Articles by Kimberli J. Brackett at Heartlight

Praise and Perspective

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

On Friday, my photo shoot with an up-and-coming Christian artist got rained out. On Saturday, my hard drive crashed: over 6500 photographs of my family and my clients are gone; everything I've done and written for faithbuilders' in the last 2 years is gone; every song I've ever written over the past decade is gone; all the faithbooking materials that I've developed, used and trained with in the past 7 years -- yep, they too are gone! Sunday, our 2 year old refrigerator broke. Monday, I spent money I don't have to send back a camera lens that needed to be replaced. Wednesday, my Chi flat iron broke (if you are a woman, you know it is a chunk of money). Thursday, I found out my wonderful friend and neighbor, who I love, sold their house and they really are moving!

To top it off, my husband's company just found out it's being auctioned off the last weekend of September, which, of course, presents a variety of emotions and unknowns. So, as I sit at my desk, you would think the title of this devotional would be "Why, God?"

Don't get me wrong. I do want to hear His voice, to know if there are things I'm doing in my life or directions that I'm choosing that are out of His will. My heart is to always strive to be in His complete will so I am in constant communication with my Maker and my Father.

But today I am not asking God, "Why"? See, at the end of the day it's not about all the really frustrating things that are happening. At the end of the day it's about two things -- praise and perspective.

See, Friday when my photo shoot got rained out, Abilene flooded and several hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes. One person even died. The loss from these waters caused irreversible damage in the lives of many people. I had a change of plans -- these people had a change of life ... perspective.

Saturday, when my hard drive broke, I was at a friend's house and she means more to me than anything I've ever done on my computer. She has blessed me in every possible way you could be blessed in your life by sharing her talents and her gifts from God with me, expecting nothing in return. She is blessed to have an autistic son who has just learned to say a few words. Saturday, at the sound of his voice -- the sound of Zachary even saying his own name -- there was a joy that makes crashing computers seem inconsequential in comparison ... perspective.

Sunday, when our refrigerator broke we were, of course, very bummed and hoped that whatever is wrong will be covered under warranty (the fridge guys are here as I'm typing ... so I'm praying). After worship that morning, we sat at our kitchen table as a family praying, eating and laughing. My children are healthy and beautiful -- both on the inside and out. My husband is a man of integrity and honesty and takes amazing care of us. God has allowed me to have intimate relationships with these three precious people that I am forever blessed to call family (and I got to clean out the freezer and refrigerator for the first time in two years) ... praise!

Monday, when I reluctantly paid to ship my camera lens back to New York, I drove away from UPS and God again reminded me that He has blessed me for over 11 years to work from home, to be with my children and to use talents that He has given me to prayerfully glorify Him. How embarrassingly blessed I have been to have time with my children and help others make and preserve their faith and their memories from my home ... praise!

Wednesday, when I was inconvenienced by my Chi, my daughter and I were on our way to Hope Haven in Abilene where we met this incredible woman of God who has given her life to help people who need a home and food and life skills that they perhaps have never had the opportunity to have. As we sat in her office and she shared with us the ministry of this place, I couldn't help but hear God say to me, "You don't have a clue, Kimberli ... you cannot begin to understand a life of 'need' because I have blessed you in abundance" ... perspective.

Thursday, when I found out Trina really did sell her house and she really is moving, God again reminded me that He is sovereign. He allowed me the humble blessing of being her neighbor for two years so I could spend time with another one of His precious children and have the honor of calling her friend. He reminded me that when I saw that house being built that I prayed they would be Christians and would be wonderful neighbors and friends -- He answered that prayer in abundance. He never promised me forever (I forgot to pray for that) and I know that the man moving in their house October 1 is coming for a reason and now I get to pray for God to show me how we can be Jesus to him and his little boy ... praise!

God showed me this past week that there is always praise and there is always perspective; and honestly, at the end of the day, isn't it really about both? If we choose to look with the eyes of our Father, every circumstance and challenge and valley and frustration and inconvenience is really perspective turned into praise. And maybe if your week was like mine, it's simply about praising God for perspective.

Oh! One more thing. The refrigerator problem was the compressor and it IS covered under warranty ...
praise!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 TNIV)

Kimberli Brackett will tell you the biggest blessing of her life is to be called Mommy by her incredibly beautiful son Landon Kyle and her
hilarious and gorgeous daughter Savannah Ashton. She loves her children and her husband John more than she ever realized she could love. Her passion for the Lord and for people who need Him as their personal Savior is what inspires her work ethic and commitment. She is actively involved with the ministry called The FaithBuilders. to listen to the faithbuilder devotionals live, please visit them on itunes. Simply search for "the faithbuilders" and you can listen and download their devotionals on your ipods and computers.

Website: The Faithbuilders

I Was a Snob and It Breaks My Heart

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500

I got a call last week from a friend of mine from college. It was strange to hear her voice on my answering machine, yet I recognized it immediately even though we hadn't talked in over 18 years. Jennifer wasn't one of my "best" friends in college, but she was someone I always liked and one of those people you would always remember even if it had been a long time -- she was and still is just a really neat girl.

She shared with me that she felt led one day to try and find me, so she googled my name and stumbled upon our Faithbuilders website. After talking for a period of time on the phone, she told me that after reading my journals and devotionals that she had a difficult time believing that was me. She was just being honest when she shared with me that it seemed like the person she read about on our website was completely different than the person she knew in college. She said, (and I quote) "Well, you were always nice to me, but you weren't always nice to everyone else."

