A Pure Heart

Jesus is the most controversial figure in the history of mankind.  We all have a sinful nature that does not allow us to see the wisdom in His teachings. We need to be made new; we need to be given new eyes for answers to those familiar patterns in us that lead us down a path of destruction.

Jesus spent much of His ministry teaching radical new ideas. Ideas that seem downright unbelievable because they are so contrary to what our culture says is the way to live life.  On a windy moutainside, Jesus proclaimed what would become known as the Beautitudes - eight pathways of death to our fleshly desires that would bring us the abundant life He promised to this who love Him. 

Matthew 5:8 (New Living Translation) - God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Ladies, a pure heart is a heart that is not haughty.  Pride and arrogance will prevent us from seeing God and knowing His will. 

Extracts from Page 126 - Living with Unmet Desires

To a Special Person

IT'S CHRISTIAN PERSON WEEK AND YOU SHOULD SEND THIS TO ALL BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.

When I say that 'I am a Christian', I am not saying that 'I am clean living. I'm saying 'I was lost, but now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say 'I am a Christian', I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need GOD to clean my mess.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible, but GOD believes I am worth it.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon HIS name.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner who received GOD's good grace, somehow!

Today is Beautiful Christian Person's Day.

Boost another person's self esteem, and send this to them!

Be Blessed, and be a Blessing.

Family Dynamics

Ah, the complexity of family relationships!  There is something we all have in common: we are all part of a family.  We really had no choice in the matter to whom we were born to or whether we had any siblings.  The greatest encouragement and the greatest discouragement can come from people with whom we have shared a great part of our lives living with.

Take an assessment of your family relationships right now.  How would you rate your intimacy level in the following relationships on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being extremely distant and 5 being extremely satisfying)?

Your parents: ________________
Your siblings: ________________
Your husband / fiancee / boyfriend: ______________________
Your children (if any): ________________________________

Family Builders:

• How can you change the distant relationships?
• How can you model and/or maintain the satisfying relationships?

Happy Rest

Have you ever felt the sweet happy sense of rest upon going to bed at night? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle and letting your body go into perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.  The strain of the day had ceased, for a few hours at least.  You no longer had to hold up an aching head, a weary back, or a burdened heart. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute confidence and it held you up without effort or strain.  You rested!

But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed, and had dreaded each moment to find it giving way beneath you.  Could you have rested then? Would not every muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up, and would not the weariness have been greater than if you had not gone to bed at all?

Now, apply this analogy to what it means to rest in the Lord.  Let you souls lie down upon the couch of His will.  Relax every strain, and lay off every burden.  Let yourself go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, knowing that, since He holds you up, you are perfectly safe.  Your part is simply to rest. His part is to sustan you; and He cannot fail.

Rest Builders:

• Is there an area or issue in your life in which you need to experience God's rest and peace?
• When have you felt a God-given rest or peace after particularly difficult times?

The Appointed Time

Pride has been one of the most heartbreaking sins in my life.  You see, I was a "good" girl on the outside. I had mastered the role of what I thought everyone wanted me to be.  Unfortunately, the abundant life Christ had promised me through His Word, and which I saw in others, remained as elusive to me as ever. 

As I look back on my childhood and young adult years, I realize that the main reason I obeyed the rules was fear of disappointing others, not necessarily becuase I wanted to do the right thing. I never thought I was attactive or talented or particularly smart.  I had a driving need to feel significant, but I felt I possessed nothing that was honored by my culture to make me feel I was worthy. I did, however, have my reputation.  That was the area inwhich I was admired and fawned over by others.  I was the responsible one, the mature one - I was even called the spiritual one, often.  I strove with all my might to be what  others said I was.  This standard became my personal criteria to being accepted by others. 

After making some destructive decisions in a dating relationship in my college years, I realized I had failed to meet my own standard of what it meant to be a "good" Christian girl.  The result was crushing guilt that extinguised my joy.  Worse than that, I believed the lie that I had dissapointed God beyond hope of His forgivenenss or redemption.

Until I was confronted with my own inabilitiy to be "good", I was extremely prideful of that false goodness.  Pride is first on the list of detestable sins that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19.  I truly didn't see my pride as sinful.  I was my own judge and jury when it came to my righteousness before God.

Self Builders:

• What have you latched onto in your life as a direct result of your need for acceptance or attention? 
• Has this been something that has proven to be constructive or destructive to your relationship with God, yourself, and others?

Exerts from "Living with Unmet Desires" - Page 105