“They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” (Jude 1:16) Flattery is the counterfeit of honor. In flattery, I say something positive to you, hoping to get something back. It’s for my sake. In honor, I give kind words to you for your sake, not needing anything in return. They may be the same words…”
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A few days ago, in my daily prayers, I read something so wonderful that I had to share. I hope it moves your heart and helps you lock eyes with your Creator.
Come To Me by Father Thomas Dominic Rover; theologian, playwright, poet. Come over to me, all you who are restless, and I will teach you how to be quiet, how to leave yourself alone. Come over to me, all you who are anxious, even if I don't take your anxiety away, I will change it into fresh currency as you turn your cares into greater belief in my caring. The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of warriorship is futile, for the power of the body is always limited. My dear warrior,
A warrior’s life is one that is given in service to others. It is not self-serving. A warrior lives to protect and defend others—not the self. That would simply be called self-defense. I have learned from the one who has gone before me that warriors take in a way that gives back to others, not a way that robs them or leaves them feeling empty or broken. A warrior protects, not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. A warrior is a protector of the entire person: body, heart and mind (or body, spirit and soul. Same thing, different languaging). How can a warrior take in a way that gives much? “God does what is impossible only when the possibilities of man are exhausted. The brilliant thing is, we can stand in our impossible situations and smile because we know now that I’ve reached the end of what is possible for me, I can step into the place of what is possible for Him.” My dear warrior,
In the previous posts, I talked about how we create our own ‘theology of suffering’ in order to be able to make sense of our circumstances. There is no way I could possibly write about every single situation that could possibly exist, but I do think there is a limited amount of scenarios, and that every person’s story is just a permutation of one of these ‘basic story structures’ (for lack of a better term). Today I want to share a different scenario with you: that of tests and territory. Often times, God puts us into certain territory because He wants us to conquer that territory. He wants us to take it for ourselves, to take the blessings that He has already put into it. It is ours …for the taking. It is ours, but it is up to us to conquer that territory. “What you need in life will be brought to you, but what you desire, you’ll have to go get. Much of what you cry for will not be brought to you.” My dear warrior,
Welcome to Part 2. Yesterday, I left you with a question to think about. I ask you again: Is God so cruel that He would dangle your hearts desire in front of your face and taunt you with it, only to deprive you of it? Ask that out loud. Just like I wrote in There is Always a Solution, I want you to laugh at how ridiculous that thought is. Go ahead: laugh! Why would God dangle the answer to your prayers—your heart’s desire—right in front of your face? When the Bible says that God is good, it means that He is good. He is not some cruel, sadistic God with a penchant for schadenfreude—that is, deriving pleasure from your pain and suffering, or gaining joy from taunting you with what you desire. It is not in His nature to taunt us. It is not like Him to take the very things from us that we’ve desired all along for the sake of seeing us suffer. “What you need in life will be brought to you, but what you desire, you’ll have to go get. Much of what you cry for will not be brought to you.” My dear warrior,
Sometimes we get ourselves into such a mess that there seems to be no way out, no way to right the wrongs, no answer to our cries for help. No matter what we do, we cannot make it better. And sometimes we’re not sure if we messed it up, if it was already broken, or whose fault it was anymore—or if it’s anyone’s fault. In the midst of the chaos, sometimes we create our own theology of suffering to try to make sense of all that is going on. We develop our own strange ideas that result in a distorted view of God, spirituality and of our own lives in order to try to cope with difficult circumstances, rather than consulting the God who knows all. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. My dear warrior,
As I wrote yesterday, any area of your life for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. There is always hope. Not only is there always hope, there is always a solution! Recently I was listening to Steve Backlund talking about just that. He said if the brain doesn’t think there is a solution, it won’t look for one. But once the brain actually believes there is a solution, it begins to function like a heavenly search engine, searching until it finds a solution.  Your name is Life, Your name is Hope inside me, Hope inside me. My dear warrior,
Just like the lyrics above say, His name is Hope, His name is Life inside of us! He is our hope. Beloved, if there is any place in your life for which you have no hope, it is under the influence of a lie. I will say that again. Any circumstance or situation for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. So if you have found yourself having thoughts that are hopeless, thoughts that leave you without hope, or thinking about things for which you have no hope, have another thought! Have a better thought. Hello my warriors,
