Helped

I wanted to post some different article links, podcast links and sermons link of some things that God is using to teach me with right now.  I am doing it for 2 reasons: 1- so that I can easily find them if I want to reference them again :). And 2- in hopes that they would help someone else in the way that they have helped me.

Right now I am reading:
JI Packer's Knowing God
and David Platt's Follow Me. (Wow! Trailer for the book)

Podcast:
Theology Refresh: Doctrine of Hell
Celebrity Factor



Sermons:
Piper at Passion 2013
Tony Merida at Imago Dei teaching Exodus 32
and The making of..
Matt Chandler from Code Orange  God is for God

Videos:
Francis Chan, Driscoll, Harris sit down and talk to Chan about his choices
Mark Dever on Numbers
Francis Chan Hero


L

Bad Theology

When Bear was about 2, we noticed his love of music.  He is always dancing, always drumming something, and always singing.  In the bathroom, in the shower, in his bed, in the car.  It doesn't matter when or where he is, he seems to always have songs rolling through his little brain.  Pey is a little quieter about it.  But there are times when I will catch her in the rear view mirror, with her mouth open as big as she can, singing like she is center stage.  But if she sees me looking, she buries her head and stops.  

As I have seen their love for music and how they pick up the lyrics to songs, it has forced me to be a little hard core about what we listen to. Nothing like driving down the road hearing your precious little children singing...Some Spice Girls "If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give, taking is too easy, but that's the way it is". 

I have not only seen their love of music grow but I also have seen their little inquisitive minds growing as they begin to ask what are songs about. So imagine me driving down the road needing to explain to a 5 year old what a "Lover" is. Nope....I'll pass...anybody want some icecream. 

I am asked on a regular basis about what songs mean.  Bear asked yesterday, "What are angel armies?" (Chris Tomlin). Or he has listened to the Sanctus Real song Lead me and we had a conversation about him being a husband one day.  

I was on the way home the other night and I was all alone.  Which means I get to listen, sing, dance or just think, to whatever I want.  It was a thinking night :-)  The Christian radio station was on but I deep in thought about the Gospel.  I had been reading Follow Me by David Platt so my brain was there in David Platt land. Early in the book he talks about how we go about presenting the gospel.  Just ask Jesus into your heart. Simply invite Christ into your life. Repeat this prayer after me, and you will be saved. He goes on to talking about how "simple" we make it for people to come to Christ. I was thinking how we either on purpose or unknowingly deceive people for the sake of the Gospel or for the sake of our own pride. We feed them a bill of sale that their life will be better,safer,easier, full of joy, happiness, prosperity.  But show me where it says that in the Bible. 

And then it happened.  There was a song on the radio that went something like this, "Sin is powerless, we will not be shaken, Our God is for us."  The song goes on and on quoting different bible verses completely out of context.  

God showed me that we can make the Bible say many different things.  It can say the truth like He meant it or it can say whatever we twist it into.  I can say cute little "fortune cookie" phrases.  Or it can call you to die. 

  2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

So what does one do when they realize that they are listening to bad theology?  

How do I protect myself, my family from false teaching?

How do I get in the car, turn on the radio, and let my littles memorize songs that are about Jesus, but twist    the scripture?  

What"s the alternative?  

I don't know, but what I do know is that God is stretching my brain.:-)  by giving me knew things to think about and be on guard for. He is telling me to KNOW my bible.  How do you test if something is "sound teaching" or not if you don't know your bible?

He is showing me that He did not call us to an easy life. He is showing me that the eye of the needle is a narrow path that is not simple, quick, or easy and He is showing me that to give Him glory in everything that goes on, requires focus. 

God please help us to not be distracted.

~LL

Valentine's Day

About 10 years ago, hubby and I stopped fighting for Valentines for each other and started embracing it as a family. At that time we only had 2 little princesses. But now.....10 years later, 3 states later, add some more kiddos, and not much has changed for us.  Here's what we do to embrace the chaos of a kind of silly, Hallmark holiday and turn it into a time to love on our family.

First I plan a nice meal.  (I budget what we would spend on a night out with the 2 of us on a nice date.) it is amazing what that will get you when you spend wisely.  I usually light candles, and decorate the table in some cheesy dollar store V-day décor. (Confetti, heart cut outs, etc.) then we eat. :) The years have been different. Some years there is lots of chocolate. Some years there are roses. Some years there is music. Some years there have been candle lit bubble baths.  But whatever we do we celebrate our family loving each other.  In the early years of doing it we used to make it all about celebrating the princesses in our home. But now it has turned more into a night of  loving each other.

This year we will eat together by candle light, with nice music (maybe a little dance party 🙈)  and then we are watching the movie Amazing Love. Which is a telling of the story of Hosea.  It should be a great night!

How ever you celebrate Valentine's Day, do it because you want to show someone you love them.  Not because Hallmark tells you to buy a card.

~££

Humility Vs Hype

The question that has plagued me today is:

~How do we as Christians live in a world that is self promoting, self indulgent, self serving, self, self, self, and not subscribe to it all?

~How do we tell others about Jesus, love people, serve people all while only glorifying God and not glorifying self? Look what I did. See who I told.  Look how many came.

