Recovered In Christ

Thursday, July 30, 2015

I am terrified of heights. Always have been! But it’s become quite a phobia that’s grown with age as I realize more and more how out of our control life really is…so I guess micromanaging dust in my house and avoiding Ferris wheels is my way of resisting? But all of my rituals and safeguards don’t work! Neither do prayer mantras or affirmations…in many ways I am able to do things because of my faith that I could never before….bungee jumping is not one of them! My palms still get sweaty with anxiety if I stand on the 3rd rung of a step ladder to change a light bulb! It is an irrational knee jerk reaction – but that doesn’t seem to stop my son from insisting that if my “I can’t help it – it’s a phobia” is something that has increased over the years…then it is equally possible for it to go in reverse and be decreased…if I have the willingness to face my fears (pesky little thinker that he is!).

One of his “let’s therapize mom” projects a few summers ago was to convince me to do a canon ball into the pool….umm…..I barely know how to swim and as silly as it may seem….the water looks REALLY far from where I’m standing at the edge of the deck…so I refused…for a while…I started by trying to hop off from a crouching position…which was still scary for me…as well as a scary sight for the other pool users I’m told! And unacceptable to my son! Finally – after ridiculous amounts of prodding I did a canon ball…and loved it! Like – loved it! Like – I did 15 in a row! That was a summer to remember as I became the “crazy canon ball lady” that beat all the kids in canon ball tournaments all day long…my son did not realize the monster he’d be unleashing!

Today though, years later, I noticed something, I happened to be at the pool by myself, enjoying an incredible day of doing absolutely nothing by the water alone! And I had a sudden urge to do a canon ball…but I felt that old resistance…especially without the safety blanket of my son’s youth….I mean a 38 year old woman doing canon balls alone, really? I could hear the “Voice” telling me all kinds of things about why I should not…not the least of which was the group of women my age looking seriously mature sitting next to me…and you know what? May not seem like a big deal – but for a shame addict who refused to ever look “stupid”, making a split second decision to do it anyway is a big deal!

And I did…about 10 of them…while laughing hysterically…holding myself from falling out of my bathing suit…and it was ridiculously freeing!!!!

In that moment – yet again – I was reminded how truly diverse the ways are in which we practice praise and worship. Every time I resist the “Voice” that plays back all of the man made attempts to be “safe”….all of the lies that Satan has crafted using my weaknesses and vulnerabilities – I am free-er and more able to celebrate the Lord in delight! Yes – canon balls are a way I celebrate the Lord with delight!

I encourage you today to take a risk. Try for one day to resist the “Voice” that tells you to hide. I encourage you to ask that person out on a date that you think is out of your league – that is triggering all of your insecurities. I encourage you to apologize to that person you are sure will reject you. I encourage you to resist the urge to be sarcastic or crack a joke the next time someone shares something vulnerable with you and instead look them in the eye and just listen. I encourage you to breathe in pain rather than intellectualize suffering. I encourage you to tell your friends what you really really really think and feel. And if you don’t even know where to begin, I invite you to start a friendship with Jesus. I encourage you to start with sharing what you secretly think and feel with Him. I promise you – it will CHANGE everything. People ask me all of the time if my relationship with Christ is some kind of replacement for any other relationship. Like is he my boyfriend or best friend? No. Having a relationship with Jesus doesn’t replace relationships. He makes them possible.

Going forward….my son has moved on to another “project”…getting me back on to a roller coaster and teaching me how to skateboard. LOL…wow….I fear for the neighborhood!!

“…David was dancing before the Lord with all his might…

 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” – 2 Samuel 6:14-22

Read Full Post »

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Where are you right now? In your heart with God – where are you? Before you can “clean up” the scene in your conscience – take a quick tour of your life – honestly….where are you?

Where are you in your study? In all honesty how much time are you spending alone with God, reading his word? Collectively, not selectively, page after page, prayerfully? As beautiful and powerful as individual quotes are, as wonderful as it is to feel that God is speaking to you in the random stories you flip to in the Bible, it is equivalent to taking a leisurely attitude of admiring a life raft in its packaging. Do you realize that a life raft, unless taken out of the packaging and blown up properly is useless? Do you realize that every single cult and demonic perversion of religion and spirituality has come from reading and dealing with the word of God selectively?

We would be no exception. How long would it take until your theology becomes 5% biblical doctrine and 95% the word of “you”? Pause and think for a moment how vain and arrogant it is to be satisfied with reading 5 minutes of a few paragraphs or pages, and yet spend hours discussing and philosophizing on “God’s Truth”? And then claim to have a prophecy, inspiration or message from God. Oh the blinding light of pride. The Devil knows us very well, and his strategy is perfected long before you even notice that he is involved. Let us commit ourselves to honoring and obeying God. It is HE that is God, his word that is perfect, we must humble ourselves and come to him in truth. The more difficult and painful it is to study and focus on the Bible, the more it is simply exposing who we’ve been truly worshipping. God is our only protection. And the only way to truly honor and obey him is to listen to him.

