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So, it is late...my typing stinks at all hours of the day...and I am blurry visioned. So, why you writing this then Lori...( I heard you ask me that.) Well, I have has this on my mind since Pastor Keith preached today. So, you can blame your pastor for this late night blog. (Great big hehe there).
Now, here is my thinkin. Luke 23:12 talks of a very unholy alliance..a unity that went beyond jealousy, envy, power struggles, race differences, common hatred. It talks about a unity of two, based solely on their mutual cowardice..their mutual small characters. .their mutual disregard for Jesus.
Luke 23:12 says these men, (Pilate and Herod) who had been enemies before this day, were now fast, united friends. Really...really...are you kiddin me? Two men who hated each other...jealous, envious, and after their own glory, united as one...how did that happen? Well, it is simple really. Misery loves company. These two men were called upon to do the right thing..be men of honor. ..men who could have and should have saved an innocent man's life on that ordained day. They could have taken the hard road and chosen Jesus...but they were cowards and gave him over to die. This immediately bound them together. This stand against Jesus...this stand against right..this stand against holiness bound them together like stink on a dog (ummm..cliff says something like that but he is asleep so...that is the best I got). Anyway, that led me to thinking. Do we do that? Why, yes we do. How many times in our sin do we turn from the people in community who are loving us enough to warn us about our sin..loving us enough to hold us accountable for our sin...and who do we turn to? Well, usually to someone who believes the way we do. We turn to those who "get us." We turn to those who "know what it is like." We turn to those who don't make us feel bad like, well, those holier than thou people. I have seen this in people who have left the church under discipline. They group up like minions in the "I hate CBC army" and talk about their woes and all that is wrong with that place. Boy, I would love to camp out at Herod...Pilate... and All the people under discipline's doorstep ..but the hard truth is I am guilty if this too. I hate the truth about my sin. I want other women to affirm me in it, so often, when I am confronted, I just go find new best friends. Friends who know how to walk on eggshells without cracking them...friends who understand that if you say anything I do not agree with (who cares if its in the Bible) well, I won't play with you anymore. God forgive me for that. Today, I was sick because I could identify so well with these two scoundrels. Oh my word Lori...grow up in Jesus. Just because the natural is that misery loves company of like minds does not mean I have to go along. I can beg God to transform me and help me not conform to flesh. How about you? Are you united to another for the purpose of the glory of God? Are you united to those consumed by him and aching for his holiness? Or...are you uniting yourself with those whose sin makes your sin ok? Are you united with those who have chosen something over Jesus, just like you? Are you seeking out relationships that point you to Jesus or relationships that point out how right and good you are?

Unity...whose side you on?

God make my unity about you. I beg you to help me seek out people whose love for you points out my sin with grace and truth. Amen.

I have gout.  All good preachers do.  C. H. Spurgeon had it.  John Calvin had it.  I rest my case.

In all seriousness, a gout attack is one of the more painful things I've experienced in life.  I had one so bad a few years ago that I finally decided to start doing some research and reach out to some of the folks in our church family for possible remedies.  Thankfully, we have a varied church.  We have those committed to natural remedies.  We have those committed to doctors and medical technology.  We have those committed to a more balanced approach.  So, I got solid advice from a variety of perspectives!

Personally, I avoid medicine or take it only as a last resort.  So, I gravitated to the more natural remedies.  And lo and behold, I have discovered the "magic" of tart cherries in fighting gout.  And, I have also experienced good success using an essential oil from lemons.

Essential oils are a growing trend.  Some of them are to be ingested (like my lemon oil).  Some are topical.  Some are aromatic.  There is little doubt that various essential oils can have very positive effects on our health and well-being.  More and more Christians are discovering these benefits.  And more and more Christians are starting to sell these products for companies like doTerra.

