Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007                                                 by Liza B

We Belong to Him

My school is an open concept school. What that means is that there are no walls in the different pods, just book cases separating classes from each other. While the kids and I have grown accustomed to the noise, there are times when some discipline issues take place in other classes that distract us. There is one teacher that really has a crazy class. (I’d never want to teach her kids.) Well anyways, sometimes the noise level escalates and we hear the teacher yelling in an intimidating way at one of her little monsters.

As I look at my kids’ facial expressions and furtive glances at each other I can tell they are scared, so I jokingly ask them, “Do you want me to send you over there when you misbehave?” Try to imagine their eyes bulging out and their heads shaking vigorously as they say, “No, no, we want to stay with you!” “Well”, I tell them, “if you misbehave I will send you to that class.”  One time at this point some of my little girls ran up to me, squeezed me and said, “We want you to be our teacher not anyone else!” Aww…how sweet!

The point of this story is to serve as an object lesson as I read Psalms 100 with a focus on the phrase “we belong to him.”

Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing! Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give him thanks! Praise his name! For the Lord is good. His loyal love endures, and he is faithful through all generations.

This beautiful Psalm is one of exultation and joy because God is faithful and loving and better yet, we belong to Him. Isn’t that amazing? When I look around me and see other people who have not given the reins of their life to God and also see the hold Satan has on their life I am so grateful that I belong to God. Life is not perfect for me, but I have a gracious, loyal Father who lovingly tends to all my needs, even my need for correction.

Let’s take a moment today to thank God that He rescued us from the power of Satan, and that we now belong to Him.

   Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007                                                    by Liza B

No Negativity Here Please

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to become negative and whiney?

I started my year as a fourth grade teacher with high hopes and dreams for my kids, which quickly turned into amazement at how far we had to go this year ,and then despair set in when I realized how little time I have to get them where they need to be. Believe me, once my mind began to dwell on the colossal challenge ahead of my class this year I became one of the most frazzled persons I’ve ever seen.

I wasn’t as nice to my students nor uplifting and positive with everyone else; however, through this time the Holy Spirit was convicting me of not quite acting like a Christian, but I was having a hard time understanding exactly what the problem was until today.  

14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.  Philippians 2:14,15 

That was it! My negative attitude had been causing negative and complaining words to come out my mouth and was tarnishing the testimony of Christ to those around me! Isn’t that what the verse says? We are commanded not to complain for the purpose of being blameless and shining like stars in front of the people who don’t know the Lord. Why would unbelievers want to give their lives to a God who cannot sustain them through a hard time? 

I walked into my classroom this morning with the determination to seek the Lord’s help to be positive and I may not be perfect, but at least I have made a commitment to keep focusing on the God of miracles instead of my own problems and inability to cope with them. 

I’d also like to challenge you to commit yourself to being an uplifter and a bright light to the people around you so that they can see what our God can do through you. 

Ps. As soon as I got to my classroom having made the decision to be uplifting I found a note on desk that said:

Dear Miss Barros,

We love you,

The Broncos

(Broncos are the mascot of my class: Barros Broncos) I felt like God gave me a special reason to smile. =)

   Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007                                                           by Liza B

People: God's Plan A

From the beginning God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” In other words, “It is good to be with others.” The Bible also has many other places where the presence of other people is preferred over being alone, such as when a person falls and the other one picks him up. Another place is in Proverbs where it says that the decision making process is better with counsel than alone.

It is clear in the Bible that life was not meant to be walked alone. God intended for us to have companions even if we are not married. Notice the way God designed the body of Christ and gifted different people with different giftings so that we would all be able to minister to one another. 

We will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.  Ephesians 4:15, 16 

God designed the church to be a place where aching people receive healing and support from other members just as a body works. Have you ever wondered why God said, “Confess one to another”? The fact is that when we sin we hurt ourselves. Sometimes we want to isolate ourselves and hide the truth from others, but God wants us to be able to receive his forgiveness not only on a mental level, but at an emotional level. There is just something about someone not judging us and just accepting us that hits a deeper cord than just knowing we are forgiven. 

I always seem to talk about doing our part to be that support system for others, but this time I want to say that you should not bear your burden alone. When you feel overwhelmed and need someone to share your heart with or your joy remember that you are absolutely understood by God and that He has made a way for you. He has structured the church by giving us commands like, “Carry each others loads” or “Grieve with those that are grieving and rejoice with those who rejoice” so that you would not be alone.

   Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007                                                            by Liza B

Who Are You Trying to Please?

