Truefaced

WHAT WE SHOULD SUBMIT TO :
THE WORD OF GOD
Psa 1:1 Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

posted by Diane B at 4:41 AM | 0 comment(s)

SUBMISSION.... DENIAL..... HOGWASH.... My mommy told me something a little girl should know....it is all about the devil and how I learned to hate him so....whenever he came in the room I faced him with a grin.....I opened up my heart and let the sonshine in. Can you imagine anyone having their little five year old daughter sing that on a Saturday night for a group of folks who'd come to town. It was all so innocent.
It was a cute song. I know. They did not even think about the words really. How could they, "smile at the devil ?" really, get rid of him ? Sounds like positive thinking propaganda to me.
Right now spiritual warfare is the topic of many of my Christian friends conversations. It fits in with what I want to tell them about submission , but I don't know how. I am not a skilled teacher. Some where along the way someone said, the problem with you is you are not submissive. It was about that time I discovered the truth about being transformed by the renewing of your mind . I decided to read Psalms 51 out loud to myself every morning, I don't know how long. My Bible still opens to it if you just kind of give it shove.
All I know is being submissive is an important part of spiritual warfare.
We are at war constantly. I know this because there isn't a day goes by that the enemy takes a day off. Everyday I ask the Lord Jesus to protect me. He is the one who does the warring. It is unto Him that I must submit. When I was in the room of pleasing God instead of trusting God my willingness to submit was quenched. Every step I took I needed to please Him. Now every step I want to trust Him.
I submit to Him and I trust Him. He submitted Himself to the Father. He places people in my life, I submit to them, that their joy may be full. There are people that are to submit to me, I do my part, they either do or don't do theirs. It would be a joy to council them if they submitted to my council. When they treat my council as hogwash, I wonder if I have cast my pearls before swine ? Especially when the council is based on the Word of God. It will not return void. I wonder what will happen to them. I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them. Not that my council be esteemed, but that God's Word be revered as it ought to be. Fortunately not all of the council the Lord gives me to share is ignored. 1Cr 16:16 That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with [us], and laboureth. Hbr 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that [is] unprofitable for you. 1Pe 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

posted by Diane B at 8:20 PM | 0 comment(s)

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART , O GOD, AND RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME. Ps 51:10 As Christians we know that we can live a righteous looking life.Only God knows if your spirit is right. Those who wear the mask think that anyway. Doing what you do with a wrong spirit surely will show over time. It's what Truefaced Experience is about. Learning how to take off that mask and let God create in you a clean heart. Let God renew a right spirit within you.
When I was an affirmation addict my righteous walk was dictated by what other people thought was right. As an affirmation addict I really fed on admiration . Righteousness that was based on works really fed my addiction. However, I also believed that the Bible was the inspired word of God. So not only did I need to do what my fellow believers thought was right I needed to do what I thought God wanted me to do to. I sought His admiration as well. When I found His admiration could not be found by works alone I began to see I needed to make a choice here. Whose admiration would be more important ? His or theirs ?
However the loss of people's affirmation that I was doing the right thing was very hard. Yet, somehow I managed to do it , almost sure they were right and I was wrong. Except for one thing : to do what they thought I should do, I could not do with a right spirit.
Those many years ago was really when the Truefaced Experience had begun in me. A realization that my works of righteousness was as dirty rags , that stunk ! A sense of knowing if it was His work within me that was producing the righteous actions, I would also know I had a right spirit.
Or atleast desire one. Earlier this week , I thought perhaps I would be embittered by the things I saw going on around me. A wrong spirit is sure to follow bitterness. Only a good thing is happening now that I am secure in God's love, (not just His admiration) . I was able to go to Him with the problem and get an answer.
When people do things , it is important to me that I respond the way Jesus would. And as I just said, not just do what Jesus would but have the right spirit . Since I feel His spirit of love is growing within me for the situation I am hopeful of a good outcome. Atleast for me, because I am not living to feed my admiration addiction any more. It doesn't mean that I won't stumble and fall. It means that I believe His right hand is there to hold me up. Remember our room to trust God ? Remember my desire to speak the truth in love ?
This blog helps me grow ! As I hope to be speaking the truth in love to you all , the Bride of Christ to be. Yet also encourage you all to be speakers of truth in love. There are so many who need to hear truth and so many who need love. If you do not sense the Spirit of the Lord upon you that will give you love and boldness please know that you are only a second away from having it. We are encouraged in God's word to ask for it and I do daily.

posted by Diane B at 5:43 AM | 0 comment(s)

WHOSE FAULT IS IT ? As I prayed for the Holy Spirit to convict a man leading so many into error , the Holy Spirit reminded me of some things.
Like how many years I had "served the Lord" but deceived.
My pastor taught me that there was a time when the chosen people of God were deceived. (Read those blogs that I talk about a golden calf.)They actually thought that God was pleased with the way they were doing.
The Holy Spirit took that teaching and revealed to me that I had been doing the same thing. Grabbing up bits of information here and there but not really ready to go in and meet the real God.
It was not hard for me to admit to God my sin. Mainly because I had been down that road of deception before. I was raised in a "non-denominational" movement that took a mixture of teachings, including some of the Mormon views of serving Christ. Fortunately for me the Holy Spirit revealed the error of that teaching. Only I fell into another church doctrine, this one with a big emphasis on "Restoration", again after many years, my eyes were opened . It is possibly human nature to blame someone else for our mistakes. Adam did it, Eve did it. How glad I am that we have the hope of receiving a new nature , that of Christ.
What if I had continued to blame those teachers for my years of deception? What if I had never forgiven God for allowing me to be born into the family that I was ? What if I still insisted it was someone else's fault that I had been deceived ?
Unfortunately I know the answer to that .
I know of years of being bitter and resentful .
I know of years of being reluctant to submit to any authority again.
I know of years of being unable to see who I was in Christ Jesus.

Yet, one thing I knew, it ought not be so.
I sought Him and I sought Him and He redeemed my soul.
So with joy and gladness I confess now ,
and with much pleasure I receive.
The joy of His salvation as He comforts me.

His grace is sufficient for every weakness of my flesh.
His love is greater than any sin I might commit.
He willingly washes my feet, if I will let Him.
So you see my friends, I really really do know.

Dear friends I have enjoyed sharing with you the truths the Lord shares with me. You know of course, I am just sharing and there may be bones in the fish I give you. Always be ready to spit them out.
There will be a change in my life soon. A wonderful blessing that I have enjoyed for several years is about to be taken away from me. I have decided as of Feb 1 to begin a new blog , titled a Voice in the Valley.
I will just put it over on the side. My hope to encourage others to be real with God has been squelched temporarily. I will return again, when it returns.

posted by Diane B at 5:09 AM | 0 comment(s)

Touch not God's anointed , do my prophets no harm. I suppose this would be a hard subject for a pastor of a church to speak on. Especially if he reckoned himself anointed . There are so many ways one can harm the anointed that it would surely require a series , if he was to do the subject justice.
I would not even go across the street to see a famous evangelist that appears on TV daily. Once or twice a year as I am flipping through the channels , I might stop and watch the people worship God. They seem so caught up in giving Him glory, they seem so able to unashamably give worship to the most High.
It never occurred to me that I had been coveting. Looking longingly at what others get to do.
It didn't seem bad. It was not until yesterday that I was informed that those poor people are all being led astray. They are being taught to believe in a false god. How sad for them. How glad I am that the Lord never said, "Go over to that guy's tent."
A warning and a clear reason for not doing something is a shepherd's responsibility.
Until yesterday, I was only aware that my shepherd did not like this guy very much.
Everytime he would say something about him, that scripture, Touch not my anointed ,do my prophets no harm , would come to my mind. Now I do not think he was doing him any harm.
Now that he clearly stated why he did not like what he teaches and how unbiblically sound it is.
There are people who judge those in authority without giving much thought as to whether or not they are anointed. It grieves me that the Biblical way of dealing with differences of opinion are not more commonly practiced.

posted by Diane B at 2:37 AM | 0 comment(s)

FOOTWASHING: RECAP So now you have the Biblical view of footwashing and you have my view that when Jesus said,"So ought ye to do unto others." He meant it. The short version is : if a brother knows you have not been living the life style of a child of God and it has affected his life in some way (he has ought against you ) . You are to go to that brother and say "I am sorry . This is what I did . I have asked God to forgive. I ask you to forgive me also." When he says, "I forgive you." He should also be willing to do as Jesus would, and wash your feet. When someone comes to you and says, "I have done wrong, will you forgive me ?" We are to say, "I forgive you, may I also wash your feet."
Any person that desires to make a comment please read the full version first.
Bitterness is an emotion that might precede an action of unrighteousness.
However if you have given this sin to God before you have acted on it you have no need to go to your brother . If you have now gotten rid (by allowing Jesus to take care of it) of the sin and the truth is this brother has acted on his bitterness or some other sin that has affected your life . You now have ought against him.
I believe you would be right to ask the Holy Spirit to help him (the brother) remember that he has done this thing. I believe it is right that we should ask the Holy Spirit to convict others for their sins. I believe it is alright to ask the Holy Spirit to convict myself for sin. I believe that the body of Christ would do well if they would let the Holy Spirit do it's job.
I believe that the body of Christ needs to start acting like who we are.
When a brother comes to us and says , "They have sinned ." Stop sugar coating it. If you are who you are in Christ Jesus ,you love that brother, and you can speak the truth in love. You can also forgive him and wash his feet.

