Walking in the Word with Breast Cancer

12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw- 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. - 1 Corinthians 3:12-1 Judgment Day is not about what I’ve done wrong in my life - that will all be burned up in the fire. It’s about what I’ve done for Him. But it’s not just about what I do for Him, it’s what I do with what He has given me.  God has give each one of us different spiritual gifts. To some He has given the gift of leadership, to others teaching, to some He has given the gift of mercy or service, still others He has given the gift of knowledge or wisdom or faith.  He has given us these spiritual gifts for the purpose of bringing Him glory.  Our talents are the capacity He has given to us to share the gospel with the world. We all have gifts and abilities that are unique to us, we have all been

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw- 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. - 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 The day we stand before our Lord and Savior will be when the entirety of our lives is revealed. In those moments, we will give an account for everything we’ve done. Every one of our actions, all of our work, will be tested by fire. If it was the sort of work that is done to promote ourselves, it will burn. If the work was done for the kingdom, with a pure heart and motive, it will remain.  It won’t be a day of condemnation or shame, we won’t be standing there while all of our sin flashes before us, feeling the pain and humiliation all over again. Those things we have selfishly done for our own pleasure

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw- 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. - 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 The Day in this verse isn’t just any ordinary day, it’s referring to the Judgement Day - the day you will stand in front of God and give an account of your life. I’ve never spent a substantial amount of time in scripture about Judgment Day, largely because it has always made me uncomfortable. I am way more comfortable meditating on verses about the glory of our God, or those that show me how to love my life for Christ, but the verses that remind me about the day I will stand before God in judgment makes me want to turn the page. The thought of standing before our God and having to give an account of all th

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 Your love for God is on display in the record of your actions toward the person in your life you find hardest to love. God didn’t write these verses for those who are easy to love - He wrote them for those who are the most difficult to love. Those who are annoying or inconsiderate, those who are harsh and rude, those who have hurt us deeply.  We love a sovereign God. This truth means God reigns over every aspect of our lives. He is the master chess player who orchestrates every intersection, allowing for every relationship. There are no accidents. Each and every person in your life was allowed to enter your life by Him. He knew the difficult people you would encounter long before you met them, He knew who

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 I think the commandment for us to love others as ourselves is most difficult when we are called to forgive them. We can overlook a difficult nature or a disagreement in principle, but it can be nearly impossible to move past hurt.  Forgiveness can be difficult, and it comes on all shapes and sizes. In our day-to-day lives, people will do or say things that offend us. Living in a broken world means we’re going to bump up against other broken people who do broken things. When it’s a person we don’t know as well or someone we don’t have a great deal of contact with, and the offense is small, we can make judgments about who they are and the offense will impact future interactions with them. We keep them locked

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 This verse sums up such a core part of what we are supposed to do as followers of Christ. We are to love and we are to love well. In order to welcome people into our lives without judgment, and in order to forgive people without limits, we are first to love them unconditionally. This is the way God loves us. It’s hard to understand what it means to love someone without condition because we live in a world that has trained us that our love must be conditional, that it’s okay to set expectations on our relationships, and if the person fails to meet them, we are allowed to end the relationship. There are no horizontal relationships without condition. Yet, God loves us without condition, and this is how He calls u

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 This verse point out just how broken our hearts truly are because it points out the truth: If we struggle to love those around us, we cannot love God.  We love well when it’s easy. Think about it. The words, “I love you” flow from our mouths when the other person has made us feel good about ourselves. We typically tell our loved ones they are loved when our needs have been met, when we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves, when our expectation for how they should treat us have been played out. They give us something or do something for us, we’re content with the relationship, they haven’t hurt us - those are all times it’s easy to say I love you. I love you communicates how well I’m feeling right now abo

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 Nothing demonstrates our need for His amazing grace like our inability to love others well. I’m not talking about those easy to love people, I’m talking about the difficult people in your life. The ones who push your buttons, irritate you or annoy you, act without considering you, or have hurt you deeply. Sometimes it isn’t one person in particular, but it’s a type of person that’s difficult for you to love - someone who is shallow, or inconsiderate, or rude. Nothing screams we need a savior like our inability to love others well.  Yet this is what He calls us to do. When you read scripture with the sometimes overwhelming list of dos and don’ts and countless examples of lives lived poorly and lives lives,

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 We all struggle to love people. But we are told quite clearly in these verses that we are called to love our brothers. This commandment to love others exposes exactly how broken we are, and our desperately we need His grace.  The people in our lives should find us to be the most loving people that they know. That means the people that live in our house or are related to us, that means the people we consider friends and the people that attend our church, that means the people that work on the same building or interact with us regularly, that means people who live on the same street as us, the people who share the road or the checkout line with us, the people that knock on our doors or fix our cars. The peop

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21 We think we know how to love, then we read this. His model of love is our model of love, but gosh that can be so hard sometimes. As God has been growing me this past year, and bringing people to me who have loved me so well, I have been reflecting more and more on how well I love others. I want to love others the way Christ loved us, and He has revealed to me how far I fall short of that model on a daily basis.  My agenda gets in the way so often - in ways that I didn't even notice until He opened my eyes. He has shown me ways to love others in my life well by opening my eyes to their needs in ways that I haven’t seen before. He has significantly grown my ability to love my family well.  As I submit my

