Author Archives: Nicole Vaughn

>Never Without Hope

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And he said to the woman,
“Indeed, has God said,
‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1
In Genesis 1:31, God saw all that He had made, and He said it was good—very good—and He rested.
Somewhere between chapters 2 and 3 in Genesis, Satan attempted to set himself up as God. We get a glimpse of his rebellion in Isaiah 14:13–14: “You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will make myself like the Most High.”
God cast him out of heaven and down to earth, and one third of the angels followed him. In Revelation 12:9 we read, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Never again in Scripture does God say He presently rests. In fact, He now says He never sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:4), but a sabbath rest is waiting (Hebrews 4:9). We now are engaged in a battle, a battle “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Satan was cast out of heaven into a serpent. While in this serpent, Satan remained not only under the dominion of God, but under the dominion of man, for man had been given dominion over all the living things on the earth. This, Satan would not have, so he came and deceived Eve. Then Adam listened to the voice of his wife and chose to disobey God. In this one act of disobedience, “sin entered the world and death through sin” (Romans 5:12), but God was not surprised.
In the fall of mankind, God shows us how great His mercy and kindness is and how far His grace extends. In the ugliness of sin, His glory still beautifully shines. We see the truth of God’s Word and the fact that His Word is for our benefit. His words are an illustration of His love, and when they are obeyed, they result in giving and sustaining life. Yet even in our disobedience, his love abounds.
God is perfect in wisdom, and He knows all things. He knew Adam and Eve believed the lie of the serpent and had disobeyed His command, and yet He gave them the opportunity to first come to Him and confess what they had done. God gave them the opportunity to repent.
He listened patiently to the blame game and pointing of fingers. When it came time for God to deliver His judgment, it was just, for He is a just God. He cursed the root first, the tempter.
Before our Creator cursed man and the earth, He first laid out His redemption plan. God did not leave Adam and Eve without hope, and He does not leave us without hope. He did not eradicate the consequences of their actions, but in their repentance, He gave them hope. God’s mercy and grace continued as He shed the blood of an innocent animal, the first blood sacrifice, to cover the shame and nakedness of a sin-aware Adam and Eve.
In his mercy He cast Adam and Eve out of the garden so that they could not eat of the tree of life and live forever in their sinful, decaying state. Outside the garden, sin would claim its wage, physical death (Romans 6:23), but also outside the garden, redemption could be found. God had promised a seed, and that promised seed was and is Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16), and all who trust in him even though they die, they shall live (John 11:25).
Satan was out to destroy man’s relationship with God, but all he succeeded in doing was showing Adam and Eve how very great God’s love was for them when he forgave them for their disobedience. My friend, do you know how great his love is for you? Do you understand that He has “forgiven you for all that you have done” (Ezekiel 16:63)?
Do not listen to the lie of the serpent: “Indeed has God said” (Genesis 3:1). Know that yes, God has said and all that God has said is true. Know, my precious one, that when God speaks, He speaks out of the essence of who He is and “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and in His words are the power of life.
The same God that reached out to Adam and Eve in their sin is the very same God who is reaching out to us in our sin. His arms are outstretched, and his voice cries “come” (Revelation 22:17).
Oh Father,
That I would never forget Your great love for me, nor the open arms You hold out to me. I fail; even as Your Holy Spirit-filled child, I fail. I still stumble, and sometimes I have eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear and a mind that’s been deceived, but still I am Yours.
You promised You would never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). This is the hope I have that is in Christ; if I confess my sin, You are faithful and righteous to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Oh Father, I am so grateful to be Yours. My Jesus, I am so thankful for the hope that I have in You. I love You, my Elohim.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.

