Our future in laws

The Lord always has a rhyme and a reason for everything He says in His Word. We might not understand His ways initially, but if we stay our course, it's amazing at how God reveals Himself in our lives. Our kids are still elementary aged right now, but it is already apparent how important it is for them to consider who that "special person" will be, the one that they spend their lives with. When they were in public school, we had examples upon examples of how important it is to recognize godliness in their friends. Jackson with his fourth grade confidence, was the social leader in his class. Hannah, being in first grade, needed a little more guidance, but done just fine. As they've gotten older, it's led to more interesting conversations. I actually think it might be harder as they are older because it's not necessarily black and white and they have to make more of a conscious choice to fight their flesh. It's during this time, that they need to understand that through the friends they choose, their mate will come.

God is specific about marriage. As the Jews in the Old Testament, we are to be yolked to each other, other Christians. Those who believe the same way we do. Otherwise, there will be conflict, and we do not need to put ourselves in a position where we must compromise a conviction or biblical principle, for the sake of our spouses. The same with friendships. Can they have friends who are not Christian? Of course. How else will their lights shine? Should their closest friends, the ones they go to for wisdom and advice, be non- Christians? NO. Because:

"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly."
Deuteronomy 7:3-4

Do you pray for your children's friends?
How about their future husband or wife?
(Maybe now is a good time to start?)

Just love God

Deuteronomy 10
12And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

13To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

15Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Why is it we have such a hard time just loving God? Why do we tend to look at him like this big boogey man in the sky ready to strike us down for the least indiscretion? Or worse, only look to Him in times of trial? Or only mention Him when the unexplainable happens, the big things? When those big things happen, and He is mentioned, why is He only looked at as a "mystery"? There's very little mystery to God! If you draw close to him through His Word, you will understand the things of life. You will be able to appreciate not only the big miracles in life, but appreciate the little things that work out as well. You will be able to thank Him after you go to the office fridge hoping there's water in there and not only soft drinks, because He worked that out for you. No, He did not "magically" put it in the fridge as you were walking to it, but he knew you would want water when you had your snack so He saw to it that water was put in the fridge and cold before you even thought of it. YES, that's God!

When you love someone, your thoughts are continually on that person. If there ever was a person we should love with everything we have and continually have our thoughts on, it should be Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. We could be looking forward to an eternal lake of fire when we died, but because He loved us, He died for our sins so we could spend eternity in heaven with Him in glory. God is holy, and cannot be in the presence of sin. We are BORN in sin, and only until we accept that fact and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will not have the assurance of our eternity in heaven when we die. It is only through the blood, it does not matter how good or nice of a person we were when we lived, only that the blood of Christ washed our sins away.

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Lets come to a point where we truly appreciate this fact. When we are able to grasp just what was done for us, and just how perfect our God is, we can truly start to love Him. If we focus on getting to know Him better, just like in a relationship, we will continually "fall" deeper and deeper in love. Sin will bother us, because we will be more transformed into His image, and God cannot be in the presence of sin. As a result of being so close to him, the trials will be more bearable, and life will be more peaceable. Our perspectives will change for the wiser, and we will gain a deeper burden for the lost.

Acts 3:19

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

The lost is where God's burden is, that is why He sent His son to die for us. He wants us to be with Him. We need to be His messengers, but until we appreciate what He has done for us, how can we share with others what He can do for them?

How can you convince someone something tastes good, when you have not tasted it yourself? Why would I want to buy an item you have told me was just "ok"?

Psalm 34:8

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him"

People need to SEE God in our lives. If we are not loving Him, then people SEE that we are not loving Him. When was the last time you praised Him in someone Else's presence? When was the last time you explained to someone why you do, or do not do something because of your God-lead convictions? How often do you read your bible? How important is church attendance in your life? What are the things you put before church functions ... and serving the Lord? Are you afraid of what others might say when you throw a "monkey wrench" in plans because of your dedication to church and / or ministry? Do not let foolish pride keep you from growing closer to the one who holds your life in His hands.

