Good morning Zebras,

I love you.  Even though the people I referenced yesterday were both missionaries on the foreign field it does not mean you need to leave the country to live a life of faith.

Paul defines what a life of faith looks like in Philippians 3:4-14, a passage I have quoted before.  In it Paul lists all the things he had before he was a Christian.  All the reasons he should have had confidence in himself.  But he considered them all rubbish compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:7–11 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

That is not a man resting on the laurels of his salvation.

And starting in verse twelve he writes, what I’m sure is a life verse for some of you:  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

That is what a life of faith looks like.

Compare that with Jerry Bridges definition of ungodliness the sin he believes is most prevalent in the church:

“Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.” 

He goes on:

“Now the sad fact is that many of us who are believers tend to live our daily lives with little or no thought of God.  We may even read our Bibles and pray for a few minutes at the beginning of each day, but then we go out into the day’s activities and basically live as though God doesn’t exist.  We seldom think of our dependence on God or our responsibility to Him.  We might go hours with no though of God at all.  In that sense, we are hardly different from our nice, decent, but unbelieving neighbors.  God is not at all in his thoughts and is seldom in ours.

God does not call all of us to leave the country, but He does call all of us to fix our eyes on Him and live like He exists.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I had reason this morning to think of what my children would say about me at my funeral. (and no, I’m not sick.)  Would they be able to say with complete confidence “My mom is home with Jesus?”  Would my life, and not just my words, have testified to my faith in God?

When they were little I bought them a book to reassure them that if I died, I would go to heaven because of my faith in Jesus Christ. Now I hope they wouldn’t need it.

When we die it is a comfort to those we leave behind that we are home with Jesus and that someday they will see us again, but if our life has called that hope into question, it is so much harder to let them go.

I love you Zebras, for the sake of those around you live out the faith that you profess, because empty words are not near as comforting as a life transformed by the power of God.

Oswald today was on faith: “The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly trusting in Your Word” and he cited this verse as an example of irrational faith: Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

This prayer by Betty Stam, a martyred missionary, and then copied by Elizabeth Elliott, wife of Jim Elliott, is the perfect example of what it looks like to seek God first.

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine, forever.  Fill me and seal me with The Holy Spirit.  Use me as Thout wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever” Amen

Faith in God is not a bunch of words, it is a life lived differently.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

If you are waiting on God, for “something,” you are not alone.  There are others out there with their eyes towards the sky looking for God.   Sometimes we feel like we are alone, but that is Satan trying to isolate us from the herd. 

I saw these dogs the other day on my walk.  In a dog park filled with frocking dogs, these four chose to stand by a tree and wait for a squirrel no one else could see.

I love you Zebras, eyes up towards God and run your race with faith.  God is real, and He will do for you everything He has promised.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

A quick update on my God plants, the big one just keeps getting bigger.  It is now much bigger than the other plants and it has a huge flower to boot. But as I watch it grow I wonder if it is getting prideful.

It is by far the best preforming plant in my garden, but my garden isn’t much, it is a sad excuse for a garden compared to the English gardens it is trying to emulate.

If we judge our spiritual health by looking at other Christians in “our garden” (our church, our family, our group of friends) we make two mistakes. Number one, we are looking at and judging another person’s walk with Christ, which is different than confronting a person about a sin.

Romans 14:1–4 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.  One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.  Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

And two, we are using way too small of a measuring stick.  It you want to measure yourself against God’s “Gold Standard” try using Hebrews 11.  Which starts off: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” then lists some of the great men and women of God. 

It is those people we should be comparing our lives too, if we must compare, but not so that we can feel inferior but so that we can be encouraged.

Hebrews 12:1–2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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.

There is an aspect of our faith that is communal, where we run together helping and encouraging each other, but there is another aspect where we need to learn to run our own race with our eyes on only Jesus. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I helped Gary carry things to his car yesterday morning.  It was still dark outside, so I told him, “No one will see me.”  As soon as I said it I was reminded of a very old z-mail.

I don’t know what year it was, but the kids were still in high school and they didn’t yet have their license because I was driving them to school.   One of them had a zero-period class so we needed to be there early.  In the winter I had gotten in the habit of driving them to school in my robe because it was still dark, and no one could see me.

Then one morning as we headed to the car the neighbor across the street called out “Hi Jill.” And I, realized winter was ending and it had gotten light without me noticing.  I thought I was walking in darkness, my pajamas hidden from the world, when in fact the sun was up, and everyone could see what I was wearing. 

At the time I wrote about the fact that we think no one can see the things we do because we do them behind closed doors, but God still sees.  We think we are walking under the cover of darkness but there is no such thing to God. Which is still true

Psalm 139:11–12 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

But equally true is that sometimes we think we are walking in the light of Christ, but our actions and attitudes show we are still in darkness.  So here for your enjoyment is a “Light check.”

