The Truth is Out There

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How it Began

The phone rang. I don't know why I picked it up. I was only six. I wasn't allowed to answer the phone, but everyone was outside, and I knew--somehow I just knew-- my mom was on the other side of that phone. It would be her.

It was. My parents had been divorced for a year, and this was the first call I had gotten from her. I tucked into myself a little. Afraid of getting caught on the phone, I whispered. When my Dad walked around the corner and saw me there- little hands gripping the phone for dear life- he asked me who it was on the line. Then it happened. 

~ I lied. 

It was the first lie I ever remember telling. He knew it was a lie the minute it left my lips. It began a pattern that followed me the rest of my life. One I still fight today. 

Over the years I have lied about many things. Some big, some small. Some lies were told to stay out of trouble, while others were told to fit in. Some lies are by omission. Some were told just because, and some were told so many times that they became my "back story"... a part of my history. Ingrained into me as if they were the truth. 

Danger! 

Big lies or small, they are all dangerous. Pervasive like a black crawling death lies creep in and begin to choke the life out of you. They box us in and weigh us down. They pull at us, and create gut wrenching fear and anxiety. They are the problem, not the solution. 

Big or small though, there are some lies that are more dangerous than others. The lies we tell others are bad. "No, you look great in that dress" is not always the truth, but the lies that are more dangerous than anything are the lies we tell ourselves. 

Those lies leave us debilitated and crippled. Those lies leave us feeling inadequate and isolated. Those lies, if exposed, would be seen for the insidious things they are: harbingers of death, because they come from the enemy: the father of all lies. 

"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44 ESV

Peeling Back the Onion 

There are ten lies I have told myself for a long time. I have believed them. Somehow, someway, they were told to me once and I claimed them as my own. They have become ingrained and I must carve them out. Over the next five posts I am going to cover these lies. Perhaps you will identify with some of them. Perhaps you will share with me something that I have not covered. 

I am not doing this to point out I am better or worse than anyone else. I am simply being honest, sharing my struggles, so you can see that life is hard, even when you are a Christian. 

I do not know where this will go. I am not trying to create doctrine or teach on lying. I am just going to share the nitty-gritty and hope that I can begin to overcome these lies and find freedom in the truth. 

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" John 8:32

Join the Conversation

What is the first lie you can remember telling? 

Freedom, Fireworks and Jesus

I Surprised Myself

I am always trying to learn new things. On the fourth we celebrated America's Independence Day. 


I did not plan attending this fireworks display. I was actually dragging the family to a local grocery store to coupon...think Extreme Couponing but with less savings and less crazy- hey, I am a beginner! 


Anyway, the kids wanted to hang around for the fireworks and so, bug spray and soda in hand we found a great vantage point and waited for the show. 


One thing about fireworks, love them or hate them, they are pretty much the same every time. (Unless you live in San Diego and got the 20 second version this year!) 


So I wanted to put the last few minutes to music. Which I have NEVER done before. The thought of video makes me so nervous it is kind of gross. (Sweaty hands were involved--)


Anyway, this was the result. 

The Message Behind the Video

Real freedom shouldn't be celebrated one day a year, but everyday if you are in Christ! 


The freedom the Father provided is real and tangible. In Christ there is no fear. I am no longer afraid of what the world thinks. In Jesus I live, I breathe, I have my very being!

I will live an extraordinary existence because God created me to be extraordinary! In fact, He created me to live so opposite of the world and their ordinary ways that I look alien to them! 

In Christ the freedom I have prompts me to share personal stories so people will look at Him and to Him in ways they never have before. 


In Jesus there is freedom from sin, from pain, from heartache, from depression, from doubt, from oppression and from death! 


In Jesus there is power. There is power to become more than what you can be on your own! In Jesus there is more. 


So I made this video to remind you that there is more. More than what you know right now. More than you feel right now. More than you think.

Jesus is the "more" you need. 

Cry out to God and ask Him to make Himself real to you right now. God hears the cries of his creation. He longs to adopt you into the family. Call on Him in the name of Jesus and you will be saved. 


