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The Old is gone the New has Come
I have been thinking about my challenge to you last week, in my live, to allow the storms of life to test your holiness instead of your ugliness.
Biblical Power Tool #180 was so powerful to me because it not only allowed me to talk about the ugliness God washes away but it gave me permission, as well as you, to let it go.
Who am I without the Ugly
There is some stuff I have been hanging onto for dear life thinking I need it. I need the pain to survive. Who am I without it? I need the bitterness to bite me. Who am I without it?
I have had ugly seeds planted around in my brain for so long that I cannot picture who I am without them.
Who can I be without the Ugly
The problem with not knowing who I am in Christ, or identifying myself with Jesus rather, is the holy can never surface. The old me will always win out over the new me.
The storm that was meant to change me, blinds me instead. I cannot recognize that Jesus is making me look more like Him. So, I act selfish and testy watching my ugly float away creating more ugly to be removed.
Defined by the Divine
The holy in me is the divine in me. There is so much more to me than the ugly I want to cling too. I put that to the test all the time even today. I have lived through the Lord washing away the ugly that has lead to the holy in me.
I am a new Kathleen who hears Him speak to me, who sees His work around me and who wants what He desires for me. I am defined by the divine more than decrepit.
It is only in this work that I am able to identify with Jesus, because I have lost my worldly identity to the storms.
The winds of change are always blowing. Will we allow the seeds God is planting in us to change us?
Watch a collection of lives on this subject here.
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Priscilla, A Woman who Does!
Is there people who are telling you that God’s calling on you is not something He would actually call you to do?
Are you standing still because of what people are saying or what you think they are going to say?
Biblical Ground Work: Acts 18, Romans 16:3, 1 Corinthians 16:19, 2 Timothy 4:19
Priscilla would be, or could be held back by that kind of a thing but she wasn’t. She was born into a time where women were not given the time of day.
They were not adored by any man.
They were neglected and left behind.
Her husband was a devout man of God and he understood that his wife was created in the image of God.
She is a great example of a woman doing what the Lord requires of her even if people try to stop her.
The Biblical Strategy for Living this out: Look for the motives of people to prepare yourself to either partner with them or go through them, around them or over them.
Would you like to continue this conversation with us?
Watch the Live here
In The Bible Gals we talk about the women of God because we need to know that Jesus loves us, He gifts us and He expects us to do what He has called us to do.
The Bible does not tell us we cannot — people do!
There is plenty of evidence in the Bible that we deserve to talk to the Body of Christ with the authority of Scripture, lead them with zeal and teach them with wisdom even if you have been told “NO” all of your life.
Join us as we work through this tense subject every week. I promise you will walk away with a renewed mind about what you can do for Jesus.
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Bitterness Grows Deep into Michal
When you make a choice, do you plant yourself in the Bible first or do you make it and check later?
We all know it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Michal made her decision regardless of her surroundings and annoyed her daddy who had much to much power over her.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 1 & 2 Samuel
Michal is the younger of Saul’s two daughters. Does she display the younger ones characteristics? Not at the beginning but near the end of our story you will see she does. She got away with deceiving her father and she never had to live up to any standard as her older sister would have to. Although I do have to say that she went through quite a bit because she was used, by her father, as a pawn in his game.
As soon as Saul discovered that David and Michal were in love, the games began. She was offered as reward for battle (1 Samuel 18:27) not thinking that David would succeed where he failed. David and Michal were married, but during their days together Saul was of the mind to kill David. Not knowing what love actually means, Saul was surprised his daughter would save his enemy alive (1 Samuel 19:11-17).
Saul gets angry again at David and gives Michal, his wife, to another man (1 Samuel 25:44). War breaks out between the Philistines and Israel again. Saul is killed and David begins to take ownership of his anointing but before he will take control of Israel he asks for his wife back but he is not getting the same woman back he left.
