Cross My Heart Ministry

God’s plan for His people was that they be a light to the world. He called them out to send them out.

When God established the nation of Israel, He  said to Abraham:

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…
And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Genesis 12:2-3

Our Lord Jesus echoed these words in His Sermon on the Mount:

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand,
and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

God’s purpose for His people then–and God’s purpose for His people now– is that we would live different…that we would live counter to the culture….that we would live HOLY – that we would be that light shining in the darkness tof a world that desperately needs Him.

At the end of our study last week in I Samuel 7 – the people were worshipping God.  They had experienced a spiritual high. They had repented, declared their commitment to return to God with ALL their hearts, they had gotten rid of their idols and God faithfully showed up and delivered them from the Philistines.

Samuel knew how prone they were to forget, so he led them to set up a stone – an Ebenezer stone, a “stone of help.”

Every time they looked at it they would be reminded that God is faithful. They would remember that  God keeps His promises.  And being reminded of what God had done in their past would give them hope and confidence that He would continue to be there in their future.

As we launch into I Samuel 8 this week, about 20-25 years have passed.  A long time —  enough time for the people to forget about God’s faithfulness and about their call and commitment to be holy and live for Him.

Rather than choosing to stay the course, remain faithful to their faithful God, to choose to be differen, they want to be like all the other nations.  They want an earthly king.  In demanding a human king to rule over them, they are rejecting God as their king.

Clearly, their eyes have shifted from the Ebenezer stone.  Their hearts have shifted from focusing on God.  The people ask Samuel for a king. Actually, they demand a king. And  even after Samuel warns them of all the consequences that will come from an earthly king, they refuse to listen.

I Samuel 8:19-20 records their response to Samuel’s warning:

But the people refused to listen to Samuel.
“No!” they said. “We want a king over us.

Then we will be like all the other nations,
with a king to lead us and
to go out before us and fight our battles.”

I Samuel 8:19-20

Summed up: We want to be like everybody else.  We want to adopt the ways of the culture we live in.  We don’t want to be different.  We don’t want to be holy.

As we sigh and shake our heads in amazement, as we criticize and condemn the people of Israel then, we must examine ourselves and even our churches today. Are we adopting the ways of the world? Do we water down the truth of scripture to blend in, be more relevant and  be less controversial?

We must consider that both the end result and the way to get there must bear up under the testing and scrutiny of the truth of scripture.

One of my favorite Bible scholars, Warren Wiersbe, says this:

Whenever leadership in a church decays spiritually,
that church becomes more like the world
and uses the world’s methods and resources
to try to do God’s work.
–Warren Wiersbe

We can be smart and savvy–without compromising biblical truth.

Perhaps a re-working of Dr. Wiersbe’s quote might make it applicable to us:

Whenever a woman of God decays spiritually,
she becomes more like the world
and uses the world’s methods and resources
to try to do God’s work.

Ladies, we must do God’s work and we must do it God’s way.  We must remain true to Him and His Word.  We must choose holiness over even happiness and godliness over expediency.  We must choose the joy that comes with living and abiding in Him. We must choose to live different – to live holy…so that our light will shine in the darkness and God will be glorified.

The woman of God is holy.

The definition of holy is simply:

• devoted
• dedicated
• set apart for a purpose

The church is a holy building because it is set apart for God’s work and for worship. It is different from every other building.

The word of God is holy because it is different from every other book.

And the woman of God is holy because she is set apart for the purpose of glorying God. She is dedicated…devoted…. She chooses to reject the ways of the culture and embrace the joy of living for Him and being a light for Him in the darkness of this world.

How is He calling you to holiness today?

Wedding rings: Visual reminders of vows made to each other.

The American Flag: A marker to declare allegiance, victory, ownership.

Monuments: Honor the service and sacrifice of those who gave all and help us remember the high price paid to purchase freedom for us all.

Scrapbooks and photo albums: Capture special events and keep records for future generations.

Monuments. Markers. Memories. Sometimes we need something tangible to help us remember, to keep us from forgetting. Our family, our community, and even our country – all erect monuments and markers to commemorate important events, great sacrifices, and extraordinary people.

Perhaps it’s even more important that we consider establishing spiritual monuments, markers, and memories.

That’s exactly what Samuel led the Israelites to do in I Samuel 7.

