

My sin was self-idolatry. I had placed "self" where Christ needed to be in my life. Self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence needed to be Christ-esteem, worth, and confidence.  The only way I could find freedom was to kneel before the cross and repent. Sin cannot be managed, it must be uprooted through the cross. The fingerprint of God is placed over me for I am in Christ; a new creature. 

You can find the interview with Ginger Green and the series of broadcasts that discuss the topic of knowing who we are in Christ by following proverbs3130ministry.com 

Get fingerprinted!

Don't Live in Regret

I'm a little late on sharing my reflections over the last year. 2017 was an eventful year that seemed to fly by in a flash. My last post was April 15th and exactly one month later, on Mother's Day, my pregnant sister-in-law, Miki died suddenly at 24 years old, along with the little girl she carried. It seemed unreal. We had so many questions and no answers; how? why? She was too young. It was not suppose to be this way. She had her whole life ahead of her. Mother's Day will never be the same for any of us; especially for her mother and the two young children Miki left behind. This was the last picture with her and her four brothers. We miss her.

Death has no age limits. None of us are promised tomorrow. Later can turn into never. I wish I had been with my grandma when she died; instead she died alone. I had to reschedule my last lunch date with my friend Abby, a few weeks later she was gone. I often wonder what we would have talked about. My last conversation with Miki was through text. She told me what she was going to name the baby and about her plans to return to school after she was born. My heart hurts sometimes when I think about my last conversation with those who have past on. What would I say different if I had known it was our last time to talk? What would I add?

I'm sure we all have regrets; the coulda, shoulda, woulda's can plague us until we fall into deep depression and render ourselves useless for any good thing. We can beat ourselves up with all that we did wrong or just didn't do at all, but that doesn't help anyone. I have been very good at using the regret stick (which feels more like a bat) to strike blows on myself, but never once has it given me a chance to change the situation. We are human beings, we will make mistakes, we will mess up, but regret will never make it better.

Nehemiah 8:1-12 describes how all God's people gathered to hear Ezra read the book of the law. When he finished the people answered Amen, lifted their hands, worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground, and wept because they understood the words of the law. Their hearts were broken by God's word, but Ezra encouraged them not to mourn or weep or grieve "for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

As I read these scriptures, I heard the encouragement for myself: don't live in regret, keep moving forward, and rejoice in your relationship with the Lord. 

Don't live in regret!

Mentoring and Modeling

My dear friend is a retired pastor's wife. They served 50 years in ministry and have been slowly going through the elaborate book collection that they have acquired over that time. Last week she brought a box of them to church and I was very excited to find this fabulous book on mentoring by Dr. John Goetsch and Dr. Mark Rasmussen.

The first five sentences had me hooked.

"There is an old Chinese Proverb that says:

If you are planting for a year, plant grain.

If you are planting for a decade, plant trees.

If you are planting for a century, plant people.

As Christians, we are planting for eternity!"

I couldn't stop reading. They go on to quote Ron Lee Davis, "For all the thousands who are eager to share their knowledge and skills with others, there are just a handful who are willing to share their LIVES, who are willing to be transparent, vulnerable, and open about their successes and their failures, their joys and their pain, their faith and their doubts." 

The introduction alone left me in tears as they continue to share the story of a young boy and the teacher who became his mentor. "We seem content to impress from a distance, which is easily done, but hesitate to impact up close, which is what our Lord exemplified for us in His life and ministry." 

It made me look deep in my heart to analyze my motives and evaluate my life. Where can I do a better job mentoring? 

As I read this book, I was reminded of my last visit with my mentor, Jan Stockdale. She was in women's ministry for 11 years and continues to speak to and encourage women. She was imparting some wisdom as I was preparing for speaking and hosting a ladies retreat. She said, "By my strength I can influence you, but by my brokenness I can connect with you" and encouraged me to connect with the women.

Too many times we want to influence and impress, when what they need is to be impacted up close with a real connection.

Get connected!

The Shepherd's Field

My heart was blessed as I read the story of St Patrick a few weeks ago.  I didn't know that St. Patrick's Day began as a celebration of his life.  He was kidnapped at age 16 and enslaved by Irish marauders (pirates).  His slave job was a herder of animals.  While in the fields he drew close to the Lord.

