Victory in Jesus!

In my downtime this month from OCC, I have been trying to catch up on some reading and set some new personal goals for 2012.  One of the best books that I have begun reading is “Battlefield of the Mind” by Joyce Meyer.  So far I have a lot of things underlined and highlighted and I am only up to chapter 6.

While reading I came across a verse that I have read hundreds of times and could probably almost quote word for word, yet it has never spoken to me as it did the other day.  I started really looking at the words and wondering how I could get these thoughts, these things God wants me to think on, really into my head.  You see, our minds are the battlefield.  What we think is what we do and what we say! If God doesn’t have control of my mind and what I think, then how can I expect Him to show through me?  

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

Hmmm, yeah I get that, but what does it all mean?  I decided to dig a little deeper and get out the ole Webster’s Dictionary and pick the words apart. (My preacher friends and professors in college would be so proud!)

Phil. 4:8

true - in accordance with fact or reality; without deviation

noble - possessing very high or excellent qualities

right - being in accordance with what is just, good and proper

pure - free from moral fault or guilt

lovely - delightful for beauty, harmony and grace

admirable - deserving of highest esteem

excellent - superior, eminently good

praiseworthy - laudable, commendable, to recommend as worthy of confidence or notice

So now here is what Philippians 4:8 is saying: Instead of listening to the lies of the world, this is what God wants us to think about - Whatever is in accordance with fact, without deviation; whatever is possessing very high qualities; whatever is in accordance with what is just, good and proper; whatever is free from moral fault or guilt; whatever is delightful for beauty, harmony and grace; whatever is deserving of the highest esteem; whatever is superior or eminently good; and whatever is laudable, commendable, or recommended as worthy of your confidence of notice.

God gives us so much to be thinking about that there shouldn’t be time for the devil to interject his lies.  Is this an easy task?  Of course not, it takes practice. It takes time. It takes grace for ourselves! It takes effort.  Moment by moment; day by day; thought by thought.  Hey, I'm just starting ...  

We have an ace in the hole, though! God knows we cannot do this on our own! He is just waiting, patiently, for us to ask for His help. He want us to be thinking on Him and the things that please Him, for He knows the freedom that awaits us, the victory!  He’s is chomping at the bit to help, to guild, to speak, to comfort, to counsel us.  All we have to do is ask. That’s it! No conditions, no trials, no tests, no hurtles … just ask.

One of the biggest lies that I have discovered satan has been working on me for years and years, since my childhood, has already been shown to me by God through this process.  That is in the area of prayer.  The stronghold that satan has had over me has gone something like this, “Your prayers are not good enough. You haven’t asked forgiveness for your sins enough or in the correct way. Your theology is all wrong so your prayers can’t reach God, He won’t listen. You prayed in the wrong order and your attitude is not perfect. Why bother? You know you’re going to just commit that same sin again so why should God believe that you are sorry and forgive you? You’re not feeling God, so He’s not listening. You are such a mess and so full on imperfections that God just can’t be reached by you. You’re on your own!” 

This has been the conversation in my mind, little by little, since I was a child kneeling every night in prayer with my family.  I remember vividly being about 10 years old or so and having one of those nightly family prayer times.  I said something when it was my turn to pray that my father thought was not theologically correct.  He stopped me mid prayer and lectured for 20 minutes … all of us still kneeling … before I was forced to continue and finish my time “talking” to God.  This happened over and over! I was a child! Why would I want to pray as an adult if I can't do it perfectly?

Thus began the lies of the devil.  Those lies have built up thought by thought since that time.  Satan doesn't hit us, wham, with his lies. He's very clever and he is very, very patient.  He is willing to invest the time it takes, years, to make us ineffective, unusable and unhappy children of God.  I know it will take God reminding me over and over and over to come to Him as a child - not the child kneeling in fear of being wrong - but the child as He created me. He just wants to hear from me. He just wants me to speak to Him and then listen so He can speak to me because He has so much He’s been dying to tell me!!

What lies have you been listening to?

No more lies. It is time to find victory in Jesus. Because, my friends, once you do, once you surrender and start believing in the Truth, satan can no longer follow.  God WILL take us through the door where He alone can reach us! Will we have setbacks? Sure - we are human and we do live in the world. BUT we won’t believe the lie that we have failed! 

Victory in Jesus - not just a song to me anymore.

Learning to Surrender

I love, Lord, how you bring verses to me at just the right time.  You touched me with these three and I want to know why.  I don’t know what you have for me, but I want to follow wherever it leads me.  I’m human, so I will admit that it scares me a bit.  What if I can’t do it? What is I don’t have the words? I am without much courage … but it occurs to me that you haven’t called me to serve you because I’m so amazing, but because You are.  All I have to do is show up and be obedient and have a willing heart.  Will I make mistakes? Yep. Will I stumble? Yep. Will I have periods of doubt? Only if I give satan purchase and remove my focus on You.

