Angela Parlin

So Much Beauty in All This Chaos

Mercy Inspires Worship

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Mercy Inspires Worship Come Worship

Everyone worship the Lord.

Ascribe Him the glory due Him. Proclaim His majesty.

Be in awe before such power.

Come worship wonderful Yahweh, in all His holy beauty.

Give Him the honor due His name!

(Excerpts from Psalm 29, NIV & Passion Translation)

One of my highlights this year has been sitting with the Lord alone most days, praying without multitasking. In this time, I worship and adore God, confess my sins, thank Him for an incredible amount of blessings, and pour out my cares before Him, asking for His help.

I had no idea worship would become the part of my prayers I long for most.

I didn’t realize I would set out to give the Lord the honor due His name–yet I would receive so much blessing.

It’s not that I failed to worship the Lord before. It’s just that I didn’t take regular time away from other people–and other tasks–in order to worship Him alone. To worship without multitasking.

But what is worship, really? Worship is often more than sitting with God alone, in prayer and song.

Look up the definition of worship, and you’ll find a number of ideas. Some think worship is a service you attend, a feeling you have toward a deity, or homage paid to God or another sacred object.

Oxford Dictionary defines worship as “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.”

Paul, the apostle, offers another definition of worship in Romans 12:1-2,

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… (NIV)

True worship begins with a view of God’s mercy.

We have done nothing to deserve His kindness, yet He heaps it upon us.

His mercy includes His unending love for us, even while we were yet sinners, His grace and forgiveness, eternal life by faith, our reconciliation to God, the gift of the Holy Spirit, newness of life, peace, joy, hope, freedom, and even more than all of this.

Just try to remember God’s mercies toward you, without being moved to worship. It’s impossible!

So we worship God, by focusing on His mercies, by preaching the gospel to ourselves again and again, because we so easily forget who God is, the depths of His love for us, and all we have IN Him.

Paul urges us further, to offer our bodies, our whole selves, to God. This is our action step.

We present–or give over to God’s control–our bodies, including our heart and thoughts and attitudes. We do not follow the pattern of the world any longer, because as we offer ourselves to God, He cleans and changes and renews us. 

This practice of viewing God’s mercies, of simply remembering who God is and telling Him, has surprised me this year. The more I worship God, the more I adore Him in my heart.

My whole life falls into clarity when I adore God and remember who He is, and who I am in light of Him.

My cares and concerns don’t disappear–but they fade behind the majesty of God.

So everyone, let’s worship the Lord. Let’s remember who He is, in all His holy beauty, and give Him the honor due His name.

 

Today I’m guest posting over at Purposeful Faith with Kelly & Friends. See this post there by clicking here.

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Faith on the Edge of a Sword

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Faith Fear World Not My Home Something Better

My big sister called me the Safety Club.

She was the type to think fun was fun. I only thought fun was fun if it was also safe.

I always treasured safety, even as a kid. No one ever called me Brave. Detailed, yes. But not brave.

I was the kind of kid who noticed the details, who noticed all the ways the world wasn’t safe. Who noticed all the bad things that just might, could possibly happen, if we opened that box.

It was there, in those details, where my courage often went to die.

Still, I tried to align myself with safety. With safe-ish. Which didn’t always mesh well with faith in Jesus.

For obvious reasons, I’ve never enjoyed the Great Hall of Faith. Hebrews 11, anyone? In my Bible it’s titled, “Faith in Action.” But my reaction to Hebrew 11, was…No, thank you.

Pass the Faith ~ just not on the edge of a sword, please. 

I wonder how many of you can relate. I’d guess I’m not the only longstanding member of the Safety Club.

Hebrews 11–and plenty of other Scripture passages–sent my red flags flying, somewhere between barely escaping the edge of the sword–and torture, imprisonment, and stoning.  Also that part which states, They were sawed in two.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to put myself in those real people’s shoes, even if they did live long, long ago.

Basically, I have an adverse reaction to violence, of any kind. I’m not big on blood. Especially my own.

But earlier this week, my oldest boys wanted to talk again about ISIS.

They asked me about 21 Brave Egyptian Christians, whose faith shone at the edge of the water on a Libyan beach–whose faith endured even past edges of swords.

The truth is, I’ve always been all, I sure hope it never comes down to that for any of us. 

