Cross My Heart Ministry

So then, brothers, stand firm and
hold to the teachings we passed on to you,
whether by word of mouth or by letter.
II Thessalonians 2:15

Even those without an economics degree understand the inverse relationship between supply and demand: if it’s rare or hard to find, human nature prompts us to want it all the more!

Believers in the first century did not have the luxury of a bound Bible with the complete text of the Old and New Testaments. The latter was being written in real time and the scrolls holding the Old Testament were rare, precious, and housed in the synagogue.

Persecuted believers around the world can relate. While it can be hard for western-world Christians to imagine, there are places even today where one single Bible is smuggled into a community and then carefully torn apart, with each member of the church receiving one precious page.

Does limited supply make the words of the Bible all the more desirable? And does unlimited supply (thanks to our modern technology and easy availability) make the Bible less desirable?

Our 21^st-century tools bring Bible studies, podcasts, and blogs to our ears and eyes anytime, anywhere. But the danger is that the information super highway can wear us down. If you’re like me, you may sometimes find yourself listening to but not hearing – metaphorically eating but not digesting – the Word of God.

How do we fight against it? How can we take to heart Paul’s admonition to stand firm and hold to the teaching we read in the Bible (and hear on Sunday morning)?

Here are three suggestions:

1. Pray. I know that sounds trite and cliché. But truly, as your pastor approaches the pulpit on Sunday and as you open your Bible each morning, ask the Spirit of God to impress the Word of God upon your heart and mind: Holy Spirit help me to take hold of the Word you have for me!
2. Write it down. If you follow this ministry, you know I’m a huge fan of reading and writing the Word of God. Can we all agree we are more likely to remember what we write? (It’s the reason that even if I forget my list at home, I almost always remember everything I wrote on it when I get to the grocery store!)
3. Talk about it.  Admittedly, I tend to be a verbal processor, but I do believe that truth is impressed onto our hearts and moved from short-term to long-term memory when we have a dialogue over Sunday lunch or Tuesday morning with our accountability partner or on Thursday night with our small group. Sharing helps you hold onto it – and comes with the double benefit of blessing the one with whom you share that truth.

What ideas to help “hold to the teaching” can you add to the list? Leave me a note below!

Praying this week finds all of us more determined and relentless to stand firm and hold to the teaching!

Paul’s words to the church in I Thessalonians 5:21 are short and sweet, but powerful and convicting. While he penned this message in the first century, the teaching is just as applicable to living in the 21st century! Please listen as Laura challenges us to embrace Paul’s admonition to test everything and “hold on to what is good,” in this week’s devotional video:

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 139:9-10

 Most of the “hold” verses we’re reading and writing this month speak of us holding on to God and holding on to His Word.  The passage above brings the reassurance of God holding on to us!

(If you haven’t yet jumped in, you can download your copy of the Write the WORD bookmark here.)

On this Mother’s Day, I hope this verse encourages your heart as it does mine. This truth brings sweet reassurance to our hearts – for ourselves, and for our children and family. When we belong to God, we can’t get up early enough or travel far enough to escape His faithfulness. He will hold us fast. And He will hold those we love fast. He is ever faithful!

Mother’s Day may be a happy day or a sad one for you. Mothers reading this may have a full day of celebration to enjoy, while others see this as just a day to get through. There are women who have lost children, who long to have children, who are estranged from their children, and women who are heartbroken over the condition of their children’s hearts.

Whatever emotion Mother’s Day evokes for you when you look out, I want to encourage you to look up – to look to God and acknowledge His faithfulness and provision. He loves you. He is for you. He is holding you fast. He’s got you.  You and I may not know what is happening or why things have happened or what will happen. But we know the One who does. And that, my friend, is enough. You can place your head on the pillow tonight knowing He’s got you. He is holding you fast.

In this week’s devotional video, Laura takes us to Proverbs 4, where a wise parent implores a child to see the value of embracing the wisdom found in God’s Word. She encourages us, as women of God, to take hold of God Word’s and hols onto it!

Have you downloaded this month’s Write the WORD bookmark? If not, it isn’t too late to join in for the rest of May as we read, write, and study verses featuring the word, “hold.” Find your own copy of the free bookmark and optional S.O.A.P. study outlines HERE on our Downloads page.