>Covenant of Marriage

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Then the Lord God said,
“It is not good for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18
The earth was ready. The garden was ready. The man was ready, almost.
God breathed life into Adam and placed him in the garden to keep it and cultivate it.
God showed him what to do … and what not to do.
God told him that he was free to eat of all the trees of the garden except one—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—and he told him that in the day he ate of it, he would “surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
Then God brought beasts out to the man, and he took ownership over them by giving them their names.
God looked at man, and God looked at the beast, and He knew He was not yet finished with His masterpiece.
Man still needed a suitable helper.
So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and as he slept, God took from his side a rib. From this rib God fashioned a helper. God awoke the man and presented to him his gift, and the man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called woman” (Genesis 2:23).
This woman, this gift from God, was taken from his side, close to his heart. She was not taken from his head to rule over him or to be ruled by him. She was not taken from his feet to walk all over him or to be walked all over. She was taken from his side, to complement him, to be his helper, to be his friend. The man was given responsibility over his woman, not dominion. She was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.
Then God said, “They shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), the first blood covenant.
Our Creator is a God of covenant.
A covenant is a solid, binding agreement that is made by passing between two pieces of flesh. It supersedes all other relationships and contracts. It is an unconditional agreement.
God created the marriage covenant. In this covenant we also see another picture of our triune God. In the book of Ephesians we read that the husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). When God chose to create the woman he called her “a helper.” In John 14:16, Jesus tells the disciples that the Father is going to send them a helper. This helper is the Holy Spirit.
In a marriage covenant, we have God as the head, we have the husband who is to love as Christ, and we have the wife, the helper. Do you see the beautiful image of the Trinity of God that is displayed through the covenant of marriage?
Oh precious one, God provided all for man. He met his physical need, his emotional need, and his
spiritual need. He walked with him. He talked with him. I imagine He laughed with him. God’s work was complete, and on the seventh day he rested. He rested not from fatigue, but because He simply was done. His masterpiece was completed.
Oh Father,
I can only imagine how those days in the garden must have been; You and the man and the woman—no sin separating the relationship. The joy and the peace of life in the garden is almost unimaginable for me. Yet, because of Your Holy Spirit within me, I can close my eyes and fall before You in complete worship and adoration. I feel the hope of Your peace, the hope of my utter joy complete in You.
In the creation of woman, I also can see a picture of my life in Christ. On that cross a spear pierced my bridegroom’s side, and by the blood that poured out from His side, I was able to become His bride.
Oh Father, I love You, and I am so excited to be the bride of Christ.
Oh Father, may I be presented to my Bridegroom “as a pure virgin”
(2 Corinthians 11:2).
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.

>Created For His Pleasure

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Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Genesis 1:26

How many times have you read God’s Word and never seen “let us” and “our image”? So many times I read this phrase and never realized what it said. It does not say “let me” or “my image.” God uses plural words to speak of Himself. The beautiful Trinity is once again seen so clearly if we will only look. 

God, three persons in one, made man in His likeness. God gave us just a small insight into who He is in His creation of man. Man is body, mind, and spirit. We are in a sense a triune being.

God also illustrates His likeness to us through the dominion that he gave man over the earth. God holds dominion over all. He is the supreme, sovereign ruler over all creation, and in His likeness He created man. He created man to also have dominion, dominion under His authority; on this place he called earth.

God created earth for man. God designed it to be able to sustain our life. He created every provision we would need for life before He ever fashioned Adam from the earth. He is a God of order and detail. God forms, and then God fills.

He formed the sky then filled it with stars. He formed the water then filled it with fish. He formed the land and then filled it with beast. When he commanded the earth to sprout forth its vegetation and commanded the trees out of the ground, they came fully grown, ready to reproduce. 

When all was ready and good, God created man.

God created man to have fellowship with Him. God created man for His own pleasure. God created you for His pleasure.

Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God will exult over us with joy and will quiet us with His love and rejoice over us with shouts of joy. We are formed by the hand of a Holy God, created in His image, according to His likeness, and we are filled with the breath of His life.

This was our beginning, but as we go further into Genesis, we will discover how we lose our dominion and even more frightful, how we lose the likeness of the image of our Creator. But oh, precious one, our Creator has not forsaken us. Jesus Christ, God the Son, has come, and in Christ, we once more begin to bear the image of our Creator. 

