Worry is a sin.

Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and be loyal to the other or he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Worry is a tricky one. Because it doesn't feel like sin. When we are being tempted with worry, it feels so right. We feel justified. We even complain to God (and others) about our worries, feeling like we deserve their sympathies. Don't be deceived, this is pride.

I never thought I loved money. Loving money means greed, sketchy big business deals, swindling, gambling, being a workaholic, being consumed with wealth... right? Well, yeah, but it's also worry. Worry that there won't be enough. Worry that makes you take a job that might not be God's will. Valuing financial security. Sacrificing some of your time that could be spent in the word to do extra work to please your superiors. Living before the eyes of man. Maybe it's simply adding everything up at the end of the month, paying the bills and budgeting whats left without seeking the Lord for what He would have you give first?

Ouch.

Vs. 25, "Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"

Vs. 33-34, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow..."

Worrying about money is serving money. It is giving power to money, letting it be your master. 

Whatever you worry about has power over you.

This will change the way you look at worry. Whenever you are tempted to stress about something, you are actually being tempted (by the enemy) to give it power over you. Resist! Trust the Lord and refuse to worry. Also refuse, outright, to allow anything to steal from your time in the secret place, with the Lord, in the word and prayer. This is what the enemy is after.

Everything we are tempted with, whether it's worry, greed, security, favor of man, better houses or cars or positions, it is all meant to steal away our time of seeking.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore DO NOT WORRY."

This is the litmus test. Whenever you are faced with a pressured decision (something that causes stress or worry and makes you feel like you must take action right away), decide to take time, seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Be warned-the enemy will violently oppose this! But every time there is no time to seek the Lord, you are serving something else. Do not be deceived! Seeking God is ALWAYS the right thing to do.

You cannot serve both God and money.

You cannot serve both God and anything else.

Keep runnin'

LM

Our lives of love.

A couple of weeks ago my neighbor of 15 years or so died. Last night I dreamed I was at a show, heading into the ladies room and I met her. She was on her way out I could tell but she stopped and gave me a big hug. She asked if it was Tuesday (it was) and said, "Time doesn't matter up there. Of course, if He wanted it to then it would." And I knew she was talking about heaven. Then she looked at me and said, "You know, the angels are amazed at our lives of love. Not good works! But love."

Then I woke up.

The other night we were doing this song called, He is Yahweh, and the bridge goes like this:

You are holy and eternal     and forever You will reign

Every knee will bow before You     and every tongue will confess Your name

All the angels give You glory     as they stand before Your throne

And here on earth we gather     to declare Your name alone

There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will say, "Jesus is Lord", every single person alive on the earth at that time. But it won't be because they all become christians. When Jesus comes to take over the earth as His kingdom, His enemies will see Him and there's no denying that He is Lord! It's like waking up in the morning and saying, "The sun is up!" And when every knee bows it will be mandatory obedience. Jesus will be worshiped on the earth when He takes over but sadly, for many it will not be a choice. That's why our voluntary love and worship means so much to Him.

  
  All the angels worship Him because they were created to, and they stand before His throne of glory- how could anyone not worship Him! We were also created to worship Him but we are here on earth, where we declare His glory by faith, from what we know of His word. We live in the midst of darkness, deceit and evil and when we choose to love Him it touches His heart like nothing else!

This life is the only chance we'll have to love Him in the midst of trials and tribulation.

The angels aren't impressed with good works. What a laugh! They are God's messengers and good works (i.e. works of God) are their job description! When heaven looks at our "good works", it's no wonder they appear as filthy, stinky, moldy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) But when they see a choice of voluntary love, sacrificing comfort, serving others, worshiping the Lord and declaring His glory that we've only ever read about, they are amazed.

We amaze the angels!

Take your opportunities to love today. Angels are watching you. Others are looking to you to define the word "christian" for them. God is searching the earth for a voluntary lover...

Keep runnin'

LM

SHINE

I was praying from the moment I woke up today. "Lord, shine Your light into the darkness of this day!" Then I opened up my bible to Psalm 80 (vs 1-3)

"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your strength and come and save us!
  Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine and we will be saved."