She moves into the kings castle with all his other wives, going from being the one wife of one man into the harem of wives David has collected (2 Samuel 3:13-14). As she is living in the castle, David is called to bring the Ark into the City of David. She sees him dancing and whirling and despises him in her heart. This would be the end of her life as she knew it (2 Samuel 6:16-23) because he put her away.
O no, that is not all. There was famine in the land so David went to the Lord to inquired about it. Turns out the Gibeonites wanted payment for what Saul had done to them, against their past covenant with the Israelites, and again Michal is thrown under the proverbial bus again (2 Samuel 21:1-14). How much can one queen take?
Our Biblical Life Lesson: Bitterness becomes a deep root because we don’t repent from the very first seed.
There was a lot of things that happened to Michal as you can read rom her story above. Her father taught her well about bitterness. Saul was bitter against David because he stole his accolades. That original weed of bitterness was never repented of, so all the rest of the reasons Saul hated David grew from that one bitter experience.
I can be a Bitter Batilda too. I have had some very nasty stuff happen to me but is that what the Lord wants from me. I say, “NO!” he doesn’t want that for any of His children so He leads you over some pretty big sink holes so when you are at the bottom of one you will realize how deep your bitterness root runs.
Join us in The Bible Gals Sisterhood Wednesday as we discuss the Biblical Power Tools to help you see the root and spray some Weed-X on it.
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The Many faces of Manipulation
I know what it is like to be manipulated and to use manipulation to get what I want. It is not something I am proud of. I am especially not proud of using manipulation as a tool.
Samson was the original “Riddler”. I wonder if while they were writing this character into Batman if they were thinking about Samson. Samson used riddles to manipulate people and it is ironic that he was brought down by a few manipulative woman.
Our Biblical Ground Work: Judges 14-16
Samson’s wife would be the start of Samson’s God given assignment to “begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5). He wanted her and he got her but he would regret it afterwards. Many people were killed and much anguish for the Israelites resulted in this unhealthy union filled with manipulation.
His need for sex put him in another vulnerable situation with a prostitute. He saw her is Gaza and went into her. Somehow the Gazites got notified (wink, wink) of his presence and they surrounded the house waiting for him. He slept until mid-night and broke the city gates down, carried them on his shoulders and dropped them on the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron. This left them in a vulnerable situation.
Finally we come to Delilah. We say that she was his downfall but he was his downfall. Sex again was his weakness but his time it went further for him, he fell in love with Delilah. She was paid by the five Philistine leaders 1,100 pieces of silver each (approx. $110,000.00). She was probably given a choice, money or death. She chose the money and began her manipulative plan to earn it.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: To avoid being manipulated avoid being a manipulator.
Samson’s downfall was that he thought he was the master manipulator and could not recognize that he himself was being manipulated. Pride was his downfall. He was manipulated by three women and he manipulated everyone in his path including God.
Manipulators are so proud of their persuasive skills that they think they cannot be manipulated themselves but due to their pride they have a blindness to someone manipulating them. A determined manipulator will use whatever tool they think will work and they are not adverse to picking up new tools to get what they want.
Join The Bible Gals this week as we learn the Biblical Power Tools to avoid manipulation.
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Take Ownership
It takes saying something good ten time before someone will own it. We have been good desensitized by the time we are adults. Girls by the time they are in seventh grade. Why do we batter each other so easily and find it so hard to encourage each other. Jesus doesn’t find it hard at all. He owned who He was. Why can’t we own who we are?
First, I want to tell you, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). He called the Israelites as His own but has given them over to sin for our sake so that for their sake He can save them, again. Go through the Bible and see how many times Jesus has made a promise and kept it. How many prophecies have been fulfilled. Jesus took ownership of those prophecies.
Is the Devil watching You?
Does the Devil has something to fear from you daily? If the answer is, “NO” then you are not a disciple of Jesus either. Disciples of Jesus are being watch by the devil. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober and vigilant because the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. They know the Devil roars around like a lion against us but they have the Lion of Judah on their side. His teeth are bigger and fiercer. Followers of Jesus take ownership of this.
Is your Fruit meant to Last?