Right now I am taking a little hiatus from blogging as I release one book and work on writing the second. Look forward to the new release of Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World. And then after that, I think you can look forward to my next two book, one of which is an argument for unity in the body of Christ. Make sure to check back soon! Yours, Michèle Aimée Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we Your unworthy servants give You humble thanks for all Your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom You have made. We bless You for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for Your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of Your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth Your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to Your service, and by walking before You in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. My dear warrior,
Over these last few months as I have been wrangling with deep questions and seeking out truth as objectively as possible (as I’ve talked about in my last 3 blogs posts or so), I have often found myself wrangling with questions that seemed to burden my heart even more than the last. Each question got heavier, and each answer ended up more glorious than the last! As challenging as it has been, each answer has been far more rewarding than anything I could have imagined. A few of the questions I have been racking my mind over were: who is Christian? How is “one holy catholic and apostolic church” defined? What about all the people who profess Christ by their lips but deny Him by their lifestyle? This week has been a glory-fest of answers for the mind-numbing questions with which I have been wrestling. When you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago.” My dear warrior,
I have come to understand something recently in the research for my next book. I had a realization about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Last year I made a mistake while I argued with someone about the reality of what it was to be filled with the Holy Spirit—a mistake that has since grieved my spirit. We each argued that we had been filled with the Holy Spirit, and eventually spat that the other had not. I had very little theological understanding of it at the time; all I knew was that I had been filled with the Holy Spirit, and that I experienced fresh infillings of the Spirit over the years, and I knew my relationship with Him was real. What I didn’t understand is how much more intimate the Holy Spirit is with us even when there is no outward sign for others to see.  Oh my dear warrior!
Last week I shared with you my ‘epic’ quest for truth, and the fact that I am exploring Christianity as objectively as possible. I have chosen to step back and try to see Christianity for what it is, what it was intended to be, and to discover my faith for myself. It is a deep and difficult journey, and on some days my quest seems to lead to more questions than answers. But this is not a journey of doubt. It is a journey together with God to discover deeper and more glorious truths than I have yet allowed my heart and mind to access. Scripture tells us to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This is me doing just that. As I wrestled with some particularly difficult topics, I felt myself torn as I realized that the logical end in any direction went to ridiculous extremes. Then I realized: you can take any thought, statement or belief and follow it to its logical conclusion (meaning you can chase it down to its extreme end) and you will end up with such radically heretical beliefs that they cease to be Christian. When we use human logic to try follow something to its so-called ‘logical’ end (meaning, we go beyond what God said and meant), we will inevitably end up with something corrupt, ungodly and far removed from what God intended. Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.  My dear warrior,
Recently I’ve been reflecting on the beauty of Christianity, and what it truly means to be the body of Christ, and the kind of unity we are meant to enjoy. I’ve been delving deep in my research lately, and have been finding stunning truths (and it has, of course, become the next book I am working on). The reality I’m discovering of what it means to live for God is so much more magnificent than I could ever have dreamed. My mission right now is to scrape away the ‘barnacles’ that have attached themselves to the faith over hundreds of years (the corporate faith, as well as my own individual faith during the span of a lifetime). The thought that has been ringing through my mind this week has been this: we ought to be unshakeable in our faith, but ought not be immovable in our hearts towards God. Another simple thought has been this: It’s ok not to have all the answers. (You won’t, and no one expects you to have them all. Nor does anyone expect you to be right all the time. You won’t be.) For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. My dear warriors,
Today I want to share something with you. Something that may even be personal. I wanted to tell you why I write to you as warriors. When I address you as a warrior, I do not use this term lightly (as some may assume). When I write to you (as warrior), I am speaking to the nature that is within you. I am calling out the warrior spirit within you. My writing is in a sense a rallying war cry, a call to arms, a call to battle—a call to awaken the sleeping warrior within. I intend to speak confidence into you where perhaps no one ever has before. Why? Because the only reason I am alive today is because God spoke directly to the sleeping warrior in me a few years ago. |
Check out Michele's new book, now available for purchase on Amazon!
Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World 
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