 If you carefully observe all these commands
I am giving you to follow
—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him
and to hold fast to him—
 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you,
and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
Deuteronomy 11:22-23

How easy it is to deem the Old Testament as all about law and legalism, and the New Testament as love and mercy. At best this is shortsighted and at worst, heretical. Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. Like two sides of the same coin, He is righteous and just, as well as loving and merciful.

We are often put off by the Old Testament – finding it easy to paint with a broad legalistic brush. But to do this would miss the depth of the love of God. His loving provision and faithfulness to His people in ancient times should prompt both praise and gratefulness from His modern-day people.

Deuteronomy is a second telling of the law. Moses, who faithfully loved and led God’s chosen people for over 40 years, wanted to remind them of everything they needed to know and remember as they prepared to cross the Jordan River and claim the land promised to them. Like a parent sending a child off to college, Moses could not go with them. They would fight battles without him, they would see things he would not see, and live where he would not live.

Can you sense the urgency in his words to prepare them? He stressed three points to them in the above passage:

• Love the Lord your God
• Walk in obedience to His commands
• Hold fast to Him

Love, obey, and hold fast. Good advice then. And still good advice now.

Moses reminded them of the blessings that would roll back upon them: victory over enemies larger and stronger than themselves. Claiming the Promised Land meant defeating seasoned warriors and taking down fortified cities.

The Israelites who left Egypt were slaves. Brick makers. Ill-equipped for war. Their descendants were desert dwellers whose daily bread, meat, and water had been faithfully provided by God. If an ancient sportscaster created a tournament bracket for warring nations, Israel would be last seed. No way would anybody anticipate these guys defeating the “giants” living in the land. Most of the Israelites themselves didn’t think it was possible. (That’s the reason an entire generation missed out on seeing it happen!)

But with God, anything and everything is possible. God can work with a man or a woman who loves and obeys Him — a man or woman who chooses to HOLD FAST to Him.

What “giants” need to be conquered in your life? What job is too much for you? Are you facing something that is more than you can handle?

It’s not the size of your enemy or the magnitude of the task … but the God who goes with you that determines the outcome!

Oh, dear one – the words from Moses to the people then are the same ones we need to hear and heed today: love God, obey God, and hold fast to God!

He was with them then. He is with us now! Hallelujah! Glory to His Name!

“I hold fast to your statutes, Lord;
    do not let me be put to shame.”

At first reading, the beginning of Psalm 119:31 seems unrelated to the latter portion. But as we write, pray, and think about what David wrote, we see a clearer connection between God’s Word and avoiding shame. We invite you to watch as Laura teaches on this “hold fast” verse in this week’s devotional video:

We are just getting started on our new May Write the WORD bookmark: HOLD. We hope you will join us … print your copy here.

Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

Life sometimes catches us off guard. 

Even knowing trouble will come — Jesus gave us a heads up in John 16:33: “…in this world you will have trouble…” — it sometimes throws us for a loop. 

When enduring hard things, my go-to verse, the one that allows me to both receive and release encouragement and peace, is Philippians 4:6-7.

Read that verse above again … slowly this time. Make it your prayer. Ask God to help you believe it and live it.  

When life happens, when you are blindsided by trouble or difficulty, look to Paul’s recipe for peace:  we pray and He provides.  

Sometimes He calms the storm, but other times, He just keeps the believer calm within the storm. Life can bring a hurricane raging around us, yet it is possible to be peaceful and calm in the middle — living and abiding in the peace and calm of His watchful eye.  

I like to call Philippians 4:6-7 the “trade up” passage: we give Him the anxiety and the worry, and in exchange we get His peace. It’s illogical. It’s unlikely. It’s counter-cultural. But, God … With Him, all things are possible. With God, we can have the peace that “transcends all understanding” — that blows your mind. You can’t get this from the world. Only from God. 

When you trade with God, you always trade up! 

From a human perspective, this peace is incomprehensible. It’s something the world cannot manufacture and cannot even understand. It comes only from Him. And when God blesses us with His peace, it becomes our own personal spiritual “force field,” protecting our hearts and our minds (precisely where we are most vulnerable to fear and anxiety).   

