Eat the Cookie...Buy the Shoes: Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up Read online

  Jesus told His disciples and all those who would ever believe in Him to receive Holy Communion as a way of remembering His death and resurrection. He said that the bread was His body broken and the wine was His blood. As He shared the bread and wine with His disciples at the last supper He said, “Do this often in remembrance of me.” It was established as an outward sign of an inner faith and it is something very important that we should do also.

  Don’t take communion just once a month, or however often you do it, as a ritual, but take the time to remember what Jesus did on the cross. Don’t just go out for dinner on your wedding anniversary, but take the time to talk about the years you and your spouse have had together. Talk about the hard times and the good times. When another year is gone and it is your birthday again, don’t let it pass you by without remembering the things you have accomplished in life, the friends you have had, and the times you laughed so hard that your belly hurt. When I had my birthday dinner recently my son said, “Let’s tell stories.” I knew what he meant because we have done it before, and those times have turned out to be our best evenings together.

  I asked him what he remembered most about growing up and he recalled several events. Some I had forgotten, some I had never known, and others I had heard before, but they were all touching and worth remembering. Dave and I shared things we remembered about him and somehow when the evening was over we felt closer. He even sent me a text message the next day saying what a blast he and his wife had with us the night before. Believe me, when you are in your sixties, and you have a child in his twenties who tells you that he had a blast with you—it is something to remember! Laugh a lot with your children. They want you to be fun to be with. Refrain from finding something wrong with the way they dress or style their hair, or what they choose to eat. When you get time with your grown children turn it into a party. You had the first part of their life to correct them, now it is God’s turn. From now on you get to enjoy them.

  There are 161 references to the word “remember” in the Bible concordance, sixty-two for the word “remembered” and four for “remembering.” There are sixty-five references to the word “forget,” and most of those are reminding us not to forget what God has done and how He has delivered us in the past.

  There are times to forget and things to forget. For example, when the Apostle Paul said that he forgot what was behind, he was talking about not being condemned over past mistakes (see Phil. 3:13). In Isaiah we are taught not to earnestly remember the things of old because God is doing a new thing. All that means is that we are not to get stuck in the past and never want or be ready for change. We hear a lot of teaching about forgetting the past and although there are times to do that, we should also be taught to remember the past and pass it on to future generations.

  History is His-Story

  Any history book is simply an account of what has happened in the past. In America we now find that the history books have been revised and most of the references about God have been taken out of them. We no longer have our true history easily available, and that is a tragedy. History books in public schools are written without references to God or His word, so in reality what the students are taught is not true history at all. America was founded by godly men and women, on the word of God. Our constitution and law books were based on the word of God. The government buildings in our capital have the word of God etched in the walls and foundation stones. America is great because she has been godly, but if the Humanists have their way and are successful in removing the memory of what God has done in America, then she will be destroyed or at the very least become a country we will not be proud to live in. (Our ministry does have American history books available that contain our country’s true godly heritage.)

  The devil is using ungodly people to keep Americans and the world from remembering what God has done in our past. The amazing growth, power, wealth, and creative genius we experienced in such a short period of time in the United States was nothing less than amazing, and it was all because of God. Man must not now try to push God out and take the credit themselves, because if they do, the result may be something we will truly not want to remember.

  The Bible is a history book of God’s story, and He warned that no one should add to it or take from it. A person deciding to change a history book does not alter the history but does keep people from knowing it. If we don’t know where we came from we usually don’t know what direction to take as we go forward. If our history was good we can repeat it and if it was bad then we can avoid repeating it. History, good or bad, is all educational. Most of us want to know what has happened in the past. We like to hear people’s stories, which is their history. We like to go to museums and see movies about past wars and tragic events like the sinking of the Titanic or Hitler and the Holocaust. We are interested simply because it is history and as such it is part of us. We feel more complete when we know our history.

  The Internet offers Web sites that help people establish their family trees and I have often wondered if I have any preachers or ministers in my family bloodline. Are there any men or women who did great things, any writers, or inventors? History beckons to us to dig in and find out what she holds.

  Most of us are born curious. We like to search out a mystery and history is filled with mystery. I know I, for one, am amazed when I read about some of the battles that the Israelites fought, and the variety of ways that God delivered them. Knowing history increases our faith that if God did it once, He can do it again.

