Poll: What do you think is the biggest hinderance to your work as a mother?

What do you think is the biggest hinderance to your work as a mother?

Guilt/Being afraid of being selfish

Loneliness/Lack of support

Feeling unappreciated

Poll Maker

Grace is the backbone of every woman still standing

"Grace is the backbone of every woman still standing."
~ Ann Voskamp

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/09/the-real-truth-about-really-having-it-all/

A Tribute To My Father

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On Service and Fellowship - When Two Good Things Clash

Passage from Luke 13:10-17

Christ has saved us according to His perfect grace, and appointed us unto service. Service unto others, both within the church and without. This service, God calls charity, God calls love. Serving others shows Christ's love through us, and in that He works tremendous works beyond our capabilities. In serving others, we are serving God.

In our passage in Luke 13, we see Christ healing a woman bound with an infirmity on the Sabbath. The ruler of the synagogue was indignant, Scripture states, as he said that people have six other days to come to be healed, that no healing should take place on the Sabbath, for that service he equated to work. Our Lord righteously rebuked him in comparing his healing to their tending to livestock on the Sabbath day, loosing them from their captivity and leading them to drink.

Life Application:

Now, we know that we have been released from the bondage of the old testament law of Moses. We know it was but a shadow of the substance found in Christ and while Moses was good, Christ is better. As Matthew Henry stated so eloquently, who would worship a shadow when the substance has come? We are no longer bound to the Sabbath observation, for we know that Christ is the Sabbath Rest for the people of God (born again Christians) and even those who observed the physical Sabbath rest of the old testament never were able to enter into the True Sabbath that the physical law was only a shadow of. Our Sunday church fellowship is not a replacement of the Sabbath, or an attempt to change the Sabbath, it is as new as the New Covenant itself. The early church met on the first day of the week, the Apostles as well, for this was the day of the week that Christ was found risen, and the day of the week that the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost to institute and finalize the New Covenant.

Yet, often much confusion surrounds the subject. Church fellowship is good, absolutely, and necessary, as are tithes, offerings, and much more. Howbeit, while presence and participation in corporate worship is much needed, we are still called unto service and love, both to those within and those without. What good does presence do if the willingness to have and act upon a heart for service to our fellow men as unto God is absent? How can one so boldly say "I'm here, Lord! Here to serve you!" if they are also so saltless as to say that mere presence is of the utmost and highest degree of spirituality?

Jesus rebuked the ruler of the synagogue with a stinging and righteous "Thou hypocrite." God forbid that we show ourselves as hypocrites as well. I stand to reason that in many churches today, if a man ran inside during a Sunday service shouting "My home is on fire, please help me!" that, unfortunately, most pastors and members would be more than a bit irritated at the interruption, and would perhaps call 911 for the man so that they can get back to their fellowship and worship rather than answer a call to help and to serve another human being as unto the Lord. Then there are those church food pantries, or "ministries," that are only open on certain days, and when a family in need comes to them on another day they they are turned away with a coarse "Come back on the day that our ministry is open," to stew and fret over, while shedding tears and crying out to God to please help them feed their children since the church is so unwilling! Or, if a family stranded half a continent away from home comes for help, they are told to find someone else to help because they are not church members and not even worthy of an appeal and love offering.

Thou hypocrite!

Ironically, in my experience, in those cases it is often those who have the least that give the most, as unto the Lord.

When will the people of God realize that service is the highest act of worship that man can attain here on this earth? That we are called to shun highmindedness and to look to the things of others as in Philippians 2? The mind of Christ Jesus in us. Would Jesus interrupt a church service to serve someone in need? I would venture to answer with a resounding "YES" given that He would interrupt a synagogue service, which He was teaching, to heal a woman, knowing that the ruler would detest His action. If someone calls you on a Sunday and says, "Hey, I'm about 50 miles from home and my tire is flat and I don't have the money for a tow," would you, if it was within your abilities, go and serve him, help him, though it meant missing Sunday morning service? Or would you tell him to wait, or find someone else because it would be 'un-Christian' for you to miss church?

The mark of God's People is love and in that, service. We are told that whatsoever we do for the least of our fellow men, so do we unto Christ. We ought not to be so outwardly focused that we miss the service of the heart that is manifested by Christ through hands of grace and mercy. The tugging of grace always leads to selfless service and sacrifice, without a second glance. Grace, and the service of grace, always leads to gratitude and praise that glorifies God.