After 20 long years of separation from God:
all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD. I Samuel 7:2

Samuel then challenged them with a big IF. If you are really serious about returning to God, then get rid of these idols you’ve worshipped in your past and choose to worship God alone in your future. He said it this way in verse three:

If you are returning to the LORD, with all your hearts,then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.  I Samuel 7:3

Samuel exhorted them to rid themselves of their idols – to set aside their past behavior. He challenged them on that day to commit themselves to God and God alone. And the promise for the future was God’s protection.

Samuel then called them all together for prayer. The people fasted and confessed. Samuel offered a sacrifice on behalf of the people. The Philistines heard and they came to attack God’s people.

And God came and delivered them. His provision was immediate – even while Samuel was still offering the sacrifice.

The Philistines were in a state of panic. They are routed and the Israelites are given the victory. It’s as if God was waiting and ready to release blessing upon His people.

Samuel knew the importance of remembering the extraordinary events of that day. In verse 12 we read this:

Then Samuel took a stone
and set it up between Mizpah and Shen.
He named it Ebenezer,
saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
I Samuel 7:12

That stone would serve as a reminder to the people in the days to come of what the Lord had done for them on that day. Ebenezer means “stone of help.”

Every time God’s people would look at that stone it would serve as a reminder that God keeps His promises. He promised to help and He delivered.

Our God still keeps His promises!

I learned the term “BAE” from my millennial daughter. It’s an acronym representing the phrase, Before Anything Else. And it’s a good phrase to use when doing a little self-assessment on the topic of idolatry.

As followers of Christ living in the 21^st-century western world, we may assume idolatry is one sin we can cross off the list – we may readily acknowledge struggles with envy, pride, gluttony, etc, but since our home is free of statues and we don’t make trips to bow to graven images, we are okay – right? Perhaps not.

In our study in I Samuel 5, the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines. They haul it into the temple of their god, Dagon. The inference, of course, is that the God of Israel (represented by the Ark of the Covenant) is inferior to their man-made god. The first morning their false god is found fallen on his face. The next morning he has fallen again and his head and hands broken off. Subsequently, disease and devastation come to the Philistines. They play the game “hot potato” – passing the Ark on to other Philistines cities before finally returning it to the Israelites.

But they never consider the obvious: the God of Israel is the true God.

Merriam-Webster.com defines an idol as “an object of extreme devotion.” Nancy Collins says an idol is “anything that is loved or revered more than God.”

Keeping those two definitions in mind, what is your BAE? Is there anything in your life that is an object of extreme devotion or is loved or revered more than God?

In this week’s teaching, we borrowed from the game show Family Feud to complete these three statements:

• I never leave the house without _____________.

• When I’m happy (or sad or angry or hurt), I __________.

• The one thing I never miss is ___________.

We offered some possible “survey says” answers to prod us to consider the possibility that we do indeed struggle with idolatry issues.

I hope you will watch the entire teaching lecture on YouTube (just click the arrow on the photo above) . I also pray that this week’s study will prompt you to declare in your heart and in your mind that Jesus is your BAE!

Matthew 6:21 says:

For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.

Can you honestly say that you treasure God– that you treasure His Word?

There is nothing inherently wrong with vacations and shoes and family time and even money  – but are those good things usurping the best thing? Is God alone the object of our extreme devotion? Can we declare that there is nothing or no one else in our lives that is loved or revered more than God?

Is He our treasure? Does He have our hearts?

The woman of God loves God most and best.

Sometimes what’s not there is even more telling than what is:

• Thanksgiving dinner with no turkey leaves a huge whole on the dinner table
• A car up on blocks with no wheels tells a sad story– you’ve been robbed.
• Did your kids try to play the “last puzzle piece game” at your house? Sneak out a piece and hide it just so they could be the one to put in the last piece? No matter how beautiful the rest of the scene, our eye is drawn to that gaping hole.

In I Samuel Chapter 4, the Israelites go out to fight with the Philistines and are defeated. As they regroup and consider what to do next, what’s not there is even more revealing than what is. I Samuel 4:3 says,

When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked,
“Why did the LORD bring defeat on us today before the Philistines?
Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh,
so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”

They inquire of each other, but not of the LORD. They immediately decide to haul out the ark of the covenant – an action that comes dangerously close to idolatry. Where is the prayer? Where is the seeking after God? The first battle led to a sound defeat and as they prepare for round two what’s missing speaks volumes about their relationship with God—or lack thereof.

The Israelites wanted God’s blessings, but not God Himself. What’s not recorded is as telling as what is: no conviction or confession, no prayer or praise, no calling out to God, no worship – just human effort and human striving.

Do you and I ever do the same? Do we roll up our sleeves and get to work before dropping to our knees in prayer or lifting our arms in praise?

• Let’s ask God to convict us when we resort to manipulation to manage life’s challenges.
• Let’s ask God to help us make praise and prayer our first response to hardship.
• Let’s ask God to Help us see where the problem is not really the ‘Philistines’ before us, but perhaps our own hearts.
• Let’s ask God to call us to be women who worship before we get down to work.

In this week’s teaching, we also unpacked some explanations for why God causes or allows bad things to happen.  You can watch the entire teaching for this week’s passage by clicking the arrow on the photo above. It would also bless our ministry if you would click that red subscribe button when you finish. (It’s free). Have a blessed week!

“Speak, for your servant is listening.”
I Samuel 3:10

The book of I Samuel opens during the time of the Judges. Chapter 3 begins by letting us know a little about the spiritual climate:

…In those days
the word of the LORD was rare;
there were not many visions.
I Samuel 3:1

Perhaps The people didn’t hear from God because they didn’t want to hear from God. It was a low time spiritually for God’s chosen people.

They chose to go their own way.  When they found themselves in a jam, they came back to seek Him out and ask for His help. Sadly, the reality for them corporately is often our reality individually.  Are you and I seeking after God? Are you and I looking and listening and expecting Him to reveal Himself to us?

In a climate where God’s word was rare, it’s all the more remarkable that God chose to speak to Samuel. God called to young Samuel three times and each time he ran to Eli saying, “Here I am; you called me.”

According to verse seven:

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD:
The word of the LORD
had not yet been revealed to him.
I Samuel 3:7

Samuel grew up in God’s house. Even before he knew God personally, he faithfully and obediently served the Lord under Eli’s leadership. When Samuel heard his name called, he hopped right out of bed to respond. No playing opossum, no grumbling, no sighing. He was obeying who he thought was Eli.

Young Samuel spurs us on to teach and train our children in the ways of God even before they have a personal relationship with Him. We can begin to teach our own children (or grandchildren, nieces and nephews, or whatever child God has brought into our lives) about God even before they know God. And we need to start early!

We can intentionally seek out resources to teach our children. We can pray for our children.  We can train them to obey us and respect our authority so they are ready to obey God when they make the decision to live for Him.

We can ask the Lord to empower us to live out the gospel faithfully to those living under our own roof. We can ask Him to empower us as parents and grandparents to teach our little ones in His ways and His will, as we pray fervently for the day each responds to His salvation call.

After three times, Eli finally realizes God is speaking to Samuel. Eli instructs the boy in how to respond and when God calls the fourth time, Samuel is ready. He is fully engaged, focused, and ready to hear what God has for him.

In our world of multi-tasking and continual noise–TV, social media, trying to cook dinner, do laundry, and pay bills all at the same time –isn’t it refreshing to note that God initiated the call to Samuel.  And Samuel listened and responded.

Samuel’s immediate “Here I am” challenges us to say, “Yes, Sir” to God when He calls us.

The woman of God listens to God.

What if we opened our Bibles each day and repeated Samuel’s words – and really meant them:

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

We can each declare with Samuel, ‘Here I am,’ as we ask: “what hard thing do you have for me today? Is there a difficult person I am to love on? Is there someone who needs encouragement? Someone who needs to hear the life-giving message of the gospel – the good news?”

The woman of God listens to God and then follows where he sends.

Samuel’s teachable spirit was rewarded. Because his heart was open to hear, God spoke to Him and used him throughout his life.

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In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.
…she kept on praying to the LORD…
I Samuel 1:10, 12

Infertility is defined as the inability of a woman of reproductive age to conceive after trying for twelve months. It’s a painful experience for women today, and it was a painful experience for women in Old Testament times, as well.

In I Samuel 1 we meet Hannah – a woman who experienced the pain of infertility – compounded by another wife of her husband who provoked and taunted her.  The cycle of hoping and waiting and being disappointed went on year after year.

Maybe you can relate.

Maybe it’s not a baby you have hoped for, but something else:

• the restoration of a relationship
• waiting for a job
• healing from physical or mental sickness
• a prodigal child to come back to God
• your husband to come to know God

These are all good things.  If you’ve prayed over good things that seem unselfish and God-honoring, but have yet to receive an answer, maybe you find yourself asking what I like to call “Hurting Heart Questions:”

• Does God see?
• Does God care?
• Why would God withhold good when He has the ability to provide it?
• Why does God say no or hold back?

