final days forum

This Broken Vessel Restored Blog Tour with Paulette Harper

Final Days Forum helps to kick off a blog tour for author Paulette Harper who will discuss her new book, That Was Then,This Is Now,This Broken Vessel Restored on various blog, radio and podcast sites on the Web. Paulette's "Devotional Reflections from the Bible" on "The Woman with the Alabaster Flask" is today's featured post:

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, and He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.

And behold, a woman of the town who was an especially wicked sinner, when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment (perfume).

And standing behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with [her] tears; and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet [affectionately] and anointed them with the ointment (perfume). Luke 7:36-38 AMP

What a heartfelt story of redemption and gratefulness to God. As I reflected on what God has done to bring me to this point in my life, I find myself reminiscing on the state of my condition years ago. Broken, scared but restored, like this woman I had many things that needed forgiving. This beautiful woman received forgiveness from the Lord and her gratitude was shown by her anointing Christ with some costly perfume. Her attitude of thankfulness was expressed by her tears and the kissing of his feet. She affectionately kissed his feet. I believe this to mean that she was so thankful because Jesus did not reject her or even reflect on the fact of her previous lifestyle. She had much to be forgiven for, a prostitute, a lady of the night, an outcast as the Scripture described her.

This story is a true symbolism of how our attitudes must be when we approach a loving, forgiving and merciful God. This woman possessed something of great value and could have been used elsewhere, but she wanted to express her gratitude to Christ in a way only she knew how to do and with what she had in her possession. As we mediate on the state of our condition years ago, last week and even yesterday, know that God has not judged us according to our deeds but has forgiven us according to his character and nature.

What we have in our possession is our worship, praise and thankfulness to the One who would gladly receive all that we can give when it comes from a heart that has been forgiven of much. As I lay before my Father with tears rolling down my face, I was so grateful like this woman for my life that was restored and made whole through his unfailing love.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paulette Harper is an emerging Christian author making her debut with her first inspirational book, That Was Then, This Is Now, This Broken Vessel Restored, a compelling story of deception, heartache and ultimate victory. In 10 chapters she masterfully uncovers the hidden obstacles she faced as the “first lady” and how she eventually broke through those barriers.

A native of Pittsburg, CA, Paulette travels as an inspirational speaker and licensed minister teaching people how to overcome life’s unexpected experiences by delivering a strong message of hope.

Beyond her writing ability, she has a passion to lead people to a clear and precise understanding of how life challenges can become one’s ultimate source of victory by sharing solid, biblical principles that will enable people to find a way out of every trial so they can reach their God-given potential.

For more information about Paulette and her new release, visit: www.bvministry.org or watch the book trailer.

 

SHARE WITH US

In the comment section below, share a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God, for what He has done for you. We can never repay him for what he's done, but we can give him all the praise and glory.

To share your story and fellowship with others, we want to invite you to join the This Broken Vessel Restored Facebook Group.

Rage: the new normal

Web (HDR), originally uploaded by iChaz.

Everyone is angry. It's not that anger cannot be an emotion that can move us in the right direction or right a terrible wrong. Unchecked anger is what I'm talking about.  Anger without boundaries coats our politics, flavors our school board meetings, and poses as the uninvited guest at family dinner. We are ticked. We mercilessly spew our rage at the driver who cut us off on the highway, the callers who disagree with us on our talk radio programs, and the spouse who just won't do right.

Anger throbs in the hearts of Christians who pummel with the ferocity of hell those who have abortions or choose same-sex unions. The intent may be to bring people into alignment with Scripture, but they use the fist of Satan to inspire the obedience of Jesus. Our anger curdles like sour milk and reeks of rottenness. I have wondered at my own anger and the wrath seething on television programs and throughout the blogosphere. It's like we have supped with the devil and brought home poisoned leftovers.

I don't expect those who do not know Christ to curb their rage. They need God's intervention to see truth. To expect the world to do differently than it does is like expecting Tony Soprano to actually renounce killing forever. You need a revelation from God to follow kindness, peacefulness, and love.