Should, then, grace stand as a scapegoat to assembly or giving? God forbid. However, it is the purpose of Christ, the purpose of Grace, to serve more than in word alone, but in deed as well, along with truth, and if the tongue boasts of service but the hands are willingly withdrawn according to the calendar or clock, then it is nothing but lip service and is an affront to Christ, and an affront to the grace that has loosed our shackles and called us out of the miry pit in that we were found. And to cut down and shame those who would so serve, it is even worse. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Again, is this an excuse to neglect the other good things of God? Absolutely not! Christ calls us to church attendance and participation just as well as He does to giving. However, do not let legalism quench the Spirit when we are called to physically serve others first when it is within our capabilities. For the congregation or for the lost, broken, and downtrodden: it is one and the same when done for the Lord. It's absolutely a good thing to be at church meetings whenever we are able, however, I think it's about time that we remember what 'church service' really means.

~*~

I am thankful for my church home. 

One of the Hardest Parts of Parenting

Parenting is difficult, there's no doubt about it. The demands of parenting are unlike any other. Teaching, guiding, correcting, playing referee, and simply just being there and being available; it can get very tough at times. However, at least for me, there is one part that it more difficult than others.

GUILT

 I fail miserably every single day. I lose patience. I get irritated and aggravated. Honestly, I hate repeating myself (and with six children you KNOW that's bound to happen many times over in a day!). I lose my temper. I raise my voice sometimes. Other times I just want to send them all to bed and curl up in a corner and cry. There is no job more emotionally or mentally draining than parenting. 

However, amazingly, my children love me. Their artwork proudly displays this..... little notes to brighten my day.... they hang everywhere as a reminder to me of how much they love me.

The best? Silly children, don't they know? Don't they see? All the times I fail them, all the times they receive what is not rightfully theirs in my frustration and fatigue... don't they see how terrible I really am? Can't they see that I don't deserve their love, their admiration, their appreciation? I am wretched, I am a miserable example of the emotional flesh all rolled into a big hot ball of self-pity and guilt. Are they are so naive that they cannot see my failings, my falterings, my dirty, grimy, filthy self? 

I lose my temper at having to repeat myself for the thirteenth time to an older child who "knows better," and here inside myself I chide, berate, and cut down myself for failing yet again today when suddenly this face that was so recently in tears comes before me smiling with a colorful token.....

"I love you Mommy"

You love me?

You love ME? 

But WHY?? 

I just want to go hide in a corner somewhere, shrivel up, and sob. Why would they love me? Haven't I hurt them enough? Haven't I failed them enough? Are they going to wake up one day with the realization of the stinking mess that I truly am and then hate me finally like I deserve? How can they possibly love ME? 

I don't deserve their love. Not by a long shot. 

Then comes that still, small voice like a gentle autumn breeze.....

"All the times you've failed Me, I still love you with a love that endures forever. Even while you cursed me in your sin, I loved you still. I loved you so much in your stinking, rotten flesh that I sent my only Son, my perfect and holy Son to die a miserable death, to become sin, for your sake, that I might be with you in eternity one day if you only believe and love me back.... don't you remember My sacrifice for YOU?"

Yes, more tears come as this realization hits me hard, hits me deep in the soul where only the Spirit can touch. I am so unworthy. 

I. AM. UNWORTHY. 

This time, though, the echo does not spawn out of self-pity, but rather out of self-realization. I am unworthy. 

I am unworthy of love.

I am unworthy of sacrifice.

I am unworthy of praise, of adoration, of esteem....

I am unworthy of forgiveness. 

I am broken.

I am flawed.

I am at war; a product of flesh reborn in the Spirit.

BUT GOD

Praise God, it doesn't end there! 

"BUT GOD commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

But God. Words so simple, yet so life changing.

χάρις

(charis)

Strong's G5485:

1) grace

a) that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech

2) good will, loving-kindness, favour

a) of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues

3) what is due to grace

a) the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace

b) the token or proof of grace, benefit

1) a gift of grace

2) benefit, bounty

4) thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward

Authorized Version (KJV) Translation Count — Total: 156

AV — grace 130, favour 6, thanks 4, thank 4, thank + 2192 3, pleasure 2, misc 7

But God.... but Grace....

 "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15:10)

 "O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 136:1)

"But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him...." (Psalm 103:17a)

I've always said that my children have taught me more about the nature of God than any sermon or theology class combined. Here lies yet another instance. 

A raw, open, very real instance.

In myself, I am unworthy in every sense of the word. I deserve rejection, condemnation, scorn. I deserve hell-fire for what I am of myself. 