Many of us – maybe all of us – have asked those hurting heart questions.  Maybe you are asking them now.  Perhaps you are grappling with a crisis in your life and find yourself saying to God like David in Psalm 13:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say,
“I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Hard places like this–times where we wait and ask and pray–when we know we would rightfully give God the glory if only He would answer, but there is no answer…are what I like to call a crisis of faith.

We will all come to a crisis of faith at some point: a place where we know God can, but He chooses not to. It’s a hard place. A place that has us grappling with the deep theological questions and ramifications of God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. A place where our faith is truly and deeply and profoundly tested…

A place where we as women of God must choose to believe God and bow to God in spite of our circumstances.  A place where in the midst of all that we don’t know, we choose declare what we do know:

• God is great.
• God is good.
• God is faithful.
• God is loving.

And that’s exactly what David does next.  After questioning God in in the  first four verses of Psalm 13, David  makes this declaration in verses 5 and 6:

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

And that is precisely what Hannah did, as well.  In verses 9-16 Hannah presses in and prays even through her pain and tears.

The passage says she prays in “bitterness of soul.” Have you mistakenly assumed you need to dry up your tears and put on your happy face before you come to God?

He can take it!

Hannah prays through the pain, through the tears, through the anguish and disappointment. Her heart is hurting, but rather than blaming God, she asks God to open her womb.

Scripture is filled with examples of folks who brought their requests before God…

• David asked God to heal his child
• Mary and Martha asked Jesus (God in the flesh) to save their brother
• Even Jesus Himself asked God to let the cup pass from Him,

Men and women of faith of every generation have brought their pain to God.  It is a choice.  A deliberate act of our will to sometimes deny how we feel and choose to pray.

Sometimes we blame God. Or perhaps become angry with God. Maybe choose to walk away from God.

But I want to challenge you to woman up: to be a woman of God who chooses to trust God even in – especially in – your hurt and pain.

I’m encouraging you to follow Hannah’s example…and perhaps, even in bitterness of soul and in tears, to bring your burden before the One who knows you best and loves you most.

He is ultimately the One with the power to change our circumstances.

The woman of God prays through her pain.

A video of the entire teaching lecture can viewed here: 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8

Have you believed the lie that God only has time for “good” people? Have you mistakenly assumed you have to get your proverbial act together and clean yourself up before He will consider allowing you into His presence?

If you are a “church lady” you most likely know that’s not true, but do you behave like it is? Do you avoid God when you know you are a mess?

If you’re not a church lady, then please know God loves you and truly desires to have a relationship with you. You need not avoid Him because you feel unworthy.  In fact, that’s the point. We are all unworthy.  We are all unable. The very reason we need Jesus – our more-than-enough—is because we can never be enough on our own.

What keeps you from Him?

Shame, embarrassment, anger, resentment, bitterness—so many swirling emotions when life is difficult, painful, or right-down hard. And that’s when we need Him most.

The whole point of the gospel – the good news – is that Jesus died for us mess and all.  If we could clean ourselves up, we wouldn’t need a Savior. The gospel is not just for that day – our ticket into heaven when we step out of this finite world and into eternity. The gospel is for this day. The gospel transforms our day-to-day lives on this planet. The gospel gives us an anchor to hold to in the storms of life. It gives us a purpose when there seems to be none.

You may know about God, but are you interested in getting to really know God? That is the reason we read and study the Bible.

Maybe you’ve never opened a Bible. Maybe you know you should, but life is full. Maybe you never let a day pass without reading God’s love letter to you. Whatever point you find yourself on the timeline of life, please consider joining me this year on a journey through the Old Testament book of I Samuel.

This 19-week study begins with the birth of Samuel – a man of God who was a prophet, judge, and priest for God’s people.  It then goes on to chronicle the end of the era of the judges for God’s people and the subsequent launch of their royal history with the anointing of first Saul and then David as kings of Israel.

I hope you will plan to study along with us this year.  I’ve launched a new YouTube channel to make it easy to share the videos of our teaching.  Each weekly blog will include a link to that week’s teaching lecture.  Here’s the Welcome video:

And here’s the link to my Introductory teaching to kick off this study.  You might enjoy the MESS story about my sweet granddaughter!

(And…it would certainly be a blessing if you would subscribe to the channel and then click the like button, and also comment on the videos.)