jenrancour Ramblings of a Girl Gone Gospel

Drawing closer to the face of God is the most important work of a Christian’s life. You absolutely cannot progress toward a deeper relationship with God without Christ and you absolutely cannot progress toward Christ without humility. I used to (dang, still do!) confuse humility with humiliation. Humans often fight being humble with three things and it is these three things that keep us from God. You have to be willing to let go of old attitudes which block humility, three of which are:

LOW SELF ESTEEM- You need to retrain your brain to cut out any negative self-talk. In John 8:44 the Word tells us the devil is the father of lies. God wants you to focus on things that are worthy of praise, not things that are worthy of complaining. Another way to combat negative self-talk and thought is to give yourself daily amounts of self-care. This could mean a walk in the woods, a bike ride with the kids or simply soaking your feet in sudsy hot water. The intention of self-care is to rest in order to hear the word of God.

STATUS-SEEKING- This last weekend, EVERGREEN’S Children’s Pastor, Sara Estenson shared a sermon titled PARENTING FROM THE HEART You become a good parent when you shift the focus off what others do and think and onto what God would have you do in your circumstances.

Then He said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-He is the greatest.” -Luke 9:48

Jesus is settling an argument among the disciples as to which one of them would be the greatest. Compare and despair is a phrase common in the rooms of A.A. and is meant to stifle the need to seek approval and status through things not of God. Pastor Sara candidly shared that YOU are a child of God and in order to stay close to the father, you need to TRUST, ABIDE AND SEEK HOLINESS. To seek holiness is not striving to be better than your neighbor, it means to seek God’s wisdom for your life so you can be useful to your neighbor.

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS- The tendency to justify your actions, excuse your bad behavior is human nature. It is also human nature to, at the core of your soul, understand the wrongness of selfishness. This is why shame, guilt and humiliation comes to define humility to many. Forgiving yourself needs to be at the top of any list of inventory in order to make solid, lasting change. If you cannot forgive yourself, you will not recover from self or develop the deep relationship with God that He, and the core of you, desires. Admit it.

By attending any church who speaks the Gospel, shares Jesus, and studies the Word of God, you can learn to improve on these principles. If you actively practice living your faith, you learn how to balance out positive self-worth while remaining humble.

“My Father Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, GOOD and BAD. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength as I go out to do your bidding. In Jesus Name, Amen.” -Alcoholics Anonymous, pg 76.

ARE YOU WILLING FOR GOD TO HAVE ALL OF YOU?

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. -E..E. Cummings

Who are you, really? If someone were to ask you this question, how would you answer? Identity tends to get convoluted with tasks and class systems and birth order. We tend to answer the question with an explanation of what our job is, who we are married to, how many kids we have, what habits and recreational activities we indulge in. Mostly we spend time comparing ourselves to one another, perhaps gaining the ability to actually identify with one another, but still…something is not quite right. As christians, we forget the main identifying factor; WHO ARE WE IN CHRIST? What does it mean to be a son or daughter of Christ?

“I am the Vine; you are the branches.” -John 15:5

In order to know our identity, we must look further at what a branch is and how that applies to our life with Christ. Picture a grapevine. A branch is a bit of wood, brought forth from the vine to serve the vine by bearing fruit. Bearing fruit is the job of the branch. It is of the same nature of the vine, made of the same stuff. Plants are mainly carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, so it is safe to say, the branch is a “carbon-copy” of the vine. It has one life and one spirit with it. A branch off a grapevine isn’t a plant on it’s own, dang, if it is cut off from the vine it withers and dies after a few short hours.

As believers, we have the make-up in our very being to be carbon-copies of Christ but only if we stay connected to Him. A believer has one main point in being a branch, to bear fruit, that is our purpose. But we can only bear fruit if we gather strength and nutrients from the Heavenly Vine. Happy is the heart that is surrendered to this idea of purpose. If you can truly grasp the concept of being a branch, of fully understanding that you are one in the same as the Vine but at the same time can only get your strength THROUGH the Vine, then the result is quite simple; ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS BE A BRANCH. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS! This can give us comfort and keep us humble if we grasp our purpose fully.

ARE YOU A BRANCH THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE VINE?

Free will is often a double-edged sword. You are made with free will AND God-given talents and abilities. There are temptations all around you, pulling in destructive directions under the guise of self-preservation. Ego allows you to argue with your spouse, rather than humbly admit you don’t have all the answers. Fear permits you to hide behind alcohol or food or numb you through the self-propulsion of over-working instead of intentionally being God-relient. In this parable from Matthew, notice the correlation between us and the two plants that will be harvested.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weed come from?’
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
The servant asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
‘No’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvester; first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn’. – Matthew 13:24-30

The beauty of free will is that when partnered with the grace of God through Jesus, you can turn away from the self-destruction and self-propulsion. The opportunity is in you. Accepting Jesus means you have a brand new day everyday to make better choices and choose between the weeds and the wheat…as long as you follow a few simple guidelines:

Pray.Humble yourself before God and admit YOU don’t have all the answers.

Do. Doing service either at your job or volunteering provides an opportunity to focus on others so you are less-inclined to despair into self-pity.

Rest. No T.V. No radio. No computer. No iPad. No phone. Try it for five minutes and see that God has a word for you.

We all get harvested in the end. Will you be wheat or will you be weed?

I wrote this last fall, and am bringing it forward again…see the thing of it is, I am a slow learner,a sheep who needs constant direction, constant prodding to stay on the path. I don’t think I am the only one, in fact I can pretty much guarantee it. Get to the heart of YOU. In order to know yourself you need to spend time with God. Alone. It is that simple. You cannot be effective in your marriage or with your kids or with your job if you do not have quiet time with the one who saved you. If you have already crossed the line of faith then you are being disobedient if you are not hanging with Him on a consistent basis. If you haven’t accepted Jesus into your heart, you need to and I highly encourage you to find a church home. (Mine is awesome, see below!)

We spend a lot of time speculating on the reason we exist. What is my purpose? Why am I here? Why do I have to go through this trial in my life? Instead of ruminating and speculating, why not rev-elate? When an inventor creates something, it is often asked of them, “how and why?” We can learn the hows and whys of our lives if we only think to ask the inventor. Good thing he gave us the perfect instruction manual (in case you didn’t know- I was referring to the bible.)

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.” Ephesians 1:11 (msg)

Before I found my way back to God I was clueless, wandering in the desert of too many hopeless thoughts and murdered dreams. Since coming home to Christ through first the 12 steps of recovery and then through my church home at EVERGREEN I have hope, I have knowledge in a savior and I have continued faith that I am worthy and there is much purpose to my life. Being a Christian is kind of like being in the mob- I know too much now to ever go back to my old life.

I forgot this for a moment. For just a moment, I wanted to go back to my old life of not caring for others, not caring about the right choices and practicing self-discipline; I wanted to go back to being a non-believer. Y’know how we romanticize our memories? Yeah, I went there. Luckily, I soon remembered the fear that cramped my life before, paralyzing my potential and the sick thinking that rendered me absolutely useless to my friends, my family and God. Blech. Naw, on second thought, I’ll take the mob of Christianity-I’m in it for life and what a beautiful life it is!

2 Timothy 2:25 “You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth.”