Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thank YOU so much for stopping by and joining me today for more of our Seven Sacrifices to Joy! I just love knowing we have this time together and that I can share from my heart to yours all that He teaches me and thereafter requires of me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve tied quite a few knots in this second sacrifice! I hope you have, too! Grab your Red Strand of Faith and your coffee, and let’s go finish up with this second sacrifice before March is gone!
So what else is considered a Sacrifice of Righteousness? I found something interesting in Psalm 4:5: “Offer the sacrifices” -- (plural) … “of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.” (Emphasis on and added) Hmmm, that got me to thinking – uh-oh -- does trusting the Lord then count as a Sacrifice of Righteousness, or is it at least a part of it anyway?
For many of us, that last part is every bit as hard as the first part! I have to confide in you: the more I offer a sacrifice of righteousness, the easier it is to let go, let God, to trust Him with all my soul hurts, my trials and tribulations, my overall well-being! It’s actually liberating, freeing, like spreading your wings and flying … off of a cliff; scary at first but oh, what a feeling.
Our Father loves us too much to leave us the way that we are, and He does what He needs to do to insure we have learned a lesson well enough to begin putting it into practice. Oftentimes, there is a price tag attached to the lesson!

What is the cost? Well, that will depend upon how much trust we have in Him who is in control       versus ourselves. Various price tags include, but are not limited to: the loss of a promotion, a job, and even a friendship or friendships and the price tag may even include some ridicule and/or mockery for good measure. STOP! Let’s talk about this price tag as it relates to these things that become such big desires that we can sometimes lose focus of their correct priority.

First, there is a verse that keeps rising to the door of my heart bursting to get out: Blessed are those who are persecuted for thy name’s sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The NIV say it like this and this translation really spells it out in a relevant way: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

See, no matter how I try to escape the subject of people, we always wind up there!

Friends, these words are from Abba Himself! He’s giving us a heads-up that these things will happen! He knows that people that we come to care about will talk about us negatively, say false things about us and cause great emotional wounds, but here’s the deal: most of the time they don’t realize it’s because of Him in you! That’s when it’s really difficult to offer up a sacrifice of righteousness.

Let me give you some promises for perseverance that will help you to offer up a Sacrifice of Righteousness, no matter who, or what, is attempting to steal your joy:
HE will defend us; He will fight our battles [Exodus 14:14] [Jeremiah 51:36a]; He will vindicate and validate so don’t hesitate! He is a shield to those who take refuge in HIM so don’t hide behind others! [Proverbs 30:5]. It comes down to taking Him at His Word and letting pride die instead of reside … in our heart. This is a sacrifice of righteousness.
Well, that’s almost a wrap … we’ll pick up here next week, but, please, Join us tomorrow for Croley’s Corner @ Chicklit Power and Faith Filled Fridays!
Love,

 Evinda

Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Oh, it’s so good to write from my heart to yours! I pray that my learned lesson acts as preventative medicine for you in your journey toward Destination? Joyful! ™ Grab your coffee and let’s get back to the second sacrifice that makes our Father smile, a sacrifice of righteousness.
In what other ways might we offer up a Sacrifice of Righteousness? As I considered that question in my own life, and did some research in others’ lives, I realized there are some very important elements that go along with offering up a Sacrifice of Righteousness and they have to do with the condition of the heart!
Here’s something to think about: the more room you give someone in your heart, the more power they have over you. Could this be why relationships/others are the most challenging lessons in the classroom of life?
Wow, a light just went on for me … like a shooting star in the middle of the night that thinks no one is watching. Could keeping score prevent us from offering a Sacrifice of Righteousness? ABSODARNLUTELY! I’ve seen it over and over again in the Relationship trenches. And again, not to belabor my experience, as I listened to this person bring up perceived wrongs from months prior, I was stunned into silence as I realized that not only was she receiving and perceiving information incorrectly, but she had been keeping score so by the time we met to resolve these things that had become issues unbeknownst to me, she was like a pot boiling over. I truly felt compassion for her as I realized life had taught her to become a great score-keeper!
When people cannot get past an old hurt because they choose not to forgive and let go, they do not move forward in life. Instead, they stay stuck and often get buried in unresolved misperceptions.
But, you say, it doesn’t mean I’m going to forget … is forgiveness and forgetting the same thing? Ah, such a good question. I wish by forgiving that we could forget, and for some things it is possible, but for some things, especially matters of the flesh, forgetting becomes a little more difficult. In our relationship trench class last week, someone asked me about that, and I could see that they were truly struggling to understand. As I looked around the room, I could literally see the expectancy on almost every face in the class. I took a deep breath in, calling upon Him to speak through me as I thought of the least complicated way to explain the difference.
I pointed to my husband as I began. “That man has hurt me before … many times; and I have hurt him. But I don’t remember what he’s done that has caused my heart to hurt; I haven’t been keeping score, and neither has he, so we’ve been able to move forward. And then there’s the things that my step-dad did to me … things that I do not wish to glorify by speaking about, but because they were done to my flesh, and the flesh has a memory all of its own, many of those things have not been forgotten but I have forgiven him and have moved victoriously forward in my life. How do I know? My painful past has been used to fuel my passion and His platform!”
You could have heard a pin drop and I continued.
“Now, if there’s something that comes up and you feel a little pricking, a little poking that causes you the slightest twinge, then there’s still some un-forgiveness in there and the best thing to do is to confess it. Some things take a process to forgive … “
I think they got it; did you? Let me leave you with one final thought on this type of Sacrifice of Righteousness:
Forgetting cannot be used as a crutch to never make my way up Forgiveness Road!
Learning to offer up a Sacrifice of Righteousness,