So find me willing and obedient and present; and thank you, Lord, for the journey and the teachable moments along the way, even before I take the first step.


Ps. 10:17 - "Lord, you know the hope of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them."
Prov. 8:17 - "I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me."
Rm. 10:14 - "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Just .... WOW!

Ok, so I am not often awestruck by people that I meet ... not really.  Not the fainting, wet your pants kind of thing ... usually, but today was certainly an exception!!

I am in Atlanta, Georgia working at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center inspecting and, of course, praying over and touching as many boxes as possible, before they are put into cartons and forwarded to 5.8 children around the world.  My brain does not hold the words that would be necessary to give you the feelings, the atmostphere, the relationships that make up the Processing Center!  It is an experience like no other and is one that must be felt in person!

So today we are just processing our little bodies away and we realize we've worked for three hours and need a lunch break, and, of course, the bathroom! So I'm standing in line at the ladies room (ok, really, why is it we can send men to the moon but we can't build bathrooms in buildings to accommodate the fact that we, as girls, pee a LOT???)  Anyway, so I see a man walk by and I think, "Oh wow, that was Randy Riddle."  Nah, it can't be. Why in the world would Mr. Third only to Franklin Graham, Mr. OCC himself, be in Atlanta Processing Center?  A few minutes later, no lie, my mouth falls open and I turn to Debbi ... "Holy crap! That IS Randy Riddle!!!"

We have lunch. Go back to the line and on my way I ask Kate.  "Did I really just see Randy?"  Sure enough, not only is he in the house, but so is Jim Harrelson ... Mr. SECOND man to Franklin Graham and even bigger Mr. OCC!  Ok, now I'm really in awe! 

I kid you not, 30 minutes later, this is what happened ...

I did actually keep my pants dry, but it was not easy!  Ok, all humor aside, let me just tell you that Randy and Jim are the most humble, down to earth and fantastic men! They clearly have a love and passion for Operation Christmas Child, and even as important, for the volunteers.  They did do the usual "hi, how are you", but stood talking with me for over 20 minutes! Right in the middle of the Processing Center!  My respect for these two men just skyrocketed to a whole new level ...

Anyway, so obviously it was a very good day here in Atlanta. I'm tired, blissfully so, therefore you'll have to excuse this crudely created post, but ...

It would only be topped by Franklin Graham himself ... there just wouldn't be any dry pants ...

Hope for the Hopeless

It is time for one of my favorite things to do every year ... PROCESS!  No, I don't mean something as lofty as sitting with my coffee and contemplating life, but working in the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center.  There are 7 across the U.S. and this year, we are headed to Atlanta, Georgia.

Though I love the activity, the work, the travel, the companionship of 1,000 other volunteers as obsessed (uh ... passionate) about OCC as I am, that's really not what is on my mind this morning, just hours from leaving for the airport.  I am thinking this morning about being hopeless.

We live in a country with such abundance.  I've been in several conversations just in the past week about what it is to be in need.  I like to think that I can grasp what it is to be needy, to be truly hopeless, but I cannot, and neither can you!  I hear excuse after excuse from people every year about why they don't pack shoeboxes for children who live in some of the most forgotten parts of our world.  "We have so much need here in the United States."  "There are so many children here in our own country that we need to help."  Yes, those things are definitely true!

What I am talking about is true hopelessness.  There are children, 3, 4, 5 year olds, living on their own because their parents have died of AIDS; 12, 13 and 14 year olds out on the streets, or in garbage dumps, scrounging for food for themselves and their families because war has completely ravaged their village and there is nothing left; children of all ages who are sick themselves from diseases easily cured by antibiotics here in the States, but a death sentence in Africa, living out their remaining days in a "hospital"; tiny boys and girls in orphanages who have been left, and are unloved -- with no solution for any of these circumstances. No government program; no church doing a "mission project" to help; no community raising money to meet the need ... hopeless.

I received this verse in an email this week:  Psalm 10:17, "Lord, You know the hopes of the hopeless. Surely You will hear their cries and comfort them."  God knows where every shoebox is going - every single one!  He has a plan for how the needs of each single child will be met.  Will the items in the box change the physical circumstances of these children? No, of course not.  But God will use those items to bring hope ... HIS hope.  Just knowing that, finding comfort in that, the peace that comes from knowing HIM, is what will change each child.

Hopeless to hopeful.  Wow!

Pray for those of us traveling today.  Pray for each and every single shoebox we will process in the next few days.  Pray for hundreds of thousands of little boys and girls who KNOW the definition of hopeless, that they will meet my Jesus in their shoebox and find freedom, peace, love and HOPE in Him.

"... how can they believe if they have not heard, and how can they hear if no one preaches ..."
(Rm. 10:14)

Use me, Lord, to preach, so every child will hear, and every child will believe!!!!!!