No "Easter-Lite" for me!

My prayer today was simple: "Help me to give all of myself to you, Lord. Please give me the desire and the strength to do so." I have loved ones I am praying this for, so it hit me that I might want the same for myself.

I want to want what God does. Truth is, I don't. But I want to. I guess this is a great first step!

Easter weekend is beginning on a gloriously sunny, temperate note here in East Tennessee. It's one of those "good-to-be-alive" days. And it's Good Friday.

Today I remember the terrible price Christ paid on that cross, the place where he was temporarily forsaken by God so that I would never be. I'm so thankful to Him. I'm reminded not to brag about anything by the example he set when he humbled himself so much, the very God of the Universe, becoming a human being and subjecting himself to human authority, rejection, humiliation, torture and death so that I could live forever. I pray that, no matter how hard society (through the pervasive spirit of the antichrist) tries to rub out the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ and exactly all that it purchased for me, I will never waver in my belief and in my appreciation. In my reverence. My awe.

I pray that I will never take Easter lightly. It is a high holy day for believers. It is, possibly, the most forceful day in our spiritual heritage.

But A Shadow

It's interesting to look around at a world that is in vivid, living, breathing, pulsing color, and see a place that you firmly believe is only a shadow of the world that is to come (Col. 2:17). A faded, cursed version of heaven, which will be everything we love here on steroids. There will be no death in heaven. No drought-induced dead boughs like the ones on the bottom of the evergreens in my backyard. The scene above would, for example, be unspoiled by the dead tree trunk that lops in it half in the photo I took last weekend at Frozen Head State Park here in Tennessee. I won't be the mass of creaky, nearly 49-year-old limbs that I was as I scaled the rocks to the left of the scene, either.

 I love Easter because it occurs in spring, the time of abounding newness after the dead doldrums of winter. What happened on the first Easter is so pivotal to the life and vitality of heaven. I wouldn't be looking forward to the country that will not fade if not for the resurrection of Christ. If God had not brought Christ forth from the tomb with the same power that pulses through my spirit as I type these words, I would have no hope of that glorious tomorrow when I will run through fields of flowers, not a loose petal among them. I would not have the light of my grandfather's smile to look forward to. I would not have the undying joy of seeing Jesus face-to-face, the very author and finisher of my faith (Hebrews 12:2). I would have absolutely nothing. Everything in this life is fading. Everything in the life to come is coming into clearer focus for me as the years roll onward, picking up speed, it seems, like a boulder forcefully pushed  downhill.

Dead religion takes the joy and beauty out of everything, even the message of the resurrection, and shrouds us all in duty and hollow, self-serving sacrifice.  Don't let it. The resurrection was an act of love. It was the detailed plan of a gracious heavenly Father who doesn't forget a single one of us. I was browsing a home decor store yesterday. My mood was lifted because there were so many pretty things. Why did that occur? Because we were made for beauty and the joy associated with it. Enjoy it here on earth, praise God for it, but remember, it's all a shadow of what is to come.

Addicted to Peace

A brisk spring day always gets my adrenaline pumping. Well, that and the large Chick Fil-A coffee on the table beside me. They're working in tandem this morning. When I feel good, have energy and know that I'll be able to accomplish some things throughout the day, my mood is considerably brighter. I suspect that's the case with you, too.

It's fun to be optimistic. I think we can become as addicted to optimism as we have been addicted to negativity, doom-and-gloom thinking and anxiety. It's a matter of putting the Holy Spirit at the doorway to our minds. Think of a burly doorman at an elite social club. "Credentials? I'm sorry, you're not on the list." This person wouldn't care what ruse you tried to pull. You're not on the list, you're not coming in. The Holy Spirit knows what thoughts will lead you to your purpose in Christ, and which ones will knock you off of the wagon. He knows you better than you know yourself, and even better than Satan, who has watched you for weaknesses your entire life. He "gets" you.

Okay, you say, I'll do it. Where do I begin? How do I hire the Holy Spirit? Well, first you must accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life and acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you need and accept the sacrifice He made for your sins when He died on the cross. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit is alive inside of you. But you must take this one step further. You must actively pray to God all day long, asking Him to direct your thoughts, to keep life-giving, peace-filling thoughts flowing through your mind. It's also a good practice to put scriptures that apply to your challenges on notecards and carry them with you, praying them back to God throughout the day. Be aware of what you are thinking about. Continually ask God to take your mind and make it holy. To guide you continually.

Lastly, allow the Holy Spirit to guide you away from articles, websites, books, television shows and PEOPLE who fill your mind with things that are contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Be zealous about your mind! What you think about becomes what you do! It can lead you into greater fellowship with Christ, or it can lead you into sin. Bottom line!

Second Corinthians 10:5 says "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (Holy Bible, New International Version, emphasis mine.)

