Don’t Break Other Kids’ Toys

When my sisters and I were kids, my parents were friends with a couple who had boys near the ages of my sisters and me. While our parents visited and talked about boring adult matters, we played with these boys. I especially enjoyed our friendship with this family because I always gravitated towards play and games that were stereotypically considered “boy” activities. With these boys I was free to engage in typical “boy” activities such as boxing, baseball, tackle football, dirt clod fights, and blowing up avocados with firecrackers. This family had an avocado tree in their yard. For a long time, my younger sister did not know avocados were edible since we never ate them, but instead, watched them explode as we lobbed our homemade grenades into the empty field across the street.

One of the lessons my mother taught my sisters and I was that we should share our toys with our friends. We were also taught that if our friends shared their toys with us, that we were to be careful with these toys and return them in as good as or better condition than when the toys were first shared with us. I know these boys were told the same thing by their mother, but her words seemed to fall on deaf ears as we witnessed the destruction of many of our toys that we shared with them.

Since we were required to share our toys with these boys when they asked, we began to hide our unbroken toys so they would not ask to play with them. Only the broken or seemingly indestructible toys were left in plain view. One day one of the boys wondered aloud why all our toys were broken. In my quiet and reserved way, I told him that it was because he broke all of them. He simply shrugged and went back to his destructive play.

Do other kids hide toys from you? Do you return borrowed items in as good as or better condition than when you first borrowed the items? When I examine myself through the lens of scripture, I must admit that like these boys, this lesson often falls on deaf ears. While I am always careful with property that belongs to other people, I am not always as careful with property that belongs to God. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

We do not own our bodies. Our bodies were purchased by God with the suffering and death of His beloved Son, Jesus, on the cross. Now that we belong to God as His forgiven children, our bodies are essentially on loan to us. We must be careful with God’s property and use our bodies according to His will and not our own. For if we are living for ourselves, then we are denying that we were bought for a price. We are denying Jesus.

Paul tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Since a temple is a place where people connected with God, then people should be able to connect to God through us. It is difficult for people to see God in us if we are engaged in sin. God did not purchase our bodies for sin. As a result, we should not employ God’s property to lie, steal, murder or utter profanity. We should not offend God’s property with idolatry or unbiblical divorce. We should not poison God’s property with alcohol, or drugs. We should not sour God’s property with selfishness, jealousy, bitterness, revenge, or unforgiveness. We should not soil God’s property with pornography, sex outside of marriage, adultery, prostitution, or homosexuality.

Don’t break other kids’ toys so that you are left to play with only damaged items. That is, don’t break your body with sin so that you are left with only a damaged soul. You are not merely a toy that belongs to God, but rather a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. While the outside of our temples will decay with age, the inside of our temples should be returned to God in better condition than when He gave them to us. Protect God’s temple by living according to His will and not your own. Cultivate God’s temple with prayer, reading His Word, fellowshipping with other believers and telling others about His Son. Illuminate God’s temple by serving and glorifying Him. Remember that God purchased you with something more valuable than silver or gold. He purchased you with the blood of Jesus.

Don’t Leave Your Coat Behind

When I was a young adult, I rode the train from Southern California to the Midwest to visit relatives. When the train reached Kansas City, Missouri, I had to disembark to await another train bound for St. Louis. Since my train was not due for another 12 hours, I placed my luggage in a locker and walked approximately one mile to the Hallmark factory to take a tour in order to kill some time. The weather was nice and the sun was out. After I finished the tour, I consulted my watch and found that I still had many hours to wait for my next train. As a result, I walked to a nearby mall to get something to eat and to watch a movie.

After the movie ended, I only had a short time to make my way back to the train station to retrieve my luggage and board my train to St. Louis. When I emerged from the darkened movie theater, I was shocked at the sudden change in climate conditions. Being born and raised in Southern California, sudden climate change might mean a bad hair day as the Santa Ana winds kicked in. However, sudden climate change in Kansas City in the middle of February meant a blizzard.

I stood at the door staring at the blowing snow wondering if it would stop any time soon. I was not prepared for rain, let alone freezing and blowing snow in my skimpy and inadequate Southern California clothing. One mile did not seem very far to walk while the sun was out, but one mile in blowing snow may as well have been 100 miles to my sun-soaked California thinking.

Realizing that my time was running short, I cautiously stepped outside the door, only to jump right back inside when a large gust of wind and snow took my breath away. Since I was young and inexperienced, the possibility of calling a taxi did not even cross my mind. I had never been in a taxi and rarely even saw a taxi in the suburbs in which I spent my childhood in Southern California. All I knew was that I needed to get to the train station soon, so I braced myself for the cold and walked out the door.

As I trudged towards the train station getting both colder and wetter with every step, I remember thinking that I should have removed my coat from my luggage before I placed it in the locker. Instead of protecting me from the elements, my coat was uselessly protecting my packed clothes from those unpredictable locker storms. By the time I made it to the train station, I was literally shaking from the cold. My clothes were soaked so I retrieved my luggage from the locker and was able to change into dry clothes prior to boarding the train to St. Louis. As I sat on the train watching the frozen landscape go by, I vowed not to leave my coat behind while I was visiting the Midwest in February.

Have you left your coat behind? Now if you live in Southern California, you may not have to worry too much about lugging around a heavy coat for the next sunny day. However, my friends and relatives in other parts of the country often take a coat along for unexpected climate change. While we may not have to think about blizzards and ice storms in Southern California, what about the storms that are not related to the weather? You may go to work one day and find out that your job is being eliminated or your company is closing. You may get a phone call informing you of the death of a parent, a child, a sibling, a spouse, a close friend or other loved one. You may visit the doctor for a routine health exam only to discover that you have cancer. You may board an airplane that is suddenly commandeered by gunmen bent on death and destruction. How will you get through such shocking and sudden climate changes? Do you have your coat on? Paul tells us in Philippians 4:13:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

What does Paul mean? Prior to making this statement in Philippians Paul stated that he could make it through any state he might find himself in, whether it be fullness or hunger, abundance or nothing. Paul said that he could endure all conditions with the power that Jesus offers. Paul based his confident statement not on his own abilities, but on God’s absolute promise of salvation through the power of Jesus. God’s power allows us to do whatever He asks of us.

God allows sudden climate changes. God allows both success and failure. God allows both triumph and tragedy. Even though we may not like the climate we suddenly find ourselves in, it is comforting to know that God does not leave us in the cold without a coat. We only have to accept the coat that God offers. This coat is Jesus. Don’t leave your coat behind. Rather, take Jesus with you wherever you go and rely upon His strength to carry you through all circumstances.

Don’t Fail to Sweep

When I traveled to Israel last year, I lost my temper with my best friend in an incident at the Dead Sea. While the details of the incident are not important, the fact that I was forgiven by my friend for behaving like anything other than a friend is important. We laugh about it now, but I still cringe when I remember how I acted.

Several months ago, I unknowingly hurt my friend’s feelings. When I realized later that she was upset with me, she would not talk about it. I was sure I said something insensitive and stupid, but without knowing the details, I was not sure which of my many remarks was truly the offensive one. I apologized, but the apology sounded hollow and empty since I did not understand my offense. The incident was overlooked and we continued with our friendship.

Several days ago the incident from several months ago resurfaced. Remarks I made brought this incident back to the mind of my friend. We both got angry and actually offended each other. But we worked it out. Our friendship was too valuable to discard merely for carelessly uttered remarks that each of us found insensitive. Offenses are a reality of life, even in friendships. No one is beyond being offended or above offending. We may offend others both intentionally and unintentionally. We may be offended directly or indirectly. Often we are offended only in our own minds.

Far too often, people discard relationships over words carelessly uttered. The person that offended either cannot ask for forgiveness, or the person that that was offended refuses to forgive. We are all going to say stupid things. In James 3:2 we are told:

For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

We are not perfect. We are sinners. The difference as a follower of Christ is that I recognize my sin and ask forgiveness from the person that I offended. I also ask Jesus for forgiveness, for when I offend others, I also offend Him.

My friend is a sister in the Lord. While we have only been friends for seven years, I have often told her that we were always friends but did not always know it. Yet, God always knew it. He knew we were friends, but in His infinite wisdom, He held back this friendship from each of us until we were ready for it. He held it back until He prepared us for it. Our friendship is a priceless gift from God. I do not have to weigh my thoughts or measure my words with my friend. Rather, I can pour them out just as they are because I know my friend will hold on to the ones worth keeping and kindly sweep the others away. There are times when it is necessary for me to assist in the sweeping by asking for forgiveness, and there are other times when my friend assists me in the sweeping by asking for forgiveness.

Don’t throw away your friendships over carelessly uttered words. Rather, take up a broom and start sweeping. Acknowledge how truly blessed you are simply to be the other person’s friend. A true friend is not accepted for the value they add, but rather for the value of who they are. Think about it. Is this not how Christ accepts us?

For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)

Don’t Bounce Your Superball on Uneven Surfaces

On the day I turned seven-years-old, my name was announced on the Los Angeles based children’s television program, “Sheriff John,” as the winner of a birthday prize. When the announcement was made on the program, I was playing outside awaiting the arrival of my friends for my birthday party. I learned of my prize winning fortune from my older sister who ran outside to shout the news. My sister was more excited than I was. I returned to my outdoor activity and completely missed the “Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake” song by Sheriff John.

Several days later, the mailman delivered a box addressed to me. This box contained my birthday prize. Since I rarely received anything in the mail at the age of seven, I was excited to receive a package addressed to me. I opened the box with great anticipation and excitement as to the contents. My excitement quickly evaporated when I discovered that the contents consisted of a dollhouse.

I seldom played with dolls unless using them as targets counted. Since I did not really play with dolls I could not see any useful purpose for a dollhouse. I remember thinking that Sheriff John had no clue when it came to birthday gifts. But Sheriff John was slightly redeemed after the dollhouse was removed from the box and I found a giant superball at the bottom. I grabbed the superball and ran outside leaving my older sister to play with the dollhouse.

Even as a toddler, my toy of choice was always a ball. It did not matter what type of ball it was. It could be a baseball, a basketball or just a simple rubber ball. I especially enjoyed the superball because of the ability to achieve super high bounces. I played with this giant superball for days.

One day I was bouncing the superball off the back patio high into the air. I had to be careful with the bounces because the back patio consisted of an uneven surface of flagstones. My arm began to tire as I repeatedly threw the ball at the patio so it would bounce to new and greater heights. I challenged myself with new altitudes with each subsequent throw. With these new heights in mind, I slammed the superball off of the patio as hard as my seven-year-old arm was capable of. Unfortunately, power does not always equal accuracy as my superball struck a particularly uneven flagstone which caused it to fly to not only new heights, but to new houses. I stood and watched as my superball soared towards the house behind us, bounced off the roof of that house, and then flew towards the street one block behind my house. I ran around the block in search of my giant superball, but it was nowhere to be found. My birthday prize was gone and I was left with only a useless dollhouse.

Have you lost your giant birthday superball only to be left with an unwanted dollhouse? In other words, have you lost Jesus only to be left with empty and unfulfilling relationships, possessions or careers? When I ask if you have lost Jesus, I am not asking if you have lost your salvation. Rather, I am asking if you have lost your fellowship with the Lord. I am asking if you have lost that closeness or intimacy that you had with Jesus.

When I think of the moment that I asked Jesus into my life as my Lord and Savior, I remember my yearning to get to know Him better. I fervently read my Bible, I constantly prayed, and I eagerly attended church services and Bible study. As time passed, I must admit that I have sometimes allowed the cares and concerns of my daily life to diminish this eagerness. Like my birthday superball, I sometimes allow my relationship with Jesus to be foolishly bounced around so much that I lose sight of Him and find myself left with meaningless and worldly things. This can happen to all of us and when it does, it is hard to admit.

In Luke 2:41-49, we learn that Mary and Joseph lost their twelve-year-old child, Jesus, when they traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. When they journeyed home, they unknowingly left Jesus behind. When they realized He was not with them, they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him. They were fearful, anxious, and miserable as they searched for Jesus. They eventually found Jesus in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers. Mary and Joseph were relieved to find Him and asked Him why He did this to them. In Luke 2:49 we find the response by Jesus:

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Jesus was telling Mary and Joseph that He was in the same place all the time. He was saying that it was not He that was lost, but them. You see, unlike my forever-lost birthday superball, Jesus is not lost. He is where He has always been doing what He has always done, which is to be about His Father’s business saving us from our sin. We lose sight of Jesus because of our own neglect and our own sin. Don’t carelessly bounce your relationship with Jesus off the uneven surface of the desires, cares and temptations of this world. Instead, cling tightly to your intimacy with Jesus on the smooth surface of His will for your life. That is, to glorify and serve Him as your Lord and Savior.

