Gain, Loss and Value Added

Sometimes people fear living for Christ because they think that they have to give up so much.  There is a fear of giving up a dream career or the love of your life, so they put off coming to Christ in order to have that which they fear losing.  The Apostle Paul was a man who knows something about gain and loss.  Paul called himself "a Pharisee of Pharisees" he was a distinguished member of the Sanhedrin, having been taught by one of the greatest Rabbis of his time, Gamaliel.  Saul as he is also known was a man of position and esteem and yet when he met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus he left it all behind to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Paul exchanged the life of prestige and privilege that he held as Saul the Pharisee for one of hardship, beatings, stoning and imprisonment.  We see an incredible account of how Paul viewed this exchange in Philippians chapter 3:  "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 3:7-11 NKJV)  What an incredible declaration!  This man, who at one time had been zealous for the Law and persecuted the followers of Christ has come to a point where he says that he counts all things as rubbish or garbage so that he can have Christ and be “found in Christ.” He desires the righteousness that is found in Christ and not in the Law.  Clearly Paul has found something that is worth more than any of the things that previously held such great importance to him; and he did it all in order to know Christ fully.  Not just to know Him but to know his suffering, to be conformed to His death, in other words Paul wanted so much of Christ that he wanted to be a companion in His suffering and he wanted to match His death.  Wow!  Can we say that we have made that same exchange for Christ?  Are you there yet?  I don’t know that I am, but I long to be!  Paul’s willingness to give up everything in order to gain Christ indeed cost him everything, including his life; but in that there was “value added.”  As his life came to an end Paul wrote to his “son” in the ministry, Timothy:  “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (II Timothy 4:6-8 NKJV)  Value added…Paul knew that while the Emperor Nero was ordering his death and that of his fellow Christians simply for sport, the Righteous Judge had already declared him a victor!  Despite the persecution, the rejection by his own people and even his death, Paul remained faithful and continued to trust the one who had “arrested” him on the Damascus road so many years earlier.  As a result of having given up everything, the Apostle knew that Jesus, the Righteous Judge” would award him a crown of righteousness because he was willing to give up everything!  Paul’s encouragement to Timothy and to us is that if we are willing to do the same that we too have a crown of righteousness awaiting us.  When I consider all that there is to gain, crowns to cast at the feet of my Lord, the privilege of reigning with Him in His Kingdom, and an eternity with my Lord and with God the Father, the questions that I always come back to are these, “Why do you hesitate to sell out?”  “Why do you look longingly at the piles of rubbish that you consider valuable?”  “Where is the loss in a life that is surrendered to Christ?”  I don’t know about you, but I am ready to cast it all aside so that like Paul I can say: "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…” Be encouraged dearly loved ones…the exchange is so great that you will never even miss the “rubbish” that you give up!  Let’s go for it!  All in and at all cost!  That in the end we too can receive the Crown of Righteousness that has been laid up for us!

