Good morning Zebras,

I love you.

Yesterday we talked about the importance of thinking of others greater than yourself, but there is one caveat, you still need to put God first.

Hebrews 12:4–6 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

As mothers and wives, I think we get pretty good at putting other people first, honestly, I think that is the job description.  But you shouldn’t put the happiness of your family above God.

I relearned this the hard way on Sunday.

Sunday morning my quiet time was spent in Hebrews 12, one of my favorite passages, this time the phrase “do not make light of the Lord’s discipline” really struck home.  When God tells you to do something or not to do something, if you refuse to listen you are “making light” of God.

According to the sources I checked the original phrase, found only here, carries these meanings: to regard someone or something as of little value, to look down on, to have contempt for, to despise.

So, if you chose to honor anyone above God and do something He has told you not to do just to make them happy, you are pouring contempt on God. 

That is what I did Sunday, I chose to make my family “happy” instead of listening to God. And I paid for it, all night I had terrible nightmares and I woke up in a very foul mood.  Of course, I blamed my husband for making me disobey God, so he paid for it too, but it wasn’t his fault it was mine.

The funny thing is, my family loves me, and they love God.  They would never want me to do anything that would put me outside of the perfect will of God. I just didn’t tell them because I didn’t want to spoil the fun.

A team will be stronger when all the members are working towards the same goal, to stay within the will of God for their lives.  We don’t do anyone any favors when we put their needs above the commands of God.  

Hebrews 12:12–13 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

The spiritual meaning of this verse is that we must strengthen ourselves, watch our own paths, not turning to the right or to the left, so that others will be encouraged to do the same. 

“No man is an island” is not found in the Bible, it was originally part of a poem written by a cleric in the Church of England in 1642, but it is still true, what we do affects others.

Love,
Jill  

Good morning Zebras,

God has had me thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a “team.”  When I went to get my favorite passage on the subject to paste into this z-mail I found this heading: “Friends and Family Can Help One Another in Life,” which is so true.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12:  Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!  Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?  And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

But what does it take to be a strong cord of three?  Honestly, trust, humility, sacrifice and love, all qualities given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus made it possible to believers to walk in unity.

John 17:23:  I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

But people need to make it happen.  Under the manmade title of “Unity Through Humility.”

Philippians 2:1–4:...but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

We act like thinking of others is a huge sacrifice, but it isn’t, it’s what Jesus did for us.

Spiritual unity isn’t a pipedream like world peace.  It’s real and it’s possible and it’s worth working for.

Here is a Psalm, written by David, that extols the blessings of living in harmony with others.  I found it on “accident” when I searched the Bible for the word “unity.”

Psalm 133:  How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.  For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Friday night my son got home from college for his spring break. 

When Nick is home the dogs have a different routine.  After I get up and feed them they run back upstairs and jump in bed with Nick.

Yesterday morning Joshua was so excited to see Nick he wouldn’t eat his breakfast. He came down and went outside to “potty-potty” but the pull of seeing Nick was too great.  He was back upstairs before I even got the food out. 

And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that is how God’s people felt abut church, so excited to go and be in His presence that they couldn’t even eat.”

Happy Sunday Zebras, I hope you have a great day!

Love,

Jill 

Good morning Zebras,

I love you so much and the day I’ve been waiting for has arrived.

Yesterday, on Facebook, only four people liked the post.  (Thank you, Nancy, for sharing it and confirming it was an “awesome word” from God.)

Contrast that with the over thirty people who “liked” the picture of my dog.

That is the perfect illustration of how we have ended up with teaching that tickles our ears.  It’s partly our fault.  Light and fluffy is what makes us hit the “like” button.

People respond to positive encouragement and if they are getting their encouragement from people they are either going to do what people want or get discouraged when they don’t. Which is all bad when we are talking about ministry.

But if the people doing ministry have finally freed themselves of the trap of being “liked” and are getting their encouragement from God, they’re going to joyfully keep going until God tells them to stop.

I have done both and can tell you without a shadow of doubt the second way is way better!

Ten years ago, I was facilitating a Precepts Bible Study.  Precepts takes a lot of work but most of the people who signed up didn’t know that, they signed up because they heard me speak at a tea and thought I was funny.

Thirty plus people started, twenty people soon dropped.  It was hard on me, because even though I was doing what I knew God wanted me to do, I still wanted people to “like” me and come.

I remember painfully asking my friend Karen, “When can I stop doing this?”  And she said, “When absolutely no one shows up and God tells you to stop.”

