This spring has been an incredible one for me. We had a very wet first two months of the year, so by the end of February, beginning of March, the wildflowers were exploding everywhere you look. I have never seen such beauty in my life, it was like living in a Monet painting. I spent many hours driving during this season - just my usual trips to Houston and Dallas this time of year. What a privilege to take in the sights I saw. On one trip I realized with a gasp how Texas has really become my home. Over the past five years, I have fallen in love with it. This really startles me, because Iowa has always been my first love. I always thought if given the chance, I would go back in a heartbeat. But now I know the pure joy of being in God's best for my life. I will always love Iowa, it will always be where I am from and I will represent my state with brazen pride among a sea of Texans - but now Texas is my home. I love the life we have here and I embrace it fully. Just thought you should know. :)

Spiritual Healing

Weeds

Sometimes I like to randomly post on Facebook a true confession. It’s just a weird little quirk of mine, I think it dates back to my childhood in the catholic church.  Here are a few of my recent true confessions:

“confession time: I just hit the 'buy' button on grey shellac nail polish to go with my Easter outfit.”

“True Confessions; I've had "I Love You Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez in my head all evening. Sometimes I'm such a teenage girl!”

Tonight I want to make a confession to you guys, but you have to promise not to hold it against me. I got married at 18 for a reason. Not the reason you are thinking of. I got married to change my maiden name. It was pretty much the worst last name you could think of. My last name was “Klapp”. Which, if you didn’t know it, was the street name for gonorrhea.

My poor dad taught high school biology for years. One day one of his students raised his hand in front of the whole class and asked him..

“Mr. Klapp, are you a disease?”

The reality is that we all have a disease. It’s an incurable disease; doctors have no antidote. It’s highly contagious, in fact everyone has it to some degree, there’s no vaccine. As this disease progresses, it will eventually annihilate your system. This disease always ends in death. Some die quickly, others take years.

You are probably looking around the room thinking, “I don’t feel like I’m sick. My friends don’t look sick!”

We are all suffering from a disease called sin. Sadly a lot of people don’t even realize they are infected, but regardless of your understanding, the wages of sin are death. That’s a Biblical fact. Life lived apart from God equals death apart from God. Death apart from God equals hell.

This disease, Sin, destroys our relationship with God. Isaiah 1:15 paints this picture for us. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you, even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; Wash and make yourself clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!”

This verse tells us very clearly that sin in our lives will cause God to turn away from our prayers. Hopefully you have all made the choice to accept Christ as your savior. A miraculous thing happened in your life the moment you did. As we read on in Isaiah, we can see what Christ did for us with this sin issue.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Isaiah 1:18

God is a reasonable God. He did not want to condemn and destroy His people. In His perfection, in His love for us, Jesus covered our sins. He was the blood atonement – the only cure for our sin problem. We were spiritually diseased and dying, but Jesus made a way to restore us, to heal us spiritually.

When we accept Jesus and His restorative work in our lives, we are made new, whole again. We’ve experienced spiritual healing, God sees us as He sees Jesus; sanctified. Sanctified is another $10,000 Bible word - it means made holy. Sanctification is the process of being made holy.

Sanctification is an incredible miracle especially because it works in three ways; past present and future.

Sanctification works in the past because it covers what you already have done. When you accept Christ, you are instantly sanctified, meaning if you died in that moment, you are seen as perfect and sinless, because Christ’s blood covers you. All your old stuff (skeletons in the closet) is covered by Christ’s sacrifice. You have been sanctified.

Sanctification is also present tense, meaning it’s happening right now. You and I are being sanctified. It is a daily process. Each day we make choices towards or against Christ. We choose to swim upstream (towards God) or float downstream (away from Him) every day. When we choose God, when we make an effort to grow in our relationship, we are becoming more like Him. We are being sanctified. You will never ‘arrive’ at sanctification in your own strength. But that brings us to the last stage of sanctification, the future stage; you will be sanctified.

