Bathing daily is recommended!

I know we know this but like so many truths a regular reminder is needed.  I read a quote by Zig Ziglar, well known motivational speaker, that said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”

While there are certain principles and/or motivations that we have heard time and time again there are some we need to ponder daily.  A friend called me early this morning with just one of those reminders.  I was barely awake when he began to talk to me about the importance of considering eternity in spite of the trauma of this temporal life. ( I don’t know why but his fatherly voice of care and concern always makes me cry.)  He went on to share with me some insights he felt he had received from the Lord that morning.  Not only the focus on eternity but that the pain of the ‘here and now’ was part of the preparation for eternity.  He said that preparation of my heavenly garment was being bespeckled with jewels and that these jewels were being sewn on with a very large needle which ‘pricked’ the garment with each stitch. The pricks of that large needle, as it was fastening the jeweled stones, were the temporal pricks of pain that I am now enduring.

Now I know that this man is not given to ‘etherial’ musings but rather he is a somewhat straightforward, in-your-face kind of guy so when he began to speak to me this visual, I listened.  I ‘needed’ to be reminded that the way we traverse through the temporal tragedies of life is to keep our eye on the goal of eternity.  It is not that we are to become passive in ‘fighting the good fight of faith’ but rather fight with the secure footing that the outcome has been assured!!

I know you know this…“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” ( I Corinthians 4:17-18)

Who do you want to be when you grow up???

A few weeks ago I stopped in to see Mrs. Freda Lindsay, co-founder of Christ for the Nations.  She is now 95 years old and we have become good friends through the years.  She has always encouraged me and supported me in ministry….she likes it that I am loud enough for people to hear!

The picture is not of the best quality because it was taken with a phone camera…that is all that was available at the time.  She said there were always people coming to see her lately ’snapping pictures!’ However, she didn’t hesitate when I asked for another picture to be ’snapped.’

She is a woman I greatly admire and respect because she has survived more than most of us will ever even face.  I respect survivors. I trust people with scars.

Some life lessons I have learned from Mrs. Lindsay:

*When you don’t feel good, don’t stay in your pajamas.  Get up and get dressed; don’t let the devil know how you feel.

*When you are confronted with a battle, enter into warfare immediately.  Many battles are lost in the first few minutes because we wait too long to engage and we allow the enemy to gain ground.

*Read what your critics say and then, ‘get over it.‘

*When some diabolical warfare attacks you don’t waste time trying to figure it out, just acknowledge that it is ‘pure devil.‘

*Don’t get caught up in every new thing that comes to the Body of Christ; maintain your foundation.

*To keep yourself from ever falling, read your bible through every year…three chapters a day and five on Sunday.

I’ve told her many times that I want to be just like her when I grow up!

High ‘hills’ or High-heels

We always think our spiritual journey is somehow unique.  We have the unsupported belief that the things that happen to us, only happen to us and they happen only to us because there is something terribly wrong with us!

While we are, by design, unique individuals the trauma of unbelief and life circumstances comes to us all, albeit in varying degrees and descriptions.

I have the privilege of teaching a class on the Minor Prophets at Christ for the Nations Bible Institute.  Each prophet has its own unique style and varying insights and purpose within a similar message.   This past week I started our look at the prophet Habakkuk.  What what kind of name is that and what were his parents thinking???  While those may be first response questions a look at the prophet’s message soon takes precedence over his unusual name. 

The theme of the book of Habakkuk is “The perplexing ways of God.”  The message basically revolves around Habakkuk’s questions regarding the ways of God and is basically an account of his pilgrimage from doubt to worship, from questioning to assurance, from unbelief to faith.  Whatever terms you want to use the message is clear; it is his life’s testimony.  It documents his journey from complaints to confidence, from doubting to trusting, and from the valley to high hills.  Isn’t that true for all of us?  Our life is a pilgrimage from one extreme to another; from darkness to light, from weakness to strength from unbelief to faith!

The ups and downs and back and forths of life are not unique to our spiritual journey but are consistent with the testimony of many men and women of God found in scripture.

Habakkuk begins his dialog with God, like many of us, with a complaint and then a ‘why’ question, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear?…Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble?” 

After he pontificates his position of frustration, disappointment and even despair because of the dire circumstances around him, he concludes his musings by proclaiming, “The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.”

A key verse in Habakkuk,“…the just shall live by his faith.”  The phrase, ’shall live’ means to not only just live, but to stay alive! 

I don’t know about you but I am going to put those high-heels on, climb out of the valley to my high hills,  and stay alive!!!

CLIMB A TREE

What?…climb a tree?  What does that mean and how does that apply to me?  Those are just a couple of questions that I asked the Lord this morning after I sensed Him speaking to me.  I was just driving along and talking to the Lord and telling Him that I could not ’see Him’ very well right now.  I was fighting back tears and wiping mascara off my face when I ‘heard’ the Lord say to me in response to my declaration of not seeing Him…”Well, climb a tree.”

It didn’t take me too long to relate this command to the story of Zacchaeus that I had read earlier in the day.  Luke 19 was the chapter I was reading this morning for a devotional before I headed to campus to teach.  Interesting how we can read something numerous times and yet at the ‘appointed’ time God breathes fresh revelation on old information.

