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Should Catholics and Protestants be Friends?

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I know that a lot of people don’t like the idea of Catholics and Protestants hanging out with each other. Apparently, there’s supposed to be a huge fight between us. But the rift doesn’t end there. Even between different denominations there is a battle raging. Baptists don’t like Methodist; Methodist don’t like Anglicans and so on, and so on.

But what does the Bible say about all this?

Ephesians 4:1-6 says:

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

When it all comes down to it: here is the question we must ask each other: Do you believe that Yeshua is the Christ? Do you serve God? Is the Holy Spirit living in you?

It’s easy to get caught up in different interpretations, but we don’t have time for dissension. There isn’t time for strife. There’s an African proverb that states: “Two men in a burning hut don’t have time to argue.” Church: THE HUT IS ON FIRE! And when I refer to the hut, I’m speaking metaphorically of the world. The world is dying. People are dying around us.

Christians don’t have time to argue about whether a passage means this or that. When we allow disunity in the body through scriptural confusion, we are allowing the enemy in – God is not the author of confusion or chaos.

I understand that the word ‘ecumenical’ raises red flags because sometimes this means that non-Christian doctrines are in a “Christian” church. I understand. I care about sound doctrine – and I think that every believer should often pray, “God if there is any doctrine in my life that is NOT sound, expose and remove it.” If you ask, God will remove false teaching from your life.

With that said, let’s not spend precious time fighting brothers and sisters in the faith. Let’s walk in love and focus more effort on reaching the lost.

Lessons in the Water

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I see parables everywhere.  While picking fruit in a grocery store, I may think about how each fruit represents a certain personality type and then laugh when I view the lemons.  As I’m driving home, I may envision how the road symbolically applies to my journey of life, and then sigh when I realize I have to make a U-Turn.  Or when I drive by the many gorgeous lakes in the beautiful, Pacific Northwest, I see lessons in the water. Below are a few lessons I couldn’t help but notice in the water.

We will never see the ocean if we refuse to lose sight of the shore:

There are so many possibilities that are beyond our minds but within our reach.  All we have to do is step out of our comfort zones.  The shore is the place where we feel comfortable and secure in our life, and we anchor ourselves there for security.  There is more to life than the shore, but we will never know what is out there if we are too afraid to leave our comfort zones.  If you want to see the ocean then we have to have enough faith to leave the shore.

If the water gets choppy, “fear not.”

In the biblical account of Mark, chapter four, the disciples of Jesus were afraid for their lives when a storm approached the boat.  They thought that they would perish, and Jesus told them very simply “Fear Not.”  Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind died down, and it was completely calm.

Storms will come, and if we are consumed by fear and worry we won’t be proactive when they come, we will only be reactive. When storms come, have faith and allow Yeshua to take control.

Even when you feel like you’re drifting, there is a still a destination planned for you.

Nature takes its course with the waves.  It directs messages in bottles, pieces of driftwood, and old FedEx packages to land eventually.  Even when we feel like we aren’t doing anything at all, our life is still going somewhere.  Drifting takes us to a destination… but… if we want to take control of our destination, we must direct the sails.

When a boat runs ashore, the sea has spoken.

Everyone on the water gets sanded on the beach every once in a while.  The secret to success is to get back into the water with your faith, without fear, adjust your sails, and raise your anchor.  The sea may speak, but it doesn’t have to have the last word.

People-pleasing is a Bad Idea

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Galatians 1:10 – For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10 is clear: No one can please everybody.

Each person is going to like aspects and parts of you while disliking parts of you. It’s very rarely that you’ll find someone that likes all of you, and if you do, then you should just marry that person. With that said, different people will want you to behave in a different way – people will have their unique version of who they think you are at your best – this may differ widely. You can’t be who everyone else wants you to be, or even who one particular person wants you to be. Sometimes you can’t even be the person you want to be because that might even be a bad idea.

So here is what I suggest, be the person God wants you to be.

People-pleasing is vanity. It’s like grasping for the wind. It’s a miserable existence to live your life trying to please people. However, trying to live a life that is pleasing to God is far from miserable. People pleasing produces anxiety and fear – discontent and frustration, but God-pleasing produces peace, courage and clarity.

Most of us are guilty of trying to please people. Throughout the Bible, we see men of God attempting to please others. King Saul is a good example. Saul lost the kingdom because he was so focused on pleasing those around him. God gave the kingdom to David, who wasn’t a people-pleaser, but was instead a man after God’s own heart.

I know what it’s like to fall into the trap of wanting to please someone. My life got much easier, far more peaceful and focused once I stopped caring what people thought, and cared more about what God thought. When you can get free of the opinions of others, it’s incredibly liberating. I thank God that He is so merciful and has warned us against people-pleasing.

There are two simple truths that you need to remember:

First, you can’t control what other people think about you. Focus on what God thinks about you. Is God pleased with you? That’s what matters. If God is pleased with you then you are on the right track – His opinion is the only opinion that’s important.

