Author: Colleen Craig

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Choose Joy

Dear sisters,

“What makes you happy Colleen?”  My husband asked.  I thought for a second.  After a tough day of the constant training of a tenacious two year old, I do find respite in a frothy latte and a bowl of cookies and cream ice cream.  A smile comes to my face as I lounge and indulge in the smoothness of both on my tongue.  The delicate delights of this special treat may last that night, but the doleful doldrums of training a sinful heart return in full force the next morning.  I feel like in this world I often seek immediate happiness in my circumstances, but what I really desire is a deep lasting joy.  But what is joy?

Joy is not contingent on a dessert or massage.  As a believer, the Lord commands me to have joy in all circumstances…even ones that are difficult and painful.  James writes to dispersed Christians to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”

But how do we do that, sweet sisters?  How do we have joy when all our children are crying at once?  When a loved one dies?  When we have another miscarriage?  When our adoption falls through?  When we feel as though our marriage is falling apart?  Oh, it is tough.  It is so tough to choose joy.  Yet we are commanded to throughout scripture.  The hope we have is that scripture tells us from where true and lasting joy comes.  It comes from Christ!  When we find our joy in the fact we have been forgiven of our sins and saved from the eternal wrath of God because of what he did on the cross, we have joy!  We are thankful Jesus took our ultimate fate of death and gave us eternal life in heaven!  That means our trials on earth get put in the proper perspective so even in the sadness of our circumstances, we have a deep joy in our hope in Christ!  Even in our disappointments and hardships, we know this world is not our home.  Our home is yet to come and sadness, death, tears, fears, and disappointments will all be forgotten!

If that is not encouraging enough, scripture also tells us we find joy in trials as we realize the Lord is drawing us to Himself during these times.  He is near to the broken hearted and hears all our cries.  He is making us more dependent on Him which is where we want to be.  He is shaking off the chaff of our lives, making us more like Christ.  He loves us so much that our trials bring us closer to Him, rather than further away.  Our trust in the goodness of our Sovereign God in difficult times brings us unadulterated joy!

Oh, live here sister!  Choose the joy that only comes from Christ!  Don’t settle for the fleeting happiness of a latte or ice cream.  Don’t live in the despair of circumstances.  Lift your eyes to the heavens where your help comes because in our weakness, He is strong.

Your sister,

Colleen

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When Did Words Become So Powerful?

My dear sisters,

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will break my heart.” That was the first line to a song I used to play when I was a kid. Funny how most of us think it’s the other way around. I’ve also heard the phrase, “words can heal, words can kill”. True. I’ve been on both sides of that equation, have you? I also remember one of my students in Thailand asking me, “Ms. Colleen, how do words become “bad words”? Great question! Why do words have so much power and what makes them good or bad?

James asks a similar question (Chpt 3):

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet hit boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,3 these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

WOW! I don’t know about you, but that digs deep and is worth a second read. First we see that we all stumble with our words. We all have a palate for shoe leather. None of us can control our tongue and we can start a fire of sin and pain with what spews forth. Even the wildest animals can be tamed, but we cannot tame our tongue. We are hypocrites, saying we love God on Sunday or during small group and then we curse God for some circumstance or person in our lives. Ouch. I’ve done that, have you? Our tongue has a root that anchors in our hearts. In fact, the Bible says that out of the outflow of our hearts, the tongue speaks. So what is in our hearts, dear sister? Are they on the foundation of what we have in Christ? Do we fill our hearts with the truth of the gospel and the forgiveness of our sin or the gripes of the world and selfishness?

Even with this knowledge, we know we will fail. What is our hope when that happens? Our hope is in Christ. He spoke perfectly in our place! He paid the price for our evil tongue! He took the wrath of our unguarded speech so that our speech is now His!

Yes, words can heal and kill. Words can break our heart. And what about “bad words”? Bad words are those that come from a heart fixed on its own desires and feelings, not Christ. Words that heal come from a heart that honors Christ. Words that break hearts come from a heart that loves self more than Christ. Sweet sister, speak from a heart that seeks to glorify Christ and your tongue will become as healing as Christ’s!

~ Colleen

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Divine Patience

My dear sister,

My husband and I have spent over a year and thousands of
dollars toward adopting a child from Russia. Last week we found out
that Putin’s pen has sadistically slammed the doors to all Russian
orphanages for Americans. Only those with a court date before
January 1 can finish the process to receive their wanted child. My
heart breaks for the families that have seen and held their
expected child yet will never bring them home. My heart also fills
with anger toward the pride and selfishness of a leader that cares
more about proving a political point than providing placement for
his own country’s precious children. How can the Lord let this happen?

Patience is an attribute of God that we sometimes overlook.
Psalm 145:8 says, “the Lord is compassionate and slow to anger”.
What does that mean? I read in Arthur Pink’s Attributes
of God, that the patience of God is the power of control
that God puts on himself so he can bear with the wicked in waiting
to give them their just punishment. Wow! How quickly do we demand
justice and punishment of wrong done to others or us? I would
honestly not grieve the loss of Putin if he was struck down
tonight. I want our State Department to give harsh sanction to
Russia so they can feel a bit of the pain that my heart bleeds
after this. But if I think about it, all sin is ultimately against
God. That means that all the sin and evil in the world deserves His
wrath…now! Yet he continues to exercise his patience by withholding
this righteous wrath. More than that…he also gives us mercy and
grace while he is giving us this divine patience! I can’t imagine
doing that!

