Walking in the Word with Breast Cancer

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:9-10 Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to publicly declare who He was on a donkey.  He was the Messiah, but He was riding on a lowly donkey. Up until this point in His ministry, He had asked His disciples to remain quiet about what He had done. But, as He rode in to Jerusalem, He is openly saying to the people, “I am your King.”  The people welcomed Him with high praise because they had a plan. They longed for a Savior to lead them in a revolt against the Roman Empire, but that is not who He appeared to be, riding in that day on a donkey.  I wonder what was going through their minds at the time. They rushed out, ready to praise His arrival, threw down their cloaks and waved branches because they wanted to worship Him, but then they saw Him rid

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:9-10 Jesus calls for our total and complete obedience. He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. We all know the significance of this lowly beast, but think about how He got that donkey for a moment.  He told His disciples to go get it for Him. He was very specific about where they would find it, how they were to take it, and what they were to say if they were caught. He basically told them to go on to someone else’s property and steal their donkey; and when they were caught, they were just to tell the owners that the Lord needed it and it would be returned. Imagine that scenario for a moment. Personally, I find what they did to be rather crazy. They risked being arrested for stealing another man’s animal.  Talk about a challenging command!  But they trust

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:9-10 Jesus didn’t like to draw attention to his ministry. In fact, after he would perform a miracle, he often told people to keep it to themselves.  He didn’t want people to share with others because He knows our hearts. He knows we are self focused and want things to go our way, so discovering He can perform miracles would cause many of us to start making a list of what we need fixed in our lives. Imagine how people would chase after Him to heal this or fix that if word got out that He could perform miracles? Jesus didn’t want people to follow him for what he did, He wanted people to follow Him for who He was.  But our selfish hearts are so often focused on what we need to make things easier, than they are on the person of Jesus. Just look at our prayers -

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:9-10 These verses appear in the passage about the Triumphal Entry of Jesus to Jerusalem.  A short week before Jesus took our sins to the cross, a week before He was beaten and mocked, then convicted as a criminal by the crowds in Jerusalem, He was welcomed as a king. The dichotomy has always fascinated me - how quickly people turn and abandoned their King.  When people saw him coming down the road, they couldn’t contain their worship.  They stopped what they were doing and ran out to greet Him with praises, laying down their cloaks and waving palm branches to honor Him - both of these were significant actions at the time. Laying down their cloaks in the road for Him to walk over was a sign of honor and submission. People didn’t have multiple coats as we d

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 His peace is not always easy to find - especially when we’ve been wronged. God placed a desire for justice in our hearts, so when we face an injustice in our lives, it is tempting to take things into our own hands. We cut off friendships and family members who hurt us, we give our spouses the silent treatment when they treat us poorly, we gossip and slander about co-workers when they've been difficult. We really do find it easier to make war than to make peace.  But in Romans 12:19-21, we read:  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."20 To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 Peace is the calm assurance that God is working all things for our good. It comes from trusting that He knows best and that He is in control of all things in our lives. When we are at peace, we are resting in Him, and allowing Him to do the work He has planned for our lives. There are days I get this right, and there are days where I struggle to grab a hold of His peace, but I always know where to find it. I know if I just stop everything and sit down with Him, His peace will wash over me like a flood. He has given me His peace in so many difficult moments of my life that I couldn’t possible keep track of them all.  But, we need to understand that He doesn’t give us His peace so that we feel better about ourselves or the situation. He doesn’t give us His peac

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 Someone has said, “We pray for easier paths, when we should pray for stronger shoes.” The reality of this world is we are going to encounter heartache and trials, we are going to have to deal with people or situations that hurt or annoy us, we are going to get the wind knocked out of us from time to time. God doesn’t promise us an easy life - in fact, He promises us quite the opposite. If you’ve been a Christian very long, then you should be familiar with John 16:33 - “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."  God isn’t after our happiness, He’s after our perfection, so He will allow these trials into our lives - from the annoying to the deeply painful

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 Our God is a god of peace. The whole story of redemption, the death and resurrection of Jesus, is God's plan to bring about peace - between man and himself, and between man and man.  As the children of God, we must be peacemakers - we must seek peace within ourselves and with others in everything we do.  Seeking peace within ourselves starts with finding those places where fear and anxiety live within our hearts. Peace is not the absence of pain and grief in our lives, it is the absence of fear and turmoil. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us: 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 The primary way that God reaches people is through people - that means, as believers in Christ, we have a job to do. We need to be ready to share His Gospel with anyone at anytime.  I don’t think that just means pulling out Scripture and sharing His truths found in scripture - though I do believe He calls us to do that regularly - I also think it means how we live out our lives in front of others, especially non-believers. Do we live a life of peace in front of others? Or do we unravel when difficult trials hit?  Do we handle adversity with His peace? Or do we become vindictive and gossip when we’re challenged?  Do we make those hard decisions that we know will honor God? Or do we give in to temptation to do what feels good?  Do we trust Him to work out all t