Love,

Jill

Matthew 6:19–24 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

1 John 1:5–10 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:9–11, 15-17 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.  But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes…Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 

Good morning Zebras,

When God sent Nathan, the prophet, to speak truth into David’s life and help him see what he had done was displeasing to God, David responded correctly, the way we should all respond, with repentance.

2 Samuel 12:13–14: Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.  But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

Saul, on the other hand, Israel’s first king, responded with excuses and denial when God sent the prophet Samuel to confront him.  God had told Saul to kill everything that belonged to the Amalekites, but Saul had spared the king and some of the livestock.

1 Samuel 15:20–21: “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.  The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

But Samuel wasn’t having it:

1 Samuel 15:22–23 …Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Only then did Saul repent and say what David had said at first, that he’d sinned but because Saul was Saul, he felt the need to tack on a reason:

1 Samuel 15:24:  Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned.  I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions.  I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.”

We all sin, we all fall short of God’s mark and we all suffer the consequences of our sins.  But what separates the Davids from the Sauls of the world is how we respond when confronted.

Saying, “I was wrong, please forgive me,” and not making any excuses for your actions is hard but the Spirit of God inside you grows every time you do.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Another way we goof around with Satan in is when we’re not where God told us to be.

David was king of Israel, he should have been in battle but for some reason he chose to stay home.  Who knows, maybe he was tired of fighting, maybe he wasn’t feeling well or maybe he was just being lazy.  The reason really doesn’t matter, all that mattered was he wasn’t where he was supposed to be and Satan got in.

2 Samuel 11:1:  In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.  They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.  But David remained in Jerusalem.  One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.  From the roof he saw a woman bathing.  The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her.  The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba…”

David would’ve never seen Bathsheba if he was where he was supposed to be and the whole chain of sin would have been stopped before it even started.

The Bible says we are supposed to take every thought captive under Christ, I have found it’s  equally helpful to take every moment in time captive as well.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I had another dream last night, but this one I remember.  There were three of us and we were working together to try a kill a very bad man.  I had him cornered and I could have won but I started goofing around trying to show him how much stronger I was.  I woke up right after he attacked.

Immediately, I felt God say: “Don’t mess with Satan.”

Jesus never messed around with Satan.  Read His temptations in the desert and you will see He didn’t get into a discussion, He just quoted Scripture.  (Matthew 4:1-11) And when Peter got off track He didn’t mess around He called him out:

Matthew 16:23 But (Jesus) turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

One-way Satan gets in is when we see another believer doing something we want to do.  If they are doing it successfully it is because God is doing it through them.  And if it is something from God, something just for them, then it can’t be copied.

Acts 19:11–16 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Paul was given a special gift.  It could not be copied because it was from God.  And all of us have special gifts that have been given to us by God that are supposed to be used to build up the body.

Ephesians 4:11–16 And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

When you look to God to tell you what you should be doing, your work will be blessed.  But when you look at others and think “I wish I could do that.” you have started toying with Satan.

Peter wasn’t Paul and Paul wasn’t David and neither one of them was Abraham, but they were all great men of God.  I’m not you and you’re not me and neither one of us is Beth Moore, but all of us can be great women of God if we keep our eyes focused on Him, refuse to let jealously and envy in, do not think of ourselves “more highly than you ought, but rather think of ourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us”. (Romans 12:3) and work with our whole heart, mind and soul on the task God has laid before us.

I love you Zebras, so much. Enjoy your day using the gifts God has given you to strengthen the church and reach the lost. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Happy Sunday.

I have had a lot of reasons to be thinking about forgiveness lately.  We are often taught that forgiveness is a process, something to work towards.  But that is the way man teaches forgiveness.  God forgave instantly and completely the moment we asked.

That is how God forgives and that is how we are to forgive, completely, instantly and forever.

But that kind of forgiveness can’t be “worked-up,” that kind of forgiveness comes from God. 

At the end of a very long sermon on the steps to forgiveness the author summoned up with this: “As God has forgiven you, you are to forgive those who have hurt you. As God has reconciled with you, you are to reconcile with others.”

He probably didn’t see the irony.  He had just given seven steps to forgiveness and reconciliation and then ends with “forgive as God forgave you.”

God didn’t take seven steps to forgive us.  He just forgave.

One-way Satan has gotten into the church is through the blending of psychology and the Bible.  And it has been in the church so long most of us can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there.  We take for truth the things that have been written by men. 

Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “work towards forgiveness.”  It says forgive.

A pastor once told me if you have trouble forgiving others, you don’t know how much God has forgiven you.  And that rang true because I know you can’t love others unless you know how much you’re loved. 

