Jesus Loves YOU

Day 4: Fast

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 18:31-21:24

OK, so if you’re still reading today you’ve decided to see this thing out the whole way. You’ve decided to join us on our journey and sex fast with us. I’m telling you, this is very powerful stuff, not for the faint of heart. However, you WILL NOT REGRET THIS! Christian was reluctantly compliant in our first and second sex fast (yes, believe it or not, we’ve done this more than once) and close to the end of the second fast he told me, “We should really do this again sometime”. Taking sex out of your relationship changes it, dramatically. I’m going to be honest with you, fasting is difficult. You will fight, you will cry, you will be frustrated and you will be angry; and so you will pray, you will read (I suggest the Bible along with this book), and you will seek God like never before. This is why I wish I could be there with you, to encourage you to keep going. You CAN survive this storm, your marriage and your family WILL be so much better for it in the end. Yes, your family, for generations to come! For instance, David and Bathsheba committed the sexually immoral sin of adultery, you can find their story in 2 Samuel 11 and then on throughout the rest of the Bible. That one night of passion started a ripple effect that sent a wave through their entire household for generations afterward – including but not limited to incestuous rape, murder because of that rape, pagan wives… and lots of them! So if you’re not quite sure about doing this just for yourselves, consider doing it for your kids and grandkids!

Through fasting and praying you are not only showing God how important this is to you, but more so, you are showing each other and the non-omnipotent principalities of this world who are in charge of carrying out your curse, how serious you are about breaking it! A curse must be broken through relative means; through a similar way in which it was brought upon the person under the curse. If sexual immorality put you under a curse then sexual purity is what gets you out of it. And “fasting is the most sacred, most serious, most sacrificial way to present ourselves in total devotion to the Lord. Fasting helps us relinquish our will to God. By abstaining from food [or sex], humbling our souls, and setting worldly matters aside in an act of worship, we can please God beyond compare.”

God cares more about our motives than our actions. Therefore, we fast as an act of thanks for the second chance He has given us, and as atonement for the sexually immoral acts that we have committed in the past. This is not something to take lightly my friend; you are entering into a serious commitment, one that will have a major impact on your life, a very positive one if you’re willing to do it for the right reasons. Here are the rules of the road, they’re pretty simple and there are only two.

1) Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:16-18 In other words, don’t make a big deal about the fast to everyone you see. In fact, don’t tell anyone, it’s to be done in secret. We committed our sexually immoral acts in secret and God saw them; similarly redeem them in secret as well. God will see it and reward you for it. So far in my experience I’ve had a rule of 2 for my fasting. Both times God has given me 2 other people to share my secret. I have asked those people to pray for me and my husband that we may be successful in our fast, and that we will grow closer to God and each other because of it. Other than those 2 people, to everyone else it’s business as usual, no matter what, no complaining, grumbling or twisting your face to show disapproval. Remember, God sees what is done in secret, both the bad and the good. Trust me, this IS worth it.

2) This fast includes ALL SEXUAL ACTIVITY OF ANY KIND. We’re not just talking about strictly sex here. We’re talking no sex, no touching each other (except for hugs and 10 second kisses), and no touching yourself! NOTHING FOR 30 DAYS! It was through complete abstinence that we grew so much during that time. Plus, in a way, it was resetting our bodies back to the “manufacturer’s settings” so to speak. Seriously, if you do not take my word for this particular part of the fast you will not gain as much from the experience. Trust me on this one!

To help you through this I suggest memorizing some scriptures. They are extremely wise and really do help in those moments of weakness. 2 of my favorites for this are: 1 Corinthians 9:27 and Romans 6:14. Both of these verses appealed to me because of the idea of being the master of my body. There were moments of temptation, man of them. And in those moments I could not allow my body the luxury of indulgence; I had to “beat” it instead. I would say to myself, “No body, you are NOT in control and you will not get your way this time!” That’s the true meaning of “SELF” control. Your body is NOT the master of you! You are the master of your body; do not allow your body to be the one in control!

A couple quick notes before I hand the laptop over to Christian. Wives, before day 30 arrives make sure to buy a new white bra and panties and if money isn’t too tight, a beautiful white satin nightgown. I’ll explain more about this later, but for now, start looking for some beautiful new underwear or jammies… or BOTH! Also, since this is supposed to be a 30 day fast and you’re now on day 5 of the book, may I suggest 1) start reading from day 1 again, or 2) skip reading on Sundays to make up the difference. May God lead you in which method you should apply.

Christian’s comments:

All right! You guys are on board, so Let’s DO THIS THING! Husbands! You may not be too thrilled by this, but you just need to suck it up! Oh wait poor choice of words there. You can handle it! No, that’s not right either. It’s going to be hard, scratch that, difficult, but you will manage. Seriously, though, you will get through this. You have to follow the rules though.

Number one: No whining, complaining, moaning, groaning, or any other form of grumbling allowed. Don’t say anything to the guys at work. No “The old lady says” comments to your buddies that you play sports with. No “Old ball and chain” remarks to the guys in the garage (if you’re a gear-head like me). Tell no one! Just live your life like nothing is different. However, don’t be surprised if they mention how they see or notice a difference in you.

 

Number two: No sexual activity of any kind! You will be tempted to, ahem, “take matters into your own hands”. Fight that temptation. Learn the scriptures that Tamar mentioned above. Recite them whenever you are tempted. There is an old joke that 90% of men admit to masturbating, the other 10% are liars. If you masturbate, you will be greatly tempted. One tip: Don’t think about getting through the 30 days all together, you will likely fail. Instead, get through one day at a time. If that’s too long, just get through one hour at a time. That’s how addicts beat their addictions. If they think about going the rest of their life without whatever they are addicted to (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.), they will fail almost every time. So they break it down into shorter time intervals, usually hours. That’s how I beat my addiction to chewing tobacco. I would think, “I can make it through this hour without it.” Then think the same thing the next hour.

