Michelle Lesley

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and let’s chat about it. karen carrey defiance defeat

Defiance and Defeat
by Karen Carrey

I’ve been reading in Joshua the story of how the Israelites were defeated at Ai, immediately after their resounding victory at Jericho. They couldn’t believe that after such success came crushing defeat. The Lord had led them to defeat Jericho but told them not to take any of the spoils for themselves, because certain items were to be devoted to the Lord. They were explicitly told in Joshua 6:18-19 what the Lord’s command was.

But Achan decided to disobey and take from Jericho some of the items which were to be consecrated to the Lord, and his defiance resulted in the death of himself and his family, just as God had clearly told them would happen if they disobeyed.

God finds Joshua flat on his face wailing and moping after their defeat and basically tells Joshua he can’t expect to be victorious against his enemy whilst disobedience and defiance run rampant in the camp. However he gives them a chance to put it right and come into communion with him again once the sin was purged from among them.

It made me wonder about the sins we try to hide in our own lives, as Achan did, hoping God won’t notice. The things that God can’t bless us in. The things that cause Him to turn His face from us because He is a Holy God. Are we being defeated in areas of our lives and pretending we don’t know why? Are we on our faces crying out to the Lord, “Why me?” when we know we are breaking his commands and breaking His heart? Do we think there are no consequences to our sin? Of course there are. Unless we get before God and confess, seeking his forgiveness, the consequence will be the same as Achan faced. Spiritual and physical death. But our God is as God of forgiveness and if we are truly repentant, he restores us to Himself once again.

Each of us may have our own “accursed thing” that is keeping us from a closer walk with God. Have we gone our own way even though He’s blessed us and given us victory in certain areas of our lives? Have we become cocky in our own strength? Do we think we know better and can flout his commands and expect Him to turn a blind eye? When God gives us his Word, and we deliberately disobey it, we have no excuse. We cannot say “but I didn’t know …” because he makes his expectations very clear in His Word. Whether we like them or not is a different matter. We are to be consecrated and set apart, a holy people, not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. What things do we need to fall on our face before God about, sincerely seeking his forgiveness and help?

God does not bless us with financial gain, perfect health and a bigger house, just because we’re saved or because we speak it into existence with positive words. He promises us that in the final analysis, all things will work together for good (Romans 8:28) but we’re told we will have trouble in this world. The good news is that Christ has overcome the world. Addressing the hidden sin in our lives is not your guarantee to a happy-ever-after on this earth, but it is the key to a closer walk with your Saviour.

It’s important for all of us to turn over to God, those things that we know the Holy Spirit is convicting us of. Flirting with your co-workers is not innocent. Gossiping is not harmless. Arrogance is not becoming. Immodesty is provocative and Jezebel-like. Impatience is not “just the way you are”. Sleeping with your partner just because you’re getting married anyway, is not ok. Seek His Word. Pursue holiness.

Obedience brings victory, but defiance brings defeat.

Lord open our eyes to the accursed things in our own lives that we may gain favour in your eyes and be close to you once again.

–Originally published at Faith and Food Chat, January 27, 2016

Karen Carrey is a 40-something wife and mother of two teenagers. She loves to read, bake, cook, and find like-minded Christian women. She was saved at an early age and continues to work out her salvation with fear and trembling. One of her favorite passages is Isaiah 43:2-4. Karen blogs at Faith and Food Chat.

ALTHOUGH I DO MY BEST TO THOROUGHLY VET THE THEOLOGY OF THE BLOGGERS WHO SUBMIT GUEST POSTS, IT IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE FOR THINGS TO SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS. PLEASE MAKE SURE ANY BLOGGER YOU FOLLOW, INCLUDING ME, RIGHTLY AND FAITHFULLY HANDLES GOD’S WORD AND HOLDS TO SOUND BIBLICAL DOCTRINE.

Doctrinally Sound Teachers

A Few Good Men: 10 Doctrinally Sound Male Teachers

February 12, 2016October 1, 2022 Michelle Lesley

This article has been updated and moved. You can now find it at:

Doctrinally Sound Christian Men to Follow – 1

Politics, Prayer, Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday ~ Not Gonna Bow: 5 Reasons Prayer in School Isn’t the Magic Bullet Christians Think It Is

February 11, 2016February 9, 2016 Michelle Lesley

Originally published August 29, 2014

“We need to put prayer back in school!” It’s a well worn mantra that many Christians have been shouting from pulpits, in PTA meetings, and now on social media since the early 1960’s when it was outlawed. No, we don’t need to put prayer back in public schools, and I think if Christians who think that the United States would revert to some idyllic 1950’s utopia by re-instituting classroom prayer would give it five minutes of serious thought, they would run as far as they could from the idea of prayer in public schools.