One day you will pass away or be raptured. I will too, it’s kind of a bummer if you are super attached to this life. But as Christians, we know that this life is just the preface in a really good book. Our real future is with Jesus in heaven. So that day, when you will die or be raptured and stand before God. He will look at you and see Jesus. In that moment, you will be sanctified, made perfectly holy before God. (I am really looking forward to that moment because I am generally a mess!) You will be sanctified – future tense.

So we will be sanctified. What do we do in the meantime, now that we know that we have received this spiritual healing from Jesus? How does that change our today?

Let’s concentrate on that ‘present’ stage of sanctification, since that’s where most of us are at in our walk with Him. How do we live holy lives in a fallen, sinful world?

Isaiah tells us that God wants us to repent, to put aside evil, to strive to do what is right and obey His word. The sad truth is, when we cling own rebellious ways, we will be destroyed.

Leviticus 19:2 tells us “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” This is a pretty high standard, right? Have you achieved holiness yet? I certainly have not.

We can only be holy when we depend on God to make us holy. Further on in the book of Leviticus God promises multiple times to make us holy. The thing is that we need to surrender to the process.

We started this message with true confessions. I have another one for you.

I’ve had a rough week. I’ve been stressed out this week. Things have just been coming at me really fast, I have a lot of important deadlines and a lot of people counting on me. Can anyone relate?

I’ve shared before that worry and anxiety are pet sins of mine.. Meaning sins that I pick back up frequently and easily, comfort sins if you will. We all have pet sins. For some of you it’s eating, or pornography, or cutting, or anger. Anxiety is my sin of choice.

So on Monday morning my quiet time was about weeds of sin in our hearts and allowing the Father to pull them. I was very discouraged while reading it, asking God, “Why are we pulling these same weeds? My particularly stubborn weeds of anxiety, fear, and self-reliance. I have struggled with this sin for decades now, when will I be free of it?”

And then Holy Spirit reminded me that a prize garden needs to be weeded daily. The thing about weeds is that they are prolific; they grow quickly and spread rapidly. We need to daily allow the Master Gardener to come in to our heart and pull weeds. It can be an uncomfortable process, especially the larger we’ve allowed the weeds to grow, the deeper the root system is. If the Gardener hasn’t been allowed in the garden in a while, imagine how overgrown it would be? What a process to right the situation!!

The truth is that you and I cannot successfully navigate righteousness on our own. We need the daily tending of the Gardener, of God. We must allow Him to till our hearts each day to keep us on the right track. And yes, you will get tired of the same weeds growing back again, but picture His patience and faithfulness as He tends to your heart each day. The more attune to His weeding you are, the quicker you will spot those new weeds, and even temptations as they begin to take root.

We join together with God in the process of present sanctification. We can’t do it on our own, but we work with God by allowing Him daily access to our hearts. And through that time, He performs spiritual healing, making us more like Him day by day.

Tonight it’s time to identify weeds in your heart. Figure out what sins have a tendency to overgrow and crowd your life. For me it’s anxiety and fear and worry. For you it might be lust or greed or coveting (wanting what someone else has). It might be dishonesty or stealing. It might be low-self worth, that you don’t value what God has created in you. You might be considering suicide or self harm.  It might be that you have disrespect towards authority. It might be independence, to the point that you can’t see your need for God. It might be that you struggle with anger and defiance.

We all have an inborn tendency towards sin. And I personally believe that each of us has a particular sin or group of sins that we gravitate towards – a bent. I don’t want you to leave this place without identifying that sin.

We are going to take two minutes of quiet here to ask God to reveal in your heart what your particular weeds are. If you already know, begin praying about how to start the process up pulling up those weeds.

[two minute of silence]

Now that you know your area of weakness, I want to spend two minutes seeking God about that area of your life. Ask Him to uproot the sin that threatens to overtake your heart. Commit to surrendering yourself to daily weeding. Pray hard, like your life depends on it, because those pet sins are the most likely to destroy you.

