Lesson from Ava: Relaxing in the Spirit

I spent the weekend with my cousin Whitney, her husband Hue, and most importantly, six-week-old baby Ava. I spent the whole time loving on a sweet baby girl who wanted nothing more than to coo and cuddle. What a life!

Baby Ava Relaxing on Auntie Kerri... What a Life!

I've been suffering major Ava withdrawls for the past two days. Ava knows how to live. When she is unhappy, she calls out to those who love her. When she is happy, she smiles and laughs and shares her moments of joy. When she's hungry, she seeks out her mother's breast. When she is tired, she relaxes into the arms that hold her safe and secure. She lets the world exist around her without letting it change her.

How do we get so far from that place? How do we end up trying to feed our hunger in all the wrong places? What makes us force our unhappiness upon everyone around us rather than letting a few funny faces make us laugh? Why do we work so hard to stay awake and struggle against the arms that hold us instead of relaxing into perfect rest and renewal?

One of the ladies at my Monday night Bible study shared how challenged she had been lately at yielding to the Spirit of God instead of our flesh or emotions. I guess that because I've been a driver for so long, my definition of yield has simply been along the lines of "letting someone else go first." After a weekend with Ava in my arms, I'm starting to see this "yielding" in a new way. I think that, in order to truly walk in Spirit, we need to do more than just let Him go ahead of our flesh. That mentality simply puts us in a game of Follow the Leader.

Instead, we should let the truth of Who He is in us take full control. The blood of the Living Christ flows through me. I need to do more than just try to follow Him. I need to relax into Him, and in doing so, be one with Him.

When baby Ava relaxed and slept on my chest this weekend, our breathing matched. When I moved, she moved with me. Shouldn't that be our interaction with the Spirit?

"And he said, 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himslef like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:3-4

My High Priest

We know Jesus was perfect up to the cross, but imagine His temptation ON the cross. He could have called 10,000 angels at any moment to put a stop to it all, but even at His weakest point, on the verge of death and in horrific pain, He resisted that temptation and fulfilled God’s will instead. That is what makes Him our perfect High Priest, able to fully understand our suffering.

“Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming OBEDIENT TO THE POINT OF DEATH, EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS.” Philippians 2:6-7 (emphasis mine)

Oh, my sweet Savior, how naive I’ve been to miss the full breadth of your obedience on my behalf! Forgive me!

“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)

The Bible places a value on sin. Not sins, plural, but sin. One sin, all sin, is valued at one life. What a thought! I sin so often, so easily, with little or not thought to the cost. What if I paid more attention? What if I lived with more respect, fear of the full value, or rather, cost of sin?

So death is the paycheck of sin. Even more astounding is the cost of life. The cost of eternal life is the poured out blood of one life—Jesus’ life, to be exact. The price was set at the beginning of time, from the moment man sinned. The crazy part to me is this: Christ paid that price!

All of this I knew before today, but talking it out this week with God through my Bible study and prayer, I’ve been shown a fresh revelation. It’s a life changer, too. At least, I hope it changes me the way it should. Let me walk you through the progression of this sweet revelation.

1. God does not lie. (Hebrews 6:18 “…it is impossible for God to lie…”)
2. One sin requires the blood of a life.
3. Jesus shed His blood and paid the price for my sin in order that I might have eternal life with Him.
4. If God does not lie and actions speak louder than words, then by choosing to die on the cross, Jesus declared that we are valuable and worth the price He paid through His death.
5. I act so often as though I am not worthy or valuable enough for Him to have paid such a high cost—His very life. By living this way, I am calling God a liar. If He declares my value, who am I to declare my worthlessness?
6. The truth is that Satan is a liar, and God is ever true.
7. The truth is that I am more than just a price tag—I am paid for!

Dear, Savior Jesus, help me to stop living the lie Satan spews about my worth and start living the truth. The world tells me I am worthless, but you declare me as treasured among all creation! Let my life today and every day echo what your death declared on the cross.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay…” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Spiritual Timeline...more than beginning and eternity

I’m currently in a ladies’ Bible study on Monday nights going through Jennifer Kennedy Dean’s “The Life Changing Power in the Blood of Christ.” It’s a deep study that challenges me to be calculated in my thinking and study of the Word. I encourage anyone to pick it up, man or woman. It’s written with truth in mind, not gender.