 Evinda

Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

It’s a great day for more of this journey through the Seven Sacrifices to Joy! Grab your coffee, your Red Strand of Faith, and, please, come join me as I give you a front-row seat to yet another real-life lesson He prepared for me to learn in my quest for meekness!
I don’t know about you, but when I am having a really difficult time with a really difficult person, my first reaction is not to do the celebratory happy dance and high-five my neighbor. In fact, many times I just want to run, hide and the more invested, the deeper the heart hurts! But what if I were to tell you that it is possible to do the happy dance and experience victory when dealing with a hedgehog? I have experienced freedom in this area recently and I know that I know that I know that what I endured led to a sacrifice of righteousness, but I’ll explain that a little later. It would take me on a long detour and I want to stay on track!
This truth is becoming a more beautiful reality to me as I work with hurt people who continue to hurt people. The reality of it reminds me of Jesus’ lesson on retaliation that He gave to the crowd of people on the Mount, as well as to you and me. In Matthew 5:39 He says: “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Oh, but there’s a mouthful right here. Let’s explore what it means to resist because at first glance, this doesn’t seem to make sense without any digging. I mean, I’m thinking in my initial thought process that resist can mean to turn away from but let’s see what the Greek concordance says.
Hmm, the actual Greek word is interesting: “anthistemi,” pronounced “anth-is-tay-mee” and it comes from the Greek word anti. Well, looking at the prefix, I automatically go to anti being against but hold on here; there’s more. The actual definition for this context is: to stand against, i.e., oppose, withstand.”
So if we break it down, “anti” means against, and “histemi” means to cause to stand.
So, what is Jesus telling us? Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side? Is this really a sacrifice of righteousness?
What a baffling and mind-boggling question and/or concept, one that is too hard to digest without our spiritual selves, so please remember that component as we dig to understand what in the world Jesus is telling us in Matthew 5:39!
According to Matthew Henry, that is exactly what He’s saying! He says: “The plain instruction is ‘Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort’.”
That may sound incredibly confusing, but oh my goodness; I just got a word picture! I hope with all my being that I can help you see it too! The “evil” that Jesus is referring to in this context is not the enemy himself, rather, the human acting in their flesh!!!!!
Oh, how easily I can see myself in that word picture now! Have you ever acted out of your fleshly desires or emotions, for example, out of anger or jealousy? This renders me humbled; what about you? But oh, the beauty of His grace that weaves forgiveness and favor in the tapestry of our lives, the very thread of grace having no obvious pattern for its necessity is everywhere. His mercies are new every morning because He knows we live in a tent of flesh and must resist the countless temptations to act out of our flesh!
Oh, friend, He who began a new and good work will be faithful to complete it … until the time of Christ! Stay in the journey and on the path of His grace and this tendency will decrease and your righteousness increase!

