I Have Not Given You a Spirit of Fear

My mom was a worrying, fearful person. She never took risks. Wouldn't try anything new. Didn't want to go any place she'd never been before (well, maybe a new restaurant or shopping mall). If she was visiting family, she insisted on returning home within an hour or two after arriving.

Because of her fear of unfamiliar situations, she didn't come to my induction into the National
Honor Society during my junior year in high school. Everyone else had one or both parents attending. No one came for me. My father was dead and my mother later pleaded some imagined malady, something she frequently did to avoid unknown situations.

My Mom did not attend my wedding. I lived across the country by then, and although my sister and her husband flew out and would have traveled with her every step of the way, she would not fly. When each of my four children were born, she still did not come to visit. I lived 3,000 miles away from her for 13 years but she never visited.

In my heart I forgave her for her unwillingness to try and step out of her comfort zone, to be there for me for many of the special moments in my life. Most of all, after years passed and I realized she wouldn't change, I felt so sorry for her - all those missed opportunities and the fun and excitement new experiences bring were lost to her.

Aside from the damage her fear of the unknown caused her, that fear also infected my sister, brother, and me. None of us is a risk taker and we walk through life very cautiously.

While I didn't have an epiphany, I experienced a growing realization over the past 10 or 15 years that I was letting my anxieties and worries over the maybes and might bes rule my life. I was becoming my mother.

A Bible verse instrumental in my climb out of the fear and worry pit is from 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." The spirit of FEAR is NOT from God. God gave me power, love, and a sound mind.

I do not have to let worry, uncertainty, and fear of the unknown rule over me, I have power. God said so. Constantly, I have to remind myself that stepping out into the unknown is good. No, I cannot control the world. Yes, bad things will happen sometimes. But God Is In Control. Nothing is going to happen to me that He doesn't already know about. He loves me. He will take care of me. Even if tragedy strikes, He will hold me up. I don't have to be afraid.

Freedom from fear, worrying, concern over change, the unknown, and all those other little demons that robbed my mother of a full life are not going to rob me. I choose to trust God and take Him at His word when He says I don't have to fear.

Image: Master isolated images/freedigitalphotos.net

I Believe I'll Still be Here

It is 12/19/12 and according to the Mayan calendar - which we all refer to daily, right? - this is it, the end is in sight, because the Mayan calendar ends Friday, 12/21/12 and a great cataclysm and the end of the world is predicted.

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I've been amused to hear some of the discussion about the Mayan calendar the last couple of months. Are we Mayan? Have we ever let any other aspects of Mayan history or culture influenced us? So why are some people so concerned that the world will end Friday?

If you believe the life we live on earth is all there is and that our existence ends at our death, the possibility of the world ending is frightening. But if you believe in God and accept His free gift of salvation, there is something wonderful in store for you.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

    my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life;

    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:9-11

See you Friday.

Image source: Victor Habbick/freedigitalphotos.net

How Great is the Love the Father has Lavished on Us

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The second candle for the second week of Advent is the love candle. The word love is seriously over-used in the United States. We love pizza, we love our favorite movie, we love Christmas.

Love is intrinsically tied into Christmas celebrations. We presume Mary loved Jesus. We love people in our lives and want to buy them presents to show them love at Christmastime. We love Jesus. God loves us. There's a lot of lovin' going on, but do we actually comprehend the meaning of love? 

Love isn't only warm feelings and presents and caring and close relationships with others. True love, God love, is sacrificial. Sacrificial love isn't warm and fuzzy.  

Jesus loved us enough to leave heaven.

I wouldn't do that. 

Would you leave heaven and come live on earth?

God loved us enough to give up His Son to a horrible death. For people who don't deserve that kind of sacrifice, that kind of love.

Jesus was born to die. For us. Because that is true love. 

Rooted and Established

Five Minute Friday - Root

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together will all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

Eph 3:17-18

Whoa.  Powerful words.  We are rooted and established in God's love and Paul prays that believers will have the power to understand how wide, long, high and deep is Christ's love for us.

