Yes, you read the blog title correctly. I am getting a divorce. It has been a long, hard struggle, with many ups and downs, but the time has come and the decision has been made...I am moving forward into freedom.
Now, before some of you pick up the phone to call me or jump on Facebook to see if I've changed my relationship status, and before others of you come running over to my house to try to talk me out of getting a divorce, let me explain. If, after my explanation, you still want to call, please do...I would love to hear from you.
I'm divorcing all the things that I have been married to for years, and some, for decades. Somewhere along the journey of life, I came into a "loving" agreement with fear, anxiety, mistrust, and doubt. Daily, on many levels and in many ways, I heartily agreed with, partnered with, communicated with, and united myself with these unworthy partners, who brought nothing but compromise and destruction into my life. So, today, I am getting a divorce.
You see, being 'married' to fear has permitted the tentacles of all of fears' sisters and brothers to grab on to parts of my soul and even my body, with the goal of enrapturing me with their deception and lies...promising great things and delivering nothing. So, I'm divorcing fear, and in doing so, divorcing all of these other manipulative minions that will no longer be given access to my life, my heart, my mind, my well-being or anything else in my life.
The terms of my divorce are non-negotiable: no longer will I be bound because "It is for freedom that Christ has set me free!" (Galatians 5:1) So I am standing firm and will no longer be enslaved by the aforementioned things. No longer will fear of man enslave me and cause me to say that something is "ok" when it clearly stands against the beauty of God's created order. Therefore, my divorce means that the acts of the flesh are cut off from me: sexual immorality (every form that God's Word says is wrong is wrong), impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. (Galatians 5:19-21)
My divorce is final. Please do not try to convince me otherwise. The only thing being wedded to the aforementioned minions has brought is twisted thinking, confusion, compromise, misguided decisions, and death to my very soul. Please don't worry about me...you see, my divorce is bringing me freedom.
Now I can walk in the fruit of the Spirit: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL. (Galatians 5:22-23)
In this month of Adar, I am CELEBRATING this divorce, the ending of being unequally yoked to fear, anxiety, mistrust and doubt. I am FREE and my divorce papers have been signed in the blood of Jesus.
Now, who wants to call me and try to talk me out of my divorce? By the way, Paul and I are happily married, and each day, we delve deeper into the joys and rewards of marital bliss, centered on Jesus!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
The month of Adar
We have been on a journey with our spiritual family here in Kansas City for nearly 2 years now. What I can liken the journey up to this point to is having been on a wonderful adventure through hills, valleys, up and down mountains, fording streams, climbing trees, digging ditches, growing weary, being rejuvenated, growing weary again, questioning lots of things and experiencing God's grace along the way.
Where we are now I can liken to having "finished" the previous adventure as we came to a cross-roads and had to choose between continuing on the same path, or embarking on a "new" path, which really turns out to be the Ancient Paths...the paths God has been leading us to all along in His perfect timing.
We chose the Ancient Path...we chose to follow Him into His calendar, which is the lunar calendar, and we chose to align ourselves with His days, weeks, months, seasons and years. I've known God is an orderly God, but our journey into all of this has uncovered an orderliness to God and a syncronicity that has brought about a peace, a settledness, a joy and challenges like nothing ever experienced before.
We are smack dab in the middle of Adar I in the year 5774, and I could not be more excited about what God is doing and how He is transforming my thinking, my life, my heart, my soul, and our marriage. The word Adar means "strength", and this is a month to get into the celebration mode of ending certain seasons of our lives. It's also a month to overturn worry and root out depression and despair so faith can break through into our thought processes. (From A Time to Advance by Chuck Pierce).
Of course there is much more to this month, but these are the things that God has highlighted to me and is speaking to me about through His Word, the Bible, and in our prayerful conversations together. This is a key month because what is broken off as well as what is set in place in our lives in this month will set the stage for the rest of the year.
I've found that in my life and sometimes in my interactions with my fellow believers that we are "excited about this next conference" or "can't wait to hear this speaker come to our church"; we go, we listen, and then what? We talk about it for a while, maybe apply some of the principles, and then we are looking forward to the "next thing". I'm not saying those are bad things, but when I read Scripture, I don't see that being the primary mode of operating in the early church.
