Blogs

You don’t want to have an intruder in your home. Do you take measures to secure it? Do you lock doors and limit access to keys and watch for suspicious activity in your neighborhood? You have every right to be safe in your dwelling and take measures to secure it. Are you as diligent to prevent intruders in your mind? How much more personal is your mind than your home? Your enemy can speak to you but you can take every thought captive to obedience. I tell you to think on things that are lovely and pure. Does this seem impossible? I would not expect it of you if it were. What is not possible on your own is possible with me. 

Do you have a zeal for the truth? This sounds like a desirable virtue, but how do you distinguish it from a zeal for proving yourself right? Other people can make this distinction about you much easier than you can about yourself. Let your search and zeal for correctness begin within yourself. Search and try your ways and turn again to me. So let a man examine himself. Judge yourself that you may not be judged. Be zealous enough for the truth to let it begin with you. Do the deep spirit and soul work to have truth in your inward parts and you will be in a position to speak the truth in love to others. 

You live in a culture of abundance. This gives you a bias in favor of always wanting more and better things and you find support for this in the Bible. Yet the Bible also teaches contentment and even that you should lay down your life and decrease that I may increase. Is it possible that too much emphasis on the first point could interfere with your spiritual maturity? For the second part is also necessary for your spiritual growth. In some ways you already have too much. The release of these things is just as important as the acquisition of better things. Come to me and die that you may live. 

Do you know that you should desire to do my will but have some uneasy concerns that I will ask you to do something difficult and unpleasant? I created you with intent, and you are fearfully and wonderfully made. I created you for a purpose, and you are custom built to perform it. The calling I have for you that is my will for you is perfectly suited for the way I made you. Don’t you find joy and satisfaction in performing tasks that are perfectly consistent with the essence of your being? Don’t be envious of those who make more money for less work. They have their own path to walk. You will find true joy and satisfaction on the path I have set before you. 

Do you think of your vocation as the way you earn money? This is commonly accepted usage for something that is also called a career, but in earlier times it had a different meaning. Vocation was considered another term for calling, as in the ministry that was your unique assignment. For some people these are one and the same but this is not true for everyone. Do you think of your career as your primary identity? These can change with time and circumstances and the state of the economy. If you have a strong sense of calling you should think of your vocation as a more accurate indicator of your true identity and it should be more stable and enduring. If you don’t have a strong sense of your vocation ask of me and I will show it to you. 

We are sad to see Dr. Karen King leave our CLU staff after 11 years of blessing our students with her service. However, we rejoice with her over the new season the Lord is bringing her into! Karen has started a church in Ohio, and as it has continued to flourish her pastoral responsibilities have become more demanding, making it difficult for her to continue on as a CLU instructor.

Do you have pet peeves, little things that other people do that you find more annoying than the intent and level of offense would suggest? Other people may do these things without any intent or even awareness that it bothers you. Rather than trying to make them stop you should ask yourself why it is such a problem for you. The harmless actions of others can reveal areas in you that are not fully surrendered to me; where you reserve the right to make unrighteous judgments. Let these responses prompt you to examine yourself rather than others that you may decrease and I may increase in the transformation of you into my likeness.

Whew!  Hot topics can certainly create a stir.  Or maybe the stir creates hot topics.  In any case there are certain things that tend to get the evangelical community in an uproar more than others.  Abortion, homosexuality, New Age and others are some of those things.

But people can ignite a community as well.  Chances are that the picture above moved you to one side of the line or the other.  It’s a little tougher to remain neutral with some things. 

The essence of worship is attributing and expressing the worthiness of the one you worship. Your faith teaches you that I alone am worthy of worship. Are there no others that are worthy? In a lesser sense you can affirm your friends and recognize others that you admire. But worship refers to a greater sense and an ultimate reality. In this realm the creator is greater than the creature, and the creatures have nothing that they did not receive from above. Therefore they should receive their honors in humility and gratitude, acknowledging their source, and true worship in spirit and in truth is reserved for the One who is ultimately worthy. 

My daughter Charity has some great thoughts about seeing in the spirit and hearing God's voice. Is the ability to sense the spirit a divinely-imparted gift bestowed on a few? Or is it a skill that we can all learn to cultivate and develop through time and practice? 

You'll appreciate her word and I trust it will be a great encouragement to you to keep pressing in for all the Lord has for you.

Be blessed!