 

Another tip: Remove any sexually suggestive material from your house and workplace. Any movies, pictures, magazines, etc. They don’t necessarily have to be pornographic either. Like I stated in chapter three, they could be something as simple as a movie with scantily clad women, or even your wife’s Cosmo magazines. I still struggle with the temptations of pornography and masturbation. Having fewer things to tempt me, made the fast much easier to get through. It also helps after the fast is over.

Categories: 365 Life, Jesus Loves YOU, Luke, True Intimacy, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 2 Comments

Day 3: Return

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 15:11-18:30

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. Luke 1:45

Blessed is she who believed. Do YOU believe that God can heal your marriage? I believed; and it totally changed the course of my entire life. God’s plans for us are so much bigger and better than our own plans. HE knows the future, we don’t. Trust Him. He is faithful to His word. When you obey Him, He blesses you. Sometimes more than you can bear. So I hope you’re ready for this!

I would like to share a letter to God that I wrote in the beginning of this journey.

“Lord, my heart is so broken right now. I am so consumed with Christian and his neglect of his duties to us. I don’t understand what you want me to do. I know that you don’t want divorce because I have a blood covenant with him, but he hurts my feelings so much. I feel like he’s sucking the spirit from me. Yet I love him so desperately. I can’t REALLY leave him. You’re not really telling me to leave the husband of my youth are you? Surely not. What you have joined together let no man tear asunder right?

Lord, I need an undivided heart, one where BOTH halves are pumping and functioning together as one. PLEASE help us become one again. And not just for a short time but for forever. Please please please don’t let it come to this again! Please Lord, I’m begging you; heal us back together again so that we are one functioning heart again. Let the two become one and stay that way!”

Reading that letter again I remember the pain and grief that I felt over how our relationship was fairing. Yet, it makes me happy to read it, because it shows me just how far we’ve truly come; how far God has brought us on the path of healing. In response to this letter do you know what God told me? Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; (Acts 3:19) He gave me my answer. Repent, turn to God, and times of refreshing WOULD come. Not maybe they’d get here, they WOULD come. I had already repented of my sin of pre-marital sex and I believe God had forgiven me for it. But I hadn’t forgiven myself, and I certainly hadn’t forgiven Christian for taking my virginity before it was time to take it. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t rape me, if I had told him “no” he would NOT have had sex with me.

I’ll never forget that moment of decision as long as I live! We were lying there completely naked together, Christian over me asking “What do you think?” And I heard God’s desperate plea in my right ear say: “Baby, don’t do this!” But the tempter was right there too, in my left ear, “Oh, it’s no big deal, you’re going to marry each other at some point anyway so what difference does it make if you do it now or later? It’s all the same. Go ahead. Do it.” And just like Eve, I believed his LIE! So instead of saying “no”, I said “yes”. And that moment, the moment I said “yes” instead of “no”, changed everything. That one moment of disobedience turned our whole world upside down.

So, back in the present day, what’s a girl to do?!? I felt like I needed to talk to Christian and in the least, request an apology from him. But as I was preparing for my “talk” with him I did a lot of praying and scripture searching. I felt that we needed to do more than just ask for forgiveness, we needed to DO something. “God guide me!” I said. He immediately made my eyes fall on Ezekiel 33:14-16. But when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die,” and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.

God gave me the steps to take. 1) Repent of our sin of sexual immorality by asking for forgiveness from God, each other, and ourselves. 2) Do what is right and restore what has been taken, therefore making restitution. 3) Sin no more. Once we’ve done those three things NONE of our sins will be held against us anymore! We will be free! “OK”, I thought. “I can do that! Ummm, but Lord, how can I pay You back? How can Christian return what he stole from me? I mean… A hymen’s not really something that grows back ya know.” That’s when the idea of fasting came to mind. How can you give back sex? Stop having it! Not forever obviously, just for a time. In 1 Corinthians 7:5 Paul writes: Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. He was telling his followers in the church of Corinth that they should not withhold sex from their spouses except to grow closer to God, and only for a specific period of time so that the enemy would not tempt them to commit sexual immorality. All of this seemed to fit perfectly for our situation. I needed to repent and return the things that I had stolen and I needed to do that by abstaining from sexual relations with my husband for 30 days (which is the traditional length of a mourning period, fitting I thought). I knew that Christian would not be happy about it, but I also knew that I would give him no choice. And he’s a great man; I knew he wouldn’t force me.

Christian’s comments:

Christian was not happy, not happy at all. No sex for 30 days! We weren’t having sex all that often, but 30 days? That’s like a month!

Yeah, I wasn’t happy and I didn’t really understand either. But it was important to Tamar, so it was important to me. As was stated in chapter one, as well as here, I wasn’t a great husband. No, I wasn’t a good husband, or father. I’d stay out late, working on demolition derby cars at one of my friends’ shops. I would only begrudgingly come home if Tamar had something to go to. It wasn’t that I didn’t love Tamar, but to me, everything I had going on was more important that anything she had going on. Little did I know, that’s what was tearing us apart.

The fast came along about the same time that I began to realize that I was a major problem in our marriage (after the pre-marital sex, multiple partners, masturbation, and porn of course). So I thought, “Hey, if this will help us to get closer, I’m in.” Boy howdy! Have we ever gotten closer (Wink wink, nudge nudge). Things aren’t perfect, but they are much better, and getting better every day.

