Raychel Writes

Rescue Mission

February 17th, 2023

I love listening to audible books on car trips. Last year the hubs worked 6 months in Indiana, and I learned I could drive straight through from deep East Texas in about 14 ish hours depending on stops for fuel, food, and the restroom which I typically try to combine and stay on the road as long as possible. The year before two of the kids and I drove out to South Carolina to spend family day and watch one of our bonus kids graduate from Army basic training. We dropped down and visited my dad in Georgia and then popped in on a friend in Alabama on the way back. It’s exactly 10 hours from her house to our house in Texas and that’s all the time you need to listen to the entire “Seal of God” book by Chad Williams. You can almost listen to all of “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink on the Indy drive, and you can knock out “A Warriors Faith,” by Robert Vera on that drive too. Oh, and you can also knock out “It’s Your Ship” by Michael Abrashoff on the drive from Indy to New York and back! It’s a 24 hour drive home from where we are now, so I have plenty of time to get through entire books on the drive. Are you seeing a common theme in my book preferences? With the exception of one book called “Brave Hearted: Women of the American West” by Katie Hickman, which should honestly have replaced playing the game “The Oregon Trail” in school because the book teaches the lessons of the game with greater weight and clarity than the game ever did. I love listening to military books, and leadership books, even better if you combine the two; perfect if you also combine them with faith! Oddly enough, if I read a physical book or Kindle book, it’s the Bible, Bible studies, or YA fantasy particularly shifter, fae, vampire, etc but keep it clean!

Anyway, I’m getting to the point, I promise! We always associate our military personnel with bravery, strength, and courage. We see them as tough, capable, and deadly, especially SEALS, Rangers, Green Berets, AFSPECWAR and literally all Marines. All military personnel signed a dotted line saying they’re willing to give their lives for you, we often call them heroes and for good reason. We don’t, or at least I don’t, ever really see Jesus in the same way as I see them. Certainly, I see Him as the ultimate hero, but the training that leads to the success of our military that causes us to characterize them the way we do is not how I usually see Jesus.

I’ve noted before that I’m doing a zoom Bible study with an incredible group of ladies over Revelation using Nancy Guthrie’s accompaniment study, “Blessed.” The groundwork she puts in to lay a foundation for how you will study the rest of the book forces you to see Jesus as He sits resurrected. She highlights attributes that we do not always associate with Jesus when we only focus on His Earthly ministry. As she guides you in picking apart John’s description of Him in Revelation Chapter 1 we come to the understanding of why John, the disciple who reclined with Jesus….think layed around chillin with JC…..who knew Him as Savior and friend, saw Him in His resurrected body, warning of His return and exhorting the churches (and us), and John was terrified….so much so that he fell down as though he were dead. This is starting to sound more like warrior from my military books! From head to toe He’s impressive, He’s wearing not only the garments of a high priest because He is our High priest, but of a King, because He is King whether you choose to recognize it or not. Guthrie points out that the white hair on His head is indicative of age and wisdom, His eyes a “flame of fire,” He has a penetrating gaze, seeing all, penetrating into our souls capable of burning out the impurities, burnished bronze feet, a firm foundation tested by fire. He has a powerful voice like the roar of many waters, deafening, distinctive. From His mouth comes a two-edged sword, He speaks grace to believers, and destruction to His enemies. Before we even get started with the rest of Revelation, I’m already seeing Jesus more powerfully, deadly even. I see someone I would trust leading me into battle.

As I sat doing a personal video Bible study this morning over Ben Stuart’s, “Rest and War,” I saw more of the warrior that Jesus is and the ultimate rescue mission He made to destroy a target we would never be able to amass an army big enough or powerful enough to overcome. Ben equates Jesus’ mission to come to Earth as a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) mission to rescue the oppressed and destroy the enemy. He certainly came from a high altitude and his lowly birth in a manger was a low opening that kept him from being an exposed too visible target.

How is it a rescue mission and will Jesus really engage in battle? Um, yes! The final battle is still to come, but Jesus has already defeated death and now holds the keys to the Kingdom (Rev 2:8, 3:7). Stuart marks His mission starting from Genesis 3:15 where he will conquer the evil one, Jesus was sent to release captives and set free the downtrodden (Luke 4:18). The ruler of this world is the devil and Jesus came to cast him out (Luke 12:31).

Jesus knew the only way to complete His mission was to stand in our place, a perfect living sacrifice for our sins. In every movie or book where you see a soldier jump on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers, we are always moved by his bravery, courage, strength, and sacrifice. All the more should we be moved by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for all of humanity!

Seeing Jesus from this perspective is not only truth, as we can see in His Word, but it grows my faith and trust all the more. This is why continued Bible study is important. Most other books I read once and I’m done, sometimes I’ll go back and review some of the leadership ones. You can’t truly know Jesus by just doing a “one and done” of the Bible. I often find places where His word corrects and informs incorrect ideologies or thoughts that pop up or that I think myself. When I read and study His Word, I have to Untether myself from what I think, and let His word inform me of all truth, this will take me a lifetime, but I’m happy to live for The One who was willing to sacrifice Himself on a rescue mission for me.

If you’re liking my blog, more importantly if it’s encouraging you in the Lord, please consider liking, subscribing and sharing with a friend. Maybe it will encourage them too!
I’ve Acted Like Saul

February 15th, 2023

Who in their right mind would want to admit that they are like Saul? Like “OG” original Old Testament (1 Samuel) Saul that the Israelite’s begged for so they could be like all the other pagan peoples around them, and God allowed Samuel to anoint as an Earthly King, the one who tried to murder David.

