Fancy Footwork

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” Psalm 119:105.

I am a huge fan of the music of Michael Jackson although he lived a very controversial life. One of my favorite songs and video that he performed was Billy Jean. The image of him strategically lighting up the squares with the touch of his feet is an image I will always remember. I heard an account the other day regarding the back story of that production. When Michael was recording that dance they had to continuously stop because he would not confine his dancing to the pre-lit squares. Their explanation was that they had gone before him, and pre-lit certain squares. Unless he placed his feet on the preordained squares they would not illuminate. They told him to reign in his fancy footwork, follow the guided lights and walk the path laid out before him.

I cannot think of a better analogy for following the light of God’s word. We all have fancy footwork when navigating through our lives. We impatiently make decisions before lingering on the square and waiting for God to light up the next move. We dance to the left of God’s plan and moonwalk backwards when He has clearly instructed us to avoid a square. We beg...we disobey...we negotiate and debate Him as to which squares will get our attention. We can easily dance ourselves right out of His will. When we mature in our faith we will not only avoid the same dark squares but we will enjoy the freedom of the restricted ones. How much better is the light of His plan than the dark plans of man?

We can do a beautiful dance in the illuminated areas where God has gone before us. Our lives will reflect purpose and our movement will reflect the light of His glory. At the end of our lives our spiritual videos will leave a legacy like none other.

Chiffon Dresses and High Heels

“Stand [firm] therefore, having girded your waist with truth” Ephesians 6:14.

Last year our daughter got married and it was a beautiful day despite my embarrassing mishap. She decided that as her dad walked her down the aisle they would stop at my row and have me join them as they gather down front. Beautiful, meaningful, symbolically powerful, right? Not so much thanks to the dress and heels in which I had dressed myself that day. As I began the walk (short walk thankfully) the high heel of my shoe punctured through the chiffon overlay of my dress and caused me to stumble. As I stood up front it remained bound, so I fumbled with it until it was released. For the rest of the evening I was well aware of the danger and embarrassment that could happen again. So I bound up the front of my dress in my hand as I moved around through the evening. I was reminded of this image today when reading our verse.

In this verse, Paul was referring to the image of a soldier readying himself for battle. Because their armor weighed over 70 pounds it was important to have a substantial belt at the waist to support everything else. In addition to this the belt was a part of the armor in which they would tuck the front of their tunic so they would not stumble as they walked. To gird means to bind...to make fast...to surround, provide and equip. We as people of flesh dress ourselves in all kinds of cumbersome materials...fabrics of emotions...outer garments of entitlement...inner garments of pride. We wear shoes of judgment as we trample over others, and forget the call to care as God instructs in Ephesians 4:29, ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful in building others up according to their needs.’ On Sundays we tuck in our emotions and our desire to live more holy, but do we carry our Sundays into Mondays? Do we allow the same old fabric of sin to hang around our feet, or do we apply the Word of God to our temptations and weaknesses?

God’s word is complete and for every action there is a command. How can we move around in freedom... unbound and unencumbered...if we do not apply His word in every thought, feeling and action? I heard a powerful statement in my Bible Study Video this morning. Feelings don’t have intellect. Let us be smart in the Lord and gird our spiritual core with the truths of His word. We can’t be people who go around tripping over our emotions, feelings and habitual flesh behavior. We must be people who are ready to run into battle against the enemy with nothing to trip us up. We can either wear the cumbersome material of the flesh or the self-disciplined material of the Spirit.

“Keep my decrees...Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material” Lev 19:19.

Weavers and Deceivers

“Put on the armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” Ephesians 6:11.

I have always loved the story of The Emperor's New Clothes. It is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that he doesn't see any suit of clothes until a child cries out, ‘But he isn't wearing anything at all!’ How could this man of royal position be so duped into believing that his nakedness was covering up anything at all? He dressed himself in pride, believing his own press by the confirmation of the deceivers. Only a small child was uncorrupted by the culture’s lack of courage to call him out on his nudity.

