Love the Bride, Love the Savior

"If you do not love the bride, you do not love the Savior." ~ Voddie Baucham

Time management is something I have always struggled with. Truth be told, it is probably something everyone struggles with to some extent. This morning I was listening to a sermon by Dr. Voddie Baucham and the line I quoted above really stood out to me. "If you do not love the bride (speaking Christ's bride, the church), you do not love the Savior. He spoke of how it isn't enough to just serve Christ in your little closet. You must also love the bride as He loves the bride. Your top priority is not only to serve Christ, but to see Him worshipped among the nations.

I personally want that to be my first priority, but sometimes in the midst of everything I loose sight of that top priority. Thinking of it in terms of if I don't "see Him worshipped among the nations" and show concern for His bride thenI do not love Him...that really changes the way I look at life. At what I want to do, versus that which I have to do.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about marriage. Having just seen my older brother marry and having friends preparing to make that same commitment, I have begun to look a marriage in a different light. I see it more and more as it was meant to be seen, as a reflection of Christ's love for His bride, the church. As that reflection, marriage is a union that calls both parties involved to become more selfless, to be more concerned about the needs of the other than about their own wants. Marriage is a reflection of Christ's love for His bride. He was selfless when He died on the cross to redeem us, so stands to reason that I, as His child, am also called to be selfless.

After all, you do not just get married and all of the sudden become selfless. Selflessness is something that must be nurtured throughout our lives. How does this apply to the topic at hand? Well, it means we are called to be selfless or Christlike. When we are Christ-centered we will want to be about our Father's business. We will desire to serve Him in every area of life, but we will not stop there. Our desire will also be to see Him made known to the nations and worshiped by all. Once this longing fills our heart, we should not let it get pushed aside for things that we may want to do, or even what others may want us to do. This is not a choice that is left to us. We are not to serve Christ only if we want to, and to see that He is worshipped among the nations if we want to. No, we are called to do this. It is something we have to do. If we do not do it, then we are walking in rebellion and sin.

The next time I am tempted to push aside the importance of loving Christ's bride, I pray I remember to keep my priorities straight. First, I do what I have to, and then when I have done that and as He provides I can do those things that I want to do. Those things that may be good, but are not best right here and right now. There is no joy in serving self, but there is unfathomable joy in serving our Savior and "singing" His praises to the nations so that they may join in the song and lift their voices in fervent worship to He, who alone, is worthy to be praised.

Day 33

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of all of them” (Psalm 34:19).



No one says life as a follower of God will be easy. Actually, the Bible says many times that the righteous will suffer, but our hope rests in the fact that the LORD will deliver us. He will be our strength. What a promise!

Cheeseburger Meatloaf


2 lbs. ground beef

3/4 c. fresh bread crumbs

1/2 c. minced onion

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. ground black pepper


Combine and mix well. Pat into a 14x18 rectangle. Preheat oven to 350*.


3 c. shredded cheddar cheese (or pepper jack slices)


Spread cheese, leaving 3/4 inch border. Roll up. Press ends. Bake 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 160*.

Variations:

-Using the same meat mixture – pat into loaf pans and top with BBQ sauce. Bake at 350* for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

-You can add garlic (1 clove), fresh ground pepper (1/2 t.), and dried basil (1 t.).

Who's Kingdom Are You Building?

"We are kingdom-oriented people. We always live in the service of one of two kingdoms. We live in the service of the small, personal happiness agenda of the kingdom of self, or we live in service of the huge, origin-to-destiny agenda of the kingdom of God. When we live for the kingdom of self, our decisions, thoughts, plans, actions, and words are directed by personal desire. We know what we want, where we want it, why we want it, how we want it, when we want it, and who we would prefer to deliver it. Our relationships are shaped by an infrastructure of subtle expectations and silent demands. We know what we want from people and how to get it from them. We seek to surround ourselves with people who will serve our kingdom purposes, and we evaluate them not from the perspectives of the laws of God's kingdom but from the perspective of the laws of our kingdom."

~ Paul David Tripp What Did You Expect??

"The kingdom of self," those very words made me cringe as I read them. Sometimes it is the words of a wise friend and sometimes it is a passage from a book that causes you to face yourself head on and see a truth about who you are. In some cases you see your weakness but just choose not to give them the attention you ought. As I read Mr. Tripp's words I was forced to stop, to be still, and to listen to the truth that has been gently whispered to me over and over in more urgently the last few months. I say that I love the Lord, that I love others, but are my thoughts and actions really reflecting that?