In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read that in Christ we are being transformed back into the image of our Lord from glory to glory. We were created bearing the image of our Creator and having dominion over the earth under the authority of our God, and only in and through Christ can we, to this purpose, be eternally restored.

Oh Father,

You created us with intent and purpose. You created us because You wanted us. You created me because You wanted me, and not just for a short time; You created me for eternity. You loved me so much that when mankind fell, You sent Your Son to earth in flesh to make the way for me to return to my eternity with You.

Someday, my Father, because of my faith in Christ, I’ll get to walk again in the garden with You. One day I’ll see Your face. One day I’ll be held in Your embrace. Oh Father, thank You for loving me.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

>Woman Behave Thy Self

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UPDATE May 1, 2023: I wanted to delete this post, but deleting doesn’t undue for anyone who might come back to it to reference. So I have decided to simply update it here at the beginning. This post was written in 2011. I was a 35 year old wife and mother who had only been walking with the Lord for about 10 years and was so desperate to be obedient to Him and to honor Him with my life in every way because I was so broken and hurt and I didn’t want my girls to ever experience what I had been through. In my open heart to God then, I have since realized that I was wide open to toxic teaching as you will see if you choose to read the original post.

My eye opening began in 2018. You can read about it here: https://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wearing-nothing-but-a-crown/
Now here in 2023 I cringe at how I was used in my brokenness and oppression to share this false teaching that kept me and countless other women in bondage and abuse. I thank God that He led me to freedom while I still had the opportunity to unteach what I was indoctrinated in to my own girls and to share it with others. 
For whom the Son has set free is free indeed!
Below is the original post.
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“For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women
causing them to look with contempt on their husbands
by saying,
‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti
to be brought in to his presence,
but she did not come.’”
Esther 1:17
My girls and I are studying through the book of Esther. The verse above is the memory verse they are to learn from the study of the first chapter. When I saw this was the recommended memory verse my first response was, “Why on earth is this the memory verse?”  
I mean, really?
At a casual first reading of this first chapter in the book of Esther, my initial reaction to Vashti’s response to the King, was “You go girl! You ain’t his puppet on a string! You ain’t just some thang for him and his buddies to gawk over! That’s right honey, you just say no!” 
But that initial, first response is the reason why this is the memory verse.
“For a man ought not to have his head covered,
since he is the image and glory of God;
but the woman is the glory of man.”
1 Corinthians 11:7
When we dig a little deeper in this chapter of Esther we see that there are three banquets. The first lasts for 180 days and is for all the “big dogs” of the land. The second lasts for 7 days and is for all the kingdom from the greatest to the least. The third was Queen Vashti’s party for the women.
The King calls his Queen after this second 7 day banquet. He called her to come not just before him, but before her people. He called her to display her beauty as a picture of the beauty of the kingdom and as a representation of his glory. This call was not a “common cat call”. It wasn’t simply to call all the boys together and give Vashti a slap on the booty and say “boys ain’t she perty!”
This was Queen Vashti’s call to come and represent the glory of her husband who was also her king. This was her time to come into the presence of the people with her back straight and her head held high, to come in honor and respect, while her husband, and yes the people of her kingdom, looked upon her with her pride and admiration.
“As for Titus,
he is my partner and fellow worker among you;
as for our brethren,
 they are messengers of the churches,
a glory to Christ. 
Therefore openly before the churches,
show them the proof of your love
and of our reason for boasting about you.”
2 Corinthians 8:23-24
Should our husbands not be able to say:
As for my wife, she is my partner and fellow worker in this life, she is a messenger of our family and a glory to me as a man, her husband who is the head of her home. So honey, come and show them the proof of your love for me and the reason why I speak so highly of you… I would love for you to meet my beautiful wife.
(I don’t know about you, but I find absolutely nothing insulting about that.)
What Queen Vashti did, was spit in her king’s face. She despised is place as head over their family and head over this kingdom. She did not show him any respect what-so-ever.
“Nevertheless,
each individual among you