[two minutes of prayer]

Emotional Healing

Everybody Hurts

When I was about your age, I was running around an old lot, playing with my friends. We did that back then, we weren’t concerned with safety and stranger danger back in the eighties. Anyway, I was wearing the canvas sneakers that are popular again now. Back then we called them boat shoes. They are great shoes, really cheap, can get thrown in the wash, just super easy to wear. Also, it turns out, pretty flimsy. See, I ran right over a board that happened to have a huge old nail in it. It happened so fast that as I lifted my foot for the next step, the board was still stuck to my foot. I had to stop, and pull the board off, the nail out of my tennis-shoed foot. I remember being really tough, not crying, even though it really hurt. The thing is, that everybody hurts.

Sometimes we physically hurt, like a nail through the foot. Other times we hurt deep on the inside, in our heart or in our minds. Tonight, I want to tell you a story about a man who was hurting.

Luke 8:26-35

 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,^[a] which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

This guy was a box of crazy. He was so broken, so lost, so hurting that he was naked, hanging out in a cemetery. Imagine how miserable his life was, that naked in a graveyard was his only option left.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!”

When we encounter Jesus, we recognize His glory. Even this guy, who had lost his mind, understood the presence of Jesus. No one is beyond the hope of Jesus. There is no ‘too far’ in the Kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or how badly you’ve blown it, there is still forgiveness available to you.

This guy cried out “what do You want with me?” People still cry that today when they meet Jesus. When we realize His presence, His love, we come to a place of awareness and surrender, where we are willing to give everything up to follow Jesus. The awesome thing is that all Jesus really wants is for us to follow Him.

 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.  

Our sins and our brokenness put us in chains. Sometimes the hurts of others have put these chains on us. Words can shove us into a dark place. The thing is that we are incapable of escaping this pit on our own. Just like this man in the book of Luke, he was unable to help himself, it’s the same for us. We are trapped by our own despair. This man’s emotional state and demon possession drove him to solitary places – meaning drove him away from people, out to the places where no one wanted to be. Seriously, how much time have you spent in a cemetery? If you’ve been to one, it was likely for a funeral and I imagine you got out of there as quick as you could. This man was living there, with death everywhere around him. That’s enough to keep anyone insane, right?

Satan used his demons to drive this man to the cemetery, to live among the dead. This is a tactic that Satan still uses today. When Satan controls our life, he drives us to solitary places. He wants to keep you down and out, away from the Light and Truth of Jesus.

Back to our Bible story..

Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”   “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him.

Do you think this guy started out with many demons? Or do you think he maybe slipped into demon possession, one sin, one lousy choice at a time? No one wakes up one day and thinks “I’m going to give myself over to demon possession today.” Instead they make lousy choices, choosing themselves and what feels good over and over.

I have a friend that is Christian now, in fact he is an ordained AG minister who’s life was radically transformed by Jesus. But not too many years ago he was a drug dealer. He was sharing his testimony with me and it was surprising. Guess how long it took from his first smoke of marijuana to actually being a drug dealer? Three months.

Sin consumes and the rate is always greater than you anticipate – meaning sin will always take you further than you want to go quicker than you want to get there. Sin will always cost more than you want to pay. Sin opens the door for demon possession, and sin always steals your emotional health.

I have quite a few friends that are big fat sinners, I mean, I love them, but they are living for themselves; drunk or using, sleeping around, partying and all of that life. They would tell me that Christianity is a bunch of rules and they want to live in ‘freedom’. When I look at my life and try to measure my joy, compared to their lives, which are absolute misery, there is no question in my mind as to who is really living in freedom.

When we submit to Jesus, we experience radical, soul-thrilling freedom. Let me continue with our scripture.

