Message to the American Church - The Silent Epidemic

There's a silent epidemic attacking the minds of millions inside the walls of our churches.  It affects our actions, which affects our relationships with one another, steals our peace and creates dissension among Believers.

If we want to live the life God intended for His kids, it's time to take on the identity He offers us.

You are loved.  You are wanted.  You belong.

Lynette Carpenter is available for interviews and appearances. For booking presentations, media appearances, interviews, and/or book-signings contact lynettecarpenter@yahoo.com.

Sisterhood

It’s been stirring in my soul. 

A message… always churning…

Unsettling…

Disheartening…

Longing for something better...

It’s the stuff that disquiets the spirit and steals rest… and so, I will speak, praying to God that it brings a greater depth of love and unity, acknowledging that I too, I know the struggle.  Know it well, for it is one I battle daily.

I see inside the walls of the Western Church, women who are grasping for meaning… for value.  And in the struggle for that which brings inner peace, we’ve stepped on and over our sisters…we've caused wounds... we’ve brought pain.

Does this message apply to the men?  It does.  But for this moment, let’s let it be us.  Just us.  The women…

We sit next to each other in the pews.  Worship with passion within reach of one another, yet inside is a struggle that divides and destroys.  It is the age-old lie that Satan has used from day one.  The very lie he used to convince Eve to taste the fruit.

You…are not…enough… 

You don't measure up.  

You're missing out on something better.

Once our attention is in his grasp, the barrage of convincing ‘truths’ overwhelms our minds, binding us.  Consuming us.  Keeping us from the ability to give and receive grace and soon we chime in, adding our own beliefs to the enemy's collection of divisive and destructive lies.

She doesn’t like me.

They’re talking about me.

They think they're better than me because I'm a single mom…an ex-addict…a current addict…an adulteress...a SAHM…a career mom…(you fill in the blank).

I wish I was as skinny as her.

I could do that better than her.

She’s so stuck up.

She's so perfect… I'll never measure up.

Who does she think she is?

And on and on and on and on it goes. 

“But I love Jesus,” we say.  And love Him, we do.  Yet as our love for Jesus remains steadfast, our actions and our thoughts are busy elsewhere leaving me convinced that Satan doesn’t need our hearts to do his bidding – he just needs our attention.

Eyes off Jesus, no longer overwhelmed by His Amazing Grace, we are best able to focus on all that Satan wants us to believe about others…and ourselves… and there, in the clutches of his message for us, we find ourselves bound in a web of turmoil, loneliness and pain.

Want to hear the real truth?

None of us – not one is exempt.  We all have our struggles… our doubts... our fears.  We all hear the lies.   Whether your sister across the aisle is your friend or not, the saying holds true - we likes to be liked… or at least tolerated.

Somehow, we have created a belief that unity is only attainable when all parties agree with one another on all issues.  

Not so. 

Unity is not uniformity. 

Are we all different?  Yes – in so many ways.  In our looks, our talents, our relationships, our skin color, our size, our tax bracket… but we have one thing in common – we are covered by the righteousness of Jesus – and that, my sisters, is why Satan is seeking to gain your attention.

He hates what he sees when he looks at you.  He hates when he sees us loving on one another…encouraging one another…growing together – and so his main objective is to bring pain, uncertainty and division.

Ask my kids and they’ll tell you the many times I’ve told them that “there are billions of people in this world – many who are ready and willing to hurt your feelings and cut you down… but when you walk in these doors, you are free to be you. 

Inside the walls of our family I will not allow you to slander, mock and hurt one another. 

In here, you’re accepted… you’re safe. 

In here, we build each other up and encourage when another is down. 

In here, you’re always loved…without question…without reservation.

In here…in here, we do grace.”

And to you, my sisters in Christ, I say the same.  Can we make this our mantra?  Can we commit to doing this for one another?  Can we agree that this world is broken and hurting and sometimes the weight of it all wearies the soul and weakens the spirit?  Can we agree that inside the doors of the Kingdom, we need a respite?  A safe retreat?

A place where we can see beyond what meets the eye and love the soul within?

There are billions of people in this world, sisters.  Many who are ready and willing to hurt your feelings and cut you down… but when you walk in these doors of the Kingdom, you are free to be you. 

Inside the walls of our family, must we slander, mock and hurt one another?

Can we instead say… 'in here, you’re accepted… you’re safe?'

In here, we build each other up and will encourage you when you’re down. 