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 Putting on the shoes of the gospel of peace doesn’t just mean we are to allow His peace to wash over us in times of trouble, it also means we are to be His peace to others and we are to be at peace with others in our lives.  Hebrews 12:14 tells us: Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This verse is more than a suggestion to be kind to others - in fact, it’s caution about peace is alarming.  Strive for peace ~ with everyone ~ and for holiness ~ without those, we will not see the Lord. In other words, if we are not at peace with everyone in our lives, or if we are not working toward greater holiness in our lives, then we will not see Him. It doesn't give any room for interpretation here - peace with ev

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. - Ephesians 6:14-15 Shoes of peace. Shoes are an important part of armor for the soldier. They allow him to walk over rough terrain and rocky landscape.  I’ll admit, I’m a barefoot person whenever I can be - around the house and in my yard in the warmer seasons, but can you imagine walking your entire day without shoes on?  It would be pretty painful, and you’d have to take your steps slowly and carefully. We’d be pretty distracted by what we’re walking through. Our shoes help us walk through the rough areas without much notice.  In the same way, our shoes of peace help us to walk through the trials in our lives. Having confidence in who Christ is, and that He reigns supreme over our lives, allows us to enter our trials with a peace that surpasses all understanding. John 16:33 s

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 It can be hard to see ourselves as we truly hard, to look in the mirror at our sin, but when we do - and when we truly repent, we find our gracious and merciful God waiting to forgive us. He is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster.  One of the reasons people fear repentance is because they only know earthly relationships. Those come with harsh judgment and a lack of forgiveness. We hold a defensive position in many of our relationships because we’ve been hurt in the last when we’ve let our guard down. When we try to be vulnerable, we find others use that to power up over us. Many of our relationships

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 The Lord asks us to return to Him with weeping and mourning. When we finally recognize our sin for what it is, we should be drawn to tears at its destructive nature. Our sin is born out of our need to put ourselves first. It wrecks the relationships around us and our relationship with God. It should bring us low, as low as we can go. If your sin doesn’t move you to tears, you haven’t yet been moved to repentance. We need to recognize how our sin grieves our Heavenly Father to be drawn to a place of weeping and mourning, and until we do, we will continue to return to the temptation.  “And rend your hearts and not your garments” refers to

S 12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;   13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 Fasting is a spiritual discipline that many people, including Christians, don’t understand. As I’ve participated in a congregational fast this weekend, it’s heightened my awareness of the misunderstandings people have about fasting.  Fasting is a choice to abstain from food for a set period of time to heighten our hunger for God. Let’s be real, we don’t hunger for God most days, not like we hunger for our next meal. Many of us don’t have any problem skipping our spiritual nourishment any given day, but we’d never miss a meal. The spiritual discipline of fasting elevates the priority of God in our lives because it makes the conscious

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 God is calling us to return to Him with all of our hearts - He is calling us to repent. We cannot truly repent until we see our sin the way God sees our sin. The reality is we all have have blind spots. Our hearts are so deceptive that we cover the truth about who we really are or why we really do things. Sometimes we know we’re doing it, but we’ve been doing it so long that we can no longer see what is true, and sometimes we just have no idea that a sin issue exists in our lives. We’ve been doing it since we were small children. I see it as I work with kids every day - kids routinely lie about why they did something because they don’t want

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 Return to me with all your heart. God is calling for our repentance in these verses. Repentance is when we recognize our sin, and we are so heartbroken over the sin, our behavior is transformed. Repentance is different from confession - when we confess our sins, we acknowledge them before the Lord. It is right to confess our sins - we are called to do just that in scripture. The problem is that many of us can confess sins without a heartfelt change in our behavior. We can say the words, but not change our actions. That’s because we really don’t see the problem with our behavior, or we really don’t want to let go of the stronghold. We know w

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 Yet even now. Even though we have wandered, even though we still place things in priority over our God, even though we know what we should do to fall into obedience and we still choose to do our own thing. Even though He has made it clear that we need to surrender that part of our heart, even though we continue to rebel, even though He has chased after us a hundred billion times, and even though He would do it again. Even though the sin we’ve committed is too big to forgive, even though we are shamed and embarrassed at how many times He has had to reveal the same sin to us, even though we continue to choose ourselves first. Even though we t

