Tag Archives: who I am in Christ

Checklists and Ropes Part 2

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In the previous post, I spoke of “performance bases acceptance” in another season of life….

I know that I spoke of this in my November 17th entry, and I feel like I have learned so much about this even since then…”performance based acceptance” can squeeze the life out of you at anytime in your life. Now, continued…..

People questioned me, thought I was crazy.  Those friends in the teaching profession seemed to understand better than anyone.  But I had to…the Lord confirmed it over and over in His word and through prayer.  I had been released and I finally was hearing it.  HE would provide, He always met our needs. I had to quit looking at those carrots at the end of that list.

It has been three months.  I believe that God actually rescued me.  He saved me.  I did not know how bad off I was until now…I feel like ME again.  I love to encourage and believe I am gifted to do so by our Heavenly Father.  But in the last two years I was “encouraging” others in my own strength.

God never left me.  But I couldn’t hear Him.  I was overwhelmed.  Now I know that there are jobs that do that to you.  If you are a “performance based” person like me, you cannot just shake it off and do your best. “Don’t take it so seriously” I would hear.  “You need to leave your work at school like me.”  “You are over the top, give it a rest.” “Why do you do this to yourself?” 

I HAD to do my best. I was a Christian and HAD to act like one…. I HAD to help the general education teachers since they were under such pressure.  I HAD to consult the parents and talk and try to explain many things to them about their special child.  I HAD to teach the students, but was limited in time and technique.  Not to mention my family and friends outside of work who needed my encouragement.  But the life was literally being squeezed out of me. God showed me! I saw myself wrapped up tighter and tighter!    The only way for me to survive was to just cut the rope off before I died from suffocation.

I don’t know what my immediate future holds.  I am crafting and selling wreaths,studying, writing three blogs and healing.  I am hearing from God again.  I am taking the time to listen.  I have the time to listen.  It seems to me that the enemy’s best tool in our demise is our “being too busy”.

So, I share this to maybe be an encouragement to you, wherever you are.  If you are like me, give something up that occupies your time.  You may not quit your job, but there may be something that you can put down that is suffocating you. There may be a ministry you are involved in because you “have” to be involved in it! Ask the Father to show you the way of rest.  Often times I was “Jack of all trades, master of none.”  I know that GOD equips us in ways that are unbelievable, but we must be able to do them in His strength and not our own.

The Lord wants us to live an abundant, grace filled Christian life. He wants us to REST in HIM. HE wants that for us so that we will share HIM and His joy and peace with others.  HE wants us to share that He is the gift of life, eternal salvation.  Trust me when I say, if you are empty, have no joy…people won’t want what you have.  You have no hope to give them.  

Hebrews 4:1-3
“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said…”

Rest in this New Testament passages means: eiserchomai and it is a verb. It means to come in, entrance into any condition, to arise, come into existence, to come into life.
Stay with me……What hit me is that it does not have a future tense”helper” verb in front of it. So it doesn’t say “will enter”, “might enter”. For believers in the Lord Jesus Christ…we enter that rest NOW. Oh yes, metaphorically the word means that we will have rest after the trials on earth are ended….but we can choose that REST now.

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***personal drawing purchased from and created by Derek Hegstead, 1993***

Blessings dear ones..
IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

earlier animation***google search stock photo****

Checklists and Ropes…Part 1

Spiritual Encouragement, , , , , , , , , , , ,

RopeManilla2Inch_Quest

Yoo-Hoo!  Over here…look at what I am doing!  Is she upset with me?  Did I make her mad?  Did I do that right?!?! Did I , could I, should I??

Good grief! Ok, confession here.  These are not the rantings of an adolescent, but that of a 52 year old woman!  Not out loud where people could actually hear it….but ah, those thoughts ran through my head many a day!

Last time I talked about my “performance based acceptance” and the legalism that bound me for several years.  It took me a while to quit making those checklists and get “free” and realize I was to live under grace! I had to break my pencil to quit those lists! Well let me tell you, the checklist reappeared and with it a very tight rope. And I helped tighten it!

I just re-read a blog from last year during this time and I was indeed swirling.  I was in a deep, dark hole…spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.  I did not realize how deep until I cut that rope and threw away that list!  I felt I was just “going through the motions and hanging on to God.”  Actually, I see now that He was “hanging on to me.”