But this time, something changed. I asked the Lord to help me stand with Him if I’m ever in those shoes.

I heard myself telling my kids, Guys, of course I don’t want to go through that, but I will leave this earth standing for Jesus, if that’s what it comes to. 

Now I realize I’m just saying words.

But I’m not the kind of person who says these things lightly. I’ve not ever ONCE been the type of person who says those kind of words at all. It’s my temperament’s fault. I have to count the cost and really mean words, before I can say them.

But after 30+ years of running from the thought of persecution, of desiring deeper faith as long as it doesn’t come with any sharp edges, I realized something.

This world is really not my home.

And I’m not so scared anymore.

I hope it’s the same for you. I hope the story of these 21 brave brothers in Christ–and all the others who have gone before–inspires you to follow Jesus bravely, the way it’s inspiring me.

Instead of growing our fears, may these stories grow our faith.

They lived in this world, but they had died to it already. They had died to the world, and the world had died to them.

May we stop craving our illusions of safety, and may we hunger for heaven instead.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. Hebrews 11:1-2

They were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16

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Living From a New Identity

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dead to sin alive to God identity in Christ

As a preschooler, I learned I had a sin problem and needed Jesus to save me from it. When I asked Him to be my rescue, I became dead to sin and alive to God. I learned the old had gone, and the new had come. But I was also encouraged to put off sin and put on Christ.

Just one little problem. How exactly do you put Christ on? That was a hard idea to wrap my head around.

Then I grew up a bit and realized–I really don’t feel so dead to sin.

So I managed my sin by trying to hide it, trying to look the way I was supposed to, or pretending it wasn’t there. Back then, there was a Sin Rating System floating around, and for the most part, my sins stayed off the really naughty list.

To be honest, sin didn’t grieve me. I didn’t think holiness was possible, for me or anyone else. And so I occasionally asked God to forgive me of “all my sins”–without owning any of them.

When I grew closer to the Lord as an adult, I started to care more about holiness. I didn’t want sin to control me, to be my master, in any way. I wanted to live in victory, and began striving for it. But that didn’t work out so well.

Victory over sin begins with belief. Not only belief in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life. But also belief in our new identity in Christ.

Romans 6 says,

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

To count yourself means to accept it as true, believe it, and act as if it were true.

Once we call out to Jesus for salvation, we are IN Christ. We identify with Him. This is our position—our status before God: dead to sin.

We have been baptized with Christ. We have died with Christ and been raised with Him to a new way of life. Sin no longer controls us. It has no power over us.

Now we can LIVE FROM a place of victory, instead of trying to attain victory.  

But our position often does not match our practice. The Bible says we have been made new (positionally), but we are being made new (practically). For the rest of our lives, the way we live should grow closer and closer to our position IN Christ.

I struggled to believe my position, my new identity in Christ, because I knew what was in me. I lived out of that reality, which I could see and measure—more than I lived by faith out of my position in Christ.

Even as new creations, sin deceives us. We get entangled in it sometimes. We forget who we are, and we need to remember our identity in Christ.

IN Christ, we are dead to sin and ALIVE to God.

We are new, but we are also in the process of being made new.

So put on Christ and learn to see yourself this way. Offer yourself to God day after day, and He will enable you to live the life you were meant for.

See this post on PurposefulFaith.com! Today I’m blogging over at Kelly Balarie & Friends…I hope you’ll pop in for a visit!

~Angela

 

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Pray Without Multitasking

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praying without multitaskingWe are two weeks into the new year, and I’m ready now to declare my word.

Near the end of last year, I thought it might be strength—as in living in God’s strength and not my own. I wrote it on the front page of a new journal, but it didn’t feel like “the one”.

As I studied strength, it took a backseat to prayer.

Because there’s no living in God’s strength without wholehearted, earnest prayer.

So this year my commitment is simply to Pray–in a consistent, intentional, wholehearted way.

I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but I think some prayers are easy. Many years ago, I read about practicing the presence of God, and started a habit of talking to Him throughout the day, believing He’s near.

I whisper lines of thanks or requests for help to God throughout the day. I ask Him regularly for wisdom, especially as a Mom. I keep a list of family and friends’ needs, knowing He waits for us to come to Him, and He listens.

I trust that God is able to do more than all we ask or imagine. 

