The journey from error to heir was a phrase God gave me during a message from our pastor on a Sunday morning. He had used the statement that we are all heirs of Christ Jesus. When he said this I instantly wrote on my bulletin error instead of heir. I wrote it this way–heir (with the poison sign here) error. When I wrote this I was only thinking that my belief system had always been that I was an error–a mistake. My mom didn’t really want me (I was kid # 10), dad was embarrassed by me because I didn’t have his skills nor likes and God certainly didn’t think much of me or He wouldn’t allow his kid to be treated the way I was. With all of this, my brother wanted me for distorted sexual reasons. Satan had a hay day with my belief system from all of this.

What God did give me through salvation, accepting Christ into my life at a young age, was HOPE. I put all kinds of Earnie ideas into action: trying to live a good life attending church and being very active in it, sing only “church songs”, don’t swear, read my bible daily along with praying, etc. But, what I knew from scripture’s promises just weren’t coming true for me.

What is so amazing to me is the way God has taken all of these lies and turned them into ministry. I hear similar lies in almost every counseling session. I can identify with the lies and with this I can point them to a most loving God, Savior and Holy Spirit. These Three in One are the key to finding the truth of HEIR. My journey is not wasted. It is not to be a secret. God has turned it into a meaningful purpose for His Work. I love Him for this!

The message of yesterday’s post is one that a single post does not even begin to address the complex depth for which it saturates one’s entire belief system. Growing up being used as someone’s sex toy (man to boy) and then being told by one’s father that you are a girl or have the characteristics of a girl, well, the belief system gets mighty confused about one’s identity. So restoring one’s mind to believe one is “fearfully and wonderfully made” seems impossible. Boy, did I live in this world for a LONG time.

I have found that in coming into the belief system of being “God’s masterpiece, God’s chosen one, being fearfully and wonderfully made, a new creation,” takes the truth of God’s word when it says, “…renew our minds in Christ,” (Romans 12:2). In the past two days I’ve had letters of support from my prayer warrior reminding me who I am in Christ Jesus and how God created me in HIs Own Image. Using the three R’s I’ve mentioned numerous times, I can Replace the lies which want to surface in my mind with these truths of scripture. As I do, little by little, my belief system grows. Amazingly, as my belief system grows, so does my humility with intense thanksgiving for my Gracious Redeemer–Jesus Christ.

God our Father wants to replace every hurt from our past with the Joy of His Salvation as we take the steps of Faith into this healing process. How worthwhile it is!

Each Thursday morning I drive to a neighboring town to meet with a man who experienced sever childhood sexual abuse during his earliest years. His wife meets with us each week so she can support him in ways meaningfully connected to the lesson’s context. We are using “Mending the Soul” to support this time. Over the past several months we have addressed the different kinds of abuse and the impact they have on one’s beliefs, actions, etc. Yesterday we started on the chapter that addresses breaking free of the strongholds abuse has created. This gentleman became overly silent as we began to challenge the beliefs about himself. When I finally asked if loving himself seemed egotistical, his response was YES! Does this man know the verse in Psalms that says he is fearfully and wonderfully made? Yes he does. Applying it to himself and believing it is now true is a HUGE step.

His wife made the statement that this is very difficult work. It is one thing to face and know the giants in your life and the damage they have done. This is grueling work. However, it seems just a difficult to now face the truths about oneself and believe them.

I write this knowing so well how difficult these steps of belief are. This is when my prayer warrior introduced me to the three R’s: Recognize, Reject and Replace. Today I know these truths and I humbly believe them for me. The darkness of lies and the taproots of them go deeply into one’s soul. These are the words of this man’s wife. God’s tremendous healing does address this however and His healing process is now beginning to addressing beliefs. How tenderly and lovingly our Father’s steps of healing are. I’m so grateful for Him!

This morning I was reflecting on my years in education–50 years total. I have to confess that during this entire time, even though I loved these years, I yearned to be more effective in helping others see Jesus in what they were learning and doing. On a personal level, I would talk to someone or someones if it were a small group, and bring Jesus into the picture. The effectiveness of this would then be left with them. I would tell myself that this is as close to helping others as God wants me. Others need to help the ones who truly struggle with living life. I couldn’t do this because I had my own huge struggles within.

In the past 6 months of focusing entirely on this counseling program, I have seen so much effectiveness–Christ’s work in one’s life. It is so amazing to see someone walk into a room in their first visit with an expression of hopelessness and a few weeks/months later, walk into the room vibrant and hopeful. Seeing the light of learning click on for children is a glorious experience in education–I always loved this. But, the LIGHT of JESUS clicking on in someone’s life struggle is nothing but a miracle of LOVE & GRACE provided by God Himself. I am so grateful I get to spend my years now witnessing this.

How AMAZING our GOD IS!

I’ve said for many years that Spring comes for me on March 1. This year is no different, however, it welcomed me with about 7-8 inches of new snow! School is cancelled in our area today–this I saw. However, it wasn’t until the light of day began to appear that I could see how important it was to cancel. We haven’t had a snowfall like this all winter. Well, the groundhog wasn’t kidding when he said winter was staying. No matter, it has snowed in Spring before and it will likely do it again. My heart is welcoming Spring anyway–I just won’t rototill quite yet!.