Categories: 365 Life, Jesus Loves YOU, Luke, True Intimacy, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Day 2: Shadows

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 12:22-15:10

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He watches all his paths. His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray. Proverbs 5:21-23

In this proverb it talks about how our sins capture us, tying us up in cords. Our lack of knowledge will lead us astray and cause us to make mistakes. Our sins have enormous impact on our lives and our children’s lives, especially when it’s not immediately evident.

Take Adam and Eve for example. In the Garden of Eden, God had originally commanded Adam: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Then, later, in Genesis 3: 4 Eve has a conversation with a talking snake where he tells her that she will not “surely die”. And she believed him! She took the fruit… ate it… HEY! No death! Well, huh, no immediately evident death anyway. There was immediate death alright. The death of innocence, and the birth of guilt, shame and sorrow. That is what disobedience (sin) will do; it immediately births guilt and shame and sorrow; all things that God never wants you to live with.

Have you ever spent time just looking at a shadow? I mean really watching it? Everything casts a shadow, even glass. Old sins, those things we did when we were younger, those things cast shadows too. Each sin that goes un-repented is like a brick in the blessing blockade. The bigger the blockade the bigger the shadow it casts. At “high noon” when the sin took place, the shadow was small and barely noticeable (ie. “I was just sowing my wild oats.”) However, the longer the sin stays in your heart the bigger, longer, and farther reaching its shadow becomes. Someday, if you sit and observe the shadows outside, as time passes you’ll notice that the shadows get longer and begin to creep over other objects in their path. They begin to block out the light from the Son to those other things. That is what past sins from your life can and will do. The longer those sins stay locked up in the closet of your mind the bigger and farther reaching their shadows become. Eventually, they start creeping and covering other aspects of your life; blocking God’s light from touching them. I can’t speak for you my friend, however I know that I had old sins, and they were casting very long shadows. Those shadows were covering our marriage and blocking God’s loving grace from shining down on us. They were blocking out the light of my husband’s love for me, and they were blocking my love from truly reaching my children. These old sins, the ones that I’d shoved down into a teeny tiny box in the farthest corner of the back closet of my mind; they were the ones that were causing me so much grief. Sometimes the only way to fix a current situation is to go back to the beginning. Rewind time so to speak and fix the root of the problem and not just the symptom of it. For us, the root of the problem was our pre-marital sexual experiences: pre-marital sex, emotional adultery, and porn/masturbation/self-pleasuring (we’ll go more into depth on each of these later). These activities performed both before our wedding vows and after, could have ruined our marriage if they had continued to grow and “shadow” over other things. However, through the power of Christ, we are not only forgiven of the sins that we committed, against Him, ourselves, and each other, we were also freed from the “cords that ensnared us” and our sexual blessing blockade tumbled down!

One morning, early on in the writing process for this book, God gave me a very sobering and heartbreaking vision, one I’ll not soon forget. We were standing high on a cliff looking down on a large town. As I looked down onto this sleeping town it was like Earth had turned into hell. Almost every house was black, charred as if it had burned somewhat. Between the houses, rivers of lava flowed in the streets. The cries coming from these houses were mournful and desperate. But the cries weren’t from human lips; they were being made by human souls. Every living soul in every charred house was crying, mourning. God turned to me and said, “This is what sexual sin does to you. It brings hell to Earth.” As I’m writing this I just want to sob. My soul cries out, not for myself (at least not anymore) but for every living thing in those houses. Because I remember what it was like inside my house before God came in and remodeled it. My house was burned to a crisp! My sexual sin and my husband’s were burning our house down. It was tearing us apart. The stress in our home was palpable. My husband was never home, I was miserable, my children were unhappy, life was filled with tears.

Is your soul in torment? In the Garden of Eden, after they had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hid from God. Are you hiding from God, hoping He won’t find out? Are you hiding out of guilt, or grief, or shame? God knows where you are and He has come to you, in your place of hiding. He is standing next to you with His outstretched hand hoping that you will take it, stand back up, and follow Him. He loves you no matter what your condition and no matter what you’ve done. Really, no matter WHAT you’ve done. There is nothing under the sun that you have done that God hasn’t seen done before and isn’t willing to forgive. There is NOTHING you could ever do to make Him stop loving you, not even for a second. Nothing. Period!

Christian’s comments:

Have you ever gotten a splinter in your finger and not been able to get it out? If left too long, the splinter will irritate you more and more. It will eventually get infected and swollen. It will start to affect your daily life. If left long enough, the infection could get bad enough that your finger would need to be amputated. Or worse, the infection could spread and your whole hand could be lost. Obviously, I’m being dramatic. I’ve never known anyone that left a splinter in their finger long enough for that to happen. I did hear about a guy with one in his foot, but that’s a story for a different time (and book). Anyway…

An old sin is like the splinter. The longer you hold onto that sin, the more it affects you. Everything reminds you of it. People, places, things people say. Eventually, you can’t stop thinking about it and it really starts to affect your life.

As you may have guessed, I’m the one that had pre-marital sex with other people; two girls in college to be exact. We have come to agree that if Tamar and I had not had sex when we did, I don’t think I would have had sex with those two other girls. After Tamar and I had “done it”, I realized what I was missing. I think I may be getting ahead of myself, let’s do a little history.