also is to love his own wife
even as himself,
and the wife
must see to it
that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 5:33
The thing is, I do believe that the King had fulfilled his end of this verse. He loved Vashti as himself, he equated her with his glory and the splendor of his majesty. He boasted of her beauty to everyone in the kingdom, even when the wine was talking, he was still talking about his beautiful wife…
but did Vashti respect her man?
Ummm no, I don’t think so.
You see she had her own personal feminist movement taking place at banquet #3. She had all her “girls” around her and I imagine they were having a full blown “man bash” at this little get-to-together. I can hear them now… “Oh you think yours is sorry, let me tell you what mine did…” 
(Now please know this is not to say that we do not need to seek wise counsel as we learn this role “wife” in marriage, wise counsel is a must, issues will arise in marriage, but these issues are meant to be discussed with someone who can advise you as an impartial, someone who will speak truth into your life and not just encourage your own personal side of the situation )
 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior,
not malicious gossips
nor enslaved to much wine,
teaching what is good, 
so that they may encourage the young women
to love their husbands,
to love their children, 
to be sensible,
pure,
workers at home,
kind,
being subject to their own husbands,
so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
Titus 2:3-5
Then the call comes for Vashti to come to her king…
Vashti could have used some wise counsel at this time, she needed some teaching, but instead I lean more to believe that what she got was more like this:
Can’t you just here the girls…
“Oh no he didn’t!” 
“Well, I’m just sayin if I was you I would tell him, ‘I don’t think so!'”  
“Oh girl, it’s time for you to take a stand”
“Girl, don’t worry, he’ll be mad, but he’ll come around when he wants some.”  
“Yeh, Mr Euneuch boy, go tell the Kingy that his Queeny said she’s busy.”
“Girl, this is your time, you better tell him to step!”
Woman behave thy self!
Your King has called.
Your beloved has summoned you into his presence.
He’s had you on his mind.
He’s been talking about you for days… what else could you possibly want?
Why on earth would you spit in his face and insult his honor and disrespect his authority before his people by denying him such a simple request?
Ladies, wives, let us be very careful how we represent and respect our husbands… have we not seen the fulfillment of the fear that these men had over Vashti’s response to the King in our current day? Maybe we have so many “sorry men” simply because we have made it that way by our lack of respect toward them. We are not meant to cower before men in fear, but simply to respect and submit to our own husbands and honor them as men called to protect us, care for us, provide for us as the representation of Christ and His bride…
Yes I know that in this life, in our marriages, we can not demand, nor control their love for us, or the way they treat us, or honor us. Your husband may be cold, he may be indifferent, he may be borderline cruel, but we can still choose to be obedient to our Maker who is our eternal Husband (Isaiah 54:5).
We can show respect to our husbands (even if they seem not to deserve it) by our obedience to God’s instructions to us as wives. Our husbands are responsible to God for their own actions, as we are for ours. Let us just be obedient to God and leave the consequences to Him.
**** Disclosure****
I do not mean abusive by “borderline cruel”… if your spouse physically or emotionally or mentally abuses you or your children seek help immediately. Talk to someone now. Don’t put it off another day. There is hope for your marriage and for your future.

>Elohim

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In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

Here we are in the book of beginnings; the book that has been passed down the generations since the days of Moses, the one chosen by God to write His most holy Word. In this first chapter, God reveals amazing things about His character, about who He is.
I don’t believe we can realize the depth of what God shows us about Himself without looking at the Hebrew translations of some of the words used in this first chapter.
“In the beginning God:” In the Hebrew, God is Elohim, meaning plural, more than one—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. How amazing that we see the Trinity in the very first sentence of the Bible.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Created in the Hebrew is bara ex nihilio, which means “created out of nothing.” God is the only one who ever took absolute nothing and made it something. From this verse in God’s Word we see that the first something that God created was time.

We next see the creation of space and matter. God created the universe and the very components that make it exist. Components that in themselves represent the essence of who He is, the blessed Trinity. If one component was missing, the universe would not exist—each component unique yet equally needed, all three working together to form the one universe.

