Have you ever wondered what Jesus wrote in the dirt that day when the scribes and Pharisees brought before Him the woman caught in adultery? (John 8:3-11) The Bible tells us that they were testing Jesus. In fact, some versions say they were tricking Him to find accusations against Him. I find Jesus’ response to their tactics so interesting. He didn’t engage with a war of words; He simply stooped down and began to write something with his finger on the ground.

I can’t help but reflect on this story as I consider the war of words, the accusations, and even the trickery we are bombarded with every day. There are real issues to be solved, there are extreme opposing views on how our country should be led and should respond to crisis, and even more importantly, there is a war going on for the souls of countless men and women.

In Matthew 24, Jesus warned His disciples about deception that would be prevalent in the last days. As Christ-followers, we must be alert and aware of the tricks and tactics and allow the Holy Spirit who lives in us to provide much needed discernment for the times we are living in.

Deception often comes with partial truths. That is exactly the way that Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. He quoted Scripture when he tempted Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple! (Matthew 4:1-11)

This is the kind of deception that is so prevalent today. We hear partial truths in reporting that strikes fear and sells agendas and programing. We are bombarded with partial truths about key issues, candidates, positions, and parties that has the sole purpose of destruction and trickery to deceive many to support plans that individuals otherwise would never uphold.

What is the solution? It certainly is not simple, but if you are a Christian, you find sound instruction in the Word of God. The book of James gives some practical and spiritual advice we could all use in the days we are living through.

1. “DO NOT BE DECEIVED!” (James 1:16) Ask God to give you His discernment! Study the truth of God’s Word and you will be more likely to identify the lie when it comes deceptively. Pray that He will give you supernatural help to discern the truth from lies.

From a practical standpoint, can I suggest that you be INCREDIBLY careful with what you share, and what you use to form your opinions unless you fact check and know the full story. I have heard misinformation about critical topics that were appalling to my beliefs, only to later find out they were not factual. I do not want to participate in spreading partial truths, which are really lies!

2. “BE SWIFT TO HEAR AND SLOW TO SPEAK!” (James 1:19) Isn’t that what Jesus did when He stooped down to write on the ground? He did not avoid the situation, He did eventually respond to the accusers, but this moment in between when he quietly responds with this unusual action is so powerful to me.

As believers, we are not to be silent, but when we speak, let our words be profound all while demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit. There was a time during Jesus’ earthly ministry where He was driven to action. You can read the story in John 2:14-17 NASU

And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”

 Even though Jesus demonstrated action related to His passion for the House of God, He took time to respond appropriately. I can just envision Him sitting down and weaving together the whip that He would use to express His displeasure with their actions. He was not reacting – He was responding!

3. GUARD AGAINST PREJUDICE AND JUDGEMENT! (James 2:4) Believers cannot love their neighbors as themselves and show partiality. We are called to love the sinner but hate the sin. The fight is not with human beings it is against the powers and principalities of darkness! (Ephesians 6:12)
4. TAME YOUR TONGUE! (James 3:5-10) This passage tells us the tongue can be an unruly evil and a deadly poison. As a Child of God, we should be speaking blessings instead of curses.
5. BE PATIENT AND EXPECTANT AS YOU WAIT FOR THE RETURN OF THE LORD! (James 5:7) This last chapter of James is full of pearls of wisdom to guide us through behaviors and actions we should be focused on as we get closer and closer to the return of the Lord.
   • Don’t grumble against one another. (verse 9)
   • Use the examples of the prophets of old as they demonstrated endurance even during times of great suffering. (verse 10)
   • Pray and praise! (verse 13)

Let me close with the end of this amazing book of the Bible as interpreted by The Passion Translation:

Finally, as members of God’s beloved family, we must go after the one who wanders from the truth and bring him back. For the one who restores the sinning believer back to God from the error of his way, gives back to his soul life from the dead, and covers over countless sins by their demonstration of love! (James 5:19-20 TPT)

Isn’t this what Jesus did in the story we began with. We don’t know what He wrote on the ground, we do know that all her accusers walked away and when she was left with the one who loved her enough to see past her sin, He left her with important instructions, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

Years ago, I walked into an Adult Bible Fellowship class with a box of pennies. After passing them out to all who were present, I asked what this coin represented to each of them. I received some interesting responses but did not get the one I was searching for.

As you look at the above photo of a penny, what does it represent to you? The answer I am searching for today is ONE. This is a word that seems to have lost its value. There are so many voices and so many choices, so many distractions and so many priorities, that focusing on just one thing seems impossible. Yet David, who is credited for being a man after God’s heart, penned this important truth.

