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Dirty Little Secret

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

You have a dirty little secret

 

Your life that people see

is not what they don’t

 

Your outward

is not the same

as your inward

 

God and people

are not truly honored

behind closed doors

 

Lies and deception

are disguised as piety

and truth

 

And people are hurt by secrets

especially the one doing the hurting

 

Because what you don’t realize

is that the one who truly has

a dirty little secret

 

is the enemy of your soul

 

He has you in his grip

and you thought you were in control

 

of the facade

 

Nothing is truly secret

Except the way you are being deceived

 

– Susie Stewart

 

There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. There is nothing kept secret that will not come to light.

– Luke 8:17 (GW)

 

Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!

– Luke 12:3 (NLT)

 

For God will judge every action—including everything done in secret—whether it be good or evil.

– Ecclesiastes 12:14 (VOICE)

 

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.

– Hebrews 4:13 (NLT)

 

* Disclaimer — This is not written about anyone within the walls of our home. Friend, if your life inside your home does not match up with your life outside your home, if you are putting on a facade, if you are being deceived by the enemy into not living out God’s grace and honor toward the people you are closest to, please wake up!  Your enemy prowls and looks for those who he may devour.  Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked.  Bring all into the light and let God’s Spirit cleanse and mend.

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Attachment

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Our Lord did not teach detachment from other things:  He taught attachment to Himself.   Jesus Christ was not a recluse.  He did not cut Himself off from society.  He was amazingly in and out among the ordinary things of life; but He was disconnected fundamentally from it all.  He was not aloof, but He lived in another world.

– Oswald Chambers

 

For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

– Hebrews 13:1 (NLT)

 

I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your word, which is truth. Just as you sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give Myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by Your truth.

– John 17:15-19 (NLT)

 

A divided heart loses both worlds.

– A.B. Simpson

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Sacred

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A worshipful lifestyle entails an orientation that views all of life as sacred.  Whether you are at church, home, work, or in your community, whatever you do, it is to the glory of God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son.

…My mother would reference anything and everything in life as connecting with God somehow.  She wanted us to know that God was in the midst of everything, and that everything in our lives was somehow tied into His providence, involvement, and plan.  Even if what she said or did bothered those around her, she wouldn’t budge from connecting the sacred to all of life, because her life was lived in an attitude of worship.  Paul indicated that spiritual maturity…ought to produce a lifestyle of reverence and worship.

– Tony Evans

 

All of it, Lord,

Yours

 

No part hidden from Your eyes

Everything touching the Sacred

 

A Life of Worship

Not just Sunday demonstration

 

Poured out

Focused

Intentional

 

All of it, Lord,

Yours

– Susie Stewart

 

So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to Him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to Him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to Him and what is perfect.

– Romans 12:1,2 (NCV)

 

…give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

–  Romans 6:13 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Gracious

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Divine Graciousness

is what I desire

 

A gracious attitude

of the heart

 

showing

in the most difficult

of circumstances

 

showing

with the most difficult

of people

 

showing

so that the world knows

it’s not me

 

But YOU

 

for You are gracious

humble of heart

slow to anger

abounding in love

 

Gracious to those

who don’t deserve it

 

Grace personified to me

showing through to them

 

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].

– Colossians 4:6 (AMP)

 

A Christian must always be kind, gracious, and wise in order to conquer evil by good.

– John of Kronstadt

 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

– Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

 

But the Eternal One was gracious and compassionate toward them. He was good and turned His face to them because of the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Eternal, true to His promise, had protected them and remained near them until now.

– 2 Kings 13:23 (VOICE)

 

And you know, when you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven, you’re a lot more forgiving of other people. You’re a lot more gracious to others.

– Rick Warren

 

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.

– Joel 2:13 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

All About Him

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Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross.  He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering.  He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting.  All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake.  Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion.  Many admire His miracles, but few follow Him in the humiliation of His cross.  Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them.  Many praise and bless Him, as long as they are receiving any comfort from Him.  But if Jesus withdraw Himself, they fall to complaining and utter dejection.  

They who love Jesus for His own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless Him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy.  And were He never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would still always praise Him and give Him thanks.  

Oh, how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, free from all self-interest and self-love!  Are they not all mercenaries, who are always seeking comfort?  Do they not betray themselves as lovers of self rather than of Christ, when they are always thinking of their own advantage and gain?  Where will you find one who is willing to serve God without reward?  

