To all the "iron ladies"

Under the Light of His Word:
A movie…a life

The movie “Iron Lady” based upon the life of Margaret Thatcher, former England Prime Minister was highly promoted at the beginning of 2012. I was very interested in watching it, as I used to admire her. Moreover, in the late 90s, I used to be called by colleagues at work as “the Thatcher” or the “Iron Lady” –something of which I felt proud of at that moment, Nevertheless, as years passed by, and more particularly, as God has continued to work in my life and heart, now I understand I should have not felt proud at all.

By watching this movie, I was impacted by her legacy in her family. It made me think of Galatians 6:7:  “you cannot mock at God, you reap what you sow”.

Certain scenes reminded of many of my own mistakes as a mother. I so identified with these scenes that I even asked for my son’s forgiveness (mostly for my time as a “workaholic”).

I could title this article “Do not waste your life”, like John Piper’s book. Or perhaps, more personally, “Woman, do not waste your life”.

As I am neither a politician nor an economist, I cannot evaluate her legacy in her political career. As a mother who committed many mistakes, based upon Titus 2:3-5 which commands older women to teach younger women (or mothers) to love their children, I would like to refer to the other “career” that was evolving at the same time in her life: raising little children; which is part of God’s Design for women as being “Life givers” (Gen. 3:20).

As it happens with public figures, you may find detractors and defenders. In her case, there are political trends defined under her last name Thatcherofiles and Thatcherofobics. Her life is so controversial that even the feminists of her time were not on her side, because they understood she did not support them.

The first aspect to consider is that she grew up in a Christian home and her father was a lay preacher. Maybe that was the reason why in several of her speeches she appealed to the Word of God. When asked about the role of women, she indicated that the mother/child relationship was the strongest bond ever. She stated that women should not act as if they do not have children. Nevertheless, as it happens with many of us, she did not live out what she preached.

One of the scenes in the movie that most impacted me was her cry and her answer at a marriage proposal. She told the fiancé that she was not a woman to be washing dishes or taking care of kids at home. I thought that maybe her cry was due to the fact that she knew what God’s will was but she did not accept it.  Similar to us, when we do not want to surrender to His Will, as James 4:17 teaches us that “knowing good and not doing it is sin”. Nevertheless, they got married; it seems that the fiancé did accept her conditions for getting married.

Another  shocking scene is when her twin children asked her to remain at home and started running behind her, but she refused to listen them and closed the car door glass and left. When we do this to our children, we are not only closing a door (May it be of a car or a room), but also (and worst) closing the doors of their hearts.

As a paradox –or perhaps, God’s discipline in our lives, or consequences of our sin the career for which she sacrificed her family end as honorably as she intended as she was asked to resign prior to the end of her period and was forbidden to run again to candidacy. After that, when being interviewed she said that if she would have the opportunity to live again, she would never take that career because of the damage it caused to the family.

Her daughter wrote a book criticizing her mom regarding her absence from home. She referred to a time when she asked her mother why she could not be like her friend’s mothers and Mrs. Thatcher’s reply  was that her friends did not have the privileges she “enjoyed”; those are the deceptiveness of our hearts as Jeremiah 17:9 teaches us.

Today, London and British journals present her as a lonely lady who receives little to no visits from her family; who spends Christmas alone with nurses or care takers. This is quite the opposite of the Proverbs 31 woman who is blessed and whose children praise her.

May the Lord have mercy upon us and that we can be called “blessed by our children” when we are no longer “iron ladies” because years will ruin iron at the end.

His Song...in your heart

Meditating in the first two messages received during the morning (focusing in Him and not ignoring His Voice) I went promptly to the following workshops where we were motivated to pay attention to the song (message) in He has placed in our hearts –through experiences, what we feel most attracted to read, to do- and, we were invited to practice by personalizing Psalm 23 (to find our own voice); herein below  I share the song He placed in my heart:

In my God I have a Shepherd Who provide for all my needs

From a fresh rest through correcting my steps

His Companionship in difficult trials takes away all my fears

He encourages  me to persevere

Not only does He protect me from my enemies

But He assures before them that He defends me

He fills me with complete satisfaction

And cleanse my thoughts

Because of Him I don’t fear the future

For He will be with me until the end

That exercise reminded me when I read the book Stepping Up: A Journey through the Psalms of Ascent by “my cousin” Beth Moore where she invited us at the end of each chapter to write our own version of the psalm studied.

Afterwards I visited the “Prayer room” a quiet place prepared for us, which has been announced in e-mails where we would find our names placed with one of God’s Names; there was expectation to visit the place.

My experience was kind of comic; since I went through all of His Names but I could not find mine…one after the other…NOTHING!! …I turned a little disappointed and thought that maybe because of my “almost late confirmation” they did not have time to include me. But then I tried again, and zas!!! I found myself with “ELOHIM” the God Creator…His first name in the Bible. The verses related to it, were Genesis 1:1-3, Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 68 y Mark 13:19.  I stayed there for a while talking with my Good Father “Who created the heavens and the earth…Who formed my heart before I was born…” As the Spanish song goes.

If you are not familiarized with God’s Names, I encourage you to search in the Bible on its meanings and what He is revealing about Himself. Each of His Names is a guaranteed promise of Who He is and what He can do.

Finally, I invite you to share the “song He has placed in your heart” the one that only you can sing; why not starting with your own version of Psalm 23 to publish it in this blog.

Have you discovered the song that only you can sing? Have you  shared His voice through you? Ask Him to make you aware of it to share it.

Getting focused…stop ignoring His Voice…

“But my eyes are fixed on You, Sovereign Lord; in You I take refuge”

Psalm 141:8ª (NIV)

 As I shared before in another post, the arrival night when I was asked on reasons why I went to She Speaks, I answered that I needed to focus; then, you may understand how I rejoiced when I went into the devotional time on Friday morning titled “Staying encouraged in the midst of discouragement” in which the speaker invited us to focus in Him (to fix our eyes in HIM!!) in the middle of any circumstances that may arise when we are serving Him as it is the only way that we can keep encouraged to move on.

As she continued with the devotional, Betty Shoopman painted the image in the top of this post. Afterwards, I went to the first workshop where we were reminded to stop “ignoring God’s Voice” calling us to share His Message; to keep in mind that “He does not call the equipped but that rather He equips those He calls”.

The key question is not “how to do it?” but “Has He called me?”; she shared how the Lord confirmed her calling and she thought to herself “I am not crazy!!”… it gave me hope to say the same to myself in the future.

She also invited us to ask us “why do I want to do it?  And to be aware of the sacrifice and price that we have to pay to serve Him. To be sure that we are doing what He has called us to do; regardless that there may be many doing the same thing as particularly each of us, will only be capable of doing it as He wants us to do His Work, as individuals.

Some of her recommendations: a) to have someone that can serve as mentor; another person who is running the same career with us; and, someone whom we can encourage and share what we have learned –as Little as it may be-; b) to be careful of trying to be so humble that we ignore His Voice –His call will always exceed us-.

Are you feeling unfocused? What are your main distractions? Have you ignore His Voice? How?  Are you afraid to attend His Calling to your life?

Fix your eyes on Him, not on the circumstances, not on yourself and your limitations…pay attention to His Voice and follow Him looking unto Jesus, not your goal.

What am I doing here?

Who am I that I should go to…?” Exodus 3:11

Human beings are so complex. One might have thought that after overcoming many obstacles and seeing God’s intervention with His Provision, facing 2 giants (airplanes) once in the conference I would have been crying out loud “I am here!”… instead, mostly one question came to my mind “what am I doing here?” “I know no one here”.

The first group I met was in the shuttle from the airport to the hotel. They shared how the Lord was working in their lives to start a women’s ministry in their church. Inmediately, I suggested some books on the topic, but to my surprise they did not know the authors (among which, it was “my cousin”); thanks God I did not happen to see my “amazed face” that they did not know “my cousin”. The Lord started to work something hidden in my heart as Psalm 19:12 states.

At the dinner in the arrival night, I met some sisters; one of the topics we shared was adoption (as some of them have adopted kids) for my surprise it arose during the whole conference. That issue was in my mind because some couple of weeks ago someone asked me to discuss it in the blog from a biblical perspective.

Among conversations, someone asked me the reason to be in the conference; my answer? To be focused; since I have been distracted in many things.

When going to bed –very tired- again the same question came to my mind “what am I doing here?” the next day as I woke up “kind of lost” I reminded myself where I was; and, again, the question arose. Have you ever had such uncertainty feeling? Have you dare to ask the Lord: what am I doing here?

In those moments, we would like a signal from heaven to clear up our mind; but as it happened with Moses in Exodus 3:11-12 when asking the Lord “who am I to do Your work?”, His Answer was “I will be with you..” and the signal will be shown once we do His Work…it will not come from heaven…but from a worshipper and grateful heart because He has fulfilled His Promise of His Presence with us.

My UN-graduation: No excuses!!

“In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, that, for you, is evil”. James 4:17

(The Message)

In my "first try" English writing in the blog titled “What is your excuse?” I told you about my degree “Master in Excusology” but I did not mention the universities that daily grant millions of the same with the sole purpose to impede us from obtaining the True Diploma; those universities are:

-          UF: University of the Flesh  

-          UH: University of Hell

-          UW: University of World

The True Diploma is conferred by the UK: University of the Kingdom which grants the degree “Master on Surrender”, among which courses you may find “Brokenness 101”, “Brokenness 102”, “Brokenness 103”, and many others.

As day pass the Lord has made understand that going to “She Speaks” has been my UN-graduation (returning my certificate) of my “Master on Excusology” as the Sovereign Master and Rector designed a curriculum during the previous months in order to bring me to a “No Excuses” scenario.

The first course in which He registered me was the “She Speaks” Facebook group; as I read some of the prayers requests or circumstances that the sisters were going through such as chemotherapy, relatives decease, illnesses of children,  funds raising; and then He started to work in my fears (such as flying) and my insecurities (“you don’t have what is required”, “you are coming from a Caribbean Island that not many know where it is placed”,  “you don’t speak the language”).

