I was a thief.

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I was a thief. 

We all have a checkered past, and this is part of mine. It was not a crime of opportunity. Oh no. It was premeditated and carefully orchestrated. Flawlessly, I might add. 

If I hadn’t confessed, no one would have ever known. 

Like many of my 5th grade friends, I was a regular customer at the pharmacy that stood between school and home. Some days we’d stop for a candy bar or a bag of chips, but my purchase always included a handful of Bazooka bubble gum. At two cents each, they were a bargain in any economy.

 As I dropped my school bag on the floor beside the counter, I squatted to reach into the bin of bubble gum. In my crouched position, I was completely hidden from the cashier’s view. I realized I could easily stuff a handful of bubble gum in my bag and never be seen. I passed on the opportunity, paid for my candy, and left, but the idea remained. 

I returned the next day to do the deed. 

By this point in my narrative, you’re probably thinking, “If this is the biggest sin she’s got on her conscience, she needs to get a life .” Sadly, this isn’t the biggest sin I’ve committed, but I’m sharing it today to make a point. 

I became a Christian eight years after this experience. When I surrendered my life to Christ and began to study my Bible, an interesting thing happened. I began to remember the sins I had committed in my “before Christ” life. Stealing the bubble gum was one of many.

Burdened with guilt, shame, and regret, I sought counsel from a wise friend. She shared 1 John 1:9, which taught me, “If we confess our sins, he (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” She taught me to daily confess my sins to God, forsake them, and ask God to help me not repeat them. “If your sin has hurt another person,” she said, “ask their forgiveness too, and do whatever you can to make it right.” 

“But what about the sins I committed long ago?” I asked her. 

“God forgives those, too,” she said kindly. 

One day after I asked God to reveal any sin in my life, he reminded me of the Bazooka bubble gum heist. I confessed my theft and asked God to forgive and cleanse me. I thought that should have settled it, but oh, no, God had other ideas. 

“You should confess your sin to the pharmacy manager, too,” he said, “and ask him to forgive you. Tell him you’re a Christian now, and as best you know how, you’re trying to live in a way that honors God. Then make restitution for the gum you stole.” 

“But God,” I said, “That pharmacy is 1,000 miles away. I don’t even LIVE there anymore!” 

“Then write a letter.” 

“That’s silly, Lord,” I said, “what is that man going to think when he reads a letter from a woman who lives 1,000 miles away and stole six pieces of chewing gum 10 years ago?”

 “It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” God whispered to my heart, “what matters is what I think.”

Someone once said that being nagged is like being nibbled to death by a duck. Well, the Holy Spirit nagged me until I finally surrendered. 

I wrote the letter and confessed my crime. 

I also shared the story of my conversion and how I had confessed my thieving ways to God and received forgiveness. “Now,” I wrote humbly, “I’d like to ask you to forgive me too. I’m enclosing a dollar (adjusted for inflation) to make restitution for the gum I stole.” I enclosed a tract that shared the gospel.

And I signed my name. 

God’s never nibbled me over this sin again. 

I was forgiven and free. 

I’ve followed these steps many times over the years. They apply to big sins, like driving a friend to an abortion clinic when I was a teenager, and “small” sins like disrespecting my parents and being lazy. Sometimes my confession and request for forgiveness is kindly received; other times it’s been difficult. Each time, I ask God for courage to do what he’s calling me to do. 

What sin(s) from your past do you still struggle with? Have you ever called them by name, confessed and forsaken them, and allowed God to cleanse you? If you’ve sinned against another person, do you need to ask their forgiveness and make restitution if necessary? One of the greatest testimonies of God’s redeeming work in the world is a transformed life. 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (1 Corinthians 5:17).

Do You Know How to Handle This Emergency? 4 Steps to Take

In the dental office where I work, it is not unusual to encounter an emergency.

It usually appears on our radar as a frantic call as soon as the office opens.

"This is an emergency, and I must see the doctor immediately!" the breathless caller insists.

Trying to calm the patient while determining the nature of the call, I ask a few diagnostic questions.

"Slow down, Mrs. Jones, and tell me about the problem. Do you have any swelling or bleeding?"

"No, but I can't stand it any longer. It started last night, and I've done everything I can do, and nothing helps!"

"Is it the tooth we were concerned about last month?"

"NO, that one is fine, but this one is killing me!!!"

"Are you running a fever or showing any other signs of infection?"

"No, but I was so desperate this morning I asked my husband to try to get it out, and he just made it worse!"

Envisioning the scene from Castaway with Tom Hanks on a deserted island with a toothache and a rock, I became even more concerned.  My patient's panic started to become my own.

