Correction: Do You Embrace it or Despise It?

Every year my husband has had to go through a review at his job. The review (which consists of pages upon pages) contains input from many of his authorities AND peers on how he can do better. It is NOT a "pat on the back" and NOT to make him "feel good" but rather to show him areas where he needs to CHANGE. He could deny the things listed there saying "I don't do those things." "The results are great; don't question the process…" "That's the way I am!" BUT his reaction to correction determines his future with the company.

Same with sports figures. The call of the referee becomes part of their game. Whether "right" or "wrong" if the referee calls a foul, the player better lift his hands higher, and tweak his game to the point where it is acceptable to the referee. If the coach corrects the player for something, he better not deny what the coach sees or the referee sees: because his reaction to correction determines his future with the game.

I was teaching a class on parenting and we were looking at the area of correction and how our children are taught to respond to correction when it comes. It is obvious that many children feel that correction and discussion are synonyms. When many children are corrected, they become defensive rather than reflective; they feel threatened rather than challenged to change. Unfortunately, I believe this attitude comes from the way that parents receive correction from authorities or peers in their lives. Unfortunately as well, our children's reaction to correction determines their future success.

When a student takes a test, and gets some of the answers wrong, a wise student accepts the information gladly. Rather than defending their wrong answers or saying that the teacher is wrong, a wise student studies up and gets help understanding where they are falling short, so that they can improve their grade. Their reaction to correction determines their grade/success in the class and grasping the material.

Driving down the highway or even down the road, many a wise driver has checked their rear view mirror to determine if a car is driving in their blind spot. Because they check areas not readily seen, many accidents are averted. Their reaction to what is in their blind spots determines their success on the road.

If we are going to go from glory to glory (2 Cor 3.18) and the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, then we need to embrace and accept correction. Even when coming from an antagonistic source, we need to look for any verity or truth in the observation and accept the correction and change. If we are "coming off" a certain way, we need to tweak our behavior, look at our heart, adjust our motives and change to get to the next level.

Do not become complacent by avoiding times with God where you ask HIM to examine your heart and motives to see where you need to change. Many times you may feel pretty good lining yourself up against your peers, but when you get in the presence of the Lord, you become like Isaiah crying out "woe is me for I am undone… I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" (Is 6.5)

“Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psa 139:23-24 AMP)

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.” (Heb 12:5-11 MESSAGE)

Proverbs 13:18 - Poverty and shame come to a person who ignores discipline, but whoever pays attention to constructive criticism will be honored.

Proverbs 15:32 He who refuses and ignores instruction and correction despises himself, but he who heeds reproof gets understanding.

Proverbs 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

The fool brushes off correction, refusing to grow as a person or spiritually. The fool defends himself in the face of any one who has the courage or love enough to approach them with blindspots, or even against a hostile person who brings to the surface some blindspots they have in their lives. Refusing to go from glory to glory, they are content to stay the same…

That is not God's plan for you! He doesn't want you to feel condemned, but rather convicted, which leads to change and growth for you!

“For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].” (2Cor 7:10 AMP)

Challenge: Are you going from glory to glory by receiving correction? Are you demonstrating to your children and to others that you are open to be corrected without being defensive? Be an example of LOVING correction and GROWING personally and spiritually CONSTANTLY! I challenge you to live out the Stephen Curtis Chapman song: BRING IT ON! Knowing it will make you better, stronger, and equip you more, BRING ON THE TEST so you can get stronger and stronger and see what is inside of you!

Things to Remember

At the end of the book of Philippians, Paul is leaving the Church with some key points:

I. STAND FAST

-HOLD on to what you have!

-be of the SAME MIND with your brothers and sisters in Christ

-IN THE LORD (only possible through Christ)

II. Be ANXIOUS about NO THING

-REJOICE in all things!

-be MODERATE in all things!

-communicate your requests unto the Lord

-Let HIS peace keep you

III. DO

-Think good things

-be CONTENT in all things

IV. GIVE

-FEEL for others

-PROVIDE for others' needs

-receive your needs from the Lord - HE supplies ALL

V. TO GOD BE THE GLORY

(Philippians 4.1-23)

The Definition of Prayer and Misconceptions in Prayer

Taken from a book Live a Praying Life, by Jennifer Kennedy Dean

Prayer is not giving God instructions to follow. "To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the midst of our needs,…" Prayer is not limited to a segment of our lives or to a scheduled event in our days. It is an attitude of receptivity in which we live every moment. It is being open to Him at all times. It is living in the presence of God always in the process of being reshaped and recreated by him.

