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Re-Establishing Our Boundaries

July 14, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

What do we partake in, in this life that is not wholesome and good? What things do we allow into our hearts, homes, and lives that is impure?

It’s so easy to make concessions in life. We rationalize that that movie won’t hurt to watch just one time or that “hit” music has a good beat so we can ignore the words. But instead, we are letting our guard down and starting to desensitize ourselves to right and wrong.

“I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it.”  Psalm 101:3

If God does not or cannot approve anything that is vile and He will have no part in it – what does that mean for us if we choose to let it into our lives? We are supposed to stand out from the rest of the world. Be different. Set apart. If we listen to the same music, read the same books, wear the same clothes….how are we setting a standard? How are we setting boundaries for our lives that God would want for us?

I know it’s hard. I have to reevaluate where I stand…often.  I’ve felt uneasy about certain decisions and then had to go back and tell my children that we were making a change and that I was doing it based on my morals and values.  It’s so easy to go off the path that God has in mind for us.

I want God to look on me with approval. I want Him to take part in all that I do in my life. In order for that to happen, I have to let my faith not just take up a section in my heart, but invade it and flow out to every area of my life. It has to be the scope of which I filter everything that I take in.

We can rationalize and give in all we want to the things of this world. But God has clearly set the standard for our lives.  It’s time to start regaining the territory we’ve allowed to be lost and realize that we are better off without listening to that music, wearing those outfits, or watching those things. It’s time we start feeling better about who we are as people; knowing that we are regaining a purity that has been so easily given away.

Vile is a strong word. Let’s not let anything into our homes or hearts that God could ever construe as vile. For if we do, we can’t expect Him to be a part of it….or of us.
~ Dionna Sanchez is a freelance writer. You can contact her at madetomom@yahoo.com.

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A Christian’s Best Advertisement

June 24, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

I knew I was in trouble the moment I walked through the double set of glass doors. I followed several ladies into our church this past Sunday. The entrance is merely a small hallway leading to another longer hall with classrooms. Entrapped in the tiny hallway was a mixture of five women’s perfumes, and a couple of men’s colognes. With the first breath of fragrance, my throat tightened. I walked the twenty feet and ignored the greeter I usually stop and hug who gives me a bulletin each week. By the time I got to my classroom, I literally was choking. I couldn’t talk without constantly clearing my throat. Asthma and allergies. I didn’t have an inhaler. I drank coffee.

I wonder sometimes why people pour on so much perfume and cologne. Do they really think they smell that bad? Some people have a particular fragrance they wear and even in their absence, everyone knows they have been in the room. My department director told me that her husband’s law partner wears so much cologne that when he rides with her husband to lunch, she can smell his cologne on the seatbelt when she buckles up four hours later. Sometimes I think folks are walking advertisements for fragrance factories. Is this necessary? It makes me think of my life. What do I leave behind when I’ve left the room?

“For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are a scent of death leading to death, but to others, a scent of life leading to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

I use to wear tee-shirts emboldened with all kinds of Christian messages and verses on them. I never went anywhere without my cross necklace. I had little fish-stickers on my car, and often carried Christian tracts to leave in the restaurant with my tip to the waitress. However, a few times I found myself being aggravated in line at the supermarket check-out while wearing the shirt advertising the peace of God. I recalled the fish sticker on my bumper when I failed to let another out in traffic, but went on my merry way. I had to keep my tract tucked inside my purse when I’d been rather impatient with a frazzled waitress who kept messing up my order.

I rarely leave a tract behind anymore…unless I’ve engaged the waitress or waiter in conversation about their lives, their needs, and shown compassion about their frazzled day, or inquired about the scowl which I felt revealed a headache or heartache. I’ve sometimes given my cross necklace away when someone compliments it. I no longer risk the fish on the back of my car. I’ve come to realize the best advertisement I have for Christ is who I reveal in my natural conversation and actions. If I impart no patience, no grace, no mercy, what will a tee-shirt explain? If I belittle or annoy another with rude behavior, or me-first aggression in buffet lines, then what will the message really say?