We are also people of royal position in Christ and must be on guard for ‘weavers and deceivers’ who tell us what we want to hear. The enemy uses our society to fill our heads with lies and misappropriations. We fall for it because we have built self-made castles and become lazy in our spiritual growth. We strut around uncovered and vulnerable to the ultimate deceiver who convinces us we are entitled to stroll instead of serve...to walk without spiritual impact instead of running the race for the kingdom. ‘Our enemy celebrates lethargic Christian living. When we’re giving up on relationships, disregarding the purity of our reputations, yielding to our appetites without putting up much resistance, he can basically go unchecked...The call to victorious Christian living is a wake-up call out of laziness, urging you to rise up and take serious action. The strength you need for resisting and standing firm depends on it. Satan and the demons of darkness are hoping you’ll be disengaged and disinterested instead of alert, aware, and active...The armor must be put on now. Daily. Consistently. Faithfully. If we want to see our resolve strengthened and our stance made firm, we need to realize that spiritual warfare doesn’t take a day off’ The Armor of God, p. 26.

Our society is certainly not going to call us out on the truth of how we are living. The reality of our spiritual nakedness will be the small inner voice of the Holy Spirit who yells out, ‘Don’t kid yourself. You aren’t wearing anything at all!’ We must dress ourselves daily with the full wardrobe of God. Just as we wouldn’t leave home with our shoes or pants we cannot forget to put on certain pieces of the armor. When we are lazy we forgot to lace up the readiness our feet are supposed to have. When we give in to the same temptation we left our breastplate of righteousness at home. When we start believing society who contradicts God’s word we realize that we can’t remember where we placed our sword of the Spirit. Every piece of the armor is fully required to have the full protection of God over our lives and the lives of our family.

‘Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm...With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray...’ Ephesians 6:13-19.

Sitting for Everything...Standing for Nothing

“Stand strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might...so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes...so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground” Eph. 6:10-13.

The word schemes or tactics refers to deceptive strategies...dirty tricks...manipulation...distorted truths. For the majority of Christians we will never engage in what we consider as blatant evil such as murder, violence or stealing. It is easy to take a stand against these obvious and destructive behaviors. The devil knows he has to be much craftier than that when dealing with God’s children. What he wants to do is more subtle that will keep a barrier between child and Father, Kingdom apathy and spiritual impact. His evil ways deal more with indifference in the work of God. He dangles the same old temptation our way that has controlled us for years. His ways are convincing us that we don’t have the resources to help, the time to serve or the ability to make an impact. He discourages us from spending daily time in God’s word lulling us into a false sense of security. We can be good Christians without serving and spending time in the Word, right? Wrong!

Satan knows that he cannot destroy us. It’s too late for that if we are believers thanks to the work Christ accomplished on the cross. ‘The best thing he can do is to make our time on earth futile and unproductive, to suffocate us with temptation and sin, insecurity, fear and discouragement until we are unable to live freely and fully. He can’t unseat us, but he can intimidate and render us ineffective and paralyzed.’ The Armor of God, Priscilla Shirer, p. 20. Why would God caution us in the Bible so many times to stand strong against this force? His warnings are clear that when the day of scheming comes we must be prepared and armed. How can we stand strong when all we do is sit on our own agenda and desires? We must get out of the habit of being spiritually lazy, get out of our comfortable and cozy lives, and be willing to be a little inconvenienced for God. These are the attitudes that help us stand our ground and be strong in the Lord. We are being strong when we are focusing on His work instead of our desires. We are standing firm when we do things for others when we don’t feel like it. We are standing our ground when we leave our cozy homes and engage in the suffering of others. We protect our testimonies when we respond differently to the same old sin that binds us. We have everything we need in Christ to stand against the enemy.

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it" 1 Co 10:13.

Drowning Out Voices

“Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might” Eph. 6:10.

During this season in our lives, Bruce works in Augusta, Georgia and comes home on the weekends. We set him up in a little patio home where he stays during the week. About a month ago when he was home we got a call from our alarm system company informing us that the back door sensor had been compromised. Someone had kicked in the door, robbed him and fled the scene never to be caught. I went down there for the next two weekends to support him and be available during the workdays for the repairs. One morning he told me he didn’t sleep well at all just thinking about the possibility of the criminal returning. He asked me why I wasn’t more fearful and I explained that my confidence apparently lies in him. As long as he was with me I felt protected, secure and confident that I wouldn’t have to fight the robber if he returned. My confidence and strength was not in my own abilities but because I was in relationship with someone who had the abilities.

