Author: Amy

In modern worship, it sometimes appears that we have confused the call to the contrite sinner to come to Christ with the call to the grateful believer to worship Him. “Come just as you are” is a beautiful invitation to lost souls needing forgiveness, healing, and restoration. We come to Christ with empty hands. We have nothing to offer Him that is worthy of Him, but through His grace and righteousness, we land in a place of great worth; we become heirs with Him. It is a mystery that none who is earthbound can truly grasp: being “in Christ.”

What has me puzzled is not our coming to Christ just as we are when we receive the precious gift of salvation, but rather our nonchalant attitude when we come to worship this glorious Savior who has so purposely and mercifully rescued us. We show up to honor Him and enter His very presence wearing flip-flops, drinking coffee, and strolling in fifteen minutes late. We are not lacking in thankfulness for what He has done, but is this the impression we project with our careless entrance to worship?

We know the Lord sees our hearts, whereas man sees only what is external. Because this is true, ought we to be careful with what we represent to man? We question how one should dress up or dress down for worship, and some churches start their services at “11ish” in an effort to be relaxed or culturally cool and appealing to the lost. In certain cultures, late arrivals are simply a part of life, but in our society, tardiness is actually considered unprofessional, rude and disrespectful. If we are late to a job interview, we won’t get the job. If someone is late to a first date, there probably won’t be a second one!

This is not an essay meant to step on any specific toes, but here are some questions for all of us: Are we late to our workplaces when most job sites expect punctuality and professionalism? Do we put our best foot forward Monday through Friday, only to casually enter a worship service Sunday morning as if we were meeting a friend for coffee? Where are our hearts and minds as we prepare our bodies to enter a time of worship? What is our main priority through the week and especially on the weekend? Do we walk into the sanctuary with the reality that we are about to face a holy God? Do we come expecting to pour out ourselves and to meet with and worship our sovereign Creator? Or is Sunday morning simply a part of our weekly calendar? Is it a portion of our week that is much like any other time? Is it possible that we value other activities equally or—worse—do we value them more than what should be the most treasured experience of our week? What hidden messages are we sending to our children when we get them to basketball practice on time, but we never enter the sanctuary of worship punctually?

Of course we must be approachable to those who do not know Christ. Let us freely extend our hearts and hands to a needy and dying world. May we show them Who He is in every way possible, including how we worship Him and how we value Him. We can do this by making it known that He is our first priority. He is worth our highest efforts. He deserves our personal best. We are set apart from the world, and should not resemble it. Why would the lost want what they already have? Do we hold too lightly in our hands what we have been graciously given: the call to worship Jesus Christ?

Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
He also is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and joy are in His place.
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him;
Worship the Lord in holy array (1 Chronicles 16:23-29).

Two words often begin sentences in our everyday speech culture: “They say . . . “ Who are “they” exactly? Is there some secret committee out there that forms opinions and feels superior enough in their wisdom to impart it upon all mankind?

“They say you shouldn’t go outside with a wet head.”
“They say not to swim for thirty minutes after you eat.”
“They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
“They say never trust a skinny chef.”
“They say true love hides behind every corner.”
“They say the best things in life are worth waiting for.”
“They say always follow your heart.”
“They say it’s the little things in life that matter the most.”

The list is endless for what “they” seem to be saying in our lives.

Far too often I have based decisions on what others have said. Yes, we should listen to godly wise counsel and, certainly, gathering others’ opinions can be beneficial. But I am wondering about the choices I make from day to day that may be based on the “they say” of life versus the “what He says.”

I believe that God’s Word is a lamp to my feet. This belief is based not only in faith, but upon evidences where His Word has proven so very trustworthy in guiding me. Why would I ever make a decision based on a “they say” when the sovereign Creator of the universe has given me clear direction by the authority of His Word?

You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
Teach me good discernment and knowledge,
For I believe in Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
You are good and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
The arrogant have forged a lie against me;
With all my heart I will observe Your precepts.
Their heart is covered with fat,
But I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of gold and silver pieces (Psalm 119:65-72).

The psalmist has seen the difference between man and God. He has tasted the good and perfect law of His heavenly Father and no longer seeks the wisdom of man. Through his affliction, he has grown deeper in his trust of the Word and its truths. As followers of Christ Jesus, let us refrain from ever seeking the value of man’s opinion over the powerful Word of God. The next time someone starts a sentence with, “They say” let our first thought be, “But what does He say?”

A few weeks ago my last living grandparent passed on from this earthly life. Ethelyn Ricks Branson took her final breath and is now at eternal peace. “Nana” was a beautiful woman. She loved jewelry and fine clothing. She always had her hair done perfectly, smelled like expensive perfume, and carried herself with poise and a healthy dose of southern charm. Because she had only two granddaughters amongst a slew of grandsons, I was quite spoiled. There are many things she gave me through the years, but what lingers are her shoulders, her house-cleaning abilities, and some of her jewelry.