Don’t Lose Your Focus

During the early part of my career, I responded to a residence with my supervisor regarding a report of an alleged threat made by a man living there. After we knocked on the door, someone opened it wide and stood in the open doorway. In response to the sight before us in the doorway, my supervisor asked, “Teri, do you see what I see?”

Without hesitation I replied, “If you see a big fat naked black woman, then yes, I see what you see.”

Framed in the open doorway for us and the entire street to gawk at was a huge African-American woman who apparently believed that clothing was optional when answering her front door. My supervisor told her, “Put some clothes on.”

The woman then turned and walked into the interior of her house and returned to the open doorway wrapped in a white sheet. However, the sheet had seen better days because it was so worn that all of her nakedness was visible through the very thin material. My supervisor became flustered and simply stood at the doorway in disbelief. I, too, was shocked at the apparent unconcern of this woman regarding her nakedness, but once I looked at her face and not the spectacle under the sheet, I quickly remembered the reason we were at the residence in the first place. So I asked for the man we wanted to question regarding the alleged threat. The naked woman pointed down the street at a man who was mowing a neighbor’s lawn.

Once we turned away from the curious display before us in the doorway, we were no longer distracted and we were able to continue our investigation. The large naked woman diverted our attention and we temporarily forgot why we were there. We only needed to take our eyes off the distraction to redirect our attention back to our original purpose.

Is a huge naked woman distracting you from your original purpose? While your distraction may not be as large, odd, disconcerting or obvious as an obese unclothed woman, it may be just as effective in diverting your attention from your original purpose. Hebrews 12:1-2 states:

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Sometimes we allow something to distract us from something more important. In law enforcement, this can be deadly. But it is no less deadly to all Christians. Satan uses the concerns and problems of this world to distract us. Satan uses the temptations of this world to lead us astray. Satan can even use our relationships, careers and ministries to divert our attention from our true purpose. We become so focused on ourselves that the reason we are here becomes blurred. Don’t lose your focus. It is not about us. It is only about Jesus. Jesus is Lord and we are here to serve and glorify Him. To lose sight of this is deadly. True life is given when we focus our eyes upon Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith.

Don’t Be Self-Absorbed

While I was in the hospital during my kidney stone adventure, I was hooked to an IV unit that was plugged into a power outlet in the wall. This outlet was located on the wall behind my bed that I could not reach when I needed to get up to go to the bathroom. Since I was being given medication to encourage my kidney stones to pass, I made frequent trips to the bathroom during my hospital stay.

Since I could not reach the outlet to unplug my IV unit, I pushed the call button for a nurse to assist me. Since the nurses always seemed to be busy, it often took an hour or more for someone to respond to my call. Several times I was able to yank the cord from the wall in my urgent need to get to the bathroom. But sometimes the cord would not budge even after my frantic attempts to yank it from the wall. My visitors were recruited to assist in unplugging me and I once even enlisted the assistance of a flower delivery man.

During my struggles to meet a basic and urgent need, I wondered how I was going to manage through the long night when all my visitors went home and flower deliveries ceased. Well, I need not have wondered or worried because of a best friend that God has blessed me with. Although I have only known this friend for seven years, it is as if we have known each other forever. When I was a new Christian marveling at my less than two year relationship with Jesus, she was the mature Christian that took me under her wing and provided much needed guidance. Over the last seven years I can truly say that our friendship has grown and we are not merely friends, but sisters in the Lord.

My friend stayed with me that first night in the hospital and slept on a hard chair next to my bed. Each time I needed to use the bathroom she got up and assisted me. After a brief trip home to take a shower in the morning, she took the day off work to return to the hospital to stay with me all day. As if that was not enough, my friend stayed with me again the second night knowing that she had to get up early the next morning to go to work. My friend traded two nights of comfort in her warm Tempurpedic bed with her husband for two nights of agony in a hard chair in a cold hospital room. Why? She saw that her friend had a need and she made a sacrifice to meet that need. I am thankful for the sacrifice of my friend and pray that I may be able to not only meet needs she may have, but to be so selfless that I can see those needs in the first place.

You see we are often so self-absorbed in our own little problems and needs that we fail to see the needs of those around us. We become so busy with our families, jobs, and even ministries that we justify a lack of time to sacrifice for the individual needs of others. My friend did not allow her busyness or her own discomfort to prevent her from reaching out to meet a need of her friend.

Jesus did not allow even his pain and suffering on the cross to prevent Him from reaching out to those in need. Consider two of the statements Jesus made from the cross. After being beaten and nailed to a cross to hang and die, Jesus said in Luke 23:34:

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

When the thief on the cross next to Jesus asked Him to remember him when He came into his kingdom, Jesus replied in Luke 23:43:

Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.

It is incredible to me that while in the midst of enormous physical pain; Jesus was able to think of the needs of others. My kidney stone pain paled in comparison, but yet during the height of my pain I was so self-absorbed in that pain that I could not think straight enough to get myself to an emergency room in a reasonable amount of time, let alone see or reach out to the needs of those around me. Don’t be self-absorbed. Believe me; I know it is difficult because we are sinners living in a fallen world. My friend would be the first to say that her sacrifice for me was nothing in comparison to the sacrifice Jesus made for me on the cross when He died for my sins. Yet, her sacrifice should not be tossed away as nothing because it is a reflection of the love of Jesus that we are to provide to not only our best friends, but to all who are in need.

Don’t Shut Your Eyes and Your Ears

After the emergency room doctor decided to admit me to the hospital following the tortuous 10 hours of kidney stone pain, I was moved to a room containing four beds. I was told that this was a temporary stop until my permanent room was assigned. Sitting on the bed next to mine was a very large woman who was eating. She was very loud and began to complain about pain on her right side. However, she continued to eat. She called out to the nurse that she needed more morphine.

I was extremely tired after a night of pain and just wanted to close my eyes to sleep. This woman began to moan and said she was thirsty. After the nurse gave her water, she said she was in pain and needed more morphine. She said she thought she had appendicitis. She was given a dose of morphine in her IV and then she complained that she was hungry. I was doubtful of her claim of appendicitis because of the people I have known to suffer through appendicitis, eating was not a top priority. In fact, keeping the food down that they had ate prior to the appendicitis attack was a difficult prospect in itself.

The complaints from this woman continued. I closed my eyes and my ears in an attempt to ignore her and get some sleep. When this woman could not convince the nurse to give her even more morphine she turned her attention to me. Now anyone with any observation skills could see that I was exhausted and needed sleep, but this woman either did not care or was simply unobservant. She continued to talk at me even though I refused to open my eyes or acknowledge her comments.

Earlier in the emergency room, I was visited by a friend who is also the wife of one of the pastors at my church. During this visit, she prayed with me. In her prayer, she prayed for patience and longsuffering on my part. (Patience is not one of my gifts). Longsuffering was a recent topic at our Women’s Bible study. It was this prayer that I remembered when the loud woman in the bed next to me screeched, “I guess you are trying to sleep. Do you want me to be quiet?”

Instead of a typical sarcastic remark, I simply said, “Yes, I would like to get some sleep.”

Yet, this woman continued to talk at me and complain very loudly to the nurse about her pain and lack of food. I listened as best as I could with my morphine addled brain until finally, my nurse pulled the curtain separating our beds closed. I silently mouthed, “Thank you.” I was then moved to my permanent room which I had to myself during the duration of my hospital stay.

I must admit that the urge to reply to the loud and complaining woman in a typical Teri fashion (rude and sarcastic) was very strong. But my friend’s prayer was stronger. God placed that prayer on her heart because He knew what I needed. Reacting with sarcasm would not have been very beneficial or very Christ-like. I am not commanded to be rude and sarcastic so that others may come to know Teri. Rather, I am commanded to be an example of the love of Jesus so that others may come to know Him.

God knew that I would be tested in my trial in the hospital and I needed to ask for longsuffering. Because I was addled with pain and morphine He used my friend to ask Him for what I needed. The loud woman was just the tip of the iceberg in the need for longsuffering during my kidney stone adventure.

Do you ever find that you are prompted to pray for a need for someone else? Don’t ignore this prompting. This need may be the Holy Spirit asking you to pray for someone who is too addled with pain and morphine to pray for themselves. This may be the Holy Spirit asking you to pray for someone so immersed in their sin that they can not find their way back to God. This may be the Holy Spirit asking you to pray for that unsaved and antagonistic family member who is actually seeking Jesus. Paul knew the importance of praying for others. In Romans 15:30 he asks for prayer:

Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me.

Paul not only asks for prayer, but begs for it. We all need prayer. Sometimes we may not even know what we need to pray for, so God uses others to pray for those needs. When we pray for others, we are responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit living within us to bring the needs of others to the feet of our almighty God. Don’t shut your eyes and your ears to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as I attempted to do so to the loud woman in my room. Listen, obey and pray. You may be the tool that God used to provide someone like me the God-given grace, strength, and longsuffering to endure my trial without trampling my witness.

Don’t Blame the Goldfish

As you may have noticed, I have not updated my blog for a while. About one month ago, I was watching T.V. one evening while eating a few cheddar Goldfish crackers. Suddenly and without warning I experienced a sharp pain in my left side. My immediate thought was, “Those stinking Goldfish made me sick. They must be bad!”

As I thought about it more rationally, I realized that it was unlikely that those innocuous Goldfish had caused that severe pain in my side. So I began to review in my mind all that I had consumed that day. But nothing popped into my head as the likely culprit for such extreme pain.

As the night went on, I lost all the Goldfish in the toilet as the pain caused me to vomit repeatedly throughout the night. I attempted to swallow some Gas-X thinking the pain was caused by trapped gas inside my body. Those little Gas-X tablets ended their journey, not in my stomach, but in the toilet bowl. I also attempted to swallow ibuprofen for the pain but the toilet bowl claimed those tablets as well. I knew the repeated vomiting was causing me to become dehydrated, but I could not keep even water from making its way from my stomach into the toilet bowl. Yet, I still believed that the pain would pass. I thought if I could stick it out until 8 a.m., I could see my own doctor when he opened in the morning. After a completely sleepless night of the worst pain I have ever experienced, I finally admitted at 4 a.m. that I needed to go to the emergency room.

Once at the emergency room, I was hydrated with an IV and subjected to tests, including a CT scan. The CT scan revealed that I had kidney stones in my left kidney. Because the pain returned so quickly even after I was injected with morphine, and because of my severe dehydration, I was admitted to the hospital where I spent the next two days. I did not pass the stones in the hospital and this was only the beginning of my kidney stone adventure.

As I reflected on that pain-riddled night, I marvel at my reluctance to wait so long before I admitted that I needed immediate medical attention. The ER doctor told me that most people visit the emergency room within 10-20 minutes of the onset of kidney stone pain. I waited 10 hours. Granted, I do have a very high pain tolerance, but this was undoubtedly the most severe pain I have ever experienced. I could not gain any sort of relief no matter if I stood, sat or lay down on my bed. I did not want to admit that something was wrong. I wanted to control my pain. I wanted to control my care. All that control would be taken away as soon as I stepped into the emergency room and gave over my care to nurses and doctors.

Do you attempt to maintain a grip on that elusive control even as it slips from your grasp and causes you damage? Do you futilely hold on to that tenuous control when Jesus wants you to open your hands and give it all to Him? I must admit that while I turn over control of most areas of my life to Jesus, I maintain a white knuckled grip on control over certain areas of my life. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 37:5:

Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

While I cried out to the Lord in my pain, I did not fully commit or trust Him because I was too busy attempting to control my pain. I was so consumed in grasping on to that intangible control that I did not hear His voice. You see, the Lord gave me the pain to let me know that something was wrong. The Lord gave me the pain to let me know that I needed medical attention from nurses and doctors to whom he gave the knowledge, skills and calling to care for the sick. I only needed to stop blaming the Goldfish and attempting to control the pain with my self-prescribed over-the-counter medications and give the pain over to God. I must give over all my burdens to the Lord and trust Him to bring them to pass. While my kidney stones have not yet passed, I have committed my way to the Lord and trust Him to take care of these stones in His own time and in His own way.

