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11.12.10 Robbing God His Due

How many times as kids did we receive a gift, only to be prompted by our parents’ with, “What do you say?”,  which was our cue to say, “Thank you!”  My parents coaching became more sophisticated when I was a teenager,  especially at Christmas.  We were not allowed to open gifts until a notepad and pen were in insight, and we were prepared to write down who gave us the gifts.  In the days following Christmas I often heard, “Have you written your thank you notes yet?”  I thought I was being badgered, but with 20/20 hindsight, I see my parents were training me on the importance of saying “thank you”. 

As an adult I appreciate this training.  I understand that no gift should be taken for granted, and saying “thank you” supports this basic truth.  From the vantage point of the one giving the gifts, I now understand why my parents pushed me to write “thank you” notes.  Givers desire acknowledgement.  They want to know their gift brought joy and gladness!  The joy of giving is intense for me.  I have no words in my vocabulary to describe that feeling.  But I have discovered a weakness in my flesh.  When I don’t get a thank you, my heart feels  discouragement that robs me of the joy of giving.  How do I get over this discouragement? 

Recently,  I was doing my daily reading in Scripture, which happened to be 2 Cor 9, Paul’s message on the Macedonians’ giving. While reading the following passage, the Spirit showed me the answer to my question: 

6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written:
   “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
      his righteousness endures forever.”[a]

10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (Hmmm…it doesn’t say “thanksgiving to Lee Ann”)  12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. (Hmmm…is this a typo?  It doesn’t say “thanks to Lee Ann”) 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God (It doesn’t say “praise Lee Ann”) for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

This reading brought instant clarity as to why I feel discouragement.  I desire a thank you.  I want people whom God has led me to bless to acknowledge what He’s doing in their life.  I want to hear their joy about these blessings!  I am not opposed to God being thanked, but I at least want some of it to go to me – which is SO WRONG according to the Scripture above.  The fact is my discouragement was unwittingly self-induced by looking for the wrong outcome.  Now that my perspective is correct, I not only lost the feeling of discouragement, but I lost my desire to hear a “thank you”. 

The lesson is obvious:  it is not about me and never will be, and everything that I say and do should only be for His glory and honor.  If my investment of time, energy, and resources given through a variety of ministries causes others to give “overflowing expressions of thanks to God” and leads others to “praise God” because of sharing His gifting and resources with others, then everything has happened according to God’s plan.  Thus, to even desire a “thank you” from anyone is to rob God of the “thank you” He deserves since He is the real Giver. He is the only reason I have anything to give in the first place!  I am just His conduit to be a blessing to others, so the thank you should ALWAYS go to Him.  I’m a slow learner as it has taken me 50 years to figure this out, but I think I am finally getting it.

Blessings,

Lee Ann

10.31.10 God’s Love Language

I am still regaining my footing after reading 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper.  For those of you who have read my initial reflection on this book, you’ll recall that the word “praise” or the phrase “praise God” became speed bumps in my reading.  I am regularly slowed down during my Bible readings when I come upon the phrase, “praise God.”   I read the book two months ago, and I am STILL awed by the importance of praising God. 

In the book The 5 Love Languages, the author, Gary Chapman,  articulates the five main ways we express love to another individual: 1) Words of Affirmation, 2) Quality Time, 3) Receiving Gifts, 4) Acts of Service, and 5) Physical Touch.   Most of us can read this list and know without much thought which one is the most meaningful to us.  I enjoy spending quality time with those I love, as well as receiving gifts, receiving help from others on an unsolicited basis, and hugs.  Those are all very nice and certainly not to be discounted, but the love language I find most powerful is words of affirmation.  

I have come to believe that praise is God’s love language.  We can spend quality time with Him, do acts of service in His name, give a smile or a hug to someone who just needs one, and give gifts to others just to bless them with the love of Christ.  God sees everything that we are doing and saying in His name and is pleased by those expressions of His love.  But when you get right down to it, we can’t touch God, and there is nothing we can offer others without His power and His resources.  So what does that leave us that we can truly give Him?  I think the answer is our heart expressed through affirmations, or praise.  I think He feels deeply loved by us when we just spend time expressing our love, letting Him know how much we really adore Him.  

