Let's get our Butts out there for God...whether they're big or not!

The true purpose of our body—God’s purpose—is to be a dwelling place for His Spirit on earth and to carry His love to a hurting world.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and inyour spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor. 6:19–20)

To “glorify” God with our body means to use it to honor or magnify Him. There are many ways to interpret what that might look like in our individual lives. But one thing is for sure, we can’t do it if we hate our body so much that we keep it hidden from the world in shame. That’s the devil’s goal. How do you think he’s doing?

Our enemy wants us to be so ashamed of the appearance of our body that we forget all about the life-changing potential (God’s Spirit) it houses. If he can influence us to become embarrassed enough, maybe we’ll just stay home and keep that good stuff to ourselves. (I’m not going because my pants are too tight.) And when we do, it just leaves more hurting people—maybe even a family member or friend—to suffer without hope.

So...let's get our butts out there for God, no matter what size jeans it takes to cover them.  Are you with me?

(exerpt from My Big Bottom Blessing: How Hating my Body led to Loving my Life - available May 8, 2012)

Lord of the Stings: Return of Your King

Our hearts and Lord of the Ring’s middle earth have a lot in common. Both are the object of a brutal battle for lordship. Both have suffered violently from the relentless jabs of the enemy. In the movie, an epic war is waged and the victory is won…by the good side. It is true of our hearts, as well. The good side has won. So why don’t we feel it? Why aren’t we doing a little jig for joy at the pub like Mr. Frodo Baggins and his tiny little mates? Why does our own middle earth still feel laden down by the casualties of war? Why – even though we know the Bible tells us all things are new in Christ – do we still feel the sting of rejection, abandonment, and betrayal?

Maybe it has something to do with the location of our King. Have we put a crown on His head, yet kept Him wandering around the kingdom checking on peripheral matters? Or have we truly invited Him in to take His rightful throne – the throne of our hearts? The Bible says that is where He longs to be – ruling over the hurts in our hearts.

But do we trust Him?

What will he do with the hurts we are keeping so well hidden? Will He tell us to just get over it – that our hurts don’t really matter and we should simply renew our minds and move onward Christian soldier? Or worse, will He expose our woundedness for all the world to see – making an example of our pain only to demand we endure our tribulation as heroically as Jesus did?

The Bible tells us what He will do:

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He heals.

And not only that, He binds up our wounds. In the Hebrew language, bind has a few different meanings. The most obvious is bandaging – literally wrapping the wound tightly. But another more incredible meaning is to govern or rule over. God wants to rule over our wounds? Yes. He wants to take every rejection, every defilement, every devastation and set things straight. He wants to take our abusers off our hands and deal with them for us. He wants to determine the proper treatment plan for our hearts – the one that will not only mend our brokenness but perhaps make us stronger. And He wants to make sure that everything that was stolen from us is returned in full. And then He wants to turn our mourning into dancing (Frodo, here we come!).

He is a good King. I think we should give Him His throne, don’t you?