This Ain't Happening

And yet.. we still choose wrong at times. We sin, filled with the Spirit of God.

Christ promised the disciples that the Spirit was with them and would be in them.. and then at Pentecost the Spirit descended upon them, not as a dove but as tongues of fire.. either way, it was a filling of our spirit and our mind and our bodies.. it was the arrival of the Holy Spirit within us to help us discern right and wrong on a greater level. When we are walking in obedience and our conscience is clean for a moment before God.. we know that incredible peace with God.

But we are all human and have sin in our life at all times.. not that this is an excuse to sin.. rather it is the Spirit of God that brings each sin to our attention as we are able to bear it.. and he works with us to clean it up and to change. One sin at a time. We are commanded to be perfect.. knowing that we will never be perfect in this life.. but the true exhortation of that command is to SEEK to be perfect.. meaning clean up as the Spirit of God guides you to.

Sounds easy, but it is often a lengthy process to recover when you are devastated by someone elses sin against you or your sin against them. In such times, it often requires a great deal of love and mercy to bring healing to your spirit and your mind and your life. God's love is so patient in such matters.. ppl are not. God's love brings the right measure of discipline, always with love.. ppl do not. Not in my experience. But I have learned that it doesn't really matter how ppl or the church or anything or anyone handles me in such matters, whether they hurt me more or help me along.. what matters is God. Getting to him, hearing him, cleaning up to please him.. everyone else is gonna fail me.. everyone else is gonna abandon me.. everyone else has their own walk to figure out along the way.. and there is good and bad in that.. too much to sort out the right and the wrong of it really.. but that's not the focus. They have to work out their own salvation as Scripture declares... tho our lives remain connected and interdependent in ways as family.

My experience is my experience.. the God I know is the God I know. Ppl are important, but they are not the focus. They're gonna love you and then hate you in the next minute.. they are just as messed up and mixed up as I am and you are. They matter but they are not the LIGHT. Love them but don't follow them. Relate to them but don't idolize them as more than God made a man or woman to be. Christ is center. And no matter how much leaders and pastors and religious ppl and family/spouses demand your obedience and submission, you owe them nothing except what God declares..

otherwise, you have made them an idol in your heart.

The Spirit of God is in you as a believer, as one baptized by his Spirit.. he is in us to keep us from becoming comfortable with our sin. When we embrace sin and allow it to take up residence in our life as tho we are married to it.. we lose the peace of God because the Spirit of God says.. "this ain't hap'nin.. that thing has got to go!" And he begins to help us to understand why, to comprehend the threat of death involved, whatever it takes.. a nurturing mothers heart or a fathers discipline across our backside. It is a miserable thing to lose the peace of God in your spirit and your life. Thank God that he refuses to be silent and passive when we let that wolf or that lie or that evil thing into our heart. Thank God that when we have been devastated by someone's sin against us, weak and crippled and bleeding, that he is patient in nursing us back to health no matter how messy our walk might be. Thank God he pushes us (as we are able) to get back on our feet and to run despite the pain, so that we can become stronger and overcome that thing that hell threw at us by using ppl we love against us.

When you think about it.. the only thing we really must have in this life or the next is peace with God. Jesus came to give us that, sent the holy spirit to remind us what he said we needed to do to have it, and the rest is up to us. We are miserable when we lose it.. but God works all things to help us to find it again. We just gotta make up our minds that we want it.

Remind Me One More Time

Was thinking about the baptism of Jesus the other day.. and how that John the Baptist told Jesus that it didn't make sense, that John needed to be baptized by Jesus.. but Jesus said it had to be this way for now because he was setting an example, making a trail for us to follow in how to live out all that God was asking of us. Water baptism is an essential statement to those around us that we have died to who we were and made alive again as a new person by the mercy and cleansing power of God.

I wondered at the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and how exactly that was for our example seeing that everyone present witnessed it as well as the voice that spoke from heaven declaring that he was the son of God. And the most sense I can make of it is that it was again for our example in what we should follow and live out. Jesus was fully man and tempted in every way that we are, even tho he was fully God at the same time. He laid down his glory and power and took on flesh. That flesh was just like ours.. and needed a filling of spiritual power to equip us to resist the temptations of the flesh. The baptism of the Holy Spirit.

When you think about it.. the persons of God visit us at different moments/dispensations and perform specific roles. At this time, Jesus came as Sacrifice for the atonement of mankind.. he will come the next time as Messiah and King to establish his rule on the earth in a new and powerful way. The Holy Spirit comes to mankind as "divine paraclete: one called alongside to help." He brings all that Christ and God has said to our remembrance.. reminds us of right and wrong in those moments when we are tested or tempted or weak. It's like a cheat sheet in our conscience of all the right answers, given by God, so that we can cheat sin and the second death.

The dove descended upon Christ to endue him with power in the flesh before he was led into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan.. he was given the cheat sheet.. and he chose to use it against the enemies attempts.. it is one of the first and most famous scenes that displays the quoting of Scripture/the Word of God to empower us to choose what is right and to overcome our sin nature. We must still choose to do what's right, just as Christ chose as a man.. but the Holy Spirit whispers to our heart and our spirit and our mind what is clearly right and wrong, black and white, life and death.

Pretty cool ♥

Self Check Out

I think my kids were like elementary school or jr high or so when they first implemented self check out lanes.. I would never use them because I was intimidated by the technology.. yes, I know.. you may laugh at me.. but after waiting in long lines for a few items, my kids began grabbing my hand and dragging me to the little computer (which no one was using I might add because my entire generation shared the same intimidation).. they literally fussed at me as they walked me through all the steps to check out.. and in minutes each time we were done..

eventually I picked up on it.. and became a pro at one of the most simple of tech advancements in the modern day grocery.. and so went our journey through technology through the years as my children led me along and became my teachers.. I still call them when I run into anything new.. totally freaking out.. but now they don't so much fuss any more as giggle at me under their breath, but just loud enough for me to hear them..

they love telling stories about mom.. and I have given them many to tell much to my regret.. hahaha.