"Mrs. Jones, are you able to drive yourself here? Do you feel lightheaded or faint?"

"As a matter of fact," she said, "I'm sitting in your parking lot now. I've been heading your way ever since I called you."

Meeting her at the door with her chart in one hand and a vial of anesthetic in the other, I ushered her into a treatment room and took a look at the problem.

I recognized it immediately.

It was a classic floss emergency.

A floss emergency happens when a diligent patient gets a piece of floss stuck between her teeth. In an effort to remove it, the patient usually tugs the wrong way, causing the floss to break off. Once the floss is broken, there is nothing to grab onto. Unable to pull the floss out, the patient usually attempts to remove it with tweezers. This only serves to fray the edges, making the length even shorter. Occasionally a patient will try to remove the stuck piece by flossing the same area with a new piece of floss. Inevitably, that piece breaks off as well, becoming wedged in the space with the first piece.

What makes this so distressing is that the floss, stuck in a space it wasn't meant to be, puts pressure on the teeth, causing a surprising level of discomfort. Due to the patient's heroic efforts to remove the floss, significant gum trauma usually occurs, adding to the patient's misery. Some patients even experience feelings of claustrophobia when they can't remove the floss from between their teeth.

The cure is simple -- we remove the floss with our highly specialized tools and enhanced ability to reach the difficult area. The patient experiences immediate relief. Mrs. Jones was so grateful she called me her favorite dental hygienist and sent me cookies every Christmas thereafter.

By now you are probably wondering why I went into this elaborate description of a floss emergency.

You may never experience a floss emergency, but you will, if you are a Christian, experience something very similar.

Instead of floss being the culprit, sin will be. Like that piece of floss that went rogue and wedged itself somewhere it wasn't meant to remain, sin slides into our lives masquerading as something good, only to cause distress and destruction when allowed to remain. It upsets the balance, impairs our ability to function, and leaves pain and misery in its wake.

When sins like lust, dishonesty, jealousy, gossip, bitterness, anger, greed, ungratefulness, apathy, and selfishness wedge themselves in our lives, we are hindered from living a full and effective life.

What is the answer for the sin emergency?


First, identify the problem. I couldn't help my patient until I realized what was out of place in her mouth. When we're squeezed by sin, we must identify it instead of soft-pedaling it as "just my personality" or "my one vice."

Second, ask for help. My patient tried to deal with her crisis in several different ways and failed. It was time to call in the reinforcements. In our battle with sin, we sometimes need others to hold us accountable, pray for us, and support us. Talking to a trusted friend, minister, or counselor can be a tremendous help. Often the very act of bringing our sin into the light diffuses its power over us.

Third, determine to do whatever it takes to become free from our sin. If we are attracted to another man or woman at work, we may need to seek another job. If we're struggling with drinking, we may need to find new friends and new places to hang out. If we're struggling with lust or pornography, we may need to give away our computer, throw away our books, or suspend our cable TV. We must do whatever it takes to make no provision for the flesh.

Finally, we must battle our sin in the power and name of Jesus Christ, not ourselves. Because of our faith in the resurrected Christ, God has given us power to live holy and victorious lives. Our struggles come not because we don't have the power to live godly lives, but because we choose not to use the power that is available to us.

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:12-14)

What steps do you need to take to ensure that you win the battle against sin? Will you start today?

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You want to connect with God, but in the craziness of life, it’s just not happening. You want practical, biblical answers to situations you face every day, but you don’t have hours to pore over Scripture.

You need a resource that answers the questions you’re afraid to ask out loud. Questions like:

• Is my situation hopeless?
• If God already knows what he’s going to do, why bother to pray? 
• Why have you allowed this to happen to me? 
• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit? 

Each devotion begins with a Facetime question and ends with a biblical answer wrapped in a modern day parable. Like a spiritual power bar, Hungry for God … Starving for Time is packed with enough scriptural nutrition to get you through the day. Wherever you are—in break rooms, carpool lines, or wherever you can snatch five minutes of quiet reflection—Hungry for God … Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women is for you.


 

 

Do You Need a Bath?

Note: This is not Winston. He is much too modest to allow me to publish a picture of him bathing!

It was time.

We had postponed it long enough, and now it was inevitable. The deciding factor was the worm he had rolled on, in joyful doggy abandon, in the backyard. Prior to that, several happy romps in the rain, frequent and furious games of fetch, and the day-to-day experiences of living a foot off the ground in a fur coat had produced, to put it delicately, a distinctly organic aroma.

