Keeping It Simple

As I was thinking about the blog this morning and what I could write for you to read that would be valuable, the thought came, 'keep it simple'.

While I was away in the beautiful Adironacks, I sat in on fourteen hours of Bible teaching, read two books and enjoyed several important, life-giving conversations.  That's a lot of listening.  Listening is receiving.  Much of the best of the content came through simple yet powerful statements or questions.

As I furiously and excitedly (in my usual nerd-like fashion) took pages of notes (the older I get the less I trust my memory), I hoped for the opportunity to share them with someone else because of what it was stirring up in me.  So here goes.  I am praying that they speak to you today and you receive something meaningful. (Quotes are in bold.  The rest are my comments.)

The Bible is the Voice of God.  I mean seriously.  We know this.  But do we know this?  Wouldn't we all like to hear the voice of God?  We can.  We have no excuse not to.  All we have to do is pick up His Word and read it.

Give God's Word your full attention.  It's the only book that matters.

Every time we are in God's Word we are getting a better picture of who God is.  This means we can better describe Him to others.  So good!

Nothing in the Christian life works without God's Word.  Could this be why we are exhausted from trying to 'work it out' ourselves with no results?

Stop viewing yourself as the focus of life.  We exist for the Glory of God.  Ouch.  I wonder if we should change our common statement for ourselves and wish for others from, "I'm looking forward to what God has for me" to "I am eager for God to show me how I can best serve Him with my life."

 My life is the autobiography of Christ.  This is going to take some examination.  Is that how I live?  Do others see His likeness in me?

Cultivate a spiritual awareness until it takes over your life.  Sit with this one a while.  We have all the power here - how much of Jesus do we want?  We can have as much as we want.

The presence of evil will never undo or destroy the work of God.   In light of today's world events, this is the greatest time to proclaim Christ.  That is good news.

There is no such thing as private sin.  To be a follower of Jesus means we live in community and our sins have repercussions.  Our choices matter to others.  This is not a curse.  It's a gift - to live in such a way that it helps others to live well too.

Stop making excuses for your condition.  Call sin sin.  Sin multiplies when you make excuses for it.  Own your sin.  You can't get victory over that which you don't own.

 Love Jesus more than anything. 

Peace comes through acceptance of - not removal of - suffering.  Not easy, but true.  Suffering builds character too.  We can't remove it all (or beg God to) and think we are going to grow.

God wants us to reach out to Him.  He allows in His wisdom things to happen so we will.  What a beautiful way to look at the hard, painful things that come into our lives.

The Christian life is an intentional life.  It is focused on a relationship with Jesus - becoming Christlike.  This statement is so huge to me.  It's going to become the main theme beneath the questions I periodically ask my kids.  In what ways are you becoming more Christlike?  How is God asking you to change?  What verses are you applying to your life?  Because without transformation into God's character - what's the point?  THIS is what it's all about.

We have erased holiness from the Christian life.  Our fellowship with the Father is defined by holiness.  Ask these questions:  Who are we trying to be like?  Christ?  The world?  Everyone else?  More excellent questions for my kids (and myself).

None of us are naturally usable to God.  We all require preparation.  How are you and I being prepared to do ministry?

Everyone needs discipleship from older, wiser followers.  We need to ask "How do you study?  How do you grow?, etc."  We have no business trying to live this life on our own when we have others we can ask to show us the best way.  I like the way Andy Stanley puts it, "Wisdom is not learning from our mistakes - that's experience.  Wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes."  And not just their mistakes - their successes too.
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From two women I spent time with:

God would not lead you through a dark valley if there wasn't something of great value waiting for you on the other side.  Good motivation to wait patiently and expectantly.

We have chosen (for our family) to live according to the standards set by God in His Word so that we can enjoy the blessing of God on our lives.   Honestly, friends, when I heard this I thought, "That's the perfect mission statement.  Following Christ isn't about rule keeping. We don't have to over explain.  It's simple - we're living God's way so that He will bless us."  Boom.

And that was just the first week.  HA!  All of these statements (and so many more) made an impact on me.  They gave me occasion for confession, repentance, motivation to change AND also encouragement to continue putting my hope and faith in Jesus because He is so good.  So worth it.  And because His love for me is so big.  Not to mention also because there are younger ones coming behind me who need to know these things.

I so hope you found something here to challenge you, encourage you, cause you to make some intentional decisions for your life and the well being of your family as well.  I know there's a lot here, but even if we grabbed a few of these simple statments and gave them attention in our lives I wonder what would happen. 

What do you say we make this a conversation instead of me doing all the talking?  (I bet you're thinking, I thought she'd never think of that.)  How about for fun you copy and paste something above that most resonated with you and post it in the comment section?