While we are engaged in a spiritual war we must only engage ourselves as much as God calls us to the battle. Our confidence in this war is not in any one thing we do or any one person on earth. Our confidence must be in the One who goes before us (“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” De 31:8.) Our faith has to be grounded in the One who walks behind us guiding us in every step ("Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it" Isaiah 30:21.) The enemy uses the voices of the world to compete for our peace, our security and our confidence. The world promotes selfishness, fear, anxiety and insecurity. It screams we are not protected enough...capable enough...smart enough...rich enough...loved enough.

The only way to quieten the enemy’s voice is to turn up the volume on God’s voice. We must believe Him for what He promises, fellowship with Him to learn His character and pray to Him to determine His plan for the battle. Just like I had confidence and security because of my relationship with Bruce, we have everything we need in every situation through our association with Christ.

But will we believe?

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...” Eph. 3:20

Whack a Mole...Smack a Puppet

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12.

I’ve begun a new Bible Study from Priscilla Shirer and I’m already worn out this morning! The Bible study is The Armor of God and she shares a powerful analogy of an experience she had at a Harvest Festival in her hometown. One of the games at the festival was a table set up with a curtain on top with 6 openings where puppets kept popping up. The object was to take a mallet and pop the puppet back down in the hole. A little 4 year old boy became so frustrated that the puppets kept popping back up he tore the curtain off of the table and revealed the 6 adults controlling them. Exposed were the controllers and depleted was the power of the pop ups.

I can’t tell you how many times I take a swipe at those pop ups...angry at a person who has wounded... anxious about decisions my grown children are making...taking credit for something out of my desire to be visible. Whack a mole...smack a puppet. But we need to be clear about our efforts which is what Paul was saying in Ephesians. He was saying that our war isn’t against our loved one for something they did or did not do, it’s against Satan who manipulates the circumstance. He was saying that we are not to fight sin with sin, hurt with anger, wounds with slander, but our weapons must be more spiritual than earthly. We can whack our circumstances with hurtful words but they are not the root. We can throw money at our loneliness but the issue is much deeper. We can work ourselves into an early grave, but the battle will not be won. We must expose the darkness of the battle waged against us, and live with an awareness that our issue is with the controller, not the pop ups in life. When we live and walk in this awareness we realize things that are important for our success. ‘Satan wants us unstable, our mind and heart in a state of utter peacelessness, riddled with chaos and confusion. He wants our most vital and potent relationships divided with discord and dissention permeating throughout them. He wants you and me to be lulled to spiritual sleep, with apathy and indifference so we are not making a difference in the spiritual realm and experiencing abundant life. People and things are not our problem...spiritual darkness is our problem. We cannot be distracted by the things we can see and feel, because the real issue and fight is against the enemy we cannot see’ The Armor of God video, Priscilla Shirer. Our spiritual minds are huge in this battle and we must be confident in certain truths.

Satan is not God's peer or equal. Only God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and eternal.

‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil’ Ephesians 6:10-11.

Stepping Away

“He has withdrawn from them” Hosea 5:6. “Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, and He will heal us; He has wounded us, and He will bind up our wounds” Hosea 6:1.

So much can be lost in translation when studying the Word. We are told in Bible studies, church, and by spiritual leaders that God will never leave us and will always be with us. So when I read something that seems to contradict that promise I want to find out the true translation. I trust His word and I am confident in His character so I was blessed to discover what was meant by withdrawal. While God will never leave us, there are seasons when He must withdraw the fullness of His presence. He has the ability to limit the degree of presence we feel in Him. I remember in year 6 of my daughter’s 8 year season of darkness I pulled back from our fellowship. It was a way of giving her over to herself, and removing myself from time with her. She was still 100% my daughter and me withdrawing from her did not affect my love for her. That is my best analogy with God withdrawing from us.

There are seasons in all of our lives when God must get our attention and limit His presence. He will lessen the fellowship we experience with Him in an effort to place an intimate pursuit of Him in our hearts. No one goes looking for anything until they realize they have lost or misplaced it. Many times when God has sent the same message multiple ways the only thing left is His temporary withdrawal. ‘God will pull back and leave us to ourselves. Usually we don’t even notice at first, but when things don’t go our way, we start to notice God has stepped away. Hosea promised Israel that they would experience the emptiness of God’s absence if they didn’t repent and seek Him with their whole hearts.’ Hosea – Unfailing Love Changes Everything, p. 140.