To hold back righteous justice AND simultaneously
giving the same convict grace and mercy. Yet this is what our Lord
does! He did not punish Putin when he signed that law. He does not
necessarily kill the men who persecute Christians when they land
the final blow. He is very aware of all the injustices in this
world, from being persecuted at work for your faith to children
being left to die because they are not the correct gender. Yet He
is patient with His wrath. But trust sweet sister that vengeance is
the Lord’s. Justice will be given in the next life if not this one.
Trust the Lord with the injustices in your life. He sees them and
knows them. He desires all men to come to repentance which is why
he exercises his patience in giving all mankind a chance to hear
the gospel. I’m convicted to pray for Putin…that his eyes will be
opened to the gospel and his life will be changed. May the Lord’s
patience allow Putin to find grace and give it to his own people.
God has been so patient with you, dear sister. Who has treated you
unjustly in your own life that you can exercise this same patience,
yes even to pray that they will repent and see the glory of Christ
for the forgiveness of their sins from our patient God?

Your Sister,
Colleen

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Are We Satisfied?

Dearest sister,

New Year’s resolutions. Secretly, I think most of us have them: Eat less sugar, read more, have 6 months of salary in savings, and watch less TV. At least these are a few that come to my mind. You may have the same list or maybe a bit different…but we all have some kind of measuring stick we use to measure this year’s desired dramatic change. We may even spiritualize it and say, “How can I be more godly this year?” What would that look like, though? Would what we look like and how much wealth we have be one measuring tool for our godliness?

Funny, isn’t it? One part of me thinks that selling all I have and living simply would show my incredible godliness. After all, the disciples left everything they had to follow Jesus. But then there is another part of me that thinks the Lord rewards those who are faithful with little, more…so if I have prosperity, it would be an indicator of my godliness, right? I’m so confused!

The Bible does say money is the root of all evil…wait, no…it’s the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil. What does that mean? It means loving money (or anything else) more than the Lord is the root of all kinds of evil. It doesn’t say having or not having money is evil or even a measure of godliness. Selling everything to look more holy is for selfish gain (just ask Ananias and Saphira), which does not glorify the Lord. Living a life to gain more money is also for selfish gain. We are glorying in ourselves on both accounts. We serve a jealous God who will not share His glory with another. The cool thing is that He has told us what the ultimate thing to glory in is…Himself! That is where real joy and contentment lie, glorying in the Creator and Savior of the world!

Paul says it best in Philippians 4, “for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need (11b-12).” And what is this best kept secret? Being satisfied in what he has in Christ. Having our goal this year (or any year or day) to be more prosperous, eat less sugar, read more, or watch less TV will not necessarily define success, contentment or godliness in our lives. Our goal for each moment is to glorify the Lord by being satisfied in Christ. Our measuring tool of godliness is not in earthly things (however much or little we have), our measuring tool is in satisfying myself in the heavenly things. Does my life show me living for the Lord’s kingdom or my own? Am I living for health and wealth or can I say with Paul, that I have found the secret of being content in all circumstances, being satisfied in Christ?

 

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Oh Man, This is Love!

Dear sister,

I just finished watching a TV show where a side story was about love. Two characters are discussing it when the romantic asks his literal and cerebral girlfriend to list three reasons why she loves him. She answers matter of factly, because he loves her, he loves their daughter, and he has an amazing physique. He smiles. Then she asks him why he loves her: “I don’t need a reason.” She smiles coyly and shyly says how romantic that was. My own left-brain spins its own questions: Is love something that I will never be able to define, only feel? Can I lose or forget it? Will it really last forever? I hear my friends tell my daughter they love her and I tell my nieces and nephews that I love them. Is this the same love I have for my own daughter and husband?

I scanned my book titles to help me define love. I found some on adultery, on keeping the marriage pure, rekindling marriage, dating, parenting, and even one on loving to eat and hating to eat. None purely on what love is. Ahhhh, but there is one! It’s the oldest love story ever written and gives the true meaning of love. It tells of a married couple living in a garden who made a life ending choice that deserved death. They didn’t die right away because love promised them a deliverer to pay for their evil choice. They decided to trust in this promise and love gave them life.

Their children and children’s children continued to choose to do evil yet some of them put their trust in love’s promised deliverer. This deliverer would come and defeat the death that cursed their lives. Those who trusted in this promised one who defines love, lived forever with no curse! Then one day it happened…the promised deliverer came to earth to live like us as man, but who never chose to do evil. He lived a perfect life, loving God the Father and loving all mankind. Then in this love, he died. He was tortured and killed because of this love. But on the third day…he rose again! He conquered the curse that gives death and put His love on all those that trust and believe in Him. And this love will bring him back again to take those who trust Him to paradise!

Oh man, this is love! God is love. Jesus is love. 1 John 4:9-11 says: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Love is totally committed for another’s good. Love dies for the unlovely. Love serves the ungrateful. Love is faithful though His friends and family are not. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-8a).

So YES!! Love can be defined…God is love. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, defeating death and giving us His righteousness I can never lose or forget love. And YES!! It really does last forever. Do we need a reason to love? It may be romantic to say no, but how amazing is it to have the ultimate reason to love not only our husbands, children, family, and friends, but also all our neighbors? Jesus is this reason. Is your love defined by Him? Sweet sister, do you love others because Christ loves you? What a great time of year to answer this question as we remember when love came down to earth. Merry Christmas!

Colleen