Acts 17:24-25 says, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else”.  (I invite you to re-read this verse and put your name in it.  It becomes even more powerful.)  Doesn’t this passage say it all?  He doesn’t really “need” me or my services.  So what is left is recognizing that we exist because He wants to enjoy us and for us to enjoy the personal love relationship He offers to each of us.  The only thing I can really offer is what He really wants – praise, or words of affirmation.  I want to love God the way He wants to be loved.  I will be intentional to praise Him because that’s what He desires.   

I am made in His image.  Is it any surprise that what He wants from me is the same thing I really want from others?  These last two months of praising God intentionally has been a wonderful growing experience for me.  Since I believe praise is God’s love language, I am more intentional about praising God with words of affirmation, and I have found it to be a most enjoyable way of just connecting with Him. 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

10.4.10 Tug of War

Do you remember as a kid playing Tug of War?  Do you remember the sandpit, the rope with the red ribbon in the middle, and the goal line that the red ribbon had to cross to declare a victory?  It was always a test of not just strength, but also endurance. Teams could have comparable strength on both sides of the rope, but the team that endured the longest in the tug of war usually won.  The winning team was the one whose arms had rope burn and were ready to drop off from extreme fatigue.

This word picture came to mind after a dear friend sent me spiritual encouragement.  The Scripture was Ephesians 6:18 that says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  Those who are familiar with Scripture know this verse follows the well known admonition by Paul for each of us to put on the full spiritual armor of God, and the reason he tells us to do this is because Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against  flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  We’re obviously up against the evil one and his demons!   Thus, it’s no surprise that Paul commands us to “be alert and keep on praying for all of the saints”.  But I will also tell you that we should  be praying for lost souls too. 

The reality of spiritual warfare reminds me that there is a major tug of war for souls.  Each of us can probably identify family members, friends, colleagues, etc, who do not know the Lord and need us to pray for them.   The problem is I am not sure how many of us are consistently taking our place on the rope to ask the Lord’s assistance to reach a lost soul.  I even wonder if some us are so wrapped up in ourselves and enjoy our gift of salvation that we have walked away from the rope?  Do we have the heart of God that breaks knowing that a loved one is going to face a Christless eternity unless they turn their heart over to Jesus? 

I am a huge believer in the power of prayer.  I believe this tug of war can be won for lost souls if we would just be willing to take our place on the rope and start praying for them.  There is no question that it takes spiritual energy and time to get on our knees.  There will be times as we persist that we are tempted in our discouragement to walk away from the rope because our red ribbon hasn’t moved in years.  On the other hand, if ALL believers made it a priority to start praying for lost family members and friends on a consistent basis, my bet would be that we would see many more victories, and it would motivate us to pray even more.  

Scripture shows that  Jesus was a soul-winner.  Christ came to Earth to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).  In John 17:18 he prayed to his Father that just as God had sent him into the world, he is now sending us.  In Acts 2:8 we see recorded Jesus’ last word to his disciples before ascending into heaven saying “you will be my witnesses”.    He trained his disciples to be soul-winners.  He trusted us so much with the gospel message that he commanded us to “go and make disciples…” and promised to be with us on the journey (Matt 28:16-20). 

This tug of war is not a game to God.  For each engagement at the rope, for every time the red ribbon comes across the goal line, it means that a lost soul becomes a child of God and crosses over from death into eternal life.  God was so invested in this tug of war that He sent Jesus incarnate to die on a cross and pay the penalty of our sins with His blood.  Jesus was clearly about winning the lost, and we should be too.  He is not willing that anyone would perish, but that all would turn to Him with prayers of repentance (2 Peter 3:9).   Let’s be faithful prayer warriors and take advantage of the fact that “Christ who is in us is greater than he who is in the world” (I John 4:4) is our anchor at the end of the rope.