Second, understand that your self-worth isn’t dependent or contingent on someone’s opinion. Your self-worth must be rooted in Christ, and Christ alone. Usually, at the heart of people-pleasing, there is a self-esteem issue or a confidence-conflict. This is something that many of us struggle with. The enemy is a thief, and one of the things that he attempts to steal is our confidence. When you lack confidence and have low self-esteem, it’s easier to fall into the trap of people-pleasing.

Remember how much Yeshua loves you, so root your sense of self-worth in His love. Know that God loves you, and that is all that matters.

Put your trust in God, seek to please Him and put your trust in Him alone.

Tithing Your Time

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Giving isn’t a command – it’s encouraged. And it’s encouraged with good reason because when we give, it transforms us. We evolve into better people when we are generous and unselfish. The doctrine of tithing often focuses on money, but another area that we often overlook is time. While being generous with our money transforms us; giving our time is also transformative.

Many years ago after getting my first “real” job in a corporate environment, God showed me that He wanted me to tithe. I soon realized that money wasn’t the only area of my life that I needed to surrender to God. Time was a part of my life that I had kept entirely to myself. I went to church on Sundays, but God wanted more for me. And so, I began the habit of tithing my time. There are so many different ways to tithe your time, but below are just a few.

Serve in your church – if there are areas of ministry where your church needs help, jump in. Many churches need help with the children’s ministry, or perhaps the church is looking for volunteers who are willing to pray for others or greet visitors at the door. Church is an excellent place to tithe your time.

Volunteer – Homeless shelters, foster homes, crisis centers, hospitals, libraries, and many other places need volunteers. We are all put on earth to help each other. Helping others fulfills our purpose, and is a beautiful way to tithe our time.

Give God the first of your day – In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to give a tenth. Before they paid workers, bought property, or did anything else, they tithed. You can tithe the first of your day by dedicating your mornings to God. When you wake up in the morning before you do anything else, pray.

Tikkun Olam and Heart Renewal

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There is an interesting concept in Judaism called Tikkun Olam, which is synonymous with social action and the pursuit of justice. Tikkun Olam means ‘World Repair’ and it’s the idea that your actions, the things that you do have the capacity to repair the world – a world that’s been broken by sin.

However, what we need more than world repair is Heart Repair.

You can’t have world repair without heart repair. It’s out of the abundance of the heart that evil comes. Yeshua said For out of the heart come evil thoughts–murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

King David understood the reality of heart repair and asked God in the Psalms to create in him a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit in him. David understood that if he was going to live a life that pleased God he needed a new heart. I believe that God gave David what he requested and answered his prayer, which is why we also read that David was a man after God’s own heart, because when your heart is clean, you seek His heart.

Thankfully, God is not just a God of repair, but He is a God of renewal because the world needs more than just repair – it needs to be renewed. Repairing the world simply won’t work because we ultimately need a new world altogether. In the New Testament, the disciple John records the future and says this:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.

The earth is so defiled and degraded; it’s beyond repair. This is not to say that God can’t repair the earth, because He is God, after all, He can repair anything. However, in the future, God is going to create something new.

It’s encouraging to know that we serve a God of renewal. Until our new world comes, we need heart renewal, and in the meanwhile, as we ask God to renew our hearts we can hold on to the promise of Yeshua, who said “Behold, I am making all things new.”

10 Traits of Spiritually Strong People

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When an armed robber burst through the door of a Christian store in Texas, the store owner didn’t submit to the threat. Instead, she told the robber to get out of her store “in the Name of Jesus.” The thief left the store immediately. The store owner was the epitome of a spiritually strong Christian. Below are ten traits of spiritually strong people.

1/ One characteristic evident in people who are spiritually strong is that they walk by faith, not by sight. They aren’t focused on circumstances; they’re only focused on God. They don’t worry about what’s going to happen because they fully trust God to take care of them. People who are spiritually weak, walk by sight. They focus on what they can make happen, instead of what God can make happen.

2/ Spiritually strong people carry the peace of God in their hearts. Spiritually strong people are not anxious. Anxiety has no agency over a spiritually strong person. The only force that has agency over a spiritually strong person is the Holy Spirit.

3/ The spiritually strong spend time with God. Moses was on the mountain with God for so long that the Israelites wondered what had become of him. Throughout Scripture we see men and women of God who dedicated themselves to prayer, worship and fasting for extended periods. David praised God seven times a day, and Daniel prayed at least three times a day – both were spiritually strong.

4/ Spiritually strong people have compassion for others. To be spiritually strong you have to have the Holy Spirit residing in you. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and God loves people – John 3:16. The spiritually strong love others and they are kind, gentle, generous and patient.

5/ Spiritually strong people run TO God when they sin. In Psalm 51, David acknowledges his sins and pours out his heart before the Lord. David begs God to have mercy on him. Spiritually weak people run AWAY from God when they sin. But the spiritually strong run TO Him. The spiritually strong approach the throne of grace, believing fully in God’s mercy and love.

6/ Spiritually strong people are humble. Moses was very meek. Abraham and Joseph are also men of humility. Many of God’s servants throughout the Bible were humble.