Obviously, I’ve never tried to murder anyone but there are a several instances I was sitting here thinking about after having gone through chapters 12-15 of 1 Samuel where the motives for my actions were similar to Saul’s motives. Saul made a rash, rushed decision to sacrifice to God instead of waiting on Samuel to do it like he was supposed to. Why? He was more concerned with what the people thought than what God thought and the proper way and timing. If I’m honest, I have often been overly concerned with what others have thought about me, I’ve made impulsive decisions that didn’t hurt anyone, but had they simmered a bit and been done in God’s timing rather than mine, would have been more about Him. I have kept my mouth shut when I know I should have opened it and stood up for God and truth. Rather, I felt like I didn’t want to make waves or bring attention to myself or the situation.

My daughter, while watching a movie the other night, said to the character on tv, “no response, is a response, girl”. Sometimes not speaking is definitely the right thing to do, especially when you are responding in anger and what you will say will be harmful and not said out of love, but sometimes not speaking is condoning or supporting whatever is going on when you know you shouldn’t. I’m not talking about engaging in a typing, texting, or verbal sparring match on social media or elsewhere that causes you to just look argumentative and unloving. Those are two things God’s word instructs against, Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without arguing and complaining,” Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.”

Jesus, when asked in Matthew 22: 37-39 about the greatest commands, said to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Sometimes we do need to speak up, but it has to come from a place of love. We cannot be so concerned with what others will think about us that we jeopardize our integrity and behave in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord, that we represent God poorly by being ambassadors of ourselves or society’s will rather than Christ’s. Saul was more concerned about pleasing people than pleasing the Lord, if we are honest with ourselves, we have all had moments of that too. In the words of Soloman, “there’s nothing new under the sun,” it’s not a new trend,the Bible is replete with verses that warn against it. Here a just a few,

The amount of time I have spent in the past on social media, looking at others posts, creating my own, and then swinging back around to see how well received it was, was a clear indicator of me being just as guilty, even when I was posting biblical posts!!!!!! I mean Saul was sacrificing to the Lord, wasn’t he? But it was to appease the people, his heart wasn’t right. God prefers our obedience rather than our sacrifice, (1Sam 15:22 and Hosea 6:6). We all have a desire to be well received and approved of.

What about the silent treatment when you know there will be a confrontation? Ever given silent treatment to a brother or sister, friend, spouse, church member? God was/is super talkative, the first chapter of Genesis repeats itself numerous times, “and God said, and God said, and God said”. God doesn’t give the silent treatment, hence the reason we have the Bible and His Son, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us (John 1:14). Not talking is not an option. It matters what you say, and how you say it, but you do need to talk through it lovingly and come to a peaceable solution. Honestly, the silent treatment is so much easier, but in my desire to be obedient I know I need to ask God to help me work it out.

Sometimes we need to pause and pray and think it through. One of my fellow sisters in Christ teaches to ask a series of questions before you just blab out the first thing that comes to your mind, ESPECIALLY when you’re in your “feels”.

“Does it need to be said at all?

Does it need to be said by me?

Does it need to be said right now?”

I use these to help me filter my thoughts and not respond in a way that is displeasing to the Lord and harmful to someone else. I don’t always succeed, unfortunately, and need to apologize but I do have a promise from God’s word that I’m a work in progress and He’s not finished with me yet, it’s found in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.” Slap a construction sign on my forehead until Jesus comes back! Thank you, Lord, because I definitely need His help to get me through literally everything! Know that when you’re in Christ, God is working on you too, practice caring about what God cares about, your relationship with Him and continually being conformed to the image of His Son. Let’s Untether ourselves from the need for external validation and seek approval from God alone!
Writing/Sharing My Story (sharing continued)

February 14th, 2023

I mentioned writing your story/testimony so you could work it into conversations, sometimes “the how” of how you relate your story to different people in different settings may change, but it’s still your story of how you came to faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Once you’ve figured out how to articulate it, it’s much easier to see how it fits in a conversation. Check out this example below from my own life!

As the owner of a gun shop and firearms training center I am given the opportunity to be in front of classes of people on a monthly/weekly basis , both classroom time and range time. Many of them are church goers but many of them are not. The gospel is not a conversation that usually makes its way into a firearms training class or the range. However, I share the gospel in every class while I have a captive audience, kind of like Paul in jail while he had a guard literally chained to him! Not only does my testimony fit into an analogy while teaching sight alignment it also works into other conversations about focus. I even share the actual “Romans Road” Scriptures in class while telling my testimony and then connecting it to sight alignment.

I was raised Catholic and went to St. Mary’s private Catholic school while living on a military base as my dad was in the Air Force. Later he retired and we moved to Texas. I understood the Bible as a historical textbook and knew who God was and what Jesus had done as well as the stories of the Bible. After catechism classes and confirmation, I knew that I was a sinner, I’d read Romans 3:23, and that sin was wrong and thought that I needed to go to confession and do good things to make up for the sin. I had a head knowledge of The Lord; I knew about him, but I was not applying him to my life and following Him. I felt the weight of the guilt of my sin but did not understand that I would never be able to do enough good to balance the scales at judgement. Life felt hopeless because I kept messing up. Being saved by grace through faith, not of my works but on Jesus’, was not something anyone had taught me, nor had I read Ephesians 2:8-9.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God- Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.-Romans 6:23

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned— Romans 5:12

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.- Ephesians 2:8-9
NASB 95

When I was 13 one of my mother’s coworkers son’s invited me to a Newsboys concert. (We did not listen to that kind of music in Mass!) I went and Josh McDowell took the stage and called a verse of scripture which I knew. He then started to talk about a relationship with Christ which struck me as an odd thing to say. It occurred to me that I could not have a relationship with George Washington because he was dead, but Jesus was different. I began all at once to see that the Bible was living, not a history text, that as a result of what Jesus did on the cross and being raised to life that I had a decision to make and actual action to take. Belief required something on my part (choosing to repent and follow), but Jesus had already done all the work. He paid my wages for the sins I had committed (and will commit, sadly) and once I understood that, repented of my sin, confessed with my mouth Jesus as Lord because of the belief in my heart, I would have eternal life and all new leadership calling the shots from now on which is what Romans 10:9-10 stated.

