Enter to Worship, Exit to Serve by Ronald K. Gray holds this treasure, among others:

“If a preacher preaches with gusto and says something loud enough and strong enough, some people will believe it. We base our lives upon feelology and not theology. People ask us today how we feel about something instead of what we believe about it.

“It has become rare for doctrine to be the greatest importance in our churces. Experience cannot take the place of doctrine.

“Scripture tells us that the truth sets us free. We need the truth today. What we believe will change our lives and the lives of others.

“The world says that it does not matter what a man believes so long as he does right. That is a lie. The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 14:12 that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is death. It is imperative we know the truth.”

Truly, knowing and believing His truth is the only way to disentagle ourselves from lies we believes, lies that hold us captive to depression and fear, addictions and unwise choices.

This is an excerpt of an interview with the author:

What do you think is the most important chapter of the book? In over 35 years of full time ministry, I have never heard anyone else teach about porters. In Nehemiah 10:39 it lists porters between priest and singers. I thought that was very interesting and researched porters. It is basically a janitor. So between priests and porters are janitors. Servants that do the basics. People who do ordinary things to keep ministries going.

God wants servants. That is a concept that is lost in the big time world of church ministries today. Jesus came to serve. I believe that we can make a difference in our community, our neighborhoods, and our world if we are willing to lay our lives down to serve God.

What do you hope to accomplish with your book? I hope that ordinary believers will recognize they have something to offer. We can bring our monies and touch the nations. We can bring our gifts and see the power of God touch people and their needs. We can offer our fruit and not wait for the pastors or elders, but be instruments to bring life to those around us who are seeking a relevant relationship with Jesus.

The five-fold ministries of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher were never supposed to do everything in the church. The church is supposed to be equipped for ministry. Everyone should be able to proclaim the message and everyone should have praise for the God we serve. That should not happen just on Sunday mornings between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. We should be able to give God praise in our homes and throughout the week. I truly believe this can be the church’s finest hour.

Interested in obtaining this book? Go to www.RonaldGrayMinistries.org.

You Are Loved,

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To stop ugly self-talk, you need to do three things: Recognize the lies, identify your triggers and replace them with something very, very good.

Recognizing the lies isn‘t as easy as it sounds. If you‘ve accepted them and repeated them to yourself, they may appear truthful.

Don‘t be duped. Line up what you say to yourself with God‘s truth.

A helpful Bible verse: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Another is, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.” (Psalm 139: 14)

As an example, let‘s take a common lie women struggle with. ”I‘m ugly.” Ask, Is this true according to God? Really think about it. Would God say, “Lucy, you are ugly. Eeeww.” Down deep you know he‘d never say this because God is love and all his works are wonderful. Including me. Including you.

Try it with another lie, such as “No one wants to be around me because I‘m overweight.” Would God agree? No. God is in you; clearly he wants to be near (Colossians 1:27). And consider Oprah. This mega-star has gone up and down in weight her whole life, and everyone wants to get on her show, be seen with her, watch her in person, share an elevator, anything.

You‘re probably thinking, “Well, I‘m no Oprah.” Bingo! You are uniquely the woman God made you: hair texture, eye color, height, general body shape, and skin tone, and God loves this about you. Even better, he loves you just as you are. And if he has put it in your heart to love yourself thin, you will succeed.

You Are Loved, Lucy

“Fatso.”

“Chicken legs.”

 “You’re ugly.” “You’ll never be pretty.”  “No one wants to be seen with you.”

 “How can God even love you?”

You would never say these horrible things to a friend, even a stranger.

Chances are, you trash-talk yourself. Between your pierced ears, your mind entertains lies of your beauty and worth, or lack thereof. Satan tempts you to lie to yourself; sadly, unless you resist him, he’ll con you. You’ll believe the lies and tear yourself to pieces as a wolf rips apart sheep.

I know I have.

So have the women who’ve attended my Inside Out Beauty workshops. In fact I’ve never met a woman so comfortable in her skin that she accepts herself just as she is. Yet God accepts her. God accepts you.

At the workshop, I ask the question, What’s one thing you’d like to change about her body? Sadly, at my latest one, a woman wrote: “Everything.”

Everything?

I hurt for her. Chances are her eyes shone pretty, or her eyebrows had a nice arch, or her skin looked healthy or something, anything. I KNOW she trash-talked to herself. And I don’t know her name.

I want to hug her hard and tell her:

“You are precious just the way God made you. . .a pearl under pressure. . .but a pearl.

“Exquisite!” 

You Are Blessed, Lucy

GOD IS GOOD, OR is He?

The lie that God really isn’t good is one I struggled with for years, even after becoming a believer at age 23. I thought I had it licked.

Ha on me!

Actually, it’s not funny as all.

Some fifteen years ago, in my very early 30s, I flipped over the rock of my past. I know others have gone through a lot worse than me, but I owned a secret I had suppressed deep inside since childhood.

As I had been hated, I learned to hate myself. No one knew. I dressed nice, talked nice — all for show. But between my pierced ears, ugliness reigned. I won’t share the names I called myself. They’re too bleepin’ vulgar.

A self-hating Christian?

It sounds impossible. Could it be true?

It was for me.

Then one by one I held up the lies and asked — maybe for the first time — is this true?

My barometer? God’s Word.

It was tough, beyond tough. Yet I began to replace the lies with the truth. Yay me, YAY GOD! I was free.

For a time.

Slowly. . .the lies. . .snuck. . .back!

When I finally realized Satan had deceived me — again — I slipped into my ninja gear and fought for my life. (I know you know: The thief — aka Satan — comes to steal, kill and destroy; I wanted none of it!)

These are some sneak-back lies:

God sometimes doesn’t listen to me because He doesn’t like me.

I don’t need help, I can do it all.

I should be perfect, for this is how I get others and God to love me.

Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit — who brings to remembrance the truth with a capital T — I recognized that the fiery darts of the evil one had pierced my thinking, again.

Yet I felt comforted. I knew He would replace the lies, shame and fears with the truth of God’s Word. I was pumped for the next thing I did. So unlike me, but so God.

I didn’t run to a person (this is “old” Lucy).

I plopped a Bible on my lap and asked the Holy Spirit to direct me to verses in the Bible that counter the lies. Amazing to me was the Holy Spirit showed me exactly what I needed to hear. I didn’t use a concordance to find Bible verses I thought would make sense.

Pause. 

Again, to run to a concordance is “old” Lucy. . .not that I have anything against concordances. . .I think they’re great.

But I sensed in my heart that this was a God-and-Lucy thing. “Come to Me!” is what is heard over and over.

Blessed! Amazed!

Unpause.

An example: to counter the lie “I should be perfect, this is how I get others and God to love me,” the Holy Spirit brought me to 1 Peter 2:9, which reads, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

As a member of the body of believers, the Church, I am chosen and special. This truth filled me my cup with joy.

The last part of the verse gave me instruction — declare the praises of Jesus! — and a reason for gratitude: I was called out of darkness and into the light.

Away from the lies, in the midst of truth.

Just the thought tickles my toes. What about you? What lies do you need to stop believing?

You Are Loved, Lucy