This reminded me of David, the shepherd boy who was a man after God's own heart.  His time in the shepherd's field drew him close to the Lord.  After David is anointed King but before he takes the throne, he went to the battleground where Goliath was taunting the armies of God; 1 Samuel 17:32-37.  David is confident to go and fight Goliath because God prepared him in the shepherd's field with the lion and the bear. "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" 1 Samuel 17:37

It is important for all of us to find our shepherd's field; the place where you get alone with God.  Where He can build your confidence and show up in miraculous ways.  We tend to multi-task with our prayer time in our busy life, just like we do everything else.  While it is true that we should "pray without ceasing" 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we should not forget to get alone with God in the shepherds field.

My shepherd's field is on my couch in my office.  Spending time there means more to me now than it did before I read St. Patrick's story.  I would like to challenge you to find your shepherd's field and spend some time there being encouraged.

Where's your shepherd's field?

You can listen to a condensed version of his story on the broadcast of the Proverbs 31:30 Woman to Woman Show recorded March 17, 2017.

Recorded live on KWXC 88.9 Christian Talk Radio - Grove Ok.

The Evalutionary Race

In light of the current events surrounding our country, I thought I would share an interesting article I read this week about racism.  I realize that racism is an ongoing issue in America and among many other issues we have here, this one seems to never end.  I have often wondered, "what will it take for Americans to be Americans without division" I have this hope.  We fight, blame, picket, protest, march, rally, and demand but no real change takes place.  Laws may be changed with these efforts but people are still discriminated against.

How can we elicit real change?  How can discrimination be eradicated?

These are questions that I'm sure many people have asked and maybe even thought they had the solution.  I'm not writing to answer these questions or give a solution.  I simply want to share some information that might help us look at each other with a different set of eyes.  Isn't that really the problem; our perceptions?

This article is entitled, "Where Did the "Races" Come From?" by Ken Ham, Dr. Carl Wieland, & Dr. Don Batten.  It is located in the back of my King James Bible with permission from "Answers in Genesis," a ministry of Ken Ham.

This article talks about how the acceptance of evolution has made people think that some races are further along on the road to being more human and less animal than other races, which gives them a superior thinking of themselves.  "A leading evolutionary spokesperson, Stephen Jay Gould, stated that 'Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.'"

Now, maybe many of you already knew this and I am among a few who are being enlightened.  However, I believe that when we know where the root is then it is a lot easier to kill.

On a side note, I have a wisteria tree in my backyard.  Five years ago I thought it was beautiful and couldn't wait to plant it,  Now, there are wisteria trees trying to grow all over my yard.  I spent several days last summer digging up roots that all lead back to my original tree.  If I want to kill them, I have to do something with the original root.

"Knowing is half the battle" (GI Joe).  I love this phrase because after we gain knowledge then we can begin to make real change.

How do we fight the other half of the battle?  I don't really know, but at least we have a starting point that can change how we have been fighting.

There is only one race - the human race!

Ways to Start the New Year Right - Episodes 3 & 4

Janie and I did not realize that our show was going to be right in the middle of the inaugural festivities until the Wednesday before the show.  We had big plans to talk about faith and discuss the way we have used the word faith in place of our denomination; Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, etc. is my faith.  We thought all our plans were foiled, but God made it clear that we could still talk about faith.

Some people are very scared about the new administration, but we can still trust God in the unknown future of our country.  So we spent some time talking about the inauguration and how we can continue to trust God because He is the ultimate authority.

Episode 3 - Recorded live on KWXC 88.9 Christian Talk Radio

The following Friday, we continued our discustion on faith and gave some encouragement for how to grow in our faith through our relationship with the Lord.  Faith is the foundational building block for our spiritual growth.  All other aspects of spiritual growth is built upon it.  2 Peter 1:5 "...giving all diligence add to your faith..."

Episode 4 - Recorded live on KWXC 88.9 Christian Talk Radio

 We invite you to listen to the show live every Friday at noon CST on kwxcradio.com 

Ways to Start the New Year Right - Episode 2

Janie and I have enjoyed getting to spend some time reminiscing about 2016 and established our turning points for the year.

My turning point was April 2016 when I understood the protocols of forgiveness through Bruce and Toni Hebel and their ministry at forgivingforward.com.

Janie shared that her turning point was when God taught her to perserve through the daily pain in her body.

Establishing turning points will always help us to remember where God has brought us from and allow us to continually hold on to that victory.

We invite you to listen live every Friday at noon CST at kwxcradio.com

Episode 2 discusses things we can do differently in our conversations with God and each other.