7/ Spiritually strong people provoke others to jealousy. They are so close to God that others yearn for what they have spiritually. They cause others to want the fullness of the Holy Spirit operating in their lives. Yeshua provoked the Pharisees to jealousy. In the book of Acts, Stephen provoked the Sanhedrin to jealousy. Acts 6:15 states that the religious authorities saw that Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel. They became so jealous and enraged with Stephen that they killed him.

8/ Spiritually strong people are disciplined. Daniel decided that he was not going to partake in the King’s delicacies. Daniel was a disciplined man. (Daniel 1:8) Daniel didn’t allow the culture to dictate what was on his plate; he submitted to God in discipline and spiritual strength.

9/ Spiritually strong people are not afraid to take risks. We see this clearly in the book of Esther. Esther was afraid to approach the king, but she was willing to take the risk. Esther knew she needed spiritual strength. So Esther declared a three-day fast for herself and her servants. During the fast she increased her spiritual strength and took a risk that could’ve cost her life. She approached the king with the help of God.

10/ Spiritually strong people obey God rather than man. The spiritually strong don’t care what other people think of them. They are only concerned about whether or not they’ve pleased God. The disciples and apostles are great examples of spiritually strong people who obeyed God rather than man. The apostles preached Christ despite the opposition. They continued to be obedient to God despite the threats, imprisonments, and even death. Spiritually strong people are not afraid to die for the sake of the Gospel.

Let’s ask God to make us spiritually strong.

The Three Daily Rituals That Bring Me Immense Peace

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One of the most important things I’ve learned in my 30’s is the importance of routine. As a certified bohemian, I’ve always rejected routines and rituals. For years, I thought that routines were for ‘boring’ people who had lost their sense of spontaneity and wonder. Now, I relish routines and rituals. Below are three daily rituals that bring me immense peace.

My Morning Routine

My morning routine is quite simplistic – I wake up before my son gets up so that I can work on client projects, write, think, have a cup of tea, eat breakfast, but the most vital part of this routine is prayer. I pray every morning because If I don’t, my day doesn’t feel right. I don’t just pray in the mornings – I read scripture aloud – I think and meditate on Scripture, and I’m a better person because of it. Once my son awakes, I’m ready to face the day with peace in heart and mind. I still haven’t perfected my night time routine, but at least I know how to start my day and anchor it so that it’s a peaceful and productive one.

Spending Time in Worship

One evening, I felt odd, like something was off, or missing. It suddenly dawned on me that the feeling of unease was the absence of God’s presence. Now, don’t get me wrong – I understand that God is omnipresent – I understand that He is always there – but there is a difference in God’s omniscience and God’s glory resting in your heart and home. When God is present, there is a peace that permeates the soul. I didn’t feel the peace in my soul.  As I lay in bed that night, I wondered why God felt so far, when I heard the Holy Spirit say one word… “Worship!” That morning the first thing that I did as soon as I got up was worship. I danced and sang around my living room. The moment I began to worship I could immediately feel the presence of God. When the Psalmist said that God inhabits the praise of His people, this stanza wasn’t just figurative, but literal. Worship changes the atmosphere of a home and heart. Worship brings a Philippians 4:7 peace into a place.

Making Time for My Family

Writing, teaching, and coaching is my ‘second’ ministry. My family is my first ministry. Before we go into the world to help and love others, we must first help and love our family. Hugging my son and smooching my husband bring me peace. We were created to love each other – love, time and affection with others bring too many physical and mental benefits to count. However, there is also a spiritual benefit to loving those who God has placed under the same roof as you – the benefit of immense peace.

4 Beliefs You Need to Ditch if You Want to Be Happy

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Happiness experts all agree that it’s not what you have that makes you happy, but rather what you do and who you know. Despite evidence that things don’t make us happy, people still reach for stuff as if it might bring some joy to their lives. But the idea that stuff makes us happy isn’t the only belief that holds people back from happiness. There are a few other beliefs that keep people in a place of discontentment. Below are four beliefs that you need to ditch if you want to be happy.

The belief that you aren’t good enough. Low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness bring unhappiness. In scripture, Satan is referred to as the “Accuser of the brethren.” He is a finger-pointer who attempts to bring shame and condemnation into the life of God’s children. If you want to be happy, you can’t live under condemnation. Instead, you must live in freedom, believing that the grace of God is sufficient for your weakness.

The belief that you aren’t loved. God loves you. You are loved. You are cherished by Him. You are not forgotten. We were created to be social creatures, and we are designed for relationships and love – so it is perfectly natural to yearn for love, approval, and acceptance. Thankfully, God loves, approves and accepts us.

The belief that your life needs to be perfect for you to be happy. Life will never be perfect. There will always be messes, bumps in the road, psychological fires to put out, and missteps. No one has a perfect life. If you wait for your life to be perfect before you choose happiness, then you’ll be waiting all your life. Choose to be happy even when life is a mess because perfection is unrealistic.

The belief that a bad past holds sway over your future. When people have a bad past, they are often fearful that their future has already been written, and that it won’t work out for their good. But scripture says the opposite: Romans 8:28 states that all things work together for the good to them that love God, and are called according to His purpose. Do you love God? Are you called to His purpose? Then things will work out for you, and your past has no sway over your future.