The truth about prayer will free us to pray with the boldness God intends.

Misconceptions in prayer:

#1 Misconception – prayer is only for material needs.

Often we come to God prepared to do battle with Him, convince Him of the validity of our need, and give Him reasons to meet it. What a contrast to the way a little child comes to his or her parents! A child simply assumes that the need or desire is potent enough to speak for itself. All that is required is to bring that need to Mom's or Dad's attention. The request assumes the answer. The child's only thought is to bring the need to the source of supply. God WANTS to meet your need because He's your daddy and you are the apple of His eye.

#2 Misconception – Prayer is to convince God to implement our ideas. This person feels that God always starts out against him and must be won over. Prayer of this kind pits the pray-er against God: it is a like a battle of the wills.

The person who prays this way tends to look for the right formula, or the right words to say, or the right order in which to say them. This person is always on a quest to find the approach to God that will finally get Him to act.

The secret to power in prayer lies not in hoe to ask, but in how to receive!

#3 Misconception – Prayer is to hold God to His promises. Some pray as if God forgets or tries to renege on His promises and is depending on prayers to remind Him of them. This kind of pray-er treats God's Word as if it were a catalog. He decides what God should do, looks through the Bible to find a verse that will match that plan, andorders it. In doing so, as in catalog shopping, the pray-er skims over everything that holds no appeal. He picks and chooses.

Remember, Scripture is not God's words; it is God's Word! Scripture is a whole and cannot be cut apart and pasted together to match my agenda. His Word is not a catalog. It is His promise in writing.

The promises are not for me to use in getting my way with God, but they are for God to use to inspire faith and confidence within me.

#4 Misconception – Prayer helps pry riches out of God's reluctant hands. "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of God's willingness." God does not have to be convinced to let go of His blessings. He lavishes the riches of His grace and love on us (Eph 1.7-8; 1 John 3.1). He is extravagant in His gifts; He pours them out. Don't expend spiritual energy needlessly trying to convince God of something He already knows. Giving you every good thing gives Him joy; it delights Him. Jesus assures us with these words in Luke 12.32 ("Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom"). His heart is set on you to do you good.

The TRUTH about prayer will set you free. Prayer is the means by which you will be freed from your earthbound, timebound thinking to participate in eternity. True prayer releases His power so that His power can accomplish immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine (Ephesians 3.20).

God means for prayer always to bring His power to earth. His intent is that every prayer finds His "yes." Prayer will work as God intends for it to work when it becomes what God intends for it to be. Prayer is not an activity, but a relationship. Prayer is not a formula, but a life. Only when we have learned how to live prayer, breathe prayer, be prayer – only then will the power available through prayer be consistently manifested on the earth. God has ordained that prayer will be the conduit through which His intervening earth-changing power flows from heaven to earth. Prayer is what sets God's will in motion on the earth.

Challenge: Set God's will in motion on the earth; learn His heart; know His will: PRAY!!!

Heart of an Intercessor

I am reading Live a Praying Life by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. What an awesome book so far. Here are a few excerpts:

When God wants to intervene and change the natural course of events, He looks for an intercessor. Consider then in Exodus 32.7-10 God desired an intercessor and found Moses; contrasting Ezekiel 22 where God looked for an intercessor for Judah and found NONE.

They both broke covenant with God (Ex. 32.-14; Ez. 22.23-29)

They both deserved judgment (Ex. 32.8; Ez. 22.30)

God desired mercy (Ex. 49.10; Ez. 22.30)

God sought out an intercessor (Ex. 32.7-10; Ez. 22.30)

God found Moses to intercede for Israel; God found NO intercessor to intercede for Judah (Ex. 32.11; Ez. 22.30)

Israel received mercy; Judah received judgment (Ex. 32.14; Ez. 22.31)

We need to see the urgency for us to intercede. God calls us forth with the great love He Himself puts in our hearts. God and Moses lived in such long intimacy that the heart of God had become the heart of Moses. The desires of God had become the desire of Moses. Moses did not see a good opportunity to exalt himself, but instead saw the destruction of God's eternal plan. God called on Moses' selfless love for the people and his loyalty to the eternal purposes of God.

What God wants to do on the earth, He will do through intercessors. The purpose of prayer is to release the power of God to accomplish the purposes of God. The purpose of prayer is to discover God's will, not obligate Him to do mine; to reflect God's mind, not change it. Could I learn, like Moses to make my heart available for God's purposes? Could I learn to trust His purposes more than my own perceptions? My first step would require an inner transformation: changing my prayer focus from my own satisfaction and happiness to God's glory and eternal purposes.

