Last night while reading Broken-Down House by Paul D. Tripp I had to admit that I fail miserably at what he as "Cruciform Love" (the love we give other that shapes itself, molds itself to resemble in some essential way what took place at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.). It is a willing self-sacrifice for the redemptive good of another. He gives the following practical terms to suggest what it means to be committed to being an instrument of cross-shaped love:

1. Not keeping yourself so busy with you and yours that you have no practical time to love others.
2. Being committed to knowing people, because you can minister only in very limited ways to those whom you do not know.
3. Being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of others.
4. Being willing to share your physical resources with others.
5. Being willing to live with an open home.
6. Being perseverant and patient even when the love you give is not returned.
7. Actively looking for places where you can function as one of God's tools of love.
8. Resisting the temptation to be judgmental, self-righteous, and critical.
9. Overlooking minor offenses and fighting the temptation to become bitter or cynical.
10. Making life decisions out of a recognition of this inescapable call to love.
11. Being lovingly and humbly honest in moments of misunderstanding; more committed to reconciliation than to being right.
12. Admitting that you are still learning to love as you have been loved.
13. Being willing to own up to your sin and admit your faults.
14. Not judging the success of your life by the size of your house or bank account, or by the quality of your car, but the the quality of your love for God and others.
15. Regularly examining the motivations, desires, and thoughts of your heart in the mirror of God's Word.
16. Moving beyond simply surrounding yourself with people whom you find comfortable and likeable.
17. Being a student of God's Word, a joyful participant in the means of grace, and a committed participant in the fellowship of the body of Christ, so that the love you offer others may be increasingly pure and mature.
18. Being willing to be misunderstood, mistreated, and misrepresented for the sake of incarnating Christ's love.
19. Overcoming evil with good.
20. Not letting race, social class, gender, age, or ethnicity get in the way of a biblical call to Christlike love.
21. Willing to have your schedule and plans interrupted or altered.
22. Willing to grant and seek forgiveness.
23. Paying attention to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people God puts in your path, and looking for ways to help them bear these burdens.
24. Believing that God will not call you to a task without giving you what you need to accomplish it.
25. Willing to get up earlier and stay up later.
26. Learning the details about someone's struggle so that you love wisely, while at the same time guarding the reputation of the person you are loving.
27. Weeping with the one who weeps and rejoicing with the one who rejoices.
28. Willing to endure tense and uncomfortable situations lovingly.
29. Not allowing yourself plausible excuses that seemingly free your from love's call.
30. Making a commitment to being a faithful friend.
31. Willing to take on big things, even as you humbly admit your limits.
32. Keeping your promises and being faithful to your word.
33. Being open to correction, loving criticism, and godly rebuke.
34. Believing in the body of Christ and recognizing that you are but one of the tools in God's big toolbox of redemption.
35. Being open to sound counsel and receptive to advice.
36. Willing to go to bed tired and to awake to another day of calling.
37. Hiding God's Word in your heart and keeping his Kingdom always before your eyes.
38. Refusing to become anyone's substitute messiah, but instead to point people to the presence and grace of Jesus.
39. Looking out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others.
40. Building relationships, not just for the purpose of being relationally comfortable, but so that those relationship would be a workroom for redemption.
41. Loving people in such a way that they never feel like thy are in debt to you.
42. Remembering that you are more like than unlike the people you are called to love.
43. Understanding that the call to love is a call to both word and deed.
44. Daily remembering Jesus, being in awe of the gift of his love and living thankfully.

Published

Back in November I opened a Flickr account to store photos in case my computer every crashed. I didn't go to the trouble of making any of the pictures private. At the end of December I received the following email on my flickr account. . .