..that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation-Romans 10:9-10

I was supposed to be reading the Bible and as a result of what it said acting on its commands, allowing the Holy Spirit to change my habits and begin conforming me to be like Christ. It was impossible to be like Christ if I did not study Him. During that invitation I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, which meant making Him Lord of my life, in that everything I did from there on out needed to run through a filter of the what His word directed me to do; which is quickly how Proverbs 3:5-6 became my go to verses all those years ago. That was my conversion to Christianity, the moment I was adopted into the Kingdom of God, I followed a week later in believers baptism, something I got to choose because I believe, as a symbolic, public profession of my faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Having a relationship with Jesus is similar to how your sights work. You can know that your front sight is the boss and is the most important sight, but until you are able to have a right orientation of it in the center of your rear sight, which is your life and belief system, and rightly align both of those with your target, which is how you live, your shots and decisions will both be all over the place. He has done all of the work, he is the atoning sacrifice once and for all who justifies, (aligns us rightly with the Father), we just have to allow Him to Untether us from the bondage of sin and respond to follow Him and apply Him as the center piece (front sight) of our lives! If you have a testimony, write it down like I have and SHARE it with others!

If you don’t have a testimony and you’re sitting there reading this thinking, that’s me! I need forgiveness, I need to repent of my sins and believe in the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you can, right where you sit. There are no special words that have to be prayed exactly right, just talk to God with your own mouth and tell Him exactly what’s going on in your heart. It’s not the specific words that save you, it’s the repentance and belief in your heart in Jesus as Lord, His sacrifice for your sins, and your desire to follow and trust in Him. Then share it with someone else! Start reading your Bible, there’s an app if you don’t have a physical copy (YouVersion or NASB Bible). Connect with a local church and talk to the pastor or women’s ministry leader about your decision so you can be better discipled and equipped to share your story with others!

If you’re in an area of the world where going to a Christian church isn’t an option but you have access to the internet ….that’s an option, there are millions of Bible believing churches online as well as Bible studies online. I enjoy watching, Ben Stuart at Passion DC, he’s local to me, John Piper, Jen Wilkin has some awesome studies, as well as Priscilla Shirer and Tony Evans, Francis Chan and David Platt. The Bible ReCap with Tara Leigh Cobble is a great podcast to accompany your reading and a great one year reading plan too! Don’t hesitate to reach out to me through the contact page of the blog or page, I’ll do my best to help too!

If you’re enjoying my blog, if it’s encouraging you in any way, or more importantly drawing you closer to Jesus in any way, please consider liking and subscribing. If you think it may encourage someone else in the Lord please consider sharing!
What’s Your Ministry? (Sharing continued)

February 11th, 2023

Have you ever struggled with your place in church? Not the building, we know the building is just that, a facility where the church (the local body of believers) gathers together to worship and learn about the Lord. But have you ever felt like you wanted to DO something “in church,” to serve in some way but weren’t sure how or if you could? Have you felt like you wanted to be more than just a consumer “at church” and definitely didn’t feel like church should be something you “do” on Sundays or an obligation, especially for social purposes? I’d say that was the Holy Spirit guiding and encouraging you!

Since the “body of believers” is the actual definition of church, there’s way more to a church than what sometimes gets confused as church, like the weekly meetings that typically take place on Sundays and Wednesdays. Yes, we are absolutely supposed to assemble together regularly (Heb 10:25), but that’s not all. Honestly, the body of believers living out their faith through actions and words on a daily basis in the community, at school, work, shopping, sports events, etc. will have vastly more impact than the church staff ever will! If you’re looking for your ministry, you have one! Read the verses below in 2 Corinthians 5.

¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b]for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Did you read that? Did you see your ministry given to you by God? You even have a title! We are ambassadors for Christ. We have a ministry of reconciliation. We are supposed to make an appeal to others and reconcile them to God through Christ. That sounds an awful lot like Jesus’ commission to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. Your ministry likely won’t look like what you have pictured in your mind, it may not look like zoom Bible studies, hosting small groups in your home, teaching a class at church, or speaking to a group of people. It can look like those things, but all believers’ every day life ministry is where people are truly reached for the Lord. A friend and colleague shared this video her team produced to give insight of what every day discipleship in your ministry looks like.

You don’t need a degree to “start” in ministry. You’ve already been given a ministry from the very one who died to save you! Remember yesterdays blog? “If you know enough to be saved, you know enough to lead someone to Christ.” If you know how to read and you have a Bible you know how to sit down with it and read it with others! care for those in your sphere of influence, love them, serve them. This is the mission of the church, the real church, not the building we call church. Untether yourself from the idea that you aren’t qualified or don’t know enough and let the Spirit lead you! Your ministry is waiting on you!! Let’s be the church!
Working the gospel into Everyday Conversation (could be a series…sharing)

February 10th, 2023

I’m back on movies again, who’s seen “The Maze Runner” series? I certainly found it an entertaining story where you fell in love with characters and wanted to see humanity saved. I had actually read the books, which were far better, but I never noticed the allegorical element until the movies. Sometimes I’m slow or need a visual!