In chapter one of Genesis, we are introduced to action verbs that give us insight into God. We read, “And the Spirit of God was moving.” The word moving in Hebrew is rachaph; it means to flutter, shake, move. The Spirit energized the earth, bringing it to life. The phrase “then God said” is often repeated in Genesis. The word “said” in Hebrew is “amar”, it means to command.; God commanded and it was. God always speaks with authority.
In verse four we read, “God saw.” The word saw in Hebrew is ra’ah. When God “ra’ah” His creation, it meant He approved, enjoyed, and joyfully looked upon it. Genesis 1:4 declares that “God separated.” Separated in Hebrew is badal; it means to divide, to distinguish, to utterly sever.

Then we see that “God called,” which in Hebrew is qara. It means He named with authority, He proclaimed and called out to, and He properly addressed His creation by name. When we read “God made,” in Hebrew it is “God asah” and means that He fashioned, He formed, and He finished.

In verse seventeen, “God placed,” or Elohim nathan,which tells us God appointed, ordained, occupied. He appointed the occupancy of the lights in the sky exactly where He ordained them.

One of the last action verbs in chapter one is “God blessed.” Blessed in Hebrew is barak. It means to praise, to salute, to adore. Have you ever considered the thought that God looked over all His creation, which included man, which includes you, and he adored it?

When we look at Genesis chapter one in light of the Hebrew translations of our English words, we can see intricate details that have oftentimes been overlooked, details that expound upon the character of our Creator. Our God did not flippantly throw the world together. He created with power and authority, with care and precision, and with great joy and adoration. My precious one, spend today resting in the realization that your Elohim addresses you by name and He adores you.
Oh Father,
I praise you, for you are the beginning of all. You created out of nothing.
You spoke, and the earth formed.
You commanded, and the light obeyed.
You control time, space, and matter.
You shape and form the very dust of the earth, every star in the sky.
You alone put the sun in its place, and by your word, it shines.

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
Psalm 147:4 says, “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”

You uphold all things by the word of your power (Hebrews 1:3).
My Jesus, you are Creator of all things (John 1:3), and all things were created through you and for you (Colossians 1:16).
You are the center of the universe, the beginning and the end.

Worthy are you, my Jesus, the Lamb, standing as if slain (Revelation 5:6).
Slain for my redemption, to pay my debt, to reconcile me to you, my Father God. Slain to make me holy, to be my righteousness, to bring me life. Slain to bring me back to where God said it was good.

Oh thank you, my Elohim! You are all this and more, and yet still you adore me. Oh may your Holy Spirit fill me, teach me, guide me, and create in me a clean and pure heart. May you, my Father, be able to joyfully look upon me.

My Jesus, it’s in your name I pray,
Amen

>New Blog

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>After submitting my second book to my publisher and realizing that maybe, just maybe, there was another way to do this… I have decided to not go through with a second publication.

Having recently discovered the “blog world” I have instead chosen to take my vision of a devotional series through the Torah, the books of the Law, and turn it into a blog that will go past the Torah and all the way to Revelation:

Devotional Studies Through The Bible

I hope that you will join me on this journey as well, and that you will share this blog with your family, and friends, and all those you meet in your own blogging communities, and outside them as well.

As much as it thrilled me to receive that “yes, we would love to publish your manuscript” my desire never really was for a royalty check… but that God might use me to open eyes to the beauty and relevance of the Old Testament.
The pressure of wondering if people will actually buy the book is more pressure than I want to bear at this time. It is a weight I need not carry, for my joy is in sharing the gospel, teaching the Word, and simply not leaving all that God has shone me in my study time in a notebook in the attic, but getting it out there in the world so maybe it will help someone else.

Devotions From Genesis is out and books are still selling and there even is another book signing coming up in October, I of course, would be overjoyed to have everyone purchase a copy of this book, but the dream is not to just sit at a table and sign a book, but to tell of the glory of my Creator God and leave someone with a tangible thing to take with them that will hopefully help them to persevere through all the begots and cubits and names that are almost impossible to pronounce. 

