Tag Archive | Bible

Author Confessions: Are You F.A.T?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: Are You F.A.T?

This is old stuff for me but the older I get the more I need to remind myself that I didn’t understand some of this when I was younger in my walk with God, so I thought I would give everyone a pop-quiz today. Are you? F.A.T? Faithful, Available, and Teachable?

First of all why would this matter? God has designed each and every one of us to bring His light and truth to a lost and hurting world. I was there once, so were you. Or maybe you still are. In order for God to use us we need to be F.A.T. Not in inches around the waistline but in our heart’s desire to honor the God who died to rescue us from the consequences of our sin–death. Eternal seperation from Him, in hell. There are only two places we go when we die – Heaven or hell. Everyone is on the path to hell until we make that decision to submit our lives to Jesus and wholeheartedly follow Him.

So here are the three main things we need:

Faithful

Are you faithful in seeking God? Reading His love letter to us in the Bible? Are you pursuing a life that would honor Him? Do you pray not only to ask for requests but to listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you confess your sins? Do you seek out other believers to do life with? (Hopefully, this is in a healthy, Bible teaching church). God calls us to seek Him. James 4:7-10 says:

Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Submit to God. Draw near to Him and He promies to draw near to you. The Holy Spirit’s ability to work in and through us is hindered when we grieve Him by ongoing deliberate sin. We are all guilty and need to humble ourselves before the Mighty God over all.

So on a scale of 1-10, how faithful are you?

Available

Most of us don’t have a lot of free time in our lives to set aside. It can be a challenge to make time to slow down and talk to God, listen for His voice, and then do what He asks us to do. God sometimes gives big asks but much of the time He wants these small acts of obedience. Got a nudge to call someone? Call them! Did God tell you to write a letter or send a card (rather than a text or quick email?). Do it. You have no idea how those words might arrive just as someone needs them. Are you called to sacrificially give money or time? Do it. Available isn’t always about being willing to carve out a 15 minute prayer time and read one chapter in your Bible. It is tuning in to what He is asking you to do right now. Sometimes during my day when I’m overhwelmed with all that needs to be done I pray, “God, what is the next best thing to do?” Whatever I am led to do I do. He doesn’t often speak to me in words.

On a scale of 1-10, how available are you?

Teachable

I would suspect that most of us have been to school and even graduated at least from high school (even if you got a graduate equivalent degree). Many of us have attended classes at the School of Hard Knocks as we’ve faced consquences of choices: some might be our own choices, some might be due to the choices of others. Unfortunately this kind of “being taught” is not what I’m referring to. If it were we would all raise our hands “YES!”

Being teachable goes back to being faithful. We are teachable when we read Scripture, hear good Biblical teaching, and seek God, listening for His Holy Spirit to lead us, but only if we obey what we learn. We can be taught a lot of things but not put them into practice. For instance, my husband, at my request, taught me how to do an oil change and rotate the tires on my car. I only wanted to understand it and have no intention of ever doing it again if I can help it! I was teachable and I did do it once. I could probably muddle through doing it again (but need help tighting the bolts on the tires!)

When we read something in Scripture that we don’t recall seeing before, do we take it to heart as something to apply to your life? When someone in authority comes to you with a concern over a pattern of sin, do you listen, weight it carefully, and seek repentance and reconciliation?

Being teachable is having a posture of humility to follow where God leads even if it is uncomfortable, unconventional, or counter-cultural. He will never lead you to sin.

On a scale of 1-10, how teachable are you?

Being F.A.T. is a good thing when it comes to walking with God and being used for His purposes on this earth. Even just writing this was a good reminder to me to evaluate just how I’m doing in these areas. I find I always have room for growth. How about you? How F.A.T. are you?

Author Confessions: The Dangerous Emotion of Lust

Nov25

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: The Dangerous Emotion of Lust

If you read last week’s post on the dangerous emotion of anger, great. If not, you might want to take read that because I don’t want to rehash everything here that applies to the dangerous emotion of lust.

This issue was raised when I heard a teaching on Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Now I have no issue with Jesus’ words here but let us look at that a concept of lust.

According to Strongs Concordance the Greek word for lust used here (1937 if you choose to look it up) is best translated “To set the heart upon, to long for.” This can be either good or bad. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictonary states: “Since in modern day English, the word ‘lust’ is used exclusively in a bad sense , it is unsuitable as a translation, where the word is used in a good sense.” Lust, generally speaking is merely a desire. It has no good or bad attached to it and is not sexual in nature. It is a neutral word whether looking at the noun or the verb form of it.