Allegory-a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

No, this isn’t an English class, but its crazy to me the parallel that the story holds. Thomas was sent to the Glade and from the beginning he’s different from all the other kids that have been sent. He tries to live differently and do things differently in front of the rest of them and ends up being the one to help them find a way out and leading them …fast forward to the end of the series where his blood contains the cure for humanity.

I’m not suggesting that the Maze Runner is a Christian movie or perfectly exemplifies Jesus, but I do see some similarities and by the time we realize that Thomas’ blood has the cure and vaccines can be made from it to share with everyone, we’re ready to run around vaccinating the world. I get really into my books, but see how a movie quote could turn into a gospel conversation! You make that connection, you start a conversation about Jesus!

Gospel Conversations Don’t Happen Without Intentionality

We do have the death cure…and we don’t even have to stab anyone with a needle to share it.

While studying Acts with our youth, the one thing that jumped out to me the most on this topic was the different approaches Paul took to sharing the gospel message in different situations.

In Acts 17:16-34 Paul addresses the People of Athens…when I read this one I can’t help leaping into a chair and reading in my very best Shakespearian/heralding voice. Paul takes some time to get to know his audience and then addresses them in a way that is not demeaning, but the way they are best communicated to. In Acts 22:3 when addressing the Jews, Paul’s own people, who knew all of things he had done, he employed a personal appeal. His own personal testimony.

I heard it quoted in my Contemporary Evangelism class one time, although I did not catch the professor’s name from the student who was quoting it,

“If you know enough to be saved, you know enough to lead someone to Christ.”
likely Dr. Matt Queen

That stuck with me in a big way. This one did too.

“No one can refute your personal story about what Christ has done in your life.”
Dr. Seiberhagen

One of the most valuable exercises I have participated in to be able to equip me share my testimony is writing it down. There is something about dragging a pen across the page or typing words so they’ll appear on paper or a screen that forces you to be still enough to truly think through your salvation and articulate it (meaning put into words). As far as sharing the gospel goes, your own testimony is one of the best, easily accessible tools in your toolkit because it is your personal story about how Jesus changed your life which makes it far more difficult to forget.

In doing this exercise with our youth one time, asking them to write their evangelistic testimony (tell me about when you were saved) one of our youth approached us and said he had just realized he didn’t have a testimony and was not saved. I had shared my own testimony as a way of modeling to them how to both write it and share it, then go back in and add the verses from the Bible that helped share truth about coinciding events happening in their own story. He realized there was never a point that he recognized Jesus had paid the wage of sin for him or professed with his mouth Jesus as Lord after repenting of those sins. It was because of the Lord obviously, but his family and mine were somewhat similar, and because the major faith tradition I had been raised in was similar to what he had heard, something about my realization about sin and the cost of it from my personal testimony ,coupled with the Scriptures to support how to have Jesus Venmo that to him (yah…that’s not in Scripture) clicked with him just the way it had with me when Josh McDowell shared the gospel at a concert when I was 13. Your personal testimony is an easier conversation to have than walking up so someone and saying HEY DO YOU KNOW MY FRIEND JESUS!!!!??????

There are many tools you can use to get to that question too, but if you haven’t built a decent relationship with them through conversation or life or don’t have a reputation for being goofy it may turn someone away rather than to Christ!

One of the easiest ways to insert the gospel into a conversation that I have personally witnessed youth doing is FIRE….we actually used to call it FIRM but since I’m a firearms instructor and DR. B called it fire in class we adopted that….plus it makes me think of the flaming tongues coming down at Pentecost so the gospel could be shared to everyone everywhere in different languages, which is what FIRE is all about.

Family- You might ask if they have brothers or sisters and then share about your own.

IInterest-You might ask if they play sports, have hobbies, or have pets, and share about your own.

Religion (think holidays) You might ask their favorite holiday or if they celebrate Christmas or Easter and then share how and WHY you do.

Evangelism- If they celebrate Christmas and Easter because they profess to be Christian too, you can rejoice with them and tell them about when you first believed, if they don’t you can transition really easily from why you celebrate Christmas and Easter the way you do, share your testimony, and offer them an opportunity to ask questions or respond.

This is helpful for evangelism with people you don’t know.

What about everyday conversations with people you do know?

Still intentional…. You have to be intentionally committed to allowing or steering the conversation there when given an opportunity. This doesn’t always look like sharing the Romans Road. It may look like.

Friend: “Why aren’t you coming to the party?”

Me: “Well there’s going to be things going on there that I don’t need or want to be tempted to participate in. I remember what happened the last time (he/she) had a party and what went down. I’m asking the Lord to give me wisdom to help me understand when I need to stay away from or avoid tempting situations.”

This gives you an opportunity to not only live out the faith you profess, but you could then easily transition into your testimony or a FIRE conversation with this friend. Some of these questions you likely will already know the answer to, so it will be easier. Don’t forget to ask your friend what they think, or if they have any questions about it or would like to respond.

Friend: “Why do you always have your little brother in the car with you even when you’re just dropping off a boy after church?”

Me: “Well he’s cute, I’m cute, together we know we’re cute which could have the potential to escalate into something that doesn’t honor God so if my Little Bro is always with us then his presence keeps us both accountable.”