The gifts and the calling of God are meant to produce fruit. Have you owned the fact that you need to be fruitful? We are designed to produce fruit that lasts by Jesus. Jesus told us that He chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16). The fruit that remains is the Fruit of the Spirit. Long after you give someone $5.00, they will remember how much you loved them. Your kindness toward them will be remembered. That is the fruit that lasts. Followers of Jesus take ownership of this.
Ownership is not about pride. It is about knowing who you are in Christ. He has given you many gifts and called you to do a job for Him. You will be incapable of doing the job if you never take ownership of the gifts he has given you to complete that job. Read Psalm 91 and own it. David was just a man, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses all men who took ownership of who God said they were. As a result, they did great things for God. What great things has God called you too? Take ownership of them.
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If you want to be Content get Self-Control
Are you always trying to figure out why your life is out of control? Is there chaos even in the peaceful times? Is reverse your common direction rather than forward? You are not alone. There is only one way to steer your life to have what you desire, self-control. Jesus has much to say in His Word about controlling yourself so you can have contentment. My books are all written with this premise in mind. John 10:10 tells us, “The thief, does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John describes who the thief is in verse one of chapter ten. The premise is that anyone who tries to lead you into any other life besides the abundant life is a thief. Those who say they are of God and lie to you do not want you to have the abundant life Jesus came to give. They are the thief’s He refers too. I want you to have the abundant life Jesus has for you even if it is away from me. I will see you again in heaven, you can be sure of that. I write the truth, so you can see the wonderfully abundant life you can have if you love Jesus. I want you to know His voice, so you can follow Him. I want you to learn to control yourself, so you can do what He asks of you without hesitation.
You will need to pull off the road of life for a little while at a RV park to camp on a few verses to help you find the path Jesus has paved for you. He has paved a path just for you, but you will need to find it. To find it you have to garner information. The information you need can only be found in the Bible. The information you need is clear, it is wise, and it is functional. The Word of God will help you to create boundaries in your life (Matthew 5:37), listen as God directs your steps (Proverbs 16:9) and set your thoughts toward that plan (Jeremiah 29:11).
Self-control comes first by creating boundaries in your life, setting your mind to say “yes” and to say “no” when warranted. You have to set your mind to say “yes” to Jesus and “no” to the world no matter what the circumstance. Knowing what you shall and shall not be allowed to do is very important for travelling on the narrow road. The only way to know exactly what Jesus is requiring of you is written in His Word. He has boundaries for you to set your mind toward, from His Word, which you will not know unless you study the Bible. I have called the Bible the “Life Skills Encyclopedia” because it has a treasure trove of information that can be used to keep us out of the ditch. Setting boundaries based on the “yes’s” and the “no’s” of the Word will be absolutely functional for learning self-control. Knowing what to say before you are confronted with an issue is paramount to having self-control. Having self-control will make you successful at maintaining the abundant life as you allow Jesus to direct your steps.
The light to every one of your steps is the Word (Psalm 119:105). John one tells us the Word is Jesus. We plan our way in our heart but the Lord directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). In other words, Jesus allows you to make the plans needed, using self-control, to go the step He has directed you to go in. As you make the plans He leads you to make the appropriate plans. If you take a step to serve self you might just step right into the ditch perched so precariously beside the path Jesus has for us. He puts a ditch on the right and the left of your path to teach you the narrow path represents what the world’s plans look like. I can promise you, from experience, the ditches get smaller and shallower as you learn how to follow Jesus using His Word. When you learn to control yourself and your decisions while planning to stay on the narrow path the ditches seem further away. You fall into them less and take less time to get out when you do fall in. The Light you use to get out is powerful and brighter than bright itself. When you know God is thinking about you while you set your mind to His plan it gives you more power to continue steadfastly to self-control.