If God hadn't removed my blinders and redeemed me from the pit of hell in the last few years, I know I would've been completely defensive when she shared that with me. She was telling the truth and she was right. I was a stuck-up snob. I was a legalistic, religious, hypocritical, self-righteous snob.

So many different things played a part in this snobbish identity. For sake of time, I won't share them all, but take my word for it, I was a snob. In college, I thought I was so cool being a member of the Yada Yada Yada -- not it's real name, but you get the idea -- social club, which isn't even a club at any other Christian or state University! Yet in our little club, we somehow defined ourselves as the "most admired and popular club" on campus. I even dated the tall handsome green eyed guy from the equivalent Yada Yada Yada guy club, which also wasn't found anywhere else. I made good grades, was liked by most of my professors -- except for one which will remain nameless since I really do think she despised me. I was competitive and a sports-snob, too, because I hated to lose ... at anything.

However, I remember that I desperately wanted to be a Summer Singer. I can't tell you that my singing and playing the piano would've earned me a spot in this prestigious singing group, but I can tell you what the professor choosing the members of the group told me why I wasn't chosen: I was a snob. He didn't use those exact words, but he asked me questions and alluded to situations (one in which I had said something very cruel to a guy who was directing one of our Spring Sing shows. This professor gently, yet very clearly, told me as I sat in his office that I was not chosen for the same reasons Jennifer shared with me on our phone conversation last week: I was a snob. As I sat in his office, it's one of the first times in my life that I can actually remember crying.

Who was I, this "Christian" girl, to think I was better than other people?

Where did my superior acting, falsely pious, behavior first begin?

I can't tell you exactly. I can, however, tell you how wrong and how sinful I was then, and still am today when I slip back into that self-righteous behavior. There are not a lot of things in the Bible that God says he hates, but he clearly says many times in Scripture that he hates pride. I was, and sometimes still am, prideful.

The thing that breaks my heart the most is I really did believe that I had the right to treat people the way I did. How I so desperately wish I could go back with the knowledge and the love that I have today. How I wish I could share the love of my heavenly Father, shine the light of Christ, and treat people with the kindness God has shown me. How I wish I could go back and develop relationships and friendships with all the people who I could've encouraged and who I'm sure God wanted to use to help encourage me ... regardless of the Greek letters ironed across our club shirts. How sad that I missed out on life-changing relationships because I was too busy trying to keep myself elevated on the pedestal of pride. My heart breaks to think how many amazing people God allowed to cross my path in the last 24 years that I missed knowing and loving because I thought I had earned a status and a "title" that others just couldn't quite measure up to.

Why am I sharing with you that I was a snob?

Because I wonder, am I still a snob?

Are you a snob?

Are we church snobs, do we think we are better or wiser, or more "spiritual" than other people because of the name on the concrete sign in our church parking lot?

Do we say things like, "Oh, she's a really good Christian!" (Is there really any such thing as a bad Christian).

Are we snobs at our work? Do we treat everyone with the love of Christ or just the people we feel meet our criteria of worth?

As we walk through the grocery store, or the mall, or the airport, do we silently judge and condemn people we see because of how they look or dress?

Do we think because we've been given certain gifts or talents from God that we have the right to act as if those gifts and talents are something we have earned?

We are all children of God. Period. God graciously opened my eyes on November 2, 2000 to the truth -- our identity and our worth are found only in Him. We are all worthy and equal in his eyes because of His blood. We are created with different personalities and different strengths so we can stand together as one, so we can share the love of Christ to grow the Kingdom of God -- NOT to take part in an elite club that allows us to feel superior because of the name on our sign.

Our only purpose here on earth is to be the presence of Jesus -- to act, talk, walk, love and shine Jesus -- in every relationship we have. But how can we do any of these things if we are snobs? I know I must have broken God's heart every time I told someone I was a Christian when my actions represented everything but Jesus Christ.

I thank God for the forgiveness of the Cross. I thank God for friends like Jennifer who can lovingly speak truth even when it hurts. I thank God for transforming the lives of his children and allowing us to remember where we came from in hopes that we can praise God for changing us and loving us and never leaving or forsaking us -- even when we were, and sometimes still can be, snobs.

The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil. (Proverbs 16:5-6 TNIV)

Website: The Faithbuilders

It's Not About ...

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 13 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500

"It's not about me and it's not about you."

I love this truth! Even when I forget and God has to gently -- and sometimes not so gently -- remind me, I love reading His word where He tells me over and over, it's not about me.

This hasn't been an easy truth for me to embrace. Over the past few years of my life, I have come to realize that knowing this and believing this are two very different things. For today, will you imagine with me how much peace we could have in our lives if we really live by this truth? But there is more to this truth than it not being about you and me.

"It's not about me and it's not about you; it is, however, about God!"

I love that even more! It's about God. Every thought, every deed, every action, every word, every blessing, every struggle, every praise, every THING is about, for and because of God.

I'm not exactly sure when we started thinking and living in a way that portrays that life is all about us. However, if we look around our world, at what we do and watch and read, and the time we spend climbing the ladder of success, undeniably, we live life believing it is all about us. We could easily blame Adam and Eve for starting this theme of self-absorbed living. God said, "Don't eat from that tree," and Eve decided it wasn't really about God, it was about Eve, and ate it anyway. Adam quickly followed, and I guess you could say the rest is history.

What God laid on my heart this morning was this, "Are you also going to continue to embrace the lie that it's all about you, Kimberli? Or, are you going to take my word as truth and live in obedience to me? Are you going to serve me and love me as I love you? Or, are you going to be a slave to your own selfishness and pride?"