Know Your Worth: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You

For most of my life I have suffered with self-esteem issues.  Even as a saved woman of God, I have battled low self-esteem and poor self-image.  What I have found in the past few months, however is that this has served to open the door to people who have used that to their advantage and who have in turn used me.  You see when you don't place the proper value on yourself, there are people who will use you, take advantage of your gifts and talents; while making you feel that they are doing you a favor.  They prey upon your insecurities and hurt you but they never say I am sorry and always manage to make you feel that somehow you are the problem.  Today I can tell you, dearly loved ones that I have been there, done that and have the scars to prove it.  But I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit, who in recent days has begun to minister this truth to me..."You have worth, and value and until you see this, there will always be someone standing in line to use you and take advantage."  So I want to share this truth with you.  As a teacher, and because I know my issue with low self-esteem and poor self-image, I have always counseled young women to "know their worth."  When I see them allowing someone to devalue them, I always ask them the question, "What value do you place on yourself?"  I now realize that this truth has been stuck in my head for many years, but has never made its way into my heart.  I never really knew my worth, never really placed value upon myself until I came face to face with the truth that I was being devalued, and that I had allowed it!  In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells the parable of the woman who lost a coin, ⁸ “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ I know that this scripture is referring to sinners coming to salvation, but I also believe that in a broader sense, it is talking about the value that the Father places on each of us.  This woman knew that the coin had value, so she didn't simply dismiss the fact that it was lost, even though she still had nine other coins, but instead she went to great pains to find that coin.  This simple story speaks a very deep, eternal truth to me, we matter to God!  He has taken great care in creating a masterpiece in each of us, a thing of beauty; a work of art!  And regardless of the countless billions that have walked this earth, we are each priceless to Him!  When we devalue ourselves, or allow others to devalue us, we are saying that the masterpiece that God created, you and me, is really worthless!  How do you suppose the Father feels as He observes us allowing ourselves to be used and discarded like a Kleenex that someone used to wipe their nose?  I can only imagine that it causes Him great pain.  Psalms 139:14 gives us a good view of how the Father wants us to see ourselves: "I praise [thank] You because You made me in an amazing [awesome] and wonderful way. What You have done is wonderful. I know this very well."(EXB)  We, beloved, are valuable to God!  Even when we don't count ourselves as having value, even when others discount our value, God the Father always knows our worth.  In Matthew 10, Jesus reminds us of this..."²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."(ESV) During Jesus' time, sparrows were of so little value that two sparrows were sold for less than a penny in today’s currency, but God cared so much for them that not one of them was lost or destroyed without Him being aware of it; but Jesus goes on to remind us that we are so valuable to God that He took the time to number even the hairs on our heads!  Dearly loved ones, I will say this again, we matter so much to God!  So my encouragement to you today is this...see yourself as the valuable silver coin, the wonderfully made masterpiece, the creation so precious that your Father even took the time to count the hairs on your head; and do not allow ANYONE into your life who does not know your value and your worth!  
Be encouraged beloved and keep your eyes on the Father!

  Evangelist Carolyn 

Trusting God: Now Unto Him who is Able

*This is the third in the series on Trusting God and is a repost from September 2010.  If you have read it already, I hope that you will read it again, because the Lord had given me new insights and new things to write.  I hope that it will bless you.

So...trusting God, take 3.  How do we come to the place of total trust in God, in His goodness, in His faithfulness, in His love?  It doesn't seem like the hard places of our lives would be where we learn to trust God, but they are.  Why is that?  Why did God allow Jezebel to threaten Elijah and send him running to the cave?  Why was Abraham tested to the point of taking his son to be offered as a sacrifice to God?  And why do we face our cave, our climb up the mountain ready to sacrifice that thing we love most?  Abraham, Elijah, us--why does God take us through the various trials that we face?  Is He just mean and gets a kick out of seeing us suffer?  No!  First and foremost, we must remember that God is good and He loves us beyond measure.  I know what you're thinking, "Ok smarty pants--then why does He allow us to go through these trials?" I will answer that question with a story.  When I started a fitness program with a personal trainer, he told me that in order to lose the most weight quickly, he needed to start me on a strength building program with weights to build muscle, and the muscles would then burn the fat as fuel.  Now, can I tell you that this was not at all pleasant at first!  Some of my weight routines required that I lift as much as 120 pounds and that was hard!  In the first couple of weeks, I was so sore I hated the thought of going to the gym!  As I continued to go, I began to look forward to my workout time.  A few weeks more and I began to see definition in my muscles, my clothes began to fit better and I had more energy than ever!  The muscles that I had begun to build were now using the stored fat as fuel.  Even when I was doing simple tasks like walking the corridors of my school, my muscles were working, burning fat; the strenuous workouts that my trainer created for me were conditioning my body so that even when I wasn't actually working out, my newly formed muscles were working.  So how does this relate to our learning to trust God?  I believe that each time we face trials, we have one of two choices: trust God to bring us out or hide in the cave.  If we decide, "I really don't know how God and I am a little afraid, but I am going to trust You," what we find is that God does come to where we are and gives us the help that we need.  Every time we make this choice, we build our faith and trust in God.  Just like I build muscles every time I workout, which in turn allows me to get stronger; every time we face a situation where we must trust God and only God, our faith and trust in Him grows stronger!  Our trials create a track record by which we can trace the faithfulness of God, we in turn develop a stronger and more lasting faith.  We must come to know that God does not do things the way that we think He should, we can't even imagine sometimes how God is going to respond to our place of trial, but we must know that our God can do anything.  The Apostle Paul says it this way, "Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine according to the power that works in us."  What power?  The power of the Living God in the person of the Holy Spirit.  The scripture reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in us.  How can we fail? How can we be destroyed? How can anything take us down when we have the power of the Eternal God working in us and for us?  This power allows us to stand in the face of our "Jezebels" and "mountain climbs" knowing that our God loves us and He always has a plan for our lives, "to do us good and not evil and to give us a hope and a future."  That being said--Let's keep pumping, building our faith physique..."One, I'll trust you Father, two, I'll trust you Father..."