Now... yes, now, you have a reason to celebrate. Fireworks cannot compare to the celebration in heaven over you right now! You are FREE! 


What do you like most about your life in Jesus? 

Living Limit Free!

Driving down the road the other day I encountered this speed sign. It was blank. I stopped and actually took this picture. It got me thinking, what limits us with our relationship with God? 

What keeps us from going full speed toward Him? 

For me, it was arrogance. A prideful belief that I was who I am and no one could change me. Take me or leave me, I am who I am and I am: an independent woman who knows my rights, who stands up for myself because the world was always trying to dump on me. That arrogance had me going toe to toe with believers and non-believers alike. No cashier at Wal-Mart was safe from my indignation, no praise and worship leader, no preacher safe from my wrath.

If I saw a wrong, if I was angry, if I felt threatened or intimidated, I immediately puffed up like an adder and struck. The vile poison I spread was strife and I did it so well I did not even realize the problem was me. 

I got offended if anyone tried to correct me and I certainly did not walk in love. I used the word of God as an arsenal to fire excuses and claim “freedom in Christ” as the basis for my right to be who I was and who I was stank! 

1 Peter 2:16-18 (NLT) says: For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, and respect the king. 

I would say “I am free in Christ” but I was letting old, ingrown, inbred habits and attitudes to shape my life and hold me back from what real freedom is. 

Real freedom in Christ is this: the ability and the joy in serving and loving your neighbors as yourself and loving God with your whole heart, mind and body.

So how do we shake off the “old man” that sin nature that spews poison into our lives and the lives of those around us and live in real freedom with no limits? 

1. Get in the Right Lane!

The first step is to move out of the wrong lane, the “me” lane, and get in the G.O.D. lane. Like the H.O.V. (high occupancy vehicles) lane on a highway the G.O.D. lane is for anyone to use if the conditions are met. 

When you stop taking control or dominion over your life and Give Over Dominion to GOD, then you are in the G.O.D. lane. How do you give over dominion? You repent. Turn from what you were doing, ask for forgiveness, and move forward in a new direction. Get in the Right Lane! 

2. Surrender Your License.

A license is a piece of paper that says you have been given the freedom to do something. Until now, your “license” has been used to drive your own life: to steer your own destiny. Give it up. Hand it over to the ultimate authority and let someone else drive you. (Yes, I am going to say it, and I apologize ahead of time) Let Jesus take the wheel. Not like the popular hit song, but really yield and surrender to God’s will and direction for your life. 

When we surrender, we now receive a new license. Not one to drive our own lives with, but one that grants exceptional freedom to trust. No matter how fast life is, trust that if you are surrendered, God has you on the right lane, at the right speed, and heading in the right direction. 

3. Enjoy the Ride!

I have always loved a good road trip. The freedom of an open road, the challenge of reading the map and enjoying the back roads when you are forced to take a detour are all appealing to me. Yet, a road trip by yourself is no fun. There is something indelibly necessary to a good road trip: a traveling partner.

Talking with someone, laughing, crying, arguing, and laughing again is part of the experience. God doesn’t want to be your limo driver, He doesn’t want to be your taxi driver, He wants to be on the ride with you. When God is driving, we can relax in the seat and really get to know Him. He is right there. Ask Him anything. He is right there, tell Him anything. Turn on the radio and lift up some praises to Him.

When God is driving, you can stick your smelly feet up on the dash, let one rip and He will still love you. He will still want to be on the trip with you. He wants you to enjoy the ride.

Now, when you see a road sign that has no speed limit, you can know that is meant for you. Let it remind you that God wants you to live a life with no limits.

My pride kept me from living limit free, what is stopping you?

Rock Collecting

As a small kid I collected rocks: some for their color and some for their shape and some because I imagined some great person in history, once walked over this very stone, or some such non-sensible story I had concocted at the age of eight. Rocks have no power, they hold no mysteries. 

Scientists have studied them extensively and a rock is simply one of three things: compacted dirt, (sedimentary) igneous rock, (made up of solidified magma) or metamorphic rock (sedimentary and igneous rocks that have been under high pressure).