Are your circumstances today anything but peaceful? Do you long for peace in your home, your life, your relationships, and your heart? Will you take time — make time — to draw near to Jesus? Will you choose to bring that anxiety-riddled, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking dilemma before Him? Whether your burden is relational, medical, financial, spiritual, or something else, follow Paul’s advice: “present your requests to God.”  

As we choose to let go of our difficult circumstance and let Him have it, we are freed from the burden of fixing it, carrying it, and trying to change it. We trust Him with it. We give Him the fear and anxiety, and in exchange, we receive His peace. What a trade! 

He makes it possible to receive His peace and to walk in peace.  

You are most likely familiar with the poem, Footsteps in the Sand, that tells the story of someone who dreams of walking along a beach with God as scenes from her life pass before her. In some places she sees two sets of footprints, but in others, only one. The poem ends with, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” 

You may have had this on a poster in your college dorm room. Perhaps you’ve shared a beautiful beach scene featuring some of the words with your Facebook friends.

Many of you could give powerful testimony from your life, demonstrating when the Lord carried you. I could do the same. Those were sweet, precious times of peace.  

But if you’re like me, there are also some seasons where the picture of your life’s journey would sometimes include one set of footprints and a big smudge alongside: those are the times God was dragging me where I am reluctant to go! 

As we know Him better, we love Him more. We learn to trust Him and follow where He leads. No matter what we walk through, good or bad, He is always with us. He promised to never leave us and never forsake us, and our Savior is trustworthy. We can give Him the worries and have peace even when our circumstances feel anything but peaceful. If we have Him, we have all we need.  

Those hard times are precious because they make us ever more dependent upon God, more desperate for Him. 

We can walk in peace, because He walks with us.

We can walk through anything knowing that He is our reality … that 0ur circumstances are fleeting, but Jesus is our constant, and eternity with Him is our destiny.  

To know Jesus is to know peace. When there is no Jesus, there is no real peace.   

Have you got peace? 

Hold on! Hold fast! Hold tight!

Those might be phrases we use to exhort those we love as they face the new battles life brings. Our Write the WORD bookmark for May includes 31 verses — all including the word, HOLD. You can get your copy of the bookmark from our Downloads page, along with the optional S.O.A.P. Bible study pages, our monthly Do It! List, and more.

We’re overjoyed by the response to the Write the WORD workshop Laura presented in Northwest Arkansas at the end of March. So many have accepted the challenge and are experiencing the blessing of writing the WORD each day! To inquire about Laura bringing this workshop to your group, please email us today!

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6

This week may find you packing up the Resurrection Eggs and ceramic chicks until next year, and (just maybe) polishing off the last of the chocolate bunnies.  

But as we store away the Easter décor, I hope the reality of Easter stays fresh in our minds and in our hearts. Can we challenge one another to remember it was His punishment that provided our peace? 

Our way to peace was through the cross of Christ. Read through Isaiah’s graphic description above and note the verbs describing what Jesus experienced: 

• Stricken 
• Smitten 
• Afflicted 
• Pierced 
• Crushed 
• Punished 
• Wounded 

“…the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.”
Isaiah 53:5 

He took our rap. 

He paid our bill. 

He received our beating. 

He died our death.  

And He did it because of love. This is a no-holds-barred, sacrificial love that we do not (and never could) deserve. It’s a love that we receive from no other person. It’s a love that is illogical, unfathomable, and eternity-changing.  

It’s a love that deserves a response.  

We train our children in common courtesy. We teach them that a kind act warrants an appropriate response. If someone holds the door when our arms are filled, we say, “thank you.” We teach them to mail thank-you notes acknowledging gifts they receive at a wedding shower or graduation party.  

When your boss calls you in to commend your effort on that last project and reward you with a raise, her pause is your cue to respond, “Thank you, ma’am.” 

A simple thank you is the most basic way to acknowledge the kindness of others and cultivate a heart of gratefulness in ourselves.  

If a held-open door, a graduation gift, or a reward for hard work prompt a verbal or written thank you, what is the appropriate response to the One who recused us from hell? How do you acknowledge the One who changed your destiny for eternity? How can I possibly and appropriately express gratefulness to the One who provides meaning and purpose to my otherwise pathetic, purposeless life?  