– Thomas Kempis

 

Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My disciple.

– Luke 14:27 (AMP)

 

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

– Philippians 3:7-9 (MSG)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Straight Ahead

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Let your eyes look straight ahead;  fix your gaze directly before you.  Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

– Proverbs 4:25,26 (NIV)  

 

Looking straight ahead

fixing my gaze directly before me

means decidedly ignoring distractions

means not being dissuaded from the path

the Lord has laid out for me

no matter what tempts me 

to veer off

 

Eyes and heart

set determinedly forward

and straight on,

for this deliberate path

is one of reward

of joy

of the few

– Susie Stewart

 

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

– Matthew 7:13,14 (NIV)  

 

A highway will be there, a roadway. It will be called the Holy Road. Sinners won’t travel on it. It will be for those who walk on it. Godless fools won’t wander onto it.

– Isaiah 35:8 (GW)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Parent Love

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

 

“My love and prayers are always covering you.”

 

A covering

as in

a blanket

a coat

a shelter

 

warmth

protection

enveloping

concealing

from the onslaught

 

Extending over

as a shield

 

A treasured message from my mom

A gift passed on to my children

 

Parental love and prayer

Powerful

– Susie Stewart

 

Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift? The fruit of the womb His generous legacy? Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you; you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.

– Psalm 127:4 (MSG)

 

Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. Do whatever it takes to remember them: tie a reminder on your hand and bind a reminder on your forehead where you’ll see it all the time, such as on the doorpost where you cross the threshold or on the city gate.

– Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (VOICE)

 

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making Him proud of you as you work hard in His orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us.

– Colossians 1:8-10 (MSG)

 

Photo by Olan Mills way back when

Advocate

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

An Advocate

unmerited

 

A Voice

on my behalf

 

A Mediator

before the Most Holy

 

My Love

standing up for me

standing in my stead

 

My Defense

secure and uncorrupted

 

My Advocate

my Jesus

 

Love

pleading for me

 

– Susie Stewart

 

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

– 1 John 2:1 (NLT)

 

For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.

– 1 Timothy 2:5 (NLT)

 

My little children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the upright, the just One, who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose, thought, and action].

– 1 John 2:1 (AMP)

 

If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take Him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see Him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know Him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

– John 14:15-17 (MSG)

 

But as it is, Christ has acquired a [priestly] ministry which is more excellent [than the old Levitical priestly ministry], for He is the Mediator (Arbiter) of a better covenant [uniting God and man], which has been enacted and rests on better promises.

– Hebrews 8:6 (AMP)

 

Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands. He didn’t go into a model of the real thing. Instead, he went into heaven to appear in God’s presence on our behalf.

– Hebrews 9:24 (GW)

 

God will not lightly or easily lose His people. He has provided well for us: blood to wash us in; a Priest to pray for us, that we may be made to persevere; and, in case we foully fall, an Advocate to plead our cause.

– John Bunyan

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

 

All In

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Many Christ-ones merely want involvement – and a small piece of it at that – in Christianity.  God wants total commitment.  He wants us to be wholehearted.  Sold out.  Willing to pay the price of being disciples.

The purpose of our lives is to know God…This means commitment to God and to His Word with our whole being.  It has been said that the Christian life is one big YES and a lot of little uh-huh’s – YES when we ask Christ into our lives to be our Savior and uh-huh in the multitude of lordship decisions we make through the years.

– Carole Mayhall

 

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death…

– Philippians 3:10 (AMPC)

 

More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was commitment that thinned the ranks.

– Chuck Swindoll

 

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

– Romans 12:1,2 (PHILLIPS)

 

If you do not plan to live the Christian life totally committed to knowing your God and to walking in obedience to Him, then don’t begin, for this is what Christianity is all about. It is a change of citizenship, a change of governments, a change of allegiance. If you have no intention of letting Christ rule your life, then forget Christianity; it is not for you.

– Kay Arthur
Photo by Susie Stewart

Place With Purpose

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Notice God’s unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world.  God plants His saints in the most useless places.  We say – God intends me to be here because I am so useful.  Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use.  God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judges at all of where that is.

– Oswald Chambers

 

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.

– Luke 2:36-38 (NLT)

 

And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

– Acts 20:22-24 (NLT)

 

There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas). She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”

So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up! He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive.

– Acts 9:36-41 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart