Worthy vs. Worthless

"...go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

~ Matthew 9:13

As I was reading another blog this past weekend, I loved the analogy of the message of todays Christian music, verses the message sent in traditional Christian music (such as Amazing Grace). You can read the original post here.

The main point was that today's music doesn't have good theology. We are told that we are all worth dying for. We are told that we are worthy. But Jesus said that the righteous don't need a Savoir. If we are worthy of it, then we don't need it. That's why the old hymn says that Jesus came to save a wretch like me. That's why His grace is so amazing after all. God loved us even when we weren't worthy. In fact, on our own, we have no worth. Our worth is found in Christ alone. It is Him that is worthy. He died for us even though we didn't deserve it. How amazing is that?!



I guess the main point here is that if the grace of God isn't needed, but something that we deserve, then it isn't as precious as I was led to believe. What about you?

Circle of influence

I always think of the best blog post ideas after I am in bed for the night. If I write them down, then I'm up all night writing ideas and don't get any sleep, but then if I don't write them down I forget! It's so frustrating!!! Last night I had the worlds best blog post idea... but I don't remember it now, so you get stuck with this. I feel for you, I really do.

I mentioned before that I was doing a book study through "The True Woman" by Susan Hunt with a group of my sisters in Christ on line. We have officially started our study and are reading chapter 1. Today, I am pondering on the circle of influence that we have as women. I think that we have more influence on those around us than we think, or wish we did. Susan Hunt quoted an old article that described this well. Here is my paraphrase of it: "We have the power to influence others for good or for bad. We influence others with our virtues, or vices. We influence them with our wisdom and or or blunders, ignorance, and folly."

No matter what we are doing or saying, it is influencing someone. Most often, it is influencing our children. They don't just get influenced by the good things that we do, but by EVERY word and action. That is so humbling to me!!

Just by reading a book, we can influence our children that reading is fun. By washing the dishes or doing laundry, we can influence them that cleaning and homemaking is important. By reading our Bibles, praying, and singing worship songs, we can influence them for Christ. But on the flip side, sitting around idly, we influence them that laziness is okay. By not staying on top of the dishes and laundry, we influence them that housekeeping and homemaking aren't a priority. By pursuing selfish interests, we send the message that you have to lookout for yourself first, and if you don't take care of yourself no one will.

All of this thought brings me to Proverbs 14:1 ~ The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. When we are being wise women, we take into account that our words and actions (good or bad) influence others and choose to be more careful. When we are being foolish women, we tear down those around us, even if we don't realize we are doing it. We influence others without thought, and carelessly tarnish our witness for Christ.

On a much lighter side note, I have recently found a wonderful blog entitled "The Imperfect Housewife". She does a link-up on Thursdays for anyone who writes about motherhood, homeschooling, homemaking, etc. Check it out!

Sinfully proud?

At our Women Discipling Women meeting the other night, we watched a video of a sermon by Martha Peace. The topic was 'Hurt Feelings'. It was a really great sermon for oh so many reasons. It helped show us how thinking about our feelings isn't the biblical response. She had a chart that showed what we think vs the biblical response. I didn't write any of her examples down but it was something along the lines of (going to the extreme):

We think: They didn't take my advice, they must think I'm stupid.
Biblical response: They have the freedom to make their own choices. This is not a sin issue, I will pray that their choice works out well for them.

She had several examples (and I'm now wishing I had written them down) like this one. It was such an amazing eye opener. But she also said one thing that is really sticking with me. She said "Overly sensitive = sinfully proud". At first I disagreed with this. You see I am not a proud person. However, I am very shy and rather sensitive. But the more I think about it, the more I see her point. By being shy I am afraid of getting hurt, or putting myself out there. Being shy is all about me.The same thing applies to being sensitive. When I focus on myself and how I feel about the situation, it isn't glorifying God. By being shy and sensitive, I am being self absorbed. Wow! I totally didn't see that before!

So now, I have to step out of my self protective shell, and start living to please God, not myself. Part of declaring Him Lord of my life, is trusting Him. It doesn't matter what others think of me (so there is no reason to be shy), because I don't live to please men, for if I was striving to please men, I wouldn't be a slave of Christ. When I allow others to hurt my feelings it's usually because they are disappointed in me, or something else about me. And again, if I am living to please them, I can not be called a slave of Christ. Does this mean that I will never have my feelings hurt? No, of course not. But it does mean that I need to think biblically about each situation and determine why I am feeling the way I am. Then decide if I really should be hurt by what has happened.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. ~ Galatians 1:10

Author of humility

Yesterday I officially became a real published author. (I had a few poems published back when I was in school, but I really think they published all of them that were sent in, so I don’t think they count…) I volunteer writing devotions for teen girls for FindYourTrueBeauty.com and yesterday the first edition of the devotional book was published. I have mixed emotions about this. Part of me wants to jump for joy and shout from the roof tops… and part of me knows that I don’t write these devotions for me, but because I enjoy writing, and I want to share about what God has taught me with others. The mixed emotions come in because of the fact that I could want to take any credit for this at all. All the glory for this should go to God. It is for Him that I write these devotions, but at what point are we allowed to take pride in our earthly accomplishments for Him? Then again, it is not me that is truly accomplishing anything good, but Christ in me. Do you see where I am?

This great accomplishment for Christ is being overshadowed by a battle of the flesh. My flesh wants to take credit for something that it doesn’t deserve. Christ deserves all of the credit and it is so humbling to step back and realize that I could write a million books, and become a top selling author, and the credit would still belong to God. So I must admit that I pray that never, ever happens. I never imagined that having the devotions published would be such a humbling experience for me, but it has been. However, it has also been rather freeing, now that I know where the mixed emotions are coming from, and to know that it isn’t something crazy going on in my head. The world may think so, but we are not to be of the world, just in it.

God is truly the author of humility. I can write anything, but He can use anything to teach us what He wants us to learn. Today my lesson was humility. This isn't a new lesson for me. It's something that I have struggled with over the years. Each time I think I have it mastered it seems to come up again... It's funny how that works isn't it?

He leads the humble in justice,And He teaches the humble His way.
Psalm 25:9

You can see a sample of my devotions online by clicking here or click here to purchase a copy of the book.