It is impossible to believe that Jesus does not know who you are when He actually created you for this life but God, in His great mercy, reminds every believer in His Word on every page. Jeremiah 29:11 says He knows the thoughts he has toward us, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. You must change the way you think toward the plans God has for all of us. If anyone insists on thinking worldly thoughts she will never hear God telling her where to go and how to get there. The Lord speaks to those who love Him and if you love Him you will hear Him. Following the world is contrary to following God. Thinking like the world is also contrary to God. If we think like the world we will constantly question the direction God is sending us. The narrow path needs our full attention specifically because it is narrow surrounded by big ditches. Our path cannot be divided between the world and Jesus. A divided mind will always be fruitless and never find contentment let alone the abundant life.
This week take these three verses Matthew 5:37, Proverbs 16:9 and Jeremiah 29:11 to your study room. You have listened to what I have to say and what God has to say through me but what does God have to say to you. What is He telling you through these verses? Let Him talk to you as you ponder each of these verses in the context of obtaining the abundant life promised by our Jesus. How can you obtain that life filled with contentment? Only He has the answers but if you do the work I promise He will provide the means.
This blog is in conjunction with Episode two on the Pursing Biblical Boundaries Podcast posted with WE Podcast entitled Self-Control Leads to Contentment. Listen for the short version of this blog or just to add more meat to the blog.
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Awareness Makes us Abound Part 1
There is no way to improve any of our life skills until we are aware of the actions we are taking to create our issues. There are general reasons such as the people we keep company with, where we choose to spend our nights or our environment. This is not an exhaustive list by any means but the point is still the same. General reasons for our life not being as abundant (John 10:10) as God has told us it could be are the “apparent to all” reasons. Anyone can guess these reasons therefore you are already aware of them! If you live in a crime filled neighbourhood I can guess you will either have crimes committed against you or you are committing them. If you keep company with drug addicts I can guess you will become a drug addict too. If you are spending your nights with a man not your husband I can guess you are committing adultery. These are not the deeper truths you need to know to improve your life skills. How did you get to this place in time starting from where you are now?
These issues are the result of the deeper lies causing you to be where you are today. We have done and thought many things up until this point to lead us to where we are. It is these lies we need to become aware of. Sometimes it takes effort to become aware of the lies we believed but I think we have to take the time to discover them. If we do not we will always be in crime, always fall into addiction or adultery and always fall into sin. What is worse than that is we will never see it coming therefore never be able to avoid it. We have buried them so deep only the Holy Spirit can make us aware of our deep lies leading us into sin. The Word of God gives us the way out because it is filled with the truth that can go deep. It is the Life Skills Encyclopedia I use for every lie I found myself believing. Let us go to the Life Skills Encyclopedia for awareness of the lies and to find the escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). When we become aware of the lies we have believed and our behaviour resulting from them we will either abound in foolishness or we will abound in knowledge. The Life Skills Encyclopedia has a lot to say about both. We will only discuss a few therefore I challenge you to search for more in your private time with God.
Abound in Foolishness
If you choose to remain in your lies even after you have become aware of them the Life Skills Encyclopedia has some pretty dire advice for you. Heeding it will change your life, ignoring it will cause you great harm. Proverbs 9:13 tells us “A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.” Foolish women make a lot of noise to draw attention to themselves because this is the only way they know how to get it. Why? They are simple and know nothing about what they need. Knowing not what we need is detrimental to our health because we grab at anything including things that will hurt and destroy us. We will abound in foolishness throughout the whole day.
We are also told that the foolish woman pulls down her own house with her hands (Proverbs 10:14). Imagine taking the time and effort to build your house (figurative) then setting to work tearing it all down with your own bare hands. Destroying everything you have worked for, knowing your actions will destroyed, is painful and causes undo heartache. We don’t wake up in the morning with the intention of destroying yet when we continue to believe lies that is exactly what we do. We believe the lie, wisdom is well beyond us, and therefore we cannot attain it. We then continue to abound in foolishness throughout the whole day.