When your friends start seeing you talk about and make decisions based on the faith you say you believe, it becomes an opportunity to model Biblical behavior and an easy way to transition to gospel conversations where you get the opportunity to tell them about Jesus and disciple, after all, Jesus said to teach them to obey all I have commanded-make disciples!

You may even try FIRE with them, already having some of the answers, you may carry a gospel track with you that you can use as an outline when sharing the scriptures, you may use the 3 circles app-story. Sharing the gospel is just like anything else, the more you practice the better you become. It’s a great idea to equip yourself with different tools you feel comfortable with like the 3 circles app, FIRE, and carrying a written copy of your testimony with a highlighted track in your purse, phone case or wallet you can use as an outline. You can’t use a flat head screwdriver on a Phillips head screw, nor could you bang in a nail with your Phillips head screwdriver, you might be able to, but both of you might be worse for the wear after, it certainly wouldn’t be the best tool for the job. Different tools are better in different situations. Also don’t hesitate to get with friend and practice sharing your testimony and role play these conversations, this will make it so much easier when the opportunity arises with others!

What about questions you can’t answer? NO ONE knows everything! I think just because we went to college forever, sometimes my kids and our youth think we know everything….really I think it just impressed upon me the fact that I have a lifetime of learning to do because God is A LOT…..which means you’re going to encounter questions you don’t know the answers to. That doesn’t necessarily mean you drag the asker to your pastor or youth pastor’s office and lock them in there. It’s a great time to say, “you know what, I’m not sure, but I’d love to find out with you.” Then you appeal to someone who may have a direction in the Bible you should look so you can all mine(dig it out) the Scripture together! That’s how discipleship starts organically (naturally without forcing it)! Without you even having to try! Did Jesus say make disciples or just make converts? Disciples are those who have been taught about the word of God in a way that they can teach someone else. A convert is someone who has just believed in the truth of the gospel message and received or professed Christ. Untether yourself from feeling like you need to know everything before you can start, know you’re going to need to study, and use it as an opportunity to do discipleship! Remember, “if you know enough to be saved, you know enough to lead someone to Christ!”
Belonging

February 8th, 2023

Everyone likes to feel like they belong, desire it even. The Prince George water tower even says, “You Belong Here, or something like that. Feeling like I belong somewhere has been a struggle for me my entire life. As an Air Force brat, we moved around a lot, so I wasn’t “from” one place with all of these connections to people I had known my whole life. We weren’t incredibly close to my parent’s families, so we didn’t often visit them. My dad was adopted and while I loved what I knew of my grandparents who had adopted him, they were truly wonderful people, I always wondered where he’d come from. I’ve filled out a billion different applications and there’s not a box for “I don’t know” under ethnicity. I just wondered where his side of the family had come from. For years we were told he was Native American, and I grew up learning everything I could about different tribes of Native Americans and feeling like I was connected to something much bigger. When we lived in Oklahoma, I was able to really embrace what I thought were my roots and attend festivals and ceremonies. We had a compelling argument to believe that was the truth and even my dad embraced that heritage.

Through a series of events, dad took an ancestry DNA test, and I was able to recover a piece of his adoption record. I was really interested in trying to trace our family history especially for medical reasons. Everything we had been told was false, the document from the adoption record did not list a father but everything we had been told about the biological mother was incorrect. If my dad had been Native American, it was supposed to have been on her side and that was clearly not the case. His DNA test revealed no Native American origin. Dad and I were crushed. I had been raised to believe that was my heritage and where I came from. It affected the pair of us tremendously.

Fast forward two years, I was helping our oldest son do research, both on ancestry.com and through personal family records, for his final project in one of his history classes in college. My husband’s family is very well documented, we were able to trace his dad’s side all the way back to the Revolutionary War, and actually across the pond even! It was exciting and tethering, at least for my kids. I had a lot of information on my mother’s side filled out for Wesley but on my dad’s side, it was just me and dad, and my uncle who was adopted with my dad.

Photo by Aaditya Arora on Pexels.com

Fast forward another year, my hubby had an amazing opportunity with the company that he works for to enlarge his sphere of influence and serve them in a greater capacity. This meant uprooting from his hometown where he had lived his entire life, and I had lived with him for 22 years, the place I had finally started calling home, and forgetting I wasn’t actually “from” there. We moved north for 6 months and then halfway across the country. This is the essence of “Untethered.” I thought I’d respond to it better than he would because this was my childhood all over again. I had experience with moving. What I was not prepared for was that I finally felt like I really belonged somewhere, so when people in our new place ask where we are from, I struggle with the answer, because I’m not technically from anywhere. The tailspin was and still is rough, BUT GOD.

I often do an exercise with youth and others for several different reasons which is derived from the movie, “Overcomer.” The principal, played by Pricilla Shirer, encourages the girl in the movie to look at the first two chapters of Ephesians and underline or highlight all of the things the Bible tells her that she is in Christ, and make an “I AM” list. Look at the example below.

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he^[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship^[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹he^[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

¹¹In him we were also chosen,^[e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:3-14

From the verses I see that in Christ I am, blessed, chosen, loved, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, marked, God’s possession. For someone feeling unwanted, unloved, and like they don’t belong, these are powerful words. That God knows all your crazy, all your sins, shortcomings, and failures and still loved you enough to send His son, Jesus, to die for those sins. That he still loves and wants me (and you) even though I’m a mess!