Yet, rocks can have purpose. They can be materials for building: like a foundation, a cornerstone, or bricks. Rocks can also be destructive, used like small missiles thrown to cause damage.


When the Pharisees brought the prostitute before Jesus and told Him the law says stone her. Jesus said “He who is without sin, cast the first stone”.

She was wrong, her sin was clear. The law was clearer, yet Jesus saw her worth. He saw her for who she was designed to be.


As each stone fell out of the hands of her accusers, she inched closer to her freedom. There is freedom in Christ: freedom from the law of sin and death. No matter who you are, or where you are in your life, Jesus holds your freedom.


His burden is easy, not heavy like the one you carry now.


Let the love of Christ take those stones that were meant for your harm. When those stones encounter Jesus, THE ROCK, the cornerstone, then they will break against Him, and you will be free to be healed, restored and changed forever.


Question: 
Did you ever collect rocks? 

The Post That Almost Wasn't

What a day and a night! I first want to apologize that life got so busy, I missed posting. My youngest daughter is having health issues and we spent the night in an Emergency Room for 14 hours over night into today and I had not reception on my phone to get online. I am so sorry.

The bad news, my girl did not get a lot of relief from her pain. The good news is, that horribly long night is over.

Paul had nights like this. That may have seemed unfruitful. Stuck in a prison cell. Locked in a dungeon. But one thing Paul never did was let his circumstances hold him back from praising the Lord.

At midnight, he sang. His praise shook the very foundations and the chains literally fell away from him, and spiritually and physically fell away from those around him. 

Last night I experienced a small portion of that. A close friend had joined me in my ER vigil and in that desperate, cold, and oppressive waiting room, I began to sing "Revelation Song", and not timidly, but with authority and boldness.

"HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND IS AND IS TO COME. WITH ALL CREATION I SING PRAISE TO THE KING OF KINGS, YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING AND I WILL ADORE YOU."

She said to me later, "The very atmosphere changed." The oppressive desperation began to lift and quiet and calm came into the room. Babies who had been fussy with pain and exhaustion began to settle and I began to feel God's presence in the room.

I am so thankful that He is with us! No matter the circumstances He reminds me that He is there, comforting, protecting, and healing. Changing the very circumstances and atmosphere that surround us, God moves on our behalf.

Another song comes to mind, this one by The Parachute Band and their new album Matins and Vespers.

 "I BELIEVE YOUR PROMISES ARE YES AND AMEN, I BELIEVE YOUR PROMISES ARE YES AND AMEN. I KNOW YOU SAID IT ONCE AND I BELIEVED YOU THEN, SO I STILL BELIEVE IT"

So I may be exhausted, and I may be late on posting today, but nothing can dampen my love for my Father, or His love for me. His love is the reason for my praise. I "promise with my lips" (the meaning of the word praise) that I will always sing until the chains fall off.

Please, continue to pray for my daughter, Connie-Lyn as she journeys to discover answers and forgive any typos, run-ons or fragments, since I have not seen sleep in 30  hours.

Be blessed and be a blessing and know that sleep in both a verb and a noun and I will be comatose for a while! 

PRAISE brings BREAKTHROUGH

Just Another Verse...

I began reading today Matthew 1, and could not get past the third verse. It says this: Judah the father of Perez.  Now that may not mean anything to you yet, but hopefully you will be as excited as I am in just a few minutes!

Judah means PRAISE unto the Lord. Perez means Breakthrough!

Judah the father of Perez means Praise unto the Lord brings Breakthrough!

In 1st Chronicles 13:1-14 God moved mightily in Battle, so much so the place the arc of the covenant was kept was called Perez Uzza or “Exploded” Uzza.  When God is present in our lives there is BREAKTHROUGH, our circumstances are EXPLODED!

What brings us into the presence of God? Praise! He inhabits the Praise of His people.

Psalms 111:10 Amplified says The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of [a]Wisdom and skill [the preceding and the first essential, the prerequisite and the alphabet]; a good understanding, wisdom, and meaning have all those who do [the will of the Lord]. Their praise of Him endures forever.