I had re-entered the public school system as a teacher about 10 years ago.  I felt led to do so and the Father opened up a job.  In one day I had an interview and got a job.  I really was only half way looking since my wise husband had been praying for a way to pay for our son’s college education.  I had homeschooled them and they were about to further that education.  It was a total God thing to get a job that I did not know even existed!! I always felt it was for a season.  A time to help financially, and then I would be released.  

I stayed two years too long.  How do I know that?  The youngest graduated two years ago…but I thought I could hang on long enough for a partial retirement.  A “dangling” carrot of sorts.  Not that there is anything wrong with a pension, but it became my primary goal and I truly wasn’t listening when the Father was trying to get my attention. At the end of that checklist I saw a small bunch of carrots and had to get to them!

The rope almost choked me in October.  I started the school year, trying to muster up a good attitude.  I had started losing my hair in tremendous volume and all over ( but thick, curly hair provided a good comb over on my head..) and had a bout with a very curable skin cancer ( its placement kept me from raising my left arm for several weeks..long enough for my husband to have to basically set up my room) But I was strong, I could do it!!

Therein lies the issue.  I could not do it in my own strength.  Last year at this time I had to increase my anxiety medicine. (Another blog) and I felt awful.  The rope around me continued to tighten, and I just stood there! The checklist increased in length.  October 1st…. I gave up.  I quit. I bailed.  

I will share more of this story next time…stay tuned!
Blessings,
IN CHRIST ALONE
Isaiah 55:8-9
*google search image*

New Beginnings! New in Christ!

Spiritual Encouragement, , , , , , , , ,

A New Year!!  New Beginnings…who are we in Christ?


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I remember as a little girl only imagining the year 2000…and now we are at 2014!  As I have aged, time has decided to go faster.  Interesting how that works, isn’t it?

How exciting to think that the New Year brings new beginnings.  And to know that the Father is the author of new beginnings does my heart good.  Starting a new year reminds me that I was made new in Christ when I trusted him at 12 years old.  I need to be reminded of that daily.  One way is for me to keep my thoughts on Him in the midst of life and it’s swirling circumstances.  

Psalm 119:105 says “They word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  How?  Worship can lead us into His presence, as well as the word of God.  The Bible illuminates our path and helps us to see truth and the “new” of who we are in Christ. Remember our “lighthouse” entry previous to this one?  He is our light, He is our Word.

As we enter into this new year, I wanted to remind myself of the truths that I often lose sight of.  I had many misconceptions of myself for many years.  Even though I was “new” in Christ, I never really grasped it.  I was not into the Bible, nor was I encouraged in that way by other believers.  I believed lies and that was disasterous for me.  I lived my life trying to perform for others, perform for the Father thinking I could gain His love.  What a lie that was!!

I am loved unconditionally because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.  You are loved unconditionally!!  Let me identify some of those “untruths” and give you scripture to prove it wrong. Read and hear the truth…may it speak to your heart.

1.I cannot resist sin….. “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”  Romans 6:7…..SO, Christ freed me from sin’s control.

2. I feel like God has given up on me….”Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”  Romans 8:1…..SO, I am not condemned either now or in the future.

3.I feel like no one loves me….“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”  Romans 15:7…….SO, I am fully accepted in Christ.

4.I am not a saint you know….“To the church in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours.”  1 Corinthians 1:2…SO, All those who are in Christ are saints.

5. I am so inferior….“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.  If the foot should say ‘Because I am not a hand, I don’t belong to the body.’  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body…As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”  I Corinthians 12:14-16, 20   SO, I am a part of Christ’s body equal to all.

Isn’t is wonderful to realize who we really are IN CHRIST?  We have to know this, commit this to our heart and remind ourselves these truths over and over.  The enemy would prefer that we did not know these truths, thus rendering us “unusable”.  When we have this confidence, we choose life and we choose love.  We cannot help it, it is a natural by-product.

I will continue to share these truths from the Word through these next few entries.  I believe that I need to review it again, and someone else needs to be reminded as well.

Be blessed dear ones!

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9
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