I Will Bring a Sacrifice

God is teaching me so much right now about living our lives in response to Him and His love. This lyric has been directing me to His word continually, “from the depths, from the heights – I will bring a sacrifice.” To me this is a great reminder of two things. First, we are to bring sacrifices to God. This is not a ritual that went out of practice in the new covenant. Yes, the sacrifices look different now than they did in ancient times, but they are still just as important.

Heb 13:15 "Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name."

Offering praise to God is a beautiful sacrifice to Him, that He deserves and we are blessed to be able to bring. We have been gifted with a beautiful opportunity to sing out words that are written in worship songs by people who are seeking after God with all of their hearts – and asking Him what it is that WE, as a people, need to sing out. We get to praise Him with our lips AND with our lives.

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."

God uses this verse often in my own life to remind me that my body is not my own, but that it belongs to Him, just like every other area of my life. Desiring to live a life of purity is one way to bring a sacrifice to God. Again, one that He deserves and that we are blessed to be able to bring. In ancient times only priests were allowed to bring an offering to God – now, because of Jesus, our High Priest, we are allowed into the presence of the Most High God, and can bring Him sacrifices of praise.

Hebrews 12:28 "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe."

Worshiping God with awe is all we really can do when we are worshiping in spirit and in truth. God is God, deity. The Creator of ALL things – how can we not stand in awe? I love the wording, “since we have a kingdom than cannot be shaken.” The reason we bring sacrifices of praise and worship is not because things are great in OUR lives… it isn’t based on our circumstances, but instead BECAUSE we have been given a part in a kingdom – THE Kingdom, that cannot be shaken.

Many times over the last ten years I have cried and read this verse:

Isaiah 45:3 "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."

It brings me to the second reminder. Not only are we to bring sacrifices, but we are to bring sacrifices even in the depths. In the darkness, in the hidden places. When we feel completely low, when we don’t feel God’s presence, and when we suffer with not feeling His love. We still sacrifice. We bring a praise of thanksgiving in all circumstances and we offer our lives as a holy offering to the Almighty God of Love – when we do this He brings us to the treasures. Loving God through the depths is what brings us into a more intimate relationship with Him. Trusting that, regardless of how you feel or what you think, HE IS TRUSTWORTHY and He knows where you are and knows your heart.

This is the beautiful love of a King, and we can walk through the valley knowing that it is ALL for the glory of God. The depths and the heights.

Who are you pleasing?

Who are we trying to please?

God uses all kinds of things to teach us lessons, and sometimes the method of teaching is really difficult for us. That is where I was last night, crying an ugly cry and asking God, “how do you want me to respond to this?” I was frustrated, hurt, and felt completely overwhelmed in the situation I was in. I went to sleep thinking about this, and this morning woke up with a heavy heart… Which brings me here. 

I am a self-diagnosed people-pleaser, and I very much do not like to disappoint anyone. With this being the case, I often find myself in situations where I feel like if I don’t get it all right, all the time then ______. You fill in the blank, I have a feeling I am not alone here.

The worst part of feeling this way is that you think other people actually feel that way about you. So whether it’s true or not, you always feel like any love for you is based on your performance. This is not who God is.

It has taken a lot of tears and prayers of gratitude and repentance to get me to this: we will never be able to please everyone, and that should not be our goal anyway.

Last night, as I was trying to sort out the above-mentioned scenario, I got a little bit of clarity when reading 2 Pet 2:19b, “for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.” I have let trying to please PEOPLE master me, which makes me a slave to their opinions. I know that it is for freedom that Christ set us free (Gal 5:1), so why am I living in captivity of something that simply does not matter?

I think that probably I am not alone here, and I wanted to shed a little bit of light as we make our way out of an open cell. Galatians 1:10 says, “for am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” This changes my perspective. If we are spending all (or any) of our time consumed with how other people perceive us, are we not serving an idol? Ross King and more recently Jimmy Needham sing, “whatever I can’t stop thinking of is an idol” in Clear the Stage. Now I don’t think we all sit around with the single thought in our minds, “is this good enough for them?” But I do think we think about it more than we should. Who are we really concerned with pleasing? Really? In the day-to-day, I am afraid it is man more than God. I feel so sad having to say that, but I know my own heart and I know that it is true. The Spirit has been so lovely to gently remind me of this throughout the day in conversations. It is a relief to know that it’s not me against the world; it’s Jesus, in me, making our way IN the world, and knowing that we are not OF IT.

Where the lines get fuzzy is when we are trying to please people by doing what is right. We can reach a point where service is not about love and is more about doing “the right thing”. This reminds me of Matthew 6…are we “doing” to be seen, or to make God’s love known? We may not consider ourselves as pharisees, but I think sometimes it is about making others happy more than it is about humbly submitting to His authority in our lives.