Continue to fight the good fight of faith dearly loved ones!

Evangelist Carolyn

Trusting God: Abraham's Story

**Reposted from September 7, 2010**
For the past few weeks I have come across people, myself included, who have every reason to feel like God has forgotten or failed them, but as I went back and looked at this blog from 2010, I received a new burst of faith to trust God!  There are actually three posts in the series, starting with the one shared earlier this week...Trusting God.  As I read these posts again, I felt compelled to share them with you all.  I hope that you are blessed by them!

When we first meet Abraham, he is not some strapping young boy itching to go out and conquer the world!  He was in fact, seventy-five years old.  From the beginning of their relationship, God made Abraham many precious promises and the scripture says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.  Simply by believing that God was who He said He was and that He would do what He said that He would do, Abraham was deemed righteous.  This always amazes me.  I think about this man who at seventy-five years of age received a promise that he and his sixty-five year old wife would become parents and he believed God.  Even when it took twenty-five years for this promise to come to pass, the bible tells us that Abraham staggered not at the promise.  Are you kidding me?  There are promises that I have received from God and I'm no where near twenty-five years in my waiting yet there are days that I feel myself begin to stagger!  Sometimes I wonder if Abraham is up in heaven shaking his head at staggering, untrusting me.  Abraham was obviously some special brand of person right?  No, not really!  Abraham was a man who was able to see the promise in the light of the God who was making the promise.  He did not minimize God while maximizing his limitations.  Abraham did not focus on--"I'm seventy-five, my wife is sixty-five and we've never been able to conceive a child!  How on earth can this happen for us now?"  We don't hear Abraham complaining at the five, ten, twenty year marks as he waited on God.  Abraham knew that the God who promised could be trusted to keep His promise.  At the end of his twenty-five year wait, Abraham at 100 years old fathered a son with his ninety year old wife Sarah!  What joy *sigh* life is good!!  Wait a minute, not so fast.  Just as the elderly parents were settling into domestic bliss with their young son, God asks Abraham to trust Him once again.  This time, He was asking for Abraham's son Isaac.  God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  Can't you see Abraham's shoulders slump, and just imagine what he must have been thinking..."not again!" Yet Abraham gathered his son, his knife and the wood for the fire and set out to offer this sacrifice to God.  You're probably thinking as I am, "I'll bet he staggered then." Nope, not Abraham.  As they made their way to the place where they would make their sacrifice, Isaac questioned his father, "I see the wood, but where is the sacrifice?"  Abraham's response, "God will provide the sacrifice."  And what does God do?  Just as Abraham raised his knife to kill his son, the Angel of the Lord called out and stopped him.  Abraham looked and God had in fact provided a sacrifice in the form of a ram.  Why on earth would God make Abraham wait twenty-five years for a son then ask him to offer that son as a sacrifice to Him?  The answer is really kind of simple.  God loves us so much that there is nothing and no one that He would not give for us.  John 3:16 tells us, " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."  God wanted Abraham and us to know that He is prepared to do anything to have us with Him forever because He loves us so much; and what He asks of us is that we love Him so much that we are willing to trust Him with every single thing in our lives.  When we magnify things in our lives, job situations, family situations, whatever the case, we are not trusting God and therefore we are not loving Him.  We don't have to be spiritual giants when we get into a tough place in our lives.  We just have to look at our tough place in the light of who our God is.  Can you trust God with your physical health?  Absolutely!  Can you trust Him with your finances in these troubled economic times?  Without a doubt!  Can you trust Him with your children, your husband or wife?  Without fail!  If we learn anything from Abraham's story it should be that we can trust God.  There is not a timeline with God, just know that He will keep His promise.  There is nothing too hard for God, He will show up in the midst of our situation and bring us peace and provision.  That being said, let's take a deep breath, gather our sacrifice and head out--simply trusting that the Lord will provide...whatever!! 

