and the "TONI" goes to......

Well, what a weekend I had (and I hope you did too). We had our women's retreat at Prestonwood with Lisa Harper. Our Bible lesson Sunday was awesome with David talking about how evangelizing is really about building relationships. Relationship is the hinge that swings the door to the gospel. Pastor Graham then basically followed up that lesson with I Peter 2:1-12.
....abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God ont he day he visits us.

His point was and the title of his sermon : "living in HD" High definition. We live our lives in the real world for all to see and people see every flaw we have, because life is in High Definition like the new TV's we're all buying. 

As the pastor was preaching, my mind began to sort of extrapolate, which is a very spiritual word for wander, into what does it mean to live in High Definition and the controversy that we all find ourselves in as Paul did in Romans 7:15-20. I won't write it all here. It's that whole monologue Paul gives about the things I want to do I do not do and the things I don't want to do I do....

Well, that got me thinking about how much of our change when we become Christians is permanent. The word permanent when you look in the dictionary says: existing perpetually; everlasting; without significant change. But when I hear the word permanent and I think about my own life I think of a Toni Perm. 

For those of you over the age of 45 +/-, if you didn't have a Toni Perm growing up, you were one of the lucky few. Every summer from about 1966-1969, my mother would have my hair cut in a "pixie" and give me a Toni. Now my question is if permanent means everlasting, why did I have to get one every summer? Well, it's that old contradiction in terms. It's a temporary permanent. hmmm? I think that's what we are sometimes. We're "Toni" Christians. We try do what is right for a little while, but sooner or later, we go back to our old self and we have to have another "permanent" applied. For a little while, we're all curly and bouncy but pretty soon the roots start to grow which makes part of the hair straight because that part wasn't affected by the "perm". Eventually just the ends of the hair have a little bounce left, but they start to look pretty fried compared to the new straight hair. So people start to say, hmmm? I guess she has straight hair after all. 


What else are we applying a "Toni" perm to? Our marriage? our child rearing? our friendships? our relationship with God? We know that we will not be totally, permanently transformed until we meet him face to face, but can we strive to not let the permanent fall out? Can we at least not struggle with the same sin over and over? Don't I pray so? I'm afraid it's a root problem. . Can we permanently treat the roots so that when they start to show, they come in curly too? I think I would be a millionaire if I could come up with that one (including for hair color). Romans 11:16 says: If the root is holy then so are the branches. Holiness is what we must strive for in order for the roots to bring forth real permanent change.

I pray that our lives become permanently fixed on HIM. That's the only permanent we need!!!

Love you all,

Lisa

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." D. A. Carson