Suffer the Children

~ The Jesus I know is so unlike many superspiritual teachers and preachers today... I remember when we were young parents and James was only a few months old.. we were invited to the big prophetic Bible Study thats still in town.. it was at a doctors house at that time but was led by a guy named Glenn.. a friend invited us and said we could bring the baby... my friend and I sat in the floor in a connected kitchen between an island and counter.. our husbands sat in the livingroom where they were having the study.. James cooed once or twice.. but most ppl there didnt even know he was there.. had he gotten upset there was a bedroom used as a coatroom I could have taken him... but after the study Glenn told my friend to tell me that we could come back but not.to bring the baby.. that babies were a "distaction"

We never went back.. will never go back tho they still meet here and there and consider themselves The Prophets over our city and are endorsed by many churches... I am sure they meant well and did it by mandate of God in their minds... but that wasnt the mandate my Jesus gave me. I wanted my child with me... had he become a distraction I was accountable to God and the ppl in that group to soothe him or remove him and myself... thats the call of motherhood... thats why many children lack discipline because they are never in an environment to use self control and parents never have to practice disciplining in love...

~ It is not cruel or mean or unreasonable to expect a child to use self control in a boring setting for an hour or two... time a bottle feeding for halfway through (beastmilk or formula), bring books or drawing pad, and let them be bored part of the time.. plan ahead, create a discipline of expectations for ur child and yourself... be ready to miss part of the service should it be a bad day and you have to excuse yourself and your child to sit in the nursing room where you are both bored... parenting is sacrifice... but the rewards of good parenting will be reaped by your child no matter how much they never fathom the depth of your sacrifice... they will see it in glimpses and phases of life... God lets no sacrifice of love go unrewarded... rewarded 10 times over in most cases... why 10 times you ask?... because numbers are significant to God and 10 symbolizes a time of testing in Scripture... we expect good behavior from our children tho their bad behavior ceaselessly shows itself... but we as parents are tested by God as well.. he expects us to parent well.. following his example of parenting us... 

It is Gods approval and mercy and reward we seek as parents... anything our children acknowledge that we did right is just icing on the cake, a bonus... but Dr. Dobson is right... that true appreciation of our children for us as parents doesnt fully kick in until betwn 23-26 years old... most children are thankful in some measure, but early/mid-20s is when the true depth of the sacrifices made is understood.

~ Dont think a baby can learn self control... just pick them up every time they whimper.. 

If it is so reasonable and easy to teach a spoiled mentality to a child.. why is it so unreasonable to teach a patient and self controlled mentality... how is training our children in positive behavior something seen as so negative?

Dont pick that baby up every time it whimpers... dont reward them with a snack or anything entertaining while you both have to sit out of service... dont take them outside to play when they refused to stop talking loudly or crawling under the pews during service... let them spend that time in time out until service becomes way more fun than a spat on the backside in the bathroom or sitting on the floor in the mothers room or a blank empty hallway for the last 30 mins of service...

It would be so much easier to throw our hands up and be sloppy, unconcerned parents who hand our children off to someone else every chance we have... but we curse our childrens futur in some measure when we do that.. and God will hold us accountable for bad parenting just as sure as he rewards good parenting. .. NO ONE SAID PERFECT PARENTING... IT JUST DOESNT EXIST.

and sometimes you do need to hand your children off to someone who will love and nurture them while you recharge... but if you are handing your children off more than 20% of the time... you may need to check yourself.

~ NO ONE CAN REPLACE MOM AND DAD IN A CHILDS LIFE... no matter how well meaning or loving or kind they are... its a spiritual thing.. a Godly assignment of authority and relationship that goes deeper than we realize... it is a model of our connection and family bond with God himself... he would never abandon us or hand us off as tho we are a chore... our model of parenting on every level must be the model God demonstrates toward us... what we measure ourselves to and what we sacrifice and reach for... the closer we can manage to get.. the more goodness is released for the glory of God and those who trust him.

Detective Mom

I thank God he made me a mom..

Got a call last night that baby boy was on his way home from girlfriends parents house out in the sticks.. went to bed.. was woke up this morning at being asked if he ever came home last night.. to which I replied as I sprang out of bed, "Oh God..."

Checked our phones.. no msgs.. but I had this vague memory of hearing microwave buttons about an hour ago in the kit...chen upstairs above my room... while waiting for a reply to our frantic txts to him, I woke his sister to ask if he had come home last night.. she had not heard from him...

Still waiting for a reply from him.. I went to his room to see if I could tell if he had been there in the night.. nothing out of the ordinary.. but I noticed a bowl of food by his bed... I picked it up and it was cold at first, but then I felt the bottom center of it and it was still faintly warm. Instant relief.. I knew he had made it home in the night... soon after he txt'd to say he had run to the store... 6am and he runs to the store... at 19 and constantly burning up the roads, he prolly hadn't even been to bed at all yet.

So add detective once again to my job description as mom... altho my heart freaks out pretty good at such moments.. God truly gives you a spider sense when he calls you into parenthood. There is so much you dont see coming at you and your family.. but he equips you along the way and makes you able to bear so much more than you ever dreamed you could.

Adult children still need family and home, someone watching their back, and a soft place to land as they stumble thru life like the rest of us.. you have to be that strong yet nurturing force when they are young.. but when they are grown, you get to let them make the decisions that guide their lives.. and you get to just love them ♥