It all started when I was in jr. high. That’s when I started masturbating. Shortly after I took up masturbation, I started looking at pornography. (I learned later that God considers it adultery to look lustfully, and masturbate to, other women.) After a while, the porn became a tool for masturbation. (I’m using the word “porn” very broadly. I didn’t necessarily look at magazines full of naked people; I would also look at scantily clad people in Cosmo, or catalogs, or on the internet. I would even just read about people having sex. To me, porn is that broad of a subject. To this day, I still have to guard myself against looking at magazines and catalogs. Some of the images in them can bring some of those temptations back to the surface. The enemy will use all the tools at his disposal to get you to slip and fall.)

All of this finally built to a crescendo, the porn and masturbation weren’t enough. I “needed” physical satisfaction from someone else. Tamar was several hours away, so I found someone at school to get that satisfaction. Afterwards, it all started tearing me up inside. I started suffering from depression. I didn’t want to spend time with my family, friends, or anybody. I’d just sit and watch TV and wonder why my life was falling down around me. Because of this fast, I found out why. Keep reading, and you will too.

 

Categories: 365 Life, Jesus Loves YOU, Luke, True Intimacy | Leave a comment

Day 1: God & Sex

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 10:1-12:21

For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37

One night before sharing my testimony at church, I had a vision. I was lying in bed and the enemy was sitting on my chest with his hands over my mouth. At first I could only murmur and make sound through my nose, then the longer he sat there, the less noise I could make until finally I could utter no sound whatsoever.

As chilling as this experience was, I was relatively unconcerned with what had just happened to me in my vision, (because I have nothing to fear, GOD is on my side) so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning, before dawn had fully broken, I was on my way to church and praying for insight about my vision. As I prayed, God revealed to me that the enemy would do ANYTHING to keep me from sharing my story with others. As I spoke those words aloud, instantly there was a deer in my headlights! “Nice try!” I told the enemy. Maybe one of these days he’ll discover that “greater is He who is in [me] than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4b (I, of course, didn’t hit the deer.) You see, the enemy really would do anything to keep me from telling my story. Why? Because it is through our faults and mistakes that we relate with each other. Because my story is less a story of what I’VE done and all about what GOD has done. The enemy doesn’t like these stories, because they break the chains of slavery that he has wrapped around us. Those stories, transform lives, and set captives free! So yes, he would do anything to keep me (and you) silent, usually with embarrassment. BUT he has no power over the Children of God, and can NOT keep us silent when it is God’s will for us to speak. So, speak I will, and there is NOTHING the enemy can do about it! He can TRY, but he will not succeed. He will try to keep you silent as well. As your journey to sexual freedom progresses I encourage you to share your story with others. Don’t allow the enemy to keep you embarrassed about this!

In today’s society, most Christians don’t feel comfortable talking about sexual issues; especially in church. Most of us have encountered them at some point in our lives and have come out of the experience with permanent damage. But yet, we don’t TALK about it! Why? Because, that’s the enemy’s goal; to keep us embarrassed and silent! Well, I’m here to tell you that GOD does talk about it! A LOT! And if HE talks about it I think it’s about high time that we did too!

You see, God created us and therefore sex; and He knew what He was doing too! Did you know that the area of the brain that receives religious experiences is the very same area that receives sexual pleasure input. You can try all you want to separate God and sex, but in the end, there’s no denying it; sex and God go together. Sex with your husband can actually be a spiritual experience. Believe me, by the end of this book you will be praising God for the miracle of your husband’s body with yours! God knew what He was doing. He meant for sex to be a God-glorifying experience. Why do you think that in those moments of pure passion many people say “Oh God!”? We are forced to praise Him in those moments of physical enjoyment. We are, after all, enjoying the fruits of HIS labor of creation.

So. If God and sex go together, and I’m dissatisfied in my marriage and sex life, then doesn’t it make sense to go to the One who created them both and ask Him how to make them both better? Maybe even great! I mean, if you’re having trouble with your dishwasher, you don’t call the telephone company to get it fixed! You call the maker of the product! And so, that’s exactly what I did. I prayed and went to the Bible first. Did you know, there is a whole book in the Bible about relationships and sex!?! A whole book! And yet I had gone most of my life without knowing it was even there, let alone that it held the many secrets I longed to know. However, it wasn’t just the Song of Solomon where I found the keys to unlocking this wonderful mystery of truly intimate sex; it was throughout the entire Bible. God has quite a bit to say about sex and intimacy!

When we love and obey God not a single solitary good thing does He hold back from us. Not one. Right now, He has a whole storehouse full of amazing blessings for you. Good health, AMAZING SEX, love and a deeper connection with God and your husband… the list goes on and on! If you think it’s good and would like to be blessed with it, it’s most likely in there waiting for you. However, before those blessings can rain down on you, you have to remove all the things that are blocking them from getting to you. For years I asked God to change Christian. For Y-E-A-R-S. I was beginning to think God just wasn’t listening to my pleas! I didn’t understand why it seemed like my prayers were simply hitting a brick wall and bouncing back to me. Why wasn’t He making our marriage better? According to Isaiah 59:1-3 God was (and still is) able to save our marriage and He did (and still does) hear our prayers for help. However, since our hands were still covered in the blood of sexual sin – and not Christ’s forgiving blood – then God could not justify fully blessing our marriage with His presence. He desperately wanted to bless us, but like Isaiah 59:2 points out, our sins had built barriers between us and God. I had hindered my own prayers from being answered “Yes”. To remove these “blessing blockades” I had to first have a relationship with Christ. All good relationships take time and communication. Without these two crucial elements I didn’t have a relationship; I had an acquaintance. Jesus was someone I knew of, but not very well. To build my relationship with God I 1) Spent time talking with Him, and not just to Him. I stopped talking when I asked questions and was surprised with what happened. He talked back!!! Not always audibly or immediately, but He spoke to me none the less. 2) Studied the Bible as a student studying for a test. The better I know His word, the better I know Him.