  If we don’t pass the true story of God down to the next generations it will be tragic. Only truth can keep people free. Tell your children everything you can about God. Tell them Bible stories and help them remember the great things that God has done. Be sure when you celebrate holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving that you use them as an opportunity to teach your children and to remind yourself of what they are truly about. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We honor Him by giving gifts to one another. People historically give to the poor at Christmastime more than any other time of the year. Christmas is a Christian holiday, but many people celebrate it who have no specific religious affiliation. It is just a day that they get together with family, go to office parties, and give and receive gifts, but they have no understanding of what it is really all about. We don’t want to let ourselves fall into the trap of observing traditions that have lost their meaning.

  Thanksgiving is not just a day to eat turkey and pumpkin pie. It was a day originally set aside to remember and give thanks to God for what He had done in protecting the first men and women who came to America to flee religious persecution in Europe. It was a type of harvest celebration like the one that the Jews celebrated. A day to give thanks for the crops they were able to harvest. We should always take time at Thanksgiving to actually give thanks and it should be a prayer of more than thirty seconds. I suggest sitting in a group with family or friends and letting each person share something in particular they are thankful for that happened in the past year as well as sharing their gratitude in general.

  Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and should not focus on hunting colored eggs and getting baskets filled with chocolate delivered by a rabbit. I am not against the Easter bunny or Easter egg hunts, but we definitely need to tell our children what the holiday truly represents. These special holidays and others were instituted as memorials, or ways to remember great things that God did in the past, so let us make sure that we remember. Before you sit down to a meal with family on Easter, why not get your Bible out and read the story of the resurrection and offer a special prayer of thanks for what God has done for us through Christ?

  Remember That God Remembers

  It increases our faith when we remember that God remembers us. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He keeps one eye on us all the time. He remembers all of our prayers. He keeps our tears in a bottle, and does not forget the cry of the humble, poor, and afflicted (see Ps. 56:8
and 9:12).

  Just yesterday I spoke with a man whose wife died of cancer at the age of thirty-nine, leaving him with four children and a broken heart. He shared how he just thought he could not go on until he read Psalm 121, reminding him that God is his Keeper.

  He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber.

  Psalm 121:3

  The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

  Psalm 121:8

  This man needed to be reminded that even though he had experienced a tragedy, God had not forgotten him. God was watching over him and would enable him to do what needed to be done. God would strengthen him.

  A short time later he met a wonderful woman who had also endured a tragedy in her marriage. They fell in love, married, and together they have raised their seven children. Tragedy is not the end of life, but it can be a new beginning. We may never understand why some things happen the way they happen, but no matter what happens, God is still God and He has not forgotten you.

  God forgives and forgets our sins (see Heb. 10:17), but He never forgets us.

  CHAPTER 8

  Celebrate Who You Are and What You Have

  Are you in the habit of looking at what you are not and what you don’t have, or have you trained yourself to see who you are, what you can do, and the resources you currently have available? We need to learn to identify with Christ and acknowledge the good things that are in us.

  That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

  Philemon 1:6 KJV

  We easily form a habit of acknowledging the bad things we do, but according to this Scripture we need to acknowledge the good things in us through Christ Jesus in order for our faith to be effectual.

  The Apostle Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that the eyes of our heart would be flooded with light so we might know the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of the inheritance that is ours. He also prayed that we would know the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe in Him (see Eph. 1:17–19).

  It is very important that we have a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might know the following three things: Number one, that we might have the knowledge of God, or that we may know God Himself. This is not knowledge gained through education, but it is knowledge gained through revelation. It is a knowing that is revealed to us by God Himself. Number two is that we might know the hope of our calling, which means the eternal plan of God and how we fit into it. God wants a possession and we are that possession. We are His desired family. We must know that God is calling us to be His sons and daughters and that as such we have an inheritance. An inheritance becomes activated when the one giving the inheritance dies, and since Jesus has died we must realize that we have an inheritance now. We are not waiting for one, but we have one now! Number three is the revelation knowledge of God’s power that is available to us. We can do anything that God asks us to do because of the greatness of His power toward us. Paul states that this power of which we are speaking cannot be measured; it is unlimited and surpasses even the greatest thing we can imagine. Have many of us have even begun to know this power? If this power is already available to us, then why do so many of God’s children live broken-down lives, filled with depression, discouragement, and despair? We must not be afraid to ask these questions if we are to find answers.

  Truly Know God

  How wonderful it is that we may know the God of the Universe! The Athenians built an altar to the unknown God (see Acts 17:23). With all of their education, reasoning, and philosophies, they still could not understand God. The Bible teaches us that eternal life is to know God.

