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Tanara McCauley

~ Love Knows Color

Tanara McCauley

Tag Archives: hope

Know Your Enemy

24 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bible, Christian, Christianity, community, compassion, enemy, faith, forgiveness, grace, healing, hope, justice, love, mercy, power, prayer, relationships, roaring lion, unforgiveness, unity

Black-maned male African lion roaring, headshot, Africa

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him.” 1 Peter 5:8, 9

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy getting friends to turn on each other because their opposing views become offensive and that offense becomes more valuable than the love they used to have for each other.

Busy getting us to one-up each other in sarcasm and rhetoric rather than outdo each other in love, mercy, grace, and kindness.

Busy getting Christians more concerned about issues than souls, more condemning of others than forgiving, more critical of others than prayerful, more determined to make a worldly point than testify of the goodness, faithfulness, and sovereignty of the Living God.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy inciting fear, hatred, violence, injustice, retaliation, bitterness, separatism, vengeance, murder, and deception in the world, and busy getting Christians to join the ranks in picking worldly sides and buy into it from a worldly perspective, while we completely ignore his handiwork from the shadows.

He’s very busy there–in the shadows, recruiting the same souls for destruction that we should be turning to the Messiah. Recruiting us to rally for a candidate or a cause rather than look with compassion on the lost. Recruiting us to redefine “the lost” and to use our own judgment for determining who’s worthy of compassion and forgiveness. Recruiting us to look at skin or uniform color rather than the soul inside. Distracting our attention away from who and what we really wrestle against.

The enemy has convinced many of us to ignore that in our anger we should not sin, that the very sins we condemn others for we ourselves commit or have committed, that those sinning against us are in need of the same grace and repentance we have been given, that we are to love our neighbors and enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute and spitefully use us, and not resist an evil person.

The enemy is busy getting us to live like desperate citizens of a lost world rather than confident children of the Almighty God. Children who have the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

He’s busy getting us so angry that we become unforgiving, and in becoming unforgiving we forget how our own sins ripped through Christ’s flesh.

He is busy convincing us that God is silent. And that if God is silent we should be shouting. At the world. Not crying out to our Father. Together. United.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians. He is busy keeping us subjected to the influence of media and away from the instruction of God’s throne. He is busy trying to make us look and feel hostile, sarcastic, furious, forgotten, forsaken, indifferent, uncaring, hard-hearted, and hopeless. He is busy trying to make us look and act like him.

Resist him.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

 

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Promised

18 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Christ, Christian living, faith, grief, hope, inspiration, joy, loss, love, promises, relationships, salvation

Life–if we’re honest–is hard.

That’s not to say it isn’t good. Laughter, the arms of a child thrown around your neck, kisses from the one you love–these are all precious tidbits of the countless things that keep us striving to lengthen our days.

But life does throw many a curve ball. And these unexpected hurls of devastation feel meteor-sized by the time they strike.

I’ve been blessed enough to not have a multitude of wayward pitches chucked my way. But when it happens the aftermath is intense, especially when there’s loss. Because those I love, I love deeply.

Yet even then I have a foundation that keeps me anchored and assures me comfort will come.

We’ve not been promised easy. Nor has our faith in Christ granted us immunity from the hardship and heartache of life.

We have, however, been promised Christ. And in the end, I can endure the uncertainty and pain of life, just as I enjoy the fruit of all the blessings.

Because I am His. And He is mine.

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Have You Leapt Yet?

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

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Tags

Bible study, Christian, encouragement, faith, hope, inspiration, trust

Nothing is more disastrous than to study faith, analyze faith, make noble reservations of faith, but never actually to make the leap of faith.

-Vance Havner

So the question is: have you leapt yet?

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Compassionate Hearts on Compassion Sunday

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

charity, child sponsorship, children, Compassion International, Compassion Sunday, hope, Jesus Christ, letters, ministry, philanthropy, poverty, relationships, relief, salvation

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Compassion Sunday is a nationwide event during which churches reach out to fellow Christians and encourage them to sponsor children who live in extreme poverty all over the world.