That was the beginning of learning to work for God instead of for people.  Yesterday was my final exam and I passed.  In the past being “liked” by only four of you would have crushed me, but it didn’t!

I love all of you and I will continue to do this, whether you “like” it or not until God tells me to stop.

Have a wonderful, wonderful Saturday little Zebras living free from sin, guilt, and the desire to please men.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Eighteen years ago, I went to my first and only Women Over Forty retreat, where I heard this truth.

When Abraham was told to go and sacrifice Isaac, the Bible says, he rose up early the next morning and went.

Genesis 22:2–3:  Then God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.  And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

When Lot was told to flee Sodom and Gomorrah to save his life, he lingered.

Genesis 19:15–16:  As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered.  So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Lingering when God tells us to do something is dangerous.  He may be merciful to us like He was to Lot and force us to go, or He may just leave just there to suffer the consequences of our disobedience.  (Facebook is the perfect illustration of a place where we can get into trouble when we linger after God says “Log off!”) 

Cynthia Heald, who was the speaker at the retreat said she had no desire to be “Lingering Lot.”  Instead, she said, she wanted to be like Abraham who believed and immediately obeyed God.

I completely agree, to me Lot seems like one of the “losers” of the Bible, while Abraham is called God’s friend.

James 2:20–24:  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.  You see that’s a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

As we have been discussing, you need to do nothing for Salvation other than to repent, receive forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:37–38:  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But if a person, who claims to have faith has no desire to listen to and obey God, if they have no “works,” or evidence of a changed life, then the harsh truth is their faith either never existed or it has died.

James 2:26:  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

True faith makes itself known.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras.

When God has me write z-mails I copy any Bible text straight from the Logos software I have on my computer.  Then when I run spell check I ignore any suggestions that Scripture should be edited.  I don’t care if it is grammatically incorrect, I want to use the words exactly as they are written.

That is why I feel yesterday’s post was so significant.

There really is a difference between constantly repenting and asking God to forgive us for every single sin and living in a state of being forgiven.   At Salvation, we received forgiveness for all our sins past, present and future because we didn’t repent of “sins” as in actions we repented of our sin nature. 

When we did, God replaced our old nature with His nature and restored us to a right relationship with Him.  Then He filled us with His Holy Spirit and made us a new creature in Christ.  Our job is to maintain our side of the relationship.

Gary said that at BSF the guys used the phrase “Jesus plus anything isn’t Salvation.” Again, another truth but I don’t think we realize how many “pluses” we live with every day, things people want to add on to our faith.

I can’t cut and past the entire New Testament into this post but here is the truth:

God came in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, to conquer sin.  His life, death and resurrection put us back into the right relationship with God and placed within us His Holy Spirit. Evidence of that is manifested in the way we live.  No longer do we want to live in sin because the Spirit God placed inside us prefers to live in a way that keeps us close to God.  

It isn’t about “doing this” or “doing that,” it is about yielding to the Spirit inside that desire to live in the presence of God.  

     

So, so simple, yet even in Paul’s time they were already messing it up. Below are selected passages from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, CliffsNotes for those of you who don't have time to stop and read the book.

 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all… You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?...I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature…live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature...Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.  Today I may use some of the words I didn’t use yesterday.

In Bible Study Fellowship they are studying the book of John but this week’s lesson was on First John.  I’m not sure how familiar you are with that book but I have always found the beginning passage rather confusing.

1 John 1:8–10 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Turns out it isn’t confusing at all.  The letter was written to believers to address a faction of people who were saying that they had never sinned.  John was saying if you say you have never sinned then you are a liar and you have no part of God.

Which is true.  At Salvation, we admit that we are sinners and accept the gift of grace given to us by God through the blood of Jesus Christ.  If you can’t admit you are a sinner you can’t receive forgiveness.

What always puzzled me was that right in the middle of the passage is 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” a verse often quoted to encourage us to continue to repent of our sins.

But it turns out this was intended to be a onetime event and we been misusing another verse. The passage continues:

1 John 2:1–2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2 clearly states as followers of Jesus Christ our lives should not be marked by a pattern of sin but if we were to sin then we already have forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

My husband said they explained it using Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.

John 13:8–10 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean…

Jesus did not need to wash their whole body because they were already clean He just needed to wash their feet the part that had gotten dirty as they walked around in the world. We too are clean because of our faith in Jesus Christ we just need to make sure we allow Him to metaphorically keep cleaning our feet.   

It is an ongoing process, forgiven once at Salvation, but also forgiven every day for the sins we commit as we strive to live, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a life that honors God.

Love,

Jill