So, why in the world am I, a small town pastor, bothering to blog about this topic?  Well, suffice it to say the range of issues I have to deal with as a small town pastor never cease to amaze me!  I am blogging about this because, like so many other trends or fads in our culture, this one also has potential to be spiritually harmful.  Let me explain.

First, for decades the essential oil business has been controlled by New Age proponents.  The language used in promotional materials and by some representatives is semi-Hindu, much like many proponents of yoga or certain types of massage.  So, it is common to hear that essential oils will increase your "chi" or "help you center" or "create a sense of oneness with the universe."  Other phrases such as "life force" or "inner god" or "spiritual breath" or "meditation" may also be employed.  I strongly caution followers of Christ to not be sucked in by such unbiblical language and ungodly concepts.  The only "life force" you need to tap into is the Risen Lord Jesus.  And the only meditation you need to do is on the written words of God in the Bible.  So, do not be ignorant of the enemy's schemes (2 Cor 2:11).  The journey away from the absolute truth and authority of the Scripture begins with one, often tiny, step.  

Second, avoid creating a dependency on essential oils (or anything else for that matter).  Addictions come easy for us fallen idolaters.  So, the Christian believer who simply cannot relax or defeat anxiety apart from a pill or an oil or an aroma ought to think very seriously about where his or her faith is.  A Christian parent who relies solely and repeatedly on aroma therapy to calm their child ought to also ask serious questions about how this might impact their child spiritually.  Lavender may very well have calming effects on children.  So does rocking a child while singing "Amazing Grace" softly into his or her ear.  Just ask our grandmother's!  A warm bath or a rub down may help a child unwind from a day's worth of school anxiety.  But so does reading and meditating and praying with that child on Psalm 131.  And, if the child is just being a selfish rebel, we dare not forget the rod of correction (Prov 22:15).

Do you see the point?  Medicine and natural remedies are gifts of God.  But they are not God.  My physical ailment called gout has been alleviated from time to time by cherries and lemon oils.  I am grateful.  But what if I were a Christian with gout living in the jungles of Bolivia with no access to anything remotely like our modern medicines and essential oils?  Would my life with Christ be weaker or stronger than it is here in the comfort of my American home?  I think it might actually be stronger!  But the point is nothing is really essential to me except the Lord Jesus Christ.  Any substitutes for loving and obeying Christ's Word must be named for what they are - dangerous idols.  And friends, we can make an idol out of almost anything.  So, may God help us guard our hearts, from which flow the springs of life (Prov 4:23).  May our default response when dealing with any of the pangs of life not be to run to the altar of our medicine cabinets or essential oil bottles.  Insetad, may we have the heart of Paul the Apostle:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ" (Phil 3:7-8).

Every time I turn the news on or pick up a paper or get on facebook (cause we all know everything posted on facebook is true for sure) I see accounts of Christians around the world who are being mocked, jeered at, tortured, beaten and killed for their faith.  My heart is heavy for them and their families.  I do not and cannot imagine their great sorrow or sacrifice.

June 6, 1944.  D-Day.  

Thousands of troops hit the beaches of Normandy on this day 70 years ago.  I have been watching special after special on KET and AHC.  World War II has always fascinated me.

As a Marine Officer in the 1990s, we spent much time studying the Pacific Island-hopping campaign that added to the legend that is the US Marine Corps.  But we also studied the many, many mistakes of the D-Day invasion in France.  It was a disaster of an amphibious landing, by any standard.  Army troops were not trained for amphibious assaults, and many of them drowned before ever reaching the shoreline.  The surf was atrocious.  The Navy bombardment failed to take out the concrete bunkers on the cliffs overlooking Normandy.  The tanks never made it ashore, as the flotation devices failed.  The decoys (fake tanks, trucks and troops) placed at Pas de Calais had only faked the Germans out initially.  By the time of the invasion on Omaha Beach, General Rommel had amassed fortifications to deter any assault on that 1,000 yard stretch of sand.  It was a death trap if ever there was one.