I want to seek FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness. I want for my only goal to be to please God. His love is unconditional – it isn’t based on how good I have done, or how much I have done. He just loves me. That is freeing and offers so much peace. We can rest in that and know that serving Him might sometimes mean being unpleasing to others, and that is okay. Serving Him might sometimes mean not doing ANYTHING, and just being with Him, and that is okay too.

I hope this offers someone a little peace and release from the fear of not being everything to everyone all the time.

You can rest in Him and in His love because HE is perfect.

Displaying His Splendor

The Display of His Splendor

".... For the LORD has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for His own glory." Isaiah 61:3b

The Lord has planted you like strong and graceful oak for His own glory. This is the New Living translation of this verse.

I think it is beautiful.

The Lord has planted you - you are chosen. He chose to plant you, He didn't have to. He knows your heart, the good, the bad, and the evil in it - and He chose to plant you. Not just as an oak, not just to bring comfort to others in storms, like a tree shelters you from the rain. Not just to be a beautiful part of scenery, though you are. He didn't plant you as an oak just to provide for those in need, like a tree provides food and a home for squirrels and birds.

He chose you - He planted you, like a strong and graceful oak.

Strong in Him, relying on His strength is the only true strength we have.

Graceful, full of His grace, mercy, and love, that exceeds all we could ever know or understand. Showing grace to others and living a beautiful life of peace. We are strong and graceful oaks for His own glory.

He has placed this call on our lives: to be an oak of righteousness, a display of His splendor. For HIS glory. Not our own glory, not to bring attention to ourselves, our families, or our church – but to live out the righteousness that HE has placed in us. It’s not ours, it’s His.

The call He has placed on your life is a call to live a life for His glory, and to display it to others.

To me, this verse is made understandable when you reference Luke 19:40 - when Jesus says, if my disciples keep quiet in their worship - the rocks themselves will cry out. 

Everything God created was created to bring Him glory. The rocks, hills, and trees do not have a free will. All they are able to do is bring God glory in simply being what He created them to be. They are beautiful, because He made them to be beautiful. Every animal was created by God - they don't know of sin, they just are as He created them to be. So naturally they depend on Him, He clothes the lilies and He cares for the life of a sparrow. I love this verse in Job 38:41 that says, "Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God...?"

He provides for their every need, just as He provides for our every need.

So the raven depends on God, and God is glorified through the care of that raven because there is a dependence on Him, and the need is met.

So the animals and every part of nature glorifies God just in being what He created them to be. So, when the people are not glorifying God - every single other thing that He created is. He is being glorified - but we are the ones that He chose to display His glory, and we are the only ones who have a choice in that display.

God is glorified in every breath - because He created us and sustains us, but when we choose to glorify Him with the words of our mouth, and the meditations of our heart. We are made RIGHTEOUS. We get to willingly participate in glorifying the God of everything.

God's glory is too great for any of us to look upon. Moses was forever transformed by a glimpse of His glory.

I cannot tell you what His glory entails. It is more than we could ever know and more beautiful than we can understand.

Think of the most beautiful things God has created for us... There are more than we could ever even name: The detail in the tiniest lily, the beauty of a simple icicle, the splendor of a gorgeous spring meadow. NONE of this compares to even a glimpse of God's beauty.

And He is calling us to be a display of what is above and beyond the beauty of this world.

There is something about being a girl, a very strong desire to be thought of as beautiful. Though our character is much more important than our appearance - the compliment of beauty somehow touches us more than the compliment of integrity.

We are all familiar with Snow White and the wicked witch - this scene in the movie where she looks into the mirror and says, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all?"

I don’t know what it is in us that longs to be called the fairest, or called fair at all. But every girl, from the wicked witch down to an innocent four year old girl, loves to be called beautiful.

What beauty is there that is anything in comparison to the Creator of beauty? He knows levels of beauty we cannot know on this earth. And He is asking us to display it, in the tiniest bit, while we live this life. Display it for Him, to show others the beauty of who He is.

Oaks of righteousness.

There is an in-depth study in my Bible of the word "righteousness".

I won’t quote it all, but to me this is the most powerful part:

"Jesus is the only One who can stand before the glorious God; He is the only One who is truly righteous. Remarkably, He has offered us a way out of our slavery to sin. By placing our faith and trust in Him, we can be declared righteous. We can have a righteousness that has nothing to do with our own works but instead relies on Jesus' sinless life and His sacrificial death for our sins. The Lord forgives us and declares us righteous because of our identification by faith with the righteousness of His Son. Through Jesus, we can finally be released from the guilt of our sins. Not only can we approach the Holy One in praise and thankfulness, but we can do God's will." WE CAN DISPLAY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF HIS SPLENDOR ONLY BECAUSE HE IS RIGHTEOUS, and has loved us enough to allow us to join Him in this glory.