God states in His word that He sends people to warn others and speak on His behalf. I know that He operates the same way in my life today. There have been times when others have told me things that I knew were coming from the Lord. “‘For they have not listened to my words,’ declares the LORD, ‘words that I sent to them again and again by my servants’” Jeremiah 29:19. We were never meant to live life by our own wisdom, but operate out of God’s wisdom. When we are making our own decisions apart from His step by step guidance we run the risk of lessening His presence. It takes great patience and deep spiritual maturity to trust Him, wait upon Him and obey when He says to act.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declared the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11...a beautiful promise from a beautiful God.

On The Auction Block

“The LORD said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves...’ So I bought her...” Hosea 3:1-2a.

This is quite a heartbreaking image when we really understand what was happening in this passage. Gomer had prostituted herself to men to the point that she had sold herself into slavery. Someone owned her other than the one who loved her. Hosea had a broken heart and had to deal with everything that came along with it...betrayal...rejection... abandonment. And yet, his first love was God who instructed him to go to the auction block, bid on what used to be his and surrender his hurt and heartbreak. This must have seemed impossible...to lay down his own rights and entitlement, picking up the will of God. How nervous he must have been standing there waiting for them to bring Gomer up on the platform for bidding. Did his heart break a little more when he first saw her and she was covered with shame, dirt and all of the markings of the world? Did the emotions of hurt and disbelief come flooding in again when their eyes met? What bridged this unity allowing them to receive each other again? That bridge was the love of the Lord and we have that same love to work through all of our own hurts and betrayals.

The morning after I revealed to my husband how much we were in debt I felt like I was standing on that auction block, undeserving of his grace and forgiveness. I had been loyal to the world and disloyal to the one who had chosen me in love and honor. It was through the gracious love and forgiveness of God that Bruce was able to reinvest in our marriage and begin trusting me again. What does that love look like that enables us to love when trust has been dashed...to give grace when it is undeserved...to invite someone who has wounded us back into our lives? It looks like a Son hanging on a cross in our place. It looks like a Father, who for a fleeting moment, was forced to look away at the atrocious injustices being done to His child. It looks like a Savior who paid the ransom for all of us when we deserve to stand on that auction block ourselves.

What is our part in return?

“And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment’” Matthew 24:37-38.

One Gold Earring Away

“Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings...and bring them to me...He took what they handed him and made it into an idol...Then they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.’ Afterward...they got up to indulge...” Exodus 32:2-6.

In reading this familiar story this morning I am struck by new application in today’s world. Aaron didn’t approach the people with the idea of casting a new god...he was just a weak leader who couldn’t control those who were entrusted to him. He wanted a quick answer to a long-running problem ...dissatisfaction... discontentment...impatience. He wanted to give them what they wanted to make the problem go away. Instead of waiting on the Lord and encouraging them to do the same, they all reacted to the problem instead of responding in prayer and trust. Each person threw in their own offering to feed the fire that constructed the idol.

For me I turned to the stores and asked them to create a god for me who could fulfill my desires. Gold earring after gold earring I threw into the fire feeding the flame of my false god. Secretly I would toss another earring into the flame when no one was looking, and finally one day this golden calf arose out of the fire. As I stood there glaring at the enormity of my false god it glared back with empty eyes. It could not provide what was lacking in my heart. For it to go with me I had to drag it behind me. It eventually became too heavy of a burden and I could no longer carry its load. Faithfully, God broke me from its weight, and gave me freedom in that area for the most part. I will always have tendencies to reach for my gold earring, but faithfully God always convicts...always reveals...and always blesses when I am faithful for believing Him.

We all have the tendency to want to be delivered from our own Egypt so we turn to idols because we are tired of waiting on God. We choose over-spending, over-drinking, over-eating, or over-working as a means to deliver us...to satisfy us...to complete us. Anything we do in excess is our way of telling God that we don’t trust Him to be God and to provide all that He promises. Our culture will always stoke the fire of false gods, using what we hand them to create calves. I am so grateful that the God who truly goes before me loved me too much to allow my idol to destroy me. I never take His deliverance for granted, because without the constant awareness of Who saved me, I am one gold earring away from another calf.