Love Him. Just love God.

Is it type A, or the old way?

I've been thinking about this amazing woman the past couple of days. She's one of the most organized people I know. She's a full time working (outside the home) single mother to soon to be 12, 14, and 15 year old girls. She drives 25 miles one way to work each day, round tripping over 50 miles each day after taking and picking up the girls from school- add another twenty if the youngest has softball practice. She travels every weekend for travel (soft) ball, and is in her third season now doing this. Aside from the working and traveling, her house is always amazing. A classy flair for decorating, but not overboard about it. Everything has a place, and everything is in it. "Clean lines", no clutter.

She's my best friend.

You would think I was the same way, but I'm not. I have always admired her neatness. We vacationed together, her and the girls, Jay, myself and our kids, last summer. I saw why her house is always neat. She never sits down. She is always moving, doing something. We have loosely established she has a "Type A" personality (quiz). Her world is a routine of getting things done and fighting clutter: Kate Gosselin has nothing on her! However, she's not a hostile person. No really. Unless she's late. (No I'm just joking! and I don't believe Kate is, either, for the record.)

She's on vacation right now and yesterday I went to water her flowers for her. She's so independent- on the way to her house (27 miles from my door to hers) I got to thinking, she's only asked me to do something for her three times, counting yesterday, in the last five years. Dad went with me because he'd been wanting to see her new house (she moved back before Christmas, we've been best friends since we were 14, known each other longer than that!). Dad, by habit always makes note of whether a person could benefit from his house cleaning services. We got into a conversation about how clean her house was as he peeked through the windows (and shes going to die laughing when she reads this!) and it made me think about something I wrote on Saturday.

On Saturday I mentioned Jays grandmother:
"You can eat off her floors- she's one who doesn't go to bed until every dish is cleaned and put in it's place- nothing left in the dishwasher."
There's no difference between my best friend and Jays grandmother. I got to thinking about how people tend to look at ladies of grandmama's generation and lift them up to "heavenly homemaker" status, and they look at my generation, like at my best friend and attribute her same homemaking success to "survival".

Is there really a difference? The older generation had to survive, too. The necessity for neatness was the same when grandmama was our age, as it is now. Her habits of having a clean house and no dishes left (at the end of the day) started when she was our age. The difference is, she's had the drive to keep it going. I look at grandmama and her specific ways of doing things, and can easily see my best friend in fifty years. Why am I different? In grandmama's generation, if a homemakers house looked like mine, they might be silently accused of drinking during the day while their husband was at work! That's the change in our society. Sin has become explainable.

Yes, I said sin. How many excuses do we make for sin each day? It's not that we don't have time to do something: it's that we won't. The bible says:
1 Corinthians 10:31
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

How does wasting an excess of time to the detriment of our homes, fit into "whatsoever ye do"? It doesn't, really, does it? Our society has become so acceptable of sin, it actually encourages laziness to a degree, would you agree? All too often you'll see moms online telling each other "go ahead and ______, you deserve it!", but do we really? Does that mom actually know, that we truly deserve anything? I'm willing to bet in grandmama's time, if they were on the phone talking and mentioned wanting to do something, the friend's response would like be "well when you finish ____ maybe you will have time this evening"- the priority was the home, the job. I'll be the first to admit, right now, the way my house looks, if I was my housekeeper, I would be FIRED.

Excuses. They are so easy to make. This brings me back to my best friend. I said earlier we established she was a "Type A" personality. Some people call it OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which often is identified first by a strong desire for things to be neat and orderly). We see these neat, organized, orderly women and excuse OURSELVES by saying "Oh she's Type A ...." "She must have OCD ....". Maybe she has it right, and we need to start acknowledging "Wow, I need to get a move on!" "I need tips from her!" "I need to get more sleep so I can have more energy!". She is really no different than grandmama, except that way of handling life and home has become the exception instead of the norm.