That being said, today’s study has me seeing a little clearer, which almost always leads to a frustrated Kerri. Here’s an excerpt from today:

“Jesus is the one who was, who is, and who is to come. We understand trusting the Jesus who was. He came to earth and died on the cross for my sins. We understand trusting the Jesus who is to come. He will come again to set up His kingdom on earth and I will live forever with Him. But we hardly dare to trust the Jesus who is. The Jesus who lives in me right now. The Jesus who lives His present-tense life through me.

Here is the startling truth. The Jesus who was, and the Jesus who is to come, is the same Jesus who is.” (-Jennifer Kennedy Dean)

This brings to mind a spiritual timeline of my life in Christ. I see clearly the point of salvation. “For I know Whom, I have believed.” Past-tense, believed. It was the point where death ended and life began; faith was born; I became a “new creation” in Christ. The point on this eternal timeline I also see vividly is the point of true perfection, life forever in Him and with Him when He returns and calls me to a new body and a forever home. It is my hope for the future and the promise I hold onto for my eternity.

Two points on a line that is my life.  Beginning and “end” (aka, forever). What about the gap in between–the me that is now? The Him that is now? I believed and live based on what I know is coming, not on Who He is now in me. I’m completely missing out! Wake up, Kerri, and see your life now!

My life is to be an outward reflection of the inner workings. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what it’s become. I live in disarray and depression, waiting for what is to come, relying on a better tomorrow. Today is the day the Lord has made! I WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT! It is a choice. Oh, how I’ve made the wrong one, the easy one, over and over again. I’ve believed the lie that Satan often projects into the life of the saved and makes them stagnant, joyless, ineffective believers. He presented a false belief that I’ve grabbed on to, one where I have to wait for the end to see the gift of God. LIAR!

My Redeemer lives! Present tense. And He lives present tense in me–today, right now, eternally working, actively flowing. I’m so frustrated that I’ve lived the lie. Jesus is the River of Life, flowing in me right now; but I’ve worked hard at ignoring the now Jesus and have created little dams in my life. When water does not flow, it gets stagnant.

Let the River of Life flow unhindered!

I’ve dammed up the River in many ways, and the stench of pond water has over powered the sweet fragrance of His love. NO MORE! I will tear down the dams by tearing down the lies of Satan. His lies are here and now, but my Truth is eternal–what was and is to come, but most importantly, what is now.

It’s time to beef up the timeline. I want a dot labeled trust on every day. I want more than a beginning and an eternity. I want life in Christ now. Oh, sweet Savior, what you can do today is fully up to you. Set me free in your Truth daily. Thank you for now and for being my present-tense Jesus!

“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” -1 John 5:11-13

Who Calls Forth the Wind

I have to admit that I’m not big on watching the news. I know, that probably makes me an immature, irresponsible world citizen. Sorry. It bores and depresses me. However, this evening as I was going about my miscellaneous business at home, the CBS Evening News was on, and Katie Couric caught my attention with a Moses moment.

She announced that there is now research to support the fact that the Red Sea could have actually parted for the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Brace yourself for shocking science…. the WIND did it. According to an article by the UCAR, a computer model shows the possibility that a 63 mph wind from the east could have pushed the waters back enough for folks to safely cross. Thank you science for supporting what Exodus has told us for thousands of years.

I’d just like to say this, though: have we completely missed the point? The point of the waters parting was not the grand escape or how it happened. Exodus 14:13-31 tells the story plainly and wondrously. And yes, the “wind” played a role.

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night THE LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided… And when the Israelites saw the great power THE LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” - Exodus 14:21, 31 (NIV, emphasis mine)

The point dear earthlings, is THE LORD. It is He alone who calls forth the wind on our behalf. The point is not the wind, but the relationship we choose to pursue because of He who controls the wind. The Israelites chose holy fear and trust as a result of God’s display of provision and protection on their behalf. It just so happened to be in the form of a stiff breeze that time. What is your choice? Do you feel the wind in your face and trust it’s existence as your source of salvation? Or do you trust the Source of the wind to do what only He can do–save you by way of dry land?

Lord, forgive me for missing the point in more than one wind storm of life. Blow your mighty love my way today. Call forth your wind into this world and let all who feel you trust in you alone!
You can read the article from UCAR at https://www2.ucar.edu/news/parting-waters-computer-modeling-applies-physics-red-sea-escape-route.