True Rest

Friends, this is so real and so true that I have to share it. I have lived it and am experiencing true Rest! It is terrible to live under the burden of pretense and artificiality. Be free from it! 

Please read these words from A.W. Tozer :

"There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. ...To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, "You...must become as little children" (Matthew 18:3) For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir in hearts do envy and jealousy appear...and it never leaves them until Jesus sets them free.

Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed.

The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good, keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is the vice that if we push it down one place, it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it "My yoke," and He walks at one end while we walk at the other.

"Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)

"Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11: 28-30)

THE SOLDIER'S COST

                                   

FREEDOM... 

I was traveling on Thanksgiving Day and I heard a Jimi Hendrix song on called, "Freedom".  That word Freedom... kept rolling around in my head. 

Everybody wants freedom.
 
Freedom...to be themselves
Freedom...of speech
Freedom...in religion
Freedom...from sickness
Freedom...from addiction
   
 The list could go on and on...  

But the thought came to me that freedom never comes without a cost.  

If you want to be free from an addiction, you have to suffer the hardships of the withdrawal.  For freedom from slavery and segregation...someone had to pay the cost.  To live in a free country many have paid the cost.

I write today to... you, the Soldier... past or present in service.  You certainly know what it means to pay the cost.  The cost of sacrifice.  The cost of being away from loved ones.  The cost of sleepless nights, haunting thoughts, terror filled dreams.  The cost of losing an appendage to your body.  Or maybe the cost of a life time of suffering emotionally or physically due to what you experience as a soldier.

You are sacrificing and giving the cost of your life.  Scripture says "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

I hope today... that you do not feel forgotten... or feel that your suffering and sacrifice have been in vain.

Whatever you are going through or have gone through as a soldier laying down your life for your loved ones, friends, and country...please know that you are not alone. 

As you have been the one sacrificing and protecting for someone else...There is someone who has done the very same thing for YOU.   One who sacrificed and suffered...was rejected, and under-appreciated.  One who endured many wounds and the wrath of God...all for the purpose of protecting and saving YOUR life.  

Jesus Christ showed the ultimate love and laid down his life for YOU, his friend.

Jesus Christ knows exactly what you feel and has walked in your shoes.

YOU, the soldier, can identify with the work of Christ.  The best part is... now you can be on the receiving end.  As you may have rescued others from the wrath of evil men here on this earth, you can rest knowing that Christ has rescued you from the wrath of God and the evil one and taken your punishment.  The punishment that we all deserve as sinners. Do you believe?

Men and women...Soldiers- past and present...Hear me when I say this:

"The love of Christ has come to YOU today.  
He has NOT forgotten YOU!"

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE 
AND YOUR SACRIFICE!

OUR MASK

Do you ever notice how we all like to walk around with masks on?   Believing that if we leave the masks on long enough they will become the truth of who we really are.

I recently have been through a long season of God peeling my mask back. The mask that I didn't even know I was so desperately trying to keep on.  I've wanted to believe that I can be strong...I can keep everything going.  I can keep trying to be superwoman...keep a clean house everyday, be a great mom, be a great wife, come up with the right way to discipline my kids,  put a good meal on the table, etc...etc.  All while dealing with the immense stresses that can come up in life.  I eventually came to a point where I was so weak that my mask was disinigrating.

How about you?  If you are honest, do you have a mask on that you'd really like to be released from?

In the reality of my life getting harder and harder, and the weight of burdens, I began to see my true condition leaking out from under the mask.  Leaking out in ugly ways.  I didn't like what I was seeing and feeling.  Seeing this condition more and more in the light has been very humbling for me.

Here's where the truth comes in.  The answer to our question, "WHO AM I?"- We are all a people made in the image of God stricken with a sin condition.         
THE TRUTH IS OUT!

We are all sinners walking around tainted with the same condition.  No more burden of comparing.  It's the comparing of others' outward lives to our inward lives that forms the masks we so desperately need to be freed from.

What do you see in the depths of your heart?  Do you recognize a mask that's making it hard for you to see your true condition?