But I do call on the church to check the level of its rage. Not all of our anger is righteous indignation, as Christians like to declare. Much of our anger is the refuse of inner issues left untended in our lives. The Bible tells us to be angry but sin not, and we have not obeyed that instruction. The sun has gone down many times on our anger. We accommodate anger, as if it were an admirable quality, a selling point, or a competitive sport.

In the church of Jesus Christ the Lord, this should not be. Unchecked anger blinds us. Anger obscures the view of heaven and lessens its power in our lives.

Judy Howard Ellis

'The Dark Knight' & the Agent of Chaos (Part 2)

Day 147. May 26., originally uploaded by Maryam S..

"The Dark Knight" offers several themes that could be elaborated on, but I'm focusing on the characters of the Joker and Harvey Dent. As I said in yesterday's post, the Joker gives us a pattern of some of Satan's schemes.

Applying the struggles of Dent's character to the Christian experience, Satan wars against men and women -- made righteous by the blood sacrifice of Jesus -- who seek to repair the causes of inner brokenness instead of burying them behind glamourous facades. As God's enemy, and as the enemy of the souls of the redeemed, Satan relishes in having followers of Christ wallow in pretense. He hates authencity. He likes Dent's outward glow -- golden but shallow!

In "The Dark Night," the Joker presses his crazed fingers into Dent's inner wounds, the places Dent didn't get healed before he became Gotham's righteous crusader. Had Dent possessed the world view that God ultimately wields all justice and corrects all injustice, and then found rest in that world view, he would not have sought his own revenge when the pain of losing his girlfriend -- and losing the war against crime -- was more than he could bear.

Dent's story is a well-told cautionary tale within a larger, complex story about Batman. (Isn't it funny where we can learn a truth of God?) As Dent shows us, outward change without the constant inward working of the Holy Spirit falls short of the authencity God desires and plays into the religious pretense Satan loves to produce. Satan knows that when the Christian is real, self-aware of his weaknesses and focused on the complete strength of God, the Christian is formidable.

I love this quote from one of my favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon, about Joel 2:13. The passage refers to rending our hearts, not our garments, and turning to God. Spurgen is quoted on the site, www.gracegems.org, as saying:

"Men will attend to the most multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations; for such things are pleasing to the flesh; but true religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of the carnal men; they prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up: but they are ultimately delusive, for in the time of death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of heaven."

Judy Howard Ellis

Speaking from the heart, not the head

Honesty flowers, originally uploaded by net_efekt.

An extraordinary spoken-word poet, Karen Thompson, once told me that I was a good writer, but as I performed, my poetry flowed from the head, not the heart. The words stung, but I got it and I'm still getting it.

Karen is the leader of the Speakout, a poetry group in Denver, and she is loving and straightforward. In simple words, she showed what we all must learn in life -- that authenticity is the golden key for genuine conversation and the currency for lasting relationships.

Her words intially were hard to hear because of the mask I cultivated as a journalist. Journalists are taught to focus on others, and to step away from themselves so as not to color a story with our opinions. This is an ethical aim when it comes to fairly conveying a fair news story, but it's a lousy way to cultivate a well-rounded life.

My natural reticence since childhood to share too much about my private life didn't help. While I don't advocate reckless sharing of inner secrets -- trusted friends are in place for that -- my church, Colorado Christian Fellowship, trained me to strive to for emotional accessibility when I interact with others. CCF, and specifically, my care group leader, the elegant-in-powerful-love Betty Rice, encouraged me to follow God's lead and go deeper, to face the hidden, broken places, the places that get patched up, but never healed. God wants better for me (and you). He wants me clear-headed, flat-footed, ready to share the truths I've learned, and armed with the force of his love and acceptance. His friendship, his cleansing, his peace, empower me to be present in every relationship, for God is never about hiding from the pain.

Thinking I knew all this because I had seen personal growth -- I was surprised, painfully so, when I did not share my heart when speaking this weekend at my girlfriend Cynthia's birthday party in Dallas. It was a milestone year for her and her husband, Leroy, did it up. He asked me to speak, along with other precious friends of hers, and I choked.