Were we not rooted and established in God's love, this knowledge of His love wouldn't even be available to us, we would know nothing about it.  

But we do know about it.  Can you imagine how we would be changed if we opened ourselves up to actually receiving this love?  

Linking up to Five Minute Friday and sharing my perspective on the word prompt Root.  Lately, I've been putting my own spin on these five minutes and trying to think of a scripture that contains the word of the week.  So far it hasn't been hard.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.

Image: Evgeni Dinev/FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

You are Welcome

For Five Minute Friday, we have the word prompt - Welcome

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God's message from the beginning has been one of welcome.  He welcomed Adam and Abraham and so many more into fellowship with Himself.

When we are weary and heavy laden, we are invited to come to Him and rest.

Jesus tells us His Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom.

He tells the thief on the cross that on that day, he would be with Jesus in paradise.

In whatever our state or condition, He welcomes us to dwell in Him and He promises to dwell in us.

 

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

Real Church

Real Church in a Social-Network World: From Facebook to Face-to-Face Faith is a title commanding attention. With people experiencing a growing disconnection from the actual world around them and becoming more entwined with a virtual world via their computers and smart phones how can the church effectively reach out to share the love of God?  Does the church need to change how it engages the world?  How can the church bridge the gap and become relevant, real, to a social network population that is staying away from the church in droves?

These were questions I hoped to find answered while reading Real Church and why I was disappointed.  While it is certainly an interesting book, discussing God’s relationship with and love for us, ideas of faith and belief, the desire of God to interact with and be a part of us, the title does not accurately reflect the content
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Author Leonard Sweet, author of more than 20 books, touches on the ideas of community and connectedness, words that appear over and over again when reading about what people desire from relationships in the 21^st century.  However the main thrust of the second half of the book centers more on the Word of God and God’s love for us without necessarily connecting that concept to how the church can function in a meaningful way in our social network world.

Perhaps listing the book’s chapter titles illustrates the point more directly: Faith Versus Belief, Following Jesus, A Longing for Love, Person or Proposition?, The Right Relationship and Telling a Better Story. Again, all tremendous thoughts worthy of exploration and study, but not strongly tied in to reaching people who are more comfortable with Facebook than the book of Revelation.

If you would like to read a book about faith and belief and relationship with God this book is a fine choice but, if like me, you were expecting to delve into a book discussing the church’s relevance in the 21^st century as the title and introduction appear to suggest, this would not be the best choice.  But, you can decide for yourself.  Click this link to download the first chapter.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Submerged

Our mistakes have a way of coming back to haunt us even when we've changed.  Bailey Craig in Dani Pettrey's book Submerged discovered this the hard way.

Bailey was a wild child as a teen, sleeping with any boy who wanted her.  Abandoned by her mother, Bailey lived with her aunt in Alaska.  Despite her aunt's love and support, Bailey felt deeply wounded by her mother's abandonment and looked for love and acceptance anywhere she could find it.

She left wreckage in her wake.  Her first boyfriend, Cole, was one of those pieces of wreckage.

When Bailey's aunt dies, she has to return to Alaska to sell her aunt's business.  She dreads returning because she doesn't want to face Cole who was a good friend and she doesn't want to endure the knowing looks and unkind comments from others in the small Alaska town who knew the kind of girl she was.

The kind of girl she was.  Bailey's a new person now.  She became a believer in Jesus while she was in college and changed her lifestyle.  And now as a college professor and a Christian, she is respected by her friends and colleagues in Oregon.  Going back to Alaska to face her past is not something she ever envisioned doing.

After learning her aunt's death in a plane crash was not accidental, Bailey is compelled to stay in Alaska to unravel the clues her aunt left that can explain why she and several more people were killed.  The longer Bailey stays, she discovers that not only has God forgiven her for her past, but so has Cole.