But God.... thank God for grace, that charis grace, that mercy undeserved and grace beyond all measure. He loved me so much, even in my stinking sin, that He sent His Son Christ Jesus to die for me, to take the sin-penalty and the penalty of the Law upon Himself, to become that price for me, that He might purchase me with His redeeming blood. 

I cannot boast in myself, not at all. I am nothing. I am less than the dirt and worms that I trod upon. But in CHRIST, I find everything that I want to be. 

I find peace. 

I find joy. 

I find forgiveness, 

healing,

strength,

and the courage to stand up, dust myself off, and try one more time. 

I can't be all things to all people, but I know who can. 

I can't be perfect all the time, but I know where to go to find the grace that I need to carry on even after I fail again. 

And again. 

And again.

And yet again.

Love letters from God remind me that even though I fail, and He knows it, He loves me anyway with a love beyond measure and beyond understanding. 

On my knees, I look up, and through the tears, His grace shines like a message in the sky...

Of course my children know that I fail. They see me fall, they see me stumble, they witness my searing tears when I've just simply had enough of me and this troublesome flesh that is my temporary home. I'm human, and they know it, and yet choose to look past it and love me anyway. Praise the Lord for their child-like faith in me. If, in all of my failings, I can find the strength to point them to Christ alone as my source, my provision, my comfort, and my safe harbor, then I will think myself having accomplished much more than I could have ever hoped. 

I don't want my children to see me as perfect, because I'm most absolutely not. I don't want to be a fake mom. That's not what is best for them. What is best for them is real. Real trials. Real struggles. Real tears. Real prayers. Real "I'm sorry," and real reconciliation. I am real, and that means that I am really weak in and of myself, but our God is real, and His love and mercy is real, as is His promised help in times of need if we only ask, seek, knock. We weren't meant to bear this burden of world and flesh alone. He wants our dependence; our child-like faith, love, and complete and utter dependence.

Here I am, Lord. Ugly, unworthy, and unfit. In You, however, I know that I am beautiful. By Your grace alone.

Praise the Lord for Grace.

Eucharisteo

Eucharisteo.... to be grateful, feel thankful, give thanks (Strongs 2168)

Learning joy, learning to live a life of thankfulness. Finding joy in everyday blessings, in the everyday graces of the Lord. Discontentment, self-condemnation, a critical eye, they are all poisons to the soul, destroyers of joy. Open, complete, pure, and fervent thankfulness and thanksgiving will always lead to and foster pure joy. We must learn thankfulness. Not just the occasional action, but we must allow it to permeate our lives, our souls, our character, until the outpouring of thankfulness comes as natural at any given moment in life. Contentment, true contentment, is found in thanksgiving.

Inward peace must never be sacrificed to outward ease.

"Jesus Christ teaches that inward peace must never be sacrificed to outward ease. A lie might often help us to momentary rest, a great black falsehood might be the softest pillow sometimes on which for the time being to rest and aching head. Of what account it is if there be great outward peace, while the heart is at war with itself, while there is a scorpion in the inner nature, stinging the conscience and inflicting mortal pain? Your plaudits cannot reach me with any measure of satisfaction if there be not an inward voice which attests that they are righteously bestowed – they fall upon me as foam flecks the rock it cannot penetrate. You might gather around your friend, pour upon him the billows of your approbation and applause, yet if his heart said to him, “You have no right to this,” all those billows would chase one another to their destruction, and never enter the soul they were intended to bless. 

On the contrary, you have also a profound truth – if there is really peace in your heart any outside storm can have no effect upon you. Jesus Christ adds by suggestion that no motive is to be relied upon that is not drawn from a divine center. Herein we fail so much – our motive has not enough reach. A man may be strong, but the stone which he may be attempting to remove out of his way be a real stumbling-block and ought to be removed, but if he have not leverage enough his strength is wasted in vain endeavor. What we want in life is more leverage, and that needful leverage can be realized only when there is a heavenly purchase. Every motive that is not profoundly religious expires ere it accomplishes any work that is worth doing. No heroism can sustain itself up to the point of conquest that is not inspired by an adequate motive. What is the adequate motive of human life? God’s sovereignty, God’s love, human stewardship, a profound and gracious sense of responsibility, and an appreciation of those opportunities for fulfilling that responsibility which constitutes the very glory and dignity of our human life. It may be that you are operating with too small a motive, your weapons are unequal to the war – there are no weapons equal to this contest that are not provided by the Almighty Captain of the fight" 

~ Joseph Parker, Christ's Finished Work: Studies in Matthew Chapters 16-28