Don’t Create a Sense of Dread

I had a great grandmother on my Dad’s side who immigrated to the Midwest area of the United States from Hungary. She settled in an area with her husband surrounded by other Hungarian immigrants where she raised her family. As a result of living in a mini-Hungarian community, my great grandmother never learned to speak English. My Dad himself, spoke Hungarian until the age of five when he begin to forget the language after his parents moved to another neighborhood and he became immersed in English at school surrounded by English speaking friends.

When I was a kid, we frequently traveled from California to the Midwest to visit relatives. My great grandmother still lived in the same house and neighborhood long after her children were grown, her husband had died, and her neighbors no longer spoke her language. Yet, she stubbornly refused to learn English.

As a small child, I dreaded these visits to my great grandmother because she scared my sisters and me. It is not that she did anything horrible or mean, but it was the manner in which she approached us when we arrived at her house. Just imagine the thoughts flying through my head as a toddler when a stocky, babushka-like woman wearing strange peasant-like clothes came running towards me with her arms outstretched babbling in a never before heard foreign tongue. Then she would scoop me up and slobber me with unwanted kisses while squeezing the breath out of me in a vise like hug. My sisters and I cried in horror the first time we experienced this trauma and shuddered with each announcement of subsequent visits.

What my great grandmother meant in love seemed horrific in the eyes of a toddler. If she had taken into consideration the view of the world from the eyes of a child, she may have reconsidered her approach. Instead, she plowed ahead with her own agenda, without any consideration of the toddlers she was scaring. Instead of an attitude of love, she managed to create a sense of dread. Instead of winning the hearts of these toddlers she managed to turn away the hearts of these toddlers.

As you share your Christian faith are you turning hearts away from Christ? Are you causing non believers to shudder in horror as you babble at them in a foreign tongue? While it is important to share your faith with non-believers, we must do so in a manner in which they not only understand, but in a manner that is loving and gentle. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:15:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, the people who were around me everyday saw a change. While this change was not radical as far as my outward behavior, it was still a change that others observed. I now had a hope within me that others noticed. When asked about this change, I found that I needed to be ready to explain it. Not only did I need to explain it, but I needed to do so in meekness and fear. I was now called to not only share my faith, but to share it humbly and reverentially. We must share our faith in a loving and gentle manner.

While the person who approaches a non-believer and shouts, “You are going to hell!” is an example of anything but loving and gentle, what about the person who approaches a non-believer and tells them that their sins can be washed away by the blood of Jesus. While this may be true, it can be horrific and confusing in the mind of someone who does not understand the Gospel. We must understand that each person with whom we share our faith has different life experiences. While a direct approach will work with some people, it will not work with most. We must establish some type of rapport with them that leads to a discussion about our faith.

For example, before I interrogate a suspect, I often ask them personal questions about themselves such as their name, where they were born, marital status, number of children, where they went to school, where they work and so on. While this information may be important in conducting further investigation of their criminal activity, I find that these questions are more valuable in eliciting a confession. You see, these questions lead to discussions about subjects that have nothing to do with the crime I am investigating. As a result, the suspect feels more at ease in talking with me. I learn where they are at in their lives and what motivates them. As the conversation progresses, I look for the opportunity to shift the subject to the crime I am investigating. Since they are already at ease in carrying on a conversation with me, it becomes easier for them to talk about their crime.

Similarly, when we talk to non-believers about our faith, we should attempt to find out where they are at in their lives and what motivates them. As we learn more about the person we are speaking with, we should look for an opportunity to shift the conversation to our faith and our own personal testimony. We should never have our own agenda in mind but rather, heed God and allow Him to speak through us. Don’t sprint towards non-believers with outstretched arms babbling in a foreign tongue creating a sense of dread of Christians. Instead, approach non-believers in a loving, meek manner that gives all the glory of the hope within us to Jesus.

Don’t Run On Your Alternator

I had a friend in high school that drove a car in which the battery always seemed to die. Sometimes it would die simply because she forgot to turn off her headlights, but it often died without any warning. One night I made the mistake of allowing her to drive to the library. On our way home, we stopped at a convenience store for a soft drink. When we returned to the car, we heard the dreaded clicking sound that meant the battery did not have enough power to start the car.

When I asked my friend if she had jumper cables, she immediately exited the car and began to ask patrons of the convenience store for “jumping cables.” When she asked a young couple for “jumping cables,” they stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. In essence, she was speaking a foreign language since this couple was deaf and did not understand a word she was saying. Once I pointed out their hearing impairment, my friend began to pantomime her need to them. I stood laughing as she began jumping up and down and moving her hands from left to right in front of her body while shouting, “Do you have jumping cables?” She appeared to be imitating a deranged rabbit. We finally found someone to jump start the car and went home.

The incident that finally led to my friend getting a new battery for her car occurred one day after school. She asked me if I would jump start her car that was stuck at the supermarket down the street from the high school. She knew that I carried jumper cables in the old Ford truck I drove to school. After we arrived in my truck, I told her to open the hood of her car. However, when I proceeded to hook up the jumper cables to her battery, I noticed a huge problem. There was no battery. When I pointed this out to my friend, she said, “So that’s what that noise was when I turned the corner.”

Apparently her battery had fallen out onto the street. We looked for the battery in the street, but it was gone. To my astonishment, my friend asked if I could still jump start the car. I knew that once the engine was started, a car could run without the battery. I guess I could have removed the battery from my truck, hooked it up to her car to start it and then replaced it back into my truck. The alternator in her car would have kept it running but once she turned off the engine, she would once again be without a source of power to start the engine. Besides, I did not have the proper tools to complete such a project in the supermarket parking lot and told her she needed a new battery.

Have you lost your battery? Are you running only on your alternator? Do you know where the source of your power is? In other words, have you misplaced the power of the cross? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

As sinners we are separated from God. As a result, we are perishing and are unable to come into God’s presence in heaven. We are destined for eternity in hell. As Christians, we know that Jesus took all our sins upon Himself as He was crucified upon the cross. He did this because he loves us and does not want any of us to perish. He wants all of us to join Him in heaven. Yet, as Christians, we sometimes behave as if we don’t know this astonishing truth. It’s not that we forget the power of the cross, but we misplace it.

The cross has the power to cause us to live for Jesus and not for ourselves. We are not here in this world to do as we please. We are here to serve and glorify God. The cross should be the center of your life. You are fooling yourself if you claim the power of the cross but continue to live in sin. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior all of our sins are not only forgiven, but they are forgotten. Will we sin again? Yes, but the difference as a person who has experienced the power of the cross is that I can not enjoy the love of Jesus and enjoy my sin at the same time. The two are not compatible. Any attempts to mix the two, cause discontent and misery.

I know that sin is alluring. I know that sin seems difficult to shed. So we must remember that the only reason we stray from God and find ourselves in sin is because we take our eyes off of the cross. The cross is the power of God. It is only by the power of God that we can be cleansed from the seductiveness of sin and experience a life of pure joy in serving Him. If you don’t allow the cross to be the power of God in your life, then you will find that you are running on your alternator without a battery. You have no power to start when your engine is turned off. You are perishing. Don’t be bound by the temporary pleasure of sin. Instead, keep your eyes on the cross and you will never again have to buy another battery.

Don’t Make Room for the Lies

When I was in elementary school, I had to ride a school bus to school every day. I hated the school bus and considered it a form of torture. Even then I tended to be grumpy in the morning and the hubbub of dozens of kids energized from breakfasts consisting of sugary cereals and pop tarts tended to amplify this grumpiness. All the kids in my neighborhood waited for the school bus each morning near the intersection of two streets about one block from my house. This was a residential area and there was not much traffic near the school bus stop.

One morning while I was waiting for the school bus to haul me off to another endless day of first grade instruction, my daydream of the next kid I was going to nail at recess in dodge ball was cut short by a loud crash. All the kids at the bus stop ceased what they were doing and looked towards the sound of the crash. Since the source of the crash was not visible from our vantage point on the sidewalk, we ran to the street to better see the intersection where the crash occurred. We observed that two milk delivery trucks had been involved in a traffic collision.

At this time, many people still received home delivery of milk. In my neighborhood there were two options for delivery of milk to your residence. Some households chose to receive delivery of their milk in traditional glass bottles while some chose to receive delivery of their milk in the new-fangled cardboard cartons. Each delivery option was delivered by two different milk delivery trucks from two different dairies.

We were enthralled with the traffic collision which began an immediate chatter regarding the cause of the accident. Several kids claimed that the driver of the milk delivery truck with the cardboard cartons deliberately crashed into the milk truck containing the glass bottles of milk in a malicious conspiracy to destroy the inventory of milk in glass bottles so that he could steal all the milk delivery customers in the neighborhood. This actually seemed plausible to my limited first grade mind as I watched the milk from the broken glass bottles flow in a white stream towards the storm drain.

By the time the school bus arrived, the story of the evil takeover plot by the crazed delivery driver of the cardboard milk containers had grown and become a consensus among most of the kids. Several of the kids excitedly passed this story on to the bus driver. As the school bus drove by the accident scene, I looked at the two drivers of the milk delivery trucks who were calmly talking to one another outside their wrecked trucks. I must admit that I searched the face of the delivery driver of the cardboard cartons for signs of triumph in the successful completion of his nefarious plot. Once we arrived at school, the story grew as it was passed on to other kids eager to hear the news of the wicked milk truck driver.

It’s curious that I can vividly recall this accident many years later, not because of the factual details of the accident itself, but because of the story of the accident as told by a bunch of elementary school kids with overactive imaginations. While not one of my fellow bus stop cohorts actually witnessed the accident, many claimed knowledge of the cause. They came to a conclusion without knowing all of the essential facts and passed on their false conclusions to others. Worse yet, the false story ran rampant throughout the school and became truth in the hearts of many who heard the story told over and over again.

Has falsehood taken root in your heart? Sometimes we hear something repeated so many times that we begin to believe it ourselves. So many urban legends, such as the story of the daft woman who tried to dry her poodle in the microwave, have become truth in the minds of many who both repeatedly hear and pass on the story. How many of you remember the Y2K stories of computer meltdowns and the impending doomsday scenarios as the year 2000 approached? I actually knew people who stocked up with food and supplies and took shelter in a cellar resembling a 1960’s bomb shelter in anticipation of this myth that became truth in their hearts. How many people secretly hid anxiety in their hearts during the waning minutes of the year 1999 because of the repeated doomsday messages perpetuated in the media? I am sure there are more than we care to admit.

Untruth spreads like cancer and takes root in our hearts. Need I remind you that our hearts are deceitful and tend to stray? Satan is a master at filling our heads with human reasoning and lies. We repeatedly see and hear these lies in the newspaper, on the radio, on television and on the internet until they even permeate the church. A few examples include so-called Christians who support abortion; So-called Christians who allow women to lead their churches; So-called Christians who support homosexuality and allow homosexuals to pastor their churches; So-called Christians who advocate divorce for unbiblical reasons with the support of their church; So-called Christian churches who pray to Mary and the Saints rather than directing their prayers to Jesus; So-called Christians who deny that Jesus is the only way to heaven.

As Christians we must guard ourselves from false teachings and from those who seek to add to or take away from the truth of Jesus. As Christians we must also be careful to tell others the truth of Jesus in the same manner. In Paul’s letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15-17 we are reminded:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer.

The best way to detect a lie is to know the truth. When I interrogate a suspect, it is easier to elicit a confession when I already know the truth. The confession becomes more difficult when the truth is murky. While I don’t always have the advantage of knowing the truth before I begin every interrogation, I do have the advantage of knowing the truth when I am confronted with false teachings. I have the advantage of knowing the truth when I tell others about Jesus. This truth can be found in the Word of God. We need to hear the truth over and over, and again and again. We should never stop hearing the truth as given to us in the Bible. Read it! Study it! Memorize it! Then read it again! Never stop reading it. Never stop listening to the truth. Don’t make room for the lies. For once we stop hearing the truth we allow the lies to take residency in our hearts.

Don’t Lose Sight of Your Master

When my dog, Cisco, was a puppy, I took him to the dog beach. Despite his small stature, he confidently ran with the bigger dogs on the beach. As an adult dog, he only weighs seven pounds, but he still runs with the big dogs when we go to the dog beach. When the owners of the big dogs throw balls into the ocean for their dogs to retrieve, Cisco runs with these much bigger dogs until the water gets too deep. He then turns and runs back toward the beach. He is not a stupid dog (which would really annoy me) and realizes that he is unable to negotiate the pounding surf that the bigger dogs swim through to retrieve the thrown balls. So he returns to higher ground and waits for the big dogs to return.