The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. (Psalm 27:4-5 NLT)

This passage provides us with sound instruction for the unprecedented times we are currently living in. When we seek the ONE true God first, our priorities can come into alignment, and His voice can resonate above all the noise.

While I do not believe God sent the current crisis our world is facing, I do believe He is using it to help us remember the power of one. The importance of His voice and instruction over all other. The significance of making Him our number one priority.

We are unable to possibly decipher the many conflicting reports, agendas, and opinions we are bombarded with each day. Many of our former priorities that competed for our time with God are no longer existent. Could it be that God is reminding us to seek Him first? Is He asking us to make Him number one yet again? In our seeking we can find many benefits.

First, we can access the promise of the second part of the Scripture above. It doesn’t say, “If trouble comes”, it says, “When trouble comes”, we can be hidden in the secret place of the Most High. As a Christian, I am not promised a life with no storms. I am promised that I can be sheltered, and that God will never leave me or forsake me. I can have the assurance that He will calm the storm, or He will cross through it with me to the other side.

Secondly, if we the Body of Christ could all be focused on one thing and one voice, we could see a spirit of unity prevail as it did in the New Testament Church. This group of believers were known for having one heart, one mind, and operating in one accord. They turned their world upside down!

What if the Body of Christ could do that today? What would happen if collectively we all could unite with His agenda, focused on His priorities instead of our own? Now is the time for today’s Church to arise, with a spirit of unity, in one accord, asking our one true God to have mercy on the United States of America and restore her to be “One Nation Under God” once again.

I do not believe God is finished with His church on this earth; I believe her best days are in front of us if we can remember the value of one. We are given the key right there on the face of the coin, “In God We Trust”!

When the road of life leads us into difficult seasons, it is easy to be tempted to go back to the place that was more comfortable. When we decide to swing for the fence, take the big risk, only to strike out, it is tempting to stick with the status quo. Let’s face it, risk can hurt and leave you horribly disappointed. Change can be unsettling, and stretch us beyond our comfort zone. At the same time, we have heard it said that if you always do what you have always done, you will always have what you have always had.

This makes me think about the Children of Israel. They were held captive to serve as slaves to the Egyptians, yet they were God’s chosen people living so far below their destiny. God raised up Moses, who would lead them out of their captivity and toward their promise. With the Red Sea behind them and their enemy destroyed, they found themselves in the wilderness, in a difficult season wishing to go back to slavery.

For many, the familiar, even if it is slavery, is better than the unknown is. This mentality limits progress and traps us in a place of mediocrity and in some cases misery. Some of the Israelites died in the wilderness and never saw the land they were destined to inherit. They were out of Egypt, but Egypt was not out of them. They could not seem to stop looking back.

We read a different story of a man who was not afraid to head into the unknown. Elijah, one of the greatest prophets of all time, was directed by God to anoint Elisha to succeed him.

Elijah went straight out and found Elisha son of Shaphat in a field where there were twelve pairs of yoked oxen at work plowing; Elisha was in charge of the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak over him. 20 Elisha deserted the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please! Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye — then I’ll follow you.” “Go ahead,” said Elijah, “but, mind you, don’t forget what I’ve just done to you.” 21 So Elisha left; he took his yoke of oxen and butchered them. He made a fire with the plow and tackle and then boiled the meat — a true farewell meal for the family. Then he left and followed Elijah, becoming his right-hand man. (1 Kings 19:19-21 The Message Bible)

Elisha had a very different response than many of the Children of Israel did. He was so determined to avoid being tempted to look back, that he burned his equipment and sacrificed his oxen! He had nothing to go back for.

What encouragement for us today. We can grow and learn from our past, but if we want to move forward, we cannot be tempted to look back. Albert Einstein defined insanity, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Make a decision today to swing for the fence, take the risk, head toward the unknown, and become everything God has called you to be. Don’t give in to the temptation to look back to your old ways, your old life, or your past disappointments and mistakes. The Bible tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV)

How do we stay in faith in all the different seasons or cycles of life? I thought a practical way to consider this question is to use the analogy of laundry cycles.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly enjoy doing laundry, but the alternative is worse, which would be wearing dirty stinky clothing, or stepping out of the shower to a sour smelling towel.

Jesus said this to the disciples in John 16:33 NLT:

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

With this strange analogy, we could say that just as in this world, we will have trials and sorrows; in this world, we will have dirty laundry.