I walked into my kitchen shortly after this "God-conversation." I immediately saw the Scripture painted on the wall which says, "Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord" (Nehemiah 9:5-6).

I know the Holy Spirit helped me choose that particular Scripture for my kitchen wall because I need to be constantly reminded that all the things in life that praise don't compare to the praise and blessing that I am to give the Lord. Only our LORD God is worthy of my exaltation. Every time I look at my kitchen wall, I hear my precious Abba Father whispering to me, "Are you exalting me above all blessing and praise -- are you living your life for me or are you living it for yourself?"

That passage in Nehemiah goes on to say that God created everything in the world, that he gave life to everything, and that the multitudes of heaven worship him. I wonder though, do the multitudes of earth worship him? Are we so busy worshipping ourselves, our jobs, and other people, that we have forgotten that it's not about us? Have we forgotten that regardless of if we praise him or not, the mountains and the rocks will because He will NOT go without praise -- He can't go without praise because HE IS GOD (Luke 19:40).

Do we glorify Him in all that we do? Do we put him before everything else in our lives? Do we think about him when we are blessed? Do we go to him when we are hurting? Do we trust him in the deepest part of our anxiety? Do we know that at the end of the day, that all that matters is that we glorified him in everything we did and said? Do we know and do we live in a manner that shows the world it's not about us, it is about God? Is the life we're living about God, or is it about us?

The more we praise God in all that we do, the more we will understand and live in His truth. It really is all about Him. It's all for Him. It's all because of Him. He is the "I Am" while each of us must say, that without Him, I am the "I am not."

The final exclamation mark of praise in our Old Testament song book puts it this way:

Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. (Psalm 150)

Why? Because we can ... because he asks us to ... because he is worthy of all our praise and ... because it's not about me, and it's not about you, it's about God. And because oft that we can say, "Praise God!"

Website: The Faithbuilders

The Chin Hair

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

OK, it happened again last night. As I was brushing my teeth I looked in the mirror (you know, REALLY looked in the mirror) and staring back -- above my very own brown eyes -- were Eddie Munster's eyebrows! I guess I should've taken the hint when my friend Stephanie asked me this weekend if I had ever thought about waxing. Of course I laughed and said, "Been there, done that, and unfortunately when your hair is jet black, waxing only helps for maybe 10 hours and the pain and the red bumps last longer than the wax job!"

Even I couldn't deny the truth staring back at me. So to aid me in my quest to remove the GIANT BROWS, I grabbed my newly purchased "magnify mirror" -- you know ... the one that magnifies every possible blemish, hair, zit, and skin disorder never before seen by human eye. (I now know why my grandma had this kind of mirror in her bathroom.) I bought it a few weeks ago, more out of curiosity, and truthfully was better off before I could see what was REALLY there. Ever since that purchase, my tweezers seem to be my long lost soul mate.

After removing 257 eyebrow hairs, my eyes moved down the mirror so I could come to terms with the damage in the "mustache" area. At that precise moment the light from my bedroom lamp reflected off my mirror at just the perfect angle to reveal the real horror. There it was -- THE chin hair! The long, black, how could it have grown to my collar before I noticed it, chin hair! Now I know at 38 years old, I should count my blessings since despite the horror of the situation at hand, I do, to my magnifying mirror's knowledge, only have 1 chin hair -- but honestly, friends, I'm just not feeling the fullness of that blessing this morning.

You know what I realized last night as I quickly, yet painfully, plucked it (and looked at it for quite awhile out of amazement)? My chin hair is a lot like sin. I know you were wondering if there really could be a biblical application to this horrifying story.

Sin is like a woman's facial hair. We don't really want it there, but sometimes it's just easier to "not see it" than to have to go through the pain or embarrassment or humility of dealing with it. We have the sins in our life -- our bushy Eddie Munster eyebrows -- that we think are really not "that bad" ... they can linger there and even grow without us really feeling any conviction or the need to do anything about it. And then there's the more obvious sin -- our lip hair. This is a little more embarrassing, and is somewhat more noticeable, and we are at least conscience of it as we try to hide it (bleach it) and even remove it (wax it). Even though that gets rid of it for awhile, it seems to come back easily and we grow weary of the pain of trying to really get rid of it. We struggle with wondering if it's worth going through the painful experience of exposing the lies that we've believed while replacing them with truth -- really confessing our sins and committing to lay them at the throne of God forever. (I guess this would be laser hair removal!)

The "chin hair sin" -- and just admit it ... you know you have at least ONE -- it's the really ugly sin that we deal with. The "thorn," if you will, that seems to creep up on us when we least expect it. It seems to have grown before we even know or acknowledge that it's there. We wonder sometimes, even though we fervently pray, if it will ever completely go away. It's the sin in our lives that people would be horrified to know we struggled with -- the sin we really don't want anyone to know about or see -- the one that we will go to great lengths to hide and to justify, and yes, even sometimes to defend. It's the sin that Satan doesn't want us to see until we are full of shame and we feel it's too late even for God to forgive.

Praise God that His light is stronger and more powerful than the darkness! God's heart cries out for us to see the truth of our sin because he longs to forgive us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Just like the mirror combined with the light from my lamp revealed my chin hair, God loves us enough to shine His light -- the Holy Spirit -- into our sin so we can see it hiding in the dark places of our hearts and souls. If we open our eyes, He will allow us to see it clearly and then promises to give us the power to remove it -- our true soul mate (even more powerful than my tweezers) -- Jesus Christ!