Even though I have made my reservation, I did not “dare” to pay until the last minute…just in case; I contacted several times a travel agency of a sister but I did not follow up the emails; also I was waiting since February for “some payment” to arrive; thus, I never decided to confirm the purchase of the air ticket. 

As I read the prayer requests in “She Speaks” FB group I thought about my excuses (as if listening to Apostle Paul telling me “you don’t have an excuse!!”); those words hammered my mind even more when my air ticket was fully provided through someone who listened to me talking about that “some payment”  has not arrived.

Then…when I was feeling without “excuses”… valid excuses DID arrive but at that moment He gave me courage to continue regardless that I was against time to prepare the proposal…in English language not my own… news started to arrive on family conflicts rendering me unfocused; from one side, eventual judicial actions from the other side, disease diagnosis; and, of course, my insecurities mounted up again and again “you do not deserve to be there”, “you are going to be ashamed”.

In the middle of the storm, I just wanted to quit…I was confused thinking “The Lord does not want me to go to She Speaks”…; nevertheless, beyond me, He continued to push me to prepare the proposal; focusing in the verse “sufficient for the day is its own trouble”; it was like experiencing -in a positive manner- what the apostle Paul said in Romans 6 “what I do not want to do, that I do”.

A little whisper (deep in my heart) reminded me that certainly I did not deserve to be there, I did not have what it takes,…but if I was going to be at the conference was solely and exclusively because of His Grace as the Spanish Christian song “God of Covenants” says: “…because of Your Grace I am here…”; for the Glory of God that sweet little voice triumphed over the noisy megaphone calling me to quit.

Tired, drained, with very few hours of sleep in the last days…I arrived to She Speaks…after two flights and more than 12 hours of having left home. Deep in my heart there was an assured expectation that I was going to have a fresh encounter with the Lover of my soul to hand over my certificate on “Master on Excusology” and just tell Him “Here I am, may Your Will be done”.

Maybe you ask yourself how are my insecurities related to pride since I mentioned that most of the courses in “Master on Surrender” correspond to “brokenness”…well I learned from “my cousin” Beth Moore in “Living Free” that the opposite to pride is humbleness not self-low esteem or insecurities because the source of the latter may be precisely having a proud heart.

Which is the surrendering step that He may be calling you to take? At home? With your husband? Your children? Give up on all excuses so that He may give you understanding that each of them are a new opportunity to seeing Him work in ways that you have never thought.

Let’s celebrate together our UN-graduation day from “Master on Excusology”!! Bring that certificate upon His Feet!

What is your excuse?

Luke 14:18-19: “But they all alike began to make excuses. …Please have me excused…”

I have been writing for several years now in this blog and never thought I would be writing in English. But I went to She Speaks 2012 and met so sweet beautiful sisters in Christ, English speakers who are now my facebook friends and thought about writing in English to share with them what the Lord has been doing in my life before, while and after that blessing of a conference. 

That said. I will translate the first post on that topic. Please be gracious with my grammar and I ask the Father to communicate the true meaning of these words written by a native Spanish speaker who just want to communicate His Mercies and His Work.  I do appreciate comments on grammar or anything else that may improve the communication of His Message.

There is a very famous saying (at least in Spanish language) which goes “since excuses were made up, no one fails before others”; when were excuses invented?  In Eden’s Garden: when both Adam and Eve excuse themselves before God on their own responsibility.

Since then, human race -to which you and I are privileged to belong to- has not stopped from making excuses trying to convince themselves, others…and even God.  

Therefore, we spent our days, weeks, months and years going from an excuse to the other, just trying to justify ourselves, simply as Adam and Eve did; excuses run through our veins, they are part of our sinful DNA.

Excuses are as diversed as creation itself; they can vary from making excuses to not believe in God, to which He answers through Romans 1:20 that “we have no excuse” because creation reveals God; they may also appear in the form of judgment against other’s sins while we are doing the same, but again God tells us in Romans 2:1 that said judgment is precisely the evidence of “not having excuse” of our own sin. 

Similarly, we make up excuses when receiving His Calling –either or salvation or service-. Jesus told a parable on the people invited to a great banquet (representing the Kingdom installed with His First Coming and that to be installed with His Second Coming), all of the invitees made up excuses for not attending to the same (Luke 14:18-19); the common denominator were earthly possessions or occupations.

How many times I have been (or even I am still) seated in one of the “excuse benches”? To be honest, I think I have made a “Master on Excusology” in different stages of my life; and I am sure that each reader of this post, has made their own “excuses” courses, diplomas, training, post-graduate or even, masters as myself.

God willing I will share some of the learning from She Speaks 2012, a Christian conference for women which I was blessed to finally attend  after years of having made up excuses and how the Lord fought against the multiple excuses that came to my mind and heart for attending this year. To Him be the Glory!!

I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father drove me there regardless of myself and the multitude of excuses that were assuring me that I should not attend because I did not deserve to; that it all was due to “crazy thoughts or hallucinations or inflated ego that I was having”.

In your case, what have been the main excuses you have presented before the Lord when being invited by Him to participate in His Work, to receive His Blessings for your life? Truly I would like to listen to them and to share them with others.

You can write to isabelsalmos37.5@gmail.com