Posts Tagged ‘Christian Living’

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Spiritual Warfare

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

spiritual-warfare

Before I said good-bye for the summer, I had one last interview online. Beth Jones interviewed me about the chapter I wrote for her book about spiritual warfare, The Hands of a Woman: Everyday Women in Everyday Battles. To be honest, I was so exhausted by this point due to a long and agonizing trial that I didn’t even prepare for what I would say. This is the first time I’ve gone online live without having a thoroughly prepared outline. I cried out to God the day before the interview, and I jotted down two things about the trial that was just coming to an end in my life. Other than those scribbles, since the entire talk was supposed to be an interview anyway, I just told her to ask me about prayer, since that’s one topic I have a passion for.

I dedicated the show to God, like I always do before workshops, and asked for Him to help me say what He wanted me to say. The interview lasted a full hour, and Beth Jones asked me some unexpected questions that I was only too happy to answer. It was the most relaxing interview I’ve ever had in my life, and some strong truths about spiritual warfare came out:

  1. The enemy can plant thoughts into our minds, and these thoughts come to us in the form of an “I” statement so that we think that it’s coming from our own thoughts. Thoughts of suicide, for example, come from the enemy who wants to destroy us.
  2. If we call upon God through prayer in the name of Jesus, incredible things can happen. I share a personal experience about this during this interview.
  3. Don’t focus your mind on the demonic. Talking about the demonic only leads to fear which is not from God. Instead, focus your mind on Christ.
  4. Hormones sometimes cause women to be emotional about things, and if they stew about certain situations, the truth becomes distorted and is no longer the truth. Satan is the distorter of truth, and he loves it when women do this, because it causes strife.
  5. Despair is another tactic from the enemy to incapacitate Christians to make them unproductive for the kingdom of God.
  6. Satan uses logic to convince us to do something contrary to the will of God. For example, suicidal people believe that the world would be better without them, and that they are doing a good thing to rid the world of themselves. In the chapter I wrote for this book, I share another time when Satan used logic to drive me nearly to insanity, although I do not share this in the interview itself.
  7. Use Scripture to combat the enemy.
  8. We shoot our own wounded in the church. We attack each other as brothers and sisters in Christ instead of drawing closer to God. This is one of the primary tactics of the enemy to incapacitate the church and destroy it.
  9. If we don’t plug into other people in the church, we cannot function in the body of Christ, and our spiritual growth will be stunted. So many people use logic or excuses to stay away from the church (or leave immediately after the service without connecting to anyone) because they’ve been burned. This is exactly where Satan wants us.
  10. Satan sees the people who are effective, who are actively ministering in the church, and strategically takes those people out. He will do anything to incapacitate those people.
  11. Pride is rotten. If you become good at your spiritual gift, you will be tempted to become prideful (because people are praising you right and left). The pride will cause you to stop relying on God, and you will rely on your own cleverness and become less effective for God’s kingdom. Pride is definitely from the enemy, since that’s how he fell with a third of the angels following him. Satan was thrown down from heaven because of pride. Pride is the core of all evil and is the root of all sin in the church.
  12. Prayer is one discipline that the enemy will do anything is his power to distract you from, because he knows how effective prayer is.
  13. Being quiet during prayer to listen to God, especially when you’ve asked Him a question, is one way to walk powerfully by the Spirit and know what His will is.
  14. Actively getting rid of sin in your life will also make you more effective. Satan wants us to think that we are stuck in our sin and can’t ever get out, but that is a lie. The entire Christian life is miraculous, an inward transformation into the image of God. To assume that you can’t break out of a habit just because “it’s part of your personality” is a deception that the enemy wants you to believe.
  15. Satan leads us to believe that we won’t have problems if we are Christians, that life is not supposed to be hard. But the truth is that life is actually harder for Christians (except for the presence of God who helps us through it), because transformation into the image of Christ involves pain. There’s no way around it. Scripture says that we will have tribulations in this life.
  16. Apathy is another tactic the enemy uses to cause us to be ineffective. If we are lukewarm in our walk with God, He will spew us out of His mouth. God would rather we be cold (or against Him) than to be apathetic, which gives God a bad name.

I invite you to listen to the interview: (To download audio, right click “Save as,” and choose “Desktop.”)