Would you consider me a good listener if you wrote me a precious book pouring your heart out to me, detailing the whole story of your love affair with me – and I simply read a few scattered sentences and paragraphs throughout? Is that listening?

The Bible is God’s love letter to you. It is your life raft in the raging storm that is this world. The word of God is your lamp, your light, the very words of God Himself, alive and active!

“Let us arm ourselves with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God. Let us read our Bibles more diligently than ever, and become familiar with every part of them. Let the Word dwell in us richly. Let us beware of anything which would make us give less time and less heart to the perusal of its sacred pages. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit – let it never be laid aside. The Bible is the true lantern for a dark and cloudy time – let us beware of traveling without its light.” – J.C Ryle

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13

Read Full Post »

Sunday, July 5, 2015

For all my buddies out there who are surrounded by darkness and cornered in defeat. Though all around you is darkness and everything inside of you is absolutely convinced that there is no way out – and you wholeheartedly believe that you are finished. Defeated. Done. Tear your eyes off of all the evidence of your despair and look to the One who overcame this world, sin and death itself – for you. Pitch your tent on Him. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil, for the Lord Himself is with you. Believe this. It’s true whether you believe it or not. Yet all the difference in the world is made when the Spirit of Truth (God’s Spirit) bears witness to you of this truth.

Though you walk in darkness and are choking on the taste of death and despair – there IS a way out. The way out is not a path, program or idea – it’s this guy:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – Jesus Christ (John 8:12)

exorcism-prayers

Read Full Post »

“Deceiving spirits also persistently endeavor to keep the believer occupied with something else to fill up the mind, so that he may not discover his own need of deliverance. Workers are almost obsessed with the thought of “Revival,” or the “need of others,” whilst blind to their own condition. Devotion, singing, preaching, worship – all rightful things – may so possess the mind as to close it to all personal knowledge of the need of deliverance from the adversary’s deception.” – War On The Saints, Jessie Penn-Lewis

An extremely accurate statement from a penetratingly discerning book. Much of the recurring trouble in so many believers lives can be traced back to lack of self awareness. Sure there’s alot of “rightful” things being practiced, but when revivals, workshops, conventions and endless service become the cover under which your own self-deception is hidden and unchecked, you’re going to have trouble. Not the kind that can be sung away – or simply brushed off during “inventory” all the while the strongholds remain! This kind of trouble can only be escaped through being undeceived. A process that most avoid like the plague!

Here’s an excellent start: look for yourself in these pages. – Layla Nadda

http://www.the-tribulation-network.com/Deception/war_on_the_saints/wots_ch01.htm

Read Full Post »

“Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool.” Ecclesiastes 7:5

Read Full Post »

April 23, 2015

Running hurts me. And I don’t just mean that my muscles get sore and I get all out of breath  – that’s all true. But it’s more than that for me. It FEELS exceptionally painful for me. I feel like I am going to collapse in a heap of failure halfway up even a baby hill. Don’t get me wrong, I love to run. Like – I really love to run. Ever since I was 12 years old living in a tiny town in British Columbia, running made me feel I could escape the terrible fear and chaos I lived in – and for those moments that I was racing through the streets or the park, it was a real escape. And not just as a distraction or a quick hit of endorphins. There is something about racing with the wind, feeling your feet hitting the ground, pushing yourself that makes you – real. It strips away all of the titles, personas and masks that make up most of what we present to the world. Even if the effects are temporary.

I no longer run to feel “real” or “free” – as God has produced those things for me without any involvement of my sneakers! But I still love to race the wind and just be with me – Layla, the last person I ever thought I could be alone with.

The only down side to my taking up running again is all of the “advice” I seem to get from people lately. And it usually comes from people who….(ready!!)…..don’t run!! Or who have a cigarette dangling from their lips telling me how to run, people who haven’t lifted a finger working out in years giving me strict guidelines on what I should and shouldn’t be doing..lol!

I’ll tell you something, all of the well intentioned rambling advice doesn’t compare with one word of real experience that someone shares with me.

Case in point, I was at an all time low the other day huffing and puffing my way into the end of a run, all of the voices in my head agreeing with my muscles – cheering me to stop and double over at a nearby bench. All of the “good advice” and one liner opinions of others didn’t even make it into the horizon of my mind.

But then I saw another runner coming towards me – she’s seen me before in the neighborhood, painfully building up my endurance over the last 4 months, she saw my run turn into a trot on its way to fizzling right out, and as she passed me, she made a u-turn and started running with me saying “Keep Going Mamma”.