The last point, our foolishness does not just affect us it has a ripple effect. “For the foolish woman will speak foolishness, and her heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, to utter error against the Lord, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.” (Modifications mine, Isaiah 32:6) Our family, friends (Saved and unsaved) and co-workers are watching us act like fools even after we call ourselves “Christian”. Foolish behaviour hurts people by our words and deeds. We set out to hurt people. We are loud and obnoxious tearing down every ounce of good works we have done in the past causing the alienation of the people around us. Abounding in foolishness has made our friends and family think us a fool.
Stop the Foolishness
We need to stop the foolishness by becoming aware of our lies and come to the knowledge of God which is truth which will allow us to avoid our destruction from lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Too often today we are subjected to fools who think what they are saying is right, let us not be one. I want that we should live a life filled with abundance but if we spend every day tearing it all down abundance won’t last long. We can have abundance with little and we can have it with a lot. We can be foolish with a little and we can be foolish with a lot. If you are suffering from foolishness stop it now. We were fools before we knew God but now we know Him we need to put foolishness off. Do what you need to do to become aware of it this week (talk to a friend, journal or read the Bible to get revelation about it). Next week we will learn what it takes to abound in knowledge from the Life Skills Encyclopedia.
You can email me at kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com anytime to ask a question or you can post your question in this comment section.
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Out of Real, Back to Story
Stories draw people
Jesus was the master at telling stories. He used them for the whole three years He was teaching. His stories were dynamic and filled with real life examples. For this reason when the Gospels were written they begin with a story and end with a story. God has created us to be story tellers and listeners. We are drawn by stories (true or false) because they reverberate with us. A good story will make us cry and a bad story will fill us with rage. Every story Jesus told was meant to fill us with life. I cannot tell you a story that fills you with life no matter how hard I try because I do not have that power. I can only tell you a story to point you into the direction of Jesus who is the life (John 14:6). My story will only effect those who are being drawn by the Father to the arms of Jesus (John 6:44) and once He has you He will never lose you (John 6:39).
It is for this reason I have begun telling stories and improving my writing skills for fiction. Jesus told fictional stories and true life stories to teach His truth. I have been learning to combine both fiction and truth into one under His direction to begin the writing of Crown for Life series of books. I love to write for Jesus because He has and will continue to give me wonderful ideas and interesting characters to share with you. The stories of each woman is meant to reverberate with you to encourage you just as the stories of women in the Bible are meant to draw your attention. We are the Samaritan woman, the sinful woman, the woman with the flow of blood, Deborah, Mary Magdalene, Mary sister of Lazarus, Huldah, Pricilla, and all the rest. We are women created by our God to do what He has created us to do but we are having issues getting to that point.
The Biblical Life Skills Strategist
For 12 years I have been dreaming about the day God’s words would come into fruition in my life. In those years I could not see how He could make it happen but now I can see it working out in my life. God revealed to me I would teach life skills so I created my first complete workshop called “Leading Yourself to Success” to teach women in 2005. I have created twenty different two hour sessions but not before He told me to work out my new name. The Life Skills Strategist was the name He gave me. We worked together on all of the sessions using Biblical Precepts reversing worldly complications. In this process He taught me how inherently involved His Word is in our everyday lives. He directed me to create secular sessions so I would taste how the world walks. Seeing this every day afforded me empathy for every unsaved woman as well as the saved.
Jesus taught me the difference between the saved and the unsaved, Him. Each one of us longs to live a life filled with joy but the world is getting in between us and that joy. John 10:10 contrasts the world and Jesus. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. The contrast of the Prince of the World (John 14:30) is intent on destroying our lives while Jesus has come to give us a life filled with abundance resulting in the joy we so long for. He has taught me to teach you what His abundance life means. It is a large topic and it will take the rest of my life to teach you about it. This is Kathleen V. Derbyshire’s story.