I think the answer is that we give Him our life.  

We choose to die to our old ways and to live His way. Paul says it well: 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1

Because He died for us, we choose to live for Him. And when we do that, it’s an act of worship.  

It’s far from easy. Our flesh rises up and wants what it wants. But our daily choices to live free from the flesh and to live for Christ bring a sweetness to life, a joyful satisfaction that nothing else can provide.  

What keeps us holding back or holding out? Why not let this be the year that we refuse to put Easter back in the box? The year that we choose to live all-in? Can we try—can we commit—to die to self and live for Him for one year? For one month? For even one week? Are you willing to give it a go? 

Can you and I choose—will we choose—to: 

• be inconvenienced 
• be imposed upon 
• be sacrificial 
• close our mouths 
• be generous 
• listen more and talk less 
• love as Jesus loved 

Can we choose each day to ask our precious Savior, “Jesus, who am I going to love on today and how am I going to do it?”

The question itself reminds us that we cannot fail when He is doing it with us.  

As we begin to see each person who crosses our path as one who bears the image of God, as a person in need of the peace that only Jesus can provide, I believe we will begin to truly live the reality of His peace.  

If I truly believe, “He Is Risen, Indeed!”— as I stood with my fellow believers and proclaimed on Easter morning — then it’s high time I rise up and behave like I believe. Indeed.  

In this week’s devotional video, Laura unpacks Romans 8:6, where Paul presents a clear distinction between the mind controlled by sin vs. the mind controlled by the Holy Spirit. One brings death; the other, life and peace. We invite you to listen … and if you have not been writing this month’s “Peace” verses with us, we hope you’ll take a moment to download our April Write the WORD bookmark and join in today.

Stand firm then…
with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace.
Ephesians 6:14-15

What comes to mind when you hear the word PEACE? 

The 1960s with their tie-dyed shirts and long hair? Walking along a deserted beach at sunrise? Taking in the majestic view from a mountaintop?

Maybe for you, peace isn’t a symbol or a place, but just the absence of conflict.

It might be family reunion – or a church business meeting – where “we all just get along.” In certain seasons of life, it could be making it through dinner without milk spilled on the floor. Perhaps it’s as simple as a clear kitchen counter or clean bathroom.  

Spiritually speaking, of course, true peace is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.  

Romans 5:1 says: 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our sin puts every one of us at war with God, but Jesus brings us peace with Him.  

That’s the good news. That’s the gospel.  

It’s a truth that transcends the challenges of this world and settles our destiny for eternity. It not only brings confident hope for that day, it brings peace for this day, too. 

Because we are His, we have gospel shoes. We get to walk in those shoes. We get to walk in peace.  

Peace is the third of the nine traits describing the fruit of the Spirit. But what does walking in peace mean for us today? How do we claim God’s peace in our lives? 

Let’s first consider what peace is not.  

In John chapter 16, Jesus gave us a heads up that we can expect trouble in this world, but can also have peace in the midst of it: 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

From His words, we can conclude that trouble is the opposite of peace. Our own personal experiences prove that true.  

Today’s trouble may be a morning alarm that didn’t go off, or a smoke alarm that did. It may be an overdue bill, a rebellious child, or a malignancy. It may be financial, relational, or medical. But we can wholeheartedly agree that trouble is seldom – and some would say never – peaceful.  

But even as we walk through times of trouble, we can walk in peace if we know Jesus. 

We are reassured by these words from the book of Isaiah: 

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:3

This month’s Write the WORD verses are focused on PEACE, which seems fitting as we celebrated our risen Savior just last week on Easter Sunday –  and should make it a daily priority to worship Jesus, our Prince of Peace.  

Wherever you find yourself today, I pray that God’s perfect peace surrounds you and overwhelms you, regardless of your circumstances.

In this week’s devotional video, Laura shared thoughts on a few questions prompted by Isaiah 26:3:

• Where does real peace come from?
• What’s the difference between everyday peace and perfect peace?
• Is it possible to live in peace?

We hope you’ll listen in as Laura talks about the answers to these questions, found in this powerful verse!

Our monthly Write the WORD bookmark and optional S.O.A.P. study pages can be found HERE. Be sure to check out our other free resources, too!