Keep looking to the hills dearly loved ones!

Evangelist Carolyn

Trusting God

I have been saved for 17 years now, and during that time, God had done some amazing things for me!  Things that give me reason to trust Him even in the most difficult times, yet I recently discovered in my spiritural walk that there are in fact times that I do not trust Him at all.  Shocking huh?  Yet when I study the scripture I see that I am in good company.  The prophet Elijah was a mighty man of God.  Elijah prayed and God did not send rain for three years.  Elijah gathered the people together and challenged the prophets of baal to see whose god would answer by fire.  The prophets of baal called on their god all day without a response.  When it was Elijah's turn to call on God he had the people to drench the sacrafice, the altar and the surrounding area with water.  Then Elijah called on God and He answered by fire, consuming the sacrifice and the water.  Elijah then killed the prophets of baal, prayed for God to send the rain again and outran King Ahab's chariot down the mountain when the rain began to fall.  Elijah knew that God would answer him.  He knew that he could trust God.  Why then did Elijah run scared when he got a message from Jezebel that she was going to kill him?  Why did this mighty prophet of God find himself hiding in a cave with God asking him the question, "What are you doing here Elijah?"  Why do we run scared?  We have evidence of God's faithfulness.  We know His track record in our lives and then we get the doctor's report, the pink slip from our job, a child put in harms way, a marriage in a mess and we run to our cave.  Jesus tells us "In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world."  What Jesus was saying is that He took away the world's ability to destroy us.  Even when it gets hard and there seems to be no way out, God sees us.  He knows what we're going through and He is willing and able to move in our situation...even when it doesn't seem that way.  So what do we do when we come up against our Jezebel and God finds us hiding in our cave?  First of all repent for failing to trust that He is good and that He has a good plan for your life.  Then remind yourself of all the times that God has shown Himself faithful to you.  And when He speaks to you in the cave and asks, "What are you doing here?"  You can say, "I'm waiting on You to move!"  That being said, if anybody needs me...I'll be in the cave!! 
Keep looking to the hills dearly loved ones our God is on the Throne and He is going to move! 
Originally posted August 30, 2010