So to state that lust is catagorically a sin is not biblical. Now to desire someone sexually and want to do things with that person who is not your spouse, is adultery and like I stated before in my last post, is an issue of thoughts that influence that. This again becomes an issue of pride, believing that I have the right to demean another person by wanting something from them that is a violation of Scripture. Jesus is again using a cognitaive behavioral therapy here addressing the thoughts of desiring a woman sexually (or a woman desiring a man sexually) who either person is not married to, as sin. It starts in our thoughts before it becomes emotion. We sin in our thinking before we act on it.

Andy Stanley in his book Enemies of the Heart, has a chapter entitled: About Lust. He states: “When God created Adam and Eve, He also created the concept of one flesh. Every indication is that Adam strongly desired Eve, and Eve, Adam. With sex came lust. It was a package deal. So lust can be a good thing. … before sin there was lust. … When sin entered the world, everything was corrupted, including lust. It’s an appetite and it’s not going away. … Lust can be focused but not eliminated.” He goes on to say that lust is rarely the problem, but it’s usualy a heart issue regarding anger, guilt, greed, or jealousy.

Lust when considered as a strong sexual desire has its place in marriage. Desire like this draws a couple together but should only be satified when married, and only with one’s spouse. When my now husband and I were doing pre-marriage counseling the pastor, a long time friend of mine, asked, “Why get married so soon?” (we married six months after meeting). I responded “I want to have sex and won’t do that outside of marriage.” He laughed, and both men blushed. His response: “That’s a good reason.” The reality is, I should desire my husband and he should desire me! Isn’t that what the Song of Solomon is all about? Trying to reign in those desires to stay pure before marriage was difficult! We did it and are so glad we did.

I write romance novels and have taught about this when talking about inspirational romance. As an author I believe I am as accountable as any teacher or preacher by what I put on the page for others to read even if it is fiction. I want to acknowledge the real desire, even physical, that a person can have for another outside of marriage, without crossing into adultery.

Desire for sex is hard wired into us but can be influenced by hormones. I met with a woman for counseling who had an insatiable desire for sex and started watching porn. We discovered two things: there was an intimacy problem in the marriage and secondly, when she stopped that particular birth control, that intense desire went away. Sexual lust and the porn were signs of a deeper issue, and once those were addressed, she had no desire to watch porn. Having said that, some people have a lower desire for sex, or may even be asexual, not desiring it at all. For those who remain single, that is a blessing, not a curse and likely part of their chemical makeup.

We need to be careful of our words. The dangerouse emotion of lust is not bad. In and of itself it is not a sin, but how we think about what we desire can be and that’s where we again need to take our thoughts captive, and if you struggle with this, getting help or accountability can be good.

Spatzle Speaks: Lamp Unto Her Feet (Book Review)

Nov11

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Paula Mowery’s latest book, Lamp Unto Her Feet, released in September, and I’m a little behind in getting my reviews posted, so please forgive me. Mom’s been busy on the computer so getting my paws on the keyboard has been a challenge. But this is not a novel you want to miss out on as Ms. Mowery writes a delightful inspirational romance.

Kenzi Murrah is fighting against the expectations of her parents. She has her own dreams that don’t coincide with theirs so what’s a girl to do? Take a job in a town farther away so you can establish your own life independent of your parents’ vision for your future, even though they disagree.

What Kenzi does take with her though is a special Bible from her Nana Nita with notes and verses highlighted for her to follow. The strange thing is the verses have an eerie way of becoming extremely relevant to what is happening in her life.

Trevor Wallen is a police officer in a small Tennessee town, trying to restore a tarnished reputation. he desires to cling to God but longs for a woman to share his faith and life.

As love blooms between the two, difficulties emerge that threaten to keep them apart. Kenzie becomes reluctant to read her Bible for fear of the hard times that may threaten her faith and her new-found love. Trevor just might find his career choice a threat as well.

Together and separately the need to learn to depend on God’s word for any chance at a happily-ever-after.

This is a sweet story of the trials and travails of love and the real-life challenges that come to force us to grapple with our faith. Ms. Mowery paints those themes with beauty and grace and I will gladly give this novel five bones. Because I’m a dog and I don’t have thumbs.