Maybe someday I will pursue the publication of Devotions from Exodus Part 1 and Part 2, and then Leviticus, and Numbers, and so on, but then it will simply be turning the blog into books and not the books into a blog.

So my friends I invite you to join me on this journey through the Bible, one devotion at a time, beginning today…  🙂

>Introduction to Devotions From Genesis It’s Not Just Ancient History

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Introduction
With every turn of the page in God’s Holy Word there is more and more of who he is, to man , to the whole world, to those who belong to him, and to those who refuse him. His Word is so precious to us. How true the disciple answered when Jesus asked them if they were going to leave him too, Simon replied “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
Where would we go if we had not his Word, his promises, to cling to? We would go down in a pit. We would be in darkness. We would be drowning in a world of confusion. We would be unable to decipher the top from the bottom, frantically searching for light to lead us to the top where we could breathe again.
Possibly you are already there or fear yourself on the threshhold. I understand. I have been there. Know my precious one that God has not forsaken you, nor will he ever. He is there, desiring greatly to show you his truth and to help you understand the heart of the psalmist when he wrote, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me.” (Psalm 119:50)
As Jesus walked with the disciples and explained the Scriptures, he too will walk with us. He sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. I believe our search for truth, our search for revival, should begin at the beginning.
I began my search with Genesis and the God I discovered there was one I realized I did not know. The joy of my discovery impacted my life greatly and ignited a passion within me to encourage others to leap into the pages of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament Scriptures.
My hope is that the daily bites of this devotional will only wet your appetite and create within you an unsatisifiable hunger and thirst for the Word.
My prayer is that God will open your eyes and your heart to the glorious wonders in his Word and guide you into all truth. I pray that he will give you a greater understanding of his Word and make it as a part of you as your marrow is to your bones.
To God be all the glory and honor and praise!

>Rainy Sunday

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>There is something about a rainy Sunday that is so calming. It’s days like this that I wish we had a open building with a tin roof with a hammock hanging close to the opening yet still under the shelter of the roof…

This Sunday begins a new time in life. A new church year, a new class… for both me and my husband. We have shared our Sunday morning class for the past 10 years, either as attenders or teachers. This season I am teaching one class, the Precept study, Spiritual Gifts, and he is attending an all men’s class. He has said today that he very much enjoyed the class.
I love couple classes, but I agree that there also are times that certain needs cannot be met in a couple’s class that can be met in an all men’s or all women’s class. It’s also good to be able to switch up your class in order to get to know more of the people in your church. I am glad that our church has chosen to take the steps that we have in order to open the door to do exactly that.

[and yes if you live in my area this is an official invite to join me in worship at Shiloh 🙂 if I have even just managed to make you a little bit curious about this man our Biblebelt South calls Jesus, then come and allow me to introduce Him to you as I know Him… it would be my pleasure]

So this rainy Sunday has been a good day. We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with other believers. Our pastor was rushed to the hospital in the early morning with a possible appendicitis, but he is good now, no appendicitis. In the meantime our youth minister brought an excellent message on how it is time for the church- me, us, you, to live differently.

It reminded me of another quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr:

For so many Christians, Christianity, is a Sunday activity having no relevancy for Monday and the church is little more than a secular social club having a thin veneer of religiousity. Jesus is an ancient symbol whom we do the honor of calling Christ, and yet his Lordship is neither affirmed nor acknowledged by our substanceless lives… We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must recapture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel. Their reward for this audacious witness was often the excrutiating agony of a lion’s den or the poignant pain of a chopping block, but they continued in the faith that they had discovered a cause so great and had been transformed by a Saviour so divine that even death was not too great a sacrifice… Where is that kind of fervour today? Where is that kind of daring, revolutionary commitment to Christ today? Is it hidden behind smoke screens and altars? Is it buried in a grace called respectability? Is it inextricably bound with nameless status quos and imprisoned within cells of stagnant mores? This devotion must again be released. Christ must once more be enthroned in or lives.    

but after we had already suffered
and been mistreated in Philippi,
as you know,
we had the boldness in our God
to speak to you
the gospel of God
amid much opposition
1 Thessalonians 2:2

So as I sit here in the comfort of my home and listen to the rain fall, and dream of listening to it rain on a tin roof while I lay in a hammock and watch it fall, I also contemplate the reality that I am too comfortable and I am indeed reaching the point that I am uncomfortable in my comfort and I have an ever increasing longing to be one who is called strange, even a fool, by the world because I “am intoxicated with the wine of God’s grace” as I boldly proclaim the gospel of my God.

