Cross the Line

I went out to a little room off of our garage the other day to feed our cat. She is an old cat and has been pushed out there to live, because she bites me. Oh, I know. Cats give love bites.

Believe me, she has no love in her heart when she decides to bite me. She has revenge on her heart and she is going to eat meat that day. And the meat is me! Have I said all this before?

Anyway, as I went to feed her, it hit me that she hardly gets out of that room. We open the back door for her to go in and out during the day, but she hardly goes out. Or she might venture out for a while, but then is back in. With all of the huge backyard and sunlight, and fresh air out there.

She stays in that dusty, musty, room letting a fan cool her. When she could have the real thing in God's fresh air.

And I thought how much we are like that. We put ourselves into a box, out of fear, pain, revenge, and never want to venture out into what God has for us.

As our cat needs to cross that threshold, to get to the world that God made her for, we have to cross those lines of fear, regret, past experiences. "But God, the last time I tried to do that, I got hurt."

We have to be willing to step through those hard memories, and as we step through them, we will be free of them. Those spirits of fear, anxiety, dread, will never have a hold on us again. They will never ruin a relationship again, unless we let it. They will never keep us from exploding into what God planned for us.

Just cross the line.

©BL2007

Take back the land.

Yesterday, I was having my time with the Lord, and found myself wanting to confront some things in myself with Him. Cleaning house in other words. I start most days with Him and cleaning, because when I get into "Please, this and would You that" I guess I just want to start off each day with Him, with a clean slate.

Anyway, I was thinking about Satan. How he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is serious about what he wants to do in each life, don't get me wrong. Dead serious.

But I think that we give him way too much credit for stuff. He can only be in one place at a time. God is omnipresent. He can be everywhere at the same time. I know, I don't get it either, but I believe it. Satan is not omnipresent. So if Satan is in Irag, he can't be in Colorado bothering you, himself.

Satan isn't omniscient. He doesn't know everything. It only feels like it. Only God knows everything.

And Satan isn't omnipotent. Only God has unlimited power.

So, how does Satan do what he does? I was asking God this, when I got a picture of the movie "The Wizard of Oz". You know at the end of the movie, where Dorothy and all are before the big head of Oz and he is thundering out his demands. While little Toto, the dog goes and pulls back a curtain revealing who was really behind the Oz.

So is Satan really in a small room, frantically pulling levers, pushing buttons on some machine to control his demons and his people? Pull that lever and out comes some fire. Push that button and zoom, a demon fires a thought.

Probably not, but I don't think he is what we think he is. He wants us to think he is huge and mean. But always remember who he has to answer to. God. Satan was only an angel, he isn't anywhere near the level of God, although he wanted to be.

Yes, we are living in Satan's playground. He owns the real estate. He even tried to tempt Jesus with it, if only Jesus would bow down to him.

Satan has demons, some of who are not chained in hell, to help him. Since he can't be everywhere at the same time, those demons must do the dirty work. They tell us lies, they try to confuse us, they use our words against us, and keep us diseased. I'm convinced that the battlefield is in the mind. (Like Joyce Meyer's book says.)

But. There it is Pastor. The but. But God sent a way. Jesus. Jesus came and lived on this earth to teach us how to live, and to take back what the devil has stolen.

And once we ask Jesus to be our Lord, and are walking with him, we have the dominion back. We don't have to listen to the lies, we don't have to be confused or sick.

The promise? One is James 4:7. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Don't put any little buts on this. "But, Satan tells me this. But he makes me feel like a loser....." Submit yourself and all to God, resist the devil. How? How do you resist all of those credit card apps. Rip them up and throw them away! Resist.

And he will flee from you. Don't add anything, or take anything away from that verse. It stands alone.

He will flee. Take back the land.

©BL2007

Hide and Seek

Holy Moly.

I just got done playing with my kitten. We were playing hide and seek. Honestly.

She'd run and hide, and as I'd walk by, she'd jump out at me. And then I'd run and hide (honestly!) and as she'd show up, I'd jump out at her. And she'd jump up in the air, pretending to be scared! Hilarious!