So, what enabled the Americans to succeed?  Anyone who has studied that battle and invasion is forced to admit we should have been absolutely cut to shreds.  To be sure, the troops on Omaha nearly were totally destroyed by German machine guns.  But, somehow, they pushed forward, climbing over dead bodies and inch-worming their way towards the cliffs which were raining death down on them.

One of the documentaries I watched showed those now infamous "floating tanks" sinking into the surf, while troops scrambled to climb out of them and jump off to keep from drowning inside the tank.  Many did not make it out of the death traps.  Yet, even after the first tanks sunk, other tanks kept driving off into that choppy ocean, only to sink like those before.  Why?  Because they had been given orders and they knew their tank was desperately needed in the fight raging on the beach.  They had to try, even if it was almost certainly going to kill them.

Courage.  It's a hard thing to define, but fairly easy to spot.  Someone has said courage is "going forward even when you're scared."

That's a pretty good definition, I think.  Everyone at the D-Day invasion was scared.  They went anyway, bolstered by courage and the amazing grace of our God who was so clearly on the beaches of Normandy with us and our Allies that day.

Courage won the day.  The WWII generation is quite possibly the greatest in American history, with the exception of the Revolutionaries of 1775.  Such sacrificial bravery and ingenuity and dogged guts to win are worth us stopping for a moment or two today and remembering with gratitude.

Courage can change the face of the world.

"No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  Be strong and of good courage" (Joshua 1:5-6).

God, please renew courage in Your church and in this Nation, to go forward for Your glory even in the face of impossible odds.  For Your sake and glory alone, in Christ the Greatest Man of Courage the world has ever known.  Amen. 

Proverbs 14:1...a wise woman builds her home but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

I read this today again. I have read it so many times I can't even count. But today I read it. I heard it in my spirit. I understood it in practical ways. So I am going to share it in practical ways.

A wise woman builds her home . . .

Well I do not think of myself as wise but I do know that I have done some things to make my home work well. I am a hard worker. I try to keep my house ready for hospitality. This does not mean it's always sparkling but it is in the kind of shape that people could come and visit pretty much anytime. I also don't panic if it is not perfect because people matter more.

I build by praising my husband. I remind him how much I love him and how blessed the girls and I are to have him. Then I foolishly tear it down by fussing at him and nagging him. I gripe when things don't go the way I want. I say things that don't edify him. My house ends up in screaming shambles around me.

I build by praying for God to love my husband through me, for God to grow and change him, to lead and guide him. Then I tear it down by demanding he change on my time schedule and exactly how I think he should.

I build my house by teaching my girls about Jesus, by modeling how a wife should treat her husband and serve others, should consider others more important. Then I tear it down by griping because I had to do such and such and I was already too busy or too tired. I tear it down by grumbling about opportunities to serve.

I build my house by being truthful so others can trust me. I tell the truth and pay my bills so that my husband is thought of favorably. I tear it down by being late on payments sometimes, exaggerating, causing myself to seem untrustworthy.

I build my house wisely many days but still after 29 years tear it down foolishly too.

My prayer . . . Dear God, help me to build my house to honor You. Help me to honor my husband. Change my heart and make me yearn to make my home a praise to You. Forgive me for my tear down days. Make them less and less. Thank You for grace that forgives me and changes me. Amen.

How do you build? How do you tear down? Are you wise or foolish?

Hundreds of thousands of mostly men, and some women, have died in combat on behalf of the United States of America.  And, many brave men risked their lives and fortunes just to even try this experiment in world history that we call "America."

This is what Memorial Day is about - Remembering the insanely high price of our lifestyles and political system and freedoms.  We memorialize our fallen heroes, and we should thank God for continuing to "shed His grace on thee," in spite of our free-fall into gross immorality.

People often confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  I had several people thank me for my service to our country today.  I am humbled and try to receive the thanks with the right spirit.  But, technically speaking, Memorial Day is not about me or any living veteran precisely because we are alive.

