My website host is very good, but not perfect. Periodically it will post or not post things differently from what I have set up. (A post I had pushed out to September got posted in July; a post from June is missing, etc.) Since I have determined that the various host site glitches are God's way of telling me things, like 'Don't post that.' I am (happily) letting all of these glitchy posts be, and, specifically, I'm not reposting my June post.

While I'm not concerned about what I wrote, the June post bordered on a type of post that God has been steering me away from, which I find rather fun. I find it fun because it’s really cool that God is directly influencing what I share, fun that I can learn what I should and shouldn’t be posting, and fun that I can change what I’m writing in response to God’s direction for me. While I am curious as to how these changes relate to my spiritual gifting, I’m grateful that they directly relate to growing in how I share Christ.

​If you're curious, I feel God limiting my blogs to subjects and examples that directly relate to me. The posts that haven’t made it onto the website are either using others as examples or using examples, like marriage, with which I have no personal experience. The June post that is missing is about the death of Prince and what others wrote about his life. Since this post directly relates to my spiritual gifting, it seemed appropriate, and I feel I was respectful in the way I wrote it. Only God’s use of the removal from the website makes me think that this is not an appropriate blog, at least not right now. It's possible I just need to wait a while before I post another like it, as another post He had prevented me from posting twice, He released me to use when it bumped the scheduled post.

I’d be interested to hear about ‘unusual’ ways God has spoken to you. (Ways I consider 'usual' are through reading the Bible, an inner voice and through other Christians, although there are times even these seem unusual.)

The United States has embraced a new morality of late that is disheartening to those who love the God of the Bible. Embracing morality that feels good while it removes the beauty of how God made us, the United States has legalized same-sex marriages, the killing of unborn children, the glorifying of demonic gods and more. In all of this, it holds onto a principal taught in the New Testament by Jesus himself. This principle was expressed when Jesus said the law says that a man must not sleep with another man's wife however I say that anyone who looks at a woman with lust in his heart has committed adultery. And with this statement, Jesus introduced the law of intent.

In the book The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris teaches how to use the letter of the law to get what you want. His incredible examples are how he used the system at the time to cheat the wrestling weight classifications and compete in a wrestling weight class that was below where he should have been. He had a decided advantage over his lighter weight opponents. His argument was that he met the letter of the law, and it is true that he did. He even brags about teaching others how to do the same thing. But what is more disheartening to me is that he went to China, a country that puts honor above all else to the point of having a whole set of rituals around killing yourself when you have been or brought dishonor, and proceeded to use a rule to dishonor every single one of his opponents, all to win a bet. He gloried in this victory of shame because he followed the letter of the law and thereby got what he wanted, regardless of what it cost others.

So, if Americans are embracing and being taught to embrace this letter of the law philosophy, why am I saying that we are following Jesus' rule about the intent of the law? I'm saying this because of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. After the financial market collapse, which was blamed on the greedy manipulations of individuals in the financial industry, President Obama pushed through a financial watchdog agency that was supposed to help make better rules to guard the people of the United States. In reality, this agency proceeded to rule by action and has created regulations by disciplinary action. In other words, no matter what the law says, if the CFPB believes that you have acted outside the intent of the law, they will sue you and hold you financially accountable. So, while Tim Ferris and so many others herald using the letter of the law to circumvent the intent of the law, our government is using the intent of the law to punish those it feels have stepped outside of that intent.

What does loving God mean to you or better yet how do you go about it? There was a book put out sometime ago by Chuck Colson that was called, Loving God. The very first section was titled, “Obedience.” I never did like that start because, and this is hugely important, love does not start with obedience. You see, obedience without love is duty. It’s the form without substance; and it’s where all religion goes wrong. So how do you go about loving God?
 
Recently Francis Chan wrote a book about loving God and started with who God is and what things He’s done for us. I found this to be a much more appropriate start, so that when Francis moved into obedience it was clear that obedience grew out of love as opposed to being the start of love. But I want to push it even further.
 
If you truly love God then it needs to be passionate, a driving motivator, something bigger than anything else in your life. You can love God a little and He will be a part of your life; you can love God a lot and He will affect your life; or you can love God passionately and He will be your life. Don’t we all want to love God passionately? But how do I get passionate about God, since I’m not right now? How do I serve God with my whole heart when I am so half-hearted about it now? I am desperately seeking to love God as He whispers sweet promises to my heart and woos me like the beloved He refers to me as in the Holy Bible.
 
