Captivated by Christ

The She Speaks Conference I attended in June was motivating for both writing and speaking. As a matter of fact, they taught that writing and speaking go hand in hand. While many writers began gearing up for their speaking ministry, I got a clear word from God, "Wait." I didn't know why I was to wait, but I obeyed. While others may have began scouting out speaking opportunities and preparing their ministries, I waited.

Out of the blue, I received a phone call from a local congregation asking for me to speak at their Women's Lunch. I now realized why God had wanted me to wait. I tend to run ahead of God. With this speaking opportunity coming my way, with no effort on my own part, I had to give glory to God. It's not me, it's Him. He wanted to remind me of that.

God also gave me a topic to speak of at this event. The word "captive" came to mind, and so I called my speech "Captivated." While God gave me a clear topic, He did not give me the material. I've been praying, studying, meditating and writing. I'm finally in the home stretch and ready.

On Saturday as I was finishing up my speech, I began thinking about adding a song. We're doing an invitation at the end of my talk, for anyone who wants to learn more about Jesus. The women will be given a chance to come up and pray with the Women's leaders and me. So I began praying for a song to play during this time of invitation.

Saturday evening, during my normal blog reading time, I visited a dear blogger Sharon Sloan at Joy in the Truth. She had posted a song that had been speaking to her heart. The title of this song? Captivated, by Vicky Beeching. I was stunned. I expected God to answer my prayer, but not in such an "in your face" way. Undeniable, unbelievable, without a doubt the song meant for my talk, straight from God in an answer to my prayer.

I am captivated. And if this is what it is like to be captive to Christ, I never want to be set free.

Romans 6:22 -- But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Then Sings My Soul Saturday - 11/8

Participating in the meme at Signs, Miracles & Wonders called Then Sings My Soul Saturday, where we share what song is touching our soul this week.

Since I was baptized by immersion on Monday, the song that is on my mind is Dive, by Steven Curtis Chapman.

The chorus:
I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I want to be. Caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head I want to go. The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive. So sink or swim, I’m diving in.

My friends, I did dive in, and the water is just fine. :-)

(if the comments don't load, refresh the page and wait. Blogger is slow today and the comment section doesn't seem to want to load.)

Advocate

Advocate: (1) a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause, etc. (usually fol. by of): an advocate of peace. (2) a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor.

In life, we often are in need of an advocate, or must even be our own advocate to authority.

My husband had rotator cuff surgery in May. He healed well and didn't need any physical therapy (PT), and retained full mobility. However, several month after surgery he began experiencing pain again. The surgeon suggested it was just inflammation, and urged icing and anti-inflammatory meds. My husband, a former Army ranger and not one to be wimpy, was certain something was amiss.

Advocating for himself, he head back to the doctor again. The doctor this time scheduled my husband for PT. My husband endured a couple of grueling therapy sessions and insisted the pain level was too much. He headed back to the dr again, this time advocating for a MRI which showed the surgery had in fact failed, and the muscle was completed severed from the shoulder joint. He had surgery to repair this yesterday.

Had my husband not been his own advocate, the doctor would have written it off as general pain and not have done the MRI. My husband had to advocate for himself to the authority (the dr) to be proven not guilty of being a wimp, but in fact having an injury.

Often times, we need an advocate in court...this one we hire (an attorney). This advocate presents our case to the authorities (the judge or jury) in hopes that we are found non-guilty.

We, too, need an advocate in our spiritual life. If we were to stand before God on our own and present our life to him, he would in fact say "GUILTY" of sin, and we would be sentenced to life...a life in hell. But we have an advocate. This advocate is Jesus, who stands in our place and presents his life to God, and God proclaims "NOT GUILTY" and we are set free from our sins.

On Earth we have another advocate. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, his advocate to us. The Amplified Bible calls the Holy Spirit our intercessor, advocate, and strengthener. This is that little voice that says STOP when we are about to sin, or urges and encourages us to do the right thing.

Too many times in life we must be our own advocate, fighting for what is right with little or no support. I am thankful that I have a heavenly advocate who intercedes for me, so that even though guilty, I may be pardoned of my sins, to be free in Christ.


1 John 2:1 -- My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. (NLT)

Job 16:19 -- Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. (NIV)

John 14:16 -- And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever. (Amplified Bible)

Born Again...Again

On Monday of this week I was baptized. Now, some of you may be saying "Kelly, what? Surely you have been baptized before, devout Christian gal that you are!" Well, that is a gray area evidently.

I was raised in the Lutheran Church. So at the ripe old age of 2 months old, I was "baptized" (sprinkled, christened). Then in the 8th grade I was confirmed into the church by making my own statement of faith and began taking communion. As I have always attended churches that accepted my sprinkling as baptism, I've always considered myself baptized.