Still not sure if you believe that God can help your marriage and your sex life? Well, whether you know God personally or not, you do know the difference between right and wrong. And when you do something you know is wrong you get a guilty conscience. I believe it is our guilty consciences that hold us back from a multitude of blessings. One of which being the most truly intimate sex you’ve ever known! I believe, with my whole heart, that our pre-marital sexual experiences led to all the strife in our marriage. They started a snowball rolling down a hill that got too big for us to control and it ended up rolling on top of us, nearly crushing us. However, God loves us and pulled us up from under that crushing snow. It is because of Christ that today we are able to stand on the top of that mountain of snow instead of under it. It is because of Jesus and His saving grace that I can sincerely thank God for the blessing of my husband every day, instead of every day begging God to “fix him”.

Christian’s comments:

Whoa, whoa, whoa. God and Sex? Hang on here. I was raised in a Methodist church, and we NEVER talked about sex. In church, out of church, anywhere. I’m sure I would have paid more attention in Sunday school if we had. The only time I even remember hearing the word sex spoken in that church was the day Tamar and I were married.

As we were having our picture taken with the preacher after the ceremony, he said “Think sex!” right before the photographer snapped the picture. If you look at the photo, our eyes are huge! We just couldn’t believe such a sweet, short, little man had said that! In church!

Most Christians would balk at the idea, but we believe what the bible teaches about sex needs to be taught in church, especially to the youth. They need to be taught how dangerous and damaging sex can be if it’s done with someone other than their spouse.

I’m glad Tamar missed the deer, not only because of her safety, but she was driving my truck that morning too. It wouldn’t have stopped us from sharing our message, though. I would have gotten in the car, picked her up and taken her to church that morning. Nothing ticks off the enemy more than when you pick yourself up after he knocks you down, and continue on your way.

As far as sin holding your blessings back, there is a solution. Get on your knees and ask for forgiveness. God wants to forgive you, but you have to ask. Repent of your sins. That means, after asking for forgiveness, don’t just turn around and sin again.

Categories: 365 Life, Jesus Loves YOU, Luke | Leave a comment

If He is Perfect, then We Don’t Have to Be

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 2:39-5:26

This blizzard has reminded me that I am not the perfect mom I strive so hard to be. Locked in my house for four days with no hope of escape turns even the most sane person into raving lunatic. But you pair that with a house in desperate need of a deep cleaning, two kids bored out of their gourds and two parents trying to deal with them, it equals the perfect environment for an imperfect storm.

Meet Mom, she’s home alone most days because that’s where she works; on her computer in her office. Dad is at work during the day, with hands and head busy fixing things. And two kids who are at school all day with plenty of people to learn with and talk to. Now shove those four people together in an itty bitty house for four days in a snow storm and you’ve got yourself one great reality show. It’s Mom that goes crazy first because, you see, she’s used to being home alone, doing her writing in peace and quiet with no interruptions. But now she can’t. Suddenly she can’t think because someone is constantly saying her name asking for something. So while the snow outside hasn’t stopped her from going to work, it has managed to stop her from getting work done. So, abandoning all hope of getting writing done she then resorts to Plan B. Work on cleaning the house in desperate need of cleaning. But alas, this too is a lost cause. As many of you have discovered, a family at home makes a MESS, while a family not at home leaves the house clean. So while some cleaning gets done, it doesn’t stay that way for long. This equals one frustrated Mom at the end of day 1. But day 2 dawns and mom is determined to have a good day. She prays:

“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with your fire so that I can be more like you. Lord, open my eyes to see You, my ears to hear You, and my mind to know You more. Lord, open my heart to receive Your heart for me today. Lord, open my mouth to speak Your truth with wisdom and authority, boldness and clarity. Open my hands to give generously, receive humbly and to let go of the things I don’t need to be holding onto. Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire. I want to know You more. Help me Jesus, I trust You.” (A printable version of this prayer can be found here.)

She approaches the day with hope. She has decided to abandon her mile long to do list for today and just be still, watch movies, pop popcorn, and just be with the family. And things go really well until the kids go to bed and she logs onto Facebook to see someone tearing apart the fun things she did with her kids in the snow today, saying they were dangerous. So now mom is being unproductive, AND she’s endangering her children by feeding them snow cream. This equals mom going to bed, sad faced and unable to sleep because she’s trying to figure out if she really DID endanger her children by feeding them fresh snow.

Day 3 dawns and mom’s tired, frustrated and ready for everyone to get out of her space. It’s high time we return to normal, but the extreme temperatures say, “No, you must stay in these extreme conditions until we say otherwise.” It’s been two days of Mom coming face to face with her imperfections and inabilities and she’s ready to call it quits on the whole experiment. In come Facebook to save/ruin the day with someone else commenting about getting ALL of her laundry done. You go perfect mom!

So not to be outmatched our mom goes at that laundry with a vengeance, she starts by folding and putting away the three baskets of laundry that have been sitting at the end of her bed for a week. Yup, a whole week. As she’s hanging shirts in the closet she starts thinking about, of all things, her wedding day. (I think it was that wedding photo board she had just been looking at on Pinterest.) She’d spent more time and money on her appearance that day than any before or since. And she began thinking of that look on her husband’s face when he first saw her walk down the aisle. Then the question rang through her brain like a gong, “Has he ever looked at you like that since that day?” Maybe he had, probably he had, but not that she could remember. Sigh… Now she’s unproductive, dangerous to her children, and ugly! Yup, this was the BEST WEEK EVER!

