A Garment of Praise

My friend is hurting. She is desperate for some relief from the pain she feels. It's so intense that she cannot sleep. When exhaustion finally drowns wakefulness, her dreams are restless and she wakes up disoriented and agonized. One day, the troubles of this life will be fleeting reality. In our ultimate reality, we will be fully loved, fully forgiven, fully free. The thing is: We are all of those things now as we abide in Christ. We just do not embrace the full love, forgiveness, and freedom of being IN Christ. You do know that it's all a lie that we are not completely forgiven, that no one could love us completely, that we will always be slaves to our sin. It's a thinly veiled disguise that the enemy is wearing. Look inside the sheep's head and see it for the dragon it is. Run from the lies! Isaiah 61 describes this favor of the Lord: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me." Yes, that's a good thing. The Spirit of the Lord is peace. We need that! The Spirit of the Lord is joy. We crave happiness! The Spirit of the Lord is on us to do good to each other; to tell each other that we are loved; to remind each other of the bond of love we share in Christ. I think one of the wonderful perks of being on mission for God--going out of our comfort zone--is the way we are forced to lean on Him for everything. When we were in Arizona on mission, I could feel the Body being a cooperating, supporting system as she should be. Back inside our cocoons, we often retreat into our own resources to find solutions. We have a mission. Each of us has one. We get to put bandaids on each other's hurting hearts. We get to tell everyone, "This way to the Escape! No more bars and bland food for you. Come to the Table He's prepared for us!" We get to trade our black attire of sadness over sin for some new threads of undeserved and unmerited favor and kindness. You see, what waits for us is a "garment of praise" instead of the hand-me-down, ashen wardrobe of despair and mourning. Take the blinders off. See the glory. Wear the praise. Let His light shine through the holes in your life. Do not be ashamed of your past. None of us deserves it, and that's okay. That was His plan all along! Let Him heal your hurts. Trust me when I tell you that I understand the agony of wallowing in a lie. Too much of my life has been spent feeling unworthy, rather than embracing my status as daughter of the King. Do not listen to the creepy voice in your head or envelope yourself in the limp, wet blanket of oppression. It's familiar and seems more comfortable. For a brief instant, come out of the dark and into the blinding Light and let His warmth cover you. He has a glowing crown of beauty to put on your head. No more ashes and rags for His child! Wear His praise. "He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve...--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61:1b-5a.

Dignity Torn to Shreds

Today I am reading about the widow woman who gave all she had "out of her poverty." And I am asking myself what it means to give all I have to live on. The woman in Jesus' story was a real person, not a parable told to make His point. In the Jewish culture of her day, this female without a husband was clinging to the bottom rung of society's ladder. In fact, she was so low that she was flying beneath her neighbors' radar. While it may be difficult to fathom performing some task out of my natural giftedness, this dear soul was not counting the cost. While I may be whining about the tension in my comfort zone or bragging about how it's growing, this woman was living with her eyes downcast to avoid creeping into someone else's imaginary comfort zone. When I balk at something God asks of me because it might inconvenience some beloved member of my family, this generous benefactor was subsisting without any guardian or patriarch. How am I guarding my precious dignity, when all around me, other people's dignity has been torn to shreds? How am I guarding my budget, when another has a desperate need that God can meet through me? How am I searching my ability to give, when the answer lies in my inability to give and His ability to provide? When do I measure my energy level to determine what I am willing to invest, when another person is caving under the burden of a load that I could help to shoulder? Do I limit what God can expect me to do for Him by bringing society's barriers to the Cross? When has my personal need to give been so desperate that I willingly let God take from me what was beyond my capacity to fathom giving under my own strength? Will I allow Him to tear my dignity to shreds in order to sew a garment of praise? "[All the others] gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on." Mark 12:44