We are supposed to shout out His praises. Shouts go ahead of us. They alert the world around us that something is happening! I believe that when we shout with a voice of triumph we declare in the spirit realms that God is arriving in the camp!

Jericho didn’t just come down because of the marching, no, those walls fell because the sound waves collided with a wall, and the wall COULD NOT STAND! Sound that becomes praise is like supersonic spiritual Napalm.  It blows up your circumstances, it breaks down those walls, and it tells the enemy that God is bigger than anything he can throw at us!

You get a diagnosis of cancer	GOD IS MY HEALER!
You can’t pay all the bills	GOD IS MY PROVIDER!
You feel like you have no hope	GOD IS THE LIFTER OF MY HEAD!

 We should praise him in spirit and in truth; we should praise him with our voices, with our instruments, with our bodies, with groaning, with spiritual songs. All of these scriptural praises usher in the presence of God when done from the heart. 

Engage with God.

Do not have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof!  

When we engage with God, we form a spiritual connection that acts like a conduit for God’s power to actively work in our lives. Like a spiritual Shofar, our shout of praise becomes a clarion call that announces to the enemy GOD IS HERE! Satan has no power anymore!

Out of this PRAISE comes Breakthrough! Strongholds are broken, chains fall off our lives, and real joy takes root in us and brings a peace that nothing in the world compares to. We live glory to glory. Breakthrough to breakthrough. Blessing to blessing. What gets us through the in-between is praise.

JUDAH was the father of PEREZ! Excited yet?

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember breakthrough is a noun!

What is your favorite Praise and Worship song?  

Impetuous Peter and the Journey to Self-Discovery in Christ

When you think of Peter, what is the first thing you think of? Cutting off a guy's ear? Standing in front of the "Pearly Gates"? 

Who was Peter? 

Impetuous Peter had a whole slew of qualities. Let’s look at some of them.

Peter walked on water; he slashed off a man’s ear. Peter recognized Jesus as the Son of God, and then he denied Jesus three times. Peter was a fisher of men, but could not watch and pray for a few hours. He was prone to legalism but dreamed of freedom from the law. He did not see the big picture before the crucifixion but preached on the day of Pentecost and thousands got saved. 

Peter ran from the horror of a trial and then hanged out in a cramped room full of believers in the days following Jesus’ death. Peter was a man of God and he had a temper. He was a fisherman and he was a brother. He was not rich but gave what he had. Peter heard a voice in the desert then followed a Savior. He was a twin with identity issues and he stood out to all those around him. He was prideful then let Jesus wash his feet. He failed then he was restored.

We are like Peter! 

Every time I think I have life figured out, I seem to find one thing or another to fail in and mess things up. Peter was no stranger to this phenomenon. But God still used Peter and He can use you and me! God uses the things the world puts no faith in, and He confounds conventional wisdom because there is success anyway, strength anyway, peace anyway.  

Peter was an Expert

Peter had something that we need. He had time with Jesus. I have heard it said that it takes 10,000 hours of work, research and time with a subject before you become an expert. That is 1 year, 1 month and 21 days (roughly) of one on one with the subject of study. Peter walked and talked, and was taught by Jesus for nearly three years. He was an expert. He was a believer. He was a founding apostle developing doctrine and teaching countless men and women throughout his life. And he still had issues.

So if all this is true, what does it mean for us? 

It means we can be an Impetuous Peter too. 

We can make mistakes, and have tempers, and fall on our face with pride issues, but if we continually surrender to God and allow Him to grow us, guide us, and lead us by the belt, then we can impact the world too.

Growing up I always thought of Peter as a weak willed man. He denied Jesus. I had no empathy at all for him. I could not figure out why Jesus went out of his way in John 21 to restore Peter and encourage him the way He did.  Part of my confusion was a lack of understanding the Jesus’ character, but now, I understand what it takes to be a real follower, and I know that Jesus is the lifter of my head. This was Jesus’ whole purpose on earth: restoration, forgiveness, and teaching. Now I realize that I am an Impetuous Peter, and I need restoration, forgiveness and understanding that can only come from Jesus.