I could barely sleep that night. Memories haunted me. Cynthia walked with me during some of the darkest emotional nights of my life when I was single. She and her husband were a loving couple who knew how to befriend and encourage single people while displaying the beauty of married love in Christ Jesus. Cynthia was patient, wise. She didn't point fingers, quote cliches and condescend as the wife taking pity on the never-married woman. She tutored me for marriage. And when I did marry last year (to a powerful truth-teller, no doubt!), she was there again, supportive and excited about what God had done, just as he said would.

Why I choked at the party and failed to detail those times of sitting at her table, chattering away and eating her mushroom rice like I'd never had a meal before or eating her cinammon rolls like they were manna, still stumps me.

But I will move past it. One day I probably will write about how Cynthia mentored me to always believe the best is yet to come. One day I will write about her as the friend I love! For now, may I not neglect to practice the God-lessons Karen, Betty and CCF taught me about transparency, lest I neglect to drink fully of transparency's infinite grace.

Judy Howard Ellis

Good vs. evil is still hot

A cynical culture may sneer at happy endings and do-good characters, but that's on the culture. A major reason comic book stories like Marvel Comics' Iron Man and the TV cartoon series Speed Racer appeal across the generations is because they celebrate the always satisfying theme of good versus evil.

Iron Man Trailer courtesy of buzzfocus on YouTube.com

Critics often downplay such stories if the characters seem like souless cutouts with no vices. I don't have a problem with complicated characters who are shaded with meaning. Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the world-weary industrialist Tony Stark was exquisite. But Downey's character also tried to do the right thing, in his own seen-everything fashion. The back story of Racer X, played by Matthew Fox in Speed Racer, possesses a mysterious, romantic flavor. Not many today are willing to stay unknown and in the shadows.

So why not enjoy Iron Man and Speed Racer overcoming-- if only for a little while -- their adversaries? Enough is happening within our culture to warrant morally based courage. What purpose does it serve to tell stories that do not teach and transform? Especially when we need leadership in every walk of life and in every part of the globe.

Speed Racer trailer courtesy of devildodo on YouTube.com

Remarkable goodness springs from the hearts of people who choose the right thing every day, even when it means sacrifice and ridicule. Let's do more storytelling about those people and their choices. The culture easily depicts the nightmarish side of life -- much like watching the first 15 minutes of local TV news, where mayhem trumps every other story -- but the culture is often sophmoric when telling stories about the redeeming power of lives well-lived.

And that's why such stories -- even if they are lifted from the pages of comic books and the fixed expressions of cartoon characters -- are so terribly needed.

Jesus, the perfect supplement?

Jesus Christ is the must-have supplement for today's made-to-order religious practices. He is used like a healing herb or a trace mineral. Mix a tablespoon of Jesus into your daily religious smoothie and you're good to go. Jesus flavors any religion, belief system, principle or spiritual practice on earth. He is the binding agent, the innocuous role model for perfectly executed belief.

He's a very cool additive only when you peel away the messy crucifixion, that blood-as-sacrifice-for-sin stuff, His statements about being the only way to God, and that wild notion about resurrecting bodily. But for those who prefer their Jesus tame, the Jesus who taught about blood and sin is passive aggressive and His Daddy is a cosmic control freak.

For example, the crucified and risen Jesus doesn't flow with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, author of the "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose," and other self-made faith practices today. Faith is self-actualization, consciousness and an untethered spirituality that says: We have seen god and god is us.

(Courtesy of : lsim13 from YouTube.com.)

I'm a huge fan of Oprah and the way she embraces mass media to supply forums for a variety of people, interests, and ideas. Hosting a global webcast featuring Tolle is a brilliant use of today's technology and further proof that she is a master storyteller and entrepreneur. She has her fingertips on what matters so much to so many.

But "A New Earth" and other books that turn away from the crucified and risen Christ reveal not the greatest story ever told, but the greatest lie ever believed.

Long before Oprah became a beloved media personality, she was a person with a question. Oprah herself has said that when she heard a minister talk about a "jealous" God, she was disturbed by that description. The God she knew was loving, so how could God be jealous? Her question was real. Her curiousity was normal. Did anyone in her former Baptist church share with her about what a "jealous God" meant? Did one of the "mothers of the church" put her arms around her and explain the full story about the God of All Love?

Whether they did or not, Oprah's question was left to take unruly root.