 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.  A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission.  When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 

Jesus sets us free dramatically. He destroys the demons that possess us. He releases us from the captivity of Satan. It’s like that song “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free..”

 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside,  and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind;

When we released from Satan’s hold, not only are we set free, but we experience wholeness again. This man was restored. He was made new and right again. There was an outward change in his appearance and his behavior. The people around him took notice.

and they were afraid.

Why were they afraid? Perhaps the people got a glimpse of Jesus’ power. Perhaps they got a glimpse of who He truly was. Perhaps they realized that if this man was healed, dressed and in his right mind, that everything else that Jesus had said was true. That is a pretty scary thought if you are living far from loving God. A real encounter with Jesus demands a verdict. When we experience His presence we have to do something with that information. For most of us, we have to give some things up in order to live for Him.

So tonight is a decision point for you. What is the verdict going to be? Are you going to believe in Jesus and receive His miracle of emotional healing and salvation? Or are you going to leave afraid and stunned by what you have heard.

Each of us has hurts that only a touch from Jesus can heal. But the good news is that it only takes a few moments in His presence to receive His life changing touch. With every eye closed, I’d like for you to raise your hand if you, too, need an emotional healing. There is a hurt in your life, a wound in your heart. It may be mean words spoken over you, a parent that has not believed in you, a friend that betrayed you. You may feel like your own emotions betray you, that you can’t get it together on your own. Tonight you can receive healing that only Jesus can provide.

[pray for students with raised hands]

The last part of this text captures Jesus’ instructions to this man who experienced His healing touch. He says “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”

If you have experienced Jesus’ healing touch in your life. If you’ve had an encounter with him this evening. If He has set you free. Go home, and tell what God has done for you! This miracle happened before the cross, before the resurrection, before the great commission, but we can see from it that God’s heart has always been that we share our faith with others. Go and tell!

Physcial Healing

(last night's message - the major points were highlighted in the Fire Bible, I've expounded on them)

I came across the story of a little boy named Grayson this week. He’s 4. He’s actually the son of the DYD in Oklahoma. He has stage four neuroblastoma cancer and has for a while. His family has been blogging about their journey with this disease. I read four entries and was blinking back tears. Grayson’s cancer has become increasingly aggressive despite chemotherapy and he is out of options. All they can do is try to keep him comfortable and pray for healing. Grayson is dying. I can’t imagine the pain and questioning that little Grayson’s family is experiencing right now.

Sickness and death are directly related to our sin problem. Sickness and death entered the world through the Fall. Sickness and death are consequences of humankind’s initial disobedience and defiance towards God.  Disobedience separated Adam and Eve from God and His perfect plans. This single act of disobedience opened the world to sin and brought trouble and suffering

Since the fall though, God has been our healer. Throughout the Old Testament, God healed. 
Psalm 103 tells us this.

Praise the LORD, my soul;

 all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

  Praise the LORD, my soul,

 
 and forget not all his benefits — 

 who forgives all your sins

 
   and heals all your diseases, 
who redeems your life from the pit

 
   and crowns you with love and compassion,

 
who satisfies your desires with good things 
  

 so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Isaiah 53:5 promises a savior who is coming, granting increased access to healing through His suffering.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

   he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

   and by his wounds we are healed.

Jesus did exactly that. Jesus was in the healing business.
 He performed so many signs and wonders that they couldn’t even all been recorded in the Bible! 
The Word tells us this in the last verse of John; (21:25)

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down,
 I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Here’s the thing. If Jesus did miracles then, He still does today.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8 NIV84)

 He still heals!

So now we know we are promised physical healing in Christ Jesus. How do we put feet to that?

1.) Be sure you are in right relationship with God and others. Allowing sin to fester in your life infects your relationships. Sin needs to be removed. If you are struggling with repeat offender sin, find someone you respect and ask them to hold you accountable. Having sin in your life your life while seeking healing is like a lung cancer patient smoking during his chemo treatments. Your own choices are holding your back from receiving God’s best for you.