posted by Diane B at 5:35 AM | 0 comment(s)

FOOTWASHING & THINGS LIKE THAT
Our lives at church seem to be a world of their own. This is what we do at work , this is what we do at home, this is what we do at church. Each a world with specific social skills expected. Each a system of their own. Unless you are a 24 hr Christian. Then the system at work, the system at home, the system at church become integrated. How you are at work , how you are at home, how you are at church become more of how you are, all the time. It is interesting how many people would like to advise you on this when they see this is what you are aiming for.
I say aiming for as in , "running a race," something like that.
I once was paid with a check that bounced. Now this was not the only check this individual had written that bounced. There had been so many checks bounce before mine that the bank handed it back to me and said, to try again in a few days to see if this person would make it good. Desperate for my money I went back to the bank several times before it became clear this person was not going to take care of this account. So I decided that my money was just as good as gone. Just like it had been stolen. Now to me when I read the Bible it said that when a thief takes your coat , you should run after them and give them your cloak also.
Well, I desperately needed that money. I had three little children who were expecting me to supply their needs with that money. I was to have been given that money for a service I performed, so I decided rather than give that person an extra helping of my money, actually I do not think I had that amount of money to give, I decided to go and perform this service again, for free. It was odd , I had never seen or heard of any of my Christian friends handling a thief in this way but I reasoned, that it said this in the Bible , surely they all did it this way.
To make a long story shorter, the individual would not hear of me doing this service for free and went to her purse and pulled out the exact amount of the bounced check in cash and sent me on my way.
A year later she called me and asked me to work for her again and over paid me extravagantly. It had been around Thanksgiving time that time that the check had bounced and because it also was the end of my working for her I could not afford to buy a turkey that year for my children. We went to one of those free things that churches do, we still had a nice Thanksgiving. One of the things I will never forget is that day I went back to work for her, when I was ready to go home, she pulled out of her freezer a turkey and gave it to me. I knew then I had been right all along.
His word is a lamp unto our feet . We will never go wrong by following it.
I don't usually do long blogs . I wanted to sit down here and tell you about footwashing. I guess you need to know first, this is for only the serious minded Christian. If the before hand story doesn't sound like anything you would do, you might as well go on to another blog now.
Jesus said to Peter, unless I can wash your feet ,you shall have no part of me. As important as that sentence is, I am so surprised that I do not see Christians practice this. Just like I was surprised that Christians were surprised to hear about my testimony before hand. Also , when similar things happened to them ,and I reminded them of what the Bible says about giving your cloak also ,they laughed at me. Very few of them ever thought there was any reason to handle a thief the way I did.
A few years ago I needed to know how to handle a "Christian relationship" in which I was fairly certain any admittance of guilt and remorse would be only talk. How could I get through to where there would really be any action ? It came to me as I studied again the sacrament of footwashing and with confidence I knew, if the answer from this individual was ,"no, you can not wash my feet," I could confidently say, "depart from me, I want nothing to do with you."
I've heard some teaching on footwashing and it is so off the wall I won't go into that with you now. I would just ask you to put aside what ever you have thought you knew before about footwashing.
Look again , in context, about the scriptures that encourage us to acknowledge our sins one to another. Before any one runs off, I would like to point out that I think , in context, it is mainly referring to those sins we commit that have affected or would affect that individual.
So if you are thinking that you need to acknowledge all your sins to someone, look again , in the Bible. Just where did you come up with that ?
Now our sins or trespasses that have directly or could indirectly violate a person because you did them, and they are believers of the same unearned righteousness as you, it might be that you should tell them.
When should it be ? When you remember someone has ought against you . That is what I read.
So now you go to them and you say, "I have remembered you have ought against me, because I did this and this to you. I am here to tell you I am convicted by the Holy Spirit for doing this. I would like you to know that I have asked our Father in heaven to forgive me and I would like to also ask that you forgive me." Now they are going to respond in some way obviously. If you truly were convicted of the Holy Spirit and you have done your part, if they don't do their part don't worry about it.
If they say, "Yes, I forgive you," my thought is that you might want to ask them to partake of the Lord's supper with you. Because in this way they would recognize the seriousness of the situtation and because also you probably have come to make things right before you partake.
Once you get that far, if you have, it would be right for you to ask them if they would wash your feet. No, wait a minute, it would be right if they asked if they can wash your feet.
I know this is rough.
Let's go at it the other way.
Someone comes to you and says, "I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit for doing this and this to you. I have asked our Father in heaven to forgive me and I would like to ask that you forgive me to." Here you go, you know your part, "Yes, I forgive you because I know Jesus forgives you."
"I belong to Him, I want to do things His way, I want to forgive you the way He would. Would you let me wash your feet ?"
If they say "no," it could be that they just do not understand the sacrament of footwashing. I have been praying for a long time now. Our people perish for lack of knowledge, I have been entreating the Father to have mercy upon us.
Maybe you better go back to asking if they would have the Lord's supper with you. If they say yes to that , it is some action that shows this was not just a convenient thing to do. I thought I better do this in case Jesus thinks I'm a bad guy or something. (I know how a lot of people think, I use to think like that.) Yet, I think you should let them know your desire is to wash their feet . So that you can show them with an action that "yes,you really do forgive them." Now, I am going to go ahead and tell you a little about this teaching I heard, for this part , the actual washing of the feet.
This part is a visual display only. It can be done without the removal of shoes. I just thought of some social skill that I assume all Christians would take for granted, just in case I am wrong, you would not suggest this to the opposite sex. It would be totally improper to hold another person's foot that was of another sex than your own. Jesus was a man and I guess it could be safely argued that it is only a man's sacrament. Except that we are neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female to God.
Beside the way of just holding the foot and washing with an imaginary pouring of water, there has been suggested that the washing of the feet could be some act of kindness , like washing their car or cutting their grass. This might be possible , but I think there should be an acknowledgement that they receive it as a display of your forgiveness.
If they are never willing to let you forgive them , I doubt they ever wanted to be forgiven. I would give it time and I would pray for them to be able to receive. I think there would probably come a day when you would know, no more. This person needs to depart from me.