I pray as Christians, that we surround ourselves with friends like Stephanie, who not only loved me enough to ask me about waxing, but who more importantly God brought into my life to share the truth of our yuck and our sin. A friendship that God ordained so we could convict and challenge each other to be better wives and better examples -- women willing to look at the truth of our reflection in the mirror and to do whatever we need to do so that the next time we see what's really there, we see more of Christ and less of us. We all need Christian accountability. We need friends to help us see our sin, to call it what it is, to be tweezers in each other's lives so we can help pluck out our sin no matter how painful or embarrassing or difficult it may be.

My prayer is that I will be even more horrified by my sin than I was by what my mirror magnified last night. I pray that I will pluck the sin from my life as quickly as I plucked that hair from my chin. May my heart be even more important than my outward appearance and may I long for the light of Christ to shine through me so I can be a true reflection of the holiness and the flawlessness of the one who gave His life for me.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV).

Website: The Faithbuilders

Choices: Truth or Lies?

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

God opened a door for the Faithbuilders to do a retreat for teenagers last weekend in Texas on purity and holiness. The high school girls with whom we were blessed to spend the weekend were what you would consider the cream of the crop, the kind of girls I pray my daughter will grow up to be like. Their hearts were pure, their minds still somewhat untainted and they truly had a desire to live for Christ in the midst of the lies of this world.

One thing struck me though. Even though all these girls were Christians, even though most of them had grown up in Christian homes, as they shared things in their lives and things they were listening to and watching on TV and at theatres, we realized they, like us, had been deceived by Satan in regards to what holiness and purity really are in God's eyes. They still didn't grasp the significance of being chosen by God, before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4).

I think I know why. Even more so than our generation, these girls are growing up in a world surrounded by lies! They are bombarded by television, music, computers, movies, talk shows, books, magazines, conversations and every different type of media telling them the lie that they have choices. They have been told they have the choice to cheat on tests, they have been told they have the choice of being disrespectful to their teachers and parents, that they have the choice of lying anytime and for any reason, that they have the choice of living a homosexual lifestyle, that they have the choice of having a child before marriage, that they have the choice to sleep with their boyfriends, that they have the choice to partake in any type of sexual activity, that they have the choice to gossip, that they have the choice to dress immodestly, that they have the choice to be greedy and selfish, that they have the choice to be arrogant and prideful, that they have the choice to curse and use crude slanderous language, and that they have the choice to get drunk, do drugs and cut themselves.

Why do they believe that they have these choices? Who is telling them they have these choices? We are. We can try and blame this on Satan, media, Hollywood, magazines and other outside forces and yes, those things have played a part in this lie, but in truth, we as "Christians" own that our children and their friends think they have been given these choices because sadly, if we're honest, we live as if these choices are ours. God never offered these choices - not to them, and not to us.

Jesus clearly said:

For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness (coarseness, profanity), envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. (Mark 7:21 NIV)

Jesus calls them "evils" -- we call them choices.

I wonder how many Christians will try, like me, to deny that we have played an active role in Satan's lies. I was defensive when God revealed to me that I had selfishly chosen to stay blind to what He has defined as evil. He graciously (yet painfully) showed me by my thoughts, my actions, my words, the things I buy, the relationships I have, the things I read, the things I try to justify, the click of my remote and the lyrics of the songs on my CD's that I too had embraced the lie that we have been given these choices. He revealed to me through my pride and my fleshly desires that I had chosen the lie that I can "filter" the evil instead of simply choosing holiness. I had chosen sin and evil over God.

Just one of the huge eye openers during our retreat was when the girls shared that they loved watching Grey's Anatomy. Some of them even said, "It is so good!" Since millions of Americans seem to agree that this show is "so good," we decided to write down all the things they had seen or heard while watching Grey's Anatomy episodes -- so we could all see what was so good. Here was our list: adultery, pre-martial sex, lust, greed, rape, self-centeredness, profanity, masturbation, sexual body parts, taking the Lord's name in vain, irreverence, condoning of homosexuality, alcohol abuse, lying, stealing, cheating, abuse, nudity, gossip, slander, arrogance and pornography.

As we all sat staring at the list on the wall, I wondered which of these things God would say was good. God challenged his people long ago with these words: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness" (Isaiah 5:20). As Christians, have we become so desensitized to evil that we are now, like the rest of the world, calling it good? Have we too confused darkness for light?

God commands His children through the apostle Paul to "avoid every kind of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22) -- yet the last thing we've done is avoid it. In reality, we've chosen it, we've condoned it, and we've anticipated and enjoyed it, because once again we have claimed evil as our choice.

When Jesus was in the temple courts and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery and wanted to stone her, Jesus said to her, after the Pharisees had all left, not being able to cast the first stone because of their own sin, "Neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:1-11).

We want to only acknowledge the grace and forgiveness he bestowed on her, but want to ignore the truth of His words when he told her to leave her life of sin. She was an adulterer. Pick your definition of adulterer -- fornication, adultery or homosexuality. In God's eyes they are all sin, and as His children, the choice to live in sin is not ours. Jesus' words ring true to you and me today, "Go now, and leave your life of sin."

Paul reminded the Corinthians:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9, emphasis added).

God clearly defines all these things as wicked, but we have defined these things as our rights, our liberty, our choice. We've believed the lie that we can choose these things because of our needs, our desires, our entitlement, our pride, our wants and our selfishness -- in other words, these choices are all about us.

Have we deceived ourselves into believing it is not sexual immorality, that it really isn't wicked or evil as long as we're just putting it into our spirits by listening to it, watching it and anticipating it on television and in our literature?

Is it only sexual immorality, is it only wicked and evil, if it's coming back out -- if we are, in our flesh, "doing it?"

