What Girls Get Wrong

There's a lot of lies that Satan wants you to believe. In this series, we've looked at lies about God , Satan , Pain , and  Sin . There's many more we didn't look at, both in the topics listed, and in others. Today, to end this series for now, I want to focus on three lies Satan desperately wants us to believe about ourselves. 1. My worth is based on what I can do, have, who I'm with, etc. "He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" ~ 2 Timothy 1:9, NIV I'm a very driven person. But I struggle with chronic pain and fatigue. I have goals, dreams, plans, that I want to accomplish. I write novels, and have plans for how fast I will put them up on Kindle. And when I don't reach my idea of how much I should get done in a day, I often beat myself up. Because I too often forget that, whi...

It's been a while since I last posted. Between the holidays and other family craziness, my life's been a little swamped. But now it's time to get back in and try to finish this series. So as we all know by now, Satan excels at lying. He tells us lies about lots of different things and people, including God and himself. Last time I posted, it was about the lies he tells us when we're dealing with pain . Another area he like to tell a lot of lies about is sin (yes, we're finally going to look at this area. No more delays). If I'm honest with you, I struggled not only writing this post, but also in deciding whether I should still post it after so long. Should I continue this series? Should I move on? Am I being one of those people pointing to dust specks when I'm carrying around a 2x4 in my spiritual eye ( Matthew 7:1-6 )? But after praying, I decided this was important to talk about, that even though this post will be riddled with errors (because I'm...

Last week, when I mentioned three lies Satan tells us about himself , I said we would talk about three lies about sin this week. But I’m going to save that for next week because I feel I should talk to you about something else instead. You see, yesterday I had to put my cat Smokey to sleep. And I prayed that God would give me strength because my heart was breaking. I mentioned in a previous post about my cat MeMe , who was not doing well. By God’s grace, her health is much better, and I thank you all for praying for her and me. Smokey was her brother, a sweet little boy who I called “the cat of instant purr.” You practically just had to look at this cat and he would purr. Even in his last minutes, when my dad held him before the vet gave him the final shot, my beautiful little buddy was purring. I thank God that by His abundant mercy Smokey didn’t suffer long. It was really only the last three or four days of his life that he seemed like he was suffering at all. But ev...

Satan has a repertoire of "gifts," including inciting rebellion and convincing Christians and the unsaved alike that they should care about themselves more than they should care about others. One of his greatest skills is lying. Last week's post was about some lies he tells us   about God . But it doesn't stop there. Satan tells us multiple lies about himself. 1. He's as powerful as God. "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." ~ 1 John 4:4, NKJV Don't get me wrong. The devil has great power. But it's nothing compared to God's. Remember the story of Job? Satan wanted to crush him, to hurt him so badly that Job would take it out on God and say all kinds of rotten things against Him. But Satan couldn't lay a finger on him unless   God gave the green light . Job lived thousands of years ago, but that truth remains unchang...

We all know Satan is a liar. Jesus Himself tells us Satan invented lying . But why do we still get caught up in his lies? I think our main problem is we don't know how to spot them, or that they're so small, phrased just right, that we began not to notice they are contrary to what the Bible tells us (one of the reasons it is VITAL to have a daily time in the Word!). And they tend to play on our emotions. Satan knows he can get to us easier through our feelings than our brains. So for the next few weeks, let's take a look at some of the different lies we're told, and what the truth really is. This week, let's take a look and see what three lies Satan wants us to believe about God. 1. If I mess up, God's done with me/I have to earn His approval. "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is ...

This coming election is a mess. That's no secret. I've yet to find anyone who is strongly for Trump or Clinton who isn't delusional. I mean, we're talking about the presidency of the U.S.A., a position which used to be reserved for the most qualified, most able candidate. Here in 2016, we have two candidates who are neither qualified or able, who have committed deeds and made statements that past generations wouldn't have allowed of town mayors, let alone the president of the United States. The only chance we have of having a decent president may be if a write-in or third party candidate gets elected, and even then it's probably a long-shot. It doesn't end there. Just looking at the direction this country has been heading is kind of scary. We started out as a country where most of the founding fathers at least acknowledged God's existence and power. How did we end up as one where for a Christian to express his or her beliefs is now labeled "intole...

