Pirates

I love the stories of pirates. The kind of pirates you think of when you mix the word "treasure" with them. It conjures up in me adventure, danger, pursuit, focus, fortune. Pirates are always looking for the treasure. They pillage and plunder. They take unsuspecting ships and take what they want. They do whatever it takes to get the treasure. Pursuit of the treasure. Fixed on it. Seeking it. Though wicked in concept we can learn a lot... from a pirate.

I really enjoyed the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." These pirates needed their particular treasure to be free from a curse. They felt nothing, couldn't taste anything. Living dead is more like what they were. Empty and all bones of death when the light passed over them. Not only did they need the trinkets of treasure, they needed life blood to finish the bond the curse had over them. Sound familiar. Fortunately no one had to die in the movie, just a cut of the hand and all was well.

In real life, however, there is a paradox. The trinket and the blood are the same treasure.
Read Paul's words to the Corinthians,

"I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they
may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" I Cor. 2:1-3.

Do you see it. Christ, our Lord, is the Treasure and holds all the treasure we could ever need. Do you need patience? Be filled with the Spirit and receive godly patience. Do you have severe pain in your heart? Unload on Him and let Him fill your cavernous place with the riches of His grace. Do you lack understanding? Tell Him and empty your doubt while he fills you with His Spirit to reveal insight and discernment to you through His Word.

My dear friends, all you need is in Him. He is the treasure we seek, even in our salvation he offers storehouses of treasure. If all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ as we just read, and if we are a people called out of darkness and into His wonderful light, then we must believe He can and will meet every need in us.

Whatever you are lacking, He can fulfill.

Confidence? He will give you the diamond of dignity!
Loneliness? He will bestow upon you the crown of companionship!
Bitterness? He can take it and give you the forged gold of freedom!

Will you seek the Treasure? Will you seek Him as you never have? God only wants to give you the full riches of complete understanding in order that YOU may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. Praise God.

Batten down the hatches!Natalie

Have You Ever Tripped Before?

There I was...six months pregnant with my family from Oregon. Ahead of us was a huge mountain with a path winding it's way up. Beautiful, rainy day. Dark clouds loomed above the mountain soon to deposit some more rain. There was some snow on the mountain's top, sides, and even against the path. My husband was there, my parents and my aunt and uncle. Along the way we heard a strange sound. Loud and powerful and constant, kind-of like an airplane, but we didn't pay much attention. Up the right side of the path, the mountain's wall slid down a few small streams of snow. Like mini avalanches. Nothing to be alarmed by. We just stepped out of the way. All the time we could hear the thunderous noise.

Soon we had traveled awhile. We enjoyed the walk and each other's company. When all the sudden, we looked up and shooting over the top of the mountain the noise came into sight...an avalanche! Needless to say, we ran! My family jumped out of it's way by springing off the path. Being six months pregnant I could not move that fast and the avalanche was coming quickly. My dad thought it was quite funny as I was pulled down the mountain by the snow, like waves in the ocean pulling a helpless swimmer out to sea!

Now at this point I have to tell you this was a dream. I'm sure some of you were going into fit's thinking that my dad was some kind of jerk to think it was so funny to see me being overtaken by the snow! Gratefully, he is NOT that kind of person. He would have gladly made sure I was okay before laughing!!

I was thinking about this dream and I had a thought concerning sin. Remember the sound we could hear but carelessly ignored? Avalanche. Remember the small mini avalanche that tripped us up just a bit? Signs of something worse, something deadly. And we ignored it.

Too many times in our walk of life we KNOW the signs of sin. We know what will trip us up the quickest. Yet, do we, at that moment, run? Or, do we wait until we are overcome to make a decision to try to get out from under the sin which has so easily entangled us?

I Corinthians 10:12-13 says this:

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

PRAISE HIM!

The temptations are real, the warning signs are different for each of us. You know what will cause you to sin, usually. You know what to avoid. You know that there are indications that will tell you if you are in danger. The Word reveals those things. We must be able to identify them.
BUT, when you do sin and are overcome, praise God He is faithful he will provide a way out and you can stand up under it.

I didn't tell you the end of my dream. I was not buried in the snow. I knocked me down and back, but did not smother me. And being six months pregnant? It hindered me from moving rapidly. What in your life makes you pregnant with obstacles to real freedom? Pride? Anger? Unforgiveness? Busyness?

Take inventory this week and spend time with God discussing hindrances and temptations that can trip you up! He is faithful and will not let you be overcome.

Remember, unlike the rescuers in the real mountains who give up after a few days of searching for victims, Christ will dig and dig and dig to free you! He will not leave you to die in your sin! That's why HE died! What freedom, what joy!

Enjoy the riches of his grace this week!
Natalie

If I Were An Olympian!!

When I am watching any event in the Olympics there is a strange feeling that begins to come about in me. As I watch, a sensation begins to mount that I could jump up and do that event with that kind of power and perfection! Do you know what I'm talking about? They twist and jump and do things that don't look natural, but I feel like I could do it.

Now, we all know that if I got out of my Lazy Boy, went outside, stuck my arms up in the air to let the neighbors know I am about to start my routine, and began to run across my lawn to do amazing flips...I'd land in the hospital.

It's the same feeling that my husband and I experience coming out of any movie that has any type of Karate (are there types?)...we actually begin to convince ourselves that we could do those moves of power! There is this thought that if I extend my leg like the hero, I will be able to actually do the maneuver that so easily knocked out the opponent. Alas, a pulled groin.

The Matrix was the best one yet. We saw the first one and seriously had supernatural strength after we saw the movie. We even experimented at home some of the moves that Neo did. We only found that we looked really stupid lifting up a leg that has no business even trying to extend past 10 inches off the ground. Our weaknesses exposed. Our foolishness uncovered.