2 Corinthians 3.18 -

As we behold His glory we are changed so our heart is a reflection of His. His concerns are our concerns. His desires are our desires. His will is reflected in our prayers. In His presence, our prayer life becomes consistently powerful and effective. This is not because we now have more influence on Him, but because He now has more influence on you. The secret of prayer is not how to change God, but how to be CHANGED by God!

Challenge: Psalm 25.4-5 "Show me YOUR ways, o Lord, teach me YOUR paths; guide me in YOUR truth and teach me, for YOU are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."

The PROOF (test/trustworthiness) you serve others!

Philippians 2.22-30 (text at bottom)

I. Serve others that preach the Gospel

DO I serve others that have given of their lives to spread the Gospel?? It is NOT an option but a necessity! I NEED to help and they NEED my help!

II. Companion in labor; fellow soldier; minister to others' wants; messenger

AM I a "companion in labor" with those who ARE laboring?

AM I a "fellow soldier" realizing and seeing the warfare around me?

DO I minister to others' needs AND wants?

AM I a messenger of the Good News of the Gospel?!

III. Not regarding my own life for the work of Christ

WHAT do I tangibly DO to put the work of Christ before myself???

Do I consistently sacrifice to do the work of Christ?

“But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.” (Phil 2:22-30 KJVS)

Putting the Things that are Christ's FIRST and NOT my Own Thi

Philippians 2.12-21 (text below)

Aim: To seek NOT my "own" things but the things which are Christ's

Subject Sentence: Seek what is Christ's and not my own.

I. WORK OUT!!! With the ENERGY He has put in me!

Work out (do/work/perform/cause) my salvation (rescue or safety physically or morally) with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God that is working (ENERGIO – providing ENERGY to be fervent/effectual/doing/showing forth) in ME to both WILL (decide) and to DO (ENERGIO – put ENERGY into!) His good pleasure (accomplish what delights HIM in our lives – the things that are GOOD!)

Application questions:

Am I WORKING OUT what He is working in ME to do – He has given me ENERGY to do things that are GOOD and what DELIGHTS Him – am I putting forth the ENERGY He has given me to be fervent, effectual, DO, and show forth His ways in my life today??!!

WORK IT OUT – am I working it out with fear and trembling, knowing I WILL give account if I let His energy lay waste?

II. Do all things without murmuring and disputing, holding forth the Word of life.

Appplication questions:

Am I irreproachable and innocent?

Do I hold forth, paying attention to, the LOGOS of ZOE – the Word of LIFE –

being a DOER of the Word and not just a hearer? It isn't doing any good just because He provided the energy to do good things if I don't PUT FORTH the energy to accomplish those things in my life!!!

III. Offer yourself for the sacrifice and service of others' faith – care for the state of others, seeking the things that are Christ's.

Application questions:

How do I seek the things which are Christ's and help others' faith and state?

What TANGIBLE things am I doing TODAY for others and their furtherance of faith, which is actually seeking the things which are Christ's heart?

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”

(Phil 2:12-21 KJVS)

Being Under Satan's Yoke

Subject: Satan's Meeting



Satan called a worldwide convention of demons...

In his opening address Satan said,

"We can't keep Christians from going to church. We can't keep them
from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.... We can't even
keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their SAVIOR."

"Once they gain that connection with JESUS, our power over them is broken.
So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but
steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with JESUS
CHRIST."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil. "Distract them from gaining hold
of their SAVIOR. Distract them from maintaining that vital connection throughout
their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to
occupy their minds," Satan answered... "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend,
and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and
the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford
their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their
families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds, so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them
to play the radio or I-Pod whenever they drive. Encourage them to Keep the TV, DVD's,
CD's and their PC's going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and
restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and
break that union with CHRIST."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news
24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with
junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and
promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV, so their husbands will believe
that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives.
Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If
they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere. That
will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning
of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny, so they won't talk about HIS Resurrection or
HIS power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation
exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on GOD'S creation. Send
them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk, so that
they leave with troubled consciences. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they
have no time to seek Power from JESUS. Soon they will be working in their own strength,
sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work! It will work! It is quite a plan!"

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get
busier and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for GOD or their
families. Having no time to tell others about the power of JESUS to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes?

You be the judge.

Does "BUSY" mean: Being Under Satan's Yoke?