Locking the door to her room she picks up the phone that’s been playing music while she put away laundry, Franchesca Battastelli sings Mary’s song as Mom crys, “Be born in me… while we waited for your promise you waited for my arms… Be born in me… the only thing my heart can offer you is a vacancy… be born in me…”

And Mom remembers, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

Day 4 dawns, school is of course canceled again and unproductive, dangerous, ugly Mom opens her Bible looking for comfort. Her daily reading just happens to be from Luke 2. As she opens her Bible and prays she remembers the last three days. She looks down and reads about Mary, the holy mother and thinks, “I wonder if Mary walked around always dressed perfectly with her hair in the latest style. I bet she never even wore a sweatshirt and ponytail. And if she did, I bet she ROCKED it and everyone loved her. And Jesus, He was perfect, I bet He NEVER got on Mary’s nerves.”

And you know what, God is good to our Mom. What is the very next scripture she comes to? “Now His parents (Mary and Joseph) went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when He was 12 years old, they went up according to custom.”

“Yup. They were the perfect parents obeying the Law.” She thought, then read on.

“And when the Feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing Him to be in the group they went a DAY’S JOURNEY, but then they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintences, and when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for Him. After THREE DAYS they found Him in the temple,”

“OK, now I don’t feel so bad!” Mom thought, “I’m only not getting everything done, feeding my kids snow and gained a few pounds, Mary lost the Christ child for THREE DAYS!”

Even Mary wasn’t the perfect mom, she screwed things up too. But you know what, she’s the imperfect woman God CHOSE to raise His son. (Luke 1:30) And just like Mary, you too are the imperfect woman God chose to raise your children and marry your husband. No one expects you to do all the things you expect of yourself, even God. And if God isn’t expecting you to raise perfect children by being the perfect mom, then why are you expecting that from yourself?

We hold ourselves to impossible standards and use social media to judge our blooper reel against everyone else’s highlight reel; finding ourselves lacking in every way. The only stand that we should be judging ourselves by is the word of God. And you know what it has to say about your imperfections mom?

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “But He said to me, ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 “such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers (or moms) of a new covenant, not of the letter (or to do list) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Luke | Leave a comment

If He is the Bridegroom, then We are His Bride

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Tamar


Luke 1:1-2:38

“Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Luke 1:30

As a woman I think it’s next to impossible not to found at least some of our identity in our outward appearance. It’s drilled into us from birth. We get dressed up and accessorized and then (and usually only then) we hear, “Oh! You look so pretty!” On our wedding day we spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on a dress, and make-up, a hair dresser and spa treatments to look our very best for that special day. All so that when our groom sees us for the first time we can take his breath away with our beauty. But then within hours, the mascara has run, our lipstick has rubbed off, the fancy hair has fallen down and the dress gets taken off – probably to never be worn again. I don’t know about you all, but my husband has never seen me look that good before or since that day.

My point is this, that beauty is fleeting and that’s not the kind of husband Jesus is. The day you marry Jesus is the day you look the worst. You’ve been drug through the mud, and beaten to a pulp by the Enemy. And yet to Jesus, you are beautiful because you’re His bride. In the Hebrew culture when a young man came to a girl’s house to ask for her hand in marriage, the engagement ceremony involved a cup of wine. The couple was asked questions of their intentions toward each other, their commitment to one another, and then they each would drink from the same cup of wine symbolizing their union and how they would drink from the same cup of life together as husband and wife.

At the Last Supper Jesus held up the cup of wine and said, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:27-28) Essentially Jesus was asking them all (including us) to marry Him. To be united to Him in a way that is characterized by a physical, emotional, and spiritual bond that is more special and intimate than any other relationship in your life. When you enter into the bonds of marriage with your spouse you are giving your entire self to them. And they are giving themselves to you.

This is the kind of relationship that Jesus desires with you. Yes He wants all of you, but beyond that, He is giving you all of Him too!

In John 15 Jesus walks His disciples through a vineyard and says to them, “I am the vine and you are the branches”. Explaining to them how this marriage thing works. He is the source of all their needs. As the vine He brings to them and provides for them the water and nutrients that they need. (Much like a shepherd tends to his flock.)

In 1 Corinthians 11 we find the verses about Christ being the head of man and man being the head of woman. Many people take this verse to mean that woman is to always be subject to man as he is a greater authority over her. Some men use this verse as an excuse to abuse their wives or to hold power over them in a demeaning way. What they fail to realize is the true meaning of this word, “head”. In the original Greek this word is used to describe something as in the headwaters of a river. It is where the river finds its source, beginning and direction.

This is what Jesus is to be for us Yes, an authority figure. But not in a sense of a king to his subjects. At the last supper Jesus didn’t sit back and demand that His Disciples wash His feet, He washed theirs! That was the servant’s job. There was even a moment when Jesus came to Peter to wash his feet and Peter refused to let Him. Only to have Jesus explain to him that “if you don’t let Me wash your feet, then you can have no part in Me.”

Jesus is the wellspring, the headwaters of the river of Life. He is our husband, our source. Like the headwaters of a river drive the river in the direction it is to go. So we too find our direction from Him. We find our purpose and our identity in Him. He is the vine and we are the branches.

What you look like doesn’t define who you are. Who you are defines what you will look like. What you do doesn’t define who you are. Who you are defines what you do. Where you’ve gone doesn’t define who you are. Who you are defines where you’re going.

You are someone God chose. He chose YOU to be His bride, His Beloved, the recipient of His eternal love and grace. He died to save you, He lives to take care of you and He does so because you’re beautiful to Him. Jesus is so in love with YOU, not your outward beauty or even the things you do in His name, He is in love with the YOU inside that no one else ever gets to see. He is in love with YOU. Now if only you could love her too. You know, she must be pretty special if God loves her enough to die for her.

