FREE Sacred Mundane ebook today only (6/4) and $1.99 Tue-Sun
Hey friends! Just a quick note to let you know Sacred Mundane is available FREE on ebook today (6/4) and then just $1.99 the rest of the week (Thur-Sunday). If you haven’t had a chance to read, go snag a copy now, and click SHARE to let your friends know!
Also, if you’re like me and really love to hold a paper copy in your hands, I still have discounted copies available here: https://squareup.com/store/sacred-mundane
Thanks, friends! I’ll write more soon, been busy growing a baby (8-months along!), planting a garden, and raising a couple big kids. I’ll write more soon, just wanted to share the love. Happy Monday!
Everything we need…
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. —2 Peter 1:3
Her smile flashed as she told me the story. I loved listening to her, her enthusiasm was infectious as she shared about her Savior. She’d realized something was off, a skewed way of seeing things, a subtle disfunction that had the potential to derail her peace and future relationships. So what did she do? Run to friends? Download a dozen podcasts? Check out all the latest self-help books? Wallow in self-pity and blame her past? No.
She dove, headlong, into the Word of God. She pored over the precious Scriptures and allowed them to convict, expose, comfort, and correct. As she communed with God, through His Word, she received everything she needed. Not just the diagnosis, but the diagnosis, prescription, and CURE, all at once.
God’s Word is crazy like that.
See, while most people would agree that the Bible is important, that it’s God’s Word, they might even have great arguments for its inerrancy, etc. etc. The question that seems more critical to ask is this:
Do I believe the Bible is SUFFICIENT?
That is, is the Word of God through the Spirit of God, sufficient for my salvation, sanctification, and everything else in between?
And more importantly, does my life demonstrate that I do indeed believe this?
I have been wowed recently by seeing how very sufficient God’s Word really is. Today we looked at 2 Timothy 3:16 and was struck by these 4 aspects of God’s perfect, powerful Word:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
Notice these 4 areas:
TEACHING
What’s right: God’s Word gives us PROACTIVE instruction. In child-rearing, the default method is to just be passive until a child does something wrong, and then correct. But a wise-woman explained to me, years ago, and it’s far more effective to spend more time TEACHING and training, rather than correcting. Be proactive rather than reactive. Teaching includes giving scenarios and explicit instruction, explaining things, taking every teachable moment during calm times rather than waiting for the error and then lecturing.
Spending time regularly in God’s Word enables your Heavenly Father to do the same with you. If you spend time in the Word regularly, you allow Him to TEACH you, not just correct you. It’s much more pleasant! You will save yourself a lot of heartache if you spend time regularly, proactively allowing the Word to teach you, rather than just going your own way and waiting for God to have to correct you.
REPROOF
What’s not right: God’s Word CONFRONTS us. Inevitably, just like with our children, we will mess up. We’ll get off track. As long as we live on this earth we will fight and battle our flesh. God’s Word is what has the power to EXPOSE our sin. Without God’s Word, let’s face it, we all think we’re doing pretty well. Without God’s Word it is easy to just compare our lives to someone way worse and think we’re ok. We’re masters at deceiving ourselves. Hebrews 4:12 tells us God’s Word is the only thing sharp enough and powerful enough to expose the inner person, the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. This is far more than any human can do. Humans can only look at and deal with outward behavior (judging what is seen), but God’s Word, by His Spirit, can expose what’s unseen, can convict us even of the good things we do for the wrong reason. Without God’s Word, we will never really get to the root of the problem, but will just keep trying to modify our behavior and be stuck in cycles of self-help and manmade religion.
CORRECTION
How to get right: God’s Word shows us the PATH to freedom. Sometimes we can be like the little kid who hears the first part of some instruction, then runs off too hastily to do something without hearing the rest of the command. Similarly, sometimes when God confronts something in our life, we hastily take that bit of information, then try to “fix” it in our own strength. He convicts us of a habit, or an addiction, or a harmful relationship, or whatever it may be, and then we go try to fix the problem our own way. This is exactly what the enemy wants because it will never, ever, ever, lead to freedom. Attempting to find freedom from our flesh BY methods of our flesh will never work.
Seeking to escape sin by our own fleshly efforts will never work because those efforts ARE sin. It’s just replacing one sin with a different sin and patting ourselves on the back for our good work. Only God’s Word can not only expose the error, but also give us exactly the PATH He intends for us to be free. He’s the only one who knows the way to truly be free, so we need to seek His Word to show us the way.
TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
How to stay right: God’s Word KEEPS us on that path by retraining our hearts and habits. It’s one thing to repent and turn around, but it’s quite another thing to remain on that new godly trajectory, forming new paths. It takes time to retrain our brains, to create new habits, to let our flesh die and allow the Spirit to grow and strengthen. God’s Word, again—regularly spending time in God’s Word, is what retrains our hearts and habits. Returning to #1, it’s what shows us the good path. It says, “Keep going this way. Keep going. Yes, that’s the way, keep going.” It’s not just one sign-post, it’s a constant companion—the Spirit of God working through the Word of God, to keep us going His way.
Finally, it is absolutely necessary that we allow the Spirit of God to work together with the Word of God. Without the Spirit, the Bible is just words on a page. Without the Word, we are so dangerously subject to our own whims and fancies. The heart is deceptive beyond all things. We are in an age where so many have been swept away by “things of the Spirit” that are absolutely contrary to the Word of God. We need both. We need to test every Spirit, test every “Word from God” — test all things and hold fast to what is good. How do we know if it is good? It will line up with the Word of God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His voice doesn’t change. So any new revelations from God will always line up with God’s Word.
Of course, godly community, mentors, spiritual disciplines, all these things are important as well. But the bottom line is: We need the Spirit of God to guide us by the Word of God. His divine POWER (His Spirit) gives us everything we need through the knowledge of Him. His Word helps us know Him, intimately know Him, not just know about Him.
This week, let’s seek Him faithfully by the Spirit, through the Word. For everything we need, He is sufficient.
I’ll love you enough to lock horns
I took a deep breath. Patience. This child’s attitude was awful, but I knew there were plenty of contributing factors. New braces. Sore teeth. Just mush and liquids for food for several days. A distinct lack of love for multiplication tables in general. Sun outside and a world awaiting that she’d much rather explore than prepare for state testing. I totally get it.
But attitude is attitude and sass is sass and there’s no room for either in a Godward heart.
I sent her to her room, some space for us both, laid my head on my folded arms, closed my eyes and the desperate heart-cry that every mama knows:
Father, please help me.
Because there’s no getting around it: Diligent parenting will bring conflict and there are so many times I’m tempted to avoid it at all cost. Forget it. No big deal. Let it go. And I get that not every hill is worth dying on — oh, do I get it — but some hills are, especially the ones that deal with the heart. Avoiding conflict to save myself time, trouble, irritation, and effort is nothing more than selfishness.
I remember years ago reading a parenting book, and a father explained:
“I don’t spend much time and emotional energy training my dogs. Why? Because honestly, I don’t care that much. I like them, but they’re dogs. I will spend endless time and emotional energy training my kids, because I do care that much. They’re my kids.”
That idea always comes back to me when I’m tempted to shrug my shoulder or look the other way, when I’m just too tired to take one more training moment.
She shuffled out. Sincerely apologized. This one, her heart’s so soft. And I explained how desperately I love her, and will do the hard thing to help rid her of any habit, attitude, tendency that will cripple her later on.
I love her enough to lock horns.
This morning, Dutch greeted me with this Mother’s Day card.
It was just a blank card he’d found and written in. His handwritten message was precious, but what struck me was the picture. I’m pretty sure the significance was lost on him, but it most certainly wasn’t on me:
Two elk, locking horns.
Oh sweet boy, yes. That’s us, sometimes, isn’t it?
That’s us when you want your way but I know in the end it’ll lead to death. That’s us when I care enough to correct, gently, lovingly, firmly. That’s us when we’re trying to understand each other.
My promise to you, my children: I will love you enough to lock horns with you.
I’ll engage even when I’m tired. I’m listen when I have little left. I’ll challenge you when it’d be so much easier not to. I’ll insist on obedience because I know that in the end, that will serve you better than permissiveness. I love you enough to not just let you have your own way.
I’ll love you enough to lock horns with you.
It’s easy to snuggle, curl up with a movie and relax together. It’s easy to be mommy when the sun is shining on our faces and you look adorable and we’re licking popsicles.
It’s hard to follow through on chores and heart-checks. Hard to teach long division and common denominators and hard to insist on excellent work when I want so badly to just let it go this one time.