No. The fragrance of Christ is in the manifestation of His Spirit. Otherwise I become as a clanging cymbal, a noisy gong, a litany of worthless rhetoric.

LORD, help me be a better witness to Your love by being a living sacrifice of Your love. Make me aware of times my fragrance is but an odor. My words but empty tombs. My writing but whitewashed hypocrisy. Fill me today with your generous Spirit and keep me ever mindful of the fragrance You impart to me for others who do not know You. selahV

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Tender Hearts, Offend Me Not

June 10, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

What words, attitude, and tone cause offense?  What kind of conduct can undermine the work of the gospel message? It’s not easy to discern sometimes.  Sometimes we think it takes some horrific sin, to crush the ministry of a preacher, pastor or minister.  We think it takes an exposed indiscretion to destroy our testimony.  Yet, sometimes it is the seemingly unnoticed sin–the slight, the insult, the aggravated criticism.

Adults are far more capable of handling these things of other adults than children.  Children are not as easily able to let things go, or forget.  Their tender hearts, and impressionable minds are like wet cement.  The poor impression we leave on their minds can harden and scar them for years to come.  They haven’t had the advantage of dealing with unreasonable people.  They don’t understand when we are grumpy, hateful or ill-tempered.  They take everything to heart as if they are the cause of our dissatisfaction, short-fuse, or verbal sniping.  Could what we say and do mean that much in the scheme of things?  Perhaps.  That’s part of why Paul wrote:

“We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,” 2 Corinthians 6:3-4 NKJV

What can give offense?  Sometimes we are blind to the things which cause offense.  We have no idea when a person is watching us and looking to us as an example, an ambassador of Christ.  As Sunday School teachers (or in the hallways of church) when passing a child.  As moms when entertaining our children’s friends.  As dad’s when coaching little league.  Language we use.  Videos we watch.  The way we instruct.

The Amplified Bible translates the above verse this way:

“We put no obstruction in anybody’s way [we give no offense in anything], so that no fault may be found and [our] ministry blamed and discredited.” 2 Cor. 6:3

“In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God”. (vs. 4)  

Few, if any, Christians want to discredit the value of anyone’s ministry. We do not want our actions, or words to be what calls attention to a flaw that could give offense, or cause someone to point fingers at our family, our church, our pastor, or the convention of churches wherein we are active participants and representatives.  Yet, sometimes we fail.  Sometimes we are unable to commend ourselves as Paul did to the church of Corinth.

“But we commend ourselves in every way as [true] servants of God; through great endurance, in tribulation and suffering, in hardships and privations, in sore straits and calamities. By innocence and purity, knowledge and spiritual insight, longsuffering and patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love.” 2 Cor. 6:4,6. Amplified

PRAYER:  Lord, help us walk in the righteousness to which You have entrusted. Give us wisdom to walk without offense, so that no fault may be found–-so that no one can point fingers at the ministry of Christ and rightly laugh, ridicule or bring dishonor and hamper the works He wants to accomplish through us.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Has Your Heart Become Calloused?

June 1, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Ever know you ought to do something, but just don’t feel like it?  The desire is not there.  You ought to encourage, but don’t.  You ought to give, but won’t.  You ought to change, but remain the same. I get that way sometimes and wonder if perhaps I’ve hardened my heart to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

“For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Matthew 13:15

When our hands become calloused, we are able to do work with less to no pain.  We can actually cut away some of the skin and not feel it.  The same is true with our hearts.  We become so conditioned to the world’s troubles we lose feeling for others.  We become so comfortable with our own security we cannot see the insecurity of others.  We are so consumed with our own needs, we cannot notice another’s.  We are so intune to our own thoughts, we cannot hear the despair of others.

Jesus spoke to his disciples in the above verse.  He was preaching to a crowd and some within the crowd were only there because of the miracles they’d seen Jesus perform.  Yet still, they could not see the Miracle before them.  Others, the leaders, only followed Jesus to gather information and trick him.  They really were not interested in what Jesus had to say.  They had no intentions of following Him; they’d calloused their hearts and made up their minds that they had all the answers.  Therefore they could not be healed–or saved.