Have you ever had thoughts about others that sounded something like this, "I love them, I'm there for them, I sacrifice for them, but they don't do anything for me"? "Whoa, wait a minute," you think. "Did I just think that?" Be honest, thoughts of pride and self-centeredness are a part of every life, but that does not excuse us. That does not give us the freedom to continue walking in sin.

We each must be equipped with the knowledge that we will struggle with the kingdom of self, because as children of God we know that we are called to build not our own individual kingdom's, but to build His. That our actions and words should be a reflection of the Father's love in us.

I was challenged to examine my relationships with family and friends, and even the casual passer by-er. What do my actions, words, heart attitudes towards others reflect? Myself or God? Am I surrounding myself with people who will serve to meet my agenda and build my own little self-centered kingdom? Or am I seeking to love as Christ loved, to serve as He served, to be self-less and filled with grace?

Each day we face choices. We can choose to do those things which make us feel good, big, and important, or we can choose to seek the Lord and His strength to do those things that will probably be harder and will require sacrifice at times but will also bring Him the most glory. We can live to build our own little kingdoms, or we can live to build His.

How do you love? Why do you serve? What are your heart motives? These are questions I continue to ask myself, and pray I never cease to ask myself. We are sinners by nature, but we are not bound by sin. Christ died to give us a better way. In Him, we can love and live more like He loves, more live He lived (in His time on earth). In Him we can die to self and live for our Maker. In Him we have hope.

As For Today

We often mistakenly think that things are always going to be as they are now. We have difficulties imagining how the changing seasons of life will affect the habits of today. We wake up in the morning had have our hour plus long devotions and rarely treasure the time as we ought.

I don't know about you, but as a single young adult I often forget that this is just a season of life. Don't get me wrong, I pray that one day God will bring a special man into my life and that we will have a family of our own, but in those dreams I rarely quite grasp the reality that with becoming a wife and mother my focus will shift. What I "have time for" will change. We like to think that the older we become the more efficient we will be at time management and the more time we will have. Wrong. While we may develop better time management skills, we will have more responsibilities so the time we now imagine we will have then will seem laughable when we actually get there.

Someday you may have a family to feed a cloth and to lead in the ways of the Lord. You may have little feet pattering after you all day long, and little faces to wash and ouchies to kiss. You may find that quite hour quite elusive during certain seasons of life, especially if young children are in the picture. What am I trying to say? Treasure these moments. I know the grass may look greener on the other side of the fence, but it's going to get here faster than you think. When those moments come, treasure them too, but for today, treasure the longer devotion times, the sweet hours of prayer, and your ability to focus on God a little more whole-heartedly. And don't just treasure these times, seek them out. Make time, because if you don't now, you won't then. Waiting for a time when you aren't busy is like waiting for the day you will no longer need oxygen. It's not going to happen.

Each day is a gift. Let's live it in such a way that our thankfulness is reflected back to the Father. Let's not long for what we don't yet have, but thank the Lord for what we do have. What are some other things that you take for granted?  

Strength in Weakness

Within each of us is the desire to stand strong, to be the one that others come running to for a comforting hug in hard times, or for a prayer when they feel discouraged and weakened. Each of us longs to be a "hero." Only our perception of what a hero is can become quite skewed. We want to be this strong and courageous person who never falters, who doesn't show weakness, who is always faithful. The thing is, we all falter, we all fall because we are all broken people, sinners saved by grace.

God does not call us to be macho. He calls us to be broken. It is in our brokenness and in our weakness that He is made strong. We don't have to hide our brokenness, we don't have to pretend be who we are not, perfect. Oftentimes it is our very brokenness and our willingness to let that brokenness show which encourages others. No, this is not an excuse for us to whine and complain, this is just to encourage you to examine your motives for hiding the things that God is using to refine you just so that you appear strong in the eyes of others.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Day 32

"For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks or water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills" (Deuteronomy 8:7)



The children of Isreal had just been in the wilderness, chastened by God. Sometimes we find ourselves going through dry times. We sinned and were "exiled" to the wilderness of consequences. We are alone in and unfamiliar land. We are famished and in need of the Lord, we thirst and nothing short of His living water will quench our thirst. God reminds us that we cannot live happily on the "bread" of the world. We need the bread of the Lord, His Word.


The verse above paints a beautiful picture of a place where God led the children of Isreal to after their time in the dessert. It reminds me of those places of joy, where our thirst is quentched, and Jesus is as near as He ever will be this side of heaven. A place where through His Word and prayer we can bask in His presence, eat of His bread, drink from His streams and have our every need met. A place He has called all of us to if only we will listen and follow the sound of His voice.


"Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God...when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deuteronomy 8:11-14).