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the tenth edition of our Schmap Fort Myers Guide, to be published late January 2010.
Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the ninth edition of our Schmap Fort Myers Guide.
While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.
Our submission deadline is Friday, January 8. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently - photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).
Best regards,
Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

I responded giving them the permission and was in awe that it might be used for their guide. I haven't heard back from Emma, but this afternoon on a whim I decided to google the Schmap Guides for Ft. Myers just to see if they had actually used the photo. To my delight it was there. I am still in awe that one of my photos is actually being used for promotion of one of the places I visited.

You can check out the photo at Schmap Guides. Then click on Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. In the upper right hand corner of the page is a slide show of photos of the Preserve. Click the right arrow and it is about the 16th picture.

Where is Your Hope?

As I was reading Colossians 3:2(Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth) today I was thinking "yeah, I just wish it were that easy." Having an eternal perspective can be so flabbergasting and so hard to imagine that I find myself thinking at times that it sounds great but so unattainable. Today as I meditated on this verse I thought about a testimony I heard about how one woman learned to live with an eternal perspective. Allow me to share it with you. . .

Mollie had become a Christian at a young age. Later in her life she met and married, Al, a thriving wealthy Christian businessman. Al and Mollie built a large home in a well-to-do neighborhood and had 4 children. They were involved in church ministry, had the best things money could buy, their children were wonderful, and they had great friends. They were living the American dream.

As the years went by Mollie began to notice that Al was withdrawn, irritable, and evasive. But she kept telling herself that he was a busy man, so she just avoided upsetting him and made excuses for his behavior. Before long it was obvious their marriage was in trouble. The only time they talked was when finances and schedules demanded it or when others were around. When Mollie would try to talk to Al about their problems, he would remind her of the life he had provided for her. After months of trying to talk and their marriage continuing on a downward spiral she decided to seek help, but Al refused to seek counseling for himself. He insisted she was the only one with a problem.

She found a counselor and after months of continued hurt, discouragement and being frazzled , Mollie went with two of her closest friends for a weekend get away. She needed to clear her head and decide what to do next. Most of all she need the encouragement these women could provide. As they headed out for the beach condo she was excited about the weekend away and relieved, but she didn't have a clue what was transpiring at home.

Back home, Al was loading the moving truck. Over the past year he had been planning his and the children's exit. He had slowly moved his assets into his partner's name. Not only was he determined to leave, but he was determined to destroy Mollie (emotionally and financially).

Upon Mollie's return home on Sunday evening she found the house empty except for a bed, a table and her clothes. She could not make sense of it and began to call friends looking for her family but no one knew where they were. She then began to call Al, but none of his numbers were working. Finally she found a note in the kitchen: "I'm not coming back, I won't give you visitation rights unless you make this easy. You will fend for yourself from here on out." She was devastated. She cried for days and tried to make sense of her life. As the days passed she faced the most difficult time of her life. Things that she had looked to for her daily support had all disappeared and her life would never be the same. What would she do? She finally turned to her Pastor and after months of counseling, studying God's Word and praying she realized that her hope had been in man, material things, family, money, her lifestyle and friends. She had built her house on sinking sand and it happened without her realizing it. Although she was a Christian, Christ was not where her eyes and heart were fixed, she had fixed her eyes upon earthly treasures alone.

Today Mollie is working and supporting herself. She has seen her children a few times since Al left and she has begun to make new friends. The last time I spoke with her, she told me "I'm standing!" She has hope! Firm steadfast, and trustworthy hope. The fear has been replaced with courage. The saddness has turned to joy and she has a desire to live.

What happened? Where did the changes come from? She started to look at life through an eternal perspective and when she did she got her hope back.

Having an eternal perspective helps us know how to live in this sinful world. Until we think with an eternal perspective we don't understand what is truly important nor will we know what to do with our life. It brings a Christian a genuine hope no matter the circumstance and produces courage and discernment. Without an eternal perspective Christianity makes no sense ("If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men - 1 Corinthians 15:19). Everything God calls us to do with our hearts and hands points to the reality of eternity. If all we have is this life, then what comes next? Our life on earth is just prep work for the eternity that awaits us.