Even though Cisco likes to run free with the big dogs, he constantly keeps an eye out for me to determine my location. If I move, he adjusts his play area accordingly. If he loses sight of me, he suddenly stops what he is doing and seeks me out. Once he has determined my whereabouts, he feels free to resume his business of running with the big dogs and sniffing dog butts. It is as if he intuitively knows that despite the freedom I allow him to run on the beach, his safety and protection lie with me if things should turn bad. As a result, he does not lose sight of his master.

When you find yourself running free on the beach with the big dogs, do you ever lose sight of your Master? Sometimes when things seem to be running smoothly in our lives, we take our eyes off of Jesus. Then when things suddenly turn sour, we desperately seek Him out. Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult circumstances simply because we lost our focus. Don’t wait until you are in trouble to seek Jesus. Instead, look to Him at all times. He wants our focus. In Psalm 123:1-2 the Psalmist writes:

Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He has mercy on us.

In this Psalm we are reminded to keep our eyes on the Lord who dwells in heaven. We are reminded to keep our focus off of ourselves and the world. We are reminded that as Christians, we must not forget that we are servants and Jesus is our Master. He is a loving Master who does not force us to serve Him. Instead, He allows us the freedom to choose whom we serve. If we choose to serve Jesus, we must remember that all servants must anticipate the commands of their masters.

The Psalmist states that we must focus on the hands of our Master. Sometimes I simply have to give Cisco a subtle hand motion in order to communicate a command to him. If his attention is not focused on me, he misses this command. Just like Cisco, I must be focused on my Master, so that I don’t miss His commands. If I am focused on myself or the things of the world, I miss the signs from Jesus and then wonder why I find myself in difficult circumstances. If I don’t keep my eyes upon Jesus at all times, I miss His signals and then wonder why He is not using me. If I look to anyone other than Jesus, I wonder why I can no longer see His merciful protection and safety. Don’t lose sight of your Master. Instead, keep your eyes upon Jesus at all times and anticipate His commands. As faithful servants, we will find that Jesus is a faithful Master.

Don’t Just Hope For Mercy

When I first began my career in law enforcement, I decided to learn a martial art. My agency taught basic defensive tactics to all agents with the operative word being “basic.” I wanted to improve my defensive tactics beyond “basic” and thought I could get some needed extra exercise in the process. So I enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do school located near my home.

My Tae Kwon Do instructor was a seventh degree black belt from South Korea where he practiced Tae Kwon Do from the moment he could walk as a toddler. He was definitely an expert in this martial art and even though his English was limited, he was a very good teacher. I eventually earned my black belt under this highly skilled Master of Tae Kwon Do.

Since my instructor knew I worked in law enforcement, he often provided me individual and specialized lessons. One day he provided instructions on the techniques used to disarm a gunman. I knew he was skilled in this area because he had recently disarmed a gunman who had entered his Tae Kwon Do school to rob him. I wondered if the suspect sat in prison marveling at his own stupidity at entering a martial arts school in an attempt to rob a Tae Kwon Do Master.

During my individual lesson this day, my instructor gave me a toy gun and told me to stand close to him with the gun pointed so close that it touched his back. Suddenly I found myself flat on my back with the toy gun I was holding pointed at me by my instructor. He showed me the technique in slow motion and allowed me to practice disarming him. When I felt as if I had a good understanding of this technique he told me to back up three steps and point the toy gun at him from that distance. Again, he disarmed me and then allowed me to practice the technique on him. Then I backed up about ten feet, pointed the toy gun at him and asked, “Now what will you do?”

My instructor looked at me, raised his hands above his head and said, “Oh poop!” only he did not use the word poop. With those two words he was telling me that there was nothing he could do to save himself. As a result, he raised his hands in submission and hoped for mercy.

Is a gunman pointing a gun at you from ten feet away so that you have no choice but to submit to his demands and hope for mercy? While the gunman’s mercy may result in the sparing of your life, you may find yourself short a wallet. When you submit to God and call upon His mercy, you will not only retain your life and wallet, but your wallet will contain more than what you originally put inside it. Now I am not saying that God will necessarily make you fat with cash, but He will provide for your every need and bless you in ways your finite mind could never conceive. In Psalm 86:5 we are taught:

For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

As Christians we know that we are condemned sinners saved from eternity in hell by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. However, sometimes we lose sight of this when we find ourselves immersed in sin with dirty hands and unclean hearts. We can lose sight of this when we find ourselves backed against a wall with nowhere to turn within sight of our limited vision. We forget that God is good. We forget that God is great. We forget that God is always ready to forgive. We forget that unlike the gunman who may spare our lives but take our wallet, God’s mercy is abundant. We need to give up our futile attempts to control our own lives. We need to call upon God. We need to ask Him for forgiveness every day. We need to hold our hands up in the air in surrender to Him. We need to submit to His authority. Don’t just hope for mercy, but instead rest assured that God’s mercy towards you knows no end. Instead of crying out “Oh poop,” cry out “Oh Lord!”

Don’t Suffer an Identity Crisis

I had an uncle who went to the same restaurant everyday for years on his way to work in the morning. Even after he retired, he continued eating breakfast at this same restaurant every Monday through Friday. Since he was on a restricted diet, he ordered the same meal every day. This was such a regular pattern in his daily activities, the waitress usually had his food ready as he entered the restaurant and sat at his table.

As a young adult, I traveled to the Midwest to visit relatives. While I was there, I decided to meet my uncle for breakfast at his usual restaurant. As we sat down, the waitress said, “Good morning Al,” while placing his plate of food on the table. Since my uncle’s name was nothing that sounded like Al, I thought the waitress was rude because it seemed as though she was talking to someone at another table while she was serving my uncle. My uncle did not seem to mind as he introduced me to the waitress before she took my order.

During breakfast, many people in the restaurant recognized my uncle and greeted him. I briefly wondered if my uncle was leading a double life because everyone who greeted him called him Al. I never called him Uncle Al and had never heard my mother, grandmother, or any other relative or friend call him Al before. I wondered what the story was so I asked him why everyone in the restaurant called him Al.

My uncle told me that one day his employer decided to provide work shirts for all the employees. My uncle’s name was not a common name so that when the representative from the uniform company arrived, he did not have any shirts with my uncle’s name. So my uncle took a shirt with the name Al on it. When the uniform representative returned to collect the dirty shirts in exchange for clean shirts, he forgot that he had provided my uncle with a shirt that had the wrong name. So my uncle again just used a shirt with the name Al.

Since my uncle did not make a fuss over the shirt, the uniform representative forgot about the wrong name on the shirt each time he returned. So my uncle continued to wear the shirt with the name Al. Soon, everyone at his workplace was calling him Al and the waitress and restaurant patrons assumed his name was Al since he wore the Al shirt daily to the restaurant on his way to work. When he retired, the words, “Congratulations Al,” were written in icing on the top of his retirement cake. My uncle told me that as long as his paycheck was issued in his correct name, it did not matter that his work shirt contained a different name. He knew what his real name was so he did not worry or fuss about what some people called him. He never suffered an identity crisis as a result of wearing a shirt with a name other than his own.

Are you suffering an identity crisis? The dictionary defines an identity crisis as “distress and disorientation resulting from conflicting pressures and uncertainty about one’s self and one’s role in society.” Before I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior I suffered from an identity crisis. I was uncertain about myself and what my role was in this world. Like most people, I associated my identity with action. I was a daughter; I was a college graduate; I was a basketball player; I was a teacher; I was a single woman; I was an artist; I was a law enforcement officer. What I did not realize at the time, was that sinner was included in my identity. I knew I was not perfect so I suspected I was a sinner. Since I also realized that I could never be perfect, it made me even more uncertain about myself and my role in this world. When I began to see myself the way God saw me, my identity changed drastically. I am a sinner in need of a savior. Through the writing of John, God tells us in John 1:12-13:

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

I did not understand that I was separated from God by my sin. I did not fully grasp that because of my sin, God sent His Son, Jesus, to bear the penalty for my sin. I did not acknowledge that by asking for forgiveness, turning from my sins, believing that Jesus died because of my sins, trusting that Jesus was alive again, and asking Jesus to take residency within my heart, that I could become a child of God destined for an eternity in heaven rather than hell. When I died to my old sinful self and was born again by asking Jesus to rule and reign my life, my identity changed. I would never again suffer an identity crisis. I am certain of whom I am; I am a child of God. I am no longer confused about my role in this world; I am a willing servant of Jesus here to do His will and glorify Him. My identity is secure because my identity is in Christ.

Do you want to secure your identity? Do you want to experience the pure joy of understanding who you truly are and what your real purpose is? Do you want to become a child of God? Do you want to spend an eternity in heaven rather than in hell? If so, admit that sinner is included in your identity and ask God for forgiveness in prayer:

Lord, I know that I am a sinner and have sinned against You. I am sorry for my sins and turn from my sins. I believe that Your Son, Jesus, died for my sins, rose from the dead, is alive and hears my prayer. I ask Jesus to come into my life and rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You and to do Your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Don’t Leave the Window Open to Escape the Heat

When I played basketball in college our team traveled from Southern California to Alaska during December of my sophomore year to play in a tournament. We had some free time while we were there, so our team went to see a glacier. While at the glacier, it began to snow causing us to shiver in our inadequate Southern California clothing. Most of us were from the Southern California area and did not own any severe cold weather clothing. As college students attending school on basketball scholarships, most of us did not have extra money to purchase clothing for a short trip to Alaska. So we stood shaking from the cold, not in wonder of the beauty of the enormous glacier looming in front of us, but wondering instead about when we were going to return to our heated hotel.

When we returned to our hotel, we found that it was not only warm, but oppressively hot in our hotel room. There were four players assigned to my room with only enough beds for three players. As a result, a small cot-like bed was rolled into our room by the hotel staff. This elfin bed was pushed to the only available floor space under the small window in our room. Fortunately, one of the players assigned to our room was a point guard with a small stature that matched the small bed.

As we prepared to go to sleep for the night, we complained about the excessive heat in our room as we futilely attempted to lower the temperature with the non-working thermostat. Since the hotel staff did not seem to take our request to turn down the heat seriously, we took matters into our own hands. We opened the small screen-less window in an effort to escape the heat. We fell asleep with the window open.

The following morning we discovered that the snowfall under which we had shivered the previous day had grown dramatically during the night. This nighttime snowfall must have been accompanied by wind because our point guard sleeping in the elfin bed under the open window was covered in white powdery snow. Everyone thought it was hilarious, especially when our player covered in snow became so outraged at our laughter that she resembled a miniature and angry abominable snowman.

Since the atmosphere in our room was comparable to that of a sauna, the snow melted quickly and our point guard did not suffer any lasting ill-effects. However, the bed had to be exchanged for another because it was soaked from the melted snow. The hotel staff was not pleased with the mess and we were told to keep the window closed.

When we decided to deal with the heat by opening our window that night, we did not consider the possibility of snow blowing inside our room. We only wanted to escape the heat. We did not realize how fast blowing snow could accumulate, even through an opening as small as our hotel window.

Have you left a window open to escape the heat? When your Christian walk becomes bumpy do you choose a “smoother” path? When circumstances seem more than you can bear despite your relationship with Christ, do you seek an escape clause from that relationship? When God allows hardship and trials in your life, do you turn to the creator of the universe who literally holds the world in His hands, or do you turn to the allure of a seemingly quick and easy solution offered by the world and endorsed by the current popular celebrity? In Thessalonians 5:22 we are instructed:

Abstain from every form of evil.

This sounds so simple, yet our sinful selves complicate this instruction by justifying the evil we allow into our lives. We tell ourselves that our thoughts, behaviors and actions are justifiable because of the strain and pressure of a hardship we may be experiencing. We tell ourselves its just one joint to help us unwind on our way to drug addiction. We allow ourselves a few drinks to relax on our way to drunkenness. We look at pornographic images to de-stress on our way to adultery. We “borrow” a few dollars from the company till to keep us solvent until payday on our way to embezzlement. We tell a little lie to escape a predicament on our way to perjury. We use profanity to emphasize a point under stress on our way to blasphemy. We skip a Sunday morning church service to catch up on our sleep after a difficult week on our way to separation. We murmur and complain to cope with the “pressure” on our way to distrust of God. We question the authority of God’s Word when we dislike the solution it provides to our trials on our way to Satan.