 I work in a book store that is full of authors who have become insanely confused with the topic of "self glorification vs. God glorification". Their books are about promoting themselves, telling stories about themselves, telling their ideas, their ideology, even their theology....all the while glorifying themselves instead of their creator. Then there are other books that teach you to put you first and want to teach you to promote yourself. Pray the right prayers to get what you want. Live your best life. Create the life you want. They seem to be about you, me, we, us and not about HIM.

If you actually read the books you will find them talking about praying to God for what you want, finding the "greatness" that God created for you to do, or praying the right prayer to make something happen. After all doesn't the bible say that YOU can do ALL things through Christ who gives YOU strength. Phil. 4:13 Pastors/Speakers/Authors throw that scripture around all the time so that we can use it to feel empowered to live our own ambitions with "God's Strength". They speak as if God exists for you/me instead of the other way around.

Now don't hear me wrong, there are authors that are not about themselves. They teach/preach all about the gospel. They tell their life stories, but their stories aren't ultimately about themselves. They teach all about glorifying God. Living a life that is for the glory of God not for the glory of self.
If you wonder where you fall in these 2 categories of books or authors then ask yourself which end of a telescope do you use when you view God?  Are you small or is He?

Back to my original question. How do we as Christians not get caught up in the hype of "self"? 

The conclusion I have come to today is this.....

We SERVE others instead of expecting to be served.

We LOVE others even when we feel unloved or they seem unlovable.

We TELL others about Jesus not about ourselves.

We GO and make disciples not go and get twitter followers.

And we do all of it without shouting it from the rooftops or tweeting about it. 

The definition of hype is : Extensive Publicity.

The definition of humility is: Not proud or Bold, Meek  

We must draw close to God, feed ourselves with good, sound teaching of the gospel and live in a way that only points to God. It is then and there that we can attempt to live humbly and somewhere in that humble life we are striving to live, if we are able to forget about our attempts to be humble, may we then in forgetting ourselves take the first steps towards humility.  

CS Lewis says in Mere Christianity:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: be will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.

Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

2 Timothy 3-5 (The Message) You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant.

LL

Gut Feeling

Do you ever get that "gut feeling" about something?  That "this doesn't feel right" feeling?  So many times we get that feeling and we brush it off.  Call it paranoia or being too sensitive or better yet....we think we are being judgmental towards someone.  
I can not tell you how many times I have had a bad feeling about someone or something only to speak up about it after the fact. Well, a while back I made a decision to start speaking up about my feelings.  Now I don't necessarily point at people and scream "EVIL" but I do have conversations with my hubby or even my children.
So now I have gotten to the point where I will pull him aside and say something like, "I can't put my finger on it, but something is off about XYZ." Sometimes we can talk it out and figure out why it is that I have that feeling but sometimes we just trust the gut feeling. That gut feeling has had me take a different road home, do a double check on door locks, not befriend someone, pull my children closer, and even choose to stay home sometimes.
I believe that God gives us this feeling as a way to protect us.  I think many times it is the Holy Spirit alerting us to something going on.  Who knows what things God has protected me from all because I have listened to to that "gut feeling".
One day we were at Walmart and I had the Littles with me.  They were probably 5 or 6 years old at the time.  We were in line and a gentleman in front of me turned and spoke to the two of them.  Bear turned and looked at me (as if to ask permission to speak to the man) and then with an ok nod from me, he proceeded to have a small conversation.  But not Pey. She turned towards me and step very close almost like she was hiding.  I didn't push, I didn't even draw attention to what she was doing.  I simply put my arm around her and let her stay close.  After the man left and we went on our way I had a conversation about what had happened.  I praised Bear for getting permission to speak to a stranger and then I ask Pey what had happened.  I asked her to try and explain how she felt.  Of course she couldn't so I asked,"Did you feel happy, sad, scared, or embarrassed, when the man spoke to you?"  And she said,"I kind of felt embarrassed, but kind of scared."  What she was feeling was that "gut feeling" I am talking about.  And I know it because I felt it too.  The truth is, when this man spoke to my children I immediately wanted to walk away.  But we were in the line at the store.  So I stayed.  What I didn't tell you, was that I had this entire conversation with my children while we sat on the bench in the front of Walmart, because my "gut feeling" said wait to go outside.
Now I can't tell you that this man was some pedophile or on America's Most Wanted, but I can tell you that 2 out of the 3 people that met him that day in Walmart, had a bad feeling about him.  My point in telling you this story is to encourage you to tech your children to pay attention to how they "feel" in situations.  If they "feel" unsafe then they probably are.  If the "feel" like someone or something is out of place, it probably is.  People can be very fake and can try to make you feel like everything is ok But trusting the Holy Spirit to lead a guide you is something that is deeper than that surface level stuff that people can put on.
That day in the store I told both of my children about "gut feelings". I told them how God does that to protect them.  I also went on to tell them that they will never get into trouble for being rude to someone if they have a gut feeling and act on it.  I guess worse case scenario is that they would be wrong and they would offend someone.  But I can apologize for that.  I can't apologize for someone harming my children or harming me.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love and sound judgement.


LL