There is inside of all of us a very natural desire for approval from others, but there are some of us that struggle with an extreme form of this, which is living to please people and constantly living in fear of others’ disapproval.

We do not realize how those attitudes are in direct contradiction to Jesus’ command to “ not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4)

Maybe these attitudes originated by repeatedly hearing statements such as, “What will people say or think of you if you do that?” There may be other causal factors, but whatever it is, it  results in placing an exaggerated importance on what people will think.  If you are truly honest, how many decisions ranging from clothing you wear, to the career that you picked, have you chosen based on the reactions of people around you? It may not a conscious thought, but a subtle attitude of trying to prove yourself to others.

The million dollar question of every Christian should be “What decision would be glorifying to God? Which path would best use my talents and the personality he has given me?” If your focus is other people more than God then that will not be your primary question.

When we stand before the Judgement or Award Ceremony and God begins to reward us for a job well done, it will be based on what we have done for Him, not what we have done for anyone else. God knows our heart and motivations and will judge accordingly. Don’t let your life be a tiring, fruitless and unrewarding endeavor to please people.

Ask God to show you what areas in your life may be motivated by pleasing people and not Him. You may be surprised at what you find in yourself, but this should not be a time to worry. Once your eyes are opened to the truth you have won half the battle!

   Posted on Wednesday, April 11, 2007                                                            by Liza B

Whose Word Are You Living?

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. - James 1:22-25 

The Bible says that we should do what it says to do. In fact, if we follow its commands we will be blessed or prospered in everything we do. 

Honestly, do you actually go to the Bible to find wisdom to live? Or do you see the Bible as a good book that defines your faith, but other than that has no real value in the real world? 

Sometimes we do not obey God’s Word because we don’t even know what it says! How many things are you doing to “please God” that are nowhere to be found in Scripture, but completely miss out on the essentials in Christianity such as “love one another”, “pray for one another”, “accept one another”? 

So if you do not study the Bible and are a Christian, whose word are you living? Could there be a reason why being a Christian makes no sense to you? In that case, are you just living and following your own rules you made up? There is no blessing in that at all so don’t waste your time. The real blessing and joy comes when we follow what the Bible says. 

The key is study the Bible and then live it. Know what the Bible says about life and relationships, and refuse to settle for outward, legalistic conformity with no true godliness.

   Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2007                                                      by Liza B

Do You Want to know God's Will?

Do not be conformed  to this present world,  but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve  what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:2 

For people who are serving the Lord this is one of the most important and serious questions because we realize the importance of a life surrendered to the Master.

The problem is that we end up feeling stuck with a great fear of doing the wrong thing, messing up our life, incurring the wrath of God—yet with no clear picture of what we are supposed to do, and worst of all with nowhere to get those answers. We pray for signs and dreams and all we get is maybe a confusing set of directions all the while knowing that God expects for us to walk in His will or else.  If this sounds like you take heart. God desires for us to know His will much more than you and I do. He has clearly stated His will for all of us in the Bible. The first and most important part of His will is that we have submitted our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and trusted in Him for the salvation of our souls. If you are not sure about that step in your life then that is the first step you need to take. 

It is only when you belong to the Lord He can say “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.” (paraphrase) The privilege of knowing the will of God belongs only to those who belong to Him. 

Secondly, as Romans 12:2 says, we must renew our minds. We renew our minds by immersing our minds with the Word of God and make His thoughts our own. It is a process of discarding all of the old/bad information of our mind and replacing it with God’s point of view. For example, there are some people who just love to fight at any minor provocation. They do this because they believe that it is a weakness to let anyone just offend them like that. Well, one day they read the Bible and see that the Bible says “It is the glory of man to overlook an offense” and “Leave off contention before it begins.” So because they belong to the Lord they realize that their way of thinking was wrong and through the help of the Holy Spirit they adopt this new way of thinking and consequently a new way of acting. 

That means we need to study the Word of God on our own so that we know what God wants from us. As we study and absorb His Word our mind will be renewed and changed, and our desires will begin to reflect His desires. We must then believe in faith that once have prioritized what the Lord wants in our life and we are in complete submission to His revealed Word we can walk through open doors and know it is God’s leading. You must believe His Word when He promises that if we “acknowledge Him He will direct our paths.” 

If you still feel afraid about making that wrong step or turn I want to assure you that when your heart is yielded to doing the will of God, He will steer you away from trouble. Don’t worry for one minute, but watch God work through circumstances in your life to affirm or discourage the path you are taking.