Cling to the Cross

This post has been in the works for what seems like forever. Thoughts have been plentiful, but the wisdom and ability to pull it all together has been a struggle. I can share thoughts, but if they are not governed by God’s Word they will do us no good!

It seems wise to set a foundation, and build upon it. This post will be an explanation and foundation of sorts for the posts to come. I have been praying that each one would be directed by the Lord, used for His glory (please, be praying the same!). Here we go.

We must understand that we are at war. We may have been able to ignore it because life has been easy and comfortable. But, we are at war. It’s not soldiers marching toward each other, at least not at this point; and even then, lines blur. The true war isn’t physical: it’s good versus evil. Truth versus lies. God against Satan. The bigger battle is spiritual.

Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Evil doesn’t play fair. Evil knows no bottom; there is no depth too deep for it to go. But as Christians, we don’t play by Satan’s “rules.” We follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth is not spread by cheating, manipulating, complaining, throwing punches, slandering, etc. We don’t get to play dirty.

All that’s going on in America shouldn’t really surprise us. As a people, we have been walking away from the Lord for decades. There comes a time when He removes His protection (see the Israelites) – and I believe this is where we are at. Our country has allowed evil to run rampant. We say homosexuality is fine; lying and cheating are normal; divorce comes with marriage; killing preborn babies is desirable. Did you know that abortion is now the leading cause of death in the USA? How much blood we have on our hands!

“What our nation calls feminism, God calls rebellion. What our nation calls religious diversity, God calls idolatry. What our nation calls reproductive rights, God calls murder. What our nation calls sexual orientation, God calls abomination. What our nation calls enlightenment, God calls darkness.
The only way for our nation to be healed is for her people to come into agreement with God’s Word, repent of wickedness and receive the gracious pardon of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
- Rusty Thomas

We must repent!

We often think the Gospel is just for unbelievers, yet it is crucial to our daily lives as believers. We are not exempt from temptations, and when we give way to sin – we must forsake it. Sin is grievous, evil; so undesirable we should spit out any taste of it. Repent, friends! Turn from sins, little and big, and go back to your Heavenly Father. He is always faithful to forgive. We need to make things right with Him quickly, and move on!

We as a Church must get back to Scripture and sound doctrine. We must be unapologetic about it. There is no other Way. We will be hated by the world – Jesus tells us this:

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

Again, this is a spiritual battle. People hate Jesus; therefore they hate His Church. I have found that this road, walking with Jesus, is a lonely one. Ironically, I know I’m not the only one – and this will be a later post.

But the intense loneliness, the challenge to discern good from almost-good, the persecution that may come – it is all worth it.

We are heading into rougher waters as a country, no doubt. Things will continue to get hard. But we are given one life, one day at a time and the Lord asks that we use it faithfully for Him. May we not be like those to whom He says, “I never knew you.” May we not think we are following Him if we choose not to read His Word and let it change our lives. We will either stand for Him or we won’t. Our children will see us cling to Him, or they’ll watch us try to cling to crumbling idols.

I am praying you and I will cling desperately to Him. I am burdened that as a whole, the Church has neglected discipleship and as a result many who thought they knew Him are finding that they don’t. There are also many who want to know Him, but don’t know how or where to start. This blog does not replace in-person discipleship, and there are many things I am not qualified to talk about. But I am praying that the Lord would use the words on this website to encourage you and point you to Himself. Upcoming posts will be aimed to do just that (like usual, but He has increased my determination ;)). We need to spur each other on; we have an ever-pressing need for strong, Godly women. May He make us so!

Psalm 113

Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its going down
The Lord’s name is to be praised.

The Lord is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
Who dwells on high,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in the heavens and in the earth?

He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
That He may seat him with princes—
With the princes of His people.
He grants the barren woman a home,
Like a joyful mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

Year-End Sentiments

“I’m not making any plans for 2021 - I want to see what I’m agreeing to first!”

Have you noticed there isn’t much goal-setting and resolution-making going on right now? What a strange year this has been! Many of us are looking at 2021 a little hesitant, not sure of what awaits us. Either that or we are frantically rushing forward to leave 2020 behind!

“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:27-31

Each time we have moved to a new place, there have been little brown sparrows. I’ve learned to look for them; sitting on the wire at one apartment, resting in the trees at another house, and now they perch all along our fence. They show up on their own, happily chirping without a care in the world. They are a constant reminder to me of how the Lord has cared for me and my family, regardless of what goes on around us!

I believe 2020 has been a good year, because the Lord ordained it. He saw fit to bring each day and its dealings. It has been a hard year, no doubt about that. But He has exposed darkness, He has shone light in even the corner shadows where evil has lurked unnoticed. He has shuffled our lives so that we - if we are paying attention - can see yet again how life is not in our control. He has been re-prioritizing many things for many people. Has it come without pain? Some of it, but not all of it. Yet He knows what He’s doing and He has cared for us.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope you leave 2020 energized. Going forward, we have such opportunity to share the hope of the Gospel to a dying world! We are not able to go on in life just coasting along; we either believe in the Lord or we don’t. We will either stand for His truth or we won’t. It’s hard, but it’s simple.