The early church, and the pattern set up there was first about loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Also, as we look at the whole of Scripture, the first "church", so to say, was God, Adam and Eve in the garden. Throughout the Scriptures, home is and was the center of spiritual life. Our western culture has moved it outside of the home an into a building where we "go" to get fed. Meanwhile, the enemy has wreaked havoc in the home, destroying families and the home structure so we look to "St. Elsewhere" to be our "spiritual home".
Can you imagine the transformations that would begin if home became the center of spiritual life again, and every time someone walked in your home, the first thing they said was, "Wow, there is such peace and joy here! There is such a sense of rest!"
Just this weekend, an old friend came to our home for an appointment with another friend of ours, a naturpath, and this old friend stayed after her appointment just to hang out and talk. The Lord was so present in our time together as we shared, laughed, cried, encouraged one another; she made mention of the peace in our home. That is God's presence, and nearly everyone who walks through our door makes a comment about how peaceful and restful our home is.
I am not poo-pooing "going to church"...no way. We still gather on Sunday mornings with other believers, but that is not the "mainstay" of our spiritual walk, nor are we "dependent" upon it. I think of the plethora of nations where the only place believers in Yeshua can meet is in homes because it's illegal to meet publically. Stories of exponential growth in the Body of Christ are pouring forth from those nations.
I'm just excited to share that as we walk out God's calendar, His ancient paths, celebrating what He has deemed important to celebrate, we find Him. What more do we need?
Where we are now I can liken to having "finished" the previous adventure as we came to a cross-roads and had to choose between continuing on the same path, or embarking on a "new" path, which really turns out to be the Ancient Paths...the paths God has been leading us to all along in His perfect timing.
We chose the Ancient Path...we chose to follow Him into His calendar, which is the lunar calendar, and we chose to align ourselves with His days, weeks, months, seasons and years. I've known God is an orderly God, but our journey into all of this has uncovered an orderliness to God and a syncronicity that has brought about a peace, a settledness, a joy and challenges like nothing ever experienced before.
We are smack dab in the middle of Adar I in the year 5774, and I could not be more excited about what God is doing and how He is transforming my thinking, my life, my heart, my soul, and our marriage. The word Adar means "strength", and this is a month to get into the celebration mode of ending certain seasons of our lives. It's also a month to overturn worry and root out depression and despair so faith can break through into our thought processes. (From A Time to Advance by Chuck Pierce).
Of course there is much more to this month, but these are the things that God has highlighted to me and is speaking to me about through His Word, the Bible, and in our prayerful conversations together. This is a key month because what is broken off as well as what is set in place in our lives in this month will set the stage for the rest of the year.
I've found that in my life and sometimes in my interactions with my fellow believers that we are "excited about this next conference" or "can't wait to hear this speaker come to our church"; we go, we listen, and then what? We talk about it for a while, maybe apply some of the principles, and then we are looking forward to the "next thing". I'm not saying those are bad things, but when I read Scripture, I don't see that being the primary mode of operating in the early church.
The early church, and the pattern set up there was first about loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Also, as we look at the whole of Scripture, the first "church", so to say, was God, Adam and Eve in the garden. Throughout the Scriptures, home is and was the center of spiritual life. Our western culture has moved it outside of the home an into a building where we "go" to get fed. Meanwhile, the enemy has wreaked havoc in the home, destroying families and the home structure so we look to "St. Elsewhere" to be our "spiritual home".
Can you imagine the transformations that would begin if home became the center of spiritual life again, and every time someone walked in your home, the first thing they said was, "Wow, there is such peace and joy here! There is such a sense of rest!"
Just this weekend, an old friend came to our home for an appointment with another friend of ours, a naturpath, and this old friend stayed after her appointment just to hang out and talk. The Lord was so present in our time together as we shared, laughed, cried, encouraged one another; she made mention of the peace in our home. That is God's presence, and nearly everyone who walks through our door makes a comment about how peaceful and restful our home is.
I am not poo-pooing "going to church"...no way. We still gather on Sunday mornings with other believers, but that is not the "mainstay" of our spiritual walk, nor are we "dependent" upon it. I think of the plethora of nations where the only place believers in Yeshua can meet is in homes because it's illegal to meet publically. Stories of exponential growth in the Body of Christ are pouring forth from those nations.
I'm just excited to share that as we walk out God's calendar, His ancient paths, celebrating what He has deemed important to celebrate, we find Him. What more do we need?
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