Standing Firm

My heart is heavy yet full of admiration for this man, his precious wife, and their sweet little boys. What an incredible testimony of faith and standing firm in Christ. How much we take for granted here in the USA! We can be so smug in our declarations of faith and what it means to be a follower of Christ but most of us haven't a clue. May God have mercy on our complacency.

From Fox News:

An Iranian pastor who has refused to renounce his Christian faith faces execution as early as Wednesday after his sentence was upheld by an Iranian court.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who maintains he has never been a Muslim as an adult, has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ, the 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court ruled. Iran's Supreme Court had ordered the trial court to determine whether Nadarkhani had been a Muslim prior to converting to Christianity.

The judges, according to the American Center for Law & Justice, demanded that Nadarkhani, 34, recant his Christian faith before submission of evidence. Though the judgment runs against current Iranian and international laws and is not codified in Iranian penal code, the judge stated that the court must uphold the decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom.

When asked to repent, Nadarkhani stated: "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?"

"To the religion of your ancestors, Islam," the judge replied, according to the American Center for Law & Justice.

"I cannot," Nadarkhani said.

Read more on FoxNews.com

"Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you, and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, because
great is your reward in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 5:10-12

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Of Manicures & Lungs

On the way home from taking kids to school just a bit ago, I passed a 20-something gal in her car with the window rolled down. I happened to notice that she had perfectly manicured nail tips. . .and that between her first two fingers she was holding the stub of a cigarette.

I thought it such a shame that she was obviously concerned about her appearance, yet she gave no thought to the decay, destruction and havoc she was wreaking on the inside of her body as she was filling her lungs with a substance that could kill her. The contrast was striking and sobering.

And then it hit me how much like that I can be.

In the video clip I posted yesterday of Mark Lowry, he referred to these verses in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Mark was right. Those are scary verses.

Oh, that my insides would be consistent with my outer person!

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

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The Really Nice Thing. . . .

. . . .about slow cooker liners is how easy they make clean-up.

Especially when one gets up on Sunday morning and discovers the taco soup that one put in the crockpot before bed the night before hasn't cooked one iota. Because one never turned it on.

Not that I have ever done anything like that. Just a random, philosophical thought.

Yeah, right.

A I thought about the aggravation this afternoon, it brought to light a spiritual truth. How often we collect all the ingredients for a successful endeavor, even preparing ahead of time rather than waiting until the last minute, all the while invisioning the delightful results that will be forthcoming. Yet forgetting one very crucial detail.

Accessing the Power that makes it all work.

Instead of a delightful aroma and a result that nourishes others, we are left with a cold messy conglomeration that can sicken anyone who unwittingly partakes of it.

May taco soup be the worst thing I ever mess up by overlooking the Power!

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

. . .that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. II Thessalonians 1:11b-12

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The Age-Old Struggle

I've started this post about 5 times trying to figure out how to open it smoothly without just dumping my brain all over the screen. The Delete key is one of the greatest inventions ever! Hopefully my thoughts won't seem too disjointed....there is a point and a connection.

Last night, I missed President Bush's Farewell Address and turned on the TV as some of the journalists were discussing it. Of course they had their guest commentators to offer their opinions, and they were not shy about pointing out Bush's shortcomings and failures. To be fair, one did acknowledge "his legendary acts of kindness" and that he is a warm and caring individual and while this journalist disagrees with much of his politics, he likes him as an individual. But one comment just got all under my skin. This same man in comparing Bush and the media's beloved President-Elect Obama commented that Bush is "a John the Baptist figure to Obama."

Excuse me? Mr. Journalist, the Messiah has already come, and He is NOT about to be sworn in as President.

So I turned off the TV, watched a movie with my girl (the kids finished finals and have a 4-day weekend! WOOHOO!) and went to bed.

I slept horribly. Not sure what woke me up, but once I was awake, all manner of issues started swirling through my head. Frustrations with myself. Concerns over a couple of parenting issues. Feeling like I don't measure up. Thinking of all the ways I fail to do what I should do. I eventually went back to sleep, but I woke up still feeling discouraged.

I remembered Paul wrote about some of these same struggles, so I opened my Bible to Romans 7 and read again about the whole conflict between "what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (v. 15) I identified with Paul when he said that "in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my ind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." (vv. 22-23)

And then.

We tend to read the Bible in chapters, but those divisions were added later. I don't think I'd ever completely connected that the wonderful truths of Romans 8 come right after the frustration of Romans 7. Immediately in the first verse of Chapter 8, Paul says "THEREFORE, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...." What a beautiful comfort!

But what does this all have to do with the journalist? Although I obviously have no idea what his spiritual situation is, as I've been completely frustrated over the direction our country is heading and the lack of ethics and morals so many in leadership seem to have, God seemed to whisper this word to me:

If you struggle with doing right, and you have My Spirit in you, why do you expect non-believers to be above reproach?

In fact, Romans 8:7-8 says that "The sinful min is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

So I will continue to press on, and even rejoice that I do struggle, for it is evidence that the Spirit dwells within me. And let God deal with the political realm. For it is only through His conviction that their hearts - and then their actions - will change.

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Sanctified or Sterilized?

I've always loved Winnie the Pooh, and one of my favorite Pooh-isms from the original videos is this one when he would say "Think, think, think, think, think!" I've felt like that a bit lately. Maybe I've been hanging around Lisa's blog too much - ya think?!

My recent contemplations are regarding how easy it is to confuse sanctification with sterilization, being set apart without being segregated. As believers, I think it is so easy to be scared of the world and withdraw into our holy huddle where we feel safe. I know it's something I struggle with, and as a mom, my protective instincts toward my children war with the desire to reach out.

We read in Matthew 5:14-16:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

But where does a lighted lamp do the most good? In a room where there are lots of other lights already turned on? Or in a dark room?

I have a friend, a wonderful Godly woman, who was not raised in a Christian home. Her parents divorced when she was 3. Her mom struggled with alcoholism. She lived during her high school years with her dad. During that time she became close friends with a girl in a strong Christian family. Just before her senior year in high school, her dad was going to move from the small town where they lived. Her friend, a year older, was headed to college. And the parents of this friend invited her to live with them so she could finish her high school years without moving. And during that year, this mom loved her unconditionally, prayed for her, and ultimately led her to the Lord.

I wonder. . . .would I be that mom? Or would I encourage my daughter not to be friends with this girl because of the negative influence she might have on my daughter? I don't think I like the deep-down honest answer.

Remember this parable in Luke 18:9-14?

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on
everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Ouch. I've been there. More than I care to admit. Just yesterday I was driving and pulled up behind a car with an absolutely offensive bumper sticker in the back window. My first reaction was one of disgust - and yes, judgment - and then I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me, "Why don't you instead pray for that person, that he will have an encounter with God?" Believe me, that was so far out of my normal way of thinking that I knew it was coming from above!

One thing I noticed about that definition of sterilize: it has the effect of rendering something fruitless and powerless, and causes it to be free of living organisms. That seems rather contradictory to the life Christ calls us to.

Finally, here is a song that was touching enough when I heard it, but seeing the video, especially the part with the mom and the little girl, convicted me to my core:



What about you? Do you struggle with this too? How do you find the balance of being in the world but not of the world and ministering to the world?

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