During Jesus' entire ministry on this earth, He talks in length of what is in our hearts, not just our overt acts of sin. He shares with us all through His gospels about the way we as humans are choosing to define sin. In His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), he compares murder and being angry as coming under the same judgment. He does the same thing with the act of adultery and just looking at someone lustfully. Our overt acts of sin are no different to Christ then the sins in our hearts and in our minds.

Jesus wants us to know that we can't watch evil, listen to evil, talk about evil, anticipate evil, and then live a life of purity and holiness. We can't hunger for holiness if we don't even recognize and acknowledge that we have chosen unholiness. That's why God continuously tells us to "hate what is evil." That's why God says through the psalmist, "Let those who love the Lord, hate evil" (Psalm 97:10 NLT). We can't hate something and continue to purposefully choose it thinking we can filter out all the evil. That is why Paul writes "that is what you WERE" -- that's past tense, something God changed in you and now expects to see lived out in your life.

So the question for those of us claiming Christianity is this: If we love the Lord and we are striving as a Child of God to live as God has ordained, chosen for holiness and purity, if that is what we "were" and the old has gone and the new has come, then what choices DO we have?

We have been given the same choices as the one who gave his life for us. We have the choice of Truth; we have the choice to obey God, to be holy as He is Holy, to be pure as He is pure, to be righteous as He is righteous, and to be set apart as He is set apart. Ultimately, as we shared with the girls last weekend, we have the choice to be like Jesus Christ -- the amazing, undeserved choice to honor and glorify God forever in our thoughts, actions, decisions, relationships and life. As God's children, we have choices. The choice of lies or the choice of truth -- which will we choose?

Website: The Faithbuilders

Learning to Tremble

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

You know why I think sin is so easy for me to choose -- because I've forgotten to tremble. I guess if I'm really honest, I can't remember ever trembling.

I went to a Mercy Me concert a few weeks ago and during the concert they sang a song by Audio Adrenaline. They chose to have all the lyrics of the song come up on the screen and God kept directing my camera to take pictures of the screen every time it said, "I tremble." I know it was God because I took a picture each time the screen said "I tremble" and I had no idea why I was doing it until I looked at my pictures. I knew God must be trying to tell me something but even as I got them developed, I wasn't quite sure what He was trying to say.

A few days after the concert, I was driving to Dallas early in the morning and I put in an older Nichole Nordeman CD called "This Mystery." Guess what the second song on her CD was called? "Tremble." The song convicted my heart in a way I can't express in words, and I wept in my car as I realized I had never trembled.

A few days later, I flew to Nashville to do a seminar and I met a woman named Charlotte. I happened to be speaking on holiness and she found me after the conference and told me I would love Henry Blackaby's book, "Holiness." I am now aware when God has people tell me to read books that He wants me to read and I knew without a doubt this was one of those times, so I went to Lifeway later that evening in Nashville and guess how many copies of Holiness they had in stock? You guessed it, they had one!

I bought it and read almost the entire book on the plane coming home. In the very first chapter, Blackaby writes, "I trembled before God as I realized God's people no longer feared God nor sin, and no longer sought holiness" (Page 6). Henry was talking about me! He not only writes about trembling before God in the first chapter, but used Scriptures and thoughts about "trembling" throughout the book (Pages 6, 8, 27, 47, 72 and 99)! God obviously had my attention and I was listening!

Well, if you think God was finished convicting me of forgetting to tremble, you're wrong. Just a few days ago, I was reading something about the power of God's word in my quiet time. I felt God's Spirit prompting me to read Psalm 119, so I turned to it in my bible. Psalm 119 is all about the power of God's Word, but as I kept reading, guess what David addressed? You guessed it, trembling! "My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws" (Psalm 119:20). He came back to the subject again, "... but my heart trembles at your word" (Psalm 119:161). David trembled in fear of God and was in awe of God's laws and God's Word.

Have we forgotten to tremble?

This is what I believe God has revealed to me about why I don't tremble. Honestly, I believe it is because for most of my life, I can't recall there being any immediate consequences for my sin. Unlike Ananias and Sapphira, I wasn't struck dead by God the first time I lied. I wasn't struck dead the second time either, or the 15,894 time. I forget to tremble because most of my life I have watered down in my mind, in my heart, and in my own words the sin I have sometimes blatantly chosen. When I lie, I call myself "untruthful" instead of calling myself a liar. When I talk bad about people, I call it "being unkind" instead of calling myself a slanderer and a gossip. When I had sex outside of marriage, I called it "premarital sex" instead of calling myself a prostitute or an adulterer. When I am mean and prideful, I call it "snobby" instead of calling myself self-righteous. When I am self-righteous and judgmental in my Christianity, I call it "opinionated" instead of calling myself legalistic. When I put my job before God and my family, I call it a "strong work ethic," instead of calling myself an idolater. When I watch filth and ungodly things on television, I call it "inappropriate" instead of admitting I am condoning, justifying, and embracing sexual immorality. I deceive myself in every way, so that in my self-absorbed sin, I see nor feel any reason to tremble.

I wonder, will I ever tremble? Will I ever really understand the depth of David's words in Psalm where he trembles in fear of God and His word? I know in the past year God has shown me through so many ways the depth of my sin and my pride because He wants me to know that until I acknowledge the depth of my sin, I will never comprehend the depth of the blood that covers it! Until I can see my sin through the eyes of God, until I acknowledge the holiness and deity of God, I will never understand the powerful relationship I can have with my Heavenly Father. I will never understand the awesomeness of God until I tremble.