It’s time to get our knee pads and assume our positions at the rope.  This tug of war is real.  We have family and friends who deserve our spiritual energy to reach out to them with prayer.  NEVER GIVE UP.  We need prayer warriors to stay on the rope for however long it takes to win.  See you at the rope!

Blessings,

Lee Ann

9.20.10 Heavenbound

Have you ever read a passage of Scripture and have certain words just jump off the page?  I firmly believe that happens when the Holy Spirit wants us to pay attention to the word(s) that keep jumping out at us.  This experience happened to me after a dear friend with great enthusiasm placed her autographed copy of “90 Minutes in Heaven” by Don Piper in my hands and said, “You’ve got to read this!”

Because this book is Don’s true story of his 90 minutes in heaven, I couldn’t wait to read it.  There are two chapters in which he goes into detail about his observations in heaven,  and the Spirit used Don’s account to grab my attention around the most central thing we are supposed to be doing on a daily basis as a Christian, and that is praising God.   The word “praise” and the phrase “praising God” refused to be ignored as I read them.  Here are excerpts that kept pricking my heart as Don did his best to describe heaven when he arrived:

“They rushed toward me, and every person was smiling, shouting, and praising God.”

“Everyone continually embraced me, touched me, spoke to me, laughed, and praised God.”

“The praise was unending…”

“Each voice praised God…”

“Praise was everywhere…”

“Hallelujah!” “Praise!” “Glory to God!” “Praise the King”

“Hymns of praise, modern-sounding choruses, and ancient chants filled my ears…” (Here’s my one-sentence sermon: Apparently, God is pleased with all forms of music in His churches as long as He is being praised, so we need to quit arguing about it.)

“…all (hymns that filled the air) were praises about Christ’s reign as the King of Kings”

“He must be pleased and blessed by the continuous sounds of praise”

“Instead of just hearing the music and the thousands of voices praising God, I had become a part of the choir.”

I have understood that life has never been about me (though I wouldn’t mind and not that I haven’t tried!).  I get that I am to glorify Him in all that I say and do.  Sheila Walsh says,  “Our life is one long worship service to the Lord.”  I love that word picture.  But the question is, “If life on earth is a dress rehearsal for the things to come, how I am doing in the area of praising God?”  The answer is I have plenty of room for improvement, which probably explains why this phrase held my attention with the help of the Spirit.  Praising God should be ongoing through everything I say or do.  Either my actions, thoughts and deeds glorify Him and have eternal impact, or they don’t. 

The more I focused on the phrase “praising God”, the more I realized how shallow my efforts are at praising Him.  Praising God doesn’t just happen during a one-hour church service (though I think many of us lapse into that false mentality), but let me at least start there.  Perhaps you can relate.  How many times have you and I showed up for worship with the idea we are here to praise God, but just go through the motions of singing words on a screen?  Or worse, we chat with our friends while songs are being played.  How many times have we really showed up at church to “punch a clock”, yet our hearts were far away?  How many of us really come to worship with an attitude of profound reverence for God and a desire to communicate our adoration of Him?  Don’t many of us come to mainly hear a good sermon?  Doesn’t praising God tend to take a back seat?  What about our prayer life?  Are our prayers top-heavy with praise or mainly petitions?  When we get to heaven, praise is going to be continual as it should be right now. 

It  warmed my heart that music will permeate heaven and be a vital way that we praise God.  After reading that Don became a part of the choir, I just smiled remembering Psalm 150:6 that says, “Let everything that has breath (not pitch), praise the Lord.”  Though I have been blessed with some musical abilities and enjoy singing, it is fun to think that all followers of Christ will be in the choir whether you think you can sing or not, and you will blend in perfectly!  By the way, for those who are already wondering if heaven will be boring because of all of this praising going on, I can only say read “90 Minutes in Heaven”, and as my Dad put it the other day,  consider when we cast our crowns before Him that we will not be able to resist praising Him.  It will be the most natural response to a holy God!

