Grace Defeats The Monster...

The other day, Rick had me listen to a song called "Monster" by Skillet and he shared with me that he sometime feels exactly like the words in the lyrics. Here are the words to the song:

The secret side of me

I never let you see

I keep it caged but I can't control it

So stay away from me

The beast is ugly

I feel the rage and I just can't hold it

Its scratching on the walls

In the closet, in halls

It comes awake and I can't control it

Hiding under the bed

In my body, in my head

Why won't somebody come and

save me from this

Make it end

I feel it deep within

It's just beneath the skin

I must confess that I feel like a monster

I hate what I've become

The nightmare's just begun

I must confess that I feel like a monster

I feel like a monster

My secret side I keep

Hide under lock and key

I keep it caged but I can't control it

'Cause if I let him out

He'll tear me up, break me down

Why won't somebody come and save me from

this make it end

Its hiding in the dark

Its teeth are razor sharp

There is no escape for me

It wants my soul and it wants my heart

No one can hear me scream

Maybe its just a dream

Or maybe its inside of me

Stop this monster

When I first heard the words, I was felt horrible that Rick felt like this sometimes, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to agree that all of us probably feel like a monster at some point in our lives. We all have that monster in us, just hiding under our skin. We do live in this fallen world and all us have sin in our lives because of it. I would actually be a little worried if you didn't think you were a monster or had sin your life.  Feeling unworthy is natural and brings us to the feet of God.  Even Paul talks about this monster in Romans- "And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway... I love God's law with all my heart. but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?" (7:18-19, 22-24)  In fact it is addressed often in the New Testament.  However, there is more to the story.  This song is not complete.  The answer to the question who will save me, is Jesus. :-)  "God declared an end to sin's (the monster) control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins... Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.  For if you live by its dictates, you will die.  But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live." (Romans 8:3,12-13)  This is what is so awesome and powerful, that even though all of us have that monster in us and it rears its ugly head now and then, by God's grace we have Jesus living in us, if we so choose, to defeat that monster.  Praise God and Amen to that!

Love Steph

Pleasing to God

...”You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”  Luke 3:22

This passage is God speaking from heaven after Jesus had been baptized by John and had received the Holy Spirit.  This was the beginning of Jesus’ three year ministry on earth, a ministry that would shake the foundations of the religious world and forever change our relationship with the Father.  It was also the declaration of war against the father of lies and his minions.  Jesus would spend the next three years reclaiming territory that Satan had occupied, transforming lives that had been damaged and destroyed by the works of the enemy, healing bodies ravaged by oppression, and teaching others how to do the things He was doing.  His birth brought the promise of this upcoming battle but this public blessing, the bestowing of the Spirit  and the confirmation by God that this was indeed His Son marked the beginning of a battle that will only be fully completed when Jesus returns for His bride.

Wait a minute!  God was telling His Son that He was pleased with Him at the beginning of the battle, even before Jesus’ public ministry had started, no one had been saved, no demons cast out, no dead person raised, no blind eyes opened, or deaf ears unstopped.  Jesus had not even taught one lesson, told one parable, called one disciple.  He had no track record of successful healings, resurrections, deliverances, salvations under His belt.  He was just starting out, stepping into His ministry.

So what was God so pleased about?  The words prior to His declaration of pleasure tell us in what He delighted.  God’s delight and pleasure was in the fact that Jesus was His Son.  Notice He didn’t add, “I am pleased with what you’ve done” or “I am pleased with what you are about to do”.  God was pleased with Jesus because He was His Son.  He was pleased because of who Jesus was not with what He was doing or going to do.  Simply being His Son brought Him pleasure, it was not tied to doing.

How many times I have read these words and in my mind I fast forwarded to all the things Jesus was going to do, the lives he would forever touch, the church that would result from His time on earth and I would view these words as pleasure in what Jesus was doing.  Of course God would find pleasure in all those things Jesus was doing.  But today these words went in with no fast forwarding or assumptions of what was pleasing to God only the reality of God’s pleasure in Jesus being His Son.  How many of us in the Western world are driven to do, find our value in what we do, and value others by what they do instead of finding pleasure simply by who someone is?  How many of us have spent our lives doing, to earn love, value, acceptance instead of resting secure in the knowledge that we are a pleasure to God simply because we are His child?  Could it be that easy?  

I hope you will join me in pondering this truth, really taking it into your spirit and being honest about what you find.  Do you believe that God finds pleasure in you because of who you are?  Or do you feel you have to earn love, work for acceptance, strive to be good enough to please Him?  What things are keeping you from knowing that you are a pleasure to God?  Have you experienced the Father heart of God?

Such a simple truth but what a huge difference it makes once it becomes your truth.

Blessings on your journey into higher truth

Lori

A poem to share

In our homeschool journey, the girls and I have been reading lots of different poems. Wanting to expose them to something different, I dug out my college lit textbooks and found this gem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I really love it. ~Becca


A PSALM OF LIFE
      WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
                    SAID TO THE PSALMIST


    TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
        Life is but an empty dream ! —
    For the soul is dead that slumbers,
        And things are not what they seem.

    Life is real !   Life is earnest!
        And the grave is not its goal ;
    Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
        Was not spoken of the soul.

    Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
        Is our destined end or way ;
    But to act, that each to-morrow
        Find us farther than to-day.

    Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
        And our hearts, though stout and brave,
    Still, like muffled drums, are beating
        Funeral marches to the grave.

    In the world's broad field of battle,
        In the bivouac of Life,
    Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
        Be a hero in the strife !

    Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
        Let the dead Past bury its dead !
    Act,— act in the living Present !
        Heart within, and God o'erhead !

    Lives of great men all remind us
        We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
        Footprints on the sands of time ;

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
        Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
        Seeing, shall take heart again.

    Let us, then, be up and doing,
        With a heart for any fate ;
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
        Learn to labor and to wait.