by McKenna Smith

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”
(1 Peter 2:9)

When Jesus breaks down the doors of our rebellious hearts and brings His light in, we become different. We become changed. We become peculiar.

And the process called sanctification begins. Walking down this road, we become more and more aware of Christ’s holiness, His love, His righteousness, His mercy. As children of God, He becomes our greatest joy. Knowing Him becomes our greatest pursuit.

Sisters, does this journey excite you – this road called life in Christ (Galatians:20)?  Sometimes I look forward to walking with God all of my days. Other times, the battle is far more difficultly won. My heart has fought the desire to be liked, appreciated, and to “fit in” for many years. When I was younger, this idolized perception of what it would mean to “belong” portrayed itself in the seemingly small exterior details of life. As the years have passed and the lessons of life have become weightier, the idol has surfaced in new ways, showing that if continually fed, it will lead me down a path of dangerous conformity. If left unchecked, my heart will become consumed with fearing man while forgetting God.

The Lord created us in His image. We are children of the Most High and the bride of Christ. Not one of us can begin to fully understand or communicate what it means to be fellow-heirs with Christ or how precious we feel as once wretched sinners, now washed whiter than snow. Yet we struggle and we battle and we wage war, because on this side of Paradise, we remain a work in progress. Praise Him that we will one day arrive fully refined at the feet of God, fully sanctified! Until then, we must find solace and delighted peace in the Holy Spirit’s leading upon our lives. He is doing a unique work in each of us, and the sooner you and I realize this, the better we will be able to appreciate His grace – not only in our lives – but also in the lives of others. Our souls are not clones of each other. (Praise God!)

A personal confession…

I tend to view the world in black and white. I am a rule-keeper and love compartmentalizing. It seems God sees in color. He is creative, and His world clearly shows forth His love of diversity. Beloved sisters, God sees you and He sees me, and He sees the world in the colors of His choosing. We may feel like dots of paint upon a canvas, unable to step back and see the big picture. That is because we are. It is a privilege that He is using us to complete the picture. But only He sees the finished work of art. Only He knows why every color is needful and desirable. Can you join me in resting in Jesus, our Master Artist, and His perfect ways? His Word pours forth ways to do this, but here are three reminders that draw us into sweet, holy communion with Him.

Pursuit of holiness

To be holy is to be separate. God is separate from all else and this is the root of His holiness. As a seventeenth-century author, Stephen Charnock wrote,

“Power is God’s hand or arm, omniscience is His eye, mercy His [heart], eternity His duration, but holiness is His beauty.”

This beauty also separates and makes holy all who He has set apart to Himself. That means, dear sisters, that when He chose you for Himself, you obtained positional holiness based solely upon your place before God. If this does not cause us to fall to our knees in awed humility, I’m not sure what will! But holiness in our lives does not end here. Positional holiness simply lays the foundation for practical holiness: that holiness which we pursue as the redeemed of God. Who we are in Christ determines how we live for Him.

“Faith cannot be separated from holiness, nor holiness from faith: and, should the separation be attempted, neither holiness nor faith can be attained.”
– Thomas Jones

In order for us to wholeheartedly pursue this practical holiness and glorify God’s Name in our pursuit, HE must be the object. As we steadfastly follow Christ, taking up our crosses daily (Matthew 16:24), living the life of the free indeed (Galatians 5:1), obeying His commandments (John 14:15), loving Him, we will eventually arrive. Our arrival will not take place this side of Heaven’s shore, but we will tread the narrow path confidently knowing we are on our way to that glorified state by the grace and guidance of Jehovah (Jude 1:24-25).

Treasuring Jesus

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
(Matthew 6:21)

To treasure Christ is to esteem Him as best: desire Him as most precious. Does this insatiable longing for Jesus display itself in your daily life? Do you find yourself thinking of Him, quoting His words, singing His praises while you wash the dishes or fold the laundry? While teaching music lessons, do your students witness a teacher in love with Jesus? Is He your first thought upon waking and your last as you fall asleep? It should be most obvious to you and to all those around you that your heart has been stolen – truly captivated by the Son of God.

Perhaps you are thinking, Amen! That sounds good, but…how?

Believe me, I am all too familiar with the struggle. In all the minutiae of living life with to-do-lists, jobs, school, and ministry, how does He remain first? Always? In everything? I have two words for you: still and surrendered.

