Moving!!!

Hi readers!

I am officially moving this site. As you know, I've been torn about continuing this blog after finishing my one year journey through the Bible. I absolutely love reflecting on and writing about Scripture, but since I've started my other blog, The Arizona Russums, it's been hard to juggle both of them. I have been trying to do so for the past few months, because I really feel convicted about writing about Scripture and encouraging other women to lead obedient lives according to God's word, but it is really hard to run two blogs, and I feel that this one has been suffering miserably. I am still reading my Bible every day, reflecting on what I want to write about on this site, and I even pop on every now and then and start drafts about what God is revealing to me. However, I have about ten drafts in my box that are yet to be finished. See the problem?

But I have found a solution (I think)! I don't want to give up Flowers Fade completely, but I don't want to maintain two blogs anymore. So from now on I will be posting my regular Flowers Fade postings on The Arizona Russums once a week on Fridays. Flowers Fade Friday. I like it. Hopefully, it will be great encouragement to you as you finish out your week and head into the weekend. And, hopefully, it will make me more consistent in posting about our amazing God and what He's been teaching me through His Word lately.

Thank you to all of you who have followed this blog and supported me and encouraged my journey through the Bible. I hope to continue to encourage you on my other blog. Hope to see you there!

Love always,
Jen

Rest

I am one who struggles to rest. To stop. Slow down. To do nothing for the glory of God. Micah calls me out on it all the time. While he is very good at keeping the Sabbath - his usually spans ALL of Saturday AND Sunday - I struggle mightily to stop and rest in Jesus. Here's a great word from Carolyn McCulley on rest and the Sabbath.  She is summarizing a Tim Keller sermon, and you know if it's coming from the duo of McCulley and Keller, it's going to be good. Here is a quote from Carolyn's blog (you can read the full posting here):


"Why is it hard for us to rest? Because we are always seeking affirmation and identity in our productivity and accomplishments. But the incredible concept of Christianity is that the only One to whom you have to prove yourself has already completed what you cannot do. Jesus is the only One who can truly say, "It is finished." Therefore, it is through the finished work of Jesus that we can rest."


"The Sabbath is an act of liberation. "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." (Dt. 5:15 NIV). If you don't rest, you are a slave -- a slave to your job, to the expectations of others, to your own reputation, whatever. "

Love + Knowledge = Discernment

In I Corinthians it says that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (I Cor. 8:1). True. No one likes an arrogant, know-it-all boasting about what they KNOW, even if what they know is about God. And no one likes advice offered without sensitivity or compassion. People would rather see that you KNOW how to LOVE through your actions than hear about what you know with your words.

However, Paul makes it clear in Philippians 1:9-11 that love without knowledge is also foolishness. In verse nine, Paul begins a pray for the church at Philippi (a church that was very dear to him) and he says:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

We won't really know how to love people unless we are being continually filled up by the knowledge that comes from God's Word, so that we may discern how to BEST love those around us. Because the feeling of love can be deceiving. We can feel like we love someone, but to refuse to the convict them of sin because we care about their comfort more than their holiness is not love. To fear saying something to a friend, because they might take it negatively or it might affect the friendship is not love - unless I am trying to love myself more than I love my friend. Love is not easy. It's not always comfortable. Sometimes it means drawing a line, forming a boundary, disciplining a child or a student, convicting a friend, or confessing a sin. And sometimes it's hard to figure out HOW to best love someone. Do they need a hug? To hear a passage of scripture? A meal? An invitation to church? Help writing a resume? An exhortation?  A swift kick in the butt? To be confronted by a pastor? Love doesn't look the same in all circumstances and the only way we can truly know how to best love those around us is to continually be built up in the knowledge of God's Word - which results in discernment - and to go forth in prayer.

Speaking Out Against Sex Trafficking

My friend, Anne, just posted this letter yesterday on her blog. I highly suggest you read it. She also wrote a full blog post before the letter (press previous post) explaining her opinion on the issue in more detail.

http://azhappyhour.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/open-letter-to-kiss-fm/

Basically, sex slavery is rampant in our country, especially in Phoenix, which I believe has the 2nd highest rate of the trafficking in the country. Of  course almost everyone thinks sex slavery is wrong - except those sick individuals who manipulate women and sell girls' bodies I guess. But the thing is we don't live like it's wrong. We live like the sex that is so pervasive in our society is okay. It's okay that our films are becoming increasingly illicit and graphic. It takes a lot to even earn an R rating these days. It's okay that there are strip clubs and lingerie stories and adult video shops on every corner in Phoenix. It's okay that boys in elementary and middle school are looking at soft porn on the Internet and will likely be addicted to doing so for the rest of their lives. It's okay that push-up bras are being sold at Abercrombie kids. It's okay if you want to to enter a wet t-shirt contest, a body paint contest, or a hand bra contest like the one Anne is speaking out against in her letter. It's okay for men to buy sex, as long as it's over the Internet or at a strip bar and as long as it doesn't involve actual "intercourse."

Right?