Her death came at an inopportune time, humanly speaking. We missed the funeral because of ministry travel commitments. I trust the Lord’s timing, of course. He has planned our days, our hours, and our minutes. We do not take our first or our last breath without His command. He is the Author of Life, the Giver of Life, the Sustainer of Life, and I willingly submit to His wisdom and authority.

As I think about my Nana, however, I can’t help but wonder about the timing of her passing for my own life. I talked with her a few months ago and tears ran down my face knowing it was perhaps my last time to hear her voice. She encouraged my heart with her love. And now that she’s gone, I wonder what lasting impressions she has made on my life and how they will inspire me. Will I pursue the eternal over the temporal? Will I honor her legacy with a life that pleases the Lord? What will my granddaughter say about me some day? Will she know Christ more intimately because of my life? Will she hear my voice ringing in her ears with the same love and encouragement?

I look at the ring on my finger and see diamonds that once shone upon her hand. They are strong and sparkling. Nana certainly knew how to light up a room! I pray to shine as she once did, like these precious stones. May my life be radiant for a Savior who makes both life and death incredibly wonderful.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about laying down our burdens. The phraseology makes this sound effortless. It is the “Christian” thing to do. We are simply to lay our trials, our sins, our worries, and our fears at the Lord’s feet, then stand up in confidence and move on. The power of the Spirit dwelling in us certainly makes this feasible. I have found that not only is it possible, but at times, it actually can be quite simple. When my heart wants to be finished with something, it is easily laid down. When I am communing with Christ and the Spirit is lording over my flesh, easily I lay it all down. The challenge is leaving it there.

The difficult part of laying something down is in not picking it back up. This is a rub in the believer’s journey: to not return to that trial, sin, worry, or fear, but to claim the freedom we have in Christ instead. Yet, how often do we reload our backpacks with failure and, before we can count to three, both shoulders are weighed down and our feet are stuck in the mire again?

Thanks be to God that He allows for do-overs. It seems He uses the redundancies of my life. It is through my recurring failures that I have grown the most and have been most keenly aware of His forgiveness and mercy. This is the God we serve! He has provided not only the means for our salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus, but also the ongoing cleansing we need in this fallen world. This is not my ticket to continue in the mire, but rather an inspiration to stay out of it!

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Romans 6:1-7).

While riding in the country with me, my eight-year-old daughter believed she saw an emu in someone’s backyard. I said, “Are you sure it was an emu? I know people have pet llamas.” She matter-of-factly asked me the following questions:

“Does a llama have a blue head?” “No,” I confessed.
“Does a llama have feathers?” “No.”
“Does a llama have a beak?” “No.”
“Does a llama have two legs instead of four?” With a grin I admitted, “No.”
“Well then, I’m pretty sure it was an emu.”

I’ve laughed about this conversation a lot. She’d make a fine lawyer! There was more than a good argument presented here; she declared simple truths. She was stating the obvious qualities of an emu. If it looks like an emu and walks like an emu, it is an emu!

I have since wondered this about my life: if someone looking at me asked certain questions, would my Christian qualities be obvious?

“Does she have faith that is unwavering?”
“Does she long to be with Christ and spend valuable time with Him?”
“Does she find her nourishment in His Word?”
“Does she chase after the eternal things of Christ instead of the temporal things of this world?
“Do her thoughts, her motives, her speech, and her actions reflect His character?”

If I look like I’m in Christ and I walk like I’m in Christ, then I am in Christ.

Book One of the Psalms is a portion of Scripture that compares the life of the righteous and the way of the wicked. It is clear that the one who will choose to serve God will be blessed, and the one who denies Him will suffer ruin. This is a black-and-white reality, leaving no gray area for how we are to live.

The righteous delight in the Word and meditate on it in an unceasing fashion. They have fruitful lives, prospering in the Lord, regardless of life’s situations. The Lord looks at the path of the righteous with approval and affection. Happiness comes to those who guide their lives according to God’s instruction, and He is pleased with their ways.

Meanwhile, the wicked are easily tossed to and fro, depending on how the wind blows. They are “chaff that the wind drives away.” Chaff is the portion of the straw that is lighter than the edible kernels of wheat. When the farmer tosses the grains into the air, the wind blows off the chaff, leaving the valuable portions behind. One definition of chaff is “worthless things; trash.” Those who reject God and His ways are compared to chaff. Psalm 1 ends by saying, “the way of the wicked will perish.”

As I read this passage, I come away both encouraged and warned. This is the formula for a blessed life or a cursed one. Heading away from my Savior, my Living Water, is like choosing to wander thirsty in the dessert until death is all that is left. And living apathetically in my faith walk is to pretend there is a gray area that doesn’t truly exist.

Father, let me be fruitful in this season of life. I desire to be a tree whose roots are deeply planted in You. I know the wind will blow and my branches will bend as You grow me, but may I be immovable.