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. - James 5:19-20 James chooses to end his incredible book of wisdom with the reminder that God uses His people to keep His people from wandering.  He has given us so much wisdom in this book - James has taught us how we are to think about our trials, where we go for wisdom, and who He considers blessed. He has taught how to relate to one another, how to work for others, and how to speak. He has taught us to take a look at our motives and desires, he has taught us the importance of patience and endurance, he has taught us how to live this life well for Him. There is more than we can possibly hold in our heads. In fact, that is the reason I took the challenge so many years ago to memorize the book of James - because saying it over and over to myself reminds me o

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. - James 5:19-20 This is the whole reason we are called to love in community with one another. Yes, it is to encourage and support one another when we are struggling to manage the trials and chaos that this broken world throw at us, but this is the biggest and most important reason. Don’t miss God’s purpose for community.  When our hearts are submerged in sin, we are told in scripture that we are blind to our sin. We literally cannot see what we are doing, or how our sin is impacting those around us. Our own hearts hide our sin from us or justify it in some way to minimize our brokenness. We argue the hurt was too big to forgive, or we had a right to be angry; we argue it’s been a difficult time so we have a right to indulge, that we’re not prideful when we

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Sometimes I think we can be intimidated by people in the bible. It's easy to read these stories and be amazed by the courage and strength these people had, but dismiss it because it was a different time or think these people had a different relationship with God than we do. Elijah was one of those men. He was a powerfully praying man. When I read the story of what he did at Mount Carmel to defeat Baal, I'm always amazed. He called on God to start a fire on a heap of drenched kindling in front of all Baal's prophets to prove that He was the one true God, and he did it at a time when he stood alone in his faith. He had such courage and such faith. Oh, to have that much faith!  How I would love to have enough faith to call down God from the heavens to prove His existence to my loved ones!  But those times were differ

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. - James 5:16 All the promises in scripture about prayer start where this verse starts ~ confess your sins. God wants to do a mighty work in our hearts, He wants to heal us and grow us more into the image of His son, He wants to fulfill all His promises to us, and He wants to answer our prayers ~ but that process begins with humble confession. God can't do the work He needs to do in a prideful heart, we must be in a position of humility and tenderness, and then He can move mountains. To do the real work in our hearts, confession must be specific and in totality - I have to work to guard my heart from the general confessions, such as 'forgive me for being prideful'.  My prideful heart has such a tendency to lie to me by covering my sin so well that I can't even see it - my mind makes excuses for my action

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. - James 5:15 Our God is a God of miracles.  He is also a God of promises, and He promises that prayers offered up in faith will be heard. We are also told countless times that whatever we ask in His name will be given to us. God can heal any sickness, physical or spiritual - He does it all the time. I think the key phrase in this verse is the word faith. The prayers we offered up to God have to be full of the faith that He will answer. We are instructed to ask, believing that he will hear us and give us what we desire. We learn in James 1 that the man who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the waves. The man who doubts will not receive anything from the Lord because he is double minded - he has one mind on the Lord, and one mind on himself. This man is unstable in all his ways. If you do not want to be thrown about on t

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:14 We are told here that we are to call on the elders of the church and have them pray over us if we are sick. Our elders are the spiritually mature people in our church body that we are to call on if we get sick. The oil in this verse symbolizes the Holy Spirit.  Though we are instructed in scripture, many of us do not follow through with this step when we are sick. There could be a variety of reasons for this hesitation. I know when I was diagnosed last year, my thoughts did not go directly to this command. In fact, a friend had to remind me of this scripture before I even remembered this was the direction from God - to call our elders and have them pray over us when we are sick. I think what happens when we receive a diagnosis that knocks the wind out of us, our initial reaction is to take care of it ourselves. We want

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. - James 5:13 James’ direction in our trials is simple and direct - if we are struggling, we are to pray. We’re not to try to solve the problem ourselves, we’re not to run to our friends, we’re to pray. When the storms of life hit, first and foremost, we are to stop and pray. Being a problem solver, prayer isn’t always my first response. I’m working on it, and I’ve definitely grown in my prayer life, but far too often, my initial response is still to solve the problem myself when the chaos begins. If only we would remember His great promises in the moments of heartache and turn to Him first in prayer. God knows and allows each and every difficult situation in our lives, and He does it because He wants our hearts.  Likewise, when we are cheerful, we are to sing His praises for the abundant blessings He has poured over our lives. But, again, far too often, we celebrate when things happen in our

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. - James 5:7-12 The truths found in this portion of James have always settled my hea

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. - James 5:12 James is calling out believers here to always be truthful. We live in a world filled with distrust because promises are broken every day. You just have to look to the number of divorces in our world to see a mountain of broken promises to love until death, and that’s only one type of promise. Our culture tells us it’s okay to break promises if we have a good enough reason, but James is reminding us here that as believers, we can not. We are not to break a promise, for any reason, or we are to fall under condemnation.  When James says, “Do not swear” here, he is not referring to taking the Lord’s name in vain, but rather referring to using the Lord’s name to exclaim truth: I swear to God it’s true.  As a believer in Christ, your words should simply always be true

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. - James 5:11 God blesses those who endure, not those who give up. Those who continue to take the punches of life, who continue to live through the heartache and disappointment, and continue look to Him for their peace and their strength. We are promised in this life, we will have trials. But we can also know true blessings from the Lord if we choose to keep our eyes fixed on Him. There will be days that knock the wind right out of us, but there will be more days when we feel His overwhelming sense of presence and comfort if we choose to remain steadfast in our focus on Him. The problem is that so many of us get caught up in the trials. We let them dictate our mood and our perspective on life. They dominate our thinking and we can’t move past them to enjoy the blessings He has bestowed on us. Our