Life is indeed filled with an abundance of glorious duties and privileges and relationships. But if we have not learned the art of being simply still before Jesus, all of these lovely things calling our name will loose their beauty. For it is HE that makes the mundane beautiful and the earthly, glorious. So, sisters, let us learn together what it means to take time every single day for stillness before Him. Then we will better be able to remain still in spirit – during the storms, great and small, of our daily lives. He waits, always near, for us to gaze upon Him, commune with Him, and marvel at His constant goodness (Psalm 33:5).

Surrendered is certainly a desirable place for our hearts to be: moldable, resting, all His. One of the simplest yet most profound practical applications of this trait is to hold with open hands and heart all that He has given. In His desire for all of your heart and all of your life and all of you, He gives good gifts in order that they might be given right back. This means that even as you and I live with these gifts, the tangible and intangible, they are still belonging wholeheartedly to Jesus. If this is the state in which we live, we will possess a surrendered heart always ready, by God’s grace, to give all of itself to Christ no matter what He asks or requires.

“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
(Romans 14:8)

And this is how, dear ladies, the world sees our captivation with Christ, and they crave it, glorifying our Father in heaven. This is how they know where our Treasure is.

Living in light of the Gospel

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
(1 John 1:7)

God Himself is this light in which we are called to walk. The Gospel is the most stunning display of His light as it portrays justice, mercy, and grace. He is light. He is power. He is full of grace. Do you and I live every waking hour aware of this grace, bringing to mind His astounding love displayed on Calvary? Jesus has shown us (in the most stunning way) what it means to love and thereby to live in the light of His own Gospel.

The concept is gloriously simple, yet living it out is only possible in His strength. We are called to show a love and grace that covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). We can in no way begin to do this in our own strength. Good news: He is near to all them that call upon Him in truth (Psalm 145:18). Let us, therefore, humble ourselves before our God in truth and plead grace that overflows our being flooding everyone we meet in holy love.

Why peculiar?

We know we have been chosen to be peculiar, but let us remember why: “…that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…” (1 Peter 2:9).
Sisters, please join me in singing His praises without ceasing and walking in His marvelous light every single day. This is a choice. We make it every morning when we rise and every time we find ourselves in situations that seem less than ideal. Let us choose well.

My brother reminded me what this life is supposed to look like when he wrote me this note nearly a year ago:

“Remember to live in this world like a sojourner because that’s what you are. We are always trying to feel normal here, but it’s a lost cause because we weren’t made for this world. Just keep that in mind as you find fulfillment ultimately in Christ. You’ll see that the more fulfilled you are by Christ, the more pleasure you will have in the relationships and joys that surround you.”

To be set apart is to be chosen, is to be precious, is to be holy. Being different not only from the world but also, in some external ways, from other followers of Christ is the road we are called to walk – each of us seeking an ever-growing intimacy with God, living obedient to His gentle leading and shepherding of our hearts. This process looks different in the lives of every one of us. Yet all His children are called peculiar. Now, beloved sisters, will you join me on this gloriously peculiar journey?

– McKenna 

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If you’re interested in writing a guest post for KBR Ministries, click here.

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Seasonal Wallpaper and Lockscreen

by Rachel Pinkerton

“Who is your best friend?” I was often asked as a child.

You know, that question that young people like to ask their friends. But I knew how to avoid arousing jealousy. “Jesus!” I would exclaim with all the innocence of a well-churched little girl. I really did love Jesus that much, at least in my mind.

But my answer would bother me a little because I did not treat Jesus like He was my best friend. In fact, I basically preferred to do anything other than God-related activities. Finally, it troubled me enough to do something about it. I began reading the Bible consistently and praying often.

As the years went by, I continued these habits faithfully, but it seemed so one-sided. To complicate matters, I turned twelve and embarked upon that beautiful transition from girlhood to womanhood. Enter all the physical, mental, and emotional changes.

For the next three years, I felt like I was in a perpetual polar night, and I came to a point of deep despair. I had been striving to be close to God, to make my life acceptable to Him, and yet day after day left me with more intense feelings of hopelessness. So I renewed my spiritual efforts with double the zeal.

But at the end of each day, my heart remained aching and longing to be free from the clutches of loneliness that seemed to slowly suffocate me. I knew that God was there, and that He had full knowledge of how I felt. I had cried infinite tears and pled earnestly for deliverance, but none was given. I was at a loss why. I mean, I spent tons of time with Him. I even prayed all throughout the day. What could be wrong?