On the day I called, You answered me;
You made me bold with strength in my soul.
Psalm 138:3

Ultimate Failure

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Please watch this video before you read the rest of the post:
What would you do?

Well, I discovered what I would do as I was in New Orleans. I discovered that I would walk by, not making eye contact. I was more brave with my husband and would offer a smile, but my heart was gripped with the “what if they approach me?”

There is one instance in particular that is seared in my brain and heart forever now. When my husband was in meetings I was on my own. I was not comfortable at all on these streets without his presence beside me. So as I ventured out one day to get lunch I thought I would be brave enough to go past the Arby’s that was right next to our hotel.

I ventured out, but I ventured out in fear. Trying not to make eye contact with anyone. (My shoulders sag now in defeat as I remember that I was to be strong and courageous.) There was one woman that was sitting up against a building shoeless. As I walked past she asked me for money for shoes. I kept walking as though I never heard her. I did not even acknowledge her existence.

How very cruel of me.

I could use the excuse that I was a woman alone on the streets of New Orleans following my husbands instructions to be careful… but that just doesn’t seem to justify the situation in any way does it? I could use the excuse of email after email that claims that rapist and murderers and thieves use the “female in distress” tactic to lure in victims, but even this does not make me feel any better about my action… or rather my lack of action.

What I wished I would have done is to have sat down against the wall with this obviously broken woman and asked her what her story was. I wish I would have looked this woman in the eyes and showed her compassion. I wish I would have taken the time and opportunity to discover who she was. How did she end up her on this street, with no shoes, asking strangers for money?

Oh how I regret that I did not do this.

She asked for shoes… and I should have told her of the shoes of the gospel of peace.

“and having shod YOUR FEET
WITH THE PREPARATION
OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;”
Ephesians 6:15 
Where were my beautiful feet?
“How will they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written,
“HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET
OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS
OF GOOD THINGS!”
Romans 10:15

Apparently my beautiful feet were left in the comfort zone of my hotel room. My feet were not beautiful at all on these streets of New Orleans. I left my room not with the prayer of  “God use me today to share your good news.”  I left my room with the only thought of “God, let me get something to eat and make my way safely back to my room.” 

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD”
Isaiah 61:1-2
Is not the Spirit of the Lord within me so that I might bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and set the prisoner free? To proclaim to them that today is the day of salvation, that now is the favorable year of the Lord? Was this not what I was called to do as bond-servant of my Most High God? Oh, let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Epic fail.
Ultimate failure.
So I return from New Orleans with a heavy heart and the ghost of a small voice that says, “Can you help me get some shoes?” I walk into the comfort of my home and the love of my family and the plenty that I have and am so very didisappointed in my lack of compassion and the fact that I let fear of danger control me and the fact that I know I did not shod my feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I had not prepared my heart and mind to here this type of unction from my Lord because I left my room already planning not to make eye contact or address anyone.
May I never fail in this way again.
May I never leave my house unprepared to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ again.
May God send someone to this woman to fix my failure, may she hear the good news from a truer bond-servant than I. May she know the freedom that Christ suffered to give her. May her feet be shod with the gospel of peace…
for mine certainly were not.

Crucibles Create Christlikeness

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God sometimes seems to put us in the vise, and then He tightens it and tightens it more, until we think, in the pain of His sovereign squeeze, “What’s He trying to do to me?” We walk closer to Him and even closer to Him. We don’t see how we could walk any closer, but still more tests come, one on top of another.