2.) Pursue a deeper relationship with God through consistent time of prayer, worship and Bible study. I’m going to warn you though, this is dangerous. The more time you spend with God, the more time you want to spend with God. Seeking God is going to heal so much more than your body, it will heal your soul.

3.) Saturate your life with God’s Word. Soak up His promises. (a sponge filled with water) If you are ‘super saturated’ with the Word of God, what will happen when you get bumped? God’s Word will pour out of you. Meditating on His promises all day long reminds you of His truth when the world lies to you.

Scripture memorization is extremely challenging for me, but not for my son. So Eli and I have been memorizing scripture this week. He’s helping me grow in this area and it’s working! But the thing is, it is WORK. But it’s work worth doing.

4.) Trust God, even if you haven’t received your healing. You will grow in Him during the trial. When I lost my babies eight years ago, that was the longest darkest test of my life. It felt like God literally removed His Spirit from me. I distinctly remember making the decision to worship Him, acknowledging that His holiness was not dependant on my happiness.

5.) Ask your church leaders to pray, anoint you with oil as a symbol of the presence and power of God’s spirit in your life.

James 5:14

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

Come forward for prayer after service on Sunday morning or Wednesday night. I keep a bottle of anointing oil in my purse, we’ll use it! Also ask friends and family to pray for you. We have a shift Prayer Requests pages. Get on there, use it. Ask for prayer for yourself, but pray for others as well.

6.) Expect a miracle. Trust Jesus’ power, He is able to do anything. (Matthew 19:26 – He’s a God of the impossible) If you are doing the first five things I listed, you can trust that God is going do a miracle. Remember that phrase from the Wedding at Canaan miracle – obedient servants can expect a miracle. When we serve God faithfully, we can trust His miraculous provision!

7.) Rejoice in your relationship with God, whether healing comes right away or not. Even when you’re hurting, God is still God. He’s still good, He’s still sovereign, He’s still saved you, He still works all things together for the good of those who serve Him. Which leads me into my next point.

8.) Know that God is sovereign. Sovereign meaning He has supreme authority and power. Meaning, He’s got this. Praying without an apparent answer does not mean that God has denied your request. His method and timing are not often what we expect, but that’s because His ways are higher than our ways. Here’s the thing that I personally have discovered about God, and millions of Christians who have walked before me have discovered the same thing. You can trust God. The sooner you decide this matter in your heart, the easier it will be to surrender to His will and His sovereignty.

It’s like a tapestry. We don’t use tapestries a lot anymore, but they used to be an expression of art about a particular time period, usually telling a story or depicting and memorializing a particular event. An incredible amount of time, planning and effort went into making a tapestry. Here’s the thing, to a thread being used in the process, the tapestry looks like a mess. It’s just weaving in and around other threads, tied up in knots, seemingly with no purpose or forethought. And even the backside of the tapestry, what a tremendous mess it is! But when the tapestry is finished and you can see the final product, what a work of love and patience – a beautiful creation that only a master artist could produce.

Maybe tapestries are an outdated reference. Maybe an easier modern day example is that it’s like an epic movie – like Titanic or Lord of the Rings. Well in a movie, each prop is carefully chosen, each part cast, each lightbulb put in place, the sound affects selected, the script written and rewritten. And then of course, there’s the editing process. Pastor Rob and I only edit tiny short films – five minutes or less, and it still can take hours. Even just editing the puppet skit, adding all the music and sound affects and cutting the awkward pauses – here’s a screen shot of iMovie – it’s an involved process.

Our lives are a tiny element in this epic movie of life. We see only the teensiest snippet and wonder why it doesn’t go our way. But the reality is that God is working it all together for the good of His Kingdom, He’s the director and the producer. Remember that this world isn’t our final destination. I strongly feel that if we could have a conversation with Stephen or Paul or Peter now they would tell us that every trial, every suffering, every hardship they endured pales in comparison to the joy of being with the King. I think this because of verses Paul penned like the following.