God loves us, God forgave us, God gave us His Spirit so we could do the same.   

Please don’t be the unforgiving servant, forgiven everything yet arrogantly refusing to forgive others, Matthew 18: 21-35, because If you read the parable you’ll see that didn’t work out too well for him. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.  I had two dreams last night, I couldn’t tell you what they were about exactly, but the message was very clear: “It is pride that is ruining God’s church and making it ineffective.”

And in case I missed the message I had a quick talk with my daughter, who is attending BSF in Korea.  She said they had “learned” this week that religious pride is the worst type of pride and it happens whenever we think we are better than someone else. (Romans 3:21-30)

Some of you may have read my comment attached to Thursday’s post, in it I said that I feel like Wonder Woman at the end of the movie where she is trapped on the tarmac unable to get up and fight. She just lays there screaming because evil is winning.

That’s how I feel when I look at the church.  I know Satan is getting in, but I don’t have the power to stop Him.

If you have seen the movie, you know she breaks free of her restraints, gets back up with renewed strength and kicks evil’s butt, when someone she loves sacrifices his life for hers.

Jesus sacrificed His life for us and God stayed His hand on Tuesday and stopped the wind, not so that we can lay on the tarmac screaming but so that we can get up and fight.

Zebras, please, please, please quit being used by the other side.  Repent and lose the pride so that we can fight together.  Our battle is not against each other, it is against the powers of evil in heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  

And we need every believer armored up and praying if we are going to win. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.  A week or so ago I told you I have this picture on my computer to remind me that the voice I hear is real, but when the smoke came in my unguarded window God showed me that sometimes I need to be James Earl Jones resolutely slamming the door on Satan.

Satan is a sneaky guy and we often underestimate him.  We don’t realize how desperately he wants to get into our lives and make us dishonor God.  And he will use any means necessary to do it.

I really believe pride is his favorite trick.  It is what caused him to fall from grace and he has used it successfully in the past.  All he has to do is get us thinking things like: “I was wronged,” “I deserve better,” or “My (fill in the blank, including but not limited to: “my church, my ministry, my house, my kids, my walk before God) is superior to theirs,” and he is in.

Recently an old dead guy gave me new insight on the following verses:

Matthew 7:3–5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

One interpretation of this passage is that we should not be looking at the sin’s in other people’s lives because we need to deal with our own first. Which is true, we do. But honestly, who of us is ever through dealing with sin?

A second interpretation is that there is some ranking of sins.  “Speck” sins and “plank” sins and when you get rid of your plank sins you can help people with their specks.  But that just never made sense to me.

But the way the ODG taught is was: it is the judgmental way we look at other’s people’s sin, as if we are somehow superior to them, that becomes the plank in our eye.  And that made sense.

As Christians, we’re supposed to walk alongside one another in love, living lives that honor God and encouraging others to do the same. And when we see a sin in another person’s life we say something, not because we are better than them, but because we love them and want the very best for them.

James 5:19–20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

And if a brother or sister comes to us and confesses a sin, we don’t judge, we pray with them so that they can be healed.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Love,

Jill 

Good morning Zebras,

Years ago, I played a lot of “Dr. Mario.”  The point of the game was to “kill” the “germs” by placing the correct “pills” on their head.  Three pills of the right color and the germ would die.  When you killed all the germs of one color, the “virus” itself would die.

The viruses are the little “bugs” in the magnifying glass on the left side of the picture.  There were three of them, red, blue, and yellow, and you had to kill them all to win.

Killing a virus was great fun because it would roll over on its back, thrash around a little and then disappear.  That’s what it feels like to finally kill a sin that’s robbing you of your joy.

Oswald from 9/30:  “God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us.  We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!”  But when He uses someone we dislike or some set of circumstances, to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, we object…  If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed-you cannot drink grapes.  Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.”

God does not crush us Himself, He uses people and circumstances to do it and every time we take the “high road,” every time we do what honors God rather than what we want to do, a bug dies.  And if you do it long enough and often enough eventually the virus itself will die.

I love you Zebras, so much, you only hurt yourself when you insist upon having your own way because when you do you feed the virus of pride that lives inside all of us.

Compromise, give-in, admit you may be wrong and put unity of Spirit first.  Humble yourself before God, repent and receive forgiveness, apologize and make restitutions if necessary and give God the opportunity to defend you. 

An opportunity that will never exist if you’re always defending yourself, even if it’s only in your mind. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Romans 12:18–21 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Always take the high road, even if it kills you, because that is how you learn to die to self and live for God.

Love,
Jill

Good morning Zebras,

People often comment on my ability to see God lessons in everything.  I know it has nothing to do with me, it’s a gift God has given me to share His truths with His people,

just look at plants He grew in my back yard. 