We must not only keep our window shut, but sealed against all forms of evil. This is especially true when we find ourselves vulnerable in the midst of a trial. As true followers of Christ, we must know that there are places we can not go, activities we can not participate in and people we can not have close relationships with no matter what our external circumstances may be. We often leave our window to worldly solutions open in case we feel that God is not acting quickly enough or in a manner that we approve of in guiding us through difficulties and trials.

Don’t compromise your faith for a quick fix to your trial. We think we can handle a “small” compromise because we forget how one tiny compromise snowballs into increasingly larger compromises until we suddenly realize we have an angry abominable snowman in a wet bed on our hands. Don’t compromise. Instead, abstain from all evil and depend completely on God to lead you through your hardships, difficulties and trials. He does not ignore your cries for help and He will not leave you in the heat longer than you can endure it. Like a sauna, God will use that heat to sweat out our impurities and mold us into His children who desire nothing other than to glorify God according to His good and perfect will.

Don’t Keep Butterflies Locked In Your Lunchbox

When I attended first grade in elementary school, I carried my lunch in a metal lunchbox. I viewed my lunchbox as a multi-purpose tool. It not only carried my lunch, but also carried treasures I collected from the schoolyard when empty space was created in my lunchbox after I ate my lunch. I would sometimes forget to remove these items before giving my lunchbox to my Mom when I returned home from school. She would often open my lunchbox to discover rocks, bottle caps, marbles, golf balls and various other items I salvaged from the ground. My Mom removed these collections and then proceeded to bleach out the inside of my lunchbox so that it would be clean enough to carry my lunch the following day.

One day when I returned home from school, I gave my Mom my lunchbox and prepared to go outside to play. As I walked through the kitchen to the door that led to the backyard, I saw my Mom preparing to open my lunchbox. It was at that moment that I remembered that I had not removed the treasures that I had collected after lunch.

When my Mom opened my lunchbox, she stepped back in surprise as four or five butterflies flew out. My Mom has never been one to panic or scream at the sight of insects, spiders, mice, or even snakes. She simply said, “Teri, you can’t keep butterflies locked in your lunchbox.”

My Mom helped me catch the butterflies that were flying around the kitchen and we released them outside. I remember that when I first saw the butterflies in the schoolyard, I thought they were beautiful and perhaps the greatest butterflies I had ever seen in my short life. I put them in my lunchbox so that my Mom could see them. However, by the time I returned home from school, I had forgotten about the great beauty locked in my lunchbox and was thinking only of going outside to play.

Do we collect, keep and lock up God’s greatness and promises given to us in His Word? We are to study God’s Word daily so that we know it by heart and fill ourselves with God’s Word so that it seeps from our pores. While we are told in Psalm 119:11 to hide God’s Word in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him, we are not to keep God’s witness locked in our hearts and forget that it is there. After proclaiming his deliverance by God and God’s plan of salvation, David says in Psalm 40:10:

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.

David knew that God was great. God saved him. David was thankful for the greatness of God. We read of David proclaiming God’s greatness throughout the Book of Psalms. We should not be ashamed to proclaim the greatness of God. Because the blood of Jesus has saved me from an eternity separated from God, the greatness of God should be obvious to me. Yet, I must admit, I sometimes need a reminder. We all need reminders at times. And what of those who do not know Jesus? They know nothing of the greatness of God. Tell them. Proclaim it. Don’t keep God’s greatness locked up and forgotten like the butterflies in my lunchbox. Instead, let the greatness of God not only seep from your pores, but gush from your pores, so that you, and everyone around you are drenched it.

Don’t Lose All Hope of Graduating

When I graduated from college, I taught high school history and social studies for a couple of years. I often joke that public education drove me into law enforcement, but I was being called to law enforcement long before I entered the teaching profession. What I didn’t understand at that time was that the calling was coming from God, so I ignored it for a few years after graduation from college.

One of the classes I taught my first year was world cultures during sixth period which was the last period of the day. There was one girl who showed up on the first day of the semester that I never saw again. I sent daily attendance records to the school office indicating that she was not attending my class. Since she was never officially dropped from my roll sheet, I was required to send notices to her parents indicating that she was failing my class for failure to attend and failure to complete the required assignments and tests.

The last day of school arrived and I was looking forward to a summer off. I had already completed grading the final tests for the class and informed all of the students of their final grades for the course. The last day of classes was basically a day for students to sit around and talk.

When my sixth period class arrived, I noticed a girl standing at my desk that I did not recognize. At first I thought she was from the office with a message, but I did not see a note in her hand. I asked her who she was and what she needed. When she told me her name, I recognized her as the girl who showed up the first day that I never saw again the entire semester. I asked her where she had been the entire semester. She did not answer my question but instead said, “I was wondering if I could do some extra credit to pass your class.”

I was amazed that in the waning minutes of the school year, she thought that she could complete enough extra credit to make up for an entire semester of work and tests. I wondered if she even thought she had a chance of a positive answer when she asked me this question.

I wonder if those who have not asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior after denying Him for years think that there is no chance of a positive answer if they ask Him into their lives now. Do they think that it is too late? Do they think they have not completed the required assignments and tests to gain admittance to heaven? Is this fear of rejection keeping them from asking Him to be their Lord?

The thief hanging on the cross next to Jesus appeared to have wasted his life. He was being executed for his life of crime. Was it too late for him? No. He admitted his sins and then asked Jesus to remember him. Did Jesus say it is too late because you have wasted your life until the last possible moment? No. In Luke 23:43 Jesus says:

Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”

While it would have been unethical and unfair to the other students in my class to pass this girl when she did not complete any of the work or even bothered to attend my class, I did direct her to enroll in summer school so that she could remain on track to graduate with her class in two years. While she still failed my class, all hope of graduation from high school was not lost. However, while the rest of us were enjoying our summer vacations, she was hitting the books in summer school.

Jesus promises eternal life to all who confess their sins, repent from their sins and ask Him for forgiveness. As long as you have life left in this world it is never too late to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. All hope is not lost. Don’t wait. While it is true that it is never too late, you do not know when your last breath may come in this world. Don’t waste your life in meaningless and unfulfilling sin. Join me and the rest of Christ’s followers in something even better than a summer vacation; a meaningful and fulfilled life directed by the ultimate Teacher, the ultimate Father and the One who loves you most, Jesus.

Don’t Throw Out the Tree with the Wasps

For one Christmas when I was a kid, we picked a Christmas tree from a local Christmas tree farm. This was the type of Christmas tree farm at which you cut down your own tree once you picked it out. We picked out a tree as a family and then we all stood around and watched my Dad cut it down with his saw. When we got home my Dad put the tree in the Christmas tree stand and left the decorating to my Mom and my sisters and I.

Normally, when we purchased a tree from the Christmas tree farm, my Dad hosed it off in the backyard and then let it sit for a day or two to dry. Apparently he was in sort of a rush this particular year because the tree was never hosed off. It went directly into our house from the farm.

Once we strung the lights on the tree we began to hang the ornaments. I was distracted by something else at this time because I found that with every Christmas I became increasingly bored with hanging Christmas ornaments on the tree. To this day my enthusiasm for decorating the tree ends with putting the lights on the tree. During this particular Christmas tree decorating session, I was reading a book when I suddenly heard my younger sister let out an ear piercing scream. I looked up and saw her paralyzed with fear staring at a swarm of wasps flying around the Christmas tree. You see there was a reason that my Dad usually hosed off the Christmas trees from the Christmas tree farm. The washing not only rid the tree of dirt and dust from the farm, but it also cleansed it of any living beings that made their home in the tree. I’m sure these wasps were snuggled in their nest while the tree was outside in the cool December air, but when we brought the tree into our centrally heated home, they woke up thinking it was spring.

Once my sister was calmed down, and the wasps were captured, we took off the ornaments and lights that were already on the tree so my Dad could hose it off in the backyard. My younger sister did not want him to bring the tree back into the house once it was dry, and she refused to participate in the redecorating. She wanted to throw out the tree and get a new one even though the wasp nests were removed by my Dad. My younger sister was so traumatized by this event that she only uses artificial trees in her house to this day. She did not believe that the Christmas tree was washed clean of all the wasps.

Do we do this as Christians? Do we truly believe that sinners are washed clean by the blood of Jesus? Do we truly believe we are washed clean by the blood of Jesus? Or do we dwell on our past? It is important to remember at Christmas what we are told in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God gave up His Son for the world. The world is a lot of people. The term, “the world” sometimes seems so broad and impersonal when I read this scripture. But when I replace the words, “the world,” and “whoever” with my own name, it sounds like this:

For God so loved Teri, that He gave His only begotten Son, that if Teri believes in Him, Teri will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Does this make me feel valuable? Does it encourage me? Of course it does. God sent His Son to die for me because of my sins. He did this not because of anything I did, but simply because He loves me. However, just as I placed my own name in the scripture, I must also remember to place the names of those that I don’t particularly like, or those who have “wronged” me in the scripture. For some this includes former spouses or even parents who may have been abusive. What if I replaced the term, “the world” with the name Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden? While history seems to indicate that Hitler was evil and did not repent from his sins, what about Osama Bin Laden? Do we dismiss him as evil? Is it too late for him to repent if he is still alive? What if you were a parent of a young child killed by a serial killer who repented in prison?

We must remember that God gave His Son for the world. The world includes everyone past, present and future. While there are consequences to our sins such as life in prison or even execution for murder, God does not see that sin when we believe in His Son. Jesus promised paradise for the thief on the cross next to Him. When we confess our sin, turn from that sin, and place our faith in Jesus, we are washed clean by His blood shed for us on the cross and promised eternal life with Jesus in Heaven.

Don’t throw out your Christmas tree because of a few wasps nests. Rather hose it off so it is clean enough to be placed in your living room. Likewise, don’t throw out the sinner with the sin. Rather, tell others about the greatest Christmas gift of all, Jesus. Allow yourself and others to be washed by the blood of Jesus so that you will be clean enough to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

Don’t Be Bubbly When You’re Flat

For as long as I can remember, if I did not have anything to say I did not say anything. I have never been one to talk just to talk. I am comfortable in silence. This is evident in tape recordings made by my Dad when I was about three years old. My answers to my Dad’s questions consisted of one word responses. I did not elaborate, I just answered the questions. This trait has served me well when I am required to testify as a witness in court. As Joe Friday from that old T.V. show, Dragnet, used to say, “Just the facts ma’am.”

There are some women I know from church who are not comfortable in my silences. These same women always seem to be trying to “fix” me. I don’t exactly fit their idea of what a “happy” Christian woman should be. In other words, I’m single (which actually makes me extremely happy, but that’s a subject for another day); I have no children (which is a good thing since I have never been married); I have a career in which the workforce is dominated by men; I prefer jeans and t-shirts; I don’t cook (unless microwaving cold pizza counts); I don’t sew; I don’t bake; and I have been called bold-mouthed by some (even though I am comfortable in silence, I don’t sugarcoat the truth when I have something to say).

While I am the first to admit that I am in need of repair and I am definitely a work in progress, I don’t believe any of my characteristics that I listed above disqualify me from happiness. I know these women have good intentions, but I must leave any repair and remodeling work in the hands of the Master Craftsman, Jesus Christ.

At a recent church dinner, I was approached by one of these “repair” women and asked, “Teri, what’s wrong?”

I wanted to answer, “You,” but I bit my tongue and told her that nothing was wrong. Admittedly, I was in a somewhat somber mood since I had just written a blog in which God told me not to be a loudmouth. I was simply attempting to obey Him. But I guess my answer was not believed because this woman then asked, “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”

I must have rolled my eyes in annoyance because she then said, “You just aren’t your usual bubbly self.”

Now if you truly know me, I don’t think bubbly would be an adjective that you would use to describe me unless you mistakenly believe bubbly is another word for sarcastic. Sure, I like to laugh and joke around at times, but bubbly? So I asked this woman, “When have you ever known me to be bubbly?”

She told me I was bubbly on the softball field. I guess coaching, instructing and encouraging my teammates defined bubbly for this woman. But since I was not on the softball field, I don’t know how she expected that same “bubbly” behavior at a church dinner. Perhaps I should have shouted to her across the room, “Way to butter that roll. Now let’s see if you can polish off that chicken in the next 30 seconds!”