Submerged is about transitions and forgiveness set against the backdrop of Alaska in the summertime.  Dani Pettrey weaves information about Alaska's Russian heritage into a contemporary story of murder, greed and power-seeking.  Not to mention skin-diving, treasure-hunting and the search for the last descendants of the Romanov dynasty.

Bailey is a complicated woman still filled with unhappiness and hurt. Although she knows she is loved and forgiven by God, she has difficulty accepting that love and forgiveness.  The character of Bailey is a person-type with whom many of us can identify.  Her struggle for wholeness is universal.
  
There are elements of predictable romance in the book, but by not brushing over Bailey's struggle with believing she is genuinely forgiven and a new woman in Christ and not providing easy solutions, Pettrey gives the book authenticity and weight.

Submerged is absorbing summer reading, not fluffy, and particularly interesting because of the focus on Russian Alaska history.  It is the first book in the Alaskan Courage series.  Pettrey introduces us to many other characters who I think will be the lead players in subsequent entries in the series.


Submerged by Dani Pettrey
Bethany House Publishers, 2012
Christian Fiction, 313 pages
Bethany House Publishers provided a free copy of Submerged for review. The opinions stated are my own.

Who Are You?

Welcome to 5 Minute Friday hosted by The Gypsy Mama.  Today's word is Identity.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come."  My identity changed when I became a believer at 24.  I was a new woman, a different kind of woman.  It just took a while.

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In Christ,
I am chosen
beloved
part of a large, diverse family
a daughter
a new creation.

I'm not a prisoner to sin anymore.
I am forgiven.
I am renewed.
I am washed clean.

I am not perfect.  I am not sinless.  I am forgiven.

I am a new person every day.  I am given a fresh start with every sunrise.  I don't have to live in or wallow in the mistakes and heartaches of the past
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Because God says His mercies are new every morning, I am renewed every morning, me, this woman who was given a new identity.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.

God, Grace and the Gift

On this day before Easter, I think about three things, God, grace and the gift.

Without God there would be nothingness.  End of story.  I wouldn't be here writing this, you wouldn't be there reading this.  If you don't believe in a universe created by God, you will, of course, disagree.  And you know what? That's your privilege.  But I've lived too long and seen too much to ever think that all of this - life, the universe, people, intelligent thought - is just happenstance, randomness.

Next, grace.  I can't even begin to comprehend this concept.  Theologically it's often defined as unmerited favor, a blessing given which is undeserved.   As messed up as I am, as many mistakes as I make, as unlovable as I can be - still, grace is poured down on me.  I am loved and forgiven - every time.

And finally, the gift, represented by the cross, the iconic symbol of all Christendom.  The gift was a sacrificed son.

The early Israelites could only obtain forgiveness for their sins through animal sacrifice.  Seems barbaric, strange, incomprehensible to 21st century minds.  But we have to be purified somehow.  What right do we have to think that we could ever be good enough to deserve to be in the presence of an Almighty God?

And so, the gift of a son sacrificed.



Day 7 of the Blogging A to Z Challenge, the letter G.
 

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Ache

5 Minute Friday - sometimes it doesn't happen until Sunday

Ache is what you feel when you don't feel loved, or feel rejected, or unwanted, or ignored or unimportant, or insignificant, or like nothing.  That deep down empty feeling in the pit of your stomach and even deeper, when you feel like who you are and what you think and feel don't matter.

But we don't have to live in a permanent state of ache.  There is healing.  It comes in the form of God's love.  In God's eyes we are loved, accepted, wanted, listened to, important and significant.

We don't have to accept the lies of the world and the evil one who walks on the earth.  We don't have to live with the ache of lies.

We are loved.  We are victorious. We can live in peace and joy and acceptance.  All we have to do is accept it.  God offers us all of those things.  They are free for the taking.  They can wipe out the ache that lives deep inside and replace it with joy, pure and clean.

5 Minute Friday
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.

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