In the good times when all is well, we so often forget the Lord, and how He led us out of bondage and the dryness of the wilderness of our sin. Before we know it we have slipped from our beautiful valley back into a desert of sorts, weakened so that we do not stand firm in obeying the commandments of our Lord. Here is a warning. Don't let us forget it...

Give Me Jesus

This last week I have found myself sitting still and silent many times. For those of you who know me, maybe this doesn't surprise you. Maybe you have pictured me as doing this on a regular basis, but this hasn't been a normal "thinking session." My thoughts have been deep and about many things that God has been using to grow and shape me lately. Sometimes I have been overwhelmed by it all, but more and more these last few days I have been overwhelmed by Him. By who He is and what He does and has done. I know who I am, and I know what I have done, and yet despite that, He still loves me. He died for me.

There are a lot of things I hope and pray for my future, but more than anything I pray that I honor and glorify Him in all that I do. All that I  treasure in this world will be as nothing if I do not have my Jesus.

What'cha Putting In?

Today a friend and I were discussing movies. My friend was telling me about this movie that she planned to go see. I had never heard of the movie, so she began to describe it to me. After she had finished I asked her, "So why are you going to see this movie again?" This led to a discussion about how what we feed our minds and hearts on will be reflected in our lives. If your desire is to live life right (righteous, holy, with all purity) then consider those things that are influencing how you think. It matters. God calls us to live by higher standards. Are you willing to take the road less traveled?


An excellent article Think Right To Live Right...

Day 31

"I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure" (Psalm 119:162).

Reading those words was something of a slap in the face. I was paging through my past and currant prayer/Bible study notebooks and found that I had begun to take this "great treasure" for granted. Here is what I wrote:

"When did I stop journaling my thoughts on Scripture? When did I stop recording what God was speaking to my heart? When did I stop recording His goodness to me? When did I fail to record prayers? When did I stop memorizing scripture on a daily basis? When did my very prayers go back to nothing but whispered pleas and nothing more? When did all of this happen and why did I not see that something precious was slipping away."

Here I am on day 31 of my challenge and I have just realized that though I was reading the Lord's Word on a daily basis, and even spending some time in prayer I had lost sight of having a relationship with the Lord. At least to a point. I started this challenge because I realized I was "slipping" and I have been learning so much since then, but still things have been more impersonal than I realized.

I want to wake up each morning rejoicing that I have the privilege to read the Word of God. I want to treasure every minute in His Word, to record His goodness, to thank Him daily, to hide His Word within my heart continually, and for my prayers to be so much more than hurried requests. I want God to be my all, my everything. My first thought each morning and my last every night as I fall to sleep.  As I move forward to day 32 my prayer is that I will fall more and more and love until I cannot not give Him my all every single day.

Day 30

"You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your Word."

~ Psalm 119:127

Over and over the psalmist talks about how being in the Word, living by God's commands is what keeps him safe from his enemies, what gives him hope. Is the LORD and His Word my safe place? My "run to" when troubles come my way? Do I hide within His Word? Does it dwell within my heart? Is it written so firmly there that when fear tries to demolish my trust it comes to my aid as easily as a second breath?

The Lord is my hiding place, my shield. But is my hope continually in His Word? Unfortunately I know this is not always the case. When things come my way and threaten to steal my joy and peace in Him, often times I turn to the wisdom of men and only after that fails to I turn to the true Source of strength. Why is this?

I could go into a long and in-depth post about all that is involved, but let's just cut to the main and more simple truth. Those whom you spend the most time with are those whom you turn to first in troubled times. This could be friends or family or, I hope and pray, the Lord. So in the case of not turning to the Lord's Word first it seems highly probable that I do not do so because I do not spend enough time in His Word. I read it yes, but am I meditating upon it? Am I memorizing it and writing it in the very depths of my heart? Quite simply, not as I ought. What about you?

I think we each know the truth, that which lies behind our own reasons for turning to man before turning to the Lord. The question of the day is, what do we intend to do about it?

The Perfect Way

"And as for God, His way is perfect" (2 Samuel 22:31).

 

This morning I woke up praying, "Lord, make Your Word come alive to me this morning. I don't want to just read through the pages and not find within them some treasure, some special words to take away with me and carry in my heart all day to strengthen and encourage me. Lord, I never want reading Your Word to be an empty habit. Give me wisdom and show me who You are. Be near, Father, be near..."


And so I dug into the Word search carefully for the treasure I sought. That is when I came across this verse. "And as for God, His way is perfect."

His way is not just good, it is perfect. Today when doubts come and I wonder why things are happening as they are. When I'm struggling within my heart, I will remember these words. I do not know where the Lord is taking me, but I want to always trust His leading.