The Good News!

"I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." Luke 4:43

The Life Application Bible notes say, "The kingdom of God was good news! It was good news to the Jews because they had been awaiting the coming of the promised Messiah ever since Bablyonian captivity. It is good news for us also because it means freedom from slavery to sin and selfishness. The kingdom of God is here and now because the Holy Spirit lives in the hearts of believers. Yet it is also in the future because Jesus will return to reign over a perfect kingdom where sin and evil no longer exist."

Yes, our culture is totally messed  up. There is greed and corruption at practically every turn it seems. And yet, we have been given such a precious gift, the Holy Spirit living in our hearts. That is a tremendous, monumentally, amazing blessing!! We are much more able to weather life's storms with an in-dwelling God. That is something we need to share with others. Even church-going Christians, need a power boost at times, a renewal of their relationship with God. The best thing is to read life's little instruction book. The Bible. The more you read, the stronger the connection with the Holy Spirit gets.

Life is not easy, even for strong Christians. Ask your minister, their lives get crazy too. They experience troubles and heartache just like the rest of us. It's easy to let life get us down sometimes. Death, disease, pain are so hard to deal with. Gosh, even our jobs and fast-paced lives can make us less then optimistic. I recently came across this quote that I think applies very well here. "Go on a 'pessimism fast.' Whenever you start to think something negative, praise God instead.

 Read the book.

 

Getting Even

Have I mentioned how much I like the Life Application Study Bible? The notes help me understand so much better. Here is a great example.

"These verses summarize the core of Christian Living. If we love someone the way Christ loves us, we will be willing to forgive. If we have experienced God’s grace, we will want to pass it on to others. And remember, Grace is undeserved favor. By giving the enemy a drink, we’re not excusing his misdeeds. We’re recognizing him, forgiving him, and loving him in spite of his sins – just as Christ did for us." (NIV Life Application Study Bible Notes)

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:17-21

You know, I have really struggled with forgiveness, especially when someone is continually being unkind to me. Once and done, I can forgive and forget easily enough. However, ongoing unkindness has been very hard for me to forgive. Okay, if I’m being completely honest, impossible to forgive. I can really hold a grudge. After retiring and slowing down my life a few years ago, I said to myself I really gotta stop that. It’s not easy though is it? As a kid, I was told a thousand times to ‘turn the other cheek.’ I can still hear Mom and Grandma’s voices in my head. Guess that lesson didn’t stick too well. Hmmm maybe it did, I just chose not to listen. I’m workin’ on it now though. How about you? Do you forgive as well as you’d like?

The Christian Process

Becoming a Christian is the beginning of a process, not the end. We are told this in Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  This is something we must constantly work on with the Holy Spirit’s help. We must listen to that still, small voice in our hearts and follow His directions. We know that we continue to sin, and that we must continue to ask forgiveness, but we also need to work towards change too. By reading God’s word, we can allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to work on areas of our lives where we need to change.

Sometimes we get lazy and we excuse, accept or ignore our sins. We compare ourselves with others who are worse and think we don't need to change. We must realize that we can change with Christ's strength (Philippians 4:13). It requires saying "no" to the wrong attitudes and behavior (Titus 2:11-12). In Colossians, we are given rules for Holy living which again, describe the process of how we take off our old self and put on the new self. “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:8-10. This is not a one time deal, it is a continuous process of growing in our faith, of becoming more Christ-like. What a beautiful way to witness to non-believers and non-Christians. Just work towards being the best example of a Christian that you can possibly be.

We must ask God which sins we need to work on and do something about it! The New Testament contains hundreds of commands on how Christians should live based on the example that Christ showed us during his earthly life. All of these commands fit under the heading of love, for God IS love. Everything he commands is an expression of love. For me, a good starting place in identifying which sins I need to work on, is to focus on the two greatest Commandments. If I follow these, then most other commands involving right living, fall into place. Jesus told us the greatest commandments, and they are LOVE. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40. Another example is the instruction to love in John, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35:

In the process of becoming a Christian, we must strengthen our commitment toward being compassionate to all of God's people. Our love of God and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us motivates us to show and live our faith, and love for others.

All Scripture references are from the New International Version.

Has Humility Gone Out of Style?