“Do not be afraid (insert your name here), for you have found favor with God.” Luke 1:30

 

Ezekiel 3:9 (HCSB) “I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, even though they are a rebellious house.”

1 John 4:18 (HCSB) “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.”

Matthew 8:26 (HCSB) “But He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, you of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.”

Jeremiah 39:17 (HCSB) “But I will rescue you on that day” – this is the LORD’S declaration – “and you will not be handed over to the men you fear.”

Matthew 9:2 (HCSB) “Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.”

Isaiah 54:14-17 (HCSB) “And you will be established on a foundation of righteousness. You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid; you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you. If anyone attacks you, it is not from Me; whoever attacks you will fall before you. Look, I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task; and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc. No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court. This is the heritage of the LORD’s servants, and their righteousness is from Me.’ This is the LORD’S declaration.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Luke | Leave a comment

If God is the Creator, then We are His Creation

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Tamar

Leviticus 22:17-25:22

“I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 23:22

There are times in life when WE are our own worst enemy. And more often than not it’s all in our head. We sell ourselves short because we fail to believe in the amazing woman God created inside each and every one of us.

Did you know that God Himself created YOU? Yup, He sure did. He knit you together in your mother’s womb so you are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image. In Genesis 2:7 we read that “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” While our bodies may have been formed from the dust of the earth, our spirit, the thing that make you YOU, it’s the breath of God. YOU are the breath of GOD!

It’s the Truth, you are His creation. And when you say (or think) negative things about yourself you’re saying them about something God made. Think about that for a minute. If I say, “I can’t do ________.” Then I’m putting a limit on something GOD Almighty made. How do I know what I can and can’t do through God’s power? How do I know God didn’t make me with the ability to do ________? I am made in His image and His Spirit lives in me and gives me power who am I to say that He is not able and willing to do something through me?

God has stirred you about something specific and that stirring won’t go away until you move accordingly. It may be hard but it’ll be GOOD. Right now the voice of God is telling you, “You can do it!”, and the voice of Fear is telling you, “I can’t do that!” Which voice are you going to choose to believe?

You are God’s creation, only God can say what you can and can’t do.

“Lord, I believe that You are my creator and that when you created me you planted within me special gifts, talents and abilities that are unique to me. LORD, please make me more aware of these gifts, talents and abilities and how I may hone them more effectively so that I may then work in them more fully. I want to use them for Your glory LORD, please show me how I can do that. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Ephesians 2:10 “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

1 John 2:27 “The anointing that you received from Him abides in you,”

1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Genesis 1:26-28 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them.”

Psalm 139 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from You Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You. For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your words; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with You.

Oh that You would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against You with malicious intent; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Jeremiah 6:16 “Thus says the LORD; ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Jesus Loves YOU, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 2 Comments

Unshakable Foundations Make Fear Flee

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Tamar


Leviticus 19:1-22:16

“you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18

The word says to love your neighbor as yourself. But how can you love your neighbor if you don’t love yourself? And furthermore, how can you love yourself if you don’t know who you are? And if you don’t know who you are how can you ever feel secure if the foundation you’re building your identity on is a shakable one. For example;

I find my identity in my job as a teacher. I know this because I make statements like, “I am a teacher”. However, suddenly the school I work for let’s go of several teachers and I’m one of them. For reasons I can’t explain or understand I can’t find another teaching job and I’m forced to work at a restaurant as a waitress. Now my “I am” statement is forced to change from “I am a teacher” to “I am a waitress.”

The foundation of my identity has changed, changing me and my view of myself in the process. This kind of instability creates a Fear inside me that is very difficult to battle, because it often goes unrecognized.

An unstable foundation is what Satan uses against us in order to push our Fear button and cause us to run in the opposite direction from where God wants us. In order to fulfill the command to love thy neighbor, we must 1st love ourselves. But first we’ve got to establish an unshakable foundation on which to build our identity. In order to do this we must first understand who God is. He is an unshakable, unchangeable foundation and our source. The next step is to build ourselves upon Him with materials that can withstand the test of fire. So that when the storms of life hit we do not fall flat like a house built on sand. With our identity firmly founded in Christ, it is possible to have no fear of drought or storm. Because no matter how many shingles blow off our roof, or how much of our hair turns silver, our foundation will never change. The thing that makes me, me, will always be the same.

Luke 12:32 (HCSB) “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom.”

Matthew 9:22 (HCSB) “But Jesus turned to her and saw her. ‘Have courage, daughter,’ He said, ‘Your faith has made you well.’ And the woman was made well from that moment.”

Revelation 1:17&18 (HCSB) “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid! I am the First the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look – I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Mark 10:49 (HCSB) “Have courage! Get up; He’s calling for you.”

Daniel 10:19 (HCSB) “Don’t be afraid, you who are treasured by God. Peace to you; be very strong!”

Luke 1:28 & 30 “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! … Do not be afraid, (insert YOUR name here), for you have found favor with God.”

Mark 5:36 (HCSB) “Do not be afraid. Only Believe.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Jesus Loves YOU, Leviticus | 1 Comment

Today is the Day of His Cleansing

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Tamar


Leviticus 13:18-15:15

“the day of his cleansing” Leviticus 14:2



At midnight last night the clock ticked, the ball dropped and in one second everything changed. In that moment right before it happened, with glasses held high, I turned and glanced from the TV screen to my husband’s eyes. And with a squeeze of the hand and a sparkle in his eye we rang in the New Year together. Hand in hand, heart in heart we crossed over into a new season of life together.