2 Corinthians 4:17

 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Fix is an awesome word here. In my quiet time this morning it said to fix your eyes is to hold a focal point  - much like a dancer spinning circles. They must keep a point of focus or we will be dizzy and confused by the world. We fix our eyes on Jesus to keep our steps sure-footed.

So we know that Jesus is our healer. In fact, I would go so far to say He always heals. Even if little Grayson, dies, he still receives his healing. We can be healed temporarily in this body, but we will be healed permanently in the next.

2 Corinthians 5:1 promises us this; For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Grayson will receive a healing, one way or the other. I know in this place there are people in need of a healing, and it’s ok to pray for that and I want you to feel free to linger after we close in prayer for your personal healing. But sometimes it’s a good thing if we let go of our own need and pray for someone else’s need. It’s called intercession, Tonight I feel led to stop focusing our own needs and instead pray for this little boy, Grayson. Remember he has stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer. He needs a touch from Jesus in a very real way. His family needs God’s peace and comfort. Will you join me in praying for him?

Ladies Article Contribution

(for the April/May 2012 edition of ct|woman)

Music moves us, doesn’t it? Music speaks more than words, it communicates feelings from the very deepest level of our being. Music can trigger a memory, or commemorate an occasion. I think we can all agree that music is powerful.

The thing about power is that it can be used for good or for evil. As much as God can use a worship song to stir a heart and convict a soul; Satan can use music to darken the mind and confuse the soul. Unfortunately, I speak from personal experiences during my own teenage rebellion. Music is a powerful force in your student’s life. Parents, I urge you to be informed and involved in their music choices.

So is there a list of ‘approved’ music choices for your student? Not at all. Am I saying that they can only enjoy Christian music? I wouldn’t go that far. Pastor Rob and I encourage students to be aware of what it is they thinking about when they listen to a particular song. If they are thinking pure thoughts about right things (peace, joy, love, self-control) then feel free to listen to it. On the other hand, if they are focusing on sinful things (lust, hate, self-destruction) while listening to a song then it needs to be deleted from their playlist.

Parents, get involved in what your student is listening to. This is going to take time and effort. It likely won’t be your taste in music, but it is important to know what they are putting in their mind. And who knows, your tastes may grow. There are some incredible and anointed Christian musicians singing new songs that you may very well fall in love with! New music can bring new life and growth to your soul.

Starting when I was about sixteen, my mother listened to my music. She had four children and on our frequent road trips, she let the kids take turns choosing the next cassette tape. (dated myself there, didn’t I?) As a grown adult I still send her cd’s of my new favorites – “Grandma Jams” is what we call them. She says she wants to stay current with music happenings. Now that I am a mom, I know her real motivation is a heart status update on her baby girl.

Music can be an incredible connecting point for you and your student. My children and I rock out in the car with the top down on a regular basis. We also blast the iPod in the kitchen while making dinner and setting the table or even during breakfast as we prepare for the day. Love is always the central motivation for these times together.

Your student is always listening to music. Love gets involved. Pull the earbuds and plug their iPod in to the car stereo. Start listening with them and let love lead the way.

“Sing a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” Psalm 96:1

Happy Easter!

We have had such a beautiful day together! Service was wonderful this morning. Pastor did a great job preaching, the music was terrific, and Jaci and I did a skit that was a lot of fun! A couple weeks ago I had pulled together some clothes to coordinate for Easter, and we had a couple photos taken this morning.

When we got home we did our traditional Hot And Cold hunt for the Easter baskets, the kids really enjoyed it. The Muppets movie was one of their gifts and now we are all curled up watching it. In a little bit we'll head out for dinner at Carraba's - dinner out on Easter is a tradition we started last year. It's nice after such a full day to let someone else serve us. :)