We have needs, and God is able to meet them. Furthermore, we are busy, so these throughout-the-day, on-the-go prayers work for us.

But other times, prayer feels hard, even unnatural. Other times, prayer requires us to put down everything else we’d like to do at the same time.

That’s the kind of prayer I struggle with. To put that more honestly–that’s the prayer I often don’t pray. The one where I close the door to my world, and enter the presence of God, with only God and nothing else.

What about you? Do you regularly slow down to be with God alone?

I don’t think it comes naturally to most of us, to make a full stop in our lives and stay with Him a while.

We tend to do everything in our power, first.

We rely on ourselves instead of relying on God.

We value self-sufficiency, and pride ourselves on independence.

Or we’re rarely alone, and when we are, we turn on something noisy, so we don’t feel alone.

In my quiet times, I love studying books of the Bible. But the hard part? Pouring out my heart to God and listening for Him through the silence. Which is to say–I like to learn about God, to get to know Him through His Word, but I struggle to just sit with Him.

Back in December, I wrote down a few goals for this year. Since then, I’ve realized my goal above all goals for 2015 is to spend time each day, praying without multitasking.

I commit to daily adore God, thank Him, confess my sins, and lay my requests before Him. And then to wait in the silence for His Holy fire to fall upon my heart.

At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart. Psalm 5:3, Passion Translation

Will you join me? If the Spirit is calling you to spend time daily, praying without multitasking, let me know and I’ll be praying for YOU. Come, Holy Fire…

Join me over at Kelly Ballarie & Friends  where this post is featured today.

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When Pillars Fall

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Jesus Chief Cornerstone Pillars Fall Trials

Earlier this year, on a rainy Thursday afternoon, one of the pillars of my life fell.

I mean that literally. My Dad fell from a 20-foot ladder on the job, and then we all circled his hospital bed, where he wore the neck brace with fits of anger, in and out of consciousness.

We waited through testing to learn of broken bones and a bleeding brain, while our strong and capable supporter forgot thirty years of living and became fragile before us.

We wanted to stop and rewind, but we couldn’t. We couldn’t keep any bit of his life from changing.

But through the pain, the tears, the questions, and all the uncomfortable feelings shouting at us – while life as we knew it slipped away, this one thing remained …

Jesus is still our Chief Cornerstone, the stone that holds the entire building—that holds the whole big, wide, painful world—together.

But the Master, God, has something to say to this:

‘Watch closely. I’m laying a foundation in Zion,
    a solid granite foundation, squared and true.
And this is the meaning of the stone:
    a trusting life won’t topple.’” Isaiah 28:16 (MSG)

We experienced this during those days of wait-and-see. And the rest of this year, even still, as Dad works his way through a painfully slow recovery.

A trusting life won’t topple. Those who believe will be unshakable. People who rely on Jesus will not be put to shame.

It’s as if God, through our afflictions, helps us unwrap gifts of truth we only held loosely. In these times, we learn what it means to rely on Jesus, to know Him as our Cornerstone.

He takes our trials and cements them into new layers of trust.

When I think about growing in trust, I remember the winter our losses stacked up like Lego bricks. Or the time an emergency team broke in and rescued one of our dearest, and we were far away. Or the day we held our newborn baby and doctors rained masses of cancer on our pink parade. Or the uncertain season of Dad’s fall.

Painful days, and desperate nights—yet through these, we emerged knowing more of Jesus. Knowing nothing’s more certain than Him.

For when we’re past our own strength, once we’re no longer feeling so capable with the basic pieces of our lives in place—Jesus gives His strength. Then we understand He really is the Chief Cornerstone, holding us up when all else falls.

He’s the foundation of the church, the foundation of our lives—precious and stable and strong.

So when the world slips out from under you, and keeps on slipping, you don’t need to panic.

Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone, is able to bear the weight of the whole building. He’s able to bear the weight of your whole life.

You are coming to Christ, who is the living Cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but He is precious to God who chose Him. And now God is building you, as living stones, into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.” I Peter 2:4-5 (NLT)

This post also featured at  Katy’s place, A Football Wife’s Life. I am honored to participate in the series she’s hosting, on the Names of God. Also, she’s giving away a set of beautiful ornaments. Don’t miss!

And a very merry Christmas to you!

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