Eternal perspective also helps us see that this world is not left to incidental happenings and disorder. It's the exact opposite, it's a world under the rule of a Redeemer who loves us so much that he gave his life for us and so powerful that he can defeat even death. There is reason for hope when we realize that our life is in the hands of the One who "created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. . . and is before all things and in him hold all things together."

What Mollie discovered was that the things of this world were never meant to give hope or life. Because she came to that realization (by God's grace), she lives with hope and courage she never had before. Her eyes had been fixed on earthly things (love of man, material things, family, money, lifestyle and friends) but are now fixed on eternal things.

So I ask you, are your eyes fixed on the eternal? Is your hope in the eternal? Are you asking people, circumstance, and things to do what they were never meant to do? Are you looking to this world to be your God? What holds your hope?

One day, you and I will be on the other side. Will we say, "Salvation belongs to our God, and to the Lamb!"? Will we be able to say then that the hope we have never disappoints us?

Sanctity of Human Life

Today we observe Sanctity of Human Life across our nation. Isn’t it strange that we have set aside a day to remember human life? There are 388 endangered animals and 129 threatened species and Americans have gone out of their way to protect all kinds of life. However, we have failed to protect human life. The words of Jesus in Mark 10:14 , "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”, are beautiful. Yet despite those words, nearly one million unborn children die by abortion every year in America.

Where can we start? We can start by getting on our knees and cry out to God to forgive us for closing our eyes and looking the other way for too long as young women have chosen to believe the lies of the world telling them abortion is okay and we weren’t there to refute those lies. The time has come for us as Christians to rise up against abortion and become involved in the lives of those who have chosen abortion or face an unwanted pregnancy.

What can we do?
1. Call your nearest pregnancy resource center and ask how you can help.
2. Reach out loving arms to those experiencing crisis pregnancies in this community. Get involved in their lives and help meet their needs.
3. Share the Good News of God's love by lovingly sharing others the way to receive forgiveness for sin and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel

It seems like the past 3 months the house has been in a mess either from walls being torn out, painting being done or new flooring being put in. But praise God, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we have been blessed with friends that were willing to help out in so many different ways and we were blessed with an unexpected financial gift to help pay for the repairs.

The house is once again back to normal. The only other minor project left is to put in baseboards and that is nothing compared to the other things we have tackled. We are thrilled with the repairs and the way our house looks.

2010

"At any age it does us no harm to look over our past shortcomings and plan to improve our characters and actions in the coming year." - - Eleanor Rossevelt

As each New Year approaches, I always have uncertainties about what it will bring. Uncertainties regarding health, financial issues, issues involving my children, their education, their health, and the struggles they face growing up in a corrupt society. Yet at the same time the new year brings exciting opportunities.

Whenever I begin to fret or worry about the uncertainties of life, I catch myself trusting in my own strength, abilities and resources. As a Christian, I have been told by Jesus himself not to worry or be anxious about anything that I may need. "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?. . . And which of you being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?. . . For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:25,27,32-33)". What a simple proposition and promise - - yet it is so difficult for me to accept. The point here is that in 2010 I should make my relationship with my Lord the most important thing in my life. Once I have done that, it's amazing how God will remove the worries and anxieties and meet my every need.

In Proverbs 3:5-6, we are instructed to trust the Lord with every fiber of our being, and never ever think we are wise enough to handle our own problems or challenges. As we live for him and seek his will for our lives, He will provide direction, and wisdom sufficient for every situation we may encounter. All we must do is trust him with all our hearts.

As I face 2010, no doubt I will feel inadequate to deal with every situation as it arises; and often I may feel as if I can't really trust anyone. But God knows what is best for me, and is a far better judge of what I want and need than I am. As I begin the new year, my desire is to make him the central and vital part of everything I do. Then I can claim his promise to meet my needs and guide me because I will be striving to live according to His will and purpose for my life. It is my prayer that 2010 will be the best year of my life as I draw closer to my Lord and trust him with all my heart.