These three plants were all the same size all planted at the same time.  But a month later they look totally different.  Originally as I watched them grow at different rates I thought of the parable of the four soils: (Matthew 13:1-23.) 

But it isn’t the soil that is different, it just seems like one plant is trying harder. My whole garden is suffering because I have two “lazy” plants. 

In the same way, the whole church suffers when each individual Christian doesn’t do their best to grow into the faith and walk in unity with other believers.

Ephesians 4:11–16: “It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

People say we have no right to judge one another but that’s only partially true.  According to Paul, we have no right to judge the world, they are lost and in need of Christ, but we an obligation to “judge” believers.  In a rarely quoted text we read:

1 Corinthians 5:9–13: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

If we were to live transparent lives before one another, acknowledging and confessing our sins, encouraging one another to live up to the standard set by God, there wouldn’t be such a spiritual discrepancy between believers. Everyone would be growing.  Everyone would be the big flowering plant.

But since we are afraid to be transparent and honest, even sometimes with ourselves, too many Christians remain stunted, unable to produce true spiritual fruit.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you. Like many of you, I’m praying for all the disasters that have hit the world over the last few months. Some days If feels as if the world as we know it may cease to exist if God doesn’t stay His hand. 

2 Samuel 24:16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” 

I know some people say: “That’s great, let’s get on with this,” but there are so many people who have not responded to the Gospel.  Our life, will mean their death and I’m not ready to give up. I want more time to get the message out.  I want God to give His people another chance to choose Him and I want a revival.  Don’t you?

The Bible teaches we do not have the power to stay God’s hand.

Daniel 4:34–35   all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Nor, according to Job, the wisdom to question Him.

Job 38:1–3 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.

But it also teaches we have the right to pray and ask for anything we want. 

Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

So this is how I’ve been praying:

Dear Heavenly Father, I love you so. Thank you that You are good and everything You do is good. Thank You that You are sovereign and in-control and nothing happens that You do not allow.  Lord, I know I have no right to tell You what to do with the people You created but please Heavenly Father on behalf of all the people who have not yet responded to the Gospel, and those of us who feel our work here is not yet done, please Heavenly Father, stay Your hand.  Do not destroy what you have created, not yet.  Give us another chance to be the people You created us to be and to finish the work You created us to do.  In the name of Jesus Christ, who died to reconcile the world to Himself, we pray.

And hopefully some of God’s people say “Amen.” 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Yesterday as I was walking with my “Holy Spirit sticks” (the sticks I use that turn walking into a whole-body exercise, reduce impact on knees and hips, and allow me to walk further and faster than I could without them) I passed a woman carrying hand weights. 

She was a large lady and the last thing she needed was to add more weight to her already stressed frame. But I’m sure she read somewhere that carrying hand weights would increase weight loss.

I thought about telling her about my sticks because I knew they would make her walk more enjoyable and she would get the results she was looking for, but unsolicited advice is not always well received. So, I just kept walking.

But as I did I thought about how Christians live their lives. Too often we carry hand weights when we should be holding on to our sticks.

Matthew 11:28–30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

God did not come in human flesh and die upon a cross so that we could have a list of rules.  They already had a list of rules. He came to set them free from the law of sin and death and to reconcile the world to Himself.

If you live out your faith by always “trying” you are like the lady carrying the weights.  But if you realize nothing good lives in you and give up your right to yourself the Holy Spirit, which lives in all who have salvation, will have control of your life and it won’t be you trying to do things, it will be God doing them.

The difference is subtle, but it changes everything.  I know because I’ve lived both ways.   

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

This picture is the current home screen on my computer.  It is from “Field of Dreams.”  Kevin Costner is following “the voice” which sent him to find James Earl Jones who wants nothing to do with him.  Jones is disillusioned and just wants to be left alone.  He has lost his faith in mankind.

As Christians our faith is not in man, but in God but people still lose their faith.

If their faith was built upon a rocky foundation filled with misconceptions of who God is and what He expects from us it is easy to get disillusioned and fall away.  But if your foundation is solid, built on the truth of God, you understand there is nowhere to “fall away” to.

John 6:66–69 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”   

We do no one any favors when we water down the Gospel or help people shore up their poorly built foundation because the rain will come and all they have built will wash away leaving them worse off than they were before, because now they think they have “tried God” and He didn’t work and they mentally shut the door to hearing truth. 

If you have heard God’s voice don’t give up.  Keep trying. People so desperately need God.  They are angry, disillusioned and without hope but they keep pushing away the only thing that would help.

I love you Zebras, pray, love, speak truth, and persevere no matter how many times the door is shut in your face because the voice you hear is real.

Love,

Jill