“There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee
and being engaged in thy service.”

The Valley of Vision, p. 4

This line is from a sixteenth century Puritan’s prayer. The book Valley of Vision is full of some incredible prayers to and devotional reflections on God. This one stood out to me and I go back and read this line often because something about it really resonates in my heart.

It is easy to get mechanical in a routine of life, and not really feel a lot of satisfaction about the details of the day. But I’ve been convicted at this ungodly attitude in my own life because apathy can creep in or complacency take root in my heart and keep me in a joyless robotic fulfilling of duties.

What I love so much about this quote is the intense wording used. No comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service. What a great example this is for me, that I shouldn’t just maintain and get by. I need to be focused, wholeheartedly clocked in all hours for Him each day.

Last week my husband wrote a blog called “24/7 Christianity”. This is something Bobby talks about often seeing the danger of viewing Christianity as a “part-time job.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 says,

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that you labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Bobby wrote about this verse:

“Always” means with 100% of our time. “Fully” means with 100% of our hearts and effort. The Lord’s work demands everything that we have.

When I read this I went back and looked up the Puritan quote because I remembered that was the heart in the quote above–engaged in service. We are to be 100% pledged, 100% involved in laboring to serve the Lord. If this is what God wants from me, I want to do it! The greatest enjoyment and comfort is found in obeying Him.

When Bobby was on his recent trip in Israel, he and the team documented the ten days with daily videos. There was one part of one the videos that Tyler loved and we would watch it over and over again. In the clip there is just a few seconds of a walkie-talkie exchange between our good friend Brad Smith and Pastor Pete:

Brad: B-dog reporting for service.
Pastor Peter: B-dog, you are all about service.
Brad: Copy that.

Let’s report for service as a way of life and not try to be on and off duty. Always giving ourselves fully to His work!

Earlier this week a friend sent me an e-mail encouraging me to have joy in the Lord with a verse from Psalm 86. For the last few days this Psalm has been so helpful in reminding me that joy is a state of heart that does not rely on the happenings around me or anything physical. Joy is a product of trusting in God and the whole chapter Psalm 86 is an awesome prayer for that joy, but especially these two verses:

Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.

You are forgiving and good, O Lord,
abounding in love to all who call to you.

Psalm 86:4-5

A couple of things stand out from these verses, mainly who God is–forgiving, good and abounding in love toward those who call on Him. The other part that stands out is what I must do–to be lifting up my soul, calling on Him.

I think the reason I can get discouraged or complacent in my day to day life is I lose focus of who God is. Every day I sin and am in need of His forgiveness. Every day things are happening all around me and I am in need of God’s goodness to me which causes all of those things to work together to sanctify me to be like His Son. To think that every day God isn’t just loving, He is abounding in love. He is fully supplied with love that is perfect and always acts for the benefit of His children. I am definitely in need of that!

This is who God is. Why in the world would I not be lifting up my soul continually and calling on Him at all times? He is trustworthy. He has a perfect track record of caring for His children. He can forgive sins. He has created all things. He is God! Knowing Him and being known by Him is the source of all joy!

Psalm 86 has totally ministered to me by drawing me to worship God and lift up my soul to Him in prayer all day long. I hope you will take some time to read it and that you will be encouraged to have joy in your heart today!

While it was still dark this morning, my husband, Bobby headed out with a group of fellow CBC-ers for a ten-day trip to the Holy Land. So now it’s just me and the little dude, holding down the fort!

Whenever we are apart I am reminded how I need to always entrust my husband (and anyone) to the Lord. I wish I would remember to have this attitude on a daily basis. I guess when he is gone it seems easier to worry about circumstances yet to unfold or be anxious that I cannot determine the details or be scared about all of the “what-ifs”. But it is so foolish to act this way if he is home or away when I know that I can entrust him to the Lord, because He has planned every detail and will bring it to pass for His glory.

This morning a friend sent me Psalm 91:1-2

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

I love this picture of the intimate protection we have when we trust God–dwelling in His shelter and resting in His shadow. That’s where I want to be!

If you would like to follow the Compass Israel trip with me, Bobby will be posting blogs, pictures and videos daily at the Compass Bible Church website. I would also appreciate your partnership in prayer for the group, that it would be an enriching time for them all to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I had the opportunity to attended a Biblical Counseling seminar in San Diego on Saturday. Not only was it a beautiful drive down the coast in sunny 90 degree weather, but then I was deposited with 5 hours of intense Biblical teaching on the topics of Forgiveness and Counseling Blended Families.

Dr. Street was so helpful in explaining why saying “I apologize” or “I’m sorry” are not Biblical forgiveness.