I cringed writing this title. It just makes my skin crawl, the idea that God can't do something. Isn't that saying He's not all-powerful? But really, it's not a lessening of God's might that He can't/doesn't do these things, but rather a reassurance of the goodness and holiness of His character, and of just how powerful He is. 1. He can't lie "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began" ~ Titus 1:1-2 NKJV Depending on the translation you use, this verse either says "cannot," doesn't," "can't," or some other variable of the same thing. The idea across them all is the same: lying is not something God does, it's not even in His nature.  Unlike us, who sometimes struggle to tell the truth, who find lying...

We can find ourselves in a lot of traps as we're going along, trying to live for Christ and trying to act like one of His. One of the worst is the Self Pity Pit. I confess, I find myself falling into it when I'm really impatient about something in my life or really frustrated. But honestly, there's not much point to it. Instead, self pity is guaranteed to make you even more worse off than you were. And we can find ourselves "indulging" in it over the most ridiculous things. Let me give you a very recent example. After a series of health issues, I started on an elimination diet to see if I could pin point what is making me ill. For those of you who don't know what one is, it's basically where you take certain foods out of your diet for an extended period of time (usually 3-4 weeks). After that, you add one food in at a time for a day or so and see whether it causes a reaction. In other words, it's horrible (whoops, see what I mean? Self ...

A while ago I was watching a YouTube video, and I heard a saying I'd never heard before. The girl in the video said that when it came to things you learned in life, you had to "eat the fish and spit out the bones," meaning that you had to decide what you would take from something, that you had to pick and choose what you would accept and what you would reject, what worked for you and what didn't. She used this as an example of how she could participate in yoga even though she doesn't believe in Hinduism. And while I agree with her in regards to yoga, and that this idea can be helpful in some situations (during my counseling classes, I had to decide what theories worked best for my personality and pick and choose between techniques), this idea can also be rather dangerous. You can't pick and choose when it come to God's Word. You can't decide to accept the part about the Flood but reject that God created the earth. You can't decide to acce...

Doubtless you've heard of it. Meditation features in almost every TV show/movie that has an eastern flair or character in it. It's a huge part of New Age practices, and abounds in yoga. It's also in the Bible. More on that in a bit. Meditation has gotten a bad rep from the way people practice it, but it has many benefits. For me personally, I notice I am more focused and calmer on days I take the time for it. And unless you think I've totally gone off the deep end of sanity into some miry pit, check out the Psalms. At least a handful of them talk about meditating (especially Psalm 119 ), though not in the way we hear it described today. Rather than the common "empty your mind" nonsense, the Psalms name something specific we are to fill our mind with: God's Word. You see, meditation as described in the Bible is really just a fancy way of saying focus on/think about. Meditating on God's Word is useful. Meditating on nothing and letting any li...

Some days are a breeze. Others are hard. Like today. There's a lot of stuff going on in my life right now ("Yeah yeah, Christy, join the club." I know, you all have a lot going on, too). And honestly, sometimes I get drained from it all. Like today. I came home late from work with a bad headache and a bunch of things to get done, only to have some unexpected things pop up. My to-do-list won't be finished today. Days like this, when seemingly nothing goes my way (I admit, hyperbole, but hey, that's what it feels like), I can feel like a failure. Like somehow I messed up this whole life thing (yep, cue drama queen). On those days, and honestly every day, there's a list of things that I need to remember:  1. God loves me. " But God demonstrates His own love toward us,  in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  ~ Romans 5:8 NKJV Isn't it amazing, that our God loved us so much, He was willing to die for us? And He pa...