Holy Father, I want to tremble. Will I ever tremble, God? Show me, convict me, teach me to tremble! Oh to tremble in fear of you God so I can truly tremble at my sin ... let me not forget to tremble.

Website: The Faithbuilders

Bombarded by Self

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Then Jesus said to all the people: "If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me" (Luke 9:23 CEV).

Self-Esteem + Self-Image + Self-Worth = Self-Absorbed

I realized this past week that we are bombarded by "self." It's not that I haven't known that we are a self-absorbed people, it's just at this particular moment I've realized we've been deceived by terms that seem so innocent, unless you really look at them through God's perspective.

Self-Esteem -- Self-Image -- Self-Worth

These words sound innocent enough, don't they? But sadly, every other magazine article, self-help book, commercial and Oprah episode shares to some extent the wisdom of the world in regards to having good self-esteem, self-image and self-worth. Satan wants us to be obsessed with "self" -- he wants us to think it's all about us. If we're honest, the irony is that we get our self-image, self-esteem and our self-worth from OTHER people -- it's really not from self at all!

Just for kicks, as long as we're talking about "self," let's throw self- righteous on the table for thought. We can't be self-righteous on our own. The only way to be self-righteous is when we are comparing our "self" to others. Isn't it funny that in reality all four of these "self" terms truthfully have more to do with "others" than they do with "self."

The world says, "Chart your own course, be different, be your SELF!" Cheetah girls sing about it and motivational speakers teach us how to do it. However, if we are seeking to be like Jesus, to live as a Child of God, then maybe instead of wasting all this time trying to build each other's "self" esteem, we could encourage each other to be like God.

I find it interesting that the bible never says anything about self-image, self-esteem or self-worth. God never encourages us or commands us to have good "self-images." Even as Christians, we tell our children, "You can do anything! You can be anything! Believe in yourself!" But, if we look at our lives through God's eyes and His truth, it's not about "self" doing anything. God tells us we can do all things through HIM who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13). He says we are HIS workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which HE prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). He says He is at work in us giving us the will and the power to achieve HIS purpose (Philippians 2:13)! We've often tried to chart our own course, and in the process have missed the truth of our existence -- that we were created to do one thing and one thing only: God's will.

The lie that we've believed is that it's all about us, but the truth of God's word is that it's all about HIM. There would never be a need for self-esteem if we choose to live a life filled with "God" esteem! The truth of who we are is found in the very nature of God. We were chosen by God and created to be like Him in TRUE righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). What other "esteem" could we possibly need to accomplish great things and more importantly, to accomplish the will of God?

May we trade in our self-absorbed life for a God-absorbed life. May we embrace the power of our God-esteem and our God-Image and may we find our worth in the one who created us to do great things! May we find freedom in who we are made to be by the Father. As Soren Kierkegaard once said, "Now with God's help, I shall become myself."

God-Esteem + God-Image + God-Worth = ME

Website: The Faithbuilders

It's not an Odd Thing; It's a God Thing

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Wed, 24 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500

For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13 NLT ed. 1)

I got this phrase a few days ago from my new friend, Lori. She's one of my most recent "God things." This catchy, yet very profound title perfectly sums up the last 5 years of my life and the faithbuilders ministry we are so blessed to be a part of.

God continues to reveal to us that nothing in our lives can be defined as "odd things." God is either in control or He's not. God is either the creator of the world (Genesis 1:1), the King of Kings (Revelation 17:14), the Abba Father (Mark 14:36), the Great I Am (Exodus 3:14), or He's not. All the days ordained for us are either written in His book before a single one has passed (Psalms 139:16), or they're not. Everything in our lives is "odd" or everything in our lives is "God."

Why do we think we can pick and choose as we see fit? I have to tell you though, that I would not have recognized this powerful truth and that my life is full of "God things," if it weren't for a huge blessing and gift in my life. Journaling is why, without a doubt, I can shout with joy from the mountaintop -- and the valley -- that nothing in our lives is an odd thing! Journaling is why I can trust God even more than I did yesterday. Journaling is why I can recall and remember God's sovereignty yesterday and look in anticipation for it today. Journaling is how I've learned to understand the meaning of wait, trust, love and patience. Journaling is how I can look back and know that the day-to-day occurrences are not odd, but are in fact GOD!

Will you join me in just recalling the last year of your life? Think about all God has done for you, how He has blessed you, and all the ways He has protected you. Can you remember from the past year everything that He has ordained in your life -- the people, the conversations, encouragement, prayers and yes, even hurts and disappointments. Think with me about what your eyes have seen just on a daily basis -- the wind and rain and a new sunrise everyday, the flowers, birds, trees and grass; all of these things are God things! Think in the last 12 months about life and death and how every moment that we breathe on this earth is a gift to be used to glorify the one who made us, who loves us. None of these things happen or will ever happen without God knowing and ultimately being part of His will on this earth. Either He's God (Jeremiah 6:6-17), or He's not.

I look back, and thank God from the bottom of my heart that I have my "God things" or as we also call them, "God moments" written down. Because my memory fails between the office and my kitchen (officially 4 feet), it's only fitting (and quite humorous) that God would call an ex-math teacher and non-writer to a life and ministry of journaling. God is funny isn't He? His timing and His sovereignty are always perfect though and that's just one more thing to add to the pages of "God things!"

As I flip through the pages in my journals, I'm brought back to experiences and people in the past year that have impacted my journey more than I could ever imagine. My journals are the real life blessings, prayers, notes from bible studies and worship, devotionals, things my children have said and so many more things "that my eyes have seen" (Deuteronomy 4:9) that bring me to my knees in humbleness and praise for my God who loves us so much.