Brand Marks

Do you search for a certain brand when you are shopping? On what items does the label matter to you, and on what others do you just look for the bargains, the sale items, the discounted or freebies? It strikes me that we bear a brand mark on our lives. I wonder whose brand we are wearing. Are we looking for the quick fix, the discount, the quick way to a good deal in our lives? We live in a "take the easy way out" culture where the end cost seems to justify any means of reaching it. But is that the way of our Savior? The cool thing is that He has made this covenant, taken an oath with us as His children, and sealed those promises with His blood. He takes a heavenly blood-brother promise with us: "I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands"! (Isaiah 49:15-16). Jesus still bears those covenant marks today (John 20:24-27; Rev. 5:6), the Lamb that was slaughtered so that we could see glory. That Lamb is the lamp of heaven (Rev. 21:22-27). There are no substitutes there, no sale hawkers, no "get rich quick" schemers. There is no more night; nothing impure crosses the threshold; we will have no shame, nothing to hide. The glory of the Father is the light of heaven. He is no mere night light but a continuous beacon of blinding radiance. That's a little freaky to us. Check out these glory sightings:* The shepherds saw it before Jesus' birth while they tended their sheep outside of Bethlehem (Luke 2:9). They wore the glow of the brand of PROMISE.* That glory shines in us as we bear fruit for the Kingdom (John 15:8). Will you bear the brand of FRIEND (John 15:13)?* That same glory of heaven resides in our skin as the Spirit reveals Truth to us from God's Word (John 16:12-15). Will you wear the brand of TRUTH?* God ignites His glory when He shows us His plan. Check out Abraham's story in Genesis 12 and 15 and Exodus 3. When has the Father revealed His glory to you by asking you to join Him in His work? Abraham chose to wear the brand of GLORY.* God's glory is revealed when He exalts Himself (Acts 7:55-56). In New Testament days, slaves, soldiers, and servants in the temple received brand marks for their masters, much as Paul mentioned in Galatians 6:17. What marks are we willing to bear to bring the Glory? In Acts 7, Stephenpreached in front of man's high priest, and it did not go well. Then He saw Jesus, our High Priest, standing at the right hand of the Father. Stephen saw the glory of the Most High in the middle of being stoned by the anger of men. These men chose poorly and chose religion over a relationship; they took on the brand of Religion. Hey, there's no more night in heaven where Stephen preceded us to meet the Son; no more spite; no reason or possibility of hate. Stephen bore the mark of being CHOSEN. Christ still bears those wounds from the Cross, even as He radiates glory from the right hand of the Father, even as He prays for each of us to be vessels for that same glory. Because of Him, we are branded, "LOVED." Whose brand marks are you sporting today? Discount or death? "Just like every one else," or just like Redeemer? We have a great heritage in wearing the brand marks of the Cross. We have a great inheritance, too. Our hope is not in things that moths and rust can corrupt or that thieves can break in and steal. We have a treasure in heaven. Let's follow the Man whose Name is the Branch (Zechariah 6:12). Let's get branded by the Cross!

Underestimating God

My friend, Allison, asked about when I have underestimated Jesus and when He has proven Himself to be more than I need. Perhaps I should tell you about God's financial provision for the mission trip this fall! As a background to this provision, I should tell you that my friend Jodie and her husband have been helping us every time Christa has gone on a trip. Christa has been to Avignon, France, and Montreal, Quebec, and other parts of Canada, and our friends and family have assisted us greatly by being God's provision for those trips. Whenever we nave sent out an SOS to friends and family for aid to make the plans happen, Jodie has always given--and very generously. This March Jodie and Aiden started sending checks to our Baileys on Mission account that the church keeps. At the time, we as a family just thought it would go for whatever Christa was doing in Montreal this past summer, but that never materialized. Then our church started promoting this disciplemaking trip to work with the Indians in Sells, AZ. But my mind was divided. My focus was on getting Christa ready for university in Montreal, and I could not give any emotional or spiritual energy to anything like a fall mission trip--to anything for ME at that point. Or so I thought. When we got home from taking Christa to university, an ordeal in and of itself, the promotions for the mission trip continued, and it looked like it was not too late to sign up after all. I was relieved that when I finally approached our adult minister, Jason he told me that only one other female had signed up to go and that he would be thrilled for me to join the team.Thank you, Rachel, for being obedient and timely, when I was not! The team had not started their training; Jason had postponed it to let more sign up and to avoid Labor Day. Whoo! Hoo! I just did not worry about the money. We did not have a red cent that was not spoken for but I just did not panic. For those of you who know how I like things to be decent and in order, this was not my usual reaction. But to be truthful, all of my emotional and spiritual energies were spent clinging to God because of Christa's being at school. I just had to trust or my family would be picking up pieces of me along GA400 due to shattering and splattering. In the meantime, my friend Jodie started sending checks again...randomly...OR NOT! Ultimately, she sent just what I needed to pay for the trip. I never told her how much the trip costs were. In fact, we did not know the exact cost until late in September because Jason was waiting for the best airline ticket rate! Jodie and I never talked during this process, except that I did let her know that I was going on the trip. She sent exactly what the trip cost with about $20 extra, I believe. Two days after we got home I wrote her a long email, explaining how God had used their family's generosity to help Christa to travel, to do Sojourners in Quebec, to experience God's call to missions, and so forth, and how their continued faithfulness had allowed me to go to Sells and what I had gotten from that experience--a TON, let me tell you. Anyway, last week I got an email from the church that two more checks had come to Baileys on Missions account, EACH for $500--both mailed the day Jodie got that email, likely one before and one after receiving it and realizing that more trips were likely in the future! After the checks arrived, I found out that Jodie and her family had put their home on the market the previous weekend...and it was already under contract, in a flat housing market! Yeah, I think we underestimate God. Hang onto your hat, and keep me in your prayers as I see where the Lord is leading! However He leads, whatever I expect Him to do, I am quite sure I will underestimate the outcome!! "He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than everything we ask or think"! Of course, He is! Tell me how God is providing for you and how you have discovered ways that you underestimate Him as well.