Are you passionate about God? Or are you seeking to love Him more? All I can say for sure right now is just keep talking to God. He loves you so much and He will woo you, just like He’s wooing me.
 
Philippians 1:6 (NET Bible)
For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Many years ago I read a book about a Christian man who was in prison, I assume for his faith but I don't remember, who led another prisoner to the Lord. After the other prisoner said the salvation prayer, he spent three days and nights pacing in his cell, crying out to God until he finally knew he was saved. If I'm remembering the story correctly, the author thought it was an evidence of the accumulated prayers of previous generations that in his lifetime this struggle was no longer necessary but that people were able to embrace their salvation after a simple prayer. I would like to propose that, while many do have a true conversion experience that is concluded with a simple prayer of repentance, many more are led to believe that they've had a true conversion experience when all they've done is acknowledged with their minds that God is God.

A true conversion experience is a change of heart and without a change of heart there is not true conversion. I have often said that I am glad when my nieces and nephews struggle with their salvation because I don't want them to just inherit it, I want them to own it. This is the same thing in my mind.

True conversion is life-changing. It isn't simply knowing that you're going to heaven. It must involve a radical shift in your thinking and a new understanding of how you are loved and how to love others. If our Christianity has never affected our lives in this way, then each of us individually needs to revisit our conversion.

Currently I'm living with and trying to help my 80-year-old mother. I gain many benefits by this arrangement as she is a sweet woman and loved by many. There's a lot to be said for the goodwill garnered by those around you.

On a recent Sunday, she was prayed for multiple times and I was grateful for the encouragement. One special prayer was that God would prepare a way for her to connect with a neighbor in trauma, and the answer to that prayer was most surprising. On Tuesday a police officer came to our door while I was at work. He informed mother that the license tabs on one of our cars had been expired since February and she had one week to rectify. While they were talking she asked whether or not the recent road closure meant that there would be road work done on our block.

Being a good daughter, especially when prompted by police officers , I immediately arranged for us to get the required license tabs, which we did that evening.

It was a good evening's work and we thought we were done. God had another idea which came to my mother the next morning. She realized she now had something to call our neighbor about, information that would be of benefit to her. Prayerfully she connected with this neighbor to share her information and it opened the door. Our neighbor was being visited by her sister and together they came over and took a tour of our backyard. We have a nice backyard and we're particularly proud of the funky and makeshift garden fencing with its crib headboard for a gate. The ladies enjoyed our swing and were so pleased with the garden, as the tomato plants reminded them of their own mother’s large garden from years past. As they took the tour something was mentioned about prayer and Mom seized the opportunity. Soon they were holding hands and praying together. What a blessing!

I am so grateful that God is in the business of answering prayers!

God is a huge concept, not to mention a huge God. Grappling with biblical contradictions like predestination and free will can tax a person's understanding. And, while I don't believe we have to understand everything, there is in the Bible, often we find comfort in things we can understand.

One of my first blogs was titled, 'Who's going to hell,' and the discussion that led to that blog helped me to realize that Jesus's death on the cross was God's only option for saving us. Before that discussion I felt like God was infinite and the possibilities were just as infinite; however, after that discussion I realized that the infinite possibilities were narrowed down by God's desire to design us to have free will. In the end, God's only option was to offer salvation through Christ's death and resurrection.

So, back to that free will and predestination concept. I have recently thought of this conundrum as similar to philosophy's theory of infinite realities, or maybe they call it quantum realities, where there is a reality for every conceivable possibility for how life can turn out.

When I described this to my sister, using the scene from Star Trek at the top of this post, she challenged me as to why God would then allow one person to live and another person not to, one person to get saved and another not to, as He chose this particular reality, and, for at least today, I think I have the answer. I believe it's the same answer as to why Christ had to die on the cross. I believe that when God looked at the infinite possibilities for how this world could go, the current line of history is the only line that allowed His message, His purposes and His deliverance to be fulfilled. It was the only one where we could have free will and still have God's message of love and God's plan of salvation made available to us.

How grateful I am that God chose this reality with this life for me.