Growing in Grace

In every area of life, face up to what God would have you do. As long as you play games, as long as you ignore what you know in your heart God would have you do, you set yourself up to fail. . . God wants control over every area of your life. Not partial control, total control. He wants you to be victorious over temptation. But He wants you to be victorious for His purposes, not yours. You may not have achieved victory over temptation because you are holding to the reins of your life and trying to get God to intervene in the rough spots. That isn't the way God works. He wants all of you. And when He knows you are His, He will do whatever He needs to make you into an effective servant for His kingdom. -From Winning the War Within by Charles Stanley; part of The  Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version  by Max Lucado Evaluate your alliances in career, leisure, and finances. Which "allies" tempt you to compromise? Which "allies" help you know the Bibl

What poses the greatest risk to not continuing in Christ? The greatest risk is the crisis of values which inexorably comes when we follow hollow and deceptive philosophy. It may not come until we have traveled for many years down the road of self-deceit, but it will come. The crisis of values is no less than a bad case of the -ism's - materialism, relativism, humanism, hedonism, liberalism, legalism, secularism and so on. I doubt few of us ever set out to become a materialist or a relativist or whatever. It is more that without self-examination we atrophy from the Christian value system into something less. Not that we abandon the spiritual connection, but slowly, almost imperceptibly, we undo the moral knowledge to which we pledged ourselves. When once we redraw the line, there is less pressure against redrawing it, and less and less each time thereafter. . . God wants us to make a comeback. He wants us to make a comeback more than we do. . . How can someone start a comebac

You look secure and successful, but the half has not been told, right? Part of you is insecure and fearful. Underneath, you're pretty weak. You appear to be happy, easy-going, and fulfilled: but the half has not been told, has it? You wonder about where all this is leading you. Your restless drive for more and your desire for calm, peaceful contentment seem poles apart. . . because they are poles apart. Deep down, nothing within you smiles. The truth is you are empty on the inside and you're faking it on the outside. Not one thing you own in all your "kingdom" has brought you the happiness you long for. So you're thinking, "Maybe if I could land that better job," or "get into that bigger house," or. . . or. . .  But don't allow the smoke screen of more money to blind your eyes to the truth. There's a lot more to being rich than making more money. Seneca, the Roman, was right, "Money has never yet made anyone rich." Do you

We can have overflowing hearts that worship in spirit. First of all we must be yielded to the Holy Spirit . Before we can worship God in our spirit, the Holy Spirit has to be there to produce true worship. First Corinthians 2:11 says, "The thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." If you don't have the Spirit of God prompting your heart, motivating your heart, cleansing your heart, instructing your heart, you cannot worship God, because you cannot even know Him. "No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:3). In other words without the Holy Spirit, a person cannot truly affirm the Lordship of Christ. To worship Christ as sovereign requires prodding by the Holy Spirit. And we receive the Holy Spirit only upon the reception of Jesus as Savior and Lord. . . David was a king. He had more than a few things to worry about. And yet he sought to worship God with an undivided heart. In Psalm 86:11 David prayed,

Maybe your past isn't much to brag about. Maybe you've seen raw evil. And now you, like Josiah, have to make a choice. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses? Many choose the latter. Many choose the convalescent homes of the heart. Healthy bodies. Sharp minds. But retired dreams. Back and forth they rock in the chair of regret, repeating the terms of surrender. Lean closely and you will hear them: "If only." The white flag of the heart. "If only. . . " "If only I'd been born somewhere else. . . " "If only I'd been treated fairly. . ." "If only I'd had kinder parents, more money, greater opportunities. . . " Maybe you've used those words. Maybe you have every right to use them. Perhaps you, like Josiah, were hearing the ten count before you even got into the ring. For you to find an ancestor worth imitating, you, like Josiah, have to

If there were the willingness to be content with less money, fewer activities which eat into the budget and take the family away from home, fewer possessions; if there were the willingness to "be content with such things as you have," would we not sooner find the truth of God's Word, "A man's real life in no way depends upon the number of his possessions" (Luke 12:15)? The willingness to be and to have, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else, would set our hearts at rest, and we would discover that the simpler the life the greater the peace. -From The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot; part of The  Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version  by Max Lucado

I have been meaning to sit down and write an update on Dennis for a while now, but I feel like things have been so busy since August that I haven't had a chance to even catch my breath! But this week the Lord has been refining and encouraging me with some great things related to our cancer journey, so I felt I "needed" to sit down and organize my thoughts. April was the two year anniversary of Dennis' surgery and the news that he was cancer free. August was the three year anniversary of his diagnosis and the two year anniversary of the end of his treatment. September 2nd was Dennis 50th birthday and we celebrated the weekend before with a Beatles-themed party. You can read about it here and his birthday day activities here . Dennis' regular blood work and CT-scan in the spring show he is still cancer free. We are so thankful! He continues to have regular check ups with his radiology doctor and oncologist, but is finished following up with his surgeon. Our fami

In Matthew 4 we read about Jesus being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus had been fasting for forty days and forty nights when the enemy came and challenged Him to turn the stones there with them into bread. Jesus responded by saying, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). The NIV Study Bible points out that "just as God gave the Israelites manna in a supernatural way, so also man must rely on God for spiritual feeding. Jesus relied on his Father, not on his own miracle power, for provision of food." This study note, made me think about the current state of jobs and finances among family, friends and ourselves. I think sometimes we put our trust in our physical jobs for our "daily bread" instead of in Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider. When we receive a pay cut in those jobs or even lose them completely, we can become anxious and feel hopeless. Warren Wiersbe writes that