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These sponsorships, which provide education in a loving environment, meals, medical care and more, give children opportunities in life and in their communities that they may not have been given otherwise.

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Most importantly, children learn that they are loved and cherished by their sponsors who write and send pictures, and by Jesus who works in the hearts of others to provide for these children and confirm that they are valuable.

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I have witnessed the three children my family sponsors through Compassion blossom and thrive. Since our sponsorship, one learned to read and write at the age of ten, another’s family was able to buy a cow through a family gift, and still another found purpose and self-worth through the youth activities offered at the center. Each of them have become loved and treasured members of our extended family; and recipients of the love, grace, and salvation of Jesus Christ.

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It gives me great joy to announce that this Compassion Sunday nine more children were paired with sponsors through my small town local church! I am excited both for the sponsors and the children who will benefit from their love and generosity. And while grateful for such a response, I am bold enough to ask for still more sponsorships. If you have never before sponsored a child, or if you currently sponsor a child but have room for more, visit the Compassion website and sponsor a child today.

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Remember (A Song)

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by tanaramccauley in Short Stories, Songs, and Poetry

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Christian music, encouragement, faith, Holy Spirit, hope, Jesus, love, remember, salvation, songwriting, spirituality

Let Me Clarify:

I’ve never considered myself a songwriter. Not officially anyway. Sure I sing songs – louder and more ambitiously than I’ll ever be capable of doing well – in the safety of my home’s four walls. And if I particularly like one, or seven, or thirty, I’ll write them down. It’s a form of worship, one that’s spontaneous and rich with the immediate needs, feelings, or joys contained in the heart. And no matter how bad it sounds, the Lord loves it. It’s His Word and His love that inspire me to sing Him new songs.

What He doesn’t require is for me to do it publicly. But this song was born under special circumstances, and as such required a special response. It was inspired by something very personal; but grew into something I could not claim as mine alone. Somewhere there’s someone, or many, who need to be reminded of who God is, what He does, and how He has given us the greatest gift He could ever give. Of all the things worth remembering on this difficult adventure of life, He’s the most worthy.

The Story of Remember:

As I mentioned Remember was inspired by a very personal and difficult trial so unexpected and with the potential for such destruction that I despaired. I had to admit to the Lord that although He is trustworthy, my heart did not feel trusting. I prayed for a supernatural ability to trust with everything in me, even if my feelings weren’t on board. He and I had an emotional, very transparent conversation that day. And while I prayed, He began to bring to mind all the things – great and small, practical and miraculous – He has done for me.

His Voice spoke to my heart: Remember this? Remember this? And what about this?

And I remembered verses that proclaim who He is: “I am your shield. Your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1)

The walls of doubt and the lack of faith began to crumble around me. And emboldened by His nearness – not testing Him but rather feeling very encouraged by His presence – I asked Him specifically, “Today, Father. Take it today.” And in a way that blew my mind, that very same day, He took it.

Writing it Down:

Shortly after, my husband responded to a request from our pastor to give the message that coming Sunday. The message God put on his heart? Remembering what God has done for us. If that didn’t raise one of my eyebrows slightly higher than the other. Knowing my husband (who’s a people person if you ever met one) can come undone when required to speak in an official capacity before a crowd of more than two, I asked jokingly if he wanted me to sing a song to go along with his sermon. I thought it a fitting quip since he’d already confessed his plan to, “Get up there, do a couple cartwheels, stutter, and walk off the stage.”

But he soon put the jokes aside and put me on the program. If he had to cling tight to God and internally pray his way through nerves for two services, what better tangible support than to have his helpmate do the same?

I wrote the song based on that prayer time I had with God. Though I’d resolved to sing a shorter version of it a cappella (since I know zero about writing music or playing instruments) my dear friend Carissa (the violinist) volunteered her husband Chris (the pianist) to come up with the music for it. To wind this story up, I sang it for Chris twice, he came up with that awesome arrangement, and here we are practicing it before church starts. It’s certainly not a perfect rendition. But we encourage you all to look beyond the flaws and imperfections, and remember Him who is flawless and perfect in every way.

God bless you.

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