The EXCEEDINGLY good news is that we are not to try to do this on our own! The Holy Spirit is our blessed helper. Call on the Lord when your mind becomes confused, fearful, or riddled with sinful thoughts. Simply ask him to set it in order in a manner which is holy and pleasing to him. He will do it!

Hang Onto Your Freedom....You Were Born To It!

I chose the photo for today's post very thoughtfully. I took the picture at sunset on Siesta Key back in January. There is nothing more freeing than a walk on the beach! If you look very closely you can make out a bird flying in the foreground of the vast expanse of sky. He or she is most free! Just enjoying their time in the sky.

We talk a lot about freedom. People have died for it on many a battlefield. Countless books have been written on the subject, both political and spiritual. The mental health industry (and yes, it IS an industry. If you don't believe me, take a gander at what your insurance company pays your psychiatrist.) has churned out enough material on freedom from emotional and mental bondage to fill many, many football stadiums end to end. And yet most people are still wearing chains of one ilk or the other.

There's a reason for that. For so many people, bondage is what feels normal. Once they begin to get a little bit free, panic overwhelms them and they scurry back into their chains. Let's use one of my lifetime struggles as an example. If you are carrying a load of depression on your back and Jesus lifts that load, just plain takes it from you, you are infused with joy, which brings strength and vitality. The world is now your oyster, and there are many opportunities for  you to succeed and to enjoy life to the fullest. The world is now very large, and fraught with many possibilities. Frightened and disoriented by the magnitude of it all, you scurry to and fro until you have found your former depressive mantle and shrugged that two-ton bad boy back on. You're miserable again, but it's a familiar miserable.

This phenomenon may be, in part, why God says in Galations 5:1, "It is FOR FREEDOM that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Holy Bible, New International Version, emphasis mine.) He was up in heaven watching folks take up their chains again and again. He is saying here that he set us free for us to, oh, I don't know, REMAIN FREE, maybe? This signifies a choice in the matter.

I am not against self-help books, though some will, in fact, lead you astray. Those that introduce any spirituality apart from Jesus Christ are dangerous and will leave your spirit more scrambled than the eggs you had this morning. Run like the wind from them. The best way to remain free is to wash your mind in the Word of God every single day. Every. Single. Day. As you go through your day, recite to yourself specific scriptures that relate to your struggles and cry out to God at times of temptation. These methods work, and work well WHEN APPLIED CONSISTENTLY. Surround yourself with godly people. They will help you on to your goal of spiritual growth. Stay focused on what Jesus is doing (reigning supreme over your circumstances, fighting your battles, empowering you and crowning you with favor) and replace every negative thought the devil sends your way with five thanks you's to Jesus for all of the above!

Be free in Christ and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, stay there!!!!

The Dark Side of Facebook

It's still dark outside, and I can hear the birds of morning. Well, they are the same birds that either chirped or sat quietly through the night, but it feels more poetic to call them the "birds of morning." There, I was just excruciatingly transparent. Writers write, and we try to inject art into the everyday. It's what we do.

It's a changing day in what's left of my life. I made a quality-of-life decision recently that I have made in the past, but without lasting success. Here's hopin' (raises coffee mug) that this last week or so's resolve holds. I feel led by God to carry it to completion. To hold onto my freedom, as I see it.

I decided to quit Facebook. Oh, I still have a profile. I still check in every morning. But the one hour or less I spend each morning represents nothing to the hours and hours I was logging before. I still have a tenuous hold on the FB hobby groups that I camped in every single day (and they are all good). 

What I discovered about FB through my enslavement to it, was that it has a patently dark side. It's a lure, designed by brilliant marketers, that captivates and locks down the lonely, the isolated, the insecure. I'm all of the above at any given point. I lived for the chat box. I spent hours talking to people who, should they meet me in person, might thoroughly detest me. I gave them huge hunks of my precious time. Not all of my chat buddies fall into this camp, but many do, I am sure.

I've read several articles about the positives of leaving Facebook in the last couple of weeks. It's been interesting to hear others talk about the struggles they faced while on the site (jealousy, time wasting, etc.). I'm a highly sensitive person, so I was being hurt pretty much around the clock. IN. CYBERSPACE. There's plenty to hurt me in real life. Why, oh why, was I messing around with holographic hurt?

I'm a compulsive communicator. Facebook became my heroine. It was a thoroughly narcissistic outlet for me, as I love a good sarcastic quip like a monkey loves bananas. I was born to need praise like fish need water. It's crazy and it's sinful and it was a life-draining source of spiritual conflict for me, this obsession with "likes."

I've discovered you can "leave" something that has a hold on you by simply minimizing its presence in your life. The lack of time spent makes Goliath an ant in terms of influence. To be perfectly honest, I felt God asking me to make this decision. I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I still want to be in touch with all of the wonderful friends I have on my profile. I just don't want to be hooked to all that is Facebook by the intravenous drip that I had before. I've yanked the needle out!