I have been reading a lot about Christ-like behavior lately. It has appeared on several of the blogs I follow. Being humble is one of those behaviors that seems to have gone out of style. Our society doesn’t seem to value humility the way we once did. Think about your parents or grandparents, those who were part of the ‘Greatest Generation,” the WWII adults. They had being humble down pretty good didn’t they? Just look at Captain America, humility personified. (Actor Chris Evans is pretty easy on the eyes too! lol)

If I channel my parents and my Grandma, I can hear them saying something like this: If we concentrate on doing good for others, and save our praise for God, we don’t have time to worry about getting people to like us. Kinda profound isn’t it? It’s true though, and do we like to be around people who constantly brag or are just plain arrogant? So, one reason to try to be humble, would be so others will like being around us. Then, there is the fact that scripture actually TELLS US to be humble. Psychologists say that this is one behavior that people exhibit when they have low self-esteem. Some people have even given it a name, “short man syndrome.” In an attempt to explain why many short men are know-it-alls, this syndrome name is given to men with low self-esteem due to their lack of height. They overcompensate by trying to appear very knowledgeable, and end up coming off as arrogant. Of course we know this is not just a trait of men, or even short people. Low self-esteem is responsible for many unflattering behaviors. Our culture values high self-esteem, but scripture tells us that neither low nor high self-esteem is desirable. Instead, we need a balanced view of ourselves. We should give high-esteem to God and focus on others. Jesus gave us the priorities we should follow, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31

The Bible has a lot to say about being humble. Just using a cross reference, here are a few passages of scripture I found:

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Ephesians 4:2

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8  

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." Romans 12:3

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. Luke 1:52

 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

From a culture that obviously values high self-esteem:

Does Your Heart Delight in Christ?

I now have more of a plan for this blog. I want to share things I find on the web from other Christian women, and some practical living ideas from scripture.

One part of practical living is how to behave in a more Christ-like manner. I have written a couple posts about barriers to Christian behavior, and I want to continue more along that line. We know that we are saved by God’s free gift of Grace and not by our own actions. We don’t have to do anything to earn it. We know also that Christ died on the cross for us so that our sins would be forgiven. Yes, our sins are forgiven and we don’t have to do good works to earn salvation. But, we LOVE CHRIST and because of that love, that relationship with the Holy Spirit, we want to be more like Him. We long to be more like Jesus as he walked and lived among us on earth.

What are our priorities as Christians? Are we interested in pleasing God or pleasing ourselves? Our society is becoming increasingly secular. We are busy seeking self-esteem and happiness when we should be seeking God’s Kingdom. We should be actively, consistently trying to please God, to be more Christ-like. He came to earth to teach us to lead as an example. Are we following that example? Do we behave in a way that would make Jesus smile?

Gail Purath and I must read some of the same articles and blogs, because she said she recently read an article identifying Christ-like behavior versus Pharisee-like behavior. I read that too and I like the perspective Gail got from it. In her recent blog post, she said that you can’t share the Gospel without talking about personal sin. She’s right. NOW I have the outline or focus that I’ve been craving for writing for my own blog. God realizes that my little touch of OCD needs to be fed with a bit of an outline, a plan for where I’m going, so in answer to prayers for more focus, I think I’ve got it:) I’ve written about criticizing others and gossip. I also knew I wanted to write about being humble not prideful, materialism, and living in our secular culture, But I wasn’t sure how they fit together, what made them a cohesive unit of thought. Gail is right, they are sins. These are personal sins that, if we are being honest with ourselves, we have all committed. These are personal sins that I have put on my front burner, as my Mom used to say, because they are characteristics and attitudes that I am actively working to avoid, to stop doing.

I also want to share what I find around the web as I am discovering the amazing women out there who share Christ in so many beautiful ways. Bible journaling, Bible study, daily devotionals, blessing books, faith journals, scripture cards, prayer cards, scripture bookmarks, the list is practically endless! There are so many wonderful free resources out there that are being shared by other women. I love the ways that creative women are sharing their activities with us all. There are so many ways to weave our love for Christ into other activities that we love. If you love Jesus and you love scrapbooking for example, why not combine the two?  If you are a lover of God and you have an artistic talent, why not combine them?

I greatly admire the Bible journaling that I have discovered. I had no idea that there were Bibles being published with large blank margins just so people could journal, take notes, doodle and draw in them. While this is not something I personally would find appealing, I LOVE knowing it is out there for those who need to take notes and draw; to have an artistic outlet that helps them as they study the Bible. Yes, I am a creative person and I do a lot of arts and crafts, but I know me, and my OCD tendencies mixed with Doodling… oh that would NOT be pretty trust me! I’d have to invest in tons of white out, and erasers and I would drive myself batty trying to produce doodles and artwork that was perfect and neat which would cause me to miss the whole point of Bible journaling.