I've learned through journaling that God loves you and me enough to speak to us every day! I have a designated part of my journals where I write down when I hear God speak, through his Word, or songs, or books or people. These "God things," that before I would've thought as simply "odd," have grown my faith the most. The intimate conversations that happen between my God and me because he has repeatedly asked me to be still and listen to Him speak are now permanently recorded so I will never forget how much He loves me and desires a personal relationship with me. He longs for all of us to be still and listen for His voice. He longs for two-way conversations with all his children! This is ultimately what the pages of my journals have captured, my two-way conversations with my Heavenly Father, and the journey he has invited me to share with him.

If you want to see your odd things for what they really are, "God things" -- blessings God has given you, challenges He allowed you to face to grow you closer to Him, prayers He has answered and the ones you might still be waiting on, then try writing them down -- try journaling. With your written words you can praise and thank Him, you can cry out to him, and yes, even share your anger and confusion with Him. He's your Father and He knows you will question His will as we all sometimes do but He longs to be intimate with you in every way! When you take the time to write down your "God things" you will get to see His promises and His love and His will for your life unfold right before your eyes in the pages of your journals.

God has given us a powerful way to begin to understand how awesome He really is in our everyday lives. He has given us the gift of words, and when we choose to write them down, he uses those tangible words to open our eyes to just how big he really is. We get a glimpse of the "I AM" who loves us unconditionally and who possesses a power we will never be able to grasp in our human flesh.

Journaling allows us to see the fingerprints of God all over our lives and the lives of the people he has so graciously given to us to love and to share in this journey. The power will start with writing your "God things" down, but it will grow even stronger when you go back and re-read the pages and remember. You will be amazed at how page after page of the evidence of God in your life will grow your faith! It's only as our faith grows that we can begin to bestow on our Father the honor and praise he so richly deserves. It's only as our faith grows that we can start to understand that "It's not an Odd thing; it's a God thing!"

Website: The Faithbuilders

The Cost of our Tickets

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600

In front of me on my desk, I am looking at two different tickets -- two ticket stubs actually, from two different events that I attended just a few weeks ago. Printed on one of the tickets is: Section 505, Row 3, Seat 9 $624.00 while on the other is Live at the Park $12.00.

The first ticket represents an event held in a town of 40,000 people and over 50,000 people were there -- more people were there than even live in this town! The latter ticket represents an event held in a city of over 120,000 and 250 people attended. The $624.00 event had people in the crowd excitedly praising men on the field who threw and kicked a pig-skin ball and cursing men on the field who wore black and white stripes. The $12.00 event contained a much smaller crowd praising the Almighty God with a Dove Award winner.

Written on the $624 stub: "Texas vs. Oklahoma State"

Written on the $12.00 stub: "Nichole Nordeman"

Now before you think I would ever pay $624.00 for a press box football ticket, let me assure you I would not! It was given to me. I had absolutely no idea that football tickets could cost this much and as I sit here and see the visual of that number on my computer screen, I'm still in shock.

Can I have your hearts for a minute, and can I pose a somewhat uncomfortable question for all of us? How long have we crossed the line? As Christians, are we just as guilty of replacing the one true God with other gods? Is this just one more example (out of hundreds in our lives) that God is addressing when he spoke the first commandment in Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before me"? I often wonder if tears are streaming down God's face as he watches us put a multitude of worldly things so far in front of Him. I wonder of the 50,000 people at this one college football game, how many worship God with as much passion as they had watched this 4-hour football game -- or if they worship Him at all. I could ask myself the same question.

Can I tell you, I have forsaken the one true God? The God who says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world ...." (1 John 2:15) I have comfortably tucked away in a place of denial the written words of God defining himself as a jealous God. I have placed so many gods before Him that my obsessive behavior and my worldly surroundings have impaired my vision and corrupted my heart! I am blind. I am incapable of seeing God for who He really is -- the I AM on His throne -- the only one deserving of my praise, honor and time.

Truthfully, I am so calloused to this world that I don't know anymore how to separate from it. When God asks me to live a divine life as His adopted daughter, I've translated that to mean I get to do everything I want to do and spend money where I want to spend it as long as I "go to church." Isn't that what we as Christians do -- trade our "divine" life for a "daily" one and then somehow try to justify worshipping our many other gods by at least "going to church" for a couple of hours a week? Stop me if I'm wrong.

What are your gods? Do you know what they are? If you don't, will you be open enough to ask God to show you?

Here are some questions God has brought to the forefront of my mind in the last couple of days as we look honestly into our hearts:

Why do we spend 3.29 BILLION dollars on a holiday that involves us dressing up (evil or not) and asking strangers for candy? Did you know that 140 MILLION dollars of that was spent on Halloween GREETING CARDS? How can we spend 140 MILLION dollars on Halloween cards when the people in the country of Africa are dying of AIDS and hunger?

Why do we see Christmas decorations (primarily having nothing to do with Jesus) available in stores in September? Maybe because if we're going to spend the 435.3 BILLION dollars we spent last year, we need at least 3 months to do it!

Why do we take BILLIONS of pictures a year (and spend billions of dollars doing it) that we look at one time and then do nothing with them of significance?

Why do we put our children in 10 different activities and then gripe everyday about how busy we are?

Why do we continue to watch T.V. when there is nothing there that honors or glorifies God?

Why do we let the world define for us our significance and our worth?

Why do we drive cars that cost more than houses?