In the first chapter of Colossians, Paul powerfully proclaims Christ’s preeminence. He will have first place in everything. There is no one and no thing that can rival Him. He is Lord over all, sovereign and magnificent in His rule and authority. Nothing will thwart His plans. I know this to be true. I believe it to my bones. Yet how often do I allow rivals in my heart to attempt to dethrone Him there? All the treasures that I cling to with my hands and cherish in the deepest chambers of my heart can never compare to my Savior, and still I struggle to keep Him in first position.

This is maddening. There is no other god. There is no other authority. There is no other love so rich, so pure. But day after day, the battle continues to rage between things that are temporal and things that are eternal. Of course, this is every believer’s journey. We can purpose to put Christ first in one minute and completely gratify the flesh in the next. Even in the mundane tasks of life, our hearts, being full of deception, will strive to satisfy selfish desires.

I have learned this much: I must stay in the fight. I cannot do it on my own, however; the Spirit will aid me in this endeavor. There is no rival to Him, and with His help, I can live consistently in this truth. My job is to feed the Spirit and starve the flesh. There must be a plan to seek Him in all things, with diligence and discipline. If I do not plan, the flesh will win, and that is a great loss.

Christ Jesus is Lord of All. Move over rivals, because you simply don’t stand a chance.

How important is mercy?

Webster defines mercy as “kind or forgiving treatment of someone who could be treated harshly.” To the one who is indebted, guilty, or seeking forgiveness, mercy is of great importance.

How important is it that mercy is a part of God’s character?

Throughout Scripture, mercy is present. God told Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19). Several of the psalmists’ writings are described as “prayers for mercy.” Luke explains that it is “because of the tender mercy of our God” (1:78) that we will be visited by the Sunrise from on high. The gospel writers tell stories of those seeking Jesus’ help, and they often began their cry to Him with a plea for mercy. Paul encourages believers not to lose heart, because we have received mercy in our ministries. He also explains that God is “rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (Ephesians 2:5) In his letter to Timothy, Paul writes that we find mercy so that Christ’s perfect patience with us may be demonstrated. God’s people are instructed in Hebrews to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (4:16).”

If our God were not merciful, seeking His mercy would be pointless. If we did not have the mercy of God upon us, we would know only His wrath and His judgment. Condemnation would be ours. Yet He is a merciful God. Loving. Forgiving. Slow to anger. Faithful. True. We live our days needing God’s hand of mercy upon us.

We have the opportunity to show mercy in our horizontal relationships as well. When we consider what we have been given—the incredible gift of mercy from a Holy God who chooses to look upon His Son and pardon us—how can we not show mercy to our fellow man? When we live lives focused vertically, our horizontal realities align beautifully in blessing.

Lord, let me be a woman of great compassion and mercy this day, for You have been most merciful to me.

Matthew Henry’s commentary on Isaiah 53 states, “Carnal hearts see nothing in the Lord Jesus to desire an interest in him.” He is referring to verse 2 that reads, “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” The radiant Son of God was clothed in ordinary human flesh, and we couldn’t see past it. We did not esteem Him.

No one is more desirable than Jesus, and yet men were not only uninterested in Him, they despised Him, forsook Him, and led Him to the cruelest of deaths. There is similar treatment of Christ today. Most people are uninterested in Him, have no desire for Him, and do not esteem Him. He is indeed considered unattractive.

At Golgotha, He was the suffering servant, oppressed, afflicted, and stricken. Isaiah powerfully prophesied His sacrifice with words like oppression and anguish. He described the Father’s pleasure in putting His Son to grief. God delighted in bruising Jesus because it was the fulfillment of His plan and the atonement for our sin. The Son of God became a slaughtered lamb, rendering His life as a guilt offering so that we might know forgiveness and freedom.

In His scourging, every blow He received was a healing balm to us. We exchange the filthy rags of our sin for the pure white robes of righteousness because of Jesus Christ. How appealing and attractive is He now? How very important is this man of sorrows!

As we kneel at the feet of our Savior, is there anything more beautiful?

Return to your rest, O my soul,
 For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you (Psalm 116:7).

These are precious yet powerful words. Of course, there is the implication that rest was formerly known. The psalmist desires to return to the comforts of God after a time of unrest in his being.

Christ is the source of rest for our souls. We may be continually jostled around by this world, but peace is ours when we claim it through Him, for He already gave it when the Holy Spirit awakened us to life.

A few weeks ago, I was having one of those days when my prayer was fervent and needy and deep and restless. Life was hitting me hard. I began to say these priceless truths over and over: Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. I yearned for His rest, the kind that only He can provide. My mouth repeating these words and my mind mulling it over eventually allowed my heart to feel it. This is how we seek refuge under His wings. If we purpose to turn to Him, to let His Word marinate our souls, we will know rest!

And yes, He has definitely dealt bountifully with us! Oh, how could we ever count the ways? Bountiful are His love, His mercy, His goodness. Bountiful is His rest.

How has He dealt bountifully with you? Is your soul at rest today?