3 words. That was it. That and the u-turn. I not only picked up my speed and continued to run with her, I immediately stopped listening to the voices in my mind tearing me down. It was just 3 words, but coming from someone who was IN IT WITH ME made all of the difference in the world!

So how does this relate to the spiritual path we’re walking on friends? I think it relates big time. I can’t tell you how many “well meaning” people are constantly spouting off advice, opinions and lectures, based on something they read, or a treatment center title they’ve received. And it has no real impact on anyone.

If you really want to have an impact, and be genuinely helpful, you first need to be doing what you are advising. Did you hear that?

You need to practice what you preach. You need to be in it. Not waiting on the sidelines ready to give advice. You need to get in the race yourself and be willing to make a u-turn for someone.

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Read Full Post »

Trying to get me to join your church makes you about as much a servant of God and His church as me trying to get you to join my gym would make me a personal trainer. In trying to expose my son to as many Christian fellowships as possible so he can not only see the many wonderful variations and members of Christ’s church, but to also give him first hand experience of the many traps masquerading as earnestness – it has been quite the experience for me as well. I am embarrassed at the lack of wisdom and discernment that so many of my “brethren” suffer from in so many churches. And I’m not talking about watered down non-biblical churches. I am talking about traditional, biblically based churches that have alot of well meaning people who love the Lord and are loyal to biblical doctrine. But they seem to think that cutting and pasting scripture into their lives like a list of rules they submit to and trying to “bring” people into their church is real Christianity.

Umm. No. Nope. Not even close! They don’t realize that they have become the very problem that Luther found in the Roman Catholic Church….that they claim they are nothing like. There is nothing wrong with wanting to see your group/church/community grow and flourish. There is nothing wrong with loving the order and comfort that comes with joining a church. But that’s not what I see. I see the real motive and reason and it’s ugly. When Christ is not TRULY the Lord and King of your life you will naturally seek an earthly one. Your message to a potential convert will be to draw them to your church or pastor, your message to a new convert will be to try to convince them that the seal of their conversion, the evidence of their faith in Christ will be to join your church. You will mix in your human tradition with God’s simple message…..no longer will it be good enough to simply invite people to your service, you will create rules and ordinances of refusing people baptism unless they make a “commitment to join your church”……saved by faith in Christ alone…..and a commitment to your church?

And why really? Is it really because you believe that you’re building up the body of Christ? Is it really because you are looking out for Christ’s sheep? Or is it really because in your heart you’re worried about how you’re going to pay the rent? Your dream and vision to grow your ministry has outgrown your loyalty to biblical authority.

You may protest and deny what I’m saying, but I’m just repeating back to you my extensive experience of the dozens of churches I have quietly and openly visited and studied. So many of you follow the same pattern!

Shame on you.

If you are truly loving the Lord and His Church with all of your heart, mind and soul I guarantee you that your message would be to lead people TO CHRIST. To lead them to a deeper understanding of His Living Word, to lead them to an active relationship with Him and I guarantee you that your church or position that you secretly worship would be destroyed and a real fellowship would grow up among you in your congregation. Filled with people hungry to follow Christ with you wherever you go.

You may claim that you do all these things anyway. But that’s not what I see. I see you putting your church, your agenda, your plans ahead of your King. I see your heart played out in your churches and it’s ugly.

Who do you really serve? Ask yourself in all honesty – are you in the Truth? Ask The Christ you claim to serve. He will answer you if you really want to know.

“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter” or “I follow only Christ.”

Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.”

1Corinthians 1:10-17

Read Full Post »

Read Full Post »

Trying to separate the “teachings” of Christ from the divinity of Christ – is equivalent to separating the chutes from the backpack of your parachute! It might look appealing in the workshop of delusional self worship, but hurtling to the ground at 300 km an hour, your “parachute” of pick and choose Christianity will be nothing more than an empty backpack on a dead man’s body.

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:13-20)

Read Full Post »

The more “knowledgeable” a person seems to get about their addiction/disorder the less it seems they mention God. Like walking deeper and deeper into a cave – every step propels them further into the darkness and away from the light.

I use the term knowledgeable very loosely of course – because analyzing darkness has never produced light. It simply makes more darkness. And this is what I see so much of. Blind men and women groping in the dark carrying on like experts. But the only thing they are experts in is self deception and darkness. What a curse! Self satisfaction. Being wise in your own eyes. A curse I tell ya!

The most wonderful miracle is when that blind man walking in the dark cave suddenly cries out the truth – and gives up his degree in “darkness analytics” and allows the God Of Light to show him what he could never see by himself.

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” – Matthew 6:22-23

Read Full Post »