Just as there are cycles in life, there are cycles to doing laundry. We live in a world of changes, and sometimes these changes seem to go to extremes, from one end of the spectrum all the way to the other.

• • In Missouri where I live, we typically enjoy four seasons of the year. There are changes that come with each of those seasons.
  • In the natural sense, we have
    • Day time and night time
    • Rainy days and sunny days
    • We celebrate the birth of a new baby and mourn the loss when another dies

Perhaps you are familiar with the most quoted passage of the Bible about this subject of seasons. You can read it in Ecclesiastes 3. This chapter describes the seasons we face in this life. As we cycle through these times of extremes, there is a place to stand in full confidence that you are never alone and God is on your side.

Some of the cycles are an act of God; some relate to the will of man. I also believe some are strategies from our enemy, who as we know is out to kill steal and destroy. That chapter tells us that everything under heaven is changeable, however, we can adapt to this because if we are a Christian, we serve an unchanging God.

Even though we find ourselves in different cycles of life, we do not have to cycle from faith to fear or faith to doubt.

THE WASH CYCLE

Using our analogy, let us consider the first cycle we typically start with, the wash cycle. I want you to try to go inside that wash machine in your mind and think about this cycle, it isn’t just water dumping in on top of you; there is agitation!

If we consider Joseph’s life in Scripture, he is a great example of someone who endured some agitating cycles in life. His brothers wanted to kill him by throwing him into a pit, but then decided to make a profit instead by selling him into slavery. He came out of that difficult season into one of blessing where he is elevated to leadership because of the favor of the Lord that was on his life.

Then later, after a false accusation by his Master’s wife, he found himself thrown into prison for a crime he didn’t commit! He still had the favor of the Lord on his life, which enabled him to interpret dreams. The use of this gift provided a way of escape from the prison and elevated him to a position as an overseer for the whole land of Egypt.

Sometimes the unpleasant cycles in life  complete a work that otherwise could not be accomplished. We see this in the life of Joseph. God used the cycles of agitation to create something clean and wholesome in Joseph that prepared him for the work He had for him to do. In the end, Joseph acknowledged that it was God, not his siblings, who sent him ahead to Egypt (Genesis 45:5: 7-8).

Another example of this cycle is how a pearl forms. It starts with a foreign object like a parasite or a piece of shell that accidentally lodges itself in an oyster’s soft inner body. It causes agitation and irritation to the oyster, but the result is that the oyster excretes a smooth hard crystalline substance around the irritant to protect itself. Over time, this coating creates a lovely and lustrous gem called a pearl.

THE SPIN CYCLE

The second typical cycle of laundry is the spin cycle. Have you ever felt like your world is spinning out of control? Just like agitation, if I am facing the spin cycle I want to find the good in the situation. Spinning can create an opportunity to stir some things up in us.

I love the way the Passion Translation reads James 1:2-3:

² My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! ³ For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things.

How many of us feel power stirred up within us when we are faced with difficulty? If we are honest, we may say sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

I equate this concept to my analogy by comparing it to a big cover I put in my washing machine. After starting that cycle, I go on about my business and when it hits the spin cycle I start hearing this awful clunking sound. When I go in there and pause the cycle, I discover that the cover has gotten OUT OF BALANCE!

What I am saying is the spin cycle has the opportunity to stir up the power that is in you through Christ Jesus to endure all things, or the spinning can create an “OUT OF BALANCE” situation in your life.

I personally believe that how we respond to the spinning is what determines the difference? The devil likes to use the spin cycle of life to get you out of balance! That is why we are encouraged in 1 Peter 5:8 to be well balanced, because our enemy is looking for every opportunity to devour us!

Let me share a tip for keeping your balance during the spin cycle of life. We can learn this from figure skaters or professional dancers, who spin at unbelievable speeds, yet never lose their balance. They employ a technique called “Spotting”, where they keep their body moving at a constant speed but fix their gaze on one spot. These professionals have to train to overcome the response our eyes have to this kind of movement.

When you are in the spin cycle of life, the key is to fix your gaze on God, who is the author and finisher of our faith! This does not come naturally, you have to train yourself to focus on God and not the problems.

THE RINSE CYCLE

The next typical cycle of laundry is the rinse cycle. It is during this cycle that many add fabric softener. I personally like the way adding Downey to my rinse cycle makes my clothes feel and smell, but I really hate how messy it can be. The compartment used for this purpose often becomes all gummed up and difficult to clean. Some people may have the attitude that the benefit just isn’t worth the effort.