The story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, has been the theme of many children’s messages perhaps because he is referred to in the bible as ‘being a short man’ so children can relate.  Because of his lack of stature he was unable to see Jesus over the crowd as He was walking through Jericho.  The scriptures say that, “He wanted to see who Jesus was…so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way.”  While the story of Zacchaeus is primarily one of salvation I think we could venture to say it is also a story of what lengths one will go to in order to see Jesus.  How desperate are we…really?

It was as if the Lord was saying, ‘You can’t see Me?  Learn from Zacchaeus; you must get above the raucous noise of the crowds, go beyond your own limitations, be creative and even a little unorthodox if necessary, but do whatever it takes to see Me.  Push, shove, navigate through whatever is hindering and climb whatever you  have to but get your eyes on Me!’

“…Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said…’Zacchaeus…I must stay at your house today.’”  We must make eye contact, in spite of blurry vision, in spite of obstacles, make eye contact.  Whatever it takes….climb a tree if necessary!

I can hardly see ‘you’ anymore!

The thought process that helps me keep moving forward when the stresses of life try to stop me in my tracks is the ‘knowing’ that I ‘will’ get up and go on. I have to admit I do not understand the workings of God. He made us in His image with the features of emotion and yet He demands of us to follow Him ‘regardless’ of these emotions. In essence He continually calls us to walk by the truth we know rather than by the emotions we feel.  The scriptures say it this way…we must walk by faith and not by sight.  Yet, it is God who gave us sight!   What are His purposes here?  Why would He command of us something that is diametrically opposed to our humanness?

Could it be that the only way we will every move from the finite realm of seeing into the infinite realm of believing is to traverse the chasm between seeing and believing by dying; dying to what we assume our life should entail.

It seems that He is more interested in our ability to die than to live!  Our human nature wants to live, live, live; His call to us is to die, die, die…die to ourselves, our ambitions, our selfish motives, our rights etc.  Paul said in Corinthians that, “…we who live are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh…”  That’s our goal then…or that’s what our goal should be…to be so insignificant that the life of Jesus is manifested, not in our spiritual being, but manifested in our mortal flesh! 

I spoke with a friend the other night and he said something like, ”… once we do not care about the promotions of life, then the life of Jesus will be seen more clearly in our lives.”  A missionary friend, Wayne Myers, said, “… the heart condition of lowliness is the only safe place in the world.”  Author and speaker Francis Frangipane said, “Here abides true spiritual fulfillment, not in our striving to create a place for ourselves, but in laying down self to create a place for Jesus.” 

The Gospel of John says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Selah

cour·age

Courage: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.  (merriam/webster dictionary)

Courage…the strength that makes us move forward when our feet want to retreat. (susan bozarth)

Courage…the ability to face the unknown with tear-stained cheeks but head erect. (susan bozarth)

‘Courage rises when the cause is greater than the circumstances.’ (winston churchill)

‘Courage is not the absence of fear nor the guarantee there are no risks.’ (winston churchill)

‘Life is expanded in proportion to courage.’ (unknown author)

‘Courage is fear that has said its prayers.’ (unknown author)

‘Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.’ (John Wayne) :-}

“Be strong and of good courage…” (joshua 1:6)

“Only be strong and very courageous…” (joshua 1:7)

“Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (joshua 1:9)

I just wanted to ‘encourage’ you to look upon yesterday as a victory, face today with faith and tomorrow with courage.

What’s the date?

My mother is 89 years old! She is my greatest supporter and fan…she is also a real ‘character.’ She said to me a few years ago when I was headed to another country for a missions trip that “she would be praying for me and not to worry…she had my back!” Another time she thought it would be a really good idea to give my five brothers and sisters a very unique Christmas gift. She proceeded to order video’s of me teaching/preaching and gave one to each sibling as a Christmas gift…what a great idea!!!!  I was in Mexico speaking at a women’s conference and it was my time to come out on the platform.  I was reaching for my phone to shut it off and it rang…it was my mom.  “Susan, where are you?”  I reminded her that I was in Mexico and I couldn’t talk right now because they were waiting for me to come out and speak…she said, “this will just take a minute…”

I try to call her almost every morning usually on my way to campus.  The other morning I called and she was telling me about her plans to be with my brother and his wife over Labor Day weekend.  She says she is always thankful she has so many kids to visit but she was frustrated because she realized that she had been looking at a 2008 calendar all year long.  We laughed and she told me that it had just thrown everything off a day.  We hung up and I drove on to class but I kept thinking and smiling about the 2008 calendar.  The thought came to me, a reminder of a real simple truth.  If we look at the wrong thing it will throw us off.  It might look like the real thing, it might have all of the necessary elements as the real thing, and we may have been looking at it for a long time but one digit makes it obsolete.

What are ‘we’ looking at for direction in our life?  There are many substitutes out there and many counterfeits, or even good things that are simply obsolete.  We must keep our eyes on what is genuine and what never fails…

“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 My mom gave her heart to the Lord some 35 years ago…she might not always have the right date but she has not looked back and she has kept her eyes on Jesus, ‘the author and finisher of her faith.’