I started thinking about halloween and all the darkness that will happen today. And our government, the corruption and poor leadership. Our bleak future, with healthcare, debt and a host of other problems and I just cried out,
                 "Resore us, O God; cause Your face to shine and we will be saved!!!"

And I stopped right there because it hit me: It's all about Him.

Everything is about Jesus. If we got a glimpse at the One who captivates the cherubim 24/7 for all of history, we wouldn't pray for anything else ever again! Only for Him. For more of Him. Greater revelation. And when He comes to us, His light casts out any darkness in an instant. 
                                          
                                We don't have to pray about the darkness!

We just have to ask Jesus to come. He is light. When you turn on a light in a dark room- BOOM. End of darkness. There's no need to pray about the darkness or cast it out- it's just gone. Like that.

Solving our problems isn't hard for Jesus. It's easy peasy stuff for Him. Being a glorious light that takes over the world comes natural to Him!

Seek the man, Jesus. Ask for more of Him. Search for the knowlege of who He is. Pray for His light, the glorious light that lives between the mighty angels.

When He shines forth His light, everything changes.



At the end of this age when darkness covers the earth, you know what we'll cry out?

COME LORD JESUS!  The Spirit and the Bride say, COME!




SHINE.

LM

God could leave you alone...

Do you ever see people and think, why on earth do they have it so easy? They're not pursuing the Lord; they're living in self-indulgence; they're not following any of the rules of Christianity 101 and yet they prosper! They succeed in business, have nice homes, great vacations, new cars- they have the life! It doesn't make sense!
  While you are here, struggling to follow the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, fulfill the great commission, and you can barely keep your head above water. You fast and pray and still are overwhelmed with work/school/relationships. You keep your heart pure and in return are misunderstood and attacked. All day long you are plagued and chastened...
  
 Sound familiar? This was the heart state of the writer of Psalm 73. Go ahead, read it. Get out your bible or go to this link: Ps. 73 

  He despairs until verse 17, "until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end." I believe this means that when he paused, set his heart and took the time to seek the Lord, the Holy Spirit gave him understanding. Perspective of the situation. He realized that God simply left those people alone. The ones who shut God out of their lives. After a time, the Lord stopped knocking (Rev 3:20). But the writer knew that when this life was over, their end was fast and bitter.
  And he figured out that those who seek the Lord gain His attention.

If there's anything you want in life, it is for God to pay attention to you.

  When that happens, when you have come to the place of righteousness (Acts 10:4), hunger, simply trying as hard as you can to seek the Lord- God will turn His attention to you and say, "This is a good vine. I'll prune this one to bear much fruit." What a privilege! When the writer understood this, his whole outlook changed and he was horrified at his attitude (vs 21-22). He realized what we can also know for sure:

No matter how hard the storm, we are ALWAYS with God. 

He holds us up with His own hand, He guides us with His counsel and will welcome us into His glory! Besides, what could we ever want in this life in the way of nice houses, successful jobs or easy relationships when we could have Jesus???

Even in our lowest times, when we lose perspective and turn to despair against God (like the beginning of this psalm), He is our strength! He never leaves our side and He will give us Himself. (vs 26) Mind. Blown.

It is very important to know that when God turns His attention to you, so does the enemy. And he will do everything in his power to destroy your faith. And those other people- the ones with the nice cars and easy lives? They are NO THREAT to the enemy so he leaves them alone. So in a way, it's sort of a twisted compliment when you come under great attack... Even so, satan's only real power is deception. Lies. Making you believe God has left you alone, doesn't love you, is disappointed in you. LIES. Remember that.

( I get a comic-book picture in my head, you standing in the middle- satan on one side throwing lies, chaos and turmoil at your earthly situations. God on the other side, shooting strength, revelation, power, love and help on the other side. ) 

It's a fight. But here's what we know: verse 28
-We have to trust God. (always believing He loves you and has your BEST in mind in EVERY situation and responding out of that heart attitude.)
-We will declare His works. When we know God does everything for love we will be bold in standing up for Him- defending Him to the world who scoffs, explaining Him to the church who is hurt and confused. 

This psalm is a very important revelation and easy to lose. Keep it in your heart and steward it well! Help those around you who are struggling, understand.