Wrong. Our society's desensitivity to sex is what leads to sex trafficking. It's after men are exposed to pornography, strippers, and prostitutes that they become disillusioned into thinking it might be okay to force a girl into the sex industry. It's after men are sexually abused that they are willing to abuse others. It's when girls think it's fun to wear a wet t-shirt or take off their shirts to win a trip to Vegas or concert tickets (and the attention of every guy at a bar) that these girls soon find themselves surrounded by men who will force them, manipulate them or threaten them to take off their clothes. It's the fault of every Christian man who secretly looks at porn, buys filthy magazines, or rents dirty movies for perpetuating the horrific crime and sin of sex trafficking, and it's the fault of the church for failing to convict and confront these sins. Yes, I said it's your fault "Christian" man - who refuses to repent of your sin of feeding the sex industry of our country by clicking on websites and buying media that filters more money into this sick economy. If no one was buying, they wouldn't have anything to sell right? Shame on Christian men for being the demand in the supply and demand chain of the sex industry in our country. For you, it's only an Internet ad or an adult movie on Netflix, but for someone else it's an actual human being, a young girl that is bought and sold and has no other choice.

*I used the word shame in this post and I hardly ever use the word shame. But the truth of the matter is that shame covers the illicit sex in our country. Shame covers the abuse, the rape, the exploitation. Shame covers the photo shoots of topless models and the back rooms of the strip clubs. Shame covers the computer screens hosting pictures of naked women. But I have a Savior who takes away the shame of the world. I have Savior who redeems, restores, and is "making all things new" (Rev. 21:5). His name is Jesus and He has the power to remove the guilt and shame of the sex industry and impart His grace on both those who instigate these crimes and those who are the victims of these crimes. It is my sincere prayer that Jesus will shed light in the darkest corners of sex trafficking, that He will convict the hearts of those girls thinking about entering KISS 106's hand bra contest and that He will lead the church to repentance over its involvement with this sin and grow up strong, pure, godly male leaders in churches across the country.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

~Titus 2:11-14~

Near and Far

I often find myself tempted to try to "figure out" God's plan for salvation - to try to discern who in my life will next receive God's grace and become "saved."

I remember a few years ago when I first realized the foolishness of this all. To think that there are always signs to indicate where God's spirit is going to move and whose hearts are going to be changed.

Because people are fickle and deceitful and misleading, and God is not.

How many times have you thought you were making progress with someone spiritually, sharing the Gospel with them, looking for signs that their heart was softening, only for them to almost "lead you on" in a spiritual sense? They visit church a few times or maybe even start attending regularly, they read the Bible, or at least talk about intending to explore the Bible, but eventually you realize they are not really changing. They are still hardened.

And how many people know of someone so hard, so hurt, so angry, so evil, who was changed by God instantly? In a moment, the Holy Spirit entered into their unlikely heart and their ungodly life and transformed them forever in the name of Jesus Christ. Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. Think of the friend you know who was literally saved by Jesus while high on drugs, on the brink of suicide, at a treatment facility for any number of disorders or addictions. Think about those who are saved while serving a life sentence in prison for horrific crimes.

I personally know people who were saved by Jesus in some of those situations above. They did not appear to be seeking the Lord. They were not searching. They might have even openly admitted a hatred or at least a mistrust or an unbelief in God, and yet He invaded their lives at exactly the right time.

This is not to discount that a slowly softening heart is sometimes an indicator of God's grace in someone's life. Sometimes it really does happen in the pretty, predictable way. You invite a friend to church. They might say no at first and then they accept. They are interested. They have questions. They seek your counsel. You point them to the Bible. You might point them to another Christian leader. They are open to God's word and over the course of days, weeks, months, or maybe years, they learn and trust that Christ is their Savior.

But there are also people who appear to begin this journey to salvation only to harden their hearts repeatedly or more deeply during the process. They might go to church and mock it. They might read the Bible only to scrutinize it in their unbelief. They might ask questions only in a prideful attempt to baffle or argue with believers. Although at first this interest can look like a spiritual awakening of sorts, it is really only a hardened heart actively attacking the church instead of living in apathy like many other unbelievers.

My point to all this is that I have had to destroy the conceptions in my own mind that I can figure out who God is going to save. Sometimes He saves through an invite to church, sometimes He saves in the midst of a drug overdose. I don't know what God is going to do, because He is so powerful and mysterious in a beautiful way.

All I know is this:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved... -Ephesians 2:1-5

We are all dead before Jesus invades our hearts and lives and makes us alive. I once was dead, and God made me alive in Christ. God can save those who seem near to knowing Him and those who seem far, far away from ever loving Him. There are no limits to God's grace. And, really, whether we seem near or far does not change the fact that we are dead without Christ. You can't be more dead than dead, regardless of whether or not you have ever visited a church or read the Bible. So instead of trying to figure out who God might save next, I want to live a life where I passionately share the Gospel with all, because God in His great mercy sometimes saves those who seem near and sometimes saves those who seem far away.