The bottom line is, we can have a neat and orderly house if we choose to have one. It might just be the feeling of inability we have is really months and possibly years of our excusing our sin for something else and not addressing the issue at hand: our own natural tendency to laziness. Some people can quit smoking and have no problem with it- others (like myself) have to fight a serious spiritual battle to overcome that problem. Some people tend to not struggle with the sin of laziness (or distraction), while others of us do. {Distraction in and of its self is not a sin, but the result of distraction can be.}

So what do we do about it as Christians? Confess your faults (and sin) to the Lord and get it right. Pray about it. If you are comfortable, ask a trusted friend to pray for you concerning this.
James 5:16
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

If you would like, leave me a comment and I will pray for you- we can pray for each other :-)

Cultivating the fruit of the spirit

Galatians 5:22-23
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Fruit is visible; it reflects it is produced through us, not by us. Fruits of the spirit are not separate, but one fruit, with nine different flavors. Fruit reflects the one that produces it.

Fruit is valuable; it exists for the enjoyment and benefit of other people, as it will edify others who are around you.

Fruit is viable; it is capable of growing. Love produces more love. What is love? It is not just a feeling, like we tend to think it as. Love as a fruit is agape love, like God's love for us- it is unconditional. It is divine love, it is sacrificial love.

1 John 4:11
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Matthew 22:37-40
37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38This is the first and great commandment.
39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

If we love God like we should, then we will be able to love others, as he wants us to, as we should, according to him. We are under the "law of grace", and should be living in love. Not the fuzzy feelings we feel in a new relationship or like when we met our spouses, but living in agape love.

John 13:35
35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Love as a fruit of the spirit shows a proof of sonship. The Greek gods were hateful, but our God is of love, is loving, and loves unconditional, though he is just, as well.

John 13:34
34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Colossians 3:14
14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

1 Peter 4:8
8And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Love keeps no records, and is the permanent virtue of a Christian.

1 Corinthians 13:13
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

The demonstration of love, love is an action word! Love is a choice, you choose to love, sometimes it comes easily, but sometimes it's hard to show love towards some people. Love is giving, not taking. In a marriage, if both people are giving, then you need not worry about being taken from, because you are continually receiving as you are giving. Selfishness in marriage can be likened to two ticks on a dog, both keep taking, and sucking from the relationship until there is nothing left. Agape love, however. is unconditional and free flowing. The closer we are to God, the easier it is give love, because we are receiving it from Him.

1 John 4:9, 11
9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Saints must love sinners with the love that God loves them with, We as saints are the only link between the unsaved world and God, would it not be pompous of us to act anything other than lovingly as possible towards the unsaved? Shouldn't the world be able to see in us the love that God has given us, coming through us towards others?

How can we show the unsaved world God's love? I challenge you to post a comment and share a way God's people can show love towards the unsaved world on a regular basis. If we do not show them God's love, who will?

Notes from Sun pm sermon by Pastor Broyhill, April 20, 2008
Originally posted on CavaryGirl 8-25-08

No! No! I'll do it now!

Isn't it a common theme with children- you tell them not do to something for their own good, but they do it anyway? Then when they get hurt, they come running back to mom and dad. When the children are small, it's not as frustrating, I don't believe, as when they are older and questioning your competence, it would seem. The same thing goes for responsibilities as well. You can instruct them until you're blue in the face to clean their room, but they continue to let it get worse and worse. Yet, when they want a friend to come and spend the night, you have inconvenienced them by asking about the state of their bedroom! Only THEN do they take what we've been saying all along seriously, and then it's "No! No! I'll clean it! I'll do it now!".