When I see “marked” it makes me think of another verse in Revelation 3 where Jesus is having John write letters to the churches encouraging, rebuking, and exhorting them. At one point He says I will write on him the name of my God, later in 22:4, it says His name will be on their foreheads. It makes me think of Toy Story though, when Buzz and Woody share a bond even though they are very different, because they both belong to Andy and the bottom of their feet have “ANDY” written on them. If I was ever to get a tattoo, I think I’d get Jesus on the bottom of my foot! Because I do belong, I am His and He says He will confess my name before His Father!

I have an origin story and roots that go far beyond this fallen, broken world, and you do too. In Jeremiah 1:5 God tells Jeremiah that God knew him before God formed him in his mother’s womb and set Jeremiah apart to be God’s prophet to the nations. This is just as true for us as it was for Jeremiah, God knew us before He formed us in our mother’s womb too.

In Psalm 139:13, David while praising God, says that God created his innermost being and knit him together in his mother’s womb. We are truly God’s and there is such comfort in knowing that we belong to Him, and He promises to be with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that because we have repented and believed we will see Him face to face for all eternity. I AM FROM somewhere; I am a citizen of heaven on assignment here! Maybe I don’t know my ethnicity, and where my family has lived over the generations, but I know that I am a child of God and I have a huge family of believers all over the globe. I’m tethered to them through the bond we have in Christ. Whether you admit or believe it or not, you have a Creator, your manufacturer and mine are the same, you don’t even have to be a believer to have that in common with me, so we are bonded in a way too. I am so grateful to belong to God and to be wanted, chosen, loved, and adopted into the body of Christ where I find my purpose and belonging.
Hinds Feet

February 6th, 2023

Check out this Alpine Ibex would ya, can you see that valley WAY below him and that luscious grass all around him? How did he get up there? Why did he go up there? My family and I love the outdoors, especially animals! I recycled this from a project of devotionals I wrote for a mission trip to Alaska because I think of it often and have to remind myself of what God’s word says versus the thoughts that seep into my head that aren’t in alignment with what Scripture tells us. I was struggling with that today and decided to head out into the sunshine and look at God’s magnificent creation around me. I love how much we can learn from creation and how God’s incredible, intelligent design of creation helps us to not only recognize the hand of God, but in observing it and reading Scripture, to understand our Creator better.

Ever heard Scriptures that talk about hinds feet?

READ: Habakkuk 3:19; 2 Samuel 22:34; Psalm 18:33

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. Hab 3:19-

He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me on my high places. 2 Sam 22:34-

He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me upon my high places. Psalm 18:33-

While some translations render “hinds feet” as “feet of a deer”, which is very similar to this ibex and many mountain goats as they are both ungulates (hoofed, in this case two-toed which makes for better coordination) and ruminants (4 chambered stomach, able to eat pretty much anything), as well as fast, and incredibly graceful the most literal word for word translations (such as the NASB 95) from the original language reads “hinds feet”.

As illustrated by the picture, this ibex is capable of climbing in the most treacherous terrain as his hinds feet are designed by our Creator to do to find sustenance, safety where predators which are not made the same way would find it most difficult to follow, and tread a path only his feet were designed to travel to receive all that he needs while living out his purpose.

If my feet are like hinds feet, I’m sure footed in what appears to be impassable terrain, as I climb in pursuit of the sustenance of the Lord and grow closer to Him, he sets me on high places regardless of the seemingly impossible route. When Scripture repeats phrases or ideas, we can understand they’re important, it’s a way of emphasizing a point. Another phrase or idea repeated multiple times is “fear not” (Josh 1:9, Isa 43:1, Psalm 56, Deut 31:6), while it might seem instinctive to be fearful of sheer cliffs and find another route for travel, when I trust that my creator has designed me to travel through anything put before me because HE sets me on high places, I know I don’t have to be afraid because HE will be with me wherever I go, another “big idea” repeated in Scripture (Matt 28:20, Deut 31:6, Josh 1:9).

Hinds feet make me capable of 1^st pursuing the Lord regardless of the circumstance, they make me capable of stopping at nothing to share the good news of Jesus Christ when those hinds feet are shod with gospel of peace! (Eph 6:15) As we find ourselves in the many different circumstances that life has to offer, may we trust our creator more, knowing that He tells us he has designed us to handle what we are going through as we lean into Him and trust Him, and not only that, we don’t have to be afraid because He will be with us as we traverse whatever is before us. We can walk skillfully with our hinds feet high above our circumstances as we cling to Him and stop at nothing in our pursuit of Him and others with preparation of the gospel of peace! Untether yourself from fear, doubt, and uncertainty and boldly walk worthy in pursuit of Christ and sharing his good news with others!

*Side note- if you are an email subscriber, as soon as I hit publish these go straight to your email. Occasionally, especially the other day, I received some questions and went back and edited for clarity and added some answers. You can always access the entire list of posts by going to www.lifeuntetered5.wordpress.com/list-of-posts
Where Does Your Theology Come From

February 4th, 2023

It’s funny the simple things that turn into teachable moments. One time while I was teaching a combined history lesson to our kids our outside dogs bayed solid in the fence line of our driveway. The distraction, too much to ignore and continue with the history lesson, I very quickly went outside to investigate and see what kind of critter they had managed to coral. Upon further inspection, I discovered a very cornered nine-banded armadillo which I rescued from the fence and the dogs and brought back to the porch. The history lesson was something we could come back to at a later date, we had the most amazing opportunity to have a hands-on (gloved) biology lesson before turning our new friend loose in a safe place. The perks of a nontraditional classroom and nontraditional teaching are endless, opportunities for teachable moments that are usually far more impactful come at the least scheduled times, and rarely in a classroom!

