HEART MATTERS

“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”  Galatians 6:1

When I first came to faith in Christ, it didn’t take long for the Lord to strategically place a dear sister in Christ in my life to help me begin my journey.  He must have known (of course He did know) I would require some stern rebuking because one of the first believers He brought into my life didn’t play!  Joslyn and I attended college together.  We were both Marketing majors so we took many of the same classes.  Our friendship began when we began meeting to study together.  Since I was a new believer in Christ I was immediately drawn to this strong, bold, and uncompromising Christian young woman.  I knew our meeting wasn’t happenstance and I was determined to soak up everything I could from her.  I listened to her words, watched how she interacted with others, and took a lot of my questions regarding my new found faith to her.  I looked to her to see what this new life in Christ should look like and she didn’t disappoint!  She was (and still is) on fire for the Lord! Joslyn had a powerful testimony which she readily shared.  She didn’t take her salvation for granted and her day was full of praises for the Lord Jesus! She had a “no holds bar” approach to life and so she had no problem confronting and correcting a “sister in Christ” if she felt the situation called for it.  Although I was the oldest, she definitely was my big sister in the Lord.

She embraced me and patiently made herself available to me.  But she also didn’t mind giving me a stern rebuke from time to time.  I can still remember the one that stung me the most.

Continue reading Accountability? Absolutely! →

HEART MATTERS 

“When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, ” Proverbs 2:10-12

If you knew of a special place that had unlimited resources from which anyone could draw from and experience the most incredible blessings ever, would you share that information with others?  If this was a place in which the outcast, the forsaken, the poor, the struggling and deprived could find the answer to all of their problems would you tell them about it? If it offered the very key to life even to those who because of their material wealth and success blindly believed their lives were already prosperous, would you readily reveal the location of such a place to them?  If such a place existed, one in which the resources it offered were never depleted, would you hesitate to urge everyone you knew and loved to run to it to partake of it immediately?  I don’t think so!

Such is the conundrum many new believers find themselves in when they come to faith in Christ.  When we come to faith in Christ it’s like a whole new world unfolds right before our eyes.  As the Truth penetrates our hearts and the scales fall from our eyes all of sudden we are keenly aware that we have been made privy to the most incredible news ever known to mankind!  The temporal converges with the eternal as the mortal is introduced to immortality. We now know the Gospel truth!  Immediately we have been changed and we are new creations in Christ Jesus (2nd Corinth 5:17).  Now the Holy Spirit indwells us! Now we sincerely desire to read and study the Word of God.  Now we can’t wait to share this marvelous truth with absolutely everyone we know and love!

Although the place I mentioned above doesn’t actually exist here on earth something even better has been made available to all the inhabitants of the earth.   Continue reading Discreet But Not Desensitized →

HEART MATTERS

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  Galatians 5:1

I once heard a  pastor say “all other religions say “do” but Christianity is the only one that says “done”.”  So true!  Jesus cried out on the cross “it is finished!” And so there is nothing we need to “do” to be saved.  Praise God!  We don’t need to adhere to a long list of do’s and don’ts.  We don’t need to try our best to be good or strive for perfection.  Our salvation cannot possibly be attained through the works of man.  In fact, even our best efforts are “like filthy rags” (see Isaiah 64:6 ).  In the sight of the perfectly pure and holy God, we all fall short “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 The good news is that God knew  we would choose sin, that our sin would separate us from Him, so the almighty God came down. Jesus died on the cross for your sins and mine so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. His resurrection and ascension proves that He is who He said He is and that He did what He said He would do! It is finished!  The sin debt of mankind was paid in full by Jesus Christ Himself.  All we need do is believe.

Ahhh, the simplicity of the Gospel!  And yet without the power of the Holy Spirit drawing us to Himself we would completely miss it.  You see there is just something inside of man that desperately needs to trust in his own ability. For some reason we would rather trust what we think we can do rather than what the LORD has done. In our foolishness we’d rather try to control than to trust our Creator.  Our pride coupled with our arrogance creates a deception not unlike those who were trying to build the tower of Babel.  Like them we too can become blinded by our own determination and ignorantly believe that there’s nothing we can’t accomplish once we put our minds to it.  And so our belief in what the Bible calls our “works” can become a major stumbling block for us.  It keeps many from receiving the gift of eternal life and it prevents many believers from genuine spiritual growth.

Continue reading The Law of Liberty →

HEART MATTERS  

“Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”  Matthew 7:1-3

I can honestly say that there are not a lot of people I know who I would consider to be judgmental. Thankfully most people seem to be relatively respectful, content to mind their own business.  There are a few people I know who seem to have really pure hearts.  They refuse to think a bad thought about a person no matter what they’ve done.  Then there are those who genuinely struggle with having a critical and judgmental spirit.  Although they try to hide it-one wrong word, one wrong statement or just wrong them altogether and it won’t be long before the way they truly feel is revealed.  You’ll see it in their disapproving countenance; hear it in their demeaning words, or feel it in their distant attitudes.  Nothing good comes from having a judgmental spirit.  It can wreck the lives of others and ravage the life of the one who harbors it.  As a person who struggled with being judgmental and who has since been delivered I’m so glad the Lord is adamant that there’s no place for it in the life of a believer.

In order to guard our hearts against it we must first understand what it means to judge someone.  I believe overall the concept of judging others has been greatly misconstrued. Unfortunately today we live in a culture that believes everything is relative.  In regards to others most adhere to “whatever floats your boat” and “if its right for you then that’s all that matters.”  We live in a society that desires to determine right and wrong for itself. Anything that challenges one’s belief’s and behaviors is considered “judging.” As a result, a sincere stand for truth is interpreted as intolerance and frowned upon as an unwelcome intrusion even to the detriment of the souls of men.  What it means to “judge” has further been reduce to well known comedic punch lines.  Like Arthur Spooner on the King of Queens any reasonable question can elicit the response “don’t JUDGE me!”

Continue reading Stop Judging-Sing For Joy! →