Now, just so there are no misunderstandings, when I say “prayer in public schools,” I’m not talking about things like a child saying the blessing over his own lunch, or a group of kids who want to pray together during free time, or an after school club that wants to include prayer. Those are all voluntary, private things that should, by all means, be allowed. When I say “prayer in public schools,” I’m talking about a teacher or a student or someone over the loudspeaker leading the entire class in prayer during class time. And we definitely do not want that. Why?

1. What’s good for the Christian goose is good for the Muslim/Mormon/Atheist gander.
There is no way in the current cultural climate –none whatsoever- that any court in this land will re-institute Christian prayer, and only Christian prayer, in the classroom. And even if some well meaning judge did manage to do so, his decision would be overturned faster than you could say “amen.” You want prayer in the public school classroom? You might get Christian prayer, but you’re also going to get Muslim prayer, Mormon prayer, atheist prayer, Hindu prayer, Satanist prayer, and any other sect that comes along and wants to do prayer in the classroom. Do you really want your six year old faced with the choice of participating in a Satanic prayer or trying to get permission to abstain? Neither do I.

2. Why is it so important that we have prayer in schools?
Assuming you don’t work at a church or ministry, does your workplace gather all the employees at the beginning of the day and start with prayer? No? Has that been deeply detrimental to you personally or to your workplace? No? Then why is it so important that schools have prayer?

3. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
This nifty little Latin phrase means “after this, therefore, because of this.” It refers to the faulty reasoning people sometimes use by assuming that because two events occurred near the same time or seem to be related, one of them must have caused the other.

Time and time again, I have heard Christians bemoan the moral state of this country and wail, “It all started when they took prayer out of schools!”

Post hoc ergo poppycock.¹

If the moral state of this country was so perfect before 1962, then how in the world did prayer ever get taken out of schools in the first place? No, things started going downhill in this country long before prayer was removed from schools. It was as a result of that moral decay that prayer was taken out of schools.

Saying that the removal of prayer from public schools created the mess our country is in today would be like someone sixty years from now saying, “When the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide, that’s when things started going bad for America.”

Because things are just so morally peachy right now.

4. It isn’t biblical.
It is not the job of a secular governmental institution or employee to monitor or lead our children in prayer, and no one could make the case from God’s word that it is. Scripture tells us that leading in prayer is the job of Christian parents and the church.

Neither would it be biblical for the sake of unsaved children in your child’s class that you’re hoping will somehow get saved by someone leading a prayer every morning. That’s not how people get saved. If you’re concerned about lost children, teach your child how to share the gospel. Befriend the children’s parents and share the gospel with the parents yourself. It’s free, it can be done immediately, without waiting for court decisions (that won’t be coming anyway) and it’s biblical.

5. It’s hypocritical.
It is often Christians who exclaim the loudest, and rightly so, that the government should back off and stop trying to control, regulate, and meddle in every square inch of our lives. Yet with regard to prayer in schools, Christians talk out of the other side of their mouths and practically beg the government to insinuate itself into an issue it has no business touching. (Not to mention that the government does such a bang up job of handling things like this.)

Will those very Christians complain if the government re-institutes prayer and then tries to regulate it just like they do everything else? And what about depending on the government for a handout of prayer when we are the ones who should be doing the work of teaching prayer and sharing the gospel? Isn’t that a sort of prayer “welfare” system? Putting prayer back in public schools would be a nightmare of false religions and government regulations.

We don’t need prayer in schools. We need prayer in homes and in churches. We need people sharing the gospel with their friends, fellow students, neighbors, and co-workers. We need Christians to be the salt and light Jesus called us to be in the world we actually live in rather than pining away for an imaginary ideal that will never come to fruition.

¹I only wish I were clever enough to have come up with this. Kudos to CHRIS ROSEBROUGH’S wife who coined the Phrase.

Wednesday's Word

Wednesday’s Word ~ Lamentations 3

February 10, 2016February 9, 2016 Michelle Lesley

lam 3 22 23

Lamentations 3

I am the man who has seen affliction
    under the rod of his wrath;
²he has driven and brought me
    into darkness without any light;
³surely against me he turns his hand
    again and again the whole day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
    he has broken my bones;
⁵he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
⁸though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
⁹he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
¹¹he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
¹²he bent his bow and set me
    as a target for his arrow.

