Today starts the week of our Christmas program at church. These next three nights are dress rehearsals and then Thursday – Saturday are the productions. My part is not major but the angst I’ve had has been very MAJOR! It sounds silly, but it is nonetheless true. As I began my journaling this morning and confessing all of this to Jesus I found myself feeling bad for not being thankful about all of this rather than so concerned. It wasn’t until I asked Jesus what He wanted me to know for today, that He reminded me about believing.
This entire year I’ve had one major goal–Believe I’m a new creation. That first word–believe–is not to be used only as the start of being a new creation. It is to be at the start of all God provides and asks of us. Do I believe I’ll mess up or do I believe God placed me in this part to complete my piece as He wanted? Do I believe I can memorize lines and remember them at the right time? Do I believe the dance steps can be done without looking foolish? Until this morning I’ve been looking forward to this coming Sunday when all of this is behind me. Today, Jesus wants me to look forward to being part of His Story as portrayed. Along with this looking forward to it, He wants me believing I will do it just fine.
I’m not just a new creation and that’s it. I’m a new creation that no longer believes the lies fed to me and Satan wants to keep alive in me. I choose to believe this new creation is one for now and then for eternity!
It is amazing to me to work in a world of spiritual warfare as biblical counseling brings to you. One person I’m meeting with believes in God but doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was a good human not different than other good men in the Old Testament. I know where his belief came from since I’ve know the religion he was raised in. Little did I know ahead of this counseling how much I rely on the truth that Jesus Christ is the One Great Healer. How does one find healing for his past abuse and current lies and habits when he doesn’t believe in our Great Healer? I introduced him to the true Jesus Christ yesterday and left it with the seed being planted. It pains me to find one struggling with the Greatest Truth I have to offer as a counselor.
As I went to see my niece I found that she is not worried about her relationship with Jesus. She has a trach so she can only mouth her words. Her concern is for her kids and grandkids. She wanted to know how to talk to them about accepting Jesus in their hearts? I had brought the 4-Spiritual Laws so I gave this to her. This brought a smile. That’s what she needed.
Of all the things our earthly life has to offer, there is none as great a gift as Jesus Christ. I know His Holy Spirit is working. I want to put a timeframe around this work but I do know better. I want God’s patience to be mine. TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE AND IS DOING!
This morning I will start with a counseling appointment. Afterwards I’m headed to Boise with a niece to see her sister, another niece, who is in the hospital battling lung cancer. We know it is terminal and my niece does too. She is unsure about her relationship with Jesus so this morning we are going to address this so she can rest knowing Jesus didn’t leave her out of His fold.
While we were doing our shopping yesterday I got a call from my niece in California. She wanted me to know that my sis Alice, her mom, passed away yesterday morning. Alice had been peacefully declining and was very ready to be with her heavenly family for eternity. Eternity has been on my mind a lot lately knowing Alice’s time was close and knowing we were going to pray with Debbie later this morning.
God is amazingly good and patient waiting for us to know Him and understand that He is not waiting to judge us for our sin–yes, that time comes. However, God is waiting to redeem us from our sin by our accepting His Gift of Love–Jesus Christ, His Son, asking Him into our heart and accepting Him as our Savior and Lord. It is as simple as that. How much I love our Father in heaven and thank Him for the Gift of eternity with Him and our loved ones.
Yesterday was the day of thanks and today is the day of giving. In less than an hour I’ll have 4 grandsons with me hitting the Black Friday sales to get their Christmas shopping done. This is an annual event for us. I take the grandsons and Kathy takes the granddaughters along with their moms. We guys go to breakfast in the midst of the shopping and are back home by 10:00 am. The girls make much more of a day of it. Their arrival home isn’t usually until darkness has hit the day. All of us are happy this way!
There is always something to be thankful for and today it is the joy of being grandpa!
It is Thanksgiving and I praise God for the Freedom only He can give to us. It is one thing to be thankful for our country and our freedom here in America. It is another thing completely to know the Freedom we have no matter what country we reside. Man cannot take this away from us and only God can give it to us. No matter our circumstances, today, let us each rejoice in the freedom of being a new creation!