One of the things God has been teaching me is to see Jesus as my barometer for living. Much of my life I used my father and brother as this measuring stick. If I were a better person than they, I could be a “good man”. Seeing Jesus as my measuring stick for living has opened my eyes to all of mankind. Everyone struggles with their sin nature–I’m not unique in this. The counseling program has truly reinforced this truth. I had a couple who are 85 & 86 come yesterday to deal with their anger. As we got into the session, we focused on communication between them which was feeding the anger.

Yesterday I confessed about my struggling sin nature. Today I recognize once again that I am simply human. It seems silly but I do need to give myself permission to be human. I know this all ties back to never “being like my dad or brother”. Instead, I will focus on being righteous through the blood of Jesus. God sees me through this lens and I will too (or keep trying to). God is never done remaking us–thank goodness!

My devotional had a short paragraph that I had to reread a few times. It has a message I don’t like, but it will always be true. It says, “I exult in Your righteousness by reveling in the wondrous truth that You gave this priceless, holy gift to me! Your perfect righteousness is already credited to my account–even though I continue to battle sin in my life.”

I lived with so much “sin in my life” while growing up, I wanted to reach the point as an adult where this would no longer be my story. It has been hard for me to admit that I battle sin daily, yet it is true. I know that we all do. The one huge blessing about this truth while we live in our flesh, is that I can fully relate to those who come for counsel. I can easily relate to their guilt and shame. What I can do too is share the loving grace of God that is credited to our account when we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord. I stand righteous before God because God sees me through the righteousness of His Son Jesus!

To God be the Glory!

There is nothing like a prayer warrior in one’s life! Yesterday, early afternoon, I met with my prayer warrior, Lois. She had done a little homework for me putting scriptures to a list of what’s called “thinking errors”–a document we use in counseling. However, the time turned into something I wasn’t expecting. As I sat down for us to talk, she said she wanted to tell me something. She said that most of us wait until someone dies to tell just how much they meant to us. Well, she wanted to tell me right then how much I meant to her and to God. I could hardly hear the message I got so choked up. Several months ago Lois had told me I was like a second son to her. I confirmed to her that she was like a second mom to me. As she concluded her compliments and I was able to speak, I told her that I’d longed for a message like this from my mom. I so wanted to know I met her approval. However, that had never happened. However, for reasons only God knows, He had Lois give me the message yesterday.

The motivation to serve God as a young man was mostly about receiving His approval. Little did I know then about His Love for me. Today my motivation to serve God comes from a depth of gratitude for God being so loving, so forgiving, so compassionate. There are so many in our world that do not know God and certainly do not know these generous characteristics of Him. I want to do my part in passing them along just as Lois did for me yesterday.

There is a young man I meet on Saturday mornings for the purpose of counseling. He is one who knows a good deal about the bible and its content, but asking Jesus into your life isn’t part of it. In fact, he isn’t sure who Jesus is other than a good and wise man that the New Testament talks about. The young man isn’t Jewish but was raised to believe the traditions of the Old Testament.

I have challenged this young man to ponder this “man Jesus” and see what he thinks keeping his mind open. Yesterday in our session I had a list of scriptures which support the topic of “self-esteem”. The topic ought to better read, “God supported self-esteem”. The first 5 verses were from the Old Testament and the remaining 3 verses were from the New Testament. We went over each verse for their application to this man’s life since we started the counseling last September. He has made remarkable progress and I wanted him to see how much of this has come from the promises of scripture–Old and New.

Our flesh along with Satan’s deception wants us believing we make improvement from our own strength alone. We can do this for a period of time, but almost always we fall back into the old patterns or habits/beliefs. The changes we make from God’s promises to us are eternal and the effects impact the lives of those around us showing them what God will do for them just as He has done for us. God is working in this young man’s life and the One’s Name Who is working–Jesus Christ! The Light of Jesus penetrates all darkness!

Last night Kathy and I went to see Jesus Revolution–movie. If this isn’t on your list of good things to do in the near future, put it there. It is time and money well spent. If you are from my generation of the hippie movement, you will enjoy it even more. It is inspiring to take a look at something I well remember and see what God has done with it 50 years later. Wow!

It is insightful to read someone else’s insights in order to better see and understand what I am attempting. I am using a devotional this year given to me by my prayer warrior. Today’s message was about deepening our intimacy with God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit. It is not only about spending time with them each and every day, but it is allowing the time, and taking enough time, to go deeply into our day, our motives, our desires or lack thereof, our spiritual walk, etc. Along with all of this, it is hugely about obedience to what God asks of us. The more we begin to respond to God’s nudges (all of them) the greater intimacy grows. We learn to trust God much more completely when we obey and find that in obedience there is love, support and peace.

Coming to God with the needs of the day is important, but staying with God until we are in union with Him is an outcome I’m now becoming much more awakened to.

I awoke earlier than usual this morning and the word to describe my thinking would be overwhelmed. I got up and brought my cup of coffee and myself to God. As I began to journal to God about what is behind the overwhelmed feeling God reminded me that He is my major resource of counsel. A major reason for the sense of overwhelmed was the number of clients I’m now seeing and just yesterday I received 3 more intake requests. It is one thing to meet with the clients, its another thing to prepare properly for each session. God simply reminded me that He is my provider for each session. The materials I feel I need to prepare are good, but they are not the Light which brings the connection of healing to the issues one is dealing with. I sure don’t want to lose sight of this truth.

OK, now I’m ready to step into today! God is always the answer!