¹³He drove into my kidneys
    the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the object of their taunts all day long.
¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness is;
¹⁸so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
²¹But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him;
²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope;
³⁰let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
³²but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
³⁹Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord!
⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven:
⁴²“We have transgressed and rebelled,
    and you have not forgiven.

⁴³“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
    killing without pity;
⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
    so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵You have made us scum and garbage
    among the peoples.

⁴⁶“All our enemies
    open their mouths against us;
⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us,
    devastation and destruction;
⁴⁸my eyes flow with rivers of tears
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹“My eyes will flow without ceasing,
    without respite,
⁵⁰until the Lord from heaven
    looks down and sees;
⁵¹my eyes cause me grief
    at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²“I have been hunted like a bird
    by those who were my enemies without cause;
⁵³they flung me alive into the pit
    and cast stones on me;
⁵⁴water closed over my head;
    I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵“I called on your name, O Lord,
    from the depths of the pit;
⁵⁶you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
    your ear to my cry for help!’
⁵⁷You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸“You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
    you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
    judge my cause.
⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,
    all their plots against me.

⁶¹“You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
    all their plots against me.
⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants
    are against me all the day long.
⁶³Behold their sitting and their rising;
    I am the object of their taunts.

⁶⁴“You will repay them, O Lord,
    according to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵You will give them dullness of heart;
    your curse will be on them.
⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
    from under your heavens, O Lord.”

Questions to Consider:

1. Who is thought to have written Lamentations? What major historical event is being lamented in this book? Why did God allow this event to happen? Which of God’s attributes (mercy, provision, wrath, forgiveness, etc.) does this event showcase?

2. Sometimes our feelings can obscure what we know to be true of God from His word. Consider the phrases, “He shuts out my prayer,” (8) and “my hope from the Lord [has perished]” (18). What are some verses that can bring comfort if we ever feel this way? Which is truth, our feelings or God’s word? Which should we believe? Which should we act upon? If our feelings contradict God’s word, which can we depend upon to be correct?

3. Carefully examine verse 21. This is a transitional verse in which the writer moves from hopelessness and grief to _________. How does he make the transition? What does he “call to mind”? How does he know the things in the subsequent verses?

4. What are some of the attributes of God the writer describes in verses 22-66? Which one does he seem to focus most on?

5. What do verses 39-44 teach us about the relationship between repentance and prayer, God’s wrath, and forgiveness?

Guest Posts

Guest Post: Two Faithful Women

February 9, 2016February 18, 2016 Michelle Lesley

Two Faithful Women
by Gail Slawson

Exodus 1:17 “But the midwives feared God.”

A few years ago I embarked on a two year journey to read through the Bible again. Traveling from Genesis into Exodus, two names suddenly appeared on the printed page—two names recorded nowhere else in the Bible, two obscure names, two names of women. How important are these two women who have their names written in God’s Word?

Further study reveals Shiphrah and Puah were midwives, women who assisted in the birth of the babies of the Hebrew women. Most likely they were older women and the representatives of their profession. During their time in Egypt, the Children of Israel grew greatly in number and strength and Pharaoh felt threatened and became fearful. In an attempt to curtail their growth he ordered the midwives to kill all Hebrew boys at birth. Instead of being the ones who were looked up to for their skill and were trusted to take great care in seeing that the lives of these babies were preserved, they were suddenly thrust into the position of being executioners, deceitful and untrustworthy. But these two women who “feared God,” refused to obey such a law. They reverenced God and obeyed Him rather than man (Exodus 1:17). “They obviously understood that children were a gift from God and that murder was wrong.” (John MacArthur) Like the apostles in Acts 5:29 who said, “We must obey God rather than men,” these midwives had the courage to stand alone and do what was right.

Shiphrah and Puah were ordinary women who devoutly did their humble job, and yet they were used of God to preserve and save a nation that the King of Egypt desired to suppress. Do you have a desire to serve God? Whatever role God has given you to perform in this life, do it faithfully and obediently with love and care and God will bless. In fact, as we read on in the story, we see where it says that God looked favorably on the midwives. Exodus 1:20 says, “Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives,” and verse 21 says, “Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.” God built them up into families, blessed their children, and prospered them in what they did.

What a wonderful example these two midwives are to us to be obedient. God’s Word tells us in Ecclesiastes 9:10:

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”

Again God’s Word says,

“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:17

Enjoy your work, finding pleasure in it as you honor God and are used for His purpose.

Gail is a 68 year old wife, mother and grandmother. She attended church all her life, but never saw herself as a lost sinner in need of a Savior until she was 28 years old. She has praised Him ever since. Gail’s daily prayer is: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 6:14) Follow Gail’s blog, BibleEncouragement.org.