I'm at Laced With Grace Today...Sweet 16

Please visit me at Laced With Grace today!

Do you remember what it was like to be Sweet 16?

I am writing about the Sweet 16 generation....please join me!

What are YOU learning?

Last week I joined Gina, from Chats with an Old Lady for a great new meme, "What are YOU learning?". We share what God is teaching us from the Word.



This week I have been preparing to speak at a woman's conference on Jan. 31st, so I have spending time rereading my message on HEART TRANSFORMATION! I would like to share with you a small part of this message for what I am learning this week. It's funny, even when we know certain Truths, we still need to be refreshed. That is why it is SO IMPORTANT to be continually washed in His Word! God falls afresh on us, opening His Word and enlightening our hearts. May the "eyes of my heart be enlightened!"

This part of the talk is about having a "Committed Heart" for the Lord!

1Peter 2:11 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to
abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Another
translation puts it like this, “Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t
make yourselves cozy in it. DON’T INDULGE YOUR EGO at the expense of your
soul. (Message)

So many of us are too cozy, too comfortable in the world! We accept too many things that are not glorifying to God. We think that they are okay because they are politically correct, or because our friends think they are okay. We’ve relaxed our standards. We’ve gone away from God’s standards and used the world to guide our decisions, ideals, and morals.

We have become too cozy in the world, too comfortable with its morals. We have been distracted, deceived, and led astray by our longings for the worldly.

Do we seek the presence of God or the approval of the world? Our generation has been on a pursuit of perfection- perfect skin, perfect bodies, perfect husbands, perfect children, the perfect career or volunteer “career,” and the perfect model home. In the process, we have traded in what is “perfect” for God’s best in our lives. We have missed out and gotten “sucked in.” But that time is over!

I believe God has a call on this generation of women to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to change this generation and to teach the next generation of women. God is raising up women who have hearts desiring change.

Change begins with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:5 says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Paul continues in verse 13, “By the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body and you will live.” And Galatians 5:16, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

We can never do this on our own or in our own strength! We have a still, small voice that helps us and guides us. The Holy Spirit helps us to make choices between right and wrong. We need to start listening! Our choices in life need to glorify God. Even little things like the TV shows we are watching need to be pleasing to God! We need to ask ourselves with every choice, “Would Jesus buy this magazine? Would God like this movie, or would He be embarrassed by it?”

You may be wondering why little things like TV shows matter so much. You may be thinking, “I’m not hurting anyone watching this show. I’m just relaxing. It’s only TV. The kids are in bed. I'm an adult. It doesn’t matter.”

But the Bible warns us to be careful. Peter tells us “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Imagine yourself lying on the couch later at night , flipping channels and being drawn to MTV or a immoral reality show. You allow the channel to linger there for awhile, even though you feel a tinge of discomfort. You reason with yourself that watching these shows couldn’t be harmful. When you are drowsy and inattentive, you become easy prey for the enemy. Lions usually hunt at night, and there you are at night, feeding on worldly filth, allowing it to penetrate your heart.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Don’t fill your eyes with images of the world that can never be erased. Proverbs 4:23 says “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Guard what goes through your eyes into your heart! These reality shows are making a mockery of marriage and God’s plan for our best. We have shows that tell us that God’s creation isn’t nearly good enough, so we will change it by having several plastic surgeries. It is so easy to be sucked in to these shows, and then to change our ideals and morals to fit with what we are watching. Every choice we make should bring God glory.

Listen now to the Spirit of God. Ask the Lord to help you seek Him, not the world. Please pray with me.

Father God, I give You all glory and honor and praise! I thank you for your Word to help me and I thank You for Your Spirit to guide me. I pray God that you would open the eyes of my heart. I pray that You would give me a Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that I may know You better. I pray, Lord, that You will help me seek You out, not the world. Help me God to store up my treasures in Heaven, not here on earth. I pray that I would have ears to hear You and a heart to follow You. Your Word says I am strong in the Lord. Give me a boldness, Lord and a confidence to be strong in You and for you. Help me to listen to the Holy Spirit and to make every choice with You in my heart. Remind me always to ask, "Does this bring God glory?” Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Purity....and the MTV Awards

Did you see the MTV music awards? Well, I am NOT in the habit of watching anything on MTV, but flipping between FOX and CNN Sunday night, I stopped when I saw this loud man.