Romans 5:13 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

We get to glorify God, and His righteousness gets to flow out of our lives, all because of His mercy and grace. There is no good thing in us, but when we receive and accept the love of God we are a dwelling place of His Holy Spirit, and it is His very nature to be glorious. So, He lives in us, and we live through Him. And in this we are able to be made oaks of righteousness and a display of His splendor. Perfect and beautiful - to Him. Which means so much more than being beautiful to anyone on this earth. We cannot even comprehend His beauty, so no one we are trying to impress can comprehend the beauty He has given us. All we know is that others are drawn to it.

When you have the Spirit of the Lord living inside of you, when you love Him with all of your heart, when you seek after Him and trust in Him with everything that you are - when He is the guardian of your heart, and you live with the breastplate of righteousness strapped to you. You are different, you are beautiful. You are able to display His splendor. And that is the most important thing we could ever do with the life He has given us.

Alluring

If you have been through a season like the one I am about to describe then you can appreciate how painful yet beautiful it is.
The best way I can describe this is in the words of Hosea 2:14, "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her."

He did it with Israel, and He does it with His beloved children still. It is a season of pruning, and of pain. For me it meant the loss of some very dear friends, and even a sister - for which I still pray for restoration. My roommate and best friend moved to Pennsylvania and I felt completely alone, and during a time when I thought I needed people most. What is beautiful about this is that God knew best what I needed and it was some "wilderness" time with Him. Leading me into the desert meant taking several things out of my life on which I was leaning so I could be still and be quiet and hear from Him. And I did. Through His Word, through worship and through prayer. He spoke tenderly to me, and brought me into a place with Him that is indescribable.
A very dear friend said to me tonight, "you look good, I can tell that you have peace." And it's true - I do. I love that at this moment I have never felt more satisfied in Him. I know that right here, with Him, is exaclty where I belong, and where I have been wanting to be all along. I have never felt such peace in knowing that I can trust Him, His heart toward me is good and I know His love is perfect. In that, He will always lead me closer to Him - I can trust Him. He has my every moment in His hands and those hands are scarred with His love for me. He wouldn't forget me, He wouldn't abandon me, He wouldn't lead me astray, because He gave everything so that I could get a glimpse of that love. I can rest in Him.

So this post is one of encouragement. If you feel like you are suffering loss, or just feeling completely alone - take heart. God may be calling you into a time with Himself that you don't want to miss out on.
For all the sleepless nights and tearful mornings were worth it in the end. Listen closely, dear one, the words He speaks tenderly are beautiful: He loves you.

Humility is the best policy

I like the quote, “honesty is the best policy” – and really the title of this post goes hand in hand with that statement. If we are honest with ourselves regarding who we are – we are humble.

God has placed some INCREDBLE people in my life. These people are talented, accomplished, smart, organized, beautiful people who all have one thing in common: Humility. This humility blows me away and God continues to use it in teaching me who He is. In learning this lesson I have done a little Biblical research on the word, and wanted to share it with you all in hopes that it will mean as much to you as it has to me. You might be thinking, “Are you kidding? I don’t like myself at all, I am humble!” Think again, dear one. Humility does not mean not liking who you are. It does not mean always being quite and meek. It goes far beyond what society might say, and into our hearts.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear. 2 Chron 7:14

I think it is worth noting that prior to the instruction to humble ourselves the Word says that we are called by HIS name. This puts humility right in our face. We are not our own, we are called by HIS name, and therefore, we are His. This life doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Him alone. Keeping that in mind completely changes our perspective. It has to. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” Claiming that we are humble simply isn’t enough; we have to be humble “in heart” and “by heart”. Deep inside must live the knowledge that He is before all else, and we are created to worship Him in our thoughts, actions, reactions, motivations, and words – all to worship Him. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:2 to be “completely humble and gentle”.

The promises of God in the Word to the humble are beautiful.

He will lift up the humble (James 4:10 & 2 Pet 5:6)

He will guide the humble in what is right (Psalm 25:9)

He gives favor to the humble (Prov 3:34)

He will look upon you (Isaiah 66:2)

He will exalt you (Matt 23:12)

With humility comes wisdom (Prov 11:2)

Humility comes before honor (Prov 15:33)

Don’t worry that to be humble means that you will lose. You will LOSE – you lose yourself, but what you gain is so much more valuable. As we humble ourselves toward one another and put them before ourselves we become like Christ, who is humble and gentle. I love the lyric in Christy Nockels’ new song, Ever Lifting, “I’m lifting my hands just to show you I know where I belong”. In humility we seek Him and praise Him and love others. Knowing that all we do is for Him and by Him and through Him (Rom 11:36). And that He alone is worthy. Living our lives to worship and honor Him IS where we belong… where else would we want to be?