Until tomorrow,

Evinda

Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

It’s a great day to seek joy! Grab your coffee and your Strand of Faith and let’s return to the seven sacrifices that add richness of gold to our joy. I’m so glad there’s you to take this journey with me!
Before we move on to the second sacrifice to joy, I just want to share one more thing with you about the sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:15 reminds us that a spiritual sacrifice of praise needs to come from the heart and is prompted by the Spirit, which is exactly what happened in my situation with my hubby. And as I think about one of my recent tests in Meekness 101, I have to acknowledge that greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world. It’s His Spirit in me moving me away from me, teaching me to right the wrong, immediately, instead of resorting to old behaviors and being stuck on stupid or bitter!  In other words, we must remember the spiritual part of ourselves in all circumstances!
A sacrifice of praise not only stirs up our joy but increases our joy!
A sacrifice of praise leads us right into the second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness. Psalm 4:5 tells us to "offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord."
Well, that sounds a little holy, huh? For me, those eleven words are shedding some glorious light into a dark situation that He used to help me unlearn and relearn some powerful truths that are shaping me in the area of ministry and especially meekness. But like any huge test, it requires a lot of studying, and more studying and only when it’s applied can it really sink in  it’s a grueling and exhausting process at times. Thinking about it gives me a sort of emotional hang-over. I’ve been known to mutter, “Lord, why do you have to use so many people to teach me all these lessons?”
Have you ever felt like that, a bit beat up and weary by others?  Despite the way that this most recent test ended, there were moments where I felt that this person’s bitterness was like poison, a hot, searing poison that oozed out and threatened to harden my heart a bit instead of melt it and make it right!
Whew, I know, that may be a bit too transparent for you but I’m humbled that despite me, He wants to speak to me so He can speak through me.
We will do some digging into a sacrifice of righteousness, but for now, let me share what it is speaking to my heart: See, when someone wrongs you, how likely are you to offer a sacrifice of righteousness? NOT! Well, trust me; He doesn’t give you a test without giving you all the answers! He’s an incredibly fair Professor/Teacher!
I am currently attending a leadership class (working on my Bachelor’s in Ministry; I’m seriously excited) and I am reading an amazing book called On Being a Servant of God by Warren W. Wiersbe and let me tell you, I have more of his words highlighted than not! There are so many powerfully encouraging truths in this book about ministry, and they are truly speaking to me in this class of Meekness 101, enabling me to offer up a sacrifice of praise. I can honestly see how each of these tests in this class have stretched me just a little more toward righteousness, even when I don’t get such a good grade in the current test!
In his book, Warren reminds us that “ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels.” Everyone can be a minister! He also says, paraphrasing, that people not only have problems, but can be problems and just because we are in ministry doesn’t make us any more deserving of His grace than those causing us problems! In fact, we are to remain loving channels!
He compared those problematic and difficult people to hedgehogs and I couldn’t help but giggle especially when I put a face to the hedgehog! Here’s his analogy about those difficult people, aka, hedgehogs: “the closer you get to them, the more they stick and poke you with their protective quills”! That got me to thinking … uh-oh, we’re on dangerous ground now! Could it be that hedgehogs are His chosen mascot for this school of life?
Here’s a crazy truth that I have experienced to be true and that His Word confirms: Those very people that are poking, sticking us, and hurting us don’t deserve His grace any less than us! If Jesus continues to love the wrong right out of me, how then can I not be motivated by His love to love those hedgehogs?
But here is the other side of that truth: When we get there, He’s not going to talk to us about what they did to hurt us in the way of poking, sticking, etcetera; He’s going to talk with us about our reactions to their actions!
Why? God is as concerned about the lesson as He is about the learner! When someone becomes a hedgehog in our life, what is our first response? Do we try and trap them, conquer them, one-up them, put on our horns and ram them? Or do we maybe manipulate them or retaliate and hurt them back? Do we try and sting them with our words? Do we fight an external fight hoping for an eternal reward?
What if God allowed that hedgehog to saunter right up and into our lives to help us become more righteous by becoming more dependent on Him, less dependent on our own abilities? I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s no coincidence that I’m taking the class I’m taking, reading a book totally un-required to the class but having everything to do with the class and what He’s currently teaching me. This assures me that He will continue to provide you and me with all the answers to any test He’s ever going to give us, no matter what class it is. Oh, that we would remain teachable, hungry to leave our pride outside of each class that we might learn how to offer up a sacrifice of righteousness and earn the prize!
Join me tomorrow for more of this second sacrifice.

Evinda

When Hurting People Hurt you, What do you do?