I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Right now anyone reading this is going, "Umm... should we call someone and intervene?".

Well, we all know how good laughter is for us and have all heard how many times a day a kid laughs, right?

Does anyone remember how good it feels on the inside to just play? To really laugh for the sheer joy of it?

Do you remember how it feels to have fun?

I know, life is really hard sometimes, but I wonder what the Father was doing while my kitten and I were playing hide and seek. Do you think He was standing there, watching, and tapping His foot and looking at His watch? Do you think He was looking on with anger, saying, "Get back to work!"?

Naw, I think He was positively delighted! Remember, He's the one that made cats.

©BL2007

This morning I was watching my kitten. She never strays from being herself. She jumps. She runs. She plays....cat and mouse. What else can I call it. She meows. She responds by submission when I growl at her in a cat way. (Yup, I growl at her. It's a technique that my daughter taught me! When she is doing something that I don't like, I growl and keep it up until she submits by bowing her head, closing her eyes, or backing away - it works! Just a little cat tidbit!)

But she doesn't try to act like me. That would be funny. She stays in her cat mode. Because she is a cat!

I find myself sometimes during different seasons in my life, trying to be what I'm not. Whether it's a diva, a model (Ha!), a bookkeeper (those that know me can laugh, but that's what I find myself doing these days, for our business), a grocery store clerk, a sales rep, or whatever.

But what makes my heart sing? It's when I actually sit down and write. And write something that speaks of God's heart and mine.

It's when I do what God made me to do. Sing. Create. Love.

It's the song of my heart. It's what God thought of when He fashioned me before I was born.

I'm more at peace and happiest when I follow God's heart for mine.

©BL2007

Instructions on using Keys

Yesterday, when I was at church, a church elder preached. Pastor was gone on vaca, so this elder put in the time.

He preached on prayer. Actually, "Why Pray?"

First of all, we are so blessed to have people to fill in so our pastor can go away with his family.

But most of all, we are so blessed to have more than one man that loves God's Word enough to study up. To fill us up.

He and I were talking afterward about his message, and I was overcome at God's plan. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over this earth, but they didn't even get the chance to enjoy it. They gave dominion over to Satan when they agreed with him that they would not die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They also agreed with Satan that they would be as gods, knowing or deciding for themselves what is good and what is evil. So they took that bite and in that bite, all of heaven and earth moved. The whole earth and all it held; the future and the past came crashing together in a spiritual and moral death, in that one bite. The physical death would come later. The whole earth, and everything in it, was now under Satan's rule.

But that isn't the end of the story. God so loved this world and all it held. He had lovingly created everything in it. Taken time to design the plants each with beauty, usefulness, (well, there is that one weed....), each animal with such detail and thoughtfulness. But when he designed man and woman, He surpassed anything ever made.

God loved us so much, man and woman, the whole earth, that He gave His own Son to die a horrible death, so that we would not perish.

Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of Satan. He literally took the keys of the Kingdom, that Satan had taken from Adam and Eve, back. He took them back.

And what do we do with the keys? We have them in hand if we are born again. (See John 3:3 - if you still have questions, email me!)

For more than 20 years, I walked around, just carrying the keys. Oh, I'd put them on a key chain that had a WWJD line on it. Or I'd safely tuck them away in the pocket of my purse. They had a special hook by the door that I would hang them from.

But did I use them to unlock and set the captives free? (Is. 61:1-4) No.

Did I use them to preach and teach the Good Tidings? Or to open those bound in their prisons?

No, I just walked around with them. "Aren't these pretty?" I'd ask. "Don't they make a neat sound as they sway from my belt? You know that belt of Truth." "Jesus gave me these." "Nope, no I haven't used them for anything..."

It's time that we as Christians take those keys off of our belts and choose a key and plunge it into the lock and turn it until we feel and hear the lock open.

Prisons opened. People set free. Eyes clear and seeing.

How? Ask God. Read His Word. There are instructions in there on how to unlock things.

©BL2007