Chosen. Redeemed. Sealed

I love the book of Ephesians, it is one of my favorites. In studying about the church of Ephesus, my heart is broken by what they had held against them.

John wrote in the book of Revelation, that the church of Ephesus was doing great things – great works, persevering, keeping themselves from evil, but then this -

 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” Rev 2:4

How many of us are doing all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons? It is easy to get wrapped up in being a servant, because that’s what Christians are “supposed” to do. It is SO important that the motivation behind those acts of service is LOVE, and response to God’s perfect love. I believe that we are all created to live in response to what our sweet Lord did for us. To live WORTHY of the gospel, as Philippians says. Have we forsaken our Love? Or simply forgotten what it is He did for us?

The Father chose us

Eph 1:4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

I love John’s wording in Chapter 6, that we are DRAWN by the Father to the Son.

The Son redeemed us

Eph 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us…

Redemption through His blood – Ransom - in ancient times one could “buy back” someone sold in slavery by paying the ransom.

We WERE in slavery, and He paid the ransom.

Romans 6:17-18 says, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

How were we set free?

Gen 3:6-7  When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Gen 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Because of their sin a sacrifice had to be made. An innocent animal had to be killed to cover their bodies.

Because of our sin, a sacrifice had to be made. Our innocent Savior had to be killed to free us from the slavery of our sin. FORGIVENESS COST HIM EVERYTHING

So that…

 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. Eph 1:11-12

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance Titus 3:7 tells us that inheritance is eternal life. Because of this we should be living our lives to praise of His glory! Every second, every action, every word, every thought. To the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY, not to the praise of our own, or any one else’s. But all for Him.

The Spirit sealed us   

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” Eph 1:13

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

I love the parallel to the beginning -

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

In Him we have life! It’s nothing we did – the Lord did the work, He gave us life. In the beginning and when we come to Him, He breathes on us the breath of life.

“…the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.” Eph 1:13-14

Vs 14 – a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

The Greek word for “guarantee” could also be used to indicate an engagement ring.

Christ is the Bridegroom

The church is the bride

The Holy Spirit is the promise of the marriage – the eternal unity.

Chosen, redeemed, and sealed with His perfect love.

This is what we get to live in honor of and in response to. What a joy.

Of David

Absolutely in LOVE with Psalm 27 this morning. God has brought me into a really sweet time of getting to know Him through the heart of David, which I have come to find is often very similar to my own heart. This morning I got to read and pray through Psalm 27 with Him, and found myself repeating the exact words of prayers I have often spoken myself.

The Lord IS my light and my salvation – He guides me out of darkness and lights the path before me. I have no reason to be afraid, because He is near me always. He is an ever present help in times of trouble, and with me until the very end.

“One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.” (Vs 4) 

One thing that I do ask of the Lord, is that I can be with Him always. Enjoying His splendor, and seeking Him in His house. “To gaze on the beauty of the Lord” such incredible words – we cannot even begin to comprehend the beauty of our sweet Savior, and what we do glimpse is overwhelming.

He is the ONE THING that we do need – my heart echoes the words of Lamentations, “Deep in my heart I say, The LORD is all I need; I can depend on Him!" (24)

Then to verse 8 – My heart says of You, “seek His face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.

That is what my heart says always, to draw near to the One who draws near to me. With adoration I want to seek His face and His ways. When I am seeking anything other than Him I feel lost and without purpose because I was MADE TO SEEK HIM.

Though others forsake me, my God will never. I can be confident of this; that we will be together always. I can trust Him, because I know His heart for me is kind and loving. I can wait for Him, because I know He will come through. He is my strength and my deliverer…. For the Bible tells me so.

No Judging

Matthew 7:2 has been changing my perspective the last few weeks. A friend of mine recently joked with me that I couldn't judge her about how dirty her car was - this just reminded me again of this verse. Although we were joking, it hit me that people are really sensitive to being judged, because they so often are judged, and at a very unfair measure. I really don't want to be the one holding others to a standard I am unable to meet myself.


God has continued to bring this up to me in conversations with my family, and I wanted to share it because I have a voice to do so.
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."


Based on this verse, I, unfortunately, have a hard day ahead - and I don't want to judge you for judging.
I am not perfect, and neither are you. I AM forgiven, and so, dear one, are you. 
We do not have any "rights" to hold other people in judgement, because we are sinners too. I might know better, and so might you - but that doesn't change the fact that it isn't our position to take.


Jesus Christ - in His perfection, took on all that I judge you for, and that you judge me for. He alone has the position of Judge.  He is fair and He is just, and He gives grace. 


This is the kind of grace we might take into consideration when looking at other people's lives. 
The beauty is in Luke 6:37 - "Don't judge, and you won't be judged. Don't condemn, and you won't be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free."
As much as we want freedom from the judgement of others - so do they. Let it start with you and I.