However, my new church does not accept sprinkling. They teach that the Greek word ‘baptizo’ means to immerse, plunge, dip, or bury in water. They believe that the baptism, (full immersion into the water and rising out of the water) is symbolic of Jesus being buried and rising again. Romans 6:3-5 says "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."

My ministry at my former Church included leading the MOPS group, leading a Bible study, serving on the Christian school board, and being asked to serve as an elder of the church. I could not be a ministry leader at my new church with out joining, and could not join with out being immersed.

I've been thinking. Let's say the Pastor was wrong. Well, being baptized "again" wouldn't hurt anything. As my sister, ADHD, said there isn't a verse in the Bible that says "Woe to he who try-eth too hard to do-eth the right thing in God's name." BUT...what if the Pastor is right. What if my baptism (sprinkling) before was an example of man corrupting what God meant. How could I go wrong by being immersed? It just seems right to me, either way.

In all of this an ironic thing happened. I told my dad I was going to be immersed. He has already been sprinkled twice. Once as a infant in the Episcopalian church, and again as an adult in the Lutheran Church (who also sprinkle, but wouldn't accept his sprinkling with the wrong water!) He is now considering being immersed in the Baptist church he attends with his wife. My husband was also immersed with me, so we could join the church together as a couple.

What if my pastor is right? What if because I am born again by being immersed, two more are born again because of me? I get chills just thinking about. And it's not just because I'm all wet.

John 3:3 -- In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Luke 3:21, 22 -- When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Acts 2:38 -- Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Hide & Go Seek

"Ready or not, here I come!" This is the customary shout out after you've finished counting to let all those hiding know you are on your way to find them in the game of Hide & Seek. Then you must seek out - go in search of - those who you are playing with.

The bible tells us we must seek God - go in search of - as well. Often times, like in the game of Hide & Go Seek, we throw up our hands in exasperation and yell "I give up!" "It's too hard!" "I can't find you." Often we just don't know where to look. We need a map.

Like a treasure map with a giant X on it, the bible provides the way to find God. We must seek him with our whole heart, and not give up. We must seek him first, before other things in our life.

For me, sometimes it is easy to find God. When I have put forth the effort, studying his word and praying I have felt the presence of God. Other times, I'm lazy and don't put the effort in seeking...I fail to find him. I want to blame him "It's too hard." But truthfully I haven't put the effort forth. If I'd just seek, I'd find.

What is keeping you from finding God today? I urge you to seek him with your whole heart. Because a time is coming when he will shout out "Ready or not, here I come!" Are you ready?

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7,8)



*This post was inspired by the Random Question at Edie's Rich Gifts.

Thought for the Day

After visiting the book store today, I realized that any book that is considered an authority on a subject is called a bible...the Barbecue Bible, the Crystal Bible, the Flavor Bible, the Bartenders bible and the Juicing Bible, just to name a few. When I looked up bible in the dictionary, while the first few definitions referred to scripture (the Holy Bible), the last definition says "any book, reference work, periodical, etc., accepted as authoritative, informative, or reliable."

Yet the Holy Bible, which should be considered THE authority on the subject of God and eternal life is often not considered the authority at all.

Isn't our world strange?

Halloween: Trick or Treat?

My 2 Daughters with my dad before TRUNK or treat at his church - 2007

Get together a group of Christian moms and ask them about Halloween and you'll get as many different answers as there are women. Some adamantly are against it as the devil's day. Others don't trick or treat, but do alternate "Fall Festivals" complete with costumes and candy. Finally, there are some that say "it's all in fun" and anything goes.

I don't know where I fall. On one hand, I trick or treated as a kid. I loved it! I love Jesus a lot and don't see how I was scarred by trick or treating. At the same time, the bible says to avoid every kind of evil, and that witch craft is evil.

This is one of those gray areas. Another is shows like "Wizards of Waverly Place" and books like "Harry Potter." They are about witchcraft, so I don't let my kids watch them. But I watched Bewitched as a kid, loved it, and played wiggling my nose to create magic spells. It was fun and pretend. Of course, we also pretended to smoke, complete with candy cigarettes! But today I am a non-smoker (and have never smoked). So where do you draw the line?

Some churches recommend using Halloween as an evangelism tool, giving out Christian tracts along with candy. Remember what is meant for evil, God can turn for good. Another idea I got from Susan at Learning for Lifetime was a reverse trick of treat. You can read about that here.

Finally, I encourage all of you to read Romans 14. It is an excellent example of folks believing different things in Christ (some eat meat, some don't). I believe you could insert "celebrate Halloween" in these verses to get the same result. Verse 13 sums up the chapter when it says "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."

This is a controversial subject. I'd love to hear what your family does in conjunction with Halloween. What I encourage everyone to do, it not to judge their neighbors decisions to participate or not. Listen to God's prompting for your family life, and make your decisions accordingly.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 -- Avoid every kind of evil.

Galatians 5:19-21 -- The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Luke 6:37 -- Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.