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  - Joel 2:12-13 God created this great big beautiful world, with all its treasures of breathtaking mountains, roaring oceans, warm sandy beaches, peaceful forests, every painted sky and every starry night. He did it all. He created life and the miracle of birth and every incredibly unique person that has ever walked this earth. He breathed life into all of creation, from the fierce lion to the graceful eagle, from the bumble bee to the algae that lives on the surface of the water. All of the amazing, awe-inspiring things that catch your breath, from the birth of your child to your dream vacation spot, He did it all. All of it reveals His nature and should

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8 There are times when God wants us to persist in our prayers. He uses the time to do a work in our hearts and transform us into His image. He wants us to continue our prayers until He has completed that work in us. He revealing what is in our hearts, and he growing and strengthening our faith. But sometimes He has clearly said no, and we continue to plead for a yes. When we refuse to take His no, it is an affront to our Lord. The purpose of prayer is not to conform God to our plan, but to adjust our will to His.  I walked through something like this years ago at my previous church. It was a small church, with a congregation of about 400 people. They felt like family, and the building was like a second home. We were there multiple times a week, and my husband and I served in a variety of ministries. We loved our chur

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8 I heard a powerful message preached yesterday on Abraham’s sacrificial offering of his son Isaac, and it struck me - sometimes God says no to test and grow our faith. God wants to see what’s in our heart.  Faith is more of a muscle than a mindset.  It needs opportunities to grow.  Dr. Jim Loehr said “Expose a muscle to ordinary demand and it won’t grow. With age it will actually lose strength. The limiting factor in building any “muscle” is that many of us back off at the slightest hint of discomfort. To meet increased demand, we must learn to systematically build and strengthen muscle wherever our strength is insufficient. Any form of stress that prompts discomfort has the potential to expand our capacity.” When God said no to Abraham, when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his treasure, he was stretching and growing his

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8 I read a quote yesterday that reminded me of our verse this week:  “Sometimes God closes doors because it’s time for you to move forward. He knows you won’t move unless your circumstances force you. Trust God always.”   Sometimes God says no because it’s the only way for Him to get us to move in the direction He has for us. The truth is we won’t willingly walk into situations where He can grow our faith or transform our hearts because they’re scary and they’re hard. But He knows what’s in it for us, so He says no when we’ve been pleading for a yes.  Sometimes His no is quick and obvious, and sometimes He is slower to reveal His no. Sometimes He redirects us with a different plan, sometimes He sends in a trusted friend to tell us no, sometimes it’s through a lack of peace about a plan. But however He says it, His no

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8 Sometimes the Lord will say no to our most carefully laid plans. Sometimes He says no in obvious ways - like a traffic jam, missed flight, or a car that won’t start. Sometimes He says no less directly by closing doors that we want opened - we continue to interview for a specific jon, but can’t seem to pass an interview; we want to be married, but we just can’t find a suitable spouse; or we’ve wanted children our whole lives, and we can’t get pregnant. It’s so hard to accept those no’s.  Sometimes He just doesn’t move in the direction we’ve been fervently praying for Him to move - I prayed fervently for no cancer, and then for no chemo. Both times, He said no to my requests. He wanted me to walk through this trial because He knew He had something in this for me. He could already see the transformation in my heart long b

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8 We all have plans for our lives as David did, and we expect God to fulfill that plan when we bow in prayer to Him. But God’s plan for our lives may be different, and learning to accept His ‘no’ is so hard. He knows the desires of our hearts, so He knows when our prayers are to honor Him.  How we respond when He says no is critical.  David wanted to build a temple to glorify God. His desire was pure and God honoring, but God said no.  David was a warrior and God wanted a man of peace to build His temple. He knew David’s desire was righteous, but He still said no.  We can look to David for how we should respond when God says no. David’s reaction to God’s plan is a model for us. David didn’t raise his fists in anger, he didn’t complain about it, he didn’t turn His back on God or question God’s love. David continued to

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6 How many times have we desired something that appears to be God honoring on the surface, but God says no. Our desires may be for a marriage with God at the center, or it may be for children who seek after God, I may be that you desire to help the poor, but financially cannot manage any more than you already give, or you have a dream to serve God in another country but it’s just not happening. God knows your heart. He sees your desire, and He counts it toward you as an accomplishment. If you want the right thing for the right reasons, God credits it toward you as a righteous desire.  Knowing this brings me comfort, but if I’m being honest, it’s still a struggle to fall under God’s plan at times. I still want what I want when I want it. Understanding that God says no when it’s a God honoring request is hard. Many years