posted by Diane B at 1:00 PM | 0 comment(s)

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE
FOOTWASHING
May our Father in heaven grant me grace to speak the truth in love.
He loves you, there is no doubt. Any who have read John 3:16 and have ears to hear and hearts that understand, know..........He loves us.
Why we want confirmation to come through the body of Christ, must have something to do with human nature. It never fails that I am disappointed , then I have to remember, they are who they are, like me , human.
Jesus, on the other hand is Divine. Yet we are told by Him, that we can be like Him. The ability to love divinely must be included in that promise . I really wonder if people are expecting it to happen someday. Am I the only one ?

posted by Diane B at 5:25 AM | 2 comment(s)

By Now He Surely Stinketh ! Do you remember the story of Lazarus ? One sister says this to Jesus who is about to bring her brother out of the tomb. The other sister says, "Do whatever He says."
I really wish the writer of the story would of included the part of the story as the stone was rolled away from the tomb. Was there a smell that oozed out from the tomb that was dispelled by the presence of Jesus ? Or did Lazarus restoration begin even before the stone was rolled away ? His body laid there , quietly cold, but not in decay ?
Our God , the Lord Jesus Christ, being the divine creator of all things could have performed this miracle of bringing Lazarus to life, either way.
I have to believe this. Further more, I want to believe this story can apply to my spiritual life as well.
As in earlier blogs ,you are aware of my identification with the Elder Brother in the story of the Prodigal Son. For me to come and encourage the Elder Brothers out there, that we can change has been my goal.
If it has been sounding like
"something we can do" , I need to apologize.
There are only a few things we can do.
Really , only one.
It involves a choice, something like Mary made, as she sat at the feet of Jesus taking in His every word. Not minding if she was admired or not by those around her, for her busyness. Not even minding if she was rebuked for her choice. When the time come for Jesus to perform a miracle, she was ready, "Do what He tells you," she says. Obedience, trust, lack of love for self (by the worlds standards), maybe you see other character traits as well.
However, the bottom line is without Jesus that brother of hers would not of come alive. Without Jesus there would have been no miracle.
I know this is what this Elder Brother needs to get through it's head. You are not going to work a miracle on yourself by renewing your mind. You are not going to make enough right choices to obey. You are not going to perform some miracle even by trusting God. Even not loving yourself as others tend to love themselves is not going to be the key.
Those things are all good though. Those things are the by product of waiting on Jesus, yet Jesus, is the One I need to set me free. Jesus is the One I need to speak unto my heart and breathe new life into me.
As I come to Him and drink His living water..... my soul, mind, heart and strength is renewed. Not to it's fullness but a process of restoration that assures my heart, that He has been here.

posted by Diane B at 4:31 AM | 1 comment(s)