I thought about that “bubbly” remark afterwards. I know that these women assume that I must be depressed, unhappy or experiencing a major life crisis because I don’t talk just to talk and I don’t walk around with a phony smile plastered on my face 24 hours a day. I don’t walk around with a frown on my face 24 hours a day either. Sometimes I am just neutral. Sometimes I am thinking. Sometimes I am praying. Sometimes I am day-dreaming. Sometimes I am wondering what I am going to have for lunch. Sometimes I am simply just “zoning out.” I have no idea what expression may be on my face during these times. One woman even expressed concern that I did not have the joy of the Lord. I am joyful despite the misinterpretations of my facial expressions.

True joy is not based on fleeting emotions. We are to rejoice in the Lord. Paul says in Philippians 3:1:

Finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.

Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord. He does not tell us to be bubbly. He does not tell us to walk around with phony smiles 24 hours a day. After all, Jesus wept. Jesus provides inner peace, comfort and courage in times of sadness and in times of happiness. Joy is not about external circumstances. Joy is the confidence we have in God and the relationship we have with Jesus. When Paul told the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord, he was telling them that their joy should not be based on what they were doing to please God, but on what Jesus had already accomplished for all of us on the cross.

Rejoice in the Lord. Now if this causes you to be bubbly and to smile, that’s great. But don’t assume that you or anyone else lacks joy simply because they are not talking all the time, they are not bubbly all the time and they are not smiling all the time. Don’t paste a fake smile on your face only because you want others to believe you are a “happy” Christian. Don’t be bubbly when you are flat just to impress others. Rather, allow the joy of Christ living within you to dictate your thoughts, your emotions and ultimately your behavior.

Don’t Lose Your Salt

You only need to turn on the evening news to realize society as we know it, is rotting. The stench is apparent to even small children from whom we futilely attempt to shelter from the horrors of the world. Yet, sometimes we tell ourselves that the reporters only show the bad and sensational so that we will watch the news. We love sensationalism as our television programs reflect.

As a law enforcement officer, I not only see the horrors on the nightly news, but I am often a first-hand observer and investigator of these horrors. There is so much more decay and rot in this world than you will ever see on the nightly news. I don’t say this to depress you or scare you, but to sensitize you to a society in which it is easy to become desensitized to the evil in the world.

It is often said that law enforcement officers walk a fine line between the so-called “good guys” and the so-called “bad guys.” We are held to a higher standard because we are entrusted with so much. Sometimes this seems unfair to my fellow law enforcement officers, but it is a necessity. You see we are often forced to think like the “bad guys” in order to catch the “bad guys.” If you are thinking like a “bad guy,” it is very easy for that fine line separating the “good guys” from the “bad guys” to become blurred. The higher standards set for law enforcement help keep that line in focus, just as the higher standards expected of followers of Christ help keep that line between good and evil in focus.

Several years ago, a District Attorney Investigator killed his wife, his mother, and his three children before killing himself in a murder-suicide that made national news. I do not know why this law enforcement officer lost focus of that line and proceeded to kill his family and then himself. This news was a blow to all law enforcement, no matter what agency you worked for.

Later that same day, the news hit closer to home in my own agency, in my own office in my own circle of friends. Another agent in my office shot and killed himself in the parking lot outside our office after he was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by our internal affairs division. I was in the office at the time and when I heard that there was a shooting, I immediately ran outside as my training and past experience dictated. I have been trained in this type of response and have responded to shootings and violence as part of my job. However, my training and experience never prepared me for the scene of a fellow officer that has taken his own life. My job never prepared me for that image seared into my brain of my friend and co-worker sprawled dead on the ground with a bullet in his brain. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

Before refrigeration, salt was used to keep meat from rotting. There is an urgent need for Christian salt in our rotting world. Was I salt for my co-worker? Or did my salt lose its flavor? Was my salt good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men? I struggled with these questions following my co-worker’s suicide.

You see, another Christian co-worker and I had been working on this co-worker who took his own life. I spoke to him about God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness. I told him that the wages of sin was death, but he could repent and turn from those sins with God’s help. We began to see subtle changes in this co-worker. He stopped cursing, at least in front of us. He began to listen to Christian rock music. He even got another non-believer in our office interested in Christian rock music. He was witnessing without realizing it.

However, in the 13 years I had known this particular co-worker; I have noticed that he was a very emotional person that changed with the tides. I sensed his foundation was weak and not built on the rock of Jesus Christ. He acknowledged that he needed Jesus. When I asked him what was stopping him from embracing Jesus, he said God did not want to have anything to do with him because of the things he had done. I reiterated God’s love, mercy and forgiveness and the need for him to repent and turn from his sins. Did he listen? It did not seem so when I looked upon his lifeless body. It did not seem so when I learned more details of the Internal Affairs investigation.

So was my salt good for nothing and trampled upon? My first thought was yes. But as I prayed and spent time in God’s Word, I realized that this is what Satan would have me believe. The truth of Christ does not rise or fall upon my claims, or the claims of any believer, but on Jesus himself. Satan would use my co-worker’s suicide to convince me that I am an ineffective Christian, that my salt has lost its flavor. Satan would have me use this tragic event as an excuse to give up and isolate myself in a Christian bubble.

God has not called me to turn away from the world, but to be salt in the world. I can not bring about change in society or in a single person. Only God can bring about lasting change in society or a person if that society or person so chooses to change. I am merely a vessel used by God to bring about change. God will bring about the change in His way and in His time. God tells us in Isaiah 55:11:

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

I may not see the change I expect to see, but God has guaranteed that sowers of His Word will not labor in vain.

I don’t know what impact God’s Word spoken through me may have had on my co-worker. I don’t know if God’s Word spoken through me reached others through him. I don’t know what his thoughts were just before he pulled that trigger. However, I do know that God’s Word does not return void. I know that as long as I remain obedient to God, my salt will retain its flavor.

Don’t Leave Your Wash Machine Unused

When my Mom was in the hospital following the birth of my younger sister, I was not quite three years old. My Dad telephoned my Mom at the hospital and allowed me and my older sister to talk to her. My Mom later told me that as soon as I got on the phone, I asked in a serious tone, “Mom, do you know what Dad did?”

My Mom replied, “No, Teri. What did Dad do?”

I reported, “He used the stove.”

My Mom answered, “It’s alright Teri. Dad can use the stove.”

Then I said, “But Mom, he also used the wash machine.”

My Mom reassured me that my Dad was allowed to use the appliances in our house. Since I had never seen my Dad use these appliances, I was surprised when he did use them. I thought he did not now how to use them or was not allowed to use them. I’m sure part of my amazement was due to the fact that I was admonished to never play with or use these appliances. I assumed my Dad was under the same restriction. What I didn’t know was that my Dad knew how to use these appliances, but he never made use of them.

As Christians do we have an appliance that we know how to use but never make use of? Or maybe I should ask; when is the last time you opened your Bible outside of a church service? Psalm 1:1-2 tells us:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.

True knowledge of God is the only way that we will have a full life. We can only have a true knowledge of God when we read and study the Bible. The Bible is God’s letter to all of us. It tells us who God is and what His will is for us. Without knowledge of God’s Word, we have no real direction or guidance in life. Without God’s Word, we will have no true joy or peace in life.

Don’t let your Bible sit on your shelf collecting dust. Open it daily. Read it daily. Study it daily. Meditate on it daily. Quote it daily. Apply it to your life daily. As Psalm 1 tells us, “Blessed is the man who meditates on His law day and night.” People around you should not be surprised when you open your Bible and apply it to your daily life. Make use of this essential appliance that God authored so that you and I could truly know Him and live a blessed life according to His will.

Don’t Miss the Leftovers

Of the forty six Thanksgiving days in my lifetime, I have only been away from home to celebrate with my immediate family a total of five times. During my four years of playing college basketball, I missed Thanksgiving at home each of those four years because my college team participated in a Thanksgiving weekend tournament each year in which we traveled on Thanksgiving Day in order to begin play on Friday.

One year my team was scheduled to play in a tournament in the hometown of one of the players on our team. This player’s married sister planned a Thanksgiving meal for our team upon our arrival on Thanksgiving Day. When our team arrived at the airport to leave, we discovered that our flight had been cancelled. There was not another flight until late Thanksgiving night. As a result, we missed the Thanksgiving dinner prepared by my teammate’s sister. I’m sure she had an abundance of leftovers that year. As for my team, we spent Thanksgiving at a movie theater near the airport watching some inane movie in an attempt to kill time until our flight left late that night. Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of stale popcorn and rubbery hotdogs.

Although I missed Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I sat in the movie theater chewing on my rubbery hotdog with the reassurance that my Mom would save leftovers for me upon my return home on Sunday. I did not have to phone her to ask her to do this, I just knew she would. My mom has always been the one in my family to organize schedules, events and dinners so that my sisters and I each felt loved and cared for. My Mom is the glue that kept my family close even as my sisters and I became adults with our own careers, responsibilities and families.

Although my family does not always see eye to eye on many issues, we always make efforts to be together in times of trouble and in times of celebration. Each member of my family has different strengths, gifts and abilities to sustain and help one another in our own unique ways. Without my family realizing it, they are a model of what the church should be. We are told in Romans 12:4-5:

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Although my family is not large, our identity includes the aspect that we are individual members of one another. We support one another, we look out for one another and we love one another. This is often accomplished through the organization efforts and phone calls of my Mom. Each member of my family has a different function in the support of our family unit. We are a union of family members.

Jesus has called believers to be part of an even larger and more important family or union. Our identity in Christ means that we are individually members of one another as believers. We are a union of believers in Christ. Jesus is the glue that keeps this union together. Jesus is the head of this union. Jesus is Lord and as members of this union we are to obey Him. This should affect our daily lives. We can not ignore our union with other believers and still call Jesus Lord. We each have unique God-given strengths, gifts and abilities in which we are called to serve God and serve one another. Jesus is always there for us and He orchestrates schedules, events and even dinners so that believers can minister to other believers in times of trouble and in times of celebration. When you obey Jesus and heed His call to serve your family in Christ, you can rest assured that you will be blessed not with mere Thanksgiving leftovers, but with the peace and joy that comes from serving your Lord.

Don’t Be a Loudmouth

My hospital stay following the removal of the tumor from my right kidney was not what I would describe as a peaceful or even restful experience. I am amazed that people actually recover from illnesses, accidents and surgeries in a hospital. Whatever happened to hospital quiet zones?

During the second night of my hospital stay I was extremely tired. When I do not get enough sleep, nearly everyone around me is aware of it because lack of sleep equals a cranky Teri. (Even more cranky than normal). As I settled for a night’s sleep, the night nurse entered my room in a very talkative mood. He was wide awake because he had just reported to work after sleeping during the part of the day most everyone else was awake. I was sleepy and became impatient when he told story after story until I could not take it anymore. I simply told him that I wanted to sleep. To his credit, he quietly exited the room and left me alone the rest of the night. I fell asleep immediately.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. I was abruptly aroused from my much needed sleep by loud voices in the hallway. I was disoriented and it took me a few minutes to remember that I was in a hospital. The loud voices belonged to hospital employees emptying the trash throughout the floor. I waited, thinking they would move on so I could get back to sleep. Unfortunately, they decided to take a break from their work and remained outside my door joking and laughing. I simply got fed up and shouted, “Shut up! Some of us are trying to sleep!”

It suddenly became quiet and then a female voice asked, “Honey, can you hear us?”

In typical Teri fashion, I sarcastically replied, “The man in the coma down the hall can hear you!”

I did not hear anything from this group again and I was able to go back to sleep for another hour until I was rudely awakened by a malfunctioning alarm inside the hospital. I was relieved to be released from the hospital two days later so that I could go home and recover from my hospital stay.

You may have noticed that I titled this blog entry, “Don’t Be a Loudmouth.” The obvious loudmouths in my story are the trash-emptying hospital employees. I must admit that when I began writing this, my intention was to point at the hospital employees as the loudmouths. Often as I begin to write, I think I am going to say one thing, but then God speaks to me as my writing progresses and I begin to see things in a different light. In this instance, God asked me, “Who was really the loudmouth in this story?”

I pondered this question and concluded that I was the true loudmouth. Yes, I was tired and recovering from major surgery, but sadly, I probably would have responded to the loud hospital employees in a similar manner even if I was rested and well. I could have dealt with this situation in a more positive manner. I knew that God placed me in the hospital situation for a purpose. He was teaching me patience and to rely totally on Him for peace and rest. Well, looking back on it over three years later, I realize I failed this lesson. While I was at peace with the fact that I had a tumor on my kidney, I was not totally accepting of the consequences of that tumor. While I had accepted the possible long term consequences of that tumor such as cancer, I had not accepted the immediate consequences of that tumor such as a difficult hospital stay. I did not give that part over to God.