Going back to the beginning, I'll end.

Psalm 73:1 "Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart."

God could leave you alone. If He didn't love you so much.

Keep runnin'
LM

"Abide in Me." A word for the guilty...

John 15:7 "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you."

There is nothing new about this story. It is as old as the garden...

Once upon a time, any time, maybe even today... there were two little children, a brother and sister, who lived in a little village of no significance and had a quiet little life. They had a grandma who lived just a mile away from them, in a little woods and every day they walked to her house and she welcomed them joyously having prepared all kinds of fresh baked goodies and delicious treats. They would eat and play and sit on her lap while she told them fascinating stories and sang beautiful songs. By the time they left it was dark but she gave them a lamp which lit their way home and kept them warm and safe.
  One year the children started school. They were so busy! They made new friends and joined sports teams and clubs. Soon they stopped going to their grandma's house every day because they didn't have enough time. After a couple days they missed the freshly made sweets and goodies but they went to the store and bought cookies with their friends. And they still walked to grandma's every week, on Sunday. But their visits had changed. Now they were full of their own stories of school and friends. They would tell her their troubles and problems and she is full of wonderful answers. Sometimes they stop and listen to her but mostly they just talk. And they must leave before dark now because they are so busy on Monday! So they no longer needed the lamp to light their way and they ran home fast to keep warm.
  One Sunday they missed their visit. Friends invited them over and, "it's just this one time," they tell each other. But for the rest of the week they feel bad. They think of their grandma waiting all day with fresh sweets. How she must be disappointed in them! Maybe she is angry because they did not come see her. They've never seen her angry so they must imagine what it is like and it is terrible! As the next Sunday approaches they begin to fill up with dread... they imagine her at the door waiting to judge them for missing their weekly visit. Surely she won't have baked anything for them this time! Maybe she won't even let them into her house. They don't deserve to go there anyway, or enjoy the treats or listen to the wonderful stories and songs. They feel a twinge of longing but the guilt wins over. They should wait, give themselves a time out for their bad behavior- two weeks of staying away from grandmas, they decide.
  Well, two weeks turns into two months and more. They still think of grandma's house in the woods, so near yet so hard to get to... oh the yummy treats! They begin to desire them again but they cannot make the journey. Maybe if they will write to her she will understand! So they write a letter explaining in great detail how busy they have become and apologizing over and over and over. At the end they ask her to send them a few treats. Nothing much or fresh, just anything leftover in her cupboard. They wait and in a few days they receive a package full of all their favorite sweets. They are not warm or fresh but still good and as they eat they are filled with thankfulness. (But they only express their gratefulness to each other, and when the sweets are gone they soon forget.)
  This goes on for years. Sometimes when the children crave goodies they write to their grandma and usually they receive a package. They are thankful but always too guilty to visit her. A few times, when they run into trouble, they write a long, desperate letter for help. And she writes them back, sometimes with advice but usually with stories like she used to tell them. They are too busy to read them and discover the answers that are buried inside.
  So their lives went by in this way. They never went back to her house. They sometimes wish for the days when they were young and visited her every day... ohhh but that ONE week they missed! She would never forgive them for that. And as they neared the end of their lives they thought of making the trip, just once more... but maybe not today, maybe tomorrow. Or next year.

  What do you think they do not know? That their grandma stands at her door every single day of their life? That every single day she made fresh sweets and brought out interesting things to show them. She made her home ready and prepared lamps, bright and shining for them. She stood at her door looking, waiting for her beloved ones. Every day she waits.

Every day He loves.


You are always longed for, never rejected. Push delete and go back to the house.

You are much loved.


Keep running!
LM

Because HE is good.

"Mrs. Wilson doesn't give us cookies cause we're nice. We get cookies cause Mrs. Wilson is nice!"
                                                                                 ~Dennis the Menace

I love this quote. Is it odd that one of my favorite quotes is by a comic strip character? Who's like 5? No shame. Kids say the most profound things in their simplicity.


God doesn't love us because we're good. Like Dennis, we are not good! God loves us because He is good.

