About Halloween

What a day… This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! Halloween isn’t my favorite day. I don’t really like the idea of it at all. Yet I remember that this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Because of my past this used to be a day I dreaded. I still feel to glorify anything goolish is really a bad idea. I don’t get all freaked out anymore, more just anoyed that people spend so much time and effort on something that if they really knew would horrorify them.

 So what was Halloween for me… Halloween in my formative years was a three day festival. It began on the 30th and ended on the 1st of November. During that time I was witness to death and all forms of destruction of ones body, soul and spirit. It was to be a time of rejuvination for all things dark. It was also a time of indoctrination to satan himself. The more evil the greater the high. The crueler you could be the better, which included all forms of torture.

I never looked forward to this season, I don’t like death whether it was a bird, an animal or human sacrifice of which I experienced all three. To my good fortune I was never the sacrifice or I wouldn’t be talking to your now. I rejoice and am glad for that, through I remember others who did. I had friends who lost family members that way.

For far too many years I had to work really hard to remember those words, This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! As you look at those Halloween costumes and all the Harvest Parties going on this day,

I pray that you take a moment with your families and say a prayer for those who are struggling to find the strength to pronounce….

This is this is the day, this is the day,

this is the day the Lord has made,

 I will rejoice and be glad in it!

We need to support those who are struggling to walk into the truth of God’s ownership of this day. 

In Christ,

 Mikki

Becoming a Fountain…

 

This morning as I think about the branches of the fruit of the spirit I am reminded of the first thing the Lord talked to me about, that of being a fountain instead of a pitcher. That is why love is God focused because when we put our attentions on God, then the thing we receive is love. God’s love can come forth out of us; we truly become a stream of living water. That water is filled with… L O V E.  Then my mind went to the attributes of love in I Corinthians 13. 

When I focus on God, his love flows through me… 

1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

             Father in heaven, I ask this morning that you would allow me to become a fountain where your stream of living water can flow from. I realize I have not allowed myself to focus on you as I should; so your love could manifest through me as it should. Forgive me and begin to flow through me as you should. In Christ name I pray. Amen 

Blessings,

Mikki

Branches of Being…

 I wanted to walk away from this first fruit Love and say it is too much for me. Yet as I take another look it seems like the day to begin tackling this. So I began to research the passage Gal 5:22. Looking at Expositor’s Bible Commentary they break this “Fruits of the Spirit” into three parts. The first set is focused toward God, the second set is concerned with our relationship with others, the third and final set concerns the Christian himself.  

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, (God focused)

patience, kindness, goodness, (Other focused)

faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. (Self focused) 

Interesting?  I guess I should check into this more, does scripture support this? If it does, I will look at them from a different light. It would make so much sense, love, joy and peace are focused on God.  It also makes these fruits more then a list of attributes and more within my grasp. So let’s begin by looking at love… In my Thompson Chain reference from Gal 5:22 – Spiritual love you are sent to Eph 3:17-18. So let’s look at that passage.  

Eph 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (NIV) 

This is all about God’s love, not about me.

How does this change my doing attitude? Love, joy and peace aren’t about me, they are all about what happens when I focus on God. I know “God is love”, that it is God who “makes my joy complete” and it is God who “gives me the peace that passes all understanding”. These are all straight scripture.  God’s love allows me to “be”, not my love. My love ends in doing. As I focus on God I lose myself and receive the love of God that allows me to thrive!

          As I focus on God I exchange my sorrow for joy. As I focus on God I find a profound peace that calms the depths of the storms within me when my doing has miss focused me. I begin “being” when I focus on God. Amazing!!!

Being Is Free

This morning, it’s Sunday again and I am face to face with the fruits of the spirit. This lists is beyond me. How can anyone define them, I am stumped. It is like the whole concept of being. It is too much to do by yourself.  

Let’s read…      

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 

When we are in relationship with the Lord he gives us as a gift the Holy Spirit. The cost of accepting Christ is high but the spirit is free! It really doesn’t make sense. Yet we are told here, the fruit of the spirit is beyond the law.  Like the spirit which is free, so is being. There is no cost, no requirement, just release in being. Being isn’t natural, doing is natural. It is part of our curse. We are people in Christ who are beyond the curse, for Christ paid the price for us on the cross.  