Our poor kids probably crave normal and boring outings because their dad and I rarely fail to seize a teachable moment, even when watching television. There have been many movies, “Christian” and secular, that have provided us the opportunity for theological conversations. Recently my daughter sarcastically remarked out loud while watching a movie, “but I thought all sins are equal.” In the movie one of the characters, while standing in front of a copy of the Lord’s prayer and several of the ten commandments, told her son that murder was the greatest sin of them all. Instantly, because Gracie has actually read her Bible, she knew that to be incorrect, as James 2:10 teaches us that “whoever keeps the whole law but fails at one point is guilty of all of it.” There are other movies that portray a Biblical narrative that don’t line up with what the Word of God actually says.

We have a tendency to choose the easy path, movies are easier than reading books and I have even been guilty of reading the Cliffs notes version of a book in high school a couple times. Passing or failing an exam on “Great Expectations” or “Hamlet” in high school based off of sufficient or insufficient information is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but what is a big deal, is not having a proper understanding of God and his great love for you and how he has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him because you based it off of books, movies, music, commentaries, and devotionals rather than His actual Word. This is not to say that some devotionals, books, and commentaries aren’t actually excellent, and some movies can be helpful wrap your mind around timelines and events. I love to read both and have some favorite authors even but, THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR READING THE WORD OF GOD! If ever something contradicts, I always let God’s word be the authority, I wouldn’t recognize a contradiction unless I was also reading the Word of God!

side note* If ya’ll aren’t reading these blogs with a southern accent and a head weave and maybe clapping after each fully capitalized word, you’re missing out! If you’ve ever had a class with me, you’re probably definitely already doing that!!

READ YOUR BIBLE
M. Henderson and every Sunday School, youth, and Bible teacher who has ever lived or ever will! …..also did ya clap?

Hollywood’s job isn’t to make sure your movies, are 100% theologically sound, it’s to entertain. One of the questions I received years ago after a television show one of the youth had watched was whether or not we became angels when we die, and if we get our wings. Angels are created beings as are humans, in the same way a cat doesn’t become a hamster when it dies, a human doesn’t become an angel. Psalm 8:5 tells us we (humans) were created a little lower than the angels. Genesis tells us that God created everything after its own kind, for example, angels after angels, cows after cows, there may be different types, or races but they’re all the same. Further, when Paul tells the people of Corinth that people will judge angels, that’s another clear indication that humans don’t turn into angels.

It’s so important to READ YOUR BIBLE, not the cliffs notes, and not the movies, it’s important not to come to the Bible to search for proof of what you have already made your mind up about. The Bible needs to be the authority, read it and let it correct your ideologies, and inform you. I have had plenty of times where I was convicted by the Holy Spirit while reading Scripture!

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 NASB95

When you allow the Bible to be the authority and you commit yourself to reading it and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you through it while you read, you are able to measure incorrect ideologies against it and not fall prey to the lies of devil. When the author of the authority in your life is God you cannot go wrong, but, when you place a human, be it yourself, or someone else through their movies, teaching, or writing that’s when you could find yourself in trouble. I’m fallible, I’m human, I can make mistakes, I don’t want or mean to, but it can happen, so can you and everyone else out there. God does not. Untether yourself from worldly theological ideas especially for entertainment purposes and tether yourself to the word of God which never changes and never fails! This doesn’t mean don’t watch movies or do Bible study books or devotionals, or look at commentaries. I love them, it means don’t neglect your reading and studying of the actual Word of God alongside those things and always let His word be the authority if there’s a discrepancy.
Gurl Me TOO

February 2nd, 2023

So last blog I inundated ya’ll with a ton of Scripture and only part of a conversation Gracie and I had had, and not much context into the Scripture passage…believe it or not I could have written even more on that…but then it would have turned into WAY more than a blog…I won’t do that today! But, today’s blog is based on conversation too, several of them actually.

Often, I get in my own head, I’m an overthinker, that song that says, “it’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me” is so accurate when it comes to the source of my anxiety and stress. And before ya’ll get triggered, yes, I KNOW the Bible says to “not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”(Phil 4:6) I’m working on it ya’ll, I promise! If you deal with this mess, you know that you KNOW you have blessings and logically you can see truth and reason, but you have to hitch those feelings to your engine of obedience and fight through and force them to follow to get the train down the track because they just don’t want to get on board sometimes.

That’s exactly what this post is about actually, the “if you deal with this too.” One of the most eye-opening weeks I have had recently was joining my hubby on a work trip and getting to have lunch and adventure with several of the wives of his teammates. Every single one of them is in my position now or has gone through it recently. They understand the struggles because they’ve been through them. As we sat there and shared with one another and were honest, and vulnerable with each other I began to feel less alone and definitely like I had a support system of ladies who understood me. We kept saying, GURL ME TOO!

I had a similar conversation with friend this morning, the Lord had laid her on my heart on several occasions, so I just decided to text her and basically says, “hey gurl hey, you ok?” I mean that isn’t exactly how the conversation went down and I actually stopped and prayed for her and prayed for my reaching out to her but as we sat there and visited through text back and forth and discussed some of our struggles, we had a “me too” moment. We both felt seen and heard and were able to encourage one another and not feel like we were on islands by ourselves. Sometimes you just have to row on over to your friend’s island and see what they have going on that you can get into with them or help them with! Truthfully, its biblical. We weren’t meant to do all of this alone. In fact, alone is the place where you’re easiest to pick off, just like those animals the lions, hyenas, and leopards go after. They don’t get the ones in the middle of the group, they get the isolated ones. We truly are better together.