When you come out of the agitation and then the spin cycle, you have an opportunity to become bitter or better. I believe the latter is the correct choice. The key to this cycle is to allow life’s difficulties to soften us, not harden us! This can be a challenging goal to achieve but I believe the solution comes through an optional cycle that I have not mentioned yet.

PRETREAT AND SOAK

Before you go into the wash cycle with agitation, even before you go through the spinning, and before you go through the softening…..you can pretreat and soak.

I personally like to pretreat with a product called “Shout”! This is true in my spiritual life too! Before I face the cycles of life, I make a habit of spending quality devotional time with the Lord, shouting His praises, and soaking in His presence. It is in this discipline that I quickly remember that I am never alone in any season. He is with me in the good times and in the bad. My God is bigger than any cycle I will face and He cares about the things we endure, and He can use all things for good.

I hope my laundry analogy has caused you to see a difficult season of life from a different perspective. Try to always remember that it is in your shout and your praise, it is in your intimacy with your God that you are enabled to not only survive the cycles of life, but thrive in them and develop the character and endurance that is needed to walk out the destiny that God has for you!

[RB1]

Welcome to the part two of my blog post. Earlier this month, I published part one called, “Defense”. I shared of my experience earlier in life as a High School volleyball coach, and things to consider about offense and defense in an athletic competition. I used this concept to drive a spiritual point that I feel benefits all of us. Let me remind you of a couple key points.

When we think about one team being on offense and the other being on defense during a given portion of a competition, we could think about many concepts, but the one I want us to focus on is opposing forces with the end goal of winning.

Unfortunately, if feels that we are constantly surrounded by division. We find it in politics, in the workplace, in homes and families, and even in the church. This type of opposing forces can come with a greater price than just the loss of an athletic competition. With a variety of opinions comes an opportunity for us to become offended or defensive. While a strong offensive and defensive strategy may be critical to win in sports, allowing a spirit of offense or becoming overly defensive could cause you to lose big in your natural and spiritual life.

Since these two issues can take such a toll on our love walk and our peace, I divided this topic into two parts. If you missed the first part, you can scroll down on the web site to read it at secretplacerevelation.com. Today, I want to continue the topic by looking at the offensive side.

In our humanness, we have opportunities every day to offend others or to become offended by someone’s actions or words. Many times those situations are totally unintentional and misunderstood. I can certainly say that there have been times I have been sharing a heartfelt message, only to listen back and hear that my word choices didn’t portray the message I intended to share at all.

There are times of misunderstanding because of the perceptions of the hearers and unfair expectations of others. Adding more complication, we live in a world with countless electronic communication methods, where our written and voice messages, or even lack of response to a message, can be interpreted in many ways.

While some situations that could cause offense are very innocent, we must also face the reality that many truly are cruel. I have often said that hurt people hurt people. When we are suffering physically, spiritually, or emotionally, our actions and words may become offensive.

Regardless of the intent of another person’s actions or words, we personally have a choice whether to pick up an offense or let it go. I like to think about it like picking up rocks. I grew up in the country, and as a young girl, I played outside much of the time. I remember picking up rocks for my dad to clear for mowing or even to use to build the outline of a pretend house. I would use my shirt to gather all of these rocks, stretching the fronts and staining them as I added more and more rocks to take back to my place of building.

If you pictured every offense you are currently carrying as a rock, how heavy is your load? The reality is simple; offense hurts the one receiving it much more than the one who caused it, whether intentional or not.

I believe we are to choose to try to see the best in others. I am thankful that so many have done that for me when I have unintentionally caused pain. I also believe it is important to forgive even when the offense was intentional. Let’s face it, we all make mistakes at times. This passage from the Bible makes this clear.

“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” Colossians 3:12-15 NLT

When we feel the sting of the hurt others have caused us, this passage can be challenging to follow. When the offense feels too big to forgive, just remember that Jesus is our perfect example. He was innocent, no one could find any fault in him, yet he endured such inhuman treatment when he was beaten and sent to the cross. He bore every hurt we could imagine, and he sees and understands your pain. When you are willing to let it go, he will help heal those wounds.

I am not understating the “offense” you may have endured; I am suggesting that you have a choice to make in what you do with it. You can react to it, by holding on to it and becoming bitter or you can do better by responding with love and forgiveness.

Will you lay down your rocks? Will you choose bitter or better? One of the wisest writers of Scripture said, “Love makes up for all offenses” (Proverbs 10:12b NLT). With God’s help, I prefer to throw down my rocks and choose love instead. I hope you will too!