I know that there is a long history and spiritual ancestry that is behind me. I know that like Peter, I will make mistakes. Like Peter, I have a calling on my life. Just as you do. For this purpose did I come, to testify to the truth!  

Like Peter I cannot get caught in the past, but have to allow myself to be renewed, and restored and made usable every day. I have to proclaim the glories of God and remind people the time is NOW.  Tall order? Maybe, but with God all things are possible.

So I want to close with a few questions.

1. Are you like Peter or is there another person in the Bible that you identify with more? Why?

2. What is your purpose? Have you defined who you are supposed to be in Christ yet?

3. Have there been moments in your life that made you think “That’s it, I really blew it now!” and made you feel like there could be no way you could move forward?

4. If you answered yes to #3, has there been a moment that Jesus restored you like in John 21? Reminding you there are things you still have to give and to do?

These are not easy questions. They are designed to make you think about your life and to press in to figure out first who you are in Christ and secondly to figure out what God has called you to do.  We overcome by the word of our testimony. I have to remember mine almost daily.

What is your story?

Self Help 101? No thank you!

Have you ever gotten in your own way before? It is easy to answer this question but hard to answer the next one; Why? Why do we get in our own way?

Just throwing this out there, but it may be because we try to do things on our own.  I don’t know about you, but I get tired of trying to be everything I am “supposed” to be all of the time. I get wrapped up in the peer pressure of the church and of the world and both can be dangerous things. We need to stop comparing ourselves to one another and JUST FOLLOW CHRIST!

Whoa, you say, there is no peer pressure in the church….to that I ask where do you go to church, because I want to go there.  Look, people are people, no matter where they are, everyone is broken: otherwise we wouldn’t need Jesus!

I have always considered myself to be a bit of a black sheep when it came to everything, my family, my church, my life in Christ. This negative view of myself has allowed me to wrongly excuse my poor choices in life and only in the light of Christ do I begin to see this stronghold for what it is: it is a lie.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NLT)

We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 

I am the righteousness of God in Christ, I am the head and not the tail, I rejoice because God is not a respecter of persons and He has plans for me. These words, ones written in the Bible, must become my ammunition in my battle against lies. These words must become my words, they must build my faith. They must carry more weight in my life than the lies I believed because someone of authority once told me a falsehood.

You are not worthless, you are not forgotten, you are not just like your deadbeat father, or destined to be a failure. Whoever told you these lies, well, they are wrong!  And it is time to get free of the strongholds these lies created in you.

One of the lies I have believed is that I have to always “be” a certain way now that I am a Christian. While it is true we strive for the “high Calling” of God perfection is not an option for me, because I am human. Here is another lie: I grew up thinking I was constantly a disappointment to God because the other people in my life seemed to be disappointed in me so often. If it was so impossible to please my dad, how could I ever please God?  The truth is I do not frustrate the grace of God. The truth is God loves me, and His grace is enough. The truth is God sings over me, HE is not waiting with a big stick to knock me over the head whenever I fall short.

We need to grab those things that exalt themselves higher than God in our lives, those lies we believe because our parents always said, or because we always thought a certain way, and bring them down! Pull down those strongholds by building up our faith. Asserting who we are in Christ is the only way to become free of the lies about ourselves that we believed until now. This will allow us to get out of our own way, and become more like Christ and less like that black sheep. After all, we are HIS sheep and we follow HIS voice!

This is not what I intended to write today. This is not what I studied last night and it is not where I thought God wanted to go when I first sat down at this keyboard. But I know that this is the only thing I could say right now. It was like a groaning in my spirit. I have believed so many lies before, I still struggle with the walls these lies erected between me and God. I want them torn down! I want to live in the freedom of God’s grace. I want to know the truth because it is not just truth that sets me free, BUT THE TRUTH I KNOW that sets me free. Don’t you want the same? Doesn’t your spirit cry out in the wilderness for more of God? 

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that breakthrough is a VERB!