Then one week, almost every time I sat down with my Bible, it fell open to Matthew 6, and my eyes would land on two verses I had never noticed: verses 22 and 23.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

It struck me so deep. I was that body full of darkness. But how? I did so many righteous things! And then one day I read further,

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

In that moment, God brought me face to face with the reality of those past years.

My eye was not single. I had another master, and that master was me. I wanted God for me, rather than wanting me for God.

Throughout that week, I allowed those verses and the truth of what my real desires and motivations had been to sink deep down into my heart, and through confession and repentance, God began to change me. He began to change my relationship with Him, and the outpouring of that was a new perspective on my relationships with others which soon transferred into transformed relationships with everyone in my life. It was the beginning of a new life that was beyond my most beautiful dreams and imagination!

Repentance is where you say, ‘I am done going my way.
I am turning around. I’m going God’s way.’
-Richard Owen Roberts

I share my story because there is a powerful point that I believe every Christ-follower needs to understand. It is this: the inside is all God sees and it is all He cares about because ultimately the inward produces the outward. Consider I Samuel 16:7: “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

I had been focused on doing all the right things, but my heart was not surrendered to Christ, so my life was a shipwreck.

Galatians 6 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, and that these are supposed to mark the lives of every believer in Jesus! So if these are not what mark your life and overflow your relationships, it isn’t because you’re not trying hard enough or even reading your Bible or praying often enough, but rather it is because something is amiss in your relationship with Jesus. And once it is truly restored, you will have the entirety of the fruit of the Spirit without exception. It is a promise of God!

I want to leave you with two Biblical truths: humility and the fear of the Lord are critical, because with these are riches, honor, and life (Proverbs 22:4).

1. Ask God for a truly humble heart.

You will never come to the kind of repentance necessary for a vibrant relationship with Christ until you let go of your pride and allow God to shine His light on your heart. God tells His people  in Isaiah 57:15,

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

In the soil of complete humility is the promise of healing and life. What hope!

2. Learn the fear of the Lord.

Basically, this has to do with how much you live in a state of humility. One of the greatest definitions of the fear of the Lord I have heard is that it is living each moment in the realization of who God is and recognizing that He knows the state of the heart. There is absolutely no possibility of hiding from Him. Get to know God! It isn’t enough to read God’s Word and pray… You must seek His face through His Word and in prayer. Note the final word in I Chronicles 16:11: “Seek the LORD and His strength, seek His face continually.”

Romans 12:2 promises that we will “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” when we are “transformed by the renewing of our mind.” Let us say with David, the Psalmist,

“Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23-24)

There is no greater feeling, there is no greater purpose, there is no greater inheritance, and there truly is no greater delight, than a life abundantly filled and overflowing with Jesus, and it was made possible for all His children at the cross. Is this the relationship you have with Jesus? And if you don’t, are you ready to have this? Because, dear child of His, He is waiting for you.

– Rachel

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If you’re interested in writing a guest post for KBR Ministries, click here.

by Abigail Vergeer

If a riverbed is dry, I can see its jagged rocks, unsteady floor, and dry emptiness.

If that same riverbed is full and flowing with water, I don’t even notice the riverbed. Instead, I see the cool and refreshing water, and it usually makes me peaceful…or thirsty!

I’d like to share a story with you about a girl whose riverbed is full of living water. This story is all about beauty, and not just any beauty, but true beauty that pleases God and lasts for eternity. This is the beauty from within that also shows on the outside. It’s the beauty that the familiar verse in 1 Peter talks about:

“Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
(1 Peter 3:3-4)

While traveling this fall, my family and I visited a delightful church in Idaho. Perhaps you can relate when I tell you that for me, meeting new people is exciting, yes, but always scary. I had been anticipating the visit to this unfamiliar church with some eagerness and lots of prayer. Contrary to my fears, however, I was warmly greeted by a young lady who came up to me with the warmest smile. She didn’t seem particularly outgoing or bold, but here she was coming to ensure I was comfortable in this unfamiliar place. What most impacted me is that she so radiated Jesus’ love that I barely even noticed what she looked like! More than her appearance, I remember how sweet her smile was and what a selfless, loving attitude she displayed.