In here, you’re always loved…without question…without reservation.

Because in here, we do grace.

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another.

In the same way I loved you, you love one another.

This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

-John 13

Motherhood

I was twenty-two, the day love was laid in my arms. 

He was 8 pounds 3 ounces – or was it 4?  I don’t remember – but what I never shall forget is an awakening in my soul.   A person I had never known was born that day – and it wasn’t my firstborn – for as my son entered the world, a new version of me arrived with him.

There’s just something about motherhood. 

It unmasks our souls and reveals our vulnerabilities.  Yet at the same time, it unveils courage, boldness and a love that is altogether fierce, reckless and unbreakable.

It has the unexplainable ability to duplicate that intense devotion time and time again - no matter how many children a mother brings into this world.

For me, it was four.

Four souls who forever altered mine.

I have known the pain of tears on the second Sunday in May – days with empty arms and empty prayers.

And I have known the tears of exhaustion – when prayers were realized and arms were full and patience short and demands unmet and endless work and...and… and then the years when guilt plagued my mind – knowing all I really wanted for Mother’s Day was to be alone for a few hours.

As a mother, I have learned patience and I have not.

I have been fearless and I have been afraid.

I have known success and I have known failure.

I have laughed, cried, questioned and learned as a mother more than in any other relationship I’ve known.

And in it I’ve seen the heart of God – a God who loves His children with a fierce and uncontainable passion.  A love that cannot be earned…cannot be stopped… cannot be broken nor can it be demanded. 

It just is.

And in it I’ve discovered His grace – for though I am imperfect, He allows me the gift of knowing what His love for me feels like – both given and received.

And I am changed. 

Can a mother forget her nursing child?

    Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?

But even if that were possible,

    I (God) would not forget you!

16 

See, I have written your name on the palms of My hands.

Isaiah 49

What You Do Affects Others

King Hezekiah did his level best to serve God.  And serve Him well.  (Hezekiah's story can be found in 2 Kings 18)

Yet he had a problem.  This little thing called pride.

I’m intrigued by part of his story – about the battle he was fighting against Assyria when King Hezekiah failed to trust in God.  The threat of attack sent Hezekiah running to the temple – but his purpose wasn’t to be in the presence of God.  

No, there was money there.

Silver.  And gold.

He took all the silver from the temple treasuries and had it sent to King Sennacherib.  But King H didn’t stop there.  He even had the gold from the doors removed – as well as the door handles!

Crazy stuff.

Makes you wonder what went through the king’s mind each time he walked through those doors when coming to worship the King of kings.

But the story goes on.

King H is a successful man.  He built an amazing kingdom… he obeyed God and he was prosperous.  

But then, he got sick.  Super sick.  So sick that the prophet Isaiah paid him a visit with a message King H wasn’t ready for.

“Get your house in order.  You’re about to die.”

King H was understandably upset and cried out to God.   Then there was a healing, a heavenly sign and King H was back in business with a promise of fifteen more years of life.

He. was. the. man!

So here he is – healthy, wealthy and wise-in-his-own-eyes.  Even neighboring kingdoms heard about his successes, so when they came to wish him well, King H thought it sensible to offer these men of Babylon a guided tour of all his prized possessions.  The Bible says, “There wasn’t a thing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them”.

Pride.

It’s that stinky little problem that we so easily allow into our lives.

King H was confronted about what he had done when the prophet came back for a visit.  Isaiah, having heard from God, told the king that all that he own would one day be carried off by the Babylonians.

King Hezekiah’s response?  “At least it won’t happen in my lifetime.   I will enjoy peace and security as long as I live.”

Talk about self-absorbed!

It’s a sad day when those in leadership choose to ignore the future for their descendants!   It makes me as a parent stop and consider the choices I am making not only for today, but also for my children and my children’s children.

You see, if the story goes on – and if you’ll read it, you’ll see that King Hezekiah’s decision that one fateful day, would affect a boy years down the road.  A boy who would be carried off by the Babylonians to live in captivity as a servant. 

That boy’s name was Daniel.

Our actions today may not seem important, but they are.  The decisions you make as a parent (or any type of leadership position) may not seem to have long-term effects.  And to consider that they might is a heavy weight to carry. 

But the answer is simple.

Do justly.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with your God.

A life focused on God… a life lived in humility… a life devoted to bring honor to the King, is best investment we can make into the lives of the ones who will come after us.