Spiritual Warfare Interview

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Is Fun Evil?

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

is-fun-evil

Is fun evil?

There is a growing movement in homeschool circles that claims that fun is evil. They point to our society to show that Americans live for fun rather than for God. (They’re right, by the way.) For that reason, they believe their homeschool families should never be allowed to have fun.

Homeschoolers of all people have already put everything on the altar, and they don’t act like normal Americans. They don’t bow down and worship fun at all. It’s the opposite. They have a huge responsibility on their shoulders, and way more work than ordinary people. It’s relentless, because they have to live with it 24/7. They actually need more fun in their lives: more fun seeking God, more fun with their spouses, and more fun bonding with their children.

Fun is refreshing; laughter is good for the soul. Fun is experiencing joy with the people you love. Life is so horrible already because of sin and strife. Let’s cling to God, our husbands, and our children and breathe joy into their lives and not make them feel like they’re in shackles. Shackles are from the enemy, who will cause us to prioritize the wrong things, often to look good to outsiders. Just connect to God and walk by His Spirit. It’s that simple.

Before I go further, I would like to say that the pursuit of fun can be evil, if we are pursuing that instead of God. Some things capture our attention and draw us away from God instead of towards Him. Reading, for example, can be idolatry if we get angry when our child interrupts our book. Our book was more important than our child at that moment, and that was sin. Anything can be sin. But that doesn’t mean you banish everything and make up tons of rules and impose them on people. All of us have idolatry. This world is too distracting. This does not negate the fact that God came to give us life abundantly, that He has given us all good things to enjoy, and that one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy.

John Piper, in his book Desiring God, states that the Christian life is all about the enjoyment of God. When we enjoy God, we spend more time with Him. And when we learn something new about God, we do sweet somersaults in our soul. Yes, John Piper calls this Christian hedonism, and he wholeheartedly endorses it. That’s because Scripture calls us to love God with wild abandon, and the only way to do it is when we enjoy Him thoroughly. Otherwise it’s only duty.

Many people feel the same way about church, that it’s a duty, and that it shouldn’t be fun. They don’t look forward to serving God’s people with wild abandon the way that God desires us to. They barely attend, leaving immediately after the service, never connecting to the body of Christ, which is the only real reason to gather. You can hear sermons and Christian worship over the radio. The church is the people. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. He didn’t say preaching or singing. He said assembling. Look at the description of spiritual gifts and the command to use them in the body of Christ, not just at your house. Many homeschool parents disobey this command because they focus only on their children. They want to look good to the other people of the church. Because of this, they are too haggard to obey God by connecting with other believers.

Most homeschool parents are exhausted. Do you realize that fun is a part of rest? Part of the definition of rest is “leisure,” and we as homeschool parents don’t have it. We need to make time for it, especially when it comes to spending time with our spouse. My husband, for example, can sleep for ten hours and still not feel rested. He is weary. Often if he can just go out on a date with me or go shooting with a buddy, he ends up feeling refreshed, more so than a full night’s sleep. Why? Because fun is refreshing. It’s a break for the mind. Yes, fun can be exactly what your weary body needs.

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Guarding my Tongue

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

guarding-my-tongue

I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten into trouble for what I’ve said. I don’t even do it on purpose. I just have nothing to hide. If people ask me a question, I tell them the truth. Sometimes I tell them the truth when they don’t want to hear it, or when they haven’t even asked.

One time, for example, many years ago, I was at a Bible study where absolutely nothing was glorifying to God. A woman from the Bible study was talking to me on the phone, and I said, “This Bible study is crap. Everyone is stiff, and their arrogance reeks to high heaven. No one is vulnerable, and everyone talks down to everyone else. I have learned NOTHING in an entire year from this Bible study, and this has never happened to me, because my deep love for God is so strong, I can always find something to learn. I don’t know how I’m supposed to grow spiritually under these conditions.”

When she hung up the phone, she called the Bible study leader’s wife, and gossiped about all the juicy information I had just said. The leader’s wife hung up the phone and called to gossip to the elders. Then the leader’s wife told her husband, who called my husband and punished us both by removing us from Bible study. My husband trembled when he got off the phone, and he asked me, “What did you say?!!”