This weekend I heard a man speak on how Christ is the only normal human. What he meant was that without Christ we can not be the men and women we were created to be. I think this is true. In Christ you and I can be. We can put down our doing ways and embrace being who God created us to be.  

Father I so thank you for allowing us to know Christ who paid the price for me. I rejoice that you will bring forth your fruits of the spirit as I yield myself to you.  

Blessings,

Mikki  

Grave Clothes of Doing

Today I continue my walk from doing to being. I was in my quiet time, and in the middle of it I am realizing that I need to be more organized. God is talking to me about getting things done. I use to have so many to do lists so that I would get everything accomplished. I haven’t thought about any to do lists for several months. I prayed about it and asked what to do. So I began doing what I always did, making the excel To Do list! Then I turned back to scripture and I thought a “to do list”? How is this being rather then doing?  

The life application bible commenting Gal 5:22 said; “The fruit of the Spirit is spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are the by-products of Christ’s control – we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without his help.”  

I know that without Christ’s help I will be doing and doing for the rest of my life. Being isn’t possible for me without Christ. How do I make plans and yet be spontaneous at the Spirit’s direction? I can do it for a moment. When I am in a time of ministry I can let the spirit flow and oh how lives are changed. How does this work in my everyday life especially when I really need to make plans and get things accomplished? I see the church wrestling with this on a regular basis. I want to be, I am determined to figure this out. I want it so bad that I will sit here until being is where I am!  

God in Heaven, my heart is to be open to your spontaneous move at any given moment. I give you my grave clothes of doing. Let me be now and always in your presence walk with you and seeing your touch your creation. 

In Christ,

Mikki

Being Makes a Difference…

Hey, today is a new day filled with so much promise. Can I take my eyes off of myself and put them on to the Lord. That is the difference between doing and being.

     This whole thing of changing my perspective is harder then it looks. I am wrestling with myself and what I believe and how I have survived all of my life. Doing has been a huge protective mechanism. I can’t explain it all in this short segiment.

      In short ~ I am face to face with “being” and seeing how “doing” has been my life line. I am being crushed and all my flaws are revealed. Doing covered my flaws, at least so I didn’t see them. I went to church by myself, my children are grown, my husband isn’t interested in attending church, so “doing” allowed me to feel part of the group or so I thought. In reality it just allowed me to run from being me. The true feelings of I having grown children and a husband who doesn’t attend church. Most people who don’t really know me, think I am a single woman, happily serving the Lord. One very well meaning gal walked up and said that she had been praying that the Lord would bring me a husband to serve along side me. There was a look of horror when I told her that I was already married. Doing covers the hurt.  The church has been happy with “my doing” because they had projects and programs completed.

     It might have been good enough for the church but it wasn’t good enough for God. He wants me to be. To have joy deep within me. Joy that is complete. I need to allow God to create in me a steadfast spirit that isn’t concerned with doing, accepting the truths of my life and  just being who God created me to be! If I become who God created me to be,  my doing days will be over.

     All of this has come to light because I just couldn’t bring myself yesterday to begin writing about the Fruits of the Spirit. I needed to take the time to let go of the coping skill becoming ready to change!

Blessings & Peace,

Mikki

Focused on Self…

Today we look at verses 19 – 21 of Galatians which are all about the acts of the sinful nature. We learn what it is to walk in the sinful nature, apart from God. 

Let’s read…    

GAL 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

The focus when we allow our sinful nature to take hold of our actions, leads us astray. Notice we are told our actions are obvious. When we focus on our wants, needs, and desires, it is very obvious to God and to those around us.  

Think of Judas one of the twelve disciples, for almost three years he went without notice, until what he was doing came to light, it became obvious first to Jesus and then to the other eleven disciples. Judas’ actions came from his needs, wants and desires which brought him face to face with betrayal and finally the taking his own life because he couldn’t live with the consequences of his actions.  

This to me is what doing is all about… it is self focused, rather then God focused actions. Being has the actions aspect, but it is the focus, rather the action is the by-product of the relationship with our risen Lord and savior through the grace which we receive! 

I am so excited that on my next entry this Sunday we will begin looking at what being is all about, I am so excited… please join me for the rest of the month we are going to be looking at what the fruits of the Spirit are! 

Blessings,

Mikki