So, today, I hope at some point you stopped the cookout for a brief moment of reflection.  I hope you spoke to your children of the "real cost" of apple pie and burgers on the grill and open prayers to bless the meal, and picnic tables lined with food.  If you did not, be sure to make up for it tomorrow by reminding them of the little girls and boys whose Daddies never came home from war.  Remind them of the young wife who gave up her high school sweetheart to a sniper's bullet in a far-off land.  Remind them of the brother's life-long grief over his older brother, his hero, arriving home in a flag-draped coffin.  And, in our culture today, you'll also need to remind them of the child whose Mommy gave up her life for our freedoms too.

Very sobering, isn't it?  So many sons given.  

I heard a widow of the War in Afghanistan say on the news today that she did not think it made sense for Americans to say "Happy Memorial Day."  When you think about it, she's right!

Then again, she's only partly right.  For, you see, all happiness comes with a price.  Our Founding Fathers wanted to form a nation that held as a core value, "the pursuit of happiness."  But many of the signers of that very document paid for that right to pursue joy with their lives and fortunes.

So, in an odd sort of way, it is OK for us to wish one another a "Happy Memorial Day."  So long as we stop and ponder the price of our happiness, and then thank God for it.  We often say "freedom is not free."  So true.  But what we seem to have forgotten in America today is that happiness is not free, either.

Happiness, true joy, has sailed across nearly three centuries to get to us on a river of blood.

This all reminds me of the high price of my eternal joy.  If my happiness as an American came to me at the cost of blood, how much more costly is my joy in the living God?

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult [rejoice exceedingly] in hope of the glory of God . . . for while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:1-6).

Hallelujah!  Happy Memorial Day!!   

I am living in what I call survival mode right now. Struggling with losing a daughter to marriage...struggling to stay connected to my husband after 29 years of marriage...struggling with feelings of failure and loss that I cannot find words for. So...I am just sitting in the desert...waiting. I am waiting for the manna from heaven...for the drink of water from the well of life...waiting to not feel strangled and without air...to be able to draw a full breath without my heart breaking. The wilderness is unmapped, unknown. I do not care for it...but I do trust the God who created the wilderness just like he did the sky...ocean...forest. I trust that if he created the wilderness.....he is in charge of it. I know that he has not left me nor forsaken me...even if I cannot feel him around me.   I am waiting then on him. I choose not to trust my feelings...not to trust what is in front of me...not to trust my circumstances..but to trust in the great I AM...my precious Savior who has never forsaken me. He is with me..he is working all things to my good. He is busily conforming me to the image of his son. I choose to trust Him instead of me.  I am sure that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. He will continue to support me...to love me...to grow me. He is faithful and I am thankful.

Apparently Americans are no longer free to get up and walk out on a performance or awards show or speech without being accused of all sorts of crazy vile things.  (Funny thing, I have people get up and walk out while I'm preaching nearly every Sunday.  Some return.  Others stay gone.  But nobody is accusing them of crazy vile things.)

Christian music artist Natalie Grant left the Grammy's early.  Perhaps nobody would have noticed had she not tweeted that her thoughts on the awards show would stay inside her own head, and that she was proud to sing for Jesus.

One might wonder what in the world any true Christian is doing at the Grammy's anyway.  Granted, they still do give awards to gospel singers, but it may be high time those gospel singers stage a mass exodus or walk-out!   When I was a kid, the Grammy's were by and large about good music.  Now the Grammy's are all about foisting the liberal Hollywood agenda on TV viewers around the world.  So, it should not have shocked anyone that the Grammy's used their platform this year to promote and celebrate and flaunt those living a homosexual lifestyle making so-called marriage vows.