More tomorrow about this.

Blessing others... even when it hurts

OD BLESS OUR TROOPS, originally uploaded by Rob Thurman.

The statements, "God bless America" and "God bless our troops," are common in our culture and can be heard during political speeches or seen on roadway signs like the one above. We're comfortable saying these words and they're acceptable in the canon of Americana.

But what about blessing those who harm us? How about "God bless my co-worker who is sabotaging my project" or "God bless my in-laws, who are spreading lies about me to my kids?" Shouldn't we be realistic? Who actually blesses the convicted sex offender who moves into the neighborhood? And who blesses the opposite political party?

The act of blessing folks who hurt us gets personal when we take the words of the Bible seriously -- to bless and curse not.

Author Reona Martin of Reona Martin Ministries in Dallas, Texas offers a teaching about living a blessed life. In this podcast, she discusses the blessing in store for those who bless others -- even when it hurts:

Gabcast! Final Days Forum #4 - Blessing others... even when it hurts

God's view of living a life that is blessed.

Everyday theology

We can talk about God everywhere. On a blog. On a TV spot. Over punch at the Little League game. Over the backyard fence. While our voices can be heard in a multitude of places, the platforms themselves should not be our first focus. Once the cameras spotlight us, what will we say? Will our message still flow from love? Or will we belittle, alienate or anger?

Lovelessness is an easy disease to catch.  Lovelessness can appear as right dogma, common sense, pop psychology, Bible knowledge, tough love or political smarts. All the right things are said, but the words just don't feel right when heard. Instead of calming the chaos, the words stir things up. It's like watching a person smile at you, but you recognize the insincerity because the smile doesn't meet the person's eyes or your heart.

How important it is to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us what to say when we are talking about God. Although He transcends everything, are we guilty of being the worst publicists for Him? Any uncertainties we have about God and His unconditional love spill out when we talk with others. If we see God as unbending, we are unbending. If He is only a rule-maker, we are rule-makers. If He is impossible to please, so are we!

Let us dig up any roots of thinking that tell lies about God and His relationship with us. Let us refuse to talk to people out of wounded confusion, recklessly sharing an erroneous picture of a loveless, rigid God to a world hungry for His touch.

Can we hear Him now?

Sometimes we think the words, clauses and sentences floating through our mind at any time are just part of the randomness of the way we live. Life is a cluttered ordeal, with too many things to do, people to see and places to be. That inner conversation may be viewed as fragments of information from our scattered in our mental inbox.

But what if we sit still and tie those thoughts together, deliberately taking those ribbons of thought and creating a bow of meaning?

I wonder if that is the intent of God. The Father created us to hear Him -- for in Him we live and have our being -- and He is always talking. But we can miss infused bits of information because we don't take notes. We don't tune in. We don't compare what we heard yesterday to what suddenly is spilling within our heart. We don't pray about the implications of what we're hearing.

In my own life, I am amazed that I often take for granted the thoughts of a sovereign God. His thoughts are good toward me; why don't I study what He tells me and and just believe what He says? Losing the daily words He scatters in my hear is like trying to capture the details of a dream and mourning when it fades away.

Trigger me

From my experience, I can count on this from God: He will do everything to set me free. Not just for eternity, but for right now. Every day is laundry day with Him. The things that are buried and seething beneath the surface are what He unearths , sorts and scrubs.

Counselors call them triggers. You know, the present-day conflict that makes you return to your fifth-grade class when the teacher's put-down is as real as ever -- so much so you can't raise a controversial question at the board the meeting. Instead of drilling down and discovering why you shy away from speaking publicly or confronting situations or people, you accommodate your fears. You choose to live with them.

God doesn't want it that way. He wants us to face the ghosts, the skeletons in the dusty closets in our hearts and minds that are stuffed with painful memories. Expect God's scrub brush to hover over those memories that handicap you until you allow Him to have cleaning day.

Right now I'm facing some fearful old ghosts. I don't want to go back, but God is saying look. He wants me to get His perspective on past and present events and move forward in the manna of the words He gives me.

So. Instead of letting past memories rattle away in the closet like a bad Halloween joke, I'm going to surrender to God's touch and let Him wash me clean and set me free.