Does winning a football, basketball, soccer, hockey or baseball game have anything to do with our salvation?

Why do we let the world mold our children into "its" image instead of the image of Christ?

Why do we have so much STUFF in our houses and continue to buy more?

Why do we have clothes in our closet 3 sizes too small and think we need to keep them because someday we might fit in them again? On that note, why didn't someone put spandex in our jeans years ago? (Making sure you were still paying attention!)

Spandex humor aside, are we going to stand up and be counted for Christ? Are we, as God's chosen people, ever going to say enough is enough? Are we just going to say it, or are we going to live it? Are we going to ever be obedient to the scriptures that tell us to be in the world but not of it? Am I going to keep comparing my "gods" to your "gods" in hopes that I can justify my gods as the exception? Can we, by the mercy of God, ever forsake our gods and as Nichole Nordeman sung that night, "be children of mercy and grace who bless HIS and only HIS name unapologetically?"

The first commandment is for all of us: "You shall have no other gods before me."

There will always be a choice of tickets: $624.00 or $12.00.

Which will we choose -- gods or God?

We cannot choose both.

Website: The Faithbuilders

Love or Legalism

kimberli@thefaithbuilders.net (Kimberli J. Brackett) — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500

While traveling over the July holidays this summer, we visited a local church in the area. I don't remember the exact topic of the sermon, but the words that were spoken that day opened my eyes to where I've been on my spiritual journey and more importantly where my heart longs to be.

While teaching Bible class, the pastor of the church was helping the congregation define what a "good" Christian was. He talked at length about how detrimental their absence at any of their three designated church services would be to their status as a "good" Christian. To make his illustration more personal, he posed the following question to the audience -- first asking a gentleman in the back who we'll call "Ken" -- "For example, Ken, if you hadn't seen one of your sons for 40 years and he was coming into town and could only be here for 2 hours and it was Sunday morning, would you choose to go see him or would you choose to go to church?"

Ken's response? "I would go to church."

Ken did say he would invite his son to come with him -- although admitting that his son would decline the invitation.

A woman sitting behind Ken raised her hand and stated -- very proudly I might add -- that something very similar happened to them when some friends they hadn't seen in years came into town to see them and they declined to spend time with them because they were "going to church." She happily concluded their friends hadn't spoken to them since. If clapping would have been allowed in this church, I'm afraid the entire congregation of 47 would've erupted in applause!

If you are sitting at your computer gasping, know that you aren't alone. I almost fell out of my pew. My heart was pounding -- not out of anger, but out of complete sadness. I so wanted to raise my hand and remind them of Luke 15:1-7. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for condemning Him for "welcoming sinners" and then He told them the story of the one lost sheep. It is the story where he leaves the ninety-nine "righteous" who don't need to repent -- dare I say he "misses" church one Sunday -- to go find the one lost sheep -- something similar to finding his son whom he hasn't seen for 40 years.

Maybe even more specific to this situation is the story a few verses down. We call it the Parable of the Lost Son. If you aren't familiar with the parable, please read it in Luke 15:11-32. The father's son left his home, "squandered his inheritance in wild living" and then after a famine in the region, went to live with the pigs. After almost starving to death, he decides to go home and ask for his father's forgiveness in hopes that he could at least be one of his father's hired men. The story represents God's love for us, his children. It illustrates how He rejoices over each lost soul who finds the kingdom of Heaven and welcomes us with open arms -- He runs to meet us!

If this story had been written through the eyes of legalism instead of love, it probably would read something like this:

But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him, but told one of his servants to tell this lost son that even though the father hadn't seen him for years, he would not be available to see him because it was Sunday and he was "going to church."

Doesn't God tell us that we are the church? Shouldn't the fact that we use the unbiblical phrase "going to church" open our eyes to our misunderstanding of God's ultimate desire for establishing "the church."

I share this story with you because I chose legalism over love for the majority of my life. For many years, I likely would have answered just as Ken did. Sadly enough, I still often do.

Nothing about the word legalism infers love. Legalism is strict conformity to the letter of the law rather than its spirit. We could even define it more clearly as "strict conformity to the letter of the law rather than THE spirit."

If the pastor posed his question to Jesus, we wouldn't have to ask, "What would Jesus do?" We KNOW what Jesus did. Jesus healed on the "Sabbath" and cared for others -- his "church" day. (Luke 14:1-6) Jesus rebuked the legalistic attitudes of his day when he and his disciples picked grain and ate it. (Luke 6:1-11) Later, in this same context, while healing a man with a deformed hand, Jesus said to the Pharisees, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" While other people were "busy at church," Jesus also healed a crippled woman, (Luke 13) a man at the pool of Bethesda, (John 5) and a blind man. (John 9)

Do you think it's a coincidence that Jesus did all these healings on their "church day"? (Just check out all the healings and their related teaching that Jesus did on the Sabbath!) While the Pharisees were following their own laws and rules by "going to church," Jesus, by his example, was showing us how to BE the church.

Please, don't read these words as disrespect to our worship time together as believers. I know that this is a precious time for us to be together as a family and worship our heavenly Father in a group setting. This is scriptural necessity. (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:25) God has just really convicted my heart to be honest and ask myself if I am looking at what we call "church" through the eyes of love or the eyes of legalism.

My heart longs to consistently choose love over legalism -- to be the woman motivated out of love in the book of Luke: she lit her lamp, swept her house, and searched endlessly until she finally found the one lost coin!

We can choose the love of Christ or the legalism of the Pharisees.

We can choose to "go" to church or "be" the church.

Who will you choose to be?

Website: The Faithbuilders