I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to feel calloused toward truth the Lord wants to show me.  I want to be so sensitive to God’s voice that I not only hear Him whisper, but discern a pinprick from the Holy Spirit upon my heart.

How about you?  Are your eyes closed to the truth?  Have you turned a deaf ear to His teachings?  Is there someone in your life with whom you need to reconcile?  What holds you back?  Is there some temptation you are unwilling to resist?  Will you turn it over to the Lord now and let Him heal you? 

PRAYER:  O LORD, for those who find these words touching them today, I pray Your grace abounds.  Let them accept the mercy You give.  Give them strength, and wisdom and discernment and let them live abundantly in Your goodness.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Some Rules Are Not Made To Be Broken!

April 27, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Every year in elementary school, we received a gold ruler that had the Golden Rule stamped on it: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” Matthew 7:12 The teacher would always give a brief lesson about why the rulers were important and how breaking the Golden Rule was forbidden. I knew there would be serious consequences if I broke the Golden Rule. I was lucky because I received this message in all walks of my life—school, church, and home. Hearing it frequently didn’t make me perfect, but it did make me aware. I understood that I could break the Golden Rule with my words or my actions.

 Proverbs 12:18 says, “reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

It happens in the blink of an eye. Someone allows their foul mood, jealousy, prejudice, or judgmental attitude to take control and they hurt someone. They spout off nasty comments or defy the trust of another individual for personal gain. Just like that, friendships are fractured and trust is compromised. Often, the hurt is easily forgiven and quickly forgotten. The individuals involved realize that no harm was intended. With clear hearts and minds, forgiveness is granted and life goes on.
What about the cases where the hurt is not easily forgiven and quickly forgotten? Typically, humans react in one of two ways. We have been hurt; so we seek revenge—waiting for the ideal opportunity to return the hurt. Words are hurled like poisonous darts and we momentarily feel victorious. Another natural reaction is to clam up and walk away. Removing ourselves from the situation sends the message that we don’t care and that the other person is unworthy of our energy to reconcile. While the last reaction seems somewhat acceptable, it is not necessarily any healthier than the first. After all, is silence truly golden in this instance? Has the golden rule been tarnished not once, but twice?
To be perfectly honest, I have been known to react in both ways at different times. Time after time, I tell myself that the reaction was warranted because the other person didn’t treat me as I wanted to be treated. Either way, I wind up feeling miserable. Hurt riddled with hatred is a nasty combination. In the end, the hurt is still there, and I’ve gained nothing. We may live with the pain for a few days, several months, or even a number of years. Many people have gone to their grave haunted by emotions that stemmed from being treated badly. Breaking the golden rule destroys relationships, corrupts our character, and leads to spiritual darkness.

During these times, we have the privilege of calling on God to help us search our heart and correct our actions. Calling on God is the first positive step in the healing process. With a willing heart and authentic compassion for others, we can live out the Golden Rule and experience joy-filled lives. For as Romans 8:31b says, “God is on our side, who can be against us?”

Karen Pollock, Kentucky

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When God Fashions Our Hearts

February 16, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

When my granddaughter and I squashed Play-doh into a flat blob and cut out the shape of hearts, we left our fingerprints on each heart.  We impressed our index and pinky fingers into the soft clay.  These hearts were just like Haylee wanted them to be.  She wanted different colors.  She pushed her finger clear through some of them.  But none were made without her leaving an imprint of some kind upon them.  

“The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men…He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.” Psalm.33:13-15

Can you imagine?  Millions and billions of people.  And the Lord fashions each and every heart individually.  Such care He takes with each of us.  Such attention He pays to our needs.  As He fashions us, He considers our works.  He watches what we do with what He’s given us: our intelligence, personality, talents, and ability.

As God “fashions hearts individually”, He also leaves His fingerprint.  None of us are formed without His knowledge or His input.  I don’t know about you, but I constantly mess up and often seek that which is temporal instead of the eternal.  Scripture tells us: ”Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)  Sometimes I ask myself, What is within my heart?  What do I desire?  It’s really not bigger homes, finer cars, nicer clothes, or notoriety.  I know that the desires in my heart must be in tune with the fingerprints which the Lord placed on my heart.  Only He knows what I truly want.  I only think I know what I want.