I just finished reading a novel that was really good but extremely sad. In it, the main character and her family were in a horrible car crash, her parents dead on the scene, and her little brother and herself seriously wounded. As the novel plays out, her brother dies as well. As she is in a coma, the novel is told through her eyes first as herself and then as she sees things in her comatose state. Stricken with grief over her family's passing, and in such bad shape herself that she would need quite a few reconstructive surgeries, the girl battles between whether she wants to fight for life anymore, or whether she wants to give up and die. Because according to one nurse, it is the girl's choice whether she lives or dies. While the author did a beautiful job writing the story (except for the swear words, that is), there were a couple of things I disagreed with her on. One of them was this idea, that we get to choose our own destiny. Because although we choose several thing...

So today, as I woke up twenty minutes before my alarm went off, I was laying in bed praying, and when I got up, I realized something. I do not know how it had never struck me before, at least not quite in this way, but it was a little shocking at first. I am, by nature, a very ungrateful person. Even though I say thank you a lot. It's super easy for me to forget everything I have in pursuance of my goals. Searching for a full-time school counseling job? I'll forget to be happy I substitute teach for two different districts. Feeling sick and achy one day (like today)? I'll forget that only two years ago I was so sick I wasn't able to work full-time. Frustrated and angry at my five-year-old, slow-running-at-times laptop? I'll forget that there are many people who don't even own desktops (something that would be devastating to me as writer). Yeah, #firstworldproblems anyone? It's so easy for me to forget that, even though I want all these things, I have...

Let's talk about someone you've probably heard a lot about. Peter, the apostle, the guy who was ready to chop off an ear for Christ (sorry, van Gogh, guess you didn't think of it first), and then a few hours later was swearing he'd never heard of the Man. Pastors preach a lot about Peter. There's a lot of life lessons we all get to learn from Peter's failures. I feel like he has the greatest number of embarrassing stories told about him in the Bible. Then again, he didn't kill anyone or sleep with anybody who wasn't his wife, so maybe he doesn't quite have that position all by himself. But we hear a lot about him. We hear a lot about his lack of faith. Like that time Jesus walked on the water, and when He came aside their boat, the disciples were all afraid. Then Peter, gathering courage, asks to be allowed to come to Jesus on the water. Jesus lets him come, but Peter sees the waves... We know the rest of the story. His heart quakes wi...

I love the week between Christmas and New Year's. I mean, absolutely, positively, LOVE it. It's a week I usually spend cleaning (yeah, I love cleaning, it's weird, you can say it), getting a last few things done, and of course spending time with my family and friends. It's a time of dreaming, planning new goals for the year ahead, and just taking time to realize how far I've come over the past twelve months. Basically, I love the new start. All the times I failed over the past year are about to be shoved behind me as a brand new year breaks forth. A new year to go places, meet new people, to set new goals and reach them, a chance to try again on the goals I missed the year before. A new year to grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ. To become more like Him. To know Him better, to learn to trust Him more as He works in my life to bring me to where He wants me to be. You may have heard about a book in the Bible called Lamentations. It's not preached from...

Today found me very not in the Christmas spirit. Usually, I'm a last minute shopper. There's two reasons for this. First, I usually forget I have shopping to do until a few days before (don't ask me how, I don't know why I can remember random stuff like how many tablespoons equal a cup* but I forget all about getting presents for Christmas). Second, I spend a long time actually picking out what to give someone. Needless to say, this combination means I'm usually grabbing gifts two days before Christmas. This year, though, I finished my shopping a week ago Monday. I went to the mall yesterday, but it was just to hang out with a friend (and there was one more thing I was thinking about getting for my mom). All I had to do was wait for the rest of the presents to arrive in the mail... Until today. All of my gifts came by Monday except one. I wasn't too worried, because that one said it'd be delivered by today. Sure, it'd be a bit of an inconvienie...

" Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them."  ~ Hebrews 13:7-9 NKJV   I recently watched a documentary about three people who escaped from cults. Yeah, I can be a nerd, but that's another story. These people, a young man and two women, had horrible things done to them, all in the name of "truth." They were abused, raped, convinced to mistreat their family members, persuaded to abandon their families... All because of a horrible lie. Today, we’re too quick to trust. You’ve probably seen and heard the liars on T.V., those men and women who convince people that Jesus is some sort of magic genie rea...