  This is so important to remember in our day to day, in the mundane, non-exciting, daily grind part of life. When we've been slacking off in our prayer/devos (I know the "Psalm a day" cop out or the "5 minute daily devotional" - let me tell you, you don't get deep revelation from the Holy Spirit in 5 minutes a day!) Or when we've been so busy or distracted that we haven't even thought about God all day.

Then something bad happens to us. We cry out to God for heeeelp! But wait, I don't have a very good track record today, I haven't built up my faith points - can I really pull the "rescue me!" card?

Let me tell you what faith is. Part of faith is that when we mess up royally, we run to God to fix it. Because we know in our hearts that He's the only one who can make right our wrong.

God doesn't come to our rescue because we've been reading our bibles and praying 2 hrs a day for a week and have a good track record. God comes to us in our weakness and pulls us out of the mud of our blunders because He is good. 

(Now, I'm not knockin 2 hrs a day with the Lord - that's how we get the revelation!!)

      In Psalm 31:1 David writes, "Deliver me in Your righteousness."
     And in vs 16, "Save me for Your mercy's sake."

Take advantage of the truth that GOD IS GOOD. Cry out to His righteousness and mercy. As a child of God you have a trust fund of love that never runs out and is accessible at all times! You don't even have to have a good credit rating.

Keep believing He loves you.
Keep fighting!

LM

Blood, sweat and joy.

  "So I wash my robes in the blood of the Lamb
    I am dead to sin, come alive again."

Washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb is a symbolic act, since we don't really have any of the actual blood of Jesus around for common use- what it means is basically we tell Jesus (in our hearts or out loud), "I believe You really lived, really died and Your blood is really enough to cover my sins. I receive that."

After that we are dead to sin. That prayer, whether you prayed it when you were 5 or 50, sealed the deal with God. You are now dead to sin.

This is where a lot of us (myself included) get hung up. Because we assume it means we will be dead to all our fleshly desires. And that's obviously not the case! So we are tempted and sometimes we fail. Then comes the guilt... How could I have done that? I am a horrible christian! Lord, if you will just forgive me this time I will try so much harder! I will try to live right and not sin! Forgive me!

This is where we commit grave error. We are trusting in our own righteousness. It may not seem like it because we are thinking about our failure, but also promising we will do better. This is a direct insult to the blood of the Jesus. 

Jesus died once. That blood was enough, is enough and will always be enough. EVERY SINGLE DAY OF YOUR LIFE. DONE.

But here we are on this cursed earth, trapped in our fleshly  desires, and bombarded with temptation from the evil one. We are painfully aware of this every day! So how are we "dead to sin"??

Jesus died to take away our guit and shame. (those words ring a bell anyone?) God doesn't want us to be distracted for a moment by guilt because of our sin. So He dealt with it once, 100%. Now we can always talk to Him, hang out with Him, be happy around Him and love Him. Without any fear or bad feelings. Ever. Even when we just sinned.

When you feel so bad about yourself that you can't think about God until you've been "good" for awhile; or "make up for what you've done"; or if you just can't hang out with God and be happy- it's guilt. It's not you, it's the enemy. It feels like you, and it feels so right to feel bad. After all- you did something bad, right? 

Here's the deal, when we sin it's so tempting to feel bad for awhile ("because I deserve it!"). DON'T DO IT. Think about the blood. Really, picture what the cross looked like in your mind (it's powerful). Then believe, so strongly, in the power of that blood that you never feel bad. That's the point! Jesus went thru the horrible crucifixion so that you and I will never have to feel bad ever again. 

Then smile. Say it out loud if it helps, "I know Your blood is strong enough to cover this sin. I am free and I love You!!" That's it. That's what He wants from you. To just be happy and love Him. Cause He's happy and He loves you. All the time. Every day.

With no nasty guilt or shame gettin' in the way.

Keep runnin!
LM

p.s. If you are struggling with habitual sin- i.e. not just once but continually living in and planning to sin WITHOUT sincere desire to change, YOU MUST LEAVE SIN BEHIND. It's HARD. But once you have repented and decide to stop, even when you mess up- there's NO more feeling bad! AT ALL. There is only love. (Can I get an amen??)