When the Lord who fashioned my heart looks down from Heaven what does He expect to see as He considers my works?  It’s not how much I accumulate–it’s not how successful the world thinks I am. It’s not how much I’ve given to the church, nor how many committees I worked on.  It’s how much the world sees Jesus in me.  It’s how my actions reflect the love and mercy I’ve so freely received.  It’s how many of my words bring Him glory and honor.  It’s how intimately I know Him, and how often I yield myself to His Spirit.

PRAYER:  Lord, help us fulfill the desires of Your heart.  Help us go and tell.  Let us walk humbly and live a life pleasing to You.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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What We Cannot Change

November 14, 2010
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Yellow, gold, and red leaves whipped across my windshield as I made my way down the highway to my painting class.  Autumn is giving way to winter, I thought as I drove.  I noticed two huge sycamore trees standing side by side like two wooden soldiers in the blustering wind.  Oddly, one tree was brilliant yellow, the other was summer green.  I wondered why.  Why did two kindred trees, standing in the same place, with the same soil, having the same water source and the same measure of sunlight, appear so totally different in color?  Surely they both experienced identical temperatures, be it daylight or night.  Such mystery is the science of life–of change–of Autumn.

Christians are like that.  We each have Jesus.  We access the Heavenly Father through prayer. We have Bibles, and Sunday School, and even the same preacher who preaches the same sermon to each of us–week after week, month after month, year after year.  Yet, we do not grow at the same pace, nor change to suit the desires of man.  Why?  We are each on an individual journey.  We each face trials, discern solutions, and resolve things in ways as only we can.  What one person does with information, guidance, and trials does not ensure another will do.  Sometimes this frustrates us, we want to grow and change faster.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Each person has needs in life, and with each need comes a choice. Each choice brings about a specific result.  Not all results are equal.  The way you process information, may not be the way another processes it.  We each move at our own pace.  What God wants to change in me, may not be what you desire to see changed.  What could take me year to change, may take another two days–or a month.  Change comes from within, and Jesus is working on each of us, with our particular need in mind–with His particular purpose for our lives.  The person I meet on the street is not the same as the one you meet.  Thus the change needed in me to meet the purpose God has planned for another person I meet, may not be the change needed in you for the person in your life.  We need not be frustrated with Christ’s timetable.

Sometimes we get impatient with others.  We think they need to change.  We think we need to change them–to fix them.  We try to make them fit our little plan, our time constraints.  How very silly we are.  We can no more change a person than we can change the leaves on a sycamore tree.  It’s best we stop trying to change others and yield ourselves to Christ, allowing Him to perfect in us as He sees fit.

PRAYER: Lord, give us patience to accept others as You do.  Help us see others through Your eyes of patience, kindness and mercy.  Let us surrender to You today and rest in Your hands as You work out in us the perfection of Your choosing.  selahV

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2010

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Be Killing Sin

June 27, 2010
Filed In Daily Devotionals

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13

Grass is persistent and relentless. Time and again grass must be cut to keep it under control, but time and again it grows right back. Rain + sun + grass inevitably leads to more grass. It can be frustrating to finish a satisfying job of straightening up a yard only to look a few days later and see the work needs to be done yet again.

So it is with sin in our lives. The fight against sin never ends. We fight and fight and feel we have made progress against this temptation or that struggle only to see sin and temptation rising up again.

But just as grass requires sun and rain, sin requires certain things in order to grow. What it requires is different from one temptation to another. What stirs anger or covetousness in you? What causes lustful thoughts? What leads you into lies or deception or divisiveness? Identify the root causes of sin in your life and seek to root them out. The old puritan John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” This draws from Romans 8:13 where Paul says, For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Never grow weary of this work of fighting sin. Never tire of striving for holiness. And hold fast to the promise of Philippians 1:6 that God will finish what he has started in your life.

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