You have a choice!

Choices matter. Decisions have consequences. Seemingly random encounters have life-long impacts. This is the subject of my newest Bible study, Choices: Decisions that made a difference. Encounters that made an impact. Walk with me through the lives of Eve, Joshua, Samson, Ruth, David and Jesus as we examine temptation, leadership, power over oppression, humility and social justice, seduction and repentance, and forgiveness and redemption. Together we explore choices made, lives destroyed and lives redeemed. 

Through it all, we also see God's defining grace. While our choices sometimes have devastating consequences, Jesus' death on the cross saves, covers and redeems us. The power of His resurrection empowers us to live forgiven and free. "By his stripes we are healed."

It's taken me 14 years to write this study. I've taught it countless times in Asia and the U.S., and I've written, sought feedback and rewritten it more times than I can count. This book is a reflection of my attempts to grasp how God can love such a messed-up people and still use us to make His name known. Wow! What a Savior!

So, I hope you'll read it. Study it. Enjoy it. And let me know what you think of it. We're all in this journey together.

Travel light!

Ann

Travel light: Audacious prayers

“But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become thorns in your eyes and in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you live.” Numbers 33:55, HCSB

As we move into the places God has for us, we must deal with the sins and issues before us. Otherwise, they will continue to enslave.

I stood on the top of a mountain in the city where we lived in northern Thailand. We’d been there a few months, and colleagues and I had come to the top of this mountain to pray over the city. I’d not yet found a ministry, but on that mountain, I prayed an audacious prayer: “Lord, shut down the sex industry in my city.”

God took that prayer and grew it into an entire ministry to exploited women and children in that city — a ministry that continues to this day. Some women and men have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Some have been baptized. Some are no longer involved in prostitution. Through the faithfulness of Christian workers, the gospel has been shared with countless women and men in the city's red light districts. Light is penetrating darkness in some of the city’s ickiest areas.

Finding the place God has for us involves confronting the issues and sins before us. Christian workers who move into a new area often spend time “mapping” the area — understanding the culture, the language and the sins that enslave. These often differ from people group to people group. If Christian workers fail to help a people group confront and drive out their “cultural sins" as they are growing in their faith, those sins will maintain a foothold and may resurface later to enslave them again.

The same is true in our own lives. Instead of “cultural sins” we sometimes call them “pet sins.” What sins are such a part of your life that you fail to recognize their power over you? Gossip? Gluttony?  Selfish ambition? Materialism? Greed? The list goes on.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” Jesus said in John 8:32 (HCSB). With the help of the Holy Spirit, take some time to “map out” your own heart and examine the sins you take for granted. Then, ask God to help you drive them out so that you can be free to be all that He created you to be. Remember, He wants the best for you, so that through your life you can make Him known.

This week’s reading: Numbers 23 – Deuteronomy 2

Post #10: Discovering how to live missionally through a chronological reading of God’s Word.

#travellight

Three reasons to end a tradition

This week a Christmas tradition came to an end. The buttermilk fudge we made turned out perfectly: pure sweet creamy deliciousness that we didn’t have to eat with a spoon. Thus we thankfully ended a 15-year streak of a runny, gooey mess.

As our family grows and grows up, we have other traditions that are coming to an end as well. While I’m sad for some of them to go, I also realize that change is inevitable. Sometimes, for the sake of our physical and spiritual growth, we set aside traditions of the past with good reason. Here are three good reasons to set aside tradition:

1.    When the tradition dishonors God

Jesus told the Pharisees in Mark 7:6-8, HCSB, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men. Disregarding the command of God, you keep the tradition of men.” He also said to them, “You completely invalidate God’s command in order to keep your tradition!”

Traditions that enslave, oppress and encourage false worship must be set aside for the truth of the gospel. Jesus had harsh words for the Pharisees for enslaving the people with legalism rooted in religious tradition. Instead, the gospel of Christ is rooted in a relationship of love with our Creator that translates to loving those around us and seeking God’s best for them. If you practice a tradition for the sake of tradition itself, it needs to stop. Now.

What traditions do you keep that invalidate God’s commands? 

2.    When the tradition facilitates pretense

We all want to portray ourselves in the best light possible, but sometimes our traditions facilitate pretense, causing us to be dishonest with ourselves and with God. 

Again, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for this type of behavior: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation” (Matthew 23:18, NASB).

Pretense facilitates an “I’m OK. You’re OK” mentality that keeps us from admitting the truth: we are all sinners trying to make sense of the messed up world we’ve created and of which we are a part. Pretense denies our need for a Savior. 

In what areas of your life are you pretending? 

3.    When the tradition stifles the work of the Holy Spirit

The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43:18-19 HCSB, “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to the things of old. Look I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” 

 

Tradition can keep us from allowing the Holy Spirit to do a new work in our lives and the lives of those around us. When we adhere to tradition too strongly, as the Pharisees and Sadducees did, we can miss the Messiah living among us. 

 What “new thing” does Christ want to do in your life in 2015? 

Let Him do it. Now.