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…

Welcome back to our continued journey toward Destination? Joyful! God is good; all the time, God is good, even when I fall short! Can I get an Amen? Grab your coffee and let’s try and wrap up the second sacrifice, the sacrifice of righteousness which is a huge contribution to our Cup of Joy!
The price tag for a sacrifice of righteousness may be the loss of a promotion, a job, and even a friendship or friendships and the price tag may even include some ridicule and/or mockery for good measure. STOP! Let’s talk about this price tag as it relates to these things that become such big desires that we can sometimes lose focus of their correct priority.
First, there is a verse that keeps rising to the door of my heart bursting to get out: Blessed are those who are persecuted for thy name’s sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 5:10] The NIV say it like this and this translation really spells it out in a relevant way: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”
Friends, these words are from Abba Himself! He’s giving us a heads-up that these things will happen! He knows that people that we come to care about will talk about us negatively, say false things about us and cause great emotional wounds, but here’s the deal: most of the time they don’t realize it’s because of Him in you! That’s when it’s really difficult to offer up a sacrifice of righteousness.
Just two days after missing the mark on turning the other cheek, I was presented with yet another opportunity to offer up a sacrifice of righteousness! Ugh, I guess He wants to make sure I get this one, and you know what they say about writers and teachers: they learn the most, probably because we need it the most, at least I do!
Have you ever come across someone who comes across incredibly harsh, opinionated and always has a critical thing to say about someone but after you get past that, you see someone with a soft heart, and other good qualities? Oh, I know a few and God has helped me to look past and try and know them beyond all of that unresolved stuff. After, all, isn’t that what He does with us?
Well, just a couple of days after the last incident wherein I failed to offer a sacrifice of righteousness by turning the other cheek, someone just like I described stepped on my emotional foot and in such a way that I couldn’t ignore it. I waited four days before I said ouch, but this time, the way I said ouch was in love in a card with a letter. I bathed it in prayer and sent it off.
I knew my heart was in the right place; my motive was to speak into her life and not out for the sake of our “friendship,” for the sake of Christ-desired unity! [Ephesians 4:3]
For the next couple of days, I put it in the back of my mind, though it stayed at the forefront of my prayers, and so when a response came at the end of our CPM Board meeting via Facebook messenger, I couldn’t wait to open it because I wanted our friendship to resume – neither of us initiating anything — and I just knew she would understand what I had tried to say. So, I did open it right as our board meeting ended, and got pulled into her message and away from my board members for as long as it took me to read it.
MISTAKE!
The color drained from my face as my heart fell to the ground and while it was down there, I continued to read and what I read not only verbally slapped me across my left cheek, but stomped all over my heart as if to be doing some angry dance.
Join me for my sacrifice of righteousness for this circumstance tomorrow!
Gripped in His arms,

Evinda

What's a Sacrifice of Righteousness? From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Destination? Joyful!

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…

It’s a great day to seek joy! Grab your coffee and let’s return to the seven sacrifices that add richness of gold to our joy.
Let’s finish up with the first sacrifice, the one of praise. Hebrews 13:15 reminds us that a spiritual sacrifice of praise needs to come from the heart and is prompted by the spirit, which is exactly what happened in my situation instead of me resorting to old behaviors! In other words, we must remember the spiritual part of ourselves in all circumstances! A sacrifice of praise not only stirs up our joy but increases our joy! When we offer a sacrifice of praise, that also leads us right into the second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness.
Sacrifice number two is righteousness. Psalm 4:5 tells us to “offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.”
Well, that sounds a little holy, huh? For me, those eleven words are speaking some serious light into a dark situation that just happened last night! I actually have an emotional hang-over as I’m writing this for you. Have you ever felt like that, a bit beat up and weary? Despite yet another situation rising to the level of an all-out fire, I find that my heart has hardened a bit and I don’t want my heart to melt to make it right!
Whew, I know, that may be a bit too transparent for you but I’m humbled that despite me, He wants to speak to me so He can speak through me.
We will do some digging into a sacrifice of righteousness, but for now, let me share what it is speaking to my heart: See, when someone wrongs you, how likely are you to offer a sacrifice of righteousness? NOT! I guess it’s the equivalent of Jesus’ lesson on retaliation that He gave to the crowd of people on the Mount, as well as to you and me. He says in Matthew 5:39: “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Oh, but there’s a mouthful right here. Let’s explore what it means to resist because at first glance, this doesn’t seem to make sense without any digging.
My first thought is that resist can mean to turn away from but let’s see what the Greek concordance says.
Okay, bear with me. First, I find the actual Greek word interesting: “anthistemi,” pronounced “anth-is-tay-mee” and it comes from the Greek word anti. Well, looking at the prefix, I automatically go to anti being against but hold on here; there’s more. The actual definition for this context is: to stand against, i.e., oppose, withstand.” Breaking it down, anti is against, and “histemi” is to cause to stand.
So, what is Jesus telling us? Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side? Join me tomorrow for the answer!
Seeking to offer a sacrifice of righteousness,

Evinda