Leola’s Story
I have embroiled Leola Lurned into my blog to introduce you to the lead character of the Crown for Life Series. Her story is a mirror of mine. She is 70% me and 30% who I want to be. When you read about her you are reading about me, what I have learned and what I still have to learn will be in her character. Just as I long for someone to work with teaching life skills she has longed with one difference, she has a friend. Her name is Veronica Keene. Veronica’s character is 70% me as I was growing as a Christian and 30% my friend Jennifer Walker. She has the image of Jennifer but the character of immature Christian Kathleen. Jen sat with me for days going over the first book to make sure I was closing every gap and spelling every word correctly. I have known Jen for several years and as our relationship develops over the coming years so will Veronica and Leola’s.
For Such a time as this…
God continuously brings this verse to mind from Esther 4:14, For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” He is reminding me I am His child born at this time to serve Him by serving His women in Essex County. The prince of this world is after women (2 Timothy 3) by drawing them away from God by their many lusts for the world. These lusts are so ingrained in us we would do anything or go anywhere to satisfy the cravings. This leads to all manner of oppression for us, from addictions to human trafficking. I am going after the devil by training women to fight him with the Life Skills Encyclopedia, the Holy Bible. I will also go after the prince of this world by helping the unsaved too.
Satan’s name is Haman to me. When Haman’s plan to annihilate the Jews game into being the Jews fought back and people were drawn to God. Many people became Jews (Esther 8:17) in the land because they began to fear (be in awe of) God. In Acts every time tribulation comes upon the Saints and they endured through the power of Christ more souls are accounted to them. This is my time to help the saints endure so many more souls are saved as a result of their testimony.
Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries
It is time for me to move Leola out of real back into the pages of my stories. The Biblical Life Skills Strategist is my name in the real and hers only in the Crown for Life Stories. It is me who is born for this day to help women endure temptation by leading them through the Life Skills Encyclopedia to Jesus. When they find their way to Jesus they will find their way of escape from the prince of this world. This series of books will be a gateway to Jesus and His escape from sin, one book at a time.
The first book in the series, The White Picket Fence, available later this year, has Crown for Life owners pursuing information from the Life Skills Encyclopedia regarding personal boundaries. What are they and how does our God speak to them? You can follow along in the lives of five women who have enlisted the help of Crown for Life to pursue a solution for their particular dilemmas. There will be an instruction following this book should you too need to pursue Biblical boundaries. I am excited to go back to helping with your Biblical Life Skills rather than inventing stories. Let this new life begin and the old perish.
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Interesting or Interested
Be Interesting
Leola has spent her life trying to find ways to become interesting to people because she felt so invisible. She spent a lot of time training herself to be a good speaker. She joined Toastmasters. She spent a lot of time trying to look just right so her cloths wouldn’t stand out before her brilliance. She spent a lot of money. She gave herself completely to be interesting to people so they would talk with her, hear her, and see her. Today, it just all seems so silly because today she finds herself under the orders of God to be quiet, hide and be in secret with Him. Stop investing in being interesting. This was a blow to Leola. She doesn’t like to be in the background. She likes to be seen and she has done some pretty drastic things to get in front. Some of those things have even been an embarrassment to her. The levels she would stoop for attention brought her to her knees. At one of those despicable levels put her is such disgust with herself that God was finally able to get to her. Stop!
She stopped and began a long stint of loneliness. Is it going to be just her and God forever? How can she be interesting to God? He is the one who created the whole world. How can she top that? Leola has been alone now for many years to ponder her relationship with God and to modify her relationship with people. Now, she doesn’t think this forced loneliness was any different than the loneliness she felt with people. He has asked her to make changes to benefit other people when she comes in contact with them rather than feed her need to be seen. She cries today to think of the things she has said and done to be seen after professing to be a God loving person. What kind of model for Christianity has she been? She has been so much more interested in herself than anyone else. How does SHE look? What should SHE do? How can someone who serves themselves all the time be interesting? The antics Leola had been performing have made her less interesting not more.