After reading this book, I can no longer read, hear, or sing any form of the phrase “praise God” and be casual about it or be detached.  I will always think about Don’s encounters in heaven and the music he heard.  If you are wondering what it means to praise God,  praise is about celebrating and acknowledging WHO God is, while thanks is a response for WHAT God has done for us.  I would also invite you to read Psalms 145-150.  Let’s call Psalms 145-150 for the fun of it “Praising God 101” since these are specifically psalms of praise.  These Psalms are good training tools to help us exalt His name by focusing on a variety of His attributes.   In the meantime, if you were raised in the church and love hymns as I do, may you be blessed as you let me conclude with lyrics of praise from songs that come to mind that I can no longer sing casually:

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  Praise Him all creatures here below.  Praise Him all ‘bove ye heavenly hosts.  Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”

“To God be the Glory, great things He hath done….Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear your voice.  Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice….”

“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation…”

“Hal-le-lujah! Hal-le-lujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!  Ha-le-lujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth…”

“Praise the Lord, Oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.”

“O Worship the King, all glorious above; O gratefully sing His power and His Love.  Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise… ”

“Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love.  Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above…”

“O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth…Oh Lord, we praise your name.  Oh Lord, we magnify your name, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Oh Lord God Almighty.” 

“All creatures of our God and King.  Lift up your voice and with us sing, Alleluia! Alleluia!....”

“Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands hath made…”

“Holy, Holy, Holy.  Lord God, Almighty.  Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee.  Holy, Holy, Holy, Merciful and Mighty, God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.”

Blessings,

Lee Ann

8.8.10 Why Lie? I Need A Beer

It was 9:15am, and a panhandler’s sign said it all: “Why Lie? I Need a Beer”.  I loved his integrity!  I have shared in a prior writing my new tension of living in Austin where I see panhandlers on many corners and reconciling what God calls me to do in these situations.  As a Christian, can I really ignore someone asking for help?  And if the answer is “no”, then what should my help look like to a panhandler?

While teaching Sunday School over the last three weeks, our class explored with spirited conversation Luke 6:27-38 in which Jesus challenges us in verses 27-30 to love our enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you;  pray for those who mistreat you; and give to everyone who asks.  Jesus doesn’t just give us these commands, but He also gives us the “why” behind His commands found in verses 35-36.  Jesus wants us to do as He commands because He wants us to reflect His character – regardless of how we are treated by another person or how we perceive a certain type of person.  First, He wants us to be kind because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (which was each of us before we entered into a saving relationship with Christ).  Second, He wants us to be merciful just as He has been merciful to us.  How quickly I forget His kindness and mercy that He shows me on a daily basis!  I can’t even begin to count the number of ways I miss the mark daily, nor the number of times He has generously extended His limitless mercy and forgiveness when I didn’t deserve it.  

This leads me back to panhandlers.  Though I keep granola bars in my purse to give to a panhandler, I used to struggle with the idea of giving someone any cash for fear they would spend it on alcohol or cigarettes.  But the last two verses in Luke 6:37-38 has helped me turn the corner on this issue.  Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you.”  He wants us to be generous in our loving, forgiving and giving.  Because I am not to judge how I think they will use a handout, I have concluded that it is not my issue as to whether a person decides to buy a beer with it or not.  One can judge me and argue that I am enabling them and therefore not helping them, but the issue is whether or not I am being obedient to Jesus’ commands.  I will be held accountable as to whether I followed His commands or not.  Was I willing to reflect the generosity of God when asked?  The persons receiving a handout are accountable for how they use the gift.  In the meantime, by giving to a person who asks, I have followed Christ’s command to be kind and merciful, just as God has been kind and merciful to me.  I think it’s really that simple.  To make any of my giving a discussion about what I think a person is going to do with the gift is to enter into the role of “judge”, which I believe Jesus is telling me NOT to do. 

In the meantime, if the panhandler decided to go buy a beer, I’m not going to judge him.  It’s not my role.  

Blessings,

Lee Ann