Why do I think that I can somehow become an Olympic champion by just watching the event on TV? My mind tells me "I can see how this works surely my body will obey." My weaknesses exposed. My foolishness uncovered.

Why do I believe that I can become victorious in Christ just by watching others be victorious? My mind tells me, "I see how it works, surely my flesh will obey." My weaknesses exposed. My foolishness uncovered.

Lest you think I am going to liken our walk to the Olympics, I need not do that. Paul covered it. There is a place for striving and diligence. I want to liken our walk to the steadfast nature of anyone committed to anything. Athletes just happen to be the people we are most fixated on.
There is a steadfast nature about them that is not at it's peak 100% of the time. We see the peak of their training when we watch the Games. What we don't see is the times of slow, quiet concentration on their event.

Times of rest and refreshment.
Times of defeat and learning.
Times of study and patience.

Steadfast nature with Christ will have it's peaks of hard and diligent strivings for excellence. Times to really put forth all the efforts to be victorious. But, most of the time, we are to be steadfast in the journey. Find pleasure in the quiet moments of study and reflection. These are the times of strengthening for those moments of real testing. Daily, steadfast prayer and relationship is what will make us strong. Daily surrender to our Perfect Trainer and Friend.

These are the moments of victory. Our crown, our medal will come when the final Game is over!

Citius! Altius! Fortius! SWIFTER! HIGHER! STRONGER! Only in Christ!

Amen and Amen
Natalie

Flies

I want to know if anyone else deals with this.

I have flies in my house, as I'm sure you do, but my question to you is this - do you feel like they are your personal insect that you must apologize for when others are in your home?

We had our LifeGroup at our house and, of course, there were a couple of flies buzzing around. I wanted to keep saying, "Pardon our flies we just can't do a thing with them."

It's not like we all don't deal with the fly problem, but for me, when they are in my house I feel like they are my responsibility and I must apologize for the inconvenience of this nuisance swarming the food. My own personal flies. Irritating aren't they?

Anyone deal with this problem: there is an annoying voice, buzzing in your head that says "You're not good enough." or "Remember what you did?” or even "Make sure you do everything right because you got to remember you are 'working out your salvation.'" Heard these?

I'm certain you could add to the list of irritating voices of the enemy swarming your mind. No amount of self-talk or apologies to the Father because of your "unworthiness" will ever get rid of the noise of the lies. No doubt we wish we had some sort of spiritual flyswatter to swat them down!

The enemy is out to kill, devour, destroy, lie and bring you down, BUT, this is not our personal problem. OK, it's our problem, but not our responsibility, or even within our ability to defeat him.

Do you realize that for every lie the enemy can throw at you the Father has a truth to replace it with? You are to pray for discernment to identify the lie and then seek the Word for the truth. Then, by the power of the Spirit and the discipline of your mind, He will begin to transform your mind with new thinking, and you will know the voice of God.

The "swatting down" of the enemy is the Son's responsibility, not ours. The Word says

"Resist the devil and he must flee, draw near to God
and he will draw near to you."

This passage is in the context of repentance, which is necessary and must be a part of identifying the lies and the fact that we believed the lie. I don't say this to shame us, nor does the Father. I say it to encourage you to RUN to Christ when you feel your weakest, when you don't understand, when you aren't satisfied with him, when you sense you are believing something that does not line up with the Word.

"How do I know if it does or does not line up with the Word?" you ask.

Read it, devour it, feast on the life-giving, bondage-breaking Word of God and let him deliver you from the annoying lies of the enemy. You do not have to make apologies for your accuser anymore, you let Christ take him out on your behalf so you may live free!

Have a "bug" free week,
Natalie

In The Trash

(This is actually found in my book too)

It was a hot, summer's day and I had just finished getting my fingernails done. My 45 min. time with my nail-tec had ended and I was heading home. I drove up to see that my wonderful husband was in the midst of mowing the lawn. I pulled in, anticipating the showing of the nails, which I know he could care less about but he appeases me anyway. But before the viewing, he asks me to move one of the trash bins away from the back of our other car. (Here I want to say that after this episode, I greatly missed the small, tin cans we all used to have, easier to move in my case.) I gladly grab the trash bin, for they are not terribly difficult to maneuver. The lid was open because the man of the lawn was putting the grass clippings in there. I did not consider closing the lid, for there was no fear in moving a trash bin. Amen.

I came around to the back of the bin, grabbed the handles and gave it a push. It needed a bit more than a push because it was sitting in a rather large divot in our driveway. I proceeded to lift my right foot, place it on the bin, and give it a shove, ever so gently. So at this point, imagine me...hands on handles (mind the nails), left foot on driveway, right foot lifted up on the bin...remember the lid was open, so my foot was resting within the lid. A little shove, bin lowers, so I can push, lid flattened onto the driveway, right foot is still planted on it.

When you have a part of your body on the bin and you are trying to push the rest of the bin at the same time I'm sure there is some law of science of which you cannot break. You now find yourself working against yourself: bin stays in one place and the momentum of the push then hurls your body directly into the bottom of the bin.

I fit nicely inside one of our green Edmond trash bins.

Just as I had lunged myself into the bin, my husband came around the corner. Here's what he sees. The bin parallel with the ground, lid open and my feet sticking out. He sees me slowly back out, covered in grass and immediately I check my nails. After he makes sure I'm OK, we laugh until our sides hurt. Of course, I had to go call my mom because my family loves anything that involves someone falling down, or even falling in. My nails were not damaged so all was well.

How does this point to the grace of Christ? It's corny, but it will do...

if you want the "trash" of life out of your life, let Christ
close the lid on it so you won't hurl yourself back in.

Hope you had a good laugh, enjoy your week.
Natalie