I had convinced myself that becoming interesting was for others. Who would like a boring person around them? All work and no play made Kathleen a dull person but all play made her a disgrace. There was so many things I had done to become visible to people. I tried to get into the “right” crowd with the “popular” people, and the “known” ones. None of that worked because God had other plans for me. He was training me to want Him, see Him, and follow Him. He was not popular in His day nor was He with the kind I was trying to hang with either. Oh, they said they were Christians, but their behaviour was far from it. Their behaviour looked pretty much like mine. You know the behaviour that disgusts me after the fact especially when it doesn’t get me to where I want it to get me. Two mighty blows in one second.
Be Interested
Less interesting is not where Leola wants to be. She has spent a lot of time pining for popularity, fixing for friends and acting for accolades. This is what she knows. She doesn’t know how to keep silent, make herself invisible and preserve secrets. She is an extrovert who loves being an extrovert. She loves talking to new people. She loves talking. Leola is interesting according to God but she has to learn now to be interested. There is a way God wants her to speak. There is information God wants her to seek. She has spent most of her life seeking for her own sake now she has to learn to seek for another’s sake, to listen. She needs to seek information about them to make them feel visible, heard and loved by Jesus. Who better to do the job than a person who feels the opposite most of the time? Leola knows exactly how degrading it is to feel invisible and the last thing she wanted to do was turn the tables to make others feel visible while she remains invisible. For her to help anyone she needs to listen to what they have experienced. How will she know unless she hears it from them? Leola knows people want to be interesting but more so they want her to be interested in them. Being interested in people is exactly where God wants Leola to be. It isn’t about hiding herself from people it is putting them before herself in all subjects.
Jesus did not hide from anyone but sometimes he makes us hide from people because we are not suited to represent Him. I was not suited to represent Him because I wanted to be interesting to people. My interests were self-serving and there is nothing I personally can do for anyone. It is Jesus who does everything. He draws people to Himself and blesses us with being with Him. He teaches people how to live and allows us to tag along. It is Jesus who is interesting but some people don’t know that. How will I get that information to them if I am the one striving for their interest? I am only interesting for the short time I am with them. Jesus is with them 24/7. How can anyone or I deprive them of the interesting things Jesus did and said by talking about myself all the time instead of Him! I want to be interested in your life more than be interesting to you. When I talk, let my words direct you straight to the most interesting Man in the world, Jesus.
Meditation Reading this Week: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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The Same Mind
Un-Jesus Like
Leola watches the television in horror! If Sam wasn’t watching the news she would have turned off the television long ago. She is not one for television or even the radio. Silence does not bother her at all but it used too. Leola’s head was a nasty place to be and still is sometimes but now she spends any ‘un-Jesus’ like time with Jesus getting her mind back to His. Leola had a hard mind then it became a soft mind, crying all the time over every little thing. She detested the vulnerability of that soft mind so she prayed for a hard mind again. Jesus taught her how to have His mind no matter what it caused in her emotions. Leola is a thinker who questions everything she feels she needs to know. Terrorism is the subject she wants to know about at this moment. Not specifically terror, but the terrorist. In her mind she is pondering how these people can watch themselves kill. She tries to see through their eyes and cries just thinking about it. They are still talking about it. It is still fresh in the mind of the people who witnessed it. She looks at her husband and asks, “Do these people believe the world will just lay down when they do these things?” His answer, “Yes!” Her response, “Why?” “Drugs!” was Sam’s response.
In David Wilkerson’s book The Cross & The Switchblade, he talks about how gangs are formed and how gang members are kept. One of the gang boys told him loneliness is why the boys and girls are in gangs and drugs is what keeps them there. Leola can believe this is the same mentality of these terrorist groups too. They scan the internet for lonely boys and girls (boys to shoot and girls to sell). They pose as loving friends who just want the best for these lonely children. They convince them, through their loneliness, they would be better with them than the people who hurt them every day. They promise them a love they don’t even give themselves and certainly do not intend to actually give them. Once they have these lonely boys and girls they fill them full of drugs to keep them passive then they brainwash them into thinking no one cares about them. They tell them they are hated by humanity therefore humanity must die. Pumped full of drugs these people do as they are told because now they are filled with the hatred of the gang they live with. Leola’s heart swells with a love for these kids, these terrorist. They need Jesus. He is the only one who can free them from this.