• Apologize comes from the word “apologia” which means “to throw up a defense”. Really apologizing is a form of personal defense, passing the blame to something outside of self.

• Saying “I’m sorry” shows sorrow but really just says “I feel bad about this.” Stopping here will not accomplish forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not the end goal, but is “one small slice of the pie of reconciliation.” Biblical forgiveness occurs when a Christian owns responsibility for a sin committed toward another Christian, acknowledges it as sin against God and the person, seeks that person’s forgiveness, and when it is granted they make restitution where needed and seek to rebuild the relationship to be honoring to the Lord. Then he explained that Biblical forgiveness makes a three fold promise–

1. I won’t bring this up to you. I will not hold this against you.
2. I won’t bring this up to anyone. It is a dead issue.
3. I won’t bring this up to myself. I will not dwell on it in my heart.

We do not forgive and forget, but we can forgive to forget. Because if we were enacting these three things toward the one asking for forgiveness eventually we will forget about it because we will not be rehearsing the sin in our hearts or talking about it with them or others.

As Christians we must always be ready to forgive others because we are right in our hearts before God. If you are sinned against you must settle the issue in your heart before God, and that makes you ready to grant automatic forgiveness right when the offender seeks it.

When we encounter someone who refuses to forgive someone there is a question mark about their faith because Christians are forgiven people in Christ, therefore we forgive others. Dr. Street spent a good amount of time expounding on this from Ephesians 4:32.

Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

If we have truly been forgiven by God, we will be forgiving people. I thought a lot about how putting Biblical forgiveness into action would radically change the life of the church. People wouldn’t be nursing bitterness in their hearts, talking to others about the wrongs done to them or continually reminding each other of past sin. Instead forgiveness, reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships would be on ongoing process building each other up and building unity together in relationships that are a model of the gospel.

That sums up just about one hour of the seminar, which was pretty eye opening for me and will definitely affect how I seek and grant forgiveness from now on. It is critical that we understand and put into action Biblical forgiveness. I hope this brief recap has been helpful!

My heavenly Father does not offer a “cafeteria plan” for obedience. I needed to respond to all of His instructions with an obedient spirit. I am not to merely pick and choose those that appeal to me.

Pat Ennis in Designing a Lifestyle that Pleases God, p.45

In keeping with my Spring Reading goals I’ve picked up Designing a Lifestyle that Pleases God, and when I read the above quote it stung because I know that I am tempted to do this. To heartily go after obedience in these areas and then when it comes to some I kind of just struggle and make excuses and tell people, “I’m working on it.” I was convicted. The book of James nails us on this many times, especially in chapter 2:8-11 where it says that there is no such thing as a “cafeteria plan” for God’s commands and then in chapter 4 we see so clearly that this wrong thinking about obedience cannot coexist with the truth of James 4:17!

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

I’m starting to hear people say that if someone challenges them to obey all of God’s Word that is legalism. They think that they can be a Christian and somehow be allowed to remain unchanged in the areas they choose and obey only the commands that are convenient for them. Then, if anyone says that I should be seeking to be fully obedient to God’s commands, that person is legalistic.

Last weekend, Pastor Mike was extremely helpful on this when he said “If you’re into keeping God’s commandments and telling other to do the same you will be called a legalist. That is not legalism. That is called, according to John 14:15 and 1 John 2, love! If you love God you will keep His commandments, what you are accusing me of is asking you to love God!”

When we talk about obeying all of God’s commands we don’t mean to earn salvation, we mean because of our salvation. Obedience is a response to salvation not a means to salvation.

How can I obey God in loving others but not being willing to forgive a wrong done against me. How can I obey God in His command for me to be faithful to my husband but then say I’m not willing to submit to my husband? This doesn’t even make sense. If we are going to obey God, we must obey all that He says. We can’t pick and choose. This is not up for a debate.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

John 14:15

After thinking through that quote from my book I re-listened to Pastor Mike’s sermon (which you can listen to by clicking here) and it was really helpful as I tried to list out commands I try to exempt myself from. I pulled our my notebook and wrote down commands that came to mind that I tend to cringe at. I also write down any ways I know that I try to bend the rules. For example, acting like gossiping about a certain person is valid at this time with this situation, right? Wrong! Just seeing that written down was a good exercise because it helped me brainstorm ways I need to go out and obey those commands today.

We need to have a joyful and eager attitude about obedience. I love it when I ask Tyler to do something and he responds with his little sing-song-voice, “Okay, Mommy.” We need to put the cafeteria trays away and just say “Okay, God!”