And news media like NBC's Today Show were even taken aback by Beyonce's sultry opener.  Apparently it's OK for her to do this so long as it's not at 8 pm EST.  That's too early to simulate the sex act on a world-wide stage while wearing next to nothing.  (And as far as I know Beyonce still claims to be a "Christian."  There could not possibly be a looser use of the label.)

Now, for the record, I did not watch the Grammy's.  Haven't seen 'em in years and have no plans to ever watch them again.  My heart struggles enough with good old-fashioned lust without me setting that kind of filth in front of my face.  I do wonder, however, how many Christian men did watch and never admitted the internal lust that was boiling in them while they viewed that lust-fest.  God says, "make no provision for the flesh to gratify its lusts" (Romans 13:14).  We need to fight sin God's way!  We'll never experience victory over the powerful presence of sin in our flesh if we go on indulging ourselves right along with our depraved culture.

The morning news outlets, however, reported enough on the Grammy's for me to get the gist.  Rather than make this a lengthy diatribe urging believers in Jesus to "flee immorality" (1 Cor 6:18) and to "come out from among them and be separate" (2 Cor 6:17), I think I'll let Natalie Grant get the last word.  After all the hullabaloo, she posted these words:

I NEVER said I left during any particular performance. I only said I left early.
I never pointed out any one particular performance, I only said I had many thoughts about the entire show, which were best left inside my head and that is where they will stay. So those who say I condemned one performance but then condoned others clearly did not read the post.
What I DID say is this: I am honored to be a part of the Christian music community. I've had many people throughout my career ask why I never tried to go in to mainstream music and last night was a beautiful reminder that I love singing about Jesus and FOR Jesus.
I've judged no one. I hate no one. And I believe that every person has been created in the image of God. I will never stand on a street corner and wave a sign, I won't use my platform to engage in political arguments that will only divide and not unite. I will continue to pray that my life will be my message. I do have my own personal convictions that I live by, and I will continue to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. (Philippians 2:12)
I was honored to be nominated for 2 Grammy awards last night. I'm so grateful that NARAS and The Grammys continue to recognize the contribution that gospel and Christian music make to the world. And I'm so thrilled for those who won in my categories. And I can say that with all sincerity.
My last thought:
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus for it is the power of God who brings salvation to ALL who believe."
Romans 1:16

Three scenarios women never refer to as gossip..

I am the daughter of Dave and Joyce Hoke...the Granddaughter of Pearl and Bud...the sister of Cindy and Judy...and more aunts and uncles and cousins than I can name. That is the family I was born into by birth. And I thank God for every single part of them...the good and bad. But in my lifetime I have been blessed to be born into another family...the family of God. What has that meant in my life? Let me break it down in practical ways.

I have three daughters...amazing women given to me by God through natural birth...woohoo i cherish them! Along with those precious natural born daughters are a slew of daughters I have gained in Christ. My precious Eve, Natalie, Leah, Tiffany, Lindsie, Nicole, Brandy. These women are as precious to me as my own. I disciple them. I love their children. I laugh with them. I cry with them. God has blessed me.

But listen to this amazing other list of women: Janie Mauck (Leah's birth momma), Laura Savely (Natalies birth mother), Jeanette King (Nicole's momma), Paula Goins (the momma of Brandy Goins). These women have graciously shared their daughters with me and their grandbabies. We have prayed for our daughters, cried and rejoiced together over them, pulled our hair out together and learned to trust God together.

Another group of women....the women who have mothered me in the absence of my precious momma: Sue Bullington who scolds me and trains me like she does her own; Juanita Parkhill who taught me how to wife and mother; Leola Nichols who takes care of her Sunday school books while also keeping me in check; Ellen Brooks who reminds me daily of the unconditional love of Jesus by the way she loves me.

Women like Eve Hullette, Lisa King, Kathy Ward, I could go on and on.

Who would I be today without the investment of this "family" given by God? I am blessed. I have known true richness. I have known unconditional love and grace. Who am I, God, to be blessed with such unmerited favor?

Praise GOD!