Crippled

Ever think about what it's like to be crippled--physically unable to get around? This week I read the story of the crippled woman whom Jesus healed, and it struck me how much she and I have in common. Shocking? Perhaps. But there are things in my life that cripple me as desperately as her disfunctional legs hobbled her walk. Sometimes it's an unnamed fear that trips me up. This creeping unease and discomfort ravages the horizon of my peaceful thoughts. I have let the "what ifs" eat up the joy of the things that truly and inescapably are. For example, I am a child of God who draws on His strength and power to protect me. The unnamed fear is just a lie that steals my peace, and like the crippled woman I hobble through life when I could run. Sometimes what cripples me is the failure to notice unclaimed blessings. Do you ever get still and realize that you forgot to thank someone for this huge favor that person did, something that really got you out of a tight spot? After I got back from the mission trip to Arizona last week, I started taking stock of all that God had provided for me in the weeks prior to the encounter with Him there. My daughter somehow enrolled safely at a university in another country and has made friends and a new life there. A friend and her husband paid for my entire trip to Sells, Arizona, primarily before I had even signed up to go! How's that for an unclaimed blessing! There are tons more ways that God had been working, and I was crippled by my spiritual blindness and failed to be grateful. I was limping when I could have been laughing in the Spirit. Other times, I am not fearful or ungrateful, I am just living in the past, trapped in the mire of unresolved issues. Those ghosts from our past haunt us, even though we have "moved on." I wonder if we have completely moved to our new address in Christ. We are in Victory and we still left some stuff in Defeat. For me, it's like I forget where my new house it, who my new King is, how His children dress. You get the picture. I need to move into Restoration and stop renovating my old ways. Finally, there are times that I refuse to let unexpected joys interrupt my life. I can remember getting a blessing as a teen and saying to my mom, "But I didn't ask the Lord for that!" She would laugh and say, "Well, isn't that the definition of a gift? You didn't ask for it. He just gave it to you out of love." Sometimes the interruptions are the REAL life, rather than the agenda we make for ourselves. For me, I can look back and see missed opportunities and run right over the next blessing because I am focused on life's rearview mirror. No wonder I am not supposed to be in the drivers' seat. God has circular vision; circular love; circular rainful of blessings; and circular peace. He's not looking away, taking a break, or too busy to bring the joy. Let's name our fears and give them to Him; claim the blessings He is showering on us; resolve the past by focusing on the bright hope and future He is building in front of us; and expect the joys to overwhelm us, rather than tripping on them on the way to our own deadlines. No more hobbling along. Just mount up with eagles' wings, no rest required because we are no longer weary, soaring on the winds of Love that was so good He had to die.