Here are a just a few of the despicable things he said:

“People of America, please elect Barack Obama. Some people say America is not ready for a black president, but I know America to be forward-thinking, because otherwise you wouldn’t have let that retarded cowboy fella be president for eight years. In England, George Bush wouldn’t be trusted with a pair of scissors.”

He then turned his attention to Sarah Palin, calling her a “VILF” - explaining the term stood for Vice President I’d like to fondle. And on her pregnant daughter Bristol, he said: “You feel most sorry for the teenage father. One minute he’s having joyful, unprotected sex, the next minute he has to go to the Republican convention. Best safe-sex message of all time. Use a condom, or become a Republican. That boy is never going to have sex again.”

If you would like to read more about this and watch the actual video clip, click here.

One of the worst things he said though, was about the Jonas brothers, making fun of their promise rings- a commitment to wait until marriage before having sex. He mocked them, again reinforcing that today's culture, especially young adults (MTV is geared to the 12-24 year old age group) are being encouraged to have premarital sex and ridiculed for a decision not to.

I am hosting Monday's AT THE WELL. I would love for you to join us to chat about what we can do to teach purity to the next generation. I pose these questions:

Titus 2 calls us "to be self-controlled and pure.....so that no one will malign the word of God."

How do we teach the next generation (both our daughters and other young Christian women) how to live a life of purity WITHOUT falling into legalistic rules, or on the other hand, to slip into a worldly mindset, teetering on impurity? How do we live, as Jesus said, "in the world" without being "of the world?"

How is the word of God maligned when we aren't living in purity?

To get you thinking, here is something I wrote a few years ago on the topic.

Passion and Purity
I believe God has a call on this generation, women today, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to change this generation and to teach the next generation. God is raising up women who have hearts desiring change. We have been a generation belonging to this world. We have been distracted, deceived, and led astray by our longings for the worldly. But, that time is over!

In this generation, we have been so entangled with worldly pursuits. We have been obsessed with our physical beauty, trying to have a perfect body, younger looking skin, and a beautiful wardrobe. Our generation has been on a pursuit of perfection- perfect bodies, perfect husbands, perfect children, the perfect career or volunteer career, and the perfect model home. In the process, we have traded in what is “perfect” for God’s best in our lives. We have missed out and gotten “sucked in.” But that time is over!

Many of my friends are just now coming to a relationship with the Lord later in life. As Christians, we feel a sense of relief for finally knowing the Truth, but a sense of loss for our wasted time and the many mistakes we’ve made. This generation needs to EMPOWER the next generation- our daughters and our young women in the church, to be mighty women of God!

2Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or fawning fear, but a spirit of power, love, sound mind, and self-discipline.” We need to be awesome Christian examples! The world’s view of the Christian woman can best be illustrated by Saturday Night Live’s “Church Lady”- paranoid, hypocritical, and unattractive. That is not how I want to be seen, and it is not how I want my daughters to be seen. This is not what a woman of God looks like.

But, Christian women MUST look different than the rest of the world. Peter tells us to live as “aliens and strangers in this world.” And then says in 1Peter 2:12, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” I want the light of Jesus shining so brightly in me that everyone around stops and says, “I want what SHE has!” I want to “spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2Corin. 2:14) I want my life to point the next generation to the Lord!

Two areas of ministry that speak to my heart to empower women are 1) having a passionate relationship with the Lord and 2) living a life of purity.

First, we should hunger for a wild, crazy love for Jesus! We need to be completely abandoned to Him. We need to “love the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength!”

The other passion God has placed in my heart is living a life of purity. I believe God is bringing the Church back to this ideal. For so long we have shied away from the idea of “purity.” We never wanted to be “stuffy,” and now we want to be “politically correct.” As a generation, we ran from the image of “Puritans” and today we embrace our “tolerant” views. We don’t want to be seen as “holier than thou,” and we think anyone who strives toward this ideal of holiness is being hypocritical.

But, God is calling us to a different standard. He is calling His Church back to purity and godly living. He is calling us to be sanctified- set apart in Him and for Him! Again, we need to live differently than the “world.” We need to have the aroma of Christ. “He has anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” We are His dearly loved children and His bride. We need to take that position, and take confidence in it! We need to “clothe ourselves” with the Lord Jesus Christ! We need to put on the robes of His righteousness and “live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way.” (Colossians 1:10)

God is raising up a new generation- a generation of godly woman who are totally and completely in love with the Lord! He is empowering Christian women to lead the next generation to a life full of godly passion and purity.