These are good days, friends. These are days we get to show our children how to live for Christ. These are days we get to be even more purposeful in teaching them and training them in the way God lays out for us. Now is the time to be intentional with our marriages, to put our minds to work in our households, to know that what we are doing as wives and mothers is a holy calling.

This next year is unknown, just like any other year. It will likely be hard and refining. But praise God for the refinement, that we would know Him more and be better able to bring Him glory!

Keep your chin up, dear friends, as we go into this new year. We are not without hope! Be refreshed, knowing that the Lord has already numbered your days and He will not leave you for any one of them. He is always present; a very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1) and always near you in pleasant times too.

Run the race the Lord has called you to. Spend your days immersed in His Word and in prayer, looking for ways to serve and bless others. We have good works ahead of us for His glory, let’s walk in them. A life spent wholly for the Lord is certainly not a life wasted!

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

***

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14

Happy New Year!

- Amy

Pain

I can see her eyes full of tears as she texts me of another miscarriage. Her body goes through the process, and she feels hopelessly out of control.

I feel her panic as she searches for answers that might give healing to her family; her desperation to rest before the next challenge begins. Back-to-back the situations come, leaving her whip-lashed and reeling.

My heart aches as my oldest asks about his great grandfather, one that he won’t meet on this earth. How I wanted that meeting to happen, how I long for my grandfather to be here with us.

***

Pain.

We run from it. We don’t want to be uncomfortable, or in pain. Especially the deep pain, the times that split a heart in two and leave a void… the pain that stabs intensely, the pain that dulls to a never-ending ache, the pain that always serves as a reminder.

God tells us He is in everything, always present (Psalm 46:1). Always present - in the pain as well. Hebrews tells us He sympathizes with our weaknesses (4:15), and the Gospels show us that He understands pain. He wept for a friend, had compassion on families with sick children. Beyond that, He endured more hardship than we will know. He was betrayed by a man who was close to him, beaten by those He came to save, hung on a cross and left to die. The wrath of God was poured out on Him - so that those of us who trust in Him will never have to experience it; He took our pain.

He knows pain.

We can go on building up anger and bitterness as we face pain. We can shake our fists at what we perceive to be unjust, even blaming Him for it all. We can run from it, shove it down, refuse to face or deal with it. We can nurse the pain to obsession, and become a victim and be miserable.

Or - we can seek Him amidst the pain.

What if, in the midst of the overwhelming pain - what if that’s where we grow to know our Maker even better? What if that’s where He can show Himself stronger to us, where He can show just how completely He can comfort? What if the pain serves ultimately to bring us joy and greater trust?

“If I say, ‘My foot slips,’
Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up.
In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.” -Psalm 94:18-19

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.” -2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Pain is not without purpose, friend. Even if that purpose, as far as we can tell, is solely that we would know Him better. I encourage you (and myself) to lean in; fight the urge to run or harbor bitterness. Seek your Lord, desperately. Cry out to Him on the bathroom floor, let the tears fall in the car and ask Him to comfort you. He is more capable to hold and to heal and strengthen than we know - but may we seek to know!

Someday, this promise will come to pass:

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” -Revelation 21:4

But for now, may we know this intimately:

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” -Psalm 73:25-26

Amen!

-Amy

Listen: It Is Well With My Soul

Choose Your Battles Biblically

One of the questions I was most frequently asked when my children were young and we were homeschooling was this, “What is the hardest part of doing this, of raising your children and homeschool them?” There were many things that were hard, of course, things like discipline, keeping a sane and orderly routine, being on schedule, trying to figure out the best options for our curriculum, planning each week’s work, etc. But without hesitating I would always answer the same thing: The hardest thing is seeing and dealing with my own sins as I raise my children.

Many times I would get mad because of the glass of spilled milk, or lose my patience after one of my kids would not follow he instructions I gave, or raise my voice when we were running late. But you know what? Most of the times I lost my temper not because I really wanted to teach them a good thing, but because of my own desires were not being fulfilled, because I was discontent, or anxious, or simply “tired.” And that was the true battle that I needed to face each day.

Only when I saw this, I was able to deal with it in a biblical way: repent and believe. And only when I started fighting the right battle, I saw the good fruit of righteousness in my own life and my children’s lives!

You have heard many times that piece of advice that many like to give, “Choose your battles wisely.” Well, if you must choose one battle each day, choose it biblically: Kill the sin in you (Rom. 8:10-17). And how do we do this? By the Word of God! (Ephesians 6:10-20)

So, I encourage you, Friend, if you find yourself in a similar situation than the one I was, ask the Lord to give you eyes to see your own heart in the light of the Scriptures. Come to the Word, read it and let the Word read you. If you are struggling with a short temper, with lack of patience and joy, come to the Lord, not only every day, but very minute of the day. Lay it all before Him, humble yourself before Him, take a deep breath and do the next thing by grace through faith. Killing your our sin is about being obedient. It is about repenting of our own sins and moving on -as quickly as possible- back into the path of obedience. This is certainly the hardest thing we’ll face each day, but certainly the fruit is the sweetest of all.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego

Written for Strength & Song by Becky Pliego: wife, mama, and grandma. Find her writings at Daily On My Way to Heaven.