Shortly after meeting this girl, I found similarities between her and the story in 1 Samuel 16 where God chooses the future king of Israel. The Bible says that Samuel, the prophet, saw Eliab, the oldest son of Jesse, and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before [me].” But God said,

“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

After God refused each of David’s seven brothers, Samuel asked if there were any more sons, and when Jesse called David out of the field, God said, “…this is he,” and David, ruddy, bright-eyed, and good-looking was anointed as king.

While reading this story, I found it interesting that just a few verses after giving a lesson about appearances, God selects the “good-looking” David as king. This reminded me that although my appearance is wonderfully designed by God, it is not as important as what’s in my heart.

What beauty does Christ treasure and delight in?

A meek and quiet heart (1 Peter 3:3-4)

A meek heart trusts, and a trusting heart is a heart at peace in Jesus and His perfect plans. The quiet soul waits on the Lord from Whom all things come. Beautiful is the woman who lives in the strength of meek obedience to Jesus as her heart surrenders quietly to all He has in store. Sisters, seek His face and He shall not hide from you. For our hearts to truly rest, we must know Who they are resting in. See our great God in His holy Word and how His hands lovingly lead His people. Then lay your heart with all its hopes, dreams, and brokenness in those hands. And watch Him do great and mighty things (Luke 1:49).

A reverent heart (Proverbs 31:30)

The woman who’s heart fears the Lord, she shall be praised! Again, to fear God, we have to know something of Who He is. Who is He that we ought to be consumed with holy reverence in His Presence? Every book, chapter, and verse in Scripture is precious, but let me ask: which do you find your heart drawn to first? Those that speak to what God can do for you or those that tell you something of Who He is?

This may be a revealing question to ask yourself…as it was for me. Perhaps your answer is something like mine, recognizing that His nature is in truth seen (at least in part) in what He does for His people. Just don’t lose sight of His character as seen through His actions! If we do so, we are found wanting so much of that awe-struck wonder that brings us to our knees with bowed heads. So let us seek out verses and passages that highlight the attributes of God and meditate upon them, lifting our hearts and minds in praise.

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”
(Hosea 6:3)

A heart that rises up to experience GOD (Song of Solomon 2:10)

This verse in Song of Solomon can be so beautifully applied to all who love Christ. He says to us, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Do we “come away” with Him? Do we dare to experience God in our day to day…walking with Him? “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me…for in these things I delight, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:24).

Understanding and knowing here have the meaning of “to have insight into” or “to ponder.” This is not an understanding gained simply by the words of men from pulpits or books. This knowledge is not attained by being raised in a Christian home (though you may “know” the law and the prophets). This is an insight into and pondering of the nature and character of God. It is something we all need more of in our lives in order that we might rise up and follow without reserve. It is she who gives all of herself that is truly the most beautiful because she is consumed with a Christ-like eternal glory that penetrates every kind of temporal beauty. Join me in rising up and following after Jesus with all of our heart!

A young missionary by the name of William Borden once wrote,

“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.”

May that be your heart and mine!

Sisters, let me share two very grave traps and how these can be avoided.

Idolatry of our temporary form and face and figure and how to “perfect” that outer self can be a temptation when our hearts and focus are not in the right place. Martha Peace put it very well when she said,

“You know beauty has become an idol when the exterior adorning brings glory to your body instead of to God.”

Are you dwelling on heavenly things? God loves what is beautiful, and we are made in His image. So it is desirable to look our best and to care for this “outer man” He has given for the time being, but let us be sure to bring all glory to God on high. We do this best when we turn our minds to those things that are above.

Comparison does nothing for the soul but to discourage and disappoint. Our Father in heaven intricately designs each and every person as He sees fit… and as He sees as the most beautiful. Each daughter of the King wears the smile, the hair, the body He intends as being precious and unique to that daughter. Treasure what He treasures while living in gratitude for His special thought and attention as He formed you.

I have learned to pray these lines from Abigail Miller’s song, “Glorify Yourself in Me”:

O, let my face be hidden, my talents be unknown
If only that the love of Jesus Christ be shown!
Let Christ be all that others see!

The more time we spend with Jesus, the more Jesus is seen in us.

This is true and lasting Christ-like beauty. And it is this beauty that reflects the glory of Jesus Himself… will you join me, dear ladies, in pursuing that life-altering glory?

– Abigail 

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If you’re interested in writing a guest post for KBR Ministries, click here.

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Seasonal Wallpaper and Lockscreen