  And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

  John 17:3

  When Paul prayed for the Ephesians, they knew God and had eternal life, but still Paul prayed for them to have wisdom and revelation concerning knowing Him. They still needed to know Him more. Knowing God is progressive and must be sought after. Paul shares his deepest desire with us in Philippians. Please take time to digest this Scripture:

  [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection.

  Philippians 3:10

  There is a big difference in knowing about God and knowing God. When we truly know God, we also experience (know) His power. Paul was determined and he understood that the knowing he sought would be a lifelong pursuit. He knew that the attaining of this knowledge was not something to be gotten by reasoning or from book learning, but it had to be given by revelation from God and would be acquired progressively throughout his life. Thankfully, God is deep enough that we will never know all there is to know. Only when we go to Heaven will we be known even as He knows us now (see 1 Cor. 13:12).

  It saddens me when people frequently equate Christianity with going to church and nothing more. In church we are taught about God, but an intimate personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ requires much more than a weekly trip to church. To know Him we must be hungry for the type of knowledge that can only come from God Himself through revelation. It is a knowing that goes beyond what we think, see, or feel. It is an inner knowledge of God that cannot be taken from us through anything or anyone. When we have this inner knowledge, nothing outward can sway us from our belief in God. We no longer need evidence to protect our faith. We trust God just as much if He does not give us what we want as we would if He did. We do not need feeling or seeing, because we know. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives” (Job 19:25). Even though Job went through unimaginably difficult and seemingly unfair things, He knew God, and his knowledge carried him through the difficulties and brought him to a new level of victory and blessing.

  Many Christians live too much by feeling. If they feel joyful and happy then they say God is blessing them, but if they feel blah, cold, or flat then they might be heard asking, “Where is God today?” If their prayer is not answered to their satisfaction they ask where God is. When we experienced the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11, a newscaster asked, “Where was God when all of this happened?” Had this newscaster known God, he would never have asked such a question.

  If we have a true knowledge of God we are not disturbed by any scientific view, nor any theories of evolution, nor so-called contradictions in Bible translations. We have come to a perfect rest that God is, and knowing that, then we know that nothing else matters. We do not feel a need to explain things because we know what cannot be explained in words. Paul said that he saw things when he had visions of Heaven that he could not explain. Men always want to explain God, but if we know Him truly, then the first thing we give up is trying to understand Him or explain Him. The person who knows spiritually has no need to understand mentally.

  Pray daily for a spirit of wisdom and revelation that you might know God and His Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Celebrate that you know God, that you are an eternal being and that you are progressively coming to know Him better as each day passes by. What an amazing blessing it is to know God. It should make us sing, dance, clap our hands, and shout for joy. Celebrate because you have joined Jesus’ party!

  Know God’s Call and Inheritance

  God wants us to know what His eternal plan and purpose are. He wants us to know the hope of our calling. He has chosen us in Himself to be holy, to live before Him without blemish and in love. This is God’s call and it is great indeed. How can we meet such a calling
since we are filled with weakness, inability, and the liability to temptation? How can we be so flawed and yet have the hope of being holy? It is beautifully simple when we have revelation. We are made holy in Jesus Christ and we can lift up our voices and confess out loud, “I am holy in Jesus Christ, I am blameless and perfect in Him.” When any believer comes to the place of knowing by revelation what is his right now, he puts an end to searching relentlessly for something, because he now knows that he has it! It is finished! It is done! It is his! He can then easily become what he believes that he is. What I just said in the last six sentences is extremely important for each person to grasp, so I ask you to reread it. We must understand what we have right now, otherwise we will spend our lives struggling to obtain something that has been ours all along.

  I tried for many years to love other people, but I had no revelation that God loved me and that I was in fact filled with the love of God (see Rom. 5:5). It was easy for me to give love away once I knew that I had it, but as long as I was stuck trying to get something I already had, I was unable to give it. We cannot give away what we do not realize that we have! No wonder the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus to know what they had inherited in Christ. Perhaps the reason we have difficulty accepting that holiness, peace, joy, righteousness, redemption, deliverance, wisdom, victory, and literally hundreds of others blessings are ours right now is because of the way we see ourselves. We often look at ourselves as mere human beings rather than as children of God. We need to see what God sees. We need to look with the eye of faith. We may think the things promised are ours after we change and behave better, so we keep trying to improve and tragically we never learn to come as we are.