But my beloved children, both born and unborn: My commitment to you this Mother’s Day, is that I’ll love you enough to lock horns. Prayerfully, thoughtfully, gently, kindly, firmly. I love you enough to not just let you go your own way. You’re worth fighting for. When I’m weary and want nothing more than to rest. I’ll believe what God’s Word promises:
Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. (Prov. 29:17)
Someday, I will rest. Today, I’ll love you enough to lock horns.
{To you Mamas, be encouraged. The work is worth it. Don’t give up! Thanks for reading.}
On slowly saying Yes and how brokenness actually helps…
It’s interesting how few things matter when eternity hovers, gleaming, just over the horizon. When things get stripped away that you thought were so important, and then you chuckle to yourself because you can’t remember why they mattered so much.
“All the deciding factors” dwindle down to the deciding factor: “God, what do You want?”
Oh, friends, I know it’s only April but this year has been SO good. This year of taking off speaking, of letting the laptop rest, of pausing on all projects and letting the ground lie fallow, so to speak. I mean, I’m still growing a human (almost 30 weeks!). Still raising and schooling a few little warriors and caring for one great man and loving (oh how I love them!) the sisters at Renew, and seeking to serve and savor days with my parents. God has also given me a sweet little opportunity to love and serve my elderly neighbors, who have won my heart. One is teetering near eternity, just weeks or months until her departure, due to cancer, and the other, 85-years-young, so needs the love and truth of Jesus: Fresh bread is my offering, and it’s amazing how gluten can go where no glossy gospel-tract ever could.
I mean no disrespect (Jeff was saved by reading a tract!), but trust-building takes time, so.much.time, and who has time to invest in the elderly when there’s so many more important things to be done??
The gift of time has been a rich blessing this year.
We’ve slowed. So many projects that felt urgent, now aren’t. We don’t have to have that done by such-a-such a date, because projects will always be there, but people won’t.
But there is a breaking, a dying: Accomplishing things brings a steady-stream of affirmation, boxes checked, achievements wrought. Loving people brings considerably less affirmation. In fact, it often brings exactly the opposite.
Pride dies hard.
I wrote here about an experience with discouragement. I’ll just tell you clearly: I had received a statement on my first 6-months of book sales, and I was caught off guard by how few had sold. I mean, it’s still sold way more than average, and the feedback I receive from you precious readers is amazing (!), but compared to what I expected, I felt sorely disappointed, and the enemy used it convince me that the work was a waste, that I was delusional to even think that writing was part of my calling, that I was stupid, foolish, that I should quit writing, quit speaking … quit quit quit.
And the next day I heard His tender voice so clearly—keep writing even if no one reads. Keep writing even if you never get another book contract. Keep writing because it has nothing to do with worldly success or affirmation, it has to do with obedience to Me. And so I shook off my pride and set these fingers to keys, but, I’ll admit, I’ve still felt disheartened, and considering quitting. Besides, there are neighbors to visit and people right in front of me to love.
Why waste time writing words when bellies are hungry and babies are dying?
And then I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and realized that the godly wordsmith Harriet Beecher Stowe changed the course of history with her words. That she liberated the captives by telling their story. That she preached the gospel to hundreds of thousands by her story. I read how Madeline L’Engle received a rejection notice at age 40, and vowed to never write again. But she decided to write, even if no one ever read her words, and later that same manuscript was accepted, and we now know its name: A Wrinkle in Time.
And at this same time a few speaking requests trickled in for 2019. And I’ve just stared at them. Wanted to say, “Nope, that season’s over. Hunkering down here forever, thank you very much.”
But as I’ve quieted, stilled, destroyed all the “deciding factors” and instead just let God’s and Jeff’s voices be the only ones I hear. They’ve both said:
YES.
Slow yeses, prayerful yeses, cautious yeses.
But slow doesn’t always mean no.
I go visit my dying neighbor whether I feel like it or not. Is it not the same spirit of obedience that stands at a podium and humbly seeks to serve a message of truth and hope? Is it not the same spirit of obedience that pounds out words that will, Lord willing, refresh a weary soul?
Yes, it is the same obedience.
But it’s the brokenness that makes us better able to hear His voice. The dying of pride and striving, the death of vanity and ambition. The glory of self crumbling so the glory of God can be clearly seen.
So whatever He’s stripping away, let it be stripped. Something so much cleaner, purer, better will be born.
{Thanks for reading.}
[PS I still have Sacred Mundane available, on sale, with free shipping! Or here from Amazon. Thanks!]