There is so much about being a new creation I didn’t expect. Things like being tempted–I wanted them gone. Things like thoughts that go through your head–I wanted them to gone. Things like problems brought to you–I wanted them easily resolved. There are so many more! In each case I now see, “I wanted”. The selfishness of flesh is always part of us even when we are a new creation. The ugliness of flesh I’d experienced as a kid I thought was what flesh looked like for everyone. How could one be a new creation and still have flesh like I had known? The reality of acting on flesh was what I was missing. Abuse is the acting on fleshly desires. Having temptations is of the flesh and being a new creation gives one the motivation to step away from them and God’s Strength to do so.
One of my most precious realities I’ve found is that being a new creation brings a longing to be more and more Christ-like. We will never be perfect as Christ is, but knowing the future has this in it, makes me smile and know it is all worthwhile!
Living the life of a new creation truly does have a new way to live one’s life. My most recent experience is dealing with someone’s problems as in this arena of counseling. Yesterday was a day where I had on my mind the issues brought to me then or the ones from the weekend. In my old self I would take these areas of need and set them aside or stuff them when I didn’t have a way to deal with them in my own self. Today I’m needing to learn what it is to give them to God without stuffing them, Keeping myself open to hear God’s voice regarding these is new. When I discipline myself to not stuff the needs, I want to go to solving them. This is where I’m continuously reminded that solving is God’s part. My role is to help others keep their mind and heart focused on God.
Being a new creation and believing it to be true is the start of an entirely new life. No wonder scripture calls it–being born again. I am finding that one can stay in the infant stage of this new life if we don’t believe it is true for you. I was stuck there much of my adult years. One of my greatest discoveries has been to live each day with God’s Spirit being in control of my life. At this point I’m only awakening to my need for this truth. I’ve got to take you to my devotional message for today in order for this to make sense.
“The Answer You Need Is Found in Me”
The reason you’ve been heavy and overwhelmed is because you’ve been seeking the answer for your problem in multiple places. …You’ve been stuck in your head trying to reason things out allowing your thoughts to drag you around in vicious circles. Instead, let your spirit lead you to me. …This means you must fix your attention on me and me alone. When all of your attention is on me, you’ll tap into the breakthrough….
I have thought I was doing the right thing “in my mind”. But, this morning God has made it clear that it is His Mind He wants me seeking and I do that by keeping my mind still so His Spirit can speak to me. The length of the pause this takes is sometimes found in the length of time it takes for me to bring my mind to stillness. God is the One and only Great Healer. I am to only do my part as He directs. Big Lesson!
There are those days when life “slugs you right in the gut”. It knocks the wind out of you and you feel helpless. As I approached bedtime last night I was feeling this way. I won’t go into the specifics. Each one of us has our own specifics. What is genuinely true for all of us is that the closer to home the situations are, the more the slug/s hurts.
My devotional addressed this well as I began my time this morning. Some excerpts from it are: “I’ve discovered that thanking You frequently not only awakens my heart to Your Presence, but sharpens my mind…. You’ve been training me to look back over the previous twenty-four hours and make note of all the good things You’ve provided…. The Bible teaches that my enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion look for someone to devour…. Help me to drive away the enemy by thanking and praising You. This is warfare worship!”
As the wind is knocked out of me by life, I want to breathe in the “breath of life” that only trusting in Jesus and praising Him will do. I have witnessed over and over how Jesus brings good out of what seems hopeless. I’m putting my trust in Him and praising Him in advance.
As I begin to write this entry my mind is processing the message Jesus has provided today. It was centered around focusing on the truth of His Power made complete in my weakness. Each morning as I have my devotional time I find myself inspired to live the day fully committed to serving Jesus no matter what comes up in the day. However, what I’m challenged with today is the truth about actually living this out each day isn’t as easy as it appears in the early morning. As the day progresses and I get into late afternoon and evening I find my strength waning. With that said, I also find myself much less prepared for temptations which spring forth at that point. As Jesus was pointing this out just a little while ago, I awoke to “whose strength I was relying on”.
When I taught Celebrate Recovery’s lesson–TURN–last Thursday evening, I had pointed out that it isn’t enough to turn away from the temptation, we also have to be awake to who/what we turn to. If we turn to ourselves, we will often fail. However, if we turn to Jesus by putting James 5:16 into practice, we will find healing. The verse says: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed….” The step of turning can be easy, but to complete the turning to will need one to swallow pride, admit one’s weakness, etc. However, in so doing, one is promised healing. I don’t want to miss out on this miracle of love God has so graciously provided for me/us. We have such a loving Father!
Earnie Lewis 