Thankfully, unlike my previous dog, who would head to the farthest corner of the house to hide under a dresser whenever I ran bathwater, Winston is generally cooperative. I accomplished his bath with a minimum amount of trauma to both of us.  Though he was soaking wet, I was only slightly damp. A definite success.

After his emancipation from the bathroom, he romped through the house at full speed. Tongue lolling and ears flapping, he careened around corners, bounced across beds, and raced down the hallway at breakneck speed.  Though he couldn't admit it, it was obvious from his antics that he felt GOOD after his bath.

After witnessing Winston's bath experience, I realized the parallel between him in all his doggieness and us as believers. 

We get dirty as we walk through this world. Living in a sinful world causes us to come in contact with debris that make us dingy. Unkind thoughts cling to us as we struggle in personal relationships. Anger stains the edges of our heart as we live with difficult circumstances. Lust splashes onto us as we gaze too long at a movie, television, or book we'd be better off without.

Hopefully these sins don't characterize us, but they do affect us. They don't change our position as God's children, but they do cast a haze over the windows of our soul as we seek to reflect the Christ who lives in our hearts.

Jesus spoke to his disciples about this problem in John 13. Stooping down to wash their feet, he explained that as they walked through the world, they would become tainted by sin. He reassured Peter that while sin in a believer's life doesn't negate his salvation, it does harm his fellowship with God and others. Because of this, a believer needs to "bathe" regularly. Jesus used the physical example of washing Peter's feet to show him his need for regular spiritual cleansing.

God's word encourages us to "bathe" our spirits regularly in order to maintain a clean and happy heart, a powerful testimony, and an effective prayer life. Here are three suggestions to help us stay clean in a dirty world:

1.  Invite God to search our hearts and reveal any conscious or unconscious sin. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23).

2.  Confess our sin in honesty and repentance. "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

3.  Accept God's forgiveness and commit, with His help, to change. "And Jesus said to her (the woman caught in adultery), "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

4. Walk in the joy that comes from a clean heart, knowing that when when we are clean, we are most like our Savior.  "And to her (the church) it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. . . . And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him (Jesus) on white horses" (Revelation 19: 8, 14).

May God richly bless you as you seek to glorify Him.

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Peter and I Have a Besetting Sin

The apostle Peter had a besetting sin.

I have one too. 

Several, in fact.

A besetting sin is by definition one that constantly assails us. It pounces upon us when we are tired, sick, or out of fellowship with the Lord. It's the default setting that kicks in when our lives and hearts are not spiritually alert and attuned to God. For Christians, it is the sin or sins that continue to dog our steps long after we've gained victory in other areas.

I struggle with two besetting sins. The first is worry. The second is selfishness. 

As I've matured in my faith, I've gained much spiritual ground as I continually battle these two enemies, but occasionally I'm surprised and disappointed when they manifest themselves in my life.

I'm comforted by the fact that the great apostle Peter struggled with a besetting sin as well. His sin was the desire for acceptance. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a sin to want to be accepted by people. It is a sin when we care so much about being accepted that we forsake what's right in order to gain it. 

You remember Peter’s failure in the early days of his Christian walk, how he feared what others thought about him so much that he denied Christ before a young servant girl. As he matured in his faith, Peter became bold and fearless, declaring his allegiance to Christ before great crowds of people including mighty religious and political leaders.

It is with surprise then, that Peter again succumbed to his besetting sin of being a people pleaser. Galatians 2 tells how Peter is enjoying the New Testament freedom of fellowshipping and eating with Gentile believers. Suddenly, he withdraws from them because he's afraid of what his fellow Jews will say. 

This is the same Peter who received the vision from God telling him to call nothing unclean that God had called clean. The same Peter who presided over the Jerusalem council, declaring boldly before quarreling believers that God had drawn no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, and that they were all equal in God’s eyes. The same Peter who ate with Cornelius, the God-fearing Gentile whose whole household had come to faith in Christ through Peter’s witness.

Peter blew it.

I don’t know what preceded Peter’s failure. Had he skipped his quiet time that day? Was he physically ill or over tired? Was he following his own agenda rather than the one God had prescribed for him? Whatever the reason, Peter slipped into default mode and responded in the flesh rather than in the spirit. As a result, he sinned against his Gentile brothers and sisters.

I blew it this week, too.

I had the opportunity to serve someone, and instead responded selfishly without thinking. Looking back, I know that if I’d had the time to think about my options, I would have made the right choice and responded unselfishly. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my first inclination. This disappoints me, because I try hard to deny myself and put others first. Despite my best efforts though, besetting sins still rear their ugly heads and damage my relationships with others.