Instead of responding in anger and exasperation towards the loud hospital employees, I should have appealed to them in love. Maybe these employees were non-believers and by simply talking to them in a more civilized manner, I may have been able to begin a conversation about Christ. Whether they were believers or non-believers, speaking to them in gentleness and love may have served as a witness of the work of Christ in me. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:1-3:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

I am a sinner forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. I bear His name. I am called to follow Him. I need to walk worthy of this call. This requires me to be gentle and longsuffering. I am called to maintain a gracious and loving tolerance of the faults of others. I am to keep unity. I am to keep peace. I am not to be a loudmouth.

Don’t Push the Button

During my surgery to remove a tumor from my right kidney, my surgeon recommended that I be given an epidural for pain management rather than a pain medication via my I.V. drip. After I was wheeled into my room following surgery, the nurse placed a sign on the wall behind my bed that read “Spinal Narcotics.” This was done so that the night shift would not give me pain medication via my I.V.

My family and friends visited with me following my surgery and asked if I wanted someone to stay with me through the night. I knew that whoever stayed would be subjected to a sleepless night in an uncomfortable hospital chair. So I told everyone to go home. I was tired and I just wanted to sleep.

I fell asleep almost immediately after everyone left as the effects of both major surgery and anesthesia took hold of me. I vaguely remembered people coming into my room throughout the night to take my blood pressure and other annoying hospital tortures.

When I awoke in the morning a new nurse was in my room. She pointed at my chest and asked, “Who hooked that up?”

I looked down and noticed a tube leading from an I.V. bag that ended in a button pinned to my hospital gown. I don’t know about you, but when I see a button, I often have an overwhelming urge to push it. I examined the button which reminded me of the device contestants use on the game show, Jeopardy, when they have the correct answer or should I say the correct question? The nurse interrupted my thoughts about pushing the Jeopardy button by urgently asking, “You didn’t push that button did you?”

Now since I was doped up throughout the night, I really could not answer that question. Besides, I have been known to both talk and walk in my sleep so sleep button pushing would not have been impossible. Then the nurse immediately began to disconnect my Jeopardy button. There would be no winning or should I say losing answer from Teri, such as “What is an overdose?”

You see, someone ignored the “Spinal Narcotics” sign on the wall behind me and proceeded to introduce a secondary pain killer into my system via my I.V. Maybe that is why I went into my Jeopardy fantasy upon seeing that button. Maybe I was playing Jeopardy in my sleep and pushed that pain killer button. Maybe that was why I still felt out of it in the morning. I regretted not asking one of my family members or friends to stay with me through the night while I was too groggy to realize what was being done. I needed an advocate to speak up for me when I could not.

While it is important to have an advocate in the hospital, it is even more important to have an advocate before God when you sin. The dictionary defines an advocate as one who pleads the cause of another. I see advocates in action in my line of work when defense attorneys plead the cause of their obviously guilty clients. Essentially, we are all guilty clients because we are all guilty of sin. 1 John 2:1-2 tells us:

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

We are all sinners. When we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior we know that His sacrifice on the cross cleansed us of all our sins. We are forgiven of all our sins. Yet, we still sin. John tells us that if we sin, we have an Advocate with God. This Advocate is Jesus.

Why do we need an advocate if Jesus already achieved forgiveness for us on the cross? It is because we are not sinless. With the conviction of the Holy Spirit we will sin less, but we still sin. God does not accuse us of these sins, but Satan does. He tells us things such as “How can you call yourself a follower of Jesus and think the thoughts you think?” Or he might say, “A true Christian would never have said or done what you have done.” These accusations can wear us down and cause us to stray from our walk with God. However, Jesus covers for us. Jesus speaks up for us. Jesus forgives us. Now this doesn’t mean that you can continue in habitual sin in direct defiance of God. It does mean that when you stumble, Jesus is there to pick you up. Jesus is there to defend you. Jesus is there to shut Satan down. Jesus is there to speak up for you when you are too groggy with sin to do so yourself.

Don’t Shoot the Cat

For as long as I can remember, I have been allergic to cats. During certain times of the year this allergy is heightened so that I begin to experience allergic symptoms simply by walking into a house in which a cat resides. Needless to say, I am a dog person. But I would be a dog person regardless of my allergies simply because cats are much too aloof for me to feed and shelter as pets.

Years ago I teamed up with a local police department to conduct a search of a suspect residence. As soon as we made entry into the residence, I knew it contained a cat. As we went room by room with our guns drawn in order to clear the house of suspects, I told the officer that I was partnered with that there was a cat in the house. He shrugged and probably thought I was crazy as we did not find signs of any living thing, human or animal, throughout the house.

After clearing the house, we began to conduct the search for evidence listed in the search warrant. That same officer and I were assigned to search the back bedroom. I again told him that I thought there was a cat in the house. He shrugged again and proceeded to the closet to begin looking for evidence. The closet door was already open since we cleared the residence of suspects. When this officer reached up to the closet shelf to move a box to search, a big black cat that was sleeping behind the box suddenly jumped out of the closet and onto the bedroom floor. The officer jumped back and drew his gun in alarm. When I heard the commotion, I too, turned towards the noise with my gun drawn. When I saw the cause of the commotion, I holstered my gun and began to laugh. After the officer recovered from the initial shock, he too, began to laugh.

I’m sure the officer’s initial thought was that the cat was a hiding suspect bent on harm. The officer later told me that because of my assertion that a cat was in the house, he was able to quickly process that the living being that leaped from the closet was not an armed suspect, but a cat on a suicide mission. If not for my insistence that a cat was in the house, there may have been one less cat in the world that day. While that may have been great for my allergies, it would not have been great in the endless paperwork and investigation necessary after the discharge of a firearm.

I was able to determine that a cat was in the house because of the symptoms I experienced when I was in close proximity to the cat. My eyes began to water, my nose began to run, and ultimately I began to sneeze in a full-blown allergy attack. I recognized the symptoms and went into “cat alert” mode.

Do we experience symptoms when we are in close proximity to sin? Do we recognize these symptoms and go into “sin alert” mode? Sin is anything contrary to God’s will. When we are in God’s will, we experience God’s peace. When we are out of God’s will, we experience unrest. Sin resides within in our hearts and is often difficult to recognize because it is very deceptive. In Mark 7:20-23, Jesus says:

What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.

Sin often masquerades as good. For example, when Saul persecuted followers of Jesus, he did so because he thought he was pleasing God. His “good deeds” were actually sins against God. We fool ourselves by looking at our own evil hearts and seeing good. It is easier for us to see sin in others than it is to see sin in ourselves.

So how do we recognize sin? First, we must admit that we are sinners. Then we must thoroughly and accurately examine ourselves through the mirror of God’s Word with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is only when I do this that I can truly see the real Teri. God loves you and I so much that He sacrificed His only Son for our redemption. It is only through the blood of Christ that I can see my own sinful heart. The blood of Christ cleanses my heart. When the Holy Spirit guides us and we hide God’s Word in our blood-cleansed hearts, we are on heightened alert for sin in our lives. It is only through Jesus that I can prevent a full-blown attack and halt sin from ruling my life.

Don’t Jump Off the Bunk Bed in Your Easter Dress

When I was a kid I dreaded Saturday nights for the preparations necessary for church on Sunday morning. These preparations grew in intensity the night before special church days such as Easter Sunday. After my Mom scrubbed the hair of my sisters and me, she put hard curlers in our hair that we were required to spend an agonizing night sleeping in. Since I was always a restless sleeper half my curlers ended up on the floor so that in the morning only half my hair was curled. This led to even more frantic and painful preparations in the morning.

Before one such Easter Sunday, my Mom stayed up most of the night sewing Easter dresses for my sisters and me. After we were dressed in the morning and subjected to our Sunday morning hair torture, my Mom was left with only a few minutes to get ready. While my Mom was getting ready, my older sister and I began to play in our bedroom. I climbed to the top of the bunk bed and jumped off in imitation of a flying super hero I had seen on T.V.

During my third leap off of the top of the bunk bed, my new Easter dress blossomed out like an umbrella or a parachute. At least this was what I thought at the time. As I came down, I heard a rip and soon found myself hanging off of the bunk bed ladder. My parachuting dress had been caught on the top of the ladder and it ripped just enough to leave me hanging by a few hand sewn threads near the waistline of my dress.

I hung from that ladder not sure how I was going to get down while my sister ran to tell my half-dressed Mom. The Easter dress that my Mom had sewn into the wee hours of the morning was ruined. I was not upset about the dress because I thought it was scratchy and uncomfortable. But my Mom was not real happy about the ruin of her hours of hard work in a matter of minutes by her rambunctious middle daughter. Maybe my Mom should have had second thoughts about putting so much work into an Easter dress for me in light of previous experiences. After a previous Easter church service, we stopped at the home of friends. Shortly after arriving, I was found in the front yard adorned in a lacy Easter dress and boxing gloves taking a swing at one of the boys of the family we were visiting.

Despite my obliviousness to my Mom’s hard work in sewing my clothes and getting me ready for church and school, she continued to do so since she loved and cared for me. I viewed my Mom’s preparations as uncomfortable and annoying distractions to Teri’s fun and Teri’s plans. In my limited kid brain, I did not understand that my Mom suffered through these preparations with me because she loved me. She wanted me to look and behave properly. After all, if left to my own devices, I would have shown up at church and school in soiled and torn clothes with tangled and dirty hair. My Mom was teaching me discipline. I still hate scratchy and uncomfortable dresses and prefer to wear jeans and t-shirts. However, I do know how to dress appropriately when required.

I was ungrateful of the love and care demonstrated by my Mom. Since I was just a kid, I could excuse my behavior as simply childish. But how do I excuse similar behavior now that I am an adult? Even worse, how do I excuse similar behavior when it is directed at God? You see, sometimes God requires preparations that I, in my limited sinner’s brain, feel are uncomfortable and annoying distractions to my fun and my plans. I complain when problems arise or when God asks me to do something that I don’t particularly want to do. I demonstrate ungratefulness for all that God has done and continues to do for me. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

When God gives a command He expects obedience. I must be thankful for God’s commands because He gives these commands out of love for me. When I obey God, His peace resides within me. When I disobey God, I experience distress. I must be thankful to God in all circumstances. What does this mean? While I may not be thankful for my sickness, I should be thankful in my sickness. I may not be thankful for my hunger, but I should be thankful in my hunger. I may not be thankful for persecution, but I should be thankful in persecution. I may not be thankful for scratchy and uncomfortable Easter dresses, but I should be thankful in scratchy and uncomfortable Easter dresses.

Don’t Ignore a Nerd

For as long as I can remember, I have had an unswerving sense of justice. I reacted when I saw the weak and defenseless being picked on. Often, this reaction was with my fists. As I grew older, I discovered that words were even more powerful than my fists. I became the queen of sarcasm and insults. I was involved in many elementary and junior high school fights defending some nerdy kid from the school bully. To my consternation, all the nerdy kids were soon flocking around me. Even though I was in denial at the time, I was the biggest nerd. I just happened to be the biggest nerd with a wicked left hook.

I eventually tired of being the pied piper of nerds and began to look the other way when these perpetual victims were being harassed. Soon, the nerds faded from my life. I made a choice. It may have not been the right choice, but God was accomplishing His purpose.

My choices after this were about Teri, not about others, and certainly not about God. I grew weary defending the weak. I ignored God because I thought He ignored me. Because of the legalistic religious doctrine in which I was raised, God seemed distant and moody. I felt that if I didn’t bother Him, He wouldn’t bother me. Yet, God was still accomplishing His purpose.

After I graduated from college and entered a career in teaching and coaching, God orchestrated events in my life that led me to switch gears and choose a new career in law enforcement. At that time, I thought these events were mere coincidence, but I now know that life is not the luck of the draw. My life is not the result of my hard work or talent. Rather, God gave me specific talents, abilities, and gifts in order to place me in circumstances where I can serve Him in specific ways. It is my choice to serve my sinful self or to serve my Holy God.