My nose is bleeding but my feet aren’t even wet!

I have the privilege of teaching the books of Joshua/Judges for the first time this semester. I have to admit I was less than excited at the prospect. First of all I had other classes that were already prepared and secondly I didn’t know how interested I really was in teaching an historical text from the Old Testament rather than from the New Testament. But being the submissive, non-confrontational kind of person that I am, (I sense those jeers) I humbly accepted this challenge and embarked on extra study time and preparation.  Well, it has been worth the initial emotional crisis it caused in my life.  There are great truths, principles, revelations and applicable themes in the book of Joshua that can and do speak to us today.  I ‘knew’ that was true scholastically but now I see it experientially. 

I was studying the text when Moses hands over the reigns of leadership to Joshua and the on-going admonition to ‘be strong and courageous’ or in some references, ‘be strong and very courageous’ that we see throughout the beginning chapters of Joshua.  Some points of discussion in class were the various exploits Joshua had witnessed as he served with the great leader Moses and how these experiences would lend themselves to Joshua as one source of encouragement for as God was with Moses so would He be with Joshua was the promise.  

Now Joshua was the man and his responsibility was to take the Israelites on into the promised land but first he had to cross Jordon.  Two crossings; one from Egyptian bondage through the dry river banks of the Red Sea and the second crossing over the Jordan again on dry land.  Different men, different bodies of water, same miracle, same God!  While I was visualizing both of these miraculous events I had an interesting personal vision (so to speak) of my own.  The Red Sea crossing was the deliverance from bondage, the Jordan crossing was entering into the inheritance.  The Red Sea crossing of deliverance had the enemies behind while the Jordan crossing of the inheritance had the enemies in front.  The simple truth…we can cross over from slavery into freedom and the enemies that pursued us will be defeated.  However, that is only the first part of God’s provision.  The second part is our journey as we cross over to partake of our inheritance, there are enemies that are waiting to keep us from inheriting what is ours.  God’s strategy to partake of what is ours…conquest and conquer!  We must ‘cross over’ from bondage into inheritance…we might get a little bloody in battle but our feet won’t even get wet!

“So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it…”  (Joshua 21:43)

“Not one word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken…All came to pass.” (Joshua 21:45)

WHERE WE GOING?

What does it mean to ‘walk by faith?’  I heard someone say once or I read it somewhere that ‘faith is believing in advance what will only make sense when it is past.’  I feel compelled to add an addendum to that statement, it ‘will only make sense when it is past’…maybe! 

 Sometimes there is greater understanding or even revelation that comes from our journey of faith and sometimes there is not.  Hard as we may try to tie every event, challenge, or struggle up in a neat little bow the strands just might begin to unravel. We are so entombed in our linear thinking that it usually takes drastic circumstances to uproot the status quo of our thought processes.

We Christians have become so dependent on ‘three steps to victory’ or ‘five keys to life abundant’ or ’seven ingredients of a successful marriage’ (and I can guarantee it takes more then seven ingredients but that is not my point right now) that we have ‘dumbed down’ our sensitivity to the Spirit of God to direct us daily one step, one key, or one ingredient at a time. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the value of pinpointing keys, steps, and ingredients as much as the next person. I have certainly used them in my teaching and I am sure will continue to do so but I am concerned that we may have portrayed quick fixes or systematic solutions rather than equipping for the wilderness journey.  And everyone knows that a ‘wilderness journey’ takes some time…maybe even forty years! Regardless of the time involved everyone will take this journey at some point in their life.

How then do we ‘walk by faith?’  We must keep moving forward one step, one key, and one ingredient at a time.  We may not know where we are going but ‘oh well’ we are in good company.

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.  And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”   (Hebrews 11:8)

We’ve all faced a few!

We just watched the old movie “Facing the Giants”. Granted there are some scenes and dialogue that are ‘cheezy’ but there are also poignant scenes with moving dialogue and a sense of the presence of God that is unmistakable.  The message of course is clear; we will face giants, sometimes in the natural but certainly in the spiritual.

How we face these giants and how we perceive God will determine the outcome of the battle.  Ignoring the giants will not make them go away so the only other choice is to face them head on.  Dealing with the fear of their intimidating threats is the first step in the battle.  You can mull over all of the ‘what ifs’ until you faint from sheer exhaustion or you can look at all of those ‘what ifs’ and declare…”I am not afraid of you!”  How can we do that?  There must be that place in our relation with the Lord that our perception of God becomes crys·tal·ized to the point that trust leads to triumph! 

It is not by simply understanding the circumstances that we face that we gain this trust but rather in our understanding of Who God is and His steadfast, unwavering love.  I remember, years ago, when we sang the chorus…”The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases…His mercies never come to an end…they are new every morning…new every morning…great is thy faithfulness oh Lord, great is thy faithfulness.”  

The foundational anchor for our souls is the assurance that His love is never ending and that His love never fails.

“I am convinced that nothing can separate us from His love.  Death can’t, and life can’t.  The angels can’t, and the demons can’t.  Our fears for today our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.  Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)