Despite all the publicity to unite we can never unite unless we have the same mind. 1 Corinthians 1:10 implores us to be of the same mind. In the very next chapter Paul tells us we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). If we have the mind of Christ we will unite on every cause as long as it is from Jesus. We are to have sympathy for the world but not stoop to their level to reach them. Gang members are united with the mind of the leader. If gangs are able to do this why can we not do this as Christians? Gangs are effective at using love to draw lonely people in, why are Christians not using the same tactic? Gangs are united in using drugs and bullying to make you stay. The church should use love from the Mind of Christ to make people stay. Love takes a lot of work and the result is pain. From experience I can tell you that not everyone is the same nor do they feel loved the same. I have been hurt many times by the things I have done, out of love or friendliness that were not appreciated by the receiver. If we think about the things Jesus did you can appreciate the pain. Being of the same mind of Jesus is very difficult and hardly popular.
To Jesus Like
Leola was not always of the mind of Christ. She wanted those who used people spitefully to die in their sin. She wanted abusive husbands to be tortured for what they did to their wives. She wanted those who abuse children to be hung. Her mind was not of Christ! God did a great work in healing her heart because of her past. When she started praying for the women of Essex County Jesus let her pray the way she wanted too filled with hatred and terror. Within months He was showing her in His Word how to pray and what to pray. David, in his Psalms, prayed for strongholds to be broken down but God would teach Leola what that means. She began praying for strongholds to be broken down and Jesus taught her they would not stay down unless the one who erected them became saved. Did she want women to remain safe? If so, she needed to pray for the salvation of the abuser, the bully, the gang leader, the terrorist, the ones she had grown to hate. Today, she has compassion for them, but still has a need to know what makes them tick. Sam enlightened her. She had read how drugs were being used and Sam enlightened her of drugs being used during wars by every army. Mind altering ways are being used by people who want to be in control because people are not taking control of their own minds. Pain hurts so we numb it, rejection stings so we defer the plan, lack of control makes us uneasy so we lash out! All of this, Leola thinks, is the cause of the horrors we see on television today. The mind can be a terrible thing and unless we have the mind of Christ our actions will cause great damage. Paul was correct. Until she got the mind of Christ she was all over the place from degrading herself to degrading other people. She could not unite with anyone because she wasn’t united with Christ.
As I united my mind with Christ I became more unpopular with friends and family and church people in general. I had to learn to relay Christ’s mind with a deeper compassion. I needed to learn to relent when someone wouldn’t listen. I needed to let my emotions follow the work of Jesus, be angry when He wanted me to be angry, show love when He saw fit, be indignant when He was and teach what He wanted them to learn. In other words, I needed to learn how to mind His business not mind my own! Minding my own business is what I wanted to do. I don’t want to hurt or cry because that makes me look weak. I don’t want to love my enemy because that makes me look tolerant of their behaviour. I want to push people to do the right thing but that makes me look like a bully. I want to unite with those I agree with but that makes me look double minded. I fight all this nastiness daily as I am sure you do or you will. If we learn to control what we are thinking we can control how we react to what we see on television. We need to have the same mind as Christ to do that. His mind and our mind can be one but we need a starting point. Attempt to do this for a week and see if it helps. When you think of something ‘un-Jesus like’ try to change your mind as quickly as possible to the face of Jesus. I know you have an image in your mind of what Jesus would have looked like – use it. If you haven’t an image, memorize a Psalm. Knowing a full Psalm (I use Psalm 23) is excellent because it takes your mind off the ‘un-Jesus like’ long enough to switch it to ‘Jesus like’. Every Word you know from the Bible gets your mind closer to being of the mind of Christ. We are not just knowing the Word to use it, we are knowing it to live it. The Word of God IS the mind of Christ! At the end of three days, post a comment on this blog to testify how it worked. You can do this!
Mediation Verses for this week: 1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2; 1 Peter 3:8; Philippians 4:8; Psalm 23