My friend this morning reminded me of a Harry Potter quote that I had just watched, she said it’s just like when Luna Lovegood tells Harry, “Well if I were “You-Know-Who,” I’d want you to feel cut off from everyone else, because if it’s just you alone, you’re not as much of a threat.” Ummm exactly, this is exactly the kind of tactic the devil will employ! What does God’s word say?

This is exactly what groups like MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) is about. I remember being a young mother of young children and feeling so alone and like I was the only one struggling with all the things I was. I spoke at a MOPS meeting before, but my message wasn’t the beauty of MOPS, I don’t know if I added any real value at all, the beauty of that meeting was seeing all of those mothers leaning into each other and having, GURL ME TOO, moments and leaning into the Lord and encouraging one another.

I was thumbing through Charlie Mackesy’s book, “The boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” this morning. They had some, girl me too, moments too. One of which I’ll share from the book below.

When we open up to each other and get vulnerable and honest with each other, we connect and are able to share each other’s loads and not feel alone.

As a society we have incorrectly associated vulnerability as a weakness. Quite the opposite is true, Brene Brown has some of the best dialogue I’ve seen when it comes to being vulnerable, here’s a snapshot of some of her quotes,

In order to have “gurl me too” moments and to truly connect with each other and support each other we have to untether from vulnerability as a weakness and have the courage to be vulnerable with each other. Granted, some measure of consideration into wise counsel should be given, especially given the nature about what you are about to divulge. But find your people and jump into the trench with them. Be an encouragement to them and let them know they are not alone, let them encourage you! When we recognize we are all broken crayons that can still color, we acknowledge our brokenness and our weaknesses and let God do what only he can do! God’s grace is sufficient for you, his strength (which is infinite) is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinth 12:9) It takes bringing your broken pieces to the Lord and coloring with them anyway so he can oversee the masterpiece that’s the big picture of what all those broken pieces are coloring together!
You are Not Your Own

February 1st, 2023

I LOVED my kids when they were babies, I LOVED them when they were toddlers and when they were preteens too. One of the stages of life you rarely hear parents say they loved is their teen years, but I’m happy to report that I have LOVED that stage too. There have been different aspects of each stage to treasure, I think one of the most fun stages has been their teenage and young adult years. They are now big enough and coordinated enough to adventure with and we have certainly done our fair share of adventuring, but they are also really developing into adults with their own opinions and beliefs about the world around them and we get to have some amazing conversations.

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi on Pexels.com

Very often, as it was today, our conversations are prompted by their discussion topics on their dual credit and college courses. We have an in-person discussion as they word their thoughts so they can type them up and post them for their classes. Gracie, working in her Theology class, was studying moralistic therapeutic deism and preparing to evaluate society from her viewpoint to ascertain if she thought today’s society was representative of it or not. Those are definitely college words! Liberty never disappoints! So, what is that and what did she decide, and we discuss?

According to her professor, moralistic therapeutic deism would be, being a good moral person, feeling good about oneself, feeling good, secure, and at peace, and with regard to deism not about repentance, obedience, or suffering and seeing God as being far away, absent. This emerged from a book called “Soul Searching” in 2005. Do we see this in society today? Both mine and Gracie’s responses were yes, we see a constant stream of quotes and memes encouraging people to put themselves first, to do whatever makes them happy. I read one this morning that said something to the effect of it is not your responsibility to sacrifice for anyone else, do what’s best for you. We can never forget the YOLO movement either, you only live once, do what makes you happy and whatever you want. Live it up! Additionally, the self-care memes and quotes are in no deficit either, but I’ll mention self-care in a bit as some measure of self-care is necessary but likely not for the reason that the movement boasts.

That was the general gist of our discussion about the existence of this thought process in society. Now why would her Theology professor want her to be aware of it and how does it line up with God’s word? That’s where the learning and growing begins. It doesn’t line up with God’s word. In fact, almost all of it is counter to God’s word, just reading the book of Philippians alone would allow you to realize that.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any ^[a]affection and compassion, ²make my joy complete ^[b]by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ³Do nothing ^[c]from ^[d]selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵Have this attitude ^[e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be ^[f]grasped, ⁷but ^[g]emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and ^[h]being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death ^[i]on a cross. ⁹For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, both to ^[j]desire and to work for His good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without complaining or arguments; ¹⁵so that you will ^[k]prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you ^[l]appear as ^[m]lights in the world, ¹⁶holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. ¹⁸You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

Philippians 2:1-18 NASB95 (BibleGateway)

Those verses alone would be enough to illustrate the incongruities but, since there is a therefore, we could benefit from going back and looking to see what the therefore is there for. In doing this we’ll actually discover more incongruities as the previous verses in Chapter 1 of Philippians, verses 21-30 detail what Godly living is. Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain, living a Christlike life does mean sacrifice and we know from James chapter 1 that we will encounter trials of many kinds. Paul calls living on in the flesh fruitful labor, which indicates work, he encourages the church at Philippi and us, to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. This indicates that when you’re living for yourself and putting yourself first that you’re essentially your own god. You are seeking to serve self rather than Jesus. When it’s all about “me” it’s not all about Christ.

I will say there’s a difference in taking care of yourself with proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, etc. Sometimes we fill our plates with so much that taking a break to rest and rejuvenate is necessary, even Jesus attempted to go away with his disciples and rest.

When you are truly living for Christ, you know you were bought with a price and your life isn’t about you anymore, it’s necessary to untether from worldly ideologies and tether to the Word of God as the ultimate authority.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20