Know Your Enemy

Over the past several weeks I have had occasion to take part in conversations with people who are believers but seem to have a fear of Satan.  If not fear then there is a sense that Satan is somehow as powerful as God.  I don't want to pretend that I have not had my moments of what Satan "might" do to me, but in all honesty, even before I became a Christian I never bought into the notion of Satan as God's equal opposite.  Even as a sinner, I knew that there was no way that Lucifer, this being that God had created, was some how as powerful as God.  We have to remember that Satan is who he is and where he is because of his failed insurrection in heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15).  What I hope to do in this post is to disabuse you of the notion that we should fear Satan, that Satan is so powerful that we must approach him with caution.  I  believe that this blog post is being written under the unction of the Holy Spirit and will be presented with simplicity and clarity so that no one will come away thinking that I am teaching some strange and flawed theology!  So here we go...Know Your Enemy!  We should begin, well...at the beginning.  The scripture referenced above lets us in on Lucifer's fall, so we know why he was cast out of heaven and how he came to be in the Garden of Eden and use the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve.  In falling to Satan's temptation and being disobedient to God, Adam and Eve ceded the dominion of the earth to Satan.  So for several millennia Satan ruled and had power as the god of this world.  Then Jesus, the Son of God came as a human man and walked this earth, operating out of the same authority and dominion that God the Father had given to Adam.  Jesus did not concern himself with Satan.  In the wilderness when He was tempted, Jesus rebuked Satan and sent him away defeated...this was only the first of many times He would rebuke and defeat Satan!  When the demons that tormented God's children would come face to face with Jesus, they trembled and fell at His feet, crying out, "Why have You come to torment us before the time!"  When He commanded them they would leave!  So you say, yes, but He was JESUS!!! But I want you to remember my assertion that He was a human man, He was not operating out of a divine nature, Jesus, the son of Joseph was a human man!  And as a human man, He recognized His access to the Kingdom of Heaven and His position as the Son of God. Jesus exercised the authority that God had given to Adam in the Garden.  In the tenth chapter of the book of Luke, Jesus sends the seventy disciples out to various cities where He, Himself would soon go; and when the disciples returned, the scripture says they returned with joy declaring to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Luke 10:17 NKJV.  Jesus' responded to the disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:18-20 NKJV.   Now tell me, dearly loved ones, why should we be wearied by and worried about a fallen being when we have been given authority over all of the power he has.  Let's look at one thing before I close, the difference between authority and power.  In the Greek, the word authority, exousia, means rightful, actual, and unimpeded power to act, or to possess, control, use, dispose of, something or somebody. Wow! And Jesus gave us this authority over all of the enemy (Satan's) power. The word "power in the Greek means, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth.  Just think, our authority is unimpeded power to act; Satan's power is the power that he exerts or puts forth.  Jesus gave us unimpeded power to possess, control or dispose of Satan's power!  Satan can only do what we allow him to do, so why do we concern ourselves with what he is going to do?  If you possess unimpeded power to act, control or dispose of Satan's power, why would you allow him to do anything to you, your family or those in your circle of influence?  Know your enemy dearly loved ones...he is a being created by God the Father, cast down by God the Father, and defeated by Jesus Christ the Messiah, who also gave us authority over his power.  We will ALWAYS win in Christ Jesus.  Be Encouraged!

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Many people consider the 23rd Psalms to be a Sunday School verse for children to learn, others think that it is a verse to be quoted at funerals.  But I submit to you that the 23rd Psalms is a scripture related to the Good Shepherd, Jesus, developing in us the character and nature of God.  The image of Jesus as a shepherd is an appropriate one.  You see, the shepherd is the sheep's protector, his provider, his comfort and Jesus is all these things to us.  I believe that in this Psalm, David wanted us to reflect upon WHO Christ is in our lives at all times, even in the difficult places.  Psalm 23:1-3 reads: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."(ESV).  These verses allow us to see Jesus as our comforter, and protector.  He leads us to places of rich provision and calm in our lives.  He guides us along right paths so that our lives bring glory and honor to Him.  All of this sounds absolutely wonderful until we run smack into verse four:  "Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." Huh?  VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH! What happened to the green pastures and the calm waters?  Where's that right path?  Well, what I believe is that the "path of righteousness" takes us into "the valley of the shadow of death."  I know what you're probably thinking, "wait a minute Evangelist, that's a little far fetched."  Just think about David's words for a moment, "He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."  I believe that these two verses are tied together and that the path of righteousness will of necessity lead us through the valley of the shadow of death.  You see, when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we receive eternal life, but there are things from our old life, our old nature that we still carry and that can hinder us from becoming all that Christ wants us to be.  It is in the valley of the shadow of death that our old man, that old nature dies.  The valley of the shadow of death is not about physical death, but the death process for our old nature.  Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about the caterpillar.  Well, in a similar sense, the valley of the shadow of death is our cocoon.  It is the place where we come face to face with those things in our lives that do not glorify God and it is there that we must willingly surrender them.  David goes on in the verse to explain why we should not fear the valley of the shadow of death: " I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." When Christ leads us into that place where He exposes the things in our lives that must die in order for us to become all that He wants us to be, we don't have to be afraid of any evil that might try to attack us in this vulnerable place, where we are being exposed at our deepest levels because He is there with us.  Not only is He there with us, but He has His rod and His staff to protect us from the evil one and to correct us and keep us on the path of righteousness.  How are we to approach our valley of the shadow of death?  We find our answer in Hebrews 12:12, "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (ESV).  When we are going through the valley of the shadow of death, we should look to Jesus as our example, and endure the dying process because in the end it is going to produce righteousness that glorifies God and allow us to share His throne with Him.  So today, dearly loved ones, Praise God for the path of righteousness that leads us through the valley of the shadow of death!