The more I read, and reread the Old Testament, the more I realize just how much we in this modern day, are like the Israelites. Children especially, but we all act like the Israelites, don't we? As adults, I think we do more so in some ways, especially when it comes to fighting the bigger fights of our lives, such as our fears. When we are fearful about things in our lives, a natural tendency is to look at everything around us, instead of looking UP, to God, for the answers. I remember years ago going through tough times someone said "well I guess all we got left to do is to pray" after I had exhausted all of the options I could think of for the situation. I don't even remember what it was about, but I do remember hearing that saying and the Lord really dealt with me on that, and how praying should had been the FIRST thing I done, not the LAST thing. It saves so much more energy when you just seek the wisdom of God first in a situation and wait for His guidance than to look to my own knowledge and reasoning, cause as an adoptive Israelite, I have no idea what I'm doing here! None of us do!

We are all fighting battles in our lives, and some of these battles are God ordained ones. God told the Israelites to fight a battle, He even assured them victory (sound familiar? we have that, too!):

Deuteronomy 1:
29Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
30The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;

But the Israelites got stubborn, and leaned to their own reasoning instead of trusting God. Choosing NOT to follow God when He is leading you somewhere, is choosing to NOT BELIEVE God and His promises to you. God is not a liar!

32Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

But then they said "Oh no! No! we'll do it!" when they realized their folly before the Lord and in their situation:

40But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by
the way of the Red sea.
41Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.

Then God proverbially said "It's too late in the week to plan your sleepover, there's too much work to do in your room. There are things growing underneath your bed and I have too many errands this week to help you. You're going to have to pass on the sleepover this weekend to work on your room and get it right the way it's supposed to be, then maybe next weekend, we can plan something. ... Maybe this will be a lesson learned that you need to keep your room clean daily like I've been telling you, not a path to your bed cleared out! Now look, you want a friend to come over and you can't do it."

42And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them. Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
43So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.
44And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
45And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.

Have you ever had a situation in your life where you looked to your own wisdom and reasoning instead of God's, and things went bad? I believe we all have at some point in our Christian walks. Lets make a point to follow God in the beginning, and realize our dependence upon Him. Is you think God is your "co pilot", now would be a good time to understand how important it is to get out of the cockpit! Realize that not seeking the Lord for guidance, and trusting the Lord will care for you in the battles of your life, is exactly what the Israelites done and they were defeated. Do you want to live a defeated life, or a victorious one?

Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

"Cursed be he ..."

This would fall under "cool verses" but I thought it deserved a separate post because, well, how interesting are these verses? All of this basically covered plain, good ol' morality, ya know?

Deuteronomy 27
15Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

16Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

17Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

18Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.

19Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

20Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.

21Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

22Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

23Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen.

24Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.

25Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.

26Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

(I also have to say I'm relieved to find a verse that addresses brothers and sisters not marrying. For some reason Hannah is wanting "proof" the bible says she cannot marry Jackson, LOL not that I think she actually wants to, but she's found something to question I guess!)

Cool verses 4-13

Acts 3:
26Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Acts 4:
12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

33And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Deuteronomy 18
10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Deuteronomy 20 ("the company you keep ..." )
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Proverbs 14
1Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

14The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from {above} himself.

15The simple {naive} believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well {considers carefully} to his going.

16A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is {self} confident.

17He that is soon angry {quick tempered} dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.

Cool verses 4-10

I thought this was an interesting cross reference for the passage in Galations about the ones who creep in unawares-

Deuteronomy 13
3Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

5And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

I also like the emphasis of friends in this passage, as well. It shows even in the OT the Lord was cautioning us on who we should be allowing ourselves to be around, and even more important in who we allow our children to be influenced by. Do you agree?


Job 13
15Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
16He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

17Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

18Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

23How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

(Amen!!) I should have read this last year ...


Proverbs 10
4He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

17He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

29The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

32The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.

Cool verses 3-30, 4-7

Numbers 23:
19God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Proverbs 30:
15... There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: ...

17... The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

-----------------------------------------------------
Deuteronomy 4
29But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

Deuteronomy 5
33Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.

Job 5
17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

18For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.