I told him everything, and I got on the floor weeping, repenting in dust and ashes. My husband was reminded of the betrayal that happened to him in California, back when all his friends turned on him and his reputation was ruined. This was the worst time in his life, and he thought his life was over. Somehow I had made my husband re-live his worst nightmare. I had deeply wounded my husband, and I was so, so sorry.

I remembered the story of the Israelites, when they were wandering through the wilderness. They complained, and God’s fire flashed forth and burned them up because complaining is an offense against God.

As I lay crumpled on the floor, I asked God to purge me from my sin of complaining. And I would have done anything to turn back the clock and take back my words.

There was a meeting with six people where I publicly apologized for my sin. During that meeting, one of the men gave us unwanted parenting advice which violated the Word of God. (He noticed that my children had joy when they came to Bible study, and that we needed to make them more sober. And by the way, my children were silent during Bible study. If you know my loud children at all, you would applaud my husband and me for training our children in self-control in such an outstanding manner. We ought to have been encouraged instead of rebuked.) I saw his arrogance right there and then, and I looked at my husband to see if he’d noticed. My husband had a humble demeanor on his face, and he only wanted the ordeal to be over with. So I bowed my head and looked at the floor.

I usually only get in trouble for my words about once every two years; but when I get into trouble, it’s like an explosion, and my husband has to do damage control. People who “get” me don’t become offended, but they actually enjoy me. Some people even seek me out for advice because (ironically) they think I’m wise, and they know they’ll get the truth.

Last Sunday before going to church, I asked my husband if I could be myself again, or if I had to guard my words. He said, “Susan, you always need to guard your words.” I thought to myself, “But I have a blog… How can I write blog entries daily and guard my words at the same time? I would feel like I had shackles. I just want to breathe and live and be free. This is the United States of America. I should be allowed to have free speech…”

But so many times I wished that I could take back things that I’ve said, even if every word of it was true. Just because something is true doesn’t mean it needs to be said.

“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3

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Burned by Church

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

burned-by-churchHe hasn’t been to church since the funeral of his wife. I didn’t think he would. He got burned by church years ago and decided that church wasn’t his thing. The only reason he came nearly every week over the past three years was because of his wife’s determination to go to church, even though her body was giving out, and she was confined to a wheelchair. She needed him to bring her, since she could no longer drive. Out of sheer love for his wife, he did it.

I never understood (until now) how someone can be so burned by church that they will never darken the door of a church building again. I thought that a Christian’s love for God would override the inadequacies of the people from the church, and that love could cover over all sin. I never knew how painful it could be to be falsely accused, and then have the pastor believing lies about you. It’s so wounding that you don’t ever want to put yourself in that position again.

Yes, I finally understood this man, the man who had come to our Bible study for three years, continually encouraging me in my parenting. His words set me free. I wonder if he understands how much his words meant to me.

On the day of his wife’s death, I wanted so badly to tell her that I would make sure her husband didn’t stray from God. I wanted to promise her that, with all my heart, I would do everything in my power to draw him closer to God. He’s 82. He’s set in his ways. Even his daughter confessed to me that she didn’t think her dad would go to church after her mom’s death. She said this right in front of her unconscious, dying mother.

On the day of the funeral, during the food reception, my husband was sitting beside him. I walked up to him with my plate of food and asked him what his favorite food was. He said steak. I asked him what his favorite dessert was. He said sherbert. I asked him, “Would you like to come over to my house for steak and sherbert? My husband cooks a good steak on the grill.”

His grieving face brightened, and he accepted my offer. Several weeks later, he came over for a nice, juicy steak and the best sherbert I’ve ever had. We talked and laughed. We were real. On his way out the door, he shook my husband’s hand, and he turned to hug me. He knows I love him. It’s so obvious in my eyes.

As he left the house to get into his car, I shouted, “Come sit with us at church on Sunday!”

He actually said yes.

I was so happy to see him at church today. People’s faces lit up when they saw him, and they hugged him and shook his hand. As the church service started, I said, “See, everybody loves you here. They can’t help but love you.” He smiled to himself. I hope and pray that he will continue coming, and hopefully the thought of being burned by the church will be a faded memory of the past…

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