What are we to do, then, with a besetting sin?

Romans 12:1-2 has the answer. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

1.  We should offer ourselves as a living sacrifice on the altar of God’s will every day. My prayer might sound like this—“Lord, more than anything else, I want to please you today. Help me obey you in everything I do.” I may have to remind myself of this goal several times throughout the day. The challenging part about living sacrifices, one man pointed out, is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar.

2.  We shouldn’t conform to the pattern of the world. Elisabeth Elliot once said that when seeking God’s will, “Choose the harder of the two ways. The way is hard that leads to life, Jesus said, so it is likely that He is asking us to will against our will.” Usually obedience involves submitting my will to God’s will for the greater good.

3.  We should renew our minds with God’s word. As we spend time in his word, he reveals his heart to us, and his ways become clear. He also gives us a desire to imitate him and power, through the Holy Spirit, to obey him.

Just like Peter had to live with his choice to shun the Gentile believers in Jerusalem, I can’t go back and undo my missed opportunity to serve. What I can do, however, is apply the words of Paul and, forgetting (but not failing to learn from) those things that are behind, press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. My prayer is that one day my default setting will be the same as our Lord’s.

Are you struggling with a besetting sin? Instead of giving up, I challenge you to join me in applying God’s word to our lives and watching him change us from the inside out.

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Hungry for God is on Facebook! Will you take a moment and LIKE my page? CLICK HERE to help HFG share 5-minute devotions.

You want to connect with God, but in the craziness of life, it’s just not happening. You want practical, biblical answers to situations you face every day, but you don’t have hours to pore over Scripture.

You need a resource that answers the questions you’re afraid to ask out loud. Questions like:

• Is my situation hopeless?
• If God already knows what he’s going to do, why bother to pray? 
• Why have you allowed this to happen to me? 
• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit? 

Each devotion begins with a Facetime question and ends with a biblical answer wrapped in a modern day parable. Like a spiritual power bar, Hungry for God … Starving for Time is packed with enough scriptural nutrition to get you through the day. Wherever you are—in break rooms, carpool lines, or wherever you can snatch five minutes of quiet reflection—Hungry for God … Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women is for you.


 

 

Chickens and Human Nature

In the backyard of her suburban home, my friend Mandy has four chickens.  Her husband, a talented carpenter, built them a beautiful coop and run, custom designing it for their well being.  There's a nesting box for each hen to lay her eggs.  There are several roosts, giving them ample space in which to settle for the night.  The chicken-wire run protects them from predators and shades them from the sun.

Since their arrival, Mandy has had daily opportunities to learn the nature of chickens.  Listen to her words as she describes their characteristics:

"Typically, they will stick together all day. In the morning when we let them out, they start the hunt for bugs.  Scratch and poke.  Scratch and poke.  Over and over all morning."

Chickens stay together.  Chickens hunt for bugs.  It is their nature.

"Each will wait her turn to lay in the mornings. Sometimes one will stand in the same laying box while another is laying.  Often, one will sit on top of the other until it's her turn. Patience isn't their virtue."

Chickens aren't patient.  It isn't their nature.

In the evenings, they will walk to their run, climb the plank into the coop, jump on the shared roost, and go nighty night.  No one has to tell them to do this. . . "

Chickens find a sheltered place to sleep and go there at bedtime.  It is their nature.

"Penelope is the most beautiful to look at, but has the mean streak in her.  She will attack small dogs."

Some chickens are vicious.  They attack suspected predators.  It is their nature.

Human beings have a nature too.  Contrary to what Secular Humanists would like you to think, this nature is not good.  Listen to what God's word has to say about our human nature.

 "We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.," (Ephesians 2:3)

Left to our human nature, God's word says, we do not naturally choose those things that please Him. As I think back to my life before I had a relationship with Christ, I realize that my default mode was to serve myself, not God, or anyone else for that matter.  I was on the throne of my life.

Thankfully, God does not leave us to ourselves.  Recognizing the helplessness and hopelessness of our condition, He made a way.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." (Ephesians 2:4-5)

He made a way for us to throw ourselves on his mercy, ask him to forgive our sins, and invite the living, resurrected Christ to make his home within our hearts.

"For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)

With that salvation comes a new nature.  One that is much more like Christ and much less like me.

 "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Romans 6:6)

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God."

 "Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth." 

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them."

 "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,"

"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."

"But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."

"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Colossians 3)

This is our new nature. 

It sure beats scratching in the dirt and eating bugs, now doesn't it? Are there parts of your old nature that you need to surrender to the Lord and ask him to change? Why not do so today?



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