That’s where Elijah is, but he doesn’t waver. He stands tall and silent in the shadow of God, grounded in faith, confident of his Lord’s power. That’s humility at its best. He doesn’t question God. He doesn’t fall apart at the seams. He doesn’t lose control.
~ Swindoll

If you walk with the Lord long enough, you will discover that His tests often come back-to-back. Or perhaps it would be even more accurate to say back to back to back to back to back. Usually, His preparatory tests don’t stop with one or two. They multiply. And as soon as you climb out of one crucible thinking, “Okay, I made it through that one,” you’re plunged into another, where the flame is even hotter.
Crucibles create Christlikeness.
~ Swindoll

I don’t know about you, but I have come to realize that I usually attempt to determine whether or not God is pleased with me according to what “good” things are happening in my life.

If I am going through test after test and trial after trial I tend to feel as though I am doing something wrong, not pleasing God in some area of my life, that I am just not getting the point.

I have a tendency to judge my own life the way Job’s friends judged his. “Well there must be some sin that God is trying to get me to confess, some sin that is separating me from Him so he’s putting me through this, something in my flesh that must be crucified, something I am blind to, and He must be trying to open my eyes…”

So reading these quotes by such a great man of faith as Chuck Swindoll, well it helps. These words shared by Swindoll are really truths that I already know, but somehow in the midst of the vise, the test, I forget them.

This is why God tells us to not forsake the assembly (Hebrews 10:24-25). We need each other, we need to encourage each other, we need to surround ourselves with a cloud of witnesses to the truth of God and the solid foundation of His Word, and to build up one another’s faith. We need a Aaron and a Hur to hold up our arms when we grow weary in this battle of life (Exodus 17:12).

Therefore,
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, 
Hebrews 12:1
God has called us to be watchman on the walls. We are to watch out for each other and we are not to keep silent. We are called to remind God of His promises, not that He needs reminded, but we do.
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;
All day and all night they will never keep silent.
You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves;
And give Him no rest until He establishes
And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Isaiah 62:6-7 

 

We are not to sit back and rest in these days, we are to keep watch, to pray without ceasing, to be alert. Jesus said the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). The weakness of our flesh needs the strength of God and we need each other. Even Christ did not carry His own cross all the way to Calvary. If He didn’t why on earth would we think or consider that we can.

We also need to not assume that if we or someone else is going through a time of suffering it is because of sin. Times of suffering do not always mean that God is not pleased with us. God was well pleased with His Son, and His Son suffered more than any man. If Christ learned obedience through suffering why would we think we could learn in any other way?

In the days of His flesh,
He offered up both prayers and supplications
with loud crying and tears
to the One able to save Him from death,
and He was heard because of His piety. 
Although He was a Son,
He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 
And having been made perfect,
He became to all those who obey Him
the source of eternal salvation,
Hebrews 5:7-9
At any point and time during the sufferings of Christ on this earth in the flesh He could have looked at us and said, “you know what, they just ain’t worth this, I’m going back to glory“. But He didn’t. He took the sufferings with the praise, He took the shouts of “Hosanna” with the shouts of “Crucify” because both were in the will of God. 
The hosanna’s alone would never have been enough to bring eternal salvation to man, the crucible is what made Him the Christ, and the crucible is indeed what makes us Christlike.  

 

A little poem I just penned…

Sometimes the fire is to burn off the dross of sin,
sometimes the fire is to purify the silver within,
but every time it is God who controls the flame,
so no matter the force of the furnace the fire will not be in vain,
the test we might not understand,
the trial may make no sense to man,
but God is He who tightens the vice,
and in His grip we must not lose sight,
that our eyes on Christ must always be fixed,
for this is the reason for our own crucifix,
to take up our cross and follow Him, 
to be conformed to the image of the One who conquered death and sin
let us not view our new life through old eyes of flesh
let us walk by the Spirit that we now in Christ possess
let us not grow weary of doing good
nor prejudge God when He doesn’t do what we think He should