My life, your life, every life has a divine appointment with a divine destiny and purpose. God said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

What was true for Jeremiah is also true for you and me. While I am not called to be a prophet as Jeremiah was, God still has a plan for me that He knew before I was born. I must choose to follow God’s plan and not Teri’s plan. You see, God gave me that unswerving sense of justice for a purpose. It ultimately led to a career in law enforcement. This God-given career led to my saving relationship with Jesus. This career has provided numerous opportunities to share Christ with others. This same career has provided me the God-given honor of once again defending not the nerds as I used to call them, but God’s people, my people from injustice.

Everyone has a divine destiny. God has a plan. He wants to use your life and my life in His plan. What will be your choice?

Don’t Forget Who You Are Talking To

When I travel on official duty I am required to carry my firearm. When traveling by commercial airline, I am required to carry my firearm on board the aircraft. On one such trip, I checked in at the ticket counter to complete the required paperwork necessary for boarding the aircraft while armed. The person at the ticket counter reviewed my paperwork, checked my official identification and badge and then asked, “Do you have any liquids in your carry-on baggage?”

I was tempted to answer, “Hmmm, let me see…I have handcuffs, an expandable baton, ammunition, I am carrying a loaded handgun and oh… I nearly forgot…I also have some killer shampoo!”

But I held my tongue and simply looked at the ticket agent with what must have been an astounded look on my face because when she looked up at me, she said. “I guess that is a stupid question.”

You see, the ticket agent forgot who she was talking to. She was monotonously repeating the same thing she says hundreds of times a day without regard to who she was talking to.

Do we do this? Do we forget who we are talking to when we pray? Do we monotonously repeat the same prayers without regard to who we are talking to? For as long as I can remember, my Dad always said grace before a meal. He said the same prayer every night. He said it so fast, that it took many years for me to memorize the prayer because I did not understand the words that flew out of his mouth. When I sit down to eat with him now, he still lets loose with the same prayer so quickly that I don’t even have time to process the words. I don’t know if my Dad is actually thinking about who he is thanking for his meal before he digs in. I suspect that he monotonously repeats the prayer before every meal out of a sense of duty and not out of a sense of truly wanting to thank God. Only God knows his heart.

Jesus warns against praying in order to be seen by men and he warns against vain repetitions. Jesus says in Matthew 6:7:

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

The prayer that my Dad repeated before every meal was not necessarily vain because of the words or even the repetition. Prayer becomes meaningless when we forget who we are talking to and when we pray only to impress others. Don’t be like the ticket counter person at the airport and repeat something without thinking about what you are saying or who you are saying it to. Before we pray, we must remember that we are talking to the Creator of the universe, our King, our Lord and Savior, our Father in Heaven. Only then will our prayers have meaning.

Don’t Fill Your Backyard with Frogs

When I was a kid we lived in a neighborhood in which a Kmart Store was located less than half a mile away. There was an empty field next to this Kmart. During one particularly rainy winter, the low lying area of the empty field filled with water. As kids, my sisters and I affectionately referred to this rain-filled low depression in the earth as Kmart Lake.

Like most kids, we were drawn to water and were eager to explore Kmart Lake. To our delight we discovered that Kmart Lake was soon swimming with thousands of tadpoles. As spring progressed, these tadpoles metamorphosed into small frogs.

One day my sisters and I trudged to Kmart Lake with buckets in our hands. We filled our buckets with frogs and returned home to release these frogs into our own backyard. We did this numerous times throughout the day so that by the time my Dad returned home from work, our backyard was like one giant moving mass of frogs. It was like when God caused the frogs to cover Egypt in Exodus 8.

I am not really sure what my sisters and I hoped to accomplish with this mass collection of frogs. I remember surveying the sea of frogs in the backyard and thinking it was pretty cool. For years afterwards we had frogs in our backyard that grew into large toads that secreted a foul tasting liquid when our dogs chased them and picked them up in their mouths.

Throughout the years, I often thought about those frogs that my sisters and I had so abruptly displaced from their home. Were these involuntarily transferred frogs homesick for Kmart Lake? Were they trying to find their way home? Most never found their way home because their home was soon destroyed when Kmart Lake was covered over with new apartment homes.

Are you homesick and trying to find your way home? Do you know the way home? Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Do you ever feel out of place? And I don’t mean out of place because you are wearing jeans and a t-shirt while everyone else is dressed up. What I am talking about is a longing for something beyond this earth. You see, I, too, feel out of place as if I don’t belong. I, too, am homesick. Since I am at home writing this, you may be asking, “Teri, how can you be homesick? Aren’t you already home?’ Well, not really. Although I am home, I am not really home. My home here is temporary. I am homesick for my eternal home. We are told in Ecclesiastes 3:11:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

God placed eternity in our hearts. We have a longing for God and to be home with Him. That place is real. That place is home. Do you know the way? I do. God showed me the way when I admitted that I was a sinner, repented of my sins, asked Jesus for forgiveness and invited Him to reside within me. My eternal life began when I believed.

My home is now within sight. My homesickness is less prevalent because Jesus has given me a glimpse of home by residing within me. Jesus is always with me no matter where I call home on this earth. My purpose here is to glorify and please God in whatever He calls me to do. In the meantime, I can be assured that one day I will be called home to a place that will never be destroyed by new apartment homes, to a place where I will belong, to a place that will truly be home, to a place where everyone will worship God, to a perfect place called heaven.

Don’t Ignore a Thrown Bible (Part 2)

In my last blog posting, I said that we need to be bold witnesses and that sometimes we are hesitant to tell others about Christ even when God prompts us to do so. Well, I experienced this very thing this last weekend while serving as part of the event team at the Harvest Crusade in Philadelphia.

Part of my assignment on the event team in Philadelphia was to make sure the flow of the people went smoothly during the altar call. On Friday night after Greg Laurie gave the invitation to come forward and everyone prayed, I noticed a person standing in the aisle that seemed to want to go forward but was reluctant. I was unsure of the gender of this person because of the way she looked. She struck up a conversation with someone on the floor that she recognized. I overheard the conversation and was able to determine that she was a Christian 10 years ago and even volunteered in the product booth for the Katinas at the Harvest Crusade at that time. The person she was conversing with attended the same church that she used to attend. It seemed that she wanted to make a commitment, but the person to whom she was talking to was called away.

The Lord told me to talk to her. I was reluctant and justified my reluctance because I was busy with event team duties. But God again told me to talk to this person. Silently I whined to God, “But I don’t want to. I have no idea what to say to her or him and it is obvious this person is part of a lifestyle I don’t understand.” I also justified my reluctance to obey God because I felt it would be inappropriate to talk to this person if she was a male.

All of this went through my head in a matter of seconds. Then I suddenly stopped trying to justify my reluctance and simply approached this person. After all, God would not tell me to do something that was not appropriate. So the first thing I said to this person was, “I could not help overhearing that you were once a believer. So can I ask you what happened?”

This person said she got involved in drugs and alcohol but was currently in recovery. I then introduced myself and asked her name because I was still not sure of her gender. I silently thanked the Lord when she told me her name and it was not one of those ambiguous names like Pat or Terri that could be male or female. I am not going to give her name to protect her privacy, but it was a very female name.

We continued our conversation and she told me she was gay. She said she had earlier left a meeting and found a Harvest Crusade flyer on the ground. She picked it up and decided to go. When I asked her what was holding her back from giving her life back to Jesus, she said her friends were.

I asked her if her friends were more important than God. When she told me that there were no gay Christians, I told her that she spoke truth. She then said that she knew some gay people who say they are Christians. I told her that what we say we are and what we actually are often two very different things. God knows our hearts and God hates sin. Homosexuality is a sin. I told her that God loved her as she was, but He didn’t want to leave her that way. She got teary-eyed and then saw a counselor on the floor that she knew and asked me to get her. I brought the counselor to her and told her that whatever she decided about Jesus tonight, I wanted to see her the following night at the event.

On Saturday night, this person returned to the same area near where we spoke the previous night. She still did not want to make a commitment. We talked and I told her that she was either for God or against God. I told her that heaven and hell were real and asked where she wanted to spend eternity. Although my testimony was nothing like her own background, I shared some of it with her. I told her that I was reluctant to speak to her the night before, but God prompted me to do so. So if God was using me, a discarded flyer left in her path, and the message given by Greg Laurie to get her attention, He must really love her and want her back. She again got teary-eyed and said she did not want to make a phony commitment. Three counselors approached and one of them was someone she knew that she actually brought to church ten years ago. That person subsequently gave her life to Christ as a result. We prayed with her and asked God to protect her while she struggled with her decision.

The last night of the event, I did not see her come forward. I was involved in assisting a person in a wheelchair when she found me on the floor. I asked her if she went forward and she said that she came down to the floor too late. I told her it was never too late and told her to find a counselor while I assisted the person in the wheelchair. She said she wanted to talk to me first so I told her to wait. When I returned I did not know if she would be there or not, but she was waiting. I asked her if she wanted to make a commitment to Christ right now. She said she did.

I led her to a group of women counselors. We led her in the sinner’s prayer and the counselor gave her a New Believers Bible. She told me that while she listened to Greg Laurie speak on Sunday night, she wondered if I had talked to him about her because he said all the same things I had told her the previous nights. She said it was as if I told Greg what she needed to hear. I said that God was speaking to her through Greg and just confirming what she already knew.

I emailed her after I returned home and she said she was going to try to attend the Crusade in New York on October 19 and bring an unsaved friend she knows from Brooklyn. She said she was reading her Bible and spoke to the pastor from her old church as she was leaving on Sunday night. She said she planned to return to that church. I plan to keep in touch with her and pray for her daily.

I don’t know what would have happened if I had not heeded God and ignored her. Perhaps someone else would have talked to her. But God wanted me to talk to her even though we come from completely different backgrounds and lifestyles. God’s plans are always greater than our own plans. He gave me the words to say, I only had to allow Him to do so. Sin is sin no matter what it is. As a sinner washed clean by the blood of Jesus, I am qualified to talk to other sinners about how they too can be cleansed from their sins through a personal relationship with Jesus. God provided me the boldness to do as He asked. It was not anything I said or anything Greg Laurie said that led this person to accept Christ. Rather it was the Holy Sprit speaking to her through us.

Don’t Ignore a Thrown Bible (Part 1)

I wrote this before I traveled to Philadelphia to serve at the Harvest Crusade this past weekend. However, I never had time to post it to my blog before I left because it got really busy at work and then I had to go to the dentist to have a temporary crown put on one of my teeth right before I left. When I wrote this I did not know that God would put my words to the test in Philadelphia, hence the Part 1 in the title. I will post Part 2 later.

I have said before that interesting things happen in the women’s restroom at my church. Several weeks ago I was in the restroom after a Thursday night women’s Bible study. I had just sat down in my stall when a Bible came sliding across the floor and hit my feet. Now this wasn’t a slimline version of the Bible that you would barely feel. This was a big full-size Bible incased in a thick Bible cover.

I looked down at the Bible that landed at my feet and said, “I know we have been taught to spread the Word, but this is a little ridiculous.” Some people laughed and the poor lady to whom the Bible belonged meekly apologized as I slid it back to her stall.

I thought about my remark later. Why was it ridiculous? We are told to spread the Word, but sometimes we do so in too timid a manner. Now, I don’t mean that we should go out and start throwing Bibles at people, but sometimes throwing a Bible might be a more effective witness tool than what we are currently using. We would sure get people’s attention. Of course, we might also get the attention of the local police who may arrest us for assault, especially if the Bibles we throw are of the size flung at me in the restroom.

We must be bold in our witness. The dictionary defines bold as showing or requiring a fearless daring spirit. The dictionary also defines witness as one who has personal knowledge of something. Paul was a bold witness. He had personal knowledge of Jesus as his Lord and Savior and he showed a fearless and daring spirit in telling others about Him.

I don’t think we should be obnoxious when telling others about Christ, but rather do so in a meek and humble spirit. Even so, sometimes we are afraid to tell others about Christ. Sometimes I am hesitant to tell others about Christ even when God prompts me to do so. Why? I fear that I will not have the right words to say or not have the proper answers to questions that may be asked. “Oh no, I may look stupid!” Even Paul had these fears. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:1-3:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

Paul tells us that he was not an eloquent speaker and that he was weak, fearful and trembling. Wow! This sounds like me. But yet, Paul was still bold in telling others about Jesus because he was not relying on Paul to provide the words, rather he was relying on the Holy Spirit to provide the words. The power of Jesus is absolute and He will provide you the boldness to do what He asks. We must simply allow Him to work through us. It is only through His power that we can spread the Word even when He tells us to do so via a thrown Bible.