I’m not exactly sure what it is, but there is something magical about that moment when the clock ticks and the calendar flips, or maybe it’s just that look that’s always in my husband’s eye. This look of excitement mixed with the very real fear that is in my heart in that moment.

It’s a fear of the unknown future facing us. Faceless foes just waiting to try and trip us up and make us fall. And yet there we stand, hand in hand, heart in heart ready to face them together. A few minutes after midnight I logged onto Facebook to say Happy new Year to everyone there. Scrolling through my News Feed I came across several posts form friends talking about the woes of 2013. It was a hard year for many. Some lost babies, some lost husbands, and others lost family members. Yet no one went through any of it alone. No matter how lonely it may have felt at the time, we were never alone. And we won’t be in 2014 either.

We didn’t step over the line in the calendar square alone, Jesus jumped into it with us. He comes down and walks with us. We are never alone. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He is ALWAYS there when we need Him. Always there to hold and squeeze our hand at just the right moment to let us know that no matter what happens, no matter what we do to try and make Him leave, He won’t; because He loves us way too much to do that. He is Love and Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 2:27 “the anointing that you received from Him abides in you,”

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Psalm 31:24 (HCSB) “Be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the LORD.”

Luke 8:50 (HCSB) “When Jesus heard it, He answered him, ‘Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be made well.”

Matthew 17:7 (HCSB) “Then Jesus came up, touched them, and said, ‘Get up; don’t be afraid.'”

1 Chronicles 28:20 (HCSB) “Then David said to his son Solomon, ‘Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my god, is with you. He won’t leave you or forsake you…”

Jeremiah 17:8 (HCSB) “He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.”

Ezra 7:28 (HCSB) “So I took courage because I was strengthened by Yahweh my God.”

Nehemiah 4:14 (HCSB) “After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Jesus Loves YOU, Leviticus, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 4 Comments

You are Not Common

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Tamar


Leviticus 9:1-13:17

I would be amiss today if I didn’t call out the irony of today’s Word of the Day. Today is New Year’s Eve. And tonight at midnight thousands of people will be starting a diet. And as God would have it, we read Leviticus chapter 11 today, the list of things you can and can not eat as a Jew. That just makes me laugh, God’s timing is impeccable. And thank You Jesus for Peter’s vision in Acts 10:9-33 deeming all animals clean to eat! Because I sure do love pig! (Mmmmm….. bacon….)

In Peter’s vision he saw a sheet lowered down to the earth. On that sheet was every kind of animal, reptile and bird. Then God said to him: “Rise Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter, being a good Jew said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And God said, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This whole scene played out before him three times! Do you think God was trying to drive home His point?

Immediately after receiving this vision Gentile men show up to see Peter and ask him to come with them. And Peter, being a good Christian, went with them and visited the Gentile home of their friend and spoke to the Gentile crowd that was gathered there. He said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”

Back in the Word of the Day, Leviticus chapter 9, we find the details of the process of Aaron’s first offering to the LORD.

“This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do that the glory of the LORD may appear to you… Draw near to the altar…” (verses 6&7)

Aaron had just been consecrated (we talked about that yesterday) and now because of his consecration he is allowed and able to obey the command of the LORD to draw near to the altar. And isn’t that the command to us all?

“Draw near to Me, My Beloved, for I desire fellowship with you!”

And yet all too often Fear keeps us at arm’s length from Him. Fear of our unclean unworthiness keeps us from racing into the loving open arms of the Father. And yet all too often, like the Prodigal son slinking back home stinking of pig, we convince ourselves that our Father could accept us better as his servant rather than his son, because we no longer deserve the status of son, because of what we’ve done. Yet while we are still far off, who is it that comes running? It’s the Father who runs, races, rushes to greet us with open arms, a coat of honor and shoes for our feet. Servants didn’t wear shoes, only family wore shoes. But that isn’t all, there is a ring for our finger too. The fingers that had just been feeding the pig’s food were now encircled with a band of forgiveness and fellowship that spoke of family and cleanliness.

At the end of Leviticus chapter 9 we finish the story of sacrifice accepted. “Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the people.”

How?

“And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”

Now compare that with the story of Peter’s Gentiles & the Prodigal Son. In Acts 10 we see how God feels about these formerly “unclean” Gentiles: “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” (verse 44-46)

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell.

While the son was still far off, the Father RAN.

God is so desperate for you. Do you realize that? He desires time with you.

Just you.

YES YOU!

Don’t you dare call yourself common or allow anyone else to either! God Almighty through the blood of His holy son Jesus has declared you CLEAN,

CONSECRATED,

HOLY,

SET APART,

SPECIAL,

BEAUTIFUL.

And who do you think you are to disagree with Him?

Romans 8:15 (HCSB) “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!”

Lamentations 3:57 (HCSB) “You come near when I call on You; You say: ‘Do not be afraid.'”

Jeremiah 1:8 (HCSB) “Do not be afraid of anyone, for I will be with you to deliver you. This is the LORD’s declaration.”

Isaiah 44:2 (HCSB) “This is the word of the LORD your Maker who formed you from the womb; He will help you: Do not fear.”

Isaiah 44:8 (HCSB) “Do not be startled or afraid. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is not other Rock; I do not know any.”

Isaiah 51:7 (HCSB) “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My instruction; do not fear disgrace by men, and do not be shattered by their taunts.”

Deuteronomy 3:22 (HCSB) “Don’t be afraid of them, for the LORD your God fights for you.”

Categories: 365 Life, Choose: Fear or Faith, Jesus Loves YOU, Leviticus, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

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